Before we get into this episode of questions from subs, I got to give a special shout out to some of the newest team keeping clean channel members And you'll know who they are because they have that nice star next to their name in the comment section But anyway, shout out to DJ troupe peak, uh, Sonny Warren, uh, mr. Fox My guy Edmund Bolz. He actually became a channel member like right before the Jaguars and Ravens game I wonder if after the game you probably changes my but anyway, uh, Rodney to Juan-Gamaro and Matthew Levi so appreciate y'all. Thank you now Somebody else who be thanking the Ravens is a tight ends cuz you know Ravens like give me all the tight ends in the world I need all of them. I want all of them and I'm gonna have all of them first question Came from my guy Gareth. He said ain't Raven house things things are pretty good I appreciate you G and appreciate you being a team keeping clean patron as well He said hope you and your family are doing well. My question is with us being You say what I'm being so bad in the red zone Do you think we need to start putting three tight insets?   I think he was a red zone threat with him a little more Jackson They just had that chemistry and that's that's what is about the most having that chemistry But it's also about having that variety too So, um, obviously Mark Andrews is always a red zone threat always a red zone target as well Josh Oliver we saw last week. So, yeah But yeah, Charlie Cola whenever he comes back Isaiah likely When he actually know when Charlie Cola makes his debut and when Isaiah likely comes back I got those guys Nick Boyle He don't get no carries or nothing. Oh, like, yeah No, no pass attempts. I mean no no targets I'm talking about carries like here running back or something passes it. He ain't get no targets Sorry, it's um, it's early in the morning. My mind ain't functioning all the way yet Maybe cuz it's a new month I used to be in in December yet come recording this on December 1st, but I mean you're seeing this probably like Maybe on the second or the third or the fourth. I don't know when you're gonna see but anyway So yeah, you got you got a bunch of tight ends like you got a bunch of tight ends They just asked you more bridges, but I wouldn't expect him to get any any work early on Maybe like like I wouldn't expect to get anything like this first week Obviously now he literally just got here. I wouldn't really expect it a second week, either I mean, I'm not really expecting much my expectations are low I'm not my hopes are high, but my expectations are low for how they use Shamar bridges Um and Benjamin Victor he got sides too, but he just they keep on the practice clubs They like that guys they like that guys, but yeah, they certainly love their tight ends So yeah, I wouldn't be mad if they did that I mean with the way that the thing things been going in the red zone It certainly couldn't hurt and he said yes, sorry. I haven't sent in a question for a while. Shout out from Ireland I forgot to tell you this one from thanks for reading my question. Keep being great. Not oh He said not long until 60,000 and that's crazy because we um, he sent this when did he send this? Oh He sent this on December 1st So he sent this today early in the morning and we we yeah, we just like literally just hit 60,000 subscribers Yesterday so yeah channel still small, but I really appreciate all y'all for being such a big part of it Thank you for claiming welcome to another episode of questions from cells Well, you can ask me any question you want to we answered in a video just like this If you want to be part of it check the description for all of that. It's all in there. Love y'all Let's keep it going next question came from my guy Vinnie said Raven season stretch run Hey, great We hope you are doing well and having a good week Just wanted your opinion on how you feel these last six weeks of the season will progress heading down the stretch for the Ravens I'm really hoping they get back to the playoffs this he after missing out last year with all the injuries I think they certainly will I think they'll definitely be in the player Lamar Lamar's healthy I think they will definitely be in the playoffs now As of this recording yesterday, he they said he had a quad injury thinking old quad injury Let's see how that progresses, but yeah long Lamar good to go then they'll be good to go He said I think if the defense just finishes at the end of games Lamar make some fast decisions at times on the pressure with confidence I think they can finish strong within 11 and 6 record Okay, so losing two more games and winning the other ones and get to the playoffs and who knows what can happen from there I know it'll be a challenge, but I'd love to see Lamar stay a Raven for his career Oh, we certainly would I don't think it's happening But we certainly would love it He said I want him to succeed and finish this year strong leaving the Ravens no choice, but to pay him I know he hasn't had the offensive receiver weapons the last few seasons But I still believe they can get creative with tight ends to run game and make the receivers They have looked better by doing some more creative play action and Lamar just being a little faster with deciding if he's going to run or Throw during a play Let me just finish he said plus if the Ravens have a faster pace huddles and not let the play clock go down One second Lamar will be able to read differences better. Thanks for taking the time to read this. Hope you enjoyed the rest of your week Let's get back on track. Yeah, hopefully the Ravens can't get back on track The quick passing game the uptempo offense those are small things that make big differences They have led to a lot of success for the Baltimore Ravens over the past couple of years But it seems that the Ravens don't want to stick with that And I always said I said every week I feel like we talk about with the uptempo offense a faster pace offense You don't got to run it 24-7 because it's about situation on stuff Like you ain't got like it would three minutes to go in a game even three four minutes to go in a game You're up by 10. You're not gonna be running no fast-paced offense No, you're gonna be taking your time But sometimes like at the beginning of the game It's a close game even if it's not a close game you trying to get points pick up the pace Pick up the pace get this thing moving now as far as um He talked about he feel like we we could be good enough with the running backs to tight ends And the receivers that we have And just getting the most used out use out of them. I mean, that's what you want But this scheme doesn't call for stuff like that not at least not consistently it just they a lot a lot with this This Ravens scheme they um It's a lot of inconsistency with it because it's like You a guy will go off a guy will be a playmaker one week then the next week It's like well, why don't we make him a playmaker again for what? No, and it's like and a lot of time just it's just it's the Ravens getting in their own way So if they can get out of their own way, oh man The sky would be the limit for this team, but we'll see we'll see hopefully they can't get out of their own way They still got time they got time. I mean to see they seven and four They seven and four could have been eight and three they but they seven and four could have been nine and two But they seven and four Could have been ten and one, but they seven and four Hold up now wait a minute buddy next question came from my guy Sam and I appreciate these new people sending in questions, too He said well, I'm engraving. Hope it all is well with you in the fam I'm just getting off work heading home and listen to your video about the possibility of Roman getting a stand for job You got to the part about a new OC likely not being able to make an impact on the passing game because of the Ravens philosophy I 100% agree largely the reason why I'm all for an entire overhaul of the front office and coaches now to the question We all heard about the anonymous tip talking about how much Roman emphasized and works heavily in the run game at practice Oh, no, that wasn't even an anonymous tip. I remember Mark Ingram. He talked about that. He said he said they work like I don't remember the exact number. He said but he said they work like on a lot of running plays all the time in practice But the passing game was sort of like an afterthought But anyway, he said do you think Roman schematic preference also has a negative effect on our secondaries in game performance Against teams with top tier receivers in a decent passing attack. Oh, that is such a great question. Wow That's a that's a great question Yeah, wow Because they're going against this basic simple offense, especially in the passing game Like it's always easy for them to cover in practice, but then when they face better quarterbacks better offenses Hmm. Wow. Oh, I like that one now They they have faced some nice quarterbacks even early on like with Josh Allen They held it down against him and with Joe Burrow. They held it down against him So but I guess consistently Because they they don't do it consistently because Trevor Lawrence When anybody think that Trevor Lawrence is this top tier elite quarterback and something like that No, but Raven sure made them look like one So, yeah, that that could actually be a part of it Wow, he said we always talk about how iron shopping's iron when the ones on offense go against the ones on defense We can't tell our receivers on getting as many reps They need because of lack of chemistry between them and Lamar, especially on deep routes I don't think many of us stop to think about how the DB's don't give me any reps to be sharp enough for quality game performance I know they are professionals But all professionals need reps during practice or training to be at a peak professional level Especially for Peters who is returning to the field after missing a whole season of football Fluck has been very hard on a secondary as they should but maybe Roman's presence is a much bigger issue than we thought Wow So I know I'm glad you mentioned catch radius when it comes to shorter receivers Decent amount of Lamar's overthrows could have been completions if the receiver had a wider catch radius Oh, you you would just he's just on fire with his whole email, man Next question came from my god William He said and great when I someone who has been a Louisville Cardinals fan my whole life I watched Lamar play for probably eight years when he was in college I never watched NFL when he got dragged into the Ravens. I love the team and I've always been excited to watch NFL every Sunday, especially the Ravens but With Lamar's contract situation the future doesn't look too hot and my consider the bandwagon if I support the team He goes to I love the Ravens and I'll probably be heartbroken if he left but I have to prepare for anything Lol, also, I love the team keeping clean community as well And hope to be able to see Lamar playing Baltimore uniform for more years to come. Hey, don't we all? Hopes are different than expectations, but don't we all Hey, and and as far as the whole bandwagon thing you feel Lamar fan Lamar fan if you're Ravens fan your Ravens fan if you just follow them all wherever he goes.  Don't let nobody kill your vibe on how you enjoy watching football watching Lamar watching the Ravens watching wherever Lamar ends up going Can't nobody tell you how to be a fan can nobody tell you how to enjoy what you enjoy So you keep doing your thing and you enjoy it to the fullest next question came from a guy Dominique He said too much of the same ain't great in long-time subscriber first time right here Love what you're doing keep up the good work appreciate it Dominique He said we're just curious if you ever go back and watch all vids of yourself I stumbled across a gym of yours title is Ravens OC Greg Roman becoming a problem in Baltimore from two years ago in the video You read an article about Jiro from 2013 during his 49ers days everything everything in the article applied to the to the then 2020 Raven situation with Greg Roman sadly not much has changed even some of the game and analysis you made is identical to today's rape oh Wow actually most of the observations still remain valid today though I'm sure those same observations would not be made as optimistically as today Now I think you should go back and rewatch that vid and answer the question that you asked in the original video Is he a problem now because again long-time subscriber? I know you're gonna say philosophy is the problem But we had over a decade of winning seasons with a few bad ones sprinkled in using that philosophy and clearly Greg Roman has literally been criticized from coast-to-coast for the same deficiencies for about a decade now So is he the problem? I think you should go rewatch of it yourself before you answer that And he said a glad I finally found a legitimate reason to write in lol. Hope you have a blessed Appreciate that man. I have to go check that out now Philosophy is a big issue. I see what you're saying with Greg Roman and yet Ravens have had winning seasons without Greg Roman before that But the reason that I speak so much about the philosophy is more so because of Lamar Jackson, obviously everything runs to Lamar Jackson, but that's it literally everything runs Through Lamar Jackson runs The Ravens the reason why I speak so much in favor of the Ravens needing to upgrade their philosophy Is because they've literally wasted Years of having somebody so special at the quarterback position. They've wasted years. They have not maximized Lamar Jackson at all That's why I speak so much about the philosophy being the biggest issue with this thing Because if you and especially because we see so many other teams across the league They they find these special quarterbacks even quarterbacks that don't even seem as half as special as Lamar Jackson But these teams still be like, you know what? We're gonna go all in We're gonna get the most out of this quarterback whether we think they're good or bad We are gonna go all in to really have all of our questions answered and any of our doubts put to sleep So it but the Ravens have not done that with Lamar Jackson. So yeah, Greg Roman He is has been an issue himself, but that's why I say it's much bigger than Greg Roman It's on a much larger scale than just Greg Roman Last question on this episode came from a guy Howard. He said what's happening in Graven? I know that Greg Roman and Stanford news is the latest hot topic here in Baltimore I saw your video regarding that and I agree with you might take years if Roman leaves in whatever capacity Getting a new job or fire the Ravens will no doubt promote James Urban to be offensive coordinator You speak all the time about Harbaugh and his loyalty to his friends Harbaugh and urban work together with the Eagles. Oh Oh Well Wow, okay, he said Harbaugh and urban work together with the Eagles and coach Andy Reid brought urban in as a quarterback's coach Urban later went to the Bengals as a wire receiver coach during those years when aj green and company were killing us I say all that to say urban is more than ready for the job He learned from one of the best offensive minds and reads and knows the west coast system in and out He knows how to get high production from the wire receiver position and he would run his scheme not Romans I know all this is hypothetical at this point But what are your thoughts on my take? I don't know. I'm just If it's James urban, um, I mean right now, I'm just For me, that would be that'll be underwhelming. Um simply because He's already been under this scheme so much Uh, he Yeah, he's he's been under this scheme for a long time as a quarterback's coach So, I mean, I feel like it would be a lot of the same stuff. Yeah, he could put his own spin on it, but um I don't know. I guess we really wouldn't really know till we know. Um, I would just And it's so tricky because it was not even tricky that again philosophy I keep speaking philosophy philosophy philosophy as long as hardball is a coach It's gonna be a lot of the same but I just um If if he ended up hiring one of his friend, which is most likely he will hire one of his friends and so what not I just wish it wasn't like that. I just wish it would be somebody like On the outside somebody brand new somebody who could bring some like I know a lot of people been talking about like t-mart um I don't think you've ever been an offensive coordinator before But I actually think that um, if you're gonna hire somebody, you know, might as well be him Because he never been an offensive coordinator before. I don't think so. Um Oh, hold up No, I don't think he's been offensive coordinator before But regardless, well, he ain't been an offensive coordinator in the in the NFL before So you ain't gonna feel on him You ain't gonna feel on him And he could he obviously would be bringing something new but at the same time I keep saying whoever they hire Ravens could tell like look, this is what we do. Well, this is what we want to do This how we want our offense to look this is what we want to run This this is what the focal point is on our offense Can you do that? Will you do that? That's what we need you to do If you can't do it then if you're not gonna do it then no this ain't the place for you So I just Again the whole Greg Roman thing. Yeah, okay, Greg Roman could leave but What's really gonna change from the Baltimore Ravens once Greg Roman leaves What's gonna be is it gonna be that much of a significant change as far as the offense? I would hope I would really hope But it all it all just depends on how they go about this thing, man The the the biggest change would have to come from from Harbaugh And he would really have to be willing to adapt And if he wasn't willing to adapt When Lamar was under this cheap deal, even though I don't think Lamar is gonna be here next year Um, if he wasn't willing to adapt when Lamar was cheap Why would he adapt? Why would things change if Lamar was getting paid? Say for instance Ravens signed Lamar to this big deal Then what what's gonna change with their strategy? What's gonna change with their roster building? What's gonna change with their fallout? What's gonna change? What's gonna be different? I don't expect nothing to be different and then they could use his contract as an excuse Oh, that's uh, yeah, we can't get any more talent at the wire receiver position We can't we can't do that. We can't upgrade there so and So, I mean if James Urban ends up being the guy, we'll see um Don't my expectations they they honestly really wouldn't be too half that happen


Welcome to The Dr. Gundry Podcast. If your goal is a leaner, healthier body, or if you simply want to live a longer, happier life, then my guest on today's episode can help. Ben Greenfield is a multiple New York Times best-selling author, fitness expert, host of the Ben Greenfield Fitness Podcast. And earlier this year, he published a brand new book called Boundless. Upgrade your brain, optimize your body to find an aging, and if I have enough strength, I'm going to lift it right now because it's actually one of the deepest, biggest books you're ever going to find. There it is, Boundless. Don't get a hernia. That's right, oh my gosh. So on today's episode, Ben and I are gonna talk about the keto diet, the truth about salt, and some exercises you can do for boosting your longevity. Ben, it's great to have you on the podcast. Welcome. It's great to be here. I was commenting before we began recording. I feel as though I should have worn a tie and a suit coat. You look so nice and I'm in my office on my bare feet on my treadmill, wearing my old tattered hoodie. But I guess I'm just gonna have to let you show me up. No, it's kind of how I expect to see you and our listeners want to see you in your element. So thanks for doing that. All right, so there's some great stuff in your new book, but you say that plant-based diets can lead to amino acid deficiencies and cognitive decline. What's going on with that? Our listeners want to know. Well, they certainly can. A poorly comprised plant-based diet can present one with a host of nutritional deficiencies. And I should say before I highlight what some of those are that I absolutely love plants. They're a staple in my diet. I'm not one of those strict nose-to-tail carnivore kind of guys, although I do a fair bit of bull hunting and spear fishing and I love to ethically harvest both plants and animals. Just yesterday I went out to the wild nettle patch, which is growing about 500 yards outside my house in the forest now.  And what I do is I ferment the nettle so it gets this really nice umami flavor. I use just old pickle brine and I'll ferment that typically for a week or two. So I've always got a batch going and then I just put all those wonderful wild plants into the food processor with some walnuts, some lemon zest, typically a lot of olive oil, some salt, some pepper, and I blend all that up and make like a wild plant pesto.  And you know, when it comes to plants, if you're eating strictly plants, I would say that the main things you need to be aware of would be A, vitamin B12 deficiencies as the lion's share of vitamin B12 is gonna come from animal foods.  Another one is creatine. And creatine I think is incredibly important. It's a very under-emphasized compound because I think it's very much associated with like the bodybuilding and the strength and the power industry, but in fact, especially in plant-based diets, it's been shown that creatine deficiencies are quite common and can lead to a lot of neural deficits because creatine is a bit of a new tropic too. And of course that issue can be sorted via the use of creatine. Typically a lot of folks who are following a strict plant-based diet, I just recommend they take about five grams of just a basic creatine monohydrate on a daily basis. Touring is another common deficiency and that's also one that you can supplement with. It's very difficult to find in anything but animal foods. DHA would be another. And yeah, you can get DHA from like micro-algae sources, a lot of seed sources. The ALA to DHA conversion isn't that great. So DHA is another one. And there are vegan forms of DHA that you kind of of course get. That'd be another. And then probably two others I think are pretty important. One would be carnicine, which is really important for muscle function. And that's another one kind of like creatine, another one of the seeds that tends to be really deficient in a plant-based diet. And one can also supplement typically with something like beta-alanine, which is a carnicine precursor. And there's a lot of newer studies coming out, particularly they're getting a lot of attention in the athlete community because they're such great lactic acid buffers. If you apply them to the legs or the arms prior to exercise, but transdermal carnicine absorption seems to be a really good delivery mechanism. And there's one product I was actually trying out the other day prior to a workout that buffers lactic acid while you're working out, but that's a transdermal carnicine. And then the final one, the one that I think a lot of people are aware would be vitamin D just because the more bioavailable form of vitamin D that's gonna allow for higher levels of D3 is typically derived again from animal products. Adequate sunlight and vitamin D supplementation I think is also smart. So those are examples of a few of the nutrients or vitamins I would say that could be problematic if deficiency of those is built up on a strict plant-based diet. And then the only other thing I would take into consideration would be that, of course, you know, as you're well aware of because you wrote a whole book about this, the idea of the anti-nutrients in plants presenting an issue, especially when you're eating them in the relative high volume that's necessary for adequate calories on a plant-based diet. And so a properly comprised plant-based diet, in my opinion, takes a lot of time, right? You're doing a lot of soaking, sprouting, fermenting.  There's, you know, the nettle that I'm fermenting in the pantry. I do a lot of alfalfa seeds and red clover seeds and broccoli seeds, but, you know, I'm cleaning those, I'm sanitizing those, and then I'm sprouting those for a good five days. You know, when my wife makes bread, which she does every week, you know, it's a slow fermented sourdough bread, but that's more like an overnight process to make that bread, you know, to pre-digest a lot of the gluten and to deactivate a lot of the anti-nutrients in wheat.  If you really want to deactivate a lot of these anti-nutrients in plant matter to be able to get adequate calories, and then, you know, the question just becomes why not, you know, have liver a couple of times a week and work in some sardines and anchovies and mackerel and salmon and herring and, you know, throw some eggs into the mix.  But I think weaving in some animal foods certainly makes things easier when it comes to addressing some of those deficiencies and also not presenting yourself with just a host of anti-nutrients as you maintain your calorie throughput. So that's a good segue. I've had a couple of the carnivore docs on my podcast and they somehow want to credit me with saying that that's how they got started because they want to eliminate all plant material because plants hate us.  In fact, I eat mostly plants and I select my plants carefully. So why not do a carnivore diet? What's the downside? Well, I would agree with a lot of these carnivore diet enthusiasts like Paul Saladino or Sean Baker that one can get most of the nutrients, the minerals, the vitamins, et cetera, that they need from a properly comprised nose to tail carnivore diet, right? Everything from the liver to the kidney to the bone broth to the bone marrow to the testicles to the ground up bone.  Now, I think the issue is that, you know, a lot of these plant foods they're painted by carnivore diet enthusiasts as so-called survival foods, right? Things that our ancestors would have only turned to if they didn't have access to the more convenient and nutrient dense large animals that they could have hunted. But the problem with that scenario is, yes, let's say that maybe they're right and plants were at one time a survival food. Well, they've been woven into our culture and into our tradition and into our societal norms in such a way that they've become quite enjoyable parts of our cuisine. When you show up to Thanksgiving dinner and Aunt Judy brings her wonderful whatever goat cheese beat kale salad and somebody else shows up with some special apple pie that they've made and somebody else has got their, whatever their sprouts and their greens or my dad always shows up with some kind of shoots or sprouts or something that he's grown in his kitchen. You know, these are foods that we gather around and they become staples in traditions and in societies and completely ignoring the plant kingdom as a food source sucks a lot of the enjoyment out of the vast array of fascinating things that we can eat that grow on this planet. So part of it is just the pure, the psychosocial component of just being able to eat a wide variety of foods that go beyond meats. And the other thing that I think is interesting, for example, I was just reading a book, I'm setting up on the local Spokane Indian tribe, right? And just because I wanna know more about the Native American culture and the type of folks who roamed these planes that I live on before I arrived here, before some of my ancestors arrived here. And when I'm reading the book, they were down in the Spokane Falls collecting hundreds of pounds of salmon and baskets as these salmon would jump up through the falls. And literally, and I'm sure folks have heard this story, you know, the style of hunting, of driving the vast quantity of large animals off of cliffs, you know, on horses and then collecting the carcasses at the bottom because there were just so many, bison and buffalo and deer and elk and moose. But the whole time that the men were out doing all of this, the women were back in the villages and the cities collecting underground roots and plants and berries and seeds and nuts. And it wasn't because they were starving. It was because they dressed up all these animal foods with all these other compounds that they used as medicine, that they used as digestiefs, that they used as flavor enhancers. And so I even raised an eyebrow at this notion that that ancient man or woman would have just completely neglected plant matter, even if animals were in vast and available quantity. I just, I don't see that playing out fully from an epidemiological level. You can follow a nose to tail carnivore diet and get everything you need, but it's gonna be boring. It's gonna be socially restrictive. And I don't think it's something that we see a lot of examples of in terms of just human cultures that have been around for a long period of time. Yeah, great answer. My research as an undergraduate was in human evolution and biology. And I have continued to research that until this day. And I can assure you that we were never fully a meat or even fish eater, that dental wear, even on Neanderthals show a significant contribution of plants to our diet. And Neanderthals were truly a great upper level predator, but even Neanderthals have typical dental wear in their teeth of a plant material. So the idea that we had to get that every now and then, you're right, the skeletal record does not confirm that. Yeah, I think really the biggest issue in my opinion is as Jared Diamond gets into in guns, germs and steel, just the mass cities and sometimes the lack of hygiene that goes along with that and the human crowding that was able to develop around the concept of agriculture. And certainly that did create an issue in terms of just mass quantities of people in one place and may have contributed a little bit to human disease. And I think also that the evolution of that and the monocropping of wheat, monocropping of corn, monocropping of soy, and almost like a rape of the planet Earth in terms of soil degradation and poor farming practices, I think that's a bigger issue than whatever. Someone growing a backyard patio garden and then going inside and having to feel guilty that all those plants that they're eating are poisoning them, it's just, I think it's a ridiculous argument, especially when those plants are properly prepared. All right, so you also talk about, actually one of my favorite subjects, the MTHFR gene or as I tell my patients, the mother effort gene, tell our listeners, viewers, what is it, what do you think about it? Well, I'm no geneticist, but the MTHFR gene, it's essentially just a gene that's gonna code for all of the very crucial methylation activities that take place in the body during normal human metabolism on a day-to-day basis. And we know that deficits in methylation, which can be brought on by mitochondrial deficiencies, mold, mycotoxin, biofilm, metal overload, all sorts of issues can impair cognitive function, it can create gut issues, it can predispose one to higher risk of heart disease, stroke, like having poor methylation status, whether brought on by genetics or whether brought on by environmental issues, it's a problem. And furthermore, one of the significant things that that gene is responsible for doing is the conversion of homocysteine into methionine. And we know that high levels of homocysteine can also be inflammatory and present a lot of issues, particularly from a cardiovascular disease risk standpoint. And so what we see is that there are certain people who tend to be what's called homozygous for that MTHFR gene, I mean, they have the double A variant of it. And you see pretty significantly reduced methylation activity and pretty significant elevation of homocysteine levels. And in addition to that, you tend to see some deficiencies in folate because that methylation is very important for the availability of folate. And I think that some people think they've been cursed if they get a genetic test and find out their double A for the MTHFR gene, when in fact I would suspect, and this part is beyond my body of knowledge, but I would suspect there are some protective mechanisms and some reasons that that gene persists. But let's say that you do have that genetic risk factor. Well, just like we were talking about with a plant-based diet, there are things that you can do about it. For example, supplementing with a really good methylated form of vitamin B, looking at your multivitamin and ensuring that rather than it containing something like synthetic folic acid or folate, which is quite common and quite poorly absorbed, that you're instead using something like methyl tetrahydrofolate or a methylated version of folic acid. And so that's one important thing. Monitoring your homocysteine levels to ensure that they're staying in control is another. The issue with the methylation can also be assisted with, again, like having adequate methyl groups. And sometimes that means making sure you've got enough methionine, for example, in your diet. But when it comes to MTHFR, I think probably the biggest things, oh, the other thing that's really important is getting bioavailable folate. And I actually am a fan of using things like liver capsules, for example, or the consumption of organ meats to be able to get some of that. And I think that a lot of the issues with the MTHFR gene can be addressed. And I think that the other issue to pay attention to would be, like I mentioned, the environmental factors that would impair methylation. So I think that especially if you have that, that a homozygous MTHFR status that you should do things like pay attention to your metal exposure, pay attention to the amount of detoxification that you're doing, whether via the regular use of a sauna or some type of sweating protocol, the regular use of lymph circulating practices, like rebounding or walking or exercise, and also paying attention to your exposure to things like mold and mycotoxins, and even testing to make sure that you don't have a mold exposure in your home or a mold exposure in your office, just because poor methylation status will impair your ability to be able to detox and also to be able to withstand the exposure to a lot of those issues. And I think another one to pay attention to would be metals. That's another one that especially with modern dental practices and break dust and just living in this post-industrial era tends to be built up in a lot of people and people with poor methylation status are gonna have a harder time with that. And then one that I think flies under the radar, but often you tend to see as an issue, these so-called stealth co-infections like mold or mycotoxin or biofilm, often they're accompanied by a high metal overload. And then the third component that tends to be an issue related to that that's talked about a little less frequently is electrohypersensitivity, meaning being hypersensitive to frequent exposure to 5G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and the host of non-native EMF that we're presented with. Well, if you already have a co-infection, if you've already got metal load and then you throw electrohypersensitivity into the mix in someone with poor methylation status that's all gonna be magnified even more. So if you do, if you're homozygous for MTHFR, I think mold, mycotoxin, biofilm metals, and the EMF in your environment are really important to pay attention to in addition to making sure you're getting adequate methylated B12, methyl tetrahydrofolate, or some other bioavailable form of folate, and then monitoring of homocysteine levels to make sure those aren't getting too elevated.  Where does magnesium fit in all this? Yeah, that's an interesting one with relation to EMF because we know that a lot of these signals, 3G, 4G, 5G, unfortunately the testing on that is still kind of, you know, the jury's out. So I can't say much about 5G aside from the fact that it concerns me that it's being rolled out without a lot of adequate testing on these issues. But we know that there's an impact on what are called the voltage-getty calcium channels on the cell surface. And if you go read your book like Jerry Tennant's Healing is Voltage or Robert Becker's The Body Electric, then you know that our cells are almost like little batteries that need an electrochemical balance that dictates a negative millivolt potential on the interior of that cell. And when you have a steep influx of calcium, which we do know occurs based on the activation of these voltage-getty calcium channels in response to EMF, you tend to lose that negative charge. This is one reason why, you know, we tend to see people feel better when they go outside barefoot or do some kind of grounding or earthing that you're getting exposed to a lot of negative ions, walking on the sand, on the beach, swimming in the ocean, walking outside in the forest barefoot, et cetera. Now it turns out that one of the best ways to offset that steep influx of calcium into the cell is with magnesium. And considering, you know, based on what I was talking about earlier, the monocropping of soils and the deficient minerals that are present in a lot of plants, many people, if you test the red blood cell magnesium levels, tend to be deficient in magnesium. And I think that's further aggravated by the increasing exposure to EMF. And so I am a fan of magnesium supplementation or if you have a garden or a backyard patio, even getting some of these mineral dense powders that you can add into the soil, so that the produce that you're eating is richer in minerals. And, you know, the other two things, if you are really gonna kind of try to hack the EMF piece as far as nutrients go, I would also pay attention to anything that's gonna assist with DNA repair. And in particular, that would be the one-two combo of sirtuins, either via supplements, such as resveratrol or something I consider to be even better than resveratrol, which would be tarot-stilbing. And the inclusion of a lot of these foods like cacao, wine, blueberries, black currant berries, you know, anything in kind of like the black, blue, dark red, purplish kind of category for the sirtuins is gonna be very important for the DNA damage that occurs in response to a lot of that electromagnetic radiation. And the sirtuins are really gonna be dependent upon your NAD status. And so, you know, a practice of things like intermittent fasting or high intake of fermented foods, that's gonna assist with the levels of what's called nicotinamide adenide dinucleotide, which is really important and tends to decrease as you age, you know, kind of similar to the way that your available stem cell pool will decrease as you age, so will your available NAD levels, we know this. And supplementation with nicotinamide riboside or NMN or even the use of NAD IVs or NAD patches along with fermented foods and intermittent fasting, well, you pair that with a sirtuin rich diet or with sirtuin supplements and you're really set up to help to repair a lot of the DNA damage that's gonna occur with aging, but that will be accelerated due to EMF exposure. And then the last thing in addition to magnesium, sirtuins and NAD that I would pay attention to would be the NF-Kappa-B pathway is an inflammation modulating pathway that tends to be down-regulated in response to EMFs. And one of the best ways to keep that pathway activated is by the burning of ketone bodies. And, you know, mitigation of carbohydrate intake or paying attention to the amount that your blood glucose fluctuates during the day, I think that's important for everybody, right? Like keeping your glycemic variability under control, meaning the extent to which and the amount of time to which your blood glucose is staying elevated during the day. If that's staying low, you are, you know, by nature of that fact gonna be burning more fatty acids and producing more ketone bodies as a product of that low carbohydrate availability. But in addition to that, I even think if you're living in an EMF soup and a high EMF environment, you may even wanna consider the use of these, you know, these supplements like ketone salts and ketone esters to help with those inflammatory pathways. And, you know, while those are not daily dietary staples for me, when I'm doing like a long haul flight or I'm, you know, traveling through LA or New York or some other area where there's a lot more EMF, I actually supplement with liquid ketone esters just to help with that inflammatory pathway. So yeah, magnesium, sirtuins, NAD and ketones, I would say are the best kind of dietary or nutrient or supplementation steps you can take to help to protect yourself from EMF. All right, so that's good segue. People hear the word ketones and ketogenic diet. Where are you on the spectrum? Should we all be eating an extremely high-fat diet? Should we always be in ketosis? What say you? Yeah, I mean, that's a big issue and the short answer is no. I mean, the same ketogenic diet that may have helped your neighbor to lose 20 pounds for you could completely screw you metabolically. For example, maybe you have an FTO gene that would predispose weight gain and inflammation in response to saturated fat intake that exceeds about 10% of your total fat intake, which if you look at a modern, new fangled ketogenic bastardized diet full of butter and coconut oil and huge cuts of meat streaked with fat, then that's gonna be an issue for you, especially if you have that gene.  Perhaps you have familial hypercholesteroemia, in which case we know that while I am not one of those folks who would say that cholesterol is gonna predispose one to heart disease, even LDL cholesterol or cholesterol above 200, it is a factor that if present can contribute to heart disease and is an even more concerning factor in those with familial hypercholesteroemia. And so if you have any of these type of factors present, then a ketogenic diet really is not gonna be metabolically appropriate for you. Now, when I say a ketogenic diet, what I'm referring to is again, the modern bastardized version of ketosis, which is put a stick of butter in your tea and coffee and eat oodles of coconut oil and have tons of saturated fat and meat just drenched in fat. Whereas if you look at the physiology of ketones, the way that we would have naturally attained high levels of ketone bodies in the past would have been via restricted feeding windows, such as the use of intermittent fasting. It would have been via certain periods of time of caloric restriction or low amount of available calories. It would have been by a low intake of ultra-processed carbohydrates or very concentrated forms of starches and sugars. And it would have been via high amounts of low level physical activity throughout the day. And so you can achieve ketosis via two methods. You can achieve ketosis via this nutritional scenario where you're just eating coconut oil and butter and fatty meat all day, or you can move around, take 15,000 steps a day, do some intermittent fasting, pay attention to your carbohydrate intake and try to only eat carbohydrates when you actually need that type of energy available for physical activity. And you'll be burning ketone bodies without actually being on a so-called ketogenic diet. And so if that's your approach to ketosis and that's your definition of ketosis, I'm fine with that. But if your definition of ketosis is just this, what I would consider to be also a somewhat micronutrient void diet that relies upon a hefty intake of saturated fats, I would say I'm not a huge fan of that. And I do have to say, like I have tried that diet. I was part of Jeff Volick's faster study where I ate a 90% fat-based diet for a year going into that study and it produced some remarkable benefits in terms of endurance capacity. But I also experienced borderline hypogonadism. I experienced a real significant impact on thyroid, had low energy levels, had low libido, low high-end work output for harder workouts. And that was just due to the massive decrease in glycogen availability. And now my approach is more of what I would be, what I would call kind of like a cyclic ketogenic approach. And what I mean by that is I eat primarily healthy proteins, produce, vegetables, plants, and primarily monounsaturated Mediterranean style fats throughout the day. I do not eat many carbohydrates at all until the very end of the day. At the very end of the day, I tend to do a workout that kind of temporarily places me in a pretty insulin sensitive state and up regulates glucose transporters so that when I sit down to dinner, which tends to be the one meal of the day where most people do want a little bit more freedom and flexibility. Maybe it's a party or a night out or a family dinner or whatever, that's when I'll have some red wine or dark chocolate or a little bit of sourdough bread or millet or sweet potato fries or typically about 150, 200 grams or so of carbohydrates. And then I'm topping off my glycogen stores, my liver and muscle glycogen stores for the next day's physical activity and allowing myself enough glycogen to be able to maintain thyroid status, testosterone, even the proteoglycans that help to make up my joints. And then, but I wear a continuous blood glucose monitor, I've tested my ketones by the next morning, I'm easily back into burning ketones as my primary source of fuel. So kind of allows you to have your cake and eat it too when you just pay attention to your carbohydrate intake, maintain some semblance of physical activity. You're gonna reap the benefits of ketosis without necessarily having to create a diaper pant scenario by having MCT oil for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up. A number of my patients unfortunately dive in to a ketogenic diet with a lot of MCT oil and or coconut oil, which has a lot of MCTs in it and suffer the consequences, you're right. And you're right, normally, and I go into a lot of this in my next book, The Energy Paradox, if you're doing things correctly, you absolutely positively should be, when you wake up in the morning, you should be burning ketones for fuel if you are, if you have mitochondrial flexibility. And I think that's what you're getting to, yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, you can have a wonderful big meal at night and you should be in ketosis by the next morning if you did things right. Yeah, and a lot of people argue that you should eat your carbohydrates in the morning because the body is in a more insulin sensitive state in the morning. And that is actually true. However, like I mentioned, you can induce, self-induce a state of temporary insulin sensitivity by simply saving, let's say a weight training workout or a high intensity interval training workout and it doesn't have to be long. We're talking like, give me maybe 10 to 15 minutes prior to dinner and then you're actually kind of opening up those pathways to be able to partition that glucose properly. And I gotta tell you, after wearing this continuous blood glucose monitor for as long as I have, one thing I found that I think also flies under the radar that has had the most remarkable impact on lowering my blood glucose for a very long time. And I do this now prior to dinner as well, just because it's nice for enhancing sleep also because it drops your core temperature so significantly. And that's some kind of cold shower or cold bath or cold soak, just two to five minutes of cold exposure drops the blood glucose 20 to 30 points and keeps it down for a pretty significant period of time, even if you're eating carbohydrates. So if you can do a later afternoon or early evening workout and then if you have the ability to do so, take an icy cold shower or jump in a cold tub or ocean or lake or river or pool, then you're gonna be even more insulin sensitive when it comes to that carbohydrate feeding in the evening. Great advice, but I'm not gonna be able to do that in Palm Springs in the summer very well. Even my pool is hot. All right, so cold thermogenesis is a real thing and it does work. And what about you're walking next to a juve panel of red light and near-infrared light. Where does that come into play? Yeah, you know, that falls under the category of what's called photobiomodulation, meaning that you have a part of your mitochondria called cytochromoxidase and it responds to photons of light and can up-regulate production of ATP by the mitochondria when exposed particularly to near-infrared, far-infrared or red light. And so, you know, these panels are, I think that the most benefit that you can get out of them would be the up-regulated mitochondrial activity and the energy that you get from exposure to these wavelengths of light that you could get from sunlight, but A, sometimes people don't have the ability to be able to go out in the sun during a work day or you know, like right now it's gray and cloudy outside. I was using that this morning because I don't really have appreciable amounts of infrared light if I go outside and B, I can get a huge dose of infrared that would, if I were to go outside in the sun, necessitate me being exposed to UVA and UVB radiation for a good four to six hours to get the equivalent effect of 10 to 20 minutes of infrared using something like a light panel. So I'm not against UVA and UVB radiation. I think the hormetic effect of it is beneficial but I think, you know, four to six hours every single day might be a little excessive. So I use it for that. I also use it because, and this is actually why I originally began to use a photobiomodulation. The late excels in the testes of men actually respond pretty well to these wavelengths of light in terms of upgrading their cytochromoxidase pathways. And so we tend to see an increase in testosterone total and free with about 10 to 20 minutes per day of red light on the genitals.  You know, I just take all my clothes off because it's wonderful for the skin, for collagen, for elastin, et cetera and just bathe myself in red light every single morning. And it feels great. It feels like a cup of coffee for the whole body. And it's wonderful for the skin, wonderful for hormones and wonderful for the mitochondria. So, you know, that kind of falls into the category of all the things that I do for mitochondrial health. What I mean by that is, you know, if you are eating healthy and you have a good physical movement practice and you still have low energy levels, I think that you should begin to incorporate practices that increase mitochondrial biogenesis or the throughput of electrons through the electron transport chain or upregulation of the cytochromoxidase pathways. And the best ways to do that, I think, are light therapy, grounding or earthing, meaning going outside barefoot, walking around, you know, laying down in your back in the backyard, some kind of heat practice like regular sweating, heat exposure, sauna use, some type of cold practice, right? Like cold thermogenesis, cold showers, cold baths, cold soak. And then I start and end every day with a big 30-ounce glass mason jar full of minerals, right? Sea salt or hypertonic minerals or something I'll put in there because the minerals help to carry this charge through your body, you know, returning back to what we were saying about, you know, folks like Jerry Tenen and Robert Becker and the body electric. So I think one of the best things you can do is eat healthy, have a good movement practice and then get exposed to light, get exposed to the planet Earth, do heat, do cold and drink good water with minerals in it.  But wait a minute, aren't we supposed to avoid salt? Isn't salt bad for you? Yeah, isolated sodium chloride, it can be problematic. You know, so yes, sodium can be an issue but when accompanied by potassium and the 70 plus other minerals that are necessary for sodium to actually work properly within the body and not cause issues with hypertension or a net acidity or anything like that, then it's a non-issue. So it depends on what your source of salt actually is. And I'm a sucker for great salts. You know, I have a Celtic salt I use, I get black cone of salt. I use these liquid minerals called Keenton minerals which are harvested from algal blooms that are just a wonderful source of minerals. And I've actually looked at mass spec analysis of all these different salts out there on the market and when it comes to the highest amount of minerals and lowest amount of metals, microplastics, a lot of these other things that we do tend to find in salt, there's one really good brand and you can find it at any grocery store, just about, you know, order easily online and that's the Celtic brand salt. Just that one that comes with a little blue bag, that's one of the best salts. You can just put pinches out in your food and your water. It's got all the minerals, you know, that balance out the amount of sodium. And so yeah, the answer to your question is it depends. If you have a full spectrum of minerals, you know, I personally do probably equivalent around six grams of salt on a daily basis of wonderful blood pressure. And, you know, I used to go to bed at night, you know, especially when I was competing as an Ironman triathlete and I could hear my blood pounding in my ears, also some sluggish energy during the day that I think was related to exhaustion of mineral supplies in the adrenal glands and that was back, you know, like eight years ago and based on the advice from an exercise physiologist, I began to supplement pretty heavily with minerals and with good salt and those problems went away almost overnight. And ever since then, and also, you know, since reading, you know, books that have followed such as The Salt Fix and some of the literature out there on the fact that salt is not necessarily evil or as evil as we've been led to believe it is, you know, I've been a huge fan of minerals and insulting my food pretty heavily. I'm gonna put a proviso in there. I'm a big fan of salt in those forms, but I've seen kind of a mini epidemic of hypothyroidism in patients who do not get iodine in their diet that they used to get in iodized salt. And when we supplement with iodine, either with, say, spirulina or with kelp or chlorella, or have them get an iodized sea salt, which is now increasingly available, their thyroid function dramatically improves. And I do think people have to have a source of iodine in their diet. Yeah, what I do is every day for lunch, I have a big cup of bone, but about two teaspoons of seaweed vegetable minerals in there. I get them from my doctor, Thomas Cowan. Thomas Cowan's vegetable powders and those have wonderful flavor. And then I typically, on any given day, with either dinner or with lunch, have a big mess of either kelp or I have a nori wrap or I have some form of seaweed or sea vegetables worked into the actual food as well. So I think I'm getting a pretty good amount of iodine just from sea vegetables and seaweed that I work into my diet. All right, you mentioned pounding in your ears, et cetera. Tell us, you got a trick for sleep? Sleep seems to be one of those problems that 50% of people have. Sometimes they don't talk about it. Any tricks? Well, yeah, I mean, I think the sleep chapter alone and boundless is like 80 pages long and we could talk for hours about sleep. But let me tell you, most people I think these days are aware of sleep hygiene, right? You keep the room cold and you sleep in a cold environment. You eliminate light sources, especially from screens and e-readers and computers.  You control the noise. And most people are aware of that but then when it comes down to boots in the streets there are so many little things that people forget that I think are the big drains when it comes to sleep. So for example, we know that the absence of light at night is important, but not many people talk about the massive importance of waking up to large amounts of natural sunlight, even the use of these red light devices that simulate sunrise, the use of devices you can place in your ears or glasses that produce light to just blast you with light if you live in a dark or dreary or gray area like Seattle or Portland. Like your sleep cycle begins in the morning and you need to expose yourself to as much natural light either via sunlight or via these red light producing devices or a combination of both in the morning because that's what jump starts your circadian rhythm, okay? And then in the evening, yeah, a lot of people were in blue light blockers, they're installing programs like Flux or the one that I like even better than that like Iris on their computers but their lighting in their actual bedroom is still subparts, LED, it's fluorescent, it's producing a lot of flicker, it's producing a lot of red light. So I think one of the best things you can do is replace all of the light bulbs in your bedroom and your master bathroom with red incandescent bulbs or some of these newer biological LED bulbs that are the color red, okay?  And so you need to be aware of that when it comes to lights. That's one thing. When it comes to cold, a lot of people will decrease the temperature but they won't decrease it enough. I think the optimum sleeping temperature is one in which when you take off your clothes to go to bed at night, there's a little bit of mental resistance because it's kind of sort of chilly when you take off your clothes. You typically that's about 63 to 65 degrees Fahrenheit. That's the ideal sleeping temperature for a bedroom. And furthermore, there are little tricks. Like there was one study that showed a 15 minute decrease in sleep latency when you wear wool socks as you go to bed because your feet become warm and that helps to cool the rest of the body. I also like this chili pad device that you can get and sleep on. It'll circulate 55 degree cold water under your bed at night in addition to that kind of like later afternoon, early evening, cold shower or cold soak, right? So it's not just about kind of sort of keeping the room kind of cold. You wanna go out of your way to actually get everything pretty cold and take some extra steps to do so. And then the last couple of things to think about is we know that silence is important, right? Barking dogs, blurring alarms, sirens, et cetera. But there are certain noises that can help to enhance sleep. There was one study, I think it was done at Stanford that showed that a form of noise is what we're all familiar with like white noise and brown noise. Well, a lot of these apps, you can take your phone, put it in airplane mode next to the bed. And I use an app called Sleep Stream for this to play pink noise. Turns out that pink noise can enhance sleep, particularly deep sleep. More than any of these other forms of noise that will drown out ambient sounds. So I play a little bit of pink noise to drown out ambient sounds. And then the last thing is, I talked about not going to bed in a stress state. And I think the top, I would say the top three things that I do for that. Number one is as I go to sleep, I take an exhale that's twice as long as my inhale. So typically it's about one, two in, one, two, three, four, out. And as you do that, it just lulls your body into a parasympathetic state. We know that long exhales have an impact on the vagus nerve that will activate the parasympathetic state. And so doing a breathwork practice, like a two, four, or a four, eight breathwork practice as you fall asleep helps to manage the stress component.  And the two ways you can do that are, A, don't let your computer or books associated with your work or your career or business discussions or anything like that come anywhere near the bedroom.  Even when you check into a hotel room, don't plop your laptop on your bed and crawl into the bed in your belly to get some work done. Keep the laptop away from the bed. Do not let your brain associate the bed in any way with work. And then furthermore to enhance that feeling of safety, I'm a huge fan. I've had a lot of people respond really, really well to this of gravity blankets. Like a 20 to 25 pound good cooling gravity blanket. It makes you feel as though you're protected by this hard protective layer that kind of just like, it's very similar like when you were a baby and you were swaddled. And you put one of these gravity blankets on your bed and that's amazing also for the stress piece. So yeah, pay attention to cold, light, silence and stress, but also understand the little nitty gritties of how to do that. Now I get into all that stuff in the big sleep chapter in my book. Yeah, it is a book and it's going to take you a while to eat all of this. It's a fantastic reference material, if nothing else. And it's certainly far more than that. So what's one thing that surprised you maybe the most when you were researching boundless?  And this idea that more muscle is not better, right? We see a lot of bodybuilders dying from cardiomegaly and, you know, left ventricular hypertrophy. We know that muscle takes a lot of energy to carry, to cool. You need higher endogenous antioxidant production. And when you look at longevity studies on muscle, you know, from guinea pig models all the way up to human models, you find that's not the amount of muscle. It's actually the power of the fast-switch muscle fibers that's important. And so if you're exercising and you're exercising for longevity, being able to generate high amounts of force over a low period of time is much more important than the amount of muscle that you actually carry. And this means that actually having a couple of workouts during the week, even as you age, that force you to move a little bit more quickly than you want to move.  We know that walking speed is correlated with longevity. There's even a device that will train you. You would get a kick out of this, Stephen. There's a concept of enhanced external counterpulsation therapy that's used in, you know, recovery in cardiovascular rehab. And there's this device called a counter pace. And it ties to your phone app, your little heart rate monitor ties to a phone app and it trains you to time each step in direct correlation to the diastolic phase of your heartbeat. And so it'll monitor your heart rate and monitor your step count. And you're basically pumping blood back up to your heart with the muscles of your legs right as you're in that diastolic phase. What I found is that's also a really, really good way to keep your walking speed elevated because it has a little, it'll tell you to speed up or slow down based on your heartbeat. But then the other thing is doings like some body weight explosive workouts where you're just moving quickly. You're moving quickly. You're not just doing super slow training, but you might work in some box jumps or lunge jumps or some pushups where you're pushing up really fast and lowering yourself slowly. But I think that was one thing that really surprised me was the importance, especially with the age of maintaining powers. Matter of fact, some of the healthiest athletes you're gonna find out there. You know, this is something else interesting I learned right in the book. We know, you know, and Daniel Aiman has a lot of research out about this that of all the sports you could play to live a long time, it'd be swimming and table tennis because both of those involve a lot of left, right brain hemispheric activity. But in addition to that, we find that some of the most metabolically healthy, long-lived exercises, if we're looking at this from an exercising standpoint are power lifters, right? Because power lifting involves moving weights that aren't super heavy, it can be heavy, but more importantly, they're moved very explosively, very quickly. So I would say don't focus on the amount of muscle that you have, focus on how functional and how fast that muscle is. All right, good advice. I'm gonna have to get that device. I wanna step to my diastolic time period. So that's cool. All right, so probably we don't even need to ask this, but where do people find you? I know where we can get the book. Where do we find you? I would say Google, but I'm becoming a little bit disillusioned with Google these days. So I'm gonna say just go to bengreenfieldfitness.com. That's where my podcast is. I write a couple of articles a week over there. Boundlessbook.com is where you can get the book and then bengreenfieldfitness.com for everything else. All right. Including an interview I did with you, Steve, and a couple of years ago. That's right, that's right, I enjoyed that. All right, we got an audience question and I'm gonna give it to you first. Big founder on Instagram asks, isn't flaxseed a massive killer of testosterone in men? I've heard this from several other nutrition experts recently. Did he hear that from you, Ben? Come on. I don't think he heard it from me. I mean, I'm more opposed to flaxseed being viewed as a really good source of DHA when, you know, like I mentioned earlier, the ALA to DHA conversion and flaxseed and chia seed, et cetera, is pretty poor. But, you know, flaxseed does have phytoestrogens in it. Combined to estrogen receptors, they're pretty weak binders and typically tend to be a non-issue, especially actually in males. I think the one population that needs to be careful with flaxseeds are women with estrogen dominance and progesterone deficiencies. Because in that population, I think doing as much as you can to minimize estrogen exposure from Xenoestrogens in plastics and household cleaning chemicals and personal care products and even phytoestrogens from plants. I think it's important if you tend to have estrogen dominance. If you're a male and you have some real over-romatization issues or even genetic factors that might impair estrogen metabolism which are usually liver related, you may also want to moderate flax intake. But those phytoestrogens are, yeah, they can mimic estrogen, but they're really weak binders. And I think that they're only a concern if you're already estrogen dominant or have estrogen clearance issues due to genetic factors. Yeah, I agree with you. In fact, there's actually some, first of all, folks, you will not convert flax oil or flaxseeds into DHA or EPA. I mean, you do a little bit, but I see a ton of vegans who are convinced that flax oil is all they need to make DHA and we measure their DHAs and it's just non-existent. But yeah, I think the issue of this being an estrogen producing substance that's going to block your testosterone production, I've actually never seen it even in my vegans. So thank you for answering that question. All right.  And again, it's great to see you again and thanks for coming on the podcast. All right, time for Twinkies on Netflix now, baby. Exactly. Thanks for having me on, Steven. I appreciate it. Before you go, I just wanted to remind you that you can find the show on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts because I'm Dr. Gundry and I'm always looking out for you.


Hello and welcome to Connecting Hawaii Business on ThinkTech Hawaii. My name is Kathleen Lee and I am your host for this program. Today I am excited to have on the show my friend Katie Kahanui of the Waikiki Business Improvement District. Katie, welcome to Connecting Hawaii Business. Thank you for having me Kathleen, it's so nice to see you again. Thank you for being back on the show, but before we delve into that, tell our viewers about yourself. Yeah, so my name is Katie Kahanui. I am new about a month into my role at the Waikiki Business Improvement District and I helped to oversee the Waikiki Safe and Sound program. My background is in criminal justice and mental health, so I know we'll go into this a little bit later, but this was the perfect opportunity for me to dive into both of my professional sweet spot. So really excited to be here. Prior to this and what our last show was about a couple years ago, I was with the Chamber of Working and Workforce Development. So I'm really excited for this new journey and look forward to this conversation with you. Yeah, and thank you again for everything that you did in that capacity with helping out Hawaii at that time, especially during the pandemic when people were trying to figure out what to do, especially when it came to business and the economy and employment. So I know the community is grateful to you guys for that. Thank you so much. Thank you. I'll go into the Waikiki Business Improvement District first before we go into Safe and Sound. Tell us a brief overview of what the organization is. Yeah, so the Safe and Sound program is a part of the Waikiki Business Improvement District. And really, you know, if you take a walk or take a drive through Waikiki, you'll see the people in the neon green shirts who are kind of keeping the area clean and talking to people and just being, you know, hospitable and really kind. And we oversee that program, which is the Aloha Ambassadors program. But we also just do programming to make sure that Waikiki is, you know, a safe and a vibrant place to live, work and do business. So we're involved in a bunch of different projects and Safe and Sound is one of them. And we're really excited to jump into this project. We're about a year in and just launched year two of Safe and Sound. That is fairly new, especially when it comes to the history of the organization as well as Waikiki. So let's go into Safe and Sound. What is the program and use the vision for it? The partners, tell us more about it. Yeah, so Safe and Sound, Waikiki is an initiative that was launched, really, you know, at its core to create a safer Waikiki community. And it was created in partnership with the prosecuting attorney's office, the police department, the mayor's office, ourselves, the business community, and very importantly, the residents. And so it was kind of everybody coming together, just saying that we need to come together and really make sure that the place is safe. And we do that in two ways. So the first way is to make sure that we are decreasing the levels of crime that we observe, as well as increasing the levels of mental health support that these people are receiving. That is a, it is a large subject to tackle. And I, and the organization for that. So, and you kind of already mentioned it. So what does the program and the association aim to achieve with this, with Safe and Sound? Right. So, you know, a lot of the people that we work with, at least those who are cycling in and out of the criminal justice system, we notice that they're also suffering from any type of degree of mental illness. So from moderate to severe, we recognize that many times that's the driver behind the types of behavior that we're observing. And so while we know that it's still very important to address things at the level where we have to enforce and make sure that we're responding to incidents in lifetime, we also have to make sure that we're setting up the preventative measures to make sure that people in the future don't end up in these situations and the people who are right now get the help that they really need. Okay. And you mentioned earlier that your, your specific position is new and it was created, newly created. So tell us why or what the need was for your role. Yeah. So like I was mentioning before, there's a lot of big stakeholders involved in this project and they were looking for someone really just one to make sure that everybody was on the same page and moving forward. But also as we go into year two and really focus kind of on the sound piece of the work to really lead the way as far as creating some kind of infrastructure or a systems building approach to making sure that people get the right mental health support. And so ideally they were looking for somebody with both criminal justice and mental health experience. Oftentimes I feel like you're either one or the other, but my passion is in both and I pursued graduate degrees in both, hoping that one day I could bring the two together and serve the community that way. So I feel like it's a perfect match for me at this point in my professional journey and just super excited to continue. And we're super excited as well to see what you're going to do in this particular position. So you had sent us a graphic for safe and sound. So hopefully we can prop that up there. While we're doing that, tell us more about what the program has been doing, especially when it comes to addressing crime in the Waikiki area. Right. So a big part of safe and sound being created was because the community here noticed an uptick in crime post COVID when we opened up again. And so it was everybody coming together, trying to figure out a collective way for us to respond to that. And so you'll be able to see in the graphic. But year one was really focused on the safe piece. So a lot of it is just quick enforcement and making sure that we are responding to crime quickly, as well as doing what we can to deter crime and making sure that it doesn't occur in the first place. And so one thing that the city did was they went ahead and hired nighttime security guards for Waikiki. So they're going to be there from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. So even in the nighttime hours, you'll see off-duty officers who are just working to deter crime and make sure that people aren't getting into trouble during those hours. I think that is wonderful. And I like that you are focused on safety. What is the organization's connection or partnership with HPD, if any, since you did talk about security in the evenings as well? Yeah, so HPD is actually a really close partner of ours. And they've been wonderful in supporting the work that we do. And so when it comes to specifically the Waikiki area, we work with our district six officers and they are really on the ball in making sure that we are up to date with the cases that they're working on as well as getting data from us about what we would like to see in the community and how we can address that together. We just had a meeting earlier this morning, so we're in frequent communication with them. And they've been wonderful as far as keeping us up to date with things. That's awesome. So you already touched upon some of the initiatives that Safe and Sound is doing for this year. What are some other programs or initiatives that you're looking to do in year two? Right. So as I was mentioning before, year one was really focused on the safe piece of Safe and Sound. And in year two, we plan to continue that, but we also want to bring in more initiatives to focus on the sound piece of that work. And so one thing that we're doing, which is really exciting, is we just launched a partnership with IHS. And that gives us the opportunity to have a dedicated case worker to work with us specifically in the Waikiki area. So this will be a senior level clinical case worker who I'll be working really closely with. So we can just have dedicated tracking. We have somebody out doing the street outreach work who gets to know these people, know their case histories and backgrounds. And also for the people who are severely mentally ill, this partnership allows us to jump into the ACT program or assisted community treatment, which I can go into shortly. Let's go into that, Sadie. What is the ACT program? Yeah. So ACT stands for Assisted Community Treatment and it's not a brand new program. It's something that the state has already been doing here. And really what it is, it's a court ordered program. So people can get mandated to take the medications that they need to remain stabilized. So for those who are severely mentally ill, they'll be able to take the medication to kind of stabilize out. And then from there, we can work with them to get treatment or housing or the types of support that they actually need that they may not have been able to make informed decisions about before that. Okay. And let's talk about some of them because you talked about the program. Let's go over some challenges that you may have ran into so far. If you were able to discuss them, what are some challenges that the Safe and Sound program has ran into? Yeah, that's a great question. So there's two that I want to bring up. The first one is that we try and we do our best to offer these great services to people, but not everybody is open to it. So we do run into a lot of people who are service resistant. And from there, we try not to have to force it on to them, but we do have to think of innovative ways that we can continue to work with them on. So for people who might not be open to treatment or housing or any type of mental health support, we can think of other ways that we can work with them. But a new addition with the street outreach worker and having more time out on the streets with them is that hopefully they can create that bond of trust so that hopefully they'll be more receptive to getting the types of help that they need. And then another challenge that we have is, I'm not sure if you're familiar with it, but a feature of the Safe and Sound program is geographic restrictions. And it's tied to somebody's probation, but pretty much while somebody in the Waikiki area is on probation, they're not allowed to come back into the community for either six months or a year. So it's temporary, but sometimes they come back, right as soon as they're let out, we notice them back into the community, but many times it's because they're going through a mental health condition and just don't understand. So I think the ACT program and our assisted or in large capacity with our IHS partnership will be able to help with that. Are there other organizations that you may want to mention, aside from IHS and HPD, that are part of this program to assist individuals that you're servicing? Yeah, so we work deeply with the prosecuting attorney's office. So they're a big part of this person's journey as they go through the criminal justice system and maybe from there get diverted to mental health treatment, jail time if needed, or just our goal is to get them the type of help that they actually need instead of jail time ideally. But we also work with the business community here in Waikiki. So we have HLTA as an example, but a lot of our hotel owners are another one who just really show a vested interest in wanting to keep our communities safe. Waikiki, as we all know, is an economic hub for the state. And so we want to make sure that it's a place that even visitors and residents alike desire to come and visit and they feel safe doing so. So we all share that common goal. And then lastly, I think one, probably the most important part is that the people who live here are really invested in this work too. So we go to the neighborhood board meetings and we're in touch with a lot of the residents here who share their concerns with us. And they are very honest, which I appreciate and that we know how we can best help them because at the end of the day, they're the ones living it. We are here trying to make sure that we can service them during our work hours, but this is life for them. So it really means a lot to me to be able to make sure that they're happy with the work we do. I appreciate that. And again, it can be daunting. What you folks are doing right now can be daunting, right? How did you, well, let me backtrack. You've always been passionate about safety and bad arena. Where does that passion come from? That's a great question. So I, for as long as I can remember, I have always had an interest in pursuing criminal justice. And so I did my undergraduate studies in it and I was doing my practicum at the public defender's office and for a moment, that was my goal.  And so I spent a lot of time in our jails and in our prison systems, but it was there that I saw just this wide array of people who I felt are actually dealing with mental health issues. And it's not necessarily fixing the crime that they did, but it's fixing the driver behind what caused them to do it. And so that was a really big turning point for me as far as the type of career that I saw for myself. And so after I did my master's in criminal justice, I jumped into a master's in counseling, specializing in mental health. So I thought if I could just find a way to blend the two, then that is the work that I'm here on this earth to do. And right now I found that. So I think that's my driver. I think that is absolutely wonderful. I have so many other questions for you right now. But I kind of want to... Okay, so we've already talked about why you're passionate about it. As far as the businesses in the area though, that people that you, businesses that you collaborate with, companies, what can they do to keep Waikiki a safer place? And what can they do to work with you in your organization for this mission? Right. So I think just open communication is a really big part of that. So we have, like I was mentioning in the beginning, our ambassador team and they're out all hours of the day. And they're wearing neon green shirts for a reason. So you can see them and reach out to them if there's anything that you need them for. So they are a great resource if there are any questions or concerns that you have. If there's somebody causing trouble outside of a business or a hotel, you can reach out to them, as well as HPD of course. But we want to make sure that there's various avenues of being able to get help quickly. And so you can physically reach out to somebody in person. Our ambassadors also have a hotline that you can call. And that'll connect you to someone really quickly. But it's just open communication. So between us ambassadors, HPD is in communication with us too. So we just don't want anybody to be left with questions on what they can do if they need help. Tell us more about the ambassadors. I see them all this time. And I love that they are also part of the initiative that he's Waikiki safe. But I know off the bat, when I first started seeing them, I thought they were people that would just talk about Waikiki. So delve into that a little bit more. Yeah, I would love to. They are a wonderful group of people. So the ambassadors, you'll see walking around just the Waikiki area. We have them in safety, custodial, and hospitality. So you'll see them doing a wide variety of things. But really, these are people who just represent Aloha. And you're able to go up and talk to them and talk story, or if you need directions, or if you need them for a safety reason, they're there. But these are some of the most kind and compassionate people that I've ever met. And when I started, I did walk around Waikiki with them in the different areas, the focus that they have. And these people are really, really passionate about what they do. And some work here until they retire. And they just love being in the area and love servicing people. But really, they work to keep the area clean. And kind of looking pristine and making sure that areas are safe for people. But they also help with giving directions, or if you need a tour somewhere, they're there to help with that. So they're a huge part of what we do. And we get frequent feedback about how much the visitors and the residents are impacted by their good work. I appreciate that. And again, keeping Waikiki safe is not just an issue in Waikiki. I know it's statewide as well. And then you also talked about the people in particular, homeless and house individuals in Waikiki that we want to take care of, but we also want to make sure that everyone feels safe. So as far as those discussions go, can you delve more into why it's more complicated than just, hey, let's move this particular population out? Yes, that is a good question. And you're right in its complexity. A lot of people, I want to say, are dealing with some type of mental health issues. So for example, if we see somebody who's going through something and we try to give them housing, they're not in a space where they can really keep that up and be able to maintain that housing on their own. So first, we have to deal with whatever mental health issues and treatment issues that they're actually in need of. So I think it's a level of priority of what kinds of help that they need first. And so we're trying to make sure, and a big part of my role will be to create that systems approach to, okay, we have this person that we're working with, who are the people that they need to be working with at this stage now so we can get them up to be ready for the next thing. So that's something that means a lot to me. And I also recognize, you know, a lot of the times with the geographic restrictions, for example, that getting someone out of Waikiki doesn't negate the issue itself, which is the fact that they're, you know, in continuous cycles of crime, they might go into neighboring communities and try and do the same thing too. So that's why I'm a huge advocate for reaching the issue at as deep a level as we can and figure out those drivers behind it, or else it doesn't matter where they go, they'll keep continuing that behavior. And a lot of times it's just to, you know, meet an unmet need of theirs. So it's really working with them to figure out what that need is. And thank you for going over that. I sincerely appreciate you for doing that. Is there anything else that we have not gone over that you would like to talk about regarding the Waikiki Business Improvement District and or the Safe and Sound program that you are spiriting? Yeah, I think, you know, I think we covered the basics. The Waikiki Business Improvement District is involved in a lot of good work in the Waikiki area. We do have a new President and Executive Director, Trevor Aburzua, and he is leading the way as far as initiatives and leading change in this area too. So I'm really excited to be a part of this team. And as far as Safe and Sound, I think the new work that we'll be spearheading in the mental health space is going to be really good. So we're still in the early process of that IHS partnership, and we're still hiring out for that new caseworker. So hopefully soon we'll have that person in place. But as far as the ACT program, I'll, for example, be helping with building the cases, to petition to the judges to be able to work with these people who need help really badly. So, and hopefully, you know, in a year, when we look back at year two, we can talk about all this good mental health work that we've been doing. Yes, Katie, we can have you back on the show. Absolutely, I would love to. Thanks. For individuals out there who may be interested in going into the line of work that you are currently in, what are some lessons or advice that you would like to share with them? That's a great question. So I think, you know, for myself personally, I just followed what I was really passionate about with the hopes that one day it would culminate into a career that offered me the chance to explore everything in real time. My advice would be just to follow your heart and to do what you're interested in anyway and the position or the opportunity will come to you. But to also put yourself in that network and that, you know, in those environments before that and just get yourself exposed to the type of work that you're interested in. So whether it's volunteering in our community, for example, we have the community policing team who does walks around Waikiki every now and then. So something like that would be an example and they get involved in to meet the officers, to meet the outreach workers and things like that. So put yourself in that arena, but also just trust that it's going to work out for you if you're following your heart. I absolutely love that. If people want to learn more about the Waikiki Business Improvement District, where do or if they want to get a hold of you, where do they go? Yeah, so we just launched a bunch of social media outlets. So we now have an Instagram under the Waikiki Business Improvement District as well as a LinkedIn. And then you can always go on our website where we have the staff names and our contact information. So that's probably the best place where you can reach me. I believe my email is on there, but if not, we can make sure that our contact info is put up there. And we have a few minutes left in the show, Katie. Is there anything else or vision, aspirations that you would like to share before we conclude this wonderful conversation that we had today regarding what you do, what you're passionate about, and the Waikiki Business Improvement Association and the Safe and Sound Program?  And it can be a challenge when you're working with people sometimes who are not that receptive to help. But I don't see that as a sign to back away or to stop doing this work because we feel like it's too difficult. I know that we're laser focused on the Waikiki area, but I think long term, my vision would be to use this program and create some kind of infrastructure that we can utilize and grow to other communities. So just the power of a collective team. So the prosecuting office, HPD, all of our social service providers, everybody working together, maybe a designated person from each branch. But if that works here, it's worth a try to bring to other areas around the state. So I think that would be my biggest goal. And the Safe and Sound Program is modeled after the existing weed and seed programs, which is around the island here. So it's a very similar infrastructure, but my goal would be to kind of have Waikiki be that pilot. And if we can create some success and refer people to the types of help that they need and then see them off the streets thriving, that would be success for me. Thank you, Katie, for being here and taking the time to talk to us today. We have been talking with Katie Kahanui of the Safe and Sound Program through the Waikiki Business Improvement District. Thank you again for being on the show. And thank you for Think Tech Hawaii and people like Jay Fiedel, who make shows like this happen. I also want to thank Haley for helping us out with the back end of getting shows like this up and running. Until next time, aloha.


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