Mar 23, 2019
From Dr. Joseph Mercola, my friend, multiple-time podcast guest, a guy who thinks way outside-the-box and seems to always be discovering some new cutting-edge way to enhance human health and longevity, and one of the world's foremost authorities on alternative health has just written a guide to using the principles of ketogenic eating, meal planning, and timing to treat disease, promote weight loss, and optimize health.
The new book is called "KetoFast: Rejuvenate Your Health with a Step-by-Step Guide to Timing Your Ketogenic Meals". In the book, he explores the profound health benefits that result when ketogenic living and well-planned fasting are combined. Topics include:
-How our food is making us sick and what we can do about it...
-The physiology and mechanisms of fasting, including stem cell activation...
-How the cyclical ketogenic diet--with fasting included--differs from the conventional keto diet...
-How fasting works and how safe it is for you...
-How regular one-day fasts support fat burning and detoxification while minimizing hunger and side effects...
-How to monitor your progress with lab tests...
-And much more...
During our discussion, you'll discover:
-The fascinating history of fasting among different religions and cultures...8:25
- Dr. Mercola's book was originally written to learn to optimize multiple day water fasting
- Most religions integrate fasting into their practice (speaks to its efficacy throughout history)
- It's one of the best ways to express care for your spirit, especially when combined with meditation, gratitude, solitude, etc.
- Therapeutic fasting:
- Calorie restriction to activate metabolic processes to catalyze the healing process
- Fasting didn't become popular in the U.S. until the 1800's with the natural hygiene movement
- Became more popular when Herbert Shelton popularized it in 1911
- TrueNorth Health Center
-Autophagy, and why Dr. Mercola thinks of a fast as a "free stem cell transplant"...16:45
- Different varieties of fasting:
- Intermittent (the foundation)
- Dr. Satchin Panda found that 90% of people don't do this (listen to my podcast with Dr. Panda)
- You need more than intermittent to get the max effect of autophagy
- Fasting mimicking diet, water diet
- Hybrid of the two, minimize the harmful effects
- Intermittent (the foundation)
- Autophagy:
- 3 types
- Micro
- Macro
- Chaperone mediated
- You activate autophagy with the keto fast
- Dr. Mercola does not recommend a long-term water fast
- Free stem cell transplant is what happens during the regeneration phase, after the autophagy phase
- The magic happens during the refeed and strength rebuilding; similar to a growth hormone injection
- Do a 42 hour fast, in which you eat 300-500 calories 2x per week
- 3 types
-How fasting affects intestinal stem cell function...24:20
- Extended fasting helps reduce gut permeability by stimulating brain/gut pathways
- Consider fasting before other treatments or supplements for
repairing the gut
- Certain supplements will inhibit autophagy: colostrum, B12
- AMP-k and mTOR
- It's your friend; The higher the better
- A nutrient sensor
- Puts your body in "repair mode"
- See Saw: AMP-k up, mTOR down, vice versa
-What nutrients you need to optimize autophagy...34:08
- Berberine
- ECGC from green tea and European wild apples
- Pomegranate peel powder
- Urolithin A
- Pomegranate Pulled Apart podcast from ATP Science
- Dr. Mercola’s “autophagy tea” before my nightly fast to also
limit mTor activation and increase autophagy:
- 1 tsp Pau d’ Arco powdered tea
- ½ tsp hydroxycitrate and garcinia (HCA/Garcinia powder)
- ½ tsp quercetin powder
- ½ tsp glycine powder
- ½ teaspoon chamomile powder
- Lakanto monkfruit sweetener to taste
- You don't want to take exogenous ketones when you want to activate autophagy while fasting
-How ketones protect the brain excess hydrogen peroxide...46:00
- Fats and carbs are fuel sources; broken down by enzymes
- Oxygen receives electrons from the food you're digesting in the form of hydrogen (which is converted to water)
- Most people are metabolically inflexible; can't burn much fat for fuel
- Ketones increase Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (nADPH)
-Why Dr. Mercola changed his mind about the power of water fasting as a metabolic intervention...50:55
- We in the 21st century are exposed to chemical and industrial toxins not historically known to humans
- Toxins are stored in our fat
- When you fast, you release these toxins
- Cause unpleasant side effects and symptoms
- 2 phases:
- Convert fat soluble to water soluble (not a problem)
- Attach molecules to the toxin
- You need frequent refeeds to fuel the process of eliminating the toxins and enhancing detox pathways
- A keto fast (42 hours, 300-500 calories) 2x/week is far more powerful than an occasional multi-day water fast or even fast mimicking diet
-What Dr. Mercola views as the "dark side of fasting"...55:00
- Detoxification impairment
- Compliance: people just won't do it
- How Dr. Mercola recommends Ben improve his own fasting
strategy:
- Ben takes essential amino acids for protein during extended fasts
- Don't eat meat protein (branch chain amino acids)
- Take collagen protein
- Drawbacks to long-term ketosis
- Requires significant calorie restriction
- Women can develop thyroid impairment
- You simply weren't designed to do it
- Fasting primes your body for improvement; the real magic happens in the refeeds
-What is "keto fasting," and how cyclical ketosis addresses the above issues...1:00:13
- You must be metabolically flexible
- Eat in a 4-6 hour window per day for 4 weeks
- Branch chain aminos: lucine, isoleucine, valine
- Eat these on the refeed, not during the keto fast
- Don't activate mTor along with autophagy
- Cyclical approach:
- Keto fast 2x/week
- Every day intermittent fast
- Strategies to deal with hunger or appetite cravings:
- Vast majority of metabolically flexible people won't feel hungry
- Coconut oil, MCT oil, aloe gel
- Nicotine gum and sparkling water
-How sauna use supports a fasting protocol, an ideal sauna setup, and sauna do's and don't's...1:07:45
- Brian Richards' Sauna Space
- Near infrared is the best
- 40% of energy from the sun is infrared
- Near infrared heats you up very quickly
- Penetrates much more of the body than far infrared
- Book: Sauna Therapy for Detoxification and Healing
- Compounds prior to sauna use:
- Niacin (small doses)
- Use low EMF
-And much more!
Resources from this episode:
-My previous episodes with Dr. Mercola:
-KetoFast: Rejuvenate Your Health with a Step-by-Step Guide to Timing Your Ketogenic Meals
-Meta.org for research studies
-Ben's Switzerland healing retreat at Paracelsus
-The Complete Guide To Fasting by Jason Fung
-My interview with Dr. Satchin Panda
-Dr. Mercola’s “autophagy tea” before my nightly fast to also limit mTor activation and increase autophagy:
-
- 1 tsp Pau d’ Arco powdered tea
- ½ tsp hydroxycitrate and garcinia (HCA/Garcinia powder)
- ½ tsp quercetin powder
- ½ tsp glycine powder
- ½ teaspoon chamomile powder
- Lakanto monkfruit sweetener to taste
-Pomegranate Pulled Apart podcast from ATPScience
-"The Longevity Diet" by Dr. Valter Longo
-Dr. Lawrence Wilson's book "Sauna Therapy For Detoxification & Healing"
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