How Oxidative Stress Impacts Performance and Healthspan

Our own Scientific Director and coach Megan Roberts is back on the podcast today to discuss an important but often misunderstood aspect of health and longevity: oxidative stress.  It’s a condition associated with numerous chronic health problems including cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Today we cover everything you need to know about oxidative stress: what it is, what causes it, how to know if you’ve got it, and how to fix it.  If you want an objective assessment of your own oxidative stress burden, try using our Blood Chemistry Calculator.  The calculator, powered by a machine-learning algorithm, analyzes your own basic lab work to produce a single Oxidative Balance Score that you can use to track progress over time.

Note: During this podcast, you’ll hear us talk about the “Oxidative Stress Score” on the Blood Chemistry Calculator Report.  This has since been renamed the Oxidative Balance Score.  

Here’s the outline of this interview with Megan N. Roberts:

[00:02:20] Blood Chemistry Calculator. Example report here.

[00:04:52] Free radicals.

[00:05:47] Oxidative stress: not always bad.  Study: Pizzino, Gabriele, et al. "Oxidative stress: Harms and benefits for human health." Oxidative medicine and cellular longevity 2017 (2017).

[00:06:13] Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS).

[00:07:52] Hormesis.

[00:08:47] Podcast: The High-Performance Athlete with Drs Tommy Wood and Andy Galpin.

[00:09:04] Supporting adaptation vs. recovery.

[00:10:07] High dose vitamins, polyphenols.

[00:12:05] Diseases associated with increased oxidative stress.

[00:13.30] Lipid peroxidation.

[00:14:12] Metabolic Fitness Pro.

[00:15:46] Factors that increase oxidative stress.

[00:17:11] Gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT).

[00:19:24] Bilirubin.

[00:20:05] Uric Acid; Study: Sautin, Yuri Y., and Richard J. Johnson. "Uric acid: the oxidant-antioxidant paradox." Nucleosides, Nucleotides, and Nucleic Acids 27.6-7 (2008): 608-619.

[00:23:52] Albumin.

[00:24:26] HDL.

[00:24:53] Podcast: Health Outcome-Based Optimal Reference Ranges for Cholesterol, with Dr. Tommy Wood.

[00:25:05] Lipopolysaccharide (LPS).

[00:26:53] Ferritin; Study: ORINO, Kouichi, et al. "Ferritin and the response to oxidative stress." Biochemical Journal 357.1 (2001): 241-247.

[00:27:08] Fenton Reaction.

[00:28:46] Nutritional immunity: PubMed.

[00:31:26] The poor misunderstood antioxidant.

[00:33:40] Dietary sources of antioxidants.

[00:35:12] Supplementation can be contraindicated.

[00:35:45] Measuring oxidative stress.

[00:37:50] Podcast: Risk Assessment in the Genomic Era: Are We Missing the Low-Hanging Fruit? with Dr. Bryan Walsh.

[00:38:21] Oxidative Balance Score. Example here.

[00:40:00] What to do if oxidative stress is elevated.

[00:40:44] Study: Bhatnagar, Anubhav, Yogesh Tripathi, and Anoop Kumar. "Change in oxidative stress of normotensive elderly subjects following lifestyle modifications." Journal of clinical and diagnostic research: JCDR 10.9 (2016): CC09.

[00:41:30] Nutrition, digestion, absorption.

[00:42:15] Avoid Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs).

[00:44:20] Minimally processed diet.

[00:46:22] Wild Planet sardines.

[00:47:27] Hormetic stress; Hormetea.

[00:48:14] Podcast: Hormesis, Nootropics and Organic Acids Testing, with Dr. Tommy Wood.

[00:48:26] PHAT FIBRE is currently sold out.

[00:48:55] Four Sigmatic 10 Mushroom Blend.

[00:49:23] Sleep, blood donation.

[00:51:02] Study: Islam, Md, et al. "Dietary phytochemicals: natural swords combating inflammation and oxidation-mediated degenerative diseases." Oxidative medicine and cellular longevity 2016 (2016).

[00:55:57] bloodcalculator.com.

[00:56:43] Mobile phlebotomy.