Boundless Life

https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/cancerfaq This is a special Premium audio episode. Click here to activate a Premium subscription to the BenGreenfieldFitness show and access this and over 300 additional hidden audios, videos, pdf's and more! The podcast episode "How To Cure Yourself Of Cancer: An Epic Interview With A Man Who Defied Conventional Medicine & Cured Himself Of Prostate Cancer." was one of the most popular and comment-filled episodes that I've ever released on alternative methods of healing cancer. It was so popular, in fact, that I decided to approach Eric Remesperger, my guest on that episode, and propose that he address the host of comments and questions that materialized after that original show. He was kind enough to do so, and in today's special Premium episode (available as a part of 300+ additional special episodes, videos and pdf's you can access here), Eric delves into the following: [00:00] Introduction [01:57] Coffee Enemas [05:39] Using Nystatin [08:10] Wim Hof’s Breathing Techniques [12:38] Emotional Blockages [15:44] The Budwig Protocol [21:21] Food Grade Hydrogen Peroxide [23:37] Acupunture [24:24] Sulforaphane [26:56] DCA [30:47] Laetrile [33:52] High Dose Vitamin C [40:26] Children With Cancer [43:19] Fitting In With The Regimen In Your Everyday Life [46:23] Cancer and Lymph Node Removal [48:08] Eric’s Diet [57:58] End of Podcast Introduction: Thank you, Ben.  The questions posed will include the following: a discussion on coffee enemas, the use of Nystatin as an anti-fungal agent, Wim Hof breathing techniques and oxygenation at a cellular and tissue level, the Budwig Protocol, sulforaphane, Laetrile or vitamin B17, high-dose vitamin C, and balancing oxidative therapies with antioxidants.  But before I begin, I have to make my usual disclaimer.  I'm not a doctor and I don't give medical advice.  I make no recommendations.  All I’ve done is looked at the data, and as an attorney I kind of applied my own kind of skill set to looking at evidence, and come to my own conclusions.  And I'm sharing information with you so that you can have the same perspective that I came to when you're trying to sort through and make your own decisions. Let me also mention that in the process of coming to my own theories and conclusions, I've formed what I consider to be some foundational elements for moving back from a cancering state to a healing state over and above kind of nutrition and supplementation, which obviously a lot of us spend a lot of time focusing on nutrition and supplementation, but these other elements include, there's really four of them that I kind of list down here: one is oxygenation of the cells and tissues, number two is proper cellular communication because in my view all we are are our bags of cells, and cancer are cells that are not functioning the way they should within that community of cells.  And so we do really need to kind of focus on proper communication between the cells.  Detoxification, which includes physical, environmental, and emotional, and energetic wellness.  Those are kind of the four underlying foundational elements for all of the protocols and the pillars that you'll see if you go on my site.  So let's go ahead and get started. Coffee Enemas The first question I'm going to address comes from Kathy.  Kathy's concerned about whether or not coffee enemas might be contraindicated for her because she had several lymph nodes removed as part of a treatment for cervical cancer, and she asks whether she should be concerned about doing enemas without lymph nodes.  And I think before answering that question, it might be useful to talk a little bit about coffee enemas generally.  Let me mentioned for those of you who haven't already seen it that Ben has a great blog post on coffee enemas entitled "The Bulletproof Coffee Enema: Everything You've Always Wanted To Know About Coffee Enemas But Were Afraid To Ask".  On that blog post, he goes not only into kind of how to do an enema, but why they do an enema and that sort of thing.  So if you haven't or are not familiar with doing coffee enemas, I highly recommend that as a good source to go to.  But just kind of briefly, enemas are traditionally done to clean out the bowels of your colon.  Coffee enema, although this is an enema, it's quite different, it's done to help the liver do its job of detoxification.  As we all know, the liver is not just a detoxifier, it's the ultimate multi-tasker.  It does everything from converting protein into glucose, storing vitamins and nutrients, regulating hormones, making bile, et cetera. When a coffee enema is done, the caffeine from the coffee is absorbed into the system, where it goes into the liver and acts as a detoxifier.  It works there because there are these entrohepatic circulatory veins that carry toxins from the sigmoid colon to the liver for the detoxification process to run.  Coffee enemas also cause the liver to produce more bile, which as you probably know is stored in the gallbladder.  And as a footnote, I've discovered this recently, removal of the gall bladder is the number one surgery that's done involving your organs.  But by producing more bile, the bile is necessary to move and provide for the process of elimination.  So the coffee has this affinity for the liver, and when it's absorbed into the liver, it frees the liver up to do its job, which is processing toxic materials.  In addition, the coffee itself contains alkaloids that stimulate the production of glutathione s-transferase, which we're going to talk about a little bit later on.  There's a question that comes up on sulforaphane.  Glutathione s-transferase is an enzyme that's crucial for these detox pathways to work properly.  So in short, a coffee enema will speed up and benefit the liver's role in this entire detoxification process. So to get back to Kathy's question, I think, obviously speak to your doctor, Kathy.  But I would say rather than being contraindicated, it might be even more important if you're short some of your lymph nodes to make sure that your liver's functioning at its highest level because the two major detoxification processes the body has are lymphatic system and the liver.  And so I would also suggest that you, 'cause you still have plenty of lymph nodes, I think you mentioned 30 in your question, there are hundreds and hundreds of lymph nodes in the body, but obviously not having those lymph nodes means that that part of your body has less clearing capacity, and I would suggest that you do the dry skin brushing, and the rebounding, and all the other things, like exercise, movement to make sure your lymphatic system is functioning well. Using Nystatin Kathy also raised the next question, and there’s a few others actually, I think flagged this as a question as well.  She raised the impact whether or not Nystatin would be indicated for somebody like her in the impact, in particular the Nystatin might have on her liver.  She asked if she'd be concerned about this.  And in response, I should say that I am not a big fan of pharmaceuticals, and thus the decision to take Nystatin was a real challenge for me.  For those of you not familiar with it, Nystatin is an off-patent prescription drug.  It's commonly used to address candida overgrowth and it's been around quite a while.  I was told by my integrative doctor that, and she's very cautious about prescribing integrated drugs, she's an anthroposophical doctor, but she said as far as prescription drugs goes it's about as safe as you get.  I'm not sure I'm necessarily convinced that that's 100% true, but I do know that it's, I did some research and the drug is designed not to leave the gut, it's not designed to have any effect in the bloodstream.  It does what it does within the entire intestinal tract.  So therefore, it shouldn't put the liver at any risk of damage by virtue of Nystatin itself going to the liver. But you need to be very aware of the fact that the way Nystatin works is it literally blows up the organism.  So the fungus or the candida is literally blown up.  And this results in cellular die-off or residue of what was left to those organisms, which are then toxins that are distributed throughout the body.  And so this die-off, which is caused by Nystatin can be quite severe, and I don't know how that might impact the liver.  I know some people have difficulty tolerating Nystatin because of the die-off if they have extremely high levels of fungus.  I didn't have any issues.  So I think again it's very important to make sure that both the lymphatic system and your liver are functioning at their optimal level.  So again, please talk your doctor if you're considering fungal control therapies generally.  For those of you who might be interested in alternatives to pharmaceuticals, I think there are some natural agents that can be used that have anti-fungal properties and they include garlic, caprylic acid, grapefruit seed extract, and olive leaf.  Those are all effective anti-fungal, natural agents. Wim Hof’s Breathing Techniques The next question comes from Ben and it concerns Wim Hof's breathing techniques.  Ben asks if the controlled hyperventilation and breath holding, which is intended to raise blood oxygen levels and also raise pH, might along with meditation, slow down cancering and help convert to the healing state. What do I think? Ben, the first thing I would say is I think Wim is an amazing guy who's done amazing feats using his breathwork techniques.  And as I mentioned earlier on, oxygenation in the cellular and tissue level is at the core of my protocols to address cancer, and therefore I was very interested once I heard about Wim's techniques.  And so I did actually take his course and practiced some of his techniques myself, including the meditation and the breathwork.  I didn't actually do the ice baths.  I didn't get quite that far.  But I thought it might be a good way to kind of help facilitate oxygenation of tissues, particularly in the prostate.  And I took the time, but what I found was that I didn't really kind of understand the science behind it and so I really needed to get into the weeds a little bit to better understand exactly what it was doing within the functioning of moving oxygen into your lungs, then from your lungs into your blood, and then from your blood into your tissues. I think that question was answered when I came upon a book which Ben referenced in one of his podcasts by Patrick McKeown called "The Oxygen Advantage", and I should mention just as an aside, since my original podcast with Ben and this particular taping, Patrick McKeown has appeared on Ben's podcast.  And so if you Google Ban and "maximize oxygen utilization efficiency", you'll find the blog post on that and the posting for that particular podcast.  And if you haven't already heard it, I would suggest you give it a listen 'cause I think it's well worth a listen.  But in his book and on the podcast, Patrick makes it very clear that deep breathing does nothing to increase oxygenation in the tissues themselves.  He promotes, in order to best oxygenate your blood, the use of the diaphragm as part of your breathing process, which is used far more if you breathe through the nose than it is if you're panting through the mouth.  And so doing that kind of diaphragmatic breathing, slow breathing, brings in through your nose, brings in nitric oxide, and this allows for what he calls ventilation profusion.  Because when you breathe in through the nose, you're bringing in the air from the upper part of the lungs than lower.  And since most of the concentration of blood is in the lower lobes of lungs and breathing occurs in the upper lobes, you need nitrous oxide to bring blood from the lower lobes to the upper lobes.  And ventilation profusion apparently does this. Getting oxygenation into the blood is one thing, and it really does you no good unless you can get that oxygen out of the blood and into your tissues, and that requires carbon dioxide.  And this is the rub here for me, to get those levels of CO2 up, you need to have controlled breathing.  What I am familiar with, 'cause I'm a big fan of yoga and done a lot of yoga, we call it Ujjayi breath.  Very controlled, through the nose diagrammatic breathing.  Now classic Ujjayi breathing includes moving the [0:11:38] ______, making that kind of ocean sound in the back of your throat, that's done really to bring heat into your body.  So if you're doing yoga on a really hot day, you don't have to make the ocean sound during your Ujjayi breath.  But the whole idea is to really get your breathing down to an extremely low, controlled state.  And what that does is it raises your level of carbon dioxide, and that effectively allows for the movement of oxygen out of your blood and into your tissues.  I think the deciding point for me in ceasing any more of the Wim Hof methods were when I stumbled upon an [0:12:11] ______ that breathing hard increases the bond between oxygen and the blood cells.  And in fact he mentions in the podcast then that the amount of oxygen in the brain is actually reduced, not increased, which is why you get that lightheaded feeling.  So over breathing to me is probably not the best, at least for therapeutic purposes, there might be other reasons to do it, but certainly not for getting oxygen into the cells. Emotional Blockages The next question comes from Pete who asks about emotional blockages.  He says, and I quote, "Does sexual activity always play a role in what processes work to address blockages?"  Well at first blush, this might seem like a bit of an odd question, but he might be kind of tying back into some discussions that I've had on podcasts about the theories Wilhelm Reich, who was a brilliant German scientist who came up with this whole Orgone theory of life and created this Orgone machine.  And the word Orgone ties into orgasm 'cause he was a very firm believer that sexual health really played a major role in physical health.  And so if there were any kind of serious dysfunctions at a sexual level, it would manifest itself at a physical level.  I'm not sure necessarily you need to buy into that perspective to still understand the importance of kind of just maintaining energetic flow.  And I think sexual energy is just one of many energies that in Chinese medicine we call "chi".  This particular element of the various protocols has been a real challenge for me because I think when it comes to this emotional, sexual energetic low, I've fallen down a bit. To answer Pete's question, I don't think so, no.  I think the sources of cancer are really all over the map.  In my view as a non-scientist but someone who has looked at all the evidence, I think cancer is caused by defects in respiration, which could be the result of many factors.  It could be environmental toxins, it could be sexual and emotional blockage, they could be excessive radiation, EMFs, all sorts of different things that can interrupt the ability of the mitochondria to respirate the way that it should.  And so, anything that kind of interrupts that respiratory capacity could result in cancer.  I think chi is the obvious one 'cause that's kind of the source of what we considered, at least in the annals of Chinese medicine, it's considered to be kind of the source of all life. So bottom line, not to get too woo-woo here, it's really important to just pay attention to your attention, where you're putting your attention.  Pay attention to your thoughts, see how much of your energy is being wasted chasing ghosts with your monkey mind, and just keep in mind that it's about that awareness and where you put your focus or attention is where your chi, your life energy actually flows.  So just be very cognizant of that.  And if your sleep is good, and your energy is good, you feel some real passion, you get out of bed every morning and conquer the world, I think you're pretty much there, and just do the best you can in all times to keep things kind of fresh.  Like changing up every now and then, don't let things get too stale, don't let things stagnate.  If you feel like you need to say something, say it.  And the best way to address blockage is just to remain present, focused, [0:15:33] ______.  Don't find yourself be distracted, frustrated, discouraged, depressed, or disappointed.  Yeah, it's not just sexual. The Budwig Protocol The next question comes from Rob who asked about the Budwig Protocol.  He says, and I'm going to actually quote his question here because he does raise several things that I had others bring to my attention as concerns when it comes to the Budwig Protocol, and I think these are all valid concerns and I can kind of go through why I don't think that these challenges warrant me not taking the chance at doing this protocol based on what I view as kind of how it ties into my theories.  But he says, "I did the cottage cheese, flaxseed for a while, then got concerned because I read somewhere that flax was high in estrogen and omega-6, and the omega-3 wasn't as bioavailable as animal-based omega-3.  This is correct.  I also have heard, I think from Rhonda Patrick, that casein in higher protein dairy foods like cottage cheese exacerbates cancer.  On the plus side there is supposed to be a reaction that takes place to create a sulphurated protein, is that right?  Can you comment?" Well, I think let's start by just talking about Johanna Budwig who came up with these protocols and kind of who she was, I think it's an interesting story if we know the purpose to raise it.  She was a student of nursing at a large hospital, a thousand beds, and it was also a pharmacy boarding school where she studied pharmacology, and she later went on to study chemistry and physics.  And in that process, she became an expert in lipids.  So much so that after World War II, she was appointed that Chief Expert For Drugs And Fats at the Germany's Federal Institute For Fats Research, which was at the time in Germany the largest office issuing approvals for new drugs, very much like our FDA, and she discovered that fats played a very crucial role in cellular respiration, and I would say communication too, cellular communication.  But she focused on the respiratory issues.  Her opponents, interestingly, as an aside, really came down hard that she wasn't qualified because she wasn't a doctor.  So at the age of 47, she went back to medical school and became a doctor.  Clearly this woman had a love of science and really never had kids or had a family, she just loved her science.  That was her life. But she was convinced, and I think we all know this now, not a big stress to come to this conclusion, that highly processed foods, hydrogenated oils in particular, block this oxidative process.  For those of you know the work of Jack Kruse, what he calls quantum tunnelling.  And that's what leads to the development of cancer, which ties in perfectly to the Warburg Theory, and Wilhelm Reich's theories, and the other.  While doing her job as the Chief Expert For Drugs And Fat, she observed that cottage cheese or cork, contains the same sulfhydryl groups as those found in the cancer treatment drugs that she was being asked to look at in her official capacity. The sulfhydryl groups are cysteine and methianine amino, methianine amino acids.  And she established that essential polyunsaturated fatty acids are proof as a crucial for properly functioning cellular membrane.  And of course without a proper cellular membrane, this respiration itself is impaired.  She flagged, which we now know as omega-6 and omega-3s, two of which he considered essential polyunsaturated fatty acids that are absolutely critical for cell membranes [0:19:10] ______, that’s linoleic acid and linolenic acid.  Linoleic being six and linolenic being threes, and the chemical reaction takes place when sulfhydryl in the cottage cheese binds with the unsaturated fatty acids in the flaxseed oil.  And this allows the flaxseed to become water soluble and enter a cell to supply energy.  So if I were to draw a metaphor, I'd say imagine the cells in the body are like a battery in a car and they require electrical energy in order to run and provide energy for other biological functions.  If your car battery is not functioning as it should, is dead and needs jumper cables, and apparently this combination of cork and flaxseed oil work together to kind of bring back that energy, it kind of helps facilitate the flow of these electrons. "Know that part of the protocol is particularly effective when coupled with sun exposure."  That's a quote from her book.  And she said of all living creatures, the human being has the highest concentration of photons from the sun's energies.  So I think in my view, this all kind of squarely within my theories that underlie not only the respiratory issues, but the cellular communication issues, and getting that stuff to function properly is really important.  And so I did bring Budwig's Protocol into my daily routine.  I was doing it early on in addressing my cancer.  I did it every day.  I now do it probably three or four days a week, on days typically when I'm getting a lot of sun because I have like that kind of marriage of the photons from the sun, at the same time I'm consuming this electron-rich mixture, which I'll get into it on my website but we need to do it here, but I actually make it, so it tastes good because if you just have it plain, it's not the tastiest thing in the world.  But you can doctor it up and make it quite delicious.  One way I'm making it taste almost like cheesecake. So hope that answers that question, but I do think that you raise some good concerns. Food Grade Hydrogen Peroxide Moving on to the next question, Wayne asks about the use of food grade hydrogen peroxide, specifically about grade and dosage.  And again I have to make a disclaimer, 'cause hydrogen peroxide is an extremely caustic substance.  You got to be very careful that you're not doing this without the proper advice and guidance of your healthcare professional.  But that being said, the supplement, maybe about the theory first, hydrogen peroxide, as the theory is, the folks that promoted it have the understanding that it really is a way of killing all pathogens.  Viruses, cancer, fungus, they're all anaerobic and cannot survive in the presence of hydrogen peroxide.  It's the absence of oxygen that really kind of helps these pathogens survive.  And so again getting too highly oxygenated environment is really important, ties back into a lot of the protocols.  So more oxygen slows the progression of cancer and less oxygen will allow for faster cancer growth.  That's kind of one of the underlying themes.  And so hydrogen peroxide does fit into that. There's two ways that I do it.  I do it using hydrogen peroxide, and I'll tell you in a minute kind of how I do it, but I also do it through the high dose vitamin C done intravenously because that, I'll get to in a second 'cause we're going to have a question on that in a little bit, asking about high dose vitamin C, but it actually converts to hydrogen peroxide.  Don't even consider the 3% that sold at your local drug store.  That's a pharmaceutical grade, it's not to be ingested and it has toxic stabilizers.  You can only use food grade, whether you're ingesting it or using it in your bath.  And I use 35% food grade, it's available on Amazon.  And the two ways you can take it, you can take a cup of it in a bath of hot water and soak it in for 20 or 30 minutes.  Or you can put, what I do is I put eight drops into a glass about eight ounces of aloe vera juice.  You can also use distilled water.  Some people say you can put it in regular water, but others say that if it has too many minerals in it, it kind of causes some issues with hydrogen peroxide, something I'm not familiar enough to speak on.  But I just use aloe vera juice myself. Acupunture The next question comes from Horatio who asks, "You mentioned how early on you had problems with waking up a few times at night to urinate, throat phlegm, coughing, and runny nose.  Was it acupuncture that remedied those?"  This is an easy answer, Wayne.  Yes.  Next question, no, I'll just quickly mention that I also did some dietary changes and took some Chinese herbs as part of my treatment protocols.  But acupuncture was done, in my view, is it is extremely effective for these types of chronic ailments.  The only, I think, footnote or caveat to that is you need to find a good acupuncturist, and that's not an easy task.  So my suggestion would be to ask for referrals and try more than one acupuncturist until you stumble upon one that you think really can do the job.  That really works. Sulforaphane The next question comes from Rob, a listener who's been using many of my same protocols, and he's been using them just to keep his PSA level down.  And Rob asks, "What is your take on sulforaphane from broccoli seed sprouts?"  Okay, he mentions Rhonda Patrick, who's a big fan, and cited a French study where prostate cancer patients reduced their PSA in doubling time.  Yeah, I would suggest, if anyone is interested in sulforaphane as a medicinal and therapeutic element, you should take a good listen to Rhonda's podcast 'cause she does a really deep dive on sulforaphane and its effect on cancer.  But in the trial that Rob references, which Rhonda talks about on her podcast, they discovered that prostate cancer patients who were taking sulforaphane had a significant drop in the doubling of the PSA marker of prostate cancer growth.  It was something like 86% just taking 60 milligrams a day of sulforaphane.  So yeah, it's an isothiocyanate and it has a considerable impact on the progression of certainly hard tumor cancers.  I don't know any test that they'd had done outside of this one.  I think if you want to learn more about it, you should just go ahead and get Rhonda's podcast and listen. In the podcast, she also gets into the phase two detoxification enzymes and the NRF-2 pathway and its role as an antioxidant response element.  And guess what is the phase two detox enzyme?  Glutathione s-transferase, which we talked about when we were talking about coffee enemas.  What it does, the glutathione s-transferase, is inactivates the pro-carcinogenic agents by transforming them into water soluble compounds, which are then able to be excreted in the urine and bile.  Personally, I take three forms of sulforaphane.  I do get broccoli sprouts from my local farmer's market whenever they have them.  They don't always do, but typically they do and I get about six ounces for the week.  And I also take daily a supplement called Crucera-SGS, manufactured by Thorne, which has 50 milligrams of sulforaphane in it.  And finally, I put moringa in the powder into my new smoothie, which I don't do every day, I do it two or three days a week.  And that is also extremely high in sulforaphane.  I think moringa powder actually has more sulforaphane than broccoli sprout.  You can also get sulforaphane from regular broccoli and cauliflower, but I don't think the levels are high enough to have any real therapeutic benefit. DCA The same listener, Rob, asks for my thoughts on dichloroacetate, which I'll refer to as DCA.  And I should mention before I get too far into this that there's a great article that was published in the British Journal of Cancer back in 2008 that you should take a look at if you want to know all about DCA.  I found it fascinating not only because of how it kind of walked through efficacy of DCA and its impact on the progression of cancer, but how all of that kind of laid into the same foundational elements that fit into the protocols that support my own theories of cancer.  So I guess we can sidetrack for a moment on my own theories of cancer, which is that, and again I apologize for repeating myself, but for those who maybe haven't yet heard the [0:27:46] ______ podcast, at least solid tumor cancers like breast cancer and prostate cancer, these are all characterized by aerobic glycolysis.  They use glucose for energy even when oxygen is available, and this is a far less efficient means of energy production than the mitochondria-based glucose oxidation which is the normal ATP process.  I think they produced two rather than 36 ATP per glucose molecule.  And thus, cancer cells can only thrive when there is significantly increased levels of glucose, significantly increased glucose uptakes, which obviously need glucose to do. I have also concluded that, at least for solid tumors, a hypoxic environment can result in the transformation of a healthy cell into a cancer cell.  And cancer cells kind of revert back to their pre-oxygen based life form way of respirating whenever they're exposed to a hypoxic environment.  It's almost like a method of the cells to kind of preserve themselves.  If they don't get enough oxygen, then they revert to this other form of providing energy.  And in the study that I referenced on DCA, they specifically noted that in this hypoxic state, the cells express pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase, or PDK, which promotes or facilitates the conversion to aerobic glycolysis in the cytoplasm in the cell by metabolizing pyruvate into lactate.  And this lactate acidosis facilitates tumor growth and activates angiogenesis in the breakdown in the surrounding tissues.  So what DCA does as a drug is it increases the delivery of pyruvate into the mitochondria, which allows the cells to once again function the way they should, including returning to glucose oxidation and the functioning of apoptosis.  The way it functions not by inhibiting aerobic glycolysis, but by announcing glucose oxidation.  If it were the former, it would actually be fatal to non-cancer tissues that use aerobic glycolysis for energy production. It does this again by bringing pyruvate into the mitochondria.  It's been around for about I'm going to guess maybe a decade or so, maybe more, this trial was a while back, and there have been other trials done that indicate this same reference in this particular trial that indicate their concerns about peripheral neuropathy with DCA.  I don't know that any of them concluded that that is something that won't resolve itself if you stop taking DCA.  But I think there has not been enough clinical trial work to really know what the right dose strategy should be or how to manage any potential toxicity.  And unfortunately as this is now a generic drug, the likelihood of pharmaceutical industries coming in to help fund tests is very, very unlikely.  So if I ever decided that I had to kind of pull all the stops and use even some experimental pharmaceutical drugs, I think to answer to the question DCA would be on my short list.  No question about it.  But for now I'm just kind of adopting a wait-and-see, and I seem to be doing fine without it. Laetrile The next question comes from Steve who asks about the B17, also referred to as laetrile, and whether I take it.  And the quick answer is: yes, it is.  I do.  It's part of my stack.  But I do take it in its natural state, i.e. apricot pits rather than taking a supplement form.  You can get it both ways.  I think there is even a version you can do via IV.  I'm not familiar with them, how to access that, or how that works, but someone mentioned it to me in the course of discussions I have had on laetrile.  One thing again I have to caution you on is that it's not approved for use within the United States, and the National Cancer Institute has come up very strongly against laetrile.  So this discussion again is just for informational purposes. How does it work? Well normal cells have an enzyme called rhodanese, which neutralizes benzaldehyde.  The benzaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide are what's found in B17.  So normal cells have this enzyme, rhodanese, which render these two potentially toxic agents neutral.  Apparently this enzyme converts them into harmless compounds such as benzoic acid.  Cancer cells don't have rhodanese.  They instead have an enzyme called beta-glucosidase.  Beta-glucosidase is an enzyme that's only found in cancer cells.  And this enzyme releases the benzaldehyde and the cyanide from the glucose, which then kill the cancer cell. There was another listener who I have to give a shout out to, I don't have his name in front of me, but he referenced a documentary called, "Second Opinion".  Hold on a second.  Let's see if I have notes on this.  I don't.  I think it's worth a listen to.  It's called "Second Opinion: The Sloan-Kettering Study".  Anyway, in that documentary, they apparently did animal studies back in 1974 at Sloan and Kettering, and they took some specifically engineered tumor-bearing rats, rats designed to create cancer in their bodies.  In the control group they were testing for lung metastases and they found in the control group that only 25% of the rats that were given B17, or laetrile actually had lung metastasized cancer.  In the placebo group, 75% actually had metastases.  So you can see there's almost an inverse.  Fairly high significant difference.  So that's kind of the story on laetrile.  There've been some other kind of studies that have concluded it has no benefit, but those studies, I think the most recent one is far back as 1982, I found extremely suspect.  There were no control groups, there was no peer review, there were no experts, the people had no experience with laetrile.  It looked to me like it was kind of a functional equivalent of what we call fake news, just pure pseudoscience.  So I didn't give those any credence at all, but you should draw your own conclusions. High Dose Vitamin C Next, I want to conflate two questions because there's a bit of an overlap here.  The first comes in from Dave, both are normal patients who's been using some of the protocols to keep cancer at bay for about four years, and he asks about hydrogen peroxide and mentions having taken as much as 125 grams IV of vitamin C.  That's very high.  I've done 75.  And two other Ben listeners, Meg and Steve, also raise concerns about the use of antioxidants concurrently with using oxidative stress therapies.  And that's an excellent question because that's something I think people kind of gloss over.  They don't really think about the fact that if you're doing highly oxidative stress therapies, you don't want to be taking a lot of antioxidants.  It just doesn't make any sense.  One's going to cancel out the other and you're going to get good benefit from either one.  Let's kind of maybe drill down a little bit on this. Let's start off just talking about antioxidants generally, kind of when you think about antioxidants, I think probably the first two that come to mind are glutathione and vitamin C.  And I think it's interesting to note that if we kind of circle back for a moment on laetrile, tumors amass high concentrations of glutathione in order to protect themselves against chemotherapeutic attacks such as the hyperoxidative stresses in one of my protocols.  And those tumors need cysteine in order to produce that glutathione.  And what depletes the supply of cysteine?  Cyanide.  So laetril actually releases cyanide in the tumor cells, and one of the ways I think it destroys the cells is it reduces the cysteine levels and thereby reduces their intercellular concentrations of glutathione.  So we kind of think of glutathione as being nothing but a protective shield, but it can have other impacts.  It does with it needs to do, which is to offset oxidation or oxidative stresses. So you really need to be careful when you're trying to balance antioxidants while doing these oxidative stress therapies.  And I think probably the most clear and understandable way of looking at this question is to kind of take a look at and understand the redox effect.  'Cause the redox effect is what you're striving for, and that's where we're going to kind of mention now when we get into taking high doses of vitamin C intravenously as a therapeutic intervention.  Linus Pauling, I'm sure many of your listeners know the name, he's kind of the grandfather on the use of vitamin C as an orthomolecular medicine and he kind of set the stage for a lot of the science in this space.  All the materials that I've looked at that talk about high dose vitamin C as a therapeutic intervention intravenously evolve, come out of the Riordan Clinic here in the US, and so that's a good place to go if you're looking for more information.  In Japan, they do an extensive amount of, they use high dose vitamin C as a therapeutic intervention extensively.  So there's also been an extensive amount of research as well, I would imagine, out of Japan. And getting back to the redox effect, this is kind of where it gets interesting.  'Cause vitamin C, we think of vitamin C as antioxidant, and when it's taken in normal doses in fact, it is an antioxidant.  But when it's taken in extremely high doses intravenous, it actually turns into a proactive.  It has kind of an oxidative stress effect.  Dr. Riordan did a lot of testing and in his lab, came to the conclusion that you really want to get to between 350 and 400 milligrams per deciliter after getting an IV in order to really induce apoptosis in the cancer tumor cells to this highly oxidative stress.  I started with 25 grams, then went 50 grams, and then to 75, so that's kind of where I am now.  And I do my IVs now every other week.  I was doing it once a week.  And when you take doses that gets you into the 350 to 400 milligrams per deciliter level, the vitamin C actually has a significant impact on the impact between the iron and oxygen in your tissues.  And in doing so, it kind of generates hydrogen peroxide.  And that's what's so lethal to the cancer cells.  So it's kind of a way of doing hydrogen peroxide without putting hydrogen peroxide in your system your body's creating. And so, what we're doing here is I would say we could call this redox therapy.  And getting back to Wilhelm Reich, his theories, all of life has these pulses, these ebbs and these flows.  This is like the ocean, our breath, things are constantly moving and what we're talking about here are really just an ebb and flow of electrons.  Oxidation is a loss of electrons and reduction is to gain electrons.  And so it's a cycling effect between the two is what kind of we know as like life energy.  You need this ebb and flow.  And so hydrogen peroxide generates free radicals, and the cancer cells just can't handle the oxidative stress.  That, I hope answers the question.  Another interesting point about vitamin C that's worth mentioning, and as it's made from glucose, which we all know through Warburg studies and everything that's happened since Warburg, that cancer feeds on glucose. And it's also important, I think to note that these molecules, the glucose molecules that are used are derived from corn products.  So you want to make sure that whoever is getting your vitamin C from is using clean, non-GMO, healthy sources of corn.  And if you ask your doctor, I'm sure you will get, make sure that before you take it, ask your doctor and get some comfort on that.  If not, find another doctor.  Mine said they're very careful about where they source it.  Another corollary to this might be in others' thought processes on vitamin C is this whole issue about liposomal vitamin C, which is kind of the newest thing, and there's a ton of products out there.  Dr. Mercola has one, I take it as part of my normal daily stack.  That's not high dose.  I take 2 or 3,000 milligrams a day.  It's being studied as a potential alternative to IV vitamin C, but I don't know there's anything out there that you could point to answer questions about whether it's an effective alternative. Children With Cancer The next question comes from Randy who raises an interesting conundrum.  He says, "Eric, and I agree with everything you said.  But if cancer is largely caused by stress, lack of creativity, drive, and general malaise, how do we explain the hundreds of thousands of two, three, and four year old children who get cancer every year?"  When I saw that, I said, "Wow.  This is a tough one."  I totally get it. I totally get it, Randy.  You touch on a very important point.  In my view, there are several things at play, and again this is just my opinion, there's no clinical evidence to back up what I'm about to say.  But first of all, cancer cells proliferate quite well when the environment is full of nourishing fuel.  Which could be one reason why it's much harder for even kind of traditional doctors who are doing cancer treatments to have success with young kids.  They have better success with old people because young kids have so much chi, or life energy, so the cancer is much easier, it has much easier time proliferating, and growing, and spreading. And I also, as a footnote, think that this could have played a role in my own cancer.  Because if you may recall from the prior podcast, when Ben and I met, I was constantly flooding my body with excess nutrients and not giving my body a chance to kind of clean itself out.  I was never going into the autophagy state, or allowing apoptosis to fully run its course.  And I think that probably contributed certainly to the aggressiveness of the disease.  It probably didn't cause the disease, but it caused me to have a far more aggressive and prolific version of it.  I think another point worth raising is that young kids today are really exposed to environmental toxins that we simply were not exposed to in the past.  EMFs are an obvious example.  I mean every school classroom now has WiFi, and our bodies are clearly designed to heal themselves and deal with stressors, but there comes a breaking point when it can no longer remain in its healing state, it just has too many stressors to reverse its cancer state.  So I think these environmental toxins are a big problem. And finally, I think kids are just not immune to the energetics of their parents.  They have the same genes, they grew up in the same environment, and they're little sponges that pick up on everything they're exposed to in the first two years.  So you know if there are any energetic deficiencies within the household, the kids are going to suffer from that.  And I think that coupled with the whole concept of Pottenger’s cats which show the impact of epigenetics on health and genes might also be a play too so that you have epigenetic impacts affecting future genes that end up having expression in subsequent generations.  So while it's impossible to say what one element is, I think if you take a look at all these perspectives, you can kind of see why there might be this problem that we see with cancer in young children, which is unfortunate. Yeah, that's a real downer.  It stresses me out to even talk about. Fitting In With The Regimen In Your Everyday Life The next question comes from Jackie and she raises probably one of the biggest challenges that anyone faces who's trying to do alternatives to sanative care and it says, "How you manage the time involved in getting all these protocols in."  I'm going to quote her.  She says, "Do you find yourself stressing out about everything you must do to manage your heath? It seems like you're doing a ton of stuff.  I find myself getting overwhelmed try to fit everything into my schedule, like meditating, coffee enemas, energy work, going to appointments, so on, et cetera.  All that on top of having a job and a social life.  How do you fit everything in?"  That's a great question.  That's a really good question.  It's interesting when I was originally was kind of asked about the challenges people face in addressing alternative treatments.  My initial response had always been, "Well, it's unfortunate and I'm really, really upset over the fact that our insurance companies don't pay for most of these treatments, hardly any of them."  And so people that don't have means or have to rely on insurance to cover them, [0:44:19] ______ we don’t have the option.  But a lot of the treatment protocols don't cost much, if anything.  I mean sunlight's free, grounding's free, hydration is next to free, oxygenation, these are all things that really you just have to kind of, how you feel about yourself and how you feel about your life and all those things.  Those are not a problem as far as finances are concerned. The bigger issue, the one that we're touching on here, Jackie, is how do you fit it all into your schedule.  And that is a real challenge.  And I think the only way that I could maybe suggest that you approach this question is, first of all, you have to decide if you're all in.  And you have to be all in.  In other words, you have to say, "Look, no matter what, I'm going to do what it's going to take to heal myself" 'cause that's the most important thing.  And that will mean that you may have to take some time sacrifices and take a period of time where maybe you're not traveling, you're not seeing your friends, you're not doing anything because you're just kind of putting down and focusing on some of these things.  Eventually you will get to the point where a lot of these protocols get to be part of your daily routine, and when that happens, it's going to be a lot less time challenge.  'Cause anything you add that's new to your routine, the first time you do it, it's going to take a ton of time because you procrastinate, it is going to take a ton of time because you have to learn how to do it, it's going to take a ton of time because you have to buy the equipment and whatever it is you're using in order to do it, it's going to take a ton of time to figure out how it best fits into your daily schedule.  All that stuff obviously eats up more of the time than it takes to actually do the protocol. So the idea is to get as many of these into your daily regimen, your daily routine.  I personally like to get them all done early in the day if I can, so I get up very early and I get 'em all done.  And there's probably a period of 4 hours between the time I wake up and the time to actually kind of, “okay, I'm going to take my coffee now, I'm going to the office, I'm upstairs in my office and get some work done."  And so, it's that period of time when I can really deal with most of these protocols.  And others, you kind of just figure out how to work it into your timeline.  But that's a really good question. Cancer and Lymph Node Removal Moving on to the next question, Steve asks whether removal of a lymph node, which is an unnecessary surgery I had about 20 years ago in reference on the podcast, may have contributed to getting cancer.  And I think the answer Steve is, no, I don't think so.  And there's no way to know for sure, but because we have so many lymph nodes I don't think that that would have been the cause.  But as mentioned, like I mentioned earlier on this particular recording, I think to get back to a healing state from a cancering state, you can really have to focus on getting your lymphatic system optimized and functioning.  And having a good, healthy lymphatic system is absolutely crucial to remaining in a healing state and clearing up the die-offs and everything else that occur when you're uncancering yourself, you're getting back into the healing state. And so, I would caution those of you who are being advised to remove lymph nodes, obviously if you need to do it, do it, and I'm not suggesting you shouldn't.  But do it judiciously, make sure it's necessary.  Even if they're saying, "Well, I have cancer."  Well yeah, that's what lymph nodes are designed to do.  They're designed to absorb toxic things.  I'm sure my lymph nodes had cancer 'cause my prostate had cancer and they were trying to keep that cancer out of my system.  So I didn't have them removed, they're now normal and they seem to be functioning normally.  I'm not saying that everyone's going to have that same result, but I'm saying that be judicious about it.  Understand what the lymph is doing and really talk to a doctor and say, "Okay, Doc.  I get it.  I don't want to do anything that's going to make it worse.  I know once it's in the lymph system, it can spread throughout the lymph system.  These are all things that I'm well aware of.  Please advise me as to whether or not I can adopt more of a wait-and-see attitude or whether I have to do this right away, et cetera."  So that's just my advice.  Again, I'm not a doctor.  Talk to a doctor. Eric’s Diet Finally, Lisa asked me to drill down a bit on the diet.  And I think this is probably a good place to wrap this up.  There's two parts to her questions.  The first one, and I'm going to read part of it because I think she raises something that I struggled quite a bit in trying to decide what dietary therapies I would adopt, and that is, she raises a question to kind of how can you reconcile the difference between Dr. Charles Majors' juicing vegan versus the ketogenic diet, how could they both be equally efficacious.  I heard that you said you're in therapeutic ketosis, but you have a highly plant-based diet.  What are you doing?  Are you doing juicing, et cetera, which I'm going to get into.  Thank you, Lisa, for that question.  And her second question was she asked about my super smoothie, which Ben referenced and actually put out a blog post on.  And she said, "Do you think it contributed to your disease?  Are you still doing it?  And if you're not, why not?" Let me first kind of jump to the second part of that question and that's about my smoothie.  Yeah, I mentioned this just a few moments ago.  I was of the view that if a little is good, a lot is great.  So one of the reasons why I think I ended up where I ended up in this not-healing state is because I wasn't giving my body a chance to clear itself out and I was flooding myself with far too many nutrients without really doing any blood work determining whether or not I really needed to be in these nutrients.  And so to answer your question, Lisa, I'm not doing that shake anymore.  I also had a lot of ingredients in the shake that were intended to raise my testosterone levels.  And obviously with the types of therapies that you're dealing with prostate cancer, you don't want to do that.  So I had to take all those things out of my shake.  And I just also changed my diet generally across the board, and so I kind of incorporated a lot of my new protocols or new dietary theories into a different version of that, which I now do on an intermittent basis.  And so that's the answer to your second question. Now let's kind of go ahead and focus on the first part, and that is kind of about the diet generally.  Because I'm a firm believer in this whole Warburg theory on cancer and the works of you know Dom D'Agostino, and Tom Seyfried, and Travis Christofferson, and others who have really focused on cancer as a metabolic disease, and there's a lot of stuff coming out on this now because obviously ketosis is kind of the hot thing.  I'm a firm believer that glucose is to be minimized if you want to get over cancer.  Period.  Full stop.  No further discussion necessary.  And so that definitely pushes me squarely into the ketogenic diet space because I don't see how you could possibly do a plant-based diet and get enough fuel or energy in order to function unless you have extremely high levels of fat, and it's hard to do in strictly plant-based diet.  Which is why most of my friends who are vegan and vegetarian end up consuming a lot of carbohydrates.  I've been to restaurants with them, these are great vegan restaurants here in LA and they have very tasty food, but I'm telling you, it's nothing but carbohydrates.  And I don't eat carbohydrates, so I walk out of those restaurants hungry every time.  That kind of forces you out of the more vegan approach to cancer and forces you more into the ketogenic, therapeutic ketogenic theory of cancer dietary modality for addressing cancer. So, what I've done is I've kind of straddled both a little bit, and I've done this for intensive reasons too because I've read a lot of works that talk about the problems with too much animal-based protein is mainly contributor to the insulin growth factor, IGF-1.  I don't think that eating healthy animal protein causes cancer.  I'm not one of these folks who think red meat causes cancer.  I do think eating factory farmed red meat, with factory farmed red meat fat full of factory farmed toxins in the fact could very well contribute to the, not the creation, but certainly the progression of the disease. So obviously you want to source all your animal products from very, very clean sources.  And I do that, and others can, if you don't have access to something locally, you can buy stuff now frozen from the mail, from all sorts of inventors.  But again, you don't need much 'cause your body can't assimilate more than a certain level of protein.  So you want to keep your protein down to whatever you need to kind of maintain muscle mass.  And in my case, that ends up being about three or four ounces of protein a day, of animal protein a day, which is not a lot.  I may, if I go to a nice restaurant, have a really nice prime rib.  I might do five or six ounces, but that's rare.  When I'm eating at home, I keep the portions very small.  And then I have a ton of vegetables, which I think are great sources of fiber, which is great for the probiotics in your system, and they also have some micronutrients, but they're a great place to put all your fat.  You need something to hold all that olive oil, or all that butter, all that wherever you get your fat from. So I would say that my own version of the diet could be called a high fiber ketogenic diet, or perhaps a deuterium depletion diet because both the vegetable diet and a high fat diet are diets that are very low in deuterium, which I talk about briefly and I can talk about more perhaps later, but it's a fairly new science.  It's a hydrogen molecule that's double the size of a normal hydrogen molecule that is found in trace amounts in the environment.  It's in food, it's in water, it's in the air, it's in the environment.  And when it gets into mitochondria, it's much of the works.  So by depleting the amount of deuterium, you're actually improving the function of the mitochondria, which gets back into the underlying tenure of [0:53:57] ______ protocol.  I get a lot of plant sources of fat, coconut oil, palm oil, MCT oil, avocados, I eat tons of avocado a day, olives, olive oil, nuts, et cetera, with a little bit of animal fat.  I do have butter, I do use ghee in my cooking.  I make my own Bravo yogurt out of goat milk, which I buy that's raw.  I don't know why I buy it raw 'cause I actually get to boil it before you make the Bravo yogurt, but that's what I do.  It's organic, it's clean, comes in a glass bottle.  And I do consume carbohydrates, but they're all from above ground vegetables.  I don't eat any starchy carbohydrates other than when I have sushi with friends, I'll have a little bit of rice with the sushi.  And all my animal proteins come from clean sources, mostly fish, shellfish.  I do have some ruminants and fowl, but again very much in its moderation. And so my typical day goes something like this.  I have water to start with, about 30 to 34 ounces roughly to start with in the morning over about a two hour period.  And that's all I have when I get up in the morning is just water, is just clean water.  I do have electrolytes, I do supplement with salt and some of the electrolytes.  Matcha green tea or coffee is what I'll have kind of as I'm getting ready to start the day as far as work is concerned.  And the coffee, I drink at home.  I make it a version of decaf, kind of a Bulletproof decaf coffee with butter and MCT, Brain Octane.  The reason I do that decaf is because, first of all, it's Swiss water organic, let's be clear, decaf.  It's not the garbage you'd buy if you went to Starbucks and asked for decaf.  The reason I do that is because coffee has that, the caffeine in the coffee has a very powerful diuretic effect and you really want to make sure your cells are being properly hydrolized.  And you can't do that if you drinking too much caffeine 'cause you're just peeing it out.  So if I go to a coffee shop, I would just get a regular coffee 'cause I'm not drinking that much coffee, one cup of coffee.  But if I drink coffee at home, I use decaf, but I have a large pot. And then my first meal would usually be the Budwig blend, or my new smoothie, or a big salad if I'm out.  I go to a restaurant and get a big salad.  Or some leftovers.  And my dinners are kind of the main meal of the day.  And there I make myself a soup that's made with bone broth and a lot of curcumin, turmeric.  I make a giant salad with steamed vegetables, add some sardines or anchovies on it, and all sort of goodies.  I cook a ton of veggies with a little bit of meat and a lot of fat.  I put olive oil and everything.  The diet, you couldn’t say what you eat in a typical day 'cause I don't eat the same thing every day.  I do have kind of a fairly straightforward approach on a weekly basis is how I rotate through things, but I would say just take all the stuff I eat, just plan it out on the table, you'd see a big pile of vegetables, you'd see a couple of cans of coconut milk, full fat stuff, not the stuff you buy in a milk carton, you would see some ghee, you'd see some butter, you'd see some goat milk, you'd see a bunch of bone broth, you'd see maybe two cans of sardines, maybe a can of anchovies, maybe half a dozen eggs for the whole week.  I'm not just heavy on the protein, but I do have some animal-based products in there.  It's just that I don't have 'em everyday. I don't juice, to answer the question, and I think it's probably going to end up becoming my next major project on my side is to kind of lay all the stuff out so people can understand it.  I hope that you found that informative.  And I want to thank Ben for giving me the opportunity to reach out to you.  And if you have any further questions, please feel free to reach out to me.  And if you haven't already done so, go ahead and pay a visit to my site, it's questtocurecancer.com.  There's a subscribe button there, just put in your e-mail address and you'll be plugged in.  Thanks again. Remember, you can grab the audio for today's special Premium episode by clicking here (available as a part of 300+ additional special episodes, videos and pdf's.).  Do you have questions, thoughts or feedback for Eric or me? Leave your comments below and one of us will reply!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/kyle Kyle Kingsbury is a former football player (Arizona State) and mixed martial artist who fought professionally for eight years (UFC six years). While fighting at the highest level he became fascinated with all things diet, performance, and recovery related. Since retiring, his focus has shifted to learning more about longevity, plant medicines, and inner peace. And the dude is one entertaining son-of-a-gun. This summer, Kyle descended upon my home in Spokane, Washington and, as you get to hear in this podcast, recorded straight from my backyard, we take a deep dive into the realms of superfood smoothies, fasting, ketosis and the microbiome, biohacking, nutrition tactics, training tactics and beyond. During our discussion, you'll discover: -What Kyle has learned about combining ketosis with MMA and the impact on the microbiome...[12:00 & 30:05] -Kyle's best hacks for maximizing O2 utilization and best practices for altitude training...[14:55] -Combining hormetic stressors like fasting, heat, cold immersion, hypoxia and beyond...[24:30] -Fasting and Kyle's approach for fat loss and for power athletes who don't want to lose strength...[39:44] -The technology that gives Kyle the best bang for his buck and his must own equipment recommendations for recovery, self quantification and performance...[22:20 & 51:25] -Caffeine rotation for adrenals and maximizing deep sleep levels...[57:45] -Kyle's favorite meditation techniques and wisdom on psychedelics...[61:45 & 67:00] -And much more! Resources from this episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGUn2vV161Y Ingredients for the Big Ass Smoothie we prepared in the video: You need to have a blender and a mug. Ice Half a lemon 20g to 30g of vanilla protein powder 2 tbsp of cacao powder 2 drops of Omica Organics liquid stevia 1 box of bone broth Cinnamon Turmeric Blend everything for about 90 seconds, adding bone broth for desired consistency.  Then add the following. 3 tbsp Shredded Coconut Energy Bar (NatureBite or TruBrain) 1 tsp Aztec Salt Cacao nibs Pour into your mug, and enjoy! Sauna Suit Hypoxico hypoxic air generator Rogue Fitness home box setup LiveO2 Hypoxic/Hyperoxic training system Beyond Training book OURA ring for self-quantification XPT December in Kauai Grace Liu Viome Gut Microbiome testing - use code FITNESS to get priority status in their waitlist Superlife by Darin Olien Wahls Protocol by Dr. Terry Wahls Plant Paradox book by Dr. Stephen Gundry What Kyle looks like wearing the Vielight Neuro, Re-Timer and Human Charger Foursigmatic Mushroom Blends Brain.fm Stealing Fire book Sleepstream App Psychedelic Explorer's Guide Kratom Copaiba by YoungLivingEssential Oils Four Sigmatic Reishi Show Sponsors: -HealthGains - Text the word "GAIN" to 313131 to receive a $250 voucher toward your HealthGAINS treatment. -Onnit - Go to BenGreenfieldFitness.com/ONNIT and save 10% on your purchase. -Earth Runners - Go to BenGreenfieldFitness.com/EarthRunners and use code "BG10" to get 10% off your purchase. Do you have questions, thoughts or feedback for Kyle or me? Leave your comments below and one of us will reply!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/chek When I was a fledgling fitness professional, one of the first books I ever read was "How To Eat, Move & Be Healthy", by Paul Chek. So it was a bit of a surreal experience to get to knock on Paul's front door a few weeks ago and join he and his family for an epic weekend of conversation, workouts, nature immersion, Paul's crazy daily habits (which you'll discover in this podcast episode). Who is Paul Chek, and I why would I travel all the way to the hilly backcountry of San Diego, California to interview him? Paul is an internationally-renowned expert in the fields of corrective and high-performance exercise kinesiology. For over twenty-five years, his unique, holistic approach to treatment and education has changed the lives of countless people worldwide – many of his clients, his students and their clients. By treating the body as a whole system and finding the root cause of a problem, Paul has been successful where traditional approaches have consistently failed. Paul is the founder of the C.H.E.K (Corrective Holistic Exercise Kinesiology) Institute, based in California, USA and the P~P~S Success Mastery Coaching Program. He is a sought-after presenter and has consulted for organizations such as the Chicago Bulls, Australia’s Canberra Raiders, New Zealand’s Auckland Blues, the US Air Force Academy and other elite organizations. He has produced over 60 DVDs and 17 advanced-level home study courses designed for the fitness and clinical professional. He is a strong believer in the essential role provided by practical training and has developed four Advanced Level Training programs to provide hands-on instruction for the exercise and health industries. Paul's CHEK Exercise Coach program introduces fitness and exercise professionals to an integrated approach to conditioning; the C.H.E.K Practitioner Program is a two to four year advanced level program teaching corrective exercise and high-performance conditioning; the Golf Performance Series focuses on functional conditioning for golfers; the Optimal Health and Fitness Through Practical Nutrition and Holistic Lifestyle Coaching Program contains three levels and shows how to reach optimal health from the inside out. Thousands of people worldwide have been trained in one or more of these challenging and elite level certification programs. Paul has also accrued three US patents for posture calibrating, hydrotherapy and equipment inventions, and has also designed several pieces of functional exercise equipment. During our discussion, you'll discover: -How Paul uses rocks and a stone circle for his morning workouts and meditations...[6:30] -Paul's water charging tower and exactly how he built it so that the water is charges from the rocks...[11:40 & 14:50] -The intriguing reason why you need to buy a lunar calendar...[22:30] -Why Paul found the 82nd Airborne Division to be easy...[26:40] -How you can use a smokeless vaporizer to vaporize mixes of teas, tobaccos and essential oils...[32:40] -Paul's morning meditation routine...[40:50] -The three extremely unique exercise patents that Paul holds...[46:45] -What Paul calls "the King of all stabilization exercises", and where you can find it...[62:40] -How Paul was the first person to begin the now popular practice of putting butter into coffee...[66:45] -Paul's unique combination of art therapy and plant based medicine...[72:45] -And much more! Resources from this episode: -All of Paul Chek's books -Chek Institute -Victor Schauberger -Lunar Calendar poster -A Cool, New Way To Scan, Interpret & Fix The Human Body’s Electrical Field. -Volcano Vaporizer -Robert Peng's Qi Gong teachings on Amazon [envira-gallery id="36649"] Show Sponsors:  -Kimera Koffee - Go to KimeraKoffee.com and use code 'BEN' to get 10% off! -Organifi - Go to BenGreenfieldFitness.com/organifi Discount code BEN for 20% off your order! -Antrantil - For all of your  Bloating, SIBO, IBS, Leaky Gut issues, go to LoveMyTummy.com/Ben. Use code "BEN" at the checkout to get 15% off your order.   Do you have questions, thoughts or feedback for Paul or me? Leave your comments at BenGreenfieldFitness.com and one of us will reply!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/machinelearning I recently took a test that uses machine learning to predict biochemical test results (like blood, urine and stool) - a test called the "Elite Performance Analysis (EPA) tool". Over the last three years, the folks at Nourish Balance Thrive (Dr. Tommy Wood and Chris Kelly, both former podcast guests) who designed this test have worked with over 1,000 athletes, averaging over 100 biochemical markers collected per athlete, including: -Blood biochemistry -Urine tests (DUTCH and organic acids) -Stool tests (PCR and culture) -Subjective quality of life questions (a Health Assessment Questionnaire, or HAQ), scored on an analog scale (1-5) As well as working to optimize the performance of athletes at every level, another goal of Nourish Balance Thrive is to give more people access to the type of work they do by increasing speed of access and reducing cost. Machine learning provides for a very good way to do this. By training an algorithm based on historical HAQ and biochemical test data, they can predict five common patterns of performance killers that they regularly see in their clients, including: 1. Blood sugar dysregulation (high/low fasting blood sugar and HbA1c, or high fasting insulin) 2. Low sex hormones (testosterone in men and oestrogen in women) 3. Suboptimal hemoglobin (“low oxygen deliverability”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/boxing The last few times I've visited LA, I've had the privilege of getting my butt kicked in boxing and sparring with an English former professional boxer who won a bronze medal in the 2008 Summer Olympics, was a 7 time national champion boxer, and was undefeated in the sport all the way up to his 2012 retirement. His name is Tony Jeffries, and in this episode, you get to tune in as Tony descends upon my home in Spokane, WA to podcast in my own backyard - just after our sparring session in my basement and workout on my home obstacle course. Originally from Sunderland, England, Tony Jeffries moved to Los Angeles, California after being forced to retire from his career as professional boxer due to hand injuries. It was in LA that Tony met business partner, Kevan Watson. The pair started teaching boxing classes on Santa Monica Beach for which demand grew so much that the two are now proud owners of two of Southern California’s most prestige boxing gyms, Box ‘N Burn. Ranked number 1 gym in California by Men’s Fitness Magazine and named number 1 boxing class in LA by Time Out magazine, Box ‘N Burn provides clients – which for Tony, now includes the likes of Chris Hemsworth, Travis Barker, Tim Tebow and singer/songwriter Skyler Grey – with a highly effective, unique workout, teaching them real boxing technique through 1-on-1 mitt work. World-class athlete turned businessman, Tony, is also co-creator of the Box ‘N Burn Academy – the world’s number 1 boxing fitness and certification course for Personal Trainers and fitness enthusiasts. Tony shares his motivation and passion for both business and boxing through his weekly Box ‘N Life podcast. Hosted with Head Trainer of Box ‘N Burn Santa Monica, Glenn Holmes, the two have featured notable names from the worlds of business, fighting, and the arts on the show, including Gary Vaynerchuck, Dan Pena, Chris Shifflet and Brendan Schaub to name a few! During our discussion, you'll discover: -What Tony thinks about the upcoming Connor Mcgregor vs. Floyd Mayweather fight...[8:10] -How common TBI's are and if Tony has had to deal with concussions/concussion repair...[13:50] -What the training regimen of a professional boxer looks like...[21:20] -What the physiological requirements of boxing are...[33:00] -How the box n' burn sessions work...[36:15] -Tony's recommendations to anybody who wants to step into the ring and fight...[43:00] -What got Tony into boxing in the first place...[47:10] -How Tony came to be undefeated...[48:10] Resources from this episode: -Tony's Box n' Burn gyms -Box n' Burn academy -Teloyears podcast -Concussion Repair Manual by Dr. Dan Engle -Peak Brain Institute -Professor In The Cage book Show Sponsors: -Four Sigmatic - Go to FourSigmatic.com/Greenfield and use couple code "BENGREENFIELD" for 15% off. -HealthGains - Text the word "GAIN" to 313131 for $250 off any HealthGains treatment. -Antrantil - For all of your  Bloating, SIBO, IBS, Leaky Gut issues, go to LoveMyTummy.com/Ben. Use code "BEN" at the checkout to get 15% off your order. Do you have questions, thoughts or feedback for Tony or me? Leave your comments below and one of us will reply!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/chrisbell From relaxation, to quelling appetite, to killing pain, I've recently been using an herb called "Kratom" (ever since I injured my back several months ago and I needed something other than an opioid based painkiller to stop the discomfort and allow me to sleep and engage in my normal day-to-day function). When I first used Kratom, I felt the effects within minutes - and also experienced a pleasant euphoria, and even a drop in appetite, with none of the side effects of a painkiller and none of the psychosis of something like marijuana. Advocates say the herb kratom offers relief from pain, depression, and anxiety. Scientists say it may hold the key to treating chronic pain and may even be a tool to combat addiction to opioid medications. But the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is now trying to ban this potent herb, citing an “imminent hazard to public safety.” So is kratom safe? Addictive? How do you use it? What are the different strains? What else can kratom be used for? In today's podcast with Chris Bell, you'll discover the answers to all these questions and much more. This is a must listen, in my opinion, especially since President Trump just declared the opioid crisis in America a "national emergency". Chris "Boar" Bell is an American director, producer and writer, known for his documentaries Bigger, Stronger, Faster and Trophy Kids and Prescription Thugs. He is the brother of Mark Bell and Mike Bell, both of whom were featured in Bigger, Stronger, Faster. In 1997, Bell obtained his Bachelor of Arts in Film Production from the University of Southern California. He currently resides in California, where founded his film production company Bigger Stronger Faster Inc, which is devoted to producing educational documentaries, films, and TV shows... ...Chris also happens to be an expert in all things kratom, and even claims in this video that kratom is "the cure for the opioid epidemic". During our discussion, you'll discover: -How Chris went from being in intense pain 24-7 to nearly destroying his stomach with ibuprofen and advil to being completely addicted to opioid based painkillers...[8:55] -How Chris originally discovered kratom...[20:50] -What kratom is and where it comes from...[23:45 & 25:00] -How you feel when you take kratom...[26:05] -The difference between the different kratom strains, like red, white and green...[27:25] -Whether kratom is safe on the organs...[31:15] -Where Ben and Chris get their kratom...[38:20 & 40:45] -Whether kratom is addictive or habit-forming...[42:15] -If kratom is banned by WADA or USADA...[47:10] -Whether kratom can be combined with anything to enhance its effects...[50:50, 52:50 & 54:00] -How long kratom takes to "hit your system" and how long it lasts...[59:25] -The new kratom documentary Chris is working on...[60:30] -And much more... Resources from this episode: -Coastline Kratom that Ben uses (use 5% discount "c513g2") -Urban Ice Kratom that Chris uses (use code BEN10 for 10% discount) -My podcast on "Drug Dealer, MD" -Leaf Of Faith Instagram Show Sponsors: -Rover - The nation's largest network of 5-star pet-sitters. Go to Rover.com/ben and use promo code "BEN" to get $25 off. -Kettle & Fire - Go to BengreenFieldFitness.com/chickenbroth and get 20% off your order or chicken broth! -Organifi - Go to BenGreenfieldFitness.com/organifi Discount code BEN for 20% off your order! -Podchaser - Want to help me make this podcast even bigger? For the next week or so, you can visit the site and leave ratings and reviews for episodes you want to see commemorated. To keep it simple — 1. Head to BenGreenfieldFitness.com/podchaser  2. Log into Podchaser. New user? If so, enter “Patreon” to get FREE access. 3. Rate and review your favorite episodes! Don’t forget to log in and vote. Thanks in advance for your support! Do you have questions, thoughts or feedback for Chris or me? Leave your comments at BenGreenfieldFitness.com and one of us will reply!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is a special Premium audio episode. Click here to activate a Premium subscription to the BenGreenfieldFitness show and access this and over 300 additional hidden audios, videos, pdf's and more! Measuring your heart rate variability (also known as "HRV") is, in my opinion, one of the most valuable ways to begin your day with a brief three to five minute period of simple self-quantification that tells you exactly how stressed your nervous system is, how prepared your body is to train, and how everything from stress to supplements to sleep to sex has affected your body. I've certainly produced tons of content on exactly how HRV works and how to do it, including: -A Deep Dive Into HRV: The Myths & Truths of Heart Rate Variability Testing -Does A Vegetarian Diet Reduce Sperm Count, Cell Phones And Brain Cancer, What Is A Good “HRV” Number & More! -HRV: The Single, Next Big Trend In Biohacking And Self-Quantification And How To Use It -338: How To Lower High Cortisol, The Groundbreaking High-Fat Endurance Study, What Causes Low HRV & More! -Episode #222: What Is The Best Way To Track Your Heart Rate Variability (HRV) -322: The Truth About “Starvation Mode”, Does Ketosis Work For Crossfit, Measuring HRV During Exercise & More! -#313: Vegan Bulletproof Coffee & Vegan Bone Broth, Can HRV Be Too High, Are Tesla Cars Healthy & Much More! -#299: Does A Vegetarian Diet Reduce Sperm Count, Cell Phones And Brain Cancer, What Is A Good “HRV” Number & More! -The Do-It-Yourself Guide To Using Heart Rate Variability Testing to Track Your Stress and Nervous System Health -Everything You Need To Know About Heart Rate Variability Testing But in this podcast episode, I address - along with HRV expert Jo Beth Dow - the latest news in the world of HRV, brand new technologies, and even ways to measure HRV without a chest strap. So who is Jo Beth Dow? Jo Beth Dow is a cofounder, CTO and COO of SweetWater Health, LLC, a pioneer in the use of heart rate variability as a platform for remote monitoring and diagnostics. Dow has spent her career in high tech designing and producing state-of- the-art networking technology and building high tech companies. Dow entered the networking industry at its inception and has been at the forefront of networking technology development, including Gigabit Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, and FDDI while working for Ungermann-Bass, Telebit, Network Peripherals, Granite Systems, Cisco and Dominet Systems. She founded and grew several technology companies where she honed her financial and operations expertise, including Granite Systems (acquired by Cisco), Dominet Systems, RedMedic (acquired by Blue Shield, and SweetWater Health). She also served as CFO for Content Rules, a content development firm specializing in high tech clients. During her five-years at Content Rules, Dow took the firm from $3M to $8.7M in revenue. Dow co-founded SweetWater Health LLC with CEO Ronda Collier in 2011. SweetWater Health is a mobile health software technology company with a platform that measures heart rate variability (a vital sign that reveals an individual’s state of health for a number of different conditions and applications) and facilitates continuous monitoring of stress levels via a patented algorithm. She is responsible for engineering development of the product, operations, finance and corporate strategy. Dow graduated with a bachelor’s degree in computer sciences at Florida Atlantic University. During our discussion, you'll discover: -What I personally do with my own HRV numbers and how I choose the exercise I'm going to do based on my HRV numbers...[5:30 & 7:55] -Whether there is any kind of special difference between the algorithm used in NatureBeat and the other popular HRV tools out there, like EliteHRV, MyIthlete, Bioforce, etc...[10:00] -The first screen on NatureBeat has four options for monitoring stress - monitor stress, heart rate recovery, HRV for training and 3 min HRV checkup - and Jo Beth walks us through each...[18:40]  -How you can use your HRV measurement to tell whether or not you are depressed...[27:50] -How much you can "game" that value with breathing, relaxation or meditation techniques while measuring your HRV...[30:00] -When a high HRV is a bad thing...[33:10] -How the food test works, and how Ben figured out he was eating "the wrong thing" for lunch...[42:00] -How you can use the "correlation" screen to see how everything from body weight to stress to weight affects the HRV...[46:15] -What heart rate monitor straps work best for measuring HRV...[50:40] -How you can measure your heart rate variability without using a chest strap...[53:55] -How a Zoom HRV monitor works to measure your HRV, along with your blue light exposure...[57:00] -And much more... Resources from this episode: -NatureBeat app for iPhone and Android -LifeTrak Zoom HRV Monitor - use code ZOOMNB10 to get $10 off within the United States -LifeTrak Zoom HRV Monitor - use code ZOOMNB10 to get $10 off outside the United States -Other HR monitors compatible with NatureBeat -Kubios -Interpreting HRV Trends in Athletes: High Isn’t Always Good and Low Isn’t Always Bad -The OURA ring Ben talks about -Spectra electrode conducting gel Ben uses Do you have questions, thoughts or feedback for Jo Beth or me? Leave your comments at BenGreenfieldFitness.com and one of us will reply!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/GIJoe Joe DiStefano is the Head of Sport for Spartan Race and creator of RUNGA. He has a B.S. in Exercise and Sports Science from Fitchburg State University, and he is pursuing a master's degree in Sports Psychology. Certified through the NASM as a Performance Enhancement Specialist and Corrective Exercise Specialist, he is also a Strength and Conditioning Specialist through the NSCA, is RKC certified and has been trained at the C.H.E.K Institute as a Holistic Nutrition and Lifestyle Coach.  Over the past decade, DiStefano has worked as a health and performance coach and a serial entrepreneur. Prior to joining Spartan Race, he oversaw the development of more than 100 women-only personal training studios across the U.S. His specialties include corrective exercise, nutrition, stress management, human psychology and business development. He's been a previous podcast guest on the episode "Digital Detoxing, Travel-Proofing Your Immune System, Underground Body Weight Workouts & More With Joe DiStefano", and also introduced me to two former extremely popular guests who I met at his "Runga" digital detox event in Costa Rica last year - Eric Remensperger from the episode "How To Cure Yourself Of Cancer: An Epic Interview With A Man Who Defied Conventional Medicine & Cured Himself Of Prostate Cancer" and Scott Dolly from "The Man I Call “Scraper”: Snowboard Shredding, Fascia Fluffing, Protective Chakra Energy Balls & Much More With Scott Dolly." During today's discussion with Joe, you'll discover: -Why Joe is such a fan of kettlebell yoga and the RKC certification...[12:40] -The concept that all you should ever really do is 10 reps for any given exercise in the weight room...[18:20] -The "high volume-low intensity" approach Joe uses, and the five pieces of cardio equipment that will give you the most bang for your buck...[30:40 & 41:30] -Why Ben has become such a fan of green tea, and whether he'll ever drink coffee again...[50:25] -Joe and Ben's go-to source for stevia...[58:35] -The #1 supplement that Joe and Ben now use for enhancing sleep and longevity...[62:50] -A can't-miss adventure in Panama that Joe has designed...[71:25] -And much more! Resources from this episode: -Kettlebell Yoga 1 -Kettlebell Yoga 2 -Alternating 45's Joe's main social media accounts: -www.instagram.com/coachjoedi/   -www.facebook.com/coachjoedi -Dan John - Mass Made Simple interview -The RKC certification -Hobie Call's How to Train for Obstacle Course Racing -The AirDyne bike -Ski Erg -Concept 2 -Elliptical trainer -VersaClimber -The 30 Days No Alcohol Experiment: Part 2 (What Happens When You Quit Alcohol Cold Turkey). -The 30 Days No Alcohol Experiment: Part 1 (What Happens When You Quit Alcohol Cold Turkey). -Swannies blue light blocking glasses -Sleep apnea app "Apnea Diver" -Omica Organics CBD and stevia -NatureCBD -Liposomal Vitamin C -How To Use Ketones For Longevity, How I Personally Use Ketone Salts & A New Chemical-Free, Clean Way To Get Into Ketosis. -Runga 2017: Dec 8-21, 2017 (you get to choose how long to stay!). RUNGA is a once a year retreat, currently hosted in December. RUNGA is designed to facilitate a dramatic shift in attendee's current outlook, lifestyle choices, self efficacy, motivation, love, even spirituality. The retreat spans 8-days and centers around fostering heightened awareness, presence, and connection with others through a mandatory “Digital Detox” – or no cell phones, computers, and other technology. Yoga is offered twice per day, everyday. There is also an off-site adventure ranging from hiking volcanoes to white water rafting or zip lining. World-class spa treatments are available and 100% of the food are suitable for vegetarian, vegan, paleo, gluten-free, or ketogenic dieters. They are also delicious. Click here to sign up. Use code BEN (or let them know I sent you) to get VIP treatment, $10 off your registration and a free gift valued at $100! Show Sponsors:  -ZipRecruiter - Post jobs on ZipRecruiter for FREE by visiting ZipRecruiter.com/FIRST. -HealthIQ - To learn more about life insurance for physically active people and get a free quote, go to HealthIQ.com/BEN. -HealthGains - Text the word "GAIN" to 313131 to receive a $150 voucher toward your first GAINSWave treatment at any of the 60 participating physicians nationwide. Or go to GAINSWAVE.com and click 'Find A Doctor' to locate a GAINSWave provider near you. Do you have questions, thoughts or feedback for Joe or me? Leave your comments at BenGreenfieldFitness.com and one of us will reply!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/372 Aug 9, 2017 Podcast: 372 - The Best "Minimalist" Exercise Plan, How Guys Can "Get It Up" Better, How To Calm Down After Stress, and Why So Many Products Have Caffeine. Have a podcast question for Ben? Click the tab on the right (or go to SpeakPipe), use the Contact button on the app, call 1-877-209-9439, or use the “Ask Ben” form at the bottom of this page. In intro and outro, Ben mentions 110% compression pants, the eng3 NanoVi device, Qi Gong master Chris Holder and Paul Chek and a Magic Flight box. News Flashes [6:44]: Keys to bad-ass, track-record-breaking longevity? Naps, time outdoors and gardening apparently. Yet another host of amazing tips from a Japanese centenarian. Wow. 256 Years Old Man Breaks The Silence Before His Death And Reveals SHOCKING Secrets To The World. Brain cells that control aging discovered - seem to be in same areas of brain associated with stress huh? Science Points to the Single Most Valuable Personality Trait. You can receive these News Flashes (and more) every single day, if you follow Ben on Twitter.com/BenGreenfield, Instagram.com/BenGreenfieldFitness, Facebook.com/BGFitness, BenGreenfieldFitness.com/Snapchat, and Google+. Special Announcements [17:30]: This podcast is brought to you by: -Casper - Get $50 toward any mattress purchase by visiting www.casper.com/ben and using BEN. -Blue Apron  – Check out this week’s menu and get your first three meals FREE - with shipping - by going to blueapron.com/ben -Atrantil -  Go to lovemytummy.com/ben and use the code Ben for 15% off. -Kettle and Fire - Go to bengreenfieldfitness.com/chickenbroth and get 20% off your order. -Podchaser Contest - Don’t forget to log in and vote by heading to bengreenfieldfitness.com/podchaser now. Enter code "Patreon". -Click here to follow Ben on Snapchat, and get ready for some epic stories on his morning, daily and evening routine! What did you miss this week? A clay mask, a park workout, a morning routine change-up, an epic post-race salad and more. Ben's Adventures [26:20]: -NEW! Click here for the official BenGreenfieldFitness calendar. -Ben is racing on the Spartan Pro Team for 2017! You can catch him at any of these races below and you can click here to register: -The Ascent, West Virginia, August 26 -Lake Tahoe, Spartan World Championships, September 30 - October 1 -August 12th and 13th Montage Deer Valley Park City, UT: Ultimate Achiever's Club. Ben will be speaking to the finest group of chiropractors on the planet! -Aug 16-17 San Francisco: Udemy. Ben will be filming in San Francisco for Udemy. -Sep 8-11, 2017: Who Wants To Live Forever Conference in Reykjavík, Iceland. Most of us not only want to have a long lifespan, but also a long healthspan; to be fit and healthy throughout the course of our lives. As we move into this unprecedented era of human history, a question arises: how far can the human healthspan be extended, and what are the most effective ways to achieve longevity? Click here for tickets! -Oct 13-15, 2017: Biohacker Summit, Helsinki, Finland. This event is the focal point for learning faster, performing better, living longer, and enjoying more what you wake up to do every day. Discover the latest in wearables, internet of things, nutrition, digital health, and mobile apps to increase performance, be healthier, stay fit, and get more done. Get your tickets here! -November 10-13: Weston A. Price Foundation Wise Traditions Conference, Minneapolis, MN. I'll be speaking at the 18th annual conference that covers everything from hormone health, adrenal and thyroid health, natural fertility, degenerative diseases, to traditional diets and food preparation & more. Learn how to improve your health through food, farming and the healing arts. Click here to register.  -Dec 7-9, 2017: XPT Experience, Kauai, Hawaii. Join me, Brian Mackenzie, Kelly Starrett, Julia Starrett, Laird Hamilton and Gabby Reece, for an epic, all-inclusive performance living workshop this Dec 7, 8 and 9 in beautiful Kauai, Hawaii. Come and join us for pool training, underwater workouts, gym training, breathing instruction, outdoor workouts, recovery biohacking and much more! Get your tickets here. -Dec 11-23, 2017: Runga Retreat, Cambutal, Panama. This retreat spans 8-days and centers around fostering heightened awareness, presence, and connection with others through a mandatory "Digital Detox" - or no cell phones, computers, and other technology. Yoga is offered twice per day, everyday. There is also an off-site adventure ranging from hiking volcanoes to white water rafting or zip lining. World-class spa treatments are available and 100% of the food are suitable for vegetarian, vegan, paleo, gluten-free, or ketogenic dieters. Get your tickets here, and use code BEN for $10 off. Giveaway: Grab this Official Ben Greenfield Fitness Gear package that comes with a tech shirt, a beanie and a water bottle. And of course, this week's top iTunes review - gets some BG Fitness swag straight from Ben - click here to leave your review for a chance to win some! Click here to get GreenfieldFitnessSystems.com gift packs! ------------------------------------------ Listener Q&A [29:40]: As compiled, deciphered, edited and sometimes read by Brock Armstrong, the Podcast Sidekick. The Best "Minimalist" Exercise Plan knralph says: I am stuck. I exercise a lot and I do CrossFit everyday plus a lot of heavy weight lifting. I spend a lot of time in the gym. I have knee pain and I know this is a waste of time. I am wondering how I can responsibly reduce the amount of exercise I do everyday and not gain weight. I eat keto and follow Paleo and Whole30 and enjoy it. In my response, I recommend: -My How To Look Good Naked & Live A Long Time article -My podcast on Vasper -My podcast on ARXFit How Guys Can "Get It Up" Better Marvin says: I am 30-years-old and have trouble getting an erection. I think it may because I work too much. I mostly work, lifting heavy things, I may not eat the proper foods and I party a lot and smoke. I do things that I know I shouldn't that probably affect my performance in bed. But I am hoping you can give me some pointers to enlighten my performance. In my response, I recommend: -GainsWave -Examine Research Digest -Multiorgasmic man book -17 Ways To Biohack Testosterone How To Calm Down After Stress Derek says: I am an Opera Singer living in Germany. After my performances I think I have built up a lot of stress hormones and adrenalin and I am wondering what I should do to help my body process these? From all your fans in Germany: Vielen Dank! In my response, I recommend: -Alternate Nostril Breathing -CBD -Quick Coherence Technique -Inner Peace herbal adaptogen -Circadia device Why So Many Products Have Caffeine Stef says: So the Keto1 supplement has caffeine in it. It doesn't say how much caffeine though. Why do so many of these products, that are supposed to make you feel great, have caffeine in them? Of course you feel great - you're having caffeine! In my response, I recommend: -My article on Keto1 Prior to asking your question, do a search in upper right-hand corner of this website for the keywords associated with your question. Many of the questions we receive have already been answered here at Ben Greenfield Fitness! Ask Your Question [gravityform id="2" name="Ask Ben" title="false" description="false"] ----------------------------------------------------- See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/chiro Last week, podcaster and comedian Joe Rogan interviewed (click here to watch or listen) a woman who calls herself the "SciBabe" (Yvette d'Entremont) about her juicy, controversial, attention-grabbing article on The Outline entitled "Chiropractors Are Bullshit". Now don't get me wrong - Yvette has some interesting ideas and I appreciate both her willingness to question some of the more radical aspects of alternative medicine and potential quackery, as well as her ability to keep us all on our feet and wary of being duped by ineffective therapies. She's even been a podcast guest on my episode "Is The Food Babe Really Full Of Sh*t?". At the same time, I see a chiropractor regularly. Some of my dear friends are chiropractors. From sacroiliac joint issues to neck pain to digestive problems, chiropractors have fixed my body many a time. So I wanted to give someone from the chiropractor community a chance to speak up on the actual science and evidence-based research of chiropractic medicine. Enter Dr. Jason Jaeger, DC, FCBP. Jason is a chiropractic physician at Advanced Spine & Posture in Las Vegas. He has practiced since 1999 and has been a chiropractic physician in Las Vegas since 2001 where he has brought his passion for health and wellness to the community that he and his family have called home since the late 1940’s. He is the Administrative Director of Aliante Integrated Physical Medicine, one of Nevada’s leading integrated physical medicine practices. Dr. Jaeger is one of only approximately 1000 chiropractors around the world trained in Chiropractic BioPhysics®, a technique which corrects and restores the spine back to alignment, and one of only 19 instructors for the CBP technique. Dr. Jaeger is also Board Certified in Nevada in CBP®. He is the developer of the Universal Tractioning System (UTS) and received the “2014 Researcher of the Year” award for the Advancement of Chiropractic Science at the Annual Chiropractic BioPhysics® Research Symposium held in New York City. Dr. Jaeger attended the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) during his undergraduate program and graduate school at Southern California University of Health Sciences (SCUHS). As class representative and Student American Chiropractic Association Vice President SCUHS chapter, he successfully lobbied in Washington D.C. for such issues as Medicare and HMO reform. Dr. Jaeger participated in a rotation through Cal State Northridge’s prestigious Physical Therapy program where he successfully integrated neuro-musculoskelatal therapies on paralysis and stroke victims. Dr. Jaeger currently holds adjunct faculty positions at Southern California University of Health Sciences in Whittier, CA; Cleveland Chiropractic College in Kansas City, KS; Parker University in Dallas, TX; and Palmer Chiropractic University in Davenport, IA. He is the Secretary of the International Chiropractic Association’s (ICA) Research and Guidelines committee (FACTS). Dr. Jaeger is a professional speaker and has lectured throughout the United States, Europe and Australia on spinal biomechanics, research and the clinical work he has performed. He is a published author in the peer-reviewed literature on clinical biomechanics. Dr. Jaeger is a literature-reviewing doctor for the International Chiropractic Association’s Best Practices Guidelines, a guideline recognized & accepted federally by the National Clearinghouse of Guidelines. He is a past board member for the Nevada Chiropractic Association (NCA), is a current board member for the Nevada Chiropractic Council (NCC) and has been deemed an expert by the courts in the State of Nevada. During our discussion, you'll discover: -What Jason thinks of Yvette's statement that "little more than the buffoonery of a 19th-century lunatic who derived most of his medical theory from séances"...[8:00] -Whether those in chiropractic medicine actually respect Daniel David Palmer, founder of chiropractic medicine...[11:42] -Whether it is true that "The defining principle of chiropractic is that health is a state that can be either maintained or lost due to vertebral subluxations"...[13:30] -The type of chiropractic care Jason practices, and the difference between evidence based chiropractic care and "quacks"...[22:40] -What Jason's schooling looked like, and whether it is true that 100% of chiropractic docs graduate from their institution...[26:20] -How big of a problem is "quackery" in chiropractic care, and Jason's thoughts on some of the people Yvette discusses in her article, like Josh Axe, Billy Demoss, and Eric Berg...[30:40] -Where medicine and supplements fit into Jason's practice, and whether his supplements are regulated...[41:00 & 45:50] -What Jason thinks about infant chiropractic care...[47:00] -How you can know if you're getting a "good" vs. a "bad" chiropractic doc...[52:05] -And much more! Resources from this episode: -The Joe Rogan podcast in which Joe interviews SciBabe Yvette d'Entremont about her article "Chiropractors Are Bullshit". -Ben Greenfield's previous interview with Yvette: "Is The Food Babe Really Full Of Sh*t?" -Article: The Sci Babe is Neither Scientist Nor Babe: She’s Bullshit -Dr. Isaac Jones podcast interview on 5 hidden causes of fatigue -Functional Medicine Practitioner directory -Ideal Spine Practitioner directory -Best Practices for Chiropractic Care of Children: A Consensus Update. But the podcast ain't all... ...in addition to the interview with Jason, my friend and chiropractic physician Dr. Patrick Gentempo penned his own response to the Joe Rogan interview. Over the course of three decades Dr. Gentempo has built one of the most reputable and recognized names within all of Chiropractic by leveraging tenacity of conviction and unrivaled business acumen. His name has become synonymous with innovation. a mindset which has spawned a myriad of liberating business ventures that all work toward a legacy level goal- to elevate chiropractic in a way never before attempted. Dr. Gentempo has taken a hands on role and has shaped the core business strategy and market entry approach. His direct involvement has been critical for establishing operating philosophies and aligning partnerships that facilitate a purpose driven business model which will ultimately inspire more doctors to serve more people. He is the Chairman on Circle of Docs, a website dedicated to chiropractors. Here's what Dr. Gentempo had to say... The Case for Chiropractic: An Appeal to Open and Rational Minds in Healthcare Introduction Doctors of chiropractic practice throughout the world and in the U.S. are licensed to practice in all 50 states. Although the basic science and clinical science research supporting chiropractic is robust and very compelling, the overwhelming number patient testimonials regarding their experience with chiropractic care is truly remarkable. Most pro sports franchises have team chiropractors. Many celebrities, entertainers and rock bands travel with chiropractors. I have personally taken care of celebrity athletes and have toured with a very famous rock-n-roll band. However, the chiropractic profession, even after over 100 years of extraordinary results serving countless millions of people, remains the target of illiterate controversy and imbecilic attacks. Many in the profession believed that after a United States federal court in September of 1987 found the American Medical Association guilty of Anti-Trust as it conspired to “contain and eliminate the chiropractic profession, that these unfounded and malicious attacks would end. Although many medical doctors regularly refer patients to chiropractors and personally utilize their services, the attacks and misinformation continues. Let me say that this article is not meant to be an anti-medicine rant, although since the practice of medicine is the standard that many use to judge chiropractic, certain data must be brought to light. I appeal to the reader to, for a few moments, suspend conventional, indoctrinated thinking relative to healthcare so the perhaps a new and better understanding can emerge. In many respects, chiropractic is for the pioneer, the forward thinker. The person who has a bias toward a more natural approach to life and healing. It is indisputable that for over 100 years, chiropractic has radically and positively transformed the lives of many, many people throughout the world. The question is: why? Volumes of books have been published to more fully answer this question. My attempt here is to give a brief summary that organizes the logic and thinking around a truly unique and powerful service to humanity, chiropractic. History Of Chiropractic (Was D.D. Palmer A Quack?) The birth of chiropractic occurred in 1895 after the founder of chiropractic, D.D. Palmer, had given what he described as a specific spinal adjustment to a partially deaf man named Harvey Lillard, resulting in the restoration of his hearing.  Many detractors refer to this as a myth and incorrectly cite that there is no physiological basis for this account.  In fact, there are many published cases of improved hearing after chiropractic care. These reports, published in refereed, peer-reviewed scientific journals come from around the world.  Here is a link to a review article published in a trade publication by Dr. Christopher Kent, who has assembled some of these references and proposes some of the neurological mechanisms. On a personal note, in my own practice experience, I have had patients with hearing deficits experience marked improvement in their hearing as a result of chiropractic adjustments.  One story I’d like to share occurred within my first year of practice.  A gentleman in his late 60s, let’s call him Stan, came into my office with primary complaints of low back and neck pain.  He had hearing aids in both ears and had a significant hearing deficit for over 10 years.  After Stan’s first adjustment, he left the office. A few minutes later he came walking back in. He had tears in his eyes.  I saw him in the reception room and quickly approached to see what happened.  He asked, “Is it possible that what you did cured my hearing loss?”  I replied, “Yes, as a matter of fact, that is the first case chiropractic was founded on.”  He sobbed as he said, “Normally in my car, I have to turn the radio volume all the way up to hear it.  I just now barely cracked the knob and I heard it clearly!”  He then hugged me with quite a bit of force (he was a big guy), turned and left.  Now, this is an ‘anecdote’ and some may say, “it doesn’t matter”.  But I will tell you, it mattered to Stan.  And it mattered to me. We can debate the probability of a chiropractic adjustment being able to restore hearing deficits and it is a worthy debate.  But personally, I have zero tolerance of fools who shrilly cry, "there is no plausible explanation for the Harvey Lillard story". Like any healthcare profession, chiropractic consists of a philosophy, science and art.  And in fact, the philosophy leads the science and art.  So let’s break some of this down. Philosophy Of Chiropractic (And Why Medicine Isn't Really "Healthcare") I have always subscribed to Ayn Rand’s assertion that when you have contradictions in your basic philosophical premises, the only possible result is destruction.  The amount of destruction is relative to the level of the contradiction.  We are in the midst of what is described as an unprecedented healthcare crisis.  In the United States we spend over $3 trillion per year on what we call healthcare, yet we are getting sicker, using more drugs, and some predict that the current generation is the first generation that will have a lifespan less than that of their parents.  I assert that the biggest contradiction in our culture today is calling medicine "healthcare".  The practice of medicine is not healthcare, it is sick-care, and when you take sick-care and give it to a culture as healthcare, you end up with a sick society.  And no matter how much money you spend, you will never solve the problem. In contrast, what are some of the foundational premises chiropractic is based upon? A living body is a self-healing, self-regulating organism. Cut your hand, it heals.  Right now, your heart is functioning, kidneys, liver, digestion, etc. All this happens without you taking anything or  thinking about it.  It is an innate/inborn process. The nervous system is the master system and controller of your body coordinating and controlling all the functions of the body. This is universally understood although there could be debate over some of the nuances and details.  But let’s stay big picture for now. Based on numbers 1 and 2 above, it stands to reason that if you interfere with nervous system function, you necessarily interfere with the ability for the body to heal and regulate. Stress in 3 dimensions, physical (how you use your body), biochemical (what you put into your body) and psychological (the mind/body connection), beyond what your nervous system can adapt to and dissipate, leads to patterns of vertebral subluxation (more on this in a minute) which diminishes the ability for the nervous system to function, thereby resulting in a state of declining health. Are Vertebral Subluxations For Real? Critics of the chiropractic profession try to assert that there is no evidence of this phenomenon referred to as vertebral subluxation.  The term subluxation describes a bone that is moved out of place, but is not dislocated.  So, a vertebral subluxation, in the chiropractic culture, refers to spinal segments that due to stress are misaligned causing interference of nervous system function and reducing the body’s ability to heal and regulate.  The goal of chiropractic is to identify these vertebral subluxations and apply adjustments to the spine for the purpose of restoring alignment and improved nervous system function.  To be clear, technically speaking there is much more to this.  However, for the purposes of this paper which is to be read by the general public, I offer a simplified explanation. I have heard ‘skeptics’ erroneously say that “there is no evidence that vertebral subluxation exists”.  This is absurd.  Personally, I have co-developed technology which I hold patents on and has been registered with the FDA for the purposes of helping to characterize the structural and neurological components of vertebral subluxation.  It is being utilized by thousands of chiropractors throughout the world.  Further, myself and others have authored and co-authored numerous articles in peer-reviewed, indexed journals outlining operational definitions of vertebral subluxation. The Association of Chiropractic Colleges unanimously adopted a position paper with reference to much of this that can be accessed here. Some may attempt to disagree with the conclusions relative to all this, but only a fool would assert that “there is no evidence”. Below is a graphic that helps one understand the healthcare continuum in the chiropractic paradigm: Many falsely accuse chiropractors of making claims about ‘curing’ diseases like cancer or diabetes.  Let’s be clear… chiropractic is not the treatment of any limited number of diseases.  Through the correction of subluxation, the body’s own recuperative powers are unleashed resulting in the ability for the body to increase the potential to heal, regardless of disease.  There are numerous randomized controlled clinical trials published in peer-reviewed research journals demonstrating that subjects with a wide range of conditions respond positively to chiropractic care. As a partial list, these conditions include ulcers, headaches, infantile colic, dysmenorrhea, visual impairment, high blood pressure, middle ear infections and a host of others.  What is important to understand is that there is not a headache adjustment versus a high blood pressure adjustment versus and infantile colic adjustment.  There is just the adjustment of subluxation which gives the body the best opportunity to heal. It is of course true that many patients, especially those who have failed in the medical system, have sought chiropractic care in hopes of relief from a particular set of symptoms or conditions. And many times they attain the desired outcome.  But unlike medicine, who has a different drug or intervention depending on the condition they are treating, chiropractic aspires to harness the innate healing power of the body regardless of condition.  In my practice I had seen a good number of patients with debilitating and sometimes terminal conditions.  Some completely recovered.  Some didn’t.  All had a better quality of life as a result of the care. Right now the skeptics are saying, “this is unproven, unscientific, even unethical!  All doctors must practice evidence based care!” This debate, which I have been in for many years boils down to one critical question: what will you accept as evidence?  And this is a philosophical question that stems from the second branch of philosophy, epistemology - the theory of knowledge. Many try to contend that the gold-standard of evidence is the RCT (or randomized controlled clinical trial).  And although this certainly is a part of a composite for evidence, it has some very well documented shortcomings.  This is how, for example, a drug like Vioxx can go through RCTs, get approved by the FDA, and then have as many as 60,000 people die as a result of adverse reactions (according to David Graham, M.D. of the FDA).   Further, an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) cited that over 100,000 people per year die from adverse drug reactions when the drugs are ‘properly prescribed’…meaning that this doesn’t include negligence.  All these drugs were cleared by the FDA after submitting RCTs for safety and efficacy. In the meantime, many decry the "risk" of chiropractic due to this perceived lack of evidence and proper testing.  This is on its face ridiculous.  Two things (and again, this isn’t about medical bashing, I wouldn’t want to live in a culture where medical care wasn’t available – it is about getting the facts and comparisons straight): Medical errors are the 3rd leading cause of death in the United States ahead of stoke, diabetes and many other conditions. All the details are here. The real measurement of risk is malpractice rates. The actuaries don’t care about politics or opinions.  They simply run data.  Chiropractic malpractice rates are incredibly low because the risk of a law suit is incredibly low.  Rates for the highest coverage available are typically under $2000 per year.  Contrast that to medical rates for varying specialties that can be 10 to 100 times that amount.  It is indisputable that chiropractic is a much safer form of care than medicine. In my view, there are four major forms of evidence to substantiate efficacy of care.  None by themselves are adequate.  They must be taken in concert.  They are: Deduction: Using one’s knowledge of anatomy, physiology, biology, etc. and applying logic to draw conclusions. Induction: In health research applications, this is the randomized, controlled clinical trial. Outcome Assessment: Measuring parameters on individual patients longitudinally as they receive care.  I spent much of my career in this area. Case Research: This is taking actual patients being cared for by actual doctors in the real world.  These cases are written up in detail, go through peer-review and are published. By looking at these four as variables in the evidence equation, chiropractic stands very proud and strong in the realm of evidence. I think it is important to point out that chiropractic, based on its philosophy and understanding the deeper principles of life and nature, has taken controversial positions throughout the decades. For example, chiropractors quite some time ago raised concerns about the widespread indiscriminate use of antibiotics. Logic being that human-beings aren’t the only organisms on the planet that adapt.  Microbes do to, and they do it faster.  So if you are constantly killing off microbes, it is the weaker ones that die, leaving the stronger ones to evolve.  In the meantime, our human immune systems get weaker as we don’t have the opportunity to strengthen immunity naturally.  We find ourselves today in a full-blown crisis as we have now have created antibiotic resistant ‘super-bugs’. The World Health Organization and the CDC anticipate that if nothing is done, by the year 2050, the yearly deaths due to antimicrobial resistance worldwide will be about 10 million and have a global cost of $70 trillion!  With a little logic and humility (we can’t arrogantly think that we can just wipe out all disease-causing microbes without consequence), we wouldn’t have this mess. The Art of Chiropractic & Why Some Chiros Are Different Than Others Chiropractors vary in their modes of practice.  Some choose to limit their practice to back and neck pain only.  Some not only adjust and correct spines, but they also get into general lifestyle wellness protocols.  Others specialize in particular health challenges as they have special expertise there.  All this does create brand confusion for sure.  There is not one definitive mode of service practiced in the marketplace.  However, I think this is true of many allied health professions and the diversity breeds choice. The art of chiropractic rests in the delivery of the chiropractic adjustment.  And there are many ‘techniques’ practiced by doctors of chiropractic.  Some focus in specific areas of the spine.  Some use very low force.  Some use instruments.  Here’s what I know.  They all work.  For sure, some patients prefer or respond better to technique approaches.  But there are many effective chiropractic technique approaches that help people.  The key is finding the one that best suits you. There is no doubt that there are some bad actors out there in chiropractic.  But of course, the same must be said for medicine, law, tax accounting and any other professional service.  An expression about babies and bathwater comes to mind when considering this. Summary In summary, the chiropractic profession offers a very unique and powerful service to humanity.  People benefit most when pro-actively engaging in chiropractic care to upgrade their health expression as compared to waiting till there is a problem and then trying to deal with it.  Chiropractic truly shines in this area. Unfortunately, there are still many ignorant voices out there spewing nonsense and dissuading people from seeing chiropractors.  But fortunately, there is less of them every day while more people of influence become public about their incredible experiences with chiropractic care. As a cardiologist once said to a patient of mine, “chiropractors must be doing a lot of good out there, otherwise how could they have possibly lasted this long?”. Do you have questions, thoughts or feedback for Jason, Patrick or me? Leave your comments at BenGreenfieldFitness.com and one of us will reply!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.