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Posted by: admin | Posted on: April 10, 2026

Molecular Hydrogen as a Treatment for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Reproduced from original article:
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2026/04/09/molecular-hydrogen-chronic-fatigue-syndrome.aspx

Analysis by Dr. Joseph Mercola April 09, 2026

Story at-a-glance

Chronic fatigue syndrome occurs when your body’s energy-producing mitochondria stop working efficiently, leaving you exhausted even after minimal physical or mental activity
Research shows molecular hydrogen protects mitochondria from oxidative stress, helping restore the cellular energy production that chronic fatigue disrupts
Studies in both animals and humans show hydrogen-rich water improves endurance, reduces muscle fatigue markers like lactate, and lowers subjective feelings of exhaustion during physical stress
Scientists also found hydrogen stabilizes mitochondrial electron transport and activates your body’s internal antioxidant defenses, which helps protect cells from the chemical damage that drives fatigue
Supporting mitochondrial health by reducing seed oils, eating adequate carbohydrates, and getting regular sunlight works together with hydrogen therapy to improve cellular energy and resilience

Imagine waking up after eight hours of sleep feeling like you just ran a marathon. Now imagine that happening every single day for months. Chronic fatigue syndrome — known in medical literature as myalgic encephalomyelitis, or ME/CFS, drains your body’s energy systems in a way few illnesses do. This disorder is characterized by profound exhaustion that lasts longer than six months, brain fog, sleep disruption, poor concentration, and muscle pain that rest doesn’t relieve.

In severe cases, ordinary activities such as walking, reading, or holding a conversation feel overwhelming. Researchers estimate the condition affects roughly 0.1% to 0.5% of the population, which translates to about 836,000 to 2.5 million people in the U.S. alone.¹ The economic burden reaches an estimated $17 billion to $24 billion annually.

Despite those staggering numbers, most treatments available focus on managing symptoms rather than correcting the underlying biology. That gap has pushed researchers to look deeper — past the fatigue itself and into the cellular machinery that produces energy in the first place. What they found points to a common thread running through ME/CFS, post-viral fatigue, and long COVID: the body’s energy-producing systems are under constant biological assault.

Out of that search, one surprisingly simple candidate has attracted serious scientific attention — molecular hydrogen, a tiny gas molecule already familiar to chemists but only recently explored as a medical therapy. The next section explains what researchers discovered when they tested whether this molecule could reach the damaged structures inside your cells and restore the energy production that chronic fatigue disrupts.

Hydrogen Protects the Energy Factories That Fail in Chronic Fatigue

A scientific review published in the journal Frontiers in Neurology investigated whether molecular hydrogen could address the biological causes of ME/CFS rather than simply easing symptoms.²

The authors analyzed evidence from animal experiments, human trials, and prior scientific reviews that examined fatigue, mitochondrial function, and oxidative stress — the chemical damage that occurs when highly reactive molecules accumulate inside cells. Their central question focused on a simple but powerful idea: if mitochondrial damage drives chronic fatigue syndrome, could hydrogen protect those energy-producing structures and restore function?

• The research connected chronic fatigue to a breakdown in mitochondrial energy production — Mitochondria — the tiny structures inside your cells that produce energy — behave abnormally in many people with ME/CFS. Researchers have documented structural changes in mitochondria, altered metabolic pathways, and irregular adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production, which is the molecule your body uses as cellular fuel.

When ATP production falters, muscles tire faster, mental clarity drops, and recovery from exertion becomes extremely slow. That biological failure explains why people with chronic fatigue syndrome experience intense exhaustion even after minimal physical or mental effort.

• Hydrogen improves fatigue and physical endurance in animals and humans — Researchers observed benefits when hydrogen was delivered through hydrogen-rich water, hydrogen gas inhalation, or hydrogen-infused saline solutions. Key improvements reported in these studies included:

◦ Increased endurance capacity during physical stress tests in animals such as mice and racehorses

◦ Lower blood lactate levels, which indicates reduced muscle fatigue during exercise

◦ Improved peak torque and muscle power during physical testing in humans

◦ Reduced subjective fatigue scores during exercise trials

• Some experiments documented measurable improvements in energy metabolism markers — Animals that received hydrogen-rich water showed higher liver glycogen levels, which means their bodies preserved more stored energy during physical stress. At the same time, markers linked to metabolic strain — including blood lactate and blood urea nitrogen, which rises when your body breaks down muscle protein for emergency fuel — dropped significantly.

These changes show that the animals produced energy more efficiently instead of exhausting their metabolic reserves. The review also documented clear reductions in inflammatory and oxidative stress markers after hydrogen exposure.

• Hydrogen’s small size allows it to reach the deepest parts of cells — Hydrogen is an extremely small molecule that diffuses easily through biological membranes and crosses your blood-brain barrier. That means it travels directly into mitochondria, the location where oxidative damage accumulates during fatigue and chronic illness. Few therapeutic molecules reach this location as efficiently.

• Inside mitochondria hydrogen neutralizes the most destructive free radicals — Your body produces several types of these damaging molecules, but they vary in destructiveness. Hydroxyl radicals sit at the top — they’re the most aggressive, and they’re the ones hydrogen specifically targets. Hydroxyl radicals attack DNA, lipids, and proteins indiscriminately.

Unlike conventional antioxidants that neutralize free radicals indiscriminately, hydrogen targets only hydroxyl radicals, while leaving beneficial signaling molecules intact. Hydrogen converts these radicals into harmless water molecules, which removes the source of mitochondrial damage without disrupting beneficial metabolic reactions.

Beyond neutralizing free radicals, hydrogen activates pathways that strengthen antioxidant defenses and support mitochondrial repair processes. In simple terms, hydrogen does not only neutralize damage — it also stimulates the cell’s internal repair tools.

Researchers concluded that hydrogen’s ability to protect mitochondria, reduce oxidative stress, and calm inflammation places it among the most promising emerging strategies for fatigue disorders, including chronic fatigue syndrome and post-viral fatigue states.

Hydrogen Strengthens Your Body’s Natural Defense Against Fatigue

While the first review focused on hydrogen’s direct effects on fatigue markers, a second analysis examines why mitochondria fail in the first place. The study, published in the journal Archiv der Pharmazie, investigated why fatigue appears in so many different situations and whether molecular hydrogen offers a biological solution.³

Researchers explained that fatigue, whether from exercise, illness, or alcohol exposure, often traces back to disruptions in mitochondrial function caused by reactive oxygen and nitrogen species. These unstable molecules interfere with the biochemical reactions that generate cellular energy.

The review discussed fatigue in several populations, including people recovering from intense exercise, individuals with viral infections such as influenza or COVID-19, and patients living with chronic neurological diseases like Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis. The authors highlighted how widespread fatigue has become.

During COVID-19 infections, for example, fatigue appeared in more than 70% of patients during the acute illness, and more than half continued to experience long-lasting exhaustion afterward. These observations show that fatigue represents a systemic biological stress response rather than a simple feeling of tiredness.

• How oxidative stress damages energy production — When muscles contract during exercise, your body produces higher amounts of reactive oxygen molecules such as hydrogen peroxide.

At the same time, nitric oxide produced in muscle tissue reacts with superoxide molecules to form peroxynitrite, an extremely destructive oxidant. Together these reactions disrupt cellular metabolism. Once oxidative stress overwhelms your body’s protective systems, the result is reduced energy and increasing fatigue.

• Alcohol exposure revealed how quickly mitochondrial stress produces exhaustion — The paper described experiments in mice that demonstrated dramatic mitochondrial damage after ethanol exposure. Researchers observed multiple biochemical changes that reflect severe oxidative stress:

◦ Hydrogen peroxide production increased threefold

◦ Activity of the protective enzyme catalase dropped by about 40%

◦ Levels of cardiolipin, a mitochondrial membrane component required for energy production, declined by 55%

Together, these changes cripple the mitochondria’s ability to produce energy — which is exactly why fatigue ranks among the most reported hangover symptoms. In fact, surveys report that about 95% of people experiencing a hangover describe fatigue as a dominant complaint.

• Hydrogen-rich water improved fatigue markers during exercise trials — In one double-blind placebo-controlled trial, participants consumed about 500 milliliters (ml) of hydrogen-rich water before activity.⁴ Two groups were studied. One group consisted of untrained individuals performing light exercise. Another included trained participants completing moderate exercise tests. The results showed:

◦ A measurable reduction in psychological fatigue among untrained participants

◦ Increased maximal oxygen consumption (VO2 max) in trained individuals, indicating stronger aerobic performance

These outcomes demonstrate that hydrogen intake improves both physical endurance and subjective fatigue perception.

Another experiment cited in the paper studied male soccer players who consumed hydrogen-enriched water before training.⁵ Researchers measured blood lactate levels and muscle fatigue markers. Lactate accumulates when muscles shift into emergency energy production during intense effort.

Lower lactate levels after hydrogen intake indicated improved metabolic efficiency and less muscle fatigue during performance. If hydrogen reduces metabolic strain in elite athletes, imagine the potential for someone whose baseline energy production is already compromised.

• Hydrogen activates your body’s internal antioxidant defense system — The paper highlighted another important biological mechanism involving a transcription factor known as Nrf2. In simple terms, transcription factors act like switches that turn genes on or off.

Nrf2 controls the genes responsible for producing antioxidant enzymes that defend your cells against oxidative stress. Hydrogen stimulates this protective pathway, which strengthens your body’s ability to neutralize harmful molecules before they damage cellular energy systems.

Researchers also described an additional mechanism involving the electron transport chain — the molecular machinery that produces ATP inside mitochondria.⁶ Think of the electron transport chain as an assembly line inside your mitochondria. Occasionally a component flies off the line and causes damage. Hydrogen helps keep everything moving in the right direction so fewer of those damaging fragments escape.

• Safety data show hydrogen exposure occurs at extremely small therapeutic doses — Hydrogen has a long safety record and is already recognized as a food additive in several regulatory systems. Therapeutic doses used in fatigue research involve only tiny amounts of hydrogen gas — roughly 80 ml per day.

For comparison, deep-sea divers routinely inhale gas mixtures containing hydrogen concentrations as high as 50% without toxicity. This large safety margin explains why hydrogen therapy attracts attention as a practical strategy for managing fatigue disorders.

• Early clinical trials show promise in chronic fatigue patients — A mini-review led by Tyler LeBaron, Ph.D., a molecular hydrogen researcher at Southern Utah University whom I’ve previously interviewed, analyzed early clinical studies of hydrogen-rich water in people with ME/CFS.⁷

Moderate daily intake of hydrogen-rich water over extended periods led to improvements in fatigue and physical function in small pilot trials, while also targeting biological drivers of the illness such as oxidative stress, chronic inflammation, and impaired mitochondrial energy metabolism.

Restore Cellular Energy by Removing the Drivers of Mitochondrial Stress

Fatigue that refuses to lift rarely begins in your muscles or your mind. The real problem starts much deeper, inside the cellular systems that generate energy. When oxidative stress damages mitochondria, your body loses its ability to maintain steady energy production.

The goal isn’t simply to fight fatigue but to rebuild the environment that allows your cells to produce energy efficiently again. Below are practical steps that address the biological triggers discussed earlier—oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, and metabolic imbalance. These actions strengthen your cellular energy systems rather than masking exhaustion.

1. Start with hydrogen-rich water daily to restore cellular balance — If you want the simplest entry point, hydrogen-rich water offers a direct strategy to support mitochondrial function. Drop one hydrogen tablet into a glass of room-temperature water. Once the tablet dissolves completely and the water appears cloudy — a sign that hydrogen gas is actively dissolved — drink it right away, before the gas escapes. Once the gas escapes, the benefit disappears.

Drinking it right away ensures your body receives the hydrogen while it remains active. If you struggle with brain fog, persistent fatigue, or systemic inflammation, taking hydrogen water two or three times daily — spaced at least one hour apart — creates a rhythm that strengthens your cellular defense systems.

2. Use the correct delivery method and timing — Hydrogen therapy works best when your cells receive it in pulses rather than constant exposure. That pattern activates your body’s internal antioxidant systems instead of replacing them. Hydrogen-rich water created from properly formulated tablets offers one of the easiest ways to achieve this pattern.

Drink it immediately after preparation so the hydrogen gas remains dissolved. If you prefer inhalation, keep sessions limited to about one to three hours rather than running continuously. Intermittent exposure trains your cells to activate their own protective systems rather than relying on a constant external supply.

3. Eliminate seed oils to reduce oxidative stress — Even the most powerful antioxidant strategy struggles if daily habits constantly produce oxidative damage. One of the largest drivers of this damage is excessive intake of seed oils.

Soybean oil, corn oil, canola oil, and similar vegetable oils flood your cells with linoleic acid (LA), a polyunsaturated fat that destabilizes mitochondrial membranes and increases oxidative stress. Replace these oils with stable saturated fats such as grass-fed butter, ghee, or tallow.

At the same time, remove ultraprocessed foods and most restaurant meals, since these almost always contain high amounts of seed oils. Your goal is to bring daily LA intake below 5 grams and ideally closer to 2 grams. To track your intake, download the upcoming Mercola Health Coach app, which includes the Seed Oil Sleuth feature that calculates LA exposure with precise accuracy.

4. Feed your cells the carbohydrates required for energy production — When carbohydrate intake drops too low, your body interprets the shortage as a stress signal — shifting into a survival mode that slows energy production and, paradoxically, increases the very oxidative damage you’re trying to reduce. Most adults maintain stable metabolic function with roughly 250 grams of carbohydrates daily. If you exercise regularly, your body requires more.

If your digestion struggles, begin with easy-to-digest foods such as fruit and white rice. As your gut function improves, expand your diet gradually. When your metabolism receives steady fuel, hydrogen therapy works far more effectively.

5. Use sunlight and stress timing to strengthen cellular resilience — Your cells respond to stress more effectively when they receive protective signals beforehand. One useful strategy is to consume hydrogen-rich water about 30 minutes before events that increase oxidative stress. Examples include exercise, travel, demanding workdays, or emotionally intense situations. This pre-loads your cells with hydrogen before the oxidative surge begins.

Daily sunlight exposure also supports this process. Sunlight stimulates mitochondrial energy production and improves cellular signaling that hydrogen therapy strengthens. If your body is full of LA from years of seed oil consumption, your skin is more prone to burning during midday sun.

Avoid sunlight from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. until you’ve reduced seed oils for at least six months, focusing instead on morning and late afternoon light. Once your tissues are free from these unstable fats, you’ll tolerate more sun safely.

FAQs About Molecular Hydrogen for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Q: What causes chronic fatigue syndrome and why is it so difficult to treat?

A: ME/CFS occurs when your body’s energy-producing systems stop working efficiently. Research shows that oxidative stress and inflammation damage mitochondria. When mitochondrial function declines, even simple physical or mental activity becomes exhausting. Most conventional treatments address symptoms such as pain or sleep disruption rather than correcting this underlying cellular energy problem.

Q: How does molecular hydrogen help improve fatigue?

A: Molecular hydrogen works by targeting oxidative stress at the cellular level. Studies show that hydrogen selectively neutralizes highly destructive molecules called hydroxyl radicals inside mitochondria without interfering with beneficial biological reactions.

Hydrogen also activates internal antioxidant defense pathways and stabilizes mitochondrial electron transport, which helps restore normal ATP production. By protecting the cellular machinery that produces energy, hydrogen helps reduce the biological drivers of fatigue rather than masking symptoms.

Q: What evidence supports hydrogen as a therapy for fatigue?

A: Scientific reviews and early clinical research show that hydrogen improves several biological markers related to fatigue. Studies summarized in the journal Frontiers in Neurology report improvements in endurance, lower lactate levels, and reduced subjective fatigue during exercise trials.⁸

A separate review in Archiv der Pharmazie explains that hydrogen helps stabilize mitochondrial function and reduces oxidative stress associated with fatigue.⁹ Early pilot trials in people with ME/CFS also show improvements in fatigue and physical function when hydrogen-rich water is consumed regularly.

Q: What’s the easiest way to use molecular hydrogen?

A: The most common method is drinking hydrogen-rich water. Hydrogen tablets dissolve in water and release hydrogen gas, which quickly diffuses into tissues and cells. Drinking the water immediately after the tablet dissolves is important because hydrogen gas escapes rapidly once exposed to air. Some people also use hydrogen gas inhalation systems, but hydrogen-rich water is the simplest approach.

Q: What lifestyle habits help support mitochondrial energy along with hydrogen therapy?

A: Supporting mitochondrial health requires more than a single therapy. Reducing dietary seed oils lowers oxidative stress that damages mitochondrial membranes. Eating adequate carbohydrates from whole foods such as fruit helps maintain steady cellular energy production.

Regular sunlight exposure stimulates mitochondrial activity and supports circadian rhythms that control cellular repair. When combined with hydrogen therapy, these lifestyle strategies strengthen the cellular systems responsible for producing energy and help reduce persistent fatigue.

– Sources and References

Posted in Fatigue, Linoleic Acid, Sunlight | No Comments »

Posted by: admin | Posted on: May 30, 2023

A Powerful Adaptogen That Boosts Vitality and Performance

Reproduced from original article:
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2023/05/29/rhodiola-benefits.aspx
The original Mercola article may not remain on the original site, but I will endeavor to keep it on this site as long as I deem it to be appropriate.

Analysis by Dr. Joseph Mercola Fact Checked May 29, 2023

STORY AT-A-GLANCE

Rhodiola rosea, sometimes called “golden root,” “roseroot” or “arctic root,” is a powerful adaptogen known to enhance vitality by helping your body adapt to physical, chemical and environmental stress
Rhodiola rosea extract has been shown to have antidepressant and antianxiety effects, and helps improve symptoms associated with burnout
The bioactive compounds rosavin and salidroside in rhodiola rosea have been shown to improve passage of serotonin precursors through the blood-brain barrier, and help preserve serotonin, thereby boosting mood
Extract of rhodiola rosea not only may also enhance cognitive functions, modulate immune function, enhance cardiovascular, nervous system and reproductive health, but also has antiviral effects and enhances physical performance

Editor’s Note: This article is a reprint. It was originally published February 12, 2018.

The perennial plant rhodiola rosea, sometimes called “golden root,” “roseroot” or “arctic root,” is a powerful adaptogen known to enhance vitality by helping your body adapt to physical, chemical and environmental stress. In other words, it helps your body maintain homeostasis. The plant has a long history of use in traditional folk medicine in Russia and Scandinavian countries,¹ and modern science has shown rhodiola:^2,^3,^4,^5,⁶

Has antidepressant and antianxiety benefits⁷ and helps improve symptoms of burnout	Enhances cognitive function, improving mental clarity, thought formation and focus
Helps modulate immune function (raising low immune function and reducing overactive function)	Enhances nervous system health
Enhances cardiovascular health	Improves male and female sexual functioning, reproductive health and fertility
Improves blood sugar control in diabetics when combined with cinnamon	Has anticancer benefits
Helps protect against viral infections⁸	Enhances athletic performance and shortens recovery time between workouts

Exercise Benefits of Rhodiola

A 2004 study⁹ found extract of rhodiola rosea radix had an anti-inflammatory effect on healthy untrained volunteers, before and after bouts of exhausting exercise. It also protected muscle tissue during exercise. According to the abstract:

“Professional athletes effectively use rhodiola rosea (‘golden radix’) extract as a safe nonsteroid food additive improving endurance and rapid recovery of muscles during several decades. Rhodiola rosea extract improves muscle work due to mobilization and more economic expenditure of energy resources of muscles.

The use of adaptogens including R. rosea improved physical endurance of male athletes, reducing blood lactate level and accelerating recovery after exhausting exercise.”

Other studies have similarly found that rhodiola can significantly increase time to exhaustion during exercise,¹⁰ reduce C reactive protein levels and improve neuromotoric fitness. For example, a 2003 animal study¹¹ found that rats given 50 milligrams per kilo (mg/kg) of rhodiola rosea extract along with the same amount of rhodiola crenulata root, prolonged the duration of exhaustive swimming the rats were capable of by nearly 25%.

This improvement was found to be due to the extracts’ ability to activate the synthesis or resynthesis of ATP in mitochondria. The extracts also stimulated reparative energy processes that take place post-exercise. Rhodiola rosea was determined to be the most effective of the two extracts for improving physical working capacity.

Antiviral Effects of Rhodiola

Rhodiola extract has also been shown to protect athletes from viral infections. In one study,¹² 48 marathon runners randomly received either 600 mg of rhodiola rosea or a placebo for four weeks prior to a race.

Blood samples were collected at three intervals: before the start of the race, and 15 minutes and 1.5 hours after the race ended. Follow-up studies using in vitro assays concluded that rhodiola was able to protect cells against the vesicular stomatitis virus for 12 hours after physical exertion.

David Nieman, director of the Appalachian State University Human Performance Laboratory, discovered that marathon runners are particularly prone to viral illnesses, especially upper respiratory tract illnesses, after competing. Rhodiola, he found, could help with this — in addition to providing athletes with enhanced performance and recovery benefits.

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Antidepressant Benefits

It’s not yet entirely clear how rhodiola rosea actually works, but some studies have shown it helps slow enzymatic breakdown of neurotransmitters such as serotonin by inhibiting monoamine oxidase.^13,¹⁴ As such, it’s classified as an herbal monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI). The bioactive phytochemical risiridin in rhodiola rosea has been shown to inhibit MAO-B by more than 80%. This helps explain some of its antidepressive and cognitive effects.

By boosting the concentration of important neurotransmitters in your brain, your neurons can communicate better. The bioactive compounds rosavin and salidroside in rhodiola rosea have also been shown to improve passage of serotonin precursors through the blood-brain barrier, and help preserve serotonin by dampening the activity of catechol-o-methyltransferase. Evidence suggests rhodiola also can raise serotonin levels significantly.¹⁵

Research published in 2015 compared rhodiola to the antidepressant sertraline, concluding it’s a safer choice. While the drug was overall more effective, rhodiola did improve depressive symptoms and had far fewer side effects. According to psychiatrists who use rhodiola in their clinical practice, the plant extract is a “viable choice in many cases for the treatment of mild to moderate depression.”¹⁶

According to a study published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, patients diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder who received 340 mg of rhodiola rosea extract for 10 weeks also reported significant improvements in symptoms, based on the Hamilton anxiety rating scale, the four-dimensional anxiety and depression scale, and the clinical global impressions of severity/improvement scale.¹⁷

A number of other studies have also confirmed rhodiola’s mood boosting effects. According to health reporter and “medicine hunter” Chris Kilham, who specializes in discovering natural remedies:¹⁸

“Over 300 human studies¹⁹ on rhodiola rosea show that the plant has anti-stress, anti-anxiety, and anti-depressant properties, and that taking the extract of the root produces no significant negative effects. This is in sharp contrast to drugs for the same purposes, which typically cause sleep disorders, digestive upset, sexual dysfunction and a variety of mood disorders.

Unlike many other herbs, rhodiola rosea produces a palpable experience. When you take a preparation of this plant, you feel it. Typically, users report enhanced energy, improved mood, greatly reduced stress, better sleep and improved sexual vitality.”

Rhodiola Safely Combats Chronic Fatigue

Rhodiola’s energy- and vitality-boosting effects can have clear benefits for those struggling with chronic fatigue. A multicenter trial published last year found patients struggling with prolonged fatigue or chronic fatigue syndrome who received 400 mg of dry ethanol rhodiola extract per day for eight weeks experienced significant improvements within the first week.²⁰

Overall, the most significant improvement occurred for the complaint of “general fatigue,” but scores for “impairment at work,” “impairment in social life,” and “impairment in family life” also significantly improved by the end of two months. In all, patients experienced a 42% reduction in total stress and a 39% reduction in fatigue. Eighty-three percent of them reported feeling “very much” or “much” improved by week eight. As reported by the American Botanical Council:²¹

“Nearly all outcome measures significantly improved over time and continued to decline to week eight, and the treatment was safe and well tolerated. Taken together, the authors conclude that the significant improvement in measures not only of core fatigue symptoms but a broad variety of symptoms and consequences of fatigue suggests a good potential for rhodiola to improve quality of life in chronic fatigue.”

The mechanism behind these effects is thought to be related to rhodiola’s ability to modulate catecholamine release and cAMP levels in your myocardium during stress.²² It also helps reduce the stress hormone cortisol. As noted by Mental Health Daily, “Other proposed mechanisms include interactions with protein kinases p-JNK, nitric oxide, defense mechanism proteins (e.g., heat shock proteins), and regulation of beta-endorphins and opioid peptides.”^23,²⁴

Rhodiola Safely Lowers Impact of Daily Stress

Importantly, rhodiola has been shown to be particularly beneficial for your nervous system. Work stress can trigger burnout, and research published in 2000 and 2017 suggest rhodiola can offer significant protection against this kind of stress. As noted in Life Extension Magazine:²⁵

“A number of studies have shown that rhodiola can dramatically reduce mental and physical fatigue under stressful conditions, by increasing the body’s energy levels. In one study,²⁶ a low dose (170 mg/day) of a R. rosea extract was given to 56 young physicians on night call, when there is notable decrease in physical and mental performance.

Using measures of cognitive and memory function, such as associative thinking, short-term memory, calculation, and speed of audiovisual perception, the researchers found a statistically significant reduction of stress-induced fatigue after just two weeks of supplementation with rhodiola. No side effects of rhodiola were reported.”

In a follow-up study^27,²⁸ published last year, 118 men and women with symptoms of burnout were given 400 mg of rhodiola rosea extract for 12 weeks. Over the course of the study, levels of emotional exhaustion, fatigue, exhaustion, lack of joy, loss of zest of life and depersonalization symptoms significantly improved.

Improved sexual functioning was also noted. According to the authors, the findings suggest rhodiola rosea extract “might be an important first step toward a continuous alleviation of burnout symptoms, thus inhibiting the exacerbation of the syndrome and preventing the development of subsequent disorders such as depression or physical illness.”

Rhodiola for Diabetic Control

While limited to animal research, evidence also suggests rhodiola may be helpful for diabetics when combined with cinnamomi cassia (cinnamon).²⁹ Both of these remedies have been extensively used in folk medicine for the treatment of diabetes.

Here, diabetic rats fed a mix of rhodiola and cinnamon extracts for 12 weeks experienced significant reductions in blood glucose, while reduced glutathione, glutathione reductase, glutathione S-transferase, glutathione peroxidase, catalase and superoxide dismutase were increased.

Based on these effects, the researchers concluded that rhodiola extract may be helpful for “correcting hyperglycemia and preventing diabetic complications.”³⁰ As noted by Life Extension Magazine,³¹ “These … results reaffirm earlier studies and anecdotal evidence demonstrating rhodiola as a comprehensive adaptogen that helps the body withstand the accumulating effects of stress and advancing age.”

– Sources and References

¹ American Botanical Council, Rhodiola Rosea: Phytomedicinal Overview
^2, ¹⁶ Fox News April 15, 2015
^3, ^14, ^19, ²³ Mental Health Daily, Rhodiola Rosea Benefits
^4, ^25, ³¹ Life Extension December 2007
⁵ Medical News Today, Rhodiola Rosea
⁶ Superfoodly.com Rhodiola Rosea
^7, ¹⁸ Fox News September 12, 2012
⁸ Natural Grocers
⁹ Bulletin of Experimental Biology and Medicine 2004 Jul;138(1):63-4
¹⁰ Phytomedicine 2011 Feb 15;18(4):235-44
¹¹ Bulletin of Experimental Biology and Medicine 2003 Dec;136(6):585-7
¹² Phytotherapy Research 2014 Dec;28(12):1829-36
¹³ Journal of Ethnopharmacology 2009 Mar 18;122(2):397-401
¹⁵ Molecules. 2022 Jun; 27(12): 3902
¹⁷ Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 2008 Mar;14(2):175-80
^20, ²¹ American Botanical Council, Complementary Medical Research February 2017; 24(1): 46-52
²² Eksp Klin Farmakol. 1994 Nov-Dec;57(6):61-3
²⁴ Phytomedicine 2010 Jun;17(7):481-93
²⁶ Phytomedicine 2000 Oct;7(5):365-71
²⁷ Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment 2017; 13: 889–898
²⁸ Nutra Ingredients USA August 18, 2017
^29, ³⁰ Biofactors 2006;26(3):209-19

Posted in Antidepressants, Anxiety, Brain, Cancer, Cardiovascular, Depression, Diabetes, Exercise, Fatigue, Fertility, Immunity, Natural Medicine, Nerves, Nutrition, Stress, Sugar, Virus | One Comment »

Posted by: admin | Posted on: May 27, 2022

How to Conquer Fatigue and Low Energy

Reproduced from original article:
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2022/05/22/eat-for-energy.aspx
The original Mercola article may not remain on the original site, but I will endeavor to keep it on this site as long as I deem it to be appropriate, and will not be bullied into removing it.

Analysis by Dr. Joseph Mercola Fact Checked May 22, 2022

STORY AT-A-GLANCE

To address fatigue and low energy, you need to improve your mitochondrial energy production
Mitochondria have a mutually exclusive dual function. They produce energy, but they’re also environmental sensors that detect threats inside the body. When a threat is detected, the mitochondria downshift energy production to focus on self-defense
Common threats that can result in reduced mitochondrial energy production include oxidative stress, poor nutrition, environmental toxins, psychological stress and sleep deprivation
Mitochondrial capacity declines by about 10% with each decade of life, but it’s not a natural function of aging. Rather, the loss of mitochondria is due to a lack of hormetic stress. Mitochondria have to be challenged and stimulated in order to stay big and strong
Light deficiency is an extremely common cause for fatigue. Sun exposure is required for melatonin production in your mitochondria, which protects them from damage. Red and infrared light also stimulate tissue-specific growth factors, directly stimulate ATP production at the mitochondria level, and act as signals to encourage mitochondria to grow bigger and stronger

In this interview, Ari Whitten, a return guest, discusses his latest book, “Eat for Energy: How to Beat Fatigue, Supercharge Your Mitochondria, and Unlock All-Day Energy.”

Whitten has also written an excellent book about infrared light exposure or photobiomodulation as a healing modality, called “The Ultimate Guide to Red Light Therapy: How to Use Red and Near-Infrared Light Therapy for Anti-Aging, Fat Loss, Muscle Gain, Performance, and Brain Optimization.”

As you might guess, the focus of his latest book is fatigue, and the foundational core for addressing that is to improve mitochondrial energy production. Your circadian rhythm also plays an important role. Whitten explains the premise of the book:

“It’s a collection of science-based strategies as far as what to eat, how to eat and when to eat, that can be tied in with any particular dietary pattern that you’ve already adopted. So, I’m not asking if you’re paleo or vegan or keto or Mediterranean. I’m not asking you to change that.

It’s dozens of strategies that you can incorporate into the dietary pattern of your choosing. So, I feel like it’s a really key piece of the puzzle for a lot of people. They can just immediately plug in with pretty minimal effort and get big results …

In the last 100 years, we’ve seen massively accelerating risks of dozens of diseases, and that is not the result of everybody being a unique individual and responding randomly to what’s going on. It’s not that everybody’s genetics just decided to express lots of disease.

It’s because the modern world changed in very fundamental ways, as far as diet, the modern lifestyle, as far as being sedentary, being in climate-controlled offices, losing all these forms of hormetic stressors, sleeping less, disrupting our circadian rhythm — these are the main drivers of pretty much all of these different chronic diseases.

And the answer isn’t to treat everybody as a unique individual and pretend like we don’t know all of these universal factors that are the actual root cause drivers of these diseases. It’s to address the foundation of these root cause drivers of diseases. That’s where you have to start.”

A New Understanding of Mitochondria

In high school and college biology courses, we’re taught to think of mitochondria as mindless energy generators that take in the food we eat, mostly carbs and fats, and then pump out cellular energy in form of the ATP. However, in the past five to 10 years, we’ve gained a whole new understanding of mitochondria, largely thanks to the work of Dr. Robert Naviaux, who runs a mitochondrial medicine lab at the University of California, San Diego.

“Naviaux, I think, is one of the most brilliant scientists and has created one of the biggest breakthroughs in medicine in the last century, arguably. He figured out that mitochondria have a second role, other than energy production, and that is in cellular defense.

In his words, mitochondria are the central hub of the wheel of metabolism. They are not just energy producers, but also environmental sensors, and they are constantly sampling the environment around them, figuring out what’s going on in the body.

And, basically, they’re asking one fundamental question: Are we under attack? Is there something we need to defend against? And this is the big key — these dual roles of energy production and cellular defense are mutually exclusive. So, to the degree that mitochondria are picking up on some dangers that are present, they turn down the dial on energy production.

And if the mitochondria are turning down the dial on energy production, subjectively on a macro level, us as an organism, a collection of trillions of these cells filled with mitochondria, feel the symptom of fatigue. We can think of our energy levels as largely a function of the degree to which our mitochondria are detecting the presence of dangers or threats in the body.”

Common threats your mitochondria might be responding to if you feel fatigued include oxidative stress, poor nutrition, environmental toxins, psychological stress and sleep deprivation, just to name a few.

What’s Your Resilience Threshold?

Most if not all stressors can be boiled down to oxidative stress, reactive nitrogen species, inflammation and purinergic signaling (a situation in which energy molecules leak out of the cell). Even something like psychological stress can cause this kind of reaction. But whether the stressor is serious enough to cause fatigue depends on your resilience threshold. What wipes one person out might not affect another.

“I like to think of fatigue as having two fundamental causes,” Whitten says. “One is all of these different kinds of environmental and lifestyle stressors. The other thing that interplays with, and is often left out by a lot of people, is what is happening at the cellular level inside of your body.

And the key thing to understand here is that our cells can either be filled with big, strong mitochondria, and lots of them, or weak, fragile, shrunken, broken, dysfunctional mitochondria, and very few of them.

It’s been shown in research that mitochondrial capacity declines by about 10% with each decade of life. If you look at older people, they generally have somewhere between 50% to 75% lower mitochondrial capacity than a young person.

But it’s not a natural function of aging, because we know from other research that when they look at mitochondrial capacity of healthy 70-year-olds, who are lifelong athletes, they don’t have lower mitochondrial capacity than an adult at 40 years old.

What that tells us is the loss of mitochondria is not a function of aging, per se. It’s a function of lack of hormetic stress in your life. Mitochondria have to be challenged and stimulated in order to stay big and strong.”

Other Factors That Influence Your Energy Levels

While mitochondrial dysfunction is a central issue in fatigue, other factors also come into play, including:

Low muscle mass — Greater muscle mass contributes to metabolic flexibility and health, because muscle acts as a sink for glucose, thereby reducing your risk of insulin resistance. Low muscle mass, on the other hand, is a leading contributor to early death, and it’s a major contributor to low energy and fatigue
Elevated blood sugar and insulin resistance — This primarily goes back to a poor diet high in processed foods and constant grazing throughout the day. Eating a whole food diet and implementing TRE can go a long way toward normalizing your insulin and blood sugar
Lack of hermetic stress such as insufficient amounts of exercise
Stress
Poor gut health

How Your Diet Influences Your Energy Level

Naturally, your diet has a central influence on your energy level. One key driver of low energy and ill health is excessive omega-6 linoleic acid (LA) intake. LA contributes to insulin resistance, obesity and chronic inflammation, and as mentioned earlier, when mitochondria detect inflammation, they dial down energy production to shift resources toward self-defense.

High LA consumption has also been implicated in neurodegenerative diseases, cancer and many other chronic diseases. Processed food, which is not only high in LA but also sugar, can also considerably impact your energy levels by impairing your hormone regulation.

Circadian Rhythm Disruption Is a Common Culprit

According to Whitten, arguably one of the most important things you can do to improve your energy level is to optimize your circadian rhythm by consistently going to bed and rising in the morning at the same times. Another crucial factor is to get plenty of daytime sunlight exposure and to minimize artificial light exposure at night. As explained by Whitten:

“The circadian clock in your brain learns to distinguish what is day and what is night based on the differences in light intensity, along with the color of the wavelengths of that light. When you start your morning in indoor environments, under indoor lighting, looking at screens, and end your day in indoor environments with indoor lighting, looking at screens, you don’t have a big [light intensity] differential.”

Your circadian rhythm is also influenced by nutrient sensors throughout your body. While you use light to optimize the central clock in your brain, you use nutrition to optimize the peripheral clocks and sync them with the central clock. One way to do this is through time-restricted eating (TRE), where you eat all your meals within a six- to 10-hour window.

The Importance of Sun Exposure

Light deficiency is another extremely common cause for fatigue. Sun exposure triggers vitamin D production, which is important, but it also has many other functions and benefits that can directly impact your energy level.

For example, the vast majority of melatonin, some 95%, is produced in your mitochondria in response to sunlight (specifically red near-infrared light, which is what provides warmth). Melatonin is a potent anti-inflammatory, so sunlight allows you to target oxidative stress right where it’s needed the most.

“Melatonin is absolutely vital for protecting your mitochondria from harm and preventing them from accumulating damage as you age,” Whitten says. But swallowing melatonin is useless for this, as oral melatonin cannot reach the mitochondria.

Red and infrared light directly stimulate ATP production at the mitochondria level. These wavelengths also create a transient increase in reactive oxygen species, which are signaling molecules that instruct the mitochondria to grow bigger and stronger.

Sunlight also allows for the conversion of retinol (vitamin A) to retinoids, which is crucial for the function of vitamin D, and interacts with your malanocortin system, which involves alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone that helps regulate inflammation and appetite.

Sunlight also creates a surge of nitric oxide, which helps normalize your blood pressure and reduce your cardiovascular disease risk. Whitten cites a Swedish study that showed women with the lowest sun exposure had a cardiovascular disease risk equivalent to smoking a pack of cigarettes per day. Red and infrared light also have a long list of other health benefits.

Importantly, red and infrared light directly stimulate ATP production at the mitochondria level. These wavelengths also create a transient increase in reactive oxygen species, which are signaling molecules that instruct the mitochondria to grow bigger and stronger.

Red and infrared wavelengths also stimulate tissue-specific growth factors. So, in muscle cells, it increases insulin-like growth factor 1, which is a key growth factor for muscle growth. In your thyroid, it stimulates growth factors that help regenerate thyroid gland tissue in the brain.

In your skin, fibroblasts are stimulated by red and near-infrared light to increase collagen production. So, essentially, red and infrared light act as signals that trigger growth and regeneration at the cellular level, throughout your whole body.

“Our biology has evolved for millions of years to require adequate sun exposure in order to express normal health,” Whitten says. “Just to function normally, we require these different bioactive wavelengths and red and infrared light …

We know that hermetic stress, that doing exercise, doesn’t just protect the cells and the mitochondria from harm from exercise. It protects against a broad range of other stressors.

So, having a body that does exercise, that’s fit, protects you from oxidative damage that might occur from psychological stress or sleep deprivation or environmental toxins — things that are totally unrelated to the initial source of that hermetic stress that led to those adaptations.

I think what we have with melatonin is probably something that’s very similar. This is something critical for protecting our mitochondria from a broad range of, basically, every type of stressor. You got to have those melatonin levels charged up, and that’s a function of exposing your body to light.”

The Antiaging, Energy-Boosting Benefits of Methylene Blue

Methylene blue is the parent molecule for hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, an off-patent drug commonly used to treat not only malaria but also COVID-19. Interestingly enough, this molecule has been shown to have antiaging benefits when used topically. There’s even a new cosmetics brand that uses it in their formulas. While it has a blue tint, when mixed with a carrier oil it does not stain your skin blue. According to Whitten, methylene blue:

“… has profound antiaging effects, anti-wrinkle effects and protects that skin from damage. It has mitochondrial protective effects … it’s neuroprotective, combats neurological disease and improves long-term brain health. It can also help increase energy …

It’s worth mentioning that there are some contraindications, there are some interactions with certain drugs that can be dangerous. Definitely, SSRIs [are contraindicated]. There’s also a strange medical condition called G6PD [that it’s contraindicated for].”

Methylene blue also contains important copper enzymes called ceruloplasmin, which acts as a copper storage in your body. Copper is extremely important from mitochondrial energy production, and methylene blue forms a buffer to oxidation, which allows the copper to work better.

More Information

To learn more, be sure to pick up a copy of “Eat for Energy: How to Beat Fatigue, Supercharge Your Mitochondria, and Unlock All-Day Energy.” The book addresses several foundational nutritional causes of fatigue and how to fix it, including:

The influence of your circadian rhythm and how to optimize it via nutrition

TRE and how to sync your eating window with your waking-sleeping cycle

Calorie stacking — how stacking more of your daily calories towards the earlier part of the day results in increased energy levels (in part by enhancing neurotransmitters and hormones that are synced with the circadian rhythm)

How to optimize your body composition

How to optimize your gut health

Superfoods and supplements to optimize energy levels

You can also learn more by tuning into his popular podcast, “The Energy Blueprint,” where every week he delves into a wide variety of health promoting strategies

Posted in Diet, Energy, Exercise, Fatigue, Food, Gut, Insulin, Mitochondria, Muscle, Sleep, Stress, Sugar, Sunlight, Supplements, Vitamins | One Comment »

Posted by: admin | Posted on: April 23, 2022

Do You Know the Wide-Ranging Health Benefits of Selenium?

Reproduced from original article:
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2022/04/21/selenium-health-benefits.aspx
The original Mercola article may not remain on the original site, but I will endeavor to keep it on this site as long as I deem it to be appropriate, and will not be bullied into removing it.

Analysis by Dr. Joseph Mercola Fact Checked

STORY AT-A-GLANCE

Selenium is a powerful antioxidant that helps reduce the signs of aging you see and feel in your body, which is the result of molecular and immune system changes, increased susceptibility to environmental stressors, metabolic imbalances and disease
Supplementing with selenium when levels are within normal limits does not prevent heart disease. However, data show people with low serum levels are at higher risk for cardiovascular disease, indicating optimal levels are necessary but more is not better
An animal model shows selenium may help protect against obesity, which is a significant trigger for many chronic diseases. Low selenium levels may also be linked to age-related cognitive decline and are associated with worse COVID outcomes
Signs of deficiency include hair loss, fatigue, frequent sickness, cognitive decline and muscle weakness. Brazil nuts are the best food source for selenium as just six to eight nuts provide 989% of your daily allowance

Selenium is an essential trace mineral that plays a unique and important role in a variety of biological functions. Your body cannot make selenium, so it’s important to get it from your food. It’s a major component in more than two dozen proteins that play crucial roles in a variety of functions, including thyroid hormone metabolism, DNA synthesis and reproduction.¹

Selenium is also an antioxidant, which means it helps protect the body against free radicals and reactive oxygen species (ROS). It exists in two forms: inorganic and organic, both of which are found in dietary sources — including the organic form in animal tissue.

Like most compounds, your body requires an optimal amount of selenium, which means that more is not better. There is some evidence to suggest that high serum concentrations can adversely affect glycemic control.² This means that individuals who have Type 2 diabetes or are at risk for Type 2 diabetes should measure serum concentrations before considering using a selenium supplement.

When your body has optimal levels of selenium, it can help improve biological functioning, which in turn has a positive effect on antiaging, heart disease, cognitive decline and viral load progression.

Antioxidant Has Antiaging Benefits

The signs of aging you can visibly see in your skin and experience in your body are the result of molecular and immune system changes, increased susceptibility to environmental stressors, metabolic imbalance and disease that may happen as you age.³ These effects are the result of an imbalance between oxidative defense and ROS damage. Stem cell exhaustion, epigenetic alterations and changes in mitochondrial renewal also affect aging.

While signs of aging are common, there are steps you can take to help mitigate these effects. Maintaining optimal levels of nutrients and micronutrients is one of those steps. A review⁴ in 2019 showed the effect selenium has on the aging process occurs in part through the role it plays in selenoproteins, which are necessary for the expression of several important antioxidants.⁵

Selenium is used in the expression of five separate glutathione peroxidases,⁶ which are responsible for reducing damage from ROS. These and other selenoprotein compounds play powerful roles as antioxidants, reducing the inflammation triggered by ROS and prolonging telomere length, which is the protective cap on the end of DNA strands.⁷

When telomeres shorten to a critical length after division, the cells either die or stop dividing. These actions play a vital role in aging and some researchers suggest that supplementing with selenium, especially in the elderly, may be of “great significance” as a strategy for the prevention of age-related diseases.⁸

Low Selenium Raises Risk of Heart and Thyroid Disease

Obesity is a significant risk factor for heart disease. One study published in March 2021^9,10 found that adding selenium to the diet in an animal model helped protect against obesity and increased the healthy lifespan of the animals. The researchers were also interested in whether selenium could have the same beneficial effect on metabolism as restricting the amino acid, methionine.

Selenium supplementation in this animal model provided the same protection against weight gain as restricting methionine, and dramatically reduced levels of the energy regulating hormones IGF-1 and leptin. The results suggested that supplementing with selenium had nearly the same effect as a diet restricted in methionine.¹¹ But selenium may also have a direct impact on your cardiovascular system.

Scientists have been studying the effect of selenium on the cardiovascular system for decades, after finding that the disease was more prevalent in areas of the world where there were low serum selenium concentrations, such as in eastern Finland.¹²

One meta-analysis¹³ in 2006 looked at observational studies that evaluated selenium serum concentrations and found they were inversely associated with the risk for coronary heart disease. The important aspect of this study is the researchers measured serum concentration of selenium and did not rely on an evaluation of supplementation alone.

In 2013, a Cochrane Database Systematic Review¹⁴ concluded that there was limited evidence to support selenium supplementation to prevent heart disease. However, data from the studies showed most participants had a baseline or mean selenium serum concentration between 70 and 150 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL), which is the normal concentration found in human blood serum.¹⁵

In other words, it appeared supplementing with selenium was not effective when blood serum concentrations were already within the normal value. Another study¹⁶ published in 2020 also evaluated serum selenium levels and found those in the high range of the reference value had a decreased risk for cardiovascular disease and mortality.

Optimal levels of selenium may also help individuals experiencing heart failure. One study¹⁷ found serum levels of selenium were independently associated with exercise tolerance in patients with heart failure and deficiency was linked to a 50% higher mortality rate.

Thyroid hormones also influence the cardiovascular system, and may induce or worsen heart disease, including heart failure and atherosclerotic vascular disease.¹⁸ Several studies have demonstrated that supplementation with selenium in hyper- and hypothyroidism is associated with improvement.^19,20,21

Age-Related Cognitive Decline May Be Linked to Low Selenium

Preventing cognitive impairment in the elderly is a significant public health challenge. One meta-analysis²² that gathered data from Europe, Australia and the Americas found that the incidence of mild cognitive impairment per 1,000 person-years was 40.94 in ages 80 to 84 and 60.1 in ages 85 and older.

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, more than 6 million Americans are currently living with Alzheimer’s and 1 in 3 seniors dies with at least one form of dementia.²³ One link may be selenium as it is well understood that serum concentrations of selenium commonly decline with age.

One longitudinal study²⁴ found that decreases in plasma selenium were associated with declines in neuropsychological function in aging people. Another study²⁵ found lower serum levels of selenium were associated with decreased performance and neurological testing in older adults.

As serum deficiencies occur, the brain retains selenium the longest, which has suggested that it plays a vital role in brain function. A review of nine years of data²⁶ has suggested that maintaining optimal selenium status was important to the neuropsychological function in the elderly.

Low Selenium and Zinc Associated With Worse COVID Outcomes

Selenium and zinc both play a role in supporting your immune system. One of the selenoprotein enzymes, glutathione peroxidase, is an important catalyst in the conversion of glutathione. This in turn reduces damage from reactive oxygen species.²⁷ When glutathione peroxidase is compromised, the downstream effect is the overproduction of cytokines that can induce a cytokine storm as seen in severe COVID-19 infections.

Selenium influences other pathways that affect viral diseases as well. Authors of a paper in Environmental Research²⁸ note that HIV-1 infections are higher in areas of Africa where the soil is deficient in selenium and testing shows Ebola infections are closely associated with people who are severely deficient in selenium.

Coxsackievirus is an RNA virus that typically causes a mild illness, yet severe infections are found in areas of China where selenium is deficient.²⁹ The authors have suggested that these pathways influence a person’s reaction to a COVID-19 infection and theorize that supplementing with selenium during an active infection may help reduce damage to the endothelial cells.

Other studies in China³⁰ and Germany³¹ have demonstrated there’s a positive relationship between the survival rate for people with active COVID-19 infections and selenium levels.

One study³² published in 2021 sought to identify predictive markers doctors could use to better stratify COVID-19 patients on admission to the hospital. In this study, researchers measured serum levels of zinc, iron, copper and selenium. Selenoprotein P levels were also measured, which requires selenium for full expression.

The researchers found that patients admitted with cancer have significant deficits in selenium and zinc. Three of the five patients with the lowest levels of iron, who also had profound selenium and zinc deficits, died during the study. Analysis of the biomarkers found most hospitalized patients had particularly low levels of selenium and zinc.

When patients with comorbidities were analyzed, they found a pronounced deficit in iron, zinc and selenium and a higher chance of survival in cancer patients with higher levels of selenium. The researchers concluded that the data confirmed:³³

“… an insufficient Se (total Se and SELENOP) and Zn status at admission to the hospital is associated with an exceptionally high mortality risk and severe disease course with COVID-19.

In view of the predictive accuracy of Se and Zn deficiency as mortality risk factor at hospital admission, supplemental Se and Zn supply should be considered to support the immune system, in particular for patients with inflammation-related comorbidities like cancer or diabetes mellitus.”

Signs of Deficiency and Food Choices Rich in Selenium

Selenium is found in the soil and should concentrate in plant foods. However, experts estimate that up to 1 billion people globally may be deficient from inadequate intake.³⁴

One paper published in Environmental Research³⁵ cited a World Health Organization report that found over 40 countries where the soil is deficient in selenium. Some of the lowest levels are found in New Zealand, Slovakia, Finland and sub-Saharan Africa.

People who have a deficiency in selenium are at higher risk of conditions that affect the endocrine system, cardiovascular system, immune system and reproductive system and that may affect mood and behavior.

Although it’s necessary to be tested to determine if you are deficient, several symptoms may indicate you aren’t getting enough selenium in your diet. These can include:^36,37,38

Hair loss	Fatigue	Weight gain
Sick more often	Greater oxidative stress	Shortness of breath
Cognitive decline	Muscle weakness

I recommend getting as many of your essential vitamins, minerals and elements from your diet as possible. The recommended daily allowance for zinc ranges from 2 mg for infants to 11 mg to 8 mg for men and women over the age of 19.³⁹ Food sources include oysters, pasture-raised beef, dark meat chicken, pumpkin seeds and dry roasted cashews.

The recommended daily allowance for selenium ranges from 15 micrograms (mcg) for infants to 55 mcg for men and women over 19 years.⁴⁰ The best food sources of selenium are Brazil nuts. Just six to eight nuts deliver 544 mcg, or 989% of your daily allowance. Other sources include sardines, pasture-raised beef, turkey, chicken and pasture-raised eggs.

– Sources and References

Posted in Age, Alzheimer's, Antioxidant, Brain, Cardiovascular, Censorship, Coronavirus, Fatigue, Hair, Heart, Minerals, Mortality, Nutrition, Obesity, Thyroid, Virus, Vitamins, Weight Loss | One Comment »

Posted by: admin | Posted on: September 26, 2021

Simple Remedies to Optimize Your Energy and Combat Fatigue

Reproduced from original article:
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2021/09/26/energy-paradox.aspx

Analysis by Dr. Joseph Mercola Fact Checked September 26, 2021

STORY AT-A-GLANCE

One of the most effective ways to optimize your energy and combat fatigue is to implement time-restricted eating (TRE), as it improves your mitochondrial health and metabolic flexibility
TRE is a form of intermittent fasting in which you restrict all of your food intake to a certain number of consecutive hours each day. Keeping your eating to a window of six to eight hours a day is an achievable goal for most people
Your food intake, which impacts the circadian rhythm of your gut microbiome, and other circadian rhythms are intricately connected, and the more you can realign these circadian rhythms, the better your whole body will function, including your mitochondria
You also need to remove dietary and lifestyle factors that cause the energy depletion in the first place. Electromagnetic field exposure is one environmental factor. Leaky gut, caused by lectins in your diet, is another factor that needs to be addressed
When food particles are able to cross your gut lining, they cause chronic inflammation that requires a lot of energy to combat, thus causing fatigue and general malaise

This article was previously published March 28, 2021, and has been updated with new information.

Dr. Steven Gundry, a cardiologist, heart surgeon, medical researcher and author, is perhaps best known for his “Plant Paradox” book, which was a massive bestseller. He has now published another book called “The Energy Paradox: What to Do When Your Get-Up-and-Go Has Got Up and Gone.”

As the name implies, this book delves into the origins of fatigue and how to improve your energy at the molecular level. While he had not planned on writing a book about energy optimization, upward of 60% of his patients suffer from fatigue and a feeling of general malaise, so, clearly, this is something that affects an enormous number of people.

Time-Restricted Eating

The good news is there’s a lot you can do to improve your energy levels. One such strategy, which I embraced years ago, is time-restricted eating (TRE), a form of intermittent fasting in which you restrict all of your food intake to a certain number of consecutive hours each day.

As an added boon, this strategy doesn’t cost you a penny. If anything, it’ll save you money. Gundry was ahead of the curve on this one, having written about TRE in his first book, “Dr. Gundry’s Diet Evolution,” published in 2006.

“I had an entire chapter in that book devoted to time-restricted eating, and my editor at Random House at the time, Heather Jackson, said, ‘This is so crazy that I’m not going to let you do this.’

She said this. True story. And I said, ‘Look, I’m telling you, I’ve been doing this now for four years and I’ve been using it on my patients and it’s not crazy. Here’s the research.’ And she said, ‘OK. I’m going to give you two pages to make your case. I’m throwing the rest of the chapter away.’

So, I got two pages. I saw her at the mindbodygreen symposium last summer, before the COVID-19 outbreak. She came up to me and said, ‘You were right. I apologize. You weren’t crazy, you weren’t nuts. Everybody now knows.'”

Indeed, in recent years, TRE has gained a lot of recognition as mounting evidence shows the simple act of restricting the number of hours during which you consume food during the day will improve your health in a variety of ways, primarily by improving your mitochondrial health and metabolic flexibility.

As noted by Gundry, keeping your eating to a window of six to eight hours a day is an achievable goal for most people. However, most need to gradually ease into it.

“Metabolic flexibility is probably the underlying problem in the vast majority of diseases that we see and I wrote the book to try and make it easy,” Gundry says. “What I see in my practice is that a lot of people go, ‘OK. I usually eat breakfast at 7 and starting tomorrow I’m going to start eating breakfast — break-fast — at noon.’ And they fall flat on their faces.

They get headaches, they get hungry, they don’t think right. They have no energy and they decide ‘This isn’t for me.’ That’s because they have a high insulin level, they’re insulin resistant and can’t use stored fat as an energy source …

So, in the book, what I do is, over a six-week period, I get them used to eating during a shorter and shorter time window. It’s very much like learning a new exercise program. I couldn’t run a marathon right out the gate, but I can train and get there. So that’s what we do.”

Part of the process involves retraining your circadian rhythm. Your food intake, which impacts the circadian rhythm of your gut microbiome, and other circadian rhythms are intricately connected, and the more you can realign these circadian rhythms, the better your whole body will function, including your mitochondria.

Crucial Notes on Meal Timing

At the most extreme end of TRE is the one meal a day (OMAD) routine, which can work well if you’re young and healthy. However, once you get into middle age and older, I believe it can start to backfire. I’m also not convinced that it’s healthy to remain on an OMAD diet in perpetuity, for the simple reason that your body will typically work best when you challenge it now and then.

During winter months, about six months out of the year, Gundry promotes using a two-hour, or even as short as a single-hour eating window during weekdays, and then eating during a much longer window during weekends. He’s been doing this for the past 21 years.

For me, cycling — mixing longer and shorter fasting intervals — has been a key to long term success, and taking the weekends off from this strict regimen may be part of why this strict regimen has worked so well for so long for Gundry.

“I think you’ve got to break it up. I don’t do it all year around, and I break it up on the weekends, and the reason I do that is so I won’t go mad,” Gundry says. Another important detail with regard to timing is to avoid eating at least three hours before bed. Even if you restrict your eating to six hours or less, if you eat too close to bedtime, you’re canceling out many of the benefits. As explained by Gundry:

“It’s really important to stop eating at least three hours before bedtime for a couple of really important reasons. No. 1, you’ve got to undergo mitochondrial repair during the night.

You have to undergo brain cleaning during the night from the glymphatic circulation. Digestion takes huge amounts of blood flow, and if you’re eating, all that blood flow is heading down to your gut when it should actually be going up to your brain.”

TRE Makes Most Diets Better

Gundry quotes data from Satchin Panda, which shows that rats raised on a standard American diet equivalent that also are put on a TRE regimen fare much better than those who are not on TRE. This despite the fact that they’re eating the same thing. The same has been shown to hold true in humans.

Remarkably, Panda has shown the average American eats for 16 hours a day. Essentially, they’re grazing all day long, stopping only while sleeping. About 90% eat for more than 12 hours.

Simply reducing your eating window to 12 hours would be an improvement. As noted by Gundry, “Big Food, Big Agriculture have convinced us that this is the proper way to eat.” In reality, the only thing these big businesses and their recommendations are good for is disease.

The Case for EMF Avoidance

Gundry and I are also in agreement about the dangers of electromagnetic fields (EMFs). I’ve previously written about how magnesium can help mitigate some of the damaging effects from EMF, and Gundry has a patient who appears to have had success using this strategy. Melatonin, which is a very potent mitochondrial antioxidant, is another potential mitigator.

“Melatonin is a very interesting way of mitigating against the bad effects of EMF,” Gundry says. “Now, as I talk about in the book, I used to think that people who said that they were sensitive to these invisible rays [EMFs] were out on the lunatic fringe.

But the longer I’ve been doing this, I’ve had some fantastic experiences with very credible people, who when we mitigated EMF got well. One patient was profoundly affected by her husband’s AICD, a defibrillator, which was communicating his EKG with a satellite.

As soon as it went into him, she couldn’t sleep next to him. She had migraine headaches. We finally turned off the transmitter in his AICD, and just like that, all of [her symptoms] went away. So, these people are canaries in a coal mine and we have to believe it.”

Leaky Gut Underlies Most Chronic Disease

While antioxidants like melatonin can certainly help improve mitochondrial function, I think there are better ways than simply piling on antioxidants. You also need to remove dietary and lifestyle factors that cause the energy depletion in the first place. EMF exposure is one environmental factor. Leaky gut, caused by lectins in your diet, is another factor that needs to be addressed.

According to Gundry, leaky gut is an underlying condition of most chronic disease, so, if you have a chronic ailment, chances are you have leaky gut. Thanks to Dr. Alessio Fasano, who heads up the Celiac Research Center at Harvard, we now have sophisticated tests that can diagnose this problem.

Fasano discovered the mechanism by which lectins cause leaky gut, and gluten is a lectin. When these and other food particles are able to cross your gut lining, they cause chronic inflammation, which requires a lot of energy to combat. This is one reason for your fatigue and general malaise. Gundry explains:

“If your immune system is distracted down to your leaky gut, first of all, it’s not going to be available when [pathogens] come in through your nose or mouth. And secondly, your immune system is so hyperactivated that when it sees something that might not be all that important, it goes crazy and you get a cytokine storm. That, of course, is one of the major lethal consequences [of] the Western diet.”

Linoleic Acid Can Decimate Mitochondrial Health

Another dietary factor that decimates mitochondrial health, and thus energy production, is omega-6 linoleic acid (LA). “In the book, I talk about the Goldilocks effect,” Gundry says. However, LA is naturally found in virtually all foods, so it’s near-impossible to become deficient. The problem really is excessive intake, which is near universal in Western countries due to processed food.

The primary culprit here is industrial vegetable oils, which most people eat far too much of. If you’re eating a whole food diet, you’re more likely to have a healthy ratio of LA, but even then, it may be causing trouble if you’re eating too many LA-rich foods, such as conventional chicken, for example.

Olive oil is another food that is high in LA, but it also has other components that may modify some of the risks. Still, I choose to limit my olive oil intake. Overall, I try to keep my LA intake below 5 grams a day, regardless of the sources. Gundry has a more favorable view of olive oil, stating:

“If you limit your eating window, you actually stop that process from happening, which is really miraculous, No. 1. And No. 2, shameless plug for myself, with my Gundry MD high-polyphenol olive oil, you only need a tablespoon a day to get the equivalent polyphenols of a liter of olive oil a week.”

Surprising Benefits of Cheese

When it comes to fats, Gundry is a proponent of short and medium chain fatty acids. “For multiple reasons, I’ve been extolling the virtues of MCT oil since the ‘Plant Paradox,'” he says, adding:

“I think the saturated fats have other benefits. In particular, the saturated fats in cheeses may be one of the unsung heroes in longevity that I think needs more attention … I take care of a huge number of people who carry the APOE4 mutation, which is the Alzheimer’s mutation. I noticed early on that cheese really elevated not only small dense LDLs, but also elevated for most of my patients’ oxidized LDL …

I don’t like the traditional cholesterol theory of heart disease. On the other hand, I think oxidized LDL has an interesting place. What’s interesting is that when I’ve separated my patients into having them eat sheep cheese and goat cheese, I found dramatically different results.

I initially attributed it to the fact that sheep and goat have casein A2 and not casein A1. And I think casein A1 is a pretty bad actor. So, I said, well, I’m going to start letting my APOE4 [patients] have sheep and goat cheese, but in moderation. When I did that, I didn’t see this oxidized LDL.”

One potential mechanism for this might be because casein is a protein that can cause autoimmune reactions and contribute to leaky gut, which in turn contributes to increased LDL oxidation.

While most of Gundry’s autoimmune disease patients respond extremely well to Gundry’s plant paradox program, about 10% still do not fare well. Food sensitivity analysis has revealed a large number of them are sensitive to both casein A1 and casein A2.

Once their leaky gut is repaired, however, which may take up to a year, their immune systems typically become tolerant to these things again. “So, I think you can retrain the immune system once you get a good microbiome and seal the leaky gut.”

What About Meat?

While some autoimmune patients have reversed their conditions using a carnivore diet popularized by Dr. Paul Saladino, who is a leading authority on the science and application of the carnivore diet, Gundry recommends limiting meat because of its effects on your gut microbiome. Interestingly, Gundry interviewed Saladino about his carnivore diet and it is available his website.¹ It’s a fascinating discussion.

“I have nothing against the carnivore diet as an elimination diet,” he says. “In fact, when Saladino was first on my podcast, he credited me as being the father of the carnivore diet because all plants are evil. And I went, ‘Please don’t do that to me.’

I think one of the mistakes that people make in, particularly, a keto diet where they’ve eliminated fiber, you actually starve your gut microbiome from making butyrate. The other, I think worrisome, part about a carnivore diet is you tend to make more hydrogen sulfide. I’m a huge fan of hydrogen sulfide, the rotten egg smell … but again, we get the Goldilocks rule …

Some is really good for you, it’s really good for mitochondrial function, but a lot is really toxic. And there’s some evidence with carnivore diets that you produce too much hydrogen sulfide. Now, I also understand the argument that if we eat a lot of gristle and a lot of mucin, basically nose to tail, that you can make butyrate by fermenting protein-based animal ingredients. I think you can.

But if you look at all the super long-lived folks, one of the things they have is really great production of butyrate. Butyrate, that short chain fatty acid, does so much good for mitochondria, I can’t even begin to tell you. Well, I do in the book.”

I agree that a strict no-carb diet is a mistake. Healthy carbs — think plant foods rich in fiber — need to be cycled in, there’s no question. Not every day, but certainly once or twice a week, even when you’re on a ketogenic diet. I recommend restricting carbs to about 50 grams or so for most of the week, and then increasing that to 100 or 150 grams once or twice a week once you’re metabolically flexible.

Protein, mTOR Activation and Exercise

Meat, of course, is also a source of protein, and while too much protein can be harmful by activating mTOR (thereby contributing to cancer and other problems), too little can be an unmitigated disaster, as I found out.

For a time, I aggressively restricted protein in an effort to minimize mTOR, and ended up developing sarcopenia (muscle loss). The lesson here is that you need protein, especially if you’re working out, and especially as you get older. With regard to mTOR activation, Gundry notes:

“The only way we can actually measure the effect of mTOR long term is insulin like growth factor IGF-1. I take care of a lot of super old people, 95 and above. I have a lot of 105-year-old patients that I study, and they all have very low insulin-like growth factors.

We’ve tried experiments with patients, really reducing their animal protein and replacing it with plant-based protein. I’m not taking protein away. Their insulin growth factors will drop 50 to 70 points in a matter of months, and I think that’s pretty interesting.

The other thing that’s interesting is that exercise will actually change your gut microbiome to eat branch chain amino acids before they get into you, and branch chain amino acids are one of the biggest stimulators of mTOR.

That’s why, if you’re building muscle and you’re a body builder, you gulp branch chain amino acids all the time. So, I think, probably Saladino — who exercises and also does TRE and has pretty good IGF-1s — can tolerate a very high animal protein diet.

The other thing that I’ve written about in all my books is that beef, lamb and pork have a sugar molecule called Neu5Gc, and fish and chicken have Neu5Ac. Many people make an autoantibody to Neu5Gc, so they attack their own blood vessels if exposed to beef, lamb and pork.”

Lastly, Gundry points out the importance of exercise. When you work your muscles, especially the big muscle groups, myokines are produced, which help grow new brain cells and aid your mitochondria. However, contrary to popular opinion, you don’t need to exercise continuously for 30 to 60 minutes each day, Gundry says. It’s OK to break it into smaller segments.

“Even walking up and down stairs for a minute may be as effective as walking 10 minutes on a level surface,” he says. “Doing a plank while you’re watching TV for a minute is a phenomenal exercise. My favorite is when you’re brushing your teeth, do deep knee bends, do squats.”

More Information

This interview coincided with the release of “The Energy Paradox: What to Do When Your Get-Up-and-Go Has Got Up and Gone,” so to learn more, be sure to pick up a copy. You can also learn more about Gundry by perusing his websites, GundryMD.com and DrGundry.com.

He has a weekly podcast that you can tune into as well for a wide range of health information from Gundry and his guests. You can also find him on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

– Sources and References

¹ Drgundry.com July 8, 2019

Posted in EMF, Energy, Fasting, Fatigue, Gut | No Comments »

Posted by: admin | Posted on: March 14, 2021

Simple Remedies to Optimize Your Energy and Combat Fatigue

Analysis by Dr. Joseph Mercola Fact Checked March 14, 2021
Reproduced from original article:
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2021/03/14/energy-paradox.aspx

Sorry, video not available on this site. To view, go to original site above.

STORY AT-A-GLANCE

One of the most effective ways to optimize your energy and combat fatigue is to implement time-restricted eating (TRE), as it improves your mitochondrial health and metabolic flexibility
TRE is a form of intermittent fasting in which you restrict all of your food intake to a certain number of consecutive hours each day. Keeping your eating to a window of six to eight hours a day is an achievable goal for most people
Your food intake, which impacts the circadian rhythm of your gut microbiome, and other circadian rhythms are intricately connected, and the more you can realign these circadian rhythms, the better your whole body will function, including your mitochondria
You also need to remove dietary and lifestyle factors that cause the energy depletion in the first place. Electromagnetic field exposure is one environmental factor. Leaky gut, caused by lectins in your diet, is another factor that needs to be addressed
When food particles are able to cross your gut lining, they cause chronic inflammation that requires a lot of energy to combat, thus causing fatigue and general malaise

Time-Restricted Eating

“I had an entire chapter in that book devoted to time-restricted eating, and my editor at Random House at the time, Heather Jackson, said, ‘This is so crazy that I’m not going to let you do this.’

She said this. True story. And I said, ‘Look, I’m telling you, I’ve been doing this now for four years and I’ve been using it on my patients and it’s not crazy. Here’s the research.’ And she said, ‘OK. I’m going to give you two pages to make your case. I’m throwing the rest of the chapter away.’

So, I got two pages. I saw her at the mindbodygreen symposium last summer, before the COVID-19 outbreak. She came up to me and said, ‘You were right. I apologize. You weren’t crazy, you weren’t nuts. Everybody now knows.’”

As noted by Gundry, keeping your eating to a window of six to eight hours a day is an achievable goal for most people. However, most need to gradually ease into it.

“Metabolic flexibility is probably the underlying problem in the vast majority of diseases that we see and I wrote the book to try and make it easy,” Gundry says. “What I see in my practice is that a lot of people go, ‘OK. I usually eat breakfast at 7 and starting tomorrow I’m going to start eating breakfast — break-fast — at noon.’ And they fall flat on their faces.

They get headaches, they get hungry, they don’t think right. They have no energy and they decide ‘This isn’t for me.’ That’s because they have a high insulin level, they’re insulin resistant and can’t use stored fat as an energy source …

So, in the book, what I do is, over a six-week period, I get them used to eating during a shorter and shorter time window. It’s very much like learning a new exercise program. I couldn’t run a marathon out the bat, but I can train and get there. So that’s what we do.”

Crucial Notes on Meal Timing

“It’s really important to stop eating at least three hours before bedtime for a couple of really important reasons. No. 1, you’ve got to undergo mitochondrial repair during the night.

You have to undergo brain cleaning during the night from the glymphatic circulation. Digestion takes huge amounts of blood flow, and if you’re eating, all that blood flow is heading down to your gut when it should actually be going up to your brain.”

TRE Makes Most Diets Better

Remarkably, Panda has shown the average American eats for 16 hours a day. Essentially, they’re grazing all day long, stopping only while sleeping. About 90% eat for more than 12 hours.

The Case for EMF Avoidance

“Melatonin is a very interesting way of mitigating against the bad effects of EMF,” Gundry says. “Now, as I talk about in the book, I used to think that people who said that they were sensitive to these invisible rays [EMFs] were out on the lunatic fringe.

But the longer I’ve been doing this, I’ve had some fantastic experiences with very credible people, who when we mitigated EMF got well. One patient was profoundly affected by her husband’s AICD, a defibrillator, which was communicating his EKG with a satellite.

As soon as it went into him, she couldn’t sleep next to him. She had migraine headaches. We finally turned off the transmitter in his AICD, and just like that, all of [her symptoms] went away. So, these people are canaries in a coal mine and we have to believe it.”

Leaky Gut Underlies Most Chronic Disease

“If your immune system is distracted down to your leaky gut, first of all, it’s not going to be available when [pathogens] come in through your nose or mouth. And secondly, your immune system is so hyperactivated that when it sees something that might not be all that important, it goes crazy and you get a cytokine storm. That, of course, is one of the major lethal consequences [of] the Western diet.”

Linoleic Acid Can Decimate Mitochondrial Health

You can learn more about the mechanisms of action behind LA’s damage in “Why Chicken Is Killing You and Saturated Fat Is Your Friend” and “The Type of Fat You Eat Affects Your COVID Risk.” Olive oil is another food that is high in LA, but it also has other components that may modify some of the risks. Still, I choose to limit my olive oil intake. Overall, I try to keep my LA intake below 5 grams a day, regardless of the sources. Gundry has a more favorable view of olive oil, stating:

“If you limit your eating window, you actually stop that process from happening, which is really miraculous, No. 1. And No. 2, shameless plug for myself, with my Gundry MD high-polyphenol olive oil, you only need a tablespoon a day to get the equivalent polyphenols of a liter of olive oil a week.”

Surprising Benefits of Cheese

When it comes to fats, Gundry is a proponent of short and medium chain fatty acids. “For multiple reasons, I’ve been extolling the virtues of MCT oil since the ‘Plant Paradox,’” he says, adding:

“I think the saturated fats have other benefits. In particular, the saturated fats in cheeses may be one of the unsung heroes in longevity that I think needs more attention … I take care of a huge number of people who carry the APOE4 mutation, which is the Alzheimer’s mutation. I noticed early on that cheese really elevated not only small dense LDLs, but also elevated for most of my patients’ oxidized LDL …

I don’t like the traditional cholesterol theory of heart disease. On the other hand, I think oxidized LDL has an interesting place. What’s interesting is that when I’ve separated my patients into having them eat sheep cheese and goat cheese, I found dramatically different results.

I initially attributed it to the fact that sheep and goat have casein A2 and not casein A1. And I think casein A1 is a pretty bad actor. So, I said, well, I’m going to start letting my APOE4 [patients] have sheep and goat cheese, but in moderation. When I did that, I didn’t see this oxidized LDL.”

One potential mechanisms for this might be because casein is a protein that can cause autoimmune reactions and contribute to leaky gut, which in turn contributes to increased LDL oxidation.

What About Meat?

While some autoimmune patients have reversed their conditions using a carnivore diet, popularized by Dr. Paul Saladino, who is a leading authority on the science and application of the carnivore diet, Gundry recommends limiting meat because of its effects on your gut microbiome. Interestingly, Gundry will be interviewing Saladino very shortly and that interview will be on his site. It should be a fascinating discussion.

“I have nothing against the carnivore diet as an elimination diet,” he says. “In fact, when Saladino was first on my podcast, he credited me as being the father of the carnivore diet because all plants are evil. And I went, ‘Please don’t do that to me.’

I think one of the mistakes that people make in, particularly, a keto diet where they’ve eliminated fiber, you actually starve your gut microbiome from making butyrate. The other, I think worrisome, part about a carnivore diet is you tend to make more hydrogen sulfide. I’m a huge fan of hydrogen sulfide, the rotten egg smell … but again, we get the Goldilocks rule …

Some is really good for you, it’s really good for mitochondrial function, but a lot is really toxic. And there’s some evidence with carnivore diets that you produce too much hydrogen sulfide. Now, I also understand the argument that if we eat a lot of gristle and a lot of mucin, basically nose to tail, that you can make butyrate by fermenting protein-based animal ingredients. I think you can.

But if you look at all the super long-lived folks, one of the things they have is really great production of butyrate. Butyrate, that short chain fatty acid, does so much good for mitochondria, I can’t even begin to tell you. Well, I do in the book.”

Protein, mTOR Activation and Exercise

“The only way we can actually measure the effect of mTOR long term is insulin like growth factor IGF-1. I take care of a lot of super old people, 95 and above. I have a lot of 105-year-old patients that I study, and they all have very low insulin-like growth factors.

We’ve tried experiments with patients, really reducing their animal protein and replacing it with plant-based protein. I’m not taking protein away. Their insulin growth factors will drop 50 to 70 points in a matter of months, and I think that’s pretty interesting.

The other thing that’s interesting is that exercise will actually change your gut microbiome to eat branch chain amino acids before they get into you, and branch chain amino acids are one of the biggest stimulators of mTOR.

That’s why, if you’re building muscle and you’re a body builder, you gulp branch chain amino acids all the time. So, I think, probably Saladino — who exercises and also does TRE and has pretty good IGF-1s — can tolerate a very high animal protein diet.

The other thing that I’ve written about in all my books is that beef, lamb and pork have a sugar molecule called Neu5Gc, and fish and chicken have Neu5Ac. Many people make an autoantibody to Neu5Gc, so they attack their own blood vessels if exposed to beef, lamb and pork.”

“Even walking up and down stairs for a minute may be as effective as walking 10 minutes on a level surface,” he says. “Doing a plank while you’re watching TV for a minute is a phenomenal exercise. My favorite is when you’re brushing your teeth, do deep knee bends, do squats.”

More Information

This interview coincides with the release of “The Energy Paradox: What to Do When Your Get-Up-and-Go Has Got Up and Gone,” so to learn more, be sure to pick up a copy. You can also learn more about Gundry by perusing his websites, GundryMD.com and DrGundry.com.

He has a weekly podcast that you can tune into as well for a wide range of health information from Gundry and his guests. You can also find him on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

Posted in Energy, Fatigue | No Comments »

Posted by: admin | Posted on: February 26, 2021

Ease chronic fatigue with 3 great Ayurvedic herbs

Reproduced from original article:
www.naturalhealth365.com/chronic-fatigue-syndrome-3740.html

by: Karen Sanders, staff writer | February 23, 2021

(NaturalHealth365) Over a million people in the United States are currently diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), it is likely that millions more are battling similar symptoms but don’t meet all the standards for a formal diagnosis.

What are the signs of CFS? Well, symptoms – including overwhelming fatigue, confusion, memory loss, joint pain, anxiety, and depression – can be debilitating; in severe cases, careers, marriages, and relationships may be jeopardized. Yet, CFS remains a “mystery” to Western medicine, although – like many health issues – natural health experts believe that environmental toxins like EMF pollution from wireless technology, nutritional deficiencies, and emotional stress play a significant role on energy levels.

Conventionally speaking, there is no cure for CFS, but, sadly, these same physicians will often prescribe NSAIDS and antidepressants to help ‘manage’ symptoms – which offer plenty of negative side effects. Unfortunately, studies have demonstrated that when CFS remains undiagnosed for many years, the condition rapidly worsens.

How can Ayurvedic medicine help you overcome chronic fatigue syndrome?

In Ayurveda, chronic fatigue syndrome – or Bala-kshaya – is believed to be caused by a buildup of toxins, resulting in a disconnect between mind, body, and spirit. Treatment is holistic and includes meditation, diet, massage, breathing techniques, and herbal therapies. Naturally, it’s an intelligent decision to minimize your toxic burden – as a top priority – along with incorporating immune-supportive therapies.

Once you remove toxic threats, try a cleansing diet, followed by “panchakarma” – a more extensive detoxification process involving massage oils and herbal therapies. The third stage normally consists of rejuvenating herbal therapy to help restore energy and vitality.

Don’t underestimate the value of ashwagandha, rhodiola, and brahmi – three powerful, healing herbs.

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Ashwagandha, scientifically known as Withania somnifera and also called “Indian ginseng” and “winter cherry,” is a Rasayana – an herb believed to prolong life, combat disease, and protect both body and mind from stress.

According to Alakananda Devi, director of the Alandi Ayurvedic Clinic in Boulder, Colorado, ashwagandha restores energy and improves CFS patients’ neurological and muscular functions. It also helps regulate sleep cycles, boosts the immune system, and reduces anxiety and depression.

Do CFS patients really need toxic antidepressant medications?

In an animal study published in 2000 in Phytomedicine, ashwagandha extracts performed as well as Ativan, a benzodiazepine, to reduce anxiety. Researchers also found that ashwagandha’s antidepressant effect was equal to that of imipramine, a pharmaceutical medication sold under the name Tofranil. Noting that ashwagandha reduced brain levels of tribulin, a chemical marker of anxiety, researchers concluded that the study supported ashwagandha’s use as a mood stabilizer and an anti-anxiety therapy.

In an animal study published in 2002 in the Journal of Medicinal Food, ashwagandha, in conjunction with other herbs, restored brain levels of natural antioxidants and measurably reduced the oxidative stress contributing to chronic fatigue.

Scientific studies continue to confirm the effectiveness of Ayurvedic herbs

As useful as ashwagandha is in fighting CFS, it is not the only Rasayana herb that has received scientific attention. Rhodiola Rosea, the root of a plant that grows in Arctic regions, is also used in Ayurveda to restore neurological function, enhance energy, reduce fatigue, alleviate depression and restore natural sleeping patterns.

According to NYU Langone Medical Center, rhodiola may help people function better when they are under stress. The medical center cites a double-blind, placebo-controlled study in which 56 physicians on overnight duty who were given rhodiola could retain higher levels of mental function than the placebo group.

Noted herbal authority, Chris Kilham, points out that extensive clinical studies have confirmed that rhodiola increases strength and stamina while promoting mental clarity. Like ashwagandha, rhodiola combats chronic fatigue syndrome on many levels and does so without serious adverse effects.

Yet another Ayurvedic herb alleviates “brain fog,” enhances memory, and lifts mood.

Brahmi, scientifically known as Bacopa monnieri and also called Indian pennywort, is prized in Ayurveda as a mental tonic to treat Alzheimer’s disease, age-related cognitive deficits, and chronic fatigue syndrome. Researchers have found that constituents called bacosides have a relaxant effect on veins, allowing for enhanced blood flow and supporting mental clarity, concentration and focus.

Are there any clinical studies supporting brahmi’s benefits?

Yes. In a double-blind placebo-controlled study published in 2008 in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 300 milligrams a day of Bacopa extract were given for six weeks to elderly volunteers. Using a battery of diagnostic tools, including the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale and the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test, researchers found that those in the Bacopa group had enhanced word recall memory scores.

Researchers noted that the group who had taken Bacopa had declining levels of depression and anxiety; in the non-Bacopa group, levels continued to rise. The team noted that Bacopa had the potential for safely enhancing cognitive performance.

How can I use these herbs for chronic fatigue?

Although ashwagandha, rhodiola, and brahmi are generally safe, they can interact with other herbal remedies, prescription medications, and supplements. Naturally, it’s best to consult a trusted doctor before using these herbs to treat chronic fatigue syndrome and follow serving instructions carefully. And, of course, make sure to obtain your herbs from a reputable source.

Remember, herbs are only part of the Ayurvedic approach to healing. An Ayurvedic practitioner can recommend simple dietary and lifestyle changes that can speed up your recovery time. Chronic fatigue syndrome can be a frustrating, baffling, and debilitating condition, but you don’t have to let it control your life – or feel compelled to take toxic prescription medications.

Many people have found relief with safe, natural Ayurvedic remedies that work to eliminate toxins, bring the body back into balance, and restore good health.

Sources for this article include:

NIH.gov
GlobinMed.com
NIH.gov

Posted in Fatigue | One Comment »

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Simple Remedies to Optimize Your Energy and Combat Fatigue

STORY AT-A-GLANCE

Time-Restricted Eating

Crucial Notes on Meal Timing

TRE Makes Most Diets Better

The Case for EMF Avoidance

Leaky Gut Underlies Most Chronic Disease

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What About Meat?

Protein, mTOR Activation and Exercise

More Information

Ease chronic fatigue with 3 great Ayurvedic herbs

How can Ayurvedic medicine help you overcome chronic fatigue syndrome?

Do CFS patients really need toxic antidepressant medications?

Scientific studies continue to confirm the effectiveness of Ayurvedic herbs

Are there any clinical studies supporting brahmi’s benefits?

How can I use these herbs for chronic fatigue?