Hi, everyone. Welcome to the FAKTR Podcast. I'm your host, Jessica Riddle. Thank you for tuning in today. In our last episode, we delved into a discussion with doctor Robert Silverman about longevity and health span, touching on the lifestyle habits, nutrition best practices, and supplementation that can decrease inflammation and support a healthy gut microbiome. Today, we will learn more about key biomarkers you should monitor that can be early indicators of broader systemic issues. We will also talk more about how the gut truly acts as a second brain, and how dysbiosis can lead to chronic inflammation and impaired cognitive function. If you're interested in doing everything possible to age well and are eager to help your patients do the same, then this episode is for you.

Let's cue the intro music and dive in.

Let's take a look to the future. Methylation. We could have a whole webinar in methylation. It's the addition of a methyl group. Its primary role is to recycle amino acid homocysteine to keep its levels at a healthy optimum range. To methylate appropriately, it provides DNA repair, protein function, and gene expression. What's the problem? Well, the process of methylation occurs in every cell of the body, and it occurs billions of times a second. Approximately 50% or more of the population can't methylate correctly due to the fact they have something called an MTHFR variant.

We all have the gene, MTHFR. Let's say it correctly. Let's not be like some biohackers on Instagram. We all have the gene. We just have a variant. We can over methylate or we can under methylate. So MTHFR gene mutations cause the gene to work less effectively. Dysregulation of this gene is typically associated with hyperhomocystemia, cardiovascular disease, neural tube defects, and impaired cognition.

Also, the inability to methylate appropriately causes issue with proper detoxing, issues with hormone balance, immune function, and a lot of autoimmune conditions like fibromyalgia. Yes. Fibromyalgia is an autoimmune condition because it wears away the dorsal root ganglion and nerves. Hashimoto's very common thyroid and lupus. I put this slide in for a reference slide. So essentially, here are some of the variants that you could have if you're over or under methylate. If you have both variants, you're homozygous. If you have one variant, you're heterozygous.

So my metaphor of methylation, let me sit back in my chair and just go through this. Your body is like a car in an assembly line. It's ready to rumble. It's ready to move out and do its action. However, what does it need? It needs properly pressurized tires. So just to finish that assembly line, the pressure of the tires too high or too low, The car is not gonna run efficiently and not run-in alignment. So, therefore, you need to correct the pressure of the tire. So the real question is, how, doctor Rob, do I handle my inability to methylate properly? Simple.

Now the real question is, what downstream effect did your inability to methylation occur? Did it occur an increase in histamine, which leads to small intestinal bacteria overgrowth, leaky gut, etcetera, etcetera, mass cell activation. Now that's the question. But I will tell you this, delving into the certified functional nutrition world, like Jessica said, testing and not guessing. Leaky gut is something everybody should test for, but it is usually not will cause resolution. It's something that caused the leaky gut that is. So lasers for longevity, I believe it is the modality of the 21st century and beyond. I have not used the device that affects the mitochondrial complexes complexes 1, 2, 3, and 4 like a good quality low level laser. Any interest in that? Again, feel free to reach out to me.

I love the idea of the functional medicine tree. So you always wanna look for what I like to refer to as the root cause. I mentioned that before. If you just look at the tree, you see heart disease, cancer, diabetes. You see these symptomologies of asthma, allergies, thyroid, anxiety, chronic fatigue, irritable bowel. But are you looking at the roots? Are you looking into the soil? Are you looking at the body from the inside out? Are you looking for nutritional deficiencies? Are you looking for stress, genetic issues, poor digestion, lack of sleep, infections? Are they taking too many medications? Is there too many toxins? I mean, the number one reason for Parkinson's disease now is toxic overload. Heat shock proteins. Do I sauna? Absolutely.

The release of these heat shock proteins are under the premise of hormesis. Hormesis straining the body and allowing the but but not over straining the body, slight strain to the body like temperature change, body's gotta respond. And it does so with these c sharp proteins, which protect against neurodegenerative disease, like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and Huntington's, and also cardiovascular disease. By the same token, a cold shot protein, reserved proteins released in the liver dumped into the bloodstream. They come from immersing yourself in cold water, 50 to 59 degrees. So you don't have to do the polar plunge. You can just do a really cold shower. It's anti inflammatory.

They support wound healing. They increase muscle repair. They increase protein synthesis, and they increase radical oxygenation. Whoops. One of my key supplements that I like to do to help me manage and modulate inflammation, they've been out since 2015. You'll see the citation Charles Serhant, 10 years ago, talked about them in data on 2014. He looked at something called a proresolving mediator. Let's look at this omega 3 flowchart.

So at the top, we have omega threes, alpha linoleic acid, very essential fats. They're only gonna be acquired through the diet, or they really should be acquired through the diet. To convert from alpha linoleic acid, like a flaxseed, to convert to EPA DHA, only about 3.5% of the American population is able to make the conversion. It's an ineffective multistep conversion because you have so many nutrient coenzymes that need to be taken care of. So conditionally essential fatty acid support what? Cell membrane integrity, brain and eye health, healthy triglycerides, and heart health. Those omega 3 fatty acids should convert to proresolving mediators. Once again, it's a multistep process affected by certain health conditions. It's typically an ineffective conversion because it needs many different nutrient coenzymes again.

So in the face of inflammation, it's typically compromised in many of our hosts. These Proexalbin mediators allow for the return to homeostasis, the cell's normal condition, homeostasis between initial and chronic inflammation. So I put this in here because I wanted everybody to see a couple of things. Number 1, the initiation and the resolution. It allows for the balance, the homeostasis and also omega 3 fatty acids. They convert to 18 hep, h e p e. DHA converts to 17 HDA. Those are the pro resolving mediators.

They allow for the production of specialized pro resolving mediators. There's resolvents which allow for the resolution of inflammation. There's protectins that protect nerve damage. And there's maricins that protect the muscle. Those maricins come directly from Omega 3 fatty acids. So what conditions would I use this versatile virtuoso of sorts supplement called Proexalbin mediators? Chronic inflammation, chronic pain, chronic inflammatory disorders like IBS, IBD, COPD, long COVID, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, chronic fatigue syndrome, gut issues, musculoskeletal injuries, neurological disorders like Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, ALS, type 2 diabetes, and concussion. Some key takeaways, some essentials on how to utilize them. If you see the word pro resolving mediators, they allow for the resolution of inflammation.

If you hear pro resolving mediators, number 2, provides homeostasis between the initiation and the resolution of inflammation. They don't stop acute inflammation. They stop it from going too high or staying too long. We need inflammation to respond to injuries. Works with omega threes, not in place of. So the number one question I get alright. I'll take these fractionated fish oils. I don't have to take omega threes anymore.

No. Not correct. You do. You need to take them both in conjunction. They're synergistic. They're versatile in their applicability for conditions, and I believe I take them every day. They should be utilized as a foundation supplement. Some other leading edge nutrients for longevity.

I think some of these will be new for you, and I think some of those will be old hat. Fisetin is great. Fisetin has shown to help with longevity. Green tea, EGCG. Nothing's a better antioxidant, believe it or not, than EGCG. Spermidine's excellent for intermittent fasting. Luteloin, Tujoba, PEA, and I believe the gold medal winner, the peptide of choice, BPC 157. What is BPC 157? Everything should light up now.

Jessica, people are gonna ask because this is the conversation piece. I'm talking about taking it orally, not injectably because it's not available anymore. They refer to it as the Wolverine supplement because like the Marvel comic book character Wolverine, he heals before your eyes. So, therefore, it has these amazing healing capacities and capabilities. It speeds up tissue healing and recovery. It aids in angiogenesis and helps in the regulation of blood pressure. It reduces post workout pain. It accelerates bone healing, promotes joint and tendon health, reduces the risk of oxidative stress and improves gum or periodontal disease, and it protects the gut.

If you have a gut problem, BPC 157 should be in your supplemental armamentarium. So my longevity hacks as we get towards the finish line. Number 1, nutrition. Somebody once said, I think its name was Hippocrates, let food be your medicine. Let medicine be your food. It always starts and ends with food. Everybody needs to do a better job, including myself, with their diet. GPS, no gluten, no processed food, no added sugar, DNA, no dairy, no nicotine, no artificial sweeteners.

Avoid vegetable oils or industrialized seed oils and try to avoid fried foods. Dramatically reduce your ingestion of sugar and ultra processed food and starch. Exercise. Get some resistance training in the exercise. Even if it's band training, body weight, anything, get some resistance training. Sleep. Nothing more rejuvenative to sleep. I was just reminded of a study today that people ate the same calories, and they split this people in half same age.

People who people slept 7 hours and people slept 8 hours. Those who slept 8 hours increased their muscle mass by 85%. Those who slept 7 hours eating the same meals decreased, or I should say, increased their fat deposition by 85%. So 1 hour sleep made all the difference between muscle and fat. Health detectables. I have no stock in Oura ring. I think Oura ring is great. I think a continuous glucose monitor would be fabulous.

You will find things that will light up your blood sugar that you didn't know. For instance, for me, it was coconut. Who would think that a saturated fat would raise their blood sugar? Well, it did with me. Meditate. Intermittent fast, we talked about it. It is inexpensive. It doesn't cost you a thing to intermittent fast. Allows for autophagy.

It allows in some caloric restriction closing your eating windows down, which have such a health benefit, longevity benefit. It allows you for the sync with your circadian rhythm. Something that we probably don't talk about enough, purpose, mission, and community. I think that's what's so great about the factor. It's not just a great tool. It's great for a mission and a purpose to heal people, sports oriented, activity oriented people. I think we all have to have a purpose and a mission. I know that's why I'm here.

Somebody helped me with my torticollis, and I wanna help everybody else with their issues. Hormesis, hot and cold, that little strain that we just talked about. Low level laser, and, of course, the supplement. Supplemental to what? Supplemental to food and lifestyle changes. I like to end with a quote, and then I'm gonna open up for some questions. Remember, I cannot see you. Extending our lifespan is important to humans, but maintaining one's health span is even more crucial for a high quality of life. The immune system was one of the most important determinants that influence not only how long we live, but also how well we feel as we reach 80 years or older.

Questions. Let's do it.

Absolutely. Thank you so much, doctor Silverman. This has been very eye opening and a ton of great information. One person was asking if you could go back to what you were saying about Ozempic. Obviously, a lot of these new drugs are on the market. People are flocking to get these these shots and these injections, and they're losing weight like crazy. What are you seeing in your practice from these Ozempic patients that's kind of a red flag or just something to be aware of? And how do you have that conversation with patients that have started taking those types

of When Ozempic first came out, I was a 100% against it. And then you always wanna check yourself. You always wanna talk to the other side. Because if you don't talk to the other side, you believe what you believe, and sometimes become myopic. So I talked to a few medical doctors that I have a lot of respect for, and they asked them about it. And they they do have a functional approach to treatment. And much to my surprise, they were like, yeah. Ozempic has a place.

Woah. Well, what do you mean? So, like, well, with a 400 pound patient that's tried everything, I gotta get a £100 on them off of them no matter what. Now that's really true because in my world, I don't see a 400 pound patient. They will go and seek medical attention. I'll see 2.50 to £300, generic 6 foot male. So in that instance, I really want them to follow my, I call it, anti Ozempic or alternative Ozempic protocol. So I would just wanted to cover that. Some of the negatives to Ozempic are there are the side effects of dizziness, diarrhea, nausea.

In addition to that, 40% of the weight loss is muscle mass. So, obviously, that's really not gonna do them any long term good. And in addition, it distends the stomach and extends the size of the intestine by 3.7 times. So I would do whatever I can to avoid it. However, now I do understand some instances where it would work. For us, in the patient base, the 95% of the people that we see that wanna lose weight, if they want Ozempic, we'll give them Ozempic. It's called berberine. It's called alpha lipoic acid.

It's called omega 3 fatty acids and pro resolving mediators. It's called pre and probiotics. It's called cut carbohydrates. It's also called donate for the first hour when you wake up and 3 hours before you go to sleep. You do all that I mentioned, they will have an ozempic moment.

Very good. That's that's great to know. And how do you, I guess, address that with patients that start asking questions about that? Because, obviously, when you're looking to lose weight, the thought of doing it the hard way with the diet and the exercise and the things that I think we all intuitively know we need to do is so much harder than the allure of taking a pill or taking an injection. How do you have that conversation with patients to say, wait a minute. Let's let's take a step back. What are those key things that you discussed with them about maybe their specific what's going on in their health that would lead them to be better off using the harder

If that doesn't work, and you're right, the allure of a pill versus doing work is quite exciting to people. Here is the capstone moment, if you will. They have to stay on it for the rest of their life. That's number 1. And that really scare wait a minute. I have to stay on a drug for the rest of my life? Yes. And if you don't, you will rebound back. And number 2, it's $1700 a month.

So those 2, 3 little things really make a difference. Does everybody follow suit? Of course not. I think the problem with our society is that we want it all in a pill and to do the work for us as opposed to us doing the work. I mean, I'm lazy in certain things. I don't fix things in my house. I don't do my own gardening. It's not beneath me. I just don't care to do it because I'm just too damn lazy.

I like to say I'm too busy. And if my wife can hear me in the other room, I'm too busy. But I think you know what I'm trying to say.

Absolutely. One person was asking about kind of your initial new patient intake. Obviously, you have a practice that does a lot with nutrition. You do a lot with testing and blood testing, I would assume, and supplementation. You covered a lot of the different tests and kind of biomarkers to look for. Do you have kind of a standard protocol you go through both from an intake standpoint, but then also from a a testing standpoint? They're wondering kind of, like, what type of how do you know what type of test to order for patients?

Great question. So I do order a very con I I typically start with serum tests because I found them to be the most effective. Duh. Yes. The poop test. Yes. The cheek epithelial test, saliva test. They all have a place.

But for me, my baseline is a serum test because it's the most reproducible and the most accurate. So I start with an insurance, believe it or not, base test that I'm able to get, and it's like 22 pages. It's everything from soup to nuts, if you will. Then missing a few markers, of course. Then I I test for food sensitivities, which is a fee for service test, a gut barrier panel. And if need be, I also do a cardiac inflammatory test. So I bundle those all together and I use that as a starting point. A lot of people complain, these are practitioners, that they don't wanna ask the patient for money.

The insurance covers an awful lot when it comes to lab testing. You just have to click the right thing. When I say the right thing, you have to ask for it. And I just don't think a lot of practitioners ask for it because they don't wanna spend the time and they may not be comfortable. I ask for it. I delve. There is some fee for service in there. So be it.

Insurance isn't gonna cover everything in life. We know that. Absolutely. This is not and I we don't have to go in that rabbit hole. You and I both know that. It's just where we are in insurance. But it covers more than you think, so you can get some good baseline with it.

Do you feel too that the serum tests are easier for patients to take than the ones that are a little more invasive such as the the poop tests or the ones that require them to do, like, the the cheek swab or things of that nature?

Well, the poop test for sure, I don't know that many people that wanna poop into a french fry cup. Some people just they're just not gonna do it. And the serum tests, everybody's comfortable with them because they've grown up going to the medical doctor and having their blood drawn. And I use a lot of finger spots, blood spots. They're extremely effective. So those things are very convenient. And with my virtual business, make it very convenient for you to drop ship to patients. I think that's where we're going.

Absolutely. Was that very helpful for you too during COVID? Obviously, being in the northeast, you all had shutdowns for a long period of time. Was that really important in your practice that you were able to still have virtual visits and still able to to do so many things without being face to face?

You saw that face. Right? I am in New York City proper. I grew up in New York City. I'm 30 minutes outside. I'm in the first suburb. So, yes, there was a lot of restrictions. There were a lot of concern. So that kinda was practice changing, practice challenging, and practice changing.

And it really made me change how I practice and how I practice better for me and better for the patient. Because now I introduce that as a staple in my office here, but also outside so I'm able to touch more people and have different hours. So to answer your question, yes.

Absolutely. Someone else is asking a little bit about some of the recommended vitamins and supplements. You had mentioned the Wolverine supplement. That was one that a lot of people had questions about. Where do you even get this, and and how did you learn about this?

How to learn about it? Well, I'd read about it, and I I affiliated myself with a company that carries it. So what I will do, not to be sales y, is I will tell everybody, take a look at what you have right there, whether it be Facebook or Instagram. Take a picture. I'm sure everybody knows how to use a QR code and DM me, and I'll give you all the information that you need. That's fair. Right?

Yeah. Absolutely. So, again, you did cover so much information in this webinar, but I know that this only really kind of scratches the surface. Tell us a little bit about the functional nutrition certification that we just recently launched. We just launched module 2, which we're very excited about. That one is fully online on demand, and then we obviously have 2 in person sessions. But if we could tell the audience just a little bit about the program and what all you cover because 50 hours is that's a lot of content.

I just pulled out the schedule so I can give them the right dates. Yes. We just covered well, you could still take module 2. We covered module 1 in the last week weekend in February. Each module is 12 hours. They're stand alone. If you want the certification, at some point, you have to do all 4. But if you just want a taste or some continuing add, you can take each as an individual.

23 are each 12 hour modules. They are both online. 3 will be completed by the end of next month.

So if you could touch a little bit on that. I know you mentioned here in today's session as well that the gut is being considered the second brain.

The yeah. The gut is the second brain because it has its own nervous system. So each part has a different flavor to it. But when you've completed this 50 hours by the way, hour 49 and 50, I'm gonna bring on 2 people to really show you from a business aspect how to run it as a business, how to convert what you're doing into nutrition. Everybody says, well, I have to go get a nutrition patient. Well, if you're a chiropractor, PT, acupuncturist, athletic trainer, you don't because there's gold in your files. The people are right in front of you. Ultimately, it'll draw in new people who are interested in that.

That is true. So we're gonna take 2 hours, 1 hour just to how to convert, another hour how to get new. So that's the 50 hours, and that's the secret twist to it all. Deeper than that, in the 48 that I teach exclusively on the science, it's not science. It's science bridge to Monday morning application. It's always, here's the science. Here's the data. Here's how you talk to the patient.

Here's your starting recipe protocol. Here's how you implement it. Now when you're comfortable with it, make it your own, and we'll have something for you within the other year or 2 that'll be more advanced. Because as we all know, you learn a new technique, you learn something, you wanna play with it for a little while, but it is implementable, so success rates are extraordinarily high.

So for the practitioners out there that maybe have not yet gone and gotten any type of official certifications in nutrition, maybe they're considering implementing some of this into practice right away, If there's one key takeaway that they can start doing immediately in practice with every patient, whether it's a specific blood test they need to order as a baseline, whether it's a supplement they absolutely should start recommending to everyone, what is that kind of ace in the hole type thing that they should start with right away to get going and and really start improving their patient's life?

First thing you should start doing is start talking about what they're eating. Start telling them gluten may be an issue, but really tell them what the problem is. Engage the patient. As far as the supplement, I'm gonna keep it easy. Vitamin d 3 with k 2, omega 3 fatty acids. Did you know that every cell in your body has a receptor site for omega threes and vitamin d 3? As far as a test, then I I know that your chat line blew up when I talked about tests that people weren't taking. But the number one test that I would take, because I believe there's a gut to disc axis that's parrot in the gut to joint, I would take a gut barrier panel test. And if you're interested, reach out.

I got everything for everybody. It's no problem. I'm an open book.

So when you do the gut barrier test for a patient and you get the results back, what does that typically look like? Are these really difficult to decipher and understand? Is it very clear cut and something easy to explain to a patient? Because, obviously, anytime a patient gets any kind of testing, they're gonna look at it themselves, and then they're gonna go to doctor Google and try to figure out what does this mean. What do those gut panels gut barrier panels look like?

Well, fortunately, that we have some videos on Google so they can do that. But I hear you. I I hate doctor Google and the University of Google in Surrey Surrey, Siri, and all that. They're color coordinated, so they're quite easy to go through. And the color coordination was a brilliant idea. It's green and red, so people really understand it. So you're testing for candida, which is a yeast, zonulin and occludin, which are protein enzymes that imply the structural pull and or damage of the tight junctions and LPS. And then it shows you antibodies, and it shows you inflammatory markers.

So, obviously, if you're producing antibodies and inflammatory markers, that's not a good thing. Everybody thinks it's good to produce an antibody. It's good when you that you can produce an antibody. But when you produce excessive antibodies that produce inflammation over duration of time, that tells you that your ship is a sinking.

So that's something that you would really wanna be able to kind of address with the patient right away and and be able to have some answers for them.

Person came in. Oh, I've got osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis. I need an adjustment. I said, let me take a leaky gut test. Why? Because there's a gut to joint axis, and whatever happens to you, that happens to the rest of your body. And sure enough, person came lit up. Rheumatoid factors were up on another blood test, and I took a look and I said, now you're not here just to get an adjustment. Now you're here to get the whole of you addressed and fixed.

And it's a better encounter for the patient because you're getting the root cause resolution. It's great for the field of chiropractic because people like, wait a minute. I thought you guys just adjusted. No. We all adjust. But listen, Todd does all the rehab, nerve flossing, factor, etcetera, decompression. I use laser and nutrition. People use AK.

We do a lot more than that. We are, without question, entry level primary care physicians, certainly for musculoskeletal and functional nutrition type of ailments.

I that's absolutely wonderful. So in terms of something for students, I always like to ask this on every one of our trainings because we have a lot of students that listen. What are some things that would be really important for them to do as they're going through school before they're ready to get into practice to make sure that they're well prepared if they want to be a nutrition specialized chiropractor or health care provider? Are there specific certifications they should look to after they graduate, such as the diplomat program? Or what are your thoughts and recommendations for a student that says, hey. I really wanna be able to treat my patients with nutrition. I want that to be my spend.

Well, obviously, I like the 50 hours that you and I put together. I think it's a great brass tacks way of starting. It gives you certification costs. So after that and I get to ask this question all the time. So let me give you some answers. I do happen to have a master's in human nutrition. I think a master's is great. You can also now get master's in functional medicine.

And the reason I like a master's is, 1, it's an advanced degree. We all have doctorates, but it's a degree that people understand. If you're looking for a more functional medicine, my good friend, Ron Grasanti, runs Functional Medicine University. That's also a great choice. People love that. It's very affordable. And as far as the diplomates are concerned, you could definitely do the diplomates after that chiropractic has due diplomates, by the way. There's one that's solely the chiropractors.

I happen to have one. And there's one that's the American Board of Clinical Nutrition. It's open to anybody. The bulk of 90% of us are chiropractors, but we're trying to expand it. So masters, FMU, but, of course, come to us. I will give you everything you need to start, and then you can start branching out. And you wanna hear some different things. Instagram, if you will, is the worst and the best thing because there's a lot of good information and there's a lot of junk.

So watching those kind of things will definitely give you an astute ear and eye.

Absolutely. Thank you for that. If anyone else has any questions, please feel free to drop them into the comment section there. We're gonna be wrapping up now. I know we went a little bit over time, but it was such great information that we certainly know it was of great value to you. Be sure to tune in for our final episode for the year where I'll be going off script a bit and taking you back through the most impactful lessons learned from all of our 2024 Factor webinars. You won't wanna miss it. Episode 96 drops in 2 weeks.