(upbeat music)
(chime jingle)
- Alright so I'm here with Dr. Decker Weiss
who is founder of the Scottsdale Heart Institute
and an amazing cardiologist.
And I flew into Phoenix and it's like 117 degrees
And I'm here at Patrick's house, the owner of Jigsaw Health,
and I walk out into the drive way
and I see you on all fours, licking a salt lick.
(laughs)
Can you explain to me just briefly what that was about?
- Ah, it's a little embarrassing.
I needed it.
My blood pressure was dropping
and I was feeling dizzy and light-headed,
ran to the nearest horse,
stole the salt lick, threw it down
and went to town until I felt better.
Now I'm re-energized,
I have a normal blood pressure now
and I can be here with you.
- Oh, good.
All right well, there's a poor horse somewhere
that's really upset.
But anyway the real reason I wanted to do this video
aside from his weird habit of stealing things
from ranch animals,
is the fact that I did a video a couple of weeks ago
on the body's electrical system
and how that actually works in relation to
electrolytes but also how we could translate that over
to really comparing our bodies, like not a 1981 Pinto
but more like a 2009 Lamborghini to say the least.
And how it all works together
to create the charge that allows us to move,
allows us to function and have energy.
And you being the expert in the world of,
especially sodium and potassium because they have
so much to do with the heart,
I figured you'd be a good person to explain
how sodium and potassium really work
to help us create ATP, help us create energy.
- Sure.
Well in cardiology circles you have sodium pumps
and you have potassium pumps.
And that allows for the normal polarization,
depolarization of the heart.
In fact there's even medicine classes,
some are sodium channel blockers.
Drugs like Amiodarone are potassium channel blockers.
But the main one we get into trouble with is
one of the fundamentals of life
which is the sodium-potassium, ATPase pump.
When you have a cell,
that membrane depends on that pump for life.
That pump allows the creation of ATP,
which is our energy, it's our currency.
And then we walk around as docs
and we say "Don't eat any salt,
"and by the way you live in the desert.
"And we're surprised you're tired."
So fresh off of licking that salt lick
I feel a lot better.
Anybody who's hypotense with lower blood pressure
knows this, almost like people that are low blood sugar,
when they get sugar they feel normal.
They will feel that with salt.
But the rest of us need it too.
Our bodies desperately need sodium
but it doesn't like sodium in a white chunk.
It likes brown salts and black salts and pink salts
and things like that.
They're a collection of minerals dominated by sodium,
that's a little gentler on our kidneys
and a little better for our bodies.
Cause it's not just the sodium pump,
it's the sodium-potassium pump,
sodium-potassium ATPase pump.
But all of the minerals come into play to make our energy.
And it's not so fancy,
it's not a fancy sports drink you know.
It's not Killer sports drink and all that stuff.
But we cannot expect to have healthy energy
without adequate sodium and potassium and general minerals.
- Gotcha.
So at the end of the day,
it's basically this constant cycle.
So you've got sodium and potassium that are being pumped
in and out of the cell and if one of those is off,
particularly sodium because it's easiest to get off of.
And then you're going to have a reduction in energy
because you don't have that,
which therefore means you're overall ATP is down,
and then if your ATP is down
then you don't have the energy to actually run that pump
so the pumps start to shut down.
- You got it!
And let's throw in one other thing,
the high caffeine use.
Because the high caffeine use is a diuretic.
You can lose sodium that way too.
So you're even getting less performance and more fatigue.
- Gotcha.
- We still, hey, I'm not above an espresso here.
But we do borrow energy with caffeine.
With good minerals we make energy.
And there is a place for caffeine in lives
and you can be very very healthy with it.
But if you're trying to reclaim good,
stable healthy energy,
you really have to look at the salts in your life,
and you have to look at the minerals in general.
Our food is depleted in it.
The basic public is not aware of the need
for mineral supplements and for healthy salts.
That's going to lead to a dangerous thing.
Surprise, the only mineral we're getting
is pure white salt in junk food and we're hypertensive.
Well of course we're gonna be,
that's the way the body's gonna respond.
But when we're getting good balanced amounts of minerals,
we're in good shape.
- Gotcha.
So there you have it.
The explanation here is to really show you
that sodium isn't just about your blood pressure.
Sodium plays a critical role in your energy.
And when it comes down to that electrical system
well, the salt is kind of like the copper wiring
inside the wire that's running throughout your car.
Without it, can't really conduct energy,
you can't really pump into each individual part of your car,
can't pump energy to the transmission to shift your gears,
you just flat out can't.
You're just runnin' on straight old
white salt like you stole from that poor old horse.
- Yeah and don't expect to be healthy,
don't expect to live long lives,
don't expect to be normotensive or clear.
Especially in warm communities like where we live.
- Right on.
Well, thank you doc.
And as always,
keep it locked in here with Jigsaw.
(whirring)
(chime jingle)