[Tim]: But on the inflammation side, I've been thinking a lot about this recently because
number one, and this is not that uncommon, but I've noticed that if I consume carbohydrates,
cycling carbohydrates and I'll do a cheat day like yesterday where I'm eating an entire
pound cake by myself, this kind of thing, and then even several hours later, I get acupuncture
and that's a whole separate conversation, but I will bleed more.
I will bleed much more than if I am, say in a ketotic state.
But then I have all these questions that come to mind.
For instance, I'm consuming like turmeric with ground pepper.
I always read it.
I never say it, piperine?
[Rhonda]: Yeah, piperine.
[Tim]: There we go.
So to increase the bioavailability and absorption.
So that's pretty old school.
You've got turmeric, curcumin pills or whatever.
There are a million ways to go about it.
But I've tried to whenever possible . . . so, you have like L-methylfolate, let's say.
Very interesting to me.
But unless I'm mistaken, pretty new kid on the block.
It's a relatively new addition to the supplement arsenal.
Whereas like turmeric, it's like, Ayurvedic medicine, they've been doing that for thousands
of years.
I feel pretty comfortable bringing in turmeric tea with some ginger and black pepper to counteract
unnecessary inflammation.
At the same time I'm like inflammation . . . this is where maybe you can help me gain some clarity,
but I'm like inflammation also serves some really important purposes, right?
If, for instance, you have people go do a weight training workout, there's a fair amount
of empirical data, I don't know if there's research data to support this, where athletes
will be like, "Oh my god, I don't want to be so sort out of my workout.
I'll take like NSAIDs, Advil, Ibuprofen, whatever, to facilitate recovery."
In fact, then they have less hypertrophy and they have less muscle growth as a result.
So it's like what is the inflammation that we want to not interfere with versus the inflammation
that we should try to prevent.
[Rhonda]: Yes.
I think that it's something I've been thinking about in a similar way with inflammation and
also antioxidants because I think that the type that you want to interfere with is the
colonic inflammation, the kind that's coming from your gut, that's leaking endotoxin, which
is released from like dead bacteria and it causes all sorts of damage because it binds
to cholesterol.
Anyways, I can get into this whole conversation.
But it's the bad stuff.
The inflammation that's causing that chronic reactive oxygen species which damages DNA,
proteins, lipids in your cells which gets into the brain and stops serotonin from being
released, so it causes depression and things like that.
[Tim]: Sounds like a bad cycle.
[Rhonda]: Yes.
Very viscous cycle too because then you start to activate more inflammatory molecules.
I think the good type of inflammation, the good type of damage, the good type of stress
is when you exercise, is when you're doing that type of exercise or heat stress or cold
stress or that type of transient stress on the body that induces all these, the expression
of genes that deal with stress so you're increasing the expression of all these good genes that
deal with inflammation expressed.
Having that inflammation, having that stress is critical to do that.
That's how turmeric works and curcumin.
One of the ways it works is it's actually slightly toxic to us.
Because it's slightly toxic to us, our body goes, "Oh wait a minute, I need to increase
the expression of all these genes so they make more of the gene to do all this good
stuff, to fight inflammation, to fight reactive oxygen species, all that bad stuff.
So I think it's sort of like . . . [Tim]: It's like what Dread Private Roberts
did in "Princess Bride" with iocane powder.
[Rhonda]: Yes.
[Tim]: A little bit every day.
[Rhonda]: Yes.
But it's like the chronic versus acute, good type of stress.
So that's what I think about.
I also have been thinking about it in regards to supplemental antioxidants.
I used to take a lot of vitamin C, supplemental vitamin C. And there were studies that we're
showing taking two grams of supplemental vitamin C a day with lower C-reactive protein and
there are all these reasons why I was taking it.
But then, studies started to come out where if you take the supplemental vitamin C like
after a workout, the half life is like an hour in a half in the plasma or something.
Then, when you work out, you create oxidated stress and you want that.
That's what induces mitochondrial biogenesis.
That stress is what signals to the mitochondria to make more mitochondria.
But if you dampen that by like sequestering that stress with an antioxidant, we're not
going to get those benefits.
There are studies now showing this both in humans and mouse animals.
So now I'm kind of a little more cautious about supplemental antioxidants specifically
because they can sequester some of that good stress that you want from things like exercise
or intermittent fasting, for example, things like that.
[Tim]: Wow.
Interesting.
So you think antioxidants could negate some of the benefits of, say, intermittent fasting.
[Rhonda]: Yes.
They can.
And it's been shown that that can.
[Tim]: That's good to know.
[Rhonda]: Supplemental antioxidants, because when you're intermittent fasting, a lot of
things are going on, but it is a type of stress.
When you're stressing your cells, you're creating reactive oxygen species.
That's what happens.
And part of that, there's a hermetic effect.
So when you create these reactive oxygen species . . . and this is the good type of stress.
Creating the good type of species because you're chronically inflamed because you're
eating processed carbohydrates and you're poking holes in your gut leading to inflammation
and blah, blah, blah, that's not the good type.
You don't want that constant reactive oxygen species being made every day.
But when you're intermittent fasting or you're exercising, that burst of it, which is much
more powerful, so it's not like a little bit each day, it's like, "Boom, here I am."
It's enough to signal to your genes, to other cells, "Make more of this gene that deals
with inflammation.
Make more of this gene that deals with stress.
Make more mitochondria."
It's just enough to do that.
You want.
Some of the benefits of intermittent fasting and exercise rely on that.