Answers to Your Supplement Questions
April 27, 2019
Using 40+ years of knowledge, research-based education and personal experience with hundreds of clients, our nutritionists and supplement expert Greg Peterson, are talking supplements. How much is too much, what helps with gallbladder support, high blood pressure, anxiety and depression and much more.
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Transcript:
DARLENE: Well, welcome to Dishing Up Nutrition. I'm Darlene Kvist. I'm a Certified Nutrition Specialist. And I'm so pleased to be with you this morning. We have a very special show planned because we have a very special guest. Joining us this morning in studio is Greg Peterson. He's a dear friend. He also is the owner, well kind of co-owner I should say, (Forget that Dave)… of a well known and respected vitamin and mineral supplement company that provides professional grade supplements to healthcare professionals. Now Greg is not new to the supplement business. You know, he's been educating and working with a variety of health care practitioners for over 40 years. How long has it been Greg?
GREG PETERSON (GUEST SPEAKER): Since 1973.
DARLENE: I think that's about the time we met.
GREG PETERSON: Yeah. We were both such young things.
DARLENE: Yes we were. I was already old. But I really, honestly, I've had the pleasure of knowing Greg, and I have benefited from his expertise for, oh, 40 years or more. And also joining us this morning is Marcie Vaske. She is a Licensed Nutritionist and somehow she's going to keep us together today. I don’t know how
MARCIE: I will do my very best, but it might be tricky.
DARLENE: You know, when old friends get together, even if we're not at a bar...
MARCIE: Right, just talk and talk. You have your inside stories here. I'll let you go. So, well I'm happy to be here as well. I'm happy to be surrounded by all the wisdom in here. So you guys are up for a good show. For all of the listeners out there that are listening to us live today, get out your pen and paper, too, because you're going to want to take notes on everything you learned today, for sure. And if you have a supplement question, you're welcome to call us this morning in studio at 651-641-1071. And actually a lot of listeners have already sent us some questions via Facebook and Instagram and I think we're going to hit on some of that today to kind of get the show started. So let’s start.
DARLENE: So you know, Greg, again, welcome to Dishing Up Nutrition. You know, listeners have been asking for you to come back and talk to us many times.
GREG PETERSON: They're gluttons for punishment.
DARLENE: So I know that you do much more than just have a supplement company. You provide… and this is kind of interesting because you've been doing this for so long; You provide quality, researched information to people, you know, healthcare practitioners like doctors, chiropractors, nurses, you know, all kinds of people: nutritionists. And really we have been coming to your seminars for years and years and years and years. You know, actually it was in the middle of, I think it was the middle of April and you had a hormone class in the evening and we had about 10 or 12 inches of snow that night. But you still had a full house. It was just amazing. I couldn't believe all the people that turned out. Because they know that it's going to be quality education that people get when they come to your seminars. And I think that's what sets you apart from so many other companies. It's just amazing the amount of time… You know, we teach a lot of classes so we know how much time it takes to put something like that on. So we really thank you so much for that. And so Greg, tell us a little bit more about what you, what your business is about and you know, you've been doing it a long time, and you've been doing the educational part for a long time. How did you get started?
GREG PETERSON: I always think I always had an interest. I mean even in high school, got to remember back in the 60s, I was in high school: late sixties. I think I might've been the only guy in my class that was taking cod liver oil, vitamin D, B complex, vitamin C and somehow I just had an interest. I got into it and you know, found, you know, some different places that were selling your products at that time too. So it goes way back. I had, I found a way out of a bolting cod liver oil with a little, with a little bit of, at that time a milk chaser. My wife always said that, I always had some of the nicest skin and in high school, you know because of that. But so you know, that kind of hooked me at an early age with that. And so we just got into the whole education. So when we got into the nutrition business, you know, back in the 70s we wanted to have an active part in the education of the practitioners. We just didn't want to be, you know, salesmen for food supplements. We wanted to be actually a part that: “How do you utilize these supplements most effectively with people”? You know, the clients and patients and so on. So we started to do a lot of professional, you know, we called them opinion leaders, seminar speakers. So these are people around the country that were, you are known to be very leaders in certain areas. It could be gastrointestinal health, cardiovascular; It can be blood sugar, neurologic, female, you know, male health and so forth. And we bring them in and we'd have, you know, invite our different practitioners to it. And they'd learn the kind of the cutting edge, the most recent things in those different kinds of applications. A person that really stands out is Dr. Jeffrey Bland. And he's considered to be the father of functional medicine. So things you hear about functional medicine now… so it's how well you function that's important. You know, not what your lab numbers look like. But how do you feel? How do you function? So he championed that. He is so well known, you know, Dar and Marcie, on a worldwide basis that in China they have a whole hospital there and they have an entire floor called the Jeff Bland Functional Medicine Clinic.
DARLENE: Oh really? Wow.
GREG PETERSON: So he's not just known in America. He’s known throughout the world and respected. Kind of a little bit of a fun pointer or fun tidbit: The first professional seminar he ever did was in Bloomington, Minnesota at the old hotel Radisson. It’s not the Radisson anymore. But back then it was to 18 people. He talks to thousands of people now. You know, so you know, a minor beginnings there. And he brought his at his time, his eight year old son, Kelly Bland, who Debbie for the weekend, my wife Debbie babysat him. Now Kelly’s in his mid-fifties. We have a chance to work with him and, he does amazing, you know, seminars. And each year we just, we do like over 50 opinion leader seminar speakers just in our kind of upper Midwest area. And now we're expanding more nationally. So it’s only going to go up from there.
MARCIE: Oh, that's really exciting.
DARLENE: Yes it is. Well, you know, I remember the first seminar that I taught when I was just getting into this nutritional education. I had one person. And I taught it.
MARCIE: You must. The show must go on.
DARLENE: That’s right. So should we start with some questions?
MARCIE: Yeah, let's dig in. Are you ready Greg?
GREG PETERSON: I'm ready. Yes.
MARCIE: Okay. So one of the first questions that we got was from a listener. And they say, “I've heard somewhere that taking a lot of supplements can be hard on your liver due to ingesting the capsules that the supplements actually come in.” You know. So is there any truth to this? What, what do you think, Greg?
GREG PETERSON: I have not seen it as being a problem; Myself, having worked with literally thousands of practitioners for many, many years. Sometimes you have these softgels are from bovine sources you know, beef sources. So if a person has, let's say a high sensitivity to beef, that might be a concern. Very unlikely, but that could be a possibility. Also, if you're using poor quality, you bovine gel caps like that, you know, there might be some, you know, some toxicities, you know, some different chemicals within those poor quality collagen, you know, capsules that might be adding to the whole toxic overwhelm of the body. We use grass-fed beef, you know, anytime we'd do like a gel cap in a Coenzyme Q10 for example, or fish oil and so on. So that's not really a concern. And I really haven't seen, because it's such a small amount that's consumed of these bovine gelatin capsules… I've not seen that being really something that contributes to the allergic response or an overall, you know, liver kind of a load.
DARLENE: Okay. Yeah. And that’s, and I'm sure that the quality of capsules that you're using would not ever be a problem, you know?
GREG PETERSON: No, they aren't. And then when we're getting away from the gel caps… The only time you really have those is when you're doing like a vitamin E gel cap or a coenzyme Q10 gel cap and so forth. When we go to our formulas and so forth, we're using our vegetable capsules.
MARCIE: Okay.
GREG PETERSON: So it was like, you know, like a methyl-cellulose, in kind of a capsule, as soon as it hits any kind of a liquid, it just dissolves; kind of expands and dissolves, and disperses the content of the capsule.
DARLENE: You know, we had another question and I didn't put it in our notes here. But one of the other questions that we had, Greg, was “Is there any special time of day that you should take your supplements?” And I think she was, I don't know exactly what she was wondering about those questions. But you know, I guess I'm thinking, when's the best time to take magnesium
GREG PETERSON: Yeah, I like it at night before to kind of relax a person. Magnesium can also be taken throughout the day too because it's so important for muscle relaxation and for you know, brain chemistry, and for cardiovascular function. There isn't a wrong time to do it, you know, so if a person’s taking multiple tablets or like a magnesium glycinate, and has some different kinds of sleep issues, or maybe they're more muscle tense and so forth, at night. I have them take a dose before bedtime but also might have them take a dose, you know, during the day a couple of times as well too. And make sure that those good levels of magnesium are there constantly. The only ones I probably don't take later at night are ones that are a little bit more maybe stimulatory.
DARLENE: What would that be?
GREG PETERSON: Well, I mean a lot of times I won't take, you know, neurotropics. You know, like your Acetyl L-Carnitine and phosphatidyl serine. Phosphatidyl choline, I should say. They are a little bit stimulating to the brain, which is good because you want to wake up the brain and support it during the day, but probably not take it right before bedtime. You know, like an adrenal, you know, product really supports the adrenals, that gives you some more energy during the morning, probably not at night.
DARLENE: So Marcie can we, can I ask him just one little question so that we can drop that topic? So how about the other question that we get on…? How about probiotics? When should you take those?
GREG PETERSON: Yeah probiotics. I'll take them throughout the day really too. I'll take them in the morning. I like them in my morning drink like that too. And I find certain probiotics are very good for the brain to help to improve sleep, you know, to improve, reduce anxiety and depression too. So, again I don't know if there's a perfect time or an inappropriate time to take a probiotic.
DARLENE: One of the things, though, with a multivitamin, I always say take it with food.
GREG PETERSON: Yes
DARLENE: Because your stomach can't handle it.
MARCIE: It’s a lot of things. So we have to head to our first break. Sorry to break up the party. You're listening to Dishing Up Nutrition today. Dar and I, along with our special guest, Greg Peterson, are answering your questions about supplements. So if you have any questions, please give us a call in studio at (651) 641-1071.
DARLENE: Well, welcome back to Dishing Up Nutrition. You know, if you have a question about perimenopause or menopause, or postmenopause, join Chris and Joann and myself on Saturday, May 18th for Menopause Survival Seminar. You know, we're all about answering your questions about, you know, mood swings, hot flashes, sleep problems… Everyone has sleep problems. Incontinence: An amazing number of people that have that problem. And of course weight gain. And we understand how food affects your symptoms and how key supplements can actually help. This menopause seminar fills up pretty quickly. So I recommend that you sign up today and save a seat. We feed you. We have fun. Bring a friend, you know, so you can sign up online, weightandwellness.com or call (651) 699-3438. And we got so many questions, Marcie.
MARCIE: I know. So, before we move on, we want to just come back a little bit to the probiotics that Greg was talking to earlier. During the break, he was just mentioning that he's come up, or they've come up with a new one that's specific to more brain health. Do you want to expand on that?
GREG PETERSON: Yeah, it's just we're understanding more and more with probiotics. They have different areas that they really impact on more so. Some are very effective for your female health care situations. Some are more for the immune system. There's some that are much for the brain, cause you, we talk about that brain/gut connection now and they call the gut the second brain because what goes on in the gut goes on in the brain. This directly affects the brain chemistry and how the brain functions. So there's about six different known probiotics, researched probiotics that impact on the brain for cognition, you know, focus, anxiety, depression and so forth. And so that's a product that we’ll be coming out with here in the next month or so that would be more specific for people that are having those like, you know, like Dar is saying, the sleep issues, anxiety, depression that Marcie was talking about as well too. It’ll be a very specific probiotic for that.
DARLENE: Amazing. And you're sort of expanding your product line even more than you had before, right?
GREG PETERSON: Yes.
DARLENE: You're on a mission, aren't you?
GREG PETERSON: We are, you know, we’ve been around for 45 years. We're pretty much connected with everybody not only in the country, but the world, that are involved in the Institute for Functional Medicine, the different practitioners at different universities and so on. And they’re, you know, like us, coming out with more innovative types of products and so we're, you know, still this small, more family, you know, based, you know, company that listens to your needs. And we're able to respond more quickly. We're not tied up in a corporate world where we have to go through multiple committees and whether there's money available or what other cases. If we think it's something that really is needed and our practitioners want to have it, we'll make the product.
DARLENE: And I brought that request to the station this morning. And Greg’s going to work on it.
MARCIE: I know: which is so awesome. You just go to the source.
DARLENE: I feel real fortunate that I met you 40 some years ago.
GREG PETERSON: Well, same here. It was a good day.
DARLENE: Yeah: Can't remember it though.
MARCIE: Well we have a caller here so I think we'll take our caller here. Liz, welcome to Dishing Up Nutrition. What is your question for Greg today?
CALLER: I would like to know a little bit more about magnesium glycinate. I rely on that quite heavily. I'm wondering is there a certain amount that you should…? I've gone up to 800 because I have trouble with my legs, cartoids or whatever. Is that beneficial? Is there anything else I can take to help these little veins get rolling better? And also I would like to know vitamin D3.
DARLENE: Ok Greg. There you go.
DARLENE: I love the fact that you're taking magnesium glycinate. We love that product.
CALLER: I couldn't live without it.
GREG PETERSON: Well, I would say magnesium is one of those things… It’s one of the most commonly deficient nutrients. It's right up there with like folic acid and some of the B vitamins and magnesium. We probably all are deficient to a degree with it. As far as dosaging goes, you're kind of in that range. I remember listening to one of Jeffrey Bland’s seminars years ago, and he was about that six to 800 milligram per day of elemental magnesium. So it's not the whole magnesium glycinate complex, but how much elemental magnesium you're getting in there. Because that's magnesium bonded to glycine, which is an amino acid that carries a magnesium very effectively from your gut into your blood system to the cells that you need them. So it's probably the best carrier for that. And you could start with that range and I'd say depending on the counselors that you're dealing with and so on, and they say you might want to go higher, go higher. I mean, there really isn't, you know, a problem. With magnesium glycinate you’re probably not going to get loose stools, you know, from it, because it's transported in the blood system. It’s not released in the gut like you would have with, you know, some of the other forms of magnesium. So I was talking to a person one time a few years ago that had, you know, really a bad neck injury from an auto accident that the thing was just not resolved: The stiffness and the cramping and so on. And she tried magnesium, you know, 600 milligrams didn't do it. She went up to a thousand. A thousand milligrams wasn't doing it. It wasn't until she actually got to 1500 milligrams of magnesium that the whole neck just loosened up and became like butter at that point. And so, I mean, that's why you say, that's why it's good to be working with a professional, and kind of finding out how far you want to push that to get the desired effect.
CALLER: I am surprised how quickly the magnesium glycinate helps, like if I get cramps, a cramp in my leg or something, I mean, it's almost instantly, once I swallow that pill, I can't believe it knows where to go.
DARLENE: That is perfect. Now, there was another part of your question. What was that?
CALLER: I wanted to know more about vitamin D3.
DARLENE: Vitamin D3, Greg.
GREG PETERSON: I think, you know, living in our area, we're probably, almost all of us are D3 deficient. That's the active form, you know, vitamin D. You want D3 not the D2. And again, I would, you know, feel like we all probably need at least 5,000 IUs a day. I think in this area you can have a monitor by the blood, you know, just to see that you're getting the levels that you want to have. But you know, most people are really feeling that you want to be at 50 at a blood level. If you're doing your blood, you know, vitamin D levels, at a 50 to 80 level, is a good amount. So I mean, I would do that and probably get 5,000 IUs of vitamin D. And then just, you know, try to monitor through your practitioner to see if you're in the sweet spot.
CALLER: Okay. I have fibromyalgia. So I was told once I could take quite a bit more than that.
GREG PETERSON: Well, start at five for general purposes, you know, unless it's a person who's like a smaller child or very small person and so forth.
DARLENE: But we have some people that need to take 10,000 to get that up into that range of 50 to 80 or, or sometimes for, if people are experiencing depression, they actually recommend higher doses.
CALLER: Okay. I know the doctors aren't too keen on giving the tests but how else are you going to know?
DARLENE: That's exactly right. You just have to keep asking. Greg, I think you made an interesting point. You said vitamin D3, not D2. Why?
GREG PETERSON: Well, the D3 is the activated form. And the D2 is the synthetic form of vitamin D. And the body just does not utilize it very readily. And we were talking about this a little bit earlier too. When you get into things, other nutrients like folic acid, you know, folic acid that you find in the food fortifications, you know, in a lot of the, you know, cheaper multivitamins and so forth, that folic acid is a synthetic form of folic acid. And many times in probably 30-40% of the people they have difficulty converting that folic acid to full late or the activated forms of folic acid that the body can use. And so the same thing with the D2 is it's synthetic, the body doesn't convert it. It doesn't utilize it readily. The D3 is the natural form the body utilizes vitamin D as.
DARLENE: And often the prescriptions that sometimes the people get for vitamin D is vitamin D2. So that's why I wanted to make sure you've cleared that up, so people really understood that.
MARCIE: Yeah, and know what they're taking.
CALLER: I use the Nutrikey daily. So I guess I'm getting the right amount.
MARCIE: Yep you are. Thank you, Liz.
DARLENE: Thank you for the call.
MARCIE: Thank you. All right. You are listening to Dishing Up Nutrition brought to you by Nutritional Weight and Wellness. So are you trying to figure out what the best diet is for you? Maybe you're thinking, should I do Paleo, Keto, Vegan or should I really just look into a real food plan? Well we recommend a simple real food plan. We call it eating the Weight and Wellness Way. It's simple and easy to follow yet really effective. And promoting good health. So if you want to learn more, I would like to suggest to go to Weight and Wellness series. It's a great series of classes. They start May 6th or 7th. So go to our website at weightandwellness.com for locations and to sign up. We'll be happy to answer any of your questions at (651) 699-3438.
DARLENE: Well welcome back to Dishing Up Nutrition. You know, during the rest of this month of April, we're offering our Biotic 7 probiotic at a 15% discount. And we had a great testimonial about it. I have to share this. There was a couple that had bought it and had gone on a trip, on a vacation, and they usually end up with some type of diarrhea afterwards, you know? They took that every night, no problems. They came back. They were perfectly healthy. And all they had to do was take one or two at bedtime and that was it. So it really does work. But anyway, it's, for the rest of this month it’s at a 15% discount and starting May 1st… Now this is the best one. We have a special bone building supplement that’s called Key Osteo Plus. And that supplement is going to be on special for the month of May. And this is a great bone building product. And you know, Greg and his company actually helped us develop this excellent product to ensure that the ingredients are the highest quality and they're free from any contaminants. So if you want to read more about Key Osteo Plus go to our blog: Key Osteo Plus, and this blog will give you all kinds of different information about how to build your bones. So Marcie, where are we? Can we take another caller?
MARCIE: We are going to take another caller. So Dawn, welcome to Dishing Up Nutrition.
CALLER: Thank you.
MARCIE: What's your question?
CALLER: I have a question that is with reference to my husband. We are 71 years old, and I know that, you know, being tired is probably normal.
DARLENE:No, no, no, no. Come on. You're talking about a couple of people that are…(laughter)
CALLER: But he’ll come home from work and he'll sit down and Bingo, he’s sleeping. And we go, we go out to dinner or something and he, he's quiet. So I'll say, what's wrong? “Oh, I'm just tired.” That kind of thing. So last night I asked him, “Are you taking a vitamin of any sort?” And he says, “Oh no, I don't need those things.” Well, I take a vitamin and I'm not tired. I'm never tired. I mean, I take just plain ordinary, one-a-days that are for people over 50, and I seem to be doing okay. I was just wondering if there's something that would be specific to somebody his age that you know, would help him with the being tired?
DARLENE: Well, before Greg pops in there with that answer, I've got a question for you. Has he had a sleep test? A sleep study taken?
CALLER: Oh no, he would never even do that.
DARLENE: Well, you know what, he's got signs of sleep apnea.
CALLER: Really?
DARLENE: Oh yes. So that's the one of the first things. But now we'll go to the, you know, expert.
GREG PETERSON: Well that was my first thought too, was sleep. He’s not getting quality sleep, you know, restorative sleep. So, you know, a sleep study would be good. Or at least working with some sleep nutrients. You know, maybe bring him in to see one of the counselors and getting an idea, you know, is he the kind of person that maybe needs a Melatonin type of, you know, supplement? A GABA?…Maybe need something else that will really improve his quality of sleep. And I think his energy levels will increase dramatically from that standpoint. But also, you know, we were talking earlier too that, you know, food is your major energy, you know, source. And so, if he's not getting adequate protein in his diet, that could be a part of it because we know that protein converts to blood sugar basically, you know, so for both, brain energy and for body energy, it's very important. Protein is very important for the immune system.
DARLENE: Well, I think also Greg, a lot of times people are not eating breakfast and sometimes they're skipping lunch, and I don't know if your husband's doing that. But they just don't have enough food energy to keep them going. And I think as we get older we need more actually.
CALLER: Okay. What did he does to keep his weight in check every night he makes a salad. I mean it has all the good stuff in it. The tomatoes, the cucumbers, the carrots, and that's what he eats during the day. And then he'll come home and maybe fry up a hamburger or Italian sausage patty or something like that.
DARLENE: Well, Greg, would you…? Because you need protein in the morning, you know.
CALLER: Okay. Oh, and he does, he does do, he does do like two hard-boiled eggs every morning.
DARLENE: Okay.
GREG PETERSON: He might be a good person for a shake though: a morning shake. I find that as really an easy way to get a lot of nutrients in there. You know, I do one that, I'll put in, you know, a good source of protein either like, we have a Paleo Protein, a beef protein that has a very good, you know, biologic value to it: very well absorbed. Or whey protein would be another good one. He can start off with a really good whey protein. I like to add our greens to it because we just don't get enough greens as a society, you know, veggies and…
DARLENE: Greg, when you say greens, most people say “Yuck”.
MARCIE: Yes. Explain how delicious your greens are.
DARLENE: Your greens are not like that.
GREG PETERSON: Yeah. We worked very hard on what is called Fruits and Greens, we call it. And we have about 10 or 11 different your flavors, arranging from, you know, Strawberry Kiwi to grape to mint, the chocolate, espresso and so on. And it has the antioxidant levels of about 20 servings of fruits and vegetables. So it's a very concentrated greens product with these antioxidants that really you'll keep us young… Basically, quench, you know, free radicals that create aging of the body and so on. And I add that. So I add a scoop of our greens, you know, to a scoop of the protein and then I'll add in there maybe like half an avocado. I might throw some additional ice cubes in there. Maybe some almond milk if you want to make it more creamy tasting. And honestly that is delicious. I look forward to that. Kind of a funny story is years ago when I first started making these for my wife is we're laying in bed at night…
DARLENE: Yes, ok now, keep it clean.
GREG PETERSON: Yeah. I'll be relatively...She's looking at me and she's saying, “Hey, you know what I'm looking forward to”? And I'm thinking, “Oh, she's in the mood tonight”. “I'm looking forward to that shake you make for me in the morning”. It’s just that good.
CALLER: Can you post the recipe?
DARLENE: Oh yes. Yeah, yeah. The recipe is online at weightandwellness.com. Yup.
CALLER: Oh it is. So, okay, I'm gonna look that up. Well, thank you very much.
DARLENE: Okay, so Greg, a couple of other things that I was thinking about as far as just people that lack energy, you know, sometimes it's, they need some CoQ10. You want to talk a little bit about that as far as how it helps with energy?
GREG PETERSON: Yes. CoQ10 is called ubiquinone is kind of scientific or chemical term for it. And it's called that because it's ubiquitous to every cell in the body. So every cell in your body needs coenzyme Q10 or ubiquinone to produce cell energy. It’s a really basic compound like that. And so for energy purposes, but then again, that's why you hear about coenzyme Q10 being effective for heart and for, for neurologic function and you know, muscle function, and so forth. Because all of these cells are dependent on the coenzyme Q10 to produce ATP, which is your basic cell energy, you know. So I mean I always kind of start there and then, there's so many other things that can contribute to poor sleep. I think that's really where you want to see a health professional, like at Weight and Wellness. You know? Is it thyroid issues? Is it some gastrointestinal malabsorption issue? Is it possibly the adrenals or whatever? There's so many contributors that it's hard just to give a blanket, you know, take this and you're going to be okay.
DARLENE: Or is he just not sleeping enough? And quality sleep.
MARCIE: You know, going back to the CoQ10, how much would you normally start somebody on for if they're really feeling tired or for that energy piece?
GREG PETERSON: I would go at least 200 milligrams. And you could go up from there, but that'd be a good starting point. In particular if they're on some like statin drugs, statin drugs deplete your coenzyme Q10. And they find this funny when a person would be on, you know, the statin drugs and coenzyme Q10, they don't have the symptoms that they have when they're just on statins alone of fatigue and muscle pain and so forth because it replenishes the coenzyme Q10 that statin drugs deplete.
DARLENE: Yup. So how are we doing for time Marcie?
MARCIE: We have a couple minutes before we have to take another break.
DARLENE: So we have had questions about anxiety from a couple of different listeners.
MARCIE: So, is there a magic pill? That’s what people want to know.
DARLENE: I mean they always want the magic pill.
GREG PETERSON: Don’t we all?
MARCIE: If only.
DARLENE: Yeah. And then I think we should talk about a magic pill for anxiety. And then later let's talk about a magic pill for inflammation. Cause those are two big things that we always deal with.
GREG PETERSON: Yup. Well, one of the other guests you had under your program here about a month or so ago was Bob Rakowski. And Bob is a really interesting clinician. And he has developed a protocol that he uses to blunt the cortisol. And Cortisol is the hormone that's produced by stress. And so it's that fight or flight kind of, you know, hormone, which is good when you need it. But if you feel like you're constantly under stress or distress from a fight or flight, then that really eats at your body. You know, it causes anxiety, depression, you know, breaks down your tissues, you know, prematurely and so on. So he's developed a week long program where he gives melatonin. Because melatonin is an antagonist to cortisol. So it’ll reduce those high cortisol levels. He’ll literally have you take two milligrams of melatonin every hour with 200 milligrams of L-Theanine, which is a GABA support. And GABA is that that brain chemical that calms you down. And most of the medications, your anti-anxiety medications work on GABA. So you take two milligrams of melatonin, 200 milligrams of L-theanine every waking hour for a week. And that kind of resets that response, that stress response that people have, you know. Some will feel a little bit tired initially, you know, until the body adapts to that. Other people just feel like, “Oh man, I can breathe deeply again”, you know, when they do it as well. But that might be a good place to start and then taper down like we're talking earlier so you're not doing that much melatonin and L-theanine. And maybe just do it, you know, one or two times a day, you know, thereafter, you know, to kind of mitigate that anxiety and stress.
DARLENE: I mean, of course, we would always throw in, you know, better eating. And lots of times just getting people to eat the protein shake a couple of times a day to get some nutrients into their system.
MARCIE: Right. Exactly. Well we have to go to our third break. So you are listening to Dishing Up Nutrition. Today Dar and I are answering questions you may have regarding the supplements you take with Greg Peterson. He is the co-owner and vice president of Nutri-Dyn, a company that provides pharmaceutical grade nutritional supplements to healthcare providers. And next week join Cassie and Joann as they discuss why water is important for weight loss. And they'll have special guest Paul Westby who is a chiropractor and also a longtime friend of a colleague of Greg's.
DARLENE: And Greg, I just saw Paul a couple of days ago and he said, “I've already spent 20 hours putting this show together”.
GREG PETERSON: He said, “Make sure you tell everybody that I'm a funny guy. My response was, “Looks aren’t everything, Paul.”
MARCIE: All right, we'll be right back.
DARLENE: Well, welcome back to Dishing Up Nutrition. You know, over 40 years ago, both Greg and I saw the need to help people understand and practice good nutrition. You know, while many food companies, many food factories, mass produce good tasting food, but they're not the healthiest food. You know, over the years we have continued to caution people about the harmful effects of these foods. You know, if you check the labels of many of the convenience foods, you'll find added sugars for taste. We know that. A lot of it is high fructose corn syrup. You know, we see food dyes such as red number 40 to enhance an appearance. But not very good for us. And often there's MSG and other additives to improve the flavor. Sadly, much of these foods contain genetically modified foods such as modified corn, soy and wheat products. And what's even sadder is the dramatic increase in autoimmune diseases, depression, obesity, diabetes, cancer and heart disease. You know at Nutritional Weight and Wellness we say change your nutrition to change your life. And really Greg, it's always a joy to work with you. It's always been a wonderful educational experience working with you. Even this word, learn, learn learn… You and your company are truly a blessing for our community. Thank you.
GREG PETERSON: Thank you. Thank you. It gets me out of bed in the morning. Yes, very good.
DARLENE: I thought that was Debbie.
MARCIE: For that shake.
DARLENE: We had an interesting question on break.
MARCIE: Yeah, we sure did. So our very own Julia from myTalk 107.1 called in with a question. She was curious and wanted to know our opinion on intermittent fasting. We're hearing a lot about that these days. So I'm going to let the, the two people full of wisdom here fill you in.
DARLENE: Well, I'm going to start. I'm not a fan of intermittent fasting because I believe that we have to keep our blood sugar stable all the time. You know, and it goes back to that blood sugar balance, blood sugar to feel good, to get the nutrients into your system consistently, keep your brain functioning consistently. So that's just my thoughts. And Greg, what's your thoughts?
GREG PETERSON: I agree with you as well too. I think the intermittent fasting is interesting. I think the jury is still out a bit on it. You know, I think we should observe it for a long period of time. I'm… you know, good on detox programs, you know, where you would, you know, reduce the amount of, you know, intake of food while you're supporting the detox mechanism: that phase one, phase two detox mechanism in the liver. But I think, for everybody just to overall do intermittent fasting, I don't think that's right for everybody at all. I kind of go back, as my background is, you know, doing a lot of heavy lifting and power lifting: The body building and so forth over the years. We know the guys and gals could always get down to the two or 3% body fat by eating almost nonstop. I mean, they'd eat every two hours, but it's always good protein, good plant nutrients and their good quality food. As they kept throwing fire wood on the fire to keep them metabolism burning. Like you’re saying, keep supporting the system: the brain and so on. And so I think that is more of what I would probably lean towards for most people. You know.
DARLENE: I agree.
GREG PETERSON: But it goes back, it was common interesting comment that Jeffrey Bland was talking about earlier, the father of functional medicine, said he was asked at one of his seminars and the doctor said, “Okay, of all these different kinds of diets, Jeff, what is the best diet”? And everybody just kind of on bated breath thinking, okay, the master's going to speak now. And he goes, “It depends on the person”. It depends on how their body chemistry is and how they respond. Some people might be more of an Atkins kind of a person. Other people might be more about like our Pritikin and so forth. And you don't know until you work it yourself, you know? And if you can work with a professional that can help you through that whole process and find out: Okay, what is the ultimate kind of a dietary schedule that will work for you?
MARCIE: Yeah, that's a great point too. I mean, everybody's constitution is different, so yeah.
GREG PETERSON: An endomorph isn’t going to be eating like an ectomorph?
MARCIE: That's right.
DARLENE: So Greg, before we run out of time… We should have another hour. Maybe we can just take the next hour and keep talking. But anyway, let's talk about inflammation. You know, we know so many people are really struggling with inflammation of one kind or another. And I know you have a new supplement that has helped a lot of people. In fact, it's even helped you.
GREG PETERSON: Yes. As talking about a little bit earlier, it's called pro-resolving mediators. You know, PRMs. And it's a product called PRM resolve. And anytime you have an inflammatory, excuse me, inflammatory response and like acute. It could be an injury, it could be a stress, could be an infection and so forth. We know we want that acute inflammatory response and that brings in the immune system, makes sure that the area doesn't get infected: Kind of walls it off so it doesn’t, you know, pollute the rest of the body and so on. That's good. But at some point it's got to stop. You don't want to have this chronic inflammation, which so many people have nowadays, whether it's arthritis or diabetes or heart disease or cancer or what other cases. So the body has these resolvants, you know, these PRMs I was mentioning. They help to take that acute inflammation and resolve it back to non-inflamed healthy cells and tissues again.
GREG PETERSON: But because we're so exposed to stress and toxins and insults and infection and so forth, there's no way the body can produce enough of these resolvants is to maintain good, healthy, non-inflamed tissue. So enter in these a PRMs.
DARLENE: Where do they come from?
GREG PETERSON: It comes from fish oil is one of the main sources. I mean other plant foods too, but fish oils probably have most of it. But just very small amounts; Not really enough to just take a fish oil product itself and expect you're going to get enough of these resolvants; to resolve this acute inflammation. So what we'll do is we concentrate these resolvants, these PRMs, these pro-resolving mediators into these gel-caps. And you can take, you know, a concentration of those. And it makes a significant difference in reducing that chronic inflammation. I have had, you know, for years, advanced degeneration in my L4, L5, you know, and I was always kind of stiff and I knew what to do: Chiropractically and stretching and massage, and the diet and the supplementation. So I was very functional, but I still was stiff a lot and it would even kind of interfere a little bit with my sleep because of that stiffness. I started doing about six a day are these PRM resolves, and in about a month period of time I started realizing, you know what, I have literally no inflammation. You know, and I’m moving. I mean, you know, I'm actually putting my pants on, lifting my legs way up like we used to do as a kid. Don’t have to brace yourself on a wall to do it, you know? And it's the only thing I've changed. And who knows if it's an accumulation of things I do. And this was the icing on the cake, you know, basically. But I'm a real strong believer of a heavy saturation of those pro-resolving mediators in addition to even the fish oils as well.
DARLENE: Wow, that's great.
MARCIE: I know everybody's mean to running out and getting it now.
GREG PETERSON: Won't find them too many places, you know?
DARLENE: How are we doing for time?
MARCIE: It’s time to wrap it up.
DARLENE: We got more questions, you know.
MARCIE: I know. Greg's going to come back, I'm sure.
DARLENE: Yes.
GREG PETERSON: Oh yes, absolutely.
MARCIE: Our goal at Nutritional Weight and Wellness is to help each and every person experience better health through eating real food. It's a simple yet powerful message. Eating real food is life changing. Thanks for listening everybody.
DARLENE: And thank you Greg. We had so much fun and thank you Deb for being here.
MARCIE: Our supporter in the background.
DARLENE: Thank you.
