Influenced to Death

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In this episode, Hannah and Victoria review the new Netflix documentary created by Chris Smith on multi-millionaire techpreneur Bryan Johnson, Don’t Die.

Bryan lives a highly unconventional lifestyle—he engages in literally hundreds of strategies per day—as he attempts to reverse his biological age and “not die.”

Spoiler alert: If you haven’t watched the…

In this episode, Hannah and Victoria speak with Amanda Jones as they explore one of the most controversial and lucrative corners of alternative wellness: DETOX.

They discuss:

* The interesting connections between our culture’s Christian roots and the urge to detox

* The nuances of detox—it’s not all or nothing, no matter what you’ve seen online

* Studies that help us gain a better understanding of what detoxification truly is and why it’s sometimes frowned on by conventional medicine

* Some personal stories, including, but not limited to: enemas in the jungle, oregano oil mishaps, and photog-worthy colonic irrigation

* Why simple, free steps can be just as powerful as $500 cleanses

* The crucial aspect of detox that most influencers miss

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit influencedtodeath.substack.com

In this episode (that you should probably not listen to on your lunch break), Hannah & Victoria welcome back guest Jameson Simpson (of episode #8 fame) to talk about medicinal leeches.

Jameson has been using leeches medicinally for over 15 years, and he and Victoria share their personal tales of leech therapy while Hannah does her best not to puke.

In this episode, they discuss:

* The history of leech therapy, dating back over 3500 years

* Some interesting leech facts, like the fact that leeches are FDA-approved

* Personal leech stories, including Victoria showing off some of her leech bite scars

* Graham Rook’s “Old Friends” hypothesis and the interesting connection between our health and what we now consider unsavory but possibly beneficial bacteria, parasites, and other creatures

* The risks of leech therapy and why YOU SHOULD NOT TRY THIS AT HOME

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit influencedtodeath.substack.com

In this episode, Hannah and Victoria get to speak with one of their favorite scientists, Dr. Deanna Minich, about her favorite molecule: melatonin.

We discuss:

* The history of melatonin, in which Dr. Minich describes early experimentation on the pineal gland and a vat of frogs (🤯 yeah, us too)

* Early uses of melatonin and how melatonin was initially isolated for supplemental use before synthetic melatonin was created

* The unique antioxidant properties of melatonin and why it’s so different from other antioxidants

* The tendency of humans to categorize food, supplements, and interventions of all kinds into “good” and “bad” and why that’s so problematic

* Is there more to molecule than meets the eye? Could it be connected to our consciousness?

* Personal experiences with "dark retreats and their effects on the pineal gland

* The impact of constant light exposure on our biological age

* What happens to melatonin as we age chronologically

* The many uses of melatonin other than facilitating our sleep cycle

* The connections between atrial fibrillation, GERD, and melatonin

* Some common questions and objections to supplemental melatonin, such as:

* Are there any dangers in supplementing melatonin?

* Why it impacts some people differently than others

* If there’s danger in supplemental melatonin stopping your natural ability to make melatonin

* Are there differences between synthetically produced vs. naturally derived melatonin?

Read Dr. Minich’s latest publication on melatonin here.

Learn more about Dr. Minich:

Deanna Minich, PhD, is a nutrition scientist, international lecturer, educator, and author with over twenty years of experience in academia and the food and dietary supplement industries, and currently the Chief Science Officer at Symphony Natural Health. She has been active as a functional medicine clinician in clinical trials and in her own practice (Food & Spirit™).

She is the author of seven consumer books on wellness topics, four book chapters, and over fifty scientific publications. Through her talks, workshops, groups, and in-person retreats, she helps people transform their lives practically and artfully through nutrition and lifestyle. Visit her at: www.deannaminich.com.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit influencedtodeath.substack.com

In this episode, Hannah and Victoria have the extreme pleasure of speaking with scientist, medical doctor, and inquisitive clinician Dr. Sharon Bergquist about her research into the benefits of stress.

They discuss:

* Why lowering your stress might not be the best idea

* How stress actually makes you biologically younger

* How Victoria and Dr. Bergquist met and bonded over their love of hormesis

* Why carnivore diet promoters are technically right about plants being stressful, but the big aspect of stress they’re missing

* Can you overdo stress and cause harm?

* What we know about the benefits of stress in diverse populations

* How Hannah and Victoria’s first nutrition training viewed stress…and why it was wrong

* The reason we fear stress and the different forms of stress responses we have

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit influencedtodeath.substack.com

In this episode, Hannah and Victoria welcome back Jenny McGruther, genius recipe developer and all-around thoughtful human, to finish their discussion of The Weston A. Price Foundation.

They cover:

* More on the WAPF review of Nina Planck’s book Real Food for Mother and Baby. (You can read Nina’s response to this thumbs-down review here.)

* The accuracy of the WAPF’s information and other large institutions (like the Institute for Functional Medicine 👀)

* Is phytic acid really bad for you?

* How to eat traditional foods when we’re not sure what our ancestors ate

* Is Germ Theory or Terrain Theory true?

* Raw milk

* The WAPF’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit influencedtodeath.substack.com

In this episode, Hannah and Victoria have the extreme pleasure of speaking with Dawn Whitten, a clinician, researcher, educator, and clinical mentor in naturopathic medicine specific to perinatal and early life health for over twenty years. (This woman knows her stuff, y’all.)

Today’s topic? Maternal exclusion, aka elimination diets, as a way to address eczema or other symptoms in the baby.

Does it work? Is it safe? What does the evidence say? What is Dawn’s clinical experience?

Learn more about Dawn here.

See all of Dawn’s publications here. 🤯

………….

Resources & research notes for this episode:

The Australian Breastfeeding Association is a wonderful resource—it's a volunteer-run non-profit organization that uses a peer-support model. They have put together many resources for parents and are a place to go for reliable information

And, of course, La Leche League.

The Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine is more of a professional organization, but they do have a find a practitioner function that can help parents find a practitioner fluent in breastfeeding medicine. They also have a few great handouts.

And they have some great parent handouts.

On maternal peanut allergen consumption while breastfeeding and infant allergy:

* Reduced risk of peanut sensitization following exposure through breast-feeding and early peanut introduction

* Reduced peanut sensitization with maternal peanut consumption and early peanut introduction while breastfeeding

On breastfeeding and the effect of policies and marketing of breastmilk substitutes:

* Why invest, and what it will take to improve breastfeeding practices?

* Marketing of commercial milk formula: a system to capture parents, communities, science, and policy

* Breastfeeding in the 21st century: epidemiology, mechanisms, and lifelong effect

(this is considered a seminal paper)

On donor milk:

* Australian Breastfeeding Association Position Statement on Donor Milk

* Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine’s 2017 Position Statement on Informal Breast Milk Sharing for the Term Healthy Infant

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit influencedtodeath.substack.com

In this episode, Victoria speaks with Dr. Jordan Robertson, founder of The Confident Clinician Club, about the effect of Google and meme’d medicine on our ability to discern helpful from trendy information and get well.

Victoria and Jordan discuss:

* The shift toward patients being influenced by online sources

* The pull they feel in themselves toward being influenced

* The most detrimental and beneficial aspects of wellness influencing

* Some of the most outrageous claims they've encountered and which ones have the biggest impact

* Where they see wellness influencing going in the next 5-10 years

* Why critical thinking and research analysis should be reclassified as hard vs. soft skills

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit influencedtodeath.substack.com

In this episode, Hannah and Victoria are joined by fellow balanced babe Jenny McGruther of Nourished Kitchen fame for the beginning of a deep dive (yep, expect part 2) into the Weston A. Price Foundation.

Interview with Sally and Kelly the Kitchen Kop (Kelly Moeggenborg) on how the WAPF was born

The Nina Planck book review: Real Food for Mother and Baby

Dr. Kaayla Daniel’s original publication on fermented cod liver oil

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit influencedtodeath.substack.com

In this episode, Hannah & Victoria speak with Dr. Mark Messina, an international expert and soy researcher.

We read his research.

We emailed him with high hopes.

He responded!

Dr. Mark brings the juice on soy, “myth-busting,” and even sheds some light on GLP-1 agonists.

DO NOT SLEEP on this episode! Dr. Mark isn’t some dull researcher…he’s passionate, engaging, and one of the most knowledgeable guys on the planet when it comes to soy.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit influencedtodeath.substack.com