Nourish Balance Thrive

Standing on the shoulders of giants is what I do at Nourish Balance Thrive, and none more giant (figuratively!) than strength and conditioning coach, author and speaker Jason Seib. I've been listening to Jason and Sarah Fragoso's Everyday Paleo podcast (now renamed JASSAFIT) since my earliest days eating a paleo diet, and I still find their wisdom and practical advice helpful both personally and professionally. If you head over to his website and sign up for Jason's list, he'll send you the instructions I've been using in my practice called The Fat Loss Directive.

Like all good solutions, the new AltShift diet scratches a personal itch. Jason's wife Sheryl was unable to shake off the baby fat despite eating a nutrient dense paleo diet and so Jason recommended, as always, more walking and strength training. These changes yielded some good results: greater muscle mass and strength, but unremarkable changes in Sheryl's appearance. Jason then suggested the next most logical thing: reducing carbohydrates. This change worked for a while, and then it didn't, and so they kept tweaking. They checked Sheryl was eating enough food and getting enough sleep (she was). Despite small victories, Sheryl was still stuck. The questions and answers that arose from the experimentation process would eventually lead to what I would describe as a cyclical ketogenic diet that enabled Sheryl to lose five inches in her waist in just six weeks (pictured on the right).

Sheryl is not alone, and at the time of writing the AltShift Facebook group has a happy 3,929 members.

• [0:01] Christopher's introduction of Jason Seib, coach, podcaster, author.
• [1:30] How Jason's experience as a personal trainer makes his work more credible.
• [2:46] What is the AltShift diet Jason has developed and why did he create it?
• [8:15] Why the "per day" mindset of diet planning isn't the wisest.
• [11:43] The kinds of things Jason tracks with his test groups.
• [15:18] "New Bike Syndrome" and how it relates to weight loss diets.
• [20:21] Is the AltShift diet plan for everyone?
• [34:14] What do the terms "5 shift" and "3 shift" mean in Jason's plan?
• [42:10] The difficult points in Jason's plan for most people, and how they get past it.
• [47:40] Why most people need 2 to 3 passes through the AltShift cycle to begin getting it.
• [50:10] The tensions between scientific studies and daily practices.
• [56:27] Where Jason agrees with Vinnie Tortorich.
• [58:01] How the vast majority of people don't even know this diet approach exists.
• [1:00:40] Other things Jason is working on.

Jason's website and podcast

The Fat Loss Directive (subscribe to receive your copy)

The AltShift Diet

BOOK: Brain Rules

The AltShift Diet Facebook Community

@JasonSeib on Periscope

Vinnie Tortorich

John Medina

Jimmy Moore

Tommy Wood

Chris Kresser

Dominic D'Agostino

Jillian Michaels

Sarah Fragoso

It’s a scenario we’ve all experienced. You go to your OBGYN for your scheduled PAP smear just to get the box ticked on your health check up list, and wait for the Doctor to give you the “all clear.”

Is that the best you can do? Is it the best you should do? Let me ask you a couple of very serious questions...

That may sound like a pipe dream, or something that’s going to require a lot more minutia than you want to invest. But think about it for just a second…

It’s YOUR privilege and RIGHT to be able to take an active role in your own reproductive and hormonal health. There are things you can do to make improvements in your health and even prevent issues that often arise as your body ages.

Doesn’t that feel good… to know that you can actually DO something to help yourself before things become major issues?

The conversation today should not be seen as a “how to” instructional but rather an overview and examination of FAM, including the basics of the method, how and why it works, and the benefits that come from using this approach.

Both Julie and Torea stress that FAM is not only about birth control… and that’s where you’re able to take an active hand in your own health.

The FAM enables you to keep track of your own hormonal levels and monthly cycle on a level you probably won’t believe. You can catch hormonal imbalances before they become serious, notice even the slightest changes in your cycle and health so you can be prepared for changes in your body before they happen, and even detect issues (like cervical cysts) when your health care provider may not even be concerned about such things.

One of the ladies in today’s conversation did exactly that, to the amazement of her Doctor.

If you want to throw off the depency you have on your health care provider in favor of a smart, informed, accurate degree of self-care that most women have never thought possible, you can do it. The Fertility Awareness Method could be the answer.

Find out more on this episode.

www.ToreaRodriguez.com

Taking Charge of Your Fertility the book.

www.Kindara.com - app and interactive infographic to help you track your fertility.

Gas, bloating, diarrhoea, constipation, reflux. Modern allopathic medicine still does more harm than good for these common and chronic health complaints. I often think about what my life might be like now if I'd listened to my gastroenterologist and written off diet, lifestyle and infections as a potential cause of my gut issues. I wonder if by now I'd still be taking anti-inflammatory steroids or if I would have gotten to the point where I needed surgery.

A better solution was to take a deep dive into gut testing to uncover the root causes underlying my bloating and diarrhoea. Stool testing allowed me to find amoebic and pinworm infections, urinary organic acids showed yeast overgrowth. Together with some diet and lifestyle changes these problems were treatable with botanical herbs and with just one prescription medicine.

My guest today is physician, researcher, author, critical thinker, educator and health enthusiast Dr. Michael Ruscio. Michael is a functional medicine practitioner who emphasizes nutritional and lifestyle solutions to the types of problems described above. He runs a busy practice in Walnut Creek, California where he spends two days a week seeing patients and three days researching and writing. Together with a small team of researchers, Michael is in a unique position to help people through his experience both as a practitioner and researcher. Best of all, he's willing to divulge all his trade secrets on my podcast!

This interview might not be the best place to start if you're new to the idea of functional medicine and testing. If that's you then I'd highly recommend listening to some of the early episodes of Michael's podcast. In this interview, Michael and I go in some technical details of SIBO and other infections like Blastocystis hominis, Yersinia, Toxoplasmosis and Epstein-Barr.

We also talk about how some of these infections might interfere with vitamin D metabolism, either by interfering with the vitamin D receptor, or perhaps increasing conversion of 25-OH D to 1,25-OH D. As a result, we're seeing low levels of 25-OH D on a blood test, but that's because it's all been activated, which is potentially immunosuppressive. There's also some evidence that inflammation (certain inflammatory cytokines) upregulates the enzyme CYP27B1, which creates 1,25-OH D.

• [0:05] Christopher's introduction of Michael and his podcast.
• [2:50] Michael's upcoming conference in the UK.
• [7:58] What is the SIBO protocol?
• [8:28] Great results from a case study Dr. Ruscio did with Christine, a patient who he guided into a new protocol,and why the principles of what he did are more important than the methods.
• [11:32] How Dr. Ruscio came to understand the principles behind his approach to intestinal health, and how he was forced to think through the varying positions he was being taught.
• [13:13] How emergency medicine and functional medicine are vastly different for good reason when it comes to protocols.
• [14:24] An example of why it's vital to think through the principles and not just follow protocols.
• [21:11] Why it's important to be careful with therapeutic trials.
• [24:16] Why researchers fall prey to omitting facts or studies contrary to their position, and why it's vital for everyone to raise the bar on the practice of sharing data.
• [28:25] The gut infections Michael has seen and what he does to treat them.
• [33:20] Why diet and lifestyle come first.
• [38:19] Why Dr. Ruscio works with patients in phases and how he goes about it.
• [39:35] What does Dr. Ruscio do with things he can't "fix?"
• [43:02] The things looked for when testing for Epstein-Barr virus.
• [44:30] Michael's increasing respect for natural treatments for virus conditions.
• [47:45] The relationship of Vitamin D to infections and health and some surprising opinions Dr. Ruscio has in light of the Vitamin D hype today.
• [54:44] How you can connect with Dr. Ruscio.

Michael's podcast

The SIBO protocol episode

Re-find Health Conference in London for practitioners with Michael is on Jan 17, 2016

Melissa Hartwig of The Whole30 will be speaking at the same conference the day before

So small, so abstract, it's very hard to get your head around the idea that mitochondria are important. For me, knowing that these tiny organelles make up 10% of our total body weight (25% of the heart) helps put things into perspective. Mitochondria allow us respire with oxygen and produce vast amounts of an energy molecule called ATP. In fact, each one of us produces our body weight in ATP every day! The greater the number of healthy mitochondria, the better you feel and the faster you go.

Even more incredible, recent research suggests that mitochondria come from a bacterial lineage and at some point made friends with our cells to form modern eukaryotes.

My guest today is functional medicine practitioner and medical doctor, Robert Rountree. Dr. Rountree was named recipient of the Linus Pauling Functional Medicine Award at IFM's 2015 Annual International Conference, held in Austin, Texas. Dr. Rountree received the award for his pioneering work in the development of Functional Medicine and his role as a highly inspirational and informational member of IFM's faculty. Dr. Rountree is the Chief Medical Officer at Thorne Research.

I learned everything I know about the mitochondria through Bryan Walsh's Metabolic Fitness Pro and the Khan Academy. As promised, here's the picture of the mitochondrial membrane:

One of the most interesting supplements Dr. Rountree talks about during our interview is NiaCell® (nicotinamide riboside). I've since done a lot of reading and Dr. Tommy Wood agrees the research is promising. NAD+ levels control almost everything from mitochondrial biogenesis to ability to deal with inflammation and DNA damage. NAD+ drops with inflammation damaged mitochondria.

If you've done a urinary organic acids test and you have an accumulation of malate, isocitrate, and alpha-ketoglutarate (all need NAD+) as well as lactate (produced in order to regenerate NAD+ from NADH), and possibly quinolinate and kynurenate (both feed into NAD+ production), then you either have high NAD+ requirements or poor NAD+ turnover. In these cases nicotinamide riboside is especially worth worth considering.

• [0:05] Christopher's welcome of Robert.
• [0:27] Dr. Rountree's receipt of the 2015 Linus Pauling award and background as Chief Medical officer at Thorne.
• [2:00] Bob's interest in nutraceuticals and nutritional treatments and the relationship to functional medicine.
• [4:28] Christopher's interest in chatting with Bob about mitochondrial issues and true health.
• [6:25] Why athletes and people in general should care about their mitochondrial health.
• [7:32] The mitochondria as the core of healthy metabolic functioning.
• [9:09] How the mitochondria work: a very basic overview.
• [12:30] What does a mitochondria look like and what are they?
• [16:16] Things that make the interplay between cell and mitochondria work better.
• [17:54] How mitochondria and free radicals impact athletes.
• [19:18] The importance of using true "antioxidants."
• [21:52] Problems that happen with damaged mitochondria: Parkinson's and diabetes.
• [25:57] Are the gains needed possible from dietary changes alone?
• [29:06] How large amounts of carbohydrates damage the cellular pathways in the body.
• [31:07] What Dr. Rountree recommends for his patients in this area.
• [34:30] The testing that can be used to measure mitochondrial functioning.
• [40:00] The use of an unfamiliar nutrient supplement: nicotinamide riboside.
• [46:08] Why you want more mitochondria to achieve peak performance.
• [48:00] The supplements Dr. Rountree uses personally and why he believes everyone needs more than food to bolster resistance to chemicals in the environment.
• [51:44] Dr. Bob's research and current practice and what he's doing that is most exciting to him.

The Electron Transport Chain at the Khan Academy

NiaCell® (nicotinamide riboside)

PolyResveratrol-SR®

N-acetylcysteine (NAC)

Milk Thistle

Curcumin Phytosome is in the EXOS multivitamin

CoQ10

Genova Diagnostics Organix organic acids test

Dr. Tommy Wood

Linus Pauling

Pathway Genomics

Dr. Stephen Sinatra

This week I've got Dr. David Minkoff, MD on the show to talk about protein supplementation. Before going any further, I should make it clear I'm all for real food. Spend your money at the farmer's market before you spend on any supplement. Having said that, I've also had great results taking supplements, and I've seen many other athletes enjoy the same. Close to the top of the list, especially for athletes with digestive complaints, are free-form essential amino acids.

Dr. Minkoff is a board certified pediatrician and fellow in Infectious Diseases and has extensive postgraduate training in Complementary and Alternative Medicine. He's an expert in Functional Medicine, Chelation, Allergy Elimination, European Biological Medicine, Neural Therapy, Longevity/Aging Medicine, Enderlein Therapy, Insulin Potentiated Therapy, and more.

And equally important, Dr. Minkoff is an athlete himself, having competed in over 40 IRONMAN competitions.

During this interview, we talk about protein and their amino acids building blocks. Free-form amino acids have helped me in three different ways:

Back when I was suffering from a lot of gas, bloating and diarrhoea, free-form amino acids helped me with my recovery. I got to the point where I stopped lifting weights because of how sore it made me afterwards, and I even felt sore after an endurance paced ride, sometimes for days. Now I understand more about physiology I can explain what might have been going on.

Stomach acid denatures protein and activates enzymes.

Imagine you've just eaten a nice piece of grass fed steak. The process of protein digestion begins in the stomach with hydrochloric acid (HCl) and an enzyme called pepsin. HCl doesn't break apart protein into its constituent amino acids. Instead, it denatures the protein. Denaturing means to act on the hydrogen bonds that hold the protein together which allows the protein to unfold. HCl also activates pepsinogen into the active enzyme pepsin, and the pepsin then starts to break apart the peptide bonds. A peptide is just a short sequence of amino acids. If your stomach acid is low, this whole process will start to fail before absorption can start in the duodenum.

Brush border enzymes break apart proteins in peptides and amino acids.

Once in the duodenum, the partly digested food is called chyme. The pancreas produces digestive enzymes, some of which break down the proteins in the chyme. The key proteolytic enzyme trypsinogen activates into trypsin at the brush border of the enterocytes that line the GI tract. Think of the delicate brush border as a shag carpet, and the proteolytic enzymes contained within the shags are themselves proteins synthesised by the nucleus of the enterocyte cell.

Zinc is an essential cofactor.

All the enzymes described thus far are themselves proteins, and to make them your body needs zinc. Surprisingly, zinc found in food is usually bound to a protein, and to separate the zinc from the protein and absorb it, your body needs zinc! It's a vicious cycle. Alkaline phosphatase below 70IU/L may hint at a zinc deficiency.

Elevated indican on an organic acids test indicates the bacterial breakdown of protein. Elevated indican means that the bacteria, not you, are digesting the protein that you eat. Diagnosis: messed up gut.

Free-form aminos are easily absorbed.

Hopefully me explaining all this will help you understand that protein digestion is complicated. If it goes wrong, we're in big trouble. Free-form amino acids like the ones in Nourish Balance Thrive Catabolic Blocker do not require the same complex digestion because the tablets are water soluble and the individual amino acids are easily absorbed on contact with the enterocytes.

Even though my digestion is much better now, I still take essential amino acid tablets during my rides. I like my water plain, so I'll throw a handful of tablets into my jersey pocket every time I head out. I then take five tablets (5g) for each hour of ride time. Sounds strange, but once you get used to it, it's very easy to swallow five tablets at once and they don't seem to dissolve in my pocket.

Exercise, especially hard exercise, is catabolic which is a fancy way of saying a state of breaking down. Even though I remain in ketosis most of the time, glucose is still the most readily usable form of energy and some cells lack the molecular machinery to burn anything other than glucose. For this reason, your liver will produce glucose during exercise in a process called gluconeogenesis.

Gluconeogenesis uses protein to make glucose during exercise. The main source is the amino acid alanine liberated from muscle. My hope is that by taking free-form amino acids during exercise I can prevent this catabolism. I certainly notice a difference in muscle soreness after a long and or hard ride and especially after a race.

Eating turkey makes you sleepy because it contains the amino acid tryptophan, right? Everyone knows that. The fact that you felt sleepy after eating could have had something to do with the 800 calories of sweet potato mashed with butter and sugar that you ate with the turkey, but still, there is some truth to the tryptophan part. Large, neutral amino acids compete for access across the blood-brain barrier, and during exercise they all disappear into muscles except for tryptophan. With unabated access to the brain, tryptophan is used to make the inhibitory neurotransmitter serotonin and that may contribute to central fatigue.

Nourish Balance Thrive Catabolic Blocker contains tryptophan, but the three main ingredients are the other large neutral amino acids leucine, isoleucine, and valine. These three are usually referred to as the branched-chain amino acids. The idea is that during exercise, the tablets replace the branched-chain amino acids disappearing into muscle for use as fuel and so we slow down the rate of tryptophan crossing the blood-brain barrier. I'm less sure about this one so I'll give you a reference.

• [0:01] Introduction of Dr. David Minkoff.
• [0:45] Why Christopher wants to talk with Dr. Minkoff about Amino Acids and protein.
• [2:15] Why are Amino Acids and proteins important to the body?
• [6:34] How Christopher discovered that protein deficiency was an issue for him and how Amino Acid supplements helped.
• [8:15] How free form Amino Acids can be a great help to people and why Amino Acid deficiencies can occur in unexpected ways.
• [10:38] The importance of getting the RIGHT Amino Acid supplement.
• [16:33] The problem with whey protein.
• [21:02] How Dr. Minkoff's amino acid protein supplement is produced.
• [22:40] The reality of Amino Acid usage with exercise: what's happening in the body?
• [26:20] Lessening mental fatigue using essential Amino Acids.
• [33:05] How you can make room in your budget for the right Amino Acid supplement.
• [34:32] How to connect with Dr. Minkoff.

Spritz speed reading app.

Nourish Balance Thrive Catabolic Blocker (thank you for supporting the podcast)

www.DrMinkoff.com

www.Lifeworkswellnesscenter.com - Dr. Minkoff's clinic

Dr. Richard Feinman

Dr. Tommy Wood

Today's podcast episode is a bit different than usual because I've solicited questions from the Optimising nutrition, managing insulin Facebook group for kidney expert Dr. Jason Fung. If this is the first time you've heard of Jason, you might be better off starting with his Sigma Nutrition Radio interview and also The Aetiology Of Obesity YouTube playlist.

The questions are great - they cover the topics of blood glucose levels, type 1 and type 2 diabetes issues, fasting, muscle loss, what Jason recommends as an effective treatment for diabetes and much more. Before we get into the Q&A, let's start out by clarifying some things about diabetes that Jason was very insistent that we understand...

Many people think that type 1 and type 2 diabetes are closely related but Jason insists that's wrong. They are "completely different diseases" and "you can't even talk about them in the same sentence."

Type 1 diabetes is a problem of not enough insulin. The proper course of treatment is to give insulin to the patient. That makes sense.

But type 2 diabetes is a disease of too much insulin. Yet, what do we typically do for a type 2 diabetic? We give them insulin. Why? To control what we consider to be high blood sugar levels.

But giving insulin to a type 2 diabetic doesn't address the underlying cause that is the insulin resistance. Giving insulin as medicine drops blood sugar levels but the disease remains. Jason likens this method of treatment to giving an alcoholic a drink of whiskey because he's experiencing withdrawal symptoms. Sure, the symptom will go away temporarily but the disease is still there… and it's actually getting worse.

• Q: Which is worse, insulin toxicity or glucose toxicity?
• Q: At what percentage of A1C could we expect the person to have diabetes?
• Q: Various questions about blood sugar levels and what is the right number to shoot for.
• Q: When is a low carb diet not enough to help with diabetes?
• Q: What are the benefits of fasting for type 2 diabetes? And what are the benefits of intermittent fasting?
• Q: Do you use fasting protocols or work with patients on a case by case basis?
• Q: Does fasting cause too much stress on the adrenals?
• Q: Is fasting different for men and women? I've heard it isn't good for women to fast.
• Q: What happens when someone lean begins to fast? Do they begin to burn muscle?
• Q: Gluconeogenesis in lean individuals: Where is the substrate for glucose coming from?
• Q: Is there any fear of protein intake causing gluconeogenesis?

• [0:19] Christopher's introduction of Dr. Fung and this Q&A episode.
• [1:09] Jason's background of kidney specialization and interest in type 2 diabetes.
• [8:03] Q&A with Dr. Fung.
• [45:03] Addendum with Dr. Tommy Wood.
• [52:29] In a week of fasting, you will likely lose a pound of lean muscle.

The Aetiology Of Obesity YouTube playlist

Jason's website

Sigma Nutrition Radio podcast

Optimising nutrition, managing Insulin Facebook group

Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes (ACCORD) trial

Action in Diabetes and Vascular Disease: Preterax and Diamicron MR Controlled Evaluation (ADVANCE) trial

Glucose Control and Vascular Complications in Veterans with Type 2 Diabetes (VADT) trial

Basal Insulin and Cardiovascular and Other Outcomes in Dysglycemia (ORIGIN) trial

Minnesota Starvation Experiment

George F. Cahill, Jr.

So many emails! They seem to be breeding here in my inbox. Wait, what's this, PayPal wants to validate my social security number? That's odd, let's click and see what it is. A form. Ah yes, I know how to do this, it'll only take a minute. Submit, done.

One less email in your inbox, one less problem to deal with

Or is it. The next day your boss appears at your cubicle with some guy you don't recognise. This looks ominous, what could they want?

They want to know

Why you clicked open that message from PayPal, why you were confusing personal and company email. "It was late and I was tired", you explain.

You clicked on the link because you have brain fog

And this isn't the only situation where your focus has been less than optimal. The guy with your boss is a security expert like today's guest Mike Zusman, and the email is called a simple phishing attack.

Mike is a Cat 1 (fast) mountain biker and one of the three founders of New Jersey based security firm, Carve Systems. Mike and I have been working together for about a year to optimise his performance both on and off the bike, and I love his ideas about how security breaches could be prevented.

How many phishing attacks could be prevented

If our employers invested as much in their employee's health as they do in the security systems? Not that they shouldn't invest in security, they should, but it seems to me that there's more than one way to approach this problem.

So what is brain fog, and what causes it?

Brain fog is that feeling of nothingness that sometimes happens when you'd rather be concentrating on work. The lights are on but nobody's home. Who knows what causes it, I think it's one of the signs and symptoms of an underlying problem. There are however, some plausible mechanisms, like quinolinic acid on an organic acids result.

Quinolinic acid, or quinolinate as it's labelled on a urinary organic acids result

Is a potent neurotoxin–a fancy way of saying harmful to brain cells. This image was taken from Mike's first organic acids result:

And this from the retest after treatment:

We'll never know if quinolinate was the cause of Mike's brain fog

But a plausible mechanism, together these results and improvement in symptoms is better than nothing, right? So what did Mike do?

Mike made many difficult and important changes

He switched to a healthy-fat, ketogenic diet with emphasis on whole foods, plants and moderate protein. Mike made the switch away from carbohydrate supplementation towards a more fat-burning approach. He also took supplements to fix the problems indicated on the test results that included small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO). Overall, Mike has been able to reduce the number abnormalities found on the organic acids result from 10 to 2.

A better life: reduced stress, increased mental clarity, greater energy

Mike is "feeling much better now", more productive, racing faster and more consistently.

• [0:05] Christopher's welcome of MIke and introduction of their relationship together.
• [1:46] Mike's questions about his body's ability to make the best of the training and changes he was adding to his training regimen.
• [3:20] Mike's assessment of his stress levels before connecting with Christopher.
• [4:57] The biggest help to Mike in making changes that mattered.
• [6:34] The benefit of the headspace app.
• [7:01] The diet changes MIke has made and how he's feeling as a result.
• [8:08] Moving away from the old way of eating and how Mike did it.
• [9:50] The importance of nutrient density and letting go of the old foods that are not nutrient dense.
• [10:41] The impact of Mike's blood sugar level and health changes.
• [14:36] The ongoing impact of Mike's body moving into ketosis.
• [16:20] Mike's advice about the transition to a low carb, high fat diet.
• [19:10] Causes of "brain fog."
• [20:13] Mike's experience of headaches after racing, during stressful situations, etc.
• [21:13] Christopher's response regarding the possibilities for the headaches.
• [22:29] The impact of removing carbs from his diet on Mike's bike racing.
• [26:22] The biohack that blood testing can be.
• [26:51] The importance of being patient to see the changes happen.
• [28:45] How Mike's dietary changes are impacting his family relationships.
• [32:14] New projects that have come out of Mike's improved health.
• [35:29] The impact of health on high intensity professions.
• [41:18] Why Mike didn't do well on the vegetarian / vegan path and what he thinks about that approach overall.
• [44:49] How Christopher's work inspires Mike in his security company.

The Ben Greenfield podcast that Mike first heard me on

Headspace

Genova Diagnostics 0091 Organix Comprehensive Profile

Mike blog

The Rich Roll Podcast episode with Andy, founder of Headspace

Ben Greenfield

Julia Kelly

Rich Roll

Should you have your baby at home, hospital, or birthing center of some sort? It’s a very important question to consider. If you’ve never found yourself pondering this question, perhaps one day you will. I was only a few weeks pregnant when I started to consider my options, I wish now I’d started thinking about it sooner.

I needed to find care practitioner for my pregnancy and I knew I wanted a midwife. On a referral from a friend, and eager to have my first appointment, I picked the first one I met, she was lovely, warm, compassionate, grandmotherly, and kind. When I told her I was also considering a birthing center and home birth, and she quickly preyed on the fears I had shared with her and guided me away from those options. Because she was a former home birth midwife, I trusted her opinion on the subject even more. Her experienced guidance was a relief for my worried pregnant brain in those early days.

Unfortunately, her advice should have been a red flag. Instead of being concerned about getting to know me and figuring out what was best for me, she lumped me into her practice and stamped me for hospital delivery before I even had enough time to double check the outdated and misguided statistics she’d given me about home birth. A sure sign of her devotion to protecting her relationship to the hospital, not to me. I wish I’d done some more soul searching about what was really important to me before I picked my midwife. I’m even more sure of that now after talking with Anne Margolis.

Anne Margolis is a Home Birth midwife with a fabulous practice in New York: Home Sweet Homebirth. Naturally, she feels that home births are a beautiful, healthy, and safe option for all moms. But one of the most important beliefs she holds to is that the mom in question has to feel safe with the place she chooses to have her baby. If she chooses a home birth because she’s pressured into it or feels guilty if she doesn’t, but doesn’t feel safe, she’ll wind up having trouble even in a home environment. The opposite is true as well--a hospital or birthing facility will not be the best place for that woman if she doesn’t feel comfortable and safe. Anne knows… she’s had some difficult experiences of her own to draw from…

To say that Anne’s experiences in giving birth to her children were traumatic is to understate the issue. She was an OB nurse practitioner when she had her first two children, so she felt she had a pretty good handle on what to expect and how things would go in the hospital. She had her first child long before she even knew home births were a viable option and during the experience many decisions were made for her without her even being consulted. A pitocin drip, episiotomy, C-section… all of it came barreling toward her, presented as unavoidable decisions. After being rushed into an operating room for an “emergency” C-section, Anne waited for an hour for the surgeon to arrive then decided on her own that she was going to birth her baby… and she did.

The fact is that in all of Anne’s in-hospital experiences, things could have been handled very, very differently. At the suggestion of a friend, Anne met with a midwife and discovered that there were other options, and that opened up the door to a brand new world of considerations for her. And luckily, Ann gave birth to two more children in much better circumstances. It was those experiences that were used to nudge her into the role of midwife and a thriving home birth practice.

Today, Anne has extensive training and clinical experience in women’s health and maternity care, in both in-hospital and out-of-hospital settings, including water birth. She is skilled at using an integrative approach—one that combines the best of modern medicine with natural, mind-body and other holistic modalities. Anne is a doula and a childbirth educator, and incorporates the art of labor support and teaching into her midwifery practice.  She is one of the most passionately dedicated homebirth practitioners I know. Her approach is sensitive, personal, and family centered. She believes that every healthy woman possesses an innate ability to give birth normally and naturally; her body knows what to do. As a result Anne is devoted to protecting undisturbed physiologic labor and birth, and the precious moments after birth when parents are meeting and connecting with their newborn babies for the first time.

If you’ve ever considered working with a doula or midwife, or the option of homebirth, you owe it to yourself to listen tot his episode of Paleo Baby. I think you’ll love Anne Margolis’ compassionate, passionate approach to pregnancy, prenatal care and preparation for childbirth, and how she views the birthing process itself.. You can hear our entire conversation on this episode of Paleo Baby.

Anne’s Home birth practice: My Home Sweet Home Birth

Instagram and Facebook: HomeSweetHomeBirth

The Business of Being Born - video

Orgasmic Birth - video

Birthing From Within - book

http://bit.ly/askthemidwife  - Ask the midwife

Blood testing is an underutilized way in which you as an athlete can improve your performance. Think about a car that's not running smoothly. Sure, you could make some guesses as to why it's not running right, but you're probably going to need to do some tests to understand the underlying root causes. Your body is similar, but rather than spanners and wrenches, our toolkit consists of diet, sleep, movement, stress reduction and supplements.

I have for you today a unique episode of the podcast. Dr. Tommy Wood is an athlete, a medical doctor, a research scientist, and the director of our clinical coaching programme O2 Boost. Tommy practises what he preaches, but his work life balance is far from ideal, and his test results are far from perfect.

The O2 Boost process is simple. First, place an order. Shortly after, you'll receive a PDF requisition that you take directly to LabCorp, no need to visit your doctor. If you're lucky enough to be in the UK, the process is even simpler: the test can be done at home from a fingerstick. Choosing the organic acids option enables us to make a more detailed diagnostic--that test is easy to do, you collect a sample of urine first thing, freeze it and send it to the lab using the pre-paid FedEx mailer. Once all the results are in, Tommy and I will gather some appropriate information from you and then analyse your results. Then I'll get you on the phone to discuss what to do next. We thought it'd be fun to record and broadcast our discussion of Tommy's results, and what you'll hear in this episode is not unlike what you can expect from your follow-up appointment.

Perhaps you already have some blood test results you'd like us to look at? No problem, choose the "Send you own" option.

Everything is important, but nothing more so than stress. I would argue that cortisol is the king of hormones, and I suspect that stress, both good and bad, may be the underlying cause of most of the imperfections that we've found in Tommy's biochemistry.

Click the image to download a PDF version of Tommy's results:

• [0:03] The idea that lead to recording this O2 Boost consultation.
• [0:56] Tommy's response to his blood results.
• [2:26] The situation Tommy is in that may have impacted his test results.
• [3:57] Christopher's assessment of Tommy's situation and the issues that may be reflected in Tommy's results.
• [5:06] The possibility of "adrenal fatigue" in Tommy's results and the possibility of dehydration.
• [8:17] Fasting blood glucose of 97 and Hemoglobin A1C of 5.7 - a bit elevated - and Tommy's response to those results.
• [12:25] What does Tommy's low liver enzyme results suggest?
• [14:26] Ferritin levels are high - and Tommy's thoughts on that.
• [16:20] Tommy's suspicion that he might be heading toward iron overload.
• [18:58] Tommy's cholesterol level: 228 - above the normal level and in increase from the last time he measured.
• [20:07] Fasting glucose levels below 5… a very good result.
• [20:44] TSH of 1.0 - free T3 of 2.7 - Thyroid function appears to be a bit low - and Christopher wonders if Tommy is eating enough food.
• [22:38] Tommy's homocysteine readings: a bit elevated and a possible additional clue that Tommy is headed toward iron overload.
• [26:05] Red blood cell size reading is inconclusive.
• [28:07] Vitamin D levels are 29.2 - quite a bit low (and he hasn't been supplementing).
• [31:25] Total white blood cell count was 3 - low as well - and reasons why the test could be reading that way.
• [35:42] Christopher's assessment of Tommy's lifestyle and how he's handling the stress load and busy-ness.
• [37:11] Should Tommy adjust his diet because of these results?
• [39:00] Tommy's attempts at managing the stress load.
• [40:01] How results have to be considered in light of a person's baseline.
• [43:31] What Tommy's done to deal with sleep issues he's having.
• [46:10] Creatinine levels are outside the normal range, which is likely a result of Tommy supplementing with creatine.
• [47:29] Tommy's views on supplementation with creatine and cautions about getting a better quality creatine..
• [50:52] What Tommy's blood results show and how you can get your own O2 Boost test.

O2 Boost Testing

For more than 35 years, Phil Maffetone has brought the latest advances in fitness and nutrition to health-care professionals around the world. Dr. Maffetone has a bachelor's degree in human biology and a doctorate in chiropractic, with certifications in physiotherapy, Chinese medicine, and kinesiology.

Dr. Maffetone has worked with world-class athletes and celebrity personalities, as well as people from all walks of life. His extensive list of clients include professional football and baseball players, race-car drivers, Olympic medalists, and, of course, six-time Hawaii Ironman Champion Mark Allen.

In the early 1980s Dr. Maffetone had a lot of experience with low-carb, high-fat diets but came against the popular notion of the day that protein and fat was unhealthy. He found it increasingly difficult to convince people that his ideas were right, so he came up with the Two-week Test as an attempt to show people the difference. His thought was that since he couldn't convince people intellectually, he'd have to show them how good they could feel in just two weeks by adopting his recommendations.

For two weeks he'd have the client eliminate all junk food, remove all moderate and high glycemic index foods, and then keep track of their symptoms and weight. If dealing with specific health issues the client would keep track of those as well (blood pressure, for example). In just two weeks many of those clients would feel so much better the wouldn't require any more convincing on the part of Dr. Maffetone.

As the winds of change have continued to blow over the health and fitness culture we've seen things come to a point today where many top athletes, trainers, and coaches have come around to Dr. Phil's way of thinking about dietary issues. Still, there are problems that come even on that side of the spectrum. One of the more recent is athletes on a high-fat diet who are under eating. Dr. Phil says, "Not being hungry is a wonderful thing… if you're healthy." He insists that these athletes need to focus on nutrient density if they're eating so much less.

This is a wide ranging conversation covering many aspects of Dr. Phil's experience and career as a health practitioner and coach, as well as his insights on the training practices athletes can use to increase aerobic strength as well as performance. You'll enjoy this one!

• [0:03] Introduction of Phil Maffetone, doctor, author, and pioneer of heart rate monitoring.
• [2:02] Phil's description of what's in his latest book, "The Endurance Handbook."
• [3:22] What Phil recommends to improve muscular strength without sacrificing health.
• [8:48] The app that Dr. Phil is working on and why he's creating it.
• [11:04] The work that goes into research studies and the thing that's missing in healthcare today (Dr. / Patient relationship).
• [12:58] The kind of work Phil does with his clients, including testing and coaching.
• [24:10] What Dr. Phil has changed in his testing over the years.
• [30:28] Dr. Phil's Two-week Test.
• [33:48] Is the Two-week Test as needed today?
• [37:00] What Dr. Phil believes causes insulin resistance?
• [42:28] How common is it for athletes on a high fat diet to undereat?
• [50:35] Christopher's experience with doing workouts according to what he "feels" he needs, including interval training, and Dr. Phil's response.
• [58:31] Does working the aerobic system mean that an athlete needs to do 25 hours of training a week?
• [1:01:00] Where would Dr. Phil start if he had no degrees but wanted to start again?
• [1:04:50] Dr. Phil's certification program that's being created.

Endurance Planet Podcast

Phil's conversation with Robb Wolf

The Big Book of Endurance Training and Racing

The Endurance Handbook "How To Achieve Athletic Potential, Stay Healthy, and Get the Most Out of Your Body

Fast After Fifty

Digital Fitness is a Digital Misfit (article)

Podcast episode on Iron Overload

Phil Maffetone's website

www.MaffetoneMusic.com

Robb Wolf

Tawnee Prazak

Joe Friel

Amanda Stevens (athlete)

Tim Noakes

Mike Pigg (athlete)

George Shehan