Nourish Balance Thrive

Reed is a Nutritional Therapist and Founder of the Functional Diagnostic Nutrition® (FDN) Certification Course. Reed is known as one of the most successful and experienced clinicians in the world today, having provided functional lab assessments to over 11,000 people for hormone levels as well as adrenal, digestion, detoxification, mucosal barrier, pathogenic, bone density and diet-related health problems. He served as the Health Director and Case Manager at The Better Health & Wellness Center in Poway, California for over eight years before launching the FDN Certification Course.

FDN is one of the training courses that I completed before launching Nourish Balance Thrive, and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking to uncover the cause of their health complaints. You never know, it may just lead to a career change!

Find out more and sign up for the FDN course.

My guest Dr. Tommy Wood is a qualified medical doctor, graduating from Oxford University in 2011. He has a previous Bachelor's degree in Natural Sciences and Biochemistry from Cambridge University. After working as a junior doctor in the UK for two years, Dr. Wood is now working towards a Ph.D. in neonatal brain metabolism at the University of Oslo, Norway.

Takeaway message: do not take antioxidant supplements during or immediately after working out.

Increased production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) leading to cellular oxidative stress is linked to numerous pathologies including cancer, diabetes, and neurological diseases [1–4].

Oxidative stress can be measured using the organic acids P-Hydroxyphenyllactate and 8-Hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG). The former is a marker of cell turnover and the latter a breakdown product gaunine of DNA.

Many tissues can produce ROS during exercise [5], and so it makes intuitive sense that over-exercising athletes are prone to the deleterious effects of oxidative stress and should increase their antioxidant intake accordingly.

More recent evidence suggests that exercise is in fact an antioxidant [6] and taking antioxidant supplements during or immediately following exercise may shut down the beneficial adaptations [7-8].

During the interview, Tommy says "Superoxide is basically just a normal oxygen molecule with an extra electron attached to it" and would like to add:

"To be correct, superoxide is oxygen that has lost an electron, leaving it was a "spare" (extra) unpaired electron. It is oxygen that has become oxidised. Though technically oxidation is the loss of an electron (reduction is the gain of an electron), some processes in the body involving the gain of electrons will add to oxidative stress if they are not completed fully. For instance, this is often seen in mitochondrial dysfunction."

I mentioned Bryan Walsh's Metabolic Fitness Pro training course and the Khan Academy chemistry module.

Is content this technical useful? Let me know in the comments section below!

References

[1] Valko, M.; Rhodes, C. J.; Moncol, J.; Izakovic, M.; Mazur, M. Free radicals, metals and antioxidants in oxidative stress-induced cancer. Chem. Biol. Interact. 160:1–40; 2006.

[2] Xie, K.; Huang, S. Regulation of cancer metastasis by stress pathways. Clin. Exp. Metastasis 20:31–43; 2003.

[3] Wei, W.; Liu, Q.; Tan, Y.; Liu, L.; Li, X.; Cai, L. Oxidative stress, diabetes, and diabetic complications. Hemoglobin 33:370–377; 2009.

[4] Reddy, V. P.; Zhu, X.; Perry, G.; Smith, M. A. Oxidative stress in diabetes and Alzheimer's disease. J. Alzheimers Dis. 16:763–774; 2009.

[5] Powers, S. K.; Jackson, M. J. Exercise-induced oxidative stress: cellular mechanisms and impact on muscle force production. Physiol. Rev. 88:1243–1276; 2008.

[6] M.C. Gomez-Cabrera, E. Domenech, L.L. Ji, J. Viña, Exercise as an antioxidant: it up-regulates important enzymes for cell adaptations to exercise. doi:10.1016/j.scispo.2005.06.012

[7] Michael Ristowa, Kim Zarsea, Andreas Oberbachc, Nora Klo Michael Stumvollc, C. Ronald Kahne, Matthias Blu, Antioxidants prevent health-promoting effects of physical exercise in humans. doi:10.1073/pnas.0903485106

[8] Tina-Tinkara Peternelj and Jeff S. Coombes, Antioxidant Supplementation during Exercise Training, Beneficial or Detrimental? doi:10.2165/11594400-000000000-00000

In Robert's own words:

My background, I imagine, is pretty similar to many of your clients. Alpha male, hard charging, recreational athlete. As a husband, father, runner and self employed software developer, I have a pretty busy life where each minute of the day is always allocated. Time management is my top priority. Looking back the writing was on the wall for me in 2009, when training hard for Berlin marathon I was noticing ebbs and flows in my energy levels on training runs. Still it was a good year, I ran a PB of 2:31 at Berlin and felt that if I took away the heat of that day, I would have achieved a lifetime goal of sub 2:30. I picked up an injury not long after Berlin and from then on, it was a continual spiral downwards. The more, and the harder, I trained the worse the performances got and the more injuries and illnesses I picked up. I fell into the typical vicious circle of dipping performance, the solution was to train harder. This lasted for 5 years, when almost at the point of giving up the sport, I heard Chris on the Ben Greenfield podcast. In the podcast, Chris talked about self testing and the knowledge that can be gained from these tests. I'd already looked at the UK equivalent of 23andMe and I had also carried out the Genova Hormone Panel (Testosterone, Adrenal, Melatonin) prior to speaking with Chris as I'd started to become more interested in what makes us work, or not as the case was!

So, I had the results from these tests, but really had no idea what I needed to do with the information. This is when I contacted NBT and after an initial chat with Chris he came up with an immediate adrenal recovery plan that included supplements, stress reduction techniques and alterations to diet. Chris was brilliant in sourcing the supplements I needed in the UK and provided a plan and protocol to follow. In the meantime we arranged the Organix Profile and 401H Pathogen screen tests to get a deeper understanding of where things might be going wrong. The results of these tests proved to be a real eye opener and at the same time not surprising. I had issues with yeast overgrowths in the gut and issues with energy systems pathways. This explained the gut issues I had been experiencing for, well, years! The issues in energy production and utilisation really struck home as I have always had the engine (VO2Max Lab tests proved that), but lacked the fuel delivery system. I could run 100+ miles a week in the hope of building that endurance base, but all I was doing was running myself into the ground, overstressing the adrenal hormone production, while trying to fuel on copious amounts of simple sugars and starches, which further stressed my already over stressed state.

Chris and NBT have turned this 10+ years of self abuse around in 3 months. Although there is a long way still to go, I feel brilliant. I can't express my gratitude to the team at NBT for that. Running is such an important part of my life, it is part of my definition. My training over the last 3 months has been better than I could ever have expected. At 42 years old, I have a real desire to train again and race hard, I know there are PB's still in me. I could not have got to where I am now, never mind in the future, without Chris and Nourish Balance Thrive.

Lily Nichols, RDN, CDE, CLT is a Registered Dietitian/Nutritionist, Certified Diabetes Educator, Certified LEAP Therapist and Certified Pilates Instructor whose approach to nutrition embraces real food, integrative medicine, and mindfulness. She helps people with digestive issues heal from food sensitivities and helps pregnant women with gestational diabetes have healthy babies.

Lily is the author of the new book Real Food for Gestational Diabetes: An Effective Alternative to the Conventional Nutrition Approach, a guide to an alternative to the conventional nutrition approach that embraces nutrient-dense and delicious foods that nourish you and baby without causing high blood sugar.

Lily blogs over at pilatesnutritionist.com

Richard David Feinman is Professor of Cell Biology (Biochemistry) at the State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. Dr. Feinman's original area of research was in protein chemistry and enzyme mechanism, particularly in blood coagulation and related processes.

His recent book "The World Turned Upside Down. The Second Low Carbohydrate Revolution" describes how "How the science of carbohydrate restriction arising from a rag‑tag collection of popular diets defeated the powerful low‑fat army and became the default approach to health."

The whole book oozes wisdom and dry wit decades in the making, but for this interview I decided I wanted to talk about part two: "Policy and the mess in nutrition". Chapter 16 begins a discussion of flawed medical studies and how you can spot them.

My take away from the interview:

• Start with a solid review paper with lots of authors, e.g. this one.
• Drill down from there into the citations.
• Look at the pictures (figures) first. Pictures tell you the author is trying to teach and not snow you.
• It's not OK to omit a citation.
• Habeas corpus datorum - "show me the body of the data".
• Does the data support the conclusions?
• There is no gold standard for scientific studies; it depends on what question you're trying to answer.
• The first 25 pages of biology textbooks are a good place to build the prerequisite knowledge. Older editions are cheaper and perfectly fine for this purpose. All universities offer a great degree in biology, so find out what the accompanying textbook is.

During the interview, Richard mentions Lippincott Illustrated Reviews: Biochemistry and the book I have is Marks' Basic Medical Biochemistry.

Also of tremendous value to me as an education tool, Bryan Walsh's Metabolic Fitness Pro training course and the Khan Academy chemistry module.

On the show this week, local talent Carolina Gomez-Villafañe​. Carolina is a cyclocross racer for the elite women's team Vanderkitten and was the first Argentine to represent at the World Championships in Tabor earlier this year.

Carolina is unlike most of the people I work with in that she's new to the idea of a Paleo diet. My hope is that some subtle tweaks will resolve her digestive complaints and improve her recovery.

During the interview, we discuss Carolina's recent blood chemistry. I'm confident the follow-up will show quantifiable improvement from the changes I recommend.

Carolina recommends YogaGlo, and as always I talk about the guided meditation app Headspace.

Did I miss something? Let me know in the comments below!

Follow Carolina on Facebook and Instagram.

On the show this week, Kevin from the Rebooted Body podcast. I wanted to have Kevin on to talk about his program because I think it offers a level of interactivity, support and accountability that I will never be able to achieve in a scalable way with one-on-one coaching.

In the podcast, Kevin talked about the fascinating connection between the Kaiser ACE evaluation score and failure to Reboot. How do you score? Let me know in the comments below.

Click here to find out more about the Rebooted Body Program.

In 2013, I broke my leg training for a local mountain bike race. I tried to convince myself and everyone around me that continuing with my training in preparation for a more important race later that summer was a normal thing to do. Looking back I recognise this behaviour as exercise addiction. I didn't want to stop because I was fearful of living without the high that returned me to what I now consider to be a reasonable baseline. This addiction was a symptom of other underlying issues revealed using home health testing.

Is your training a healthy endeavour helping achieve your competitive goals or is it a crutch helping you manage your adrenal fatigue symptoms? Leave a comment below and let me know!

On the podcast this week, elite mountain biker Sarah Kaufmann. Sarah suffered a mono infection a couple of years ago and has since been struggling to find her best form. Her recovery slowed, and insomnia set in. This together with digestive distress prevented from reaching her full potential on the bike.

Switching to a Paleo type diet helped, but it hasn't been enough. After hearing me speak on the Robb Wolf podcast, we set about figuring out the underlying cause of her issues using salivary hormone, stool and organic acids testing. The saliva result showed low cortisol, low DHEA and incredibly low progesterone. Organic acids showed problems with fat burning, energy production, folate deficiency, inflammation and oxidative stress. The stool test found a blastocystis hominis infection.

In addition to further diet and lifestyle changes, Sarah has taken supplements to address some of the problems we found. She now feels much better; her recovery times have improved, but still I feel like we're not there yet. Listen in to hear Sarah's very candid account of the changes that both helped and hindered.

Are you looking for a paleo friendly coach that takes a minimalist and holistic approach? Sarah is a has a limited capacity to take on more clients. Email her [email protected]

Photo credits: Scott Kingsley Photography and Dave Kozlowski.

I know from experience that stress and stress physiology play an important part in our health and athletic performance. People frequently come to me for help with stressors that I can do nothing about--first responders and professional athletes are good examples. Sometimes I encounter psychological stress that I can't help with because I don't understand it--body image associated stress imposed by the fitness industry is one such example.

Having been a fitness model herself, my guest Maddy Moon knows exactly how body image stress can have negative health consequences, and she now runs a program designed to help people live their lives without food rules.

Maddy is also the author of the new book The Perfection Myth: How to Break Free from the Dogmatic Chains of Health and Dieting. Consider this interview part of my continuing education.

Are you finding new found food rules overly stressful? Please let me know in the comments section below.