Nourish Balance Thrive

I've wanted to record this podcast for a LONG time. Back when I first started bike racing and training, I would go everywhere with a ginormous CamelBak containing 2L of water. Then when I transitioned off the sugary sports supplements, I noticed that I was less thirsty. Then I read Waterlogged, and suddenly it all made perfect sense. Conventional hydration wisdom is all based on faux marketing science!

Or is it? This quote from Dr. Bryan Walsh:

"If plasma is 93% water and you lose 0.5% of total body water, it will increase the viscosity of the blood a bit, which causes more work for the heart. How much work? I'd have to look that up, but the viscosity is considered one of the factors that determines something called Total Peripheral Resistance (along with length and diameter of arteries). Increase viscosity, increase TPR, increase the workload on the heart."

I'm sure this statement is right, and yet this seemingly deleterious effect appears to have no bearing on athletic performance.

My guest today is Dr. Tommy Wood, a qualified medical doctor, graduating from Oxford University in 2011. He has a previous Bachelors 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.

Tommy writes his blog and for Breaking Muscle, and co-hosts the Eat Better with Paleo Britain podcast.

Have you noticed a decreased thirst since switching to a healthy fat, lower carbohydrate approach to training? Leave a comment below and let us know!

Julie on the interview this week, but this is Chris writing here. It was my idea to get Jessa onto the podcast; I thought it'd be great to find out what makes the Greenfield household tick. I wondered if, like me, Ben doesn't do much of anything except the eating part!

Starting kids out in the right direction is one of the biggest challenges we face. Listen in to find how the two health and athletic performance guru parents behind Ben Greenfield Fitness and Inner Circle make home life run smoothly with young twin boys. 

My favourite quote from the show: "the boys know how we eat. So they're pretty helpful that way too, telling their grandma, 'No, mommy doesn't like this. Dad isn't going to like this.'"

Love it! Our Ivy is 18 months now, won't be long Grandma!

Being there to witness the return of a person's vitality is an amazing thing. The initial conversation is hard; usually the person is tired, frustrated and confused. As time goes by their sense of humour returns--that's when I know the program is working.

Megan Melack is a pro mountain biker from Santa Cruz and an exception to this rule. Megan always sounded bright and bubbly, even when she was clearly feeling downright awful. The only visible improvement from my perspective was her ability to train!

The three tests that Megan ran to figure out her low cortisol and Candida overgrowth problems were the Genova Diagnostics Organix Comprehensive Profile, BioHealth 401H GI Pathogen Screen and 205 Adrenal Stress Profile.

Are you suffering from hormonal and digestive issues and having a hard time figuring out what to eat? Book a free consultation and let me help you figure it out.

Dr Lynda Frassetto is a medical doctor and Professor of Medicine and Nephrology at the University of California San Francisco. She is the director of a clinical research center at UCSF, supervises patient care at three of the University's hospitals, and helps teach courses on improved communications and behavioral stress modification techniques.

Dr Frassetto is currently recruiting for the PCOS Paleo study! You can find out more about the study on the UCSF site, and also on clinicaltrials.gov.

That aside, this episode is all about the kidneys. I first became interested in the kidneys after a urinalysis detected calcium oxalate crystals, and I started to worry about stones. I soon realised that the kidney's role in red blood cell production, gluconeogenesis and the regulation of blood pressure, electrolytes, pH and fluid balance is far more interesting than anything to do with filtration.

In the interview, I mention two papers linking the ketogenic diet to kidney stones. They are:

1. Furth SL et al. Risk factors for urolithiasis in children on the ketogenic diet. Pediatr Nephrol. 2000 Nov;15(1-2):125-8. http://pmid.us/11095028.
2. Sampath A et al. Kidney stones and the ketogenic diet: risk factors and prevention. J Child Neurol. 2007 Apr;22(4):375-8. http://pmid.us/17621514.

Does anyone know how to make steak and kidney pie that doesn't smell like pee? Julie made it once, and when she opened the oven door the kitchen smelled like a dairy shed. Leave your recipe in the comments section below!

Clay is the fourth-generation owner of a Tennessee funeral home and never was there a guy more invested in his future health. Originally Clay approached me for help with tackling a yeast overgrowth, and boy, have we come a long way since then!

Listen to the audio or read the transcript for the full story as Clay's is an interesting and unusually complex case.

Charging a friend money for something you'd happily do for fun is strange and difficult. We worked together as peers, and I couldn't be happier with the results.

No surprises that Clay is doing Bryan's Metabolic Fitness Pro biochemistry course. I think you should too.

Dr. Grace Liu, PharmD, AFMCP, is a functional medicine practitioner with an international functional medicine practice that includes nutritional consultations, integrative laboratory analysis, and personalized counseling. I first became aware of her work last summer at the Ancestral Health Symposium where she presented the idea of an ancestral core microbiota.

Over the past couple of years, I've been lucky enough to meet many gut experts. Dr. Liu is the first that can review a bacterial taxonomy from a fecal sample and give a meaningful research and practice orientated narrative. The taxonomy I have came from the results of taking part in the American Gut Project. A faster way to get hold of the data is uBiome. These tests are great if you're feeling pretty good. If you have any chronic health complaint, you will be better off first doing a test like the BioHealth 401H or Doctor's Data comprehensive stool analysis with parasitology.

Dr. Liu's blog and podcast are fantastic resources for anyone interested in better understanding in the inner workings of the gut and improving their health. Look out for her next presentation at PaleoFX.

In the interview, we mention the keystone species: Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, Bifidobacterium longum and Akkermansia muciniphila, none of which I have!

Prebiotics: glucomannan. Probiotics: Prescript-Assist.

What's even better than chatting with the author of two awesome cookbooks? Chatting with the author of two awesome cookbooks who happens to live right down the street and has a wonderful little paleo baby herself! Join Julie as she sits down with Arsy Vartanian, author behind the beautiful blog Rubies and Radishes, the Paleo Foodie Cookbook, and the Paleo Slow Cooker. They dish on life paleo life with toddlers, walking the walk with the paleo lifestyle, and finding inspiration to cook in all the chaos. Find out how Arsy does it all on this episode of Paleo Baby!

We're throwing it back this week! Join Chris and Julie as they share a look back at the first year of Nourish Balance Thrive. The good, the bad, and the up and coming. See what happens when you change careers, start a new business, have a baby, and try to make it all work. Chris shares his story and walks you through what makes using this program so successful. Encouraging stories, business nuts and bolts, and ideas for the future, come along for a look back at an exciting year with Nourish Balance Thrive.

Jordan Bryden is a gifted young triathlete from Alberta in Canada who came to me looking for help. In 2005, Jordan won the Canadian Junior National Championships and has since gone on to compete as an elite athlete. Now age 28, Jordan suffers from fatigue and insomnia and feels like his recovery is much slower than in his younger years. I'm certain that this is not just about getting older, and together we plan to use functional lab work to identify the underlying cause of the problem.

This first interview covers some of Jordan's history, complaints, and challenges. Using a home saliva test, we measured Jordan's cortisol, DHEA, estrogen, progesterone, melatonin, and testosterone. We found hypocortisolism (full paper), also known as adrenal fatigue syndrome. The question is why? The plan is to continue the investigation with urinary organic acids, stool and blood testing.

Click here to view Jordan's results in PDF format. Are you a triathlete suffering from fatigue and insomnia? Book a free consultation and I'll walk you through the solution.

Last July, Julie, Ivy and me left the East Bay and moved to Santa Cruz, a lovely town on the ocean and in the redwood trees. We love it, but ever since Mission Heirloom opened their new garden cafe in Berkeley, Julie has been finding reasons to make the 70-mile journey back home. If you ever get the chance to visit Mission Heirloom, you'll understand why.

The level of care taken over the facilities and preparation is unlike anything I've ever seen before, and the food is out of this world. Better yet, it's portable, so if you live in the Bay Area you owe yourself this pleasure.

In a nutshell, Yrmis Barroeta, co-founder says:

Mission Heirloom is our intent to create a platform for people to carry on their health journey and elevate joy, elevate food and elevate performance. Everybody is different. Everybody has different dietary requirements. And we're here to support that. We believe that there should be different diets for different people, and that's what we're trying to provide. It's a safe space where people don't need to come to the restaurant with a million questions to feel safe or to figure out what they can eat. But find a menu that's very easy to navigate and filled with options for them.