Is cod liver oil (CLO) the same as fish oil? Do the polyunsaturated fatty acids in it suppress your thyroid? What is the role of retinol in the body? Does vitamin A protect against lipid peroxidation in cell membranes? What are the role of fat soluble vitamins in the body? 

In this solo show I answer all of these questions and more. I talk about why it took two years for Morley Robbins beating the retinol drum on my podcast to convince me to try it. In a world of “you’re anemic, copper toxic and vitamin A toxic”, it takes a lot of unlearning to get to the truth.

The truth is retinol is a critical nutrient that you can be deficient in even if you’re eating grassfed beef liver everyday. Retinol is an electron carrier and a master antioxidant. Cod liver oil contains A and D in the perfect ratio in addition to compounds that probably haven’t been discovered yet.

While retinol seems to be the star of CLO, I suspect that it is a synergy of nutrients that gives the full effect. I share my experience of starting to take it this year in the middle of winter and how it affected my tolerance to cold temperatures. It is a powerful whole food supplement as long as it is not fortified or fermented.

My favorite CLO: https://lddy.no/146x1

https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jcbn1986/18/1/18_1_19/_article

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8470886/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3916855/

https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/vitamin-a-mazing/

Discount code BLACKBURN saves you 10% on your first order (must be one time purchase, not recurring)

My website: www.matt-blackburn.com

Mitolife products: www.mitolife.co

Music by George Henner

https://georgehenner.bandcamp.com

 

Plant medicines, or psychedelics, have become mainstream in recent years. Like everything in life, the subject is nuanced. What effect does ayahuasca have on the biochemistry of the liver? Can psychedelics cause people to have delusions of grandeur and a savior complex? What effect do these substances have on our mineral status? Hamid Jabbar is a bodyworker, sound practitioner, yoga instructor, RCP practitioner and a dot connector. In this interview we talk about addiction, posession, psilocybin mushrooms, coffee, tobacco, coca, and magnesium. Hamid's website: https://www.hamidjabbar.com

Hamid's mineral balancing website:

https://www.mineralshaman.com

Hamid's Instagram:

@hamid.jabbar

@mineralshaman My website: www.matt-blackburn.com

Mitolife products: www.mitolife.co

Music by George Henner

https://georgehenner.bandcamp.com

 

Have you ever tried the vegan or paleo diet? Have you yo'yo'd back and forth from program to program? Is all dieting a marketing trap? Have you experienced burnout from overworking and overexercising? 

Caroline Dooner, author of The Fuck It Diet and Tired as Fuck, shares her journey through different dietary experiments and the fatigue she experienced from falling for hustle culture. Caroline's website:

https://thefuckitdiet.com

My website: www.matt-blackburn.com

Mitolife products: www.mitolife.co

Music by George Henner https://georgehenner.bandcamp.com

 

 

What is the difference between a memory foam style mattress and a flexible wooden slat system? Why does virgin sheep’s wool have self cleaning properties? Why are you an inch taller when you wake up if you’ve had a good night’s sleep?

Hendrik Haueisen answers all of these questions and more. German and Swiss engineering created this innovative bed system that is made of natural materials and contains no metal. Sleeping on it is like getting a chiropractic adjustment and you don’t have to worry about breathing volatile organic compounds.

I ask him listener questions at the end including: His thoughts on inverted bed therapy? Should we sleep in total darkness? What is the ideal pillow for the best posture? Should we use a pillow? 

If you’ve been searching for the ideal bed or love natural materials and learning about their unique properties, this episode is for you. 

Order a bed: www.swissdreambeds.com Mention my name to save 5%

My website: www.matt-blackburn.com

Mitolife products: www.mitolife.co

Music by George Henner

https://georgehenner.bandcamp.com

 

Retinol, or vitamin A, is a fat soluble vitamin only found in animal foods in significant amounts. In this interview mineral researcher Morley Robbins breaks down the critical importance of this nutrient for regulating iron recycling, decreasing inflammation, gene transcription, protecting from cancer, and loading copper into the ceruloplasmin protein that expresses the master antioxidant called ferroxidase.  He shares some fascinating and somewhat depressing information about our current food system, even grass-fed and organic, and the difference between marine and land sources of retinol. We talk quite a bit about cod liver oil and why I changed my mind on it. Morley's approach is unique because its nuanced and focuses on relationships between vitamins, minerals and enzymes, instead of looking at any one of them in insolation like is often done in the alternative health community. His Root Cause Protocol offers a list of "stops" and "starts" that are a great foundation and starting point to improve your health. 

Root Cause Protocol: www.rcp123.org

My website: www.matt-blackburn.com

Mitolife products: www.mitolife.co Music by George Henner

https://georgehenner.bandcamp.com

When we think of fertility we often think of it in terms of making babies. But what if it is more than that? What if fertility is our ability to create and an expression of our overall health? According to hormonal and pregnancy coach Alba Cali, it is all of those things.  She shares her journey with diets and the two most common problems that she sees with women preparing for pregnancy. We talk about folate/folic acid, retinol (vitamin A), the harmful effects of synthetic estrogen, how to support progesterone production, and more. Alba's instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alba.arcadia/?hl=en

My website: www.matt-blackburn.com Mitolife products: www.mitolife.co

Music by George Henner https://georgehenner.bandcamp.com

What does allergies, infertility, anemia, PCOS, Hashimoto's, and rheumatoid arthritis all have in common? Listen to this episode with Ashlee Rowland to find out. Ashlee is a trained Root Cause Protocol practitioner that helps women to balance their hormones and regain their health using food and mineral balancing.  In this episode she talks about the root cause of histamine issues, cod liver oil, how she became fertile, how she healed from PCOS, thoughts on hormonal acne, iron overload, oxalates, matcha, and more. Save $50 on Ashlee's course Bare Naked Hormones for the next 72 hours with the code "MATTLOVESOATMILK" (and no, I don't love oat milk! She came up with that name!) https://simplholistic.teachable.com/p/bare-naked-hormones/ Her website: https://simplholistic.org

My website: www.matt-blackburn.com Mitolife products: www.mitolife.co

Music by George Henner

https://georgehenner.bandcamp.com

Most people that have delved into natural health have experimented with dieting. There is a growing movement of people reminding others to bring nutrition and health back to balance. This means eating in a way that doesn’t restrict calories, food groups and macronutrients.

Ava Mannino discovered this way of living after experiencing bloating and improved her digestion and overall health by switching her cooking oils, backing off of nut butters, and upgrading the ingredients she uses in cooking and baking.

Ava's Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/avocadoaficionados/?hl=en My website: www.matt-blackburn.com Mitolife products: www.mitolife.co

Music by George Henner

https://georgehenner.bandcamp.com

According to Atom Bergstrom, you are not only what you eat, but WHEN you eat. He is anti intermittent fasting so he's not talking about eating windows, but the kinds of food that you eat in the morning, afternoon and evening. The basic idea is tree foods in the morning, bush foods in the afternoon, and roots at night. Certain foods like eggs are neutral and can be eaten anytime while potatoes are best eaten at night for maximum absorption. In this show he talks about how Yemenese coffee is the only bush coffee (midday), his favorite anti-parasitic protocol, why he doesn't recommend fasting, when you should break the solar timing rules, the healing power of oranges, why to put the crystal lepidolite in your water, wearing different colors on different days, which two fruits can be eaten at nighttime, and more!  Atom's websites: www.sunsyncnutrition.com www.solartiming.com My website: www.matt-blackburn.com Mitolife products: www.mitolife.co

Music by George Henner https://georgehenner.bandcamp.com

Every drop of water that you drink is not always H2O; sometimes it is D2O. There are three isotopes of hydrogen: protium, deuterium and tritium. One glass of water has on average 6 drops of D2O (deuterium), which doesn't sound like a lot, but over several years it adds up and impairs the ATPase of the mitochondria. Robert Slovak and Victor Sagalovsky are the founders of a company called Litewater. They offer deuterium depleted water that is the lowest parts per million of any available, which makes it the most affordable to use for a deuterium depletion strategy. They describe the exact mechanisms how deuterium impairs mitochondrial energy production, quantum tunneling, and decreases oxygen utilization. They answer questions from listeners including: thoughts on primary water, kangen water, freezing water at home to make your own DDW and the synergy between DDW and molecular hydrogen tablets. Order Litewater: https://www.drinklitewater.com Use the discount code BLACKBURN to save 10% on your first order My website: www.matt-blackburn.com Mitolife products: www.mitolife.co Music by George Henner: https://georgehenner.bandcamp.com