The Ironman Executive

Our guest for the week is Hyla Cass, an integrative psychiatrist practiced in the field even before the term was coined. Her 25-year long practice is marked by the non-drug, natural system boosting approach, which landed her the nation-wide acclaim along with numerous awards. She is here to talk to us about the subversive effects of medications, the systems approach to medicine, as well as about enhancing our cognitive performance.

Stuffing oneself with medication rarely comes without the so-called side-effects. What is important to realize, however, is that the ‘side-effects’ are actually the ‘effects’ of a medication; they are a part of the whole bodily response to, or indeed against, that medication.

The purple pill for instance, one of the proton-pump inhibitors, is a fairly available drug that may, in a long run, because the system adjusts and later craves for its usage, cause many hitherto unforeseen and avoidable microbiome problems. Therefore, Instead of forcing the system and suppressing it into an unnatural submission, much more profound effects can be achieved by letting the brain and body work out the problem by themselves.

“the medications upset homeostasis of the brain and can cause more problems than they solve” 

Medications are not necessarily bad, but overprescribing them certainly is. Write off a patient with a simple prescription has become the expected doctoral practice nowadays. Much better than the simple pill approach is to, when treating a person, take the whole system into account and boost is. Taking both internal and external factors into consideration, the systems approach goal is to give the body the best possible chance to overcome an issue by itself, mobilizing its own natural resources.

Take trauma for instance; any trauma related disorder can be likened to a program that runs in the back of one’s mind, essentially affecting everything. Taking a pill would solve nothing; we need to clear up the underlying program first before treating an issue. 

“We need to respect what the individual biochemistry is doing @hylacassmd”

Today’s medicine falls into a trap of overcharting the treatment process, neglecting the individuality of each case. Everything is subdued to sort of a medicinal syllogism; a symptom is always followed by a prescribed treatment route which in effect negates the fact that every case is, just as people are, different.

The situation is not all that new, it became effective with the branching specialization of medicine, and can be solved by, while of course keeping the specialist medicine, returning to a more holistic approach to treatment.

Another field of practice for Dr. Cass that perfectly fits into the systems approach is the cognitive function enhancement. Being the best possible version of ourselves is best achieved through slight, or not so slight lifestyle modifications. Sleep is one factor, diet or exercise another. The exposure to toxins, and the genetic predisposition thereof, may also play a crucial role concerning the quality of life.

Dr. Hyla Cass’ Website

Supplement Your Prescription: What Your Doctor Doesn’t Know About Nutrition Reclaim Your Brain Free Ebook Dr. Cass’s Articles

Our guest for the week is Dr. Lucia Aronica, a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford Cancer Center and an expert on epigenetic medicine. Her main focus revolves around genomics of nutrition, that is, the correlation between diet and the changes in epigenetic landscape. Holding a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology, Dr. Aronica has spent the last decade researching the influence lifestyle has on our genomes. Her endeavors landed her not just a few recognitions, Marie Curie Global Fellowship Award being one of them. In this interview, she shares her thoughts on food, diet, as well as sheds some light on the role epigenetics plays in weight loss.

Coming from Italy, pasta and bread were an inseparable part of Dr. Aronica’s early life. But Mediterranean diet, hailed as it is, accounts for much more that the iconic, yet not so healthy duo. This diet holds precedence over typical ‘western’ diets mainly because of the olive oil, which pitted against omega 3 seed oils, strikes a dashing victory in terms of weight and triglycerides loss. The concept of food is also differently conceived in the Mediterranean diet. The quick fixes are not counted as food in Italy, nor should anywhere else: one has to find the time for some cooking.

The single best way to attain nutritional health is to strike a steady and sustainable balance. Genetics does play a role and, to an extent, predestine the type of diet a person needs. But, it would be false to assume that our lifestyles do not play their role, for it is they that influence the epigenetic image in our cells. The combination of genetics and lifestyle make each of us different and nutritionally unique. Still, there are a few universals, one of which marks a respective correlation between the decrease in carbohydrates and the decrease of triglycerides. The latter in turn has an effect on cardiovascular risks and the amount of bad cholesterol that strikes the arteries. Lowering the carbs, therefore, plays the role in reducing the risk of atherosclerosis.

Dr. Aronica is currently playing a role in one of the largest studies concerning weight loss. It is a follow-up to an earlier, Stanford A to Z study, where more than 300 women were subjected to four popular diets, (Atkins, Zone, LEARN, and Ornish) measuring their results after one year. At the surprise of many, the very low-carb Atkins diet came out on top in terms of weight loss, cholesterol, and blood pressure. The new study will be bigger, include both men and women, and explore more thorough results like micro-biome and body composition change, as well as the changes in epigenetic landscape. 

Gastric bypass patients yielded significant knowledge regarding the epigenetic research. The different epigenetic image and the weight-loss they experienced after the operation proved that the epigenetic markers are potentially reversible, in this case from ones found in obese to those seen in lean people. These markers may also be transmissible to future generations, but further study is needed to see whether sperm incorporates these epigenetic changes. Epigenetics is a growing branch of medicinal science, today even able to predict the risk of type-2 diabetes. But what of tomorrow? The future discoveries are imminent, due to the change in approach. Namely, instead of looking at a few genes or a few hundreds of them, epigenetic researchers, Dr. Aronica among them, are bent towards looking at the entire genome. Also, epigenetic research is determined to explore the DNA in its entirety, including the non-coding regions. It is quite a feat, but the outcomes potentially exceed the effort by a margin.

Dr. Aronica’s Stanford Research profile The Stanford A to Z study The Follow-up Study

Aaron Traywick is the founder at Ascendance Biomedical where they focus on helping people get the treatments and care they need to save their lives. They also specialize in helping fund and facilitate research by taking initial studies off shore before bringing the data back to the FDA. Learn more about this process as well as two studies they're currently working on. He shares some of the results they're seeing and potential for the industry with this particular treatment for longevity and life extension overall. Enrollment is currently open for trials to test “Bucky-balls” (also known as Fullerene-C60 and “Bucky-balls”) for their capacity to increase lifespan and maximize human performance.

Learn more about the Senolytic Treatments we talk about in the interview and sign up to join the study here

Apeiron Academy educates and trains Epigenetic Human Potential Coaches in genomic precision wellness and human potential optimization. Get all the details here.

Ascendance Biomed

Global Healthspan Policy Institute

Daniel Schmachtenberger enlightens us on how to use a science systems approach to our health, wellness and business.

Listen in on how human behavior affects the systems we function in every day - economic, social, political and how we can make these systems stronger and more resilient by changing the human body's systems.

Dr. Steven Cole is the Director the UCLA Social Genomics Laboratory. He has been pioneering human social genomics as a Professor of Medicine and Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at the UCLA School of Medicine. Dr. Cole’s studies have concentrated on Genomics and computational bioinformatics to map the biological pathways by which social environments affect gene expression by viral cancer and immune cell genomes.

Biological effects of stress

Our bodies are not built to be stressed out and miserable all of the time. We are only capable of handling stress in short bursts. Yes, some stress may be good for us but over time, increased amounts of stress can lead to damage of our immune systems and molecules that affect our natural ability to maintain the balance of ‘Fight or Flight’ and ‘Rest and Digest’.

Looking at the genomics of humans

Naturally, we have about 20,000 DNA molecules, what Dr. Cole likes to call ‘menu items’ in which our body can decide to ‘order-up’. During certain states, our bodies natural turn these items on or off. Our DNA is being transcribed into RNA and produces proteins that do the work of a cell. Physically, our bodies recognize what our bodies need. Some examples of the tasks of these proteins are: - To understand our environment (aka. Our senses) - To make up the inside of our skull - To control the transcription of genes and ‘self-write’ the ‘book’ of a single person. Only about half of our genes are actively transcribed into RNA. When a cell needs to change which, proteins are expressed and active the DNA is called and transcribed. The problem is, if we are always in fight or flight mode and more cells are needed to be transcribed, we will be losing out on many other proteins. An example of a functional cell change is when we are very hungry and haven’t been able to eat for a while. Our bodies understand that our metabolism needs to change and typically, in this case, it would slow. Other biological systems that are affected are our immune responses which allow for more infections. Many times, the symptoms we get are caused by our immune responses producing these cells. For instance, when you roll an ankle, your body’s response is to swell up to protect it. [Tweet “The human genome has options. It needs to decide which genes to express and which genes not to express”]

Figuring out the human response is a delicate balance. It our body gets it right, great, life continues with the circumstances it endures. If it gets it wrong, our bodies suddenly go into a wild goose chase. Unfortunately, many times we don’t even notice it. Internally, an antiviral response could be responding to a bacterial infection but instead of helping to fight off the bacteria, the new bacteria created just adds to the problem. Therefore, sometimes our body’s decision making process can have big consequences. Dr. Cole has been studying within his labs ways to counteract the biological fight or flight response. He explains there is a combination occurring of methylation and acidulation as well as Post translational and post transcription processes.

The balance

Certain proteins act as the eyes and ears of our cells. Therefore, the translational factors and processes activate specific functions and uses the information from the outside world to balance our DNA. Methylation and acidulation block this response and convey information and veto the receptors decisions.

Psychoneuro immunology

Our systems interact with the world in different ways. One way is a physical interference. The example Dr. Cole provides is getting bit by a saber tooth tiger. Your body needs to physically repair the damage. The other is the informational and constructed world and affect our outlook on life. It’s like our retinas, they create a picture of what is out there in the world and what we are understanding or thinking. Without even realizing it, our atomic nervous systems change how our bodies work. Cole and his studies have discovered opportunities that could provide intervention 1. Changing contemporary life 2. Adapting and assessing health risks 3. Perception of Things – not necessarily what is actually in the world. 4. Interpreting the world at a manageable state 5. Understanding and handling environmental conditions.

A lot of times we might not feel stressed, but our bodies are still in a stressed state. Our conscious experience isn’t always accurate on a biological level. You have two sides: What you are feeling, seeing, touching, thinking, and then how your body is operating. This operation system includes a crazy infrastructure that we don’t always know how to understand. If you’re not in tune with what is inside you may have a hard time recognizing the balance of perception and reality.

Perception is critical

If our bodies don’t know when to relax or when to protect us, this is a very critical disruption. Are we safe and healthy? Or are we being threatened? These decisions have significant implications. Over decades of stressors, our bodies take prolonged inflammation and endorphins which can result in cancer and diseases. Often, if we experience this prolonged stress, we become used to it. There is even animal evidence that proves that if you are exposed to some stress there is increased longevity. T

he ideas behind this on a human scale are if you are never exposed to stressors until a change occurs, this change might not be able to be handled by the mind or body. Circumstance changes everything.

No one wants to always feel like they are on the run. Our bodies can’t sustain uncertainty and threats for long periods of time.

So how should we live instead?

Some of the thoughts of contemporary thinkers – hedonic approach – are...

- “Don’t worry, be happy”

- Have Positive emotions - Watch Beautiful things - Hear beautiful people - Eat wonderful food - Get yourself into a calm state of mind - Do things that feel good for you Aristotle’s – eudemonic - way of thinking on ways to live a good life are… - Don’t only invest in your personal, positive emotion state – serve others - Good comes from doing virtue - Do good for the well-being of society, other people, and man-kind - Don’t just focus on one person - Transcendence of experiences – pass them on For example, someone may dream of climbing Mt. Everest but so that all humans can say we have done this and experienced the highest possible point in the world. Dr. Cole partnered with Dr. Barbara Fredrickson to test the differences between hedonic and eudemonic ways of living.

During this episode with Dr. Cole we heard that just feeling happy was not enough to drive changes in our biological operating systems.

We needed to do something bigger – something Nobel and meaningful. Even astrophysicist, Josh Mittledof, studying the mathematical models of aging has found that we focus on the benefit of the community, not survival of the fittest. Dr. Cole followed up later to explain the tests he did showed that people with more of a Eudemonic – best for the community way of thinking were much more physiologically healthy than hedonic. Hedonic persons were even less healthy than those with low-levels of well-being.

As Dr. Cole does not meditate himself, he did acknowledge that there as been proven small amounts of changes in biological physiology to improve stress management.

With today's guest Nicola Pirastu we learn the difference between several common genetic terms, how your diet choices may or may not be good for your personal health and how your diet can impact your genes and their expressions.

The terms genetics and genomics sound alike, and they are often used interchangeably. But there are some important distinctions and similarities between genetics and genomics and how they affect our dietary patterns. But firstly, what do they mean?

Genetics is the study of heredity, or how the characteristics of living organisms are transmitted from one generation to the next via DNA, and it comprises genes, the basic unit of heredity.

Genetics dates back to Darwin and scientist Lamarck, whose studies of pea plants in the mid-1800s established many of the rules of heredity. Genetics involves the study of specific and limited numbers of genes, or parts of genes, that have a known function.

In biomedical research, scientists try to understand how genes guide the body’s development, cause disease or affect our eating or dietary patterns.

Genomics, in contrast, is the study of the entirety of an organism’s genes – called the genome.

Genomics is the branch of molecular biology concerned with the structure, function, evolution, and mapping of genomes.

Genomics is a much newer field than genetics and became possible only in the last couple of decades due to technical advances in DNA sequencing and computational biology. (It is notable that the term genomics was first coined in 1986 by a Jackson Laboratory scientist, Tom Roderick, Ph.D.)

Genomics play huge roles in our dietary patterns as they help us know why our body relates to different foods and why our food preferences may or may not affect our overall health. For example two men of the same age were placed on a diet and eat fruits and vegetables high in sodium and saturated fat.

One develops hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and eventually atherosclerosis, while the other lives a long life without such chronic disease. In another case, two postmenopausal women consume similar diets low in choline.

One develops liver dysfunction due to the choline deficiency, but the other does not. Why individuals experience different health outcomes even though they eat similar diets and practice comparable lifestyles is an important question that’s been on the minds of nutrition and other healthcare experts in the medical community for decades.

While it’s long been suspected that genetics plays a critical role in determining how a person responds to dietary intake, only recently has research in the field of nutrigenetics demonstrated this.

• Nutrigenetics: This is the study of the relationship among genes, diet, and health.
• Nutrigenomics: This involves the study of the interaction between nutrients and genes at the molecular level.

Nutrition scientists have looked at whether genetic testing ends up improving eating behaviors. The evidence is mixed. A recent large randomized controlled study found there was little apparent benefit.

The two weeks study comprised of 200 people. Three groups of participants were given personalized dietary advice, with variations based on their regular diet, including blood biomarkers such as cholesterol; and genetic variants. A control group was given conventional dietary advice.

At the end of the study, the three groups that received personalized nutrition advice had all improved their eating habits, compared with the control group.

But the improvements in each of the three groups were about the same. “It didn’t seem to matter whether they were personalized based on current diet.

The field of nutrigenetics is relatively new. In 2003, the Human Genome Project, which identified all the genes in human DNA and determined the sequence of the 3 billion chemical base pairs that make up human DNA, was completed.

Knowing the sequences of the human genome opened the doors to examine the relationship among an individual’s genetic makeup, dietary intake, and health outcomes. The excitement surrounding nutrigenetics stems from the notion that it’s the foundation of personalized nutrition.

Clearly, population-based dietary recommendations are helpful, but they aren’t adequate for all individuals since people respond differently to diets. Personalized nutrition bases dietary recommendations on genetic predisposition to disease.

The idea is that once personalized nutrition is integrated into routine care, patients can be genotyped for specific genetic variations, made aware of their nutrient deficiencies, and given strategies to dramatically reduce their risk.

Genome-based research is already enabling medical researchers to develop improved diagnostics, more effective therapeutic strategies, evidence-based approaches for demonstrating clinical efficacy, and better decision-making tools for patients and providers.

Ultimately, it appears inevitable that treatments will be tailored to a patient's particular genomic makeup.

Thus, the role of genetics in health care is starting to change profoundly and the first examples of the era of genomic medicine are upon us.

Ability to losing weight, insulin resistance, how to assess your own genomic information for what diet will work best for you. When: December 8th @ 7:30PM 

Free Consultation Call With Dr. Dan Stickler Mention this podcast episode in your contact form before your free consultation!

Pioneer in the world of Gene therapy, Dr. Theodore Friedman shares with us today the exciting future of what gene therapy holds. Listen in as we hear how manipulating certain lacking or misbehaving genes from causing disease has been proven in several types of diseases through clinical experimentation and how it will benefit future generations. We discuss whether or not it will be a solution to all disease. What the census is on how fast it will take or the prediction of genomic therapy within the scientific world. Gain greater awareness of gene modification within the world sport arena (Olympics), what kind of testing has been approved, used and how the tests are able to find modified genes or the presence of agents used to deliver those editing genes. What is the ethical answer of testing in sports when certain individuals naturally have genes that give increased ability to perform at a higher level than others?

Attack of genetic disease - using your genes as your tools for treatment rather than pharmaceutical drugs. The Molecular Biology field starting asking this question in the 1970s of how to manipulate genes in cells and living organisms to prevent the expression of disease causing genes. Introducing new genes or modifying genes with experimental testing certain diseases are being able to be manipulated or managed. How will the genes be edited with those that have existing diseases present not just a gene known to cause disease? Not all genes can be manipulated – there will still need to be preventative action, people will still have illnesses as not everyone has access to genomic testing and information on how to prevent disease through gene therapy. How will all of this sophisticated knowledge be delivered to all types of people? For gene manipulation to work the editing gene has to be delivered at the right time, to the right cell in the correct controlled situation for it to work properly.

Which if you didn’t hear in the 2016 Olympic Games there was testing for a gene known as EPO (Erythropoietin) within athletes.

As this awareness has been around for a decade and through research and scientific understanding testing was made available for detection of EPO distributed through the AAV virus into the person’s genomes.

With new technology emerging testing will and will not be possible depending on how the gene is manipulated or delivered into the athlete’s correct cells.

Most are being edited through various agents/viruses that more often than not do leave a fingerprint or sequence that may be found in current approved tests.

Other attributes of enhancing an athletes’ performance is to use gene therapy to knock out or minimize a gene such as Myostatin which may inhibit muscle cell growth and differentiation.

This also can be tested by looking for a mutant myostatin gene – which may be detected by a mixture of several different genomes.

Learn how your genes can predict your best dietary outcomes. With amazing outcomes of over 1500 clients within our medical practice.

Welcome back to the Ironman Executive Podcast where today we talk with Josh Mitteldorf, he is both a researcher and science writer. He recently released a book called Cracking the Aging Code which not only transformed my perspectives on aging but will bring awareness and knowledge into your own understanding of aging.

Learn the importance of epigenetics in aging as we discuss current research, research that may happen over the short term and long term in the science world in regards to how reversing aging may be possible.

There is good evidence that suggests caloric restriction does make you healthier and may add 5 to 10 years on your life.

Most professionals either believe it is the process of metabolism building up, there is the mathematical program or idea that it is within our cells and make up to age and the last is one of the evolutionary biology community where if it happens it must be good for us and our bodies just evolve alongside of everything else. ”Aging is not inevitable” Josh Mitteldorf We discuss examples of animals and creatures that use high energy and show no signs of ‘wearing out’ or aging compared to others that may die within only a few years of being born.

We have the same genes all through out our life with epigenetics its all about what genes get turned on and when. That same program continues into our old age, aging is a continuation of the epigenetic program into a self destructive age.

As research continues let’s look at the genes that are self destructive: inflammation, autoimmunity, the thymus gland that produces/trains T cells for our immune system shrinks with our age and the telomeres also get shorter with our age. To prevent these modes of self destruction there needs to be a solution to block these pathways from doing what they would naturally do – poison the body as the individual ages. 

Is there a way to get rid of the cells that are senescence (dying off slowly) and overtaking room for healthy and viable cells to prosper. Be informed on what chances for anti-aging you are taking. Listen to research and the experts who have spent many years in this field before self-experimenting.

Josh’s recommendation for maintaining a longevity lifestyle are:

Vitamin D (without it you are susceptible to cancer, Alzheimer’s, and heart disease. Get a blood test for your Vitamin D levels and get them as close to 100 as you can. Most Americans are around the 10 or 20 mark and the recommended level is 30 and above.

Magnesium has many benefits for your brain aging.

Interval training: jump ropes, sprints, push ups a couple of times a day especially before you eat. Has powerful short term effects and.

Today we’re talking to Dr. Kelly Olson, an expert in the area of neuroscience, stress and sleep. We discuss chronic stress and adrenal fatigue, as well as some promising supplements and treatments to support healthy stress response and better sleep habits.

We’re all aware of the negative impacts of stress, how it has a huge impact on aging and can create a low-grade inflammatory response that contributes to a high percentage of illnesses. Of course, there are also positive aspects to some types of stress.

Acute stress can provide a benefit, but you need to be able to control both the physiological and psychological response, particularly as it relates to coming back down afterward. Our bodies are meant to be able to manage this response by bringing down the heart rate and elevated chemical levels associated with stress, but it doesn’t always work that way, which leads to chronic stress.

Chronic or prolonged stress is associated with adrenal fatigue. But the problem with treating adrenal fatigue is that most practitioners go after the messenger instead of the source, which is akin to going after the symptom vs. the disease.

Cortisol released from adrenal glands creates a negative feedback loop. But if the receptors aren’t there, as happens in adrenal fatigue progression, the system doesn’t work the way it should. Unfortunately, controlling adrenal function is often overlooked by doctors. Biofeedback for stress response has the ability to control the neural circuits, and cognitive behavioral therapy also helps people train themselves to be able to come back down from stress.

The excess of chemicals in the brain like norepinephrine, epinephrine and cortisol can contribute to people’s inability to calm brain activity for a good night’s sleep. And sufficient and restful sleep is crucial for health and longevity – it’s our built-in process to combat stress, formulate memories and get the immune system on track. In order to get a good night’s sleep, all of the brain chemicals need to be properly balanced and work in concert together.

Dr. Olson herself has suffered from cortisol inversion and low serotonin, which prevented her from getting the sleep she needed. Over time, she was able to correct this imbalance through a combination of methods targeting neurotransmitters, including adaptogens, 5-HTP and folate support.

Eventually, she was able to get everything into a more normal range.

Dr. Olson recommends these supplements for stress modulation: Ashwagandha, CortiCept, Phenibut and melatonin.

Today we’re talking to Dave Siever, an expert on the topics of neuro feedback and biofeedback. Dave discusses the audio visual entrainment (AVE) device – called the DAVID -- offered through his company Mind Alive, and how it can be used to optimize the brain in many different ways.

Dave explains how audio-visual entrainment is different from the audio-visual stimulation you’d get from, for example, watching TV, which doesn’t do much to benefit the brain. AVE, in contrast, provides a continuous stream of stimuli at a fairly steady frequency into the eyes and ears -- the device works simply by using headphones to pulse tones for auditory stimulation and glasses with lights that flash at different speeds for visual stimulation. And while people generally associate entrainment with brain wave driving, that is only a small portion of what it does. AVE also has dissociative benefits similar to meditation, increases endorphins, serotonin and blood flow to the brain, and has an autonomic calming effect.

The beauty of the Mind Alive DAVID device is that it allows users to pick the frequency they want to entrain in the brain, practically making it a true panacea for an array of issues.

Dave explains that beta activity in the brain is associated with actively doing something, whereas alpha frequency is associated with calm, meditative activities. He’s seen that staying in the low beta region is beneficial for learning and activities -- this type of “relaxed tension” is a band that peak performers like athletes and academics do well in.

Meanwhile, increasing alpha activity in the brain can be helpful for people who have trouble getting into meditative states, or falling asleep. Dave points out that alpha intrusion gets in the way of focus, whereas people who are hyper-focused don’t have enough alpha activity and tend to be more rigid and don’t sleep as well. People have a tendency to be one way or another, and entrainment helps them to flex between the two states as needed. And it can be done anytime from home for as little as 30 minutes with the DAVID device.

The flexibility of audio-visual entrainment allows it to treat a broad variety of issues, purposes and disorders. Dave and his team have done two dozen studies on the DAVID devices to show their effectiveness for academics, seniors, and those suffering from depression, PTSD, sleep disorders and more, proving it to be the only technology that is so multifaceted.

It can even be used to help children with ADHD to fall asleep at night, or to take the edge off on a daily basis for those suffering from addiction or anxiety. And for entrepreneurs, AVE can boost performance, attention and cognition.

MindAlive.com