WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.520 Hello, welcome to this month's Asking a Doctor. My name is Andrew Murray. For those of you 00:00:05.520 --> 00:00:10.880 who perhaps have never listened to the show, they run from 7 till 8pm every third Friday 00:00:10.880 --> 00:00:18.000 of the month. And from 7.30 typically until 8 o'clock, we invite callers to a call in 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:28.640 with questions related to the month's subject. The toll free number is 1-800-568-3723. That's 00:00:28.640 --> 00:00:40.640 1-800-KMUD-RAD. And if you're in the 707 area code, the number is 707-923-3911. Well, 00:00:40.640 --> 00:00:47.280 I think I should probably start off, it's January 2018, Happy New Year. Nice and cold 00:00:47.280 --> 00:00:53.080 outside, certainly not very environmentally enrichening. But I'm sure there's plenty of 00:00:53.080 --> 00:00:57.480 things that can be done. And I know we're probably going to get into some of the things 00:00:57.480 --> 00:01:05.280 as a recap on environmental enrichment. But this month's subject is going to be, I won't 00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:11.280 say specifically for the ladies out there, but a lot of what we're going to talk to Dr. 00:01:11.280 --> 00:01:20.040 Peat tonight about is related to female hormones. And whilst progesterone is not typically female, 00:01:20.040 --> 00:01:27.040 it is produced by males, progesterone as a topic of discussion tonight will run through 00:01:27.040 --> 00:01:33.080 many of the disorders that we're going to cover. And some in particular, I wanted just 00:01:33.080 --> 00:01:40.080 to highlight again, the difficulty if you are looking online for information, I mean, 00:01:40.080 --> 00:01:45.400 the internet is an excellent source, but it's also a good source of disinformation. So you 00:01:45.400 --> 00:01:52.120 have to be really careful where you pick your narrative. Typically, clinical journals and 00:01:52.120 --> 00:02:01.320 clinical trial published information is also skewed. You can't always take it on face value 00:02:01.320 --> 00:02:07.240 that that result is actually what happened. So we're going to get into a couple of instances 00:02:07.240 --> 00:02:15.160 where some very prominent peer reviewed trials with thousands of people, I mean, huge cohorts 00:02:15.160 --> 00:02:23.560 of people that were involved in these trials to try and demonstrate an effect. And particularly 00:02:23.560 --> 00:02:29.200 with regard to progesterone, the effects of progesterone on traumatic brain injury are 00:02:29.200 --> 00:02:33.720 one of those things we're going to look at. And then we're going to look at things like 00:02:33.720 --> 00:02:38.240 the effect on cognitive impairment. We're going to look at the effects on Alzheimer's 00:02:38.240 --> 00:02:45.920 and other neurodegenerative disorders, and then postpartum depression and epilepsy, menstrual 00:02:45.920 --> 00:02:53.640 related epilepsy, catamenial epilepsy, and then sleep apnea. So I'm sure from a perspective 00:02:53.640 --> 00:03:01.680 of postpartum and progesterone for the women who have had maybe PMS symptoms or estrogen 00:03:01.680 --> 00:03:06.760 excess symptoms, which are going to be very much tied to tonight's discussion, who suffer 00:03:06.760 --> 00:03:14.360 with polycystic ovaries, you know, what they call breast mice. So cysts, cystic formations, 00:03:14.360 --> 00:03:20.320 obviously endometriosis, and then difficulty conceiving. So if those females are listening, 00:03:20.320 --> 00:03:26.520 if it's pretty sure interest, there's a lot that can be done about this. I graduated 20 00:03:26.520 --> 00:03:30.960 years ago now, with an honors degree in herbal medicine, and I've worked with Dr. Peat here 00:03:30.960 --> 00:03:36.480 for the last nine to 10 years. And a lot of what we found out from Dr. Peat has been pretty 00:03:36.480 --> 00:03:42.480 revelational because when I was studying herbal medicine in England, even the medical literature, 00:03:42.480 --> 00:03:47.840 and we were trained by doctors and endocrinologists and pathologists and all the other ologists, 00:03:47.840 --> 00:03:54.760 but they all came out of a medical background. We weren't really taught by holistic practitioners 00:03:54.760 --> 00:04:00.920 apart from maybe the materia medica side of the, you know, the education. So we were taught 00:04:00.920 --> 00:04:08.640 by doctors and we had gynecologists and physiologists and pathologists. So, but they have the same 00:04:08.640 --> 00:04:13.440 kind of medical background and a lot of the, a lot of the things we learned, I've later 00:04:13.440 --> 00:04:19.320 found out from Dr. Peat and from doing research online, looking to see deeper, there actually 00:04:19.320 --> 00:04:24.360 is quite a lot of untruth in what we were told as is what's good for you. So hopefully 00:04:24.360 --> 00:04:31.880 these shows are all online. Our website, which is www.westernbotanicalmedicine.com, there's 00:04:31.880 --> 00:04:37.960 a resource tab and every one of the shows that we've recorded with Dr. Peat here since 00:04:37.960 --> 00:04:43.400 2008 are there. I think there may be the last one or two months that's yet to be put up, 00:04:43.400 --> 00:04:47.260 but essentially it's a great resource and it's free. So people should definitely go 00:04:47.260 --> 00:04:53.040 there and look at that. And then obviously Dr. Peat's website, and he's very much somebody 00:04:53.040 --> 00:05:02.160 I want to support fully. His website is referenced with lots and lots of articles. All of these 00:05:02.160 --> 00:05:07.640 articles I should say are fully referenced. So his specialty, I'll just introduce him 00:05:07.640 --> 00:05:13.080 here in a second and he can just give you his bio, but I know people that are listening 00:05:13.080 --> 00:05:17.080 who probably tuned in just for the show know him, but there's always people that I come 00:05:17.080 --> 00:05:21.480 across who've not heard him before. And so obviously he's a great resource to further 00:05:21.480 --> 00:05:28.720 learn and relearn some untruths that we've been brainwashed with. So I don't see the 00:05:28.720 --> 00:05:32.520 engineers talking to somebody. I don't know if he's talking to Dr. Peat or not. Let me 00:05:32.520 --> 00:05:37.440 just see if he's there. I'm here. Oh, hi, Dr. Peat. Well, thanks so much for joining 00:05:37.440 --> 00:05:43.640 us again. As always, I know some people have mentioned on the forums that your bio, they've 00:05:43.640 --> 00:05:47.000 heard it all before, but you know what? There's people that haven't heard you. So I'm just 00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:53.240 going to carry on as usual and please ask you to give a background, your academic background 00:05:53.240 --> 00:06:02.560 and your research since then. My PhD study was at the University of Oregon in 1968 to 00:06:02.560 --> 00:06:13.240 72. My dissertation was on reproductive aging. And my intention when I went back to graduate 00:06:13.240 --> 00:06:21.680 school in biology was to study the brain, but I found that the brain research was the 00:06:21.680 --> 00:06:28.760 most doctrinaire next to genetics. And so I looked around and found that the reproductive 00:06:28.760 --> 00:06:38.360 physiology was actually oriented towards science. And my background before that had been studying 00:06:38.360 --> 00:06:46.320 literature, linguistics and painting. And it's probably the background in literature 00:06:46.320 --> 00:06:58.640 that made me think in an adversarial manner in evaluating science rather than an authoritarian 00:06:58.640 --> 00:07:10.360 except because the professor said it's true. I think the legal attitude of looking for 00:07:10.360 --> 00:07:17.920 truth by an adversarial approach should apply to medicine and science in general. 00:07:17.920 --> 00:07:27.200 Okay, well, good. So as I was preparing material, excuse me, for this evening's show, I was 00:07:27.200 --> 00:07:33.080 looking at initially, I wanted to ask you kind of go through a list of disorders that 00:07:33.080 --> 00:07:39.800 I have that will all be found to be linked, but didn't necessarily want to bounce around 00:07:39.800 --> 00:07:46.280 all of them in describing one at a time. And I started off with looking at the evidence, 00:07:46.280 --> 00:07:53.320 again, wanting to be just like you very scientifically oriented here and looking for truth in science 00:07:53.320 --> 00:07:59.600 and wanting and expecting good science to reveal the truth, which it will do impartially. 00:07:59.600 --> 00:08:05.640 And it's a reproducible event, which is a defining marker of good science. About traumatic 00:08:05.640 --> 00:08:10.560 brain injury, and I never actually realized that the numbers were so huge, the amount 00:08:10.560 --> 00:08:14.920 of people actually suffering with traumatic brain injury, whether these are people that 00:08:14.920 --> 00:08:21.240 play in professional soccer or boxing or people that get in auto wrecks, or people that fall 00:08:21.240 --> 00:08:26.480 off of, you know, buildings and ladders and the numbers are pretty staggering. And actually, 00:08:26.480 --> 00:08:31.240 it's been one of the most difficult to treat conditions. I mean, I never really think I 00:08:31.240 --> 00:08:37.040 never thought about it really too much until I started plunging into the papers around 00:08:37.040 --> 00:08:43.520 the subject, but traumatic brain injury is not very well treated. And there, whilst there 00:08:43.520 --> 00:08:50.040 have been some very good phase one and two trials, using progesterone, which is going 00:08:50.040 --> 00:08:59.640 to be the topic of tonight, woven in many different diseases or pathologies, that although 00:08:59.640 --> 00:09:04.840 the trial one and two trial results were very promising, and they spurred the phase three 00:09:04.840 --> 00:09:11.920 trials which had huge numbers, cohort numbers of 10,000 in one of them and 1000 or 1500 00:09:11.920 --> 00:09:17.440 in the other. Both of these studies and we'll go on to describe them so people can take 00:09:17.440 --> 00:09:24.840 a look at it themselves. Both these studies seemingly found no benefit. Now, I know, you've 00:09:24.840 --> 00:09:31.080 described at length the anti inflammatory and anti edema to main mentioned just a couple 00:09:31.080 --> 00:09:37.320 of the effects of progesterone. But the swelling that occurs in traumatic brain injury is one 00:09:37.320 --> 00:09:42.280 of the main contributors of all the damage along with course, with all the leakage and 00:09:42.280 --> 00:09:50.200 the inflammatory cytokines that are released as a process of cell breakdown and rupture. 00:09:50.200 --> 00:09:55.960 So given that, given that the phase one and two trials were so promising and spurred the 00:09:55.960 --> 00:10:02.800 call for a phase three trial, I read both of the most recent ones, the PROTECT-3 and 00:10:02.800 --> 00:10:08.560 the SYNAPSE trial on progesterone for severe traumatic brain injury saying that there was 00:10:08.560 --> 00:10:14.000 no beneficial effect when and we'll bring this out in a little bit after you've described 00:10:14.000 --> 00:10:19.800 perhaps your understanding of progesterone and how you definitely would advocate progesterone 00:10:19.800 --> 00:10:25.400 for swelling and then we'll go, you know, bounce around the production, the endogenous 00:10:25.400 --> 00:10:30.800 production of progesterone because it's very, very different to estrogen. For example, being 00:10:30.800 --> 00:10:38.440 produced in the CNS and the brain cell astrocytes and oligodendrocytes as well as gonads, etc. 00:10:38.440 --> 00:10:45.560 So, this, the main study here showed no benefit and it's almost just yet another, gosh, just 00:10:45.560 --> 00:10:50.840 another closed door if you like. I find more and more as I talk to you and as I look at 00:10:50.840 --> 00:10:55.000 papers myself that they're really, and I won't, you know, that word conspiracy is thrown around 00:10:55.000 --> 00:11:02.520 so much I know, but there does seem to be a real, a real work to undo progesterone's 00:11:02.520 --> 00:11:11.440 good because in the study, given they did a 120-hour study for this particular application 00:11:11.440 --> 00:11:19.160 of progesterone, they said there was no benefit in reducing swelling or outcome, but a later 00:11:19.160 --> 00:11:25.960 piece of work that was done when both of these phase 3 trials didn't seem to show any benefit 00:11:25.960 --> 00:11:33.920 was refuted by a professor of neuros, well, actually he's a, working for the Emory University. 00:11:33.920 --> 00:11:41.520 He's basically just been studying brain trauma for the last 20, 30 years, so it's his specialty. 00:11:41.520 --> 00:11:47.440 He's actually revealed some of the faults of the study that are definitely noteworthy. 00:11:47.440 --> 00:11:57.320 So I was going to start the questioning here to you in terms of progesterone and its beneficial 00:11:57.320 --> 00:12:06.120 effects. How do you interpret this negative effect that was shown in the trials in comparison 00:12:06.120 --> 00:12:10.280 to truly what progesterone is capable of doing? 00:12:10.280 --> 00:12:21.200 There have been, I think it was about 15 big studies on brain injury and interestingly 00:12:21.200 --> 00:12:29.840 after overwhelmingly promising results from, for example, using intravenous magnesium to 00:12:29.840 --> 00:12:37.640 reduce swelling and restore metabolism, all of these, by the time they reached the phase 00:12:37.640 --> 00:12:45.440 3 level, suddenly the results were the opposite and nothing turned out to be beneficial for 00:12:45.440 --> 00:12:54.640 treating human brain trauma, even though the previous smaller studies and many, many animal 00:12:54.640 --> 00:13:04.760 studies were showing overwhelming good increased survival, increased full recovery and so on. 00:13:04.760 --> 00:13:11.720 And the fact that something happens at the phase 3 level, I think is very suspicious 00:13:11.720 --> 00:13:20.440 when the government and big corporations get involved. I suspect that they really are protecting 00:13:20.440 --> 00:13:28.160 drugs that are not generic the way progesterone is. Urea, I don't think there's ever been 00:13:28.160 --> 00:13:36.120 a major study of treating brain trauma with simply intravenous urea, but it has had just 00:13:36.120 --> 00:13:45.560 amazingly good results and I think probably a serious study could be done using all of 00:13:45.560 --> 00:13:57.280 the known beneficial things, urea, magnesium, progesterone, hypertonic saline solution and 00:13:57.280 --> 00:14:04.280 so on. I think if you do everything that's known to be beneficial to the brain, you would 00:14:04.280 --> 00:14:14.840 get even better results than with a single drug-like treatment. The worst thing about 00:14:14.840 --> 00:14:26.960 this big Protect study, I think, was that they not only didn't give a big enough dose, 00:14:26.960 --> 00:14:39.800 but they gave it emulsified with, I think it was intralipid soybean oil. And the amount 00:14:39.800 --> 00:14:47.080 of soybean emulsion that they were giving intravenously in the animal studies, it in 00:14:47.080 --> 00:14:48.480 itself is harmful. 00:14:48.480 --> 00:14:50.840 Yeah, it was a 6% solution. 00:14:50.840 --> 00:15:00.040 I think it was about 1970, someone injected emulsified soy oil into rats and showed that 00:15:00.040 --> 00:15:07.480 on the first pass through the brain, 17% of the oil was taken up into the brain. There's 00:15:07.480 --> 00:15:15.440 no blood brain barrier that functions against oil. And then they dissected the brain and 00:15:15.440 --> 00:15:27.200 showed that one dose of oil was enough to alter the morphology of brain cells. So intravenous 00:15:27.200 --> 00:15:36.800 treatment with something supposedly beneficial with a known toxin to the brain with a long 00:15:36.800 --> 00:15:47.920 history of evidence, it's hard to imagine how corporate and government interest putting 00:15:47.920 --> 00:15:52.680 millions of dollars into the project could have been that ignorant. 00:15:52.680 --> 00:15:58.000 Okay, and the other thing I noticed on that trial, you mentioned the 6% soybean oil that 00:15:58.000 --> 00:16:05.040 they used. They were only using 2mg of progesterone per milliliter for the active treatment. And 00:16:05.040 --> 00:16:12.800 then the drug infusion was started intravenously with a loading dose of 0.71mg per kilo body 00:16:12.800 --> 00:16:21.040 weight per hour for one hour followed by 0.5mg per kilo per hour for the rest of the 119 00:16:21.040 --> 00:16:22.040 hours. 00:16:22.040 --> 00:16:24.000 So they were getting 2mg of progesterone per milliliter. And I'd like you to put this in 00:16:24.000 --> 00:16:26.900 perspective for people that are listening because maybe people don't quite understand 00:16:26.900 --> 00:16:31.800 the normal values that females are exposed to during the menstrual cycle and/or pregnancy. 00:16:31.800 --> 00:16:39.640 So 2mg of progesterone per milliliter, so basically 0.5mg per kilo per hour for 120 00:16:39.640 --> 00:16:49.640 hours. So would you put either 0.5mg or 2mg in perspective of the progesterone exposure 00:16:49.640 --> 00:16:53.280 that most females enjoy? 00:16:53.280 --> 00:17:00.040 Some people have reported that in the last week or two of a healthy pregnancy, a woman's 00:17:00.040 --> 00:17:11.800 placenta is producing 800-900mg of progesterone per day. And that doesn't do anything potentially 00:17:11.800 --> 00:17:17.360 harmful. It's very protective. Women generally feel great the last two or three weeks when 00:17:17.360 --> 00:17:26.260 their progesterone is at a maximum. So they could easily have given 2000mg of progesterone 00:17:26.260 --> 00:17:28.440 per day instead of a few hundred milligrams. 00:17:28.440 --> 00:17:38.840 Right. Well, this was 2mg. So yeah, 2mg per hour. Okay, crazy. So that brings me on to 00:17:38.840 --> 00:17:43.720 the next thing. And it took a long time to find this because there's a lot of information, 00:17:43.720 --> 00:17:48.400 re-repeated information, information that people are quoting from this same study to 00:17:48.400 --> 00:17:52.840 say that progesterone is not effective for traumatic brain injury. Hundreds and hundreds 00:17:52.840 --> 00:17:58.960 and hundreds and very little actual pro-supportive evidence for progesterone's anti-inflammatory 00:17:58.960 --> 00:18:05.800 effect and brain edema decreasing effect. But one person in particular, this particular 00:18:05.800 --> 00:18:13.520 doctor who was studying this at Emory University, and his name is Donald Stein. He published 00:18:13.520 --> 00:18:19.960 a couple of articles back in 2013 when he was very hopeful that this phase 3 trial was 00:18:19.960 --> 00:18:25.680 going to show very positive results for progesterone. And I think it took maybe 18 months to 2 years 00:18:25.680 --> 00:18:32.520 afterwards for him to publish this latest paper in the Journal of Neurotrauma dated 00:18:32.520 --> 00:18:38.880 June 1st, 2017. And it's titled Suboptimal Dosing Parameters as Possible Factors in the 00:18:38.880 --> 00:18:44.560 Negative Phase 3 Clinical Trials of Progesterone for Traumatic Brain Injury. And it's about 00:18:44.560 --> 00:18:51.600 a 4-page article basically refuting the dose that was given. And as you mentioned, the 00:18:51.600 --> 00:18:59.960 emulsifying agent, the polyunsaturated fat that was used, the soybean oil that was used 00:18:59.960 --> 00:19:06.960 as part of the carrier, certainly bringing its own negative inflammatory effects. And 00:19:06.960 --> 00:19:12.920 you've always talked about PUFAs as being pro-estrogenic. And estrogen obviously is 00:19:12.920 --> 00:19:19.560 a known water logger, both of neurons and cells. And so all of this is working against 00:19:19.560 --> 00:19:25.080 any tiny dose of progesterone that was part of the trial. So just again, for people that 00:19:25.080 --> 00:19:29.440 are listening, it's very difficult sometimes to wade through all this material and find 00:19:29.440 --> 00:19:35.460 the facts because a lot of it is being promoted by pretty vested interests that are plugged 00:19:35.460 --> 00:19:39.960 into many different levels of academia with people doing follow-up research to get their 00:19:39.960 --> 00:19:45.440 PhDs, etc. And we all know from what you've mentioned and from personal experience of 00:19:45.440 --> 00:19:49.880 people that have been in academia that there is this real egocentric mentality running 00:19:49.880 --> 00:19:54.700 through the departments and obviously funding that runs through those same mentalities that 00:19:54.700 --> 00:19:59.000 people don't want to give up. And so it's very difficult sometimes to find objective 00:19:59.000 --> 00:20:02.300 truth, but it is out there. And so that's what this show has been around for a long 00:20:02.300 --> 00:20:09.280 time is to have you on the show and get you to refute what have been believed innocently, 00:20:09.280 --> 00:20:12.200 I think for the longest time because we've been taught it and we think these people are 00:20:12.200 --> 00:20:16.200 telling the truth, but your research shows otherwise. 00:20:16.200 --> 00:20:26.240 You mentioned the estrogenic effect of polyunsaturated fats. When there's a trauma, the toxicity 00:20:26.240 --> 00:20:33.880 of the polyunsaturated fats is tremendously amplified by their conversion to the pro-inflammatory 00:20:33.880 --> 00:20:43.960 prostaglandins. And in any trauma, not just trauma, but any harmful experience of an organism, 00:20:43.960 --> 00:20:51.000 estrogen is produced in the injured tissue and in the whole organism. It can be sunburn 00:20:51.000 --> 00:21:01.920 or parasites in the intestine or broken bone, x-ray treatment, any harm you can think of 00:21:01.920 --> 00:21:07.480 due to the organism is going to increase the estrogen production and the conversion of 00:21:07.480 --> 00:21:12.840 polyunsaturated fats to the pro-inflammatory mediators. 00:21:12.840 --> 00:21:21.720 Right. So this is what you would term or literature would term the ex-cyto-toxic situation. 00:21:21.720 --> 00:21:29.080 Part of it, that's an even more specific part that happens under the influence of estrogen 00:21:29.080 --> 00:21:38.640 and polyunsaturated fats. They activate the glutamatergic transmitters in the brain, these 00:21:38.640 --> 00:21:51.520 literally excitatory signals to the point that they become toxic. Progesterone opposes 00:21:51.520 --> 00:22:02.840 all of these, not just the direct anti-estrogen effect, but it blocks the formation of prostaglandins, 00:22:02.840 --> 00:22:12.840 blocks the release of the stored polyunsaturated fats, blocks the formation of other inflammatory 00:22:12.840 --> 00:22:24.080 mediators and antagonizes the glutamatergic ex-cyto-toxins. Every function of the organism 00:22:24.080 --> 00:22:31.240 you can think of that's harmed by trauma is intensified by estrogen and polyunsaturated 00:22:31.240 --> 00:22:34.520 fats and those are blocked by progesterone. 00:22:34.520 --> 00:22:41.240 Okay. All right. So you're listening to Ask Your Ob-Doctor, KMU DeGalbaville, 91.1 FM 00:22:41.240 --> 00:22:45.400 from 7.30 until the end of the show at 8 o'clock. People are invited to call in with questions 00:22:45.400 --> 00:22:51.600 either related or unrelated to this month's subject of progesterone and its treatment 00:22:51.600 --> 00:22:55.480 for traumatic brain injury. We're going to look at cognitive impairment, Alzheimer's, 00:22:55.480 --> 00:23:00.920 we're going to touch on that a little, postpartum depression, that's quite interesting from 00:23:00.920 --> 00:23:06.600 a female perspective, postpartum, catamenial epilepsy, which is a menstrual cycle related 00:23:06.600 --> 00:23:12.120 epilepsy and sleep apnea and how progesterone and CO2 have interrelated effects. So the 00:23:12.120 --> 00:23:17.800 number if you're in the area is 923 3911 or if you're in the outside area or indeed out 00:23:17.800 --> 00:23:26.480 of the States, which has happened many times, there's an 800 number, 1-800-568-3723. So 00:23:26.480 --> 00:23:31.280 we will take your calls from 7.30 on. I saw the lights flashing here just a bit ago. I 00:23:31.280 --> 00:23:36.560 don't know if you've got anybody on at this point. Maybe not. Maybe taking questions. 00:23:36.560 --> 00:23:41.680 Okay, we can always go back to him if he's there. Okay, he's there. Let's take this first 00:23:41.680 --> 00:23:44.000 call. A caller, you're on the air. Where are you from? What's your question? 00:23:44.000 --> 00:23:51.600 My name is Jeff from New York. I was listening to the comment about progesterone and progesterone 00:23:51.600 --> 00:23:56.000 is I guess the miracle product, but does it only apply to women? Because I think you've 00:23:56.000 --> 00:24:01.880 mentioned in the past that pregnenolone is sort of universal, but progesterone men have 00:24:01.880 --> 00:24:06.920 to be careful about. And I'm not talking about like a 25-year-old, I'm talking about like 00:24:06.920 --> 00:24:16.520 a 55 to 70-year-old where the risk of endotoxins is increasing just with basic age. So that's 00:24:16.520 --> 00:24:23.640 one question that I had. The other one is with regard to salt and insomnia, I was actually 00:24:23.640 --> 00:24:31.880 using sea salt and I switched over, having read your forum, to canning salt or actually 00:24:31.880 --> 00:24:36.560 kosher salt, which is pure salt, doesn't have any other minerals in it. And I actually think 00:24:36.560 --> 00:24:42.040 it really helped. I'm just wondering if you would agree with that and sort of why, because 00:24:42.040 --> 00:24:44.960 I don't seem to be waking up at three o'clock in the morning anymore. I seem to be able 00:24:44.960 --> 00:24:49.280 to sleep through the night. So it might not be the only item, but anyway, that was the 00:24:49.280 --> 00:24:53.080 second question. Thank you. Okay, I'll let Dr. Peat ask the progesterone, 00:24:53.080 --> 00:24:56.640 answer the progesterone question with men and progesterone, how safe is it? But I will 00:24:56.640 --> 00:25:01.920 quickly just say the whole thing about salt and natural salt and Himalayan salts and deep 00:25:01.920 --> 00:25:07.280 earth crystal salts, the fact is they do contain a lot of other trace elements and other negative 00:25:07.280 --> 00:25:14.560 material. And I think that could be in part why there may be disruptions going on on a 00:25:14.560 --> 00:25:21.440 hormonal level in a type of endocrine fashion with very small picogram concentrations of 00:25:21.440 --> 00:25:27.080 very questionable heavy metals and other products that can be present in the salt. 00:25:27.080 --> 00:25:34.360 So all of those colored salts and Himalayan salts, etc. typically have other particles 00:25:34.360 --> 00:25:40.120 within them that are not beneficial. And so I think just like Dr. Peat is talking about white 00:25:40.120 --> 00:25:45.880 sugar being good, it's not opposed to white sugar at all. And I think you find the caramelization 00:25:45.880 --> 00:25:50.160 product of any organic or brown sugars may be more detrimental than just straight white 00:25:50.160 --> 00:25:56.960 sugar for its own sake. So you agree with kosher salt? Canning salts are the same and 00:25:56.960 --> 00:26:02.520 that's the product that would be most efficacious for this type of program? Yeah, I would say 00:26:02.520 --> 00:26:08.920 that a straightforward white sea salt. Again, I guess I have to question that because sea 00:26:08.920 --> 00:26:15.040 salt has its own elements within it that we know are not particularly good for you. But 00:26:15.040 --> 00:26:21.960 a white sea salt is particularly what we use. What do you think about iodine? Not a good 00:26:21.960 --> 00:26:29.600 product to supplement with. Obviously in terms of any Fukushima fallout or that kind of thing. 00:26:29.600 --> 00:26:36.480 And obviously there's a rationale for it for getting it taken up into the thyroid gland 00:26:36.480 --> 00:26:43.240 so that the radioactive material doesn't collect there. But yeah, Dr. Peat, what do you think 00:26:43.240 --> 00:26:51.080 about progesterone in men? Well, first I'd like to comment that my interest in salt supplementation 00:26:51.080 --> 00:26:58.120 was related to the estrogen issue because I saw premenstrual women restricting their 00:26:58.120 --> 00:27:05.040 salt and making their symptoms worse. I suggested to a friend that she salt her food to taste 00:27:05.040 --> 00:27:11.320 and suddenly she didn't retain water. Salt was acting as a diuretic. And then years later 00:27:11.320 --> 00:27:19.760 I knew old people who were restricting salt and developing serious insomnia and not improving 00:27:19.760 --> 00:27:27.040 their blood pressure. So I suggested the same thing to them. And again, they went to sleep, 00:27:27.040 --> 00:27:36.560 got good sleep suddenly and their blood pressure actually came down. And then I realized that 00:27:36.560 --> 00:27:45.280 Tom Brewer with his diet for pregnant women in the 1950s and 60s had seen the same thing 00:27:45.280 --> 00:27:55.120 that some people he collaborated with supplemented pregnant women with toxemia symptoms with 00:27:55.120 --> 00:28:02.640 huge amounts of salt daily and their toxemia essentially was cured. That's Shanklin and 00:28:02.640 --> 00:28:13.680 Houghton's book. Anyway, the progesterone, I used it myself after I had worked with it 00:28:13.680 --> 00:28:27.360 in aging animals. I tried it on my own migraines and twice having a very intense migraine, 00:28:27.360 --> 00:28:35.760 I had complete reversal of the symptoms from one to two minutes from a total migraine to 00:28:35.760 --> 00:28:44.000 total wellness after ingesting about 100 milligrams I guess it was. And that was what really got 00:28:44.000 --> 00:28:55.520 me interested in describing it to other people. And when I took too much for too long, I noticed 00:28:55.520 --> 00:29:02.160 that it had the effect of a cold shower for a day or two, an antitestosterone effect, 00:29:02.160 --> 00:29:10.000 but that passes quickly when you stop taking it. And I found as I got older that I could 00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:17.040 tolerate five milligrams or 10 milligrams a day without that antitestosterone effect. 00:29:17.040 --> 00:29:23.760 Several people have told me that it actually seems to reinforce their testosterone. And 00:29:23.760 --> 00:29:30.200 I think that works because testosterone when you're under stress is being converted to 00:29:30.200 --> 00:29:40.200 estrogen and if you stop that conversion with progesterone, progesterone like aspirin inhibits 00:29:40.200 --> 00:29:45.880 the conversion of testosterone to estrogen. You can actually raise your testosterone by 00:29:45.880 --> 00:29:48.760 blocking that conversion of stress. 00:29:48.760 --> 00:29:53.160 That's very interesting. The question on iodine a moment ago, I know you've mentioned that 00:29:53.160 --> 00:29:58.640 taking a very small amount or even a seemingly small amount can be toxic, but that was in 00:29:58.640 --> 00:30:06.560 an experiment. So as you probably have written and incredibly articulately, and I don't want 00:30:06.560 --> 00:30:10.800 to make you put a little comp, but quickly the fluoridation of the water is something 00:30:10.800 --> 00:30:19.560 that Americans just literally can't escape. So I'm just wondering outside the laboratory, 00:30:19.560 --> 00:30:25.440 does more iodine make sense in the context of an environment where you're so exposed 00:30:25.440 --> 00:30:31.720 to fluoridated water that you can't really escape it? Is it counteracted? Maybe would 00:30:31.720 --> 00:30:38.120 suggest more than a small dose to offset the fluoride that you're probably consuming without 00:30:38.120 --> 00:30:39.120 your knowledge? 00:30:39.120 --> 00:30:47.080 I've never seen a test of that idea. I think it should be tested. When I spent some time 00:30:47.080 --> 00:30:52.560 in San Francisco without thinking about the fluoridation of water there, I was using a 00:30:52.560 --> 00:31:02.360 daily supplement of T3, Cytomel, and within a few days I developed a migraine, which made 00:31:02.360 --> 00:31:12.200 me assume it was a sudden crash of my thyroid function. So I looked up the interaction. 00:31:12.200 --> 00:31:19.600 If you take T3 with fluoridated water, if it's in your stomach at the same time, the 00:31:19.600 --> 00:31:27.160 amount of fluoride in the water will totally knock out the dose you're taking. But I think 00:31:27.160 --> 00:31:33.160 there is some effect once it gets in your body as long as it's circulating as ionic 00:31:33.160 --> 00:31:40.800 fluoride. I think it will knock out any T3 that it runs into. 00:31:40.800 --> 00:31:45.840 That's great. I have just one last question if I may. On amino acids, you say like gelatin, 00:31:45.840 --> 00:31:49.320 you're better off taking gelatin because that's how you get your proline and your glycine. 00:31:49.320 --> 00:31:54.520 It's more bioavailable and cleaner without any additives. But there are some isolated 00:31:54.520 --> 00:32:00.120 amino acids like taurine, which I think in and of itself may be extremely therapeutic 00:32:00.120 --> 00:32:06.120 and perhaps reduces stress. And the other one that I was interested in is carnosine, 00:32:06.120 --> 00:32:11.320 not carnitine, which you've written well on, but carnosine seems to be a long list 00:32:11.320 --> 00:32:19.000 of benefits. Do the possible risks of additives, are they potentially offset by the fact that 00:32:19.000 --> 00:32:23.760 those two particular amino acids have a laundry list of benefits? 00:32:23.760 --> 00:32:30.440 Yeah. I don't discourage people from taking those if they want to try them, but I don't 00:32:30.440 --> 00:32:31.440 use them myself. 00:32:31.440 --> 00:32:41.880 Okay. Well, yeah. Okay. One last question. I am holding my breath for two minutes at 00:32:41.880 --> 00:32:47.720 the best with my -- take a breath and you let all the air out and you hold it for a 00:32:47.720 --> 00:32:52.200 minute and a half, my maximum is two minutes. And then you take one breath in and you hold 00:32:52.200 --> 00:32:59.000 it for a minute to a minute and a half. When I do that, and I have -- sometimes I can do 00:32:59.000 --> 00:33:05.640 it better than others, it seems that that might be a good proxy for bag breathing or 00:33:05.640 --> 00:33:10.600 swimming or whatever to increase your CO2. And is that something that if you practice 00:33:10.600 --> 00:33:15.680 it over a period of time, as an older person, you can reduce the systemic stress to your 00:33:15.680 --> 00:33:22.440 body, you know, as opposed to putting your whole body in a bag of CO2 gas? 00:33:22.440 --> 00:33:30.280 Yeah. Holding your breath does have its value, but the amount of time you hold it depends 00:33:30.280 --> 00:33:38.200 on your metabolic rate. If you have a high thyroid function, you might be unconscious 00:33:38.200 --> 00:33:41.680 after a minute of breath holding. 00:33:41.680 --> 00:33:44.880 So you have a high metabolic rate or low? 00:33:44.880 --> 00:33:51.800 If you have a high metabolic rate and you're producing CO2 and consuming oxygen very fast, 00:33:51.800 --> 00:33:59.280 the fall off of oxygen supply to your brain is going to be twice as fast as the average 00:33:59.280 --> 00:34:07.160 person and four times as fast as a hypothyroid person. So if you have a high metabolic rate, 00:34:07.160 --> 00:34:12.120 you don't want to force yourself to go two minutes. 00:34:12.120 --> 00:34:17.280 Is there a good average for someone who's like modestly hypothyroid? I mean, as you 00:34:17.280 --> 00:34:22.360 get older, everyone becomes hypothyroid, right, to some extent. So, I mean, not to pin you 00:34:22.360 --> 00:34:30.120 down, but like doing it a minute a day, you know, is that a good target? Like 30, 60 seconds? 00:34:30.120 --> 00:34:35.520 Because it's not hard, it's not easy. It's just something you can do and seems to certainly 00:34:35.520 --> 00:34:39.760 feel relaxed afterward. I mean, you feel like your blood vessels literally are relaxed. 00:34:39.760 --> 00:34:42.000 It's a very odd feeling. 00:34:42.000 --> 00:34:49.880 A very high proportion of the population is breathing too fast, hyperventilating. So it's 00:34:49.880 --> 00:34:58.320 beneficial for most people to hold their breath or breathe slower to some extent, but there's 00:34:58.320 --> 00:35:06.640 no way without doing an oxygen consumption test that you can tell exactly how many seconds 00:35:06.640 --> 00:35:07.640 you should hold it. 00:35:08.640 --> 00:35:13.200 Gotcha, gotcha. I gotcha. But I think that's a good point. If you're doing it and you reduce 00:35:13.200 --> 00:35:18.400 the number of breaths you take during a normal minute without thinking about it, then you've 00:35:18.400 --> 00:35:24.000 improved. There's some benefit, right, because you're taking fewer breaths per minute. 00:35:24.000 --> 00:35:25.000 Yeah. 00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:28.640 Okay. Thanks for your call. We do have another caller on the line waiting to get on in. So 00:35:28.640 --> 00:35:31.640 let's make sure they get the opportunity. You're on the air. Where are you from? What's 00:35:31.640 --> 00:35:32.640 your question? 00:35:32.640 --> 00:35:36.720 Yes. Hi, this is, I'm calling from Finland. 00:35:36.720 --> 00:35:37.720 Finland. 00:35:37.720 --> 00:35:46.320 And I'm always very grateful for your show and, you know, just learning so much. My question 00:35:46.320 --> 00:35:54.640 is unrelated to this week's topic. It's basically prompted by a recent book in French by a doctor 00:35:54.640 --> 00:36:03.600 who founded the Oxidative Stress College. And so I'd like to know if this whole white 00:36:03.600 --> 00:36:13.520 fat, brown fat thing is good science. What I found in the book, which just came out recently, 00:36:13.520 --> 00:36:23.840 this is why I dare to mention it, is basically the assumption from this doctor that, you 00:36:23.840 --> 00:36:30.440 know, you cannot get rid or it's almost impossible to get rid of white fat. You just accumulate 00:36:30.440 --> 00:36:39.680 it. And the only one thing that they mentioned would be to use cold. But I know that in past 00:36:39.680 --> 00:36:50.160 shows it has been told that, you know, the stress created by applying cold, you know, 00:36:50.160 --> 00:36:54.560 makes it almost worse than not applying it. So this would be one of the questions. And 00:36:54.560 --> 00:37:01.880 my other question is I've seen a study, basically it's on mice, so I don't know if it's applicable, 00:37:01.880 --> 00:37:08.600 if it's good science either for men, but that's also goes as far to say that starvation or 00:37:08.600 --> 00:37:14.560 fasting actually, not starvation, fasting would actually reverse the thing. So basically 00:37:14.560 --> 00:37:22.240 turn good brown fat into bad white fat. So any opinions on this would be appreciated. 00:37:22.240 --> 00:37:25.760 Thank you again. So Dr. Peat, what do you have to say about brown 00:37:25.760 --> 00:37:35.240 versus white fat? I mean, there is a lot of good, interesting research on that. And my 00:37:35.240 --> 00:37:42.920 orientation to it is that the activation of T3, the active thyroid hormone, is the crucial 00:37:42.920 --> 00:37:53.320 thing and that yes, stress will prolong fasting is going to have a lot of harmful counterproductive 00:37:53.320 --> 00:38:00.960 effects. And one of those is that it knocks out the T3 in the various tissues, even though 00:38:00.960 --> 00:38:07.120 the T3 that circulates in the bloodstream is two thirds of it roughly is produced in 00:38:07.120 --> 00:38:15.720 the liver and about a third in the thyroid gland. But the various tissues of the body, 00:38:15.720 --> 00:38:22.200 muscles, skin, kidneys, brain, all of the tissues that have been studied are able to 00:38:22.200 --> 00:38:31.640 produce T3 from T4 locally to supplement whatever can get in from the bloodstream. So that even 00:38:31.640 --> 00:38:40.080 if your circulation isn't delivering enough T3, your tissue is able to produce it itself. 00:38:40.080 --> 00:38:48.880 And the crucial factor for producing it locally in the tissue, it's partly glucose, but fructose 00:38:48.880 --> 00:38:57.120 seems to have a special ability to activate that tissue, local production of T3. And so 00:38:57.120 --> 00:39:05.320 I would say that eating enough sugar, having your orange juice and other fruit regularly 00:39:05.320 --> 00:39:11.360 throughout the day is much better than either chilling yourself or starving yourself. 00:39:11.360 --> 00:39:12.360 Okay. 00:39:12.360 --> 00:39:21.880 And may I just ask one more thing, just very quickly. If you were to choose a place to 00:39:21.880 --> 00:39:28.040 live just based on trying to get your metabolism high, would it be safe to say that you would 00:39:28.040 --> 00:39:33.880 choose a high altitude, warm, the warmest place at high altitude or? 00:39:33.880 --> 00:39:34.880 Yeah, like Peru. 00:39:34.880 --> 00:39:37.160 Am I getting this right? 00:39:37.160 --> 00:39:44.520 Somewhere in Peru on a maybe 12 to 14,000 foot elevation near the equator. 00:39:44.520 --> 00:39:47.440 How about Mauna Loa, Dr. Peat? 00:39:47.440 --> 00:39:49.440 I don't know how high it is. 00:39:49.440 --> 00:39:52.160 I think it's about 8 or 9,000. 00:39:52.160 --> 00:40:03.280 Oh yeah, I like Toluca, Mexico. A little chilly, but I really feel exhilarated at that altitude 00:40:03.280 --> 00:40:07.840 and I think it's better to be a little higher, 12,000 or so. 00:40:07.840 --> 00:40:11.760 Probably less chance of getting bombed by the Koreans too. Anyway, thanks for your call, 00:40:11.760 --> 00:40:12.760 caller. 00:40:12.760 --> 00:40:14.200 Thanks very much for taking my call. 00:40:14.200 --> 00:40:21.120 Okay, so for people who'd like to call in, the 800 number is 1-800-568-3723. Dr. Raymond 00:40:21.120 --> 00:40:27.560 Peat sharing his wisdom with us, going through the motions of how progesterone is demonized 00:40:27.560 --> 00:40:32.680 time and time again, both in the literature and by corporate scientific interests. 00:40:32.680 --> 00:40:40.440 So Dr. Peat, I wanted to talk about the GABA receptor, excuse me, the GABA-A receptor in 00:40:40.440 --> 00:40:48.720 particular. I know that this is the receptor which progesterone and its metabolite allopregnanolone, 00:40:48.720 --> 00:40:52.320 which apparently is one of the more active metabolites, but that may just be hearsay 00:40:52.320 --> 00:40:57.440 too. I don't know what you have to say about allopregnanolone. These bind to the same GABA 00:40:57.440 --> 00:41:06.640 receptor producing that anxiolytic, that kind of calm, peaceful type nervous response because 00:41:06.640 --> 00:41:14.360 they block the excitatory stimulation and that Valeriana aficionadis, common valerian 00:41:14.360 --> 00:41:20.800 does just that and I remember very clearly some of our first Materia Medica that was 00:41:20.800 --> 00:41:27.120 taught to us about valerian and GABA receptors and chloride channels, etc. and how the whole 00:41:27.120 --> 00:41:30.400 exocytation is calmed down. 00:41:30.400 --> 00:41:40.880 So in terms of the GABA channel, GABA receptor and progesterone or allopregnanolone's activity, 00:41:40.880 --> 00:41:46.600 do you think the metabolite is more active than progesterone per se or do you think progesterone 00:41:46.600 --> 00:41:54.160 itself is still a good anxiolytic and calming agent? We talked about anti-inflammatory, 00:41:54.160 --> 00:41:55.160 anti-edema. 00:41:55.160 --> 00:42:06.080 Since prognanolone, the precursor for progesterone itself is pro-GABA, I suspect that progesterone 00:42:06.080 --> 00:42:16.960 in itself is, but it is converted, reduced chemically to form allopregnanolone and that 00:42:16.960 --> 00:42:25.480 seems to be the most powerful activator of the GABA system in the brain, but I think 00:42:25.480 --> 00:42:35.240 all of them are acting in the same direction and besides acting to reduce stress and excitation 00:42:35.240 --> 00:42:43.400 by activating GABA, progesterone also inhibits several of the excitatory processes including 00:42:43.400 --> 00:42:49.320 the glutamatergic and NMDA receptor systems. 00:42:49.320 --> 00:42:54.040 Okay, we do have another caller, so let me hold your train of thought there before I 00:42:54.040 --> 00:42:56.880 question you some more. Caller, you're on the airwave. Where are you from and what's 00:42:56.880 --> 00:42:57.880 your question? 00:42:57.880 --> 00:42:58.880 Yeah, Buffalo, John. 00:42:58.880 --> 00:42:59.880 Buffalo, New York? 00:42:59.880 --> 00:43:00.880 Yeah. 00:43:00.880 --> 00:43:01.880 Two callers from New York in one night. 00:43:01.880 --> 00:43:24.280 Yeah, I had a question about the spine. So if someone has a disc herniation, so it either 00:43:24.280 --> 00:43:34.480 dries up or the gel breaks through, is it practically possible to regenerate that particular 00:43:34.480 --> 00:43:41.880 gel? Because I know you've mentioned, I think it's some studies that have been done where 00:43:41.880 --> 00:43:47.440 people have seen regeneration of different parts of the body, although it sounds crazy, 00:43:47.440 --> 00:43:53.360 but it seems like you said it's been done. So is it possible for the space between the 00:43:53.360 --> 00:43:55.000 disc vertebrae to regenerate? 00:43:55.000 --> 00:44:01.400 Dr. Peat, what do you think about that with that nucleus pulposus? Do you think that's 00:44:01.400 --> 00:44:04.840 possible to regenerate that? I'm sure you do, but... 00:44:04.840 --> 00:44:10.960 Yeah, I know people get well from it, but I've never seen x-ray evidence that they actually 00:44:10.960 --> 00:44:17.760 spaced out the distance between the vertebrae. I don't know whether the bones themselves 00:44:17.760 --> 00:44:25.640 can adjust. So I think it would be possible for the disc to rebuild itself and for the 00:44:25.640 --> 00:44:32.520 bones to conform themselves to the regenerating cartilage disc. 00:44:32.520 --> 00:44:37.920 I'm sure you'd probably advocate the use of progesterone in and of itself for... 00:44:37.920 --> 00:44:38.920 And thyroid. 00:44:38.920 --> 00:44:39.920 Yeah. 00:44:39.920 --> 00:44:50.080 I've heard and seen knee joints and shoulder joints that were making noise and causing 00:44:50.080 --> 00:45:03.840 relative immobility to the person to heal themselves from an hour to overnight, a completely 00:45:03.840 --> 00:45:11.080 functionless knee recuperated to the point that the guy had to come to the house just 00:45:11.080 --> 00:45:16.280 to run up and down my stairs to show what had happened to his knee. 00:45:16.280 --> 00:45:22.760 Well, this is just sort of a testimony. I've had six knee operations and three herniated 00:45:22.760 --> 00:45:32.480 discs and I'm over 60. And by being on your diet and mitigating PUFA primarily and trying 00:45:32.480 --> 00:45:38.800 to do the other stuff that you talk about, I almost have no pain. I must say though, 00:45:38.800 --> 00:45:45.360 the red light is my go-to thing. If things go bad, the red light kind of just eliminates 00:45:45.360 --> 00:45:50.320 pain almost immediately. I can't say that for the other products you speak about, but 00:45:50.320 --> 00:45:56.240 I believe the progesterone. I just don't know much about it, but the red light has been 00:45:56.240 --> 00:45:57.240 amazing. 00:45:57.240 --> 00:46:03.080 Have you ever tried applying a progesterone-based oil to the area on your spine where you say 00:46:03.080 --> 00:46:08.560 you have a herniated disc? Have you tried that? And I don't know if you're using aspirin 00:46:08.560 --> 00:46:16.880 as an anti-inflammatory compound to reduce swelling. Obviously, that's a primary importance 00:46:16.880 --> 00:46:18.760 during that type of repair. 00:46:18.760 --> 00:46:26.440 It's funny you mentioned that because I did run today and I literally put a paper towel 00:46:26.440 --> 00:46:32.880 in that aspirin solution that Dr. Peat had previously suggested. So I do do that. I do believe it. 00:46:32.880 --> 00:46:37.400 It doesn't just help locally, but I think based on what I've read in his aspirin articles, 00:46:37.400 --> 00:46:45.640 it actually helps systemically in a body temperature metabolism. It's just like aspirin is kind 00:46:45.640 --> 00:46:52.160 of an unappreciated product as you've well documented. 00:46:52.160 --> 00:46:58.040 But no, I've never tried progesterone on the spine, but I remember in one of your programs, 00:46:58.040 --> 00:47:03.840 I believe, or another one that Dr. Peat said you can put progesterone on like a mole or 00:47:03.840 --> 00:47:09.160 maybe you were talking about that or DHA and you put it near a mole and it moved around 00:47:09.160 --> 00:47:13.360 and eventually it got better. Is that also possible? 00:47:13.360 --> 00:47:22.120 Putting it next to the mole, the pigment cells are extremely mobile. If your skin is warm, 00:47:22.120 --> 00:47:29.560 like in summer, they can travel through your skin close to an inch per day. And if you 00:47:29.560 --> 00:47:37.200 know what they're looking for, depending on whether it's on your forehead or your wrist 00:47:37.200 --> 00:47:43.880 or your chest, if you put it in the right place, they will apparently satisfy their 00:47:43.880 --> 00:47:51.480 need for the progesterone or DHA and leave, go back to where they should be to keep your 00:47:51.480 --> 00:47:54.440 hair pigmented, for example. 00:47:54.440 --> 00:48:00.920 So the mole just kind of breaks up because the pigment sort of doesn't clump together? 00:48:00.920 --> 00:48:09.080 Yeah, the cells congregate because they're deprived of something where they came from. 00:48:09.080 --> 00:48:17.080 For example, on my temple, I applied, I forget which was DHA or progesterone on the front 00:48:17.080 --> 00:48:27.600 side and the next day there was a ring of pigment cells nearly an inch to the back side 00:48:27.600 --> 00:48:36.240 and the mole itself had shrunk. The second day I applied another dab in front of it and 00:48:36.240 --> 00:48:44.640 the following day there was like a bullseye, two brown rings spaced out in a curved line 00:48:44.640 --> 00:48:53.000 behind it and the mole itself was again smaller. And I kept doing that and within a few days, 00:48:53.000 --> 00:49:04.200 a red, shiny blood vessel constricted the base. It had been as big as a dime and it 00:49:04.200 --> 00:49:10.760 constricted down to about the diameter of a matchstick and then dried up and fell off 00:49:10.760 --> 00:49:12.480 and didn't leave a scar. 00:49:12.480 --> 00:49:19.280 Wow. Well, thank you. Andrew had mentioned about GABA and so it just sparked a question 00:49:19.280 --> 00:49:25.440 based on his comment. Is GABA something you can take as a supplement or does that mess 00:49:25.440 --> 00:49:30.760 up the rest of your neurotransmitters? Because I know people say, "Oh, you can take B6 and 00:49:30.760 --> 00:49:34.960 it gets your dopamine up," but doesn't that mess up the balance? How do you deal with 00:49:34.960 --> 00:49:35.960 that? 00:49:35.960 --> 00:49:41.680 In animal studies, when they gave it to a healthy animal, none of it seemed to get into 00:49:41.680 --> 00:49:49.640 the brain. But if the animal had been sleep-deprived, so its brain really needed GABA and was in 00:49:49.640 --> 00:49:54.560 an excited state, then the GABA was able to get in the brain and relax it. 00:49:54.560 --> 00:49:58.760 Okay, we do have another caller, so let's make sure we get this. Thanks for your caller 00:49:58.760 --> 00:50:02.320 call. I don't mean to cut you off so quick, but we do have another one. And where are 00:50:02.320 --> 00:50:04.000 you from and what's your question? 00:50:04.000 --> 00:50:08.200 Dr. Peat, hello. My name's Chris. I'm calling from Garboville, California in southern Humboldt 00:50:08.200 --> 00:50:16.720 County. I've tried something called monk fruit sugar, which you may be familiar with. Okay, 00:50:16.720 --> 00:50:22.040 monk fruit sugar is a melon and it comes from southern China. I recently found out about 00:50:22.040 --> 00:50:27.360 it and about three months ago I purchased two pounds of it and I stopped eating table 00:50:27.360 --> 00:50:33.080 sugar, entirely granulated white table sugar, thank goodness, and brown table sugar. Went 00:50:33.080 --> 00:50:38.960 to this organic product, tried it, ate like a pound and a half of it over a month, just 00:50:38.960 --> 00:50:45.000 you know, putting it on cereal and etc. And all the pain in my body, I think from the 00:50:45.000 --> 00:50:50.840 sugar inflammation, absolutely disappeared, including like the toes and extremities. I'm 00:50:50.840 --> 00:50:55.920 63 years old, I'm a big guy, but I'm in the process of losing a considerable amount of 00:50:55.920 --> 00:51:01.480 weight. And why I'm telling you about monk fruit sugar is I seem to be progressively 00:51:01.480 --> 00:51:07.400 losing weight. I'm interested in knowing about the anti-inflammatories. I also have been 00:51:07.400 --> 00:51:14.080 promoting stevia sugar on another radio station in San Francisco called KGO about 15 years 00:51:14.080 --> 00:51:21.640 ago and it's kind of taken over in America because of its anti-inflammatory low glycemic 00:51:21.640 --> 00:51:27.040 index, actually zero glycemic. Monk fruit sugar, if you go online and look at it, zero 00:51:27.040 --> 00:51:33.920 glycemic, it's almost exactly like white table sugar, tastes the same, but it's zero glycemic. 00:51:33.920 --> 00:51:39.800 So any diabetics out there might want to try monk fruit sugar, which you can buy at local 00:51:39.800 --> 00:51:44.600 health food stores. It's more expensive, but boy, talk about prevention and a pound of 00:51:44.600 --> 00:51:53.800 cure and all that. What do you think of this? Have you heard of this product, Dr. Peat? The 00:51:53.800 --> 00:52:02.840 effect that I was describing of ordinary sucrose, for example, in orange juice is able to stimulate 00:52:02.840 --> 00:52:12.240 weight loss by activating the T3 in your fat cells. So fructose is available at health 00:52:12.240 --> 00:52:19.840 food stores in the pure form. If a person is diabetic, that doesn't increase the blood 00:52:19.840 --> 00:52:26.040 glucose, the weight. Are you still with me? Yes. Okay. What I'm telling you about this 00:52:26.040 --> 00:52:35.200 monk fruit sugar, MONK fruit sugar, is that it's zero glycemic. It seems to go in and 00:52:35.200 --> 00:52:40.080 everybody in America, everybody in the world has eaten table sugar over a lifetime. But 00:52:40.080 --> 00:52:46.360 what does it contain? I don't know. It's a melon, but I don't know what the constituencies 00:52:46.360 --> 00:52:54.480 of it is. I think it's mixed with erythritrol, which is the stevia product. But the monk 00:52:54.480 --> 00:53:00.320 fruit, when I purchased it and ate it, and spent about two months now, I have absolutely 00:53:00.320 --> 00:53:06.320 no problems with inflammation. It seems to have neutralized the inflammation. I have, 00:53:06.320 --> 00:53:11.880 after that two months were over, I started eating white table sugar again and organic 00:53:11.880 --> 00:53:17.720 brown sugar. And it absolutely has negated the effect, all the inflammatory effects of 00:53:17.720 --> 00:53:24.280 that white sugar as I've been eating it. I was doing my own experimental study. So I've 00:53:24.280 --> 00:53:29.000 been telling everybody about it that's overweight that they should go from eating granulated 00:53:29.000 --> 00:53:35.200 cane sugar, table sugar, to this monk fruit sugar that's in melon form and zero glycemic. 00:53:35.200 --> 00:53:44.040 Well, I'd be interested to know what constituents it has. As far as stevia is concerned, I think 00:53:44.040 --> 00:53:50.760 it's a pretty toxic product. And like xylitol and all the other sugar substitutes, I do 00:53:50.760 --> 00:53:55.600 believe that there's a lot more negative effects to them than any positive effects from any 00:53:55.600 --> 00:54:04.000 lower calories or insulin sensitivity type reactions from their non-sugar sugar. But 00:54:04.000 --> 00:54:09.480 I've never, yeah, I know there's lots of information out there that will say that sugar is toxic 00:54:09.480 --> 00:54:14.680 or it's pure, white and deadly, etc. And we've totally visited it. And I don't think there's 00:54:14.680 --> 00:54:20.040 any mileage in it. Not too sure why it is that you would have had your inflammation 00:54:20.040 --> 00:54:24.000 clear up, but it's good that you did. Who knows what else is going on with you, with 00:54:24.000 --> 00:54:29.040 your thyroid, etc. You said you were pretty large. I don't know if you have any metabolic 00:54:29.040 --> 00:54:36.960 issues, maybe have some low thyroid situation happening with you. But typically, those situations 00:54:36.960 --> 00:54:42.600 that do predispose to toxin buildup and that obviously has its effects as does weight on 00:54:42.600 --> 00:54:46.400 the joints. So I think all of those things kind of work against you. But yeah, happy 00:54:46.400 --> 00:54:52.320 that you got a reduction in your inflammation. But anyway, Dr. Peat, thank you very much for 00:54:52.320 --> 00:54:57.800 joining the show again. Appreciate your time so much. And we didn't get through much this 00:54:57.800 --> 00:55:03.400 evening, but I appreciate the call as I called. Perhaps we'll carry on next month and then 00:55:03.400 --> 00:55:08.720 go on to another topic from there. Okay, very good. Thanks for your time. Okay, so people 00:55:08.720 --> 00:55:13.360 that have tuned into this evening's show, if you place calls, thanks for your calls 00:55:13.360 --> 00:55:21.160 and input. For people that want to find out more about Dr. Peat, www.raypeat.com, fully 00:55:21.160 --> 00:55:26.000 referenced scientific articles that have been produced and plenty of information and references 00:55:26.000 --> 00:55:30.040 to back up what he's saying. Again, for those people who have listened to the show this 00:55:30.040 --> 00:55:35.160 evening, the first part I was mentioning about the use of progesterone in traumatic brain 00:55:35.160 --> 00:55:44.680 injury, do take a look at those two studies. One, excuse me, was the Synapse Study and 00:55:44.680 --> 00:55:50.440 the other one was the PROTECT-3. Read them. I mean, they seem to show that there is no 00:55:50.440 --> 00:55:59.040 benefit and yet Dr. Donald Stein has produced a paper here in 2017 in the Journal of Neurotrauma. 00:55:59.040 --> 00:56:05.040 He's been a brain specialist for 30 years. That's all he's done. And his paper here, 00:56:05.040 --> 00:56:09.840 I think, outlines quite clearly the shortfalls of the study and that actually progesterone 00:56:09.840 --> 00:56:16.280 is a very good model for treating this kind of disorder. So there's certainly hope there 00:56:16.280 --> 00:56:20.160 and progesterone has got a lot of other benefits that we didn't get into. I know we've mentioned 00:56:20.160 --> 00:56:28.240 it on other shows but certainly not the product that the industry would like to tell you it 00:56:28.240 --> 00:56:33.360 is because it's actually estrogen. So again, things back to front. Well, thanks for joining 00:56:33.360 --> 00:56:38.680 us and till 7 o'clock next Thursday, the third Friday of the month from 7 till 8 p.m. my 00:56:38.680 --> 00:56:45.440 name is Andrew Murray. If anybody wants to reach us, we have an 800 or 188 number, it's 00:56:45.440 --> 00:56:51.600 888 WBMHERB or through our website which is westernbotanicalmedicine.com. So see you next