WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.000 Well here we are again, June the 21st, 2019, another solstice. 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:11.360 I think for some reason probably the third Friday of the month helps, but it seems to 00:00:11.360 --> 00:00:17.280 have been on quite a few solstice Fridays in the last 14 or 15 years. 00:00:17.280 --> 00:00:22.720 Anyway, yeah, happy solstice to all you out there, longest day of the year, and things 00:00:22.720 --> 00:00:25.400 are getting warmer and warmer even though the days are going to get shorter and shorter 00:00:25.400 --> 00:00:30.720 from here on in and hopefully the imminent threat of war with the Middle East is not 00:00:30.720 --> 00:00:36.720 going to materialize any time in the foreseeable future, folks, so we can enjoy our lives and 00:00:36.720 --> 00:00:39.920 raise our children and try and live in peace. 00:00:39.920 --> 00:00:44.760 All right, so this is Ask Your Herb Doctor. 00:00:44.760 --> 00:00:48.280 The third Friday of every month from 7 to 8 p.m. this show runs. 00:00:48.280 --> 00:00:52.800 It's a live show, folks, and so from 7.30 until the end of the show at 8 o'clock you 00:00:52.800 --> 00:00:57.840 are invited, welcome, to call in, hopefully with questions related to this month's topic 00:00:57.840 --> 00:01:06.840 or a random loose topic around postpartum depression, steroid hormones, new drugs with 00:01:06.840 --> 00:01:12.280 dangerous consequences, and all the other fun stuff that we bring up to light, and as 00:01:12.280 --> 00:01:17.880 always Dr. Peat's going to bring his science-based wisdom to bear in on these subjects. 00:01:17.880 --> 00:01:22.340 So from 7.30 until the end of the show at 8 o'clock you're invited to call in with questions 00:01:22.340 --> 00:01:28.320 either related or unrelated to that subject matter that I spoke of, and then, yeah, we're 00:01:28.320 --> 00:01:31.720 always very pleased to get people from all over the world. 00:01:31.720 --> 00:01:35.920 It's kind of a fun thing when people call in from Australia or they call in from, you 00:01:35.920 --> 00:01:37.960 know, somewhere in England or wherever. 00:01:37.960 --> 00:01:43.160 Anyway, the number here, if you'd like to call in from 7.30 on to pose any questions 00:01:43.160 --> 00:01:54.780 you have to Dr. Peat or myself, the number is area code 707-923-3911, and I can be reached 00:01:54.780 --> 00:01:58.480 at the end of the show or through business hours, Monday through Friday, or any time 00:01:58.480 --> 00:02:05.840 on the web either at the 888 number which is WBMERB, so 1-888-WBMERB, or you can email 00:02:05.840 --> 00:02:10.820 me, Andrew@westernbotanicalmedicine.com. 00:02:10.820 --> 00:02:13.760 So once again we're very pleased to have Dr. Peat on the radio show. 00:02:13.760 --> 00:02:14.760 Are you there, Dr. Peat? 00:02:14.760 --> 00:02:15.760 Yeah. 00:02:15.760 --> 00:02:19.060 Okay, thanks so much for giving your time as you've done for many years now on this 00:02:19.060 --> 00:02:21.940 show and we really do appreciate it. 00:02:21.940 --> 00:02:31.260 Okay, so your latest newsletter on postpartum depression, brain aging, and reductionism 00:02:31.260 --> 00:02:38.880 continues along those lines and topics of the ongoing reductionism in science and how 00:02:38.880 --> 00:02:45.900 short-sighted that science is and linked to aging and the disease that some of these drugs 00:02:45.900 --> 00:02:51.780 are now causing that we'll get into later on with the obesity and Alzheimer's and diabetes 00:02:51.780 --> 00:02:52.780 epidemic. 00:02:52.780 --> 00:02:57.700 So for those people perhaps who've never listened to the show before or maybe even haven't heard 00:02:57.700 --> 00:03:04.740 your name, would you just outline your scientific and academic background for us before we start? 00:03:04.740 --> 00:03:11.640 After teaching a variety of subjects including linguistics and literature, I decided to go 00:03:11.640 --> 00:03:22.640 to graduate school in biology and got my PhD in 1972 and have been continuing to study 00:03:22.640 --> 00:03:29.240 mostly physiology and stress and aging since then. 00:03:29.240 --> 00:03:34.840 Okay, and if people aren't aware of also you've spent a long time and you still do spend a 00:03:34.840 --> 00:03:40.360 lot of time emailing people about health-related issues and that's pretty much what you've 00:03:40.360 --> 00:03:44.000 been working on for the last 40 years or so since you graduated. 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:46.400 Yeah, okay, good. 00:03:46.400 --> 00:03:52.600 So after looking at your newsletter and formulating some questions for you based on it, I just 00:03:52.600 --> 00:04:01.280 wanted to get a little bit of your inside thought processes here when you've claimed 00:04:01.280 --> 00:04:04.440 or made the statements that you make. 00:04:04.440 --> 00:04:08.880 I think it's hard for sometimes for people to understand the things that you say because 00:04:08.880 --> 00:04:13.960 it's sometimes seems so counter, well not sometimes but quite often it's fairly counter 00:04:13.960 --> 00:04:20.160 intuitive to all the brainwashing that we get daily from books, magazines, TV, adverts, 00:04:20.160 --> 00:04:21.160 etc. 00:04:21.160 --> 00:04:27.720 And as the world becomes more homogenous and the internet links people more fluidly into 00:04:27.720 --> 00:04:32.880 this kind of cohesive organism, as you've always said, you know, William Blake's quoted 00:04:32.880 --> 00:04:37.360 that a lie travels around the world quicker than truth can get bootstraps on. 00:04:37.360 --> 00:04:45.600 But I wanted to just talk briefly about the product that has just been given FDA approval 00:04:45.600 --> 00:04:53.160 this month called Zoreso, also known as Brexanilone or also known as allopregnanolone which we've 00:04:53.160 --> 00:04:54.680 mentioned in the past. 00:04:54.680 --> 00:05:00.320 So naturally occurring metabolite of naturally produced progesterone but it's been used and 00:05:00.320 --> 00:05:07.200 given approval as an injection, given over a 60-hour infusion in hospital to treat postpartum 00:05:07.200 --> 00:05:11.800 depression and it costs $34,000. 00:05:11.800 --> 00:05:18.160 Okay so why not simply use a $30 bottle of progesterone or pregnenolone, both of which 00:05:18.160 --> 00:05:23.360 quickly convert in the body to allopregnanolone and don't require extortionate hospitalization 00:05:23.360 --> 00:05:30.720 and drug costs further skyrocketing health insurance costs and drug manufacturer profits. 00:05:30.720 --> 00:05:33.680 What's your take on the reason that this drug has been given? 00:05:33.680 --> 00:05:39.960 Now I guess firstly FDA approval for this condition which I'd like you to outline and 00:05:39.960 --> 00:05:45.640 I'm sure you will as the questions go on here in terms of the treatment of postpartum depression 00:05:45.640 --> 00:05:50.880 or why it occurs in the first place because I know you definitely have your own opinions 00:05:50.880 --> 00:05:53.000 for that. 00:05:53.000 --> 00:06:04.060 But why allopregnanolone and then why an infusion and now they're patenting previously what 00:06:04.060 --> 00:06:09.240 would have been classed as a natural product that women naturally produce and is naturally 00:06:09.240 --> 00:06:14.440 converted to this substance as a byproduct of metabolism? 00:06:14.440 --> 00:06:23.720 If it was an actual therapy it would be cheap and not patented and no one would make or 00:06:23.720 --> 00:06:28.720 hope to make several billion dollars a year from selling it. 00:06:28.720 --> 00:06:34.960 For the last 10 or 15 years the FDA has acted as though it's in the business of creating 00:06:34.960 --> 00:06:35.960 monopolies. 00:06:35.960 --> 00:06:46.600 They did it with the sedative or semi-anesthetic drug oxybate several years ago and it went 00:06:46.600 --> 00:06:54.320 from costing a few dollars for a bottle of it to thousands of dollars for a course of 00:06:54.320 --> 00:06:55.320 treatment. 00:06:55.320 --> 00:07:00.280 Because it's been patented and the company's been allowed to use this as their standard 00:07:00.280 --> 00:07:02.120 and it's been protected? 00:07:02.120 --> 00:07:14.360 Yes and after that they declared quinine was a new drug and assigned the new drug approval 00:07:14.360 --> 00:07:16.640 to one company. 00:07:16.640 --> 00:07:32.080 And since they depend on fees to approve the drugs a large part of their existence sees 00:07:32.080 --> 00:07:39.080 the money coming in from the drug as sustaining their existence. 00:07:39.080 --> 00:07:53.280 If a doctor for example wants to use quinine bark or a natural nutritional substance for 00:07:53.280 --> 00:08:03.880 a therapy and it happens to compete with one of these new drug assignments it's in effect 00:08:03.880 --> 00:08:08.720 the doctors attempting to break a monopoly. 00:08:08.720 --> 00:08:17.240 And in some situations doctors are actually losing their licenses for using traditional 00:08:17.240 --> 00:08:26.600 medical reasoning and avoiding the so-called evidence-based medicine. 00:08:26.600 --> 00:08:30.680 Which has become very popular as a phrase in the last few years. 00:08:30.680 --> 00:08:36.400 I'd never heard of that up until probably 2014 or so when studies would say the evidence-based 00:08:36.400 --> 00:08:41.240 medicine and things seem to be gearing up to using that as a new paradigm. 00:08:41.240 --> 00:08:53.320 What they mean by evidence is a study that cost maybe $150 billion and not just any researcher 00:08:53.320 --> 00:09:04.880 has that money to test for example a particular nutrient or hormone to treat a disease. 00:09:04.880 --> 00:09:13.880 So what constitutes good evidence in this new paradigm is the monopoly paradigm. 00:09:13.880 --> 00:09:21.120 It's a study that no one but the giant corporations can afford and so the only drugs that have 00:09:21.120 --> 00:09:28.280 legal approval by the FDA are monopoly drugs. 00:09:28.280 --> 00:09:36.360 And the extent to which the state licensing boards are putting pressure on doctors to 00:09:36.360 --> 00:09:46.240 conform and follow guidelines in some situations it's just getting ridiculous that they're 00:09:46.240 --> 00:09:53.800 telling doctors for example not to consider any of the traditional signs of hypothyroidism 00:09:53.800 --> 00:10:03.280 in treating hypothyroidism but to go only by the TSH to ignore all of the metabolic 00:10:03.280 --> 00:10:10.320 and functional signs that are recognized for 200 years as hypothyroidism. 00:10:10.320 --> 00:10:19.920 It's a kind of communism right where there's only one way. 00:10:19.920 --> 00:10:24.080 So it's strictly monopoly capital. 00:10:24.080 --> 00:10:25.080 Maybe totalitarianism. 00:10:25.080 --> 00:10:26.080 Totalitarianism. 00:10:26.080 --> 00:10:27.080 Okay right. 00:10:27.080 --> 00:10:36.760 Well communism for the pure definition of the word maybe not but it's very dictatorial. 00:10:36.760 --> 00:10:39.120 Yeah. 00:10:39.120 --> 00:10:44.080 Okay so you can't produce these drugs unless you can afford to play and when you do you 00:10:44.080 --> 00:10:50.640 get the monopoly and the payback keeps the system going and keeps the monopoly going 00:10:50.640 --> 00:10:51.640 in place. 00:10:51.640 --> 00:10:56.400 But to speak a little bit more about the evidence-based medicine and the kind of destructive nature 00:10:56.400 --> 00:11:01.600 of it you've mentioned the fact that doctors no longer can use reasoning and their brains 00:11:01.600 --> 00:11:03.640 and I know them. 00:11:03.640 --> 00:11:04.640 I know some of them for sure. 00:11:04.640 --> 00:11:08.640 I don't know a lot of them but I know some very well-intentioned doctors which are purely 00:11:08.640 --> 00:11:13.160 altruistic about what they want to do whilst studying medicine and when they're actually 00:11:13.160 --> 00:11:17.040 consulting with people they really do have a genuine heart for the well-being of the 00:11:17.040 --> 00:11:22.680 patient you know and quite probably the Hippocratic Oath to exist too in their prescribing. 00:11:22.680 --> 00:11:29.360 But in terms of a doctor using their reasoning and this evidence-based medicine paradigm 00:11:29.360 --> 00:11:36.360 being becoming something that is really in a place to inhibit and prohibit and punish 00:11:36.360 --> 00:11:39.600 reasoning. 00:11:39.600 --> 00:11:40.600 That's very dangerous. 00:11:40.600 --> 00:11:48.320 In the newsletter I mentioned the movement to abolish the so-called basic science part 00:11:48.320 --> 00:11:53.680 of medical education the first two years where they actually study science. 00:11:53.680 --> 00:11:57.640 Just describe that a little too you know just people hear it because most people won't subscribe 00:11:57.640 --> 00:12:02.360 to a newsletter and they probably won't understand won't hear this so just speak a little bit 00:12:02.360 --> 00:12:06.480 about that about the person who came up with this ridiculous statement and how what it 00:12:06.480 --> 00:12:07.480 implies. 00:12:07.480 --> 00:12:17.960 Yeah he has written articles pointing out that there have been over 350 reversals of 00:12:17.960 --> 00:12:30.680 traditional medicine done by these big gold standard corporate studies and so he's seeming 00:12:30.680 --> 00:12:39.480 like a progressive constructive person wanting to get truth in the science but he says that 00:12:39.480 --> 00:12:47.760 these big studies are the evidence that we have to take into account and all we need 00:12:47.760 --> 00:13:00.320 is guidelines what to do how to use these approved well-documented so-called scientific 00:13:00.320 --> 00:13:10.200 treatments and if we have guidelines for all of the diseases how to just follow a chart 00:13:10.200 --> 00:13:19.720 of reasoning laid out by the committees government basically for treating a disease everyone 00:13:19.720 --> 00:13:30.000 will treat the disease in the same way being coming blind to the individual variations 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:41.440 and their unique history and it's trying to reduce and abstract medicine to the point 00:13:41.440 --> 00:13:46.040 that no brain is necessary only following guidelines. 00:13:46.040 --> 00:13:52.160 Right you probably just need a simple flow chart yes or no if A plus B equals C go to 00:13:52.160 --> 00:13:53.160 D. Yeah. 00:13:53.160 --> 00:13:54.160 Oh my goodness. 00:13:54.160 --> 00:14:01.760 And if that's the case then they don't need the first two years of medical school because 00:14:01.760 --> 00:14:09.400 that's where they study the science but the trouble even with that reasoning is that the 00:14:09.400 --> 00:14:16.600 sciences themselves over the last hundred years have been all of the sciences related 00:14:16.600 --> 00:14:24.520 to medicine have been powerfully invaded by the drug companies so that physiology neurology 00:14:24.520 --> 00:14:36.860 and necronology the kidney heart lung brain all of the systems of the body have had their 00:14:36.860 --> 00:14:47.560 understanding shaped by the reductionist ideal that one sickness can be defined for everyone 00:14:47.560 --> 00:14:53.880 and treated with a specific drug. 00:14:53.880 --> 00:14:57.680 Scary well hold on a second there are you listening to Ask Your Ob Doctor on KMED Gallivo 00:14:57.680 --> 00:15:05.840 91.1 FM from 830 sorry from 730 to 8 o'clock the last half hour of the show you're invited 00:15:05.840 --> 00:15:10.360 to call him with any questions related or unrelated to this month's subject based loosely 00:15:10.360 --> 00:15:16.960 on postpartum depression new drugs that are coming out and things pathology surrounding 00:15:16.960 --> 00:15:24.960 pregnancy a number here is 707 707 986 sorry 923 gosh I'm making a few mistakes tonight 00:15:24.960 --> 00:15:30.760 707 923 3911 I'm just too excited and it is a solstice. 00:15:30.760 --> 00:15:33.520 So doctor giving us your phone number in all fairness. 00:15:33.520 --> 00:15:35.760 I gave you my phone number earlier. 00:15:35.760 --> 00:15:40.960 Alright so Dr. Peat getting back to this new drug that's just been patented it's a metabolite 00:15:40.960 --> 00:15:47.200 of a naturally occurring product called out allopregnalone and given as an infusion cost 00:15:47.200 --> 00:15:53.840 $34,000 reminds me of the Harvoni Solvalde for Hep C treatment which is 90 something 00:15:53.840 --> 00:16:00.520 thousand and I saw more genetic one I saw one in England it just came out as $234,000 00:16:00.520 --> 00:16:07.080 for the treatment it's a new targeted antibody process where you individually send blood 00:16:07.080 --> 00:16:14.960 blood the patient's blood to a lab in North America they basically just sequence it and 00:16:14.960 --> 00:16:21.240 they target the antibodies that they produce into the cell and send the blood back in the 00:16:21.240 --> 00:16:24.560 blood then re-infused into the patient and they're saying that they're getting some fairly 00:16:24.560 --> 00:16:30.360 good results for lymphoma but the side effects seem pretty dangerous anyway so I digress 00:16:30.360 --> 00:16:36.840 a little but so far as the allopregnalone and its infusions concerned why wouldn't you 00:16:36.840 --> 00:16:41.480 know why couldn't you just use pregnenolone as a precursor or progesterone? 00:16:41.480 --> 00:16:50.120 Yeah someone tested that and found that just a tiny dose of oral progesterone 20 milligrams 00:16:50.120 --> 00:16:55.400 tripled the amount of allopregnenolone in the body. 00:16:55.400 --> 00:16:57.000 20 milligrams right. 00:16:57.000 --> 00:17:05.960 So there's absolutely no reason not to use orally progesterone or pregnenolone and if 00:17:05.960 --> 00:17:12.600 the sole purpose of treating patients I guess have been pre-identified as having post post 00:17:12.600 --> 00:17:18.400 partum depression because they're still in the hospital in this hospital situation for 00:17:18.400 --> 00:17:26.400 a 60 hour infusion that just seems gosh I don't know it just seems like an expensive 00:17:26.400 --> 00:17:34.080 stay in a very expensive you know hotel it's like a I don't know. 00:17:34.080 --> 00:17:39.560 Yeah ordinary reasoning would say that if you want to increase the amount of allopregnenolone 00:17:39.560 --> 00:17:45.880 in the brain why not take 20 milligrams of progesterone. 00:17:45.880 --> 00:17:49.960 So I just don't think for a dollar or so I just don't think enough people know and as 00:17:49.960 --> 00:17:53.380 time goes on it just gets more and more buried and if we're talking about evidence-based 00:17:53.380 --> 00:17:58.920 medicine becoming this forced new standard and there is only one pathway through from 00:17:58.920 --> 00:18:03.880 diagnosis to prescription you know it's only something like the internet that's going to 00:18:03.880 --> 00:18:09.360 keep this evidence or this information alive but I know and I think it's happening more 00:18:09.360 --> 00:18:14.360 and more as time goes by but when you search for things on Google or other you know search 00:18:14.360 --> 00:18:18.160 engine I don't recommend Google for a minute but I'm just saying when you search for things 00:18:18.160 --> 00:18:22.880 a lot of things becoming very difficult to find and I know this happens but I don't want 00:18:22.880 --> 00:18:25.800 to get off the beaten track with that statement. 00:18:25.800 --> 00:18:36.320 So Dr. Peat. One other point is that allopregnenolone is essentially the end of a line of metabolites 00:18:36.320 --> 00:18:46.960 and starting with cholesterol and those are regulated at many steps before they come into 00:18:46.960 --> 00:18:55.120 existence and so when you give the end product without looking at the condition of all of 00:18:55.120 --> 00:19:02.960 the preceding steps that's a great opportunity for throwing the whole system out of balance 00:19:02.960 --> 00:19:13.280 for example estrogen and aldosterone are other end products of a line of steroid metabolism 00:19:13.280 --> 00:19:23.960 and each of those has a long history in which it turns out that their excess is very dangerous. 00:19:23.960 --> 00:19:31.400 I don't know if anything like that will turn out for using the simple allopregnenolone 00:19:31.400 --> 00:19:35.840 without any of its precursors but it's something they haven't examined. 00:19:35.840 --> 00:19:37.680 Right a little bit too new. 00:19:37.680 --> 00:19:44.320 That reminds me and I found a kind of I think there's a reasonably good link here between 00:19:44.320 --> 00:19:52.400 the GABA receptor that valerian a common medicinal abuse for anxiety and insomnia. 00:19:52.400 --> 00:19:54.280 Valerian acts on a GABA receptor in the brain. 00:19:54.280 --> 00:19:59.360 The GABA receptors are mediated by chloride ions and they cause inhibition and sedation 00:19:59.360 --> 00:20:06.760 and they calm excitability down so they're anti-excitotoxic. 00:20:06.760 --> 00:20:10.880 So I saw a study here with allopregnenolone and it was actually a fairly old article. 00:20:10.880 --> 00:20:20.240 It was a 2006 article from a university in Sweden in Umeå and they noted that the thing 00:20:20.240 --> 00:20:21.240 was biphasic. 00:20:21.240 --> 00:20:24.860 They were saying and this reminds me like I said of valerian because most people use 00:20:24.860 --> 00:20:29.080 valerian for insomnia and over excitation. 00:20:29.080 --> 00:20:30.080 It calms people down. 00:20:30.080 --> 00:20:34.160 That's what it's you know that's what it's traditional use has always been for but I've 00:20:34.160 --> 00:20:38.440 noticed definitely I know other people that practice herbal medicine in England and see 00:20:38.440 --> 00:20:43.040 a lot of people and use and prescribe valerian have noticed that there is a small subset 00:20:43.040 --> 00:20:48.120 of the population that actually gets stimulated by it and this article about allopregnenolone 00:20:48.120 --> 00:20:54.240 said the same thing that at certain doses it was excitatory and other doses it had more 00:20:54.240 --> 00:20:57.400 of a calming stabilizing effect. 00:20:57.400 --> 00:21:06.760 Do you that's the sort of thing you risk when you're using an end of line metabolite because 00:21:06.760 --> 00:21:13.200 normally it can never get above a certain level because it has to go through all of 00:21:13.200 --> 00:21:22.720 these stages in which each precursor produces some kind of smaller amount of product and 00:21:22.720 --> 00:21:29.640 so if you artificially have given amount that the body could never experience on its own 00:21:29.640 --> 00:21:37.240 then you're going to for example possibly anesthetize some of the regulatory inhibitory 00:21:37.240 --> 00:21:45.400 nerves and release things that are less sensitive to inhibition. 00:21:45.400 --> 00:21:52.120 So what you're doing is risking something that the organism has never experienced before 00:21:52.120 --> 00:21:55.640 and is unpredictable. 00:21:55.640 --> 00:21:59.120 What I was going to ask you a little bit later on but probably now is a good time to ask 00:21:59.120 --> 00:22:05.840 you the question about postpartum depression for which this drug has been approved and 00:22:05.840 --> 00:22:11.880 your understanding of the cause of postpartum depression how this can be avoided by women 00:22:11.880 --> 00:22:18.960 if they do the right thing because I believe you know it's very treatable. 00:22:18.960 --> 00:22:29.240 It happens in women with a history of stress, difficult pregnancy, difficult birth or maybe 00:22:29.240 --> 00:22:40.280 those were routine but maybe there was a history of stress earlier in life and each stage she 00:22:40.280 --> 00:22:49.800 was compensating for but the burden of going through the pregnancy and birth when you're 00:22:49.800 --> 00:22:56.360 building the baby's body and brain if you don't have enough calcium available in your 00:22:56.360 --> 00:23:03.120 diet for example you increase your parathyroid hormone and take calcium out of your bones 00:23:03.120 --> 00:23:12.920 to build the baby's bones and vitamins and hormones are the baby gets priority over some 00:23:12.920 --> 00:23:22.120 of these nutrients and so even in an apparently healthy woman the pregnancy increases the 00:23:22.120 --> 00:23:32.880 risk of a nutritional deficiency and the fact is that the women who suffer postpartum depression 00:23:32.880 --> 00:23:37.000 have had some kind of a history of preceding stress. 00:23:37.000 --> 00:23:44.960 Okay do you think there's any relation to menstrual disorders because I think PMS exactly 00:23:44.960 --> 00:23:49.120 is closely related to postpartum. 00:23:49.120 --> 00:23:55.880 Okay alright so you're listening to Ask Your Ob Doctor, Kami DeGalvo 91.1 FM and from 7.30 00:23:55.880 --> 00:23:59.440 here in a few moments until the end of the show you're invited to call in the questions 00:23:59.440 --> 00:24:07.080 are related or unrelated to the subject here and it's 707 923 3911. 00:24:07.080 --> 00:24:16.400 Okay so I wanted to ask you again about exposure to high levels of estrogen if we would tend 00:24:16.400 --> 00:24:22.920 to posit the suggestion that exposure to very high levels of estrogen being directly responsible 00:24:22.920 --> 00:24:28.920 for the dramatic shrinkage in grey matter of the brain which has been shown which women 00:24:28.920 --> 00:24:36.160 refer to as baby brain in which the MRI studies confirm being analogous to advanced aging. 00:24:36.160 --> 00:24:40.680 Why isn't progesterone supplementation after birth recommended to speed up recovery of 00:24:40.680 --> 00:24:44.800 the grey matter resolution as it's clearly been shown to reverse the effects and what 00:24:44.800 --> 00:24:49.360 would be a reasonable amount of progesterone postpartum and for how long? 00:24:49.360 --> 00:25:00.440 In healthy women the progesterone level in the cerebrospinal fluid and plasma increases 00:25:00.440 --> 00:25:10.160 considerably during the time when the brain is being repaired after the stress of pregnancy. 00:25:10.160 --> 00:25:20.480 But the amount of cholesterol can be determining. 00:25:20.480 --> 00:25:26.920 Normally during this time of progesterone increase in a healthy woman after the birth 00:25:26.920 --> 00:25:36.040 cholesterol is well above normal and is the precursor for making the large amount of progesterone. 00:25:36.040 --> 00:25:43.320 Women with postpartum depression typically have a reduced level of cholesterol and so 00:25:43.320 --> 00:25:49.240 they just couldn't possibly make enough progesterone if the precursor isn't there. 00:25:49.240 --> 00:25:55.120 And vitamin A and thyroid are other limiting factors so even if the cholesterol is there 00:25:55.120 --> 00:26:01.680 but there's a little thyroid or have a vitamin A deficiency then they won't make the restorative 00:26:01.680 --> 00:26:03.920 amount of progesterone. 00:26:03.920 --> 00:26:11.320 And like that one experiment showed 20 milligrams orally of progesterone is enough to triple 00:26:11.320 --> 00:26:14.600 the amount of allopregnanolone. 00:26:14.600 --> 00:26:23.400 But a normal cycling woman produces about 30 milligrams of progesterone daily in the 00:26:23.400 --> 00:26:25.160 luteal phase. 00:26:25.160 --> 00:26:32.480 So I think that would be a reasonable amount therapeutically in the postpartum time. 00:26:32.480 --> 00:26:43.680 But the requirement depends if she's still under stress and producing or not eliminating 00:26:43.680 --> 00:26:53.680 estrogen as well as she should then it might take larger amounts and that depends on things 00:26:53.680 --> 00:27:00.680 like your thyroid function, cholesterol level, vitamin A and stress hormones. 00:27:00.680 --> 00:27:13.560 Okay, I've heard you mentioned in the past hydroxymethylbutyrate as a possible compound 00:27:13.560 --> 00:27:21.000 to improve cholesterol levels but I know you've always mentioned lots of fructose with a healthy 00:27:21.000 --> 00:27:27.360 liver and thyroid also being responsible for improving cholesterol levels and these specifically 00:27:27.360 --> 00:27:34.360 to enable downstream manufacture of steroid and neuroprotective hormones like progesterone 00:27:34.360 --> 00:27:36.360 in females etc. 00:27:36.360 --> 00:27:41.240 Do you have any other suggestions for increasing, it seems a little odd to ask but for increasing 00:27:41.240 --> 00:27:44.480 cholesterol levels? 00:27:44.480 --> 00:27:51.360 I think having enough carbohydrate, sugar in the diet is a very important thing. 00:27:51.360 --> 00:27:53.600 Okay, sugar and carbohydrate. 00:27:53.600 --> 00:28:00.440 Okay, so next question then and I've wondered this, I don't have any evidence for it but 00:28:00.440 --> 00:28:04.360 I'm going to put it out there and you probably thought about it so I think it's a good point 00:28:04.360 --> 00:28:06.560 to ask you. 00:28:06.560 --> 00:28:12.480 Do you think there is a subset of women who despite the massive rise of progesterone they 00:28:12.480 --> 00:28:16.480 benefit from during pregnancy are still actually estrogen dominant essentially? 00:28:16.480 --> 00:28:27.240 Oh sure, especially if they have a history of PMS or any kind of biological stress and 00:28:27.240 --> 00:28:33.440 most often it's associated with slightly low thyroid function. 00:28:33.440 --> 00:28:39.280 Okay so that can exist, only because I've seen the numbers that they put out there whether 00:28:39.280 --> 00:28:45.920 it's medical publications or alternative but the huge increase in progesterone, you would 00:28:45.920 --> 00:28:53.520 think without way that the rise, because I know it's also a concomitant rise of estrogen 00:28:53.520 --> 00:28:58.320 but do you have any idea of the proportion? 00:28:58.320 --> 00:29:06.840 About 50 years ago I saw a good chart based on very large number of pregnancies in which 00:29:06.840 --> 00:29:14.520 there was a steady increase of progesterone through the whole pregnancy, just a very steady 00:29:14.520 --> 00:29:25.040 increase at a level I think it was 50 times higher than the estrogen level and charts 00:29:25.040 --> 00:29:28.280 are very misleading usually. 00:29:28.280 --> 00:29:37.160 They often graph them with different axes for estrogen and progesterone so it really 00:29:37.160 --> 00:29:51.400 should show an extremely low line for the estrogen being 50 times lower on the concentration. 00:29:51.400 --> 00:29:57.120 Okay but it is still very possible to be estrogen dominant during a pregnancy and regardless 00:29:57.120 --> 00:30:02.720 of the amount of progesterone being secreted which is pretty high. 00:30:02.720 --> 00:30:12.640 You have a limited capacity to carry progesterone because of this needing 50 times more than 00:30:12.640 --> 00:30:20.960 estrogen and so if your background estrogen is staying high because of low thyroid function 00:30:20.960 --> 00:30:29.200 or a low B vitamin or low protein intake or something, then it's impossible to produce 00:30:29.200 --> 00:30:39.080 and distribute enough progesterone to offset that falsely high amount of estrogen and so 00:30:39.080 --> 00:30:44.640 no amount of progesterone increase will make that pregnancy healthy. 00:30:44.640 --> 00:30:49.680 It requires getting the estrogen under control with nutrition and good thyroid function. 00:30:49.680 --> 00:30:54.200 Okay, alright well before we take this first call let me just say that from now until the 00:30:54.200 --> 00:31:00.480 end of the show if you'd like to call in the number is 707-923-3911. 00:31:00.480 --> 00:31:04.840 Let's take this first caller call away from what's your question? 00:31:04.840 --> 00:31:12.840 New York and two questions for Dr. Peat. First I guess you're not a fan of vigorous exercise 00:31:12.840 --> 00:31:19.280 but I've read that as long as you're not running a marathon if you're running for 20 minutes 00:31:19.280 --> 00:31:24.160 or whatever and you're doing sprints that it actually increases CO2. 00:31:24.160 --> 00:31:26.080 You agree with that? 00:31:26.080 --> 00:31:31.560 Because I know nitric oxide and lactic acid are the ones that you want to avoid excess 00:31:31.560 --> 00:31:32.560 amounts of. 00:31:32.560 --> 00:31:40.120 It depends entirely on your physiology especially your thyroid function. 00:31:40.120 --> 00:31:50.880 A person with borderline hypothyroidism will with just the most slight exertion will start 00:31:50.880 --> 00:31:58.920 producing lactic acid which displaces the carbon dioxide. 00:31:58.920 --> 00:32:07.040 So if you're really in great condition you can keep your carbon dioxide level up and 00:32:07.040 --> 00:32:12.280 not produce any lactic acid with a moderate amount of exercise. 00:32:12.280 --> 00:32:17.600 Okay so it's not whether or not it's useful or not it's sort of depending on the health 00:32:17.600 --> 00:32:19.360 of the individual I guess. 00:32:19.360 --> 00:32:23.600 For a healthy person it could be very positive for an unhealthy person it could be very you 00:32:23.600 --> 00:32:26.880 know add to their problems. 00:32:26.880 --> 00:32:33.120 When the lactic acid goes up because you're not using oxygen properly then you release 00:32:33.120 --> 00:32:41.560 first a lot of histamine which produces soreness and maybe asthma and various symptoms and 00:32:41.560 --> 00:32:51.160 then the histamine is causing the blood pressure to go down after the exercise but with greater 00:32:51.160 --> 00:32:59.960 exercise then you release serotonin from the mast cells that could cause a blood pressure 00:32:59.960 --> 00:33:05.040 spike which is much worse than just the histamine effect. 00:33:05.040 --> 00:33:08.920 Okay so just second part of my first question if you take the assumption that people over 00:33:08.920 --> 00:33:13.760 50 are predominantly hypothyroid even if they weren't you know in their earlier years and 00:33:13.760 --> 00:33:18.640 60 certainly then if people are exercising what are the two things that people should 00:33:18.640 --> 00:33:23.400 do I've heard one from your talks that if you take you know maybe even just three drops 00:33:23.400 --> 00:33:30.120 of or 60 I use a vitamin E that that would actually be very protective and so the benefits 00:33:30.120 --> 00:33:34.040 of exercise you know might outweigh the negatives because you're taking precautions prior to 00:33:34.040 --> 00:33:35.040 the exercise. 00:33:35.040 --> 00:33:36.040 Is that true? 00:33:36.040 --> 00:33:46.160 And a lot of athletes are starting to use baking soda before the stressful exertion 00:33:46.160 --> 00:33:52.320 that provides extra sodium and bicarbonate and CO2. 00:33:52.320 --> 00:33:56.000 Okay so both of those are protective so if you did that and you had a little bit of sugar 00:33:56.000 --> 00:34:00.960 or whatever or orange juice that would somewhat mitigate the DNA damage or whatever that might 00:34:00.960 --> 00:34:01.960 occur. 00:34:01.960 --> 00:34:02.960 Yeah. 00:34:02.960 --> 00:34:07.800 Okay second question relates to I don't know if you've heard of this but it's called cat's 00:34:07.800 --> 00:34:13.360 claw and supposedly what it does it's a I think a root bark that ultimately if you boil 00:34:13.360 --> 00:34:19.120 it for 30 minutes and maybe it's like mushrooms where you know there's bad things in them 00:34:19.120 --> 00:34:22.520 but if you boil it for an hour you know the bad things go away and all the good stuff 00:34:22.520 --> 00:34:27.800 stays but it supposedly repairs DNA and it's been used for like a thousand years by the 00:34:27.800 --> 00:34:29.320 Aztecs and Incas. 00:34:29.320 --> 00:34:34.520 Have you familiar with it at all or do you agree or disagree with it? 00:34:34.520 --> 00:34:35.840 What's the name of it again? 00:34:35.840 --> 00:34:36.840 Cat's claw bark. 00:34:36.840 --> 00:34:40.000 Cat's claw B-A-T-S and then C-L-A-W. 00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:43.600 I've never studied that. 00:34:43.600 --> 00:34:52.280 Okay so you're talking about a product called Uncarrier Tementosa and yeah and they've produced 00:34:52.280 --> 00:34:57.280 it was a big deal for Lyme's disease about four or five years ago. 00:34:57.280 --> 00:35:01.720 They produced or in fact a company called Mediherb in Australia produced a TOA free 00:35:01.720 --> 00:35:08.360 which is the oxyindole alkaloid that was supposedly responsible for you know mitigating the effects 00:35:08.360 --> 00:35:11.360 of Lyme's. 00:35:11.360 --> 00:35:18.320 I'm not too sure of its activity for what you're mentioning but I know it in the context 00:35:18.320 --> 00:35:22.160 of its use in Lyme's disease. 00:35:22.160 --> 00:35:24.720 Okay so there is some benefit to it. 00:35:24.720 --> 00:35:27.400 Well definitely for Lyme's yeah. 00:35:27.400 --> 00:35:33.040 The other question I had is you know you talk about vitamin K then there's the vitamin you 00:35:33.040 --> 00:35:42.600 know MK vitamin K2 there's MK4 and MK7 and you know you see MK7 but my understanding 00:35:42.600 --> 00:35:45.760 sorry there's MK1, MK4 and MK7. 00:35:45.760 --> 00:35:51.520 If you're supplementing vitamin K is it appropriate to make sure that you have just MK4 because 00:35:51.520 --> 00:35:57.400 that's the one that is the most important for the... 00:35:57.400 --> 00:36:03.840 If you eat animal liver you're getting the whole variety of them and that's because the 00:36:03.840 --> 00:36:13.840 liver can convert K1 or K2 to the other higher chains and so I think K1 is adequate or K2 00:36:13.840 --> 00:36:18.520 because our liver can make the others. 00:36:18.520 --> 00:36:19.520 Our own livers? 00:36:19.520 --> 00:36:20.520 Yeah. 00:36:20.520 --> 00:36:21.520 Oh okay okay. 00:36:21.520 --> 00:36:28.520 All right so if I may this is one I so I have a thought if your thyroid is active that means 00:36:28.520 --> 00:36:32.520 that your adrenals are inactive so I think they work in reverse. 00:36:32.520 --> 00:36:37.160 So if you take an example of someone who's always low thyroid and their adrenals are 00:36:37.160 --> 00:36:43.880 very active so that they're generating lots of cortisol throughout their whole life. 00:36:43.880 --> 00:36:50.720 Since that's the fight-or-flight response if they train their body to chronically produce 00:36:50.720 --> 00:36:58.360 that cortisol to make up for their chronically low thyroid activity is it conceivable that 00:36:58.360 --> 00:37:03.880 those people because it's fight-or-flight that they if in the absence of some sort of 00:37:03.880 --> 00:37:10.600 crisis that they might actually try to create a crisis to essentially enable them to maintain 00:37:10.600 --> 00:37:12.680 that that that long cycle? 00:37:12.680 --> 00:37:14.600 I mean it sounds crazy. 00:37:14.600 --> 00:37:24.240 No in the early 60s that was a very common idea among psychologists and psychiatrists 00:37:24.240 --> 00:37:34.480 and I've known people that seem to typify that condition where they know how to create 00:37:34.480 --> 00:37:36.760 excitement and turmoil. 00:37:36.760 --> 00:37:42.120 So you agree with it and then the solution that would be to try to get your thyroid action 00:37:42.120 --> 00:37:46.600 up is then and to really change the cycle to make sure your thyroid is active with all 00:37:46.600 --> 00:37:49.040 the ways that you've described. 00:37:49.040 --> 00:37:55.040 People who have been creating turmoil just sit around and enjoy and smile. 00:37:55.040 --> 00:37:57.880 Okay all right. 00:37:57.880 --> 00:38:00.160 Thanks very much. 00:38:00.160 --> 00:38:02.440 Yeah I appreciate your call. 00:38:02.440 --> 00:38:05.960 Okay so the number if you're in the area or even out of the area or even on a different 00:38:05.960 --> 00:38:11.120 continent it's 707-923-3911. 00:38:11.120 --> 00:38:18.400 Okay so Dr. Peat just moving on a little bit from postpartum depression but still keeping 00:38:18.400 --> 00:38:25.040 the thread of where we're going with the hormones and or the approach to the treatment. 00:38:25.040 --> 00:38:31.120 Apart from progesterone supplementation could anything else be done for women who exhibit 00:38:31.120 --> 00:38:37.800 gestational diabetes as a symptom of this kind of energetic defect? 00:38:37.800 --> 00:38:44.120 Yeah I started thinking in relation to the previous question but it isn't just a matter 00:38:44.120 --> 00:38:52.160 of the thyroid and the adrenals but all of the hormones are involved in the energy process 00:38:52.160 --> 00:39:02.240 and so the importance of sodium and calcium in pregnancy it isn't just for blood volume 00:39:02.240 --> 00:39:10.720 and bone building and such but those are closely involved with thyroid in avoiding the adrenal 00:39:10.720 --> 00:39:15.720 stress hormone excess and keeping up the energy system. 00:39:15.720 --> 00:39:24.240 Okay all right because it seems time and time again the prerequisite here is metabolic energy 00:39:24.240 --> 00:39:30.160 and it's that defect here that's largely in part for causing everything else to fall with 00:39:30.160 --> 00:39:37.360 it and so thyroid hormone and those things that support an active thyroid and the uptake 00:39:37.360 --> 00:39:40.600 by the cell and all the secretion. 00:39:40.600 --> 00:39:48.440 And people who have a history of stress besides all of the essential nutrients, protein and 00:39:48.440 --> 00:39:55.400 vitamins and trace minerals and so on will have an increased requirement for sodium and 00:39:55.400 --> 00:40:01.280 calcium and the vitamin D to help assimilate the calcium. 00:40:01.280 --> 00:40:10.320 Okay I had a question that was written to me about a website this person had visited 00:40:10.320 --> 00:40:19.840 and this person was a doctor, excuse me I think they're a naturopath and it was devoted 00:40:19.840 --> 00:40:25.960 to the idea of chronic vitamin A toxicity as the underlying cause of most conditions 00:40:25.960 --> 00:40:31.640 and I quote the statement there said the basic premise is that many autoimmune diseases are 00:40:31.640 --> 00:40:37.840 caused by being in a chronic state of elevated storage levels of retinol, retinoic acid and 00:40:37.840 --> 00:40:40.440 possibly the carotenoid vitamin A precursor. 00:40:40.440 --> 00:40:47.160 Do you have any comment about this website's author and what was your views on the necessity 00:40:47.160 --> 00:40:51.920 of vitamin A, B and are you aware of toxicity in general with this? 00:40:51.920 --> 00:41:01.520 It is used to make the steroid hormones all of them from cholesterol. 00:41:01.520 --> 00:41:08.000 Thyroid and vitamin A travel together on the protein in the blood, they're so closely associated 00:41:08.000 --> 00:41:12.840 and they're taken up by the steroid producing cells together. 00:41:12.840 --> 00:41:18.960 So you just don't produce steroid hormones for example without vitamin A and it's used 00:41:18.960 --> 00:41:26.200 in protein synthesis making hair and skin and so on will fail if you're deficient in 00:41:26.200 --> 00:41:34.160 vitamin A. Mucus membranes thicken and stop producing mucus with the vitamin A deficiency 00:41:34.160 --> 00:41:43.240 and someone sent me these books by a recent author claiming that there is vitamin A toxicity 00:41:43.240 --> 00:41:50.960 rampant and I looked through it and couldn't find any facts at all. 00:41:50.960 --> 00:41:55.280 All right so you were contacted by somebody who had a similar question about vitamin A 00:41:55.280 --> 00:42:00.520 toxicity being you know touted as being the causal. 00:42:00.520 --> 00:42:12.120 Many years ago some Arctic explorers ate polar bear liver and their skin got inflamed and 00:42:12.120 --> 00:42:20.560 started peeling off and that has been cited in textbooks for I guess 80 years or so as 00:42:20.560 --> 00:42:27.320 proof that vitamin A is toxic but you know polar bears sometimes eat fish that have been 00:42:27.320 --> 00:42:36.520 poisoned by algae and their livers will store that for up to 24 hours at a very toxic level 00:42:36.520 --> 00:42:44.480 and they might have just gotten some fish toxin, algae toxin by way of the fish. 00:42:44.480 --> 00:42:54.920 So even that very famous basis for claiming vitamin A toxicity, there's no fact. 00:42:54.920 --> 00:43:02.200 And when the drug companies were coming out with things like retin-A, there were sudden 00:43:02.200 --> 00:43:10.200 news releases all around the country from medical schools reporting incidents in which 00:43:10.200 --> 00:43:16.960 people for example went blind from taking vitamin A and one of them at University of 00:43:16.960 --> 00:43:23.320 Oregon, I phoned the department and tried to get in contact with the professor who had 00:43:23.320 --> 00:43:25.400 told that to a newspaper. 00:43:25.400 --> 00:43:31.760 I couldn't get any personal verification. 00:43:31.760 --> 00:43:39.920 I think they were all just made up with the encouragement of the drug companies to create 00:43:39.920 --> 00:43:45.120 the desire for the safe non-toxic synthetic vitamin A. 00:43:45.120 --> 00:43:46.120 Interesting. 00:43:46.120 --> 00:43:52.880 I just quickly can ask you about vitamin B12 because I wasn't going to as part of the outline 00:43:52.880 --> 00:44:02.080 I'd produce for the show but given that I do and have seen lab work where people's vitamin 00:44:02.080 --> 00:44:08.200 B12 is outside the range and is pretty high. 00:44:08.200 --> 00:44:13.680 It can be produced by bacteria in the intestine and I've seen probably a dozen people with 00:44:13.680 --> 00:44:21.120 extremely high vitamin A or vitamin B12 who weren't eating any source of it but I think 00:44:21.120 --> 00:44:27.160 it must be coming from overgrowth of bacteria in the small intestine. 00:44:27.160 --> 00:44:35.080 Years ago, I knew a guy who was very sick, a vegetarian and he showed me his blood test 00:44:35.080 --> 00:44:46.720 had extremely high carotene and extremely low vitamin A and knowing that vitamin B12 00:44:46.720 --> 00:44:54.320 is used in converting carotene to vitamin A, he suggested that he eat some vitamin B12. 00:44:54.320 --> 00:45:01.320 Within just a few days, vitamin A was up to normal, the carotene had gone down and all 00:45:01.320 --> 00:45:03.320 his symptoms had disappeared. 00:45:03.320 --> 00:45:04.320 Okay. 00:45:04.320 --> 00:45:05.320 All right. 00:45:05.320 --> 00:45:09.920 So you're listening to Ask Your Doctor, KMEDGalvan 91.1 FM. 00:45:09.920 --> 00:45:14.240 From now until the end of the show at 8 o'clock, you're invited to call in with any questions. 00:45:14.240 --> 00:45:16.840 The number is 707-923-3911. 00:45:16.840 --> 00:45:17.840 Okay. 00:45:17.840 --> 00:45:21.800 We'll carry on here with the other questions that I've got for you on the light flashing. 00:45:21.800 --> 00:45:25.520 I was wondering if people, everybody's out for the solstice to celebrate and that they're 00:45:25.520 --> 00:45:28.040 going to hear this later on in the archives. 00:45:28.040 --> 00:45:33.520 I regularly get people emailing me, they've listened to the show on the archive and they 00:45:33.520 --> 00:45:37.200 ask questions, you know, then and then on the emails but I was wondering, the phone's 00:45:37.200 --> 00:45:39.200 ringing and let's take this next caller. 00:45:39.200 --> 00:45:41.360 Caller, you're on the air, where are you from? 00:45:41.360 --> 00:45:42.800 I'm curious. 00:45:42.800 --> 00:45:46.520 I have been hearing from a lot of my football friends lately that there's a product out 00:45:46.520 --> 00:45:48.160 in Texas called pickle juice. 00:45:48.160 --> 00:45:50.120 Are you guys familiar with what the... 00:45:50.120 --> 00:45:51.120 Pickle juice? 00:45:51.120 --> 00:45:53.920 ... constituents of pickle juice are? 00:45:53.920 --> 00:45:54.920 Hmm. 00:45:54.920 --> 00:45:57.880 Lots of athletes drink pickle juice. 00:45:57.880 --> 00:46:00.680 I drink kimchi juice for the salt to put off cramps. 00:46:00.680 --> 00:46:01.680 All right. 00:46:01.680 --> 00:46:02.680 Okay. 00:46:02.680 --> 00:46:03.680 Do they say what it contains? 00:46:03.680 --> 00:46:09.000 Well, it's astringent, you know, it obviously has pickles that are, you know, molecularized 00:46:09.000 --> 00:46:10.000 in it. 00:46:10.000 --> 00:46:16.080 But, you know, it's something, they claim it's for people who have hangovers and, you 00:46:16.080 --> 00:46:21.520 know, we know that in our little town people have a hell of a hangover and that's why they 00:46:21.520 --> 00:46:24.040 drink their coffee in the morning. 00:46:24.040 --> 00:46:26.360 Curious to know if you guys know anything about that. 00:46:26.360 --> 00:46:27.960 You might want to look into that, Dr. Peat. 00:46:27.960 --> 00:46:34.400 I would imagine it would contain lactic acid, if it's the true traditional way of making 00:46:34.400 --> 00:46:37.280 pickles and salt. 00:46:37.280 --> 00:46:45.720 And just some salty anything in the morning can be very settling. 00:46:45.720 --> 00:46:47.360 Oh, very good. 00:46:47.360 --> 00:46:51.880 Helps to regulate your blood sugar and lower the stress hormones. 00:46:51.880 --> 00:46:53.880 I did have another question. 00:46:53.880 --> 00:46:57.360 I've contacted you in the past and it was concerning that monk fruit sugar. 00:46:57.360 --> 00:47:01.240 Have you done any more research on that by any chance? 00:47:01.240 --> 00:47:02.240 No. 00:47:02.240 --> 00:47:03.240 Okay. 00:47:03.240 --> 00:47:06.240 Well, I'll tell you, you know, just for the folks out there, pretty soon people are going 00:47:06.240 --> 00:47:11.600 to be able to eat their chocolate candies, won't have any sugar in it, they won't have 00:47:11.600 --> 00:47:16.040 to look over their shoulders apprehensively at their doctors anymore, and they'll be able 00:47:16.040 --> 00:47:22.160 to eat a 36 count box of the monk fruit sugar because it's actually a cure-all in China 00:47:22.160 --> 00:47:23.160 for diabetes. 00:47:23.160 --> 00:47:24.160 All right. 00:47:24.160 --> 00:47:30.960 We'll keep our ears and eyes open and we'll see where the research comes from and see 00:47:30.960 --> 00:47:31.960 the published reports. 00:47:31.960 --> 00:47:32.960 We look forward to that. 00:47:32.960 --> 00:47:33.960 I appreciate your call. 00:47:33.960 --> 00:47:34.960 Thank you. 00:47:34.960 --> 00:47:35.960 Thank you. 00:47:35.960 --> 00:47:42.360 And I'll just repeat, I had again, I wanted to post another email question to you for 00:47:42.360 --> 00:47:46.760 your response to it because that person was unable to call during the last show. 00:47:46.760 --> 00:47:54.480 It was about SLE, systemic lupus arrhythmatosis, typically characterized as an autoimmune disorder 00:47:54.480 --> 00:48:00.760 and the butterfly rash is something that we were always told when we were doing pathology 00:48:00.760 --> 00:48:01.920 at school. 00:48:01.920 --> 00:48:07.200 And so the butterfly rash, the malar rash was an outward classic sign of it. 00:48:07.200 --> 00:48:12.920 What do you know about SLE and what would be your approach to this "autoimmune disease" 00:48:12.920 --> 00:48:18.840 that attacks the joints and the brain, the kidneys and other organs? 00:48:18.840 --> 00:48:24.920 Like the other autoimmune diseases, it's much more common in women than men. 00:48:24.920 --> 00:48:31.000 And animal models can be created with an estrogen excess. 00:48:31.000 --> 00:48:39.400 Estrogen activates a whole row of inflammatory processes. 00:48:39.400 --> 00:48:48.920 And thyroid and progesterone are things that have been pretty successful. 00:48:48.920 --> 00:48:55.280 Women believed they were going to have to have a kidney transplant or something when 00:48:55.280 --> 00:49:00.480 they took progesterone and thyroid, found they had no more symptoms. 00:49:00.480 --> 00:49:04.600 So you could definitely see it as an estrogen excess symptom? 00:49:04.600 --> 00:49:05.600 Yeah. 00:49:05.600 --> 00:49:06.600 Okay, good. 00:49:06.600 --> 00:49:09.880 All right, well we do have another caller here. 00:49:09.880 --> 00:49:11.520 So caller, let's take this question. 00:49:11.520 --> 00:49:12.520 Where are you from? 00:49:12.520 --> 00:49:13.520 What's your question? 00:49:13.520 --> 00:49:14.520 Jersey. 00:49:14.520 --> 00:49:15.520 Question, there's a... 00:49:15.520 --> 00:49:16.520 New Jersey or Jersey? 00:49:16.520 --> 00:49:17.520 Yeah. 00:49:17.520 --> 00:49:18.520 Okay. 00:49:18.520 --> 00:49:28.200 There's a professor from MIT that's been studying glyphosate and some of the effects. 00:49:28.200 --> 00:49:30.240 And well, she hasn't done her research on it. 00:49:30.240 --> 00:49:32.640 She seems quite knowledgeable, although she's probably not... 00:49:32.640 --> 00:49:36.000 She's an engineer by training. 00:49:36.000 --> 00:49:41.840 And seems to have an hypothesis that glyphosate is so similar to the glycine molecule that 00:49:41.840 --> 00:49:49.400 it actually can potentially displace glycine, which seems to be similar to the notion that 00:49:49.400 --> 00:49:55.640 fluoride can actually displace iodine because it's so similar, which is obviously troubling 00:49:55.640 --> 00:50:00.760 for the thyroid, which is probably why they want the water fluoridated to mess people 00:50:00.760 --> 00:50:02.480 up. 00:50:02.480 --> 00:50:06.680 But do you know anything about how damaging glyphosate is? 00:50:06.680 --> 00:50:10.440 Because I know you've mentioned in the past it's water soluble, but the notion that it 00:50:10.440 --> 00:50:14.600 could replace glycine, that could seem to have more systemic issues. 00:50:14.600 --> 00:50:15.600 What's your thought? 00:50:15.600 --> 00:50:25.280 I think it's very toxic at such small amounts, extremely small amounts. 00:50:25.280 --> 00:50:32.240 Interfering with glycine wouldn't do much at that tiny level. 00:50:32.240 --> 00:50:41.280 I think the mechanism is more likely related to DNA regulation. 00:50:41.280 --> 00:50:43.880 DNA damage? 00:50:43.880 --> 00:50:45.120 Yeah. 00:50:45.120 --> 00:50:49.400 Okay, so one other question relating to green vegetables. 00:50:49.400 --> 00:50:54.040 I know you've mentioned that they're a good source of calcium, but they have PUFA in them. 00:50:54.040 --> 00:50:59.280 And just to clarify my understanding, I remember at one point you were saying that if you boil 00:50:59.280 --> 00:51:08.200 them like for an hour that they become, or somehow the PUFA content goes down and they 00:51:08.200 --> 00:51:11.880 become more of a proper food. 00:51:11.880 --> 00:51:13.640 You can skim it. 00:51:13.640 --> 00:51:17.240 If any fat rises to the surface, you just pour that off. 00:51:17.240 --> 00:51:22.480 Well, actually I wasn't talking about boiling them in water as opposed to actually steaming 00:51:22.480 --> 00:51:23.480 them. 00:51:23.480 --> 00:51:26.120 Is there a difference there or do you treat that the same? 00:51:26.120 --> 00:51:32.280 Because steaming them, you'd have the water boiling and there'd be nothing to pour off. 00:51:32.280 --> 00:51:39.120 I think it's an advantage to be able to pour off any of the fat that rises. 00:51:39.120 --> 00:51:43.560 So you're saying it's better to boil them essentially than to steam them, would be safer? 00:51:43.560 --> 00:51:49.800 And to drink the liquid because the magnesium and calcium, a lot of it goes into the water. 00:51:49.800 --> 00:51:52.760 Oh, you're saying that and don't eat the vegetables? 00:51:52.760 --> 00:52:00.360 Well, if you need carbohydrate and any protein and such, they do have that value. 00:52:00.360 --> 00:52:07.320 But the important magnesium and calcium, a lot of it goes into the water. 00:52:07.320 --> 00:52:08.720 Oh, I see. 00:52:08.720 --> 00:52:11.680 And so does the PUFA remain in the leaves even when you're boiling them or does that 00:52:11.680 --> 00:52:12.920 mitigate itself too? 00:52:12.920 --> 00:52:17.880 Yeah, a lot of it remains tied into the proteins of the leaf. 00:52:17.880 --> 00:52:25.400 Because when you eat it, your bile salts will cause you to absorb most of the PUFA that 00:52:25.400 --> 00:52:28.480 is associated with the protein in the leaf. 00:52:28.480 --> 00:52:32.600 So you're saying no matter how much you boil it, that's one of the reasons why you don't 00:52:32.600 --> 00:52:33.600 eat green vegetables? 00:52:33.600 --> 00:52:34.600 Yeah. 00:52:34.600 --> 00:52:36.600 Okay, thank you very much. 00:52:36.600 --> 00:52:39.080 There you go, like it is. 00:52:39.080 --> 00:52:42.360 Okay, so we've got six minutes here. 00:52:42.360 --> 00:52:44.920 If anybody else wants to call in with a quick question, that's fine. 00:52:44.920 --> 00:52:48.400 Otherwise, we'll wrap up with another question, but 707-923-3911. 00:52:48.400 --> 00:52:56.480 Dr. Peat, I wanted to ask you about another, you may not have an answer to this, in which 00:52:56.480 --> 00:52:57.960 case I have one more question for you. 00:52:57.960 --> 00:53:03.820 But it came out today, I think they patented it and the FDA approved it. 00:53:03.820 --> 00:53:13.760 It's another drug and it's based on melanocortin and it's used for females as a kind of Viagra 00:53:13.760 --> 00:53:20.160 alternative for increasing sexual arousal and appetite, both for men and women. 00:53:20.160 --> 00:53:23.280 And it's called Vilezi. 00:53:23.280 --> 00:53:24.280 Do you know anything about it? 00:53:24.280 --> 00:53:27.320 If you don't, it doesn't matter. 00:53:27.320 --> 00:53:33.360 No but the principle, two things stand out. 00:53:33.360 --> 00:53:43.480 The pro-opio melanocortin is the precursor protein for making melanocortin and beta-lipoprotein 00:53:43.480 --> 00:53:48.040 and the endorphins and ACTH. 00:53:48.040 --> 00:53:53.960 And so those are things that come up during the stress reaction. 00:53:53.960 --> 00:54:02.280 And so the melanocortin and its receptors are normally activated during stress. 00:54:02.280 --> 00:54:10.680 And again, if you take one of the end hormone products and take it out of the context of 00:54:10.680 --> 00:54:18.440 the rest of the stress reactions, you're going to have wildly unpredictable effects. 00:54:18.440 --> 00:54:23.720 And the suppression of appetite is one of the things known to be associated with those 00:54:23.720 --> 00:54:26.480 receptors. 00:54:26.480 --> 00:54:37.160 And if a woman is lacking desire for a physical reason rather than just social, there are 00:54:37.160 --> 00:54:43.440 probably serious metabolic problems that are going to be ignored if you just try to push 00:54:43.440 --> 00:54:48.400 up one single mental function. 00:54:48.400 --> 00:54:58.400 And you should be looking at the, for example, the DHEA is a great activator of libido, but 00:54:58.400 --> 00:55:01.480 it goes down under stress. 00:55:01.480 --> 00:55:08.280 When cortisol rises, the cortisol has an anti-libido effect suppressing the effect 00:55:08.280 --> 00:55:09.280 of DHEA. 00:55:09.280 --> 00:55:16.640 So you should be concentrating on lowering the stress and if anything, giving a boost 00:55:16.640 --> 00:55:22.920 to the anti-stress things with pregnenolone, progesterone or DHEA or thyroid. 00:55:22.920 --> 00:55:23.920 Okay. 00:55:23.920 --> 00:55:27.440 And very quickly for people that are listening out there, don't just use DHEA. 00:55:27.440 --> 00:55:31.760 You've always mentioned that DHEA should be used in conjunction with adequate thyroid, 00:55:31.760 --> 00:55:36.440 otherwise you can turn or convert some of that DHEA into estrogens, correct? 00:55:36.440 --> 00:55:37.440 Yeah. 00:55:37.440 --> 00:55:38.440 Yeah. 00:55:38.440 --> 00:55:39.440 All right. 00:55:39.440 --> 00:55:40.440 Thanks so much for your time, Dr. Peat. 00:55:40.440 --> 00:55:42.120 It's three minutes to the top of the hour here and I'll let people know how to find 00:55:42.120 --> 00:55:43.120 you. 00:55:43.120 --> 00:55:44.120 Okay. 00:55:44.120 --> 00:55:45.120 Thank you. 00:55:45.120 --> 00:55:46.120 Okay. 00:55:46.120 --> 00:55:52.880 So for people that have listened to the show this evening, Dr. Ray Peat's website is www.raypeat.com. 00:55:52.880 --> 00:55:54.720 He's got lots of articles that he's written. 00:55:54.720 --> 00:55:56.800 He produces a newsletter. 00:55:56.800 --> 00:56:01.520 It's fully referenced and keep your eyes and ears out. 00:56:01.520 --> 00:56:04.720 The show is going to be up on an Instagram page. 00:56:04.720 --> 00:56:09.740 It's going to be dedicated to Dr. Peat, what he actually said, not what unfortunately some 00:56:09.740 --> 00:56:16.520 of the bloggers on the Ray Peat forum are just creating their own imaginations and creating 00:56:16.520 --> 00:56:19.160 a theory from it. 00:56:19.160 --> 00:56:25.000 But just to make sure that people get exactly what's been said, it'll be posted on the internet 00:56:25.000 --> 00:56:27.960 here or probably three or four months time. 00:56:27.960 --> 00:56:34.160 Busy getting together and collaborating with a very, very kind person who's agreed to type 00:56:34.160 --> 00:56:40.080 up a lot of the stuff and to put it up and I'll be collating it with that person and 00:56:40.080 --> 00:56:45.820 probably in three or four months, we'll have a Instagram page dedicated to Dr. Peat's philosophies. 00:56:45.820 --> 00:56:49.480 We can be reached Monday through Friday or in fact Monday through Sunday if you just 00:56:49.480 --> 00:56:52.240 want to leave a message or you want to write an email. 00:56:52.240 --> 00:56:58.400 It's Andrew@westernbotanicalmedicine.com or 1-888-WBM-ERB. 00:56:58.400 --> 00:57:02.520 Thanks for listening and until the third Friday of next month, thanks for joining. 00:57:02.520 --> 00:57:04.020 (laughs)