Health & Fitness

The ginkgo biloba tree, native to Asia, particularly China, Korea and Japan, has many benefits when used as a supplement.

Some of its most impressive actions are associated with brain and memory function^1,2 but studies have also indicated that ginkgo biloba can reduce symptoms of anxiety,³ improve glaucoma (through its antioxidant and vascular effects)⁴ and improve blood flow in conditions like Raynaud's syndrome⁵ and erectile dysfunction.⁶

Some of ginkgo's positive actions may result from the way it increases adenosine triphosphate (ATP), your body's main source of energy at the cellular level. "This activity has been shown to boost the brain's metabolism of glucose for energy and to increase its electrical activity," according to Nutrition Review.⁷

The ginkgo biloba tree has received additional attention for its incredible longevity and resistance to aging as normally seen in animals and many plants. The findings about the ginkgo biloba tree's remarkable survival qualities may also shed light on the mechanisms behind human results seen from supplementation with ginkgo.

A Tree That Is a Living Fossil

The ginkgo biloba tree, also sometimes called the maidenhair tree, is the world's oldest living tree and has been referred to as a living fossil. Some living ginkgo trees in China today are said to be 2,500 years old, with one reputed to be 3,000 years old.⁸

Ginkgo has survived, unchanged, through the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous epochs when dinosaurs roamed and became extinct⁹ and even through the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and the great fire that occurred after the 1923 Tokyo earthquake. Here is how the Oregon Department of Forestry described the phenomenon:¹⁰

"Four ginkgos in Hiroshima, Japan, withstood the atomic bombs at the end of World War II – thriving, even blooming — while everything about them was devastated in the blast.

Ginkgos are also believed to provide protection against fire; the bark and leaves are thought to secrete a fire-retardant sap. Many of these trees survived the great fire after the 1923 Tokyo earthquake — and a temple that was surrounded by ginkgos made it through the massive blaze unscathed."

Clearly, the ginkgo biloba tree has amazing resilience and today thrives in polluted environments like urban roadsides and large modern cities, which seem like nothing compared with surviving the dinosaur age and the atomic bomb.

The name ginkgo derives from the Japanese words "gin" and "kyo," which mean "silver" and "apricot" respectively and refer to the ginkgo's apricot-looking fruit. It is the only surviving species from the Ginkgoaceae family.

What Explains Ginkgo Biloba's Longevity?

Like humans, trees have immune systems. But unlike human immune systems, which begin to degenerate with age, the immune system in ginkgo trees "even though they're 1,000 years old, looks like that of a 20-year- old," Richard Dixon, a biologist at the University of North Texas, told The New York Times.¹¹

In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS),¹² Dixon and his co-authors found that the genes in ginkgo's vascular cambium (the living cells behind its bark) contain no provision for death or senescence.¹³

Instead, write the researchers, genes in the vascular cambium continue to resist disease and supply "preformed protective secondary metabolites" as if the tree were young.¹⁴

"Transcriptomic analysis indicates that the vascular cambium of the oldest trees, although undergoing less xylem [plant vascular tissue] generation, exhibits no evidence of senescence; rather, extensive expression of genes associated with preformed and inducible defenses likely contributes to the remarkable longevity of this species …

We propose that continuous growth of the cambial cells may enable G. biloba to escape senescence at the whole-plant level …

The ratio of heartwood/sapwood increased with age in G. biloba, and the expression of monolignol and flavonoid/stilbene pathway genes was not significantly reduced in old trees. Thus, accumulated protective specialized metabolites from continuous growth may enhance the resistance of long-lived old trees to adapt themselves to different environments."¹⁵

How Do the Cambium Genes Perform?

How, specifically do the genes found in the vascular cambium protect the ginkgo? The researchers write:¹⁶

"Phenylcoumaran benzylic ether reductase (PCBER) is a major protein component of xylem, where it provides protection by reducing phenolic dimers to yield antioxidant molecules. Notably, of the two PCBER homologs in the G. biloba genome, only one was strongly expressed in vascular cambium."

Flavonoids could also be at play, they write:¹⁷

"Flavonoids are a major class of plant secondary metabolites which can protect against both biotic and abiotic stresses. In our dataset, 41 genes were annotated as key genes encoding enzymes associated with flavonoid biosynthesis, including chalcone and stilbene synthases."

The ginkgo genome is huge and contains 10.6 billion DNA "letters" compared with the human genome that contains 3 billion letters.¹⁸

The ability to defend against stresses is a major contributor to the ginkgo's long life, the researchers conclude. In fact, old male ginkgo trees still produce viable pollen and older females still produce a large number of seeds; in both cases, they resemble younger trees.¹⁹

Ginkgo Bilobas May Not Age but Can Still Die

Peter Brown, director of Rocky Mountain Tree-Ring Research, concurs with the PNAS authors about ginkgo's mechanisms for not aging and takes the scientific thinking a step further: He ventures that ginkgo trees and others like them could theoretically live forever.²⁰

What kills long-lived trees like ginkgo, he says, is not their advanced age but a specific threat to them such as a drought, insect infestations or pests, or urban development:

"Being modular organisms, every year they're putting on new wood, new roots, new leaves, new sex organs … They're not like an animal, like us. Once we're born, all of our parts are there, and at a certain point they just start to give out on us."²¹

In fact, if a tree's cambium is intact, it can still live as a hollow stump, producing leaves and flowers.²² If stumps lack leaves for photosynthesis, they can also obtain water through shared root systems with neighboring trees, scientists have found.²³ Summarizing ginkgo's longevity, the PNAS researchers write:²⁴

"Aging occurs in most multicellular organisms, and in yeast and animal cells is frequently accompanied by telomere attrition, epigenetic alterations, loss of proteostasis, and somatic mutations. However, in plants, aging is complex and multifactorial and is regulated by both genetic and environmental factors.

Aging is associated with deterioration of growth and differentiation as well as with maturity, whereas senescence, which ends in death, is the last developmental stage.

… [D]ue to the complex life cycles of plants, evolutionary theories of aging have somewhat been neglected in the plant kingdom, and thus the mechanisms underlying aging at the whole-plant level remain enigmatic."

Now, these remarkable mechanisms of ginkgo are being uncovered.

Ginkgo Biloba Offers Many Human Benefits

Ginkgo biloba is a top-selling extract and dietary supplement with varied and impressive benefits. In addition to the cognitive and memory-boosting properties suggested by studies, here are other actions of ginkgo biloba revealed by studies.

Inhibition of platelet-activating factor — This factor prevents blood coagulation and keeps plaque from forming inside the arterial walls.25

Enhances nitric oxide (NO) production in vessels — This promotes healthy endothelial function and subsequent positive effects on peripheral and cerebral blood.26

Initiates synaptosomal uptake of dopamine — These actions improve cognitive function27 and 5-hydroxytryptamine (serotonin),28 a neurotransmitter known for mobilizing your brain and body for action, linked to positive effects on cognition and attention.

Modulates different neurotransmitter systems — These actions include inhibiting monoamine oxidase A, an enzyme that can affect norepinephrine, serotonin and dopamine in your brain.

Exerts free radical-scavenging activity — Ginkgo has neuroprotective and antiapoptotic properties, such as inhibiting amyloid-β neurotoxicity and protecting against hypoxic challenges. It may be particularly beneficial for Alzheimer's disease.29

Treats chilblains30 and small blood vessel dysfunction — Ginkgo has positive effects on inflammation from cold exposure; benefits may extend to Raynaud's syndrome.31

Helps with pathogenic skin microbes — These microbial conditions can include acne vulgaris, blepharitis, dandruff, psoriasis and conditions caused by Staphylococcus aureus.32

May help in multiple sclerosis treatment — Ginkgo exerted modest beneficial effects on fatigue and other functional measures in those with multiple sclerosis, in one study.33

Ginkgo Reduced Aluminum Levels in Rats

In a 2005 study in the journal Life Sciences, researchers found that ginkgo biloba extract (GbE) exerted a protective effect on memory and learning function in rats treated with aluminum, a metal suspected in the development of Alzheimer's disease. Here is what the researchers reported after administering aluminum to rats:³⁴

"Aluminum administration significantly increased escape latency and searching distance, indicative of brain dysfunction. GbE treatment significantly protected against aluminum-induced brain dysfunction, as evidenced by decreased escape latency and searching distance compared with the Al [aluminum] alone group …

In summary, this study demonstrates that GbE is effective in improving the ability of spatial learning and memory of aluminum-intoxicated rats. This protection appears to be due to a decreased expression of APP [amyloid precursor protein] and caspase-3 in rat brain, resulting in a decrease in the production of insoluble fragments of Abeta-amyloid."

A Few Cautions About Ginkgo Biloba

While ginkgo may offer neuroprotective, metabolic and immunological benefits, some people have experienced mild upset stomach or headaches after taking ginkgo supplements, a sign that ginkgo may not be right for you. With larger doses, sensitive individuals may experience episodes of dizziness, diarrhea and nausea.

Women who are pregnant and breastfeeding should not take ginkgo nor should people with epilepsy use the supplement because it may cause seizures. Also, people susceptible to poison ivy and similar plants should avoid ginkgo because of the allergic potential of its leaves' long-chain alkylphenols.

If you are older, pregnant or have a known bleeding risk, an increased risk of bleeding is possible with ginkgo. Do not take ginkgo if you are currently on a blood-thinner medication because of interactions. For similar reasons, do not take ginkgo before undergoing surgery or dental procedures.

Also, do not eat raw or roasted ginkgo seeds, because they can cause serious side effects and may be poisonous. With these cautions, you can enjoy the benefits from this tree that has an incredible ability to live practically forever.

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Far worse than the biologic damage caused by refined sugar is the molecular havoc caused by processed vegetable oils. Soybean oil in particular has a questionable safety profile for several reasons, and processed foods are positively loaded with it.

Whether partially hydrogenated, organic or genetically modified to be low in linoleic acid, soybean oil can cause dysfunction at a cellular level. Unfortunately, many health authorities have insisted omega-6-rich vegetable oils like soybean oil are healthier than saturated animal fats such as butter and lard, and this myth has been a tough one to dismantle, despite the evidence against it.

An estimated 94% of the soybeans grown in the U.S. are genetically engineered (GE) to tolerate herbicides,¹ primarily glyphosate (the active ingredient in Monsanto/Bayer's Roundup), which cannot be washed off. As a result, most soybean-based products are contaminated with glyphosate, which compounds their toxicity.

Soybean Oil Linked to Genetic and Neurological Damage

Most recently, research^2,3,4,5 published in the journal Endocrinology warns soybean oil — the most widely consumed cooking oil in America — can cause neurological and metabolic changes associated with:

Autism	Alzheimer's disease
Anxiety	Depression
Obesity	Insulin resistance
Type 2 diabetes	Fatty liver disease

The study, done on mice, compared the health effects of diets high in conventional soybean oil, GE soybean oil low in linoleic acid and coconut oil. As reported by Neuroscience News:⁶

"The same UCR research team found in 2015 that soybean oil induces obesity, diabetes, insulin resistance, and fatty liver in mice. Then in a 2017 study, the same group learned that if soybean oil is engineered to be low in linoleic acid, it induces less obesity and insulin resistance.

However, in the study released this month, researchers did not find any difference between the modified and unmodified soybean oil's effects on the brain. Specifically, the scientists found pronounced effects of the oil on the hypothalamus, where a number of critical processes take place."

Your hypothalamus⁷ is a key regulator of homeostasis and metabolism in your body, and also plays a role in your stress response and hormone regulation.

According to the authors, the soybean diets (both conventional and GE), caused dysfunction in about 100 different genes in the hypothalamus, including one that is responsible for producing oxytocin, colloquially known as "the love hormone," which has beneficial effects on your heart.

Other dysregulated genes included ones associated with "inflammation, neuroendocrine, neurochemical and insulin signaling." The coconut oil diet had "negligible effect."

The fact that GE soybean oil that is designed to be low in omega-6 linoleic acid had similar effects as conventional high-linolenic acid soybean oil effects suggests linoleic acid isn't the problem, as previously suspected. The study also ruled out another suspected soybean chemical, stigmasterol, as coconut oil enriched in stigmasterol had no ill effects.

The team will continue their investigation in an effort to identify the real culprit behind these genetic effects. In the meantime, co-author Poonamjot Deol, an assistant project scientist at the University of California Riverside, urges people to "reduce consumption of soybean oil."

Unfermented Soy Linked to Many Health Problems

The idea that unfermented soy in general and soybean oil in particular, are healthy is refuted by thousands of studies linking unfermented soy to a wide range of health problems. In her book, "The Whole Soy Story," Dr. Kaayla Daniel details research implicating unfermented soy in the development of:⁸

Malnutrition	Digestive distress
Immune system breakdown	Thyroid dysfunction
Cognitive decline	Reproductive disorders
Infertility	Cancer
Heart disease	Food allergies

Fermented organic soy, on the other hand, has a number of important health benefits, and are the only soy products I recommend eating. Healthy options include:

• Tempeh — A fermented soybean cake with a firm texture and nutty, mushroom-like flavor.
• Miso — A fermented soybean paste with a salty, buttery texture (commonly used in miso soup).
• Natto — Fermented soybeans with a sticky texture and strong, cheese-like flavor.
• Soy sauce — Traditionally made by fermenting soybeans, salt and enzymes; beware that many varieties on the market today are made artificially, using a chemical process.

Problematic Components in Soy

While the featured Endocrinology study was unable to identify the exact soy compound responsible for the genetic damage, there are many plant chemicals found in soy that are capable of causing problems, including:

Phytoestrogens (isoflavones) genistein and daidzein, which mimic and sometimes block the hormone estrogen — Isoflavones resemblance to human estrogen is why some recommend using soy therapeutically to treat symptoms of menopause. However, most of us tend to be exposed to too many estrogen compounds and have a lower testosterone level than ideal, so I believe it's important to limit your exposure to feminizing phytoestrogens. Even more importantly, there's evidence9 isoflavones may disturb endocrine function, contribute to infertility and promote breast cancer, which is definitely a significant concern. As noted in a 2017 scientific review on dietary phytoestrogens:10 "Phytoestrogens are plant‐derived dietary compounds with structural similarity to 17‐β‐oestradiol (E2), the primary female sex hormone. This structural similarity to E2 enables phytoestrogens to cause (anti)oestrogenic effects by binding to the oestrogen receptors … Various beneficial health effects have been ascribed to phytoestrogens … In contrast to these beneficial health claims, the (anti)oestrogenic properties of phytoestrogens have also raised concerns since they might act as endocrine disruptors … [G]iven the data on potential adverse health effects, the current evidence on these beneficial health effects is not so obvious that they clearly outweigh the possible health risks. Furthermore, the data currently available are not sufficient to support a more refined (semi) quantitative risk-benefit analysis. This implies that a definite conclusion on possible beneficial health effects of phytoestrogens cannot be made."

Phytates, which block your body's uptake of minerals — Phytic acid binds to metal ions, preventing the absorption of certain minerals, including calcium, magnesium, iron and zinc11 — all of which are co-factors for optimal biochemistry in your body. This is particularly problematic for vegetarians, because eating meat reduces the mineral-blocking effects of these phytates. Sometimes phytic acid can be beneficial, especially in postmenopausal women and adult men, both of whom are prone to excessive iron, a potent oxidant capable of causing significant biological stress. However, phytic acid does not selectively inhibit iron absorption; it inhibits all minerals. This is very important to remember, as many already suffer from mineral deficiencies from inadequate diets. The soybean has one of the highest phytate levels of any grain or legume, and the phytates in soy are highly resistant to normal phytate-reducing techniques such as long, slow cooking. Only a long period of fermentation will significantly reduce the phytate content of soybeans.

Enzyme inhibitors, which hinder protein digestion.

Hemagglutinins,12 which cause red blood cells to clump together and inhibit oxygen takeup and growth.13

Omega-6 fat (linolenic acid), which is pro-inflammatory — The massive overconsumption of highly refined vegetable oils such as soybean oil is largely due to the wrongful demonization of saturated fats. This has had the effect of turning the average American's omega-3 to omega-6 ratio upside down, which is a major driver of chronic inflammation, which in turn is an underlying factor in virtually all chronic diseases.

"Antinutrients" such as saponins, soyatoxin, lectins and oxalates — While a small amount of antinutrients would not likely cause a problem, the amount of soy and soybean oil that many Americans are now eating is very high.

Goitrogens — Goitrogens,14 found in all unfermented soy whether it's organic or not, are substances that block the synthesis of thyroid hormones and interfere with iodine metabolism, thereby interfering with your thyroid function.

Another Major Hazard of GE Soybeans: Glyphosate

If you need yet another reason to reconsider your consumption of soybean oil, consider this: In addition to having an unhealthier nutritional profile than organic soybeans, Roundup Ready GE soy has been shown to contain high amounts of glyphosate.¹⁵

According to a 2014 study^16,17 published in Food Chemistry, which looked at the compositional differences between various types of soybeans, glyphosate readily accumulates in Roundup Ready soybeans, and GE soybeans contained a mean glyphosate residue level of 3.3 milligrams per kilo. The most contaminated samples contained as much as 8.8 mg of glyphosate per kilo.

Meanwhile, a 2010 study¹⁸ in the journal Chemical Research in Toxicology found malformations in frog and chicken embryos occurred at 2.03 mg of glyphosate per kilo. The malformations primarily affected the face, skull, brain and spinal cord. According to this study:

"Organic soybeans showed the healthiest nutritional profile with more sugars, such as glucose, fructose, sucrose and maltose, significantly more total protein, zinc and less fiber than both conventional and GM-soy.

Organic soybeans also contained less total saturated fat and total omega-6 fatty acids than both conventional and GM-soy. GM-soy contained high residues of glyphosate and AMPA … Conventional and organic soybean batches contained none of these agrochemicals.

Using 35 different nutritional and elemental variables to characterize each soy sample, we were able to discriminate GM, conventional and organic soybeans without exception, demonstrating ''substantial non-equivalence'' in compositional characteristics for 'ready-to-market' soybeans."

It's important to realize that once applied to crops, glyphosate actually becomes integrated into the cells of the plant, so it cannot be washed off. And, while the chemical industry is still defending the safety of glyphosate, mounting research suggests it can harm health in a number of different ways.

Importantly, the chemical has been shown to decimate beneficial gut bacteria. Glyphosate has also been shown to cause DNA damage¹⁹ and to act as an endocrine disruptor.²⁰ For an overview of how glyphosate's impact affects your health, see "Roundup May Be Most Important Factor in Development of Chronic Disease."

Safeguard Your Health by Ditching Vegetable Oils

To recap, there are several potential health hazards of soybean oil to consider, either alone or in combination:

1. The harmful health effects of unfermented soy
2. The potential hazards of GE soy
3. The harm associated with glyphosate contaminated food
4. High amounts of processed omega-6 skewing your omega-3 to omega-6 ratio

If you want to avoid dangerous fats of all kinds, your best bet is to eliminate processed foods from your diet. My comprehensive nutrition plan offers helpful guidance for this process.

When cooking, coconut oil, butter, lard and ghee are healthy options. Also be sure to swap out margarines and vegetable oil spreads for organic butter, preferably made from raw grass fed milk. Butter is a healthy whole food that has received an unwarranted bad rap.

Other healthy fats to include in your diet are avocados, raw dairy products, olive oil, olives, organic pastured eggs and raw nuts. To further balance your omega-3 to omega-6 ratio you may also need a high-quality source of animal-based omega-3 fat, such as krill oil, if you're not in the habit of eating small, fatty fish such as sardines, anchovies and mackerel, and/or wild caught Alaskan salmon.

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Animal waste and fertilizer runoff are two large contributors to water pollution, yet Big Ag has consistently turned a blind eye to the resulting devastating climate effects on their own industry. As this short video demonstrates, rising concentrations of nitrogen in the water feeds algae and chokes the oxygen supply to wildlife, creating expansive dead zones.

In addition to an impact on fish and wildlife, climate change is being blamed for record-setting rain in the Midwest in 2019. Croplands were so ravaged by water that farmers were forced to delay planting corn. Typically, 96% of croplands would have been planted by June,¹ but in corn-heavy states like Indiana, Ohio and Illinois, the rates were as low as 31%, 33% and 45% respectively.²

Nutrients are naturally found in watersheds. This is called the "background" concentration. Rising concentrations of nutrients such as nitrate, ammonia, total nitrogen and phosphorus are the result of fertilizer and animal manure runoff. With increasing rainfall the runoff becomes a larger environmental problem, leading to negative health and environmental outcomes.

The problem of higher levels of nutrients in the waterways is a far-reaching concern. Fertilizer byproducts, significant contributors to water pollution, were found to have elevated concentrations in more than 90% of 190 streams in agricultural and urban areas sampled by the U.S. Geological Survey.³

The Center for Public Integrity published an in-depth report in which they used research studies and historical documents to develop an argument I've written about over the years: Agricultural damage by industrial farms has a considerable negative impact on the environment.⁴

Fertilizer: An Underrated and Growing Environmental Threat

The current leading ozone-depleting gas is nitrous oxide, a byproduct of nitrogen-based fertilizer. This type of fertilizer is liberally applied to farmlands throughout the U.S., but America has either not joined or is pulling out of global treaties to bring about reductions in air and water pollution.

Historically, these treaties have been fruitful. For instance, the 1987 Montreal Protocol proved successful at setting limits on most ozone-depleting substances, although it did not address nitrogen.

The massive impact of nitrates on the environment and human health has been noticed around the world. More than 150 scientists from 35 countries stress the necessity of limiting the use of nitrogen in agriculture and wastewater processes. This is because nearly 80% of the nitrogen will enter the environment as pollution.⁵

In an open letter to António Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations, they urge global action, saying: "If we want to beat climate change, air pollution, water pollution, biodiversity loss, soil degradation and stratospheric ozone depletion, then a new focus on nitrogen will be vital."

An unfortunate and dangerous consequence is the exposure to thousands of nitrates in the water supply. In January 2020, the Environmental Working Group⁶ reported that water testing results from the past decade showed nitrate exposures for an estimated 500,000 people living in Minnesota were at or above levels that mark rising contamination.

Nitrogen Plays a Significant Role in Water Pollution

The safe limits of nitrates in the water supply were set to protect infants from blue baby syndrome, which decreases the ability of the blood to carry oxygen.⁷ WHO reports the condition is rare due to nitrate contamination control.

The Clean Water Act limits nitrate in drinking water to 10 mg per liter (mg/L). However, research indicates that levels close to 5 mg/L are linked to birth defects⁸ and colorectal, ovarian, thyroid and kidney cancers.⁹

These levels are only likely to rise with the relaxation of 2015 regulations that prohibit the release of certain chemicals near streams, wetlands and other bodies of water.¹⁰ The regulatory changes will affect future decisions on water laws as it narrows the definition the Supreme Court may use to define "the waters of the United States."

Administrations under George W. Bush and Barack Obama resisted exemptions for greenhouse gas emissions reports on large animal farms, but the Trump administration has not. The Trump administration has also placed fewer pollution restrictions on farmers. Patrick Parenteau, environmental law professor at Vermont Law School, comments on the part industrial farmers' play in clean water:

"For conservative states and leaders who hold the view that the Clean Water Act has become burdensome for farmers and the industry, 'this is an opportunity to really drive a stake through the heart of federal water protection.'"

Cover Crops Reduce Fertilizer Use and Nitrogen Pollution

As discussed in the video above, cover crops demonstrate the ability to protect the watershed, reduce pollution and protect topsoil. The reporter for the Center for Public Integrity aptly describes the actions of one common cover crop, rye:

"Rye is a time-release nitrogen sponge. As it grows, the rye sops up excess nitrogen before it escapes into the air or water. After the rye dies and decomposes, bacteria squeeze the nitrogen back into the soil, fertilizing later crops. Cover crops are also a magnet for microorganisms that process nitrogen into fertilizer, and they have other benefits, from preventing soil erosion to smothering weeds."

This all boils down to being able to apply less fertilizer to achieve the same results, while protecting the soil and improving soil biodiversity. Cover crops are planted after harvest of the primary crop, to protect the soil through the winter months. Once spring arrives the cover crop must be terminated to make way for the next primary crop on the land.

The Iowa State University Extension Outreach discusses three options farmers use to terminate their cover crops, including crimping, tilling and the application of glyphosate.¹¹ Glyphosate has been¹² "invaluable to no-tillers in North America and overseas as an inexpensive, effective tool for not only killing weeds but also terminating cover crops ahead of or after planting," according to No-Till Farmer.

Rolling or roller-crimping is an effective alternative to the application of herbicides for hairy vetch, barley or cereal rye. While tilling the ground is an option, most cover crops require multiple passes to fully terminate the crop, which increases the risk of erosion and negates the health benefits to the soil of planting cover crops.

Nitrogen Overload Predicted Decades Ago

Parts of the Midwest have experienced swings through heavy droughts and flooding that experts attribute to climate change. James Galloway, environmental scientist at the University of Virginia, commented on the extent of nitrogen pollution:

"People make four to five times more reactive nitrogen than natural, terrestrial processes. And on a global scale, it's just showed no signs of stopping."

Nitrous oxide levels began accelerating in the atmosphere in 2009, potentially compounded by rising levels. It also has happened more quickly than was predicted by the United Nations. Two of the dangers associated with this hazardous greenhouse gas is that it depletes the ozone layer and has a life span of more than 100 years.

In 1973 the EPA acknowledged agriculture was a major source of nitrogen pollution that required regulation to protect the planet. They wrote: "All known trends appear to be ones that can be managed and kept within control, if appropriate steps are taken now."

But, as history has revealed, no real steps were taken, and air and water damage has continued to worsen. In a 2019 study published in Nature, scientists wrote:¹³

"We show that reduced air quality resulting from maize production is associated with 4,300 premature deaths annually in the United States, with estimated damages in monetary terms of US$39 billion (range: US$14-64 billion)."

The rate farmers are using nitrogen fertilizer is 40 times greater than 75 years ago, which far exceeds the rate of population growth. EPA science advisers have been recommending controlling the use and release of nitrogen since the early years of the agency's conception, but without success.

Instead, oversight has been handled by authorities who recommend voluntary self-regulation and cooperation. This has resulted in an industry that has escaped health and safety regulations enforced for other chemicals.

Researchers Discover New Concern With Glyphosate

Research published in early 2019 from McGill University showed glyphosate brings devastating consequences to the watershed and its environmental impact has been overlooked. Most research related to glyphosate has been focused on how poisonous it is.

However, this recent study is focused on the risk associated with glyphosate's contribution to phosphorus levels.¹⁴

The use of phosphorus-based fertilizer has saturated the soil, increasing the potential that any added phosphorus will run off into the waterways. Regulations limiting phosphorus have been aimed at fertilizers, which are some of the largest artificial sources.

However, phosphorus contributions are beginning to add up with a fifteenfold increase in the use of glyphosate over the past two decades. The team concluded that "glyphosate use can no longer be disregarded in monitoring and managing phosphorus levels in areas where the herbicide is used extensively."

Results from an earlier study¹⁵ published in 2016 revealed that Lake Erie's toxic algae blooms were due in part to phosphorus from glyphosate. Researchers thought a no-till method used with genetically modified Roundup Ready crops actually increased the use of herbicides and thus the potential it was a factor in algae growth.

Ohio Northern University's Christopher Spiese expressed concerned about the expansive impact of the problem, too: "For every acre of Roundup Ready corn and soybeans that you plant, it's about one-third pound of phosphorus coming down the Maumee ... "

Big Agriculture Is Calling the Shots

The agricultural industry has a financial interest in keeping things the way they are. While some large animal operations may need environmental permits, farmers are not subject to "EPA monitoring, testing and corrective enforcement applied to factories and other industrial sites."

The American Farm Bureau Federation opposes any laws requiring greenhouse gas emission reporting and any adoption of legislation that increases costs to farmers. Their argument is based on the plight of the farmer rather than the big picture of how farming practices may impact the environment and long-term health.

Protect Your Local Environment — Buy From Regenerative Farms

Shopping smart to make the best food choices for you and your family sends a message to Big Ag. Although they want you to think they control your behavior, remember that it's you who holds the power when it comes to food choices.

There is strong growth in the global organic and grass fed sectors that proves that by working together toward the same goal, we can make a difference. Seek out your food from a local farmer who uses diverse methods to promote regenerative agriculture. Consider joining a community-supported agriculture (CSA) program where you buy a "share" of vegetables produced by the farm.

The application of glyphosate and the devastating effects of nitrogen and phosphorus are three issues related to a larger chemical problem. Seek to adopt preventive strategies to reduce your exposure to the toxic chemical pollution that assaults your health.

You'll find a list of trustworthy sites with resources to find non-GMO food in your area at "Regenerative Farming: Restoring Soil Health and Saving Americans From Cancer, Chronic Disease."

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Na’Quisha tied her weight to her happiness, until she realized self-love is much deeper than physical appearances.

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If you're interested in healthy living, you won't want to miss this interview with anti-aging scientist James Clement, author of "The Switch: Ignite Your Metabolism With Intermittent Fasting, Protein Cycling, and Keto," While a lawyer by trade, he has since transitioned into a full-time research position, running his own antiaging research laboratory.

From Lawyer to Full-Time Researcher

Clement wrote "The Switch" because he saw that many still don't understand the basics of health and longevity. The "switch" refers to the switch between activating and deactivating the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway, which is the central topic of discussion here. His book also covers how to upregulate your mitochondrial function and other important pathways for health and longevity, such as NAD+.

"For [as long as] I can remember, I've always been interested in longevity," Clement says. "I just didn't know that there was a field that dealt with [longevity] until Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw's book, 'Life Extension: A Practical Scientific Approach,' came out in 1982.

I happened to be a third-year law student at the time, married to another law student. As soon as I read the book, which I did in like two days, I said, 'I'm going to be a molecular biologist.' She jokingly said, 'No. You aren't.' But I did start reading molecular biology. I became very passionate about keeping up with antiaging science.

I was lucky enough in 2009 to get on the board of the first direct-to-consumer genome company called Knome that George Church had co-founded. I had my own whole genome sequenced in 2009. George was the scientist who read me my interpretation of my genome.

We started talking about aging. I found out that he had this similar passion. We came up with a project called the Supercentenarian Research Study. That sort of launched my becoming a full-time scientist as opposed to a lawyer and entrepreneur that I've done previously …

We were a couple of years into the supercentenarian project. I was starting to open my own lab. I started a vivarium and eventually added 1,200 mice that I raised by myself with a couple of interns. At that time, I approached George and asked him, 'Do you think it would be beneficial to my credibility, career and knowledge to enroll in a Ph.D. program?'

George kind of looked at me and said, 'You're doing projects that grad students would give their right arm for. You're already reading 10 to 20 scientific papers a day. You're involved in writing up research papers. This is what a scientist is. This is what they do. You don't need to go work for someone else to learn these processes.' So, I stuck with what I was doing."

60 Minutes Interview with Harvard Geneticist Professor George Church

What Sets Supercentenarians Apart?

Supercentenarians are the rare individuals who have made it to the age of 110 and beyond. According to Clement, there are only 50 to 80 supercentenarians in the entire world at any given point. In the U.S., an estimated 120,000 people make it to 100, but only 20 of them make it to 110.

As Clement began working with these supercentenarians, he realized that what set them apart was the fact that, up until the age of 105 to 108, they'd really had the health of someone in their 70s and 80s. They have no age-related diseases, and typically die from sudden onset immune failure followed by pneumonia.

This suggests that improving your immune function is an essential criterion to make it past 100. Clement goes so far as to say that, in many respects, supercentenarians age normally, while the rest of us age at an accelerated rate. The basis of his book is essentially how to normalize your aging, thus allowing you to optimize your life span.

It's worth noting that while your lifestyle plays a tremendous role, there's also a strong genetic influence. Siblings of supercentenarians have a 17 times greater chance of reaching 100 years old than the rest of us, for example, and many female supercentenarians have a mutation in the IGF-1 pathway.

This makes them short in stature, so 5 feet is about the size of the normal supercentenarian woman. In men, it tends to be a growth hormone mutation that similarly makes supercentenarian men somewhat shorter than the average man. Importantly, these mutations limit mTOR and turns on autophagy, which is what gives these people such a head-start on longevity. But there are ways for the rest of us to limit mTOR and increase autophagy as well.

The Switch

The target of rapamycin (TOR), from which mTOR derives, is an evolutionary mechanism that started with bacteria. All organisms need nutrition, and the ability to make proteins and reproduce. When nutrition is scarce, as it tends to be from time to time in the natural world, the organism must venture out to seek more resources.

"The organisms that developed ways to hunker down and protect themselves during these times of scarcity are the ones that survived and we evolved from," Clement explains.

"We evolved and carried with us those genes that protected bacteria, yeast cells, C. elegans worms, drosophila, mice, primates, et cetera. They all have a version of mTOR. They all go through this metabolic switch called mTOR and have an anabolistic state, anabolism, and a catabolic state, or catabolism."

Anabolism is what allows you to grow and increase muscle mass, whereas catabolism is the process of breaking down, repairing and removing old worn-out cells. Importantly, catabolism is the phase that cells enter when resources are scarce.

The cells essentially slow down protein production and cell division at this time, and activate the process of autophagy, which gets rid of misfolded proteins and dysfunctional organelles.

These old, worn-out proteins and organelles are recycled by lysosome, which breaks them down into their base component parts and then releases them back into the cell. These components can then be used to make new amino acids capable of rebuilding new proteins.

This natural clean-out and regeneration process is why activating autophagy on a regular basis is key for health and longevity. The same process occurs in your mitochondria, which is called mitophagy.

"Like all other organisms, humans, for most our evolutionary history, encountered this feast-or-famine state. Only recently, like literally the last 150 years, has food production, industrialization of farming and livestock management and refrigeration made it possible … to have a never-ending abundance, mostly of foods that we didn't evolve to eat in the first place," Clement says.

Why Cycling Through Feast and Famine Is so Important

One common mistake, which I also made, is continuously inhibiting mTOR. It's really important to cycle back and forth between inhibition and activation of mTOR. The anabolic state triggers cell growth, and that includes stem cells — cells that can become any cell needed, anywhere in your body.

"If you learn about mTOR and you say, 'I don't want cancer, and turning on mTOR full-time and keeping autophagy off leads to cancer, so I'm going to do the reverse,' then what you end up doing is not having a strong populating of stem cells, not replacing damaged tissue, and you end up losing muscle mass through sarcopenia.

I experienced this myself. I was on a vegan version of the ketogenic diet for five years. I was doing this as self-experimentation … I ended up losing a lot of muscle mass.

But as soon as I recognized what was going on and really thought about the literature and what this meant, I realized that I was foregoing the thing that nature had previously required, which is that you go through this feast [stage]," Clement says.

"We have a whole chapter describing the different ways that you can implement this in your own life. There's no one plan. There are basically guidelines. … You can still have your pizza, your cheese, cake, ice cream, et cetera, but you can't do this day in and day out. You can't leave mTOR on [activated] and the brakes on autophagy full-time."

Meal Frequency and Timing

Based on the evidence, time-restricted feeding appears to be one of the essential keys to optimal health and longevity, as there's no other way, really, to cyclically activate and deactivate mTOR and autophagy. You have to have a period of famine, a restriction of nutrients, to enter into a catabolic state.

The question then becomes, just how long does this famine need to be? To be sure, eating throughout the whole day is a prescription for metabolic disaster. Research by Dr, Satchinanda Panda suggests 90% of people eat across a span of 12 hours a day, and many across even longer timespans, which clearly is not doing them any favors.

"I personally have gone now to a four-hour window," Clement says. "I never was a big breakfast eater. I have a couple cups of coffee in the morning. But historically, breakfast didn't exist until the Middle Ages. We didn't evolve as cavemen eating at 6 a.m. or 7 a.m. a breakfast of eggs, toast, jam and milk.

It's literally in the English version of the name, 'break-fast.' It's the period in which you're breaking your overnight fast. This is essential to keeping mTOR down and autophagy on as long as possible.

I would argue that people evolved to have autophagy turned on every single night of their life, not just on occasions when they once a year would go on a fast or try a ketogenic diet for a month and then go back to the normal lifestyle."

I too was on a four-hour eating window for many months, but I'm now starting to think that perhaps this window also needs to change from time to time. Four to eight hours is probably the sweet-spot, and I now think shrinking the eating window down to four hours a few times a week is enough.

How to Incorporate Exercise for Optimal Results

The timing of exercise can also play a role. If you're fasting for 20 hours and eating within a four-hour window, aggressively working out about two hours before you break your fast will suppress mTOR and activate autophagy even further, increasing metabolic markers such as 5 AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and decreasing insulin-like growth factor (IGF), at least in your muscle.

As noted by Clement, this strategy will actually allow you to achieve the benefits of a two- to three-day long fast.

"By and large, the average person, who is obese and on seven medications by the time they're 70 years old and has hypertension and all these problems, those people got there because they weren't paying attention to this switch," Clement says.

"These discussions about autophagy tell people essentially what to do to turn it on, but hasn't really focused much on the balance — the fact that we need both sides of this. I've also concentrated on the triggers that turn on mTOR, because if we want it on, then we want to make sure we aren't taking supplements or doing something else that tends to inhibit it …

A branched-chain amino acid named leucine, which is four times higher in dairy than it is in human breast milk, essentially locks on mTOR … Leucine is almost like a key that, alone, without any help from anything else, in sufficient quantities, will trigger mTOR activation and turn off autophagy …

Generally speaking, if you are consuming dairy or animal meat, you will likely have sufficient levels of leucine. Now, the cell also needs, for mTOR to be working fully, insulin … which means you need certain levels of blood sugar that will essentially trigger insulin to be relatively high …

Without leucine or sufficient amino acids, mTOR is going to essentially wait. That's what autophagy is actually meant to do — it's to create more amino acids by breaking down organelles and misfolded proteins to supply the cell [raw material to reuse].

It's got the sugar. It's got the energy. The insulin receptor is turned on but it lacks the amino acids. So, through a short bout of autophagy, the cell would most likely have enough to go through with cell division or protein production."

Generalized Rules of Thumb

So, to summarize, having large amounts of dairy and/or animal proteins for 12 hours a day or more is a prescription for metabolic disaster, as it prevents the suppression of mTOR and activation of autophagy.

One of the easiest solutions is to restrict your eating window to four to eight hours each day, fasting the remaining 16 to 20 hours and, ideally, exercising a couple of hours before your first meal.

"If you look at the diets of people who don't have the diseases of civilization, which include the centenarians in Okinawa, Greece [and] Loma Linda, California, you see that what's really happening is that they're running through their glycogen stores in their liver and their muscles overnight.

We only carry about 800 calories worth of energy in our glycogen stores. It doesn't really take that much [to deplete them] … In a deficit state, insulin drops, glucagon goes up, and you enter this catabolic state. That can happen every day. I think it's probably how humans evolved and probably we want to have happen most of the year …

This balance is what people have to find. I personally think that it's going to be somewhere along the ratio of 8 to 4. [You could] make that eight days in a row of turning down mTOR and two days of turning it up, consecutively, or four months on of autophagy and then two months off in a repeated cycle. There are lots of different ways to do this.

In the long run, I don't think we know what's absolutely optimal. We just know that cycling back and forth is the way to do it. Probably, if we keep those periods relatively shorter, especially as we get older, the chance that you're inhibiting mTOR too long goes down … On the whole, we want [mTOR] off more than we want it on, because that's what all the long-lived people have. They all have mTOR more suppressed than normal people."

At present, I'm experimenting with an updated cyclical time-restricted eating strategy that can be summarized as follows:

• Two days a week, I eat all my meals within a four-hour window
• One day a week, my meal window is eight hours
• The remaining five days, my meal window is somewhere between four and eight hours

Each day, right before I eat my first meal, I will do a really hard blood flow restriction (BFR) training workout. Knowing how the body loves variability and uses that to optimizing the whole system, avoiding anything that is too monotonous makes sense to me. Clement is a proponent of BFR as well.

"I'm a big fan of walking," he says. "I go out on 4- to 8-mile walks about once a day. It's really hard to get a power workout in a walk … But with the [BFR], it has an amazing ability to actually stress my muscles in a way that makes them grow and get stronger and larger without having to do heavy weight presses and those kinds of exercises."

The Importance of NAD+

Overall, NAD+ may be one of the most important longevity molecules that we know of. As explained by Clement, NAD+ is a coenzyme needed by longevity-related enzymes called sirtuins. It's also required for DNA repair.

Finding data on NAD+ sorely lacking, Clement began his own research, starting with a clinical trial testing intravenous (IV) NAD+ in elderly people, in collaboration with Dr. John Sturges. Clement also underwent the treatment, which involved an infusion of 1,000 milligrams of NAD+ per day for six straight days, finding it remarkably effective for tremors he'd had since he was 20 years old.

"My hands would shake … It was just some neurological problem. It wasn't the onset of Parkinson's at 20 years old or anything else that anyone could point to. But surprisingly, within an hour or two of starting the IV infusion, my tremors went away completely, which I had had for the previous 40 years.

I noticed later that evening that I fell asleep and didn't wake up during the middle of the night … I woke up way earlier than I normally would, completely refreshed and ready to get back to work. This was the same kind of experiences all of our elderly patients were telling us as well. We had several people who had tremors that went away.

I think [1,000 mg of NAD+] is too much for people who don't have issues that would cause incredibly severe NAD+ depletion … Your body uses copious amounts of NAD+ to detoxify alcohol, for example. In and of itself, drinking every single night of your life will drastically deplete your NAD+ levels.

There are other things that people do that can deplete their NAD+ levels. We've seen that in teenagers who get an infection, influenza or something and then all of a sudden start getting migraines.

NAD+ will totally prevent the onset of migraines for periods of two or three months at a time. People who have had multiple migraines a month who get on these iontophoresis NAD+ patches can go years without having migraines.

There are many, many symptoms of NAD+ depletion that we're just now learning. We're finding that restoring the NAD+ to healthy levels gets rid of these symptoms almost immediately."

NAD Plummets With Age

NAD+ levels plummet by the time you're 60 years old, and is nearly undetectable by the time you're 80. NAD+ is a crucial part of the longevity puzzle, as it's essential for repairing broken DNA. Broken DNA is not something that occurs once in a while.

Single-stranded DNA breaks occur about 125 times an hour in every cell of your body, and double-stranded breaks occur about 25 times per day in every cell. DNA breaks are further accelerated if you're exposed to high levels of electromagnetic fields, which virtually everyone in the developed world are.

"There are lots of lifestyle practices and exposures that will increase [DNA breaks] dramatically, and you need NAD+ in order to turn on gene repair," Clement says.

"If [NAD+] is naturally going down — by the time you're 60 it's maybe 50% of what it was when you were in your 20s and 30s, and then by the time you're 70, it's 10% and then at 80, there's almost none — you can see how this huge build-up of damaged DNA in every cell of your body is potentially one of the driving forces of these morbidities that you see with aging, heart disease, cancer [and] Alzheimer's …"

While IV NAD+ is available, it's cost prohibitive at $1,000 per IV. Fortunately, there are less expensive ways to raise your NAD+. Two precursors to NAD+ are nicotinamide riboside (NR) and nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN), both of which are available in supplement form. NAD+ patches are also available, and all of these are far more economical than IV.

A 1,000-milligram dose of NR has been shown to double your NAD+ level. The problem is that for the elderly, doubling a grossly deficient level is not enough. In people with near-undetectable levels, the NAD+ levels need to be increased by 10 to 100 times.

So, while taking an NR or NMN precursor for six months will double your level, you may still be depleted. Clement's study revealed many older people need 4 or 5 grams a day for a period of time to restore more youthful levels, which could end up being costly at today's price of NAD supplements.

To circle back to exercise and time-restricted eating, both of these strategies will increase nicotinamide phosphoribosyl transferase (NAMPT) by about 30%, and NAMPT is the rate-limiting enzyme for the recovery of NAD+ from its metabolic breakdown product, nicotinamide. In other words, implementing time-restricted eating and fasted exercise will naturally increase your NAD+ levels even without taking any NAD+ supplements.

More Information

Clement also reviews the possibilities of using CRISPR technology for gene editing, so for additional information, please listen to the interview in its entirety, or read through the transcript. He also discusses how his laboratory is pushing the limits to minimize the transitional period from discovery to integration into clinical medicine.

"[Many] for-profit companies that have gone into the antiaging field … have one particular target, one arrow in their quiver, essentially, to aim at [antiaging].

Most … get locked into spending the next four or five years working on a particular antiaging pathway that may or may not turn out to be all that important, whereas as a nonprofit and supported by donors who really want to foster anti-aging, I can say that we're looking at dozens of different completely independent pathways for antiaging," Clement says.

"I've read between 18,000 and 20,000 scientific papers on aging. I've made long notes about the things that were working on model organisms, like flies and mice, for example. In many cases, we know that these same things should work in humans, but the molecules or the techniques used are generic drugs or compounds that you can't patent for various reasons …

Therefore, there's just not a financial incentive for a venture capital company to fund someone researching metformin, let's say, and rapamycin, both of which are generic drugs, specifically for antiaging.

What you see is the venture capital companies are putting money into companies that want to create novel compounds that mimic compounds we already know about.

But no one's really studied or optimized those compounds … and because anybody can knock that off, you might see a pharma company trying to create a synthetic molecule that takes attributes of those and has a particular molecular benefit similar to what they do.

But my parents, my elderly friends, they don't have 10 years to wait. And then, often, these drugs are really powerful. For a lot of people, they aren't appropriate anyway. The natural compound or the generic drug that we already knew about would have probably been a better choice.

What we want to do is take a lot of these compounds that are already proven to work in other organisms, try them on humans, and then if they do seem to work, then we go through a process of optimizing them.

If they don't work, we just simply drop it and move on. Because no one's counting on us turning this particular thing into a product, so we don't have that weight over us that somehow the one and only thing that we chose now has to be [profitable] …

Everything that we've talked about today is a result of decades' worth of very intense research by hundreds and hundreds of scientists that are focused on anti-aging and who are not specifically trying to make a profit from a single molecule or cell line or therapy, but merely doing the hard work of telling us what seems to work and what doesn't.

And then testing those in model organisms, from C. elegans, worms, drosophila, fruit flies and rodents, like mice and rats.

Much of this is already known that we can rapidly, I think, qualify these things in humans using these clinical trials and know, 'OK. This is worth spending more time on because it has profound antiaging effects or it helps one particular morbidity pathology.'"

It was to this end, also, that Clement wrote "The Switch: Ignite Your Metabolism With Intermittent Fasting, Protein Cycling, and Keto," which I highly recommend adding to your library. Reading through it, and implementing the strategies covered in this book can go a long way toward warding off age-related diseases and optimizing your longevity.

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In this interview, Dr. Stasha Gominak,¹ a neurologist and sleep coach, explains the curious synergy between vitamin D deficiency, a changed microbiome and poor sleep.

I met Gominak at the American College for the Advancement in Medicine’s annual meeting in 2019 in Nashville. Her lecture was about ways to improve your sleep. I thought I was aware of most of them, but the connection between vitamin D and sleep surprised me.

Gominak’s research suggests lack of vitamin D causes impairment in your brain stem’s ability to produce normal sleep. So far, she’s treated more than 7,000 patients with her innovative “sleep repair” approach. She’s also published scientific papers on her theories.

Vitamin D Deficiency Linked to Sleep Disorders

Gominak had no interest in vitamin D, initially. She was fascinated by sleep, and was trying to figure out why so many young and otherwise healthy patients were having such trouble sleeping. Many also had sleep apnea. Over time, it became clear that most of them didn’t have enough rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, yet there was no medical hypothesis to explain why.

“I did a lot of sleep studies in teenagers and kids, the great majority of them relatively healthy people,” Gominak says. “They didn’t have terrible sleep apnea, but they all had much less deep sleep than normal, and it’s deep sleep that allows us to heal and feel rested.

They’re complaining of being tired. They have epilepsy. They have daily headache. They have things that are linked to our ability to repair our brain every night.’

Once finding that they had no deep sleep, I wanted to fix their sleep AND their neurologic problem. Unfortunately, I was pretty much stuck with using what we had at the time: continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) devices for those who had apnea and sleeping pills for those with insomnia.

That was very unsatisfying for myself and the patients. Then, pretty much by accident, I found that one of my young headache patients who was extremely tired and had absolutely no deep sleep in her sleep study … had a B12 deficiency.

I began to check B12 levels in all the patients who had abnormal sleep. Eventually I measured vitamin D levels also. Over a period of time, it became clear that everybody’s vitamin D was low. That, by itself, was not enough to get excited about, but what was exciting was that there were numerous articles showing vitamin D receptors in the brain stem areas that control our ability to flip in and out of the phases of sleep.

The part of the brain called the brainstem contains our sleep clock and the cells that paralyze us so we can heal. These areas are covered with vitamin D receptors. That was published in the 1980s, but no one paid attention.”

Vitamin D has also been shown to modulate hibernation in animals, Gominak notes, yet vitamin D is not recognized for its impact on human sleep.

Adding to the work of Walter Stumpf, the scientist who published the original articles on vitamin D’s impact on hibernation, sleep and metabolism, Gominak performed a two-year study, concluding that sleep disorders of many kinds, not just sleep apnea, are linked to vitamin D deficiency and can be improved by careful supplementation. She explains that we track sleep at home by measuring paralysis in sleep:

“What we’re using now to measure sleep with sleep trackers is, ‘When are we paralyzed?’ Because the only time we get paralyzed is when we’re in deep sleep, slow-wave sleep or REM sleep.

The most important part of using vitamin D is vitamin D and other components come together to make acetylcholine. Acetylcholine is the neurotransmitter that allows us to get paralyzed correctly.”

Using a Fitness Tracker to Track Your Sleep Cycle

Today, many of her patients will use fitness trackers that track sleep, such as Fitbit or the Oura ring, both of which can measure slow-wave deep sleep, which is one of the sleep phases during which your body is paralyzed.

“As far as I can tell, the movement measurements used in most of those tracking devices are pretty accurate,” she says. That said, I discourage the use of Fitbit for two primary reasons.

First of all, it emits a green light, which can interfere with your sleep quality. Second, Fitbit was recently bought by Google, which is siphoning your personal health and fitness data from these devices for their own gain. I think the Oura ring is a superior device overall, and it won’t steal your personal data.

B Vitamins and Sleep

Vitamin D and B12 aren’t the only nutrients capable of influencing your sleep, however. Toward the end of the two-year study Gominak led, in which vitamin D and B12 were used, most patients began getting worse again. Their sleep started deteriorating, and they were experiencing more pain.

A patient gave her a book detailing the use of vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid) for rheumatoid arthritis pain. “I was not very interested in vitamins,” Gominak admits, but she eventually read the book. What finally caught her interest was the fact that B5 supplementation helped improve rheumatic patients’ sleep.

Research has shown that when B5 is blocked, patients will develop four distinct symptoms within two weeks: burning in the hands and feet, an odd puppet-like gait, gastrointestinal issues and insomnia. However, as Gominak and dozens of her patients discovered, too much can also cause problems.

When taking 400 milligrams (mg) of pantothenic acid and one daily capsule of B100 (a B supplement that contains all eight B vitamins), pain scores and sleep disturbances skyrocketed. Many complained of feeling “revved” up and unable to fall asleep again.

“I realized that I had just made everything about my sleep worse, taking the recommended dose of pantothenic acid,” Gominak says, “so I stopped the 400 mg [of B5] and [took] just B100, which has 100 mg pantothenic acid.”

Overnight, she noticed a distinct change. Her pain disappeared and her sleep improved. Patients that made the same switch reported similar results. All of this suggests there’s a lot we don’t know about the proper dosage of many vitamins. What’s more, further research led her to form the hypothesis that B vitamins really should be produced in your gut, by intestinal bacteria.

“If you think about animals that lie in the ground for four or six months, like bears, clearly … they’re not eating every day, [yet] they need a source of B [vitamins] every day. That implies the microbiome [is] an important … source of Bs …

Before the 1980s, there was very good science about the B vitamins … It turns out there are body stores of B’s. There are body sources of B6, B5, thiamin and vitamin C.

I was struggling to explain why we got better then worse again. Maybe when giving vitamin D, I made their sleep better and helped them make more repairs. But as they made more repairs, they used up their stores of the B vitamins.”

The All-Important Role of Gut Bacteria

Part of the problem, Gominak surmised, was that, for some reason, her patients’ gut bacteria were not properly making B vitamins, resulting in a deficiency. Merely adding vitamin D doesn’t fix that. “I had assumed vitamin D was a growth factor for the bacteria, and when I gave it, they would come back,” she said, “but they didn’t.”

As explained by Gominak, there are four species of intestinal bacteria that make the eight B vitamins, and they appear to work symbiotically, feeding each other these B vitamins back and forth. When they work optimally, you’re getting all the B vitamins your body needs, and when you have just the right dose, your sleep will be optimized as well.

Unfortunately, while we now know that a blood level of vitamin D between 60 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL) and 80 ng/mL is ideal, we still do not know what an ideal level of B5 is. Blood measurements also appear to be rather inaccurate, as they do not reflect your stores.

“There’s also something extremely peculiar and interesting about B5,” Gominak says. “We now have a huge amount of knowledge about the absorption of B5. There is a pump, [which] pumps in alpha lipoic acid, biotin and pantothenic acid from the gut. The exact same pump is used to pump B5 into the cerebrospinal fluid.

The interesting part about that [when] it goes into the head, it becomes coenzyme A, which then helps to make acetylcholine. One of the things that was mysterious to me was, ‘Why would my patients need 100 mg when ... every publication says 400 mg is the right dose of pantothenic acid?’

Clearly, I and my clients are in a different place. Now, that would suggest that having vitamin D around in the brain somehow changes what happens [to the B5 vitamin].”

The Importance of Acetylcholine

As explained by Gominak, in the adrenal, B5 makes cortisol. In the brain, it makes acetylcholine — first by being incorporated into coenzyme A, which is the donor for the acetyl group that makes ‘’acetyl’’ choline. When the enzyme choline acetyl transferase is added to the mix, you get acetylcholine, and this is where vitamin D comes in.

There are vitamin D receptors in the reticular nucleus of the thalamus and vitamin D is related to the reticular activation — the sleep-wake portion of your brain. When vitamin D enters the nucleus, it expresses choline acetyl transferase. In other words, vitamin D is one of three components that must come together to make acetylcholine.

You will also need the raw material, choline, to produce sufficient amounts of acetylcholine. Choline is typically obtained from animal foods. The highest concentration is in egg yolks, which is one of the reasons I eat five eggs a day. It is important to obtain the eggs from high-quality organically raised chickens. I raise my own chickens but if you don’t, get them from someone locally who does.

Acetylcholine has many important functions. For starters, your parasympathetic nervous system runs on it, and many publications have shown that people with sleep disorders, or who are otherwise ill, have excessive sympathetic tone, which in turn results in elevated epinephrine and norepinephrine, which are indicative of stress.

According to Gominak, having an elevated sympathetic tone may actually be the result of an acetylcholine deficiency. What’s more, acetylcholine is instrumental in maintaining alertness during the day and allowing you to fall asleep and transition through the various sleep stages at night. It’s also part of what allows your body to be paralyzed during deep sleep. Yet no one ever takes acetylcholine into account when investigating sleep disturbances.

“It turns out that we don’t have any drugs for acetylcholine. There aren’t any, except nicotine,” she says. “Acetylcholine has nicotinic receptors or muscarinic receptors [and] there are a lot of connections between the acetylcholine nicotinic receptors and neurologic illness.”

Attention deficit disorder (ADD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have become epidemic in the past decade, and research shows that acetylcholine nicotinic receptors in the frontal lobes are responsible for directing our attention and focus during the day.

Then, at night, a “switch” flips and we fall asleep. Interestingly, this switch into paralyzed sleep involves the same chemical that allows us to remain awake and focused, namely acetylcholine. According to Gominak, once your vitamin D and B levels normalize, your brain is finally able to start repairing damage that has been incurred during years of poor sleep.

As a result of increased repairs, patients will often find themselves sleeping longer than eight hours, and remain in deep REM sleep longer than normal, as this is the phase during which cellular repair and regeneration is done.

Without deep sleep, your body simply cannot perform the needed cellular repair to maintain health, which is part of why sleep dysfunction can have such wide-ranging health effects.

What Constitutes a Healthy Microbiome?

Interestingly, Gominak discovered that as you sleep more, you need more B vitamins. Which brings us back to the microbiome in your gut. Gominak cites one 2015 paper that postulates that having a healthy microbiome is all about having a microbiome that produces the eight B vitamins.

To optimize your gut microbiome, Gominak recommends having a vitamin D level above 40 ng/mL, and taking a B50 or B100 supplement for three months. This will help your microbiome “grow back” so that it’s producing the ideal amount of B vitamins on its own.

“If you never let your D fall below 40, you’ll never lose them again. That’s my belief,” she says. What’s more, normalizing your microbiome will also allow your body to protect itself against foreign invaders by producing natural antibiotics. Gominak explains:

“One of the really important concepts of having a normal microbiome is, it is not just in your small intestine and your colon. I actually smell different since my microbiome came back. It covers all parts in your body. The literature is really strong to make the argument that we are actually like the Charles Schultz character ‘’Pig-Pen’’.

We walk around in this cloud of bacteria, viruses and fungi that cover us — in our nose, in our mouth, in our skin, in our hair, all over us — and that those organisms are the ones that protect us from infections. They make chemicals that kill their competitors. They keep the clostridium difficile under control in our body.

One of the things that I’ve been able to see happen is my clients can still take antibiotics. They actually will reconstitute their microbiome normally as long as they keep their [vitamin] D over 40 ng/mL, they will grow back. I personally believe the appendix is designed the way it is to be a little library of all the bacteria.

It’s not that I don’t believe that antibiotics change what’s going on in there. They absolutely do. However, I don’t think we have to be as afraid of them. There are two things that are being proposed now to improve the microbiome:

One is probiotics. I personally have used them … I think they’re kind of worthless. If they would work, you would eat them for one month, and then you’d be self-sustaining for the rest of your life.

[The second is] about feeding your bacteria … Once you have a normal foursome [the four types of bacteria that produce the eight B vitamins], what we’re really doing is feeding the bacteria.

. We feed the bacteria, and then the bacteria feed us. That’s not the way we’ve been looking at it. I would say all the literature that’s talking about the effect diet has on what lives inside us is absolutely pivotal. It’s not like, ‘You just take these vitamins and everything gets fixed.’ It’s not that simple by a long shot.”

The Case for Organic Food

With respect to your diet, it’s important to eat organic for two primary reasons. One is that most of the antibiotics are not given to humans. They’re given to animals, and the use of antibiotics in food production is a primary driver of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Most nonorganic food is also contaminated with glyphosate, which can decimate your gut bacteria and impact your mitochondrial function. There’s emerging evidence that mitochondrial function is really the core of health and chronic degenerative disease.

Mitochondria are primitive bacteria inside your cells that are affected by antibiotics, and glyphosate has antibiotic activity too. While there are many strategies you can use to upregulate mitochondrial biogenesis, it’s important to minimize the damage to begin with.

An interesting paper² published online January 16, 2020 in The Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology also sheds light on how vitamin D and melatonin work synergistically to protect mitochondrial health and ensure proper function. As noted in this paper:

“The biosynthetic pathways of vitamin D and melatonin are inversely related relative to sun exposure. A deficiency of these molecules has been associated with the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases, including arterial hypertension, neurodegenerative diseases, sleep disorders, kidney diseases, cancer, psychiatric disorders, bone diseases, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes, among others.

During aging, the intake and cutaneous synthesis of vitamin D, as well as the endogenous synthesis of melatonin are remarkably depleted, therefore, producing a state characterized by an increase of oxidative stress, inflammation, and mitochondrial dysfunction.

Both molecules are involved in the homeostatic functioning of the mitochondria. Given the presence of specific receptors in the organelle, the antagonism of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS), the decrease of reactive species of oxygen (ROS), in conjunction with modifications in autophagy and apoptosis, anti-inflammatory properties inter alia, mitochondria emerge as the final common target for melatonin and vitamin D.”

Optimize Your Sleep to Improve Your Health

Let’s be clear: We’re not saying vitamin D and B supplements are magic bullets that will fix any sleep problem you may have. Your sleep hygiene is dependent on several other basic factors as well, such as limiting blue light exposure at night and making sure you get sunlight exposure during the brightest part of the day.

That said, vitamin D and pantothenic acid insufficiency can play significant roles if you’re still having trouble sleeping after addressing more foundational factors.

“The stuff that I have on my site are things that were overlooked … There are hundreds of sites that will tell you about circadian rhythms, taking away the electromagnetic forces in your bedroom and the blue light.

It’s not that what I have is the be all, end all. It’s that it’s a really important little piece that you need to set in there. I also happen to think that it connects the epidemics of sleep disorders to the weight gain and the IBS.”

In her practice, Gominak has seen patients recover from a variety of problems, from gastrointestinal problems to anemia, once their gut microbiome was normalized with the help of vitamin D and the temporary use of B vitamins.

Again, keep in mind that once your gut microbiome has been restored, taking high doses of B vitamins can backfire and trigger insomnia, as your body is now making the appropriate amount by itself. At that point, the excess ends up having an amphetamine-like effect that keeps you awake.

“I personally think that getting the microbiome back in most people who are pretty sick is [step] one. And then they need to have some supplementation, not huge doses, but some supplementation for a year or two after that. And then keep an open mind about the fact that eventually, you’ll get to a place where you don’t need to supplement most things, unless you have a particular genetic weakness.”

More Information

To learn more, see Gominak’s website, drgominak.com. Under “Quick Start Basics,” you’ll find the general outline of her RightSleep protocol. Also on the homepage you can purchase a workbook that helps you to work through her protocol during the course of a year.

“The website is dedicated to the why,” she says. “I’m very invested in the why. I saw these things happen to my patients. They can’t be making it up. They don’t know each other. They don’t even have the same disease, yet they all tell me the same thing.

That means the basic truth is always what the patient says about their body. And then it’s my job to see if I can find a scientific explanation for that, in animals and other humans.

I have lots of written material. I have free videos ... I have a workbook you can buy. I also offer one-on-one sessions … I think many people who are not really very sick and just want to add this to their health regimen can do it easily with the workbook. That’s the intention anyway.

I also have to comment that once you get better from this D-microbiome point of view, what we all want is to be healthy and have long lives. Sleep is one of the four basic pillars: Sleep, diet, exercise and spirituality.

You can’t really short any of those and be a happy, fully healthy, content person. I don’t spend a lot of time talking about the other parts, but they’re very important as well.”

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