Professional Grade Supplements for WiseAthletes

Hey Everyone, welcome to WiseAthletes, your source for discovering how to flourish as an older athlete, and finding your path to longevity in sport. I'm your host Joe Lavelle.

Chronic low grade inflammation underlies all states of sickness and disease associated with aging. Everything that is "healthy" is probably good for chronic inflammation but eating blueberries or taking magnesium or focusing on nasal breathing are just too specific... not fundamental enough. What I want to know is what is the #1 best way to target inflammaging that will make a difference....I can worry about the marginal gains later.

Having said that.....what would you ask if you got a chance to talk to a PhD who is a retired academic researcher in multiple areas of human physiology, was a professional athlete in two sports, has been a lifelong bodybuilder, and who is now coaching top level athletes and older high performing older around the world? What would you ask him? Right....so would I. On episode 147 I took a deep dive into inflammaging with Dr. Dwayne Jackson to understand his approach to stop chronic inflammation from reducing our ability to perform and recover, and improve our health along the way. He did not disappoint.

Dr Jackson even shared his secret breakfast feast that I have been eating every morning ever since. Be ready to take some notes.

This episode will definitely help if you find that you are....

• Recovering from exercise more slowly?
• Cutting calories but still cannot lose that last bit of visceral fat?
• Eliminating healthy foods because you can't digest them well...feel bloated...get constipated?

All right, let's talk to Dr Dwayne Jackson about resolving chronic inflammation.

• Bristol Stool Chart

• Monash FODMAP Info & App

• Dr. Dwayne N. Jackson is a dad, athlete, health specialist, medical educator, scientist, and entrepreneur. He has over 12 years of university education in exercise/human physiology, medicine, and nutritional biochemistry. Dr. Jackson holds a PhD in neurovascular physiology and has been educated at some of the top academic institutions in North America including University of Ottawa, the University of Western Ontario, and Yale University School of Medicine.
• drdwaynejackson.com
• dwayne@yourvitalscience.com
• @drdnjackson - Instagram
• @drdnjackson - Twitter / X

Lower inflammation

• gut health : healthy poops
• How to get a healthy gut?
• Don’t major in the minors. Focus on what matters. Highly processed food isn’t ideal but it won’t make a big difference if it is occasional. Mostly eat a whole food mostly plant based diet.
• Seed the biome with diversity and fertilize / feed the biome a diverse diet to provide food for the different elements of good bugs. ...

Professional Grade Supplements for WiseAthletes

If you are like me you have been investing time and effort into getting stronger and building a foundation of health with a variety of activities including resistance training, endurance exercise, high intensity intervals, and playing games requiring hand-eye coordination. I thought that was enough but what I haven't been doing is working directly on my foundation as an athlete....my feet. In my daily routine I do not have a single drill or protocol for making my toes and feet stronger to better control my body. And when I look at my feet I can see the impact of a life of wearing shoes that are pointy and tight. I have shoe shaped feet, and it turns out that shoe shaped feet are not very good for what I need my feet to do...control my balance, agility and dexterity. Oh, and it turns out that shoe shaped feet are also not good for producing power. Dang.

Today is going to be a treat. On episode 146 I am joined by Tyler Benner, who is an athlete just like us who discovered that his athletic performance, which was world class in archery, was sub-optimized by his poor foot strength. Tyler joins us today to explain his long journey to figure out how to improve himself and his feet to improve his athleticism.

1. "Athletes deserve to know"....what do strong feet look like and what can strong feet do? how do you know if you have strong feet?
2. "Performance isn't always what we think it is"... In other words, how much performance improvement are we missing by only focusing on just strength or power output? Power is important, but what else is important in athletic performance? Where does agility and balance and dexterity come into play in your sport?

Here's two great videos for strengthening your feet:

Foot Mobility Fix (3 Fast, Effective Exercises!)

Build Big Toe Strength

Strong feet must have space to spread your toes for optimal force production, agility, power, and balance.

• Strong Feet Athletics was founded by Tyler Benner, internationally competitive Olympic archer and author. With a deep study of the human body, Tyler believes good posture and daily movement help people do life better.
• Tyler takes a holistic approach to posture and foot health. Inspired by Katy Bowman’s concept of Nutritious Movement, or how movement variety can be thought of like food groups, Tyler believes a well-rounded movement diet is required for optimal foot strength and balance.
• https://youtu.be/d262lidaOPo?feature=shared (foot transformation)
• https://www.strongfeetathletics.com
• Follow: 1) @venndesign 2) @astraarchery 3) @strongfeetathletics

• Foot Mobility Fix (3 Fast, Effective Exercises!) by Z-Health
• Build Big Toe Strength
• The number...

Professional Grade Supplements for WiseAthletes

Food as medicine is an old idea...it's the original idea on how to be a healthy person dating back more than 2000 years, but can food be the way to achieve athletic longevity? Can wise athletes target certain foods to target faster recovery, better health, and longer life? Can it be done without extreme or highly restrictive diets?

Today on episode 145, I am joined by Dr William Li...a physician, scientist and author of "eat to beat disease" and "eat to beat your diet" to discuss his research on using plant and animal based foods to boost our 5 body defense systems to fend off the chronic diseases associated with aging. And, in particular, I asked Dr Li to talk about combating chronic inflammation and activating stem cells to rebuild our body.

All right, let's talk to Dr Li .

• William W. Li, MD, is a physician, scientist and author of the New York Times bestsellers “Eat to Beat Disease: The New Science of How Your Body Can Heal Itself” and “Eat to Beat Your Diet: Burn Fat, Heal Your Metabolism, and Live Longer.” His research has led to the development of more than 40 new medical treatments that impact care for more than 70 diseases including diabetes, blindness, heart disease and obesity. His TED Talk, “Can We Eat to Starve Cancer?” has been viewed more than 11 million times. He is President and Medical Director of the Angiogenesis Foundation, and he is leading global initiatives on food as medicine.

• Science shows many foods can prevent, halt or even reverse cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and other life-threatening chronic diseases.
• Over the past decade, the Angiogenesis Foundation has discovered and gathered evidence that fruits, vegetables, herbs, seafood, tea, coffee, and even chocolate contain natural substances — bioactives — that can prevent and intercept disease by influencing angiogenesis and other defense systems in the body.
• What we eat and drink is enormously impactful when it comes to preventing disease.

• Each of these systems is influenced by diet. When you know what to eat, to support each system, you can then use your diet to maintain health and beat disease. The five defense systems are angiogenesis, regeneration, microbiome, DNA protection, and immunity.
• Angiogenesis: The process by which blood vessels are formed. Angiogenesis keeps the sixty thousand miles of blood vessels found in your body working to support health and fight disease. This is the common component in cancer tumors. Barley and mushrooms are good for growing blood vessels where you need them.
• Regeneration: The process of creating and renewing 750,000 stem cells that power our bodies. Stem cells maintain, repair and regenerate our bodies. Avoid too much salt, saturated fat, alcohol, smoking. Do eat dark chocolate, barley, mushrooms, fruit skins (apple, pear, peach, strawberry...also anti-inflammatory)...to get stem cells to come out to heal the body.
• Microbiome: The bacteria that is found within our bodies that act to defend our health.
• DNA Protection: This is our genetic blueprint. Foods can help repair damaged DNA caused by daily living, but can also help lengthen our telomeres, which protect DNA and slow aging.
• Immunity: Our immunity defends our health. Too much or too little of each of the above d...

Professional Grade Supplements for WiseAthletes

Mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell....yes, but what does that mean? What can we do, as Wise Athletes, to have enough healthy mitochondria in our muscles and everywhere else powering our bodily functions for optimal brain power, energy levels, we well as muscle power and endurance?

These questions and more are addressed by Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky, neurologist, mitochondrial researcher, lifelong elite athlete. Mark is the real deal who knows both sides of the story....the science and the practice of building muscle and VO2Max for performance today and a long stay on the planet as a strong athlete.

All right, let's talk to Dr Tarnopolsky about the single best way to stay healthy and strong as we get older....exercise.

• Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine, CEO and CSO, Exerkine Corporation,
• Director of Neuromuscular and Neurometabolic Clinic,
• McMaster University Medical Center

• "We all are suffering from the mitochondrial disease called aging"
• "An ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure"...Muscle loss prevention is ideal but it’s never too late to restart exercising; benefits accrue to everyone who starts exercising at any age.
• Aerobic training is very good, but we also need weight training. Exercise provides a modest 4-year lifespan extension but a 10-year healthspan extension as it lengthens the time in life we can be mobile and take care of ourselves.
• Do at least 30 minutes of exercise everyday
• VO2Max is a function of and delivery of oxygen (heart stroke volume and heart rate) and extraction of oxygen (capillarization of blood vessels into muscle and mitochondrial volume to use oxygen)
• Vo2max:
• At rest: 3.5 milliliters of oxygen per kg of body weight per minute
• Min. to live without assistance: 12 ml/kg/min
• Mark's VO2Max at his athletic peak: 88.2 ml/kg/min
• VO2Max falls from 25/30 yo but older athletes have higher vo2max than sedentary young people
• But VO2Max isn’t enough for longevity. We need 3x/week of endurance training for VO2Max and 2-3x week of resistance training to build and maintain muscle mass.
• Longevity metrics: VO2Max, leg strength, waist-to-hip circumference
• Elite athletes need 2x the protein of sedentary people
• Don’t train with futility: Get enough high quality protein (aim for 1.2g/kg), don’t be deficient in Vit D (take a supplement), get sufficient calcium in diet. Milk and egg whites are the best quality proteins. Collagen is low quality protein (used as the no-protein control in experiments)
• Running or cycling at 65% of VO2Max (approx. lactate threshold; top of zone 2) 3-5x per week for 30-60 minutes a day will increase mitochondria.
• Interval training will increase the pace and HR possible at a zone 2 (“all day pace” of work) by increasing the lactate threshold. Once lactate starts to accumulate, it is only a matter of time before exhaustion sets in.
• Weight training in untrained older people does build mitochondria, and there is a spill over into VO2Max development
• Weight training for endurance athletes is about building muscle mass for strength and healthspan
• Fast vs. Slow twitch:
• Slow are the endurance fibers that are full of mitochondria, can go all day without fatigue, can burn every fuel we have with oxygen, but are smaller (to allow better oxygen delivery) and slower to turn fuel into energy. These fibers and their mitochondria come from a demand (cons...

Professional Grade Supplements for WiseAthletes

We all want a healthy heart, lungs, and brain. Can you guess at the single behavior that connects the dots on solving: the ability to run or ride at the same speed using 25% less breathing, reducing the occurrence of the so called exercise induced asthma or bronchoconstriction (EIB), eliminating side stitches while running, avoiding frequent sinus infections and bronchitis, and even dodging aFib and dementia?...and what if it cost you nothing but your attention? Well, listen to this: The latest science is showing us that while breathing with an open mouth allows for an increase in ventilation, increases work capacity (think: vo2max), and actually feels more comfortable and normal, doing so also predisposes us to a variety of potential health problems over time. Right, today we are going to talk about nasal breathing.

while nasal breathing may have fallen off the internet talk circuit as a popular biohack, wise athletes should always pick the low hanging fruit.

so coming back to our show on episode 143, the one and only Dr George Dallam walks us through his personal benefits from adapting to nasal breathing nearly 20 years ago, and the latest research into the health and physical performance benefits available to us all...without ingesting any chemicals, or changing our diet, or buying a single thing. All you have to do is breath through your nose. Its a simple prescription; ....if only it was easy to learn.... i say since i have failed to fully adapt in the two years since i first spoke with dr dallam...

All right, let's talk to George Dallam, author of the just published book, the-nasal-breathing-paradox-during-exercise

George Dallam PhD

Dr. Dallam holds the rank of Distinguished Professor in the School of Health Science and Human Movement at Colorado State University - Pueblo (CSUP). Dr. Dallam has been involved in numerous research studies examining various aspects of triathlon performance and training, diabetes risk factor modification, and the effects of functional movement improvement on running. His primary research interest recently is focused on the capability of human beings to adapt to nasal only breathing during exercise as a way to improve both health and performance.

Dr. Dallam has received both the United States Olympic Committee's Doc Counsilman Science in Coaching award (2004) and the National Elite Coach of the Year award (2005) for triathlon. Finally, Dr. Dallam has been continuously training and competing in triathlon since 1981.

• Better filtering of particles and viruses (less nasal infection, bronchitis). Filtering becomes even more important when exercising because we take in so much more air.
• Less water lost though breathing
• Less energy spent on breathing (more energy for locomotion); higher O2 extracted per breath (higher efficiency)
• Recovery from “EIB” exercise induced bronchoconstriction (exercise induced asthma)
• Provides a powerful training stimulus to improve fitness…make you faster even if you go back to mouth breathing in high intensity efforts, such as races
• Improved stress management
• Better sleep, and overall improved recovery from exercise (lower stress, avoidance of snoring)
• Better posture and movement ability with improved diaphragm activity
• Functional movement benefits —diaphragm is a major core muscle that is u...

Professional Grade Supplements & 5-Day FMD Kits for WiseAthletes

Like so many people, I have struggled to lose my visceral fat while I have continued to put on muscle.... but there is more to being a wise athlete than having maximum muscle. I also want to live LONG as a strong athlete. The prevailing wisdom says that when you fast or when you cut calories, you lose fat and muscle. So the challenge remains….how to thread the needle on losing the visceral fat while keeping my muscle. And what about the battle between the high protein for maximum muscle growth vs low protein for low IGF-1 and life extension? Is there any way to get the best of both worlds?

Today on episode 142 I am joined by Dr Joseph Antoun, a medical doctor who is now the CEO at L-Nutra, the company that makes Prolon, the 5-day FMD food kits (wwwprolonlife.com). Could fasting mimicking be the answer to losing visceral fat while retaining muscle and at the same time extending lifespan as a strong athlete? After talking to Dr Antoun, I am convinced it is…and as of today, I am on day 2 of my initial 5-day FMD.

Listen in to see if you come to the same conclusion.

And please forgive the inconsistent recording quality….but if you want to give the Prolon FMD a try, click on the link at the top of the show notes to get a great discount.

All right, let’s talk to Dr Joseph Antoun about fasting mimicking for athletes.

Joseph Antoun, MD, PhD, MPP

Joseph Antoun, MD, PhD is the CEO of L-Nutra, a Food as Medicine leader using Science to Nutrition research first to uncover what humans should eat to live healthier longer and second to help patients achieve better health outcomes.

Food as medicine & muscular longevity

• Use your body's built-in system to renew and fine-tune cells. ProLon, a 5-day precision nutrition program, and Fast Mimicking Technology formulation, is designed to trigger your body's built-in system to renew and fine-tune cells - by mimicking a fast.
• Fasting mimicking (not fasting per se) to get the renewal signal without resource depletion (Joe's take: long water only fasts are the equivalent of overtraining…too much signal without enough recovery)
• Periodic fasting mimicking turns on cellular renewal without forcing the body into restructuring into a low resource phenotype
• GH is a stress hormone. In water only fasting the body doesn't have the resources to maintain muscle. With FMD the minimal resources provided are enough to work with GH to maintain muscle while getting fat loss and autophagy
• Eat the least protein necessary to build and maintain the body and lifestyle you want. Any more than the minimum is age accelerating without muscle benefit.
• The amino acid composition matters. Focus on plants with some fish protein. That’s good enough for muscle building when combined with FMD a few times a year. Eat 0.8-0.9 g/kg on average per day (less if you aren't an athlete). Perhaps cycle between higher and lower amounts of protein around resistance training.
• For me, that means i'm cutting back from 200g/day to an average of 100g/day (I'll adjust after seeing how my body reacts)... I already started.
• I'm on day 2....looking in the box I can tell you it would be hard to pull it together myself. For now I will buy the box to see if it really does work for me. It’s pricy but tolerable. And the Fast Bar is delicious.
• Prolon info
• Clinical studies have shown that the ProLon formulation can specifically target belly fat and promote safe and effective weight loss.
• Why not just...

Pro Level Supplements & At-Home Tests for WiseAthletes

"In science and engineering, convention dictates that unless a margin of error is explicitly stated, the number of significant figures used in the presentation of data should be limited to what is warranted by the precision of those data."

Why don't I see error bars on my blood test results...?

We love to say that what is measured, improves. It is a fine idea that applies to many walks of life including athletic performance. Starting with Inside Tracker in 2009, an industry has emerged to help wise athletes and longevity seekers alike to measure, track changes over time, and even optimize lifestyle behaviors, supplements and pharmaceuticals to target “low all cause mortality” levels for blood based bio markers. And since the human body relies on many organs and biological processes to survive and thrive, scientists have developed biological age calculators that combine a set of the actual vs optimal blood markers to assess overall health status relative to “normal” to calculate a biological age or rate of aging. In longevity circles, a biological age lower than chronological age is a badge of honor. And it’s a booming business.

But just how accurate are these blood tests that all of this science and my own blood test results are based on? It’s a question that has been haunting my thoughts over the last year as I have aggressively measured my blood markers and calculated my biological age every 3 months in an effort to fine tune my longevity interventions.

So, today on episode 141 I am joined by Dr Austin Baraki who argues that blood testing is an important but challenging area of medicine. He argues that people should not put too much faith in imprecise technology measuring indirect markers of biological function. False precision can lead to over confidence, and distract people from the lifestyle improvements that would really make a difference. And he also shares his tips on reducing the variability and error in your own blood test results.

British Medical Journal: your results may vary: the imprecision of medical measurements (20 February 2020)

Dr. Austin Baraki is a practicing Internal Medicine Physician, competitive lifter, and strength coach located in San Antonio, Texas. Originally from Virginia Beach, Virginia, he completed his undergraduate degree in Chemistry at the College of William & Mary, his doctorate in medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School, and Internal Medicine Residency at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio.

After a 15 year career as a competitive swimmer through the collegiate level, he discovered the barbell and began training for strength and competitive powerlifting. He also coaches individuals ranging from beginners of all ages to national and internationally competitive athletes.

His interests include the application of strength training in the context of complex medical conditions, sarcopenia, pain neuroscience & rehabilitation, as well as cognitive and sport psychology.

• Episode 35 Inside Tracker

Pro Level Supplements & At-Home Tests for WiseAthletes

Updated edition: we had to fix a few spots in the recording so this episode is the (slightly) revised one.

Vitamin D isn’t a vitamin but a hormone, and it plays an important role in our bodies including the building and repair of muscle.

Can you just take a vitamin D pill and forget about it? Do you have to get sunshine to get sufficient vitamin D? Can you be low on vitamin D despite getting lots of sunlight? How much vitamin D can you take before you are risking getting too much? 2k, 5k, 10k every day?

The big question: is low vitamin D a cause or an effect of poor health?

These questions and more get answered or at least discussed in detail in my followup chat with Dr Grant Fraser who is passionate advocate for vitamin D supplementation.

To be honest, I've been a vitamin D supplementation skeptic for a long time, in part based on scientific studies that say supplementation doesn’t affect outcomes. Dr Fraser says …not so fast, pal!

Well, one thing is clear, everyone should get their vitamin D levels tested to see where they stand. If yours is low, today’s talk can provide a path forward. Fortunately the at home test only costs $37…mine is already on the way.

Grant E. Fraser MD, ABAARM, DABFM, FRACGP, FACRRM, GEM

Grant E. Fraser, M.D. is Board Certified in Anti-Aging & Regenerative Medicine, and more and is passionate about helping patients improve their quality of life, reverse health conditions, and live longer and happier.

• Episode 139 Finding Your Iron Sweetspot w/Dr Grant Fraser
• Episode 105 UV Light Sweetspot (more than Vitamin D) w/Prof Prue Hart

• https://www.grantfrasermd.com/
• https://www.grantfrasermd.com/blog

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