September 12, 2024 • 57 mins
Summary
Catharine Arnston, the founder of ENERGYBits, shares her journey of discovering the therapeutic benefits of algae and how it led her to create high-quality algae products. She explains the differences between spirulina and chlorella, two types of microalgae, and their unique health benefits. Spirulina is energizing and nourishing, while chlorella is detoxifying and supports gut health. Both algae are nutrient-dense and rich in chlorophyll, which has numerous health benefits. Catharine goes through her recommendations on how/when to take spirulina and chlorella for optimal results. Discover which treatments to pair these with and the magic that can come from that.
—
For the audience:
* Use code 'Gladden' to buy ENERGYbits with a 20% discount at https://energybits.com/collections/new-site-all-products
* Use the code 'Podcast10' to get 10% OFF your order at our supplement store → https://gladdenlongevityshop.com/
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Takeaways
* Algae, specifically spirulina and chlorella, are the most nutrient-dense food on the planet.
* Spirulina is energizing, nourishing, and supports brain health and mitochondria function.
* Chlorella is detoxifying, supports gut health, and helps with cell repair and sleep.
* Both spirulina and chlorella are rich in chlorophyll, which has healing properties and supports blood and cell health.
* Taking 30 tablets of spirulina and chlorella per day is recommended for therapeutic doses.
* Spirulina contains phycocyanin, which kills cancer cells, and superoxide dismutase (SOD), an antioxidant that protects mitochondria.
* Chlorella has the highest concentration of glutathione, a detoxing antioxidant.
* Both spirulina and chlorella can improve brain health, reduce inflammation, and provide essential fatty acids.
* Spirulina and chlorella are versatile and can be taken with any diet or lifestyle.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Algae and Catharine Arnston's Journey
09:13 Overview of Algae: Macroalgae vs. Microalgae
30:03 Optimal Algae Consumption: Spirulina in the Morning, Chlorella at Night
43:14 Algae: A Natural Solution for Autism, ADHD, Allergies, and Brain Fog
53:10 The Importance of High-Quality Algae
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome everybody to the Gladden Longevity Podcast.
(00:02):
I'm your host, Dr.
Jeffrey Gladden.
And I'm here today with an interesting person, Catharine Arnston.
She is basically a woman that's all about algae.
We're gonna learn more about that here in just a minute.
So it's an interesting...
day here.
It's simply because the weather is beautiful in Texas.
(00:24):
It's April and it's 65 to 70 degrees outside.
And I wish I was outside doing this podcast, but here we are.
So it's all good.
try to sprinkle some sunshine into your day.
Oh, well, I love that.
Beautiful.
Okay.
We'll do that.
I'll try to do that for you too.
So Catharine, tell us a little bit about how you became enamored with algae.
Not everybody at a five-year-old has a desire to be an algae expert.
(00:48):
Right.
Yeah.
my moniker is now the algae gal.
Well, it is a very interesting story.
I didn't choose algae, it shows me.
I'm actually Canadian by birth.
I've lived in Boston, Massachusetts for 30 years, but my family's all still in Canada.
And that's really how this journey started because I had a corporate career doinginternational economic development, nothing to do at all with nutrition.
(01:12):
And then my younger sister in Canada, who I'm very close to, developed breast cancer.
Mmm.
almost 14 years ago, well 15 years ago.
Now I just want to assure you and your listeners that she completely healed.
But as she was preparing for her chemotherapy, her oncologist, which is a cancerspecialist, told her to change her diet to an alkaline diet because it would help with her
(01:34):
healing.
But the oncologist didn't tell her what an alkaline diet was and what specifically it didfor her.
So my baby sister called me because I'm a good researcher, I can find out anything.
In fact, I'm working on my PhD now because I've...
done so much research on algae and cell biology.
Anyways, I said I have no idea what this stuff is, but I will find out and I did.
An alkaline diet turned out to be primarily a plant-based diet because of the chlorophylland the phytonutrients that have been proven to build your immune system.
(02:02):
Also, there was a German scientist back in the 30s and 40s by the name of Otto Warburg,who won a Nobel Prize for discovering that cancer cannot exist in an alkaline cell and the
scale is from 0-14.
I have to believe that my sister's oncologist, who happened to be a woman and women, tendto be a little bit more open to nutritional interventions.
She must have known about auto-warburg and the cell pH, and also this powerful healingattribute of chlorophyll and phytonutrients.
(02:30):
So I researched plant-based foods for her.
She did go through chemo, she completely healed, and we celebrate her being cancer-freeevery year.
But in the process, I dug into plant-based nutrition, and nobody was talking aboutplant-based diets 15 years ago like they are now.
And as I kept digging, I thought, man, somebody needs to tell the world about the powerfulhealing attributes of plants and vegetables.
(02:51):
So I gave up my 25 year corporate career.
I went back to school.
I got a health coaching certificate, nothing too deep in nutrition.
And then I taught plant based nutrition for a year at hospitals and corporations.
And this is what truly led me to algae, because as I was telling people the importance toeat vegetables, I got a lot of pushback.
People said, oh, they're too hard.
(03:11):
to carry home for the grocery store, they give me gas, I throw them out, my kids won't eatthem, my husbands won't eat them, you know, everybody doesn't, nobody likes, well, only a
few people.
Yes, I know.
Too many oxalates, lectins, carnivores, right.
you know, it's like, oh my gosh, right.
I can't have garlic.
(03:32):
I can't have onions.
I can't eat broccoli.
I can't, you know, too much.
Yeah.
Fob maps.
Exactly.
Right.
on Dr.
Gundry's podcast three times.
He loves us because as you will find out, there are no lectins or oxalates in algae.
So anyways, as I got pushed back, I thought, okay, I've seen the nutritional value ofvegetables.
I also seen that people have a hard time eating them or buying them or cooking them.
(03:53):
So I thought I need to find something that has the nutrition of vegetables without any ofthe lectins, oxalates, heavy lifting.
And I just dug into everything I'd found for my sister.
And that's when I got to algae in a deep way because as I researched algae, it turns out,first of all, it's the most alkaline food in the world.
So that box was checked.
NASA says it's the most nutrient dense food in the world and has a thousand times morenutrition than any other fruit or vegetable.
(04:18):
The United Nations has endorsed spirulina algae for 50 years.
They had a global conference in 1974 and declared spirulina algae the answer to worldhunger because it has the highest concentration of protein in the world, three times the
amount at stake.
It's been used safely for 60 years, six zero in Asia where they take it every day andwhich has improved their health, their longevity.
(04:42):
It's the most studied food.
As you're gonna find out, algae is not a supplement.
It is a food crop.
And there's almost 60,000 studies on spirulina and 40,000 on chlorella, which are the twoalgae we're gonna talk about today, proving that they help reduce inflammation, protect
mitochondria, improve brain health, gut health, skin health, heart health.
The list is endless.
(05:03):
The only problem with algae, so it seemed to me, is that it wasn't well known or thetherapeutic benefits were unknown outside of Asia.
Everybody knows about them in Asia, but nobody does here.
And the quality was poor because most of it came from China.
So that was 14 years ago, and I decided I would devote the rest of my life helping peopleunderstand the therapeutic benefits of algae, which you don't know about because it's just
(05:26):
not grown here, and to provide a very clean, healthy source, which is what I've done.
And so our algae is the only algae I'm aware of that is sold nationwide by doctors,homeopaths, functional medicine, practitioners.
We're sold obviously on our website as well.
And I have gone to great lengths, I've spent 14 years, I've written about 500 papers.
(05:46):
educating people about what LG is, what it does, the therapeutic benefits, and that's whyI finally, I'm now hopefully writing my exams this summer to help people understand that.
so this is great.
So let's break this down a little bit.
We're talking about two different algae.
We're talking about spirulina and chlorella, and they're not identical, and they're quitedifferent.
(06:08):
In combination, they can actually be quite incredible, and isolated, they can also beincredible.
So do you wanna walk us through a little bit of the differences between those?
Absolutely.
First, let me give you a little bit of more of an overview of what algae is, becausethat's still a big thing that confuses people.
It's its own food category.
It's technically not a plant.
It's certainly not an animal.
(06:29):
And in fact, spirulina, as you're going to find out, is a bacteria.
It's a cyanobacteria.
So first of all, algae is a plant, is a food category, and it was the first life on earth.
3.4 billion years ago, it's proven with fossils.
And in fact, you're also going to find out your mitochondria evolved from cyanobacterialike spirulina.
So that being the case, then within algae as a food category, there's two mainsubcategories, macroalgae and microalgae.
(06:56):
We're going to be talking about microalgae today, but let me tell you what macroalgae is.
It's that stringy stuff that you see washing up on shore, also known as seaweed or dulceor kelp.
Now it's good for you because it has lots of fiber and it has iodine because it's onlyfrom the sea, which is why it's called
seaweed.
But there's virtually zero nutrition.
So high fiber from the ocean, virtually no nutrition.
(07:20):
Microalgae is completely the opposite.
And that's what we're talking about today.
First of all, it's everywhere.
It's yes in the sea.
It's also in the lakes.
Yeah.
is people shouldn't go out and skim the pond.
Okay.
no.
Well, particularly because algae will absorb whatever's in the water, which is one of thereasons why we're considered such high quality, because we grow ours in triple filtered
(07:41):
spring mountain water.
Do not take any algae product or from a lake, a river, a stream, nothing, because therewill be toxins.
There will be micro toxins.
We test for them.
We don't have them.
But yes, you want to be really careful about where you get your microalgae from.
So it's everywhere, including your aquarium or your swimming pool.
(08:01):
We grow ours in triple filtered spring mountain water in Taiwan.
So number one, it's everywhere.
Number two, virtually no fiber, which is completely opposite to macroalgae, or no fiber.
Spirulina is no fiber.
It is a bacteria.
It does not have a cellulose wall or nucleus.
Chlorella, which we're going to talk about today, does belong to the plant kingdom and itdoes have fiber in it.
(08:22):
So virtually no fiber, but the most nutrient dense food in the world.
something like a million microalgae could fit on the head of a pin.
And so when you consolidate the nutrition that's found in microalgae into these, we havelittle tablets about the size of a baby aspirin.
You can see how concentrated they are.
When I first learned about spirulina and chlorella and how nutrient dense it was, I wasstunned and amazed and pleasantly surprised because I think one of the biggest challenges
(08:51):
we have in eating is actually finding nutrient dense foods.
We have very calorie rich nutrient poor foods, all around us, but finding really highquality nutrient dense foods, which is really what the body loves.
It loves all that big...
variety of nutrients coming in is difficult to find.
(09:12):
And it's impossible to find.
Right.
It's impossible to find.
That's exactly right.
And the interesting thing is when I learned how nutrient dense it was, I would tell peoplethat if we were stuck on an elevator for 30 days and all we had with us was spirulina and
chlorella, we'd walk off of here just fine.
Right?
(09:33):
Yeah.
It's amazing.
Mother Nature's number two perfect food.
The first perfect food is breast milk.
And I did the analysis and I can send it to you that I found out that mother's breast milkand spirulina are virtually identical.
Same aminos, same proportion, same amount of GLA.
In fact, GLA is actually technically omega-6 because it's not heated.
(09:55):
It behaves like an omega-3.
And the only place that has more of it than spirulina is mother's breast milk.
Yeah.
And it's interesting.
We measure for GLA in our clients and a lot of them are low in GLA.
Yeah.
So when we see low GLA, uh, right.
It's a, you want to, you, this isn't omega six.
It's actually helpful for you.
It actually decreases cancer risk.
(10:16):
It does some other things that are very, very helpful.
And so everybody's shine away from omega six is moving towards omega threes.
Um, but you do need the right omega sixes and GLA is one of them.
So it's interesting that you can get probably all the GLA you need out of.
Spiral leaning.
exactly.
And the mega sixes are detrimental when they are heated.
(10:36):
That's why you wanna stay away from the seed oils.
We do not use heat to dry our algae.
So our both spirulina and chlorella are raw foods.
So that's why it's not inflammatory.
It's anti-inflammatory, the GLA in our spirulina.
So it behaves just like an omega-3.
But thank you for pointing that out because most people are unfamiliar with the GLA.
(10:58):
So back to spirulina or the microalgae, it's nutrient dense, virtually no fiber, foundeverywhere, and there are tens of thousands of strains of them.
Macroalgae, the stringy stuff, there's only a handful, brown, red, green, but withmicroalgae, tens of thousands.
The two that most people know about of microalgae are spirulina and chlorella.
(11:22):
There are tens of thousands of other ones.
So for example, a lot of people, if they think of algae, they often...
just think of an algae bloom closing their favorite beach.
And a lot of people will panic because the headline will be blue-green algae, toxicblue-green algae closing beach.
And you'll think, oh my gosh, that's spirulina.
I should stop taking it.
That's not spirulina.
(11:44):
That's just another bad boy, blue-green algae, but not spirulina.
Spirulina and chlorella are only harvested in aquaculture, hydroponically in...
fresh water.
We just happen to have the cleanest water, but whether you go to Target or Whole Foods orus to buy your spirulina, I can 99.99% sure it's grown in fresh water, not from the ocean.
(12:09):
There's other types of blue-green algae in the ocean, but not spirulina.
So the two algae we're going to talk about today are the spirulina and the other algae isa green algae, which is called chlorella.
And the reason why they're called these two
way these two they're designated as either blue green or green is because of the pigmentsthat are found in it.
(12:32):
Spirulina has two pigments a blue one and a green one which is why it's called a bluegreen algae.
Chlorella only has one pigment the green algae and which most people are familiar withit's chlorophyll.
The pigment that you don't know about and does not exist anywhere else in
(12:54):
has amazing healing properties.
Hopefully we'll get a chance to talk about them later on.
And it's called phycocyanin.
It's spelled P-H- phycocyanin.
Because if I'm gonna get into some deeper detail later, but that phycocyanin that's notfound anywhere else in nature has been proven to kill cancer cells.
(13:14):
I'd say that's pretty important, but only if it has not been heated.
And that's the problem most algae.
Other algae companies use high heat to dry their algae, which kills the phycocyanin.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
out there that make spirulina chlorella and spirulina chlorella tablets and things likethat, right?
So yeah.
The difference is the quality.
(13:35):
So I started this as you heard my story just to help my sister heal from breast cancer.
And then I took a nutrition course and thought, well, I can help a few more people.
So I dug in and then I realized algae was the medium by which was the easiest at mosteffortless way because I forgot to mention these little tablets that we produce and this
is how they make it in Asia as well.
(13:57):
They're the size of a baby aspirin.
And so one single tablet, because of the nutrient density of either spirulina or chlorellahas the same nutrition as an entire plate of vegetables.
So if you don't like vegetables or you're traveling or your kids won't eat them, or you'retired of throwing them out before you eat them or cook them, and they go bad after a few
days, and by the way, our algae last three years, spirulina and chlorella tablets are theanswer.
(14:21):
I call them your nutritional insurance because if you, we recommend 10 tablets.
in the morning of spirulina and 10 tablets of chlorella at night.
I'll explain why later on.
But once you take that quantity, that's your sort of, if you're healthy and you just wantto up your game, that will eliminate many of your other supplements, a multi, a fish oil,
(14:41):
a CoQ10, a biotin, a collagen powder.
It has more protein than steak, more collagen than collagen powder.
Don't eat fish oil.
It's rancid by the time you buy it.
Where do you think the fish get the omega-3 from?
They get it from algae.
So spirulina is very, very nourishing algae and most people do take it in the morningbecause that's when they're tired and hungry and 10 tablets will satiate you for hours.
(15:06):
And by the way, there's zero carbs, zero caffeine.
It does give you energy mentally and physically.
It does not interfere with your ketogenic diet.
It's great for diabetics, pre-diabetics.
Low carb, low cal, zero antioxidants and oxalates.
I mean, it plays with everybody and you can have as much as you want.
We fuel NHL teams and they have 75 spirulina before a game.
(15:29):
So.
The only thing I saw was that the chlorella is rich in vitamin A.
And so we know that some people shouldn't get a ton of vitamin A, particularly if theyhave a predisposition to macular degeneration.
So that was a good question.
(15:50):
A is in beta carotene, as in the form of beta carotene.
So it's an organic vitamin A, which generally, if your body doesn't need that type ofvitamin A, it's why we recommend food over supplements, then you won't absorb it.
So the fact that it's beta carotene, which doesn't convert as easily as two vitamin A's, Ithink a good thing.
(16:12):
So it's good.
Okay, cool.
By the way, there's no contraindications.
You can give this to your newborns, your children, your pets, your grandparents, andeverybody in between.
But spirulina is very energizing and nourishing, which is why we call our spirulina energybits.
And we put it in a blue packaging.
(16:32):
I designed the packaging so that you knew that it was a blue-green algae.
So whether you're...
intermittent fasting.
It doesn't interfere with your fast.
It doesn't break your fast or you just want to get out the door quickly, grab a handful,swallow them down.
You can chew them.
I will admit most people don't like the flavor spirulina.
It's very chewy because of the high protein.
But you can chew them and I chew them.
(16:54):
My tongue's usually green because I eat them all day long.
So throughout the day when you have a lull at two o'clock, it has a when you're traveling,we have them in little pouches.
You can throw them in your handbag, your gym bag, your travel bag.
or before a workout.
This will be, you will have the, I know Dr.
Gladden, you run every morning or you're doing some workout.
I would love you to take 30, because 30 is a more therapeutic dose or for athletes.
(17:19):
We feel NHL teams or marathon runners, triathletes, and they take 30 of the spirulinabefore a workout or a run, and it will power you through, not from any kind of stimulant,
because there's no caffeine chemicals or sugar.
It's because of the ATP that is produced at the cellular level.
(17:40):
And we'll get to how that functions later on.
Part of it, again, is this blue pigment that speeds up the cytochrome stem molecule.
Yeah.
I haven't taken just Spiralina by itself, but I've taken the Spiralina Clarella by itselfand probably taken, I'm going to say 20 or 25 tablets, not your brand yet, although I'm
(18:01):
anxious to try those.
But, but even there, you do notice sustained energy from it, right?
It's a, it's, and it, but I like about it.
There's no bulk to it.
It's not like you feel full or heavy or bloated.
You're just getting.
sort of pure nutrition and so yeah, they can be great.
I've used them, yeah.
(18:23):
the people I met at the Destiny Life Conference where we met was a sheep hunter.
And apparently, and he goes out to Afghanistan or New Zealand and with clients and they'rehiking and they've got all their equipment.
And so they're looking for nourishment that they can carry with them that's lightweight.
Same with hikers.
This is the perfect solution.
It's absolutely lightweight and it's also eco-friendly and sustainable, but you'll getsustained power from it because of the...
(18:50):
I tell people it's not a stimulant, a stimulant is like putting paper on a fire.
This is like putting a log on the fire.
Very quiet energy.
There's no drama with algae.
It just works in the background.
So that's spirulina, energizing, nourishing, really great for mitochondria health.
We'll get into that in a minute, I hope.
And of course, since your brain has the most mitochondria in your body, there's 2 millionper cell, it's also brain food.
(19:14):
We also, we know that fatty fish is brain food.
Well, so is spirulina.
Very much a...
brain, food, mitochondria, energizing, nourishing algae.
So that's quite different from the next algae, which is chlorella, which is a green algae.
Now it does belong to the plant kingdom.
Spirulina, as you may recall, is not, it is a bacteria.
(19:34):
Now in fact, chlorella has the hardest cellulose wall in the plant kingdom.
And the reason why that's important to know is a couple of things.
First of all, that cellulose wall, for whatever reason, attaches to toxins.
Heavy metals, lead, mercury, radiation, aluminum, alcohol, lactic acid and chelates them.
So chlorella is a chelator.
(19:58):
It's a cleanser, but it's also a chelator.
And spirulina is cleansing, not a chelator.
So that's number one.
That hard cell wall removes heavy metals and glyphosate and everything else that you don'twant.
Number two, it has the highest chlorophyll in the world.
Spirulina has the highest protein in the world.
Chlorella is called Chlorella because of the chlorophyll.
(20:20):
So how much chlorophyll you may say?
Well, it has 500 times more chlorophyll than arugula and 25 times more than liquidchlorophyll.
And I got these numbers off the Linus Paul Institute.
So let's talk about chlorophyll.
Just so I'm not sure not everybody understands chlorophyll.
This is basically a molecule that is responsible for converting sunlight into energy.
(20:43):
So, yeah, it's ground implants.
And it's found in plants, but our soils are so damaged that there is no chlorophyll leftin our vitamins.
So everyone, quite honestly, unless you're taking algae every day, you are chlorophylldeficit.
Let me tell you a couple of cool things about chlorophyll.
You can go online to check this out.
Normally, I would show it to you in a visual.
(21:04):
The chemical composition of chlorophyll is virtually identical to the chemical compositionof your hemoglobin.
That's your red blood cells.
The only difference is your red blood cells have iron in the middle and chlorophyll hasmagnesium.
The iron in your hemoglobin is what carries oxygen.
So number one, chlorophyll builds your blood.
For centuries, they've given liquid chlorophyll to the injured or when they had surgeries,up until even as recently as World War II.
(21:31):
They would give the injured liquid chlorophyll if they had run out of blood fortransfusions.
And then, you know, with the pharmaceutical industry coming into our society, that sortof...
You saved the day.
Yeah, right, that sort of ended.
So number one, chlorophyll builds your blood.
Number two, you would never know this, but this is why I'm doing this, chlorophyll is afat-based pigment.
(21:52):
Why is that important?
Because all of your cell walls have what's called a lipid membrane.
That's the equivalent, that's a fancy word for saying fat.
So anything like omega-3, D3, these are important fats that build your cell membrane sothat they're porous and allow nutrients in and toxins out.
Well.
Chlorophyll is a fat-based pigment, so it does the same thing.
(22:12):
That's why when you do cleanses that involve juices that are green, this is one of thebenefits, and it's because of the chlorophyll that is very cleansing to the cell wall.
Chlorophyll also kills bacteria.
Any carnivores who are listening, you are known for having bad breath, and it's becausethe meat gets stuck in your teeth, and bacteria attack the meat.
(22:34):
And so if you're at least taking spirulina or chlorella, you can help...
improve the bacteria and therefore your bad breath.
It also kills bacteria in your colon.
Only about 10% of chlorophyll actually gets absorbed in your stomach.
The rest of it travels through your liver and your colon and it's very, very cleansing.
So that's very important for chlorophyll because it's very healing to the body at cellularlevel and also for your blood.
(22:59):
Also, chlorophyll is very alkalining.
So remember, I started this journey because my sister's oncologist told her to have analkaline diet.
Well,
Chlorophyll is very alkaline and chlorella, both algae, are the most alkaline foods in theworld.
A lot of it is because of this chlorophyll.
So, and you might appreciate this Dr.
Gladden because you pointed out that chlorophyll is a pigment that generates energy.
(23:23):
There has been studies that show that when you take chlorophyll, like you would find ineither spirulina or chlorella, and you then expose your body to red light, either sunlight
or red light therapy, it generates ATP.
Interesting.
ATP.
And how does it do that?
So I found out.
What it does is it recycles the CoQ10 molecule, that's one of these helper molecules inthe electron transport chain.
(23:48):
So it goes from a biquinol to a biquinone and the back to biquinol.
And so it becomes inflammatory in that process.
And then the combination of the chlorophyll and the like brings it back to being analkaline state.
So that's pretty cool.
And so very, very healing because of the high nutrients, the high chlorophyll.
this detox capability.
(24:09):
Chlorella is a wellness algae.
It helps you recover from your day, recover from your sports, recover from anything.
So that and most of your immune, well yes because your body goes through a detox repaircycle while you're sleeping.
So if you've been exposed to anything whether it's in air pollution, alcohol, lactic acid,
(24:31):
If you take the you can take the chlorella the we call ours recovery bits any time of dayBut please definitely take it before bed It also has the trip highest tryptophan in the
world, which is a precursor to melatonin.
So it helps you sleep It won't make you sleepy, but it will help you get into a deep sleepIt also has something called chlorella growth factor which speeds up the growth of your
own cells and it helps stimulate stem cells So all in all chlorella is a gut wellnessdetoxing algae compared to
(25:00):
spirulina, which is a nourishing, energizing, healing mitochondria brain algae.
So you can see how the two of them function quite differently.
We do have an algae called Vitality Bits where we blend the two of them together.
I will point out in case anyone's going to our website, which is energybits.com, they'llnotice that there are two spirulina.
The original one was blue because that's blue big green algae.
(25:24):
But I found that women weren't buying it.
And
My girlfriend said, well, you got to make it pink and give it a cute name.
And because spirulina has more collagen than collagen powder, so it helps with your hairand your nails and your skin.
And I did the analysis, it has up to 400% of some aminos compared to collagen powder, andcollagen powder is not a sustainable crop anyways.
(25:48):
a particularly robust protein, quite honestly.
And collagen is kind of an interesting story, right?
It's actually a low quality protein.
The interesting thing about it is that when you do consume collagen, you actuallystimulate collagen growth, which is an interesting phenomenon of collagen.
But yeah.
So anyway, go ahead.
so there is a second brand of spirulina called Beauty Bits and women love that.
(26:10):
And I just wanted women to feel as comfortable with the product.
I can't help anyone if I can't get the algae into their body.
So if anyone's wondering why there's two, that's why.
So I tell people I have a boy spirulina and a girl spirulina, but they're identical.
We're not trying to trick anybody.
I'm just...
want people to be healthy.
So you can see how you take the spirulina in the morning and the afternoon before aworkout, because that's when you're hungry, that's when you're tired, that's when you need
(26:35):
energy.
There's no burst, there's no crash.
And chlorella will not satisfy your hunger, will not give you energy, but it will helpbuild your immune system, pull out toxins, pull out heavy metals, help you with your
repair cycle when you're sleeping and help you get into that repair cycle.
Yeah, beautiful.
So I assume that this is something that you do on a daily basis.
(26:57):
What's your routine with these?
You said you were kind of nibbling through the day, but what's your actual routine here?
Well, first of all, I don't have to buy mine.
So I, and I, like a lot of people, I have food sensitivities and for a while, this wasalmost the only thing I could eat other than eggs or grass-fed animal protein.
(27:18):
So for the average person, first I'll tell you the average person, then I will admit whatI take.
The average person, if you took 10 spirulina tablets in the morning or throughout the dayor whenever you need, at least 10 chlorella tablets at night,
you'll get the nourishment from the spirulina and you'll get the wellness benefits fromthe chlorella.
For therapeutic amounts, whether you're at a biohacking center, you're getting atreatment, whether it's cryotherapy or red light therapy or sauna, we recommend the
(27:47):
spirulina before the treatment and the chlorella after, but we recommend 30, andparticularly if you have a health condition, cancer, heart disease, dementia.
because we need to get more nourishment into your body and more toxins out to bring youback into homeostasis.
And that could take anywhere from three months to a year, but you'll probably feel sogreat that you never need to stop going back to the 10 a day.
(28:14):
But for therapeutic dose, 30 of each is what you need.
Now, I'm the outlier here.
I have been taking over 100 every day for the last 14 years.
I love the chlorella.
I eat mine.
I eat my chlorella, particularly with pistachio nuts, also a very low lectin nut.
(28:35):
I have them with sea salt, the spirulina and the chlorella, probably a combination of 75in the morning, just with sea salt.
And I might have a few more sort of noonish or one o'clock then I might start.
of iodine by any chance?
Okay.
news for some people, not good for others, but iodine is only from the ocean.
(28:57):
There is no iodine in ours because we grow it in fresh water.
No, zero iodine.
So that's good for people who don't want iodine.
taking a dose in the morning, then, sorry, I interrupted you.
You're taking, what do you do?
I have more in the afternoon.
And then I, because I'm intermittent fasting, like a lot of people, I really recommend it.
(29:18):
And then I start adding some of the pistachio nuts, sort of like around four o'clock.
And if I'm on my schedule, then I have a real meal, somewhere between four and sixo'clock, you know, eggs or grass-fed animal protein or vegetables.
And I'm trying to do one meal a day.
Sometimes I end up with two.
(29:39):
And then later on, if I'm still hungry before bed, then I have some more chlorella withsome sea salt and I try not to have the nuts because I don't wanna start getting into my
fasting, interfering with my fasting window.
So that's what I do.
But I know people aren't able to see me, but there are pictures of me on the website thatwere taken just a month ago and I met you a couple of weeks ago and you can see me.
(30:08):
turning 68 in a few months.
So I'm not any spring chicken here.
And my mind works, my skin is clear, my poop is great, I sleep well.
And so I have the energy of a 20 year old.
I only have 20 and 30 year olds working for me.
They can't keep up with me.
I'm on the road nonstop and I still run a company, multi-million dollar company and.
(30:29):
I just want to show people that it's possible to be healthy and well and energizing.
We all age, but we do not need to decline.
And I know that's your message as well.
But it's hard for people.
They're thrown so many things and they don't know which diet to follow.
And ultimately I tell people just listen to your own body because everyone's unique.
(30:50):
But the great thing about algae is that it fits in with every lifestyle, every age group,any time of day, any food.
You can take it.
with food instead of food, together, alone, with water, with whatever you want.
Well, we have it kosher certified, absolutely.
And you can look us up at the, I don't have the name of the organization, KCA, I think itis, so.
(31:16):
Well, you have to get it certified.
It's not would be anybody else, I don't think anybody else is kosher certified, but.
Yeah, well, I mean, I would just think, I mean, I can't imagine there would be anythingabout algae that would make it non-kosher per se, but.
but you have to get put not to put kosher certified, you have to have the koshercertification organization and sometimes when people are packaging this it could be in a
(31:38):
facility where non-kosher foods are packaged.
So we're in a kosher facility and we get kosher certified rabbi, we get rabbis to blessit.
So I've done everything I can to make this clean and safe and pure and
I do want to talk about a couple of the nutrients that are particularly important forlongevity that are found only in spirulina, well, and a lesser degree in chlorella.
(32:04):
But this, to me, is where the rubber hits the road for the longevity benefits, beyond justhaving energy and nourishment.
Can I dig in there?
OK.
Well, the big one, I didn't highlight.
briefly, phycocyanin, which has been proven to kill cancer cells.
So that's pretty important.
(32:26):
The other one that I want people to know about is superoxide dismutase.
I know it's a mouthful also known as SOD.
So what is the superoxide dismutase?
Well, it's an antioxidant.
And you've all heard of antioxidants.
They will balance out a free radical because a free radical is a molecule that has anunpaired electron.
(32:47):
And so it steals an electron from another molecule and that causes tissue damage andinflammation.
So antioxidants have extra electrons that they donate.
So they balance out these free radicals.
The problem is the free radical production in the mitochondria, the mitochondria wouldgenerate cellular energy for you and your body.
(33:07):
The cellular energy is called ATP.
And the analogy I make for people to understand how important the mitochondria are isthink of your body like a building.
In a building, you have offices.
And the only work that can get done in the offices is because you have lights on.
You don't have any lights on.
You can't do any work.
Well, for your body, the cells are like the offices and the things that keep your cellsfunctioning are your mitochondria.
(33:31):
So think of the mitochondria as the equivalent of lights in a building.
Now in a building, when the light bulbs go out, maintenance comes and replaces them.
Problem solved.
As you age or as you eat a very acidic diet or
highly processed diet, lots of processed carbs, they damage the mitochondria and causemore free radicals to be released.
(33:57):
And that causes more mitochondria damage.
And as you get older, as this damage occurs, and as they die, that's the equivalent ofturning the lights off in your building.
So, and as you get older, particularly after the age of 30, there's one...
particular antioxidant, this one called super oxidase that is one of the few antioxidantsthat can get into the inner membrane of your mitochondria to stop free radical damage.
(34:23):
Remember I mentioned earlier how your all your cells have a lipid membrane around them?
Well your mitochondria have a lipid membrane around them too but they have this secondinner membrane that doesn't exist anywhere else in your body except in the mitochondria
and 99% of antioxidants
that inner membrane.
There have been studies done on vitamin E, vitamin A, vitamin C, and they've all saidthese vitamins, these antioxidants don't stop longevity.
(34:52):
They don't improve longevity.
You know why?
Because they can't get into the inner membrane of the mitochondria to stop free radicaldamage.
The few that can are superoxid dismutase, glutathione, and chlorophyll.
Superoxid dismutase is the one I want to concentrate on.
And the reason why it's so important...
is because the most damaging free radical at all, of all free radicals, is somethingcalled superoxide.
(35:19):
And it's created in this process of ATP production.
Now, what makes, I was curious, well, what makes it so damaging?
Turns out superoxide has three unpaired electrons.
So it's three times as damaging.
So this antioxidant called superoxydismutase is what neutralizes that free radical andturns it into water.
(35:40):
Ta-da!
mitochondria saved.
Now the good news is your body makes superoxidized mutase for you from the moment you'reborn until, ta-da, 30.
After the age of 30, like a lot of things, hormones, melatonin, your body slows down theproduction and by the time you're 40, you have no more superoxidized mutase being
(36:01):
produced.
That means this antioxidant that used to protect you from the rain of free radicals thatare produced as a byproduct of ATP,
are now hitting your mitochondria, damaging them, killing them, mutating them.
And this is what I believe leads to chronic disease and accelerated aging, because thisfree radical damage causes the mitochondria to expand.
(36:26):
It causes the ATP electron transport chain to be inefficient.
More electrons leak out, which become more free radicals, inflammation, ROS.
It's just a downward spiral.
Spirulina,
has the highest concentration of superoxydismutase in the world.
And because spirulina is a bacteria, so there's no cellulose wall for your body to have tobreak down to get access to it.
(36:48):
It gets absorbed almost instantly if you chew it, within minutes if you swallow it.
And so now the superoxydismutase can go direct into the mitochondria.
It's like having one of those big golf umbrellas.
It protects you from the rain of free radicals.
The free radicals are never gonna stop.
They're a natural.
byproduct of ATP.
But your mitochondria, which have their own DNA, which are located exactly where themitochondria, the free radicals, and the ATP are produced, they no longer have the
(37:18):
protection of the superoxydisionase after the age of 30, and it can't be found in anyother food.
So, and when you take it as a supplement, they've done studies that say that it doesn'tget absorbed because it gets damaged in the gut.
So here we have, and there's 25,000 studies.
documenting the health benefits of superoxydismatase.
(37:39):
It reduces inflammation.
It's been shown to stop heart disease, Alzheimer's.
So the fact that spirulina has this superoxydismatase, at least ours, in the highestquantity possible to protect you from heart disease, and has the blue phycocyanin that has
been proven to kill cancer cells.
Heart disease and cancer represent 75% of deaths in our Western world.
(38:01):
like it's also would have an impact on dementia.
Quite honestly, if you're talking about brain health and mitochondrial function, right?
So now you've got three out of the top four, right?
So, you know.
the caveat is superoxydismutase not only is an antioxidant, it is an enzyme.
And anyone who knows anything about nutrition knows that enzymes are damaged ordeactivated at the temperature of 114 Fahrenheit.
(38:25):
Virtually all the other algae companies that are less expensive, less lower quality, usehigh heat to dry their algae because they need to get to market quickly to sell more
products.
So when I started the company, I wasn't even aware of superoxygen tase, but I knew enzymeswere important.
So we have never used high heat to dry our algae.
So A, the superoxygen tase is alive and well, so it can do what it needs to do.
(38:49):
And so is the phycocyanin.
I have a paper that shows that phycocyanin is equally damaged and deactivated by highheat.
So you won't get these benefits of protecting you from Alzheimer's, dementia, heartdisease, or cancer from a lesser expensive.
product that has been using high heat.
There is one thing though that you could use if you weren't using ours, raw or frozenspirulina.
(39:13):
This is why places like the Hippocrates Institute and the Gershon Institute always givetheir patients raw spirulina and because it hasn't been exposed to high heat.
It's got the live phycocyanin and it has the live superoxy-dismutase.
Nice.
They have the 99% success rate with patients who come to them with very evolved cancer andheart disease.
(39:42):
And they wanna work with us because after people have been discharged, it's hard for themto find spirulina that's frozen.
And besides, it tastes even worse with ours if you swallow the spirulina.
There's no repeat, no flavor, nothing.
It's one and done, you're out the door, boom.
So, but they like us because we have the high quality.
So...
These attributes and nutrients, particularly spirulina, also found on the blue pigment,but the superoxidizing and the chlorella, are really healing nutrients not found anywhere
(40:18):
else.
By the way, they both have very high glutathione.
Chlorella has the highest glutathione.
That's a detoxing antioxidant as well.
So
The two of them, if you took the spirulina, if you had to choose one, I would always gowith the spirulina because you get the benefits of the superoxytase mutase for the
protection of the mitochondria, which therefore protects your heart and your brain, andyou get the blue phycocyanin that will help kill cancer cells.
(40:43):
And there's a number of pathways that it does that.
It also has anti-angiogenesis properties.
And everything I say is science-based.
I've PubMed articles, I've read 3,000 of them.
So I don't say anything I don't have any references for.
peace.
And it's been, but you have to have high quality product.
You can't just go to Target and expect to get all these benefits.
(41:04):
Just like, you know, if you're a connoisseur of wine, you're not gonna go be drinkingboxed wine, or if you like shoes, you're not gonna go to Walmart and buy a pair of plastic
shoes.
You might wanna get something that's Italian and custom made.
So everything comes down to quality.
And I tell people, your health is worth it.
I mean, if you, you're gonna age,
but you don't want to decline.
(41:25):
So let's find a way to make that happen and in a way that's not so overbearing and complexand even affordable.
So if you took the 10 tablets of spirulina in the morning and yet we sell them in largebags of a thousand tablets and we have a 20% discount code for you, it works out to a
dollar a day.
(41:45):
You can't tell me you can't afford a dollar a day to protect your health, protect yourmitochondria.
So same with the Clarelli, take 10 of those a day.
That's a dollar a day.
That's, you know, you can't even get a coffee anywhere, even if it's, you know, somecheesy cafe.
So you gotta step up and realize you have, you know, you can own your health.
(42:07):
You can be in charge.
You should be in charge.
You are in charge, except that we...
We...
I think what's interesting about it is not only does it have some of the longevitybenefits you just outlined with the phytocyanin and the superoxide dismutase, but you're
getting all this nutrient density.
You could actually replace a meal with it, which is kind of what you're doing, right?
(42:28):
It's pretty easy to replace a meal.
It is interesting when I take tablets that it really mitigates your appetite.
So if anybody is on a body composition optimization kind of...
program, right?
Something like this is a way to not be hungry at the same time that you're giving yourselfreally great nutrition and that can help with, you know, the energy to exercise and
(42:52):
everything else.
I'm thinking lots of different examples here and then also, you know, anybody that'shealing from a surgery or a procedure or something like that, even, you know, like a
concussion, something like this would be extremely helpful.
Oh, we're starting to work with surgeons actually.
They're recommending it as a pre-surgery food to make sure the body is nourished and thenalso a post-surgery.
(43:16):
And on the brain piece, so we've got all this research about the, reducing inflammationand there's a great book that came out Dr.
Chris Palmer wrote last year about it's called Brain Energy.
And in the book he talks about how all brain issues, whether it's post-traumatic stressdisorder, depression, doesn't matter what it is, is
ultimately due to damaged mitochondria.
Because spirulina heals the mitochondria, it also protects the telomeres and it's loadedwith essential fatty acids.
(43:43):
It's really, that's why I call it brain food.
But I wanna do my own test.
So we did a small clinical trial last year with a nonprofit group called The Gray Team.
They're a nonprofit that's trying to stop the suicide rates of military veterans, which isat a heartbreaking 35 or to 50%.
So we took a small group of veterans who had been discharged for up to 10 years.
(44:05):
They were all in their 50s and 60s.
And all we did was give them a pouch of our spirulina tablets.
So there were 30 tablets per pouch.
They were told not to do anything different.
We did a brain scan before the test.
We hooked them up for sleep to measure their.
sleep scores and HRV.
(44:28):
And after 30 days, we did another brain scan.
And their first brain scan showed massive inflammation, no activity, just like when anathlete has a concussion.
And after the brain scan, the 30 days after taking the spirulina, all the colors wereback, all the brain inflammation was gone.
And that's all they did, nothing different.
(44:48):
One gentleman had multiple sclerosis and his tremors even went away.
So...
So we know there's amazing health benefits, brain benefits, and it's from food.
It's not a pill, it's not a drug.
No, it's not.
What's nice about it is if you take a supplement, you don't feel full, you have to go eatsomething.
If you take this, you're actually being fed and nourished simultaneously, which isinteresting.
(45:12):
them, in fact, we call them bits because they're bits of food, they're bits of nutrition.
And it's very important to me that people understand that and
You know, there's some interesting information on superoxide dismutase in that people thatare struggling, that are on the spectrum of autism have a diminished capacity for
(45:34):
superoxide dismutase function.
And some of that is genetically determined.
Like there are, you know, there's superoxide dismutase.
glutathione peroxidase and catalase, which are kind of the trio, it's kind of theassembling line of enzymes that takes free radical all the way back to water.
And in that, it's interesting that you can upregulate superoxide dismutase expressionusing things like sulforaphane, which comes out of broccoli.
(46:01):
But if you can also, and that's been shown to be helpful in people that are on thespectrum or with autism, but I'm curious if there are any studies if we're actually
delivering
SOD into the brain, whether or not it would have an impact if you know of any studiesrelated to autism or people on the spectrum.
Well, we've had, there is, there are papers and I try to keep libraries of all thearticles I'm constantly finding.
(46:26):
Three thousand is a lot to find.
So I need a librarian.
But there are studies and we have had anecdotal evidence from our own customers.
Absolutely helps with spectrum autism.
We've had coaches at colleges write us and say their kids have focus when they're playinglike they've never had before.
(46:46):
Moms, if you're listening.
Don't give your kids one of those bars, the protein bars before a game.
Give them a handful of spirulina.
They can have as much as they want.
We generally say, well, give them half of their age.
So if they're 10, give them five a day or five before a game or something.
But there's no upper limit.
I've had children that were like 16 months come up to my table at various chiropracticconferences and literally wolf down 50 to 100 tablets within seconds because they were
(47:12):
raised on and they love it.
So this is the great thing that you call it nutritional insurance.
I call that spirulina.
In the era of everybody has ADD and ADHD, right?
And everybody's getting put on medications.
Do you have studies showing that you can actually improve, you're talking aboutconcentration.
Do you have any studies of people with ADD or ADHD where they...
(47:34):
I don't know if we have, there's probably, I'm sure there are studies and, you know, I'mhoping to be a bigger company so we can fund some of these studies later on.
But I do know that we've had, again, customers send us, this one particular individual,she wrote us and she says, you know, I forgot to take my depression medication with me on
my trip.
(47:55):
And so I just took more spirulina.
And when she got back, she realized she was feeling great.
So she never...
got back on her medication ever.
And it's same with people have allergies.
It helps with allergies, it reduces histamine.
Nice.
Does that help with seasonal allergies?
(48:17):
Is that what you're talking about?
Or food sensitivities?
yeah, because of the reduction of the histamine.
And because there's no lectins or oxalates, whether you're carnivore, paleo, it doesn'treally matter what diet you're on, you can use these and not have any kind of stomach
distress or interactions with any other drugs or anything.
(48:39):
So this is why I tell people, I came up with a saying, the benefits of algae are
too good to be true and too powerful not to be.
So it's the list.
I think one of the reasons why the knowledge of this hasn't made its way out is there'sactually too much information.
It's taken me 14 years to wade through what is out there.
(49:00):
And there's always more paper.
There's another paper I found just recently that, again, was proving that spirulina waspreventing inflammation and was helping with.
mitochondria health.
And these papers are, as you know, 20, 30 pages long, and they're very scientific.
So not the average person would read them, but I did.
(49:21):
yeah, no, I read them as well.
I think, you know, the interesting thing, too, is that we've kind of figured out that mostbrain fog is a function of neuroinflammation.
There's an element of mitochondrial dysfunction, but there's also a big, a big element ofneuroinflammation.
And if people are able to decrease the neuroinflammation, their thoughts can become clearagain.
(49:42):
And this sounds like this could be a great way for them to get there.
Absolutely, and so is red light therapy.
So, and so when you the great thing would be is to take the spirulina if you are doing redlight, we recommend the spirulina before the red light only because it gets into your
bloodstream so much faster than the chlorella because again doesn't have a cellulose wall.
So combination of the spirulina and the red light and then you take the chlorellaafterwards to pull out any, you know, any cell toxins that have been released
(50:15):
You want programmed cell death to clear out the garbage that's in there.
Senescent cells are cells that, as you know, replicated so often, they are inflammatory,but they're not doing anything.
And if you have too many of them, they cause harm to the mitochondria and to your health.
And in your brain, they're everywhere.
So because the—I didn't mention this, but the blue pigment, the way it kills the cancercells is that it—
(50:43):
In a healthy cell, the blue pigment phycocyanin speeds up what's called the cytochrome Cmolecule in the electron transport chain to speed up the production of ATP.
But in an unhealthy cell or a senescent cell or a cancer cell, the phycocyanin detectsthat it's a cancerous or senescent cell, ejects the cytochrome C molecule, which kills the
(51:05):
cell.
So that's why I call it intelligent food.
You have to be intelligent to take it and it knows what to do in your body.
Mother Nature, God bless her, right?
I can't take credit for algae, but I can take credit for growing it so carefully that wepreserve all the nutrients for you and your family.
But Mother Nature just stuns me.
(51:26):
The more I learn about algae and our bodies, it's a miracle, as close to a miracle asyou're gonna get.
Yeah.
No, it's quite beautiful.
Well, really appreciate you taking the time to chat with us here, Catharine.
And it's a fascinating topic.
And I think we've been utilizing it in our practice, but I think we'll be utilizing a lotmore.
(51:50):
I'm excited to go down that path.
So good.
your address and we'll ship some to your clinic.
And anyone who wants to learn more or wants to buy some, our website is energybits.com,E-N-E-R-G-Y, B for boy, I, T for Tom, S for Sam.
And we have a 20% discount code, which is GLADEN, G-L-A-D-D-E-N.
(52:15):
Works on all the products all the time.
We have large bags with really fun canisters that come with a bag inside or singleservings.
As I mentioned, this 20% discount code, a big bag of a thousand tablets, normally is 130,but the discount brings it down to 104.
Remember, that bag will last, if you took 10 tablets a day, it will last you three monthsand work out to a dollar per serving.
(52:40):
And so it's very good nutrition.
If you just want to try it out, which is great, go to Amazon and you can just buy singlepouches for six bucks and you can see if it works.
Nice.
Well, thank you so much.
I hope some people will definitely take some advantage of that.
That's a very generous offer.
Thank you for that.
Yeah, and the only thing, the last thing I'd like to leave with people is that algae isn'tnew.
(53:02):
Remember, it's three and a half billion years old, but it's just new to you because youdidn't grow up with it.
It's not grown here.
No one's explained it to you.
The pharmaceutical companies don't know, want you to know all the benefits of it.
So just like you didn't know about chia or matcha or
(53:23):
These were foods and nutrients that have been used by indigenous countries for centuries.
So algae is not new.
It's just new to you.
So it's going to change the world.
So, so give it a try.
Yeah.
Welcome everybody to the Gladden Longevity Podcast.
(00:02):
I'm your host, Dr.
Jeffrey Gladden.
And I'm here today with an interesting person, Catharine Arnston.
She is basically a woman that's all about algae.
We're gonna learn more about that here in just a minute.
So it's an interesting...
day here.
It's simply because the weather is beautiful in Texas.
(00:24):
It's April and it's 65 to 70 degrees outside.
And I wish I was outside doing this podcast, but here we are.
So it's all good.
try to sprinkle some sunshine into your day.
Oh, well, I love that.
Beautiful.
Okay.
We'll do that.
I'll try to do that for you too.
So Catharine, tell us a little bit about how you became enamored with algae.
Not everybody at a five-year-old has a desire to be an algae expert.
(00:48):
Right.
Yeah.
my moniker is now the algae gal.
Well, it is a very interesting story.
I didn't choose algae, it shows me.
I'm actually Canadian by birth.
I've lived in Boston, Massachusetts for 30 years, but my family's all still in Canada.
And that's really how this journey started because I had a corporate career doinginternational economic development, nothing to do at all with nutrition.
(01:12):
And then my younger sister in Canada, who I'm very close to, developed breast cancer.
Mmm.
almost 14 years ago, well 15 years ago.
Now I just want to assure you and your listeners that she completely healed.
But as she was preparing for her chemotherapy, her oncologist, which is a cancerspecialist, told her to change her diet to an alkaline diet because it would help with her
(01:34):
healing.
But the oncologist didn't tell her what an alkaline diet was and what specifically it didfor her.
So my baby sister called me because I'm a good researcher, I can find out anything.
In fact, I'm working on my PhD now because I've...
done so much research on algae and cell biology.
Anyways, I said I have no idea what this stuff is, but I will find out and I did.
An alkaline diet turned out to be primarily a plant-based diet because of the chlorophylland the phytonutrients that have been proven to build your immune system.
(02:02):
Also, there was a German scientist back in the 30s and 40s by the name of Otto Warburg,who won a Nobel Prize for discovering that cancer cannot exist in an alkaline cell and the
scale is from 0-14.
I have to believe that my sister's oncologist, who happened to be a woman and women, tendto be a little bit more open to nutritional interventions.
She must have known about auto-warburg and the cell pH, and also this powerful healingattribute of chlorophyll and phytonutrients.
(02:30):
So I researched plant-based foods for her.
She did go through chemo, she completely healed, and we celebrate her being cancer-freeevery year.
But in the process, I dug into plant-based nutrition, and nobody was talking aboutplant-based diets 15 years ago like they are now.
And as I kept digging, I thought, man, somebody needs to tell the world about the powerfulhealing attributes of plants and vegetables.
(02:51):
So I gave up my 25 year corporate career.
I went back to school.
I got a health coaching certificate, nothing too deep in nutrition.
And then I taught plant based nutrition for a year at hospitals and corporations.
And this is what truly led me to algae, because as I was telling people the importance toeat vegetables, I got a lot of pushback.
People said, oh, they're too hard.
(03:11):
to carry home for the grocery store, they give me gas, I throw them out, my kids won't eatthem, my husbands won't eat them, you know, everybody doesn't, nobody likes, well, only a
few people.
Yes, I know.
Too many oxalates, lectins, carnivores, right.
you know, it's like, oh my gosh, right.
I can't have garlic.
(03:32):
I can't have onions.
I can't eat broccoli.
I can't, you know, too much.
Yeah.
Fob maps.
Exactly.
Right.
on Dr.
Gundry's podcast three times.
He loves us because as you will find out, there are no lectins or oxalates in algae.
So anyways, as I got pushed back, I thought, okay, I've seen the nutritional value ofvegetables.
I also seen that people have a hard time eating them or buying them or cooking them.
(03:53):
So I thought I need to find something that has the nutrition of vegetables without any ofthe lectins, oxalates, heavy lifting.
And I just dug into everything I'd found for my sister.
And that's when I got to algae in a deep way because as I researched algae, it turns out,first of all, it's the most alkaline food in the world.
So that box was checked.
NASA says it's the most nutrient dense food in the world and has a thousand times morenutrition than any other fruit or vegetable.
(04:18):
The United Nations has endorsed spirulina algae for 50 years.
They had a global conference in 1974 and declared spirulina algae the answer to worldhunger because it has the highest concentration of protein in the world, three times the
amount at stake.
It's been used safely for 60 years, six zero in Asia where they take it every day andwhich has improved their health, their longevity.
(04:42):
It's the most studied food.
As you're gonna find out, algae is not a supplement.
It is a food crop.
And there's almost 60,000 studies on spirulina and 40,000 on chlorella, which are the twoalgae we're gonna talk about today, proving that they help reduce inflammation, protect
mitochondria, improve brain health, gut health, skin health, heart health.
The list is endless.
(05:03):
The only problem with algae, so it seemed to me, is that it wasn't well known or thetherapeutic benefits were unknown outside of Asia.
Everybody knows about them in Asia, but nobody does here.
And the quality was poor because most of it came from China.
So that was 14 years ago, and I decided I would devote the rest of my life helping peopleunderstand the therapeutic benefits of algae, which you don't know about because it's just
(05:26):
not grown here, and to provide a very clean, healthy source, which is what I've done.
And so our algae is the only algae I'm aware of that is sold nationwide by doctors,homeopaths, functional medicine, practitioners.
We're sold obviously on our website as well.
And I have gone to great lengths, I've spent 14 years, I've written about 500 papers.
(05:46):
educating people about what LG is, what it does, the therapeutic benefits, and that's whyI finally, I'm now hopefully writing my exams this summer to help people understand that.
so this is great.
So let's break this down a little bit.
We're talking about two different algae.
We're talking about spirulina and chlorella, and they're not identical, and they're quitedifferent.
(06:08):
In combination, they can actually be quite incredible, and isolated, they can also beincredible.
So do you wanna walk us through a little bit of the differences between those?
Absolutely.
First, let me give you a little bit of more of an overview of what algae is, becausethat's still a big thing that confuses people.
It's its own food category.
It's technically not a plant.
It's certainly not an animal.
(06:29):
And in fact, spirulina, as you're going to find out, is a bacteria.
It's a cyanobacteria.
So first of all, algae is a plant, is a food category, and it was the first life on earth.
3.4 billion years ago, it's proven with fossils.
And in fact, you're also going to find out your mitochondria evolved from cyanobacterialike spirulina.
So that being the case, then within algae as a food category, there's two mainsubcategories, macroalgae and microalgae.
(06:56):
We're going to be talking about microalgae today, but let me tell you what macroalgae is.
It's that stringy stuff that you see washing up on shore, also known as seaweed or dulceor kelp.
Now it's good for you because it has lots of fiber and it has iodine because it's onlyfrom the sea, which is why it's called
seaweed.
But there's virtually zero nutrition.
So high fiber from the ocean, virtually no nutrition.
(07:20):
Microalgae is completely the opposite.
And that's what we're talking about today.
First of all, it's everywhere.
It's yes in the sea.
It's also in the lakes.
Yeah.
is people shouldn't go out and skim the pond.
Okay.
no.
Well, particularly because algae will absorb whatever's in the water, which is one of thereasons why we're considered such high quality, because we grow ours in triple filtered
(07:41):
spring mountain water.
Do not take any algae product or from a lake, a river, a stream, nothing, because therewill be toxins.
There will be micro toxins.
We test for them.
We don't have them.
But yes, you want to be really careful about where you get your microalgae from.
So it's everywhere, including your aquarium or your swimming pool.
(08:01):
We grow ours in triple filtered spring mountain water in Taiwan.
So number one, it's everywhere.
Number two, virtually no fiber, which is completely opposite to macroalgae, or no fiber.
Spirulina is no fiber.
It is a bacteria.
It does not have a cellulose wall or nucleus.
Chlorella, which we're going to talk about today, does belong to the plant kingdom and itdoes have fiber in it.
(08:22):
So virtually no fiber, but the most nutrient dense food in the world.
something like a million microalgae could fit on the head of a pin.
And so when you consolidate the nutrition that's found in microalgae into these, we havelittle tablets about the size of a baby aspirin.
You can see how concentrated they are.
When I first learned about spirulina and chlorella and how nutrient dense it was, I wasstunned and amazed and pleasantly surprised because I think one of the biggest challenges
(08:51):
we have in eating is actually finding nutrient dense foods.
We have very calorie rich nutrient poor foods, all around us, but finding really highquality nutrient dense foods, which is really what the body loves.
It loves all that big...
variety of nutrients coming in is difficult to find.
(09:12):
And it's impossible to find.
Right.
It's impossible to find.
That's exactly right.
And the interesting thing is when I learned how nutrient dense it was, I would tell peoplethat if we were stuck on an elevator for 30 days and all we had with us was spirulina and
chlorella, we'd walk off of here just fine.
Right?
(09:33):
Yeah.
It's amazing.
Mother Nature's number two perfect food.
The first perfect food is breast milk.
And I did the analysis and I can send it to you that I found out that mother's breast milkand spirulina are virtually identical.
Same aminos, same proportion, same amount of GLA.
In fact, GLA is actually technically omega-6 because it's not heated.
(09:55):
It behaves like an omega-3.
And the only place that has more of it than spirulina is mother's breast milk.
Yeah.
And it's interesting.
We measure for GLA in our clients and a lot of them are low in GLA.
Yeah.
So when we see low GLA, uh, right.
It's a, you want to, you, this isn't omega six.
It's actually helpful for you.
It actually decreases cancer risk.
(10:16):
It does some other things that are very, very helpful.
And so everybody's shine away from omega six is moving towards omega threes.
Um, but you do need the right omega sixes and GLA is one of them.
So it's interesting that you can get probably all the GLA you need out of.
Spiral leaning.
exactly.
And the mega sixes are detrimental when they are heated.
(10:36):
That's why you wanna stay away from the seed oils.
We do not use heat to dry our algae.
So our both spirulina and chlorella are raw foods.
So that's why it's not inflammatory.
It's anti-inflammatory, the GLA in our spirulina.
So it behaves just like an omega-3.
But thank you for pointing that out because most people are unfamiliar with the GLA.
(10:58):
So back to spirulina or the microalgae, it's nutrient dense, virtually no fiber, foundeverywhere, and there are tens of thousands of strains of them.
Macroalgae, the stringy stuff, there's only a handful, brown, red, green, but withmicroalgae, tens of thousands.
The two that most people know about of microalgae are spirulina and chlorella.
(11:22):
There are tens of thousands of other ones.
So for example, a lot of people, if they think of algae, they often...
just think of an algae bloom closing their favorite beach.
And a lot of people will panic because the headline will be blue-green algae, toxicblue-green algae closing beach.
And you'll think, oh my gosh, that's spirulina.
I should stop taking it.
That's not spirulina.
(11:44):
That's just another bad boy, blue-green algae, but not spirulina.
Spirulina and chlorella are only harvested in aquaculture, hydroponically in...
fresh water.
We just happen to have the cleanest water, but whether you go to Target or Whole Foods orus to buy your spirulina, I can 99.99% sure it's grown in fresh water, not from the ocean.
(12:09):
There's other types of blue-green algae in the ocean, but not spirulina.
So the two algae we're going to talk about today are the spirulina and the other algae isa green algae, which is called chlorella.
And the reason why they're called these two
way these two they're designated as either blue green or green is because of the pigmentsthat are found in it.
(12:32):
Spirulina has two pigments a blue one and a green one which is why it's called a bluegreen algae.
Chlorella only has one pigment the green algae and which most people are familiar withit's chlorophyll.
The pigment that you don't know about and does not exist anywhere else in
(12:54):
has amazing healing properties.
Hopefully we'll get a chance to talk about them later on.
And it's called phycocyanin.
It's spelled P-H- phycocyanin.
Because if I'm gonna get into some deeper detail later, but that phycocyanin that's notfound anywhere else in nature has been proven to kill cancer cells.
(13:14):
I'd say that's pretty important, but only if it has not been heated.
And that's the problem most algae.
Other algae companies use high heat to dry their algae, which kills the phycocyanin.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
out there that make spirulina chlorella and spirulina chlorella tablets and things likethat, right?
So yeah.
The difference is the quality.
(13:35):
So I started this as you heard my story just to help my sister heal from breast cancer.
And then I took a nutrition course and thought, well, I can help a few more people.
So I dug in and then I realized algae was the medium by which was the easiest at mosteffortless way because I forgot to mention these little tablets that we produce and this
is how they make it in Asia as well.
(13:57):
They're the size of a baby aspirin.
And so one single tablet, because of the nutrient density of either spirulina or chlorellahas the same nutrition as an entire plate of vegetables.
So if you don't like vegetables or you're traveling or your kids won't eat them, or you'retired of throwing them out before you eat them or cook them, and they go bad after a few
days, and by the way, our algae last three years, spirulina and chlorella tablets are theanswer.
(14:21):
I call them your nutritional insurance because if you, we recommend 10 tablets.
in the morning of spirulina and 10 tablets of chlorella at night.
I'll explain why later on.
But once you take that quantity, that's your sort of, if you're healthy and you just wantto up your game, that will eliminate many of your other supplements, a multi, a fish oil,
(14:41):
a CoQ10, a biotin, a collagen powder.
It has more protein than steak, more collagen than collagen powder.
Don't eat fish oil.
It's rancid by the time you buy it.
Where do you think the fish get the omega-3 from?
They get it from algae.
So spirulina is very, very nourishing algae and most people do take it in the morningbecause that's when they're tired and hungry and 10 tablets will satiate you for hours.
(15:06):
And by the way, there's zero carbs, zero caffeine.
It does give you energy mentally and physically.
It does not interfere with your ketogenic diet.
It's great for diabetics, pre-diabetics.
Low carb, low cal, zero antioxidants and oxalates.
I mean, it plays with everybody and you can have as much as you want.
We fuel NHL teams and they have 75 spirulina before a game.
(15:29):
So.
The only thing I saw was that the chlorella is rich in vitamin A.
And so we know that some people shouldn't get a ton of vitamin A, particularly if theyhave a predisposition to macular degeneration.
So that was a good question.
(15:50):
A is in beta carotene, as in the form of beta carotene.
So it's an organic vitamin A, which generally, if your body doesn't need that type ofvitamin A, it's why we recommend food over supplements, then you won't absorb it.
So the fact that it's beta carotene, which doesn't convert as easily as two vitamin A's, Ithink a good thing.
(16:12):
So it's good.
Okay, cool.
By the way, there's no contraindications.
You can give this to your newborns, your children, your pets, your grandparents, andeverybody in between.
But spirulina is very energizing and nourishing, which is why we call our spirulina energybits.
And we put it in a blue packaging.
(16:32):
I designed the packaging so that you knew that it was a blue-green algae.
So whether you're...
intermittent fasting.
It doesn't interfere with your fast.
It doesn't break your fast or you just want to get out the door quickly, grab a handful,swallow them down.
You can chew them.
I will admit most people don't like the flavor spirulina.
It's very chewy because of the high protein.
But you can chew them and I chew them.
(16:54):
My tongue's usually green because I eat them all day long.
So throughout the day when you have a lull at two o'clock, it has a when you're traveling,we have them in little pouches.
You can throw them in your handbag, your gym bag, your travel bag.
or before a workout.
This will be, you will have the, I know Dr.
Gladden, you run every morning or you're doing some workout.
I would love you to take 30, because 30 is a more therapeutic dose or for athletes.
(17:19):
We feel NHL teams or marathon runners, triathletes, and they take 30 of the spirulinabefore a workout or a run, and it will power you through, not from any kind of stimulant,
because there's no caffeine chemicals or sugar.
It's because of the ATP that is produced at the cellular level.
(17:40):
And we'll get to how that functions later on.
Part of it, again, is this blue pigment that speeds up the cytochrome stem molecule.
Yeah.
I haven't taken just Spiralina by itself, but I've taken the Spiralina Clarella by itselfand probably taken, I'm going to say 20 or 25 tablets, not your brand yet, although I'm
(18:01):
anxious to try those.
But, but even there, you do notice sustained energy from it, right?
It's a, it's, and it, but I like about it.
There's no bulk to it.
It's not like you feel full or heavy or bloated.
You're just getting.
sort of pure nutrition and so yeah, they can be great.
I've used them, yeah.
(18:23):
the people I met at the Destiny Life Conference where we met was a sheep hunter.
And apparently, and he goes out to Afghanistan or New Zealand and with clients and they'rehiking and they've got all their equipment.
And so they're looking for nourishment that they can carry with them that's lightweight.
Same with hikers.
This is the perfect solution.
It's absolutely lightweight and it's also eco-friendly and sustainable, but you'll getsustained power from it because of the...
(18:50):
I tell people it's not a stimulant, a stimulant is like putting paper on a fire.
This is like putting a log on the fire.
Very quiet energy.
There's no drama with algae.
It just works in the background.
So that's spirulina, energizing, nourishing, really great for mitochondria health.
We'll get into that in a minute, I hope.
And of course, since your brain has the most mitochondria in your body, there's 2 millionper cell, it's also brain food.
(19:14):
We also, we know that fatty fish is brain food.
Well, so is spirulina.
Very much a...
brain, food, mitochondria, energizing, nourishing algae.
So that's quite different from the next algae, which is chlorella, which is a green algae.
Now it does belong to the plant kingdom.
Spirulina, as you may recall, is not, it is a bacteria.
(19:34):
Now in fact, chlorella has the hardest cellulose wall in the plant kingdom.
And the reason why that's important to know is a couple of things.
First of all, that cellulose wall, for whatever reason, attaches to toxins.
Heavy metals, lead, mercury, radiation, aluminum, alcohol, lactic acid and chelates them.
So chlorella is a chelator.
(19:58):
It's a cleanser, but it's also a chelator.
And spirulina is cleansing, not a chelator.
So that's number one.
That hard cell wall removes heavy metals and glyphosate and everything else that you don'twant.
Number two, it has the highest chlorophyll in the world.
Spirulina has the highest protein in the world.
Chlorella is called Chlorella because of the chlorophyll.
(20:20):
So how much chlorophyll you may say?
Well, it has 500 times more chlorophyll than arugula and 25 times more than liquidchlorophyll.
And I got these numbers off the Linus Paul Institute.
So let's talk about chlorophyll.
Just so I'm not sure not everybody understands chlorophyll.
This is basically a molecule that is responsible for converting sunlight into energy.
(20:43):
So, yeah, it's ground implants.
And it's found in plants, but our soils are so damaged that there is no chlorophyll leftin our vitamins.
So everyone, quite honestly, unless you're taking algae every day, you are chlorophylldeficit.
Let me tell you a couple of cool things about chlorophyll.
You can go online to check this out.
Normally, I would show it to you in a visual.
(21:04):
The chemical composition of chlorophyll is virtually identical to the chemical compositionof your hemoglobin.
That's your red blood cells.
The only difference is your red blood cells have iron in the middle and chlorophyll hasmagnesium.
The iron in your hemoglobin is what carries oxygen.
So number one, chlorophyll builds your blood.
For centuries, they've given liquid chlorophyll to the injured or when they had surgeries,up until even as recently as World War II.
(21:31):
They would give the injured liquid chlorophyll if they had run out of blood fortransfusions.
And then, you know, with the pharmaceutical industry coming into our society, that sortof...
You saved the day.
Yeah, right, that sort of ended.
So number one, chlorophyll builds your blood.
Number two, you would never know this, but this is why I'm doing this, chlorophyll is afat-based pigment.
(21:52):
Why is that important?
Because all of your cell walls have what's called a lipid membrane.
That's the equivalent, that's a fancy word for saying fat.
So anything like omega-3, D3, these are important fats that build your cell membrane sothat they're porous and allow nutrients in and toxins out.
Well.
Chlorophyll is a fat-based pigment, so it does the same thing.
(22:12):
That's why when you do cleanses that involve juices that are green, this is one of thebenefits, and it's because of the chlorophyll that is very cleansing to the cell wall.
Chlorophyll also kills bacteria.
Any carnivores who are listening, you are known for having bad breath, and it's becausethe meat gets stuck in your teeth, and bacteria attack the meat.
(22:34):
And so if you're at least taking spirulina or chlorella, you can help...
improve the bacteria and therefore your bad breath.
It also kills bacteria in your colon.
Only about 10% of chlorophyll actually gets absorbed in your stomach.
The rest of it travels through your liver and your colon and it's very, very cleansing.
So that's very important for chlorophyll because it's very healing to the body at cellularlevel and also for your blood.
(22:59):
Also, chlorophyll is very alkalining.
So remember, I started this journey because my sister's oncologist told her to have analkaline diet.
Well,
Chlorophyll is very alkaline and chlorella, both algae, are the most alkaline foods in theworld.
A lot of it is because of this chlorophyll.
So, and you might appreciate this Dr.
Gladden because you pointed out that chlorophyll is a pigment that generates energy.
(23:23):
There has been studies that show that when you take chlorophyll, like you would find ineither spirulina or chlorella, and you then expose your body to red light, either sunlight
or red light therapy, it generates ATP.
Interesting.
ATP.
And how does it do that?
So I found out.
What it does is it recycles the CoQ10 molecule, that's one of these helper molecules inthe electron transport chain.
(23:48):
So it goes from a biquinol to a biquinone and the back to biquinol.
And so it becomes inflammatory in that process.
And then the combination of the chlorophyll and the like brings it back to being analkaline state.
So that's pretty cool.
And so very, very healing because of the high nutrients, the high chlorophyll.
this detox capability.
(24:09):
Chlorella is a wellness algae.
It helps you recover from your day, recover from your sports, recover from anything.
So that and most of your immune, well yes because your body goes through a detox repaircycle while you're sleeping.
So if you've been exposed to anything whether it's in air pollution, alcohol, lactic acid,
(24:31):
If you take the you can take the chlorella the we call ours recovery bits any time of dayBut please definitely take it before bed It also has the trip highest tryptophan in the
world, which is a precursor to melatonin.
So it helps you sleep It won't make you sleepy, but it will help you get into a deep sleepIt also has something called chlorella growth factor which speeds up the growth of your
own cells and it helps stimulate stem cells So all in all chlorella is a gut wellnessdetoxing algae compared to
(25:00):
spirulina, which is a nourishing, energizing, healing mitochondria brain algae.
So you can see how the two of them function quite differently.
We do have an algae called Vitality Bits where we blend the two of them together.
I will point out in case anyone's going to our website, which is energybits.com, they'llnotice that there are two spirulina.
The original one was blue because that's blue big green algae.
(25:24):
But I found that women weren't buying it.
And
My girlfriend said, well, you got to make it pink and give it a cute name.
And because spirulina has more collagen than collagen powder, so it helps with your hairand your nails and your skin.
And I did the analysis, it has up to 400% of some aminos compared to collagen powder, andcollagen powder is not a sustainable crop anyways.
(25:48):
a particularly robust protein, quite honestly.
And collagen is kind of an interesting story, right?
It's actually a low quality protein.
The interesting thing about it is that when you do consume collagen, you actuallystimulate collagen growth, which is an interesting phenomenon of collagen.
But yeah.
So anyway, go ahead.
so there is a second brand of spirulina called Beauty Bits and women love that.
(26:10):
And I just wanted women to feel as comfortable with the product.
I can't help anyone if I can't get the algae into their body.
So if anyone's wondering why there's two, that's why.
So I tell people I have a boy spirulina and a girl spirulina, but they're identical.
We're not trying to trick anybody.
I'm just...
want people to be healthy.
So you can see how you take the spirulina in the morning and the afternoon before aworkout, because that's when you're hungry, that's when you're tired, that's when you need
(26:35):
energy.
There's no burst, there's no crash.
And chlorella will not satisfy your hunger, will not give you energy, but it will helpbuild your immune system, pull out toxins, pull out heavy metals, help you with your
repair cycle when you're sleeping and help you get into that repair cycle.
Yeah, beautiful.
So I assume that this is something that you do on a daily basis.
(26:57):
What's your routine with these?
You said you were kind of nibbling through the day, but what's your actual routine here?
Well, first of all, I don't have to buy mine.
So I, and I, like a lot of people, I have food sensitivities and for a while, this wasalmost the only thing I could eat other than eggs or grass-fed animal protein.
(27:18):
So for the average person, first I'll tell you the average person, then I will admit whatI take.
The average person, if you took 10 spirulina tablets in the morning or throughout the dayor whenever you need, at least 10 chlorella tablets at night,
you'll get the nourishment from the spirulina and you'll get the wellness benefits fromthe chlorella.
For therapeutic amounts, whether you're at a biohacking center, you're getting atreatment, whether it's cryotherapy or red light therapy or sauna, we recommend the
(27:47):
spirulina before the treatment and the chlorella after, but we recommend 30, andparticularly if you have a health condition, cancer, heart disease, dementia.
because we need to get more nourishment into your body and more toxins out to bring youback into homeostasis.
And that could take anywhere from three months to a year, but you'll probably feel sogreat that you never need to stop going back to the 10 a day.
(28:14):
But for therapeutic dose, 30 of each is what you need.
Now, I'm the outlier here.
I have been taking over 100 every day for the last 14 years.
I love the chlorella.
I eat mine.
I eat my chlorella, particularly with pistachio nuts, also a very low lectin nut.
(28:35):
I have them with sea salt, the spirulina and the chlorella, probably a combination of 75in the morning, just with sea salt.
And I might have a few more sort of noonish or one o'clock then I might start.
of iodine by any chance?
Okay.
news for some people, not good for others, but iodine is only from the ocean.
(28:57):
There is no iodine in ours because we grow it in fresh water.
No, zero iodine.
So that's good for people who don't want iodine.
taking a dose in the morning, then, sorry, I interrupted you.
You're taking, what do you do?
I have more in the afternoon.
And then I, because I'm intermittent fasting, like a lot of people, I really recommend it.
(29:18):
And then I start adding some of the pistachio nuts, sort of like around four o'clock.
And if I'm on my schedule, then I have a real meal, somewhere between four and sixo'clock, you know, eggs or grass-fed animal protein or vegetables.
And I'm trying to do one meal a day.
Sometimes I end up with two.
(29:39):
And then later on, if I'm still hungry before bed, then I have some more chlorella withsome sea salt and I try not to have the nuts because I don't wanna start getting into my
fasting, interfering with my fasting window.
So that's what I do.
But I know people aren't able to see me, but there are pictures of me on the website thatwere taken just a month ago and I met you a couple of weeks ago and you can see me.
(30:08):
turning 68 in a few months.
So I'm not any spring chicken here.
And my mind works, my skin is clear, my poop is great, I sleep well.
And so I have the energy of a 20 year old.
I only have 20 and 30 year olds working for me.
They can't keep up with me.
I'm on the road nonstop and I still run a company, multi-million dollar company and.
(30:29):
I just want to show people that it's possible to be healthy and well and energizing.
We all age, but we do not need to decline.
And I know that's your message as well.
But it's hard for people.
They're thrown so many things and they don't know which diet to follow.
And ultimately I tell people just listen to your own body because everyone's unique.
(30:50):
But the great thing about algae is that it fits in with every lifestyle, every age group,any time of day, any food.
You can take it.
with food instead of food, together, alone, with water, with whatever you want.
Well, we have it kosher certified, absolutely.
And you can look us up at the, I don't have the name of the organization, KCA, I think itis, so.
(31:16):
Well, you have to get it certified.
It's not would be anybody else, I don't think anybody else is kosher certified, but.
Yeah, well, I mean, I would just think, I mean, I can't imagine there would be anythingabout algae that would make it non-kosher per se, but.
but you have to get put not to put kosher certified, you have to have the koshercertification organization and sometimes when people are packaging this it could be in a
(31:38):
facility where non-kosher foods are packaged.
So we're in a kosher facility and we get kosher certified rabbi, we get rabbis to blessit.
So I've done everything I can to make this clean and safe and pure and
I do want to talk about a couple of the nutrients that are particularly important forlongevity that are found only in spirulina, well, and a lesser degree in chlorella.
(32:04):
But this, to me, is where the rubber hits the road for the longevity benefits, beyond justhaving energy and nourishment.
Can I dig in there?
OK.
Well, the big one, I didn't highlight.
briefly, phycocyanin, which has been proven to kill cancer cells.
So that's pretty important.
(32:26):
The other one that I want people to know about is superoxide dismutase.
I know it's a mouthful also known as SOD.
So what is the superoxide dismutase?
Well, it's an antioxidant.
And you've all heard of antioxidants.
They will balance out a free radical because a free radical is a molecule that has anunpaired electron.
(32:47):
And so it steals an electron from another molecule and that causes tissue damage andinflammation.
So antioxidants have extra electrons that they donate.
So they balance out these free radicals.
The problem is the free radical production in the mitochondria, the mitochondria wouldgenerate cellular energy for you and your body.
(33:07):
The cellular energy is called ATP.
And the analogy I make for people to understand how important the mitochondria are isthink of your body like a building.
In a building, you have offices.
And the only work that can get done in the offices is because you have lights on.
You don't have any lights on.
You can't do any work.
Well, for your body, the cells are like the offices and the things that keep your cellsfunctioning are your mitochondria.
(33:31):
So think of the mitochondria as the equivalent of lights in a building.
Now in a building, when the light bulbs go out, maintenance comes and replaces them.
Problem solved.
As you age or as you eat a very acidic diet or
highly processed diet, lots of processed carbs, they damage the mitochondria and causemore free radicals to be released.
(33:57):
And that causes more mitochondria damage.
And as you get older, as this damage occurs, and as they die, that's the equivalent ofturning the lights off in your building.
So, and as you get older, particularly after the age of 30, there's one...
particular antioxidant, this one called super oxidase that is one of the few antioxidantsthat can get into the inner membrane of your mitochondria to stop free radical damage.
(34:23):
Remember I mentioned earlier how your all your cells have a lipid membrane around them?
Well your mitochondria have a lipid membrane around them too but they have this secondinner membrane that doesn't exist anywhere else in your body except in the mitochondria
and 99% of antioxidants
that inner membrane.
There have been studies done on vitamin E, vitamin A, vitamin C, and they've all saidthese vitamins, these antioxidants don't stop longevity.
(34:52):
They don't improve longevity.
You know why?
Because they can't get into the inner membrane of the mitochondria to stop free radicaldamage.
The few that can are superoxid dismutase, glutathione, and chlorophyll.
Superoxid dismutase is the one I want to concentrate on.
And the reason why it's so important...
is because the most damaging free radical at all, of all free radicals, is somethingcalled superoxide.
(35:19):
And it's created in this process of ATP production.
Now, what makes, I was curious, well, what makes it so damaging?
Turns out superoxide has three unpaired electrons.
So it's three times as damaging.
So this antioxidant called superoxydismutase is what neutralizes that free radical andturns it into water.
(35:40):
Ta-da!
mitochondria saved.
Now the good news is your body makes superoxidized mutase for you from the moment you'reborn until, ta-da, 30.
After the age of 30, like a lot of things, hormones, melatonin, your body slows down theproduction and by the time you're 40, you have no more superoxidized mutase being
(36:01):
produced.
That means this antioxidant that used to protect you from the rain of free radicals thatare produced as a byproduct of ATP,
are now hitting your mitochondria, damaging them, killing them, mutating them.
And this is what I believe leads to chronic disease and accelerated aging, because thisfree radical damage causes the mitochondria to expand.
(36:26):
It causes the ATP electron transport chain to be inefficient.
More electrons leak out, which become more free radicals, inflammation, ROS.
It's just a downward spiral.
Spirulina,
has the highest concentration of superoxydismutase in the world.
And because spirulina is a bacteria, so there's no cellulose wall for your body to have tobreak down to get access to it.
(36:48):
It gets absorbed almost instantly if you chew it, within minutes if you swallow it.
And so now the superoxydismutase can go direct into the mitochondria.
It's like having one of those big golf umbrellas.
It protects you from the rain of free radicals.
The free radicals are never gonna stop.
They're a natural.
byproduct of ATP.
But your mitochondria, which have their own DNA, which are located exactly where themitochondria, the free radicals, and the ATP are produced, they no longer have the
(37:18):
protection of the superoxydisionase after the age of 30, and it can't be found in anyother food.
So, and when you take it as a supplement, they've done studies that say that it doesn'tget absorbed because it gets damaged in the gut.
So here we have, and there's 25,000 studies.
documenting the health benefits of superoxydismatase.
(37:39):
It reduces inflammation.
It's been shown to stop heart disease, Alzheimer's.
So the fact that spirulina has this superoxydismatase, at least ours, in the highestquantity possible to protect you from heart disease, and has the blue phycocyanin that has
been proven to kill cancer cells.
Heart disease and cancer represent 75% of deaths in our Western world.
(38:01):
like it's also would have an impact on dementia.
Quite honestly, if you're talking about brain health and mitochondrial function, right?
So now you've got three out of the top four, right?
So, you know.
the caveat is superoxydismutase not only is an antioxidant, it is an enzyme.
And anyone who knows anything about nutrition knows that enzymes are damaged ordeactivated at the temperature of 114 Fahrenheit.
(38:25):
Virtually all the other algae companies that are less expensive, less lower quality, usehigh heat to dry their algae because they need to get to market quickly to sell more
products.
So when I started the company, I wasn't even aware of superoxygen tase, but I knew enzymeswere important.
So we have never used high heat to dry our algae.
So A, the superoxygen tase is alive and well, so it can do what it needs to do.
(38:49):
And so is the phycocyanin.
I have a paper that shows that phycocyanin is equally damaged and deactivated by highheat.
So you won't get these benefits of protecting you from Alzheimer's, dementia, heartdisease, or cancer from a lesser expensive.
product that has been using high heat.
There is one thing though that you could use if you weren't using ours, raw or frozenspirulina.
(39:13):
This is why places like the Hippocrates Institute and the Gershon Institute always givetheir patients raw spirulina and because it hasn't been exposed to high heat.
It's got the live phycocyanin and it has the live superoxy-dismutase.
Nice.
They have the 99% success rate with patients who come to them with very evolved cancer andheart disease.
(39:42):
And they wanna work with us because after people have been discharged, it's hard for themto find spirulina that's frozen.
And besides, it tastes even worse with ours if you swallow the spirulina.
There's no repeat, no flavor, nothing.
It's one and done, you're out the door, boom.
So, but they like us because we have the high quality.
So...
These attributes and nutrients, particularly spirulina, also found on the blue pigment,but the superoxidizing and the chlorella, are really healing nutrients not found anywhere
(40:18):
else.
By the way, they both have very high glutathione.
Chlorella has the highest glutathione.
That's a detoxing antioxidant as well.
So
The two of them, if you took the spirulina, if you had to choose one, I would always gowith the spirulina because you get the benefits of the superoxytase mutase for the
protection of the mitochondria, which therefore protects your heart and your brain, andyou get the blue phycocyanin that will help kill cancer cells.
(40:43):
And there's a number of pathways that it does that.
It also has anti-angiogenesis properties.
And everything I say is science-based.
I've PubMed articles, I've read 3,000 of them.
So I don't say anything I don't have any references for.
peace.
And it's been, but you have to have high quality product.
You can't just go to Target and expect to get all these benefits.
(41:04):
Just like, you know, if you're a connoisseur of wine, you're not gonna go be drinkingboxed wine, or if you like shoes, you're not gonna go to Walmart and buy a pair of plastic
shoes.
You might wanna get something that's Italian and custom made.
So everything comes down to quality.
And I tell people, your health is worth it.
I mean, if you, you're gonna age,
but you don't want to decline.
(41:25):
So let's find a way to make that happen and in a way that's not so overbearing and complexand even affordable.
So if you took the 10 tablets of spirulina in the morning and yet we sell them in largebags of a thousand tablets and we have a 20% discount code for you, it works out to a
dollar a day.
(41:45):
You can't tell me you can't afford a dollar a day to protect your health, protect yourmitochondria.
So same with the Clarelli, take 10 of those a day.
That's a dollar a day.
That's, you know, you can't even get a coffee anywhere, even if it's, you know, somecheesy cafe.
So you gotta step up and realize you have, you know, you can own your health.
(42:07):
You can be in charge.
You should be in charge.
You are in charge, except that we...
We...
I think what's interesting about it is not only does it have some of the longevitybenefits you just outlined with the phytocyanin and the superoxide dismutase, but you're
getting all this nutrient density.
You could actually replace a meal with it, which is kind of what you're doing, right?
(42:28):
It's pretty easy to replace a meal.
It is interesting when I take tablets that it really mitigates your appetite.
So if anybody is on a body composition optimization kind of...
program, right?
Something like this is a way to not be hungry at the same time that you're giving yourselfreally great nutrition and that can help with, you know, the energy to exercise and
(42:52):
everything else.
I'm thinking lots of different examples here and then also, you know, anybody that'shealing from a surgery or a procedure or something like that, even, you know, like a
concussion, something like this would be extremely helpful.
Oh, we're starting to work with surgeons actually.
They're recommending it as a pre-surgery food to make sure the body is nourished and thenalso a post-surgery.
(43:16):
And on the brain piece, so we've got all this research about the, reducing inflammationand there's a great book that came out Dr.
Chris Palmer wrote last year about it's called Brain Energy.
And in the book he talks about how all brain issues, whether it's post-traumatic stressdisorder, depression, doesn't matter what it is, is
ultimately due to damaged mitochondria.
Because spirulina heals the mitochondria, it also protects the telomeres and it's loadedwith essential fatty acids.
(43:43):
It's really, that's why I call it brain food.
But I wanna do my own test.
So we did a small clinical trial last year with a nonprofit group called The Gray Team.
They're a nonprofit that's trying to stop the suicide rates of military veterans, which isat a heartbreaking 35 or to 50%.
So we took a small group of veterans who had been discharged for up to 10 years.
(44:05):
They were all in their 50s and 60s.
And all we did was give them a pouch of our spirulina tablets.
So there were 30 tablets per pouch.
They were told not to do anything different.
We did a brain scan before the test.
We hooked them up for sleep to measure their.
sleep scores and HRV.
(44:28):
And after 30 days, we did another brain scan.
And their first brain scan showed massive inflammation, no activity, just like when anathlete has a concussion.
And after the brain scan, the 30 days after taking the spirulina, all the colors wereback, all the brain inflammation was gone.
And that's all they did, nothing different.
(44:48):
One gentleman had multiple sclerosis and his tremors even went away.
So...
So we know there's amazing health benefits, brain benefits, and it's from food.
It's not a pill, it's not a drug.
No, it's not.
What's nice about it is if you take a supplement, you don't feel full, you have to go eatsomething.
If you take this, you're actually being fed and nourished simultaneously, which isinteresting.
(45:12):
them, in fact, we call them bits because they're bits of food, they're bits of nutrition.
And it's very important to me that people understand that and
You know, there's some interesting information on superoxide dismutase in that people thatare struggling, that are on the spectrum of autism have a diminished capacity for
(45:34):
superoxide dismutase function.
And some of that is genetically determined.
Like there are, you know, there's superoxide dismutase.
glutathione peroxidase and catalase, which are kind of the trio, it's kind of theassembling line of enzymes that takes free radical all the way back to water.
And in that, it's interesting that you can upregulate superoxide dismutase expressionusing things like sulforaphane, which comes out of broccoli.
(46:01):
But if you can also, and that's been shown to be helpful in people that are on thespectrum or with autism, but I'm curious if there are any studies if we're actually
delivering
SOD into the brain, whether or not it would have an impact if you know of any studiesrelated to autism or people on the spectrum.
Well, we've had, there is, there are papers and I try to keep libraries of all thearticles I'm constantly finding.
(46:26):
Three thousand is a lot to find.
So I need a librarian.
But there are studies and we have had anecdotal evidence from our own customers.
Absolutely helps with spectrum autism.
We've had coaches at colleges write us and say their kids have focus when they're playinglike they've never had before.
(46:46):
Moms, if you're listening.
Don't give your kids one of those bars, the protein bars before a game.
Give them a handful of spirulina.
They can have as much as they want.
We generally say, well, give them half of their age.
So if they're 10, give them five a day or five before a game or something.
But there's no upper limit.
I've had children that were like 16 months come up to my table at various chiropracticconferences and literally wolf down 50 to 100 tablets within seconds because they were
(47:12):
raised on and they love it.
So this is the great thing that you call it nutritional insurance.
I call that spirulina.
In the era of everybody has ADD and ADHD, right?
And everybody's getting put on medications.
Do you have studies showing that you can actually improve, you're talking aboutconcentration.
Do you have any studies of people with ADD or ADHD where they...
(47:34):
I don't know if we have, there's probably, I'm sure there are studies and, you know, I'mhoping to be a bigger company so we can fund some of these studies later on.
But I do know that we've had, again, customers send us, this one particular individual,she wrote us and she says, you know, I forgot to take my depression medication with me on
my trip.
(47:55):
And so I just took more spirulina.
And when she got back, she realized she was feeling great.
So she never...
got back on her medication ever.
And it's same with people have allergies.
It helps with allergies, it reduces histamine.
Nice.
Does that help with seasonal allergies?
(48:17):
Is that what you're talking about?
Or food sensitivities?
yeah, because of the reduction of the histamine.
And because there's no lectins or oxalates, whether you're carnivore, paleo, it doesn'treally matter what diet you're on, you can use these and not have any kind of stomach
distress or interactions with any other drugs or anything.
(48:39):
So this is why I tell people, I came up with a saying, the benefits of algae are
too good to be true and too powerful not to be.
So it's the list.
I think one of the reasons why the knowledge of this hasn't made its way out is there'sactually too much information.
It's taken me 14 years to wade through what is out there.
(49:00):
And there's always more paper.
There's another paper I found just recently that, again, was proving that spirulina waspreventing inflammation and was helping with.
mitochondria health.
And these papers are, as you know, 20, 30 pages long, and they're very scientific.
So not the average person would read them, but I did.
(49:21):
yeah, no, I read them as well.
I think, you know, the interesting thing, too, is that we've kind of figured out that mostbrain fog is a function of neuroinflammation.
There's an element of mitochondrial dysfunction, but there's also a big, a big element ofneuroinflammation.
And if people are able to decrease the neuroinflammation, their thoughts can become clearagain.
(49:42):
And this sounds like this could be a great way for them to get there.
Absolutely, and so is red light therapy.
So, and so when you the great thing would be is to take the spirulina if you are doing redlight, we recommend the spirulina before the red light only because it gets into your
bloodstream so much faster than the chlorella because again doesn't have a cellulose wall.
So combination of the spirulina and the red light and then you take the chlorellaafterwards to pull out any, you know, any cell toxins that have been released
(50:15):
You want programmed cell death to clear out the garbage that's in there.
Senescent cells are cells that, as you know, replicated so often, they are inflammatory,but they're not doing anything.
And if you have too many of them, they cause harm to the mitochondria and to your health.
And in your brain, they're everywhere.
So because the—I didn't mention this, but the blue pigment, the way it kills the cancercells is that it—
(50:43):
In a healthy cell, the blue pigment phycocyanin speeds up what's called the cytochrome Cmolecule in the electron transport chain to speed up the production of ATP.
But in an unhealthy cell or a senescent cell or a cancer cell, the phycocyanin detectsthat it's a cancerous or senescent cell, ejects the cytochrome C molecule, which kills the
(51:05):
cell.
So that's why I call it intelligent food.
You have to be intelligent to take it and it knows what to do in your body.
Mother Nature, God bless her, right?
I can't take credit for algae, but I can take credit for growing it so carefully that wepreserve all the nutrients for you and your family.
But Mother Nature just stuns me.
(51:26):
The more I learn about algae and our bodies, it's a miracle, as close to a miracle asyou're gonna get.
Yeah.
No, it's quite beautiful.
Well, really appreciate you taking the time to chat with us here, Catharine.
And it's a fascinating topic.
And I think we've been utilizing it in our practice, but I think we'll be utilizing a lotmore.
(51:50):
I'm excited to go down that path.
So good.
your address and we'll ship some to your clinic.
And anyone who wants to learn more or wants to buy some, our website is energybits.com,E-N-E-R-G-Y, B for boy, I, T for Tom, S for Sam.
And we have a 20% discount code, which is GLADEN, G-L-A-D-D-E-N.
(52:15):
Works on all the products all the time.
We have large bags with really fun canisters that come with a bag inside or singleservings.
As I mentioned, this 20% discount code, a big bag of a thousand tablets, normally is 130,but the discount brings it down to 104.
Remember, that bag will last, if you took 10 tablets a day, it will last you three monthsand work out to a dollar per serving.
(52:40):
And so it's very good nutrition.
If you just want to try it out, which is great, go to Amazon and you can just buy singlepouches for six bucks and you can see if it works.
Nice.
Well, thank you so much.
I hope some people will definitely take some advantage of that.
That's a very generous offer.
Thank you for that.
Yeah, and the only thing, the last thing I'd like to leave with people is that algae isn'tnew.
(53:02):
Remember, it's three and a half billion years old, but it's just new to you because youdidn't grow up with it.
It's not grown here.
No one's explained it to you.
The pharmaceutical companies don't know, want you to know all the benefits of it.
So just like you didn't know about chia or matcha or
(53:23):
These were foods and nutrients that have been used by indigenous countries for centuries.
So algae is not new.
It's just new to you.
So it's going to change the world.
So, so give it a try.
Yeah.
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