Nitric Oxide, Aging, & Everyday Energy: What You Need to Know w Cathy Eason, Berkeley Life | Ep. 285 - The Aging Well Podcast

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
What if there was a molecule so central to energy, circulation,
and vitality that losing it withage could silently erode your
health? Welcome to the Aging World
podcast, where we explore the science stories and strategies
behind living a longer, healthier, and more purposeful
life. I am your host, Doctor Jeff
Armstrong, an exercise physiologist with a passion for

(00:21):
making science simple and life better as we age.
Today's episode is sponsored by Berkeley Life, a company focused
on supporting nitric oxide. Production is a foundation of
healthy aging, and my guest is Kathy Eason, a certified
nutritionist and the company's Chief Science Officer.
Kathy brings both clinical experience and deep biochemical

(00:41):
expertise to a conversation thatgoes far beyond marketing,
exploring how nitric oxide impacts our heart, brain, and
overall well-being. We'll talk about what nitric
oxide is, why it declines as we age, and what the research says
about diet, lifestyle, and supplementation.
And while this episode is supported by Berkeley Life, our
goal is to offer clear, unbiasedinsights into a molecule that

(01:05):
deserves far more attention in the longevity conversation.
This discussion will help you become a more informed advocate
for your own health and offer a new way of thinking about aging
well. The Aging Well Podcast
encourages informed decision making and always consult your
physician and scientific literature when making decisions
about your health. OK well Kathy, welcome to the

(01:27):
Aging Well podcast. For those who have never heard
of nitric oxide in a health context, what exactly is it and
why is it so vital to how we age?
Thank you, Jeff. Thank you for having me today
too. It's a pleasure to be here.
Nitric oxide is was named the miracle molecule for a reason.
There are multiple physiologicalsignaling mechanisms of this

(01:50):
little 2 atom gas that our body naturally produces it.
The study of it began in the late 1970s.
By the 1990s, pharmacologists were really studying it for its
signaling properties of vasodilation, widening, opening
the blood vessels, which has a huge implication in
cardiovascular health. Everything from preventing

(02:11):
platelet aggregation to improving blood flow, to
reducing blood pressure, regulating heart rate.
And so it won the moniker Miracle Molecule when it also
won a Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1998.
And since then, the study of themolecule itself has expanded so
greatly and the technologies have expanded so greatly, that

(02:34):
we know more about how we produce it in the body.
We know more about all the various signaling mechanisms of
it. And in my studies of nitric
oxide, it's difficult to find a body system that is not impacted
by this very important molecule.And now in in an aging well
standpoint, we are starting to call it the longevity molecule.

(02:55):
I call it the vitality molecule because this is my goal with
longevity is not just to live longer, but to live longer with
vibrancy and vitality and and still having all the fun I'm
having now at this mid part of my life.
And I would think, and we're going to explore this deeper, I
would think that the whole longevity moniker is probably
misplaced because does it reallymake us live longer per SE?

(03:17):
But it's going to make us live with greater vitality, greater
activity levels and all the things that would contribute to
us being able to live longer. Yeah.
And so. I would agree with that.
I think, I think we all have a, you know, we have a time stamp
and, and sometimes we learn of people who, you know, their time
stamp, the stamp surprises us. And other times, like my own

(03:37):
parents lived well into their 90s and, and pretty healthfully.
And so I don't think we should really focus on it extending our
life, but improving our quality of life over our lifespan.
That's really how I see it beinguseful.
Yeah, I like the phrases health span or wellspan far more than I
like longevity because I think longevity is just kind of

(03:58):
becoming this bio hack, you know, a Safeway of talking about
biohacking. We're not talking about
biohacking here. We're talking about affecting
blood flow or energy levels, cognition, all these things that
are important to stage well. So how does it affect these
things and what starts to happento our levels or when our levels
start to decline as we age? This is a subject we could talk

(04:21):
about for an hour, but in the simplest form, nitric oxide is
signals the body to create a chain of events that relaxes and
widens the blood vessels, that improves blood flow.
It improves oxygen and nutrient delivery throughout the body to
everybody tissue. It keeps our blood pressure

(04:42):
regulated by reducing the chanceof restrictions building up,
meaning we're less likely to build up blood clots, we're less
likely to build up platelet aggregations that cause
roadblocks to our blood flow. And when we start to see better
oxygen and nutrient delivery to all the tissues, we get better
tissue generation even through the aging process.

(05:03):
And that's why I said there's a system that it really doesn't
touch, because as soon as we start bringing better nutrition
to the lungs, to the intestinal tract, to our musculoskeletal
system, to our reproductive organs, we are going to see
improvements in function. And this is really well
documented in the scientific literature.
I already forgot the last part of your question.

(05:25):
Remind me again, he said. So what happens what's, you
know, kind of what starts to happen when those levels start
to? Decline into age, well we know.
So nitric oxide is produced in acouple pathways that we can talk
about. What are the pathways is that we
have an enzyme dependent pathwayin our endothelial tissue.
Endothelial tissue lines the lining of our blood vessels and

(05:47):
over time with natural age progression we see a decline in
the function of that endothelialtissue.
Couple that with this increasingly, I'm sorry to say
increasingly toxic world we livein, but we are surrounded by
oxidative stressors that impair the inflamed, the endothelial
tissue, impair function, impair the function of the enzymes that

(06:09):
produce nitric oxide. And but it's estimated now by
age 50, actually by age 40, we have about 50% reduced capacity
to make nitric oxide. That correlates clinically with
what we see in the literature about elevating blood pressure,
elevating risk of stroke, elevating risk of heart attack,

(06:30):
rising cholesterol levels as people age.
But it's not necessarily, I would never say that it's 100%
reversible that back to that longevity piece, but it's
definitely we can reverse and improve the quality of our
endothelial function so that ourbody continues to make more
nitric oxide. At the same time, it's important

(06:51):
that we reduce the oxidative stressors in our life that are
contributing to that inflammation that's impairing
that nitric oxide synthase. That's the enzyme.
It's impairing its function. At the same time, we can build
nitric oxide reserves through diet and through lifestyle
measures. And as a holistic nutritionist
and a holistic health proponent for many, many years, that's my

(07:14):
role is to teach everybody little things they can do every
day. And I should have asked you from
the start kind of to share with the audience here.
What is your background? You know your position with
Berkeley Life. Yeah, I am.
So I am a 20 plus year clinical nutritionist in holistic
nutrition. I am board certified in holistic

(07:35):
nutrition. I have a master's degree in
holistic nutrition and functional medicine.
I have followed the functional medicine providers who laid the
groundwork before us, sort of before biohacking was cool and
before, you know, learning that lab values were not always, lab
values provided by traditional medicine aren't always

(07:57):
applicable to a healthy person. They're applicable to an average
person. So and I taught nutritional
therapy practitioner training programs for over 15 years.
I've had a clinical practice forover 20 years.
And now I'm the chief science officer at Berkeley Life.
And most of the reason I took this role at Berkeley Life is
because I've been doing so much research into those

(08:19):
physiological signaling mechanisms.
And now I'm really interested inhow nitric oxide can be a health
promoting molecule as individuals age, and especially
as I'm aging, right? We all sort of take on an
interest that revolves around us.
I've been a pretty healthy person all my life.
I've worked for it and I want tocontinue to doing that, continue

(08:43):
doing that as I age so that I have vibrancy more so than I see
out in the general public. When I see so many mobility
issues and metabolic issues and,you know, lung dysfunctions.
I mean, all we have to do is spend a little time out in the
American public and we can see that we're struggling.
And I want to be part of that solution to educate everybody

(09:05):
that we we don't have to struggle so much as we age.
And we're going to use the time today to to take on that
education and that experience and educate our our listeners
and our viewers. So let's kind of start with what
are some of the first signs thatare a?
Digestive or a metabolic disorder, yes, but at the root

(09:51):
cause of it is reduced blood flow, not carrying the oxygen to
the cells to make energy, to keep us energized throughout our
daytime. So fatigue is one of the first
things we hear about. We also hear about cold hands
and feet. Brain fog.
What I noticed clinically is that women talk about brain fog.
Men don't call it brain fog, andthey don't.

(10:13):
They rarely admit to losing their words or not being able to
finish a task as as quickly as they used to at work, things
like that. So any kind of cognitive
disorder where you start to feellike, oh, I'm just getting old,
I can't remember a thing. No, let's challenge that and see
if we could get better blood flow to the brain to help your

(10:34):
neurotransmitter system functionmore optimally.
We also hear reduced sex drive, low libido, nitric oxide plays a
role in in bringing blood flow to the reproductive organs.
And so as people age, we often hear about erectile dysfunction
and now we're hearing more and talking more about female sexual
dysfunction. We hear dry skin wounds that

(10:58):
don't heal very well, hair loss,neuropathies, peripheral nerve
disease where we're getting tingling and and lack of
circulation to those distal extremities like the hands and
feet. And we start to starts with the
coldness and then people often find that numbness and tingling
after it. Mood disorders, depression,

(11:18):
anxiety. Anxiety is a big one that we
hear about being remedied by boosting nitric oxide immune
challenges. I could also I'm a happen to be
an autoimmune specialist in the nutrition world and I work with
a lot of autoimmune challenged individuals who they have all
those symptoms and more. The low energy, the dry in the

(11:40):
poor gastric motility and digestive issues.
And when we start to up regulateand boost nitric oxide in the
body, their immune system functions a little more more
optimally because it's another area where this important
signaling molecule plays a role in having an appropriate immune
response. So people who get sick
frequently and that they catch acold and that cough lingers for

(12:04):
months and weeks, you know, we start to think about low blood
flow, low oxygen and low nutrient status to those tissues
as well, too. So that's the short list.
It's pretty inclusive and it seems like that is pretty much
almost all of us as we are agingor hitting certain of those
signs. And so Berkeley Life focuses on

(12:25):
nitric oxide support. That's I think really the sole
purpose of the company. If I understand you all, it is.
It is, we are. We believe it's the foundation
to health. So what does the current science
tell us about boosting nitric oxide naturally through food,
exercise, as well as supplements?
If you're enjoying the Aging Well podcast, be sure to like,

(12:46):
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(13:08):
recommending to our valued viewers and listeners.
Thank you. And now back to the podcast.
Yeah, let's talk about the the food form, because the food form
is the pathway to production in the body that Berkeley by
follows with its formula to boost dietary nitrates, which
then boost our ability to through oxidative reduction,

(13:29):
reduction reactions. We break it down to nitric
oxide. So we enjoy dietary nitrates in
things like leafy green vegetables, spinach, arugula,
kale, beet greens. Beet root is very high in
nitrate. It's in celery.
It's in one of my favorite summer foods, rhubarb.

(13:51):
And rhubarb doesn't always have to be sweet.
You can make it into great little chutneys and, and pickle
them and things like that. But nitrates are in the plant
world. They are also in animal foods.
But as the the food industry hasgotten us away from more
organically, sustainably raised animals, of course, the nitrates
have gone down. And not all spinach across the

(14:13):
country is going to contain the same amount of nitrate because
the soil loss of nutrients and including nitrate and not
pesticide laden nitrate, but we're talking natural inorganic
nitrates. So we eat our leafy green
vegetables, we eat our arugula salad and we chew it really
well. And what we're doing is we're

(14:34):
introducing nitrates into the body, but we're also introducing
those nitrates to the complementof oral microbes that live in
the oral cavity. There are at least 20 some
families of species that live inour oral cavity and several of
them are nitrate reducing, meaning they can be bathed with
nitrates and they use that as food.

(14:56):
They are nitrates are prebiotic to these oral microbes and they
start to break down some of the nitrate.
Not a lot of that is happening from our food.
We chew our spinach, we swallow it.
The activity of our digestive system, appropriate levels of
stomach acid, they each have a unique half life.

(15:16):
Nitrate is a slightly larger molecule, so it has a half life

(15:39):
of about 8 hours. Nitrite has a smaller molecular
structure. Its half life is 45 minutes to
an hour. And nitric oxide is a gas.
It has a half life of two to three milliseconds to maybe up
to 1 to 2 seconds depending on the conditions in the body.
And all of this exchange betweennitrate to nitrite to nitric

(16:00):
oxide is happening through the exchange of electrons.
It's a biochemical process. It's very natural that it
happens when conditions are right.
And so we circulate these these nitrates and nitrites, but we
can't utilize them all. Even though it's an amazing
signaling molecule all through the body, we can't utilize them
all. So the kidneys excrete about 60%

(16:21):
of the ingested dietary nitrate we use, call it 20% of them and
the rest of it is recirculated. And then this is what I think is
the most beautiful physiologicalmechanism I've studied is in RNA
intelligence in our body, we recirculate those nitrates to
the salivary glands. There is a specific transport

(16:43):
protein called cialin that grabsthose nitrates, pulls them into
specific cells within the salivary glands as like a
storage locker for nitrates. And now all day long, as we
salivate, we are bathing the oral micro community that helps
us breakdown nitrate to the nextstep, nitrite, and the whole

(17:04):
recycling process starts again. This is why nutritionists will
tell you to eat your leafy greens to chew your leafy greens
to yes, you have to have them every day.
And when we think about it that way, coupled with the fact that
the Center for Disease Control says that 9 out of 10 Americans
do not eat the minimum recommended vegetables daily,

(17:25):
that's 90% of our population is not eating enough vegetables and
guaranteed they're not eating the vegetables that I have every
day, arugula, Swiss Chard, kale,spinach.
And we so we know that this is part of the decline in nitric
oxide production as people simply are not engaging enough
in the dietary aspect of it and not getting their dietary

(17:48):
nitrates. There are many other ways
holistically to build nitric oxide in the body because again,
our body is smart, it knows we need this.
And if we have a enzyme pathway to building nitric oxide that
starts to get dysfunctional because of age, because the lack
of cofactor nutrients, because of oxidative stress, because of

(18:09):
a gene variation that doesn't let the body produce nitric
oxide enough, and then we reallyneed to rely on this dietary
nitrate pathway. And the easiest way to do it of
course is eating leafy greens. But we can also do things like
moderate daily exercise. Moderate daily exercise has been
shown to uptake or to up regulate nitric oxide

(18:30):
production. There is such a thing as
exercising too much and we know that.
And you're the specialist in this.
The individuals who over exercise put themselves at
greater oxidative risk than theycan recover because they lack
antioxidants in the diet, they lack the dietary nitrates to
produce nitric oxide. So we want that moderate level
of exercise for optimal NO production.

(18:53):
We can do things like nostril breathing.
We have a culture and especiallyyou and I live in the Pacific
Northwest and we are surrounded by molds and fungus and
individuals who are susceptible to that.
We, I, I, I'm a clinician, so I pay attention to the
observational cues and you can hear the sinus congestion and

(19:15):
the coughing and things like that.
People become accustomed to mouth breathing and they forget
to breathe through the nostrils.When we breathe through the
nostrils, we create nitric oxidein the paranasal cavities for
immediate use in the bloodstream.
And guess what, it's close to your paranasal cavities.
But is your brain where we can improve cerebral blood flow and

(19:37):
cerebral levels of nitric oxide for all the signaling that does
in your brain mechanism. So we can exercise, we can
practice breath work and all the, you know, there's many,
many types of targeted breath workout there to tone the
autonomic nervous system. My favorite is the 478 breath.
I like to encourage individuals to do that.

(19:58):
Deep inhale through the nostrilsfor four seconds.
Hold your breath for seven, exhale through nostrils and open
mouth for 8 seconds. Repeat it three times.
That's a great way to build nitric oxide.
And then there's the avoidance strategies and the avoidance
strategies. I hope for your listeners.
Are already in place, it is avoiding smoking and vaping.

(20:19):
And we know that when we start to disrupt the balance of the
oral microbiome, we're going to tank our ability to make NL.
And though that that habit, thatlifestyle habit is just
destructive to the oral microbiome and it can lead to
all sorts of other conditions ofcourse too.
So we avoid smoking and vaping. We oral health and oral hygiene

(20:40):
is super important and this might be surprising to some
listeners that the model has turned in oral systemic health
practitioner circles where we don't want the most antiseptic
mouth possible. We want a balanced oral
microbiome, so we avoid things like highly antiseptic
Chlorhexidine based mouthwashes.There's a lot of evidence that

(21:04):
fluoride toothpaste are contributing to the demise and
the dysfunction of the oral microbiome.
So we use alternatives for that.Practicing better mechanical
brushing and mechanical flossingand water picking is a better
Ave. than trying to rinse your mouth with an over the counter
mouthwash that is really just doing more harm than good.
So those kinds of things. And then it's it's some things

(21:26):
that I hope your listeners are already doing.
Avoiding excessive sugar, avoiding excessive alcohol.
You're hearing the word excessive for a reason.
You know, you can have the occasional beer or Margarita or
whatever you enjoy, but let's bemindful about our intake and not
do things that excessively overtime, repeatedly break down

(21:46):
the very cycle that we need for this amazing nitrate recycling
process. That's, that's also the short
list, you know, mindful meditation and sleep patterns,
things like that are also important to maintaining sort of
the cyclical recycling of nitricoxide.
It's pretty much hit most of oursix pillars of health, which

(22:06):
are, you know, exercise, maintaining healthy body
composition, eating a healthy diet, not smoking, good sleep
hygiene and purposeful social connections.
So one thing that kind of struckme, you know, we, we hear a lot
of like, you know, people that promote athletic greens is
probably one of the most popularpowdered greens.
And it's like I got to get my vegetables in.

(22:27):
That's an easy way to get a lot of those.
But it sounds to me like that's probably not advantageous to
promoting nitric oxide because we're not chewing it.
It's kind of bypassing that whole system and we may not get
as much nitric oxide. Is that correct?
That is correct. And as a clinician and as
somebody who's worked with functional digestive disorders

(22:47):
for over 20 years, chewing is one of the most important things
you can do with every food. But yes, especially with the
nitrate. So if you are somebody using AG
one or another type of powder, you need to be swishing that
around in your mouth because thenitrates that are in there need
to bathe the oral microbiome. And you can get better nutrient
assimilation by turning your brain on to the idea that, oh,

(23:11):
I'm eating and I know I'm eatingbecause I'm chewing and when I'm
chewing. And that mechanical action
starts to send nervous system signals that then promote the
whole optimal chemical cascade of of digestive function.
So it's very important to do that.
We do have, I first found Berkeley life as a clinician,

(23:32):
gosh, about I think it was about2010.
And at that time all they were promoting were their nitric
oxide test strips. And I thought, well, isn't this
interest interesting because I knew about using nitric oxide,
pardon the expression, but I called it in the bro culture in
the gym and you know, and with individuals trying to, you know,

(23:54):
work on recovery and protein breakdown and metabolism and
things like that. But I thought it's interesting.
But at the time, the only solution really were these sort
of blanket beetroot powder suggestions to boost your nitric
oxide. And I love beets, but not a lot
of my clients over the years have loved beets as much as I

(24:15):
do. And so even drinking a beetroot
powder was just really non palatable to them and wasn't
really helping. Fast forward several years and
Brickley Life worked on a proprietary plant based, we call
it plant based because it's vegan, but it's nitrate sourced
from beets and leafy green vegetables concentrated in a

(24:35):
clinically validated quantity with important cofactor
nutrients for nitric oxide assimilation or should I say
nitrate assimilation to produce nitric oxide.
And when I I had been using other products clinically, now I
had a test strip and a complementary product to show
whether or not this formula was actually working.

(24:57):
And I started using the test strip against other products I
had been using clinically for many years and realized my
patients had been wasting their time because we weren't seeing
any impact of it. Whereas the nitric oxide test
strips actually show it how wellyour body is converting at the
time. We can talk, we can dive into
that too. Yeah.
It'd be a nice thing that if almost all the supplements that

(25:21):
are sold to us came with some means of knowing whether they
actually worked or not, you know, because too many people
are taking supplements that you don't know.
I mean, you buy them on Amazon. There's been so many different
stories of things just being nothing in it really.
It's basically just a powder or they sell it to you and you
think, oh, it's working. It's just great stuff.
Absolutely we so our formula if I might, if I may, our formula

(25:43):
has a guaranteed it's 500 milligrams of dietary nitrate
that would be the equivalent of eating probably about 7 big cups
of raw spinach, 7 ounces of beets.
Most of my patients are not willing to do that and they're
also not chewing their food enough, even though I talked to
them about that all the time. And they also contain cofactors

(26:07):
for like some vitamin C. Antioxidant vitamins are very
important to preserving the integrity of nitrates because in
the body without nitric oxide itself as a gas is both
oxidative and it can be beneficial.
It can be the signaling molecule.
We want to prevent the oxidationby having sufficient

(26:28):
antioxidants in the diet. So in the formula, we also have
antioxidant to protect the nitrates from becoming
inflammatory and following an amination path we don't want
them to follow. That's when it binds to a
protein and can become problematic.
We also have some important methylated B vitamins so that we

(26:48):
can help stimulate red blood cells to better carry oxygen.
That's part of improving blood flow and improving oxygen
delivery. It also stimulates your
digestive system to create the cascade necessary to breakdown
your dietary nitrates. We have some magnesium in the
formula to help with muscle smooth muscle relaxation, which

(27:09):
includes the smooth muscles of your blood vessels.
So you have like an augment factor for widening your blood
vessels. And when I started using this
clinically with my patients, I started to see, and I still do,
that their supplement stack thatthey think they need is greatly
reduced. Because once we open blood flow

(27:31):
and once we open oxygenation andnutrient delivery to the
tissues, the body can better do its own work and we don't need
as many supplements on top of it.
And so now I personally want my patients to eat better food, to
take vacations, go to their favorite concert, you know, and,
and buy something nice for the house, for the family, rather
than spend hundreds of dollars on supplements every month.

(27:55):
And I found clinically over the years that this really is the
foundational stack, meaning we start with improving blood flow.
Now, if we need some other nutrition supplementation to
repair a digestive dysfunction, to help through a metabolic
crisis, blood sugar regulation, things like that, we can stack

(28:17):
on to it. But it's greatly reduced the
amount of money my patients spend on supplements.
I love that part. Yeah, It seems like it would
dramatically affect the need formany of these supplements or
even how much you would have to take in order to get the same
effect. I mean, we know magnesium is
really important and most peopleare not getting enough
magnesium, but having to load upmagnesium because we're

(28:39):
deficient in the ability to transport it to utilize it at
the muscular level. And we've talked on this podcast
about the role of magnesium in relaxing the skeletal muscle and
it's balancing with the calcium,but hadn't even given it as much
thought. And shame on me for not thinking
about its role in the blood, blood vessel relaxation as well.
I mean, we know it works in the smooth muscle of the gut to

(29:01):
relax. We have better bowel movement,
which should help with better new nutrient absorption.
But yeah, so all this stuff is working together and all kind of
comes down to this one small little molecule that many of us
ignore. I think one other mechanism
that's important for your listeners because they're savvy,
they've heard a lot about mitochondrial health, I'm sure

(29:21):
one of the roles of nitric oxidein the body is to signal
mitochondrial Biogenesis, that is the regeneration of old less
than functional mitochondria. You know this, but we, we take
two mitochondria that aren't functioning so well.
We fuse the good parts together and we recycle away the damaged

(29:42):
parts. And now we have a, a newly
healthy functioning mitochondria.
And nitric oxide plays a huge role in signalling that.
And I see it clinically and I see it in the hundreds of
practitioners I talked to through the month that the first
thing people notice is improved energy.
And it's it, but it's not like you're taking a, a energy drink

(30:05):
and feeling it right away. But I it is, you know, builds up
overtime. Like, wait a minute, it's easier
for me to pop out of bed in the morning.
Wait a minute, I'm not dragging my feet to the gym.
I want to go on a walk with the kids after dinner.
I don't want to just go sit on the couch.
And so those little lifestyle energy pieces I think are
important. I go to a lot of conferences and

(30:27):
practitioners tend to be very body aware and they will come up
to me and say, is it possible I just took a dose?
Is it possible I'm feeling my blood flow faster already?
I'm like, OK, first of all, it'snot your blood flowing faster.
It's your blood flowing more smoothly with less restriction
and, you know, in a more regulated way.
And I'm not sure you're feeling your blood flow, but you might

(30:48):
be feeling that better nutrient uptake and the oxygenation of
the mitochondria and feeling that ATP production, feeling
that energy boost. And that's probably the number
one thing I hear the most is that I have better energy.
And then I also hear I seem to have better mental clarity
through the day and I can focus longer.

(31:08):
I'm not grabbing for coffee in the afternoon.
Several people have told me theyquit coffee using dietary
nitrate support. I don't know if I could quit my.
Coffee. I haven't quit my coffee, Jeff.
I'm still drinking coffee too. We're in the Pacific Northwest.
You almost have to. I know, right?
It's a rite of passage. Yeah, for me, coffee is not that
a needed stimulant. It's just I don't even call it a

(31:30):
habit. I enjoy the taste of it.
Yeah, it's how I kind of delivermy turmeric in the morning.
Yes, exactly. Yeah.
So, yeah, so this is fascinating.
I mean, we're just kind of putting together a lot of the
Physiology that, you know, I'm try and teach in many, many
chapters of exercise science to to my students.
You know, we're increasing bloodflow to the muscle and to the

(31:52):
brain is going to help with function.
But it's not just about getting the blood flow there.
It's what's happening once it gets there.
And most people probably don't realize that mitochondria are
very fluid in the tissues. They, they, they're breaking
down and rebuilding constantly. And from what I'm hearing here,
it's almost like kind of an analogy would be that you are on

(32:14):
a construction site that's goingto be better coordinated in
terms of the deconstruction and the construction to be able to
manage the flow of work within the cell, kind of the correct
analogy. Yeah, that's a great analogy.
I'm going to borrow that. I will give you.
You can borrow that. Just get Commission on that.
No, but so let's say we've talked about foods, the many

(32:39):
nitric oxide precursors that arefound in vegetables like beets
and arugula. And I think again, we're
underscoring the importance of having the whole food.
I think for the people who are smoothie drinkers, they might
want to rethink that daily smoothie because even though
like I'd like to put tons of spinach in my, my whey protein
shakes, thinking that that's going to give me greater

(32:59):
benefit. But what I'm hearing is it's
it's benefiting me some, but I'mlosing much of the benefit of
that spinach by blending it up and not having to chew it and
just swallow it into my gut. Is that correct?
I don't know that you're losing all the benefit is you're not
getting all the benefits. So the difference being, I tell
people to drink their solids andchew their liquids.

(33:20):
So what do we do when we make a smoothie?
We taste it, we go, oh, that's good.
And then we kind of knock it back.
No, we need to treat it with themindfulness that we would treat
every meal. And this is especially important
for anybody with a digestive issue.
Part of digestion is not is partof digestive issues starts in my
opinion, starts with the brain. And we need important brain
signaling mechanisms to be functional so that everything

(33:43):
else in the digestive cascade works.
And if you take out the very important part of it, which is
actually chewing the food, that mechanical action sends a signal
to the brain that then signals the cascade of digestive
hormones and secretions that youneed to get the most benefit out
of those nutrients. So you just got to chew your
smoothies and it might feel kindof strange but you know it like

(34:06):
your Our grandmothers taught us to chew our foods 30 times.
Well, just take a few actions like that before you swallow and
be mindful with it. Test yourself.
Normally you drink your smoothiein 5 minutes, try to make it
last for 30 minutes. What would your breakfast, how
long would your breakfast take if you actually took one bite at
a time? Right?
Think about that when try to increase the amount of time to

(34:29):
drink your smoothie every day and notice what it does to your
digestion, to your energy level.See if maybe you notice, you
know, a little less indigestion and oh, I'm burping spinach.
Well, you shouldn't be burping spinach if your digestive
function is, is fully engaged. So we want to be mindful of
that. So chewing my smoothie, you're

(34:50):
kind of like talking about just kind of swishing it around in my
mouth and just kind of letting that taste, yes, be present
rather than just putting it. Back.
Pretend you got a bite of salad.Pretend you have a bite of your
grass fed steak. Pretend you have a bite of fish.
I think one way to help with that is to put frozen
blueberries in it, or yeah, somekind of frozen fruit so that it

(35:11):
it's so cold that if you try anddrink it too fast you're gonna
get brain freeze. But yeah, absolutely,
absolutely. So we don't have to eat, you
know, 5 lbs of lettuce a day. We can drink it, but we want to
make sure that we're more mindful in terms of getting it
into the gut. Yeah.
And I want to make a point that people will say, well, if I'm
eating, if I'm eating these dietary nitrates every day, do I

(35:33):
really need to take a supplement?
And I think the question becomeswhat is your age, how much
oxidative stress have you built up in the endothelial tissue to
this point in your life? Do you have oxidative stressors
in your life right now? And we do, we all do.
We have the physical stress we willingly put our bodies through

(35:53):
when we exercise. That creates some oxidative
stress and it needs some help repairing.
That's part of the natural, you know, breakdown and rebuild,
breakdown and rebuild process. But we also are, you know, we
are, we have to succumb to traffic and pollution.
We have emotional stress that leads to, it's been
scientifically proven that emotional stress has an impact,

(36:14):
inflammatory impact on the endothelia tissue.
And are you doing those other lifestyle things?
Are you getting in nature? Are you deep nostril breathing
every day? Are you getting adequate sleep?
Are you avoiding those damaging features of oral hygiene
products? We really need to think about
the whole big picture of it. And then knowing that if you

(36:47):
haven't been eating to me one day, like, why aren't I taking
this every day? And when I started taking it
every day was when I started to notice a lot of things that were
sort of those nagging signs of aging that I thought were normal

(37:12):
and they weren't. So it was the bounding out of
bed in the morning rather than staying, hitting the snooze
button and staying a little longer.
It's the mental acuity through the day.
I feel like I can focus through the day a lot longer and be more
productive and I definitely havemore energy than friends younger
than I do, and I'm going to keepdoing that.

(37:33):
I'm going to win that competition.
So if there is that individual out there with just the perfect
lifestyle and then say some billionaire who is spending
millions of dollars a year to live forever, not to mention any
names, but they start taking nitric oxide.
Is it possible to generate too much nitric oxide?

(37:54):
And how would an individual knowthis?
Yeah. It what clinically and based on
the clinical testimonials of many, many, many healthcare
providers, it is nearly impossible to create too much NO
through the dietary nitrate pathway.
However, it's important that we mentioned the body's enzyme
dependent pathway because it's a, these are complementary

(38:16):
systems, but there is a greater percentage of nitric oxide
produced through the enzyme function in our body.
And I mentioned before that thatenzyme is called nitric oxide
synthase and it functions withinthe endothelial tissue.
Fast forward, Mr. Billionaire maybe previously had high
oxidative stress in his blood, in his endothelial tissue.

(38:39):
He wasn't going to make nitric oxide very well.
And so there's a rebuilding point getting that inflammation
out of the endothelium. And now he's there's less
oxidative stress on the enzyme. So it functions better
oftentimes. I mentioned the genetic
component. We now know somebody like the
billionaire will go and do the genetic testing and find every

(39:02):
single gene variation they have and be able to biohack it.
There are at least 27 known genevariations around the nitric
oxide synthase enzymes. So some people just aren't going
to be able to produce enough. So supplementing might be
helpful. The nitric oxide synthase has
several versions of it appropriate immune response to

(39:47):
neutralize this pathogen and getit out of the body.
Inducible nitric oxide synthase then is triggered to flood a
local area with a bunch of nitric oxide.
Because nitric oxide, remember Isaid it can be both beneficial,
but it can also be oxidative. When it's in its oxidative
state, it can. Kill a pathogen, it's very anti

(40:09):
pathogenic, so your body's doingthat with inos to kick up the
nitric oxide level. There are conditions where
people can have an out of control or an hyper regulated
inos activity. They have too much nitric oxide
and it starts to play a role in tissue degradation because it's

(40:29):
oxidizing too much. We might see this in an
autoimmune condition like Hashimoto's thyroiditis or in
lupus or in multiple sclerosis. There are research studies I'm
really pleased to have found andI follow the work of doctor
Terry Walls, who's an autoimmunespecialist and also an
autoimmune sufferer in and of herself.

(40:49):
And she agrees or she agreed with me in an exchange that this
science is interesting because it shows that by up regulating
the dietary nitrate pathway withyour spinach, with your kale,
with your arugula. And if you know her work, she is
a proponent of nine cups of sulfur rich foods, vegetables a
day and I, I've eaten dinner with her, she really can't eat

(41:11):
that much vegetable and she chews it all.
But by by up regulating the dietary nitrate pathway versus
the enzyme pathway, you can modulate or reduce the
overproduction in that enzyme dependent pathway.
So we call it attenuating, we call it bringing down, turning
down the dial on that hyper regulated condition that's

(41:33):
creating too much inflammation. It's done its job, but now maybe
it's attacking the thyroid gland.
So we want to have a balance of both.
So the body learns to use the circulating systemic nitrate and
nitrite to make nitric oxide that has a more leveling
component rather than this inducible.
So how would a patient know theycould take the salivary test

(41:56):
strips and and test themselves? It's a simple 10 second test.
You can see this, but your listeners can't.
There's a test strip, one end says salt saliva here you get a
pool of saliva, you dip your test strip in it, you get it
wet, you transfer the saliva to the other side.
And then we'll see how I'm doingthis morning.

(42:17):
You'll see that I have pretty much, I'm a little bit close to
the target zone, maybe a little bit low.
Somebody with too much nitric oxide would show high
consistently on this strip. But when I say consistently, I
mean they would test several times a day and it would be high
every time. They would test the next day, it

(42:38):
would be high every time. Personally haven't seen that
clinically even in my autoimmunepatients who are in a flare up
they we don't see that happening.
The circuit the inducible nitricoxide is is in excess more
localized and not so systemic. So unless if the patient is
testing super high every single day, several times a day, that

(43:02):
might be a time where I'd say, OK, let's back off the dietary
nitrates. Let's take them out of your
diet, shift your diet until you're out of this flare up,
until the inducible activity hasdampened down.
But at the same time, we're going to be reworking those
foods and possibly supplementation back into their
diet so that they can help regulate that function.

(43:23):
And the seesaw is not so out of balance.
Question already, and I'm not sure if our listeners and
viewers are attuned to the answer, but who?
Who should or should not test for their nitric oxide?
I think everybody should test. I walk around with test strips
in a bag every day. I'm not shy.

(43:43):
So I oftentimes say, hey, you want to test your nitric oxide.
And what you're really testing is you're testing the ability of
those oral microbes to convert the nitrate that's being
excreted into the mouth from thesaliva to nitrite.
So what the test strip is picking up is nitrite.
And these have been clinically validated to relate to both

(44:05):
plasma and salivary levels lab tested.
So we know that they're they're not quantifiable, but we know
that within the range of color that it shows, there are
quantifiable measures that show,you know, optimal or deficient.
So anybody over the age of 40 islikely to already have
endothelial decline that is compromising their Nos enzyme

(44:28):
ability to make nitric oxide. So you want to get a baseline.
And what I tell people to do when they get some test strips
is they test first thing in the morning because overnight you
would have gone through some digestive processes, some blood
sugar regulation processes, somedetoxification and immune
processes. And because nitric oxide is
involved in every one of those systems, you know, you've

(44:50):
utilized your substrate, the nitrate and the nitrate to use
it. Nitric oxide doesn't hang
around. Remember, it's a gas, so once
it's spent, we have to ingest more of the raw ingredients to
make it. So they test in the morning and
then we encourage people to takea standard dose of our nitric
oxide foundation. That's the dietary nitrates,

(45:12):
vitamin C, some B vitamins and some magnesium.
And then set a timer and 90 minutes later, test your levels
again. You should see some progression
on the test strip. You may not reach the target
zone or the optimal zone, but you should see some progression.
And now you know that that recycling system, the digestion

(45:32):
of it, they pull into the bloodstream, the recycling to
the salivary glands, and the quality and diversity of the
oral microbiome is sufficient tohelp you breakdown the nitrates
you're eating. Great, we know we have
conversion now. How long is that dose helping
me? Maybe later in the afternoon.
If you're somebody who gets thatlittle slump and is looking for
sugar or caffeine or some test yourself again, your nitrate

(45:56):
level may have dropped, so your nitrite level on your test strap
may have dropped too. It's your reminder to do your
breathing exercises, to take a walk after dinner, to get rid of
that mouthwash that we've been talking about, and to eat a
leafy green salad at dinner. You might also want to take.
Maybe you're a weight lifter at the gym, you want a boost.

(46:16):
You might also want to take an additional dose if you're.
If after 90 minutes there's no change in the test strip, I
start to suspect there's a breakdown in the recycling
pathway. The first place we look is the
oral microbiome. Maybe we don't have the
sufficient quantity and quality of microbes in our mouth to help

(46:37):
us with that important process. And they do that, by the way,
they have their own nitrate reductase enzyme.
That's how they help us break nitrates into a smaller compound
that we can assimilate. And so if they don't see any
change, we have a prebiotic nitrate chewing gum that I call
a functional gum or a therapeutic gum.

(46:58):
You chew one piece of gum twice a day for 5 minutes in between
meals. And what you're doing is it's a
nitrate rich gum with some very specific sugar alcohols in the
gum base that are well studied in dentistry for dampening down
acidic bacteria and promoting the beneficial ones, including
the nitrate rich or nitrate reducing bacteria.

(47:19):
So you chew that gum for 5 minutes and what I've seen
clinically is that within one totwo weeks of twice a day gum
chewing now when somebody takes a dose and or it takes a test in
the morning and they're low, they take a full dose of
nitrates and they test 90 minutes later.
Now they're starting to see progress.
Now they're starting to see thattest strip chain, maybe they no
longer need the gum and we can move on to that.

(47:41):
The other things I would look for if somebody's test strip is
not changing, is there the quality of their upper
gastrointestinal digestive function.
So that's how's your stomach acid, how's your enzyme
function? If we already know they have
some kind of intestinal dysbiosis, that you know, that
intestinal microbiome is is disrupted, then that could be a

(48:04):
answer to why they're not converting on the test strip.
But I think everybody should test.
We encourage people to have teststrips at healthcare provider
offices so we can start that conversation.
If you are over 40, your endothelial decline has already
started to happen, so you can expect to be a little low on the
scale. If you are still, excuse me, if

(48:26):
you are still eating all your leafy green vegetables and
you're not seeing results on thetest strip, then we want to know
maybe you need a boost, Maybe weneed to work on some of those
features in the pathway that I just talked.
About great answer. And I was thinking, you know,
it's everybody from the the bro at the gym to somebody with
heart disease to somebody with an autoimmune disorder.

(48:47):
Yeah, they're just an old fart like myself.
Just wants a little bit more energy.
Well, and I, because I'm also identifies an old fart, I want
to make a really important distinction for women listeners
over 50 because we know that nitric oxide enzyme production
declines as we age, but we also know that during the menopausal

(49:08):
years, that's from perimenopauseall the way through
postmenopause. The science literature shows us
that there's a dematic drop in nitric oxide production in women
that directly correlates to increased risk of cardiovascular
disease because now we start to see that the blood vessels
aren't as smooth and flexible. They don't have their tone.
That woman might go to the doctor and her blood pressure

(49:30):
starts creeping up. And there's some concern there.
And the reason that's happening is that with the decline in
estrogen, the Nos enzyme doesn'tfunction as well because it
really requires activated receptor sites for estrogen
hormone to be fully functional. And as there's less estrogen,
there's less activated receptor sites and there's less nitric

(49:52):
oxide production as a result. And now cardiovascular disease
risk in women goes up. And when we consider that it's
still heart disease is still thenumber one cause of death for
both men and women in the country, but it starts to become
a very real situation. We can all think of people who
went before us too young and we want to be preventive about

(50:13):
that. So ladies, if you're in that
menopausal transition area of life or if you're
postmenopausal, this is important for you to understand
that you have to get your dietary nitrate so you can make
appropriate enough. And I'm hearing also that it's
not acceptable to receive the response from your doctor.
You're just getting older. No, that is not acceptable.
You are the owner of your body. You you know your body better

(50:36):
than your doctor does and you have agency of choice.
And you need to ask questions. And if they don't know the
answers, then let's help you find a different provider who
does know the answer. So you, you mentioned
perimenopause and menopause. What about the male andropause,
if that's in the correct term? I'm not a big, big fan of that.
I think we're almost appropriating from women's

(50:56):
menopause and and perimenopause and you know, andropause is not
as to me as significant as at least symptomatically is, is
significant is, you know, femalemenopause and perimenopause so
well. What?
About that, it's worth considering because so
andropause just being the decline in androgens that

(51:18):
includes testosterone and by theway, women are going through
andropause too. We have a lot of evidence that
testosterone levels in women decline greater than we thought,
and that's contributing some to some of the menopausal signs and
symptoms. But testosterone has a different
relationship to nitric oxide than estrogen does.

(51:38):
So estrogen receptors, they connect to an estrogen hormone
in the bloodstream. They send a signal to do lots of
things in the body. And we know that nitric oxide
synthase needs those activated receptors to be fully
functional. Testosterone is different in
that, especially during male sexual function, testosterone

(52:00):
actually sends the signal to release more nitric oxide to
open blood flow to the genitaliaso that men can maintain an
erection. That's one important component
of it. But there's another important
component that relates more to metabolism and digestive
function and weight gain. Nitric oxide signals hormones.

(52:20):
It signals hormones of hunger and satiety, but it also signals
the hormone it signals to be more sensitive to insulin.
So we have better glucose uptakeinto the cell.
We have less resistance to our insulin, which creates
conditions like metabolic syndrome and eventually

(52:41):
diabetes. When testosterone is too low and
when insulin sensitivity is poorand a man is starting to get
insulin resistance, insulin resistance can compete or
insulin can compete with testosterone sites because they
have a similar steroid structure.

(53:04):
And so we start to see men tending toward pre diabetic at
the same time they might be developing erectile dysfunction
because testosterone is low, It's not signaling enough.
And oh, and then there's all this other oxidative stress that
is not allowing nitric oxide to be produced.
So it's, it's rather complex, but it's really about

(53:26):
maintaining balance of all thesesignaling molecules.
Hormones have, you know, they'reknown as a conversationalist, if
you will, in the body. And we're still learning about
those sex hormones and everything they signal.
But we know that that's an important piece of it.
And when nitric oxide is, or when testosterone is signaling
nitric oxide in a man, it's not just to ensure that he can have

(53:49):
arousal and maintain an erection.
It's, and it's not just localized to that tissue.
The signaling happens all throughout the body.
So now he can have better blood flow to the brain and he can,
you know, he can have better oxygenation and nutrient
delivery to the brain too. So his, his thought processes,
his mood, his cognition are going to be better too.

(54:11):
His gastric motility is going tobe better.
The immune function, all the other things I've mentioned.
So it's it's sort of not all or nothing unless we're talking
about that inducible trying to attack a pathogen that's a
little bit more targeted nitric oxide.
So it sounds like it's a little bit more than just taking the
little blue pill, you know when you think you need it, and that

(54:32):
it's much more about the overallhealth of the male and the
female. Yeah, Berkeley Life is proud to
be, we sponsor research, we're really open about it.
We have clinical researchers around the world.
That's one of my roles as I get to meet these incredible
scientists, learn about their research.
We donate product, we sometimes fund studies.

(54:53):
And I want to be really transparent about that because
we're trying to be part of the the solution and the answers.
These are gold standard double-blind clinical trials
that are placebo-controlled. We, we, you know, they are not
there. We have done an open label study
to show the value of our test strip and the efficacy of it and
show that we have a 24 hour duration of effect of the

(55:15):
product. But really our research dollars
are going to fund these sort of unanswered questions, especially
in the aging process. So I'm really proud to be that
we're you know, a lot of people think, oh, you know, you're just
funding your own study to make sure your, you know, supplement
gets sold. Not the case, you know, we are
willing to say when something didn't work, but what we're

(55:35):
excited about right now we have in progress.
Right now. We have both a male sexual
function pilot study and a female sexual function phase two
study going on. And for the ladies out there,
the female sexual function pilotstudy showed some really good
results in a couple remarkable areas.

(55:56):
Improved desire and approved orgasm.
Those were statistically significant.
Less statistically proven were increases in things like
lubrication, meaning less pain with sex.
And this is also different sexual function parameters are
being studied in men right now too.
But the other exciting piece of this study is that we're finding

(56:19):
and, and of our landmark blood pressure study, we did a blood
pressure study showing a with 12weeks of use, a 12.5 point
reduction in systolic blood pressure.
That's the upper number and an improvement like a 28%
improvement in circulation as measured by flow mediated
dilation. It's a great lab test.

(56:41):
I wish I could have someday and but the, I think what the
exciting thing is in this coupled with all the other
holistic measures we've talked about, if we can do the breath
work and the diet and reduce ourstress and get those toxins out
of our life and eat our dietary nitrates and really absorb them,
really utilize them. We're seeing directional trends
in reduction in inflammatory blood markers, things like low

(57:04):
density lipoprotein, so your LDLcholesterol.
We're seeing reductions in important markers for blood
sugar dysregulation so that hemoglobin A1C coming down in 12
weeks. Does it take longer?
Probably in the female sexual function trial.
Some of the interesting directional trends and again not

(57:24):
statistically significant but important nonetheless is sleep
improvement and and stress mitigation.
We know that nitric oxide plays a role in coordinating our
responses to our stress hormones.
And so if we can be more adaptive to stress, we can start
to reduce things like depressionand anxiety and we can get all
that neuronal communication happening better.

(57:47):
And I think everybody deserves to have a healthy functioning
sex life as they age. I think that's a part of a
quality of life and and a healthy lifespan.
And I think everybody deserves to have less inflammation and
they deserve to have better sleep.
You know, those are kind of big key indicators because so I'm
excited about our research for that reason because we're

(58:09):
showing trends that if we just keep studying, we're going to
learn more. So what should consumers be
asking or looking for when evaluating nitric oxide
supplements or other, you know, the host of other longevity
products that are being pushed on us?
Yeah, the first thing I tell people is to look at the
tabletting or the capsuling base, Look at the quote, inert

(58:31):
ingredients. And is that something that your
body can assembly or should assimilate?
So a lot of these rice blends have also been proved to be

(59:06):
neuroprotective. They help with repairing the
endothelial tissue in the nervous system tissue.
So we're trying to really use something that's both
hypoallergenic but also beneficial there in nitric oxide
supplementation. There are lots of options out
there. I would because we know enzyme

(59:27):
dependent pathway is fraught with genetic variations that
cause errors and how the gene functions.
There are many cofactor nutrients that are depleted in
the body and they'll start throwing the kitchen sink at
these formulas to try to cover all their bases there.
A lot of them will be based in Larginine or L citrulline because

(59:50):
that's the important amino acid the body uses in that Nos
pathway. And what I have learned and what
I've got then gone on this studyis that sometimes by pouring too

(01:00:22):
much of these. L arginine or L citrulline
products into the body, we can actually generate a greater
inflammatory condition. It's driving a pathway too hard
too fast and creating secondary problems including like up
regulating A viral load that maybe you didn't know you had.
We see there's a virus called Epstein Barr virus.

(01:00:44):
It's, you know, on the rise in the country and we see people
supplementing the wrong way and actually driving up the risk of
that virus that we all carry in our body.
It's an ancient virus that we all have, but it drives it up to
levels that then become inflammatory and problematic and
create secondary disease state. So we don't want to do that.

(01:01:06):
So talk to, I encourage you to talk to a provider, talk to a
functional medicine specialist, talk to somebody, an integrative
medicine medicine specialist to see what's right for you.
Not every supplement is going tobe right for every person.
So we sell to over 3000 healthcare practitioners.
I trust every single one of themto know this science and to be

(01:01:28):
able to tell whether this is right for you.
If a listener viewer wants to experiment with nitric oxide
support, what's a reasonable starting protocol and what
outcomes can they really realistically expect?
Yeah, a great. Of course.
I want you to try Berkeley Life because I believe in it and
because clinic. I've used it for eight years now

(01:01:48):
and I've seen really great results with it.
What we offer is we have a starter pack that is a one month
supply of two capsules a day. Nitric oxide foundation, that's
our dietary nitrate support. You would start with two
capsules a day. I encourage everybody to take
them in the morning to start with because when you get better

(01:02:09):
blood flow and better oxygenation, it can be kind of
stimulating. So if you took it right before
bed, you might be a little over stimulated for bed.
I can take them before bed but not everybody can, so we start
early in the morning. So I use it 90 minutes before

(01:02:52):
sort of my peak activity becausewe know that that's within two
hours is about your optimal boost in nitric oxide from using
these dietary nitrates. But for the average person, I
would start by getting the starter kit because you get 50
test strips. You could spend a couple weeks
doing that salivary testing two or three times a day.

(01:03:12):
It's really interesting to see your patterns of depletion sort
of fluctuate and even when you're taking it, those patterns
are going to change depending onyour stressors of the day.
But it's an it's an interesting way.
And I also find that when peopletest low in the afternoon,
they're like, wait a minute, I already took my dose and it's
like, I better eat a salad tonight.
Kathy told me I better get better food in my diet and I'm

(01:03:34):
going to commit to it. You know all that.
So we, it helps with compliance.So I think starting with a
month's supply and then looking for your related signs, you
know, how is your energy? How is your sleep?
How is your wakefulness? Not just can you fall asleep and
stay asleep, but how easy is it for you?
Because we know that nitric oxide signals the pineal gland

(01:03:54):
in its release of melatonin. It plays a role in that sleep
wake cycle. It plays a role in hormone
signaling and utilization. Any of your population listening
today, if you're using hormone replacement therapy, this is
going to improve the efficacy ofyour hormone replacement therapy
simply by opening blood flow andsending those important hormone

(01:04:16):
messengers where they need to gomore efficiently.
So I think go to berkeleylife.com, we're going
to, in the show notes, we're going to offer your listeners a
discount. I would encourage you to look at
the starter pack. If you're somebody who already
knows you have maybe some oral dysbiosis, maybe grab a pack of
the gum too and experiment with that.
I am not a gum chewer by nature,but when I'm spending time at

(01:04:41):
elevation in Central Oregon and then I'm going to go hike up to
7000 feet, you better believe I want to improve my oxygenation.
I'm chewing gum on my way to thehike.
So we just encourage you to to experiment.
We have you can always ask questions of me at
info@berkeleylife.com. We have a great customer service
team who knows how to answer questions.

(01:05:02):
And if they don't, they send youto me and I'll help you answer
the questions. But we just encourage you also
to try those lifestyle measures.That really is the starting
point for me. Try those, try your breath work
today and chew your liquids and and see how you start to feel

(01:05:32):
differently. Sounds like with the the strips
to, it would be important to kind of become a little bit of a
data nerd at least for a period of time and be tracking how, how
is my body responding to these changes that I'm making?
What do I need to do to change better?
And then eventually maybe the data collection decreases a
little bit. To what extent do you recommend

(01:05:53):
long term monitoring of your nitric oxide levels?
So you're being a nitrate level?Yeah, I think you've hit the
nail on the head that you do kind of want to be a dated nerd
to really get into this. But a lot of people interested
in aging well are sort of interested in that.
What are these tangible things Ican do to learn more?
You know, we could. I could send you to a functional

(01:06:15):
medicine provider and you could have a urinary test to look for
metabolites of oxidative stress.You know, Well, that's more
money out of the pocket and I dothat for some of my clients.
But I like I like the test strips because it's 10 seconds,
it's easy. They're about $0.60 a strip.
So for you owe it to yourself for a couple weeks and that's

(01:06:35):
why I say 2. You know, 2 1/2 weeks is about
much time to go through 150 count tube of testing yourself
three times a day. So in the long term, I think
they're useful when you start tonotice your signs and symptoms
shifting. So if you sort of come to the
realization in one day that like, wait a minute, I thought
my fatigue had gotten better, but today I'm feeling that thing

(01:06:58):
that I used to feel. Or you caught a cold and you got
that cough, that lingering coughthat doesn't go away.
You know what's going on. Why is this different now?
I've been going to the gym, I'vebeen doing the same routine I
lift in that 45 LB bar is just not as easy at what as it was 3
weeks ago. Let's check your blood flow.

(01:07:18):
And one way to do that is to usethe test strip.
So if you're that kind of personwho's sort of the the bio hack
nerd, this is for you. But if you're not, then yeah,
try it for a couple weeks. The testing, it can also help
you indicate whether or not you need to maybe shift your dosing
of when you take dietary nitrates because your body

(01:07:39):
metabolizes them different than mine and different than Sherry's
and all of that. So getting that idea of if you
tested before bed and we would expect that through the day,
you've used a lot of your storesof night, but if you're testing
before bed and you're low, what's going on?
What else is in my day that I need to sort of repair?

(01:08:00):
You know, and, and I say this from somebody with a personal
experience of recovering from mold toxicity and mold is one of
those chronic immune challenges for a lot of people.
And this is like a whole nother weekend seminar we could do, and
there are lots of experts out there to listen to it.
But if you have an exposure in your diet, in your day, whether

(01:08:21):
it's mold at home, fumes at work, anything like that, it's
worth testing because your body would be using nitric oxide to
have an appropriate immune response to keep you healthy.
And it might keep you just healthy enough so that you don't
really notice these nagging symptoms, but you don't feel
optimal. And we want you to feel optimal.
So I think the testing and then,yeah, I do the same thing.

(01:08:42):
I put my test strips away for a while and then I realized, gosh,
that that, you know, bike ride was harder today.
Maybe I better, you know, see what's going on.
And so I start to do my own investigation.
And for me, it also goes back and looks at my diet and what
have I changed in my diet? What have I sort of forgot to
bring back into the rotation? Or is it time for me to call my

(01:09:03):
provider and look for, you know,markers of information, things
like that? Yeah.
So I think it's important for our listeners and viewers to
understand that collecting data actually helps us to kind of
regulate our lifestyle a lot better to know what's working,
what's not working, when maybe you need a boost of something,
when maybe you need more exercise, less exercise, what
are you doing sleep wise and so on.

(01:09:25):
Yeah. So this kind of is a decent
segue into the question I ask ofall my guests.
So you can't escape it. What are you doing personally to
age? Well, we know you're taking care
of your nitric oxide, but what else?
Yeah, you've caught me in a goodtime because I'm on a, I'm on a
current push to take better careof myself.
I spent the last several years taking care of aging elderly

(01:09:47):
patient or parents. And it, it took a lot out of me
physically, emotionally, all that.
And I'm working beyond that period of life now and
recognizing that it's me time again so that I'll tell you the
first thing I do every day. And I do this no matter time of
year. As I go outside first thing in
the morning, I put my feet in the grass and I lift my face to
the sun and I do some breath work.

(01:10:09):
Sometimes it's raining, sometimes the sun isn't visible,
but but it's there. So I expose myself to nature.
I get my feet in the grass, I dosome grounding and I take some
breath work. And I do that every day.
And it's sort of my little dailymeditation.
I don't get too deep and thoughtabout it.
I just get out there and do I doit.
Some days it's cold, some days it's not.
Some days I sit longer and listen to the birds.

(01:10:31):
So I definitely do that. I am a former competitive
athlete and I no longer compete in anything.
But I enjoy activity and I make sure the activities that I enjoy
are usually communal. So I took a bike ride with
friends yesterday. I go to yoga class in studio so
I can be in community with people.

(01:10:53):
Being in a social collective is very important to me.
So I think that's important for my aging process.
And then the other thing I wouldsay I do to age well is I eat a
whole food diet. And I can't say I never go out
and have a hamburger at a restaurant because I do.
But I cook the majority of my meals at home.

(01:11:15):
And I think that's the healthiest path to healthy aging
is to be mindful of. If you can't grow your food, at
least be mindful of choosing it,preparing it, looking at it,
eating it, chewing it, assimilating it.
I think if we all ate at home a little bit more with our
neighbors, we'd have the perfectsolution to aging.
Yeah. I think that's one of those Big

(01:11:36):
Blue zone pieces that we tend tomiss a lot, is that there's that
social connection with their food.
Yeah, we can talk about eating whole food, but if you're eating
a whole food diet, you know whether where it falls on the
continuum from pure vegan to pure carnivore, if you're eating
alone, you're not getting the full benefit of that meal.

(01:11:56):
That's right. You need that social connection.
That's right. I have two single gentlemen that
live on each side of my house and monthly they come over for
dinner and we have neighbor night and it's lovely.
I and I absolutely love it and Ithink it's good for both of them
because they live alone. They each live alone, and it's
good for us too. So if you could give our

(01:12:17):
listeners and viewers just threepractical things that they could
start today to improve their energy, prevent fatigue, what
would they be? Fatigue.
Well, I would encourage you to sample Berkeley Life dietary
nitrates. I'm just going to tell you
that's a blatant sales pitch there because it you will feel
it within a week to two. Most people feel that uptick in
energy. But really I think it's drink

(01:12:38):
more pure water every day and more than you think you have
been and to increase energy to move your body and even in small
ways. So take the stairs instead of an
escalator, park at the back of the lot like I talked about and
walk farther. Get those steps in.
You don't have to count them, just just get them and decide

(01:13:02):
that it's really easy to ride your bike a mile to the grocery
store and not get in the car andpop down there.
And I, I think that all of that equates to just more mindful
movement is what can I do to be in the world a little bit longer
from here to there and experience all there is at the
same time? So what have we missed talking
about today? We've covered a lot and I know

(01:13:22):
that we've probably just opened a few doors, just ever so
slightly. I think just that kind of back
to that, we have these measures that we typically get if we're,
if we're accustomed to going to a physician at least once a year
and getting a blood test, you have indications there.
Even even though it's a snapshotin time, you have indications

(01:13:45):
there that you might benefit from nitric oxide support or
that you're depleting yourself and you need to boost that.
And I would look for things likelook for your blood pressure to
be creeping up, look for that your glucose reading to be
higher than it has been before. And with that, the hemoglobin
A1C, that's the three month March marker of blood glucose.

(01:14:08):
Because we know nitric oxide's role in insulin sensitivity, we
want to keep you preventing fromany disease state there.
You have cholesterol markers. I'm not a proponent that I don't
believe that the high cholesterol numbers are
necessarily high for everybody. We'll just leave that there.
But if you are getting big jumpsyearly in the low density

(01:14:30):
lipoprotein type of cholesterol marker, that's the time to look
for an inflammation source and and maybe promote some healing
with nitric oxide that way and your vitamin D3.
I would check your vitamin D3 levels too, because nitric oxide
and vitamin D3 have an interactive role.
We know when we're exposed to sunlight and we're actively

(01:14:52):
producing vitamin D3, there's also a stimulation of more
nitric oxide. And why is that?
Because the body innately knows that it wants to open blood flow
and and send more vitamin D3 around the body as the hormone
that it kind of is. So they that's an important
marker to check every year too. This has been a fascinating

(01:15:13):
conversation. I know it's a sponsored episode,
but I hope the listeners understand that, you know, we
don't approach anything on this podcast is, you know, shilling
some product or, you know, some system out there or anything
like that, that this was an honest conversation about, you
know, nitric oxide and the benefits.
And as an exercise physiologist,I've learned a ton.

(01:15:34):
I can guarantee you that this will be played to my students at
least one of my classes through the next year.
I teach a pathophysiology and exercise class and I'm always
looking at information that I can use there to go beyond the
textbook because I wrote the textbook.
So it's kind of like, you know, you read my textbook, what am I
going to talk about in class? And so this has been a very

(01:15:57):
informative episode for me. I've learned some things.
I mean, again, you know, we talked before we started
recording that for me, nitric oxide was always kind of the bro
approach. It's, you know, getting better
blood flow in the gym to get that muscle pump to get better
performance lifting. And then the old, the only other
practical use of nitric oxide had been, you know, from the

(01:16:18):
sexual standpoint, you know, it's like getting another pump
in there. And there's so much more to it.
And I'm hoping that the listeners may be listening to
this a couple times, really get the science down, give the
strips a try and, and see kind of where they're at and track
them for a while. Because I know for myself, you
know, I'm struggling with sleep and I'm doing a lot of things

(01:16:39):
right, but I'm still not gettinggreat restorative sleep.
So having something that I can connect to, you know, the sleep
tracker that I use, yeah. And, you know, looking at, OK,
if I change my diet and these things are happening or not
happening, why are they happening or not happening?

(01:16:59):
You're somebody on the carnivore.
Diet. Call me and we'll talk, talk

(01:17:27):
about when you're going to need those dietary nitrates back into
your life again because they areimportant.
So just yeah, try to, we have a bounty of Whole Foods right now
in this summer season and there's so many beautiful foods.
So get to a farmers market this week and spend a little more
money and get the better greens.You're going to really enjoy
them and you're going to get more of a nitric oxide push from

(01:17:49):
it. Yeah, I think eat those colors,
you know, get as brightly colored fruits and vegetables as
you can. Greener the better, the more
purple they are and all across that spectrum in between.
And it's going to help. Absolutely.
And thank you. Thank you for yeah, thank you.
This has been a great conversation and I, yeah, I'm

(01:18:09):
really passionate about whole body health, so I hope that came
across. I think it definitely did.
And so thank you. And just keep doing what you're
doing and keep aging well, OK. Thanks you as well.
Thank you for listening. Hope you benefited from today's
podcast and until next time, keep aging well.

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Nitric Oxide, Aging, & Everyday Energy: What You Need to Know w Cathy Eason, Berkeley Life | Ep. 285

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Nitric Oxide, Aging, & Everyday Energy: What You Need to Know w Cathy Eason, Berkeley Life | Ep. 285