Loading summary
Transcript249 lines
- [00:00]
Courtney Swan
On today's episode of the Real Foodology.
- [00:02]
Dr. Josh Red
Podcast, one of my first patients came in and her son was asked to draw a picture of her at school. And he drew a picture of her in bed. Oh, sad. And he comes home and she pulls it out of her, out of his bag. And she's like, what's this, honey? She's like, that's you, mom. Because you're always in bed. And that's heartbreaking. But the reality is there's a ton of women just like that that are being totally neglected.
- [00:28]
Courtney Swan
Hello, friends. Welcome back to another episode of the Real Foodology podcast. As always, I'm your host, Courtney Swan, and Today's guest is Dr. Josh Red. He is fascinating. He has a total of 12 years of postgraduate education in healthcare, including two master's degrees and two doctorate degrees. He recently graduated from naturopathic medical school and is in the process of completing his residency in Utah. And in addition to his naturopathic medical training, he also has an ms, a Master's in Human Nutrition and Functional medicine, and an PHB from Johns Hopkins. This man knows his stuff. He is very well known for treating patients that are kind of at their wits end. They feel like they've seen, you know, 12, 15, 20 doctors. Nobody's been helping them get to the root cause of things. He's really good at unlocking the underlying issues that many people are dealing with. I loved this episode. I think he gave some really amazing tips and tricks that will be very valuable and things that you could start implementing tomorrow. We also go through some of my labs, which I know you all love because it gives you a real life example of what it looks like to work with a doctor like this and really see his brain working and how he works to get to the underlying root cause of issues that you're dealing with. So I hope you love it and you get value from it. If you could take a moment to rate and review the podcast, it really, really does help this show. It helps me get more listeners. It helps me get this out to everyone. And if you are enjoying this episode, if you could tag me at Real Foodology and also tag Oshred. Hopefully we will see it and we'll repost you. And thank you so much for listening and supporting. Thanks, guys. Something that I personally really struggle with is staying hydrated. So I am constantly adding electrolytes to my hydro flask and I bring that hydro flask with me everywhere. Electrolyte deficiency or imbalance can cause headaches, cramps, fatigue, brain fog, weakness, and so much more and this is where Element comes in. Element helps anyone stay hydrated without the sugar and other dodgy ingredients found in popular electrolyte and sports drinks. Element is a zero sugar electrolyte drink mix in sparkling electrolyte water. Born from the growing body of research revealing that optimal health outcomes occur at sodium levels two to three times. Government Recommendations each stick pack delivers a meaningful dose of electrolytes free of sugar, artificial colors or other dodgy ingredients. Element is formulated for anyone on a mission to restore health through hydration and is perfectly suited for athletes, folks who are fasting or those following keto, low carb, whole food or paleo diets. Also, if you are sauna ing multiple times a week and sweating a lot, this is a great option for you. Rob, the founder is a former research biochemist, a two times New York Times bestselling author, and he has now sat on the Navy SEAL Resiliency Committee for over a decade. And Element has an amazing community of U.S. olympians, professional athletes, special forces like Navy Seal teams, FBI Sniper teams and Marines. Also health experts. Everyone from Stanford neuroscientists to functional nutritionists are Element advocates. Many high performing business leaders and everyday health enthusiasts like moms, exercise enthusiasts, heavy sweaters, sauna sitters and those who want a dynamite no sugar margarita or mocktail love to incorporate LMNT into their daily routine. They give no questions asked refunds. Try Element Totally risk free. If you don't like it, they'll refund your order no questions asked. However, they have a very low return rate and a very high reorder rate. Get a free 8 count sample pack of elements Most popular drink Mix flavors with any purchase when you go to drinkelement.com real foodology that way you can find your favorite element flavor or share with a friend. So go to drinklmnt.com real foodology to try today. Do you know what your body's first layer of immune protection is? Most people think it's the skin or the white blood cells, but it's actually your gut lining. When it's functioning properly, it lets in nutrients that your body needs and it also keeps out things like tox toxins and bacteria. But here's the problem. This barrier can start to break down a condition often referred to as leaky gut or increased intestinal permeability, which is something a lot of Americans are dealing with right now. And it's super common. It's way more common than you think. Leaky gut is associated with symptoms like bloating, fatigue, brain fog or food sensitivities Even if you're eating healthy, one thing that contributes to it is undigested foods sitting in your gut for too long. And that often comes down to not having enough digestive enzymes. Enzymes. Your enzyme production can slow down for a lot of reasons like aging, constant stress, antiacids, or a diet low in fiber and high and refined carbs. Without enough enzymes, your body struggles to break down food. That leftover food irritates the gut lining and puts more pressure on your system. That's why I take Mass Zymes, which are a full spectrum digestive enzyme blend. It helps break food down more completely so your gut isn't under constant stress and it supports gut barrier health over time. If every meal leaves you bloated and uncomfortable, mass times could be the simple fix that your gut has been waiting for. If you would like to try them today, go to bioptimizers.com real foodology and use promo code Real Foodology and you will save 15% off. And while you're there, also get some of my other favorite products. They have something for gluten. If you have any issues with eating gluten, you can take this and it can help you digest a gluten better. There's also Magnesium Breakthrough which is another product that I love. So make sure that you go to bioptimizers.com real foodology and use promo code Real Foodology they even offer a full 365 day guarantee. There's zero risk to try it. And if you subscribe, not only will you get amazing discounts and free gifts, you will make sure your monthly supply is guaranteed again. Bioptimizers.com Real Foodology I really struggle with getting out of bed in the morning. In fact, in high school I will never forget this. Actually it might have been in middle school. Whenever it was like when I was younger, I would always be late to school because I would sleep through my alarm. I'd sleep through my alarm and then finally my dad would come upstairs and he'd literally turn on all the lights, open all the blinds and he would physically pull my comforter down the hallway and be like, get out of bed. Because I could never get out of bed. And so he would take my comforter away from me and then I'd finally be like, oh, I'll get out of bed. But what we but nobody clocked or realized back then is that I was so fatigued that I couldn't wake up. Like I would just be like ugh. Like the way I describe it is in the morning I feel like I'm walking through honey for maybe the first, like, hour. And then once I get going and I move and I'm like, you know, I've had my coffee or whatever, then I'm fine. But it's the first thing in the morning. I'm really dragging ass.
- [07:08]
Dr. Josh Red
And you specifically tend to have issues with cortisol, adrenals, and blood pressure, which is a huge problem for all this stuff. I mean, you just look at your classic presentation, and then to make matters worse.
- [07:21]
Courtney Swan
Yeah.
- [07:21]
Dr. Josh Red
You're now 40 years old, which now throws in a whole new wrench of hormonal dysfunction and perimenopause and all that stuff.
- [07:27]
Courtney Swan
Yeah.
- [07:28]
Dr. Josh Red
So doing the right labs and assessing them in detail could make a huge difference for you. Plus, you have a history of, like, Epstein Barr and, you know, potentially Lyme disease and all that stuff that goes along with it. Right. So.
- [07:40]
Courtney Swan
Yeah.
- [07:41]
Dr. Josh Red
I think the biggest thing for you, though, is how can we optimize your cortisol in the morning so that you have that cortisol awakening response? And the brain has a big thing to do with that. Remind me your history. Did you. Do you have a history of concussions or a history of anything pertaining to the brain or trauma or there?
- [08:02]
Courtney Swan
It's. It's unclear. I was a really big snowboarder. I mean, still kind of in. But really big snowboarder when I was in high school. And I. I remember I knocked myself out one time, but I don't know if I ever had a. Like, I just know. We don't know for sure if I ever had a concussion, so maybe potentially had one.
- [08:16]
Dr. Josh Red
Yeah. If you're knocked out, the likelihood of you having high. Yeah, but that throws in a whole new wrench, too. A lot of our patients don't realize that if they have, like, any type of, like, brain trauma or brain injury, within seconds, that causes intestinal permeability. And then from there, you start absorbing proteins to the bloodstream that you shouldn't. And then your immune system freaks out and wonders what in the heck's going on. And then that develops into further autoimmune conditions or food intolerances and all sorts of stuff there. And then you have this brain firing issue. Then you're not digesting your food properly.
- [08:45]
Courtney Swan
You're not.
- [08:46]
Dr. Josh Red
You don't have digestive enzymes. You don't have proper blood flow to the gut, things like that. And then it just turns into this cycle of problems, too, you know?
- [08:54]
Courtney Swan
Yeah. And, you know, it's interesting you brought up digestion, something that I'VE been. I've had two doctors flag for me now is they really, really push the fact that I need to be taking HCL and also digestive enzymes. And I've been pretty good about it, I will admit. Like, it is. I. I don't know why I'm so good about taking my supplements, but I forget sometimes to take digestive enzymes. It'll be like, later in the day where I'm like, oh, damn it, I didn't take them again today. And I lay them out on my counter. Like, I don't know what else I can do, but one of them is, yeah, like, I. I have slow digestion, and I've been told I really need to take digestive enzymes and HCL to help, which makes.
- [09:27]
Dr. Josh Red
Which makes totally sense. Right? So here's the other thing that most people lack. So you go to a standard doctor, you get labs done, you get put on digestive enzymes, hdl. Like, that's great. But what's the mechanism behind that?
- [09:42]
Courtney Swan
Yeah, like, why do I need that bigger thing?
- [09:44]
Dr. Josh Red
Right? So, yeah, you have your brain, and then you have what's called an enteric nervous system that engulfs the whole intestinal tract. If I was to dissect your brain and all the neurological tissue that comes with it, you would see this huge web of net that comes from the brain, and it almost like just this big net, and it goes to the intestinal tract, but it fires from the brain to the intestinal tract. So a lot of our intestinal patients actually have brain issues. And we have to get the brain to fire properly and the midbrain to fire properly in order for you to produce digestive enzymes and HCl and blood flow to the gut and all that stuff as well. So firing that, that midbrain response, that parasympathetic response, any of the frontal cortex to fire properly, then all of a sudden, without even supplements, you're producing HCl, digestive enzymes, all that stuff as well. So a lot of our patients, when they come in, severe intestinal issues, we'll look through brain function in great detail and we'll assess the brain. How is it firing? Because almost every time, it's linked to the intestinal tract as well.
- [10:50]
Courtney Swan
Interesting.
- [10:51]
Dr. Josh Red
In fact, check this out.
- [10:53]
Courtney Swan
Wow.
- [10:54]
Dr. Josh Red
You know what the number one symptom is of the first symptom that we'll see with the Parkinson's patient? You know what it is? That's digestion, Poor gut motility, low ACL.
- [11:05]
Courtney Swan
Wow.
- [11:05]
Dr. Josh Red
Low digestive enzymes. But this might be 20 years before they even get diagnosed Parkinson's. Right. And so oftentimes we can. We can see and assess all that stuff coming. There's a lot of things that you can do to minimize that from progressing and getting worse, too. But now, like you look at, Parkinson's is exploding over our country, and it's kind of alarming where it's coming from, like our food, digestion, environment, glyphosate, you name it. And now we have these significantly increased numbers of Parkinson's.
- [11:36]
Courtney Swan
Wow.
- [11:37]
Dr. Josh Red
But the earliest. The earliest onset, the earliest symptoms is you're going to have digestion issues. And that could be for 20 years before you even get diagnosed with Parkinson's.
- [11:46]
Courtney Swan
See, this is what. This is. My biggest gripe with the way that we practice medicine right now is that there. There will be all these signs and symptoms very early on, and then everybody just keeps missing them. Not everybody, but most majority of doctors are just. They're matching a symptom with a pill and then just putting them on pills. And the next thing you know, this person is on, you know, 10 different medications counteracting everything else, and they get diagnosed with something way down the line. I mean, Callie and Casey Means actually have this exact story with their mother where when they were born, they were both over 10 pounds. And apparently that is a sign that the mother is having metabolic dysfunction.
- [12:21]
Dr. Josh Red
Yeah, definitely.
- [12:22]
Courtney Swan
And then she was diagnosed with, I think, diabetes, and then she was put on statins because then she had a heart issue. And, you know, it was just like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And she's seeing all these different specialists, and then all of a sudden she got diagnosed with. I forgot what cancer she had, but some cancer, and then was dead within three weeks.
- [12:36]
Dr. Josh Red
Yeah.
- [12:37]
Courtney Swan
And, you know, and this was, you know, Callie was saying, if we had looked back 30 years prior to that, and we started connecting all the dots of all of this. And I just share this as one example, but this is what's happening with Americans as a whole, is that there's all these little things, signs and symptoms that you're going to your doctor for, or you're going to your doctor and saying, like, I've gone to so many doctors and said, I can't get out of bed in the morning. I have fatigue, I have this, I have that. And then they pull my labs and they're like, oh, you look. You look great. Your thyroid looks normal. But they've only run, you know, two thyroid markers.
- [13:06]
Dr. Josh Red
Yeah.
- [13:06]
Courtney Swan
What's going on with that?
- [13:08]
Dr. Josh Red
It's maddening. 1. You're not the only one we see Patients from all over the world that are just like you. And unfortunately, females are at a higher risk for having a lot of these chronic conditions that nobody can figure out.
- [13:19]
Courtney Swan
Is it our hormones? What is that?
- [13:21]
Dr. Josh Red
I think it's hormones. It's hormones is a big thing. Menopause is a big thing. Burning the child, all the puberty, we go through all that stuff, right? Like your hormones are consistently fluctuating up and down throughout the month and that can trigger issues. However, I can't tell you how many women we see where they literally feel like they're crazy. They have a slew of symptoms, they go to the doctor, the doctor looks at their labs and says they're normal. And in reality they're not normal. They're just being totally misdiagnosed and mismanaged. The doctor's not able to read the labs correctly. And so the patient then leaves. Feels like they're crazy, feels like they're lazy or hopeless. And they go from doctor to doctor, nobody can help them. And then they're at their wits end trying to find out how to help them. This is why we have tons of women now who are just going to Instagram, Tick tock and Google to figure out what the heck's going on. And they're diagnosing themselves now. They're doing their own research, which is so sad. It is sad, but they're having to do this. And in reality, it's because doctors have this lab range. And this lab range is really just a sick range, like that lab range that tells us what normal and what's normal and what's not normal. Right. That lab range is just a sick range. And so if we're just going based off of that sick range, you could have a slew of different imbalances and problems that could be within that range, but close to being outside of it, that could cause symptoms. On top of that, a lot of doctors test very basic tests. And if somebody comes in and shows me their symptoms now, I'm like, like with you right now, you tell me all your symptoms, like, oh my gosh, we got like my brain's firing, like we got to test this, this, this, this and this. And the likelihood of things coming back positive now are going to be a lot higher if I test just a little bit further and a little bit more systemic and more complex. Right?
- [15:07]
Courtney Swan
Yeah.
- [15:07]
Dr. Josh Red
But you think about this. That lab range is a sick range. It's not a healthy range.
- [15:14]
Courtney Swan
And let's explain that really fast because if people don't understand what's Happening is in that range of quote, unquote, normal. They're taking the average of all Americans. And we know that, you know, 93% of Americans are metabolically unwell at this point. Like, we are getting. We are. The average is now coming from a sick population.
- [15:32]
Dr. Josh Red
Yeah. They basically are taking a bell curve based off of the people who get their labs done. So who do you think gets their thyroid checked?
- [15:39]
Courtney Swan
People that are already sick and not doing well.
- [15:41]
Dr. Josh Red
Yeah, people with thyroid problems. Right. You go into the lab, and who's in the lab with you getting your labs tested? Like, who's there sitting? You got a lady on the couch. She has her eyes closed. Like, oh, my gosh, that lady's dead. And really, she's not dead.
- [15:51]
Courtney Swan
She's not doing well.
- [15:52]
Dr. Josh Red
She's not doing well. You got another guy with an oxygen come in. Like, these. The people that are getting their labs test tested are sick people.
- [16:00]
Courtney Swan
Yeah.
- [16:00]
Dr. Josh Red
And they're not healthy people. Right. And so over the last 30 years, we're seeing these lab ranges get more broad, more broad, more broad. And that's really unfortunate because now these people are suffering with a ton of symptoms, but they're not getting diagnosed and they're not getting treated properly, and then they feel like they're crazy. And it's really because these lab ranges are just getting bigger and bigger. So we have optimal ranges that we want to look at. And if you're outside that optimal range, you could have an imbalance that's causing issues. Like, if you look at this, the way the conventional medicine is set up, you have this massive, let's say, thyroid range. Right. Or glucose is even worse. Because we're so metabolically impaired as a country, our glucose numbers are a disaster. Like standard glucose serum 70 to 100 or even sometimes 105. If I check in different, like, rural populations, it might be like 60 to 120. And we don't even diagnose blood glucose issues until then. Right. But in reality, if we look at that, you'll have a patient that just is like, supposedly in the conventional model, healthy, healthy, healthy, healthy, healthy. And then also in sick, it's like, what the world. Like, we need to have a range that says, hey, you're almost sick. Like this. This can definitely cause symptoms and problems. We have to figure out what in the world's going on before it becomes a severe pathology. And if we can check these labs and stay within that optimal range, that patient is going to have a lot better quality, quality of life, but they're going to have a lot of problems that will be minimized long term. That will help them tremendously as well. Right?
- [17:35]
Courtney Swan
We're living longer than ever, but are we living better? What if the key to not just adding years to your life, but life to your years starts at the cellular level? This particular ingredient called Urolithin A helps to increase muscle strength by up to 12% after 16 weeks. It also boosts muscle endurance by up to 6 17% and it also supports faster recovery after exercise. And then also these gummies help with longevity. The ingredient that I mentioned, Urolithin A is essentially food for your mitochondria. And we know that mitochondria play a huge overall role in cellular health and longevity. And this particular gummy delivers six times more Urolithin A than a glass of pomegranate juice. They're also non gmo. They are Clean Label Project Certified, NSF Content certified and free of major allergens and artific artificial ingredients. I'm a huge fan and I've also noticed that my recovery from my workouts has gotten so much better since I've been taking this. I lift three to four times a week and I am not as sore as I used to be when I started taking these supplements. I'm super excited to share that you now get 20% off your first timeline purchase. There's never been a better time to experience the benefits of Mito Pure, so use my code Real Foodology at checkout. To receive 20% off today go to timeline.com Real Foodology Gummies. Use code Real Foodology at checkout and you will get 20% off. I love adding honey to my morning coffee and if you're more of a Matcha person, I highly recommend adding honey to your Matcha. I think it really upgrades the taste of matcha and coffee. Personally, I love Manukora honey. It contains powerful nutrients to support immunity and gut health. It's ethically produced by Manukora's master beekeepers in the remote forests of New Zealand and it's rich, creamy and the most delicious honey you've ever had. The bees collect the nectar from the manuka tree. The nectar is packed with bioactives and the honey that is produced has three times more antioxidants and prebiotics than your average honey. A special antibacterial compound called MGO also comes from the nectar of the tea tree. Manukora Third Party tests every single harvest for MGO and makes these results available through their QR system. It's a game changer and all you need is one heaped teaspoon each morning to get the the most out of the amazing bioactives in Manuka. And now it's easier than ever to try Manukura honey. Head to manukora.com real foodology to save up to 31% plus $25 worth of free gifts with the starter kit, which comes with an MGO850 plus Manuka honey jar. Five honey travel sticks, which I love. These travel sticks. I take these with me every time I travel. A wooden spoon and a guidebook. That's manukora.com/real foodology to save 31% plus $25 worth of free gifts. That's M A N U K O R A. Yeah, absolutely. So what is the solution for people, you know, listen. People listening are probably going, oh my gosh. Well, how do I. What kind of doctor do I look for? Or like, what is the solution? What should their doctor be looking for? I think the biggest hurdle in this, all of this right now is people finding the right doctors that they can afford that actually practice from the lens that you practice with.
- [20:46]
Dr. Josh Red
Yeah.
- [20:46]
Courtney Swan
Which is tough.
- [20:47]
Dr. Josh Red
Yeah. And. And sometimes, like for me, just going over a patient's lab, it might take 45 minutes to an hour.
- [20:53]
Courtney Swan
Yeah.
- [20:53]
Dr. Josh Red
And we might test four different pages worth of labs, but it's super informative to us. But it can be more expensive. There's basic labs that a patient can do and know for themselves whether they're sick or not. Like, for example, almost 50% of our patient population has a methylation problem.
- [21:10]
Courtney Swan
Yeah. MTHFR.
- [21:11]
Dr. Josh Red
Yeah.
- [21:12]
Courtney Swan
Yeah.
- [21:12]
Dr. Josh Red
But a simple, easy, cheap test to see if you have this problem is homocysteine. And so this can cause like anxiety, fatigue, inflammation. This can flare up an autoimmune disease. This can cause hormonal dysfunction. This causes liver dysfunction. This causes a ton of different things. If you have this one thing that comes back positive, you could check that and then take methylated B vitamins to improve it. And all of a sudden now you have four different symptoms that could inherently just get better and better over time just by taking a methylated B vitamins. So like something like a homocysteine. Anytime that's above 7 or above, we're worried about a methylation problem. If it's above 10, you have severe methylation issues. You need to correct that and improve that as fast as you can. But it's as simple as taking a methylation B vitamin, you know, a method of B vitamins that simple. So, yeah, there's other, like Inflammatory markers. So, like your labs, for example, we consistently see that you have blood sugar levels under 80, and that's really consistent with reactive hypoglycemia.
- [22:17]
Courtney Swan
Yeah. Which is so interesting. Y' all were actually the ones that found that out for me.
- [22:21]
Dr. Josh Red
Yeah. So for someone like you, we would have you put on a continuous glucose monitor, and we would monitor that glucose over the course of 24 hours, and you would just wear that consistently so we can see exactly what your glucose levels are doing. But if you have reactive hypoglycemia, you're going to have symptoms of fatigue, weakness, irritability if you go long times without eating. Am I right? Yeah. Hey, we have her fiance in studio. Do you see that in her. Yeah.
- [22:47]
Courtney Swan
Oh, yeah.
- [22:50]
Dr. Josh Red
But we have, like, brain fog clarity type issues. Like these are really common if you have reactive hypoglycemia.
- [22:57]
Courtney Swan
Interesting. I don't really struggle with brain fog, but everything else you're. You're saying 100%. And I have. I have a lot of issues of focusing, which I've had my whole life. I mean, I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was, I think, in eighth grade. And looking back, I think I just was eating way too much of the standard American diet at school and bouncing off the walls. And also, I didn't really care about what I was studying. It wasn't until I found nutrition that I was, like, really able to focus.
- [23:18]
Dr. Josh Red
Yeah.
- [23:18]
Courtney Swan
But I can still see now that I do have some focus issues, too.
- [23:22]
Dr. Josh Red
So, like somebody just looking at blood sugar levels, like testing that lab, if you have a glucose level that's under 80 on a consistent basis, that's a fasting glucose level. It's likely that you have reactive hypoglycemia. If you have it above 90, you could have insulin resistance. In fact, the best marker to check for insulin resistance before it becomes a severe problem is actually fasting triglycerides. If you're fasting, triglycerides are above a hundred. That's your first stage. For us as doctors, be like, you have insulin resistance and pre diabetes and glucose issues and metabolic dysfunction is in your future if you don't address this. But we catch that, like, five to 10 years in advance just by looking at triglycerides. Right?
- [24:06]
Courtney Swan
Yeah, but do I have that? Or mine's more like yours is too low.
- [24:10]
Dr. Josh Red
Yeah. The problem.
- [24:11]
Courtney Swan
I don't think I eat enough sugar.
- [24:13]
Dr. Josh Red
Well, yeah, enough. Maybe protein and healthy fats and all that stuff. Right. So with you, what we see is that you have lower blood sugar levels. You have poor digestion and poor absorption, which makes it even worse, because then the food that you're eating isn't absorbing properly. So you're lacking those nutrient. Nutrients and glucose as well. But then on top of that, you have low protein, too. So someone like you, we'd want to have you eat more protein on a consistent basis. We'd want you to eat more consistently throughout the day. Fasting would be horrible for you.
- [24:49]
Courtney Swan
Okay.
- [24:49]
Dr. Josh Red
Because if you fasted, for example, or you go longer than three hours without eating.
- [24:53]
Courtney Swan
Yeah.
- [24:55]
Dr. Josh Red
The mechanism that drives a lot of hypoglycemic, glycemic patients is adrenal gland dysfunction. And the adrenal glands are the stress glands, which help produce cortisol. When those glands produce cortisol, you're going to have an increase in blood sugar levels. That's why you. Sometimes people with healthy adrenal function, they can fast and their blood sugar levels stay the exact same because their adrenal glands produce cortisol, which produces glucose. And there you are. If your adrenal glands aren't functioning properly, though, then when you fast, that puts more stress on the adrenal glands and it makes them work harder. And then eventually they can become impaired and not function as well. And then you have this, like, severe cortisol response. You feel really tired in the morning, you can't wake up. You feel like you need a nap throughout the day. That affects blood pressure as well. Cortisol affects blood pressure. So if you have cortisol dysfunction, then you're going to have abnormally low blood pressure.
- [25:55]
Courtney Swan
I have that.
- [25:55]
Dr. Josh Red
And then you have poor perfusion, and then the brain doesn't get oxygen and nutrients to. To it. And so we have symptoms just from that. Then we have neurological symptoms from that. And that's just this one thing. And think about how many people have this. I'm telling you right now.
- [26:09]
Courtney Swan
Yeah.
- [26:10]
Dr. Josh Red
I bet 60 of the female population in America has this one issue where they have low blood sugar levels, they have low cortisol or cortisol circadian rhythm issues is what we call it. And they have low blood perfusion because their blood pressure is too low. Like, it's really, really common. And a lot of patients struggle with it. And that creates hormonal dysfunctions, that creates a slew of other imbalances that just create more problems, you know?
- [26:37]
Courtney Swan
Yeah. So my question is, because it is really fascinating, everything you just brought up is really, like, it's tracking for me for sure. Years ago, remember when fasting was like, just all the rage in the health and wellness community. And. And for me, when I discovered it was kind of like the. It was like a bulletproof coffee adjacent with all that kind of stuff, I started practicing that. And for a long time it was actually like. For me, it felt like kind of like the saving grace because I had been a little bit bloated and puffy and just like, kind of felt like I was a little inflamed. And then I found fasting and it was like, boom. Like everything went away. I felt really good. I was finding myself not hungry until, you know, 12, 1pm and truly, like, back then, I. I was feeling great and I was like, fine. I wouldn't even think about it in the morning. And then I would just eat when I was hungry, stop when I'm full. And I still have that. But I have these lasting effects where I've been learning more about this, learning that for women, it's probably not great for us to fast, especially for fertility. I'm hoping to be pregnant by the end of this year, so I've really been trying to circumvent that. But I'm in this weird position right now where in the morning, I can't even look at meat. I can't, like, I don't know what it is. Like, this guy over here is cooking steaks at like 9am and he's like, hey, do you want some? He's like, you want steaks? Steak and eggs? And I'm like, like, I don't know what it is. I cannot. There's this weird thing, aversion now for me to like, eating early in the morning. And if I do eat in the morning, it's like, I want like a banana or something.
- [28:05]
Dr. Josh Red
Yeah.
- [28:05]
Courtney Swan
But everything that I'm hearing right now is you gotta get protein first in the morning. You gotta have, you know, eggs and this and that. And let me be very clear, I eat a lot of lot of meat and I eat a lot of protein. Well, I guess I'm not eating enough protein. But come like 11 noon, 1, then my body's like, give me all the meat, give me the steak and eggs, give me all that. But there's this weird thing that happens in the morning where I can't, like, it physically. Makes me feel, like, sick almost.
- [28:26]
Dr. Josh Red
Yeah. And there's other forms of protein too, that you could have, or even just eating something to where your blood sugar levels can increase and things can stabilize. You can have proper glucose storage as well. That could be really important for you.
- [28:37]
Courtney Swan
Yeah.
- [28:38]
Dr. Josh Red
Because over time you're Going to exhaust the adrenal glands. And then if your adrenal glands can't function properly, they're going to steal away all your progesterone.
- [28:46]
Courtney Swan
Yeah.
- [28:46]
Dr. Josh Red
To convert it into cortisol. And then you'll have a lot harder time having a child and fertility and all that stuff as well. Right. And so there's a lot of individuals just like you that struggle with these symptoms and problems. And this is where you don't have to really test the whole gambit. You guys that are listening right now can do a simple glucose test, you can do a morning cortisol test and you can check your blood pressure. Like if your blood pressure's that of a dead person, that's a problem.
- [29:20]
Courtney Swan
Right. Is mine of a dead person?
- [29:21]
Dr. Josh Red
Well, we should check right now.
- [29:24]
Courtney Swan
But it is classically really low.
- [29:26]
Dr. Josh Red
Like most of our patients are, you know, their doctors are like, oh, your blood pressure is fantastic. In reality, we check and it's like, like 100 over 60 and that's a problem. And their perfusion is horrible and we have to get that perfusion back up. Right. But that causes cortisol issues, that causes progesterone issues, that causes a slew of problems. The other really easy thing that you can check for is your estrogen to progesterone ratio. We live in a society now where we are constantly being exposed to things that either mimic estrogen or spike estrogen or, or cause estrogen dominance. Right. And so you can check your estrogen progesterone ratio and we like to see about a 10 to 1 estrogen to progesterone ratio. That's simple, like just like a standard thing that we like to see, no matter where they're at in their cycle, what they're doing or whatever that may be. Right.
- [30:18]
Courtney Swan
Yeah.
- [30:19]
Dr. Josh Red
We're seeing a lot of our female patients end up having like a 400:1 ratio or a thousand to one ratio and that's causing like severe menstrual symptoms, that's causing, you know, fatigue, insomnia, that's causing a slew of other problems with their health and inflammation just because of the estrogen dominance too. So something as simple as like checking those things, which you can have your doctor check for this stuff and it's easy.
- [30:46]
Courtney Swan
I've had a wild year. I have been traveling non stop. I feel like I've been on a plane every single week and I thankfully have not gotten sick in a while. And I think there's a, there's two reasons for that. I have been taking beekeepers, naturals propolis spray and also their nasal spray with me on every single flight. And let me explain to you why this has been such a game changer for my immune system. Propolis helps to defend your immune system and fight oxidative stress with antioxidants. Propolis is the defender of the beehive. It's a powerful combination of plant and tree resin and enzymes made by bees. So it's super high in antioxidants like polyphenols and flavonoids, which help fight free radicals and oxidative stress. Studies have found it to have antibacterial properties, anti inflammatory effects, in addition to its ability to fight germs through its antimicrobial and antifungal properties. So I bring the propolis spray with me and this nasal spray every time I travel. I do the propolis spray in the back of my throat and then the nasal spray I use to rinse out my nose. If you Remember, I had Dr. Peter McCullough on my podcast a couple months ago, and he was telling me about studies that showed that if you can rinse out your nose every single day, you can really lower your chances of getting any sort of virus, because a virus will linger in your nose for a couple days before it actually starts to go down to your respiratory system. So if you can clean it out with something like the beekeeper's naturals nasal spray, you can keep a sickness from actually starting to form. And the reason why I love Beekeepers Naturals is their commitment is to bring you the most potent bee products. No other propolis comes close to this level of identification, consistency, and standardization of bioactives. I know the founder personally and I know how committed she is to bringing clean, effective products to market. And I am truly in awe of all the work that she's done with Beekeeper Naturals. I am obsessed with their products. And today Beekeepers Naturals is offering you an exclusive offer. So go to beekeepers naturals.com Real Foodology or enter code Real Foodology to get 20% off your order. That's. That's B E e K e e p e-r s naturals.com real foodology or enter code Real Foodology. You can also find their products at Target, Whole Foods, Amazon, CVS and Walgreens. Did you know that collagen is the most abundant protein in the body? And it's the glue that holds us together. It's found in our hair, skin, nails, bones, tendons, ligaments, gut, and arteries. And after the age of 20, we lose almost 1% of the collagen in our skin every year. By the age of 50, we've lost 25% and by 75 we've lost 50%. On average, ancestral diets contained ample amounts of collagen by eating nose to tail. However, most modern diets are deficient in collagen, which is why Paleo Valley created their 100 grass fed bone broth protein powder and oh my God, it tastes so good. Their bone broth protein powder is sourced from the bones of 100 grass fed and finished cattle raised on American farms using regenerative farming practices to help restore local ecosystems. Unfortunately, the claim grass fed is largely unregulated and many bone broth and collagen products are actually sourced from low quality grain fed cattle. And unlike other products processed with harsh chemicals, their bone broth protein is made with water and bones. That's it. Paleovalley's 100% grass fed bone broth protein is truly the highest quality bone broth protein on the market. And it comes in three flavors, unflavored vanilla and chocolate. Chocolate is their best seller. Personally, I love the vanilla. It tastes like a vanilla milkshake. So take your insides to the spa and start reaping the benefits of collagen. Dense 100% grass fed bone broth protein. To save 15%, go to paleovalley.com real foodology and use code real foodology. Again, that's paleovalley.com real foodiology. Yeah, that's good. Well, and hopefully we're going to get to a place where insurance covers more of these, you know, integrative doctors. I know Bobby Kennedy mentioned that in his executive order actually with Trump where that was, that's one of the things that they want to move the model to is a more preventative root cause protocol in general and you know, propping up those doctors that are actually trying to get to the root cause, which.
- [34:50]
Dr. Josh Red
Would be so much better. By the time that we see patients, they've probably seen 20 different doctors for the last 10 to 15 years.
- [34:57]
Courtney Swan
Yeah.
- [34:58]
Dr. Josh Red
And we can get them feeling better in anywhere from like three to six months where they feel better than they have in a long time. But it, it's a lot more complex. Complex. It's a lot more extensive. It's, it's a lot of work and it can be costly too. Right. But even with these labs, like these labs are, can be really inexpensive. They really can. It's just testing the right labs for the right things. Right?
- [35:19]
Courtney Swan
Yeah, for sure.
- [35:20]
Dr. Josh Red
The other common ones that are really important to Check are inflammation in general. Like, we live this, like, inflamed quality of life. If we could combat inflammation, like, our symptoms would decrease, you know, rapidly, right? Yeah. But checking for inflammatory markers, like serial protein ferritin, you know, those types of things are really easy that you can check for. Homocysteine, we mentioned before, is an inflammatory marker as well. If you can check those, and those come back high, you know, you have to work on inflammation. So minimizing inflammatory foods. So, like, your glutens, your conventional dairies. And I say conventional because, like, the dairies with all the hormones and antibiotics and all that stuff in there.
- [36:03]
Courtney Swan
Yeah.
- [36:04]
Dr. Josh Red
And some of the grains can spike inflammation and sugar, obviously. So there's simple things that you can do. We're like, okay, I'm gonna avoid gluten, dairy, and sugar. And just those three things can lower inflammation quite rapidly. Yeah, I'm gonna eat more consistently. I'm gonna stabilize my blood glucose levels. If we give our patients a continuous glucose monitor, we want their blood sugar levels to be anywhere from 80 to 1:30, regardless of what they eat. And at the first, this is really hard because you'll see it drop to, like, 60 or 50, and you'll have it spiked to, like, 160. Right. It's just all over the place. A lot of our patients will have reactive hypoglycemia, and they'll have insulin resistance. Both. We live in that society now where even at a young age, we're starting to see that.
- [36:49]
Courtney Swan
So heartbreaking.
- [36:50]
Dr. Josh Red
But, like, one of the most common things that ends up causing, like, insomnia or trouble sleeping, for example, is just blood sugar issues. And stabilizing blood sugars can really help. So to give you an idea, just to kind of explain the mechanism, so if we're not getting enough sugars throughout the day, and this is important for you too, because you need sugar. Right. You need to be able to store your glucose throughout the day. So if you're not eating consistently throughout the day, or your blood sugar levels are just consistently dropping throughout the day, the day. At night, your body uses stored glucose to repair tissue. And if it can't get that stored glucose, if that stored glucose isn't available, then your body has to increase norepinephrine and epinephrine, which are your natural body stimulants. So it be like you're drinking a monster drink at night, when in reality, you're not. You just don't have the proper stored glucose that your body needs to repair tissue. And now it's either Hard to fall asleep. Or when you do fall asleep, you wake up at 2am and you can't go back to sleep because you have these two natural stimulants flying throughout day the your body. Wow.
- [37:51]
Courtney Swan
This is also me. So this is all tracking. I have very, very hard time falling asleep. And then once I'm asleep, I'm good, I'm out. Unless my dog jumps on the bed, but which they literally did last night.
- [38:00]
Dr. Josh Red
That's so fun.
- [38:01]
Courtney Swan
Sorry. But for the most part, yeah, I've been struggling with falling asleep too. So this is just wild, all of its tracking. So the solution is eating more throughout.
- [38:09]
Dr. Josh Red
The day, like more getting your calorie up, getting your protein up, things like that. But you would know, like if you wore a continuous glucose monitor, you wouldn't have to really guess. Like if you wake up and your blood sugar levels are at, at 50 and they stay 50 for a full hour. Well, why do you think you're so tired in the morning? Like, why do you think you're walking through sludge for the first hour? Right, yeah. Your blood sugar levels have tanked out. Your cortisol probably isn't anywhere close to where it should be. And then there we go. Right. So most of our female patients, I, I think they're getting like around 40 to 60 grams of protein per day, which is insane. Which is crazy. Like, they really should get like, you know, 100, 120 based off their body composition, you know, but let's just say on average like a hundred. And a lot of them are getting 40. That's a problem for blood sugar levels. So a lot of times it's like as simple as just improving different forms of protein and increasing fiber and healthy fats. And they're off to the races, doing great. Yeah, healthy fats are really good too, because they'll help stabilize glucose long term. It's a, it's a type of storage that actually takes longer for the body to break down and utilize. And so it's just, it's great for glucose storage and overall energy production and all that stuff as well. Yeah, so that's great too.
- [39:26]
Courtney Swan
Okay. This is amazing. This is all so helpful. So you brought up inflammation, which is something I want to talk about. I've actually heard you say that inflammation is a crisis in America right now. Let's talk more about that. And actually, interestingly enough, not to make this just a full family episode, but Hector recently got his lab and maybe we can just use him as an example to talk about it. And his CRP Levels were high. His inflammation was high.
- [39:50]
Dr. Josh Red
Yeah.
- [39:50]
Courtney Swan
Which we were actually shocked to see because right now he's basically eating carnivore. Like, he's just basically eating carnivore. Just to give him a little background, too, is that he has had this horrible pesky psoriasis for the last 10 years. And when I met him.
- [40:03]
Dr. Josh Red
Autoimmune related.
- [40:04]
Courtney Swan
Yeah, I think so. Yeah.
- [40:05]
Dr. Josh Red
Which is my jam and leaky gut when it comes to autoimmune stuff. That's. That's what.
- [40:08]
Courtney Swan
Which is why I brought it up, because I want to talk about this too. And I know a lot of people are struggling with, you know, eczema, psoriasis, like, all of this kind of auto. You know, I know so many women that have Hashimoto's, like, this is. I think we have an autoimmune crisis in this country too. Yeah.
- [40:23]
Dr. Josh Red
Yeah. Right now we have probably 20% of our population has an autoimmune condition that's. That's diagnosed.
- [40:32]
Courtney Swan
Yeah.
- [40:32]
Dr. Josh Red
So check this out. Like, have you been diagnosed with autoimmune condition?
- [40:35]
Courtney Swan
I haven't, but a couple years ago on my function test, my ANA with.
- [40:39]
Dr. Josh Red
The title Better, which is common for systemic lupus or sclerosis. Right. So that's crazy. So what my point in even, like, talking about that is that most. There's a lot of women, a lot of men out there that have symptoms and chronic symptoms, they have an autoimmune condition, but it's not even diagnosed. So the fact that we have about 20 of our population that is diagnosed autoimmune conditions, this is. This is crazy, right?
- [41:08]
Courtney Swan
Yeah.
- [41:09]
Dr. Josh Red
I think that in the next probably 20 years, I bet close to 40% of the population will have an autoimmune condition.
- [41:16]
Courtney Swan
Wow.
- [41:17]
Dr. Josh Red
Probably already have it worse. And. Yeah, it's just getting worse and worse and worse. And we probably own one of the largest autoimmune clinics in the United States. And we have for the last 15 years, and we're seeing it just get worse and worse and worse and worse. Yeah. So, like, when you have an autoimmune condition, there's lots of things that can cause inflammation. And. And even if you don't have an autoimmune condition, we live this inflammatory lifestyle. And inflammation is a leading cause of pretty much every condition in our country right now. If we can calm down inflammation as fast as possible, our quality lives will be markedly better and we'll minimize all sorts of problems down the road. Just that one fact. By testing for inflammation and then addressing the inflammation. So with you, you're mainly carnivore. There could be different types of of meats that could actually trigger autoimmune response. Which is. Which sounds weird.
- [42:08]
Courtney Swan
Yeah.
- [42:10]
Dr. Josh Red
With our autoimmune patients, when we see inflammation is high, we want to look at, okay, what foods are you potentially eating that could exacerbate an autoimmune response? Are you eating dairy?
- [42:20]
Courtney Swan
Oh, he is.
- [42:21]
Dr. Josh Red
So probably why here's, here's a huge.
- [42:23]
Courtney Swan
Problem because we just started adding dairy back in.
- [42:26]
Dr. Josh Red
Here's a huge problem. So interesting. So the casein protein can mimic self tissue in a lot of our autoimmune patients. So when they consume dairy, their immune system that is attacking, say, skin or other forms of tissue, whatever, they have an autoimmune disease, too, can be confused with the case and protein, and the immune system attacks that as well. And then it flares up the autoimmune response, and then it flares up the inflammatory response, and then we have issues. So inflammation and autoimmune conditions kind of go hand in hand. You have something called TH17 cells. When those cells increase, you're going to have more. More tissue damage wherever your autoimmune disease is attacking. But also those TH17 cells spike inflammatory cells as well. And so you typically don't just have one or the other, you have both.
- [43:14]
Courtney Swan
Yeah.
- [43:14]
Dr. Josh Red
But the case in protein, and this is where we see a lot of our patients, because, look, I love, you know, whole milk and, and you know, there's obviously way better forms of dairy now versus conventional forms, but still, if they have an autoimmune condition, those healthy forms will light them up like crazy.
- [43:36]
Courtney Swan
So it's interesting because he wasn't doing dairy, and then we started adding back in a little bit like in our coffee and like cheese and stuff here. So maybe we need to stop.
- [43:44]
Dr. Josh Red
Yeah, unfortunately, probably the top. Our top autoimmune triggers will be gluten, hands down, dairies a close second.
- [43:55]
Courtney Swan
And what are the other ones? That was actually going to be my next question. So for everybody listening so that they can also like, maybe apply some of this to their daily life, what do you think are the top triggers for inflammation and autoimmune? Because I would assume it'd probably be.
- [44:06]
Dr. Josh Red
Similar from a dietary standpoint. Yes.
- [44:08]
Courtney Swan
Or just in general.
- [44:09]
Dr. Josh Red
So look, don't. Like, this is something where we see probably 300 patients a day from all over the world. And so we kind of have our own research center within our clinics. So this isn't like, here's the thing, there's lots of Patients that can have the foods I'm about to explain that are. Are big triggers. This is. It's important to find out what your specific food triggers are if you have an autoimmune disease.
- [44:31]
Courtney Swan
And how would they do that? Because I feel like normal food tests don't always get the full picture because I think oftentimes it shows up the foods that you're eating.
- [44:39]
Dr. Josh Red
No, they don't. They don't.
- [44:40]
Courtney Swan
Yeah.
- [44:40]
Dr. Josh Red
Yeah. So, like, typically what happens is dairy and gluten are really, really high in our patient population. After that is like rice, corn, eggs. Soy is absolutely garbage, by the way.
- [44:56]
Courtney Swan
Yeah.
- [44:56]
Dr. Josh Red
Like, I would say gluten, dairy, and then soy's third. But you have rice, eggs, corn. As far as a meat, probably the most common meat that will flare patients up is pork. From an autoimmune standpoint, we don't really.
- [45:12]
Courtney Swan
Eat a lot of pork.
- [45:13]
Dr. Josh Red
And then ironically, there's a small portion that have. Have beef intolerances.
- [45:19]
Courtney Swan
Like the alpha gal.
- [45:20]
Dr. Josh Red
Yep. Alpha gal syndrome, for sure.
- [45:21]
Courtney Swan
Something we're, like, terrified of. We're moving to Texas soon, and we're like, oh, my God, that tick really scares me. Yeah.
- [45:27]
Dr. Josh Red
So. So we have a lot of patients where they'll consume even, you know, let's say pork or. Or beef, and it flares them up like crazy. Now, again, lots of our patients do really good with beef, and lots of our patients do really good with corn and. And rice. But there are a select percentage where they just have to avoid those, like rat poisoning, because their immune system, for some reason or another, reacts to it poorly, and then it flares up the autoimmune response and causes problems. So the best way that you can actually do this, this is what we do. We. We do an IGG food intolerance test. And that's simple, and see what comes up high, what doesn't. And that's not like an allergy test. That's actually immune intolerance test. Right. Which is different than allergies. On top of that, we'll also have them do the inflammatory recess. So I had a book that came out. It was number one on Amazon. It was like, number two of all books of Amazon.
- [46:16]
Courtney Swan
So epic.
- [46:17]
Dr. Josh Red
And then Simon and Schuster just bought it.
- [46:20]
Courtney Swan
Amazing.
- [46:21]
Dr. Josh Red
And we're going to relaunch it in January with, like, 40 more recipes, and it has a bunch more literature. It's going to be awesome. But we have what's called an inflammatory reset, where you remove most like, just like, common inflammatory foods. So even, like, tomatoes, eggs, beef, corn, rice, you can Pretty much just eat like chicken, turkey, lamb, fish, vegetables and fruits. That's pretty much what you eat, which is not bad for. I mean, that's great, right?
- [46:51]
Courtney Swan
Yeah.
- [46:52]
Dr. Josh Red
But you would. We would do the food intolerance test. We would put a patient on that inflammatory reset diet, and then with. When we get the food intolerance test back, we'll sit down and coach the patient how to add foods in slowly but surely. From there, there'll be sometimes where they have a huge flare up and that food didn't come back positive on the, you know, on the food intolerance test. But as we just add in like one food slowly at a time over the course of like three to seven days, and then they see if they have any symptoms or problems, and if they didn't, then they can add in another food as soon as they have symptoms or problems, then they would remove it completely and then go back to the inflammatory reset and then start back adding a different food from there.
- [47:32]
Courtney Swan
Okay. Yeah. So it's like a elimination diet, essentially, so that you can really, like, like pinpoint your triggers. Is there a world in which, like, for example, maybe Hector, that we can heal his autoimmune and then eventually he would be able to eat those trigger foods, or is this just something where we feel like he probably will have to have to avoid them always?
- [47:50]
Dr. Josh Red
For the most part, there is a world there, but for the most part, there's usually two or three foods you just avoid like, like, like the plague. Yeah, unfortunately, because we might have patients where we correct, like, other imbalances within the body, and their immune response is really calmed down and inflammation is really calmed down, and then they add in all these foods and their body is functioning significantly better than what it was before.
- [48:12]
Courtney Swan
Yeah.
- [48:13]
Dr. Josh Red
And then they're like, I can eat pretty much whatever I want. And then they do. And then all of a sudden, like, someone dies in the family or some stressor happens, and then that one food that they added in that they're eating consistently that they shouldn't have, then flares them up like crazy and starts this whole vicious cycle back to where it was before. And so there. So for me, to keep the things, to keep the body calmed down, to keep the immune response calmed down, the inflammation calmed down, I'll have my patients avoid like two or three foods like the plague just to be safe long term. And then, you know, they're a lot more resilient when it comes to immune standpoint.
- [48:50]
Courtney Swan
Yeah, that makes sense. Okay, so if somebody was really struggling with, I feel like, this is something that your clinic does really well. And I think this is a lot of people's stories is they're dealing with a slew of different symptoms, They've seen a bunch of different doctors. Nobody's really helping them get to the root cause. It almost feels like there's kind of this, like, mystery illness going on. What would be your advice to them and steps to help trying to figure this out? I mean, would they go through and do get a lot of the lab work that you've talked about earlier and kind of go that route, should they find a functional or integrative doctor?
- [49:22]
Dr. Josh Red
Yeah, I mean, there's now functional medicine doctors across the whole country, and a lot of them look for some that have just incredible reviews. Right. And those will tend to lead you. Right. If there's a lot of them and there's. There's a lot of great reviews, look for that. But at the same time, too, we have, like, on my website, Dr. Joshred.com we have a list of labs that you can test and it's, you know, you can basically get that article and see exactly what, what labs you should have your doctor check for what the laboratory range is, what, you know, all that stuff kind of explains that they could do that too, if they, they don't have the means to see a functional medicine doctor.
- [49:58]
Courtney Swan
Yeah.
- [50:00]
Dr. Josh Red
But now we have so many different functional medicine doctors across the country that you should be able to find somebody that's cheap and that really understands this, you know, who's been killing it is nurse practitioners.
- [50:11]
Courtney Swan
Oh.
- [50:12]
Dr. Josh Red
So we've seen a lot of nurse practitioners that are now getting into functional medicine. And they're doing so good. So good. So.
- [50:19]
Courtney Swan
Wow. Okay.
- [50:20]
Dr. Josh Red
And then if something's really severe, then they can obviously reach out to our clinic. Clinic@redriverhealthandwellness.com and, and you know, we've been. We have eight clinics across the West United States, but we see patients from all over the world. Yeah, A lot of our patients, we see telehealth wise and, and that's great.
- [50:36]
Courtney Swan
So, yeah, I was seeing you guys for a while when I was living in la and we were just doing telehealth, which is amazing. I actually, I need to call you because I need to get to the.
- [50:44]
Dr. Josh Red
Root of some of this stuff. You said stuff. And I'm like, I mean, there's a lot of stuff that we can do to help and. Yeah, and him fiance as well.
- [50:52]
Courtney Swan
But yeah, we're trying to get in good shape because we want to get pregnant.
- [50:55]
Dr. Josh Red
Let's go. I love that. Yeah, let's, let's create a baby. Let's, let's make it happen. I'm, I'm all for that. Let's name it. Same with Josh Jr. No, just, I love it. But, but like, even, even for you. Yeah. You may have like be intolerant to the casein protein from dairy, but there could be some environmental things that trigger the inflammation.
- [51:13]
Courtney Swan
For sure.
- [51:14]
Dr. Josh Red
There could be some lifestyle things that trigger the inflammation. There's a lot of, lot of different stuff that you have to kind of look at for a patient to figure out. Okay, what's causing these TH17 cells to increase and what can we do to calm them down and whatnot. For females though, this is something that has completely changed my mind. Like I have an, an alternative background. I now can prescribe and do hormones and, and just finish a stem cell regenerative medicine residency. And so I'm, now I'm like, I'm kind of like both one foot in the medical, one foot in the alternative. I'm like bridging the gap there. Like for the longest time I would look at females and if they had hormonal, like hormonal issues, I would try to do everything alternative wise. Now at the same time I'm learning like as you get a little bit older, like 35, 40, looking and assessing and optimizing hormones. Yes. Doing all the functional medicine stuff, like we want to correct the underlying imbalances. But then at the same time, giving someone bioidentical hormones could be life saving.
- [52:14]
Courtney Swan
Yeah.
- [52:15]
Dr. Josh Red
And what I'm finding out now is that it, it makes their resilience way better. So like they could be intolerant to lots of foods, they could have lots of things causing inflammation. And if the hormones are off, if you start to optimize those and you only do those sometimes also the food intolerance will decrease rapidly. Their immune resilience increases tremendously. And just by simply giving a person bioidentical progesterone if they need it, or you know, maybe a little in females, maybe a little bit of testosterone, bioidentical testosterone if they need it. Like that goes a long ways for these individuals. I used to think that autoimmune patients were the most neglected people on the planet. They are for sure. Like, the stories that we have from our autoimmune patients are horrible. I had a, one of my first patients came in and her son was asked to draw a picture of her at school and he drew a picture of her in bed because that's and he comes home and she pulls it out of her, out of his bag. And she's like, what's this, honey? She's like, that's you mom. Because you're always in bed. And that's heartbreaking. But the reality is there's a ton of women just like that that are being totally neglected. It's so frustrating. However, I found a new group of people neglected. And that's people going through. That's women going through perimenopause and menopause 100. They are getting so screwed over by the medical population right now because of just science that is completely bogus, saying that hormones are bad or whatever that is. Now, now, with my research background, we know hormones, if you have the right hormones and bioidentical hormones, you could change somebody's life tremendously and minimize the aging process long term and, and completely change their life instantaneously just by optimizing hormones. And so my mind has shifted where I'm like, holy cow. Like, there's, yes, there's lots of things that we can do to correct progesterone, improve estrogen clearance, all that stuff. But at the same time, bioidentical hormones done the right way can be life saving for women as they age too. And I honestly think, think we're seeing autoimmune diseases. We're seeing inflammation explode tremendously. Like, we'll have like, men, we just like slowly decline with. From a health standpoint, like, we just like get sicker, sicker, sicker as we age. Women, they're like healthy, healthy, healthy, healthy. Hit perimenopause and it's like a spiral downward, you know, with their health.
- [54:47]
Courtney Swan
Yeah.
- [54:47]
Dr. Josh Red
And it's just because we don't have the right doctors and the right team to help help them with their hormone dysfunction too.
- [54:55]
Courtney Swan
Yeah. I mean, that's fascinating. Where would someone start with that? Because I know, and maybe we can just briefly talk about this, that I know that there is a lot of misconceptions and myths around if you're using hormones like that, that there's a risk for cancer. And there's like a lot of, a lot of that floating around online. Yeah.
- [55:12]
Dr. Josh Red
And it's based off of 40 years of garbage research. Yeah. Completely false. Now all the new updated research and literature shows that if we actually prescribe hormones soon enough, enough, it minimizes cancer, it improves cardiovascular health, it improves brain function, it diminishes like dementia and Alzheimer's, it improves inflammation, it minimizes food intolerances, even your hormones line the intestinal tract and so if you're deficient in a hormone, for example, you could end up having intestinal permeability just from having a lack of hormones, right?
- [55:46]
Courtney Swan
Yeah.
- [55:47]
Dr. Josh Red
And we're seeing these people transition through perimenopause and they have these fluctuating estrogen levels going up and down. That's really inflammatory to the system, which tends to onset autoimmune conditions and problems there. And so just getting like a bioidentical testosterone and progesterone could be life saving for them and teaching them how to clear estrogen, it could be great too, right?
- [56:09]
Courtney Swan
Yeah.
- [56:10]
Dr. Josh Red
But the research is very clear now, like this. I have a research background. The research is very clear that the right hormones done the right way can absolutely change your life and save your life long term.
- [56:24]
Courtney Swan
And is that something that once you start, you have to always be on it or you can maybe taper off of it if you need to, or how does that work?
- [56:29]
Dr. Josh Red
Yeah, so it just depends on the, the person. So for me personally, my biggest goal is to try to find out every underlying balance that I possibly can. Like why does this person have low progesterone like you? If I was to check your progesterone, it's going to be really low because a lot of anxiety and because your cortisol awakened response, your adrenalines don't function well, so they convert progesterone into cortisol. So the mechanism driving that is if I can improve your adrenal dysfunction, then in turn I improve your progesterone and then your fertility rates go up like crazy. Right.
- [56:59]
Courtney Swan
Okay, we need to do that.
- [57:00]
Dr. Josh Red
So, so that's where I'm always looking for the underlying mechanisms, which there are hormone doctors out there that don't do that and I would advise not to go to them. You want to find someone that's going to be able to look at the underlying mechanisms driving hormone dysfunction, but then can also prescribe bioidentical hormones as well. And if things are functioning better, like if I improve your adrenal dysfunction and I improve how your cortisol is being utilized and then that improves your progesterone naturally, well, then you can, then, then we're good, right?
- [57:33]
Courtney Swan
Yeah.
- [57:34]
Dr. Josh Red
As you age, though, there's, there's women where, if they are not producing hormones, let's say they're now in menopause, for example, and they're not producing hormones, that's where they would benefit being on long, long term hormonal therapy for sure.
- [57:50]
Courtney Swan
Okay, that's interesting. That's something I definitely want to look into. I've been hearing a lot about it. I just. Personally, I mean, I just turned 40 this year. And it's interesting. I'm slow. Just barely starting to see some, like, hormonal changes. Nothing that's been too crazy yet. But I've been kind of just thinking, oh, man, this is something I'm gonna have to address.
- [58:09]
Dr. Josh Red
I'll share a funny story. So we. I have close friends. I think they're like 42 right now. And she's had infertility problems for a long time and just had a hard time getting pregnant. And I think they adopted a child. And then they were able to get pregnant through fertility stuff and through working with us and everything. But they have. You know, I think the kids, like, like nine years old now. But, like, even just having a baby on their own was almost impossible. Anyways, we put her on progesterone, we corrected her blood sugar levels, we improved the adrenal dysfunction, and she was functioning and feeling awesome. And all of a sudden, I get a text from her and her husband, like, josh, what the freak did you do? And I was like, what the heck? Like, like multiple calls that I missed. Like, they were, like, freaking out. I was like, oh, my gosh, what's going on? So I hurry and Colm, and they're like, we're pregnant. I was like, holy cow. But they're obviously shocked. But they're also excited.
- [59:15]
Courtney Swan
They're like, like, okay, wow.
- [59:17]
Dr. Josh Red
Well, it'll be great. He'll graduate when you're 90. That's awesome. But working with all that stuff, they got pregnant and they weren't even trying. But when you start to improve those imbalances, then here we are, you know.
- [59:31]
Courtney Swan
Okay, I gotta work on that. I'm gonna call you. In the essence of time, is there anything else that you feel like the listeners need to hear that we didn't cover? I mean, that was am.
- [59:40]
Dr. Josh Red
You tell me. Well, here's the thing. There's so much that we could talk about from inflammation, from autoimmune, from Hashimoto's. Like, we didn't even touch on Hashimoto's.
- [59:47]
Courtney Swan
I know, we should talk about that really quick.
- [59:49]
Dr. Josh Red
Our Hashimoto's is, like, my sixth child. I have researched Hashimoto's for so long. Probably 50% of our patients that are autoimmune are Hashimoto's patients. The number one autoimmune disease in this country is Hashimoto's, which is the number. Which number one cause of low thyroid. So it's Amazing to see how many people have thyroid dysfunction now. I think close to 10% of all females have thyroid problems and most of them have Hashimoto's, which. This is kind of a crazy thing. If you have a thyroid problem, you go to the doctor, the doctor runs the tsh and then they see that your thyroid is low, they give you a thyroid hormone. But then what's causing it? Nobody ever figures out what is causing it.
- [60:38]
Courtney Swan
I know.
- [60:38]
Dr. Josh Red
And so these patients get on this thyroid hormone, they go from doctor to doctor, or they get herded around like sheep every three to six months, get put on this thyroid medication, get the refill. They're just checking that. That's all they're doing. And yet we don't like just sit there and be like, huh, you got a thyroid problem. But I wonder what the mechanism is that's driving it. Nobody asked that question.
- [60:57]
Courtney Swan
And they're also not testing the full thyroid. Most of it's crazy, which is wild.
- [61:01]
Dr. Josh Red
It's crazy. They could have an under conversion, conversion problem of the thyroid. They could have a protein binding problem with the thyroid. They could have a, a T3 uptake issue. They could have Hashimoto's, but nobody's checking for it. And so we have lots of individuals that will have thyroid problems. Like if you're listening right now and you're taking a thyroid hormone and you don't know if you have Hashimoto's, run to your doctor right now and check for a TPO antibody and an antithyroglobulin antibody. If any of those things come back positive, you don't have a thyroid issue. You have an autoimmune issue that's causing your thyroid problem. Now a lot of people will be like, well, does that mean I don't need to be on thyroid medication? And that's not right. Like eventually, let me break this down for you. If you have Hashimoto's, your immune system destroys the thyroid at a rapid pace and then eventually will cause like a permanent low thyroid. Like it, it can beat it up so bad to where you've destroyed all the cells and it doesn't produce thyroid hormones properly. And so you need to be on thyroid hormones because those cells, every cell in your body has a thyroid hormone receptor. And so if you're deficient in thyroid hormone, you're going to be, you could literally cause problems with every cell in the body. And so it's important to be on proper thyroid hormones. And I do check those TSH levels and I make sure that my patients are Taking the right amount of thyroid hormone. However, that's not the mechanism of your disease. The mechanism is an autoimmune disease that's destroying the thyroid, causing systemic inflammation. And if you, if you improve that, then all of a sudden this patient goes from having 10 good days a month to 25 good days a month. And their quality life is way better. But because we finally start to address the autoimmune component. So most of these females, 10%, have thyroid problems. Most of them have Hashimoto's. They're going from doctor to doctor. Nobody's even checked to see if they have Hashimoto's. And they're only treating the thyroid when the autoimmune disease is the culprit, causing all the other issues. Does that make sense?
- [63:07]
Courtney Swan
Yeah. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. So do you think with Hashimoto's, Because I don't fully understand Hashimoto's, it's not necessarily that you have thyroid disease. It's like you're on your way, right? Like you could potentially.
- [63:20]
Dr. Josh Red
Yeah. So Hashimoto's is. So here's the thing. We'll check people that have all the thyroid symptoms and problems. Their TSH is normal, which is a thyroid simulating hormone. So they don't need thyroid hormones, but they have all the thyroid symptoms. And when we check the antibodies, the thyroglobin antibody and TBO antibody, then all of a sudden those come high. And it makes sense because they have an autoimmune condition that's destroying the thyroid. It just hasn't caused a permanent low thyroid yet. So if you catch the condition earlier enough, there might be five, a five to ten year window where you have Hashimoto's. And this is the worst, this is the worst place to be. This is where you think you're crazy and you're completely hopeless because you've gone to 10 different doctors, nobody knows what to do, and you're in this range where they don't treat you, but you have Hashimoto's destroying the thyroid. You have all the symptoms of low thyroid and thyroid issues. And then you have like anxiety, restlessness, insomnia, fatigue, you're gaining weight, all these different issues, but you just have what's called Hashimoto's autoimmune reaction. It hasn't turned into Hashimoto's low thyroid yet. So your immune system has to destroy the thyroid enough to where it becomes a permanent low thyroid in order for the conventional medicine to treat you with thyroid hormone.
- [64:43]
Courtney Swan
Got it.
- [64:43]
Dr. Josh Red
Okay, this sounds Crazy.
- [64:45]
Courtney Swan
So, I mean, it makes sense.
- [64:46]
Dr. Josh Red
We'll have patients literally go to a doctor and they'll be like, if they did check Hashimoto's, which is rare, but sometimes they do. And they're like, well, you have Hashimoto's, but there's nothing we can do about it. They're like, we'll just, we just have to wait till it destroys it. And you need. You have a permanent low thyroid. Like, well, I have all these thyroid symptoms. It's like, I know. But we can't treat it until you have a low thyroid, which they're right. Because if they gave you thyroid medication right then and there, you would just be hyperactive thyroid and you have even more symptoms than that. What they don't realize is that the doctor is doing nothing to the autoimmune condition. They're like, we don't know how to address that. We don't have a medication for that because they don't know anything about diet, lifestyle and nutrition. And so they just say, we don't know how to treat that. We'll just wait till it destroys and we'll give you a thyroid hormone.
- [65:32]
Courtney Swan
This is so, it's so crazy. They do the same thing with diabetes. They do the same thing with so many things where they're like, oh, you're pre diabetic, but you know, just come back when it's full blown and they'll get you on a medication. There's no like, dietary interventions before that in order to keep it from going full blown.
- [65:47]
Dr. Josh Red
Yeah.
- [65:47]
Courtney Swan
In a conventional sense.
- [65:48]
Dr. Josh Red
Yeah. So if we catch it early enough, we're like, holy cow, this, we could save you 15, 20 years of problems. And on top of that, if you have an autoimmune disease like Hashimoto's and you do nothing about it, then the likelihood of you having another autoimmune condition is higher in five to 10 years. So if you're just letting this autoimmune condition flare up like crazy, nobody's treating it well, then you could have rheumatoid arthritis when you go through perimenopause and menopause, or you could have Ms. Or you could have, you know, whatever else. Right. And so if you have one autoimmune condition, it's important to try to calm that down as fast as you can because then it will minimize other autoimmune conditions from coming on.
- [66:32]
Courtney Swan
Yeah. So what is the solution for that then? I guess again, somebody just needs to find a doctor that knows how to treat the underlying issue issue, like the autoimmune issue that's happening.
- [66:39]
Dr. Josh Red
Yeah, but look, this is where we see now a huge population of females and men who are really looking to see what's causing their problems. Yeah, you could do a lot of this stuff yourself. Like, we see really severe patients at Red River. But you could have your doctor check for a TPO antibody and an antithyroglobulin antibody. If those come back high, you know that you have Hashimoto's or Hashimoto's autoimmune reaction. If that's the case, then gluten. So, like, give me an idea. Gluten to a Hashimoto's patient is very similar to gluten and a CELAC patient.
- [67:18]
Courtney Swan
Yeah.
- [67:18]
Dr. Josh Red
We have so much research that shows gluten flares up Hashimoto's. So gluten and dairy to a Hashimoto's patient, I would have them avoid those two things like the plague. So if you have Hashimoto's antibodies, you know, hey, I gotta avoid those. And I can stabilize glucose. Like, it's pretty similar, like what we talked about with you.
- [67:34]
Courtney Swan
Yeah.
- [67:34]
Dr. Josh Red
A lot of these ways that we treat. Yes, they're unique and different, but sometimes it's like, hey, look, you could try these things first. Avoid dairy, avoid gluten, and stabilize glucose. And that would be huge. Guess what else helps calm down Hashimoto's and autoimmune in general?
- [67:51]
Courtney Swan
I don't know.
- [67:52]
Dr. Josh Red
Probably the best supplement is turmeric.
- [67:54]
Courtney Swan
Oh, wow.
- [67:55]
Dr. Josh Red
So, like Carlin, who you just interviewed, who's one of my favorites, we have what's called the turmeric complex. It has boswellia, resveratrol, and turmeric, which were three of the top things to help calm down autoimmunity in people. You can do things like glutathione. Glutathione helps improve liver detoxification. Yep. Liver detoxification helps with the intestinal lining. It helps decrease TH17 cells. And autoimmunity helps stabilize glucose, helps decrease brain inflammation. Glutathione is one of those things where, like, if you have an autoimmune condition, I'm putting them on glutathione.
- [68:31]
Courtney Swan
Yeah.
- [68:31]
Dr. Josh Red
Like, simple stuff like that goes a huge way. And you could just go to your doctor, hey, I want you to run these labs. And then if you can't find anyone to help you, work on it yourself and see if you can make some. Some work. Right. And a lot of people can do that. And then if it gets too severe, then you can come to A clinic like ours and, and go from there, right?
- [68:49]
Courtney Swan
Yeah. That's amazing. I love this because this is, this is giving the listener really tangible, helpful tips where they can really get started on, on this themselves. Because I know there's a lot of people out there struggling, looking for answers and people have different budgets and it's hard to find, you know, doctors like this, that, that are, you know, under insurance and that are under people's budgets. Like, I, I get that. I mean, I've been, I've been spending so much money lately on labs and stuff. It's not.
- [69:15]
Dr. Josh Red
Yeah.
- [69:16]
Courtney Swan
And for, even for me long term, I was just telling him recently, I was like, God, I gotta like figure this out. Because we've been spending so much money on labs and everything. It's just not possible for most people, you know.
- [69:26]
Dr. Josh Red
Yeah. And that's really why, like, I don't, I hate Instagram and social media and all that stuff. It's consuming. But the whole reason why I have it is just to help inform the public. For free.
- [69:36]
Courtney Swan
Yeah.
- [69:36]
Dr. Josh Red
Like, I have enough research and I have enough background and I have enough experience now where we've seen so many stinking patients with these problems. And so it's just like giving back to the community. As much as I hate it, it's like a service project. But.
- [69:49]
Courtney Swan
Yeah. Well, so helpful. I mean, your Instagram is amazing and you'll definitely, you'll have to tell everybody where they can follow you. For sure.
- [69:55]
Dr. Josh Red
Yeah, it's Dr. Josh Red on Instagram and Tick Tock and all that stuff. But for you, what we should do is let's do like a full treatment with you.
- [70:05]
Courtney Swan
Sorry. Yeah, I would love that.
- [70:07]
Dr. Josh Red
There's a lot of stuff that we can do now. I have a, a clinic where we do hormone therapy and regenerative medicine with, with stem cells and all sorts of stuff and something called eboo, which is fantastic for kind of cleaning the blood a little bit. It hyper oxygenates the cells in the body. It's fantastic. But there's a lot of stuff that we could do with you that I think could make a big difference and then come back and redo, you know, do a part two here.
- [70:38]
Courtney Swan
Right, let's do that. Yeah, I would love that. Let's do all that and then we'll do another episode and we can share my labs and tell everybody how, how much everything is improved. Because I'm just going to manifest that for myself right now.
- [70:47]
Dr. Josh Red
Absolutely.
- [70:48]
Courtney Swan
No question that this has been so amazing. Thank you so much for your time. I loved this episode just let everybody know where they can find you. I know you've kind of dropped it already, but just.
- [70:56]
Dr. Josh Red
Yeah. So we have drjoshred.com is just like an informative website that you can go to. Redriverhealthandwellness.com is our autoimmune clinic in functional medicine clinics where we deal with lots of chronic conditions and things like that. And then I have palmavitaclinic.com which is our regenerative medicine, stem cell aesthetics, hormones, just all the anti aging types type type stuff in that clinic. So. So which I love now. It's, it's kind of. It's been so fun to be a part of everything.
- [71:24]
Courtney Swan
But I know that's what I wanted to talk about that too. So I'll just have to bring you back on and we'll talk about all the regenerative and like stem cells and stuff like that. It's so cool.
- [71:31]
Dr. Josh Red
Do you want me to. I'll. I'll do one thing and then we'll close.
- [71:35]
Courtney Swan
Yeah. Yeah.
- [71:36]
Dr. Josh Red
So my professor at Johns Hopkins, his lab, they could sever a mouse's spine, make it quadriplegic and inject stem cells and make it fully walk again.
- [71:46]
Courtney Swan
Oh my God.
- [71:48]
Dr. Josh Red
So to give you an idea, we'll do another. We should do a whole episode on stem cells. Like stem cells are getting better and better and better every year. We're obviously not there yet. But to give you an idea, that's what they're doing right now at Johns Hopkins. So I mean, the research is getting better and better and it's pretty awesome. So like for me now we inject a lot of professional athletes and I actually fly home right now and inject a bunch of professional athletes at my clinic from about 3 to 11 tonight.
- [72:19]
Courtney Swan
Amazing.
- [72:20]
Dr. Josh Red
But it's really cool to see how much faster they recover. Somebody could have an injury and it cuts the time in half. People that are like bone on bone with their knees are able to walk again and do Pilates and walk upstairs and not have to get knee replacements. I mean, it's really, really cool to see the things that we're even able to do and have access to even right now right here in the United States States. It's awesome.
- [72:43]
Courtney Swan
It's so cool. I've been trying to get my dad on board because he's been having so many knee issues and he just, he had a knee replacement and then there was a recall for the knee replacements. Then he had to have it redone again and he's been like really struggling but he's a little. He's resistant to this kind of stuff.
- [72:58]
Dr. Josh Red
Yeah. So it's great. It's great. Now, the. The things that we have at our fingertips are so cool.
- [73:04]
Courtney Swan
I know. It's so cool. And I'm very excited to see how it goes.
- [73:06]
Dr. Josh Red
Only getting better every year.
- [73:07]
Courtney Swan
Yeah. So I'll. I'll bring you back and we'll talk about that, too. Awesome. Thank you so much, Josh.
- [73:11]
Dr. Josh Red
Yeah, thanks for having me.
- [73:12]
Courtney Swan
Thank you so much for listening to the Real Foodology podcast. This is a Wellness Loud production produced by Drake Peterson and mixed by Mike Fry. Theme song is by Georgie. You can watch the full video version of this podcast inside the Spotify app or on YouTube. As always, you can leave us a voicemail by clicking the link in our bio. And if you like this episode, please rate and review on your podcast app. For more shows by my team, go to wellnessloud.com See you next time. The content of this show is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for individual medical and mental health advice and doesn't constitute a provider patient relationship. I am a nutritionist, but I am not your nutritionist. As always, talk to your doctor or your health team first. If you struggle with bloating, gas, constipation, digestive issues, yeast overgrowth, well, you may already know about Digest this. It's the podcast hosted by me, Bethany Cameron, also known as Little Sipper on Instagram. I dive into gut health, nutrition, the food industry, and drawing from my own experience, I break down what's good, what's bad, and what's the best for your gut, your skin, and so much more. I even offer gut friendly recipes. New episodes every Monday and Wednesday. Produced by Wellness Loud.