153: Riboflavin for Strange Unresolved Health Problems

Got any strange, unresolved health problems? 🤭

High-dose riboflavin might help!

MIGHT. 😬

This episode is a shot in the dark, but covers how high-dose riboflavin could help with a lot of mystery issues.

152: High-Dose Riboflavin for Migraines

Got migraines? 😣

You may need a LOT of riboflavin! 😮

This episode covers what dose to use, and how to time the dosing.

151: Riboflavin for Iron-Deficiency Anemia

Got anemia? 🙋🏽🙋🏼‍🙋‍♀️🙋🏿‍♀️

You may need more riboflavin! 😮

This episode covers how to know if your iron-deficiency anemia could be helped by riboflavin, and what to do about it using food and supplements.

150: Riboflavin Supplements: Free B2 Is Better Than FMN or Riboflavin 5’-Phosphate

What’s the best riboflavin supplement? 🤷‍♂️

For years I thought it was riboflavin 5’-phosphate, also known as flavin mononucleotide (FMN). In this episode, I explain why I know believe it is plain old riboflavin.

149: The Best Blood Test for Riboflavin

This episode covers the best blood test to use for assessing riboflavin status.

148: How to Get Enough Riboflavin From Food

Here’s how to get RIBOFLAVIN from FOOD. 🍲 😋

This episode covers how to figure out how much you need, and which foods to get it from.

147: Exercise and Dieting Make You Need More Riboflavin

Losing weight? Leaning out? Slimming down? 🙋🏽🙋🏼‍♂️🙋‍♀️🙋‍♂️🙋🏿‍♀️

Hitting the gym? Doing cardio? Gettin’ yo fat-burnin’ on? 🙋🏽🙋🏼‍♂️🙋‍♀️🙋‍♂️🙋🏿‍♀️

You might need more riboflavin. 😬

This episode covers by how much, and how to get it from food.

146: High-Fat Diets Make You Need More Riboflavin

Eating keto? Low-carb? High-fat? 🙋🏽🙋🏼‍♂️🙋‍♀️🙋‍♂️🙋🏿‍♀️

You might need more riboflavin. 😬

This episode covers how much more you’d need and how to get it from food.

145: Riboflavin and Tanning Beds for Fungal Infections?

Have a fungal infection? Here’s how the combination of tanning beds and riboflavin might help.

This is speculative, but worth trying for many people. Make sure to talk to your doctor about any infections you have and anything you’re doing to treat them.

Tune in for the details!

144: Sunlight and Tanning Beds Hurt Your Riboflavin Status

Do you sunbathe or use tanning beds? If so, you might need more riboflavin.

Tune in for the details.

143: How to Know If You Need More Riboflavin

Riboflavin is the ultimate fat-burning nutrient. 🔥

Could you need more of it? This episode covers the signs you could need a just a little more, and what it would look like if you started running real low.

142: How to Take Niacin Without Hurting Your Liver

Niacin is great! BUT… It can hurt your liver. 😟

This episode covers a protocol to make sure niacin doesn’t hurt your liver. It covers the specific form you take, your health history, the dose, and what to take it with to protect your liver.

141: How to Take Niacin Without Flushing

Ugh, the NIACIN FLUSH! 🥵🥵🥵

This episode covers what to do and what NOT to do to avoid it. It covers slow-release niacin, extended-release niacin, inositol hexanicotinate, niacinamide, aspirin, and waiting it out.

140: How to Take Niacin Without Getting Diabetes

Here’s how to take NIACIN 😁… without getting DIABETES. 😔

Alex Leaf and I did a HUGE podcast on niacin, and Alex looked at the data on whether it is safe and effective to use for preventing heart disease.

Based on that data, one out of every 18 people who use it for this purpose get saved from heart disease, but for every 7 people saved from heart disease, 3 get diabetes.

In this episode I cover Alex’s idea on how to take niacin without getting diabetes.

139: Should You Use Niacin to Lower Your Blood Lipids?

Should you use niacin to lower your blood lipids?

For every seven people that this saves from heart disease, three get diabetes. This episode covers alternative strategies to achieve the same effect of niacin on blood lipids without the risk of diabetes.

138: The Best Blood Test for Niacin

Here’s why the best test for niacin status is HDRI’s NADH/NADPH, how to use it to calculate the niacin number, and what numbers you should be aiming for.

137: How to Get Enough Niacin From Food

Here’s how to get NIACIN from FOOD. 🍲😋

I recommend getting a half gram to a gram of protein per pound of bodyweight (double this if you measure your weight in kilograms), which contributes to your niacin status, as well as 20 milligrams of preformed niacin from food per day.

So, here are your foods, arranged in five tiers.

136: Do Women Need More Niacin Than Men?

Do women need more niacin than men?

The RDA says they need less. But the evidence suggests otherwise.

135: How to Free the Niacin in Grains and Seeds

Are your whole grains and seeds good sources of niacin? That depends on you prepare them!

Whole grains have 80-90% of their niacin locked up, and seeds have 40% of their niacin locked up. This episode covers how to free the bound niacin.

134: Coffee! How to Free the Locked-Up Niacin

Is it a good source of NIACIN?

That depends on how you brew it. This episode has the details on the effect of roasting, coffee strength, and decaffeination.

133: How to Know If You Need More Niacin

Ever wonder if you need more niacin?

This episode covers the signs and symptoms of niacin deficiency as well as the reasons you’d be likely to become deficient.

132: How to Safely Take Nicotinamide Riboside for Anti-Aging

Nicotinamide riboside (NR) is the best form of niacin to take for anti-aging benefits.

BUT… it could sap your creatine supply, making you weaker, hurting your digestion, or causing you to get depressed.

AND it could mess with your dopamine, giving you “sticky brain” syndrome, causing negative thoughts and emotions to get stuck in your mind.

How do we protect against this? It all comes down to dose, frequency, timing it with meals, and making sure you have enough methyl donors.

Tune in for the details.

131: The Best Form of Niacin for Anti-Aging

Niacin, niacinamide, nicotinamide riboside, nicotinamide mononucleotide, oh my! 🙉

Which form should you take for anti-aging? In this episode, I recommend nicotinamide riboside (NR). It’s better at increase NAD+ levels than niacin or niacinamide. It’s probably equal to nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN), but NMN hasn’t been studied as well. NMN is probably absorbed as NR anyway, and might have lower absorption if your intestines are damaged.

Tune in for the details of why I’m making this recommendation.

130: Should You Inject Yourself With NAD+?

Should you inject yourself with NAD+ to stay young forever? 💉😮

My buddy Ben and some guys at Onnit are doin’ it. 👊

I’m a little less prone to livin’ on the edge. 🤓 I like the idea of living forever, but, well, I don’t want to wind up 🤕 or 🥴.

Tune in for my thoughts on NAD+ injections.

129: What to Do About Fatty Liver

An estimated 70 million Americans have fatty liver disease, and the strongest predictors are obesity and type 1 or type 2 diabetes.

The lab I worked in when I completed my PhD specialized in fatty liver disease, so I did a lot of research on this and have published some papers on it.

Here’s my recommended fix, which I call the “choline-boosting modified fast.” It focuses on weight loss that is as rapid as the person can handle, but no more rapid; using the foods least likely to contribute to liver fat, modified according to the person’s ability to digest them; and supplying the nutrients needed to remove fat from the liver through foods, if possible, and otherwise through supplements.

Tune in for the details!

128: Vitamin A and Fatty Liver

Fatty liver can hurt your liver’s ability to store vitamin A, which could make vitamin A supplements or vitamin A-rich foods toxic. Yet one of the main conditions that causes fatty liver -- obesity -- also makes your cell’s deficient in vitamin A, deep down inside.

This a big problem! You might need more vitamin A, yet not be able to handle getting it.

Tune in for my solution.

127: Vitamin A and Pregnancy: Should You Worry?

Can vitamin A cause birth defects?

Maybe. Here’s what I recommend to do with your vitamin A intake when you’re expecting, or expecting to maybe be expecting.

126: What to Do About Vitamin A Toxicity

If you have vitamin A toxicity, should you see a doctor? What foods should you stop eating, and are there any supplements you should start taking?

Tune in for my suggestions.

125: How to Know If You Have Vitamin A Toxicity

Is vitamin A toxic?

It can be!

It’s a super-important essential nutrient and MANY people need MORE of it, yet it still has the potential to cause problems.

Here is a method to use signs and symptoms, the amounts of vitamin A you’ve been exposed to, and lab tests to determine if you’ve gotten too much.

There are a few symptoms that I neglected to mention in the video that are worth taking note of: skin peeling, itching, cracked lips, and fatigue.

124: Do Children Need Less Nutrients Than Adults?

Does a growing child need a *less* nutritious diet than an adult?

You would think so, looking at the RDAs! Yes, some of them are higher during childhood growth phases, such as calcium. But many of them are lower, and not because we know children need less but simply because they were scaled down by bodyweight.

Should a child half your size who eats twice as much food as you eat a diet that’s only 25% as nutrient-dense?

I doubt it.

Tune in for my thoughts on the topic and what I think we should do about it.

123: Your “MTHFR” Is Just a Riboflavin Deficiency

Got MTHFR? 😬

Relax! Riboflavin will come to the rescue! 😁

MTHFR is an enzyme that uses folate (vitamin B9) to support your mental and physical health. It does so by using riboflavin (vitamin B2) to make the methyl group of methylfolate.

The common polymorphisms that lower MTHFR activity may do so simply by hurting its ability to bind riboflavin, and enough riboflavin may be able to bring that activity completely back up to normal!

122: How to Use an Oura Ring and HRV for Exercise Performance and Recovery

Feel tanked after your workout? 😫

Well you might feel fine, but you might still be stressing your body too much. How do you know?

This is my recommended protocol for using heart rate variability to determine how recovered you are. It covers everything from getting an accurate baseline measurement to discovering and testing things that impact your recovery time.

121: 5 Signs Your Brain Needs More Vitamin C and Copper

“Low Copper Low Vitamin C BRAIN Syndrome”

Ok it’s not a medical term. I invented it. But this is the cluster of signs and symptoms that make it sound like your brain needs more vitamin C or copper, based on the neuropeptides we need these nutrients to activate.

120: Ten Steps to Healthy Sleep

Here are ten steps to healthy sleep!

What has been most game-changing for you?

119: How to Stop Waking up to Pee

Don’t you just hate it when you keep waking up in the middle of the night to pee?

If this is your biggest sleeping problem, listen up. In this episode I cover how sleeping regular hours is one of the most important ways to combat this, and how nutrients (salt, vitamin C, copper, zinc, glycine, enough calories) and stress management can also help.

118: Vitamin A for Sleep

To get good sleep, your brain needs to know when it’s daytime and when it’s nighttime. How does it know? Vitamin A tells it!

So if you don’t have enough vitamin A, your brain is going to be clueless.

Tune in for how to figure out if vitamin A is at the bottom of your sleeping problems.

117: How to Make Your Own Melatonin

Here’s how to make your own melatonin. No, not in your basement -- in your brain.

We cover the effect of protein, carbs, vitamins, blue-blocking, and sunshine.

Tune in for the details!

116: Why You Shouldn’t Take Melatonin Too Often

I used to be addicted to melatonin. I couldn’t sleep without taking a time-release melatonin every night.

Well, it wasn’t really an addiction. It was that my sleep just sucked, so I was stuck using melatonin because my body wasn’t working right.

I haven’t needed melatonin to sleep for *years.* I regard it as a sign of the success of what I’ve done to fix my sleep that I don’t need it anymore.

Do you take melatonin?

I’m not against it. I think everyone should have some melatonin on hand in their bedroom and their travel bag. But taking it every night cannot replicate the natural rhythm inside your body. Taking a dual action immediate- and time-release can get close, but it just ain’t the same thing. So, use the melatonin when needed, but consider it part of the journey and not the destination. Until you’re off the melatonin, you still have fixing to do.

Tune in for the details!

115: Tryptophan and Carbs for Sleep

In order to sleep well, you need to get a good dose of tryptophan into your brain at any point during the day. The simplest way to do that is with natural, whole-food, high-glycemic carbohydrates like white potatoes and sweet potatoes.

Tune in for how to make this work on a high-carb, low-carb or even keto diet, when to include a tryptophan supplement, and what to consider when timing the supplements or carbs.

114: Should You Eat Protein At Night?

Could eating protein at night hurt your sleep? In this episode I discuss why it *might* hurt your sleep. Eating protein at the last meal of your day is important if you are trying to build muscle, but if you are trying to resolve sleeping problems then trying a lower-protein meal at night should be one of the tools in your kit.

Tune in for the details!

113: Can Alpha-GPC and Gingko Hurt Your Sleep?

In the last episode, I covered how and why I use alpha-GPC and ginkgo biloba supplements during periods where I need increased focused concentration. But could this hurt your sleep if you take them at night?

Tune in for the details!

112: Alpha-GPC and Ginkgo Biloba for Focused Concentration

Here’s how and why I use alpha-GPC and ginkgo biloba supplements during periods where I need increased focused concentration. Tune in for the details!

111: How to Make Your Own GABA

Here’s how to make your own GABA, not in your basement, but in your brain.

GABA helps relax you, helps you make faster and better decisions under pressure, and helps you face your fears with less of a harmful stress response.

To make it ourselves we need glucose to enter the brain, then we need to use seven B vitamins, at least four minerals, and a robust supply of cellular energy to make the GABA, and we need salt, potassium, and energy to make it function properly.

Tune in for how to get all these nutrients from food and make it happen.

110: How to Get GABA from Food

GABA helps relax you, helps you make faster and better decisions under pressure, and helps you face your fears with less of a harmful stress response.

Tune in to find out how to get it from FOOD!

109: Why You Might Need Carbs With Your GABA or Glycine

Most people won’t have adverse effects from taking GABA or glycine supplements, but some do. If you find that either of these cause anxiety from tanking your breathing or heart rate, a dose of high-glycemic carbs like white potatoes, sweet potatoes, or rice, could be the thing that helps.

Tune in to find out why!

108: Courage, Not Confidence, For Facing Fears

We often look to ourselves for confidence when facing up to our fears. This is wrong. Here I share a personal story about how the idea of “courage, not confidence,” from Tim Ferriss’s interview with the designer Deb Millman, helped me face up to a fear.

And I didn’t even have any GABA with me!

Here is the book discussed in the episode. Purchasing it will earn me a small commission at no expense to you, which helps support the free content I put out:

https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/amazon/tribeofmentors

107: Face Your Fears With GABA

Do you feel too stressed when trying to face your fears? That stress could tank your immune system.

Believe it or not, a little GABA can help you tolerate the stress, and face your fears without hurting your immune function.

Tune in for how 100 mg of GABA could help!

106: GABA for Faster Decision-Making

Need to make quick decisions under pressure?

Tune in for how 800 mg of GABA could help!

105: Carbs for Serotonin and Stress-Resistance

While collagen won’t bonk your serotonin if you eat enough other protein, low-carbing too much might. Here’s why at least one meal a day with natural high-glycemic carbs like white potatoes or sweet potatoes could help improve your stress-resistance.

Tune in for more details and for what to do if low-carb is something you need to stick to.

104: Will Collagen Bonk Your Serotonin?

Will collagen supplements bonk your serotonin and make you depressed or anxious?

Tune in for my response to an article that Trudy Scott, author of The Anti-Anxiety Food Solution, wrote about this over at “Every Woman Over 29” blog.

Here are links mentioned in this episode:

Trudy Scott’s article: https://www.everywomanover29.com/blog/collagen-gelatin-lower-serotonin-increase-anxiety-depression/

My episode on why collagen shouldn’t replace other protein:

https://masterpass.chrismasterjohnphd.com/courses/chris-masterjohn-lite/49156-083-do-you-supplement-with-collagen

How GABA and glycine can sometimes have a stimulatory effect:

https://masterpass.chrismasterjohnphd.com/courses/chris-masterjohn-lite/49136-097-does-glycine-or-gaba-wake-you-up

103: How to Fix Chronic Pain

Here are 5 ways to help resolve chronic pain: managing inflammation, reducing acidity, magnesium, glycine, and GABA. Tune in for more details!

102: 3 Ways to Clear Stubborn Inflammation

Here are 3 ways to clear stubborn inflammation: managing your fatty acids, taking a new supplement that jump-starts the resolution process, or going with the aspirin protocol from a few episodes ago. Tune in for the details!

101: The Omega-6 / Omega-3 Fatty Acid Ratio: Should You Care?

Should you care about your omega-6/omega-3 ratio? The short answer is, no, not unless you’re vegan or eat a diet that doesn’t contain liver, egg yolks, and fish.

Nevertheless, blood testing for arachidonic acid, EPA, and DHA levels can be useful and can guide dietary choices to improve the levels of these fatty acids. Still, don’t get caught up in the arachidonic acid-to-EPA ratio. And be mindful about how EPA behaves differently when you are or aren’t taking aspirin.

Tune in for the details!

100: What to Do About Menstrual Weight Gain

Ladies, do you gain a lot of weight around your period?

Here’s how daily supplementation with the right forms of magnesium and B6, as well as targeted use of a low-salt, high-potassium diet around your period with herbal diuretics and just the right dose of dark chocolate can help. Tune in to learn more!

099: Why Aspirin Goes Best With Bicarbonate and Glycine

Most over-the-counter anti-inflammatory drugs carry a risk of causing food intolerances and chronic, low-grade inflammation. Aspirin is an exception. But this is why it’s best taken with bicarbonate and glycine. IMPORTANT NOTE: Give 30-60 minutes between any dose of bicarbonate and aspirin to avoid hurting your stomach. Tune in to learn more!

098: Will MCT Oil Help You Lose Weight?

Replacing most of your fat with MCT oil will help create a small caloric deficit that can assist in weight loss, but is it worth it? Tune in for my answer.

This episode is brought to you by Ancestral Supplements’ “Living” Collagen. Our Native American ancestors believed that eating the organs from a healthy animal would support the health of the corresponding organ of the individual. Ancestral Supplements has a nose-to-tail product line of grass-fed liver, organs, “living” collagen, bone marrow and more… in the convenience of a capsule. For more information or to buy any of their products, go to https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/ancestral

097: Does Glycine or GABA Wake You Up?

GABA and glycine supplements should both have a calming effect, helping to reduce anxiety and make you sleep better.

But some people have asked me, what if they do the opposite? What if they cause anxiety and wake you up at night? Tune in for my answer.

096: Does Methylfolate Make You Angry or Depressed?

Does methylfolate make you angry or depressed?

Tune in to hear what I think is going on and what to do about it.

095: 7 Steps to Cure Histamine Intolerance

Here’s a 7-step protocol to tackle histamine intolerance.

Tune in to learn more!

094: Is Alcohol Good for You?

Is alcohol good for you?

It’s clear to me that 1) alcohol is a toxin and 2) it can help with having fun, which is good for you, but in this episode I consider whether some dose of alcohol might actually be fundamentally good for you. I discuss three ways this might work and what the optimal dose might be, as well as sharing a story of how I used alcohol to help clear up a fungal infection.

Tune in to learn more!

This is the episode on alcohol and histamine that was mentioned:

https://masterpass.chrismasterjohnphd.com/courses/chris-masterjohn-lite/49140-093-alcohol-and-histamine

093: Alcohol and Histamine

Could drinking alcohol be contributing to your allergies or histamine intolerance?

When my allergies started going nuts in Greece this summer, I was drinking more alcohol. Alcohol impairs the clearance of histamine *and* competes with histamine to be cleared itself. So it could make your allergies worse or contribute to histamine intolerance if you have it.

Tune in to learn more!

092: Are You Taking Medications That Cause Histamine Intolerance?

Could your medications be contributing to your histamine intolerance?

There are over 50 medications that could be culprits, so if you have symptoms of histamine intolerance and you are on any medications, tune in to this episode to find out if the ones you’re taking could be a problem.

Make sure to discuss any problems with your medication or changes to be made with your doctor! Please don’t change your medications on the basis of this episode alone!

Here are the links to the introductory episodes on histamine intolerance:

https://masterpass.chrismasterjohnphd.com/courses/chris-masterjohn-lite/49147-088-dietary-histamine-how-reliable-is-the-information

https://masterpass.chrismasterjohnphd.com/courses/chris-masterjohn-lite/49145-089-how-to-test-for-histamine-intolerance

https://masterpass.chrismasterjohnphd.com/courses/chris-masterjohn-lite/49144-090-kidney-and-dao-supplements-for-histamine-intolerance

https://masterpass.chrismasterjohnphd.com/courses/chris-masterjohn-lite/49143-091-migraines-and-the-menstrual-cycle-histamine

091: Migraines and the Menstrual Cycle: Histamine?

Ladies, let’s talk about your cycle.

Specifically, do you get migraines, other types of headaches, flushing, itching, or any other allergy-like symptoms that correlate with your menstrual cycle?

If so, you could be experiencing temporary histamine intolerance caused by too much estrogen. Tune in to learn more!

Here is the link to the Histamine Block: https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/DAO

Here is the link to the kidney extract: https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/kidney

Here is the link to the last episode on using DAO supplements:

https://masterpass.chrismasterjohnphd.com/courses/chris-masterjohn-lite/49144-090-kidney-and-dao-supplements-for-histamine-intolerance

090: Kidney and DAO Supplements for Histamine Intolerance

Got histamine intolerance? Here are two supplements that could help.

Tune in to learn which ones to use!

Here is the link to the Histamine Block: https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/DAO

Here is the link to the kidney extract: https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/kidney

Here is the link to the episode that lists the symptoms of histamine intolerance in more detail, and covers food sources of histamine:

https://masterpass.chrismasterjohnphd.com/courses/chris-masterjohn-lite/49147-088-dietary-histamine-how-reliable-is-the-information

Here are the links to the episodes on B6, copper, and vitamin C:

https://masterpass.chrismasterjohnphd.com/courses/chris-masterjohn-lite/49153-084-how-to-manage-your-copper-status

https://masterpass.chrismasterjohnphd.com/courses/chris-masterjohn-lite/49152-085-how-to-manage-your-vitamin-b6-status

https://masterpass.chrismasterjohnphd.com/courses/chris-masterjohn-lite/49151-086-how-to-manage-your-vitamin-c-status

089: How to Test for Histamine Intolerance

Do you have histamine intolerance?

It could be confused with an increased burden of mast cells, one of the main types of cells that release histamine.

Tune in for two lab tests that can help you tell the difference.

Here is the link to the episode that lists the symptoms of histamine intolerance in more detail, and covers food sources of histamine:

https://masterpass.chrismasterjohnphd.com/courses/chris-masterjohn-lite/49147-088-dietary-histamine-how-reliable-is-the-information

088: Dietary Histamine: How Reliable Is the Information?

If you suffer from ANY of these symptoms — diarrhea, headaches (including migraines), nasal congestion, asthma, wheezing, low or high blood pressure, heart palpitations (when your heart skips, flutters or beats irregularly), hives, itching, or flushing, you could be histamine intolerant.

If you are, this means that, as much as your symptoms seem like allergies, it could be a reaction to histamine in foods, such as hard cheese, fish, shellfish, dried nuts and fruit, and fermented and aged products more generally.

But can you trust the lists you find on the internet of which foods to avoid? In this episode I look at the data on histamine in foods — and it’s messier than you might think.

Tune in to see which foods you should be most concerned with.

087: How to Manage Your Selenium Status

Selenium makes you resilient to all kinds of stress, including the physical attacks of infections and toxins. It keeps your nails healthy, prevents the wear and tear on your tissues as you age, keeps your body from launching too much inflammation and releasing too much histamine, and appears to protect against several cancers.

On the other hand, too much worsens the risk of diabetes and causes some of the same problems that “just enough” protects against.

Because the soils vary so much in their selenium content, it’s hard to judge what you’re getting just from the foods you eat, and selenium is one mineral I think everyone should test at least once.

Tune in for everything you need to know about how to manage your selenium status!

Here’s the methylation page mentioned in the episode: https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/methylation

Here’s a much more detailed page on selenium:

https://masterpass.chrismasterjohnphd.com/courses/mastering-nutrition/47366-035-why-you-should-manage-your-selenium-status-and-how-to-do-it-2-18-17

086: How to Manage Your Vitamin C Status

Vitamin C protects against bleeding gums, makes your bones strong, helps keep you from getting sick, protects against the normal wear and tear on our tissues, helps us deal with alcohol, cigarette smoke, and toxins in our environment, and may even help support our ability to experience the emotional impact of physical intimacy. That last one is a little speculative, but it does make sense, because vitamin C is needed to make oxytocin, the so-called love hormone!

Tune in for everything you need to know about how to manage your vitamin C status!

085: How to Manage Your Vitamin B6 Status

Vitamin B6 protects against depression, anxiety, insomnia, age-related cognitive decline, hypoglycemia, kidney stones, and the morning sickness of pregnancy.

Tune in for everything you need to know about how to manage your B6 status!

084: How to Manage Your Copper Status

Copper!

Copper is needed to prevent anemia, histamine intolerance, high cholesterol, and osteoporosis, probably helps with allergies, and is needed to make you feel good overall. There’s a dark side to its toxicity, but more likely you need more copper than less.

Tune in for everything you need to know about how to manage your copper status!

These links are mentioned in the episode:

Zinc for heavy metals:

https://masterpass.chrismasterjohnphd.com/courses/chris-masterjohn-lite/49159-082-zinc-for-heavy-metals

The methylation page: https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/methylation

Here’s a much more detailed page about copper:

https://masterpass.chrismasterjohnphd.com/courses/mastering-nutrition/47357-033-why-you-should-manage-your-copper-status-and-how-to-do-it-2-3-17

083: Do you supplement with collagen?

Do you supplement with collagen?

Collagen is great, and important, but you SHOULDN’T be counting it toward your protein intake.

I’ve been seeing “collagen protein” bars around, and there’s nothing inaccurate about calling them that, but it seems easily to be misled into thinking they provide all the protein we need at a meal. They don’t.

Many people have asked me why I talk about collagen and non-collagen protein separately, and this episode explains why. Listen in and let me know what you think!

These links are mentioned in the episode:

The glycine database: https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/glycinedatabase

The glycine podcast: https://masterpass.chrismasterjohnphd.com/courses/mastering-nutrition/47529-049-why-you-need-glycine-a-panel-discussion-1-8-18

The methylation page, where it all fits into context: https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/methylation

082: Zinc for Heavy Metals

Got heavy metals?

If the elevation of heavy metals is modest (for example, less than twice the upper limit of the reference range), I think it is best to use zinc supplementation as a gentle approach to help detoxify. Here’s how I recommend using zinc for heavy metals.

081: Why I DON’T Recommend Zinc Picolinate

There are plenty of zinc supplements out there, and while many are acceptable, I don’t recommend using zinc oxide or zinc picolinate. People are often surprised that I recommend against picolinate. So, in this episode, I explain why.

080: How to Supplement with Zinc

Wondering what the best way is to supplement with zinc?

This episode covers what kind to take, what dose, when to take it, how often, with what foods or on an empty stomach, and of course how to know if you should be supplementing.

My preferred zinc supplement for most people is Jarrow Zinc Balance. You can use one of these two links to generate a commission to support my work at no extra cost to you.

Amazon: https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/amazon/jarrow/zincbalance

Iherb: https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/iherb/jarrowzincbalance

079: How to Manage Your Zinc Status

Zinc is needed for healthy skin, a robust immune system, sharp vision, stable blood sugar control, balanced and strong hormonal health, and far more. It’s even needed for protection against the heavy metals that pollute our environment.

Here’s how to make sure you’re getting enough — but not too much! — from managing your diet, to non-dietary causes of deficiency, to measuring and managing your zinc status with bloodwork.

My methylation resources, mentioned in the episode, can be found here: https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/methylation

My other zinc resources, mentioned in the episode, can be found here: https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/zincsearch

078: 7 Natural Ways to Boost Your Glutathione

Glutathione is a molecule you make from the protein in your diet that is incredibly important to protecting your liver, thyroid, and lungs. It’s the master antioxidant of the cell, critical to detoxing and cleaning out your system, and plays an especially important role in preventing asthma.

Here are seven natural ways to boost your glutathione status!

This is the link to the glycine database that is mentioned in the episode: http://chrismasterjohnphd.com/glycinedatabase

This is the link to the episode on magnesium status mentioned in the episode: https://masterpass.chrismasterjohnphd.com/courses/chris-masterjohn-lite/49184-062-how-to-manage-your-magnesium-status

077: Glutathione for Asthma

Do you have asthma? Do you know or love someone who does?

Here’s how to use supplemental glutathione (reduced, liposomal, and nebulized) to help with this condition.

This is the link to the episode on nitric oxide, mentioned in this episode: https://masterpass.chrismasterjohnphd.com/courses/chris-masterjohn-lite/49388-041-your-nitric-oxide-genes-blood-pressure-and-asthma

076: DON’T Use Niacin to Buffer Excess Methyl Groups

Many people use niacin supplements to reduce their methylation rate. Some use it regularly because they are “overmethylators” and some use it intermittently when they experience symptoms they associate with overmethylation.

In this episode, I describe why I don’t recommend using niacin in this way. Doing so is using niacin as a drug, not a nutrient. Our goal should be instead to supply glycine in nutritionally adequate amounts to make the methylation system run smoothly like a well-oiled machine.

075: DON’T Use Histamine Levels to Assess Methylation Status

A number of practitioners use whole blood histamine levels to classify people into undermethylators and overmethylators. I don’t agree with using histamine levels to assess methylation status. Tune in to find out why.

074: Why I Don’t Believe in “Overmethylators” and “Undermethylators”

Are you an undermethylator or an overmethylator?

Neither!

Chris Masterjohn Lite is a show about what works. Today we kick off a short series on a few things that don’t work by discussing why I don’t think it’s useful and why I think it’s actually counter-productive to classify people as undermethylators and overmethylators.

073: What EVERYONE Should Be Doing About Methylation

MTHFR or not, this is the minimum that EVERYONE should be doing to support methylation, boiled down into five simple rules.

Tune in to learn the rules!

072: Five Rules for a Healthy Diet

Here is a healthy diet, boiled down into five simple rules.

Tune in to learn the rules!

071: Your Best Weapon Against Food Allergies and Food Intolerances

Food allergies seem more common now than ever. Are we just hearing about them more because of better awareness, or are they really more common? We have reliable data about celiac disease: it’s four times as common now than it was a half century ago. I suspect the same is true of other food intolerances and of food allergies.

Your best weapons? The egg yolks and liver that have disappeared from our diets during this timeframe, and avoiding unnecessary use of over-the-counter anti-inflammatories.

070: Vitamin A for Allergies

When I was in Greece this August, I didn’t have any allergies at first, but then they started acting up, and they kept getting worse throughout my trip. I thought it was from the local environment, but when I woke up with conjunctivitis in the last week I looked back and realized my diet had been very deficient in vitamin A while I was there. Vitamin A deficiency can be an important cause of allergies, and if you suffer from allergies you should consider your vitamin A status.

069: Blood Tests for Food Allergies

Many people have asked me what I think about blood tests for food allergies. In this episode, I explain.

068: Seasonal Allergies? Think About the Histamine in Your Food.

If you suffer from allergies, you may need to remove fermented, aged, and cured foods from your diet. While the ultimate solution should be to make yourself more resilient to both pollen and these foods, lowering the amount of histamine in your “histamine bucket” may provide needed relief in the short-term.

067: When Measuring Your Waist Circumference Doesn’t Work

In the past I have recommended measuring your waist circumference in addition to your scale weight when you are trying to lose weight or gain muscle. This is an easy way to gauge how much of your change in weight is fat versus muscle.

But sometimes it just doesn’t give you good information. Waist circumference is influenced not just by abdominal fat but also by the amount of undigested food in the stomach, and by retention of water and gas from hormones, inflammation, and digestive distress. This episode is about how to tell when you should and shouldn’t be measuring your waist circumference.

066: Why You Shouldn’t Manage Iron Overload With Diet

It may seem that people at risk of iron overload should manage it by avoiding iron-rich foods, but in most cases this is a bad idea. Iron-rich foods are rich in many other nutrients, like copper, zinc, vitamin A, and vitamin B12. Chelators like phytate can induce deficiencies of other minerals, like zinc. In this video, I explain why dietary management should be a last resort for iron overload.

065: Why You Probably Don’t Need to Care About Avoiding Iron-Rich Foods

A lot of people seem to think that they should avoid iron-rich foods, even if they have no reason to believe they have a genetic predisposition to iron overload. In this video, I show you why this is ridiculous. I *do* have a genetic predisposition to iron overload, and I consume over 5 times the daily value for iron, including 10 ounces of red meat, and my iron status is kept on the low end of the physiologically healthy range by donating blood about once a year. Watch the video to see the numbers!

In the video, I reference this previous episode on looking up your genetics for iron overload: https://masterpass.chrismasterjohnphd.com/courses/chris-masterjohn-lite/49416-019-how-to-know-if-you-re-at-risk-of-iron-overload-and-what-to-do-about-it

064: This is the Bloodwork You Should Get for Iron Overload

In this episode, I break down an iron panel and explain why it’s important to also measure serum ferritin and transferrin, and when you should use transferrin saturation instead of iron saturation as a marker of your short-term iron status.

063: How to Monitor Your Thiamin (Vitamin B1) Status

Thiamin, or vitamin B1, is needed for energy metabolism but is especially important to carbohydrate metabolism. Its deficiency causes severe neurological problems, but moderate deficits may manifest more mildly as poor carbohydrate tolerance. Carnivores and vegans alike can get plenty of thiamin if they eat the right foods, but a diet based mainly on fat, or on refined foods that have not been fortified with thiamin, can cause deficiency. Nevertheless, thiamin is unusual in that most factors contributing to deficiency are not dietary, and many are actually environmental. In this video, I teach you how to assess your thiamin status and fix it if you have a problem.

062: How to Manage Your Magnesium Status

Magnesium is needed for literally everything in the body. When you don’t have enough, the most common problems are twitching, muscle cramps or spasms, heart palpitations, and weakness, plus other signs and symptoms discussed in the video. In this episode, I teach you how to look for its deficiency, how to use three different lab measurements to monitor your magnesium status, and how to fix a problem if you find one.

061: How to Test Kidney Function When Taking Creatine

Taking creatine can raise your serum creatinine and give the false impression your kidney function is declining. Here is how to avoid this problem.

060: How to Manage Your Vitamin A Status

Dry eyes? Poor night vision? Get sick often? Bumpy or flaky skin? You may need more vitamin A. In this video, I tell you how to figure that out, and what to do about it.

059: The Best Way to Supplement With Potassium

Only 2% of Americans meet the official recommendations for potassium, yet potassium supplements carry risks that has led the FDA to strictly regulate the amount in one serving to be so small you would need to take 50 pills a day to meet the requirement. Here are my recommendations for using potassium citrate powder in a way that protects you from the risks and allows you to get the benefits of much larger amounts than found in the typical pills.

The potassium citrate powder discussed in the video can be found at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/potassium. If you use my affiliate link, I will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Please make sure to watch the video for proper use of the supplement and clear the decision with your doctor in case you have any conditions or are on any medications that impair your ability to handle potassium supplements.

058: The Best Way to Supplement With Calcium

Calcium supplementation is controversial. Some people believe that supplements, but not calcium-rich foods, can increase the risk of heart disease. Here are my recommendations for calcium supplementation to make it as close to eating whole foods as possible.

The bone meal powder I use can be found at chrismasterjohnphd.com/calcium. If you use my affiliate link, I will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

057: Do you really need to be taking fish oil?

Do we really need to be taking fish oil?

For most people, it is better to use fish or pasture-raised egg yolks to get omega-3s. But there are specific reasons to use cod liver oil, fish oil, or krill oil. More details in the video!

056: How to Gain Muscle Without Gaining Fat

How do you put on muscle without risking gaining fat? You need the right workout, enough protein, and a gentle caloric surplus. Watch the video for more details!

055: 7 Ways to Keep Your Blood Sugar Stable

Here are seven ways to keep your blood sugar in control: vinegar; glycine, proper balance and eating order within your meals, walking after your meal, putting your carbs after exercise, managing your glycemic load per meal, and focusing on meals that have a low glycemic index for you personally.

054: Why You Should Be Careful With Niacin and Nicotinamide Riboside

Are you using niacin or nicotinamide riboside? If so, watch this video! These supplements can help you age more gracefully and give you more energy, but they can also hurt your liver, mess with your neurotransmitters and your mood, and even sap your energy.

In this video I discuss using a powder for better control over the dose, and how to match your niacin dose to a corresponding dose of trimethylglycine (TMG).

The nicotinamide riboside powder can be found at hpnsupplements.com.

The TMG can be found at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/tmg.

053: How to Track Your Vitamin and Mineral Intake

One of the most powerful things you can do to evaluate whether your nutrition is on point is to track your vitamin and mineral status for a few days that are representative of your diet. Here’s how to do it with Cronometer, with specific recommendations for making it representative and accurate, and avoiding errors in data collection. Plus, you get to see my results for a day!

052: 3 Ways to Get Enough Potassium

In this video, I give you three different ways to get enough potassium. The first focuses on eating a lots of fruits and vegetables. The second focuses on a diet low in fat, moderate in grains, and devoid of refined foods. The third focuses on selecting vegetables with the highest amount of potassium per net carb for use in high-fat, low-carbohydrate or ketogenic diets.

051: Why Salt Raises Blood Pressure in Some People

Why does salt raise blood pressure in some people? This video explains it. You can protect against this effect by getting enough potassium, something few people do. Other minerals, like calcium and magnesium, are important. It’s also important to maintain a healthy body composition, physical activity routine, to manage stress properly, and avoid excessive alcohol intake.

050: 5 Ways to Help With Glutamate Sensitivity and Glutamate Dominance

If you have negative reactions to MSG, slowly cooked protein, pressure cooked protein, or fermented foods, you might have glutamate sensitivity. If you have a neurological or psychiatric condition (anxiety, sleep disorders, epilepsy are all examples), you might have glutamate dominance.

In a previous episode, I discussed the possibility that oxaloacetate supplementation could help. In this episode, I discuss five more things to try: GABA, glycine, vitamin B6, magnesium, and electrolytes (salt and potassium-rich foods).

Here is the older episode on oxaloacetate:

https://masterpass.chrismasterjohnphd.com/courses/chris-masterjohn-lite/49407-027-could-oxaloacetate-supplements-help-with-glutamate-sensitivity

049: Carbs or Keto for Sleep?

If you’re trying to get better sleep, should you be upping your carbs, or going keto?

Paradoxically, both of these strategies can help, but for different reasons. In this episode I cover why they can help, how to pick your strategy, and some ways you can gain some more freedom over which strategy to choose.

In this episode I mention the sleep recommendations that I put out last year. They can be found here: https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/sleep

048: How to Protect Your Muscle Mass When Losing Weight

When you want to lose weight, you really want to lose fat, right? You’re not trying to turn into a wimpy twig with no muscle mass, are you?

If so, it’s important to design your weight loss strategy in a way that protects your muscle mass. If you don’t, your weight loss could be as much as half lean mass, and that’s not what you want.

The two most important strategies are the right type of exercise program and consuming enough protein. Avoiding weight loss that’s too rapid is another strategy that can help. In this episode, I provide the details about how to implement these strategies in the right way.

047: Your Emotions and Environment Could Be Hurting Your Weight Loss

Are you struggling to lose weight? Feel like you don’t have the willpower to make it happen?

Your emotional relationship with food and your environment could be hampering your ability to succeed. Knowing whether you are a moderator or a sustainer, knowing which of the “four tendencies” determine your relationship to inner and outer expectations, and identifying the emotional and psychological needs that you are meeting with food can all help you design a weight loss program that properly addresses your emotions and environment.

In this episode I discuss two quizzes made by Gretchen Rubin:

Moderator versus abstainer (more an article than a quiz: https://gretchenrubin.com/2012/05/quiz-are-you-an-abstainer-or-a-moderator/)

The Four Tendencies https://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/4232520/gretchenrubinfourtendenciesquiz

046: Weight Loss: The Low-Hanging Fruit

Why should you bother spending time tracking calories or eating something so monotonous as “The Robot Diet” when there are plenty of dietary approaches out there that allow a variety of delicious foods, don’t require time spent tracking calories, and work for so many people?

These approaches are “the low-hanging fruit of weight loss.” Is there low-hanging fruit available to you? How do you know when you’ve picked it all? That’s what I answer in this episode.

045: Lose Weight With the Robot Diet

The most reliable way to lose weight is to track calories, but tracking calories is time consuming. With the Robot Diet, you can substitute consistency for tracking calories, and save tons of time. Eat like a robot to have the abs of a robot. Walk like a human, talk like a human, and act like a human, and no one will no where they came from.

Here are the two episodes I released last year on tracking calories:

https://masterpass.chrismasterjohnphd.com/courses/chris-masterjohn-lite/49410-024-the-most-reliable-way-to-lose-weight

https://masterpass.chrismasterjohnphd.com/courses/chris-masterjohn-lite/49409-025-the-easiest-way-to-track-calories

044: Here’s What to Do About VDR Mutations

Are mutations in your genes for the vitamin D receptor impacting your vitamin D requirements?

There are three common genetic variants, known as Taq1, Bsm1, and Fok1. They’ve been associated with the risk of certain diseases but no one has quite sorted out what they are actually doing. It’s possible they raise your need for vitamin D. Watch this video for my recommendations on what to do if you have them.

I recommend testing your VDR genes with StrateGene, which you can get here:

chrismasterjohnphd.com/strategene

For more information on how to get the StrateGene report, watch this video:

https://masterpass.chrismasterjohnphd.com/courses/chris-masterjohn-lite/49403-032-how-to-know-if-you-need-to-care-about-your-mthfr

You may also enjoy these other two videos I made about vitamin D testing:

https://masterpass.chrismasterjohnphd.com/courses/chris-masterjohn-lite/49406-028-how-to-tell-the-difference-between-vitamin-d-and-calcium-deficiencies

https://masterpass.chrismasterjohnphd.com/courses/chris-masterjohn-lite/49405-029-what-if-my-vitamin-d-is-normal-but-my-pth-is-high

043: Can You Get Vitamin A From Plants? It Depends on Your Genes.

Can you get vitamin A from plant foods? It depends on your genes.

Watch this video to learn how to figure out your BCO1 genetics and how this impacts your vitamin A requirement.

Vitamin A is found in the form of carotenoids in red, orange, yellow, and green vegetables, and in the form of retinol in animal foods, especially liver. BCO1 helps you convert the carotenoids to retinol, which is the form you need to have in your body to be healthy. Many of us have genetic impairments in BCO1. In fact, for genetic reasons alone, if you took 100 of us, half of us would make the conversion less than half as well as the other half. A quarter of us would have our ability to make the conversion slashed four-fold.

But it isn’t *all* about genetics. There are many other factors — thyroid health, iron, protein, zinc, vitamin E, parasites, oxidative stress, heavy metals, polyunsaturated fats — the list just goes on and on for the things that can affect this conversion. Knowing your genes is helpful, but only one piece of the puzzle.

Watch the video for how I recommend handling this.

I recommend testing your BCO1 genes with StrateGene, which you can get here:

chrismasterjohnphd.com/strategene

For more information on how to get the StrateGene report, watch this video:

https://masterpass.chrismasterjohnphd.com/courses/chris-masterjohn-lite/49403-032-how-to-know-if-you-need-to-care-about-your-mthfr

For 5 Ways to Eat Enough Liver, watch this video:

https://masterpass.chrismasterjohnphd.com/courses/chris-masterjohn-lite/49427-008-5-ways-to-eat-enough-liver

042: What to Do About Your COMT Genes

Do you have anxiety? Depression? Attention problems? Or are you worried about estrogen and cancer?

If so, watch this video to learn about the role of your COMT genetics.

COMT metabolizes dopamine, estrogen, and various other things. Half of us have the genetic for intermediate activity. The other half of us are split evenly between high and low activity. When nutrition is optimal, this just leads to personality differences: with low COMT activity, you’re better at focusing, but tend to ruminate on things rather than letting them go; with high COMT activity, you rarely get stuck in a rut, but you just as rarely sit down to focus on one single thing. When nutrition is off, we can go to pathological extremes, whether it’s depression and anxiety on one hand, or attention deficit and hyperactivity on the other. Robust COMT activity is also needed to get rid of harmful forms of estrogen that contribute to cancer risk.

I recommend testing your COMT genes with StrateGene, which you can get here:

chrismasterjohnphd.com/strategene

For more information on how to get the StrateGene report, watch this video, the first of the three MTHFR videos:

https://masterpass.chrismasterjohnphd.com/courses/chris-masterjohn-lite/49403-032-how-to-know-if-you-need-to-care-about-your-mthfr

Here are the two other MTHFR videos:

https://masterpass.chrismasterjohnphd.com/courses/chris-masterjohn-lite/49402-033-what-to-do-about-mthfr

https://masterpass.chrismasterjohnphd.com/courses/chris-masterjohn-lite/49395-034-this-is-the-bloodwork-you-should-get-for-mthfr

041: Your Nitric Oxide Genes, Blood Pressure, and Asthma

Do you have asthma? High blood pressure? Knowing your nitric oxide genes may help you find a solution.

In this episode we continue to look at the StrateGene report, this time focusing on the genes for endothelial nitric oxide synthase. Impairments in this enzyme can increase your risk of asthma or high blood pressure. If you have either of these conditions and impairments in the enzyme, then you may benefit from strategies aimed at increasing nitric oxide production. Ensuring adequate zinc and arginine are part of the strategy because they support the enzyme, but you also should consider strategies that get around the enzyme, such as foods and supplements that generate nitric oxide enzymatically. Watch the video to learn more!

I recommend testing your eNOS genes with StrateGene, which you can get here:

chrismasterjohnphd.com/strategene

For more information on how to get the StrateGene report, watch this video:

https://masterpass.chrismasterjohnphd.com/courses/chris-masterjohn-lite/49403-032-how-to-know-if-you-need-to-care-about-your-mthfr

Here is a link to Neo40:

https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/neo40

040: Your MTRR Genes and Vitamin B12

You may have heard of MTHFR, but have you heard about MTRR? If you care about your vitamin B12 status, watch this video to learn about it.

MTRR is an enzyme that helps you repair your vitamin B12 once it’s been damaged. You don’t need to use it a lot most of the time, so some of us, including me, have genetic variations that make it not work very well, yet we’re fine most of the time. But when you are exposed to new health challenges that increase the damage done to your B12, suddenly you may need to use the enzyme more than usual, and if you have genetic impairments in the enzyme you may suddenly become vulnerable to vitamin B12 deficiency.

I don’t recommend making a specific nutritional strategy around MTRR, but I do recommend you monitor your B12 status more proactively if you have genes that lower your MTRR activity.

I recommend testing your MTRR with StrateGene, which you can get here:

chrismasterjohnphd.com/strategene

For more information on how to get the StrateGene report, watch this video:

https://masterpass.chrismasterjohnphd.com/courses/chris-masterjohn-lite/49403-032-how-to-know-if-you-need-to-care-about-your-mthfr

039: Ten Tips for Preventing Kidney Stones

Concerned about kidney stones? Here are ten things you can do to naturally protect yourself.

Believe it or not, calcium is protective. But there is far more. Watch the video to learn all about it.

038: Oxalates: Should You Be Concerned About Collagen?

So far we’ve seen that glycine or collagen supplements can improve sleep, tendon health, and blood sugar. But many of you have asked me, should we be concerned that they can raise oxalate levels? This could potentially increase the risk of kidney stones.

There’s about a ten percent chance you could be at risk of a kidney stone some day, and if you’re in that minority you should be concerned about your exposure to oxalates. Glycine is very unlikely to generate oxalates, but collagen may, especially if you are deficient in vitamin B6. In this video, I describe how to figure out if this is relevant to you and what to do about it.

037: Glycine With a Meal for Blood Sugar

Got blood sugar problems? Glycine might help!

3-5 grams of glycine before a meal helps stabilize your blood sugar after the meal, and 15 grams a day every day helps improve long-term blood sugar stability in type 2 diabetes. Watch this video for the best way to implement this strategy.

036: Collagen Before Your Workout for Tendon Health

Achy joints? Tendon pain? Just looking to stay youthful forever?

Taking 15 grams of collagen before your workout, maybe with a little vitamin C, can do wonders for your tendon health. Your tendons aren’t that metabolically active and they don’t vacuum up what they need as actively as your muscles do. Getting the collagen peptides into your bloodstream before your workout makes them available to your tendons when your workout starts pumping blood directly into all the nooks and crannies where those shy little tendons are found.

Here is the link to the Sigma Nutrition episode with Danny Lennon and Keith Baar: https://sigmanutrition.com/episode143/

035: Get Better Sleep With Glycine

Do you have trouble sleeping, or wish you felt more rested and energized during the day?

Glycine might be one of the best things you can try. It doesn’t just have a calming effect, but it improves sleep quality and can make you feel more rested even on the same amount of sleep. In this episode, I discuss how to use glycine for better sleep and why you should consider both free glycine and hydrolyzed collagen.

034: This is the Bloodwork You Should Get for MTHFR

Is what you’re doing for MTHFR working? How would you know?

In this episode I cover the most important blood work to get to make sure what you’re doing is working. I cover the importance of homocysteine, how to interpret glycine and sarcosine levels on a plasma amino acids test, the difference between measuring serum or plasma folate and measuring red blood cell folate, and more.

033: What to Do About MTHFR

Got MTHFR? I got you: here’s what you can do with nutrition to optimize for your genetics.

MTHFR mutations increase your need for choline and glycine. It’s key to get methylfolate in your diet, but high-dose methylfolate supplements are not the solution. You need to boost choline as an alternative supply of methyl groups, and creatine supplementation can help you better conserve your methylfolate by reducing the need to use it. This is important because adequate methylfolate preserves glycine and prevents it from being lost. Too little protein hurts methylation, but too much worsens the loss of glycine, so you need to hit the Goldilocks amount. Finally, you need to get more glycine to make up for whatever you’re losing.

In this episode, I explain how to use food and supplements to make all this work in your favor.

032: How to Know If You Need to Care About Your MTHFR

Should you care about your MTHFR?

Here’s how to find out your MTHFR genetic status and know how it affects you.

MTHFR is an enzyme that allows folate, or vitamin B9, to support a process known as methylation. Methylation is important to mental health, cardiovascular health, sports performance, and preventing cancer, just to name a few. In this episode, I show you how to find your MTHFR genetic status. I also discuss how the various different genetic combinations impact you and how you can leverage that information to determine how strictly you should follow the dietary recommendations I’ll outline in the next episode.

031: Dry Skin on a Low-Fat Diet? Try Egg Yolks or Liver.

If you develop dry skin on a low-fat diet, especially if you're eating egg whites and throwing out the yolks, it could be a biotin deficiency. Or, it could be an essential fatty acid deficiency. Either way, egg yolks and liver come to the rescue.

030: Dry Skin When Adding Muscle? Think Zinc.

Do you get dry skin when you put on muscle mass? It could be a zinc deficiency. Here’s how to take care of it.

029: What if my vitamin D is normal, but my PTH is high?

Analia Camarasa asked this question on Facebook:

Ever since you’ve mentioned PTH on your podcast we’ve been measuring it in the office. It’s nice to see that when patients come in on high doses of D supplementation their PTH is maximally suppressed, as it should be. I wish you could talk about the outliers briefly, normal D at 31 ng/mL and PTH outside of the range eating a healthy WAP diet, for example.

Watch the video for my response.

028: How to Tell the Difference Between Vitamin D and Calcium Deficiencies

Vitamin D deficiency and calcium deficiency look very similar, and poorly interpreted blood tests can easily mislead us into taking the wrong supplements. Here’s how to tell them apart.

027: Could Oxaloacetate Supplements Help With Glutamate Sensitivity?

Glutamate is the most abundant amino acid in the diet, but is usually bound up in proteins. In its free form, it contributes to the umami taste, which is the savory flavor associated with meat and mushrooms. Long, slow cooking and fermenting can both bring out this flavor.⠀

Unfortunately, some people don’t tolerate glutamate well. Glutamate sensitivity is controversial, but some of the symptoms people say they experience are headaches, sweating, flushing, or sets of symptoms that mimic allergies. If you don’t tolerate slowly cooked pro

026: The 5 Best Ways to Lower Cholesterol Naturally

If you’ve got high cholesterol then this video is for you.

025: The Easiest Way to Track Calories

Tracking calories can be really hard, but here’s how to make it easy.

Like, easy easy? Easy easy easy easy?

Well, no, not easier than not tracking calories. But far easier than you would expect if you haven’t tried it. And thousands of times easier than some other methods of tracking calories.

024: The Most Reliable Way to Lose Weight

This is how I recommend losing weight if you want a method that is reliable and easy to optimize over time.

023: Supercharge Your Folate With Pastured Egg Yolks and Sprouted Legumes

The effect of sprouting on the folate concentration of legumes is incredible. It peaks on the fourth day of sprouting, though, according to a recent study. But is it always the fourth day in every legume under any condition sprouted in a home kitchen? Are the sprouted legumes on the store shelf four-day sprouts? Right now there are more questions than answers, but I believe that opting for sprouted legumes is a good way to supercharge your folate status as long as you still make an effort to get 2-3 servings of folate-rich foods per day.

I cover this and another way to supercharge your folate status — eating egg yolks from pasture-raised chickens — in today’s Chris Masterjohn Lite video.

022: How to Get Enough Folate

Did you realize even washing vegetables causes loss of folate? Learn everything you need to know to get enough folate from picking the right foods to avoiding loss in the kitchen in this five-minute video.

021: Folate: You Can Freeze Your Liver But Not Your Veggies

You absolutely cannot trust frozen veggies as a source of folate. Remarkably, though, folate is stunningly stable in liver during frozen storage, and even cooking.

020: Sometimes Synthetic Folic Acid Is Better Than Natural Food Folate

If you feel better when you eat refined grains or when you take a multivitamin or B complex with synthetic folic acid, this video is for you.

019: How to Know If You’re at Risk of Iron Overload and What to Do About It

Spend eight minutes to know whether you need to manage your iron status and how to do it by watching this video. There’s a 30% chance it could make a big difference in your health, and a 3% chance it could be life-changing.

018: Why It Matters What Type of Millet You Eat

This is a really important update to the video I put out on Tuesday about millet. There are millets on the market that can wreck your thyroid gland and others that are harmless. It’s important to know the difference.

017: Why You Should Moderate Your Millet

If you eat millet or eat gluten-free bread, you should watch this video, because you could be hurting your thyroid.

016: How to Kill a Cold With Zinc

Last time we talked about supporting zinc nutritional status. Today we talk about how to kill a cold with zinc. Believe it or not, the principles are completely different. Your oysters can help you get sick lest often. But knowing how to find the right zinc lozenge and use it correctly is your secret weapon to stop a cold dead in its tracks when it eventually comes.

015: 5 Rules You Need to Follow to Get Enough Zinc

Here’s 5 rules you need to follow to get enough zinc.

014: 3 “Healthy” Habits That Could Be Hurting Your Thyroid Gland Change

Restricting salt, replacing iodized salt with natural unrefined salt, and consuming plant foods that generate isothiocyanate can all have their place in a healthy diet, but raise the risk of iodine deficiency. Here’s how to spot the problem and what to do about it.

013: How to Safely Recover From Vegetable Oils

There are good reasons to eat traditional fats like butter, olive oil, animal fats, and tropic oils, rather than modern vegetable oils. But years of consuming vegetable oil can cause your vitamin E requirement to remain elevated for up to four years after you make the switch, leaving you vulnerable to some extra wear and tear during the transition. Here’s how I recommend using vitamin E in food or supplements to smooth out the transition.

012: How to Make Your Own DIY Home Air Filter

I currently use a Germ Guardian, but for about a decade I used this method, which is half the initial cost and one fifth the long-term maintenance costs.

011: How to Know If Coffee Can Save Your Life

If you’re one of the 7% who have this gene, then drinking coffee may just save your life.

010: Getting Enough B12: Vegans, Omnivores, and Everyone In Between

Although vitamin B12 is mostly found in animal products, there are true vegetarian and vegan sources. Nevertheless, designing a B12-adequate diet is more nuanced than it may seem even for someone with a healthy digestive system, because we can only absorb a limited amount from each meal. In this video, I teach you how to do exactly that for vegans, omnivores, and everyone in between.

009: 5 Ways to Make Liver Taste Better

If you’re going to cook your own fresh liver, here are five core principles to make it taste as good as it possibly can. These can be applied to any recipe.

008: 5 Ways to Eat Enough Liver

Liver is the most nutritious food on the planet, but many people find it difficult to work into their diet. Here are five ways to do that.

007: The Quickest and Easiest Way to Make Bone Broth Change

Bone broth is a fantastic way to support your beauty, strength, and health, but can be a pain to make. Here’s how to make it in an Instant Pot and have a week’s worth of reheatable food in the process.

006: 5 Easy Ways to Use Ginger for Better Digestion

Sometimes a really simple digestive aid can do wonders for your digestive system and save you from restrictive diets and other more complicated solutions. Here’s five ways to try ginger to do just that.

005: That Moment You Wake Up to Pee And Can’t Fall Back to Sleep

Here are three practical tips for how to prevent waking up early to pee and help you fall back asleep if you do.

004: Better Sleep and Wakefulness With Basic Light Hygiene

Proper light hygiene can help you sleep better, make your sleep more restful, and help you feel more awake during the day. This video covers the three most important principles of light hygiene.

003: Sometimes Sugar is Better Than Starch

Although starch digests more slowly than some sugars and starch-rich foods often contain fibers that slow the release of glucose into the blood even further, the presence of glucose in the mouth helps our bodies coordinate the proper insulin response needed to keep our blood sugar stable. Some of us may tolerate natural sugars better than starches because we have low amounts of the enzyme salivary amylase, which begins converting the starch to sugar within our mouths. If your blood sugar response to starch is poor, providing you do not have diabetes, it is a worthwhile experiment to see if you tolerate natural sugars better.

002: How to Use Video Games to Help You Sleep

Some people say you should avoid exposure to screens at night. But video games can help you sleep. If you have trouble sleeping, try playing video games before bed with blue-blocking glasses.

001: How to Get Over the Afternoon Crash

Sleepy after lunch? Here’s a few quick tips on how to power through the afternoon crash.

Harnessing the Power of Nutrients

Chris Masterjohn Lite