Listen to today’s podcast as Evan Brand, along with Dr. Justin shares his personal experiences and expert views about the different symptoms and mechanisms of gut and blood sugar issues. Discover how blood sugar levels and health levers, such as gut inflammation, stress, nutrition, eating frequency, weight gain, Insulin sensitivity, etc.
Stay tuned as this duo explains techniques that may apply to you for you to utilize.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani
In this episode, we cover:
01:00 What are Blood Sugar and Gut Issues
06:00 When to Get Concerned with Blood Sugar
15:00 Basic Adrenal Support to Help Stabilize Blood Sugar Levels
18:30 Mwave Mobile Phone App
19:30 Walking Meditation and Massage
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Hey, guys. It’s Dr. J here in the house with Evan Brand. Evan, fabulous little Monday here in Austin, Texas. How are you doing?
Evan Brand: Happy Monday. I’m jealous. I was looking at the US Current Temperature Map. You’re in like the
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Totally. Yeah. I mean, we had a great weekend here. I have my— my brother and family in town here. And we were on Lake Austin on Friday and Saturday so, we got some great exercising. And, it’s great Monday, man. Looking forward to dropping some good knowledge bombs today
Evan Brand: Yeah, me too. I did some squats this morning and I can feel it. My legs feel like jello. So, if I fall down during this, that’s why.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Totally. Makes sense. Pulled it. So, in general, man, I know we chatted about blood sugar and some fasting stuff. We wanted to talk today about blood sugar, and we kind of want to connect it to a lot of the gut issues that we see with our patients.
Evan Brand: Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Ready to dive in?
Evan Brand: Yeah. Let’s do it. Uh— I’ll first share my story, then we’ll get into maybe the mechanism. Uh— When I had H. pylori and Bacterial Overgrowth and Candida problems, my blood sugar was not good. If I went longer than two or maybe two and a half hours, I would start to get a little bit of Anxiety, kind of shaky, kind of
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uhmhm—
Evan Brand: …moody.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uhmhm—
Evan Brand: That’s not normal. And it wasn’t until I fixed my gut that my blood sugar stabilized. And now, I could basically skip breakfast if I wanted to. I don’t. But if I did skip breakfast, I could pretty much work all day, from like 7:00 AM until 2:00 PM, with no food and feel perfectly stable. And that is unusual for me, ‘cause I had the blood sugar issue for so many years— probably because I had infections for so many years.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. As your adrenals get stronger, they can definitely stabilize blood sugar better. Right? ‘Cause, as your blood sugar drops, your body produces Adrenaline and Cortisol to raise this. So, the more stable your Adrenals are— They have that little bit of extra strength to bring that blood sugar back up. Of course, the more Keto adaptive you are, you’re not gonna have high and low peaks of— of blood sugar, meaning, the faster your blood sugar goes up, the faster your pancreas produces Insulin, the faster your blood sugar drops, the faster your Adrenals produce Adrenaline and Cortisol to bring it back up. So, there’s this like— There’s this like event flow. So, the— the smoother your blood sugar goes up, the smoother it falls, the less your pancreas, and your adrenals are called upon to buffer that out. So, the more Keto adaptive, the more you’re burning fat for fuel, the more metabolic logs that we’re putting on the fire. Think of logs as like Proteins and fats. That’s kind of our metabolic log. And then we have our spectrum of Carbohydrates, non-starchy vegetables, low sugar fruits, higher sugar fruits, higher starchy foods, grains, refined sugar, alcohol, right? There’s a spectrum, lower to higher. And of course, think of Carbohydrates as kindling. We have like, twigs over here, to the more ref— refined Carbohydrates in the middle, which are more like paper. And then, to the end, which we consider Gasoline. So, you know, if we just started a fire with paper and gasoline, that fire goes up and out. You know, if you start a fire with some logs, Protein and fats, and then you get a little bit of kindling in there, then you’re pretty good match to keep that fire burning long and strong.
Evan Brand: Yep. Love that analogy. I was doing pretty good on the fat content. I think it was just the gut was disturbing the blood sugar and adrenals so much that even a perfect diet couldn’t have fixed it. This is what we see too with our clients. I just had a woman before I got on a call with you, who— she has H. pylori. We looked at her Stool Test. She’s got a couple parasites, many species of bacteria overgrowth. Her Candida’s off the charts. Like I told you before we got on here, she’s literally eating eight times a day. And, I said, “Is that like a snack?” She goes, “No. I’m eating like Steak and veggies, or chicken and veggies, like eight times a day.” she’s eating almost a full meal. I said, “Would an average person think that was a snack Science, or would they think it was meal?” And they would say, they think it’s a meal. So, I told her first of all, “My Lord! That’s a lot of food.” You’re probably not detoxing well if you’re just focused on digestion all day. And, with all the infections, if she goes longer than an hour or two, she’s having Anxiety and Panic attacks. So, I did give her some supplemental, like uh— the PharmaGABA, so that she can kind…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Evan Brand: …of chew on those, and gave her some basic Adrenal Support. But, I told her, “My suspicion is that once we resolve the infection, she should be able to go longer without eating.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. I would say, with a lot of people that have blood sugar issues like that, there’s a combination of a couple of things. Number one, there’s typically, a lot of gut inflammation, and inflammation then creates a response of Cortisol. Think of Cortisol as your natural water to put out the fire. Inflammation is the fire — that makes sense. And then, Cortisol’s the— the water to put out the fire. So, if you’re constantly having a fire going, that Cortisol’s constantly being pushed to put out the fire. But Cortisol’s also is gonna have an effect on your blood sugar too. That’s why when you get stressed and you do a Blood Sugar Test— got my little blood sugar meter over here in the corner of my desk. But, if you tested your blood sugar, you would see yo— it on the higher side when you get stressed.
Evan Brand: How much can it fluctuate? Like if, let’s say, during the day, what would you say
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I mean, I would say between 80 and 100, but it would depend, you know, when my meal was. But, if I ate like an hour ago, my goal would be to be under 120, closer to 100. I mean, my goal is typically, you know, 140 an hou— after an hour, 120 after two hours,and then back below 100 after three. The more Insulin sensitive you are, you may be able to get that below uhm— 100 within two hours. But, it depends too, ‘cause if you’re doing a lot of stuff and you’re active, it may be okay to have a little bit higher blood sugar because you’re— you’re utilizing that fuel. It’s not like sitting in your bloodstream and being dumped into your muscle to go to Glycogen, or dumped into your liver to— to run De Novo Genesis and make fat out of it. It’s— It’s there as a fuel source and your body’s tapping into it. The concern is that when your blood sugar is— you’re not doing much. You’re not in much physical perceived stress, and that blood sugar is chronically high because in the body has to then go into storage allocation versus burning allocation.
Evan Brand: Okay. So, when do you get concerned about a blood sugar level?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Well— I mean, I would say that, if someone is testing their fasting blood sugar and it’s chronically above 100, not just in the morning. Now, the morning’s important because the morning is when your blood— when your Cortisol goes the highest, right? Your Cortisol rhythm is like this. It— It starts here waking. It pops up in the first 30 minutes, and then goes down during the day. So, i— Some people may have higher blood sugar in the morning ‘cause of that Cortisol spike. And, that’s okay. That’s normal. The question is, how does it look during the day as that Cortisol drops? So, those are the big questions that I always have. So all the patients do a functional Glucose tolerance where they test their fasting. One, two, and three-hour blood sugar, you know, at different intervals during the day, so we can get a window of how that blood sugar fluctuates. So, inflammation’s gonna have a major effect on your blood sugar. Emotional stress will have a major effect on your blood sugar. And a big vector for inflammation is gonna be gut issues.
Evan Brand: Yup.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Gut issues.
Evan Brand: And I will—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And—
Evan Brand: I forgot to mention too. You’re right. Her— Her Calprotectin, her intestine inflammation marker, it was pretty darn high. It was at— I believe it was at 96, and anything above 50 is flagged high on the test that you and I use.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That’s big. Yeah.
Evan Brand: She— She was pretty inflamed and uh— the emotional stress piece was a factor, too. She had just recently gone through a divorce. She’s got three kids that she’s trying to keep up with so uh— that’s a big deal. And, uh— I think the case studies like this are important to share because the data can only take you so far. But when you hear a story like that, it’s like, “Oh my God. This makes sense. And this lady, she’s been burning the candle at both ends, going through
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Totally. So, the other big thing is if the gut’s chronically inflamed, that’s creating stress. But, if the gut’s also inflamed, there may be a bottleneck in how she— this patient’s able to digest and get these nutrients into our bloodstream and have a stabilizing effect. So, the big thing I would say with this patient is, we have to make sure— you know, especially at the inflammations that high. She’s really having a hard time. I would make her do a lot of these foods in a crock-pot kind of soup type of manner, where nothing’s raw, everything’s either blended or, you know, pre-digested with the cooking process to make it very easy for the gut to absorb. I would probably be also adding a lot of supplemental free-form Amino acids, Amino acids that are already broken down, so she can just absorb these right into our bloodstream because 50% of the energy by the Protein that you eat goes into the digestive process. So, it’s like, you know, imagine I gave you a dollar. FOr every dollar I give you for you to be able to use it, you really only get 50 cents back.
Evan Brand: Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So, that’s kind of what happens with how your body utilizes Protein. So, if we gave you free-form Amino acid, it’s already broken down. So, if I give you a dollar, then you actually have a dollar to spend, but the big thing is, you don’t go through the— the stress of having to process it. So, adding in free-form Amino acids can be helpful in, of curse, getting the Hydrochloric acid and the enzymes dialed in. Now, some people, we try to increase the Calories, which in— you know— We talk about Calories, we’re talking about Calories from whole foods so that means nutrients. Right? We just used the term calorie ‘cause it’s easier to cut, right? We were kind of in this. A lot of the technology that’s out there, right? Whether it’s Chronometer, or MyFitnessPal, or “Lose It!” — There are lot of these things that are calorie-driven. We like Chronometer because it gives us the ability to count the micronutrients, the vitamins, the minerals, etc. So, we can make sure that nutrient density is up. We try to increase the amount they eat so they can last four or five hours. That’s ideal. Some patients, we may not be able to get enough food in there so the can last that long. They may say, “I am blo— so bloated. I’m so stocked,” but then they only can last two to three hours. That’s the issue.
Evan Brand: Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: If they can only last two to three hours, but they eat to the point where they feel so satiated and they can’t do anymore, that’s where I recommend more frequent eating at the two to three-hour level. I like to get closer to five ‘cause I want my patients to have a little bit of Ketosis happening, whether tapping
Evan Brand: eah. When people hear that, they’re like “Okay. Well, how does that apply to me?” And the answer is, “Well, if you have weight issues, you could be eating a good diet. But if you have a Cortisol problem, you could have weight issues even though you’re eating like a Paleo template. You’re eating real food, meats and veggies. We see it everyday. Where people may have 20/30/40 pounds excess weight, if you fix that Cortisol issue, all the sudden, people just start dropping weight. And I always say it’s a side effect of getting healthy, which is the best part.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Exactly. And, you know, just to kind of toot our own horns a bit here, the reason why I think our show is so important is ‘cause we’re talking about real life patient experience. A lot of people talk about theoretical philosophical functional medicine and nutritional concepts. We’re bringing you the live stuff. So, anyone listening, if this applies to you, try to use it. Try to utilize it for yourself. See if it fits. And if you need more customization or sport— or support, make sure you reach out to Evan or I by clicking any of in— information below in the description section.
Evan Brand: Yeah. So, I want to comment on something else you said too, which was about the people who get so bloated after a meal. And those people, you don’t want to depend on just the Stool Test. You may have to get that Organic Acids, and if you already had Organic Acids but it’s several months old, you may need to get retested ‘cause you could just have a massive Yeast problem. And if you’re throwing Kombucha or something into the gut, and all the sudden you’re bloated and you’re like, “Hey, I don’t have parasites.” Okay, cool, but it may be something else. That was my issue, man. I would get super bloated, and it was ‘cause I had a Candida overgrowth.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. What happens is the digestive system is so stressed that you can’t even get enough nutrition in your gut. So, that food stabilizes you for two to three hours ‘cause you feel so bloated or so nauseous or so just digestively incapacitative. And that’s where you really have to focus on the gut and you have to make the meal smaller, and you really have to utilize tools, like a Crock-pot or an Instant pot or more Bone Broth or more Liquified Nutrition to make it easier on your Digestive System. And, other strategie are just chewing your food up well enough. Uhm— making sure you’re not eating when you’re stressed. Of course, utilizing digestive enzymes and Hydrochloric acid to break that food down. The chewing process increases the surface area and allows the Hydrochloric acid and the enzymes to work better. So, if you’re only chewing your food like 15 or 20 times, try to double the amount of chews. You know, typically, one chew per tooth— 32 teeth. That’s a pretty good rule of thumb— that will help your Digestive system to work better, give more surface area for the enzymes and the Hydrochloric acid to work.
Evan Brand: I’ll tell you, nobody’s doing that. People are like, “Oh my God! Thirty-two chews. I’m doing three and then I swallow, you know, especially if somebody goes to like Chipotle or somewhere where the food is just so soft and mushy. You just shove that mush down and you don’t even chew it. So, yeah. That’s a— That’s a big problem.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I mean, like today. I had some really good Collagen peptides, like 20 grams with some grass-fed butter and uh— some MCT Oil. And then after, I’m having, right here, a nice organic Korean drink.
Evan Brand:
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Evan Brand: I like that one.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: It’s a good one and it’s cold-press.
Evan Brand: How much sugar is in that one?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Not much at all. I mean, it’s got 9 grams, but that’s the— the lowest you can have with a vegetable drink. I mean, listen…
Evan Brand: Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: …to the ingredients, right? Cucumber, Kale, Broccoli
Evan Brand: Some of those are like 40 grams. Some of those Suja’s, they get crazy with the apple juice.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: The Suja, yeah. I mean, you can get really screwy because they’ll have like, “Oh! It’s a vegetable juice,” but then it has a carrot in there. Remember, a cup of carrots—
Evan Brand: That’s hard to believe.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I know.
Evan Brand: I know you told me that, but it’s like, “What?!” That’s crazy.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And again, There are some good nutrients in there but sugar is sugar, and your liver still has to do what it has to do. And, if it’s Insulin resistance, all these JNK lye enzymes that are really inflammatory get upregulated in the liver to process it all. So, you’re much better off getting the phytonutrients for something like this. And, this is really easy on my gut, right? So—
Evan Brand: Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I had amino acids, some fat. Uhm— I had some MCT Oil, and I have this. So, it’s a really easy kind of digestive breakfast—
Evan Brand: Yep. I have an idea where I’d like to take the conversation…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uhmhm—
Evan Brand: …unless you’d like to go somewhere else, and it would be to talk about some of the foundational supplements you could use while you’re working through some of this. So, we won’t get too much into like the gut protocol stuff because that is so different, depending on whether it’s just parasites, whether it’s parasites plus Yeast, whether
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Totally. Totally.
Evan Brand: That gets crazy. So, maybe we can just chat about kind of our favorites in terms of basic Adrenal support and things that could also help stabilize blood sugar to get somebody through this.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Well, I think the first thing is— Let— Let’s start with food, right?
Evan Brand: Okay.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Let’s make the nutrition that we’re eating easy to process and easy to digest. So, you can do like a smoothie option with good fats and Proteins blended up. You can do a Crock-pot kind of meal. You can do maybe the butter, MCT, Collagen coffee, and then, you can get some of your micronutrients through a green drink to make it easier on your digestive system. Of course, maximizing Hydrochloric acid, enzymes, and your bile salts, especially if your stools are floating. You can definitely utilize a lot of the free-form amino acids. And then, if your gut’s on fire— you know— we have a lot of uhm— formulas that are gut soothing like my GI Restore. A lot of the healing, soothing nutrients to help that gut line heal. So, those are a couple of really good options to start. Again, we always start with the foundation. You want to build this awesome fancy hotel, you got to start with the floor one. Most people want to go to like. Wha— What’s that floor ten? What’s this cool little thing there? Start low. Start at the bottom, and then, build up to the top.
Evan Brand: Yeah. Make sure you’re addressing your emotional stress too. It’s like all the magic pills we give you for your gut can’t counteract you going through the middle of a divorce. So like, sometimes, you just have to make sure that you’re getting a counselling session. And you know, we kind of are counsellors in a way, but at a certain point we can’t go too deep. We’ll give you recommendations like your emotional freedom technique to tap [crosstalk] on what you love. Uh— That stuff is good too. So, you want to try to make sure you empty the stress bucket. You do your lifestyle stuff, too, like your Epsom Salt baths. Schedule a massage. Maybe you take a Friday off so you can have a three-day weekend. Go out like Justin, and go play out in the water like that…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Evan Brand: …stuff is all good, too, and that stuff is just priceless. And then, my recommendation, which I like to mention, would be Schizandra berry. I’ve been feeling really good. So, what I’ve been doing? I’ve been taking my Vitamin C tonic powder, which is a teaspoon a day, 2,500 milligrams Vitamin C, and I mix it with the Soothe tincture, which is the one with Ashwagandha, the Reishi, the Motherwort, the Sisyphus, the Albizia— the one I tell you about…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Sisyphus, like—
Evan Brand: ..which I love. I’m growing some, man. So, I just got some. They’re called Jujubes.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh, yeah.
Evan Brand: It’s actually called Chinese dates, but that’s where they get Sisyphus from. So, it’s the seed that comes in the middle of the Chinese date. That’s where they extract for the [crosstalk] Sisyphus.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Jujube. Uh— There was someone talking about this recently. I had a patient…
Evan Brand: Really?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: ..talking about the Jujube. There’s someone in the podcast realm that’s— that’s— that’s really up on it now.
Evan Brand: Uh— Okay. So, the Jujube seed…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Evan Brand: …that’s where you get it, and I’ve got two trees out in the yard that I just…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh! I know who it was. It was Jimmy Moore and Dr. Will Cole. They were talking about this recently.
Evan Brand: They were telling about Jujube?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah, Jujube. Yeah.
Evan Brand: Oh, really? I like the term Sisyphus better— sounds cooler.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Sisyphus sounds awesome, man.
Evan Brand: And that’s technically what they’re using. They’re not using Jujube. They’re using the Sisyphus seed, but uh— Sisyphus is the Latin for it.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Okay.
Evan Brand: Anyhow— So—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: But just to just— I want to dovetail…
Evan Brand: Oh, yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: …what you’re saying. So, simple things you can do, right, EFT stuff. Right? Really simple, like three minutes. Just go through— Just think about whatever the problem is. Just— Just go through and tap all the points.
Evan Brand: Do you do affirmations or you just think about the problem?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: U—
Evan Brand: ‘Cause I like the affirmations.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Both. Both. I— I think it depends, right? Like if you’re in a really negative place, it’s hard to go positive and ignore what’s the emotion that’s happening. So, I try to calm the negative down. And then once that’s down below, like a three out of ten, right— ten out of ten’s the worst; one’s nothing; three— The— Then I can go into that positive place. But I try to get— get it down first, and then— and then I’ll do a— affirmation. Number two, is you can do the uh— the Mwave, the new one for the— for the mobile phone…
Evan Brand: Yeah. How does—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: …out on the year.
Evan Brand: …it
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: It basically, you just synchronize your breathing, and you focus on your heart and gratitude while you synchronize the breathing. And then you go into a place of coherence, where the heart and brain are more in sync, so to speak. And that’s…
Evan Brand: I feel helpful.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: …good.
Evan Brand: I’ve got— I don’t have the mobile one. I’ve got the little…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah I have both.
Evan Brand: …pocket one. It’s got way too much blue light though. It’s a blast you in the face. I need a little filter or over something.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I think the mobile one’s better, personally.
Evan Brand: Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And uhm— it’s easier to bring with you. You just have this and your phone’s all ready. ‘Cause I don’t bring it with me and it’ll always be dead, and I’m like, “Aw, shoot!”
Evan Brand: Right.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So, one more thing to charge.
Evan Brand: [laughs]
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So, as long as my phone’s good, then that’s good. So, I like that. You know, you can do three to five minutes twice a day. You can just download the Calm Meditation App, and you can do a five-minute, even a three-minute meditation, twice a day is helpful.
Evan Brand: Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Just a couple little things like just something that’s not gonna take a big chunk out of your day up that you can justify doing. So, figure out which strategy is best for you and just try one. Even if you do it once for three to five minutes a day, it’s a good starting point to put you in parasympathetics. And the other one is just a good walking meditation. Like, if you do a walking meditation, three to five minutes on appreciation and gratitude, and then three to five minutes on visualizing kind of what it is you want to create or manifest. ‘Cause, you know, appreciation, you go backwards and you— and you thank and you appreciate, and then the visualization is kind of moving forward. So, I think that’s a really good way to do it. And then, you know, like, I get this one from Tony Robbins. It’s a— It’s a— It’s a breathing in. [breathes in multiple times] and then fo— and then four out. And then, what he does is when he breathes, he taps on the acupuncture points on the fingers. So, it’s like in-tap, in-tap, in-tap, in-tap, and then out, back.
Evan Brand: Oh, as your breathing you’re saying?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: …two, three, four. So, it’s [breathes in and out multiple times in sets of four] So, you’re tapping on these acupuncture points, which are basically EFT points, and you’re doing that while you’re breathing. So, you’re kind of having an EFT session on your fingers, while you’re breathing and walking and then you do a— a kind of a—
Evan Brand: How many reps is he doing? Does he say, specifically, or just whatever?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: It’s just basically used about a time thing. So, he does a five…
Evan Brand: Oh.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: …to fifteen minutes. So, technically, it’s like gratitude for five, visualization for five, and then affirmations for five.
Evan Brand: And that’s all while walking?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Corre— Oh, wait. Yeah. You can do a bite. Uh— I like the movement. He does some kind of a movement with it.
Evan Brand: Oh, okay.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. So, it’s five visual and five appreciation, five visualization, five affirmation. And you can cut it down to three, three, and three. If you need to do it in ten minutes. And in the affirmations, they’re just affirming what it is you want to create and manifest. Like, everyday and every way, I’m getting healthier and healthier. Everyday [crosstalk] and every way, I’m getting happier and happier. Whatever that is, you’re just affirming it. These are some really good tools and it changes your physiology. And you’ll see, if you— you testing your heart rate variability, you will see it. And then, another simple thing, ready? This is something everyone can do, no matter what. If you’re a programmer, if you’re a teacher, wherever you’re at, just focus on nose breathing. [nose breathing] No breathing from the mouth at all. The Parasympathetic Olfactory nerves tie into the vagus nerve, which is the part of the Parasympathetics, and that really helps relax you So, [breathes deeply] deep nasal breathing— You can do it when you’re having a conversation, when it’s your turn to— to listen. You can do it when you’re watching TV. You can it when you’re typing something up or doing some research. Whatever you’re doing, just like good deep nasal breathing.
Evan Brand: I was doing that just now. I feel so much more relaxed. I think it was because I focused on it. I feel
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So, like my thing is what’s the low-hanging fruits. So, if anyone’s like, “Oh my God! I’m so busy. I don’t have time for anything.” Great. You’ve time to breathe, right?
Evan Brand: [laughs]
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Obviously. So, breathe through your freaking nose, [laughs] right?
Evan Brand: [laugh]
Dr. Justin Marchegiani:
Evan Brand: Agree.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: …thinking about stuff. So, I much rather get quieter brain by doing some tapping, and then once it’s tapped— Once you kind of tapped out, so to speak, you can go and do
Evan Brand: I would recommend scheduling something, too, whether it’s paying somebody to do an at-home massage or going to get a massage, or—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Massage is a game-changer.
Evan Brand: I’m a huge fan of float tanks too because…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yup.
Evan Brand: …there’s something you just can’t get by meditating or taking an Epsom Salt bath, like a physical touch from another human. I mean, we’re in a touch-deficient society due to technology, and I thought that was interesting too. I had Jason Prall in my podcast. He just did this whole Human Longevity Project…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uhmhm—
Evan Brand: …him travelling the world. And he said, “Man, Americans are so weird when it comes to touch.” Hey. He was like ove in Greece and Italy and Spain,and all sorts of other places. Costa Rica; he goes. Man, everybody hugs and kisses like it’s nothing. He said they were at a restaurant. It was like an Italian restaurant, and all these complete strangers were interlocking their arms together and dancing and singing, and just having so much fun. It’s like, you would never lock arms with a random stranger and dance with him in America, that would be frowned upon and made fun of. So, I think our touch-deficient culture requires more things like a massage, which you got to pay for.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I do think a massage is phenomenal. I just went and took m— my family out for massages. Yesterday was phenomenal. I get massages one time a week. I get a full— full-body kind of foot massage, as well as a Myofascial Release in the upper body, and I think it’s essential.
Evan Brand: Have you visited other places? Have you seen what I’m talking about, this whole cultural issue where people are freaked out to touch a— a stranger or— or hug people and kiss people?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. I definitely that’s— you know— that’s a part of, I think, our culture. I think it depends too. I think different ethnicity is like, you know, an Italian culture I kind of brought up. I was brought up and everyone’s kind of hugging and this and that, and that was kind of part of it. So, I think it just depends, you know, within whatever culture you’re within. Uhm— That can definitely shift, for sure. And I think it’s good to have that. I think it’s great to have it, but if it’s something you don’t feel comfortable with— I mean, obviously, you should feel comfortable with that in your family. I think that great. But maybe a stranger or…
Evan Brand: Right.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: …maybe someone…
Evan Brand: [laughs]
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: …you’re not really close with, you know, you can use massage as a great way. Especially like a foot massage ‘cause the Somatosensory cortex has lots of receptor sites in the feet. And that really gets the Parasympathetic stimulated, which really gets you into that Rest and Digest mode. So, a good foot massage is amazing on the nervous system. My brother, I took him out, him and his wife, for a massage yesterday, and he got a foot massage and he’s like, “Oh my God! I feel invigorated after that massage.” I’m like, “Yeah. It’s really getting that Parasympathetic branch of the Nervous System dialed in.
Evan Brand: Ain’t that crazy? It wasn’t even a full-body. You can just so the feet. Uh— I don’t know if you’re
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. he’s doing great. We were using a homeopathic called Camilia.
Evan Brand: Yeah. [crosstalk] We were using that one too.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That one’s phenomenal. Amazing.
Evan Brand: Here’s some— Well, here’s something crazy, So, uh— summer, my daughter, she— She doesn’t have the molars coming in yet, but…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Evan Brand: …her— her fourth canine is starting to come in, and we’ve been using the
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Mm—
Evan Brand: I was blown away. So, I mean, maybe it’s random Placebo or maybe there’s something to that. But, I tell you, man, it worked in like 30 seconds of me rubbing her feet.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh, I think that’s great. I always get my son like a tummy massage. You know, if you’re looking at his— looking at his tummy.
Evan Brand: Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: It’s a clockwise massage so I start here at the, like for instance, this is gonna be like the descending colon and this would be like the ascending colon going up. And it’s just uh— here, and obviously, there’s like a nice like
Evan Brand: That’s cool.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: …and then right down. So, I just use my thumbs, and that helps. That really helps with bowel regularity. ‘Cause their Nervous Systems aren’t quite as dialed in, hence why they aren’t wearing diapers, right? So, that kind of just helps give the— the bowel just a nice gentle assist.
Evan Brand: Yep. That’s cool. So, maybe that
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: [incomprehensible] to the toes. That’s good. And, u— any of the toes are just like the big toe.
Evan Brand: The big toe worked the best. Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Evan Brand: And she got kind of ticklish with the other ones but the big toe worked the best.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: [incomprehensible] right at the tip?
Evan Brand: Right at the tip of it, yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Evan Brand: I just kind of rubbed it like I had
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Cool.
Evan Brand: Like, she was still little fussy, and you could tell ‘cause the gums are really swollen, but she was not complaining as much. So— So, there you go people. Go get a foot massage. Go do a float tank. Now, let me mention my shake or my little tonic rather.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. Go ahead.
Evan Brand: So, it’s— it’s the VItamin C powder. It’s about 2,500 milligrams, and then I do two shots of the Soothe, which is the Ashwagandha, Reishi, Motherwort, Sisyphus, Albizia. And then, I do uh— two squirts of herb forms uh— Schizandra. So, we don’t have our Schizandra so that’s one case where I don’t use your brand or my brand. They do have a professional line for practitioners that we use, and I— I do two squirts of that Schizandra. And that addition to the Soothe, I didn’t think it would make a difference but it did. I feel really stable, really solid, blood sugar-wise. If I had a late lunch, I had no issues.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That’s awesome, man. Really cool. Very good.
Evan Brand: So, I hope that helps people. So, you mentioned your GI Restore product. So, it’d like kind of your leaky gut support.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Evan Brand: [incomprehensible] probiotics. I’ve got some probiotics. We carry several strains. Those could help modulate the inflammation a bit. Maybe just buy it and try it, but maybe work with a practitioner too. ‘Cause we have seen some cases where if you have a bacterial overgrowth or something, the probiotics can kind of— Uh— I don’t know if I’d say “stoked the fire” but for lack of a— for lack of a better term, I’ve had some cases where I don’t do probiotics to the post-infection plan and it works a bit better.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. I mean, I see probiotics being good on step five where
Evan Brand: Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: With that three in the inflammation phase, probiotics can be very anti-inflammatory. It depends how
Evan Brand: Right. And— And you could try and maybe throw stuff at it but I don’t want you guys to build up a supplement graveyard because you’re trying to listen to random things and— and piece it together like— Justin uses a great analogy of like going up Mt. Everest. It’s better to go up Mt. Everest with uh— a Sherpa who’s done it a thousand times—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Nice.
Evan Brand: You’re gonna spend more money. You just do.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Totally.
Evan Brand: You spend more money in the long run. Like, how many clients do you talk with every week who say, “Justin, I worked with so-and-so practitioner, and they have me on 50 supplements, and none of them worked because they didn’t base it on labs
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. And also, when you make recommendations for supplements, you want to make sure it’s connected to a system as well.
Evan Brand: Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: You want to make sure that yo— you’re supporting an underlying system, not just the symptom. ‘Cause if you’re playing the symptom game with supplements, it’s really easy to kind of whack them all. But if you’re tracing it up to the s— to the underlying systems and you’re also made underlying changes to the stressors— physical, chemical and emotional. You’re gonna be in a much better place; more holistic too, right?
Evan Brand: Yeah. Well, I would like to add another comment to that too, which is— which is, we see that a lot with Naturopathic Medicine and Naturopathic…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Evan Brand: …practitioners versus functional medicine. I think there is the distinction there because a lot of Naturopaths, they may say, “Okay. we’re not gonna use Aspirin for the inflammation. We’re not gonna use Turmeric, and that’s it.” [crosstalk] But they don’t get…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Or White Willow Bark.
Evan Brand: Oh, yeah. Or White Willow but they don’t get to the root cause of, “Okay. Well, why is the inflammation there in the first place?” Let’s run Labs to figure out the source. So, here you are taking high-dose fish OIl, You’re taking Turmeric. You’re doing White Willow Bark or whatever and you feel better but you didn’t address the root cause. So, you get off the Turmeric and the Fish oil, you still feel like crap. Your joints hurt. You’re fatigued. Your sleeps sucks And you don’t know why. It’s ‘cause you had infections but you never went that deeper level. So, I always told people, “Get to the root cause of the root cause.” Meaning, “Okay. If there’s inflammation, if there’s blood sugar issues, if there’s sleep issues, why?” Okay.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Hundred percent. That makes sense.
Evan Brand: And then— And then ask why again, and if you keep asking why? You should have initially
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I like it. Makes a lot of sense to me. Let’s hit a couple other blood sugar questions. When people talk about being more Insulin sensitive, that means you need less Insulin to fit into the receptor site to pull that Glucose into the cell to utilize it for fuel or store as fat— one of the two, right? Glucose is either gonna be stored or burned. So, the more metabolically active you are, the more of an ectomorph you are, the more Insulin
Evan Brand: Well, I think you need to slow down and say that one more time ‘cause that’s gonna blow people’s mind.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So, [exhales] reg— regarding Insulin. We want to be Insulin sensitive.
Evan Brand: Got it.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: You are primarily a sugar-burner when you are
Evan Brand: It does, and I was gonna take it a step further and say, “This is why people who were Insulin uh— sensitive could probably get away with some fruit versus people who are Insulin resistant. The may have more issues with fruit, and that
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. And the more Lipogenic, the more Lipogenic enzymes are produced, a lot of times that can make you tired, right? Some people, the more Carbohydrate is produced, there’s a propensity to burn that for fuel. So, of course you move it and you burn it. Some people, the more Carbohydrate that’s produced, they actually get more tired, so there’s actually less propensity to burn it, which means it gets stored as fat. So, listen to your body if you start increasing the carbs and you’re not getting energy out of it and you’re not feeling a propensity to move, be careful. Or you just make sure you have good exercise regiment in there. And of course, muscle mass— the more muscle mass you have, it’s like upgrading your sponge size, right? So, that’s the benefit of
Evan Brand: Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That’s like Glut4 like Tim Ferriss and his book, “The Four-Hour Workweek.” He talks about doing like little air squats or like little mini push-ups before he has a Carbohydrate-rich meal because he’s trying to upregulate the Glut4 receptor sites doing some resistance movement before he consumes the Carbohydrates.
Evan Brand: Yeah. I don’t do anything like that. I just would do Leg day and then have sweet potatoes and it felt so good together. Oh my God! Having a sweet potato after Leg day was like the best. We have a comment here too. The person put, “The longer I’ve been on Keto, uh— if I’m getting uh—” maybe they’re saying Intermittent Fasting. I think that’s what they’re saying— Keto IF. “I’m getting more Insulin sensitive. I’ve noticed I’m getting more resilient to being knocked out of Ketosis. That’s good.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. I mean, I think the— the more Ketogenic you become— because it’s like you starting a fire. With logs in the fire, it’s gonna burn longer. Anyone that’s has to use kindling, here they are feeding that fire all day long. And that fire going up and down also means energy. It also means mood. It also means focus. It also means cog— cognitive. That’s why so many people are getting massive neurological benefits and cognitive benefits becoming fat burners. And a lot of people talk about being Ketogenic. The problem is, what the hell does that mean, number one. And a lot of people confuse it with Ketoacidosis, which is bad thing. So, there’s a lot of dogma with
Evan Brand: Right.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Who doesn’t want to be burning fat for fuel, right?
Evan Brand: Agreed. Agreed. Well, let’s wrap this thing up. We had uh— We had one question here from Tim, “Could eating chicken breast without skin while keeping Carbs under 20 grams keep someone out of Ketosis?” It depends on your Protein, right? Justin, ‘cause if you go too high-protein, can’t that kick you out of Ketosis or am I wrong?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. I mean, you can go into Gluconeogenesis and make Glucose out of Protein. The thing is, though, I think a lot of people in the Keto community miss this. Are you gonna make more Glucose from chicken breast or are you gonna get more Glucose from eating like refined sugar?
Evan Brand: So, don’t worry about it basically?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: No. I think you got to be careful of it. It just depends. Like, you’re gonna need more Protein if you’re more active. So, if you’re lifting more weights, for instance, you may need more Protein. I just think go to a more full-fat source versus a boneless skinless chicken breast. Do a skin on at least, or at least move to a thigh.
Evan Brand: Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Get some full fat in there. But again, I think in Keto, if you’re lifting more and you’re doing more resistance training, you’ll be able to get by with more protein and not have it affect you.
Evan Brand: Agreed. Agreed.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: But the more sedentary you are, definitely got to
Evan Brand: Yup. Well said. I had some chicken thighs last night. It was delicious. I put the real salt. They have a seasoned salt. Have you had that one?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I got it. I got it.
Evan Brand: Aw, man. That’s yummy. That plus Coconut
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Love it, dude.
Evan Brand: Well, let’s wrap this up. I think— I think I said everything I need to say and want to say on this topic.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: What a great podcast, man. Hey! We’ll chat real soon. That and you have a phenomenal day. Everyone, if you’re subscribing, give us a thumbs up. Hit the bell and give us a share. Sharing is caring. We appreciate it.
Evan Brand: Mentioned our links so uh— if you guys want to reach out, schedule a consult with Justin. You can do so at his site, justinhealth.com, and if you would like to reach out to me, same thing, evanbrand.com. And, we look forward to helping you all out. Take care.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Take care, Evan.
References:
Jimmy Moore and Dr. Will Cole’s Jujube-related Podcast
“Human Longevity Project” by Jason Prall
“The Four-Hour Workweek” by Tim Ferris
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