Dr. Justin Marchegiani and Evan Brand talk about toenail fungus in today's podcast. Listen to them as they discuss some of the effective and natural ways to address it and learn how factors such as sanitation, a compromised immune system and diet bring about this condition. In addition, know about the different tests involved in determining whether the fungus is a systemic or localized issue.
Learn how to optimize vitamin D as they also discuss about sunscreen and sunlight exposure. Determine how one's body reacts to sunlight exposure in terms of location and timing. And lastly, get some useful recommendations about the effective sunscreen brands that they use.
In this episode, we will cover:
02:10 Toenail Fungus
03:46 Kombucha
05:54 Toenail Fungus: Topical and Compromised Immune System
10:48 Natural Ways To Address Toenail Fungus
11:42 Sunscreen and Sunlight Exposure
Evan Brand: Hey. Happy Monday. I almost, what day is it? But it’s Monday. So, happy Monday to you.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I know. It’s Monday already and the kiddo’s coming in three weeks. Can’t believe that. Really excited. You know, it’s like I’m cautiously optimistic. You know, I’m just like It’s gonna be great, but then, “Oh. Sleepless nights.” And, you know, I’m trying to get used to that having — having an extra person in the household and those stressors that come with it, good and bad. But on the overall, really, really excited and stoked.
Evan Brand: Good, man. Good. Even for us with the one-year old, you know, sleep can still be, can still be troublesome. Some nights, especially once the teeth start coming in. So, we’re hanging in there. We’re taking the adaptogens so—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. That’s good. And your wife’s staying at home too, so she’s able to have a little bit of extra time to allocate to that too, right?
Evan Brand: Exactly.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah, same with my wife so, that’s a good plus — good check in the positive come. So, I’m really happy about that.
Evan Brand: Totally. Totally. Well, good. So, we’re gonna chat about toe nail fungus today, and I’m sure we’ll branch off into some other topics but, many people have this issue and many people have this issue chronically. They’ll go to their doctors or their podiatrists or wherever and they don’t really get good results. And sometimes they have to get on prescription drugs, like prescription antifungal drugs or they’re trying the Lamisil and all these other conventional alternatives that you see commercials for. And once again, we think there’s superior alternatives and superior solutions out we want to discuss with our audience today.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Absolutely. And again, with the toenail fungus, I’m actually dealing with toenail fungus again. Last time I had it was eight years ago. Now my gut’s doing pretty good. Again, I keep carbohydrates and refined sugar down pretty well. I do have some fermented foods very single day but I keep the refined sugar and alcohol down. So, last time I had a little toenail fungus was about eight years ago. I treated it naturally with topical oil of oregano, and now it’s just coming back. And I’ve just started applying some emulsified oil of oregano. And again, in my Lyme, we used the GI Clear-5, and I’ll be combining that with my Herbal Nail Fungus Soak from Long Creek Herbs. So, we’ll be doing that as well. I know I had it gone another a week or two. Typically, what you see is, like within two weeks you start to see fresh growth coming out of the bottom of the nail. The nail that’s already been kind of disfigured with that, you know, slightly thickened yellowy hue kind of nail, kind of callus that’s forms on the top of the nail. That’s gone. You’re not gonna be able to reverse that. It’ll just grow out nice and fresh. So, I’m doing some of the topical oil of oregano, and I’m doing the soak as well. I’ll be starting the soak this week, but I have it all ready to go. I got the apple cider vinegar for it. The one without the mother. You want the cheaper version. And then, we’ll mix it in there and I’ll do a five-minute soak every night. But again, I haven’t had it for eight years. It slid back in. And again, my gut’s doing really good. I’m taking some probiotics right now. I’m doing a lot of Saccharomyces boulardii, the Saccharoflora. Hidden that apart. I feel that my gut’s doing well. I’m gonna do a stool test for the summer just to kind of see where I’m at, and just make sure I’m on top of it. But, sometimes, toenail fungus can come back for many reasons, right? We walk— I’m in— I’m in sandals all day, alright? So, I’m not wearing socks so there’s a potential, maybe, there’s some stuff brewing there. I’m walking ten miles a day on my treadmill. Maybe there’s a little bit of sweat inhabiting my sandals. Maybe I got to disinfect my sandals a few times a week…
Evan Brand: [laughs]
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: …or likes I’m not wearing socks on it. So, that probably will be the reason that mine happens because I feel like my gut’s doing pretty good. Digestion’s good. Regularity’s good. I’m never bloated or gassy. So, again, we just want to fix what we find. Any thoughts, Evan?
Evan Brand: Yeah. So, let’s chat about all the things that could be going on, like internally…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Evan Brand: …with people. So, you mentioned your diet’s dialed-in. A lot of people, they’re still getting a lot of sugars though, even if you’re eating a good clean organic diet, you could still get exposed to a lot of sugars. So, if you’re doing a lot of sugars, if you’re doing like a brand of Kombucha, for example like— I won’t name drop but there’s a few…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh, I’m gonna drop.
Evan Brand: Go ahead.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: You got Cosmic, Buddha’s brew, uh — those are some big ones. My favorite ones I’ll tell you. Let’s put the focus on the positive. Evan Brand: Okay. Dr. Justin Marchegiani: KeVita and GT Dave’s. Those are my…
Evan Brand: Yeah, GT Dave’s
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: …two favorites that’s great. Actually, the Ginger. I like the Synergy. Those are like two grams of sugar per eight ounces. The KeVita’s even a little bit less because they use a tiny bit of Stevia in there. And they use a Basilisk and a Plantar strain where the GT Dave’s using a Saccharomyces strain.
Evan Brand: Uh— yep. Welcome Samuel. Thanks for joining us. Yeah, I mean, in terms of the Kombuchas, the reason I’ll bringing that up is because people just get crazy with them. Like, I’ve seen a lady before who is drinking like five Kombuchas a day and probably the very high sugar brands. So, who knows, it could have been like a hundred grams of sugar per day, which — that’s gonna be feeding a Candida overgrowth. So, even if your diet’s dialed-in— Yeah, I eat organic meats and veggies, but you drink tons of sugar in the form of a Kombucha. I mean, you’re really gonna offset that. We’ve also got infections too. So, if you’ve been on rounds of antibiotics, if you’ve got some type of yeast of fungus that’s growing up in your gut after the round of antibiotics, if you didn’t do probiotics at the same time, or if you didn’t do the right dosage, or maybe you went to whole foods and got a consumer-grade product, as opposed to buying a professional product like Justin’s or mine— You know, we use a much higher-grade formula. And so, even if you said, “Oh. I took antibiotics but I did probiotics.” If you just went and bought at the Whole Foods, it might not have been high enough quality to protect you, and you could still have some residual yeast and fungus in the gut. And you can test for this stuff, right? So, like we’ll run a stool test. Like you mentioned, you’re gonna do it on your own. Even though organic acids too. We, can see fungal markers. We can see yeast markers, bacterial overgrowth, all sorts of stuff that’s wrong. So, if it’s there, you know, our philosophy is, “Test; don’t guess.” And so, you can spend money on conventional, over-the-counter treatments. You and I will chat about some, you know, kind of a natural treatment as well, but we may have to take this battle to the gut.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah, and then— anytime we see toenail fungus, it could be two major things. It can be a compromised immune system kind of thing because the gut’s been overrun with Candida and maybe that Candida’s even gone more on the systemic side, right? Or, it could be just kind of a topical thing. Kind of maybe, you know, a locker room kind of effect. You’re walking around with a locker in a locker room without sandals on or something. Or, maybe my thing where I’m getting maybe a little too much sweat on my sandals and maybe that’s creating a breeding ground for mold or yeast. So, again, you know, sanitation, things like that are gonna be on the helpful side. So, I’m kind of like, get my sandals washed a few times a week, and good essential oils to kill stuff. So, I’m doing that. And then, obviously, sometimes the infections have to get treated topically, specific on that area, because you treat the gut but it’s got to make its way— a long way to the extremities to really get worked out. So, that’s a lot of basically lymphatic and blood flow that has to make its way there. And the question is: will the potency be there when it makes it to the ends and stays there. So, that’s where the topical piece is really important. Now, again, let’s talk about the three ways you can test for it. So, number one, you can do a gut test, but that a lot of times will just look at the gut Candida, like in a stool test that we may do. Evan Brand: Right. Dr. Justin Marchegiani: We may look at a yeast. We may look at Candida, Microsporidium yeast. We may look at the Torula Candida. We may look at uhm—
Evan Brand: Is that Geotrichum one.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yep. Yep. Exactly. So, these are all types of yeast. Then again, fungus is kind of like the big umbrella, and under that fungus umbrella will be different yeasts. And Candida’s a type of yeast. So, you just kind of keep that in mind. So, we have like the stool test looking at Candida. We have Candida that’s kind of be a test that’s more systemic, such as d-Arabinose. The d-Arabinose will be a test where the Arabino tick in the GPL test, right? The Great Plains Lab test, but typically, d-Arabinose will be an organic acid marker for Candida. And that’s gonna be more of a systemic marker. It’s making its way out the urine so it tends to mean that maybe the fungus is more systemic. And for the fungus to be in the toenail, that’s the topical thing, right? That is probably more of a systemic issue. So, d-Arabinose is important. And we see some people that have the Arabinose but don’t have it in the gut, and we see people that have it in the gut both don’t have it with the d-Arabinose. So, sometimes, with the organic acid test, it may correlate but sometimes it won’t, because the d-Arabinose is more of a systemic marker. And then we have the blood test markers for Candida. We have Candida antibodies IGG, IGA, IGM. And again, G is more of a long-term kind of antibody marker, and IGA and IGM is more of a short-term type of antibiotic marker— sorry. Our antibody marker. So, IGA, IGG, IGM, and ideally if IGA and M are high, it’s typically a more acute issue with the Candida, and your immune system is trying to attack. And, it means it’s more systemic.
Evan Brand: Got it. So, I had, yeast overgrowth when I got my stool test run a couple of years ago. It was back when I have bacterial infections, too, though. I had massive Candida. Luckily, my nails weren’t affected. I didn’t have those vertical ridges. And then also, we have a question too from Joseph. He said, “White dots on skin. He said he’s had it caused by fungus in the gut.” That’s kind of a vague question, but Justin, what’s your initial take?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. I would say that sounds like tinea versicolor. Again, you can go into google image. I’m gonna do it right now. You put in tinea versicolor. You just have to know you’re gonna get the most severe form of it on google image. So, maybe you want. I’m gonna type in mild, mild tinea versicolor because you’ll get the most extreme thing that people skin’s like peeling off. But if you look on it, you’re gonna see some of those white dots or kind of like, reddish dots. It’s pretty clear on there. I got a couple right now. Yep. So, that’s more than likely what it is. That’s a tinea versicolor. And there’s some good soaks that you can do. I mean, you can do oil of oregano. So, I will take some GI Clear-5 and mix it in with a little bit of MCT. A couple drops of the GI Clear-5 and a little bit of MCT so it won’t burn, and you can rub it in topically. Where there’s some really good antifungal soaps that you can do and I have a couple on my Amazon page, once by a company called Purely Northwest and once by a company called Art Naturals. But if you go to justinhealth.com/shop and click on Just in Health Approved Products, and then click on the Amazon link. You have to see them in there, so I’ve used those over the years and I’ve found them to be very successful.
Evan Brand: Perfect. Perfect. Good. Uhm — so we chatted about the testing. You mentioned d-Arabinose. There’s tartaric acid on the O test.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yep.
Evan Brand: And then we talked about oregano topically. Oregano can be used internally too. So, we’ll use Oregano with like a micro emulsified olive oil, which is super high-quality, super gentle. And, we chatted about diet, low sugar. Is there another angle we haven’t hit that we should hit?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. So, there’s a couple of schools of thought. So, number one, you know, lower sugar, especially with carbohydrates high. Carbohydrates, they can break down in the sugar because people think like, “Well, I’m eating whole foods, and they’re you know high in carb but there’s no refined sugar.” Right? We got to look on the label and you don’t see an added sugar, you think it’s okay. But, there may be a lot of carbohydrate in there that breaks down the sugar in the body. So, you have to look at the end by-product being sugar. Not necessarily they’re being refined sugar. Of course, refined sugar’s an issue. But sometimes, the carbohydrate threshold may be a little too high, and that may cause a conversion to sugar. So, keeping the carbs below 50 to 75 grams I think’s a pretty good rule of thumb. And when you start, the killing actually ramping some of the carbs up just a little bit because that can draw them out and create kind of a chumming-like effect. Like you’re gonna see great white sharks and go cave’s diving, right? It’s pretty lonely to go cave’s diving if there are no sharks there. But if you chum the water, you can get them to come to the surface. It’s kind of like that with the Candida. You can get them to come to the surface.
Evan Brand: Yep. Well said. Uhm — we have a question from Samuel about sunscreen. So, he said that he knows that our guest Jack Cruz doesn’t advise, but can that be damaging any brands that you recommend? I, personally, not use sunscreen at all this year. I’ve just been really smart about exposure, and I have a really cool straw hat that I wear that protects my head and my neck. I’ll show [crosstalk] it to you soon.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I love it. You’re going farmer style.
Evan Brand: I love it, dude. It’s so comfortable. It’s actually a fishing hat, so it’s cool to wear out on the boat because it gives a lot of coverage. But I’ve just being gradually increasing exposure, and then my wife and I take a few walks per day out in the sun, where we’ll get maybe 10 to 15 minutes. And I go without a shirt. And I’ve not burned but yet I’m still getting some good color and hopefully optimizing Vitamin D. So, I personally, rarely use sunscreen, unless I’m just like gonna be in a situation like I’m going to Florida and I’m gonna be on the beach in Florida, getting roasted then. I probably used it and I used the Badger. I used the— I think it’s just the Badger Regular Sunscreen. It’s the Zinc oxide by itself, with like Sunflower seed oil. It smells really good, but the Zinc works and it’s no chemicals.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah, absolutely. And I disagree with Jack on the sunscreen thing. I think he thinks incorrect on that. I think uhm— don’t use sunscreen. Get your Minimal, your Erythema Dose M.E.D. That’s kind of where your skin gets a little bit pink. And again, for different people, that’s gonna be different things. Like for an African-American individual, that may be eight to ten hours out in the sun, virtually, you know, may be impossible to get. Unless it’s like harder than summer, and you’re in a low latitude area, like maybe, Austin or San Diego or Florida or something. Uh, for someone like me, you’ll have that maybe in the hot sun here today, 30 minutes, 15 minutes, right?
Evan Brand: Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So, get that minimal erythema dose and then get the hat on, then get some of the sunscreen on, because you don’t want to burn, right? The UVA and B exposure — Once you’ve reached that minimal erythema dose is you’re destroying collagen, you’re destroying your skin. You’re creating oxidative stressors. No reason to do that. Now, the more melanin you have throughout that tan, or as Jack call it a solar callus, that solar callus will— is partly there because of melanin. And melanin’s a natural sunblock. That’s why an African-American individual, right? They have more melanin, that means more natural sunblock, right, because of where they evolved climate-wise over thousands of years. And, like, let’s say someone like me or you, probably a European, maybe middle to Northern climate, so less pigment in the skin. So, you have less natural sunblock. So, you get that minimal erythema dose, and then you cover up, get a hat on, and you get some natural sunscreen. I recommend skindeep.org— skindeep.org and they have some great recommendations. Again, I like the Marie Vornique— Marie Veronique is great. I love her sunscreen for the face, off-food based, really high-quality, lowest ratings on Skin Deep. Now, their brand called Mychelle is phenomenal. Kiss My Face has a descent one. Few of the other sunscreens that I report back that I use. Some that I bought a lot. So, I have some — I like the nice spray sunscreen that spray pretty thin. It’ll make you look like Casper the ghost.
Evan Brand: Yeah, it does.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: It’s pretty bad, but it’s good. Good ingredients, but there’s some other ones that are a little better. The Mychelle one uhm— really like blends in. just beautiful. It’s one of the spray one that I’ll find here. One second as I upload it up. But anything you want to say there, Evan?
Evan Brand: Yes. So— I mean, about sunburns. I mean, my grandfather. He’s been dealing with various cases of skin cancers. And he, he used to get burned all the time. He did go to Florida and get burned, and now, he actually had a melanoma on his arm. And melanoma, that can kill your ass. So…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Evan Brand: …luckily, he found it early and it was the lowest level. So, it actually hadn’t penetrated. So, he’s okay. It didn’t affect the lymph or anything. And, he got it cut out. So, for me, with the history of Irish decent, super fair skin— I mean, I can brown, but to be susceptible and to see him deal with all the skin cancers…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. To work up
Evan Brand: …surgeries…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: …the base first.
Evan Brand: Right. It’s — It’s not fun, to see have his arm cut open, and walk around with a bunch of stitches in his arm to get these cancers cut out. So, I also think I like the idea of our ancestors didn’t have sunscreen and such, but also, our ancestors didn’t have damage to the ozone layer. Right? With all the Hydrofluoric carbons and CFCs and all this stuff that’s damaged the ozone layer, we’re getting probably more, arguably more UV radiation exposure than we would have been prehistoric times, because the ozone layer is so damaged. So, to me, it’s like, it’s not a pristine solder environment anymore. So, I think the game’s changed.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. Ii mean, but you know, our ancestors still have things like clothes, right? I mean, you know…
Evan Brand: Yep.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: …they had hats, they had longer sleeve types of items plus, you know, they build up a solar callus, right? It’s — you build up that solar callus, you may be able to stay out there much, much longer. And, you know, frankly, ancestors— our ancestors didn’t have the ability to move around on the latitude levels as much as we do. Where, you know, let’s say you’re Irish descent, European descent, at a maybe a 38 to 42 on the latitude. Well, that’s a lot different now that you’re living maybe at 35 or 32, right? [crosstalk] So, we’re moving around a lot more so there’s the closed aspect, just using some gentle clothes to cover things up. But also, just building up that solar callus is very helpful. And you can just do it by adding a few minutes on each day, and not burning. I think it’s good, and just using a healthy sunscreen that’s gonna provide a lot of nourishment to the skin antioxidants but not any toxins either.
Evan Brand: Good. Did you find those brands? What were you gonna tell us?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. The other one that I liked is Goddess Garden. It’s excellent. Goddess Garden is great. We’ll try to put Amazon-affiliate links below, so if you guys like this information, you can support us at our Amazon-affiliate stores.
Evan Brand: Perfect. Yeah. they give like a couple pennies on the dollars. So, it doesn’t cost you extra to look at these products to Justin to link up, you can buy them directly.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah, these are things that I’ve used personally and believed in. So, Goddess Garden, they’ve a sport one too. I like it cause just sprays the amount I bought. And I got my shirt off, I can just go [spray sound] and it’s done.
Evan Brand: I’ve seen that.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Pretty easy.
Evan Brand: Yeah. I like that.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Still works.
Evan Brand: Yeah. Before are you using— using like a 30, a 50, what’s kind of your approach to that?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Thir— I mean SPF things kind of uhm — it’s interesting, right? Because once you get to SPF 30— SPF stands for Sun Protection Factor, so once you get to a 30, you’re already at 95 percent reduction. Now, once you go from like 30 to 60, people would think, well, it’s double the protection. Well, you can’t really get double when you’re already at 95, right? You can’t go from 95 to 190, so it ends up going like, from 95 to like 98, right. So, it’s —you get a small, miniscule percent more. So, my opinion, you get the 30 and you just reapply every hour and a half to two hours.
Evan Brand: Okay. Okay, good. Back to the fungal piece, Mercola had an article about fungus, and he had mention that him just walking outside and getting lots of sun exposure so that UV exposure helped his toenail fungus. Like you and I were chatting about, that’s awesome. That’s a good strategy. Try to get the sun on your skin, right? It can help with I’ve seen Eczema get better with skin exposure. So, maybe toenail fungus could get better with sun exposure too, but the topical stuff’s great. So, definitely go for like the oregano oil, definitely go internal. Get your gut checked out. Make sure there’s no yeast overgrowth. And you should be in a good place. You should be able to reverse this.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah, absolutely. So, regarding that, I think it’s gonna be slower if you’re doing it that way. There’s some places, some uhm — wanna say, periodontists— a podiatrist. Some podiatrist they have the laser thing and you put your toenails under. And that can help kill the — you know, kill the fungus in the toenails. Dermatologists do that too. I’ve seen the laser’s kind of iffy. Right? I mean there’s natural compounds that I mentioned. I like the emulsified oil of oregano, mine with the GI Clear-5 is a 75 percent Carbachol extract, that’s the active constituent. That’s very powerful. A lot aren’t that — many of them, that are out there in the market aren’t as powerful as that. So, I’m a big fan of that. Also, Vicks VapoRub has been around for a while as a natural cure for toenail fungus. So, Vicks VapoRub is great. I always just say treat it but then, you know, make sure the gut’s in good place. I’m still even treating the gut right now as well. I’m taking some internally, and I’m doing my GI Clear-6 and 1 along with it, just to make sure I’m getting my gut really cleaned out as well just so I end it from both ends. You kind of sandwich it. You go — you attack them from above and below.
Evan Brand: Perfect. We have one — one last question. There’s one question here that was kind of topic about Berberine and thrombosis. And then, there was another question here about natural treatments for warts on elbows and what’s the cause. What’s your take on warts? I will not consider myself a wart expert.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Really? You?
Evan Brand: Yeah. Are you?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I’m shocked. Uhm— well, typically, warts, that’s gonna be a viral issue, right. That’s a papillomavirus. Again, there’s different papillo— there’s different kinds of viruses that can create this type of warts. Some like HPV can create kind of general or anal warts; not so fun. There’s some other viruses that manifest a couple things. You can get the immune system strengthened. High doses of Monolaurin, Vitamin C, Reishi mushroom, medicinal herbs can help. Topically, I use a specific serum called J-Bio Serum. I carry that on my online store. I like that as specific growth factors in stem cells that can attack it. I’ve seen some of these warts go away literally in just a few weeks. So, I’ve seen that personally. And then outside, I’ve just a conventional way of freezing it off. But you want to get the underlying immune issue under control, so…
Evan Brand: Right.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: … the Immune Support, the Monolaurin, the Vitamin C, high-dose Vitamin D. You can even hit Silver up as well. It’s all gonna be great antiviral components that will help knock it down.
Evan Brand: Yeah. I had a Plantar Support on my foot when I was a kid. I was in martial arts class, and I think I picked it up just from the— from the floor being dirty.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yep. Yep, that can happen too. And typically, if it’s like that. Your body will fight it off. I had one, maybe six or seven years ago. My fought it off in a month or two.
Evan Brand: That’s interesting.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I noticed that…
Evan Brand: I remember getting it…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: …it’s gone.
Evan Brand: I remember getting it scooped out. That was not fun. I had like an acid band-aid. And it like burned the— burned the wart. And then, I went to the— I guess it was a foot doctor, and they scooped out the little roots of it. And then it was gone. I was like, maybe ten or 12.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Wow.
Evan Brand: I remember how brutal it felt though. That foot is a sensitive area.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: It is, man. Absolutely.
Evan Brand: Robert was asking about warts on the elbows, so hopefully—hopefully that helps Robert. And look up Earth Clinic too. I’ve not looked it up, but Earth Clinic—they’ve typically got some good recommendations for things you could do. Apple cider vinegar pops up all the time on Earth clinic, so maybe that’s a remedy.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Acetic acid—acetic acid has a lot of antifungal effects. Getting your digestion better, right? The more foods that’s in your gut, that ferments, and rancidifies, and putrefies, that can put a stress on your intestinal tract for sure.
Evan Brand: Good. Good. So, uhm—the question about Berberine, do you feel like answering that or should we save that for another show? What’s you—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah, so—what’s the question about? Berberines, thrombosis— Had this Berberine increase thrombosis chances. Uh—I’m concerned about some of the rumors on that topic. I’m not sure about that.
Evan Brand: I don’t—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I’m not sure about thrombosis and Berberines. I can pull something up here just in a minute. I mean, that’s gonna be—thrombosis is gonna be like cladding in cladding of the circulatory system. So, will it increase cladding and obstruction of the vein’s flow? I would say – I would say no if we’re reducing inflammation…
Evan Brand: Yeah, I don’t see how.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: …because if we can really reduce—if we can reduce inflammation, a lot of the inflammatory cytokines is what creates a lot of the cladding. So, couple things you can do to prevent that is number one, you can do systemic-based enzymes on an empty stomach, if you’re concerned. That will help break down any of the fibrin or any congestive compounds in there. Number two, you can use ginger, which is a natural anticoagulant, and will prevent things from just taking around. And then, number three, you can also do fish oil. Fish oil will also have uhm—really good effects on that as well.
Evan Brand: Yeah, I’m looking up here. The only counterindications I’ve seen for Berberine would be says avoid it during pregnancy for potential to cause uterine contractions and miscarriage, and then in geondes neonates because of its biliverdin displacement properties. But besides that, I don’t—I don’t see any way that that would cause an issue. Like you said…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah, I think—I mean, I think, anytime you’re systemically inflamed, there’s definitely a chance of things just flowing around very sluggishly throughout the circulatory, lymphatic and venous system So, that makes sense. So, I just think you just do things to reduce inflammation, and that’s why we don’t start a lot of the killing until one to two months in because we’re really working on reducing a lot of the inflammation during that time. And as part of why I build in to my protocols uh—the ginger tea. The ginger tea is very profound at helping to provide that anticoagulant environment and really reducing inflammation to keep things flowing well.
Evan Brand: Well said. Well said. We got a question from Jenette and then we’ll answer Dennis. Jenette said, “You mentioned upping Vitamin D. Can you get too much from the sun?” Probably not. You would probably never be able to get to a toxic level…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: No. Evan Brand: …but supplement-wise…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: It is a governor. You really won’t make more than 50 to 20 IUs in the sun. So, you kind of have a capacitor, a governor, on that. But yeah, I mean as fat-soluble vitamin, you don’t really want to go over a hundred, and if you go a little too high, it’s not the worst thing in the world. Just cut it out, and your body will start to break it down. And you’ll be okay. But, you know, keep it with the normal physiological levels. Fifty to 70’s ideal. Maybe if you have an autoimmune condition, go to a 70 to 100, and you’re gonna be in a pretty good place.
Evan Brand: Yeah. So, just get tested, Jenette, and make sure that they run the correct one. Some, like, conventional doctors, they’ll run, I believe it’s what, 1,25-Hydroxyvitamin-D. that’s not the correct one. That’s not the correct one, You want the 25-OH.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: If you want the Calcidiol, right? Vitamin D3 goes in the blood. It goes through the liver, and that spits out 25-Hydroxy D3. And then that then converts. That’s Calcidiol. Then goes through the kidney. And that’s active Vitamin D, which is Calcitriol, 1,25-Hydroxy. But you really want to look at the 25. That’s the better one.
Evan Brand: Okay. So, it’s like 25(OH) and that how it will show up on the lab.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. Yep. 25(OH)/Vitamin D…
Evan Brand: Okay.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: …or 25(OH)/D. Absolutely.
Evan Brand: Cool. Dennis had a question about coffee. Is coffee okay on a gluten-free diet? Justin, I believe you are a—are you a daily coffee drinker?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. I enjoy coffee. I mean, I think there’s a lot of research on coffee being beneficial. Just choose high-quality, organic coffee. There’s a lot of antioxidants, a lot of alkaloids that are in there. I’m more concerned about ‘how often are you doing it’. Are you doing one to two cups in the morning? Fine. I think that’s okay. Are you doing it in the afternoon time, probably not so good because the half-life of caffeine’s about eight hours, that can disrupt your Cortisol rhythm. It’s gonna extract—or obstruct nighttime resting and that Cortisol going down when it should. Typically, if you’re gonna do coffee in the morning, add healthy fats, and with it, MCT, grass-fed butter or ghee. You can tolerate. That will time-release the caffeine, and create a nice little magic carpet caffeine ride.
Evan Brand: [laughs]
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So, you get this time-release kind of effect, less stimulating. If you get that CYP gene, you may get very anxious afterwards because you have a hard time metabolizing it. And it hangs out in your system and you feel really irritable, not so good. If you have excess amounts of Vanilmandelate or Homovandelate going on, right? That’s more adrenaline, more dopamine that may create more anxiety. If you have severe Cortisol issues, you may feel worse.
Evan Brand: Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: You know, there could be a Genetic SNP issue. It could be a Cortisol issue, but if you’re doing a little bit of caffeine in the morning, right? One or two cups and you add in some healthy fats, and at the time-release, I don’t have a problem with it, as long as the coffee is of high-quality.
Evan Brand: Yeah, and your cup is a real cup not a 32-ounce giant cup.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. I do like 12-16 ounces. But I also put about 16 grams of high-quality grass-fed Collagen in there. I have put about a tablespoon of grass-fed butter, and I put about a tablespoon of MCT oil. I get about 600 calories in my coffee. I get a ton of really good fat, which time-releases the caffeine. And I got a whole bunch of at—you know, protein and amino acids in there. And then, I get some really good alkaloids and antioxidants.
Evan Brand: Perfect. Perfect. Last question here. Robert, “Any idea why weightlifting worsens acid reflux symptoms?” I mean, that sounds like a Hiatal Hernia, but what do you think?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. I mean, I wouldn’t even know the scenario. Are we talking like you eating within one or two hours and then you’re having acid reflux because you’re eating—because you’re working out? Maybe you’re working out and not giving enough time between your meals and then the exercise. So, people that have kind of a Gastroparesis thing happening, where their intestinal tract’s releasing the food a little bit slower from the stomach into the intestines. You may have to give it extra hour, adding some ginger can be a nice prokinetic. It will help stimulate that migrating motor complex that dumped that food from the stomach into the small intestine. So, it’s processing faster. If you’re having that issue, easiest thing is just workout first thing in the morning, and just have a nice clean protein shake first thing with water. So, you get instantaneous protein in the bloodstream within 30 minutes. Or, workout, you know, four to five hours after a meal and then have a nice shake, right, before, so you get those amino acids that aren’t gonna linger in the intestine’s because they’re already pre-broken down.
Evan Brand: So, Robert gave us a clarification. He said, “No eating and specifically happening with pull up type workouts.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Could be a Hiatal hernia issue. I mean, you’re probably activating those lats when you’re pulling up.
Evan Brand: Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And maybe that’s popping the rib cage and creating some tension on that cureon. It’s pulling that diaphragm up or tugging that stomach. So, here’s your diaphragm, right? And here’s your stomach, right? And it just—it pops up above it. Right? So, that top part, that fundus of the stomach is popping up. That uhm—esophageal sphincter’s popping u above it where the esophagus and the stomach meet. It’s just going just above.
Evan Brand: Yeah. So, what were you trying to do?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Now you could do this.
Evan Brand: What would you suggest?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: …this thing whe you have your—your hands up and you swallow water, and then you drop back down on your heels while swallowing water. Like this. [jumps] And that can help. I know.
Evan Brand: [laughs]
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: A little funny, right?
Evan Brand: [laughs]
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: A bust to move. Psssh! Alright
Evan Brand: [laughs]
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So, uhm—so, you can do that to help lower the esophagus, or you can go see a good chiropractor. Like, when I used to do this, I will creep right under the ribs, have the person take a deep breath in, [breathes in], made them stand their belly out. The intestines are moving down. The diaphragm’s moving down. I get my fingers up underneath that top part of the diaphragm [inhales]. And when they [exhales] breathe out again, [inhales] In. Out. [exhales] I pull down as they would breathe out. And that would just tug that—basically that diaphragm down, allowing the stomach to come down.
Evan Brand: And you can feel it.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Evan Brand: Wow.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah, Exactly.
Evan Brand: Cool. So, Robert, hope that helps.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Cool. So, any other issues on the toenail side?
Evan Brand: I think we hit it all, man. I think we’ll probably be repeating ourselves if we say—if we keep going. But I think we did pretty good. We hit the diaphragm. We hit the “Testing, not guessing.” We hit some of the treatment options and some of the supplements, so people can go to uh—your store, justinhealth.com. Check out some of those products. Robert gave us one last note. Let’s see what he said. Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh, just to add one thing. So, when I’m up underneath that diaphragm, I’m grabbing kind of the top part of the stomach, and I’m pulling that stomach down. Not the diaphragm down. So, like if here’s the diaphragm, I’m like sliding my fingers like right here, and I’m pulling down her. So, I’m trying to take the intestines that are up here, and pull them down. That’s the goal.
Evan Brand: Good. Uh—Robert, he gave us a little bit clarification. He said he had a GI X-ray and examination with the magnesium drink. They said, no sign of a hernia. Would they even detect a Hiatal hernia though, with the GI X-ray? I’m not sure if they would.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I’m not sure. I think you may need a Barium. I think you may need a Barium Swallow test to detect that. But, in general, I would just uhm—just make some of the changes that we talked about, like get the stomach acid look at the infections, look at making sure that you’re digesting your food properly, and get the gut fixed first. And then see if that goes away. Because a lot of times, inflammation screws everything up. Right? You got a visceral somatic reflex connection with the nerves in the diaphragm and the stomach, affecting those nerves around it. And when there’s inflammation, those nerves get tight and things can contract and get pulled in different directions.
Evan Brand: I agree, thousand percent like you told me when I was having my gut issues. It was H. pylori.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Evan Brand: So, he could have some type of H. pylori infection that’s just creating inflammation. Am I not be a physical entry, like a Hiatal hernia at all. It could just be infection-related.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Exactly. [crosstalk] Totally.
Evan Brand: Cool. [crosstalk] Awesome.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Is there anything else you want to address, Evan?
Evan Brand: I think I’m done. What do you got?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So, we hit all the toenail fungus things. It could be a systemic issue, it could be a localized issue. Okay. If it’s localized, Vicks VapoRub, tea tree oil and melaleuca, oil oregano, right? You could do the GI Clear-5. Topically hit it. You can do the Nail Fungus Soak in my store, the Long Creek Herbs one. That’s phenomenal, with apple cider vinegar. Right? That works great. The three test that we want to do: Organic Acids Dilactate—I’m sorry, d-Arabinitol. Dilactate’s another one for fungu—or bacterial issues. Dilactate, uhm—d-Arabinose via Organics, Candida antibodies, IGG, IGA, IGM, and then we can do Candida in the stool. There’s the GI Map, or we look at the doctor’s data or 401-H. We can look at Candida in the stool as well…
Evan Brand: Perfect.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: …to help.
Evan Brand: That’s uh—That’s great. I hope it helps people. If you want to schedule consults, just go to justinhealth.com. You can check at my site, evanbrand.com. We’ve got hundreds with Justin and I. We have a combined total of over three hundred podcasts and three hundred videos at this point. So…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: If you guys were liking this, give us thumbs up right now. We’d love it. if you guys are on Facebook, give us some hearts. Give us some shares. We really appreciate it. We get motivated. We want to provide more content, and sometimes we’re so busy, we’re just—at the end of the day, we’re like, we’re tanked. But, we get those extra couple of thumbs up, we get motivated. Right, Evan?
Evan Brand: Exactly. That’s social. That social feedback is really helpful. So, give us thumbs up. And, we’ll see you again. If you have questions, send them in. Just use one of our contact pages and send us some topic ideas. If we haven’t addressed your concerns yet, we’ll do our best to cover it.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Love it. Awesome, man.
Evan Brand: Take care.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Have a great day. Take care Facebook. And YouTube.
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