18 Comments

how curious that Gmail puts every email from substack that mentions anything medical into spam folder though anything else goes into inbox . You'd think I was a conspiracy nut , as steve sailer would say , for noticing!

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putting on my conspiracy theorist hat, why do I have a sneaking suspicion an article by ABC News pushing Ozempic would make its way into the inbox?

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I'm a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture, and I'd like to weigh in on berberine. Berberine is an alkaloid found in a number of medicinal plants, the most notable one in the West being Goldenseal, as well as Oregon Grape root. In China, the herbs Huang (yellow) Lian, Huang Bai, and Huang Qin ( Scutellaria Baicalensis, used for COVID) are commonly used. It's use is almost exclusively for "excess" conditions where we are trying to reduce a noxious factor, most commonly bacterial, fungal, and sometimes viral infections. Goldenseal is used in traditional Western herbalism as a bitter for stomach and GI conditions. It's been hip for a while to combine it with Echinacra root, as a blood purifier. This is all to say that Berberine is a strong medicinal that was never used in any herbal pharmacopeia as a daily tonic, especially for younger, generally healthy people. Modern research suggests that it can impair complex 1 of the mitochondrial election transport chain. I am aware that it is being used for diabetes, and there are some good reasons why that might work for some but not all diabetics. I'm not nuts about its wider use in the functional medicine world. It is not without longer term side effects, especially to the gut microbiome. I think if people are going to experiment with medicinal herbs, it's safer to use the adaptogen tonics that have a long history of use: American and Korean Ginseng, Ashwagandha, Polygonum He Shou Wu, Schizandra berry, Astragalus root, Jiao Gu Lan, which makes a lovely tea, Reishi mushroom, Rhodiola root, Eleithero Siberian Ginseng, Suma, Maca, and the like.

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thanks for your input.

so, what do you think about using it intermittently (say once or twice a week) when I eat a bunch of carbs to limit blood sugar spikes?

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That's basically what I do. Since eating significant carbs only happens when traveling, I never have it with me. I really should just throw the berberine into the travel bag. I'm going to do that now.

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as someone who has done an extensive amount of traveling, it's hard to not eat bullshit on the road or in airports or whatever

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Yeah, I think that's an interesting idea. I think one could certainly experiment with cycling it, much like one would with eating random foods or herbs from nature in a cyclical way. People always think that supplements have to be taken every day or multiple times a day, as if they are drugs. Sometimes that is important, but I think one could certainly cycle berberine and even some polyphenols on-and-off and still receive a benefit without potentially creating problems with daily long-term use. Polyphenols and how they interact with our gut microbiome is interesting to look into as well. Keep us posted!

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Not sure what you've read so far on methylene blue, but I came across this post:

https://open.substack.com/pub/drtesslawrie/p/time-to-talk-about-methylene-blue?r=16xjwn&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

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nice. thanks

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I've been using Methylene Blue for some post-Covid weirdness, and I think it's great. The problem is that it doesn't seem that Ben can access it from Asia. Dr. Ana Marie Milhalcea, who has a Substack, has some very interesting things to say about it...

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For the great majority of the population whose circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D level is a fraction (often less than half) of the 50 ng/mL 125 nmol/L needed for full immune system function, nothing is more important for general health than proper vitamin D3 supplementation to attain at least these desired levels.

Please read the research articles cited and discussed at: https://vitamindstopscovid.info/00-evi/ .

All the drugs, monoclonal antibodies, vaccines, quasi-vaccines, other nutrients, surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy and other nutrients cannot enable a person to be healthy unless they have at least the 50 ng/mL 125 nmol/L circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D the immune system needs.

Vitamin K2 is widely regarded as being helpful for the immune system and for reducing the tendency for very high 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels to take calcium out of the bone and raise blood calcium levels, which must be very tightly controlled for numerous reasons, including reducing the risk of calcification of blood vessels. Such high levels are unlikely to occur with the body-weight based vitamin D3 supplemental intake recommendations of New Jersey based Professor of Medicine Sunil Wimalawansa: https://vitamindstopscovid.info/00-evi/#00-how-much. I take 200 micrograms of vitamin K2 MK-7 a day. I don't yet have a good list of vitamin K2 research articles.

Magnesium (chelate - not citrate, which is a laxative) is also important. Again, I don't yet have a really good list of magnesium nutrition articles. I don't supplement calcium. The other nutrients I take, beyond a substantial multivitamin are boron https://aminotheory.com/cv19/#08-boron, zinc (25 mg as chelate - don't over do it) and a concentrated version of 4 grams of fish oil for omega 3 fatty acids.

I also supplement ca. 2 grams of potassium a day, but this needs to be done with great care to avoid raising the blood level too much. I don't know any doctor who would recommend this, but you can read the details and rationale (blood pressure and overall K-Na balance for all cells) at: https://aminotheory.com/cv19/kna/ .

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One thing I find interesting is that all of the various forms of magnesium reportedly have different benefits for different systems and organs - biglycinate, threonate, etc.

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Vitamin K MK4 has different effects than MK7, and it's more focused on mitochondria and the electron transport chain. I think it makes a lot of sense to take both. It should be high up on anyone's top supplements.

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No Creatine?

No Vit K to go with the Vit D?

You could look at PQQ as a swap for M Blue

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creatine and k2 I mentioned in the original stack article linked above.

im not familiar with PQQ

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My long list of supplements largely overlaps yours. couple of points:

1. the term nootropic was coined to describe a number of molecules that seemed to assist in cognitive functioning--focus, memory, learning etc. many of your list are not in that category. actually, Reddit is a decent place to learn what the "brain hackers" are using.

2. there are several web sites that I consult for research/info on all my supplements: ConsumerLab.com (gated) ,Examine.com, Life Extension magazine.

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one more point-

the consumerlab.com resource above actually analyzed various brands of supplements for purity, claimed vs actual dose, heavy metals, cost per mg etc. they can't do every brand of course but some of their findings are amazing, for good and bad. one lesson: cost is little correlated with quality. gotta pay for access however.

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I have considered getting a subscription to consumerlab before. It seems like a good resource.

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