Show notes as a general guide below. Somewhat in order and not written in perfect grammar because we want you to actually listen to the show!

Topics Discussed:

• Preventative medicine vs. reactive healthcare
• Longevity, healthspan, and optimizing how we live—not just how long
• Chronic gut issues (IBS, constipation, bloating) and their systemic roots
• Discipline vs. rigidity in health, nutrition, and lifestyle
• Intuition, nervous system regulation, and listening to the body
• The danger of misinformation in the integrative/functional medicine space
• Supplements, myths, and the importance of evidence-based treatment
• Personalized, patient-centered care vs. one-size-fits-all protocols
• Stress, control, and their impact on digestion and overall health
• Awareness and responsibility without shame or perfectionism
• Redefining health as a relationship, not a performance

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Below is a transcript of the video podcast created by Seb’s Robot buddy, Zekton. He tends to make mistakes so please forgive him if you find errors or some funky sounding sentences. For the real deal, watch the video or click on your favorite audio Podcast platform above! Enjoy!

Mary, welcome to the show.

Thank you. I’m excited to be here.

Yeah, excited to have you. We’re going to start with a quick smash or pass.

Oh shit, okay.

Quick smash or pass. Let’s get into it. All right, let’s go.

Glucose monitors.

For anybody? For a healthy person, pass.

For a healthy person, yes.

Not for diabetic, yeah.

DMs that start with, quick question about my poop.

Smash.

Coffee enemas.

Pass.

And by the way, that’s a real thing out there. If you’re listening and you think that’s bullshit, that

is a thing. Regular mouth consumed the bee of the mouth.

Coffee, right? Coffee consumed via the mouth.

Smash.

Yes, creatine.

Smash.

Cold plunges.

Pass.

Microdosing on a first date.

I’m going to pass the question.

AI generated health advice.

A pass.

Probiotic cocktails with real alcohol in them.

Pass.

Blue light blockers before bed.

Smash.

Intermittent fasting.

Pass.

Lab test sharing as a love language.

That one has nuance before.

Lab test sharing as a love language.

Smash.

Parasite cleanses.

A hard pass.

All right, this is good. This is good. This sets us up for some good…

There’s some nuances there, but I’m trying to…

I figured, yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s tough. It’s tough sometimes without the nuances.

So what is something you believed about health 10 years ago that you no longer believe or just

completely changed for you?

10 years ago. Okay, so I’m in my 20s. Yeah, so one was cholesterol.

So I was on… Like I listened to a few people. At that time, I don’t think I was on social media, but

there was podcasts back in my day.

And I was hearing all about cholesterol doesn’t matter. Most people who have a heart attack

have low cholesterol. Like all the things you hear on social media still today.

And so I was not sure if cholesterol was one of the big things for heart disease. And I’ve

completely changed my mind on that. And I feel really confident at this point with my stance on

cholesterol does matter for heart disease.

I recently did all those… The… Like just like…

What is it?

Blood work?

Yeah, like 110 biomarkers and all that stuff. And I am so lost on cholesterol stuff because…

Yeah, it’s confusing.

I’m kind of lost on it though, to be honest. I may have to show it to you later.

Yeah, we can’t even talk about it today. Because I think that’s a super common one if that fits in.

Because I’ve had a lot of people… Like I’ve had people look at it and say, oh, this says it’s off

range, but it doesn’t actually matter. And then there’s stuff that is in range, but it’s like, oh, it

could be better.

Anyway, so it’s a whole thing.

It’s a whole thing. I have a lot of heart disease in my family.

Yeah.

And so personal like vested interest in it. And then obviously I see people all the time. But that’s

been one in the last 10 years I’ve done a big switch on.

And I feel really… It’s like there’s some things in medicine where we just don’t know that much,

period. Nobody knows it.

It’s not like there’s one person that does. But with heart disease, it feels like a super solid topic

in terms of things that we actually know how to almost entirely prevent. About 80% of heart

disease that people are dying from is preventable.

And so it’s also the number one…

80%?

About 80%. Oh, yeah.

And it’s the number one killer, yeah?

It’s the number one cause of death for men and women. And for the majority… Like there’s

some congenital things that we can’t prevent entirely.

But for the majority of it, around 80% we can prevent entirely with what we have right now in

medicine.

And we can’t say that… Let’s talk about that a little bit.

We can’t say that for cancer. We can’t say that for other diseases. But for the number one cause

of death, it should not be the number one cause of death anymore.

And what is the number one cause of heart disease?

The number one cause of death from heart disease is ASCVD-related events. So it’s going to be

heart attacks, strokes, things like that in terms of plaque in the arteries contributing to an

event.

And what are the main things that are causing that?

ASCVD?

Yeah. Like the biggest things that we can do to avoid.

Yeah. So the top things that you should be looking at from a blood work standpoint, one of the

biggest things is ApoB-containing particles.

Okay.

So even if you just get a standard lipid panel, which almost every doctor will run on a yearly,

that’s going to tell you your LDL cholesterol level. And LDL cholesterol almost always correlates

with ApoB. There’s some people that have discordant results, and that’s why ApoB is a better

marker if you can get it.

But reducing that ApoB or the LDL, if that’s all you have, down to like a 55-ish, 50-55, can

completely prevent plaque formation in the arteries. So there was a PISA trial that was done,

and they looked at rates of ASCVD in people with different levels of LDL cholesterol. And people

who had an LDL of 50 or below, 0% of those people had plaque in their arteries.

Interesting. And then as you go up, we see increases in the amount of people who have ASCVD

or just plaque formation in their arteries with increasing LDL levels. And you can draw a line

through that graph, and it’s completely straight, meaning the higher your LDL, the greater the

chance of putting plaque down in those arteries.

And what are the easiest things we could do today to actually affect that and be below those

levels, those healthy levels?

From a lifestyle standpoint, your biggest lever is going to be reducing saturated fat in the diet.

Saturated fat will increase your LDL level for most people. Some people don’t respond as much

to it, but that’s probably the biggest lever that you have.

Exercise, little reductions. Increasing fiber in the diet, little reduction. But your biggest lever is

saturated fat in the diet.

I was just getting a little bit down the fiber rabbit hole. I feel like it’s an under-talked-about

thing.

Yeah. I think protein had its ways, and what I think you’re going to end up seeing in social

media is fiber is now going to be coming in and having its way.

You’re going to have all these trendy, beautiful color things with fiber in them instead of the

old-school Metamucil-type stuff.

Exactly.

And does that even matter? Are there really good, clean brands of fiber? Are they not as many

fillers as proteins and things like that, for example?

There’s different types of fiber, for sure. So soluble, insoluble fibers, and then there’s also going

to be fibers that are a little bit more fermentable and cause more gas than other fibers. So

there’s definitely things to differentiate depending on the person and how they tolerate it.

Oh, with IBS specifically, don’t do great with a ton of fiber. It can cause gas and bloating, GI

distress. But definitely things to think about.

But I think fiber will have its moment. But going back to ApoB. We need to go back to ApoB.

Yeah, I know. That’s good. Because I was literally about to just get into the whole poop

conversation.

But I was like…

One second.

My poop just changed, but let’s not do that. Let’s talk about ApoB.

Because we talked about saturated fat, but this is one that… I’m an anthropathic doctor. I love

to do diet, exercise, lifestyle first if we can.

I’m not going to be drinking this, by the way.

No, I love those. I love those.

Okay, cool.

I love Spindrift.

Well, ask Spindrift if they want to pay a significant amount to be sponsored.

Great. But ApoB and LDL-C have a huge genetic component. Like over 60% of your level is going

to be due to genetics.

And we can’t change our genes yet. And so a lot of the times, if you really want to reduce your

risk for heart disease, that’s where we will also use medication. So we’ll use different…

We have a bunch of medications that lower these now. But if you really want to look at this

from a longevity perspective, so you’re not putting plaque down in those arteries, a good

percentage of people will end up on a medication to get to those optimal ranges. And I talk

about it with my patients, where we’re using this more as a medication for prevention and

longevity versus you don’t have heart disease right now.

We just want to make sure that you never get it. And that’s the game with heart disease is

prevention. If you wait till you have symptoms of heart disease, you are so far down the

pathology of it in terms of like decades in that you waited too long.

Obviously, treat whenever you can. But ideally, we’re treating you way before you actually have

symptoms of heart disease.

And by the way, which is more of a bigger health conversation overall and how we treat health

and how people decide when it’s time to go to a doctor, which is usually when you’re super sick.

Yeah.

You’re talking about your patients and you’re talking about prevention with your patients. Do

your patients come to you before they have issues?

People come to me because they want to be more aggressive on prevention.

On prevention. And everybody should really be more aggressive on prevention. Yeah.

It’s the key to longevity.

Each longevity is prevention.

Yeah, it’s prevention. And it’s some of the boring things, too. It’s not like super sexy, all of the

things.

Like we’re worrying your cholesterol, not super sexy. People would rather do a cold plunge. But

in terms of your benefit long term, you can’t have a good health span if you’re dead.

And the first sign of heart disease is a heart attack most of the time for people.

Wait, did you pass on the cold plunge? You did.

I passed on the cold plunge.

You passed on the cold plunge. I know it’s different for women than for men. You pass for

everybody.

Well, it’s a personal thing. If you enjoy a cold plunge, go for it.

Nobody enjoys a cold plunge.

But if it’s for longevity, pass on the cold plunge.

Longevity, pass on the cold plunge.

Yeah, I think the main argument for a cold plunge is it improves your mental health, meaning

you get out of it, you feel really energized and motivated, then great. Like that’s a personal

thing and go for it. But do I think, do I prescribe cold plunges to my patients to help them live

longer lives?

No.

Got it. Got it. It’s kind of nice to hear from me because the way I treat it is I can’t.

It’s hard. I can’t stand a long time. It’s pretty hateable.

However, when I started learning that it’s just, it’s really not good for you, especially after

you’re lifting weights because it doesn’t really allow you to have the inflammation needed in

your muscles to tear and then grow back stronger than this and that. I was like, oh, great,

because I ate them anyway. But I will enjoy being like a super, like I just go in all the way, get

out.

And it’s like, I’m like freezing. And then I go straight to the sauna. It’s this really beautiful feeling

of that quick contrast that I get.

And it is more invigorating, kind of like gets, I can tell that it gets my blood pumping a bit, but

it’s not completely lowering down my body temperature to it, you know, to that state.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, people like things and do it, go for it.

But like for me, I hate it. And like once in a while I’ll do it. But when I do it, it’s because for some

reason I want to punish myself.

Like I want to like, I want to like build grit or something. And I think there’s something mentally

to that. I just do hard things once in a while.

So guys, I heard your Dr. Mary Pardee says that for longevity, you have to punish yourself. I’m

just, this is how people splice clips, you know, and then you. Okay.

So we talked about, you touched a little bit on exercise and how that can be a huge part of what

can help with heart disease. If exercise was properly prescribed like a medication, which I feel

like it’s starting to be. Do you think that it would also heal beyond the physical, beyond what it

does to cholesterol and things like that?

Oh yeah. The main reason to exercise isn’t to reduce cholesterol because it has minor effects

there. But if you look at all the tools we have for longevity, I would argue that exercise is one of

your biggest levers across the board.

And I use exercise just like I use other medications in my practice where I have really

descriptive prescriptions of them.

So like when I write on the person and the body type and their lifestyle.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I tailor it to the person. Absolutely.

There’s a lot of similarities across my recommendations, but I think it’s so common that you go

in to see a doctor and they say exercise more and that’s the whole conversation. Just exercise

more. And I get that because it’s how our healthcare system is modeled.

They don’t have the time to do it and most of them don’t have the education behind it. But I

really think if we used exercise and the doctors had enough time to talk about it as a

prescription, we would see and people did it. That’s the other piece.

You actually have to do the exercise, not just get the prescription. But the benefits are so

widespread in terms of exercise can reduce the risk of cancer by 30%. Exercise reduces

cardiovascular disease mortality rates.

All-cause mortality decreases with exercise. Osteoporosis. One of the biggest things you can do

for prevention of osteoporosis is resistance training.

I hear more and more as that lifting heavy weights is the thing. That’s kind of the thing that I

keep hearing more. It’s like as being the key to longevity because muscle ultimately is going to

also help you prevent yourself from like breaking your hip when you’re older.

Things like that which are a big cause of deterioration.

Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah.

And I don’t think it has to be. If you’re looking at heavy versus lighter weights, I think it’s more

about volume and making sure that you are in a normal or optimal place from a muscle mass

standpoint. So I do DEXAs on most of my patients to look at their muscle mass.

Yeah.

And one of my…

Can you explain what a DEXA scan is for someone who hasn’t heard that?

Yeah. So a DEXA scan is a scan that has virtually no radiation. You lay on it.

It’s going to scan your body and it’s going to tell you how much muscle or lean. It’s really

talking about how much lean mass you have on your body which is going to encompass your

organs, your skeletal muscle, water, and then it’s going to tell you how much fat mass is on

your body.

Visceral fat too.

And then it breaks down fat into visceral and subcutaneous fat.

Do you mind explaining what visceral fat is for someone who hasn’t heard that?

Sure. So visceral fat is the fat around your midsection and it’s the fat that surrounds your heart,

liver, spleen, your organs, your visceral organs.

And it is hiding behind the abs essentially, right? So you can almost like have abs on top of it

visible.

Yeah.

So like, oh, that person doesn’t have any fat.

Yeah.

But it’s there.

Exactly.

Right?

So you can pinch subcutaneous fat, but you can’t pinch visceral fat because it’s internal. Yeah.

And we know about the level that we see increased rates for all caused diseases, cancers,

things like that.

It depends on your age, but most of my patients, I want less than a pound of visceral fat. In

older populations, less than one and a half pounds of visceral fat. And that’s a great one to look

at because you can have somebody who looks relatively healthy, but it’s a good amount of

visceral fat on them.

And we really want to target that because it’s an independent monotonic relationship where

there are risks for many, many diseases, meaning that the more you have, the higher your risk

goes. And then muscle mass, we can also break down to something called ALMI, which is your

appendicular lean mass index. And that’s how much muscle you have on your arms and legs in

comparison to how tall you are.

So it basically controls for your height. And I like that because on DEXAs, the lean mass is

definitely not perfect, right? Like any of these tests, you’re going to have margins of errors.

But when you are taking out the midsection, which is so variable, because in the midsection,

you have your heart, which is also lean mass. You have your liver, spleen, all these things. So

with ALMI, you’re just looking at the arms and legs in comparison to how tall you are.

So you can get a good estimate of your skeletal muscle comparison to height. And we know like

levels that are diagnostic for sarcopenia, for instance.

What is that?

Sarcopenia is low muscle mass in conjunction with low function, too. So sarcopenia is about like

75, I think, percent of people over the age of I think it’s 80 or 90 years old have sarcopenia,

meaning low muscle mass, low function. We know this intuitively.

If you see like a 90-year-old person walking down the street, they look weak, right? And what

you’re seeing there in part, not all of it, but is sarcopenia as well as just low muscle mass and

low function of the muscles that are there. So if we can prevent that, that changes somebody’s

quality of life in their last decades of life.

And I think what should be one of the biggest focuses in the longevity space. That’s why I get so

like worked up when people are so focused on taking like this probiotic or this greens drink or

whatever. And it’s like if you don’t have the basics of having a really good ALMI muscle mass

and you’re focused on this other like riffraff stuff, you’re just completely missing the boat on

longevity and healthspan.

Do you have an analogy for that in another area of life?

It’s a good question. Yeah. I mean, I can think of it for like an athlete or something, right?

Where it would be like, it would be like an athlete obsessing about like what brand of popcorn

they should buy at the grocery store and they’re not practicing their jump shot.

Yeah. Or obsessing about the protein or the workout. But your job is the basic job is first to

make shots.

Yeah. You need to be obsessing about the thing that you’re going to get the biggest bang for

your And that’s where I think supplements should be like the last two percent that we talk

about.

Yeah.

But if you’re missing the 98%, to talk about the 2% I think is a complete waste of time. Like we

should really focus on these things that are going to move the bar the most, which is like let’s

prevent heart disease because we know how to do that.

Yeah.

Let’s make sure people are adequately muscled and their muscle function is really good

because we know that strength is even more important than muscle mass.

Yeah.

And let’s get people really fit from a growth example.

Why is strength more important than muscle mass?

Why? Actually, I don’t have to think about why, but we just know in the research that strength is

a better indicator for longevity than absolute muscle mass.

Yeah. I’m assuming it also prevents injury more.

Oh, yeah, for sure. Preventing injury. Yeah, exactly.

Just like the actual function of the muscle is going to be better. It’s going to come down to like

mitochondrial efficiency as well. So if those are functioning better, then maybe there’s some…

And by the way, the DEXA scans are actually quite affordable. So if somebody listening is like,

oh, what is that? That sounds crazy, fancy.

I went to the one that’s actually down the street here.

Yeah, like 50 bucks.

Literally, it was 50 bucks. And I got more information than I had blown away. And now that you

mentioned it, that you kind of brought it up again.

I think it’s been about a year. So now I’m like, oh, I kind of want to go back and see because I

actually feel like I’ve been even healthier this year and I’ve been lifting more weights and things

like that. So I wonder if that’s changed, if muscle mass has improved or even the bone density.

I wonder if the bone density has changed. That wouldn’t get better, right? It just wouldn’t get

worse.

No, it can get better.

It can get better. With resistance training. With resistance training.

Yeah.

Okay, amazing. So you mentioned that you used to be a supplement junkie. Yes.

What were you in search for? Before I go back to what you just said, that really should just be

the 2%, because I’m curious to know about what you just said there. But what were you

searching for when you were a supplement junkie?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ve taken every supplement known to mankind, I think. So I came to

medicine from a couple different places.

I’ve always been obsessed with science and that’s my thing. I love it. But I also had health issues

growing up.

So I had just chronic stomach stuff going on, chronic constipation, bloating, reflux. I had

migraines as a kid. So there was a lot of things where I was just like, wow, what’s wrong with

me?

And went through the conventional medical system, saw a gastroenterologist, did the

colonoscopy thing, started some medications and just didn’t feel better. And so I was really on a

hunt from like my teens into my early 20s for like, how do I make myself feel better? And on

that journey, I tried so much stuff, most of which was total BS.

And at one point, I calculated how much I’ve spent on my own health in that search. And we’re

talking tens, like multiples, like tens of thousands of dollars. Yeah.

Mostly on supplements.

No, mostly. I mean, definitely supplements are a big part of it. Like a lot of supplements.

That’s probably the biggest chunk is supplements, but also like went to acupuncturists, went to

chiropractors, like saw…

And you don’t believe in that anymore either.

We can go piece by piece. It’s about like, we don’t have to throw the baby out with the

bathwater. But I went through a lot of stuff.

Yeah.

And most of it did absolutely nothing.

Okay.

And so I’ve figured out my GI issues at this point. And it’s a lot of the basics that ended up

helping me. And then I…

So all the supplements and all the other shit you did didn’t do anything?

Nothing.

So what was it for you that did it?

Yeah, for me, I didn’t realize that mental health was a piece of my journey. So there’s something

called like GICBT. But there’s a lot of things that I was going down these rabbit holes.

And the actual searching and seeking to find like the one… I was looking for one magic bullet. Is

it a parasite?

Is it a dysbiosis of bacteria? Is it… Like I went down all these avenues because I was looking for

that one magic thing.

And for me, it’s like there was not one magic thing. For most people, there’s not one magic

thing for chronic things. And so at this point, I’m so…

Chronic things. Sometimes for small things, perhaps.

If you have strep throat…

Correct.

Antibiotics are the magic thing. They work great. But for chronic longstanding issues, most of

the time, it’s not like a one magic thing.

And a lot of people go into alternative functional medicine because they’re looking for that one

magic thing. And they think that, oh, conventional medicine doesn’t have it, but all these other

doctors do have it. And that was a misconception that I had with the medical system.

And it wasted me tens of thousands of dollars. And that’s why I’m really passionate at this point

about helping people not go down all of the rabbit holes I went down and help them save time,

save money. What are the things that we know are tried and true that are going to give you

your biggest bang for your buck and stick with the evidence-based stuff?

I just think there’s a lot of misunderstanding about medicine in general.

Yeah. Do you start by doing all kinds… Like if somebody comes to you new and they’ve got

more than one thing, they feel like they’re experiencing multiple chronic things and they don’t

really know, they tried everything.

One of those, right? They tried all the supplements, they’ve tried conventional medicine, they

come to you. What do you do?

Well, it depends what they come to me for. So I only treat a few different things because those

are my specialty. So I treat people with chronic constipation, irritable bowel syndrome, and

then I do a medically supervised weight loss, but I only treat a few things.

So if they don’t have one of those things, I refer them out to a specialist that does. You really

want to find somebody who niches in your condition. And there’s a lot of practitioners in the

functional space that say they niche in everything, right?

They treat absolutely every chronic disease and that’s a red flag in and of itself because there’s

no human that can be an expert on that many different things at once. So I think it’s really

important to figure out, okay, who do you… And there’s some things that almost every doctor

knows how to treat.

So if it’s not super complex, then it’s like a primary care thing. But if it’s been like I’ve been to

every doctor, then really finding a specialist in that area, I think is really important. But if

someone comes to me with chronic GI issues, sometimes we’ll need to do some lab work that

hasn’t been done.

But if they’ve already seen a gastroenterologist, sometimes we’re just going into some of the

mindset stuff around chronic GI conditions and just doing that.

Interesting. The mindset around it.

There’s a huge mindset factor.

Wow. Can you talk a little bit about that? I’m even having trouble.

Oh, I’m constipated. What’s the mindset about constipated? I’m like pooping eight times a day.

You know what I mean?

Yeah. Okay. Classic example.

Somebody comes in with irritable bowel syndrome. They’ve had it for years.

Yeah.

It’s chronic. So they’ve had it for maybe their whole life. And they come in and their main thing

is they have diarrhea and bloating, let’s say.

Two really common things with IBS, abdominal pain. And so we’re going to address… There’s

certain medications, there’s certain supplements that can really help reduce and improve stool

quality.

So their stools are a little bit more stuck together. So that’s one side of it. That’s the medical,

physical medicine side of it.

And then the person is also already going to have adapted certain thoughts and beliefs around

their symptoms because they’ve had it for so long. And this is tried and true. I’ve worked with

so many people on this.

But if you’ve had chronic bloating or diarrhea, there’s a few very common characteristics that

most of those people contain, which is one of them is whenever they go out in public, one of

the first things they do is what?

Find a bathroom.

They find a bathroom. So they’re scanning everywhere, where’s my nearest bathroom? Even if

they don’t currently have to go to the bathroom.

Right.

But that’s one thing that’s very characteristic to them. Because if you don’t have IBS and you’re

listening to this, you’re like, I’ve never thought about that when I go out. When I need to go to

the bathroom, I find one.

So people with IBS, they find bathrooms ahead of time. They go to places where they already

know where the bathroom is. They know where most of the bathrooms are on the highway.

So that’s like one piece of it. And if we just examine that one behavior, what that is, is

hypervigilance. So that is a behavior that developed out of fear of what could potentially

happen.

So they’re searching for bathrooms to prevent them from having an accident in public. And so

when you go into public and you’re searching for bathrooms right off the bat, what you’re

actually doing there is you’re signaling to the brain, we’re not safe right now. Because if you

were safe, you wouldn’t be searching and seeking out something.

Yeah.

And so when you go into this survival mode of the brain, what you’re actually doing there is

you’re signifying we are no longer safe. And that puts the nervous system into fight or flight.

And that actually increases the chances that you’re going to have diarrhea.

Which is the typical sort of thing. It’s like people say, oh, when I get really nervous, I feel like I

got to get the shits or something like that. And they’re like, it’s typical, right?

Yeah. Yeah.

Interesting.

And so we can just take that, again, this is like one microcosm. But in that case, I would say,

next time you go out, I want you not to look for a bathroom.

Interesting.

Just don’t look for the bathroom. And then they’re going to say, well, what? And then we go

through the thought loops that start there.

It’s like, OK, what do you think is the worst thing that’s going to happen if you don’t look for a

bathroom? I’m going to have an accident. OK.

When was the last time you actually had an accident? Maybe never. Some people will say, I’ve

never had an accident.

It’s like, OK, so you’ve never had an accident. So that’s evidence that maybe there’s a potential

that it actually doesn’t happen, right? So we play with the idea of certainty.

Yeah. What would be your mindset around constipation?

I mean, there’s examples for all of it. So with people with constipation, you can take travel, for

instance.

Yeah.

People who have more constipation-prone IBS, they don’t like to travel most of the time. Or

they just have this thing around travel. Because when they travel, they get more constipated.

Yeah.

And so it’s this anticipatory anxiety that happens with travel. And so we can go through, OK,

what are things that we can talk about? And what’s the worst case scenario?

You get constipated when you travel. Like, would you survive that?

Yeah.

Yeah, I would survive that. And can we replace the thought of like, oh, I’m going to get

constipated with a thought that’s more subject, like, is more prone to give you beneficial effects

after? And then we can also come up with a plan of like, OK, how about before you travel, you

start to increase your magnesium dose and you take some glycerin suppositories with you on

the travel?

Just so that you have something, if you need to, to use. That’s going to reduce your level of

activation and say, OK, I already have tools in place. And so if I do get constipated, it’s not the

end of the world.

And I kind of know what to do with it.

Interesting. Yeah.

And then there’s tons of stuff around foiety, probably the biggest thing.

I didn’t even know we were going to talk about the psychology of poop.

Yeah. Oh, my God.

The title of this podcast.

The psychology of poop goes deep. Yeah. And then you go into like into food.

Food is his own thing.

So you talk about how you want to help people go towards what’s optimal, not just normal.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So this optimal versus normal. What is optimal living look like for you in your own life? And do

you feel like what do you still feel like you’re short?

I think I’m doing pretty good. And and I think there’s a fine line here, right, with being

obsessive and just feeling good. So I think optimal is whatever it is for that person.

Like, what are you going to feel good living today optimally? And then really, we should be

thinking about what is it look like to be in our 80s and 90s? Like, what do you want to be able to

do in those years?

Because if we reverse engineer that, you usually have to be doing a little bit more from a health

standpoint now than you probably think. Because most people in their 80s and 90s don’t have

everything they need to be fully functional.

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I also find that, you know, we’re we live in this west side of LA world

where we’re highly obsessed with health and biohacking and all these things.

And it’s not the norm. I know it’s not the norm. Not the norm.

Yeah. So I think we maybe take it a bit too far compared to most people. And most people don’t

care enough.

I think that we need to find a little bit more of a middle ground. But it’s interesting. I’ve noticed

that a lot of people in our world of health and wellness and biohacking and all these things that

are

ACÁ LOS TIMESTAMPS SE REINICIAN PERO ES CONTINUACIÓN (la herramienta que usé tenía un límite de 30 minutos asiq lo dividí en 2)

quite I feel that I’m pretty balanced.

I just I’m I don’t obsessed about it I’m interested in it and I take an interest and I try one thing

and I try another But and I feel that emotional health has way more of an impact on a lot of

things Okay. Yeah, and it’s and also sometimes there are restriction around things around

health. I can’t do this.

I can’t have this I can’t have that at this time. I can’t have this at this time. It’s like yo relax Like

just enjoy life a little bit too.

It’s okay. Like at least for me It’s like for me being able to have the pizza and the beer Sometime

as long as I’m not crushing pizza and beers on a daily basis makes me healthier in a way It’s

almost like I feel better That’s for me at least

Well, I think the mental health piece is so important and that’s where I see people Overly

obsessed about food overly obsessed about health in general Yeah Overly obsessing about oh

my god, I didn’t pack my supplements How can I go away for two days if I don’t have them kind

of thing, but they’re very close. Yeah, it’s orthorexia I mean, I for sure fell into that category

orthorexia in my 20s.

Yeah, absolutely Just like overly obsessed with health to a degree. That was unhealthy.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So speaking of that What is an ideal diet in general for longevity for

considering those 70s 80s 90s and beyond?

um

Individualized to everybody so I always will ask somebody what they’re eating right now and

just play with that But if we’re just talking in general some of the best research is around a

Mediterranean style diet We have a lot of research around that specific diet So that’s going to

be tons of fruits and vegetables is like the biggest cornerstone whole grains good lean protein

sources healthy fats like olive oil avocados things like that

Nuts and seeds what about the details in the weeds? Are we talking always try to go organic on

the fruits and vegetables and then the fish is a wild caught and there’s the whole Mercury

conversation. There’s the grass fed on the meats are any yeah specifics for you on that

Yeah, so I think what I just told you is the 98% So I think you’re gonna get most of your bang for

your buck Just doing what I said tons of fruits and vegetables like and does not matter organic

or convention really now where I think the Conversation becomes interesting as there’s like

ethical things to discuss here in terms of The reason I’m all using pesticides and how we raise

animals and do you want to you know? If money is not an option like thinking about that I think

is important but in terms of your general health Over-obsessing about those probably not

gonna move the needle that much even like the wild caught versus farm-raised I think is way

overhyped really I think that we we definitely as a human species need to be thinking I

personally believe we need to be thinking about ethics

So what about like the glyphosate on on your fruits and your vegetables, which is kind of like

this huge, right? Correlation between lefse and cancer right and then organics ideally not being

free of that. Yeah, wouldn’t that be a major one?

so I I Personally will buy organic if I can but I’m also not gonna if it’s like avocado I think it’s less

likely because it’s gonna be correct.

Yeah, I do the same thing.

Yeah Yeah, but I believe and this is not this is getting out of my specialty. So but I think that

organic still has Things sprayed on it. They just fall into a different category So again, I think you

want somebody else on your podcast talk about pesticides I had a guy talk about GMOs on my

podcast and it was really interesting genetically modified organisms and made me think of that

as a different thing than what we hear on social media and

He sort of talked to not down per se but sort of that it wasn’t as big of an issue

Yeah, and potentially actually a huge area for us to think about advancements and reducing

malnutrition and underdeveloped nations And making things to be like higher nutrient

contents of certain things making things more resistant to Was either herbicides or pesticides

and I’m gonna forget it off the top of my head But actually lowering the use of some some of

those things because we don’t need as much of them So just interesting thing.

Yeah, there’s interesting things. Yeah, I find it interesting with the whole conversation around

eggs for example and like pasture-raised or cage free versus Conventional right and for me, it’s

almost more of a I don’t know if I would call this is like a spiritual thing But there’s an ethics

things about how the animal is treated and how it life its entire life is And then there’s also the

stress around the animal if the animal is stress I feel like there’s something of that stress that’s

being passed on to me from that food, right? It’s part of how I see it, but it’s but just tough to

measure.

Yeah But also I think we should treat Beings well, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah When did you realize that? prevention was a Radical act and not just a medical one

Is it not I feel like for you it it is this it’s like Yeah, I see it that for you.

It seems that way. Maybe it’s the wrongness. Yeah, it’s like yeah, exactly Yeah, not just like this

medical science thing.

Yeah Yeah, I mean, I’m just really passionate about things that I’m interested in Like I get really

obsessed about things which is why I have to be careful like you were obsessed with the

supplements. Yeah Exactly.

This has happened with men Good questions. This is a podcast, you know

Maybe one day no, but um, yeah, I get like really into certain topics and health and medicine

has always been that yeah

I was there a moment in your own life when your body was Being pretty obviously about telling

you something and but you were just kind of ignoring that

Yeah, for sure all the time Yeah, I mean When I was searching and seeking like it was so clear

that my body was just like you are anxious and stressed that was like a main thing that I was

missing the sign of and

Which was making you unhealthy Essentially the anxiety and the stress was being a big issue

with your physical health.

Yes. I was spiraling in my own symptoms Yeah, meaning the anxiety and stress was making my

GI symptom worse And then I’d have worsening bloating which would make me even more

anxious and stress night And then you create I called IBS stress cycle that you create this cycle

where you it’s self-perpetuating After a while and it can be really hard to stop And we start to

be so certain of our beliefs to be true that You couldn’t convince me.

I don’t think at 18 that food had very little to do with my symptoms I was so sure it was gluten

or it was dairy or it was Glyphosate right like I was obsessed with organic food and yet now

today I have way very loose things around food and I feel a million times better So it’s very clear

to me that I did not have a food issue, but you take somebody People I work with all day every

day and they’re in it there.

They’re actually still in that place They hold those beliefs really strongly and they’re convinced

that gluten is the cause of their issue Even though they’re gluten-free and they still have the

issue Well, really? Yes That’s most of the most of the people that I end up seeing are gluten-free

dairy free grain free and they still have the issues But they’re also still convinced that that is

part of their issue Interesting.

What’s the whole thing with the gluten America and the gluten in Europe like everyone tells us

to talk about? Pizza is it the pizza the pizza in Europe and the pizza America that you don’t feel

as shitty with it There’s the cheese. There’s the whole cheese thing the cheese in America the

cheese in Europe, you know, there’s no difference in that Again, like do I know a hundred

percent?

There’s no difference No, but glue I’d what I do know is gluten is gluten is gluten is a molecule I

can I can’t draw it out, but I could look it up on chat GPT for you But gluten is a molecule and

it’s the same no matter if you’re in any country, right? So you’ve heard this whole I heard the

whole thing and what I think is happening if people go to Europe They’re fucking having fun.

They’re enjoying themselves.

You’re walking like 20,000 steps a day they’re moving versus Sitting at a desk for 10 hours a

day. So they’re just like moving constantly. They’re more social.

They’re having fun. They’re less stressed I think that’s what you’re seeing. I don’t think That

concept but it kind of makes less and maybe they’re less stressed about their food because

they’re actually like loosening up and eating gluten You know versus like freaking out at air one

about like the ingredients of the seed oils This that’s I mean, honestly, I never thought about it

that way I don’t really freak out about anything in terms of food, you know, though.

I’m just saying I don’t so I never really think about like that would the difference in this and that

because I don’t feel shitty from things in general But I definitely have friends and dated people

and whatnot that are like no No, I swear about like, you know Go to Europe and like see I feel

great and I’m having wine and I’m having pizza and you can do that And then walk yeah and

then walk to Beverly Hills from Santa Monica and see how you feel after you feel great That’s

what I didn’t think about that that that is that’s pretty funny Do you ever? Do you is everything

for you?

Very evidence-based and science-backed Have you tapped in any like have you tapped in at all

into the intuitive? when you’re Diagnosing per se.

Yes. I know the answer is no. I’m very evidence-based I’m not like, you know, there’s people

that do other things.

It’s just their thing So you go you wouldn’t come to me for intuitive healing like that’s not But I

mean, I don’t I don’t decide what’s right wrong, you know what I mean? So I’m open to

whatever people want to do. I think they everyone needs to make the right decision for them

But me personally, I’m not gonna muscle test people.

I’m not gonna use my intuition But you are a big believer in the mindset aspect of it.

So the psychology around it Yeah, which some people would be like, well, that’s what that is

evidence-based.

Ah Okay, we have a lot of evidence around GI CBT.

Got it. Yeah, and it works and I mean just gut health in general being deeply rooted with

emotion identity even trauma and Things like that. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean we actually have good evidence around that too So some of the predisposing

factors for irritable bowel syndrome are a neurotic personality type people that worry a lot We

can see childhood trauma and increased a score. So I have a childhood event score So

absolutely those can be preceding factors, but it’s just not my specialty so I’m not gonna treat

somebody for trauma because I don’t have enough knowledge to be able to do that for out to

psychiatry or So I’ll just today’s I

before we started I mentioned the parasite thing to you because We have a common friend

that that talked about he’s a asker about parasites. I will say this I never really cared much

about parasites or really got went down that rabbit hole and recently there is there’s there’s a

girl who creates content that I that I know that you know, I’m sure as well, but She was the one

that talks about the the coffee enemas, by the way, so that wasn’t a joke I honestly thought it

wasn’t a joke.

It’s not a joke people were putting coffee up their ass. Yeah, this is fucking wild This is crazy,

what what is it? What is this the positive benefit of stuff like that by the way?

People who do coffee enemas argue that it detoxes the liver is one of the arguments I some

people do it for treatment of constipation Which I mean any enema is going to get rid of stool,

but I don’t recommend it for the treatment of constipation Those are the main things that I’ve

seen is like improves liver function. So detoxification and Constipation are what I hear people

doing them from there’s no evidence that it helps with detoxification zero

yeah, one of the so and we got back into the enema I did it but One of the things that she was

saying was like signs of you have parasites These things of like science if you have parasites and

One of those was something that I for the first time was like, oh wait, I do that You know, it’s

just I do crave chocolate or sweets.

Oh, you’re a human If you’re selling a parasite cleanse or class or anything and you say if

anyone craves chocolate after dinner You just made yourself a lot of money because that is

every human I’ve ever met Genius So you crave chocolate as well? Yeah, I’m a human. Yeah, like

I mean, there’s like who doesn’t like sweets Yeah, I mean, I mean I like it.

I like it all but also where I just you know

Where did we get to like over pathologizing because that falls into the category in my mind the

parasite like craze is people wanting to find something wrong with themselves so that they can

treat it and I don’t see any benefit and I actually see a lot of potential harm that can happen

What are the harms of treating parasites most the time with parasite cleanses people are

gonna do coffee enemas or they’re gonna do regular enemas or a colon hydrotherapy or

they’re gonna do parasite cleanses which include a bunch of different herbs and The big

misconception is that if something is sold in the u.s. Over-the-counter, it’s safe. That is not true

That’s not true at all. The nutraceutical industry is the Unregulated pharmaceutical industry

that’s literally what it is. That’s a hundred percent what it is.

Yeah, and some of those things Like I was just talking about this with other clinicians today. So

you have like red yet red red Rice yeast, okay Red yes, I can’t you do it you say it for me, but

right sweet.

Yes. It is kind of red rice yeast.

Yeah, so that Has really similar efficacy as low the statin which is an old Statin that we don’t

really use anymore and the reason we don’t use it is because it has more side effects than

newer synthetic statins like crest or a tour of a sudden and People will still take this supplement

because they think oh, it’s more natural Which means that it’s better for me and yet we know

that it has more side effect potential than taking the pharmaceutical version Which is a

synthetic has less likelihood for elevated liver enzymes, which we see with statin sometimes my

algaes things like that Not to mention that if you take five milligrams of crest or from CVS You

know with very reasonable certainty that every time you got that medication you get five

milligrams of crest or if you’re taking Say it

Rice yeast.

Thank you. If you’re taking that supplement You may get it from one distributor one time and it

has X amount of milligrams And then the next time it has double that and the next time it has

half that and the next time it was actually Contaminated with something and causes a liver

issue and you know And so I just don’t know why you would go with an unregulated thing. That

doesn’t work as well Yeah, and is unpredictable and Way higher likely like contaminated or

doesn’t have what it says It hasn’t it or has more of something that hasn’t it because if you look

at the research in the supplement industry There’s been studies that go and they test

everything and the number of times that something has Too much in it way more than they

state or way less is majority of the time

so To avoid this. Yeah Obviously we you can avoid a supplement all together in general now

There are some supplements that that you probably are cool with you did smash on creatine

when I said creatine Now is it looking for brands that have third-party testing or that are willing

to show their certificates of Origin or organics or whatever it is.

Yeah

Vetting your companies and there’s other ways so I work with a bunch of athletes So I really

prioritize NSF sports certified supplements NSF got it And it’s that sport is another layer of

safety that’s put on supplements So if you see a creatine that’s NSF sports certified, that means

that facility is getting tested more often There’s a couple other things that make it they also

know that it doesn’t have any substances that are banned in WADA or USADA Which are

agencies that regulate?

Olympic and professional athletes To make sure that there’s nothing Banned that’s that’s in

those two so it’s another layer of safety there knowing the company using bigger companies

that have better reputations and Asking for CLA’s and things like that.

Yeah, it’s tough to ask for some of those things But there’s people out there that are asking for

it and creating reports and telling people the truth and exposing some of these a lot Of these

companies. Yeah, so look for that Yeah Why did you pass on creating? What do you like creating

victory already?

You take do you take it?

I take it Yeah, and again, we’re looking at like the last 2% of health. So do I think you need it to

be healthy? Absolutely, not.

I like you a little 98 to rule Scientific of you But it’s just like a thought of like what percent you

actually I have a good example of that Caffeine one of the if not the most widely used drugs in

the world caffeine big fan of it but with caffeine caffeine has probably some of the best

research into performance enhancing effects and Athletes use it all the time. You see those

caffeine chewies, whatever pre workouts Using caffeine for a performance enhancer is going to

give you anywhere from like one to like seven percent Improvement and performance not that

much seven percent, but seven percent is a lot especially for an athlete Yeah, right Most of us

like we don’t even like what are we performing like? Oh The four miles I ran today.

I’m gonna run like a little bit more right? But that’s the most well-studied supplement that like

in the whole world.

We have tennis Half caffeine and the creatines also highly studied as well.

Correct creatine is highly studied and you do get boosts in power strength muscle mass gains

and But we’re talking about like if you you would never want to take creatine and then not

resistance train It’s like resistance training is 90 something percent of it and creatine is gonna

give you a little bit of an edge there yeah, so For me from my personal experiences.

I’ve been taking creatine for about a year I do feel stronger than ever and I feel like a just faster

recovery and and I can just lift heavier however, and I’ve dedicated myself to Lifting more and

lifting heavier. So it’s also I do realize that a lot of it comes from what I am doing And so it’s this

thing that I do feel that it is helping a bit Yeah, I just especially the recovery now there is the

whole side of now Women older women taking it for the brain and all kinds of stuff and even if

they’re not doing resistance training anything around that I think the brain stuff is interesting.

I don’t think it’s prude like well from what I’ve seen like there’s nothing that I’m like Oh for sure

take it for cognitive benefits because that’s the that’s the craze right now.

That’s all the rave Yeah, but but I think a lot of people may benefit a little bit from the muscle

side So if you’re gonna take it anyways, it doesn’t really matter why you’re taking it If you get

the effects great, but 1% 2% max to max Mm-hmm If your future self 20 years from now walked

into this room What do you hope that she would thank you for?

Okay, so 20 years from now if I walked back into this room, what would I think? younger me for

Okay, I like this question a lot. I think I would thank myself for Being relentless about finding

out the truth.

Mm-hmm So I’m not I think some people listen to me and I’m like so passionate about things

But one thing that I feel really proud of is I’ve changed my beliefs on multiple things in health

Because I’m not tied to my belief. I’m tied to figuring out the truth. Mm-hmm So like with

cholesterol, right?

It’s like I was totally wrong about that. I completely switched it I feel really thankful for that

because I think that there’s a lot of people that are tied to their belief over the truth And I think

that comes with ego is admitting that you were wrong about something.

So I think that’s one thing Well, that’s a great characteristic in general and life to have not just

around science and your career In personal life, it’s a little harder because I think I’m always

right. Oh The truth comes out So Mary when it’s all said and done What do you hope people say

that Mary party stood for the truth the truth I like it Yeah, the truth and love and kindness and

peace and being nice to each other You’re realizing that We’re all gonna make mistakes Yeah I

love this.

I don’t know What do I stand for what do you want people to say that you Embody or

something?

joy That brought them joy laughter a Sense of safety to be themselves and be fully authentically

themselves and be real so that we can really connect on everything in the full breath of life

great a little the simple things and the complicated and the spiritual and the deep and the not

so deep and So yeah, so this is this idea of being feeling safe and connected and through

authenticity. Yeah Asking Yeah, well, I think awareness is sort of the founding base for for just

For everything in life for everything that makes us better better humans better people better

lovers and creates a better world So thank you for helping bring awareness or and all the things

that you’re passionate through through your content through your practice and on This

podcast today to our audience. So appreciate you and keep doing you Mary appreciate you.

Thanks for being here.

I appreciate you.

Thanks