Welcome to Episode 396 of The Intermittent Fasting Podcast, hosted by Melanie Avalon, author of What When Wine Diet: Lose Weight And Feel Great With Paleo-Style Meals, Intermittent Fasting, And Wine and Vanessa Spina, author of Keto Essentials: 150 Ketogenic Recipes to Revitalize, Heal, and Shed Weight.
Today's episode of The Intermittent Fasting Podcast is brought to you by:
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SHOW NOTES
iHERB: Get 22% off your first order with code IFPODCAST at iherb.com/shop/IFPODCAST. Existing customers get 15% off!
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT: Get 50% off a Monthly Membership of the All-Access Pass with code IFPODCAST at ifpodcast.com/development.
LMNT: Go to drinklmnt.com/ifpodcast to get a free sample pack with any purchase! Learn all about electrolytes in Episode 237 - our interview with Robb Rolf!
Listener Q&A: Nicole - Hi ladies! I have a question regarding facial flushing during fasting.
The Melanie Avalon Biohacking Podcast Episode #62 - Dr. Becky Campbell
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FOOD SENSE GUIDE: Get Melanie's app to tackle your food sensitivities! Food Sense includes a searchable catalog of 300+ foods, revealing their gluten, fodmap, lectin, histamine, amine, glutamate, oxalate, salicylate, sulfite, and thiol status. Food Sense also includes compound overviews, reactions to look for, lists of foods high and low in them, the ability to create your own personal lists, and more!
Listener Q&A: Heather - Trying to get back to fasting but I do a CrossFit type gym at 6am.. tried not to eat before once and got dizzy after... any tips?
Listener Q&A: Lisa - Inflammation & Joovv
The Melanie Avalon Biohacking Podcast Episode #224 - Forrest Smith (Kineon Labs)
Listener Q&A: Jodi - I appreciate your input on how to start with such a crazy life with work and kids.
Listener Q&A: Nicole - What are your biggest regrets?
Our content does not constitute an attempt to practice medicine and does not establish a doctor-patient relationship. Please consult a qualified healthcare provider for medical advice and answers to personal health questions.
TRANSCRIPT
(Note: This is generated by AI with 98% accuracy. However, any errors may cause unintended changes in meaning.)
Melanie Avalon:
Welcome to Episode 396 of The Intermittent Fasting Podcast. If you want to burn fat, gain energy, and enhance your health by changing when you eat, not what you eat with no calorie counting, then this show is for you. I'm Melanie Avalon, biohacker, author of "What, When, Wine" and creator of the supplement line AvalonX. And I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Spina, sports nutrition specialist, author of "Keto Essentials" and creator of the Tone Breath Ketone Analyzer and Tone Lux Red Light Therapy Panels. For more on us, check out ifpodcast.com, melanieavalon.com, and ketogenicgirl.com. Please remember, the thoughts and opinions on this show do not constitute medical advice or treatment. To be featured on the show, email us your questions to questions@ifpodcast.com. We would love to hear from you. So pour yourself a mug of black coffee, a cup of tea, or even a glass of wine, if it's that time, and get ready for The Intermittent Fasting Podcast.
Melanie Avalon:
Hi, everybody, and welcome. This is episode number 396 of the Intermittent Fasting Podcast. I'm Melanie Avalon, and I'm here with Vanessa Spina. Hi, everyone. Vanessa, can I ask you some questions? Sure. You drink coffee, right? Yes. I'm curious, in your coffee drinking habits, what is most important to you for the coffee? Is it the flavor, the health benefits, the antioxidants, the mold content?
Vanessa Spina:
I would say flavor and low mold content. Yeah.
Melanie Avalon:
That's what you.
Vanessa Spina:
Cause we, yeah, we have an espresso machine, so like we grind everything fresh. I keep everything sealed. I have a vacuum sealer that I use specifically for my coffee beans. So when I open it and fill the hopper, then I can reseal the bag and there's zero air in there and it keeps them super fresh. So I think that and the, we grind it on the spot and the flavor is really important. So I usually get, is it a hundred percent Arabica? I usually try to get that and yeah, and low mold content, I think is the most important thing for me.
Melanie Avalon:
I'm having an epiphany. Is that little hole on the bag of coffee beans so that you can vacuum seal it back?
Vanessa Spina:
Maybe, maybe there's some machines that work like that. I have like a vacuum sealer that I just take bags and I make my own seal and then I fill it with whatever and then I vacuum seal it after. I got it first when I was doing carnivore because, you know, we would get like these huge stakes divided up and then I would put it in there and seal each one individually or sometimes I would make like smoked brisket or something and then just seal it in there and it lasts forever and the fridge so you don't have to freeze it but then if you vacuum seal it and freeze it then it lasts like literally forever so yeah I got it then but now I use it to keep everything fresh and it's amazing for coffee beans so yeah those are I mean I think extra nutrients would be probably bonus.
Melanie Avalon:
Okay i'm pulling people in my coffee development adventures i had a vacuum sealer i was. Worried about the plastic like ceiling things in plastic but then i realized. Like when i order these frozen things are already in plastic just no easy answer with plastics why can i see a link glass.
Vanessa Spina:
Develop that. Yeah, something is coming, I'm sure.
Melanie Avalon:
Yeah, so how are things in your world? Thank you for the the input. I'm as I gather data
Vanessa Spina:
course. Yeah, things are amazing. I was just at the playground a few hours ago with Luca and I was doing this tandem zip line with him. I posted a video of it on my Instagram, but it's this new thing that we've been doing. There's a zip line at his playground. They have them at a lot of the playgrounds here and he usually goes by himself. And then one day I saw this other mom doing it and I was like, wow, that's crazy. She's doing the zip line with her we tried it and it was so much fun. So I get on it on the zip line and then he gets on on top of me and then we launch off together and we like stare into each other's eyes like screaming. So funny.
Melanie Avalon:
Oh my goodness. Is it on? I love Ziplines or I love them when I was little. Is it on like a hill or anything? Or is it over a height?
Vanessa Spina:
a little bit. It's on a slope and it's just, you know, like it's like a big tire. It's got like a bunch of tires that like break it and stuff. It's pretty well made. Yeah, it's just so much fun. So we were doing that this morning. My husband came down with my mother-in-law while we were doing him and they were laughing and they took a video of us doing it. So I put it on my Instagram. Yeah, it's just a typical day for me now. It's like a zip lining in the morning and then working in the afternoon and evening. I just feel really blessed that I have the energy to keep up with my boys because they're very energetic and do fun things like that with them. It's awesome. How are things with you?
Melanie Avalon:
I'm watching your video right now. Oh my goodness. That looks so fun. Oh, this is so fun. Oh, and it looks so European
Vanessa Spina:
the backdrop of the architecture.
Melanie Avalon:
Yeah, I'm getting flashbacks because we used to always go to Germany growing up and we'd do stuff like that and we do like there were so many seesaws in Europe and my sister and brother and I would just have a blast. Like you'd have to like load up the tire on one side with rocks.
Vanessa Spina:
It's so much fun!
Melanie Avalon:
Yeah, I think those don't fly today in the U.S.
Vanessa Spina:
Yeah, I was going to say I was talking to actually, yeah, Dr. Grant Tinsley last week about it because he has kids. And I was like, yeah, we were doing the zipline this morning because it's also ziplining that morning. And he was like, huh? And I was like, oh, you probably don't have those at your playgrounds. There's a lot more risky things here, I think.
Melanie Avalon:
I remember even when I was in elementary school at the playground, part of the playground was off limits and this was when I was like a little kid, so it's probably all off limits now. Good times, good times. I remember I had a friend that had a zip, she had like a massive, I don't even remember who it was. I just remember going there and that their backyard, they had a massive sloped backyard and they had a massive zip line. They went from the top to the bottom like long, fast and I was like, this is like having a roller coaster in your backyard. This is cool. Oh, I love that. Yeah. So that is awesome. That's awesome. Yeah. What's new with you? I don't know. I had a really good interview yesterday. Do you know Dr. Jack Wolfson, the paleocardiologist? No. He's yeah, the paleocardiologist, but it was a really fun conversation because he's literally the thing I'm probably most haunted by. Let me think if that's true. The main things I'm most haunted by in a diet, nutrition wars and opinions are protein intake and longevity, ironically enough because we talk about protein all the time, and lowering Apobee and LDL artificially with statins for longevity as advocated by Peter Atiyah. And so it was a deep, it was funny because it was a deep dive into like cholesterol and LDL and Apobee and he's very anti-statins and he's also very anti-Peter Atiyah, even though he's never listened to any of Peter Atiyah stuff, which so literally half the episode was me like defending Peter Atiyah to him. And I was like, I don't know that this is a productive conversation, but Oh man, so yeah, I find it interesting when people comment on other people's work when they haven't read their work, you know, so where do you fall on the, on that topic?
Vanessa Spina:
The first one, I mean, I have been bringing it up lately on the podcast and how I kind of had it all wrong. And I really thought that, you know, you had to sort of try to balance out all the mTOR, but I learned from Dr. Kurt Escobar, it's really dysregulated mTOR that we want to avoid and not the mTOR from eating protein and doing resistance training. Like that's not the mTOR that has negative impact on longevity. It actually is the opposite. And how there's these relationships that are so complex, like how mTOR even initiates autophagy and everyone thinks it's only AMPK, you know? So I kind of had it all wrong and I feel really excited and empowered to have learned that because I no longer feel like I have to somehow balance out all this mTOR that I'm doing right now because I personally am so focused right now on building as much muscle mass as I can in the years that I can build muscle mass because you get to a point where you're basically just maintaining. And I'm so excited being in this stage of my life. Like I'm lifting heavier and heavier weights, like I'm pushing harder in my workouts, like I'm experimenting with, I mentioned adding in that other protein meal. So I'm now doing three protein meals a day. I'm getting some great results from it. I'm just all about experimentation. So I'm trying this out and I'm going to assess at the end how I'm feeling with it. But I really, really like it. And I just feel like that used to haunt me and now it doesn't, you know? And for years, I was just so focused on like fasting and AMPK and, you know, this is what we need for autophagy. And yet there's so much autophagy that you get from exercise. And you can see it in people. I mean, when they look at the mitochondria of people who are lifelong exercisers, their mitochondria, they retain way more of their mitochondria, much, much, much, much more. And the capacity of those mitochondria is also maintained way more. And you see it in people who work out that they look younger. And I think it comes from metabolic health. And, you know, I was afraid that too much protein and resistant training would age me earlier. What's the word for it? Premature aging, but it's actually the opposite. And I think that's really, yeah, it's something that you saw at me and no longer does. Like I now have a different view of it. And I think there's just a lot of confusion out there on that topic.
Melanie Avalon:
Have you ever measured or do you measure your IGF-1? I have.
Vanessa Spina:
Yeah, I have before I haven't I haven't done a lot of testing lately just because I'm everything with pregnancy throws things off So hmm. Yeah, that's so true sort of waiting until I'm back to baseline back to a baseline
Melanie Avalon:
Yeah, that makes sense. I've only done it like a few times, measured that, but I feel like whenever I did it was really high. But then it's like I'm measuring it, you know, I don't know, probably at a time when it would be high.
Vanessa Spina:
Well, I think that there are going to be tests coming out in the very near future that are going to help us assess our biological age based on mitochondrial function and the quality and function of our mitochondria that are going to be really, really insightful because you're going to be able to actually tell if things that you're doing are working for you, like if supplements that you're taking are making a difference. And I know, yeah, we've sort of been circling around this topic for a while, but I'm really excited for those things that'll help measure and quantify these things more.
Melanie Avalon:
I agree so much. Do you have thoughts on the, like the super low LDL APOB and statins and stuff?
Vanessa Spina:
know, I mean, what is your current opinion on on
Melanie Avalon:
Well, basically the summary is low fat vegan people will say that, you know, you want super low LDL and I need to clarify that LDL is there's like LDL C, which is like all the different LDLs, when there's LDL P, which is Apo B, which is the particularly part that can create CBD issues. But in any case, there's that camp, then there's like the low carb higher fat camp where they're like, oh, LDL can be it's totally fine. If it's really high, as long as you don't have inflammation and you have high HDL, then there's people in between like Peter who says, who's also is pro, you know, a diet that's, I mean, not vegan, like, that's more similar to a diet that I would probably follow. He thinks, I don't know if this is the exact quote, but he thinks for the ultimate longevity, I think your Apo B would need to be below like 30, which is only achievable with pharmaceuticals. So like he's on statins for longevity. And he has a history, I think.
Vanessa Spina:
My opinion, because there is also in the keto space a lot of talk and rhetoric around lean mass hyper responders and that kind of thing, I don't think it's a good thing to have really high cholesterol, even if people are doing keto. So I think if people are running into issues where they have really high cholesterol, I think it could be dangerous even if someone is doing keto. But I prefer to cut back on fat at that point and switch out fats for healthier ones. And I say healthier with trepidation because I don't mean to not eat any saturated fat, but to me that's like, you know, if someone is doing carnivore or something and they're eating a lot of saturated fat and they're adding a lot of butter to things and, you know, just adding a lot of fat to their diet, you know, just sticking to eating the whole foods in their whole food form, like whole eggs, steak, you know, maybe having some leaner cuts of steak, but not adding butter to the steak kind of thing, not adding extra fat to things and even switching out some fats for I think like olive oil. I tend to use mostly in my cooking coconut oil, but I don't use a lot of it. Like I use a spray. I don't like, you know, coat everything in oil, even though I eat low carbs. So I do think that, you know, just like you don't want to have really high circulating blood sugar, I think you don't want to have really high triglycerides or really high cholesterol. But I personally wouldn't go on something like statins for that. I would just try to do it naturally.
Melanie Avalon:
We're pretty similar there with those thoughts. I do find it really interesting. I like interviewing because a lot of the vegan people will say that you can't eat animal protein and have, you know, low cholesterol levels and mine's really low. So I always like interviewing them and being like, I eat pounds. Same. Yeah. I'm like, I eat pounds and pounds of protein and, you know, I have really low levels. So that's not quite accurate.
Vanessa Spina:
Did you tell Gregor that?
Melanie Avalon:
I'm pretty sure I did in my lost episode. Oh, did you ever re-record it? No, we're recording in October again. Okay, awesome. It was nice to have like a breather in between because it's hard to like redo it like right away, you know.
Vanessa Spina:
I would be, yeah, I would want to either do it right away, like the next day or have a breather.
Melanie Avalon:
Yeah. Well, like the next week would be pretty rough. Yeah. Oh, that's so true. Like, yeah, do it like now.
Vanessa Spina:
I feel that way like sometimes and like I'll have I had a guest once that I had been preparing for their interview for weeks you know reading their book really detailed notes and I was so ready on that day and something came up it was definitely something important having to do with their families they couldn't record that day and I was like yeah we need to do this like either tomorrow or in two months because I can't like come back on this.
Melanie Avalon:
It's so true. I'm about to interview. Finally, Dr. Sarah Gottfried. I think we've rescheduled.
Vanessa Spina:
Oh, I love her like multiple times. She bought my keto program. Like when I was first like starting in the keto space, she has my book too. And she showed it to me when I was interviewing her and I almost started crying. She's just so wonderful, not because she bought my stuff. She's just a wonderful human. And yeah, I'm excited for you to interview her.
Melanie Avalon:
I'm really excited because I ran into her at the biohacking conference and she knew who I was. I have interviewed her, but it was years and years ago, so I didn't think she would remember me.
Vanessa Spina:
That's really cool.
Melanie Avalon:
Yeah, I remember I had that moment with the book. It's because I sent it to him, but when I interviewed Rob the first time he had my book on his desk, I literally wanted to like cry.
Vanessa Spina:
Yeah, it means a lot to you as an author.
Melanie Avalon:
It really does. So, okay. Shall we jump into some things for today? Yes, I would love to. All right. Would you like to read the first question from Nicole?
Vanessa Spina:
So our first question comes to us from Nicole, and the subject is flushing. Hi, ladies. I have a question regarding facial flushing during fasting. I'm a long time faster. In the beginning, I did get facial flushing at the end of my fast. I didn't experience it for a while, but it just started up again. I fast about 16 plus hours, usually opening my window around 230. Every day between 12 and two, I get really flushed, and my face and neck get really red. These are not hormonal flashes, as I have experienced those, and they feel totally different. They gradually disappear after a bit. I'm not dehydrated. I haven't changed anything I eat, and I clean fast. These flushes happen way after I've had coffee. I don't take any medication for hours before. Sometimes they are accompanied by a tension headache. I opened my eating window earlier one day and no flush, but to be honest, I hate not fasting. I plan to keep on doing it. Any insight on why this happens? Some info. I'm 45, lower carb, definitely not keto. Recently, a month ago, was on herbals for an infection. The flushes seem to start after that. I would love your thoughts. There are two emojis of someone really hot. They're flushing. Super cute.
Melanie Avalon:
It's the anger emoji and then like the hot emoji. We love emojis, all the emojis all the time. Well, thank you so much, Nicole, for your question. So there are a lot of things that could be going on here. I mean, it could be things like blood sugar or your adrenals. My thought though, the first thing that came to me, and then especially the fact that you were recently on herbals for an infection and that's when it started. It could be a histamine situation, especially since it's something you've experienced in the past. So basically, his histamine is a chemical in our body. It's released during inflammatory responses, during stress. It's high in a lot of foods, it can be released from the gut microbiome. And some people are just like their histamine bucket gets filled up and they get histamine sensitive and they get symptoms from it, like flushing, honestly, like flushing allergy type symptoms. And so the fact that you've had flushing in the past and then didn't, and then it came again after an infection with herbals, I would bet that you're probably sensitive to histamine and changes in your environment, both externally and or inside of your body are creating periods of your life where it's becoming a thing. And the reason I would guess that it goes away when you eat is because your body's inflammatory response immune system, like the majority of our immune system is in our gut. So once you start eating, it's kind of like switching focus a little bit to your food. If you had some sort of change in your gut bacteria during that infection and with herbals, which is highly likely, it could have created a different balance of histamine producing bacteria in your gut that are producing histamine. The effects of it are appearing during your fast. I mean, a way you could figure out if it's histamine, there are a few things you could do. So I actually interviewed Dr. Becky Campbell on my show for, she has like a histamine diet book. So I'll put a link to that in the show notes. You could try, there's a few things you could try. If you wanted to just see if that's literally the reason, I'm not saying to take allergy meds ongoing, but you could take one for a day and see if it, if the flashes don't happen, the flushing, if the flushing doesn't happen, then it's probably histamine because the histamine would be blocking it. So for example, I mean, you could take a Benadryl that would probably knock you out. You could take like a Claritin or a Zyrtec for a day and see what happens. You could also ongoing try a low histamine diet for a bit and kind of clear out some of that histamine from your system that could have a really, really beneficial effect. And also just working on your gut microbiome health in general could be really helpful. So through your food choices, I don't know if you talk about what you eat, but favoring, you know, a whole foods diet. Oh, you said you're low carb, but definitely not keto. Yep. You know, favoring a whole foods diet, a probiotic I really, really love is seed. I'm obsessed with them. They have a lot of science behind their probiotic strains and I've noticed a lot of great effects on my digestion. And there are certain strains that are histamine producing versus not. And I haven't noticed any issues with seed. So if you go to seed.com/Ifpodcast you can use the coupon code to five I have podcasts to get 25% off, but yes, I look at, I really would bet that this is a histamine thing going on. Do you have thoughts? Vanessa? I think you.
Vanessa Spina:
covered that wonderfully, definitely had the same thought. It could be related to the herbs, especially if that's when it started. And that would be the simplest explanation. So it sounds like it could be something that, you know, your body could still be working through, but I wonder if you could talk to that provider who had you on that and see if there's something going on, or if they might have some insight into that, the practitioner who had you on these herbals.
Melanie Avalon:
What's also really interesting is it sounds like she's thinking it was the herbals, but it also could have been the infection. Like, cause that would have all been at the same time. So, you know, it could have been the infection that caused this change. I really would bet something happened though, with your gut microbiome that is having residual effects from here. And like I said, the fact that you've had this in the past before says to me that you're probably just sensitive to histamine changes again, it might not be histamine, but that's what I put my, my, my money on and oh, a resource. You can get my app food sense guide. It's a comprehensive catalog of over 300 foods for 11 different compounds in food that people often react to and have, you know, reactions to. So things like FODMAPs and lectins and gluten oxalates, it includes histamine. So definitely download that. There's a free trial it's at MelanieAvalon.com/foodsenseguide. Oh, and I think it's like free ongoing. It's just, if you subscribe, you get more features. So yeah, download that, look at the histamine foods, see what you're eating. I would definitely try a low histamine diet. Okey dokey. Shall we go on to our next question? Yeah, sounds great. So our next question comes from Heather. She says, I'm trying to get back to fasting, but I do a CrossFit type gym at 6 AM. That's so early. She said, I tried not to eat before once and I got dizzy after. Do you have any tips?
Vanessa Spina:
I'll be not going to like my tip but my tip would be to eat before you go because I tried and this is something I'll be doing this fall again now that is the fall but when we go on holiday to Greece I tend to do a different kind of fasting I call it circadian rhythm fasting and I have breakfast quite early I usually around seven and then I fast until dinner and I love it and it works really well and so I just want to provide a reminder that there's lots of different ways to fast and I was getting great results I was getting more deeply into ketosis when I was doing that I'm interested to test again this time because that happened the last few times and I could feel it as well as I was testing but really interestingly you know you get quite a lot of time fast did like so if you have a meal early in the morning I guess for you would be like at 5 or 5 30 or something and then you you know your eating window would be pretty short say at the most it's an hour and then you fast until dinner you're still fasting like 22 hours in the day it's still a long time you know a fasting so I think there are different ways to fast in terms of dizziness other thoughts I have are that it could be related to electrolytes so I'm not sure if you supplement with electrolytes but it's funny to me because I know I worked out fasted for so many years and I love doing that and I think a lot of people enjoy fasted workouts but I always felt great doing it so if I had ever felt unwell or dizzy or anything then I would have definitely changed it up so I'm just sort of speaking to what I would personally do if I was in that situation I would try having a meal before which I recently started incorporating a pre-workout meal and I've really been enjoying the workouts I've been getting and so I think it can also you know another thing to think about is also like what is the outcome that you're optimizing for because you might still be able to get there easily even if you have a meal before you workout if that makes you feel better if you are working out fed you're still getting a lot of the like the majority of the benefits from the workout it's not taking anything away from your exercise because if you burn fat more fat during your exercise fasted then you know you're still going to get the similar benefits from burning more carbs potentially while you're working out because you're going to burn more fat later so I think it all kind of evens out and the important thing is that you're doing an exercise and CrossFit is intense so I would definitely probably get dizzy as well if I was doing CrossFit fasted and that early in the morning it's just from what I've seen I have never tried it but I've seen it a lot on social media and it looks extremely hardcore and intense so that would be my suggestion what about you Melanie
Melanie Avalon:
Yeah, I thought, so I thought you were going to recommend, remember when we had that conversation about eating protein only before a workout?
Vanessa Spina:
Can we talk about that? Yes. And so that was, I had found some really interesting research showing that you get similar rates of mitochondrial biogenesis. A lot of people do facet workouts because of the purported mitochondrial biogenesis. But as I've been talking about in the last few episodes we've done, you know, there was a recent research review done showing that that pathway does not exist in humans from facet workouts. So you, the reason that people were still getting the mitochondrial biogenesis from eating protein before the workout was because of the workout. Just like doing it facet, it was the workout. So doing it fed, even if you have things other than protein, you're also going to get the benefits of mitochondrial biogenesis. It's the workout that does it. So I don't think it matters whether you're in the fed or facet state. And that's something I recently changed my mind on that I believed for a long time this recent research review came out and they looked at all the data in humans and they found that pathway exists in rodents, but it does not exist in humans. So it's really the workout that causes those adaptations. So that's why my answer is different.
Melanie Avalon:
Yeah, no, thank you for that. It's so, so helpful and fascinating. I'm glad you can speak to it, especially because I, well, I'm similar to you in that I, like, CrossFit is really intense. I applaud people who do it. I personally, I'm not a good person to ask because I don't do CrossFit. I personally just don't like working out in the Fed state at all. So what I would do, which I don't even know if this is an option, and this is ironic because a lot of people would say not to do this, but I would experiment with eating more the night before. I'd be curious what your actual eating window is. You might find that if you can eat more the night prior, because in a way you're eating window, I've heard like this quote from somebody like you're eating window, you're sort of fueling for the next day. So you might be able to find a combination of food that you could eat before bed that would, you know, last and make you feel okay at 6 a.m. I do like the electrolyte recommendation as well. And we have a link if you want free samples from Element. So you can go to drinklmnt.com/ifpodcast, and that will get you a free sample pack of Element. So check that out. Yeah, I really feel like that's, I can't really think of any other options. Yeah. Anything else? Yeah. I think that pretty much covers it. All righty. So now we have a question from Lisa. The subject is Inflammation in Juve. And would you like to read this, Vanessa?
Vanessa Spina:
Sure. So of all the supplements and or therapies like the Juve that you've tried, which do you feel is best for inflammation? Do you still love your Juve like you did in episode 77? I'm making my way through the episodes and wondering if your opinion has changed since then. Is there a way to search your website for this? If there is, I couldn't figure it out, but we'll keep trying. Thanks, Lisa.
Melanie Avalon:
Awesome, awesome, Lisa. Wow, 77. So many podcast episodes. I was reflecting the other day on just how many podcast episodes has been created and same with you. What episode are you on now with your Optimal Protein podcast? We just passed 600. Oh my gosh, that's crazy. So yes, I still, I love red light therapy. I use it and near infrared. So red and near infrared therapy, which is what the jouve devices are. I use them. I use it every single day of my life. I use it to regulate my circadian rhythm. So I light my apartment with it in the morning and in the evening. I do targeted treatment on my body. It's very rare, but when I do have muscle pain, I, it's amazing how incredible it is. I actually, I also love, I interviewed Forrest Smith at Kineon and he has a targeted, a targeted laser red light device that it's small and you can actually strap it to different joints on your body or you can like hold it places. And it's a game changer for really, really targeted therapy. And Vanessa also has her tone lux devices, which are incredible red light therapy devices as well. So I have, yeah, I have not changed my opinion. I still love and adore red light. I think it's great for inflammation. The, uh, you can use the code Melanie Avalon for discounts on jouve and Kineon and tone lux, I think all the things as far as other things for inflammation. So honestly, so fasting, fasting is amazing for having an anti-inflammatory response on the body. It's probably one of my favorite things, honestly about fasting and then what you eat in your eating window, eating an anti-inflammatory diet for you because different people react to different things. I just think is so, so key. Like that's the foundation for me is the fasting and the diet and then adding on things to there. I think the best supplement for inflammation, the reason I launched Avalon X with Sarah peptase was because of how potently anti-inflammatory it is. It's amazing. It's a proteolytic enzyme. It actually goes and breaks down problematic proteins in your body, which your immune system can be reacting to. And so that's why it can so miraculously address inflammation in so many different parts of your body because it's, you know, breaking down those proteins all throughout your body that might be causing problems. That's why I made my Avalon X Sarah peptase. And again, the coupon code Melanie Avalon will get you 10% off that AvalonX.us. Other things for inflammation, cryotherapy. People often ask me why I do cold exposure and cryotherapy. And one of the main reasons, well, it's mostly how it affects my mood and how it affects my feelings of inflammation. And I've heard a lot of people say that as well. So because people will get out of the cryo chamber before me and they'll make that comment. And there's a lot of studies on that as far as how cold exposure can regulate the the immune system. I feel like those would probably be my main things. What's interesting is my CRP level, which that's a marker of inflammation in your body. Mine's been a flat line for years and years. So I think all these things are working pretty well. I also do take lotus naltrexone, which has an anti-inflammatory effect. I've been on that for a few years. Try to think if there's anything else. What are your thoughts, Vanessa? Do you talk about the anti-inflammatory benefits of your red light device?
Vanessa Spina:
I do. And actually it was amazing because I had this really bad shoulder pain. I had like a really stiff neck and shoulder and I know it's because of sleeping in the wrong position and breastfeeding at night and everything. And just with my kids, like sometimes they will just fall asleep on me and I'll get stuck in a certain position. Anyway, I don't usually have much muscle pain. So I don't really have an opportunity to use the red light for that. So I was like, hey, I have an opportunity to try this. And I literally had tried everything. I had tried cutting out some things I thought could be causing it, you know, some kind of reaction. I thought maybe it was oatmeal or gluten related. I think I mentioned that to you. And then I got a massage and that relieved the pain for a couple hours. And then it came back and it was like that kind of stiff pain where, you know, when you turn your head and you're like, uh, really uncomfortable and hard to not think about it during the day. And I was sitting on the couch. The kids had fallen asleep on me and I had the red light. I had my red light gem, which is the portable one, handheld one. And I put it between my shoulder and the couch behind me and I just did red and infrared for like 40 minutes. I just, cause it's got an automatic timer after 10 minutes and I just kept turning it back on, turning back on. And I got up and I was like, Pete, it's gone. And this has happened to me so many times with other things that have happened, even like infections. It's crazy how effective it is, especially for pain relief. And I think also the warming, the heat, especially with sore muscles. I mean, there's a reason that athletes use this for muscle recovery because I did also think, well, what if I just tweaked it when I was working out? Because I've been working out way harder and way more. It's like, what if I just tweaked it when I was working out? But I think it was, yeah, just some unrelated muscle pain. I was just amazed. And the next day it was still gone and I had it for two weeks, you know, and it was like suddenly after 40 minute session with the red light, it was gone. So I think it's extremely powerful. It might be the most underrated wellness tool that exists. I mean, it's so science backed. It does so many incredible things. Cause even if you're doing a session on say your face for boosting collagen and elastin production and the fibroblasts of mitochondria in your skin, you also have cell free mitochondria that circulate. So no matter where you do a session specifically on your body, you're getting systemic benefits on the mitochondria throughout your body as well. So in the future, I think everyone will have red light in their homes, just like a hairdryer. Like there was a time when no one had hair dryers and now everyone has one in their homes. So I think it'll be one of those things that'll just, at some point it'll be omnipresent in everyone's homes. And we're just kind of on the, you know, the cusp of it right now, sort of some people who are more like into biohacking and stuff have it. But if you have a device, you know how amazing it is. And it's just, again, we're talking about in the last episode, like the different ways that we disconnect from nature. It's just a way of reconnecting with nature because we are indoors so much. Most of us are indoors 90% of the day or more behind glass. And we don't get that red light from the sun that we get naturally when we're outside. And so this concentrated red light therapy and infrared from panels is just, I think one of the most powerful tools for lowering inflammation and for even pain relief in the moment. I don't think it could work for every kind of pain, but if it's muscle related or otherwise, there are lots of different examples of things that you wouldn't even think that it would work on. And it does. So it is, yeah, it's so powerful.
Melanie Avalon:
It's so amazing. I remember one of the first times, similar to your situation where I did have some pain and I put the red light on it and I was like, oh, it's gone. It was just gone. It was shocking. When I first did it, I remember the first time I would hold the light over it and it would go away and then I would remove the light and it would come back and I was like, that's really interesting. Yeah, I didn't wait. Cell-free mitochondria, I didn't know about that. They float around and what are they powering? It's in your blood cells. Gotcha. That makes sense. That's amazing. So how can people get your device?
Vanessa Spina:
you can get it by going to ketogenicgirl.com. I have my collection of red light therapy panels there and there's several different sizes. And then I also have the crystal face mask, which I am obsessed with. And I use it in the mornings because it helps me stay consistent with red light with having a toddler and a baby. It's just really hard to have the time in the day to go sit in another room in front of a panel. But with the mask, I can just put it on and I can still interact. So I think it's a huge benefit to be able to be hands-free from it. But that's the Tone Luxe collection and it's at Ketogenic Girl. And yes, you can get 20% off with that Code Melanie Avalon.
Melanie Avalon:
I told you this last time I got it set up and then charged it now it's ready to go I just have once I get it in my habit. I know I'm gonna keep doing it I need to make it part of my nightly habit. Yeah habit stacking habit stacking. Yes. Yes No, it's really it's really wonderful that you have made that mask Especially because a lot of like the ones I'd used in the past Directly for the face where you had to like lay underneath it still it wasn't like an actual, you know Something that strapped to your face
Vanessa Spina:
Right. Yeah. And I really want to know what you think of it because I think that a lot of them are creepy, but I think that I think mine is pretty cute, but I want to know what you think when you try it on.
Melanie Avalon:
It's so funny. I love it so much. Awesome, awesome.
Vanessa Spina:
I've got my Halloween costume all set so with your mask. Yeah, just put that on be a biohacker. Yes I'm a biohacker just answer the door with that or go to a party with that and I'll be done. So funny
Melanie Avalon:
I love it. I know I should just wear it out like out in the world. Yeah, why not? Let's normalize it. Do they let you in stores with masks on like that? So good question. Is that like illegal? I feel like ever since the pandemic and people wearing masks.
Vanessa Spina:
I think it depends what state you're in. Like in California, pretty sure you'd be fine. Depends where you are probably. It's so funny.
Melanie Avalon:
Love it, love it. Oh, and she wanted to know, is there a way to search the website? Yes, there is a search bar on both. Well, okay, so a few different things. There's ifpodcast.com/stuffwelike. And there's also melanieavalon.com/stuffilike. And you can just search on that page for things. And then you can also search the entirety of the website of both websites, their search bars, like in the top, on the top. And the good thing is, because there are transcripts of everything, everything is very searchable. So things should come up. Okey dokey. Shall we go on to our next question? Sure. So this question comes from Jodi. The subject is starting IF and Jodi says, Hi, I just started listening to your podcast and I'm super intrigued. I am a nurse practitioner and very interested in health and fitness. I did the whole 30. And since then, I'm eating a dairy free lifestyle. She says, also a petty free lifestyle. We're wondering if she means paleo. We're not quite sure. She says I could lose five pounds and I would love to keep it off. I work out five to six days a week. I have young kids and we eat dinner around 5pm, making me done eating by 6pm. Won't I be starving the next morning? I mean, I wake up now ready to eat breakfast. Does it take a while to get used to it? Is it bad if you don't do it every day? I appreciate your input on how to start with such a crazy life with work and kids. Thank you.
Vanessa Spina:
I've heard different recommendations for this over the years. I think Dr. Sachin Panda, who's the scientist who really put time-restricted eating on the map, he always says, start with just pushing it back an hour. If you usually have breakfast at 7, then start having it at 8. And then after a while, start having it at 9, start having it at 10. Just push it back. Maybe gradually, you get to the point where you're having it at 10, or 11, or 12, depending on what kind of fasting window you want to have. Technically, according to the international consensus on fasting terms, 14 hours is the minimum. So if you were to have breakfast at 10 AM, you would still be doing intermittent fasting. And if you're closing your window by 6, that's still an 8-hour eating window with a 16-hour fasting window. So 10 from where you are now, if it takes some time to get there, I wouldn't be worried about how long it takes. I definitely think that there's probably an adjustment period. But hormonally, it's not usually a time that most people feel really, really hungry. A lot of people don't actually feel hungry in the morning. And I think part of that is from having coffee in the morning, which has an appetite suppressant effect. But most people hormonally tend to be hungrier later in the day. And I think that that's why intermittent fasting has sort of taken off so much, that so many people have been practicing it in the last years, is a lot of people just find that they're naturally not that hungry in the morning if they're not eating out of habit. But it's definitely going to be different for different people. So I would say, don't worry if it takes you some time to get there, and don't be afraid to get there gradually and slowly.
Melanie Avalon:
I mean, it's interesting that she says she is somebody who wakes up ready to eat breakfast, and it could be that she is one of those chronotypes that actually is hungry in the morning. I feel the same what you were saying, Vanessa, about, you know, a lot of people hormonally don't actually want to eat in the morning. I mean, I know that's me for sure and a lot of people, but something that's interesting is our hunger hormones adjust to our circadian rhythms if we follow consistent ones. So, ghrelin, for example, is a hunger hormone, and it makes you feel hungry, and it can adjust based on your pattern. So, like Vanessa said, if you go slow and slowly change things, it can adjust as well. It could be something, it's kind of like what I recommended earlier, and again, it goes against contrary wisdom, but if you definitely don't want to have a breakfast eating window, you said that you're done eating by six, you could try having a longer eating window in the evening. I know you're done eating with the kids at six, but maybe you could have something before bed. That's another possibility if you wanted to extend the eating window in the evening to make it easier in the morning. And does it take a while to get used to? So, yes, the body, you know, makes these adaptations. I mean, the good thing is you've done Whole30 before, so you've made food choices, which in theory should be supporting your metabolic health and your insulin sensitivity and all the things, but fasting can definitely, you know, take a bit to adjust to. We actually, on a recent episode, we talked about some studies that looked at how long it took people's hunger signals and things to basically for people not to be hungry while fasting. And it seemed in general that after a week or two, people often would adjust to whatever fasting window they were doing. Is it bad if you don't do it every day? Of course not. Like, definitely start wherever you're at, adding something, okay, how do I say this? Adding something beneficial to your life, in my opinion, is never a bad thing. It's not bad if you add just a little bit of it. That's good. And then you can keep going from there and adding more. I do really like Vanessa's ideas about going slow. I would have a reframe around because people often think, oh, life is so crazy, I don't have time to do this. One of the amazing things about fasting is how it actually frees up time. So I would completely reframe that if that's possible. Once you take the time to figure out the eating window that will work for you and plan the meals accordingly, now you're going to free up all this time where you would have been prepping meals that you're just not. So you're going to get time back. It's going to take a little bit of time in the beginning to create the system and think it through and plan it out and try it. But once you connect into that, you're going to get back so much time. It's also almost easier to start. I think it's easier to start fasting when you're busy because it distracts from hunger. I think one of the hardest ways to start fasting would be if you weren't busy at all and you were just like doing nothing, laying around, not eating, that would be pretty miserable for me. So yeah, I think that's a lot of options. Sure. All right. And then we will end with one more question from a different Nicole. She wants to know, what are your biggest regrets? Vanessa, do you have big regrets?
Vanessa Spina:
I tend to not be someone with a lot of regrets because I feel like life is always sort of working itself out for us in different ways. Things that we're ready for appear for us when we're ready for them. And it's sort of, you know, the way that life unfolds, like when they say when the student is ready, the teacher appears kind of thing. But the one forget I was trying to think of was if I had any regret, it would be that I did not continue resistance training. So when I, when I was in my early 20s, I got into a phase when I was doing, I always did a lot of cardio, you know, to just like manage my weight overall. But I had this period of time in my early 20s when I was in university and I went to the gym and I did, I lift, I did resistance training, I lifted weights, and then I totally moved away from it. I don't know why. Like, I don't know why. I would love to go back and ask myself why. I just don't know why. It just kind of faded out of my life and I started doing more yoga. And yoga is great, but it's great for, you know, flexibility, stretching everything. But I wish I had just kept up the resistance training because I would be so much further ahead where I am now. And I've managed to make a lot of progress in the last four years when I really recommitted to it. But now that I know everything that I do about it, I wish that I had been, well, it's two things actually, prioritizing protein and doing resistance training from that time on. I mean, I would be so ripped and jacked now. Like, it would be awesome. I wish I could go back and, you know, it would just be so amazing for my metabolic health to have built up all that muscle and get all the benefits from exercise, all the autophagy. You know, I mean, I would have been really hot all the time. But yeah, that's probably my biggest regret in, yeah, just in life in general. What about you?
Melanie Avalon:
So, I'm really similar to you in that I don't like to live in a regrets-based mindset. I like to see everything as learning experiences and even really hard situations I went through. I always saw them as challenges and knew that I would grow and learn and good things would come from them. And I really like that mindset. And at the same time, I guess if I could change something kind of similar, I wish that I had done growing up. I wish I had done more musical theater, I wish I had pursued that more. And I wish that I had done dancing. I think I would have had a better, I think I would feel more comfortable in my body. I feel like now I'm making up for lost time. It's like I just recently discovered how fun dancing is at weddings and parties and Taylor Swift parties. And yeah, I wish I had done dancing more. And I wish I had appreciated growing up similar to you, Vanessa. Not the exercise per se, but on the diet side of things. I went through such a period of time in high school and middle school when I was haunted by skin issues and trying to lose weight and all those things. And I wish I just realized the power of food quality choices rather than dieting and calorie counting. And I just wish I had realized the profound effect that the food choices have in your body, which I didn't realize. I didn't realize that until I read Rob Wolf's book after graduating college. I was doing actually fasting and low carb before I really appreciated the whole foods type aspect. But yeah, the good thing is every day is a new day. You can always, always do new things and have no regrets. So awesome. Anything else from you, Vanessa, before we go?
Vanessa Spina:
Yeah, I'm not surprised we have similar. Yeah, not the the musical theater one though. I'm it's it was interesting to hear that and I'm sure if you you know think hard enough there's definitely things you can regret but I definitely feel like you that you know everything is a learning experience it makes you ready for the next thing. Yeah, I love that you share that mindset but I had so much fun with you on the episode and I love the questions that we got to answer so thank you to everyone for sending in your brilliant questions and we really appreciate everyone who takes the time to do that and I'm looking forward to the next episode.
Melanie Avalon:
Likewise, I feel the same. I echo all of it back to you. Thank you so much to the listeners for the questions. If you would like to submit your own questions, you can directly email questions at ifpodcast.com or you can go to ifpodcast.com and you can submit questions there. And the show notes will be at ifpodcast.com/episode396. Those show notes will have a full transcript as well as links to everything that we talked about. So definitely check that out. And you can follow us on Instagram. We are I a podcast. I am @MelanieAvalon. Vanessa is @ketogenicgirl. I think that's all the things. Anything from you, Vanessa, before we go?
Vanessa Spina:
I had such a wonderful time and hope that you have a great rest of your day. Thanks to all our listeners. You too. I will talk to you next week. Sounds great. Talk to you then. Bye. Bye.
Melanie Avalon:
Thank you so much for listening to the Intermittent Fasting Podcast. Please remember, everything we discussed on this show does not constitute medical advice and no patient-doctor relationship is formed. If you enjoyed the show, please consider writing a review on iTunes. We couldn't do this without our amazing team. Editing by Podcast Doctors, show notes and artwork by Brianna Joyner, and original theme composed by Leland Cox and recomposed by Steve Saunders.
Check out the Stuff We Like page for links to any of the books/supplements/products etc. mentioned on the podcast that we like!
LINKS
BUY:
Melanie's What When Wine Diet: Lose Weight And Feel Great With Paleo-Style Meals, Intermittent Fasting, And Wine
Vanessa's Keto Essentials: 150 Ketogenic Recipes to Revitalize, Heal, and Shed Weight
The Tone Device Breath Ketone Analyzer
The Melanie Avalon Biohacking Podcast
More on Melanie: MelanieAvalon.com
More on Vanessa: ketogenicgirl.com
Original theme composed by Leland Cox and recomposed by Steve Saunders.
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