347: Algae: Ancient Superfood, Modern Miracle | Dr. Catharine Arnston
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Welcome to the Ancient Health Podcast, where East meets West in the world of medicine. I'm Dr. Chris Motley, and here we explore how modern Western science and traditional Eastern wisdom come together to unlock the body's full healing potential. Each week, we'll dive into powerful tools, techniques, and approaches from both sides of the world to help you optimize your health and live with vitality. Let's bridge the gap between ancient practices and cutting-edge medicine. Let's get started.

Hello friends, welcome to the Ancient Health Podcast and I'm your host Dr. Chris Motley. And today we have a very special guest that's going to talk about a subject that I'm very interested in because in the office I work with a lot of patients that have different types of infections, heavy metal toxicities, different types of sludge in the body. And one of the biggest questions I get is how to remove them. And I am so thankful that Katherine Arnston is here to talk about this because I

I've been using a product here in the office and been testing with my patients, Energy Bits, and it is something that we're going to discuss about the power of algae. So, Catherine, thank you so much for joining us today. Well, thank you, Dr. Motley, and it's my pleasure because I've

spent 14 years, uh, and I'll tell you my story, how I got into algae. Cause I tell people I didn't pick algae, it picked me. Um, I'm 14 years into almost 15 years into the science, researching the nutritional and healing properties of algae. And I'm even more stunned by it now than I was 14, 15 years ago. Um, and just to let you know, um,

I went down this rabbit hole of science and learning about molecular biology and macrobiology. And I didn't come from a science background. I was pretty much self-taught. I was calling myself a citizen scientist.

But then I thought, you know, I love this, but I want people to feel more comfortable with me and my knowledge. So I, about a month ago, I graduated with my PhD in natural health. So, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. The exams were pretty rough, but I passed, so that's okay. So now it was really for my own knowledge to button up what I knew or thought I knew and to give people confidence in whatever I'm telling you. I do come from now a classic science background.

I love it. I love it. And I one of the things I love reading about your bio and for the people out there listening, like we want to know more about you, like coming from a classic science background. I think I ask all my guests on the podcast like you can you can tell that everybody's on here usually has a really big passion, not a really a very big passion about what they do.

Um, and, and again, like you, you've gotten your PhD, but what charged you into this, this direction? What made you go into, to learn about this type of thing? I know algae. I mean, who, you certainly don't wake up as a five-year-old going, I want to be a specialist in algae. So, um, well, I'm Canadian by birth. I've lived in Boston, Massachusetts, uh, for 35 years, although we recently set up an office here in Miami. Uh, today is our first day in the office. So, uh, I'm not,

organized but I mentioned the Canadian part because my family's still in Canada and I only have two sisters still alive and I'm very close to them um

And 15 years ago, 16 years ago, my younger sister was diagnosed with breast cancer. First of all, I want everyone to know that she did completely heal, so that's the best news of all. But as she was preparing for her chemotherapy, her oncologist in Canada, who happened to be a female, and I mentioned that with due respect that women, with the exception of yourself, Dr. Motley, women tend to be a little bit more open to nutritional interventions.

So I mention this because as my sister was getting ready for chemotherapy, her oncologist told her to change her diet to an alkaline diet. They didn't tell her what it was or what specifically it did. So my sister called me, not that I knew anything about nutrition. I had an MBA. I was doing international business and had a corporate career. But I love my sister and I can find out anything. So I said, I'll figure it out. Don't worry. And I did. And it turned out to be a plant-based diet.

for two reasons. One, plants have chlorophyll and phytonutrients that have been proven to build your immune system. And when you do chemotherapy, really, you know, your immune system takes a beating. So she wanted her to have a strong immune system. Number two, I found out, and I'm sure my sister's oncologist knew this, and I want to share this with everyone. There was a German scientist back in the 40s by the name of Otto Warburg, and he won a Nobel Prize for discovering that cancer is

cannot exist in cells that are slightly alkaline.

And so having an alkaline diet would certainly move her into that higher alkalinity. So I just have to assume that's why she wanted her to have an alkaline diet. And I have some pretty powerful knowledge to talk to you about regarding this cancer and alkalinity thing later on. So she changed her diet. She went through chemo, completely healed. I learned about plant-based nutrition because that was what had been recommended. I thought it was pretty powerful in the knowledge. I gave up my 25-year corporate career

Because I thought somebody needs to tell the world about this stuff. I went to the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. I got a health coaching certificate, which taught me a little bit about nutrition. And I went to companies, hospitals, and I gave my own, I put my own curriculum together, teaching people, excuse me, plant-based nutrition.

And this is what truly led me to algae because as I was giving these lectures, and I'm sure you run into this as well, Dr. Motley, people were saying, well, I know I should eat more vegetables, but they're too heavy to carry home for the grocery store. They give me gas. They go bad. My kids won't eat them. My husband won't eat them. Blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay. I have to find a way to get the nutrition of vegetables into people.

In a way that's effortless doesn't give them gas doesn't cause problems And I looked at everything i'd found for my sister and when I got to algae

That's when the miracle happened. First of all, algae, spirulina, and chlorella is what we're going to talk about today, are the most alkaline food in the world. Turns out they're considered also the most nutrient-dense food in the world. We have a quote from NASA that says, one gram of algae has the same nutrition as 1,000 grams of fruits and vegetables. Wow. 1,000. United Nations has endorsed spirulina algae as the answer to world hunger since 1974. That's 50 years ago. Why? Why?

because it has three times the amount of protein as steak. There is nothing in the world with more protein than spirulina. So it's alkaline, nutrient-dense, endorsed by international agencies. It's been grown as a food crop in Asia for 60 years. The other thing you need to know, algae is not a supplement. We sell them internationally.

in tablet form. We're going to talk about that. Algae is grown in Asia. 99% of it's grown in Asia in farms. And then we dry it and press it into tablets. So it's a food, whole food, not a supplement. And then it's also been studied. There are 100%

1,000 scientific studies documenting the health benefits, we're going to talk about some of them today, of spirulina and chlorella. But the best part of all is that when we grow it in these farms, that we air dry it without high heat, into these little tiny tablets, all right? Look how tiny they are. They're about the size of a baby aspirin. Every single tablet like that has the same nutrition as an entire plate of vegetables.

Now, if you can swallow water, you can get the nutrition that you need in seconds. You, your children, your husband, your kids, your pets, your grandparents, your teenagers. We'll talk about dosage, but adults, we recommend 10 spirulina, which we call energy bits in the morning for nourishment.

Mitochondria health, mental health, energy. It's great. I mean, like when you talk about like having the personal story about your sister and going through it, teaching people, like I didn't know, like I wrote that down. When I'm writing stuff down here, Catherine, I just want to make sure like, you know, like I try to write down these facts about how you...

Like, literally, spirulina has, like, higher proteins than most of sources... Any sources out there. Any source. Like... Chicken, fish, any source. Any sources. And I love that with the energy bits because I tried them about three years ago and I thought I was so impressed about, like, the actual pump and the power that you get. Like, the energy that you actually get. And I really mean that, everybody. Like, I have...

was having those days where I would literally, and I still do, working patients throughout the day, almost till like six, seven o'clock at night. And then when it comes around one or two o'clock, popping some of those in my mouth and then literally feeling like your body feeling nourished. Yeah. And I didn't know that about necessarily, I didn't know that about the proteins. Now, some people out there when they ask, you know, with the energy bits, this is my question, like chlorella, spirulina, chlorophyll,

Some people ask, like, what's the difference? Because, I mean, like with algae, I mean, that's a big question I get. And I'm not the expert in it. What's the difference between all those forms? Yes, it's a great question. So first of all, algae was the first life on Earth. Spirulina was the first life on Earth. And spirulina, as you're going to find out,

is not even a plant. It's a bacteria. It does not have a cellulose wall. And we'll circle back to that in a minute because it's a cyanobacteria, which was the beginning of life and which became our mitochondria. I know I'm jumping ahead, but I'll tell you more about that. So algae falls into its own food category.

And there's two main types. One is called macroalgae and one is called microalgae. Okay. Macroalgae is that stringy stuff you wash up on, washes up on shore, also known as seaweed. It's called seaweed because it's only from the sea. Okay. And it has, it's good for you because it has lots of fiber, but it, and it has iodine because it's from the sea.

And there's only a few strains of it, but it has virtually zero nutrition. If you've ever gone to the grocery store and you buy it, I used to buy those big bags of kelp noodles. Yeah. There would be five calories in an entire bag because there's virtually no nutrition. High fiber, no nutrition. That's macroalgae, also known as seaweed, dulse, or kelp. Okay. We're talking about microalgae today. And it's called microalgae because it's microscopic in size.

You cannot see this with your eye. You could get a million microalgae on the head of a pin. That's how tiny they are. And that's why... Yep. That's why they're so nutrient dense because when you consolidate all of those little cells into something like this, this is where all the nutrients come from. Now, microalgae...

It's everywhere. Macroalgae is only in the seaweed. Microalgae is in the lakes, the rivers, the streams, your aquarium, your swimming pool, the soil. And we grow it, as I mentioned, in fresh water, which I forgot to mention.

as a cultural crop. So it's everywhere. Number two, it either has zero fiber or virtually no fiber. Spirulina has zero fiber. This is why you can give it to newborns in water and they will help them grow and it will not give anybody digestive distress because there's no fiber and it gets absorbed insulated because there's no fiber.

So it's no fiber, but here's the best part. The highest nutrient density in the universe. So it's completely opposite to macroalgae. Macroalgae is seaweed, only in the sea, high fiber, no nutrition. Okay. Microalgae everywhere.

Tens of thousands of strains. The most virtually no or no are very little. Chlorella does have fiber. It does belong to the plant kingdom. And the most nutrient dense food in the entire universe. Now, within microalgae, there are tens...

of thousands of strains. Macroalgae, just a few. Microalgae, tens of thousands. The two that are best known are spirulina and chlorella. And spirulina is one strain of blue-green algae, and chlorella is one strain of green algae. But when you hear about a blue-green algae closing your favorite beach, we're not talking about spirulina. It's just another family member. And poor

Poor old algae gets the bum rap because you know why the algae shows up and closes your beach? Because there are toxins and bacteria in the water. Algae is the cleanup crew. It does the same in your body, but it kills bacteria and absorbs toxins. So you still want to stay away from that blue-green algae bloom, but it's not the bad guy. The bad guy were the toxins and the bacteria that you couldn't see. You can see the algae. So poor algae gets the bum rap.

So blue-green algae is one strain. Green algae is another strain, and there's a red strain. But the two that everybody knows are spirulina, which is a blue-green, and chlorella, which is a green. And those are the two that are harvested as food crops. They are multi-billion-dollar agricultural crops.

Billion. They're almost as big as the beef industry is here. But you don't know about it because they're not growing here. Although I certainly have plans to do so. Now let's address the chlorophyll issue that you asked me.

algae has 25 times more chlorophyll than liquid chlorophyll it adds on 500 times more chlorophyll than arugula there is nothing in the world with more chlorophyll than chlorella this is why it's called chlorella because of the chlorophyll so i'm happy that people are taking chlorophyll water

But you can up your game instantly by taking algae because it has 25 times more of the chlorophyll water. By the way, chlorophyll water is just chlorophyll. Algae has the higher chlorophyll plus chlorophyll.

the highest protein in the world, plus 40 vitamins and minerals. And it does amazing things as nutrients that aren't found anywhere else. And just to help you understand this, this is the spirulina. I put it in a bowl or a plate and added water. And so spirulina has two pigments in it. A blue one that you've probably never heard of before. And it's very, very important. I'm going to talk about it today. It's called phycocyanin.

It doesn't exist anywhere else in nature, only in spirulina. Now, when I put it – and you could do this at home. It's kind of a fun experiment. Can you push it? Just real quick, Catherine, just a little bit over towards – yeah. Okay, got it, got it, got it. There it is. There it is. There you go. So if you put a couple of tablets in water and then packed it down, this is the beautiful blue pigment that comes out of the spirulina called phycocyanin.

Spirulina also has chlorophyll. So it has two pigments, phycocyanin, the blue one, and the green one, chlorophyll.

Over here, we had just the chlorella, which we call recovery bits. And when I did the same thing for it, the only green comes out because it only has chlorophyll. But the other thing I want you to notice is look at how the chlorophyll clumps. And over here, the beautiful blue pigment is dispersed evenly through the water.

I did this many times. I couldn't figure out what was going on. And then I went online and I found out the blue pigment in sterlina is a water-based pigment. This is why you're going to learn how this pigment heals your blood vessels, your lymphatics, anything that's water-based. Chlorella, which is only chlorophyll as the pigment, turns out

chlorophyll is a fat-based pigment. So it doesn't mix with water. That's why it's clumpy. Why is that important to know? Because chlorophyll heals your cell walls, which are made of lipids, as much as

an omega-3 or a vitamin A or a D3. So when you are eating, well, and you know, unfortunately our vegetables, our soils are so damaged, there's no chlorophyll or nutrients in any of our vegetables. But if you take algae, especially the chlorella, which is the highest chlorophyll in the world,

you are not only nourishing your body, pulling out toxins, doing all sorts of great stuff that we're going to talk about today, you are also healing that lipid cell wall. And you need that cell wall to be healthy so that nutrients can get in and toxins can get out. And chlorophyll, because it's fat-based, does that.

Wow. So the chlorophyll is almost like fat soluble in the sense, and then the blue color, the phytocyanin in that color, you said it actually goes in and heals up the blood cells, the blood vessels. Is that correct? Well, a couple that I'm gunning ahead of myself, but that blue phytocyanin, I have science and I'm going to walk you through. It does some powerful things, particularly related to cancer.

All science-based. I don't say anything I don't have an NIH PubMed article for. This blue phycocyanin, and I can walk you through the pathway and how it works, stops the growth of blood vessels to tumors. It's called anti-angiogenesis.

does it naturally. So that's one of the water-based activities that the blue has for your body. The other powerful thing, and this is even more powerful, is that it actually kills cancer cells. And we'll talk about this in the electron transport chain. There's a helper molecule called cytrome C. And in a healthy cell, that blue pigment

speeds up the helper cells so more electrons can move along in the electron transport chain and generate more ATP. This is one of the reasons why spirulina gives you energy, because it improves the efficacy of the electron transport chain. And I know it's geeky, but I'll cover what that is in a minute. And so the phycocyanin, when you take the blue spirulina, it has to be untreated by high heat because heat deactivates the phycocyanin.

In an healthy cell, you get more energy. In an unhealthy cell, the phycocyanin detects that it's unhealthy, which either is a senescent cell, which is a cell that's subdivided so much it can't do anything more, it just hangs out and it's inflammatory, or a cancer cell.

And what it does is it ejects that cytochrome C molecule, which causes something called capazes to be released, which causes something called apoptosis, which kills the cancer cell. So that was amazing. So it does what to the cytochrome C? What does it do? It ejects it. What? What?

This is why I call spirulina intelligent food. Because you want to be intelligent to take it. Two pigments do quite different things in your body. So anyways, both algae have very high protein, but spirulina...

protein has the highest. It's 64% protein. And in general, spirulina is known for having, giving you energy. Here's a little chart I want to show you about protein. So an animal protein, your body can't absorb protein. It has to break it down into something called amino acids. And an animal protein, the amino acids are all bound up. And it can take up to three days for your body to absorb that. Then you also have

peptide, you have collagen, which are in smaller clusters called peptides. They get absorbed faster. But in algae, all of the aminos are already in individual and there's 18 of the 20 aminos, including the nine your body can't make. So it's very efficient protein. So it could take three days for all of this to be broken down. And most of us don't have all the

and cofactors that allow us to absorb them. So sometimes you might eat 30 grams of protein, which is what size of a chicken or fist, and you only get 10%. So if you add 50% grams of protein, you only absorb 10%. That's five grams of protein. But with spirulina, because it has no cellulose wall, so it's all bioavailable within seconds if you chew it, minutes if you swallow it,

30 tablets gives you 5 grams of protein and you get 5 grams of aminos. So it's a very efficient protein, very bioavailable and quickly absorbed. So this is one of the reasons why spirulina is so great. Your body needs proteins, not just for your muscles and for your brain, for your cells, but they're folded proteins that affect your DNA. And so you need protein for everything.

I'll swing back in a minute to talk more about the spirulina benefits. But while we're talking about the two nutrients, protein and chlorophyll, I want to show you this. This is a chart.

That shows you the chemical composition of chlorophyll and the chemical composition of your hemoglobin. That's your red blood cells. Notice that they're virtually identical. That's because they are. So chlorophyll, in addition to having that great fat-based capability of healing and building your lipid cell wall, it builds your blood.

They're virtually identical. And chlorophyll has been used for centuries for healing purposes, particularly when people have injuries or surgeries. And even as recently as World War II, because they would heal just as fast as if they'd had a blood transfusion. Amazing, right? Except there's no chlorophyll in our food anymore. So you're losing all those benefits. So

Chlorella has the, that's one of the reasons why it's a wellness algae. Now I'll get into the difference between the two algae. Sterlina is a nourishing, energizing algae and chlorella, which we call recovery bits, is a wellness detox recovery algae because of all the different things that it does.

Now, sterling is known as an energizing algae, but it's not energy like you think. We all associate energy with sugar, coffee, chemicals. Those things are stimulants and you get a rush of energy and a crash. It's like putting paper on a fire.

But with spirulina, it's not that type of energy. This generates energy at the cellular level. It generates what's called ATP. That's the format that your cells can absorb energy. Think of ATP, cellular energy, as electricity. It keeps the lights on in your body. So spirulina generates the energy at the cellular level. It's like putting a log on the fire.

quite different from a stimulant that is like putting paper on a fire. So this is slow and steady, no drama. That's why it's so great for nourishing you in the morning. So in the afternoon, you have that slump. Athletes love it to fuel their workout, their gain. Mothers love it for their kids. I love it. I was going to say like with people out there when they, I was going to ask you this and don't forget your thought. I just want to keep going. But

So when you're taking spirulina and you're wondering about having the day where you crash and you can take some to where you have a slow, steady build, you're saying like even like I know you're probably going to get to this part, but the mitochondria, like you're literally saying like the spirulina actually has components in it that actually helps the covering of like the mitochondria to be able to produce.

produce ATP, like it actually has physically helped change it. Correct. Okay. It improves the ATP and it improves the mitochondria so they are not damaged, which allows them also to multiply again. Yes.

So it's, and there's other nutrients in there. The main one we're going to talk about is this thing called superoxide dismutase, which is an antioxidant. But one of the things you need to know why it works so well is it affects the mitochondria instantly. Your body can't store ATP, just like it can't store vitamin C.

So whatever is being produced, that nanosecond is used, that nanosecond. This is why it doesn't take long to feel the benefits. And your brain has the most mitochondria. There's 2 million mitochondria per cell in your brain. Think about that. 2.

million mitochondria per cell in your brain. So your brain is the first thing that gets better focus, uh, activity, neuropath, neuropathways from healing your mitochondria. And you could do it effortlessly with spirulina. And I'll tell you why and how. So, uh, so it also gives you energy because it has all the B vitamins, which are used to convert

the protein into energy. It's loaded with iron that carries oxygen in your bloodstream in that red hemoglobin. So it gives you energy through multiple ways, but the most important thing is this ability to generate more ATP in the electron transport chain and heal the mitochondria. Let's face it, life can be stressful.

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and most of it's through this antioxidant called superoxidism. I'll get into that in a minute. So spirulina is nourishing zero carbs. So if you're intermittent fasting, I do intermittent fasting every day. It does not interfere with your fast because there's zero carbs and there's

Again, only 30 tablets have only 5 grams of protein. And Dr. Minnie Peltz and other intermittent fasting, Dr. Fung, experts have said as long as you keep your protein under, I think, 5 or 10 grams, again, you'll be okay and you won't be breaking your fast. So it's ketogenic, great for intermittent fasting. You can take, adults can take 10 in the morning.

Take up to 30. We have our NHL players, NHL players. They take 75 before a hockey game. We work with the Detroit Red Wings, lots of other NHL teams because on the ice, they need lots of focus and lots of speed. So this gives it to them. And then after the game, and we'll talk about this next, they put 75 chlorella in their smoothie because chlorella is, I'll swing over now. It's a wellness algae, but it also pulls out toxins from,

including lactic acid. So the athletes take this as a recovery food for their muscles. And while we're talking about muscles, as I mentioned, your brain has the most, it's a muscle, has the most mitochondria. The second highest is in women's eggs. The third highest, and that's about 80,000 per cell, 800,000,

The next is your heart. That's about 8,000. And then it's your muscles. Your muscles have 5,000 mitochondria per cell. So anybody who's in sports, you need to be taking these to protect your mitochondria because that will ensure that you can also help protect your muscles. You have to do other things like weight-bearing activities, but this is a nutritional way to support them.

So spirulina, nourishing, energizing. If you're on GLP-1, please take spirulina because you are not eating and so you are not being nourished and you are not getting protein. And one of the first things that go when you're losing weight is your muscle.

So please be taking this. You should be taking probably 30 a day. That's our therapeutic dose. 10 is just for filling nutritional gaps and keeping your boat afloat. Because when you are unhealthy and you're trying to correct a condition, it's like having a boat with holes in it.

So you want to fill those holes and that's with spirulina and 30 would be more of a therapeutic dose. You could take it for breakfast, lunch, dinner. At 30 could be lunch, one calorie per tablet. So it keeps you under a very low caloric intake. If you've had any stomach corrections like stomach stapling, we work with a lot of gastric bypass doctors because their patients can't eat enough food to be nourished enough

These are so tiny. Remember the size of a baby aspirin? And each one, there's a whole plate of vegetables. I have another plate of vegetables while I'm talking to you. How easy is that? Do you put them like when the NHL players, let's say somebody's out there going to go into their full day and they can't just chew down on them. So you're saying they could put it in their smoothie if they wanted to take a handful. I love the fact that you said like five grams would equal five grams because of the way that

the peptides or the amino acids are not really bonded to where they're available. So what you're saying is that is if somebody's out there and they're like, if I go ahead and get this, it's already available. Like my cells are ready to absorb it and ready to eat it up. And then they can just throw a whole handful into a smoothie, grind it up if they want to and eat it that way. Absolutely. And I love them with sea salt. The chlorella tastes delicious with pistachio nuts or macadamia nuts or any trail mix or slices of fruit. But,

And kids like to eat them, quite honestly, because why? Turns their tongue green. They think it's hilarious.

So if you turn it into a game for your children, they will do it. They don't taste bad. They just taste like a flat green flavor. The chlorella tea is better. I will admit most people do swallow the spirulina because it has so much protein. I forgot to mention the essential fatty acids. It's got GLA, omega-3. So it's really chewy and sticks a bit to your teeth. Some people don't like that.

But honestly, it gets into your bloodstream faster because it goes sublinkally through your mouth. So within seconds, literally seconds, minutes if you swallow it, because it has no cellulose wall. But you can grind it up and put it in the smoothie if you still don't like the flavor. And I will admit most people don't. But the chlorella tastes more like a sunflower seed. It's real and it's not a chewing gum.

I mix it with something like a salt and vinegar flavor pistachio nut from a brand called Wonderful. It's my favorite combination. Oh, by the way, I mentioned keto and no carbs. But here's the other great thing. If anyone's listening who's a carnivore,

These are for you too, because a lot of people go carnivore because lectins and oxalates have caused stomach lining difficulties because lectins or oxalates are pointy proteins that can impact, puncture your stomach lining. And they're in a lot of plants like kale and spinach. Well, the plants develop lectins and oxalates differently.

To protect themselves because they do the same thing for bugs and animals. They want to protect themselves from predators. But algae is not a land plant. It started in the ocean. No lettuce oxalates. It didn't have to protect itself from predators. So if you're a carnivore, we want you to get the chlorophyll for sure. And I do want you to be benefiting from this antioxidant. We're going to talk about superoxidismutase that's in the highest concentration of spirulina.

Because you're going to have a sleet of health issues that everybody else does after the age of 40. That's what I was going to say. After the age of 40, and I know you're going to go into this, I think that everybody out there in our particular age groups, we're getting to an age where our oomph and our desire is not as strong as it used to be. And so you're saying, I know you're going to go through the science, but I'm asking on the cells, because I always thought about the cell, and correct me, Catherine, Doc, I always think about hot potato.

And you are like playing a game of hot potato because our cells all day are like literally trying to create energy, trying to create ATP. And our body is passing electrons across our cell membranes to try to actually create

It's trying to use different components along that membrane to push electrons through, back and forth through the membrane to create energy to make ATP. Right. So you're saying, like, when you take the spirulina, like, you're getting the body of the components to go ahead and just ramp that up, like, after 40 even. What's, like...

Are you creating everybody? Yeah, it's even more complicated. And I will get to that. First, I'm just going to finish up with chlorophyll, chlorella does, because we know that this is nourishing, energizing, great for brain health. So I think, you know, we all know that fatty fish are considered brain food, and it's because of the omega-3. And I tell people, where do you think the fish got the omega-3 from? They got it from algae. So we'll lean that.

And also, by the way, a lot of fish oil will be rancid by the time you buy it. So think of sterolina nolla as energizing, but as brain food. Brain food. Your brain has the most mitochondria. And you're going to find out. You'll be amazed when I tell you what this stuff does. It heals your mitochondria so your brain works better. Now, chlorella...

is a wellness detoxing algae. And it does that from a couple of things. We talked a little bit about chlorophyll. Chlorophyll kills bacteria naturally. And if you chew it, you'll kill the bacteria in your mouth, which will be good for you. It kills it in your colon. It kills it everywhere. Chlorophyll, as we already mentioned, also heals your cell walls. So that's really good. And it does have a hard cellulose fiber wall. That hard cell wall is the hardest cell wall in the plant kingdom.

And why is that important? Two things. That our cell wall attaches to toxins, lead, mercury, radiation, aluminum, pesticides, glyphosate, everything, and pulls them out. So it's very, very, alcohol, lactic acid. Now, for wellness benefits, 10 tablets a day is sufficient. Say like for nourishment, 10 to fill in nourishment gaps, 10 of spirulina is sufficient.

But, excuse me, for detox purposes, you need the full 30. Otherwise, it will not hold on to the toxins and pull them out.

So you do need to have the full 30. Now, the other amazing thing about chlorella is that that cell wall has fiber in it. And your gut and bile needs fiber to be able to grow the healthy bacteria and create something called short-chain fatty acids, which is very healing. So very healing to your gut. It also has triptophan in the world, which is a precursor to melatonin.

which helps you sleep. So this will help you get into a deep sleep. Won't make you sleepy, but it'll help you get there. It stimulates what's called peristalsis, also known as a bowel movement, because getting nourished is one part of the equation of being healthy. Getting rid of what I call the junk in your truck is another part of the equation. And I tell you, everybody is constipated and nobody is talking about it. And the more the people say it,

If you're traveling, if you eat dairy, if you're eating carbs, if you're not moving, if you're not drinking enough water, if you're stressed, I can promise you, you are constipated. This fills the gap. This is a beautiful thing. You wake up, it's effortless. You have a nice little happy trip to the bathroom.

Well, Lena does not do that. Only chlorella. And it's a combination of the higher chlorophyll and some of these other nutrients. So very much a wellness detoxing allergy. And we encourage people, you can take it any time of day, but take it before bed because your body goes through a detox repair cycle when you're sleeping.

So this will get rid of the aluminum in your brain, will pull out all the glyphosate in your bloodstream from the day and stimulate the junk in your trunk. If you don't get rid of the stuff sitting in your colon, that's stuff your body didn't want.

Right. And if it sits there, it's like having a garbage truck parked in front of your house permanently. Right. You don't want that. You want to get rid of that junk in your trunk, as I affectionately call it. So this is why spirulina is the morning algae. Afternoon, lunchtime, give you the energy focus. Again, steady energy. And then chlorella is the cleanup croute.

gets rid of stuff that you didn't want, your body didn't want, builds your immune system as all the nutrients your immune system needs. Because I think that, like, I think you hit a big point because a lot of the patients that come into the office, they're always asking me about, like, you know, heavy metal toxicities. They're talking about mercury and aluminum and fillings in their mouth. And one of the things that I've, over the years, is I would give them straight chlorophyll. And I remember...

At one point, Catherine, it was really interesting. I had a patient who was, like, into herbs, like, you know, years ago, years ago. And she had sent me a report with all the metal toxicities from hair analysis and such. Well, when she came in, the very first time, I was, like, from my some testing, I was, like, man, you do have quite a bit of testing, you know, like,

And then she came in the next time, which was a few weeks later, and it was hardly showing. And I was like, what in the world did you do? Yeah. And, you know, you learn more from your patients. Oh, totally. You totally learn from them, Doc. And you go, what in the world did you do? And she goes, oh, I took chlorella. Oh. And I went, and this is years ago. And I'm telling you, Doc, I was like, you took what? Like, I've heard of it. You know, I didn't really get into it. And I said, well, whatever you're doing, you keep doing. So from that point on.

Anytime somebody said, I said, I don't do a ton of this. That's why I love your product. It's because I say like, now I'm like, you need to get some chlorella and you need to go to town on it. And that's what I love the binding. And you see, you explained it so well. So it binds to this stuff and it can just literally help you poop. Cause you're right. We're in a world like, I can't believe how much we're,

functionally constipated. I'm sorry I'm looking over here. I'm not distracted from you. I have two screens, but I was looking at your pictures. I have them saved right here. It's like just the images of them that shows how they work. And I'm the first person in America to teach people what algae is and what it does on a healing property. Because they know it's a superfood, but

I call it a super duper food, actually, because of what I'm going to tell you next. And I think when you learn what I'm going to understand, what I'm going to tell you next, you'll you'll agree with me. And so circle back to why everyone's getting sick after the age of 40. That's what I want to know, too. Like, why? Why is that? Because I think that like most people would get to a point. And I think everybody that's listening out there is going to go, yeah, when I hit thirty five, thirty seven, Doc.

things just started to fall apart. Why is that? Yeah. And, oh,

I'll tell you, I'm 68. Okay. I am no spring chicken and I have taken algae every day for 15 years. I take no medications. I take no other supplements. I sleep well. I poop well. I run well. I run a company. I just got my PhD. So my brain is obviously working. So I want to be the poster child to tell people,

Aging is natural. Declining is not. And we need to change the discussion around that. But you haven't had a solution to help you age well. And I have it for you. And it's going to be spirulina and chloral algae. So I'll tell you why you're getting sick of 40, and then I'll go through the detail about why algae is the solution. So...

When we're born, Mother Nature is so intelligent. She gives us everything we need. First, it's mother's breast milk. By the way, the nutrients in spirulina are almost identical to mother's breast milk, but that's another story. And we have things like melatonin that help us sleep and hormones that help us grow.

And there's this one particular antioxidant that you've probably never heard of before called superoxidismutase. But it's part of the mix that your body was given from the moment you're born. But all of these things, the hormones, the melatonin, the superoxidismutase,

start to slow down in production at 30. And by the time you're 40, there's virtually none. Things start slowing down at 30 and certainly at 40. And that's exactly when all the chronic disease hits after 40. And my theory is the main reason is because of this.

lack of this antioxidant called superoxidizumatease, also known as SOD, because what does it do? It protects your mitochondria from damage and your body makes it for you from the moment you're born until 30 and by the time you're 40, you have not. So I'm going to show you how that works, but

Think of superoxidismetase. So what does superoxidismetase do? It turns free radicals into harmless water and oxygen. And free radicals are a natural byproduct of this process we're going to talk about next called ATP, which is cellular energy. It's a byproduct. You

You want ATP because that's what fuels your body. That's the electricity for your body. But a byproduct are free radicals. Now, the good news is, as I said, your body makes this stuff called superoxygenase, which acts like a big golf umbrella. So the rain of free radicals are always there. But what it does is it protects the mitochondria and basically bounces them off by turning them into water and oxygen.

By the time you're 30, that production of that superoxygenase or your big golf umbrella, it's smaller. There's less of it. It's like a city totes umbrella. So you might call them you're kind of taking hits every once in a while, but a few free radicals comes through. And then by the time you're 40, you're

That golf umbrella is gone. It's about the size of a cocktail umbrella. Now, remember the free radicals always were occurring, but now your mitochondria are being bombarded and they are dying and mutating and now they can't produce energy. But let me give you a little science lesson to help you understand all this. So in your cell, okay, you have your nucleus and these little peanut shaped things are your mitochondria. And remember,

two million of these per cell in your brain crazy right now inside the mitochondria this is where all the action happens notice by the way and you wouldn't know this but your mitochondria are the only cell in your body with two membranes it has a lipid membrane like all of your cells and has an inner membrane that is left over from when it was a single cell and i'll tell you more about that there

The importance about that inner membrane is twofold. One is that's where the energy is created, but two, your traditional antioxidants can't get in there. Vitamin C, vitamin E, nothing.

The good news is all of the antioxidants in algae can. It's like getting a VIP pass. So everything that's in all the antioxidants like this one, glutathione, subroxy, can get in there. And why is that important? Because your mitochondria are where the ATP is produced and your mitochondria have their own DNA. Right.

There's only 37 compared to the 50,000 or whatever, 22,000 in nucleus. But those 37 control everything. They control the regular DNA. They control everything. So when they get, they are exactly where the free radicals are. So they are being damaged completely.

every nanosecond if there is not sufficient superoxidismutase to protect them. But I do want to let you know that, and I'll go a little bit into the blue pigment again, the cancer-killing properties. The superoxidismutase that I just talked about, which is so important for your mitochondria, and it's also in the chlorella, but it's in the highest concentration of spirulina. It's also an enzyme. And the reason why that's important is because enzymes are deactivated by high heat.

And the problem is virtually all the other algae companies that are lower price, lower quality, they have to get to market quickly. And so what do they do to cut quarters? They use high heat to dry their algae so they can get it out there faster. We have never used high heat. So you can't, you will not get these benefits from just any spirulina or chlorella. It has to be algae that has not been heated with high heat. Now you can also get these benefits

from raw or frozen spirulina. And there are healing institutes like the Hippocrates Institute in Florida that work with cancer patients and they have about a 95% healing rate, even with stage four. And what do they do? They give them fresh,

spirulina every single day. They also have red light and massage and, you know, other healing properties, but they give them fresh spirulina every day. And I know for sure, part of the reason is because of this superoxidismetase that builds their mitochondria up. And also this blue phycocyanin, I'm going to talk to more detail now, that kills cancer cells. And it also is deactivated by high heat. So you can't just

go to Target and think you're going to get all these extra benefits because if you buy a lower quality algae, it's like buying a car with no engine. It looks good, doesn't perform. So we want people to get the most benefits and we've been doing this for 14 years. So it's not like I just changed my... Because I started the company to help people. I just wanted to help my sister get healthy. And then I thought, well, I can help with you more and then I can help with you more and

Before I know it, 15 years had gone by and I have a big company. So we're really doing our best to educate people and to help them be as healthy with something that's as safe and natural as possible. So I'm very, very proud of what we do. So that blue or sort of the superoxidizing taste, highest concentration of spirulina,

very, very important for your mitochondria health, particularly once you hit the age of 40. If you are 30, anytime after 30, you should be taking this every single day to protect what you've got. So you don't have to have that slippery slide down. It's okay. So let's talk about, I mentioned it earlier, the blue pigment.

which is called phycocyanin. And I'm going to show you, you spell it P-H-Y-C-O-C-Y-N-I-N. Does not exist anywhere else in nature, only in spirulina. And what I'm going to show you an experiment that illustrates this cancer killing ability. They took cancer cells, put them in a petri dish and dyed them purple.

Then they put phycocyanin in the Petri dish, and in 24 hours, they took some pictures. And within 24 hours, the cancer cells virtually were all gone. It's because the phycocyanin killed them. Now, I looked at how much phycocyanin was used in this experiment, and I found out one of our tablets has 4,000 times more phycocyanin than they used in that experiment. Wow.

So I'm going to walk you through again how it actually works, because here's the amazing thing. The chemotherapy companies already put Bicosinin into their chemotherapy treatments.

and because they know it works. They know it kills cancer cells. And how does it work again? So here's the little more simplified model of those molecules where the electron, the electron, it's the electron transport chain. The electrons are being passed from one to another. And here's that little helper molecule that I talked about, cytochrome C. Now in a healthy cell,

The phycocyanin, the blue pigment, recognizes that it's a healthy cell and it speeds up that cytochrome C helper molecule. It's like having a Tesla. Just speeds up the electrons so they can generate more energy. This is one of the reasons why spirulina gives you energy and why we call ours energy bits. However, in a senescent cell, which is basically a cell that's subdivided so much it can't do anything anymore, but it's

inflammatory or a cancer cell. The blue phycocyanin detects it's an unhealthy cell, ejects the cytochrome C molecule, which then triggers something called cap hazes, which triggers this process called apoptosis, which is cell death. Now, normally apoptosis is a good thing. It's like your cells, they've been working hard for you. They've done a good job, but they know, hey, it's

Time to go. It's like someone who's been at a job for 50 years. Time to retire. So what they do is they give all their projects to all the newbies, say, here's my leads, here's my great tips, like good luck, and they leave. That's the best way for someone to leave a scene where they are no longer needed.

And there's no inflammation. And that's called apoptosis because the cell goes, oh, I've done enough. And then it formed little minis of me. They're called bleeds. There's no inflammation and all the nucleuses, all the mitochondria are shared and life goes on. But in an unhealthy cell, in a cancer cell, it doesn't know it's sick.

And cancer cells cannot go through this process called apoptosis because they don't have communication. They don't have that ability. So the ejection of this cytochrome C molecule triggers that apoptosis. And the chemotherapy companies know that their treatment is working. How? They measure how much cytochrome C is in your bloodstream or your plasma. Okay.

And if there's a lot, they know that the cancer cells have been killed because that's what happens.

That's amazing.

and Alzheimer's and inflammation. So heart disease is the number one killer. Superoxidase can help prevent that. Cancer is number two. Ficosine is proven to help prevent that. There's like 95% of our chronic diseases that are killing us.

With food. You could prevent this with food, right? Oh, I love it. I love it, Doc. This has been so good. I'm telling you, it's like knowing that like whenever your body can actually take something that I say, like it's ancient, but it's also like just the most profound, like scientific movements within your cells. And everybody out there, I really mean this from the bottom of my heart, it's like,

please get you some energy bits. And I don't say that lightly. I'm working all day and with patients. I know Dr. Kathleen is doing the same thing. It's like when you're working with people and you know, everybody out there is like, my brain's getting tired. You get a sustained energy boost and,

And you're actually feeding your cells. You see the evidence of how it helps with your antioxidants to help with antioxidant formations. And, you know, Doc, I'm very, very, very thankful that you explained this to me. Because there's, you know, the individuals out there, I myself am that kind of person that we just want simple. And, you know, you've made it easily understandable the way you've taught it. That what can we do just to help improve every part of our body? And you're showing that with the chlorella and the spirulina that we can actually increase immunity.

All aspects of our health. Yeah. And I know that one thing that I love about Energy Bits is that it's so quick and so easy. And I understand you have like a 20% off discount, right, for the ancient health community? Yes, absolutely. So no surprise that this discount code is ancienthealth.com.

All one word, no space between. And you can, if you just want to learn more about us or buy some, you can go to energybits.com and we sell it in large bags. The best value is the large bags. And I don't want people to have sticker shock when a large bag is normally $130, but with your 20% discount code, it brings it down to $104. Now, if you took 10 tablets a day,

which is what we recommend for your average person. If you're just filling nutritional gaps, want to protect yourself, that works out to a dollar a day. Your grocery bills will go down and your health will go up. I'd say that's a pretty good deal.

I love that. That was the best one. I love it. I've never said that before, but I, you know, I remember that one. First time. Yeah. Exactly. You're going to remember that one. We're going to put that on the front. Your cost goes down. Your, your health goes up. Yes, guys, I really go to energy bits.com and use that discount code ancient health. And we're going to have them in the show notes. We want all the information.

with Dr. Catherine here. Like we're going to have her information on the show notes. And doc, we wouldn't, we close out. We do want to know like, where can we see you personally? Like, I mean, in your company, do you have like on Instagram or. Oh yes. We're very active on Instagram. Very science-based. Our handle is at energy bets. Same with Facebook. I speak at conferences all over the country. Dave Asprey's of course, for years, the natural, natural, natural,

natural naturopath medicine conference. We're going to the A4M conference coming up in. I may be there. I may be there. So I'll see you. Oh, terrific. Oh, please come and see us. Yeah. So I do my best to get out there where I'm speaking on podcasts all the time. I will share with you. We'll send you the actual deck with all of these slides so people can learn even more at their leisure and see with yourself.

So, but the other thing I want to leave people with is that I know this is a lot of information that is new to you, but I want you to know algae isn't new. Remember, it's been here for 4 billion years.

But also think about it. 10 years ago, you probably didn't know about chia or matcha or kiwa or collagen or bone broth, especially bone broth. These are really important things that are ancestral and have been used by indigenous peoples for centuries. But you didn't know about them until someone told you about them. So I'm here to tell you about the power of algae, both nutritionally as well as for health prevention. It's not new, just new to you. So

Take a dive and see what you can find. Oh, Doc, thank you so much. This has been great. I mean, I've learned so much. I'm not kidding. I've been right. I have a whole page of notes.

just the fat solubility and the aspects of cellular health. And I think everybody out there, like, guys, please study more and read more. That's what we're here about. And we're so thankful that you came on here with us. I hope that we can have you on here again. If I had an A4M, if I do, I may have a booth set up there. Oh, sweet. We can go in person live. I'll message you. Yeah. If you're willing to, because I love this conversation. Of course. Absolutely. Yeah. I love nerding out. Everybody knows out there, I love ATP talk. So, yeah, I can go out.

at energy bits and, and Catherine, thank you so much, doc. We really appreciate it. It's been a pleasure. Uh, everybody out there get that 20% off discount. Okay. And, uh, from all of us here at the NHL podcast, we're so thankful, um, that you guys have joined us. And if you guys like this kind of information, please drop us a comment in the comment section. Remember to hit the bell to be reminded whenever a new episode drops and please subscribe. And if you know anybody else that needs some energy, please send them this podcast episode until the next time. Have a great day.

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