Episode 012 Rhonda Patrick

Summary

• Rhonda Patrick is a PhD who works with Dr. Bruce Ames, the 23rd most cited scientist in all fields between 1973 and 1984.
• She conducts clinical trials, has performed aging research at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, and did graduate research at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
• She focused on cancer, mitochondrial metabolism, and apoptosis.
• She was a professional jump roper as a child and was featured in the Guinness Book of World Records multiple times.
• She was a biochemistry/chemistry major at USD and worked at the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences for two years.
• She went to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital for six years and did research on mitochondrial metabolism and apoptosis.
• She wanted to apply scientific techniques to clinical research and look at what’s going on inside people’s bodies through the lens of their blood cells.
• Rhonda Patrick is interested in nutrition and micronutrients, which are essential minerals and vitamins needed for biochemical pathways in the body.
• Her mentor is the most cited scientist over a tenyear period in all fields.
• Micronutrient inadequacies can cause insidious damage that rears its head as age related diseases like cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, and diabetes.
• Magnesium and Vitamin K are two micronutrients that are often deficient in the population.
• Causes of deficiencies include not eating enough dark leafy greens, athletes sweating out more, and micronutrients being tied up in phytates.
• The triage theory suggests that during periods of starvation, the body rations micronutrients to proteins and enzymes essential for survival.
• Vitamin K is found in dark leafy greens and fermented foods like natto and kimchi.
• Rhonda Patrick recommends a daily smoothie consisting of kale, spinach, carrots, tomato, avocado, apple, banana, frozen berries, and almond milk.
• She also recommends avoiding refined carbohydrates and consuming a spectrum of colors.
• Rhonda Patrick is hesitant about supplementing with minerals, as it is important to get the right balance and not too much of one or the other.
• She recommends being aware of doses when supplementing with vitamins and minerals, as they can be beneficial to fill gaps in micronutrient deficiencies, but can be fuel for the fire for those with diseases like cancer.
• Folate deficiency can cause strand breaks in DNA, leading to cancer
• Cancer cells need DNA precursors to make more cells, so supplementing with folic acid can give cancer cells what they need to proliferate
• Metformin inhibits folic acid synthesis and can be used to starve cancer cells of glucose
• Having a good immune system is important to get rid of precancer cells
• IGF1 is a potent growth factor that can promote the growth and repair of skeletal muscle and cause neurogenesis in the brain
• IGF1 negatively regulates FOXO, which is involved in stress resistance, antioxidant genes, DNA repair, and degrading bad proteins
• Inactivating IGF1 can increase longevity in worms
• IGF1 is a growth factor that can be beneficial for muscle repair, muscle growth, and neurogenesis, but can be detrimental if there are precancerous cells present.
• Hormesis is a way to activate genes involved in stress resistance without overactivating IGF1.
• Hormetic responses include heat stress, exercise, green tea, curcumin, and red wine.
• Methylation is an epigenetic mark that can physically block transcription factors from activating a gene.
• Acetylation is another epigenetic mark that can affect gene expression.
• Autophagy is a cell eating or destroying itself, which is a healthy process.
• Methylation is the process of adding or removing methyl groups to genes to turn them on or off.
• Epigenetics is the spectrum of exterior and behavioral factors that can affect a person's genetics.
• Examples of epigenetics are methyl and acetyl groups, which can be affected by diet, exercise, stress, and inflammation.
• Epigenetics can be passed on to offspring through sperm and egg DNA.
• Rhonda Patrick has identified methylation patterns in blood cells that can accurately predict a person's age within four years.
• Males have methylation patterns that age 4% faster than females.
• Cancer cells have methylation patterns that age 40% faster than noncancerous cells.
• Rhonda Patrick believes there may be a genetic program for aging, and that inflammation may be a quantic signal that activates demethylases.
• Rhonda Patrick recently banked her own stem cells, and extracted dental pulp stem cells from her wisdom teeth.
• Studies have shown that dental pulp stem cells from humans can replace damaged motor neurons in mice, and regenerate bone in humans.
• Rhonda Patrick discussed banking teeth and stem cells.
• Companies like Stem Save and National Dental Pulp Laboratory offer kits to oral surgeons to cryopreserve teeth in liquid nitrogen.
• Shinya Yamanaka discovered four transcription factors that are required for a stem cell to be multipotent.
• Fibroblast cells can be reprogrammed with these four transcription factors to become multipotent stem cells.
• These reprogrammed stem cells can be derived from urine, which is noninvasive.
• Rhonda Patrick recommends banking stem cells from teeth, placenta, and cord blood as a way to potentially extend a healthful life span.
• She also recommends focusing on micronutrients as a lowhanging fruit for health and wellness.
• Rhonda suggests using a Vitamix to get a broad spectrum of micronutrients, as well as eating salads and cooked vegetables.
• She believes that biology is so complex that there are likely micronutrients that have yet to be discovered.
• Rhonda suggests that instead of focusing on what not to eat, people should start by adding in healthy foods such as 30 grams of protein within 30 minutes of waking up and a fistsized serving of greens on any plate.
• Tim Ferriss and Rhonda Patrick discuss the importance of giving the body what it needs to function properly.
• They discuss the importance of consuming enzymes, fibrous greens, and legumes to control glycemic response and prevent overeating.
• They also discuss the importance of gut health and how plants have a host of genes and proteins that act as insecticides and pesticides.
• They emphasize the importance of focusing on what the body needs rather than focusing on the bad things that may or may not be in food.
• People can find more about Rhonda Patrick and her work at foundmyfitness.com.