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I’m very excited to share this interview with Dr. Kahn a renowned cardiologist (seen on Dr. Phil and The Doctors tv series among other great accolaides). This is my second time having him on the podcast and you’re in for a treat!
What you put in your mouth affects your intimacy. (And I mean outside of the bedroom! 🙂
From libido to sexual response, our diet helps or hurts.
We also talk about COVID health and how the studies are showing there are specific things you can do to help your immune system (and of course be very focused on prevention).
On our last podcast I shared what I’m doing health-wise and how I think those things helped my health when fighting COVID — some of those things Dr. Kahn encouraged (and some of them he DIScouraged!)
I encourage you to listen in to discover what may be most helpful for your intimate-life and your overall health.
You can find more about Dr. Kahn’s work at drjoelkahn.com and be sure to check out some of his books: Vegan Sex, The Plant-Based Solution, and his newest one Lipoprotein(a): The Heart’s Quiet Killer
transcript
0:02
Welcome to the delight your marriage podcast. You’re joining me belah rose as I dive deep into the beauty, power and truth about intimacy, learn not only the practicals, but the heart behind what making love is all about. delight your marriage. Alright, welcome. Thank you so much for joining me. Now, if you listened to last week’s podcast, you know that my husband and I just are pretty much recovered from COVID 19 ourselves. And I did give my health journey on that podcast. And so what I wanted to do was invite a bonafide doctor to give us his advice, not just on COVID-19 stuff, which I think is super important, super helpful, but also sexual health. Because obviously, during this time, as I have talked about, that, while you’re in quarantine, this is the best time to get your sex life on track, you’ve got probably a lot more time business is probably slower, now is the best time to get your sex life in order. And so if you can kill two birds with one stone, which means get your sexual intimacy straightened out through health, as well as be fully prepared for your immune health in fighting off a potential contracting COVID-19, then that is, you know, the best of all worlds. So I want to introduce this wonderful Dr. Joel Khan. And this is actually his second time on the podcast. And he just has not only a great sense of humor, which is obviously important. But he’s got just amazing breadth of experience that he’s bringing to this conversation. Dr. Joel Kay Khan, MD, is a clinical professor of medicine at Wayne State University School of Medicine. He is known as America’s healthy heart doc. He is contributor to many online sites such as LinkedIn and thrive global, and has appeared several times on Dr. Phil and the doctors television shows. Dr. Khan founded the Khan center for cardiac longevity in suburban Detroit and owns greenspace and go in Royal Oak, Michigan. He’s also the author of a bunch of books. And I’ll just say a couple here that I think will pique your interest. There’s the plant based solution. Dead execs don’t get bonuses, vegan sex, and his newest one is lipoproteins A, the hearts quiet killer. So you can visit him at Dr. Joel khan.com. And that’s wonderful. Well, I am very excited to discuss not only sexual health, but also how to make your body as healthy as possible in these difficult times. So without further ado, let’s go ahead and dive in.
3:16
Welcome back, delight your marriage listener. And I’m so excited to have Dr. Joel Khan on here with me. Thank you so much for joining.
3:24
My pleasure. I very excited to speak with you and your audience.
3:29
Yes. Thank you. Thank you, actually, Dr. Joel, I’ll say that when we chatted was about three or four years ago. And I remember getting a lot of feedback on how wonderful it was to have you on. And I wasn’t
3:44
sure what kind of feedback you were gonna get. But I’m
3:50
very positive, very positive. So yeah, so what I wanted to do in this conversation was focused quite a lot on how health impacts intimacy. And before I really dive in, you’ve got a great amount of insight, not only because you’re a cardiologist, but because you are just really focused on how blood affects everything in health. And so I’m just curious if you can give a little bit of insight into your background as it relates to understanding how intimacy can be healthy. Sure, I
4:28
mean, my Mio in a very short and sweet measure. I’m talking to you today from suburban Detroit. I grew up in suburban Detroit. I attended the University of Michigan Breezer undergrad and medical school was able to grab graduating number one from medical schools I’m proud of that I was a lot of work trained to be you know, you trained to be an internist and a cardiologist. I moved to Dallas and finally moved to Kansas City. This is in the late 80s, early 90s To become a specialist in heart attack treatment. baloons dents and I entered practice in 1990. Back in Detroit and Ann Arbor I circled back state ever since. The Great Lakes State has an appeal to me and obviously family and friends from childhood. But I had a very aggressive practice in the middle of the night you were having a heart attack or Saturday afternoon didn’t matter. I was driving 100 miles an hour to get your house. I wasn’t thinking a lot about intimacy and marriage and such I just was working my tail off. But I had along the way adopted long ago, 40 years ago, a plant based diet. I wasn’t a hippie, I wasn’t a tree hugger, I had a kind of a reaction to the dormitory food versus my mother’s food. I learned quickly thereafter medical school residency, that there might be something to this for health and something I could teach my patients, it took a little while to the really good science came out, took a little longer to find out that diet and sexuality and intimacy have a pretty strong connection. But I always was a little more interested in the average trainee and cardiologist because I had kind of altered my diet to a total plant diet called vegan diet, but it was the healthy kind big salads like bean jellies and beans. And about 10 years ago, I said, you know, I’m putting in balloons and stents, and I’m eating being chilly at home, I’m going to kind of integrate these and become a real preventive cardiologist, anything natural that has science, you need a prescription, you need an operation. Okay, there’s nothing we can do about that. But how many people have ever heard that you can reverse many cases of Type two adult diabetes, you can reverse many cases of heart disease. You can reverse cases of multiple sclerosis and lupus and I’m talking total the science, you can reverse sexual dysfunction that’s based on bad blood flow. And so that’s what I do all the Dinos I counsel people around the United States, and during our lockdown, it’s all on the phone. It was very much a lot of phone and Skype consults. But now 100% And a lot of people actually spoke to a gentleman today in Zurich, all over the world. There aren’t a lot of natural preventive heart doctors. And I’m proud to say I’m one of them. I’m pretty experienced guy. I’ve been doing cardiology for over 30 years. To finish up when you talk about blood flow. Of course, my first interest was heart blood flow and stress test and electrocardiograms and angiograms and bypass surgery and stents. But you know, the rest of the body isn’t any different. You want your brain to function well and avoid brain disease, you need good blood flow, you got to get oxygen, you got to get nutrients, you want your sexual organs to function? Well, a lot of that is great blood flow, great nutrients, great oxygen. Certainly, you can go to your kidneys, and you can go to your lungs. And you know, we don’t have to dissect the body, every part of the body needs as clean arteries as when we are born providing ample blood flow. But we have this problem that starts from 3040 50 and 60, which is that starts to diminish. But in terms of intimacy and responsiveness, it isn’t entirely based on blood flow. You know, it’s not all plumbing, but it’s a big piece of it. And I talked to the guys particularly and I don’t want to sound at all gender bias. You know, you may not love this diet, but I want you to think about your sexuality or sexual performance. You know, before you need pills before you need shots before you’re unable. And that often hooks him in a lot more. Give me an entire about heart attacks and strokes and bypass. A lot of them might say, you know, I’ll keep eating burgers, I’ll take the bypass surgery, but when you present it in a sexual intimate function way, sometimes you grab their attention. Women are just smarter from the get go.
9:05
That’s right, guys, you got to get them where their priority is. It’s the sex so no, that’s great. So um, so just to clarify, if you don’t mind, I’m gonna be a bit more specific. So we can talk about performance. You’re talking about whether or not a man can become a rack is that what diet affects?
9:26
You know, it’s even before that I really I talked to all my patients I ever years, even libido, you know, interest? Is the drum still beating before you even take the tools out and see if the tools work and go There’s reasons females have a drop in the Bito. Often around menopause, could be kids could be relationship problems, but real health issues blood pressure, diabetes, you know, when your mind is distracted, there’s a statement I love I used it in an email to my patients today. that when you have your health you have 1000 dreams have or health, you really only have one dream, which is to get it back. And that, you know, if you’ve got an issue, whether it’s arthritis, whether it’s, God forbid cancer and heart disease and on and on libido may be on the back burner. So that’s where it starts if you wake up every day, and for years and maybe decades, you’ve really taken good care, just like a classic car that you’ve put the best fuel and you polish and you never let it out in the rain. And the whole thing, if you were to treat your body that way from the time you’re 20 you’re gonna be a sexy 50 6070 year old, you’re gonna have libido and performance. So yeah, and then of course, you know, there is the female equivalent of erection in terms of arousal and lubrication. And now and that is a serious issue. A lot of women do withdraw a bit around the time of menopause, from my conversations and reading because, you know, the mechanics aren’t as well lube that to use another car analogy. I’m from Detroit, I can’t help it. But the bottom line is, a lot of that is not inevitable. It’s not always just aging and we should anticipate, at age 40 5060 or 70, that we put that side of our life away. Of course, it can be intimacy without, you know, actual sexual activity or full completion of the sexual activity. But when you got it all I need to feel 20 When you’re 5060 or 70. You know, that is an achievable goal, no matter what age you are. And you’re lucky if you’ve been able to maintain that. But you choose the hard work that made you lucky,
11:45
huh? Yeah, yeah, I love that. Well, in terms of the the hard work that makes you lucky, um, let’s let’s focus first on men and their, what specifically do they need to do in terms of eating to preserve their sexual health?
12:05
Well, this is a little technical, it’s not dirty. It’s just technical. But if you understand it a little better, you’ll understand why there’s a statement from a couple 1000 years ago, don’t dig your grave with your fork. And you can almost refrain that is don’t dig your low libido and your inability to have a sexual responsiveness with your fork and I’ll add your spoon or your knife, just to be complete. Maybe people eat with their hands. So don’t dig it with your hands either. Nonetheless, you know, there are it’s an amazing thought there’s 50,000 miles of arteries through the body, arteries that are big like around the heart all the way down to really microscopic ones, to the littlest ones called capillaries. And we don’t think about it much but every second of every day, is because those arteries are bringing that fuel to the machinery and every artery is lined with a thin lining called endothelial you don’t have to necessarily remember that. You might remember as a kid you might have pointed to somebody on the school grounds said your epidermis is showing when you were a be acting a bit like a jerk maybe you could see your skin that’s the epidermis is the outer lining of the body. endothelial is the inner lining of arteries. And you want that endothelial you want to treat that endothelial like $100,000 Persian rug you know yeah, you certainly don’t want to spoil it dirty it or a rip or tear it well turns out, um, lifestyle, particularly food is either going to enhance and preserve your endothelial so that and what happens when you have a healthy endothelial the Nobel Prize in Medicine was given for this in 1998. You make a lot of substances, but the there’s one layer lining like wallpaper in the arteries everywhere head to toe makes a substance called nitric oxide. No, that won the Nobel Prize. And that’s very lifestyle driven. It’s a little bit of genetic, but if you smoke, the chemicals get into your blood, they will damage your arteries by damaging the endothelial and you have a cigarette or a cigar before a little amorous activity. You’re not going to get the same blood flow response for a few hours that you did if you skipped a cigarette or a cigar. But you can take it right to actual science done with a cheeseburger and a sausage Egg McMuffin and a milkshake. These have actually been done where they measure how healthy is your lining of your arteries. I’ll tell you in a minute you can take it directly to sexual science experiments, but they’re usually apparatus on the arm of the healthy subject. And if you eat a cheeseburger for about seven hours your arteries so stun, they’re damaged your endothelial has been poked. My friend Michael Greger says don’t poke your arteries with your fork. Kind of like the thought about digging your grave therefore, it actually releases toxic chemicals from your intestines and bacteria. You will recover from it. Usually a few people have a giant, fatty greasy meal and they do trigger a heart attack. And that’s the end but you’ll recover from it. But meal after meal, day after day, month after month, you will beat down that wonderful system that we’re born with I really miraculous system that we’re born with. And you will end up with blood pressure or you’ll have sore joints, or you’ll have erectile dysfunction or your libido will be off. There was and it really tends to be, although I will declare my bias I’ve eaten nothing but plant foods for over 40 years. I mean only only peas and beans and lentils and whole grains and fruits and vegetables. There’s not been a piece of fish or meat or cheese or eggs in me and 43 years now, and I’m in good health at 61 without medication and a lot of vitality. And my wife would say too much boom, boom. But God bless her she’s in equally good shape because we’ve been together since we were nine, which a very sweet story. But um, there was a movie and I’d encourage anybody to go to netflix and look up. It’s called the game changers movie. I’ll tell you this real quick. It came out, I think November 2019. So it’s pretty recent. And there is a scene it’s about usually athletes that have changed their diet against the stream gone away from chicken and beef, moved over to plant based eyes. These are Olympic athletes and professional athletes and the NFL football team Tennessee Titans anyways, they recruited three young athletes, and I really want the men to listen to us and the women that love their men, and three like 20 year old athletes from University of Southern California, and they found in the warehouse that a urologist had an old machine called the rigid scan while you went to bed with a little device on your male sexual organ. And at nighttime when you’re 20 years old, there’s a lot of nighttime erections go on. I mean, these were three guys sleeping alone in their dorm room. But one night they fed them a beef meal and one night they fed them a plant meal, and the results were calculated and they came back and some of these guys three to 500% increase in the number times the duration and the quality of these nocturnal erections and you know there’s a lot of guys haven’t they can’t remember last time they woke up with an erection but this stuff really is real food is medicine. Food supports good health when you’re picking Whole Foods brightly colored low and added sugar, salt and fat. And food can be very toxic. I mean, it may take years and years for a bad diet to raise the risk of heart disease cancer strokes. It happens but one meal before a date one meal before an anniversary special night might you know either be the the keys to the kingdom or the moment of unfortunately failure and dissolution. So it’s beyond food. Don’t smoke exercise. Try and manage your weight know your blood pressure, cholesterol, no your blood sugar, but no particularly I take green leafy vegetables, beets, watermelon, nuts and seeds like particularly pine nuts. You’ll see every day of my life. I’ve got this giant salad with arugula, and beets, and pine nuts, and maybe some vinegars. vinegars are incredibly good for your arteries. As opposed to throw in too many of the
18:28
Russian in 1000 Island dressings that are nothing but poor quality industrial oils. But those are the foods that support health in general and particularly libido and performance for men and women. It’s all the same.
18:41
Well, you know, I’m really glad you mentioned that the study that you just said because I only just saw that that that documentary and you’re absolutely right it’s just like mind blowing to see what that what that is. So game changers right on that flex you mentioned. Okay, so so you’ve got a so plant based is the first first and foremost and then specifically to zero in is leafy green leafy vegetables, watermelon, pine nuts, beets, vinegars, those things need to be consistent. Right?
19:15
Yeah. And you you you brought up the term plant based and you’re very appropriate using it, you know, I’m a pretty loving and patient guy when I’m dealing with my patients. You know, of the major we call I started as a heart doctor, but it turns out sexual health has a huge overlap. Because fitness not smoking, diet, weight control, blood sugar control, same things I want my heart patients to do will also promote better and preserve better sexual health and intimacy and ability to you know, love in a physical way, not just an emotional way you want both. There’s a rumor that people are the more plants smell better and a whole online conversation that go even beyond Now we’ll just leave that there. But I’m plant based, you know of the five we come big risk factors. There’s a lot of little ones for developing clogged arteries and having a stroke, Kevin a heart attack, developing erectile dysfunction, smoking, fitness, cholesterol, blood sugar, blood pressure diet, the one we do the worst at in the United States, and the western world is getting enough fruits and vegetables in our diet, you know, only about 15% of people smoke. It’s way too much. But it used to be 50%. And it’s about 50% of people go to the gym or work on their basement or work on their backyard. It’s about 5% of Americans eat a decent number more than five servings of brightly colored fruits and vegetables, bell peppers and red apples and radishes and purple cabbage and go on and on. So plant based I don’t care if you just add one serving a day starting today, eat one apple a day, eat one Clementine a day. Eat one banana a day. I mean there’s better than Banana Banana is better than a donut. Everything’s relative, you know leafy greens and all the beautiful colors that we talked about the rainbow diet like cauliflower and orange carrots and green peppers and red tomatoes and I’m probably missing a few brown mushrooms. Mushrooms are a superfood. We’ll maybe talk a little about the current pandemic and special foods in such fine yeah, but so all of you even if you just plant based isn’t a commitment that I never will eat another animal food like I chose to a long time ago and I don’t regret it. And if you want to move all the way there like the movie game changers, you know show some evidence for great but up it up at breakfast, put some berries, you know, eat an apple apples are superstars. We don’t give them credit. You know, if you got stuff in the crisper in the frigerator it’s gonna sit there I put a bowl on your countertop of clementines and oranges and apples and people will grab them when they’re getting the munchies and that’s the perfect snack. Oh,
22:10
I love that. And in terms of are there other things that you would suggest with women at it differently than then what we’ve suggested so far? Well,
22:25
you know as number one all the same topics. I mean, your body is as amazing as any man’s body and you’ve got the same number of arteries and endothelial man, as a woman, you should worry about your risk of future heart attack future stroke. For most women, if they’re not diabetic are smokers. We’re talking about a postmenopausal concern. But more and more with our crazy lifestyle and diet. There’s exceptions that too, but you know, it’s around menopause. It’s a personal discussion between you and your medical team. I can do hormone replacement therapy, and such. We do know and one of my friends in the medical world Dr. Neal Barnard, MD, who has written about 20 books on health has a brand new book out about plant based diets and hormone health. He spends a lot of time talking about women with PMS, women with PCOS, polycystic ovarian syndrome, women with irregular periods, infertility and data that cleaning up your diet and adding in all those brightly colored plant based foods can have quite a remedial effect or preventive effect. So do all of that and you may benefit you know, at any age. The one I wanted to point out though, is the big myth that soy is some kind of man boob cancer causing food. And of course there are soy beans, that’s where it all starts. And some people will call that edamame me because of the influence of Asian restaurants and such. You can take a mommy and turn them into organic tofu and I stress organic because many soybean crops have been contaminated by Monsanto and Bayer so you want organics at Emami organic tofu. Put it up in little cubes, throw it in a stir fried one in a salad. Nowadays, you can get pre flavored tofu as a little barbecue or mesquite flavor and a salad is delicious. There’s something called temp a TNPH which is a fermented real soy product that again can be put in a stir fry you can use it as a meat substitute. It’s in all the grocery stores used to be kind of a tree hugger, natural health food store but 10 Pay is quite popular now. You want to stay away from like textured vegetable protein soy crumbles, you know everybody can remember maybe 20 years ago soy chicken nuggets to go head to head and deeply fried and breaded and nobody’s gonna claim that’s a health food and may still be a little healthier than the fried chicken nugget but it It’s not the ideal. There’s been in it’s probably very honestly conspiracy therapy theory a lot of meat industry influence. But in all the studies done as natural form of so using get, they are not cancer promoting, they are anti estrogen. They work very similar to a drug some women take to prevent breast cancer called tamoxifen, they work on a certain receptor in breast tissue to decrease effects of estrogen. You should worry when you’re eating beef, chicken, turkey, pork, that those animals are treated with hormones in the farms where they raise, you know, factory farmed meats. And they have real animal estrogen that can interact with breast and prostate receptor tissues, and may promote cancer whereas soy blocks that event so clear data, women that eat soy in their diet, have less breast cancer. It’s certainly true in Asia, in big studies, but it’s been confirmed in American Studies like advantageous Health Studies. And women who’ve actually been diagnosed and treated for breast cancer that incorporate soy foods in their diet have been shown to have a lower rate of recurrence. Now, even a woman’s gynecologist and oncologist might say the opposite, because there is such a pervasive feeling about this. But I would I would encourage women soy is joy, get the real facts, read the real data. And in terms of going through menopause and hormonal flashes, and it can be a great food at every age, but particularly at that age.
26:36
Wow. That’s fantastic to hear. Oh, okay, so I have a several questions about So, because keto is such a big fad. Do you think that people should use keto in a healthy way? So I read a book called or I think I’ve either read it or read parts of it. keto terian. I’m not sure if you’re familiar, but it’s based
27:04
on Dr. Weil Cole’s book. Yeah, he’s a friend of mine. Right.
27:07
Okay. So I mean, is that the kind of, do you think that’s a good
27:14
give you a, you know, a real short little explanation listeners may know or not, but you know, ketogenic diet, the ability to induce a state in our body, by lowering the amount of carbs, particularly refined carbs, sugars down to nothing, white flour is bound and nothing, leaving a few carbohydrates that are found in lettuce and beans, and berries. So as they’re called net carbs, because they’re very high in fiber. And that you can if you really jack that, so if you’re eating a lot less carbohydrate based foods, you have to be eating more fat and protein based foods, it’s usually fat, it’s more meat, it’s more cheese, more butter, coconut oil, you can shift some of the metabolism, you don’t use as much glucose to fuel your body, you use more ketone bodies, which are made and produced on this diet. And that was discovered decades ago, if you’re a child with epilepsy, very serious and bad condition. Even before there were medications, some children stopped having seizures, maybe a third, but all kinds of side effects were reported in the medical articles difficult to get a child to file that diet. Somehow, 10 years ago, Hollywood actors few athletes embrace that it’s sort of redone Atkins diet. And there are quick fix results. Nobody can argue that there are people that will lose weight. There’s 100 different ways to lose weight in 10 days, you know, from not eating to water fasting to ketogenic diets to getting the flu or taking chemotherapy or getting a crystal meth addiction. There lots of ways lose weight, keto does it. But um, it’s a difficult plan to follow long term. And there are people that will say I’ve been keto one year, three years, four years, there’s a few that will say longer. My concern is a couple. It’s a very unnatural diet that doesn’t have much example in any real communities that have enjoyed long health long term. You’re not going to go to Italy and find ketogenic diet as the natural diet of the Mediterranean basin, where they love their old grain pasta and they love their home baked breads and their beans. And such. Number two, there’s about 10 research studies in humans, some as big as a quarter million subjects, some as small as 25,000 subjects, that people that reduce their carbs in their diet long term may sacrifice more disease and actually perhaps not living as long as otherwise. And these are not perfect studies. These are what are called nutritional science studies. But you can go and find them. So I’ve been teaching my patients. If you’ve got a wedding come up and you want to do the Atkins kind thing for 10 days, you’ll probably be okay and you’ll you’ll drop a dress size Brap is not the only way to do it. But okay, but get off of it. Yet there are alternatives. There’s a little bit of science using plants to create the same effect. If you take a big plate and you put arugula and walnuts and some soy tofu, and you put some olive oil, extra virgin olive oil or hemp oil on it, you’re gonna have a diet if you keep eating that and eating that, that has very low net carbs, still got a lot of fiber and nutrients and vitamins. So Dr. Cole and keto terian talks about that approach. We don’t have a lot of data, it’s probably the lesser evil, I still wouldn’t stand it long term. So the best science to close it down is Dr. Longo, who’s a scientist in LA at University of Southern California. His first name is Valter VLT, Dr. Longo perhaps the most esteemed nutrition scientists in the world right now. He has a program to use plant based keto for five days, and then go back the rest of the month to a healthier Mediterranean or plant based style diet. And if you want to do it again the next week, he thinks that’s enough to gain some benefit. Eat less calories during those five days. It’s called prolonged PR o ello. And if anybody wants to read about that has more science and any jocking with your carbohydrate content, but still in the long run. Having those whole food carbohydrates you’re gonna find and whole vegetables whole. I’m not talking refined, you know, you can’t eat Skittles and say they’re colorful, like plants that’s not going to work for you. Or in such you got to eat the real plants, the real beans, the peas, lentils, those are what our best fiber fiber fiber is found in plants, fiber reduces a woman’s risk of breast cancer. Fiber reduces our risk of colon cancer fiber, lowers our cholesterol lowers our blood pressure. It’s only in whole plant foods. You never find fiber in a in a chicken or turkey or a pig. It doesn’t exist.
32:07
Are you familiar with microbiome and how fiber impacts that? And yeah,
32:14
I’m just renting space, my microbiome runs my body. Some people say we really are it’s like, you know, we’re a hotel and the microbiome are everybody in it. And we’re just the space that they live in, you know, these trillions and trillions of bacteria that predominantly are good, friendly, metabolism enhancing they digest our food, and they make us some vitamins, and they protect us. But we can throw that off with a course of antibiotics. Or when you shift to a high fat diet, you change your microbiome in a week or two. I’ll tell you real quick. There’s a fascinating study published about three years ago out of Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh, where they took people living in Southern United States traditional fried southern diet. And for two weeks, they put them on a plant heavy native rustic diet you might find in the wilds of South Africa. And they showed within two weeks, your microbiome, your bacteria were completely different. And you were making much healthier molecules and products. But they went to South Africa. And they found that the people and put them on the Mississippi Louisiana fried food diet of high fats and their microbiome went to hell. And just two weeks. I mean, this is some of the most sophisticated high level diets, data that’s ever been achieved. So yeah, you can one meal you can shift your microbiome, your microbiome loves fermented foods, it loves fiber, it loves pomegranates, oh my god, add a little pomegranate in your diet. Really, the whole ones particularly, you make this certain bacteria called akkermansia. And you can just groove your health up one of these bright red, you know, beautiful sexy foods. Very sexy pomegranates. Yeah, it’s fertility seeds in tradition. So add those in.
34:07
So this is great. So I I’m, I’m curious about this. So high fat, even if it’s good coconut oils and olive oils, and maybe even avocado oils, those is those are also bad for the microbiome.
34:22
None necessarily done set in studies have been done some animals and a few humans and I keep saying studies because that’s how we learn things. I don’t really like to give you my opinion. I like to give you my reading of the literature. It’s how we should operate that that if you want to disrupt and maybe destroyed the nice healthy balance of your bacteria, your microbiome have a high saturated fat diet. Where saturated fat it’s an animal meats, it’s in cheeses, if you’re baking breads with large baked goods across science, butter can be very high in saturated fat, but the king of saturated fat That is coconut oil, you know 85% Coconut, coconut oil calories or saturated fat calories, twice that of beef and such. So there is some data that one of the best ways to disrupt your microbiome is to use a lot of coconut oil which anyway you get around it is high in saturated fat. I’m so in opposition our fats, the only fat we need in our body are omega three fatty acids that become EPA and DHA. You can get them from fish like salmon, if you can find a good source, you can get them from ground flaxseed, chia seeds, hemp hearts, walnuts, leafy greens, that’s what you need. But the bulk of the data is if you shift from butter, coconut oil, margarine, lard to extra virgin olive oil. In a study just done and published by Harvard in March of 2020. With over 100,000 subjects, you could show and predict a drop in heart risk. And I would sell you probably a drop in erectile dysfunction and sexual dysfunction and libido by choosing extra virgin olive oil over butter, margarine, lard, ghee. You know, extra virgin olive oil has some very little saturated fat. It’s more mano and Phaedra fat and you really have to be a snob about olive oil, you don’t want to buy it on the shelf in a plastic clear bottle where the light has probably destroyed it if it ever was olive oil and might have been corn oil from the beginning because there is a lot of fraud. So be a little picky and all that. But yeah, that that’s the you know, the better place to be. Now there are people that choose to have a no oil diet, they learn to use steamers and vegetable broth that cook in wine, and they thrive and for weight loss. For certain heart conditions. It’s actually what I teach. But to tell everybody in America stop adding all added fats or diet is not going to be a very popular campaign for president.
37:11
So what would you say? This is interesting, because I’m from my research. And I defer to you, but that what I have read is actually 70% of our immune function is in the gut. Is that about right? Do
37:25
you think it’s called Galt JLT gut associated lymphoid tissue. But it’s true, if you think about it, you know, our skin has to interact with the outside world, you know, we might get a bug bite or exposure to toxins, our skin is a barrier, but from your mouth to your anus. It’s a giant tube that’s actually outside your body, things have to go through it to get inside your body. So we have a huge defense system to protect us from chemicals and parasites and viruses and toxic bacteria and other components. Unfortunately, now hormones and pesticides that are in our food chain and our water too. So yes, we have, you know, our soldiers are in guard before it’s going to let stuff into our body surrounding our GI tract.
38:15
Oh, wow, that’s fantastic. Um, does it? Does it matter in terms of immune function? And again, we’re, you know, we were planning on going a little bit into COVID, like prescriptions, if you will, but does it matter how healthy your gut is to fight off something like this? COVID
38:37
Yeah, they you know, increasingly there are reports that some people before they’re diagnosed with COVID 19 do have some GI symptoms, some diarrhea, particularly, we don’t know, or at least I’ve never read that the virus can enter through the GI tract. And so some way that you swallow somehow contaminated food, it’s been a concern without the carry out his carry out grading a risk of getting the virus. And so far, we don’t think that’s the case. I’d rather everybody do home cooking. No disrespect the restaurants it’s always a healthier choice are often can be a healthier choice. It’s probably true what you just said. And most health authorities are talking about eat less added sugar, cookies, cakes, beverages, you know, up your fruits and vegetables. You’re basically preparing your whole body would be at its optimal health and the gut will be part of that. But you know, we don’t know of a probiotic mixture that in other viral infections like MERS and SARS is the secret. I think there is something eating fermented foods that will help and perhaps taking a probiotic. We don’t know for sure. No, no, for sure.
39:52
Okay. So when I’m thinking about and apologies for my limited insight, but when I’m thinking about virus being attacked by immune system. I know there’s like tons of different facets of what an immune system is in our in our bodies. But, you know, we’ve got white blood cells, we’ve got the gut, like, what’s attacking a virus?
40:15
Yeah. So you know, I don’t think we really know yet other than social distancing handwashing masks, how to prevent, if we’re round and exposure to the virus, how to prevent it from attaching to these h2 receptors that are in our airways particularly, I don’t think we know how to do that there actually is some conversation, there are prescription drugs, called ACE inhibitors, blood pressure drugs, and ARVs. And at first, we thought they were at risk to be on them, now there’s conversation, it might be a benefit and blocked the virus from connecting. And there’s actually a brand new research project I just read about today where they’re trying to create a little protein or molecule that does the same thing. It’ll be in your blood in your airways. So if the virus comes along, it has no place to lock into a cell and start to injure it. What happens all these viruses get into cells, they take over the machinery, the DNA, a virus doesn’t have any of that, they cause the cell to start replicating, replicating and exploding, create, you know, 1000s of copies of the virus. So the immune that’s where the immune system comes in. And that’s where white blood cells and lymphocytes and macrophages and we hope there’s things we can do to make that response, more controlled, effective and not overdone, because we’re hearing about this cytokine storm where the disease begins, but it’s our overreaction of our immune system may be part of it. So, you know, there’s the basic lifestyle, there’s always going to be these measures of distancing, and washing and masks and an all by, you know, everybody’s talking about more sleep, less sugar, less alcohol, more fruits and vegetables, at least walking or some sort of fitness, some stress reduction, whether it be prayer, music, meditation, yoga, breathing, probably not tequila shots, not the recommended stress reduction, right. But finally, maybe maybe there are supplements and I have to say maybe and what I could talk to you an hour about the possibility. But what I have done recently to take the heat off because there’s a lot of people get upset when you talk about the possibility that supplements may improve your immune system to protect you because we think we don’t know. And it sounds rather salesy to bring all this up. But I have an associate in Virginia who’s chairman of the department of Critical Care Medicine at the University, and editor of the Critical Care Medicine Journal, I added that guy’s a big shot. And he published a protocol and I’ll repeat it because I can blame him that it might be reasonable to take vitamin C, about 500 milligrams twice a day. Vitamin D, two to 4000. It’s called international units a day. Zinc, for the short run, maybe 25 to 50 milligrams a day. Good luck finding it in the health food store. I’m actually a little melatonin at bed, maybe a milligram of melatonin that may help you sleep, but there’s some immune enhancing impact of melatonin. Interesting to see and put that down. I knew about that, but you don’t see too many academic. Chairmen talk about it. And the last one is probably one that most people don’t know. It’s called quercetin qu ERC. E ti n. It’s a antioxidant found in onions, garlic, cherries, apples. There’s been discussion a lot of people take it for like seasonal allergies, you can go to a health would start. There’s been discussion and may have some longevity aspects. Of course, we can’t prove that I’m saying discussion. But all of a sudden, because of its impact on the immune system and response that it may be of some value to protect you. And that’s Dr. Merrick. That’s his name, Paul Merrick. That’s his protocol. I’m cool with it. And I just wanted to share that.
44:18
Awesome. Awesome. Okay. Well, you know, you mentioned something that I’ve heard a couple times and, and I think, well, this is close to wrapping for our time here. I’ve heard this that um, something around if you have too strong of an immune system, it could then be fighting. Like it’s fighting your body, rather than the virus or something along that are you familiar
44:49
with when when we’re under attack by bacteria, by viruses by parasites? There are there’s a process called inflammation and Word is flame fire, which is the whole point that’s go kill the bad guys and return the body to normal. But things can be excessive and overdone. We think autoimmune diseases like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. Our immune system is not under control and responding, it’s attacking itself. So we know our immune system can overdo it, whatever the trigger, all those conditions do respond to a plant based diet. I’ll just say you should read about plant based diets and multiple sclerosis rheumatoid arthritis. But yes, we are seeing this this amazingly robust and probably harmful, super immune response that’s gone beyond just hopefully killing the virus and it’s damaging lung tissue, particularly making it very hard to provide adequate oxygen levels in this disease now, wide Person A is relatively young and fit and gets the disease and has this terrible lung damage. And the next person doesn’t, and they’re not always at five years old and diabetics, there are tragically too many 2030 and 40 year olds, seemingly are in good health they get the disease and either survive it or don’t. Hopefully do. We don’t understand what triggers it. Whether Dr. Merricks Virginia protocol ups the chance that if we get contact with this virus, we’ll have a mild episode we can only help.
46:34
Well, I’ll say on my own personal anecdote, I did just recover from COVID. And wow, pretty darn similar to this. Dr. American skip diet, so
46:47
Well, yeah, gratulations on getting back.
46:50
Yeah, thank you. Yeah, it was it was very mild, actually. By God’s grace. It was. Yeah, good. So wonderful. Okay. Well, let me please invite you to tell us about your newest book. You’ve got several out there, but I know that there’s one very recent.
47:07
Yeah, I thank you for that invite. And just point out, you brought it up right before we went live i three books ago, I participated in a book called Vegan sex, kind of a funny title. And a very funny cover. It’s available on Amazon has amazing recipes. It’s worth the relatively modest purchase price just for the recipes. But it’s a woman’s journey in finding men that still have the veto friend of mine, and she asked me to write some medical chapters, which is about that endothelial wallpaper responsiveness. So I’d encourage you to go watch the game changers movie pickup vegan sex. But my most recent book is a rather technical book, but as for the public, one out of every four persons when we, when we hopefully get to the day, we’re not only thinking about Coronavirus, we have to get back to thinking about heart health. And one out of every four people inherit a kind of cholesterol called light bulb protein, little a one out of every four is one point a billion people. It’s common. It’s the most common genetic inheritance that could put you at risk for heart attack or stroke, or needing heart surgery. But nobody knows about it was discovered in 1963. Every lab runs the lab test for 3040 $20. Whether you go to quest or LabCorp, or your local hospital, but it’s not yet on the menu of what a primary care doc is probably going to recommend. I wrote a book to plead. Consider getting it particularly if you have a family history of heart attack, stroke, heart surgery, people dying of heart disease, it may be the reason that was occurring in the family, of course, Diet, Fitness, smoking are always factors. And there’s all kinds of strategies what we’ll be doing about it. Right now there is no drug specifically for lipoproteins delay. If you’ve had your cholesterol checked, that’s good. But you haven’t had your lipoproteins a check that doesn’t show up on the routine panel on your physical you might have had with your doctor asked for it. Look up the book. It’s called light bulb Protein A, the hearts quiet killer. It’s short, it’s easy. And again, it’s packed with recipes. So it’s well worth the small ticket price on Amazon and Barnes and Nobles. By you’ll be the most educated person in your neighborhood if you read the book.
49:26
That’s awesome. That’s awesome. I’ll have it in the in the show notes, all the resources that we talked about. So where can our audience connect with you online and follow you behind the mask? Okay, that’s
49:39
a little Corona joke. But yeah, I’m sitting in my preventive cardiology clinic in suburban Detroit and I do see people from literally all over the world, but you can find everything I do at Dr. Joel ton calm, but that’s Dr. J. OELKAH n.com. And you know, whether it’s United States or Canada or South America or Europe, I mean, I have been very privileged to take care of fine people everywhere.
50:08
Awesome. Awesome. Well, Dr. Joel, this has been amazing. So thank you so much for your time,
50:13
I enjoyed it thoroughly. And we can come back and get into the deep deep dive for sexual talk if you want. But I think people got the idea that, you know, you so much of your health is in your hands. It’s not at the doctor’s office, it’s not at the hospital. And now more than ever, it’s a good time to learn about your power to preserve and enhance your health, no matter what your age is, no matter what your problems are. Don’t feel that you’re stuck in a rut on 10 medicines, ask the question, Can I reverse what I have, and maybe get off some of these and work with your healthcare provider?
50:55
All right, thank you so much, Dr. Khan, I so appreciate it. I have learned a lot I hope that you have and definitely reach out and understand his resources. He’s just got great information and insights to share. So otherwise, I want to thank you for being a listener. You don’t have to spend time with me every week. And it really means a lot. So thank you. The only reason this podcast has been successful is because you have been doing the brave work of sharing its message and I cannot be more grateful. So thank you for what you’ve done. It’s been awarded 19th, at the top 30 relationship podcasts out there. And I’m just amazed, it has grown to be reaching even 155 Different countries worldwide. So I cannot be more grateful for you being the brave people to send these podcasts to friends. And you know, I’m not on social media. So the only way this thing gets spread is by you deciding to take the gumption of sharing it with a friend, and who knows, it may well save their marriage or their health in this case. And then finally, I would love for you to spend a few moments it would mean so much to me if this has meant something to you dy M, if it has blessed you, if you go and add some kind of iTunes review, or a review and a five star rating at whatever place you do listen to the podcast, the way to do that is you actually even if you’re already a subscriber, you have to search delight your marriage, click on it in iTunes, and then scroll all the way down until you see the stars and then you click five stars. Again, the only way that this podcast has been spread is because people search in iTunes and then because of the number of reviews and ratings, they decide to listen. So if you’re able to add your rating, add your review, it would mean so much to me. And it would cause more people to listen a lot of people are like I love your conduct but I’m I’m too embarrassed to send it anywhere so well no problem just just add a quick rating and that that does the work for you. It goes it ranks higher in the charts so more people can listen and and hopefully be impacted. So again, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It means the world to me that you would even listen and consider sharing and reading and reviewing. All right, we’ll talk more soon. Take care. Bye