Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Dr. Gundry Podcast, the weekly podcast, where Dr. G. gives you the tools you need to boost your health and live your healthiest life.

Dr. Gundry (00:14):
Is breakfast sabotaging your health? Well, that all depends on one thing. And surprisingly, it’s not what you eat. Hi, I’m Dr. Steven Gundry, the best-selling author of The Plant Paradox and The Longevity Paradox. And I tackle questions like this every week on the Dr. Gundry Podcast. To answer this one, I brought on my good friend, Dave Asprey, the best selling author and founder of the Bulletproof brand. We explain why when you eat is actually the best way to lose weight, reduce inflammation, and increase your energy. Plus, we discuss the best food to eat for controlling your cravings. The five foods you should always avoid at breakfast time and the two types of food you can eat while you fast. Yes, you can eat on a fast, download episode 135 or the Dr. Gundry Podcast right now to find out how fasting can help you transform your health and energy levels. And make sure to follow the Dr. Gundry Podcast, to get all the latest health news to slim down, boost your energy and feel your youthful best.

Dr. Gundry (01:26):
Welcome to the Dr. Gundry Podcast. When it comes to supplements, I am a huge nerd. In fact, I use dozens more than dozens of supplements every single day, and they have a major impact on the way I look and feel. But the truth is it wasn’t always that way. I used to joke that supplements are only made for expensive urine. I truly believe that about 20 years ago like most physicians. While I’ve changed my opinion on that, it’s true that not all supplements are created equal. Unfortunately, many of the supplements you’ll find on store shelves are number one, totally useless, and can actually be dangerous for your health, which is why high quality supplements are so important. They can have a dramatic effect on your health and longevity and are well worth the time and money in my opinion. But how do you decipher between a pure clean supplement that will do what it says on the label and one that’s completely bogus?

Dr. Gundry (02:32):
Well, my guest today is here to help. He’s Dr. Hector Lopez, a physician scientist with a uniquely diverse background in sports medicine, exercise science, nutritional biochemistry, and clinical research. Dr. Lopez co owns and directs an integrated triad of B2B companies within the dietary supplement functional foods and medical foods spaces. Today, he and I will reveal the shocking truth about many of the supplements on the market. Share some insider tips for choosing the highest quality supplements and discuss the amazing new compound discovered by Dr. Lopez himself. That can help you boost your energy and help you lead a longer happier life. Hector, it’s so great to have you on the show and nice to meet you in person.

Dr. Hector Lopez (03:26):
Likewise, thanks. Thanks a lot back Dr. Gundry. Thanks for having me on, it’s a pleasure.

Dr. Gundry (03:31):
Now, many listeners know that over 20 years ago, I resigned my post at Loma Linda to start my own clinics focused on nutrition and lifestyle changes. And I’ve seen firsthand how diet changes and supplements could improve health in a way that Western medicine simply cannot. So let’s talk about your triad of B2B companies. What are they and what do they do?

Dr. Hector Lopez (03:56):
Yeah, essentially I probably went through a similar experience in that I [inaudible 00:04:04] transitioned away from clinical medicine into the industry full time. I had been consulting previously always had one foot in the dietary supplement space if you will, or functional food space. One of my companies is based on regulatory compliance, so Supplement Safety Solutions.We brought a program to the industry that we called neutral vigilance. We coined that term and you’re probably familiar of course, with pharmacovigilance in the pharmaceutical world. And so we saw a huge need in the space, in the dietary supplement space to be able to bring in a group such as ours, which is also physician-based, who also understands the dietary supplement space, understands how ingredients work, many of the mechanisms generally and also understands the regulation, the FDA regulation specifically related to how to cover post-market safety surveillance.

Dr. Hector Lopez (05:06):
Basically that means anyone who brings a product to market is supposed to have a system in place to be able to monitor and surveil if there are ever any health-related complaints, if there are any safety signals, what we call. That’s essentially what Supplement Safety Solutions does. The other company is called Center for Applied Health Sciences, or CAHS. And that’s an Ohio based research institute. My partners and I there, basically run human clinical trials, mostly focused on the dietary supplement space. So of course throughout all of medical education, medical training, you’re off and on the wards and you hear, “Oh, there’s no evidence to support that or all, there’s no evidence supporting dietary supplements.” And well, I’m here to say there’s certainly has been for a long time. But unfortunately, sometimes when you’re a resident or a medical student and the attending says, “There’s no evidence” it’s unfortunately sometimes because there’s no evidence they are aware of but there’s often quite a robust amount of evidence.

Dr. Hector Lopez (06:16):
And so we’ve actually run at CAHS over 150 human clinical trials over the last 10 years. And all of them focused on either a dietary ingredient or a combination of multiple ingredients in a multi ingredient finished product, looking at the safety and the efficacy to substantiate claims. And then finally the third sort of I guess led to the three legged stool, as we said, the triad is a company that mostly holds intellectual property discoveries or discovering novel ingredients, in trying to commercialize that intellectual property. But it’s all evidence-based. So we do the discovery, the development, the incubation, and then the validation and substantiation ultimately going all the way from in vitro preclinical studies, all the way to human clinical studies. So almost think of it as a mini pharma model, but focused on just leveraging the wonderful treasure trove that nature has afforded us and trying to bring ingredients and new products to market that are safe and effective to optimize health in human performance. And of course, longevity as well.

Dr. Gundry (07:34):
What are some of the biggest problems for so many of the supplements on the market today? I mean, why can’t I just throw something in a capsule and say, it’s the greatest thing as sliced bread, which by the way, folks is not good for you? I could do that, right?

Dr. Hector Lopez (07:55):
Yeah. So I think, look, one of the issues with the dietary supplement space, of course, it’s often maligned by the media and even individuals in our profession obviously in the medical establishment. But the truth of the matter is there’s a very low barrier to entry, right? To get into the dietary supplement space. I mean, essentially all you need to do is if you’ve got the capital and you’ve got the funding, you can go to a contract manufacturer of which there are hundreds of course, in North America alone. And you could just let them know, “Hey, I want to be able to bring a product to market,” a weight loss product to market, for example. And these individuals may not have any training, any background at all in nutritional biochemistry, let alone even health and nutrition or medicine or anything related to the dietary supplement space.

Dr. Hector Lopez (08:52):
And so they can just jump in, dive in, have a label, a product on the market with very little barrier to entry. Of course there’s no approval process per se. And that sets up a scenario where you can have bad actors who come into that space and bring a product to market that may have dubious health benefits if any, and could actually be harmful. So if they don’t understand ingredients, dosing, sourcing, which is huge and adulteration, which could also be a problem then you could see where there’s a setup for bad scenarios to occur.

Dr. Gundry (09:37):
Is there any way the consumer’s sitting, standing in a shelf in a health food store or looking at Amazon and there’s a… we won’t name something, but how do you-

Dr. Hector Lopez (09:52):
Without naming names.

Dr. Gundry (09:53):
Yeah. without naming names, actually, I got to tell this story. Long ago, actually, after my first book came out there were several supplement companies approach me for putting my name on some of their supplements. And again, we won’t name names, but one of these companies was in New Jersey where you are located in it was not you. But I was watching these supplements come down a conveyor belt and they would be divided into two lines and different labels with actually doctors’ names were put on each one and one doctor quite frankly, got about, oh four times the amount for the same supplement that the other doctor wasn’t very famous, but they were the exact same supplement.

Dr. Gundry (10:53):
The point of all this was that neither of these doctors had actually designed the supplements. They were merely putting their names on it. And the cachet of one doctor was apparently made his supplement much more expensive than the other supplement, which was identical. And until I actually found a Gundry MD, I refused to put my name on this sort of thing. I wanted to control over the ingredients based on my 20 years of experimenting with myself and patients and allowing them to yeah. So that happens all the time, right?

Dr. Hector Lopez (11:34):
It absolutely does. Yeah. The wonderful world of white labeling or private labeling, right? As we call it in the industry. And you’re right, that the issue with that is it could very well be a wonderful formula. It could be a great formula. It could be good to have validated, branded, patented ingredients with safety efficacy, but again, you lose touch of, you lose that accountability if the individuals whose names obviously on the label has no real input on the design of the formula and doesn’t really understand their product. And that leaves that brand open to a lot of potential pitfalls there. And that is just one example of some of the nefarious things that can happen in the industry. But by and large, I think the majority of players in this space are trying to do the right thing and their heart’s in the right place. Of course, there’s the old adage, right? The road to hell is paved in good intent, right? With good intentions.

Dr. Gundry (12:39):
And you know my corollary to that, the road to health is paved with good intestines.

Dr. Hector Lopez (12:45):
Ah, I like that. I like that. That’s a first I hear that for that. I like that. That’s great. So yeah, ultimately it becomes a challenge for a consumer to, I guess, make a decision and understand which products on the market are reliable and have a strong scientific substantiation behind them, or have a strong quality assurance quality control team behind them. Or an individual such as yourself, a professional who’s representing the brand and designing the products behind the brand. So that’s that’s key. I would say there are some opportunities to look for certain seals on the label that you also need to be careful there as well because you can make up a seal and have it on the label of course.

Dr. Hector Lopez (13:38):
But others are important. We actually, for example, at our regulatory compliance company developed a seal called neutral vigilance verified. And so that lets you know that at least someone is watching the cookie jar, who’s a third party, not an owner in the company, but of course a physician directed third party, who’s looking out for pre and post-market safety. You can also look for other seals that are involved with third-party testing as well, independent testing to make sure that what’s on the label is actually what’s in the bottle.

Dr. Gundry (14:11):
Yeah. All of our Gundry MD products are third party tested, goes again, don’t take my word for it. We want somebody else to verify that that’s in there. That’s something that our consumers should look at when they’re picking up a jar in a health food store. Are there any dead giveaways that you might not be getting what you think you’re getting in that product?

Dr. Hector Lopez (14:41):
Well, there is this practice to look for, it’s the practice of proprietary blends that tends to happen. Now here’s the thing with proprietary blends. If the intention of the proprietary blend is not to fairy dust or sprinkle in small doses of well reputed I guess, premium ingredients, then there would be nothing wrong with proprietary blending, if that’s really what it’s doing is protecting someone’s intellectual property. However, that creates an opportunity for someone to do it for the wrong reasons. So they may have an ingredient proprietary blend that has four ingredients and two or three or four of the ingredients are a very low cost, very low quality. And maybe there’s one ingredient that’s a cost driver, so they can prop blend it in order to reduce the overall cost of their product and increase their margins, still selling the product at a standard retail price.

Dr. Hector Lopez (15:50):
So that’s definitely something to look for. It doesn’t mean 100% of proprietary blends are utilizing this practice, but I think by and large, there are very few reasons to have a proprietary blend these days. Because for example, we have multiple ingredients on the market that we’ve commercialized that are ingredients that we licensed so the industry, so the all industry can use it, but they can use the trademark version, which you know is patent protected. And that’s the ingredient that has also been through the rigors of safety testing and human clinical trials. And hence you can make substantiation based on that branded proprietary ingredient, but it can be fully disclosed on the label. And so I think that’s something to look for.

Dr. Gundry (16:38):
I think that’s a very good point. I know there are a lot of well thought out blends or well-documented blends, but so many companies want to catch your eye with something that may have a very legitimate benefit. And the clinical studies show that you should be taking 200 milligrams of this compound twice a day to get the observed clinical benefit. And in this particular product, there’s two milligrams and unfortunately most people see the name, but they don’t really see how much of that is there. And you’re right. It’s usually a cost saving reason, unfortunately. So particularly if you see almost the exact same product, but it says it’s the same stuff. And the one is a quarter of the price of the other one. Usually you’ll find the reason on the back if you bother to look.

Dr. Hector Lopez (17:45):
That’s right. And I think another telltale sign or something else that’s a tool that your consumers can look for is understand that by law all ingredients have to be listed in order of weight predominance. So even if it’s a nutrition facts panel and not a dietary supplement that would list out the individual ingredients, like a food for example, a protein product or a protein fiber macronutrient based product, they can also make sure that the order of ingredients listed matches what they’re looking for. If they’re buying a product because they want a high quality protein, and you better make sure that that protein is first or second on that list. Right?

Dr. Gundry (18:28):
Are there any ingredients that our listeners should avoid when they’re looking at all this?

Dr. Hector Lopez (18:35):
Well, that’s a bit of a loaded question because it really depends on so many variables. But I think that it’s important for consumers to work with someone who’s knowledgeable in the space and understands the dietary supplement space and someone that consumers can trust that ideally a healthcare professional who also has additional training and experience and expertise such as yourself in nutrition or nutritional biochemistry and nutritional sciences in general. But there are some designers stimulants that have made their way onto the marketplace that consumers should be aware of because of course there can be some substantial interactions with for example, psychotropic medications or antidepressants or anti-psychotics and anti-anxiety medications.

Dr. Hector Lopez (19:31):
So yeah, there’s some designer stimulants, I would also say there are also some ingredients that are not really dietary ingredients, but have made their way into dietary supplements as well. They’re essentially drugs that are masquerading or they’re unapproved misbranded drugs that are masquerading as dietary supplements. And these are some things like SARMs or certain hormonal modulators that could be used sometimes in certain circles of the dietary supplement space. But they tend not to be mass market. They tend not to have as much exposure. They’re sort of trying to fly under the radar as well. And they may sell it at very small specialty retail centers.

Dr. Gundry (20:19):
Okay. Any ingredients that people should look for or is that a loaded question too?

Dr. Hector Lopez (20:26):
Yeah, well, I think, I often end up getting asked and I’m sure you do as well. Right? “What’s the best supplement I should be on?” And there really is no best for everyone, right? Because one size fits all means one size fits nobody. And there should be a degree of customization if you will, to what an individual is looking for, depending on what their goals are. But I think generally some supplements that I take, for example, that are non-negotiables. So I’m definitely on a high quality marine based omega-3 fatty acid product. So an EPA, DHA, DPA supplement, I like ask the xanthan. I also am on magnesium, usually magnesium that’s a key laded form of magnesium, either magnesium three and eight or a glycine based glycinate.

Dr. Hector Lopez (21:23):
I also do take some products that are higher in the curcuminoid polyphenol category. I also take, even though I take it for general health and wellness and longevity, I take creatine monohydrate, which I know may sound like a surprise, right? Because most people associate creatine with bodybuilders or sports nutrition. But there are some enormous general health and wellness side benefits to creatine. So I also take creatine and then of course I do take NAD3, which I know we’ll talk about a little later as a longevity super nutrient matrix. And I think those are the non-negotiables and then I rotate other ingredients that I guess you could consider more specialty type into my regimen.

Dr. Gundry (22:14):
Yeah. I’m glad you brought-

Dr. Hector Lopez (22:15):
[inaudible 00:22:15] vitamin D3 is a big one. I’m sorry.

Dr. Gundry (22:17):
I was going to say vitamin D3 and there’s now actually 17 separate studies correlating a higher vitamin D levels with lessening or avoiding COVID-19, higher the better and the lower the worse outcome. 17 studies now.

Dr. Hector Lopez (22:40):
That’s right. Yeah. What do they say? Where there’s smoke there’s usually fire, right? There’s a whole lot of smoke there.

Dr. Gundry (22:48):
Yeah, there’s a lot of smoke there. I’m sorry, folks get some vitamin D in you please-

Dr. Hector Lopez (22:54):
Absolutely.

Dr. Gundry (22:56):
… you got to arm yourself against this virus.

Dr. Hector Lopez (22:59):
Yeah, regardless what other strategies you’re using, social distancing, masking, et cetera, even vaccination, whether you’re a pro or anti-vaccine, it doesn’t matter. I mean, you’re still going to respond better and your outcomes are going to be better if you’re metabolically tuned up, if you will. And certainly vitamin D optimization is one method or one strategy. Absolutely.

Dr. Gundry (23:24):
Yeah, absolutely. Okay, you mentioned NAD3, and I want to dive deeper into this as you know one of the things that you’ve done and other research have done, or you’re always discovering a new, amazing compounds. One is NAD3 and I take this myself. So thanks to your discovery. So tell me, what is it and what does it do?

Dr. Hector Lopez (23:57):
Yeah, NAD3 is basically the product of our team, our IP discovery team, looking at longevity and looking at leveraging what we know are already health promoting activities. We know their health span and lifespan promoting activities. Many of which are very much in vogue, right? So things like thermal stress, sauna, cryotherapy, cold plunging of course exercise. And that could include both resistance training and cardiovascular conditioning and aerobic exercise, high, low, and medium intensity exercises. Fasting or caloric restriction the consumption of Mediterranean diet or polyphenol rich foods that are not inadvertently inflammatory because some of them can obviously cause issues and certain individuals. So all those behaviors, all those activities. What we set out to do is we said, all those activities have not only is it the behavior, but that behavior is translating into a certain molecular or biochemical signature within the body, within cells.

Dr. Hector Lopez (25:16):
And so we said, what if we could look at the pattern of what genes for example are being turned on, or what switches are being flipped on, what switches or genes are being flipped off in order to promote those health span and longevity benefits? And so that was one thing we did is we took a look at that. The other thing that happened to us was serendipitously one of the ingredients that the NAD3 is focused on. We already had brought to market about eight years ago, and we did a lot of preclinical animal safety work, mechanistic work, and then human clinical work over 10 human clinical trials on an ingredient called Thea cream. And one of the things that we ran into serendipitously was this is an ingredient we mostly used as a nootropic brain health promoting ingredient, good for cognition, mood, focus, concentration an alkaloid like caffeine, except without any of the blood pressure or hemodynamic as we call it blood pressure, heart rate issues that you can get with caffeine for cardiovascular stimulation.

Dr. Hector Lopez (26:28):
And one of the things we noticed was we saw in an eight week study, we saw a decrease in triglyceride levels and LDL cholesterol levels in subjects who were taking 200 milligrams or three milligrams of this ingredient. And that was totally unexpected. We were only looking at it for safety in that cohort. And we said, something’s going on here, metabolically, it was a robust signal. It wasn’t just the P value was really robust, so we knew something was happening. And then we started digging in a little further and doing some more animal work. And we discovered that one of them was also activating a pro-longevity compound or enzyme in the body known as sirtuin-3. And so we put those two pieces together. The fact that we wanted to look to a molecular signature of longevity along with what we already knew about Thea cream.

Dr. Hector Lopez (27:25):
And then finally the third part to what allowed us to bring NAD3 to market was we felt there was a big shortfall with the current approach of being so pro NAD plus promoting in terms of, well, you just throw more NAD precursor at the problem and you’ll make more NAD+, which I’m sure consumers and listeners have heard a lot about in the news when looking at anti-aging or longevity. And we thought that was leaving a lot on the table in terms of what we could uncover for real longevity benefits.

Dr. Gundry (28:04):
So let me stop you for a second because I think a lot of consumers, a lot of our listeners may have heard of NAD, NAD+, I’m going to be talking a lot about it. I talked a lot about it in the longevity paradox. I’m going to talk a lot about it in the energy paradox, but just in a nutshell, what the heck is NAD+ and why should I care?

Dr. Hector Lopez (28:26):
Yeah. NAD+, one of the most life-sustaining important coenzymes in the body, in every cell. I don’t want to under play or under-represent how important it is. It’s incredibly important for being able to transfer electrons through most chemical reactions in the body. But most intriguingly, it’s also a substrate or a fuel to drive this complex of enzymes known as sirtuins. And without NAD, you don’t get sirtuins working the way they should. So you do need a good healthy pool or status of NAD+ in order to run your life and live your life to the maximum, right? So anything from energy to metabolism, to immune function, you name it health and human performance. You do need NAD+ and it’s actually derived from vitamin B3 essentially. But the body can make it from amino acids itself. And we of course consume precursors to NAD+ in the form of vitamin B precursors or equivalents niacin equivalents, which is vitamin B3. So that’s my, I guess, nutshell explanation for NAD+.

Dr. Gundry (29:44):
Yeah. I mean, you literally have to have the mitochondrial electron transport chain work right. It’s that important if you want ATP, you got to have it. Okay. So I don’t want to interrupt you-

Dr. Hector Lopez (29:59):
Absolutely, you’d be dead in seconds without it, right.

Dr. Gundry (30:01):
That’s exactly right. You wouldn’t be here without it. Okay. All right. Continue the story.

Dr. Gundry (30:11):
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Dr. Gundry (31:10):
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Dr. Gundry (31:32):
I miss snacks, Dr. G. are there any safe snack foods I can have on the plant paradox program? I hear this question all the time from patients and followers, when they start out on my lectin-free program and I get it, snacks are hard to give up. And there aren’t many that are made with 100% of my plant paradox. Yes ingredients. That’s why I was happy to discover uprising foods, keto bread, and crackers. Yes, the bread has a tiny amount of corn starch as a binder, but overall, their products are a safe snack food to be enjoyed in moderation. You can rest easy as appraising foods, crackers and breads are made with gut-friendly ingredients, such as flax seeds, apple cider vinegar, blanched almond flour, psyllium husk, and MCT oil.

Dr. Gundry (32:15):
My wife and I love to slice the Quito cube bread, very thin toast it, and then slather them with my polyphenol olive oil for an occasional happy hour appetizer with a glass of red wine and uprisings crackers are wonderful to serve with a tomato free guacamole for a party. To try them out for yourself, go to uprisingfood.com/gundry and buy sampler bundle. It’s only 48 bucks and you get six products to try. That’s uprisingfood.com/gundry. And the first 1,000 people to use my code Gundry at purchase will get free standard shipping, hurry while supplies last.

Dr. Hector Lopez (32:59):
Yeah. So then basically we started exploring and screening a library of dozens of different compounds that we thought could be important to amplify the effects of Thea cream that we already had. And we knew. And so we stumbled into the ingredient that the matrix of three ingredients that make up NAD3, which really are the ones that turned on an enormous number of signals that all were checking the boxes for longevity benefits, for helping with cellular resilience and improving your ability to handle environmental stressors as well as metabolic stressors endogenously. So we started looking at gene expression models in vitro, meaning in cells. And we started looking to see the effects of exposing these cells to the NAD3 matrix in various iterations until we landed on the one that was optimal and ideal.

Dr. Hector Lopez (34:09):
And that meant the right ratio of the ingredients, as well as the right combination of ingredients. We then translated that into human work as well. And the nice thing about NAD3 is that the three ingredients that make it up the constituents of it, which is Thea cream the second ingredient, the super nutrient is a Wasabia japonica extract, and Wasabia japonica is part of the family of the brassica sort of cruciferous vegetable family, but it’s even more potent in the concentration of these really powerful compounds that are known as ISOBIO signings. It’s one of the reasons that broccoli and broccoli sprouts, for example, with so far fein and glucoraphanin and glucosinolates have received a lot of attention and praise recently as well for longevity benefits. But Wasabia, we felt was one of those under-recognized, under utilized botanicals and sure enough, it lit up when combined with the Thea cream and our third ingredient ended up being copper (I)-cuprous niacinamide or nicotinate.

Dr. Hector Lopez (35:25):
Basically it’s a stabilized form of copper, copper can exist in two different chemical forms based on the charge or the oxidation state. It can exist in its copper (I). It can exist as copper (II). And your listeners might be able to identify when something patina is when you have the copper and it patina, it turns, it goes from the brilliant copper colored to sort of that greenish aquamarine, aqua blue, green color. And that means it’s been oxidized to copper (II) state. The body uses copper in its plus one state in all of the enzymatic reactions. So this combination is what makes up NAD3 and it’s synergistically increased many different important genes that we know are associated with all those activities you mentioned before that increased health span.

Dr. Gundry (36:22):
You, you said, well, we stumbled on this and obviously with what you do, you don’t stumble on things. There is serendipity, as you know and as I know in research, and oftentimes you’re looking for something to do something and, oh my gosh, it did this instead. And so anyhow.

Dr. Hector Lopez (36:44):
Yeah, they’re wonderful all discovery.

Dr. Gundry (36:46):
Yeah. So you didn’t just stumble on this let’s…

Dr. Hector Lopez (36:50):
No, there was, there was definitely a strong thesis behind it. And what happened is to your point, we serendipitously and systematically landed and arrived at the optimal combination with NAD3.

Dr. Gundry (37:07):
So what studies now have been done looking at NAD3, how do you know it works?

Dr. Hector Lopez (37:15):
Yeah. A couple of different lines of why it works. So first of all there was a study that we were involved in that we were coauthors and published with a group of colleagues of ours at Auburn University. Donald Lamb was the lead author. And basically what we did is we looked at the effect of strength training, middle-aged individuals who were average age 60 years old took about 16 of those subjects, strength train them for 10 weeks using whole body resistance training just twice a week. And we did is they took muscle biopsies from the leg, from the vastus lateralis the quadriceps muscle, and basically looked to compare it to a cohort, a comparitor of young 22 year olds average, there were 16, 22 year olds that were already recreationally weight training and active.

Dr. Hector Lopez (38:17):
And what we saw is that the strength training actually caused the muscle to have a profile that was much more after the 10 weeks of course not pre, but post, the muscle was much more reminiscent and it mirrored the molecular profile of the young, healthy, recreationally trained individuals. And what we looked at was the levels of NAD, NAD+, we looked at NADH in the muscle cell, looked at an enzyme, a protein called NAMPT, which is one of the rate limiting enzymes the body itself uses to make NAD+ from scratch, de novo. We also looked at the sirtuin levels and those levels were also elevated after training. So before training, there were a lot lower, of course, in the middle aged individuals, after training it essentially more or less normalized or made them more youthful.

Dr. Hector Lopez (39:16):
And one of the things we did with NAD3 is we studied it in a muscle cell model. First in vitro. We recently published that data in the Journal Nutrients actually published last month. And it basically showed that we were able to dramatically reduce something known as NLRP3 inflammasome. Which is this big central hub that helps to drive inflammation, chronic and severe inflammation is usually going to be accompanied by high levels of NLRP3 inflammatone. So we’re able to dramatically drop that. And we saw increases in sirtuin levels. Sirtuin-3, sirtuin-1, global sirtuin activity. So we mimicked with NAD3, the things that we saw in humans that happened with healthy resistance training over a 10 week period of time. And that’s just one example of why we’re excited about NAD3.

Dr. Hector Lopez (40:15):
We did about five preclinical studies first, and now we’re in the middle of a big human trial with three different arms. We actually just finished the last subject a couple of weeks ago. And so we’re now analyzing all that data and getting ready to present it. And we’re excited about what we’re going to see in actual humans who took NAD3 every day for a 12 week period of time. We’re looking at things like the epigenetic clock reversing biological aging in humans. We’re also looking to see what genes were turned on and off to see that it actually correlated with what we saw in the cells. And we’re looking at various inflammatory markers, as well as the individual’s ability to control their glycaemic response and insulin response as well to foods.

Dr. Gundry (41:05):
Doctor, is this exercise in a bottle? Come on.

Dr. Hector Lopez (41:10):
Yeah, I’d always warn my patients when I was practicing. Right. But anyone who promises you that turn around and run fast and long. Yeah. Look, what we’re trying to do here is just amplify the healthy behaviors that we already know work. And that’s really what we set out to do. So we don’t want to replace healthy behaviors. We don’t want to replace your calorie restriction, your healthy Mediterranean diets, your meditation, your social connections, all the things that we know work with the blue zones and the individuals that are supercentenarians. The exercise obviously being one of them, we just want to basically supplement than amplify all those behaviors and all those activities.

Dr. Gundry (41:57):
Yeah, I think that was well said. I think one of my fundamental principles is these are supplements. They supplement your healthy behaviors. They are not a replacement for healthy behaviors. And I should put it in an adviser for anybody who’s listening. Whenever you’re going to start a new regimen, whether it’s a fitness regimen or whether it’s an eating regimen, whether it’s a supplement regimen, always check in with your physician or your health person before you do that. Okay? And I think you you’d agree.

Dr. Hector Lopez (42:35):
Absolutely. 100%.

Dr. Gundry (42:37):
All right, this is fascinating stuff as you know I am a fan of this product. So I guess I’m a fan because I like the research that went behind this and I’ve been digging it actually for quite a while now. And my wife takes it as well. So you’re at an exciting area. Are there any more exciting discoveries in longevity research that you’re working on? Can you give us a teaser?

Dr. Hector Lopez (43:09):
Yeah. We’re actually expanding the preliminary work we’ve done because it’s still early days. And as you know, all scientists will always say more work needs to be done, right? It’s never over, there’s more derivative stuff coming. What we’re doing now is combining NAD3 with other ingredients. So we’re looking at the synergy on top of synergy. What happens when you combine it for example, with polyphenols that are found in olive oil or extra virgin high quality olive oil? We’re looking at what happens when you combine it with Rosemary extract or things like coffee fruit, or coffee berry extract. And we’re finding some fascinating things on the preclinical side. And now we’re going to want to move that into the clinical realm. And one other thing I’ll mention here, Dr. Gundry is that unlike many ingredients that are touted for longevity on the market, this one has one other aspect to it.

Dr. Hector Lopez (44:03):
And that’s that it’s experiential. And it’s something you can feel, when you consume the product NAD3, for example, every morning with your coffee or your tea, it definitely will give you a little bit of a neurotropic lift. It’ll give your mood or your affect a little bit of a lift and you’ll feel sharper. And we have that data. That’s not just anecdotal data. We have that’s borne itself out in the more than 10 human clinical trials we’ve conducted on one of the components, Thea cream within it. So it’s something that we know is working on a molecular level and it’s something you can feel right? Which is a bonus. And we’re excited about that.

Dr. Gundry (44:46):
Well, that’s great. Who wouldn’t want to feel a little bit better in the current state of affairs?

Dr. Hector Lopez (44:54):
Absolutely. Absolutely.

Dr. Gundry (44:56):
All right. Yeah. And actually all those compounds that you mentioned are high on my list of additional compounds that I actually take and recommend. So yeah. Keep looking at those. I think you’re absolutely on the right track. All right. Well, Dr. Lopez, this was a lot of fun. It’s been great to have you on the show-

Dr. Hector Lopez (45:20):
Likewise, it was great to [inaudible 00:45:22].

Dr. Gundry (45:22):
… every now and then we need some nice deep science so that people can learn about all this. Where can people find out more about you and your research and your companies?

Dr. Hector Lopez (45:34):
Online supplementsafetysolutions.com and thus CAHS, the cahs.com. And then I also have a Twitter account, but I usually don’t do much social media, so I don’t do Instagram or Facebook. I’m getting a lot of pressure these days though to get some more exposure out there and get some more of our work that we’re doing out into the public domain, but this is a wonderful way to do it for sure.

Dr. Gundry (46:03):
All right. We’re good. All right. Well, keep up the good work and I can’t wait to hear of your latest discovery and feel free to let me be a Guinea pig whenever you want me to be.

Dr. Hector Lopez (46:15):
Ah, we sure will. Thanks a lot for having me on this is a lot of fun. Thank you.

Dr. Gundry (46:18):
All right. Take care. All right. Time for our audience question this week, it comes from Bell Shear on YouTube, who is asking for advice on following the plant paradox program without losing any weight. I’ll answer quickly here, but for more information, check out the how to eat more calories, the healthy way video on my Dr. Gundry Podcast, YouTube channel, because I go into that so briefly, yes, weight loss is often a pleasant consequence of following our program, but we also have a number of people who actually are trying to gain weight. And one of the best ways that I’ve found through the years to get people to gain weight is to have them increase their consumption of macadamia nuts. And sometimes it takes a lot of macadamia nuts to do it.

Dr. Gundry (47:17):
On the other hand, if high triglycerides and high insulin levels are not your problem. And quite frankly, most people with low weight, that’s usually not a problem, feel free to use starches like there’s now some fantastic pastas that are made out of cassava flour, sorghum flour, millet, and knock your socks off with using those. And you will, for the most part gain weight using those products. And they’re lectin free. Same proviso though. These are not free food to have if you’re trying to actually get weight off of you. So many times, we see people inadvertently start to gain weight when they start eating lectin-free starches in the stake and thought that these are free and you can have as much as you want, but great question, but go to the YouTube channel and you’ll see my answer.

Dr. Gundry (48:23):
Time for the review of the week. Suzanne Elliott watched the episode where I explained my modified vegan fast. She said “Very interesting podcast. I’ve been on the Dr Gundry diet now for about 18 months and have lost 16 kilograms.” That’s almost 35 pounds. “I have to say that I’m amazingly surprised by the changes in my body. I no longer have a ravenous appetite. After listening to your video last night, I thought I’d skipped breakfast today and not snack. I can’t believe I was able to do it. I’m so grateful for your program, Dr. Gundry, I watch all your videos. I read all your books. I wish I had known all your information 50 years ago.” You have me too. “I’m 70, just like you. Thank you very much for your work.” And thank you, Suzanne Elliott.

Dr. Gundry (49:15):
Your writing in that keeps me doing what I’m doing and good for you. Keep doing it and try the modified vegan fast once a month. See what you think and write back in. All right, that’s it for today. Thank you for watching. We’ll see you next week. And I’m Dr. Gundry, and I’m always looking out for you.

Dr. Gundry (49:40):
Disclaimer, on the Dr. Gundry Podcast, we provide a venue for discussion and the views expressed by my guests do not necessarily reflect my own. Thanks for joining me on this episode of the Dr. Gundry Podcast. Before you go, I just wanted to remind you that you can find the show on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. And if you want to watch each episode of the Dr Gundry Podcast, you can always find me on YouTube at youtube.com/Dr. Gundry, because I’m Dr. Gundry. And I’m always looking out for you.