Secrets of Molecular Hydrogen with Kelly Halderman MD

Dr Kelly Haldeman is a medical doctor and an expert in longevity , in the application of antioxidants to reduce inflammation , which is a great fit for this program . So , kelly , I'm so happy to have you on the program .

I was delivering a baby on call and I had a giant scotoma from a migraine I'd never had migraines before in the past and suddenly I had no visual field and I had foot drop and all these very strange symptoms and I was eventually diagnosed with multiple sclerosis . I was given basically to medications and told to go home and be with my young children .

Well , this didn't exactly work for me , because you know that paradigm and the allopathic paradigm . We do so many wonderful , wonderful things , but at this point I felt that if this was all that was going to be offered to me , that it wasn't enough . So I went back and I earned a traditional naturopathic medical degree . I went and studied clinical nutrition .

I got a doctorate in clinical nutrition as well and I was able to apply these naturopathic philosophies , such as detoxification and nutrition and hydration , and to understand how my body was working .

And I was actually diagnosed with Lyme and mold infections thankfully got to the root cause of the issues , and with that I just really knew that I needed to leave the allopathic medicine behind .

Because , you know , in this world , I think that we we really are , we have really great access to knowledge , but we need people who are educated , we need people who are able to go into PubMed , who are able to understand this complex literature and pull out areas , pull out concepts , pull out things that do no harm , that are basically without harm , and again ,

we're going to talk about a lot of the hallmarks of aging and what we can do other than pharmacological therapy . But I think that that's really where my gifting is is that in the education and research and I'm currently a chief medical officer for a biotech company and again I get to use my voice , my education .

I no longer practice medicine anymore because my time is consumed with . I mean , I bet you as well know , rob , that this is a rich and robust field to be in and it's very exciting . And so I'm excited to be here today with you to really bring to the forefront what is aging , what is inflammation , how is it affecting us and what we can do about it .

So so for years , the multiple sclerosis was a misdiagnosis , essentially , and it was mold and Lyme disease that was creating those symptoms . Is that right ?

I was living in northern Minnesota , I was in a an endemic area , and so I do believe that it was an accurate diagnosis , but I have zero symptoms since getting to the root cause . I work really hard to maintain my health , but I , you know , I feel like I'm 25 . So you know , it's it's .

It's a great , it's a great pathway to be on when you can continually know exactly what to do to optimize your health .

I mean , my brain was so inflamed and from going from that state to where I'm at right now it took a multitude of things . It took time , it really did , and I think it took hope . It took hope that there were things that I could do to facilitate my healing . But yet my body is a healing machine . We are innately designed to heal .

If you cut your finger , there is not a lot you can do to stop that process . And that's what I kept thinking when I was really ill is that my body is designed to heal if I give it what it needs . And so I just started at foundations , rob .

I started with gut health and optimized that , went on to helping my body detox properly and we're going to get into this , because this is one of my passions along the way was optimizing hydration . I mean it sounds simple and you know we really kind of okay . Yeah , we're supposed to drink our eight glasses of water a day .

But hydration in itself is so fascinating , endlessly fascinating , and it's also so critical , and especially when you know so many biological processes in your body which is 60% water depend on it .

And so I was always thinking about water along the way , always think about hydration , and that got me into researching molecular hydrogen and things that can be done to plain water , such as electrolysis , that can actually change the water , can actually rest , the water can actually restructure it .

There's a lot of work by Gerald Pollack , who is now a friend , and you know we really kind of discredit that . So anyone wanting to read a really fascinating , complex book , the Fourth Phase of Water is excellent .

But I always kept that in the back of my mind and I really optimized that , and so you know that's what really caught my eye with the company I'm working for is that we're looking at going beyond the power of hydration . We're looking at creating biomolecules , and these biomolecules they've been researched to help with inflammation .

So I'm going to tie that into because that was really a big part of my healing .

Is it wearing out ? Is it programmed or what's going on there , do you think ?

So you know , it's the prominent risk factor for many of our pathologies cancer , diabetes , cardiovascular disease , neurodegenerative

disease . As we age , we just get more um , more at risk at at these conditions and so , um , a paper that I really really like and I really look back at to kind of guide the way I think about aging is one um that came out of cell in 2013 .

It's a little bit old um , but it's by Lopez and uh Otten at all , and you know he talks about the hallmarks of aging and it gives us an idea of what is going on , because aging is not one thing . If someone says , oh , I'm aging because my mitochondrial are getting , you know , old and rusty , well , yeah , that's one of nine .

You know there's a lot of talk about cellular senescence . You know what is that ? Is that adding to aging ? Yes , it is , but again , there's mostly nine .

We're going to actually talk about nine because it's just a little bit easier , because it just kind of covers a lot of bases and it covers the literature that we're discovering today , but they all kind of weave in together . But really , a very underlying factor that we're all aware of is that oxidative stress , that inflammation factor that we're all aware of .

Is that oxidative stress , that inflammation , if that's left unchecked . The naturopathic philosophy says that inflammation is at the root cause of all disease , and I do believe that , and so I think it's interesting to look at that and have a summit based on , based on inflammation itself .

Maybe , if we talk about the , these hallmarks of aging , we could go through and and speak about how inflammation , uh , is associated with each of them and and what your approach is , if any , to deal with with each of these .

And , of course , given our emphasis for this program and the theme is mind and body , if , at any time we can , we can see a chronic stress or a psychological connection anywhere that resonates with you , we can mention that as well too .

So it sounds like a lot , but like let's , let's kind of dig in , let's go .

So the first one , again genomic instability . So , basically , dna . Dna is the blueprint for genetic expression , but the problem is is that it's constantly under attack .

So you have these instructions that literally keep you alive production of proteins , everything that you need for cellular respiration , vitamins , minerals that you know make that DNA and make those proteins work .

But these free radicals , these you know , pollutants , chemicals , pesticides they all damage the DNA , and the damage is associated with aging because your cells just don't work as well . But thankfully , your DNA also encodes instructions on how to repair itself .

But again , we , we just get older and and it doesn't work as well , and so a better strategy would be like go upstream and figure out , you know where's all this damage coming from . That's number one . You , you have to just do the elimination right .

You just have to write down everything that you're smearing on your body your shampoos , you know , clean your air , and I know it sounds daunting , I know it does , but again , you really want to drain the bucket right .

We really want to get to the balance where our body can handle the toxins that we're bringing in , but with for me , for this one again , it's all about elimination . It's not about taking a multitude of antioxidants , and I'm going to get on my antioxidant soapbox for just a second here .

So the way antioxidants work in the body is that they're electron donors , and so we have a balance of oxidation and reduction in our body . That's called redox , and we want it to be in balance .

We don't want to have so much reduction and little oxidation , because oxidation , although it sounds scary , you know we're the free radicals and it's chewing up your cells . It's used by the body to combat viruses and cancer cells , so we want it in balance .

So when we take a lot of antioxidants vitamin C , really well-known ones what happens is it donates the electron , but then it becomes itself a free radical , and so it also , in general , antioxidants will scavenge all of your free radicals .

Now this can be harmful , because there are some free radicals in your body , such as hydrogen peroxide that actually has positive cell signaling functions in your body . So you don't want to scavenge everything . Again , this is just balance .

Life is about balance , and so what I do is I employ the use of selective antioxidants , because selective antioxidants is shown in a nature paper in 2000 , and I believe it was 13 showed that a component called molecular hydrogen actually acts as selective antioxidant , meaning it goes after only the free radicals that are deleterious in your body , such as the hydroxyl

radical . Free radicals that are deleterious in your body , such as the hydroxyl radical . And when it actually donates the electron , it scavenges it . It's not itself now a free radical , it just goes in , does its job selectively . So smart , so smart . And it's tiny . Hydrogen is the smallest molecule on earth and so it can go everywhere in the body .

And again , I think that we're tipped in the favor of more oxidation . Because what have I just said ? The aforementioned of toxins and pollutants and things that using selective antioxidants helps balance that out . And again , that is one of the major factors of aging .

turned off and just balancing all these other features . Before we continue on that train of thought , you mentioned one thing I wanted to emphasize for the audience and that was the elimination . You mentioned elimination diet , but it wasn't just a diet and that was the elimination . You mentioned elimination diet , but it wasn't just a diet .

You want to eliminate also , you know personal care products , skin creams , other things that can can be toxins . Could you clarify that a little bit ? Just , you know what that process is , so they they will know how to do

it .

You're , you're , you have an allostatic load that presses down on the ability of your body to function properly , and so , really , when we're looking at the skincare products or we're looking at pesticides in our food or air quality , all of that really presses down on how well our body's able to function and , um , and our liver capacity to detox in our kidneys ,

and so what I'm saying from that perspective is just be aware of how much you're taking in , and this applies to stress too , right , like , just like you said , it's really , um , more of a global view of of your health is that you have to monitor what's what's going in in in order to maximize that allostatic load that's pressing down .

You just wanna free it up , and so that can just mean inventorying the things again that you're using as personal care products . What are you eating ? What are you thinking ? A lot of that it'll just help with that load .

Oxidation is is a negative thing , and antioxidants potentially are good or are good things , if I got that right and then so do . How do antioxidants work on inflammation ? What's the on inflammation ? What's the relationship there ? Do they turn down inflammation ?

But I think that just like the body there's , you know , when we chop things up in allopathic medicine and you go to your kidney doctor and your endocrinologist , it's just we're not seeing the whole picture clearly .

So there is a lot of overlap and what we're doing is is good for one homework , but then it's good for like six other of the homeworks as well , because it just lessens up the overall load .

And the problem is is that once they're very , very , very short , that your cells can't replicate anymore . And what actually spurs on replication is toxins and inflammation . They both spur on the cells need to replicate , replicate , replicate , and that accelerates your aging process .

And so we really want to employ the use of first , again , go back , go back to your foundationals , just eliminate out , try and lessen your inflammation , have a good diet , don't pour chemicals and toxins into your body .

But we also want to make sure that , um , with the telomere length that will , that will preserve it to be so you won't be replicating , replicating because just think like , if you're replicating , that's , that's aging in and of itself .

Um , so really , um , really , there was a study that was done that was found that molecular hydrogen actually increased telomere length and so a hallmark of aging . I just , I love hydration anyway , and so that's again why I work for the company .

I do because there's so many great things other than just the benefits of hydration that you can get with telomere lengthening . There's also some supplements out there that can can get with telomere lengthening . There's also some supplements out there that can help with preserving telomere length .

I like TA65 , I believe has been headed a clinical study showing that telomeres can be preserved or increased .

We'll find out when we talk about it , but just so people know that's tied to water somehow , that we're going to be hearing more about right , exactly , yep , right on , okay .

But what makes a liver cell different from than a skin cell ? Like how do they know the difference between ? How do I express this protein ? How do I express this ? Like , where do they get their identity ? And it's from that epigenome , it's from that epigenetic instruction .

So you can kind of think of that as like , again , the instructions telling the DNA what to do , like DNA is the blueprint and then the epigenome is like the contractor telling them what to do . And there's like a good side of this and a bad side of this .

So your stress levels , what you're eating , what you're thinking , you know what again , your toxic load , that can all influence how your DNA is expressed , that epigenome . And so , again , the good news is is that a lot of this is under our control . You know some of those , the DNA mutations that I talked about in the number one .

Some of those are not reversible , but epigenetic alterations they're reversible . So this is an important one because again it comes down to like behaviors and if you're smoking and eating at fast food and you're under so much stress , you're going to age and this would be the the underlying hallmark , that epigenetic alteration . It falls under that category .

What , what , what else do we have to look at ?

Again , molecular hydrogen can help with this expression . But really , when we're looking at the SIRT3 and SIRT4 , those are like little energy packs inside our cells .

So if you can think about that , like that's important for staying healthy and young , having those little energy packets inside of there , so that's an exciting one that again , we have control over for sure .

And then I think with this one it really comes down to when we have those epigenetic factors that we're not optimizing , which are under control , like diet and you know we're packing on extra pounds and things that we really make sure that we're trying to optimize , um , not just um your body , mind , body , spirit , but again optimizing everything that we can under

under this one . I just love this one because it's it's all under our control . It's like , hey , here's the , here's the anti-aging pathway and here's the aging pathway . So again , go down the aging . You know it's just like treat your body like a temple , not like a tent the aging .

And then the next hallmarks of aging , the next three , at least some people lump them together as these are sort of responses to the damage caused by the first four , although you know it's very , very complex and honestly , nobody really knows . This is just sort of the best attempt , that people trying to understand a very complicated field .

But but go ahead , yeah , what's next ?

So loss of proteostasis means that you know your , your body , is a protein producing machine , and so we need a balance between how much we're producing , how many proteins , because those are very important , and then how many that we are we're scavenging , we're cleaning up , and that goes into the process of autophagy , to cellular cleaning .

So when you lose this balance , you literally you can have all kinds of protein you know that are accumulating , that are just think of that as like cellular debris , like you . You really can't have very good cellular processes going on when everything is there's just running amok with all these , these proteins .

And so one of the ones that I think that we think of with loss of proteostasis is that the heat shock proteins . The heat shock proteins are starting to get really well known because activation actually helps you correctly fold your proteins , try and balance that out , trying to gain back that loss of proteostasis .

And we hear about sauna-ing with the heat shock proteins . But also again , I hate to say this , but molecular hydrogen has been shown to help upregulate those heat shock proteins . And then I just want to mention this too is that this one really ties in with age-related pathologies like Alzheimer's disease , parkinson's disease and cataracts .

And if you think about it it makes sense . We have that , the proteostasis and it's . We're not cleaning it up and you know it's mucking things up . So another important one to pay attention to .

So we're just again , we're going back to the beautiful balance that our body is able to do when it's not full of inflammation and again , oxidative stress , and that it just all lays on that , on that allostatic load . So it's , it's pretty simple .

You know , with the heat shock proteins we don't have to go into , you know , the mitochondrial UPR , mediated rejuvenation , you know . But but really just think of heat shock proteins is really trying to amend this . They do a lot of other things too , um , but I think that heat shock protein and then the autophagy . Let's just quickly go into autophagy .

So autophagy I don't know if you have a guest talking about this , but in a nutshell , it's just cellular cleaning and just like spring cleaning , we need a mechanism and we do have a mechanism to go in and clean out all of the misfolded proteins , all of the cellular debris that we normally produce . And again , that's called autophagy .

It's activated when we are in a caloric deficit . So someone , I think , has talked about mTOR . So mTOR is anabolic . Mtor is like stepping on the gas , you know , building proteins , building things , but autophagy is catabolic , so it's molecular hydrogen

can do it . A really famous drug that's very old , that's coming back into mainstream-ish , is rapamycin , and that's because it can help with the balance of autophagy and mTOR .

Right , because we don't want to let too much food in and we want to be careful because every time we're burning our food we're actually creating oxidative stress . We're actually doing that . So we want to have that balance , um , but what happens over time is your cells just don't respond .

So , in a nutshell , like this is called the insulin and IGF-1 signaling pathway . So what I think of this one is is that you have to be careful with how much you're spiking your glucose because you're just wearing these receptors out , you're wearing this sensing out .

So you want to be careful and that's why you know the studies on um caloric restriction are so they're actually really good for longevity is because you're probably not pushing on that lever over and over and over again . So I just think that just will tie into someone talking about how important diet is and important balancing our , our , our blood sugar is .

For that one that's pretty simple .

So you know , simple strategy again is to um just maintain um , healthy diet , exercise , um , get your nutrients in and um , and you should , you should be , you should be good , although I am remiss to say that one in three adults in the United States has prediabetes , which is absolutely scary , and only 80% know that they do so , um , you know , if you're

listening and you're like , oh , I'm fine , I got this covered , it's worth a check , it really is . Um , when I was practicing , I always measure more of a full panel . You know , fasting glucose , fasting insulin , you know hemoglobin A1C going into those , um , because we really want to nail this one for aging and inflammation , we really do .

Like I just said , when you're eating , you're creating oxidative stress . I'm not saying don't eat , but I'm saying , you know , I do a 16 to 18 fasting window every day because it works for me , but I've really felt like that activated my autophagy . My blood sugar is better , my insulin is better . So that's kind of a nutshell on that one .

But it's really foundational , this nutrient pathway for the hallmarks of longevity . It's tied in in so many different ways .

So really , your mitochondria are very important and you want to make sure that you're managing that oxidative stress . When you are dehydrated you actually will shift toward that anaerobic metabolism which is inefficient and you only get three ATP molecules .

I won't test you guys on that one , but really you , you want to make sure that you're protecting your mitochondria . And it goes back again foundations , dietary , you know , stress , really making sure you're getting all your , all of your nutrients , because it and your hydration status as well , because your mitochondria just just don't work well .

And then , my absolute favorite one so I'm so glad we have time to talk about this is cellular senescence . Boy , it sounds complicated but basically , when your cells hit the Hayflick limit so they've multiplied all the times that they've can they hit this limit and they turn into senescent cells .

Now they're they're referred to I don't love this name , but they're referred to as zombie cells and they're referred to by this name because they secrete SAS factors . Sas factors senescence-associated secretory phenotype . So a SAS factor that is secreted from your senescent cells is super inflammatory , super , super , super , super inflammatory .

So , looking at ways in , uh , with my job , we are in partnership with the Buck Research Institute and we're looking at how , um , our specific water can help modulate senescence .

Because you know , when we're pushing those cells to replicate and we're aging , we're aging , and then they hit that limit and then they go to be zombie cells Again , you just have these smoldering cells in your body again . Inflammation that's , you know , right there .

So using strategies to help with , with cellular senescence is is so cutting edge I I love studying it , like every day a new paper is coming out about cellular senescence .

So what we're doing is we're taking the power of hydration and we're actually modifying it , augmenting it and giving it even more powerful attributes , and so we're looking at those . We're studying the biomolecules . I've mentioned molecular hydrogen . That's just one of the biomolecules that we have in our water .

But the data that they presented to me when they were headhunting me just absolutely blew me away and I think that we need really savvy strategies . But water seems so simple but yet it can be made into something that's even more powerful for help . So I just absolutely love what I'm doing .

I'm working with the Buck Institute researching , again , cellular senescence . We're building human clinical trials to show the effects of our water . There's some studies that even show that it helps with stress modulation . I mean right now we have plenty of studies showing digestive health , like regulation of body metabolism and body composition , blood sugar regulation .

I could go on and on about all the positive antioxidant status . We decrease markers of inflammation . But really , you know , again , my passion is to get people well like . I know what it's like to be bedridden . I know what it's like to be very , very sick . I needed strategies . I needed a brain to think for me .

I needed someone I can trust , and I feel like I am that person .

And so when I say that we found positive effects , it's not like someone had nine things that it helped with , Right , but it's kind of like your , your miasm , like where in your body do you have the weakness ? Because when we go back to the beginning of this talk , inflammation , we're trying to target that . This will target that .

So again , we're seeing , um , you know , energy , a mood , some weight loss , um , definitely , um , modulation of , of appetite , because people , it's hard , we have chemicals that are are robbing our body's ability to , to , to be tricked into thinking .

You know , we need that , that hamburger , that fast food , but really hydration , you need to be hydrated to really satiate those pathways . So again , it kind of just goes back down to , to foundation . So , um , you know , we've also found , with our clinical trials , as you , as you asked , we are in the midst of kicking those off .

We're going to be look , studying and healthy human beings . We're looking for structure function claims , so we're going to be studying the effects on skin . I'm also tying in HRV , so stress management . I'm going to be tracking sleep with probably an Oura Ring . Big fan of getting objective data right . Big fan right To really help yourself .

And then we'll be doing a second trial on digestive issues and also building in a lot of those inflammation objective markers as well .

You just put in filtered water and you just press the button and then your water is restructured and the biomolecules are created which have amazing studies and we've gone through a lot of the positive effects on inflammation . But very simple , Our website is just weocom , so it's we-ocom

. There's a lot of more information on there for people who want to take a look at that .

There's always something I need to add to it , but I think it's easy to find me and please reach out . Reach out , ask me all the questions that you have . I really want to be an advocate for people , especially in this area . Like you said , dr Rob , we really need good , strong minds really digging into the validated research for us .