This is the most dramatic podcast ever and iHeartRadio podcast. Chris Harrison and Lauren Zema coming to you with a very very cool episode. Today, we have this great guest. It's doctor Amy Shaw, double board certified medical doctor and wellness expert specializing in food, allergies, hormones, gut health. She graduated from Cornell University's world renowned School of Nutrition. She's trained at Cornell Harvard Columbia. Elsie, you started following doctor Shaw kind of during the pandemic.
I think so, yeah, And I think she was one of those people I want to get into it with her, but who kind of use the pandemic to really build up her presence on social She gives incredible bite sized, short helpful content on her Instagram page that I love, and she especially after we just did that episode about weight loss drugs, I wanted to have her on to talk about this different element of health but still has so much to do with our fitness and our aesthetic
and how good we feel about ourselves, but fasting our gut health. She gets into that a lot on her page, so I wanted to talk to her about the realities of some of that because I think there's a lot of confusing content out there well, and there's so.
Many fads and things that hit the market. And some of these things are very valid, there's a lot of validity to them, but are we doing them the right way? And that's a lot of the stuff I want to talk to her about with gut health and saunas and cold plunges and intermittent fasting, all these things that I think are very very good if they are implemented correctly, with the right body type, etc. So anyway, we are beyond honored and excited to have doctor Shaw join us on the show today.
So, doctor Shaw, I think I started following you in the pandemic am I?
Do I have this right?
Did you kind of use that time a couple of years ago to really build your social media presence and if so, why was that important to you and what have you kind of gotten out of it?
Absolutely?
You know, when you work in traditional medicine, there's a lot of Now there's a lot of doctors on social media, but when I first started, it was kind of like you weren't really a good doctor if you were doing stuff on the interneto that was for the people who are like not really doctors, or they're not academic, or they weren't, so it was all natural medicine.
So there was definitely this.
Like it took me a little time to really get comfortable, but then I realized that everybody was using it more for informational purposes and it didn't mean that you couldn't present the science and basically just present the issues through the lens of my background and training. I'm going through it too, so it's something that I feel really comfortable speaking about.
So your handle is fasting empty for people who don't follow you yet and should What would you if people aren't following you right now? How would you just summarize what you try to do with your content and the information you try to present.
It's nutrition and medical tips to help you save yourself. So using nutrition and medicine, you can actually save yourself. We're always thinking, oh, there's this medicine, there's going to be like this life saving drug.
There's going to be somebody who's going to help me. But really, when you do.
Eat the right foods and do the right things, and you know, get sunlight and go for a walk, and those are the ways to save yourself. So we're talking about ways to save ourselves through nutrition.
One of the things I really appreciate about you and Laura and I are very much of this mindset of preventative wellness, preventative living that is kind of your lifestyle of how do you live, how are you eating? And so you won't face those issues.
Exactly because we never talk about it.
We're always talking about what happens once you get the disease or you you know, are in that car accident, or it's like, how do we teach people to live differently, because if you live the default American life, you are going to get those diseases and you are going to need all those medications. So there's there's really not enough guidance around the nutrition side of it.
Before LZ jumps back and I'm just kidous, what why, well, why is American medicine like that?
How did be?
I was just thinking it's so strong with you just said, if you live the default American life, you are guaranteed to have those issues. Are you elaborate on that?
And I hate to bang on them? Is it pharma? Is it just because that's where all the money is? Is it that simple?
Yeah? To run a research trial it's not easy.
It takes a lot of money, it takes a lot of time and resources. And who's going to fund a research trial on you know, lettuce or cucumbers.
You know, I need big lettuce to come in, big lettuce, right, So.
Who's going to get the funding to do these research trials? And then somebody might say to you, well, there's a resource study on libitoire, but there's no research study on fiber, you know.
What I mean.
And that's how it kind of have shifted and fharmand knows that they're very smart. They know that in order to win the hearts and minds of scientists, they're going to have to do these big trials, and they invested in that.
And that's why I truly.
Believe it's because we live in this like capitalistic society, like you know, you want to make money, so they know the ways to kind of sway the science a little bit.
I'm not saying that they're all bad.
Obviously there's medications that are life saving, but it's really skewed the wrong way.
It's a double edged sword.
Yeah, I mean.
There is governments funding for you know, things like diet and nutrition, but it's so so hard to do these large nutrition study you need a lot of money and a lot of resources, so's there's not enough.
Well, something I've been kind of preaching about or ranting about to crisis since we started dating, is, yeah, the especially just what role food plays in our lives and the quality of food we get in America. To me, the simplest and clearest example is this, and correct me if I'm wrong, but this sort of crazy statistic that to be a doctor in America you go to school for years, but you only take like something like one hour of nutrition.
Is that true?
And why do you think that is? Why are our medical schools not putting more of a focus on preventative medicine.
That was true in my time, and that was true for many years. That things are really changing a lot, Like I went to Cornell undergrad for nutrition and now they have a very strong program with their medical school
to kind of have a nutrition presence. It's definitely changing, but it's not changing fast enough and there's not enough knowledge, I think because we thought it was two different worlds, and like when I went to nutrition undergrad there was like two paths outside that you could be a dietitian and Most of those dietitians worked in the hospital or you could work for a food company. That was pretty much the two pathways for nutrition, Like medicine was not
one of the preferred pathways out of nutrition. It was like a completely separate world. And I think we're learning more and more about how food affects our bodies, Like you said, our mood, you know, fix the way we show up on a daily basis. So I think now people are connecting the two. But you're right, like it really took forever and it's still not enough.
So there's a lot of fads out there. There's a lot of just kind of things that we say, and I want to start hitting some of these, and we're rapid fire through best we can. I was lucky enough to have a wonderful general practitioner back when I was living in Los Angeles, and he was really early on on gut health. Yeah, and I know you preach a lot about gut health, but what does that mean and how can we have good gut health?
Okay, gut health is such a buzz you know phrase gut health. Gut health really changes the number one way we can change our gut is through diet. So nutrition is the pathway to better gut health. Now you know exercises too, So nutrition and exercise, those are the things that are going to heal your gut. And the gut is really the center of our gut brain connection. That's really the center of our bodies. It makes all the decisions.
And so when you take care of the mind, just like we talk about all the time, you have to take care of the gut as well.
Okay, what are the gut bombs? The gut don't what's the gut dos?
You know what, doctor Shaw?
I know one that you're going to say because I just saw it on your Instagram and as we were just on vacation in Mexico drinking a lot of tequila.
I don't want to hear it. I'm straight.
Yeah.
So, you know, the data on alcohol is so strong about the fact that you know, it's not about no alcohol if you love it, prefer it, but that whole thing about how we thought having a drink or two or three every night was going to be healthy. I mean, everyone intuitively knew that it wasn't really healthy, but you couldn't put your finger on it.
So now we know that it's really a lot less than we thought. That's beneficial for you. It's like two to three drinks a week. You can have them all at once, or you can have them spread out.
And obviously there's times you're gonna have more and less, but on average, if that's what you do, that's kind of the sweet spot. If you love to drink, don't love to drink, just stop it all together. So it has a prop you know, alcohol obviously is dehydrating, it's a toxin for your body, so your body has to work to get.
Rid of it.
It also has effects on the gut bacteria that are negative, so you really do want to limit or cut that alcohol out. That's one of the gut bombs. Another gut
bomb is antibiotics. Antibiotics have been overused for so many years, and you know you're going to you're in Mexico, people probably said to you, just take antibiotics with you in case like, or just take them in, take them in advance, or so much over use of antibiotics, and you know, antibiotics kill the bad bacteria, but they also kill all the other bacteria, so you're left with a sterile gut,
which is not what you want. You know, we are looking for a very We want an Amazon jungle like gut with lots of species and different like growth of bacteria because they help us flourish and get nutrients from foods. If you kill them all off by consistently taking antibiotics or over using them on your skin or eating foods with antibiotics in it, you end up with kind of
a barren field. You know, if you can see that visual between a barren field and a dense rainforest, that's what a lot of Americans live with.
Is that barren field.
We want to be in the rainforest, the Amazon. Yes, okay, So alcohol and antibiotics. Now I heard this comparison with alcohol, and please give it to me right with the information I heard on TikTok or something that if you think about, well, alcohol can clean a wound, right like in the movies, if somebody's got nothing to do, they pour vodka on their open wound. So someone said, think about what that's doing to your bacteria in your gut. It's fully killing everything.
Does alcohol kill everything in your gut?
I mean it's not that dramatic.
It's not like a wound, right because we do process some of it as it goes through our bodies.
Our bodies are really good.
At detoxing alcohol, as you note, but it's at some level that is definitely true. The more alcohol you drink, the worse it is for your gut.
You know.
The other thing that comes with alcohol often is the other gut bomb is ultra processed foods. Ultra processed foods now are proven to lower the length of life, make your body, you know, brain and gut depressed, and kill
the gut bacteria. And that's something I think we just don't talk enough about because it's almost like, you know, the backlash from diet culture is like, well, you should be able to eat anything, and you should eat everything, and you know, going through drive throughs is great, but you have to remember that this is literally killing the gun bacteria that you're so desperately trying to keep alive.
Can I ask you on that.
I'm gonna side step for a second, But that backlash with diet culture as a doctor, does.
That worry you?
Where we are now? Has there been too much of a swing the other way of every you know? I mean I love the phrase everybody is beautiful and I believe in it, but that kind of thought and rhetoric and as you said, backlash, are we going in a dangerous way of too much welcoming of everything.
Well, I think ozepic and all the GLP one agonies has changed that. I think now it's like open conversation to want to lose weight and to do it for your health. Like I think this is it's helped in opening up the conversation because I think for a long time you're right, like it was like you couldn't really say, nobody could say they want to lose weight.
It was like it was like a secret, right.
And then now because of all these medications, it's very open in a big conversation and everyone wants to be on them. And so it's really kind of now swinging back to the middle, hopefully.
And hopefully in a healthy way.
We had a wonderful doctor on a recent episode and we got into all of the different weight loss drugs with him. So we wanted to ask you kind of the we definitely want to get into the losing weight without those drugs. Maybe, But before we get off the gut bomb topic, say we've all just come off the holidays.
They had any great say we had.
A couple of cocktails is it hopeless or is there a way to reset your gut and fix it? And how do you get that good bacteria back.
Yeah, we're so plastic, like you know, plasticity in our brain, plasticity in our gut. We can change our gun in the matter of days, if not weeks, so we definitely have that power. There was a landmark study in Nature that showed that in three days of changing your diet very rapidly and very dramatically, they saw that the whole microbiome was shifting in its actial species.
So we have the power. They did the study, they thought it was going to be two weeks, so they took these They put.
People on a very high fat, high processed food like junk food diet, and then the next two weeks they were going to do like a really clean whole foods low sugar diet. And they found within three days of switching their diet they were already changing their whole microbiome. So there's there's a lot of hope out there.
That is good, thank God, because I know a lot of people listening right now are probably in the midst of you know, dry gen is.
Dry January very beneficial.
Yeah, dry January is a big trend this year, and it has been over the last few years, but definitely this year even more so. And I think it's because people are finally understanding the science behind alcohol and thinking like, okay, well if I can't, let me just see, Like they're just curious, like sober curious, like let me see how it's going to feel to stop for a month and then decide what I want to do in the long term. And I think that's a really, really great first step.
It's just taking a break and seeing how you feel.
Doctor a couple other things that are happening in January. You know, Dana White talked about this. He went on this like severe fast like a water fast, and I think it was you know, took some nutrients as far as supplements and stuff like that, but severe. And I have some friends that are like, I'm going to do a three to seven day severe fast. Is that a thing?
Yeah? So twenty four hour fast like a dinner to dinner fast is something that the Latter day Saints have done for you know, in their culture or in their religion, and they do it once a month, and the data for that is so strong, even when you control for all the other good things that they do in their lifestyle.
Like community and good food and whatever. They were able to see that doing this once a month, just dinner to dinner Sunday fast was extremely beneficial for inflammation and heart health. So that's something that I.
Think a lot of people can do doing longer fast.
I say, doing longer fast is like running a triathlon or an ultra marathon.
It's not for everyone, not everyone needs to.
Do it, but it's for those people who really want to push to the limits. And that's the people. It's like, it's like asking you, like, should you run a triathlon?
Like sure, like if you want to, but you don't need to.
Which fast is the triathlon? Is that the twenty four hour fast?
Would you go?
Yeah? Three, four or five?
So would you recommend to almost anybody do it one twenty four hour fast once a month?
Yeah, like once a quarter, you know, try it. So the way you would work up to it, though is first. The hardest thing for people, I think is doing an overnight fast. I know it sounds so stupid, but so simple, like, oh, what do you mean stopping at seven and eating at seven, eight, nine, ten, Like that's simple, but it's really not, because we live in a world where we're eating sixteen seventeen hours a day, like your last bit of food, your last snack, your
last drink. So what I tell people is like, start with extending your overnight fast.
Like, if you can get.
To fifteen hours, fourteen, fifteen hours pretty easily, now, that's when you know your body's probably ready for a little bit of.
A longer stretch.
But everyone should be able to do a twelve hour and then between twelve and fifteen. It may take some practice, and it sounds so simple, but like the first time I tried an overnight fast, it was really tough for me because I was used to having a chalk like a little bit of chocolate before bed. And you know, even that twelve to fourteen hours.
As her, we are so culturally trained to have dessert at night. I realized that because it's years of upbringing of like how do you end your night? Oh? Is something sweet?
Yeah?
And another a friend of mine, Kelly Levec, who's also great on Instagram, Yeah, that suddenly she talks about a lot. She's like, I don't give my kids dessert every night? Why has this become the norm?
Well? And Obviously, breakfast is breaking fast, that's the whole thing is in the morning. Can you also kind of get rid of maybe some misnomers whatever, what actually breaks fast in the morning. Can you get up and have coffee with no sugar? Can you have green tea with yeah, maybe a pinch of honey. But is it no more than seventy calories that activates the end zomes in your stomach?
Yeah?
Absolutely, so you can you really want to stay away from anything sweet like sugar, honey or sweeteners. You can have black coffee with the sposh of milk up to about I would say forty five calories is what we usually say. And you can keep your fast going. So if you wake up you know you started, you stopped eating dinner at seven, and you wake up at six am and you want to push it till eight nine, you know, whatever it is, then you can do that. And I am like a huge believer in breakfast. So
people always think like, oh, fasting means skipping breakfast. Actually, the data over and over and over shows that eating a breakfast is really healthy for your body, and you don't necessarily need to skip it to be fasting.
It is funny. It was like breakfast had the best pr campaign for a while. It's like it's the most important. Yes, say, then all of a sudden, there was such an anti breakfast Yes.
Well, no, this is exactly what I wanted to ask you about. I don't understand the difference of because for a long time I was just, I think, kind of a natural faster, like I didn't eat breakfast and I would usually eat a light.
Lunch as my first meal of the day.
Yeah, but then I had all of these nutritionists and trainers telling me, you got to eat something for breakfast. But what do you mean breakfast isn't breaking the fast?
This is confusing me.
Okay, So what I'm saying is that you can fast and still have breakfast, meaning that, for example, if you're someone who stops eating like six PM or seven p like I prefer that you have an early dinner.
Realistically, let's say eight o'clock.
Yeah, eight o'clock.
Yeah, people have kids and they're trying to get kids down and all that.
Absolutely, So eight pm to eight am is a twelve hour fast. Pm to ten am is a fourteen hour fast. And that's great, especially if you're someone who gets up in the morning. Wants to work out, and you have your first meal after you work out. So what I mean to say is that you don't need to absolutely skip breakfast to be considered fasting. In fact, I prefer that you move up dinner and have a really nice
time in the evening without food. That's harder, but it's just much more beneficial if you're someone who's trying to balance your blood sugar, trying to some belly fat, trying to activate your gut health, Like, try moving up that dinner time.
That's going to do a lot more.
And doctor, how important is it what you are breaking fast with is protein as opposed to cars?
Correct? Yeah, So I usually say for fasting is like the three apps. Okay, so you do.
Your fast overnight circadian style. I say circadian style because we live on the sun rhythm, and so trying to time it so that you're not eating a lot after sundown and eating short you know, not too much late at night that's the goal, and then having most of your meals during the daylight hours is like that's kind of that circadian rhythm. So fasting three apps are a
fasting fitness and then fiber protein food. So like you want to have your overnight fast, then you want to do something like get sunlight, get go for a walk, some little bit of fitness, and then you break your fast with high protein, high fiber, and fermented food.
Gotcha.
Wow, Okay the three f's I'm going to say afy out of that.
Yeah.
Can you talk though, because we have a really heavily female audience and I've gotten really into the fasting research over the last couple of years. But one thing I'm still super confused on is hormones and fasting and what works for women because I've seen like, yes, don't fast during your period or you know, menopause is going to change that, and women seem to have to deal with so many more factors.
When I went add on, is there a different length of time for women as.
Yeah, so absolutely so menopause is I would equate it kind of like the week before your period. Menopause and perimenopause symptoms feel like PMS basically the week before your period. Often feel cranky, you feel tired, you feel bloated, You're getting some water weight, and you just can't withstand the stress both physical and ment to that. You did, you know, the rest of the month so I know, for me that week before my period, I'm not training as hard.
I'm not going to be stressing my body as much. I'm not going to do as much fasting. I'm not going to do as much stressful activities at work. I'm going to try to listen to my body and be a little more cognizant about needing a little more rest. And that's something that happens more magnified during menopause, that transition, because you're kind of going through that hormone fluctuation like you were going through with PMS, and so doing shorter and easier fast is the way to go. Meaning that
doesn't mean you can't fast. It doesn't mean you shouldn't fast. It just means that you don't want to, for the first time do a twenty four hour fast that week before your period or when you're in the throes of menopause.
Got it? Okay? Did you write all that down?
Maybes?
I have so many I want to dive into.
Well, the second that you tell somebody you're having an incredible doctor on their podcast, they give you all their questions. So I also have a list of questions from my sister, my friends.
My mom, I just have like this list. Okay, but you do too, baby.
You know, let's get into something that we brought up and again was just from our most recent podcast. But ozempig and all the weight loss drugs.
Yeah, i' minjaro o.
Zimpig, Yeah, doctor shot. How do you feel about them?
What can they do to stay super fit without submitting to going on these prescription drugs?
You know, just like everything, I think we're kind of uh for telling a little bit of the future.
I think that whenever you have.
A lot of interest and a lot of excitement and lots of people doing something, it's almost.
Setting itself up.
For some kind of disappointment after right, Like anything you've ever seen that we've had that everybody was crazy about in terms of diet or food or it kind of becomes really really hot and then something happens and then it's not as hot anymore. I mean, I can't predict the future per se, but I do think that there's going to be something. We don't have enough data. We
don't have the trials that came out. They they're not looking at the amount of people that are taking it and the breath of people that are taking it, so we're going to see a lot. We're going to learn a lot over the next ten years about what's happening and the side effects and the things to watch out for. So I think I don't think that it's going to
be as crazy. I think things are going to settle down in terms of the regular person trying to use these medications because they're going to see the other flip side of it, which the you know, we've seen some of the flip side of it, but I think we're going to see it in big, big numbers as more and more people, you know, go on it and go.
Off of it.
Well, I don't want anything negative to happen, but you are giving me hope.
It's you know, too good to be each that's true, you know, it probably is. There's always a reciprocal balance. So there's always something that comes along with any drug you take.
Exactly, there's probably going to be something that comes out aside effect or kind of interaction or something that is going to be scary enough that the people that don't really need it are going to be scared off, and so then the people who really do need it, the people who actually are you know, very very sick and have tried everything else and are morbidly obese. You know, it's crazy to think, but we are at like forty percent obesity and probably approaching fifty percent and not to
many years. So there's a lot of people who maybe grew into like you're born into a family of you know, and your habits and your hormones and your gut are just programmed in a different way. And so I do think that those people are the ones who are going to actually really benefit from these in the long term. I think the rest of the people who are just doing it for you know, aesthetic purposes, I think there's
gonna be something that's going to deter them. But like you said, you know, it's like any fad, there's gonna be there's gonna be something, and it's not going to be a fad anymore. At least that's my opinion.
And this was a submission from a friend of mine. She had tried some of these weight loss drugs, and she said what struck her was how much it like numbs those cravings. She's like, you don't, It's like you're not reaching for the alcohol anymore.
You're not, you know, like, what can you do?
You have any advice then on how to deal with cravings without being on those drugs, because it blows my mind. How even for me, like we just said, at the end of the night, I'll be like, oh, I want a little piece of chocolate, or sometimes I think, oh, I just really want a glass of wine.
How do you fight cravings?
That's a great question. So GLP one, what these medications all help release is actually something that's natural in our bodies that we can release. So eating more protein, eating more fiber, eating more probiotic foods like these are dietary strategies to actually naturally produce GLP one and the other the other like leptin and other things that make you
feel full. That's what we want to concentrate on, is like how do we get more of that natural secretion, so you know, getting enough sleep, eating enough fiber, eating more protein, getting steps every day like these are always that we can actually naturally feel less.
Ratings, love it secretions, Yes, yeah, no, that really is helpful and again it gives me hope. And if people don't follow you, please again she's at fasting MD. One thing I love about you too is that you make your videos really fun, like with your daughter. She helps you film and you guys are super cute together. Are there concerns or things that you find yourself really talking to her about as a mom about all this stuff?
Like, what's one thing you feel like you see in.
The younger generation that you really want to instill Because we have a teenage daughter too.
No, so it's so hard to be a teen these days.
We've seen like even beyond I mean, everybody's blaming it on social media, but the pressure for them, the rates of depression and anxiety are just like at levels that we've never seen before, and we don't really know what it is, and so it has to be someone has to be social media because they're seeing other people. They're seeing people, you know, looking altered versions of themselves, skinnyer, beautiful, whatever it is. I think we have a lot of
conversations around that, like what's real, what's not? What is normal, what's not it's I think it can be very skewed when you're on TikTok of what's a normal girl and what's normal beauty and what's normal.
Daughters and ai.
I mean we all used to just deal with a photoshopped photo in Cosmopolitan magazine. Now it's constantly in the palm of their hands every day, and you literally can't tell what is a full AI creation.
Yeah, so we talk about that all the time, about you know, what's real, what's healthy, what's not, because I think differentiating that for them is so important. I really don't think that the answer is just don't let them use social media, Like, of course when they're young, you can do that, but at some level this is part of their life, so it's really just helping them navigate it.
You got to have that open dialogue. I mean, yeah, it really is. And now it's for all the parents listening out there and Laura and idea of it too. It's unbelievably tough.
Yeah.
And by the way, conversely, I wouldn't want to be a kid right now and trying to live their life. I mean, it's incredibly difficult.
But I think it's interesting. You say you can't keep them off social media. Do you just feel like that's not a realistic expectation, like it's out there?
Well, I think you can.
You can limit it, like, yeah, for example, my daughter goes to a school where they put their phones in a lock box at the beginning of the day and then they get it back at the end of the day. And I love that because I think, you know, then I don't feel so bad if she has an hour of social media or TV time later in the day, because I know that she's gotten a good education, she
had interactions with her friends. And then she also does dance like my daughter does dance, and so ad dance are not allowed to have their phone, so she has plenty of activities where phone is not allowed. And I think that's a great strategy for kind of balancing it all because I think having no social media is really really difficult, like my son. I have a son, and he tends to have no problem shutting it off. I
think it's a personality. It's also really ingrained in the social culture for girls, so I think it's a it's a little bit more difficult with them.
Okay, we can't keep you all day, but a couple more buzzworthy fads I want to deal with because I was actually talking about you this morning with a good friend of mine about saunas. It is such a big thing right now. People are buying saunas. There's the Red Light saunas, there's salt saunas, there's wet, there's dry. Is this a thing? And if so, which one? Why?
I think what Chris is asking doctor Shaw's does he have your green light to put a sauna in in our home. I was trying to get him a cold plunge also for Christmas, but I couldn't figure out the lists.
Truth be told. I love I was in a salt sna. I love a dry salt sauna. And you know again, I follow a lot of people that you know, believe in the exhaustion of the body and the stress of the body, and that's what the cold plunge is about. It's the immediate stress and and kind of sending your body to certain extremes in a safe way.
Yeah.
So sauna data is super strong, but the data, a lot of the data is out of Finland. The Finish sauna data is the strongest and largest databases because in Finland everybody does the sauna.
It is like a way of life. The control group, like the group.
That they is once a week and the intervention group was like four to seven times a week. I mean that's like a lot, right, So we have lots of good data from their culture. And so when people ask me, like what top is SNA. I always tell them the most data we have is from the Finish communities and they're all using that traditional dry sauna at one hundred and sixty seven degrees fahrenheit. So if you're following, you know, you want to follow it to the tea. That's what
I would do. Now, heat shock proteins can be produced with hot yoga, with steam room, with hot bath. There's some data on Japanese hot baths at one hundred or one hundred and three degrees fahrenheit that actually can also produce heat shop proteins. So heat shop protein is the magic. It's not necessarily don't necessarily need to be in a particular type of sauna. But the most data we have is a dry sauna. And then of course you can
probably extrapolate that to red light sna. You can probably extrapolate that to any kind of heat related stress, because as soon as you raise your core body temperature and those heat shop proteins are released, you start to get those benefits.
Yeah, we were up we I shot a show up in the laplands, essentially the North Pole, and you know they're doing it because you know the sun would come up at like ten thirty or eleven o'clock if it came up at all, and it would go down at two in the afternoon and it's dark, and so you know, they need that light and they get that vitamin D that way. And yeah, you know, obviously we don't need that as much in America, but still the idea of it works.
Now.
Sauna and the cold plunge. Everyone talks about the cold plunge people.
You're going to call this segment like truth behind the trends. I see everybody on social media with a cold plunge. Do you need to have one your home? How beneficial is it really?
Yeah?
I think it's two different things. So cold plunge really helps with inflammation. So if you're someone who is an you're an athlete, you need to recover from an injury, you have a lot of inflammation. That is definitely a great thing to have. I think that you don't necessarily need to have a cold plunge pool. You know, you could do ice bath, which is the old school way. You know, when people would come back.
From a game or be really sorees like sit in the ice bath, or you could just do a very cold shower.
I think the concept is just to be cold. Women sometimes don't need to be as cold, need to be in as cold water to lower their core body temperature. So a very cold shower could be good. But the sauna is a different thing. It's heat shot proteins, which
are like cardiovascular fitness. So if you think about it, heat shot proteins are like, if you went on a run, you would produce heat shop proteins, right, and so what if you went on a run and you sat in asana, you would get double or presumably a lot more heat shock proteins. And so it's mimicking exercise.
For you in so many ways.
For so the same cardiovascular mood, the brain, all those benefits come and growth hormone, which I think is like that was the deal breaker for me. I was like growth hormone, Give me growth hormone. I'm going to do the sauna.
Yeah, the ten to twenty minutes seems to be the conventional wisdom on those, depending on the temperature of it. Is funny because I mean this is a constant debate of you know, because guys are idiots. You know, we're not smart animals, as you know doctor. So it's like I could sit in the ice bath for thirty minutes, it's like you're past the point of diminishing returns here. Is is it that three minute kind of golden rule it's done its job? Or is there benefits to staying
in there for five minutes? Yeah?
I mean three to five minutes would be at the time that you don't need.
To go past that.
Well, you know, guys, it's like, well if one M and M is good, I'm gonna eat forty or if my.
Frind can do it and.
Ye yeah, like look how strong I am.
But is the idea of when you immerse it's the it's the shock and it's the it's what it releases in your body pretty much immediately.
Yes, And that's.
Why you were not supposed to do it after an intense training session if you're someone who's trying to grow muscle.
Because you want that inflammation.
So like when you people do it wrong, they think, Okay, I'm working out really hard and then I should just go immediately to the cold plunch. No, you don't want that, because when you're working out really hard, those inflammatory side of kinds and all the things that are happening in your body are sending signals for muscle growth.
They're going to be dampened when.
You go in that pocust right now, you've been doing it wrong.
Oh just blew my mind.
Oh no, wait an hour go first.
Okay, go or go cold plunch first.
Yeah.
Interesting.
If you're trying to build muscle, it's not like you're going to diminish all your returns.
But you're really think about it. You want to make side of kinds.
You want those signals, those injury muscle injury signals, you know, to be sent to say, hey, I need to build more muscle because we just work this out. All of that's dampened when you go waiting.
What about an hour? You said, yeah, bad, an hour.
Wow, he's the brain exploding emoji right now.
Oh no, this is why she's on the show. I know.
It's like a lot of people are doing it the wrong way because you don't feel like going in it in the beginning.
Well, the idea is, yeah, you've you've kind of torn your muscles, which is what you do essentially when you're working out or lifting or running or whatever. And you're like, the thought is, well, I'm going to stop that inflammation.
But some of that inflammation is good.
Yes, inflation in that situation.
So if you're someone who's trying to recover from injury, you go right away. But if you're someone who's trying to grow your muscles, you kind of want to sit in that inflammation a little bit.
So it's start off with that shock and start off with being uncomfortable, and then go work out.
Okay, really dumb, but basic question because I'm building muscle is something I'm trying to work on now. Yeah, should you protein before or after your workout? I heard somebody say the other day, never do a fasted workout, but you mentioned earlier you might not eat till after.
Yeah, that's I don't know if you've ever seen like if people have protein shakes, like as they're walking out of the class, and there's this whole theory that you needed to have protein right away, and so now we realize you don't you have to have you know, you.
Want to have it between within one to two hours of your workout, so before or after. It can be used at any time. I'd like to do it after.
Because I feel like when your glucos stores are low and you start, you replace your food to best chance absorb all that protein.
All right, doctor Seaw, I think you might blow our minds with these last questions that we have. Here a few more truth behind the trends. I'm going to start gross morning breath, mouth bacteria. I saw somebody the other day say that you should actually wake up, swush water around in your mouth and swallow everything that's like been in your mouth in the morning, because that's such good bacteria and.
You need it in your gut.
But then they like, but then you know, then people other people are like, no, that's the worst bacteria. You need a tongue scrape or brush your teeth first thing in the morning. What are we doing with that morning breath bacteria?
Okay, I'll tell you this.
There's really good data that shows that people who use antibacterial mouthwashed twice a day have a higher risk for hypertension and all.
These other cardiovascular diseases.
So we do have good bacteria in our mouth, and you don't need to use mouthwash. Like traditional mouthwash has antibacterial compounds in it, and using it twice a day is really bad for you. So there's an extreme right like don't do don't just use mouthwash. I know people who use mouthwash multiple multiple times a day. That is not good. Now, on the other hand, if you're using a toothpaste that's not antibacterial that I don't think that there's any reason to swallow the bacteria in your mouth.
I think we've.
Pretty much known that, especially if you have cavities or any kind of bacteria grow in your mouth, you don't necessarily want to swallow that.
All married couples are so happy get up, get rid of the morning breath people.
Yeah, just don't overdo it on the mouthwash, which I think a lot of people do.
I've heard that as well. Yeah, especially the heavy, heavy alcohol ladened versions that so we get.
At alcohol's bad. Okay, all right.
Number two supplements. There is so much out there about the different supplements we should be taking. I've heard there's a lot of people talking about colostrum right now. I know that you really preach about magnesium. Could you talk about those two and maybe add in to the mix any others that you think are just really underrated supplements that you'd advise people to take.
Yeah, I think.
Coloster is like a trend, you know, it's like every collagen trend. I honestly believe that this is not something that you necessarily need in your diet, so it's a nice to have or you know, full trendy thing ce mos jel, you know all these things that can't come up that just catch the wave. I think it's God,
it's kind of like that. There's nothing wrong with taking it, but I don't think it's an essential supplement for everyone and you don't need it necessarily when it comes to vitamin D, magnesium, Omega three, So those are the top three that I think I see a lot of people benefit from.
So vitamin D.
If your vitamin D levels low, easy to check, easy to supplement, makes a big difference. It works like a hormone hormone in your body. It is a immune booster, it's a gut health booster. I mean, vitamin D does so many things beyond what we think it does. Saying with magnesium, there's like, you know, hundreds of enzomatic processes
in the body that magnesium helps with. So having a high magnesium diet and then if you want to supplement, you can, especially women around that perimenopausal time, they really find benefit in having a higher magnesium diet. And then a new study came out that said, hey, if you eat five hundred and fifty milligrams of magnesium in your diet, you will have brain health that is much better over
the years, like as you age. And so now people are trying to get five hundred and fifty milligrams of magnesium and it's really difficult to do it with all diets. So that's why magnesium I think has become super popular. But it's something that you can get for nuts and seeds, and it's not you don't necessarily have to take a supplement if you don't want to, or if you're not in that special group of women who are going through perimenopause who might benefit from that just from their for
their hormonal symptoms. And then omega three is I mean, it's great for your brain. If you're eating a ton of omega three fatty fish, great, But if you're not, you can take algae oil, which is great for people or vegetarian, vegan or don't like fish. And these are you know, brain foods and gut foods, and these are things that can improve your body. I don't necessarily think
you need to take them all in supplement form. It's you're probably getting a lot of itamin D while you're out and you if you're eating a really healthy diet and your levels are normal, you don't necessarily need to be supplementing with it.
So it But those are the three that I think a lot of people benefit from.
Okay, great, my last question for you. I feel like my Instagram feed is full of people telling me if you grate lemon peel into your food, or if you eat six cups of broccoli a day, that you will reduce your risk of cancer by ninety percent. It's like all these things of these like I feel like it's just people creating content, like for the comments. And what are some foods that you actually recommend that have true and real anti cancer properties if those foods exist at all.
Yeah, fiber, I mean fiber.
So when I talked to the three f's and I said fasting, So fasting overnight is a great way to so when you get your glucose levels down and when you let your gut rest, you also improve your inflammation level. So that's a strategy for anti you know, like preventing cancer and inflammation. Then fitness, of course, exercise is a huge strategy strategy for bending off cancer.
And then the.
Food is really high fiber, high fermented, high protein diet meaning high fiber means broccoli, nuts, you know, salads, vegetables, fruit berries, those are like, that's what I mean by fiber, not necessarily a fiber supplement or something. And then fermented probiotic foods like your yogurt, your fermented cott of cheese, your apple side or vinegar, your kimchi, your souurkrap, a lot of these things that we don't have enough of in our diet.
Uh, is something.
That you we really see that improves gut health.
Are you an apple side or vinegar believer?
I'm not an applesider vinegar believer for the weight loss or whatever it's it's but it can be one of the fermented foods that.
You have, yeah, can help you get.
And then vinegar in general is really good blood sugar balancer, so adding it to your salads or whatever, and then eating enough protein but not too much. So protein over people who are high level bodybuilders and eating excessive protein that can be pro cancerous. But most women and most people I know, busy people I know, are are under eating their protein, especially as they age, So getting that
adequate protein is really good. But I would say The biggest thing you can do for to prevent cancer is that real food, fiber and exercise. So like the berries, the broccoli, the you know, all of those real foods that don't have labels.
That have a ton of fiber in them. They help your body clean out, especially especially those broccoli, cauliflower or sol sprout family. They have their sulfur compounds that really help clear out toxins from your body and help you prevent cancer.
Wow wow, doctor Shan, I feel like we have enough for multiple episodes. Thank you for giving me hope in the face of the ozempic craze.
Love it and for all this great advice.
I love it. Thank you so much for having me.
Doctor amy Shaw. You can follow her on Instagram.
At Fasting MD and see all of her cute videos. Thank you for making such bite size digestible.
Speaking of the guy Viberfield, I love it.
She gives you the three f's yeah and you give an F no. We really appreciate it. Thank you for your time, and we will because I know there will be more fads and more things, so we will have you on again.
I love it. Thank you so much for having me have a fun time there.
Thank you.
It was so good to meet Yeah Texans.
Thanks for listening. Follow us on Instagram at the most dramatic pod ever, and make sure to write us a review and leave us five stars. I'll talk to you next time.