Hello, ladies and gents Robert Sykes keto Savage.com.
And today I have special, guest David Krantz on the line.
We dive deep into genetics, we talk about our genetics, we
talked about how those genetic predispositions, can be changed
and turned on and off via our environmental factors.
We talked about epigenetics and how the decisions we make an
impact. Our Offspring.
We talk about the inner cannabinoid system, a subject
that I know very little about but he really opened my eyes as
to how that can impact everything we do.
Do how certain Gene Expressions can impact, you know, our
receptiveness of THC CBD and all the different interconnected
cannabinoids and the whole full spectrum, second speaks right?
I don't know that much about it but I really enjoyed the
conversation. David is a very smart guy and I
learned a ton and you will too. So without further Ado sit back
relax and enjoy the podcast with Dave currents.
Dave, will laugh. How are you, man?
I'm doing well. Robert, thanks for having me on.
Absolutely thanks for taking the time.
So you reach that Nanny on me. And I started kind of digging
into your background and kind of what you've been up to what your
what your focus is. And I was immediately drawn to,
you know, all the genetic work you're doing.
I just kind of want to dive into some background, kind of give us
a little bio one. What got you to the health and
nutrition space in the first place?
And then kind of dive into the Weeds on everything genetics and
all that, that entails. Yeah, sure.
So yeah. I like a lot of people Myself in
the health and wellness space because I had to figure out my
own health issues. And you know, in my early 20s, I
started having some weird health problems crop up.
And at this time, I was a touring musician actually.
And I was living you know pretty late late, late night lifestyle,
I would say, sometimes being out until 4:00 5:00 in the morning
playing gigs and just do and doing the thing.
And I really hadn't given a lot of consideration to what I was
doing with my health and then I started having these issues
where I would pass out randomly, like I would just buy the real
couple times where I woke up on the floor.
I didn't know what had happened and I was experiencing some
pretty severe nervous system dysfunction and I went to a
couple doctors well-trained cardiologists and people that,
you know, I was hoping they could give me some answers and
they really did and they really didn't have much for me.
They were basically like well, in an hour eyes, you're young
and healthy, you're just gonna have to learn how to deal with
this and Kind of embarked on the path of figuring out how to
affect my biology in whatever way I could.
And I got really into one of the biohacking world and that space
and found keto around that time actually and started making some
changes and saw some improvement in a lot of areas that I
actually didn't expect. You know, I was my cognitive
function came online in a way that I never experienced and
then this really interesting synchronicity happened.
Where I had been listening to this one podcast.
I think I listened to probably about 60 episodes of it.
I listen to every single one that was out there by this
doctor named Dan stickler, who was an expert in genetics and
epigenetics and using genetics to predict what diets work well,
and that kind of thing. And I was I was I was, you know,
I found this guy and I just thought there's no one else
really talking about this. And then, I took a walk on my
lunch break one day at work. I realize that the logo of this
podcast was literally on the building next door to me and it
turned out that the doctor actually had an office right
next door to where I was working.
And I initially just made an appointment because I wanted
some blood work done and it turned out, they're actually
looking to hire someone who had a background in audio,
engineering and music because they were wanting to create some
meditation programs and brainwave entrainment programs.
And I was like, all right, yeah, this is perfect.
Here is the life path thing. NG Just Happening unfolding in
front of me, so I started working for them and right
around the same time, this doctor developed a training
program for other coaches and doctors with his method of using
genetics and I was in the right place at the right time.
He asked me if I would help beta test this training program and I
actually said, No, at first, I was like, hey I'm a musician.
I'm not really a health practitioner like, I know I've
kind of figured this stuff out for myself, but wasn't really
confident to do it for other people.
And you kind of hold my arm a little bit and tried to convince
me and I finally said yes and ended up, taking this training
with him a couple times before he made a public and found, you
know, found myself as kind of an early adopter of this system
that really launched me into doing this work for other people
and found that I really had an affinity Affinity to it and
really enjoyed it and was able to take what I had learned with
my own health issues and apply them to other people and really,
you know, help people move towards Optimal Health and their
own Way, catch again, she had genetics.
Genetics have always fascinated me because it's something
that's, you know, you can't innately change.
Your genetic background but you can like turn these different
genes on based off of your environmental factors.
And, you know, that that's that's incredibly fascinating in
itself. But then this whole concept of
epigenetics and how, you know, what you do in your day-to-day
can have a direct impact on your Offspring and their offspring
for years to come like that, that it really Peel the layers
back and it makes you responsible for anything you're
doing in the day-to-day. Yeah, absolutely.
And it's, it's simultaneously. A really empowering perspective
for some people. And in another way, it can make
people feel guilty about not doing enough right right before,
like they had kids or something like that.
So I think it's an important thing to really think about how
to frame it. Well, for people and give people
the opportunity to like you said, no that they can change
their genetic expression. Which in a lot of ways can
override, Add some of the genetic predispositions that we
used to think we're way more fixed.
So that's what I do with clients is help them really understand
how their bodies are wired and then what are the environmental
variables that they can be matched up to that?
Will really allow them to thrive in a way that, you know, having
that information might, you know, might not be available to
you without really picking that apart.
When you're working with people, what is their initial like just
Outlook towards unix-like, do they This kind of, you know,
it's just my jeans. I have no control over it too,
kind of mentality and it just is what it is or do they feel like
they can actually, you know, sink their teeth into it and and
have a direct impact? Well, a lot of the people that
find me are already aware of the idea that they can have that
direct impact. I don't work with a ton of
people that have that fixed mindset.
I very selectively. Look for people as clients that
have that malleability and understanding.
But I Think there's always a few things, that psychologically
we're kind of holding onto around, you know, I'm going to
inherit this or I'm going to inherit that.
So, you know, I would say that my clients predominantly come
with the idea that they have control over their health, but
then exploring what that means. In a deeper context, is usually
really interesting because it can often lead to realizing,
hey, I have more control than I actually thought.
Can you take a moment to kind of shed some light on how Much
control. We actually have a mean.
We can't change our parents obviously, but, you know, just
kind of dive into how our environmental factors can turn
on or off these different Gene expressions.
And I feel like hearing that people like at the listen to
this, they just haven't no clue as to what they can control.
Just simply giving them some context I think would be would
be beneficial. Yeah, absolutely.
And maybe we should just do general definition of
epigenetics just just just start.
Yeah. So you know when I was Has
taught biology and high school class, you know, I we learned
the central dogma of biology, which was the truth for many,
many years. And it still is part of the
truth. But at this is the idea that
your genes code for proteins and those proteins code for traits.
And this idea leads to people thinking that okay these traits
are fixed, right? Your you have this code, it
doesn't change your hair color is going to be a certain color.
Your eyes are going to be a certain color.
Your disease risks are going to just kind of be If they are and
then really the first inklings of this happened around 30 years
ago or so. And in the past, 15 or 20,
there's been an absolute revolution in the understanding
of what genetics are really doing and this is epigenetics,
which is talking about these markers that get put on to the
genetic code. That, like, you said, either,
cause genes to get turned on or get turned off and you can
imagine it kind of like each one of your jeans.
Kind of has like, a different Dimmer switch on it.
And when that, when you encounter something in the
environment, you put something in your body, you're exposed to
stress. Pretty much anything, you can
imagine in your daily life. Your body is responding to that
and going maybe we should make more of this certain stress
hormone to respond to the stress, or maybe we should
create more of this neurotransmitter in order to
respond to the situation. And so all of these biochemical
reactions in the body have these genetic Opponents to them.
And what they found is, some things are relatively stable but
a lot of the things that we experience are very adaptable
and very changeable. And the predominant view right
now, is that our genes are less. The say the, the blueprint for
our bodies like we thought, then they're more the environmental
sensors that change that blueprint, dynamically.
And so what What I mean by this is like you know people used to
think that over going to find the depression Gene you know
we're going to find this Gene that makes people more depressed
or we're going to find the the the heart disease Gene and very
quickly. Once we map the human genome, we
realize, okay there this way more complex than that.
So then they started looking at okay.
Maybe we can look at you know 50 different genes that all
combined together and those are going to be the set of
depression genes and the started looking.
Like that and realize. Okay?
It's actually more complex than that.
And really what it is is certain genes create sensitivities to
the environment. So say someone has a variant
that might predispose them to depression if they're exposed to
higher levels of stress at this particular time in their life
you know early childhood or they might have a gene that
predisposes them to higher heart disease risk but only if they're
eating the wrong type of fat for their body, right?
It's that new tits, the the environment Gene, interaction
that matters. So what that really means is
that if you kind of match yourself up with the right
environment so you have the hired, predisposition towards
depression. Well, if you do the things to
mitigate stress, you do the things to develop positive
relationships and you do the things that lower inflammation
in the body. And look at it from from all
these different layers. Then your risk of depression
might Sleepy lower than someone with the quote unquote, normal
variant of it and same thing with say heart disease.
If you match yourself up say you have the some of the variants
that can create higher risk with the wrong types of fat.
And you know, I think this is important for people listening
from a keto perspective. You know, you do match yourself
up with the correct types of fat for your body then and you do
exercise and you lower inflammation, then your risk of
heart disease. You know probably will go down
significantly lower than someone with the quote unquote, normal
normal variant. So people with the less
sensitive variants might be able to get away with more so to
speak in life. But people with the more
sensitive ones, they're actually can be advantages to that when
you're in the right environment, in the right setting, putting
the right things in your body. And so, one of the things I
love, I love to stress with my clients.
Is that, you know, there really aren't good or bad genes.
They're Just genes that are suited for different
environments. Yeah.
That to me makes a lot of sense and I feel like a lot of people
you know, they they try and base everything off of what their
genes are telling them that they're like a 23andMe test and
they'll base all their environmental factors off of
those, you know, predispositions.
But I feel like it's just so much more complex than you can.
You can based off of anyone tells like really have to dive
in deep. And there's, I mean, I don't
know what the gray of variance there is between how much These
environmental factors have on your epigenetic factors going
forward. But I feel like it's empowering
to know and that what your jeans are is not your end all be all
like you can have environmental fluctuations that you have
complete control over for the most part that can have a
positive or negative effect on whatever your Gene
predisposition is. Right.
Exactly. And and that's the trouble with
something like 23andMe or a lot of the other direct to Consumer
tests that you can go out and get Is that they don't usually
do a very good job of explaining like, okay, you have a say
higher heart disease risk. Well, what are the the factors
that might change that, right? And 23andMe doesn't really
provide that information and it takes a lot of kind of higher
level of understanding to really incorporate that.
And the other thing that's really important, like you said,
in terms of the complexity is genes are not very good at
predicting the stuff on their own, what really?
Ders is the combination of understanding your genes and
then understanding what's expressing right now.
So if you go out and take a test, unless you're doing an
interview with someone who's running the tests and they know
about, you know, what's what's been your struggles?
What's your goals, are where you're at, you know, like adding
that level of information really gives you the ability to use the
genes in a way that allows you to make much stronger
recommendations to say. Oh, You know, you've got some
penis pictures and Streaker Gene to express like this.
They clearly are expressing in this way or they're not
expressing in this way. It maybe it's because you've
already done something, you know, in your life you've
already matched up some of these environmental factors.
So the the real art of using this information, you know, just
like a blood test. It's like you can go out and get
a blood test online. But if you don't know how to
look at patterns, you know, like looking at how different blood
markers, relate to other ones, you're going to Miss a lot of
the important information. So you know, I'm passionate
about like helping people use this information well, because
there's a lot of kind of half-assed, use of it out there
right now is the way I feel about it.
Yeah. And it's just interesting
because it it goes far beyond just like your, you know, direct
environment effects. Like it goes to to
supplementation. For instance, some people are
going to be able to uptake caffeine and the body's gonna be
able to use that. More so effectively than others
that have the improper, you know, gene expression for fully
utilizing caffeine intake. Absolutely.
And then one of the interesting things about that is a, you
know, there's most genes have multiple functions like the gene
that codes for the breakdown of caffeine, that's you can kind of
loosely classify people as like, a fast or slow metabolizer
caffeine that same enzyme that that Gene codes for also breaks
down melatonin. So again, it's like, you know,
people think of like oh I've got this low caffeine metabolism
like a you know that's a bad thing.
But there's actually an advantage to that from the
Melatonin perspective because you can carry higher levels of
melatonin and Night Longer throughout the night.
So, there's always these kind of trade-offs in terms of how we're
suited to the environment. I feel like this has become a
very, you know, quote-unquote Sexy Thing lately, like this
whole Gene, you know, expression likely diving in that and I feel
like because it's become so, so popularized, like you're saying,
there's a lot of just really, you know, Ignorant informal
testing mechanisms out there that do not paint, the perfect
picture by a long shot because I feel like I did one a while
back. And it was telling me that like
I would not be able to digest fat very well and I mean, it's
obviously not the case. So, like for anybody listen to
this, if they really want to dive in and kind of go the right
path instead of just, you know, being led astray and, you know,
doing some random generic, you know, ignorant testing format,
what do you recommend for them? Yeah, you know, I recommend they
work with a professional, you know.
I think it's it's nice that people can go out and get these
tests. But I'll tell you in terms of
the level of Education that it really takes two to know how to
integrate this information. I think it's really worth
working with a coach, or a Doctor Who's familiar with using
this stuff. Because when you see something
on the test, like, okay, you know, you can't digest fat
really well. It's important to be able to
know what that Gene is. Is actually coding for the gene
itself. Probably is not coding for your
body ability to break down fats, probably coding for a, you know,
something like protease or lipase or something like that.
And then if you can look at how that's linked up to say, other
genes that also might influence that that's really helpful.
So you know, working with someone who kind of who can look
at this. From a complex systems
perspective, I think is really the way to go and it's not to
say that you can't get. Formation on your own.
Like there's there's good information out there.
It's just a matter of you really want to spend the time digging
deeper than what the kind of stock.
Top-level answers are four things, right?
So like getting you keys at 23andMe to get like just the raw
genetic data. But then linking up with an
expert that can actually go over that data in a simulator for use
key, right? I think that's really important
and I'll have so many people that come to me after they've
tried to figure this. Tough out on their own and like,
you know, they get some information out of it but
eventually they go, how do I, what do I actually do with this
stuff? So you know, I see a lot of
opportunity for people that are interested in understanding
their genetics to work with someone who can give them a
higher level perspective on it. Have you ever interacted with
dr. Anthony J.
I know the name, but I don't think so.
He's a genetic Guru, as well him down at the farm.
And we went over all of my data, just incredibly smart
individual, but he's really opened my eyes to how like like
certain chemicals that we come in contact with, like, just
day-to-day household chemicals, like, certain Fabrics on the
clothes that we wear can have a, an epigenetic effect on like,
are hormone levels and estrogen levels.
I had no idea that it went that deep but it's truly eye-opening.
When you start going on, It'll absolutely when you look at
things like pcbs and BPA. And all of these common toxins
that are in Plastics, and like you said, household cleaners,
and beauty products and phthalates, you know, things
like that. Most of the toxic effects of
those things are happening on the epigenetic level, and
they're causing for example, with something like BPA, that's
an endocrine disruptor. Disruptor, it's causing genetic
it causing genetic expression changes to the genes that
control hormones like testosterone or estrogen.
So it does go really deep. It is kind of the deepest layers
there are and and this is also something that you know you
mentioned before around the transmission of this to Future
Generations. It's not that we're just
transmitting the chemicals themselves in terms of you know
Stored in spinal fluid or whatever.
You know, we're actually transferring the chemicals
physically. We're often transferring the
epigenetic effects of those toxins and chemicals that then
Mark the next Generations genes in a similar way.
So we're really talking about when we're talking about getting
rid of environmental toxins were talking about the toxins
themselves but also the residual effects of them as well.
ENC this, I mean this is just incredible.
Fencing and I don't know, I don't know this information very
well at all. But you know, people just assume
that, you know, what their genetics are is simply that they
have no control over them. And then any, you know,
offspring that have going forward that mean, it just kind
of, it is what it is, but like to really drill down into this
and see how your lifestyle factors and decisions, you know,
whether you're drinking smoking training, sleeping, like all
these things can have a direct epigenetic effect on on your
lineage. It really Lee makes you or
should make you open your eyes to the fact that you, you have
responsibility over this and like you owe it to your kids
sake. I've nothing else to make sure
you get your shit together for lack of a better word, right?
Absolutely. And I'll try to look at it even
on a more Global level like from the whole species perspective at
this point, like are we gonna be the carriers of The genetics and
epigenetics that are going to make our species sicker and
sicker and more depressed and fatter.
Or we going to take the accountability that we have and
try and shift that and like you know this isn't a metaphorical
thing at all like there's not a tremendous amount of studies
because it's hard to look at generational effects in a
rigorous controlled kind of way in humans.
I mean in and mice there's tremendous.
And a studies that show the effects of this transmission.
But there are a few instances instances where there's been say
world events that you can go back and track.
What happened in future Generations.
Like there's a there's this kind of archetypal example.
They called The Dutch hunger famine where in World War Two
and area of Holland was blockaded from getting food for
about six months and there was widespread famine in this area
and what They found is that women that were pregnant and at
that time depending on whether they're in the first second or
third trimester, when they had limited food resources, their
kids would have different health effects.
Like some had higher propensity for obesity like way higher than
average, some had higher propensity for type 2 diabetes,
way higher than average and some actually had propensity to be
really thin and it Ended on what phase of pregnancy that they
were kind of starved in and beyond that.
They've actually tracked, grandchildren and found that
those effects are passed on to grandchildren as well.
So and they're not totally linear.
It's like the sometimes things will skip a generation or only
be president in males versus females.
And you see this also in children and grandchildren of
Holocaust Survivors, which actually is One of the big
reasons why I was so fascinated with this information at first
my grandparents on my mom's side were in concentration camps in
Poland and so I'm a I'm part of what I'm about to describe in
the study is that children and grandchildren of Holocaust
Survivors tend to have heightened stress responses and
more propensity for anxiety. And when I look back and look at
that stuff that was going on my early twenties with the nervous
system, dysfunction. I That I was actually set up in
some ways from an epigenetic, expect perspective to respond,
abnormally to like minor stressors in this kind of really
exaggerated kind of way. So so my path has been a lot of
meditation. A lot of breathing techniques, a
lot of things that really work to epigenetic alter some of
those stress related genes. Well, it's crazy because like
you start looking at just to current day and age, you know,
like with what we have going the world with the virus right now
and Everybody is like like just you know shutting themselves and
their house and basically living in a bubble.
I mean I don't think it's too much too kind of anticipate that
that's going to have an epigenetic effect on possibly
future Generations immune system.
Like if you're just stuck in a bubble and not going out and
always wearing a mask and you're not being exposed to just
day-to-day normal bacteria that you would probably build up an
epigenetic. No tolerance for maybe a totally
off the off the wall, but it makes sense to me.
Yeah, you know, I Think that I'm personally more concerned about
the stress effects, you know, I think people even if they're
wearing a mask and they're in, you know, more inside, I think
there's still getting some degree of bacterial transfer.
But I would be more way more concerned about the effects of
stress at this point on future Generations.
Just in terms of the financial and security of the people are
experiencing. I mean, we've seen, you know,
suicide levels domestic violence, all these things Spike
and there's Just robust data that stress, both during
preconception, like before you even get pregnant.
That like the three-month period is a critical window of what's
going on before you get pregnant.
What what's programming, sperm? And egg selection as well as
during pregnancy? I mean, chronic stress is really
detrimental to Future Generations like that.
So I mean I yeah I'm concerned I and and incidentally that will
probably also Actually immune system as well.
I would attribute it more to the stress response and, you know,
you kind of want to think about it.
Like, when our bodies are conceiving, we're trying to
select egg and sperm in a way that prepares the future
generation to be able to respond to what the current environment
is right now, for the parents. So if we're in a high-stress
environment, we're going to try and set up.
Up our kids to have this heightened stress response,
that, you know, is adaptive, right?
None of these things are pathological.
They're all just adaptations and unfortunately when we're putting
ourselves in an environment that looks like an adaptation that
creates more anxiety or depression as a way to respond
to this. It's like, you know, that's what
we're seeing right now. And yeah, I'm pretty concerned
about that as well. This would be an impossible
question to answer and Except I'm not even fair question to
ask, but I'm just curious, but with what you're seeing and what
you know about genetics epigenetics and kind of how our
lifestyle factors and environmental factors impact,
this egg and sperm selection and just, you know, future
Generations. Do you feel like just our
population as a whole? I mean, you look at what people
are consuming from a nutritional standpoint, how their living
from a lifestyle standpoint. I mean, they're definitely
outliers for sure. But, do you feel like we're
headed in the right direction? Trajectory the wrong trajectory
without me to Doom and Gloom. Here I would say on average
probably the wrong trajectory. But again, I have faith in the
outliers, I have, I have General Faith, you know, I'm an optimist
overall. I think that people are aware.
There's something wrong here. There are people are aware that
food. They're eating isn't real food,
you know, and I like to work with the outliers that are aware
of this stuff in hopes, that that understanding will spread.
And I'm totally not an expert on policy or ways to shift this in
a mass level. But I do sense that there's a
Bit of a kind of shift in the general desire to have a better
healthier lifestyle overall. And think people generally
recognized that like, pumping ourselves Pharmaceuticals, and,
and Fruit Loops, like just isn't a health-promoting thing.
Now, the behavior change aspect and getting out of the habit of
that, that's a totally different conversation.
I think a lot of more people want to do that.
Then are able To right now, you know?
Yeah, that makes sense. And I don't want to be so stuck
in my echo chamber of like the biohacking, ketogenic, low-carb,
space that I don't, you know, see, things holistically, I
mean, because it just seems like everybody that I'm interacting
with the communicating, with, on a regular basis, they're all
relatively educated in the know about epigenetics and kind of
the compounding effect that has. So I'm always curious to get an
outside perspective on what the overall pulse of the community
is. So it's super interesting for
sure. Sure.
But yeah, we got we got to be optimistic again.
No, good in being pessimistic with it, but realistic the same
time. Yeah, realistic and you know,
again it's there's the the complex interaction between
personal choice and desire and then say economic status and
what the broader kind of abilities of people are to say
get information and you know you some people don't even have
internet access, you know, it's kind of that.
Um, it is easy to get stuck in her own bubbles of like of
like-minded, people who really are passionate about this stuff.
I would love to see the mentality of just Wellness in
general, be a more broadly adopted and I mentality and the
general public, you know, I think every everyone benefits
from that right hundred percent, you had mentioned like breathing
techniques for stress reduction. You kind of dive in a little bit
further. Oh yeah, sure.
So where do you want to start? I could talk about some
different different aspects of it.
Yeah. Yeah.
I mean just kind of like make it applicable.
I mean I'm always stressful knowing some good, go to
brilliant techniques. Probably beneficial sure.
So there's two that I really like that.
I teach to two clients kind of right away.
The first one is what I call this belly breathing and this is
really Are you breathing, low, and slow?
And by low, I mean, you're actually instead of centering
your, your breath, into your chest, which is how most people
breathe, you're really pushing it down into your diaphragm.
And the reason for this is that there's a nerve in the body
called the vagus nerve that connects the brain to all of the
other organs in the body. And it also is responsible for
The branches of the nervous system and controlling our fight
or flight response and a relaxation response.
And there's actually a ton of these nerve endings in the
diaphragm area in the stomach because it connects to all these
organs. And so when you physically
extend and distend your stomach in your diaphragm and that way,
you're actually stimulating the vagus nerve and that can help
physically calm your body down. And trying to do this at a rate
of about five or six seconds on the in-breath five or six
seconds on the out-breath has been found to be kind of the
optimal breathing rate for doing this.
So you know, an easy way to do it is you put one hand on your
chest, kind of right over your heart and one hand.
Right over your stomach, over your belly button, and you just
feel where your breath is, moving your body and slowly, you
just try and move the bottom hand.
And more with each in breath and out breath, and kind of shift
that Focus from the chest breathing down to the belly
breathing. And this is a good exercise to
do. You know, just three to five
minutes can make a pretty big difference.
And this is also something that can be helpful for improving
actually recovery. From exercise, the vagus nerve
and that parasympathetic sympathetic nervous system
response is really important in terms.
Of heart rate variability. And, you know, it's a
measurement that a lot of people will use to gauge Readiness for
extreme training that type of thing.
And look at how that changes and how people recover.
So optimizing kind of the vagus nerve optimizing.
The branches of the nervous system can actually help your
body recover from from heavy exercises as well better.
And in general, I mean it it is going to improve mood.
Improved stress, response, improve, Oof anxiety, and mental
looping, that type of thing, and it's a good thing.
Just to practice for 5-10 minutes a day, if you can, I've
been trying to do stuff like this, like the, the breathing
techniques prior to consuming a meal, because I used to just
like scarf down a Maryland and not think twice about it.
But then I got to thinking, you know, your if your body is in a
sympathetic State, you're not really absorbing all of those
macronutrients. So you can be consuming, you
know, a very specific, you know, counted out number of protein
fat and Hundreds, whatever. But if you're not absorbing it,
what's the point? So kind of focusing on my
breathing in reaching a parasympathetic State before
food consumption. I feel like that makes it pretty
tangible difference. Yeah.
Absolutely. That's actually in a person.
Oh exploration of my to recently are really trying to track that
and see how my body responds. And yeah, I think that's
critical like, sometimes it's how you eat is just as important
as what you eat, I noticed, like, I would do this, you know,
in my contest prep one, my calories were very low, and I
would notice that my satiety would actually be noticeably
better on days where I would focus on breathing prior to that
meal because it's like, my body was actually absorbing the
nutrients rather than just being flushed through my system.
And because I Better nutrient absorption.
I had more steady throughout the day.
Totally. And it's like, if you think
about it, you know, how is your body going to respond to eating
while you're running from the tiger vs.
Eating while you're sitting kicking back and enjoying life?
Like that's, there's going to be some different hormones secreted
in those different situations. Definitely, definitely.
What was the other brilliant? You said there's two that you
typically go to from the get-go? Yeah, yeah.
The other one is called box breathing.
And this comes actually from military from From seal special
training that type of world and the, the pattern is breathe in.
For four counts. You hold that for four counts
and you breathe out for four counts and you hold that for
four counts. So you can imagine it's like a
box with four equal sides and it's a really good focusing
breath. It's it's like more of a in a
tactical situation I need to call my body down really quick.
I need to be able to Locusts and know what my surroundings are
and just put my body in a state where I'm in flow.
So it's a really good flow. Kind of breaths a little bit
more of an active thing than the belly breathing and the the
pausing in between the in-breath and the out-breath is really the
key with it. So it's just four counts based
on each side of that box in out in out and just repeat.
Yep. Nice in hold out, hold Gotcha.
Gotcha. You would also mention come
before I started recording, how you taken a keen interest
towards the genetic. Predisposition of someone and
their body's ability to benefit or not benefit.
I guess from certain cannabinoids and all that this
is unchartered territory for me, for sure.
So I'd love to kind of just dive into that because there's a lot
of interest around, you know, CBD THC has become legalized in
a lot of states. And again, this is not my area
of He's managed imagination. So shed some light on that for
me. Yeah, absolutely.
Well, you know, even if it's not your area of expertise, I'm sure
you've noticed that some people are just naturally attracted to
cannabis. And some people really could
care less, or really don't like it.
And there are some pretty strong genetic correlations with these
Dynamics, in the way, people respond to cannabinoids and I
got really interested in this a couple years ago when I was
getting Ting first getting into the Nutri genetics with
nutrition and what we're just talking about and realize
there's actually quite a few good studies on the same gene
variations and response cannabis and there just wasn't a lot of
people talking about it. So I've actually over the past
couple years developed a test that looks at response to
cannabinoids and some of the things that you can really
predict well are things like how you metabolize and breakdown.
HC. Are you someone that's going to
be very sensitive to it or someone who can probably take
higher doses of it and be okay? Things that influence cognitive
function, you know, there's kind of the the stereotypical notion
of like the stoner who can't get off the couch and can't remember
anything nurses, say someone like Snoop Dogg who has you know
built an Empire while smoking blunts.
So clearly there's some type of different In difference in
Constitution. And so a lot of the studies that
have been done are actually on cognitive function and response
to th see when people use it. And, you know, doing things like
consuming THC and then giving people memory tests or looking
at reaction time and various domains and you can get a feel
for. Are you some of that's going to
be more or less functional with this and art and ways to change
supplements or other herbs or different?
Trains to kind of interact with that.
And furthermore, one of the other strength is actually
predicting negative responses from th see, you know I'm
generally Pro cognitive Liberty, like the idea that people should
be able to put whatever they want in their bodies and change
their Consciousness and whatever way is you know they choose as
long as it's not harming other people, but at the same time,
you know, being relatively pro-legalization, I think it's
equally important to talk about the potential risks.
And for certain people THC, use does increase the risk of
psychosis or schizophrenia, and there's some genetics that it
can be informative around that. In terms of looking at, hey,
does this pose more of a risk for U-verse other people,
especially in the context of a younger?
You know, not fully developed individual front.
Right? Exactly.
And you know, most, I would say that for the majority of people
that are younger, it's probably a good idea.
Not to use th see each other. It is more developed.
I certainly didn't follow that when I was younger and I wished
I had, I wish I had now, but yeah I can definitely give you a
better indication of you know, are there other risk factors
with it for most people know? But for certain people it's
worth having that conversation. I think as real as a responsible
Pro cannabis person, got ya I got ya.
This this is it's interesting to me because there's always like
this, you know, shade of gray. Ray and people always want to
compartmentalize and put in, you know, black and white.
But I said I don't really know much about near the legalization
to politics, anything like that. But I've been like really just
diving into what people are saying and kind of where they're
coming from, what they've got, like an educated responsible
reason for what they're advocating for and the more the
deeper, I dive, it becomes just more and more apparent that it's
so individualized. And now that we're seeing how
the genetics can have such a, you know, Impact on how they're
going to respond. That makes sense.
That would be very individualized.
Yeah. And, you know, one thing that's
kind of important to know is you see CBD is being touted for
being good for so many different things.
It's like if it's a condition, it works for someone for it, you
know, it can help you win the lottery.
It can do everything but and you know, that confuses a lot of
people. But the one thing that is really
critical is that the endocannabinoids Annoyed system
itself, The receptors that are scattered throughout the body
are present on essentially every single cell type.
So every system of the body has a back door through the
endocannabinoid system, which is why you see it so effective for
so many things, the nervous system, you know, the pulmonary
system, every system in the body has a relationship to the
endocannabinoid system. So for certain people if that's
Imbalanced adding CBD or in some cases to uh see might be the
solution for those. Those people if they're not
getting success from other routes, that are not really
looking at that that layer that sits underneath these other
systems. So it's it's incredibly
individual and there's something that's known as the
endocannabinoids high deficiency hypothesis that, you know, I
think is worth mentioning and in that some people are prone
naturally to have Higher lower levels of their own cannabinoids
that the body makes you know with usually think about
cannabinoids as things from plants or synthetic things.
But our body also produces our own, which is why we have these
robust receptor systems all throughout the body.
And there's certain traits that go with either deficient
cannabinoids or excess like obesity is actually associated
with having high levels of your own endocannabinoids on the flip
side. I'm like anxiety is associated
with low levels and so depending on, you know what, the person's
health status is and what goals they have.
You might look at different cannabinoids for those things
and looking at the genetics can also give you an understanding
of, you know, are you more or less likely to carry higher or
lower levels of cannabinoids? So that's another genetic factor
that some people can be more predisposed to and this inner
cannabinoid system. Emits, I've heard it referred to
as Like the, you get the, the, your brain obviously, and you've
got your gut, which is often times referred to as the second
brain. And then this inner cannabinoid
system is, I've heard it referred to as like the third
brain, almost I would say that's pretty accurate.
One of the things that it does and it is, is it can balance
neurotransmission in a way that if you have neurons that are
say, under firing it can actually speed up the
transmission cause them to kind of it's almost like an adaptogen
and endocannabinoids can also inhibit over transmission of
neurons so it does act as this balancing agent in that kind of
way. So like like marijuana for
instance, that has gaetz, you know, the full spectrum.
So it's got all like how many different cannabinoids are
there. There is actually over 100.
We know right now about maybe what, eight, to ten of them do
pretty well. And of those eight THC, and CBD
are really the only ones that have had significant clinical
trials on them. So this is why a lot of people
are so excited about it is because it's kind of a wild wild
west. Stand wide open for future,
exploration. And we are understanding of it
is very, very small right now. Catch it.
Catch it makes sense. Yeah.
I feel like, you know, CBDs have gotten just this massive amount
of hype, but I feel like some of the marketing is ahead of some
of the science guys. Like you see this this
marketing, you know, freight train coming everywhere, but I
am curious to dive deeper into this and see, you know, from a
genetic standpoint but also from like a, you know, if someone's
got a deficiency, could this? This, you know, benefit them in
some form of fashion, get something firing more
effectively. It's interesting to make it, you
know, all full circle and see how, you know, how your
environmental factors, what your trainings like what your
nutrition is like and then this no third, brain inner
cannabinoid system, how that can be also leverage to reach a
specific goal, right? And I love the way you phrase
that, I mean, I look at cannabinoids as just another
piece of the whole system's puzzle, right?
It's, you know, I think that's part of the the marketing hype.
That frustrates me is the idea that a will, you just need to
use CBD and you know, the then that's that's it, right?
It's now, it's part of the regimen, it's part of the
routine. And for some people, it can be
profoundly helpful, especially for things like, you know,
anything, that's inflammation, related, it is very worth
trying, and one of the actions of CBD that I think is often,
overlooked is CBD doesn't directly activate cannabinoid
receptors really very very weak. Interaction THC is a, you know,
powerful Agonist at receptor so it directly activates them.
One of the things that CBD does really well is it inhibits the
enzymes that break down some of our own cannabinoids.
So it raises the levels of our cannabinoids, the ones that are
in our body that, you know, that are in psychoactive that just
act as these regulatory. Actors and so CBD gives our
body, you know, if we are out of balance and we are not producing
enough of our own endocannabinoids for whatever
reason, CBD kind of corrects that balance at the level of
allowing our body to kind of produce the, the biochemicals
that it's used to rather than, you know, something like THC,
which again, can be really useful, but it's a little bit
more of a, how do I put this? Kind of shock to the system in a
way, you know, there's a little bit more of a of a downstream
effect potential for THC, where the CBD is very gentle and its
action in terms of how it just gets your body to have more of a
substance. It's producing naturally.
Anyway, now in regards to cvd, is it better?
Or is it in different to have like a CBD isolate or one?
That's like a full spectrum CBD that has, you know, Amounts of
the entire Spectrum. Yeah, I think the full spectrum
is pretty critical and the the study seemed to show that you
can just the the effects are much stronger at lower doses
with the full-spectrum first isolate and so for your
listeners you know there's different forms of CBD out
there. Some are going to be you know,
just the CBD molecule completely isolated on its own and then
there's other ones that Tain, the full bouquet of cannabinoids
and terpenoids, which are the flavoring molecules at the
plants produce in the in the product and they found that
there's something called the Entourage effect where multiple
terpenes together combined with these cannabinoids, in the way
that the plant produces them tends to increase the Synergy of
these compounds. So, one of the things that they
found Is that with isolate, you have to be very precise with the
dosage. There's a window where not
enough doesn't work the right amount works but then you can
actually overshoot it and too much doesn't seem to have a
positive effect for some reason, the Entourage effect, or taking
it with the full bouquet of terpenes and other cannabinoids
seems to make it so that it's you don't actually overshoot it.
You can just keep using higher Doses and it still works.
You don't have that belt. Curved as much as you do with an
isolate. So that's one of the issues with
the market right now is that there's a lot of companies just
producing cheap isolate. That is kind of crap.
So I think it's really well worth knowing your Source
knowing the analysis of the product you're using and making
sure that you're getting something with, at least the
full range of terpenes. And it, the you Find some good
Blends that don't have th see in them that the THC has been
removed. But you have to make sure that
the company is our that you that are using a process that is not
heat or solvent-related that damages other terpenes.
And there are some that can do that.
But in general you know I'd say go for the full spectrum.
When you can, is there like a specific company or brand?
You recommend vouch for just being high quality.
Yeah. There's one that I really like
called on. The hemp or I'm a healing, a
MMA. They've got some really
excellent products. I'm an advisor to them full
disclosure but I agreed to come on because I took a look at
their supply chain transparency and their ethos and what they're
doing in terms of really making sure that the product quality
comes first. And so I'm really confident and
what those guys do very nice. Is there any like I know we
talked about how, you know, certain individuals can have a
genetic makeup that is going to To potential adverse effects
from large dosages of THC for instance.
But that aside just in the, you know, CBD and other
cannabinoids, do you see any downside to having these in the
system? Like exogenously our first of
all, what could potentially lead to a downregulated production in
dodging? So that why do you think some
people are having deficiencies there?
Yeah, that's a really good question and I don't have a
great answer. For that, I think that that's
something to that the science will continue to elucidate and
have better answers for overtime.
You know. I think some people are
genetically prone to it, you know, looking at some of the
genes and then they're also our situation.
Say for example like there's typically low endocannabinoids
in depression and we know that trauma is a big factor in
depression. PTSD is another one where they
know that PTSD is associated with low circulating levels of
an and amide one of the main endocannabinoids.
So, it's likely that there's some epigenetic regulation
stemming from the body, trying to adapt to an acute, stressful
environment, and then not being able to turn off that signal and
you could take that template and apply it to probably a lot of
different disease States and conditions in terms of the body,
trying To create an Adaptive response to something that ends
up getting stuck in a way, right?
And and becoming pathological and non-functional over time.
And so it's possible that, you know, adding the Endo cannot or
the cannabinoids into the system can help kind of break that Loop
in a way catch. And you mention the CBD kind of
helps basically four to five. That's that our own Indulgence
production can kind of ramp up so to speak.
Is that going to be pretty much? True across the board.
Sir, some more than others. I'm sure.
But like, CBD in general is going to be just pretty
effective at allowing your body to build up that natural
production. Yeah, that's right.
And for certain people that may be more impactful, you know, it
for other people. Their problem might not be
stemming from a low levels of endocannabinoids at all, right?
Like in the case of, you know, something like obesity, where
these probe there people are probably already having access
levels. Is of an and amide or other
cannabinoids. So, you know, it kind of depends
on just what the person's Baseline is when they're adding
these things in. And to answer your question in
terms of downsides, there's really not a lot of long-term
understanding, but at least in the short term right now, it
seems like there's very low down side to CBD on its own.
Is there like a like a test where you can get blood?
Work drawn to see where you may be deficient with these
cannabinoids is like a getting a cholesterol panel.
Well, how do you go about? Testing this?
Yeah, right now, the Gen-X are probably the best way to do it
as someone who's interested in it.
There's not really a commercially available tests you
know, this would mostly be University Research centers that
are looking at and do cannabinoid levels but the
genetics act as a pretty good proxy for understanding that.
Gotcha, gotcha, very cool, man. I'm learning a ton.
What? What?
Just kind of develop here in recap?
What are you Taking in going with four with this knowledge.
That what are you excited about now?
What's on the horizon? What are you predominantly
focusing on in the future here? Yeah, so I am about to launch a
practitioner training for people that are interested in running
and do cannabinoid genetics for their clients.
So if anyone is listening and your coach or practitioner and
or thinking that, it'd be nice to be able to provide more
precise answers for your clients.
You know, how they respond to cannabis?
Is this something that's right for them?
People can go to have a website set up at canadienne.
A DOT education, CA n, n DN, a-- dot education and I can sign up
for the list and I'll be updating people is that's
available in the next couple months.
And so I've been working a lot on that and, you know, mostly
that and seeing clients and helping people move towards
Optimal Health and whatever way I can.
But yeah, the the practitioner training and getting People set
up to be able to use this info. It's kind of my big project
right now. Do you do like, like one-off
consultation calling someone has their raw genetic data?
Can they like schedule a consultation code with you?
Yeah. Yeah, I offer free 30-minute
consultation, to anyone that's interested.
In just learning how we could work together.
You know, I really like to take a little bit of time to
understand what someone's needs are and look at different
options as far as genetic analysis or ongoing coaching.
So yeah, if someone Their genetics feel free to reach out
to me and I also do have a test that I prefer to use.
That is really good with privacy and data ownership and so if
anyone's listening and you're like, you know, I would you like
to do this but I've been kind of concerned that 23andMe is going
to sell my data. We have a private lab that all
of that is out of the picture and what is the website for
that. That's just my website.
Digital dash Krantz.com, nice will shoot man.
I've got on my Raw data may just linked up with you and we can
record a follow-up episode just going over the date or something
like that. I don't know if they've been
interesting. Yeah, that'd be cool.
I'd love to, you know, add more layers to your understanding of
your body and be cool to go over it.
Awesome, awesome. Well, David, I certainly do
appreciate the time. I like said I learned quite a
bit and let's definitely keep in touch because it's, this does
fascinate me for sure? Yeah, well, thank you, I really
enjoyed chatting with you. And really enjoyed all the
questions you asked just really, really spot-on.
Awesome will keep going. You doing, man?
I appreciate you. Thanks man.
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