 to answer any questions you may have. For those of you unfamiliar with my work every year, I read through every issue of every English language nutrition journal in the world. So busy folks like you, don't have to. Then the problem is interesting as a ground-breaking most practical findings. It's a new but it is an article to upload every day to my non-profit site nutritionfacts.org. Everything on the website is free. There's no ads, there's no kickbacks, no corporate sponsorships, strictly non-commercial, not selling anything. Just put it up as a public service as a labor of love as a tribute to my grandmother whose own life was saved with evidence-based nutrition. Let's see what questions you have for me today. My, see, there we go. Here's one from non-abuga. Says, is there any benefits aspirin has to offer if you must take other medications that might cause blood clots? Must take medications that cause blood clots. Well, I mean, ideally you would treat the cause of whatever disease condition that made you have to take drugs that cause blood clots. And so then you wouldn't have to be on those drugs. But taking aspirin for primary prevention, trying to, for example, prevent a heart attack in the first place is not according to the USPSDF, the United States Preventive Service Task Force. It is not recommended as the risks which include major bleeding outweigh the benefits. That however changes for, in certain circumstances, for secondary prevention. So for example, you already had a heart attack and you're at such high risk having a second heart attack. In that case, the pros and cons may shift in the other direction. Okay, let's see who's next. Cheryl says, help, breast cancer in my family. Should I not eat tofu? Any soy, like yogurt or milk? Fantastic question. So first of all, only about 2% of breast cancers actually fall in families. You know, those so-called broccoli genes. 98% of breast cancer is what we're exposed to. And so just because it appears to come down in the family, it may just be because they're similar lifestyles, diets and lifestyles run in families as well. And so that's fantastic news. And of course, even if you do have those broccoli mutations or have mutations that put you at high risk, well, I mean, that's just, you know, the genetics loads the gun lifestyle pulls the trigger, regardless of what kind of genetic cards we've been dealt, we can reshuffle that deck with diet. And one of the ways we can do that is by going out of our way to eat soy foods. So there's now been a half a dozen studies now that have followed thousands of breast cancer survivors. And those who ate soy have significantly, put them all, all those studies together, have significantly lower risk of breast cancer recurrence, mean significantly lower risk of breast cancer coming back and significantly improved survival. So live longer than those breast cancer survivors that who don't eat soy. Even better would be to eat soy foods, particularly in the adolescent years to decrease the risk of breast cancer later in life, between 30 and 50% lower risk associated, breast cancer risk associated with eating soy, particularly at a younger age. And so would encourage people to include soy foods, some healthier than others. So a whole soy food would be ideal, something like edamame, the immature green soybeans in a pod fun, tasty snack. Like one of my favorite snacks, as opposed to something like the soy yogurt, which typically has a lot of sugar added or soy milk, which has those isoflavones, those phytoestrogens that are so beneficial. But you're missing the fiber, you're missing a lot of the other goodies that are in whole soybeans. So that would be the preferable route. Okay, next one is angelic askings, is black human, oh, that's a great question, have to be ground to get the best absorption. The, I think most of the studies were using ground on black human seeds. And so we know from experiments with like flax seeds, for example, that you really do need to grind them to get the beneficial effects. Otherwise they just pass through you unless you chew really, really well. But you know, black human seeds are so tiny that you really probably gotta miss a few. So yes, ground black human is the way to go for all its associated benefits. Okay, next up, Laura says, going on a lung transplant, oh, yay, lung transplant, let's do the hypersensitivity pneumonitis. Wow, I'm so sorry to hear that. Any years of the diet I should focus on, currently losing weight. So I mean, if you're overweight and certainly that could help prep you for surgery. So my advice in this circumstance is really just all the typical healthy advice, but just to the nth degree, right? So instead of like, let's make sure you exercise, you really wanna maximize your exercise regimen, maximize smoking cessation, maximize eating healthy, daily dozen all the way to really get your body prepped for the kind of trauma that is any surgery and something like a lung transplant is certainly major surgery. And now after surgery, increasing protein intake can help with healing, but before surgery, it was just a matter of eating, the recommended point of grounds for healthy liver and body weight. Okay, next up, oh, Nona is back saying, can I eat 20 sheets of Nori? I see you today. I'm so glad that you love healthy foods. So two sheets has about 150 micrograms. So 10 would have 1500. What's the maximum upper daily limit? Let me look that quick. Upper daily limit, high O, nine. Let's check it out. Oh, is 1100 micrograms a day. Okay, so that's too much. So let's stick a few sheets away. Let's go, what, 16? Who's that gonna be? Anyway, yeah, so I know they're delicious. I snack on them myself, but two sheets a day should get you the recommended 150 micrograms you need. So let's not do 20. The risk of excess iodide intake cause something called hyperthyroidism, an overactive thyroid glands which you want to avoid. Okay, next up, Emily says hello. Anything recommend for, oh, long COVID fatigue and one kidney since donating. Oh, you are so sweet. I hope your mom is doing okay. So anyone with one kidney needs to eat a very extraordinarily kidney healthy diet. What is that? There's a low sodium, whole food, plant-based diet. Plant protein and not excess protein. And I've got a bunch of videos on both preventing and treating kidney failure. And so that's for that piece. And then what do we have for long COVID? So we know from this massive Harvard study, 600,000 people that those who eat more whole plant foods and less meat, eggs, dairy and junk are not only significantly less likely to get COVID in the first place, but if they do get COVID, significantly less likely to suffer a severe course, not to mention all the comorbidities, right? What increases one's risk of a serious COVID case, you know, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, et cetera, all of which can be prevented and reversed with a health enough plant-based diet. But what about long COVID? We simply don't know. The studies haven't been done to find out what kind of lifestyle approaches can be used to deal with long COVID symptoms. Yeah, you know, if it is an inflammatory component, one would presume an anti-inflammatory diet on which it's synonymous with a whole plant-based diet would help, but hasn't been put to the test. I myself suffered a long COVID symptom of this sciatic mononoropathy for about a month, and thankfully it went away, but definitely I couldn't be on my treadmill. I remember I was given my Q and A one month treadmill, but thankfully it went away. But yeah, so again, I can recommend just taking good care of yourself. Unfortunately, we don't have data. Either way, for any diet, any lifestyle intervention, or really any drug intervention at this point, I mean, they should reach us so early with understanding long COVID that unfortunately all I can do is, you know, this generic healthy advice. You know, getting up, sleep, et cetera, et cetera. Okay, someone's replying to somebody else, all right? Let's see what else we got. That's not a question. Let's see what, I'm just randomly picking. Oh, Nana's back, all right. That's how you get your question answered. Yeah, it's like 20 questions. Then you gotta get your questions. All right, can you be sensitive? Can you be sensitive to garlic and onion? Why feel bloated? Well, there are, you know, FODMAPs. There are these prebiotics found in Allium family vegetables like garlic, onion, chives, shallots, et cetera that are super healthy for your gut bugs. But if you have dysbiosis, if you have the wrong gut bugs, then you can foster the growth of the wrong kind. And so if you're really sensitive, then you can try cutting down, see if that helps. But I would start slowly adding them back to your diet based on your tolerance so you can build up the good bugs because you want to get to the point where you can include the super healthy foods into your diet. Okay, Heather says, can I touch more on supplements beyond the daily dose? And I drink a protein shake. Should I be wary of these? Or are there certain ones I'd recommend? The one I use all pump based from a company named Vega. I'm 53 taking multivitamins. Okay, you do not need to eat a protein shake. All right, we should get all our macronutrients, our protein, our carbs and fat from whole plant foods. Right? And so it's not like we don't get our carbs in the form of sugar. We don't get our fat in the forms of oil. And we don't get our protein in the form of powder, which is what these protein shakes are. And so it's so simple to get the recommended intake, 0.8 grams per health to go around body weight of protein, eating whole healthy foods. And some of the healthiest foods, like legumes, beans, puppies, chickpeas, lentils, that's what I would recommend you eat instead. So I've got videos about multivitamins. And there's some people like, you know, alcoholics during pregnancy, there's some situations in which taking multivitamin is a good idea. And I talk about circumstances in my videos, but for most people, it is unnecessary. Of course, what you should be the supplement that I would do recommend is vitamin B12, critically important for anyone eating a healthy diet, getting a regular reliable source of vitamin B12. And if you're not getting enough sun, like if you're here in Virginia with this winter wonderland, we had this ice storm that closed all the schools this morning, it's really pretty looking out the window. I would not like to be outside right now. But so I'm not getting vitamin, my vitamin D today from sun. And so during the winter months, if you're getting inadequate sunshine, you may want to supplement with 2,000 international units of vitamin D3. Okay, what does science show? Oh, mushrooms, like ashwagandha. Ashwagandha is not a mushroom, it's a root. And other types of mushrooms claim to be supported for good mood relaxation. Actually, I just, I talk about ashwagandha in my sex chapter in how not to age. Let's look it up. How about a little preview here? Let me pull up preserving your sex life. That's my, that's the chapter. I remember I talked about all the various roots, maca, ashwagandha, what's the other one? Ginseng, I think. Yeah, all right, let's see what we got. Okay, fine, ashwagandha, there it is. All right, where are we, there it is. Ashwagandha, revered herb of the Ayurvedic system of medicine, which is the Indian tradition of medicine. Here, let me make sure, okay, where are we? All right, here we go. Ashwagandha, it's name comes from ashwameaning horse and gandha meaning smell, because the roots evidently possess the distinctive smell of a wet horse. I did not know that before writing this book. This is how not to age be out next year. Ashwagandha is used as household remedy in India where it's considered a rasayana. I'd probably mispronouncing that a rejuvenator or tonic for thousands of years earning it the nickname Indian Ginseng, okay. So does it actually help? Let's find out. Rodents, front of the deep end. The swim twice as long before sinking, 12 hours versus six hours after being fed ashwagandha. And so what about people? Benefits for physical performance, including increases in aerobic fitness have been found in people too. That's exciting, one study. Demonstrate evidence of cognitive benefit as well. It's Latin name Wothania somnifera points to another use. Somnifera means sleep inducer. A mental analysis of five randomized controlled trials of ashwagandha extracts found a small but significant effect on overall sleep. What about, which is what this chapter is about? What about ashwagandha and female sexual function? Women ages 21 through 50 were randomized to two months of the estimated equivalent of three grams of ashwagandha root powder. It's gonna be about a teaspoon a day. Did not have an increase in sexual desire but did show improvements over placebo in arousal, lubrication, orgasm, and satisfaction, translating into an additional successful sexual encounter by the end of the study. And so how many, two months? One per two months. All right, okay. What are the downsides? Ashwagandha belongs to the nightshade family, which includes some shady characters like tobacco and well, deadly nightshade. There have been rare cases of ashwagandha linked liver toxicity, though commercial herbal supplements are often mislabeled. So it's hard to definitively attribute certain cases, right? So just because someone has liver toxicity and they're taking something that says ashwagandha, who knows what's actually in the bottle. However, there have been several liver injury cases in which supplements have been tested and found to be contaminant free. So was actually ashwagandha suggesting that ashwagandha induced liver toxicity is a real phenomenon, even though it's rare. But what should we expect from a plant known by another nickname Poison Gooseberry? So I don't recommend you take it. All right, okay. Next up, sorry for the long explanation, but what a nice little sneak preview from a little blurb from how not to age. Okay, anyway, often read that cancer feeds off sugar asks Karola, Karola, Karola. Some people say whole fruit is like sugar for cancer cells, direct when cutting down a fruit for healthy people as there's too much fruit a day, that's fantastic questions. So I actually did a video talking on this very question. Cancer like all cells feeds off of sugar, but cancer can feed off of fat too. In fact, there's the, you know, there's a, I talk about these ketone eating cancer cells. And so, I mean, they're just fast growing cells, so they eat whatever we're eating. Fruit is pacified in nutrients, actually cancer preventive. The American Institute for Cancer Research was kind of like the kind of main body that talks about diet and cancer recommends the same diet for cancer prevention as for cancer treatment, the same diet that prevents cancer can be used to treat it, to help treat it. And what's that cancer preventive diet? It is a diet centered around whole plant food, specifically lying out of the way to include, to increase fruit and vegetable intake, whole grains, legumes, et cetera, cut down a meat and added sugars, et cetera. So yes, I would cut down add sugars, added salt, added fat, and stick to whole plant foods. Next question, Matthew says, do I believe SIBO is real? Wouldn't high fiber diets make it worse? Any new research? I have tons of new research just in a whole series of videos on SIBO. So check it out. I mean, it's kind of complicated, it's no easy quick answer. So I encourage you to check out the video series. I think it's just two, three videos. Okay, Ramon, 70 year old trying to avoid BPH in cancer by eating pumpkin seeds and oysters once a month. What do I think about that? All right, let's look at BPH. You wanna go back to the, that's not in the sex chapter, that's in the bowel and bladder chapter, preserving your bowel and bladder function. Let's go there and see what we can say about BPH. B, P, B, B, P, H. I wonder if I talk about, oh, not, if I talk about oysters, let's see, fine. Oysters, I do not talk about oysters in the BPH chapter. So presumably there's no research either way, but let's look about pumpkin seeds, shall we? All right, flax seeds can be used to treat BPH. Men given the cold winter, three tablespoons of flax seeds a day experience relief comparable to that bomb, to that provided by a commonly prescribed drug such as Fulmax or ProScar without the drug side effects. That's exciting. What about other seeds? So I think I talked about flax seeds in how not to die. And so I just do the quick little, all right, it works. Works as well as the drug. Let's move on to see what other seeds, pumpkin seeds. Evidently known as a folk medicine treatment for prostate disorder for centuries. Petri dish can cut down the growth of BPH, prostate cells in half, that's good. And we can reduce the size of rat prostates, but who cares unless you have a pet rat or something? What about people? Here we go. So a pumpkin seed oil and oil-free pumpkin seed extract. So both the fat soluble and non-fat soluble supplements have appeared to help. One with comparable efficacy in the drug Terazocin. Others didn't do as Prezocin or Tamulocin, but also didn't cause drug side effects with names like retrograde ejaculation. Unfortunately, none of the drug trials had placebo warm. So it'd be nice to see how well the placebo does, the supplement does against placebo. And in an ideal world, we'd like to see a third group who's just given whole pumpkin seeds, not like some extract and boom, dun dun dun dun, a group of German researchers took off the mantle. Or in the thousand men were randomized to either pumpkin seed extract, matching placebo, or just a tablespoon a day of plain pumpkin seeds. Let's see what happens. Dun dun dun dun. The study was funded by the drug company that made the supplement, right? But the supplement totally flopped, reducing symptoms no better than the placebo. But guess what? Pumpkin seeds themselves worked. Submin appeared to reduce symptoms but not better than placebo, but the seeds did. The placebo was actually quite effective, offering clinical significant relief in 68% of men. Wow, but the pumpkin seeds did the same for 83%. So that's exciting. Bottom line, the researchers suggest, quote, pumpkin seed could be recommended for BPH patients with mild to moderate symptoms, unquote. And the conclusion was echoed by the European equivalent of the FDA. Pumpkin seeds can be used for, quote, the relief of lower urinary tract symptoms related to enlarge prostate after more serious conditions have been excluded by a medical doctor, unquote, bump, bump, bump, bump. So yeah, I encourage you to take pumpkin seeds and I got a whole bunch of other things you can do. I hope you enjoy that chapter. What do I think about avoiding sun exposure? Do you think if we avoid sun exposure and take vitamin D3, D3 supplements, will you lose any other positive essential benefits that the sun may offer? Well, it's certainly true that if you avoid sun exposure, you would avoid the benefits, but you also avoid the downsides like skin cancer, as well as skin aging. I talk a lot about sun avoidance for skin aging. And so, but the critical benefit that we know of is vitamin D, so we can offset that through supplementation. And the other benefits like potentially the infrared and stuff, even though it does cause skin aging, might it have some other benefits? I talk about some really funky thing with CoQ10, I have a video about that, but they're really more theoretical. So we just have theoretical benefits versus actual very real risks. And so that's why I would encourage people to, use some protective behaviors. Like sunscreen, but of course, what sunscreen, the safe sunscreen to use is the mineral sunscreens, right? Titanium Resinck, not the chemical sunscreens, which we just learned are actually absorbed into our body at levels high enough to require safety testing, which was never done by the sunscreen industry. And so the FDA punted them back.