 Hello, this is Dr. Michael Greger coming to you live From my treadmill as I do every month 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 names nutrition journal in the world so busy folks like you Don't have to I think Apollo the most interesting most groundbreaking the most practical findings it's new videos and articles that upload every day to my Non-profit site nutrition facts.org every then the website is free. There are no ads 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 Before I get to your questions, which are already piling up I want to announce that I have a webinar coming up next week next Friday on the best diet for thyroid function and I'll be talking about hyperthyroidism and As well as hypothyroidism including Hashimoto's thyroiditis So both overactive and underactive thyroid issues and what we can do from a dietary standpoint You can register by going to nutrition facts dot org slash webinars All right, let's get to your questions Okay May go up to the first One on the list and that is Maria asks is it possible for an 84-year-old to have High blood pressure, of course. Oh on a high whole food plant-based diet and low cell take Yes, indeed. There's all sorts of things that can increase your blood pressure and just because A crappy diet which includes a high sodium diet is the number one cause There can be kidney issues There can be issues with the arteries that run to the kidneys all sorts of reasons You know if high blood pressure indeed. It can be a drug side effect So you they need to work with their physician to find out what the cause is so you can treat the cause though Typically a whole food plant-based diet is very effective in lowering blood pressure and I have a video On that and I go through all the different ways lifestyle Ways you can decrease blood pressure. In fact, I compare the different ways of eating to Fasting to blood pressure medications. It's actually one of my most recent blood pressure videos and in fact, oh I could search for it really quick and put up the URL, but you should be able to find it by going to nutrition facts org Okay, next up on the list is Shev wheeze who says do high make three oils for skin care? Provide similar benefits to ingestion. Of course, you're no effect topically I'm actually doing a so the answer is I Don't know what the Impact of putting a make three rich oils on your skin is I'm doing a whole chapter on skin an aging skin though in my New upcoming book how not to age? So I'm gonna talk about wrinkles talk about varicose veins talking about skin care in general and so I'm sure there'd be lots of stuff on both topical things as well as Healthy skin from the inside out Through diet, so stay tuned and I'll let you know Okay, Cynthia says hello. I'm 26. Oh and have had liver disease. Do you have any advice for me? Absolutely, this is a disease that can be prevented arrested even reversed with healthy enough diet and lifestyle So I'd encourage you to go to nutrition factor or can type in fatty liver disease Which is now I believe the leading cause of A liver failure Or a need for liver transplant And so yeah, check out nutrition facts that I got a whole bunch of videos And in fact, I think I have a few more videos coming up. So stay tuned Maria says is Malo Okay, no large amount. I don't know you I don't know what Malo is talking about Marsh Malo's no maybe you're talking about Marrow like inside of the bones. I don't know Please clarify what Malo is and I'll try to answer your question Vladimir says don't I don't I miss don't I miss Okara in store about soy milk and tofu. Can we consider it could be considered them as whole foods? Oh Yeah, so it's neat when you make Soy milk meaning you take like soybeans and you whiz in a blender with some water There's really cool skin forms on the top that you can use for all sorts of kind of culinary things but they skim it off when they For commercial soy milk, but are they considered cold foods? No, of course, I don't hold foods because you take the whole soy bean and anytime you fraction anything whether milk or anything else and Not only that you take all the pulp out you strain the pulp So when you strain the pulp then the skin forms on top all that pulp That's where all the fiber is lots of polyphenols. That's a wonderful thing. So not whole foods, but But as but I mean, you know So it's a yellow light food. It's a processed plant foods always better need whole soy foods like At a mom a for example the immature green pods In fact, I've been buying them frozen a lot super easy get these bags and Rip them open put them in my grave or air fryer And basically just till they melt and you don't want to get them too dry because you want to sprinkle all sorts of seasoning on Some and have a little moisture on there so they stick So what I've been doing I've been sprinkling on nutritional yeast and garlic powder onion powder Smoke paprika little Chipotle pepper powder What else? Oh, the table-tasty stuff, which is a salt substitute Benson's table-tasty Little expensive, but totally worth it in my estimation Yeah, I think that's it I'm sprinkled that on oh put a little Tabasco on And then just you know Just eat them out of the pods. I just they're super fun to eat That's probably my favorite whole soy food. You can get soybeans a can whatever. Anyway. All right, lots of Probably more you wanted not more than you wanted. No, but I'm Just something I've been eating a lot lately Okay. Oh mark looks like he is just replying to somebody else. Let me go on to the next one Razz says is it matter how much sodium is in miso? Oh, yeah, and Does is whole green lots of healthy? Okay great questions. Um, I actually have a video about miso So there's three reasons that we're concerned about high sodium primarily high blood pressure Stomach cancer. What was the third one? I'm not pressure stomach cancer Pressure stomach cancer. Yeah, well, let's still let's go with those two my and And so you would assume that people eat a lot of miso which is just packed of sodium Would have high rates of stomach cancer and high rates of high blood pressure and associated strokes They go along with high blood pressure, but it turns out people that there's a study done in Japan and high miso eaters We're like people eating three bowls a day did not have higher levels of High blood pressure high blood pressure related diseases nor stomach cancer And so the thought was maybe the protective elements of soy were somehow counterbalancing the negative effects of soil sodium Who knows but Miso can be considered a green light food Because the whole soy food and does not seem to be associated with the negative effects Well, we normally see with high sodium foods So it's a way to make things salty without adding salt or at least adding without any salt in the way that would be Damaging from a blood pressure or Stomach cancer standpoint Okay, Eric asked how concerned should I be oh and that wasn't the next one They're kind of scrolling up so quickly. I just kind of click randomly. So sorry if if your question was next and I missed it Ask it again, and maybe it'll come up in the queue Erica, how concerned should I be of my L? HCL is low with low LDL levels. You shouldn't be concerned at all Why because HDL is no longer considered a To have a role in terms of a a Risk factor That's a cause and effect risk factor. So I think it's in my there's an egg video about HDL I think that's the one where I talk about all the new science about HDL. So we used to think that having high HDL was good and Until we started because indeed high HDL is associated with all sorts of beneficial things like low rates of heart disease I'm so hey, let's raise our HDL. Okay But it turns out that All sorts of different drugs working all sorts of different ways to increase your HDL Don't work in terms of lowering blood pressure and of course One of the reasons we know LDL is a causal risk factor is because any number of drugs that lower your LDL by any means Lower your indeed lower a risk of heart attacks and death So but didn't work the HCL and then they do the so-called Mendel Mendelian randomization studies were basically some people are just born With really high HDL levels regardless of what they eat Regardless how much they exercise regardless how much alcohol they drink Or really low HDL and it turns out doesn't even make any difference. Whereas with LDL You're born with high LDL levels regardless of what you eat You die prematurely and if you're born with really low then you have this so-called PCSK 9 inhibitor Mutations, that's a fantastic thing because regardless of what you eat You live a really long time and low rates are hard to see And so that's one another one of the reasons why we know LDL is a causal risk factor But HDL is does not appear to be a causal risk factor. So I think in the video I talk about how HDL is like ash trays or Jim's juice so it turns out there's a really tight correlation between Presumably between people of the number of ash trays people have in their house and They're you know rates of you know lung cancer and So what we should do is get rid of people that you know lower people's ash trays haven't go from three to two ash trays, right? Of course, that's ridiculous because You know the ash tray is not the causal risk factor. Yes, it's a very tight correlation, but Change the number of ash trays is gonna help you same thing with gym shoes people have lots of gym shoes Probably live longer, but it's not because the gym shoes That's not the cause risk for you can't just have a whole bunch of gym shoes in your closet and expect to live longer that's the difference between a Kind of a associated variable and a causal risk factor and the reason that difference is important because We want to know if it's causal because we want to know if we should actually try to change it So don't worry about your HDL In the context of low LDL Okay, anyway any suggestions for a 20-month-old who isn't gaining weight and is being recommended dairy-based supplementation You need to find a Pediatrician dietitian that will work with you to gain weight in a more helpful manner And of course there's lots of non bear dairy nutritional supplements on the market now I The question would be exactly. What is it that the kid isn't getting enough of is it a matter of calorie intake? There's just healthier ways to do it and if your doctor has no clue how to do that then you need to find a better doctor Okay, Nelson asked can anyone help and enlarge the order possibly with Marfan syndrome Marfan syndrome is genetic disorder Which can show one's lifespan due to problem problems with the large artery that goes out of the body You while you can't change the genetics at least so far But one can Make sure one doesn't have high blood pressure, etc that can lower one's risk of Having negative outcomes, but you can't actually change the structure until we have gene therapy April May June ass have be Friday Eve. I guess who was supposed to be 12 taken one dose Also, how do I reduce? How do you reduce for a BMI fast? I'm not sure what that means, but the best be to have a sanical ballman because it's most stable at the room temperature Stable in submetal form and And there's the most data Showing how I'm safe and effective it is. I mean, how much did you take? I? Have recommendations in fact I will I Don't know if there's really gonna help people, but I can post a link Ah Here is the link Wow, that's a long link Sorry about that. You just type in optimum nutrition recommendations into nutrition facts that organ you can see I started putting those up in 2011, but there is a I believe 2020 update is the latest where I talk about how much B12 people to get out of a recent series of videos Talking about how much B12 once you get from either supplements or B12 fortified foods and also break it down in terms of age For young folks as well as how much the elderly should take Okay, let me get back to the questions Caustic him production says this is harmful to take daily allergy medications Ideally, we should try to not to take any medications if we can help it There's no better safer option I Have not looked at the epidemiology of chronic allergy med they Nothing, I mean there's this I haven't just stumbled across any terrible things that they seem quite safe drugs To me, but I have not looked at the data So I don't know how harmful it is to take them long term But if there's anything we do to reduce in the first place and I have a bunch of videos on dietary What you one can do diet to decrease On ones seasonal allergies So if you're taking it for something like dust or mold might not work But for people who have seasonal like pollen allergies I'm there is some data on some things we can do through diet and videos about that mostly based on Cedar Poll analogies in Japan, I believe if I remember correctly All right, Anna says should I take any supplements on a plant-based diet? Everybody needs a regular reliable source of vitamin B12 doesn't have to be a supplement for me to take B12 fortified foods But that's critically important. You don't get enough sun. You may want to take some vitamin D And one can consider I Here on me. I will go back. Are you ready? Here are my supplement recommendations Again, just type in optimum nutrition recommendations in nutrition facts dot award Okay, what's next? We have Disa Disa saying could chronic anemia trigger an onset of sickle cell Oh, that's a good question. I Do not know if anemia. I mean a number of stressors on the body can trigger sickle cell crises And I don't know if that's one of them And if it does then obviously you need to treat the cause treat the cause of the anemia iron deficiency anemia is one of the most common causes but There are other causes such as losing excess blood particularly menstruating women who have heavy periods Or your body may be chewing up your blood cells too early Or you may have a problem in your bone marrow in terms of making it There's lots of your your doctor can do iron studies and figure out differentiate between and find out exactly what's causing anemia so they can treat the underlying cause Okay, Nicole says soy formula versus cows formula and the question is human breast milk and Do babies need the hormones and cows formula? Of course, they don't need hormones and cows formula who needs cow hormones calves Okay. Yeah, don't get me started Next up Jessica T s for a vegetable fruit wash I recommend the one to ten ratio of salt to water but don't Recommend how long need to be in the bath for oh, I'm surprised. I didn't in the video. It's a soka scrub or quick dip Huh, I would have to go back and look at that study surprise didn't put in the video But if you under every single one of my videos, I have a source of cited section You click on it and have hyperlinks to all the sources I site So you watch the video and you see up in the upper right upper right-hand corner The the citation you say oh, that's the citation there you go click on source of cited click on the video Download the PDF and you can see What protocol they used and so I don't remember if it was just like a dunk or they actually let it sit there Most important thing you want rinse it off afterwards obviously because you don't last thing we need is more sodium in our diet Okay, Jessica story as using so from the when unable to breastfeed I was told by a beautician. I shouldn't use it for baby under six months for Dietary non-algae reasons to say for a baby's future fertility There's So the best formula of course is no formula at all human breast milk You can't breastfeed yourself. You should contact Lele Leche League and a Lots of women don't think they can breastfeed can actually breastfeed. They just need proper training and Counseling and there's also human breast milk banks and all sorts of ways. There's really no substitute whatsoever but in terms of But there there have been concerns that soy milk for that soy formula I wouldn't was force use formula has these phyto estuaries which could have reproductive effects and Last time I looked at the literature that did not seem to pan out. It's kind of a theoretical concern But doesn't actually seem to happen out in the real world Okay, Joe says for how long can you keep ground flax in the fridge for getting oxidized the absence of bidetase concludes the cruise to prove They're okay Six months in their tight container. Isn't that amazing six months there? Can't that tight container on your kitchen counter doesn't even have to be refrigerated. That is nuts Amazing whereas of course flexing oil, you know would oxidize a matter of days even kept in the fridge. So That just shows it's one of the reasons why we should eat whole foods, right because they come pre-packaged with all the antioxidants and all the The complementary nutrients are they keep it from going bad. That's one of the reasons at least And so yeah, isn't that remarkable and I have a video about that if you want to actually See read the paper wild Okay, Mia says her sauce her husband suffers from gout He's mostly vegan avoids all high-period foods. No relief any other tips water water water water, right? So gout is caused by The uric acid crystallization. It's kind of like a rock candy You know, how do you make rock candy? You have a super saturated solution of sugar You put a little string in or something and forms crystals It's just too much in solution same thing uric acid get a lot levels get so high in the blood That starts crystallizing out of solution forms. It's little irritating crystals Particularly in one of the big toes is characteristic. It can be we're super painful. So How did so what we do and so where is how is your cast created your cast is created by meat and sugar? So drinking so like fast food meal with like a burger and soda. It's like the worst possible thing Sounds like Dietarily doing pretty good here. I'm also want to avoid alcohol on that can also increase your cast level So if they're mostly vegan avoiding high-period foods and but drinking beer that could be a problem So assuming that they're also avoiding alcohol What you can do is dilute that your cast and by drinking lots of water all the time, right? because then We're diluting it and keeping it from getting to two high concentrations in the blood Okay, and you can also eat lots of dark green leafy vegetables to alkalinize your urine That makes your acid in your kidneys more soluble and you pee more of it out and so Dark green leafy vegetables low oxalate Greens like kale and rugola or any of the cruciferous greens are wonderful All right What are the reasons that cause one of the reasons it costs frothy urine? well, um, I mean certain amount of froth just created for the physics of it all but It could be a sign of something called nephrodic syndrome where you are peeing out too much protein Your body the whole point of urine is to get rid of the bad stuff or excess stuff and keep all the good stuff But if you have kidney problems, you can start actually have a like a protein wasting We start losing protein and cause all sorts of problems And if there's enough protein, but that can be make it a little extra frothy See, but that's an easy test you can get your urine tested make sure you're not using urine But most people that can plant frothy urine. It's actually just normal and there's nothing, you know They're just not seeing lots of urine and so they're just not realizing. Oh, everybody's urine kind of does this but You can get your urine test to make sure you're not losing protein Okay, next up Mia Mia's back someone was complaining That I often answer the same person's multiple questions and would rather me mix it up and add Ask and and not duplicate person's questions and I know my my first kind of inclination is like well If the person went out of the way to write a whole bunch of questions where they should be rewarded by like me answering multiple questions but alright, but Some my staff thought it might be better if I give more people a chance to to answer questions So me it already answered questions. I'm gonna skip it over and go to Raphael who says Should we drink the juice from pickled foods? No, oh my god, too much salt In fact, we shouldn't eat the pickle foods too much salt. Ah There's another Raphael one. So I'll I'll mix it up L says he mine deficiency. Oh interesting and Alzheimer's disease knows potential carcinogen the heme iron But it could be essential for some people. What about porphyria patients? Why aren't I on the webinar of Veg med Berlin 21 Good question. I've been on doing the Veg med conference every year for a number of years Must not have been able to fit into my schedule I am going to be covering Doing a deep dive into Alzheimer's In well and part of that we'll be looking at the minerals like iron aluminum, etc And not so I could be an update on what's happening with Alzheimer's and iron In my new book Which won't be until December 2022 assuming that I get it done in time right now. Oh god, I mean well look Right now. I'm still in the the research phase collecting Collecting PDFs to read and how many PDFs we have 10,116 papers so far. Hey, all right, so I got a lot of work to do before the book comes out. All right Joma 4 says there's a case in India in 2020 where someone of vegan diet Developed hydrocephalus They think it was because they were not taking B12 are familiar with the case. You think that was why I'm not familiar with the case So hydrocephalus kind of water on the brain where you have build up a cerebral spinal fluid and I'm not sure why they thought it was a B12 issue. I mean that just happens It's an issue. We're actually not sure why There's some blockage in the outlet normally we make cerebral spinal fluid and it gets and Circulates throughout our brain spinal cord and then it gets kind of Drains out And then we make more and just this nice constant flow for some reason. There's an outlet disrupt Obstruction and builds up. It's just can't get out And so actually what you do is you surgically install a shunt You actually put a little tube up into the brain and then kind of tunnel it under the skin Just let it drip into the abdominal cavity. And so it releases the pressure I Never heard of it being diet related, but you need to give B12 for all sorts of other reasons including for brain health Alice what's my recommendation for reducing water retention? The question is treat the cause the answer is treat the cause Why are you retaining water? So retaining water because you have that nephrodic syndrome because you're losing, you know losing protein urine or There's all sorts of reasons so we can be retaining water and so you need to find out what it is and then I can help you I figure out what to do with it. Do menopausal women need fat in their diet? Well, we all need the essential fats as human beings but Do we need to increase our fat? intake after menopause I'm not that I know of Matt that is dr. Avi's Scientific analysis of the heart disease versus trials on a whole plant-based diet That isn't a question but For those of you don't know Dr. Avi Is writing a paper To talking about heart disease reversal on a plant-based diet and And we're all looking forward to seeing a published and seeing Any reply and I will do video about it All right, Matt what grains slash legumes are mostly most poorly absorbed in animals Leading to poor weight growth in animals Okay, yeah, just sorghum or is millet better ah, so I just did these videos on on sorghum And it turns out there are millets that are better with millet As I talked about in a in a cooking video. I have coming up in a few days It's not actually a thing millet what we call millet is typically pearl millet But there's dozens of different types of millet from all different plants millet just means small grain It's complicated. I got videos coming out on it. It's very interesting the bottom line finger millet is There's all sorts of benefits to all sorts of different millets, but finger mill someone out that I use my new bro mixture and the video will explain why unfortunately I got another interview starting right now Let me remind everyone once again about this thyroid webinar. Oh, there we go thyroid Thyroid webinar coming up next week next Friday if you want to register for it, of course all the videos Container that is going to be up on free and nutrition facts in the coming months But you can see them all there and ask your questions live next Friday Check it out. Have a great day everybody