Transcript of Episode #170: He Did Everything to Stay Healthy… And Nearly DIED at 33! - Featuring Dr. John Kim!

So I had 85% blockage in my LAD. I woke up and then I just stared at the wall. I'm just like, what the hell just happened? I thought I had a perfect life. So like an idiot, instead of going to the ER, went to the urgent care center. And the urgent care center doctor says, you're dealing with a heart attack. We have to get you to the ER at this point in time. I grew up in a very toxic household to a point having emotional neglect could be one thing, but also end up having to receive death threats growing up. My stepfather, when you look at the book of Leviticus chapter 14, It talks about how God says when you're dealing with mold, You clean it, quarantine it, remediate it, or you burn it down.

Dr. John, are you trying to tell me that that COVID vaccine wasn't the end-all cure-all be-all?

And— I can't comment on that part, but I've seen injuries. Taking the right supplement at the wrong time can be very poor for your health. One of the things that I don't recommend if you are dealing with chronic illness is that—

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Go to timeline.com/jameli to take the longevity quiz and get your free gummies. That's timeline.com/jameli. All right, everybody, welcome back to the Dylan Gemelli Podcast. This is a big one for me, big one for my friend, because he is not just a friend. I don't call him a friend anymore. I tell him when I say my prayers that he gets put into my family category. And when I do those, I specifically do it for my wife, my mom, my kids, my, my cat, who is my daughter. And then there's 4 other people, and this man in here is one of them. And I mean that from the bottom of my heart, that I love him like a brother. He is a brother. And we are going to really dig deep into several key aspects that I've been learning from him as well, that I think that the world needs to hear. And he's been all over the place lately, going on all kinds of big shows. And I'm humbled now that he has decided to come on to mine. We had this planned a while ago, but God's timing brings specificity on when we're supposed to do this.

And I think now there's a reason for it. So, and I'm giving him a big birthday party this Thursday as well.

Thank you.

But my friend here, my brother, is a functional medicine pharmacist. He's an educator, and he's the founder of Kim Wellness. Now, he's a heart attack survivor, which is kind of crazy given when it happened at his age. But we're going to get into all that because that was back in 2015. And during this, he found mold, hidden infections, and toxins were breaking his body down at the cellular level. And he went where conventional medicine wouldn't. And that's what we do. And that's what our mission is. So we're going to get into all of that today, but we're going to get into much more. So my friends, welcome. Dr. John Kim.

Dylan, thank you so much. It's been an honor to be here. I know we've been planning this for a while, and so I'm so glad that we made this time. And it's all about God's timing, how he brings us together.

Always. You know, it's funny, when I met you— this was last year at Eudaimonia.

Yes.

And I, I can't remember exactly who it was that said you have to meet somebody.

My friend Dasha.

Yeah, that, that's it. Yes. Yep. You have to meet John. And I said, okay, bring him over. And it was like instant, right? Instant. I had you over at my house just what, a few months after that or a month or two?

Probably a couple of weeks actually, because I made a trip down here to see our friend Sean. And then after that, we were just trying to brainstorm how we're going to make a podcast together and record. And obviously we had to connect because I know for sure you have to be resonating with the guests to begin with whenever you're doing any projects. So That was a discussion. This was literally a day after Thanksgiving Day.

Yeah, because I, you know, I had my Christmas tree up. I remember, I remember saying a prayer over there, and my wife is very, very selective about who can and cannot come over to the house. And I take a lot of, uh, well, and I think it's good to be protective, but she didn't have any kickback on you and hadn't even met you. So that told me enough too. And it was, it was nice.

Again, that's God.

It is. And, ever since then, I mean, we see where we're at. So, as much as I'd like to sit here and reminisce, I do want to make sure that we showcase everything that you're about. And, one of the things that you have really worked on now is your versatility on what you discuss. Before, we would have just talked about mold and your heart attack, which is great, but I think there's a lot more to it. I do want to go back to your heart attack, your age, how shocking that was, and what you found, and then we'll expound.

So, You know, I've been in this functional medicine space for almost 20 years at this point in time. I graduated from pharmacy school with a doctor of pharmacy degree back in 2006, completed my fellowship in anti-aging and functional medicine through A4M back in 2008. So, I knew some stuff, I thought, right? And, what I really specialized in was in hormone replacement therapy for females and working on female health specifically. So, I used to work with a lot of The urogynecology doctors who are specializing in female pelvic floor issues, including men, and I kind of dive into later part is working with the autism spectrum crowd, where you're working on the biomedical treatment dealing with autism. And the biggest issue that we saw was that is the it's not the factor in terms of just the genetic aspect of it. I learned all about how the environmental impact and what you're being exposed to in terms of the toxins end up creating this perfect storm that's creating this irreversible disease state of autism spectrum disorder. So that got into the whole gambit of toxicity. Now, this was back in 2010. At that point in time, I knew stuff, but I didn't really realize how much of an impact this was until I had my end stenting, so I had 85% blockage in my LAD.

This was back in 2015, and I thought I was living a perfect life. And the biggest issue is, as a practitioner, we're the worst patients out there, right? We think that we know shit, but we don't, right? Can we curse on this show?

Of course.

Okay.

Who the fuck you talking to?

No, but, uh, we think that we know shit, but we don't. And the biggest thing that I ended up having to deal with was I had dealt with severe food sensitivity issues to a point that I couldn't eat rice or meat, red meat specifically.

Really?

Yeah, constant heartburns. I would not be able to go to sleep. I would finish half a bottle of wine just to go to sleep back in the day. On top of anxiety issues, stress involved, I just started a holistic pharmacy practice. So everything was riding onto this. And so this created a perfect storm to occur. So what happened was I went to my friend's wedding. This was back basically June 1st, 2015. You know, I had a great time, came back on June 4th. I thought I was dealing with just a heartburn. It was not. I was actually having a start of a heart attack at that point in time. So being that I had already an issue dealing with GERD anyway, so I was like, you know what, it's going to go away. It didn't actually. And the middle of the night, I was going to sleep. Well, the night I'd have Pain shot down to my left arm, waking up. And instead of going to the ER, I went back to sleep and then woke up the following day, still went to work. And I was like, you know what? This is not going away.

This is definitely some issue going on. So like an idiot, instead of going to the ER, went to the urgent care center. And the urgent care center doctor says, you're dealing with a heart attack. We have to get you to the ER at this point in time. So that's when I got basically transported to the ER. even the ER physician, as well as a cardiologist, did not believe I was dealing with a heart attack because they got the 6-month prior history of my cholesterol, which was normal, as was EKG, normal, no other previous history, right? You have a 33-year-old guy. I used to do CrossFit at that point. I was pretty fit. And I thought I was living a perfect life to begin with, like I said. And so the classical symptoms and the case of a particular client who's dealing with a heart attack. It was not the case. Even dealing with troponin level was less than 1.

Really?

Yeah. So there was no—

That's impossible.

Again, that's really God's blessing. So there's no other classical signs that this guy's dealing with a heart attack. So the cardiologist said, I think you're dealing with pericarditis. We're going to just send you home later tonight. When they did an echocardiogram, my left ventricle was not pumping well. So sign of ischemia. They brought me to cath lab. And then after putting a dye in, 85% blockage.

Right.

So they had no other choice to stent me at that point in time. So I got a stent put in that evening. And then I was shipped over to the cardiac ICU unit. And I woke up and then I would just stare at the wall. I'm just like, what the hell just happened? I thought I had a perfect life, right? Just getting through this whole thing was an eye-opening moment that there's something deeper that was going on. And matter of fact, now looking back, there was an issue, right? I mentioned about the whole gut issues. I had cystic acne all over my body. I was having severe bad breath to begin with. So there was already gut dysbiosis and more on top of food sensitivity. So your high histamine response, anxiety issues, not sleeping very well. So all the shit that I was learning within the functional medicine space, I didn't have any of that. So it basically exposed the weakness I was having. And really God ended up having to utilize that time to humble me, number one. Two, really shifted into what I call at this point in time, learning more about the cellular impact of all these things going on.

And so now I'm, instead of just, just working on the toxicity issue these days, I talk about the cellular resiliency, how to reverse cell danger response that everybody's going through. And that if you don't work on the overall cellular impact, no matter what type of longevity protocols out there, it's not going to work very well unless the body starts to feel safe and gets back into homeostasis. And that is a particular part that no one talks about, even functional medicine, even longevity doctors are missing at this point in time. So it is a blessing in disguise in terms of where I am at this point. I mean, even for a guy who's under 40 years old, when you have that type of developmental atherosclerotic plaque going on, when you're older, it's a better and higher likelihood that you're going to survive that particular heart attack because you have a compensatory other vascular aspect of it forming. However, for younger the patient you are, having an occlusion like that, right, you have a high likelihood of actually having cardiac death, right? Even all the friends that I actually have, I think you should have had Dr. Jack Wolfson.

He's a—

Yeah, he reached out to me.

Yeah, he's an integrative cardiologist. I mean, he was surprised in terms of what I was going through, as what I'd gone through as well. And this is coming from a cardiologist standpoint. So what really happened at that point in time, I just end up having to realize I have to change my life. There's something else going on. And the likelihood chance that I could have a secondary heart attack was also high being that I was younger. And then one of the things that we don't talk about, even the cardiologists don't talk about, is that statin drugs do not prevent secondary heart attack issues.

No.

It does not. It does not necessarily prevent another issue dealing with atherosclerotic plaque. So this is the part that I was like, you know what? I got to look at much deeper. So I actually reached out to my functional medicine doctor, and I— all I wanted to do was doing IV vitamin C. And when I got to her office, she sat me down and she looked at me, she says, I think you're dealing with tick-borne illness. We got to do some testing. I'm like, there's no way. So after a month later, that's when I was diagnosed with Bartonella infection, which is a tick-borne illness. Yeah, yeah.

I remember when they tested my cat for it and I was scared about her having that potentially. Yeah, so dangerous.

It's dangerous, dude. Bartonella infection, high levels of Aspergillus antibodies, Mycoplasma pneumoniae, Epstein-Barr, parasitic, and very high levels of mercury in my system. Because when I, as a kid, I used to intentionally break mercury thermometers and play with the liquid mercury ball.

What? Yeah. Wow.

I mean, the things that you don't even realize, right? But why that's an important thing is that all these things are just carrying a load onto your body And then when you're adding in the factor that the Bartonella infection causes endothelial damage, and then mold coming in, not only creating chronic inflammatory condition, but also it oxidizes fat, cholesterol. Now you're creating a perfect environment for atherosclerotic buildup. So you're actually turbocharging this effect based on that. And then when you're adding in heavy metals, That'd be a perfect environment, right? So there are studies back in the day looking at how chelation therapy and extracting mercury out, or at least the heavy metals of this lecture, including lead, helps to reverse atherosclerotic plaque. Now, that was such a small model, so it was not able to be repeated, but there's a lot of truth behind it in terms of the biofilm issues, right? Interplay into microbiome changes, stress response, endothelial damage, And then, when you go deep into the cellular impact, cell membrane damage from these happening there.

So, the storm of the Bartonella and the exposure to mold and all the toxins really drastically sped up the process of accumulating plaque then.

That's basically what it comes out to. But, another thing that I did not realize now looking back, and I just realized it when I turned 40 years old, I grew up in a very toxic household.

Hmm.

To a point, having emotional neglect could be, could be one thing, but also end up having to receive death threats growing up from my stepfather. And so there's a part that's really untold, is the point in terms of when you actually have a child who's going through that type of psychological, emotional abuse, nothing physical, but psychological, emotional abuse, that leads into a point in terms of a child going through a war zone. So when you have an aspect that high, this creates a neuroinflammatory condition.

Mm-hmm.

That ongoing psychological threat that's going on, leading into physiological changes, including leaky gut, because the gut-brain axis is getting interconnected, including cortisol response, microbiome changes. So when you have a child who's growing in that environment, plus a moldy house, that just creates a perfect environment to come through there. So what I look at nowadays is, is not the fact just looking at mold toxicity, which I am expert in, that there is an inherent response of cellular threat that actually adds on, right? And then leading into the conditions the person is developing. So the biggest thing that I always ask is, why is that person in that particular state? It's not the fact that it's just the mold, but there's a lack of cellular resiliency because the loading capacity that we think that we have is completely broken. And then the mold comes in basically and broke the camel's back.

Right. Okay. So you get the diagnosis, they put the stent in. I'm assuming you have a cardiologist after that that you're talking to. What do they attribute it to? And then when did you say, no, I'm going to go figure this out myself?

Well, that was the biggest thing that as a wake-up moment, end up having to be in a cardiac ICU unit, getting about to get discharged, by the way. And I had this overweight cardiologist come in and looks at me and says, you shouldn't be eating any more meat.

Oh boy.

I'm like, that's going to stop right there. And they put me on 80 milligrams of atorvastatin. I felt horrible. And then at that time, they also put me on Brilinta, which is a blood thinner. But one of the side effects is possibly having syncope and shortness of breath. And I had both. I actually collapsed. So I knew the medication. And then on top of that, they overmedicated me. They put me on ARBs on top of isosorbide nitrate. So already a vasodilator. So when you have a 33-year-old having to— getting discharged, being overmedicated, what's going to happen? I actually had a case of syncope middle of the night.

Hmm.

So I went back in the hospital. And then they had to adjust my medication. But one of the things, the reason that I didn't listen to that was because even to a point when I got my stent put in, the first meal, Dylan, that you wouldn't believe, I got fried chicken and tater tots as a first meal in the cardiac ICU unit.

Okay.

Right? And that's fried in seed oils on top of that, right? And then for morning was basically oatmeal with some cinnamon sugar. on top of milk and coffee, and that's called a heart-healthy diet.

Don't, don't even start, because don't even— I took a snapshot when I was in there last year of the heart-healthy menu.

Oh yeah, yeah.

I said to Queenie, I said, does that say fucking chicken parmesan? Because I thought I was seeing stuff, and it was margarine, dinner roll, tortellini, all on this menu. And I'm sitting here going, what? No, but it's the meat, right? Come on, man.

And you— I know this cardiologist. I knew this cardiologist. He actually retired, but he used to be a smoker, overweight. So when you have, you know, cardiologists of that nature and then always end up having to reside on medications, and if the driven point in terms of pushing for more medications to manage an inflammatory condition It's not going to fix anything. No, no, right?

Your whole day revolves around when your next pill is because you got to rob Peter to pay Paul over and over and over. And before you know it, you're— you've created new problems that you didn't have. And then the list is so long. I see these people, their whole day revolves around timing their, their heart medications basically, and then their blood pressure medication, which is causing them problems. So they got to take something for that and then something for the blood thinner, and, and it's just insane.

Yeah.

Do you actually create this monsoon of bigger problems instead of addressing the core problem?

Correct. And then when you talk about medications alone, medications actually cause something called drug-induced nutritional depletion, right? When you talk about statin drugs, statins not only end up having to deplete CoQ10 because it actually blocks the mevalonic acid process of the cholesterol cascade, and so CoQ10 level, which is a necessary antioxidant, that's necessary for your electron transport chain to work well. Well, that gets depleted, but it also affects your vitamin K2 level. So you have a likely chance of actually having secondary heart attack later on. And the third thing now, more recently, nice finding is that it affects your GLP-1s. So it's been linked to creating type 2 diabetes and weight loss issues that they end up having to be compensatory as a result from using statin drugs.

Yeah.

So statin drugs also cellularly as well, one of the biggest impacts is that it causes leaking of your electron transport chain.

Wow.

So multiple things. So why am I mentioning this? Medication doesn't fix anything except for just putting on a Band-Aid. And the biggest thing that we have to look at is why is the body in that state?

Let me ask you this. The troponin thing's puzzling because when you're having a heart attack, the troponin, for people that don't understand it, it indicates whether your heart is suffering damage. And so that's a pretty good indicator if you're having a heart attack. And then they'll do like a D-dimer check too for the clotting and everything. And so that's, that's a little bit strange, but again, you know, I guess it's possible since it happened to you. But were there, were there blood tests that perhaps you weren't doing that you wish you would have that would have given you some sort of indication something was going on? Or were you pretty stringent on what you were testing?

No, not at all. I mean, that's something of a limited nature in terms of what I was getting trained at, even looking at functional medicine, you really— that whole side of the functional cardiology was not really developed. Now you actually have much more knowledge behind this, right? But one of the things that I should have checked for was C-reactive protein, right? Homocysteine level. No.

Okay.

Lp, ApoB. Those are things I never looked at. The particle size also. Those are really things that should be looked at. So one of the things that I do recommend is like Boston Heart, for instance. That's a good way to really measuring the particle size and in terms of the overall cardiac risk that you're getting involved. But one of the things that I also look at is how much of an environmental toxin is getting involved, and then as well as stress response you're dealing with, right? And then you could look at a person and then you could tell what's going on right away, especially when you have a guy standing in front of you and he has a potbelly. It's a sign of cortisol issues, right?

Mm-hmm.

When you have a guy who actually are dealing with gynecomastia, yeah, metabolic issues is one thing, but there's high levels of estrogen getting involved and low testosterone. that are already causing a risk factor. It's not just about cholesterol. Cholesterol is a sign of fact that there's an inflammatory condition that's going on, right? You could reverse that issue, right, by working naturally in terms of circadian rhythm, proper eating, lowering the risk factors, also working on cellular impact, creating and reversing some of the endotoxin issues including leaky gut, all that stuff, right? But the biggest thing that we have to also look at is how much of a stress response actually on the creating the issue dealing with hormones, especially having your high levels of cortisol, your testosterone are going to get tanked, but also actually increases things like testosterone-estrogen conversion by upregulating that 5-alpha reductase activity as well. So everything is interplaying into what's creating a perfect storm.

How big of an impact is toxicity to heavy metals to Like different sorts of environmental things, the mold and everything. How big of an impact is that on people that they don't realize and never test it?

Everybody's dealing with some kind of toxin these days because of the environment they're actually living in at this point in time, right? Not only the fact you're eating poorly these days with the chemicals and all different things going on, including the fact that when a baby's born these days, In umbilical cord, there's over 230 different chemicals and toxins in the umbilical cord blood.

Whoa.

So the mom is already carrying that load, is carrying on to the particular child. So you already have a child who's already been a lower state of health anyway. And then now that becomes a blank canvas, literally. And then you're adding on multiple things, including vaccination. poor eating, possibly mold, volatile gases, right? Including diesel fumes, right? Heavy metals. All these end up having to impact that particular child. And then you're adding in now blue light toxicity, especially iPad, computer screens. All these are actually creating bigger impact in the cellular health. They're finding that when you're getting emission to the toxic blue light, your mitochondrial function drops down drastically. So number of kids actually dealing with ADD issues, how much that's being dealt from blue light issues?

Mm-hmm.

Is it the environment? We're looking at the wrong picture by giving more medications. And this is the part that I want to really, uh, help people to see that there's much bigger impact just than medication alone. So that's why for me, I guess because I'm living in this environment of doing different types of biotoxin issues, that everything is just weighing on that particular person. It's just a matter of a time and a place when the person actually completely breaks down.

Well, and I want to make a point to people that are listening to your backgrounds in pharmacy, right?

Yeah.

So you, you would, you would know better than most the, the real effects that pharmaceutical medications have. And I'm not saying don't ever take a pharmaceutical medication. I take some. I'm not saying never, but the reliance upon them, I think, has gotten so far out of control at this point to where it's, it's kind of scary to how it's being portrayed and pushed onto people at this point. It's not even like it's optional anymore. It's like, if you don't agree with this or don't do it, you're the worst human that ever lived. And if you look for any other way, well, you're just crazy. I mean, isn't that kind of what's being conveyed at this point?

It is. And then the, the saddest part, which I kind of sort of walked away from pharmacy completely is that we're just basically relying on the big pharma that they are creating the safe medication. Maybe, but usually when you're having to see the list of side effects and how it's internally exposing the weakness of the design of the studies that we see, it's really a scam in many cases. I see that. And so, you know, majority of times, even let's just say a person's dealing with depression, for instance. Obviously, mental health is a very important part that you have to really work on. A lot of people have to work on. The issue is that antidepressants only help about less than 30% of the population out there. So, what is the other 70% to deal with? Is the impact dealing with— could be microbiome issues, right? It could be overloaded chemicals. Is it genetic? Especially when you have methylation issues, you're not able to make neurotransmitters correctly. Is it loaded with heavy metals? It could be the fact that you had other post-COVID issues, right? Maybe you are injured from having COVID. Maybe you're dealing with chronic Lyme disease.

We don't know. So we have to look at this whole entire picture of what's impacting that person's resiliency state. And then now, because of COVID happening and then the COVID-19 vaccine injuries that we see, now people are dealing with mast cell Activation syndrome. So become hyper-reactive to everything that they're dealing with at this point in time.

Dr. John, now are you trying to tell me that that COVID vaccine wasn't the end-all cure-all be-all?

And I can't comment on that part, but I've seen injuries.

No, no, no, not, not, not— no, no, no, no, no. Gosh damn. My point is always this, because I'm a down-the-middle guy. I don't give one ounce of a shit what, where you think you belong or what, because like I always say, I belong to God, man. All I care about are facts. That's all I ever care about. Everybody's got their own beliefs. That's fine. You want to get hypnotized? Like, you know, I always say that Looney Tunes when they do that thing and Bugs Bunny with his eyes would glaze over and he turned into this evil, you know, freak show or whatever before he came out of it. If you want to do that, fine. Take all the vaccines you want, take all the medicines you want. But when it comes down to people that live it daily, 'Cause you see it daily, I see it daily, we deal with it daily. And because somebody has 25 letters after their name doesn't mean that they know what is going on. It means that they've been told something and that's the end-all be-all. I care about the people that see it daily, that work around it.

You've seen it, I don't know for how many years, 20, 30 years you've been around it, and you've evolved just like I have. And we— One of the things that's important is that you take new data, you extrapolate from it, and then you make a judgment based on what we're seeing now. I don't care about trumped-up studies. I care about what you see with people, what you've experienced on your own. And I, I've— and look, there are some medications that I know for sure that are pushed on people that are bullshit, and there's some that are, that are good, that have merit, just like there's supplements or natural ways that I— you and I both see people take advantage of, and we have to be careful with those too. But then there's some that are really good, really strong. So I want to ask you a couple questions on the natural side then. Let's say we've got somebody that had an issue like you, or, you know, maybe elevated Lps, or they are seeing problems with their Cardiac IQ panel. And for people, that's what me and John were talking about, where we test your more intricate cholesterol testing.

You get a Cardiac IQ, you'll see the particle sizes John was talking about— ApoB, Lp. Let's say somebody's dealing with some of those issues. We don't want to take a statin for Lp, obviously. It's going to increase it. What are some ways aside from high-dose CoQ10 or ubiquinol that you would recommend people kind of attack that problem?

So, first, nowadays, I just start transitioning away from pharmaceuticals and working on the person's bioenergetic, right? The reason that there's a stagnancy in the buildup is that the overall negative charge that goes on within the endothelial tissue is affected because it could be toxins, Could be from the fact that you're getting initial injury from possibly infection I mentioned about. So, how do we reverse that? This is where the intricacy of what God actually put together for us, right? So, this is where working circadian rhythm is very, very important. So, you should probably end up having to bring forth Stephen Hussey. He's one of the—

I've had him on.

Oh, you did? Yeah. So, we talked about that. So, working on that particular part instead of working on circadian rhythm is a really important factor. Making sure use of infrared and light aspect of it helps to increase blood flow, but also helps to recharge that particular occlusion stone criteria part of your lumen cells, right? And that the structural endothelial to help to reverse all these different damage that goes on from a particular atherosclerotic plaque, for instance, right? But one of the things is, why is it that these lipids are becoming adhesive? is because the electrical charge is being disrupted.

Okay.

So if you look at Stephen Hussey's book, he talks a lot about that. But why is it that I'm talking about here that toxins create this mess? So when you're talking about the Lp and ApoB, yes, there is an inflammatory condition going on, but the biggest key thing that you have to also ask is the fact that why is it? It could be toxins, it could be insulin resistance, cortisol mismatch, Right? So those are things end up having to be impacted there. Oftentimes, it's heavy metals and mold that end up having to impact us. And mold impacts cholesterol cascade that I see much more often. So when I fix the person's mold issue, their overall lipid profile gets normalized.

Because, I mean, and correct me if I'm wrong, but the general consensus when somebody has plaque or, you know, certain elevated numbers is it's something diet-related or it's something that you're smoking, you're drinking, or You know, some sort of bad habit that you've gotten, but that's not always the answer or the case. Am I wrong in saying that?

It's not, but the food does create a mess though. But food is not the most impactful thing, but it's also what's happening bioenergetically that's creating this particular mess. So that's why I always look at circadian rhythm, light aspect of it, how well is that person's cellular health impacted. And so this is where the use of phospholipids, right? Using unadulterated linoleic and alpha-linolenic, right? Making sure the overall cellular membrane is intact, is fixed, right? So, those are the impactful things happening there. Why? Your endothelial lining is comprised of phospholipids to begin with, phosphocholine specifically, right?

Yeah.

So, when you actually have an initial stint of damage, that's what it comes down to. So, when you're looking at things like glycoprotein. So things like Arterilex, there's another supplement out there, TechChop2.

You've heard of it.

Right. That helps to fix that lumen lining, right? That's the arterial tissue lining that helps to fix that issue. But what's that comprised of? Phospholipids. Right. So everything goes into the cellular impact of what's creating at that point in time. When you impact that cholesterol aspect and those healthy lipids that you need to fix those things, and adding in statin drugs, you're impeding what the body's supposed to be doing correctly, right? That also affects your hormones, it affects your entire enzyme. But also, there's a reason why cholesterol ends up having to increase, is because to fix the initial trauma response that goes on from different toxins and infections and stress response there.

Okay, so, and this is one of the things that I've always looked at. And, and I want to preface this, when I made that comment, yes, your diet is important. Yes, your, your training is important. All these things are important. But I always look for more, for something deeper, because you're so trained for that. And it's like, we'll fix this and take this medication and go on. That's kind of what they do. And it's important for everybody out there listening to understand that there's way more to the equation than just those baseline things.

Correct.

Those are A small fraction of the piece of the puzzle. And, I want people to be more in tune with other things that can cause problems, especially plaque buildup. Now, you keep saying endothelial. You and I know what that means, but tell people out there what that actually means and why that's so important because there's probably a lot of people that don't know.

Sure. When you look at the blood vessel, for instance, and you cut that cross-sectionally, there is a lining that protects that particular blood vessel. And, that lining has other microvascular tissues as well. Well, that's what endothelium is. So, you need to have a healthy endothelial tissue to actually help creating oxygen, bring forth oxygenated blood, different ways in terms of creating ways into protecting that particular lumen lining from getting further damage from other things. So, it's basically as a tissue to protect the entire vessel. That basically comes out to.

Okay.

things like infections like Bartonella, for instance, it creates a damage with the endothelial damage. And when you have damage going on, what the body's natural mechanism is to bring forth cholesterol to come in to fix that.

Right.

That's what it comes out to. But then when you have oxidation going on, you basically are burning that fat, right? And then it calcifies and then leading into a development of atherosclerotic plaque later on.

So endothelial damage is bad.

Is bad, basically. Yeah. Now, one of the things I mentioned— I forgot to mention about going back to the whole, you know, the whole insulin resistance part as well. The reason that much more that we see at this point in time is not only the fact the toxins getting involved, but also the bad seed oils that we see, right? The food that we're seeing there. So when you're looking at things like fried food, the hydrogenated oils that we see from canola and margarine and all these things end up having to impact further into damaging your cell membrane.

I thought canola oil was heart healthy.

It's not. No, Crisco, I don't think it is. No, but, but that's one of the big impacts there. And then when you're adding in things like blue light toxicity, and a reason why you should work on the environment impacting the light is that the more blue light exposure that people are getting, the less likely in terms of controlling the glucose level in an optimal way also.

I want to get into some diet-related stuff.

Sure.

I always— I, I, you know, it's one of my wheelhouses. I've been studying food since I was 11 years old. Yeah. And granted, what we learned when I was 11 was incorrect, which created a lot of my problems, but I still studied food and nutrition all that time. And I find that now.

It is.

And I, I don't understand why it's so territorial and such a fight. Like, if, if I go to somebody that's a carnivore and you start talking about eating a carb, they want to kill you. They want to take your head off. And if I tell the oatmeal mafia something negative about oatmeal, they're coming for your head. And, well, and vegans, if you, you make a comment about that, they're coming after you. There's, there's no in-between. and understanding that every single human's different, and what you need and what I need could very well be different. And, my biggest thing, and Ben Azadi's a real close friend of mine, and he's talked about metabolic flexibility with me.

Yeah, and his birthday was yesterday.

Yeah, happy birthday, Ben. And so, I am big on the metabolic flexibility. And, through conversation with him and through my own doing, that means That you don't do the same thing every day. That means that you understand there's a need for different micronutrients and macronutrients, and that you give your body a change. Just like when I teach people for training for 30 years now, that you can't do the same thing every time you go into the gym, or your body will acclimate and you're going to actually go backwards.

Yeah.

Right? So, will you talk about metabolic flexibility a little bit, and what, what's your definition of that?

Metabolic flexibility allows you to basically— an easy way to do it is enjoying your food, allowing you to be better regulated in terms of your glucose control without having to go through a setback that people are thinking that they're going through. So it's a simple way in terms of realizing that you have the resiliency state to tolerate some of the food that you think that you're not able to. That's the easy way to explain that, right?

Mm-hmm.

And the easiest thing to really realize is how food is so impactful to your mitochondrial function. And that's the reason why when I work on clients, and especially like dealing with toxin issues, food comes first, right? And a food impact is based on you eating a seasonal diet, based on local seasonal diets, really important.

What's that mean?

So meaning that you're not going to be eating banana middle of winter, in the North Pole. Okay. Why? Why? Because cellularly impactful was that sunlight, that's emission of the actual solar energy, emits and codes a particular food to your local area that's going to help you be working on your mitochondrial function.

So you're saying like, and fish, for example, if it's not in season, then that's not—

Fish is, but by It's not the case at all. Fish actually provides, especially when you're talking about cold water fish, right? Cold water fish that provides the DHA that's needed on top of other healthy fats and enzymes. It's really impactful. Something that you should always eat, right? You shouldn't be skipping fish at all. And I would recommend you eating things that are wild-caught, like wild-caught salmon, sardines. Those are perfect food out there. Now, when you're looking at seasonal, meaning that based on where you are, especially the north and east I'm sorry, when you talk about in terms of the East and West Coast, right, there's a perfect environment for you to really look at the seasonal aspect of it and how that's available based on your food. And then on top of, based on the local farmers, what they grow, it's going to be one of the most impactful things that you're going to do for your cellular health, that is.

Okay.

Because why? When you're eating food that are not based on where you are, and but also not on season, that's more negative impact on your cellular health and as well as glucose control and such. So, it can be more damaging.

Okay. I asked that because I love sockeye salmon.

Yeah.

But, right now, it's out of season and I don't like the coho salmon at all. I find it not even close and I get frustrated, but they do sell the frozen sockeye. So, I'm eating it out of season technically. So, that's why I asked if That's perfectly fine. It's perfectly fine.

Okay. I actually prefer going with more of an Alaska salmon that are fresh frozen. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very high quality. But also in terms of meat-wise, like red meat for instance, you rather eat red meat that are from a local farm that are regenerative farm as well, right? It's quite different between a regenerative farm from Texas versus if you're living in New Jersey, for instance, you want to find a regenerative farm or farmers out there that are actually having cows grown in that particular area.

What does regenerative mean?

So regenerative farming means that you are allowing a recycling aspect of the carbon matter. So for instance, like the cows end up having to feed off the actual grass locally, end up having to have the actual waste being recycled into the particular soil. And that actually helps to regenerate that particular soil for better use out there. And it's actually healing for the soil because your carbon's getting redeposited. So, this really helped to create a better balance in terms of produce getting better, but also the animals are better humanely raised. It's getting away from the industrial farming as well. You're supporting local farmers. So, anytime that I see regenerative meat, that's one thing that I like to pick up.

Yeah. I do the regenerative eggs, no corn, pasteurized. I go as good as I can because I eat so many eggs every day. And, I do it with the meat too. I don't think that people truly grasp when it comes to meat and even chicken and eggs, especially the importance of it being completely grass-fed, understanding the tricky terminology, but what it means by actually going that extra mile, because you are what you eat.

Mm-hmm.

Right? And, there's a significant difference by eating, well, I'm just going to say it, the shittier-raised meat as opposed to the one that's really taken care of. And also, the stress on Chickens especially, and animals that they go through too, because you eat that inflammation then, that stress that they're going through. So, how important is it for the people that think that beef is just beef or eggs are just eggs? Could you get into that a little bit?

The quality quite differs because when you have a stressed-out animal, the amount of toxins getting exposed, being released, excuse me, not exposed but released, that toughens up that meat, right? but also is one of the things that are not really recommended. If you even look at the biblical standpoint, right, in terms of how in the Bible it says not to stress the meat out of the cow and help to sacrifice that quickly, it's because why? You wanna relieve stress and kill it humanely as possible without suffering. So that part not only is more biblical, but it also helps to create a better, healthier meat that you could eat. Right? So that's one of the things that I like to really recommend doing. So like, there is a lot of truth in terms of how the Bible puts together in terms of the meal and meal, but also food preparation, how food should be stored, right? So those are really important part that we have to always discuss about going right back into what God has intended.

If you need science and textbook, well, the Bible has all the answers, and it's the greatest textbook. because it has every answer that could ever be known if you interpret it right. If you have an understanding of the way that people spoke back then in comparison to how we speak now, there's words in there that you look at on the surface and say, well, that's kind of messed up, or people get offended, but they don't even know what it means.

Yeah.

They have no understanding or interpretation of it, and that's part of the way things get misconstrued. But there's so many answers in there about our anatomy and physiology, what we should and shouldn't eat, what's healthy for us and what's not. It's sitting right there. It's really literally all right there.

Yeah. And I look at that even deeper into environment. So yes. Yeah. Especially when you're looking at the book of— I mean, as a topic of mold that I always specialize in, when you look at the book of Leviticus chapter 14, fun one, it talks about how God says when you're dealing with mold, contain it, quarantine it, remediate it, or you burn it down. Because God knew— this was back in 3,500 years ago, right? God knew how toxic mold issue is. Now we're just trying to catch up to the particular information that God actually had given us.

Mm-hmm.

So when I look at patients, I look at the environment and how that's impacting in terms of their overall health. It's not just about the toxin, but how's their environment? Is that environment creating safety in their body? Creating peace so this way they could heal and recover.

A lot of people don't like to read Leviticus or think that it's pointless, but there's a lot there if you actually understand it. Actually, there's a ton there that predicates a lot for us and how we live. But that's a, that's a whole nother video to get into that. Um, I saw a piece of content you actually put out today, and I happened to catch it. And this is where I'm going with it, because you were talking about 5 foods that you would never eat. And but I would, I would, I want to carry over from that is some foods that people think are good for them that you disagree with that could alleviate some confusion. And, I might go back and forth with you on this and question you on some of it because I have agreement and disagreement on some of the ones you had today, which I want to get into. And, well, let's just go there because then I want to talk to you about fiber after that. But, I want to start with these.

Okay.

So go ahead, speak, speak freely.

Okay, which one would you say?

Well, it's not that I disagree with you. Okay, it's not that at all. Yeah, but I really want to touch on the spinach and the oatmeal ones now. And I feel— and you correct me because we're both nutrition people— I'm not saying to eat spinach like Popeye. That is not what I'm saying. In fact, I, I switched most of the spinach eating that I do to bok choy and, and chard and things like that. I have spinach a couple times a week, maybe, maybe. I think that there's true merits to the oxalate thing, but I also, I, I just feel like it's just way— it's, it's overdone on extremism. You correct me there. Is it an abundance thing or is it a never thing?

Well, let me bring to the context of why I talked about the 5 foods not to eat, because that particular video was just mainly focusing on 5 foods that you shouldn't eat when you're dealing with mold toxicity issues.

Ah.

So, let's go back there. So, number one, in terms of talking about oxalates, when you're dealing with oxalates, you have to also talk about the microbiome changes that goes on when you get exposed to mold. And mold impacts something called the Oxalobacter, which is a known colonizing commensal bacteria in your gut itself to help process the oxalate. Unfortunately, when you deal with mold toxins and affecting the microbiome, the Oxalobacter content goes down. You could actually test for this in a stool testing. So that's how I look at it. I'm also looking at the organic acid level as well. When you have a patient who's dealing with high oxalate sensitivity, the oxalic acid level within the organic acid is elevated, so they cannot process it correctly either.

Hmm.

So when you're looking at the entire picture, on top of this issue, mold impacts and creating more oxalate in the body at the same time. So you're actually having overload of oxalates. And, I've seen clients where they actually oxalate crystals forming in the skin.

Yeah, kidney stones issues. Yeah, for sure. And, that's why I wanted to ask about it because some of these foods that carry high levels of oxalates, they have a lot of other health benefits to them.

It can be.

Yeah. And then, so I feel like it's gotten a little confusing because, God bless him, Dave, it was like he will go 20 toes down on something when he talks about it.

Well, he talks about the phytic acid issues and the malabsorption of the minerals. And, there's a lot truth behind that. For me, that is, when I'm looking at the context of mold toxicity, anything that's stressing the gut out and as well as impact the neuroinflammatory condition as well as that could potentially leading into pain issues. I've had clients dealing with chronic pain. So, when you get rid of the oxalates, in a matter of few months—

Stops.

Stops, right? So, there's a great book, Sarah Kleiner actually I'm sorry, there's a perfect book called— I forget the name. There's a perfect, great book that I would recommend. It's called Toxic Superfood, right? The author's first name is Sarah. Don't quote me on the last name, but she is a physician assistant, dealt with chronic pain for the longest time, and soon realized how impact that was creating from oxalates.

Yeah.

So, that particular book really helped to open my eyes. But when I saw the phenomena and having issue with oxalate crystals on the, on the body and how the intake of oxalates was creating this mess on top of mold, that's when I started teaching my clients when they start working with me the first 3 months, not the whole time, the first 3 months, lower your oxalate content.

Yeah.

But if you're dealing with chronic pain, no oxalate at all.

What are some of the foods that have the highest amount of oxalates aside from spinach?

Potatoes, white potatoes, beets, right? When you're also dealing with chocolate, has a minimal amount of oxalate, but it does have that. Kale, right? So those are things that— I know kale is probably the worst thing you could do, but I'm not a big fan of it. But anyways, there's a number of food out there. But the thing is, that doesn't mean that not everybody cannot eat that. You can eat it. It's just the way that your body's digesting it.

Well, because people will get so pissed off too on the spinach thing and they'll start saying, but it's got this, many, you know, benefits.

And as long as you cook it very well, you should be able to digest it.

Yeah.

Right now, you like bok choy. You mentioned bok choy has a very low oxalate content.

Oh yeah.

So that's what I like to eat whenever I recommend it.

I eat it daily.

Yeah.

Well, and, and I, I talked to you about this in private. I, I don't crave carbs like some people do, but obviously with the working out, need them. So I get most of my carbs through high amounts of vegetables.

Yeah.

And so, you know, bok choy is one of those where it's like, man, it's a great green to add in there. So many nutrients and I just, I don't like to overdo the spinach either, 'cause I find I don't feel super great on it if I eat it too much, but I cook the shit out of it, you know, and I don't ever eat it raw. And I'm not a salad guy. I just don't find any merit in salad personally, aside from arugula.

Arugula is great for your bile production and your gut, so I do recommend that.

Yeah.

Another good point, you know, recommending not to eat things like oats, right? So—

Yeah, talk to me about that, please.

So oats-wise, Yes, it could be a great food, right? Does provide a lot of fiber. But one of the issues with oats is that oats can actually be laced with aflatoxin, which is a mold toxin to begin with. So it doesn't mean that every oat actually has this, but depending on how the oat has been processed, that can create these mold toxins to be contaminating this. So where does this aflatoxin come from? It's called Aspergillus. So, Aspergillus is everywhere, right? And, one of the facts I like to talk people about is that 25% of your food out there has been contaminated with mold toxin to begin with. 25%, that's a lot.

Shit.

Right. So, that means that everything coming from grains, beans, right, including certain produce as well, that could be all contaminated to that. But, how do you eat that? You have to obviously have to clean the food as much as you can. But, one of the things that I do recommend anytime, let's just say you're making rice, for instance, and rice is a good carbohydrate that you could eat, I'll recommend soaking your rice in water for at least 4 hours, wash it very well, and then cook it. Now, oats, you could do that. Sometimes it could be hard, but oats, the general issue that we see with the processed oat is that it does have very high levels of aflatoxin that I see. And second thing is that oat also contains phytic acid, so it impedes mineral absorption. And then the third issue is that when you're drinking things like oat milk, right?

Yeah.

It actually produces maltic acid. So it is a sugar that actually spikes your blood sugar a lot higher than regular juice for that matter, or fruit. So it's not a perfect food. It is actually quite toxic. So when I first started with this whole social media, I actually had this whole bandwagon called the anti-oat milk.

Oh, man.

So it's so bad. Yeah, it's, it's really bad. And so I'm not a big fan of that. But there's other things that you should also not eat when you're dealing with mold issues. Mushrooms in general, I'm not a big fan of it in the initial part dealing with mold toxicity. Why? Because the beta-glucan level that's actually being produced from the, from the mushrooms, it is very helpful for immune system. But when you talk about mold toxins, that also impacts how well you're able to detox mold to begin with. So, for the initial part of when I work with clients dealing with mold toxicity, I do recommend not to eat anything like that.

Because they already have mold.

That's what it comes out to.

Yeah.

And now, there are things like supplements like Saccharomyces, for instance. Saccharomyces boulardii is a naturally occurring yeast that's in your gut. But, years ago, for mold toxicity issue, for treatment-wise, they did used to recommend Saccharomyces. I no longer do that. Because studies have shown that it can lead into funginemia, so having fungus in the blood.

Mm-hmm.

So that also impacts how well you're able to detox. Now, why am I saying all this? You already have a toxic load to begin with, right? What you want to really focus is, how do I decrease that toxic load? So you can think about this as a water bottle. Every little thing from mold toxins to heavy metals, trauma response, stress-related issues, all that, it's already filling up your bucket.

Mm-hmm.

So whatever I could do is to decrease it as best as I can. Food is something that you could easily control. Light aspect of it can be impacting your cellular health. So you want to decrease the toxic light exposure, EMF issues, right? Anything related to stress response, overworking out sometimes can be very hurtful for your body, right? when you're not already ready to begin with. And this is the part that I have such a gripe with all these longevity doctors. It drives me freaking nuts. All these— I'm not going to mention names.

Okay.

There's one longevity doctor on X mentioned about HIIT workout helps to regenerate the mitochondrial function. I agree with you. But when you have a stressed-out menopausal 50-year-old lady who's overweight to begin with and tell that to her to go and then go work out as such, you're gonna wreck her hormones.

Exactly. There's no— some of these people, they don't put enough context behind what they say and/or believe their own bullshit. They, they think that what they say, because it works for a certain group of people, that it works for everybody. And it's so damn frustrating that they don't take into consideration people that have different conditions, scenarios, going through different parts of their lives. That it is one of the most frustrating things that I have ever endured or seen online, because you have to remember that everybody, as I said earlier, is different. And so what I was telling you before, well, I figured out I was having some trouble when I go low carb for too long with all the training, it is not beneficial. And I like lower carb diets, but at the same hand, if I wanna train like I do, it's not ideal on the training days.

Right.

You know, and so it's like, okay, let's modify this and work on it. So these people, they do this, and then they— I think that they have such egos that they, well, this worked, and I said this, and that's it, instead of saying, you know what, I should have corrected myself, and this doesn't work for everybody, you know? And it just— it's so frustrating. That leads me to then, when we look at diets, right? 'Cause I don't call them diets, I call them tools. I don't think keto's a diet or carnivore's a diet. I think it's a tool that should be utilized at certain points for different people during different time frames. What, what's your feeling on people that go so extreme for so long? Do you think it's smart to do keto forever or carnivore forever, vegan forever? Do you think it's good to mix those in as tools and elements?

It should always be used as a cyclic means, right? So, when I work with clients who are dealing with mold toxicity issues, what I try to do is I try to eliminate anything that's going create a lot of stress in the body. So anything related to oxalate I mentioned before, anything that's moldy food, try to decrease or at least eliminate gluten including casein, corn, soy. So more of a paleo-based diet.

Yeah.

The purity of that particular diet is less stress on the body and then focusing on more seasonal eating, right? Depending on the particular month and the season that you're in, you want to focus on that. So especially when you're in a winter phase, You're eating a lot more meat, right? Now you're gonna be eating more rooted vegetables and pickled vegetables. That's a better way to creating a better balance into your entire microbiome and as well as your cellular impact. Now, when the weather gets warmer, you could eat things that are more seasoned. So I recommend people to eat food that are seasonal. Like for instance, if it's a watermelon season, eat it, right? If it's a strawberry season, eat it as long as it's fresh, right? You don't want to buy anything that's been stored on the shelf for a long period of time that could be laced with mold toxins. But that's the easiest way to impact that. But that's the most easy way to think about eating in general without having to go through this whole facade in terms of this whole condition and just, oh, you know, should I be eating carnivore and such?

Because all based on how that food is nourishing you cellularly there. And I've seen clients who've had a very— and this is dealing with women, by the way. And women and men are not the same. Just want to let you know.

No way.

No, it's not. It's not the same.

Sorry to piss anybody off.

Exactly. No, but even women in general, when you actually do a low-carb diet for women, they may lose weight, right? They work. Sure. But their thyroid gets so messed up.

I know.

Right? And this is the thing that, that's not really talked about there. So all these gurus, food gurus out there talking about carnivore diet and how good that is, I get that, but you're not really looking at the everyday women out there in their 40s and 50s, right? Who's having trouble losing weight even though they're dealing with this whole metabolic inflexibility they're dealing with.

Yeah.

Right? And so you got to really understand the context of the person is and really help to get through in terms of that. that food is a nourishing tool, is not something to be played around with and giving additional stress. You're already fucking stressed out to begin with.

That's just it. Food is medicine and it needs to be used that way. And these people that get so fucking mad when you make a comment, and it's like, first of all, if you have to get that mad, then no one should ever listen to you because you, you, you don't have any wherewithal to discuss, right? Which means you can't be trusted because you're just going on emotion and not on fact. That's the way I look at it. If you can't be asked a question or questioned in any way about something without getting pissed off, then for me, you're disqualified in terms of being someone that I could discuss this with.

Correct.

That's how you get disqualified. I got disqualified the other day by somebody because I had earrings, by the way. That made me— I said, well, my professor at Harvard forgot to tell me that wearing earrings made my IQ dip down to your level.

But anyway, Yeah, so I mean, even if you look at vegan diet, for instance, vegans, it's very poor state of health also because the fact that you're not getting— and this actually goes with the raw diet to begin with. And I've seen the influencers who call it the raw diet, they can't sustain themselves. No, right?

No, it's not sustainable.

It's not sustainable at all because it also wrecks their gut, nutrient deficiency that goes on, but also the way that you get nourished from eating meat is far, far surpassing than what you could end up having to get from, um, best vegan diet alone. And so that's something that we have to really understand, like, because if you look at a, a good piece of steak that are regenerative farm, there's a complete nutrient that you're going to get, right? Micro and macro that you're going to get, right? On top of the necessary carnitine and creatine that you need. And so that's really impactful that you're utilizing food as your medicine, ways to supporting your cellular function. And that's the most important part that we have to look at. And one of the things that you don't want to be just stick on, stick with a particular facade of whatever is trendy. You have to also see based on what's fitting you genetic-wise, right? Depending on, especially for Korean, Korean American living, you know, you know, East Asian population versus a person who grew up and has European ancestry, that particular dietary changes also happens. Right, right.

100%.

That's something that we have to always understand. And so all these gurus out there, even, even per se in the Instagram and social media world, they don't really talk the truth of everybody. That's what's needed. And also dietary changes based on your condition as well. Yeah. If you are having autoimmune disease, if you're dealing with chronic pain, right? If you are dealing with, let's just say, hormonal dysregulation also, the diet aspects also changes. So one of the things that I don't recommend if you are dealing with chronic illness is that you don't fast.

Yeah.

I don't recommend it. It's not wise. It's not wise.

I'm all about fasting, but when I train and do 20 and 30 miles in a day and then go lift and work out, fasting is not the greatest idea.

It's not.

It doesn't work. On a non-workout day, sure. But if you got conditions, like you said, it's all about what fits for where you are at in life at that point. And you know this, man, when you get older, certain things change too. Certain things that you can and can't tolerate, certain things that your body responds to or doesn't, ways that you pack on nutrients, it changes. And you have to be ready to be flexible, and you have to, you have to be able to ascertain At the given point in time, what is going to work here and what is just not working anymore. And, you got to be willing to pivot. I'll pivot on the drop of a dime. I am not married to any protocol or anything that I ever created or came up with, but people are. I got one more question for you before we wrap up and I want to ask about fiber. Now, I have people that literally will go on and tell you, you do not need fiber, and they will talk shit and they will get so angry and tell you. And, I just couldn't be— like more firm on disagreement in that aspect of things.

Could you tell me if there is merits to that, or do we not need fiber as one of the key components to our gut health, or am I just losing my shit?

No, you do need fiber. And fiber, especially fiber-resistant starch especially, is needed to feed your microbiome. And then when you feed that microbiome, they also produce something called short-chain fatty acid, right? And that short-chain fatty acid called, aka, butyric acid, right, is fed off by the colonocytes in your colon to help to decrease not only inflammation in the gut, but also helps to absorb nutrients and also is a DNA protectant. We talk about longevity science. Yeah, it's your microbiome. It's what you eat, what you put in your body is also an important part there.

Wouldn't it be difficult to have a healthy microbiome if you just didn't eat fiber? Am I losing it?

It's not possible.

That's what I thought.

Yeah. So one of the things that I also do is whenever I work with clients in dealing with the core context of mold toxicity, for instance, I have a methodology called ENCORE Method, right? We talked about this on the phone.

Yeah.

So ENCORE Method stands for environmental factor, nervous system regulation, cellular optimization, optimizing detox pathway, rebalancing microbiome, enhancing resiliency, right? Even working with the whole rebalancing microbiome part is a later part compared to like working on the environment nervous system because everything is feeding off of the microbiome aspect. If you're completely in a moldy environment, stressful environment, that's going to affect your microbiome. If you're in a nervous system that's completely reacting in a fight or flight response, it's going to affect your microbiome, including your cellular impact affecting microbiome. So, everything is pointing to the microbiome. So what do we need to do? If you have a poor gut dysbiosis, meaning there's a lack of balance of good bacteria, then you want to clean out those messes there. But that's not the time that you're going to be eating fiber-rich food. Because when you have a gut dysbiosis, especially when you're dealing with small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, including small intestinal fungal overgrowth, that fiber, which is good for you, can actually impact overgrowth of bad bacteria. So one of the things I teach my clients is this: taking the right supplement at the wrong time can be very poor for your health.

Yeah.

Right?

Yeah.

And this all goes down to longevity as well, right? Taking the right supplements. So one of the things that I don't recommend in an early stage of these type of toxicity levels that we do is that I don't recommend doing NMN. right away. There's a time to take that, right? Great supplement, but I don't really recommend it in a time of stress response like that because that's not really necessary to adding in, but also can impact further issues dealing with mold, impacting it. So that's— there's a time for it. When you clean out that mass, that's a good time to take NMN, any other supplementation for talking about longevity. Why? When the cells are undergoing through cell danger response, especially mitochondria, cannot focus on longevity. It's in survival mode.

Right. So, you're trying to treat something that can't be treated at the time. It's just not ready.

Correct. And, as well as you need to have a right-functioning cell membrane for the mitochondria to function very well to begin with. So, you need to have a right receptor to take on those things.

Right, right, right.

So, all these things are impacting that.

Well, yeah, with an unhealthy cell and you're trying to put something in there that needs to have a healthy cell to work, not exactly going to work.

Yeah.

Right. So, it's just pissing money away and probably creating a bigger problem. Right.

Even like the urolithin A, for instance.

Yeah.

Great supplementation. I love it. Now, urolithin A is created by the microbiome.

Right.

Right? It's coming from the use of pomegranate and then the particular bacteria feeds off of that and increases urolithin A, which is great for mitochondria, Right. But that particular thing also requires a cell membrane to be functioning to utilize those nutrients as well.

Right.

It all goes down to mitochondria, all goes down to cellular health, the very basic that God actually provided for us.

Yeah.

Right. We keep forgetting about that and over-supplementation and overcomplicating the matter of longevity and functional medicine. I think this is where practitioners and patients get frustrated and stuck. And there's the part that I like to bring new light to the picture. I said, I wanna be the disruptor. And then one of our obviously mutual friends, Sean, Sean Drake says, no, you wanna be the light to this part.

That's right.

I wanna bring a light to bring forth a new message.

That's right.

That we have to simplify in terms of how we do it. And that's why I created this Encore Method to not only teach my clients that I'm working with, but I'm gonna be opening up soon a practitioner training mentorship program that I'm gonna provide as well, because I wanna really change how functional medicine, this entire methodology has changed. So this way, it helps to simplify, helps to empower, but this is the way that God had intended to. I love it.

I love it. Stick to God's plan, and you're never going to go wrong. No, you're just not.

Yeah. All right. And I'm living based on God's grace.

That's exactly right. Likewise. Yes, likewise. All right, my friend, that was too fast. Well, we're going to do several sessions of this.

Yep.

And everybody watching, we have a sweet roundtable coming up that's going to be pretty damn awesome. We're celebrating John's birthday at that roundtable as well. It's going to be me, John, Mark Young, Shawn Drake. That'll be coming soon too. But John, my friend, you know I love you. I want to get you out there as much as I can. Tell everybody where to follow you and how to get signed up with you or whatever course or whatever you got people that can help them and get them close to you, tell them all.

Yeah, absolutely. So you can find me easily at my website, drjohnkim.com. Very easy to find. And I'm very active on Instagram, john.pharmd. I'm going to be opening up soon. Any practitioners out there have listened to this message and resonating for you, you want to practice your functional medicine and training very differently and really work on into the cellular impact and how God has intended in terms of healing, I'm providing a mentorship program very soon. It's going to be opening up as of November. So if you are listening out there right now, go to my website and sign up for a waiting list, and we'll be dropping a link for you to purchase as the first cohort of practitioners to join my mentorship program.

Beautiful. I can't recommend a better mentorship program to get signed up for. I'll link everything for them to get pre-signed up, stay up to date. I love you, brother. Thank you for coming here with me.

Thank you. It's a blessing.

It's always a blessing to see you, and I can't wait for all the amazing things that you're going to do and we are going to do together.

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you.

All right, well, that wraps up another one, everybody. Stay tuned for plenty more to come. Dylan Gemelli and Dr. John Kim signing off.