This note is the key takeaways from listening to Dr. Rhonda Patrick's conversation with Tim Ferriss, which was released on Aug 12, 2015.
#1 Blood Biomarkers
The three blood biomarkers that Tim Ferriss mentioned specifically are Blood Ketone levels, Free Testosterone (relative to sex hormone binding globulin) and Hemoglobin A1C (HbA1c).
For Blood Ketone levels, the preferred range is 1.1-1.7 mmol/L. Higher level does not necessarily mean better as it could also mean that the person is not utilising ketones efficiently
Tim increased his lean mass meaningfully when transitioning into a nutritional ketosis. It is speculated that decreased degradation of BCAAs could be part of the reasons.
#2 MTHFR Mutation & Supplement Anecdote
Dr. Rhonda mentioned that her mother in law has a MTHFR mutation ('MTHFR enzyme is only working at 10-20% efficiency'), which could have contributed to her persistent high blood pressures despite trying out different diet and exercise options. The blood pressure, however, returned to normal ranges after she started supplementing with 5-methylfolate and methylcobalamin.
This is an interesting anecdote. Coincidentally, my dad has had high blood pressure for more than 10 years and he also had high homocysteine level. He started taking methylfolate and methylcobalamin a few years ago and his blood pressure has somewhat returned to normal ranges. I will look into more medical research about the relations among MTHFR mutations, supplements and blood pressure.
#3 Good & Bad Inflammation
Not all inflammations are bad.
Short-duration, exercise-induced inflammation is needed for muscle growth whereas low-grade chronic inflammation (such as in the gut) is the one to guard against.
Supplemental antioxidant can actually negate benefits from exercise and intermittent fasting.
#4 Sugar, Insulin & Metformin
Dr. Rhonda mentioned that she is not a fan of taking metformin and she prefers limiting sugar intake to control blood glucose and insulin levels.
She also mentioned that something called Insulin-like Receptor 1 is a strong leading indicator for Alzheimer's.
#5 Lyme Disease
During the part where Tim shared his experience dealing with Lyme disease, he proposed several interesting hypothesis, one of which is that chronic Lyme disease could be the result of side effects from taking too much antibiotics, which leads to dysfunctional gut microbiome. The other one is that Lyme disease and the associated side effects from overdosing antibiotics could mean the patient is less tolerable on carbohydrate intakes.
This might explain why he recovered meaningfully when switching into a ketogenic diet, particularly for cognitive performance. This seems to be happening for other Lyme disease sufferers based on his observations.
#6 Other interesting bullet points
Resistance training is the best to improve cognitive performance, compared to steady state training.
Tim (in 2015) used a barbell approach of exercise, including short highly intensive exercise and very long (2-4 hours) walk.
'Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage' - when Tim explains about the practice of humiliation (as in actively looking for opportunities to feel humiliated), which is a very interesting concept.
'I realised that very rarely are the things we are afraid of worth being afraid of'.
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