100% of tested samples is not a rounding error. Drs. Mark Pettus and John Bagnulo walk through new research on mycotoxins in commercially available plant-based meat, cheese, fish, and beverage alternatives and explain why mold toxins deserve a place in any serious conversation about modern nutrition. We dig into what the lab methods measured, why wheat-gluten based seitan products can be especially vulnerable, and how gaps in food safety oversight can leave “plant-based” products outside the regulatory spotlight many of us assume exists.

From there, we connect the dots to what listeners actually care about: symptoms, labs, and long-term risk. We talk about common mycotoxins like aflatoxin and ochratoxin A, the reality of daily exposure when staples like wheat, corn, soy, and oat products show up at every meal, and why quantity matters as much as concentration. We also explore how these toxins can be lipophilic, how they may interact with obesity and fatty liver biology, and what research suggests about lipid changes like higher triglycerides and lower HDL.

We then zoom out to the systems most likely to take the hit: immune function, endocrine signalling, and the gut microbiome. We cover increased gut permeability, endotoxemia, inflammation, and the unsettling synergy where mycotoxins may worsen outcomes in the presence of latent viruses like Epstein-Barr or herpes family viruses. Finally, we end with grounded, doable steps: reduce reliance on ultra-processed meat analogs and dairy substitutes, do your own homework, and support elimination pathways including bile flow and bile binding strategies such as beets and specific fibers.

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Mycotoxins Slide Deck

Effects of mycotoxins in foods on human health and strategies for prevention and control- A review

The role of mycotoxins in lipid metabolism and homeostasis- a systematic review

Mycotoxin contamination in plant-based beverages and meat alternatives- A survey of the UK market

Endocrine Effect of Some Mycotoxins on Humans- A Clinical Review of the Ways to Mitigate the Action of Mycotoxins

Mycotoxin- Its Impact on Gut Health and Microbiota

Fungal mycotoxins in food commodities- present status and future concerns

Mycotoxins in Food- Cancer Risks and Strategies for Control

Daylight savings may be on the chopping block, but the bigger health disruption we can actually fix today might be hiding in plain sight: low zinc status. We walk through why zinc is an essential micronutrient you cannot store, why it often slips past routine medical testing, and why modern diets can create a quiet gap between “zinc consumed” and “zinc absorbed.” If you care about energy, immunity, fertility, and healthy aging, zinc deficiency and zinc bioavailability deserve a spot on your radar.

From there, we get into the strongest part of the evidence: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials on zinc supplementation in type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, gestational diabetes, and prediabetes. We unpack what improved most, including insulin resistance markers like fasting insulin and HOMA-IR, along with inflammation (C-reactive protein) and oxidative stress measures (malondialdehyde and total antioxidant capacity). We also explain why zinc’s role in antioxidant enzyme systems such as superoxide dismutase can matter when inflammation and reactive oxygen species are driving cardiometabolic risk.

We then make it practical: which groups are most likely to struggle with zinc status (older adults, people with GI issues, post-bariatric surgery, pregnancy and lactation, and long-term acid suppression users), and which foods reliably deliver bioavailable zinc. We also add a crucial nuance many people miss, the copper to zinc ratio, and how high-copper patterns can shift that balance in ways that may affect infection risk and cardiovascular disease risk.

If you found this helpful, subscribe, share the episode with a friend who is working on metabolic health, and leave a quick review so more people can find the show. What’s one change you’d make to improve zinc intake or absorption starting this week?

Audio Recording

Zinc Slide Deck

Zinc deficiency in patients with type 2 diabetes increases risk of cardiovascular diseases- Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study

Zinc and Type 2 Diabetes- A Systematic Review with a Narrative Synthesis of Their Bidirectional Relationship and Clinical Perspectives for Personalized Nutritional Support

Study on Reference Range of Zinc, Copper and Copper:Zinc Ratio in Childbearing Women of China

Serum Zinc Concentrations in the US Population Are Related to Sex, Age, and Time of Blood Draw but Not Dietary or Supplemental Zinc

Serum copper-to-zinc-ratio and risk of incident infection in men- the Kuopio Ischaemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study

Low zinc levels at clinical admission associates with poor outcomes in COVID-19

Effects of Zinc Supplementation on Glycemic Control, Insulin Resistance, Inflammation and Oxidative Stress in Diabetes- A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Heavy water sounds like a chemistry trivia fact until you realise it may be sitting at the crossroads of energy, ageing, and chronic disease. We talk about deuterium, the heavier isotope of hydrogen, and why even one extra neutron can matter when that hydrogen becomes part of the water that surrounds your proteins and powers your mitochondria. If you care about mitochondrial health, oxidative stress, insulin sensitivity, and longevity, this is a surprisingly practical conversation hiding inside a physics story.

Mark Pettus MD and John Bagnulo PhD, MPH walk through what deuterium is, where it shows up in our environment, and why modern patterns may increase deuterium load over time. We dig into the mechanism that keeps popping up: the mitochondrial electron transport chain is a precise system, and deuterium-heavy water can slow it down, reducing efficiency and increasing stress signals downstream. We also look at why hype and devices can derail credibility, and why you do not need a machine to start applying the fundamentals.

From there, we connect lifestyle to biology. Burning fat creates metabolic water that is naturally lower in deuterium, which helps explain why ketogenic or lower-carb eating keeps showing up alongside better metabolic outcomes. We discuss food choices that tend to push deuterium higher, why local and seasonal eating may matter more than people think, and how sunlight, infrared light, and “exclusion zone” water concepts fit into a broader hydration and performance picture.

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Deuterium Depleted Water Slides

References Noted:

Deuterium trafficking, mitochondrial dysfunction, copper homeostasis, and neurodegenerative disease

Deuterium-depleted water stimulates GLUT4 translocation in the presence of insulin, which leads to decreased blood glucose concentration

Explaining deuterium-depleted water as a cancer therapy- a narrative review

The biological impact of deuterium and therapeutic potential of deuterium-depleted water

To lower deuterium in your body, prioritize a ketogenic-style diet…

Nutritional deuterium depletion and health- a scoping review

Chronic disease doesn’t feel “modern” when you’re living it, but the causes often are. We take on the Paleodeficit Syndrome, the idea that your body still runs on an ancestral operating system while your environment has been rewritten in a few generations. That mismatch helps explain why obesity, insulin resistance, prediabetes, type 2 diabetes, fatty liver, and cardiovascular risk keep rising even as nutrition advice gets louder and more confusing.

We dig into the biggest dietary shifts that separate ancestral eating from the modern diet: grain dependence after agriculture, acellular carbohydrates from refined flour, ultra processed foods, industrial seed oils and omega 6 excess, and the way fortification can hide a low nutrient diet inside “enriched” staples. We also explore why potassium, iron, and zinc bioavailability matter, why fermentable fiber and the gut microbiome are central to metabolic health, and why seasonality used to shape human physiology in ways we rarely consider now.

Then we bring receipts. We discuss a short clinical Paleo diet intervention where insulin resistance markers (HOMA IR) and triglycerides improved fast, and we push past the simplistic cholesterol narrative by focusing on LDL particle quality: small dense versus large buoyant LDL and how insulin levels influence both. Along the way, the agouti mouse research makes the case for nutritional epigenetics, showing how diet can change gene expression and even affect future generations.

If you want practical ancestral health takeaways without hand waving, this one will challenge you in the best way. Subscribe, share with a friend who’s tired of nutrition whiplash, and leave a review so more people can find the show. What part of the modern diet do you think is most out of sync with human biology?

Natural environments, ancestral diets, and microbial ecology- is there a modern “paleo-deficit disorder”? Part II

Paleo-Deficit Slides

Chronic disease didn’t suddenly become “normal” because our genes got worse. Our genes largely stayed the same, but our world changed fast and our bodies are still trying to keep up. Mark Pettus and Dr John Bagnulo unpack Paleo Deficit Syndrome (PDS), a powerful framework in ancestral health and evolutionary medicine that helps explain why obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, autoimmune issues, and neurodegeneration keep rising even as healthcare gets more sophisticated.

We zoom out beyond the usual reductionist lens and pull in evidence from anthropology and real-world populations that still live closer to ancestral patterns. We talk about the Hadza, research from the New Guinea Highlands that challenges the “aging equals decline” storyline, and why old photos from the early 1900s can look more like hunter-gatherers than today’s sedentary norm. Then we connect the dots with epigenetics, showing how quickly the environment can reshape outcomes, sometimes within a single generation.

To make it visceral, we walk through Robert Sapolsky’s observations of “junk food monkeys” and the striking health shifts seen in the Pima people after a rapid change in food and lifestyle environment. We also get candid about why these insights stay niche, and why “lifespan” is a distraction if healthy lifespan is collapsing.

We’ll post the papers and slide deck on our website so you can follow along, and we’ll continue this as a two-part series. If this perspective helps you rethink your own health trajectory, subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find the conversation.

Audio Recording

Paleo-Deficit Slides

Natural environments,Part 1 ancestral diets, and microbial ecology- is there a modern paleo-deficit disorder? Part I

Natural environments,Part 2 ancestral diets, and microbial ecology- is there a modern “paleo-deficit disorder”? Part II

Lithium is one of those molecules most people think they understand, until you zoom out. Yes, it’s a time-tested medication for bipolar disorder. But at tiny, trace doses, lithium starts to look like something else entirely: a potential micronutrient with outsized influence on mood stability, inflammation, and brain ageing.

We walk through why interest in low-dose lithium is rising in the brain health and longevity world, even as human clinical trials are still early. John and I talk about what lithium is chemically, why it’s so bioavailable, how it crosses the blood-brain barrier, and why the kidneys matter more at prescription doses than at supplement-scale milligrams. Then we connect the dots on mechanisms people care about most for neuroprotection: GSK-3 inhibition, support for BDNF, a tilt toward calming inhibitory signalling (GABA), better balance in serotonin pathways, and less glutamate-driven mitochondrial stress.

We also wrestle with the bigger public health angle: what happens when we treat chronic disease as “too much of everything” and ignore deficiency and nourishment. Soil mineral depletion, variable food mineral content, and strong population associations with lithium in drinking water (including mental health measures and Alzheimer’s mortality) make this a conversation worth having, carefully and objectively.

If this sparks questions for you, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

Lithium Slides

Association between lithium use and the incidence of dementia and its subtypes- A retrospective cohort study

Beyond its Psychiatric Use- The Benefits of Low-dose Lithium Supplementation

Clinical-and-biological-effects-of-long-term-lithium-treatment-in-older-adults-with-amnestic-mild-cognitive-impairment-randomised-clinical-trial

Lithium and neuroprotection- a review of molecular targets and biological effects at subtherapeutic concentrations in preclinical models of Alzheimer’s disease

Lithium Promotes Longevity through GSK3_NRF2- Dependent Hormesis

Lithium deficiency and the onset of Alzheimer’s disease

Cholesterol warnings have a way of flattening any nutrition story into one scary number, even when the bigger picture points the other way. We take on one of our favorite topics coffee and zoom in on the debate that keeps resurfacing: should you avoid unfiltered coffee because it contains cafestol, a compound known to raise cholesterol modestly?

We break down what actually changes when you switch from filtered coffee to unfiltered coffee methods like French press or Turkish coffee. Paper filters remove much of the coffee oil fraction, including diterpenes such as cafestol and kahweol, while leaving plenty of other valuable compounds like chlorogenic acids. Then we ask the more important question: if coffee consistently shows protective associations for cardiovascular health, metabolic health, and even brain health, why do so many public health messages treat a small lipid bump as the final verdict?

From endothelial function and inflammation to insulin sensitivity, fat oxidation, and LDL oxidation resistance, we explore why cafestol may be far more beneficial than the headlines suggest. We also connect this coffee debate to a broader problem in modern nutrition and medicine: prioritising a single biomarker over lived outcomes and overall risk. Finally, we get practical about brew choices, lighter roasts, steep time, and the easiest way to ruin a great cup by adding sugar, synthetic creamers, or highly processed sweeteners.

If you love coffee, keep loving it !

The Association between Cafestol and Cardiovascular Diseases- A Comprehensive Review

Cafestol and Health Review Slides

We break down new research showing how a simple daily walking habit drives outsized gains in longevity, heart health, brain health, and mood. We also zoom out to the bigger idea that walking is not “extra credit” exercise but a basic human requirement that modern life keeps pushing out.
• why small doses of movement deliver big risk reduction
• what a systematic review and meta-analysis actually mean
• why around 7,000 steps per day stands out versus 2,000
• why cadence and speed matter less than total steps for most people
• links to lower risk across mortality, cardiovascular disease, dementia, depression, diabetes, cancer, and falls
• how outdoor context adds benefits through light, nature, and social connection
• the “walking meetings” idea and a negotiation story that hinged on taking a walk
If you like what we’re sharing, please share with your those you love, your friends.

Walking Study Slides PDF

The multifaceted benefits of walking for healthy aging- from Blue Zones to molecular mechanisms

Daily steps and health outcomes in adults- a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis

One photon travels nearly 93 million miles and still arrives with a job to do. We dig into sunlight as biology-changing information, starting with Einstein’s photoelectric effect and ending with a practical, unsettling question: what are we giving up when we spend most of life indoors and out of sync with the day?

We walk through the spectrum in plain language and connect it to real physiology. UVB light helps convert cholesterol in the skin into pre-vitamin D, but the deeper story is that vitamin D behaves like a transcription factor with “top secret access” to the nucleus, influencing hundreds of genes. Then we zoom out to what most people miss: blue light around 480 nm sets circadian rhythm through melanopsin receptors in the retina, UVA can mobilise nitric oxide to support blood flow and cardiovascular health, and red to near-infrared wavelengths interact with mitochondria through cytochrome c oxidase, shaping energy production, healing, and resilience.

Along the way we challenge the supplement-only mindset, explain why sunlight is self-regulating in ways pills are not, and explore why people often override what their bodies feel with what they have been told to fear. If you care about circadian health, vitamin D, nitric oxide, photobiomodulation, mitochondrial function, and the future of biophysics in medicine, this is the map we wish more people had.

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For slides and open source references: www.thehealthedgepodcast.com

Physics of Sunlight Slides

Bile might be the most overlooked substance in everyday health, yet it sits at the crossroads of digestion, detoxification, and metabolic control. We take a fresh look at bile quality and bile acids, starting with what the liver makes from cholesterol, what the gallbladder stores, and what gets released when we eat, especially after higher fat meals. From there, the story gets far more interesting: bile acids don’t just help you absorb fat, they also communicate with receptors in the gut and throughout the body in ways that can affect appetite, energy expenditure, insulin sensitivity, lipid patterns, and inflammation.

We also unpack enterohepatic circulation, the recycling loop where roughly 95% of bile acids can be reabsorbed and sent back to the liver. That matters for anyone thinking about detoxification, because bile is a major exit route for fat-soluble toxins, and without the right binders those compounds can circle back. We talk through the practical role of soluble fibre, including beta-glucan and pectin, and why the source matters when you’re balancing bile binding with blood sugar control.

The gut microbiome is the other half of the equation. Your bacteria convert primary bile acids into secondary bile acids, and that conversion can shift bile toward more inflammatory or more protective effects. We connect modern dysbiosis drivers like low fibre intake and antibiotic exposures with downstream bile changes, then get specific about foods that support thinner bile (extra virgin olive oil, flax, black seed oil, oily fish, avocado, nuts) and foods that often do the opposite (refined carbs and fried oils heated to high temperatures). If you’ve ever wondered why fried meals so often precede gallbladder pain, we explain the mechanism in plain language.

Subscribe for more science-based self-care, share this with someone who struggles with gut issues or gallbladder symptoms, and if it helped, leave a quick review so more people can find the show.

Bile Quality-Function Slides

Bile Acid Metabolism and Signaling

Bile acids and the gut microbiota- metabolic interactions and impacts on disease

Bile salt signaling and bile salt-based therapies in cardiometabolic disease