Speaker 1: You're listening to the Weekend Collective podcast from News Talks EDB.
Speaker 2: Yes, welcome back to the Weekend Collective. By the way,
Speaker 2: if you missed any of our previous hour, we had
Speaker 2: a chat with Eric is stan for the Minister of
Speaker 2: Immigration on the new parent boost quality policy, and also
Speaker 2: Jordan Williams and the Taxpayers Union joined us to talk
Speaker 2: about oh, just polls and all the questions and that
Speaker 2: it's actually quite an interesting discussion, especially when it comes
Speaker 2: to the margin of era, which is my pet peeve.
Speaker 2: But anyway, if you want to check that out, you
Speaker 2: go to a website or to iHeartRadio look for the
Speaker 2: Weekend Collective. We get our hours up very quickly after
Speaker 2: they've concluded, and this will be no different. But you,
Speaker 2: of course you're here right now. So this is the
Speaker 2: Health Hub and we're going to have a chat about
Speaker 2: just how busy our lives are with school, you know,
Speaker 2: school runs, sports, drop offs, appointments with stuck in trap,
Speaker 2: we're running eight late for something. But there's this talk
Speaker 2: about burnout versus I mean, are you burning out and
Speaker 2: or are we just living busy lives and we need
Speaker 2: to be able to cope with it. But of course
Speaker 2: does a nutrition play a part of that? And of
Speaker 2: course I mentioned nutrition because joining us she is a
Speaker 2: nutritional biochemist and she's very familiar in news talks, a
Speaker 2: B audiences, and she's joining us now is doctor Libby Weaver.
Speaker 2: Good afternoon, Tim, Good afternoon to you.
Speaker 3: Thanks so much for having me join you for this chat.
Speaker 2: Thanks for coming on board. I was about to say
Speaker 2: that we're coming across on zoom and you're The office
Speaker 2: you are in is quite an intriguing background because it
Speaker 2: looks to me like you're trying to get a little
Speaker 2: bit of copper intake or something.
Speaker 3: It's funny that, given that copper is so important for
Speaker 3: our iron absorption and iron utilization once it's inside us.
Speaker 3: So it's very funny that you say that. No, I'm
Speaker 3: in beautiful burly heads in Queensland this afternoon. Where make
Speaker 3: you jealous? It's twenty degrees in sunshine.
Speaker 2: Ah, well it's cold here, but I like about a
Speaker 2: thirteen degree here, but the sun is still shining. Thank goodness.
Speaker 2: Is there something just on that? Just to get into it,
Speaker 2: there are always sort of topics to jure social media,
Speaker 2: people talking about being burnt out or and it seems
Speaker 2: to be almost the I don't want to say it's
Speaker 2: a trend, but we are stating our level of burnout
Speaker 2: more frequently, and I look at what previous generations have
Speaker 2: gone through and put up with where are we at
Speaker 2: with that? And does nutrition play a part in how
Speaker 2: we are dealing with our busy lives.
Speaker 3: I love this as a thing to ponder, tim, and
Speaker 3: my answer, of course is yes, nutrition plays a role
Speaker 3: in absolutely everything, including our resilience. And we can dig
Speaker 3: right into that, which I think I hope will be
Speaker 3: really helpful to listeners. But firstly that the idea of
Speaker 3: burnout is actually it's not a medical condition, but and
Speaker 3: I agree with you, it is a term that is
Speaker 3: probably overused right now, but there are certainly some people
Speaker 3: for whom it's very real, and it's described as unrelent fatigue,
Speaker 3: a sense of exhaustion that's not relieved by sleep, and
Speaker 3: it persists. And it's also it's very much linked, certainly
Speaker 3: the World Health Organization link it to the workplace, to
Speaker 3: our professional lives. But obviously, when someone is genuinely burnt out,
Speaker 3: and i'll describe the chemistry of that in a moment,
Speaker 3: of course, it can impact our personal lives. So essentially, so,
Speaker 3: cortisol is a really beautiful substance that we make inside
Speaker 3: of us. When we make the right amount of it,
Speaker 3: it has a lovely anti inflammatory effect, and when we
Speaker 3: make too much, it changes many aspects of our metabolism.
Speaker 3: It disrupts our ability to regulate blood glucose. But when
Speaker 3: we ask when in our brain, we've got our hypothalamus
Speaker 3: the master control center. It talks to the petuittory and says, hey,
Speaker 3: we're either stressed or we're not. And if the signal
Speaker 3: is sent to the petuittory, that there is stress. And
Speaker 3: I'd love to sort of unpack what people perceive stress
Speaker 3: is these days, because I think it's playing into that
Speaker 3: that then sends a message to the adrenals you need
Speaker 3: to make things like adrenaline and cortisol. So after many
Speaker 3: years of the petuitory demanding cortisol production from the adrenals,
Speaker 3: I think part of what happens is the body can
Speaker 3: no longer supply the amount that's required. We need magnesium,
Speaker 3: big group vitamins, and vitamin C to literally be able
Speaker 3: to make cortisol, and when we can't meet demand, that's
Speaker 3: when the symptoms of burnout, genuine burnout actually kick in,
Speaker 3: which is the fatigue, the muscle soreness, the stiffness, or
Speaker 3: essentially conditions of inflammation then start to kick in.
Speaker 2: How does I mean, how does does the what's the
Speaker 2: role of healthy lifestyles? And I know we're here to
Speaker 2: talk about nutrition in the sort of space, but something
Speaker 2: as simple as going for a walk and exercise and
Speaker 2: other things like that that because I mean, everything ties
Speaker 2: in together, isn't in the great White I'm a just
Speaker 2: about to sing out and John the circle of life.
Speaker 2: But I mean, it's not simple, is it. It's not
Speaker 2: just a case of you know, where you take this,
Speaker 2: eat this vegetable or eat this. There's a whole holistic
Speaker 2: thing to the way we perceive things and their attitude
Speaker 2: to burnout and stress. And you stop me anytime, because
Speaker 2: I think that's my question somewhere in there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I agree with you. I do feel we've
Speaker 3: made there's this tendency right now to make health really complicated.
Speaker 3: And for some people it is. I'm not denying that,
Speaker 3: but there are also for many people, there are some
Speaker 3: real basics, some real fundamentals that we're not necessarily doing
Speaker 3: so well at so we literally require nutrients, require the
Speaker 3: whole range of nutrients for our body to be able
Speaker 3: to function at its best. And a lot of people
Speaker 3: might get enough food, but they don't necessarily get enough
Speaker 3: nutrition because when they're relying on ultra process food and
Speaker 3: too much takeaway food that can be lacking in nutrients.
Speaker 3: Then of course there's the movement that going for a walk,
Speaker 3: the stretching, just the using of our body in a
Speaker 3: physical capacity, exposure to sunlight, exposure to sunshine, getting good
Speaker 3: quality sleep. So there's so many, you know, real basic
Speaker 3: fundamental requirements that I call the body our earth suit,
Speaker 3: that our earth suit needs, and for some of us,
Speaker 3: we're just not doing that well enough, and we tend
Speaker 3: to think then that there's something really complex that's required.
Speaker 3: When I like to get the basics right and then
Speaker 3: let's see what's left over.
Speaker 2: So when it comes so eating a processed diet, if
Speaker 2: you are cooking your own food, buying your own and actually,
Speaker 2: let's not pretend that's easy for everyone, because you know,
Speaker 2: buying fresh fruit and vegetables and things, there's a cost
Speaker 2: to all that. But if you are able to do
Speaker 2: your own cooking or providing for yourself, is that generally
Speaker 2: that everything in moderation sort of question answers it or
Speaker 2: because the leading question after that is is there a
Speaker 2: role for vitamins and supplements or are they just expensive wheaze?
Speaker 3: So it really so, I very much think that supplementation
Speaker 3: is required for people these days. I wish it wasn't
Speaker 3: the case. I'm the first person on the planet who
Speaker 3: wish we could get everything we need from our food
Speaker 3: these days. But because of depleted soil levels of certain nutrients,
Speaker 3: because of the constant, persistent, relentless production of stress hormones,
Speaker 3: and also our exposure to more pollutants than ever before
Speaker 3: through what we eat, drink, and absorb through our skin,
Speaker 3: air quality, etc. We literally require more nutrition to be
Speaker 3: able to deal with those pollutants and those persistent elevated
Speaker 3: stress hormones. So you sort of couple that together with
Speaker 3: depleted soil levels, and that is a key role for
Speaker 3: supplementation to play for a lot of people these days, unfortunately.
Speaker 3: And then of course there's the times in our life
Speaker 3: where certain groups in the population actually require an amount
Speaker 3: of nutrition that they might not be able to get
Speaker 3: from food. So, for example, across the menstruation years, women
Speaker 3: need eighteen milligrams of iron per day just to prevent
Speaker 3: deficiency and to put and that's quite a lot. So
Speaker 3: to put that into context, it's just over half a
Speaker 3: kilogram of beef each day. Now, I'm not suggesting everyone
Speaker 3: goes out and starts viewing that, but easy for some
Speaker 3: favor for everybody. So there are times in our life
Speaker 3: where our requirements have actually increased and we can do
Speaker 3: it through food if we're very dedicated and very focused
Speaker 3: on it. But that takes education, and it also takes
Speaker 3: a real commitment to eat for society, whereas a lot
Speaker 3: of women across that time in their life, unfortunately are
Speaker 3: still influenced by sort of dieting mentality or restricted eating
Speaker 3: in some way, and so meeting iron requirements can be
Speaker 3: really tricky with answers.
Speaker 2: That sort of sounds quite I mean that that makes
Speaker 2: me feel very It makes me feel anxious that we've
Speaker 2: got this catastrophe that we can't get what we need
Speaker 2: from our from our flora and fauna in terms of
Speaker 2: just our own environment eating wise, it feels really bad.
Speaker 2: I mean, I think you need to give me some
Speaker 2: hope on.
Speaker 3: This and get well. It's partly I dedicated one of
Speaker 3: my cookbooks to farmers. I got to know a lot
Speaker 3: of local farmers too, because if farmers stopped caring, the
Speaker 3: world's going to fall apart. So the quality of everything
Speaker 3: stems from the soil. And it's why I wish, you know,
Speaker 3: I encourage people to go to farmers markets if they
Speaker 3: have access to them, and you know their names, and
Speaker 3: shake their hands and thank them for the food that
Speaker 3: they grow, because, as I said, if they stop caring, honestly,
Speaker 3: everything will fall apart, because it really does begin with
Speaker 3: the health of the soil, and our knowledge of that
Speaker 3: is really growing. And it's also where if we can
Speaker 3: you know, if you live in an apartment, if you
Speaker 3: can grow things in a pot on your balcony, or
Speaker 3: if you can have some raised garden beds, if you
Speaker 3: do have a backyard. It is sort of returning to
Speaker 3: what our grandparents did, but it's it's really worth that
Speaker 3: time and investment in. Certainly from my values perspective, are.
Speaker 2: There simple things when it comes to my producer is
Speaker 2: chatting to because I heard you on Chatting on Mike
Speaker 2: Mike Costkings Show a week or two ago, and there
Speaker 2: was you made a comment about the copper pipes that
Speaker 2: we don't. We actually get copper from the fact that
Speaker 2: we used to get water supply from copper pipes, and
Speaker 2: because the copper helps you absorb by it and things
Speaker 2: like that. But my producer was saying that there's a
Speaker 2: thing you can buy and stick in your kettle called
Speaker 2: it it's like an iron lucky iron fish, and it's
Speaker 2: just basically it helps contribute that important mineral to our diet.
Speaker 2: I mean, are there simple things we can do like that?
Speaker 3: So I actually haven't dug into the veracity of that.
Speaker 3: So it's a trend that's come out of Asia and
Speaker 3: is used in Asian cooking, and I'm really hopeful that
Speaker 3: there is some veracity to it and that it is effective,
Speaker 3: that it does translate to that iron actually being able
Speaker 3: to enter human blood. I don't know if there's been
Speaker 3: any research done on it yet, but it's certainly something
Speaker 3: that comes up quite regularly in my chats about iron.
Speaker 2: It's it's a random thought. It just intuitively followed that
Speaker 2: when you were talking about copper pipes. So I would
Speaker 2: have never have thought of, like, I mean, should I
Speaker 2: be buying myself a copper kettle to mcap of tea?
Speaker 2: But I mean these it's part of our environment, doesn't it.
Speaker 2: And at luck cast iron cook where I don't know
Speaker 2: is there anything to be I know we're getting into
Speaker 2: it feels we're getting into wacky territory.
Speaker 3: But then maybe not really, No, not really. And it's
Speaker 3: and I consider all of you know, I look so
Speaker 3: much sadly, so much nutrition information these days is marketing.
Speaker 3: It's not robust nutrition science. And it's partly why I
Speaker 3: look to history for lessons, I guess, and a common
Speaker 3: sense approach. I try to very much approach things with
Speaker 3: that common sense had on And certainly I agree with
Speaker 3: you very much. You know, we've changed what we cook
Speaker 3: our food in, we've changed what we obtain our drinking
Speaker 3: water through in our homes in saying that we've got
Speaker 3: to be a little bit careful with copper because we
Speaker 3: don't need very much of it. We only need about
Speaker 3: one milligram, so about a thousand micrograms per day, whereas
Speaker 3: other nutrients we need a lot more of.
Speaker 2: Can you please over to it. Can you put that
Speaker 2: in context for us? Because we hear numbers and micrograms millograms,
Speaker 2: What does that actually look like in terms of where
Speaker 2: we would so for instance, water's flying through our copper pipes.
Speaker 2: I mean, obviously there's some sort of transference that goes on,
Speaker 2: but I mean, what does that look like If somebody's
Speaker 2: to do a study on it, would somebody say, well, actually,
Speaker 2: if you get all the coppy you need, you'd have
Speaker 2: to drink tin gallons a day through copper piping or
Speaker 2: is it? I mean, how do we find that context
Speaker 2: with all the numbers?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so it depends as far as water exposure to copper.
Speaker 3: It depends how long it actually sits on the copper
Speaker 3: pipe and is in contact with it. So if you
Speaker 3: know the water's been sitting in that pipe for a
Speaker 3: long time, it might actually be risky. You might actually
Speaker 3: end up with too much. Whereas when someone's using their
Speaker 3: taps and pipes regularly and it flows across it, you
Speaker 3: just obtain a fairly small amount, which can be actually
Speaker 3: quite ideal, but to be Yeah, we do get a
Speaker 3: small amount of copper through our food, so in things
Speaker 3: like dark chocolate and avocado. So there's some good news
Speaker 3: for people because they're delicious food. Yeah, so we do
Speaker 3: get some copper through our food. It's something I've been
Speaker 3: talking about though, because I've just released a book called
Speaker 3: fix im First and an nine supplement called Iconic Iron,
Speaker 3: And I feel the copper conversation gets lost in that
Speaker 3: because when we actually get iron out of our food,
Speaker 3: it's actually some copper dependent enzymes that allows the iron
Speaker 3: to travel to the bone marrow to be able to
Speaker 3: go into storage so we can use it later. And
Speaker 3: to blow everyone's mind, your your body is making two
Speaker 3: and a half million new red blood cells every single second,
Speaker 3: which is just extraordinary. And all of those red blood
Speaker 3: cells need iron and for that iron to get back
Speaker 3: to the bone marrow to make the red blood cells.
Speaker 3: That's why the copper is one of the reasons why
Speaker 3: the copper is so important.
Speaker 2: So what I mean, what are the simple ways of
Speaker 2: getting those two I mean, I mean, I know when
Speaker 2: we've had previous chats, there are different elements about nutrition
Speaker 2: we focus on, but we're focusing on those issues like
Speaker 2: copper and iron. I mean, where does that sit in
Speaker 2: terms of our priorities and how easy it is to
Speaker 2: make simple decisions to rectify the problem, any problem we
Speaker 2: might have.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So, iron deficiency is the most common nutritional deficiency globally,
Speaker 3: including in New Zealand. So up to fifty five percent
Speaker 3: of women across the menstruation years are depleted of iron
Speaker 3: in some way, and it's now affecting around thirty seven
Speaker 3: to forty percent of toddlers. So it's a really growing
Speaker 3: problem in children. And obviously our best food source is
Speaker 3: all of our awful foods that's not appealing to everyone.
Speaker 3: Our next best food sources all of our red meat,
Speaker 3: so beef and lamb. And obviously there's a trend, and
Speaker 3: particularly with teenage girls, to more vegan and vegetarian eating,
Speaker 3: and that is sometimes occurring right at a time where
Speaker 3: their iron requirement is increasing because they've just started to
Speaker 3: menstru eate. As far as little children go, I think
Speaker 3: it's one of the things I'm on a real mission
Speaker 3: with is to really increase the awareness of the importance
Speaker 3: of offering iron rich foods to little humans because the
Speaker 3: iron they're born with it's conferred at birth, only lasts
Speaker 3: them for about four to six months, and so when
Speaker 3: solids are introduced at around that six smump mark, iron
Speaker 3: rich foods need to be part of that picture. So
Speaker 3: it's all very doable with food. We just need to
Speaker 3: be focused on it and offer it to the little
Speaker 3: ones and also teenagers as well as adults.
Speaker 2: That would explain why my wife was making Would it
Speaker 2: have been a wouldn't have been a liver pathe but
Speaker 2: a liver sort of paste, I think, and was when
Speaker 2: the kids were first on it, there was there was
Speaker 2: a bit of liver in the house, which actually, to
Speaker 2: be honest, I quite tasty.
Speaker 3: Really good on you. What a superstar she is. That
Speaker 3: is so brilliant and to offer that to the whole
Speaker 3: household is outstanding.
Speaker 2: Do you like a bit of awful?
Speaker 3: Do I? Absolutely?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Good? Well you know not everyone you know not everyone's
Speaker 2: in misteak and kidney pie. Kidney's are awful, aren't they?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 6: Yep?
Speaker 3: What kidney liver brains? I actually sheep's where we're really
Speaker 3: off on a tangent. Now sheep's brain. I think sheep's brain,
Speaker 3: I think are actually one of the most underrated foods.
Speaker 3: They're full of omega three fats. They've got colin, which
Speaker 3: is great for our brain. And when we think about
Speaker 3: how we used to eat the whole animal, the brain
Speaker 3: was obviously hard of that. And I can remember growing
Speaker 3: up in the seventies, Mum had always sheep's brains frozen
Speaker 3: in the freezer, and she would crumb them to make
Speaker 3: them a bit more palatable for me. But love them
Speaker 3: still do.
Speaker 2: I tend to think that the thing with some of
Speaker 2: these it's not to actually know what you're eating, isn't it.
Speaker 2: I mean, I just remember when I was a kid, weird.
Speaker 2: I guess it was called steak and kidney. Was before
Speaker 2: I was old enough to realize what a kidney was.
Speaker 2: It was just a word and we go ahead. We
Speaker 2: really love steak and kidney. If I'd eaten it after
Speaker 2: I'd studied the anatomy of humans and sheep, I have
Speaker 2: been like, that's a harder sell for me.
Speaker 3: It's the texture. I think that troops a lot of
Speaker 3: people up. That's certainly the feedback that you know, young
Speaker 3: children will say. But yeah, sometimes it is better not
Speaker 3: to know, isn't it.
Speaker 7: Now?
Speaker 2: Yes, we have had a few tangents. As I'm chatting
Speaker 2: with doctor Libby Weaver. She's a nutrition and biochemist, and
Speaker 2: she's actually got a new book out which is fix
Speaker 2: On First, I think, which I've heard you talking about
Speaker 2: in the media a little bit lately. And if you've
Speaker 2: got any questions for Libby about your diet, and if
Speaker 2: there's something you're concerned about or you think you might
Speaker 2: be a bit deficient in something, and how do you
Speaker 2: or if you're feeling a little bit burnt out, or
Speaker 2: anything that you've got in terms of questions for Libby,
Speaker 2: give us a call I eight hundred and eighty ten
Speaker 2: eighty text on nine two nine two. And as you've
Speaker 2: heard worth my conversation, whether are the few tangents, there's
Speaker 2: probably not too many things off limits, So give us
Speaker 2: a call I e one hundred and eighty ten eighty.
Speaker 2: We'll be back in just a moment. It's twenty four
Speaker 2: past four. News Talk said b Yes, welcome back. We're
Speaker 2: with the nutritional bichemist doctor Libby Weaver. Who's with us
Speaker 2: taking your calls? I started the conversation, by the way,
Speaker 2: talking about is there a difference between being busy and
Speaker 2: burnt out and looking after yourself nutritionally when you feel
Speaker 2: the stress is getting on top of you. But taking
Speaker 2: your calls on anything, whether it be actually just quickly,
Speaker 2: I will go to the calls. But I've had a
Speaker 2: few texts Libby about copper bracelets. What's the story with them?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so you do absorb mental. You can minerals through
Speaker 3: your skin, so that's again something that a trends that's
Speaker 3: sort of fallen away that you still see some elderly
Speaker 3: people wearing. But that is one way, Yes, we can
Speaker 3: obtain some copper. I think too though it's you know,
Speaker 3: we're barking on a bit about copper arno, but it's
Speaker 3: very important to know that we can absorb too much
Speaker 3: of certain minerals and it can then offset the balance
Speaker 3: of our minerals. So zinc and copper compete for absorption,
Speaker 3: so we have to be mindful that we have the
Speaker 3: right amount of both of those, rather than when we're
Speaker 3: real copper focused, we can end up becoming low in
Speaker 3: zinc and vice versa. When we're very zinc focused, we
Speaker 3: can end up becoming deficient in copper. So the body
Speaker 3: has an extraordinary wisdom to regulate those things. But if
Speaker 3: we are sort of hammering ourselves with too much of
Speaker 3: one or of those that can offset the other one, right.
Speaker 2: We're going to get into a bunch of calls because
Speaker 2: they're lining up. Let's go lz Hello ah.
Speaker 8: Hi, yes, hi, doctor Labe. I've read a few of
Speaker 8: your books and most recently, but twelve months ago, diagnosed
Speaker 8: with diverticulate lits have diverarticular I think it is. I
Speaker 8: then went and went on the diet recommended by a
Speaker 8: renowned nutritionist, a Lady Goodall, And then twelve months later
Speaker 8: I tested my cholesterol and it had doubled. So now
Speaker 8: I'm coping with a gut just order and trying to
Speaker 8: lower my cholesterol. Do you have any tips please?
Speaker 3: Oh? So, what I share obviously is for education purposes.
Speaker 3: It's not a prescription because I don't know your thorough
Speaker 3: health history. So but generally speaking, cholesterol, the most of
Speaker 3: the cholesterol when we have a blood test for cholesterol
Speaker 3: has been made by our liver, and then our diet
Speaker 3: contributes about twenty percent. So when someone's collect stroll suddenly
Speaker 3: elevates or or elevates quite significantly over a twelve month period,
Speaker 3: the first thing I think about is what's happening with
Speaker 3: their liver? So is there some inflammation going on? Or
Speaker 3: has there been a huge drop in fiber consumption for example,
Speaker 3: because fiber helps cholesterol leave the body, So it might
Speaker 3: be that your body's giving you feedback that the dietary
Speaker 3: changes you made is not quite right for you.
Speaker 2: So actually I should we should differentiate that as a doctor.
Speaker 2: Being a doctor, you're with a PhD in nutrition, I
Speaker 2: think some people think that that's like going down to
Speaker 2: your local GP suit, So you're not going to be
Speaker 2: dishing out specific medical advice, Is that right?
Speaker 3: No, I'm very nutritionl I have a PhD in biochemistry
Speaker 3: and my first degree was in nutrition and dietetics, so
Speaker 3: I'm very nutrition focused, but I also understand some chemistry.
Speaker 3: But I'm not a medical doctor.
Speaker 2: Actually, just another tangent and we'll get on to more calls.
Speaker 2: Usual when people do PhDs, they do some really interesting
Speaker 2: quirky topics. What was your what was your thesis in
Speaker 2: for your peach to PhD?
Speaker 3: So it was back in the nineties, and I looked
Speaker 3: at I worked with children with autism spectrum disorder when
Speaker 3: it was very much considered a purely neurological condition. So
Speaker 3: I looked at the biochemical, nutritional, imminological and microbiological aspects
Speaker 3: in children with autism spectrum disorder. So I didn't tell
Speaker 3: my friends this because it would have sounded very strange.
Speaker 3: But every day turning up to the laboratory where I
Speaker 3: did my research, I had skis or in New Zealand.
Speaker 3: I learned to say chili bin. I would have a
Speaker 3: chili bin of feces turn up, fece samples turn up.
Speaker 3: We then that I then plated to look at the
Speaker 3: microbial what were the microbes that were in the gut.
Speaker 3: So this was back before we use the word gut microbiome,
Speaker 3: we simply call it. Back then, we called it a
Speaker 3: gut bacteria profile. And I was looking at the difference
Speaker 3: between the children with ASD and coals.
Speaker 2: Yeah, another reason the first person he's one of our
Speaker 2: leading scientists in his field. But I was intrigued when
Speaker 2: I chatted about what he did as a thesis and
Speaker 2: and it was in the chemical properties of toad urine,
Speaker 2: and I just thought, Wow, there's some amazing topics you
Speaker 2: get to do. Anyway, let's not digress, Joe, Well, let's
Speaker 2: carry on with the conversation.
Speaker 9: Allison, Hello, Hello Stock Olivia. When you go to your
Speaker 9: doctor and they do a blood test, they automatically check
Speaker 9: your iron levels at that stage, how do you know
Speaker 9: what you iron levels are?
Speaker 3: So great question. When you have your your GP can
Speaker 3: organize the blood tests absolutely, and you want to. When
Speaker 3: you're chatting with your GP, you ask for iron studies,
Speaker 3: and that then gives you four different parameters in your
Speaker 3: blood test. So it will give you iron. It will
Speaker 3: also give you a thing called transferrin. Transferring, if you imagine,
Speaker 3: is like the bus that picks up the iron and
Speaker 3: drives it round. So when someone is iron deficient, their
Speaker 3: transferrin is high. And that could be confusing because if
Speaker 3: you were to look at those results and you see
Speaker 3: the word transferrin and you see the letter H for
Speaker 3: hire beside it, you might think, oh, I have too
Speaker 3: much iron, But that's not the case. Transferring is the
Speaker 3: bus that picks up the passengers, the passengers being the iron,
Speaker 3: to drive it round.
Speaker 9: Well, I should ask for that. I have a budget
Speaker 9: of scream map because I've got a problem with my thyroids.
Speaker 9: To stimulate your hormone as what's fourt's out of three Now,
Speaker 9: I've got to try and get the low as possible.
Speaker 9: There's nothing in my diet that could have any effect
Speaker 9: on there. I'm trying to sort of get my try
Speaker 9: and keep as low as positive gifts to nine. You've
Speaker 9: got to have your th I don't want to get
Speaker 9: it up any higher. You wouldn't know anything that any
Speaker 9: food or anything that would have an effect on there.
Speaker 9: There's nothing to do with sold I don't think.
Speaker 3: So well done, You've got some great knowledge there, so well.
Speaker 3: The other iron parameters that you test is transference saturation
Speaker 3: and then ferretin. Ferretin is the one low. Chronically low
Speaker 3: ferretin has been linked to hypothyroidism, so that underactive thyroids.
Speaker 3: So yeah, And the normal range for ferretin in our
Speaker 3: New Zealand pathology labs is twenty to two hundred and
Speaker 3: twenty micrograms per liter. In my clinical experience, that bottom
Speaker 3: number is too low. I feel that there's you want
Speaker 3: that you want a minimum of a ferretin of fifty,
Speaker 3: but ideally pursue eighty or even one hundred, so that
Speaker 3: there might be some there might be something there to
Speaker 3: look at as far as better supporting your thyroid function,
Speaker 3: because the thyroid literally requires iron to be able to
Speaker 3: make its hormones.
Speaker 9: All right, So there the connection. You can live without
Speaker 9: your thyroid, can't you. I don't know.
Speaker 3: Well, Well, thanks to the joys of modern medicine, Yes,
Speaker 3: they will supplement you with thyroxin, with the hormone that
Speaker 3: the one of the hormones that the thyroid makes so yes.
Speaker 2: Thanks for your call, Alison. I've got a quick question, actually,
Speaker 2: what's the difference between nutritionally speaking, between commercially baked bread
Speaker 2: versus people who are at home doing their own sourdough
Speaker 2: and leavened bread. And in terms of the grains and
Speaker 2: the high extraction wheats and all that, is there a
Speaker 2: nutritional advantage to.
Speaker 3: Base hugely, tim absolutely, And it's the fermentation, especially the
Speaker 3: fermentation period that is so beneficial to our gut and
Speaker 3: our gut microbiome and the digestibility of the grains. Plus
Speaker 3: with when we're baking it at home, we don't extra gluten.
Speaker 3: So gluten is typically added to the store board bread
Speaker 3: to make it lighter and fluffier because that obviously appeals
Speaker 3: taste wise to a lot of people. But all that
Speaker 3: extra gluten is not so favorable given that we research
Speaker 3: shows that it actually creates the production of a thing
Speaker 3: called zonulin, which is a big fancy word no one
Speaker 3: needs to remember, but it can lead to increased gut
Speaker 3: permeability i e. Leaky gut. So not in everybody, but
Speaker 3: certainly in some people they seem very susceptible to that.
Speaker 3: So if you love cooking, not everybody does. I understand that,
Speaker 3: But if you love cooking, then baking your own bread
Speaker 3: is an absolute superstar way to go.
Speaker 2: I was asking for a friend there.
Speaker 3: Good on you, mister baker.
Speaker 2: Yeah, good stuff, right, let's carry on, Calvin.
Speaker 6: Hello, doctor Libby. I've cooked and eaten all sorts of
Speaker 6: awful tripe and kidneys and all this sort of thank tongues.
Speaker 6: I've been disappointed in the last couple of years not
Speaker 6: being able to buy tins of tongue, you know, sheeps
Speaker 6: and lambs tongues can't seem to get them anywhere. But
Speaker 6: what I wanted to find out is potatoes. Oh yeah,
Speaker 6: I was going to say too. With mandarins, occasionally eat
Speaker 6: the manderin whole, you know, the skin and everything, and
Speaker 6: people look at you. But of course you eat orange
Speaker 6: and grapefruit skins when you have marmalade. But what I
Speaker 6: wanted to find out potatoes the potato skin. More often
Speaker 6: than not, I just leave the skin on and carry
Speaker 6: on eating. Is there much goodness in the potatoes skin?
Speaker 3: There's a lot of goodness there and just under the skin.
Speaker 3: So as long as you're giving it a good wash,
Speaker 3: then that's a terrific way to go.
Speaker 2: Actually, there was something I read about potatoes when you've
Speaker 2: cooked them, when they've cooled and then you heat them again,
Speaker 2: there's a different property to them. Was that's that about?
Speaker 3: Oh, tim so good that you know that it's resistant starch.
Speaker 3: So when we cook potato and eat it warm, there's
Speaker 3: been a but then as you say, once we've cooked it,
Speaker 3: let it cool, the what's called resistant starch level increases,
Speaker 3: and that's been shown to be incredibly beneficial for the
Speaker 3: gut microbiome. It acts essentially like what we call a
Speaker 3: pre biotic, So it's really good food for healthy gut bugs.
Speaker 3: So it's a good reason to eat something like say
Speaker 3: a potato salad or Yeah, it's just great.
Speaker 2: Careful with the mayonnaise, of course. Actually well, oh yeah,
Speaker 2: when you reheat it, does it still retain some of
Speaker 2: the called you know the yep, amaze us. It is right,
Speaker 2: lots of Now I'm going to take a break and
Speaker 2: we'll come back with more calls. And yeah, that's eight
Speaker 2: hundred and eighty ten eighty. It's twenty three minutes to
Speaker 2: five News talks. He'd be yes, News talks, he be
Speaker 2: We're with doctor Libby weaver nutritional bio chemist. It's going
Speaker 2: to say biomechanist, but that's the completely different expertise. I've
Speaker 2: got a quick question because before we we head you
Speaker 2: on the show, I was doing a bit of reading
Speaker 2: about the iron side of things, Libby, and the stat
Speaker 2: that actually did alarm me a bit was close to
Speaker 2: one in three teenage girls and deficiency in iron. And
Speaker 2: I don't want to get well. I can get into
Speaker 2: the mechanics if you want, but being a man, I
Speaker 2: don't think I should. But with menstruation, I mean, is
Speaker 2: it all down to that because I actually don't know
Speaker 2: the volume in terms of percentage that of blood that
Speaker 2: has passed in menstruation. But can you just dig into
Speaker 2: that because a lot of you know, constantly kids with
Speaker 2: who people have got girls who are growing up and
Speaker 2: hitting puberty and those that's a concern for them. So
Speaker 2: what should you know? What are some facts that are
Speaker 2: useful there?
Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you, Tim, That's I feel such an important
Speaker 3: question for everyone to really understand. So, yeah, requirements increase
Speaker 3: once menstruation starts. So a standard period is considered to
Speaker 3: be the loss of about sixty meals of blood, which
Speaker 3: is between sixty ten pads or tampons to put it
Speaker 3: into context for people, And with the sixty meals of blood,
Speaker 3: there's thirty milligrams of iron lost, So the increase in
Speaker 3: iron requirement is primarily due to that iron loss. And
Speaker 3: we can do it through food, absolutely, But it is
Speaker 3: a time where sadly, a lot of teenage girls are
Speaker 3: being influenced by their peers, or by social media or
Speaker 3: all sorts of things, and there's this real trend towards
Speaker 3: vegan or vegetarian ways of eating, and it's right at
Speaker 3: a time where they need more iron, not less. And yes,
Speaker 3: you can do it. You can meet your needs in
Speaker 3: a vegan and vegetarian way, but the requirements are actually
Speaker 3: multiplied by one point eight. The RDII is multiplied by
Speaker 3: one point eight if someone eats in a vegan or
Speaker 3: vegetarian way, So it means those girls need thirty two
Speaker 3: point four milligrams of iron per day, and they're not
Speaker 3: going to do that without a supplement. It's hard enough
Speaker 3: when you're a hearty eater and you eat for satiety
Speaker 3: to do that with food. And that's where supplementation, obviously
Speaker 3: is really important. And this part of what I'm really
Speaker 3: wanting to bring to life with my fix iron. First
Speaker 3: message is to help people of all ages understand the
Speaker 3: symptoms of iron deficiency. It was something that was really addressed.
Speaker 3: I feel much better in sort of the seventies and
Speaker 3: even the eighties. You know, we were all I was
Speaker 3: dragged off to the not drag, but you know, taken
Speaker 3: off to the GP for a blood test for iron,
Speaker 3: and it was really common and we all knew that,
Speaker 3: and we all had to go on iron supplements at
Speaker 3: that time in our life. And anxiety is actually one
Speaker 3: of the symptoms of iron deficiency. Now, obviously the symptom
Speaker 3: of anxiety can be attributed to a whole host of problems,
Speaker 3: and the solution can be wide and varied for different people.
Speaker 3: But I'm just wanting to bring iron deficiency into that
Speaker 3: conversation so that particularly parents are aware if teenage girls
Speaker 3: sort of suddenly head in that direction with describing more
Speaker 3: anxious feelings, if it's around the time where there is
Speaker 3: more blood loss because of menstruation has begun, I just
Speaker 3: want iron deficiency to be something they consider and investigate and.
Speaker 2: Probably at Highlight's just the importance of having conversations with
Speaker 2: your daughters as well. Just about what they're reading and
Speaker 2: what they're learning, and because you know, if they've suddenly
Speaker 2: gone off, you know, having a stake at dinner time,
Speaker 2: is it because of something you've listened to on the
Speaker 2: social media?
Speaker 3: Yes, exactly right.
Speaker 2: Let's go out and take some calls. I will try
Speaker 2: and and I have diverted a couple of times, but
Speaker 2: these are I think those are important issues to dig into.
Speaker 2: But we'll try and get through as many causes as
Speaker 2: we can from here, so if we can keep it concise, John, Hello.
Speaker 5: HOI how are you people tonight?
Speaker 2: Good? Thanks John? What would you like to talk about?
Speaker 7: Well?
Speaker 5: I went to the doctor and I said to the
Speaker 5: doctor and I said to him, can I get a
Speaker 5: multi vitamin? And what I want to know is the
Speaker 5: multi vitamin that i'll get from my doctor because I
Speaker 5: know it's free. Where I go to get it from?
Speaker 2: Oh, you get it prescribed? How are you talking about?
Speaker 2: How do you choose a multi vitamin? Which are some
Speaker 2: better than are some more equal than others? Or better?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Well, I just spent to me doctor and I said
Speaker 5: can I get a multi vitamin? And he said, yes,
Speaker 5: sure you can, so it can It comes prescribed for
Speaker 5: free Okay, well, how.
Speaker 2: Would you choose one Lebby if you went, I don't know,
Speaker 2: you could get that from your doctor. That's news to me.
Speaker 3: It's news today as well. But that's terrific if that's
Speaker 3: the case. Essentially, it can be a little bit tricky
Speaker 3: to choose quality because there are certainly some supplement companies
Speaker 3: that spend more on marketing than they do on research
Speaker 3: and development, and some are formulated by marketers rather than
Speaker 3: by scientists. So where you can you want a reputable
Speaker 3: brand where you know that you know someone stands behind it,
Speaker 3: someone with a scientific background who understands nutrients because when,
Speaker 3: for example, when on trials with iron, there are some
Speaker 3: supplements that are so poorly absorbed. I won't name them,
Speaker 3: but it's very concerning that you know they're essentially presented
Speaker 3: as a solution to iron deficiency because some of them
Speaker 3: are so really lack bioavailability. So I'd be looking for
Speaker 3: a reputable brand if you are in a position to
Speaker 3: do that. She's a reputable one where that you actually
Speaker 3: know they actually spend money on research and trialing it
Speaker 3: with people.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, right, let's go to Linda.
Speaker 5: Hello, Hi tum Hi.
Speaker 4: Doctor Lovy I gave us using ridden meat in the twenties.
Speaker 4: I'm seventy now there's quite a bit of publicity at
Speaker 4: the time. You know, New Zealand had a high rate
Speaker 4: of bowel cancer and they're sort of connecting it at
Speaker 4: the time with our high meat consumption. Anyway, I've got
Speaker 4: low ferritin generally around the sixty mark, and I couldn't
Speaker 4: take iron supplements. They made me nauseous, buged up. One
Speaker 4: of the nurses at that when I gave blood, used
Speaker 4: to give blood, suggested florovital. Anyway, Then with my six
Speaker 4: monthly blood test because of having to take thyroxine, my
Speaker 4: liver function was high or adverse, had a high. It
Speaker 4: was eighty uls when it should be in a range
Speaker 4: of eighty zero to fifty. And the Practice News four said, look,
Speaker 4: next time, don't take the florovital before you have your
Speaker 4: six monthy blood test, And sure enough, the liver function
Speaker 4: was right back to normal the next time. So have
Speaker 4: you heard of that before?
Speaker 3: Yes, so, high doses of iron with the old fashioned supplements,
Speaker 3: high doses of iron can actually create inflammation and what's
Speaker 3: called oxidative stress because the gut cell can get This
Speaker 3: is a lot of chemistry, a lot of science. The
Speaker 3: gut cell itself can get exposed to iron, whereas and
Speaker 3: that's not to It's why I've spent so long in
Speaker 3: research and development to develop the bioblend's iconic iron is
Speaker 3: because it overcomes that problem. The gut cell is not
Speaker 3: exposed to the iron, so it doesn't drive that inflammation.
Speaker 3: But yes, I have very much heard of what you're describing,
Speaker 3: and you get a much more accurate picture when you
Speaker 3: don't have your iron supplement just the day before.
Speaker 2: Hey, thanks for your call, Linda, appreciate it. A quick
Speaker 2: text here Highlabi. I was interested in the iron conversation.
Speaker 2: We use cast iron pans and wondering does that help
Speaker 2: us a source of iron? Yes, thank you from Carl.
Speaker 2: Even though they're seasoned and you've got the.
Speaker 3: You know you'll get a little bit of iron. Okay,
Speaker 3: well it's not enough to sort of meet your daily needs,
Speaker 3: but it all contributes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, all good. All part of the picture doesn't hurt.
Speaker 2: Look at it that way, right. Let's go to Allan.
Speaker 5: Hello, yere hi, hi doctor Livy.
Speaker 7: I have most mornings breakfast time. I have one egg
Speaker 7: either boiled or poached, and a friend of mine said,
Speaker 7: who's I'm in my eighties and friend of mine, who's
Speaker 7: just a little bit younger, he said, no, no, you shouldn't.
Speaker 7: You shouldn't have You shouldn't have more than two or
Speaker 7: three eggs a week. It's bad for you. And I
Speaker 7: don't know why you come out with that, but I
Speaker 7: enjoy my eggs, and I always.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, can we can we help Ellen out with
Speaker 2: his eggs? I thought that was put to bed a
Speaker 2: while ago, that has.
Speaker 3: Eggs are a really nutritious whole food, so you enjoy them. Alan,
Speaker 3: there's no concern.
Speaker 2: Actually, as there such a thing as too many. I mean,
Speaker 2: if you had a couple of days every day, would
Speaker 2: that be a bother.
Speaker 3: You? Your taste buds would let you know that. Or
Speaker 3: some people when they've had a sort of overdone it,
Speaker 3: they might notice they get a skin rash and they
Speaker 3: need to woo back. That's not very common though, so
Speaker 3: but usually you get to a point where you think, oh,
Speaker 3: I don't really feel like that for breaky anymore because
Speaker 3: you've had too many.
Speaker 2: Okay, right, excellent good news for egglovers. It is eleven
Speaker 2: minutes to five, we'll be back and just to tick
Speaker 2: with Dr Libby Weaver. This news talk's be This is
Speaker 2: the health Hub where muntim beverage. My guest is doctor
Speaker 2: Libby Weaver, a nutritional biochemist. Actually just before we take
Speaker 2: ANX call. Of course, it's not hard to track you down.
Speaker 2: I mean that in a holistic sort of sense. But
Speaker 2: on the web, Libby, if people want to check out
Speaker 2: more about information about you, is it doctor Libby dot com.
Speaker 3: That's it, spot on excellent.
Speaker 2: Right, let's go to Grant.
Speaker 10: Hello, Hello to hi doctor Libby. I just wonder if
Speaker 10: you could help me with the question regarding high theretom
Speaker 10: like eight hundreds nine hundreds, but with normal little functions
Speaker 10: CRP and ESR. Have we had any ideas?
Speaker 3: So have you been tested for the genetic hemochromatosis? Not yet,
Speaker 3: so that would probably be next steps because obviously that
Speaker 3: is very high ferreton terrific that there's no inflammation and
Speaker 3: great that you're aware of it, but it might mean
Speaker 3: that you need to give blood or but certainly finding
Speaker 3: out if it is that genetic condition, because if that's
Speaker 3: the case, then reducing the iron content of your diet
Speaker 3: would actually be very beneficial. But even just with any
Speaker 3: sort of iron accumulation. It's often recommended that people not
Speaker 3: just watch how much iron they're consuming, but also donate blood.
Speaker 10: Okay, I had, because it was probably five hundred maybe
Speaker 10: five years ago.
Speaker 3: Okay, yes, that's I would encourage you very much to
Speaker 3: get some more information from that with your GP.
Speaker 2: Okay, tiers, grump, right, aw, let's do a few I'm
Speaker 2: not sure if we can do quick fire texts on
Speaker 2: a new once subject like this, But how about this
Speaker 2: here we go high term and doctor Libby. Well, don't ask.
Speaker 2: Maybe Libby is a store bought flour versus I guess
Speaker 2: organic milled flour that you might get direct from the farm.
Speaker 2: Any difference when it comes to or this person's asking
Speaker 2: for homemade sour dough, but just generally.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I am a big fan of getting certified
Speaker 3: organic flower if you can. Yea, and the grittier, the
Speaker 3: grittier the better. But you still want it obviously to
Speaker 3: be palatable and to enjoy it. But see if you
Speaker 3: can get it certified organic.
Speaker 2: You mentioned about added gluten in commercial breads, so for
Speaker 2: baking your own bread, if you're doing sourdough, the farm,
Speaker 2: the organic farm will say our protein content is such
Speaker 2: and such is that protein or gluten or what is it?
Speaker 3: So Gluten's just one of the proteins. There are numerous.
Speaker 3: That's just one of them. But yeah, the difference with
Speaker 3: that's fine if someone digest gluten without a problem. Soaldo
Speaker 3: is obviously terrific. It's more micns is more with a
Speaker 3: storeboard bread, there's a lot of added gluten.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Okay. What about muscles as a source of iron
Speaker 2: from this text.
Speaker 3: Fantastic suit They're an excellent dietary source.
Speaker 2: Can you get a copper health supplement at the chemist?
Speaker 2: And how often and how much should you take? Well,
Speaker 2: that's a loaded question. Should you be taking a copper supplement?
Speaker 2: I guess would be the question.
Speaker 3: Only only if you have insufficient blood copper levels, So
Speaker 3: your GP. Some gps don't like to test blood copper.
Speaker 3: They'll test another. It's an enzyme caught with a big
Speaker 3: funny word called cyrillo plasmin. That's a copper dependent enzyme,
Speaker 3: and some GPS will prefer to test that to find
Speaker 3: out if you are copper insufficient or not.
Speaker 2: Okay, And this one says on your term. Women's bodies
Speaker 2: go through so many changes through their lives, that affect
Speaker 2: their health. US blokes need to step up and stop
Speaker 2: complaining and get the regular finger check. Okay, well, thank
Speaker 2: you for that health announcement there. That's not really a
Speaker 2: nutritional question. Is it mashed potatoes once cooled? Do they
Speaker 2: have some prebiotic qualities?
Speaker 3: Yes? They do?
Speaker 2: Any cool does Okay, We've got about forty five seconds left,
Speaker 2: so any final remarks. Dr Livy. Great to have you
Speaker 2: on the show again.
Speaker 8: More.
Speaker 3: We love chatting with you, Tim, love chatting with you.
Speaker 3: I just I really encourage people to know their iron status.
Speaker 3: Obviously if you're in families, particularly for teenage girls, for
Speaker 3: young young children, and also for adult women, and if
Speaker 3: there is any degree of deficiency, I can't encourage you
Speaker 3: enough to address it.
Speaker 2: Excellent. Hey, thanks so much. Great to talk to you,
Speaker 2: and we'll look forward to next time with dror Livy
Speaker 2: Weave again in check out our website Dr Libby dot com.
Speaker 2: We'll be back with smart money in just a moment.
Speaker 2: This is News Talk ZB.
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