Eric Rieger
0:00 Gut Check project fans and KBMD Health family. How are you doing today? It's your host, Eric Rieger, soon to be joined by my co host, Dr. Kenneth Brown. This is episode number 56. And if you've heard 54 and 55, which we've gotten plenty of email about, thank you for all of that. You know that 56 is kind of the combination here. So we're talking about issues around erectile dysfunction, and more or less kind of the catalyst that causes it as it pertains to inflammation and systemic disease and certainly virus infections. So that being said, go ahead and dive in here to 56 I think that there's a lot of hope here. There's a lot of things that people can actively do to stave off some of these manifestations because that's what erectile dysfunction is it's it's a signal that something else is happening. So without further ado, let's get to our sponsors. Of course there is artron to get your daily poly females that are trying to go to love my tummy calm again. It's love my tummy, calm us, slash KB MD and get your daily poly phenol today developed by my co host, Dr. Kenneth Brown. Dr. Ron teal is chock full of polyphenols does not matter if you have gut issues if you suffer from IBS or related symptoms or you're just a a an active athlete and you want to optimize your daily health so that you can be your best you need polyphenols, there's no way around it. So are trying to go to love my tummy.com slash KB MD. You got great tasting food, unrefined bakery go to unrefined bakery.com because it does not matter. If you have a specialty diet or not. unrefined bakery can make things available to you that maybe you thought were now impossible because you are celiac, or because you're paleo, or because you're keto? No, they have cracked the code using all natural ingredients. Go to unrefined bakery.com Get yourself some bread, get some tasty, tasty bread, knowing that you're both celiac and paleo. You can do it there. And it's gonna taste great, so unrefined. bakery.com use code, gut check and save 20% off of your very first order. They delivered to all of the lower 48 states even though they're based here in the DFW Metroplex of North Texas, so unrefined bakery.com Last but not least, KB and D health.com. kb MD health calm is the home of the gut check project. That's where Dr. Kenneth brown makes available his own CBD as well as broccoli and artron. teal, so check out KB Md health.com. Use code GCP and save 20% off of any order at any time. Okay, without wasting any more of your time. Let's get to episode number 56.
Hello, Gut project fans and KB MD Health family hope you having a great day. It's me Eric Rieger here with the awesome co host, Dr. Kenneth Brown. It's Episode 56, a continuation of 54 and 55. So, Dr. Brown, why don't you kind of set the stage for us?
Ken Brown
3:32 Yeah, so this is part three of what we didn't really realize it would turn into a part three series, right? That part one of this particular series. So Episode 34, was that I was seeing so many patients that were coming in. And because of the job that I have being a physician against neurologists, they're willing to talk about certain things. They're young men that had never had issues were showing up with erectile dysfunction. months, like eight months after having COVID. They want to know if there was a correlation. Well, because of that, I started looking into things. And then we actually did find that there's some studies going on with this. And so it's going to be much bigger than what people think we're just a little ahead of the curve on this. So Episode 54 was about how it's doing it. Episode 55 is a natural ways to try and protect yourself and Episode 56. It's a continuation of that. As it turns out, there's tons of science on this. And if you just look and you know where to look and you have access to people that can get these articles. It's fascinating. fascinating, because what we're talking about is not just a reptile health, we're talking about overall health. Every one of these topics that affect Well, if something affects your penis, it's probably affecting other parts of your body.
Eric Rieger
4:44 Yeah. If that were to happen, it would probably affect your mentation, your mood, your drive to do a lot of things. So yeah, it definitely it's everything is universal. Everything that seems local is really universal. Yeah, vice versa.
Ken Brown
4:58 Yeah. So it's We're gonna go over some really cool stuff today.
Eric Rieger
5:02 So just briefly personal Eric anything cool going on man we're still remodeling kids are fine. Marie's on a, she took a trip to Montana she's on her. They were hired her social media conglomerate that she built is the Montana filming awesome stuff that probably looks different than a GI sweet I kind of wish I was looking at it.
Ken Brown
5:23 That's awesome. For me. Same stuff we're remodeling, no big deal only issue is is that with some countries in some states having different COVID stuff, my kids want to start traveling more, but I don't know if that particular country would is going to cancel the tournament. And I'm trying to rearrange my schedule to go and book flights. It's just so annoying. And what a privilege to say that the what not, I mean, honestly a privilege to say it's annoying that I'm trying to plan a trip, although I'll be extremely important for my kids. We're in a position here in Texas where most of the economy is opened up. Oh, yeah, yeah, there's still places where everything shut down. So if you're a restaurant owner in New York or California, it's still super difficult. And I'm kind of complaining about the fact that I can't book a trip because I don't know if that country is going to, you know, do some blocking have
Eric Rieger
6:18 been talking about this today. But before you walked into the room with one we had a patient from Canada, originally from Canada, so as a sister who lives there, and she was sharing with us that they are still you it's almost like textile blue laws out there every day. So you can't go into a Walmart and shop on the side of their textile
Ken Brown
6:38 blue laws. Me. Ah,
Eric Rieger
6:41 so then in the old days, and I think even a New Jersey, in this, it's changed, it may still be the same. On Sunday. You can't buy certain textiles. Really? Yeah, it's just a blue law. I mean, I don't I don't know. I don't I don't want to talk out of turn there. But back in when I was really, really young, you couldn't couldn't go into a mall and shop at like a dillards was closed on Sunday. So yeah, I we don't do that anymore. No,
Ken Brown
7:07 we don't cuz that's like the only time I'd be willing to go to a mall, like, really early. But, but really, Mother's Day anniversaries come on? Yeah, I have the moles that are, you
Eric Rieger
7:20 know, no one in my household. But what was interesting is she said that in the Walmart, for instance, is kind of a universal way to break it down, that they have blocked off or quarantined off, anything that's not food related. So you go into the store, and you'll see everything rubbed off, you cannot go over there to make a purchase or anything like that. And that's it. That was in Ontario, Canada. So I don't know if that's universal for the entire country. She just knew what her sister was relaying. And so if you're watching this, this is recorded. May 19 2021. It's starkly different here in Texas, where our governor released here recently that we're at the at the low, and everything's pretty wide open,
Ken Brown
8:06 it's pretty wide open mass are no longer require they're suggested. And I don't think we're seeing a big bump. I talked to the doctors at my house. And they're like, no, we're not seeing a big bump COVID. Now, of course, I
Eric Rieger
8:17 live in a more rural setting in you do. And as far as what people say, is wide open, quite frankly, 1010 miles west of me is, I think has been wide open since a year ago.
Ken Brown
8:30 It's just it's fascinating. Because we're gonna look back at these things. We're gonna look back at our first COVID episodes. Oh, yeah, we were with everybody else. But I felt like we were looking at the data ahead of the data that was being discussed on national news in Fauci and all these other people, because, shockingly, we were pretty spot on the whole time. And I think I hope that people when they walk away from this podcast can realize that this is not a politically motivated, or really, I think that a lot of things that we come to we don't know what the answer is going to be, or are certainly open to the we're going to change our mind.
Eric Rieger
9:05 I think in a moment, you're gonna ask me a little bit about cbds, kind of the heads of he gave me but I'm not really sure where we're going. But years ago, you and I both had doubts if it did anything. And now I would say that we were open enough to try and you've got to be able, I think, to be intellectually honest with yourself when you have something new or information to make sure that you're receiving it, and you're evaluating it and not just putting up a wall because it disagrees with where you are currently.
Ken Brown
9:34 100% I mean, I think that that is when you talk about the cognitive dissonance, or Oh, yeah, how's your views are different than mine? I'm going to shut you off before you're we did a whole episode on anger or agreement and how much of your brain gets occupied when you disagree with somebody and you're trying to combat it? Because you one of the things I notice, in fact, I noticed this with this podcast, because I heard I heard Joe Rogan talking about it, you know joselyn To be a really good listener. I mean, one of the flaws of what we do here is that I have all this science, I want to make sure that we get through in a timely fashion. And sometimes when we're talking and we can have like, great conversation, I'm kind of looking at my notes going, Okay, well, we need to make sure that we cover this because this is this was on my agenda. Sure. I'm listening to you. And now just realize that I do that I'm going to work on that I'm gonna work on listening, as his most recent guest said, We teach in school. reading, writing, arithmetic, and speaking and listening, but not listening. Yeah.
Eric Rieger
10:37 All right, I certainly younger version of me definitely could have been a much better listener. And I think it's active. I mean, I'm not even trying to be funny. It just, as I've grown older, I've learned that listening is a skill, listening to someone tell their story. And even though you feel like you have a story that relates to them, if they're really airing out something, don't try to match their story, just listen to them. And that's, that's I mean, quite honestly, it's been difficult for me growing up because you feel like you're building a common bond. Oh, that happened to you. This happened to me. But you can see where that goes. When you're really young. It turns into a one upsmanship. And then eventually, you're like, well, I don't want to tell them anything. They just tell me what they did was 10 times better than what I did.
Ken Brown
11:21 Yeah, I'm really, really guilty of this, as pointed out when on my 50th birthday met Jr. and Brian, and it was the running joke was me storytelling. It's just like, oh, you went 10 minutes without talking to your boss. Like, oh, yeah, I'm
Eric Rieger
11:40 gonna work on that for now. Hey, man, but the greatest thing is, it's not that you did or didn't do it in the past, it's in everybody can do it. And it doesn't have to be about storytelling. It's, what is it? Who do I want to be? And how do I get there? And what things can I improve to make it easier?
Ken Brown
11:54 And as we're always doing the show, all these things are mental improvements that people do. But there's so many times when people have health hindrances that have pain, or they're not sleeping well, or that is the least of their concerns. Definitely, you know, I mean, I try and control my diet, I try and meditate, I try and do some breathing exercises on a daily basis. But it's because I have the luxury of not having severe health issues. That is not the primary concern, right, because I went for about two months, as we discussed last time, where my primary health concern was my severe neck pain. And that just shut everything down. And the only thing that I could really wrap my brain around was okay, you need to figure out how to not panic, right. And by practicing those things leading up to this, when that happened, I felt like it kind of helped me get over the acute phase of it. And now I'm into this kind of new aspect of now we're rehabbing so
Eric Rieger
12:55 and I don't want to derail that. analogies are just something that I've always liked. And we You and I both build on these throughout every single episode, we find an analogy, but something that was realized that occurred, I can remember being young, and we were complaining in elementary school, it was it was something really silly had to do with participant participation, and how you could earn to be the first one out at PE or something like this. And there was someone in our class who I didn't feel like it, several of us didn't feel like it earned the right to do it. And then quietly, our teacher pulled us aside and said, this is the best thing that's happened to her because she doesn't have a home. Like what you have, and I started thinking a lot was wanting to get to PE first she just wanted a place to sleep. And when you're young, that kind of context is important because I mean, yeah, it was kind of shoved in our face, but it shows you that your I don't know I don't know how to put it the immediacy of what you think that you need or want. Sometimes somebody else may need or want that same thing but at the same time they don't even have you said your health so that you could do the exercises to feel good sometimes you don't have the base things that allow you to Oh, Peter, just do whatever. Oh, let's
Ken Brown
14:17 talk about I mean generosity feeds right there. 100% I mean, generosity feeds Ron Kobani feeds kids that normally only eat at school, those are the only meals that they get when they go home on Friday. They don't eat until Monday. And recognizing that need and spending his life to correct that one. small niche is just amazing to me. 100%
Eric Rieger
14:43 and shout out to Ron generosity feeds
Ken Brown
14:46 Yeah, and we're we're avid sponsors and have been for the last couple of years and I'm just so blessed to have met people like that, that inspire me to be a better person.
Eric Rieger
14:54 Yeah. Now didn't want to derail But anyway, that just popped in my mind. Yeah. You know, you got That's what this that's what I think that we're talking about though how do you get to the point where you can make better decisions for who you want to be and how you want to be there and a lot of that comes from take care of your if your physical health and it will allow you to do that.
Ken Brown
15:14 Yeah, that and you know, be open minded that the maybe your initial ideas as you grow and experience them What if
Eric Rieger
15:24 when they can't be open minded because your physical health is bad. And
Ken Brown
15:27 one of them that's today was today was open minded lesson I came across it You and I were we're scoping today and I came across an article, which I thought was entertaining. And then you became academic on me, which then now I'm like, Oh, I just want to gloss over right now. As as, as a fellow there's, you know, you go to residency and then you go to fellowship. So you do three as a residency three is a fellowship, depending on what you do. And it became a running joke between all these people that I basically did. I don't even want to compare it. But as we've discussed before, when you rush or go through basic training, or you do residency, you get very close to these people, because you're all have this common bond. Oh, yeah, you're kind of getting beat down a little bit. But you're doing it together, but you're doing it together. Yeah. So in residency, I had friends that became cardiologists nephrologist. I'm a gastroenterologist. And there would always be this running joke about who has the smartest organ, silly, nerdy arguments, the kidneys smarter than the GI tract, and so on. And I would always go will the anus is the smartest thing, it could actually determine, can your organ determine the consistency between a gas liquid or solid? No other organ can do that? No. So I've always said the innocent, smartest. And I was gonna joke around about how a new study just came out that basically makes my system the winner. And it starts with, I kid you not, it's a bunch of new sites that have come out citing a scientific study out of Japan, saying how mammals, mice and pigs at least have the capability of breathing. They said breathing through their butts was the title. I had to stop and looked at it. And it was an Associated Press article, or a BBC or a New York Times, they're all jumping on this, because it's a bit of clickbait. And you and I were talking about it today. And I said, Yeah, basically, the rectum, or the distal rectum absorbs is anything that's put in there so readily, that this, the scientists figured out that they could hyper oxygenate the rectum, while not allowing the animal to breathe. And the animal stayed alive and corrected, its hypoxia. And then you started asking all these scientific questions as an anesthesiologist should?
Eric Rieger
17:51 I didn't know, I was just curious if oxygen going in is a very, very important part of the process. But at the same time, what's the vehicle or the means for the waste gas, co2 and other things to be blown off? Because as co2 builds up, you become more acidotic? And that's where organ systems can, you know, this is a gastroenterologist, they can fail. So they become too acidotic. And that becomes a problem. However, it turns into, I think that that question we were like, like, this isn't just a joke topic. This is something that Yeah, so
Ken Brown
18:25 I came in with a joke, I was gonna make fun of it. And they asked me questions. So then I had to do the thing that we do. And I tracked down the original article. And it's thick, and it's beautiful as the scientists should not be made a joke of which is what their bit what's being done. I guess any press is better than no press. But it's quite elegant. And I would like to discuss this in the future where you walk through this article as a, a expert in the acid base physiology due to your anesthesia training into how you can oxygenate, but it is kind of an interesting phenomenon where maybe we could use something like this instead of making fun of it and look at that and say, Look, in certain situations, maybe some form of rectal oxygenation hunter says, You and I talked about, because we're really into rectal delivery of other things. So which, which, honestly, decades or centuries ago would have been odd to think that you can actually give a medicine through the rectum. That doesn't make sense, right? Yeah. So
Eric Rieger
19:31 someone did it. They demonstrated that it works. So obviously, they may be getting made fun of today. But who knows, if somebody has an injured lung? Maybe this is a way that you can help someone who's in distress. And I can't imagine one's going to do it voluntarily.
Ken Brown
19:46 Why No, I mean, like, I mean, who knows? 50 years from maybe they will 50 years from now you may walk into a hospital code saying where the patient's crashing, and it's just like we need mouth to buy Right now
Eric Rieger
20:00 I won't work. I will not work there. I've been called things where maybe people have thought that I must breathe through. Now
Ken Brown
20:10 that is, so that is an example of just being I came here to make fun of it. And then you started questioning the science. And I went, you're right. Whoa. So we'll talk about that some other time. I changed my mind, I'm I am accepting that. I should not hang on to certain ideas, because our knowledge changes our experience change. And if we as everyone should not just completely hang on to idea because the idea is not you. It's just an idea.
Eric Rieger
20:42 Yeah, that's, that's a really good point. And I would also add that if in 10 years, I have all of the same beliefs and whatever that I do today, that I'm not grown. I've
Ken Brown
20:55 learned nothing. That's a Mohammed Ali quote. I wasn't really Yeah, it really is. It was he? He's, he's a boxer. No, I think he was actually quoted as saying, Do you feel like you're the same man now than you were whatever, there were there. Were kind of implying that you're, you're 40. And it was 30. And his response was, if I'm the same man, I was then then I just wasted 10 years.
Eric Rieger
21:17 Oh, yeah. Oh, I've heard that. Yeah. But I'm sure that's subconsciously in there somewhere. But no, I feel that way. Because I'm not the same person that I was 10 years ago, or 20 year old me, probably and I hate I wouldn't be free. Anyway, so what's up?
Ken Brown
21:35 Alright, so let's get into some other cool stuff. We're gonna, we're, you know, this is the part three. It's there's a little bit of science here, but it all makes sense. And I want if you're listening to this, when I keep talking about the different aspects of either reptile dysfunction, or the CNS, or the endocannabinoid system, picture, how it works everywhere, it's not selective. That's the key to this. People are not putting this together, they're not realizing that you can take control of your health in a natural way. And it's not conjecture, it's based on science. So that's what this is. Okay, so to recap, in part one, erectile dysfunction, we showed that inflammatory damage from COVID actually causes erectile dysfunction by affecting the endothelial cells, which is the lining of the blood vessels. Part Two was how effective poly phenol zz are in working as a potent anti oxidant and blocking inflammatory pathways, which ultimately increases nitric oxide, and also activating the cert one pathway. So after we get done with that episode, okay, you and I went to the next room, and you started asking me all these questions about nitric oxide?
Eric Rieger
22:55 Yeah, I did. Because you had, you had initiated, something I didn't. I didn't know. And I don't even know that I fully understand it. But that nitric oxide can exist in different forms just as the compound itself.
Ken Brown
23:08 So as it is, it's like, shit I didn't have to answer. And so I'm like, Oh, my gosh, now I got to go down this, this, you have to lay the foundation to be able to understand everything else.
Eric Rieger
23:17 Yeah. And just to add, you had labeled nitric oxide, and essentially, there was neuronal nitric oxide. I've already forgotten the other two that
Ken Brown
23:27 I'll go through right now for you don't even worry about it. Because I think that's what that is the really cool thing. So when people talk about nitric oxide, one of the things that I have heard before and in our adaptive or in our innate immune lecture, we talked about how nitric oxide can actually be a pro inflammatory. And so meaning you can cause inflammation. So now I figured some stuff out. To make nitric oxide, there has to be an enzyme called nitric oxide synthase. These are a family of enzymes that catalyze what they do is they're the thing that makes the reaction happen to produce nitric oxide from an amino acid called l arginine. So nitric oxide is a cellular signaling molecule and it helps modulate tons of stuff like vascular tone, insulin secretion, airway tone, peristalsis, which is gut movement, and it's involved in angiogenesis, which is blood vessel growth, in addition to that neuronal development, meaning your neurons, and shockingly I did not notice it works as a neurotransmitter as well. So basically, we're talking the whole body. It does unique things in unique places. So as Eric was mentioning, there's three main types. There's inducible, nitric oxide, I nos. So I nos is a pro inflammatory nitric oxide synthase enzyme. So what it does, it helps acute insults so if you get infected by a virus infected by bacteria, your ionos will go up. And during an acute infection, it helps get rid of everything there
Eric Rieger
25:09 does want to clarify, you're saying that's the enzyme not nitric oxide, I nos is the enzyme,
Ken Brown
25:14 yes or no. So as it turns out, an imbalance of nitric oxide will result in oxidation. But we're going to get into this. And this is where it gets really neat. The AI nos has a specific role in making sure that there's an inflammatory process that happens. Okay, so I'm just saying that nitric oxide synthase. So if you're out there buying supplements, and you're like, oh, man, it's increases nitric oxide. You want to know, how is it? Yeah, arginine is at the substrate. Yeah, because if you're somebody with chronic inflammation, tons of inflammation that's going on, and you start beating yourself, Argentine, theoretically, you could be feeding your ionos. Because, like an acute infection with a bacteria or virus, you want this to happen, because you want to squash that. But if you have chronic inflammatory cytokines going on, it will actually induce more eyeness. So in other words, if you're chronically inflamed, yeah, taking Argentine could be fueling the fire that's doing it. So if you have chronic inflammation, I nos has been been associated with creating more of the inflammatory cascade, which results in more ionos, which results in a vicious circle. Ultimately, I nos is been implicated in being very high in autoimmune disease, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, multiple sclerosis, and even strokes. So when we talk about nitric oxide, it is all about the balance and about where it's happening. And Angie sent me a really cool article explaining specifically about how certain cytokines will induce ionos. But that's irrelevant. Bottom line is, if you are chronically inflamed, and your eye nos is using this against you, so it's using your fuel against you, you have to stop the chronic inflammation first.
Eric Rieger
27:05 That makes sense, though, because the probably the most notable activity of nitric oxide on its surface, regardless of where it comes from, is basal dilation and a key part or key component of an inflammatory process just like carrying away anything else is recruitment, recruitment of cytokines or whatever needs to be so it makes it makes sense.
Ken Brown
27:26 Yeah, that that actually makes sense. And that was surprising to me, because I did not know about this until I started researching for this. The second type that we talked about on the second episode is endothelial nitric oxide, e nos. This is found in the lining of blood vessels. This aids in tissue repair, regeneration. And the key here is it enhances blood flow, and I did not know this. It dissolves plaques. Hmm. And it will dilate the blood vessel. Yeah, so we talked about this during the poly phenol episode. And it does this by several different ways, but it dramatically activates endothelial endothelial, nitric oxide synthase in us. And so that's one of the ways that does it. And another really simple way to do it is to have is to go exercise when you exercise, you release enas. And that's what allows for the blood vessel dilation and everything. Okay, I bring up the plaques because as we sit there and talk about if you have coronary artery disease, and you're put on Plavix and things like that, nobody's discussing this. Now. How do you turn on your emails, it gets rid of plaques increase the blood vessels. It's doing what these pharmacologic agents are hoping to do without the side effects of a cerebral bleed are these different issues? Interesting something to think about? If you can turn on the enzyme, which does this, then you can do it through exercise and or through various things. We're going to get into all of them.
Eric Rieger
28:58 Something just popped in my head. Of course, we've talked previously, you've probably year and a half ago, about different diet intervals, fasting and intermittent fasting, and how those have been shown especially like water fasting for over 72 hours, I think it is, can demonstrate or they've shown that you can I think valter Longo talked about you could initiate the decrease in plaques and stuff like me. Is that related, do you think to enough? Actually,
Ken Brown
29:30 I absolutely think that there is something about that. I think that there's some other components to it. Dr. William Davis discussed how as a cardiothoracic surgeon or cardiologist remember what he is. But he said that he's taking people that had 90% plaques and put them on a five day fast and then redid their AMG grant angiogram. Yeah. And it was clean. So there is something to this. So if you're going to do this, and if you have fast you turn on, I mean, I'm speculating. Now if you turn on your stem cells and you increase The nos, you're going to you need something to clear the plaques. Yeah, dilate the blood vessels. So you don't cause a clot. Think about that. It dilates. And if you've got plaques there, it shifts them off, and it's in a big pipe, so it doesn't stick. Yeah. If those plaques shear off into what we discussed in the last episode, where it creates the bumps, hung up is the thumb over the hose thing. It's the thumb over the hose. It'll just block it. So enough, very important. Interesting. Now, you and I are always about the brain. So now let's talk about neuronal nitric oxide and nos. This acts on the brain in the nervous system enhances the ability of the brain and nervous system to adapt to change, and enhance the communication between neurons and to recover from insult. So enmasse modulates neuronal function through release of neuro transmitters, when you said earlier, is that the nitric oxide, they have actually proven that and nos can do things directly. Okay, I nos can do things directly. He nos can do things directly independent of nitric oxide. Wow. Okay. And they get turned on for different reasons. So this has been shown to be involved in long term prevention of depression, and improved memory formation. So when you have en nos going on, and it's also part of the neural plasticity and regeneration. I'm a big fan of the Huberman podcast and he, his whole, his whole theme is neural plasticity. And this guy hasn't even talked about this yet. talks about everything else, but I'm like, calm and start talking some and so if you if you know him, or whatever it's yell, you know, you're not even talking in nice, man, you're just scratching the surface. But um, you could say it like that also. Alright, so here's the part that we were confused by. Okay. So your question to me was, I don't get how nitric oxide functions differently in different places. And I just stared at you blankly after our episode not
Eric Rieger
32:06 clarified not just as a molecule unless it's being contained, or specifically only releases certain time that that was that was our discussion.
Ken Brown
32:13 Yes. So as it turns out, nitric oxide is nitric oxide. Okay. So it's not like there's different nitric oxides that we know of right now. But the different nitric oxide synthase is caused different responses. So first would be the amount of nitric oxide produced too much, and you can't clear it, it becomes a pro inflammatory,
Eric Rieger
32:36 oxidized, right?
Ken Brown
32:36 It'll oxidize, okay. That's the first thing and the second that each type of these enzymes can actually have a direct effect on the cells in the local area. So like, in the case of ionos, it can actually increase oxidative stress through superoxide production, or en nos can have direct neurotransmitter capabilities. So a lot of science just there. It's all
Eric Rieger
33:02 brand new, but that that brings some clarity that
Ken Brown
33:05 it brings some clarity, which which will bring clarity to all these other studies I'm going to bring up and we're going to go through really quickly and by all I just made a few, but it it reiterates that what we're talking about and what you can do for your health is based on science
Eric Rieger
33:18 now that's fantastic.
Ken Brown
33:20 Okay, so while I was figuring out all this nitric oxide stuff, this is actually where this went down a rabbit hole. I kept finding studies that they kept discussing the endocannabinoid system and nitric oxide. And I ended up going down some rabbit holes and discovered some studies on how cannabidiol CBD and the endocannabinoid system is involved in this whole process. And ultimately, how it relates to erectile dysfunction because if you're like this is part three of erectile dysfunction. I haven't heard anything about that yet.
Eric Rieger
33:52 Yeah, well, it is where we talk to them as part of an inflammatory process check jack and is the ECS and have a problem with with too much inflammatory process? Yes, yes,
Ken Brown
34:03 sir. It does. Alright, so ECS? endocannabinoid system. Eric, can you just recap what it is? Oh,
Eric Rieger
34:10 no cannabinoid system we have it all throughout our entire body. It basically is the copyright strikes the balance between reacting to something but not overreacting. Let's see here. You got to get some some cannabis. Or I'm sorry, I'm gonna say the right the neurotransmitters that we have or the cannabinoids, endogenous Canada in the largest
Ken Brown
34:31 category
Eric Rieger
34:33 was tripping over my own words but so you've had an and amide into ag. There's the two main ones and then to augment that activity, you can take exogenous which means you consume it. cannabinoids, THC and CBD with CBD being the one that we legally use to attenuate or lessen issues of inflammatory process, absolutely
Ken Brown
34:56 by increasing your own endocannabinoids and probably a little bit of direct stimulation as the science becomes more but yeah,
Eric Rieger
35:03 see it so and like everything in the body, you know, neurotransmitters are consumed by enzymes. And so what CBD they think does it doesn't necessarily replace an end of mind, for instance, but I think what it does or it can do is it will stop some of the hyperactivity of the enzyme that gobbles up an animal.
Ken Brown
35:24 Correct. So I think that's pretty much what you I think that's exactly what I want to hear. Yeah, that's, that's exactly. Alright. So knowing that the endocannabinoid system, if you've not read about that, or if you've heard some things about CBD, that it's shocking how much science there is on all of this, and how nobody really talks about this. And it changes and it changes. And it changes when scientists do stuff. But let's talk about this. Alright, so I found some really cool stuff going down this rabbit hole. At first, they were talking about three studies briefly out of the same university in Egypt, because I think that they knocked over the first domino and went, well, what happens when this happens? What happens when this happens? And it's actually really cool because it applies to humans directly. So the key to all these studies is how the nitric oxide synthase pathway was regulated, and it's regulated independent of the colon nergic pathway, which in the episode 54, we went into great detail about Yeah, so in other words, it's another way to stimulate nitric oxide synthase these guys figured this out. Okay, so the first paper that they published, looked at how the CB one receptor interacts with enough endothelial nitric oxide synthase, they were able to show that the how the effect by increasing a Nandha mind, the endocannabinoid that Eric just talked about caused relaxation in the corpus cavernosa. corpus cavernosum are the spongy, blood filled vessels in your penis that allows for interaction. It was not through us through acetylcholine, which is how every other urology book describes erection. Yeah, now one medical book that I've come across actually talks about CB one doing this. So this is fascinating about this. So and it is doing this by actually increasing inas, the endothelial nitric oxide synthase. So by stimulating CB one through an and amide, they could actually show an increase of the e nos. And this resulted in increased corpus cavernosum blood flow.
Eric Rieger
37:33 That's impressive. For a lot of different reasons. Number one, that no one's really glommed on to it or captured it. It's understandable that while you were in training that it hadn't been discussed at all, because I don't think that the the idea that an ECS existed until the 90s, so that that's okay. And so now you've got to figure out where all these functions are. But what what I found already and what you said is a change in science and really changing the way that I'm approaching it is I thought that for the most part, cb ones were in the CNS, or just the, you know, the brain and spinal cord.
Ken Brown
38:08 That's a really good point. Yeah, because we've always been taught that they say that CB one is or I'm sorry, we haven't been taught in the most recent books have been published that discuss how CB one is more related to the neurologic aspects. These guys are showing that now send your penis also.
Eric Rieger
38:21 Yeah, I don't even just started. Sometimes what we get accused of thinking with
Ken Brown
38:27 anyway, I gotta study for that also. So then the same group said, Well, wait a minute, we've just discovered something really cool. So they said, Well, what happens in disease? So they took some rats and they gave them cirrhosis? I'm not really to really get into the details, whatever, get into the, you know, like the methods of the study. Okay, so I picture a bunch of really cool rats hanging out at a bar for hours on end. They're like, Hey, man, we're just talking about we got this great lab gig and they didn't know that there that they were causing cirrhosis. I think it was done in a very different way. But I don't think I imagined it that way. Yeah, that you can imagine that way. I'm gonna imagine it that way. So what they did is they cause cirrhosis in rats, and then they were able to demonstrate enhanced relaxation of the corpus cavernosum those spongy tissues. In other words, they showed increased blood flow, when the CB one system was activated once again using an and amide then they wanted to have the cause and effect. And what they did is they blocked the CB one receptor, and there was nothing happened. So it was definitely related to the endocannabinoid system, not some other weird thing that we haven't figured out. This is the cause and effect of this receptor stimulation. So the unique thing about this is even in a disease state like cirrhosis, it helped these little rats to have directions directions. Yeah. Which is interesting because they're talking about cirrhosis. And remember the episode that we actually debunked how the FDA came out and said that CBD causes cirrhosis? Oh,
Eric Rieger
40:04 yeah, I recall that. And it was completely erroneous.
Ken Brown
40:08 Yeah, it's completely erroneous. And it didn't make any sense at all. Where is that we got one of those apps. I don't even know what episode it was. But we actually talked about that. And this is an example of Look, this is a way to take a certain disease, which generally has severe erectile dysfunction and they're like, now if you stimulate this looks like you can overcome it in different way. So that's cirrhosis, but you're like, ah, only a small percentage of drunken rats gets a very small percentage.
Eric Rieger
40:40 But unfortunately, that's not true either.
Ken Brown
40:44 But there's a there's a much higher percentage of donut loving rats that have Yeah, so they got so excited after that first study that they did a third study where they looked at the endocannabinoid system in diabetic rats Okay, then they showed on this study that the first thing is once they made the the rats diabetic, their baseline endothelial nitric oxide synthase, Enos was lower than all the non diabetic rats Think about that for a moment, okay, by having diabetes, your e nos is lower. In other words, your ability to produce nitric oxide becomes less
Eric Rieger
41:25 Yeah, and and all the ramifications that you talked about what he nos actually does vascular, you're losing that ability, you're
Ken Brown
41:32 losing it, it's not just in your penis, you're losing it everywhere, and nobody's talking about that aspect, which is, why don't we focus on something to increase the e nos. Alright, so by adding a Nanda amide, directly, they showed increased vascular activity in the corpus callosum and increased nitric oxide consistent, proportionally to the increase in nitric oxide synthase or enas. Now this part is really cool. When they added Argentine l arginine, which is a substrate to make nitric oxide, it synergistically went up. Make sense? So if you have a proper diet, and you are have a balanced endocannabinoid system, even if you have diabetes, your ability to have an erection is should go up based on these animal studies. And you know, we're not making any claims here. I'm just saying, based on these studies, it's super interesting to talk about.
Eric Rieger
42:26 Yeah, no, it's it's, it's fascinating. I mean, and let's, let's call it what it is the the meds that have been approved to treat erectile dysfunction, they essentially they got here, we talked about the five different ways or the five different things that have to happen for an erection to occur. Essentially, what viagara is doing is it's stopping the phosphate arrays from breaking down. So this is what that that was a valid mechanism to address. This is yet another, in my opinion, valid mechanism to address
Ken Brown
42:57 Yeah, so viagara doesn't work until you've arched actually formed the nitric oxide, right. So once you form it, you can have a longer sustained direction due to not breaking down the nitric oxide. man you got to get it started someplace. Well, one great way to do it looks like is to make sure that you have a balanced endocannabinoid system.
Eric Rieger
43:16 Yeah, no, that makes sense. And I've never heard that before. And right now,
Ken Brown
43:20 all of this is, all of this is new to me. I've got to be totally honest. And it was all sparked off of you asking you a question. I don't really get the whole, why you can act differently. And then this led to these things. Thank goodness. And that's what I love about hanging out with you is that you ask questions. You got to I mean, there's times where you're not been there and you're just like, Why is the sky blue? And why is why do my feet feel so heavy and I just have to look up everything.
Eric Rieger
43:48 I can't even come up with something ridiculous.
Ken Brown
43:52 Alright, so then, here's another interesting study by a totally different group. They were looking at it in a more indirect way. So your response of which head is actually responsible for the sexual function. These guys took some of this information and I bring this up, because this is looking at the end neurone the end nos process or the neuronal nitric oxide synthase. They looked at how the endocannabinoid system helps improve neuronal and Nos. and in prior studies, it was shown that a NAND amide helps not only form and nos, but it also works to drive the nitric oxide into neuronal cells. So and amide goes, Hey, and nos we need some more nitric oxide. They produce it and then of my grabs, it shoves it in a neuron.
Eric Rieger
44:47 Maybe I'm leaving too far ahead, but this sounds like neuroplasticity could be enhanced simply with a healthy ECS
Ken Brown
44:56 100%. So in this study, what they did is they took neuronal cells. And they showed how stimulation of the CB one leads to a massive increase in neuronal nitric oxide. Now, if you say massive, Well, isn't that inflammatory? If you have something that puts it in a cell and puts it to using us, it's been you. Yeah, it's not accumulating. Yeah. So the CB one receptor and the N nos protein have been shown to be in close proximity. So, and randomize here, cb one receptors here, I'm sorry, the nitric oxide synthase stimulation is here, a Nana Midas or the CB one receptors here. And when they're together, this is where nitric oxide will help not only the neuron that they live in, but since it can move over, and it is nitric oxide, which is a gas I guess. It moves over and it can work in what's called a parrot grind function. In other words, it can help its neighbors. So if a cell gets injured, yeah, and sends a signal and your Endocannabinoid is healthy, it'll stimulate en nos and say, let's get some nitric oxide over here Help Help my friend who's just been injured. Fascinating,
Eric Rieger
46:13 very, and that's the first time that there's been any of this is very superficial, but it's the first time I've ever felt like there's context or who was it that was talking to us about CBD, and that they were studying it for Ms stuff. Because if you're thinking about how ms functions and the breakdown, a lot of that comes down to the schwann cells file and and she's breaking my own sheath. And so you're you're losing transmission, you're you're leaking it's there's no insulation on the long nerve. So what if that role of CBD in part is that not only is it staving off inflammation, but it's actually allowing other neurons in the area to donate help to one that is distressed? I mean, we're leaving here. We don't have that in front of us. But I'm curious.
Ken Brown
47:05 That's pretty much what they're saying though. Yeah, that's pretty much what they're saying, at least in this animal model that interesting. So yeah, so this is where nitric oxide can help the neuron that it's in, in the neurons that it's nearby. So because the two receptors are nearby, that's how they actually do this. And then this is the leap for the indirect erectile dysfunction. This kind of surprised me also, they actually act on the so this is we're talking about the endocannabinoid system, cb one receptors and act on the gonadotropin releasing hormone. So the endocannabinoid system can help with both the neuro component of erectile dysfunction as well as the endothelial component. So by releasing gonadotropin releasing a by stimulating gonadotropin releasing hormone that results in an increased testosterone.
Eric Rieger
47:57 That's fantastic
Ken Brown
47:58 or estrogen because it's again, a trouble releasing Yeah, everything's in balance. Everything is not black and white is the yin and yang of the body and you need enough of everything. That's the beauty of the endocannabinoid system. It's our great balancer. Like you said it was the it's the traffic cop that says more or less
Eric Rieger
48:15 Yeah, as fans. Fascinating I've never heard this stuff.
Ken Brown
48:20 It's I was pretty shot. This is this is what's fun about doing this podcast is that you pose a question and then I'm like, dang it. I'm definitely not staying up because sleep is super important. If you don't sleep, you screw it up. But I will wake up early and go, Well, I'm not gonna work out today, I'm going to go down these rabbit holes. All right. And so oh my gosh, there's so much more research out there that we can't even get into today. But like, like this title of this article that was published recently, cannabis dial induces on top of G to protect neuro neural cells from mitochondrial dysfunction by up regulating cert one to inhibit NF Kappa beta and notch pathways. That's the title. So we've talked about all these things, and it sounds super complex, and nobody would probably ever read this, but it's actually a really good read because what they showed is that CBD protects neurons by turning on the cert one pathway, which we talked about last episode, causing a toughie G, which is programmed cell death in old and sick cells, while down regulating inflammation through the NF Kappa beta pathway. Sounds freakley familiar to how polyphenols do it.
Eric Rieger
49:34 Yeah, it really does. I mean, and you can throw in there the cuz I think that last week, we labeled NF Kappa beta as the black hat cowboy. Oh, yeah. And then we said that the white hat cowboy would be a nerf to NRF two. And so it, it seems to me like these are simply complements that we are uncovering that could Be a far more natural way for your body to determine. Look, just give me the tools for the tool chest. I'll figure out what things go
Ken Brown
50:08 100% another article I gotta read this title because these scientists need always in the titles
Eric Rieger
50:17 that
Ken Brown
50:18 they need a marketing agent. Let's get this know that that breathe through your bot is all over the news.
Eric Rieger
50:27 Yeah, that's a click. That's a clickbait clickbait
Ken Brown
50:29 and it's way more than that these guys put a title that says CBG CBD Delta nine THC CBN CB g a CB, d A and delta nine t. h ca as antioxidant agents, and they're in intervention abilities in antioxidant action.
Eric Rieger
50:48 It's important stuff and no one's gonna read that. Bob, do
Ken Brown
50:51 you want all that in there? Yeah, I want it all. We're all out of seas. Yeah, we're all out of seeds. Alright, so the title is too much. But basically what they presented was that they reported the antioxidant activity of CBG, CBD and all those other ones. And they present a data to prove that all the examine cannabinoids named exhibit potent anti oxidant activity in their ability to scavenge to scavenge free radicals to prevent the oxidative process. So very last episode, we're talking about how polyphenols are potent antioxidants. nobody's really discussing how CBD and THC and CBG are potent antioxidants. But they the whole study is how they actually do it, how they scavenge free radicals.
Eric Rieger
51:44 And it's brilliant, honestly. And it just, it just lends more credence to why it's important to have a healthy ECS. I mean, I know that those are all exogamous that you read off, I think for the most part, but they from what I understand that ECS to date, they really serve complement to your Endocannabinoid. So exactly
Ken Brown
52:03 an exhaust meaning these are the ones that we take in through our diet, or through smoking or whatever if, if it's that, but these are the ones that we ingest that actually do that.
Eric Rieger
52:13 Yeah. Fascinating.
Ken Brown
52:14 It's totally fascinating. And then oh, my gosh, one last one, because this one blew my mind, as I'm sitting there looking at these different articles, and you're reading through them. And it's the sad part is, as we're preparing for this, there's only so much we can actually talk about right here. But like, I want to call people I'm reading I'm like, Are you kidding me? This is nuts. Like I want to call the guy that made that title and be like, here's the deal. Next time you do a paper, let me write the title for you. And it'll be clickbait all the way his scientific colleagues will just be like, what kind of title is that? And it's just like, CBD causes you know, decreased baldness and it's like, but that's not really what it's about. It's about the telomeres and it's about you know, the the flu avian cells and he's like, Yeah, but and this guy said baldness, and I just want to Pulitzer. Yeah.
Eric Rieger
53:03 I mean, that's really what it comes down to. You've got to get it language that someone's gonna read 100
Ken Brown
53:07 Exactly. Alright, so we did a whole episode on Brock elite. We did. So love broccoli. It's on the KVM the health store. And broccoli is the really world's only stable sulfur fame product. We did this with David Roberts and dr. john Gill de wickedly smart people, both of them. That's Episode 44. highly suggest that you go take a look at that. Because of that knowledge that we learned on that show. I was I came across an interview quite a while ago actually with a doctor Jed Fahy who, what's her name, Rhonda Patrick. And he was discussing how his research was showing that a there was some similarities between a isocyanate called more engine is similar to sulforaphane not quite but similar. And his reasoning for this is that it's actually it's a tree that's very abundant in subtropical regions. And they should be looking at this for adding it to diets of certain things. Then remembering that I came across this article, which led me to start looking at various things. And this thing popped up anti inflammatory and antioxidant effects of CBD and more engine and lipid polysaccharides stimulated macrophages. So lipid polysaccharide is a protein on the outer. It makes up the outer shell of a bacteria. It's what our bodies react to. And it's also what causes inflammation. So what they did is they looked at how do macrophages, part of our innate immune system respond to stimulation when they're exposed to these lipid polysaccharides? In other words, when you feed a macrophage a piece of bacteria, what does it do? And they wanted to see how it reacts to pro inflammatory markers like TNF alpha interleukin. Sex etc. And they wanted to know how exposing the macrophages to CBD in one arm Morrigan in one arm, and then what happens if you put both of them together and see what happens. So remember that CBD has already been shown to have anti inflammatory anxiolytic anti cancer capabilities. More ringan is under this class of glucosinolates, like sulforaphane, and these molecules, these molecules are potent anti inflammatory regulators as well, in this case, it's called an isotherm cyanate meridian from the poly phenol Moringa. Okay, you see how it's all coming together here. Alright, so bottom line is the results are pretty cool. The pretreatment with either CBD or meridian resulted in significant decrease in anti inflammatory and antioxidant effects from CBD and more ringan separately, with decreases in TNF alpha, interleukin six and all the other inflammatory cytokines that we talked about. But when combined, they showed exponential decrease in inflammatory markers, while increasing NRF to white hat and good cytokines like interleukin 10. So the combination also enhance the nuclear intracellular level of antioxidants. So it KVM D on our store, we had the biohack combo, which is atrantil, CBD and broccoli. They did a study on the biohack combo. Yeah, they did. This is crazy. And it doesn't mean that you're not gonna be able to mount an anti inflammatory response. It's that living in the Western world, you're exposed to chronic inflammation. Yeah, chronic inflammation leads to all these things. So lots of articles, lots of rabbit holes to wrap up. We started with COVID, causing a reptile dysfunction and affecting endothelial cells. Then we went to how do you protect that by increasing e nos and decreasing inflammation with polyphenols? And now we've wrapped up with how CBD can help with this. And ultimately, the combination of sulforaphane plus the polyphenols and atrantil plus CBD, according to these studies, likely protect both your brain and your endothelial cells, ultimately, protecting your penis.
Eric Rieger
57:22 Yeah, ultimately,
Ken Brown
57:23 that's a lot of science to say, don't let COVID take your penis. Yeah, it's
Eric Rieger
57:29 a lot of science to say exactly that we probably didn't even need to have you science to say just that.
Ken Brown
57:36 Probably that one statement alone. Be like a T shirt.
Eric Rieger
57:40 Yeah, we could have just said that, and probably called it a day. But now that, honestly, all of that is fascinating. It's informative. But it makes it makes sense. And even though it feels like that we go to like a local focal point to john Miller gets address interest. It just, it forced us to find out, like you said about nitric oxide and the different uses. And really, it's it's still universal. It's still universal throughout the entire human body. These are things that we need to be concerned about. And yes, we're talking about a penis today. But that process is happening there. It's the same thing that can be used to protect your brain, protect your heart, protect the rest of your organ systems, so that you can do what we were talking about the very beginning of the show, which is what kind of life would you like to live? How do you get there?
Ken Brown
58:28 So I guess if we were to talk about the mission of this podcast, I would say that, you know, we've always talked about healthspan. But now I've got this whole new process, you cannot truly develop as an individual if you're being hindered by day to day aspects that prevent you from leading a normal life. Right? So it's really hard to say you should meditate when you don't have food on the table. Yeah. It's really hard to say you should go exercise when you have heart disease, and you can't, you can't exercise. I mean, there's all these aspects. So I guess the goal of the gut check project is to improve the health span.
Eric Rieger
59:13 Now how 100% I mean, yeah, it's You're right. I like those examples telling, telling a homeless person to take in more fruits and vegetables. That's exactly a weird thing to
Ken Brown
59:24 Yes, they need those but there are other pressing needs so that they'll need to address so that they can tell you a parent that was two jobs to the weekend that they can't be home and they don't have food to give their kids to make sure that their kids don't eat cheap food. That's whatever it it. Just it doesn't happen that way now, and if we can, if we can do something, something because
Eric Rieger
59:49 maybe maybe people who watch this show or share the show. It's not necessarily that we're talking only to you but if you share with someone else And you are on your pathway to becoming healthier so that you're more vibrant than maybe that's kind of where it starts. I'm talking about myself too. I mean, I need to be healthy so that I can help take care of people that I'll take care of same for you. And same for anybody who's watching or listening. So you can't help somebody if you can't help yourself.
Ken Brown
1:00:18 Yeah. And this is a good example that if you follow the show, or if you have a question, the questions turn into. In my mind, all of this is new to me. If it's not new to you, then you're way ahead of the game. As a guest, right now,
Eric Rieger
1:00:37 yeah, yesterday.
Ken Brown
1:00:39 But if this is new to you, as well, then please like share, we will always do the disclaimer that everything I've talked about today I am a doctor Eric is a certified crna. But we are not giving medical advice, while all we're doing is trying to show that there is some science behind all of this. And we are passionate about trying to make people healthier, ultimately, not just physically healthy. We're not talking about looking good. We want you to feel good. And we want you to be mentally healthy as well, because all of it is tied in together. And that's what we keep doing almost every single time is we're like wow, every time we want to separate. We want to do a three part episode on the penis, it ends up being the body
Eric Rieger
1:01:23 100% brain, we want you to stay healthy, mostly so that you can stay around long enough to ventilate through your anus. So we're
Ken Brown
1:01:31 gonna get to that one. I want to make fun of it. I'm just gonna Heckle you the whole time. You have to show me the real science about why it's valid.
Eric Rieger
1:01:40 Okay, that sounds great. I hope it's in there. But no, I'm excited that they're gonna be a good episode.
Ken Brown
1:01:45 So
Eric Rieger
1:01:46 that's Episode 56. Thank you all so much for hanging with us from 54 to 56 on this particular topic, it's very interesting. Hopefully, it's helpful. We've gotten not surprisingly, lots of feedback on anything discussing erectile dysfunction. Now I know why Pfizer cares so much about war. So anyway, thank you all for writing in and we'll see you Episode 57. I don't think it'll be a continuation
Ken Brown
1:02:11 conspiracy theory. Pfizer also came out with the first vaccine knowing that COVID can cause erectile dysfunction is the vaccine only partially is not where we need to buy. Bye, everybody.