Protocols for Detox and Cognitive Support

Welcome to Quick Brain, Bite size brain hacks for busy people who want to learn faster and achieve more. I'm your coach, Jim Quick Three Let's imagine if we could access one hundred percent of our brain's capacity It wasn't high, I wasn't wired, just clear. I knew what I needed to do and how to do it. I don't come food Chren. Welcome back, Quick Brains. I am your brain coach, your host, Jim Quick. Today's conversation is about something most people don't think about until they start feeling the effects. And I think Most of our listeners here, wherever you are in the world, you can identify and relate to these things, like the hidden stress that modern life places on your brain and your body. My guests today are David Roberts and doctor John Gilday, co fouers of Mara Labs. And David has an interesting story been much of his career working at the intersection of public health, science and practical wellness with a deep focus on helping people reduce the toxic burden and support your body's natural ability to heal. Dr. Gilday is a molecular biologist with decades of research, experience in cellular resilience gene expression, oxidative stress, and your body's natural defense systems. And together on this conversation, they bring both sides, both the personal and the scientific sides of this conversation, what happens when modern life overwhelms the body and obviously your brain's part of your body and how we can better support the systems protect you know your brain, your energy, your long term health, cognitive and otherwise And today, I'm excited because we're going to be talking about what is really draining your cognitive energy from, you know, how modern toxins and inflammation can affect your brain and what most people misunderstand about detox and how to support yourour body's built in defense system. and it's very simple everyveryday ways. so David, Dror Gilde, welcome to the show. Thanks so much for having. It's great to be here. Yeah. appreciate it So I get to bump in to you at various events that I get to speak at, wellness, longevity, biohacking transrparently, I've been, I mentioned this in the beginning, I've been a customer of Mara Labs for years. And so This is kind of fortuitous. I've always wanted to go deeper in the subject and our ur audience is very interested in this topic. So maybe we could start with you, David on the let with the more personal sides of this. what led you to this work and Why whyy did it become so important to you Yeah, so u Yeah, thanks for having us. So yeah But my wife my late wife, Mara, was diagnosed with breast cancer back in twenty twelve and she was a nurse and knew enough about chemotherapy that she didn't want to do that. but wanted to look into natural ways to fight the cancer And so u, coun of chemotherapeutically. and so lookooked at a variety of different research came upon sulforhane, which is a good molecule fromroccoli. pretty quickly and we ended up growing with Jance hope are herard cancer cells in our lab and put sixty different supplements on them to see what specifically killed her type of cancer And this so far fame from broccoli was number three and directly killing her cancer cells. And so When I went out to buy it though, I couldn't find any supplements that had sulforaphanaine. They all had the precursor molecule called gluccaphenin, that's because U it's the sulforhane is not stable by the glucforfen precurion molecule is stable. So if you have a head of brocoli, you start chewing it It has glucurhenin, you break the cell wall and it releases an enzyme that converts that. into sulforhane you swall it and get the benefit. But if you try to If you try to harness it like in a capsule or something like that, it degrades within hours to days. so U And so we ended up growing like a lot of broccoli sprouts. And so um for years. We did that and you know, it's kind of fun, but then, you know, it's hard to travel with them and and and in the summertimes, especially they can mold And so I think I was asked just I launched with John one day I was kind of moaning about losing a crop or something and Its like it would be really nice to have stable form of this so we I wouldn't have to grow the broccoli sprout us And so I don't know if that was the impetus, but like two years later literally over lunch again, he kind of matter of fact lose like Yeah I stabilized so for fained. And we're like, what U and and so we sent it up for testing and sure enough he had Um, and so Um We were actually with a different supplement company at the time so we weren't going do anything with it, but M I was like, We have to get this out because it's such a game changer for people's health And so she started raising the seed money for the company Unfortunately, she took a turn for the worstse. and that was twenty seventeen. And um and just pretty quickly died And so after she died, we were like, we're going to do this. And so I left the supplement company I was with, started Mar labs And u and then got the, you know the product out on shelves within like six months. So it was pretty quick. pretty quick turnaround and so yeah, we've been going at it since twenty eighteen U it's you know, I always admire businesses that, you know, that that they take something that's very personal And then they help they learn something. there's a gift that came out of it, some kind of learning then and then share that at scale you know, certainly, it's kind of kind of our story also also as well doctor Gilde, maybe could talk about on the science side, what pulled you into studying initially the the body's defense systems, you know, was there a moment when you realized that this was an area that you wanted to dedicate your work and your life to Yes, so I would say that The NRF two pathway, that's the transcription factor that Sulforhan is famous for Um been aware, you know, very aware of it since the nineties when that was discovered at Hopkins We both went to Hopkins so we kind of got educated in that atmosphere, we keep hearing about know, the Chema prerevention Center and U So I've always been interested in it and If you study anything related to disease then you know, inflammation and toxins and the interface of that are always central. And then I have an interest in epigenetics as well. so that noise that happens from, you know, the forgetting of the cell of what it is, the deedifferentiated state is kind of central to the way I think of chronic disease happens and I think it aligns nicely with such a complex organ as the brain and even though I study the kidney, I studied dopamine in the kidney But I was always looking at brains. so Even though the brain is kind of uncomprehensible to me, I try all the time. And so NRF two being in the center of so many pathways that are critically important to the differentiated state, all different cell types, specific functions energy Detox is just very central to just the way I think about. sales and health in general U Oh I want to go into in a moment, talk about my micro plastics as people are hearing about all the time, especially the past few years But before we do, when we're surveying our community A lot of people have challenges with things like like brain fog you know, and from from your research or understanding, you know, what could be happening inside the brain when when people when people feel that way Are there some considerations that you're looking? Yeah, I mean, I certainly have a couple of pathways in mind when I hear rarain fog Enerergetics for sure is part of it. so mitochondrial function. And then I would say this entire clear network It's a set of genes that are turned on by TFEB one. C clear out all the junk And then of course, NerF two on top of it again is The toxins accumulating in your brain would be a big taxing to all of those systems messing up your clogging up your detox system messing with energetics. And then Yeah, just general differentiation state. I think a lot of people don't realize that When you have reactive oxyen species and they cause double stranded breaks, It distracts the machinery in the South from it remembering who it is. So it happens during development, you get locked into this is the cell that I am and this is how I have to remain for the rest of my life. but It's slowly forgotten. by that distraction. And so I think the combination of lack of detox and energetics are kind of the central feature of brain fog and surprising number of people that call in say that is one of the main things that they continue to take the product for What about u inflammation? Wow. Yeah. Like u you know and its role. You know, if if everyone understood one truth, let's say about inflammation, you know, what do you wish that would be? And how do you think it could change, you know, this understanding change people's daily lives M not I think we both have a take on that. I mean, I think the important thing to know about inflammation that there's really two types One is good There's a good type of inflamation. So if you get a cut on your hand, let's say your immune system reacts to that and at least it's a type of acute inflammation That brings healing But then there's the more chronic inflammation, especially in your gut that leads to so I look at it The difference is sort of acute inflammation's like throwing gas on a fire. It's quick and then it burns out. but the chronic inflammation is slow. it might like a a rug that's smoldering over time. and that that chronic inflammation. can lead to, um, really bad stuff. It can lead to intolerances short term allergies and then autoimmune, long term. and so the thing to know about our products is, you know, especially the broccoli one we were talking about. Is that it it can cut the pro inflammatory markers quickly. So like thirty percent and twenty four hours. And so people take take it and notice the difference overnight really Yeah, we were excited when we did our first study M it in the literature it said that there was anti inflammatory activity. And we knew the mechanism, it's a direct conjugation of I Kappa Kappa beta part of N F Kappa B system And so We found that IL six are really good of smoldering inflammation went down thirty percent and twenty four hours with just our normal dose of our supplements. So We knew we were on the right track for that particular metric. and Brain specifically, Sulforophane has no problem getting into the brain which most of the other antiflammatories do. Yeah, um evenven dating back thirty years, I've been talking about broccoli as one of my top ten brain foods In there now about fifteen years ago, I started talking about sprouting And there's a science, but there's an art to it also as well. Yes For those who've ever attempted to sprout your own broccoli Let's talk about both you both dedicated your careers to studying Sulphur fain So what it what is it and and And why is this so important Yeah. And so again, it's the good molecule that is derived from broccoli. so U basically if you like like I mentioned before, the precursor molecule called glurhenen. which is basically an all U All broccoli supplements except for two hours in one out of France prostave U And the reason for that is that the gluccaphen is stable. And so With our supplement though, we extract both the sulforhane and make that stabilize. But there are seven other isOiosynates cousin molecules to the sulforhane that we extract as well. And so If you read all the literature that comes out of Hopkins and their chemoproductive center there They They couldn't stabilize it, but they had a broccoli sprout growing center and would make these broccoli sprout beverages to give all of the people who did the studies. And so they're extracting all of the molecules, not just sulforaphane And so we also go out and add one molecule from watercrest called phenethyl isothocyanate, which is the name iss not important, but What is important is that When you put that together with sulforaphane, it's actually synergistic And so when we were talking about turning on NRF two which is why you take so forfane You basically it's not additive if it's one plus one equals two. it's synergistic one plus one equals five. So there's a five times effect turning on that pathway So yeah, I mean, it's so farfan it has thirty nine c health mechanisms in the literature. And actually forty now that we someone did research on microplastics but and releasing my microplastics for excretion. But basically brain health, so it turns on BDNF for a brain drive neotp proractor, which as you know, is at the center brain health, protecting existing neurons, helping grow new neurons. inflammation, which we've already talked about And then also this detox. So it's the best natural molecule turning on the phase two to detox but it works in all three phases. So that' it's one of the only things I know of that can work in all three phases of detox And when we're talking about detox, a lot of people think cleansing or water or juice fasting, maybe something even more extreme The way you look at it And also in relation to sofurfane, you know, what do what do you think what is missing and what are people getting wrong about? the detox process Yeah at least the way I hear detox being talked about, it's not generally through the actual detox pathway that your body uses to get rid of toxins, tooxins are usually toxins because they accumulate in your body. They're generally hydrophobic. and so just a general understanding of So fororopaphane turns on this transcription factor that turns on a whole bunch of genes And it's those are made to both increase the amount of glutathium and then go through three phases of detoxification. The first phase is making it water soluble And so that takes a toxin that's locked in your system, makes it water solable, that sometimes makes it worse at first, but so you get phase one, then Phase two is three different aspects of conjugation can get GST, glute thion conjugation or sulfation or glucoronidation, those are phhase two And then phase three is how you get those conjugated compounds out of your body And so that's how you normally detoxify and so forth thing does all three phases and is why you can actually detox without getting like a keto flu. the keto flu, the detox flu, the Herkzheimer's, the A lot of the side effects that people will get if they're just mobilizing toxins. Yeah, a lot of those like those cleanses you're talking about are really good at phase one but then it backs up and so you feel sick because you have all these toxins released. And so sulforfin actually U It slows down the phase one but it works in phase one and then it speeds up phase two. And so you actually can clear really nicely and not have Thats that sickness um that you sometimes feel and I mean, it works, yeah, it works. amazingly well. I u I mean, I joke, but it's also true. I always take modotelles to holiday parties Um, and people expect it now so that you know, if they have a little Alcohol, they won't feel bad in the morning So it's it's one of the be It does work. Yeah, the enzyme system for alcohol is aldehyde dehydrogenase. And so soforapine stimulates that. I just know about that because it was highlighted recently at UVA has a longevity study. And so it's interesting that soophorophane actually induces that It's a great supplement to have, you know, on hand for all locations for sure Let's talk about we were having a conversation before started about microplastics. and they're getting a lot of attention now God You know, I've seen everything you know, from there could be a you know, spoonful plast of those microplastics in our brain to, you know we're exposed ingesting in some kind of form into our body like a credit card a week or something like that. But even if it was like a fraction of that what are micro plastics when people are hearing about them? And what should people understand about them you know, so that they they feel enabled, right? because it could be very scary like when you're thinking about the synthetic fibers that are on in your carpets or in your clothing or in your furniture or, you know, all these, you know where they were exposed or bottles what are microplastics and why should we be concerned? Yeah, I mean, so the easiest way to think about them is their micron or even nanosize. So about the diameter of a human hair size pieces of plastic or smaller And so those get leached from different plastic containers like water bottles and or in the air, like you mentioned. In fact, most of our microblast exposure comes from indoor air And so that could be synthetic clothing My couch has foam. and so if if you bang it, you'll see some dust. you the mattresses Most of them, a lot of them And so, you know, the lint from your dryer Um I can't I can't take lint out of dryer anymore without holding my breath because it's because it's proportioned to the amount. Yeah all of that Yeah. that's that that comes up Yeah That's microplastic mostly and unless you have all natural fibers that you're drying, which most people w't. Cotton wool. Yeah exactly. And so And so basically what happens is it gets in your body and it gets engulfed in these things called lysosomes, which are these vesicles inside the cell that are like the digestive there sort of the garbage disposals and they have digestive enzymes they secrete, they try to digest various particles which usually works if it's like a microbe or protein somethingomething like that, but microplastics can't be digested. so they get backed up in these lysosomes much like food gets backed up and Lus, a kitchen sink And so it doesn't work properly. And so And so basically It's an issue because the microplastics are porous They can have I read recently up to ten thousand different toxins in them, including BPA which is known to be an endocrant disruptor and it basically mimics estrogen And so that can lead to all sorts of issues both in men and women. The Netflix documentary that came out in March talked about infertility, highlighted infertility and microplastics. Well, that's because it can you know cause a regular menstruation in women, it can cause early puberty in girls can cause low testosterone and low sperm count as well as quality in men. And so I mean, just just on the integrrine side that's a it's a huge issue But then there's other, you know, other things they can do to cardiovascularly and on and on And so yeah, it's it's a it's a big deal. but I mean, like we said U because most of our exposure comes from air. One of the things that I mentioned is to people is the best thing you can do is have a have a filter in the room you sleep in And so that can mitigate quite a bit of your exposure. Yeah, reduce all the synthetic fibers from furniture and your We've had this discussion with various mattress companies or to talk about air scraping also as well, that we spend ninety five percent of our time indoors you know, which could also be a challenge. So also the the the downstream effects, your your endocrine system, your hormones it cardiovascular, your nervous system I mean, So if you're having sitting with like one of our listeners right now and you're having a meal, and they wanted to ask you a question like something because I'm sure people are very concerned U you know, how If the question was something like How would one support their body's natural defense you systems today What are a few simple things you would recommend Yeah like I like the general idea. actuallyct framed like epidemiologist is reduce your toxic burden first And so what are the what are the big things that you do, like if You're vacuuming, use a vacuum with a HPa filter. U And then food that you eat, try and source it as best you can so that it, you know has as little U plastic in contact with your food before you eat it. your water, best source of water, at least from our research is reverse osmosis water has microplastics Um So after you reduce the intake then the next thing to look at is your barriers. U When you breathe it in, The majority of the microplastic gets caught by your mucus layer and is rhythmically moved backwards up through your esophagus and swallowed So basically all of the the biggest burden of your microplastics are in your allementary canal. And then making sure that that barrier is intact will keep it from being absorbed in general And so We always say You don't listen to us. it's the review articles say that enterF two is the center of type junction. So You keep tight junctions along your entire digestive tract, you're going to keep them most of them from being absorbed and then after that, they're small enough there are cells in your body that just run around and consume things and those are Macrofage, or your myogglia in your brain So that's the other place beside the lining of your intestine and your lungs is wherever macrofage accumulate, they have microplastics in it No There's no there's no test. Is there a test for microplastics Yeah, Brian Johnson's has a has a microplastic test from blood And then So what we were interested in was this research who is a lysysome researcher U Chan Pudvig is did a test on himself and took our product and tested by that facility. and got the highest microplastic score ever done by that company So it mobilizes microplastics, and we think the mechanism is by by this called lysosomal So it fuses with the cell surface and dumps the contents of inside the lysosome into the extra cllular fluid. And so that's the first step and We're very excited that you know we could show. he repeated that study with us this year And so that's reproduced now. And And then I continued the study with showing Where is it removed? and so We measured feces and urine and by far the most the biggest signal of where it's increased to get it out of the body as in feces. And so We showed just recently that that is the way that the majority of the microplastics are gotten rid of. And so We did an induced removal of microplastics with a large increase in feces. That's sort of the framing that I generally think of as, you know, reduce the amount that you take in and then And then have a known mechanism of way of getting out. be consistent So in your research and just in your experience, what are the top foods or your go to supplements that you would recommend Our listeners should want to who would want to support their detox inflammation you know, balanceced brain Coggnitive health Yeah, I mean, I think the ones we have a seven A microplastics detox protocol. We have the broccoli first and foremost. If you're going to do one, that would be the best because it just covers so much and it's like John said, it gets to the brain. and so it helps with neuroinflammation U And then second would be Reritrol. So if you think about the the kitchen sink analogy where the sulforhane unclogs the sink, but the resveratrol actually widens the plumbing. so it allows more of these microclastes to get out U And then we um you know, also, um flush nicin is can actually increase the the vasculature and help with reduction as well And then more most recently the Fineagreek, we've read that Fagreek actually As John said, most of those microplastics stay in your gut excreted the figree can actually bind those in the gut and help with that excretion so that we're not talking about what the microplastics that are inside of you. but the ones that are in your gut. So this would be, I mean, but inflammation wise, the Kircumen is the best natural molecule at down regulating the NF KappA P, which is sort of the holy grail that the pharmaceutical companies would go after when they're trying to get a Hey, um anti inflammatory on to market. And so that is ours is very byiavailable. Can't say it's the most byi available will get sued, but it's very vi aailable and you can feel the difference And it's different than They're just taking like turmeric, right? It is. if you' eating turmeric. Yeah, if it's about what is about five percent of turmeric is curcumin And so it's the good molecule. And so you extract the curcument from the turmeric root and then you get, you know curcument but also a cousin molecules to curcumen uh, and then basically but it's basically less than one percent by available And so not much gets through that barrier And so if you're taking it for your gut inflammation, it's great. But if you're taking it because you have, you know, a knee pain or joint pain, it's not going to do the trick. And so So as Jon said, like, you know, the if you're talking about brain, the best is broccoli because it' it travels. it's It travels so easily through through the barriers. Um Ccumen is also very good Yeah. and I don't know a human being that could I start just recently took started taking your Kirkeleite also. I don't know how many, you know, how many people could really eat that much turmeric and broccoli you know, and then certainly if they're traveling you know, also with everything else So I mentioned I I started taking broccoli years ago probablyrobably early when you initially started because I knew the power of it, but I couldn't get it easily into my diet Right now as much, you know for that inconvenience is very important for me in order to be have be compliant, right? You want to be able to reduce that friction you know, I just can't go without it because of the change in mental clarity. You know, I just feel lighter, less inflamed. Wh Now, we did something really special for our listeners also. So I just want to mention that E this this product here, I want to thank you for offering a special discount. to all our listeners, you know, as as a as a to be as a consistent listener to our show. If you go to what is it? it's Marraashlabs dot com And if you put forward slash quick, that's KWIK and you use KWIK at checkout You get you get a special discount just as a thank you for being a listener and, you know, joining this episode We'll put all that as we always do in the show notes at gyimquuick. com forward slash notes. For those who are not familiar yet with Marlamps What does broccoli do specifically? Yeah, so as I mentioned, it turns on the BDNF production It's brain dived neotropic factor, which is like fertilizer for that for your brain for speespecially neuroplastic. Exactly. And probably about a quarter of the people who take it will have vivid dreams. I don't know if that happened to you. It's great for inflammation So as we mentioned earlier in the program, it turns or reduces pro inflammatory markers thirty percent in twenty four hours. That's two of those capsules to broccoli. Th two capsules, it's ten milligrams of sulfophane, this equivalent of about five pounds of mature broccoli. And then it's really great at detoxification. So it works in all three phases of detox, but it's the best natural molecuulate phase to detox And separately from that, and more most recently it's been shown to mobilize microplastics for excretion, primarily excretion through stool So it's the only thing that's been shown to do anything to get microplastics out so far. And what's the recommended and the protocol for it? Because it's pretty powerful, we recommend people start off with one capsule. And then and then if that works for you and you're noticing the benefits to start off with two You know, we offer a hundred day money back guarantee because we want people not feel burdened if it doesn't work for them, everybody's different And some people will notice that it doesn't and that's okay And they take it in doesn't matter the time of day, food, no food. What do you recommend? We recommend taking it with food because it can be hard if it is potent, it can be harder. stomach can cause a little nausea. So if you drink some milk or eat some food with it about you bypass that as you kind of take it longer you don't have to do that. It's part of my staple I mean, this is kind of one of my non negotiables. So Um I want to thank you, David Dr. Gilday for giving us your valuable research and your insights today. for those people who are listening and they want to go further into the topic or where can they connect or be able to find out more about your Yeah, so we're at Maradashlabs. com. we have a A home a blog, you can sign up for a newsletter We send out information regularly. But we're also on social media at the Mura Labs at Instagram and Facebook. the MARA LABS And so as you mentioned, we do have a twenty five percent off sale for the first this first week after this has been Muned Hell everyone, there you have it. Today's conversation. let it be a reminder that brain health doesn't happen in isolation. know your brain is connected to your gut, to your immune system, to your inflammation levels, your environment, the daily choices you make, you know, even we're talking about nutrition, you know, what What you ingest matters especially for your gray matter. you know, and it's nice to have some hope and some help, especially when it comes to things like microplastics where, you know, we can reduce, you know, we can only control our environment to a, you know, to a certain degree to mitigate the effects, but it's nice we could do something proactive you know, and also know that all the other benefits inflammation, the brain derived neurotropic factors And it's a reminder that while modern life exposes us to all these more stressors than ever, as I mentioned from previous generations, we're not powerless you know, that and this is really what it's about. It's giving people reminding of their own agency, you know, that we have these built in systems that are very intelligent. They're designed to protect and, you know, repair, restore harmony and balance. But the key is really learning how to support these systems you know, because what you nourish, you know, flourishes right know while we're reducing the unnecessary toxic exposure, we're supporting our gut, we're paying attention to what your brain and your body is trying to tell you. So again, if you want to learn more about MaraLabs and the product that I mentioned that I've been taking for years as a customer, paid for it myself You know, my family also as well. we have at least turn a lot of clients onto it Mara dash labs d. com for slash quick K' KWIK and cheheck out use KWIK for a very generous discount. And if this episode gave you a new way to think about your brain, your body I would love for people to share their biggest takeaway and post it online, you could tag Mar Labs, you can tag us on there also as well. I always reshare some of those since you tag us, we get to see it. Until next time. this is your brain cooach Jim Quick and be.