Infant Leaky Gut, Firefighter Fueling, Excessive Nicotine | THRR095

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News topic du jour:

Therapeutic targeting of inflammation in hypertension: from novel mechanisms to translational perspective

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1. Young Rebel Eating [11:09]

Kevin says:

Hi Nicki and Robb,

A few podcast ago, Robb mentioned off hand answering a totally different question that leaky gut is actually a good thing in infants and that is why introducing allergens early was a bad idea. Either that or I totally misunderstood what he said. Either way, I am curious around your thoughts on Baby led weaning, exposing new eaters to allergens, and other food considerations when starting your little human out on food.

Thanks for all you do to educate 6 people,

Kevin

2. Dry Lips [15:22]

Jen says:

Hi Robb and Nicky!  Thank you so much for all you do!  I’ve been listening to The Healthy Rebellion Podcast and love learning from you.  I follow a paleoish diet, female of 45 yrs old, 5 feet tall, 130 pounds, and in pretty good health.  However since the beginning of 2021 I’ve been struggling with extremely dry lips.  I have tried half a dozen products, all help but only a little.  I have to use them upwards of 6 times a day to get close to normal.  I drink around 40 oz of water with some LMNT daily and some decaffeinated (mostly herbal) tea once or twice a day.  I am totally addicted to LMNT!  With the colder weather approaching, it seems to be getting worse.  Really unsure on how to move forward with this pesky annoyance.   Would really appreciate your input.  Thanks so much!!

3. Fueling for Wildland Firefighters [18:45]

James:

Hi Robb and Nicki!

I am a wildland fire crew leader based in Ontario Canada. I am looking for information on how to best fuel myself and my crew for the sometimes gruelling efforts the job demands.

I have listened to some of the other episodes regarding to fuelling for hiking and hunting etc., and while I’ve gleaned some valuable insight, I am aware that the intensity of the job might require a modified approach. Namely more carbs.

We are deployable up to 19 days and usually have relative autonomy in fresh food choices, outside of the first 72 hours in which we have preselected, non parishable options. I personally choose the first 24 hours worth of food. While I do my best to fill our bag with canned fish, nuts, jerky and other sources of protein and fat, a sizeable portion contains candy, chocolate and other sources of quick sugar. In other words junk.

For the sake of brevity, here is my question: What do you reccommend for innocuous sources of non-perishable carbs that can be consumed on the go?

Thank you guys for all that you do,

Wishing you the best,

James

 

4. Offering a cautionary tale for excessive nicotine lozenge/gum consumption [25:46]

Jack says:

I recently quit using lozenges/gum. I began using it in college about 6 years ago for the stimulant/nootropic effect, not as NRT, as I’ve never smoked or vaped. I was bought into the idea that sure, it was addictive, but other than that it was basically harmless. So I didn’t worry that much as my use became more and more excessive, especially since I wasn’t using tobacco or inhaling questionable chemicals from vape liquid. I was consuming probably 30-40mg a day. As far as I can tell that isn’t that far off from the initial starting dose for NRT.

A day or two after quitting I began to notice drastic improvements in my circulation. My hands and feet were alternately tingly and itchy for a few days. My color vision improved, I suddenly noticed shades of blue/green had much more differentiation. Even just taking a hot shower felt incredible because my skin sensation was so improved. After a few days the dead skin on my feet started to peel, as if I was molting like a snake. And I hope my hair will grow in thicker as well, that is one of the main reasons I’m quitting (besides excessive spending on lozenges). And related to my hair, I do weekly microneedling of my hairline along with a daily compounded topical dutasteride/minoxidil/tretinoin formulation (microneedling and tretinoin both enhance the effect minoxidil). My skin heals a lot easier from the microneedling, and I have much less irritation from the tretinoin.

I’m currently not the healthiest otherwise which didn’t help matters, since I’ve gained quite a bit during the pandemic. I’m 27, and my fasting glucose a few months ago was 99, so not “clinically pre-diabetic”, however in my opinion is definitely worrying for my age. But I never noticed the ill effects it was causing until I stopped.

Interestingly, quitting cold turkey wasn’t as difficult as I imagined. I didn’t really have cravings, likely because it wasn’t really tied to a physical ritual like vaping or smoking. But I could only do it because I had the week off from work. I couldn’t focus or really do much besides watch videos and stare at the wall. I was grumpy but it wasn’t unmanageable, but after a few days it felt like I had a really bad flu, apparently that can be an acute symptom of withdrawal. I could only sleep for a few hours at a time, so I had to do many short sleeps through the day and night.

I hope this helps, I think there may be other people out there like me who are consuming extreme doses of nicotine. I recall there was a guy who wrote in a few months ago who used about the same daily dose of snus.

5. Discussions on Freedom [29:48]

Ellen says:

Hello!

I really enjoyed your recent podcast discussion on freedom and the real dangers we are facing if we continue down this path. Thank you! It seems to me that the government wants us to feel alone, afraid, and to accept that we are the minority in our fight for freedom. By sharing your thoughts, I am reminded that we can make an impact if we stick together.

We read a book with our nine year old recently that I thought I might share. It is called The Mysterious Benedict Society. Have you read it? There’s also a TV show, modeled after the book, on Disney+. It is incredibly interesting and was filled with content to fuel discussions around freedom, control, courage, bravery, etc. and was a very sobering reminder of the challenges we face today.

In the book, the antagonist uses radio signals and cell phone towers to send subliminal messages in order to control the minds of the citizenry.

I was curious to know if you’ve read it or had any thoughts. 🙂 Thank you for all that you do!

-Ellen

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Transcript:

Download a copy of this transcript here (PDF)

Nicki: It’s time to make your health an act of rebellion. We’re tackling personalized nutrition, metabolic flexibility, resilient aging, and answering your diet and lifestyle questions. This is the only show with the bold aim to help one million people liberate themselves from the sick care system. You’re listening to the Healthy Rebellion Radio. The contents of this show are for entertainment and educational purposes only. Nothing in this podcast should be considered medical advice. Please consult your licensed and credentialed functional medicine practitioner before embarking on any health, dietary, or fitness change. Warning, when Robb gets passionate, he’s been known to use the occasional expletive. If foul language is not your thing, if it gets your britches in a bunch, well, there’s always Disney+.

Robb: Top of the morning, wife, friends, neighbors, rebels of all kinds.

Nicki: Morning hubs. It’s bright and early here in Northwest Montana.

Robb: It’s not bright. The sun has not even-

Nicki: Dark and early.

Robb: Yeah. It’s dark and early. The sun has not even crested the mountains.

Nicki: This is true. That’s an example of using a saying that doesn’t properly fit the situation.

Robb: Yeah, I agree.

Nicki: Yes. This is episode 95.

Robb: Holy smokes.

Nicki: Of our Q&A. And I have a fondness for 95, happens to be the year I graduated high school.

Robb: High school? Oh yeah, I guess so. Yeah, yeah.

Nicki: And I know we had some sort of saying. You say you’re saying at least twice a year, if not more frequently, somehow it comes up.

Robb: Do you want to relate it?

Nicki: Sure. But I’m kind of bummed because I can’t think of what ours was.

Robb: That’s okay. Mine’s far better, I’m sure.

Nicki: Yours is good. Yeah. Wine me, dine me, 69 me because we’re the class of 1990.

Robb: There we go.

Nicki: Yeah. I know we had some sort of 1995 senior thing or.

Robb: And clearly it was so piffy.

Nicki: I think it a sign of my old age that I just can’t remember it.

Robb: I just don’t think it was all that good.

Nicki: It’s sad. Well, if I do remember it, then I will bring it up in a future episode or maybe somebody listening also had the same 1995.

Robb: I would be curious if somebody had the same 1990 saying.

Nicki: Do you think those are unique to high schools or is it kind of like one of those things-

Robb: Well, we didn’t have the internet then.

Nicki: That’s true, that’s true. So how did it share? That is a good question. All right. Let’s actually move on to this, to the meat and potatoes of the show. Just a couple of announcements as always, letting folks know what’s coming up inside the Healthy Rebellion community. As I’ve mentioned before, our fresh start cold shower challenge kicks off on January 3rd. One of our rebels, Ash Higgs will be leading that. He did one earlier this year in January, and it was very well received. A great way to start the new year. So if you are interested in that and you’re a member of the Healthy Rebellion, just go to the events page and sign up for that. If you’re not yet a member, you can join and participate in that cold shower challenge as well as our next rebel reset. So that kicks off on January 14th, which is a Friday. And then the following week, we’ll do the seven day carb test. That’s optional for those who want to see how their body responds to particular carbohydrates. And then the actual 30 day reset will begin on January 24th.

Robb: And also on January 24th, will be my 50th birthday. And somewhere around the January month, I’m going to have my training at 50, which will be 11 years of doing it. Although I didn’t do it every single year. I missed a year here and there, but it’s 11 years of doing it and definitely some interesting updates. My back, my hormones and just kind of the milestone deal. And that will be available only in the Healthy Rebellion. I might have spun up a Substack by them, but I’m only going to have some bread crumbs leading from that to the-

Nicki: Are they gluten free bread crumbs, hubs?

Robb: Sure. That’s something Travis Davison would say, our jujitsu coach.

Nicki: Yes. He likes to razz you about the gluten.

Robb: Yeah.

Nicki: All the glutens. All the glutens. Okay. What’s our news topic for today?

Robb: Therapeutic targeting of inflammation in hypertension. I don’t know why, but I had never really connected inflammation to hypertension, high blood pressure. Just in my head, I’ve mainly relegated it to hormonal issues, specifically hyperinsulinemia and some of the related factors there. But this is a really good and interesting paper. It gets in and talks about some of the reasons why things like ankylosing spondylitis and rheumatoid arthritis are big, big co-factors in worsening atherogenic profile because of the systemic inflammation and the immune mediated elements of that. So interesting paper, I’m kind of a dummy, I should have thought about the systemic inflammatory side. But I’ve oftentimes kind of divided those out, and clearly inappropriately, because they are all woven together. So pretty interesting paper. The cool thing is that it offers some very actionable things to do with regards to how to reduce hypertension. So if you have somebody that’s hypertensive, definitely a lower carb diet can be smart, but also looking at some of these immunogenic factors and modulating the immune response is also very important.

Nicki: And we will link to that in the show notes for any of you who would like to check that out. Our T-shirt review for this week goes to Ariana23. She says, “Thank you for speaking out on the other perspective to all that’s happening. It lets me know that we’re not alone and seeing all the red flags that are being waved right in front of our faces.” So thank you, Ariana. Send us an email to [email protected] with your T-shirt size and your mailing address and we’ll send you a Healthy Rebellion Radio T-shirt. And actually, just want to say too, we did have several comments on our last Salty Talk episode. I think we had more comments on that blog post, where we post the notes and the transcript and whatnot on robbwolf.com, than we’ve had on any other-

Robb: People just don’t comment on blogs anymore.

Nicki: Any other episode of recent airing. And the bulk of them were quite favorable. So thank you for sharing your feedback. The sentiment from a lot of folks was, again, us sharing what we see happening is allowing other people to see that it’s okay to do that. And they’re feeling more courageous and also speaking up in the circles that they’re in as well to some degree. They were very appreciative of just A, not feeling alone with the things that they’re thinking. And then also, it just being that extra bit of courage that they can go out, and even if it’s just with friends or family or whatnot, speak their mind a little bit more.

Robb: Absolutely.

Nicki: Okay. This Healthy Rebellion Radio episode is sponsored by our Salty AF electrolyte company, LMNT. And Robb, you had a pretty cool LMNT story this past week. I thought you might want to share.

Robb: Yeah. Yeah. So I was in Costco and a woman with four kids, the youngest being just a tiny little tree frog and the papoose carrier, she walked up and she was like, “You have an LMNT hat on?” I’m like, “Yeah.” And she’s like, “Where did you get that?” I’m like, “I’m one of the co-founders.” And then she started stitching some stuff together. She’s like, “Oh, my husband is a long haul trucker and he listens to lots of podcasts. I think it was Cleared Hot that he heard you on and hears about LMNT.” And what was interesting, so within this greater Flathead Valley, Montana area, a lot of people are pretty familiar with LMNT because a lots and lots of people go to Straight Blast Gym or their kids, or whatever. And so it’s been interesting, like a good number of people have known about it. But it’s been from other avenues that they become aware of LMNT and stuff like this.

Robb: But these folks found LMNT first via podcast. She mentioned that her restless leg syndrome, which has been really bad with each pregnancy was, is markedly better now. And her breast milk production is phenomenal. The damnedest things get shared while shopping in Costco. And I asked her, “Are you guys members of Straight Blast Gym?” And she’s like, “Well, the kids are now. My husband and I started eating keto and everything.” So it was just interesting because it was kind of the first time I’ve been recognized because of LMNT. And I’m not famous, but a few people recognize me here and there. And so just kind of an interesting milestone in the evolution that is LMNT.

Robb: I remember when we were early, early, early CrossFit and we were the only people with T-shirts that said CrossFit and stuff like that. And I forget where we were, we were maybe traveling somewhere or something and we were in an airport and we saw someone else with a CrossFit shirt and it’s like, “Hey, what are you doing?” And learned a little bit about them. And so just kind of cool, interesting story and very cool that LMNT has made a impact in this family’s life.

Nicki: Very cool. And I just want to let you all know that mint chocolate salt is still available for a limited time. If you haven’t tried it yet, be sure to grab yours before it’s gone. And the value bundle is the best way to get your LMNT. You can buy three and get the fourth box free so you can mix and match and choose the flavors that you want in that value bundle. To grab that you can go to drinkLMNT.com/robb. That’s drinkLMNT.com/Robb. Okay. You ready for questions?

Robb: Yep.

Nicki: Our first one is from Kevin on young rebel eating. “Hi, Robb and Nicki, a few podcasts ago, Robb mentioned offhand answering a totally different question that leaky gut is actually a good thing in infants and that is why introducing allergens early was a bad idea. Either that, or I totally misunderstood what he said. Either way, I’m curious around your thoughts on baby led weaning, exposing new eaters to allergens and other food considerations when starting your little human out on food. Thanks for all you do to educate six people. Kevin.”

Robb: Yeah. Kevin, you did hear that correctly. And the reason why the there’s intestinal permeability in infants is that the breast milk contains different immune modulating proteins, that are beneficial for the baby to get intact through the gut. Ideally, proteins get completely chopped into either single amino acids or dipeptides at the most. And if our gut was able to do that with everything, then the following question wouldn’t be as big of a deal, like peanuts and wheat and eggs and all that. But there is a reality that, for a variety of reasons and on a spectrum of efficacy, proteins don’t get fully degraded. And on this baby led weaning thing, some people will say gluten exposure inoculates the kid and can mitigate future problems.

Robb: And there’s been back and forth on this. There’s literature that suggests it’s better and there’s literature that suggests it’s worse. I’m fully in the camp now that if you’re captain of the ship and you can call the shots, I would punt things like gluten exposure, particularly if there’s any thought that there are gluten issues in your family.

Nicki: Or autoimmune issues in your family.

Robb: Or autoimmune issues in your family. And it is crystal clear in the literature now, it’s epidemiological in nature, but the linkage is incredibly powerful between early gluten exposure, early dairy, bovine dairy exposure in things like type one diabetes and other autoimmune diseases. I’ve talked with Chris Kresser a good bit about this. And he was kind of in the camp of some modest exposure for kids to try to tune the immune response and somewhat similarly to like a desensitization therapy with an allergist where you get a small amount of B venom or whatever, then hopefully you don’t get a full anaphylactic response. It just doesn’t seem, as time has gone on, I’ve always found more and more information that seemed to support the idea that just avoidance is good and punting exposure is probably better. And so that’s my best understanding.

Robb: And certainly what we see, and also, I guess one of the other pieces to all this is, we’ve just seen so many people that when they polled gluten in particular, but potentially also the dairy, and I know the Weston A. Price people are going to be like, “If it’s raw milk, then everything’s great. Sally Fallon said so.” I was like, “Fuck. Okay, whatever.” Bathe in raw milk and maybe you’ll be fine. But dairy and wheat seem to be these problematic items. So many kids that had all these gut issues, had behavior issues, and then people do a reset and they pull them out, and magically things are better. And then they reintroduce them and they’re worse. And at a minimum, you might try some sort of an elimination process with these things to see what’s happening, because we’ve just seen it so damn many times that there’s something to it. It’s not everybody, but there is definitely a signal there.

Nicki: Okay. Question two is from Jen. “Hi Robb and Nicki. Thank you so much for all you do. I’ve been listening to the Healthy Rebellion podcast and love learning from you. I follow a paleoish diet, female, 45 years old, five feet tall and 130 pounds. Generally, in pretty good health. However, since the beginning of 2021, I’ve been struggling with extremely dry lips. I’ve tried half a dozen products, all help, but only a little. I have to use them upwards of six times a day to get close to normal. I drink 40 ounces of water with some LMNT daily and some decaffeinated, mostly herbal tea once or twice a day. Totally addicted to LMNT. With the colder weather approaching, it seems to be getting worse. I’m really unsure how to move forward with this pesky annoyance and would really appreciate your input.”

Robb: I don’t know if you have thoughts on this, but the interesting thing around dry lips and the dry skin and whatnot as it relates to hydration is if we are under consuming electrolytes, especially sodium, this is just going to be a thing. And Jen mentioned that she uses some LMNT and she likes LMNT and that’s all wonderful. But 40 ounces plus some tea, and maybe some other stuff, it ends up being a decent amount of fluid volume.

Nicki: I’m not sure if she’s putting one packet of LMNT in her 40 ounces and that’s what she drinks throughout the day, or if she’s doing more. But that would be a place to start is, and whether it’s LMNT or a home brew.

Robb: Or eating olives or salami, like pickles. Interestingly, if you want the water to go where you want it to go and hydrate the things you want it to hydrate, then you actually need some non-trivial amounts of sodium along for the ride to be able to make that work. And the kind of minimum buy-in that we’ve seen seems to be about five grams of sodium per day, which is a lot. If you’re just trying to salt your food, it’s virtually… It’s hard to get that. If you really consciously focus on things like pickles and olives and sardines and salami and stuff, then you can get there reasonably easy, but not everybody does that. So Jen, I would tinker with consuming more sodium, you could do more LMNT, or you could get more from dietary sources. Maybe track it in chronometer or something like that so that we know for sure how much you’re getting. And we want to see you at probably at least five grams of sodium per day and see how you’re doing with that.

Nicki: She doesn’t mention her activity level, but if you’re active to any degree at all, that that will also have an effect on your sodium needs, too.

Robb: Yeah.

Nicki: We notice for sure with the kids, now that we’ve gotten a little bit of snow, not a significant amount of snow, but snow is snow and kids love being in the snow. So they’re out in the cold weather and they’ll spend two hours out there. But their lips have been pretty, pretty chapped lately. And we have to remind them to hydrate.

Robb: Something that’s challenging with cold weather is that our thirst mechanism downregulates so we just aren’t as thirsty. So you have to figure out strategies for getting that sodium in, and the general hydration in.

Nicki: Yeah. Yep. Okay. Next question is from James on fueling for wild land firefighters. “Hi Robb and Nicki. I am a wildland fire crew leader based in Ontario, Canada. I’m looking for information on how best to fuel myself and my crew for the sometimes grueling efforts the job demands. I’ve listened to some of the other episodes regarding fueling for hiking and hunting. And while I’ve gleaned some valuable insight, I’m aware that the intensity of the job might require a modified approach, namely more carbs. We are deployable up to 19 days and usually have relative autonomy in fresh food choices outside of the first 72 hours in which we have pre-selected, non-perishable options. I personally choose the first 24 hours worth of food. While I do my best to fill our bag with canned fish, nuts, jerky, and other sources of protein and fat, a sizable portion contains candy, chocolate and other sources of quick sugar. In other words, junk. For the sake of brevity, here is my question. What do you recommend for innocuous sources of non-perishable carbs that can be consumed on the go. Thanks for all you do, James.”

Robb: Really, this will one is kind of tough, things like dried fruit, fruit leather, honey.

Nicki: Freeze dried fruit, it would be significantly lighter for packing.

Robb: It’s light, but it’s also voluminous. It takes up a lot of volume and freeze dried stuff, the way that you remove the volume is turning it into a powder. So I would push back on that one a little bit. Chocolate’s kind of interesting, but it melts when it gets warm. So that’s a challenging thing. Stuff like dates. I guess I more towards like dried fruit. It really does pack a wallop of carbs, but it’s fairly heat stable. They can go moldy, but you bring enough for the period of time that you have, and then you’re fine after that. Again, honey could be kind of an option. They even have the sticks of honey. Could be kind of interesting for grab and go in a pinch type stuff.

Robb: I think the challenge here, if we’ve got a three day period where things are kind of dodgy, like you’re needing to live out of your backpack to some degree, but then beyond that you tend to have better access to more foods than you just need to do a mitigating strategy for the first three days and do the best job that you can. And then from there, the real challenge is the other 16 days of possible deployment of folks making reasonable choices in the mess hall and all that stuff. So I don’t know if the answer is particularly helpful, but I would look at dried fruit and if there is any type of bar that the folks like, and doesn’t give them GI upset, so many people if they have to eat a lot of the bars or the MRE materials that folks have, they just get a gut bomb off this stuff. It’s super dense, really processed.

Robb: One thing to do would be just tinker ahead of time with this and have people experiment a little bit because the worst thing in the world is that you’re busting your ass, you’re in a dangerous situation and you’ve got the trots or something because you just dumped a bunch of something that doesn’t work with your stomach. And this is a scenario where if a bunch of Smarties or some other sugary candy, like your gut handles it and you don’t feel like you’re going to shit your brains out, running up a hillside, that’s pretty important also.

Nicki: Okay. Hopefully some of that sparked some ideas and was helpful. All right. It’s trivia time. Our Healthy Rebellion Radio sponsor LMNT is giving a box of LMNT electrolytes to three lucky winners selected at random who answer the following question correctly. And so we’ve just been listening for the first time to Harry Potter and we’re doing it on audiobook and we just finished Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

Robb: I know we’re late to the game, but the kids are now old enough to appreciate it.

Nicki: Yes. And so our trivia question today, so we adopted a cat when we were in Texas, a little kitten, Robb calls it my failed IQ test because I was in Pet Smart, getting some things and there was this cute little orange fur ball behind the glass in the cat adoption area. And I sent Robb a picture and I said, “What do you think?” And he says, “He’s pretty cute.”

Robb: The more the merrier.

Nicki: And so we adopted him and then Robb was like, “You failed my IQ test.” Anyway, this cat came with the name Rage, which we didn’t feel like fit him. He was only 11 weeks old. And so then we ended up naming him Sunny.

Robb: For reasons I can’t really explain.

Nicki: That’s his official legal name. Because he is orange. I don’t know.

Robb: But I don’t know where Marfy and Marskeevy and all the others.

Nicki: Sunny is his official name, but the kids call him now his main name is Marfy. But after listening to Harry Potter, he now has a new name.

Robb: Peeves.

Nicki: Peeves. So the girls were asking like, “What does Peeves mean?” And I was like, “Well, there’s a thing like a pet peeve, like something that is really annoying to you, like when you don’t take your underwear out of your pants, when you put them in the hamper, that’s a pet peeve of mine. Because then when I go to do the laundry, I have to peel your underwear out of your pants.”

Robb: It’s a genius name for a poltergeist. It really is.

Nicki: And so a pet peeve is something that kind of bothers you. So having a pet named Peeves. Peeves is our trivia answer. That’s was a long-winded trivia. Don’t scroll down, I need to read some stuff.

Robb: Okay. I just wanted to move on.

Nicki: I know you do.

Robb: I’m talking more existentially. I think I’m ready for this life to end.

Nicki: Well wasn’t that something that Dumbledore said, in a well-organized mind death is nothing but an adventure. Going on to the next adventure.

Robb: So you’re citing philosophy from Harry Potter?

Nicki: Yes.

Robb: Great.

Nicki: Okay. To play trivia, go to robbwolf.com/trivia and enter your answer and we’ll randomly select three people with the correct answer to win a box of electrolytes from LMNT. The cutoff answer this week’s trivia and be eligible to win is Thursday, December 23rd at midnight. Winners will be notified via email and also on Instagram. This is open to residents of the US only. Okay. Our next question is not so much a question, but more of a listener comment regarding excessive nicotine lozenge and gum consumption.

Robb: And circulation.

Nicki: And circulation. So Jack says, “I recently quit using lozenges and gum. I began using it in college about six years ago for the stimulant nootropic effect, not as NRT.” What is NRT?

Robb: Nicotine replacement therapy.

Nicki: Okay. Gotcha. “As I’ve never smoked or vaped. I was bought into the idea that sure it was addictive, but other than that, it was basically harmless. So I didn’t worry that much as my use became more and more excessive, especially since I wasn’t using tobacco or inhaling questionable chemicals from vape liquid. I was consuming probably 30 to 40 milligrams a day. And as far as I can tell that isn’t that far off from the initial starting dose for NRT.” Anyway. So he has a lengthy thing here, but basically after he quit, he began to notice dramatic improvements in his circulation.

Nicki: His hands and feet were alternately tingly and itchy for a few days. His color vision improved. He noticed shades of blue, green had much more differentiation, even just taking a hot shower felt incredible because my skin sensation was so improved. “After a few days, the dead skin on my feet started to peel as if I was molting like a snake. And I hope my hair will grow in thicker as well. That is one of the main reasons I’m quitting besides excessive spending on lozenges. And related to my hair, I do weekly microneedling of my hairline along with a daily compounded topical-

Robb: Minoxidil.

Nicki: Yeah. “And my skin heals a lot easier from the microneedling and have much less irritation from the tretinoin.”

Robb: There’s a lot of interesting detail in here, but we can put in the show notes. So I’ve been a fan and advocate of nicotine gum and lozenges for the nootropic effects. It’s helped my gut too. It’s interesting, if you dig in the literature, IBS, IBD, Crohn’s, even ulcerative colitis, there’s some interesting seeming improvements with habituated, nicotine consumers and improving these conditions. There’s the really pesky and odd finding that smokers seem to have lower rates of neurodegenerative disease, like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s despite the clear oxidative stress and all the other bad things associated with smoking, which is the usual thing that they’re looking at there. So I’ve generally been a fan of it. If you want to give it a shot, give it a shot.

Robb: I too do notice, so like when it’s cold, we’ve gotten into cold weather, I’ll notice that my hands get cold easier if I use a nicotine mint or something like that. I’m going out to plow our driveway or something like that and it’s really cold out, I will forego using the nicotine lozenge until I’m done, because it’ll make a difference in my hands in particular. So this is definitely, it’s something I haven’t mentioned a ton. It’s something I should have thought of to mention. It sounds like what… What was his name?

Nicki: Jack.

Robb: Jack was really getting after it with regards to dosage, getting 30 to 40 milligrams a day is pretty aggressive. But yeah, as with everything, probably a U curve, potentially in these scenarios. And Jack may be genetically is just particularly predisposed to that vasoconstrictive action of nicotine.

Nicki: I think it’s a worthy thing to share because there could be other people that might notice these effects after trying it and they can weigh the cost benefit analysis to see if it’s something they want to continue using or even starting in the first place.

Robb: Right. Right.

Nicki: Okay. Last question this week is from Ellen on discussions on freedom. She says, “Hello, I really enjoyed your recent podcast discussion on freedom and the real dangers we are facing if we continue down this path. Thank you. It seems to me that the government wants us to feel alone, afraid and to accept that we are the minority in our fight for freedom. By sharing your thoughts, I’m reminded that we can make an impact if we stick together. We read a book with our nine year old recently that I thought I might share. It’s called The Mysterious Benedict Society. Have you read it? There’s also a TV show modeled after the book on Disney+. It’s incredibly interesting, and was filled with content to fuel discussions around freedom, control, courage, bravery, et cetera, and was a very sobering reminder of the challenges we face today. In the book. The antagonist uses radio signals and cell phone towers to send subliminal messages in order to control the minds of the citizenry. I was curious to know if you’ve read it or had any thoughts. Thank you for all that you do.”

Nicki: And Ellen, first of all, thank you for writing in. I had not heard of this book, but after reading your question, I looked it up online and it actually gets fabulous reviews and I think it’s like a four part series. I think there’s several books in the series. So I actually ordered it because I’m excited to check it out and read it with the girls. We haven’t checked out the show yet either, but I wanted to read this question because I know a lot of parents listen to this, listen to the Healthy Rebellion Radio.

Robb: A lot of homeschoolers.

Nicki: A lot of homeschoolers. And we’ve talked about the Tuttle Twins before, which they have a book series libertarian leaning, talking about all different types of topics from how pencils are made and all the different inputs that go into producing a single item to laws and the Golden Rule, and the Creature from Jekyll Island, the Federal Reserve. So there’s a whole host of topics. They also of a podcast, which delves into those same topics, but also different people throughout history.

Robb: Apparently, they have a cartoon series now, too.

Nicki: Oh, cool.

Robb: Yeah. Yeah.

Nicki: But anyway, from what I read online, this book and the subsequent ones look to be quite good. So I’m excited to receive our copy and dig in. So Ellen, thank you for sharing that recommendation.

Robb: I have nothing to add.

Nicki: You have nothing to add. Okay. Well, when we do read it, we might have more to add in the future.

Nicki: Let’s see. Folks, just wanted to say thank you again for all your support. If you’re in jumping in on any of those upcoming events inside the Healthy Rebellion, you can go to join.TheHealthy Rebellion.com and get in on both the cold shower challenge and our upcoming 30 day rebel reset. Remember to check out our show sponsor LMNT, drinkLMNT.com/robb, with two Bs. Enjoy this holiday season, be kind to the people around you, even if they’re not on the same page as you. I was actually thinking about this and I don’t know, maybe it sounds lame and maybe it wouldn’t work, but given how much divisiveness, divisiveness, however you say that there is and how much of a split there seems to be even among families and friendships to where people aren’t communicating anymore or whatnot, I was wondering if… Fortunately our family is very much on the same page, so we don’t have this like tension around current events currently, which we feel very grateful for.

Nicki: But I know that not everybody is in that position. But I was wondering if people could find completely unrelated things to share with loved ones that there’s some rift with that might just bring people back to their humanity. If you know that somebody like loves this particular type of flower or bird, or pictures and articles and things that are completely outside of the craziness of all of the pandemic and politics of today, but just are about life and beauty and love. Let’s say that I-

Robb: Okay, we’re driving this thing. We had an opportunity to wrap this up succinctly and now you’ve driven us into the bad place. But if I am the person who is very vax concerned, let’s just say, you could send me Robb, here’s a thing about jujitsu or this or that. And I’m like, “Gee, Nikci, that’s great. Sure looking forward to you getting vaxxed so we can hang out. And go eat a dick until then.”

Nicki: You really think it would go that direction?

Robb: Absolutely. Because for the vast majority of people, I don’t know, maybe as a-

Nicki: I think it’s worth trying though. You can have that opinion, but why not try? I’ve gotten private messages in the rebellion and people have shared their family is so divided right now. Okay, we have control over what we do, right? So we can send out a positive message about love or whatever. And if they shit on that, then that’s on them.

Robb: Absolutely.

Nicki: But I feel like it’s worth trying.

Robb: It is absolutely worth trying, if for no other reason and that it’s better for us and it’s better for them, probably. In Montana, one encounters very few people who are masked. When I do, I smile, I say, “Hey, how are you?” I don’t get up in their junk or anything else, but I make eye contact. I wink at them. I’m like, “Hey, how’s it going?” Whatever, and I just engage with them. I put out an effort to engage with them. It’s generally well received. And sometimes a person, it’s clear that they wish that I would just poof into an incendiary flame and disappear so that my innate virulence is dissipated into entropy. So I would say, yes, do it. Yes, do it because it’s going to probably be good for our mental health. And it might loosen some stones.

Nicki: I would be curious.

Robb: Let me go into this. So the person who reached out to me yesterday. And it’s funny we diverted into this. I was trying to just in and out, no off topic discussion, but we’re here. This person reached out to me and the person said, “One, I have to apologize because two years ago I felt and said some very nasty things about you because of where you are on this kind of social political spectrum.” This person had gone fully into Wokeville, Wokestan I guess as Eric Weinstein coined it.

Nicki: Weinstein.

Robb: Weinstein. And what’s interesting that this female, ethnic female no less, and what this person related was as I’ve gone along, I’ve just looked at the worldview of wokeism. And she was like, “I’m absolutely horrified by it.” And as I’ve kind of flailed around to figure out who I am and what I believe, which she self-admittedly said, it seems to be this kind of libertarian leaning thing of personal sanctity and freedom and stuff like that. She is horrified by the prospect of anybody in her circle of influence learning about this.

Nicki: Learning that her views have changed?

Robb: Yeah. Because she will be burned at the stake. And I see this very parallel to the COVID topic. And not surprisingly, if you live deep in the interior of Wokestan, you probably also have multiple moats and barriers, making sure that everybody around you is vaccinated. And again, if you want to get vaccinated, that’s great. But it should probably also be that if you don’t want to, that’s okay too. And you dig into, well, the vaccines aren’t sterilizing. And so it doesn’t actually prevent transmission. It just fucking spins out from there.

Nicki: Let find this thing because somebody just sent us a quote this morning and I want to find it because what you just relayed is so true. This is highlighted perfectly. Vinay, we’ve been saying Vinay Persaud, but it’s apparently pronounced Vinay Persaud. In one of his recent articles, he ended it with a quote by Charles MacKay. Men, it has been well said, think in herds. It will be seen that they go mad in herds while they only recover their senses slowly in one by one.

Robb: Yeah.

Nicki: So I think that kind of ties right in. But back to my point.

Robb: And that does circle back to your point to probably make the effort.

Nicki: Make the effort, because all we can do is control what we do. And if we are doing our best to be an example of positivity and love and generosity, and even if people are not open to that, or they reply with snark or hate, or rudeness, we know that we did the right thing. Because putting love on someone is the right thing. And if they respond poorly to that, then that’s on them and made be they’ll come around in two years or in one year. Clearly it’s going to be one by one because that seems to be how things work.

Robb: Right. No, it’s a good point. It’s a good point.

Nicki: All right. That was a post podcast tangent.

Robb: A very unplanned tangent, yes. Yeah.

Nicki: All right, folks, have a wonderful weekend. We will see you next week. Enjoy.

Robb: And I think the next show you will hear from me will be a fireside chat with Diana Rodgers, most likely.

Nicki: Yep. That’s coming and yep, enjoy the last couple weeks of 2021 and we’ll see you next time.

Robb: Bye everybody.

Nicki: Bye.

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Robb Wolf

Robb Wolf, author of The Paleo Solution and Wired to Eat, is a former research biochemist and one of the world’s leading experts in Paleolithic nutrition. Wolf has transformed the lives of tens of thousands of people around the world via his top ranked iTunes podcast and wildly popular seminar series.