Mastering Nutrition

Latest Episodes:

How important are MAT1A SNPs to methylation? | Masterjohn Q&A Files #165 Dec 24, 2020

Show notes

Question: How important are MAT1A SNPs to methylation?These in principle, could reduce the activation of methionine, but I don't know that there are any studies that have looked at whether that's the case. And so, just because a SNP isn't a gene doesn't mean that it reduces the activity of that gene. In fact, it doesn't mean it does anything even to the protein sequence of a gene because a lot of SNPs don't affect the protein sequence. If you would like to be part of the next live Ask Me Anything About Nutrition, sign up for the CMJ Masterpass, which includes access to these live Zoom sessions, a private discussion group, premium features on all my content, and hundreds of dollars of exclusive discounts. You can sign up at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/masterpass/ and use the code QANDA to get 10% off the membership for life. For the remainder of 2020, I will be working full-time on finishing my Vitamins and Minerals 101 book, while reserving a portion of my time for consulting clients. You can pre-order my book at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/book. You can sign up for a consultation at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/consultations.

DISCLAIMER: I have a PhD in Nutritional Sciences and my expertise is in performing and evaluating nutritional research. I am not a medical doctor and nothing herein is medical advice.

Access the show notes, transcript, and comments here.

Chris Masterjohn, PhD, is the Founder and Scientific Director of the mitochondria test Mitome.

How to increase red blood cell magnesium content? | Masterjohn Q&A Files #164 Dec 23, 2020

Show notes

Question: How to increase red blood cell magnesium content?Well, the first thing you want to do is look at your serum levels. And if your serum levels are low, you want to look at your urinary levels. And if your serum levels are not low or especially, if your serum are high, then you want to focus on promoting magnesium absorbed into the cell.

If your serum levels are low, then you probably don't want to focus on that, you want to focus on magnesium intake or retention or absorption. If you're focusing on getting it into the cells, you're looking at insulin sensitivity, insulin stimulation, vitamin B6 and salt. For urinary loss, you're looking at anything that causes too much urinary output, stress. And if you still can't find the answer, you might want to start looking at certain genetic polymorphisms.If you would like to be part of the next live Ask Me Anything About Nutrition, sign up for the CMJ Masterpass, which includes access to these live Zoom sessions, a private discussion group, premium features on all my content, and hundreds of dollars of exclusive discounts. You can sign up at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/masterpass/ and use the code QANDA to get 10% off the membership for life.

For the remainder of 2020, I will be working full-time on finishing my Vitamins and Minerals 101 book, while reserving a portion of my time for consulting clients. You can pre-order my book at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/book. You can sign up for a consultation at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/consultations. DISCLAIMER: I have a PhD in Nutritional Sciences and my expertise is in performing and evaluating nutritional research. I am not a medical doctor and nothing herein is medical advice.

Access the show notes, transcript, and comments here.

Chris Masterjohn, PhD, is the Founder and Scientific Director of the mitochondria test Mitome.

Why would ferritin rise on a low-carb diet when iron status is stable? | Masterjohn Q&A Files #163 Dec 22, 2020

Show notes

Question: Why would ferritin rise on a low-carb diet when iron status is stable?Well, they sound copper deficient because copper is needed to mobilize iron out of ferritin. Copper is most abundant in plant foods, except that it's also very rich in liver. And it's pretty decent in a number of shellfish, but on a low carb, steak and cheese diet, not only are you deficient in copper, but you are also now pushing your zinc levels up, which will lower your copper absorption. Low white blood cells is, first thing that I'm going to look at is copper levels, especially if the neutrophils are low. And that would very easily explain rise in ferritin.If you would like to be part of the next live Ask Me Anything About Nutrition, sign up for the CMJ Masterpass, which includes access to these live Zoom sessions, a private discussion group, premium features on all my content, and hundreds of dollars of exclusive discounts. You can sign up at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/masterpass/ and use the code QANDA to get 10% off the membership for life.

DISCLAIMER: I have a PhD in Nutritional Sciences and my expertise is in performing and evaluating nutritional research. I am not a medical doctor and nothing herein is medical advice.

Access the show notes, transcript, and comments here.

Chris Masterjohn, PhD, is the Founder and Scientific Director of the mitochondria test Mitome.

What are the best practices for nutrient absorption? | Masterjohn Q&A Files #162 Dec 21, 2020

Show notes

Question: What are the best practices for nutrient absorption?Large meals and fat soluble vitamins. Large meals are the ally of fat soluble vitamin absorption. Fat absorption from poor fat digestion, is the enemy of not only the absorption of fat soluble nutrients, but also the absorption positively charged minerals. There might a few of them missing, but those are the ones that really stand out to me as big nutrient absorption issues.I wouldn't micromanage these things, but if it is an eminent view where there is a problem to fix, that's when I start thinking a lot about them. But certainly there are more details in the vitamins and minerals 101 course, and what I have gone through right here.If you would like to be part of the next live Ask Me Anything About Nutrition, sign up for the CMJ Masterpass, which includes access to these live Zoom sessions, a private discussion group, premium features on all my content, and hundreds of dollars of exclusive discounts. You can sign up at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/masterpass/ and use the code QANDA to get 10% off the membership for life.

DISCLAIMER: I have a PhD in Nutritional Sciences and my expertise is in performing and evaluating nutritional research. I am not a medical doctor and nothing herein is medical advice.

Access the show notes, transcript, and comments here.

Chris Masterjohn, PhD, is the Founder and Scientific Director of the mitochondria test Mitome.

What's the best prenatal nutrition? | Masterjohn Q&A Files #161 Dec 18, 2020

Show notes

Question: What's the best prenatal nutrition?The things that sort of stick out to me are, you don't want to be Vitamin A deficient or Vitamin A toxic, so you're right in the middle of the range. You really don't want to be deficient in anything. Everyone knows about folic iron which is really important, but there's not really a good nutritional status test for choline. Biotin is very important. One third of mothers spontaneously become biotin deficient from pregnancy. And so I think that you want to be at least getting the RGA for biotin. DUS test of biotin status, is beta-hydroxyisovaleric acid, which is found on a blood panel but it is kind of pricey, but is the best. I think all of the nutrients are important, but I would single out those as being the most important to look at. If you would like to be part of the next live Ask Me Anything About Nutrition, sign up for the CMJ Masterpass, which includes access to these live Zoom sessions, a private discussion group, premium features on all my content, and hundreds of dollars of exclusive discounts. You can sign up at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/masterpass/ and use the code QANDA to get 10% off the membership for life.

DISCLAIMER: I have a PhD in Nutritional Sciences and my expertise is in performing and evaluating nutritional research. I am not a medical doctor and nothing herein is medical advice.

Access the show notes, transcript, and comments here.

Chris Masterjohn, PhD, is the Founder and Scientific Director of the mitochondria test Mitome.

Supplement Timing and Food Combining for Zinc? | Masterjohn Q&A Files #160 Dec 17, 2020

Show notes

Question: Supplement Timing and Food Combining for Zinc?So for zinc and food, the main issue is that, my guess is that a carnivore meat based meal would probably enhance zinc absorption, but that's never really been tested. There's some controversy in the field over whether you should take zinc on an empty stomach or not. So my position is basically like if it's practical for me to take the zinc on an empty stomach, do an empty stomach. And if it's not practical for you to take the zinc on an empty stomach, do it on a phytate free meal - no whole grains, nuts seeds or legumes.

DISCLAIMER: I have a PhD in Nutritional Sciences and my expertise is in performing and evaluating nutritional research. I am not a medical doctor and nothing herein is medical advice.

Access the show notes, transcript, and comments here.

Chris Masterjohn, PhD, is the Founder and Scientific Director of the mitochondria test Mitome.

How to approach chronic joint pain? | Masterjohn Q&A Files #159 Dec 16, 2020

Show notes

Question: How to approach chronic joint pain?You definitely want to move the joints that are affected.So the movement must target the joints that are affected. And you definitely want like 30 minutes a day of just moderate movement, even walking would be great. But then you also want movement aimed at actually supporting the muscles and the proper joint motions and stuff like that. And so that's where weight lifting comes in. And then you definitely want some guidance from a physical therapist who works with athletes at a minimum to guide the form on the weightlifting movements to make sure they're supportive of the joints instead of making them worse. And then eat a nutritious diet and look for inflammatory foods and try to cut them out and see if that improves it. Reference: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5183725/

DISCLAIMER: I have a PhD in Nutritional Sciences and my expertise is in performing and evaluating nutritional research. I am not a medical doctor and nothing herein is medical advice.

Access the show notes, transcript, and comments here.

Chris Masterjohn, PhD, is the Founder and Scientific Director of the mitochondria test Mitome.

How should I break a 36-hour fast? | Masterjohn Q&A Files #158 Dec 15, 2020

Show notes

Question: How should I break a 36-hour fast?The two things that I would think about are your digestion, it's probably going to take a little bit of time to ramp itself up. I don't think you're going to do any harm by eating things that are difficult to digest, probably not great for your microbiome, but probably something that would just adapt to you. And so I would take that very subjectively. In your experience, what types of things do you have trouble digesting from when you stop a fast? But I think it's going to be fairly common to feel like some things just don't digest this well when you come off at 36 hour fast than you otherwise would. I think that's very subjective. My main concern from a health perspective would be feeding syndrome. So generally when you're fasting, you lose phosphorus because the phosphorus is associated with carbohydrate metabolism and your glycogen levels have been depleted.

DISCLAIMER: I have a PhD in Nutritional Sciences and my expertise is in performing and evaluating nutritional research. I am not a medical doctor and nothing herein is medical advice.

Access the show notes, transcript, and comments here.

Chris Masterjohn, PhD, is the Founder and Scientific Director of the mitochondria test Mitome.

What are optimal levels of B12? | Masterjohn Q&A Files #157 Dec 14, 2020

Show notes

Question: What are optimal levels of B12?

So there's a paper called the Pathophysiology of Elevated Vitamin B12 in clinical practice that PM Schoenfeld, another Masterpass member, had given me. And this paper is very interesting because it identifies a bunch of things that high B12 can be an indicator of, not a causal factor in but an indicator of problems. And it also disputes the low end of the range. So according to this paper, we really want B12 levels above 400 picograms per milliliter, which is 295 picomoles per liter. I believe picograms per liter is what most people's lab results come in. And that's like double what most labs are using for low levels at least at the time this paper was written. I believe it's like 1400 is where their cutoff flies for potentially indicating problems.

Reference: https://academic.oup.com/qjmed/article/106/6/505/1538806

DISCLAIMER: I have a PhD in Nutritional Sciences and my expertise is in performing and evaluating nutritional research. I am not a medical doctor and nothing herein is medical advice.

Access the show notes, transcript, and comments here.

Chris Masterjohn, PhD, is the Founder and Scientific Director of the mitochondria test Mitome.

Are GABA or methylation support useful for panic attacks? | Masterjohn Q&A Files #156 Dec 11, 2020

Show notes

Question: Are GABA or methylation support useful for panic attacks? I think anything that increases GABA activity is probably going to slow down anxiety and panic. I think that's clear just from the drugs that are used to treat an anxiety, or panic disorder. Xanax is used for that purpose. So I do think that working on nutritional support around GABA makes sense, but I also would look at histamine, because histamine is an alertness signal, but I think in very excessive amounts histamine is a panic signal. GABA might help move focus from one thing to another. And methylating dopamine is needed to provide mental flexibility so that you don't get stuck on anxiety producing thought patterns and emotional patterns. And histamine just is a general stimulant of anxiety beyond a certain threshold. So I think those would be the key areas to focus on if that helps.

If you would like to be part of the next live Ask Me Anything About Nutrition, sign up for the CMJ Masterpass, which includes access to these live Zoom sessions, a private discussion group, premium features on all my content, and hundreds of dollars of exclusive discounts. You can sign up at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/masterpass/ and use the code QANDA to get 10% off the membership for life. For the remainder of 2020, I will be working full-time on finishing my Vitamins and Minerals 101 book, while reserving a portion of my time for consulting clients. You can pre-order my book at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/book.You can sign up for a consultation at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/consultations

DISCLAIMER: I have a PhD in Nutritional Sciences and my expertise is in performing and evaluating nutritional research. I am not a medical doctor and nothing herein is medical advice.

Access the show notes, transcript, and comments here.

Chris Masterjohn, PhD, is the Founder and Scientific Director of the mitochondria test Mitome.

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