Podcast: What is the Fasting Mimicking Diet?
PODCAST: Dr. Alex Jimenez, chiropractor in El Paso, TX, and Victoria Hahn discuss the fasting-mimicking diet and the ProLon Fasting Mimicking Diet program developed by Dr. Valter D. Longo. The ProLon Fasting Mimicking Diet is a high-fat, low-calorie intermittent fasting diet that may promote fat loss and reduce blood sugar, inflammation, and cholesterol, similar to other fasting methods. Valter D. Longo is an Italian-American biogerontologist and cell biologist known for his research studies on the role of fasting and nutrient response genes on cellular protection aging and diseases as well as for proposing that longevity is regulated by similar genes and mechanisms in many eukaryotes. Only a few research studies have been carried out to date regarding the fasting-mimicking diet and more research is needed to validate its benefits. �- Podcast Insight
[00:00:06] And we are live. Hi El Paso. This is Dr. Alex Jimenez coming back with you. This is a very unique day, a very special day. We are offering some information to you guys as my patients. Today is a very unique moment in time. As you can see, my podcast is empty as you’re gonna be able to notice in this particular area. You can actually see the podcast presentation. Doing this alone. And as we’re doing, we’re following the rules of engagement of today. Now, today is a� moment in time where we’re finding ourselves kind of a little bit on kind of a sandy ground. The flow and the situation of our present state is that we’re all watching CNN we’re establishing things. But one of the concepts that we’ve been looking at in the last couple of weeks prior to this all happening was a disorder that we’re all experiencing right now. And a lot of us are trying to figure out what we can do because we’re all kind of feeling a little thick. We’re feeling a little fat or feeling a little bit displaced from our normal patterns. So one of the aspects that we want to be able to do is to discuss what can we do with our physiology, things that we can do at home, things that we can adapt, and things that we can alter into our metabolic process. Now, as I’ve gone in the past, I’ve talked and discussed heavily on metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is one disorder that really affects us all. And we have given us options and the options that we have done in terms of working with the sugar issues, the weight issues, the belly fat issues, as well as the underlying issues of the triglycerides that we’ve been discussing along with cholesterol issues. Though we have looked at diets that have different varying components. One diet that is really, really popular is the fasting-mimicking diet. I had an amazing experience when I went to Hollywood, Florida, about a good two years ago where we actually did the Functional Medicine Institute program. We went out there, we saw the program presenting the fasting-mimicking diet and teaching all of the new things that the diet actually can do in the physiological state. But one of the things is when people hear fasting, it’s kind of confusing. So I’m going to bring in an amazing individual. Victoria Hahn, who works with Al Neutra, and she is the medical science liaison for the fasting-mimicking diet with Al Neutra. She’s going to give us some information in terms of things that we can do and about the diet, because it’s a very unique diet and because we live on the border and we have a lot of, I guess, metabolic syndrome just by definition. There are issues with high blood pressure, glucose, triglycerides, HDL issues. We want to take a look at the things that we can do. Now, one of the greatest things we’ve learned about metabolic syndrome is that it has an immediate response as the diet. But not everyone can do a certain type of diet, whether it’s intermittent fasting, ketogenic diet, a different type of water fasting. We’re going to go ahead and go over those things. So I’m going to present to you Victoria Hahn, who is really, really the person who’s going to bring this home to us. Is she going to educate us on the process? So I’m going to bring her in right now and we’re going to go ahead and talk to her. And you’re going to see me in the sideline in the far distance. So as I kind of click that button. Victoria, tell us, how are you doing?
[00:03:38] How’s everything going with you? It’s going well, going well. Staying safe, practicing physical distancing, you know, doing everything I can to ensure that, you know, I’m keeping myself safe as well as everyone else that I’m interacting with, including by hand-washing.
[00:03:54] So I’m doing good. How are you?
[00:03:57] I’m doing very well. I wanted to present to my patients the fasting-mimicking diet. I have a box right around here. I kind of actually took it away, i’ll have to go get it while we’re talking here. Actually, for the products. But I’d like for you to tell us a little bit about what the fasting-mimicking diet is for the public to understand as to what the options are and what we’re actually talking about when we say this unique fasting-mimicking diet because it’s got a really good, unique name to it. So tell us a little bit about it. I know you got a presentation, too, so I think you can share your screen and you can start talking about it. And let us understand a little bit about what fasting, mimicking diet is for the public.
[00:04:36] Yeah, so fasting mimicking diet. So before I get into the presentation, which here, let me just pop this bad boy open. So fasting mimicking diet is this concept that in essence, you know, maybe you don’t actually have to be fasting. So, you know, ommiting food entirely to be fasting. And so that’s really what this diet brings. It brings the same type of physiologic and biological effect of fasting. But with food. And so it’s a really novel and kind of, you know, bizarre type of nutrition program because it takes you a little bit out of the box. You’re thinking, how can you be fasting with food? And I’ll go over, in essence, how you can, because there is a lot of science to explain how this works. And it unfortunately, fortunately, unfortunately, it’s not as black and white as we like to make it. But that’s the beauty is that, you know, you kind of can find these physiologic loopholes to being able to kind of stimulate a similar process without having to go through that absolute fasting process.
[00:05:43] In terms of this is the presentation. So how? OK. So this is the actual product here. And it looks like it’s pretty simple. It all fits in a box.
[00:05:50] Yeah. Absolutely. It’s super straightforward. So in essence, you actually get a rather large box. And within that large box, you get the individual boxes and they’re all evenly listed out for you.
[00:06:02] So it literally says day one all the way to day five, the product is actually a five-day fasting-mimicking diet. So you get everything that you need. So there’s no, you know, having to go to the grocery store, which is kind of convenient during this time, actually, but there’s no having to go out and buying. Figuring out like how much of this do I have to measure or wait, what about this other ingredient or did I get enough of these, you know, plant-based products? None of that, it’s already laid out for you? And that’s really to not only aid in the ease of it, because, again, this diet mimics fasting, but also in the consistency of it, we really want to make sure that that’s what it’s doing. So we got to kind of treat it in this very, almost clinical fashion.
[00:06:46] I’d like to add that in the design of me presenting this, full disclosure, I’ve actually done the fasting-mimicking diet three times. Each time it’s been an experience for me. And the protocol does include three options or three times that you can do it as the most optimal as from if I’m correct, I’m not too sure if I’m correct, but I do know that three times is the times when we test it. So tell us a little bit about the product line. So I’ll let you kind of take it from here.
[00:07:18] Yeah. So here, let me just go straight into the presentation. Absolutely. We’ll start to kind of way out some of these details. So the first question that, of course, typically is being asked is what are your health care goals? So before we even start to step into Prolon and what fasting-mimicking diets are or even how fasting is beneficial, you know, what are we all trying to achieve? And obviously, a lot of these are listed right here. So body weight loss, body composition, even. I would argue that body comp is way more important than body weight. Body weight only tell you so much. But you know, the amount of fat and muscle mass that you have is so much more important in the closet reader. I’ve definitely had times to where I’m going into my closet.
[00:08:05] And, you know, I was wondering what that was.
[00:08:09] Some things don’t fit the way that, you know, they used to. And that’s always a little alarming. And I personally don’t have a scale at home.
[00:08:16] And so that’s really the way that I can determine whether or not I’ve been overindulging. So all of these things, I’d argue, are super pertinent.
[00:08:24] I mean, most of us have, you know, certain weight parameter goals or, you know, medical or balance goals or even just wanting to feel better, well-being goals. And so arguably, you know, I know I’ve definitely said a few of these right here, like I’m struggling to lose body fat. You know, even when I’m working out and when I’m trying to figure out how I want to eat, even as, you know, a dietitian, some of these things are a little you know, they’re hard to figure out.
[00:08:53] You have to just be constant trial and error, trial and error, because unfortunately for some of these issues, we still haven’t necessarily figured out how to resolve them, which is why arguably obesity is such a huge issue that, you know, especially in the United States and any of the Westernized societies we’re facing today.
[00:09:12] So, you know, with any of those goals, we’re obviously going to be talking about, you know, how can we feel better about them? And so that really leads us to kind of a novel, a strategy which is fasting. Now, of course, you know, before we get into fasting, we want to define what it is. So what is fasting now? Arguably, whenever I ask this question, most people remark like, oh, that’s muscle mass loss or oh, that’s, you know, me starving or oh, that’s me feeling hungry or I can’t eat any food or isn’t that juice fasting? And to some extent, most of those would coincide with, you know, the common definition of fasting, which that would be to abstain from food or drink. And maybe that’s for religious observation, for example, Ramadan fasting or Yom Kippur. But, you know, that’s just one way to think of fasting. You could actually think about it from the perspective of what’s happening within your body when you start to fast. So I like to think of fasting from this common definition as the trigger for an outcome. And so the outcome is really what fasting is. And with that outcome is the lack of the triggering or the turning on, if you will, of what we call these food sensing pathways. It seems a little ambiguous, but truth be told, we’ve seen this in many different mouse models as well as clinical trials. There are literally these pathways that our bodies have that respong to food intake, and that makes sense. You know, if you eat food. Something has to happen, right? Yeah. And we call these pathways, these food sensing pathways. And so in the absence of nutrients or rather the right amount of protein, calories, carbohydrates, you can to some extent circumvent their activation. And so that’s really what fasting is. It’s this biological process.
[00:11:09] I like that word of food sensing pathways. How did that, how did that come about? I just kind of just touch on that food sensing pathways.
[00:11:18] It just seems to me like a very understandable way of allowing people to understand that the body is sensing, almost feeling out that the foods, you know, so go deep there.
[00:11:34] Yeah. So, you know, no problem. So I honest to goodness, this is actually my favorite part about fasting. Is this molecular biology surrounding it, the physiology of it. It’s just it’s honestly really beautiful.
[00:11:46] But I’m a little bit of a nerd in that regard.
[00:11:49] But really, what this is and how we came about it. One of the individuals who actually kind of piecemeal all of these individual components, was Dr. Longo and I’ll get into some of what he’s contributed to in regards to this whole area of fasting and the longevity research. But really what these food sensing pathways are, is they are literally these mechanisms that are triggered by certain levels of carbohydrates or sugars or we actually call it glucose. But basically, it’s just a carbohydrate or certain levels of proteins or amino acids and also certain degrees of energy. So calories. All of these things can contribute to this overall biological process that we think of as being fed. Because when you think about it, like when you eat food, you know, well, what happens? Obviously, we know that something happens where we don’t feel as sluggish and, you know, we get some energy and, you know, now we can go and do things throughout the day. And we know that that also helps out with weight gain. Yes. Too much. Yes. Like what is that cellular process with a biologic process? That would be these foods sensing pathways. It simply awesome.
[00:13:05] Awesome keep on going. What misconceptions?
[00:13:09] Yeah. And so in terms of some misconceptions, you know, I highlight this one because I did get to see quite a few of these juice shops that kind of crop up and they talk about juice fasting.
[00:13:20] And it’s arguable because most of those juices are rather high in calories and even in carbohydrates. And so when you think about biological fasting, it’s really not bad because there’s just too much nutrition in these shakes, which is great to some extent. Obviously, you know, you want to get the vitamins, minerals and fats, but not from the standpoint of actual fasting. It’s not 1 to 1. So maybe it’s fasting from the perspective of not eating solid food. So in that sense, it’s fasting. Fasting is so much more than just kind of the composition of your food. It is the actual amounts that you’re getting of each different type of nutrient. And so it’s a little misconceiving. And there’s a lot of these things that are cropping up because fasting is such a novel topic and it’s really popular. I mean, it’s just so popular. It’s gotten really popular in the last couple of years, which, you know, to kind of go a little forward in terms of how it got there. And I can show you some data as far as how popular it is in the US. So part of the reason that it’s kind of gained a lot of traction is because, you know, although fasting has been around for a millennia, I mean, we had to evolve and adapt to these periods of basically food and not food. And so naturally, you know, we know our bodies know what to do when it has that type of environment. But what we’ve seen in clinical trials is that, you know, it’s been shown to support metabolic health. It’s also been shown to support this really interesting concept called cellular cleanup. We like to use the phrase autophagy. It’s just a real fancy word to basically say the cells. So each of your cells, they have their own micro environment and they actually have their own kind of garbage disposal recycling center, which we could call autophagy. So it’s a really interesting process that’s triggered by fasting and that actually can help to lead to cellular renewal. So if your cell is able to kind of take out these less functional components and repurpose them for other types of activities or endpoints, then as a whole the cell can become more efficient. And so that’s this concept of cellular renewal. And ultimately, what we see all these pieces contributing to is this promotion of longevity and health span. So this is how, you know, in essence, fasting can be so beneficial. So to get into, you know, how it’s so popular, it’s really no surprise that it’s becoming really one of the number one dietary patterns in the United States. And in 2019. So this is in 2018. Number one. In 2019. It just took second place to this concept called clean eating. And you know that’s actually not a bad thing obviously, you know, clean eating is one of the better things that we can be doing for ourselves. But the interesting thing to note about fasting is that especially when you compare it to any of these diet patterns. So for example, vegetarian, vegan diet, low carb diet, gluten free diet, Mediterranean diet, all of these are compositional changes, meaning, you know, for example, with low carb, which is very mindful about carbohydrates that you’re getting sometimes in the types of carbs. So aiming for a low glycemic index card. So ones that don’t cause your blood sugar to spike too rapidly. So you have to be mindful about what you’re eating. Whereas with intermittent fasting or just fasting as a whole, you actually don’t need to consider that component. I mean, at Al Nutra for Prolon. We argue that you do, but for fasting as a whole, it’s really, you know, when and how you’re eating is the consideration. You don’t really have to modify what you’re eating. And so that might be part of why it’s been so well received. And I suppose the community as a whole, you know, wouldn’t you like to be able to continue to do what you’re doing with just a slight alteration? Yes, it’s a lot easier. Absolutely. Than completely shifting your diet.
[00:17:29] You know, simplicity has always been a component of trying to come together and making it easy for people if it’s too hard. You know, you can do a fasting. But soon as you make that mistake of going elsewhere and they don’t know what the rules of engagement are. It just goes crazy. This is so cool because it’s all packaged in one kind of dynamic. So as I see that, tell us a little bit about the overall when you say 36 percent. I notice that you say 36 percent. Follow a specific eating pattern. What was that number of versus the 16 percent that I notice there? Intermittent fasting was the top end that patients.
[00:18:09] Yeah.
[00:18:09] So in essence, really what they were trying to say and this was from a larger study. But anyhow, what they were trying to really say is that people, you know, they are following dietary patterns. It may not be, I suppose, too specific in regards to for certain reason that wasn’t well elucidated as to why they’re following these dietary matters. But it is to say that people are starting to follow specific ways of eating. So in essence, that that’s really this categorization of all of these different diets and these are the ones they were following. They want to see, you know, how many people in the United States are doing fasting? How many are doing paleo, gluten free all the way down to the DASH diet and dietary approaches to stopping hypertension and the ketogenic or other high fat diets. They really want to catalog, in essence, what the US is doing in regards to their own nutrition. So that’s really where this number was got.
[00:19:13] That makes perfect sense.
[00:19:16] And so just to kind of continue on here so we can go over different types of fasting because really, you know, even in the previous slide that I was showing you intermittent fasting, you know, that doesn’t really seem like a lot. It’s even how they were categorizing the ketogenic diet/ high fat diet doesn’t really say a lot. There’s many iterations of, you know, these really broad topics. But to hone in on the fasting and, you know, different types of fasting. So I like to think of fasting as a key umbrella term. And then, yes, refine that by way of duration of time. So in essence, fasting can be longer. So we call that prolonged or periodic fasting, typically two or more days or it can be shorter. And we call this intermittent fasting and that’s typically two or fewer days. I will argue that in the literature, when you’re reading about intermittent fasting, you know, unfortunately, though, kind of lumped together all kinds of fasting, under this umbrella.
[00:20:16] It has to do with the fact it’s a buzz word and you know, it’s kind of what gets the clicks and such.
[00:20:21] But unfortunately, with that being said, there’s like a lot of misinformation because unless you’re really reading into what type of intermittent fasting pattern or fasting pattern, they’re really talking about it just all kind of amalgamates together. And it’s real confusing. Like, were they talking about time or shifted eating or were they talking about the 5:2 diet? It’s kind of up in the air unless, you know, you’re doing your due diligence. So it’s unfortunate. But for the sake of, you know, how we define fasting, this is really our main definitional structure. So to get into different types of intermittent fasting patterns, I’m sure everyone is super familiar with time restricted eating.
[00:21:01] Yes. Maybe like the 16:8, yeah. Do you practice that at all?
[00:21:04] As a matter fact, I do. One of the things that I’ve always mentioned is that certain types of body types require certain types of patterns. And I’ve looked at people’s schedules and the ketogenic diet requires a real. It’s almost like the advanced version of process. You know, it takes a certain hardcore individual to do it. So, you know, intermittent fasting allows people to kind of start really controlling that. We start by just simple things of, you know, circadian, just eat during daylight. And don’t eat at night versus then start bringing it down to eight hours and, you know, having 16 hours of just a good non-mechanism of eating. So I have done that. And the better they became the intermittent fasting individuals and patients that I have, I would actually go to the next level of going six hours. Now, some patients can actually I mean, my extreme athletes and the individuals who are just high performers, they can push it down to three. But it takes a level of mental fortitude to be consistent in that. So I have seen that ability to be certain types of people for even different lifestyles. People who work at home can do more ketogenic diet. But, you know, in my particular practice, I physically work on people. If your job is physical, it’s kind of hard to maintain that if you’re expending calories throughout the day. So it depends on the individual. So we need something that is understandable, that it makes sense to the public and to let them understand that they can really attain those high level of physiological and metabolic, you know, advancements such as, you know, the apoptosis, the autophagy, that actually occurs and the reusing of the body with a simple mechanism. So I love this and this is the kind of stuff I enjoy. So no, no. Yes, I have tried, to answer your question. Yes, I have done it in the past.
[00:22:53] Nice. Yeah. And arguably, you know, at least what I have been seeing within just the consumer channels.
[00:23:00] Time restricted eating has got to be like one of the number one forms of intermittent fasting right now. And it’s because of that ease to some extent, because it’s like a daily window of fasting where you don’t have to be doing it for like a couple of days at a time or for days at a time. You’re just doing it for like a day. And it’s only a few hours within that day. And arguably one of the most vital research ones would have to be the 16:8 and the 12:12. So more information is definitely coming out on this type of fasting pattern. It’s all just in the works. Amazing. One type of intermittent fasting pattern. There’s also the 5:2 diet. This one was quite popular like 10 years ago. So five days of normal calorie intake, two days of fasting. Typically, those days are not one right after another. But sometimes they can be, depends on the individual. And then there’s alternate day fasting, quite extreme.
[00:23:51] Although, you know, there are some people who like practice this and this is basically where you’re fasting for one day and then the next day you’re not fasting, regular calorie intake. Then the next day you’re fasting. And then you’re right back to not fasting. You just keep doing that day after day. So that can obviously be quite a long term commitment. So to shift our focus on to the opposite end of the spectrum. So the longer versions of fasting, there’s not really many examples of this, there’s water fasting, it’s very straightforward. Typically, this is done under the supervision of a medical provider and you’re kind of sequestered somewhere like maybe. Like we are right now.
[00:24:27] Like we’re all sequestered right now.
[00:24:30] Yeah, seriously. And it’s because, you know, for some people, this can be actually quite risky. And I’ll get into some of those risks.
[00:24:36] And just as a whole, it can be quite hard because typically this is fasting for days at a time. And then there’s the fasting mimicking diet. So just going back to really, you know, the main focal point, the FMD is a version of a prolonged fast. It’s not a short term fast. It’s technically a longer fast because you’re fasting for days at a time as opposed to just a couple days or a few hours. And this one doesn’t typically have to be in the hospital. Thankfully, the majority of people, they do this at home safely.
[00:25:06] It’s amazing.
[00:25:07] Yes, so to get to some of the ultimate effects of intermittent fasting and just other fasting patterns. I really like this table because it tries to simplify a lot of this. So I put caloric restriction in here because, you know, when you really start to look at the research for fasting, it looks like it actually is coming out of this, you know, umbrella of dietary restrictions and core restrictions.
[00:25:29] So it deserves a space on this chart, although it is vastly different than fasting. So in terms of, you know, caloric restriction, we do see that obviously this leads to weight loss sometimes, though, especially because it’s chronic and depending on how much caloric restriction you’re implementing. Some people, they can actually lose the body mass. So you have to be mindful and careful about how you implement this type of pattern. We haven’t necessarily observed this. So either rejuvenation effects that’s going back to that renewal, that recycling. It’s not well documented, was caloric restriction.
[00:26:06] And of course, you do get food and to some extent it is of course, safe, but shifting our focus on to the different types of fasting patterns, intermittent fasting.
[00:26:17] Again, we get to see the weight loss. It’s been variable in regards to lean body mass protection. Some studies have shown that lean body mass was impaired, but this may just be an artifact. It’s not very well elucidated.
[00:26:29] This likely depends on the kind of fast that you’re doing, is it the 5:2, ADF, TRE, time-restricted eating which you’re doing eating. You know, it’s a little bit up in the air, but this one’s been variable, not necessarily an impact on the cellular rejuvenation. Again, very inconsistently reported, if at all. Sometimes you get food on this diet and then you don’t. Depending on the type of fast that you’re doing. And typically it’s quite a safe diet to do.
[00:26:55] But again, it depends on the iteration. The next type of fasting is periodic or prolonged fasting. And this is really talking about water fasting in specificity.
[00:27:04] So obviously we see weight loss with this pretty dramatically as well. Lean body mass can be sacrificed with this type of fasting pattern. So, again, you really want to make sure that you’re being medically supervised if you’re doing a water fast for days at a time. You know, it’s a very careful balance, especially wherever you were at before you started into that. So don’t try that one at home, please. But this is the only one that we actually get to see the cellular rejuvenation.
[00:27:34] So it appears that the sustained stress of fasting is really what’s dictating this type of recycling and renewal capacity is, you know, fasting for a while. Actually, obviously, with this type of fast, you don’t get food and the safety like I was mentioning, it’s very variable. Don’t do that one at home.
[00:27:57] Fasting mimicking diet is a form of a prolonged fast, obviously.
[00:28:05] And, you know, you do get to see the weight loss very similarly to periodic fasting.
[00:28:11] Fortunately, and I’ll show you some of this data, lean body mass protection, which is interesting, that may be a testament to the fact that there are nutrients in the diets and you see this preservation effect still with the cellular rejuvenation impact. So thankfully, it is stressful enough fasting for days at a time.
[00:28:31] Again that’s really the mantra to triggering that, you do get food and we do check safety regularly. So it has been proven to be safe.
[00:28:41] Guys, if I may, one of the things that I do is we make sure that we use biometric assessment exams, body mass index is BMI, BMR, BIA are ways that we can assess muscle density or how much protein is in the body, how much muscle is about versus bone density. We got to be very careful that we do this in a very safe way. So in essence, as she alluded to it. She was very exact. We have to make sure that we don’t lose muscle mass. And that’s the beauty of this diet plan, because it not only has been shown to preserve muscle mass while you go through this process, and it also helps with cellular rejuvenation. It’s almost like you’re cleaning out your body. So I hate to use those examples, but we can go into the physiology of it. But this is a very attractive mechanism. And it’s almost like a Tarzan effect. We go just to the point and she’s going to allude to that to the point where the body starts shifting and that’s when the diet ends. And so we go through these cycles. So in order to prevent muscle or actually muscle mass loss, it has to be timed at a certain point. So the beautiful thing that Dr. Longo, unique guy. I think he’s from what country is he from?
[00:30:03] Italy, actually.
[00:30:04] He’s got a unique accent. That is amazing. He’s at the University of Southern Cal. Is that where it’s at? Yeah. So it’s amazing that they have these, there’s always people who go to California, the smart people do, and then they come up with these great technologies that today we’re seeing the effects. And I’m not gonna sway too far, but we’re actually seeing the genomics effects or the genes are actually responding. And that’s where you were talking about the food sensing system our whole body is designed with the DNA that is just reacting to everything, whether it’s a drug or food. So as it responds, this diet is in sync, dancing with it. And so to speak, I guess forgive me if I’m wrong, but I’ll let you continue. But I’m very excited about the rejuvenation processes and also the lean muscle mass protection process.
[00:30:50] Yeah, absolutely, and those are honestly the most exciting pieces of fasting is that you, if done in the right way, exactly as you’re saying, done in the right way, you can get benefits out of it without sacrifice. And that’s part of, you know, there’s a whole concept called ormesis. And in essence, it’s this idea that, you know, to one degree, the same thing could be bad.
[00:31:18] But to another degree, it could be beneficial. For example, fasting, it’s a stress response and it’s similar to any other stress response, which obviously, you know, especially in today’s environment, we don’t want to be stressed out. You know, we want to make sure that we’re being healthy about that. But a little bit of stress can actually be good. And so it’s getting it’s fine tuning that it’s figuring out or what degree into a duration.
[00:31:43] That’s really the beauty of this concept, is that a lot of work, a lot of time with 20 years actually went into trying to figure out how this whole mechanism works and then how, if I may, touch on that word again, ormesis.
[00:31:58] So from what I’m gathering, it’s the extent and the and timing of the duration. Is that what it is to do? So I get like. From what I gather, it is up to the what was the word that you said to the extent of it or the amount of.
[00:32:14] But yeah, it is to say it was hormesis it’s in essence like to the simplest concept. And you know, there are many different ways to look at it.
[00:32:25] But in essence, it’s this idea that the degree or the amount of something can be positive or in essence, negative, or just have a different effect at different levels. Makes perfect sense. You know, for example, even with periodic fasting, with water fasting to a very, very high degree. Obviously, that can be very detrimental, damaging, catabolic. Just because it’s starving. If you’re fasting for too long so you don’t want to do that, you need to figure out what’s the degree of fasting that you need to get the benefit. Because we know there are benefits to a certain extent, but then afterwards there probably isn’t. And so that’s part of this whole concept of fasting mimicking diet and why it’s the five days and such.
[00:33:13] So makes perfect sense. Thank you. Yeah, no problem.
[00:33:17] So they get into some of those benefits and I want to add just to recapitulate, weight loss is a benefit of prolonged fasting that supports that cellular cleaning, that ability to recycle and also supports the sense of well-being. We actually did a survey in 2019 and that was a very interesting finding which I’ll show you some of that. So those notes, all of these things, you know, are some of the benefits of basically doing fasting, whether it be, you know, water-only fasting or any other type of prolonged fasting.
[00:33:54] But it does come with a subset of risks, obviously, you know, first things first. It’s very difficult to adhere to. And I would argue that even for myself and for any of the patients that I’ve ever had, you know, to try to get them to do small behavior changes.
[00:34:11] So, for example, you know, just try to incorporate one vegetable per week that can be quite difficult for some people to do. And it’s a behavior change. The other day, it’s a behavior change. You have to modify something that you’re doing and especially well, we’re continuing to do something and we get stuck in a routine. It’s hard to adjust and, you know, not to kind of, you know, integrate too much of what’s happening in society right now.
[00:34:38] But, you know, we’re kind of starting to see that. Whereas even how people are adjusting to today’s society, it’s a disruption of our routine. And it doesn’t feel very nice. Right. So that’s part of this notion of behavior change.
[00:34:51] So if I were to tell somebody, hey, I want you to eat watercress for four or five days at a time, that’s me taking out everything. I’m just completely abruptly altering their lifestyle.
[00:35:03] And that could be nearly impossible for some people. So it’s no surprise that ordered fasting is just very difficult to do. But at the same time, as we were going over that, it could also be at the risk of eating the lean body mass so that you get to the point of wanting to do it. You have someone to supervise you. You know, there’s still an inherent risk.
[00:35:24] And depending on how long you’re doing the water fasting, there’s always the potential to lose lean body mass. And obviously, it’s malnutrition that is what water fasting is as a whole. The lack of nutrients when you’re only consuming water, at least, you know, macro and micronutrients, water is obviously another type of nutrient, but it’s this deprivation of them. And so it can be very dangerous from that. Especially given wherever you’re starting out with going into that. You’d already be insufficient, so be further exacerbated.
[00:35:59] And then interestingly, there is this gallstone risk. Dr. Longo does talk a lot about this one. And there are some studies to show that certain periods of fasting, there’s almost like a period where it’s not so risky and then it gets to a point where it becomes riskier.
[00:36:15] So there are a lot of these things that we have to consider with water fasting. If one is to try to even do it on our own. And then also considering that it may not be appropriate for everybody and for more than just these reasons, listed expense.
[00:36:31] And so, you know that’s part of the reason why Dr. Longo had developed this fasting-mimicking diet. Truth be told, part of the reason was just that this is a picture of him right here.
[00:36:43] This is Valter Longo, Dr. Longo. And yes, he is at UMC and he’s the director of the Longevity Institute there.
[00:36:51] And in essence, you know, originally a lot of his research was on stress response and longevity and oxidative capabilities as well as water fasting. And it’s one thing to water fast yeast or mice. It’s a completely different ballgame to water fast people.
[00:37:14] You know if it doesn’t work out as easily for obvious reasons.
[00:37:18] So that’s part of the reason why he actually had to figure out a way to still be able to study this really interesting process that he was able to, you know, combine and bridge together. He was able to see that we are screwed sensing pathways. And they are so intimately tied to this aging process. And, you know, if you were to elevate them too high, we can see that they accelerate aging in essence. So the idea is maybe we can try to modify or modulate or just this type of aging process by adjusting these smooth sensing pathways. And so that’s part of the pinnacle research that he was trying to figure out. But when you get to the point of studying this with people, you know, they don’t want to water fast.
[00:38:06] And so that really forced him to figure out an alternative to water fasting. And that’s really the bursting of the fasting. Anything that is just it’s out of absolute necessity in terms of wanting to study it.
[00:38:21] And as a researcher, you know, obviously, if you spend so much time on something you really want to see it through, and especially if you think it’s going to be beneficial. So you have to adapt and adjust. And that’s what he did.
[00:38:34] You know, it’s one of those things wherein when we’re looking, as I alluded to initially, we’re sitting at home where we’re trying to figure out with the dynamics of the present-day what we can do for ourselves and how we can kind of benefit from this period time of pause. We’re all in a queue. So this is a great way of looking at changing our metabolism and making it work. Going back to that first moment when we, when I first understood this or was made aware of the fasting-mimicking diet surrounded the top functional medicine doctors in the country land.
[00:39:13] I think there is a blend of who’s the other one?
[00:39:19] There’s a bunch of guys that actually put this thing together and functional medicine, but the onslaught of all the specialists around the world that keen to try to figure out and understand what this new science had been that had been dropped, dropped down at the Functional Medicine Institute. Seminars. We were all very aware as to what it was. And you can see that the thriving doctors around the world from all over the world were trying to figure out how can we incorporate this for patients. So I feel blessed to have you here again. So did I mention that again and to continue with your story, because I just want my patients to know that this is a blessing to have you guys for the people of El Paso.
[00:40:03] Yeah, no problem. You know, I’m really excited to be here. I’m excited about being able to share some of this information. So, yeah, we’re just kind of keep on going. So in terms of the fasting-mimicking diet, you know, it’s really it’s just such an interesting and novel product as a whole. And so it really ticks off some of these really important elements of a breakthrough product. So it is all plant-based. That’s something kind of interesting to note, because even when some people go through it, you know, you’re thinking like, oh, no, I can’t do just plants.
[00:40:36] Like I always eat. I love my meat. You’d be surprised. You can do that for five days. Absolutely. And that’s you know, I’ll go over the kind of emotional effects that happen with FMD and Prolon.
[00:40:52] But it’s interesting that, you know. Yeah, everybody you actually could be eating just a plant-based diet. And this is just one way to do so. And again, it’s only five days. So it’s not a full-time commitment. But part of what built this was NIH and university-based research and development.
[00:41:11] Again, 20 years plus of research went into this type of concept and just a lot of grant funding. Honest to goodness. And foundational research. So pre-clinical, we had to test it out on different animal models first and then we started going into clinical trials to show its safety in humans in essence. And of course, this technology has a patent. And it is very innovative.
[00:41:39] And so that really lends well to why we wanted to go forward with our patent and a lot of the research.
[00:41:46] If you were to ever want to look into it, it’s actually published in some of these top tier medical journals.
[00:41:52] So maybe you’re not familiar with some of these, but these are the journals we use as clinicians to find evidence-based information.
[00:42:03] So it really does speak volumes that any of these publishers, they were like, hey, this does sound really good. Like let’s publish this, let’s get it out there.
[00:42:13] It’s huge to have this happen. So it really adds to the validity of this concept, which is nice. Of course, it is.
[00:42:21] Yes.
[00:42:23] And so then to kind of get into like the biological effects of FMD.
[00:42:27] And this is like a really simplified version of what happens for the most part. You know, it kind of meets all of these little parameters. This does happen. It’s just sometimes we like to simplify. So on day one, I like to call this the equalizer.
[00:42:42] And it’s because everybody gets the same day one. It’s around 100 calories for that day. And it’s really there to equalize and wash you out from whatever you were doing before Prolon.
[00:42:57] So basically, this is, you know, that transition day. So some people by the end of it, you’ll start to really ramp up this fasting state by day 2. This is the fasting state. Now, you’re fasting, the caloric ranges, they do drop down by day two to five and they have a week of dependent factor.
[00:43:13] So you’ll get a little bit of a different caloric amount depending on your weight. But in essence, the calories are anywhere from 700 to 800 calories. And so by day 2, we really like to view this as a fat-burning day, because your body is adapting to fasting.
[00:43:30] Now it has to, you know, utilize different types of substrates in order to fuel itself. So it’s going to start to, you know, in essence, fat burn by day three.
[00:43:41] You really would have wrapped a process called ketosis. Most people or many can actually reach the state on day three, but it’s contingent on the individual.
[00:43:52] Everybody has a different metabolic rate. Everybody has a different body composition. So not everybody will reach it on this day. But, you know, we do observe that many do. And that’s really like an accelerated state of fat burning, in essence.
[00:44:06] And you can perpetuate ketosis by way of fasting or by way of genic that they are a little different. So they’re not really they don’t get there the same way.
[00:44:15] But, you know, the outcome is relatively similar, at least in regards to kind of ramping up to this fat burning process. But day three is also where we like to consider that a tautology is really starting to kick start so that, you know, recycling mechanisms can also be seen on day two as well.
[00:44:33] But day three is like really where it’s kind of taking a full-fledged, you know, running the course by day four more of the cellular recycling, again, sustaining that keep ketogenic state and by now more of the cellular renewal. So enough of that recycling has occurred. Now it’s really optimizing. And by day five, again, the sustained effect of the process tosses recycling and renewal.
[00:45:00] And so that really lends us really well into day six, which is where you kind of kick yourself out of the fast. And it’s important to note this because interestingly enough, when I get to hear from some users is that, you know, even if before they started the program, they’re thinking, oh, this is going to be a little too hard.
[00:45:21] Why not? I’m going to do it. You know, my health care provider is telling me that I should do this for myself. So they go through it. And then by day five, you know, they’ll call us up and we’ll say, hey, you know, I feel really good right now.
[00:45:33] Can I do another fast after this? Like, can I do two in a row? How do I extend this mood? Can I just do some water fasting afterward for like a couple more days? You know what I do. And obviously the answer is no, we don’t want you to do a lot of fasting or doing to, you know, back to back FMD.
[00:45:51] That’s not the point of it.
[00:45:53] But it is really rewarding to hear that because it’s the echoing of how people are actually starting to feel, you know, quite nice.
[00:45:59] And the point of why we want to kick people out of the fast after day five is because part of the fast is this clean up.
[00:46:09] It’s this, fat burning phase. But in order to capitalize on all of that cleanup and all this kind of new foundation that’s been laid out. You do have to re-feed, so you have to start, you know, reintroducing nutrients. You do have to repeat yourself afterward. And that’s really this balancing act between fasting and feasting. So going back to those foods sensing pathways, it’s one thing to kind of try to downplay them or turn them off, but we don’t want them off forever. We do need to turn them back on. It’s just this modulation kind of this playing around. Is it turning it on, turning it off, turn on, turn off, that flexibility. That’s why it’s part of providing some of these benefits. So it’s not just kind of always turning it off that would not be a good thing at all.
[00:47:00] And so fasting, it’s a concept, although it’s simple, it’s complex in the sense that there are so many different things that we have to be considering with it. And that’s going back to that idea. You know, it depends on how much you’re getting and you’re gonna get a different effect. So obviously, we aren’t testing forever the really damaging effect, but asking for the right.
[00:47:21] I got a question. In terms of looking at that particular graph model, one thing I noticed is that I’ve done this a few times now and the dynamics are like your drawing there. I’ll go right back to it because that diagram, it’s kind of like it shows up and down. Talk to me a little bit about the emotions that people experience in general in terms of each kind of day as they go through this. Because one of the great things about this diet is that it’s structured. I have a philosophy that the greatest order always rules. There is great order in the structure of the design of this. And one of the things that I see is that at that moment, your mind starts going and your body starts changing and the dynamics that actually are occurring. One of the great things to hold onto is a structured mechanism that actually you can follow it and you just continue with the path. But talk to me a little bit about the emotional as well as what do people experience on the days that go by, because that’s kind of a unique thing. And by the way, I will say that my first time doing it, I experienced the unknown. I didn’t know how I was going to respond. The second time I was ready, I was almost like I was ready to go for it. And then the third time I was even it was a surprise that I was experiencing different emotions, those similar but a different level of emotional experience and a mindset that changed throughout the days. Tell me a little bit about what you’ve noticed with the patients throughout the United States that take this diet.
[00:48:51] Yeah, so, you know, in terms of actual survey data, unfortunately, we don’t have a lot on the feelings during Prolon. We do have on afterward, which is quite interesting but to get into more like an anecdote. So typically things that I get to hear collectively what we’ve discussed as a group, but you know, all of the team members are they have something that’s pretty common. I would argue, again, everybody does experience this a little differently. And that’s not really like a strict forward response. And I understand, you know, it is kind of fair.
[00:49:28] But it’s yeah, it’s true. You know, some people, they go through this like, oh, this is such a breeze, you know, like I didn’t even feel like I was fasting. And then others are like, wow, you know, I’ve just never fasted before. And now I fasted. So they’re kind of awestruck by that experience. But arguably, days when most people don’t really have any true remarks on this day. Some people, though, the remark that, oh, well, you know, is a little bit less of, you know, what I normally eat, but it has so many calories in it. And also the way that we’ve structured out the actual day when you get around almost like for technical meals that day, you get to these large like high healthy fat bars and then also not a feast. And then also we have two soups and a variety of snacks. So you get a lot of food in. And if you divide it up right, you’ll notice that, you know, it does sustain you quite well. But by day 2, 3. Arguably, these are the days that most people they may remark like. You know, I feel kind of sluggish. I just don’t feel myself. I’m not feeling like they’re questioning why they’re feeling I know off if you will. And it’s not specific. It’s not, you know, like, oh, you know, I have, you know, this type of, you know, I don’t know, pain or this type of feeling. It’s just kind of like I just feel a little not myself today. And usually, we like to kind of like in that to this transition. So you’re going from kind of carb burning to this fat burning state. So that’s like that adaptation. We’re not too sure if that’s what’s really happening, but it can be argued that some people, at least if you’ve never gone through a fast before, you may end up feeling kind of some of these like I feel a little off base to three, but usually by day four or five and especially on day five, actually. These are the days that typically people feel kind of, you know, the most, you know, revitalized, if you will. So they have energy on these days. Yes, I did the rebound. So they don’t feel that same kind of like, oh, I feel off. They’re like, wow, I have so much energy right now. And I get a lot of phone calls or people. They actually feel like they shouldn’t have that much energy. They’re actually a little worried, like, oh, you know, I woke up early today and I got a lot done. Is this normal?
[00:51:48] It’s funny because, you know, to some extent it is. That’s part of that adaptation, is that that’s how, you know, we’re kind of picturing it.
[00:51:58] So, Victoria, I’ll tell you, you know, when you mentioned that one of the beautiful things is that we have a social network. When I’ve done this with a group of people, I found it to be very, very cathartic, to communicate, to take pictures of us while we’re with the packages and share it. So we weren’t I didn’t feel like I was alone. I felt like I was in the community doing this together. So, yes, when I recommend people do this as husband and wife or families that are, you know, large, they can try it together because it does really, really bring you together because you’re doing something for yourselves at the same time. So I got to tell you, from my own experience, I felt the need to communicate and it really served me well to be able to have that ability to communicate through social media. So, yeah, it’s an awesome thing.
[00:52:48] Yeah, and I definitely would agree that, like, if anybody is thinking about doing the fast, you know, definitely work together with others. It’s funny because the types of questions that arise, you’ll find that, you know, maybe you have the same questions, maybe you have complete questions and you actually develop these inside jokes.
[00:53:08] I know. I know for myself and a few others in the office. Whenever I’m doing the fast that we have, there’s like a little packet that’s so delicious. Oh, yeah, I’m a little biased.
[00:53:19] The green olives and they’re fitted, thankfully. But anyhow, it’s funny because you get like this little packet of them and they’re in a little like a package. And once you’re done eating them all, like we’re just kind of like taking out all the liquid like, oh, my goodness, savory.
[00:53:34] Yes, yes, yes. There’s always a very good side.
[00:53:37] Yes, you do. It’s funny. You actually, you can build a sense of camaraderie with this.
[00:53:42] You do? Yes. Yes.
[00:53:43] Ensure that you’re with others when you’re doing it in terms of socializing with them.
[00:53:50] So other things that we see with the fast making that and this is specific to FMD, we did run a clinical trial.
[00:53:58] So there were researchers way at all in 2017.
[00:54:02] They ran a clinical trial in seventy-one. Individuals had completed this trial and in essence, they wanted to see the effects of one round of fasting and making that to the five days FMD down to once a month for three consecutive months. And so after what they had remarked was that individuals, they lost on average five-point seven pounds BMI body mass index that dropped by 0.9 points. And so that’s that ratio of, you know, in essence, bodyweight to high trunk fat went down.
[00:54:35] So compositionally wise, where it what kind of weight did people lose?
[00:54:39] It appeared to be this trunk, fat and lean body mass was thankfully preserved. We did not observe any lean body mass loss. So a lot of these, you know, really healthy weight loss type benefits with the fast. And again, this was in the five days can be done once a month for three consecutive.
[00:54:58] And so other benefits that we see, of course, this promotion, a cellular link reduction of body weight and body fat. And then interestingly, this maintenance in the level of IGF 1, which I didn’t really go over too much and I won’t spend too much time on this bad boy, it gets rather relatively complex. But I do find it’s called into insulin-like growth factor 1.
[00:55:20] And it’s actually been implicated in this aging process and disease. And that’s part of this is one of the food sensing pathways.
[00:55:30] So this one is really important. And one of the ones that Dr. Longo had really just done a lot of research with, trying to figure out, you know, what’s triggering it and how can you modify it, at least with fasting. So these are all outcomes that we see with the FMV.
[00:55:46] It is a bad boy. It is the one that we focus on when we talk about metabolic syndrome. And it goes really deep and it does make a difference on that bad boy called insulin. So it’s a good one. So I definitely will allude to that in a future podcast, because it’s very important that even though it looks kind of a menacing and it’s a deep word, but I just love the fact that the research was done with that as the basis.
[00:56:11] Yeah, and you know. Yeah, you could definitely spend like a whole a long time on this one. That mechanism is a really beautiful thing. But yeah, it’s interesting to see that again as this kind of short term intervention. We see some of these outcomes.
[00:56:25] So to kind of go over some of these outcomes and like one, two, three, four, man.
[00:56:31] So one of them, of course, rejuvenation, wellness, and health optimization. This program was really designed to promote healthspan.
[00:56:40] Which health span is this concept of healthier years’ lives. So it’s one thing to live longer. That’s fine. But what if you know those years where you are in very poor health during that time, it wouldn’t be too fun, right? Maybe then you kind of reevaluate that concept of live fast, die young. So it’s so much less about right. It’s more about healthier years lives. So making sure that there’s quality with that quantity is so important.
[00:57:08] Vitale. That’s a huge point there because touching on that one delicately. The issue is when I talk to my patients, I tell a man, I want you to live 100 years. That’s what I say. I say that to them. We got to do it because when we look at the turn of the century, people didn’t live far beyond the 50s. Today, we live much longer. In the mid-60s, it was 65. Today, we’re reaching even up to 100. Many of us have parents that are in their 90s and close to the hundreds. And one of the biggest concerns that people have is I don’t wanna live that long. I don’t want to feel ugly that we’re bad. And that’s exactly what you’re alluding to, the quality of life that you’re feeling in that process. So, yeah, it makes sense.
[00:57:46] Yeah, absolutely. You know, it’s a kind of, it’s not a novel concept, but I feel like I’m more recently, it’s definitely gaining some traction.
[00:57:54] So I’m not going to let any go a little more further in just on these research results. There was this kind of weight management effect, so fast way to lose weight specifically coming from the circumferential region. So that trunk fat, abdominal fat without any of that means finding mass loss.
[00:58:13] And again, this was really only with five days. So, you know, think of short term interventions of five days done once a month for three consecutive. And going back to what you’re saying earlier. That’s where we get this concept of the once a month for three consecutive months. It’s totally based on a clinical trial. Ultimately, in terms of how many times you may want to do the fasting-mimicking diet, that’s definitely a discussion for you and your health care provider and also just, you know, what your health care goals are as a whole.
[00:58:43] So it may not be appropriate for everyone to do them once a month for three consecutive months, but for some, you know, it may.
[00:58:49] And just to note, these effects did actually persist even when individuals went right back to their normal diet. So we had some follow up evaluation after those three consecutive cycles.
[00:59:02] There was like in essence around three to four months after those last three cycles. And during that time, the research, the researchers had told those individuals the protocol there wasn’t, you know, hey, follow a healthy diet, Mediterranean, exercise more.
[00:59:19] There wasn’t any of that instruction. And we still did see this persisting in these weight loss effects. So that was actually quite interesting. And of course, in addition to some of the other markers that we had measured, we actually saw that this had helped to maintain healthy levels of not only IGF 1. So kind of going back to the growth factor 1, super important, but also systolic blood pressure, interestingly enough. And then to get into some of those well-being aspects I was mentioning earlier. So this was based on that survey that we had conducted in 2017. And we had kind of summarized from this survey was that these participants, they reported just a multitude of these well-being aspects of an improvement in their energy levels, and this would be after the fasting-mimicking diet.
[01:00:09] They also felt more empowered to make healthier, you know, changes in their life and they felt like they had a positive impact on their lifestyle, you know, after the FMD.
[01:00:21] So it’s interesting to note that there is, you know, this kind of emotional or wellness aspect or impact to completing, in essence, Prolon and, you know, just five days can really set the tone for so many other things.
[01:00:38] And although we didn’t measure this in the clinical trial, you know, we took it upon ourselves to try to evaluate this on the neutral side.
[01:00:46] And we did get to see a lot of these really interesting empowerment outcomes afterward.
[01:00:58] And so then to kind of summarize, and this is, in essence, my last slide before I had a Q&A. So to summarize the benefits of FMV and this is again off of the once a month for three consecutive.
[01:01:09] So five days on twenty-five on two more times in a row, we did to the meetings of healthy levels of IGF 1, systolic blood pressure. We all saw that lean body mass was maintained and a healthy level. And of course, we saw this reduction in weight and abdominal fat.
[01:01:30] That’s amazing.
[01:01:31] This is it right here. Yeah, that is it. So any questions?
[01:01:35] Well, yeah. The question that I’m getting here from some of my people here on the feed is that they love the presentation. And actually, there are three nurses there that say that they’re doing it. They’ve done it in the past and they loved it, too. So let me ask you this. There’s a person here says he’s 300 pounds and he’s about 5 foot 7. Can he do it? He’s clinical, I guess, from the dimensioned there, I think, clinically obese. And in that issue there, he is concerned that it may be something that he can look at and he can try. What could we say to him?
[01:02:13] Yeah. So, you know, what we can say to him is, in essence, you know, it definitely. This program is one of the intentions of it is weight loss.
[01:02:23] But given that we know that obviously with a very elevated BMI, you may want to discuss it with your health care provider to determine if Prolon is right for you. And then in addition with that frequency would look like. So I think, you know, the next step would really just be having that conversation, opening it up.
[01:02:45] And it’s a pretty easy, straightforward conversation to have, because ultimately what Prolon is, is it’s just a five day, you know, fasting-mimicking diet.
[01:02:54] But arguably, you could probably also say it’s a five day, you know, a reduced-calorie program.
[01:03:01] And typically, the health care provider will have a few questions about that. It’s appreciated Victoria.
[01:03:08] I would add to that for an individual that has that presentation, clearly talk to your doctor first, find out metabolically how you stand. If you have any underlying issues in today’s environment before we go on and do anything that is unique.
[01:03:24] And then you are having some maybe underlying issues, kidneys, heart issues, always get their doctor to approve these processes because you want someone to evaluate that and that makes sense. The other question I have here.
[01:03:35] Victoria, then I noticed here was people are asking, where can they get it? Where can they order it? And is this something that they can get online? Do they have to go to a doctor or what typically are most people doing?
[01:03:48] So, you know, I don’t know if you yourself.
[01:03:51] I do. I do. I do. Yeah, we have our channel.
[01:03:55] Yeah. So in case you know, you are a patient then definitely discuss this with and determine if it’s a good fit for you. You might want to go through his channel and ourselves.
[01:04:09] But we do also have a website and I would argue that most individuals who are just kind of looking to incorporate bossy into their life. Typically, we’ll just, you know, purchase it on their own through the patient portal that we have online.
[01:04:25] But absolutely, for some of the individuals that, you know, you may have some questions about it. Is this right for me? Then it’s always gonna be more appropriate for you to have a discussion, open up a discussion with your health care provider.
[01:04:37] What we do in our office is we do a full functional medicine assessment, functional wellness assessment. We go through deep and we figure out where the physiology is. We do at least a wellness panel to determine what’s going on. And we evaluate the BMI, BIA consistently and every few weeks. So it does. It’s important to if you’re going to be scientific about the process to have and if you specifically if you have underlying issues, you want to make sure that you have a watchful eye by your specialist, your doctor, your family physician. So that makes perfect sense. Well, Victoria, I was going to tell you, this has been a blessing on our behalf of El Paso. And I want to at least thank you. I want to thank the group over there. Al Neutra. And Prolon, the design.
[01:05:25] The product is one that we need. Having an environment where metabolic syndrome does affect so many, we want to be able to do certain things to control our diets. When I first came to El Paso, the story was we were the fattest, sweaty town of the United States. And sadly, today, that was always known. But today we hear where I mean, not sadly. The awesome component of it is that today there are fitness centers everywhere. In 1990, when I came here, there were no fitness centers. People are very health conscious. My patient base is extremely educated. The Internet has evolved. People are learning and people really understand the sciences of biomedicine. You know, biometrics designs in assessing the body for what it is. The question many times, because there’s so much information is, well, what do I start? How do I do this? This is an awesome diet. Well, it’s an awesome mechanism and a plan to follow where it’s had scientific backing. A fundamental approach that is just, you know, second to none. I love the research I read consistently. I have their books. I have books to offer my patients if they ever wanted because I do have people that want to learn of the breadth and width of the science behind the evolution of this particular diet. So I’m very much excited to bring this to the community. So I want to thank you, Victoria. And I want to thank your group and organization to have allowed at least this presentation to go live on the social portals so that we can bring a different option for our patients. And I want to honestly thank you very much because, for me, it’s been a blessing to hear of. The areas you see if I can get you in there somehow. But while you’re there, I’ll put you in the middle there. And what we can do is, in the future, if you guys have questions, call me and we can discuss these things. And is there anything else that you would want them to know?
[01:07:25] Victoria, in terms of this beautiful subject, just a brief tidbit and not to downplay anything, but just to know and I really want to make sure this is clear that, of course, you know, FMV is really exciting and it’s novel with just to note, it has not been evaluated by the FDA to treat, diagnose, cure, prevent any conditions.
[01:07:48] So it’s not meant for therapeutic rationale.
[01:07:53] Rather, if you have, you know, maybe these weight loss schools or healthy agents or schools or medical schools. That’s definitely something that I feel I can fit in. But I just always be very mindful that it’s not intended for treatment and has not been evaluated for those types of implementation. So.
[01:08:15] Well said, Victoria, I totally got that. And it makes perfect sense. And I really appreciate you going out of your way to show us this process and to give us the parameters. I thank you very much.
