Nathan (0s):
And then based with that information, we went and did another study, and we took normal, intensive patients, people who have normal blood pressure that are on a, not on any medication, good oral healthy hygiene. And then we gave them mouthwash twice a day for seven days to eradicate the oral microbiome. And then seven days later, we brought 'em back and their blood pressure increased. Some people's blood pressure increased by 26 millimeters of mercury, seven days of mouthwash. Nothing changed. Their diet didn't change, their exercise regimen didn't change, nothing changed. We just killed the bacteria in their mouth and their blood pressure went up 26 millimeters of mercury.
Brian (37s):
This week, I interviewed Dr. Nathan Bryan. Dr. Bryan is a leading expert in nitric oxide research, with over 25 years of experience, has made groundbreaking discoveries, holds numerous patents, and has published over a hundred peer reviewed articles. Dr. Bryan also is the founder and CEO of Bryan Therapeutics, a clinical stage biotech company developing nitric oxide based therapies for heart disease, Alzheimer's, and wound healing. We discussed the problems with fluoride and how it can affect your nitric oxide levels, along with Why using mouthwash can harm your blood pressure, how to naturally improve nitric oxide levels, problems with nitric oxide supplements, and his one tip to get your body back to what it once was.
Brian (1m 22s):
Really enjoyed my interview with Dr. Nathan Bryan. I know you will too. Thanks so much for listening and enjoy the show. All right. Welcome to the Get Lean Eat Clean podcast. My name is Brian Gryn, and I have Dr. Nathan Bryan on Welcome to the show.
Nathan (1m 35s):
Thank you, Brian. Great to be with you.
Brian (1m 37s):
Great to have you on Leading expert in nitric oxide research, 25 years, over 25 years of experience. What sort of led you down this path? Could be a long story, right? Yeah. Any
Nathan (1m 50s):
Life or any career. It's, you know, it's always a journey, but, you know, I was introduced to the science of nitric oxide back in the late nineties, early two thousands. I was, I had a degree in biochemistry from the University of Texas at Austin. Then I was at LSU School of Medicine. I was working on a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Physiology. And, you know, Nobel Prize in 1998 was awarded for the discovery of nitric oxide. And I was training, I was doing some rotations in a lab with a guy who was studying nitric oxide, and he was a, you know, a pharmacologist by training and was, you know, trying to understand this, this gases molecule that's produced in the human body, and then ultimately to trying to develop novel therapies. So that was my first introduction to it.
Nathan (2m 30s):
I met, you know, and interacted with one of the guys who won the Nobel Prize, and I was hooked. So, you know, 25, 26, 27 years later, here we are.
Brian (2m 39s):
Wow. And like nitric oxide production, like at what age does it start to, to decline And what does that actually feel like in the body, you know, energy performance and things like that?
Nathan (2m 53s):
Well, everyone's different. You know, what we see, if you look at the published clinical data, we see about a 10 to 12% reduction every decade. So every 10 years, there's about a 10 to 12% reduction. Okay. And that's on average, right? But, you know, we're seeing to, we we're seeing this, this change. I mean, we're seeing 21, 20 2-year-old guys with a vascular age and a nitric oxide production of a 60-year-old or 70-year-old that have erectile dysfunction. And then we're seeing on the other end of the spectrum, you know, I'm 52, but I've got the vascular age of a 29-year-old. So, although in the general population, we can see this gradual decline in nitric oxide production, it's not you, you can overcome that and you can prevent that, or in many cases you can accelerate it.
Nathan (3m 42s):
So again, we, we, we understand what leads to a loss of its natural production And what does it feel like? Well, you develop erectile dysfunction. You, you develop energy and, or low energy and fatigue, brain fog. You develop insulin resistance. You, you feel like you're, you're tired all the time and, and yeah. And your blood pressure goes up. Hmm. So these are things, you know, sometimes you don't feel your blood pressure going up, you don't feel, you know, insulin resistance or diabetes, but people certainly feel the fatigue and the lethargy due to insufficient mitochondrial function in, in incomplete or insufficient nitric oxide production.
Brian (4m 21s):
And is there like a specific test that people can take to, to find out what their nitric oxide levels are?
Nathan (4m 28s):
Unfortunately, it's not part of a clinical, you know, laboratory diagnostic, or most allopathic physicians don't use it. There are functional devices where you can get a sense of how well your blood vessels are producing nitric oxide. Hmm. We call it flow mediated dilatation, or FMD. And there's devices out there that can tell us how well your blood vessels are producing nitric oxide. Hmm. You know, there, it's a great technology. It's very useful functional test, but you know, unfortunately, not too many physicians are using it.
Brian (4m 59s):
And what, what are like the biggest everyday habits that are like silently destroying people's nitric oxide levels?
Nathan (5m 7s):
Boy, the, it is a laundry list. It's basically the western, the western diet and lifestyle. Yeah. It's, it's being sedentary. It's eating processed high sugar, high carbohydrate foods. It's fluoride in our drinking water using fluoride toothpaste. It's using mouthwash and using an acids. Those are the really big kind of drivers of chronic disease and completely shut down nitric oxide production. And unfortunately, that's what most Americans are subjected to. We, we don't exercise, you know, we graze throughout the day reading a lot of sugar, high processed, highly processed foods. And anything that leads to an increase in blood sugar is gonna completely shut down nitric oxide production.
Nathan (5m 51s):
'cause sugar is sticky, it's glucose or glue, it sticks to proteins and, and causes a lot of enzymes to, to become dysfunctional. And then, you know, things like fluoride, which is an antiseptic that's killing the bacteria in and on our body. And some of these bacteria we've identified are, are there to produce nitric oxide. And then, you know, two outta three Americans are using antiseptic mouthwash every day. And two outta three Americans have an unsafe elevation in blood pressure. And then anac acids, you know, are, are deadly drugs. The proton pump inhibitors completely shut down the body's ability to produce electric oxide. And when you, so if you're, if you're eating a high sugar diet, if you're eating or using, if there's fluoride in your drinking water, which is 73% of the municipalities, or using fluoride in your toothpaste, or using anac acids or antiseptic mouthwash, then diet and lifestyle, you're not gonna get the nitric oxide benefits of a diet and lifestyle.
Nathan (6m 44s):
You completely abrogate the, the mechanism that leads to nitric oxide production from diet and exercise. So, and, and that's a, that's a huge problem because many people try to do the right thing. They eat right, they exercise that they're exposed to fluoride. If they're using mouthwash or on an acids, they get zero benefits from it.
Brian (7m 1s):
Yeah. And you, I, when you mentioned mouthwash, few people probably are like, what, what's that all about? What, what You're talking mainstream mouthwash, obviously there's, there's, there's probably natural mouth washers out there that are much better to use.
Nathan (7m 17s):
Well, maybe. But here's what the data clearly tell us. Anything that's antiseptic, whether it's Listerine, alcohol based mouthwash, chlorhexidine, chemical based antiseptics, all of those are causing complete dysbiosis, destroying the microbiome, shutting down nitric oxide production. And moreover, the clinical data tell us that if you use mouthwash, your blood pressure goes up and your blood pressure goes up because you're killing the nitric oxide producing bacteria. And now there's data showing that if you use mouthwash, you lose the protective benefits of exercise. Hmm. I mean, think, think about how profound that is. People who are well intended to exercise eide, but they want to have fresh breath. So they use the mouthwash, kill all the bacteria, but they're, they eliminate the benefits of exercise and they, their, their blood pressure goes up.
Nathan (8m 4s):
Interesting. And they develop erectile dysfunction and they develop diabetes.
Brian (8m 8s):
Are these newer studies done that we've done on mouthwash?
Nathan (8m 11s):
Absolutely. So we've published, you know, probably three or four papers on it, and we've done it in, in mice where we can control their food, their diet, their environment. And, you know, we see it that the,
Brian (8m 22s):
Is that the only way to, is it only way to do it is with mice? There's not, now
Nathan (8m 26s):
We've actually translated this into, into humans. We've done this in, in humans now we did it in mice to try to figure out, okay, can we culture these bacteria, these bacteria culture, can we, can we do tongue scrapings, put it in a Petri dish, culture them, grow them, identify them, and look at their metabolic activity? Because first we had to identify the bacteria. And then, you know, obviously what occurs in mice doesn't always occur in humans. But then that, that armed us with the information to go and get an institutional review board to actually do studies in humans. So we've done two things that are very important. We've just done random tongue scrapings, and then identified the bacteria, looked at the microbiome and found that people who have the most diverse health microbiome have the best blood pressure.
Nathan (9m 8s):
People who have the least diverse oral microbiome have the worst blood pressure. So that's an association, right. It's not causation, it's an association. Sure. And then based with that information, we went and did another study, and we took normal intensive patients. People have normal blood pressure that are on a, not on any medication, good oral healthy hygiene. And then we gave them mouthwash twice a day for seven days to eradicate the oral microbiome. And then seven days later, we brought 'em back and their blood pressure increased. Some people's blood pressure increased by 26 millimeters of mercury, seven days of mouthwash. Nothing changed. Their diet didn't change, their exercise regimen didn't change, nothing changed.
Nathan (9m 50s):
We just killed the bacteria in their mouth. And their blood pressure went up 26 millimeters of mercury. And then four days later, after they stopped the mouthwash, their blood pressure normalized, and we identified the bacteria that reappeared at the time their blood pressure normalized. So that is what we call causation. Eradicating the bacteria in your mouth causes a decrease in nitric oxide production, and your blood pressure goes up and hypertension, high blood pressure is the number one driver of the number one killer, which is cardiovascular disease.
Brian (10m 21s):
Do you think like Listerine will put like a warning label on the, the mouthwash?
Nathan (10m 25s):
No. Look, Listerine, these guys either they're, they've got their head on the ground and have no idea about the science over the past 20 years because they, they're advertising, right? If you watch the commercials, they go, Listerine kills 99.99% of the bacteria in your mouth. Right? And they're advertising this, and apparently they're proud of it. But we know that causing dysbiosis, using antibiotics, using antiseptic mouthwash destroys the, the natural microbiome and it causes systemic disease. And yet these people are still acting like it's a hundred years ago when we didn't understand that there was a microbiome. That there's bacteria, healthy bacteria that live in and on the body, and they're trying to sterilize the entire body.
Nathan (11m 8s):
Yeah. But what's clear is Listerine causes dysbiosis, causes decreased nitric oxide production causes blood pressure to goes up and causes chronic disease.
Brian (11m 18s):
Yeah. I maybe I was ahead of my time, but I never got behind any of those mouthwashes. No,
Nathan (11m 22s):
Good for you. Me neither.
Brian (11m 25s):
So like, I use a tongue scraper. I don't know, tongue
Nathan (11m 28s):
Scraping is a, is an ancient practice. And you know, one of the interesting findings we, we found outta that study we published was we found that a lot of these, these people, and these were dental students and dental hygienic students were actually doing tongue scraping. And what we found was, regardless of the mouthwash use, if people tongue scraped that they had better blood pressure and the diversity of the oral microbiome was even better. Hmm. So tongue scraping alone is extremely beneficial and healthy. But that same paper revealed that if you tongue scrape and used mouthwash, those were the people who saw the highest increase in blood pressure.
Brian (12m 4s):
Okay. So tongue scraping alone is fine. Absolutely. It's, it's when you add the mouthwash, and I mean, you, you do have quite a selection now of mouth washers, and I'm sure a lot of, you know, I've used them before. The ones that are, that don't have alcohol in them. What was the other ingredient that you said you should look out for?
Nathan (12m 21s):
Chlorhexidine?
Brian (12m 22s):
Yeah.
Nathan (12m 23s):
Okay. These are, these are typically prescription type mouthwash for severe oral infections or chronic halitosis in bad breath patients. But, you know, I think, and we're trying to work with the dental community now to figure out, you can't just throw an atomic bomb in the mouth with someone periodontal disease and kill everything. Right? How do we selectively remove the pathogens while not destroying the healthy oral microbiome that's responsible for policing the pathogens? So what we're finding is that if you use mouthwash, you completely destroy the microbiome. And now these pathogenic opportunistic bacteria are more prone to take root and, and make you sick. Hmm. So if we can selectively kill the pathogens while improving the diversity, the non-pathogenic commensal bacteria, it creates an ideal environment for good oral hygiene and good systemic health.
Brian (13m 10s):
Yeah. And it, that makes sense because we, we all know how important the gut is for overall immune health and just, you know, general health. And if you're, you know, using mouthwash, you're just killing the ba the good bacteria right off the bat.
Nathan (13m 24s):
Yeah. The, the, the digestive system and the gut microbiome start typically in the mouth. We swallow our saliva, and then these, these communities will colonize and obviously different communities will, will form, but it's not just the, you know, the, the microbiome and the bacteria in the gut, the digestive system. It's the bacteria on our skin. And if we're bathing in fluoride based, you know, waters, it's killing the bacteria on our skin and causing dermatitis and fungal infections And, you know, dysbiosis on the skin. So we have to support the microbiome in and on our body rather than destroy it.
Brian (14m 0s):
And as far as, this is interesting, showering, you know, I live outside Chicago. We, like, we have, I have a filtration system that takes fluoride, fluoride out, but we don't have like a whole house one. And I was talking to a, a gentleman who used to be in the filtration business. He's like, you could just get something for your, for your shower head if you wanted to just make sure that there wasn't any in there.
Nathan (14m 27s):
Well, it's very difficult to remove fluoride. It's a small molecule. I'm not aware of any shower head cyst filtration systems that can remove flu. You can remove the chlorine, the chloride, the chloramines, and other toxins in through a, a, a shower head filter. But you really need a sophisticated home filtration system. But yeah, you think about what, why is fluoride in the, in the drinking water, in the municipal water supply, because it kills bacteria. So it kills bacteria in the pipes so that you're not drinking bacterial contaminated water. But what you are doing is you're sterilizing the gut. You're drinking fluoride, it's an antiseptic, it kills the bacteria in your mouth, in your gut. We bathe in it, so it's killing the bacteria on our skin, and it's causing a number of health problems.
Nathan (15m 11s):
I mean, fluoride is a neurotoxin. It shuts down your thyroid function, and it's an antiseptic, I mean, I can't think of a worse molecule to be exposed to on a daily basis.
Brian (15m 21s):
And so, as far as showering, there's not much you can really do that other than if you had a whole house filtration system.
Nathan (15m 27s):
I think that's right. I mean, we have to, Now, I think this administration is understanding the, the science, the long history of science on fluoride, and realizing that it really provides zero benefit to Americans, to the health of Americans. And it's all risk. And so if there's no benefit and it's risk to Americans, then public policy clearly states that you, you should remove it from the source of exposure.
Brian (15m 52s):
Hmm. What, what about foods? What foods sort of move the needle and, and can help, you know, with nitric oxide production?
Nathan (15m 60s):
Look, diet's extremely important and a main driver of, of nitric oxide production. I think it's more important of what we don't eat then what we do eat. Yeah. So, sugar, high carbohydrates, anything that leads to increase in blood sugar is gonna completely shut down nitric oxide production. And then, you know, green leafy vegetables. So understanding these mechanisms of production through an enzyme in the lining of the blood vessel and understanding the biochemistry and entomology of that sugar, sugar sticks to the enzyme and makes it completely dysfunctional. So the elimination of sugar,
Brian (16m 33s):
I'm sorry to interrupt you. Good. Is it sugar or is it like, you know, 'cause sugar gets thrown in with a lot of the artificial flavorings and colorings, you know, like you have a donut, there's not just sugar, there's fat, there's artificial coloring and flavored. Right. So I, I, you know, I'm, I, when you, when we throw sugar out there, I, I think sometimes it gets a worse name. And, And, you know, everyone has di this sort of a hot topic, but everyone has a little different opinion on, you know, just pure sugar versus sugar and everything else that's in some of these processed foods. So I don't know what your thoughts on that, but
Nathan (17m 9s):
No, look, I think it all contributes, but what we've looked at mechanistically is you try to isolate things, but unfortunately the human body doesn't work in isolation. So to figure out mechanism of action to take these things and study them in isolation, but sugar itself is necessary and sufficient for complete nitric oxide deficiency. And it's, the mechanism is very clearly defined. So sugar or sucrose is a disaccharide made up of glucose and, and fructose, I believe. So anything that leads in then simple carbohydrates, what we call, you know, high glycemic index foods that are quickly converted in the glucose in the blood bloodstream. And we measure glucose in the blood as part of the routine measurements.
Nathan (17m 51s):
And glucose, as the name implies, is glue. It's sticky. And if you've ever s spilled a soda on the countertop or a glass of sweet tea, you come back the next day. And it's sticky because glucose sticks to things. And these are called advanced glycosylation in products or ages. And it binds to hemoglobin, and that's what we call hemoglobin A1C. It's a glycated hemoglobin. So what sugar's doing is it's, it's binding to these proteins and enzymes, and it's gluing them together. The proteins have to undergo confirmational changes, enzymes have to transfer electrons and, and change their confirmation. But if glue is, if they're glued together, they can't transfer electrons and they become dysfunctional. So sugar alone is enough.
Nathan (18m 33s):
Again, it's necessary and sufficient for inhibiting the production of nitric oxide. And now you throw in all these other, you know, things like not just the sugar, but the high carb, high glycemic index of the donut and the, all the preservatives and things. It's, it compounds the effect. So it makes it even worse.
Brian (18m 52s):
And obviously this, you have the supplement industry, which is flooded with products regarding nitric oxide. And what are your thoughts around that? And like, are there certain ones that work over, over others?
Nathan (19m 7s):
No, they, most of the products on the market that are nitric oxide market as nitric oxide do not work. They can work 'cause these people. So, you know, it started the field. And the other thing is, you know, over the past probably 10 or 15 years, there's been this fad in supplements to deliver supplements in gummies or chews, right? Because yeah, people want to, when they want it to taste good, you know, whether you're delivering vitamins in gummies or chew, there's now people, companies delivering creatine and gummies and chew and, and bead products and gummies and chew and gummies and cheese are made of sugar, glucose, glycerol and seed oils.
Nathan (19m 48s):
I mean, do we really think Americans need more sugar and exposure to seed oils in the form of gummies? And this is just a delivery mechanism in a fad. So my biggest advice is stop getting your nutrients from gummies and cheese. It can't work, it doesn't work. But then if you look at the, the nitric oxide supplements in general, there's these arginine supplement based products. Again, for companies, there should be a, there should be a metric and kind of a, a kind of the rigor to, to develop supplements. If a company doesn't understand the biochemistry and enzymology of the nitric oxide syntase enzyme, how it function, what leaves the loss of its deficiency, then they shouldn't be developing nitric oxide drugs.
Nathan (20m 29s):
And if they don't understand this process of what's required to, to make nitric oxide through this entero salivary circuit of the bacteria stomach acid, and how much of a certain ingredient or component is needed to move the needle, then they shouldn't be marketing products. But all of it, none of these products work. And the, the reason that they don't work, and I shouldn't say they don't work, there's data out there that will show you that if you give arginine, you may be able to move the needle a little bit. But that's in healthy people with normal endothelial function or in healthy mice or rats. But rats and mice aren't human. The problem is in people with endothelial dysfunction and people have high blood pressure, erectile dysfunction, their enzyme isn't working so that they're unable to convert arginine into nitric oxide.
Nathan (21m 15s):
So giving more arginine isn't gonna fix the problem. Supplements are designed to supplement what's missing. And arginine is a semi essential amino acid, meaning that we're never deficient in it. Every cell in the body makes it. And we get it from the breakdown of proteins, whether it's plant-based or animal-based protein. So if we're never deficient in something, there's no need to supplement. So products that contain arginine and citruline that are marked as nitric oxide products are a complete waste of time and money. So you should avoid 'em mean it's an easy litmus test. And then the other big problem are all these beat products out there and companies, you know, selling beat products. Yeah. The majority of these beat products are dead beats.
Nathan (21m 55s):
They're, they provide zero nitric oxide benefit. In fact, we've used many of these commercial products as placebos in our randomized placebo controlled clinical trials because they're perfect placebos. And again, these companies don't understand what are the requirements for the beets, and are these water soluble or fat soluble nutrients? Because pe most consumers don't understand what, what do you need to make a beep powder? We've gotta take the beets out of the soil. You gotta what's called a high bricks concentrate, which is kinda like molasses. And then you've gotta dry that to a finished powder. Well, they put it in high heat, high pressure, most of the water soluble nutrients come out. And all you're left with is an oxalate enriched high fiber red, nasty dirt tasting bee powder, and it's cheap.
Nathan (22m 42s):
So companies buy it, it's a cheap product. They put it in a capsule, they put it in a product and call it nitric oxide. But there's zero nitric oxide in those beats. But yet people are spending tens of millions of dollars. Companies are spending tens of million dollars in advertising and trying to convince the consumer that beats are nitric oxide when they're not. They're the furthest thing from nitric oxide.
Brian (23m 5s):
Yeah, it's a little bit, the supplement industry is a little bit like the wild, wild west
Nathan (23m 10s):
For sure. Look, there's a lot of charlatans out there. And look, it's a multi-billion dollar global industry. So companies out there trying to get a piece of this action. But, you know, and, and, and there are a lot of good supplement companies out there selling really good products. Yeah. You know, it's easy to supplement with vitamin C. It's a stable compound. Vitamin D, very important. Magnesium, iodine, chromium, these trace minerals. But nitric oxide is a gas, you can't put in a pill. It's not beat. So we have to, we have to understand the science and how to make nitric oxide. If your body can't make it, how do you give it back, but understand the root cause of why people have lost the ability to produce nitric oxide and then address that.
Nathan (23m 53s):
And almost all of these companies out there, I see these tech ceo, these CEOs of supplement companies who are former tech executives talking about nitric oxide, how important it is. But they're selling products that don't even, that can't address nitric oxide. So it's, it's disingenuous, it's fraudulent, it's deceptive marketing. And you know, these companies need to be held accountable because they could kill the entire field.
Brian (24m 15s):
So what does the next decade look like as far as for ni nitric oxide research?
Nathan (24m 20s):
Well, look, the nitric oxide field is extremely strong. You know, I'm hosting an international nitric oxide meeting in Austin, April 23rd through the 25th this year. And we're bringing, you know, all the experts around the world, Louis Norrie won the Nobel Prize will be there talking about his discovery, which led to a Nobel Prize, but it's the future of medicine. You know, my company Bryan Therapeutics, we're developing nitric oxide based therapies. And so we're gonna move past this wild, wild west and all this deception and, And you know, smoke and mirrors that go on in the supplements space and advance this to safe and effective nitric oxide drug therapy. But you know, we're developing drugs for heart disease. We've got a drug for Alzheimer's, nitric oxide based drug for Alzheimer's, we're developing, and then we're making a topical drug for diabetic ulcers and non-healing wounds.
Nathan (25m 6s):
But there's not a single disease indication where nitric oxide would not be beneficial. So the challenge in, in drug therapy development is finding the right patient, the right indication, and at what dose of nitric oxide, what route of administration to deliver, and at what dose to affect that particular disease indication. Because what we're finding is the amount of nitric oxide we need to administer to treat a patient with ischemic heart disease may be completely different than a patient that we need to treat with advanced Alzheimer's. And then for heart failure, pulmonary hypertension. So what I see in the next five to 10 years to answer your question, is nitric oxide is the future of medicine.
Nathan (25m 47s):
It will change the landscape of medicine, and I think it'll eradicate cardiovascular disease. Cardiovascular disease has been the number one killer for more than a hundred years, despite billions and billions and billions of research and advancement. It's gotten worse. It hasn't gotten better. Same thing with Alzheimer's. Like I'm completely convinced that nitric oxide based therapies will completely eradicate Alzheimer's. It'll treat it, it'll cure it, it'll prevent it, it'll reverse it.
Brian (26m 12s):
Well, that would be pretty, that would be a breakthrough. You know, that's true. The basic mechanism we're the therapy piece is at right now regarding Alzheimer's.
Nathan (26m 22s):
Well, we've got an Alzheimer's, we've met with the FDA, we've had what was called a pre IND meeting with the F FDA A. And So they kind of give us kind of the regulatory pathway to what would be required to design a clinical trial that if successful would give the FDA and the committee confidence to advance this drug. Number one, is it safe? Number two, does it address meaningful clinically clinical endpoints for an Alzheimer's patients where not only does it show changes on imaging, but cognition actually improves. And that's been the problem with Alzheimer's drug therapies in the past, is all these companies develop monoclonal antibodies against the amyloid plaque in the tangles.
Nathan (27m 3s):
But they must understand that the, the misfolding of proteins, the amyloid plaque in the tangles are a consequence of the disease. They're not causing the disease. So targeting consequence of disease cannot, will not and does not affect Alzheimer's. And that's why all these drugs have failed. They may improve imaging, but there's imaging anomalies that occur in these drugs that don't translate into better cognition or better treatment of Alzheimer's. But nitric oxide, through our early clinical data and understanding the mechanism of Alzheimer's, it's a vascular disease and it's a metabolic disease. And nitric oxide dilates blood vessels, perfuse the brain gets glucose into the neurons, improves mitochondrial function, improves the function of the cell.
Nathan (27m 46s):
So you don't get misfolding of proteins and they don't lose their memory. That is root cause medicine. And that's why our nitric oxide drug therapy will completely address all aspects of Alzheimer's.
Brian (27m 58s):
Hmm. And I mean, I would imagine, I know, you know, you wanna avoid processed foods and things like that. I mean, everything probably plays a role to some degree. Right. But I would imagine if you, if you're gonna push on one thing, like exercise or even strength training is probably one of the biggest drivers I'd imagine of nitric oxide production
Nathan (28m 20s):
Exercise certainly is provided you're not using mouthwash fluoride or anac acids, you know? But look, we have to
Brian (28m 27s):
No, you just eliminated 50 90% of the people listening, but
Nathan (28m 30s):
No, I know, but that's, that's the problem. But people don't understand this. And if they can make simple lifestyle changes that, by the way, are cost savings, right? So if you're no longer buying mouthwash, if you, if you buy a toothpaste that doesn't have fluoride in it, and you wean off your antacids, number one, you're, you're gonna feel better. Your body's gonna thank you for eliminating the exposure to those. But now if you exercise, you stimulate and activate nitric oxide production. And that explains why exercise is medicine. Because we have to move, you know, as one said that people, people stop exercising because they get old, you know, people get old because they stop exercise. Yeah. And that's what we have to get back to the basics of, and we have to be intentional and develop a habit to exercise.
Nathan (29m 13s):
And, you know, for me personally, that's why I exercise first thing in the morning, because if I wait, I never, if if you wait to exercise or wait till you have time to exercise, nobody does it. You have to make time. And so for me, that requires me waking up an hour earlier than I normally do because I make time to exercise. And if I wait, it typically doesn't get done.
Brian (29m 32s):
Yeah, yeah. I always say like, do whatever, you know, prioritize, you know what you want. But like first thing in the morning is when you want do the most important thing. So like, your health is really important. Yeah. And when you talk about exercise, are you talking about, I mean, you know, you walk into like a club and there's a thousand ellipticals, and I always, I'm not totally down on ellipticals, but I always think that that, that it's sort of a wa can be a waste of time. People are probably, at least what I see, people are better off doing some type of strength training.
Nathan (30m 11s):
Well, I think it, you know, it depends upon your overall objective. Here's what, here's what the data seller simple movement is good. I think that's a place to start. And we have to move, you know. But I think if you look at the data on resistance training, there's certainly clear data on preventing muscle loss and bone loss this age related sarcopenia and osteopenia, which is extremely important. We need to have weight bearing on our bones and on our muscles to prevent muscle loss and bone loss. But then if you look at the cardio cardiovascular aspects of it, and the benefits of, of just whether it's high intensity interval training or it's, you know, aerobic, you know, moderate physical exercise of, you know, a 20 to 30 minute brisk walk, all of those provide some form of benefit.
Nathan (30m 54s):
But for me, I try to mix it up every day. I do, I do movement, I do stretching, I do high intensity interval training, I do resistance training two to three times a week. So I try to incorporate it all because my goals are to maintain lean muscle mass. I'm not in a bodybuilding composition, I'm not trying to get ripped. But for me it's, I wanna feel good and I wanna be flexible, and I don't wanna have muscle aches and joint pains and all that. So for me it's about movement flexibility, being able to, you know, do things And, you know, climb up a rope and do pull-ups And, you know, be able to be active.
Brian (31m 28s):
Yeah, no, I mean, you wanna keep it fresh, mixing it up. I think it's important. I mean, I walk a lot, so that's a, that's check that off. I mean, if I always say if people can get outside, get some sunshine. I mean, you're in Texas, I'm in Chicago, we don't get, well right now, it's not the greatest time. But you know, I go out with do my dogs And you know, no matter the weather for the most part we're out there walking. So,
Nathan (31m 50s):
No, that's extremely important. People have to get out and move And you know, I think that's a start. And then for, you know, the ellipticals for people with, you know, joint pains, it's, it's a low impact form of cardio. So, you know, the, the beauty is you have options, but the point is, and the objective is you have to move. Yeah. And get up, get out, get sunlight. You know, I tell people if those simple lifestyle changes, it's 20, 30 minutes of exercise a day or just, you know, six to seven minutes of high intensity interval training is beneficial. 20, 30 minutes of direct sunlight exposure a day, good sleep, nasal breathing, not mouth breathing. Those are simple things, you know. And also an 18 hour daily fast is extremely beneficial elimination of, of, of bad food.
Nathan (32m 36s):
Those are life-changing things that'll transform your health and lifestyle that are pretty simple.
Brian (32m 42s):
Any thoughts on these? All the peptides coming out, GLP ones? Any thoughts on those?
Nathan (32m 48s):
You know, I think they have a, you know, a a a place for therapy for people who have, you know, suffered from inability to lose weight. These, you know, morbidly obese people that diets haven't worked. I think they can serve an important purpose there. I'm not yet convinced that there's a long-term play in prevention. You know, my philosophy as a biochemist and physiologist is let's give the body what it needs, remove from the body, what it doesn't need, and let the body do its job. Let, let's get out of the way. And so injecting sometimes with these synthetic compounds and, and peptides, you know, that are synthesized in the lab, I don't think is always the best practice.
Nathan (33m 28s):
Yeah. But people who have, you know, everybody has their own kind of goals and, and achievements and everybody responds differently. But, you know, the GLP ones have been a game changer in terms of weight loss and I think diabetes management. But at the end of the day, they're suppressing appetite. It's a satiety drug. And if you understand the power of the mind and don't eat and fast and control your caloric intake and exercise, you don't need a GLP one agonist. And you can get by. 'cause these are naturally produced peptides. If you do all the things you, the human body does, and the GLP is secreted in the human body, these are analogs of what's naturally produced in the body.
Nathan (34m 10s):
So from that aspect, from a therapy standpoint, I like what's called restorative physiology, giving back what the body has lost the ability to produce. That's what we do with nitric oxide. But again, something synthetic versus naturally produced in the human body by the cells in our body. I think, you know, nature is a lot smarter than we humans.
Brian (34m 31s):
Yeah, no, that makes sense. And I noticed you have a company N 1 0 1, or is that, is that right? When did, when did, yeah. The,
Nathan (34m 39s):
The, the parent company is Bryan Therapeutics, but we've developed an, a consumer line of products and we, we termed it N 1 0 1 for nitric oxide letter N number one, letter O number one, not to be confused with N 1 0 1, which there's some confusion on that. Yeah, yeah. Times. But no, so once we figured out how to make nitric oxide and how the human body makes it And what leads to loss of its production, you know, during this path to drug discovery, which, you know, on average it's about 10 years and $800 million, we cons consumer products to fund the more expensive drug development. And So we make a nitric oxide line of products for, you know, we make an orally disintegrating tablet.
Nathan (35m 19s):
The N 1 0 1 lozenge that you put it in your mouth, it dissolves over five to six minutes and it's generating nitric oxide gas. So if your lost the ability to produce nitric oxide, then my product's provided for you. But we also address the root cause. We're, we're, we're restoring the function of the no enzyme. We're restoring the, the oral bacteria and the improving the diversity of the microbiome. So we're improving the body's ability to make nitric oxide on its own. With the lozenge. We actually make a beat product that actually works because, you know, I felt an obligation and responsibility that if people are looking for beets as a source of nitric oxide, then we know how to do them. So we make a fermented bee powder, we pre-ver it, we remove all the oxalates so people don't get kidney stones from taking beets.
Nathan (36m 5s):
That's a great pre-workout on energy product. We make an entire skincare line of products, dual chamber nitric oxide releasing serum for skincare. Think six published clinical trials on that. It's a game changer in skincare and beauty. I recently developed a, a nitric oxide friendly toothpaste and no fluoride hydroxyapatite base that provides the, kinda the raw ingredients and the components that these good bacteria need to survive and thrive in the oral cavity. And then we're, we finally crack the code on a, a mouth rinse, a nitric oxide friendly mouth rinse that's gonna selectively kill the pathogens and restore the normal flora
Brian (36m 42s):
Like a mouth. Like a, a mouthwash.
Nathan (36m 45s):
Yeah. Because, you know, two outta three Americans use mouthwash And, you know, becomes a habit. People want a fresh breath. And so, you know, we should give them a safe alternative then to something that's gonna kill them eventually. So through many, many years of research and development, we finally figured out a formula that that controls the environment of the oral cavity, but selectively, so it generates nitric oxide gas, so it's gonna selectively kill the bacteria, the pair to the pathogenic bacteria on the, the gingival tissue that cause periodontal disease. It kills the pathogenic bacteria, but it's improving the diversity of the microbiome and these nitrate reducing bacteria. In fact, we're finding that it can normalize blood pressure in people with high blood pressure.
Nathan (37m 26s):
So we talked about, you know, if you kill the bacteria in normal intensive patient, it causes the blood pressure to go up. Then the question is, if you have people with resistant hypertension that are on blood pressure medicines, but don't have good blood pressure, can we target the oral microbiome, the bacterium improve nitric oxide production and bling their blood pressure down? And the answer is remarkably yes. So if you switch to our toothpaste And now use our mouthwash or our lozenge, we can actually normalize your blood pressure and eliminate the need for prescription medication. And now think about that paradigm change. And that's why this is so disruptive. And my big pharma, and a lot of my competitors don't like what we're doing because it's extremely disruptive,
Brian (38m 9s):
Is the mouthwash out.
Nathan (38m 11s):
The mouthwash will be out probably in the next three to four months. But we're, we finalize the formula, we've done the clinical testing, we've done all the stability testing, so it's just, it's ready for mass production.
Brian (38m 21s):
Very cool. Yeah, I noticed you guys the, yeah, the oral health skin cure, and then you got the beet supplement, right?
Nathan (38m 29s):
Yep. Now everything we do is nitric oxide. We do one thing, we do it better than anybody in the world. And I think that's, that's our philosophy. We don't, there are other important supplements that I take, you know, but we don't do that because there are other companies out there who know better than I am, you know, how to deliver the best magnesium or the best iodine, or the best forms of vitamin D. So I leave it to the experts in their respect fields to provide good quality supplements. And, you know, I would hope that your listeners would trust us as the nitric oxide source And, you know, stop buying from these companies out there who don't understand the science and are marketing products that don't work because they can't work.
Brian (39m 6s):
Yeah. And what would you say a good, healthy, a good healthy routine would look like for an individual that's, you know, some non-negotiables? I know we've talked about a lot today, but if you had to like, put that in place for someone that's starting out.
Nathan (39m 21s):
Well, I'll ll tell ya what works for me, and this is through decades of experimentation and kind of me kind of achieving the goals that I want. I'm 52, but I've got the biological age of a 29-year-old through all these advanced testing we do. But here's what, what changed my life and how I feel an 18 hour fast every day. I'll only eat from noon to six, and then when I do eat, it's high protein, good quality fats, very little carbs, no sugar, and throw in some vegetables. And then every morning I wake up, usually at five or five 15, I start my pot of coffee. I take my, my bead powder and then I exercise, I work out for, you know, 20, sometimes 30 minutes.
Nathan (40m 4s):
I do movement, I do stretching, I'll do pushups, I do pull-ups, I do squats. And then two, three days a week I'll do resistance or weight training. And then from there I go sit in an infrared sauna for 30 minutes at 170 degrees. So I'm getting the red light therapy, I'm getting the, the heat for detoxification. And during that 30 minutes I read scripture, I open my hall app, I'm praying, I'm meditating and, and really strategizing for the day. I'm getting, I've got a plan, how am I gonna execute that plan? And then two to three days a week, I'll go from the sauna to the cold plunge, 40 degrees for three minutes.
Nathan (40m 44s):
And then from there, usually the sun's coming up, I'll go outside, watch the sun come up, get 20, 30 minutes of direct sunlight a day. And then on cloudy days, I've got an LED light bed that I'll sit on, lay on for 40 minutes, 20 minutes on the front, 20 minutes on the back. And you know, that takes me about an hour and a half i'll in, so I have to get up. So then by seven o'clock I'm ready to start my day. And, you know, I'm fully prepared. I've got a game plan, but you know, I've, those are my non-negotiables. Hmm. And then I supplement with, you know, with organ meats, caps, capsules of organ meats because I don't eat organ meats And, you know, they're, it's a good source of nutrients. I take a salmon row for my EPA and officials, but then I just, I use common sense approaches.
Nathan (41m 29s):
And then throughout the day, I'll, you know, in the evening I'll get on my Peloton bike and do a 30 or 45 60 minute ride. Sometimes I'll do a 20 minute high intensity interval training on that. But throughout the day I'm always moving. And you know, I fly about 150, 160,000 air miles a year. So I'm always in airplane, different hotels, different parts of the world, but those are my non-negotiables every morning when I wake up.
Brian (41m 51s):
Hmm. Love that. Yeah, that's a, that's a nice morning routine.
Nathan (41m 56s):
Well, it takes a lot of discipline and Yeah. You know, you have to stick to it And, you know, it becomes habit for me And, you know, I'm addicted to it. Now if I, if I'm in a situation to where I'm on a plane over overnight flight and I can't do it, I mean, my body reminds me how important this is, but you know, to me it's become, it's a habit. I'm addicted to it. So it, it's not an issue anymore.
Brian (42m 20s):
Yeah. And I would just say for someone that listening to this is maybe just start with one thing.
Nathan (42m 25s):
No, absolutely. This is from there You try to bite all that off at once. Yeah, yeah. You're not gonna stick to it and that's the problem. But yeah, start with one. The most important, I think the most important of any of that is the 18 hour fast. That's gonna change your metabolic flexibility. First maybe two, three days your will be tough, but then your hunger pains go away. Your blood glucose, your insulin is gonna improve the way you feel is gonna improve. You're gonna start to see some belly fat fall off and you're gonna be able to see these changes. And when people see and feel the changes, they're more vo motivated. Yeah. People stop doing things because they feel like they're not getting any benefit from it.
Brian (43m 4s):
Yeah, no, I agree. I used to be, I used to be big into fasting and I do it from time to time, but I've, I've noticed I wasn't consuming enough for what I was doing, so I don't do it as much. But yeah, I think the biggest thing and you mentioned is like cutting off that eating window I think is like, you know, if you can cut it off and give yourself three hours before bedtime to rest and digest, I think that's like a absolutely. A really good place to start too.
Nathan (43m 33s):
Yeah. And look, everybody's, if you're burning a lot of calories, fasting may not be good for you. I'm talking to kind of the health challenge people who aren't, who are overweight, blood pressure, diabetes. But you know, I, I've talked to people who are athletes and, And you know, bodybuilding and fitness competition, I go, look, you probably shouldn't fast. Sure you need those calories because your body's burning it and you need it as fuel, but you know, there's no one size fits off for everybody is what I mean.
Brian (43m 59s):
Right? Yeah, no, I agree with that. I,
Nathan (44m 1s):
I know that this works for me. And so I think that's the beauty of experimentation, these unequal one experiments is what what works for you? And you have to kind of experiment around with it and figure out what works for you. But I figured out, and I've been doing this same routine now for probably three years, and it works for me. It achieves the goals that I want to achieve. You know, it, it's, it's giving me meaningful readouts again, 52 chronologically, 29 biologically I feel good at 52. I don't have any ache complaints. I'm active And you know, I'm still mentally fit, physically fit And you know, again, it works for me.
Brian (44m 42s):
Yeah. Love that. Well, this was great Dr. Bryan, where's the best place for people to find, you know, your work, your products, et cetera?
Nathan (44m 51s):
You know, I, I would highly recommend people subscribe to my YouTube channel just to get the information, the education And you know, kind of dispel a bunch of these myths and deceptive marketing and things that's going on in TV and radio. Asuc your at Nathan s Bryan Nitric Oxide on YouTube, my latest book, the Secret of Nitric Oxide, bring The Science to Life. We launched this last year on Fox and Friends. It's a, it's a great read. It tells the entire science of nitric oxide, kinda my personal journey of discovery And you know, why we've been able to do these things because of the discoveries we've made over the past. And then, you know, I'm on social media, Instagram, Dr. Nathan s Bryan, same on LinkedIn, Twitter, or X I'm Dr.
Nathan (45m 34s):
Nitric. And then for those interested in our, our products, it's N one oh one.com. That's the letter N number one letter O number one.com.
Brian (45m 43s):
Yeah, it looks like you're running a little special out there on it looks like on the website.
Nathan (45m 47s):
Well this is HAR Heart Health Month. I mean, again, February is Heart Health Month. Cardiovascular disease is the number one killer of men and women worldwide. We have to do better. And nitric oxide is the foundation for cardiovascular health. So, you know, we, we've reduced the price and providing free shipping because we wanna get our products in the hands of people. Because what we found was when people start using our products and they, they feel the effects, they keep using our products and they use 'em because they work and they see the benefits of them.
Brian (46m 19s):
Excellent. Well yeah, I'll definitely put links in the show notes and I appreciate you coming on. I think that think that a lot of valuable information people can take and just put into action right away. So Yeah,
Nathan (46m 31s):
Well that's, that's my overall objective is just to provide, you know, scientific bates truths and information so people can make informed decisions and that'll transform their health.
Brian (46m 40s):
Yeah, throw out that mouthwash and those antacids, right?
Nathan (46m 43s):
That's right. Gotta get rid of it.
Brian (46m 46s):
All right, well thanks so much and en enjoy the rest of your day.
Nathan (46m 49s):
Thank you, Brian. Take care.
Brian (46m 51s):
Thanks for listening to the show. I know there's thousands of podcasts out there and you chose to listen to mine. I will put a link in the show notes if you want to connect with my guest. And if you are looking for one-on-one consulting with me, I will put a free 15 minute link so you can set up a call to see if you're fit for my six month health breakthrough program. So thanks again, feel free to rate and subscribe. I would love that to help support the podcast. And till next time, have a great rest of the day and I'll see you on my next podcast. Thanks so much.
