Participants:
Series Code: MH
Program Code: MH240008S
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00:01 Boy, I am so thirsty, I think I am going to get to drink.
00:04 You know, being hydrated is so important for our health 00:08 and yet, most people don't drink to be hydrated. 00:12 They drink for other reasons. 00:20 Um! Toasted marshmallow, caramel chocolate, 00:24 cookies and creams, some more, pinkity drinkity, oh, 00:28 white chocolate drizzle... Welcome to Candy Club Cafe. 00:32 Can I get a water, please? 00:53 Whats ya drinking? It's a good question. 00:56 Hopefully by the end of the program today 00:58 your answer will be a little different. 00:59 I want to give you guys a little realization of how much 01:03 we Americans love our drinks. 01:06 Across the globe United States continues to be a leader 01:10 in the beverage industry and beverage consumption. 01:13 Just a couple of years ago the non-alcoholic drink revenue 01:17 in United States amounted to 450 billion dollars. 01:23 Soft drink sales accounted for almost $300 billion dollars. 01:28 Fifty percent American adults 61% of American children 01:33 consume soda or sugary beverages every single day. 01:38 Those numbers are actually down from 20 years ago, 01:41 yeah, 20 years ago 62% of the American adults and 80% of 01:46 American children drank sugary drinks daily. 01:50 In comparison, the alcoholic drink revenue is 01:53 around 305 Billion. 01:55 From soft drinks and fruit juices to diet beverages 01:59 and alcohol, coffee, The United States beverage market is 02:04 a profitable one indeed. 02:06 With all that drinking we are doing you think we would all be 02:09 more than adequately hydrated. 02:11 It turns out that it's not necessarily the case. 02:15 Worldwide population surveys estimate that more than 50% 02:19 of people drink less than recommended and as a result, 02:22 we're in this marginal under-hydrated state. 02:27 Our bodies make adaptive changes to this state of marginal 02:31 under-hydration and these changes can affect multiple 02:34 physiological systems and may promote their deterioration. 02:38 Under-hydration has been linked with an increased risk of 02:43 adverse health outcomes. 02:44 Perhaps this is because we are drinking the wrong things 02:47 to promote optional functioning. 02:49 Based on sales coffee and alcohol are among Americas 02:53 favorite beverages. 02:54 The first question I'm going to as is... 02:57 How does alcohol affect us? When we drink these drinks 03:01 the brain thinks it is having a good time 03:03 but is the body having a good time too? 03:05 Well, your brain may think your body's have a good time 03:09 for a short while because it actually makes people feel 03:12 more relaxed, right, and so people who are... 03:16 That oftentimes we will use caffeine and alcohol, 03:19 to an upper and a downer right, to relax you and 03:23 to stimulate you, to relax you, to stimulate you. 03:25 So there's a vicious cycle that people get into. 03:28 So, many of my patients are very eager to keep drinking 03:33 the wine they said, oh doctor, my wine is so good for you 03:38 and he said how many glasses are you drinking? 03:40 Oh, I drink with each meal, okay and sometimes two 03:46 because more is better. So interestingly in the last 03:51 10 years we have scientific evidence that alcohol increases 03:57 breast cancer. And now the recommendation guideline is 04:04 no more than one glass of an alcoholic beverage for a female. 04:09 But then I talk to my patients and I said you know, 04:13 this is data, this is a large research. 04:17 What happened if you are one of the minority that because of 04:24 drinking one glass will get cancer. 04:27 And now imagine what happens with your lining 04:31 of the esophagus? What happens with your stomach? 04:35 You know stomach cancer is associated with alcohol. 04:38 What happens with your pancreas, my patients drink a lot of beer 04:44 they have triglycerides that are very high and those 04:47 triglycerides really cause inflammation. 04:50 So, alcohol is not your friend. 04:54 Triglyceride levels are usually tested along with 04:58 blood cholesterol levels. 04:59 They are a type of fat in the blood, we can have elevated 05:03 triglycerides from too much fat in the diet, 05:05 insulin resistance, leaky gut, from elevated blood sugar, 05:10 too much sugar in the diet, or from drinking alcohol 05:13 and other sweet drinks. 05:14 It's interesting to know that observational study's 05:17 have seen higher consumption of sugar sweetened beverages 05:21 and that's linked to greater cardiovascular disease risk. 05:24 And this could be related to their impact on blood lipids. 05:29 For 12 years researchers collected data from almost 6,000 05:32 people middle aged or older who were of European decent. 05:36 The researchers were looking to see how drinking different 05:40 types of beverages may contribute to the changes 05:43 in people's triglycerides and cholesterol levels. 05:45 The researchers adjusted for other factors that are known 05:49 to affect cholesterol and triglyceride like obesity. 05:53 Your overall diet quality, physical activity, 05:57 alcohol intake, use of cholesterol lowering drugs, 06:00 stuff like that. 06:02 What the researchers found was that middle aged 06:05 and older adults who drank sugary beverages daily 06:09 were at greater risk for developing abnormal cholesterol 06:13 and triglyceride levels compared with those who rarely drank 06:16 those beverages. 06:18 Those who drink sugary beverages had a 98% higher chance 06:23 of developing low HDL cholesterol, 06:26 that's the healthy cholesterol and a 53% greater chance 06:30 of developing high triglycerides. 06:33 What they found was just drinking one sugary beverage 06:37 a day compared with those who didn't had higher levels 06:41 of unhealthy fats which can Increase the risk of 06:44 heart disease. 06:45 Now we don't immediately think that our drinks affect 06:48 our cholesterol and triglyceride levels 06:50 but they do. Next, we're going to look at how what we drink 06:54 can affect pain and the brain. 06:57 A lot of times, patients before they got into my clinic 07:01 would self-medicate their pain with alcohol and 07:05 other substances. In pain management we really encourage 07:08 our patients to stay away from alcohol if possible 07:12 and if they do use alcohol, strictly in very low amounts. 07:17 And when they are on pain medications, 07:19 they are not supposed to combine alcohol and Opioid 07:22 pain medications together because they can 07:24 interact with each other in a very dangerous way 07:26 and cause repertory depression. 07:29 But just beside that, alcohol in and of itself can 07:33 Be very pro-inflammatory and we're trying to reduce 07:38 inflammation in our patients and reduce their pain 07:40 because it's pro-inflammatory for everyone. 07:42 With alcohol there are several factors that come into play here, 07:46 first of all, it is a depressant so one of the big effects 07:50 is that it binds to the GABA receptor which overall 07:54 slows down brain function and so that's why the more alcohol 08:00 you use, the more every- thing just slows down 08:03 as far as someone's capacity to think and to act and 08:06 they even start staggering around eventually 08:08 but even low levels of alcohol consumption, like one drink 08:12 for example. This can start to in a subtle way impair 08:16 the frontal lobe function which is the logical part 08:19 of your brain and so they find that even if somebody 08:23 has fine coordination, their ability to drive, 08:27 even after one drink is impaired not because of the coordination 08:31 so much as because of the judgment. 08:33 Their not making wise decisions because their frontal lobes 08:37 are impaired because it is a depressant can predispose 08:40 people actually to depression. 08:42 And then the interesting thing is, even though a lot of people 08:46 with anxiety will use alcohol to calm them down 08:49 it will trigger rebound anxiety and the anxiety disorder 08:53 will actually worsen, so it also predisposes to a lot of 08:58 anxiety problems, ADHD is definitely going to be worsened 09:02 with alcohol as well. 09:04 One study found that around 42% of adults with ADHD 09:10 reported drinking at least five to six alcoholic beverages 09:14 every time they drink., that's called binge drinking. 09:17 Alcohol in the short term may appear to be a solution 09:21 to the restlessness and anxiety that are often associated 09:25 with ADHD but over a prolonged period of time they can actually 09:30 intensify symptoms. 09:31 People may think that alcohol is helping them cope 09:35 but this is not the case, because long-term alcohol use 09:39 is associated with difficulties in memory, in decision-making, 09:43 and cognition. 09:46 It can definitely be improved by lifestyle intervention 09:50 and there's certainly a wide degree of ADHD symptoms 09:56 and some people have it very severely and other people 09:58 not so severely but there are a lot of things we can do 10:02 from a lifestyle standpoint especially having the routine, 10:05 the structure, lots of exercise, making sure you are getting 10:09 a good night's sleep, and then certain nutrients that will 10:13 often help to make your brain basically, functions better 10:17 and be able to focus more easily. 10:18 To the best of our knowledge today the amount of alcohol 10:21 that is good for your brain is alcohol directly, 10:26 as a substance, zero. 10:27 When they are free from it, actually the frontal lobe 10:32 can think better, they can process things better 10:35 they don't need that drink at night to sleep. 10:38 It's the social aspect of it, the stress reduction part of it, 10:42 are there other ways you can stress reduce? 10:44 I think so, dance, sing, talk, laugh, play musical instruments, 10:50 play Sudoku, no, I hate Sudoku, so other things. 10:53 Spend time with family. 10:55 Spend time with family, so those are important things 10:57 and when they talk about Mediterranean studies in alcohol, 11:00 are you not missing something else about Mediterranean area? 11:04 The social aspects, we just came from a trip to Italy, 11:07 just walking in Tuscan is a stress-reducing, not divine. 11:12 You know, I think a walk-in Tuscany would set me up just 11:16 fine. It's been estimated that approximately two billion people 11:21 worldwide drink alcohol on a daily basis but being 11:25 part of the crowd doesn't make it the best choice for us. 11:29 So, with alcohol there is several factors that 11:32 come to play here. First of all, it is a depressant 11:35 so one of the big effects is that it binds to the 11:40 GABA receptor which overall slows down brain function. 11:44 If we start intaking things like alcohol or even caffeine, 11:49 this can be very detrimental to our mental health. 11:52 On the other hand, if we're drinking plenty of water, 11:54 staying well hydrated, that affects it in a 11:56 very positive way. 11:57 Caffeine and alcohol both dehydrate the body 12:01 and so again, when your body is dehydrated, 12:05 it does not function as well. 12:07 It does not protect itself as well, 12:10 both immune-wise and mechanical wise. 12:14 Most people know too much alcohol can damage your liver 12:18 but did you know, it's not good for the gut either. 12:22 Alcohol drinking causes changes to occur in the community 12:27 of microbes in our gut, the gut microbiota that we 12:30 about in the previous session? 12:32 These changes can affect us in a number of ways 12:36 Scientists are saying that based on the data, 12:38 the changes that alcohol makes to the gut microbiome, may 12:42 explain our reward-seeking behaviors, they explain our 12:46 increased anxiety, depression, cravings even. 12:50 They've also associated it with higher rates of psychiatric 12:53 disorders, so drinking alcohol disrupts the community 12:57 of gut microbes. Not surprising, if you want to sterilize 13:00 something, you pour alcohol on it, alcohol kills bacteria, 13:05 alcohol also at least transiently disrupts the 13:09 gut lining, your GI border causing Leaky Gut within 13:13 thirty minutes of drinking an alcoholic drink. 13:15 This leaky gut allows substances in the gut 13:19 to translocate into the blood that are toxic to us 13:23 driving inflammation. We talked about leaky gut 13:26 in another program also so, I hope you can 13:28 watch that one too, super important topic. 13:31 But on top of that the liver is also involved in this 13:35 alcohol/gut/brain connection as a result of drinking alcohol 13:39 the liver releases pro-inflammatory molecules 13:43 that travel back to the gut and disrupt the microbes 13:46 even more. Talk about stirring up the hornet's nest. 13:51 And that in fact is a disruption in the neural circuits 13:55 and can affect brain function which can even increase 13:59 alcohol intake so you drink more and making the 14:02 inflammation and gut leakage worse. 14:03 Alcohol messes with the micro- biome in the mouth too, 14:08 you may think that your mouth is clean because you 14:11 brushed your teeth after your last meal but your mouth is 14:14 anything but sterile and a healthy-mouth micro-biome 14:18 is really important for healthy teeth and gums and also 14:22 for total body health, just as alcohol can alter our gut 14:26 microbiome unfavorably, it can do the same in the mouth. 14:29 For example, studies have shown that certain bacteria that 14:34 promote cavities are increased with drinking alcohol 14:37 even alcohol-based mouthwashes, I am not a fan of it 14:41 for this very reason. 14:42 We think the best way to combat bad breath and improve 14:46 with oral hygiene is by using these strong sanitizing 14:49 mouthwashes. The more powerful and astringent the better for 14:54 fresh minty breath, right? Unum. 14:56 The kind of bacteria that can cause bad breath 15:00 likes to burrow in your gums which breaks down tissue 15:04 and causes your gums to bleed. 15:05 What naturally keeps these bad bacteria down is having enough 15:10 of the good bacteria, that's what keeps these bad breath 15:13 bacteria in check. You don't want to kill them off or 15:16 or imbalance a healthy oral microbiome 15:19 Actually drinking alcohol though probably the most common reason 15:23 given for drinking wine specifically is because 15:26 it's good for your heart, isn't it? 15:29 The resveratrol, you know, I know the studies 15:34 who are sponsored by the winery's that show the benefit 15:38 of alcohol, yes, they're beneficial because resveratrol 15:42 are in grapes. Or if they will talk about resveratrol, 15:46 the substance that truly has been shown to have effect 15:50 on longevity and is being studied further is found on 15:54 skin of grapes, so why not grapes? 15:57 Because the amount of resveratrol that you need to get 15:59 to be beneficial and salutary to you is basically a crate 16:03 of wine bottles and that would kill you before it helps you. 16:07 So we really have to friend this conversation 16:10 and say let's not romanticize something that you like. 16:15 As we spoke before, people love hearing good news about their 16:18 bad habits, or about their habits period and we create 16:22 science around it. Ha! 16:24 So true. We romanticize the things we like 16:27 whether they're good for us or not. 16:30 The next topic is our diet and sugar-free drinks. 16:35 You know one of the foods or products that I'm most against 16:39 and strongly advise my patients against using is 16:43 artificial sweeteners because they devastate the microbiome 16:49 and so artificial sweeteners big time problem. 16:53 In fact, when my children were growing up on the island of Guam 16:56 there was always soda available everywhere okay and 17:02 we'd go to a party and there was a big old things of soda 17:05 for you so I...my kids every once in a while, 17:09 cause we never have sodas at home, they would come and say 17:11 can we have a soda, and I go no, I'm sorry honey you can't. 17:14 She said what about a diet soda, there's no sugar in it at all? 17:18 And I said honey, I'd rather you have a regular sugar soda 17:22 than a diet soda without any sugar because at least sugar 17:26 is real, the body can metabolize it whereas the artificial sugars 17:31 are really toxic to the body regardless of what they say. 17:36 I'm promoting diabetes risks, promoting insulin resistance, 17:40 promoting inflammation in the body. 17:43 Devastate the gut microbiome, no thank you. 17:47 You see the problem is that we thought that because sugar 17:50 substitutes don't have any calories, or carbs, 17:54 they were a free ride so we drink them to lose weight, 17:57 keep our blood sugar down. But what research has actually 18:01 shown is that they increase our waist size and our risk of 18:05 Type II diabetes and they are not hydrating us. 18:09 And I see a lot of people because I'm looking in the 18:13 mouth again all the time, I'm seeing a lot of people 18:15 are dehydrated and on my sheet that they come in with on a new 18:20 patient I have, how much water are you drinking? 18:22 You would be surprised how many people put one glass a day 18:25 and they think that's normal and then they wonder why they start 18:29 having all the...Why are they here to see me 18:30 in the first place, okay, it involves that problem. 18:34 Because they are dehydrated and I think we already 18:37 mentioned this but dehydration can come up as fatigue. 18:43 You'll say you are fatigued, you don't think it's dehydration 18:47 but it can be. 18:49 You know just to touch on the Opioid pain medication 18:54 side effects once again, the number one side effect 18:58 of Opioid pain medication is constipation and the best way 19:02 to prevent that and treat that is to stay well hydrated. 19:05 And we tell our patients that when they ask us, 19:10 well, how much water should I drink? 19:12 We tell them take your body weight in pounds and 19:16 divide that by two and that's how many ounces of water 19:18 you should drink every day. 19:20 In addition, water is really helpful for treating 19:24 chronic pain. Now when people are having joint pain, 19:28 muscle aches, a lot of times it is because they are a bit 19:30 dehydrated and when people become better hydrated 19:34 they see a lot of those aches and pains go away, 19:36 everything works better in our bodies when we are hydrated. 19:39 So we need to make sure we are well hydrated to make sure 19:42 we are eliminating toxins and keeping our body systems 19:44 you know, the majority of our body is water... 19:46 You know as human beings we're more water than tissue 19:49 we're about 70 to 75% water and most of our biochemical 19:55 processes rely on water as a substrate for things to happen 20:02 and over a period of time with our busy lives, we've completely 20:07 forgotten to hydrate ourselves. 20:09 And this actually becomes very obvious and relevant we age, 20:15 when we grow older because the cells in our bodies 20:18 are not able to maintain enough water inside them for these 20:22 important biochemical processes to occur and we don't have a 20:26 very symptom or manifestation of dehydration, it can be very 20:33 very subtle. There have been studies that have been done 20:37 that showed when people are even mildly dehydrated 20:40 they have lack of focus and attention that their memory 20:43 gets affected, that their balance gets affected, 20:46 their vision gets affected, and these small little 20:49 these small little problems in our processing of information 20:52 and the way we interact over time can actually slow down 20:56 our brain, it can actually completely change our 20:58 patterns of how we deal with problems, how we deal with 21:01 each other just because we were dehydrated. 21:03 When people are dehydrated that can be very detrimental 21:08 anyways but some studies have shown that your attention 21:13 really goes down. You have a hard time thinking clearly 21:16 and making good decisions, paying attention when 21:19 you are not well hydrated. And that's one of the concerns 21:21 I have with caffeine, you know caffeine actually really 21:25 impairs the body's ability to stay hydrated because it is 21:29 a diuretic so you might feel like you are drinking 21:32 plenty of fluid and your urine might even be clear 21:35 and everything but that doesn't mean you are truly well-hydrated. 21:38 The other factor with caffeine is that it actually reduces 21:43 the amount of blood going to the brain so even two cups 21:48 of coffee will restrict the blood flow to the brain 21:52 by about 30% and at the same time it is actually telling 21:56 your brain works harder, work faster, and it's kind of like 21:59 having a horse and you're hanging the horse, you're saying 22:04 run faster, run harder, but I'm going to give you less 22:06 water and less food to do that, eventually that horse 22:09 is going to get tired out, right? 22:11 And that's exactly what we do to our brain cause we're 22:13 whipping our brains saying work harder, work faster but 22:16 I'm going to give you less oxygen and less nutrients 22:18 because that's what the blood carries to the nerve cells, 22:21 right, to do so what happens to our brain eventually? 22:24 Eventually, our brain gets tired out and that's actually what 22:27 the studies show, the longer we use caffeine, 22:30 the more energy levels actually go down we become more and more 22:35 depleted and we start losing the capacity to bounce 22:39 back the way we once had. 22:41 Whoa, did you catch that? 22:43 Reduction of blood flow to the brain. 22:46 That is crazy. 22:47 And I don't know where it became normal to have caffeine 22:52 where you constantly have your sympathetic, 22:54 it's a sympathetic stimulant so what you're doing is you're 22:57 constantly setting your body in a stress environment 23:02 constantly, the caffeine sets your stress system going 23:06 and if you are constantly keeping yourself drinking 23:09 caffeine, you have your sympathetic nervous system 23:12 turned on all the time, you have your stress system 23:15 on all the time. 23:17 It's a dehydrator and to be healthy, our body's tissue is 23:23 stronger when it is hydrated skin is stronger, 23:27 tendons are stronger, ligaments are stronger, 23:30 muscles are stronger when they are fully hydrated. 23:34 You just take a towel and you can tear a towel much more easily 23:39 much more easily when the towel is dry than you can 23:42 when the towel is wet. 23:44 Same thing with our bodies, injuries to tendons and 23:48 ligaments happen much more often at the end or 23:51 towards the end of an athletic competition. 23:54 Now part of that has to do with athletic fatigue, muscle fatigue 23:58 but part of that has to do with dehydration of the 24:02 tendons and the ligaments. 24:04 Um, so the fact that we are stimulating with the caffeine 24:08 and we're trying to relax with the alcohol is really sort of 24:11 hijacking our own body's ability to do what it's supposed to do 24:14 in its own natural rhythms, right and our own immune system 24:18 and our autonomic nervous system are sympathetic and 24:21 parasympathetic systems are supposed to balance 24:23 each other out and so essentially we're giving it 24:29 messages on top so it's more, it's not learning what it's 24:31 supposed to do because we are giving all these 24:33 external messages. 24:34 The average American is walking around dehydrated 24:41 affecting our level of energy our joint pain, 24:45 affecting our ability to effectively detox and so on. 24:50 You know the liver, the liver is going to take the hit for that 24:54 alcohol and you don't know at what point your liver 24:57 is going to start to create the disease state and 25:01 I think with the status we have now in our country 25:05 with the extra fat and the types of fatty foods that we are 25:09 eating and our liver is taking the hit from the foods 25:11 that we are eating and then you add on top of it the hits from 25:13 the alcohol, really the liver is the one, the main one 25:17 is going to complain and struggle and have difficulties 25:20 with this combination of unhealthy foods and the 25:23 alcohol together and so, you have fatty liver and fatty liver 25:27 is just exponentially growing and you talk about 25:31 non-alcoholic fatty liver and then you talk about alcoholic 25:34 liver issues and so now when you combine the two of them 25:37 together, it's just significant problems 25:40 on top of each other. 25:42 Think about it, latte in the morning, Red Bull when you get 25:49 a little dip, soda for lunch, Chrystal Light when you are 25:53 thirsty, Gatorade after exercise, a glass of wine 25:58 at dinner and a cocktail in the evening. 26:00 The challenge from today's episode I think is to defy 26:05 the norm, to be counter- cultural in terms of 26:08 what we are drinking. 26:10 If you haven't tried them mocktails can be delicious 26:13 and there are great coffee alternatives made from 26:15 mushrooms or chicory but at the end of the day and 26:19 at the beginning of the day there's nothing like good 26:23 old clean water. |
Revised 2025-02-19