In this episode, Sven Hosford and Dr. Chet Fox talk about kidney disease and the most important things to know about it.
How do I know if I have kidney disease?
And, what could I do about it?
They’ll by joined by Albert Calfo, CEO of Health Defender, a nutraceutical company that produces Kidney Defender, a promising new supplement to treat Chronic Kidney Disease.
First, we want to invite you to call or text us at 646-543-7836 or visit our website, MedicineMadeEasy.care, to submit your questions.
In this episode, we
talk about kidney disease, specifically, Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD). We’ll find out:
What are the symptoms?
How do I know if I have it?
What are my chances of having it? (And just a little heads-up: if you’re over 65, the chances are 1 in 3 that you have it.)
What am I likely to die from if I have it? (Sadly, the vast majority of those will die from heart attacks or strokes.)
And the most important question we’re going to answer for you today is, how do I reverse it?
Understanding Chronic Kidney Disease
A transcript of the Medicine Made Easy podcast
Sven Hosford
Welcome everybody. This is the Medicine Made Easy podcast. Today, we’re going to talk about kidney disease and the most important things to know about it.
How do I know if I have kidney disease?
And, what could I do about it?
My name is Sven Hosford. I’m here with my co-host, Dr. Chet Fox.
Dr Fox
I’m delighted to be here. I’m very passionate about this subject.
Sven Hosford
We’re also here in the studio with Albert Calfo, who is the CEO of Health Defender, which produces a product I’m very fond of called Kidney Defender.
First, I want to invite you to call or text us at 646-543-7836 or visit our website, MedicineMadeEasy.care, to submit your questions. That’s what we do here on this podcast: we ask you what you’re most interested in.
Today, we’re going to talk about kidney disease, specifically, Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD). We’ll find out:
What are the symptoms?
How do I know if I have it?
What are my chances of having it? (And just a little heads-up: if you’re over 65, the chances are 1 in 3 that you have it.)
What am I likely to die from if I have it? (Sadly, the vast majority of those will die from heart attacks or strokes.)
And the most important question we’re going to answer for you today is, how do I reverse it?
So we’re going to start with Dr. Chet Fox. Dr. Fox, could you give us a little bit about your background? How did you become an expert on kidneys?
Chet Fox
It started when I was a professor of family medicine at the University of Buffalo, and I used to joke that I was the Chairman’s Vice President. You know, what Vice Presidents do? They go to funerals in Bulgaria, anything that the President doesn’t want to do. So he said, I want you to go to this lunch with the National Kidney Foundation and a local nephrologist.
It was a very nice place, so I didn’t mind having lunch. A nephrologist comes, he looks at me and says, “What are we going to do about distributing the new Chronic Kidney Disease guidelines to family physicians?”
I go, “What do you mean? Are there new Chronic Kidney Disease guidelines?”
He says, “Oh, yeah. There are.”
Well, my attitude about Chronic Kidney Disease at the time, and maybe a lot of doctors out there share the same attitude, was, “Well, I treat high blood pressure, I treat diabetes, and when they need dialysis, I send them to a kidney specialist.”
So that started me on a journey. I started looking at my own charts and said, “Am I diagnosing Chronic Kidney Disease?”
It turns out that I had a lot of patients with Chronic Kidney Disease I didn’t know about. That started me on a lecture tour to promote the National Kidney Foundation.
So I started speaking, and I realized that I was doing a lousy job diagnosing Chronic Kidney Disease. I was doing a lousy job treating Chronic Kidney Disease. So my first lecture was called “Confessions of a primary care physician. My transformation understanding the importance of early recognition of Chronic Kidney Disease.”
Basically, when you’re looking at Chronic Kidney Disease, there are a couple of things that really stand out. Basically, uncontrolled high blood pressure and uncontrolled diabetes are the two main causes of most Chronic Kidney Disease.
So that’s how I got started in this, and I realized there were several simple things you could do to help patients prevent the progression of Chronic Kidney Disease.
Sven Hosford
Is it beyond just treating blood pressure and diabetes?
Chet Fox
Well, although that’s important, those are just the first steps.
It turns out that there are over-the-counter medicines that are very damaging to the kidneys. We call these medicines non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. They have lots of names: Motrin, Aleve, Ibuprofen, and Mobic. There are several drugs. The non-steroidals are very bad for both the kidneys and the heart, so they should be avoided.
But some drugs are very good at preventing the progression of Chronic Kidney Disease. Some of those drugs are angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors. So we call them ACE inhibitors. There are also Angiotensin Receptor Blockers.
Now you can know the class of drug you’re taking by the last four to eight letters in the name. So ACE inhibitors always end with P R I L. So that’s the Lisinopril and Monopril.
An Angiotensin Receptor Blocker always ends in S A R T A N. Losartan and olmesartan, for example.
So knowing those endings is helpful in controlling high blood pressure and diabetes. It is what we have told patients for years. Say, if you do those things, we can help prevent the progression of CKD, because current dogma is that you can only prevent progression. You cannot reverse it.
Sven Hosford
We’re going to get into the dogma here in a minute. So what are the dangers? How specifically does this cause problems when our kidneys start to go?
Chet Fox
When our kidneys start to go, it’s really an inflammatory condition. When the kidneys start to go, it increases the risk of heart attacks. It causes inflammation in the blood vessels. And inflammation causes a lot of bad things in the body.
The biggest thing that occurs is heart attacks. In fact, for people with stage four CKD, before they progress to stage five or dialysis, 80% will die of a heart attack before they ever end up on dialysis.
The other big problem with Chronic Kidney Disease that people know about is dialysis, and if the kidneys start to deteriorate rapidly, people end up on dialysis. And I can’t tell you how many patients are told, “Oh, your GFR is really low. The only thing we can do for you is dialysis.” And that’s not true.
Sven Hosford
It’s not true. We are living proof of that right now. So are there any symptoms related to CKD? If I did not get a GFR test, how would I know if I have any kidney problems?
Chet Fox
You would not know. Kidney disease is like hypertension. It’s a silent killer. It progresses totally silently in people, and the great majority of people with Chronic Kidney Disease have no clue that they have it.
Sven Hosford
So the test we want to take is the GFR test. Anything else?
Chet Fox
There are two tests.
One is a blood test called the EGFR, which stands for Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate, and the other is the urine albumin creatinine ratio, which tests for spillage.
Let me explain a little bit about the disease in general. The kidney is the body’s water filtration system, just as we have water filtration plants. The kidney is the body’s water filtration system, and the EGFR measures how well the water-cleansing system works. The kidney removes toxins from the body, excretes them in urine, and we pee them out, so they don’t harm the body. That’s the estimated glomeric. It’s called estimated because measuring the glomerular filtration rate directly is very expensive, but everybody breaks down their muscle at a pretty consistent rate over the course of the day. So by measuring the amount of muscle breakdown in the blood, you can assess kidney function; that’s the first test.
The other is the urine albumin creatinine ratio. Think of this like a spaghetti strainer with holes. You know, as the holes get bigger, more protein leaks through those holes. So it measures the protein that leaks into the urine and compares the amount of Creatinine in that urine to the amount of protein (albumin) in the urine. Albumin is a form of protein; a specific form of protein.
So by measuring those two things, we can assess how dangerous kidney function is for any individual. The danger from either a low EGFR—because the worse it gets, the lower the number gets—or the higher the amount of protein in the urine, the higher the amount of albumin in the urine. Both of those are very dangerous.
In fact, the National Kidney Foundation has a nice thing called the Heat Map (below), which shows the levels of each. I do have a published paper showing that the protein in the urine is as dangerous as the low filtration rate. So both of them are bad.
Sven Hosford
We’ve talked about diabetes and high blood pressure, and I’ve talked about people over 65. Who else is most likely to have kidney disease? What are some other warning signs?
Chet Fox
Well, there are other forms of kidney disease.
There’s something called IGA nephropathy. IGA is a type of antibody that attacks the kidneys in people. There was a very good football player for the Buffalo Bills who had to end his career because of that.
The other is polycystic kidney disease, which is often genetic, in which cysts form in the kidneys. Those are less common, but they’re also forms.
But the main thing we really want to be talking about is what occurs because of high blood pressure and diabetes. It should be noted that African Americans tend to have much higher blood pressure than whites. There’s probably a genetic reason for that, but it’s not uncommon for African Americans to have very poor control of blood pressure, even without diabetes. They can get Chronic Kidney Disease just from the high blood pressure alone. Most whites who don’t have as severe hypertension usually have both. It’s usually the diabetes alone that can cause the Chronic Kidney Disease if it’s poorly controlled. Diabetes, combined with hypertension, makes it very difficult.
So we’re really going to encourage people to go to their doctors and, at least annually, get a blood test for diabetes, a blood test for the urine albumin creatinine, and a blood test for the EGFR, in addition to testing for high blood pressure. If your doctor does those things and addresses them, then you should do well.
Sven Hosford
Are there any lifestyle or nutritional issues that might lead to more Chronic Kidney Disease?
Chet Fox
Obesity and insulin resistance are the most common issues, so nutritionally, it’s important to have a diet that really fits your genetics. They finally changed the food pyramid to say that protein is good for you. One of the things that people with Chronic Kidney Disease say is, “Oh, don’t take protein, because it’s bad for the kidneys.” That has proved not to be the case at all.
A high-protein diet is okay. In severe Chronic Kidney Disease, they may have to monitor it a little bit, but in early Chronic Kidney Disease, protein is not a problem.
One thing people can do is exercise. It’s very important. I don’t like the term exercise. I like the term activity. So the best thing to do is find an activity that you like. That can be walking, that can be gardening, that can be pickleball, or whatever you enjoy. Get up and out of the chair and move around—even simple things, like standing at work instead of sitting at work. Standing desks are helpful.
The point here is you need to do things that you can do, and you’re willing to do, and that you enjoy doing, because that’s what happens long term. A study found that the two activities people do for a lifetime are walking and gardening.
Sven Hosford
We’ve talked a bit about this, but I think it’s worth reinforcing. Are there really no pharmaceutical options to treat CKD? Is that basically true?
Chet Fox
Well, no, that’s not correct.
Sven Hosford
Well, there I go. That’s why you’re the expert, and I’m just a journalist,
Chet Fox
That’s why they pay me the big bucks.
As we said before, ACE inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers help the kidneys, but we’ve found that some diabetes drugs now also help them. The GLP-1s: those weight-loss drugs. And it’s not just from the weight loss. The GLP-1s help the kidneys. GLP-1s include Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro. The drugs you’ve seen that have been used for obesity are also good for the kidneys and help control blood sugars, not just from the weight loss. And they help the kidneys.
The other is some of the newer diabetic drugs called SGLT2. Invokana. Farsiga and Jardiance are three brand names of those. Those also help the kidneys and people with congestive heart failure, in addition to treating diabetes.
There is one newer drug on the market for Chronic Kidney Disease. The one that has been shown to help Chronic Kidney Disease. It’s an expensive drug. A lot of help can be done with cheaper drugs, yeah, but I haven’t been that fond of it, but there is a newer one.
So there are pharmaceuticals that the doctor will know about that will help, but all of them will help slow the progression.
Sven Hosford
Slow the progression, but it doesn’t reverse it.
Chet Fox
No, it doesn’t actually reverse it.
Sven Hosford
Another important issue I think we need to talk about is hydration and dehydration. It’s so important that we drink enough water to help flush our kidneys. Can you give me the medical expert advice on that subject?
Chet Fox
Basically, the more the better. But don’t overdo it with just pure water, because that will dilute other things, like electrolytes in the blood. So getting extra electrolytes is important. Restriction of salt intake is also a good idea.
Fruits and vegetables are very helpful for the kidneys. Fruits, vegetables, and dairy products are very helpful for the kidneys. Now they have found that both the Mediterranean diet and plant-based diets are generally healthy for the kidneys.
It’s okay to have protein and meats, even fats. You can still have a high-fat, high-protein diet, as long as you don’t combine it with a lot of carbohydrates and don’t gain a lot of weight. Weight and insulin resistance are the important issues, not exactly what you’re eating in terms of fats.
Obviously, straight sugars are bad and should be limited, but I recommend that all patients with diabetes get a glucose meter, whether it’s a FreeStyle Libre or Dexcom, so they can know which foods raise their blood sugar.
For example, I am terrible with rice and pasta, but I can eat potatoes without raising my blood sugars as much. Those three are still pure carbohydrates. Now, another person may be able to take pasta and potatoes, which raise their blood sugar. So it’s good to have the meter in front. Oh, I take this, my sugar goes way up.
Sven Hosford
Yeah, everybody’s different. There’s no one-size-fits-all.
Chet Fox
We’re all individuals, and family history is very important. What runs in the family?
A person named Dr. Lynch now has a syndrome named after himself. All he did was take family histories of people who had cancer and people who didn’t. He found that there were cancer-prone and cancer-resistant families. If I ask a patient, " What’s in your family?” They can tell me, “All my people have had heart attacks,” or All my people have had cancer.” “All my people have had strokes.” You can’t underestimate the genetics in that regard.
And there’s newer stuff going on with the whole gut microbiome, which hopefully at some point we’ll have someone talk about how the bacteria in our gut have a lot to do with our health, even our mental health.
Sven Hosford
Well, let’s get right down to it. Now this is the real–if I can use the term--“meat” of our discussion here. Let’s talk about nutraceutical options. This is where we’re seeing a lot of promise, and many people are actually reversing kidney disease.
Dr. Fox, we promote a product called the Kidney Defender. It’s got three main substances in it. Can you explain what those are and the main benefits of each?
Chet Fox
Yes, there are three ingredients. I will go through what they are and their individual benefits. Then I’ll go through some preliminary data on the use of these ingredients.
The most important thing is niacin, also called nicotinic acid. It’s also vitamin B3, one of the B vitamins, and it has some really important effects in the body. It is anti-inflammatory, and kidney disease is an inflammatory disease. It is an antioxidant. When you think of oxidation, think of rust. Basically, rust is iron oxide. It’s the oxygenation. So an antioxidant would be effective at removing rust from the body.
It causes—and I was shocked to learn this—gene repair. So if our genes are damaged, you can actually repair them, which is, I think, part of the reason between the anti-inflammatory effect and the gene reversal, why we’re starting to see some reversal with our product.
From the complications—and we didn’t talk about the complications if you get Chronic Kidney Disease, which we do need to talk about— one of them is high phosphorus. Now, why is that a problem? In the bloodstream, calcium and phosphorus are combined at a certain level. So the more phosphorus in the blood, the less calcium in the blood. The more calcium in the blood, the less phosphorus in the blood.
So when the phosphorus increases, if the calcium can’t be in the blood, it goes into the arteries, and we call that atherosclerosis, which is a fancy term for hardening of the arteries. But it’s hardening because they’re calcified and they become rigid, and that’s what creates all the problems with things like heart attacks and strokes. So it lowers phosphorus. That’s the first product.
Sven Hosford
Okay, wait a minute. I need to stop here because I think many people are thinking backward about this. People think that hardening of the arteries has a lot more to do with eating meat or too much fat, and you’re telling me it’s because of kidney disease and too much phosphorus in our bloodstream.
Chet Fox
Yep. Well, that’s not the only cause, but it’s one of the causes. It’s more the insulin resistance than the fats we eat that causes it. So when we get insulin resistance, the inflammation pushes calcium into the arteries. In fact, what we do to decide whether a person is at risk for heart disease is measure calcium in the coronary arteries. So when the arteries that supply the heart calcify, that’s when people are at risk.
The second ingredient is calcium carbonate. Calcium carbonate also lowers phosphorus.
The third is sodium bicarbonate. Sodium bicarbonate prevents and treats metabolic acidosis. Metabolic acidosis does a ton of bad things in the body. It prevents the heart from pumping well. Just think acid. You don’t want acid in your arteries because it prevents the heart from pumping well, in addition to several other negative effects in the body. Sodium bicarbonate prevents and treats them.
The three ingredients, combined, reduce phosphorus, prevent metabolic acidosis, and preserve the positive effects of niacin. We heard about these three working together to possibly reverse CKD. The first person to use these together was an 82-year-old man who had had bypass surgery, had stents put in, had really bad coronary disease, and had a very low EGFR.
EGFR goes from about 5 or fewer to about 100. It can go over 100, but think of it as a percentage. So this person’s EGFR was 19, so they were getting him ready for dialysis, and he had really bad coronary disease.
So he was put on these three things, and his EGFR went from 19 to 61 over a three-year period. That was a major improvement. But not only did his kidneys improve, but he lived for 12 years after that, and died at age 94 of pneumonia, never having another coronary event that whole time.
Just so you know how this works, his life expectancy at that time, when he had an EGFR of 19 and severe coronary artery disease, was one to two years expected lifespan. Outside high expectancy, five years. Five years! He went 12 years and had no further coronary events.
Basically, when we talk about the complications of kidney disease, having kidney disease means you have heart disease. They go together. So when you protect the kidneys, you protect the heart. So I used to have a kidney compass with things that basically said, “save your kidneys, save your heart.” So that’s how it got started.
Today, we have 13 people using the product for which we have data. We’re trying to collect pre- and post-data, and the average increase in glomerular filtration rate is 51%, and you’re an example of that.
Sven Hosford
Yes, I am. My EGFR was over 60 for most of my life. I get it checked every six months. Then, a year and a half ago, it went from 66 to 53, and my doctor kind of freaked out and sent me to a cardiologist, which I didn’t understand then, but I understand now.
And I started taking the Kidney Defender. The next time I went in, a couple of months later, it was back to 61. So I have personally reversed kidney disease.
And that’s really the bottom line that we want to conclude with. Can kidney disease be reversed, especially with a nutraceutical approach? Let’s talk about some of the science that’s out there.
Chet Fox
Well, let me talk a little bit about dogma and irreversibility.
My favorite was when I was in my first year of medical school. We had a guy who said, “Oh, I can reverse coronary disease. I can reverse heart disease.” And everyone said, “No, no, you can’t do it.” We all thought he was crazy. Then, 10 years later, the advice changed to, “Oh, what do you know? We can reverse coronary artery disease.” So now that’s what we believe.
Then we said, “Oh, the brain. When you drink alcohol, you lose 10,000 brain cells. You’re never going to get those back. You know, brain damage can’t be reversed.” And you know that if you have a brain disease, the brain can’t regrow. Well, then they found out brain neutrophilic factor, and all of a sudden they said, “What do you know? The brain can regrow!
In medicine, every time the dogma said it couldn’t be reversed, we found out it could be. And I think we’re going to find the same with Chronic Kidney Disease.
In fact, not just with the nutraceutical approach. There was a person who was treating long COVID, and he just cleaned out the respiratory system, and he found, just serendipitously, that his kidney disease reversed. So we now have two approaches that may reverse kidney disease. We’re trying to secure funding for a research study comparing those two approaches for reversing kidney disease.
Sven Hosford
Well, anyone who wants to follow up on the science can do so on the health defender website; you’ll find links to 75 studies showing the effects of niacin, calcium carbonate, and sodium bicarbonate on kidney disease. There’s solid scientific evidence on how these work.
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Sven Hosford
I want to bring Albert into the conversation here. Albert Calfo is actually an old friend of mine, and I’ve always been impressed by how he was an entrepreneur who ran a bunch of different medical companies. They all did good work, provided a good service at a good price, and he seemed to be making good money with them. So I was very happy to learn, after I discovered I had kidney disease, that Albert is now the CEO of Health Defender and that their first product is Kidney Defender.
Albert, it’s really good to see you here. Tell us a little bit more about yourself. How did you become a serial medical entrepreneur?
Albert Calfo
Glad to be here. Well, I was a stockbroker in the 1980s, and I had a physician client who asked me to put together a medical partnership for a mobile CAT scanner. Not only was it a very good investment, but I was also fascinated by it, so I left the financial industry to focus on building medical ventures. And over the last 40 years, I have started, built, and sold several medical companies.
Sven Hosford
What drew you to this particular venture? What interested you in kidney disease and the nutraceutical solutions?
Albert Calfo
My last company was a medical billing company, and I had a very large endocrinology client. The physician in the practice told me he had a lipidologist who used a combination of supplements that could actually slow or reverse kidney disease.
I didn’t believe it, of course, until he showed me the data. I was actually so impressed with it that I decided to sell the medical billing company and dedicate myself to this cause. I watched what this lipidologist was doing.
He was asking people to go to Amazon and buy 3 or 4 bottles of different supplements. Then they had to keep track of which supplements from each bottle they had to take each day. I thought that was rather cumbersome. I wouldn’t do it myself. So I came up with the idea of combining all these ingredients into one capsule, and that’s how we formed Health Defender.
We’ve created a capsule that contains all the ingredients in one capsule. Kidney Defender.
Sven Hosford
What are your core company values?
Albert Calfo
I think anything we develop has to be easy to use, cost-effective, and deliver positive outcomes. Let’s take Kidney Defender, for example. You take two tablets for lunch and two for dinner, all from the same bottle. That one bottle is exactly one month’s supply. Easy to keep track of. It’s $2 a day, cost-effective, and we’re seeing tremendous positive outcomes.
So anything we develop will have those three criteria. They have to be easy to use, cost-effective, and ensure positive outcomes.
Sven Hosford
And I also admire that you tend to surround yourself with really good people, people of integrity. What do you look for when you hire somebody?
Albert Calfo
Well, they have to believe in our mission. They don’t have to know anything about nutraceuticals. We can train them. We can teach them. What they need is the same enthusiasm and passion we have to ensure our core values.
Sven Hosford
Tell us about the other products you have now and the ones coming out soon.
Albert Calfo
Well, we have Fitness Defender, which is a vasodilator. It increases blood flow. It’s for the serious workout community. We have Focus Defender, which is getting tremendous reviews. People are feeling sharper and getting rid of the brain fog.
We were looking at a blood pressure product for Heart Defender. A certain population has a gene mutation for which the synthetic medications don’t seem to be working. But our combination therapy is working, so we’re pretty excited about that. That may be out soon.
And we’re working with a hormone doctor to develop some hormone supplements. We anticipate it will be out within four to six weeks.
Sven Hosford
Do most of your products include niacin as a key ingredient?
Albert Calfo
Yes, the first ones I described have niacin, but the hormone therapy will be completely different.
Chet Fox
Can I jump in here? I want to talk about Focus Defender. I am totally addicted to it. I was taking Fitness Defender, which is very similar to Focus Defender, and it did a great job improving my limited workouts. I was able to do better, and I noticed I was much clearer mentally.
So that’s what produced Focus Defender. I now take it, and I’ve found that when I start taking it before work, I don’t need coffee. I’m a lot more alert, and I’m working later into the evening without getting tired. Usually by three or four in the afternoon, I was done. The first two hours of the day, I call my golden hours. My brain is clear. At three o’clock in the afternoon, I was done.
Now taking Focus Defender, I go till seven or eight o’clock and am still mentally alert. That was just with one pill in the morning. And I don’t need coffee anymore. I used to need coffee every morning.
So I am much more alert with the Focus Defender. We’ve given it to several people, and they’ve found the same thing without being told that the Focus Defender will also help their workouts. I gave it to a neighbor who’s a construction worker. He said, “Yes, I’m a lot more mentally clear, but also I know I’m not as sore after work.”
Sven Hosford
I’ve been so impressed by what I’ve learned about niacin. Here’s this amazing substance—and you could probably talk about this more, Dr. Fox—which has no side effects other than the flush. We’ve talked about the flush because you guys came up with a great way to treat it. But also, there’s no maximum limit. I mean, you can take as much of this as you want, and even just 100, 200, 500 milligrams a day does such a wonderful job at all these different things we talked about. Can you talk a little bit more about that? Dr Fox,
Chet Fox
Let me talk a little bit about the flush. People ask about side effects, and the flush is one, but it’s a positive side effect. It shows that the medicine is working, but it’s also a nuisance side effect. We’ve had people take the Fitness Defender and the Kidney Defender, flush, then say, “I am not touching that.”
That’s why we created our infographic on how to reduce the flush. But it’s not like a side effect of other drugs, where it’s negative. It’s not negative. It’s actually just a sign that the medicine is working.
Sven Hosford
Let’s talk about the flush. What do you do when you get the flush and are very uncomfortable?
Chet Fox
Well, the best thing to do is to try to prevent the flush. We have the infographic, but the long and short of it is to eat when you take niacin. Just food. If you’re not eating, just taking a little bit of applesauce, or if you take aspirin, even baby aspirin, half an hour before. Both of those will prevent the flush. And in the Kidney Defender, we put a product called Isoquercetin in there to help reduce the flush in people.
Honestly, we haven’t had as many people stop taking Kidney Defender because of the flush. It’s a flush in the face, but it can also be a tingling or an itchy sensation. But if people realize that’s a positive thing, not a negative thing, that sometimes helps.
Albert Calfo
We’ve found that some serious workout people like the flush with Fitness Defender. They love the flush. They are the same ones who do the cold plunges.
Sven Hosford
I personally have eaten some applesauce. That works fine. Three spoonfuls of applesauce, and the flush just goes away. But as Dr. Fox said, it’s not really painful, just a little uncomfortable.
Chet Fox
I do want to say one thing about niacin. It’s just vitamin B3. Many studies, including the biggest one, a VA study that studied people from the VA for 15 years, found there was an 11% reduction in mortality from coronary artery disease.
Now, what happened was the drug companies couldn’t make any money on it, so they created Niaspan, an extended-release version. They prescribed high doses, and that caused liver problems and other things. So niacin got a bad name, but it was because of what the pharmaceutical companies did so they could make money on it, not because niacin does bad things to the body.
Sven Hosford
That kind of explains why most doctors ignore it.
Chet Fox
Here’s a pop quiz for the two of you. Guess how many hours of nutrition training I had in medical school?
Albert Calfo
Zero
Sven Hosford
I would say zero.
Chet Fox
Ding! Ding! Ding! Exactly! So, you know, the doctors are trained just on randomized controlled trials. You’re not going to do a randomized controlled trial on basic nutrition because it’s almost impossible to do, right? So there’s not a lot of quote, evidence-based science behind nutrition.
But we need to collect evidence differently. Instead of a randomized control trial, we need to look at common people and their habits. This is the person’s habits versus that person’s. And then compare the results.
Sven Hosford
We’re almost out of time, so let’s have a little discussion about the future of nutraceutical medicine, how that fits into integrative medicine, and functional medicine. Albert, how do you see it from the business perspective?
Albert Calfo
It’s a growing industry. People don’t want to take synthetic medications. Synthetic medications have side effects. I see the whole industry growing substantially in the next five years.
Sven Hosford
Dr. Fox, anything you want to add to that?
Chet Fox
Western medicine has done great things in terms of curing complex diseases, but it hasn’t focused on preventing disease or keeping people healthy. So nutrition—food as medicine—is a critical part. Talk to any of the longevity people. They’re all talking about nutrition, or they’re trying to synthesize it. Balance of Nature, for example, is just fruits and vegetables in a pill, or Immuno 150, all the ones that are on TV. You know, just 150 nutrients in a pill. I’ve honestly thought that those things can help. But some people’ve gone on plant-based diets, such as the Mediterranean diet, and have markedly improved their health.
One thing that American society, or people in general, needs to understand is that nobody cares about your health as much as you do. Your doctor doesn’t care that much. And he’s not, or she’s not that interested in curing you. They’re going to be interested in treating your condition.
That’s why I’m so happy to say we’ve got a product here with Kidney Defender that does more than just treat the condition, but it actually reverses kidney disease. I’m really, really happy. It’s great we’re here and doing this.
Sven Hosford
Absolutely. This has been a great, interesting discussion. Health Defender will be a regular sponsor of our podcast, and Dr. Chet Fox and I will be back regularly with more questions.
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