Holistic Healthline Interview with Dr. Jim LaValle
James B. LaValle
R.Ph.,C.C.N.M.T.,ND (trad)
James LaValle is an internationally recognized clinical pharmacist, author, board-certified clinical nutritionist, and expert and educator in integrative and precision health. James is best known for his expertise in personalized integrative therapies uncovering the underlying metabolic issues that keep people from feeling healthy and vital. A thought leader in drug/nutrient depletion issues he has published 4 books and 3 databases in this area alone. As such he has over 35 years’ experience integrating natural and integrative therapies into various medical and business models. His latest research is in drug-induced microbiome disruption.
Interview Transcript
Jane 0:00
And welcome to Holistic Healthline, your direct line to great health. I’m Jane Jansen with Peter Morell, we are holistic practitioners at the Tree of Life Wellness Center in Seekonk, Massachusetts and we have dedicated Saturdays to keeping people informed about their health and keep them as healthy and well as possible. And we’d like to bring on the big gun experts in the field of natural health in particular today. Joining us is our great friend, we’ve we’ve talked to him numerous times and colleague, Dr. Jim LaValle, he’s a clinical pharmacist, author, board certified nutritionist and heart and immune health expert. And welcome back to Holistic Healthline, Jim.
Jim LaValle 0:52
Good to be back. Great to hear you guys.
Peter 0:57
Sound swell guy, I did. That’s why
Jane 1:03
This, with so much going on. It’s been a challenging couple of years here. And you know, people are just being twisted and turned and all different directions with this COVID virus. And now, you know, we have cold and flu season coming up. And, you know, people’s lifestyles and diet changed over the last couple of years, blood pressures are going up, blood sugars are going up. And now everybody’s scared to death of what’s going to happen this winter, with all these different viruses running around, and, you know, so what can we do about this? What what do we need to focus on?
Jim LaValle 1:49
You got to figure out, you know, during the last three years, people ran into, you know, one or two ways for their lifestyle, you know, they either became the best bakers, and virtual wine tasting folks in the universe. Or they decided to, you know, take your health seriously. Unfortunately, when you look at the statistics, they got a third of all US adults with heart disease, half of those over 55. And then you’ve got half of the population, either insulin resistant or diabetic. So there’s things that they got to start to do, I mean, there’s the obvious ones, you know, that, hey, I got it, I got to start to move a little bit more, I’ve got to really start to exercise some way try to find something to enjoy. And obviously, we always say, you know, eat better, you know, try to, you know, have a diet that’s plant forward to get more plant in your diet and new proteins and you know, to make quality choices, and probably just cut down the volume of food and how many hours a day are eating wouldn’t hurt, either. Right? I mean, you know, everybody’s all excited about time restricted eating. Well, you know, you go back 30 years ago, 40 years ago, and people had breakfast, they had lunch, they had dinner, they ate about 12 hours a day, and then they let the body repair at night. And I think that’s really important for people to kind of get grasp hold of is no my am I eating? For the thrill, the stress? No, because now people’s got a lot of chronic stress or more anxious, that means you’re gonna crave comfort food more, or Am I really hungry? And so, you know, obviously, it’s working on that stress, as best you can, we’re all you know, it’s stressful times. So, you know, how are you going to unload that, you know, whether it’s doing some exercises with breathing, you know, taking a little time in the morning for quiet time. And then of course, you know, when you do all those lifestyle thing, the other thing I think that’s important is just, you know, take supplements, there’s nutrients that really matter. You know, when it comes to you know, what’s happening with people today, you know, I think aged garlic extract, you know, Kyolic with in the family of Kyolic products are really, you know, they’re right at the forefront of what people should be reaching for. There are some great studies on h garlic. I think that you know, I think you know, I hope about that really show the benefit of you know, why people should consider age is kind of the center point is a supplement strategy for being healthy.
Peter 4:18
It’s something we’ve recommended to patients for literally for decades. And it’s the only garlic product we’ve ever used. Can you explain to the listeners a little bit you know, there are a ton of garlic supplements on the market, but kyolic aged garlic extract is quite unique. How can you tell the listeners about it?
Jim LaValle 4:48
Oh, absolutely. I mean, I think when when so the first thing about aged garlic extract is just that that you know when so it takes 20 months to make aged garlic extract. And so organic garlic is taken and they put it in a tank, and then they No, it’s obviously incredibly clean non GMO organic garlic. But then when they aged, it changes the properties of the garlic. So you can eat all the garlic you want, you can buy all the garlic oil capsules, maybe open up softcase and spin it with them, whatever you want to do, you’re not going to get a lot of benefit from that from the standpoint of I’m trying to change my chemistry. But when when you age, garlic, it takes away the volatile compounds that are responsible for that Stinking Rose effect. You know, everybody’s gonna know you’re coming. But the other the other benefit of this is transforms gate or extract a completely new set of compounds, natural compounds that get made in the aging process that have tremendous health benefits. And the nice thing about it is, is that you know, there’s over 900 publications on aged garlic. So when people read about the value of garlic, oh products good for your blood pressure, no, garlic’s good for your microbiome, it’s because they’re citing the research that was on, I cannot believe they’re committed to the science of it, and then have all the human studies that back up, you know, it’s one thing to have one study on all it lowers blood pressure, it lowers your oxidized LDL, multiple studies, you know, human trials, double blind, randomized, placebo controlled parallel cohorts, where they really look at the value of this. And I mean, or, you know, I don’t know any other compounds, so many things, whether it’s, you know, reducing vulnerable plaque, lowering your blood pressure, helping acting as a prebiotic, and helping your immune system, you know, keeping your blood vessels pliable. And then it even has some impact on the nervous system, which over the last three years, everybody’s starting to learn about that, because a lot of people were, you know, COVID, long haulers. And all of a sudden, their heart rate variability is up, heart rates up and nervous system basically got stuck because of the inflammatory storm. And I’m engaged with it. And its uniqueness is, is really important for people to realize.
Jane 7:21
What’s really cool about the kyolic brands, is not only do you get this age, garlic extract, but they also have different formulas, where they’ve added you can get the plain aged garlic extract. Or you can also go to some of the different formulas. One that we particularly like is the kyolic 109 Blood Pressure formula. We’ve been seeing tremendous benefits from that.
Unknown 7:51
Oh, I think I think you’re right on with that one. Because, you know, there were two studies that were done with the kyolic 109. Formula One was in 2018. And other one was in 2021. Where, you know, just in 12 weeks, and here’s the thing, it was only given over 12 weeks, and there’s a significant reduction, and, and blood pressure, right. So you know, when you started about an 11 point drop in your systolic blood pressure and a six point drop in the diastolic pressure, you know, that’s significant. And guess what, no side effects. That’s, that’s what a lot of times people don’t realize, when you start getting on blood pressure medications, you can start feeling fatigued, you know, you just don’t seem to have the energy that you have. And you’re not going to get that when you try something first, especially when you just noticed, you know, hopefully, CH garlic extract the details before blood pressure starts to go up. But as soon as you see it start to go up. 109 is a great formula because it has natto kinase in it. So natto kinases is great because it helps to keep the blood from being quite so sticky. And then it also has some theanine, which is great in terms of kind of calming your nervous system down. So really, I mean, it’s a fantastic form, and I could see why it’s one of your guys favorite formulas.
Jane 9:11
And it’s something that we’ve seen that, you know, when people start taking it, and they watch their blood pressure, that they go back to the doctor, their blood pressures improved so much the darker starts reducing their medication, and some patients have even been able to come off it entirely. Jim, we got to take a quick break. And when we get back, I want to talk a little bit about also like the metabolic syndrome, blood sugar issues. It’s becoming a problem. So we’ll get to take a quick break. You’re listening to Holistic Health Line, and we’ll be back in a moment with our special guest, Dr. Jim Laval and welcome back to Holistic Health Line and direct line to great health and our awesome guest today. Dr. Jim Laval clinical pharmacist. As, in fact, you know, he was named one of the 50 most influential pharmacists by the American drug magazine. And, you know, he’s written numerous books, including your blood never lies, one that sits right in Peter’s office all the time, and cracking the metabolic code. And so again, when we talk about the metabolic code, and blood sugar, and you know, what’s going on with the people in, in health, as far as the blood sugars are concerned, they seem to be jumping off the roof here.
Unknown 10:42
Yeah, absolutely. In theory, you’re going to be excited that the next version of your blood never lies is going to be coming out here shortly. Very good. Yeah, we got a new new new version coming up with actually going over advanced lipid panels to so we added a whole section on advanced lipids and why that’s so important is when people’s blood sugar’s go up. And a lot of people don’t realize if you go into your doctor, and you have a 97, blood sugar, that’s normal, right? 65 To 99 supposed to be normal. But if you have a 97 blood sugar, you have a 72% risk of being a person with diabetes in the next 10 years. A lot of people don’t realize that they go along, as doctor said, normal, normal is not normal, you’re almost falling off the cliff. And the reason it’s so important is once your blood sugar goes high, that means typically, you’re going to also be making more insulin, you start to release more adrenaline in your body, your body becomes sympathetic dominant, so your blood vessels gets stiffer and smaller. And now your heart has to push harder, meaning your blood pressure is gonna go up, and then it reduces blood flow to the kidneys. And that’s one of the big complications of people with diabetes is they end up with chronic kidney disease. So it’s really important to get your blood sugar under control early. So when you see it in the mid 90s, just realize you’re already getting vascular damage. And that your risk for becoming a person with diabetes is absolutely starting to escalate. And you know, the, you know, the blood sugar balanced formula that coyote look at. And it’s really interesting, a lot of people don’t realize it that everybody thinks of aged garlic extract or kyolic is great for your, you know, your lipids and it lowers oxidized LDL when it you know, and improves your lipid particle size. And, but it also does something that’s pretty interesting for people with their blood sugar issues is it raises a compound in your body called a dip a nektan. And a dip a nektan is what helps turn your insulin receptors on so that they can be more effective at helping the process blood sugar. Now, it doesn’t stop there with that formula, because there’s been enough of an extract, which you know, there are melons got lots of information and data and studies behind it helping with blood sugar. And, in fact, it was in the area of Vedic medicine, you know, that the term for bitter melon it was, it was called the sugar destroyer. And then there’s still there’s Salacia in it. And then there’s chromium in it, which of course, people don’t realize, if you don’t have enough chromium in your body, you can’t make your your insulin receptors work. Chromium is essential for turning on what’s called glute four transport or how you get the glucose into yourself. So, you know, that formula formula 112 is I think it’s a great formulation, especially for people. And look, we know, you know, look, if your blood sugars are going up, you better get out there and start walking. And you better start counting your carbs a little bit. And instead of stopping, you know, in the morning for the you know, the doughnut that’s got the caramel and the bacon and it’s cream filled, maybe look for something a little healthier for your morning breakfast, and hit standard going for that, right. So I just, you know, it’s a really important thing. Now, what we’ve got half of our US population is either diabetic, that’s 13% of the population, or people with diabetes, and the other 37% are known as insulin resistant, which puts them in that category of you know, that potential metabolic syndrome, which is pre hypertensive, pre diabetic and obese with lipids that are bad act or lipids instead of healthy lipids, which accelerates your risk for heart disease, as well as becoming a person with diabetes.
Jane 14:43
One of the things I’ve been looking at doing research on is about the endothelial lining of blood vessels. And in particular, there’s the finding that COVID does damage the endothelial lining. There’s a lot of other things you just mentioned. Blood Sugar, even high blood pressure, these things that damage this lining. And but there are a lot of studies showing that age garlic extract actually helps to repair this lining of the blood vessels.
Unknown 15:13
Well, you know, you’re right on top of the latest research, right that inner lining and Caltech like a calyx. And, and what happens is, when people, you know, they they found out their centers, publications that show that you’ve got these very small micro capillaries, and they get down around, you know, six microns, which is incredibly tiny. And when you’re under chronic inflammation, which could be due to the things that we talked about, or it could have been the fact that it’s now published and in, especially in COVID, long haulers that those individuals have compromised micro capillary circulation. Now, why is that so important? I’ll tell you, when I get to all of your tissues and organs, to carry the nutrients that you need the oxygen that you need, and carry away the byproducts and metabolism. So getting your micro capillary circulation corrected is incredibly important. And yes, aged garlic extract, without a doubt, has got studies that show that improves the micro vascular system and helps to repair and improve blood flow to organs and tissues and out of the periphery, you know, your fingers and toes.
Peter 16:27
I get in trouble for saying it. But I tell people, you know, you, you take your average drugstore multivitamin, throw it out the window, and take a kyolic aged garlic formula, because you’re gonna get a lot more out of it.
Jim LaValle 16:43
Oh, and couldn’t, couldn’t agree with you more.
Jane 16:48
Also, Jim again, this time of year, cold and flu kyolic also makes an immune formula that my husband and I have taken pretty much through last year, we’re getting back on it right now for this year. And with great success, we haven’t gotten sick.
Jim LaValle 17:12
The big thing I try to get people to do is you can mix and match these things together the various formulas, so you can go in there, you know, and look bad colds and flu season and I’m talking about non is hitting people. I mean, I’ve heard that as much as six students at certain schools and you know, are being kidnapped. And so the really great medicinal mushrooms that have some stragglers in it, which is really good for balancing their leeks and oregano, which are both fighters, you know, objects that, you know, it has some you know, bulk chemical, probably even more important is when you take a garlic extract, what happens is it that guy makes something called gamma delta t and why they’re important. They’re active T killer cells. So one of the things that happens is people get metabolically stressed, like during the pandemic or out your T killer cells, they become lazy or immature, and they can’t work as hard. So when you get a bug, you know, you’re not as able to fight it off. So what’s great about the Immune Formula, it’s giving you, you know, compounds in there that help directly fight the bug. You’ve got support ingredients, like the mushroom complex, and the stragglers, which kind of help feed your immune system and balance that out. And then you’ve got h garlic, that stimulating those T killer cells to get active and get to work. And so I think it’s a great formula and what you can combine them, I always tell people try to get a minimum of 1200 milligrams of aged garlic extract a day into your regiment. So you can combine the two I want to use a new form of formula 103. And I want to use 112 for blood sugar. I want to use the cardiovascular formula 109 with the Immune Formula during during the winter months. The biggest thing is, for me, when you look at all the studies, you want to get to that 1200 milligram threshold that’s where you really get the benefit start to really get going and the more you can even work towards theory have high blood pressure if you already have you know the beginnings of heart disease to get up to 2400 milligrams of aged garlic extract or kyolic a day into your system because the studies are really clear. It’s going to reduce those. You know, we heard about the cytokine storms and inflammatory cytokines when they gave people who are overweight, aged garlic extract. They showed a 33% reduction and inflammatory cytokines. That’s a big deal. That’s that’s really knocking down Got a lot of information.
Jane 20:02
Jim, you’re so awesome. You’re such a wealth of information. Unfortunately, we’ve run out of time, we can’t pick your brain anymore. Just want to let people know, go to kyolic.com or give them a call. 1-800-421-2998 But I encourage you to go to kyolic.com because they’re also doing sweepstakes enter to win for the 50th anniversary. So you’ll win something if you go to kyolic.com. So check it out. Jim, good to let you go. Want to thank you so much for joining us, Peter. Thanks for having me, guys. It was always a pleasure.
Peter 20:37
Thanks, Jim. And thanks, everybody, for tuning in. We appreciate it. It’s Holistic Healthline. So visit HolisticHealthline.com Check out Jane’s blog while you’re there. Thanks to our producers up and down the East Coast. Especially our guys at home Chris and Ethan who always do an outstanding job. We’re here each and every week. You should be too and we will see you next time.
Jane 21:07
Have a great weekend.