FHP – Ep. 3 – “Epigenetics” feat. Dr. JJ Purcell

Dr. Barter interviews Dr. JJ Purcell about internal and external influences on gene expression.

Transcript:

Intro [00:00:03] Welcome to the Fearless Health podcast with host Dr. Ann-Marie Barter. Dr. Barter is on a mission to help people achieve their health and wellness goals and help men and women live their best lives fearlessly. Dr. Barter is the founder of Alternative Family Medicine and Chiropractic in Denver and Longmont, Colorado.

Dr. Ann-Marie [00:00:24] Thank you so much for joining us here today on Fearless Health podcast. I am your host, Dr. Ann-Marie Barter, and I am really, really excited about the guest that I have on today. This is Dr. JJ Purcell, and she is a naturopathic physician out of Portland, Oregon, and very, very knowledgeable on a lot of things health. But today we’re going to be focusing on epigenetics and how that actually plays into your health. So thank you so much for joining us today.

Dr. JJ Purcell [00:00:52] Oh, you’re so welcome. I love your podcast and it’s great to contribute. So anything that I have to share with those listening is great.

Dr. Ann-Marie [00:01:02] Well, I am really, really excited to get into this today. We talked to a couple of weeks ago and it was just so interesting to hear how you have transitioned your practice into discussing genetics. So I want to first jump in to the topic of the empty half hour gene that has been like a pretty big buzz going on. And I’m curious what you’re seeing in practice and how this is changing the way that you’re treating?

Dr. JJ Purcell [00:01:35] Yeah, for sure. I mean, it is it is very profound once you once you start getting into it. And I’ve definitely gone down the rabbit hole and just, you know, to pull back a little bit. I just want to explain what epigenetics is and what my h f r is so that everyone’s on the same page and they can understand how it might be potentially impacting their own life. Yes, perfect. So epigenetics, you know, if we really do, a very simple definition is the study of how our environment switches our genes on or off. So we now know that we aren’t just born with this set of genes and they are static and they never change. They are actually influenced by our life. They’re influenced by how we sleep, what we eat, the people around us, our emotional wellbeing, how we exercise. It’s just it’s very profound and it’s such a fascinating science. And as we evolve as a scientific group, we’re able to really take a look at what is going on with our genes and what is turning them on and turning them off, making them act. Not not the way we want to and really affecting our health. So, you know, research has shown that the environment, like I said, can change, so I want to make it really clear that what you were born with isn’t necessarily your your destined life. For example, I have a brother in law, has his whole father’s side of the family, had heart conditions and they are all passed fairly young. And once we started diving into this epigenetics component, we realized that those genes were getting turned on, which were really affecting the cardiac picture of his family’s health picture when it comes to heart health. And we were able to really look at that and take that knowledge and change his whole outlook and the longevity of his life. So this is big stuff, folks, and I love. I love sharing it with you all. And so one thing that we really have to start with is when we talk about epigenetics is we really have to start with this one word called methylation. And it’s a it’s a big word and it has big effects. So methylation is if you can kind of take a look at your body. And as you know, hundreds thousands of things are going on every moment. You know, we’re we’re breathing, we’re digesting food, we’re processing in our brains where we’re moving our bodies. So much is going on every moment that we don’t even think about, but the body is constantly in check. So if you think about a thousand different light switches in your body and at given times, some are being turned on and some are being turned off, and that’s basically methylation in a nutshell. So methylation turns things on and turns things off, and it gets gets that done by a series of events. So if your methylation isn’t working well, things aren’t necessarily working well inside your body. So some of these things that we always think of that directly are affected by methylation is stress. How do you respond to stress? Do you have that fighting instincts that fight or flight method? What’s going on with your body methylation affects that. It affects our large intestine. There’s an amino acid glutathione. It really affects how we how we are functioning in the lower digestive tract. It does the whole detoxification of all of our hormones. That’s a big one, especially for women. It moderates our inflammation response. So if you have an injury or if again you have stress, cortisol and blood sugar, these things are all again moderated by methylation. It actually affects our brain and how we think and how we process information. It affects our energy. I mean, I could go on and on and you know, another big one that affects is our immune system. So when we think about methylation and we’re talking about this epigenetic picture, if any type of autoimmune disease or is coming up for you, this is this is an area you should really start delving into because it can have again profound effects on correcting the behavior of that autoimmune process.

Dr. Ann-Marie [00:06:18] Right. And so what are you seeing specifically, you know, with methylation problems? You know, obviously this picture, you know, looks like most cases, right? I mean, because most people have what is it, 80 percent of people have a snip in their favor, gene. Is that correct

Dr. JJ Purcell [00:06:37] stats? I think it’s more like 60, but it could have gone up since I’ve looked, you know, I mean, I wouldn’t be surprised.

Dr. Ann-Marie [00:06:44] So how does somebody know that it’s maybe methylation that is the problem on their detoxification of their hormones? Or how would someone know that maybe the way that their brain is processing information could be a snip in their gene? Like, what are their keynotes that you look for in practice?

Dr. JJ Purcell [00:07:08] You know, the biggest thing we can you can run tests, of course you can do the twenty three and me or the genos tests to take a look at your DNA and the sequencing of the DNA. And those those can identify, as you just mentioned, what are called snips and snips are basically looking at the sequence and identifying it is the way that it should be or if it’s off. And that’s a snip. And so we can do these tests. But honestly, to be to be truthful, it’s really just a good history with the patients and really taking into account what their symptoms are, what their struggles are, and kind of just comparing which genes have those that type of picture. So M.T.A. TFR, which is a really, really common, as we just mentioned, over 60 percent of Americans are known to have this snap in this gene, and it directly affects methylation. Well, if you have a certain markers on a blood test, again, if that’s something that you like to rely on, which a lot of us do something like elevated homocysteine levels will be a result of an empty of ours that no one, as we know, that’s a major risk factor for heart and brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s. But another big one is that it plays a huge role in mood regulation. So if you’re someone who has anxiety or irritability or depression, you know this. This is like the first time we’ve really been able to identify a very specific marker that’s contributing to emotional well-being. You know, it’s very correlating, and it’s such a relief for a lot of people because a lot of times people go to their doctor and they run all sorts of tests and nothing shows up, but they know that something’s not right. Mm hmm. And it’s just so relieving to finally find a piece of the puzzle, right?

Dr. Ann-Marie [00:09:19] And I mean, definitely we have seen out here it’s been interesting to watch psychiatrists actually get into methylation problems in our testing to check to see if that’s going awry because of how much it’s actually contributing. And pretty big mental illness condition. So I mean, that’s a pretty substantial case, like that’s been down the road, but you’re seeing how much changing the methylation actually changes the brain.

Dr. JJ Purcell [00:09:53] It does. And it really, really, truly does, and no anxiety is a big one. I see a lot of women who have increasing levels in anxiety. More now than than I did even even five years ago, definitely 10 years ago, but it’s it’s a pretty significant. And one of the things that I’m noticing is that when you have an empty half hour snap, you’re methylation is not optimally functioning at the very beginning of the methylation process. And one of the key components in methylation are B nine B12 and folate. So a lot of times what people do is they run out and they start taking a bunch of B12 or folate supplements. And unfortunately, that can aggravate symptoms. So I want to really encourage folks to talk or work with someone who is knowledgeable to make sure that you’re getting the right dosage. I’ve seen some patients just start taking B12 and folate, and all of a sudden they are more irritable than they ever have been. It’s time. It’s just very aggravating because the system gets very irritated from from what’s going on. And the other problem that we have is that we have all these foods loaded with folic acid in our diet. Everything’s enriched with folic acid these days. And if you have a methylation issue, if you have a MD, f r, you cannot process folic acid. So what ends up happening is the folic acid goes in. It actually binds to the sites of the methylation process. And so even if you do happen to have a little bit of the right methyl group to go on there, it’s blocked by that folic acid. So then you become, you know, basically what? I refer to it as it becomes a toxic overload of folic acid. And when I see someone with anxiety, this is the first thing I ask them is how much folic acid are you getting in your diet? Because if you have this, it tends to directly correlate an excess amount of unprocessed folic acid. In my practice, I’ve seen correlates to anxiety, right?

Dr. Ann-Marie [00:12:21] And where do you feel like I mean, there’s been a huge increase in anxiety, I would say. I don’t know if it’s if you just bridged the umbrella of anxiety as people feel busy, they feel anxious, they feel depressed, they’re not really feeling. But that’s almost how everybody describes how they feel. Instead of saying, you know, I feel down or I feel shameful or whatever it is to actually name a feeling. So when we’re coming? And I would say patients are coming in all the time with heightened anxiety, fatigue, difficulty sleeping. Why have we seen such a kick out of, you know, them to have our gene issues? Do you feel like they’ve always been there? Or do you feel like this is a factor of something environmental and stress related?

Dr. JJ Purcell [00:13:15] I do. I do think it’s the latter. I think we, you know, before in my practice, in the early years of my practice, someone would come in, you know, typically over the age of thirty six and they would say, I all of a sudden have this symptom. It came out of nowhere and we would start examining that. And it would become evident that, you know, before that symptom arose, their body was doing an amazing job of compensating so they would go out for a night and indulge in rich foods or perhaps alcohol, and their body would be able to to handle the load and process it. But at some point, the scale gets tipped and then their body is no longer able to compensate as well as it was doing previously. I feel that we have reached that tipping point with our environmental factors. Our body just isn’t able to keep up anymore with everything that is going on. And you can you compound that in the day to day environmental exposures that we might have with perhaps processed food and the additives that are in processed food or GMO foods? You know, the body struggles with having to handle those burdens with if you’re any kind of stressed, whether it’s with work or school or children or relationships, we tend to always have one of those that tends to raise our stress level a bit. So you combine all these things we’re no longer able to compensate like we once were. And so. Unable to maintain that state of health, it requires a little bit more work, I believe, than it used to.

Dr. Ann-Marie [00:15:16] Yep, and I used to say, you know, I’ll I’ll just tell you on on labs that I’ve seen. I didn’t used to see elevated homocysteine. Now, now it’s just all the time. It’s consistently. But I remember, you know, there definitely was a tipping point. I mean, my practice looked totally different. Five years ago than it looks today. It’s just been so strange. And I used to say you were exposed to, Oh, I don’t hear it’s it’s heavily chemical, but we’re exposed to 70000 chemicals or 80000 chemicals every seven days. How this statistic is seventy thousand chemicals every single day, and most of those have not been studied as to how they affect humans. So you know what type of. We know a lot of these are endocrine disruptors. So I mean, genetically, they are going to affect us in any way. So that’s fantastic. Is there anything else to maybe add on? Empty air is really important because it it really controls a lot of things it does.

Dr. JJ Purcell [00:16:27] You know, again, I just want to I want to reiterate if you if you are consuming folic acid, try to do your best to not do that. If you are, you know, one of those types that’s going to listen to this and say, Well, I’m just going to try taking some folate B12, OK, but start off with the smallest dose possible before you get in touch with the practitioner. That can help. But you know, honestly, the best way to improve my function is to eat greens, dark, leafy green vegetables and not just, you know that kale salad every once in a while, but I’m talking about three times a day. Get those dark, leafy greens in because it can again really shift just that easily. Once you get that kind of nutrition in you. Wow.

Dr. Ann-Marie [00:17:22] So you have actually seen in your practice not getting a supplement, you know, not giving you any sort of methylation supplement, but just having somebody eat dark, leafy greens will really change the health picture an expression of the gene. Yes, that’s that’s fantastic to have, guys. That’s fantastic.

Dr. JJ Purcell [00:17:40] Yes. So Nutri, if you, you know, nutrition genomics is basically the science of how nutrition interacts with our genes. And so it’s paired right with epigenetics. And what I’m finding and also what I’ve learned, most of everything I know from Ben Lynch, she’s kind of, you know, the guy with epigenetics, but he also is a huge proponent of it’s really about what you’re eating. And we’re not he’s not saying and I’m not saying like, you can get everything from your food. I think most of us realize we can’t anymore rarely get everything from our food, unfortunately. But you can have a huge impact on your health by your food choices. I agree.

Dr. Ann-Marie [00:18:27] Yeah, he and he’s amazing. He really does have some amazing information. Yes, brilliant. One of the things you know, what have you also seen with methylation in blood sugar levels? What have you seen clinically in practice with that?

Dr. JJ Purcell [00:18:44] Well, I mean, I think that there are a couple other, you know, with my aunt specifically, I think it’s anytime you have a snip. So as as bad as Dr. Lynch talks about, you can be born with a snap or you can. It can start acting. A gene can start acting like it’s like it’s been snapped. And so when your blood sugar is not sustaining itself, whether through you’re not eating regularly or there is something else, you know, more profound going on any time you work with the epigenetic picture and the methylation cycle that will improve. Mm hmm. And so there is to me, it’s a direct correlation. I mean, if you have that going on, you’ve got to start identifying which which gene is really being affected. Mm hmm.

Dr. Ann-Marie [00:19:44] Yeah. And as a general rule, I mean, I would say 90 percent of folks have a blood sugar problem. I don’t know what you would say,

Dr. JJ Purcell [00:19:53] but it thinking

Dr. Ann-Marie [00:19:54] about 90 percent.

Dr. JJ Purcell [00:19:56] Yes. Well, you know, we love our coffee and sugar, and that’s a big problem. But that’s, you know, it goes along with the American mentality to go. Go, go, go and more is better, and unfortunately, it’s catching up with us.

Dr. Ann-Marie [00:20:12] You know, and I like to make this point because I just don’t think people realize how coffee really affects blood sugar and how sugar affects it. But I kick out and I’ll check my blood sugar with a glucometer to see what’s going on. And I remember one night I don’t really drink, but one night I went out with friends and I had a glass and a half of wine with dinner, and I checked my blood sugar the next morning. As a general rule, I ran between 83 and 85, which is pretty good fasting. And then I checked it. The next morning it was at two hundred. Oh, that’s how much a glass and a half of alcohol. Wow. Changed my picture and people say, You know, that’s OK. I only go out and have, you know, four beers on the weekends. Like, think about where your blood sugar is all weekend when you’re actually mixing alcohol. And you know, I tell another interesting story on that same front, like I used to have this, I still have an affinity for but won’t really eat and after this experience. But I love chocolate chip cookies. Love them, love them. And it’s like my vice. And again, I did that one night I had. I think I had a cookie or a cookie and a half before bed. I remember it being a little more than like a serving, and I woke up the next day and my blood sugar was one 98, and that is. And I said I consistently run at eighty three to 85. And when you think about what information that the information that that is creating in my body, you know, and what that’s doing to everything that is just such a problem. So I mean, those are two like what people would consider are minimal examples and how high that spiked glucose and blood sugar, right?

Dr. JJ Purcell [00:22:01] Well, and you make such a good point. And the spike is one thing, but you have to take it one step further. I mean, I don’t know that other people don’t take it one step further and understanding then your body then has to figure out what to do with that, you know? And that’s where it’s just like, Oh, but but I’m still like getting up and getting, you know, ready for work and the kids and doing all these other things in their bodies, like, I can’t believe you’re putting this extra stress on me this morning. Mm hmm. You know, and

Dr. Ann-Marie [00:22:32] yeah, and I think the most terrifying thing about it was I had no symptoms minus lower energy. So, I mean, nine, like, oh, I just don’t feel like quite as peppy this morning. And like, when that’s your only breakdown, you’re like, Oh, maybe I didn’t sleep well. Oh, maybe, you know, whatever, like, you make these excuses of what it is instead of being like, Oh, I should have taken better control of my spine. It was a poor choice.

Dr. JJ Purcell [00:22:59] I feel really guilty. I actually had to talk to Turkey before bed last night.

Dr. Ann-Marie [00:23:04] Did you check it? Did you take it?

Dr. JJ Purcell [00:23:06] Oh no. Then I would know. And then I would. I would. I’d have to face that. They are so good. But boy, that

Dr. Ann-Marie [00:23:12] was like the only thing that I needed to hold myself accountable was running that monitor. And I think on the other side of things, I also would like to say you also talked about cortisol in methylation, and I think that’s a really, really important point. And would you just mind just going into a little bit about like cortisol and cortisol levels and what you’ve why you think that’s connected to methylation?

Dr. JJ Purcell [00:23:44] Well, cortisol is tricky. You know, it’s such a it’s such a player these days. And I think literally again and every single American, probably every single person these days. But so cortisol, as you know, it’s it’s managed in a lot of different ways, but it’s highly managed by the adrenal glands. And so the adrenal glands do lots of different things. But three top things that they do, of course, is they manage blood sugar, they manage inflammation and they manage stress, right? So when you aren’t mutilating properly, the little switches to turn those things on or off so that you can handle blood sugar, you’ve gone too long without eating. You don’t want to pass out, right? So the switch will turn on some cortisol be released so that you can maintain until you get that next that next meal, you know, you might feel some symptoms like getting dizzy or or something like that. And then with inflammation, you know, whether it’s, you know, you fell off your skateboard and and sprained your wrist when you were a kid or you just put your back out, you know, doing gardening last weekend. Cortisol gets released to to tend that fire to kind of keep that fire under control. So it doesn’t. Get out of control, and then, of course, cortisol is also released with stress, you know, to to temper the physiological responses of machinations not working, then. None of those things are working. So then it also pairs with the adrenaline is not working so well. A lot of us have been really into adrenal fatigue syndrome and all of that for so long. Well, now it’s like, what? But what’s above that? Well, guess what? Methylation is above that. You know, it’s just the umbrella. So it’s like, you’ve got to keep going back. You know, as natural past, we always say we get to the core, we get to the core. Well, guess what? A lot of us stopped at adrenal fatigue and we were stuck there for a while. And now it’s like, Oh, look at this, there’s this huge umbrella above that. So, yeah, methylation just it’s just really important to feel good.

Dr. Ann-Marie [00:26:00] And an interesting case in this, I think, was the like epitome when I realized, like at the adrenal like modality, that how we are treating it wasn’t really working. But a patient came in and said, Yeah, you know, I’m taking this thing for my adrenal glands and I’m like, Oh, is it? Is it working? How are how are you feeling on that? And said, Well, I’m not sure it’s kicked in yet, and I’m like, Well, how long have you been taking it? She said, about a year. Oh, Mike, yeah, yeah. We’re just going to wait. We’re going to start. We’re just going to, oh, two years, it kicks in. And to me, that was like the moment where I’m like, you know, I just it’s been constantly reaffirmed to me that, you know, just looking at the adrenal gland and being like ashwagandha seems like a good choice or whatever it is, you know, isn’t really working, you know? So anyhow, I really appreciate you bringing that up because the way we manage stress and the amount of people getting cortisone shots because they’re their own personal cortisol is not working is huge. So, yeah, anything else to add on that?

Dr. JJ Purcell [00:27:06] No, I think I mean, I could talk forever. But yeah,

Dr. Ann-Marie [00:27:11] but do you want to go into next genetically, which

Dr. JJ Purcell [00:27:14] I’d love to? You know, there’s there’s a handful of really good genes to look at and. But there’s two that I just wanted to touch base on, one was one, the next one I just want to touch base on because it does really affect women. It does really affect how we metabolize our estrogen, which is really important in that c OMT. And this little gene called KOMMT. And it it’s it’s kind of interesting to see tea, unlike far more CHF are basically a bit snipped. Then it’s it’s not working. But tea can be snipped and it can work really fast or it can work really slow, which is interesting. So CRT, we say it’s either the focus and buoyancy or the the like, almost melancholy and calm. So, um, so you basically have it if the CRT is met is. Well, first, let me just tell you what it does. It affects the estrogen in the sense that it metabolizes it. So if you have excess estrogen, it’s what breaks it down and reads it from the body, right? It also breaks down the stress neurotransmitters so like dopamine nor norepinephrine and epinephrine. So, you know, not just your feel good, but your energy going on. Mm hmm. So if it’s metabolizing really fast? Then you have not remaining in the body longer. We have when we think about the sorry, I got distracted. Give me a minute. All right. So if you’re if you’re CMT is working really fast, it’s clearing all of this estrogen. It’s clearing all the dopamine, it’s clearing the norepinephrine and effort from your system, so they’re leaving faster than they should be. Right? That’s not good. Things need to stay long enough to do the job that they’re meant to do. Same thing. If it’s on the other side, if it’s going really slow, you might not be clearing estrogen out as fast as you should or the other neurotransmitters. So if it’s really slow and moving things out, think about estrogen issues, things that have more estrogen than should normally be there. PMS. Fibroids. Menstrual issues, female cancers, energy issues. And then some say when you have more of that around, it gives you a little bit more of confidence or buoyancy. You’re a little more of a go getter. It’s kind of how they have paired this, which I find really interesting. But also, you’ve got sleep difficulties. You have a really hard time like powering down at night. You know, you’re the one that’s like getting ready to go to bed and making your list for the next day. You could be really sensitive to caffeine because you already have enough, you know, energy, so to speak. And so that caffeine goes in there and it’s like a triple shot. But if it’s moving through really fast, it’s these people who have a really hard time, perhaps focusing or completing tasks or their forgetfulness. They can have menopausal challenges because of the hormones, you know, hormones not being balanced as they should, and a lot of just calm kind of lack of interest, almost to the point of not understanding why they never really get excited. So there’s both of these types of people out there and really understanding your S.O. OMT is important, particularly for reproductive and perimenopausal menopausal women. You know, understanding that estrogen, how it’s clearing from the body or how it’s not clearing from the body is going to be going to give you clues on how to best treat yourself.

Dr. Ann-Marie [00:31:26] It’s amazing, actually. There’s, you know, I think a lot of people really struggle with, I, you know, dopamine and I mean, you know, mania is definitely something that’s pretty common, you know, to be able to clear this out. I mean, there’s there’s a lot that’s wrapped up in this and all the hormone challenges that so many women I know. Right. It’s just so consistent. So I mean, you know, we talk about that. I mean, that’s just incredible. So are you working? What do you seem like change wise or are just like a brief treatment wise of what really helps to to almost build this back up where we’re not seeing snips?

Dr. JJ Purcell [00:32:07] Mm hmm. Well, yes, the goal is always, of course, right to make the gene. Think it’s not snips? That’s right. So that it functions normally and it functions appropriately so that you’ve got that happy medium of it’s balancing the hormones so that you have enough when you need it, but they’re not hanging around more than necessary. So again, it just comes back to that methylation cycle. If you are taking the appropriate supplements that’s been determined by your practitioner, if you’re eating correctly, if you are staying away from environmental toxins, balancing your stress again, it’s the thing is, with all of these snips and all of these genes that may or may not be working as we’d like them to, the treatment is all the same. Eat really well, eat darling leafy greens and then and minimize stress. It’s really it’s back to basics. It really is back to basics. But I have to say, going back to basics gets harder and harder for us to do. And so it’s it’s not it’s not like it once was where you cut out a few things. But we have so many things at this point in our modern life that we have to adjust in order to create health. It’s a real challenge.

Dr. Ann-Marie [00:33:38] And tell me if I’m correct on this because this is how I generally seen genes and snips. And I think how a lot of people see it is there are certain. Genetic snips that you’re maybe predisposed to, so it’s not. I get asked a lot. Oh, is it because I was exposed to this environmental toxin? And now this is why I get a step and say to empty our gene or. And in the coanty gene? No, I mean, it’s just where you’re predisposed generally is where you’re going to get the snip, especially in higher, stressful times. I just want to make sure I was understanding that correctly.

Dr. JJ Purcell [00:34:16] That is my understanding as well. OK, wonderful. The interesting thing is, is that they have proven now that, you know, like back to my brother in law’s example, that genetic. So, you know, my brother in law was born into this world with, you know, the next one, we’re going to talk about it in those three snap, which is directly correlated with cardiac health and insufficiency. But they are now proving that if you if you live. Within balance and in a healthy way, you can create a genetic change so your offspring are no longer genetically predisposed. So you can’t we can’t change it, which is pretty radical to think about.

Dr. Ann-Marie [00:35:08] Yeah. And I think people, I think people want to give up when they hear that they have a genetic issue up. This is just the way I am. Well, not not really, because genes turn on and turn off all the time. So I mean, you can definitely in the course of that, you know, completely change your genetic picture. I mean, some people definitely do get the shorter end of the stick. But still, I mean, you really do have control over what is expressed and what’s not.

Dr. JJ Purcell [00:35:37] Yes. I mean, you really do. It’s just having the right tools and the right information to make the choices you need.

Dr. Ann-Marie [00:35:46] Right. So our our our last one is, you know, obviously the number one killer. Yes, it’s still cardiac. And I mean, we we’ve we’ve stared at these cholesterol markers for I don’t know when people are going to get on board and still realize it’s not cholesterol, but you know, we’ve that we’ve been staring at this cardiac marker have had really very little changes with cardiovascular disease, right? And so we continue to continue to approach this. I feel like the wrong way with statins. And you know, I am curious what you’re seeing in genetic snips here and what we can change by, you know, maybe, you know, coming coming the snip down on the nose gene?

Dr. JJ Purcell [00:36:32] Yeah. So that now is just so that everyone is is aware that this gene influences the production of nitric oxide. And so which is a major factor in heart health and it affects, you know, processes as blood flow and blood cell formation. So very common of an industry compromise would be high blood pressure again, anxiety, cold hands and feet, depression, erectile dysfunction in men, migraines, heart attacks on and so forth. But you know, there are specific impacts of when your innermost three is that there’s specific impacts on women, pregnant women and. You know, that’s a that’s a really big piece, because you’re developing all of these blood vessels constantly to support a baby and to support your own blood flow. It gets harder and harder, so it can it can really impact, I guess, the winery trying to say it can lead to miscarriage often if someone has a snip in their enormous three because they’re not able to maintain the life of the pregnancy in post-menopausal women, it has a really high impact because again, the blood pressure can go up. You’re not processing the estrogen, so the estrogen stimulates the next three to produce nitrogen and nitric oxide. So again, if you, let’s say higher up, you’re not produced, you know you’re not clearing your estrogen. Well, guess what estrogen byproduct can be. It’s nitric oxide. So what does nitric oxide do? It causes problems in the cardiac realm. So these are very important things to consider when we’re looking at women’s health, particularly reproductive women and peri and postmenopausal women with the necessary. Yeah, wow.

Dr. Ann-Marie [00:38:32] So, you know, when we talk about, you know, I think. If a patient comes in, I want to just go to the lowest denominator first, they have cold hands and cold feet. They are generally just either slapped with thyroid. You know, it’s pretty common to see, you know, issues with the thyroid gland, but also with Raynaud’s phenomenon or Reinhardt syndrome. However, you want to call it and are told to, oh, you know, some of these other autoimmune markers aren’t present yet. You just might want to warm your hands up, use a hot pack, increase information like, I mean, I don’t I I I mean, I have no words for that because that’s not really a fix. No, that’s not really even getting to the root of the problem. And if there’s no there’s no even auto immune markers yet, are you really dealing with odds or are you dealing with maybe a nitric oxide problem?

Dr. JJ Purcell [00:39:35] Right. And that’s typically it’s the latter. It’s very common, you know, and you’re talking about talking about just getting put into a box that’s basically what’s happening with the diagnosis and then, you know, a treatment or whatever that might be. But referring back to what you were saying about statins, you know, that’s that is one of the top most prescribed drug out there. Well, guess what, statins do they increase the production of nitric oxide? So, you know, you’re basically compromising your cardiac health by taking that? Yeah, you might be lowering your cholesterol on paper, but wow. I mean, we’re really missing the boat here, folks.

Dr. Ann-Marie [00:40:23] Yeah, I mean, honestly, with statins, you know, at the end of the day, people come in and they feel terrible on sad. They hurt everywhere because it blocks, you know it. It blocks everything that you need to do with with fat hormones, because all our hormones are run based on fat. And so and then they come in with all kinds of odd musculoskeletal problems that just suddenly appeared suddenly. What’s changed? OK. Well, I’m trying to lower this, you know, from. But I mean, I think your body is really trying to tell you something that that’s not the the fix. So. And so your how you’re working on knots is very, very similar to everything else. The treatment is the same make interesting, right? Cofactors making, you know, it’s right and really trying to limit, you know, environmental toxicity and exposure, which is so challenging.

Dr. JJ Purcell [00:41:21] Yes. I mean, again, whereas we were going back to the very basic and that is, get your methylation on track, you know, get all those light bulbs changed so you can turn them on and off appropriately. And that that’s what has the biggest impact on these snaps if they’re not acting right, right?

Dr. Ann-Marie [00:41:43] No, it’s interesting. And I don’t know if you have seen a lot of this where you are or heard a lot of this is, you know, of is is pretty common here and there has been an increase listening and then the Hubbard Protocol using this. And it’s really interesting when you’re when you hear people talk about it because people will get such mixed results from such high B vitamins and the B vitamins that they’re actually taking. And then interesting reactions to niacin that they’re saying are above and beyond. Like, I think they’re pushing their systems too hard. But it’s really interesting to to hear people trying to do these protocols and trying to detox that may be struggling a little bit.

Dr. JJ Purcell [00:42:31] Well, it’s interesting. You know where my mind goes as well. That’d be an easy way to tell who’s got the snip crew.

Dr. Ann-Marie [00:42:42] So true. Like it’s pushing them and detox them to fat. They’re just yeah. Or Yeah, that was kind of interesting. I was like, Wow, that’s so funny that some people are having such hyper reactions on this, and some people are not because there’s been this culture of heavy duty, you know, detox. I’ve got to get rid of these environmental toxins. So. Oh, interesting. It’s been interesting.

Dr. JJ Purcell [00:43:06] You know, the best way to get rid of environmental deep environmental toxins is to have your body work right. If you have your body work right, it’ll do it. Mm hmm. Iran is not working right there. No, it won’t do it. But you know, people push their bodies with those detox protocols and even a good thing your body still has to process it.

Dr. Ann-Marie [00:43:28] That’s right. That’s right. And you can do too much. I just want to reiterate this, but I personally. See, a lot of people do too much exercise, too hard, push too hard, be too stressed out too many things to their plate. And I just think it’s I think it’s counteracting the health benefits of a lot of things that they’re doing.

Dr. JJ Purcell [00:43:51] I agree. And as a society, we have to reteach and retrain of what is the balance because that’s not balance.

Dr. Ann-Marie [00:44:02] Any tips for finding balance are any tips that you give patients. Any tips you’ve got?

Dr. JJ Purcell [00:44:10] You know what my biggest tip is? Let’s hear it 15 minutes a day. Sit and do nothing. There’s nothing you don’t have to meditate. You don’t have to, you know, but literally don’t have a book. Don’t have the TV on. You know? Your kids can be around or your family or whatever, but just literally just sit there for 15 minutes a day and do absolutely nothing. I like that. I find that to be very profound in people’s lives.

Dr. Ann-Marie [00:44:42] I was, I was. I get told, you know, you hear everything about meditation or slowing down, so I fall asleep. Yeah, me too. So I’m like, Clearly, I just need to go to bed. I need to be. So I’ve actually had to walk and walk in and relax

Dr. JJ Purcell [00:45:01] because if I just stop, I’m

Dr. Ann-Marie [00:45:03] I’m in trouble. It’s all lights out.

Dr. JJ Purcell [00:45:07] I just sit on my porch and kind of look at the trees. It’s like, That’s what I do. I sit on the porch, look at the trees. That’s, you know, see what’s see what’s going on in the bird life out there.

Dr. Ann-Marie [00:45:21] Well, thank you so much for being here. Anything else you wanted to share about what we talked about today, but this has been a really interesting conversation on genes.

Dr. JJ Purcell [00:45:32] Oh, well, thank you for having me. And I think the biggest thing if you’re, you know, if you’re piqued by this conversation and interested, just start learning more and find people who know more. You know, my biggest, my biggest thing because I am, you know, I am guilty as well as I think I can do everything myself and I am constantly humbled and reminded that when I start talking that others who have information, it leads to such a fuller picture and such a better picture. And so I just really encourage you all to to talk to other people about it, because that is going to give you the best results.

Dr. Ann-Marie [00:46:15] Yes. Yeah. Thank you so much. And where can people find you?

Dr. JJ Purcell [00:46:20] Oh, well, you can find me on my website, which is Dr JJ Purcell dot com, and I answer emails all the time. So if you have any question about anything, by all means, shoot me an email. My main modality besides this new passion has always been herbs. I’ve been an herbalist and and have written books on herbal medicine, so if that’s something that interests you by all means, you can, you can check those out too.

Dr. Ann-Marie [00:46:49] Awesome. Well, thank you so much for being here and sharing all this information that you had and just taking time out of your busy day. So thank you again.

Dr. JJ Purcell [00:46:58] Thank you for doing what you do. I’m sure many people are benefiting at from. So don’t ever stop.

Dr. Ann-Marie [00:47:04] Yes, thanks. All right, we’ll talk to you soon. Bye bye.