[00:00:09]
Unknown:
Hi, and welcome to another episode of the improving Berry podcast, where I Berry interview experts in health and wellness. And this week, I am talking to Melissa Karabeo Glu from vivo.i0i. Truly apologize for my pronunciation of your last name. I'm sorry. So I'm talking to Melissa from vivodot IO. This company makes test strips that you urinate on, you take a picture with your smartphone, and then it can tell you about 9 markers, including ketones, magnesium, calcium, sodium, and so on. Now I am not associated at all with Vivo. They did not pay me to do this. What they did do is send me some free test strips to try the app out myself to see what my results are. And if I liked it, Now I'll leave it up to you to decide if you like this product or not. If you want my honest opinion, I really didn't as you'll find out. In the interview, the recommendations are pretty biased and based on RDA's and guide you towards the Standard American dietary guidelines, which I don't think are great.
However, if you are still interested in this product, you can try it out for yourself and Vivo was so kind for giving me a discount code. So you can use code Berry 30 to get 30 percent off your Vivo order. Go to www. Vivo.i0 to order. That is www.viv0.i0 to order. Alright. Without further delay, here is Melissa from Vivo.
[00:01:57] Unknown:
Hi.
[00:01:58] Unknown:
Welcome. Hello. Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here, Barry.
[00:02:02] Unknown:
Thank you very much for making the time to to talk with me. I've contacted Vivo because I saw an ad somewhere, and I thought, well, that's cool. I wanna talk to these people. See what that's all about if it works. And then, Vivo was so kind to, send me a couple of the test strips So I tried it out. I have the Vivo app on my phone with some results. I want to go through the different markers that happened there, but, you know, people are not, might not know what Vivo is here. So maybe can you tell us, what Vivo is and what you do for Vivo?
[00:02:40] Unknown:
Okay. Great. Well, I'm so happy that you have the test strips and congratulations for downloading the app. That's honestly the most difficult thing that you're ever gonna do. Otherwise, it's, like, swift sailing from here. It's very easy. So I'm a registered dietician nutritionist. I'm originally from New York City, but I travel, and I try and help, populations who need most effort. I'm also a clinical dietitian. I work with V Go to try and increase awareness and engagements with her app because our app is helping, I would say populations or individuals who would not be able to learn their constant day to day, wellness values change, access this at a really reasonable price in the comfort of the wrong home just like you did recently.
So I am going to be discussing nutrition related topics. If you feel comfortable, we can go over your result. And we can also just talk about the app in general and just how to improve our wellness on a day to day basis.
[00:03:45] Unknown:
Yeah. So for people that, don't have a a visual here. So it's it's a strip that you get, and you pee on it. It has these little things on you take a picture with the app, and then the app says, alright, the these little trips on the things on the strip have different colors now and based on those we know what the different values mean. And based on that, we can see how much magnesium, you pee down, things like that. Okay. So I like this type of stuff. It's very cool, and I would love to have, you know, one of those, recorders that they had in a Star Trek so that I could just measure everything.
For myself. That would be magical. Right? But now I have all these disparate things like a p strip and a a smartwatch and an r r ring and all those things. I just need one thing. This is a good start, I think, but we need more and we need to integrate it better. But let's let's start here. So can you tell me why why urine? Why why is that a modality here and not like blood, for instance?
[00:04:47] Unknown:
That's a great question. So as we all have heard before, we can get blood tests or when we constantly, you know, Sorry. When we usually go to the doctor and we get a test done, it's almost always going to be blood. That's because blood is you know, fluid that's circulating our own or body, it doing its work right now. We also have urines now, but that's also another fluid. Blood, you would have to, you know, use a needle or go to a hospital, have an administered practice, check your levels. Because this can be somewhat of an issue, sometimes you might not have a time to go to the doctor. You might not be able to you know, afford an insurance that allows you to get blood tests done every month, but you really need to monitor your wellness scores. Urine is going to be reflecting a day to day value.
So your blood will store show what's stored in your body. For instance, you know, I'm a vegetarian. So I constantly check my ferritin, which is my iron storage, and that's gonna be showing about a fire, which is a mineral, present in my bones, in my blood, and that's gonna be showing me a result of about, like, in general, a few months. Generally, except for blood sugar, etcetera, that's blood values. Most of the, you know, minerals that we look at in our blood are going to be of a longer focus. However, there are some values that we need to check every day in order to understand how our day to day life is impacting our body. We were talking before we started, Barry, about how much, you know, I like to travel. And when I was traveling, I when I started working with Vivo, Even as a dietitian, I'm closely monitoring my health. I realized that by using these urine test strips, I could see how every day was impacting my health. And we all know that small steps and small changes can lead to bigger results.
The urine will provide you with a day to day result of how your body is changing. For instance, if I drink this glass of water, which I'm holding right now, in case you guys are listening and seeing. My and I drink this. My hydration status will change rapidly. In addition to hydration, we we looked at a bunch of parameters. We have 9 right now. So it's the only urine test that has 9 parameters of wellness, whereas a blood, lab, you would have to visit a doctor, and your doctor usually would have to tell you what he would or she would like to check. This gives you a lot of autonomy.
It gives you day to day interactive feedback with your body. And the app also gives you advice about how to change your actions, your diet, your lifestyle, all preventative, or it packard in whole, whole, like, holistic and wholeness focus, nutrition steps to change the values. It's a really completely different system. You know, we think of blood, blood test compared to your test, but it's a completely different ballgame.
[00:07:53] Unknown:
Yeah. Yeah. And I like that it's accessible because it is a urine test. You can do it at home instead of, like, a blood test that has to go to a lab. That's basically the difference.
[00:08:04] Unknown:
Yeah.
[00:08:05] Unknown:
Yeah. But, of course, blood, you know, it's very complicated. So for instance, you were talking about minerals and, iron for instance, that will be stored in, body parts and cells, in your fat, in your bones. But that doesn't correlate one to one to what's circulating in your blood. So your blood cannot tell you what you have exactly stored. That's very difficult. It's a proxy. And so, of course, if you're in, that's also a proxy, but that's an extremely difficult and different system. Right? So your blood transports things to your cells, but your urine is what's excreted and what your body wants to get rid of. So that's never, of course, a one to one proxy to what you are storing in your body and or to what is circulating in your blood. Right? What what I'm getting at is I also did, a hair mineral analysis test for you, you know, you send a couple of hairs to a to a lab and take a look at it. And then they say, well, you'll have a high, magnesium or low, or this.
So minerals But still, I find it a bit hard to believe because then they use that as a proxy to what you have stored in your body. But what's in a hair is also what your body is in excreting. So how can you, you know, do that one on one? That's probably not entirely correct.
[00:09:27] Unknown:
So Yes. Alright. I think that's a great point. I mean, that's fantastic that you did that analysis. I guess, everyone who's listening to this podcast was all be really shocked because that's a really advanced level. I remember in, you know, the movie where they show about McDonald's and the fast food nation, he gets his hair tested. He sees that have a lot of, for example, you know, vegetable oils in his hair from the foodie. It's true. What we have in our body, it is made up of what we eat actually what we digest and what we, excrete, as you mentioned. So I do think that there is an accuracy rate not one result will ever be a 100% correct.
Medicine itself has never a 100% correct or, you know, determinable. So I would, you know, strongly advise individuals who are very interested in their health and their wellness to explore a variety of tests and see which one feels best to them. You know, for an athlete or for an active individual, it might be great to try nivo because they can see, you know, if they really need to supplement with magnesium. We're always marketed to supplement with magnesium, but and I was one of those who was downing magnesium powering my drinks after my workout to help my muscles relax.
But I realized, actually, I always had sufficient magnesium. As, you know, I I was understanding that I was actually absorbing the magnesium from my food. So it's a different type of test as hair or, you know, skin and nails, but that's fantastic. So it's great that you did that test.
[00:11:03] Unknown:
K. So let's get into these different markers. So you said you had, what did you say, 9 at the moment? And perhaps later on, there will be a more and or different ones. So you were talking about magnesium already, but in my test, I had a score of 8 out of 10. In magnesium Oh, great. Which says 0.67 millimolars per millimolar magnesium versus creatine value. Can you tell me what does that mean?
[00:11:32] Unknown:
Sure. So we all as individuals need varying levels of magnesium. When you download the Vivo app, it most likely going to ask you about your gender, your type of diet, your age, and it's gonna use that to understand what the US or the general health recommendations are for magnesium, for, male, your age at your activity level. And then using that value, it's then going to, you know, instead of saying a millimoles per, you know, desk leader value, which can be confusing. To individuals, we use a rating of like 1 to 10. And sometimes, you know, we can bring out the, competitive side and people I mean, I'm from New York, so I know that people will be like, I'm gonna attend today. I'm gonna be no one should feel bad if they have an 8 or a 5. It's just showing you what your body is responding to that day.
So if you want an 8 out of 10, that means that your diet and your lifestyle is supporting around 80% of your magnesium requirements. So if you would like to, you could try and change your diet by adding more whole grains or more beans, lentils, nuts, seeds. They're all very rich in magnesium. And the app will tell you actually, like, what to do. And then you can try them for lunch and then take the test the next time for the next day at the same time. And see if your magazine levels do in fact change to reflect.
[00:13:00] Unknown:
Okay. Because the app now with an 8 out of 10, says that my magnesium level that I paid out, at least, is high. And it says that that's not good because high levels of magnesium may be caused by overconsumption of magnesium treatments,
[00:13:14] Unknown:
and this can cause nausea, muscle weakness, and abdominal cramps, which I don't have, of course. Okay. So And that I I understand. Yeah. So in that aspect, so whatever the act would say would be, you know, correct from what I understand the beginning is that you had a low score.
[00:13:29] Unknown:
Yeah. So alright. My magnesium level, right, so the app says it is high. But you also said that the app does this based on whatever the RDA is or whatever is recommended by, you know, the government. And we all know that that's too low that that's the bare minimum that you need to not get sick and die. Right? So I take a lot of magnesium. I notice I take supplements. That's why it feels so great. So do I trust this that it's that it's high? I don't know. Because, also, this is what comes out of my urine, right, not per se what I have stored in my body. So what would you think about that? Yeah.
[00:14:09] Unknown:
That's a really good question. I would say that your magnesium requirements change every day. When your stress, your requirements will be higher. So maybe those supplements will be good when you are stressed when you're working out. The stress is a, I'm sorry, exercise is a form of stress on our body. And, you know, if if females are listening to this, your magnesium requirements change completely according to your menstrual lunar cycle, every week. So I you know, your magnesium requirements and most of your metal requirements will change. If you are having, I would say, always do at least you know, 2 to 3 tests because if you were having consistently high magnesium and you're working out one day, one day, you're stressed, maybe you're having tech problems like I was having, or maybe one day, you know, you're at home relaxing and you don't need as much, minerals relax or muscle. You can compare those results. So Vivo really helps you connect to how your day's day life is affecting your result. I would recommend you try at least 2 to 3 tests.
Understand if it's a consistent average.
[00:15:15] Unknown:
And do you also have a recommendation about, when to do the test So first thing in the morning, probably not. Right?
[00:15:22] Unknown:
Or later? That's a really good question. So that's fantastic that you guess correctly. Most, individuals, think that it's best to do, you know, we're we're brought up to do everything. First thing, the more you take your vitamin, drink your water, etcetera. Actually our first, urine. And we have in the morning after we sleep is the most concentrated urine. And you can use this if you don't have any other time of the day, but we don't recommend for you to do that. We recommend for you to do either the second or third timing that you urinate. And this can be because, your 1st year will be very concentrated, and it will be misleading.
You can do so when just do the test, for example, you might say, Melissa, I have no time. I rush out of my house, like, you know, I'd really have time to go to the bathroom once. Like, what two times? You can bring your tasks to work, to wherever, but make sure you're trunk doing the tasks the same time each day. K. So if you're a night owl, you can do your test. For example, you know, after dinner every night, We recommend the the most accurate results seem to happen in the morning, at the second or third year end. But if you keep your test consistent, it's more about how your body is responding. So if you cannot do the boarding, you could do the afternoon, but we always recommend the 2nd or 3rd urine Yeah. But urination in the morning.
[00:16:50] Unknown:
K. That's good. So we had magnesium. Right? Let's talk about a couple of the other ones. But there's also protein Sure. That measures protein. What I got was a score of 8 out of 10 where it says protein is moderate, moderate, in my case, and it says your urine protein level is slightly higher than normal. And this could be because of lots of things. Exposure to a cold, strenuous exercise would be high ration. What does this mean? Yeah.
[00:17:20] Unknown:
So that, I would say, I'm the 9 parameters that we have. That can actually be the one that the most mind boggling because, you know, protein were also really marketed to eat tons of protein and, you know, protein is protein that protein makes you, you know, thin and lean inside inside However, most individuals are getting more than enough protein in their diet. You know, and protein is actually filtered by your kidneys. I know you know all of us vary just for our listeners. And, When we filter out protein, we have a lot of amino acids that are deaminated, and that's what we're essentially urinating out excreting.
And if we eat high protein every day, that can be really tiring on our kid needs. And then when we're in our forties or fifties or sixties, individuals can get renal disease, which is basically like, you know, the inflammation of your kidneys. So the protein value is more of a worker of your kidney health than it is about your protein consumption. That's also another value that you might wanna check when you do your next nivo test. Maybe you had a lot of animal based protein. Maybe you were taking protein powder. It's showing you that your body is getting more than enough protein and reading it out.
So, a lot of individuals, they'll be like Melissa, you know, because I also consult. I have a lot of clients with, like, I'm looking at bars. This pro protein bars. That's 22 gram or the protein scoop. This bar says 18 grams. Of course, I'm gonna go for the 22. It's sometimes their body doesn't really need that much protein, and we just excrete the rest. So in this case, it's showing that your body is getting Enough protein is actually screening it. So this is a reflection of your diet.
[00:19:07] Unknown:
Right. And also about your exercise, of course. Because for instance, I eat a carnivore fish, diets, but mostly meats, and fats, which means high protein But if you use those proteins like you're doing heavy resistance training, for instance, you can actually utilize those amino acids. Then probably not a lot of them will be excluded in your end. Right?
[00:19:31] Unknown:
Yes. That's a really good. So when we do, you know, the whole what what we're working out, we're actually I'm gonna hold up my r where people are listening. We're actually breaking down protein and then synthesizing new fibers, new muscle fibers to extend and enlarge our muscle. And that requires protein and we get that usually from our diet or whatever we have in our body at that time. If you are working out and doing more, you know, anaerobic or more weight, like you were saying weight lifting, your body will use the protein in your diet to synthesize mussels and therefore your your protein expiration rates will decrease.
[00:20:13] Unknown:
Okay. Okay. Interesting. So we have, magnesium. We have protein. Let's go over to an interesting one which is key tone. So key tones, it for me, it says 10 out of 10. You did very well because I had 0 ketones at this time in my body. And this thing says Having ketos in the urine indicates that the body can't get enough glucose to use as an energy source so it begins to turn to ketos. And so it thinks that having 0 ketones in my urine is actually a very good thing. What do you think about that?
[00:20:52] Unknown:
So, ketones is another value that's very, popular. Right? Keto hito or vegan or grain free. But ketogenic diet or ketones in general is basically a diet. That was developed for children, suffering from epilepsy in order to control their seizures. And this is because when you have a ketogenic diet, which is going to be around 90% sat and just incredibly hard to do in real life. Most individuals that they think they're doing key targets doing usually like a high protein diet. When you have, like, around 90% fat in your diet, that means that your body is converting, ketones into energy molecules. Your body does not like to do that, and pe ketosis is actually a state of inflammation.
You can do it for a short period of time or, you know, like, a training or or wedding or etcetera, but long term ketogenic diets are actually not so good for your body, by the way. So, when we have a ketogenic diet, we're constantly we're converting our glucose molecule into ketones because our, sorry, ketones into glucose molecules because our grain can only, use glucose. So that's why this diet was originally developed for children with Caesars. Or epileptic, episodes because it was slowing down their their the rate of how faster neurons we're passing through, you know, accent Pathways.
So when you are having a diet that's making your body produce a lot of key tone, that means that you're starving your body from having access to natural glucose. What is glucose? Blue Coast is actually a sugar molecule. We all think that sugar is bad, and glucose is bad, therefore. And, oh, my god. But, actually, we really need glucose. Lukose is the most easy to digest, nutrient. So we have protein fat and glucose as nutrient and carbohydrate. Lucos is the main unit, lactose, fructose. Fructose is the fruit that's found in sugar and lact So this was found in milk and maltose bunches of, types of carbohydrate ants we have. It's more about the type of carbohydrate you have in your diet. So If you're having a low carbohydrate diet or if you're having a diet with lots of whole grains, lots of fiber, like vegetables, crude.
Usually, your body will have a steady supply of glucose. That value is very popular because we have a large population of individuals who use ketogenic diet, Barry, and, they love to test their ketones on a day to day basis. So your results sound
[00:23:45] Unknown:
great. You don't have information, basically. I'm gonna disagree with you, respectfully there. You said a couple of, figs there. So, for for instance, you said that our brain can only run on glucose. Which is not true. It does need some glucose of our body is totally capable of creating that ourselves without actually ingesting any glucose. Even on a ketogenic diet through gluconeogenesis where the liver creates its own glucose. And if that were true, then everybody who would do, like, a 2 day fast would die because, you know, you don't have any glucose in your body. There are plenty of people like you say, at the end there that do a ketogenic diet to, for instance, resolve out to immune issues or other issues that they have.
And like you said, yes. It's true that this was developed for epilepsy in the beginning, but now research has been shown that there are many, many more applications for a ketogenic diet ketosis is definitely a very good thing to be in, and most people, if they have a long, fast when they go bad, for instance, you know, you don't eat for a while. Maybe skip breakfast. You get into a light ketosis, and you will have some ketones in your body there. And you'll have a mix, though it's not always on or off, like you only burn glucose or you only burn fat. Usually, you do a bit of both there. So this app is very biased in that sense that it says if you are not, burning, fat, then you're doing a very good job. Which is saying then you should only burn glucose.
When I agree with you that glucose is not super bad or anything, but having high insulin to combat that glucose always on when you have large glucose spikes because perhaps you have highly processed foods. Like you say, it depends completely on what type of carbohydrates you ingest there. Then that's a bad thing, but this app then kinda insinuates that you really should just only eat, you know, things that contain carbs and no fats because you really wanna stay away from ketones. So I I'm not gonna take this one for the advice, the the key tones.
[00:26:00] Unknown:
Okay. Whatever. I totally respect your beliefs. What I meant is you are correct that our brain and use ketones, but the ketones are converted into glucose molecules. So we don't have to ingest glucose, but we have to our brain and ourselves need Our cells can you have ketone, but our brain cells are neurons specifically need glucose. So they Yes. Not all of us. You know, our ketone Yeah. Not all of them as you mentioned, but it is generally shown by science. I completely respect your, you know, preference and your beliefs.
[00:26:37] Unknown:
Okay. Let's move on to a couple other ones. Vitamin c, for instance, I find that a nice one and have some questions. But for me, it was 10 out of 10. And it says it's optimal. So it is, high, which is optimal, and then it says congratulations having an optimal level of vitamin c in urine support. Things like healing of wounds, protection against the effect of free radicals and immunity. Can you tell me a little bit about vitamin c and what that means in this test.
[00:27:09] Unknown:
Sure. The vitamin c is a water soluble vitamin. Which means that when we have enough of it, our body excretes it out, therefore, we test it in our urine. Other, we have fat soluble vitamins like vitamin a, D, E, and K. Those will not be shown in your urine because we don't excrete them out. Vitamin c, we do along with our b vitamins. So with a Scoreic acid or vitamin c, there's different versions of it. It's used as an anti oxidant or We're constantly present with lots of free radicals, whether it's in your diet, even in the air, we breathe from the toxins in your clothing, And our body needs requires, a lot of antioxidants to combat these free radicals in order to not being a state of inflammation as research shows. So vitamin C has been shown by research in many ways.
Interview your immune systems and do bunches of different, you know, benefits for your body. It's also required for so many different procedures, like, for instance, collagen, That's very popular right now. People wanna either increase the collagen in their skin or they wanna increase the collagen in their joints. You rec our body requires vitamin c for this. That's a very important vitamin to have it in your diet and to monitor on a day to day basis because, you know, you can get sick within a few days. And you can also eat more citrus or other fruits and vegetables within a few days and improve your immunity. The vitamin c is one of those, you know, wellness parameters. It's very pillar, you make sure that your immunity is good, especially during the flu season right now.
[00:28:50] Unknown:
Right. Okay. And how variable is vitamin c throughout the day? Because I know that you can only absorb, so much vitamin c, right, per sitting of food or supplements or whatever. So for instance, if I have high vitamin c in the morning because I had a lot of, high vitamin c fruits for instance, in my breakfast and after that, I did test, can it be completely different in the afternoon or in the evening?
[00:29:19] Unknown:
Yeah. I totally can. So you might, like, if you, let's say you have a orange juice in the morning or you have a breakfast with a lot of citrus, Then your vitamin c status on Vivo will show that you're excreting a lot. But if you were to end the night, let's say you were to have, like, you know, pasta with, or for instance, if you were to have beef with, mushrooms. There's mushrooms you have vitamin c, but In general, it's a low vitamin c, meal, so your values will change, throughout the day, actually.
[00:29:52] Unknown:
Right. K. So, again, then it's important to test this every day and then at the same time. Right?
[00:30:01] Unknown:
Yeah. Yes. It would be great to test it at the same time every day. And to be cognizant, like, you were saying, if you have, like, 3 or or oranges, and then your vitamin c level is high. You know, individuals should realize that maybe their their vitamin c level is good for that a day, but it's because of the orange. It's not because of their full diet.
[00:30:19] Unknown:
Okay. And then another very interesting is oxidative stress. That's a very good one. For me, again, this was a 10 out of 10, which says, MDA value of negative, and it says congratulations again. So I'm very happy with that. Having a negative MDA level in urine supports healthy vision, healthy mental functions, skin health overall is good for you, but that's oxidative stress Can you tell me about that one and what that means in this test?
[00:30:50] Unknown:
Sure. So it's act We still want vitamin c. You know, we're just talking about vitamin c. It's important to you kind of combat inflammation. Oxid stress is showing how much stress your body is, you know, feeling on a day to day basis and how much inflation. So when you have a diet with a lot of free, you know, antioxidants in it, such as vitamin c or such as, you know, some, just in general lots of free internationals at the seat. And when you're also doing practices that can kind of lower inflammation, like breathing, yoga, having us a state of, you know, love and peacefulness that can work to lower inflammation.
On, therefore, oxy is stressed. When you are someone who's very stressed or critical or someone who you know, in general rushing around, and we all find ourselves doing this. Right? Like, today, I was rushing around like crazy. That was trusting out my body and living in a city not having access to constantly fresh oxygen can also increase inflammation as well as having, you know, a diet with, you know, pesticides or taking pharmaceutical drugs, these can actually all, depending on the drug, increase, your oxidative stress.
So k. But we encourage a diet that has a lot of antioxidants in it to balance this. Also, lifestyle approaches. Even though it's really different because It not only tells you, you know, dairy. You should eat more lettuce or more spirulina or more, you know, whatever you prefer. But it will also say you might wanna try walking or deep breathing, for instance, to lower your oxygen stress. Had it had been high.
[00:32:31] Unknown:
Right. And then there's also sodium. Right? So salt. And for me, that was, in this case, 5 out of 10. So low So I needed more salt at that time. We noticed that your sodium intake slightly loaded might cause fossil energy based vomiting. And, you know, that's the worst side effect. But, I get that because that was definitely the case, there. Can you tell a little bit more about that?
[00:33:00] Unknown:
Sure. The sodium is a mineral that we actually require on a day to day basis. And sodium has actually been vilified, like, that, that, it's bad, etcetera. So, you know, but Sodium is really required to revise you lots of processes. So when we do have a low sodium diet, we will feel like you said tired or kinda like we're low energy. And a lot of our processes will not be working. And, also, we can even have edema from low sodium. And Dema has, like, motor swelling, but the osmosis, the way it happens in the facility division. So, with sodium, actually, we have a really cool podcast that I had, with our doctor who specializes in sodium.
And I would recommend our listeners to, you know, check that out if he he wants but I learned so much by using Vivo, you know, in my, nutrition program when I was doing, you know, medical nutrition. I learned that sodium was something to always lower in my patient, especially cardiovascular or diabetic because of hypertension. However, I didn't realize that a lot of individuals like myself who I try not to eat out at all, and I co cook everything. I also have a diet with lots of water, and maybe you also could get home too, Barry, our sodium can actually be low. So I started adding salt to my diet, and I started feeling so much more energetic. Also, another value that can lower your sodium is drinking coffee.
When you drink that, because it's a diuretic, along with, you know, lots of dark tea, black tea, etcetera, that can help your body excretes So you might have very you might be adding sodium in your diet, but if you are drinking, you know, two cups or three cups of sodium and steak, I could actually the, sorry, coffee a day that can actually decrease your sodium level.
[00:34:51] Unknown:
Yeah. Definitely. And, I totally It relates to what you're saying there where, you know, if you don't eat a lot of processed foods, then you can easily become low in sodium. Because, you know, I get the recommendation. If you need lots of highly processed food, there's lots of salt in that. So if you don't do that, then you don't get all of that in your diet that you need to actually add it in there yourself, which you really need to be mindful of. Just get it in there. You can be a bit overbundant in that. And this sodium level, when Yeah. If my app says it is, it is optimal. Is that based on the RDA as well?
[00:35:29] Unknown:
Yes. That is. So that's basically our date for your age and gender.
[00:35:33] Unknown:
Okay. And let's do then a final one, which is calcium, and in my case, it says 8 out of 10 calcium. It's high, but that's not a good thing in this case because it says the calcium level in your urine is slightly high over time. This can increase in conservation nausea and fatigue. Can you tell a little bit about calcium and You know, what what would that mean and how can I change that?
[00:36:06] Unknown:
So calcium is an important mineral, and thanks for bringing that up. And actually works in conjunction with magnesium in our body and the way it's absorbed. And it's a mineral that's found in a lot of different, like, for vegetables. It's in dark color leafy greens like spinach. We all think of pot pie. It's also found in milk, and we're always encouraged to drink of calcium, and a lot of individuals don't meet their calcium requirement. However, there can be individuals like yourself that maybe is having a little bit too much. And that can also vary from day to day. So, you know, for this, that's why we go so important, because your understanding how your body is responding to your diet and your lifestyle.
If it's showing that your calcium is a little bit high, that means that your body is getting enough calcium and reading it, you know, when we excrete, a lot of minerals that can be tiring for our body's filtration method, and processes. That can wear a body down, and also some research has shown high amounts of calcium can actually lead to osteoporosis. And that's because the way our bones work is they're constantly building. You know, it's not like they're static, They're constantly rebuilding. You know, we have our osteoclants, our osteoblacks, our constant carving, and building our bone. And when you're having a diet with a lot of calcium, Sometimes that can add too much to your, it can be too much of the, you know, osteoblasts, too much building.
So our body wants to excrete it. And usually if I'd be able to excrete it, but with time, sometimes, you know, our organ cell functions so well. Right? You get older. You seem very healthy. But in, you know, with average individuals, once they're they get illnesses, once they're in their forties or fifties because, you know, their body is kind of worn down from all the toxins or the lifestyle it's been going through. So having a high calcium loan can actually be tiring for the body. Those are preventative method people will tell you to, you know, average your calcium intake. Are you having, dairy in your diet or cheese?
Or butter?
[00:38:12] Unknown:
No. I'm lactose intolerant, so no dairy, and I make sure that I never have any calcium in any of my dietary supplement because I don't want to have too much calcium in there. So I actually have a very low calcium diet, but I do have a high, vitamin d and k 2. Or perhaps my theory is then that if I do have a little bit, excessive calcium, My high amounts of vitamin d dandk2 make sure that it it is excreted through urine, for instance. Yeah.
[00:38:44] Unknown:
Yeah. So K2 is a really important mineral that we, sorry, vitamin that we don't really hear about. And that's also really nice necessary for our bones and our teeth formation. It got very popular recently with the paleolithic diet. So, you know, if you are taking a vitamin d or NK2 supplement, That will also affect your calcium levels for sure.
[00:39:04] Unknown:
Right. But then this might not be a bad thing as it just excretes excessive calcium, and might not mean that my actual calcium level within my body is high. Right?
[00:39:19] Unknown:
Yeah. So when we have calcium in our body, vitamin d synthesis requires calcium. We use calcitonin. So, you know, that's why it's really that's why mostly, like, the way, you know, supplements work work as they combine what's necessary. Your, supplement probably is a drop. That's why it's just to you. I don't know, but it's I I'm assuming it's like a a wild drop. So vitamin d and k 2 are when they're combined, they will help that process work, and they'll use calcium from your diet. So it might me Like you're saying, if you're, you know, looking deep into this, it might mean that your body is getting enough calcium to you know, do a lot of the, calcium synthesis and then therefore storage in your in your fat.
So, sorry, vitamin d, synthesis in your fat. At storage and your calcium levels are sufficient. You could, if you were very curious, as it seems that you are, which is fantastic. To, you know, maybe, like, stop taking the supplement for, like, 2 days and, see how your calcium levels are then. Usually because, you know, vitamin d is a fat soluble vitamin, it's stored in our fat, actually. So, sometimes it can take a little longer time to change values. But if you're curious, you could try, you know, I was telling the bit, although I'm like, just try not to take your supplement one day and see how your results change. Maybe then your calcium levels are back to normal if you're taking, like, a multivitamin. So that could maybe be a, like, a new exciting task for you.
[00:40:53] Unknown:
Okay. So those are, like, the markers that are in here, which are lots of markers Are you, is Vivo planning to add more markers or change any of these?
[00:41:05] Unknown:
Yeah. And so, you know, as we are a It's it's a amazing company that's actually found by 2 female, bioengineers. They are definitely looking at expanding expanding products, expanding parameters because there's such a big, big, big demand. You know, individuals as our lives get more hectic, and we transition more into cities, which is what urban slaves is showing at research, our bodies will need in order to, you know, be healthy more and more devices like this. You know, you said you're using the or ring. That's fantastic. These type of biohacking devices is an amazing field that's actually helping empowering individuals In sinus in a systematic health care health care functioning modality.
So I I do think we will definitely for what, the company has shared it. We are expanding in a lot of ways on our products and our parameters.
[00:42:04] Unknown:
Okay. Can't wait to see what that is. And as you also said, so it's not only just showing these these values of how you did well or you did not do well. So it's also giving you some advice on exercise, but also about nutrition. Now when I look at this, nutrition advice, like I already, said, I eat carnivore ish or mostly meat and also some, fruits there. This is very biased towards plant based eating. So to me, that doesn't work. Is is that on purpose?
[00:42:40] Unknown:
So it that's a really interesting outlook. I'm sorry that you found it by I'm sorry that it didn't, you know, satisfy your your luck. However, in general, the RDA recommendations are what we follow. And, the R and D recommendations are created by the Academy of Nutrition and dietetics for the United States of America. Correct. And they generally recommend a balanced diet So if you had been an individual saying that, and when you I I'm sure when you sign up and Vivo had asked you what type of diet you have, Let's say you were vegetarian or a vegan, it wouldn't suggest you eat meat, but it would suggest you, for example, more mushrooms.
For certain values or more or other protein sources or your case because maybe you're having a carnivore diet, which is very healthy so many ways. In order to, do the USDA nutrition guidelines, it will encourage you to eat more fruits rules and whole grains because that is part of the guideline. And Vivo as it is a, you know, FDA approved product, It will support what the academy designates as a well balanced diet.
[00:43:50] Unknown:
Right. So it is actually trying to guide me towards the dietary guidelines that the US government presents.
[00:43:59] Unknown:
Yes. Yes. Exactly. So it is
[00:44:05] Unknown:
Most of my listeners here know that that's probably not a very good idea.
[00:44:11] Unknown:
Yeah. The diet in the United States is not, of course, at its optimal right now. You know, as it does have a very high obesity rate, and it's, it's in a it's a country where we have both the healthiest and the least healthiest of a lot of different practices. However, the nutrition guideline, of the United States, is actually what shapes nutrition guidelines of most of the world. You can check it out. I'm actually an academy member. So there is a lot of debate about whether or not, you know, the guidelines should be updated. They're updated right now, within the past year.
And they get updated every 5 to 10 years by voting and legislation legislation. I know if you guys remember, but in the past, we used to have, like, a pyramid, Now we moved to a plate system. So they just recently added soy milk and other plant based alternatives, tofu, as a protein source. So it is constantly updating. However, it is the strongest, occurring I would say nutrition guideline system that is available in addition to the United Kingdom's, which is also based on the u United States, system.
[00:45:22] Unknown:
Yes. They eat better guidelines. We're all very familiar with all of those systems and how as you you do say, it's a most occurring dietary guideline system. That's very true. Yeah. It doesn't make it the best, of course, especially, you know, if you're prescribing, like, soy things, Maybe not the best. But, okay, we don't have to get into that. Now we're talking about the Vivo products here. Okay. Cool. Thank you very much for, talking about, all of this and to explaining all of these markers to us Now Fivo also has something for my listeners and viewers. Right? It's a a bit of a discount where you order your Vivo sticks, you know, and I'll I'll read it out. So you can go to vivo.i0 if you're interested, and then you can use code, very 30 to get 30% off of your vivo order. And I'll put that in the show notes as well if you would like to do that.
Alright. Thank you very much. Where can people find more about Vivo and about yourself? Well.
[00:46:32] Unknown:
It's a great question. So I hope everyone takes, you know, advantage of that 3% to that's really generous that we're giving to your listeners. If you wanna learn more about Vivo, you can check our website, like you said, Vivo. Io. We also have a really active social media account. It's at libo app, and, you can find me in the videos on the app as well.
[00:46:54] Unknown:
Thank you for spending time with me to learn about and wellness. For the full transcript and more content, visit improving varied.com. That is improving badoubry.com. And here is a disclaimer. The information in this podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine nursing, or other professional health care services, including the giving of medical advice and no doctor patient relationship is formed. The use of information in this podcast is at the user's own risk. The content of this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
Users should not disregard or delay in obtaining medical advice for any medical condition they may have, and should seek the assistance of their health care professionals for any such conditions.
Hi, and welcome to another episode of the improving Berry podcast, where I Berry interview experts in health and wellness. And this week, I am talking to Melissa Karabeo Glu from vivo.i0i. Truly apologize for my pronunciation of your last name. I'm sorry. So I'm talking to Melissa from vivodot IO. This company makes test strips that you urinate on, you take a picture with your smartphone, and then it can tell you about 9 markers, including ketones, magnesium, calcium, sodium, and so on. Now I am not associated at all with Vivo. They did not pay me to do this. What they did do is send me some free test strips to try the app out myself to see what my results are. And if I liked it, Now I'll leave it up to you to decide if you like this product or not. If you want my honest opinion, I really didn't as you'll find out. In the interview, the recommendations are pretty biased and based on RDA's and guide you towards the Standard American dietary guidelines, which I don't think are great.
However, if you are still interested in this product, you can try it out for yourself and Vivo was so kind for giving me a discount code. So you can use code Berry 30 to get 30 percent off your Vivo order. Go to www. Vivo.i0 to order. That is www.viv0.i0 to order. Alright. Without further delay, here is Melissa from Vivo.
[00:01:57] Unknown:
Hi.
[00:01:58] Unknown:
Welcome. Hello. Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here, Barry.
[00:02:02] Unknown:
Thank you very much for making the time to to talk with me. I've contacted Vivo because I saw an ad somewhere, and I thought, well, that's cool. I wanna talk to these people. See what that's all about if it works. And then, Vivo was so kind to, send me a couple of the test strips So I tried it out. I have the Vivo app on my phone with some results. I want to go through the different markers that happened there, but, you know, people are not, might not know what Vivo is here. So maybe can you tell us, what Vivo is and what you do for Vivo?
[00:02:40] Unknown:
Okay. Great. Well, I'm so happy that you have the test strips and congratulations for downloading the app. That's honestly the most difficult thing that you're ever gonna do. Otherwise, it's, like, swift sailing from here. It's very easy. So I'm a registered dietician nutritionist. I'm originally from New York City, but I travel, and I try and help, populations who need most effort. I'm also a clinical dietitian. I work with V Go to try and increase awareness and engagements with her app because our app is helping, I would say populations or individuals who would not be able to learn their constant day to day, wellness values change, access this at a really reasonable price in the comfort of the wrong home just like you did recently.
So I am going to be discussing nutrition related topics. If you feel comfortable, we can go over your result. And we can also just talk about the app in general and just how to improve our wellness on a day to day basis.
[00:03:45] Unknown:
Yeah. So for people that, don't have a a visual here. So it's it's a strip that you get, and you pee on it. It has these little things on you take a picture with the app, and then the app says, alright, the these little trips on the things on the strip have different colors now and based on those we know what the different values mean. And based on that, we can see how much magnesium, you pee down, things like that. Okay. So I like this type of stuff. It's very cool, and I would love to have, you know, one of those, recorders that they had in a Star Trek so that I could just measure everything.
For myself. That would be magical. Right? But now I have all these disparate things like a p strip and a a smartwatch and an r r ring and all those things. I just need one thing. This is a good start, I think, but we need more and we need to integrate it better. But let's let's start here. So can you tell me why why urine? Why why is that a modality here and not like blood, for instance?
[00:04:47] Unknown:
That's a great question. So as we all have heard before, we can get blood tests or when we constantly, you know, Sorry. When we usually go to the doctor and we get a test done, it's almost always going to be blood. That's because blood is you know, fluid that's circulating our own or body, it doing its work right now. We also have urines now, but that's also another fluid. Blood, you would have to, you know, use a needle or go to a hospital, have an administered practice, check your levels. Because this can be somewhat of an issue, sometimes you might not have a time to go to the doctor. You might not be able to you know, afford an insurance that allows you to get blood tests done every month, but you really need to monitor your wellness scores. Urine is going to be reflecting a day to day value.
So your blood will store show what's stored in your body. For instance, you know, I'm a vegetarian. So I constantly check my ferritin, which is my iron storage, and that's gonna be showing about a fire, which is a mineral, present in my bones, in my blood, and that's gonna be showing me a result of about, like, in general, a few months. Generally, except for blood sugar, etcetera, that's blood values. Most of the, you know, minerals that we look at in our blood are going to be of a longer focus. However, there are some values that we need to check every day in order to understand how our day to day life is impacting our body. We were talking before we started, Barry, about how much, you know, I like to travel. And when I was traveling, I when I started working with Vivo, Even as a dietitian, I'm closely monitoring my health. I realized that by using these urine test strips, I could see how every day was impacting my health. And we all know that small steps and small changes can lead to bigger results.
The urine will provide you with a day to day result of how your body is changing. For instance, if I drink this glass of water, which I'm holding right now, in case you guys are listening and seeing. My and I drink this. My hydration status will change rapidly. In addition to hydration, we we looked at a bunch of parameters. We have 9 right now. So it's the only urine test that has 9 parameters of wellness, whereas a blood, lab, you would have to visit a doctor, and your doctor usually would have to tell you what he would or she would like to check. This gives you a lot of autonomy.
It gives you day to day interactive feedback with your body. And the app also gives you advice about how to change your actions, your diet, your lifestyle, all preventative, or it packard in whole, whole, like, holistic and wholeness focus, nutrition steps to change the values. It's a really completely different system. You know, we think of blood, blood test compared to your test, but it's a completely different ballgame.
[00:07:53] Unknown:
Yeah. Yeah. And I like that it's accessible because it is a urine test. You can do it at home instead of, like, a blood test that has to go to a lab. That's basically the difference.
[00:08:04] Unknown:
Yeah.
[00:08:05] Unknown:
Yeah. But, of course, blood, you know, it's very complicated. So for instance, you were talking about minerals and, iron for instance, that will be stored in, body parts and cells, in your fat, in your bones. But that doesn't correlate one to one to what's circulating in your blood. So your blood cannot tell you what you have exactly stored. That's very difficult. It's a proxy. And so, of course, if you're in, that's also a proxy, but that's an extremely difficult and different system. Right? So your blood transports things to your cells, but your urine is what's excreted and what your body wants to get rid of. So that's never, of course, a one to one proxy to what you are storing in your body and or to what is circulating in your blood. Right? What what I'm getting at is I also did, a hair mineral analysis test for you, you know, you send a couple of hairs to a to a lab and take a look at it. And then they say, well, you'll have a high, magnesium or low, or this.
So minerals But still, I find it a bit hard to believe because then they use that as a proxy to what you have stored in your body. But what's in a hair is also what your body is in excreting. So how can you, you know, do that one on one? That's probably not entirely correct.
[00:09:27] Unknown:
So Yes. Alright. I think that's a great point. I mean, that's fantastic that you did that analysis. I guess, everyone who's listening to this podcast was all be really shocked because that's a really advanced level. I remember in, you know, the movie where they show about McDonald's and the fast food nation, he gets his hair tested. He sees that have a lot of, for example, you know, vegetable oils in his hair from the foodie. It's true. What we have in our body, it is made up of what we eat actually what we digest and what we, excrete, as you mentioned. So I do think that there is an accuracy rate not one result will ever be a 100% correct.
Medicine itself has never a 100% correct or, you know, determinable. So I would, you know, strongly advise individuals who are very interested in their health and their wellness to explore a variety of tests and see which one feels best to them. You know, for an athlete or for an active individual, it might be great to try nivo because they can see, you know, if they really need to supplement with magnesium. We're always marketed to supplement with magnesium, but and I was one of those who was downing magnesium powering my drinks after my workout to help my muscles relax.
But I realized, actually, I always had sufficient magnesium. As, you know, I I was understanding that I was actually absorbing the magnesium from my food. So it's a different type of test as hair or, you know, skin and nails, but that's fantastic. So it's great that you did that test.
[00:11:03] Unknown:
K. So let's get into these different markers. So you said you had, what did you say, 9 at the moment? And perhaps later on, there will be a more and or different ones. So you were talking about magnesium already, but in my test, I had a score of 8 out of 10. In magnesium Oh, great. Which says 0.67 millimolars per millimolar magnesium versus creatine value. Can you tell me what does that mean?
[00:11:32] Unknown:
Sure. So we all as individuals need varying levels of magnesium. When you download the Vivo app, it most likely going to ask you about your gender, your type of diet, your age, and it's gonna use that to understand what the US or the general health recommendations are for magnesium, for, male, your age at your activity level. And then using that value, it's then going to, you know, instead of saying a millimoles per, you know, desk leader value, which can be confusing. To individuals, we use a rating of like 1 to 10. And sometimes, you know, we can bring out the, competitive side and people I mean, I'm from New York, so I know that people will be like, I'm gonna attend today. I'm gonna be no one should feel bad if they have an 8 or a 5. It's just showing you what your body is responding to that day.
So if you want an 8 out of 10, that means that your diet and your lifestyle is supporting around 80% of your magnesium requirements. So if you would like to, you could try and change your diet by adding more whole grains or more beans, lentils, nuts, seeds. They're all very rich in magnesium. And the app will tell you actually, like, what to do. And then you can try them for lunch and then take the test the next time for the next day at the same time. And see if your magazine levels do in fact change to reflect.
[00:13:00] Unknown:
Okay. Because the app now with an 8 out of 10, says that my magnesium level that I paid out, at least, is high. And it says that that's not good because high levels of magnesium may be caused by overconsumption of magnesium treatments,
[00:13:14] Unknown:
and this can cause nausea, muscle weakness, and abdominal cramps, which I don't have, of course. Okay. So And that I I understand. Yeah. So in that aspect, so whatever the act would say would be, you know, correct from what I understand the beginning is that you had a low score.
[00:13:29] Unknown:
Yeah. So alright. My magnesium level, right, so the app says it is high. But you also said that the app does this based on whatever the RDA is or whatever is recommended by, you know, the government. And we all know that that's too low that that's the bare minimum that you need to not get sick and die. Right? So I take a lot of magnesium. I notice I take supplements. That's why it feels so great. So do I trust this that it's that it's high? I don't know. Because, also, this is what comes out of my urine, right, not per se what I have stored in my body. So what would you think about that? Yeah.
[00:14:09] Unknown:
That's a really good question. I would say that your magnesium requirements change every day. When your stress, your requirements will be higher. So maybe those supplements will be good when you are stressed when you're working out. The stress is a, I'm sorry, exercise is a form of stress on our body. And, you know, if if females are listening to this, your magnesium requirements change completely according to your menstrual lunar cycle, every week. So I you know, your magnesium requirements and most of your metal requirements will change. If you are having, I would say, always do at least you know, 2 to 3 tests because if you were having consistently high magnesium and you're working out one day, one day, you're stressed, maybe you're having tech problems like I was having, or maybe one day, you know, you're at home relaxing and you don't need as much, minerals relax or muscle. You can compare those results. So Vivo really helps you connect to how your day's day life is affecting your result. I would recommend you try at least 2 to 3 tests.
Understand if it's a consistent average.
[00:15:15] Unknown:
And do you also have a recommendation about, when to do the test So first thing in the morning, probably not. Right?
[00:15:22] Unknown:
Or later? That's a really good question. So that's fantastic that you guess correctly. Most, individuals, think that it's best to do, you know, we're we're brought up to do everything. First thing, the more you take your vitamin, drink your water, etcetera. Actually our first, urine. And we have in the morning after we sleep is the most concentrated urine. And you can use this if you don't have any other time of the day, but we don't recommend for you to do that. We recommend for you to do either the second or third timing that you urinate. And this can be because, your 1st year will be very concentrated, and it will be misleading.
You can do so when just do the test, for example, you might say, Melissa, I have no time. I rush out of my house, like, you know, I'd really have time to go to the bathroom once. Like, what two times? You can bring your tasks to work, to wherever, but make sure you're trunk doing the tasks the same time each day. K. So if you're a night owl, you can do your test. For example, you know, after dinner every night, We recommend the the most accurate results seem to happen in the morning, at the second or third year end. But if you keep your test consistent, it's more about how your body is responding. So if you cannot do the boarding, you could do the afternoon, but we always recommend the 2nd or 3rd urine Yeah. But urination in the morning.
[00:16:50] Unknown:
K. That's good. So we had magnesium. Right? Let's talk about a couple of the other ones. But there's also protein Sure. That measures protein. What I got was a score of 8 out of 10 where it says protein is moderate, moderate, in my case, and it says your urine protein level is slightly higher than normal. And this could be because of lots of things. Exposure to a cold, strenuous exercise would be high ration. What does this mean? Yeah.
[00:17:20] Unknown:
So that, I would say, I'm the 9 parameters that we have. That can actually be the one that the most mind boggling because, you know, protein were also really marketed to eat tons of protein and, you know, protein is protein that protein makes you, you know, thin and lean inside inside However, most individuals are getting more than enough protein in their diet. You know, and protein is actually filtered by your kidneys. I know you know all of us vary just for our listeners. And, When we filter out protein, we have a lot of amino acids that are deaminated, and that's what we're essentially urinating out excreting.
And if we eat high protein every day, that can be really tiring on our kid needs. And then when we're in our forties or fifties or sixties, individuals can get renal disease, which is basically like, you know, the inflammation of your kidneys. So the protein value is more of a worker of your kidney health than it is about your protein consumption. That's also another value that you might wanna check when you do your next nivo test. Maybe you had a lot of animal based protein. Maybe you were taking protein powder. It's showing you that your body is getting more than enough protein and reading it out.
So, a lot of individuals, they'll be like Melissa, you know, because I also consult. I have a lot of clients with, like, I'm looking at bars. This pro protein bars. That's 22 gram or the protein scoop. This bar says 18 grams. Of course, I'm gonna go for the 22. It's sometimes their body doesn't really need that much protein, and we just excrete the rest. So in this case, it's showing that your body is getting Enough protein is actually screening it. So this is a reflection of your diet.
[00:19:07] Unknown:
Right. And also about your exercise, of course. Because for instance, I eat a carnivore fish, diets, but mostly meats, and fats, which means high protein But if you use those proteins like you're doing heavy resistance training, for instance, you can actually utilize those amino acids. Then probably not a lot of them will be excluded in your end. Right?
[00:19:31] Unknown:
Yes. That's a really good. So when we do, you know, the whole what what we're working out, we're actually I'm gonna hold up my r where people are listening. We're actually breaking down protein and then synthesizing new fibers, new muscle fibers to extend and enlarge our muscle. And that requires protein and we get that usually from our diet or whatever we have in our body at that time. If you are working out and doing more, you know, anaerobic or more weight, like you were saying weight lifting, your body will use the protein in your diet to synthesize mussels and therefore your your protein expiration rates will decrease.
[00:20:13] Unknown:
Okay. Okay. Interesting. So we have, magnesium. We have protein. Let's go over to an interesting one which is key tone. So key tones, it for me, it says 10 out of 10. You did very well because I had 0 ketones at this time in my body. And this thing says Having ketos in the urine indicates that the body can't get enough glucose to use as an energy source so it begins to turn to ketos. And so it thinks that having 0 ketones in my urine is actually a very good thing. What do you think about that?
[00:20:52] Unknown:
So, ketones is another value that's very, popular. Right? Keto hito or vegan or grain free. But ketogenic diet or ketones in general is basically a diet. That was developed for children, suffering from epilepsy in order to control their seizures. And this is because when you have a ketogenic diet, which is going to be around 90% sat and just incredibly hard to do in real life. Most individuals that they think they're doing key targets doing usually like a high protein diet. When you have, like, around 90% fat in your diet, that means that your body is converting, ketones into energy molecules. Your body does not like to do that, and pe ketosis is actually a state of inflammation.
You can do it for a short period of time or, you know, like, a training or or wedding or etcetera, but long term ketogenic diets are actually not so good for your body, by the way. So, when we have a ketogenic diet, we're constantly we're converting our glucose molecule into ketones because our, sorry, ketones into glucose molecules because our grain can only, use glucose. So that's why this diet was originally developed for children with Caesars. Or epileptic, episodes because it was slowing down their their the rate of how faster neurons we're passing through, you know, accent Pathways.
So when you are having a diet that's making your body produce a lot of key tone, that means that you're starving your body from having access to natural glucose. What is glucose? Blue Coast is actually a sugar molecule. We all think that sugar is bad, and glucose is bad, therefore. And, oh, my god. But, actually, we really need glucose. Lukose is the most easy to digest, nutrient. So we have protein fat and glucose as nutrient and carbohydrate. Lucos is the main unit, lactose, fructose. Fructose is the fruit that's found in sugar and lact So this was found in milk and maltose bunches of, types of carbohydrate ants we have. It's more about the type of carbohydrate you have in your diet. So If you're having a low carbohydrate diet or if you're having a diet with lots of whole grains, lots of fiber, like vegetables, crude.
Usually, your body will have a steady supply of glucose. That value is very popular because we have a large population of individuals who use ketogenic diet, Barry, and, they love to test their ketones on a day to day basis. So your results sound
[00:23:45] Unknown:
great. You don't have information, basically. I'm gonna disagree with you, respectfully there. You said a couple of, figs there. So, for for instance, you said that our brain can only run on glucose. Which is not true. It does need some glucose of our body is totally capable of creating that ourselves without actually ingesting any glucose. Even on a ketogenic diet through gluconeogenesis where the liver creates its own glucose. And if that were true, then everybody who would do, like, a 2 day fast would die because, you know, you don't have any glucose in your body. There are plenty of people like you say, at the end there that do a ketogenic diet to, for instance, resolve out to immune issues or other issues that they have.
And like you said, yes. It's true that this was developed for epilepsy in the beginning, but now research has been shown that there are many, many more applications for a ketogenic diet ketosis is definitely a very good thing to be in, and most people, if they have a long, fast when they go bad, for instance, you know, you don't eat for a while. Maybe skip breakfast. You get into a light ketosis, and you will have some ketones in your body there. And you'll have a mix, though it's not always on or off, like you only burn glucose or you only burn fat. Usually, you do a bit of both there. So this app is very biased in that sense that it says if you are not, burning, fat, then you're doing a very good job. Which is saying then you should only burn glucose.
When I agree with you that glucose is not super bad or anything, but having high insulin to combat that glucose always on when you have large glucose spikes because perhaps you have highly processed foods. Like you say, it depends completely on what type of carbohydrates you ingest there. Then that's a bad thing, but this app then kinda insinuates that you really should just only eat, you know, things that contain carbs and no fats because you really wanna stay away from ketones. So I I'm not gonna take this one for the advice, the the key tones.
[00:26:00] Unknown:
Okay. Whatever. I totally respect your beliefs. What I meant is you are correct that our brain and use ketones, but the ketones are converted into glucose molecules. So we don't have to ingest glucose, but we have to our brain and ourselves need Our cells can you have ketone, but our brain cells are neurons specifically need glucose. So they Yes. Not all of us. You know, our ketone Yeah. Not all of them as you mentioned, but it is generally shown by science. I completely respect your, you know, preference and your beliefs.
[00:26:37] Unknown:
Okay. Let's move on to a couple other ones. Vitamin c, for instance, I find that a nice one and have some questions. But for me, it was 10 out of 10. And it says it's optimal. So it is, high, which is optimal, and then it says congratulations having an optimal level of vitamin c in urine support. Things like healing of wounds, protection against the effect of free radicals and immunity. Can you tell me a little bit about vitamin c and what that means in this test.
[00:27:09] Unknown:
Sure. The vitamin c is a water soluble vitamin. Which means that when we have enough of it, our body excretes it out, therefore, we test it in our urine. Other, we have fat soluble vitamins like vitamin a, D, E, and K. Those will not be shown in your urine because we don't excrete them out. Vitamin c, we do along with our b vitamins. So with a Scoreic acid or vitamin c, there's different versions of it. It's used as an anti oxidant or We're constantly present with lots of free radicals, whether it's in your diet, even in the air, we breathe from the toxins in your clothing, And our body needs requires, a lot of antioxidants to combat these free radicals in order to not being a state of inflammation as research shows. So vitamin C has been shown by research in many ways.
Interview your immune systems and do bunches of different, you know, benefits for your body. It's also required for so many different procedures, like, for instance, collagen, That's very popular right now. People wanna either increase the collagen in their skin or they wanna increase the collagen in their joints. You rec our body requires vitamin c for this. That's a very important vitamin to have it in your diet and to monitor on a day to day basis because, you know, you can get sick within a few days. And you can also eat more citrus or other fruits and vegetables within a few days and improve your immunity. The vitamin c is one of those, you know, wellness parameters. It's very pillar, you make sure that your immunity is good, especially during the flu season right now.
[00:28:50] Unknown:
Right. Okay. And how variable is vitamin c throughout the day? Because I know that you can only absorb, so much vitamin c, right, per sitting of food or supplements or whatever. So for instance, if I have high vitamin c in the morning because I had a lot of, high vitamin c fruits for instance, in my breakfast and after that, I did test, can it be completely different in the afternoon or in the evening?
[00:29:19] Unknown:
Yeah. I totally can. So you might, like, if you, let's say you have a orange juice in the morning or you have a breakfast with a lot of citrus, Then your vitamin c status on Vivo will show that you're excreting a lot. But if you were to end the night, let's say you were to have, like, you know, pasta with, or for instance, if you were to have beef with, mushrooms. There's mushrooms you have vitamin c, but In general, it's a low vitamin c, meal, so your values will change, throughout the day, actually.
[00:29:52] Unknown:
Right. K. So, again, then it's important to test this every day and then at the same time. Right?
[00:30:01] Unknown:
Yeah. Yes. It would be great to test it at the same time every day. And to be cognizant, like, you were saying, if you have, like, 3 or or oranges, and then your vitamin c level is high. You know, individuals should realize that maybe their their vitamin c level is good for that a day, but it's because of the orange. It's not because of their full diet.
[00:30:19] Unknown:
Okay. And then another very interesting is oxidative stress. That's a very good one. For me, again, this was a 10 out of 10, which says, MDA value of negative, and it says congratulations again. So I'm very happy with that. Having a negative MDA level in urine supports healthy vision, healthy mental functions, skin health overall is good for you, but that's oxidative stress Can you tell me about that one and what that means in this test?
[00:30:50] Unknown:
Sure. So it's act We still want vitamin c. You know, we're just talking about vitamin c. It's important to you kind of combat inflammation. Oxid stress is showing how much stress your body is, you know, feeling on a day to day basis and how much inflation. So when you have a diet with a lot of free, you know, antioxidants in it, such as vitamin c or such as, you know, some, just in general lots of free internationals at the seat. And when you're also doing practices that can kind of lower inflammation, like breathing, yoga, having us a state of, you know, love and peacefulness that can work to lower inflammation.
On, therefore, oxy is stressed. When you are someone who's very stressed or critical or someone who you know, in general rushing around, and we all find ourselves doing this. Right? Like, today, I was rushing around like crazy. That was trusting out my body and living in a city not having access to constantly fresh oxygen can also increase inflammation as well as having, you know, a diet with, you know, pesticides or taking pharmaceutical drugs, these can actually all, depending on the drug, increase, your oxidative stress.
So k. But we encourage a diet that has a lot of antioxidants in it to balance this. Also, lifestyle approaches. Even though it's really different because It not only tells you, you know, dairy. You should eat more lettuce or more spirulina or more, you know, whatever you prefer. But it will also say you might wanna try walking or deep breathing, for instance, to lower your oxygen stress. Had it had been high.
[00:32:31] Unknown:
Right. And then there's also sodium. Right? So salt. And for me, that was, in this case, 5 out of 10. So low So I needed more salt at that time. We noticed that your sodium intake slightly loaded might cause fossil energy based vomiting. And, you know, that's the worst side effect. But, I get that because that was definitely the case, there. Can you tell a little bit more about that?
[00:33:00] Unknown:
Sure. The sodium is a mineral that we actually require on a day to day basis. And sodium has actually been vilified, like, that, that, it's bad, etcetera. So, you know, but Sodium is really required to revise you lots of processes. So when we do have a low sodium diet, we will feel like you said tired or kinda like we're low energy. And a lot of our processes will not be working. And, also, we can even have edema from low sodium. And Dema has, like, motor swelling, but the osmosis, the way it happens in the facility division. So, with sodium, actually, we have a really cool podcast that I had, with our doctor who specializes in sodium.
And I would recommend our listeners to, you know, check that out if he he wants but I learned so much by using Vivo, you know, in my, nutrition program when I was doing, you know, medical nutrition. I learned that sodium was something to always lower in my patient, especially cardiovascular or diabetic because of hypertension. However, I didn't realize that a lot of individuals like myself who I try not to eat out at all, and I co cook everything. I also have a diet with lots of water, and maybe you also could get home too, Barry, our sodium can actually be low. So I started adding salt to my diet, and I started feeling so much more energetic. Also, another value that can lower your sodium is drinking coffee.
When you drink that, because it's a diuretic, along with, you know, lots of dark tea, black tea, etcetera, that can help your body excretes So you might have very you might be adding sodium in your diet, but if you are drinking, you know, two cups or three cups of sodium and steak, I could actually the, sorry, coffee a day that can actually decrease your sodium level.
[00:34:51] Unknown:
Yeah. Definitely. And, I totally It relates to what you're saying there where, you know, if you don't eat a lot of processed foods, then you can easily become low in sodium. Because, you know, I get the recommendation. If you need lots of highly processed food, there's lots of salt in that. So if you don't do that, then you don't get all of that in your diet that you need to actually add it in there yourself, which you really need to be mindful of. Just get it in there. You can be a bit overbundant in that. And this sodium level, when Yeah. If my app says it is, it is optimal. Is that based on the RDA as well?
[00:35:29] Unknown:
Yes. That is. So that's basically our date for your age and gender.
[00:35:33] Unknown:
Okay. And let's do then a final one, which is calcium, and in my case, it says 8 out of 10 calcium. It's high, but that's not a good thing in this case because it says the calcium level in your urine is slightly high over time. This can increase in conservation nausea and fatigue. Can you tell a little bit about calcium and You know, what what would that mean and how can I change that?
[00:36:06] Unknown:
So calcium is an important mineral, and thanks for bringing that up. And actually works in conjunction with magnesium in our body and the way it's absorbed. And it's a mineral that's found in a lot of different, like, for vegetables. It's in dark color leafy greens like spinach. We all think of pot pie. It's also found in milk, and we're always encouraged to drink of calcium, and a lot of individuals don't meet their calcium requirement. However, there can be individuals like yourself that maybe is having a little bit too much. And that can also vary from day to day. So, you know, for this, that's why we go so important, because your understanding how your body is responding to your diet and your lifestyle.
If it's showing that your calcium is a little bit high, that means that your body is getting enough calcium and reading it, you know, when we excrete, a lot of minerals that can be tiring for our body's filtration method, and processes. That can wear a body down, and also some research has shown high amounts of calcium can actually lead to osteoporosis. And that's because the way our bones work is they're constantly building. You know, it's not like they're static, They're constantly rebuilding. You know, we have our osteoclants, our osteoblacks, our constant carving, and building our bone. And when you're having a diet with a lot of calcium, Sometimes that can add too much to your, it can be too much of the, you know, osteoblasts, too much building.
So our body wants to excrete it. And usually if I'd be able to excrete it, but with time, sometimes, you know, our organ cell functions so well. Right? You get older. You seem very healthy. But in, you know, with average individuals, once they're they get illnesses, once they're in their forties or fifties because, you know, their body is kind of worn down from all the toxins or the lifestyle it's been going through. So having a high calcium loan can actually be tiring for the body. Those are preventative method people will tell you to, you know, average your calcium intake. Are you having, dairy in your diet or cheese?
Or butter?
[00:38:12] Unknown:
No. I'm lactose intolerant, so no dairy, and I make sure that I never have any calcium in any of my dietary supplement because I don't want to have too much calcium in there. So I actually have a very low calcium diet, but I do have a high, vitamin d and k 2. Or perhaps my theory is then that if I do have a little bit, excessive calcium, My high amounts of vitamin d dandk2 make sure that it it is excreted through urine, for instance. Yeah.
[00:38:44] Unknown:
Yeah. So K2 is a really important mineral that we, sorry, vitamin that we don't really hear about. And that's also really nice necessary for our bones and our teeth formation. It got very popular recently with the paleolithic diet. So, you know, if you are taking a vitamin d or NK2 supplement, That will also affect your calcium levels for sure.
[00:39:04] Unknown:
Right. But then this might not be a bad thing as it just excretes excessive calcium, and might not mean that my actual calcium level within my body is high. Right?
[00:39:19] Unknown:
Yeah. So when we have calcium in our body, vitamin d synthesis requires calcium. We use calcitonin. So, you know, that's why it's really that's why mostly, like, the way, you know, supplements work work as they combine what's necessary. Your, supplement probably is a drop. That's why it's just to you. I don't know, but it's I I'm assuming it's like a a wild drop. So vitamin d and k 2 are when they're combined, they will help that process work, and they'll use calcium from your diet. So it might me Like you're saying, if you're, you know, looking deep into this, it might mean that your body is getting enough calcium to you know, do a lot of the, calcium synthesis and then therefore storage in your in your fat.
So, sorry, vitamin d, synthesis in your fat. At storage and your calcium levels are sufficient. You could, if you were very curious, as it seems that you are, which is fantastic. To, you know, maybe, like, stop taking the supplement for, like, 2 days and, see how your calcium levels are then. Usually because, you know, vitamin d is a fat soluble vitamin, it's stored in our fat, actually. So, sometimes it can take a little longer time to change values. But if you're curious, you could try, you know, I was telling the bit, although I'm like, just try not to take your supplement one day and see how your results change. Maybe then your calcium levels are back to normal if you're taking, like, a multivitamin. So that could maybe be a, like, a new exciting task for you.
[00:40:53] Unknown:
Okay. So those are, like, the markers that are in here, which are lots of markers Are you, is Vivo planning to add more markers or change any of these?
[00:41:05] Unknown:
Yeah. And so, you know, as we are a It's it's a amazing company that's actually found by 2 female, bioengineers. They are definitely looking at expanding expanding products, expanding parameters because there's such a big, big, big demand. You know, individuals as our lives get more hectic, and we transition more into cities, which is what urban slaves is showing at research, our bodies will need in order to, you know, be healthy more and more devices like this. You know, you said you're using the or ring. That's fantastic. These type of biohacking devices is an amazing field that's actually helping empowering individuals In sinus in a systematic health care health care functioning modality.
So I I do think we will definitely for what, the company has shared it. We are expanding in a lot of ways on our products and our parameters.
[00:42:04] Unknown:
Okay. Can't wait to see what that is. And as you also said, so it's not only just showing these these values of how you did well or you did not do well. So it's also giving you some advice on exercise, but also about nutrition. Now when I look at this, nutrition advice, like I already, said, I eat carnivore ish or mostly meat and also some, fruits there. This is very biased towards plant based eating. So to me, that doesn't work. Is is that on purpose?
[00:42:40] Unknown:
So it that's a really interesting outlook. I'm sorry that you found it by I'm sorry that it didn't, you know, satisfy your your luck. However, in general, the RDA recommendations are what we follow. And, the R and D recommendations are created by the Academy of Nutrition and dietetics for the United States of America. Correct. And they generally recommend a balanced diet So if you had been an individual saying that, and when you I I'm sure when you sign up and Vivo had asked you what type of diet you have, Let's say you were vegetarian or a vegan, it wouldn't suggest you eat meat, but it would suggest you, for example, more mushrooms.
For certain values or more or other protein sources or your case because maybe you're having a carnivore diet, which is very healthy so many ways. In order to, do the USDA nutrition guidelines, it will encourage you to eat more fruits rules and whole grains because that is part of the guideline. And Vivo as it is a, you know, FDA approved product, It will support what the academy designates as a well balanced diet.
[00:43:50] Unknown:
Right. So it is actually trying to guide me towards the dietary guidelines that the US government presents.
[00:43:59] Unknown:
Yes. Yes. Exactly. So it is
[00:44:05] Unknown:
Most of my listeners here know that that's probably not a very good idea.
[00:44:11] Unknown:
Yeah. The diet in the United States is not, of course, at its optimal right now. You know, as it does have a very high obesity rate, and it's, it's in a it's a country where we have both the healthiest and the least healthiest of a lot of different practices. However, the nutrition guideline, of the United States, is actually what shapes nutrition guidelines of most of the world. You can check it out. I'm actually an academy member. So there is a lot of debate about whether or not, you know, the guidelines should be updated. They're updated right now, within the past year.
And they get updated every 5 to 10 years by voting and legislation legislation. I know if you guys remember, but in the past, we used to have, like, a pyramid, Now we moved to a plate system. So they just recently added soy milk and other plant based alternatives, tofu, as a protein source. So it is constantly updating. However, it is the strongest, occurring I would say nutrition guideline system that is available in addition to the United Kingdom's, which is also based on the u United States, system.
[00:45:22] Unknown:
Yes. They eat better guidelines. We're all very familiar with all of those systems and how as you you do say, it's a most occurring dietary guideline system. That's very true. Yeah. It doesn't make it the best, of course, especially, you know, if you're prescribing, like, soy things, Maybe not the best. But, okay, we don't have to get into that. Now we're talking about the Vivo products here. Okay. Cool. Thank you very much for, talking about, all of this and to explaining all of these markers to us Now Fivo also has something for my listeners and viewers. Right? It's a a bit of a discount where you order your Vivo sticks, you know, and I'll I'll read it out. So you can go to vivo.i0 if you're interested, and then you can use code, very 30 to get 30% off of your vivo order. And I'll put that in the show notes as well if you would like to do that.
Alright. Thank you very much. Where can people find more about Vivo and about yourself? Well.
[00:46:32] Unknown:
It's a great question. So I hope everyone takes, you know, advantage of that 3% to that's really generous that we're giving to your listeners. If you wanna learn more about Vivo, you can check our website, like you said, Vivo. Io. We also have a really active social media account. It's at libo app, and, you can find me in the videos on the app as well.
[00:46:54] Unknown:
Thank you for spending time with me to learn about and wellness. For the full transcript and more content, visit improving varied.com. That is improving badoubry.com. And here is a disclaimer. The information in this podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine nursing, or other professional health care services, including the giving of medical advice and no doctor patient relationship is formed. The use of information in this podcast is at the user's own risk. The content of this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
Users should not disregard or delay in obtaining medical advice for any medical condition they may have, and should seek the assistance of their health care professionals for any such conditions.
Introduction to Vivo and its test strips
Why urine is used as a modality for testing
Explanation of magnesium levels and their significance
Understanding protein levels and their implications
Explanation of ketone levels and their meaning
Understanding vitamin C levels and their importance
Explanation of oxidative stress levels and their impact
Understanding sodium levels and their significance
Explanation of calcium levels and their implications
