John E. Lewis, Ph.D. is the Founder and President of Dr Lewis Nutrition™ and past Associate Professor at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.  He has been the principal investigator of over 30 different studies in his research career, evaluating the effects of nutrition, dietary supplementation, and exercise on various aspects of human health.  He has over 180 peer-reviewed publications in some of the world’s leading scientific journals.

Shireen [0:33]: In today’s episode, we welcome Dr. John Lewis. He discusses his transition from academia to entrepreneurship and his commitment to revolutionizing health. Through science based practices. We discuss ways to optimize daily diet practices based on dietary supplements, and other research evidence based on glycomics. Stay tuned. Dr. John E. Lewis is the founder and president of Dr. Lewis Nutrition, and past Associate Professor at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. He has been the principal investigator of and studies in his research career, evaluating the effects of nutrition, dietary supplementation, and exercise on various aspects of human health. He has over 180 peer reviewed publications in some of the world’s leading scientific journals. Welcome, Dr. Lewis

Dr. Lewis [1:28]: Thank you so much for having me. It’s my pleasure to be here.

Shireen [1:31]: It’s a pleasure having you on. Dr. Lewis, tell us a little bit more about your journey. Before we dive right in. Can you share a little bit about your background and journey into the field of dietetics and nutrition?

Dr. Lewis [1:43]: I spent most of my career as a clinical researcher in nutrition. So I’ve looked at as you mentioned, in my introduction, I look at a lot of different effects on the use of nutrition, dietary modification, in particular, certain dietary supplements on how those materials or those behaviors affect human health. And this started a long time ago, obviously, if I’ve been doing this for over 20 years, but my interest earlier in life was really about sports performance, or helping me achieve my goals in drug free competitive bodybuilding, but later, I shifted into more of an orientation toward health rather than just sports performance. Since obviously, for sports performance, we’re talking about a much smaller number of people globally, as opposed to, quite frankly, everyone should be concerned about his or her health. Unfortunately, as you know, most people aren’t. And that’s why we’re riddled with chronic diseases today. But I just came to appreciate the idea of nutrition so much in terms of how that translates into our health and how really food is your medicine, as Hippocrates said, many many millennia ago. And so for me, this is really, you know, my mission is to help people understand, to use nutrition to achieve health and any type of health challenge doesn’t have to be regarded as just an inevitability of aging, or, you know, genetics or some other kind of wishful or unrealistic expectation of how we live, it’s actually very controllable. In most cases, I mean, there are certain diseases that, of course, are genetically determined, but I would argue that those are very rare and very uncommon, compared to everything else that we’re dealing with today, where people are told, Well, you have diabetes, you have cancer, you have heart disease, you’re obese, you have depression, whatever the case may be, and then they’re left, dealing with a pharmacological remedy that typically has very low efficacy, and will also have a lot of side effects. And then what you’re really doing is you’re helping Big Pharma stay very wealthy, and meanwhile, you’re compromising your health. But in many cases, you don’t have to end up that way, you can actually take the power back in your own hands, utilize food as your own source of health and well being, and of course, other behaviors along with it. But really, when you look at the literature, nutrition is the number one lifestyle behavior. And so that motivates me in doing what I’ve been doing for many years now. And again, trying to spread a message of health and wellness for people where typically they otherwise think they have no alternative. 

Shireen [4:16]:  You know, when you focus on nutrition in that way, I do want to talk a little bit about chronic conditions. And before that, we do want to take a step back and just understand just based on your experience, what would you say is the most effective way to improve immune health and even cognitive functioning? What is the role that diet plays in this?

Dr. Lewis [4:38]: Great question. So obviously, when you talk about immune functioning, most people think of the immune system as being our number one, protection against foreign invaders, and that’s absolutely true. Any type of threat to our body is dealt with first and foremost by our immune system. But the immune system is actually much more than that. I use the analogy of being the, if you take an orchestra and you have the conductor, the immune system is kind of functioning the way the conductor does, it talks to all the other major organ systems. And it helps to keep them in balance, and none the least of which, of course, is our central nervous system, which includes our brain. And so we use cognitive function as a proxy measure or assessment of brain function. But nutrition is so important in all this, and unfortunately, we have sort of neglected the brain, in many cases in deficit to, you know, the heart, or cancers, you know, all these things that are predominantly killing us, especially Americans, whether you’re talking about some type of cancer or some form of cardiovascular disease. So we’ve sunk all of this money into looking at why the heart and other organs get affected by cancer. And then you kind of left the brain and the immune system sort of to the side to say, well, they’re not as important because they don’t really have, you know, they’re not looked at in the same context as people dying from cardiovascular disease. And, you know, brain cancer is not really certainly not one of the leading causes. But anyway, to your question, to your point, nutrition is just as important for the brain and the immune system as it is for any other major organ system. And so we need to keep our immune system very functional and surveillance so that it does its job in protecting us against different types of threats. But it’s also very important to keeping us regulated properly by keeping inflammation low, which now we know inflammation is related to practically every type of chronic disease, especially when you get into talking about things like neurodegeneration, whether it’s Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, or even Parkinson’s, all those have very significant inflammatory components to them as well. So nutrition is very vital and very important to all of that we actually showed in our research using certain polysaccharides from aloe vera and rice bran, that we could actually have very significant effects on people with both moderate to severe Alzheimer’s disease and relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis, we actually showed, in my opinion, basically unparalleled findings in terms of using these polysaccharides to be able to help people in the case of people with Alzheimer’s have actually better cognitive function, lower their inflammation, improve their overall immune function, and increase their adult stem cell production. And in the, in the case of people with MS, we showed that we could lower their infections, which is the leading killer of people with MS, we improve their physical functioning, we lowered their inflammation, we improve their overall immune function, and we improve their overall quality of life and their physical function. So we had very impressive findings with both of those clinical trials using this dietary supplement based on these different polysaccharides.

Shireen [7:48]: Based on some of the research that you’ve talked about on glycomics, and even other areas, how can individuals who are listening to this podcast today, how can we really apply the scientific principles into our daily practices and the foods we consume?

Dr. Lewis [8:05]: Well most simply these particular polysaccharides unfortunately, whether you’re vegan or carnivore, or paleo or keto, I don’t really care what your dietary philosophy is, these polysaccharides don’t really come from our food. I mean, I personally don’t know anyone who eats aloe vera, I have aloe vera growing in my yard, but I never go out and you know, snip a stem off and then suck down the gel, that’s not really a very good way to get the polysaccharides. Same with rice, about 70 to 80% of the rice sold in the world is white rice. So the white is just that big white endosperm, that’s left after the rice is taken in from the field and milled. The rice bran is actually stripped off and either thrown away or fed to livestock. So unfortunately, the rice bran is where all the real nutritional content of the rice is. So my point is, is that you really have to take things like these polysaccharides in a dietary supplement. Again, you’re getting none of that stuff in your regular diet. So you really have to do your homework and find a particular dietary supplement like we’ve been working with to be able to get the benefit of those particular nutrients. 

Shireen [9:09]: Speaking of which, your company produces dietary supplements. To what degree do you think dietary supplements improve one’s health? And can someone reach the same effect through changes in diet and nutrition intake? 

Dr. Lewis [9:24]: Great question. So again, it depends on the context. So for example, vitamin D we all know that Americans are I think it’s somewhere around 70% of Americans are either insufficient or deficient and their vitamin D level. What a shame that is, we know that vitamin D is actually not a vitamin, it’s really more of like a pro hormone, but it’s very potent and we know that it interacts with over 4000 genes within our 40,000 or so genes that we have as human beings. So this is a very, very important thing. Now if you don’t live in Florida like I do, maybe you live in the northern latitudes, say in Minnesota or somewhere up there you may not Get as much sun exposure. But if you are in any place where you can get some regular sun exposure, I would tell you go outside and get 10 or 15 minutes of sunlight as much on your body as you can every day. If you can’t do that, then take a supplement, vitamin d3 is very cheap. It’s one of the cheapest dietary supplements on the market. And then of course, there are lots of foods that are fortified with vitamin D. Now I eat a plant based diet I’ve been eating plant based for 2627 years now and I. So obviously, I’m not in the business of promoting eating animals or animal foods as part of a healthy diet. But nonetheless, something like vitamin D can be very easily and quite inexpensively gained from either your food or your dietary supplements or even just sun exposure, to be able to get what you need to be healthy and to function properly. Again, things like the polysaccharides that I mentioned just a moment ago, unfortunately, those really cannot be obtained from the diet, you have to find a dietary supplement that has those in a concentrated amount where you can get a therapeutic benefit from them. And then of course, there are lots of other things. I mean, again, it depends on the context, whether you’re talking about a vitamin, mineral, a type of Phyto nutrient, but when I look at diet, as opposed to supplementation, I think of the easiest thing that most people can take home is to eat as wide a range of colors as possible, you know, so you got your reds or yellows, your oranges, of course, your greens, your purples, eat all those different things, and you get a wide range of nutrients that your body can utilize to keep you healthy. And then you supplement based on whatever you think you need or what your deficiency may be. And of course, we know today, the average human is assaulted by so much more radiation pollution toxicity compared to people on the earth, certainly before the Industrial Revolution, and even up to about 100 years ago, the number of chemicals, you know utilized in manufacturing has just exploded. So we have to be mindful of the fact that food is not what it used to be, I didn’t even mention genetic modification. That’s another thing that actually has had the reverse, or the opposite effect. It hasn’t made us healthier at all. I mean, it’s actually something that you should avoid, don’t buy genetically modified food, for the most part, try to buy organic as much as you can. So again, there are a lot of different factors that go into how you should look at food and how you should utilize it as your number one behavior and choice if you will to be healthy or not, you know, if you’re not utilizing it properly.

Shireen [12:25]: So, you know, I want to get clarity around your view for supplements, is it to say, if I’m understanding you correctly, you said Get your vitamins, get your minerals, get all of that from food sources, and then supplement as in don’t substitute but supplement with supplements help us understand that worldview and where perhaps folks get it wrong? 

Dr. Lewis [12:46]: Sure, I’d be glad to. So again, I mean, the best way to make any kind of determination about what you should or should not do is to have actual data, right? So a blood test to determine your vitamin D level is relatively inexpensive, I think most people should be able to afford it. Just go have your vitamin D checked, I think you can go to LabCorp quest, there’s a company here in South Florida called Life Extension, they offer a vitamin D test, I mean, just get your D tested. And then you’ll know immediately whether or not you need to increase it again, if you’re not getting it in food, you definitely need to supplement with it either by getting out in the sun every day, or taking a supplement. What I am saying is two things necessarily are not true at the same time. In other words, you definitely need to eat as much good food as you can try to limit, you know, the bad stuff. And of course, the bad stuff is debatable. But I will tell you that just trying to get by on food alone, I don’t think is adequate today. And again, going back to what I said about the polysaccharides the materials that I’ve worked with now for almost 20 years, you absolutely don’t get those in food, but you need them, they’re very important for our health. And unfortunately, people don’t recognize the value of these polysaccharides. If you mentioned aloe vera to 100 people on the street, 99 of them will probably say Oh, well that’s great for a sunburn or a cut or a wound or something. We have this immediate orientation to think of aloe vera is something for a topical purpose. People don’t even understand the value of these polysaccharides and the gel, that will be so much you know, just do so many dynamic things for you if you consume them orally, so the gel is fine. You know again if you’re sunburned or have something topically, but you take the concentrated polysaccharides and a powder in a dietary supplement. It’s way more effective for you. The same thing is true with the turmeric root like the root is a very dense powder that if you just take that unprocessed powder, you’re going to get very little of the curcuminoids that are actually the health promoting properties of that route. So you have to take the best of what mother nature in the case of aloe vera and and Turmeric but then utilize some human ingenuity to make those materials Much more bioavailable and effective by taking them in a mouse that you can actually have a therapeutic benefit. So if you make curry as you know, some preferred type of meal that you like to eat, and I love curry, but I’m not eating my curry because I think I’m gonna get a lot of health promoting benefit out of it, I’m gonna get some. But if I get a concentrated curcumin in a formulation that the body can actually recognize as bioavailable, and then actually absorb it and then get it into the bloodstream so that it can go to the cells to function properly. That’s where I’m going to get the health benefit out of it. So that’s a very long winded answer to say that you need to eat well, but you also need to supplement on top of it if you’re truly trying to get to a point of optimal health

Shireen [15:44]: noted. So what you’re saying is really being able to go to the foods and seek the nutrients that you want to through that, but also look at supplements as providing that benefit, especially when you can’t necessarily access or cook those foods and really consume them and sort of your day to day diet. Where’s the most interesting case in your research that you’ve done, you know, even within your company, that you remember that further inspired your understanding of nutrition and diets and even now going to chronic illness prevention, which is, you know, a whole nother topic of its own. But walk us through some of that research. 

Dr. Lewis [16:20]: Well, clearly to date. And hopefully, we’ll be able to extend this research at some point in the future. But the work that we did with people with Alzheimer’s disease, by far has been the most rewarding, not only scientifically, but just from being able to help people. So almost all the work that I’ve done has been in clinical trials with human beings, I have not been a bench scientist looking at the effects of different things on cells or tissues, or even animals for that matter. And then you wonder, Oh, well, how does that actually translate to human health? The work that I’ve done, again, has been through clinical trials in humans, but we use this Allah polysaccharide complex that we now call daily brain care to actually show clinically and statistically significant improvements in cognitive function in people with moderate to severe Alzheimer’s disease. Now, that’s unheard of. I mean, you can look at the five FDA approved drugs for dementia, dietary modification, another type of dietary supplement, exercise, training, hyperbaric oxygen, acupuncture, sound therapy, I mean, just, you know, go down the list, and then don’t take my word for it. But go to PubMed and actually look up, you know, try to find something else yourself. I mean, I think you’ll be very hard pressed to find anything else that even remotely comes close to showing that. So you have cognitive improvement on the clinical side. And that was according to the ADAs cog, which is widely considered to be the gold standard for assessing cognition, particularly in people with some form of dementia. So you have that happening on the practical or the clinical side. And then in the blood, what we showed was an overall improvement in immune function, according to the CD for to CDA ratio. Our CD fours are our helper cells, our CDs are Cytotoxic cells. So we want that balance to be as much in our favor as possible. We lowered TNF alpha and VEGF, which are two markers commonly looked at in cardiovascular disease and cancer, those were probably those discoveries, again, probably the first time that that was ever made in people with Alzheimer’s. And then we also showed an increase in adult stem cell production by just under 300%, over the course of this one year study, which again, was unheard of. And it helps us to kind of paint the picture of why we showed the clinical improvement with this adult stem cell response that helps to support you know, mechanistically, why those cognitive changes occurred. We’ve actually published four papers from this study, we just got the fourth paper accepted a couple of months ago, it was at the end of last year, where we actually showed a rebalancing of the th one and th two components in the immune system over the 12 month period of this intervention, that was also related to improvements in cognitive function. So again, it kind of shows this very nice link between the immune systems functioning and the cognitive function, which again, is a proxy for brain health. So all in all, I mean, it just it blew me away. I even had caregivers as we were running the trial. This is going back quite a few years. But I had caregivers that were calling me in the middle of the study saying, Dr. Lewis, I can’t believe what my loved one is doing. You know, he in some cases, he or she is remembering me remembering our kids remembering our anniversary. Other holidays, the career the person had, I mean, just many things were happening that just truly was mind blowing. And, you know, it’s one thing to do great science and be a good ethical scientist, but when you can actually impact people’s lives. That’s where you really get this amazing feeling. And I knew that I was on the right track. And so I ended up not staying in academics because of really what we showed in this study, and I felt like I had a much bigger mission in life than just stay academics the rest of my life and trying to do more science, I really felt like it was so important to spread this message of how these polysaccharides are so crucial, and so beneficial to human health. And so that’s been my inspiration for many, many years now. And it will continue to drive me for the rest of my life, quite frankly.

Shireen [20:17]: I do also want to before we move on to the next question, talk to us a little bit more about sort of this intersection between diet supplements, even and chronic conditions. So we um, let’s do quite a bit of work within diabetes prevention, lifestyle, change those types of things. But what have you really found through your research when it comes to chronic conditions and prevention?

Dr. Lewis [20:38]: Well, prevention is just as important as treatment, right? I mean, we want to prevent these terrible things from happening to us in the first place, whether it’s, again, diabetes, or cancer, or heart disease, or Alzheimer’s or anything else. So the only question though, is, how do you answer the prevention question, right? Like, you don’t know till you’ve lived your whole life to then say, well, I’ve died of old age, I didn’t die of, you know, one of these typical killers today. But in my view, again, it goes back to what I mentioned earlier that you take your diet. And again, we can debate the merits of all these different dietary philosophies. But then you add your supplements on top of that these key materials or these key, maybe missing ingredients from the modern diet, and you put that all together in a way that hopefully helps you prevent it from getting these types of diseases. I mean, I’ve been taking these polysaccharides for over 10 years, now, I’ve had my mother on them, for over 15, our daughter will be four next month, we’ve had her on them since she was six months old, my wife started taking them when she was pregnant. So that’s four years ago. So you know, for me, like adding these things on top of the diet is just so important. And I just, I know that there, you know, there are lots of unfortunately bad players in our industry that give the entire industry a bad name. And then people say to me, well, the FDA doesn’t regulate dietary supplements. And my response to that always is, you ought to be glad that they don’t, because if they did, then they would be so expensive, you couldn’t afford them. So the FDA regulates drugs, not dietary supplements. And I’m very grateful that we have a legal and commercial environment where we can have that. But again, to me, I you know, I don’t really separate my diet with my supplements. To me, it’s like one package, they all work together in harmony to help create a healthy meat. And that’s what I do every day.

Shireen [22:24}: At this point, actually, as we are towards the end of the episode, can you tell our listeners how they can connect with you, especially if they’re interested in more of their research that you refer to on this recording here today? How can they connect with you and learn more about your work?

Dr. Lewis [22:37]: I would be happy to share that. So our main informational website is Dr. Lewis nutrition.com. That’s Dr. No period, le WIS, nutrition.com. I have so many articles, I’ve written their blogs that I’ve written, other podcast appearances. It’s a wealth of information about all the research my research career, and then writing that into layman’s terms. I don’t know if people maybe like that term. But you know, just a way that non scientists can help to better understand the information because it is very technical. And unfortunately, there really is no such thing as dumbing down scientific information it is what it is whether you can understand it or not. If you can, hopefully, you can help someone or have someone help you understand it, but I have a wealth of information there. And then we’re on all the typical social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, even a little bit of Tik Tok, although that’s maybe not the most politically correct place to be anymore. But all of those social media channels are under Dr. Louis nutrition as well. So, and I’m happy to have you know, questions or contact, we have all of our contact information there on the website. If anyone would like to reach out to me, I’m more than happy to answer any questions that anyone may have.

Shireen [23:49]: So with that, thank you so much for your time. Dr. Lewis is really an enlightening conversation, and certainly live for me too, as well as learning around polysaccharides. And then again, the health benefits there. To everyone listening. Thank you for joining another episode of the young English podcast to our listeners, head over to our social media and answer this quick question, what small change would you like to make towards better health and nutrition? We’ll continue the conversation at YumLish on Facebook and Instagram. We’ll continue the conversation there again, find this podcast post for Dr. Lewis. Comment below to tell us what small change would you like to make toward better health and nutrition? We’ll continue the conversation there. Thank you again for joining us. And thank you, Dr. Lewis. Appreciate your time. Thank you. 

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