This week I’ve got Dr. David Minkoff, MD on the show to talk about protein supplementation. Before going any further, I should make it clear I’m all for real food. Spend your money at the farmer’s market before you spend on any supplement. Having said that, I’ve also had great results taking supplements, and I’ve seen many other athletes enjoy the same. Close to the top of the list, especially for athletes with digestive complaints, are free-form essential amino acids. Dr. Minkoff is a board certified pediatrician and fellow in Infectious Diseases and has extensive postgraduate training in Complementary and Alternative Medicine. He’s an expert in Functional Medicine, Chelation, Allergy Elimination, European Biological Medicine, Neural Therapy, Longevity/Aging Medicine, Enderlein Therapy, Insulin Potentiated Therapy, and more. And equally important, Dr. Minkoff is an athlete himself, having competed in over 40 IRONMAN competitions. During this interview, we talk about protein and their amino acids building blocks. Free-form amino acids have helped me in three different ways: #1: messed up gut. Back when I was suffering from a lot of gas, bloating and diarrhoea, free-form amino acids helped me with my recovery. I got to the point where I stopped lifting weights because of how sore it made me afterwards, and I even felt sore after an endurance paced ride, sometimes for days. Now I understand more about physiology I can explain what might have been going on. Stomach acid denatures protein and activates enzymes. Imagine you’ve just eaten a nice piece of grass fed steak. The process of protein digestion begins in the stomach with hydrochloric acid (HCl) and an enzyme called pepsin. HCl doesn’t break apart protein into its constituent amino acids. Instead, it denatures the protein. Denaturing means to act on the hydrogen bonds that hold the protein together which allows the protein to unfold. HCl also activates pepsinogen into the active enzyme pepsin, and the pepsin then starts to break apart the peptide bonds. A peptide is just a short sequence of amino acids. If your stomach acid is low, this whole process will start to fail before absorption can start in the duodenum. Brush border enzymes break apart proteins in peptides and amino acids. Once in the duodenum, the partly digested food is called chyme. The pancreas produces digestive enzymes, some of which break down the proteins in the chyme. The key proteolytic enzyme trypsinogen activates into trypsin at the brush border of the enterocytes that line the GI tract. Think of the delicate brush border as a shag carpet, and the proteolytic enzymes contained within the shags are themselves proteins synthesised by the nucleus of the enterocyte cell. Zinc is an essential cofactor. All the enzymes described thus far are themselves proteins, and to make them your body needs zinc. Surprisingly, zinc found in food is usually bound to a protein, and to separate the zinc from the protein and absorb it, your body needs zinc! It’s a vicious cycle. Alkaline phosphatase below 70IU/L may hint at a zinc deficiency. Elevated indican on an organic acids test indicates the bacterial breakdown of protein. Elevated indican means that the bacteria, not you, are digesting the protein that you eat. Diagnosis: messed up gut. Free-form aminos are easily absorbed. Hopefully me explaining all this will help you understand that protein digestion is complicated. If it goes wrong, we’re in big trouble. Free-form amino acids like the ones in Nourish Balance Thrive Catabolic Blocker do not require the same complex digestion because the tablets are water soluble and the individual amino acids are easily absorbed on contact with the enterocytes. Even though my digestion is much better now, I still take essential amino acid tablets during my rides. I like my water plain, so I'll throw a handful of tablets into my jersey pocket every time I head out. I then take five tablets (5g) for each hour of ride time. Sounds s