I miss it but otherwise feel nothing different. If there was an inflammatory impact from dairy I can’t tell. But I was addicted to the Greek yogurt …finding ways to eat more and more. At the end I was eating it for breakfast every day, lunch on weekends and occasionally for dessert with muesli added. It had to go.
LDN is a definite craving killer. I tried it a couple years ago when I was chasing a knee pain solution. It didn’t work for my knee pain but totally killed my cravings for food. If it didn’t mess up my sleep I’d still be using it (it was a dosing thing I think).
Beth
#91
Did you use it for at least a month?
I only ask because after my first couple weeks of it disrupting my sleep and making me feel a little off, I was sure I was going to give it up.
I commited to staying on it for at least a month to give it a fair chance… and thank goodness I did… it flipped and then it gave me incredible sleep.
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The thread @Josep started with this article.
"The coffee in the break room at work could contain high levels of substances that elevate levels of ‘bad’ cholesterol in your blood – but there’s a simple way to reduce them.
Diterpenes are compounds made by plants that have a variety of effects on the human body. Two of them – cafestol and kahweol – have been linked to increased levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. High levels of these compounds have been found in coffee, but it seems to depend on how you extract it."
“At a glance, espresso seemed to be the worst way to make coffee, with a median cafestol level of around 1,060 mg/L. But there were only four samples analyzed and their levels varied wildly, from 35.6 to a staggering 2,446.7 mg/L. As such, it’s hard to pull much meaning out of that.”
I have tried to reduce coffee as a means to increase my deep sleep and my REM. I know that cafestol and kahweol might be bad for lipids (LDL). And this article made me think that I should try to stop drinking espresso and see if that intervention affects my LDL and APOb.
But yes, I love my morning ritual. Choosing the beans, weighing and grinding them. Starting my very old machine. Weighing the espresso as I watch it pour down into the cup until the weight of the espresso in the cup is around double the weight of the coffee beans. Then tasting the creamy espresso. .
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I don’t think so. As I vaguely recall I used it for a short time as I ramped up from 1.5mg to 3mg to 4.5mg, after a week of each. 3mg was good but 4.5mg (I’m not certain of doses) caused me to not sleep so I quit after a week or two. I may have to revisit it some day.
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Beth
#94
I chose to ignore that study for obvious reasons!!!
Yes yes yes, the ritual… ahhhhhhhh.
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Nick’s supplements
- Creatine
- Multivitamin
- Collagen
- Vitamin D
5 Omega 3s
6 Lutein and Zeaxanthin
Good stuff. I take these too.
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Summary: Some probiotics help cancer grow. Dietary fiber helps retard cancer.
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do people want an o3 summary?
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You can provide an o3 summary in this resources section.
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Cleaned-up transcript (≈0:00 – 9:12)
| Time |
Speaker |
Tidied wording |
| 0:00 – 0:38 |
Narrator |
Imagine someone spoon-feeding themself yogurt and lecturing everyone that the probiotics it contains are essential for a healthy diet. The rest of the table tuned out long ago and is now talking about the weather, but the yogurt evangelist keeps preaching the gut-health gospel. You finally snap and blurt out, “Probiotics aren’t that great—they can actually be harmful!” The table falls silent. |
| 0:38 – 0:55 |
Narrator & “Yogurt evangelist” |
The evangelist fires back: “That’s crazy—my yoga-podcast nutritionist says probiotic yogurt is incredible for you.” You answer, “Then watch this video, yogurt-fiend.” |
| 0:55 – 1:13 |
Narrator |
What if probiotics were linked to worse cancer outcomes, and another gut-health product were linked to better ones? Let’s look at the study instead of a random podcast. |
| 1:13 – 2:00 |
Narrator |
Researchers recruited late-stage cancer patients, most receiving anti-PD-1 immunotherapy (an antibody that keeps immune cells attacking tumours). Patients were classified as responders (no progression) or non-responders (disease progressed). |
| 2:00 – 2:35 |
Narrator |
Faecal analysis focused on two bacterial taxa (one family, one genus) previously linked to immunotherapy response and lower inflammation. Responders had significantly higher levels of both. |
| 3:03 – 3:41 |
Narrator |
Next the team asked about probiotic use in the preceding month. Kaplan-Meier curves hinted that probiotic users fared worse (higher progression risk), although this crude association did not reach statistical significance. |
| 3:41 – 4:53 |
Narrator |
To probe causality they transplanted stool from human responders into germ-free mice, then gavaged the mice with water (control) or one of two commercial probiotics before injecting melanoma cells. Both probiotic groups developed tumours almost ten-times larger than controls. |
| 5:05 – 5:59 |
Narrator |
The second gut-health habit was dietary fibre. When patients were split into low- vs high-fibre intake, the high-fibre group showed significantly less cancer progression. |
| 6:30 – 7:10 |
Narrator |
A parallel mouse experiment fed ordinary mice a low- or high-fibre diet alongside anti-PD-1 therapy. Only the high-fibre + therapy group halted tumour growth; low-fibre mice did as badly as untreated controls. |
| 7:16 – 8:36 |
Narrator |
Caveats: the human data are observational; bacterial families, fibre cut-offs and probiotic brands were researcher-defined; the probiotic- and fibre-mouse studies differed slightly in design. The findings are compelling but exploratory—more work is needed before condemning all probiotics or canonising fibre. |
| 8:41 – 9:12 |
Narrator |
Bottom line for melanoma patients on anti-PD-1: this study suggests probiotics may hinder, while dietary fibre may boost, treatment efficacy. So tell “yoga-podcast Mark” that probiotics aren’t always wonderful—then watch the next video. |
Video at a glance
-
Title & channel: How “Healthy” Gut Habits Are Making Cancer Worse – Physionic (posted 7 July 2025, 10-min video) (youtube.com)
-
Core claim: A 2021 Science study shows probiotic use is correlatively linked to poorer outcomes in late-stage melanoma patients on anti-PD-1 therapy, while higher dietary fibre intake is linked to markedly better outcomes. Mouse follow-ups strengthen the fibre-good / probiotic-bad narrative. (science.org)
Concise summary
-
Set-up: The presenter pokes fun at “probiotic evangelists,” then introduces evidence that probiotics might backfire in cancer.
-
Human cohort: 128 late-stage melanoma patients on PD-1 blockade were stratified as responders vs non-responders. Responders harboured more Ruminococcaceae family and Faecalibacterium genus bacteria.
-
Probiotic correlation: Self-reported probiotic use trended toward higher disease-progression rates, but the association was not significant after adjustment.
-
Mouse test #1: Germ-free mice given responder faeces stalled tumour growth—unless a commercial probiotic was added, which drove tumours ~10× larger.
-
Fibre correlation: High-fibre eaters (> 20 g day⁻¹) had significantly less progression.
-
Mouse test #2: A high-fibre diet synergised with anti-PD-1 to stop tumour growth; low-fibre erased the drug’s benefit.
-
Take-home: For patients on checkpoint inhibitors, the study tentatively cautions against generic probiotic supplements and supports ample dietary fibre.
Critique
| Aspect |
Strengths |
Limitations / counter-points |
| Study design |
Combines human observational data with mechanistic mouse models—more persuasive than correlation alone. |
Small human sample (≈128), single centre; self-reported diet and supplement use prone to error. Fibre cut-off and probiotic definitions were arbitrary. |
| Causality |
Germ-free-mouse FMT experiment elegantly tests cause-and-effect for probiotics. |
The probiotic cocktails given to mice may not mirror what patients took. Germ-free mice differ immunologically from humans. |
| Generalisability |
Highlights a plausible microbiome–immunotherapy interaction; echoes other work linking Faecalibacterium to checkpoint-blockade success. (nature.com) |
Findings are melanoma- and PD-1-specific; other cancers, drugs, probiotic strains or doses could behave differently. Numerous clinical trials report benefits of certain probiotics as adjuncts to chemo- or radiotherapy. (nature.com) |
| Interpretation in the video |
Presenter openly lists caveats and stresses nuance (“not all good things are universally good”). The satire makes the science engaging. |
The title (“Healthy gut habits are making cancer worse”) is click-bait and overstates certainty. The video downplays the non-significant probiotic association in humans and omits positive probiotic trials, which could mislead casual viewers. |
| Clinical relevance |
Encourages oncologists and patients to discuss diet and supplement use—an important, often-ignored variable in immunotherapy. |
No clinical guidelines recommend abandoning probiotics solely on this evidence. Patients should not modify therapy without medical advice; randomised trials are needed. |
Bottom line:
The Spencer et al. Science paper suggests that, in advanced melanoma treated with PD-1 blockade, high dietary fibre may enhance—and broad-spectrum probiotic supplements may blunt—antitumour immunity. The Physionic video captures the essence but oversimplifies; probiotics remain context-dependent tools, and fibre is only one piece of a complex dietary puzzle. Use the findings as a conversation starter with qualified clinicians, not a standalone prescription.
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Omega 3s change arterial plaque composition.
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Magnesium. Most people are deficient including myself!
Tim
#104
A 12-minute video which is just an intro to another video.
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He mentions how stearic acid can paralyze the immune system. It isn’t just in butter, though. One overlooked source is that it is in a fair number of nutritional supplements as an one listed in “other ingredients” (read the fine print). So, if you take a lot of them at once, you could be loading up your body with hundreds of milligrams or more of stearic acid. That would still be a low amount, overall probably; but I’d be careful and check how much is in supplements.
According to a Google search:
Nutritional supplements contain stearic acid primarily as a manufacturing lubricant and binder, most commonly in the form of magnesium stearate, to prevent ingredients from sticking to machinery and each other during production. It acts as a “flow agent” to ensure consistent and high-quality capsules and can also delay the breakdown of supplements in the stomach so they are absorbed in the correct part of the bowel.
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Oh, one more thing about stearic acid (and magnesium stearate): have you ever bought supplement pills and tried to dissolve them in water, and found it doesn’t work, even though you know the supplement is supposed to be water soluble??
Often, it’s due to magnesium stearate that they add to the mix. And you can’t easily remove it! You’re better off buying the powder form, which usually doesn’t contain as many additives like that.
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