Mastering Nutrition – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Chris Masterjohn, PhD, Founder and Scientific Director of mito.me, explains why SSRI withdrawal is mitochondrial dysfunction and what to do about it.

This is not medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. 

29 million Americans and about 5-10% of the world's population are on SSRIs, which have become the first-line treatment of depression.

These can cause sexual dysfunction and emotional blunting in up to half of people, an unclear incidence of sleep disruption, and a rare risk of suicidality, self-harm, and new-onset psychosis.

On the other hand, 20-50% of people who go off experience SSRI discontinuation syndrome.

This can involve irritability, anxiety, mood problems, crying, dread, suicidal ideation, insomnia, nightmares, excessive dreaming, lethargy, fatigue, headache, tremor, sweating, anorexia, flu-like symptoms, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, pain, numbness, tingling, feeling like something is crawling on the skin, electric shocks running through the brain or body, rushing noises, visual traces (seeing something persist when it is no longer there, or seeing moving objects leaving illusory streaks of light behind them, etc), dizziness, light-headedness, "brain zaps," vertigo, confusion, difficulty concentrating, amnesia, genital hypersensitivity, and premature ejaculation.

A closely related problem is post-SSRI sexual dysfunction (PSSD), which can cause total inability to feel the penis for males or for females the genitals and nipples, loss of sexual pleasure, weak orgasms, decreased libido, erectile dysfunction, and premature ejaculation. PSSD is often associated with general anhedonia, apathy, and poor mood.

In this video, Masterjohn maintains that the reason there are no good solutions to these problems is because we have completely misunderstood the role of serotonin and SSRIs.

Serotonin's role is to help mitochondria adapt to changing demands for oxygen-based energy production. 

SSRIs enhance some of the mechanisms, and interfere with others. They enter the cell and stimulate independent mechanisms of mitochondrial stress adaptation, but in doing so they turn a cyclical and rhythmic pathway into a constantly stimulated one, creating mitochondrial dependence and making mitochondria vulnerable to new-onset dysfunction upon withdrawal. Once they make it to the mitochondria itself, the SSRIs act as mitochondrial toxins.

Scientific references for everything covered in the video can be found in this series:

https://chrismasterjohnphd.substack.com/p/prozac-is-a-performance-enhancing

At the bottom of each article is a link to the next one.

0:30 SSRI Side Effects

1:00 SSRI Discontinuation Syndrome and PSSD

11:33 The Problem With Primary Care Doctors and Psychiatrists

14:56 The Reason We Don't Have Good Solutions Is Because We Don't Understand the Problem

16:22 Prozac Is a Performance-Enhancing Drug

18:40 Depression and Altitude

19:36 The Truth About Serotonin  

25:10 How Serotonin Helps Us Breathe 

30:05 Hypoxia Explains Why Serotonin Is So Abundant In the Gut

33:55 Serotonin, Melatonin, and the Mitochondria

35:50 Serotonin and Light

39:25 Intermittent Hypobaric Hypoxia Training

42:56 SSRIs Are Whole-Body, Primarily Non-Brain, Non-Neuronal, Mitochondrial Drugs

44:00 SSRIs and Birth Defects

46:37 SSRIs Deplete Serotonin

48:50 SSRIs Distort the Sigma-1 Receptor From a Cyclical to a Constant Activation

51:10 Different SSRIs Promote Different Ratios of Mitophagy and Mitochondrial Biogenesis

54:00 Going Off SSRIs Causes New-Onset Mitochondrial Dysfunction

58:30 Slow and Hyperbolic Tapers

1:02:10 What to Do About SSRI Withdrawal Mitochondrial Dysfunction

Chris Masterjohn, PhD, is the Founder and Scientific Director of the mitochondrial test Mitome.

Do You Have Hidden Mitochondrial Dysfunction?

Mitochondrial dysfunction is one of the earliest signs of aging and chronic disease—and most people don't know they have it. Mitome is the first at-home test that measures your cellular energy directly and gives you a personalized roadmap to optimize energy, slow aging, and protect against disease.

Find it here at mito.me

For a long time, most people believed that when we exercise, our muscles make lactic acid, this acidifies the muscles, and the acidity contributes to contractile failure, fatigue, and delayed-onset muscle soreness. Some people still believe this.

You may have heard the argument against it from well-known figures like Andy Galpin, or, if you're deep into the science, you may have read the work of George Brooks.

In this lesson, we are going to cover the biochemistry of lactate production. We will see that we never make lactic acid, ever. We make lactate. Making lactate is fundamentally alkalinizing.

We will take a look at the presentation of glycolysis in the Berg and Lehninger biochemistry textbooks to see that, on the one hand, they give us everything we need to know to understand that the human body never makes lactic acid, but, on the other hand, they really do not equip us well to understand where acidity does comes from during exercise. This is because they do not consider acid-base balance important enough to completely present the proton balances of the chemical reactions.

Finally, we will cover what does cause muscular fatigue, take a look at the research on lactate supplements, and come to some conclusions about the best way to manage acidity during exercise to maximize performance.

This is part of a larger course on the biochemistry of how we derive energy from food and use it to fuel our wellness, performance, and longevity. Take the full course here:

https://chrismasterjohnphd.substack.com/p/masterclass-with-masterjohn-energy

To see the slides, watch this lesson on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrpbLllsSHQ 

To obtain the written version with timestamped slides for better studying, see here:

https://chrismasterjohnphd.substack.com/p/how-lactate-alkalinizes-your-muscles

This lesson is free for one week. After that it will be reserved for Masterpass members. You can learn more about the Masterpass here:

https://chrismasterjohnphd.substack.com/about 

You can subscribe to the Masterpass here:

https://chrismasterjohnphd.substack.com/subscribe 

2:52 How textbooks present glycolysis

3:36 What is acidity?

4:32 The acidfying and alkalinizing phases of glycolysis

7:09 Glycolysis: A brief review

10:08 The Principles

29:33 The Reactions -- and Where the Textbooks Go Wrong

38:59 Human beings do not make lactic acid

42:13 Lactate transport is even more alkalinizing to muscle

47:44 Robert Robergs Fights an Uphill Battle in Clarifying the Sources of Acidity and the Alkalinizing Effect of Lactate

1:01:08 What causes fatigue?

1:05:15 Does CO2 contribute to acidity?

1:13:45 Where is Glycolysis Getting Backed Up?

1:23:10 Conclusiuons: What's realy going on with exercise-induced acidosis.

1:26:34 Lactate supplements

1:30:53 How to use this information in training for optimal performance.

Chris Masterjohn, PhD, is the Founder and Scientific Director of the mitochondrial test Mitome.

Watch or listen to the full critique here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMPvCiOkEtQ

Chris Masterjohn, PhD, is the Founder and Scientific Director of the mitochondria test Mitome.

Short Answer: BH4 is expensive and requires very high doses, so if the problem is modest it can much more easily be solved by taking tyrosine.

Watch the video or listen to the podcast with the links below. You can obtain a full transcript of the episode by signing up for the Masterpass at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/q&a

Please consider supporting my work by making a purchase using these links at one of my affiliates: https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/foursigmatic, https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/paleovalley, https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/seekinghealth, https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/ancestralsupplements, https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/magicspoon, https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/lmnt 

Plenty more at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/support!

If you would like to be part of the next live Ask Me Anything About Nutrition, sign up for the CMJ Masterpass, which includes access to these live Zoom sessions, premium features on all my content, and hundreds of dollars of exclusive discounts. You can sign up with a 10% lifetime discount here: https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/q&a

DISCLAIMER: I have a PhD in Nutritional Sciences and my expertise is in performing and evaluating nutritional research. I am not a medical doctor and nothing herein is medical advice.

Access the show notes, transcript, and comments here.

Chris Masterjohn, PhD, is the Founder and Scientific Director of the mitochondria test Mitome.

Short Answer: While the body will tend to use TMG for methylation in the fasting state, it is normally found in food, so you should be able to absorb it with meals and hold on to it for later use, much as we do with folate.

Watch the video or listen to the podcast with the links below. You can obtain a full transcript of the episode by signing up for the Masterpass at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/q&a

Please consider supporting my work by making a purchase using these links at one of my affiliates: https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/foursigmatic, https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/paleovalley, https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/seekinghealth, https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/ancestralsupplements, https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/magicspoon, https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/lmnt 

Plenty more at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/support!

If you would like to be part of the next live Ask Me Anything About Nutrition, sign up for the CMJ Masterpass, which includes access to these live Zoom sessions, premium features on all my content, and hundreds of dollars of exclusive discounts. You can sign up with a 10% lifetime discount here: https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/q&a

DISCLAIMER: I have a PhD in Nutritional Sciences and my expertise is in performing and evaluating nutritional research. I am not a medical doctor and nothing herein is medical advice.

Access the show notes, transcript, and comments here.

Chris Masterjohn, PhD, is the Founder and Scientific Director of the mitochondria test Mitome.

Short Answer: When I had a serious case of indoor mold-induced illness, I tested my urine and my apartment dust for mycotoxins. Both were high, but the classes of toxins were totally different between the two, making me think the mycotoxins in my urine came from food rather than my apartment. Symptoms going away when outside of the apartment was a far more useful clue, so I think you should consider the cost of a vacation, the cost of mycotoxins, and assume you get more information out of taking the vacation, and then decide which to do.

Watch the video or listen to the podcast with the links below. You can obtain a full transcript of the episode by signing up for the Masterpass at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/q&a

Please consider supporting my work by making a purchase using these links at one of my affiliates: https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/foursigmatic, https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/paleovalley, https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/seekinghealth, https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/ancestralsupplements, https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/magicspoon, https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/lmnt 

Plenty more at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/support!

If you would like to be part of the next live Ask Me Anything About Nutrition, sign up for the CMJ Masterpass, which includes access to these live Zoom sessions, premium features on all my content, and hundreds of dollars of exclusive discounts. You can sign up with a 10% lifetime discount here: https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/q&a

DISCLAIMER: I have a PhD in Nutritional Sciences and my expertise is in performing and evaluating nutritional research. I am not a medical doctor and nothing herein is medical advice.

Access the show notes, transcript, and comments here.

Chris Masterjohn, PhD, is the Founder and Scientific Director of the mitochondria test Mitome.

Short Answer: Even if genetics and other bloodwork don't look like hemochromatosis, sky-high ferritin justifies trying to lower it with blood donation or phlebotomy if inflammation markers are low. If this doesn't work, oxidative stress should be investigated.

Watch the video or listen to the podcast with the links below. You can obtain a full transcript of the episode by signing up for the Masterpass at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/q&a

Please consider supporting my work by making a purchase using these links at one of my affiliates: https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/foursigmatic, https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/paleovalley, https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/seekinghealth, https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/ancestralsupplements, https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/magicspoon, https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/lmnt 

Plenty more at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/support!

If you would like to be part of the next live Ask Me Anything About Nutrition, sign up for the CMJ Masterpass, which includes access to these live Zoom sessions, premium features on all my content, and hundreds of dollars of exclusive discounts. You can sign up with a 10% lifetime discount here: https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/q&a

DISCLAIMER: I have a PhD in Nutritional Sciences and my expertise is in performing and evaluating nutritional research. I am not a medical doctor and nothing herein is medical advice.

Access the show notes, transcript, and comments here.

Chris Masterjohn, PhD, is the Founder and Scientific Director of the mitochondria test Mitome.

Short Answer: If optimizing for efficacy, the booster shot will likely be worth it for Pfizer, whereas other vaccines don't have clear evidence of declining efficacy yet. If optimizing for safety, one should be skeptical of the booster since a 3-dose regiment hasn't been tested in clinical trials.

Watch the video or listen to the podcast with the links below. You can obtain a full transcript of the episode by signing up for the Masterpass at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/q&a

Please consider supporting my work by making a purchase using these links at one of my affiliates: https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/foursigmatic, https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/paleovalley, https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/seekinghealth, https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/ancestralsupplements, https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/magicspoon, https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/lmnt 

Plenty more at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/support!

If you would like to be part of the next live Ask Me Anything About Nutrition, sign up for the CMJ Masterpass, which includes access to these live Zoom sessions, premium features on all my content, and hundreds of dollars of exclusive discounts. You can sign up with a 10% lifetime discount here: https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/q&a

DISCLAIMER: I have a PhD in Nutritional Sciences and my expertise is in performing and evaluating nutritional research. I am not a medical doctor and nothing herein is medical advice.

Access the show notes, transcript, and comments here.

Chris Masterjohn, PhD, is the Founder and Scientific Director of the mitochondria test Mitome.

Short Answer: To get adequate raw material for melatonin synthesis in the brain, carbs can come any time of day and are best if high-glycemic. To suppress brain histamine levels, carbs in the evening, with low protein and relatively low fat, is best. From among protein, collagen is best at night for the glycine.

Watch the video or listen to the podcast with the links below. You can obtain a full transcript of the episode by signing up for the Masterpass at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/q&a

Please consider supporting my work by making a purchase using these links at one of my affiliates: https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/foursigmatic, https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/paleovalley, https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/seekinghealth, https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/ancestralsupplements, https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/magicspoon, https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/lmnt 

Plenty more at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/support!

If you would like to be part of the next live Ask Me Anything About Nutrition, sign up for the CMJ Masterpass, which includes access to these live Zoom sessions, premium features on all my content, and hundreds of dollars of exclusive discounts. You can sign up with a 10% lifetime discount here: https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/q&a

DISCLAIMER: I have a PhD in Nutritional Sciences and my expertise is in performing and evaluating nutritional research. I am not a medical doctor and nothing herein is medical advice.

Access the show notes, transcript, and comments here.

Chris Masterjohn, PhD, is the Founder and Scientific Director of the mitochondria test Mitome.

Short Answer: It requires more frequent dosing and has some risk of hypercalcemia, and it would be best to make sure you have adequate D and magnesium and aren't overdoing anything that could deplete D, such as other fat-soluble vitamins, first.

Watch the video or listen to the podcast with the links below. You can obtain a full transcript of the episode by signing up for the Masterpass at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/q&a

Please consider supporting my work by making a purchase using these links at one of my affiliates: https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/foursigmatic, https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/paleovalley, https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/seekinghealth, https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/ancestralsupplements, https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/magicspoon, https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/lmnt 

Plenty more at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/support!

If you would like to be part of the next live Ask Me Anything About Nutrition, sign up for the CMJ Masterpass, which includes access to these live Zoom sessions, premium features on all my content, and hundreds of dollars of exclusive discounts. You can sign up with a 10% lifetime discount here: https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/q&a

DISCLAIMER: I have a PhD in Nutritional Sciences and my expertise is in performing and evaluating nutritional research. I am not a medical doctor and nothing herein is medical advice.

Access the show notes, transcript, and comments here.

Chris Masterjohn, PhD, is the Founder and Scientific Director of the mitochondria test Mitome