THE ACCRESCENT™ PODCAST EPISODE 222

The Accrescent (00:01.655)
Well, Melanie, welcome to the Accrescent Podcast.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (00:05.346)
Thank you for having me. It’s pleasure.

The Accrescent (00:08.148)
I was telling you off air, this is super exciting for me because I, there’s kind of two ways guests come on the show. Either they’re people who’ve reached out to us saying, Hey, we’ve heard your show. We’d love to be on. And then there’s brands or products where I’m like, I’m obsessed with this brand. need to have them on the show. And then I tell Kelly like, Kelly, can you get on them to have them on the show? So I’ve wanted Prolon on the podcast all year long. I did my first Prolon fast, I think in February of this year.

So it’s taken us almost a year to get you guys on and we’re here and I’m so excited. I can’t wait for all the knowledge you’re gonna bestow upon us today.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (00:45.442)
was saying, better late than never. Also, we made it in the nick of time. This is amazing. Also, have you, I’m curious not to throw it back at you, but did you do more than one or did you just do one in February or have you done it?

The Accrescent (00:50.369)
I know.

The Accrescent (00:57.665)
Yeah. I’ve done three. I’ve done three this year. Yeah. We’ve had two of those Heather who’s the owner of Ascent and then Danielle, who’s another really amazing practitioner here. They’ve done it eight months in a row. Yeah. They’re just going, they’re on a train. Their goal is to do it every month for a year straight. Yeah. So I don’t know, maybe you can study them.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (01:13.043)
okay, they’re just going, they’re going.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (01:20.44)
Wow, we need their data. We need their data. Yes, we do. That’s amazing.

The Accrescent (01:25.473)
We actually collect immense data with some of our measuring devices here. So there actually is quite a bit of data. Yeah.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (01:31.37)
Well, I’m back to you. I’m very proud of you. Well, welcome to the Prolon family. We’re super stoked that the three, well, I’m sure we’ll get to it at some point, but that the three cycle magic mark is really what we talk about quite a bit for otherwise healthy individuals. I’m sure we’ll dive into it.

The Accrescent (01:34.345)
thanks. Yes, thank you.

The Accrescent (01:48.833)
Yeah, get into that more. I think what I want to start with though is before we get into the nitty gritty of Prolon, and there’s a lot I want to cover there, let’s just start with what are the benefits of fasting broadly?

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (02:02.284)
Yes, so I love to start this story by explaining the evolution of humans because a lot of people, you know, we’re living in an age right now where we have this advent of chronic disease. We’ve never had chronic disease the way that we have in the last, you know, 100 years.

And one of the kickers is that we’re missing a very critical piece and that piece is the fasting part. And the reason we’ve figured this out over the course of the last several decades is that in our longevity research and, you know, not just here at L Nutra but just in general with longevity researchers around the world is that we never evolved, we did not evolve for the thousands of years that came before this 150 that have really highlighted our

agricultural farming, know, all of the things that have happened in the last 150 years. We evolved as humans for thousands of years without regular or consistent food. We never fully, I would say, unless there was, you know, flooding or, you know,

The Accrescent (02:59.821)
technological, industrial.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (03:20.332)
There just, wasn’t a ton of, of, of straight water only like famine, but we did have many, many times where we had to rely on the things that we were foraging instead of the big game that we were able to, we didn’t always have big game available. Maybe we did once a month and that would.

The Accrescent (03:21.901)
famine, drought.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (03:39.074)
you know, we’d get what we could for, you know, while that big game was available to us and we had to eat it. But generally we’re herbivores. We foraged and we had little bits of food, a lot of different foods here and there. And really we were a nomadic species too. So we traveled with our food and to, know, with the season. So it really depended on what was available to us. And it wasn’t always, it wasn’t always a lot, right? So we-

The Accrescent (04:02.049)
undent.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (04:03.638)
We evolved from feasts of feast and famine and scarcity and abundance, you know, regularly cycling throughout our lives. And the reason I like to call that out is because, you know, we’ve survived all of that. And one of the major critical pieces to the reason why we survived is because our body evolved to create this internal process that allows us to survive with minimal amounts of food and actually not only just survive, but to

clear out all of the parts of our cells and inside of our body that is weighing us down, the debris, the damaged cells, all of these things, and clear it out and replace them for more efficient parts. So not only does this, and this process, by the way, is called autophagy. It’s a cellular rejuvenation pathway that evolved as we evolved as humans, but it quite literally, which won the Nobel Prize in 2016, by the way, it quite literally

The Accrescent (04:46.627)
you

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (05:02.764)
will take all of these damaged cell parts, eat them, literally self eat them to create and build newer functioning, better functioning, younger functioning parts. So when we did after maybe two weeks of having just some plants and forage to eat, when we see that elk down the way and we need to go have the energy to go fight that thing or to get it, we actually have the energy. can sprint, we can run, we have the energy and the cognition to do that.

That’s the pinch hitter when it comes to managing chronic diseases is activating being in periodic stages of cellular rejuvenation and autophagy from cycles and strategic caloric deficit and forms of fasting.

The Accrescent (05:52.215)
Yeah, to that end, do you think a part of that evolutionary mechanism is we have less energy, let’s clear out all the things that are taking up too many resources. And these cells that have kind of, I’m picturing like a old car, right? And it’s pretty beat up, it’s pretty broken down. It’s actually taking so many more resources because you have to fix it up all the time. this week it’s the oil, this week it’s the engine, this week it’s the brakes.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (06:03.437)
Yes.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (06:17.24)
Mm-hmm.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (06:22.412)
Just take it in. Just take it in. Get those breaks fixed. Yes, 100%. In fact, go ahead. Keep going.

The Accrescent (06:23.817)
Yes.

The Accrescent (06:29.493)
And so when you versus you buy the new car, I don’t have to do anything with it for a long, long time. And so that’s a part of actually the survival mechanism is we don’t know how long this famine quote unquote is going to last. So we got to clear everything out. So things are working really, really efficiently.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (06:35.522)
Mm-hmm.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (06:48.75)
Correct, your body, I love to say this loud and clear, especially for people who are feeling really discouraged from a body that is struggling right now, that believe me you, your body is doing everything it can to keep you alive. That is the default mode, stay alive. activation of autophagy was that first real.

and we, took us till 2016 to discover that this exists, that, that the real magic of, of why fasting is, part of this. And, and, and I would like to also just, if you’re wondering, well, can’t I just do that through food or through supplementary? There’s a lot of supplementations that are making autophagy claims. No, the only way you can activate autophagy is being, in a significant caloric deficit and or fasting state for at least three days.

If ideally the sweet spots about five days after that, there’s diminishing returns and then, you you want to stop, you want to refuel, you want to give your body the nutrients and then you do, that’s why like cycling them over the course of time is really, really important. Um, but you can’t, if you’re intermittent fasting, which is, you know, done within a 24 hour period of time or a 48 hour period of time, like, you know, I follow a 12, 12 pattern where you eat from 8 AM to 8 PM or whatever you’re doing in that shorter intermittent fasting schedule.

The Accrescent (07:58.189)
Mm-hmm.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (08:16.064)
is wonderful for lots of other reasons, but that’s also not gonna activate autophagy. So you really do need to be in a prolonged three plus days of fasting or significantly reduced caloric consumption to activate autophagy and get those cellular rejuvenation benefits.

The Accrescent (08:32.971)
I love that. was going to be a question that I asked us is, are there other ways to stimulate this? Now, the second question paired with that is, because if you look up benefits of fasting, there’s an amazing list of things that come from that. What I’m wondering is, is autophagy the main mode of mechanism? And then that autophagy is rippling out into all of these indirect benefits like

improved insulin sensitivity, reduced inflammation, better metabolic function? Is it sort of like the only thing fasting actually directly impacts is autophagy? Because autophagy is happening, now all of these other things can happen better. Or are there other ways fasting is impacting some of these things directly?

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (09:18.296)
That’s a really great question. I would say, so my instinctual reaction is that, the autophagy is the main mechanism of action that is then spurring all of these other things. But I will say that the other things that happen, too, and maybe I’ll just phrase it that way. So yes, the cellular rejuvenation benefits of a prolonged water fat are a

The Accrescent (09:30.455)
motor mechanism.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (09:44.418)
prolonged fast, whether that be from water or from the FMD, which you’ve already been doing, which is awesome. It is the autophagy. It makes space and room and capacity for your body to be more responsive with its signaling pathways, with insulin regulation, glucose usage, all of these different things. So yes, the autophagy is at the centerpiece of that.

But some of the other things that we see and some of the most common things that we see in addition to that are things like ketosis, fat burning. So people who are looking to target specific types of fat on their body around their organs, we call this visceral fat, the type, really dangerous type that lives around your organs. It can prompt ketosis and prompt visceral fat reduction. It can improve things like gut integrity.

tightening the junctures of your gut lining for people that experience IBS, IBD. It can improve blood pressure circulation markers. So things like LDL, blood pressure, know, cholesterol, all of the things related to your heart health markers, all of these things happen in tandem typically for people too, but at the epicenter of it all, to answer your question, is that cellular rejuvenation and autophagy. But you can get those things, you know, other ways, but it’s going to be significantly improved when you activate that autophagy.

The Accrescent (11:08.577)
Yeah. Yeah. Well, right. And it’s sort of like my car that’s broken down. I can still get from point A to point B. It might take a lot longer with this broken down car completely and use up a lot more resources, but I’m still going to be able to do it. So I think that’s kind of the differentiating differentiating factor here.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (11:18.574)
A lot more stress on your body. On your car.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (11:29.538)
That’s also like the difference between longevity and health span. You defined, that’s the definition. you want to live, longevity is just, I made it to 80. That’s what longevity is. Health span is, I made it to 80 and I’m climbing a mountain in a body that doesn’t ache with joints that move and I’m energetic and I can climb.

you know, on the floor with my grandkids, that’s health span. Longevity is like, you know, you made it to 80, but now you’re on six different medications and you’re, need help walking and you don’t travel anymore because your feet hurt or, know, you have three chronic conditions, whatever. Like that’s, that is the difference. Like, yeah, you may have made it, but how, how did you make it? What was the quality of the way that you made it? Right.

The Accrescent (11:58.98)
Mm.

The Accrescent (12:12.803)
Yeah. completely, completely. Some of the other benefits I kind of have listed out here, because I think it’s so important. One, the mental clarity. I also, when I, there’s, there’s a lot of things I notice when I do the fast. I feel other than weight loss, which is awesome. I feel way less inflamed, way less puffy. My sleep gets so much better.

Like I will wake up naturally an hour before my alarm normally goes off, just bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and ready to go.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (12:45.966)
You’re like, good, one more day of not having really, one more hour of my day that I can have no food. I’m kidding, it’s a joke. Yes, no, 100%. So part of that is there’s a couple different reasons that’s happening. ketosis, going into being able to switch effectively between glucose as fuel. So glucose is our body’s preferred energy source. It comes from things like carbohydrate, foods, grains.

know, fruits and things like that. Our body prefers to consume glucose. Switching from glucose to fat burning and how efficient our body is at doing that is a concept we call metabolic flexibility. It’s a huge metric for measuring metabolic outcomes and success.

But switching into that ketosis and creating more of those short-chain fatty acids in your gut and utilizing your fat burning, that actually does stimulate better utilization of ketones by the brain as well. you do… I wouldn’t say… I want to preface this that any type of fasting, even ProLon and FMD, it’s not a walk in the park. mean, you’re still putting in some serious effort, right?

But the, so you may, and the reason I call that out is that while you’re on the fast, especially if you’re new to the fast and you have a lot more of that, the toxins and debris and sludge that you’re moving out and moving through, you may not feel awesome for the first couple of days of being on the fast, but guaranteed day five, day six, you are sharp, on point, are sleeping better, you have this, you know, it’s almost like your eyes, the irises get whiter.

You know, you just look clear-eyed and clear brain and you feel like most people on day five, day six, they’re ready to hit the gym in a really hard way for the first time. you you get the surge of energy. So there is a benefit from the ketosis side of things too that happens when you switch from those fuel sources during a fast.

The Accrescent (14:55.414)
Yeah, I truly feel like I notice more benefits and feel better like the week after. And then the second week where it’s, you know, I’m putting more food back in. So there’s also energy coming from there, but because there’s been such a great cellular cleanup, everything is working better too. So, but the sleep, the sleep is one of my favorite, favorite benefits. And again, that I almost noticed that more the week after I finished the fast.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (15:03.426)
Yeah.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (15:21.646)
That’s awesome.

The Accrescent (15:22.296)
And that speaks to, know, we know sleep is our biggest time of detox. And so what I see in that is like, there’s a lot less work my body’s needing to do in that time. So I can complete the cycle faster and wake up an hour earlier. Awesome.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (15:34.816)
Isn’t that an amazing thing? You wake up refreshed. Amazing. Yes. Yes. A hundred percent. There’s, it’s a, it’s a really, I mean, you also mentioned kind of the, before our call, the, the spiritual aspect of it too. There’s, there’s such a, you just, it does feel like you gain so much more time. You, you forget how much or not forget. I think when I first started fasting, I didn’t realize.

The Accrescent (15:37.444)
Yeah. it’s the best.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (16:02.68)
how much of my brain space and the time I spent thinking about what I’m making for my next meal or what I’m planning to eat or, so you actually get so much more time. Did you find that for yourself too? You’re like, man, I could write a book in the amount of time that I have today. I don’t even.

The Accrescent (16:13.76)
Yeah. yeah.

And I’m such a foodie. mean, my friends and my partner make fun of me. It’s like we’re on a phone. I’m sorry. I’m eating. I’m eating right now. What do you like? I’m such a foodie and it really does consume so much of my thoughts. And so there actually is such an amazing piece. The weeks I do pro long because it’s like, I don’t have to think about food all week. Amazing.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (16:24.856)
Yeah.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (16:36.3)
Yeah. Yeah. Not that I want to be, not that I want to be, you know, working more, but like, can get a lot of work done. Like I am ahead of the game. Usually. Like I just gonna got nothing to do. got my tea over here. I got my nut fires. We’re going, we’re, we’re, moving and grooving.

The Accrescent (16:49.636)
Yeah.

Yes, I love that. and you know, people can do more research into the benefits of fasting, but I wanted to start there because this is the why. Why, why even be interested in this? Why even do this? And you really hit the key point that I wanted to make sure we touched on, which is this, the core of all of it, which is the autophagy can really only come from the fasting or a really, really intense calorie deficit. And this is what I try to hone in on people is I’m like, guys, this isn’t a diet. This isn’t a calorie deficit diet.

two completely different things. Because sometimes people are like, well, I’m doing this smoothie fast. It’s da, da, da, da. And I’m like, it’s not the same. It’s not going to get you this cellular autophagy.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (17:33.582)
Right, so can I add to this? Because I think this is huge. This is a therapeutic modality that’s used in your arsenal, almost like you take N-acetylcysteine or B vitamins on daily basis. You’re doing this a couple times a year to maintain your health outcomes. It is not something. In fact, most of our research, we have 47 clinical trials.

The Accrescent (17:36.452)
Please.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (18:03.01)
Man, 32 of them are in humans. We’re actually looking just at this intervention, this five day intervention. We’re not looking at what you’re doing in between time. We’re not looking at all these other things. the benefits, the outcomes that we’re seeing are astronomical just from these five days. we’re actually, yeah, and we don’t want you to be in a prolonged caloric deficit. In fact,

The Accrescent (18:15.758)
Right.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (18:27.758)
Having a caloric deficit for too long will actually significantly impair your longevity over time. we want you to this for five set days, then go back to a normal, ideally healthy diet that’s rich in whole foods and antioxidants and things like that. But generally, this is a very short intervention that’s intended to only be done a couple times a year. It’s not an everyday thing, and we’re not.

that you do this all the time at all. So that’s, I just wanted to call that out that it’s a sustainable.

therapeutic intervention that you do to help improve whatever you’re doing in between times. There’s a lot of things that people are doing in between time that can accelerate the benefits that you’re seeing on the Perl M5 Day, but it’s only supposed to be a couple times a year, ideally.

The Accrescent (19:14.756)
Mm-hmm.

The Accrescent (19:24.364)
Yeah. Yeah. I love it. So even though we’ve been talking about it a lot, hit us with just what is Prolon? And then I, and then I mean, I’ve all have already introduced it in the intro, but what is Prolon? How is it different from a traditional fast? And then I do want to get a little bit into the research because I know there’s going to be people who are like, I don’t know. How does this science science? Like how are we able to eat food and still go in a fast?

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (19:31.364)
my gosh, you wanna know what this is?

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (19:48.429)
Yes.

Yes. when you go on to prolinelife.com and you order your box or go to, are you selling it by the way? Because should I say that? Okay. So when you order your box, go ahead and cut that piece out. starting right here. Okay.

The Accrescent (19:59.577)
I have an affiliate code, yeah.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (20:08.103)
When you order your box for the first time, you will get this beautiful white box. it’s a very luxury experience actually. open up this beautiful white box and inside there are five smaller boxes all marked based on the day. So there’s day one, day two, day three, day four, day five. It’s a five day program. It is completely foolproof in my opinion. Like you open this box, tells you, it gives you exactly what you’re going to be consuming that day. The menu of, you know, what you’re…

technically you can eat whatever, as long as it’s in that day, you can eat it in any order, but it does give you a suggestion, you know, here’s what you should do for breakfast, lunch, dinner, whatever. And you get a myriad of different foods. You get things like nut bars, get soups, olives, kale crackers, you get desserts on even a couple of the days too. On days two, three, four and five, you also get the addition of this vegetable glycerin drink that is one of the key modalities to

help to support muscle retention and energy throughout the program also. So essentially, you get this box and it’s for somebody that’s, I don’t know about you, but for somebody that’s busy, it is just so nice to have this five days where I don’t have to think about anything. Quite literally, I’m not cooking in my kitchen, I’m not doing any of this. So that’s what you’re gonna receive when you get your ProLon five day box.

The Accrescent (21:32.192)
It’s so what I’ll pause here a moment on is it makes it so accessible because the reality is a true water fast is not accessible to most of us for any number of reasons. Emotionally, physically, psychologically, all these different things. That is a lot and we don’t have to, you there’s not a moral issue here. It’s like, hey, if there’s a way to do this, that’s more accessible. Amazing.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (21:57.144)
Well, here’s the thing that I think is important to consider. First of all, it isn’t safe for everybody. So yes, if you have gallstones, if you have diabetes, when you could risk having hypoglycemia, it’s not safe for everybody. It isn’t something that you’d wanna do water fast for most of us unsupervised, and that’s something that you would wanna work with a qualified clinician to do.

Pro-Lon is designed to be, because of the macronutrient profile, the chances of you having things like low blood sugar or adverse reactions are significantly reduced. So it is safe to do on your own. You do have the autonomy to do it on your own. But shoot, what was I gonna say? I had a really good point.

The Accrescent (22:47.332)
It’s accessible, most people can’t or won’t do.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (22:50.226)
thank you. My main point. but the, the real big piece of this is that you’re yes, you are going to get benefits from doing a prolonged FMD through prolon after one cycle. Sure. Absolutely. Doing this is going to make a big impact right away, but really the benefits come when you do more than one cycle, the benefits of doing, getting into cellular rejuvenation, they come, it compounds over time. So people doing a water fast.

It’s hard, it’s uncomfortable, it often comes with a lot of other side effects that are challenging. That’s not really a great experience if somebody says, I want you to do this several times a year. Like, are you kidding me? I don’t think that I can. The adherence piece is really important. So the hope and the goal, too, for Prolon is that we’re giving you…

The Accrescent (23:34.894)
Mm-hmm.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (23:45.23)
a more enjoyable experience. Yes, it’s still gonna be a little bit challenging, but it’s a more enjoyable experience than for most people. They feel empowered to do it again. And that’s really when you’re gonna see the heart health benefits, the metabolic benefits, the weight loss benefits, the mental clarity, the gut health benefits, whatever you’re working towards, you’re gonna see it after multiple cycles, which is why you mentioned your colleagues are doing several right now throughout this year. Yeah, you’re gonna, I’m sure I would love to hear their experiences too, because every fast.

is different and you get your body gets to deeper and deeper levels of cellular rejuvenation the further along you go in this journey. you, know, water only fasting, sure. Okay. That’s, that’s, if that’s your prerogative, go for it. But if it’s something that’s really hard and you’re not going to do it again, it’s the, what, what benefit is that? You know? So.

The Accrescent (24:34.553)
Yeah, completely. So what is some of the science? How, how was Prolon developed? One of the things I love about you guys so much is the research is extensive. mean, extensive when you look at other brands, I don’t even care whether it’s supplements or fast mimicking or whatever the research from Prolon is so extensive, but talk to us about the science. How, how can we be eating and still be getting in this fasting state?

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (24:58.068)
Yes, you, yes. Okay. So, and yes, at at the core of it all, we are a longevity science company. We, we have, we refuse to say or talk about anything that we have not tested and seen in our clinical trials, which is really, really important to us. and part of that is because, you know, our founder is Dr. Walter Longo. He’s a, he’s, originally a, oncology geriatric researcher. and he, he’s, he’s an Italian man lived, you know,

maybe not so coincidentally and adjacent to one of the longevity zones in Italy and he has family members that have been centenarians themselves. So he’s been around longevity sites his whole life too. so his longevity research started young. But he found in his early oncology research and all of this that…

your body actually, once he realized that it was the fasting part, it was something happening within fasting that was helping oncology patients respond better to chemotherapy, it was helping heart health patients respond better to medications and have better functioning circulation, things like that. He’s like, okay, something’s happening here. Don’t really know that it’s autophagy yet at this particular stage in the research journey, but he went to the lab and he was like, okay, there’s gotta be,

I wonder if there’s little amounts of food that we can get while still activating whatever’s happening. Like, what’s the threshold? He was wondering what the threshold is. And in his lab, he found that, we have three nutrient-sensing radars in our body. There’s IGF-1, mTOR, and PKA. These nutrient-sensing radars are essentially the pathways that

sense when food is present. they’re activated. So IGF-1 is activated by carbohydrates and protein consumption. mTOR by protein, PKA by all three macronutrients. And when food is present, these nutrient sensing pathways turn on. And when these nutrient sensing pathways turn on, they are turning on growth. What does that mean? So we need to, we need growth factor.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (27:16.558)
these pathways to be turned on when we’re young, when we’re in infancy, when we’re growing a body, growing brains, growing bones, and all of these things. We also need growth factor to be turned on when we’re healing from something, when we have an illness or chronic health issue, car accident, whatever. We’re healing from something. We also need a little bit more growth factor as we, you know, past a certain age, when we’re 65 and older, to maintain longevity benefits. But growth factor,

The Accrescent (27:31.969)
injury.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (27:45.78)
is these nutrient-sensing pathways when he was in the lab, he’s like, my gosh, wow, you, because of our early human ancestors who never, there was always, in most scenarios, we always had a little something. wasn’t a full, it wasn’t like it was either yes or no all the time. There’s a lot of gray zone. We had little bits of food, right? Our body can, there’s a threshold. Our body has, can allow a certain amount of nutrients in the body before triggering those nutrient-sensing pathways on.

The Accrescent (28:16.075)
Mm-hmm.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (28:16.3)
That is where the FMD lives. So we have figured out that.

The Accrescent (28:20.473)
By the way, real quick, FMD is fast mimicking diet. I don’t think we defined that just so the audience knows when we say FMD.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (28:24.236)
Yes. The Fasting-Limiting Diet, the FMD, Prolon, yes. This magical, incredible, seems like magical program, but it’s actually just pure science. We figured out that there is a maximum amount of food, specific macronutrient ratio that your body can consume before triggering those nutrient sensing pathways on. That’s a critical piece of information for a variety of reasons. The first is,

For somebody that’s mojo off the street, that’s looking to help their health, and they’re like, man, water fasting is too hard or difficult, or you have a health condition, whatever the reason may be, having a little bit of foods, having that circadian pattern, like, I’m sitting down for breakfast. It looks a little different than my normal breakfast, but I’m sitting down for breakfast. I’m having some tea. That circadian, that helps the mental component of fasting, right? Give me just one second.

at this state, you know, write this down at this stage in the game, my cat starts playing with things and it’s going to be very frustrating. Okay. so when you are, I had it, where was I?

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (29:40.12)
nutrients and things like that.

The Accrescent (29:40.485)
Nutrient pathways don’t get turned on.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (29:44.586)
so there is a threshold that our body can consume before triggering those nutrient sensing pathways on, which is where the FMD lives. So if you’re coming off the street, you get that circadian pattern, you get that routine feeling. It helps with the potential mental challenge of fasting, which I think most people experience. But also, because there is this macronutrient

We’re not fully avoiding foods. We do have some glucose. We do have some protein. We do have some fat. It actually, what we found that doing the FMD is it protects, it actually targets visceral fat loss and protects muscle mass. And that is a critical difference between the FMD versus water only fasting, the FMD versus whoever your friend was that’s doing a smoothie thing or a juice cleanse, or the FMD versus just straight caloric deficit because

There’s a very specific ratio that we’ve been able to identify that not only doesn’t trigger these nutrient sensing pathways on, but it also supports the body in the type of weight and composition we are looking for to support optimal health.

The Accrescent (31:02.361)
What I hear in that is it’s, it’s developed in such a specific way that when the body does go to burn fuel, it’s burning it from the visceral fat, not my muscle tissue, which is actually very common in water fasting that muscle tissue gets burned a lot. So maybe you lose weight in a water fast, but a significant portion of that weight could also be muscle mass.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (31:24.236)
Right, exactly, precisely. Which is also what we’re seeing in the GLP-1 world right now, where yes, GLP-1s can help support glucose insulin response and glucose utilization, but they’re also, because it’s also suppressing appetite, you’re not eating as much, it can not only cause nutrient deficiencies and things like that, but 40%, up to 40 % of the weight that you’re losing is coming from muscle mass. And when you’re talking about metabolic health,

all these things, muscle’s critical. We want to keep it. It’s hard to put on muscle. Even one pound of muscle takes hours and hours and hours of weightlifting and correct nutrition to optimize. So we don’t want to lose that critical muscle. But anyway, Walter Longo was in the lab. He realized this groundbreaking concept that, oh my gosh, we don’t have to water fast, actually. We don’t have to water fast, but we can still keep those nutrient-sensing pathways.

what we call down-regulated or turned off. And by turning them off for a set period of time, voila, the same benefits, if not better benefits are happening on the FMD versus other programs on things, on these metabolic outcomes, these health outcomes that we’ve been seeing. So it’s pretty impressive.

The Accrescent (32:40.675)
Yeah.

Yeah. You guys have all the research data to show it, but we also hear within a scent adaptation have the in-body like 970 scan. I think we’re the only non-medical facility in the U S that has it. So anyone who does the fast here, we all do the in-body scan. so you can see muscle breakdown everywhere, inflammation, phase angle, visceral fat. And so we, we also hear have the quantitative data of holy cow, look how much.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (32:59.47)
That’s so cool.

The Accrescent (33:11.161)
visceral fat specifically I lost in these five days. Look at how much my inflammation went down these five days. And here at Ascent, we work with lot of cancer and chronic illness. So inflammation is a massive, massive marker we’re really interested in, as well as phase angle, that cellular integrity. and phase angle’s really hard to move and get to go up. And people within a week are having their phase angle go up, which is amazing. So.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (33:23.918)
Thank

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (33:37.766)
well, this is so fun. I, I listen, if you, if you aren’t as cool and don’t have this, this data, you’re going to feel it too. But I, I, for somebody that we’re data nerds at El Nutro, we are a science data nerds. we love using CGMs and ketone and in body scans. So I love, I would go ham at, at your place. I, that would be so much fun to just like, it gives you even, you’re going to feel motivated anyway, but you’re like to see the data and the markers move. how.

The Accrescent (33:46.253)
Yes, totally.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (34:07.096)
That is such a motivation, such an incredible empowering moment to be able to showcase like all this hard work. Heck yeah. I’m seeing this move the needle.

The Accrescent (34:11.653)
Holy.

Yeah. And so much beyond the number to your point, you’re gonna, you’re gonna subjectively and objectively feel so much better after this fast. And you might be able to step on your at-home scale and go, Whoa, I lost this much weight, but to be able to go, no, no, I lost this much weight from visceral fat, but also the inflammation. mean, when you see how much the inflammation goes down in a week, it’s pretty powerful. Again, especially for our cancer and chronic illness clients, it’s huge.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (34:40.398)
Yes, and we know so much about the impacts of glucose consumption and we’re learning a lot about the impacts of nutrient sensing pathways as it relates to cancer development and things like this. yeah, mean, that’s Walter Longo’s background is with oncology patients. He was like, listen, he’s noticing in his practice that these patients respond better to chemotherapy and radiation when they’re fasting, but take it one step further, they’re recovering from

What the heck is happening here? And you know, the other part about this is that oncology patients too, you know, tend to be, not to sit and talk about cancer this whole time, but oncology patients also, you know,

The Accrescent (35:10.819)
Yeah, totally.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (35:22.13)
are some of our most immunocompromised in terms of we don’t want them to not have food and we want to make sure that they feel, it’s already challenging enough. So water fasting is an extra stressor. Having some food and being able to nourish the body with really clean plant-based nutrition and also see these benefits and outcomes, like what a dream.

The Accrescent (35:46.852)
Yeah, completely. Okay. So I would love to get into a little bit of what to expect on each day of the Prolon Fast days one through five, and maybe even a bit of the science of what’s happening biologically within the body through some of each of these days. Now I’ve done the fast three times, so I can also speak to the fact that it’s a bit of a different experience every time. It’s not like this is always how you feel on day one and then day two and then day three, but

I would love to give people a general sense as well as a bit of an understanding of, here’s physiologically what’s happening day one, day two, et cetera.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (36:21.772)
Yes. Yes. It is definitely going to be different feeling tone of each fast that you do. day one is your transition day, quite simply. get, if we’re looking at it super on the superficial level, it’s the most calories you’re going to get for the full five days. It’s about 1,100 ish calories. It’s easing you in. It’s not supposed to be, we don’t want to.

to jar your system. were trying to ease you into it. So this is a, it’s considered a transition day. It’s, it’s light. You, most people are like, if this is the fast, it’s going to be fine. 11,000 calories, 11,000 calories. That’s not bad. so generally most people are like outside of the only mental, emotional symptom of day one usually happens as you get really further, farther along into your FMD journey. Cause now when I’m on day one, I’m, I feel sad. I’m like, man, it’s, it’s mostly just like a, know,

I got five days of fastings, it’s a mental thing, but on day one, most people are like, this is really easy. Especially people that are really nervous or feeling, you know, pretty encouraged. They’re like, so far this is actually not too bad. Day two, most people enter at least a mild state of ketosis. I would say how far along your keto journey is depends wildly on your…

where you begin on your health journey. But generally speaking, most people are hitting a form of ketosis at this point on day two.

I would say day two usually is accompanied for most people, especially if you’re a coffee drinker or caffeine drinker, you usually get a little bit of a headache. I would say the most common symptom that we hear on day two is getting a little bit hungry and I’ve got a little bit of a headache. most of the time, it’s why when you’re prepping for an FMD, although there’s not technically a ton that you have to do, but if you are a caffeine drinker, we do suggest you start decreasing your caffeine to help avoid that caffeine withdrawal that some people have.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (38:20.112)
But generally speaking, would say day two you get a dessert, which is really nice. you get, it’s not too bad of a day. Day three for most people is the hardest day. It’s the lowest amount of calories that you’re gonna get.

The Accrescent (38:24.837)
Hmm.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (38:36.012)
Most people are feeling a little bit hungry right now. I would say if you’re gonna have any like keto flu symptoms, they’re usually happening day three. So things like, know, aches. I like to describe it as, you know, when you’re entering a keto flu, it kind of feels like you’re getting a cold almost. You get the kind of achy, achy, and maybe a little fatigued.

The Accrescent (38:54.693)
Mm-hmm.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (38:55.362)
That’s to be expected on day three. Your body is working hard. It’s doing what it’s supposed to do. But the real empowering thing about day three is this is when autophagy activates. autophagy is happening now. So every day on day three…

The Accrescent (39:05.605)
Bye.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (39:09.294)
when I’m doing the FAST, I’m like, you know what? Yeah, this is absolutely the hardest day and my hard work is paying off autophagy. we just had a study published two days ago in Jero Science, fresh off the press, in Jero Science that…

The Accrescent (39:21.348)
my gosh.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (39:28.014)
validates that autophagy is happening. It sparks on day three in humans on the FMD. So that’s a really cool part of day three. Day four and five, I would say, are generally interchangeable in terms of what’s happening. You’re really wanting to sit in autophagy for as long as possible. So day four, day five, it accelerates and it maximizes day four and five. Day four is usually when people, I would say, depending on how you start your pre-

fast health state day four is usually when people start to feel a little bit better. They’re like, okay, I’m getting my energy back. I maybe I’m sleeping better. maybe not a hundred percent there, but usually they’re inching in that direction. And day five, if you haven’t already, you’re like, I could do this for another 10 days. That’s like, I hear it from everybody. They’re like, well, wait, I’m feeling fine on day five. I’m like, are you sure I can’t just do five more days? I’m like,

Okay, like your energy is great. You’re like, I’m used to this. Your body’s like kick in. So most people feel really great on day five and day six is just a euphoric day. I mean, for most people that you’re feeling just, holy cow, I mastered that. That was incredible. It was way easier than I thought it was going to be. My body feels great. My mind is clear. I’m ready to roll. feel lighter and healthier. Reduced sugar cravings is a huge one that we see regularly.

The Accrescent (40:51.929)
Yeah, yeah.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (40:52.526)
food relationship to food, all of that. So there’s a lot going on. Hopefully it was good.

The Accrescent (40:57.317)
Yeah, when I first did it, I think I had like a mild headache the first day. And then for me, it was more like I had a ton of energy. I didn’t have energy. I was actually more fatigued the first couple of days. And then day four and five, like I had the huge energy spike. I was feeling amazing. It was so good. And then the second time I did it, it was totally flipped. Like I felt amazing days one, two, and three. And then days four and five, I kind of had a dip.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (41:01.666)
Mm-hmm.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (41:14.168)
Yeah.

The Accrescent (41:23.661)
And we can probably talk about that because you also want to be cognizant of I’m doing a fast. might, this might not be the week I plan all the biggest things and hardest workouts and et cetera. And we’ll get into kind of like what to do and not do.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (41:34.826)
important presentations you’re at work. Don’t go up and present your most important presentation on a fasting week, especially if you’re not sure how you’re going to feel. take it easy. Take it easy. Yeah.

The Accrescent (41:47.798)
Yes, especially if it’s your first time doing it. Yeah, completely. it’s so to that end, some, you know, the symptoms kind of sometimes come up in different places here or there. But yet to your point, this is where I’m saying I notice so many of the benefits coming towards the end and then after. And that’s what I really want to keep honing in on for people is it’s not just like you’re going to feel good on the fast and then you’re going to go right back to feeling awful.

I feel good for weeks after and it really does. It changes my relationship to sugar. It changes my sleep, my energy, my mental clarity, my focus, my mood and those all persist much longer even though I go right back to eating the way I was eating before.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (42:33.122)
So that’s such an important point. And one thing to validate what you’re saying, so most of our studies are looking at, so all except, I think, two of our vast repertoire of studies are looking at a three.

cycle pattern that I talked about earlier where you’re following one cycle a month for three consecutive months. So there’s about 25 to 30 days in between cycles. That’s the generally what all of our research is looking at, but most of our studies are also doing a follow-up at three months, six months after with no FMDs in that time, 60 to 75 % of the results that you saw from that onboarding three month period maintain.

after that period of time, which is why our protocol after that onboarding period is a couple of times a year only is really just to one up yourself. Like, okay, you did have a little bit of a dip. Most of them was most of your weight and clarity and all of the things that you experienced are still here. Most of them are still here, but let’s continue compounding upon those benefits. We’ve seen that in all of our studies. And also, I think it’s important to note that

The Accrescent (43:18.873)
rate.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (43:47.102)
when you’re following the fast, you know, I’m the director of communications here at El Nutri. Yes, I’m a dietician too, but I like to be very honest with people that…

This is much safer, it’s much easier than most of the things. It’s way more proven scientifically and all of the things. We stand behind our work so strongly, but it’s still not easy. It’s not like a walk in the park. So most of, when I talk to people, I usually say, listen, you’re doing this for five days. It’s a therapeutic five days.

The benefits come after that. like if you have, know, that I’m a gut health dietician by trade. So most of the gut health benefits are going to come after most of your energy benefits are going to come after most of your mental clarity is going to come after. Don’t feel bad. If those five days don’t feel great, that’s intended. Your, your body is clearing and that that’s a concept that we call, you know,

Technically that when you’re having those symptoms, it’s called herxing symptoms and your body’s clearing out that sludge. It’s going through your liver. You’re pushing it out of your body. That doesn’t always feel good. And that’s not necessarily a bad sign. It’s actually a really good sign that things are moving and shuffling and rearranging in your body in the way that we intended it to do. And it really is the aftermath, the after parts that are really, really impactful.

The Accrescent (45:05.861)
Yeah, let’s talk about day six. The fast is over. What does transitioning out of the fast look like? And a lot of people might go, oh my gosh, I’m going to plan a feast. I can’t wait all the food I’m going to eat. Why might that not be in our best interest?

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (45:22.03)
You know, it’s funny because I feel like you might think that you’ll plan a fee, maybe on day one or day three, you’re like, I’m going to plan a feast, but day five, day six, you’re like, I could, I could not eat for a while longer. Like I feel like, I don’t know if you’ve had that experience before that you, most people are like, I don’t, I don’t know. Not really, not really feeling like having a big piece right now. Um, but day six is, is still in my opinion. Yes, you’re not following. You don’t have a day six box, but it is very much.

The Accrescent (45:36.547)
Yeah, totally, totally.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (45:50.346)
in my opinion, a six day program in that day six is so critical and the way that you transition off is so important because if you go too quickly, if you eat the wrong types of foods too quickly or too early, it can cause things like diarrhea, can cause gastric upset, it can cause you to feel crummy. So you really do wanna be super careful on how you’re transitioning off. We do have a full transition day experience that I’m happy to share with you by the way.

But they, what we, the way that I usually instruct my patients is to start super, super slow, very small, and ideally with liquids, kind of go from liquids to more solid foods throughout the day. So first thing in the morning, although, you know, one of my favorite go-to meals is either a chia pudding, so something that’s a little bit easier to digest. It’s soaked overnight, it’s easy on the tummy. You can do things like a porridge. do like buckwheat porridge is a really nice one.

You can do, if you are wanting something more solid, we talk about avocado toast or something that’s a little bit lighter, it’s not so heavy. So starting small, chewing very well, going really slow, putting down your fork, taking breaths in between meals. You have a much smaller stomach, so you wanna make sure you go extra slow so you’re not inundating your system.

Lunchtime, would say like a heartier soup with like actual chicken chunks and rice or what have you is a decent thing to have. I kind of steer away from smoothies on day six, if that’s only because I found that it moves too quickly through the system. So it can prompt things like diarrhea in some people. So heartier soups and.

around lunchtime is a little bit better. And generally speaking, if you’ve done well for those first two meals, having something more solid at dinner like a salmon and broccoli or something like that is fine for dinner for most people.

The Accrescent (47:47.941)
And tell us why this day is so important and what happens if we do transition out with intention physiologically and then what happens if we don’t?

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (47:59.278)
You’re already riding high. want to keep it going. And for a lot of people, when you’ve been in a fasting state for a couple days, you are going to be responding to food very quickly too. So if you have something that’s really high sugar, might take your blood or pulse and see that it’s like shooting up to a 98 or 100, right? Your body is going to…

The Accrescent (48:20.397)
Great. palpitations.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (48:22.824)
Utilize that food very quickly. So you want to make sure it’s stable You want to make sure you’re starting slow and choosing foods that are going to stabilize your blood sugar like fats like, you know plant-based proteins like fiber foods like going you want to you want to think about balancing harmonizing on day six and and honestly not going too quickly from a digestive perspective This this I think can be maybe a

on like a bad reaction from people where, where, Hey, I had a really bad day six and I don’t want to do it again. Cause I had, you know, cramping or from a digestive perspective, it’s really important to go super, super slow. but honestly what you do on day six is really, really keying you up for what you’re doing in between cycles and, and what you continue to do. Most people feel really motivated to make now think of it as like, this is, this is your reset. This is a time for you to really start on a fresh foot and people generally

and tell us that, that they feel more motivated to make healthy diet changes, they feel better in their body, they wanna hit the gym, they wanna keep it going. So this is the time to put it into practice, to kind of set the stage for the things that you’ve been working hard to do and now that you have the foundation to do it.

The Accrescent (49:46.661)
guess what I want to get a sense of is if we dive right in day six and just ignore everything you just said, does it have the potential to negate the benefits of the five days before?

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (49:56.936)
I see your question. if you look at our data and if Walter was sitting here, if our chief medical officer, William Shue was sitting here, they would actually tell you that no, it doesn’t. What you do in between, which is as a dietitian, I like to keep as much on the hush hush as possible because what you do in between time obviously can accelerate the benefits too. but technically what you do in between prolon cycles,

including on day six, does not negate what just happened. It’s a powerful intervention on its own, and most of what we, and I don’t know if that was the answer that you wanted, but that’s the answer that is true, that technically,

The Accrescent (50:40.591)
Yeah.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (50:43.078)
All of our research study isn’t looking at what we’re doing in between time. It’s looking at this one intervention alone, which is, you think about it, empowering in and of itself that we’re actually only asking five days a couple of times a year for you to see all of these incredible benefits. But is it going to be super fun if you jump right in and go to Denny’s and have a greasy omelet and hash brown? No, you’re not going to feel good. it doesn’t negate the fact that you’ve been in autophagy.

The Accrescent (51:08.495)
Yeah.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (51:12.912)
probably still going to happen into day seven for you. That doesn’t that doesn’t go away. But your comfort and your you know, I don’t it’s actually shockingly less common just because of I’m not kidding when I say day five and day six.

you feel different. you truly mentally, like I, most people are like, I don’t have the need. I don’t want to go get that Oreo after dinner. Like I’m typically get after dinner while I’m sitting watching TV, you know, mostly part even wanting to grab those things. So it’s less common, but if you, but if let’s say you did do it, no, you’re not going to be negating your benefits. I was like, I hope that was what you want.

The Accrescent (51:51.13)
Yeah, I love that. That’s what I wanted to hear. I do, you know, to speak for myself, had a, because I typically do it Monday through Friday and I had a Saturday where I just sort of dove right back into whatever I would normally do. And there was a tiny part of me that’s like, did I just throw away that whole week?

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (52:04.643)
Great.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (52:09.922)
No, no, and that is why there’s a quote, and if I said this earlier, I’m sorry, but I’m gonna say it again, because I think it’s super powerful. Dr. William Shue, who is our chief medical officer, regularly says, if diet and lifestyle worked, diet, exercise, and lifestyle worked for everybody, we would not be in the biggest obesity metabolic crisis ever. And the reason for that is because,

it’s not sustainable to make everyday lifestyle changes. For most people, it is hard as heck to do that. Anyway, and I have a study I wanna bring up in a second, but this is intended to be a short.

intervention that makes lasting long-term changes regardless of what you’re doing. That is like, that’s something that hasn’t been tapped into. Like, what are you talking about? I can do a very short thing and then continue about my everyday life. Like that’s, that’s pretty, that seems crazy, but that’s what our science is showing. That’s what we’ve been able to prove time and time again. So no, you’re, we really are asking five days of you what were, what the, the parameters that were.

Setting around it is really truly to benefit you and your your experience and ideally what you’re doing in between time is is is Compound helping to push you forward on those on those goals that you have right? we did just before I forget we one of our we have two really big studies I want to just share quickly the first is that we we so the Mediterranean diet is

The Accrescent (53:32.825)
Yeah, totally. Your trajectory, your momentum. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (53:47.71)
like the gold standard in, cardiovascular care and weight loss. it wins the awards every year for being like the best diet ever. We love it, obviously. but we, we wanted to go, we wanted to see like, does the FMD compare to the F to the Mediterranean diet? Because we’re taught. we, so we looked at force consecutive cycles at the FMD over four months, compared to, four months of daily.

The Accrescent (54:02.169)
Yeah, let’s go toe to toe.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (54:15.052)
Mediterranean diet adherence. So we’re looking at everyday changes versus just, you know, 20 days of over the course of four months, right? What we found were the results were the exact same when it came to cardiovascular health, weight loss, but better from the FMD side on muscle protection. So we’re talking like that. So what’s the message there? The message is that time.

The Accrescent (54:30.543)
Wow.

The Accrescent (54:37.09)
Mm-hmm.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (54:43.384)
We’re talking about time here. We’re talking about 20 days versus 120 days of strict adherence to a everyday lifestyle change versus a dedicated period of time that you then have a break from in between time. That’s huge for people. So that’s one that I wanted to call out. The other one is that the three cycles, one of our biggest studies that came yesterday, or could be yesterday, last February was our biological age study that we found that…

The Accrescent (54:51.012)
Yeah.

The Accrescent (54:58.213)
Hmm.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (55:10.476)
Which biological age is the age that you want to be young. want, know, when your cells are young and functioning, functioning younger, means that you could be 90 and, you know, hiking Mount Kilimanjaro, right? So, which is everyone’s goal, right? But you can, anyway, the, the, the research found that following that three cycle onboarding period that I’ve talked about a couple of times can reverse your biological age by 2.5 years. Like what?

The Accrescent (55:24.664)
You

The Accrescent (55:36.857)
Yeah, it’s amazing. Yeah.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (55:38.99)
So you’re younger than you were before you began? That’s crazy. I mean, it’s not crazy. It’s amazing. We’ve seen such incredible benefits. And again, it’s time-bound. It’s guided. It’s a no-brainer. It’s foolproof. You get everything in this one box. You don’t have to think about it. I can’t think of anything that could be any more just primed to help you succeed.

The Accrescent (56:06.949)
Totally.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (56:07.631)
It’s like built for you to succeed.

The Accrescent (56:10.167)
Yeah, I mean, any simpler, like the max benefits with the max simplicity. So it’s awesome. Okay. Go, go, go, go. Two really quick last questions. One is common mistakes people make while on the fast. For example, I’m thinking what like hydration over, or maybe over exercising.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (56:16.78)
Yeah, right. Amazing. Cool. Go get yourself one. Go get yourself a towel.

Yeah.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (56:34.101)
yes.

So yes, those are, so people forget how much water we obtain through food. So when they’re on, we get a lot of hydration from the foods that we’re not just from fruits and veggies, like grains have hydration, meats have hydration. We forget how much we get from food. So that is another comment. I kind of did demonize caffeine there for a second, but dehydration is another reason people get that headache on days one and two is you really need to be more cognizant of drinking.

The Accrescent (56:44.837)
Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (57:07.128)
That’s a big one. The exercise one is really interesting. We don’t suggest, for safety reasons too, we don’t suggest you go and do a HIIT workout or HIIT training on any of, honestly, any of the days that you’re on the ProLim 5 Day, but from a cellular perspective, you exercise too heavily on our program,

You’re basically asking your body to split its resources of rejuvenation from repairing your muscles versus repairing your cells. We want you to be in that deep cellular rejuvenation for as long as possible and not split the resources. use it as a reset. We reuse it really as a break. Like go do take some walks, do some yoga, do some breath work, meditation, whatever, but don’t hit the gym or especially lift weights or anything like that.

The Accrescent (57:40.559)
Mm-hmm.

The Accrescent (57:46.138)
Right.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (57:59.982)
because it will just distract your body from what we’re setting out to do. Also, say another, it’s not necessarily a mistake, but it’s a more piece of advice. I do find that staying busy is really helpful. So like, yes, people, like I wouldn’t necessarily have like a really important presentation or.

The Accrescent (58:04.675)
Yeah.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (58:26.052)
what have you, but staying, having things to do and planning some, instead of sitting at home and twiddling your thumbs, cause you’re nervous about, know, how your body, obviously when you want to tune in and make sure you’re, paying attention to the signals that your body is telling you, but also, you know, socializing with some friends, taking a walk, getting yourself out of your head, because so much of this process is mental actually. It’s more mental than it is physical in a lot of ways. So the more you can,

The Accrescent (58:49.103)
Mm.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (58:55.02)
get yourself busy and out there and distracted with things, especially for your first couple of rounds. I find that’s really helpful. And also if you find yourself that, I think one of the biggest pieces of advice outside of all those is to start your fast by writing, journaling about, meditating on your why.

The Accrescent (59:01.22)
Yeah.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (59:19.854)
because inevitably, why are you doing it? Are you doing it because, not, know, weight’s an okay, obviously everyone wants to, that’s a huge goal, but, you know, is it because you wanna, you you wanna feel better in your clothes? If you wanna, you know, be able to crawl around the floor with your grand, get specific, like what is your why? you know, I wanna feel sexy. I don’t know what it is, yeah.

The Accrescent (59:40.901)
reduce my inflammation. Yeah, reduce my inflammation so I can start walking with my wife on the beach again.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (59:46.326)
reduce my LDL for, know, so can be with my wife longer, whatever it is, right? Write it down because inevitably there’s gonna come a point where you’re maybe frustrated. You don’t feel so great that you’re feeling like, what’s the point? Like, I’ve done three days, like whatever. Just finish it. Go back to your why, get back to your motivation, call a friend, have them remind you what it is. Because honestly, like, you know, when you distill it down into your…

your motivation, your everyday, what you are working towards. It’s so helpful to have that written down to remind yourself, yes, it’s just five days. I can do anything for five days.

The Accrescent (01:00:27.109)
Two quick last questions coming back to we have a lot of clients and patients going through cancer, chronic illness. So number one, they’re often on a lot of supplements. And number two, there’s often other modalities that they’re engaging in regularly like IVs, maybe hyperbaric, sauna, red light. Talk to me about these. Can we take supplements while we’re on ProLon? Can we do some of these other modalities while on ProLon?

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (01:00:54.574)
So I will say that Dr. Valter Longo has, for the cancer people in the bunch, since that was kind of a call out, please go to createcures.org, which is Valter Longo’s Cancer Foundation. He’ll have that, the only reason I call that out is that there, know, we here on the Prolon side and L-Nutricide,

The Accrescent (01:01:13.731)
Is it create?

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (01:01:21.024)
we really do want you to stick to the box as much as possible. You already get multivitamins, algebra, oil, you get your supplementation. So anything that’s not mandatory, we suggest you stop. Obviously, if you’re on heart medication, if you’re on antidepressants, if you’re on things that are necessary and required, those stay. But I don’t know necessarily if, because sometimes in the cancer sphere, the supplementation is also mandatory. So like take that with a grain of salt that I, you know, work with your healthcare practitioner on that.

The Accrescent (01:01:40.325)
Mm-hmm.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (01:01:50.862)
But if you’re coming to the ProLon side and you’re looking to have the full experience, we do suggest you follow the box as closely as humanly possible, and that includes with the supplementation side. Medication, mandatory things you can stay on. You had one other thought on that.

The Accrescent (01:02:10.326)
Modalities, saunas, IVs, red light.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (01:02:12.632)
yes. So I would say that’s true, especially, I would say that’s true of IVs and things as well, especially if it’s anything that has, could tip the caloric balance, like things like, you know, omega threes have calories and could, you know, tip the tip, scales and in a certain, certain realm, saunas. The, reason actually we don’t recommend doing that during the five days is truly from a, potential.

fainting situation. You will have lower glucose, you aren’t eating as much food, some people aren’t as good at hydrating, so you have to be really diligent about that. We don’t want you to be consuming extra electrolytes necessarily, so there’s an element of like, there’s a potential safety concern from like, we don’t want you to faint from doing saunas. Red light feels a little less problematic in that way, so I would say that that to me feels I’ve.

I would probably tell my patient that that was okay, but from a sonar perspective, I would say hold off till day six when you have a little bit more control over your hydration status and things like that.

The Accrescent (01:03:17.229)
Yeah, it kind of leads me to, and I think this is a good place to close, is more isn’t always better. And I do think a lot of us in the healing world and the holistic health world, it sort of feels like, well, if I do the fast and take all these supplements and do these IVs and so on, like even better. And the reality is actually sometimes when we let the body just do the one thing.

It’s gonna be able to do that really well. We’re gonna get the max benefit from that. And then the week after we can go back to all these other amazing things we’re doing.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (01:03:47.938)
Yeah, exactly. you should, and you should go back to what is working for you and what have you, but it is the FMD and this week, really treat it like a therapeutic intervention, just for a week. it, especially even athletes, use it as your rest and your break because…

We need it, it is about cutting through the noise, it’s why it tends to be a very spiritual experience that you are really having to sit with.

sit with some silence. not used to that in our day to day life. We gotta be just be quiet for a little bit to give your body this dedicated time. then yes, go, you know, maybe actually I would say for a lot of my patients who are on poly supplementation, like lots of different supplements, we use that time to reassess. Like, we need that back in actually? Is now the time that we, you know, reassess what we’re doing in between time. But it is its own therapeutic modality that should be utilized

The Accrescent (01:04:22.159)
Mm-hmm.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (01:04:48.75)
in a finite time-bound way and then you can go back to your everyday lifestyle after that.

The Accrescent (01:04:56.537)
Yes, I love it. Well, there are so many more resources on the Proline Proline life website, so I’ll make sure I send people there. Can you give me the other website though that you mentioned?

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (01:05:06.318)
Yes, create cures. don’t know if it’s .com or .org though. I think it’s .org. Yes, it is. So create cures with an S. Let me put this in the chat. Is there a chat? Yes. So Dr. Walter Longo.

The Accrescent (01:05:08.677)
Create yours.

The Accrescent (01:05:18.712)
.org.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (01:05:24.554)
and keep this or don’t keep this, he has a cancer foundation, Crate Cures Foundation. It’s intended specifically for people, regardless of what you can or cannot pay, they work with people on using the FMD and they actually have a very specialized FMD formulation that’s different than the Prolon formulation. Yes, I forget what it’s called. think it’s, I want to say it’s not zymogen. That’s a different drug, but it’s in that realm.

The Accrescent (01:05:44.303)
No way. my gosh, how cool.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (01:05:54.228)
Anyways, so they have all of their dieticians on site, our specific oncology dieticians. have a, it’s, we, yes, on the L-Nutricide in our programs, we will eventually be opening up our cancer division as well, but we have to be a little bit more particular about what we say about that. We definitely suggest, he’s the man for that. So, yeah.

The Accrescent (01:06:17.731)
Yeah, that’s amazing. I can’t wait to look into that. Most of my clients are almost exclusively cancer patients. So it’s…

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (01:06:23.694)
my gosh, this is, that’s a beaut, if you want, at some point I can actually have Kennedy, if she hasn’t suggested it already, but we, we know all their dieticians there. So if you wanted to like chat about with them, yeah, they’re, and they’re really top, top notch dieticians who, and the wealth, wealth of knowledge. So yeah.

The Accrescent (01:06:35.789)
I would love that. I would love that.

Yeah.

The Accrescent (01:06:45.815)
Amazing. Well, I’ll make sure that, you know, we link to the website and there’s so many more resources. I’ll let the audience know what some of those are in the intro, but Melanie, thank you so much for coming on and explaining that so succinctly.

Melanie MurphyRichter, MS, RDN (01:06:51.753)
Yes.

Thanks for having me. And again, I really appreciate you being so patient too. Thank you. you. Thank you.

The Accrescent (01:07:01.265)
you’re so sweet.