#1474 - Dr. Rhonda Patrick

Joe Rogan (0:01)

What were you saying? Damn you.

No, it's not that embarrassing.

Rhonda Patrick (0:09)

Like, sometimes when I get nervous, my eye will start watering.

Joe Rogan (0:13)

I don't think that's odd. I think that's probably pretty normal. I mean, your system's fired up, and your eyes are probably trying to clear themselves.

Right? Maybe, you know, I mean, I'm just speculating.

Rhonda Patrick (0:25)

Maybe people will message me after this podcast, and be like, that happens to me, too, and I'll feel better.

Joe Rogan (0:30)

I'm sure. It doesn't sound that odd. That's certainly not embarrassing. So I don't know why I'm embarrassed by eyes watering, if you're nervous.

Thanks for being here. I really appreciate it.

Rhonda Patrick (0:40)

I'm super, I'm always happy to come.

Joe Rogan (0:42)

Well, we've been talking, and we've been talking about immune systems, and this is one of the main things that I wanted to talk to you about. All we're hearing is shelter in place, wear a mask, don't touch anybody, don't go outside.

But we're not hearing, what can you do to strengthen your immune system? And I think that as a public health, a public service, you know, health thing, this is one of the most important things that I think you can really focus and concentrate on and an actual thing that you could be proactive about during this weird time.

Rhonda Patrick (1:16)

Yeah, well, definitely, I think, focusing on, you know, lifestyle factors that you can, you know, possibly modulate your immune system and strengthen it is important. What's interesting is that the immune system, you know, after doing just so much, of course, the past, like, couple of months, I've been nothing but, like, reading about the immune system and trying to understand, of course, this new virus, SARS-CoV-2, but I've just learned so much, you know, over the past couple of months. I'm not an immunologist, I'm not an infectious disease expert, so, you know, while I've had some training in immunology, I definitely, you know, didn't know, don't know everything there is to know. But what, just, you know, doing some reading about, like, why are people's immune systems so different? Like, that's the big thing. Like, when you take, like, a young population, as you get older, your immune system does decline. I mean, there's lots of changes that occur. But, like, in general, like, people have different immune systems. And what's interesting is that there's been tons of, like, genetic studies done on, like, you know, identical twins, and they're followed over time. And what's found is that genetics is not the major regulator of immune function.

It's something in the environment.

And what, this is what surprised me, and I know it's not totally going to answer your question, but we can totally get to that. But the main, one of the main things besides age that regulates the immune system is, like, previous exposure to viruses. Like, so I thought that was really interesting. And in particular, one virus, the cytomegalovirus, CMV.

Did you know, like, between 50 to 80% of the US population has it, like, at least by the time they're, like, an adult?

Joe Rogan (2:54)

Has it permanently or has caught it?

Rhonda Patrick (2:56)

Yeah, it's a herpesvirus, so it's a lifelong thing. And this is why it basically, so it changes your immune system.

Joe Rogan (3:03)

What are the symptoms of it?

Rhonda Patrick (3:04)

Most people that are healthy don't ever know they have it because there's no symptoms.

Yeah, unless you're immunocompromised. But most people that are healthy, they don't know, you know, that they're infected with it.

Joe Rogan (3:14)

Say it again. What is it called?

Rhonda Patrick (3:15)

The cytomegalovirus. It's CMV.

Joe Rogan (3:18)

Sounds like something Godzilla fights.

Rhonda Patrick (3:20)

There it is. So what's so interesting, but here's the interesting thing about this virus is that it, so this is one of the major things. Multiple studies have been looking at, like, you know, just immune variability, and it's like CMV has been identified in multiple studies. And the reason it got me interested, because I was like almost 80%, I mean, I could have it, right? I could totally have it.

And it changes the immune function. It's totally different between young and old. So when you're younger, and if you have it, it actually enhances immune function. So they've done studies where, like, they have given people influenza vaccine, and oftentimes these vaccine studies are used to kind of test the immune response and, like, how robust your immune response is, because you're given a vaccine, and there's all different types of vaccines, you know, pieces of an antigen or all different types of, you know, ways that you can expose someone to bacteria or virus, but you have a response to it, and the response involves your adaptive immunity, you make what's called neutralizing antibodies that basically eventually bind to the virus and neutralize it, prevent it from entering the cell. So people that have CMV, that are young, have a really robust response to the vaccine, much better.