[00:00:00] JJ: I’m J. J. Virgin, Ph. D. dropout, sorry mom, turned four time New York Times best selling author. I’m a certified nutrition specialist, fitness hall of famer, and I speak at health conferences and trainings around the globe, but I’m driven most of all. by my insatiable curiosity and love of science to keep asking questions, digging for answers, and sharing the information that I uncover with as many people as I can.

[00:00:33] JJ: And that’s where you come in. That’s why I created the Well Beyond 40 podcast. to synthesize and simplify the science of health into actionable strategies to help you thrive. In each episode, we’ll talk about what’s working in the world of wellness, from personalized nutrition and healing your metabolism to powerful aging and prescription.

[00:00:55] JJ: Join me on the journey to better health so you can love how you look and feel right now and have the energy to play full out at 100. Don’t miss an episode. Subscribe now at SubscribeToJJ. com to start unlocking your healthiest, most energetic self. This podcast is kind of like You listening in to a conversation of some old friends catching up and talking about all the things from, uh, the fact that we need to create a wine app together to her dating app to what the best makeup is.

[00:01:35] JJ: You know, the most important things that you could be talking about. I’ve got Melanie Avalon with me. She’s a SAG AFTRA actress, health influencer, author of When Wine Lose Weight, Feel Great with Paleo Style Meals. intermittent fasting and wine. That is what I’ve had her on the podcast for before. She’s host of the Melanie Avalon biohacking intermittent fasting podcast.

[00:01:57] JJ: We’ll talk about that and her fasting approach. And we also. Get into, uh, how much protein you eat, and how much, how often should you eat it, and mTOR, and all the things. She’s also an app creator and founder of the supplement line AvalonX, and a new EMF blocking product that I’m really excited about. And she has been on the cover of Biohackers Update Magazine.

[00:02:24] JJ: She’s a regular contributor to Fox News and has been featured in USA Today, CNBC. Newsweek, LA Weekly, and much, much more, and we are literally, uh, We’re going all over the place today. So you’re gonna get a bunch of tips on everything from protein intake to best bio hacks to the right type of makeup and more and I’ll put a bunch of the links to all of this in the show notes at JJBurgeon.

[00:02:54] JJ: com forward slash Avalon So be sure to check that out and I’ll be right back with Melanie. Stay with me.

[00:03:11] JJ: Melanie, it has been a long time. Welcome back.

[00:03:15] Melanie Avalon: Thank you so much for having me, JJ. I was just reflecting. I first came on your show almost a decade ago, I think. And, um, Honestly, it was probably one of my first podcasts at the time. So thank you for, things have changed so much since then. I’ve met you in person multiple times now.

[00:03:31] Melanie Avalon: And yeah, so thank you for having me. Yeah, I

[00:03:33] JJ: think cause we have the same literary agent, Celeste. And that was, was that for what, when, wine?

[00:03:40] Melanie Avalon: Yes. Yes. That was it. The

[00:03:42] JJ: best title ever.

[00:03:44] Melanie Avalon: Yes. Thank you. And we had you on the intermittent fasting podcast at the time. I think we did like a swap thing.

[00:03:49] JJ: I think so.

[00:03:50] JJ: Well, let’s actually, um, there’s so much to talk about for what, when wine. I loved that book. It was like paleo eating and drinking wine. Um, and wine is such an interesting subject right now. What is your stance now with alcohol and all of that? Let’s dig into that a little.

[00:04:10] Melanie Avalon: Yeah, this is one of my favorite topics to talk about for obvious reasons.

[00:04:14] Melanie Avalon: And you’re right. I feel like right now there’s a really big sober curious movement. So people are kind of really hesitant about drinking alcohol. But I have so many thoughts about alcohol. Do you drink?

[00:04:26] JJ: So, I grew up outside of Napa. I grew up in Berkeley and literally when I was growing up, you could go to the wine country and no one carded you.

[00:04:43] JJ: And they didn’t charge either. So I went off to UCLA and we’d been drinking like Opus One and Caymus and all these great things. And of course, you go off to college and they’ve got like wine in a box. I’m like, what is that? But I grew up, you know, totally a wine. And then, and I’ve, so I’ve always had, drank wine and then I got introduced to Todd from Dry Farm Wines and I got the lecture on wine and what to drink and then I switched over to entirely only drinking European wines.

[00:05:15] JJ: Um, But I will tell you, I think it was because last year I drank so much wine in one year. We went on this whole, like, European trip with, in Spanish wine tasting, and I finally by the end of the year, I was like, I just Um, and I’ve really been barely drinking since then, which is a first for me. So I love wine.

[00:05:42] JJ: It will always be a part of my life. It probably won’t be as much as it has been in the past. Um, I did a little damp January and I’m just kind of drinking occasionally.

[00:05:53] Melanie Avalon: I like it. I hadn’t heard that term damp January, so it’s like toning down but not dry.

[00:05:59] JJ: Yeah, it’s like, well, because you hear that and I go, I’m not interested in that.

[00:06:02] JJ: Like if I go out to a great restaurant and I’m going to have a great dinner, I want a great glass of wine with it. And so I think sometimes. The all or nothing has never been, for, I’m a very rebellious person who doesn’t like rules, and if you tell me I can’t do something, I immediately want to do it. So, I just went, oh, okay, I’ll just have a damp January, and that was fine.

[00:06:23] JJ: I think I had four glasses of wine, maybe. And I probably had two in February. And, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to go to a great, you know, restaurant and have a glass of wine or a bottle of wine. But it also doesn’t mean I’m having it every night, which is what I was doing last year. Right. So we switched off of that.

[00:06:43] JJ: So yeah, tell me, tell me all about your stance on wine, etc.

[00:06:47] Melanie Avalon: Yeah, no, I love this so much. So it’s really interesting because I think it’s It’s pretty well known or understood that correlationally at least, um, wine and alcohol is correlated to health and longevity beneficially. I know there’s debates around that, but it’s pretty consistent and the longest lived populations drink alcohol and all of that.

[00:07:07] Melanie Avalon: My thing that I think is really important that I feel like nobody is talking about is all of these studies that they do on alcohol and health. They. They’re not doing dry farm wines in those studies there and they’re using really broad categories So it’ll be like alcohol or no alcohol or it’ll be like wine beer, you know but it’s not taking into account the type and Like you’re really familiar with Todd and dry farm wines and the concept of what’s actually in our wine so I think like there needs to be more literature and studies on Low alcohol, low sugar, organic wine compared to this conventional stuff.

[00:07:43] Melanie Avalon: Like you talked about, you came back and you had like wine in a box. Like who knows what all’s in that it’s high alcohol, it’s high sugar. So I think there’s so much to the type of alcohol people are drinking to start. And I know for me, if I were to drink conventional wine, um, or alcohol, it would just like wreck me.

[00:08:00] Melanie Avalon: Um, but I have like a glass of dry from wines every night. Um, when I go to restaurants, I have my whole. It’s really intense, but my whole protocol to find like the wine, like I’m pretty good. I can usually find wines that will work for me if I go through my whole checklist. Well, what’s your checklist? Yeah.

[00:08:18] Melanie Avalon: Yeah. Okay. So I love doing this. Basically when you go to rush, well, depends where you are. So I like to find, you know, nicer restaurants, steakhouses, French restaurants, Italian restaurants, they’re going to have a better selection typically. We’re not

[00:08:33] JJ: going to a sports bar and having their wine on tap.

[00:08:37] Melanie Avalon: Right. And if I’m I probably shouldn’t be saying this. Um, but if I,

[00:08:41] JJ: now I totally want you to say this, whatever this is,

[00:08:44] Melanie Avalon: if I know I’m going somewhere like a sports bar because of the event. Um, and I have to have my drink. I am very good at like taking care of myself, uh, you know, sneaking in my dry from wines if I have to, but then I will still, I will still order a wine for the restaurant.

[00:09:00] Melanie Avalon: Cause I want to support the establishment. And then I’ll just like dump it and refill it with my dry from wines. And nobody, nobody knows

[00:09:06] JJ: what we used to do at Chuck E. Cheese. Oh my gosh.

[00:09:12] JJ: That was like all the parents have brought our little things in. I love it. I love

[00:09:17] Melanie Avalon: it. I know. Um, it’s funny. One time I was actually, it’s funny cause I’m sneaking this like wine into places not to like sneak in alcohol illegally or anything. It’s just cause I want to drink what will make me feel good and what’s healthy.

[00:09:29] Melanie Avalon: So I’m, I have good intentions, but, um, it’s funny. One time I was trying to do this at a concert or something. I actually dropped, like my, I have my ways of sneaking it in. It dropped out at security. Um, it fell on the floor, like in like a juice container. And the security guy was like, what is that? And I also am like really big on honesty and not lying.

[00:09:51] Melanie Avalon: So I literally just told him, I was like, I’m so sorry. I was like, I can only drink organic wine. Like I react to wine in there. And he was like, just don’t tell anybody you can bring it in. I was like,

[00:10:00] JJ: I mean, it’s check. Yeah.

[00:10:03] Melanie Avalon: Um, but anyway,

[00:10:04] JJ: the checklist,

[00:10:05] Melanie Avalon: the checklist. So like I said, uh, finding a restaurant that is going to have like European, Italian wines and a decent wine list is a good place to start.

[00:10:14] Melanie Avalon: And then going from there. I think a lot of people think that the wine will have to say organic on the, like, on the menu. Um, that’s not the case. And that’s what I really learned ordering dry from wines is that there’s a lot of wineries, especially in Europe that practice organic practices, but they’re not going to, it’s not going to be labeled out in the bottle or in the name.

[00:10:33] Melanie Avalon: So I. I look at the wines, I center in on the European ones, preferably, preferably France or Italian, and then I just go to Google, I put in the name of the winery, and I write the word organic after in Google, and it’ll usually come up pretty quickly if that winery practices organic practices. So that’s step one.

[00:10:52] JJ: Have you used the Vivino

[00:10:54] Melanie Avalon: app? I do. I love Vivino.

[00:10:56] JJ: I

[00:10:57] Melanie Avalon: wish it had a feature for like organic. I actually want to make this app. Like I think there should be a Vivino app that is kind of like dry farm wines where it talks if it talks about if it’s organic or not.

[00:11:08] JJ: Yeah. Cause you can read about the winery. Mm hmm.

[00:11:12] JJ: But yeah, that would be fantastic is to have the, uh, it’s kind of like the seed oil app, but for wine.

[00:11:18] Melanie Avalon: I know. Maybe we should, maybe we should think about doing this.

[00:11:22] JJ: Problem solved. I know, I know.

[00:11:24] Melanie Avalon: Um, actually that would, it would do so, so well. I just, it would just take off. I need to do this. Um, Um, but so in any case, you are

[00:11:31] JJ: just sitting around doing nothing.

[00:11:32] Melanie Avalon: I know. I know. Um, so yeah. So figuring out if the winery is organic or not, and then from there, that usually narrows it down to a couple. So then I have a couple, then I go on the vino, I read the tasting notes, I see how far they have it on the dry side. And I see if people are saying that it’s a drier wine.

[00:11:49] Melanie Avalon: Um, and then from there I get really intense. I usually ask the bartender or the server. to tell me the ABV, the alcohol percentage on the wine. And I try to find one, it’s hard at restaurants, but I try to find one not quite dry from wine standards, but 13 percent or less at restaurants. And um, and then if I still have options from there, I’ll taste them and I’ll see which one tastes like the lightest and Um, but variety, like varietals wise, I find that like Cab Francs from France, Guimets, Pinot Noirs, those tend to be lower alcohol, um, and, you know, potentially better, better, better, um, wants to go for, and then Italian wines as well.

[00:12:32] Melanie Avalon: But like cabs and things like that can be a little heavy on the alcohol. So, yeah,

[00:12:37] JJ: which is what I grew up drinking.

[00:12:39] Melanie Avalon: Yeah. California, California

[00:12:41] JJ: cabs and Todd might totally save me on that. But you bring up an interesting point and you know, it’s very, it’s, it’s, It’s very difficult to pull apart the alcohol from everything else that goes along with the alcohol.

[00:12:56] JJ: And so you’re like, well, is it the alcohol or was it what you were eating? You know, or was it the other habits that you have? The one thing that I do notice, and I don’t notice it with having the glass of dry farm wines, but you get into a big, a big cabernet or something sleep’s just destroyed.

[00:13:16] Melanie Avalon: It’s

[00:13:16] JJ: just destroyed.

[00:13:17] JJ: So, and this will hit you more as you get older, sadly.

[00:13:21] Melanie Avalon: I bet. It’s

[00:13:22] JJ: the, uh, it’s the sleep piece of the things, but I will say that a glass of lower alcohol dry farm wine doesn’t seem to do it, so that’s the exciting piece.

[00:13:31] Melanie Avalon: Yeah, I also, things I add on to make it more dry farm wines esque, I, have you used the, um, those wine wands, like the pure wine?

[00:13:39] JJ: Mm hmm.

[00:13:39] Melanie Avalon: I use those. They’re supposed to remove sleep. Sulfites and histamine. Um, I recently found z biotics. I’m obsessed. I don’t know. So

[00:13:47] JJ: does that work?

[00:13:48] Melanie Avalon: I love it. Yeah. And when I asked my audience about it, everybody’s like, yeah, it works. They’re, they’re a little pricey is the problem. But, um, I had the founder on my show.

[00:13:57] Melanie Avalon: If you, I don’t know if you would like to interview him, I could introduce you. Interesting. Yeah. So how does it work? Yeah. So they made the world’s first genetically engineered probiotic. And it was a really great conversation because he thinks there’s a whole like confusion surrounding GMOs and everybody thinks there’s.

[00:14:13] Melanie Avalon: It’s automatically bad, but he talks about how genetic engineering can actually be beneficial, like in this case. So they actually genetically engineered a probiotic to, um, break down acetaldehyde in your stomach because most of it’s processed by your liver, but all of it that’s in your stomach really doesn’t get processed and creates a lot of the negative effects of alcohol.

[00:14:33] Melanie Avalon: So you probiotic. It breaks down that acetyl aldehyde. I love it.

[00:14:38] JJ: Wow. So do you notice a difference taking it?

[00:14:41] Melanie Avalon: I do. Yeah.

[00:14:42] JJ: You take that every night.

[00:14:44] Melanie Avalon: Okay. So like I said, it’s a little bit pricey. So I was just taking it when I go out, but I became so obsessed with it. Now I have like a half bottle of it every night to like make it more affordable.

[00:14:53] Melanie Avalon: But, um, yeah, it, I, I, I take eggs a lot. It’s great. I stopped.

[00:15:00] JJ: Good to know. Good to know. Interesting. Okay. So, we’ve gotten into that. When you wrote the book, What, When, Why, it was wine and intermittent fasting. Now talk to me about intermittent fasting because I think the last time I talked to you, you were doing one meal a day.

[00:15:16] JJ: Are you still doing that?

[00:15:18] Melanie Avalon: I am. Yeah, I’ve been doing it almost a decade now, which is crazy. I do one meal a day in the evening. It’s like a massive feast every night and I, I love it. Even when I travel, like when I’ve met you at conferences, I still, I still do it there.

[00:15:34] JJ: How do you manage to get in enough protein eating one meal a day?

[00:15:37] Melanie Avalon: It’s so funny. Our mutual friend, Cynthia, she calls me the unicorn because, um, I, I do think a lot of people, especially women would struggle to get enough protein in one eating window. I am a protein, just obsessive lover. So the majority of my meal is protein and I do eat for about four hours and I just eat like pounds of meat and fish.

[00:16:00] Melanie Avalon: I just love it.

[00:16:01] JJ: Like, how much, how much, I could easily, I’m, I’m a, I eat about 200 grams of protein a day. Like, I just, I love protein. I’d eat it over, and I’ve always been that way. The two things I like the most are drinking, like, loads of fluids and protein. Um, but how much are you getting in a day? Like, how much do you get in, in that meal?

[00:16:21] Melanie Avalon: It’s, it’s almost embarrassing. I mean, I probably, I mean, I have pounds. It’s probably like Maybe like a pound and a half of, I have like, I love scallops, so I’ll have like a pound and a half of like scallops and then I’ll usually have like half a pound or so of fish or meat to go with that. Um, I, I, I don’t really like count, but it’s, I don’t, it’s probably like 300 grams of protein a day.

[00:16:44] Melanie Avalon: It’s a lot. Wow.

[00:16:48] JJ: Well, that study that just came out, which kind of blew everybody’s hair off was, you know, because I remember getting a DM from someone going, I heard you could only digest 27 grams of protein. I’m like, well, couldn’t you just think that through? I think that sounds ridiculous. But, you know, then that study came out that showed that 100 grams of protein, now we don’t know the upper limit because all it did was extend muscle protein synthesis.

[00:17:12] JJ: So, you know, seems to be working fine. And are you checking your, your, you know, monitoring your skeletal muscle mass?

[00:17:20] Melanie Avalon: Yeah. So, well, first of all, um, well, to talk about that study really quickly, cause, um, we talked about it with Vanessa Spina on the intermittent fasting podcast. That was so interesting.

[00:17:30] Melanie Avalon: Basically, I think it’s up there where basically they said that. Basically, they weren’t really measuring after a certain amount of time what happened after that. So everybody was assuming that it stopped, but it’s because they didn’t keep measuring. So,

[00:17:42] JJ: I mean, it’s just like, um, the big question on the leucine threshold is from what I’ve heard, it’s not sensitive enough to understand if maybe less leucine, like we couldn’t.

[00:17:53] JJ: really test for muscle protein synthesis. So we think that it’s requires two and a half or three grams of leucine to get it started, but does it? Cause we can’t tell. So, you know, a lot of this stuff you’re like, how much do we really know? So yeah, that, that one, we don’t really know what the upper limit is.

[00:18:12] JJ: And it doesn’t really make sense that there would really be an upper limit. Maybe it just would take a whole day for you to, and that’s probably what it is with you. You’ve got. whole day of, uh, digesting and simulating this. You’re like a snake.

[00:18:26] Melanie Avalon: Exactly. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Um, I D so with the muscle mass, I don’t do, I should more frequent.

[00:18:34] Melanie Avalon: Do you do like Dexa scans and stuff frequently or?

[00:18:37] JJ: So I do decks, uh, usually every six months. Um, and then I have a like a. Um, biome pain is very similar to the in body. I have a Tanita, the, the professional one at home. Um, but I’m pretty stable. I would be doing a DEXA once a year, except my husband had a total hip replacement and then he really blew him up.

[00:19:01] JJ: And so I probably went back in cause I wanted him to be able to monitor his skeletal muscle masking. Cause it’s way better the DEXA saying it to him than me saying it to him. Right? So that way I’m not, you know, the meanie over here going, Hey, you’re losing muscle. The dexitol. Um, but I think, you know, if you’re fairly stable, once a year and then just doing your bioimpedance at home is a good thing.

[00:19:24] JJ: You’re

[00:19:24] Melanie Avalon: inspiring me. I, I need to, I, cause I don’t think I’ve got, I haven’t had a duck set in a while. So you’re how

[00:19:29] JJ: old? Um,

[00:19:30] Melanie Avalon: 34.

[00:19:32] JJ: Yes. So, I mean, this is that really important time because we start to lose muscle around age 30. So you just want to make sure that like, I think we should be packing on as much muscle as possible.

[00:19:44] Melanie Avalon: I agree so much. It’s funny whenever I interview, cause I’m haunted by this protein longevity question. So whenever I have anybody on my show, Who’s even remotely knowledgeable on this, and especially if they’re in the other camp, like, like a lot of the vegan people, like Dr. Greger, Dr.

[00:20:00] JJ: Volko

[00:20:01] Melanie Avalon: Longo, Dr. Neil Bernard.

[00:20:04] Melanie Avalon: I’m like, protein, because I like hearing the opposite, you know, the opposite opinion, which is a very opposite opinion. Um, I’m haunted by this question.

[00:20:15] JJ: But I think one of the most important things we can do is be critically open minded and hear all sides of the story. Here’s my take, and I’d love to hear your take on it, because I think, so for the listeners, there are two sides to the longevity story.

[00:20:28] JJ: There are the people that think that you need to keep mTOR low and eat low protein so that you don’t trigger mTOR, and then there’s the people that want to eat higher protein to trigger mTOR to trigger muscle protein synthesis. My take on it is very similar to insulin or cortisol or any of these other things.

[00:20:45] JJ: You want them high and you want them low. And you wouldn’t want to have mTOR high all the time. You wouldn’t want to have it low all the time. And so, that’s my confusion with them is because if you look at the most important thing with longevity is muscle mass, and if you’ve got mTOR low all the time, you’re going to become sarcopenic, and that’s not going to help you with longevity.

[00:21:10] JJ: So what are their arguments, and how does it make sense for you?

[00:21:13] Melanie Avalon: Yeah, no, well, I agree. I agree with you so much about all the things. I agree about listening to all the opinions. Um, so it’s interesting because like, when I, I had on Dr. Michael Greger recently, and um, He made the statement that the nutrient, vitamin, compound, whatever element of our diet, element in general, most correlated to longevity was low protein intake.

[00:21:38] Melanie Avalon: And I was

[00:21:38] JJ: like And based on what? What was he citing?

[00:21:41] Melanie Avalon: Well, he, he cites like a lot of stuff. He kind of like says, you know, he has like his list of all of his studies. Um, which can you cherry pick him? I, okay. So I will say, reading his book, I, okay. I will say he’s a very kind person and I think he’s doing a lot of amazing things for showing the awareness of the, the health benefits of food.

[00:22:03] Melanie Avalon: Like he does a lot of amazing work. I do. And his book is heavily referenced. I do, when I read his book, check the references, and sometimes it is a little.

[00:22:15] Melanie Avalon: Um, but, um, it’s interesting because I agree with you, I think with the, the MTOR and the IGF one, it seems like the best of both worlds would be having it low, like you said, and then high. And so that’s why I love like my one meal a day situation. Cause I’m low during the day and then high at night. And, um, I had Dr.

[00:22:34] Melanie Avalon: Balter Longo on a few times actually. And I asked him, how If what he thought about the approach I do. And he was like, well, we basically just don’t know. He was like, it could, that could be the case that you’re, you’re fasting is mitigating the negative effects. He’s like, well, we just don’t know. So like, why do it?

[00:22:51] Melanie Avalon: And I was like, well, I don’t know. To me, it seems to make sense mechanistically from the studies, from what I experienced health wise. Um, oh, this was helpful. Okay. This is helpful. I’m so I forgot about this. Um, I recently had on, um, Dr. Matthew Dawson and he runs true diagnostic and they have a epigenetic health test that looks at your epigenetic age through three different tests.

[00:23:18] Melanie Avalon: One done with Harvard, one with Duke and one with. It’s another, um, college, but, um, he told me my results were some of the best he’s ever seen for a low epigenetic age. So I was like, okay, my high protein diet is clearly not making me age faster epigenetically. This is like data. Yeah. It’s exciting.

[00:23:37] JJ: I mean, if you look at longevity, one of the biggest risk factors is grip strength, VO two max, low muscle mass.

[00:23:47] JJ: If you’re eating low protein and as we age, we have anabolic resistance. I mean, maybe you could counteract a lot of that with, um, resistance training, but you still have to have the, uh, amino acids to make the muscle. So I don’t understand, you know, it doesn’t make sense to me.

[00:24:05] Melanie Avalon: What I think a big part of it too is, is that if we’re looking at like hype and studies correlationally high protein diets, most people eating a high protein diet, if they’re eating, if they’re just like a normal person, that means they’re probably eating a high calorie diet.

[00:24:20] Melanie Avalon: Cause there’s not a lot of people eating like a. Low calorie or even no maintenance calorie high protein diet if you’re so it could be look there could be it could be like Convoluted there because a lot of the studies on high protein diets and negative health effects might just be high calorie diets

[00:24:36] JJ: And you bring up an important point that goes back to even the alcohol conversation too is nutrition is so hard to study because usually you’re looking at one thing.

[00:24:47] JJ: Oh, they eat a high protein diet, but it’s sort of like the red meat argument. Well, are they eating hot dogs or are they eating a grass fed grass finished steak? Because those are two different foods, right? And it’s like, are you having margaritas? And, and wings, or are you having a glass of really good red wine, low alcohol content, you know, and some wild salmon.

[00:25:15] JJ: So, it’s hard to pull these things apart, but, and, and it’s been my argument with the blue zones too, because they’ll go, oh, the blue zones are vegetarian or vegan. I go, no, they’re not. I’m sorry. Italy or Greece? Don’t think so. You know, I’ve been to both those places. I haven’t seen vegans there. They eat cured meats and cheese and fish.

[00:25:41] Melanie Avalon: Exactly. And they drink

[00:25:42] JJ: wine every day with lunch. Yes.

[00:25:45] Melanie Avalon: Yes. Yeah. What’s ironic about that is, and you know, that the seven or the blue zone countries that they picked are probably pretty, um, it could be a little bit cherry picked anyways, but, um, if we. If we were to look at the longest lived populations and find the commonalities, the commonalities would be that they include animal products.

[00:26:04] Melanie Avalon: It wouldn’t be that they don’t like, like Loma Linda is the only one that is vegan. Um, so making, I don’t know why people make that jump to like removing animal products. It just doesn’t make sense. And then you have places like Tokyo and Japan where it’s very high animal products and high longevity. So.

[00:26:22] JJ: Yeah, a lot of fish. Um, I heard that it was an editorial decision because it would sell more books, but that’s totally a rumor, but you know, I don’t know. It’s not that far fetched. So you’re a, you’re, you’re a youngster totally into longevity. How did that happen? And biohacking, where’d all this come from?

[00:26:45] Melanie Avalon: Um, I’ve been haunted by aging since I remember when I was first haunted by aging, probably I think when I was like 12. Um, cause I wanted to do. I was like always pursuing acting growing up and I would, I’m like very goals driven. So when, even when I was like 12, I would look at like kid actors who had made it when, by the time they were like 14, I was like, okay, I have until I’m 14 to like have made it.

[00:27:10] Melanie Avalon: Um, so I was always haunted by this idea of like time speeding up and needing, needing to have accomplished a lot by certain benchmarks. So I think that’s what made me haunted by aging originally. And then, um, the. I went to, you said you USC.

[00:27:28] JJ: Um, yeah. Well, I actually went there for doctoral school.

[00:27:32] Melanie Avalon: Okay.

[00:27:33] Melanie Avalon: Nice. Nice. So we were, yeah. Um, but I studied film and theater there and, um, I had some health issues when I graduated from college and kind of just like stumbled into the whole biohacking world. I found Dave Asprey stuff. Um, not surprisingly, and I was kind of doing like all the biohacking stuff before, I mean, I guess Dave was calling it biohacking back then, but it wasn’t really like a thing as much.

[00:27:57] Melanie Avalon: Um, and then by the time I launched my podcast and had become an influencer and had a book, I kind of realized I was like, Oh, what I’m doing is, is biohacking. And I would find things that would so like, whenever I find something that so makes my life better, I just want everybody to know about it so they can experience it.

[00:28:14] Melanie Avalon: So that’s why I love like the biohacking influencer type world. Cause I get to. Try all this stuff and then just like tell the people and I want people to find what works for them.

[00:28:23] JJ: What have been some of the biggest discoveries that you’ve found that have made the biggest difference?

[00:28:32] Melanie Avalon: Probably, so you touched on it, um, sleep.

[00:28:35] Melanie Avalon: Like just supporting sleep the best you can is so important. Um, so like the blue light blocking glasses, those are one of the things I was doing, you know, way before those were popular, um, blue light blocking glasses, blackout curtains, cooling mattress, monitoring with my aura ring. Like anything I can do to support sleep is so important to me.

[00:28:56] Melanie Avalon: Um, and then. Red light therapy, cryotherapy. Do you do like cold therapy and cryotherapy?

[00:29:03] JJ: So we have, um, we turned, we have a big gym in our house and then a, a recovery room. Mm-hmm . And in the recovery room we have a big sunlight and sauna. Mm-hmm . Then we have a small relaxed heat up, fast heat sauna. Then we have an hbo, we have juve red lights and we have a cold pl.

[00:29:24] Melanie Avalon: Love it. Yeah. Now.

[00:29:26] JJ: The one that I just need to be more consistent on, but I just can’t tell if it’s doing anything, so I’d love to hear from you. Because sauna, I’m all over the sauna. I love the sauna. Plus, I’m always cold. So, I love the sauna. Um, I do not love the cold plunge, but I do it. So, that’s that. And I do a contrast.

[00:29:48] JJ: And then, usually what I like to do is sauna, cold plunge, and then red lights. The red lights are the thing that get blown off. Mainly because I really want a red light bed that I can get in. I would use it way more often. I couldn’t convince my husband that this was a really smart idea and we should spend a hundred grand on this.

[00:30:06] JJ: And I found him, I’m like, it’s on sale for 60, 000. He’s like, absolutely. You know, but, um, talk to me about the red lights and what you notice from them, because that’s the biggest challenge. I’m like, is this. doing anything. I can’t tell.

[00:30:21] Melanie Avalon: Yeah. So, okay. I love that you have that whole setup. That’s amazing. And I love sunlight and I literally can’t, I can’t imagine my life not doing a sauna session every night.

[00:30:30] Melanie Avalon: It’s like mind blowing to me that there was a time before this. Cause it, you, it just gets all this stuff out and it like helps your sleep and yeah. So moment for sunlight and, um, the red light. I also loved you. I, I love it. So I’ve been using it. It’s funny. I first started using red light, experimenting with it.

[00:30:50] Melanie Avalon: Again, before like Probably like a decade ago because I heard it was good for your thyroid and I heard it was good for your hair And I was literally like ordering red light bulbs on Amazon and trying to make my own devices and it was yeah It was a whole self project Wow Yeah, I don’t know if that stuff was if that was a good idea or not But then I found you and I love them and I actually have it on my desk right here So it’s funny.

[00:31:12] Melanie Avalon: My favorite benefit is not The main benefit people use it for. I love using the red light to regulate my circadian rhythm and to counteract blue light and to create, like, I, I basically run it. All day, like as ambient lighting and it makes me feel good, like into, yeah. Um, so you have

[00:31:32] JJ: it on, I mean, obviously you don’t have it on right now because you’d look red, but the rest of the day you just have it on in front of you.

[00:31:39] Melanie Avalon: Yeah. So I have it on and I find that during the day, like when there’s so much bright light anyways, it, it just kind of adds, it adds a nice like vibe. It makes me feel good. At night, I light my apartment with juve, so I just, everything’s like red, it’s like the red light zone.

[00:31:59] JJ: Wow, it’s like a, it’s, I was thinking of Amsterdam and the red light district.

[00:32:04] JJ: It’s

[00:32:04] Melanie Avalon: funny, so it’s funny because I’m in an apartment. Lock your

[00:32:06] JJ: door, people will be knocking on it.

[00:32:08] Melanie Avalon: It’s really funny because I’m in an apartment, and I’ve been here for like years, and I probably, it probably wasn’t until a few years of living here that I went. Outside when my lights were on and I saw what my apartment looked like, I was like, whoa,

[00:32:20] JJ: red light

[00:32:22] Melanie Avalon: People almost be like, what is the

[00:32:24] JJ: girl doing?

[00:32:24] Melanie Avalon: What is happening? ? Um, so yeah, but oh well. Wow. So as far, what

[00:32:30] JJ: do you notice from it? Is it more circadian rhythm type of. Is that yeah,

[00:32:36] Melanie Avalon: so like I said, that’s kind of a unique butterfly thing for me because most people don’t go to it for that. I do just how I feel and like energy wise and circadian rhythm.

[00:32:45] Melanie Avalon: I really, really feel it using it that way. Um, the other benefits. I do like, I do do like skin treatments and, um, I definitely noticed an effect with that. And the, the studies on it are, I keep, I keep pointing like, like you can see it studies on it are, um, you know, pretty supportive for how it really helps our mitochondria in ourselves.

[00:33:05] Melanie Avalon: And when our mitochondria are functioning better, everything’s, you know, functioning better. Um, I will say, I love also the brand Kineon. They have a targeted red light led laser device, and it makes. They’re like small little module modules, um, that you can hold and you can put like targeted treatment.

[00:33:22] Melanie Avalon: That’s amazing. Like if I ever have, um, like dental work and dental pain, or if I just have like any weird pains or I don’t normally get headaches, but any sort of like tension, if I put it on that, it just, it goes away. It’s, it’s profound. Oh, and TMJ pain. I get like jaw pain ever since I had my wisdom teeth out, the red light is amazing for that.

[00:33:43] Melanie Avalon: So.

[00:33:45] JJ: All right. Good to know. I need to get back, back at it. The sauna is just so gratifying. I know,

[00:33:51] Melanie Avalon: I know.

[00:33:52] JJ: Now, you had black mold exposure at some point along the line. Was that, what, what happened and how did you figure it out?

[00:34:00] Melanie Avalon: Yeah, so that’s, cause basically I graduated college. I moved into an apartment and I just started feeling not well.

[00:34:07] Melanie Avalon: Like, but I was so high on adrenaline that I, I was really combating all of it. I was like, basically like I could keep on keeping on, but I just felt inside like something was very wrong. Um, and as far as combating it and finding it out, I didn’t realize that the mold was there until I moved out, which was two years later.

[00:34:25] Melanie Avalon: And I moved my, I was looking behind my bed and there was just black mold everywhere. And I was like, Oh, that’s great. And then, um, also right before he moved out, I realized that my. Uh, oven have been leaking carbon monoxide every time I was using it. So that was fun. Um, but that’s when I, I moved, actually moved for the first time to Atlanta for a little bit, and that’s when I really got into just trying to aggressively find things to help myself feel better.

[00:34:50] Melanie Avalon: And I didn’t ever do like a specific mold protocol, but I just did a ton of detoxing and, you know, overall holistic health things that I think really, really helped. I think doing the sauna helps a lot.

[00:35:05] JJ: The sauna, I mean if you think about it We’re bombarded by stuff. Like, you know, I was just out in L. A.

[00:35:13] JJ: to speak at this event, Luminescence, and, and it, the fires had just happened, and it, it was just, and I think, God, these poor people that are living here, it’s just, it, just a couple days, and Both Tim and I are like, you know, and I mean, but you’re, you’re always being bombarded by stuff and we’re in hotels all the time.

[00:35:31] JJ: Like we were in a hotel last weekend for a medical conference. I’m walking down the hallway and I go, this place smells so bad, you know, there’s no way that we’re not just breathing in and they use chemicals to cover it, you know, so. I, you know, we all need to be saunaing and those little home units, Tim, we travel with a lot of stuff.

[00:35:52] JJ: And he’s like, we should start to travel with our sauna. I go, at some point we got to like, this is ridiculous. Like how many suitcases can we carry? But this little home unit is like a thousand dollars. And that personal unit one. Yeah. They’re amazing. They have fast heat. I mean, they, they’re 180 degrees in under a minute.

[00:36:11] Melanie Avalon: I, the solo unit. I. It’s what I use every night. And what I love that your head is not in it because you, then you say cooler. And I have, I like have, I have mine set up. So I have like an arm that holds my iPhone above my head. So then I just like do work in the sauna. It’s. It’s my favorite thing every night.

[00:36:28] Melanie Avalon: I

[00:36:28] JJ: love it. My husband wears, so we have the fast heat and the other one. I get up and get in the other one. He gets in the fast heat. I don’t want to go in the fast heat after him because he sweats too much. Because he puts a thing around his neck and he puts a thing on his head. And I’m like, honey, I got blowouts.

[00:36:44] JJ: It’s not happening here. Well,

[00:36:45] Melanie Avalon: I know, I know, right? I

[00:36:46] JJ: know. But I’m in the other one with my computer, which is probably not the smartest thing, but you know. It is what it is. So let’s talk EMFs

[00:36:54] Melanie Avalon: because you just

[00:36:55] JJ: mentioned you’re making an EMF blocking headset, which is amazing because that’s one I haven’t figured out how to solve, but let’s talk first about EMFs and the issues with them.

[00:37:06] Melanie Avalon: Yeah, no, I obviously love this topic. Um, so So EMFs, they are classified by the IARC as a group 2b carcinogen, and the studies on them are just not good. Basically they affect the calcium channels of our cells. They’ve been linked to headaches and migraines. There’s studies on them, especially for fertility, like with men, um, carrying their cell phones and the nether regions and affecting sperm quality.

[00:37:32] Melanie Avalon: And um, we’re just bombarded by them today in a, in a way we weren’t, you know, in the past. Um, from our research. Our phones, our computers, our people wear the, you know, the AirPods and they’re in their ears. I shudder every time I like think about that. And, um, the thing I find most convincing for me and other people is if you actually, if you have an iPhone and you go into the, there’s a legal section in the phone.

[00:37:58] Melanie Avalon: So you go to like legal and then there’s like an RF exposure button. This is in your iPhone and you click on RF exposure. It talks about the RF exposure, the EMS from your phone, and it says they’ve been tested for safety, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then it literally says it re it recommends that you use it on speaker phone, so like to, to reduce exposure.

[00:38:19] Melanie Avalon: So if, if iPhone is putting in their phone, that to reduce RF exposure, you should use speaker phone. I just feel like, I don’t know. I feel like that’s pretty telling. Like they didn’t have to put that in there. And they did. Um, how did you find that out? Um, so my, my partner that I’m, so I’m launching an EMF blocking product line and his name is our blank and he has a company called shield your body.

[00:38:41] Melanie Avalon: And, um, is he, I’m pretty sure he’s the one who told me he’s, he’s brilliant. And what I love about him is he’s very much about just the science of the problems with EMF. He’s not, I’m not saying the other things don’t work like this. Stones and like the different, you know, energy devices. Um, but he’s very much just about like the science and literally just blocking these waves.

[00:39:01] Melanie Avalon: Cause you can block them the way they work. They don’t like go through if you have things that block. So, um, he’s the one who told me and it’s, yeah, when people hear that, they’re like, oh, okay. Cause I think a lot of people think it sounds really woo woo that it’s a problem, but, um, yeah, so I find, I find that convincing and, um, by the time this.

[00:39:23] Melanie Avalon: Show comes out, I should have launched the line. Fingers. Fingers crossed. Very

[00:39:28] JJ: exciting. So what all will you have?

[00:39:30] Melanie Avalon: So we’re just launching with, well there’s a lot that, there’s a lot I wanna make, but we’re launching with EMF free air tubes, so it’s what I’m wearing right now. Um, so basically, well for starters, people can really ra um, drastically affect their EMF exposure with their iPhone by.

[00:39:52] Melanie Avalon: Um, and then never, never putting the phone to their head. Um, I have such muscle memory about that. Like if I ever have to put the phone to my head, I, my body like. It’s hard for me to do it because I’m so used to not doing it. But, um, and then using wired ones is way better. Wired headphones. Um, but even wired ones, they’re, they’re digital, so they can transmit the EMS from the phone to your head still.

[00:40:16] Melanie Avalon: So what we’re making is, um, they’re digital from the phone up until, like, uh, Um, if people can see the video or not, um, it’s like, uh, there’s a little bead that’s like a, I don’t know, six or seven inches below your mouth. And after that point it switches to all analog. So there’s no, it’s no digital. It’s just transmitting the sound via air like in the old, old school days.

[00:40:39] Melanie Avalon: And it sounds good still. Um, so we’re launching these in black and rose gold because I have found that there’s the EMF blocking world is a little bit masculine. So I’m.

[00:40:50] JJ: Most of this stuff is much more masculine. Do what? Most of this stuff is much more masculine. I know when Dave first came out with his glasses, I’m like, okay, and those are ugly.

[00:40:59] Melanie Avalon: Yeah, I know. Like, what do we

[00:41:02] JJ: do?

[00:41:04] Melanie Avalon: So, we need to girlify some things a little bit.

[00:41:07] JJ: Yes, yes, nice. Okay, so you also have, um, you have, how many podcasts do you do? Three. Three. Wow. And that one’s intermittent fasting, right? So the intermittent

[00:41:24] Melanie Avalon: fasting podcast, the Melanie Avalon biohacking podcast, that’s where I interview guests and that’s the one you’re coming on, um, I think in a few, in a month or so.

[00:41:33] Melanie Avalon: So that’s exciting. And, um, and I recently ish launched the mind blown podcast just for fun. It’s a non health related, we just talk about mind blowing topics. So like what, like the first two episodes was about the Mandela effect. I don’t know if you’re familiar with it’s like my favorite thing. It’s, um, all of these memories people have, it’s a lot of like logos and things.

[00:41:59] Melanie Avalon: I can ask you some of them. People swear on their deathbed that things used to be a different way, but now it’s different. So for example, um, okay, let me think of a good one. Like Chick fil A or did you have Chick fil A growing up? We were in California, so. I was in

[00:42:16] JJ: California, we did not have Chick fil A.

[00:42:18] JJ: Okay, so

[00:42:18] Melanie Avalon: you probably don’t remember how, like how it’s spelled.

[00:42:21] JJ: Um. Well, no, I know how it’s spelled. How is it spelled? C H I K dash A dash F I L A.

[00:42:30] Melanie Avalon: Okay, so that’s what everybody says, or they’ll say C H I C. They think it’s like not spelled out, that it’s like C H I K or C H I C. I swear it was C H I C in the past.

[00:42:42] Melanie Avalon: Regardless, now, now it’s C H I C K. It’s like all, it’s all there. Huh. Or, um, yeah, um, well, that’s the debate. Uh, well, yes.

[00:42:54] JJ: I remember the ad of eat more chicken and it was C H I K E N or something like that. Yeah.

[00:42:59] Melanie Avalon: Yeah. Right. So if you, but if you like look up right now, like in our world, um, it’s, it was never a different way according to right now.

[00:43:10] Melanie Avalon: Um, like here, another one would be like, do you know, Berenstain Bears? Yeah. Do you know how, how that was spelled or how that’s spelled?

[00:43:19] JJ: No.

[00:43:19] Melanie Avalon: Okay. So I got to find one that lands with you. So people remember that being spelled like Berenstain, like E I N, but now it’s. Okay. So,

[00:43:25] JJ: but what’s the point?

[00:43:26] Melanie Avalon: Same. Um, basically there’s all these things that people think something happened, um, with reality where something switched and we have these memories that are different.

[00:43:41] Melanie Avalon: Like, um, do you know the Pikachu, um, guy, do you know what, like his tail looks like? Like what color? He’s all yellow. Yellow? Okay, he has like, people remember him having like a black tail, but now it’s like all yellow. Um, Captain Crunch, people remember it being Captain Crunch, now it’s Cap’n Crunch cereal.

[00:44:01] Melanie Avalon: There’s a lot. And the reason it’s called the Mandela Effect is people remember Mandela, Nelson Mandela dying in prison in the 1980s, but he didn’t. So,

[00:44:12] JJ: yeah, it’s crazy. So, is the Mandela Effect that people create their own reality? What’s the actual thing?

[00:44:22] Melanie Avalon: Yeah, so what they’ll say it is now is that It’s a false memory.

[00:44:28] Melanie Avalon: It’s just a false memory. It’s a, it’s like a collective false memory that society has. Um, but I interviewed Rizwan Burke. He wrote the simulation hypothesis. He’s one of the main people behind that, that whole world. And he has a book on the Mandela effect as well. And, um, so a lot of people think it has to do with like, like, uh, quantum physics, a change in the timeline, parallel universes.

[00:44:52] Melanie Avalon: My theory is that it involves, um, when CERN did, It’s like a government, uh, international organization that did experiments with particle physics. They did experiments in 2009 where they, and they said that these experiments could create like gaps in the, the quantum realm and they don’t know what would happen from that.

[00:45:09] Melanie Avalon: And when they did that in 2009, people started noticing these effects. So I don’t know. It’s really interesting.

[00:45:14] JJ: All right.

[00:45:15] Melanie Avalon: And

[00:45:15] JJ: when I first read about that you were doing this, I’m like, is this like. UFOs?

[00:45:20] Melanie Avalon: Yeah, it’s all different topics though. So like the podcast. So we also do like, uh, like the one we did last week, we did the Donner party two nights, two weeks ago.

[00:45:28] Melanie Avalon: Last week we did like the most expensive foods in the world. That was mind blowing.

[00:45:32] JJ: Wow.

[00:45:33] Melanie Avalon: Yeah. So just fun stuff,

[00:45:34] JJ: foods,

[00:45:35] Melanie Avalon: do what? Caviar and alcohol. Um, actually none of them were alcohol on the list, but maybe it’s cause we were looking at foods. Um, the, okay. Some of them were mind blowing. There’s like a, like a 25, 000 taco.

[00:45:48] Melanie Avalon: At some restaurant.

[00:45:49] JJ: Um, What about that? I know that when I was in Istanbul, that nurse at restaurant that has the 24 carat gold cheeseburger.

[00:45:58] Melanie Avalon: I think we might’ve done that one. Yeah. A lot of the stuff was like had gold on it. There’s one of the most expensive coffee bean is ridiculous. Do you know about it?

[00:46:08] JJ: Oh, is it the one in, uh, I’ve had it. We actually have it here at the house. It is. Um, so when we were in Bali, I was like, insisted on going to this place. It’s where the, the little animals. So if you’re gonna be crazy about coffee beans, poop out the coffee beans. Yes. And you don’t touch them because they can eat your hands.

[00:46:27] JJ: Oh my gosh. They’re little animals. They look really cute. They’re like, they look like a lemur. Um, but yes, no, we were going to do something else. We were on a tour with Mary Morrissey, and I was like, I really want to go to the coffee beans. Pooping coffee being placed because I was like this is the great great presence to bring home But people did not appreciate it the way I guess you had to experience it to think it was so super cool And truthfully the coffee doesn’t taste any different.

[00:46:53] Melanie Avalon: Does it not? Yeah, because they basically it’s these cat like animal lemur animal things Um, they eat the coffee bean and then it ferments and their digestive tract, they poop it out, then they take it, they clean it, and then they make coffee from it.

[00:47:07] JJ: Yep. And it’s, I’ve got some at home. It’s super expensive and

[00:47:13] Melanie Avalon: meh.

[00:47:13] Melanie Avalon: Yeah.

[00:47:14] JJ: Wow. It’s like, yeah. Not that not that exciting, but you know, it was kind of one of those things. I’m going I’m here. I want to taste the poopy coffee.

[00:47:23] Melanie Avalon: Oh, my gosh. Yeah, that’s amazing. You’re

[00:47:26] JJ: always such a glam like you’re always glam. What’s and since you’re very into biohacking and health, like are there some beauty things that you have as secrets or special products or things that because that’s also a source of like Major toxins, obviously.

[00:47:43] Melanie Avalon: Yeah, no, I am so passionate about this as well. The, the role of endocrine disruptors and our skincare makeup is just so shocking that there’s a shocking lack of regulation and what they can put into our products. And, um, I actually have a theory that cause women, women tend to live longer than men. Um, we know they have like longer longevity in general.

[00:48:06] Melanie Avalon: So in theory. I think that would indicate that we’re aging slower. So I think women should, in theory, look younger than men for longer. Yet, the opposite is true. Men look, tend to look younger, longer, and

[00:48:20] JJ: Well, and also, Older looking men are considered to be sexier than older looking women. Um,

[00:48:34] Melanie Avalon: but in any case, I wonder if part of the reason women might age faster seemingly with their skin is because of all this, the stuff we’re putting on our face all the time.

[00:48:43] Melanie Avalon: Um, because there’s basically no regulation and there, there’s things like, like. Products will often say that they have fragrance in them, and that’s basically a legal loophole from the 1960s that allows companies to put whatever they want in products. Yeah, so if it says fragrance, that can contain anything, and they can’t check what’s in it.

[00:49:03] Melanie Avalon: So if they want to sneak something in, they can just Put it in the fragrance.

[00:49:08] JJ: Wow. Well, so what brands do you use?

[00:49:11] Melanie Avalon: I love, well, it’s right now, right now it’s not up, but beauty counter. I love, I love crunchy. I love purity woods. Um, I love one skin. Probably those four brands are the ones I go to. Um, it’s just so important to know what you’re, you want to find brands that are formulated for, for safety, for your skin, first and foremost.

[00:49:35] JJ: Yeah. It’s hard to find ones that are. Natural, organic, and actually do things.

[00:49:44] Melanie Avalon: Yeah, and, and also to that point, so, natural, um,

[00:49:50] JJ: Like that can be Another word that means nothing. Yeah, yeah, it can

[00:49:53] Melanie Avalon: be like a greenwashing word. And then, you know, some, some synthetic ingredients are actually completely safe. So for me, it’s more Like, for me, it’s more about, like, safety and is it tested for toxicity and its effect on our skin?

[00:50:04] Melanie Avalon: So, like, finding a company that has that mission. So, like, out of the companies I just mentioned, um, I think Purity Woods is the only one that’s certified organic. Um, but I feel so good about the other companies because of their testing for safety and pesticides and toxins and endocrine disruptors.

[00:50:19] JJ: Well, the oneskin gals, I met them at, uh, eudaimonia.

[00:50:23] Melanie Avalon: Oh, that was so fun. I loved that conference.

[00:50:25] JJ: That was such a great event.

[00:50:27] Melanie Avalon: I am

[00:50:27] JJ: super excited it’s happening again. It is

[00:50:29] Melanie Avalon: coming back?

[00:50:30] JJ: It is. Next year, November, I think it’s 14th through the 16th. I had so much fun. That was fabulous. I mean, what an amazing event. Um, I am actually working on a product right now because I got so obsessed with creatine and found out that it also is good for your skin.

[00:50:47] JJ: So I’m working on something right now. I’m dabbling in that world again. I always like to hear what everybody else, what about like makeup specifically? Is that beauty counter someone that you use?

[00:50:59] Melanie Avalon: Yeah, all of those brands I just mentioned, I do, like a combination. I know One

[00:51:03] JJ: Skin doesn’t have makeup, I don’t think Pearly Woods does either.

[00:51:06] Melanie Avalon: They don’t, no, just Beauty Counter and Crunchy.

[00:51:09] JJ: Okay, Crunchy I’ve never heard of.

[00:51:11] Melanie Avalon: Oh, I, okay, so Beauty Counter went away, they’re coming back, but it’s been a whole thing. What happened

[00:51:19] JJ: to them?

[00:51:20] Melanie Avalon: Um, so basically they, the founder, Greg, Greg Renfrew, who’s amazing. She had the company and then it got bought out by a, another company that kind of got it into debt because they just made a lot of.

[00:51:37] Melanie Avalon: Um, so then Greg actually came back and had to rebuy the company. She like rebought the company. Like she bought basically the name and the assets and now she’s relaunching it. Um, which was really sad because I was obsessed. I mean, it’s happy. I’m happy it’s going back, but it was sad. It went away. Cause those products are just amazing.

[00:51:56] Melanie Avalon: Um, so that’s when I found crunchy. Cause I wanted to find a company that was very similar to beauty counter that had like. All of very similar products and a big catalog and high standards. And honestly, their standards are maybe a little bit better than beauty counter. They’re amazing.

[00:52:11] JJ: All right. I’ve never heard of that.

[00:52:13] Melanie Avalon: Yeah. I love them. They’re, they’re great.

[00:52:15] JJ: Very exciting. They’re my scares. A game changer. Just have your finger on the pulse. You’re fantastic. And you’ve, you’ve got a supplement line to tell us about that.

[00:52:25] Melanie Avalon: Yes. So it’s called Avalon X and I don’t think I mentioned, so the EMF blocking product line is also going to be Avalon X.

[00:52:31] Melanie Avalon: So. That one will be at avalonxemf. us is the website. Um, but my AvalonX supplement line I created because I am I’m a sensitive butterfly and I am neurotic about what I put in my body and I couldn’t find, especially for some of my favorite products, I couldn’t find versions that I felt good about. So I was like, I’m just going to make my own version.

[00:52:52] Melanie Avalon: Um, so we started with serrapeptase. Have you, have you used serrapeptase by chance?

[00:52:58] JJ: But tell everybody about serrapeptide, especially now with all the residual clotting situations.

[00:53:06] Melanie Avalon: Yes. Yes. So. It’s a proteolytic enzyme making, meaning it breaks down proteins. Originally, it’s found in the Japanese silkworm, but we, it’s, we make it now in a lab.

[00:53:17] Melanie Avalon: So it’s, it’s vegan. Um, but it’s purpose, I love this is to break down the. Silkworms cocoon without actually injuring the silkworm. So what that means is it selectively breaks down dead tissue rather than living tissue. So when we take it in the fastest state, it goes into our bloodstream and then it goes all throughout our body and it breaks down.

[00:53:40] Melanie Avalon: All of these problematic, you know, dead dysfunctional proteins and so many issues with health in general are from this buildup of, you know, dysfunctional proteins and our body reacting to them. So if it’ll help so many things, I take it. I took it originally for allergies. It’ll clear your sinuses. It’s clear your brain fog, um, it’s been shown in studies to break down amyloid plaque to reduce cholesterol, um, support wound healing, reduce inflammation, and then like blood clotting and stuff.

[00:54:10] Melanie Avalon: It would really help for, for that. Um, it’s, it’s amazing. I’m obsessed with it. And I, I couldn’t find a version that didn’t have problematic ingredients in it. So I just made my own

[00:54:21] JJ: nice. That’s usually why we have to do things doesn’t exist. The entrepreneur solves the problem

[00:54:28] Melanie Avalon: always.

[00:54:29] JJ: Yeah, that one, uh, I know anytime like surgeries and stuff, but especially when all the vaccine stuff was coming out, it was like a great, great one to have alongside it.

[00:54:41] JJ: Yeah.

[00:54:42] Melanie Avalon: Yeah. They actually, yeah, they were doing studies on it, especially during COVID and stuff. And on that and not, not okay, not to, not to kind of kind of nice as well. Um, so. I absolutely love it.

[00:54:54] JJ: It’s

[00:54:54] Melanie Avalon: amazing.

[00:54:55] JJ: Yeah, I will put, um, because I know you have a whole line, so in the show notes, I know you’re giving us a code for people to get a discount to.

[00:55:02] JJ: The code will be JJ, easy peasy. Um, and we’ll put all of this in the show notes along with the EMF. I want, as soon as those are available, like I, Definitely wanna know.

[00:55:12] Melanie Avalon: Oh, I’m sending you some. Yes, definitely

[00:55:13] JJ: need some. I’ll send you some ine. Oh, perfect. We do a trade. I know the address.

[00:55:17] Melanie Avalon: We shoulda like a goodies Christmas party and like , we should Oh man.

[00:55:21] Melanie Avalon: Like a biohacking white elephant thing. .

[00:55:25] JJ: Um, I love white elephant parties. That’s one of my, like, I love throwing events and parties. Mm-hmm . But when we do our mastermind retreats, everybody who does, um, we have these things called mic drops where people share what’s working best. And everyone gets to pick, as their prize, white elephants, and we have this whole exchange that gets very, very fun as people steal everybody else’s stuff, so.

[00:55:49] JJ: I love it. I’m a big, love the white elephant. The problem with that one is no one would want to, all the white elephant gifts would be amazing.

[00:55:56] Melanie Avalon: Oh, I know. I’m having flashbacks. I’m like you, I love, I was always like the party thrower and everything. And I would always do a white elephant party. And one time my friend brought a fish, like a live

[00:56:05] JJ: fish.

[00:56:09] JJ: The last white elephant we did, someone brought a, this is, this is one that just sticks in my head. Cause I was like, what the heck? It was a candle warmer so that you could get the aroma of a candle without having to light it. I go, help me understand why you would ever need to have this thing. And someone goes, oh, for my cat, because we can’t put candles on because the cat will might get in.

[00:56:34] JJ: I was like, okay.

[00:56:35] Melanie Avalon: That’s really funny. That’s interesting.

[00:56:36] JJ: I was like, really? And like, talk about the gift you would never need. I know. I know. Oh my gosh. So specific. Cannot make it up. All right. Well, I will make sure that we put all of the stuff, the show notes are going to be at. Thank you. Wait for it. I’m looking for where I’m supposed to put this.

[00:56:57] JJ: Uh, jjvirgin. com forward slash Avalon, easy enough. And we’ll put links to all your podcasts. Our last podcast episode, the episode with Todd, where we talk all about dry farm wines. Everybody gets that piece and the links to your two different companies and the codes so that everyone can get themselves some goodies.

[00:57:17] JJ: And what a wealth of knowledge.

[00:57:19] Melanie Avalon: Oh, JJ. As are you. I, I love that like everything, I don’t know, I just, I could talk to you for about so many things for so long. We should actually seriously consider making that, that wine app like the, the,

[00:57:30] JJ: no kidding. I’m not, I’m not kidding. I’m kind of amazed because the, you know, they have the seed oils app and I’m like, why?

[00:57:40] JJ: I think people don’t realize yet again, just like you said, and it’s important to distinguish that they look at. At, you know, lumping everything into the same category. It’s always my frustration with meat and, you know, it’s the same with alcohol. It’s like, I’m sorry. There is a big difference between like, you know, someone drinking a pina colada or someone drinking a box wine or someone drinking a low sugar, you know, organic.

[00:58:07] JJ: Glass of wine. There’s a big difference. You cannot lump them all together.

[00:58:12] Melanie Avalon: It is. It’s so different. And, um, I’m knee deep right now. I’m developing a dating app that will take into account people’s dietary choices and also like drink choices and stuff. So Point being is people stay tuned for that. And I’m like deep in the app.

[00:58:27] Melanie Avalon: So if you want to make a wine I’m like

[00:58:30] JJ: one, you know, it’s so funny I still think about back in my days because I met my husband on match

[00:58:36] Melanie Avalon: But it was

[00:58:36] JJ: always so funny because they would ask you, you know The guys would rate and I have a theory on dating apps that that a guy would rate himself athletic and toned and And I’m like, if you’re athletic in tone, I’m freaking Miss Olympia, you know, you’re not athletic in tone, dude.

[00:58:55] JJ: But I think that then, and then there was one app I was on, it was Millionaire Match, where they could say they’re hot, they’re good looking. You know, they’re hot, they’re very good looking, they’re good looking. No guy ever said he was like average. They’re all hot or very good looking. And I think most women would go, Oh, yeah, I’m, I’m, you know, I’m good looking or I’m average.

[00:59:15] JJ: Women will downplay themselves and men will be like, yeah, I’m, you know, athletic, hot. Well, we’ll see. I might be talking completely out of turn, but it’d be interesting to see.

[00:59:29] Melanie Avalon: That’s true. I hadn’t thought about that before.

[00:59:31] JJ: Yeah, but I, I had many dates with men that claimed they were athletic and toned.

[00:59:37] Melanie Avalon: That, and I think people will fudge on the height thing as well.

[00:59:41] JJ: Yes, the uh, fudge on the height, and it was always amazing, like you’re fudging on these things, you don’t think that we’d notice?

[00:59:49] Melanie Avalon: Yeah, it’s not in your favor to do that.

[00:59:52] JJ: I’m pretty tall, I’m pretty sure I can tell if you’re Fudging on your height and you walk in and you’re really 5’9 I’m pretty sure I know.

[01:00:01] JJ: You know, I literally put in my dating app, I put I am six feet tall and I like to wear high shoes and no, I don’t want to go out on a date with you if you’re 5’5 We can be pals, but I’m not like, no, I don’t want to. I want to wear high shoes and I don’t. I want to look up to you.

[01:00:19] Melanie Avalon: How tall is your husband?

[01:00:21] JJ: He is six, two and a half. Nice. Now he said he was six three. I’m like, you’re not six three. No. But I think at one point maybe he was and he is sticking with it. Yeah. Yeah. Like, okay, honey. Right. He’s a, he’s definitely a keeper. I’m a big fan of dating apps.

[01:00:41] Melanie Avalon: Well, I will have to talk more about it when we, when we’re watching it.

[01:00:45] Melanie Avalon: A

[01:00:45] JJ: whole nother subject that’s completely, but it is related to health because relationships are a very important part of health.

[01:00:50] Melanie Avalon: Yeah. And like I said, there’s no dating app right now that lets people filter by their dietary, like all the dietary choices. Here’s

[01:00:57] JJ: the thing. It’s not just dietary habits.

[01:00:59] JJ: Cause think like. Tim and I eat the same, like, thank God, um, but also sleeping habits, exercise habits, like all that stuff. You know, if you were with someone, it would be really hard for me if I, I wouldn’t be with someone who didn’t have the same healthy lifestyle stuff. It would be weird.

[01:01:19] Melanie Avalon: It’s so true.

[01:01:20] Melanie Avalon: Even circadian rhythm. Cause like I’m a night person. I don’t think I would do well with.

[01:01:24] JJ: Oh, I’m a morning person. Oh,

[01:01:26] Melanie Avalon: see, we could not date.

[01:01:28] JJ: We can’t date, I’m sorry honey. But I’m taking. I know. And I think that you bat for the, the, the other team too, so. Um, yeah, but all that stuff does matter. Yeah.

[01:01:41] Melanie Avalon: Yeah.

[01:01:41] JJ: Right? We both wake up around the same time each morning and so do our doggies.

[01:01:45] Melanie Avalon: That’s so funny. Yeah. I gotta have my, my night owl, man.

[01:01:50] JJ: Yeah. Well, put that in there. I mean, these, these are the things that are super important for compatibility. Mm

[01:01:55] Melanie Avalon: hmm.

[01:01:56] JJ: There you go. All right. And then let me know when you’re ready for the wine app.

[01:01:59] Melanie Avalon: I know. No, I’m serious. Like, I’m Yesterday.

[01:02:04] JJ: All right. And if you’re listening, you just let us know if you want the wine app. Yeah. We’ll get on it. All right. Well, thank you so much, Melanie. I look forward to coming back and connecting with you on your show, too.

[01:02:16] Melanie Avalon: And

[01:02:16] JJ: I’ll put everything in the show notes at JJVirgin.

[01:02:19] JJ: com forward slash Avalon.

[01:02:21] Melanie Avalon: Awesome. Thank you, JJ. This is awesome.

[01:02:27] JJ: Be sure to join me next time for more tools, tips, and techniques you can incorporate into everyday life to ensure you look and feel great and are built to last. Check me out on Instagram, Facebook, and my website, JJVirgin. com, and make sure to follow my podcast at SubscribeToJJ. com so you don’t miss a single one.

[01:02:49] JJ: single episode. And hey, if you’re loving what you hear, don’t forget to leave a review. Your reviews make a big difference in helping me reach more incredible women, just like you to spread the word about aging powerfully after 40. Thanks for tuning in and I’ll catch you on the next episode.

[01:03:16] JJ: Hey, JJ here, and just a reminder that the Well Beyond 40 podcast offers health, wellness, fitness, and nutritional information that’s designed for educational and entertainment purposes only. You should not rely on this information as a substitute for, nor does it replace professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

[01:03:33] JJ: If you have any concerns or questions about your health, you should always consult with a physician or other healthcare professional. Make sure that you do not disregard, avoid, or delay obtaining medical or health related advice from your healthcare professional because of something you may have heard on the show or read in our show notes.

[01:03:49] JJ: The use of any information provided on the show is solely at your own risk.

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