#144 - What If Prevention Is The Real Medicine?

Seed oils banned from an NFL team’s meals, ticks showing up in bigger numbers, Ebola headlines raising anxiety, and a surprising “breakfast as prevention” angle on Alzheimer’s risk. We take four stories that can easily spark fear or confusion and turn them into clear, practical takeaways you can actually use.

We start with sports nutrition and why a pro football organization would remove seed oils and processed foods in the name of player health, performance, and recovery. We talk about inflammation, cleaner cooking oils like olive oil and avocado oil, and why this shift matters even if you’re not training like an elite athlete. If you’ve ever wondered whether “food quality” is real or just hype, this headline makes it hard to ignore.

Next, we get tactical about tick bite prevention. Tick-borne illness is rising, and the fear around Lyme disease and alpha-gal syndrome is understandable, so we focus on strategies that lower risk without living in panic: protective clothing, repellents like DEET and picaridin, permethrin-treated gear, thorough tick checks, showering after outdoor time, and using high heat in the dryer to stop ticks from coming indoors.

We also put Ebola coverage into context. It’s a deadly disease and a serious crisis for affected communities, but it spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids, not like an airborne virus, which changes the risk picture for most listeners in the West. We close on a brighter note with eggs, choline, and brain health, including why eating eggs may support cognition and potentially lower Alzheimer’s risk.

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Transcript

Why These Headlines Matter

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Today on the Frontline Health Podcast. But there definitely seems to be more ticks out there and more ticket exposure and is top of mind for a lot of people.

SPEAKER_01 0:11

Really just a lot of fear around this topic. And we always love to give people things that are practical to hopefully um, you know, ease that fear.

SPEAKER_00 0:19

Right. And I think that's that's the most important thing. We're not going to get away from ticks. Ticks will always be here. So what can we do to prevent our exposure to them and uh keep us from falling prey to alpha gal or Lyme disease or any of the other tick-borne uh diseases that are out there?

SPEAKER_01 0:37

Um welcome back to another episode of the Frontline Health Podcast by Centurion Health, where we share health news, tips, and insights to help you take ownership of your health. My name is Evan Patrick, and with me, as always, Troy Doole, founder and CEO of Centurion Health, is here to help us uh break down some interesting headlines that we have heard. Uh over the past month or so, we're doing another round of health headline highlights, talking about everything from sports nutrition to ticks to Ebola outbreaks going on around the world and even more than that. How are you doing today, Troy?

SPEAKER_00 1:11

Good, Evan. How are you, man? Excited to be here. And to uh hard to believe we're already on another month of health headlines.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

I know, and it just seems like as the months go by, more and more things uh just come up. And so we've got a lot to talk about today.

NFL Seed Oil Ban Debate

SPEAKER_00 1:25

We do, and uh, it was kind of interesting because we've heard a lot about seed oils and kind of the the issues with them, and we've even talked about it on this podcast. Some in our first headline was talking about the Titans' new head coach. It says Titans Robert Saleh, I don't know if I'm pronouncing that correctly, but sparks nutritional value debate with seed oil ban in the players' team provided meals. So their head coach and team leadership actually went in, removed seed oils and processed foods from all their players' meals as part of a broader nutritional overhaul, which is really, really interesting because I think it is further confirmation that even these elite athletes are starting to understand that seed oils and processed foods are really starting to take a toll on their bodies and it's going to increase inflammation and decrease the recovery or increase recovery time for each of them as well. But they replaced common cooking common cooking oils with olive and avocado oil, and they really went after minimally processed foods. So they felt like having that cleaner nutrition was going to improve player health, performance, and recovery as a whole, which I think is absolutely amazing and a great example to start setting, hopefully, for the rest of us.

SPEAKER_01 2:54

Yeah, you know, the NFL has come a long way from the days of uh Marshawn Lynch on the sidelines eating Skittles like between plays. Um, it's so funny when you look back on stuff like that, like an elite running back in the NFL, who I don't know, maybe that was just a personal preference for him, just something he liked doing. That's probably probably more in line with what was going on. But but elite to think that elite athletes would not have the most nutrient-dense, clean, dense, clean food, um, that's that really shows that we have come a long way in just understanding how important this is just for overall health and performance.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

Absolutely. I I still remember um when I was on the training staff at Alabama, there would be these college athletes coming in and they were eating McDonald's or Wendy's or Burger King or Taco Bell, and and you just sat back and you went, that's crazy. They're they're feeding their body these things that we know are not good for them, but we didn't think as much of it then as we probably do now because we begin, we've begun to understand the impact. You're you're basically putting sugar in a gas tank for your car. You're doing the same thing with these types of these types of foods. And I think it's a great, uh, great step in the right direction if we really want to become even more elite and these individuals want to become better athletes. I think it's a great step in the right direction.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

Yeah, for sure. It reminds me also of a lot of the things that um our health secretary has been trying to do when it comes to like our military and making, you know, the foods, the food that's served on different bases, more nutrient-dense and that kind of thing. So, so yeah, really cool to see people um who are who are trying to get the most out of their performance and out of their bodies, um, really relying on food and nutrition to do that. And it'll obviously bring more awareness to the importance of that for high school athletes, for college athletes, high school athletes, um, and and really for all of us, because we all all have our eyes, or at least a lot of us have our eyes on professional sports.

SPEAKER_00 4:52

That's right. Maybe not that many eyes on the Tennessee Titans, but that's a that's a story for another day.

SPEAKER_01 4:59

Well, I'm a Dallas Cowboys fan, so uh so not much room to talk there. A lot of eyes on us, but not uh not much respect currently.

SPEAKER_00 5:05

Correct, correct.

Practical Tick Bite Prevention

SPEAKER_01 5:08

Our next health headline tick tactics, effective strategies to keep ticks away, expert-backed strategies to avoid tick bites this season from repellents and clothing to essential oils and tick checks. So uh obviously this is something that's on a lot of people's minds right now as we hear um just about things like the Lone Star Tick and Alpha Gal. We're gonna have another podcast episode coming out really soon uh talking about that. So excited to dive further into that topic. But um, if you're just looking for a few simple tips and strategies to keep the ticks away, we've got a few that we we saw in this article. It notes that tick-borne illnesses are rising rapidly, but experts say that simple prevention strategies like wearing protective clothing, using repellents, and doing thorough tick checks can significantly reduce risk. Effective repellents include DEET, Picaridin, permethrin, and certain essential oils, such as lemon eucalyptus, though each comes with different benefits and safety considerations. Experts are recommending showering after outdoor exposure, carefully checking the body for ticks, and drying clothes on high heat to prevent ticks from attaching or surviving indoors. And Troy, I've got to ask because you were just telling me about uh a lot of yard work that you were doing. It's almost hard to call what you described as even yard work because I don't think that does it justice. But you had a large number of trees on your property that you were running through the wood chipper. Did you have to take check yourself for ticks after doing all of that?

SPEAKER_00 6:35

I definitely checked, but there weren't a lot of uh there wasn't a lot of high grass around, so it wasn't a big concern of mine, but I I definitely was checking. Now, my son actually just went on the Appalachian Trail with a friend and he said they got done with the day, and uh his friend, because he didn't have any tick spray on him, had about eight to ten ticks that he had to pull off of them. So there's definitely this. It seems like I don't know if it's the warm weather or what has happened, but there definitely seems to be more ticks out there and more ticket exposure and is top of mind for a lot of people. So uh that's why that article certainly jumped out at us when we were talking about it.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

Yeah, and really just go ahead. I was just gonna say, really, just a lot of fear around this topic. And we always love to give people things that are practical to hopefully um, you know, ease that fear. And, you know, not that it's bad to have a healthy concern. Obviously, we're giving strategies for avoiding this, uh, but really give people something practical that they can do to make sure that they're they're taking care of what they need to take care of. And um, yeah, just having peace knowing that they they can do what they can do.

SPEAKER_00 7:45

That's right. And I think that's that's the most important thing. We're not gonna get away from ticks. Ticks will always be here. So, what can we do to prevent our exposure to them and uh keep us from falling prey to alpha gal or Lyme disease or any of the other tick-borne uh diseases that are out there?

Ebola News Without The Panic

SPEAKER_00 8:04

Uh, speaking of diseases, our next headline has certainly been taking big headlines across the country and across the world. It's Ebola outbreak spreading faster than response, an aid group says. The World Health Organization's director general also said the epidemic is outpacing us. So there are aid groups that warned the Ebola outbreak in Central Africa is spreading faster than those response efforts, and it's starting to raise some fears that it could become one of the deadliest outbreaks in history of Ebola itself. The virus has started to expand just beyond the northeastern Congo into Uganda, and there have been more and more issues with being able to contaminate or to contain it because of some of the displacement of individuals, some of the conflicts that are going on, and not the best detection that's out there. And because of that, it's creating probably a lot of fear. And that's where I think our follow-up headline to that was a really strong headline for me because it talks similar to what we just discussed. We don't want to be about fear-mongering, we want to be about what are some practical ways to really start stepping into that. And the headline was yes, Ebola virus is deadly, but here's why you don't need to worry. Ebola is different from COVID in many ways. And what it talks about in this article is that Ebola is a highly deadly, but unlikely to spread, kind of like uh COVID-19 did, because it spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids rather than airborne particles. Meaning, if you're on a plane and somebody else has Ebola, unless they spit on you and you swallow that spit or you come in contact with their blood, there's not as great of a likelihood of that spreading and transmitting to somebody else. Most outbreaks are certainly localized just in Africa right now, due to due to those transmission patterns. And because um their funeral practices and rural exposure is infecting animals, that's why they're having more of a spread of it in those countries than we would say in the West. And really what it seemed to jump on was that delayed detection and limited resources. And that seems to be the biggest issue with this international outbreak and not something that we need to overly concern ourselves with. Certainly we need to keep our eyes on it. We need to be praying for these uh individuals in these areas and helping them any way we can, but uh not something that we need to fear like we did with COVID.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

Yeah, I think it was maybe 2014 or 2015, the last time that we heard major concerns over an Ebola outbreak like this. I remember being in high school and uh, you know, I was I think in my junior year, and we were doing like research projects for school on current events and being freaked out by hearing these stories of an Ebola outbreak and just thinking that it was gonna be a big deal, especially because during that time, several people who had gotten infected with Ebola actually came back to the United States and it and people were thinking it was gonna be this big global pandemic. But as it turned out, it really did not spread to many Americans after that, and it was kind of squashed here. Unfortunately, like you said, it's devastating for a lot of these communities in Africa where they are struggling with this and it's a big, big deal for them. And hopefully they will be able to handle it and get the help that and support that those communities need to be able to, you know, ease this outbreak. But really, for like you said, for those of us in the West, uh it's really not as big of a concern as some of the news headlines might want to make it out to be.

SPEAKER_00 11:59

Absolutely. And most interesting thing was this weekend, I actually got several texts from some friends. They were like, hey, you need to go get more toilet paper, and there's gonna be a run on bread and toilet paper and everything else, because apparently a hospital about 45 minutes away from us had an Ebola patient come in, and they were concerned that it was going to create fear and pandemonium and that people would make a run on toilet paper and if we would be in lockdown again. But that ended up being uh not the case, that it was not a true patient who had Ebola. And even if it was, it's not something that we needed to concern ourselves with at that point, because I think we've got great containment measurements and uh practices that we put in place here that aren't done overseas in Africa.

Eggs For Brain Health

SPEAKER_01 12:51

Well, our final health headline to end things on a very bright note, and one that always makes me smile because I will die on the hill. The eggs truly are a superfood. Uh, the the headline is an egg a week may lower Alzheimer's risk. And uh the subtitle is Could Breakfast Be Your Medicine? Research suggests that eating at least one egg per week may help lower Alzheimer's risk, potentially due to nutrients like choline, which we've talked about a lot on this podcast, lutein and omega-3 fatty acids that support brain health. Experts say choline is especially important because it helps produce acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter essential for memory and cognition. And eggs may also benefit brain function because they combine nutrients that work together to protect brain cells, reduce inflammation, and support cognitive performance. So, once again, confirmation eggs are not the bad guy as they have sometimes been painted to be when it comes to concerns about cholesterol and things like that, that may actually be a food that you can eat that can help protect your brain health long term.

SPEAKER_00 13:57

Yeah, I think it goes back to that old commercial, the incredible edible egg. Uh, I don't know if you ever remember that, but growing up one of the things we always heard was it was the incredible edible egg, and then it went through the whole cholesterol issue and it got a bad wrap. But the good news is I eat more than one egg per week. I eat probably more than one egg per day. So that's that's good for me, maybe, maybe bad for my wife. Um, but all good for me. So so we have actually I eat four eggs a day now.

SPEAKER_01 14:30

I have uh yeah, I eat four eggs a day, and we have actually had to start buying the 30-count egg cartons from the grocery store when we go because we we eat so many eggs in our household. So thankfully, egg prices are not as high as they were just not too long ago, and uh we can get a steady supply of of nutritious eggs.

SPEAKER_00 14:50

Yeah, you may want to go to uh become a member at Costco because they they sell the 60 organic eggs to the discount. Yeah. So there's your next one.

SPEAKER_01 14:59

Well, I didn't I didn't know about this. My wife, I've recommended to my wife that maybe we get some chickens and uh and you know have our own egg production going, but she says that I don't think that we could even have enough chickens to keep up with the number of eggs that we eat.

SPEAKER_00 15:13

Uh you could probably do that. You could probably do it. 10 chickens would probably get you going. So well that may be uh that may be more than she's willing to take on. Uh no roosters, just chickens. The the question is will the neighbor will the neighborhood allow you to have chickens?

SPEAKER_01 15:29

So our current neighborhood, uh, probably not, but maybe something for the future. You have you have chickens at your house, don't you?

SPEAKER_00 15:37

I I have 10 chickens. Um I had 14. They uh a few of them have suffered a poor um poor result of a run-in with a raccoon or a possum. And uh I have two roosters, so I only have eight hen laying chickens right now. So we're we get probably four to six eggs a day, um, is how many we're getting right now. Amazing.

SPEAKER_01 16:06

Well, good deal.

Take Ownership And Wrap Up

SPEAKER_01 16:07

Uh great health headlines today. Hopefully that they were informative to our listeners. Do you have anything else to leave everyone with today, Troy?

SPEAKER_00 16:14

I don't think I've got a thing. Just thanks for joining us.

SPEAKER_01 16:18

All right. Well, thanks for joining us on this episode of the Frontline Health Podcast by Centurion Health. As always, we want to encourage you, go out and take ownership of your health because you are your best health advocate. See you next time. If you enjoyed what you heard today on the podcast, please consider subscribing and leaving us a review. We would love to hear your comments or questions about anything we've talked about on the show. For more health news, tips, and insights, follow us at Centurion Health on Instagram, Facebook, X, and YouTube. And for safe, effective, and affordable healthcare products made in the USA to help you elevate your health in life, visit centurion.health. We look forward to you joining us next time on the Frontline Health Podcast by Centurion.