Rhonda: And one question I have, do you think that most people can get all their micronutrients from just their diet? Or do you think that supplementing is also a good choice?

Bruce: Well, I have an Italian wife, and she feeds me a wonderful Mediterranean diet. We eat lots of fish and veggies, and Italians cook veggies in wonderful ways, with a olive oil and garlic. And so I don't eat veggies with a meal, I feel deprived. But I think we all should try and eat a good diet, and it's actually wonderful to eat a good diet because you're eating all these different kinds of food, and they all taste good, and when you get used to it, you feel better. But I'm not out in the sun, both for a genetic reason and because I'm in the lab all the time, so I make sure to take a vitamin D pill. And I think supplements really serve a purpose. And not everybody you expect to be a biochemist knowing exactly how much of each vitamin and all of that to take. The Linus Pauling Institute has a terrific website that discusses micronutrients, and you can get advice on the web. But I think a multivitamin, mineral is a good insurance. And I take some fish oil just to be sure, and I take some vitamin D to be sure. And am I getting enough calcium and magnesium? I take a calcium-magnesium pill.

Metals. Mae West said too much of a good thing is wonderful, but she was thinking about sex not micronutrients, particularly for metals because calcium and magnesium are one above the other on the periodic table. Magnesium's here and calcium's here. And they're similar kind of molecules. And it's hard. So there are a lot of calcium-dependent proteins, and a lot of magnesium-dependent. Well, nature cares about the ratio. You can put in too much calcium and cause magnesium shortages, and vice versa. But we tend to be short of both of them. So I think we shouldn't sell calcium pills. We should sell calcium-magnesium pills.

And same thing, everybody says they're getting too much salt. That's sodium chloride. But partly, we're not getting enough potassium. Potassium comes from veggies and bananas and fruit and all these things, and you really wanna get enough potassium because the body cares about the sodium-potassium ratio. Anyway, that's...so you can get too much of a lot of things. So...

Rhonda: Do you take a B complex as well?

Bruce: Yeah, I do.

Rhonda: Because you published a paper about, some time ago in talking about how, with aging, you know, cellular membranes get stiffer, and how that may change the B vitamin.

Bruce: Yeah. No. As you get old...I'm 86, and still working full-time, and Saturday afternoons when Rhonda's interviewing me. But I hope I'll live to 90. But who knows? But I have some big ideas I'm trying to get out there before I kick off.

Rhonda: Well, your triage theory is certainly one that's made a huge impact in my life and my thinking, and I'm doing my best to try to get that out in the public. I think most people need to realize that, you know, just because they're not walking around with acute deficiencies doesn't mean they're getting enough of their micronutrients.