The CLF Protocol

There is much debate over what the root cause of disease is. Some say it’s lectins, oxalates, sugar, heavy metals, mold, non-native EMFs, parasites... the list goes on. It is many things combined.

One worthwhile thing to focus on is to optimize ATP production in the cell. Three major things accumulate in the tissues over time that get in the way of proper cellular energy production.

They are: Calcification, Lipofuscin and Fibrosis.

Without proper cellular respiration, the cells cannot generate a sufficient quantity of carbon dioxide, infrared light, water, and ultimately, adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the energy currency of the body.

Carbon dioxide, infrared light, and water work together in a harmonic symphony to support every system in our entire body, muscular, skeletal, lymphatic, endocrine, nervous... everything! 

When the cells in an organ or gland cannot generate energy, the tissue in that area atrophies and dies.

When this happens in the thyroid gland we get thyroid production problems.

When this happens in the liver we get detoxification (glucuronidation/sulfation) and thyroid conversion (T4 -> T3) problems.

When this happens in the pancreas we have problems properly metabolizing carbohydrates/sugar. 

It is easy to see how these tissues getting clogged can compound and interfere with the production, transport and utilization of countless thousands of chemical messengers that conduct the complex symphony of our body. 

The CLF Protocol is designed to address the root cause of aging by taking into consideration multiple factors, including but not limited to:

• the industrial revolution (acid rain)
• NPK fertilizer
• Excessive polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) consumption
• Vitamin and mineral deficiencies and imbalances
• Accumulation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs)

 Calcification:

There is normal calcification and abnormal calcification. The image above shows coronary arterial calcification that leads to heart attacks, neuropathy, angiopathies, lack of lymphatic drainage and other issues.

Normal calcification is the regulated process that occurs in bones and teeth where ionized calcium becomes crystallized.

Abnormal calcification is a pathological process where soft tissues become calcified. There must be:

1. a stimulus to crystallize ionized calcium
2. an excess of calcium and phosphate

Approximately 99% of the calcium and 85% of the phosphate in our body is in our bones. They are constantly turning over and recycling which is the process called bone formation, resorption, and remodeling.

That process is tightly regulated by various factors including: prostaglandins, 1,25D (hormone D)/calcitriol, thyroid hormone and parathyroid hormone.

The unnatural influences are: acidification and aluminum.

Why does any of this matter?

The medical phrase for the deposition of calcium outside of the bone is extraosseous calcification. There is also soft tissue calcification (often dystrophic) and calciphylaxis. To keep this article fairly simple we will just use the term "calcification".

Vascular calcification is a strong predictor of coronary heart disease, stroke, and diabetes-related amputation (Lehto et al.,1996).

The earliest signs of non-palpable breast cancer are calcifications in breast tissue (Mordang et al., 2018).

Calcification occurs in many regions of the kidney. Chronic and end-stage kidney disease comes with a higher risk of calcium deposition.

Any soft tissue that has excess calcium is stressed and necrotic; oxygen cannot get to the tissue so it ceases to function and dies.

The cause:

The main two causes of calcification are an elevated blood calcium level and tissue injury. 

Elevated blood calcium, hypercalcemia, can occur with hypervitaminosis D, an excess of vitamin D, or hypovitaminosis D, a deficiency of vitamin D. This is where it gets a little complicated.

I have seen people land in the hospital bed from megadosing vitamin D3 and develop severe heart palpitations. That occurred because they didn't have enough magnesium to convert D3 to 25D to 1,25D. They probably didn't have adequate vitamin K2 stores either which has an intimate relationship with regulating calcium.

On the flip side, an office worker or video gamer that never or rarely goes outside has or will develop a deficiency in 25 hydroxyvitamin D, the marker that is most often measured. When 25D is below the optimal reference range (which varies for different individuals with different genetics), parathyroid hormone (PTH) will inevitably rise.

When PTH increases so will serum calcium as its being pulled out of the bones. When the vitamin D deficiency is combined with deficiencies in magnesium and vitamin K2, soft tissue calcification will occur.

Both excess vitamin D and a deficiency in vitamin D can cause calcification.

The solution:

Calcium is an essential mineral but it must be regulated by many factors. The main regulator of calcium is magnesium.

Magnesium must be kept in the optimal range. The best test currently available is the red blood cell (RBC) magnesium test. We're looking for a mag RBC level of around 6 mg/dl.

99% of magnesium is found intracellularly, with about 60% inside of bones and 19% in soft tissues. RBC magnesium levels change slowly in contrast to serum magnesium levels so it is a more reliable marker. By the time RBC magnesium levels are low, someone is certainly beyond deficiency. 

Even further, the amount of magnesium we require is also dependent upon our EMF exposure, the degree of chronic oxidative stress, and the resulting calcification, lipofuscin and fibrosis. 

Most people are not consuming enough magnesium or consuming poorly absorbed forms like oxide and carbonate. There are more effective ways of acquiring magnesium, fixing a magnesium deficiency and preventing calcification, lipofuscin and fibrosis. This is how I optimize my magnesium levels:

1. Homemade magnesium bicarbonate
2. Amino acid bound forms of magnesium: Mag-ATP product
3. Magnesium baths in magnesium sulfate or magnesium chloride every week

When we combine these while being conscious to lower our magnesium burn rate we can finally start to restore magnesium in the body. 

Vitamin K2, a fat soluble essential vitamin, is deficient in most people and extremely effective at reversing calcification. There is not enough K2 in food to reverse the deficiency. 

K2 content in cheese, the highest easily attainable dietary source, is barely 50ug. The human body requires 200ug of vitamin K2 on average. 

Purely K is a combination of K1, K2-4 and K2-7. There is no cholecalciferol (vitamin D3) so a lot more vitamin K can be stuffed into one pill. In other words, it isn't diluted. It is full strength. Its also ideal for someone with a normal 25D level that doesn't need any more or someone that just wants to get a proper physiological dose of the different forms of vitamin K. Most vitamin K supplements are underdosed. One look at the market and you'll see microgram dose ranges which is not sufficient to combat calcification. 

Shilajit is a condensed ancient ecosystem in a tar form. It contains all 84+ known and unknown carbon-bonded organic minerals and also fulvic acid. 

Plants are supposed to (and used to) secrete fulvic acid in order to bond to positively-charged metals and form organic carbon-based mineral structures. That does not happen anymore due to the soil being poisoned from multiple angles.

Nearly everyone is deficient in trace minerals which help to regulate countless physiological processes. Shilajit is therefore both a complete mineral source, comprised of 90% magnesium, potassium and sodium, and a potent regulator of excess calcium in the body. 

Mitolife offers a convenient compressed tablet form of shilajit. For anyone that's taken the resin in the jar, they know that it tastes horrible! With Mitolife Panacea, you can just swallow the tablets whole. I usually take five a day (1 gram).

Start drinking low TDS, filtered water. Avoid gravity countertop units and opt for reverse osmosis filtration under your kitchen sink that is remineralized at the end. If you don't have remineralization, add a pinch of sea salt to your water and let it dissolve to remineralize it.

Get your 25(OH)D3 (vitamin D) levels checked. If it is below the optimal range, there is a good chance that parathyroid hormone (PTH) is high, which is one of the main drivers behind calcification of soft tissues. Consider supplementing if your genetic mutations prevent you from making D3 from sunlight.

Lipofuscin: 

Have you ever looked at an older person's arms and forehead and seen freckle-looking spots all over the place? Those aren't freckles; they are an accumulation of lipofuscin.

For every one age spot visible on the skin there are up to 100,000 present below the tissue. Often we do not need a blood test to figure out what we have wrong with us. In the case of lipofuscin, all you need to do is take off your clothes and see it. They are most often visible in areas that get the most sunlight: forehead and forearms.

Lipofuscin, or age pigment, is a brown-yellow, electron dense, autofluorescent material that accumulates over time in the lysosomes of post-mitotic (non dividing) cells such as neurons, cardiac mycytes, striated muscle fibers, Sertoli cells, and retinal pigmented epithelial cells. 

It is comprised of proteins (30-70%), fats (20-50%), carbohydrates (4-7%) and metals (1 to 2%) (Karpati, et al 1988). 

What makes it the most interesting accumulation in the body is that it glows.

It emits between 440 and 640 nanometer (blue, green and red) light when exposed to ultraviolet and blue light. Researchers suspect that it glows because of reactions between aldehydes and amino compounds (Yin, et al 1996).

This is an image of lipofuscin fluorescing in the neurons of a human brain.

The cause:

The rate of lipofuscin accumulation has been found to increase substantially under the effect of pro-oxidants and decrease by antioxidants and iron chelators.

People with genetic defects in the SLC11A2 gene, or the genes associated with Thalassemia, are probably at an advantage. Others with hereditary hemochromatosis or chronic copper deficiency probably have to be on alert and donate whole blood regularly to keep their iron levels down to a balanced level.

Vitamin E and selenium supplementation has also shown to be helpful in slowing lipofuscin accumulation.

Iron and omega-3s themselves are not evil. No nutrient is. But when one is consumed in excess we tip the scales and cause deficiencies with other nutrients.

For example, polyunsaturated fatty acids increase our vitamin E requirement by six times. This doesn't make PUFAs bad. It's just something to be aware of.

Iron requires cofactors to keep it in balance, largely: copper, zinc, vitamin B6, vitamin B7, vitamin B12 and ascorbic acid.

Aluminum is the third most common element in the Earth's crust. Drinking out of aluminum cans (filled with corrosive sulfuric acid), melted cheese, processed foods, and even organic produce grown in poorly managed soil are all sources of aluminum that contribute to lipofuscin. 

Melted cheese on a delicious burger is not evil, but it is one more thing to be aware of. Aluminum intake increases our silica requirement.

Iron

This topic is a complex one and can go one of two ways: iron deficiency anemia or iron overload. There are also multiple different types of anemia to complicate things, but to simplify, iron can either be high or low. They have different causes and different solutions. 

Serum ferritin is a direct reflection of bone marrow iron stores as per the dean of iron biology on planet earth, Robert Crichton. 

Iron deficiency anemia is an advanced state of iron deficiency. According to "the dean of iron biology on planet earth" Robert Crichton, iron deficiency has two stages before low hemoglobin appears on the third stage. 

If someone has hereditary hemochromatosis over time their tissues will get saturated with iron. 

Omega-3s

The fish oil industry has been very successful in their marketing campaign to convince us that omega-3 fatty acids (DHA, EPA, and ALA) are needed in large amounts for human health and fetal development. When consumed in excess they contribute to cancer, heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer's, anxiety, depression, insomnia and accelerated aging. 

The public was never told that when the Burrs discovered omega-3s, zinc, selenium and most of the B vitamins had not been discovered yet. The conclusions that they made about their essentiality was based on an incomplete picture and they ran with it, pawning off toxic oils that were previously used as varnish to paint walls.

Omega-3 fatty acids are highly unsaturated fatty acids with multiple double bonds which easily oxidize in a body deficient in vitamins A, D, E, K, C, and selenium. This is a primary cause of chronic inflammation.

Taking 30, 40, 50 grams or more of fish oil daily will imbalance one's body. Maybe if someone was consuming an adequate amount of the cofactors (vitamin E, selenium) to balance it, it could work, but that would be a lot of pills! 

Excess iron activates ALOX enzymes which add oxygen to PUFAs. Excess aluminum in the body further spreads lipofuscin, as does ultraviolet light. 

What if I came into your bedroom where you repair and rest and trashed the place? What if I filled up 70% of your bedroom with garbage? Could you get a good nights sleep if your room was full of trash? No, and your cells can't either. Lipofuscin fills up the lysosomes of your cell which are responsible for the trending process of autophagy. 

Autophagy cannot happen with lipofuscin in your body. In other words, detoxification is impossible. All of the intermittent fasters trying to force this process are spinning their wheels. 

The solution:

Keep tabs on where your iron markers are at. Get an iron panel one or twice a year to check transferrin saturation, serum iron, and serum ferritin. If your hemoglobin is normal but your saturation percentage and ferritin is low, you are iron deficient. If your levels are elevated, you have iron overload and would reduce your risk of lipofuscin accumulating by donating whole blood.

Get an oil change with saturated animal fats, take vitamin E, and utilize red light therapy.

Polyunsaturated fats increase the requirement for Vitamin E by six times. For a detailed write-up of Vitamin E in relation to PUFAs, head over to my product page for PUFA Protect. 

Vitamin E is a fat-soluble vitamin and chain-breaking antioxidant which that the process of lipid peroxidation in the cell once its started. It stops the domino effect in its tracks. It is both a short and long-term solution to the overconsumption of PUFAs. Start with one a day with a meal and see how you react to it before considering increasing your dosage.

Consume more saturated than unsaturated fats: red meat, raw dairy, pastured eggs, coconut oil, ghee and butter. These are all dominant in saturated fat which helps to replace the unsaturated fat that is stored in your tissue from all of the canola oil we were fed growing up. 

Consume a minimum of 3 pastured eggs a day (soft-boiled or sunny side up) to get 300mg of choline which supports the liver detoxification of oxidized omega-3 fatty acid breakdown products (acrolein, aldehydes, etc). 

Red light therapy has been found to protect the skin from ultraviolet light and radiation-induced damage in general. I would not expose PUFA-loaded skin to unlimited amounts of sunlight. You cook like a lobster. I use a GembaRed light often which has systemic health benefits and prevents damage from lipofuscin.

Fibrosis:

Fibrosis is another word for scar tissue. Fibrosis consists of fibrin, a spiders-web-looking material that results from tissue damage. Tissue damage occurs when cellular respiration isn't happening efficiently.

Fibrin build-up is responsible for tight muscles and the loss of flexibility. Over time it shrinks organs and glands, reducing their ability to function properly. Ultimately the result is even less ATP (cellular energy) being produced.

Fibrosis is the end result of calcification and lipofuscin.

Irritation -> Inflammation -> Scar Tissue Formation

This is the deepest layer of detoxification and the one that is often overlooked.

What caused it?

Anything that inhibits oxygen from getting to the cell causes tissue damage and scarring. 

Calcification and lipofuscin directly cause tissue damage by shutting down electron chain transport (ECT) and cellular respiration. The cells choke and cannot breathe. This results in a build-up of lactic acid instead of pyruvic acid which is the hallmark of stress and cancer.

The solution:

Bodywork and Systemic Enzyme Therapy

Manual therapy (deep tissue massage) by an experienced practitioner or with your partner is essential to break up fibrotic tissue and restore the flow of oxygen. Tools such as the Rapid Release Technology are very beneficial if you're by yourself.

Nattokinase and Serrapeptase are two proteolytic enzymes which have been found in clinical research to work together and dissolve fibrin throughout the body. I take 3 capsules of Mitolife Dissolve It All when I wake up. They are ideal to take on an empty stomach for maximum absorption. The enteric-coated capsule doesn't open up until it reaches the small intestine. They circulate in the body for several days dissolving scar tissue.* 

By restoring oxygen to every tissue, systemic enzymes can have powerful effects. The benefits are truly systemic! I have received countless testimonials about skin conditions improving and cysts (endometriosis) and back pain decreasing. 

To be continued...

This protocol is a work-in-progress and is by no means complete. In fact, it will never be complete as new understandings emerge. 

To stay up to date on my latest findings, listen to my podcast Mitolife Radio. It is available on YouTube, Spotify, iTunes and Stitcher.

Let's get supercharged!

-Matt Blackburn

*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any diseases.

Updated: July 2024