Shilajit, Liquid Minerals & The Staph Problem Nobody's Solving | Brad McDonnell | The Josh Button Podcast Ep 74
Shilajit, Liquid Minerals &
The Staph Problem Nobody's Solving
The Staph Problem Nobody's Solving
The Micronutrients Are Gone from the Soil. Here's How to Get Them Back.
Brad McDonnell spent a decade asking one question: what are the best supplements on the planet and why isn't anyone making them properly? That question — asked alongside his business partner and thirty-year friend David Reed — took them from Brisbane to San Francisco to a van traveling the United States, from the Himalayas sourcing Shilajit at 16,000 feet to Tasmania sourcing ocean plasma, building Manna Vitality from scratch with no marketing budget and eventually launching off a single podcast reel that did over a million dollars.
He is also a jiu-jitsu practitioner who has been on the mats for eight years, has had staph himself, has watched the antibiotic cycle destroy fighters' cardiovascular systems and gut flora, and has spent eight months down the rabbit hole of gut-skin axis research to build a solution. That solution is Resurge — a new company, two products, targeting the staph problem in combat sports directly. A preventative nano-film biofilm product called Guard and an acute treatment called Strike, designed specifically to penetrate the biofilm that standard antibiotics and topical treatments cannot.
This episode covers Shilajit from source to sachet, why fulvic acid at high altitude is fundamentally different from what most brands are selling, the gut-skin axis and why your gut health determines how fast a skin infection spreads, why most topical staph treatments actually feed gram-positive bacteria, the microplastics-in-rash-guards conversation nobody in jiu-jitsu is having, and why Brad believes education — personal hygiene, gym protocols, community accountability — is the actual missing piece.
The antibiotics smash the bad stuff and the good stuff at the same time. Your gas tank's gone. And it's not just a recovery from staph — it's a recovery from the prescription drugs too. So we've got to offer a solution.
— Brad McDonnellWhat We Cover
What This Episode Covers
What to Walk Away With
- The micronutrients are gone from the soil — and Shilajit at high altitude is one of the only ways to get them back. Mono-cropping and commercial farming practices have stripped the micronutrient content from topsoil globally. The foods you eat contain the macros — protein, fat, carbohydrate — but not the micronutrient density they should. Shilajit, sourced at 16,000 feet in the Himalayas, contains a protective compound in its fulvic acid at concentrations not found lower down the mountain. This produces fulvic acid content of 44 to 88 % in the finished product — the mechanism that charges the blood, supports cellular function, and delivers bioavailable minerals that commercial food supply no longer provides. This is the foundation of Manna Vitality's formulation: not a stimulant, not a fat burner, not a muscle builder. A base layer of cellular nutrition the body is simply not getting anywhere else.
- Most of the Shilajit on the market lacks the quality of the ingredient you think you're buying. The vast majority of commercially available Shilajit is sourced from lower altitudes — around 5,000 feet — where the protective fulvic acid compound is present in far lower concentrations. The extraction elevation is not a marketing claim. It is the primary determinant of fulvic acid content and therefore the efficacy of the product. If the brand does not specify altitude and fulvic acid percentage, you do not know what you are getting.
- 95% of the vitamin C on the supplement market is derived from corn syrup — not from fruit. Standard ascorbic acid used in most supplements is industrially produced from corn syrup, often with orange food dye to create the appearance of fruit origin. Manna's Immune Plus product uses extract from the Acerola berry — one of the highest natural sources of vitamin C — instead. The principle extends across the supplement industry: the ingredient name on the label does not tell you where it came from or how it was produced. Source matters.
- The gut-skin axis is the reason staph spreads faster in some athletes than others. Your skin has over 500 million bacteria on it at any given moment — a balance of good and bad. The gut microbiome directly influences skin microbiome health. Athletes with compromised gut flora — from antibiotics, poor diet, stress, or overtraining — have less robust skin immunity and experience faster, more severe skin infections when exposed. Treating staph only at the skin level while the gut is compromised is addressing the symptom, not the system.
- Standard staph treatments — including many topical products — actually feed gram-positive bacteria rather than killing it. Staph bacteria are gram-positive and gram-negative. Many of the antibiotics and topical treatments commonly used in combat sports gyms do not penetrate the biofilm layer of the bacteria. Some actively feed gram-positive strains, making the infection worse or more persistent. The widespread use of hydrogen peroxide — widely believed to be a universal disinfectant — also destroys beneficial skin bacteria alongside the harmful ones, disrupting the skin's natural immune ecosystem. The treatment approach most gyms are using is not only inadequate — in some cases it is counterproductive.
- The antibiotic cycle does not just treat staph — it destroys your cardiovascular capacity and gut flora simultaneously. Brad references the pattern seen in high-level competitors including Gordon Ryan: once a fighter goes through a serious antibiotic course for staph, they are not just recovering from the infection. They are recovering from the treatment. The cardiovascular system takes a significant hit. The gut bacteria — the foundation of immunity, energy regulation, and cognitive function — are wiped out. The recovery from the antibiotics can take longer and be more damaging than the infection itself. This is the case for a preventative and biofilm-penetrating topical approach that does not require systemic antibiotics.
- Rash guards are plastic bottles worn against your skin — and they may be contributing to the skin infection problem. The vast majority of rash guards are made from synthetic lycra and polyester blends — essentially microplastic fibres pressed against skin that is already compromised from friction and training. Microplastics shed from clothing and accumulate on the skin. The body registers synthetic fibres as a stressor. Combined with plastic training mats, plastic water bottles, and a diet that likely contains significant microplastic contamination, the training environment is creating a continuous low-level chemical insult. No major jiu-jitsu brand is addressing this. Silver-ion treated fabrics, organic cotton, and bamboo are better alternatives — though durability and grip design remain unsolved challenges in the context of grappling.
- Three things determine staph risk in any gym — personal hygiene, community protocols, and acute injury management. Brad's framework for Resurge's educational mission: the personal layer (athlete self-awareness, showering within 20 minutes of training, foot disinfection on entry, not training with open wounds); the community layer (gym-wide accountability, mat cleaning protocols, air circulation and UV exposure, no bandaid cover-ups); and the acute layer (treating infections at the earliest pimple stage before they escalate, using products that actually penetrate the biofilm rather than feeding it). All three must operate simultaneously. The weakest link in any gym is the athlete who trains with something covered and says nothing.
What Brad Takes and Why
The Three Pillars of Gym Skin Safety
The Full Conversation
The Origin — A Van, a Dream 100 List, and Two Guys Who Had No Idea How to Sell
Brad and David Reed quit their jobs, packed into a van, and drove around the United States with $2 million worth of stock and no performance marketing knowledge whatsoever. Their original assumption: build a website, people come, people buy. They were wrong. What they did have was presence — they were not rushing to the next meeting, not trying to close deals. They had genuine time for people. That quality, Brad argues, is baked into the DNA of Manna Vitality in a way no retroactive brand positioning can replicate. It was not a strategy. It was all they had.
The breakthrough came through a Dream 100 list — Russell Brunson's framework for identifying the hundred people you most want to reach. Brad reached out on Instagram, sent product, got it into the right hands through a connection to Josh Trent of Wellness Force Radio and Wellness and Wisdom. Josh knew a performance marketer in Austin who had been feeding Shilajit to his two-year-old daughter. He had already solved for the specific problem Manna had solved: Shilajit was almost impossible to use conveniently. The sachet format was the product. One podcast reel, over a million dollars.
The Shilajit sold by most brands is sourced from approximately 5,000 feet elevation — accessible, scalable, cheaper to harvest. At this altitude the protective compound in the fulvic acid is present in low concentrations. Manna sources from 16,000 feet in the Himalayas, where the compound is found in significantly higher abundance and produces fulvic acid concentrations between 44 and 88%. The difference is not marginal. It is the product.
Three Buckets — The Framework Brad Uses to Run His Life at 46
Brad describes arriving at a point of clarity about priorities that he attributes partly to jiu-jitsu and partly to building a business with a thirty-year friend. He now operates from three buckets only: family (anchored by his relationship with his partner), business, and movement/health (anchored by jiu-jitsu). If those three are full, nothing else is needed and nothing else is sought. The parallel between rolling with the harder guys in jiu-jitsu and tackling the harder problems in business is not metaphorical for Brad — it is operational. The harder roll moves the needle more than the comfortable one. The willingness to do the hard thing in both domains is the same character trait, exercised in different settings.
The Staph Conversation — Why the Current Approach Is Making It Worse
Brad has had ringworm. He has had cellulitis up his neck and chest. He has watched the antibiotic cycle play out in training partners and athletes. He has spent eight months researching the gut-skin axis and the microbiology of staph specifically because the standard community response — antibiotics, hydrogen peroxide, tea tree oil, bandaids over wounds — is either inadequate or actively counterproductive.
The core problem: staph bacteria build a biofilm layer that standard topical treatments and many antibiotics cannot penetrate. Treatments that do not penetrate the biofilm do not kill the infection — they may temporarily suppress surface bacteria while the deeper biofilm remains intact and recolonises. Some treatments actively feed gram-positive bacteria strains. Hydrogen peroxide, widely believed to be a neutral disinfectant, strips all bacteria — disrupting the skin's natural immune ecosystem. Tea tree oil, used as a naturopathic alternative, is not well-tolerated by the body in chronic use.
The Rash Guard Problem — The Elephant in the Room
Josh raised the microplastics-in-rash-guards issue during the episode — a conversation almost no one in jiu-jitsu is having publicly. The standard competition rash guard is manufactured from synthetic polyester and spandex blends. These fibres shed microplastics during wear and washing. Worn pressed against skin that is already stressed from friction, heat, and moisture during training, the chronic low-level microplastic exposure contributes to skin irritation, endocrine disruption, and potentially to the skin's reduced ability to maintain its natural bacterial balance. Combined with plastic training mats and what is already a microplastic-saturated diet and environment, the training context is adding insult to injury.
Brad now only wears wool or organic cotton in daily life. He acknowledges the durability problem with cotton in a grappling context but sees silver-ion treated fabrics as the most viable near-term solution for rash guard replacement — antibacterial, natural odour resistance, and compatible with performance fabric manufacture.
Find Brad & Both Companies
- Manna Vitality — Shilajit & Liquid Mineral Supplements Use code JoshB20 for 20% off. All products direct to consumer. mannavitality.com
- Resurge — Combat Sports Skincare & Staph Prevention Guard (preventative nano-film) and Strike (acute treatment). Early access — follow for launch updates. teamresurge.com
- Resurge on Instagram @resurgehq
- Brad McDonnell on Instagram Leadership, mindset, health, business — Brad's personal account. Search: Brad McDonnell on Instagram
- Sun Life Organics — Khalil Rafati Wellness cafe and community hub where Manna Vitality has retail presence. Austin, Texas and Southern California locations.
- Dr. Beth — Jyzen Labs, Mill Valley, San Francisco Functional medicine doctor, quantum biology and cell biology researcher. Manna Vitality's founding science advisor.
The Micronutrients Your Food Isn't Giving You.
Manna Vitality is liquid Shilajit at altitude — the base layer your cells are missing. Use code JoshB20 for 20% off your first order.
Shop Manna Vitality Or comment ANCESTRAL on any @stopkillingtheplants post for the free ancestral nutrition guide.CEO and co-founder of Manna Vitality — a premium liquid mineral supplement company built around high-altitude Shilajit and ocean plasma, manufactured in the US, sold direct to consumer, stocked exclusively at Sun Life Organics in retail. Former professional rugby union player and competitive CrossFit athlete. Eight-year jiu-jitsu practitioner out of Brisbane, Australia. Founder of Resurge — a combat sports skincare company addressing staph, ringworm, and skin infections with nano-film biofilm-penetrating technology built on gut-skin axis science. Spent 10 years questioning mainstream supplement and pharmaceutical culture before building the product he actually wanted to take.
Disclaimer — This episode is for educational and informational purposes. Nothing discussed constitutes medical or dermatological advice. Resurge products are in early testing and not yet widely available. If you are experiencing a skin infection, consult a qualified medical professional. The discount code JoshB20 is provided by Manna Vitality and reflects their affiliate arrangement with this podcast.
