Podcasts about awesome health podcast

Dr. Jason Giles, a board-certified addiction medicine expert, former anesthesiologist, and a person who has personally battled and overcome substance addiction, recently appeared on the *Awesome Health Podcast* by BiOptimizers. With over 27 years of medical experience and leadership in managing 40 addiction treatment centers, Dr. Giles offers an honest and compassionate view into addiction and recovery.  Addiction isn't just a medical condition, but a human challenge impacting all facets of life, from drugs and alcohol to screen time and food. These behaviors often serve as emotional coping mechanisms, hijacking the brain's reward system and substituting pleasure for well-being. Modern Addiction Triggers Substance use is not new, but the availability and potency of substances and stimuli have changed. Modern addictions are amplified by 24/7 access, social pressures, and chemically engineered substances that overstimulate neurotransmitters like dopamine and norepinephrine. Addiction isn't a lack of willpower, but a rewiring of the brain.  Substance use builds tolerance, creating a cycle of withdrawal, craving, and temporary relief. "Addiction is when we begin treating withdrawal with the very thing causing the problem," says Dr. Giles. This makes addiction chemical, emotional, and behavioral. The Journey Through Addiction Dr. Giles simplifies addiction into three stages: Fun, Fun with Problems, and Just Problems. It begins as an enhancement, then consequences mount, and eventually, the behavior continues despite harm. This trajectory isn't limited to substances, as emotional eating or overworking can follow the same path.  Raised in an alcoholic household, Dr. Giles became a successful anesthesiologist, but carried an internal void. Medical access led to experimentation, and Fentanyl became his drug of choice. An intervention led him to a recovery program with a 95% success rate. Redefining Recovery Detox is only the first step. True recovery is slow and non-linear. Dr. Giles believes in meeting patients where they are, using medication to ease withdrawal and building trust. Many team members are in recovery themselves, creating supportive environments. When the pandemic hit, Dr. Giles led in telehealth for addiction care, reducing relapses and shortening the gap between treatment and reentry.  Emerging therapies, like GLP-1 agonists and TMS, offer hope, but long-term change requires behavior shifts. Anyone can struggle with addiction, and everyone deserves a path out. "We have to stop treating people like problems and start treating them like people," says Dr. Giles. In This Podcast You'll Learn… The three stages of addiction and how to identify them. Why modern society amplifies addictive behaviors. How Dr. Giles overcame his own addiction. Emerging therapies for addiction treatment. The importance of compassion in addiction recovery.   EPISODE RESOURCES: Website  

Mushrooms should be a part of our daily diet for better immunity, a stronger heart, a happy gut and a better brain, but maybe you don't like them. This episode with Wade Lightheart will not only convince you that you need to eat mushrooms every day, but he will also show you how you can get all the benefits of mushrooms into your brain, body and life.   We cover: What mushrooms are best for our brain, immune system, heart and gut The four mushrooms we need to get in daily Do we eat our mushrooms or take them as a supplement? Or both? How mushrooms can be beneficial for a woman in menopause The action plan for a better brain before adding mushrooms What to look out for in a mushroom supplement – the good, the bad, the ugly How I add mushrooms to my meals, coffee, and diet in general My new favorite mushroom drink – Mushroom Breakthrough Wade T. Lightheart is a Certified Sports Nutritionist Advisor and president/director of education and co-founder of BIOptimizers. As a plant-based and drug-free athlete for more than two decades, Wade is a three-time National Natural Bodybuilding Champion who competed in both the IFBB Mr. Universe and the INBA Natural Olympia by the age of 31. At the age of 50, Wade came out of retirement to win the Open Men's and Grand Master's Categories at the INBA Ironman International, then competed at The PNBA Natural Olympia.   Mushroom Breakthrough  https://bioptimizers.com/hackmyage - code HACKMYAGE    Contact Wade Lightheart and Bioptimizers Website: https://biooptimizers.com/hackmyage Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BiOptimizers/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bioptimizers/ YouTube: http://youtube.com/@bioptimizers Awesome Health Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/bioptimizers-awesome-health-podcast/id1265940397   Give thanks to our sponsors Qualia senolytics and brain supplements. 15% off with code ZORA here. https://qualialife.com/hackmyage  Try BEAM minerals at 20% off with code ZORA here.http://beamminerals.com/ZORA Get Primeadine spermidine by Oxford Healthspan. 15% discount with code ZORA ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.  Get Mitopure Urolithin A by Timeline. 10% discount with code ZORA at https://timeline.com/zora Visit https://getkion.com/zora for 20% off Kion Essential Amino Acids Try OneSkin skincare for with code ZORA at https://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=2685556&u=4476154&m=102446&urllink=&afftrack= Join ⁠⁠⁠Biohacking Menopause⁠⁠⁠ before March 1, 2025 to win a Flexbeam $60 off with code ZORA at https://recharge.health  https://biohacking-menopause.mn.co   Join the Hack My Age community on: Facebook Page : ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@⁠Hack My Age⁠   Facebook Group: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@⁠Biohacking Menopause⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠   Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@⁠HackMyAge⁠   Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠HackMyAge.com  ⁠Membership group: Biohacking Menopause⁠   Email: zora@hackmyage.com This podcast is edited by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠jonathanjk@gmail.com 

Trauma is a term that has been gaining a lot of attention in recent years, with many people recognizing the impact it can have on our mental and physical health. In order to understand trauma and its effects, it is important to define what it is and how it can manifest itself. Ronnie Landis is a leading expert in holistic health, natural nutrition, and human potential. He powerfully supports driven entrepreneurs, athletes, performers, executives & influencers to perform at their best mentally, emotionally, and physically. Ronnie Landis, describes trauma as: “not what happened to you, but the disconnect of the impact within you, as a result of what happened.” In this podcast, you will learn: What is trauma What is Dopamine and its effects in our mental states? The different categories of addiction? The difference between stress and distress? What is a peak state and a neutral balance state? IG: @ronnie_landisFB: Ronnie Landis

Why it was selected for "CBNation Architects": This episode on I AM CEO Podcasts features Wade T. Lightheart, the host of the AWESOME Health Podcast, a 3-time All Natural National Bodybuilding Champion, advisor to the American Anti-Cancer Institute, and Director of Education at BiOptimizers Nutrition, one of the world's most innovative nutritional supplement companies. During the episode, Wade discusses his expertise in fixing digestion and activating awesome health. As an author of several books, including the best-sellers "Staying Alive in a Toxic World" and "The Wealthy Backpacker," he shares his insights into how to maintain a healthy lifestyle and build a successful business. Wade also provides his CEO hack, which involves using the predictive index to get people in the right seats. His CEO nugget of wisdom advises entrepreneurs to increase the customer experience rather than relying on automated systems. Wade defines being a CEO as being the ultimate accountability person and having a passion for what you're doing. Listeners who want to learn more about Wade and his work can visit the BiOptimizers Nutrition website, take his health course, or check out his products on Amazon.    Check out our CEO Hack Buzz Newsletter--our premium newsletter with hacks and nuggets to level up your organization. Sign up HERE.  I AM CEO Handbook Volume 3 is HERE and it's FREE. Get your copy here: http://cbnation.co/iamceo3. Get the 100+ things that you can learn from 1600 business podcasts we recorded. Hear Gresh's story, learn the 16 business pillars from the podcast, find out about CBNation Architects and why you might be one and so much more. Did we mention it was FREE? Download it today!   Previous Episode: https://iamceo.co/2019/02/04/iam175/

Why do many people pursue longevity? Do they seek a greater quality of life or do they fear death?Wade Lightheart describes a more realistic and sustainable approach to longevity and ways to achieve it by maintaining your balance and holding onto your spiritual center in this Living 4D meeting-of-the-minds.Connect with Wade on social media via Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Listen to Wade's Awesome Health Podcast wherever you listen to your podcasts.TimestampsWhy do you pursue longevity? (2:26)Is what you've done for a long time to stay healthy not working for you any longer? (11:02)Holding onto your spiritual center. (23:27)How do you maintain your balance? (30:54)An easy way to mitigate sleep cycle problems when you're traveling. (37:34)Wade suggests a couple of simple tests. (1:03:52)If it's not a double-blind study… (1:18:27)“Excellence is a progressive state, not an absolute.” (1:24:06)The choice point. (1:33:03)Wade's sacred smoke ritual. (1:54:45)Wade's upcoming book. (2:00:43)The universe remains undefeated. (2:12:36)ResourcesThe work of Peter Attia, David Getoff and John MaguireThe manual lymphatic drainage techniqueYour Body Doesn't Lie by John DiamondSymptoms of Visceral Disease by Francis Marion PottengerOccupational Biomechanics by Don Chaffin, Gunnar B.J. Anderson and Bernard MartinWe may earn commissions from qualifying purchases using affiliate links.Thanks to our awesome sponsors: CHEK Life Process Alchemy Workshop Paleovalley BiOptimizers PAUL10 Organifi CHEK20CHEK Institute/IMS1 Online L4DIMS1We may earn commissions from qualifying purchases using affiliate links.

Today we clear a lot of confusion on magnesium with someone who knows supplements. Wade Lightheart is the founder of the supplement company Bioptimizers. But he is so much more than a business man. He's an author, nutritionist and a gut health expert. He has an interesting story of his own journey from sickness to health that he shares with us with bits of wisdom sprinkled throughout. He is known for an incredible accomplishment. He is a 3-time Canadian national all natural bodybuilding champion, which he accomplished on a vegetarian diet. He is also an advisor to the American Cancer Institute and host of the Awesome Health Podcast, so he's got a ton of information that he has accumulated over the last 25 years. This episode is sponsored by Oxford Healthspan, the makers of my favorite supplement Primeadine spermidine. Use code ZORA for 15% off here. Get 15% off Bioptimizers supplements with discount code HACKMYAGE. You guessed right. My favorite one from this brand is Magnesium Breakthrough. Contact Wade Lightheart Website: http://bioptimizers.com Telephone: 1 (702) 890-1551 Email: wadelightheart@gmail.com Instagram: http://instagram.com/bioptimizers Facebook: http://facebook.com/BiOptimizers YouTube: http://youtube.com/@bioptimizers Awesome Health Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/bioptimizers-awesome-health-podcast/id1265940397 Join the Hack My Age community on: Facebook Page : http://facebook.com/hackmyage Facebook Group: Biohacking Women 50+ - Longevity After Menopause https://www.facebook.com/groups/biohackingwomen50 Instagram: http://instagram.com/hackmyage Website: http://www.hackmyage.com Clubhouse: @hackmyage (Club: Biohacking Women 50+) Hack My Age VIP Group: http://patreon.com/hackmyage Email: zora@hackmyage.com Newsletter: http://www.hackmyage.com/newsletter This podcast is edited by jonathanjk.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/hackmyage/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/hackmyage/support

Mark speaks with Wade Lightheart, Cofounder of BiOptimizers. Wade is the co-founder and president at BiOptimizers, a digestive and health optimization company. He is passionate about the future of education and serves as an advisor to the American Anti-Cancer Institute.Wade is a 3-time Canadian national all natural bodybuilding champion who competed as a vegetarian, former Mr. Universe competitor, and host of The Awesome Health Podcast. Today, Commander Divine speaks with Wade Lightheart, a man who is revolutionizing supplementation and how to balance our physical, emotional, and energetic systems. In the episode, Wade shares his journey in discovering the key components to individual health and a positive look at the future of Gut Health and overall wellness. Wade shares his journey through a variety of landscapes, and how that mirrored his findings of why diversity is key for our soil, bodies, and education systems. Key Takeaways: Having the right mentors and teachers is essential in life. Wade describes the risk of hurting oneself without the proper education and guidance. Specifically, how in the era of information and technology how one can find profound information that is useless and even dangerous without the guidance and support of experts in the field. The profound influence of inviting the wrong people into your life. Wade shares how he allowed toxic people and lifestyle to permeate his path on health. Acknowledging that putting his life at risk to feel good was all part of the journey to becoming aware of the importance of the environment we choose and the people in it. Mark and Wade explore the difference between controversial medicines being used for recreation instead of healing, and fake vs. real shamans. Blanket supplementation vs. Individual supplementation. Wade shares the best tests for individual whole body testing. Emphasizing the importance of why supplementation is not a one size fits all game and can even be dangerous and wasteful to take supplements without a specific protocol. He announces why gut health is an essential component for this and future generations due to the shifting landscape of soil, antibiotics, and overall environment. Magnesium’s key role in brain function. Wade explains the four types of magnesium and how they vary, while celebrating the benefits of knowing what is right for your maximum fitness, mental clarity, and sleep.

  Jared Pickard and his wife Velisa are the founders of Be Here Farm + Nature, a 300 acre Nature Sanctuary and Biodynamic farm in Sonoma County CA where they grow and make a collection of very unique self care products, entirely made by hand, and all on their family farm. Jared and Valisa became interested in farming after they realized that they wanted to farm in a beyond-organic way. They had an exposure to Biodynamic Farm, and after two years of farming in Georgia and an apprenticeship at Blackberry Farm, they were prepared to start their own project.  They now have their own 300 acres farm where they grow and make a collection of unique hand-made self care products. Be Here Farm produces a variety of unique, hand-made self-care products that use all-natural ingredients. Their products include spot treatments, body oils, and scrubs that are designed to nourish and revitalize the skin.  In this podcast you will learn about:  What are the differences between conventional and organic farming? What are the challenges faced by farmers in terms of profitability? What's missing from traditional farming? The difference between a chemical support system and a natural one? The difference between "high quality" food and regular? The difference between Monoculture and Polyculture A monoculture is a crop that is grown in large quantities, usually for commercial purposes. The term can also refer to the practice of growing one type of crop in a field, or to the culture that results from it.  Monocultures are often criticized for being environmentally unsound, as they can lead to soil depletion and water pollution. They can also be more susceptible to pests and diseases than other types of crops. A polyculture is an alternative farming system in which multiple crops are grown together. This can be anything from a few different vegetables in the same garden bed to a large-scale farm with a diverse mix of crops and animals. There are many benefits to polyculture farming: It helps to mimic natural ecosystems, which are more efficient and resilient than monocultures. Growing multiple crops together can help to improve yields by providing complementary nutrition and pest control. Polyculture farms are typically more biodiverse than conventional farms, supporting a greater variety of wildlife.  The Future of Farming Jared also shared his view on the future of the farming industry: "The future of farming looks bright, with more and more people interested in learning about and participating in regenerative agriculture. This type of farming is not only environmentally sustainable but also has the potential to provide nutritious food for communities on a local level.  “In order to make this happen on a global scale, however, we need to continue to educate people about the benefits of regenerative agriculture and support those who are already practicing it." We invite you to listen to this amazing episode of the Awesome Health Podcast. EPISODE RESOURCES: 10% discount code wadelove at sunpotion.com on the summer solstice serum(or on any of their products by emailing Jared that code at love@beherefarm.com) Website Instagram

  We are constantly bombarded by toxins, whether it's the air we breathe, the food we eat or the water we drink.  Exposure to toxins can lead to a variety of health problems. This includes chronic pain, allergies, hypothyroidism and fatigue. We are constantly bombarded by toxins, whether it's the air we breathe, the food we eat or the water we drink.  Our bodies are constantly working to eliminate these toxins, but sometimes they can build up to dangerous levels, which is why… Exposure to toxins can lead to a variety of health problems This includes chronic pain, allergies, hypothyroidism and fatigue.  The good news is that the solution may be more simple than what you imagine because it relies on an abundant natural element for all human beings: oxygen.  Oxygen is very important for our bodies, yet we often don't think about it much. That's why in this episode of the Awesome Health Podcast we interviewed Eileen Durfee.  Eileen is a health pioneer, businesswoman and innovator who has reinvented a way to distribute natural healing products to protect others from toxicity.  She is a former nuclear power plant engineer who became sick due to chemical exposure, suffered from chronic pain, allergies, hypothyroidism, lack of energy, among other health challenges. In this podcast we discuss with her: The Benefits of Ozone therapy What did Eileen do in order to try and heal her body? And the gene that Eileen is missing, which prevents her body from eliminating toxins.   The benefits of oxygen and ozone therapy  Oxygen is a powerful detoxifier that can help break down toxins in our bodies. It can also help to reduce pain and inflammation, and speed up healing. So, how do you get more out of it? with ozone therapy, which is one of the best ways to get more oxygen into your system. Ozone is a form of oxygen that is highly reactive and is effective against bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protozoa. It can also help to break down heavy metals and other toxins in our bodies. Durfee explains that: "ozone is effective against a wide variety of pathogens, including bacteria, viruses, and fungi”. Ozone can help to remove heavy metals and other contaminants from water, that's why I recommend drinking eight ounces of ozone-treated water each day, and cleaning all food with it." Why do people with health issues continue to go the medical route? According to Eileen Durfee:  "It's interesting that so many people continue to go down the medical route, pill after pill, and surgery after surgery, when there are other options available. I think part of it is that people don't realize that they have other options, and also that the medical route is seen as the 'safe' option." "The reality is that the medical industry is not in the business of providing health care. They're in the business of managing symptoms..." If you are struggling with some health issue and/or would like to learn more about the benefits of Ozone therapy, don't miss the next episode of the Awesome Health Podcast. EPISODE RESOURCES: www.CreatrixSolutions.com Instagram Youtube  

It's WORKOUT WEDNESDAY brought to you by IceShaker and Sunwarrior. Chris Gronkowski joins us with ways he likes to change up his workout. Try adding new activities like yoga or a dance class. If you dread working out, find things to do that you enjoy, and working out will be a treat rather than a chore. And, with these triple-digit temperatures this summer, don't forget your IceShaker, whatever workout you're doing! Now in 1/2 gallon and gallon sizes. Check them out here. Wade Lightheart joins us next to discuss how our digestive system affects our overall health. Wade is an author, athlete, nutritionist and digestion expert. He is also a 3-time Canadian National All Natural Bodybuilding Champion, former Mr. Universe Competitor and the host of The Awesome Health Podcast. As the Co-founder and President at BI-Optimizers, he's helping people all over the world find natural solutions for difficult digestive problems. Learn more about Wade and check out his podcast at bioptimizers.com.Thank you to our sponsors!enviromedicaThe Weston A. Price FoundationChildren's Health Defense - Order Robert F. Kennedy's latest book, "The Real Anthony Fauci" today!sunwarrior - Use the code OLR for 20% off your purchase!Ice Shaker - Keeps drinks ice cold all day!Vegworld MagazineWell Being JournalThorne - Get 20% off your order and free shipping!

On this episode, Dr. Barrett on the Awesome Health Podcast, chats with host Wade T. Lightheart on biohacking, wellness and healing, as well as Lightheart's experience as a patient of Dr. Barrett.

How we enter this world and leave this world makes a huge difference.  For most of the western world, we all experience a similar allopathic birth protocol in a sterile environment we call the hospital.  Likewise, when we die, we often leave this world in an allopathic environment, like a hospital. Or an allopathic arrangement we call “hospice.”  Unfortunately, there are many shortcomings and mistakes to be found in both the westernized practice of birthing babies and caring for people with terminal illnesses.  Do you know what these shortcomings are? Many do not - as our western hospital system, and Big Pharma dominate the landscape so profoundly that most of us do not realize there are other ways to go about birthing and dying.  Meet our guest today - Dr. Nathan Riley - a medical doctor specializing in OBGYN and hospice medicine.  Dr. Nathan is also a holistic health practitioner with extensive training, including the Chek Institute.  Through his holistic OBGYN practice - Beloved Holistics - Dr. Nathan offers a path of collaboration between himself, midwives, and health coaches.  Dr. Nathan's generous heart thrives as a holistic OBGYN who brings to the table not only allopathic medicine but also functional medicine, Chinese medicine, herbalism, and Ayurveda.  Based in Louisville, Kentucky - Dr. Nathan meets with patients locally and remotely to care for common OBGYN issues like pelvic pain, fertility issues, and abnormal periods.  He is one of the most diverse, exciting guests to ever appear on the Awesome Health Podcast. His fascinating spiritual approach to death is worth a listen alone. However, you will be blown away by his OBGYN insights as well.  But sure to hit that play button!  In this podcast, we cover: How Dr. Nathan ended up an OBGYN & hospice care physician together A profound experience Dr. Nathan had with birth and death in the same hour How a traumatic death affected Wade as a teenager Some wisdom on death from Dr. David Hawkins What is “informed consent,” and is the medical establishment still upholding this today? How patients and doctors can communicate better Why you need to ask your doctor questions  Why many couples deal with infertility and how Dr. Nathan treats this issue How eating this one thing can boost fertility How we face (or not face) mortality in our modern age: At one point in the conversation, Dr. Nathan shared this about his father: “If you've lost anybody close to you, you realize that there's this transition - this transformation of spirit. Getting older and having to face our mortality is something that we all have to do.” “If we treat death as a medical process - that's a failure of the modern medical model because we're not forced to contemplate our death.” “What happens is we're not forced to face mortality because we have this presumption that somebody's going to save us from this necessary transformation that happens at the end.” “For example, my dad - who died when I was in medical school from something called multiple myeloma - he was one of those rough and tough guys that didn't want to talk about emotions. He wasn't open to telling people he loved them…it was that generation of men that is emotionally unavailable.” “I worked with a palliative care group and he joined a palliative care group in my hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and they got him to open up about things and to really kind of reconcile like hey - this is something that's going to happen, and it's not something to be afraid of.” “And so the sacred nature of death started to emerge, for me, and then I ended up in medical school and then into residency experiencing birth and realizing - wow - there's something magical here.” 1000 Births & 1000 Deaths Dr. Nathan says he has experienced at least one thousand births and one thousand deaths through his medical practice.  Here is one big takeaway Dr. Nathan has found from this: “I've been to so many births and deaths - 1000 of each is what I tell people at least. I came to realize there's a spiritual component to this, and what a person needs from you during these scary times that are sacred rites of passage.” “These times can be blissful depending on how you approach it. As a doctor, what they need from you is somebody to see them and witness them. And then to acknowledge that we don't have a way of fixing this.”  “We can't fix your pregnancy or your birth. Your birth is going to unfold whether you like it or not. And your death is going to unfold, whether you like it or not.” “So what I'm trying to illustrate is that [birth and death] are two sides of the same coin. [Birth and death] are both equally transformative in spirit.” Dr. Nathan's unconventional medical practice is making waves in a good way. His unique perspective bringing birth (OBGYN) and death (hospice) together into one holistic medical approach offers many insights you rarely find in the specialist-obsessed allopathic healthcare model.  Hit that play button and check out this dynamic doctor who offers spirituality and a refreshing level of respect to his patients. Episode Resources:  Get 10% off of a consultation package of 10 hours or more using promo code WADE10 HERE Check out more about Dr. Nathan Riley at Beloved Holistics The Holistic OBGYN Podcast Nathan Riley OBGYN on Instagram

Discover the power of ‘Tonic Herbs' Our guest Scott Linde, Founder of Sun Potion Transformational Foods, boils down his entrepreneurial motivations to this simple fact: he enjoys feeling real good.  And he wants to share his health and wellness discoveries with others.  Growing up close to nature in Minnesota, Scott has a passion for tonic herbs that may be unrivaled.  Passion is why Sun Potion continues to grow in size, scope, and sales.  So what are ‘tonic herbs'? Why does Scott focus his business on tonic herbs and algae, greens, and mushrooms from all over the globe? And why does he refuse to cut corners with the Sun Potion product line - using stringent quality standards and purely organic ingredients?  After five minutes of tuning in, you will notice Scott's radiant positive energy and sharp mind. Like that lady in the movie When Harry Met Sally, you will say to yourself: “I'll have what he's having.”  By listening to this conversation between two health and wellness entrepreneurs, you can discover some new ways to shift your health in a positive direction. Tapping into these transformational foods is a key to radiant health.  In this podcast, we cover: Scott's story behind the launch and growth of Sun Potion The first products Scott started offering Overcoming obstacles and lessons learned while Scott built Sun Potion Serendipities experienced in health food stores (Wade & Scott) Scott's supplement recommendations during this pandemic season Scott's thoughts on the “authoritarian crisis” impacting the wellness community How Scott stays above the partisan divide and channels his energy into productive responses to pandemic-related conversations What got Scott interested in tonic herbs and starting a business: In his own words, here is how Scott describes to Wade his “why” to start Sun Potion: “What got me interested initially is I love feeling good. There's an aspect to this that is purely selfish. I enjoy feeling good.” “When I was a young person, I did a lot of extreme endurance sports that provide a lot of endorphins. Once I reached my 20s, I began learning through meditation teachers about tonic herbs.” “I started trying them out for myself, and it just turned on a light in my body. I was like, ‘oh, I love this. I'm into this. It's so cool.”  “It was like being in high school and blacking out at the finish line of every cross country race to go into that complete bliss, like straight to the godhead. An ecstatic, full sensory feeling.”  “That kind of contagious feeling - when you feel so good in your body - I began on my own looking around the industry and not finding what I was looking for. So I eventually realized this could be a project where I get to have fun and play with substances and aspects of nature that I enjoy. “I can make these things available to other people if they're interested. In the meantime, this project is fun for me. I'll put my attention and my service into growing a nice, positive gift to share with people.”  Why does Scott buy health products from other companies? Here's an interesting excerpt of something Scott tells Wade: “I love buying other people's products and have them around.” “I'll be honest; I don't necessarily always take them. But it's nice to get the vibe off of the products and feel them, and have them around.” “People come to my house - like, when women visit my home, they go into the bathroom, and they come out saying, “you have lots of natural products and body care things that are pretty impressive. I want to spend a couple of hours in your bathroom. LOL” “It's fun. Like a person who loves restoring cars, they will have a bunch of car things in their home. It's their passion.” “I have fun with wellness products.”  Scott goes into detail on his favorite tonic herbs. He also shows off his mushroom expertise - firing off a string of different fungi and their unique health properties. Scott is a gracious guest who gives away so much in this episode - including a surprise gift for Awesome Health Podcast listeners. You must check out this episode - a whole new world of tonics awaits you!  Episode Resources:  Get 15% off your Sun Potion order using promo code BIOPTIMIZERS HERE Check out more about Scott Linde & Sun Potion Sun Potion on Facebook Sun Potion on Instagram Sun Potion on YouTube

What a remarkable story.  Twenty years ago, our guest took a walk with her wife when her left leg suddenly stopped working correctly. The leg inexplicably lost most of its strength, causing Dr. Terry to hobble home confused. The next day, our guest was in a neurologist's office and heard these life-changing words: “Terry, this could be bad. Or, really, really bad.”  Over the next two weeks, Dr. Terry went through a battery of tests. During those two long weeks, she kept thinking about what her neurologist said - and prayed for a fatal diagnosis to avoid a life of disability.  Finally, the diagnosis came in: multiple sclerosis. Within three years, Dr. Terry found herself in a tilt-recline wheelchair, unable to sit up at her desk. This rapid deterioration occurred despite seeing the best specialists and taking the newest, cutting-edge medications.  Whether listening or watching on YoutTube, Dr. Terry's story on what happens next is jaw-dropping. Listen to get inspired. If you know someone with MS, please share this interview with them.  Because everything Dr. Terry shares is science-based. Fortunately for her (and ultimately for all of us), being a doctor with MS was a blessing in disguise. This enabled her to begin using the research skills she developed in her medical career to explore multiple sclerosis and search for possibilities. During her journey, Dr. Terry became a functional doctor through the Functional Medicine Certified Practitioner program. She is also a longtime clinical professor of medicine at the University of Iowa, conducting clinical trials. In 2018, Dr. Terry won the Institute for Functional Medicine's Linus Pauling Award for her research, clinical care, and patient care.    She is also the author of The Wahls Protocol: A Radical Way to Treat All Chronic Autoimmune Conditions Using Paleo Principles, and The Wahls Protocol: Cooking for Life.   How did Dr. Terry go from being in a wheelchair to riding her bike to work each day? How did she overcome MS and restore her health?  Tune in and find out!     In this podcast, we cover: Dr. Terry's emotional story What is multiple sclerosis? That moment her entire family cried tears of joy  Dr. Terry's profound “A-ha” moment The dietary changes involved in her breakthrough How meditation played a role in Dr. Terry's recovery Dr. Terry's exciting clinical trials The emotional struggles of losing your ability to run, ride a bike, or hike How Terry's partner dealt with her MS  How to bring more innovation to the medical industry A Funny Moment that Shocked Her Doctors For a long time during her illness with MS, Dr. Terry saw her neurologist every six months.  As her condition turned around and she found herself in a much better place, Dr. Terry called her neurologist's office. “There's been a big change! I should really see a physician.” Wanting to see her that day, Dr. Terry said, no, I want to come on Friday. Despite their protests, she waited till Friday. “So I walk in, and I'm not in my tilt recline wheelchair. I'm in the waiting area, and the nurse comes out. She's got a chart, and she's looking around, and I realized she is looking for me.” “So I stand up and go, ‘Hey, Cindy! Over here!' She is like, ‘Oh my God, you're walking!” My physician is thrilled, and he says the same thing, ‘Oh my God! You're walking!'” Those Who Disrupt the Status Quo Face Ridicule and Criticism Over the time since she defied her prognosis and went on to clinically test her theories and positively change the lives of others suffering from MS, plenty of tomatoes get hurled at Dr. Terry.  Here is a snippet of what Dr. Terry said about her critics: “Anyone who is truly innovative is going to draw ire because it's very uncomfortable to have to abandon constructs of how you understand the world.” “I don't want to do that. You don't want to do that. None of us do. So I don't think it's possible to have innovation without facing ridicule and rejection at first.”  “And then your new ideas either pan out or are suppressed. So you keep doing the experiments.”   One of the most profound episodes of the Awesome Health Podcast, Dr. Terry's personal story from an MS diagnosis back to feeling good again, is truly astonishing. But what makes this even more startling is the fact that this happened to a medical doctor, a clinical professor, who has gone on to show the medical community a whole new way of looking at MS. Many people get results through Dr. Terry's breakthrough work and will continue to do so as she continues her research at the University of Iowa. Check out this episode - discover a groundbreaking approach to multiple sclerosis. Episode Resources:  Check out more about Terry Wahls, MD  FREE GIFT: Pick up a one-page handout for the Wahl's Diet Clinical Trial in Sage Journals Terry Wahls M.D. on YouTube Dr. Terry Wahls on Instagram Terry Wahls MD on Facebook Dr. Terry Wahls on Twitter Read The Episode Transcript: 1 00:01:24.930 --> 00:01:25.140 Oh. 2 00:03:43.620 --> 00:03:44.700 Wade Lightheart: hi Terry how are you doing. 3 00:03:45.150 --> 00:03:46.320 Terry Wahls: Excellent how are you. 4 00:03:46.860 --> 00:03:52.530 Wade Lightheart: Excellent i'm so excited to have you here today it's so great, for you, James Where are you calling in from. 5 00:03:53.370 --> 00:03:55.170 Terry Wahls: A client from iowa city iowa. 6 00:03:55.560 --> 00:03:59.040 Wade Lightheart: Okay okay so great, where the papers have been published. 7 00:04:01.260 --> 00:04:17.310 Wade Lightheart: But I had the pleasure of reviewing beforehand before we get started, I just want to go through a couple of quick things is there any particular areas that you'd like to talk about today, or is important to kind of cue you up to mention. 8 00:04:18.210 --> 00:04:20.730 Terry Wahls: US remind me who your audiences. 9 00:04:21.030 --> 00:04:24.900 Wade Lightheart: So our audience is people who are looking at. 10 00:04:26.190 --> 00:04:35.640 Wade Lightheart: We call biological optimization they're leveraging technology and nutritional supplementation exercise fitness all that sort of stuff to address. 11 00:04:36.150 --> 00:04:42.720 Wade Lightheart: How do they improve their health, how do they you know live a healthier life, a better life that sort of stuff and we bring different people from. 12 00:04:43.350 --> 00:04:50.820 Wade Lightheart: Every possible background to address the importance of diet, nutrition and how they can improve the quality of their life or their family members. 13 00:04:51.420 --> 00:05:15.510 Terry Wahls: Okay, so our recent research will be launching another study here shortly we're very close to having that approved in, then I have a seminar next year and so it's a four part series and get the whole seminar or they could just get the last one, which is all about healthy aging. 14 00:05:16.530 --> 00:05:17.280 Wade Lightheart: Oh wow. 15 00:05:20.910 --> 00:05:21.360 Wade Lightheart: and 16 00:05:23.820 --> 00:05:28.530 Wade Lightheart: will probably going to your story, because I think it's super inspirational and. 17 00:05:28.890 --> 00:05:32.460 Terry Wahls: Oh yeah I should tell my story people yeah so how much time do we have. 18 00:05:32.730 --> 00:05:39.510 Wade Lightheart: Well, the year actually the defining component on it so that was my next question is, do you have any hard stops there, and like. 19 00:05:39.900 --> 00:05:46.170 Terry Wahls: I probably do so let me look at my calendar now because my team keeps this going. 20 00:05:47.430 --> 00:05:52.680 Terry Wahls: So it looks like 1230 is absolutely hard stop. 21 00:05:53.430 --> 00:06:00.030 Wade Lightheart: Okay, great well let's get you guys are two hours difference in iowa then over here on the west coast right. 22 00:06:01.350 --> 00:06:03.570 Terry Wahls: yeah, it is now 11. 23 00:06:04.290 --> 00:06:05.220 Terry Wahls: Before four. 24 00:06:05.640 --> 00:06:16.440 Wade Lightheart: Perfect alright, so I will do my little razzle dazzle introduction and then we'll get into we'll get into this as soon as you're ready to go. 25 00:06:17.310 --> 00:06:17.850 Wade Lightheart: Okay. 26 00:06:18.300 --> 00:06:19.980 Terry Wahls: I get settled, we are good. 27 00:06:20.700 --> 00:06:21.210 Okay. 28 00:06:22.530 --> 00:06:33.900 Wade Lightheart: Okay, for our recording team, we will start the podcast here in 321. 29 00:06:34.710 --> 00:06:51.810 Wade Lightheart: Good morning, good afternoon and good evening it's way too light heart from by optimizer with another edition of the awesome health podcast and today we have Dr Terry walls joining us, and this is a really exciting and important. 30 00:06:53.400 --> 00:07:09.000 Wade Lightheart: audio recording video recording if you're watching it on YouTube because Dr Terry walls has a very unique story, first of all, she is in the Institute of functional medicine certified practitioner in a clinical professor of medicine at the University of iowa. 31 00:07:09.270 --> 00:07:22.560 Wade Lightheart: where she conducts clinical trials in 2018 she was awarded the Institute for functional medicines Linus Pauling Award for her contributions and research clinical care and patient advocacy. 32 00:07:23.040 --> 00:07:29.160 Wade Lightheart: she's also a patient with the secondary progressive multiple sclerosis sclerosis sclerosis sorry. 33 00:07:29.760 --> 00:07:38.250 Wade Lightheart: I have a hard time saying that sometimes we're going to say that again she is also a patient with secondary progressive multiple cirrhosis. 34 00:07:38.640 --> 00:07:47.310 Wade Lightheart: Which couldn't find her to a tilt recline wheelchair for four years walls restored her health. 35 00:07:47.730 --> 00:07:56.790 Wade Lightheart: Using a diet and lifestyle program she designed specifically for her brain and now pedals her bike to work every. 36 00:07:57.210 --> 00:08:09.870 Wade Lightheart: Each day she's the author of the walls protocol a radical new way to treat all chronic autoimmune conditions, using Paleo principles and the cookbook the walls protocol cooking for life. 37 00:08:10.350 --> 00:08:25.050 Wade Lightheart: learn more about her Ms clinical trials at http PS, you know that colon slash slash walls w H l s dot lab diet you I O w a.edu. 38 00:08:25.560 --> 00:08:40.680 Wade Lightheart: Forward slash.we will have the links to this, I just had a chance there, Dr Terry to look at that trial and it's extraordinary you have an extraordinary story, I mean you know I had. 39 00:08:41.610 --> 00:08:56.520 Wade Lightheart: Some a relative that suffered from multiple sclerosis, and it is a very progressive in kind of depressing condition of it's in so many people suffer suffer from it. 40 00:08:56.970 --> 00:09:06.450 Wade Lightheart: I was actually Member when I was in elementary school, we did fundraising for multiple sclerosis research, and I remember I. 41 00:09:06.780 --> 00:09:15.780 Wade Lightheart: raised a bunch of funds and I got this little green little puppy dog as a prize for my for my work is again, I was very proud of that, because that was the first time I was. 42 00:09:16.170 --> 00:09:31.590 Wade Lightheart: introduced to the importance of research around degenerative conditions, and you have kind of spearheaded not only your own recovery, but also some extraordinary research in this area, can you talk about your journey that led you to this. 43 00:09:31.830 --> 00:09:32.220 sure. 44 00:09:33.360 --> 00:09:47.520 Terry Wahls: So when I was 20 years ago i'm out walking with my wife and my left leg gross week on dry unit a humble home next day, I see the neurologist who says, you know Terry this could be bad or really, really bad. 45 00:09:48.240 --> 00:10:01.080 Terry Wahls: So the next two weeks, while i'm thinking going through the workup I think about bad in really, really bad I, and I don't want to be disabled so actually i'm praying for a fatal diagnosis. 46 00:10:02.100 --> 00:10:09.630 Terry Wahls: Two weeks later, I hear multiple sclerosis, I see the best people take the no drugs three years later I hear totally fine wheelchair. 47 00:10:10.530 --> 00:10:26.400 Terry Wahls: I take my de Santo infusions than ties IV infusions nothing helps I am too weak to set up at my desk my zingers do the trigeminal neuralgia electoral jolts of pain, are more frequent more severe more difficult to turn off. 48 00:10:27.870 --> 00:10:33.090 Terry Wahls: Fortunately i'm a physician, so I go to the basic science, I began reading. 49 00:10:34.140 --> 00:10:47.910 Terry Wahls: And experiment, the based on what i'm reading I developed theory that mitochondria are a big driver, particularly in the more progressive decline and so At first I work on supplements. 50 00:10:49.200 --> 00:11:01.350 Terry Wahls: speed of my declined slows, then I discovered study using electrical stimulation muscles I convinced my physical therapist so let me try that my test session hurts like hell, but when it's over I feel great. 51 00:11:02.520 --> 00:11:15.450 Terry Wahls: I, and so my therapist lets me add East him to my workouts I discovered the Institute for functional medicine, I take their course on neuro protection, I have more supplements that i'm taking. 52 00:11:16.770 --> 00:11:31.170 Terry Wahls: In, then I have a really big Aha and sort of in retrospect wait i'm like dear God how That takes me so long to think about this i'm like what if I redesign my Paleo diet that i'd been following for last five years. 53 00:11:32.520 --> 00:11:40.350 Terry Wahls: Based on all the science i've been reading the nutrients that i've said, are important if taking supplements, what if I figure out where they are in the food supply. 54 00:11:41.370 --> 00:11:43.020 Terry Wahls: So redesign my Paleo diet. 55 00:11:45.120 --> 00:12:01.440 Terry Wahls: And it's stunning three months later, my zingers of 27 years are gone my fatigue is gone and my physical therapist says Terry you're getting stronger it begins advancing exercise. 56 00:12:03.090 --> 00:12:03.600 Terry Wahls: and 57 00:12:04.620 --> 00:12:07.680 Terry Wahls: Three months after that I am walking without a cane. 58 00:12:09.000 --> 00:12:10.560 Terry Wahls: Three months after that. 59 00:12:15.240 --> 00:12:15.570 Terry Wahls: I. 60 00:12:17.190 --> 00:12:18.150 Terry Wahls: got on my bike. 61 00:12:19.290 --> 00:12:25.860 Terry Wahls: For the first time in six years with my son zach jogging alongside in the left my daughter's tab on the right. 62 00:12:27.240 --> 00:12:29.310 Terry Wahls: And my wife behind. 63 00:12:30.900 --> 00:12:43.140 Terry Wahls: I biked around the block for the first time, you know everyone's crying my kids are crying my wife's crying i'm crying if you could see my face you'd see that i'm crying because that. 64 00:12:45.090 --> 00:12:56.460 Terry Wahls: That was the moment where I understood that the current understanding of multiple sclerosis was incomplete and who knew how much recovery might be possible. 65 00:12:57.660 --> 00:12:58.140 Terry Wahls: and 66 00:12:59.760 --> 00:13:02.070 Terry Wahls: You know it's about five months after that. 67 00:13:03.780 --> 00:13:13.170 Terry Wahls: Then I completed an 18.5 mile bike ride with my family and once again roll cry you know my kids are crying my wife's crying i'm crying. 68 00:13:13.980 --> 00:13:30.840 Terry Wahls: If this really transforms how I think about disease and health, it will transform the way I practice medicine and it transforms the focus of my research, I and we've done five clinical trials. 69 00:13:32.010 --> 00:13:46.560 Terry Wahls: We hopefully we'll be talking about most recent one we've got a couple more trials that will be getting launched here momentarily I and i've gone from being this. 70 00:13:48.570 --> 00:13:56.070 Terry Wahls: sort of unusual eccentric person that was roundly condemned by many in the Ms community. 71 00:13:57.540 --> 00:14:02.400 Terry Wahls: To be now are respected dietary intervention research. 72 00:14:03.930 --> 00:14:18.720 Terry Wahls: In the Ms community and really changing the whole discussion that diet and lifestyle are in should be an essential part of the care plan for me every Ms patient. 73 00:14:20.190 --> 00:14:28.500 Wade Lightheart: is profound first off your story is incredible and I can see why that would be activating so emotional because you know. 74 00:14:29.040 --> 00:14:39.990 Wade Lightheart: there's two two parts to it, one you're not just someone with a diagnosis you're someone with a medical background, so you understand the progressive degeneration, and what that's going to look like over a period of time. 75 00:14:40.590 --> 00:15:02.070 Wade Lightheart: Based on prior research, you were of all the medications the interactions the contraindications all that sort of stuff and then you go off and kind of do some your own experiments and start reversing what is generally believed to be a and reversible condition is that not. 76 00:15:02.220 --> 00:15:04.140 Terry Wahls: Correct no absolutely and. 77 00:15:04.650 --> 00:15:13.380 Terry Wahls: I want to be clear at the time that I was doing all of this, all of my physicians my primary care doc's all of the various neurologists i've seen. 78 00:15:13.770 --> 00:15:26.490 Terry Wahls: were very clear MS is a progressive disease, the whole point three says Wayne and I was thrilled to take these incredibly toxic compounds that I knew had at a rate of causing. 79 00:15:27.990 --> 00:15:36.150 Terry Wahls: leukemia to percentage time you took it because I was, and I was already seriously disabled I didn't want to become even more disabled so. 80 00:15:36.600 --> 00:15:51.450 Terry Wahls: I was happy to take very toxic drugs that may be very l in an effort to slow my decline, because this was all about slowing the decline it as I improve, so my my face pain is gone first time in 27 years. 81 00:15:52.140 --> 00:16:00.090 Terry Wahls: My fatigue is gone first time in seven years i'm walking again around the hospital and then around the block. 82 00:16:02.220 --> 00:16:09.930 Terry Wahls: But you know I don't know what it means, and in part of what you you do when you have a progressive neurological disorder. 83 00:16:11.490 --> 00:16:24.090 Terry Wahls: Is you learn to let go of the future right and take each day as an adult and that's a very healthy coping strategies so here I am. 84 00:16:25.140 --> 00:16:36.750 Terry Wahls: i've let go the future I don't know what it means i'm clearly at a different place than I was a month ago, or ios six months earlier but I don't know what it means I don't know. 85 00:16:38.070 --> 00:16:39.330 Terry Wahls: You know I didn't know what it means. 86 00:16:41.370 --> 00:16:42.780 Terry Wahls: until the day I rode my bike. 87 00:16:43.620 --> 00:16:44.310 Wade Lightheart: mm hmm. 88 00:16:44.940 --> 00:16:54.510 Terry Wahls: And that's when I understood in my heart and my bones, that the current understanding of Ms was wrong and that. 89 00:16:57.000 --> 00:17:03.240 Terry Wahls: I was recovering and who knew how much recovery might be possible. 90 00:17:04.770 --> 00:17:18.150 Terry Wahls: You know i'll to note sort of funny story I in this happened, the month previous pay and seen my neurologist you know access home every six months. 91 00:17:18.630 --> 00:17:33.000 Terry Wahls: And I called the office to say you know there's been a big change I should really see a physician, so they were happy to see me that day as well, oh no, I want to come on Friday so know if there's a big change, we should not wait till Friday Friday i'll be fine. 92 00:17:34.680 --> 00:17:40.740 Terry Wahls: So you know I go in I i've walked in so i'm not in my total Klein wheelchair i've seen in the office. 93 00:17:41.340 --> 00:17:54.240 Terry Wahls: In the waiting area and my the nurse comes out and she's got a chart she's looking around and I realized oh I bet she's looking for me and i'm not in the wheelchair, so I stand up go hey. 94 00:17:55.620 --> 00:17:57.750 Terry Wahls: Cindy over here, and she goes. 95 00:18:01.320 --> 00:18:04.140 Terry Wahls: And I was like oh my God you're walking. 96 00:18:05.730 --> 00:18:09.990 Terry Wahls: And so yeah I see my position is like oh my God you're walking. 97 00:18:11.130 --> 00:18:22.680 Terry Wahls: he's thrilled you're showing what I might East him, you know what i'm doing he still the startup got to get your MRI and see what's going on and. 98 00:18:23.760 --> 00:18:28.830 Terry Wahls: we're both quite surprised there's no change on the MRI and it comes back and says, you know. 99 00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:35.880 Terry Wahls: Of course there's no changing them right, these are old lesions they haven't been active in a long time to still that active. 100 00:18:37.080 --> 00:18:42.360 Terry Wahls: But what you clearly have done is you have rewired your brain. 101 00:18:43.380 --> 00:18:55.950 Terry Wahls: You are we miley and the MRI can't capture that but your body clearly has rewired in re function your brain and your spinal cord. 102 00:18:56.700 --> 00:19:12.300 Wade Lightheart: Can you explain to our listeners just what multiple sclerosis is so that they understand what it what it what it is what and then this breakthrough that you've. 103 00:19:12.300 --> 00:19:14.400 Wade Lightheart: Experienced why that's so profound. 104 00:19:14.850 --> 00:19:31.740 Terry Wahls: So it's a autoimmune process where your immune cells are attacking your spinal cord in your brain first we said it was just the installation the mile and part now realized in fact that they're killing all sorts of parts of your brain astrocytes have been damaged. 105 00:19:33.000 --> 00:19:43.290 Terry Wahls: glial cells are being damaged neurons are being damaged axon to being damaged there are these acute inflammation episodes so as a call to relapses that gradually improve. 106 00:19:43.980 --> 00:20:05.520 Terry Wahls: In addition, in the background, this is slow, steady deterioration brain bind spinal cord shrinkage that is lit that is associated with that cognitive decline we're seeing disability that from which people do not recover so and I clearly have a lot of fatigue. 107 00:20:06.600 --> 00:20:18.180 Terry Wahls: Had was being to have some cognitive decline in you know, had had severe severe disability, I could not sit up in a regular chair like I am right now, at that point. 108 00:20:20.310 --> 00:20:21.300 Terry Wahls: And so. 109 00:20:23.310 --> 00:20:28.650 Terry Wahls: What what my neurologist said very clearly is I had rewired. 110 00:20:32.580 --> 00:20:39.810 Terry Wahls: My brain and my spinal cord we didn't really have the technology that could have measured mile and production. 111 00:20:41.490 --> 00:20:55.530 Terry Wahls: And so unfair, unfortunately, we had not sent me over to the neuro ophthalmologist to get something called flicker fusion if we had the product if they had done that previously and now. 112 00:20:56.040 --> 00:21:07.110 Terry Wahls: They probably would be able to measure the remote island nation there, and my optic nerves, but you know we didn't have it, because there's no reason to think you know it's going to be any modulation occurring. 113 00:21:07.560 --> 00:21:24.300 Wade Lightheart: Right and that's an important distinction, I think, for people to recognize is now that you've you've demonstrated that it's possible well, we can start designing divine developing and designing trials about how to measure this to see which might well. 114 00:21:24.870 --> 00:21:30.870 Terry Wahls: Right and that the end that's what we're doing so, the next trial that we're doing. 115 00:21:32.160 --> 00:21:36.840 Terry Wahls: Well, maybe talk about the trial that we just published and then we'll talk about the next one. 116 00:21:36.870 --> 00:21:40.290 Wade Lightheart: yeah let's let's do that let's we're getting ahead of ourselves here because it's so. 117 00:21:40.290 --> 00:21:51.690 Wade Lightheart: exciting I just read through this trial now basically if you want to kind of outline what you've been able to put forth here in this in this discovery or. 118 00:21:52.230 --> 00:21:55.080 Terry Wahls: The sequence of doing research ghost. 119 00:21:55.440 --> 00:22:07.980 Terry Wahls: Typically, like this, an interesting case study, then an interesting case series about a intervention that may be changes it leads to an unexpected outcome. 120 00:22:08.670 --> 00:22:17.730 Terry Wahls: We then did what's called a single arm safety and feasibility study so and that was my chair medicine that got me to do this. 121 00:22:18.420 --> 00:22:29.430 Terry Wahls: We wrote up a protocol that outlined what I did for myself and then we enrolled 20 folks with secondary and primary progressive Ms. 122 00:22:29.790 --> 00:22:40.350 Terry Wahls: Sure, expect any of them to get any better, and the fact of all you can do is hold them flat, as a group that would be an amazing home run and anybody improve that would be studying. 123 00:22:41.850 --> 00:22:54.570 Terry Wahls: So we enrolled them we showed that people could implement it if the big the big side effect weight was if you're overweight or obese you lost weight get back to a healthy weight. 124 00:22:56.280 --> 00:23:10.260 Terry Wahls: And I had to file reports every three months about the weight loss that was occurring fatigue reduced quality of life, improved in half of our folks motor function walking function improved. 125 00:23:11.280 --> 00:23:17.730 Terry Wahls: So 50% of the people start to see improvements in motor function function that that's really quite remarkable. 126 00:23:18.210 --> 00:23:23.610 Terry Wahls: cognition improved depression declined anxiety declined. 127 00:23:24.090 --> 00:23:30.870 Wade Lightheart: Now, where was in that trial, where you just measuring dietary changes or Where are you adding the. 128 00:23:30.870 --> 00:23:31.800 Terry Wahls: stimulation well. 129 00:23:31.920 --> 00:23:32.490 Terry Wahls: You know. 130 00:23:33.330 --> 00:23:47.400 Terry Wahls: We, the program was to do could they do everything that I did so there was diet, there was meditation those exercise electro stimulation and supplements very complicated. 131 00:23:48.480 --> 00:23:50.760 Terry Wahls: In severely criticized I might get. 132 00:23:51.750 --> 00:23:53.070 Terry Wahls: Really criticize because. 133 00:23:53.460 --> 00:23:56.850 Terry Wahls: Well, if it works, who knows what the mechanism is and i'm like. 134 00:23:57.330 --> 00:24:06.360 Terry Wahls: Who cares cares first, you have to show, can they do it, and do you heard them and does it work, then you could do follow up studies to figure out the mechanisms. 135 00:24:06.840 --> 00:24:25.800 Terry Wahls: Yes, so so get that first study, then we got some again it was a small small study funded by my friends and Canada, the next study again small pilot study now randomized and simplified so it's just a diet. 136 00:24:26.970 --> 00:24:34.320 Terry Wahls: And we did relapsing remitting folks we looked at fatigue, quality of life and motor function so again people could do it. 137 00:24:35.460 --> 00:24:43.110 Terry Wahls: Safe and less fatigue higher quality of life better motor function. 138 00:24:44.490 --> 00:24:46.440 Terry Wahls: Then we did a comparison of. 139 00:24:47.910 --> 00:24:55.800 Terry Wahls: The Paleo diet, the ketogenic diet to usual diet and again showing that people could do it, it was safe well tolerated. 140 00:24:57.540 --> 00:25:01.320 Terry Wahls: The next study, which is a study that you read. 141 00:25:02.490 --> 00:25:10.620 Terry Wahls: Looked at the low saturated fat diet, which is a swank diet and that was the only other diet that was out there for. 142 00:25:11.970 --> 00:25:14.730 Terry Wahls: people with MS and the modified Paleo diet. 143 00:25:16.320 --> 00:25:32.790 Terry Wahls: We had a 12 week observation phase where we looked at people's all of the measures over that baseline period that run in period to see if they were stable or not, and they were then we randomize them. 144 00:25:34.080 --> 00:25:38.280 Terry Wahls: To either the low saturated fat diet, or the modified Paleo diet. 145 00:25:39.480 --> 00:25:48.840 Terry Wahls: They came back at 12 weeks repeated all the measures and came back again in 12 weeks repeated all the measures, so we had 12 and 24 weeks worth of intervention. 146 00:25:50.640 --> 00:25:55.500 Terry Wahls: were able to show is both sides were associated with a significant reduction fatigue. 147 00:25:56.880 --> 00:25:59.040 Terry Wahls: And improvement in quality of life. 148 00:26:00.270 --> 00:26:15.660 Terry Wahls: was being and they're really pretty cool in at 12 weeks at 24 weeks walls had greater poverty reduction in some measures and higher quality of life than swank and some measures. 149 00:26:17.010 --> 00:26:18.090 Wade Lightheart: Now that's physical abuse. 150 00:26:18.120 --> 00:26:20.520 Wade Lightheart: that's the reduced fat the saturated. 151 00:26:20.550 --> 00:26:20.910 Right. 152 00:26:22.170 --> 00:26:26.610 Wade Lightheart: And why is it, why is that do you understand why that mechanism is. 153 00:26:26.790 --> 00:26:35.010 Terry Wahls: Well, so let's first think about what the two diets have that similar and what is different. 154 00:26:35.070 --> 00:26:36.330 Wade Lightheart: Uniform I love that pro. 155 00:26:36.390 --> 00:26:40.650 Terry Wahls: Okay, so what's similar we had. 156 00:26:41.790 --> 00:26:55.830 Terry Wahls: Increased fruits and vegetables in both walls had more fruits and vegetables and swag, but we also increase fruits and vegetables, compared to baseline in there was less sugar less hydrogenated fats. 157 00:26:57.120 --> 00:27:01.350 Terry Wahls: So less of those are harmful fats in both that. 158 00:27:02.580 --> 00:27:14.520 Terry Wahls: Now what is different yeah actually you're both walls and sway had a so the swank group had on average about 10 grams of saturated fat. 159 00:27:15.810 --> 00:27:26.130 Terry Wahls: The walls had on average 16 grams of saturated fat so both diets are relatively low in saturated fat swank being a little more so than the walls. 160 00:27:27.570 --> 00:27:47.790 Terry Wahls: The walls group had more fiber had more fermented foods, I had little more structure the vegetables more green green leafy vegetables more sulfur rich vegetables more deeply colored vegetables and probably a greater variety of fruits and vegetables and a greater variety of meats. 161 00:27:49.980 --> 00:27:59.010 Terry Wahls: What are the market as well, we were working on a grant that will get submitted tomorrow that's going to look at. 162 00:28:00.120 --> 00:28:15.090 Terry Wahls: Changes in the microbiome well between the running face, that is, the observation face in the diet intervention face, so we can see how that changes both the swank died in the walls night we'll get some biomarkers. 163 00:28:16.110 --> 00:28:22.980 Terry Wahls: In terms of the essential fatty acid metabolism and neural filaments a marker of. 164 00:28:24.990 --> 00:28:36.780 Terry Wahls: of brain cell damage in osteopontin a marker of metabolism and of inflammation and actually also. 165 00:28:37.980 --> 00:28:39.300 Terry Wahls: bone metabolism as well. 166 00:28:41.310 --> 00:28:52.650 Terry Wahls: And will correlate changes with dietary changes and changes with clinical outcomes as well, so we'll begin to tease out. 167 00:28:54.000 --> 00:29:05.220 Terry Wahls: what's the mechanism of diet that yo it diet is is a huge driver in changes in the microbiome so so my interpretation is. 168 00:29:07.650 --> 00:29:11.880 Terry Wahls: We ever genetic vulnerability, we have our existing microbiome. 169 00:29:13.380 --> 00:29:19.920 Terry Wahls: In the two of them interact to create more inflammation at the higher risk of autoimmunity and accelerated aging. 170 00:29:21.480 --> 00:29:28.530 Terry Wahls: You change your diet you fertilize and starve out different populations of the microbiome. 171 00:29:29.700 --> 00:29:42.480 Terry Wahls: And so, should I or I path deciding we starve out disease, promoting microbes fertilize health marine microbes who then as they eat up the food that we eat create. 172 00:29:43.800 --> 00:29:51.300 Terry Wahls: The these anti inflammation compounds that get into our bloodstream and have a favorable impact on our physiology. 173 00:29:52.350 --> 00:30:02.970 Wade Lightheart: You know it's interesting that you've discovered that because we've been in digestive health research, we have a partnership with birch University in Croatia and we develop. 174 00:30:03.900 --> 00:30:11.970 Wade Lightheart: A variety of probiotic agents in order to elicit the same effects, and we do all kinds of interesting tests we add vitamins to them, we give them. 175 00:30:12.270 --> 00:30:23.370 Wade Lightheart: Different types of food we blast them with EMF waves, sometimes we do we'd all kinds of things to do this research to see and we've come to the same conclusion that if you can. 176 00:30:23.940 --> 00:30:30.210 Wade Lightheart: feed the good guys and starve the bad guys we see positive progressive changes. 177 00:30:30.720 --> 00:30:38.460 Wade Lightheart: That enhance well being enhanced health or like vitality immune system response these type of things and it's really exciting. 178 00:30:38.880 --> 00:30:44.610 Wade Lightheart: That you've done this in a disease state because we're obviously we're in health promotion. 179 00:30:45.540 --> 00:30:54.000 Wade Lightheart: we've got a recent book called from sick to superhuman and our goal is to promote the individuals, the therapies, the research. 180 00:30:54.540 --> 00:31:06.210 Wade Lightheart: That it takes people who might have a diagnosis that says here's what it's going to be it's the end of the line for you it's going to be progressive degenerative you're going to take these toxic chemicals and drugs and whatever and then. 181 00:31:06.600 --> 00:31:25.140 Wade Lightheart: you're going to kind of waste away to say hey no, you know what there are other options that you can take and experienced a higher quality of life, at best, or worst and maybe even recover from your condition or or delay it's it's a you know its destructive nature. 182 00:31:25.620 --> 00:31:31.020 Terry Wahls: You know it my clinical practice in our clinical research week we talked a lot about. 183 00:31:32.220 --> 00:31:51.300 Terry Wahls: Maintaining your locus of control reflect on are you doing all that you can to have the best life today and in the future, and so I just think that is so important to remind people that you always have choices. 184 00:31:52.740 --> 00:31:59.700 Terry Wahls: That you know what i'm eating is a big choice, yet, so I can eat. 185 00:32:00.720 --> 00:32:06.660 Terry Wahls: food that is delicious and health, promoting work eat food that is delicious and disease, promoting. 186 00:32:10.860 --> 00:32:11.880 Wade Lightheart: it's very simple. 187 00:32:13.500 --> 00:32:25.080 Wade Lightheart: I want to talk about something that I think is really important, before we get into some more topics and you mentioned meditation and you, you mentioned. 188 00:32:25.920 --> 00:32:30.690 Wade Lightheart: kind of letting go of the future, in other words just dealing with things as they come up, which is. 189 00:32:31.110 --> 00:32:45.720 Wade Lightheart: kind of mindful Buddhist almost practice of being in the moment and seeing the moment unfold into that and not getting ahead of yourself or behind yourself What role do you think that played in maybe. 190 00:32:46.950 --> 00:33:03.300 Wade Lightheart: How you approach this discoveries that you made management of kind of you know, negative thinking or you know that sort of like how important was that do you think to your recovery or your your your discoveries. 191 00:33:03.630 --> 00:33:09.570 Terry Wahls: You know what else diagnosed my children are quite small five and eight. 192 00:33:10.680 --> 00:33:30.360 Terry Wahls: And at the time that I was diagnosed, I was still athletic still skiing biking and hiking with them, but very quickly, I cannot do that you know, I was having to reimagine parenting and as having to reimagine my life, each year, as more functions were being taken away. 193 00:33:31.410 --> 00:33:31.980 Terry Wahls: I. 194 00:33:32.040 --> 00:33:34.320 Wade Lightheart: Is what was that, like just. 195 00:33:34.470 --> 00:33:36.570 Wade Lightheart: From an emotional and psychological level. 196 00:33:37.980 --> 00:33:38.310 Terry Wahls: well. 197 00:33:40.470 --> 00:33:43.410 Terry Wahls: It was certainly incredibly challenging. 198 00:33:44.550 --> 00:33:45.030 Terry Wahls: i've. 199 00:33:46.110 --> 00:34:07.860 Terry Wahls: All my life I struggled with depression and, as a young person I had made the astute observation that for me if I was athletic my mood was much, much better I and so that drove me to get into biking hiking running. 200 00:34:08.940 --> 00:34:16.350 Terry Wahls: martial arts and then, as I was losing that it's like you know that was very, very tough. 201 00:34:17.610 --> 00:34:19.590 Terry Wahls: And thinking about. 202 00:34:23.040 --> 00:34:30.120 Terry Wahls: Is sort of very depressed out looking at okay how bad could this be was I going to be filtered Bob. 203 00:34:31.140 --> 00:34:35.190 Terry Wahls: Was I going to have cognitive issues and then. 204 00:34:36.480 --> 00:34:40.140 Terry Wahls: yeah you know within three years, you know, should I was wheelchair bound. 205 00:34:42.270 --> 00:34:46.170 Terry Wahls: In the average it's 15 years, so I was. 206 00:34:48.840 --> 00:34:51.090 Terry Wahls: extremely difficult. 207 00:34:52.830 --> 00:34:55.440 Terry Wahls: But I also fortunately. 208 00:34:56.550 --> 00:34:57.690 Terry Wahls: was impressed by. 209 00:34:58.740 --> 00:35:00.300 Terry Wahls: Victor frankel's book that. 210 00:35:01.380 --> 00:35:10.110 Terry Wahls: Between every event in your life and your response to it there's a space in that space, you can make a choice and it's the choice that defines your character. 211 00:35:12.720 --> 00:35:22.440 Terry Wahls: And so my choice was Okay, you have two young kids who are watching what you're doing and my choice to give up. 212 00:35:23.580 --> 00:35:31.680 Terry Wahls: And succumb to my depression and the dark thoughts that I had would be modeling on life is tough you you give up. 213 00:35:32.760 --> 00:35:37.170 Terry Wahls: Or, I could make the choice of i'm going to do all that I can. 214 00:35:38.280 --> 00:35:47.820 Terry Wahls: In which was, I want to keep working out whatever my limited workout is going to be every day i'll keep going to work in they're going to have to have chores. 215 00:35:49.050 --> 00:36:06.660 Terry Wahls: You know I grew up on a farm I understood that chores were really very beneficial for children and young people growing up, and so my wife right said, your kids will have to have chores and, of course, as I became more disabled like it yep they have chores and they have. 216 00:36:08.640 --> 00:36:13.680 Terry Wahls: It really is real work that needed to happen, I and so. 217 00:36:14.940 --> 00:36:22.980 Terry Wahls: that's sort of would chuckle like Okay, I guess, God heard me and I said, my kids need to have chores and saw to it that they were going to have chores. 218 00:36:25.020 --> 00:36:31.260 Wade Lightheart: Viktor frankl has impacted so many people in the book man's search for meaning I think it's. 219 00:36:31.650 --> 00:36:32.700 Terry Wahls: Really striking found. 220 00:36:33.270 --> 00:36:44.340 Wade Lightheart: I want to extend one other piece to this because, to your partner and i'm sure you had plenty of candid discussions inside of that what was like that for you and what was your best. 221 00:36:45.660 --> 00:36:46.830 Wade Lightheart: Observation of what that. 222 00:36:46.830 --> 00:36:47.940 Wade Lightheart: was her. 223 00:36:49.170 --> 00:36:50.640 Terry Wahls: Well, I remember. 224 00:36:52.710 --> 00:37:11.310 Terry Wahls: She worked really hard at getting me to get to go out and do things so she loves mountain biking and took me in my wheelchair out to the park set set me up under the tree well she what mountain biking so. 225 00:37:12.900 --> 00:37:22.860 Terry Wahls: much bigger deal for her, and then it came back and helps me walk down to the water's edge and. 226 00:37:24.090 --> 00:37:25.140 Terry Wahls: got in the water, but. 227 00:37:27.720 --> 00:37:39.000 Terry Wahls: You know, a wonderful commitment just another example, all that she had done for me and then, when she was out mountain biking in the winter. 228 00:37:40.620 --> 00:37:42.690 Terry Wahls: She broke her ankle. 229 00:37:43.800 --> 00:37:46.020 Terry Wahls: It would have to have so. 230 00:37:47.940 --> 00:37:52.110 Terry Wahls: After our two kids were going off to Sweden. 231 00:37:53.280 --> 00:38:05.310 Terry Wahls: For a week to be with friends, so we sent sent them off we showed them that you know jack and I would be fine jack header surgery to have her ankle set and the pins set. 232 00:38:06.390 --> 00:38:06.990 Terry Wahls: And i'm. 233 00:38:08.100 --> 00:38:11.940 Terry Wahls: taking care of jack getting her her pain pills. 234 00:38:12.960 --> 00:38:15.150 Terry Wahls: And our friends were bringing over. 235 00:38:16.170 --> 00:38:23.040 Terry Wahls: takeout for us so so we could eat and the week that we had planned to have off with each other. 236 00:38:24.210 --> 00:38:30.540 Terry Wahls: While the kids were in Sweden, of course, was quite different was giving her pain pills were watching. 237 00:38:32.010 --> 00:38:33.660 Terry Wahls: netflix movies. 238 00:38:35.100 --> 00:38:39.810 Terry Wahls: And I just felt immensely grateful that I could finally be taking care of her. 239 00:38:41.790 --> 00:38:42.600 Wade Lightheart: You know. 240 00:38:44.190 --> 00:38:57.120 Wade Lightheart: One of the things that i've noticed, I went through a tragedy at an early age, my sister was diagnosed with hodgkin's disease and progressively until she died at age 22 she was four years, my senior and the striking. 241 00:38:59.070 --> 00:39:10.410 Wade Lightheart: component of being subjected to a serious medical condition and all of its dire consequences and everything that kind of disrupts the natural flow of life. 242 00:39:11.040 --> 00:39:27.480 Wade Lightheart: There is this other side of it, where you see the outpouring of love and connection and humanity and kind of the noble aspects that inspire all of us to you know it's. 243 00:39:27.930 --> 00:39:37.860 Wade Lightheart: I call it the sublime or to see that there are other energies or forces beyond our intellect that have that define what it is to be a human. 244 00:39:38.940 --> 00:39:47.070 Wade Lightheart: And there's these beautiful little moments, whether that's in the patient rooms, or maybe with a nurse or a doctor. 245 00:39:47.490 --> 00:39:56.460 Wade Lightheart: or a loved one or a friend, where they going above and beyond in the care of either the extended family or with the individual and. 246 00:39:57.420 --> 00:40:16.620 Wade Lightheart: it's if you've been in that situation it's hard to describe it's transcendent because you just see pure kindness and pure love and concern for other people and it's it's inspired me in my own life to continue to advocate you know. 247 00:40:18.030 --> 00:40:26.130 Wade Lightheart: Then commit to helping other people live a healthier and better life, because I saw the impact that well your health isn't a guarantee and your life isn't a guarantee at a very early age. 248 00:40:27.330 --> 00:40:31.500 Wade Lightheart: How has this situation with yourself. 249 00:40:32.520 --> 00:40:35.790 Wade Lightheart: Inspired you your research and what. 250 00:40:35.820 --> 00:40:46.050 Wade Lightheart: We see happen as a way of you know, providing hope and opportunity for more of those moments for other people. 251 00:40:46.800 --> 00:40:56.550 Terry Wahls: You know, when I had my remarkable recovery my chair of medicine at the university called me and told me first to get a case report written up. 252 00:40:57.720 --> 00:41:03.060 Terry Wahls: In like on myself so yeah yeah this is your job, your assignment for the years right I got that done. 253 00:41:04.260 --> 00:41:12.360 Terry Wahls: Then, my got that published he called me back and say okay Now I want you to safety and feasibility study testing out this Protocol. 254 00:41:13.590 --> 00:41:24.360 Terry Wahls: You know there's and I said well that's not the research that I do it goes i'll get you the mentors that's your assignment and that's what you'll do so I saluted that Okay, Sir, and. 255 00:41:25.410 --> 00:41:41.550 Terry Wahls: Then, as people at the university some books were intensely critical, but what I was doing I in as I published my research and published my book, and my Ted talk I got all sorts of hate mail immense criticism. 256 00:41:42.810 --> 00:41:46.110 Terry Wahls: And so I do these interviews had say well. 257 00:41:47.400 --> 00:41:58.350 Terry Wahls: You know, obviously, obviously I want you to do what you think is ethically right, but I will tell you that I remember what it's like to be disabled. 258 00:41:59.700 --> 00:42:17.160 Terry Wahls: And that I need to tell people what my story was and the research that i'm doing, and they can decide how comfortable, they are with eating more vegetables meditating exercising asking for physical therapy in work with your medical team. 259 00:42:18.810 --> 00:42:21.300 Terry Wahls: And i'll keep putting that information out there. 260 00:42:22.320 --> 00:42:34.020 Terry Wahls: And so many times, I was you know ripped to shreds called unprofessional in dangerous in worse, and I would just call me set you know. 261 00:42:34.470 --> 00:42:45.930 Terry Wahls: Absolutely do what you think is ethically right, and I am i'll be to do what I think is ethically right absolutely I will disclose my conflicts of interest, I will disclose. 262 00:42:46.650 --> 00:42:59.670 Terry Wahls: Where the researcher that a caution people to work with they're treating physicians and they can decide how dangerous vegetables are how dangerous meditation is it how dangerous exercises for that. 263 00:43:01.290 --> 00:43:11.010 Terry Wahls: I just call me state those things, and then you know people would have their intense reaction like yo ever wonder I just saying like. 264 00:43:11.520 --> 00:43:27.180 Terry Wahls: Well, and how would you feel if I came started saying I could do all these things to treat rheumatoid arthritis and say, well, if that got my rheumatoid arthritis patients eat more vegetables to meditate exercise, I would say hello yeah. 265 00:43:30.330 --> 00:43:33.150 Wade Lightheart: i'm gonna ask I just a big thing because we're living in. 266 00:43:34.380 --> 00:43:46.020 Wade Lightheart: An interesting time right now, and there is a significant condemnation of certain narratives around medical and i've been following. 267 00:43:47.370 --> 00:43:51.810 Wade Lightheart: The weinstein's I don't know if you know who they are their evolutionary biologists. 268 00:43:52.380 --> 00:43:59.310 Wade Lightheart: That were essentially kicked out of evergreen university and ended up starting their own podcast because they were willing to challenge. 269 00:43:59.790 --> 00:44:05.370 Wade Lightheart: Some of the negative criticism that was directed towards the research and and heather and. 270 00:44:06.210 --> 00:44:13.620 Wade Lightheart: And Brett the husband and wife team they go through the science currently with the pandemic that we're dealing with today. 271 00:44:14.070 --> 00:44:24.930 Wade Lightheart: And they take it apart like reasonable rational scientists with skepticism and scientific method night as a non scientist person or I don't have a medical background. 272 00:44:25.260 --> 00:44:38.310 Wade Lightheart: I find it very refreshing to be able to kind of borrow on their intellectual acumen and they're structured thinking to go through this, and they also have received extreme levels of criticism. 273 00:44:38.790 --> 00:44:58.230 Wade Lightheart: And i've interviewed a number of doctors, who have made breakthrough discoveries we've had them on the podcast and variety of conditions and they to get subjected, particularly to very vicious attacks from their peers, why is that do you think is something threatening about it or. 274 00:44:58.950 --> 00:44:59.550 Terry Wahls: Explain. 275 00:44:59.610 --> 00:45:00.750 Terry Wahls: The biology of what. 276 00:45:00.810 --> 00:45:05.880 Terry Wahls: That happens i'm going to invite you to reflect pretty carefully we'll talk about this. 277 00:45:07.560 --> 00:45:09.240 Terry Wahls: sensory input, as it comes up. 278 00:45:10.860 --> 00:45:30.900 Terry Wahls: to buy spinal cord and brain is an overwhelming by him of information so at various points, the amount of information that gets through keeps getting cut down to smaller and smaller amounts so that my vision my hearing my sensory my sense of space. 279 00:45:32.100 --> 00:45:41.040 Terry Wahls: Is a tiny fraction less than half a percent of what's coming in and that and as infants, we learn to do that, so we can. 280 00:45:42.180 --> 00:45:56.880 Terry Wahls: cope, we can feed ourselves interact with the world on on just a tiny amount of information in we learn to do that in our social constructs first in our family unit in our expanded. 281 00:45:57.990 --> 00:46:03.930 Terry Wahls: universe of friends colleagues in our educational life and then in our work life. 282 00:46:05.070 --> 00:46:16.470 Terry Wahls: And so we we learned to interact with a tiny amount of information for my relationship with my my spouse my kids my family. 283 00:46:17.580 --> 00:46:32.670 Terry Wahls: I, and so is information that comes in that doesn't conform to my understanding of the world, it doesn't get to my cortex it doesn't get to my higher and say it's been pruned out and then what apply does get to my cortex I ignore it. 284 00:46:33.960 --> 00:46:36.240 Terry Wahls: Because it doesn't it doesn't match my to save the world. 285 00:46:37.470 --> 00:46:40.380 Terry Wahls: And then I may ridicule it I may push back. 286 00:46:41.490 --> 00:46:50.520 Terry Wahls: And then occasionally there's enough information that I realize maybe I need to change my understanding of the world. 287 00:46:51.990 --> 00:47:03.870 Terry Wahls: And we will do that with minus eight of my best friend my spouse my kids my work environments my professional environment until mindset of the world is somehow shatter. 288 00:47:05.610 --> 00:47:25.950 Terry Wahls: So of course our anyone who is an innovator, who thinks of something really new and different is going to face that kind of resistance, the innovators, in order to be successful, have to be okay with being ridiculed rejected potentially burned at the stake mm hmm. 289 00:47:27.330 --> 00:47:31.110 Terry Wahls: And you know part of the reason that I think i've been successful. 290 00:47:32.130 --> 00:47:54.930 Terry Wahls: And wanting to hang in here with this is that I had this internal moral obligation, because my own experience, the other reason that i'm successful is i'm a lesbian, and so I had to as part of my evolution as a emotional adult is it to let go of societal expectations of May I finally. 291 00:47:56.190 --> 00:48:02.550 Terry Wahls: Let all of that roll off my back and became comfortable with who, I am in my family structure. 292 00:48:03.750 --> 00:48:12.090 Terry Wahls: In being able to eventually get comfortable with that I think has made it easy for me to let the criticism that i've gotten. 293 00:48:12.960 --> 00:48:25.050 Terry Wahls: and probably another thing that's helpful is I am sort of clueless My family has found it far more stressful for the amount of criticism i've gotten over the years that I have because I just. 294 00:48:26.640 --> 00:48:27.690 Terry Wahls: focused on. 295 00:48:27.810 --> 00:48:28.590 My. 296 00:48:30.780 --> 00:48:36.060 Terry Wahls: You know my work my family what i'm doing and i'm oblivious to the world. 297 00:48:38.580 --> 00:48:46.590 Terry Wahls: And so i've i've learned to pay more attention to the world professionally but i'm still more oblivious than many of my colleagues. 298 00:48:49.200 --> 00:48:55.590 Wade Lightheart: it's a very important distinction, I think, for people to understand that. 299 00:48:57.120 --> 00:49:00.180 Wade Lightheart: Much of our world, I think it was. 300 00:49:02.970 --> 00:49:05.070 Wade Lightheart: reminded Maharishi that says. 301 00:49:06.180 --> 00:49:10.170 Wade Lightheart: there's no sense of being upset of the world, because the world he perceived doesn't actually exist. 302 00:49:13.980 --> 00:49:14.280 Wade Lightheart: enough. 303 00:49:14.640 --> 00:49:25.380 Wade Lightheart: That you brought this up is on Sunday, I was at my meditation Center and the monk was giving a discussion about the. 304 00:49:25.890 --> 00:49:30.360 Wade Lightheart: amount of information that's coming into our nervous system and how much is if it's actually filtered out. 305 00:49:30.930 --> 00:49:45.150 Wade Lightheart: And the component of meditation is to increase in open up one's awareness, to increase the opportunity for us to expand our consciousness or awareness into other areas, yet we live in a world today. 306 00:49:46.230 --> 00:49:59.400 Wade Lightheart: Which is fascinating because we've never had more information coming through to us yet specialization has increased as society. 307 00:50:00.300 --> 00:50:10.500 Wade Lightheart: improves and technological innovation so, for example, 100 years ago I needed to know how to chop wood and I needed to know how to farm and I needed to know how to maybe. 308 00:50:11.490 --> 00:50:23.910 Wade Lightheart: Properly hunt or clean animals and how to fix my house and it was a very more rural setting and today, you can have a job in in an urban area let's say as a cashier. 309 00:50:24.570 --> 00:50:30.750 Wade Lightheart: And you literally don't have to know anything other than how to punch numbers into the code and what's up and so. 310 00:50:31.170 --> 00:50:39.210 Wade Lightheart: The the interesting component as we've developed so much technologically we in and we get so much more information there's almost like. 311 00:50:39.630 --> 00:50:57.990 Wade Lightheart: As a response there's a drilling down to narrowness do you think that is something that needs to be identified in the medical community or do you think there's a way that we can cultivate innovation in geniuses in a way that doesn't. 312 00:50:59.130 --> 00:51:03.360 Wade Lightheart: draw the ire of people who are performing functions within that field. 313 00:51:04.590 --> 00:51:05.310 Terry Wahls: I think. 314 00:51:06.510 --> 00:51:17.370 Terry Wahls: Anyone who's truly innovative is going to draw the ire because it's very uncomfortable to have to abandon my constructs of how I understand the world. 315 00:51:18.450 --> 00:51:34.950 Terry Wahls: None of us want to do that I don't want to do that, you don't want to do that, we won't easily do that, so I don't think it's possible to have innovation that without facing ridicule and rejection at first and then either your ideas pan out. 316 00:51:36.240 --> 00:51:37.740 Terry Wahls: Or the suppressed. 317 00:51:39.690 --> 00:51:46.530 Terry Wahls: And so you keep doing the experiments, I have. 318 00:51:48.420 --> 00:52:01.260 Terry Wahls: A unique story, you know it actually the university's sort of commented on this, because most of my research has been funded by philanthropic gifts. 319 00:52:02.730 --> 00:52:05.640 Terry Wahls: From people whose lives, I have touched. 320 00:52:06.660 --> 00:52:14.370 Terry Wahls: Who then afterwards, who happen to have money, and so you know I believe what you're doing a turtle like to support your research. 321 00:52:15.990 --> 00:52:34.260 Terry Wahls: And so here's a gift for your next project, and so the second time that happened, but we got a six figure donation to my research lab the dean of the College called me and I had a meeting I thought your God yo who have I pissed off now. 322 00:52:36.990 --> 00:52:37.380 Wade Lightheart: Of course. 323 00:52:37.410 --> 00:52:38.430 Terry Wahls: And it was like. 324 00:52:39.870 --> 00:52:43.620 Terry Wahls: This has never happened at the University of iowa So what are you doing. 325 00:52:45.030 --> 00:52:59.850 Terry Wahls: And you know we continue to have some remarkable philanthropic support, which is a that has allowed me to invest it to do some really interesting and small projects and now we'll be doing this much larger project. 326 00:53:01.770 --> 00:53:02.730 Terry Wahls: Because. 327 00:53:04.080 --> 00:53:25.110 Terry Wahls: i've made a diff I have a protocol that has had some dramatic impact on people who have resources, then, to come back to me in my lab say you know what we like what you do a talk to us about some ideas and we think we'd like to give you another larger gift. 328 00:53:27.090 --> 00:53:28.050 Terry Wahls: And so. 329 00:53:29.100 --> 00:53:46.470 Terry Wahls: That allows me in some ways to be vastly more innovative than folks who have to write grants that have to convince their peers have a newly innovative idea who can't accept new big innovations, they can accept small incremental. 330 00:53:47.490 --> 00:53:48.630 Terry Wahls: Partial ovations. 331 00:53:49.290 --> 00:53:51.030 Terry Wahls: You know and and what i've done. 332 00:53:51.960 --> 00:54:07.050 Terry Wahls: With my multi multi modal studies was a huge big innovation that was completely utterly rejected by all the NIH folks in 2010 when we're writing those grants. 333 00:54:08.370 --> 00:54:15.960 Terry Wahls: But now you're in 2011 these multimodal studies are being done, and our work has been cited. 334 00:54:17.100 --> 00:54:17.550 Terry Wahls: Beautiful. 335 00:54:18.000 --> 00:54:30.570 Wade Lightheart: I was also listening to Eric weinstein that's brett's brother he runs a podcast called dark horses and advanced physicist a super genius and he was sharing how. 336 00:54:31.200 --> 00:54:45.240 Wade Lightheart: Many of the current research grant organizations are stifling a lot of the development of science and what he felt that there was between him and his brother and a sister they had three. 337 00:54:47.220 --> 00:54:57.330 Wade Lightheart: Human human transformational discoveries that was essentially being suppressed, and he says, well, if you do the math of how many other researchers that could be. 338 00:54:57.690 --> 00:55:04.080 Wade Lightheart: Situated in this, I think a lot of people and, and this is what I love about alternative funding. 339 00:55:04.560 --> 00:55:14.610 Wade Lightheart: That the NIH over the last 30 years I think has given out somewhere around $3 trillion in research grants, but they develop they define what gets. 340 00:55:15.360 --> 00:55:23.940 Wade Lightheart: What gets accepted and what doesn't but now there's these other funding options that you kind of illustrated with yourself that are allowing researchers to maybe go outside of. 341 00:55:24.330 --> 00:55:34.890 Wade Lightheart: The normal parameters using science, but to kind of create exponential growth, do you see that as the future for research that you're doing or expanding teachers in the field. 342 00:55:35.040 --> 00:55:38.190 Terry Wahls: So, so I think that peer review. 343 00:55:39.270 --> 00:55:41.550 Terry Wahls: incremental approach has certainly. 344 00:55:42.780 --> 00:55:48.180 Terry Wahls: hugely deepen understanding of physiology in very wonderful ways. 345 00:55:51.030 --> 00:56:11.820 Terry Wahls: The ability to do what i'm doing his also ultra understanding in really profound ways I in that as been on the basis of this philanthropic gifts because we've made an impact on the lives of people have to have a lot of money. 346 00:56:13.560 --> 00:56:28.710 Terry Wahls: And you know when i'm in these meetings with my other scientific colleagues who are doing dietary research in there right yeah i'm writing grants, along with them and sore they were talking about the issued struggles to get through to peer reviews. 347 00:56:29.940 --> 00:56:33.210 Terry Wahls: To do the innovative work I and. 348 00:56:34.470 --> 00:56:43.680 Terry Wahls: When I reflect on what i'm going to be able to launch into next because i've had i'm so blessed to have this philanthropic support. 349 00:56:46.800 --> 00:56:53.910 Terry Wahls: And I think the bigger breakthroughs will come through from folks who have access to philanthropic support. 350 00:56:54.630 --> 00:56:57.420 Wade Lightheart: know, can you talk about what's coming down the pipe for. 351 00:56:57.450 --> 00:56:57.870 yeah. 352 00:56:59.370 --> 00:57:00.000 Terry Wahls: it's very exciting. 353 00:57:01.200 --> 00:57:12.660 Terry Wahls: So again, this is from a grateful patient who really believes in what we're doing we're going to enroll people. 354 00:57:13.680 --> 00:57:32.370 Terry Wahls: with multiple sclerosis relapse remitting who want to do a dietary approach they'll need to be agreed to be randomized between a ketogenic diet, a modified Paleo diet and dietary guidelines will give them support. 355 00:57:33.750 --> 00:57:43.860 Terry Wahls: over that time period, we will follow them over two years we will be measuring did they actually implement the diet. 356 00:57:44.310 --> 00:58:00.450 Terry Wahls: What what are they eating so will will know about dietary adherence we will know about clinical outcomes in terms of walking function vision function hand function will understand patient reported outcomes in terms of mood. 357 00:58:03.570 --> 00:58:11.610 Terry Wahls: Processing speed or memory fatigue, quality of life, we will have biomarkers as well. 358 00:58:13.200 --> 00:58:13.740 Terry Wahls: and 359 00:58:15.930 --> 00:58:34.380 Terry Wahls: This will be the first time that will have had a study of this size for two years, that will be able to look at changes in clinical outcomes changes in biomarkers whilst be looking at myelination along the way. 360 00:58:35.610 --> 00:58:36.180 Terry Wahls: as well. 361 00:58:37.680 --> 00:58:46.350 Terry Wahls: And we're will be freezing microbiome specimens will be freezing blood specimens so at the end. 362 00:58:47.400 --> 00:58:55.200 Terry Wahls: We will ask bill to write another grant to go back and say let's look at the molecular mechanisms of what is going on and why. 363 00:58:56.250 --> 00:58:59.820 Terry Wahls: So this will be absolutely transformational. 364 00:59:01.440 --> 00:59:05.910 Terry Wahls: A smaller study that may be even more transformational in some ways. 365 00:59:05.910 --> 00:59:08.640 Terry Wahls: Ways it may be looking at an. 366 00:59:10.380 --> 00:59:21.510 Terry Wahls: An online course that we've created that teaches people through virtual technology such as this, how to improve diet. 367 00:59:22.770 --> 00:59:24.600 Terry Wahls: Stress reduction and exercise. 368 00:59:25.620 --> 00:59:30.060 Terry Wahls: In these supplemental non diet not exercise things that you can be doing. 369 00:59:31.710 --> 00:59:44.310 Terry Wahls: And we'll see that impact on MS patients with we're so that cities approved, we are talking now with our cancer Center and. 370 00:59:45.600 --> 00:59:57.690 Terry Wahls: We anticipate having it studied in cancer we're also talking to rheumatology folks and saying this in rheumatology patients as well, so if we can show anticipate that will we will build a show. 371 00:59:58.170 --> 01:00:10.590 Terry Wahls: That we can teach these concepts online and have improvement in dietary intake improvement in patient reported outcomes Now this is. 372 01:00:12.120 --> 01:00:13.020 Terry Wahls: The sky's the limit. 373 01:00:14.550 --> 01:00:19.170 Terry Wahls: We can transform more lives, this can be. 374 01:00:22.050 --> 01:00:26.130 Terry Wahls: expanded its it has no limits. 375 01:00:27.180 --> 01:00:34.080 Wade Lightheart: You know, this is one of the beauty beautiful things about the Internet and the distribution of information is once. 376 01:00:35.190 --> 01:00:45.750 Wade Lightheart: A demonstrated will protocol breakthrough can be developed, you can share that with a wide variety of people who might not have both the medical. 377 01:00:45.750 --> 01:00:54.000 Wade Lightheart: Or you know the or the even the knowledge of that by you know hey they find out about it, they can experiment they take it to their professional medical science said hey i'd like to. 378 01:00:54.570 --> 01:00:58.920 Wade Lightheart: i'd like to experiment with this on our own, on my own Is that what you anticipate happening. 379 01:00:59.310 --> 01:01:03.930 Terry Wahls: Well, what we certainly anticipate is that this makes it so much more available to. 380 01:01:04.950 --> 01:01:12.090 Terry Wahls: Rural communities to small small communities that don't have access to professionals that could. 381 01:01:13.050 --> 01:01:35.760 Terry Wahls: say a dietitian or to those populations, for whom tra

In this week's episode of the Health Ignited Podcast, we welcome Wade Lightheart, Co-Founder and President of BiOptimizers, for an inspiring conversation about the journey from pain to passion, the gut-brain connection, and how to optimize your health and wellness, naturally. Wade is an author, athlete, nutritionist and expert on fixing digestion. He's written numerous books on health, nutrition, and exercise, which have sold in over 80  countries, and is the host of The Awesome Health Podcast. He's been in the health industry for over 25 years, coached thousands of clients, and is sought out by athletes and high-performance-oriented individuals worldwide for his advice on how to optimize their health and fitness levels. Wade also serves as an advisor to the American Anti-Cancer Institute. With his own personal experiences of loss, pain, and health challenges driving his success, Wade has dedicated over two decades to exploring tools and supplements for more vibrant, balanced health, and is passionate about sharing these strategies with others. In this episode, he breaks down the various stages and processes of digestion, dissects the gut-brain relationship and explains what your gut microbiome's got to do with your mental health, addresses several lifestyle factors and mindset approaches that influence health and wellbeing, and explores the impact of fear and isolation on our both our psychological and physiological state. Wade speaks with passion and conviction, and you don't want to miss this episode if you're invested in levelling up your own health and performance! You can connect with Wade through his online communities: https://www.facebook.com/BiOptimizers/ https://www.instagram.com/bioptimizers/ https://www.youtube.com/user/BiOptimizers   Head over to his website bioptimizers.com and use code jensen10 for 10% of your order!   Also check out his visit with Dr. Nick Jensen and Dr. David Wardy: https://thedoctordads.com/podcasts/episode-82-bioptimize-your-health/ And explore his powerful (and FREE!) course on his website: https://bioptimizers.com/awesome-health-course/?c=1 “It's the unreasonable person throughout all of history that has been driving all change and evolution in society; be part of the evolution of society, not part of its devolution.” - Wade Lightheart ___ Subscribe to our channel for more inspiring discussions on holistic health and wellness! Join our online communities: Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/divineelementshealth Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/divineelementsnd/ Website - https://divineelements.ca Level up your health with a community of like-minded individuals: https://drsjensen.com/ Pre-order Dr. Sonya Jensen ND's new book, Woman Unleashed: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1953153534/ref=cm_sw_r_fa_dp_25A7NPMQ1JG8BATBWW2S?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&fbclid=IwAR34b8wD9CCPJetVUBe_i4RMPxQsA4ucJGjQ_PZF2d_aICj2tmWB98enEGk

Wade Lightheart gets very serious about health and fitness optimization. He's the co-founder and president at BiOptimizers, a digestive and health optimization company and also serves as an advisor to the American Anti-Cancer Institute. Wade is a 3-time Canadian national all natural bodybuilding champion who competed as a vegetarian, former Mr. Universe competitor, and host of The Awesome Health Podcast. He joins Russ and Sarah and challenges them to get fit and focused.DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and is solely intended as a self-help tool for your own use.

Aimee Carlson is a lifetime entrepreneur, owning and operating a multi-location national franchise, to a professional network marketer, best-selling author, podcast host of The Toxin Terminator, and certified Toxicity and Detox Specialist. Aimee is helping people restore and renew their health by removing hidden toxins from their homes and their lives. It is now her life purpose and passion to help others find a way to live without chronic disease and truly renew their health, focus, and energy. She has spent the last 7 years renewing her own health naturally after working in the automotive industry for many of her adult years knowing her toxic exposure was high there.  She suffered from migraines, headaches, and numerous reproductive problems that led her to have a full hysterectomy at the age of 37 and fight menopause symptoms from that time forward.  There were so many doctor visits, numerous medications, and yet no solutions and it was truly an accidental opportunity that she found solutions that allowed her body to heal.   Appearances: Podcasts: More Than Corporate, Fitness & Finance, DialedIn, Live Your Best Life, Surviving to Thriving, Art of Eating, Functional Gynecologist, One More Thing Before You Go, Pursue Your Spark, Beauty Call, Nutrition Nerds, Myers Detox, Wellness Warriors, Awesome Health Podcast, Green Living with Tee Summits: Mental Wellness Conference, Expert Update: Live Stream of What the Health & Wellness Experts are Doing at Home, Healthy Aging Summit, MidLife Summit, Family Wellness Super-Conference, Thyroid Refresh Follow Aimee: Website: www.aimeecarlson.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ToxinTerminator/ ______________ Follow Therese "Tee" Forton-Barnes and The Green Living Gurus: The Green Living Gurus Website: https://thegreenlivinggurus.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/greenlivinggurus/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW7_phs1GZUPzG21Zgjnqtw Healthy Living Group Facebook Green Living Gurus Page Facebook For further info contact: Therese Forton-Barnes Email: Greenlivinggurus@gmail.com Cell: 716-868-8868

Hippocrates - the father of modern medicine - once said (in so many words) that experiencing illness creates empathy, so those who get sick with many ailments would naturally make the best healers.  If there is a best-case example to prove this - Sara Banta might be the one.  Although not a doctor - Sara has accumulated years of self-education in nutrition, Ayurveda, Chinese Herbology, fitness nutrition, and supplements to become one of the most followed and respected alternative health coaches out in the field today.  Sara also has plenty of empathy through her past suffering with many debilitating ailments, including Crohn's disease, hormonal issues, PCOS, heavy metal toxicity, and depression.  Since discovering these new healing modalities, Sara has not been sick in 15 years.  You may be wondering how someone battling so many debilitating illnesses could turn into a passionate evangelist for alternative medicine?  Let's just say her “momma bear” instinct kicked into high gear several years ago when her nine-year-old son was diagnosed with a devastating illness. Sara's first response was to break out in tears. But when her precious son looked up at her and asked why she was crying, and confidently told his mom, “you're gonna fix me,” Sara knew right then what her life's mission was going forward: get her son healed and open people's eyes to the world of natural healing.  Early on in her journey, Sara was surrounded by naysayers - many were her family members. Today, those same family members come to Sara for advice on health matters after seeing her son restored and thriving.  Sara has accumulated plenty of results during her years of coaching practice, and her happy client testimonials bear the fruits of her labor. She continues to expand her knowledge while serving clients and radio podcast listeners with cutting-edge protocols that combine Scalar frequency-based supplements, Chinese medicine, healing devices, and more to detox, reset and rebuild the Body, Mind, and Spirit.  Soon after you hit play, you will notice the soothing, healing frequencies emanating from Sara. Watch her in person, and you will see her aura glowing with red, pink, orange, and yellow energies.   Tune in to turn up your frequency.    In this podcast, we cover: Sara's heartbreaking beginning and her inspiring journey bringing her to where she is today  Why a “scio machine” made Sara cry tears of relief Her son's unexpected diagnosis and how Sara's career launched that day The benefits of supplementing with silver and gold  How Sara overcame nervous self-doubt when appearing on podcasts and became a successful radio show host What are frequency-based supplements, and why they are important Managing radiation exposure and radiation toxicity Iodine supplementation The importance of detoxification “People thought I was crazy. They thought I was mental or depressed.”  That was the low point for Sara. She was suffering physically, but everyone around her thought it was all in her head.  Ever feel that way?  Sara can relate. She tried working with allopathic doctors but found that experience frustrating. One doctor would completely forget who Sara was and her story between weekly appointments. She would have to recant her entire story each office visit.  Yikes.  Until one day, Sara had her body scanned by a particular machine to check 10,000 items in the body. “It was like peeling an onion,” Sara tells Wade. “Within ten minutes, this man (mind you, he wasn't even female) knew exactly what was going on in my body, what I was experiencing. I started crying. I thought, ‘Finally!' This proves I'm not crazy.”  “This guy tells me, Sarah - you're not digesting food. You've got a leaky gut. You're loaded with heavy metals. You've got hormones that are out of control. You're high in testosterone.”  “So, we started cleansing me, putting me through detox from heavy metals. I was loaded with heavy metals. Aluminum and mercury were off the charts.”  “I have to tell you about a client that just finished my cleanse.”  At one point, Sara brings up one of her clients who went through her cleansing process: “He started out homeless. He was addicted to heroin, cocaine. He was down and out. Now fast forward ten to fifteen years - he's living in a multi-million dollar home. However, he has fatty liver. And he's telling me, ‘I can't do anything. I can't live my life. I've got all this money and a beautiful partner to share it with. We want to go road tripping. We want to do all this stuff. I can't do anything. I feel like crap.” “Yesterday, he finished the end of the cleanse, the liver cleanse. He says, ‘Sarah, I'm buying an RV. I'm living life. The pain's gone. You could see his aura. He looked like a different human being.” Be sure to listen in as Sara and Wade cover a lot of ground in the areas of frequency, detoxification, and supplementation. Knowledge is power, and Sara knows this as well as anyone - when you want to be well, you will seek answers. Sara is a wealth of health solutions. She brings up several things never before discussed on the Awesome Health Podcast. You don't want to miss this one.   Check out this episode - “biofeedback” is just that - biological feedback. Information like this could radically improve your health!    Episode Resources:  AHP Listeners get 10% off here Accelerated Health Radio Show Accelerated Health on YouTube Accelerated Health on Instagram Accelerated Health on Facebook Sara Banta on Twitter Sara Banta on Pinterest Sara Banta on LinkedIn

On today's episode, you'll hear part 2 of Wade Lightheart's episode all about why gut health is so important postpartum, and why magnesium deficiency is so common and SO important to address. Listen in to see why he compares moms to Olympic athletes! Wade is a busy guy with years of industry experience including his own struggles with coming out of body building.  He's been in the health industry for over 25 years, coached thousands of clients, and is sought out by athletes and high-performance oriented individuals worldwide for his advice on how to optimize their health and fitness levels. He is also the host of the Awesome Health Podcast, and co-owner of BiOptimizers.  Check out BiOtimizers on IG: https://www.instagram.com/bioptimizers/  bioptimizers.com/goodenoughmama Use code: goodenoughmama10 - for 10% off   Do you have a question or topic you'd like me to cover on the podcast? Join the Facebook Group to get all of your questions answered! https://www.facebook.com/groups/441323883888006    Let's connect on IG: https://www.instagram.com/saraolszewski/ 

Did you know that over 12% of emergency room hospital visits are related to gastrointestinal disorders? Recent research suggests digestion issues affect over 100 million people per day in the United States alone. And many of these people are using over-the-counter or prescription medications to combat the distress, pain and social embarrassment related to digestive problems. Unfortunately, many of the common treatments and prescriptions are actually compounding digestive dysfunction with unintended complications, over time treating symptoms, but not the root cause. Digestive health information, digestive health diets, and products are some of the fastest growing trends in the health high performance industry. And today I'm talking to Wade Lightheart. He is an author, athlete and nutritionist and specializes on fixing digestion. Wade is a three time Canadian national all natural bodybuilding champion who competed as a vegetarian, a former Mr. Universe competitor, and host of a really cool podcast, Awesome Health. He majored in Sports Science at the University of New Brunswick and has authored many books on health, nutrition, and exercise, which have sold in over 80 countries. Wade also serves as an advisor to the American Anti-Cancer Institute. He is the Co-Founder and President at BiOptimizers, a digestive and health optimization company. In my conversation with Wade, you'll discover:-Wade's background, and what got him interested in GI issues...02:45-Building the body from the inside out...07:00-How to develop a mindset that will allow for success in your health and life...10:15-Three components to healthy digestion...16:45-About the probiotic produced by BiOptimizers and why they only use one strain...23:15-Why we need enzymes to assist with digestion...28:42-How to know when to use which enzymes...33:45-The biggest mistakes people make when using digestive enzymes...35:36-How to use enzymes for recovery and while fasting...41:25-What warning signs of bad digestion might we be ignoring?...43:02-The most underestimated element of fixing the digestive system...48:03-How to build and maintain muscle on a low-protein, vegetarian diet...49:45-Wade's practices...50:55-And much more!Resources mentioned:-https://bioptimizers.com/ (BiOptimizers website) -BiOptimizers social media https://www.instagram.com/bioptimizers/ (Instagram) https://www.facebook.com/BiOptimizers/ (Facebook) https://www.youtube.com/bioptimizers (Youtube) -https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bioptimizers-awesome-health-podcast/id1265940397 (Awesome Health Podcast) -https://amzn.to/3kOWutB (Education of a Bodybuilder) -https://amzn.to/3zfZbZ4 (The Hero's Journey by Joseph Campbell) -https://amzn.to/3BlEEEd (The Wizard of Us) -http://viome.com (Viome)

On today's episode, I chat with Wade Lightheart all about why gut health is so important postpartum, and why magnesium deficiency is so common and SO important to address. Listen in to see why he compares moms to Olympic athletes! Wade is a busy guy with years of industry experience including his own struggles with coming out of body building.  He's been in the health industry for over 25 years, coached thousands of clients, and is sought out by athletes and high-performance oriented individuals worldwide for his advice on how to optimize their health and fitness levels. He is also the host of the Awesome Health Podcast, and co-owner of BiOptimizers.  Check out BiOtimizers on IG: https://www.instagram.com/bioptimizers/  bioptimizers.com/goodenoughmama Use code: goodenoughmama10 - for 10% off   Do you have a question or topic you'd like me to cover on the podcast? Join the Facebook Group to get all of your questions answered! https://www.facebook.com/groups/441323883888006    Let's connect on IG: https://www.instagram.com/saraolszewski/ 

Attention Men Who Are Struggling with Low Energy & Low Libido: You Can Get Your Spark Back  If your male mojo is currently lost, this episode of the Awesome Health Podcast could change your life.  There is nothing shameful about having “low-T” or “low testosterone” or any other hormone imbalance as a man. You did nothing wrong. Your endocrine system changed for some reason, which is something entirely out of your control.  There are answers if you know where to look.  Our guest in this episode, Saad Alam, wants you to know that you can feel like your old self again through his unique approach to hormone therapy. Saad experienced low testosterone firsthand and shared his personal story during this interview with our host Wade Lightheart.  Saad knows what it's like to “feel sad all the time” and not understand why. He knows what it's like to lose your sex drive, causing relationship issues.  He's been there and done that. And came out on the other side happier and more energized about life than ever before.   Once he figured this out through a long and difficult journey, Saad decided to channel his entrepreneurial spirit into starting the Hone Health business, dedicated to offering dignified hormone therapies to men.  Saad understands the “seedy” vibe surrounding men's hormone therapy. He knows that too much shady marketing, quackery, and cookie-cutter approaches tainted the male hormone therapy industry. This is why Saad dedicated his business to providing a comfortable, respectful service for men struggling with hormone challenges. Saad helps men by educating them on male hormone issues as well as providing therapies. Through education, you can find clarity on your condition and make better decisions about your needs.  If you are feeling “off” these days, listen in as Wade and Saad go on a deep dive into the world of testosterone replacement therapy.     In this podcast, we cover: Saad's journey from rugged athlete to ZERO energy and libido, then back to restored manhood How steroid scandals in professional sports confused men's perceptions about testosterone Other hormone therapies for men apart from testosterone  How to navigate through the adjustment phases while receiving testosterone therapy How Saad has streamlined the hormone process, so you don't spend too much time and money  Why men need to be careful who they get medical info from and avoid the “bro science” on social media Why men should monitor their hormone numbers regularly   Why you need more than just a test result - finding out your hormone numbers is only the beginning. These days, a guy can go to a service like Lab Corp. and get their hormone levels lined out. That's fine. But what are you going to do with that information? Unless you're a medical professional, we don't advise you to try to figure it out through a Google search.  As a man with hormone issues, you are likely to be dealing with some psychological issues. Saad says, “The psychological problems that result from all the changes are worse than the physical changes alone. Because all of a sudden, you are questioning yourself and your identity as a man. So much of a man's identity is wrapped up in providing for their family, taking care of aging parents, caring for children, being a role model for a younger sibling, building a business. All these things can hit you at once. You can get into a negative feedback loop where you question yourself over and over. Frankly, it messes with you. As guys, we are bad at admitting something is wrong.”   Saad says he sees too many men who go five, ten, or fifteen years keeping their struggles to themselves until things get so bad they have to talk.  If you think it's okay, this is what happens to men when you get to be 35 or 40 years old. Stop right there! No - it doesn't have to be like that at all.  Saad says, “I'm blessed that so many of the people I get to see daily are ages 60, 70, or 80 years old, and they look like they're 30 to 45 years old. So much of this is a mindset. They think they're young, and they take care of themselves.”  What was the trigger point for Saad when he knew something was wrong? At one point, Wade asks Saad what brought him to the point where he acknowledged there was something wrong, and he needed help?  Saad said, “I've been very fortunate that I can juggle a lot of things all at once in my life. I've always gone home to see my family every other weekend, regardless of where I lived. And there came the point where I couldn't. I remember it was clearly in the back of my mind - something is off. But I can't figure out what is going on. But I couldn't figure out how all the concepts connected. I couldn't apply this idea to other subject matters, even though I knew applying this idea would make those other areas juicier.” “Then, on top of that, I was supposed to go see my family that weekend. And I remember I was planning to take my girl out to dinner, and I told her I couldn't do it because I don't have enough energy.” “All of a sudden, I thought, I'm that guy - something is wrong.”  “I love reading, and one day I was reading something really valuable, something that excited me. But I couldn't grasp it. I couldn't put the pieces together. I knew the idea was brilliant. It was giving me a rush through my entire body.” “I knew I was sleeping well. So that wasn't the problem. At that point, I knew I needed to go figure it out. It was emotionally tough. When my first doctor told me nothing was wrong, and it was all in my head, it was devastating because he was a guy I trusted.” Saad saw 11 specialists in 6 months before he began finding answers.  Now, he wants to help you find answers to your male hormone issues.   There is much more to this conversation you don't want to miss. Ladies, if your man struggles with low libido, low energy, mood changes, or depression - tune in to this episode. And share it with someone who could use this great information. Saad shares his knowledge in a respectful, easy-to-digest way.  Check out this episode - you CAN feel like a man again with the correct information!    Episode Resources: Check out more about Saad Alam Email Saad directly at Salam@homehealth.com Hone Health YouTube Channel Saad Alam on Instagram

Three time all-natural National Bodybuilding Champion, advisor to the American Anti-Cancer Institute, Vice President and Director of Education at BiOptimizers nutrition, President of The Awesome Health Alliance, author, athlete, speaker, and host of the Awesome Health Podcast and apparently SUPERHERO Wade Lightheart joins Len and Jon on today's episode.

Cannabis products are not “one size fits all.”  If you are interested in using cannabis or hemp related products or started using them but are not satisfied with the results, you came to the right podcast episode.  By now, you probably know that the hemp industry exploded across North America. Today, there is a good chance you live near a marijuana dispensary. You might already be using CBD products or THC products, or both.  But the question is - are you getting the right cannabis in the proper form that works well with your DNA?  As medical science learns more about cannabis and continues to make discoveries on the endocannabinoid system in the human body - the industry is adjusting, growing, and getting better at addressing specific needs. Consumers are starting to find cannabis product options that are more personalized and micro-focused on particular needs for individuals.  How this works is all tied to your DNA. The Awesome Health Podcast has the perfect guest to break this topic down: Len May - gifted at explaining the complexities of cannabis in concise, understandable ways.  Len is a pioneer of the medical cannabis industry, bringing more than 25 years of experience in the hemp industry. He is also an expert in genomics.  As the CEO and Co-Founder of EndoCanna Health, Len is a mover and shaker in the industry. He has held past positions as President of the Cannabis Action Network and Board Member and Lifetime Member of the California Cannabis Association. May is the current chair of the CBDIA science board and is a stakeholder in some of the industry's most iconic brands.  In this episode, he shares his expertise on the Endocannabinoid System and how genetic expression plays a role in human experiences. As a Certified Medical Cannabis Specialist in Medicinal Genomics, May has an in-depth knowledge of genomics, cannabinoids and terpenes, and their interaction with the endocannabinoid system. As well, he holds a Masters of Medical Cannabis and a certificate in Endocannabinoid Formulation from the Institute for the Advancement of Integrative Medicine. Len is also a published author (Making Cannabis Personal) and the host of the popular podcast “Everything is Personal.”    In this podcast, we cover:  Len's impressively compressed story of his rise to the top of the cannabis industry Len May's past run-ins with law enforcement as the industry changed A simple explanation of the endocannabinoid system in your body How to determine which cannabinoids are the right fit for your system The differences between CBD and THC How cannabinoids help the top bodybuilders in recovery How you can use your DNA profile (like 23&Me) to fit you with the perfect cannabis formula How other medications can affect your cannabis experience What are terpenes?  Why THC makes Wade ravenous  How the hemp industry “clones” plants for better quality What the future of the cannabis industry could look like   How Len discovered cannabis helps his ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) When Len looks back on his childhood, he describes himself as a kid who would quickly drift off into daydreams while in class, occurring often enough that Len took many different types of prescription medications.  Len wasn't happy with any of them - they either didn't work or if they did help, the side effects made him feel like crap.  Until one day - Len was hanging out with some older kids, and one said, “Do you want to smoke a cigarette?” Len was excited as he felt like one of the cool kids. He took a drag from the cigarette, coughed, and he instantly knew that this was not the taste of a regular cigarette. He found out it was a rolled joint full of marijuana.  What changed Len's life was when he went back to class after smoking the marijuana, he noticed how he was able to focus much better on the schoolwork in front of him.  That is how cannabis became Len May's passion and go-to medicine. He got off all other meds and went to using cannabis only. Eventually, through struggles with his parents and later, his entrepreneurial efforts led Len to becoming a cannabis activist and business owner.  Hemp is a beautifully complex plant that still has a lot of uses to be discovered. Len says the hemp plant is “very complex” and has “somewhere around 500 different components identified. But we don't know what a lot of them are. We have identified somewhere around 114 different components with actual names, and we understand the effects.” In the hemp plant are the cannabinoids themselves: CBD, THC, THCV, CBDV, CBG, CBN, and other components like terpenes.  The plant itself has its genetics, which are cannabinoids expressed in the flowers' trichomes. The flower grows to a particular maturity and then begins expressing these cannabinoids. In the plant, they work synergistically together to create an effect. All of these start at the primary cannabinoid, the grandfather cannabinoid or mother cannabinoid, a CBG. Every single cannabinoid has an acid molecule.  Len and Wade get into the science behind cannabis and how it works in the human body. Science geeks will love this episode.  Tune in and hear how a simple DNA test could be the breakthrough you need to find the right match between your body and cannabis products. Len May's company - EndoCanna Health - can do the DNA test. Or, you can take your 23&Me DNA profile (or whatever company profile you used) and submit it for instant feedback. Pretty incredible service.  Check out this episode and discover what cannabis can do for your physical and mental health!    Episode Resources: APH Listeners get $20 off total order with code: awesome20 on Endo-dna testBook: Making Cannabis Personal: Take the Guesswork Out of Your Cannabis & CBD Experience By Tailoring It to Your DNA Endo.DNA on Instagram Len May DNA on Instagram Endocanna Health on Facebook Endo-DNA on Medium Len May on Twitter

Wade Lightheart (IG: @wadelightheart) is an author, athlete, nutritionist and expert on fixing digestion. He's the co-founder and president at BiOptimizers, a digestive and health optimization company and also serves as an advisor to the American Anti-Cancer Institute. Wade is a 3-time Canadian national all natural bodybuilding champion who competed as a vegetarian, former Mr. Universe competitor, and host of The Awesome Health Podcast. In this episode, we discuss: The origin story of how Wade got into bodybuilding The bodybuilding magazine from his terminally ill sister that inspired Wade The death of Wade's sister totally changed the trajectory of his life The key is to not develop a victim mentality Discovering meditation Becoming a drug-free vegetarian bodybuilder Wade's cognitive function improved after changing his diet Fitness is a component of health, not the whole picture Mr. Universe to Mr. Marshmallow... gaining 42 lbs in 3 months Breaking down the role of enzymes in the body The problem with raw food diets Do the diet that works for you The three dietary philosophies Using biohacking technology to address health issues Crash & burn... the long term health repercussions of extreme bodybuilding The psychological transitions bodybuilders experience The profound spiritual perspective Wade achieved fulfilling his dream Xenoestrogens, EMFs and lack of exercise cause low testosterone levels in men Testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) should be used as a last resort Males increasing their testosterone level to between 600-1000 will improve recovery It took 33 years for Wade to achieve his dream of moving from New Brunswick to Venice Beach Concerns about the COVID-19 vaccine Taking your health into your own hands Show sponsors: Paleovalley

In this era of medical misinformation and propaganda, we need a voice of reason. We found one!  Our host Wade T. Lightheart was super excited to have Dr. Sanjay Gupta back on the Awesome Health Podcast because Dr. Gupta is one of the most outstanding communicators for sharing medical information with the public. He has a real knack for presenting scientific knowledge in a simple, straightforward style. Dr. Gupta advocates for the public to have free access to reliable, jargon-free health information. He delivers once again!    Every time he comes on the show, Dr. Gupta brings level-headed health knowledge, tips, and hacks to help you be healthy and stay healthy.  He is a cardiologist whose specialty is providing patients with non-invasive cardiology and imaging services.  This is a timely podcast, as over half the conversation focuses on the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting mRNA vaccines. Wade asks the doctor some good questions about what's happening out there with the virus and the subsequent vaccines. Dr. Gupta doesn't flinch - he provides straightforward, transparent, honest answers that do not have any hidden agendas.  The other half of this conversation focuses on blood pressure. As a cardiologist who believes in prevention, not just reacting to symptoms, Dr. Gupta reveals some fascinating aspects of blood pressure that many lay people don't know. If you are getting older or deal with blood pressure issues, this information is something you don't want to miss.  Here's a quick overview of what you'll get... In this podcast, we cover: Dr. Gupta's experiences during the pandemic How to get solid, accurate Covid information and skip the propaganda Recommendations from Dr. Gupta on protecting yourself from Covid How Dr. Gupta determines if a patient is ready for major surgery Is the push for mass vaccinations in the middle of a pandemic a mistake? Why everyone needs easy access to accurate medical information Fascinating insights about blood pressure you probably haven't heard How to spot heart disease in the eyes and kidneys In the context of personal growth, what's the difference between “stretching” and “growing”?  We should never have a society where people are afraid to ask questions. This is Dr. Gupta's foundational philosophy with his medical practice. His commitment to patiently answering questions for his patients is more robust now as Covid brought new challenges.  Here's some more on this from Dr. Gupta: “This is a fundamental problem. It's clear to me that people are getting sicker. Why? Is it the food? Ingredients in the food? How do we sort out the experiments needed to determine these answers? The problem is this propaganda today. We should never be afraid to ask questions. The answers should be found in properly designed experiments geared to answer our questions.”  “However, unfortunately, that isn't allowed to happen because the minute you say something, you get branded anti this or that.”  “I think the point is simple: you should be able to ask questions. Then you design an experiment that answers important questions.” “For example: if you have a population of a billion people vaccinated, and then we start seeing things like more chronic fatigue syndrome, or more migraines, or whatever, how do you determine what's going on? It's going to be difficult to tease out.”  Dealing with Covid as a young person vs. an older person At one point in his conversation with Wade, Dr. Gupta said, “This is why the younger, healthier, more independent will cope fine both with some of the social distancing and social isolation. But the older population, the people who have the most chance of suffering if they get the virus, also struggle more with the mental consequences of being trapped in their house. Suppose a vaccination program offers you some hope that you can get out of the house. For an 80-year-old person, quality of life is more important than the length of life. Most 80 year olds will say they want some quality in my last few years. So why deprive them of that?”  “That's why it was important to come up with something like a vaccination program, which gave people hope that they would be okay going out.” “We won't know if the vaccines or social isolation and lockdowns are what's working. How do you tease out whether the effectiveness is from the vaccination or the lockdown as things are opening up? It will be interesting to see what happens.”  This is so refreshing to listen to a caring doctor who doesn't like hype or manipulating people. He wants to give you honest facts about Covid and heart disease - not sensationalistic anecdotes. Dr. Gupta keeps it real, and he uses science, level-headedness, and open-mindedness to help people get answers.  And the talk about blood pressure is eye-opening. For example, if a BP reading happens to be on the higher side, you don't have to panic. Retake your BP again 30 minutes later. That higher score might be because you're nervous about seeing the doctor.  Check out this episode - some Covid clarity and heart health hacks could be good for you!    Episode Resources: Dr. Sanjay Gupta's two main websites: drsanjayguptacardiologist.com Yorkcardiology.co.uk Episode 55 with Dr. Gupta: Keeping Your Heart Healthy Sanjay Gupta YouTube Channel Sanjay Gupta on Facebook AHP Listeners in UK get 15% off total order with code: DRSANJAY15 on BiOptimizers.co.uk

  Our guest this episode has a highly unusual medical background.  Dr. Misak first began his medical studies in pharmacy, earning a degree in Pharmacy from West Virginia University. He is still a Registered Pharmacist today.  But “Doc Misak'' wasn't satisfied with pharmacy only. He has always been fascinated by how things work. Going back to childhood, Misak was always tinkering with things to see how they operated. Misak liked taking things apart - like his bike - and putting them back together to learn how something “functions.” His obsession with functionality is why he ended up becoming a Functional Doctor. When Misak looks back at his career, he says “it made perfect sense” for him to go from Pharmacist to Functional Medicine. Because Dr. Misak isn’t one to “stay in a box.” One day he discovered by accident that functional medicine was about studying the root causes of disease and going deeper into how different bodywork areas work together. He got hooked. Misak quickly flew out to Oregon to attend one of the nation’s top functional medical schools.  While in school, Dr. Misak also studied compounding pharmacy - which is preparing custom formulated medications for the unique needs of individual patients.  Dr. Misak will blow your mind in this episode - from his 5 phase approach to functional health - to his jaw-dropping discoveries in anti-aging, telomeres, and groundbreaking developments in quantum bio-electrical energy and health - get ready for this exciting conversation!  Most pharmacists ``stay in their lane,” never breaking out of that trained paradigm. Misak’s combined expertise in functional medicine is why you will want to tune in. Our host Wade Lightheart declares this to be one of the BEST Awesome Health podcasts EVER at the end of the show.  In this podcast, we cover: Dr. Misak’s remarkable personal journey to becoming a highly sought-after functional doctor The emerging quantum energy component to healing A fantastic tool called a “multiple wave oscillator” Dr. Misak’s 5 phase approach to health How to modulate and measure your “vital force” and energy efficiency for a longer life Why you need to frequently test your urine and saliva using ph strips and a refractometer What are “telomeres,'' and how are they the doorway to longevity? Dr. Misak’s supplement recommendations What Dr. Misak thinks about the current COVID-19 vaccine “We are electrical.”  At one point during the interview, Dr. Misak said: “Even naturopathic doctors today are taught to use drugs as first-line therapy to control people before they broaden out. I kept finding, wait a minute, I do not see the cures that you talk about in nature here. I can get these cancer patients to feel better, but I’m not breaking through with the cures.  That led me down a giant rabbit hole where I learned about Dr. Carey Reams and the Reams biological theory of ionization. Instead of taking apart an atom, he’s like - how do you put things together. And he learned that we are electrical. Einstein said in his theory of relativity that everything’s relative. That energy is the same as matter. So you are heat and electricity. Tesla, you know, if you want to understand the secrets of the universe, think of frequency and vibration.  But nobody teaches health on the level of quantum energy.”  Now, Dr. Misak IS teaching health from a quantum energy perspective. Let’s “run your numbers” to get to the root causes of your health issues. As a functional doctor, Misak does complete and thorough testing on his patients. He collects the data on pretty much everything - from blood work to food allergies and more.  Dr. Misak talks about bioelectric energy’s impact on our body chemistry. When numbers are up or down, these provide tons of helpful information for someone trained like Dr. Misak.  One thing he says in this interview: “I can have people come in, run their numbers, and I don’t even look at why they came in to see me, because I can tell them everything that’s going on with them by looking at their numbers because each variable that’s away from normal has a symptom pattern presented with it.  So chemistry is what makes up everything, right? You have positive charges, negative charges, cations, and anions. Electrically, they make up your atoms, which make up your molecules.  So if you understand what the chemistry is dictating everywhere down the line, you know what the ideal is. You start correcting the chemistry electrochemically, and then everything starts to fix down below. You begin seeing hormonal effects normalizing. You start seeing blood pressure improve. Then you start supporting the liver, pancreas, lungs, adrenals, thyroid, whatever it is - those things begin to fix themselves.  But the chemistry will tell you where the weaknesses are and what you need to begin supporting.”   Dr. Misak is a brilliant yet humble man who can present science in a digestible format for people who didn’t go to medical school. There is so much brilliance in this interview. These show notes do not do this episode justice. Episode 136 is a highly recommended conversation you don’t want to miss.  Unlock more energy - Dr. Misak can help you find your keys. :)    Episode Resources:  Primary Website: www.docmisak.com Company Website: www.vitelometry.com - Awesome Health Podcast listeners get 10% off purchase to try VI-TELOMETRY ESSENTIALS.Doc Misak on YouTube (Dr. Misak offers a livestream every Saturday morning at 10 a.m. Eastern.)Darrell Misak, ND, RPh on LinkedIn Doc Misak on Facebook Info on Dr. Carey Reams

    He’s a fitness coach and lifestyle coach with over 22 years of experience.  Our host Wade T. Lightheart was excited to get another interview with Joe DiStefano - a true winner who overcame a traumatic brain injury years ago that astounded his doctors. His unique personal story gets covered in episode 99 of the Awesome Health Podcast (link below).  After recovering, Joe built a successful health and wellness business called RUNGA - an experiential lifestyle brand that includes a robust online community of healthy-minded people. RUNGA has adapted to recent changes brought on by Covid and is still thriving today. Joe loves empowering individuals to live highly effective and sustainable lives that fuel health, wellness, and performance.  Through the course of Joe’s career journey as a fitness trainer, he has put together a unique method for sustainable happiness that is the primary focus of this episode. Listen in and discover Joe’s six life-changing methods that are so simple, anyone can do them. When done consistently, Joe’s clients achieve a reliably steady level of overall wellbeing.  Joe is also the host of the STACKED podcast, where he interviews compelling guests on topics related to health and wellness. Wade is one of those exciting guests. (Link to Wade’s interview on STACKED below.)  In this podcast, we cover: Why you cannot rely on the government to keep you healthy Joe’s six powerful methods for living life with sustainable happiness (one is intermittent fasting) The type of people reaching out to Joe and what they’re looking for How Joe defines the differences between fitness and health How Joe coaches former athletes who are aging and need to make adjustments in their fitness routines and goals Why kettlebell workouts help you sustain happiness The health benefits of cold immersion (another of the six methods to lasting happiness)  The urgency to take responsibility for your wellness in 2021 People contact RUNGA to find THIS Wade asks Joe at one point: what does a typical client of RUNGA look like, and what are their needs?  Joe describes his customer base as a spectrum of avatars. Some are like Wade - they know their stuff and want to find a community of like-minded people. Another avatar consists of fitness buffs who have not achieved their fitness goals for whatever reason - it could be a trauma or some emotional barrier or a negative relationship with food.  Joe and his team carry out a careful application process. Every person that wants to come in is personally spoken to - and heard.  Through that application process, RUNGA then curates a group of people that Joe and his team believe will work well together. This group grows close during the RUNGA four-day events. Sometimes a group that is dealing with the same issue gets curated together.  On the outside, these clients might appear quite different. However, they all need to find a sense of stillness. They need to quiet the mental chatter, addiction to the latest and greatest, new diet, new things, etc.  RUNGA brings people back to the basics. Joe’s clients have a profound interest in health and wellness, but they know something is missing, something isn’t right. They might look like Mr. Universe but still suffer health issues (like Wade did years ago.)  How to get back to daily exercise when life takes you off course for a while During the interview, Wade asks Joe how a person can get their fitness back on track after letting themselves go during the pandemic. (People in the U.S. have gained an average of 29 pounds since the lockdowns began in 2020.)  Joe’s response: “As long as you make space for (exercise), and you understand that that happens automatically, and you don’t try to force anything, it’ll happen and take you on this journey. I think we’re so used to being in control. We are used to forcing everything and working for it. We can’t let go enough.” “That’s one thing I can help people with - that understanding. I just had a call with a woman who had some surgery, and now she’s saying, ‘I gotta get back to the gym. I gotta do this.’ You know, she just had her neck cut open. She’s got a big wound there. So I’m like, “Hey, right now, be a little easy on yourself. If I told you right now to do a thousand burpees in your garage, that’s not going to be good for you. What would be good for you is to walk into your garage and peddle a few times on your bike. Pick up a kettlebell a couple of times, and leave. Because we’re trying to anchor that habit of getting into the garage, but we’re not judging what happens in the garage right now.” “All we’re doing is maintaining that habit so that the wheels don’t fall off. Then, when you’re ready to crush it again, you don’t have to start at zero because the routine of going into the garage at 10:00 a.m. never leaves.”  As the pandemic fizzles out, now is the perfect time to get back to living a more fit and healthy lifestyle. If you are tired of working out alone in your basement and are yearning to find a community of health-minded people who want to achieve a more consistent, steady level of happiness and contentment, tune in to this episode. Joe explains the six methods to feeling great every day. You just have to “anchor the habit” because the government can’t do it for you! They don’t even know how, obviously!  Listen to Joe - practice these six simple things and get ready for more energy and bliss!  Episode Resources:www.rungalife.com www.coachjoedi.com Stacked Podcast Runga Life on Instagram @rungalifeJoe Distefano on Instagram @coachjoediRunga Life on Facebook /RUNGALIFERunga YouTube ChannelJoe DisStefano on Twitter: @coachjoediJoe Distefano LinkedIn ProfileAwesome Health Podcast Episode 99: Overcoming Obstacles and Finding a Tribe with Joe DiStefanoSTACKED Podcast Episode 63: How To Reverse Magnesium Deficiency & Optimize Your Biology with Wade Lightheart Use code AWESOME for 25% off Runga Mobility balls (https://www.rungalife.com/shop/runga-mobility-balls)          

The wild and wonderful Wade Lightheart is our guest for episode 41. Wade is a Canadian national all-natural bodybuilding champion, a world-renown high-performance coach, former Mr. Universe competitor, and host of the Awesome Health Podcast. Wade is also an author and the co-founder and president of BiOptimizers, a digestion and health optimization company. Wade discusses […]

You may have noticed that most pastry chefs do not look like Adonis. Bakers are typically “doughy” in appearance, not “in great shape.” On this episode of the Awesome Health Podcast, today’s guest is a pastry chef with abs. That’s right, Crosby Tailor is a professional model who has figured out how to make desserts that are not just “sugar-free.” His desserts are made with the finest ingredients yet taste delicious. Tailor’s incredible treats — from cookies to brownies to ice cream — are so healthy they can even meet your macros. His creations can serve as nutritional meals. Wild!  Crosby Tailor is a Los Angeles-based modern-day renaissance man: a health/fitness coach, model, sugar-free dessert chef, and Founder of Crosby's Baking Co.

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In this episode of The Happy Hustle podcast, I'm privileged to chat with one of the world's premier authorities on natural nutrition and training as well as a rockstar entrepreneur, Mr. Wade Lightheart.   Wade is 3-time Canadian National All-Natural Bodybuilding Champion who competed as a vegetarian, former Mr. Universe Competitor, author, President of BiOptimizers, and host of The Awesome Health podcast.    Having majored in Sports Science at the University of New Brunswick, he has authored numerous books on health, nutrition and exercise which have sold in over 80 countries.    Wade is sought out by athletes and high-performance oriented individuals worldwide for his advice on how to optimize their health and fitness levels.   IN THIS EPISODE, WE COVER:  [00:19:17:09] Three Key Components Every Business Should Have [00:27:26:08] Tips to Improve Your Work-Life Balance [00:34:53:02] The Power of Magnesium [00:43:05:27] Health Hacks by Wade   Bioptimizers products are definitely worth a try! So, if you want to get 10% discount on their complete full spectrum magnesium supplement, go to https://bioptimizers.com/happy  They have a 100% money-back guarantee for the first 365 days of your purchase if you aren't satisfied with the products so you have nothing to lose and everything to gain!   What does happy Hustlin' mean to you?  Wade says, “it means joyfully dispensing your duties without personal motive or attachment for the good of humanity. So, it's all about the mission not about the margin and the margin takes care of itself if the mission is right.   Connect with Wade! Follow Wade and BiOptimizers on: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BiOptimizers/           https://www.facebook.com/wade.lightheart Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bioptimizers/        Youtube:    https://www.youtube.com/bioptimizers Find Wade on BiOptimizers website:  https://bioptimizers.com/about-us/ Tune into Awesome Health Podcast: https://bioptimizers.com/awesome-health-podcast/   Powerful Resources from Wade:   Books Traction by Gino Wickman : Killing Sacred Cows by Garrett B. Gunderson : https://wealthfactory.com/killing-sacred-cows/book/ Education of a Bodybuilder by Arnold Schwarzenegger: https://www.amazon.com/Arnold-Education-Bodybuilder-Schwarzenegger/dp/0671797484   Podcast The Five Health Tests You Need with Dr. Paul Maximus: https://bioptimizers.com/paul-maximus-025/ Importance of cellular detoxification and longevity with Dr. Ted Achacoso - https://bioptimizers.com/ted-achacoso-095-i/   Connect with Cary! Check out his website- www.caryjack.com APPLY to JOIN the Happy Hustle Mastermind- https://calendly.com/happyhustlemastermind Purchase The Journey: 10 Days To Become a Happy Hustler Online Course- www.thehappyhustle.com   About the Happy Hustle Podcast The Happy Hustle Podcast aims to educate, inspire, and entertain you, while reminding you to enjoy the journey, not just the destination, as you Happy Hustle for a life of passion and purpose. From successful entrepreneurs to spiritual masters, it brings on an array of powerful guests to help you transform your dreams into a reality.

Today, I am blessed to have two phenomenal athletes, experts on fitness, and passionate health crusaders, Matt Gallant and Wade Lightheart. Wade Lightheart is one of the world's premier authorities on Natural Nutrition and Training Methods. He has authored numerous books on health, nutrition, and exercise, sold in over 80 countries. Wade is sought out by athletes and high-performance oriented individuals worldwide for his advice on optimizing their health and fitness levels. Matt Gallant is a serial entrepreneur who's collected over 7 million leads in various industries, scientifically tested well over 10,000 different marketing ideas, generate tens of millions of dollars online, and built his international dream lifestyle. Matt currently resides in Panama with his beautiful wife. PURCHASE BIOTIMIZER SUPPLEMENTS HERE. USE KETOKAMP AT CHECKOUT FOR A DISCOUNT In this episode, Matt Gallant and Wade Lightheart open the show speaking about the four stages of fat adaptation. In the first stage, your body will not be efficient in utilizing ketones. After your body is fat-adapted and you have been following the ketogenic lifestyle, your body will start to hold onto glucose in the muscles. Matt and Wade explain how you can reset your leptin levels by refeeding twice a week. Plus, we talk about when it's essential to pay attention to your ghrelin levels. Tune in as we speak about the importance of fasting, magnesium, and why you should consider having a limited food selection. / E P I S O D E   S P ON S O R S  PureForm Omega Plant Based Oils (Best Alternative to Fish Oil): http://www.purelifescience.com Use ben4 for $4.00 off. ☕️ Purity Coffee: http//:www.ketokampcoffee.com, use ketokamp at checkout for 10% off ➡️ Keto Kamp Membership for only $5: http://www.startketokamp.com [02:15] About Matt Gallant Using keto, Matt went from 147 to 235 naturally. There was some fat in that weight gain, but there was also a lot of muscle. Matt became obsessed with bodybuilding and would work out twice a day. [03:45] The Four Stages of Fat Adaptation The Keto Flu Phase When you start keto, your body is not efficient in utilizing ketones for energy. You will not have energy during this phase. Feeling Good You will start to reap the rewards. It’s the right time to cut carbs and boost fat. You want to force your body to become efficient and effective in burning fat as fuel. Start Carb Cycling Start doing some carb refeeds. Bump up protein. This phase will last nine months. Long-Term Keto Exercise performance will be as good as it was on carbs. You hold onto more glucose in the muscle. [17:00] Resetting Your Leptin Levels Matt had lost thirty pounds of body fat. He wanted to lose ten more pounds before his wedding. If you lose weight too fast, then your body will get triggered for survival mode. As soon as your body becomes threatened that it might starve, it will increase your hunger hormone, ghrelin. It’s not a bad thing to experience hunger from time to time. Two refeeds each week are ideal and optimal. It will help you reset leptin. If you refeed for two days, you will regain lost muscle tissue. [37:25] When To Pay Attention To Your Ghrelin When fasting, your body will pump out ghrelin an hour before your typical mealtime is. If you eat at 9 am, then at 8 am, you will get a ghrelin spike. If you skip breakfast for three to five days, then your ghrelin spike will disappear. What makes someone fail a diet is hunger and cravings. When you’re dieting, you’ll be facing some hunger. The way a diet will work is if you can manage the hunger. Most people just quit their diets because of their willpower. What’s the difference between psychological hunger and physiological hunger? Most people’s hunger is psychological. The benefit of fasting and keto is that you can discern the difference between psychological hunger and physiological hunger. There is a benefit to go through hunger phases. [44:10] Following Keto Without A Gallbladder If you are going to attempt keto without a gallbladder, get yourself some medical advice. You can get into a lot of trouble if you mess this up. When you eat something nasty, the damage is going to happen in your liver or gallbladder. If you have a high calcium-based diet, you can impair enzymatic function. [48:30] Breaking Your Fast As A Female Females do better if they break their fast in the morning. Men do better if they break their fast later in the day. Hormones peak and cycle – it can affect your mood, productivity, and your ability to maintain your diet. Females can get into the ghrelin monsters faster than men do. [50:45] The Importance Of Having Less Food Selection   Less food selection is much better for a whole bunch of reasons. You are making fewer decisions. There will be fewer cravings. However, don’t eat the same thing every single day. Instead of having forty different meals that you rotate from, maybe have ten or twelve. [53:10] How To Support The Mitochondria   The biggest hack you can do is high-intensity interval training. Most hormone-related stressors will improve mitochondria like cold showers. Eat high-quality food and avoid toxins. Get Magnesium Breakthrough to repair your nervous system: https://shop.bioptimizers.com/products/magnesium-breakthrough (use code ketokamp). Magnesium will help you stay relaxed and calm. AND MUCH MORE!   Resources from this episode: Learn more at BiOptimizers (coupon code: ketokamp): https://bioptimizers.com Listen to The Awesome Health Podcast: https://bioptimizers.com/awesome-health-podcast/ Get Kapex (coupon code: ketokamp): https://shop.bioptimizers.com/products/kapex Get Magnesium Breakthrough (coupon code: ketokamp): https://shop.bioptimizers.com/products/magnesium-breakthrough Follow BiOptimizers Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BiOptimizers/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bioptimizers/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/bioptimizers Check out Matt Gallant’s Website: https://mattgallant.tv Follow Matt Gallant Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattgallant Check out Wade Lightheart’s Website: http://www.wadelightheart.net/ Follow Wade Lightheart Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wadelightheart/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/wadetlightheart Listen to Fix Keto Digestive Issues, The Number 1 Reason People Feel Like Crap on Keto KKP: 164: https://ketokamp.libsyn.com/wade-lightheart Read Anabolic Solution for Bodybuilders: https://www.amazon.com/Anabolic-Solution-Bodybuilders-Mauro-Pasquale/dp/0967989612/benazadi-20 Join theKeto Kamp Academy: https://ketokampacademy.com/7-day-trial-a WatchKeto Kamp on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUh_MOM621MvpW_HLtfkLyQ // E P I S O D E   S P ON S O R S  PureForm Omega Plant Based Oils (Best Alternative to Fish Oil): http://www.purelifescience.com Use ben4 for $4.00 off. ☕️ Purity Coffee: http//:www.ketokampcoffee.com, use ketokamp at checkout for 10% off // R E S O U R C E S ➡️ Keto Kamp Membership for only $5: http://www.startketokamp.com ➡️The World's Best Olive Oil | Get a $39 Bottle For a $1: http://www.ketokampoliveoil.com ☕Healthiest Coffee: http://www.ketokampcoffee.com Use "ketokamp" for 10% off ➡️Keto Kamp Apparel: http://www.ketokampgear.com *Some Links Are Affiliates* // F O L L O W ▸ instagram | @thebenazadi | http://bit.ly/2B1NXKW ▸ facebook | /thebenazadi | http://bit.ly/2BVvvW6 ▸ twitter | @thebenazadi http://bit.ly/2USE0so Disclaimer: This podcast is for information purposes only. Statements and views expressed on this podcast are not medical advice. This podcast including Ben Azadi disclaim responsibility from any possible adverse effects from the use of information contained herein. Opinions of guests are their own, and this podcast does not accept responsibility of statements made by guests. This podcast does not make any representations or warranties about guests qualifications or credibility. Individuals on this podcast may have a direct or non-direct interest in products or services referred to herein. If you think you have a medical problem, consult a licensed physician.  

Do you know if there are toxins in your walls or in your shampoo? Terminating the toxins in your life is what our guest does: Aimee Carlson is the toxin terminator! Aimee has spent the last 7 years removing hidden toxins from her own home to be free of chronic disease, and she has helped hundreds do the same. Today she joins us for the Awesome Health Podcast, and she’ll share how she started this terminating toxins quest and the top toxins to look for in your home.

In today’s episode of Toxin Terminator, Aimee is joined by Wade Lightheart! He is the 3-Time Canadian All Natural BodyBuilding Champion, former Mr. Universe competitor, host of "The Awesome Health" Podcast, world premier authority on natural nutrition and training methods, major in Sports Science, author of numerous books on health, nutrition and exercise, advisor to the American Anti-Cancer Institute, and Co-Founder/President of BiOptimizers.In this episode we dig into the personal story behind how Wade got into health and nutrition as well as learn his daily practices that help him stay in optimal health.We discussed:How Wade went from competing nationally to gaining 42 pounds and in a health crisis.How he learned to build the body from the inside out. And that he was so focused on the outside results.We discussed why supplementation was developed and the history of our food.Your health or disease is entirely dependent on your lifestyleThe 7 Pillars of Optimal HealthConnect with Wade:www.bioptimizers.com - and save 10% with code Toxic TerminatorFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/BiOptimizers Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bioptimizers/ @bioptimizersConnect with Aimee:http://aimeecarlson.com/https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheToxinFreeLifestyle/https://www.instagram.com/aimeecarlson6/https://twitter.com/AimeeCa44250287https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXz7-0umMiF7jxrw_fiVEmA/featuredDisclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission at no cost to you. Keep in mind that I link these companies and their products because of their quality and not because of the commission I receive from your purchases. The decision is yours, and whether or not you decide to buy something is completely up to you. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Thyroid issues have exploded in the general population, so how can you take care of your thyroid and avoid the same fate? Elle Russ is back to talk about her own healing journey and more on today's Awesome Health Podcast. Elle is the author of Confident As Fu*k and the best-selling book, The Paleo Thyroid Solution. In addition to being an incredible author, speaker and coach, Elle is also a TV/Film writer and the host of two podcasts: The Primal Blueprint Podcast & Kick Ass Life Podcast.

With me today on the podcast we have Wade Lightheart of BiOptimizers.   Wade is a 3-time all-natural national bodybuilding champion advisor to the American Anti-Cancer Institute Director of Education at BiOptimizers Nutrition, with such products as Masszymes Founder of the Prosperity & Health Alliance. Wade Travels the world to spread his life mission helping other's achieve a richer experience of Life through daily practice of rituals that lead you to true health, real wealth and peace of mind. This was a great conversation; he goes deep on how digestion works and how to fix it.   Major Parks In London Enzyme Nutrition, Edward Howell Masszymes Digestive Enzymes P3-OM PROBIOTICS Chuck Hazzard | Track to Hack. The Oura Ring Deep Dive   Connect with Wade Lightheart below; Bioptimizers website 10% DISCOUNT on all Producsts with code: ideal10 Bioptimizers Instagram Wade Lightheart website The Awesome Health Podcast   Thank you so much for listening and checking out this episode of Your Ideal Day.  You can also check us out on Instagram @youridealday

How can a gratitude mindset transform your day to day life? Our guest knows and he's going to tell us on today's episode of Awesome Health Podcast! Brett Robbo is a performance coach, holistic wellbeing specialist, podcaster, and father. He is also a former sprinter at the Australian Institute of Sport, and then went on to work with Olympic and Paralympic champions and other high performance sporting teams as a performance therapist, sprints coach and strength & conditioning coach.

Ever wonder why it pays to play? Darryl Edwards joins us to talk about this very topic on episode 79 of Awesome Health Podcast. Darryl is a movement coach, author of the best-selling book “Animal Moves” and a leader in the area of creativity and innovation in fitness and health. He developed the Primal Play Method™ as a way to make physical activity both healthy and fun for people of all fitness levels and abilities.

What are the benefits of micro workouts? Can brief, intense bursts of exertion be more beneficial than longer types of physical activity? Here to answer those questions and more is none other than Brad Kearns. On this episode of Awesome Health Podcast, Brad tells us about being passionate about what we do at any stage of our lives and about how getting older helped him make the transition from ultra-competitive athlete to a more holistic and well-rounded person.

Joining us is the living legend himself - Eliott Hulse! Eliott is a husband and father of four, strongman, strength coach with a YouTube following of over 2 million. His mission in life is making men stronger, something we talk about on the show today. Elliott shares his thoughts on this plus the necessity of mentorship and more on this edition of Awesome Health Podcast.

In this episode, I sit with Wade Lightheart, co-founder and president of BiOptimizers, a nutrition company whose mission is to bring you the best in health and nutritional supplements. Wade is an advisor to the American Anti-Cancer Institute, the author of numerous books on health, exercise, and nutrition, and the host of The Awesome Health Podcast. As well as being one of the world’s leading authorities on natural nutrition, Wade is a former natural bodybuilding champion and he is proud to have taken part in the Mr Universe contest as a drug-free vegetarian competitor.Proudly Sponsored By: BiOptimizersBiOptimizers Magnesium Breakthrough is by far the most complete magnesium product ever created, and I highly recommend you give it a try through our special promotion at www.bioptimizers.com/stacked. And now you can get an additional 10% off from the normal package price with coupon code “STACKED10”.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/join/stacked)

THE BIOCURIOUS PODCAST – WADE LIGHTHEART In this episode, Kayla and special guest Wade Lightheart discuss how to build a healthy body from the inside out, focusing on healthy digestion, the gut and brain connection and optimizing metabolism. Wade Lightheart, a three-time Canadian national champion of the All Natural Bodybuilding Championships, who has also competed in the Mister Universe competition, is the podcast host for “The Awesome Health Podcast” and he is the president and cofounder of BiOptimizers. Biocurious Listeners can use code BIOCURIOUS to Episode Highlights: • how to optimize all health systems (7:33) • building a strong, healthy physique from the inside (12:56) • digestive system dysfunction (20:05) • metabolic interventions (22:12) • the ideal version of a life span (26:24) • the connection between gut and brain (28:54) • importance of enzymes and how to choose the right enzyme supplement (35:28) • probiotics and other gut health supplements (40:24) • the proper way to take supplements (46:57) • staying educated about your supplements (48:30) • the best 15-minute morning routine (51:31) • meditation for high performance (55:32) Connect with Wade: Official page: http://www.wadelightheart.net Social media: https://www.instagram.com/bioptimizers BiOptimizers (code BIOCURIOUS): https://bioptimizers.com/meet-team Connect with Kayla: Social media: https://www.instagram.com/biocurious_kayla Join the BioCurious Co-op: https://www.biocuriouskayla.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/biocurious/message

Our guests today are experts at many things, including starting a Paleo movement. Michelle Norris is the owner, co-founder and CEO of Paleo f(x)™ the largest Paleo platform and event in the world. Keith Norris is her husband and fellow co-founder of Paleo f(x); he's also a military veteran who became a serial entrepreneur in the health and wellness world.  Join us for this illuminating discussion with Michelle and Keith Norris on this episode of Awesome Health Podcast!

Wade Lightheart is an author, athlete, nutritionist and expert on fixing digestion. In this episode we dive deep into an abundance of ways to optimise your life, especially around digesting nutrients efficiently to give you more energy, greater mental clarity, reverse ageing and really enhance your overall experience of life! Wade also serves as an advisor to the American Anti-Cancer Institute, and is the Co-Founder and President at BiOptimizers (https://bioptimizers.com/), a digestive and health optimisation company. He’s been in the health industry for over 25 years, coached thousands of clients, and is sought out by athletes and high-performance oriented individuals worldwide for his advice on how to optimise their health and fitness levels.  Wade also has an awesome podcast called Awesome Health Podcast (https://bioptimizers.com/awesome-health-podcast/) that I highly recommend you listen to to learn an abundance of value about health well beyond what we were able to cover in this episode. I’d love to hear from you if you want to hear more from Wade on anything about nutrition and human performance or let me know what guests you’d love to hear on the show. Send me an email at info@brettrobbo.com or a message on social media. Be sure to check out your discount as a listener to this show: bioptimizers.com/lifeimpact and use the discount code: lifeimpact10

One of my favorite online comedians, JP Sears is here to talk about his comedic parodies of living the ultra-spiritual life, and also health and his creative process. JP is an active comedic YouTuber with over 300 million video views; he's also a standup comedian, an emotional healing coach, author, and speaker. He is also the host of his new podcast, The Awaken With JP Sears Show. You'll hear JP share his humor, his wisdom and much more when you join us for episode 70 of Awesome Health Podcast!

Many of us have or had certain ideas about how life at almost 30 and beyond would be - but what happens if we reach 30 and life doesn't look the way we envisioned it? We can follow the example set by today's guests, Krista Williams and Lindsey Simcik of the Almost 30 podcast. Tune in to hear this fun, entertaining and insightful episode of Awesome Health Podcast.

Joshua Holland is a man who knows the importance of building your healthiest bag of tricks. Joshua is an in-demand biohacker, fitness trainer and holistic health coach. He brings his experiential knowledge and deep wisdom into all he does from working with professional athletes and well-known celebrities to exploring the latest tools and technologies in the marketplace. On episode 66 of Awesome Health Podcast, Joshua tells us how he got started in the world of health and fitness.

Entrepreneurship is a demanding path, and no one knows this better than our guest Jag Chima. On being a high performance entrepreneur, Jag tells us exactly what it takes during episode 65 of Awesome Health Podcast.

Today our expert guest is Wade Lightheart, three-time Canadian national all-natural body-building champion who competed as a vegetarian and host of the Awesome Health Podcast. He's one of the world's premier authorities on natural nutrition and training methods. Having majored in sports science at the University of New Brunswick, he's authored numerous books on health, nutrition, and exercise that are sold in over 80 countries. He also serves as an advisor to the American Anti-Cancer Institute and is the co-founder and President at BiOptimizers, a digestive and health optimization company. With the way the world has responded to the coronavirus pandemic, there has been massive economic drawbacks and disruptions to people's daily lives—which leads to a stress response in the body. We tend to look at stress as a bad thing, but if you had no stress in your life, you would die. So how much stress is enough, and how much is too much? The idea behind BiOptimizers is to optimize your biology. When looking at people in the military, there was a clear divide between people who came out of the experience fine and others who experienced PTSD or other ailments. The big difference between the two was the biological difference to responses to fear or danger. When we are faced with information, displaced from the physiological activation of movement, we don't break down and eliminate the stress chemicals in our body. So, how do we increase our resilience to stress and balance “good stress” while avoiding “bad stress?” Remove artificial stressors from your life: Stop watching news or seeking out things on social media that produce fear and stress. Stop using screens or blue light devices 1-3 hours before bed, or at least start using blue light-blocking glasses. Maintain a form of exercise in your life. Get in the sunshine and reset your circadian rhythm. Stress in life is not only unavoidable, but necessary for survival. What we can and should do is optimize the stressors that we allow into our lives as much as possible and avoid those that are wholly unnecessary.   The Biggest Helping: Today's Most Important Takeaway “You are bigger than the challenges that come to your life. Crisis is oftentimes an invitation from divinity for you to find the superself that lies within. You can overcome anything.”   --   Thank you for joining us on The Daily Helping with Dr. Shuster. Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or Google Play to download more food for the brain, knowledge from the experts, and tools to win at life.   Resources: Learn more at https://bioptimizers.com/ http://www.wadelightheart.net Awesome Health Podcast: https://bioptimizers.com/category/podcast/ Get 10% off with code DAILYHELPING: https://bioptimizers.com/dailyhelping Take the FREE Awesome Health Course: https://bioptimizers.com/TDH Ep. 103: The Golden Age of Digestive Health | with Wade Lightheart   The Daily Helping is produced by Crate Media

Ever wonder how some of the top bodybuilding competitors today got their start? You'll hear the origins of a world class bodybuilder today when you listen to Natalia Coelho on this edition of Awesome Health Podcast. Natalia is a 2-time Arnold winner and a 5-time Olympian; she is one of the best competitors in the world right now.

As we age we don't have to lose our cognitive function, but is maintaining brain health for men different than it is for women? Our guest for today's Awesome Health Podcast explains some of the keys to cognitive fitness, and if differences in genders are social, behavioral or biological. Dr Sarah McKay is a neuroscientist and science communicator. She's also the author of The Women's Brain Book and is the director of The Neuroscience Academy. She is exceptional at translating brain science research into simple, actionable strategies for peak performance, creativity, health and wellbeing for men and for women.

We all want to age gracefully and look younger naturally, but is biohacking the anti-aging movement really possible? Absolutely, according to our guest for today's episode of Awesome Health Podcast. Oz Garcia is recognized as a leading authority on age reversal and healthy aging for almost four decades. He's known as the "nutritionist to the stars" working with A-Listers like Hilary Swank for her Million Dollar Baby transformation.

With CBD becoming extremely popular, are essential oils and holistic botanicals soon to follow? We explore this topic today on Awesome Health Podcast with Dr. Nick Berry. Dr. Nick is a holistic pharmacist, plant enthusiast and the founder of Essential Oil Wizardry. Essential Oil Wizardry offers over 300 different botanical extract products, powerful therapeutic formulas and elegant botanical perfumes, and also develops custom formulations for individuals and commercial brands.

Have you ever known something was wrong with your health, gone to your doctor only to be told you are “normal”? Our guest, Misty Williams, has and she’s here to talk about it. Today Misty is the founder of Healing Rosie, an online space that provides women with the resources they need to reclaim their well-being. But it wasn’t long ago Misty was learning how to be your own health advocate. She tells us what is in store for the Healing Rosie community in the future and a few basic steps everyone can do right now to start improving their health. Join us on episode 41 of the Awesome Health Podcast to hear those topics and more with Misty Williams and Wade T Lightheart!

What would strength training and conditioning with a pro be like? How do workouts of professional football players differ from the non-pros? Aaron Wellman knows, he's been with the New York Giants since 2016 as their head strength coach and has significantly decreased the number of season-ending injuries for the team. Before joining the Giants, he spent 20 years in the collegiate Division I level, including Indiana University, Notre Dame and Michigan.  Today on Awesome Health, he tells us some of the basic tenants he has found that make the most difference to the players on his team. We talk about a typical week in the life of an NFL professional strength and conditioning coach. Aaron says his team practices Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and they play Sunday. Monday is a weight training day, and Tuesdays are their days off. Saturdays are walkthrough days to prepare for the game on Sunday.  So there are four days of physical activity out of the seven, which means these athletes' nutritional needs are very different from the general public's needs. This is pretty obvious, but what wasn't so obvious initially was how the physical impact of the game on Sunday was affecting his players' ability to stay at a healthy weight. A lot of his guys were losing weight during the season, and it was from the blunt force trauma of the hits they were giving and receiving during their games. That was one of the tenants he found to make the most difference: adjusting the players' nutritional needs. Another was adjusting their sleep, players can volunteer to wear sleep trackers and share it with their coaches but it cannot be mandated they do so. There are about 20 guys on his team who wear trackers and talk to him about their sleep, how deep their sleep is and how much REM sleep they are getting, details like that and he helps them adjust as needed. Aaron breaks down the other tenants he has found to be most valuable, including different recovery modalities and why strength training and conditioning matters to the longevity of a player's season and career. We wrap up with Aaron sharing his experience adopting a keto lifestyle, his thoughts on how it might (or might not) benefit professional athletes, and what the future of strength training and conditioning will look like. Join us to hear strength training insights and more from Aaron Wellman on this edition of the Awesome Health show! Resources Aaron Wellman Dom D'Agostino on Awesome Health Underground Bodyopus by Dan Duchaine Read the Episode Transcript : Wade Lightheart: Good afternoon, good morning and good evening wherever you are. It's Wade T Lightheart from the Awesome Health Podcast and oh boy - I have been waiting for this interview for quite a while. We have the head strength coach with the New York giants, Mr Aaron Wellman and before we get introduced to the cause I want to talk about, he joined the Giants back in 2016. He did a lot of changes to the off season in season training routines. He's got a 20 year career at the Division 1 college level. He's a graduate of Indiana university, spent three years as a full time assistant strength and conditioning coach for the Hoosiers, and was probably involved with football, baseball and softball teams as well as developing individual nutrition programs for student athletes for the Giants. He was assistant director of strength and conditioning coach for the university of Notre Dame and he's the, he was the director of strength and conditioning, the university of Michigan and implemented athlete monitoring systems including GPS and neuromuscular fatigue assessments. I'm very curious about that. He has a wife and a son and a daughter. And what's an interesting, he follows a ketogenic cyclic or a cyclic ketogenic diet and he's always looking for ways to upgrade that. Aaron, welcome to the show. Aaron Wellman : Yeah, great, great introduction Wade. Appreciate you having me on. Wade Lightheart: Well, I see I'm fascinated by this interview. So for, for people who don't know, I studied exercise physiology back at the university in new Brunswick. I was a good athlete, not a great athlete and thought well maybe I'll get an opportunity to be a strength and conditioning coach. Life took me in a different direction and I ended up, you know, owning a supplement company. But today I'm excited because I want to know just the process first of how you got to become a strength and condition coach. So walk me backwards, like was you on an athletic career or is this something you always wanted? How'd that begin? Aaron Wellman : Yeah, I've always been involved in athletics and I think to your point, I wasn't a great athlete. I was a good high school athlete, played small, division three, college football. And I think a lot, I think a lot of coaches, particularly strength coaches, are guys who really weren't, weren't the best athletes but really had to work. And, and so we developed our own kind of training methodologies and, and really researched ways to get stronger ways to get faster and I think, and then, and then we grew to love that. We love the application. Then it's kind of let us, you know, just intimately down this path and the athlete development. And so I grew up as an athlete and, and got done play as I mentioned, division three, college football, Manchester university, little school in Indiana. And then from there decided I did an internship, had an internship experience at the university of Notre Dame my junior year in college. Aaron Wellman : And, and that's when I really got the bug for performance and, and really everything related to performance nutrition included and decided to go get a master's degree and became a graduate assistant at Indiana university with their football team and strength conditioning and really kind of gone from there. That was, I was hired in December of 1996 at Indiana. And so my career began there and as you mentioned, spent 20 years at the Division 1 level at six different universities. I've been very fortunate. You know, I think that, you know, luck has a lot to do with it and the people you surround yourself with. So a lot of people have helped me get where I am today, but I also like to think there's a lot of hard work that goes involved with it. There's a lot of hours just like any other profession that you want to get to the top of. And but it's, it's something that I'm not, I, I'm a continual learner, a lifelong learner, and I'm still learning every single day on the job. Right. And still making mistakes. I just like to think that after 20 years my mistakes are fewer and far between or less intense. And then they were, you know, 20 years ago. Wade Lightheart: So tell me, you know, at what would be.. I'm going to start, go right into this and then I'll ask some other specific questions. Is what is a day in a life of a strength coach at the professional level, which you are. Cause I mean it's very hard to kind of get into a professional team, especially one as well known as the Giants or something like that. I mean, I can't imagine the amount of hoops you got to jump through to get that position and also how demanding that position is. So walk us through, what's it like in the day of a life of a strength coach or as a week or how does that schedule workout on a year? So I'd be, I'm fascinated with this topic. Aaron Wellman : Yeah. And so we're in an end season right now, we're in week 11 of the NFL season. We began a Mar players reported the camp July 22nd, 23rd, something like that. And so we're pretty much seven days a week. From the beginning of the season to the end. We just had a five weeks a week. I got a Sunday off and, and we'll get some time post-season. But, but as you mentioned, it's a busy schedule, but it's just like, you know, I don't look at it as having to get to work every day or having to go to work every day. I look at, I have them get to work and I say I say this all the time that I've got the best job in the world. Not only do I get to pursue my passion, but I get to do it here in New York city with the New York Giants. And so I'm very fortunate. Aaron Wellman : I don't take, I don't take the position for granted. Certainly there's a lot of other people in the world who've worked as hard who are much more intelligent than I am, who can put together training programs that communicate with athletes who, who won't get this opportunity. So as you mentioned, there's, there's been some, some key points in my life that have kind of led to this. But, but a day is typically this, and I'll, I'll kind of walk you through the week. And so Sunday is obviously game day for us. And typically we will get to the stadium four to five hours prior to the game starting and players will start arriving and we'll just go through and players have some of their own routines or warm up routines and work systems with that. From, from early on in the locker room to pregame warmups all the way through the end of the game and part my staff, our director of performance nutrition, part of his role is, is that fueling process which begins, which you know, obviously doesn't just begin on game day, but since we're talking game, they begins that morning with the pregame meal and continues on through the conclusion of the game and really post game, you know, as you know, you're well aware of what they consume immediately. Aaron Wellman : Post-Game post-activity to begin the recovery process for the next week is critical. So, so we kind of oversee all that. We get through the game and certainly guys are banged up. It's an NFL game. There's, it's not a contest for, it's a collision sport. And so there's bumps, bruises, and he'd come out, some guys banged up. And so we get that injury report typically late at night. So I'll look over that and kind of prepare for the next day for the workouts. And so Monday, Monday our players are all in, every player. We all lift weights, we train, we meet, they watch film - our biggest hurdle on Mondays is administering a workout. And we do, we do our lower body workout on Monday. Some, some of the surprising and I think we can make arguments both ways for Tuesday's - a player day off, one day week has to be off for the players and across the NFL, most teams take Tuesday off and that's kind of, it's kind of been done for a long time and that's the standard most teams set. Aaron Wellman : So Monday, Monday's a big training they force cause there's, there is no practice, there are no other competing physical demands on Monday with, except for the weight training. So we get as much, we can't out them. But like I said, the, the biggest hurdle is, is these guys are banged up. So, so Monday becomes a day where we have to find a lot of alternative methods of training for certain guys. And so we get, we get the whole team in the weight room, practice squad included and certainly, and first thing I do when I get on Monday mornings, I look at all of our external loading variables from the game. We need primarily GPS variables. Wade Lightheart: What is a GPS variable? Can you explain that to people? Aaron Wellman : Global position systems we use every, every NFL city. It was outfitted with, with a radio frequency devices that determine max velocities on players, distance ran. Aaron Wellman : We look at number of plays, things like that. And so just, just markers, general markers of external loading from the game. Right. and so that's the first thing I do Monday morning. Who, who had the most plays on offense, on defense, on special teams, what kind of velocities that we hit that they, one of our receivers who they knew maximum velocity, where we know that there's going to be more eccentric stress on the arm stress from that we know there's going to be greater time to recover from that. And so, so we kind of, I kind of get a general gestalt overview of, of the entire team. And so I'll, I'll sit for the first two or three hours in the morning. Our first group comes in about eight o'clock and so Monday mornings, early morning we, I cover the data and I start making adjustments based upon the previous science into report and the numbers that, the number of plays and the, and the demands of the game the day before and kind of making just some best guesses on how certain guys are going to feel when they come in. And so when they come to the room, I try to have some alternative plans for those players. And I, and right when they come in the room, I grab them and we talk it over and we find out where they are physically from the game. And so that, that's, that's the, that's the challenge on Monday. How do we, how do we make it any efficient training day without setting back their ability to recover and working around any physical anomalies that have presented themselves from the previous day game. Wade Lightheart: That's got to be, I mean, now you've got all of the starters and all the backups and then you also have the practice team. Are you in charge of both sets of those? Aaron Wellman : Yeah, so we, so NFL teams have 53 active players and 10 practice squad. As we've got about 63 guys that come in that day. And yeah, so we oversee the training program of all those players and, and a lot of my time during the week and we individualized training programs. I mean that's, you know, not only by position but by chronological, chronological age within the position, previous injury history. And as I mentioned how many snaps were played on a Sunday. And so a lot of planning, the planning of the training program takes a lot of time throughout the week for, to individualize for that number of athletes. Wade Lightheart: There's so many variables here that you're dealing with. My mind is going off like all these different things. What is some of the differences that you notice between say the positions and then the effects of age as people go are, are ways of mitigating it? Cause we hear these stories, you know, with people like I, I saw an interview with James Harrison of course was the oldest linebacker ever was spending like $350,000 on his recovery program as he aged, you know, Tom Brady with the TV 12 story and all the stuff that he's got going on there. We do know of particularly in, in such a, as you say, a collision sport as the NFL age plays a big role in how successful they can. How does that, how do you deal with that or how do you manage that? Or what typically, do you see where athletes have a hard time keeping pace with the kind of level that you have to maintain rational level? Aaron Wellman : Well, the first part of the question positionally we see, we see the, well, we, when we turn the skill positions, the wide receivers and demons or backs certainly have a large amount of neuromuscular fatigue following games, but that net fatigue is built differently for those guys that's built through high speed running, through high intensity accelerations, high-intensity decelerations. Whereas linemen the offense alignment, the defensive line with some of the linebackers, they engage a little bit that high-intensity acceleration, but a lot of their fatigue stems from blunt force trauma, right? Just, just physical contact with the opponent, physical contact with the ground. And so, you know, as we know neuromuscular fatigue results every bit as much from blunt force trauma as it does from trauma sustained through heavy East center contractions of musculature evolved with high-intensity excels and decels and sprints. And so, so that's, that's a big difference. Aaron Wellman : So you see kind of a couple of different kinds of fatigue that come into the room on a Monday following a game, right? Age wise, you know, it's, it's I think all of us can attest, all of us that have grown older over the age of 40 can attest that our ability to recover just is diminished as we age. And so that's just, that's just part of the game. And the NFL is a young man's game. But we do have certain positions where we have 20 year olds and we have 35 year olds playing the same position. And so those 35 year olds training protocol is going to be completely different on a Monday following of game than, than the 20 year old. Also we see as we age, our ability, just the overall training program, our ability to maintain maximum spring diminishes, but it doesn't diminish edit as quickly as our ability to express force fats. So our rate of force developments are our speed and power diminishes a much faster than our maximum strength. We can hold on to those qualities longer. So again, you may have in season around season you have a young guy where the window of adaptation for maximum strength is still open and we can still gain somewhere that for the older athletes is closed down and now the window is becoming greater for rate of force development activities for power and speed activities simply because of the age of that athlete. Wade Lightheart: Yeah, that's what they, you know, of course they'd talk about that in boxing. It's like the, the powers is the last thing to go, but it's the speed, you know, and it's like, it's always a challenge with the, with the older athlete is, is the brain fires. But it's like the brain writes a check that the body can't cash. They're just that microsecond slower there that, you know, they're, they're half step behind a person. And of course that's the difference in that sport. Aaron Wellman : I mean this is when we lose our ability to move as athletes, we lose our ability as athletes. I mean that's, this is a movement game sure. There's a lot of strength and power involved in this, but, but simply being strong and powerful won't keep you performing at a high level. And, and the older guys are talking about and they, they, these are still the elite of the elite, but relative to younger guys, that's when you can see some of those detriments. Wade Lightheart: I, I was watching Shannon Sharpe on the Skip Bayless show and he was talking about his own career as he, he, his, he aged and it was dawning on him. He's like, yeah, yeah, I can't do this as fast as I used to or I can't recover as fast he said. He remembers that dawning on him and, and, and the impact on his psychology and how he approached the game stuff. So how do you approach the game with, Wade Lightheart: As people agent, how do you think that applies to maybe the real world if you know people who are just looking for maximum performance? Because right now we see this, there's this, all this energy particularly with males. And the biohacking stuff is like, how do I be a superman at 45, 50 years old? Right. And, and, and they're, you know, using some of the technologies that were developed in pro sports and stuff like that. Well, what's your real world experience in the bottom line? Aaron Wellman : Right. Yeah. I mean, I think there's a lot of crossover between a real world athletic population and real world, real world general population. I'd say, I still think the two biggest levels we can pull as athletes and non-athletes alike are nutrition, sleep. I don't think, you know, there, there's, there's, we talked about in training, there's very few absolutes, but there are fundamentals, right? And I think that's the same across the population is that there are very few absolutes, but the fundamentals are those two big levels of nutrition, sleep. You've got to make sure we're taking care of those first. Right. then, then after that, now that we can get into intricate details, but I would say that with an older athletes, they don't handle volume of training as well as younger athletes do. And again, I think that's a generalization we can make to a 40 year old bodybuilder versus a 20 year old bodybuilder, a 40 year old cyclist versus a 20 year old cyclists. Aaron Wellman : I think, I think those are, I think that as we age, our athletes can handle intensity and they need the intensity because when one of our athletes changed directions on the field, he's going to put three to five times body weight on single leg and have to change the rest and go the other way. So the training has to be intense to support the physical demands associated with playing the game, right? But the volume of training is what we have to be very careful of not only what we do in the weight room, but what we do in a conditioning setting and, and quite frankly, how much they do within a practice. And so, so we're always tracking and keeping an eye, particularly on an older players or guys who have have a significant injury history. Now they all have injury histories because it's football and we know that the greatest predictor of future injuries, previous injury, right. And so and so we keep a close eye on these guys and we, it compounds that risk with age. But, but, but the, but the volume lever in addition to nutrition, sleep is critical for those guys. Wade Lightheart: And with that, when you talk about nutrition and you talk about sleep, what are some kind of basic tenants that you've, you've found that make the difference, if you will? Aaron Wellman : Yeah, I think, and again, not now. I think there's a delineation between athletes and general public, right? Primarily with nutrition, right? The nutrition that I need for my daily job tasks and performance is different than what our athletes need. And we, and we just like, we have a whole spectrum of ages and abilities and recoverability within a position group, we have a whole spectrum of nutrition practices and education within a position group within the team. Because you've got several players who look, if we can just get them to have something for breakfast prior to practice, that's a win. Right? Right. And we have other guys on the complete opposite of the spectrum where they're, they're dialed in completely and they're just looking for what's one more thing I can add or what do I need to change my diet to give me a one percentage? Aaron Wellman : Right. And so to speak in general terms on athletes, it's tough because we have all, we have a broad range of number one education in nutrition depending on what college they went to. How much, you know, and a lot of, and a lot of times athletes, we've heard Kobe Bryant talked about this, is that, you know, as you age in your career, the nutrition is the one thing that I haven't locked in. And that's my, that's the last level I've gotten. I'm going to pull it now I'm older. Whereas if these athletes focus on this early on we don't have to wait until they're 35, 36 years old to pull that level. But yeah, so that's so, so we've got a lot, we have the nutrition, it's kind of meeting guys where they are and then moving them forward from that point. Wade Lightheart: That's great. Now I suspect also the calorie requirements of these types of athletes must be significantly higher than the general population. What would you say would be, or, or, or the variants between, I can imagine what an NFL lineman that over 300 pounds and you know, involved in hundreds of collisions every day, like what's his nutrition requirements to say someone like a speedster on the outside would, would, would they be significantly varied. Aaron Wellman : Yeah, significantly different just for simple, simple math of thermodynamics of just maintaining body weight. Right. So a 300 pound or that, that's 20% body fat, that has 240 pounds of lean body mass. It needs significantly more calories simply to maintain his weight and then 185 pound defensive back that we have. Right. But you mentioned something critical that, that I didn't have a great understanding of till I say five, six years into this profession, was that the blunt force trauma requires increased caloric needs. Wade Lightheart: Wow. Wow. And what, is there a like a kind of a scale about how much damage they have and how much food they'll need, you know, there probably isn't an order? Aaron Wellman : The only way to determine that as it's a real look at creating a kinase levels, which we don't look at because it requires a blood drop, but it hasn't been looked at in Division 1 football, creating kinase levels. And this has been a study well over 10 years ago where they looked at creating kinase before training camp at the end of training camp, then about every three weeks throughout the season. And they saw me creating kinase three weeks into camp, but really leveled off as the season went. However, it's anecdotally, right? We see this all the time every year with players who say, I don't know why I can't put the weight on. I don't why I can't keep weight on where they feel like they're doing less activity in season because we practice on it. I didn't even get through. I only got to Monday and we haven't got it right. Wade Lightheart: Yeah, we were all, we're all on Monday for pizza! Aaron Wellman : We practice Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and they play Sunday. So, and then Monday's a weight training day, Tuesdays - day off, Saturdays kind of a walkthrough day. So you've got four days of physical activity out of the seven. And so they feel like, jeez, I'm in the off season, I'm training five, six days a week. And it's easy for me to gain weight. Well in season that blunt force traumas added, added to that, that, that that is an increased caloric demand that must be accounted for with these guys. And we don't, you know, most of our athletes aren't. And we've got a Pratik Patel, our director of performance nutrition, he's outstanding. Best I've ever been. He does a great job, but even with that, we don't count macronutrients with our players. Because they're not that as interested in, we're trying to make healthy choices. And so we, we add and delete things from the diet, from the menu, from their post-workout shake as we see fit. Aaron Wellman : And and then you'll have certain guys who maybe you're a practice squad player and maybe someone gets hurt. Now you're called up tags a roster. Now your workload doubles, right? Well, your caloric demands increase too. And players have to understand that. And conversely you're a starter, you get injured and you're in a walking boot for three weeks. We'll look ahead and start caloric demands. Right now our core demands decrease. We cannot put on body weight coming back from a three week lower body and drusen. Now we have to focus in and educate them on taking some things out of their diet. And so it's a constant educational process. Wade Lightheart: You're constantly just readjusting to, you know, wow, that's, it's a, it's an incredible amount of work. You mentioned sleep. We'll get to Tuesday and Wednesday and beyond. What's the, the sleep requirements I think is fascinating. And I know Matt, my co-founder, he's, he's so far gone on sleep. What are you noticing as far as requirements for sleep? Is there variance between athletes and, but what are kind of the bedrock of things that you've observed as far as sleep or grade recovery? Aaron Wellman : Yeah, great question. And again, I think that there's individual various with, with all of these things, right? Some guys do great on seven hours and they've done very well on seven hours for five, six years, all through college and through their NFL career. Other guys, when they get seven hours, really feel rundown and require 8 to 10. A lot of our guys are able to take naps. You know, they're usually doing a long day. They're still done out of the building by five o'clock. And a lot of our guys would go home and take a nap from 5.30 to 6-6.30 and then, and then be in bed by 11. So I think guys handle it to varying degrees. But inevitably, if we're going to, if that's a lever that we think is important and we do nutrition, sleep, again, that has to be talked about every day. Wade Lightheart: Do you do you mind, do you have devices that you monitor the sleep cycles for people like you? Do you have technology that attracts deep sleep, REM sleep, all that sort of stuff? Aaron Wellman : Yeah, we used to. And the collective bargain room, the players used to have, have outlawed the players can do it on their own. I'll say that if they, if they are interested in their own sleep, we will, we will get them sleep trackers and they'll be able to do that and we'll point them in the right direction. We cannot provide a sleep tracker and then look at the data every day. Wade Lightheart: Oh, I see. Because that could, that could be a way of tracking them outside of work, I guess. Did they go to sleep at 3 in the morning or did they go to sleep at 11 or something? So they don't want to necessarily reveal that unless the player's comfortable doing that. Aaron Wellman : Right. I mean, I think they look at it and rightfully so. I was a freshman on their privacy. However, we do have 10 to 20 guys on the team who has sleep tracking devices who track their sleep each night. And again, it's, it's a conversation, Hey, how'd you sleep last night? And then they'll, they're happy to come in and, and have that conversation. Talk about how much deep sleep they've gotten, REM sleep they've gotten and that we make, try to make the adjustments and make some recommendations on how to improve those areas. Wade Lightheart: So we got to Monday, what happens after Monday? So we've done the individual workouts for people and made the adjustments based on injury or damage or how much load that they had. So let's take us through the rest, the next parts of the week for you. Aaron Wellman : Yeah, so as I mentioned, Tuesday's a day off, right? The day off for the players. So they offer us, so, and typically on Mondays we're going to be in here and I'll back up. We're going to be in here 6.30 on a Monday morning. Oftentimes we may not get home from a Sunday night game. If we have a, we may have a West coast Sunday night game and we may land at 7:00 AM as coaches. If that's the case, then we go on the bus and come right to the facility and just start work. So we, you know, whatever sleep we get on the plane is our sleep for the night. But on a home game, you know, we're in at 6.30 or 7 Tuesdays. They offer the players, that's the day for them to any, any appointments. They have any errands they need to run. Aaron Wellman : You know, guys on the team are married and have kids and they want to take their kids to school and spend, have lunch with their wife. And those are all great things. We do have a mandatory treatment session for guys that are injured. And so those guys will have to be here with our medical team to get evaluated, to have to get treatments. We give our players the option. If they want to get their Wednesday upper body lift in on Tuesday, they're welcome to do that. So, so the guys that want to work can still come in and work. But there is nothing mandatory on Tuesday. It's a time for them to get, stay out of the building, to rest, relax, to recover. A lot of them have own recovery modalities at home. They may get a massage. You may see guys come in and do a little sauna session or cold tub-hot tub contrast bath, some infrared light, an infrared light bed session. Aaron Wellman : So there's a lot going on on Tuesday and some guys take advantage of that day and some guys just use it to rest, relax and relax our mind at home. And then Wednesday now, now we're back at it and a players would start arrived in the building at 6.30 or 7 in the morning. We bring our offensive linemen and defensive linemen and all of our big skill and big scale determine big scope for us means linebackers, tight ends and our long snappers, our fullbacks running backs. Those guys come in and out. Now they do the lower body session, primarily lower, a little bit upper on Monday. Now they're heavier. Upper body session is on Wednesday and Wednesday, Wednesdays and upper body lift. It's a little bit of a hip mobility works and thoracic spine mobility work. You know, some proprioceptive activities to try to try to get on the front end, some ankle injuries. Aaron Wellman : It's about a 45 minute workout and those guys can come in and they have to be in the room by 7 o'clock that day. So you, we, again, we have guys on their own. A lot of guys like to come in at 6, workout, and they like to get in the sauna or they like to eat breakfast at 6.45 and watch some films. So we're available as a staff. Our staff usually gets in about 5 o'clock in the morning on Wednesday. We have a weight training session, we have team meetings, position meetings. We're on the field around 11 o'clock on Wednesday. They also have the opportunity to live post practice if they choose to. So the guys that don't lift in the morning, a lot of guys, you know, and, and we're fine with that because as much as we talk about sleep it would be contradictory for us to say, Hey look, sleep's important, but being here at 6, right? Aaron Wellman : So guys get enough sleep and our morning people that come in the morning, guys that aren't and want us to get another half hour sleep - great. We'll let, we'll get your way. Training session and post practice and we're usually done with the physical part of the day by 2-2.30, then we have, we have position meetings and staff meetings and typically my staff and I will get out of here around 5.30 or 6 on Wednesday night. So I'm at 5 out of here, 5.30 or 6 on Wednesdays, Thursdays kind of re repeat of Wednesday except a different position group list. So all of our skill players are wide receivers or defensive backs and our kickers and quarterbacks all get their second way training session on Thursday. And again, it's an upper body weight training session. We'll do it. Just a touch, you know, I spoke before about volume and how, how important is to manage volume, but also we want, we want, you know, this, this concurrent approach to workouts where yeah, we're developing max strength but we're also touching some power and certain guys aren't going to ever hit max strength throughout the week and older and older athlete for example, he will be geared more towards rate of force development activities, maybe some single leg activities if we've detected some asymmetries between the lower limbs, right and left. Aaron Wellman : So we do just a touch of explosive work on Thursdays. And when I say touch, I mean three sets of three sets of two of some explosive lower body activity. And again, that varies by individual, right? We've got, we've got an individual who's got some chronic knee tendinopathies or hip issues or low back issues that exercise changes, but inevitably we want to hit a rate of force development, higher velocity power movement on that Thursday. Okay. Just brief three sets of two. And then, and then we're on in quarterbacks, always looked after practice on Thursday. We don't want to fatigue upper body musculature prior to an on the field practice where they require a lot of throwing. So our quarterbacks always come in post practice on Thursday and again, kind of same thing, practice lifting meetings, staff meeting at the end of the day. And again for us as as a strength set, another coaching staff there, continued on into the night right there. Aaron Wellman : They're working on, on the, the tactical aspects of the game, preparing for the next opponent which requires firm mark and, and a lot of things. So those guys may be here till 9, 10, 11 o'clock at night. Our strength conditioning staff, which we try to put things to bed by 5.30 or 6 and, and get out of the building. Friday now are our big scale offensive defense. We'll, I'm going to have now looked at Monday, Wednesday and Friday they come back in for their third lift of the week, much briefer, 30 minutes, upper body lift, primarily nature some work for some core work. And then they're out of there in about 30 minutes. All of our players do have mandatory weigh in. We weigh in every Friday. So that we're tracking body weights. We also track body fats on a number of guys. Wade Lightheart: Do you use the DEXA scan for body fat? Aaron Wellman : We don't, we use a bod pod and we use combination bod pod and calipers. We don't use DEXA. Wade Lightheart: Can you explain why you don't use DEXA and you use the bod pod cause they have DEXA as being advertised as used in the NFL. So I'm curious about that. Aaron Wellman : Yeah. So at the NFL combine they do two measures. They do actually a bod pod and DEXA. And so every, every athlete becomes the NFL combine. I get both measures on so we can kind of see the differences between the two. Wade Lightheart: What do you see the difference? What do you see the difference between, what do you see in the difference between the bod pod and could you explain to people what the bod pod is? Aaron Wellman : Yeah, the bod pod is a really, looks like an egg shaped device, a big oval. Aaron Wellman : And the player sits in there with limited clothing and usually just compression shorts. And I'm kind of a tight beanie on to cover the hair. And it's about two 45 second measurements. And it really the calculation that uses Boyle's law of gas exchange to the terminal to differentiate lean body mass from fat mass. And the DEXA and the, the drawbacks of the bod pod are you shouldn't really should eat or drink too much within two hours of the measurement. If you do a workout and the surface of the skin is warm or damp, it does impact the reading. And so, so the drawbacks are typically that lends itself to our players having to do it first thing in the morning prior to eating, prior to physical activity. It takes about five minutes total from the time you begin an individual till the time they get out of the bod pod. Aaron Wellman : And so the number of players you can give in that short window prior to breakfast and practices is limited. Right? DEXA we can give an anytime a day. We can differentiate lean body mass from fat mass. We can look at bone mineral density, a lot of different things. The, the reason why we don't have DEXA and a lot of teams are going to the NFL combine is simply because state laws in New Jersey require us to have an extra technician or on the DEXA machine. Most States don't. The strength conditioning coach of the director of performance nutrition is performing DEXA stands. So that's, that's kind of the limitation for us. I think we'll work towards that. Wade Lightheart: Um, but right now do you see a difference between the two as far as readings? Are there variance between the two? Aaron Wellman : Yeah, there, there is a lot of variants and I haven't ran a statistical analysis on what that exact variance is, but you can kind of go down and listen. Typically DEXA measures body fat percentage a bit higher than a bod pod does. At least from the data that I've been able to look at from the NFL combine. Wade Lightheart: That's pretty much what we've seen. Also, like I've noticed it seems almost everybody comes out a little higher on DEXA than they anticipate. I don't know if that's a variance within the DEXA or it's actually it's more accurate in determining maybe fat a little bit lower or like brown fat or things like that. Aaron Wellman : Yeah, it's tough to say. I think you know, the validity is the validity on all. You know, we have so many technologies coming up that the validity is so critical to these, but with the body, with the, with the bod pod or any of these other measures, if it's the validity is a little bit off. If the equity's a little bit off, that the reliability is good, meaning meaning we take five measures, the reliability between measures. So if, if you've lost 2% body fat and indicates a 2% loss, even if the body fat, the absolute percent is a little bit off, we leave to know the athletes leaner or he's gained body fat or lost body fat. So that's, that's important. Wade Lightheart: Yeah, you're, you're, you're long as you can track the variance. That's the most important part in changing. And then you say you still use calipers as well? Aaron Wellman : Yeah, it was. So we still use calipers and we ISAK as a certification, so we're able to differentiate fat mass from bone mass, from lean muscle mass. Again, that, and again, the benefits of calipers are if you get an experienced person with calipers, it's fairly accurate. If you eat breakfast before, it's okay if you just worked out before, it's okay. The downside is, is the athletes who have larger skin folds, particularly in the abdominal areas, that's, that's tough when you have 320 pound line when you're trying to skin falls on the abdominal region, those guys generally have higher skin folds. If you're doing skill guys and and linebackers that are fairly, I mean our SCO guys are 5% body fat, 6% body fat. That's a pretty easy skinfold. Wade Lightheart: Oh yeah. There's not much there. Right. That's, that's, that's, well now when it comes to the training you mentioned, I think that's kind of interesting you're doing, I don't know if this is all a lot of, but you're mentioning like doing to set or to rep exercises as power step or what would you say is different about say how you train an NFL athlete versus how someone who's just trying to be bigger or leaner in the gym, what, what is the biggest difference between those? Aaron Wellman : Yeah, I mean I, I think, I think there's a lot, I think as an NFL athlete they're wired differently than the general population, right? Yeah. Yeah. When I say wired, I mean just, just neurologically neuromuscularly the ability to produce high levels of, of neuromuscular contraction a very short amount of times to produce fluid athletic movement. That's, those statements can't be made about most of the general general population. Certainly there are people in general population and we may term fast-twitch and more explosive than others, but we're talking about the elite of the elites. And so a lot of our athletes as high school athletes never had to train and they were still the best athlete on the field. Wade Lightheart: Right? There's just genetically superior, right. Aaron Wellman : Yes, genetically superior. And so and then in college they had to train because it was mandatory, but they didn't have to train extremely hard to be extremely disciplined eating because again, they were the best athlete on the field. Now, now in the end, now you're in the NFL, now there's a bunch of guys like you. Wade Lightheart: Yeah, everybody. Aaron Wellman : Everybody. But it's all relative. Right now in the NFL pond, there are some big fish. They're just outliers. But generally now you come to the NFL. If you want to have a long productive career, now you've got to dial some of these things in more. But again, it's like in your career as a bodybuilder, a career as a power lifter, as we come more advanced in training, you know, a power lifter may may only need to use 80 to 85% of his one rep max because he can call upon so many fibers. Right? And if he consistently trains higher than that, there's a, there's a certain level and now not only a central fatigue, but peripheral fatigue associated with training though. So neuromuscular fatigue our athletes are much the same way. They've got such high outputs that we don't need to see. Aaron Wellman : We don't have to see high outputs in the weight room as well. Their outputs, particularly in season, all their highest outputs are going to occur on Sunday. Right. And so what we do in a weight room is, is the things that we're doing here are means of supporting those outputs. You know, traditionally, you know, I spent 20 years in college and a lot of times in college our wide receivers and kind of our skilled players really don't see the value in training their lower body. All I have to do is run. I don't want to get tired. And one of the things you see in the NFL is those guys have an appreciation and will say, look, I have to train my lower body. They, they may not understand the implications of why they have to, but they understand that I feel better and I'm a better player when I do. Aaron Wellman : And how we explain to how we reconcile it is again, if I'm a, if I'm an Olympic sprinter and I'm spraying to full speed, I've got three to five times body weight every stride. So a 200 pound athletes, 600 a thousand pounds on every foot contact. So the weight training is a means of just supporting their, their position, specific demands on the field, right? Are stronger athletes will recover faster at a given workload than our weaker athletes. Because if you take those same athletes and we, you and I both undergo whatever 20 hard changes direction in the right leg, in 20 on the left leg and the same sprint distance at the same velocities, and I'm a stronger athlete, I can support those and recover quicker from those. It doesn't cause the muscle as much muscle damage and myself as it does. Does that make sense? Wade Lightheart: Yeah, that's, that's, that's that's an interesting point. Aaron Wellman : And, and so that's kind of how we explain that. Look, look, we're not, I'm not suggesting as a strength coach that if we improve your squat max by 20 pounds, you're going to be faster athlete. You're already a fast athlete. What I am suggesting is by getting stronger and maintaining your strength at season, we will support performance the entire 17 weekend FLCs right? And so, so that's kind of, that's, that's the angle with training training guys at this level. Right? And, and so it's so much different than general population, right? In general population, their workout is, they're tested today. Right? That's it. And so they, they have to recover from that. And, and of course stress that we know is stress. So psychological stress, emotional stress, physical. We only have one bucket to recover from stress. So the, the, the a 45 year old man or woman who doesn't like their job and spends 12 route hours at their job as a lot of stress from that. And it's tough to recover and just like an NFL player recovering from a game, but what the games are, are physically the most demanding days of the week. And, and so everything we do supports their ability to perform on those days. Wade Lightheart: That's, that's a pretty interesting. Now on the recovery side of things, what are some of the, the things that you guys utilize or leverage to kind of, cause it seems like recovery is such a big factor on that. I met, I think a lot of people are familiar, I remember years ago here in Vancouver I believe the Vancouver Canucks is one of the first teams to start using hyperbaric chambers and things like that. And it's kinda like, to me that was kind of when biohacking, if you will for quote unquote started to creep into professional sports. That was quite a long time ago. What are some of the things that you can talk about that, that teams are using in the NFL or the Giants are using or that sort of stuff, which are kind of common that definitely make a difference for them cause people would like if it makes different at that level it's tried, tested and true and I can trust that in my own life. Aaron Wellman : Yeah. And again, it's again, once the two biggest levers are pulled, we've got to pull those first nutrition and sleep right beyond that. Okay. I think there's, there's as much individuality with recovery modalities as there are with training modalities. Wow. you'll have certain players who love the cold tub. Other players got the cold tub and said, I just feel stiff for the next 24 hours now again. And I've found that the really high wire fast-twitch athletes don't do well in cold tubs. Um you know, and I always go back to this, I mean recovery, when all the dust settles, when we look at recovery, what, what systems in the body mediate the recovery response, primarily mediated by the autonomic nervous system, right? The sympathetic and parasympathetic branch. So if we take a sympathetic dominant athlete and put him in a cold tub and produce a higher level of sympathetic dominance and make the parasympathetic system withdrawal even more, is that what's best for them? So a lot of our players intuitively would just say, coach, you know, I, I, I just don't, I've never liked the cold tub. Okay, let's try something different. Right? So, so how can we leverage parasympathetic nervous system to promote that, to promote that recovery response? And so I think there's some, some general modalities and most teams use and most seems to have a hot tub and a cold tub. We have a sauna here. There's a lot of good evidence research on sauna use. Wade Lightheart: Do you use infrared or high temperature or combination? Aaron Wellman : We use, right now we have high temperature. Wade Lightheart: Yeah. Cause that's what kind of creates the shock proteins that seems to be temperature. Wade Lightheart: I appended on that. I know Dr Rhonda Patrick is talked about it extensively and she says the heat's a big factor. Aaron Wellman : Yeah, heat is a huge factor and actually you can, you can seem like he shock proteins and cold too. And Rhonda talked about that and I think the difference between infrared and high heat saunas is the duration you have to be in it. So an infrared sauna may take 45 minutes to to get the same response as opposed to 25 in a high heat sauna. We also have a near infrared light bed that I don't know if you, I don't know if it goes red. Wade Lightheart: The red belt chargers? Yeah. Those are great. Those are amazing. I was just on one a little bit ago. My skin is still a little red cause it was built in with a suntanning set. Aaron Wellman : It's phenomenal. I feel amazing on that thing. Our players love that. Our players love it. Pre-Practice pre-workout. They also love it post-breaks and post workout. And we've got a lot of coaches who, who use that as well. And I think right now that's probably the most utilized recover modally we have in the building is the infrared light light therapy. Some teams have sensory deprivation or float tanks. I'm sure you're familiar with those. We do not have one. But again, it's, it's what, you know, what are we doing that we're promoting a person but static response, right? I think if you're, if you're eating well and sleeping well and you focus on breathing, some breath work, some meditation, I think that can be just as powerful as any other recovery modality. Wade Lightheart: So the big thing is just flipping people, you want people flip that as sympathetic to parasympathetic. Is that the, is that the goal that you're after? Aaron Wellman : Yeah, and I think you'll hear people say, well, what if you're, what if you're too parasympathetic dominant? Okay, okay. We don't see that too much. Right. You know, when we, when you look at just some subjective markers of, of what sympathetic and parasympathetic dominance looks like. Most of our guys are, you know, strong guys to compete in a violent sport and a context sport and, and ufollowing games or practices. We just want to promote that relaxation response. Right? For some guys that might be, might be going out to dinner with their wives, other guys may be a hot tub, other guys that might be a and might be some breath work, some meditation. Ubut again, I think the, the, the responses of these modalities are as individualized as anything else. Aaron Wellman : I think when we, you know, in college we used to make like all of our players get in the cold tub after training camp practices. I mean, whenever you do, whenever you, it'd be like programming a weight training program for the masses and you're going to capture 30 to 40% of those and probably do what's about right for that. But the other 60 are going to respond to you. They're not respond or respond unfavorably to your recommendations. And I think, I think that's what, that's what, in my opinion, a good performance programs from, from great performance programs is that ability to, how much going to individualize not only the training response and the dose of loading we're getting our athletes, but then also on the backend, how do we individualize that recovery response to do what's best for that athlete. Wade Lightheart: That's it. That's fantastic. So what, any, any other recovery modalities that you find helpful? Aaron Wellman : You know, there's a lot out there. All right. I mean, a lot of our guys have their own, I mean, just touch physical touch, massage. Yeah. We offer, we offer massage store athletes. We offer breathwork and meditation for athletes. We offer acupuncture to our athletes. A light bed therapy, sauna, hot tub, cold tub. I think that's about it and a lot of our guys, but you have guys who have hyperbaric chamber. Yeah, yeah. You mentioned the term biohacking. A lot of guys on their own like this and, and so even some of the stuff, the science isn't strong on, right. But the placebo effect is so powerful that if you that if you feel better it works. Wade Lightheart: Right. So, so, so would you say that these high, many of these high performance athletes seem to have a better awareness of their biofeedback than say general population? Aaron Wellman : I think they do by large,I think they do. I've had athletes really high level skill players who, and I, and one of the things that differentiates NFL programs or my program in the NFL from colleges is I think in the NFL we really lock arms with our athletes, right? In college we have 18 to 22 year olds and we're making best practice decisions in the NFL. We're making best practice decisions, but I'm also going to lock arms with the athletes. Okay. Let's talk about how you feel in the field. What I can do to help you improve in those areas where you feel like you're deficient, you are running a running back to when he plans off his rifle. It doesn't feel as powerful as when he just left for example. But I've had these high level sprint athletes, skill athletes, they can describe what they're feeling. Aaron Wellman : They don't know what it is, but they're just, they're describing part of their anatomy that bothers them at high speeds for any, and they can point right to it and they can tell you exactly when it hurts. They don't know why it hurts. And then, and then if we dig, and if we worked with these guys, if we dig and dig and dig, we can usually figure this thing out. But they are so perceptive with how their body feels. Now, some guys are really perceptive to a fault, right? Right. They're going to, they're going to perceive everything and everything's a problem. But other guys are perceptive and just, Hey, look, how do I fix this? And, and, and we, we help them correct that. But, but I, I think you're right. I, I would, I would generally say that these, these athletes are much more in tune with their body. It's just like having a Indianapolis race car versus, you know, a 1970 Corvette you just driving around on the weekends. Wade Lightheart: You know, this brings up another topic on performance I think is I'm curious about and that is one of the things that you hear them talking about in sports is an athlete's vision. Their ability to see the field or see how plays are developing or are accompanied. And then I know a recent trend in the NHL is goalies taking different vision training. There was about four or five, four years ago there was a, a bunch of second string goalies that all became starters cause they went to these particular visual training stuff. Do you guys do any training on that or is that an end season or an off season thing or do you have any experience with that? Aaron Wellman : Yeah, that's a great question. I am not an expert in that area. We do, we have, we have several modalities. They would fall into the category of quote unquote vision training. Like a lot of things. I think that the evidence is strong for some and completely lacking for others. You know, there, there's a company that makes these glasses that kind of like stroke glasses where they flash in and out. So you can see. And so Claire, my stand Clare, my catch balls. So is it, is it the glasses or is it the extra half hour a day you spend catching balls that you didn't do before? Right. So I think, I think, you know, I like to refer to myself as an open minded skeptic. Wade Lightheart: Okay. Aaron Wellman : I don't have any answers. Right. You know, I have more than I used to. I don't, I don't have all the answers, but I am open to the idea that much of this stuff works, that we've only discovered maybe one or 2% about human performance and the things that we can do to improve. So, so I don't discount anything. And particularly the athletic things that works in when it works. I just don't know how many of these devices are, are validated and if we were to, would, would stand up to kind of a double blind placebo controlled trial. And I don't think a lot of them have been undergone this scrutiny. Wade Lightheart: Couple more questions around the training. So two things that come to mind is one of the things I'm so impressed about just, well just this sheer athletic ability of the NFL. I mean, I, I watch it. It doesn't matter who's playing, if I'm into the teams, just, just watching some every day that I watched that game, I'm, I'm just blown away by what somebody does on that field. You know, it's just mind boggling. But two of the things that I think is pretty interesting is the grip strength. Wade Lightheart: That some of these athletes have enabled to grab a one handed catch and you know, like, you know, hold onto the ball with a 300 pound man slamming the ball directly. That's a, that's a fascinating thing. And then the other piece I'd like to look at is the training in the off season. How that differs from in season? Aaron Wellman : Yeah. So the grip strength priests, do we train grip? Yeah, we do. I would never be I would never say the reason why they're able to do this cause we do grip training, right? These guys, again, are, are wired completely differently than the general population. And I've seen guys with their five foot 10 with enormous hands, right? And so obviously you're building to hold on the ball. Largely can be predicted by hand size with these players. And, and again, these, these guys physically physically are different, are mentally different, are, I mean they're, they're the elite of the elite, right? They're the Navy seals of the military, right? These, these guys are the best of the best. And so they are wired completely differently. So we do, we do a lot of group training, particularly with our offensive and defensive linemen because they're, they're handing in combat athletes essentially. Aaron Wellman : But what you're referring to are some of these catches, some of these skill guys are making. And it's, it's really a, it is a grip strength thing. It's a skill because they practice these don't, let's not underestimate the impact skill has on this, right? So big hands and strong hands doesn't mean you can make one handed catches. Correct. If it did, then we would just get bigger, recruit players with the biggest hands and train their grip and we'd move making these miraculous sketches. So skill is always going to trump strength and speed and power and so, and these guys put enormous amounts of time practicing one hand to catch. This isn't, this isn't an anomaly that you see on game day. I mean it's uyou know, the balls thrown outside the framework of the body and they've got to go get it. And that's, that's something that's a skill that has to be practiced and learned just like any other skill. Wade Lightheart: Well, and now going into off season training, how, how does that change change for your athletes and how much do you interact with the athletes? Cause you know, maybe they're not even in the city that you're in or they're outside or new people are coming in from other programs and all that sort of stuff. So what goes on there? Aaron Wellman : Yeah, it's a great question. And it's one that's, it's, it's a, it's one, it's a difficult obstacle with our yearly calendar here in the NFL. So I'll, and I'll kind of walk you through a week. Our last game was December 29th if you're not a playoff football team, the players usually there's a meeting the next day and I'm, I'm allowed to give them a 14 to 15 week. It's about a 14 week off season program. Ours is about 160 pages long. It got nutrition, all their speed work, their conditioning, all their weight training broken up by position. We'll have 10 to 20 guys who want individualized training programs. So we do that for them. But dictate that we, we are not to contact our athletes and have a conversation with regards to train. Right? So essentially an athlete may leave and you may not see him or, or speak with him regarding training for 14 weeks. Aaron Wellman : That's a huge obstacle. Right? Wade Lightheart: Can they reach out to you guys? Aaron Wellman : They can reach out to us. Uwe cannot, we cannot initiate the conversation. Our, our training facility is open every day throughout the off season. And our players can come in and train. We cannot,umandate they come in. We cannot mandate what they do when they're in the room. We cannot conduct the workout. We can simply supervise for safety, right? If the guy's bench press and we can spot and make sure he's not hurting. So, but we can't say, Hey, let's, let's do four sets today or five, or let's do this exercise. Uso they, so when they come in, our athletes bring in their off season program and work right off of that. Uthe other thing we cannot do is, is,uyou know, the, the weather in New Jersey in January, February is not sunny and nice. Aaron Wellman : So you're not going outside to run. So we have an indoor facility. Our athletes can go in there and run, they can use the facility. We can't go in there with them. Right. So, so we're loping hamstring. So, so the focus is on the player to, to quote unquote be a professional and take care of their body. And so, and that, that period goes from the end of the, the from the last game of the season until the beginning of a, what we term the off season program, which would be around the middle of April. Right? And so in the middle of April arise, most of our players come back, and again, this is not a, the off season program is not mandatory. It's an optional program. However, most guys are back and, and really the first two weeks of that program, I get the players. It's strength and conditioning. Aaron Wellman : I give them two hours a day, I give them four days a week. And that's kind of our time too. And then when they come back, you know, kind of put yourself in our place. When these guys come back, you're trying to program running loads, sprint distances to get them ready for two weeks from now when the coaches get them. But what you don't have is information on what they've done for 14 weeks. Right? So consequently you get a mixed bag, right? You got our guys, our guys are great, very professional. So they're all going to have done something. But some of them have been running four days a week for the last four weeks. Some have run one or two days a week, some have done high-speed runnie, some have just, you know, stable condition. And so the first week we're really trying to feel out where we are as a team. Aaron Wellman : If day one becomes heavy sprint work, we're going to have problems. Yeah. Right. Those, those, those chronic loads, chronic running loads have not been established with the athletes. And, and there's a, there's a lot in the research on these acute to chronic workload ratios. But it's common sense that, and I, and I use the analogy of, of being in the sun with our players. So there's no problem with being in the sun for three hours unless you've not seen sunlight for the previous eight months. Now you're gonna have a problem. Right. But if you, but if you go in the sun 10 minutes today, 20 minutes tomorrow, and that's no different with training and with sprinting that, you know, if you haven't sprinted for 14 weeks and we bring you back when we do ten one hundred yard sprints, certainly there's going to be a price to pay for that. Aaron Wellman : Yeah. And so, so we're very careful. We almost under-traine them in week one because we really don't know what we're getting and we just, all season program is only eight weeks long. We just can't afford to have the soft tissue injury. And for a guy to miss four or five, we should try. And so we're, we try to be very smart. We try to meet them where they're at. I have several conversations, just honest conversations. Talk to me about how you've trained particularly the last four weeks. Have you followed the program we've given you? Well, no, I did this. Okay. And so it kind of gives us an indication on where our players are and we want that. We want that communication to be open and honest. I, if you've done nothing, tell me. Tell me. You've done nothing. So it's so that I can make the best decisions for you. That's all. That's what this is, is that how do we put our players in a position to have, to have a long career, to stay healthy, to perform every Sunday. And how do we serve our players to meet their needs. Wade Lightheart: So for our younger listeners who may be aspiring to a career in professional sports or professional football, what would you say is maybe some of the patterns that you've observed or like earl

If a lifelong quest for health and wellness is at your core, how do you stay committed to it and stay on your path? A man who knows the answers is Paul Chek of CHEK Institute. Paul has devoted his life to health and fitness: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health and true fitness. In today's show, Paul explains what those concepts mean and also tells us the path he took from his childhood farm to becoming a licensed holistic health practitioner and working with a professional sports team to creating the Chek Institute. When Paul began his practice, he had traveled all over the world, studied with many great doctors, therapists, teachers, and had had enough clinical time to master and integrate conditioning practices like the Swiss ball. He had also developed his primal pattern movement system. He was ready to go out on his own and when the opportunity arose he took it and hasn't looked back. Paul Chek, on a lifelong quest for health and wellness Since then he's continued to study, learn, practice, and grow. In fact, his growth includes becoming a licensed medicine man and spirit guide, which means he can legally use plant medicines and facilitate healing ceremonies. He feels passionate about these offerings because plant medicine helped him grow more than any other book, video, training or workshop. He tells us more about those experiences, plus the knowledge and coursework involved in becoming a Chek Institute certified practitioner. We also spend a lot of time talking about deprogramming our belief systems and the important impact this can have on helping us heal our bodies and our lives. We'll get into Native American practices, Celtic spiritual philosophies as well as the zero point field and the concept of "one mind". At the heart of it all is Paul's six foundation principles: nutrition, hydration, sleep, breathing, thinking, and movement. But none of those are available to us without a healthy planet, we all need the Earth in order to survive. When we shift our focus in that direction we can see how much we need each other, and we can radically shift our thoughts and our way of living to a more sustainable and peaceful way of life. Take this deep dive with us as we explore those topics and more on this edition of Awesome Health Podcast with Paul Chek! Resources Paul Chek on YouTube Paul Chek on Facebook Paul Chek on Twitter Paul Chek on Instagram Living 4D with Paul Chek podcast CHEK Institute CHEK Institute on Facebook CHEK Institute on Twitter CHEK Institute on LinkedIn Read the Episode Transcript : Wade Lightheart: Good afternoon. Good morning and good evening wherever you are I'm Wade T Lightheart from the Awesome Health Podcast and I am, I can't tell you how excited I am today. I am interviewing my new found friend and really inspirational mentor. Mr. Paul Chek, he's a living legend. A few months ago we had the opportunity to connect at the Canfitpro in Canada where Paul was receiving a Lifetime Achievement award for the incredible contributions that he's made to our industry. And we had a nice connection. He invited me down to the Heaven house in Southern California, which is the heaven house for sure. I think we spent over 12 hours together the whole day we lifted rocks. We looked at how he charges his water, we shared some native American smoke then which was phenomenal. We broke bread together. We had a beautiful interview together and we had a really deep connection together and in a, in a way that I don't know if a lot of people experience in their lives, and I think it may be a throwback to maybe other times or other things when there wasn't so much internet connection and so much, you know, shallow connections, but it was an opportunity to be welcomed into Paul's incredible life. And you just get immersed in it for a day just to walk through his library to see how he'd come to some of the ideas that he'd come up with. And to hear this incredible history of what I believe is a true living legend in the industry and often times misunderstood, not understand, attacked, and then finally proven true. Wade Lightheart: What a great opportunity. Paul, welcome to the show. Paul Chek: It's my pleasure, man. I, I'm always excited to get a chance to connect to you and share some love. So thank you. Wade Lightheart: So, so let's just, we're gonna I got so many questions. One of the things that we're both, we're kind of free flowers. I'd like to see where things go and what happens. But let's talk about right off the bat, and this is a really loaded question. Who is Paul Chek and what is his mission in the world? Paul Chek: Well, you know, the truth is, the answer for who is Paul Chek is really the answer for all of us. And that is, I'm some kind of a unique marriage of earth, water, fire, air, space, and consciousness. But I think a more kind of direct answer is that, you know, when I think of who I am, I really feel like I'm somebody who has devoted their life to seeking truth and sharing what the process and the synthesis of gathering. You know, the many bits and pieces of scraps that you have to get in this quest for knowledge and truth. Two, test them and synthesize them into what seems to be universal. Principles are consistently reliable ways of perceiving and relating and engaging the world. And as you know, my, my life has been oriented around two things. Health, which includes physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health and what really is true fitness, what's, you know, functional fitness or baseline fitness, functional fitness, and then sport or activity specific fitness. And how do you get somebody from the state that they're at walking in the door to first physiological and structural balance to then build them up to be the person that their dream is requesting of them. So really that sort of an encapsulation of who, you know, I perceived myself to be. Wade Lightheart: Okay. And the mission through the Paul Chek, you have the Paul Chek Institute and I, and that's kind of a branch of expression for you. I think you're much greater than the Institute itself. It's kind of like, but let's talk about the Chek Institute because of all the industry professionals I've met and, and you know, I've, I've met a lot of the big names and all those, you know, been to the seminars and all that sort of stuff. You're probably one of the most, I would say, subtle influencers of movement concepts in the world today. In other words, if you kind of dig down into communities and cities or you go around the world, sooner or later you end up with the Paul Chek practitioner somewhere who figures out the unfit irritable. So tell, tell me how, tell me about the Paul Chek Institute. What that's about and why people seem to, what's interesting is is is so many, when I talk to Chek practitioners, what's fascinating is they kind of go on this journey of health and fitness and study and education and learning and they come from a sport or an activity or whatever it happens to be, or an institution or a profession and somehow they wind your way into the Chek Institute and then they just did. Wade Lightheart: They become Chukies. That's what the world knows. They become Chukies and they dive into into your world what is so powerful, a boat, the Chek Institute, the Chek principles and how that's just just permeated the whole world with some of the best coaches in the entire world. How did that come to being? Because that's an incredible accomplishment that I, that needs to be acknowledged and recognized. How did that happen? Paul Chek: Well, it happened. It happened really right in the beginning of my military career as the trainer of the United States army boxing team. And I didn't really realize how much that I had learned in my childhood. Both on the farm, my mother being a Yogi for, you know, 30 something years, traveling to India to do initiations, multiple times being raised in the self-realization, fellowship temple and teachings of Yogananda. Mmm. You know, being a child, there was a lot of stress in my family. So athletics was how I vented that and I love to win. I just really have as a young man, winning to me was important because I figured if you're going to do it then why not just go for it? And otherwise, why bother? You know, just no go do something that's non competitive. But so I, I was very immersed in sports from the first grade. Paul Chek: I started with wrestling and pretty much just played everything I could play any excuse to get off the farm so I didn't have to work, you know, shoveling piles of cow shit and cleaning pens and you know, all the work, working, working, working stuff. But you know, I was in a small Valley on Vancouver Island called Comox Valley and you know it, it's intense. You know, I have pretty heavy winters there at times. Our first year there we had eight feet of snow. So for a kid from Los Angeles, that was quite a shock. We had 140 acre sheep farm. It was a working farm. Mmm. So between my pursuits as an athlete and because the competition that was, there's just so many great athletes there. It was crazy. I mean, you know, growing up, one of my buddies became, he was my sparring partner for three years in our boxing club. Paul Chek: He became the world champion in kickboxing at the time in 86 I think 80 maybe 89 he became the world champion. Another one of my buddies that I grew up with in town owned pretty much the only gym in town at the time. He was mr Canada and bodybuilding in, in 1880 1989 I think as well. Two of my other buddies were nationally ranked motocross that I did a lot of racing with. Probably six or eight of my best buddies were black belts and multiple level black belts in various forms of martial arts. And we had our own kickboxing club where we could have weekly meetings to destroy each other. Paul Chek: And a lot of my buddies were elite skiers. So it was just like this hot bed of farm boys that all had this need to express their frustration and father's stress. And, and also we're also very motivated to win. And so it created this intense growth pressure. And so I began studying when I was 12, everything I could find on diet, weightlifting, bodybuilding, Mmm. And just apply, learn and apply, learn and apply. And so when I got to the army boxing team the strange thing was as I was also the Army's representative and triathlon and so the boxers and the team management were kind of baffled by the fact that, you know, we often train six hours a day on the army boxing team and I would be getting up early in the morning to do longer, more intense running like you know, 10, 10 K and half marathon type training fairly regularly. Paul Chek: Plus I would go to, when they went to lunch, I would go to the swimming pool and usually put a mile in and just get some food in me as quick as I could. And then after training I would get on my bicycle and go do anywhere from 2260 miles in the evening and I'd do a hundred miles on the weekends and they could not figure for the life of them how I could possibly, and I fought on the boxing team before I became the trainer, so they were watching how I was very good as a fighter, but I was also doing all this intense training. So when my company commander came to me and said, if you want to leave the boxing team and train full time to win the army triathlon, I will support that because I've got a lot of money to bet on you. Paul Chek: I need you to win. And so I went back and told the boxing team I was going to stop fighting and train full time for triathlon. And they said, Oh God, don't do that. We'll give you the job as as trainer because whatever the hell you're doing, it's working. You can fight hard all three rounds the way you eat, the way you train. We've never seen anything like it. How would you like to become the trainer and take over all the conditioning management of the gym and nutrition coaching for the for the boxers. And I said, you know, something inside me just knew that was what I was supposed to do. And fortunately for me, the team physician was an osteopath and he was quite open to discussing things with me. So I got a two year internship and how to care for acute sports injuries. Paul Chek: And we had plenty of them cause the boxing gym was also the headquarters for many army sports, such power lifting, track and field. And I was interacting with wide variety of athletes and there's 80 at that time there was 79,000 soldiers on Fort Bragg. So it's like being in a, you know, I grew up in a town of only like 16,000 people. So there was like being on Fort Bragg was like being in a big city on Vancouver Island. And so I really got to use my creativity, what I've learned about weightlifting, what I'd learned about diet, the first book I ever read in my life, I hated reading. But the first book I ever read, I finished it in the army on a bus on the way home from the Pentagon where we had just done a 10 mile inter military race, army, Navy, air force, Marines. Paul Chek: And it was nutrition and a holistic approach, but Rudolph Ballentine. So I had really gravitated toward these holistic principles because that's how my parents ran our farm. You know, everything we ate pretty much came off the farm. My mother being a Yogi was very oriented toward natural eating, which is heavy in Yogananda's philosophy. We bought, we bought food that we needed when we needed it from a local kind of hippy co-op where people got together and got good food and okay, so plus being raised on a farm, you know, my father was very intense ass kicker, get the job done, no complaints, do it or you won't like the consequences. So I really learned how to push through discomfort. I mean doing things like swinging access for eight hours straight and clearing land and you know, building and digging fence, post holes and, and a long, long string of endless stuff. Paul Chek: So I actually got in an extremely good physical condition. And so when I carried that into sports, it was already, like, I had a lot of preconditioning so I was almost a jump ahead of a lot of people. And so when I got in the army, it was really just, you know, without a depth of knowledge, anything even close to what I have now, it was really, and I'd also been trained by the monks to meditate. And how to con, you know, calm my mind and how to you know, find my center in the middle of a storm and, and how to understand concepts such as what the universe is or what God is or what space and time are. And so when you put all that together and you put me on an army boxing team where I become the trainer, I had the freedom to implement weightlifting and circuit training and I used to be an aerobics instructor before I joined the military. Paul Chek: So I used that knowledge and skill, begin modifying their diets cause they ate like crap and just ate crap and had a lot of problem losing weight and doing a lot of stupid crash dieting and just silly stuff using various too. It's accelerate kidney urine production to drop weight. The stuff that really costs them, you know. So when I put all this together and I, long story made short as a triathlete, I was in so much physical discomfort from the hard training that I needed the experience of my grandmother massaging. As a child I had asthma and none of the drugs or anything did anything like my grandmother's massage. And so when I came to the situation where I was training so hard, I was just really a need a massage. I asked my wife if she would give it a try and so she, I just got some like, you know, baby oil or something. Paul Chek: And even with no skill, the difference it made in my training was phenomenal. I was just blown away at how much it aided my recovery. And so I started reading sports, massage therapy books and everything I could find on sports massage therapy. And I intuitively implemented this on the army boxing team. So I became the first person ever in the entire history of the boxing team to offer massage therapy to all the fighters. And so between the massage, the diet, the designing, the conditioning programs, and I led the fighters through the workouts. I didn't point fingers, I did everything I asked them to do, which they loved and they hated because I was in good enough shape to really, you know, put it on him. And it just grew into this sort of excitement, this passion because the team doctor reported within about the first three months that the rate of injury was going down. Paul Chek: Like he'd never seen it and the athletes were performing far better. They were fighting way harder and longer through the third round where they were having problems with that before. Mmm. Just there was so many positives and my father was a guy that did not have the good job gene. So to be in the military and to be winning so many awards, I set many military records got two records in the obstacle course in different posts. I set the record for the most pushups in two minutes in the 82nd Airborne Division. I got many you know, army achievement medals for various things that I did. And so I was in this sort of like very inspirational hotbed with very highly motivated men that were, you know, really aggressive, get the job done, kick some ass, let's win. And then having that team, Dr. Charles Pitluck there, started opening my technical awareness and then I started reading books on sports medicine to understand the body from a medical doctor's perspective and how they treated inflammatory problems and tendons and Mmm. Paul Chek: And so that kind of triggered me to the point that when I left the army, I, I knew that I wanted to mix sports, massage therapy, postural awareness. I went to the sports massage training institute, which was phenomenal. And I got eventually got my license as a holistic health practitioner, which allows me by the state of California law to do anything holistic with any kind of problem, from psychological problems to health problems, to whatever. I can do, massage, I can do meditation, I can do plants and herbs, anything that's natural. So it was the perfect license for me because there was really like almost no barriers on it, you know. And I just continued to study and travel all over the world and learn from the very best doctors and therapists I could find no matter where they were at. And I put that all together. Paul Chek: And having left the army and starting my own sports massage business, I then got hired by the largest physical therapy clinic in San Diego. They had their own surgical center. So I had 13 orthopedic and neurosurgeons I was working with. I could go to surgery anytime I want. I ultimately did five cadaver dissections, two through the university of Oregon health sciences university, one through giveaway and multiple through the surgeons cause they did regular cadaver dissections to test new surgical techniques and just to review their anatomy. And then working with all these physical therapists and athletic trainers gave me a chance to share concepts with them. And they, the reason I got hired is because the owner of the clinic had had three knee surgeries and was about to have to have a fourth because her knee locked up and she had a frozen knee for the third time. Paul Chek: And the surgeon said, if I have to manipulate this knee, I may never be able to play golf or tennis. Again, both of which she was very active in. So I had rehabilitated a guy named Kevin Macquarie who was on Nike's running team. Then it was as a marathoner and he had bilateral Achilles problems that, you know, pretty much were ending his career and nobody could figure him out. I straightened right out in about a month and so he told the owner of the clinic before you let them operate on you, you got to go see this guy that I know. Long story made short, I got her more range of motion in one session than they'd been able to get for her in months. Then she asked me to come work for them. I was the first massage therapist in San Diego ever to be hired by a physical therapy clinic. Paul Chek: And because the physical therapists always thought of massage therapists like prostitutes. So it was a bit of a shock for them. And then she asked me to condition her cause I had got her range of motion back. But once I started working for her, she asked me to condition her and I, there was a lot of political tension because there was a lot of looking down the nose at me and there was also a lot of jealousy. Like how did this guy with no college degree figure out this woman when we couldn't figure her out? So there was a lot of kind of edginess, you know, and so I said, why don't you let them work with you? And if they give up or you give up, then I'll take it over because then whatever happens will be respected knowing again that they did their best. Paul Chek: And sure enough, after about three months, she wasn't getting better. She was getting worse. So I took her over, rehabilitated her got her strength back, got her where she could play golf and tennis again. And so that triggered off a level of mutual awareness and respect that led to me spending four years being treated pretty much as an equal because they had evidence that I was certainly able to do things they couldn't do with their degrees and their skills. And so that just catapulted me into a deep, deep exploration of everything to do with the body, the mind, the soul, the, the the glandular system, the organ systems. And I basically became famous for the guy to send medical failures too. And I had doctors from all over the world sending me cases. And I ended up working for many professional sports teams that did a lot of consulting for the Chicago Bulls and the Jordan era. Paul Chek: They were the first ones to take on my Swiss ball and my scientific core conditioning approach. And it spread wildly from there to other sports teams. The Lakers were the ones that picked it up next from them. But I've worked for so many professional sports teams all over the world and so many sports Olympic committee limit, Olympic committees, university teams militaries, you name it. And you know, the reason I kept getting results with jobs with these people is because I got results that they could not deny with an IVR. I've taken three elite athletes, famous athletes out of medical retirement that were forced into medical retirement, all of which came to me and I completely rehabbed them and got them in very good shape and they all passed their medical exams, which is extremely rare because if an athlete goes back after being forced into medical retirement, they can actually sue the team for falsely retiring them. Paul Chek: So Gary Roberts, I rehabilitated cause Charles Poliquin came to an impasse with them. He passed his medical exams, which I had to attend because the doctor was very concerned about letting him back with all the problems he'd had. But he ended up making 25 million more dollars before he finally retired. Mmm. Ricky Stuart, at that time, the highest paid rugby player in the world was forced to medical retirement. I brought him back and he played for two or three years after that. Richard Dunwoody, a famous horse jockey, horse racing jockey, was forced into medical retirement after 40 bad falls from horses racing and being trampled and all sorts of stuff. And he had some severe issues. But I rehabbed him and he went back and won the triple crown and wrote about me in his autobiography and, and sent me a beautiful big picture, which you probably saw on my wall and, and, and a copy of the autobiography to say thank you. Paul Chek: So really what kicked off the Chek Institute was, I, I, it was really Charles Poliquin, he was a friend of mine and I helped him get more known in the US he asked me if I could help him get a job with the bowls. So I inspired elver meal to bring them on and consult with them at the bowls. And Charles asked me if I would train his top two strength coaches in the approach I use for assessing core function and optimizing core strength and conditioning. And those two guys who are very, very experienced strength coaches said what I was teaching was just like so far outside of anything they'd ever seen or heard of that they really both felt I should start an Institute. And so at that time I had enough knowledge that also after I left sports and orthopedic physical therapy clinic, me and a partner started our own physical therapy clinic. And prior to that I was working for a chiropractor for two years who was one of the instructors in my massage school. So by the time I actually started the Institute, a two years training with an osteopathic position in the military, sports massage therapy training, holistic, a health practitioner training. I did my neuromuscular therapy training through the st John Institute. Mmm. I had, Mmm. Paul Chek: So then I worked for this chiropractor for two years who specialize in athletic injuries. Then I worked in a physical therapy clinic for four years. Then I owned a physical therapy clinic for three years. So by the time I actually got to where I was training people and starting my own institute, I had quite a lot of experience and, and, and you know, I did a lot of research. I published a lot of articles. I've published hundreds of articles around the world. I was involved in developing research studies. I had, I've got several patents of my own as you know, as, as an inventor and medical and an exercise equipment. And I come from a background of fabrication, building my own race cars and roll cages and building my own engines. And so I have the skill to, to kind of see where there's a hole and fill it. Paul Chek: And so the Institute was really me taking all the knowledge that I had from each of these different areas, be it nutrition lifestyle issues musculoskeletal issues. Mmm. I had to do a lot of work with people's mental, emotional state because a lot of the people that came to see me were in severe pain and had been for many years. And I found over and over again, there's a huge psychological component and chronic pain and they're all my assessments kept pointing to belief systems. Mmm. And so I kept running into issues where people's problems tracked back to beliefs that were related to their beliefs about God. Unfortunately, my mother, having been a Christian scientist and become yoga, gave Paul Chek: Me a chance to really heal a lot of that Christian programming. And be able to spend time. I spent my 15th year in summer camp with the monks where I could ask any question I want. And these guys were so enlightened and so clean and clear and precise in their answers that even as a 15 year old kid, I actually turned 16 in summer camp. I felt safe and I felt like I was getting real honest answers that carried me. It's through the rest of my life. And so the Institute really became the place where I took everything that I had tested for years and years. And I had a very, very busy practice. I mean, I got so busy in the physical therapy clinic, we had hire three other massage therapists to support the load. And I was, I was referring the largest physical therapy clinic in San Diego, 36% of their business just from people trying to come find me from all over the world. Paul Chek: So by the time I started the Institute, I had traveled all over the world, studied with many great doctors, therapists, teachers and had had enough clinical time to integrate, master the Swiss ball, develop the first conditioning videos in the world for Swiss balls, introduced them to the weightlifting industry. I'd develop my primal pattern movement system. Mmm. You know, so I, I had enough that I was getting encouragement from 360 degrees to teach this stuff. And I also read intense level of frustration with the insurance industry because they were ripping us off so bad that we couldn't run our physical therapy clinic and make a decent living because they kept sending us like $16 on $135 a building or 40 bucks. And so when the opportunity came to sell it to a large corporation, I took that money that we made because we made a couple hundred grand. Paul Chek: And I split that with my partner and use that money to start the Chek Institute. And so that really just became the basis from which I launched off in 95. And, and that's what I've been doing is just continuing to study, learn, practice, grow, work with challenging cases. Uyou know, and I've also got my license now as a medicine man and spirit guide. So I, I finally reached the point where when I started doing research on psychedelics and,udid a year of training with a doctor that uses him in his practice. Mmm. Penny felt it was very important for me to get federal protections so that I didn't,u get sued or anything like that. So I went through the native American council and got my medicine men spirit guide license so I can use plant medicines legally and healing ceremonies. And I've conducted over 400 healing ceremonies at this point. Uso, you know, the plant medicines also grew me more than anything. I would honestly say more than any books or libraries and helped heal,u Paul Chek: You know, potentially lifetimes of pain and also reinforce my meditation and Tai Chi practice. And I, I spent time with master Fong Ha learning from one of the top masters in the world, how to do Tai Chi. I took medical type qigong training and applied that. And I did a lot of that as research for my book, how to move and be healthy because I felt that people were so burnt out from working too much and exercising too hard in the gym that I needed to take exercise into its feminine expression. And so I hired master Fong Ha. We'll actually did it for me for free, but I offered to pay and I told them I want to learn the basic principles of Tai Chi so I can develop a system of movement that actually cultivates more energy per unit of time than it costs that allows people to pump, detoxify and vitalize their bodies, but doesn't require the memory of a lot of complex Tai-Chi movements. Paul Chek: Because I've met people that had been in Tai Chi for two or three years and still couldn't get out of their head. They still couldn't meditate. They were so focused on where their hands were, where their body wasn't. So I said, you know, that they've intellectualized Tai Chi too much. So after two years of working with him, I had developed what is in my book has zone exercises and through testing with my patients and students, they got phenomenal results with these very simple mindless techniques because they locked onto the very principles that really all the inner arts are based on, but allowed a person to move dynamically so that heady people could actually be engaged in the movement. So it was just enough for the ego to focus on, to keep it busy. And there was simple enough moments that the ego kind of goes into this half awake, half asleep state where the meditation bridge opens the doors. Paul Chek: And so kind of in a, believe it or not, that is a nutshell, but so that's what really brought the Chek Institute onto the map. And I've had so much success with elite athletes and sports teams that the word just spread. In fact, the New Zealand military sent two of their top guys to study with me for four years to revamp the entire mill, New Zealand militaries conditioning programs. The Navy seals sent three people in. Mmm. Two of which went back to rehab, Navy seal conditioning. You know, I've had all sorts of kind of unique opportunities like that due to the reaches of my articles and my successes. Incredible. So the Chek Institute will guess will be coming up on 25 years next year. Yeah. Which is pretty impressive. One of the things that strikes me is you live your principles and you're in incredible physical condition. Wade Lightheart: Not bad for an old guy. I mean we haven't revealed your age. I don't know if you reveal that or whatever, but you know, we went out and we're lifting rocks on your property. And what's very interesting I think is one of the unique aspects that I've noticed with the Chek Institute and what you provide is, and maybe this cause we kind of shared some stories about our past, which we grew in these environments where you're not sitting in these wonderful linear planes that are familiar in most gyms that people go to or exercise programs. Is this a functional level of strength in a, a functional level of movement that you have? And, and it translates not only into your physical condition, but your capacity to move, particularly as you age. I doubt there's most 20 year olds could do the things that you do now. Paul Chek: So a lot of them try, but they, they soon find out that the old man's got a surprise for them. In fact, one of the most common things I get accused of is using anabolic steroids. And I look at him and say, you obviously know nothing about steroids cause I'm 170 pound guy. I have no indications of steroids and said, you know, the steroids, I use your chicken, carrots, broccoli, real food. And yes. So the, for the listeners, I'm 58 and, and I still regularly put it hard on young professional athletes that seek my coaching and even guys that can lift more than me in the gym when they come out to the stones with me, they can't get things off the ground that I can stack chest high. Yes, they all go, hell, the friggin hell did you just do that? And I say, well, you first got to connect to the stone. And and ask it if it wants to take a ride with you. Wade Lightheart: So one of the things, and there's a promotion a bit of, we'll probably put a link to it as well. I think that was really good. That's kind of summarizes your journey. And I thought something that was pretty unique that you mentioned is that your, when when you coach or train a Chek practitioner, you have like a five and a half years for them or I believe you mentioned on it. Can you kind of, can you talk about what it is to be a Chek practitioner and maybe the levels and what happens when, you know, how does a person become that? How do they move through it and what is the foundational components that being a Chek Institute practitioner is what, what does that mean as opposed to say, getting a degree from university of California or taking an international certification course or provincial course or a state course. What is the difference between what you do and what other people do? Paul Chek: Yeah, well the difference really is a bunch of things. One. Paul Chek: My Institute is multidisciplinary. So we have many medical doctors, nurses, chiropractors, osteopaths, physical therapists, physiotherapists, naturopaths from Scandinavia. We've got housewives, we've got people that, you know, used to be truck drivers who had checked professional, rehabilitated people of all walks of life. And they go, Oh my God, I've got to do this, this works so well, I've got to do this. And so, you know, if it's out there and there's probably there's over 10,000 Chek professionals now. So my only criteria is that you can pass the prerequisite courses. I don't care if you're a truck driver, a lager or a surgeon. And I don't make any ex exceptions. I've had many people say, can I skip this prerequisite cause I studied this and this in school. And every time I've let someone do that, they turned out to be a royal pain in the backside in class because they were way far behind what should be known. Cheers by the way. Some nice tobacco and herb can help. Wade Lightheart: Can you talk about that right now? Cause it's kind of a good segue. We've got to try, I got to experience some of your smoke concoction, we'll call it. What is it that you're doing and why are you doing it if that's okay. Paul Chek: Well, I think it's interesting. This is a bag of vaporized herb, so there's no fire it actually just, it's a copped up food to hut be hydrated. It was invented for medical marijuana delivery, you know, many years ago. And it pushes hot air through a little basket that contains herbs and I, I use clean tobaccos that are not grown with chemicals, so I don't get poisoned by them. The grand majority of which are or certified organic. And then I use a variety of herbs. So any tea that you can drink, you can vaporize and it does the basic same thing. So if you drink a sleepy time tea and you vaporize it, it'll, it'll make you sleepy. If you drink a gin Singh and it warms your body up, well if you smoke it, it'll do the same thing, but a lot faster. Paul Chek: Within three seconds, it'll be superior delivery system right here. It's a rapid delivery system. But you know, what happened is I research all this because I'm very interested in all aspects of holistic health. And so when I went through my midlife crisis when I was 50, I realized I had given so much of myself away that I was dying from a lack of, of pleasuring myself doing things just for me. And so I made a promise to myself, if I couldn't make my work enjoyable to me, then I wasn't going to do it anymore. I was just going to retire and go do something else, like paint a rock gym and but you can use vaporize herbs to modulate your biochemistry just like you can use any kind of supplement. Mmm. And so I typically, because I do a lot of writing and a lot of coaching, I used things mostly that bring me more into a sort of a meditative state where I'm walking the line between cognitive engagement and intuitive reception. Paul Chek: So I'm listening behind the words and I'm connecting to the person's soul while I'm coaching them. And if you're busy or if there's a lot going on, sometimes it's hard to shift into that balance point just like it's hard for people to stop everything and meditate. And I found using the herbs that I can choose the right herbs to create the environment. So I basically, in modern parlance, I'm biohacking in a very natural, organic, holistic way, not using gadgets per se, but using herbs. And because you're using a vaporizer and there's no fire, you're getting IS estimate only about 30% of the nicotine. So I smoke these things all day long as you know, and I can go off of them cold Turkey and I'd basically just feel tired for about a day. Like I'm jet lagged. And then after that, there's no symptoms whatsoever. Whereas if you were smoking tobacco, you could get very addicted to nicotine. Paul Chek: So I also use it as a transition tools for people to come off of various drugs. Cause I work with a lot of addicts from crack cocaine to cocaine to, you know, pain pills to you if you, if there's an addict out there from gambling to sex to exercise to work. I've worked with them. And so I find this approach is, is such a much healthier option and it allows a person to use something to modulate their biochemistry and create states that helped them realize that there's much safer ways to create state shifts. Because what I've found working with thousands of people is most people are actually suffering from a lack of meaning and being caught in the capitalistic you know, money wheel where they're just running all day to make money, overspending on credit cards, trying to pay for kids' colleges, whatever it is, and they don't have any chance to live. Paul Chek: So they, I ended up getting addicted to things that help them cope with that stress. And the deeper, you know, our culture has lost its myth. So everybody's kind of like wondering around in the great abyss of the world without really having a sense of why we're all here, what we're all doing. And what's it's all for. And then you, you know, you have consumerism has taken over as the myths, so people are spending so much money trying to find this connection that we've lost by being too disconnected from nature. So this allows me to take nature and put it right in my bloodstream and celebrate and worship, you know, this is a ancient as you know, a practice of ceremony for native Americans and natives all over the world. And you know, I sort of live my life in a state of worship. I really, each day is sort of a living prayer for me. And, and so I Paul Chek: Use these herbs as, as a vehicle for deep connection, state shift and just to create the sense that I'm not working so hard, I can stop, go smoke a bag, work. Right. it just brings me a lot of joy. Wade Lightheart: Yeah. It's you know, I was my first time to share in that when we were, when I was down there and it, it is remarkable how it is. We say as a state modulator, I think it's pretty fascinating and it feels great. I'm pretty intuitive about myself. It doesn't feel like taking something bad into the body. There's definitely a positive enhancement and a cognitive enhancement for sure and a state enhancement that I experienced. And I think it really translated also in our podcast as well. When we were, we were talking there, I noticed there was differences in my voice and how I sound and it's, it's fascinating to pay attention to these things. Going back though, we, I know we got onto, we got a little sidetracked here on this and cause it's just, that was an interesting segue, but let's talk about these preliminary courses that you have people to go through before they get to maybe the more advanced training and why that's so critical as a foundational piece and the Chek Institute system and philosophy. Paul Chek: Yes. So when I began the Chek Institute, there was four levels of training. I grossly overestimated how much people can handle. So I used to have, you know, veteran physical therapists and chiropractors breaking down in tears in my class and just throwing their hands in the air and walking out or writing me letters, they would just disappear and leave me a letter saying, you know, I'm so embarrassed that I, I just don't feel, I feel like I'm so far off the mark. And I had no idea there was exercise professionals anywhere in the world that had this level of knowledge. And so I realized I had to break the course material up and build prerequisite courses to get them ready for it. And the, you know, there's a fair bit of technicality. There's a lot of goniometric assessment, joint assessment, neurological assessment. I mean it's a full proper orthopedic assessment, cranial nerve assessment. Paul Chek: I mean, I really want to identify what's causing a person's problems, not just do allopathic palliative care cause it just doesn't really work. Obviously we look at the state of the world. And so originally the plan was, would take four years because I designed the system. So you'd take a blog, a training, then you have to go spend at least six months applying it and you have to turn in. I used to require 10 actual case histories with names and phone numbers I could follow up on which I graded myself and I wouldn't let anybody go to the next level if they couldn't meet the criteria to demonstrate that they were applying the practice, the, the assessment techniques, the program Paul Chek: Design techniques and all the factors I was teaching them and I was heavy into the diet stuff. But there was so much to teach in the science of corrective and high-performance exercise that what happened is after a few years I kept having all these students consulting with the cases that they were having a hard time with. And almost always it was some kind of glandular visceral or diet and lifestyle problem that they were overlooking, which I already did but couldn't put into the program cause it was just a massive other field of study. And so ultimately I decided I had to start my, what was then the nutrition and lifestyle coaching program. So I put together a one week intensive course, which you know, sometimes the classes would go 10 hours a day cause there was so much to teach them. But I found that almost everybody that was coming to the classes were very, very unhealthy people that wanted to go out and tell other people how to get healthy. Paul Chek: And then I put together the next level, which is now the third level and they would show up again looking just as bad yet they'd spent months telling everybody else what to do. And that goes completely against my philosophy. So I said, okay, that's enough of that. So I took out the most basic elements, what was in my book, how to move and be healthy plus a few other more practical application concepts. And I built holistic lifestyle coach level one which is specifically designed to teach all interested people how to achieve baseline health. And it's the prerequisite to get into HLC, to holistic lifestyle coach level two which is my holistic lifestyle coaching program to teach you how to do it professionally. And HLC three is the advanced training program where I go into much deeper issues such as infant development, a much more comprehensive approach to glen and organ reflexes. Paul Chek: Medical dowsing. I take them through a system of maps I developed to show them what the life processes and how to identify where a person's at in their stage of life. What are the challenges with each stage of life. I show them how to do a personality profile so they know how to better coach people. So it's a very comprehensive course. But once I started making people do HLC, one I noticed they would show up much healthier. And I mean I've had people lose 90 pounds between taking HLC one and HLC two and I've got loads and loads of, you know, mind-boggling case histories and then they were ready because you can't coach people effectively if you're not actually having visceral knowledge of what it's like to kill parasites or do heavy metal detox or colon cleanses, liver cleanses, kidney cleanses you know, all the things that they were prescribing to other people. Paul Chek: These things can be quite intense and there can be, you know, complications. I remember one time for example, I was, you know, years and years ago I was, I had a guy who was a, a medical drug salesman and he had a bad case of parasites and his intestines were very badly blocked up. And I had put him on a colon cleanse product with anti-parasitics and all of a sudden one day I got a phone call in the clinic, I can't remember his name, but they said, you know, so-and-so needs to speak to you right now. And Oh by the way, he's quite upset. So he's calling me on his mobile phone and this is right back in the very beginning of mobile phones. And he's like, what the hell, man? He says, you didn't tell me what was going to happen to me, but what are you talking about? Paul Chek: He goes, I'm actually sitting in traffic right now and I just shit my pants and I'm on my way. I'm on my way to a very important meeting. And he says like, I've got a whole seat full in my very nice and BMW convertible. I am sitting in a pool of shit. And he says, I thought I was just going to fart and this happened. He says, why didn't you tell me? You know? And I, you know, I had had experiences like that, but I only highlight that because if the practitioners don't realize what they're getting a person into, they don't know how to pace them. And there's a tendency to throw everything in the kitchen sink at people. So you've got people doing this to drug those, herbs that supplement in there, like they don't know what the fuck's going on. And so I really felt it was very important for people to do everything to themselves that they were going to prescribe to other people. Paul Chek: And then I would, you know, I was trained in functional medicine testing and I worked with one of the giants of that in the, in the world who actually invented salivary testing. And so having done a lot of this on myself and realizing, wow, you know, you go too fast with a heavy metal detox, your life will be very shitty for a few days. I can completely sidetrack you. So what happened in a nutshell was I grew that the corrective and the high performance exercise program, and I built a lot of prerequisite courses to make sure whoever walked in that classroom had the anatomy, the physiology, and the basic sciences down and it was graded tests. And then they found that they can digest the information much better. And through constantly seeing all these people failing with diet and lifestyle factors, I realized I had to build that training program. Paul Chek: And then because there was so much mental, emotional factors, right? The diet and lifestyle factors will, when you say, well, why do people keep doing that? Right? You ask people, I ask people in large audiences all over the world, mostly doctors, therapists, and strength professionals. How many of you right now, no, you're either over exercising or under exercising, but keep doing it and almost every hand goes up. How many of you know you need to get to bed earlier than you are, but you keep staying up late at night and it's costing you almost every hand goes up. How many of you know you're eating shit that messes your body up but keep doing it? Almost every hand goes up. How many of you are doing jobs that aren't making you happy, but you're telling yourself you've got to do it for money and it's causing problems in your own sense of self and in your relationships. Paul Chek: Almost every hand goes up. So the point I'm making is, and this basically is based on my four doctor model, Dr happiness, Dr diet, Dr quiet, Dr movement, which is the encapsulation of a living philosophy. If you don't have those four doctors, believe me, you will be spending a lot of time and money on medical health. And so what I showed my students, cause they're the ones too that I would ask these questions, is you all are aware intellectually of what your challenges, but you keep making the same mistakes over and over again. Which means you have to look at the beliefs that are driving your behaviors. All actions are the result of some kind of belief, most of which is unconscious, right? This is this, this is the tricky part. But yes, we'll get caught in this. So yeah, so what happens is, you know, think of how many times you know yourself or myself or anybody reaches for a food but they know it's going to cause them problems. Paul Chek: But do it anyhow. (Sorry, I got a little dry smoke in my lungs.) So then I say, okay, well why do you keep doing that? I look at myself, why do I do that? Well, I can tell you for me, again, it's almost always because I spent so much of my life helping other people. I need something that is gratifying, something that's out of the box. And paradoxically because it's taboo either, even if it's your own taboo. If I eat that, it's gonna make me itch or it's going to give me pimples, or it's gonna make me feel like shit, but I'm going to have real fun eating it, or I'm right. I'm going to drink that, I'm going to get drunk, even though I gotta go to work tomorrow, I'm going to, I'm going to drink and I'm going to drink till I don't fucking care anymore, or I'm going to smoke or I'm going to do this, or drugs or whatever. Paul Chek: And so what you see is that there's an unconscious cage that's been built and that's been built largely out of mom's ideas, dad's ideas, the educational systems, ideas, all of which are built on religious ideas, right? So without going into a long exposition, which I could easily do as you know but the reality of it is 85% of the people in the world claim religious affiliation. That means 85% out of every person you're ever going to see as a therapist, coach, doctor, trainer, whatever, has religious programming. Usually starting right from childhood when the mind is wide open and has no defenses. And so what you see is the so-called commandments turn out to be perfect to pit you against your instincts, your sexual instincts, your instincts for food. Religions have real restrictions on sex restrictions, on food, restrictions, on dance, restrictions, on music, restrictions on clothing. Paul Chek: I mean, the list is long and so everybody's got this idea in their head that they have to follow these rules because this is what God wants. And if you don't do it, you're going to burn in hell or whatever the story might be. And so at the, at the basis of all this and this sacrifice yourself, give everything up. Jesus gave everything away. You know, these kinds of themes, especially in the Abrahamic religions, which is Islam, Christianity and Judaism. So I kept running into all this over and over and over again. So I would ask people questions and I would, each question would lead to another question. Okay, why did you do that? Because of this? Why did you that? Because this, why are you staying in the relationship when you're unhappy? You've been married for 20 years and you just told me you weren't even happy after the first year. Paul Chek: Oh, well, because in my marriage vows, it's till death. Do you part? I don't want to burn in hell. So, okay. So you think God wants you to live in a relationship where you're not capable of sharing love when your own religion says God is love. So what I found over and over again is that the root of all these unconscious beliefs with large, with a small amount of exceptions, are religious ideas. And I get atheist and say, well, that doesn't apply to me. I never, I don't believe in all that. I go, yeah, but you're raised in a school system that's based on Christian ideology, your road names, your holidays. Almost everything that you do in your life is linked to Christianity in this country or in Europe. Wade Lightheart: And I've found with a lot of atheist as well. Many who I think are, are in extremely integrous people in my experience, but their beliefs are actually a reactive response to that programming and they're caught in the trap again because they're still out of tune with them, their essence, essential nature. And not to jump the gun here, but how is it that you've been able to kind of Wade Lightheart: Move through not just a, an an exercise philosophy or a way to live or kind of a way with, you know, 40 Living I believe is what you, you turn that the four doctors strategy. How is it that you've been able to kind of deprogram that spiritual kind of misdirection that people find themselves caught in and synthesize that in their physicality? Because as you know, at the highest levels, when you really get to the end of the story, it breaks down to these subconscious, you know, archetypes and programs and patterns and behaviors. And when you change that, then everything else just seems to me. How did you get to that point? Because it's very rare that people in the exercise game, if you will, or the fitness game or the performance game, you know, in their career actually go out there on a limb and speak so forthright about those and how they fit. And that's, I think one of the key aspects that makes you so unique is that you're not afraid about making these statements. You're not afraid of talking about great spirit. You're not afraid of talking about the psychological components of how you move and how that translates. How did you get to that particular place? Paul Chek: Well, quite frankly, I had to go through it myself. You know when my mother became a Yogi at the time I was 12, but she'd been going to a Christian science church and I found it absolutely confusing and scary because here I am as an eight year old kid be told, being told God loves you, talking about angels and heaven. And the next thing you know, we're singing onward Christian soldiers marching off to war with the cross of Jesus going on before. And I'm like, wait a minute, I'm really confused here. And every time I would try to ask a question, I would just get told to be quiet or you know, treated like a prisoner of war or some damn thing. Wade Lightheart: I'd have to say, I have to say I had the, sorry to interrupt, but it's so interesting cause I had the exact same realization when I went from Sunday school to the big church and in Sunday school it was Jesus loved me and everything was great and I thought this was a great thing. And then I go to the church and the guy said, well if you don't do this, you're going to be thrown into the pit of fire and burn in hell forever. And I was like, what happened to the loving God? I remember having this conflict, like this is crazy. Somebody got this picture wrong. Is he a, is he a psychopath or is he a hell, like why is there a dichotomy? And it drove me crazy and of course the yogananda help resolve that for me. He had a beautiful explanation about that. And of course he influenced your life as well. Continue on though. I just, I just had to make that little segue cause I share that same realization. Paul Chek: I totally appreciate that. And it's a, it's as common as white bread out there, especially for those of us that have enough self esteem to say, wait a minute, I've got to take charge of my own inner life. Because, you know, waiting for somebody to fix me is really dangerous. It's obviously not working for everybody else to do that. You know, the only answer you get is, Oh, you have anxiety or you have depression or you are a bipolar. They come up with all sorts of fancy names to push you into a box and give you a drug. And, and you know, usually it's downhill from there. But you know, really for my own journey and which is like I said, my style is to really penetrate myself and try to find what is it that I've got to heal. And, and once I've healed that, then as I'm sure you know, once you heal something inside of yourself, for example, if you heal your stuff, gluten intolerance, the next shopping mall you walk through, you see everybody's gluten intolerant. Paul Chek: You see it everywhere. If you heal yourself from a sacroiliac joint injury, you know what it looks like, then you see them everywhere. So whatever we heal creates vision. And so as I spent time with amongst and learn these concepts and saw the stark contrast between Christianity and yoga, I'm like, wow, this is like gnarly. How, how lost and confused people in these Abrahamic religions are and how their model of God is really so far from God. It's, it's scary really. And it starts wars. It's, you know, religious differences are the number one cause of wars, which is the number one cause of death on this planet. And so a couple of steps happen. One, I had to work with myself too. After my first marriage of 17 years. We were together from the time I was 16 my son was born when I was 18 he's 40 now. Paul Chek: I realized I could not be in a monogamous relationship because the pain of wanting to cheat, to get laid, and have the ability to share intimate connection and love with females, get being, not able to do that due to religious ideology and preconceived notions of, you know, our, our marriage vows. And she was in the same boat. We discussed it a lot. So after I got a divorce, I said, okay, I can't be in a relationship with a woman that wants me to be monogamous. So I spent a lot of time exploring and being very forthright with women saying I'm not cut out from an origami. I did it for 17 years and it left both of us in a state where we didn't feel whole or complete. And I remember I was a young person, so you know, my son was born when I just turned 18. Paul Chek: We were together since I was 16 so I didn't really have time to go out and kind of so my oats and play the field. So I had that part of my life missing. So when I, long story made sure that when I met Penny, I just said to her, you know, when it was obvious that we were, you know, serious together, I said to her, I can't be in a monogamous marriage. I, I, it doesn't mean I don't love you. It just means that I have to have the freedom because I never want to be dishonest. I, I, it's, my heart hurts too much to tell lies to somebody that I love. She was happy with that and she's European, so, and she doesn't and doesn't have kind of a lot of these shackles on her that a lot of people do. And so we just basically made the agreement that we stayed together and live in love in ways that worked for both of us. Paul Chek: And our marriage agreement was, as long as we're happy together, we stayed together. But the day that we realized we don't want to be together anymore, then we move on. So Penny and I gave each other the freedom to be who we are. And that allowed me to explore intimate friendships. I would call them, cause I really ever never had any intention of leaving my wife. I love her way too much. And and this process allowed me to actually find out then I still had a lot of Christian programming alive in me that I didn't realize. For example, I'd be making love to another woman and all I could think of is, Oh my God, I'm cheating on Penny, you know, and, and all this stuff would come up like, where's this coming from? I'm, I'm being completely honest, I'm not going behind anybody's back this, you know, but I realized I had all this programming in me. Paul Chek: And so I had to really work on that. And then when I began my training in the use of psychedelics in 2006, Oh my God, many injuries just brought all sorts of this childhood programming up and I had to come face to face with it. And so what ultimately this process led me to was one I bought, Carl Jung's collected works maybe 20 years ago, 25 years ago. And I've been studying it ever since. And I studied many of the great minds in psychology, depth psychology, Ken Wilber's works and many of the Sufi masters and Mmm. What I, what I did, I studied Joseph Campbell for for many years and still do. I actually began to understand what an archetype was. I studied Carolyn Myss's survival archetypes. I studied the shadow in psychology and so I also studied attachment syndromes, infant attachment, infant attachment and how we develop a secure bond with our parents and what drives an insecure bond. Paul Chek: I studied Dan Siegel's works and I studied how to use an adult attachment interview and I developed my own adult attachment interview so I could identify when there was attachment problems in the beginning of a person's childhood. So I studied world religion extensively for years and years and years, so I could understand each of the kind of mindsets and ways of relating to the world. I studied Houston Smith extensively and so what synthesized out of that was a system of analysis that I teach Chek professionals where we look at your attachment history, what was your early childhood like? And we have a comprehensive questionnaire that shows us where there's problems. We look at, I created a system called the big eight archetypes. So we look at the Mago day, which is the image of DD, what do you believe God is and how is that helping you or not helping you? We look at the mother. How was your relationship with your mother, the father, how's your relationship with your father? We look at the child. What was your childhood like? Then we look at the Mmm saboteur archetype, the victim archetype, the prostitute archetype, and the eternal child, which means anybody that's avoiding adult responsibilities and taking responsibility for their choices, but they should be because they're in an adult role or at the adult age. Paul Chek: And so using that system, and I also have people fill out their health appraisal questionnaire, which analyzes 29 physiological systems. All the glands, all the organs, and even issues like anxiety and stress. And plus, I have a physical examination that's very comprehensive. So by the time I put this all on the table, I know what archetypes of the survival archetypes, where they're victimizing themselves, where they're prostituting themselves, which is working for money, not for love, doing things that they shouldn't be doing, cause they don't like doing them, but they think they have to do where they're sabotaging themselves and other people, whether avoiding the responsibilities of being an adult, which is most people in Abrahamic religions, as Osho says, Abrahamic religions are religions for children. Eastern religions are religions for adults because in the Eastern religions, there's no big daddy in the sky that's going to rescue you or tell you what to do. But in the Abrahamic religions, you always have to follow the rules. And there's an old man in the sky. So it's basically really what I would say is a breakdown of our, our, of our mythic evolution. We're still stuck in needing this sort of, you know, Zeus like figure to tell us what to do and what's going to happen. And dot, dot, dot. Paul Chek: And so basically what I do is I identify where they're at, what is the response to their body from the contents of their mind and their emotions. I do a complete injury history, so I know every injury they've ever had, physical, emotional and mental. And I created what's called an an injury tree, so I can see the chronological history and which, how their body responded over time. I can see things like their education and how that influenced them and what the religion or lack of religion is. And then basically what I do is I craft a plan and depending on the mindset of the individual, I either start them, if they're very trapped in religious ideologies or isms, then I know I need to connect to them through their body first and get results with simple things. So they learn to trust me because going deep into the psyche like that requires tremendous trust in your guide. Paul Chek: If the

  Did you know magnesium is needed to perform 300 different bodily functions? That is the power of magnesium. In today's episode with Matt Gallant, we will talk about some of those functions, why we need different types of magnesium for different parts of the body and why we created a special magnesium blend to address these needs. Different types of magnesium are generally used by different parts of your body. For example, magnesium chelate is really important for muscle building recovery and health. Magnesium citrate helps with counteracting some obesity issues and it can help with arterial stiffness in people who are healthy and in those who are overweight. Magnesium biglycinate or glycinate is great for sleep, and it may also help with stomach acid (meaning it can aid in digestion). It may also be helpful in reducing heart disease, Type 2 diabetes as well as osteoporosis. Magnesium taurate is also very beneficial for the heart and for reducing muscle cramping and migraines. Magnesium malate may also help with some of those same issues plus it can alleviate depression and anxiety. Malate is also good at removing aluminum from the body, so it can aid in detoxing as well. Another magnesium we talk about is magnesium L-threonate, it helps with memory, cognitive functioning in the short and long-term as well as overall mental ability. And finally, the last magnesium we recommend is magnesium orotate, which is very helpful for the heart and is especially useful for metabolic improvements. We also share a few studies that show the power of magnesium and how truly beneficial it is for a healthy, functioning mind and body. One particular study followed 4,000 people for 20 years and found that people with the highest magnesium intake were 47% less likely to develop diabetes. Today we also discuss some at-home options for increasing your levels of magnesium like bathing in Epsom salts and more intense, even experimental options that are out there. We share our personal experiences with intravenous magnesium, and how we have brought all 7 types of magnesium together in one special combination for you. Join us to hear these cutting edge insights and more on this episode of Awesome Health! Episode Resources Magnesium Breakthrough web site Fats That Heal, Fats That Kill by Dr. Udo Erasmus Read the Episode Transcript : Wade Lightheart: Good afternoon, good morning and good evening wherever you are. It's Wade T Lightheart back with the Awesome Health Podcast. And I got Matty the mad scientist with me today, my co founder, co-conspirator, co-creator co everything. And uh, we're excited today because we're going to reveal something that happened to me a number of years ago. Basically I made a profound discovery crisis is an awesome, awesome opportunity for those who don't know in Japan they write crisis and opportunity actually together in Kaishu script. And so it says danger, proceed with caution, but there's always opportunities within it. And one of the things when you're on the leading edge, the bleeding edge, um, and pushing your body to the max pushing your lifestyle, the maximum as a high performer in variably, I don't know, a high performer that doesn't run into trouble somewhere at some time. It's just, it's just the nature of revs engines at high level. Wade Lightheart: A couple years ago, I fell into a that doing more than I thought possible writing checks my body couldn't cash and just burning it to the absolute max. And I did this for years. Running a bunch of different companies, working day and night, sleeping crazy hours, traveling around, burnt myself to a crisp. Literally, I was at a restaurant in Panama. I was listening like some that's like my best friend. We were living literally five minute walk from each other in, in, in, in about six months. I saw him five times and on the fifth time he's like, dude, what's, what's going on? And I said, Matt, I'm living in hell. And the crazy thing is is, well, let's see. He's like, okay, yeah, I can see that you're struggling. I see you are not quite yourself. Well, what's going on? I said, it's like I can't function. Wade Lightheart: It's like my brain isn't working. This distress of my decisions, I'm having emotional reaction. He goes, okay, well let's go look you up on a brain machine and tell them. Now, Matt, you're an expert in, I would say a in a, in a really great experiment on brainwave function, neurological activity. We both dove deep into that and I knew I wasn't like there was something seriously wrong with me, not just physically. I was lethargic in the gym. But like mentally I was just struggling. What happened when I, when we, when you hooked you up to your, to your lab, your lab tests. Matt Gallant: I have a medical grade neurofeedback device that measures the electrical activity in someone's brain. And part of what gets revealed is the amount, you know, like basically the voltage in someone's brain. And at that time, uh, Wade had around a quarter of the electricity of, uh, my 78 year old friend, uh, who I've seen his brain waves. So, you know, Wade was like maybe one or two levels away from being brain dead essentially. Wade Lightheart: I had the brain of a 280 year old. So, uh, something you don't want to look into. And so of course, uh, you know, the crisis opportunities, like, okay, what do, what do we got to do about this? How do we go about this? And obviously I went off and hired a naturopathic doctor to do a bunch of tests and uh, looked and I, one of the things that I was suffering from was extreme levels of adrenal fatigue. I had been using a variety of stimulants in order to sustain the output. And those work for a while, you know, it's kinda like you, you burn the candle at both ends. And it turned out I was suffering from a condition. It's actually according to American psychological at one of the six leading causes of death. And I, I felt like how I felt like I was gonna die and it turned out I probably actually was well on my wave to setting myself up for a problem. Wade Lightheart: So one of the key elements that I did, obviously I had to change to make some lifestyle changes, but I had to start addressing some of the deficiencies that my, uh, desire or my excess type of lifestyle would contribute to. And the reality is, is one particular nutrient that was super deficient and was my road to recovery is I had to take massive doses of a, of a nutritional supplement that virtually 80% of Americans are deficient in. They don't have it. Uh, and almost everybody doesn't get enough that's deficient just for basic functions. We're not even talking about optimal functions. We're not talking about super optimal function. Matt Gallant: And let's face it, we're BiOptimizers all about like optimize levels, not normal levels, you know, cause again with bioptimization spectrum, yeah, most people, you know, people want to stay normal. That's cool. We're not into that. We're into becoming super humans as you know, in whatever shape, way or form that means for you. And in order to do that, you need to be at optimal levels. So it's very different than, than normal levels. Wade Lightheart: I want to talk about something really important and when we get into this and how important are key elements to a dietary facts. I'm going to share a story, uh, that might seem unrelated, but it is. And that is at the turn of the century, there is a variety of, uh, conditions in North America related to iodine. Remember, we're not talking about iodine today, but I'm going to tell you this story cause this is mindblowing. So there was an iodine deficiency ramping across North America. They started looking at it and they started adding iodine to salt. Here was the crazy result. The average IQ increase in America because of iodized salt increased by 15 points, 15 points just because people were deficient in iodine. I was deficient in this element that we're going to talk about today. And I've come full circle from the moments of hell to the moments of super optimization. I'm so grateful for it and that's why I'm so excited and that's why we're here to talk about this today because I don't know what the potential results are free people out there, but I think it might be the biggest breakthrough in nutrient. Uh, I would say optimization that I've seen in the industry and it doesn't cost that much. That's the best part. It and, and its effects are not only short lasting, but I think it's certainly something that's gonna have a big impact for people over the long term, maybe as effective as what iodine did a hundred years ago. Matt Gallant: So as Wade was going through that experience, um, simultaneously I went through my own, you know, we'll just call it if Wade was, you know, at 12,000 RPM in the red in the, you know, the engine's about to blow. I was probably in the yellow, you know, and the symptoms of that. For an example, I remember I had to give up coffee because I would drink coffee. I would instantly feel fried, like frazzled, like my nerves, my nerves were raw and my nerves felt, you know, frazzles the most accurate description I can come up with. So, and then three different help experts, including Charles Paul, Dr. Joseph Mercola and a friend of mine, all revealed a protocol that we're gonna share with you today that's inspired me to go hog wild. So this was like three months, I think before Wade kind of hit rock bottom. Matt Gallant: And so I get on this protocol and I go hog wild with it, which we're going to reveal. And it was probably you, you know, like there's a lot of supplements, especially when it comes to minerals and vitamins. You don't feel them right? Like, you know, it makes sense. The, the science makes sense and theoretically makes sense. So you, you take them. But this, in terms of feeling it, I just, I was feeling it heal my nervous system. I was feeling myself a shift from fight or flight. And again, when I did a great podcast on healing the nervous system, the parasympathetic and sympathetic. So I was feeling myself shift over from being trapped in sympathetic and certain moving into the healing mode. My sleep improved, my mood improved and I just became like super chill, you know, like just relaxed, which was, you know, it's a sign that you're in a parasympathetic versus when you're, you know, intense and angry and frustrated and irritated and discontent. Matt Gallant: That's, you know, you're in fight or flight. So all of that happened relatively fast. I think it was around two months and you know, it kept getting even better the third month. And then that's when you kinda hit bottom and I said, Hey man, this, you know, this has worked really wonders. And then Wade, you got on this protocol and then you, you know, healed in, in a relatively short amount of time, especially considering how fried you are at that time. Um, you, you made a very quick comeback. Wade Lightheart: Yeah. And that I was really grateful for it. Now it's hard to believe that this one thing could make such a big difference. I mean I did a bunch of things, but we did the testing and stuff in that, the one factor that that changed everything was this particular, um, element, this ingredient. Matt Gallant: I think we've teased them enough I think. I think right now, you know, there's, there's a lot, I feel like we're strippers, just this keep teasing here. They were ready to, to reveal the goods. Um, but before we do, you know, it's this, this nutrient, I got to say when the deeper I went into the research, the more my mind blow and what we're talking about is magnesium. So you've probably heard of magnesium. I mean, you know, it's been something you heard in school and chemistry class and you know, the importance of it. I remember hearing a long time ago. Okay, those 300 different things in the body. But yeah, it's, it's just incredible what it does. Now going back to Wade's story and my story, there's something that I had learned relatively recently about magnesium that blew my own mind. I didn't know this, which is that when you're stressed, okay, you start leaking magnesium at an accelerated rate, your body starts expelling and losing magnesium. Matt Gallant: Now what then does this, there's a numbness, a second order of a consequence, the less magnesium that you have, the more stressed you feel, and then you lose more magnesium. So it's this vicious cycle that Wade went through and I went through that, you know, leads to some level of burnout, of feeling stressed out, feeling overwhelmed. So you know, the antidote, the answer is, you know, taking enough of the right magnesiums and that's what we're going to be talking about. Uh, today is really about the right blends of magnesium, how much to take, how long to take it, and what you can expect. Wade, thoughts? Wade Lightheart: Well, you know, it's funny cause when I went through that piece in diagnose I was all turned on and I had a recollection of a lecture I went to at uh, Bulletproof the Bulletproof conference with Charles Poliquin and Charles Poliquin was a strength coach and he died not that long ago. Matt Gallant: Probably the greatest strike coach. Wade Lightheart: Yeah. He coached gold medalist and I think in, it's over 28 different sports. Matt Gallant: 400 Olympians, I think 400 metal winners. I don't know these guys. Wade Lightheart: Yeah. Professional athletes of all different fields. He was really far ahead. He used to read all these different research journals and you learn different languages to learn a different biases of cultures. It was a very interesting person. He looked amazing and it's unfortunate he died so soon. However, one of the things that made him unique is he athletes undergrowth a disproportionate amount of stress than the regular population. They are continually red line, especially to think about an Olympic athlete or a professional athlete. And one of the things that he talked about is even at a professional athlete and Olympic athlete is another level beyond a professional athlete on, on, on their ability to perform on demand because of professionals doing it over, over, over at an Olympic athlete. And he, one of the things that he said that he was using it's like specifically and in massive quantities was was magnesium but not just one magnesium. Wade Lightheart: He was using different magnesiums for different components of the brain. There were things for brain, things for your heart, things for uh, energy production inside the body, things for recovery, things for cramping, all of these issues. And he had actually broken down magnesium into a bunch of different types and was using supplementation because it's virtually impossible. It is virtually impossible regardless of any diet that you're following to get all of the magnesiums. And one of the things that's happening today in the world of testing and stuff is we're now able to drill down a little deeper instead of just protein, fats and carbohydrates. Well, it's now we've taken minerals and vitamins and supplements nce and we're able to drill down to the different components of those, which ones are more utilizable by the body, which ones are more available to the body, which ones have performed different functions inside the body. Matt Gallant: It's a great segue into talking about like the different types of magnesiums and what they do. Um, and the essence is this. Different magnesiums tend to go to different parts of the body and affect them. So if you just taking one type or even two types of magnesium, there's a lot of your organs in different parts of your body, including maybe your brain or your heart that are deficient. So what's the answer is to have a wide variety of different types of magnesium. So magnesium chelate is really important for muscle building recovery and health. Magnesium citrate helps with some of, you know, counteracting some of the obesity issues and it can help with arterial stiffness with healthy, even overweight individuals, magnesium biglycinate or glycinate, essentially the same thing. Um, that's a great one for sleep, and sometimes it also helps with, you know, stomach acid. So on the digestive side it can have some positive benefits. Wade Lightheart: It's, it's also used for heart disease type 2 diabetes to assist in breaking down sugars. And it's a key component in osteoporosis as well. Matt Gallant: Yeah, magnesium malate - some people believe it's the most bioavailable and it can help with migraines, chronic pain and depression and just, just the research there that we're going to get into around magnesium and anxiety and depression is just, it's just mind blowing. Wade Lightheart: Last thing, one thing on the, on the, on the malate, it's also good for removing aluminum from the body. So if you're looking for detoxification, it's a, it's a, it's a great one for that as well. Matt Gallant: Magnesium L-threonate. Um, L-threonate, which is the one you use for brain. I've used a lot of it. It's one of my favorites. Uh, it seems to help with working memory, mental ability, functioning capability, long and short term. Wade Lightheart: And in my, in my own situation that was the, that was the one that was really a big game changer for me on the cognitive side, on the sleep side. I was so stressed out, I wasn't sleeping. It was part of the reason why I was getting so, uh, reduced. And my naturopathic doctor, she recommended that I take massive quantities of this in particular because of the brain. And one of the things that I noticed if you're struggling with memory, that's, that was the one I couldn't remember anything. And when you're, and that one literally my, my memory came back cause I generally have an extraordinary memory and uh, it really made a big difference for me when I was taking L-threonate. Matt Gallant: Well what happens when you're stressed out? It blows out your hippocampus, which destroys your short term memory. So you know, that was just another side effect of the vicious cycle that you were trapped in. And you know, I might as well reveal this right now. I'm the best stack that like, cause I'm about four and a half years ago, I was noticing that my short term memory was starting to decline. And you know, at the time I'm 38, I'm like, you know, this, this is not good. So I started taking um, magnesium and fish oil, which we're going to get back into, you know, uh, you on DHA essentially you can get it from plant-based as well from the allergies. We'll get back to that. But that and Lion's Mane, which is a mushroom that helps increase BDNF in the brain, brain drive and trophic factors that stack from memory. Matt Gallant: And again, it's, it's one of those things that it builds up and it gets better and better. Like you'll notice it in about 30 days and then 90 days it gets better in six months. And now, I mean, it feels like my short term, just my memory in general is as good as I was probably as a, as a teenager before I started using drugs. So there you go. You know, definitely works. Um, next is magnesium Taurates, which is probably the best one for the heart. And one study noted this complex magnesium Taurate made us have considerable potential as a vascular protective nutritional supplement. So that's a really good one for your vascular system. Wade Lightheart: It's also, it's also for people who suffer from migraines. Um, that one is a really great one. And for women who are suffering from PMs, cramping. So I have a lot of women that reach out to me and that my naturopathic doctor who happens to be a female, she's like, this is the one that females typically respond best to. Or also athletes who are dealing with a lot of cramping issues. Matt Gallant: Yeah, that's awesome. And uh, the last one we recommend is magnesium Orotate, which is very helpful for the heart, but the, it's really the number one use magnesium for metabolic improvements. So far on the athletic side, if you're working on hard, uh, you want better performance, better recovery energy, and that'll help because magnesium is involved and helps the mitochondria produce more ATP, which is where your energy comes from. So this magnesium seems to hit that pathway significantly. Like you know, and I remember that. I think the first time I heard about magnesium was back in our body building days Wade and you know, we had the big stack magazines, you know, they were talking about magnesium for, for strife and for working out. And I remember when I did my loading phase of magnesium, like I added two, three, four reps on everything. I think in like two weeks. I, you know, it was, it was a huge jump in performance in the gym. So I mean, what have you noticed in terms of the benefits from an athletic side in terms of working out or recovery? Wade Lightheart: Well, you know, particularly with Orotate as well, um, it's really good for blood sugar. It's, I find it's great for handling food, uh, food cravings or sugar cravings if my magnesium levels are high. If I'm taking math, like I actually, cause I eat a lot of carbs, but I notice when I take my magnesium in the mornings, uh, my first milk, cause sometimes I'll, I'll have tea, any caffeine subject can diminish your magnesium supply. Just so you know, and I, and I, and I also, because I eat such a rich of vegetable diet, I tend to get a lot of calcium and calcium and magnesium work in a ratio. So if I take my magnesium, I don't have the sweet sugar cravings. When I, when I don't take my magnesium, if I forget for what he was on or I'm on the road and I forgot my magnesium, okay, uh, I get those sugar cravings. Wade Lightheart: But the other thing is what I find, I don't get cramping either. A, I that the tightness in the muscles, uh, firing as well is if I get, if you're sweating, one of the things for athletes who are sweating, particularly, you know, people who are on quarter the field for hours at a time, the drop in magnesium is one of the reasons why they start losing the pop. They start, they start to, you know, slow down. It's, and if you see those fourth quarters in the NFL, often times it's not just dehydration, it's the key loss of magnesium in those cases. And in a worst case situation and you see this with a long distance runners and endurance people or athletes that get heart rhythms like a, they get the heart rhythm gets disrupted or they have an irregular heartbeat. You're seeing it more and more in athletic performance that's directly related to magnesium and Orotate as the probably the best one to deal with those things. Matt Gallant: Yeah. So you know, and just to kind of add to what you've said, like in terms of athletic performance, um, in terms of moving beyond just magnesium, your magnesium, we just highlight how critical it is. Couple of things you are there, things you want. One is potassium, um, which I, I don't think I've shared in this podcast, but what I do, I have this pitcher of, of water and I put about a quarter teaspoon of cream of tartar inside of it with salt so I can absorb more. And it just got my blood work done and my potassium was like kiddo, really up there where you want it. Um, I mean you don't, you don't want it too high but quarter teaspoon and they'll give you the dose. And then enough calcium, cause you know, if you're cramping or your muscles not firing, you're either missing your calcium, the potassium or the magnesium and calcium. Matt Gallant: You don't need that much. Like, you know, eating cheese, like a little bit of cheese twice a week. Most people just have an overload of calcium in their body. And in what way? To share really cool story in a second. But like I said, right now there's kind of an overdose of calcium and most people's diet you don't need that much. So I don't think people need to be concerned too much with that. I think it's more to the magnesium that people are really deficient in. And then again, the potassium. So you know, using salt, especially like Himalayan salt, sea salt, I mean they just load it in your food unless you have really, really high blood pressure. Um, but you want to be able to, to retain water. Okay. If I don't, especially like I'm on keto, so if I'm not eating enough salt, I just lose water like crazy cause I don't have the carbs to hold it in. So that's one of the things. But Wade, why don't you share your story about when you went to Bali and you did the intravenous magnesium because I've done it too, but I think think it's a really powerful, um, story, Wade and I have a really powerful theory or an exciting theory about magnesium and calcium. So Wade, go ahead. Wade Lightheart: So one, so as being, the radical experiment is there, once I've found out that I had magnesium deficiency, I was like, okay, what else can I do? And I found out there is a way that you can do it intravenously. And so I happened to have, I went to Bali and had a naturopathic physician who would use this actually, he was a special forces person and they used to do a magnesium for, for special forces people who are in extreme cases of stress and distress. They would do this. And so what they did, you kind of dose up and obviously don't do this at home, get a doctor to supervisor. You could really mess yourself up if you took too much. But basically you take this, you put an intravenously and they start dripping it into your system. Now what starts to happen? First off, there's a general sense of regular like relaxation and then it kinda hits pretty much. Wade Lightheart: It gets, you get so relaxed, it kind of gets hard to move around if you have to go to the bathroom or something. You're getting kind of feel a little jelly. Uh, I mean this is super physiological doses of magnesium. But then what happens is where you've got little alleys or calcium buildups in the body, it starts to burn. And I literally started to get burning inside my brain where I had calcium deposits built up in the brain tissue. I had like cold shoulder injuries from way back in the day when I was benching too much weight, too fast, um, that would literally start to burn. Uh, and so what I believe is that the, and this is theory theoretical, is that the magnesium as it went through the body, was finding these places where the calcium was up, bonding with the calcium and dissipating the calcium in those particular pieces. And I've done that a whole bunch of times ever since. And I can tell you every single time I get burning in some area of my body. Matt Gallant: Yeah. And the last in the last hardcore brain optimization brain training we did, we were doing, it was a blend of different vitamins and amino acids, but there was a very high dose of magnesium and the doctor that was injecting that says, uh, that's going to hit you right in the genitals. And yeah. You know, I don't think I did as high a dose as you did. Um, I mean it was kind of a nice warm, uh, pleasant feelings. So that was my experience injecting my knees. Matt Gallant: You know, I am the extreme optimizer, the mad scientist. So it, it, I wouldn't be doing myself a service. I wouldn't be authentic Matt Gallant: unless I've revealed another way to load magnesium, which, you know, only the crazies will be excited about. And I haven't done this yet. I have researched it. Um, there is a doctor that uses a protocol and again, you know, try to set your own risks, make sure you talk to your doctor, if you're doing crazy experiments, but it's rectal magnesium loads. And the, the issue with like doing a crazy amount, uh, orally is that the magnesium pulls water. That's not a big problem. You know, you get just a flushing effect and you go to the bathroom and you know, it ends there. In fact, some of them, there's, there's other magnesium's yeah. That I've used for flushing. Like let's say you're doing a fast and you really want to do kind of an intestinal cleanse. There's, there's special magnesiums that like really pulled the water in. Matt Gallant: And you know, we've, we're a fan of minimizing that. But when you start getting past like two grams at a time, that's typically when you start getting some flushing effects. So let's say you want to load like five grams at a time, then that's when, um, you would basically prepare the magnesium with water and basically do an enema and your body's just going to absorb it. So it was probably the second best way after injections. And again, I haven't done this yet but probably will very soon. So anyways, again, just wanted to share that cause I know some people like crazy experiments. Wade Lightheart: I know another thing that you were a big fan of is floating in magnesium, salt pools and one of the big things, Joe Rogan is a big fan of that as well. And the magnesium is a great way just lying in a pool of mags, which has been known for a long time. Wade Lightheart: Magnesium salts also as a way of get it externally. It doesn't have the internal benefits but it does have a general relaxation effect. Matt Gallant: Yeah, I'm a huge fan. Um, I mean and again for those of us that don't have float tanks at home, you can buy like Epson salts, get in, get into the bathtub or you know, hot tub or whatever you have and throw it in there and, and get, you know, cause you will absorb some, uh, through the skin and it will have some effects. So yeah, I'm a huge fan. It's a great thing to do before bed to relax or yeah, floating to me is still my, like my number one favorite. Biohacks so to speak, uh, to, to, to relax and to heal the nervous system and get me out of fight or flight. So anyways, let's jump into some mindblowing research on magnesium. Matt Gallant: Um, so on the aquatic side, there was athletes supplementing with magnesium for four weeks. They had faster running, cycling, swimming times during a triathlon and they experienced reductions in insulin, which, you know, when your insulin goes down it, there's almost every part of the body. There's this, uh, you know, yin and yang. So the yin and yang would insulin is glucagon. And when you release glucagon, you burn, you're in fat burning mode periods. So anything you can do to reduce insulin is a, also reduction in stress hormone levels. Um, now on the mood side, this is where, and I experienced the effects of this. Like I really did. Um, I went from kind of being kind of stressed out to being a level of chill that, you know, you know, haven't smoked weed in a long time, but when I used to, um, you know, that it was almost like that level of chill, you know, and it was like all the time. Matt Gallant: It wasn't, I wasn't high after taking pills. I was like in a permit chill zone. So in terms of magnesium, um, it's been linked to like magnesium deficiencies have been linked to depression, increased risk of depression, uh, and then supplementing with the mineral, there's been a lot of reduction in the symptoms of depression. Sometimes in some cases it can be dramatic. Um, now in randomized controlled trials in depressed older adults, 450 milligrams improved mood as effectively as an antidepressant drug. I mean, think about that. That's, that's incredible. So, and that's, that's a relatively low dose in our opinion. So four 50 can replace antidepressants. That's pretty exciting. One study follows 4,000 people for 20 years and found that the ones with the highest magnesium intake were 47% less likely to develop diabetes. So we're talking massive beneficial effects on blood sugar and insulin. I mean that, that alone in terms of weight loss in terms of health is again, incredible. Matt Gallant: Then there was one study that found that 450 milligrams per day increased, experienced a significant decrease in blood pressure in both the systolic and diastolic. Um, again, more research on prevailing insulin resistance and many people would, metabolic syndrome are deficient. So metabolic syndrome is a term for people that you know, don't seem to be responding to normal weight loss parameters. Like the, maths not making sense, you know, they're, they're not eating that much or direct resizing. They're, they're not, um, you know, they're insulin resistant. Like there's, there's a whole set of things that makes up metabolic syndrome, but again, people that are deficient in magnesium seem to, to show that another study shoot insulin, uh, improvements in insulin resistance. But another study found that it reduced insulin resistance and blood sugar levels even in people with normal blood levels, which means that it will help you again burn more body fat. And we'd mentioned this earlier, that magnesium has been shown to improve mood, reduce water retention, aka bloating and other symptoms in women with PMs. So, I mean that's just a quick, quick overview of, you know, there's hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of studies, but I just wanted to highlight that, you know, this is the mineral that can drop your stress, improve your blood sugar, improve your brain, improve your athletic performance, improve your sleep, improve your PMs symptoms. I mean, there's almost no part of your body that it doesn't have a positive impact on. Wade Lightheart: And also just increase your capacity to handle things like caffeine because pretty much everybody is pounding caffeine these days. It's a big trend. And you know, I think one of the things that's really important is now you're able to enjoy a coffee or a caffeinated beverage without any of that, that edginess that kind of comes associated with it or the, you know, the frying feeling, if you will. Matt Gallant: Yeah. So let's talk about the protocol. Um, so I want to share, I'm going to share again, it was, you know, in three people that you trust and respect. Tell you more or less the same thing. I always think that is a sign from the universe. So Poliquin's protocol was around five grams of magnesium a day and 20 grams of fish oil. You know, uh, Mercola was very similar. Now Mercola hit his, what he's saying is that the magnesium can help counter counteract a lot of the negative consequences of the EMF cause the electromagnetic frequency pollution from cell phones and wifi. What we know now is that it opens up what's called the calcium gates in the cells. So you're basically like leaking calcium. And if you think about aging, aging, like most of the negative consequences, whether you're talking about heart disease or arthritis, is that calcification of the body, right? Matt Gallant: The body's hardening in all the wrong places. So you don't want to be, you don't want your cells to be leaking calcium. So he's a big proponent of magnesium to help counteract a lot of those side effects. And then the other guy, uh, it was, uh, a mutual friend of Wade's. His, his approach was to heal the nervous system. So that's where he was coming from. So all three guys again had a very similar protocol which was around three to five grams of magnesium a day with a big essential oil loading protocol. Now if Wade is vegetarian, and Wade I want you to share your favorite vegetarian oil sources because I think there's some synergy between the magnesium and again, essential fatty acids. Wade Lightheart: Yeah, I do believe that's true. Um, for those of you who have checked out some of our podcasts, there's two particular ones. I'm going to refer you to dr Udo Erasmus, "Fats that heal, fats that kill", he's kind of the guy that put fats back on the map. He's a friend of mine here in Vancouver, world renowned guy, great guy. He talks about the relationship and how important that is and and providing, you know, your three sixes and nines, you can get them from plant sources. You just, the threes are a little bit tough, so you've got to watch that and make sure that you get an a balances. The other one is Ian Clark's Activation oils. I think some of the best liquid oils I've ever taken. I, I was always someone that struggled with oils, taking oils probably from my bodybuilding days where we had to, I'm a literally cut fats out of my diet for about 10 years and got to super physiological low body fat levels, which depleted my myelin sheath and nervous system. Wade Lightheart: So again, on the extreme side, again, you know, feeling the burn. But yeah, I use those oils. I like to, I like to take my magnesium with my essential oils in the morning. Uh, they're great. And again, with oils, I mean it like everything cheaper is cheaper. Like go with the best stuff, go with the products are out, you can and if you're a vegetarian, uh, definitely you want to supplement your diet with a, you know, either the Udo's oil or the Activation oil inside it. There's a, uh, there's another company out there. It's, I think it's an MLM company called doTERRA. They have an essential, and I, I'm not getting anything from any of these, just so you know, they have an essential, uh, a plant based essential fatty acid, which is a combination of a bunch of different essential oils. That's really good as well. So the vegetarian one from those guys is fantastic and I've, I felt benefits on all of those products and I use them. Uh, I stack, I take a little bit of each one, uh, every day. Matt Gallant: Yeah. And another great source for vegetarians that want the DHA, which is really the key one for the brain is Algae, right? So either, you know, E3Live is a great one and they have BrainON, which is specifically, it's an Algae that these spin to remove the cell walls that crosses the blood brain brain barrier. I'm a, I'm a fan of that product as well, even though I am a, I'm not vegetarian, but um, yeah, so the Algae, another good service. Now, if you're not vegetarian, I'm a fan of krill oils. Probably. Um, my favorite source and you know, I'll, I'll usually stack that with the fish oil, but curls my go-to and uh, again, I'll sack that official. Now let's talk about dosage. Um, in my opinion, you start with 500 milligrams, maybe two or three times a day, which will give you about one and a half grams a day. Matt Gallant: And that's a really, you know, it's a good dose. Uh, and it's a tolerable dose. Yeah. I'd be surprised if you have any digestive distress. Um, you can also start with about five grams of fish oil and then you start ramping it up. So you go from, you know, half a gram to a gram. Um, where I went the highest was six grams a day. That was a little too high. Yes. You know, I was, I was definitely having watery stools at that point. So for me, if I'm really pushing the dose, it's around, you know, four or five grams. And the thing is we recommend you do a loading phase of 60 to 90 days and once you're loaded then you go back to like a gram, a gram and a half, maybe two grams a day, depending how intense your life is. Cause you know, keep in mind like if you're training hard, you need more minerals, you're burning up more things, you know, you're, you're, you're using up, um, you're sweating minerals, you're sweating salt through sweating, magnesium, you're sweating, all of these things, you're burning them up at a higher rate. So what have you found works for you in terms of dosage? Wade Lightheart: Orthomolecular nutrition, um, which was developed by Abram Hoffer and um, Linus Pauling and Hawkins way back in the 70s, they developed a way of doing things. It was kind of what Matt's referring to. This isn't something that we've just cooked up at a, our ideas, what they did is they would always keep titrating up, bringing up the dosage until you break what's called the gastrointestinal barrier. That's where you get the runs. That's where you get the watery stools. So start at that half gram. And what I did is when I first started out get this [inaudible], I went to eight and a half grams per day before I started getting stills. That's how deficient I was. My body just started stacking. And then after about three weeks, I got the runs one morning on my, on my dosage, and I was like, okay. So at that point, what I did is I tapered down to six. Wade Lightheart: I went about another month. And keep in mind though, I did do the intro. I, I, during that time I went and did the, uh, the, um, IV drip of magnesium. And when I did that in combination, I went from six down to four and I've stayed around for ever since. And I take it every single day. And, uh, if I go for a long, like sometimes I do these long walks or I do an intense, like I'll do like a four hour work, four hour walk in the heat or whatever. I'll, up it a little bit and I don't get any, uh, digestive stuff. Now that's me in particular. Um, each person is going to different, you can do what's called a SpectraCell analysis. So we talked about this on another podcast with dr Maximus and everybody should do this test. Wade Lightheart: Um, it's a test where they spin your blood and they can tell how well you absorb a particular, uh, nutrients. So for example, Matt, myself, and let's say you the listener, we could all take the same amount of magnesium, but we will not absorb the same amount of magnesium. And we're also, Matt and I are taking, uh, we're taking one of our, you know, well-known products, which is Masszymes, which in order for you to get your minerals, you need minerals to get your proteins, proteins to get your minerals, minerals to get your vitamin. And most people are deficient in enzymes. So I would recommend also adding in enzymes or Masszymes product. And on top of that, because that's going to also assist an absorbent. And if you can take it with a meal or, Wade Lightheart: or, or with the protein drink or, you know, breakfast and stuff like that, I usually have it with my breakfast every morning. And I like it that way. And then also for my lunch.. Matt Gallant: So Wade and I, we, we were kind of guys that just follow our passion and, and we, you know, we, we, I'm passionate about things that work and from the beginning of BiOptimizers, you know, just to give you some backstory, and I don't think we've ever shared this publicly, so if we share bits of it, but Wade and I were doing this, this incredible protocol with very high dose enzymes, very high dose probiotics. This is before we ever created any products. And we were so blown away by the results that we said, you know what, let's create a better version of those products because they work, they're incredible. Let's build a better version and share it with the world. Matt Gallant: And that's what we've done with magnesium. So again, Wade and I, I've been using magnesium now for about two years. Um, again, using these protocols and you know, like I, I've got to think like five different types of mag, like five different types of magnesium downstairs that I have to pop in and, and take and you know, and one of them as three and you don't want, as you know, that's just what I have to do to get all the magnesiums that I want. Um, the other issue too with a lot of magnesium blends, and I don't know why they don't do this, but they don't put the cofactors. There's a couple of things that you can put into magnesium that will actually help absorption. So what way did I have done? We have a combined all seven magnesiums that we talked about earlier along with the cofactors and we've created a product called Magnesium Breakthrough. So we're really excited to share this with you. I think it's going to become the magnesium of the health industry. We haven't seen anything like it. There's some magnesium of act three, some have four, but I haven't seen any with all seven. So we're super excited to be bringing this to you. I think that's going to be one of the most impactful supplements you've ever felt, specially if you're stressed out. And again, it's one of these things too. If you're training hard, you'll see some incredible results in the gym. Wade Lightheart: Yeah, pretty exciting. The other thing I also want to add to that is like all of our products, we have the 365 day your Money Back guarantee. If you don't, if you don't feel the difference taking this, if you don't say, this is awesome, I feel awesome, I can feel the difference. You just reach out to us and call us and we just give you your money back. We, there's nothing more expensive than a product that doesn't work and then there's nothing that feels better than a product that delivers on what you want. And one of the things that we represented by optimizers is over delivering on the promises that we make and removing all the risk of purchasing with us because we were not in the business of selling products. We're in the business of creating relationships with people who want to optimize their health, live long, live strong for a long period of time. Wade Lightheart: So, you know, I simple sale or something like that. That's not what we're interested in. We're interested in being your GoTo advisors, your health advocates, to bring you the latest research. What we've been doing, what we've blown up on, what we've learned as well as the experts who can, who are influencing us and our decisions. And if we can make a product that will enhance people's lives better than other people, we do it. If we can't make a product that's better than anything on the market, we refer you to the people that, that we do check our podcasts. That's what we're into. We don't make everything, but what we do make is absolutely fantastic. And for those of you who have tried our products and are with us, we want to thank you and enjoy it. And I think this is going to be another element that you're going to add to your repertoire that's going to make a big difference for you and your family over the decades. Matt Gallant: Yeah. So the website is a magnesiumbreakthrough.com. And you know what's really nice about magnesium is even if you're on a tight budget, uh, you know, you can get a really positive effect for around a dollar a day. So, you know, even if, again, if you're cash strapped, I think it's probably one of the biggest bang for the bucks in terms of cost to benefit ratio. And you know, going back to the BiOptimizers triangle, which is the aesthetics, the performance in health, um, everything that we do is moving, you know, one, two or all three of those such triangles sides further out. And you know, for those of you that are into high-performance and whether that's, you know, business pushing your brain or at why I performance, um, you have to make sure, and again listen to our nervous system projects cause we went pretty deep, but you have to make sure that you're, you're balancing or managing the fight or flight response. Matt Gallant: If you're just trapped in that side and you're going to burn out and really your performance then starts dropping and your help starts dropping. So that's why the magnesium blend, Magnesium Breakthrough, you know, you're keeping yourself out of fight or flight, you're, you're, you're pushing your body into parasympathetic, just using this miserable. So that allows you to keep training harder without burning out or working harder without burning out. I think, you know, way you would have had this product back when you were in your, you know, super intense work zone, you probably would have avoided, you know, being almost clinically brain dead on a EEG machine. Wade Lightheart: Yeah. And that's a, that's the thing, you know, um, you always have to be kind of humble enough to say, well, what if maybe I should give it a shot? Um, the reality is is I'm probably not gonna change my hard wiring. I've, you know, I've been an extreme athlete virtually all my life. I was, you know, from hockey and violence, sports like that, and then that transit into kind of extreme levels of bodybuilding at the high levels. And now we're at extreme business building and, and as you age, things happen in your body, changes happen. And sometimes deficiencies can kind of go undetected too. You kind of fall off the cliff or life changes. You go through a divorce, you go through a business stress, um, maybe someone in your family gets sick, maybe you end up traveling a lot, and there's these little points, these spikes that are the pieces that puts you over the top. Matt Gallant: And oftentimes it's for those high performers out there, you kind of think that you can gut it out. Um, so I do recommend, uh, getting a net naturopathic doctor. Do your regularly regular testing, look at your, your blood, look at your results. And what's interesting when you add products like magnesium, like are digestive enzymes. Everything else just seems to work better. So a, we're pumped and we're excited about this. I think it's a, we're for all those guys that are like us who have been, you know, we've got half a dozen bottles of magnesium in our cupboard. Uh, it's nice to just be able to throw all of those in, you know, uh, in the garbage and just have one bottle. And I've got that covered every day. And that's, that's one of the beauties, you know, it's also about efficiency. And effectiveness. And so when you look at the price invested for your magnesium, instead of buying five bottles of all these different ones, you can just buy one bottle or three bottles and you're good to go. Matt Gallant: Yeah. Our philosophy when we create products and Wade alluded to it, we're either the first in class meaning you know, we're creating a new type of product or we're the best in class. And you know, magnesium was a lot of magnesiums out there. But again, you will not find one that has seven magnesiums plus the cofactors in this ratio. Cause you know, one of the things we did, we optimize it to minimize the water flushing. So the ratio of the magnesiums that we put in, we're again designed to minimize that water flushing so that you can push the dose if you want you to get. Again, there is a point where it'll happen, but it's, it's a lot higher than what you would normally experience. So again, the website's magnesium breakthrough. Uh, we want to thank you for spending your valuable time with Wade and I, and we'll be back soon with some more cutting edge bleeding edge information. Wade Lightheart: Thanks so much and have yourself an awesome day.

  Keto diets have been extremely popular lately, but how does being in ketosis impact our training and performance? The expert on these topics is Dr. Dominic D’Agostino. Dr. Dominic is a Professor in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology at the University of South Florida, and Research Scientist at the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC). He is well-respected in the science world as well as the performance industry having been featured on Tim Ferriss' podcast as well as having his research supported by the Department of Defense, the Navy SEALs, etc. 35. Keto Diets, Training and Performance with Dr. Dominic D’Agostino In today's episode, we dig into Dr. D'Agostino's research plus his own personal experience and experimentation with keto diets and bodybuilding, including how he achieved his personal best deadlift while fasting! We also discuss what it means to be "fat adapted" and why our bodies can run on both ketones and glucose at the same time. Dr. D’Agostino says the idea is to adapt our bodies over time by training while we're fasting periodically; if we are training in a state of nutritional ketosis and occasionally consuming carbohydrates then our body recognizes carbs and as ketones both as fuel sources. One strategy to do this could be to eat a carbohydrate-based diet that is low enough to maintain optimal insulin sensitivity while including ketogenic nutrition, such as MCT oils or ketone supplements. But it's important to also do this without necessarily restricting carbohydrates to the point of entering ketosis. And we finish up with a chat about when it's beneficial to be on a keto diet as well as how often to follow a ketogenic protocol to get the full benefit. Dr. D'Agostino suggests we can achieve many of the metabolic benefits and anti-cancer benefits by going keto for just three to five days per month either through fasting or by going down to 500 calories per day. You’ll hear him explain the science behind these approaches plus much more on this fascinating and enriching conversation on today’s edition of the Awesome Health Podcast! Resources for this Episode Dr. Dominic's Website Dr. Dominic on Instagram Dr. Dominic on Facebook Read the Episode Transcript : Wade Lightheart: Good afternoon, good morning and good evening. It's Wade T Lightheart here today with co-founder Matt Gallant. And a super special guest, Dr Dominic D'Agostino. I have been, you know, hoping for this interview for a long time. For those who don't know who Dominic D'Agostino is, he is one of the preeminent experts on ketogenic diets and ketosis. He works with the Navy seals and in a variety of projects that he's done, they're heavily research oriented and the benefits that this potential dietary practice can have both in performance applications as well as physical health issues, you know, related to cancer, things like that. Cognitive function, a bunch of different things. Dom is a professor at the department of molecular pharmacology and physiology at the university of South Florida and a research scientist at the Institute for human and machine cognition. His laboratory develops and tests metabolically based strategies for neurological disorders, cancer and for enhancing the safety and resilience of military personnel in extreme environments. His research is supported by the office of Naval research, department of defense, private organizations and foundations. He just recently came back from a trip from Australia where he was speaking literally in what, five cities in 11 days. And he was gracious enough to take the time to join us on the Awesome Health Podcast. So delighted to have you here. Dom, welcome to the show. Dominic D'Agostino: Great to be here. Thanks for having me Matt and Wade. Matt Gallant: As much as Wade is excited, I'm, I'm even more excited. You know, I've been a fan of your work since. I think I first heard you probably I think on the Tim Ferriss podcast which, which was very enlightening and I've been a longtime keto user and dieter for over 26 years on and off nonstop now for four and a half. And a BiOptimizers, you know, we have these, this three sided triangle of, you know, aesthetics, how we look, the performance and the health side. And I think you're one of the top guys in the world to talk about the performance side and the health side of keto. Cause most people talk more about the aesthetics, the fat loss and that, that component. But today I really like to dive into maybe we could start with some of your background and what you've been doing research wise and then we can get really into all of their current stuff you're doing in a run performance and help. So maybe give us a little bit of background as far as what you've been up to the last five, 10 years. First Quito and kettle research. Dominic D'Agostino: Yeah. for 10 years, well, this quickly, going back to 25 years ago, I was always interested in nutrition and I majored actually in as an undergrad in nutrition scientists and dietetics. And as I navigated my, you know, college career, I realized that there wasn't a whole lot of jobs in nutrition. So I kind of moved to majoring in biology too. And then I did my PhD actually in neuroscience and, and when I finished my pHD I was funded by the office of Navy research for my fellowship, a postdoctoral fellowship. And that was really to understand oxygen toxicity seizures as it pertains to the Navy seal dieter that's using a closed circuit rebreather that they use or operational conditions. There's a stealth component to this equipment. There's no bubbles when you dive underwater. A disadvantage would be that you're breathing high oxygen 100%, actually with a certain type of breather and it just did the be the seawater. Dominic D'Agostino: You can have a seizure and within 10 minutes some people you know can have that and there's really no way to predict or prevent them. So the first area of my research was developing different technologies that would allow us to understand sort of how the brain is working under these conditions. And if you understand the problem, then you can come up with a solution. But we didn't fundamentally understand the problem. So we developed things like microscopes and electrophysiology equipment and telemetry equipment and we adapted that for use inside a hyperbaric chamber. And then over, you know, five or six years, I started to realize that targeting brain energy metabolism and the neuropharmacology of the brain are two strategies to protect the brain under these extreme conditions. And I was sort of interested in antioxidants, loading up animals with antioxidants really did not seem to work much, although in theory it should have. Dominic D’Agostino: But then I started moving towards like coaxing our own bodies to be more resilient. And there was some studies that we've done with fasting rats for 24 to 36 hours and that actually had a remarkable effect at preventing the seizures and it was actually greater neuroprotection than the antiseizure drugs. So I began sort of became interested in how fast and could mitigate and be a mitigation strategy or counter measure against these types of seizures. And then discovered the ketogenic diet, which I thought of, sort of thought I knew, but I really didn't know the whole history of the ketogenic diet, you know, growing up you hear about low carb diets, Atkins diets and you know, I had interested in the ozone diet at one point and a little carb a little bit and I did it kind of on and off for different years. Dominic D’Agostino: But when I delved into the history of the ketogenic diet and met with the practitioners at major universities, like especially Johns Hopkins group I realized that this could potentially be, I could incorporate nutrition back into my research program and do sort of like a nutritional neuroscience project. I would just have to convince my program officer at the department of defense or Navy that, you know, this was a good strategy and the science was actually there like on PubMed, you know, I mean it was good peer reviewed studies sharing that independent of the etiology independent of the cause of the seizures. The ketogenic diet seemed to help across the board. So, and oxygen toxicity seizures are powerful. Tonic clonic seizures we think are being generated in the hippocampus, which was an area that I was studying and published on. And also maybe influencing the neuro control of autonomic regulation and actually did my PhD on respiratory neurobiology brain set. Dominic D’Agostino: So I had a sort of an understanding of, of sort of what was happening and, and a new understanding and appreciation for nutrition as a metabolic therapy. And and I was never taught anything about the ketogenic diet through my four years of training and two, two semesters actually, the advanced nutrition and graduate nutrition. I never even heard about the ketogenic diet being used, and it was like the standard of care for drug refractory epilepsy. So long story short the dietary approach wasn't, it didn't really grab the attention of the program officers. They wanted to see a ketogenic diet sort of in a drug. So I went down the path personally from a research perspective of just studying ketones and different formulations or ketones. But I also started doing the ketogenic diet myself to understand it from the implementation perspective. And, and, and not people weren't doing the ketogenic diet, the clinical ketogenic diet back when I started and maybe 2008, seven or eight. Dominic D’Agostino: But as I followed it, I realized after I got through the initial adaptation, I felt really good. And I I, prior to this, my, my meal frequency was five or six meals a day and I transitioned actually to eating less often and to the point where I adapted to doing intermittent fasting occasionally, once in awhile. And, and then as we developed ketone various ketone technologies, including ketone esters and ketone electrolyte preparations mixed with a MCT and started studying it, we realized that these are very powerful neuroprotective compounds that have a wide range of applications, not just oxygen toxicity seizures, but different metabolic disorders are highly responsive to nutritional ketosis. Some are the standard of care are the ketogenic diet, I should say, is the standard of care for things like metabolic disorders, like glucose transporter deficiency, other deficiency complex. We studied Kabuki syndrome, which is a genetic disease. Dominic D’Agostino: And we look at the role of ketone bodies as an epigenetic regulator activating some genes and silencing others that can impart their therapeutic effects. So, and then cancer too is another area. I've had three PhD students graduate under me training under me that actually focused on looking at the ketogenic diet to impact the growth and proliferation of cancer, metastatic cancer. We we're looking at cancer parts, which is muscle wasting associated with cancer. We're also looking at drugs like Metformin and other metabolic drugs that sort of target different pathways that overlap with the ketogenic diet. So, so I started studying it for something that was relatively esoteric to most people. Oxygen toxicity seizures are now, we now are studying, I would say probably close to a dozen different things including glucose regulation, you know, everything from ALS to angelman syndrome to Alzheimer's disease, Kabuki syndrome, glucose transporter syndrome a number of other kind of even more rare things that you may not have heard of. Dominic D’Agostino: And, and we're also, you know, developing forms of ketogenic compounds, diets, and also supplements that would allow the war fighter and potentially even the astronaut to implement some form of ketogenic nutrition to enhance performance and resilience in extreme environments. You know, so going back to the, the Navy project, I've continued to be funded by them, you know, for like almost 12 to 13 years now. And I continue to have projects and we've developed the animal work and now we're actually doing studies in humans. And, and now we've actually moved on to working with NASA where we, eh, we do experiments where we live in an undersea environment for an extended period of time in what's called saturation. And when you're in saturation, it takes a long time to decompress and to come up. So your body is an extreme environment, not just pressure, but higher ATA of oxygen, higher partial pressure of carbon dioxide too, which has an effect. Dominic D’Agostino: So we have projects where I look at the gut microbiome, psychological testing, body composition. We look at a number of other factors, you know that are influenced, you know, in these extreme environments, a lot of like psychological, what we call team-building or cognitive team cognition. So how the group works together and that can be impacted by our energy state, our metabolism, and our pharmacology. So we're looking at a whole suite of parameters of people in these environments. So we figure out where the detriment is. And then once we understand that, then we develop a sort of a lifestyle, which is micro focuses, nutrition and supplementation to basically enhance, you know, resilience in that environment. And that would be physiological resilience and psychological resilience. So that's, we're putting a lot of time and effort into that project now. Wade Lightheart: That's pretty exciting stuff. Yeah, no I just wanted to comment on that. And one of the things I think from a practical standpoint that I think people can relate to. And I'm curious about this one because I think as listening to you on Tim Ferris, you had gone an extended period time of fasting and were able to like do a ridiculous deadlifts set. Do you want to talk about that just, just briefly, cause I'm just, this is a curiosity component of I heard about it. I want to be confirmed that I heard it correctly. So I'll let you speak from the hearts because what it seems that you've been able to do is something that almost no one would believe possible. Dominic D’Agostino: Well, I, I don't, I don't think fasting or being in it, and I don't think the ketogenic diet has, some people didn't accuse diet will dramatically impair your strength and performance and once you're adapted, and I don't see that as being necessarily a problem if you have protein a equate for protein and total calories. So fasting is sort of like another thing, but also kind of similar in a fasting state. It after about the second or third day it gets hard around that time, but once your body adapts you actually feel better. Your energy level starts to get a little bit low. Towards day five or day seven in me. I haven't went beyond a seven day fast. And I realized that, you know, I wouldn't want to do a high volume workout during that time, but I realized that my, my overall strength just by how I felt really was not impaired much in a, I just wanted to, you know, kind of feel how the weight spell on my body and actually my inflammation was gone. Dominic D’Agostino: Like, I mean, I felt good in so many ways that I just kept adding weight. One 35 to 25, three 15 four or five, four or five easier than I expected. So I was like, okay, let me try five plates. And I did five and I was thinking maybe I should stop there and my body's sort of in a low energy state and I just kept going. I normally can do more, but I, I felt that the 10, I don't even think I got sore the next day. But yesterday actually I just, I got back from traveling in Australia and I picked up a stomach bug on the last day as I really didn't eat for about two or three days. And yesterday I just posted it on Instagram, Facebook, I deadlifted five plates for 15. And my body weight was really low to one 98. Dominic D'Agostino That's extremely low for me. I'd be, haven't been that low since I was a teenager and I was kind of in a backseat state again. And again, I don't for exercises, like if for things pressing movements, if I lose weight, my, my strength goes way down. But for things like deadlift, I always kind of feel strong in a semi fasted state. And I think I've mentioned this to Tim's brand and Tim friend told Tim and then he unexpectedly added it to that podcast and it's like, I don't, I don't, don't, it's like, no, no, I think it's, you've got to start off. That's how you engage people. So I requested it not, you know, I mentioned that, but he mentioned it and it's like, then I had to live up to it, then I had to actually go and do it. Wade Lightheart: That's a fascinating, it's the next fascinating segue cause it's a pattern interrupt for most people who think three or four hours without eating, they're going to die. Especially bodybuilding six times a day probably. Yeah, exactly. So it's a point of interest. I think that kind of, you know, creates another level of curiosity for people to find out, well, well how is that possible? What is this guy doing? You know? And, and it, I think it just adds a a level of verification about the efficacy of what you're doing and what you're promoting and, and, and how you're going about doing it. It also opens a door, I think, which Matt's going to dive into here about asking some very specific questions because as is, he'll reveal he's, he's been deep down the ketogenic adventure for as long as anybody I know. Matt Gallant: So, so I want to get into I guess some nerdy stuff and you know, one of the things I believe in, I'm curious what your thoughts on this phone is that if we look at health as a spectrum on one side you got, you know, sickness and then your death and that in the middle what people call normal. Wade Lightheart: And then at the very end of the other side you have peak performance, peak health. So what I've seemed to notice is that all the things that might fix health issues, you know, for that get us from no sickness to normal will typically also get us from normal to a peak state. And you know, I want to get into the neuro cognitive enhancements that happened with the ketogenic side and you really want to understand what's happening exactly, again on a brain level and on a nervous system level that is producing enhancements. Like why, why is ketones enhancing the cognitive side? Dominic D'Agostino: Yeah, that's a subject of intense research and numerous labs right now. We have garnered sort of a lot of information over the years. Well personally doing it myself and actually measuring my neurotransmitters and, and other blood markers of metabolic health and inflammatory health and neuroinflammation. Matt Gallant: So can I ask you, like what have you seen on a neurotransmitter level? Wade Lightheart: Yeah. And what tests are you running. Dominic D'Agostino I Oh, have different kits here in my drawers. I was going to say that for neurotransmitters, it's not a great test, but one of them that I did, and I did a couple ZRT labs has a urine neurotransmitter test. And I think when I did it down inside the habitat for the NASA emo mission, a couple of them for some reason didn't come out. But the things that came out and made a lot of sense you know, I've, I've done repeated measurements and my GABA to glutamate ratio is very high. It's on the order of two to three times outside the range of normal. So I tend to, at least in a ketogenic state, you make the neurotransmitter gamma-Aminobutyric acid GABA you make, it's a brain stabilizing your transmitter. You actually make that from an excited Tori neurotransmitter called glutamate through the an enzyme called glutamic acid decarboxylase and being in a state of nutritional ketosis with the diet and now we know with supplementation activates the GAD enzyme to convert more glutamate to GABA. Dominic D’Agostino: So you go from a a state of the brain that's hyperactive in the context of what we study. There's excitotoxicity, glutamate, excitotoxicity and it, I think it's in part therapeutic because you are reducing in neurotransmitter that's causing a neuronal hyperexcitability and making GABA, which I don't want to get too down in the weeds, but it mediates, it does chloride mediated post-synaptic inhibition, which it opens up an ion channel that hyperpolarizes the membrane potential of the cell. And when a membrane potential is hyperpolarized, it doesn't fire action potentials as fast. It's more, it's very stabilized. And if there's lots of glutamate excitatory, that will deep polarize the membrane potential and it comes closer to its threshold for firing. So it starts firing action potentials very fast. And if all your neurons are doing that, then you're like dumping glutamate, you're dumping potassium, you're dumping calcium potentially. And this can create a scenario where you have excited toxicity. So in a nutshell, what being in nutritional ketosis does is it changes the neuropharmacology of your brain to prevent you from entering that hyperexcitable state. And so that's one of about a dozen things. And I could go down that sort of list of that on a dozen different things. Another thing that we can, Matt Gallant: No, but that's, that's, that's fascinating. Cause I've done some tests and I'm on the slightly deficient side of, of GABA. So it's probably one of the reasons why I love keto in general and, and why I respond well in that I did not know it what you just reveal. That's fascinating. Dominic D’Agostino: Yeah, we've published that too actually in well it's been published in Humans. But we, we did it in a model of Angelman syndrome and we actually have an Angelman syndrome clinical trial at Vanderbilt right now because of, you know, some of this, the work that we did in preclinical models. Matt Gallant: So a question. I mean when obviously common belief is that the brain runs on glucose, what's your answer to people that go with that? Dominic D’Agostino: Well, you know, that's what I was taught, that that was part of my training in nutrition. You know, you never go below a 60 grams of glucose because that's what the brain's obligate requirement. But then because I got interested in fasting, I was thinking, well, like what does happen when you fast? And I was thinking you know, well, how can people, how can people fast and not go hypoglycemic? And then I started reading a work of Dr. George F Cahill from Harvard medical school where he facet subjects for 40 days. You know, towards the end of that, he injected them with insulin to push their glucose down farther. And it revealed that they were asymptomatic for hypoglycemia because they're the fact that their bodies are adipose was releasing for energy to be used by skeletal muscle and the heart, the brain really doesn't use these large fat molecules for fuel because of the blood brain barrier. Dominic D’Agostino: So the liver converts them to small water-soluble fat molecules. We call ketone bodies or fat derived molecules. And then the ketone bodies can largely replace glucose as an energy source. Although we still our blood glucose levels, they're very powerful homeostatic mechanisms that maintain our blood glucose levels. So glucose really doesn't change all that much. It'll go down to like maybe three millimole or something like that at the glycerol backbone of triglycerides. We'll make continue to make glucose. And then you have gluconeogenic amino acids, especially Alanine that gets released from muscle tissues and that becomes can become glucose. But the primary fuel for brain energy metabolism can switch to from glucose to ketone bodies. And I say that I say primary fuel because more than 50% of brain energy metabolism, it's kind of universally agreed that after prolonged fasting that we are using primarily ketones. And the same thing can happen with a, a strict clinical ketogenic diet. You're primarily running the brain off a ketone bodies. Matt Gallant: So, just to recap, your body has a lot of different ways to internally produce glucose, which is kind of a fascinating cause I've noticed that too, that even when you know, zero carbs, carb or fasting, that, you know, my blood glucose might drop as, you know, high seventies, but it's, it's, it's hard for me to go lower than that even if I'm zero carb and fasting and what not. So, yeah. Have you noticed too that the longer, and I've seen some interesting research recently on this that if you're, it'd been on keto for a long time. That seems to be another level of adoptation where even while you're exercising, the glucose is staying in the muscle. Like the body's actually not even touching some of the glucose, cause I've noticed that even in the last like year or so that I, I just seem to be holding onto more glycogen in the muscle than I used to, even when I'm doing all the same things. Dominic D’Agostino: Yeah. That'll be dependent to some extent on calories. So if calories are if you're, you caloric and you're not at a calorie deficit actually, well I'll come to that later. But if you are, if you do become at a calorie deficit and you're carb dependent, you lose glycogen really fast. If you do become calorie deficit and you're adapted to a ketogenic diet, you, you, you lose glycogen much slower because you are using fat for energy or more fat. The ratio is higher than the ratio of glucose you're using. So, but yes, I think Jeff Bullock has published on these two and athletes is that skeletal muscle glycogen, not liver glycogen, but skeletal muscle glycogen does not change that much. And athletes that are extremely carbohydrate restrictive with their diets, which is difficult for some people to believe. But once you understand metabolic physiology and that we've had adapted the skeletal muscle, the primary engine, you know, that's, that's burning and a substrate to using fatty acids for fuel that actually has a glucose sparing effect and the glucose sparing effect because you're using more fats as opposed to glucose will preserve muscle glycogen. Dominic D'Agostino: Over time there becomes a tipping point. And I think everybody's a little bit different. But I think the point is that, you know, athletes that are, that are adapted to nutritional ketosis really do have a remarkable ability to retain also glycogen. Matt Gallant: So one of the big concerns that some people have and Wade has this concern as well is the loss in kind of, let's just call it the, the last 10% like that peak, especially if you're more of a power athlete. What's your opinion on that? Is that something that if you're fat adapted for long enough that you can regain? What have you seen as far as peak performance, again from a sprinting, weight lifting, those types of athletic endeavors? Dominic D’Agostino: Yeah, these are really good questions. You know, I do believe I've seen enough data to suggest that if you are on a very carbohydrate restricted ketogenic diet and you push an athlete to two dates, extreme short bursts of, of output, total power output may be compromised would likely be compromised to some degree. If someone's on a very restrictive ketogenic diet if you don't add carbohydrates in. So I think, you know, there, there's a lot of nuances here but, but I think that if you take the average athlete who's carbohydrate adapted and adapt them to a low carbohydrate diet forcing their body to sort of burn preferentially more fat for fuel, they can get 80 to 90% of the benefits of low carb without compromising their glycolytic capacity. And you can do this simply by titrating in the carbohydrates back into the diet. Dominic D’Agostino: A tip, you know, low glycemic index carbohydrates, small amounts of carbohydrates will keep glycolytic pathway sort of open various enzyme systems like every big dehydrogenase complex. So that enzyme, the people who favor high carb diets will say, well, your pre-rebate dehydrogenate complex will be suppressed. You won't make as much protein and that the enzyme itself won't be as active. I think one way to keep that, that energetic path open is to periodically add some carbohydrates in, maybe in around your training. And that could be beneficial too. And also if you are, if you are a low carb athlete, when you fuel up intro workout, the type of workouts I do, I don't, I don't really have a fuel up if I, I work my workouts are like 15, 20 minutes or something. But for athletes that work out for like hours at a time to then introduce a sort of a, you know, a carb and a bat sort of supplement at the same time like MCT oil or maybe even mixed with some long chain fats but also a slower burning carbohydrate source after a certain point because you do get carbohydrate, you know it does become a limiting substrate under some conditions and I think each person is a unique metabolic entity. Dominic D’Agostino: I need to experiment, but like the take home messages that if you go on a super strict diet, your low end maybe knocked down a little bit. But if you learn how to use carbohydrates as a performance enhancing substance and you use it sparingly, then I think you can get the best of both worlds. From, from my perspective. Matt Gallant: Yeah, I've seen, I know some guys that have tested their, their, their ketones by doing some cyclical carb re feeds, intro workout, and you know, they've gone as high as like 80 grams on a leg day and had no changes. So they've been able to just maintain ketosis. And because obviously in a squat day, you know, the big deadlift day, you're just going to be burning that glucose in real time. Dominic D’Agostino: The keto community may like cringe at this, but I, I really believe that carbohydrates are a powerful performance enhancing sort of substrate. If you strip strategically and if you deliver a certain types of carbs. I mean, it could be any kind of carb. I mean, when I experiment, I'll use chocolate. I mean, I'll, she's like stuff like that. So it doesn't really have to be a particular kind of carbohydrates, but if you add also lots of water and sodium too, while you're delivering the carbohydrates your blood volume will go up. I mean, you'll notice things in the gym, you know the energy that you feel may just be due to the hyperhydration you get and it doesn't take much. So that's the key. You don't have to throw in like three, 400 grams of carbs and it can be as little as 30 or 40 grams of carbs. If you're a really big guy doing a long workout. Yeah, you might want to titrate, you know, 80 grams of carbs over that duration and maybe a little bit with a refeed. But it certainly doesn't take a lot of carbs to when you're talking about someone who's fat adapted and the, I think 30 grams of carbs for the typical, you know, one, one and a half hour workout, however long people work out these days. Matt Gallant: So you really open up a topic that I had in mindful on time, which is the idea of dual fuel, right? So the idea that you can both run on glucose and ketones simultaneously. I mean, I've done it personally many times. Can you, first of all, can we start with the physiology? Like, how, how is that happening? How is the body burning both glucose and ketones at the same time? Dominic D’Agostino: Yeah, there doesn't seem to be like, it's a strange question for me, like someone who studies physiology because I mean it's just, that's what the body does. But I know there's two camps out there who just kind of believed that, you know, we fuel off carbohydrates or refuel off ketones and fat. But your body has in your brain. We now know, has amazing metabolic flexibility. So if we adapt our bodies over time, and the best way to adapt is to train under specific metabolic conditions. So training while you're fasting periodically, I mean, some people cringe at that, but I think doing it occasionally is a good idea. Training in a state of nutritional ketosis occasionally throwing carbohydrates in so your body recognizes that fuel and to do that periodically. So I mean, I'm coming at a, at a neuroscience perspective because I, I believe a lot of our digital output and our brains are wired to our muscles. Dominic D’Agostino: So if our central nervous system is energized and we have good fuel flow to it, it's going to buy our muscles and can attract more muscle fibers so we can actually get stronger contractions and maintain that over longer periods of time. If we give, our brain has metabolic flexibility and we'll use whatever fuel is available. So glucose and, and ketone bodies we know it can use lactate to a little bit amino acids, but usually, you know, glucose or ketones. So it will use whatever's available and whatever's in the blood. So one strategy could be to do a carbohydrate-based diet that you know, low enough that you maintain optimal insulin sensitivity and then throw in ketogenic nutrition, which could be MCT oils or on supplements without necessarily restricting carbohydrates to the point where you are in ketosis. A MCQ oils can achieve that. Dominic D’Agostino: And also ketone supplements on the market can also achieve that. This is a new idea. But we do know that independent of a carbohydrate restriction, if you administer a ketogenic agent, whether it's a ketone salts, even MCTs or ketone esters, the body will use what's available. So if you elevate that substrate, interestingly, if your ketones are elevated, it seems to facilitate a glucose disposal into the tissue to although it, it kind of appears that because your blood glucose goes down when you administer acutely a ketogenic agent, some individuals, some labs believe that that's an increase in insulin sensitivity that's facilitating glucose disposal that could be happening. But I think when you orally administer a ketogenic compound through counter-regulatory mechanisms, we don't quite understand. There's a decrease in hepatic gluconeogenesis and thereby a paddock glucose output is reduced. We have not done a liver metabolics to figure out what's going on, but it kind of makes sense that it delivers, you know, seeing a high concentration of ketone bodies, it's going to want to spare glucose. Dominic D’Agostino: The glucose you have in your blood now is not like it's the glucose that your liver regulates. So your liver is the master regulator of the glucose that your peripheral tissues seats. So the glucose that's in your blood now, it might be from a couple of days ago, the glycogen that's stored in the liver a couple of days ago. So your liver is like the master regulator. It's why it's important to keep the liver healthy. And when the literacy is ketones, I think that it's a decreasing glucose output. This is important therapeutically for like type two diabetes and also, but it's also kind of important too from a fuel, a dual fuel perspective, which was the question I think people will ask, well what will happen if you throw ketones on top of glucose? You know, then you're just, you're creating this artificial scenario, which could be dangerous. But I believe that, well, we now have experimental data to show that the liver does a pretty good job at recognizing it. Dominic D’Agostino: You know, the, the level of ketones that you have and, and utilizing those fuels and people maybe look at exogenous ketones as an artificial fuel, but it's really just another energy source. I mean you could say that it's creatine, right? I mean, we take or we make creatine, we store it a little bit and when we drink it, we're getting super physiological levels. And from the literature all we can tell it's doing positive things. And I think ketones are kind of like it's good to make them through our own physiology because that forces adaptations and adaptations are necessary for the ketogenic process, that ketone transporter process going across biological membranes. And also with cell C ketones, you're also up regulating keto lit enzymes which allow cells to derive energy and ATP from the ketone molecules. And I think that happens faster when you do it naturally with the ketogenic diet or fasting. And then if you throw ketone supplements on, you know, sparingly. I don't, I don't use em today. I don't use them every day, but I think you can kind of gain, you can kind of gain the system a little bit and gain an advantage. I mean, what our research shows. Wade Lightheart: I can, I would echo that from just a clinical conspiracy, my own stuff. Matt, of course, has been on the ketogenic diet. I'm a, I'm a plant based guy and, but I have an extraordinary blood insulin response, you know, whether it's genetics or whatever. I, you know, when I measure myself, I'm often in a ketogenic state almost when we do our typical fasting on a HomeAway or that sort of stuff. But when I've added ketones, exogenous ketones that Matt's provided for me I, I noticed an instant cognitive performance benefit. Like it's like, okay, I'm a little sharper, everything's a little, little, little crisper and the endurance factor seems amplified for sure. So I, I would echo that just, and that's not very scientific, but it's certainly experimental. And I, and I'm curious, do you kind of do these experiments on your own and then start doing the data and kind of like hitting your bio feedback and then go, I didn't, let's dive into this and see if this is true. I'm just projecting. Or is it you come up with a theory you do in the lab and then you go the other way? I'm kind of curious which way you like to go. Dominic D'Agostino: Well that's a good question. It goes both ways sometimes. And when I got interested in fasting and I read the Cahill studies, then I was like, okay, I gotta do this myself. You know, I gotta, you know, I'm not going to do 40 days, but I'll do a week and see what happens and do the blood work and things like that. And basically all my health markers improved, kind of as you guys would expect. And you know, and as we develop things in the lab, like synthetic ketogenic agents, you know, we'll use them experimentally and sometimes I, you know, take a little myself through the years and, and so some of the things that we use are not, you know, they are experimental compounds right now, but they are tracked towards a clinical use. And once you tinker with these things, then you start to realize some of their potential, right? Their therapeutic potential because some of them like you can actually feel you know, quite remarkably with a acute administration and it's not acting like stimulant. It's not, you know, you're not mixing with caffeine, you're just, you're just elevating the level of available fuel that your brain sees and that has, that has an effect. Matt Gallant: I have a question on that. Cause I usually a twice a year we, we go and do some really extensive hardcore difficult brain training. It's about six hours a day of pushing your brain to its absolute limit, be the equivalent of probably running a couple of marathons a day. And I D I did the first couple of times without ketones and then we started adding like, you know, 30 to 60 grams of esters a day and that allowed us to just continue training cause usually your brain crashing by day three, day four, you know, Wade and I've gone through that. But with the, with the, with the testers, there was no crash. Like day four, day five, day six. I mean you're, you're kind of getting tired, but that's more of a nervous system, you know, but at the same time we were able to continue the training, but the thing that really blew my mind, and I don't understand the, what's going on was the recovery. Like yeah, it gave me a little more energy, but what I really noticed was one, it seemed like I needed almost less sleep taking that many ketones and that I just felt relatively fresh the next day. Again, even despite pushing myself. So from a recovery standpoint, like why, what's going on there? Dominic D’Agostino: Yeah, that's a good, interesting observation too. If you collected data on that, it'd be good to put that together. I, I guess going back to the experience that I can draw off of where I've quantified things to as much as possible would be the NASA extreme environment, mission operations NEMO 22 where a lot of people think I use ketone supplements like every day because we kind of, we're kind of like the people who brought them to market. It mean like Patrick Arnold actually had and you know, years ago and, and different companies or some now. But you know, I don't use ketone supplements every day, but I did during that mission, especially doing the EDAs, the extra vehicular activities and things like that. And for morning multidose and Europe day and and I experimented with in the past. And what I do consistently notice getting back to recovery is that if I'm in a state of deep ketosis I do tend to sleep a little bit less. Dominic D’Agostino: Like lately I've been sleeping like eight hours, sometimes not, but I could sleep about six and a half. And then my amount of deep and REM are the same. So the restorative sleep that I'm getting when my body is in a state of nutritional ketosis seems to be better. So if you have ketones, if your brain has ketones available we now know that the carbon backbone of those ketones are part of the biosynthetic process of making neurotransmitters. Like alpha-ketoglutarate for example, is the precursor to glutamate is the precursor to GABA. And this is called an anaplerotic pathway. So the try-carboxylic acid cycle or the Krebs cycle and the cycle of the NSX make you make the Murray Mallee etc. All these, the, we have demonstrated through metabolomics that these become elevated and you are sort of driving the biosynthesis of neurotransmitters by virtue of increasing TCA cycle intermediates. Dominic D’Agostino: So I believe that this is accelerated a bit because you have the substrate available, you have more precursors can make neuro-transmitters when you sleep. Also, if you're in a state of ketosis, our astrocytes, so we have neurons and we have astrocytes and there's other cells like, like oligodendrocytes and other. But if we just talk about, you know, the two main cells, neurons and astrocytes, the astrocytes tend to store energy in the form of glycogen. When you're on, when you're in a state of ketosis, the ketones will spare just as it does sparing muscle glycogen. The ketones will spare that glycogen in the astrocytes. And part of the restorative process of sleep is to restore the glycogen levels in the astrocytes. So because you're using ketones, you don't have to kind of restore a glycogen levels. So I think that's something. And also there's something called the glymphatic system. Dominic D’Agostino: So your brain has a system that is activated. It's activated all the time, but more so when you sleep and there are things ketones can enhance brain blood flow by 30% with an acute when you acutely elevate ketones with like different ketogenic competence. So I believe that that increase in blood flow and other other factors that are associated with ketosis will increase the glymphatic system performance, if you will. And we'll get a, and this needs to be tested. It's just my, my speculation is that you're enhancing astrocyte glycogen neurotransmitters synthesis and also the glymphatic activity while we sleep. Makes sense. That's a multi-day thing that you're doing. So you're looking at it. So sleep is what would be really important. Matt Gallant: It's critical and we're running dual fuel during that time. So like I'll, I'll, I'll eat a little more carbs. So actually running dual-fuel seems to help. Your thing it seems to help too is like I'll, I'm not a big branch chain amino or amino guy, but adding aminos. So I'm taking 60 grams of ketones, taking like 20 grams of aminos. Plus I'm eating carbs and a lot of good fats as well. And it just seems to help on a lot on all levels. One question that I've had in a, and I haven't seen too much research on this, but experientially I've certainly noticed that. What have you seen in terms of the types of fats and their ketogenic response? Cause for an example, like if I eat animal saturated fats and I measure my ketones, especially like things like pig fat or that it definitely seems to produce more ketones then, you know, monounsaturated, you know, like just different fats seem to produce a different ketone response. What have you seen around that? And, and do you think that's important? Dominic D’Agostino: Yeah, so that's an ongoing question in a ketogenic diet. Well, it should have been ongoing for like 20 years, but only recently are they kind of recognizing that, you know, different fats have different effects. It's not just like macronutrient profiles. And I think it people will have, people have different food sensitivities. So some people who have a dairy a mild dairy allergy, if they take a dairy-based spat it the, the activation of the sympathetic nervous system or various immune factors may actually prevent ketone production. You know, so that's, I found that mildly in myself. But I kind of going back to your observation, I think a fat in the form of butter, you know, a meat fat like pork fat be fat and to some extent maybe chicken fat, these all contribute to very stable, predictable ketone production and meat. And when I tried to sort of mimic that with more of a plant based, I could get my ketones elevated, but it's a little bit less predictable. Dominic D’Agostino: But I think that's primarily because of sort of the plants that I'm getting the fat from. Like nuts, like macadamia nuts and almonds and avocados. You're delivering fiber with it too. So sometimes I can get my ketones elevated to the same extent. And sometimes I think because the natural fibers that are in plants are maybe preventing the release of the fat. And it's going through me. I know if I like a lot of raw homage or something like that, I'm definitely not absorbing all those fats, you know. So if I eat an equivalent amount of fat from raw almond as opposed to pig fat and I acutely do it, I eat the meal and then measure fat. There you're keeping on production will be like proportional to the amount of fat that the liver is seen, dietary fat. So it's kinda hard to quantify that. I guess you could use plant oils and things like that, but Matt Gallant: It seemed that though of course there's the neutrogenomic aspect, there are certain certain genes that obviously seem to indicate better saturated fat breakdown and so on and so forth. So there's probably a pretty strong genetic component to that question. Dominic D'Agostino: Absolutely. And you know, I sh I would like to know more about that and I try to keep up on that as much as possible. I have my own 23andme data and just looking at, you know, putting it on different platforms. I kind of know what works me just through experientially and I know some people have, you know, they have different snips that prevent them from, from metabolizing fatty acids as efficiently as possible. And it may not be an honor off kind of thing, but on a spectrum, right. And some people are just poor oxidizers or metabolizers of fat, so they will if they eat a high fat diet of animal fat, they feel sick, they don't feel good and their triglycerides go up and then does it come down over time. And I would tell that person don't do an animal based. Dominic D'Agostino: You know, and some people feel really good on a, on a plant based diet and all their health markers improve. And you know, I don't know if they give the ketogenic diet enough time, but cause your body does need to adapt to that over time. But I'm not one or the other. But actually I probably eat an enormous amount of plants and I have lots of and I do believe that they should sort of be in the raw form as much as possible. A lot of broccoli, asparagus, cauliflower, things like that and a big salad pretty much every day. And then I add a fatty beef, chicken or a lot of fish and eat a lot of fish in our house to that salad typically. And then maybe add oil on top of that in the form of avocado oil, macadamia nut oil, olive oil. And then I mix MCT oil with the salad dressings too. So I find that the optimal way to get my ketones as high as possible. Matt Gallant: I mean, Wade is the king of the big ass salad. He is, you know, we had introduced me to that know 20 years ago when we were both living in Vancouver and a half to say. And usually I'll try to do at least one big, a solid a week that just like another energy component that I feel from, I don't know if it's a phytonutrients or what's going on exactly. But you know, it, it kicks her, it just kicks something in. So wait, I mean maybe talk about your big ass salad strategy. Dominic D’Agostino: Yeah, I'd like to hear that. I mean, from a, I'll add this real quick if you, cause there's a lot of people are carnivore now and they do one or the other, but if you put your meat, if you eat it with a salad, the fiber from the salad will delay gastric absorption. And also it's aiding your gut microbiome, especially if you have a diverse array of things in the salad. And that's actually enhancing. It's decreasing your glucose and insulin response to the protein. But but I also think it's promoting, you know, healthy digestion, optimal gut microbiome. So I'm just kinda throwing it out there because I dunno, I just posted something recently and someone said, I'm killing myself by eating plants or something because plants are trying to kill you. So it's like, Wade Lightheart: Yeah, that's a pretty extreme position that something Wade Lightheart: We have adapted convenience land. Like wow, I didn't know my salad was so dangerous. Yeah. I've, I've been a big proponent of, you know, there's this certain, you know, when I go, I go to obviously whole foods and things like that to the salad bar, especially when I'm on the road. That's my first stop. And there's something I, there's two things that I think are anecdotally interesting. One is I noticed they're at different times I'll be attracted to different colors. Like I like and, and, and I always indicate to me that there's some sort of mechanism that's letting me know that I need to get more beets today or I need to get more cabbage or whatever it happens to be that. And so I always find it interesting about the colors. The second thing that I've noticed, it was without a doubt, and I'll be going to whole foods right after this call in variably I make these giant sounds like I get the big green bowls at the whole foods that they have them and it's piled up and it's 30 bucks or whatever for my salad. Wade Lightheart: And every single time somebody in the lineup or the cashier will comment that and say, that looks amazing. And I find that's a very interesting response that it's so across the board that there's seems to be some sort of internal recognition that that's good or that's healthy or that's something that I'd like to try. You know, cause it's obviously a ridiculous salad, but I think there was a good point you brought up was the fiber relation to insulin response or the use of fats. And it's, I believe it's one of the reasons why I have such a great insulin response to spite the fact I'm on a plant based diet. I eat a ton of carbs. Yet when you do my testing, it's like, it looks like I'm on a ketogenic diet from a, from an insulin response. Any other comments on your work? Dominic D’Agostino: It doesn't surprise me. I mean, you know, all those vegetables are carbohydrates, right? So as you would expect an increase in glucose, but if you have a steak and then you have that same steak with a big salad you will have a less of a glycaemic response and less of a rise in insulin too because it's the fiber is delaying gastric absorption to some extent and just delaying the breakdown and release of amino acids into the blood. And and I think it's even more pronounced if you add back to that salad. I actually think of in ketogenic diet formulation, the vegetables are a way are a fat delivery vehicle. So you could lightly steam vegetables, saute them, and then add a lot of fat to that or a salad. You can add a significant amount that to that you can add up condos and nuts and olive oil or a mixed oil dressing and then deliver in a relatively small salad, you can deliver 50 or 60 grams of fat. Dominic D’Agostino: So that, that's, that's important clinically. And this, these approaches are now being used and to keep the genic diets that are having better outcomes as far as seizure controls or metabolic management of particular disorders. And it kinda goes against what was traditionally that the carbohydrates need to be below a certain level. You're adding a lot more carbohydrates in the form of these essentially non glycemic fats, but the fiber and the phytonutrients and other factors are greatly helping to actually induce and sustain ketosis. And you're actually probably significantly enhancing the nutritional status of that patient too by not, you know, eliminating plants, which some ketogenic diets do, but actually being very liberal with your plants consumption, which I think as our nutrition evolves, we need to start incorporating more plants into ketogenic diets. Wade Lightheart: Sounds like there might be an actual unification between ketogenic and plant based diet. Yeah, I'm on that. I'm on that train because you know, we're just into optimal. What is the optimal diet for any given person in there, any, any given lifestyle and something they can sustain. So yeah, great, great to hear that you're on the bleeding edge of that. Matt Gallant: Speaking of optimal diets, I mean when one thing I'll share is I optimize my big ass salad using VIUM data. So the VIUM data is, it got tests and you can send them a school sample and it tells you which foods you should eat, a lot of which food you should eat less of. So I decided, you know what, I'm going to build like a super salad kind of just with the foods that it's saying or should eat a lot of. Matt Gallant: So for example, watercress, rucola those came up because I, I guess I have the gut biome that breaks those foods down. So what was really fascinating was despite eating like two pounds of, it almost sounds about two pounds. I would just incinerate it, like almost nothing would come out and like even my weight would go down. It almost like it almost defied science in the sense that it's like, okay, I'm meeting two pounds, almost nothing's coming out and my weight would drop. And, but if we look at it from a gut biome perspective where they're eating all, like I'm feeding all the bacteria that I have and they're just devouring that food, then it does make sense. So I just wanted to share that anecdotal story cause it kind of surprised me so significantly. You know, it is to shift gears here. You know, to talk about a subject that I think is, is near and dear to all of our hearts, which has cancer. I lost one of my best friends and recently an Matt Gallant::Aunt and an uncle and I like Wade to share his story about his experience with this. And then I love to get into what you've seen as far as ketosis, ketones and cancer. But Wade, why don't you share your story? Wade Lightheart: Yeah. So for those who don't know my sister died at the age of 22. She got sick with Hodgkin's disease of formula lymphatic cancer and progressed over four years. When I was young, it had a big impact, got me into kind of physiology and exercise and performance. And I've been graced now to actually serve as an advisor for the American Anti-Cancer Institute. And we help people who are either going through cancer or recovering from cancer to, to, to make better nutritional solo selections and to prevent it in the future or to optimize their diet. So it's something I'm really, really passionate about. And I'm curious what you have kind of revealed, cause I think one of the, one of the things you talk about was the death at cancer. The, the powerful effects of both the ketogenic diet and its relation to the pre cancer prevention or even as an augmentation. What, what, of, what's kind of fueled that and what have you learned and how can people who may be in one of those situations, where would they go and how would they start researching and for the self to kind of create the best survival situation for them? Dominic D’Agostino: Yeah, that's a, well, it's kind of a long story, but I'll make it as short as possible. Some of the, some of the technologies that we developed for the office of Navy research allowed us to look at a variety of cell lines. And one of them was a equal glioblastoma, a cancer cell line. And I made two observations. One was that high pressure oxygen killed the cancer cells faster than normal healthy cells. And that was because cancer cells had a dysregulation in their mitochondrial function. And if you hyper oxygenate them, they divert more molecular oxygen to super oxide anion, which is the precursor free radical that can go on to other radicals that can basically trigger apoptosis and cells. So we observed this acutely and I thought it was interesting and nobody had observed it before because they didn't have a confocal microscope inside a hyperbaric chamber. Dominic D’Agostino: So so this was like, I was curiously interested in that. And also when I grew cancer cells under different substrates, including low glucose or high glucose in particular high ketones, the ketones suppressed the growth and proliferation of the cancer cell lines I was looking at. So I made, I made two observations studying a military project, which is oxygen and how high oxygen high ketones are bad for cancer. So, so a, a PhD student came along and actually this became a PhD. She's now Dr Angela Pop. And throughout her PhD studies in the lab, we observed that a ketogenic diet with hyperbaric oxygen therapy given three times per week suppressed the growth of a cancer in a particularly aggressive form of metastatic cancer, a model of metastatic cancer that we had in the lab. And you know, so it, it kind of begs the question then, how does a high fat ketogenic diet, how does that contribute to suppressing cancer growth? Dominic D’Agostino: And proliferation and it does it through a number of different pathways. One is that we understand now we actually did back, you know, in the 1920s and thirties, that cancer growth is primarily fueled by glucose and cancer cells preferentially use a higher consumption glucose than normal. Healthy cells do. And we can, we can use a fluorodeoxyglucose pet scan oncologists use a pet scan to image the location and aggressiveness of cancer, but they don't really use that information to target the cancer. But we can, we can share through our best imaging techniques that, that there are consumption of glucose a hundred times higher in certain cancers relative to the healthy tissue that's surrounding it. So it's out competing the healthy tissue to get the glucose. So it keeps a genic diet restricts glucose availability to some extent, right? We know baseline glucose doesn't change all that much unless calories are restricted. Dominic D’Agostino: But when you eat a ketogenic diet, there is a very minimal increase in blood glucose and insulin. When you eat at carbohydrate-based diet, there's a relatively high spike in glucose and insulin. Those spikes in glucose and insulin are abolished if not significantly attenuated on a ketogenic diet. So I think that's important. And, and really what's important, it's a suppression of the hormone insulin. That's how actually we make ketones. The ketogenetic diet works by suppressing the hormone insulin, maybe slightly increase in glucagon and that accelerates fatty acid oxidation in the liver. And that continual suppression of the hormone insulin is absolutely necessary for us to stay in a state of ketosis. Cancer cells are there, growth is driven by insulin. IGF1, PI3-kinase, AKT/mTOR pathway and a few other, you know, things related to that. So what the key to dining diet does is suppress insulin and insulin signaling. Dominic D’Agostino: IGF1, PI3-kinase, AKT/mTOR pathway is acutely and continually suppressed if you follow a ketogenic diet. So what that does is it takes the foot off the gas pedal of cancer growth. Most cancers are driven in growth and proliferation by this particular pathway. And that's why pharmaceutical companies are scrambling to develop drugs that target enter PI three kinase IGF one, things like that. So that the ketogenic diet does that naturally as this fasting, but that that can't be sustained. So what you do is create a scenario where you slow down cancer growth. The ketogenic diet is not going to cure cancer. So that's really important. But what you do is you see in some people it has actually, so I should kind of stop and there's anecdotal or it's an even case board, but most importantly it will slow cancer growth and make cancer a more vulnerable target for other modalities. Dominic D’Agostino: And those modalities could be chemotherapy, it could be radiation. We know from clinical data that chemo and radiation can be a lifesaving for many people there are things like advanced brain cancer and metastatic cancer where these things do not offer much of an advantage. But in the context that I keep a general diet, you may sensitize the tumor in a way or make it more vulnerable to make the cancer or the tumor solid tumor more sensitive to these modalities. And also immune based therapies to may work better in the context of the ketogenic diet where you are limiting glucose availability. So essentially what's that's doing? It's suppressing the glycolytic pathway. That's how cancer cells are primarily making energy, glutamine and glucose. When cancer cells do that, it activates a particular pathway called the pentose phosphate pathway. And that pathway develops, it generates reduced glutathione, and that reduced glutathione makes that cell like a super cell. Dominic D’Agostino: It can protect it against a chemo and radiation because it's, it's an endogenous antioxidant. If you inhibit the glycolytic pathway, you could do it with a Cuban drank diet. There are now drugs that inhibit glycolytic pathways. You crippled the cancer cells ability to defend itself by virtue of suppressing reduced glutathione. And so now that cancer cell becomes more vulnerable target, especially to modalities that kill cancer cells through an oxidative stress mechanism. And that could be various chemo drugs and also radiation. So I'm trying to keep it as simple as possible, but I think that the thing is that the, the, the ketogenic diet works through many different ways. I just described a metabolic way, but it also functioned that suppressing inflammation, which is a major driver of cancer. And then the ketone bodies themselves are epigenetic regulators by acting as class one and class two histone deacetylase inhibitors. So that's an intense area of focus now in our lab and other labs as ketones functioning as signaling molecules, even hormones, if you like, in ways that have anticancer effects by activating tumor suppressors and actually turning off or turning down a oncogenic drivers. So that's an area of intense interest right now that ketones functioning independent of metabolism as influencing various anti-inflammatory pathways. NF-Κb, NALP3 inflammasome, but also through epigenetic regulation. Matt Gallant: I'm gonna steal a question from Tim Ferris and see if your answers is different today, which is if you or a loved one had cancer, what would you do? Dominic D’Agostino: Find out what all the options are given the type of cancer if it's an option where, or if it's a type of cancer where the options are very limited in regards to the standard of care not being very efficacious, and if it's minimally efficacious, you have to evaluate the patient, you know, with their doctor, whether it's worth doing that. Right. So I guess the simplest thing to do is to use a what's called a glucose ketone index. So we know if we can normal glucose being five millimolar, say if we could bring our glucose down to say three millimolar and elevate our ketones to three millimolar, that would give us a glucose ketone index of one. So if our glucose stays at four millimolar and we get our ketones only at two millimolar, that would give us a glucose ketone index of two. Dominic D’Agostino: If you could maintain a glucose ketone index of one to two, even one to four, normal American is like 25, right? So if we can bring that down from 25, which is a glucose dominant metabolism to a glucose ketone index between one and four, again, which is glucose over ketones in millimolar concentrations. And in America we use milligrams per deciliter for some reason, but in millimolar concentrations, so get a GKI of one to four and that will slow cancer growth. Right? I think that's incredibly important. Evaluate the potential for drugs like Metformin. Metformin is available. You could jump online and probably get it. Metformin is when we started studying Metformin, there was maybe two or three clinical trials. Now there's about 200 clinical trials looking at the drug, Metformin as a means to enhance other

  Sleep is absolutely critical to being healthy. But do you know how to get your best sleep? Answering that question and SO much more is my dear friend and business partner, Matt Gallant. We start the show by talking about how he got interested in the topic of sleep. When he was in his mid-20s he wanted to do it all: he wanted to record an album, learn all about marketing, work out at the gym and he had a full-time job. So he decided he would cut back on sleep. And he took the resistance training approach by doing it in small increments. He shaved off 15 minutes at a time and thought his body would adjust if he did this gradually. He eventually got down to 5 hours of sleep and experienced some side effects when he did: he had to be pristine with the food he was eating and keeping himself hydrated or his body would completely crash. Matt also shares another story about his experiences with sleep that showed him it's the quality of sleep we get more so than the quantity. We explore that story, plus Matt’s best sleep hacks. At night, Matt recommends wearing glasses from True Dark or Swannies about 2 hours before bed to help your body block out any type of light that might keep you awake. He also recommends using a program called f.lux on your computer, which lessens the amount of blue light emitted by your computer. Iris is a similar program that Matt likes best. As far as actual sleep, you want to keep your bedroom cool at night (16-18 degrees C or 60-64 degrees Fahrenheit). But you also want to keep your mattress cool because otherwise your body heat gets trapped underneath you and you will sweat. The sweat will dehydrate you which leads to poorer sleep and waking up tired. Matt gives us his specific tech recommendations for greater sleep on today’s show before we dive into which supplements can enhance your sleep, and how they work plus the reason 15 minutes of meditation before bed can help you fall asleep faster. You’re going to hear those fascinating topics, and you’ll hear Matt explain why he’s not a fan of melatonin. Join us for this illuminating discussion on sleep. Resources: True Dark glasses Swannies glasses f.lux Iris chili pad Tim Ferriss The Ooler sleep pad EMF shielding tech Faraday cage Oura ring Dreem headband Delta sleeper EarthPulse Dream Tea from Anima Mundi Magnesium Breakthrough Read the Episode Transcript : Wade Lightheart: Good afternoon. Good morning and good evening. It's Wade T Lightheart at the Awesome Health Podcast and I got my good friend, buddy, business partner and co experimenter Matty G. How's it going today at the biOptimizers extreme lab? Matt Gallant: It's going great man. Always, you know, I always love talking about health with you and I think we're going to be sharing some more deep gold today. Wade Lightheart: So I'm excited about today's podcast because we're going to talk about something that we've been in I think a circuitous conversation for I think almost the entire time that we've known each other for around 20 years, certainly 15 very deep. And that is sleep. And for those who don't know the statistics and what's happening, sleep issues is one of the biggest issues in America today and is expanding worldwide. And there's a variety of reasons for that, why that is. We're gonna dive into that. If you're struggling for sleep, you definitely want to listen to this podcast because of all the people I've met in the health industry, I don't know anybody that has gone as deep in sleep is Matty G and we've had a lot of discussions about it's, I'm a guy that wants to sleep the the, you know, for years I was like, if I could just throw sleep away, I'd be, I'd be happy. Wade Lightheart: When we started out, Matt was like, no, you need us. Like he wanted to get as much sleep as possible. But now we've both come for circle on this where we're kind of in what is the optimal sleep amount? How do you get there? Why are we in trouble for sleeping? How important is sleep and where does sleep play as far as hormone optimization, brain functioning, recovery from training. What are the hacks? What are the tricks? What are the tips? And Matty G, if he doesn't know all of them, he knows everybody who does know all of them and he's probably tried more of them than anybody on the planet. So Matty G, Mr sleep, where are we going? What are we doing? How are we, what, what's happening today? Matt Gallant: I will start with the story of how I really started to understand the need for sleep and the importance of it. So at the time I was 25 years old, maybe 24, I was living in Moncton were Wade and I are from, and you know, I had the same mentality that you have. I'm like, you know what, I, I want to work like a hundred hours a week. I want to record an album, I want to learn marketing, I want to work, you know, literally 80 hours in the gym. I don't really have time for sleep. So, so again, like little, I was working 80 hours at the gym at a four 40 hour job, plus 40 hours of personal training clients. I'm recording a hard rock album in the studio and then I'm spending about 15 to 20 hours learning about marketing. So I did the math. It was like a hundred to 105 hours plus I was training twice a day. Matt Gallant: So in order to do all of that, I'm like, okay, I got it. I started cutting sleep. At the time I was probably sleeping, you know, normal seven hours. I'm like, okay, here's the plan. I'm going to start cutting my sleep by the 15 minutes slices and keep going down. My body will adapt. I was thinking like like resistance training and all adapt to the, to the stress, so you know things were going decently. When I got to about five hours, there's an interesting oxide effects that started happening. One of them was my hypersensitivity to water and food, so literally that's how I really got into water because if I was dehydrated like a micro amount, like I had to literally like be drinking water all the time. If I dehydrated even like a little bit, I immediately just kind of crash. Right? Same thing with food, it's like any food that my body wasn't really happy with. Matt Gallant: I would crash so I had to eat like flawlessly and be drinking water all the time. It otherwise it just crash. Then I kept going and then I finally crashed and burned at around like I think four hours or three hours and 45 minutes. You know, I, I just pulled the plug on the experiment and then I read a book called power sleep, which, you know, started educating myself about the need of it and the power of it and then kind of went the other way. It took me about two months to recover, you know, it was like nervous. It was pretty deep nervous system burnout and I was sleeping eight, nine hours now. So for the longest of time I was the kinda guy that, you know, needed eight, nine hours and whatnot and I didn't understand the quality of sleep is really what matters, which is what we're going to be talking about today. Matt Gallant: Not, you know, everybody's heard you gotta sleep eight in a seven to nine hours, which may be true for some of you, but I think in my opinion, the quality's really the key. So another story four and a half years ago, I, I crashed in a different way. I went on a big European tour for business, came back my testosterone at crashed an all time low and my body fat was at the highest that I've recorded it on a DEXA. And I realized right then that my S and I, and I've got an oura ring. So it was kind of like this, this convergence of all these events. And on the oura ring I was getting zero to 15 minutes of deep sleep at night. Like I was basically having no deep sleep. So that's when I realized that my sleep was garbage. Matt Gallant: You know, typically I would wake up at that time in the morning, I'd be really tired and you know, dehydrated. And even though was sleeping like eight and a half, nine hours, I felt like I've slept for, and of course the oura ring validated the, the the data, the experience. So that was the turning point and I realized, you know what, in terms of up leveling me as a human being, probably the number one thing, like the one thing that would improve my body fat composition, improve my brain, improved my ability as a, as a businessman improve myself in relationships was sleep. Like I realized right then it was a huge kind of revelation that if I slept better like every part of my life would improve and it has. So for me sleep is, you know, very close. It's hard to say which one is number one, a number two, but I'm going to make this bold statement. The top two things in my opinion you can do to buy, to biologically optimize yourself as a human being is high quality sleep and resistance training. I think those two, you know, in terms of improving across the board are the top two things. I'm just a lot of other things you can do, but if you sleep well, do resistance training, I think your quality of life, your health span and probably your lifespan will, will have a big impact. Wade Lightheart: You know that you make a couple of interesting observations with that conclusion. If you look with the advent of electricity and the advent of technology, particularly computers, digital screens, television and blue light, and the shifting of circadian rhythms, which is plays a big point in that this is the one area of humanity where we've have, I'd say civilization has throttled the endocrine system or the normal patterns. It's not normal for all this light to be present at night and over, you know, literally billions of years. Every creature is, is running on a circadian rhythm that is related to a light cycle, which there's a hormone cascade, there's an energy cascade, there's an awareness cap, there's this, there's just so many things that are tied to that. And so all of a sudden with the civilization, we've accelerated that curve. And then the other part of that is over the last, particularly the last hundred years and even more so, maybe the last 50 with, I would say with the beginning of the remote control in cars, we really don't push our physicalities that much. I mean, if you'll think back to the great statues in history, the Greeks and the Romans have these, you know, really idealistic bodybuilder type bodies. It's obvious that people were walking around looking like that to be the Wade Lightheart: Inspiration for those artists to develop those Herculean like qualities. And if you look at the population today, Herculean qualities is something that's only reserved for Olympic athletes, for professional athletes and the general population is anything but so based on all that what have you learned? What are the big, what are the things that mess people up first? Let's start there. What are the big don'ts or the things that people might not think of that are really affecting their quality of sleep and their quality of their life? Matt Gallant: I'm going to get into that, but I just want to answer the why first. It was really quick. No, why is sleep so critical? So first of all, let's look at it from a physical level. So your growth hormone, all you're, you're this, there's a whole prolactin cycle. That's where your GH gets released. Thus when most of your testosterone gets produced prolactin. Matt Gallant: Yeah. So it's this whole cascade that starts with the melatonin and then it triggers your prolactin is another hormone in the body. So, but what matters is the healing hormones though, the fat burning hormones, the muscle building hormones all getting released in that cycle. So if you're having no deep sleep or not enough, you're basically not producing these really powerful anabolic healing, anti aging hormones that you know we want. It's critical. So that's the first piece. The second thing, which gets produced typically during REM sleep, which is the end of your sleep cycle, the bulk of it is your neurotransmitters. So that's what allows you to feel good, to be happy for your brain, to function, for you to think that's when that happens. Then there's also memory consolidation. You know, when you're moving things from short term memory to long term memory, a lot of that also happens during the, the light sleep cycles as well as during your REM. Matt Gallant: So basically, and then let's talk about weight gain. You know, let's and grill in, all of these things get thrown out. So if you have a bad night's sleep, your hunger is going to be typically out of control. So the odds that you're going to snack and cheat, you know, your blood glucose is going to go up. So like literally if you, if you want to gain fat, like if your goal is to gain fat as easily as possible, if you have bad sleep, that's the formula. So, and I really feel that, you know, the weight gain, the fat gain epidemic that we have in around the world, a lot of it is being driven by poor sleep. And, and that's just again, just, it's just a physiological reality. So if we just look at all of these and pretty much every part of your body gets negatively affected, even your DNA. Matt Gallant: I read some recent research like a month ago where one night of bad sleep like four hours, you know, affected all of these epigenetics. So, eh, the, the consequences are extreme. Now let's the shift over to the fundamentals of how to maximize sleep quality. And it's really about eliminating the five sleep disturbances. If, if you just eliminate these disturbances, your sleep quality is going to transform. So the first one is light. You mentioned light. So let's just explain a little bit why light is so critical and there's so many components to light. We'll get deeper into it. But the big picture is as, as you said, that we're not programmed. Like I've got this massive light shining in my eye right now. Plus I've got two computer screens, plus I've got this other light. So I've got like four sources of blue light that are completely unnatural hitting my eyes. Matt Gallant: It's, and it's hitting my brain. So, and this is fine at this time of the day, but if I, let's say I had all of these things on and it's 11:00 PM, I'm going to be wired. And like I know I think a lot of night hours, you know, and, and I'm one of them right in the chronotype call them, call us wolves. We are hypersensitive I think to blue light more than other people cause I used to be able to like, you know, work on the computer till three, 4:00 AM and it's like I just wouldn't get tired. And I think this, the light is just stimulating my brain. So that is telling my brain that it's still daytime. Right. And like you were saying back in the day where it was candles or no, you know, just no light. As soon as it would get dark, our brains, it's like okay let's start shutting things down. Matt Gallant: Let's start priming the melatonin and then you'd get tired and go to bed, prolactin cycle, all of these things. So light is probably one of the biggest disturbances. Now let's talk about the basics, which is managing light during sleep. So you want your room like pitch, pitch black, dark as possible, you know, and if you're living in a city, it's even more important now for those of us. And I used to wear a sleep mask and then I found out that your skin has these photo receptors. In other words, when you're, when the light hits your skin, it will disrupt your melatonin production. So even having a mask, even those protecting your eyes and it does help, it's not going to be as good as a pitch black room. So that's light. Now that's not enough. We'll get back to light in a second and just want to cover the other four. Matt Gallant: So second is heat and this is very well researched. I mean I read that in power sleep back a long time ago. We sleep best in a cold room, especially our, it's important that our heads get. And then there can be heat disturbances where your is touching the mattress. And I'll talk about that in a second. The third one is blood flow restriction. That's another one. This is where a bad mattress comes to play because if you're lying on your side, like I'm a side sleeper. If you're a back sleeper, this is not as critical. But if you're a slide size sleeper and you have let's say wide shoulders and you don't have a good mattress, the blood flow gets trapped in your shoulder, in your arms, and then your body's going to toss and turn because your body knows, okay, there's not enough blood flow, it's time to move and you're going to move. Matt Gallant: So, and you can track that with a lot of these apps that'll tell you how many times you've tossed and turned. Fourth is noise, noise will disrupt your sleep. And you know, of course there's ways to mitigate that. And fifth is electrical magnetic disturbances. So wifi signal, cell phone signals, Bluetooth, all of these waves that are flying all over the place as we speak will disrupt your sleep. So what our goal is to, to use technology and tools to minimize the disturbances of those five things. The more we can do that, the better sleep gets. Wade Lightheart: You bring up something really important there about, I mean, there was really no way out of the technological advancement that's going in. Of course there's a lot of concerns with things like 5g being rolled out across the world and how that's going to have profound effects perhaps on our, on our biology. And there's a lot of people in the area that are concerned about it. Some people say it's unwarranted, some people say it's the worst thing for humanity coming. What are some of the things that you do specifically to mitigate these areas of your life? Like what, or like, okay, we've got the five main things. What can a person today go out and do in regards to that? And then we'll kind of get into some of the more advanced tax after that. So what are, what are the go-tos for, for Matty G. Matt Gallant: All right, so let's start with each one and I'll give you kind of my list of hacks. So let's start with light. Wade Lightheart: Get a pen and paper. Folks are gonna want it. You're going to want to write fast and furious cause Matt, by the way, Mat, how much money have you spent in total on your sleep systems? Matt Gallant: It's, it's around 30 grand. I mean, and I could add a couple of more devices on top of that movie, which would take people over 40 so, and you think it's one of the more valuable things that you've spent money on for sure. Right? Yeah. Like I, you know, if again, the way I look at it is if I'm 10% more effective, which, which I feel a more than 10%, but if I was 10% more effective, it's an incredible ROI. If my health span improves 10% or my lifespan improves. Like if I look at it from any of those three perspectives, it's a no brainer ROI. You know, people spend so much money on cars and these, these deep dish, the right appreciating assets where I think in this case it's like it's a compound health benefits. So your number one asset is health. Matt Gallant: And again, to me this and resistance training on the top two things. So speaking of lights, the first thing is let's talk when you wake up. Okay. So our bodies had these circadian rhythms. And one of the things that surprised me how effective it is is when you wake up, and this is a really huge travel tip to this, so we'll talk about how to reset your circadian rhythm when you travel. But this is the first thing that you do. So you wake up, you want to blast your eyes with blue light. Now you have two options. One, you can go outside and you know, go stare at the sun but get sun hitting your eyes. That's the natural organic way. And for those of us that live in, you know, one day or it's winter time and you don't want to do that. Matt Gallant: There's a device called re timer. It's not Australian company and he's these, it's kind of like these white glasses that literally blast your eyeballs with blue light. There's also the human charger, which are these EarPods like earbuds that blasts your brain with light. So the best time to use that is in the morning. Like, as soon as you wake up and let's say you want to start waking up earlier, if you wake up and okay, the first time's going to be tough, but if you wake up and blast yourself with light, like it's amazing how tired you get around, you know, 16 hours later. It's like, it tells your body this is the beginning of the day. So in terms of hacking your circadian rhythm, whether you're traveling or you want to just kind of start shifting your, your, your wake up time, I think it's incredible. It's very, very impactful. Matt Gallant: Now let's shift to the end of the night. So before you go to bed, probably around two hours is probably optimal. So as you want to go to bed until 11 was around 9:00 PM, you would put on blue light blockers. I'm a fan of the, the probably the most intense ones. The best ones is true dark. The, the red ones. This is a company that Dave Asprey's invested in great glasses. I mean, they're the most intense. The only thing is you're going to watch TV. It's like if they're so intense, it's hard to read. The more stylish ones, I would probably start the Swannies from James, my friend James Swanwick. And those are really good for like going out and you know, the block most of the pool. So that makes a big difference. That is, especially if you're using technology like TV or computers or your phone or your iPad, those will have an impact. Matt Gallant: Now if you're using your phone or your computer, you know, I use something called the, it's called, there's flux, which is really good, but I use a nuts by the way, is a, is a computer program that will actually change the screen color so you're not getting as much blue light. Yep. Now there's another one called Iris, which I think is better. It's a little more, a little more control and a little more aggressive. He's got all, all kinds of options. So I use that. So either flux or Iris and, and on your phone there's also built in like it'll start shifting and you can hack your phone where I'll show you what it looks like. So you see my phone, if I triple click, it becomes red. So this is more aggressive and, and you know, you can search on how to create tense in your phone and then you can control it with the home button. Matt Gallant: So those are all the things I do to, to manage, mitigate light in my room. I had double blackout curtains cause one was still literally the light coming here and there. I just put two layers of 'em and it solved the problem. So that's the light equation. Second is heat. You know, obviously if you're living in, if it's winter time in Canada, you don't need to worry too much, you know, it's going to be pretty chilly. But for those of us that are in summer or in hot climates, I live in Panama. You know, AC is mandatory, but that's not enough because going back to when I used to wake up tired, I was, I was sleeping in AC, I was losing around four to five pounds of water from going to bed to wake up. Like I would weigh myself for bed and wake myself. That's a lot. Wade Lightheart: I think a lot of people don't realize how dehydrated they can become sleeping. It's not, I mean, I watched that fluctuation as a way to monitor my own health to see how much water I lose in a particular leaving. For me, it's somewhere between two and three pounds is generally where I'm at from breathing. But if you go beyond that, I know that I've got some, there's some, there's some challenges. Matt Gallant: Well, you're going to wake up dehydrated if you're dehydrated, you're tired. Right? I mean, you know, you know any top water experts in the planet, he knows, he knows. He knows this as much or more than anyone else. I mean, you know, your brain, everything drops. You're dehydrated. So the answer is the chilly pad and you know, God blessed Tim Ferriss for talking about this on think it was you know, eight or tools of Titans is in that book. Matt Gallant: You gotta love Timmy. Yeah. Tim. Tim delivers the chilly pad is this machine and then they got a new version called the OOLER that they just released. So it's this machine that you put distilled water in it and it cools the water and then pushes the water in this thin layer, a thin mattress that you put underneath your bed sheets. So all that heat that would typically get trapped because again, the room can be 16 degrees Celsius, which this is pretty much what I sleep in. But you're still sweating where your body's touching the mattress, your body's trapping the heat, the chilly pad or the OOLER solves that issue cause it's getting, you know, you can control the temperature, you put it where you're comfortable and it'll prevent the sweat from happening. So now I'm losing like one to one and a half pounds of water while I'm sleeping. So that's a big reason why I'm not as dehydrate. Wade Lightheart: Quick, quick question on the chilling effect and it's power. Cause I, I grew up in as we both did in freezing cold new Brunswick. And when I was a kid, there used to be frost on my bed sheets on certain mornings and, and, and, and I, I can recall that the total label being frozen, going to the bathroom. So extreme cold. Is there an optimal level of cold? Like have they done research on, on how cold is optimal? Like is there a point where there's a benefit and a point where there's a liability? Do we know what that is? Are people doing Wim Hof sleeping? What's the, what's the deal? Matt Gallant: Um yeah, it's between you want your room to be between 16 and 18 degrees Celsius. That's, that's optimal. Cause your head needs to be above one degree core than the rest of your body. Matt Gallant: And it'll, it'll do that. So here's a trick too. Like I go in my room, I turn on my AC about four hours before I go to bed. So I walk in my bedroom, it's just super cold. Cause if, you know, if I go to bed and I turn on my AC at that point, I mean it, you know what I mean? It's gotta be still warm for about another hour. So if you want to fall asleep faster, that's one of the things now and another, does that change? Wade Lightheart: Just a quick question on that, cause that's the thing is important, but you live in Panama, which your base temperature on any given day is in the, in the high 20s or you know, low 25 celcius here with, with, yeah. With high humidity though as well on top of that. So if you're living in a colder climate, does that variance differ for people? Do we know, uh, is there any cause, is it the, is it the absolute temperature that's important? Or is it the variance from kind of your waking state energy? Matt Gallant: It's the absolute temperature. Now the difference is your metabolic rate, you know, and I'll give you an example. So I do a massive reef eat on Sundays, on Sundays. My body temperature is one to one and a half degrees hotter than if I'm fasting. Fasting like my second day of fasting. Like my body's dropped one degree. So second, you know, at that point probably go like more like 17 degrees or 18 degrees and I'll adjust chilly pad versus on spike day it's 16 degrees and I dropped my chilly pad down to like 14 cause otherwise to counteract that thermic effect. Correct. And you know, like men typically run a little hotter. You know, if you have a really fast metabolism, the more food you eat, women tend to run a little cooler. Matt Gallant: So there, there is those adjustments and that's the cool thing with the chilly pad. You know, if you're, if you're a couple you can get a couple versions so you can control her side and your side so you can adjust the temperature accordingly. But as far as what the research has shown, it's 16 to 18 degrees in the room regardless of where you're at is optimal temperature. Got it. One more thing too that I experimented with. It was kind of an accident. So I had these, these ice best, okay. There's these cool fat burning vests. You know, we'd be, we do a whole episode on, you know, we're in fat loss hack, so I was using it for fat loss. And, and you know, this is a well researched thing where you lose body heat with, you know, eater cryo or ice baths, but use these vests that you could wear that have you put them in the freezer and you put them on and it's really cold. Matt Gallant: So you know, you lose some body temperature. So when I use those, and I have even this cryo helmet that you also put in the freezer and it was recommended by our friend Katrine and you put these on. So when I was wearing these my deep sleep went up a pretty significant amount. So when I do that, I don't do it every night just cause you know, it's a little bit of a hassle. But when I do do it, my deep sleep goes up. It's almost like it's priming my body. It's like the, the, the temperature drop before bed would probably kicked start the prolactin cycle again. I don't know the exact science. All I can tell you is that the ring the data said, yeah, it's improving your deep sleep. Wade Lightheart: So, so what a cheap hack would be to take some bags of frozen peas and strap them together, a duct tape and kind of create a little helmet. Would that be the cheap, would that be the cheap, the cheap pack versus the cryo helmet Matt Gallant: And then the cool vest? Yeah, and I've seen what's interesting too, I've seen recently they did a research where like a hot bath also improved. So it seems that you're kind of, and that's more of a relaxation thing. So I think it's hitting different mechanisms like the heat. It's probably relaxing your nervous system. Wade Lightheart: Well also if you're doing a hot bath with magnesium as a big fashion term, we'll get into magnesium in an upcoming podcast. Cause I know we're going to go deep on that. But maybe the most important mineral to mankind is magnesium. So let's, but anyways, I'm diverting of course. Matt Gallant: So yeah, so that's the heat components. Next is the blood flow restriction. So that's really the mattress. Now I, I spent like months doing research on mattresses and the conclusion is you want up, especially if you're a side sleeper, you really want a memory foam because you want even weight distribution. Let me explain. If you have a hard mattress and you're a side sleeper and like let's say you have like wide shoulders or you're a woman wide hips, what's going to happen first of all is you're going to sleep like this, right? Cause I'm not going to sink in enough and it's going to tilt my body. So you're gonna have a spine curve which you don't want. And second of all, it's gonna really trap the blood in my shoulder. So it's a multitude of issues. Plus some people say that Springs are creating other sets of problems because of the waves and it's hitting this praying. Matt Gallant: So anyways, I'm not going to get too deep in the spring problems, but the point is you want to kind of sink in and how perfect with distribution. Now the rule of thumb is if you're, if you're really tall and you're light, then you don't need to sink in that much. If the heavier you are the diff, the softer you want your phone, right? So there's a company called Essentia, Canadian company. They're available in the States as well and they make a memory foam mattress out of a tree sap. Now you know there's other mattress companies like Tempur-Pedic but they're using oil based materials to make the mattress. And there's pretty significant offgassing that happens for petroleum based products is what you're meaning is petroleum base oil base. So for the first six to 12 months there's a pretty significant offgassing that happens, which you know, I wasn't interested in. Matt Gallant: Plus they tend to trap heat a little more. So that's why I went with Essentia. Now send you has all these different grades of softness or you can get a custom made mattress, which I did cost about 10 grand. And what's cool with the custom made is, you know, my wife got her side optimized for her shape and weight and I got mine optimized. So you know, personally, certainly improved and minded as well. So that's the blood flow component. Next is noise. Now you kind of have two options here. Either you go with white noise, which is what I do, which is not the best, but you know, if you're sleeping in a city, for example, I'm in Panama, you know, we'd notice how noisy you can get here. You know, it's the only alternative. So I had the AC running, I have an air purifier running and I had the chilly pad running. Matt Gallant: So it kind of creates this ocean of white noise, you know, cause all three of them, I mean kind of produce level of white noise and there's white noise machines that you can buy as well. And they do a good job of kind of hiding background noise, I think optimal. And when I go back to my parents' house, it's like there's no noise. And I think that makes a big difference. Right? Does ignore cars, there's no nothing, no technology earplugs can help a lot. I think your plugs have another set of benefits where you're hearing your breath and when you hear your breath, it has this calming, hypnotizing, a brain swelling effect. And we know that from meditation, just, you know, classic meditation, just focus on your breath and we have earplugs like you're hearing yourself breathe. And I think that that has a big impact on latency, which is how fast you fall asleep as well as cutting off the noise. Matt Gallant: So when I travel and I don't have all my gadgets, I, I'll, I'll use earplugs. And by the way, as far as the earplugs, my favorite ones, they're like almost like a wax based thing. So you don't put it inside the canal. Yeah, put, it's like a put that you put on top and you just smash it in again. That was another Tim Ferris. Not with a hammer by the way. You just, with your thumb, your thumb, you just kind of press it in and it does the same effect without kind of, sometimes you'll push the wax in or whatever and I don't like those, those old school cheap foam ones. So yeah, those, that's the noise component. Now electromagnetic disturbances is the last one. That your only option if you're living in technology is a fair day cage, which I, which I have one. So there's a website called less emf.com and they sell EMF shielding materials. Matt Gallant: So they have one that looks like a mosquito net. It looks pretty cool. It was a little worried when I bought it. I'm like, is this going to look really bad? But it looks like those, you know, African mosquito nets and it blocks, you know, all the waves from hitting, you know, hitting your body cause they're gonna I'm in a penthouse, you know, if I pull up my phone I think there's like 15 wifi I can find on my phone. So all of these are hitting me, you know, plus all the other waves that you know, self waves. And that said you got 5g coming. So sleeping in a Faraday cage cage, probably a smart move. Now for those of you that live out in the countryside and you can shut all your technology down in your house, I mean that would be the ultimate, you know, or if you're building a house from scratch. And when I, when I do build, you know, my next house or build the house, you, you can actually put all the shielding in the walls so you can actually build like a Faraday cage, you know, in the walls themselves. It's just absorbing all of the waves. Uwhich would probably be the, the ultimate. Wade Lightheart: That's great. I think that's really important of course. If you're living in a city and so for example, I spent a few months last year in Venice, California, which is like just an electromagnetic crazy zone. I think the leveraging technology yeah. Is really, really important. Or if you're, you're in a city, I think also there's just a subjecting to light light and noise is usually pretty significant. So putting in some of these little even little things is, is really key. So one of the things I think is important to reveal to people is what are the key components, cause I know you're a real data component. I think one of your stains is data shapes destinies. And you've literally tested all of the sleep technology. What are you using for data collection? What do you think of the best data collection devices about monitoring your sleep so that you get out of the realm of out of the realm of opinions and theories as you like to say? And where does someone get that or what should they look for for S for these types of things? Matt Gallant: Yeah, so probably the most popular one is the oura ring, which I'm wearing right now. So it's, it's a, you know, three to 400 bucks depending on which model you get. That's the one I started this journey with around four years ago. I bought it as soon as it came out. And you know, it's really, it was really good data. Now, about a year ago I bought was called dream D R E M and we'll get all this stuff in the show notes. Yeah. It's a headband that is measuring the EEG. So I used to wear the zeal. Kendra was a predecessor, like a great product way back in the day, right? Even in a business or whatever. Right. So the dream is kind of new version of it. And the thing is with sleep, like the oura ring, and I think they've done as good a job as you can using what I would call secondary metrics. So the primary metric would sleep is your brain waves, right? That's how you directly measure your, your sleep. Now the oura is using heart rate, heart rate variability, motion, body temperature. So those, what I mean by secondary metrics, the primary metric is your brainwaves. The dream measures all of the secondary plus the primary. So you, you know the oura. As much as I like it, it cannot match the accuracy of a dream in terms of the precise sleep cycles. Here's what I can tell you. The oura. And I, and I've talked to other people that have compared the data and actually look at sleep labs as well. Matt Gallant: The oura ring will actually be accurate at tracking the overall deep and REM. So let's say your overall combination of the two is four hours. Now the, the oral might say, okay, you had two and a half hours of REM and 90 minutes of deep. Okay. Now on the dream is going to also give you a say four hours of the two, but typically the oura is under measuring deep sleep and over measuring rep versus the dream. It will be more accurate on, on the, on the deep sleep. Now the one thing I love about the aura that you don't get from the dream is your readiness score. So your readiness score is basically how fried you are, is giving you a really good, accurate measurement of your nervous system. And you know, it's really powerful. I'll give you an example. Like recently my heart rate went up like 10 to 15 beats. Matt Gallant: My heart rate variability crashed and I knew there was something going on. So, you know, I, I hired Katrine who's one of the people we've worked with for health. And you know, I, I had had an infection, so I had had an issue that I had to deal with. So it's really good for that. It's good for measuring. If you're over-trained, you know, and you know, classically the two measure over training, if your heart rate goes up 10 beats per minute over three days you're over-trained that was the classic tool. But now with their, where the oura ring, we can really see, you know, a lot faster when that happens. And you can adjust your training accordingly. You know, just maybe take it easy. It doesn't mean you don't train, but you might not go do squats and dead lifts and sprints that day. Matt Gallant: You'll, you'll do more of an active recovery type of workout. So those are the tools to, to measure sleep. And you know, all the things that I've done have improved. Now don't forget things compounds. So you might do one thing and improves your deep sleep like 20%. You do another thing that's another 20%. No, you had 44%, you do another 20%. Now you know, you're, you're at 70 ish percent. So keeps compounding. And that's how, you know, an average now went from like zero to 15 minutes of deep to probably like 75 to 90 minutes. And then my REM is usually like two to three hours. So that's what I've found. Now I'd like to shift over and talk about other techs to improve and, and hack your sleep. So the first one is the nano V. The nano V is a machine that you put distilled water in it and hits the water with a very precise signal. Matt Gallant: You breathe that water in and it starts repairing your DNA. Okay. It's improving, scald the protein folding in your body. Now for sleep, what I've noticed is if I use it for like 90 minutes, my HRV will will go up significantly. It'll actually improve it by, you know, 15, 10 to 20 measurements on the HRV, which is pretty significant. So in terms of of restfulness and quality of sleep, it definitely makes an impact. Then I use what's called the Delta sleeper every night. You put this on your carotid artery, you can actually put it on your forehead as well, and it's sending the Delta pulse for like 20 minutes and it shuts off. So in terms of falling asleep or shifting you into Delta faster, it's a great little, you know, one else thing. And if you wake up during the night, you just hit the button and then you'll fall asleep faster. Matt Gallant: So I'm a big fan of the Delta sleeper. The next one is the earth pulse. So it's another PEMF device and you put these under your bed and you can control the, the frequency. So you gotta be careful. This thing is really potent, is very powerful. You know, when I first got it, like has like four built in programs and a level one program one and two completely wreck my sleep program. Three and four were great. So four is like just pure Delta and you know, three kind of brings you down and brings you back up and you gotta you know, you gotta control, you can control the, the strength of it, you know, for me, you know, I'm kind of a maximalist in nature and extremists. I started really high, but I found that, you know, dropping it to like 30 to 50% work better than like 80 to a hundred are going. Matt Gallant: It's a really strong, it creates a pretty strong field. So I like that. The vice, it's a good one. Then. what else do I use tech wise? That's pretty much it on the tech side. We can shift over to supplements unless you have any other thoughts. Let's, let's talk about supplements because I think you've kind of cracked the code on some powerful integrations around that. Okay. So first, you know, it's all about controlling brainwaves and your transmitters for the most part. So lavender oil pills are really powerful to increase alpha. So lavender oil and L-Theanine have been scientifically shown to increase alpha, which means that you're going to slow your brain waves down for those and listen to our other podcasts that when I just did around your nervous system. We talk a lot about this stuff and the issue is a lot of people are kind of stuck in beta and for the people that had a hard time falling asleep, that's what's going on. Your brain is just stuck in beta, which is a high fast brain wave and then it takes you a long time to shift it down. Wade Lightheart: For people are listening. That's like if you're the type of person that can't shut the brain off at night, the thoughts are still into this and that and the other thing, chances are that means you're, you're in a, in a, in a high beta state. Matt Gallant: Yeah. Your brain is kind of stuck there. Yeah. It's kind of like the beach ball of death that comes up on your computer just keeps spinning and spinning and you know, you can't get that, you know, that conversation in your head or that, that deadline that you have or that that conversation or relationship issue. Matt Gallant: Now you can hack that with meditation. I mean, which is a great pre bed ritual is you know, meditate for like 15-20 minutes, which slows your brain waves down. Then you go to bed. So that, that's a really good, good tip. But as far as supplements go, the lavender oil and the L-Theanine will both hack that and L-Theanine is probably one of my favorite supplements for sleep dosage wise. I would start at 200 milligrams and if, you know, I'll go up to like 600 sometimes. If I want a plane, I'll tell you about my plane stack. Right now it's 800 milligrams of L-Theanine and about 50 to a hundred milligrams of CBD. If it's legal where I am, I'll pass out like, you know, and you can dose a little bit of melatonin with that. I'll talk about melts on a second cause I'm not a huge fan of melatonin but that, you know, and I don't sleep easily on planes. Matt Gallant: I usually just pass out with that dose. Now typically though, it's more like two to 400 milligrams of both evening and around one or two Lavela oils. So if you're GABA deficient, GABA supplementation can be powerful. You can use, you know, GABA doesn't absorb that well, but it's an option. There is a Philippian route which also hits the GABA pathways. That is another option. And you know, I want to try injectable GABA so I'm, I'm the stream and the extreme optimizer here at BiOptimizers and I haven't tried it yet, but it is on my agenda to, to experiment with actually injecting GABA straight in. Cause when you take it orally, the absorption rate is really low. Wade Lightheart: I think for people just as a commentary,uif you're a coffee drinker, caffeine drinker, I think theming is a great, you're probably going to get even more benefits. It seems to be really works counter counter counter balances. The caffeine like L-Theanine is present in a lot of teas and not so much things like coffees or some of the more darker caffeinated and I'm a big tea fan. I'm going to get a topic about that one day. Umhe other thing is I think holy basil, if you're GABA deficient the L-Theanine, holy basil. Umhe Athenian holy basil combo is, is great to, to throw in there with, with your CBD. And a lot of people get a lot of power out of that. Matt Gallant: Yeah. yeah, I have not tried to obey as well. I'll, I'll add that to my experimentalists. Now. CBD works well the, for most people will disrupt your sleep. So, you know, personally Wade Lightheart: It'll make you dopey in a lot of cases, but not improve your sleep. And there's a difference there. It's kind of like if you're, and that, I think that's a difference between pharmaceutical sleeping, pharmaceutically enhanced sleeping, which you pass out and go out. But the quality of that sleep is often countering. And of course we w in on the extreme cases, I think it's Roseanne Barr, and when she kind of went on that crazy street, she was on a heavy tranquilizer called Ambien, which a lot of people use for sleeping, which has all sorts of serious negative consequences about what happens when you don't sleep properly. So I think that's the difference between chemicalized nation asleep, which is just looking at the sleep as an overall result as opposed to optimization sleep, which is what you're into by using elements that are natural and indigenous to our bodies and using those in a constructive optimized way. Matt Gallant: Yeah. Now I'm really excited about CBG and CBN. I actually ordered some, and this should be arriving any day cause for sleep. They're supposed to be even way more effective than CBD. So you know, we'll, we'll talk about in a future podcast. Haven't tried it, read the research. I'm excited we're come back. Some other things ashwagandha, a gram of that can work really well. One to two grams of reishi can work really well, but one of my favorites and you know, we are really excited and pumped to be releasing this product is two to four caps of Magnesium Breakthrough. So one to two grams of a blend of magnesium. So like the glycinate is a great one to help trigger sleep and improve sleep. The L-Threonate will actually be really good for your brain. So we have this seven magnesium blend that releasing very, very soon in the next couple of weeks. And you know, we've been experimenting with it. So two to four caps of that should move the needle on your sleep. Wade Lightheart: Especially well, especially if you're deficient. So you know, it's the most common mineral deficiency in the world and magnesium's responsible for 350 different known chemical reactions and it's one of the things that they put Epson salts for example, or actually magnesium salts in are used to calm and tone and magnesium is essential for relaxing muscle tissue both stride at muscle and smooth muscle has a very powerful effect. And if you're deficient in it and almost every North American is because it's a ratio between calcium and magnesium, magnesium is the control on a two to one ratio. You have two parts, calcium, one part magnesium. And we have a very high calcium, a component in her diet. And it's interesting, it's like when you have high calcium in your diet, it actually creates bone loss. It creates muscle cramping. It creates dis balances in the chemical processes. Wade Lightheart: And I've seen literally dozens and dozens of my clients who had trouble sleeping. We just add magnesium to their diet and that's it. All of a sudden, or people who suffer from cramping. And that's other big issues, particularly people get older in combination with dehydration. They cramp at night time. They wake up, they're very stiff because they're not only dehydrated but their D, magnesium and magnesium. And I used to use the word, so you want to not just, you don't want to be de magged, you want to be defragged. So the bottom line is, is a magnesium is super, super powerful for people. It's one of the reasons we've done so much research on. I mean, there's like 30 different types of magnesiums. We found the seven best, which we'll talk about in another podcast as you said. So I carry on with this Matt Gallant: Yes, we're ready. We're here the last 90 seconds. I'm gonna go rapid fire. There's a great tea called Dream Tea from a company called Anima Mundi. It's a blend of herbs, really big fan of that. Put your pajamas on. Ah, let me talk about melatonin really fast. Melatonin is a hormone folks like to me, I look at melatonin as seriously as I do testosterone, you know, and like in Canada for an example, like you can't, you can't buy that. And, and that's true for a lot of countries. So melatonin, I only use it when I travel. If I want to reset my circadian rhythm, that's the only time. And when you do you want to microdose like people will wreck their melatonin production by just going to crazy dosages. And what we found is that microdosing melatonin, if you go to use melatonin, like 0.3 milligrams is all you need is kinda like a little kickstart. Matt Gallant: And again, I'm not a fan of it. I only use it when I travel or when I want to reset my circadian rhythm. Otherwise I strongly recommend you stay away from it. Next thing is five HTP that hits the serotonin pathway that can have a positive impact on sleep. Some people. And the last thing I will share is a human growth hormone product or secretagogue you want to use before sleep. I have not experimented with these yet, but a lot of people report much improved deep sleep. I am planning on experimenting with a growth hormone, secretagogue very soon. Wade and I at BiOptimizers several years ago we did have a growth hormone releasing supplement. And I mean the, the dream, like it was affecting sleep. I didn't have the tools to measure it back then. But man, the visibility boost is a great product. It's insane. They shut the labs down. Unfortunately we couldn't find the sources of the, of the ingredients, so we had to stop it. But that, that was powerful. It was very interesting, very interesting product. So anyways, so I think that summarizes all the sleep things and again, you know, he, brain physiology is very unique and you need to experiment and find what works for you. And that's where the data comes in with the dream or the aura. So you know, you've got to try things one at a time and see what works. Wade Lightheart: So what we're going to do, folks is we're going to actually put this all together in a little book for you at the BiOptimizers sleep optimization handbook, which will be put together with all of these components, these hacks, we will be upgrading it, but you're going to be able to get a copy of that in the very near future. If we don't have it right here on the show notes, you'll be able to go to the BiOptimizers site. Check that out, download it as part of your biological optimization program. I want to thank you for joining us. Check out the show notes. Come back to the podcast, hit your comments, hit the likes. We love to hear that it helps us get the message out about biological optimization. I want to thank our guest today, the radical edge biological optimization maximization experimenter himself, fresh in the labs and Panama, Matty G. Thanks for being here and I'm delighted that you're coming onto the show more often because you're very knowledgeable in a course. A, if it's bleeding and it's the edge, you're there Matt Gallant: Awesome. A great, great fun. We'll be back soon talking about some more great stuff. So have a great day. Everybody.

  What role does psychology play in fitness training? A significant role, and our guest, Benjamin Siong, today explains why. I recently met Benjamin at Canfitpro 2019 conference in Toronto. Canfitpro is a professional event where world-renowned experts on health, fitness, performance speak. He was one of those speakers and as the founder of Australia's premiere fitness brand it isn't hard to see why! Benjamin's journey is where we begin Awesome Health Podcast today, but we also talk about how to train properly for fitness competitions and the importance of taking care of your body and mind in the process. We dig into the hormonal disruptions that can occur, especially for women. Women's hormones are particularly sensitive versus a man's. When you also factor in the false estrogens and other chemicals people are taking into their bodies you can see why the body's natural mechanisms may get suppressed. This can show up as extra fat storage in the body and is something that should be addressed before competing. The body needs to detox these false estrogens and other chemical compounds. If someone doesn't do that and they add strenous workouts to their lifestyle they are going to complicate matters. For example, their cortisol levels can go through the roof as a result of those tough workouts - Benjamin says when you add all of this together you're basically creating an "atomic bomb" within the body. But all of this can be avoided with the proper coaching, training and mindset. Ben walks us through what he would do in this scenario, and why proper coaching, training and mindset are key elements. We also discuss the importance of addressing the psychology of training his clients. Benjamin and I finish the episode with his views on sharing information. Now he shares generously, but he didn't start out that way. Over the years he learned the more he gave, the more was given to him, and it ultimately led to his work today which takes him around the world speaking and sharing his knowledge. You can hear Ben's philosophy in greater detail plus a lot more on this exciting episode of the Awesome Health show! Episode Resources Benjamin Siong's web site Benjamin's courses Australian Strength Performance on Instagram Benjamin Siong on Instagram Read the Episode Transcript : Wade Lightheart: Good morning. Good afternoon and good evening. I'm Wade T Lightheart from the Awesome Health Podcast and I am delighted today to share with you a fellow I just met at the Canfitpro in Toronto. It's a professional event where uh, the world's best experts on health, fitness, performance in the industry get to speak. And Ben was one of the featured speakers, like flew in all the way from Australia. They stocked in with some crazy amount of speeches, but I had the good fortune to actually listen to one, particularly on physique competition, contest preparation. A lot of the mistakes that people make, the voodoo that people get involved with and how do they stay away from that. Uh, and he just had so much sensibility and so much experience that I really, really resonated. So I want to welcome to the show Ben Siong. How are you doing buddy? Benjamin Siong: I am very well thank you so much for having me on. Wade Lightheart: So for our listeners who's listening, who have maybe thought about physique preparation or have done it and maybe had some challenges or they wanted to get involved in this and don't know where to go. Let's just start about, we'll get into that in a minute, but I want to get your background of how did you end up in this space and become such an expert. Of course, tell us all about Australia and what you're up to and all that sort of stuff. So give us the whole kind of enchilada before we dive into the details. Benjamin Siong: I got into the industry out, uh, w w it was my quest basically to, uh, to look better more than anything else. So purely for aesthetic reasons, I wouldn't try to cover it to say for health or anything. I wanted to look better. Um, I was a fat kid growing up, uh, in, uh, in Singapore actually, and growing up there, um, because the Asian society has such small bills, I was classified as an obese child growing up. So throughout my whole childhood, all the way into my teens, I was obese and I never had the chance to kind of shoot up tall, you know, and lose that excess weight on me. And so for me it was a conscious effort to have to, a, to lose all the extra fat in order to get down. And so I remember, um, basically in my own quest to, to look better. Benjamin Siong: That was what I did. I, uh, I did what I knew how to, uh, uh, I guess what, what I knew how to do, which was to cut my calories. Uh, and I put myself in a situation where I was just doing a lot of cardio, uh, and I lost a, a good amount of weight, roughly about 25 kilos. I mean, it just really recall the kilos. So probably what, 50 or 60 pounds of water weight within a period of three months. Uh, and within a period of time, it wasn't unhealthy sort of journey, but I got to where I wanted to be and spend, you know, the next two years living in this sort of an emotional cycle with food. And as you know, a lot of people are very emotionally with food and I was very much the same of going through periods of trying to dig food out and, and you know, and, and, and get it off to you've eaten and then starve yourself and in and out. Benjamin Siong: So I, I was fluctuating within that for two years. And then after that I decided, no, I want it to chase health. I want it to look better, but I also want it to be healthy. And that kind of sparked my journey on seeking information. And, uh, the more you seek, the dumber you feel. And that was really it. That was, that was what kinda got me started. And that was a good 20 years, 30 years ago, you know. So now I've, I'm blessed in the position where I, I do what I love and that is continue to teach people my passion. And my passion continues to seek out information. You know, I'm, I'm always the student. I'm always looking at ways to get myself healthy but leaner at the same time. I will always try to push body composition and that's exactly why I'm in this unique space where I work with competitors and a lot of the competitors that I worked with, are carried by the competition process, particularly those in general that have framed by coaches that have taught them a method of preparation and methodology that often stress us out their adrenal system completely. Benjamin Siong: Rex, uh, have, uh, and the hormones and the hormonal system. Uh, and they, when they see me that their body's a disarray. You're not having your periods, this whole range of things going on with their metabolic syndrome. And so what I tend to do is work backwards to try to restore health about also the process. Give them an understanding of self love. Yeah. I'll give them an understanding on how to bring their body into an optimal body composition. Uh, but also we want to look at things like maintaining energy levels, maintaining hormonal balance, uh, and teaching them to have a much better relationship with food. So it has that emotional connection with food and, and that's, that's my journey. Yes. Wade Lightheart: Yeah. That's a, it's a good point. I want to dive into this cause I, when you were giving your presentation, you were kind of showing a lot of the nuances are a lot of the patterns and stuff, and I've seen this myself where you go around to the competitions and you see a ladies who are listening to someone, usually the biggest guy in the gym or the someone who has a couple of titles or whatever it is, they might have a background in science or nutrition or whatever, or they might be blessed genetically or they might be enhancing themselves with a variety of pharmacological agents. And a lot of girls desperate, I would say for a cosmetic ideal or what they've determined and and or, and maybe the acknowledgement that it comes from being a fitness competitor or a bodybuilding champion or a figure competitor, whatever that happens to be, that that adulation or that acknowledgement that you're worthy, that you're valuable, that you're pretty, that you're fit, that you're whatever that is. And there's a lot of people attracted that, especially in today's social media world where you know the presentation is worth everything and then you see them after the show. Wade Lightheart: The, the ones that haven't done this well thought out and most people don't. It's impossible to think and you kind of, you're kind of in that age where you think, Oh, I can just do anything I want. I'm, I'm, I'm different than everybody. Then you see them, the same girls coming back to the shows later on, only their 20 to 30 pounds heavier. Sometimes even more than that. They can't get the weight off. They're stuck at this. They're wearing the baggy sweats and everything. You can literally see them suffering inside as they're maybe encouraging their friends or whatever. And meanwhile they're on the struggle cycle. Wade Lightheart: How does that happen? Wade Lightheart: Like what's going on? Can you explain from your experience as a coach and someone who preps people from shows and helps people recover from bad preps, Wade Lightheart: how does that happen for competitors out there? Benjamin Siong: I think a lot of competitors, a lot of ladies in particular jump into a competition because they like what they see as the end product. So they're look at him on stage, she carries herself well, she looks amazing and that becomes a goal. So you start to see that you've got, I want to be there, but I don't think, uh, they actually have an understanding of the journey of what it actually takes to get to that goal. Now once they throw themselves into the equation, they go, okay, I've got a goal and I'm gonna work myself there. They start to realize that it becomes more like a means to an end. So standing on stage, the purpose that they want to stand on stage could be, could represent anything. It could be, you know, self-confidence. Uh, it could be a goal that they want to achieve through their lifetime. Benjamin Siong: It kind of a tick the box sort of thing. It could be anything, but I don't think the pool of the goal itself is strong enough for them. And so when they hop into the process of prepping, it becomes a means to an end. They just want to get there. And in the process of doing that, the coach will probably tell them, cut the calories. You've got to stick to your chicken breast and broccoli and Brown rice. You've got to do X amount of cardio a day, you've got to stop posing. You have to do a whole range of different things. Uh, now the more you get into it, the closer you are to the goal, the more desperate you are to get to a particular shape. So they can, uh, from the advice of the coach, obviously, because they're following blindly and then they get to stage and then they compete. Benjamin Siong: But a lot of them actually hate the process. They resent the process of getting to stage. They like the final product. But during that time when you stand on stage, remember you are probably dehydrated. So you feel horrendous. You're a low, you don't, I look the way you want to look. You feel horrendous there. And so you would think that's the ultimate goal. That's great. But the ultimate is actually once they stand on stage eating the sugar that comes after standing on stage. So everyone to that. Wade Lightheart: Yeah. Let's talk about that for a second. Cause this is kind of like the deep dark secret, uh, of the sport is I've seen so many people and I had been there myself, I was a former competitor that they're literally planning out the binge after the contest, like detail by detail, day by day, meal by meal ream about it. Wade Lightheart: So what's that about? Benjamin Siong: That is, well you tell me. I mean at the end of the day it's something they look forward to. So from a mental point of view, because they've kept themselves so strict on a nutrition plan, which has really regimented, that obviously represents a mental ease for them. So it's something else. They call it a cheat meal where they go out there and they eat whatever they want to eat. So it's a relaxing sort of a environment. They don't have to be regimented any more. So mentally it helps them for one a, but also on the other side of things is a social thing for them. They can go out and eat. Now we're all emotionally connected to food. And in any society, food represents something where you, if you're, you have, you eat. If you are sad, you eat. You know, if you, if you've got your board, you eat [inaudible] so social connections, you're going family events, holidays. Benjamin Siong: That's right. And so food is connected with so many different things. A lot of the times if you kind of look at it, a lot of the times where we feel elated, happy is associated with sugar because that's exactly what sugar does. She go, gives you a dopamine high. Uh, and what we don't understand, and what science has actually shown us nowadays is that sugars, particularly refined sugar, white sugar itself, what it actually does is it alters the chemical structure of the brain. In fact, what it does is it changes the receptor sites, the dopamine receptor sites in the brain. So much so that your brain now says sugar is the main source of dopamine. I want to take it in any other form of dopamine coming in, any other form of, uh, rewards that come in does not cut it. I don't want any other form of rewards. Benjamin Siong: I just want sugar. So sugar literally alters the form of that receptor site. So your brain specifically looks for it. The more you take sugar, the more it feeds back into that. So you want sugar, you don't, and so we built up this sort of emotional connection, uh, from a hormonal point of view, but also from a physiological point of view that we need sugar. Yes. So now that if you're competing and you're stopping, sugar, you're not taking in sugar. Nobody created. You've already looked for it. Right. The longer you stay off it, the more you want it. The grass is always greener, isn't it? So these people did deprive themselves of sugar because it's the forbidden fruit. And then the competition, you get a chance to eat all the sugar you want, and this is exactly what happens. You start tasting the first bite, and when that sugar hit comes in that you had been craving for all this time, remember your brain is already altered waiting for the sugar to come through, you're going to snap. Benjamin Siong: At that point of time, you have no control over your emotions, your body or logical thought. You go with the flow and instinctively that's where you let loose you. You just eat and eat and eat. By the time you know it. And this is exactly what you mentioned at the start of our conversation, that these girls, for example, over a span of two weeks off to come, they tend to put on 30 pounds, 40 pounds, and you can't recognize them. Yes, and that becomes a problem because it's not just the fat that they put on, it's the body sayng after a competition where they, they're deprived of nutrients - let's absorb and keep the nutrients for one, but that's also hold onto the water because there's a lot of inflammation going on. Yeah. So they're, they're a lot heavier. They're puffy. This is where they look themselves in the mirror and they go, I can't accept the person that I see right now because now I competed to look good, but now I'm looking worse than I did before. Benjamin Siong: And they can't accept it. There is a massive conflict down there. They go through waves looking at themselves, not being able to accept themselves looking that way and feeling that way. Um, and typically this is where everything stuffs up. So mentally they're not doing well physiologically. The cells are not doing well because they inflamed and they go keep going through that cycle. Throughout the period of a year, they tend to lose the period as well. And this is kind of the time where I see them. So when they come to me, a lot of the times they come to me without their period. They come to me with a lot of nutritional deficiencies. So bear in mind they're eating a lot, but they're not actually digesting or breaking down, absorbing the nutrients, hence all the eating. But under nourish. Wade Lightheart: Yeah. I, you know, I have this whole theory that, that, that obesity is actually a, it's a disease of deficiency. Yeah. Yeah. I like the fact that you're diving in, particularly in, in, in the female situation here because we see, you know, like if a female, particularly their indoctrine system in in-system is, is far more sensitive influctuates that have much greater level than say, a male system. And then also when you look at the, a lot of girls are in they're young, you know, they're relatively young, they're early twenties or early thirties, and they're getting into these competitions where they normally have high estrogen levels, high body fat levels as a natural state for childbearing, but they're kind of suppressing the body's natural mechanisms. What, can you talk a little bit about what you've seen happen for a lot of these girls or, or what, or can kind of the recipe of what's going on and then what, what gets compromised beyond just to the food cravings? Benjamin Siong: Sure. Now to start off with, I think if you, if you kind of look at society nowadays, the, the estrogen levels of the female is already falsified. So typically we have an optimal amount of estrogen and progesterone within a female itself. Now amidst that, there's a whole range of other hormones and organizing hormone and FSH and so forth. But when you look at sort of estrogen levels, a lot of the environmental factors that we look around us fit into folds estrogen. We call those Xenoestrogens, right? So the foods that we take in from the VPA now, cans from the parfumes you spray, uh, the chemicals in our water, these are false forms of estrogens that are already taken in, into the body. And so the body has an overload of estrogens. Okay. So for females, for example, when they have an overload of estrogens they start to store fat selectively in parts of their body. Benjamin Siong: We call that estrogenic profile. So they will start storing fat more on the thighs. Uh, some of them will say it's genetic, so sure it can be genetic to a degree in and but the, the genetic part comes with the fact that they cannot detoxify these estrogens of it that they take it. Right, right. So that is from a societal point of view that already builds up. Yeah, no. On top of that, you've got other hormones such as insulin that play a big part in affecting how the body stores fat and influence is obviously the storage hormone for sugar. No, we've taken so much sugar from everywhere. All foods are loaded with sugar, a lot of hidden sugars in there too. Right? And we don't take that into account. In fact, whatever you think is great for us, say for example, you take in fruits and fruits, maybe great. A lot of fruits are also crossed nowadays to produce a high sugar content because it suits the palate, isn't it? Nowadays the more sugar we take, the less, uh, the more the food, the more food becomes blend. So we want to take foods that are sweeter. Wade Lightheart: Correct. So that's the, yeah, the sweetness scale keeps scaling up. Scaling up. Scaling up or even like healthy sugars from natural sources that don't taste good anymore. You want more. Benjamin Siong: Yup. So when we are, when we are driven by high estrogen levels and compounding initial and fluctuations, the body itself is in a, in a state of unrest. It's not optimal anymore. No, this is, I'm talking about all this because this is the starting point of a female that I'm seeing. This is not even the end point. This is a starting point, right. Wade Lightheart: They are just walking in the door, haven't stepped on stage, haven't gotten a gym, nothing. They're there already compromise from environmental conditions. Benjamin Siong: Absolutely. And lifestyle conditions. And then imagine if they get a coach that then strains them on the workouts. Their the cortisol now level goes through the roof. Yup. Overdoing something. Uh, he's telling them to eat certain foods or cut their calories and that he mucks around with their bodies even more. You creating basically an atomic bomb. Yeah. There were a whole range of a unrest within the system from a hormonal basis that they are creating. And so the end product is something which is really diverse. Every female will go through, uh, a, you know, if the hormonal system is disrupted, is very selectively disrupted. So every female is different. And so this becomes the problem. This becomes the problem because when a coach sees them, he takes them as a blank slate and goes, okay, this is what we're going to do. But a lot of the times they're not considering the original lifestyle factors that the female sees you with, which is elevated estrogen levels from the environment, disrupted insulin levels or disrupted cortisol levels. Uh, and, and then there's a range of other things. The androgens that we need to look at as well. So I think it's important to understand the context of which, uh, we deal with. Wade Lightheart: Yeah. So, so here comes this lady, she, she walks into your place, she's dealing with all this stuff. What happens, uh, what happens in, what do you do to kind of get people on the truck or what? And then I want to also want to think what are, what are some telltale signs if they're going off looking for a coach or they want to do one of these things, what are the telltale times that they're there dancing with the devil so to speak. Benjamin Siong: Sure. I think for me, when, when I see someone, the main thing that I want to get out from them is their Why. Right? And that's very, very important. So if you want to compete, no problem. Let's not talk about anything that's physical or physiological. Let's understand your why. Why are you wanting to compete? First and foremost, if you have a very strong Why , regardless of what that is, it can be aesthetic, it can be confidence, it can be, you know, it can be anything and there's no judgment here and your Why's, very individual. But if your why is strong enough, your goal is strong enough, then you know that your, your sight towards the goal can be fixed. And this allows you do to chip away to get to your goal. A lot of people have a very poor way, so they want to look a certain way, but they don't want to put in the work to get there and this became a problem because then the whole journey itself becomes arduous. Benjamin Siong: If I do the green now let's say someone comes in as a strong Why, this is ideal. I know a Why, I want to get down there and maybe aesthetic reasons and maybe confidence reasons, but I'm going to do it and it's strong and I'm emotionally connected to it. Then that's a good starting platform for me. Once I understand their Why, then I work out what goes on on a physiological basis, so let's understand the lifestyle. Let's understand what they're doing from a nutritional point of view. Let's understand what they do from a training point of view. My philosophy is the longer the time I have to prep them, the better and the more enjoyable this journey becomes. I remember I used the word journey because this is not a quick fix and there's a lot of things to an end [inaudible] something that they will learn along the way about themselves. The emotion with food and how to maintain an optimal body composition, keeping optimal health. Wade Lightheart: So, so let's talk about that for a second. Wade Lightheart: Typically how long do you think is it for most people at say, quote on quote average body fat levels in LA? I hate that word average, but you know, a typical woman that comes in to you, how long typically do you like to have to prepare them on a minimum side and then kind of an optimal side? Benjamin Siong: Uh, one question I tend to ask is whether there had been fat a big before at cells have a memory. Uh, unfortunately you don't lose fat cells. Not many fat cells die as you start to age. If you have X amount of fat cells, they expand in size and they shrink in size, right? So if you have a bit of fat before mature fat cells have a memory, that means the ability for you to get fat again is very easy. So if you've been fat before, you need a longer period of time to get lean. If you've always been lean, it's going to be a lot easier. So that forms my basis of how long a I prep you for. Typically for a female, uh, including what I, what I like to look at is the, the emotional mindset behind getting to a comp typically six months. Yup. Because the first three months is to work on the mindset. Yep. To make them understand the process accept the process and kind of learn to love the process. Right. And then, and then we get them into it again, if you have been a bit bigger before it might be up to a year to get ready for competition. Yeah. If you have always been someone who is very athletic and very, very lean, that period is a lot shorter. It could take for 12 to 14 weeks to start you off for your first comp. Wade Lightheart: Yup. Okay. So then what does that look like when you, like what does that look like from a diet and training side and how do you make those assessments for people? Benjamin Siong: I take a very minimalistic approach. The less changes I make, the better it's going to be because then you don't realize you are actually making a sacrifice for the process. So for me, what I'll do is I'll chop the end point. I know how you need to look like and I want to find out where you are now. That's the start point. I need to know how many changes I need to make to the end point. Then I make one change at the time. It's as simple as that. Now people like expect big dramatic changes with nutrition. Give me, you know, six meals a day and eat doesn't need to eat that. I need to know. It's not about that. It's about what you can do. Now this is very individualistic. Some people may need six meals, some people may do really well with two meals, some people do two meals and two big meals. Benjamin Siong: Some people don't. So physiology plays a big role in this. And then this is, I guess this comes down to the skill of the coach. This other, these are the questions. Um, but what I tend to do is to make small changes. If, let's say they make, they have been three meals a day, then the change will be maybe to the types of foods that I want to put in their meal. Um, I might change breakfast and keep lunch, dinner, every other snack. Exactly the same to start off with. The smaller the change, the less they feel they have to sacrifice. Let them implement the change, put that in place for a week or two. They come back, they start to see some results, right. And then they go, great, this is good. Once they have implemented the changes and they can keep it, we move onto the next change. If they haven't been able to keep it, we don't change anything. So that's how I play around with it. Now. The more that they can change, the shorter the timeframe that we have to prep them because they following changes, they're committing to it. Correct. The less they want to commit to it, which means the less that they put the changes in, the longer the prep process will be because they're not ready to change. Wade Lightheart: Right. Right. And what are some of the things that you see that where say with coaches that you see ladies get in trouble with or other athletes? Like what, what's some telltale signs that you might not be with the right coach? Benjamin Siong: Uh, most of the time you will find that the coach, what they do is that they turn up the workload very, very fast. So typically they expect a competitive train to our state. Um, when they first join, I mean a starting workouts at 12 workout. I mean man if you haven't trained at the gym before, 20 minutes, maybe half an hour. Two hours to start off with? Firstly it's, it's quite insane. And then they expect, you know, two hours, five days a week on top of that you need to do cardio on top of that, you need to get some policy and they throw a female competitor in the mix straight away from zero to a hundred percent. Which is pretty crazy. Yeah. So you know, the moment you get a coach like that, probably not the best coach for you. Because what happens is yes you will, you see a change. Absolutely. But they'll burn out your adrenal system. Wade Lightheart: Yeah. It's not sustained. It's not sustained. These are radical results shortly in a quick period of time. But then there's no, there's no ceiling there. There's only the way to go downwards. Benjamin Siong: And once you see a change, your body adapts, which means that now if your body has adapted 12 weeks out from competition and you're already doing maximal amount of workload and you are in trouble. Wade Lightheart: And, and I see that, I see that happen with a lot of girls and that's when they start resorting to chemicals and drugs and things like that to get the calories. Yeah. Everything stuffs up. Benjamin Siong: you know, so real quick, too fast, that becomes a problem. So if your coach gives you something too quick, too fast, you probably need to ask why. Yeah. Now when it comes to drugs and cuts and all that kind of stuff, look to each his own. Uh, if you are an athlete needing to compete in a competition in a level where aids are being used, bio needs, but you need to understand how to use it from a chemical point of view, whether it suits your body, whether you can detoxify stuff, and whether your system, uh, has the, the amount of optimal optimal health to kind of handle whatever you're putting in. Wade Lightheart: what are some of the things that you see people making mistakes around that, like with chemical agents and using that not, not no knowledge or just hearsay evidence or just random shotgunning or taking too much product or just listening to the wrong people. What are the things that you've noticed most often? Benjamin Siong: Basically all of what you're saying. So a lot of them don't have any medical background behind it. They will ask a fellow competitor who has done it before and all have the exact same dosage for the fellow competitor first and foremost. So you don't know. You'd kind of individualize those suggests that you're going, I'm going to follow you because they look good and so I assume I'll do good. Secondly, you don't know where the products from. Wade Lightheart: Yup. Benjamin Siong: So the source of the product is extremely important. You will get someone that they, that they have recommended, but where's that someone got it from, you know what product is being diluted with a whole range of other chemicals. You don't know what you put into your system. Next, remember you are assuming your body works in the same physiological basis as the competitor. What if your liver doesn't have the capacity to detoxify like the other competitor is? Nowadays it's the survival of the liver that allows you to look a certain way. If your liver in trouble - you're in trouble. Wade Lightheart: Yeah. People talk about physical genetics, but there's the, I would call it the organ genetics. What is your capacity for tolerance of toxicity from the cascade of chemicals. Okay, let's move to the competitor who is just competed. They finished the competition, they've achieved their goal. What happens then? What like, cause that's a very precarious time. I feel for people, some people just get right back on the train again and go to the next competition and the next and kind of get on a cycle until they'd burn out. Some people go off the reservation as I like to say you're off the train and then they just start eating everything and blown up. So can you share what do you do with your competitors when they come pleat? Uh, in those cases where they want to continue competing or they want to get off competing or they're not really sure. How do you handle situations? Benjamin Siong: And the first thing I would tell them is when I train someone to compete, I train someone for medal. I don't train someone just to stand the stage. So I know my competitors for a fact. I've got a very good track record of everyone coming in or standing on the podium - the second, third, fourth, fifth, period. So I will prep them before they stand up on stage or when they compete with me and I'll let them know, look, you will stand up on stage and you will, you will place. Cause that's how I trained you to place. Now you got to decide what you want to do after your place and think about this even before you stand on stage. Do you want to continue competing or is this the end all be all for you? You may not know until you stand on stage. Correct. And once you stand on stage, you will know whether you love the limelight. You want to keep going or this is the end for you. Make the decision fast because once you finished the comp, this is what determines what you're going to do now. Wade Lightheart: almost nobody talks about that stuff. You know that it's kind of, it's just a contest and that's it. There's the end. Benjamin Siong: they would need to know what goes on, which is important. So for those that that that's the end point for them - great. Then you need to find out from them if that's the end point, what do you want to do? You understand that your body will not look like this because this is a one time thing. Now after that, what is your ideal body fat that you want to get up to? So then they need to understand within that period of a week where their body is extremely susceptible to drawing in fluids for inflammation, taking sugar, this is where I need to pace them, go, well, if this is the case, then I'll write down a plan and what they need to do. Now typically in the industry we call this reverse dieting, right? I think reverse dieting is a very orthodox way of kind of looking at it, right? Benjamin Siong: Because yes, it has a methodology of putting in food slowly so you slowly increase the calorie count, but sometimes it's more than just increasing the calorie count as increasing the absorbability of what they can actually take it and the types of foods they can actually take in as well. So it is a reverse of some sort. I will call it dieting per se, but it's definitely a reverse of of a nutritional plan of sorts. All of them are add in more fat. Some of them would be more carbed, some of them be less carbs, more fat, more protein. Just depends on the individual own for each to slowly get out of the um, the do the nutrition that actually got them to come will not be their nutrition moving forward. So we've got all that. Wade Lightheart: And then how long typically do you find it takes? Uh, someone to kind of, I would say regulate to their optimal body weight afterwards. Are there, you know, cosmetic ideal afterwards of kind of walking around state. Benjamin Siong: So the longer I take to prep the competitor into competition, the leaner they can maintain after competition because it becomes for them. Yeah. The shorter the preppers, the more mandatory rebounds. Yeah. So that's that. Wade Lightheart: It's going to vary between the person in that thing. Benjamin Siong: Yeah, absolutely. So my competitor takes one year to train with me. Their mindset towards food and energy levels and training is completely different. It becomes a lifestyle for them. They walk on a much leaner levels on a much leaner scale and feeling healthy. So to get to, to prep for them to, to, to go to the competition could mean, you know, losing four kilos. Yeah. So postcom if they put on four kilos, they're back at where they weren't normal living healthy, happy. Yeah, no problem. Most people though, don't do that. When we quickly, you know, 15 kilos as a drop, now expect that 15 kilos to come back just as fast as you've dropped it because you haven't prepped your body for it physically and mentally, you know, ready for it. Yeah. Wade Lightheart: Can you talk about, let's go into the, the lady that shows up with the metabolic damage that she's messed herself up, she's taken hormones or she's gone the yoyo dieting, she's struggling. She can't come out of it. She doesn't know what to do. They come into your office, what do you, what do you do with that particular individual or what can they do? Benjamin Siong: The main thing is to find out how long they have a had this particular damage for now. Metabolic damage, no metabolic metabolic damage. I think it's a, it's a disease that we've created on ourselves and is a name that is given to a particular syndrome. Remember the body is very malleable and adaptable. The body can reverse that. So yes, it is severe. However you, because you brought yourself into it, you can also get yourself out of it right longer, you will have been in that the hotter it is obviously to reverse that particular syndrome, which means that it has to be a conscious lifestyle decision to do that. So I find that metabolic syndrome is actually physically, physiologically it's a, it's an issue of the cells. But from a holistic perspective it's actually issue of the brain, the fact that you want to stay in that position because you want to look a certain way and your brain says I want to eat more and you signal. So you continue to put yourself in that particular syndrome. Right. And you gave me what it needs you get out of it. Wade Lightheart: So you're finding that you have to treat almost the psychology as much as the physiology Benjamin Siong: if not more. Absolutely. Uh huh. Uh huh. Wade Lightheart: And so, um, the next step is I guess, so what are some of the things that you currently do and how you get people, like what's your whole process now? Cause I know you've got a lot of courses, you're teaching all over the world, you run your own company. You want to talk a bit about those things and what your mission is, uh, in the world. Benjamin Siong: Sure. Or I'm, I'm passionate about this, you know, I'm passionate about it because I've been through it. Uh, and my objective right now, uh, my goal is really to bring information out to the masses. I mean, we're talking about trainers down here who need to understand the body in more depth. I think like, I come from a science background. I've, I've, uh, I've, I've done a bachelor of science, a, uh, uh, and psychology as well. Uh, so my background is actually in psychology. I've done a, uh, two, two main degrees, but science, if you look at science, science is very isolated in the sense that when it looks at information, it looks like information through a straw. So you kind of, you only see the small area in front of you. You don't kinda consider the bigger picture and then becomes a problem. Benjamin Siong: And I think that science is extremely important, but we need to step back and look at the bigger picture. So my, I find that my passion isn't teaching trainers to look at signs, but also to consider it with regards to the bigger picture. You want to understand the body and how to get it down in terms of body composition. Great. But you need to also look at the emotions. You need to look at hormones, you need to look at understanding a nutrient absorption. You need to look at understanding, you know, uh, uh, your, your gut bacteria in a whole range of different things. So I'm passionate about teaching trainers how to draw the dots, make the links between the body itself, uh, to simplify a lot of these complex concepts and to make it applicable for their clients to get results immediately, basically. So I, I do, I travel a lot to teach. Benjamin Siong: I've got six courses, uh, that I have created and I bring around to different countries to teach. So far we're in 12 countries. We're looking to bring it to an extra three next year, take it up to 15. Uh, Canada. Obviously I was in Canada. This year's my first year at Canfitpro. Thoroughly enjoyed myself, but I want to bring my courses in the Canfitpro. Uh, and funny enough, I'm talking to you right now in a couple of days I'll be in Bangkok at fitness conference, which is the largest conference in Asia speaking. And prior to that in uh, in Singapore, Singapore and Bangkok teaching my courses as well. So these six courses are out there. This course is focused on topics such as fat loss, fat and fat loss colonization. We talk about hypertrophy, which is enabling your body to put on muscle the fastest. So these are the individual courses. Wade Lightheart: So feel free to share what each, like the name of the course, and then what it is. Benjamin Siong: Oh, sure. So we've got three categories of courses. One of them is based on fat loss and body transformation. That's one category. The next category is putting on muscle, which is comes in level one, two. And the third category of courses is what we call international coach qualifications, which means we teach trainers to be better coaches. This includes everything from program puritization to you know, how to understand nutrition better and how to talk to your clients and implement compliance, put one thing at the time, how to make sure they adhere to it, how to understand the psychology behind it. So it's a, it's a coaching course. So we've got two to three levels of the culture courses. Wade Lightheart: And then this is all available to your company. You want to talk about your company? Benjamin Siong: Absolutely. So my company's called Australian Strength performance and uh, we're based in Melbourne, Australia. The courses are through Australia, strength performance. Uh, and you can definitely check us out on a website. And we'll give you a whole range of, um, I guess a better understanding of the range of courses that we actually carry. The six courses where they're being held and uh, you know, the qualifications that come with that. Wade Lightheart: That's great. And then, um, I guess the other thing I was wondering about, so what, what's, what's the future look like for you? What do you see happening for yourself? What do you see happening in the industry? What's the, the whole mandate and mission as moving forward from here? Benjamin Siong: You know, at the end of the day I think we all have a higher purpose, uh, and everyone has to find what their high purpose is. I think for me it's, I want to be a blessing to people around me. I want to impact people around me. To me it's sharing information that I already know. Now I'm, I'm not your best speaker out there. I'm not the most knowledgeable person. I keep wanting to learn and whatever I can learn, I believe people can learn as well. So I'm wanting to share more. My goal is to be able to learn more for myself and to take that information to the masses out there to the trainers out there. I want my courses to be the vehicle to be able to do that and I want to be able to move into more countries to speak to them. Uh, more, uh, synergies very much like what I'm doing with you. Podcasts, talking with individuals you influenced to be able to bring information out there and we all have a message to share, you know, and big or small. It's a message that can make an impact. If I could make an impact to one person, just one person, I think I've done what I needed to do. So sometimes it really just starts with one. Wade Lightheart: Got it. Now, do you, when you're coaching like people do though than on an online basis, is it a one-on-one meetup? How do you handle that side of the business side. Benjamin Siong: right now? Uh, yes, I definitely do one-on-one a sort of training. Uh, so I mean if they wanted to do a one on one training with me to look into a website and have a look at to see what we do. Uh, we do one on one physical training and my center in Melbourne, but obviously if they want to work with me on an international basis, if you're a competitor or you to know more about health, we just sweet. We definitely do one on ones as well. That's great. Wade Lightheart: And then where can they find you or where can they reach out to you? Benjamin Siong: Yeah, so on the website that's trainasp.com.au you can see information on our online, uh, modules in terms of one on one training, in terms of courses, uh, in terms of if you are in Australia for example, you want to hop into our center, you definitely can find that as well. Benjamin Siong: But also on Instagram you can check us out on 'trainasp' on Instagram or my Instagram is 'benperformancecoach'. And this is where you get to see a lot more about the stuff that I talk about. Uh, you get to see me a little bit more passionate I guess, in, in, in my little us to, uh, streams where I actually talk to two crowds, uh, and see, see what the information is all about and whether it actually resonates with you. I think that's the main thing. You've got to find something that resonates with you. Wade Lightheart: That's great. And then, so before we wrap it all up, any messages that you'd like to share out to our audience or things that you'd like to communicate as a signing off? Benjamin Siong: So, yeah, absolutely. You know what I want, one thing I would like to say is if there are any coaches or trainers actually hear this. Benjamin Siong: It's very important to give and give an a, I mean, give in terms of being generous with information. I remember in my earlier days as a coach, I was very selfish with information and I learned a lot from courses and stuff and I decided to keep it to myself because I felt that I was unique and this would make me different. And the one thing I realized is that the more I kept to myself, uh, the more I repelled cultures away from me. And, uh, I had a paradigm shift and I decided to become someone who gave information away. The more I gave, the more it was given unto me. The more I learned, the more I learned, the more empowered I am, the more I want to empower. I mean, this brought me around the world to be able to teach and to be able to give. Benjamin Siong: And right now my philosophy is in giving. I love to give, you know, the more you ask, the more I can give, the more I will. And I think that's important because we all eat to learn. There is no use taking information to your grave. The more you learn, the more you can empower. Um, and as so many people out there that listen to a lot of information out there but they don't know the truth and the truth is being hidden from us, from marketing. The truth is hidden from us, from, you know, corporate organizations and stuff. And a large degree of what we need to understand as individuals, as parents teaching our children is actually what is pertinent to our health. And so if there is a level of understanding that I can give, I want to be able to do that. And if there are coaches that are listening to this who feel that they take information away that they can give away, do so because it will come back. Yeah. Wade Lightheart: No, it's great. I'm glad that they said that because I've always found that uh, by providing those little tidbits or those moments of inspiration or those, those, those insights out in the world, it's amazing how all of a sudden you get, accepted as a professional and understanding people see it like, wow, that guy is really generous with his information. He's telling me this. I really want to find out what else does he know as opposed to the person that's kind of guarding and not really singing their music. And I think it's almost the reverse psychology of what some people think they get to hide the secrets or the hide to things. But actually the more open and genuine they spread it, the bigger the message goes, the more people get it. And ultimately the more people respond to it. Benjamin Siong: Sin. I mean, what I'm speaking, like I said, I have not. I'm definitely not your best speaker. I'm not your best Electra. I'm not the most knowledgeable person out there. What I know is not new. What I know is out there in Google, you go Google it, you know you'd be able to find it. But what I believe is unique is I'm able to take information with my own life experience and actually give it. That's what makes a difference to people because people relate to that. So I've never been afraid to share information. Information exists out there. It's already there. You're not inventing anything. You are repackaging it because you are an individual interpreting it and then giving it to someone who will take that interpretation and be blessed with it. And so I think people need to look at that. Wade Lightheart: I think that's a beautiful way to sum up the coaching experience, is synthesizing the information that's available into a way that people can digest it, absorb it, and utilize it inside of their life. And of course, that's what we are at the Awesome Health program. We're all about that. So I want to thank you, Ben, for joining us all the way from Australia. We tried to do this episode before it got messed up and the recordings are really appreciate that you came back to the well and and went it again. Thank you so much, sir. Benjamin Siong: It's been a pleasure talking to you. Thank you so much for inviting me back. Wade Lightheart: You bet. Thanks, Ben. Benjamin Siong: Thank you, sir. Thank you.

  He’s sometimes known as Dr. Amazon, and he is the embodiment of Eastern mysticism meeting Western science and ideas. It was no easy journey for him to reach that embodiment, and today he is sharing his well-earned wisdom on today’s episode of Awesome Health Podcast. Despite growing up in a traditional household, Dr. Stefan marched to the beat of his own drummer from early on. As a child he would play outside and would feel as though the plants were speaking to him. He loved the connection he felt to them and it is something he honors today. With his own drum beat still calling him forward, he attended Duke University for his undergraduate studies. He was drawn to Duke in particular, and later he discovered why: they had a parapsychology department and he was fascinated! That fascination led him to meet some equally interesting people like Elmer Green, the biofeedback innovator. And eventually those experiences led him to study transpersonal psychology and earn his PhD. But those weren’t the only intriguing events of his life, today he shares his own near-death experience, and what it was like to work with Wall Street experts. You’ll also hear about his time spent with indigenous peoples and how he came to be the medical ambassador for the Navajo Nation. Dr Stefan J. Kasian is helping them to build a native children’s hospital and to find ways of bringing new mental health care via technology for their underserved people. Join us for those tales and so much more on this episode of Awesome Health Podcast! Resources: Dr. Stefan’s web site Dr. Stefan on Instagram Read the Episode Transcript : Wade Lightheart: Good afternoon, good morning and good evening. It's Wade T Lightheart from the Awesome Health Podcast and I'm here with Dr Stefan and we'll get into his variety of names, his variety of lifetimes, his variety of interests. Dr Stefan is an incredible guy. Sometimes some people call him Doctor Amazon as he's a naturopathic doctor. He also studied, uh, medicine at Duke. He's going to talk about that. He's also an extremely spiritual guy. He's into a lot of psychological stuff and he's one of the most remarkable individuals I know. In fact, I've been friends with Stefan for, well, geez, it must be getting close to 13-14 years. It's a long time. It's a long time. We met in Sedona, Arizona as both of us we're kind of engaged in a spiritual, said, path. And that is our journey for self-realization to ourselves. And we have found that we had a lot of common interests. Wade Lightheart: But let's get into a little bit about your background because you know, it's hard to peg you down, doc. I mean, geez, you've done so many things and you have such a broad brush stroke. Can you give our people before we get into today's talk, which I think is gonna mind blow about what you're doing with indigenous people, what you're doing with some of these, uh, medicines that are found in the Amazon. Of course, your medical background, your naturopath, the background, your psychological way. I mean it's just you're just a Jack of all trades and you're really good at all these things. How did you get here? How did you get on this journey and where's it going? Stefan J.Kasian: Well, my friend, I want to thank you for the opportunity to, to spend some time with you and do this lovely chat. It reminds me a little bit of the kind of talks we had in the Amazon with the indigenous tribes where in, you know, instead of watching television, we spent our time tell a vision. So here we are sharing stories with each other and, and life is about stories and the Epic journey we're, we embark on, we all have these, these stories in us and I feel privileged that I've had a chance to live out some amazing ones. I really have. Um, so yeah, there's so many things to cover, but I definitely want to share some salient bits of my story and, um, you know, invite your listeners to go on that journey with me if they feel the resonance. So, yeah. Um, I mean I just, I just know when I was a kid, I was born in a traditional Ukrainian household, if you will. Stefan J.Kasian: Even though I grew up outside New York city, I, uh, I was raised in a very central, traditional values. All my family was born and raised in Ukraine, my roots. And, uh, they were, they were farmers and landowners, wealthy farmers and landowners, and they were really connected with nature. So here I grew up in a traditional household with those kinds of values. And yet when I went outside and I would play, you know, as a kid, climb the apple tree and grow, grow the flowers and tend the garden, I almost feel like I could talk to the plants. I almost felt like I could hear their music and hear their residence. So I didn't know quite what to do with it. Because as kids we, we see things that adults don't, you know, we have these boundaries that no one told us. We couldn't see this. Stefan J.Kasian: No one could told us we couldn't explore the experiences. And then fast forward a few decades later, here I go, I'm in the jungle with the Koran, Darrow shaman and they're like the plants of course you can talk to the plants, they can sing you, why can't you hear their music? So, you know, life is about going that full circle and finding and reconnecting with who we really are and not just simply um, you know, getting lost in the world or just getting lost in the book knowledge as well. You know, really it was about getting the book knowledge into the heart and, and discovering who we are as souls, as spirits, as essences beyond simply our personality, who we were programmed to race to believe. Wade Lightheart: You know, I think what's really fascinating cause we're going to dive deep into kind of some of the lessons and possibilities that the indigenous people of South America and other indigenous tribes in your work with them in a minute. But I also want to, before we get into that is talk about your past. He had an interesting past where you're kind of going down run route in with Duke university, you had a major life changing experience. Can you talk a little bit about, you know, that pathway coming out of say childhood and young adolescents and then moving onto what was planned to be a career in one thing and then life changes and you ended up in a career in the other thing, but they actually kind of co-contribute. Stefan J.Kasian: uh, and that's what's so wild Wade. It's, is that somehow, you know, there is a higher self in us that I feel guides our decisions in addition to needing to take care of our responsibilities in the world, following that voice inside and doing the hard work necessary for that. So I remember even interviewing during colleges, you know, I looked at Harvard, I looked at Princeton, Yale, and yet I was still somehow drawn to Duke for reasons I could not understand. And later I found out when I got accepted to Duke, Duke had Paris psychology department. And the cool thing about Paris psychology, which is why I think for your listeners is so such a great topic, is there's normal psychology. Psychology is how you study behavior and, and you know, in a very conventional way, A equals B at least to see, you know, just a very, um, logical systematic approach to how people behave and think the Paris psychology is next to that and that studying behaviors beyond things, you can explain what the normal senses. Stefan J.Kasian: And here we go. I mean, I attended Duke and I discovered this Paris psychology department that got kicked out of Duke and is off-campus and known as Ryan research center. So I'm studying premed and psychology and computer science responsibly, if you will. And here I go, a bit of a rebel. I'm, you know, during lunch I sneak off on campus and go study with these Renegade psychologists, these PhD physicists doing these amazing tests. And I'll mention some of these tests because I think it's just important for us to realize, you know, these realms we're talking about that we're into go way beyond the mind, but there's ways to, to grapple with them. So, for example, one test was called the the Zener deck and it was a deck of symbols. So there's five different symbols, you know, you see them in front of you and cards that are flipped upside down and your job is to try to guess what the card says by matching it with these random cards. Stefan J.Kasian: Okay. Um, and that's one test and that's to see if you have this so-called ESP. Can you guess beyond the senses? Can you guess beyond the senses? So, uh, you know, they're those kinds of tests there. There were other tests where they call it remote viewing where people would sit in one room with your eyes closed with blindfolds and someone literally tried to send the message to you, some symbols and you describe what comes to your mind. And I know these experiments sound kind of crude, but over the decades they were done, there've been meta analyses done that, you know, the, the, the way these results are if was way above chance, way beyond chance. Wade Lightheart: The U S military is heavily involved in remote viewing for a variety of it's things since the late sixties and seventies. There's a couple of great, some great books out there. So this is not, it's interesting. A lot of this stuff is on the, on the surface is debunked by, or by what I'd say the quote unquote naysayers out there. Yet the very institutions that are debunking them, there are these pockets of deep research where the highest levels of government and science are actually experimenting kind of on their own while they're telling everybody else no, no, this doesn't really exist. Stefan J.Kasian: Well that's exactly it. And that's why I developed this, a bit of a rebel streak here in studying these things and um, you know, a bit of a rebel curiosity Explorer pioneer streak that has such a fascination doing this work. And, you know, I got to work on wall street for a little bit in connection with my work at Duke and, and uh, even on, I find out the executives on Wall street are interested in intuition and they're willing to even entertain these conversations. So, you know, the, there were, there was the opportunity to kind of cross and blend bridges, find what I'm passionate interest in about and see a way for that to fit in the world in the world actually got interested because you know, if people can make better decisions in Wall street, uh, that may actually improve the bottom line and improve their quality of life. Wade Lightheart: There was a research study actually with CEOs and they found that the best CEOs actually relied on intuition more than any other factor in determining their biggest decisions in company. So a lot of them tend to gather a lot of data or you know, if you say instead of looking at five cards, maybe they're looking at 5,000 components and it's almost impossible to come to an accurate conclusion because you could make very logical arguments both for and against almost any decision inside the company. Uh, you know, as, as a lot of graduate students understand is like, well, if you want to prove anything you can find supporting evidence for virtually almost any sub topic. Topic is subject. So where is truth in that? And the best CEOs actually rely on intuition, the best athletes rely on intuition. And I think some of our greatest decisions or our greatest challenges is to, you know, go with the gut what quote unquote our gut. But what is that, what is this sense of I that seems to exist outside the physical domain. Cause I know here you were traveling down this road in kind of this, you know, you're always kind of treading on both sides of the equation since I've known you, you're going to Duke, something happened and then your whole life changed. Stefan J.Kasian: Well said Wade. I think that the journey kept continuing because um, at Duke I did premed and then I studied, um, I found the pre-med just wasn't addressing everything I thought was possible and healing and medicine. And so I started with my mentor there on mind body medicine study group. And at the time Duke thought that was like blast for me. Even the Dean of medical education thought like, what is this? You know, we don't, and yet 10 years later, 20 years later, dude starts to own money, mind, body department. So, you know, so that was my own intuition to follow. But you know, in that process we brought speakers to campus. Chi workers, um, you know, structural integration therapists, medical intuitives. I met norm Shealy there. He started, uh, he was a neurosurgeon who did his medical intuitive work with Caroline Myss. Stefan J.Kasian: I met him during a conference, Elmer Green, the the um, biofeedback innovator. But even he has stories behind him that he was guided by, you know, knowledge and beings that defined rationality. So I think I was just doing in that constantly. So, um, so continuing on with this journey, I worked at the Monroe Institute for a while and a fascinating place, listeners might love this place. Some of the neuro Institute is an important part of this discussion because it is a central point of discussion that kind of started this brain tech revolution, if you will, which is very relevant to what we're talking about. And we'll explain in a moment. You know, Robert Monroe was his normal left brain guy, executive who during the day he would fall asleep and take a nap, right? So yes, that right. Why not? So we found what happened is in the middle of the day, he would find himself floating over his body. Stefan J.Kasian: He was like, wait, what? What my dead know I'm alive. And then he'd wake up and he's still in it, he body. But that happened a few different times and he thought he was going crazy. He actually went to Duke, the JB Ryan to check this guy out and to see if he was normal and all the doctors said nothing was wrong with him. So these journeys kept explore developing. He was start leaving his body, if you will, at night and journeying to other realms. And he wrote books about this journeys out of the body, far journeys and ultimate journeys. Now I had the privilege of meeting this guy and he was out of this world. Literally. I shook his hand and my hand buzz like I thought he had an electrical buzzer in his hand. Like the con you get an a, you know, a comic store that would shock you but does it. Stefan J.Kasian: So I knew it was a very special man. I was their first and only undergraduate intern. It was an absolute blast working there because they work with sounds and they did this Hemi sync technology and the simple explanation for that is Hemi sync is using the brain as a way of hacking the brain playing two different sounds, one in each ear and the ear hears the difference in the frequencies and uses that to follow the sounds to go into an altered state, um, beyond our normal waking state. So I did a workshop with them called the gateway voyage. They had comped me and we actually had a Wall street executive there and psychics and researchers from around the world is such an amazing time there. And I had my first real experience of this where we're listening to these sounds and we're doing this guided journey, if you will, through these sound patterns. Stefan J.Kasian: And I literally, they call it resident toning. So I was tuning along with these sounds and literally I, I saw what looked like my body, but it was glowing and later I understood that to be an end, like our energy body, if you will. That's, that's an understanding of the literature. So that was one of many glimpses along the way that were way more much more than their physical body. And that was Robert Monroe's teaching from day one. We are more than our physical body. So I was never the same after that. I could never go down a conventional allopathic path, if you will. I love all forms of medicine. I mean a medicine, conventional medicine saved my life twice. But it was naturopathic and holistic medicine that put me back together again. So the two were like friends together. Wade Lightheart: I think that's a very important message for people because there's so many people in a conventional medicine and then, or alternative or natural medicine or holistic medicine, whatever you call it, and they're, they're always, uh, for a great number of people. They're there, they're bad mouthing and bashing the other, which in fact, I think they're just, you know, two ways of, of trying to help people who are having challenges in their life. And, uh, conventional seems to be very good in short term intervention. Very, you know, you're dying. You need a situation, there's something, you need a surgery, you are in a car accident, you're going to die because of something and that may be genetic or whatever. And you repair that. In other words, you put the machine. Okay, we patched it up, we glued it together, we took out with a bad piece. But really in order to really optimize it or treat what the issue was before or to get to the core of the issue, whether that's psychological, whether that's nutritive, whether it's, uh, you know, some other biological system, I think the holistic side, uh, offers some other choices. You want to talk about how that journey kind of led to the next piece, the next chapters in your very storied life. Stefan J.Kasian: So, so the next chapter was I had, uh, wanting to take a different path and I realized the conventional mind, conventional understanding. My vision was larger than that and I wanted to continue. So I pursued a doctorate in consciousness studies, transpersonal psychology and w and that was at Sabre university with my great dear friend, mentor Stanley Kripner, who's like a Yoda, you know. Wade Lightheart: Can you explain to people what transpersonal psychology is as they might not know what that is? Stefan J.Kasian: Yeah. So William James is a Harvard psychologist who, who had a, a great perception of psychology that goes beyond simply our understanding of behavioral and cognitive. It's more just who we are and what we think. It includes, experiences like dreams, ESP, powers, psychology, um, uh, sixth sense. It includes a space between us, altered States of consciousness, the superconscious, the subconscious. You know, it, it's, it's the, it's the entire realm of psychology that that is, let's say, the entire spectrum, if you will. And that's simply the, the few points of rationality we understand of who we think we are. So why is that so important right now and today? Because, um, when I did real estate, I was doing real estate while I was attending grad school at the time I bought my first house for $100, by the way. And that helped me understand that I was on my path when something amazing happened and I got a thank you letter from the guy for doing that. Um, I started, you know, I know I'm starting to kinda crossing paths right now, so I would buy a home and then, um, I would talk to my, um, friend who was, who actually did intuitive consulting work for the CEO of Sony and Bill Gates. Wade Lightheart: And so by the way, it's just, I think it's amazing how many people at the highest levels leverage intuitives or quote unquote, some people might call psychologists or people out of kind of like the very far left field. Everyone, it could be astrologists, it could be numerologist, it could be, you know, all of these kind of O cult type things that are poo-pooed. I know a lot of CEOs and a lot of heads of companies and stuff and almost all of them have some go-to mystical people that are on their Rolodex as much as their accountants and lawyers. Stefan J.Kasian: This is what I call decision augmentation technology, D a T decision augmentation technology. So we're relying on additional sources of information to help make decisions and, and not excluding anything initially. That's the creative process. That's a creative journey. So I was hungry for that. And transpersonal psychology taught me how other cultures actually use dreams as part of their decisioning in Korea. The middle East people sit around the breakfast table haven't been dreams. In fact, if you're, if your sister or brother is going to, uh, if your sister will conceive, often a family member will have a dream to gift them, keep map, fancy that family memorable. Actually have a pre-cognitive dream about the childbirth before it actually happens. So my thinking is practical. It's a bridge building. I like to build bridges and connect different worlds. So I thought, how can we apply that? So I actually did my doctoral work on prophetic or predictive dreams in real estate. Stefan J.Kasian: So he regard come on these worlds. Wow. That's themes about the home before they bought the house. And uh, which is actually quite common. Yes. And yet we're not, we don't always acknowledge it. Well, one of my dear friends and my mentor, in Duke, Larry Burke, he had wrote a book called the adventures of holistic radiologists and he interviewed patients who had dreams about breast cancer before they had it, and their genes are more predictive, if you will. Then then the mammogram, you know, the dreams were important source of information and wisdom. So once more, it's a way it's about how can we apply these phenomenal, extraordinary human experiences back down to the practical. So the next step in my journey happened. Ironically, I was studying to become a brain surgeon at Duke initially. That was my plan and I just found, you know, my vision was larger than that, if you will. Stefan J.Kasian: And yet I still had my contacts. So here I go. I graduated with my PhD in transpersonal psychology, having had these amazing insights and experiences and I was in a horrible car crash, a car crashed into me amazingly. I rolled out of the thing and I thought it was okay. About a year later, I started having the worst headaches of my life and I kept ignoring them like they're going to go away, think positive, right? Bypassing, you know, think positive, but it didn't get any better. And I went into the hospital, the hospital check me out and they said, sir, you don't have food poisoning. I have of strange anomaly in the middle of your brain. I said, no, I know when I'm in perfect health. They said, well, maybe that's why it hasn't killed you yet, but you need, we need to take care of this. So suddenly my reality warbled into a meltdown and I had had to undergo emergency brain surgery. Wade Lightheart: So not only did you study brain surgery, you actually became the patient, which I find is ironic. Uh, what happened after that because I know that was a pretty jarring experience in your life. And it led to some other, I think, some discoveries. And I think I want to before you kind of go into that, some of the challenges that happened were significant. And I think what's amazing is how you took those challenges and, and, and just reworked them in a really beautiful, magnificent way into your current career. So I think for anybody listening that's going through a very big physical challenge or a medical challenge or a health challenge or relationship challenge, recognize that there you have, although you can't always change the situation, you can change how you perceive the situation. And if you perceive the situation in a different way that it's an opportunity on some level, it can completely transform your life. So with all that, go ahead and kind of share what happened to you because, wow, it was a rocket ride. Stefan J.Kasian: Amen. I mean, uh, uh, there's so much more to say. So again, we're just giving big picture here, but you know, the, the, the chief of neurosurgery in and, you know, explaining the chances of life versus death because the location was so precarious that, you know, he invented the surgery to actually do this thing and he's the chief of neurosurgery. So, you know, I mustered every resource I possibly could. I had friends, I had healers, had people who were energy workers, pray constantly around the world for me, you know, because you know, there have been studies about even the Maharishi effects, um, you know, the studies in cardiology, patients getting prayed for and the outcomes of that. So I invoked every possible resource I could in inside myself to make sure I had the best journey possible. Wade Lightheart: An element, a key element if you're up against challenges is get every resource you can that will support you. Stefan J.Kasian: Exactly. And then I also surrendered to, to this medicine, I realized this is the best medicine this was world has at this point for this particular ailment. I analyze the risks and benefits. I mean I I know about John of God, I was thinking about going there, but the risks of leaving the hospital bed and this thing blew up, you know, it wasn't worth it. So you know, thinking pragmatically as well as intuitively is important to know how to have the right discernment for that. So funny thing is the procedure was about seven hours and taking, becoming a full fridge buildings, brain surgeon takes the seven years. So I had a seven year download of what would it in basically seven hours. So it was a seven hour brain surgery and I had what one would consider a near death experience, an NDE in the literature. Stefan J.Kasian: Um, and basically that means by, by classical definition, that's when a one is dead or near that at some form from prolonged period of time beyond the normal limits of the physicality. And they have a powerful disassociate experiences. Some people, you know, see the light, some people see colors, some people see angels. Uh, my experience was that of realizing or feeling, but more of like realizing that the entire life of this historical Dr Stefan, because the doctor was just the label of Stefan, just the label who we are goes way beyond that and beyond even the description of the words. So my entire life just became like a bubble and it just sort of burst and there wasn't even a sense of man, I'm dead. It was just wow. And there was just a sense of observing, uh, and, and awareness and, and such an intense feeling of light, if you will love. Stefan J.Kasian: It was almost painful. Uh, there's a saying about the 70,000 veils to God that if he actually saw God in its, in his or her pure form, your face would burn up. So we have these layers preventing us from seeing what the truth really is. So somehow it was my sense of a glimpse, but there really wasn't any thinking involved. It was just pure sensitive experience. And there was no sense of time. That thing could've been a thousand years of one year. One moment. I had no idea. But, um, that moment is still with me and it made me realize that, you know, we have a lot more to this world that's, that's not just seen. There's an unseen world. And, um, you know, I gradually came back into this body and uh, I remember kind of having this realization, Oh, there's a body to come back to, but it wasn't a me, it was just a pull to go back into it and then waking up and going like waking up and saying, what is this thing now? Stefan J.Kasian: And it wasn't operating the way I think I would've wanted it to because it was just operated on and under anesthesia so the body wasn't working. And I really felt that distinction between the essence in infusing the body and the body itself. So to me and healing, I realized we need to address both facets. The raw materials, which is what you and your team are exceptional with. Wade, is infusing the buy at the right raw materials as well as the top down, what energy, what prayers, what spirituality, what consciousness we're infusing ourselves with to animate that working both. And in the middle, that's, that's where the human is and that's where the magic is. And the heart is the middle of the body, the middle shocker, if you will. That is the bridge that connects all the two, and that's where some of the magic happens. Stefan J.Kasian: So it really was, it was incredible healing journey to get back and recover and rejuvenate. Um, so another thing I discovered was I'm like, what? Who are these other people? I know the hospital actually said, we're amazed. We've never seen anyone recover that quickly and be able to walk again and just get your ass out of the hospital. Some people spend months there with a surgery like that, even if they even make it through. So, you know, really go into that hellacious place and having the faith of being able to pull myself out of it gradually, you know, that that's where, that's where the rubber really hits the road and yeah, yeah. Was really where the rubber hits the road. Wade Lightheart: And then, so you, you kind of, uh, went on, so what was the next phase of your career after the recovery of that, which took some time? Stefan J.Kasian: The, yeah, the, the, these things are taking a mortal blow to the body is, is no huge feed. I mean SPE, the Sanskrit scholar is talking to Causey karmic. So there's multiple definitions or discussions, what that's about. But you know, I really was taking charge of myself healing. So I realized like what are the natural resources I can use now that the body mechanically got fixed? How do I put it back together again? And, and I saw the power of nature pathic medicine to the physicians I saw. And also I met this gentleman who was born 1901 I met at a raw food gathering, if you will. And um, and he was a speaker and at the time he was a speaker. I thought he was like 54 and at the time he was 108 when I met him. Yeah. Wade Lightheart: Yeah. He's a pretty amazing individual. I've had the good opportunity meeting or our friend there and it's remarkable. His cognitive capacity, his vitality, his health. And what did you learn from this Centurion? Stefan J.Kasian: Well, some of the transmissions that happen when you work in and study with someone go way beyond the words. I mean, certainly he had great genes, but he's in the most of it. He wasn't just like his son who he outlived when the Sunday, when he was 80, because the son smoked and partied too much. Uh, and those are risk factors. And now modernly we know epigenetics is the way our body and our mind talks to our genes and vice versa. So he made the most of his genetics. He ate phenomenally well and he built what I consider his brain bank and his body bank. So this is a really important concept because a lot of the things we know we need to do for our health don't always seem so, they seem so subtle. Um, do some yoga. Well, I don't know if that's going to help me today or tomorrow, but he did these practices every single day of his life. Stefan J.Kasian: He was very religious and spiritual. He prayed every day, read the scripture, he contemplated on whatever it was meaningful and divine to him. And he exercise every day, like religiously. And, uh, he also ate phenomenally well every day. Very disciplined in that. But I, I think that he built his physiological DataBank without taxing it. He kept adding his physiological wealth. It's like your retirement account, if you will, but it's a biological bank account. And he kept building that and that's a really critical concept I want to convey because he, he did that year after year and lived a phenomenal life right up until 114 I believe. Incredible. And outlook will TAF his age. So it's phenomenal. So the other thing I learned in the process, and curiously, you know, when I, when I was coming back from that surgery and recovering, I realized I got this realization was a dream and intuition can only really talk to our DNA, right? Stefan J.Kasian: I to really communicate with it. Now we're having a lot of, a lot of various science coming out. But the thing is we don't necessarily need to wait for science to before we can do something, let us be the explorers, let us be the experimenters, let us be the pioneers if we feel guided to. And I realized that I could actually meditate to connect with the DNA. Actually did a podcast with a non-state publishing on that. They did work with the EQ article about how you can communicate with your DNA and maximize its physiological expression. Wade Lightheart: I remember one of our earliest meetings, um, you and I had a discussion, it was in Sedona, Arizona. And our discussions when we meet up are always a very animated and fun and, uh, covering a wide range of topics. It's a really playful yet, uh, I would say inspiring and, uh, thought provoking conversations. And you told me this, one of the things is you look incredibly young for your age and am I going to say your age on here? But it's, it's, it's shocking for most people and they would never guess your age. And I remember this conversation and you said, well, I actually just, uh, taught, told my DNA that, that we're going to change it's aging process, you know, and I thought, what a great idea. Tell me more. So tell us more what that, how that process came and how did you come to that conclusion? It definitely seems to be working. So I think there's probably millions around the world that would like to save the trip to the drugstore for the latest, uh, oil of delay and tap into what's maybe possible with your, uh, with what you've done. Stefan J.Kasian: Well, wait, I mean to do, we wouldn't necessarily have all the time, we'd need to go into the specifics of that. Uh, but the, the big picture from me is the biology of belief. Bruce Lipton wrote about how we can communicate to our body and connect with it and affirm who and what we are. So in any of these journeys we're embarking on, we need to have a very clear and strong intention and have a, have a means by which we're going to connect with ourselves more deeply to help reprogram ourselves. So this to me is about inner engineering and also outer engineering. How to optimize your internal environment, how to optimize your external environment to support that. Stefan J.Kasian: So, so, um, the, the connection to the DNA is really a meditation about going deep and, um, getting out of our mind, our busy mind, into our deeper States of awareness. Our, you know, right now we're out in currently operating a beta state, but in beta frequencies, that's the predominant. But then we want to get into an alpha, a theta or Delta state, which is what I do in the brain. Spas on developing is giving people a chance to get out of their conventional, busy, busy, busy mind and experience a greater sense of themselves so they can access that, that discussion they have with their DNA, if you will, on how to do that. Wade Lightheart: And then further for those of us who want to, who want to know more about the different brain atates, you can refer back to the other podcast that we did with my co founder, Matt Gallant on the various brain states and what they correlate to in regards, we won't go into all the details today, but to keep on going. Stefan J.Kasian: Uh, you know, and I realized life is a hypnosis, if you will. We're hypnotized into thinking we need to. We are, we are an individual person that we're born and then we actually die. Who's the we who, who's the I that's getting , who's the IVUS? Even commenting on this, certainly earning out of the body, certainly seeing all these experiences and still having some sense of awareness, whether his body was getting operated on or not told me that, that were more than we think we are. So, so that kind of hypnosis can work both ways. You know, we can hypnotize ourselves to say, um, you know, I don't have, I don't get old. I have birthdays or rebirth days or sell your continuation days instead of thinking how old are you? Because that's a cultural hypnosis or programming of, of old, um, how many times has your body evolved around the sun? Stefan J.Kasian: Really, you know, what is your physiological age versus your chronological age? And then each year is a celebration of how many years you've been 25 or 30 or 40. It needs to be, it needs to be plot. There needs to be some that your system has to buy or some of it which you can start inching it back. So again, the, the, the teaching is, is simple, but you know, the executions, it's huge. It's, it's a very huge endeavor if you will. And each belief takes at least 21 days to program. So it's for it to become active in your system. So you know when you can buy into that they like, I actually feel I connect with the part of me that feels 25 you know, by by divine grace it says all by, you know, whatever mystery that brought us here that continues us. You know, how much are we really in control of any of that. Stefan J.Kasian: So it's really also acknowledging that, you know, we do our part and then this, that mystery does the rest we do our part, which is the raw materials you provide. I mean those are important tools for the telomeres, for the epigenetics, for the proper methylation, for people to stay young as long as possible. So let's talk about you. You then journeyed into the realm of naturopathic medicine and started studying in Arizona in regards to that. You want to explain a little bit about that and then absolutely way, because I loved, well, I love teaching and speaking. When I did real estate, people tapped me on the shoulder and saying, how did you do what you do? You, you bought a house for a hundred and filled your, I figured out a way, sell it in a weekend. Then you do these house clearings in the house, sells faster. Stefan J.Kasian: How do you do what you do? So, um, I, I started teaching seminars and I wanted to take Bernado my friend to teach seminars. We spoke at the raw spirit festival. We didn't event in Sedona creative life center. Oprah had called him and we were discussing should he be on or not. He just did not want the publicity, which is just crazy, but I can also understand you're a buck 10, a buck 12 and you just don't need the extra PR. You don't need the stress. And he's lived a fulfilled life. So I get it. It's pretty amazing. Um, so, uh, I was continuing on this journey that we did events, health events, and there were questions I didn't know the answer to. And I sort of stumbled, literally stumbled on the campus at, in Tempe, Arizona, Southwest college of naturopathic medicine. And was like, maybe this is where I need to be next. Stefan J.Kasian: And, um, I wanted to rehabilitate myself to anytime there's a major trauma that happens with the body, a, you know, we need to learn new skills is important. We challenge ourselves and put ourselves into a new groove because it's a new chapter of life. Life continues. So it was an unnatural resonance and, and I was willing to embark on that journey and actually I did all the natural, the premed work beforehand. So when I was in naturopathic school, I discovered, um, you know, the best of both worlds is what I think we as natural paths to do. Um, we're like the last Mohicans in some way because it was five or 6,000 of us licensed in the States. It's not that many. And yet we have certain solutions that, you know, the, the mainstream doesn't, we even this philosophy of teaching, of going to the root cause of looking at the baseline of establishing the foundations of health, looking at the obstacle to cure, like a very systematic way of thinking that pharmacology and surgery are the last two points of that. Stefan J.Kasian: You reserve those for the last, there's so many things you can do beforehand. So I just loved the way he was thinking and were actually looked at as nature, as a curative force inside of ourselves. Not thinking where machine needs to be fixed, but just the fact that we're a vital force, the operating our body and that we can work with. So, you know, I, even if I still had the passion of being on the edge there at SC and M, so I heard this doctor speak about indigenous shamans in it, indigenous shamanism and Amazonian plant medicine. And I intended this meaning this talk at a local, um, uh, botanical store and I was so blown away, but what this guy was doing, he's an MD who was disgruntled as a medical student. You know, wanted more when he was depressed in med school, they wanted to give him Prozac and he was not finding that acceptable, you know, so he, he wanted to look at what botanical options are there. Stefan J.Kasian: Siliciden was, um, what came up because it was not so harmful and he went to his route. So he traveled back to Columbia, started looking at shamans and healers and literally cofounded a healing center with an indigenous indigenous shaman indigenous curandero, a medicine man who was, who'se their traditions have done this for thousands of years. And I heard that and I even heard the science that of what Dr was talking about and uh, and it made sense on so many levels. And there's a part of me here, we go about intuition. You listen, when you're on the path, you're like, I've got to do that or whatever. I feel that resonance. So you know, like life's this river. Like sometimes we're on the edge and sometimes we just have to dive right into it. I have to do that. And that's sort of what began this journey because I went down there in the summer as a med students and I got all my clinical hours done early and I didn't tell anyone because I didn't know if I was going to come back or live through it. I want to bring anyone I was, this was my journey. I had to go there first, check it out. And it was like, it was like going from the matrix into the avatar. Wade Lightheart: It's a very good, um, it's a, it's a very good description I think for people who might not be a familiar with plant medicine and some of the opportunities I've long been an advocate of leveraging plant medicines, traditional pathways, which had been used literally for thousands of years and cultures around the world. One of the primary cultures who integrated this into, you know, society, uh, is in South America, in these type of indigenous tribes who had very profound traditions and extremely robust knowledge of the effects of plants. They're, you know, both for treating medical conditions, but also I think what's really interesting is leveraging and treating us on the more human level, that more internal relationship that we have with ourselves, the psychology, the emotionality, the spirituality as just as robust or are just as important, if not more important than what was, what was actually happening out here on the physical plane. So you went down into it literally into the Amazon and you're, you're having these parents. What happened for you there and how did that lead to your work today? Stefan J.Kasian: Well, I would say it was, it was incredibly profound. I mean, um, it really coming into the lungs of mother earth, you know, unplugging from the cell phone. The matrix world was such an insane revelation. I didn't even know what any would, I didn't even know a part of me knew, which is why I felt so called to go. But as soon as I got there, it was like I, I could actually breathe for the first time. I could actually smell for the first time. I mean, as a kid I could feel the energy of the trees. And I don't know what to make of it. And now we researched that trees are so incredibly intelligent with each other that they, you know, their roots literally, you know, you have these root trees in near woods, California out in this Bay area. Some of the trees are up to a thousand years old. Stefan J.Kasian: And how do they survive all the, the deforest, the earthquake start to whatever the weather extremes that was for this years. The, the roots literally entwined in touch each other and they can communicate along each other. So I realized, and I literally felt in my body and myself that I was plugging this vast cosmic super computer and you know, it was like I was getting upgraded or something. Um, so, you know, there's, it's, it's literally beyond description and yet I also realized there's other times in my life I've felt that too, during my healing journey. I, Yogananda, Paramhansa Yogananda landed in my lap literally. Wade Lightheart: And for those, for those who don't know who he is, he was the first Yogi to come from the East. Uh, came in 1920s to the Western is often considered the father of Western yoga philosophy, where he was maybe the first person to actually live extensively in the West. He wrote a book called autobiography of a Yogi. He was the inspiration for my own spiritual journey. He also appeared to me in a vision long time ago. I don't really talk about that too much in public, but, uh, inspired me to learn about some of the philosophies which have existed for thousands of years. And, uh, yoga practice, meditation practice, and very deep knowledge about what makes a human a human, a spirit of spirit, of soul, a soul. And we share that common bond. And so here, Yogananda flops into yoga, get laugh as well. And, and what happened there? Stefan J.Kasian: Uh, you know, I was sitting in, this is temple, if you will, and, and, and I'm on one Sunday. And literally it felt like I was getting plugged into some computer. Uh, you know, that I was a little cell in a, in a larger organism, a feeling of unity or oneness that resembled the feeling I had during the surgery. And, uh, you know, the conscious between having a sense of oneness and then feeling like I'm this in the separate body, which wasn't working that well and was a lot of pain, but Yogananda's sort of connected me back into that. And then, which led me into, um, another feeling of, uh, you know, the Amma and the Hugging Saints. Some of, some of your listeners may know about her. She's this amazing awakened master, if you will, who does amazing humanitarian work, barely eats and sleeps and has been, they've recorded her, like documented her hugging at least 30 million people and this over the past 30 years. Wade Lightheart: And, and people have profound effects. But by just getting a hug for this lady, they changed their life's changed their whole perspective on things. Seems like it's, it's, it's a phenomenal experience. I, she can stand all day long without rest and just hug person after person in thousands and thousands and thousands of people traveled from all over to kiss. Just get a hug from this lady. And uh, it's phenomenal. But you have, and again, these, we're not here to talk about things that are Hocus Pocus are out there. We're here to inspire our listeners to say, Hey, you know, it isn't all a goes to B goes to C, there is this other interconnected web of a life or existence or that, that that goes beyond our conditioned hypnotic trends of what we've, what we've been force fed in a lot of things to say, this is what is and this is how it is. And anything outside of that is out worth investigation. And that's just so boring and lame. You know, it's just, it leads to a very drab and a very, what I say, boxed in lifestyle, which you and I are definitely not in supportive. Stefan J.Kasian: Which reminds me of Krishna saying "It is no measure of health to be profoundly well adjusted to a sick society." Wade Lightheart: Oh, that's great. Stefan J.Kasian: You know, you're, you're too normal. You're almost normal pathic instead of psychopathic. So it's really about discovering our own authenticity. And these are bits of my authentic journey. Um, uh, and where I felt it profound experiences I felt changed me. So you know, someone listening to this will have a resonance in certain aspects and go, Hmm, I may want to check that out. And even our conversation here is nonlinear for a certain, for very special reason because you know, we think we're going from point a to point B in point point C in life, but who actually says life is a and time is in a straight line. Wade Lightheart: No, there's, there's no evidence of straight lines occurring naturally in nature, which is interesting, which were, so we've got these ideas that we need to build box houses and square computers and everything and this is really interesting component of humanity. We're creating these, you know, square dimensional or boxed in dimensional kind of ideas. You don't see this anywhere in nature and you certainly don't see it in a lot of the indigenous, uh, structures and styles of life, which tend to be much more robust. Stefan J.Kasian: And back to the world of indigenous cultures that they had it figured out their, their system was absolutely figured out. I, I mean, I was able to get into this very deep path, very, I live, they put me in a hut inside the jungle. The a traditional shaman would be trained and uh, you know, the, the life of the shaman is somebody who can traverse, altered, uh, non-ordinary states of awareness and bring back information to benefit their people, their culture or their tribe. So, you know, he, I am, I go out there and what I experienced there was so profound that I came back and started talking about it with my classmates. And then suddenly people are like, I want to go, wait, why don't you bring me, I want to go. And so was born in annual expedition culture geared around medical education to whine, to expand. Stefan J.Kasian: Imagine if a practitioner, you have a profound experience of nature and healing that you know, blows your mind. You come back every life after that you will not, you will touch differently. You know, you will, you will see life from a different perspective. And, and, and, um, that's what happens to the new a hundred people I brought there with me. And I'm very, very selective about who, who I have accompany me on these journeys. Uh, I do keep it intimate and small for that reason, uh, because it's, it's about a very high, high touch, high quality, transformative experience. Wade Lightheart: And it's, it's a sacred, it's a sacred experience. If there's ever a good way to, to teach the world to address that I think would be, that is what sacred is. It's about, uh, a conscious, very intimate environment where one can really let go of, I would say sometimes the grand standing of our egos and lives and how they're structured and format and to get into a place in such a radical environment, uh, I think also is important in the transformative experience to break away from our conditioned representative who navigates the world, uh, versus who, what we could potentially be and what capacities that we can activate within the human condition that have for largely part in the Western world been forgotten or shunned away or discredited, which are very rich in these types of cultures. Stefan J.Kasian: Which is why connecting back to the transpersonal psychology, transpersonal psychology created a framework for how these extra ordinary things can happen. How Bernardo can live to 114 how he raw written my neck, who I met at a conference. He could, he was the world's longest supervised medical fast, like 300 days. And he stared at the sun. You know, how somebody, how a being could, you know, stay awake all night and not tire and just love people to pieces and do it nonstop. So these are extraordinary examples and yet, you know, these are, these are also possible within our ordinary ways of living. So, you know, this is the beautiful implicate order of, of our consciousness that certainly my studies, my rigorous studies, because I want it to be as this one, it's possible. I didn't just want to go native. I wanted to have a good scientific reason why I'm going native and I feel, you know, we have science supporting us, we really have science supporting us in this. Stefan J.Kasian: I mean there's so much more to say that time wouldn't permit, but it's, you know, that this is also these particular journeys I've taken and guided to the Amazon weren't just about experiencing the sacred medicine is also about bonding and having a cross cultural experience with tribes and tribal customs that are soon going extinct. You see your Amazon is burning up and some of these tribes had been mistreated by the government or not even recognized. So how do we, you know, not only protect ourselves in this journey, but connect to a part of ourselves as this planet that is going extinct if we're not going to save it. So if you have you go down there and have a genuine experience, you might feel inspired to pay it forward somehow. Perhaps, you know, assist with some of the land we're trying to secure for the tribe, you know, document is somehow exchange something with the tribe. Stefan J.Kasian: I know the Durango Tribune wrote an amazing article about the tribe that, Oh, and by the way, this is one of my, um, beautiful garments that I purchased. It's more, it's more of like a, uh, let's call it. It's just, it's a large tapestry that the shipibo artists had drawn. And the amazing story about that, which was also, uh, described and in one of the articles is that, um, you see all the different colors and these colors represent music. They represent the way they see the world. You can have two shipibo, um, uh, people. So, so a garment like this, and literally they could almost do it blindfolded and they would know the exact song, if you will, that they would. So it, and, and you show the locals there they will, Oh, that's ayahuasca. That's chacruna for example. These are songs of the plants, if you will. Stefan J.Kasian: So here we go. In biology you have chromatography, you can actually extract the, the, the components of a plant. Um, and also if you take DNA and put it to musical notes, it sounds like Chopin. And this was, um, Jeremy and Arby's discuss this in his work, um, about the DNA and the cosmic serpent about information being contained inside the DNA. So my speculation and, uh, my wild speculation is connecting with these indigenous tribes, um, has ancient wisdom for us to really connect who we are beyond what we know as books. There's memories of who you are that we forgot. There's parts of our DNA that aren't active yet that are stories in there. And I feel we get to access through the bioluminescence because during these ceremonies I'd have as you know, like vivid dreams, but they would almost like see glowing colors in lights. Stefan J.Kasian: So who is that and what is that? Um, you know, I think this has produced from within our own bodies and this is helping us connect with a deeper essence of who we are. And, and this is a clue, this is a clue because you asked some of these tribes where they came from. They were like, you know, we came from a peer, we came from the stars. We came from out of time. We always existed. They have the Star Wars type of heroes journey and mythology about who they are. And you know, there's no description, uh, of how specialists connect to that. Wade Lightheart: Uh, well said and very beautiful. And I, of course, if people are looking for scientific validation back in the early 19 hundreds in autobiography of a Yogi, uh, Yogananda, uh, documents, his journeys, uh, one of his scientific researchers, JC Chandra Bose, who had Gerald developed the crescograph that actually demonstrated that plants have a communication structure. They feel pain, they feel suffering, they can, uh, they, they live and they can actually communicate. And my mom to take this to the very practical, who is wonderful, very simple lady and an extraordinary gardener who loves to spend time in her garden growing plants, putting her hands in the soil and she talks to the plants. And it's been proven now that communicating with your plants directly has a definitive effect on the health of the plant. And of course that plant also has a definitive effect on us as a physiology. Wade Lightheart: There's an inter connectiveness that we eat the plants and eventually when we died, the plants eat us. And so it's a very, it's a, it's a much more, it's a symbiosis. Yeah. And of course, traditional indigenous tribes would often times take moments to honor, whether it was an animal that they had killed to consume or a plant that they had killed to consume. There is an honoring and a sacredness of it and a recognition of the circle of life and the connection as of this. And I think it's phenomenal when you talk about ayahuasca and that particular plant. And it's a combination of plants and it's different in different places. But those plants on their own are poison. Like they would hurt you. But in combination, they evoke these very unique aspects of consciousness. And when they were asked, how did we discover this? Wade Lightheart: The odds of discovering that these two plants together working to some ridiculous mathematical probability that wouldn't possibly happen. But it was the plants that talked to people, the, the people, and brought this out. And then this has a profound effect. And now we're seeing the spread thanks to the internet. Um, previously hidden knowledge to colonialism, Western civilization. The scientific paradigm per se, is what some people would call simple. Indigenous tribes have this profound understanding, a knowledge and an ability to take anyone to, to start to experience these truths for themselves, these ex experiential realities that are undeniable. And they're not like, we're not talking hallucinogenics. We're talking ethno botanicals, which have a very, very different, a hallucination is something that you cannot stop and you're, you know, someone, you know, someone that's challenged on the street would be having a hallucination. Where in these type of visionary experiences, oftentimes you can communicate with that person, they can open their eyes and be present. They can close their eyes and be in another place. How did this, these experiences impact you and impact some of the naturopathic physicians that were coming down to experiencing these things? And, and why do you feel so strongly of why this is so important to get this message out to people? Stefan J.Kasian: Well, today, uh, great questions Wade. I will say for me really, um, yeah, connected with my own bio luminescence if you will. And when I came back the first time, people were like, you are glowing. What's going on? How was your, and then I brought my other classmates with me and they came back glowing. So people really saw a profound cleanse and detoxification of depuration that happened their body, and this is a critical point in our evolution right now, that we have so much toxicity from every angle. Air, water, food, yes, a hour that unless we're actually taking steps to detoxify, purify by, uh, on every level, uh, you know, we're, we're heading in the opposite direction. I mean the ecosystem is at risk for that. So to me it just gave such a profound direct experience of truth and light, love, beauty. Um, you know, that was not influenced by, you know, the matrix or the media or what we're told to think, a direct experience. Stefan J.Kasian: I couldn't help but want to share that. And some of the journeys I've experienced, um, were so profound and, and uh, I've captured them, I've written them down that, you know, and I came back and share them, the people that are like, Whoa, you went experience that really. So, uh, you know, it was just very illuminating internally. So it's also to me about the purity of this. I'm very, I'm a purist when it comes to these experiences. I'm not actually a fan Wade and not everyone would agree with me, but I'm not a fan of going to your friend's house and ordering iOS on the internet and doing that. I, I don't think it's a wise idea. I do, I do support education. I don't necessarily believe in, um, like over restriction I think in responsible use. But to me the difference between, you know, even somewhere local and journeying going on your hero's journey properly to the source of where something got innovated and it having a direct cultural transmission, the direct nature, earth transmission of that wisdom of that energy is in comparable, you know, it's like watching IMAX or a black and white movie. Stefan J.Kasian: So how I got a sense of something extremely real and precious, I wanted to preserve and wanted to, you know, uh, continue. Wade Lightheart: Speaking of that just as a side note, almost every tradition, uh, throughout history has put forth the value of going on. Some people call it a said Hannah or your Meko moment or some sort of journey and it's represented as you setting Joseph Campbell's hero's journey. I think he documented over 200 different versions of basically the same thing, which he boiled down to the same essential story. Life's kind of ordinary. Something happens. Uh, some sort of chaos happens in your local thing. There's some resistance. You go off, you face a bunch of obstacles, you fight the big dark, you know, issue that is in your life represented as a dragon. You overcome that and then you return home with knowledge, wisdom, and perspective, often at a certain price. Uh, and that is kind of the journey and it's honored in virtually every culture. What makes it so powerful with what's happening in the Amazon with these people and what they have to offer. Stefan J.Kasian: Because you're, you're earning it, you're earning it. This is not just follow your bliss. This is get in there and get down and dirty. Work with your shadow. Work with, with your traumas. Work with was difficult in your life. Um, get to face the demons that you know have been plaguing. You are haunting you. I mean this, this is not a, this is not a vacation. If someone wants to go and get a massage, go down the street, get a massage. But if you want, you know, to be able to really ring your life inside and out and exercise the demons, if you will, literally and figuratively the things I've seen look like some very powerful exorcisms, which to me simply is returning, darkens back into the light with awareness and light and love. Uh, you know, there's no comparison for that. You have to earn it. Stefan J.Kasian: You really do. And it's about sacrifice. You're giving up yourself on your familiar comforts. We're asleep on a jungle floor in the hut with bugs biting you sometimes, but you know, if you think positive about bugs, you're less likely to bite you. So I wouldn't worry about that. Um, you know, having, having a purge, having a very clean [inaudible], really making true changes and reflecting on your life, seeing what doesn't work and, and being shown, you know, in the silence, in the gaps, what, who and what you really are outside of who you're told. So these are such profound things that can happen there. When one's putting in the work and stepping out as something very familiar to lock you back into the pattern, who we think you are. So, and also the integration before, during and after. There's preparation before there's a support during. And there's the integration after which is very different from, you know, going down the street and having an experience at your friend's house and thinking you had it, you know, um, this really is about, you know, having a Rite of passage that, um, is not ordinarily available to us because in some ways to our life is difficult, but it's also kind of easy. Stefan J.Kasian: You know, it's, you can skip through some of these developmental things, but in a tribal sense, you know, they're, they're connected to the earth. They, they need, they, they're there. There's very survival exists, depends on how connected they are to who they are and, and their world around them. Wade Lightheart: Profound. It's, it's, it's really inspiring. And I love the fact that the internet is actually, ironically, uh, this technical development in the digital world has opened up. What would I would say more, I don't know what the word spiritual is, the word I would use, but certainly a, a rich in more interiolized that we see than the externalized life that many of us are living today. Wade Lightheart: Tell me what's happening now for you because you've kind of taken this to the next level, not you. What do I love? What I love about what you do, Dr Stephan, is that it's not enough for you to just to go through your own experience. You then go off and you really underst. You don't just take what you get and say, Oh, that was a cool experience. Like, no, you get into the mechanics of it, the physiology of the experience and the biochemistry of the experience, the spirituality. That's the psychology of the experience. I mean, you really drink the whole, you know, the whole Gord full. Like every drop is, is, is put through you, and then you have this beautiful way of integrating this in a very, I would say, uh, attractive way to the world and sharing that. And I believe that you are now in engaged in that right now about sharing the value of what's happening in the Amazon and what we can do about it as well as some of the things of how you're bringing back some of the wisdom there and planting it into the Western world so that we can hear that are, you know, in the Western world we can take advantage of this ancient wisdom and these practices that I think make us all a little bit more human. Stefan J.Kasian: Well, segway, thank you so much for that. I would say that, uh, my interests, I, I'm an experience or an Explorer and I like to share the, the, the jewels if you will and make them more readily and easily acc

Khrystle Rea is an amazing woman who today leads a blissfully balanced life. But she has overcome more than her share of health struggles to get there. And now she's sharing what she learned with other women: as an empowerment coach and strategist she aids them in transforming their overworked lives into a blissful work-life balance by elevating their food, feelings, and fitness. On this episode of Awesome Health Podcast, we talk in greater detail about her experiences, why the best healers are often those who go through the worst crises and much more. Hear her insights and her passion about health, healing and the power of the mind and body on the 29th edition of Awesome Health Podcast.   More Awesome Health With Khrystle Rea We begin with her back story: in college she experienced depression and severe anxiety including panic attacks, uncontrollable shaking, racing heart rate for no reason, etc. She also had difficulty eating and when she did it hurt her stomach. But her health issues went back even further. She also had abandonment issues from childhood and physical illnesses. She had a benign tumor on her breast at 15, she had strep throat 14 times between 2 and 4 years of age. To make matters worse, people told her she was a hypochondriac and she felt like she didn't fit in anywhere. It all came to a head in 2012 when she was a senior in college and had the worst anxiety experience; she had hit her rock bottom. Today she does what she does because reaching her rock bottom and the experiences she had along the way taught her so much, especially about food. She realized that was she ate could alter her mood and influence how she felt. Sometimes she would eat something and it would cause her heart to race for no apparent reason. She could eat something else and have stomach discomfort.  It became apparent to her that she couldn't eat gluten and dairy. But doctors told her there was nothing wrong with her stomach after she had a scope, so she went back to those foods only to realize she was right: those foods were making her feel awful. It took so long for her to find answers and come to that conclusion, and she is a health coach now to help other people get answers faster than she did. She's here to help speed up people's journey to health: it doesn't have to take 10 years! Once you start feeling good it becomes addictive. Taking Responsibility For Your Own Life We have a raw and honest conversation about divorce and grief before talking about how she took responsibility for her life and her experiences trying to heal: how did she do it? Her mom knew she couldn't fully help Khrystle so Khrystle began therapy at the age of 8. And Khrystle feels she had a choice on whether or not to do her own healing work, and she chose to do it. She's also been extremely curious her entire life so she was open to exploring options and taking her own power. And from January 2018 she was seeing a few healing practitioners and felt she was healed. But she also knew she had tested positive for Mtfhr and found a functional medicine doctor who could help her. She knew exactly what she needed and wanted, and she found it. Because of all the healing work she had done she had a good idea of what worked for her body in terms of diet, exercise, lifestyle so she didn't need someone to tell her what to do in those areas. She needed someone who would work with her knowledge and help her fill in any blanks. And this doctor did just that: he filled in those blanks with supplementation. It helped her realize she could help her body in certain ways through foods and supplementations, and doing so would help her symptoms.  Which was a very different experience then she had when she originally got into pole dancing competitions and weight lifting competitions. We talk about why she got interested in both arenas, plus why she became a health coach.  One of our final topics is the most common issues she sees her clients dealing today. Khrystle says it is their thoughts and their beliefs about self-worth; people feel they don't deserve to feel good or feel loved. And a lot of her clients struggle with comparing themselves to others. She feels many people are listening to what is outside of them more than what is inside of them, and that is leading to issues. Many people believe their thoughts and our thoughts are not who we are, but people are allowing themselves to believe they are.  We also talk about the influence of outside energies, how to stay centered and grounded so we know our feelings are own versus someone else's. You'll hear those powerful topics and more on today's Awesome Health podcast! Episode Resources Khrystle Rea's web site Khrystle Rea on Facebook A Blissfully Balanced Life podcast Khrystle Rea on Instagram Awesome Health course You Can Heal Yourself, by Louise Hay Awesome Health episode with Scott Abel Masszymes (shake10) bioptimizers.com/blissfullybalanced

Wade T. Lightheart, host of the AWESOME Health Podcast, is a 3-time All Natural National Bodybuilding Champion, advisor to the American Anti-Cancer Institute and  Co-Founder of Education at BiOptimizers Nutrition, one of the world’s most innovative nutritional supplement companies. He is also the author of several books including the best-selling books, “Staying Alive in a Toxic World” and “The Wealthy Backpacker.”   In this episode - Wade's personal story of going form Mr. Universe to Mr. Marshmallow in two months! - What are enzymes and why they are so important - What does are gut have to do with our weight and food choices - What is happening when we experience digestive issues like heart burn and bloating. - The effects of fasting on enzymes   BioOptimizers Use coupon code podcast10   12-week health course: http://bioptimizers.com/otherside     Karen Martel is a transformational nutrition coach who specializes in women's hormone health, weight loss and primal diets including autoimmune, paleo and ketogenic.   She is the founder of the OnTrack program for women. OnTrack helps women who follow a primal based diet and want to optimize their weight loss results by balancing their hormones through the Hormone and Metabolic Reboot (HMR) Plan! Includes weekly HMR meal plans, recipes and shopping lists included. Group coaching sessions and courses on balancing hormones to optimize weight loss results.  Get started with a free two week Hormone Balancing Meal Plan!

    We start by talking about a burnout experience I had a few years ago, and how I recovered. In essence, we're talking about managing your nervous system. Doing so is one of the most important things you can do for your overall health and well-being. There are phases of this experience which Matt details on this show. The first is fight, flight or freeze. The next is impaired decision-making ability and the final phase is mental and physical burn out. Matt shares his experience with burn out and then goes on to explain his current strategy for avoiding a nervous system meltdown. To understand his strategy it's important to first understand some basics about the nervous system. Your nervous system is divided into two parts: the sympathetic (this is where the fight, flight or freeze system comes from) and the parasympathetic (this is where all the healing happens within your body). Going more in-depth, in most instances exercise puts your body into fight or flight mode. This includes things like lifting and running. The exercises that are healing for your body are tai chi and yoga, they activate your parasympathetic nervous system. When you're breathing deep and slowly that activates your parasympathetic nervous system, when your breathing is more rapid your sympathetic nervous system is engaged and you go into fight, flight or freeze mode. Personally, I've been doing breath work for 20 years including meditation. Breathing can change your brain state, belly breathing is a necessary part of this. By allowing your belly to come out with your breath your lungs will open up so you can get fuller and deeper breaths. I start every day by doing a few quick exhales and then long and slow inhales. I do the 10-10-10-10 process which is 10 seconds in, 10 seconds hold and 10 seconds exhale and then 10 seconds with no breath. This is also called box breathing and you can start with just a few seconds (like 4 or 5) and work your way up to 10. Healing The Body to Avoid Burn Out Next, we talk about brain waves and neural feedback. Neural feedback is brain measuring feedback system that feedbacks to you what is happening. It's like a GPS system that trains your brain to hit different states. These different states fall in one of 5 categories, three of which are healing and two of which are fight/flight/freeze. The healing states are alpha which is when you are relaxed but alert, then there is theta which is even slower and deeper than alpha. And the last of these three is delta - that is the state we are in when we are sleeping. On the fight, flight or freeze side, the two states are beta and gamma. Beta is when you are engaged and focused and thinking. Anxiety looks like too high levels of beta. Gamma is a very high spiritual state, it is very powerful and intense but there is a cost to it. We also discuss dopamine levels and blue light from social media and technology, before we move into how to know we are overstimulated and heading towards burn out. One of the big X factors in avoiding burn out is resilience, there is a physical component to this. Matt has worked to increase his through neural feedback and also cleaning out his limbic system. (The limbic system is one component of our nervous systems, it is responsible for our emotions). He has cleaned out his limbic system by facing and healing old emotional wounds. Take for example the person who was bitten by a dog and doesn't like them, even though it's been 40 years since they were bitten. They haven't healed that experience and their limbic system will respond to dogs as if they were about to relive that old experience of being bitten. One way to work on these old emotional wounds and put your nervous system in a more relaxed state is through EFT (the Emotional Freedom Technique), it is also known as tapping. EFT immediately starts to shift your nervous system into parasympathetic. When you tap the specific points in EFT your nervous system shifts over into a parasympathetic state.  You can also do neural feedback, meditation and practicing gratitude. Pay attention to how often you laugh - if you are laughing you are probably in parasympathetic mode. Another piece of avoiding burn out is macro and micro recovery. In general, the harder you want to drive the harder you need to focus on recovery. If you want to drive your body like a race car then you need a really good pit crew and really high-quality components to put your car back together, or you will crash and burn! There are some supplements you can take to help with this. For the fight, flight or freeze, things like coffee, THC, caffeine, etc would fall under this category. But you can stack parasympathetic supplements with sympathetic supplements to counterbalance their effect. Matt talks about which he likes best and why, plus which essential oil has been shown to increase alpha brain waves. You'll also hear how we both healed ourselves with magnesium and why floating was part of that! It's all here on episode 31 of Awesome Health Podcast with Matt Gallant. Episode Resources Magnesium Breakthrough Oura ring Biostrap Info on EFT The Powerful Engagement, by James E. Loehr and Tony Schwartz PDF on Flight, Fight or Freeze Masszymes (code cheat10) Read the Episode Transcript : Wade Lightheart: Good afternoon. Good morning and good evening, wherever you are. It's Wade T Lightheart here with my cofounder of BiOptimizers Matty G. I am so pumped about today. Wade Lightheart: We haven't done a podcast together. We haven't done an Awesome health Podcast forever. And crime is pretty much, and we're gonna actually increase these over the next while because you know, Matt is a wealth of information. He's on the bleeding, the literally the bleeding edge. He does bleed literally to kind of optimize his health regularly by taking a variety of blood extractions and testing a lot of different things. We're going to get into that in one of the future podcasts. But today we're going to go kinda back the truck up. We're going to talk about something that every high performer deals with and everybody listening to this is going to deal with this. And that is burnout and its relation to the nervous system. What is the relationship? Because if you're kind of into by optimization, uh, or you know, you call yourself a biohacker or whatever, everybody gets pretty much into that area because their, their mind is writing checks that their body can't cash. Wade Lightheart: Uh, and you know, part of the, uh, pro high performer is to find that balance, that balance between am I performing at a high level and am I destroying my body to do that? And it was kind of cool in the 80s to do that. It's not cool as we move into 2020 it's about I want my cake, I want to eat it too. I want to be a superhuman. And we're on the edge of the evolutionary parts of what it takes to become a superhuman. And most people want to become a superhuman because they recognize, you know, there is that angle that we were getting. We're getting examples of people who are delivering at super high levels, but what is the, what is the components? What do you need to do? What are the daily practices? What are they, what are the things to watch out for? How do you end up in the burnout? How do you destroy yourself? Matty G, what do you gotta say about this right now I've been doing all the talking, let's say on this Matt Gallant: because I'm going to make a bold statement, which we both love to do, which is I think in terms of quality of life, understanding what we're going to be talking about today, probably the most important thing, and we're going to get into that. So there's my bold statement, the most important system in the by for quality of life. That's the topic. Wade Lightheart: All right. Matt Gallant: So let's, so, so wait, let me cue you what for a second. So, you know, just a little bit of background. Wait, I've been friends for what, 20 years, a long time. And uh, we went through something a couple years ago that I, I've never seen him go through that in our relationship. And it was incredible, you know, less than, I mean, I always love learning from other people's mistakes. And, uh, we had, you showed me again in a lot of things of what not to do and it was really powerful and, and, and I was thinking about that the other day in aspire, today's topic. So why don't you share what happened and the aftermath of that. And I think it'll, it's a perfect segue into the today's conversation. Wade Lightheart: Yeah. Great. So I'm going to talk about the deep level or the deep cost of, uh, doing more than your physiological capable or, and what are the general go to moves that people make on a consistent basis rationalize, which sets them up for a deep failure. So a few years back, um, so keep in mind, I'm kind of living the, the, what I would call the Tim Ferris lifestyle, the quote unquote four hour work week. Nobody actually works the four hour where we, but you know, I'm traveling around the world, I'm living where I want to live, I've got multiple online businesses and then everything is kind of, you know, going along and you kinda just assume, but what happens inside any business, there are certain components where you've got to get laser focused. You've got to adapt to new skills, you've got to develop new capabilities. And there's an easy assumption, especially in today's world where we kind of, we all think that we can do multiple things, you know, 50 different things because of all the digital technology. Wade Lightheart: But there's a certain point in our biology where we don't adapt to these, what I would call silicone brain and our carbon brain or carbon brand is the one we were born with. The silicone brain is the extension and right now there's a lot of input data that's coming in in the nervous system, especially if you're running businesses and when you go up in business there's more data coming in. So I ran into this trouble and so what my answer was is, well I'll just work more. Okay. So I can remember it started, I was in Bali and uh, you know, I'm running a company that I'm, I'm in kind of startup mode over there. I've got on one business that's kind of in steady mode and then I've got BiOptimizers which is going into grow like extreme growth mode. And as you can imagine, those are three different stages of business that don't actually match. Wade Lightheart: And so I'm doing mornings with one business partner, uh, early. More like I'm a meeting with him doing that stuff. I'm doing my regular business, my kind of cashflow business in the afternoons and I'm staying up till like three four 30 in the morning. So I'd sleep three hours, wake up, do one business, go for a massage in the afternoon, come back, go to work again, sleep for an hour and a half, wake up and then work the evenings. And it all looked like it would go right. So after a couple months of that, I was really starting to pay the price and what I'm doing to, to manage that. As I'm upping, I'm increasing my caffeine take, I'm increasing my new tropics so that my brain is focused. So I, I feel like I'm laser and for some things you are, and I feel like I've got the energy cause I do, but it's like paying your mortgage off with their credit card, your, your, you've got your mortgage at 5% interest, which is manageable maybe over 30 years. Wade Lightheart: And then you've got your credit card bill, which is at 19.99% so I'm paying the 5% with the 19.99 so that the deficit is growing. Like if you've been in New York city and you've seen that deficits sign of how much the national debt is going, that's a great example. And only you're doing this not just with money, you're doing this with your physical energy units and still kind of manageable. So I move to Panama because I'm like, you know, I can't handle it. It's the time zone. You know, if I would just in the one time zone, now keep in mind, Matt and I are living about eight and a half minute walk from each other. And over the course of, I believe it was four and a half months, Matt and I saw each other physically five times. Okay? Like we're best friends, we're hanging out all the time. Wade Lightheart: I only got time to see him and, and he's, and what happened is I'm, I'm still burning and I'm still going. I'm still trying to do all these things. And what happened is the unexpected happened. I had a problem in my growth business and that was a challenge with my partner. And there was a bunch of challenges that came up. And that's the piece that takes you out. It's the unexpected where you've got to go to another level and solve problems. You haven't. So, well, guess what? That's when I ran out of gas and literally physiologically I was burnout. Um, it didn't matter how much caffeine I was taking, it wasn't helping. It was also putting me in an unresourceful psychological state and unresourceful emotional and, and, and at the very low point, uh, Matt and I went for dinner at a restaurant. He like, Hey bro, how's it going? Wade Lightheart: And I said, yeah, you know, I'm, I'm living in hell and I can go back years and years before. Um, when I was competing, and Matt could comment on this. In 2003, I went through a similar process. I was running my personal training business. I was preparing for the Mister universe contest and I had a serious problem with the relationship with and my relationship partner was addicted to drugs and creating a lot of havoc. And even though I broke up that was dealing with all these other X factors that you can't plan, plan on. And that set me up for the big burnout after mr universe. I was able to maintain that level for nine and a half months, but eventually the wheels came off and it was another six, seven months before I recovered from that. And I had to get rid of some things. Wade Lightheart: And so how do you handle this? The question is, and so how do you handle this? And, and for me it involved, uh, I had to go off caffeine completely. I stopped coffee. Um, I had to stop putting hard stop times on when I was working, when I wasn't working. Uh, I had to start taking vacations. I wasn't taking vacations, you know, the, the four hour work week, it looks like you're on vacation, but you're really not, you're, you know, or that kind of digital nomad lifestyle. And, uh, and then I had to take a hard look about my own skillsets based on where the growth I wanted to experience in my own business. So how do I, how do I become more efficient and more effective at new things? How do I let go of things that I'm not good at? How do I improve the physiological recovery components in my body, which we're going to get into here. Wade Lightheart: And what are the things do I gotta drop that's maybe, you know, how do I get out of the credit card paying the mortgage debt from an energy kind of standpoint? So that's where I was. I implemented a lot of new things. One of the, you know, one of the big things that getting off the caffeine, cranking magnesium, uh, to, to, to, to, you know, literally the toilet, the toilet experience where you're, you're watching, you know, cause that's one of the big nervous system burners, uh, essential fatty acids and things like that. So yeah, that was, that was my perspective perspective. Quickly, we'll dive into a little bit more of a, Matt, you want to add to that from your perspective cause you're on kind of the outside looking in and you know me pretty well. Wade Lightheart: Yeah. You know, it was um, first of all I understood why you were doing what you were doing. Uh, I think it was again, a lot of things you could have done differently, which was pretty much we're going to talk about today. All the different things that you can do. Just to zoom out. What we're really talking about is managing your nervous system and we're gonna say managing, cause I like it better than balancing balancing. What does that really mean? So, um, managing nervous system is probably one of the most important things to avoid waiting experience or to avoid the slot zone. Cause if you go to the other mode of just, and I've got friends that are stuck in that zone too, which is not good. Um, or they're just kind of relaxing for years and they're not technically retired. But anyways, so hold on her topic. But we're really talking about managing nervous system. Wade Lightheart: And when I was looking at Wade, he was cranking, cranking, cranking. Then I first thing I think the first system that went offline was probably his emotions. Um, you know, again in, we're gonna talk about kind of the different set of emotions in the different parts of nervous system, but he shifted completely to fight or flight or freeze zone emotionally. And then the, the mental capacity started dropping. Just the kind of decisions you were making, waiters, the way you were thinking. I'm like, you know, I know, I know you enough to know that that's not the thought you would've had prior. And um, so that was the kind of the next phase. And then you kind of like, you described, you went to hell. And then just to make this more real on a numbers level, I have this neurofeedback system at home and at wired Wade's brain to it. Wade Lightheart: And the amount of electricity in Wade's brain in that moment was about a quarter of my friend who's 76 years old. Like, like he is, you know, we're not gonna say he was brain dead, but it wasn't far away. On an electrical level, literally. Um, and, and for those of you that don't understand that that's a lot of your, your states in your mind and how you think come from electrical energy. So Wade had literally like just burnt out. The electrical energy is brain plus his body weight. It took you what, like a year to bounce back from that, you know, like, like on all levels. Like you, you kind of were coming and I I was seeing you come back online again first. Uh, your, your executive functioning, your brain and then your emotions, but it took you about a year. Is that right? Wade Lightheart: Yeah, it uh, I would say yeah, probably a good year. Yeah, it was about, it was about 12 months to recovery and, and going back, say when I had my other burnout in 2003, that was a six month recovery period. It was actually actually if I look all told it would be nine months, cause there was the three months of catastrophic rebound rug gained all the weight and things like that, which is usually a sign of adrenal fatigue. You start just putting on weight and can't kick get it off, that's a, that's a good indication that you're, you're tracking in the wrong direction. It's kind of like the fat cat businessman image that we all have in our minds. And um, and so this time it was about a year. So you're looking at, if you look at the age difference, there was an extra three months of recovery even though I had way more tools than I had back then. So you're probably looking at a two X Wade Lightheart: factor just with the age. Um, and my rationalization for it. No. I want to be quick about, before we get into the mechanics, the rationalization was as it is, you know, my mentality is just go in and take on as much as you can until you blow. And when you blow, you get really laser clear with kind of painful realities of what's working and what's not working. I'm not recommending that strategy. It's a strategy that I've done to make quantum jumps and I feel I made that quantum jump now. But you can avoid that. You can avoid that. Matt, what's your, what's your comments on that as far as how you kind of look at it cause you're kind of a hyper growth oriented person and in far as burnouts in your own life of what you've had and what you and why you've kind of aggravated there the way that you approach things now. Wade Lightheart: Yeah, I think, um, I only really hit one burnout, which was in my twenties there was a lot of like micro things. So, but in my twenties I decided to do a crazy experiment of sleep deprivation and work a holism to the max. So I got up to, I was doing 80 hours a week in the gym, like literally 80 hours in the gym working. I was a trainer, plus I was training twice a day. Plus I was recording a hard rock album, plus I was learning marketing. So I was doing all these things at a time and I'm like, okay, well I need to sleep less. How old were you at this time? Um, was 25 photos on that later or probably had much more severe consequences. So I'm like, okay, I need to sleep less. So let me start cutting my sleep back by 15 minutes, like every week or so. Wade Lightheart: So starting out like seven hours and six and a quarter, six and a half and five and then I, you know, and then it got to the point where it was a really interesting thing. I think around the five hour Mark, like I had to drink water nonstop to stay awake. Like if, if I, if I got even like 1% dehydrated I would just crash. The other thing too is like you get so sensitive with food, like certain foods would make me crash instantly. So you know that was kind of interesting experiment cause every little thing would either just throw me off or keep me going. But I, I just crashed and burned and our thicker on four hours and 25 minutes or 15 minutes at four, four and a quarter is when I ended the experiment had declared unsuccessful and then read a book called power sleep and went the other way and it took me, it took, I think it took me like four months and, but I wasn't using caffeine, thank God. Wade Lightheart: But, um, I hadn't discovered caffeine at that point. It took me I think four months of sleeping around 10 hours a day to, of recover from that and then then my sleep kind of normalized. But that was it. So since that time, you know, I've become very, very hyper aware of, okay. You know, there's all these signs that I look for including, um, you know, my executive functioning starts dropping. In other words, my capacity, how I feel, um, I'm not enjoying work as much. And that's a classic sign too, from like over training, even in the gym, like you're training really hard and you just, it starts to feel like a chore. That's a scientifically that, okay. Time to back off. Um, so I've got all these different signals. Plus I use like the oral ring so I can see my HRV and my heart rates. Wade Lightheart: So, you know, that starts getting out of whack. I know my nervous system is stressed. We'll talk more about that in a second. But yeah, so, so my strategy now, and you know it, we'll talk about how to change this permanently too. Cause I used to kinda hit a red line maybe three, four times a year now. Okay. I got to go on vacation versus now, I can't remember the last time I hit, it's probably been like a year and a half, two years now. Like there's still like a yellow zone on the heart, on the RPMs that, uh, that I'll hit, you know, a couple of times. But I don't tend to get red. And like I used to. And a lot of it's because of the stuff we're going to talk about. So I just want to zoom out and break down what we're talking about. Wade Lightheart: So we're talking about the nervous system, which divides into two. So you have the parasympathetic system, which we're going to call the healing system of the body. Okay. And it's a very accurate description because all the healing happens in that zone as far as your body's concerned. Then there's the sympathetic nervous part of the nervous system, which is fight, flight, or freeze. So let's just go back to the caveman days. And there is a cyber saber tooth tiger chasing you. You need to activate your fight, flight or freeze system a hopefully fight or flight kicks in. Cause if you freeze your dead, um, but either you're running really fast or you're gonna fight this threat and that's a huge part of, you know, survival. Right? And really it's kept us alive. And if it wasn't for that, probably, uh, there'd be no humans [inaudible] ology these, these are, these are things that are built over millions of years in your nervous system that are intrinsic with being a human. Wade Lightheart: It really intrinsic with being an animal. You can see that in a dog or cat. Like, you know, the, these are all part of the animal brain. I mean really we're talking in bacteria will recoil against a toxic substance, right? It's flighting from it. You know, you took a single cell organism with mercury and it recoil. So it's built rate into every cellular system that we see today. Just kept us alive. So, so just for the purpose of this podcast, we're going to talk about the healing system and we'll just call it the fight or flight system. Um, so you know, again, when there is a threat, just to go one level deeper here, when there is a threat, there is again three potential responses, which is, you know, I'm gonna fight this thing. I'm going to run away from this thing or I'm going to freeze like a deer in the headlights, which is probably the worse option. Wade Lightheart: So that's again, the fight or flight. So let's go through different things in different parts of the body and we're going to kind of, uh, organize them in different categories. And by the way, there's a P O one page PDF that you can look at that'll show you this as bioptimizers.com/nervous system and you'll be able to see what I'm about to walk us through. So let's start with exercise. And exercise is primarily fight or flight. So when you're lifting weights, that's a fight or flight response. You're playing sports, it's a fight or flight response. Even things like running, I mean, you're literally like it's flight, right? Like you're running. Now on the healing side, there are some exercises and two that come to mind is, is tide CI and yoga. So Tai-Chi is this really slow type of, of movement that again, with the breathing and just this slow movement activates your parasympathetic, uh, or in your healing part of your nervous system. Wade Lightheart: So I haven't done Tai Chi. I've done a lot of yoga. And yoga is really interesting because it's really, you know, it kind of physically intense, but because you're breathing and really slowing down the breadth and breadth is a huge part of managing your nervous system. And we don't want you to talk about your breathing techniques in a, in a minute cause you've been a lot of that. But when you're breathing deep and slowly, that activates the healing part of the nervous system. If I start hyperventilating, that activates my fight or flight response. And that's what happens when you're fight or flight. You know, you start hyperventilating because you're trying to get more oxygen to the brain. So anyways, Wade, maybe talk about the breathing stuff and we'll, we'll get into meditation in a second. But uh, I know you've done a little bit of yoga and I know that you do a lot of breathing exercises almost every day. Wade Lightheart: So maybe talk about the breath and how you use it to change your nervous system. Yeah, I agree. Great points. So, and I will make one caveat in regards to yoga. Some of the newer forms of yoga are what I would stay more into the fight or flight stuff. So when you get into the stuff like the power yogas and things like that, which are outside of maybe the classical styles that were cultivated in India, cause you know, yoga has got all these branches are now moving more to an exercise format. And those, I'm not saying I'm not discounting that they're valuable as an exercise, but they will not give you that parasympathetic response the same way. So let's talk about healing. Um, with the breathwork. So I've been doing breathwork literally for the last 20 years and through meditation and you learn a lot of different things about breathwork. So the breathing is, and we talk about this in the awesome health course. If you haven't downloaded or got involved with the health of melted RV, we actually go really, really deep on this where I can share with you exactly how you do these things. Wade Lightheart: Breathing is the only thing that you do, both consciously and unconsciously. In other words, you can think about your breathing and change its rate either faster or slower or it happens unconsciously. And for most people it's unconscious. You don't ever think about it. It just happens unless of course you're under water and suddenly here without it, then it's like, Oh, um, so what was discovered in ancient forms of practice and going back at least 6,000 years, maybe even beyond that, is that you could change your brain state, your focus ability. And now that's all been proven through science. That was kind of a lot of thought of airy fairy ideas by these kind of mystical people that you know were funny. Beards and roads and stuff and well it actually has now been proven by science. Thank you to the Dalai Lama who I think brought a lot of advanced, uh, breathwork people are meditators to the world of science so that we could actually track and see how their brains look in their brains look very different than the ordinary person. Wade Lightheart: And one of the ways they do this is by practicing and breathing. So there's a couple of things to do now. What's interesting in Eastern philosophy, the exhale is the start of the breath. And what the exhale process does is it takes carbon out of the system. And by de carbonating. The blood is actually what creates the healing component. The oxygen component will come on by itself, but by starting with the exhale, a conscious exhale, then when the oxygen comes in, then you're going to load up your hemoglobin a lot more, carry more oxygen into. If you carry more oxygen inside the cell without a like a rapid kind of breathing, that's what switches you over into the healing side of the nervous system of the parasympathetic. So all breathing practice would start out with maybe some short quick breasts like and then a slow or even a double in. Wade Lightheart: Here we go and take us short and then a slow so that you actually start to train your body to take a deeper breath and to lower part of lungs is mostly when you're sitting, you're getting about 30% of the oxygen inside your body. The other piece that you need to learn to, which is counter to my bodybuilding world, is to learn how to belly breathe. So, fortunately when I was a kid, um, I had a world-class music teacher and they taught us how to belly breathe and belly breathing is where you actually let your belly come out even while you're sitting. And what that does is that opens up your lungs so that you can get fuller, deeper breasts. Now I know bodybuilding, which I learned years later, is you're always trying to keep your stomach in. So you think about a bodybuilder wear to the beach, right? Wade Lightheart: Cause he's holding that in. So practicing learning to let your belly on the inhale as opposed to inhaling through the chest, which is what most people think they do there. It's got, you know, it's kind of like this way as opposed to slower down, deeper inside your body. And even the top musical people, if you go to Roger loves a course, I think he's the best speaking a coach in the world. He spends a lot of time on teaching you how to breathe. That's how the best musicians make the best sounds and get that deep resonant voice that you hear through singing is how you belly breathe. And so what I do, I start every day. I do some quick exhales, right? I do some quick exhales and then I do long and slow inhales. I'll start off with the process. I call it the 10 10 10 10 program, which is 10 seconds in tech, 10 seconds, hold 10 seconds, exhale, 10 seconds with no breath. Wade Lightheart: Now when you start that out, you're probably only going to do maybe three or four seconds and what's interesting is you'll start to realize is that you don't have the lung capacity, you, it feels like you don't have the lung capacity to hold your breath. It's particularly on the exhale more than three or four seconds and there's a panic part which indicates that your in sympathetic nervous system as you go through this, and sometimes it's called box breathing, you know it's what your, each breath is the same amount. By doing that, imagine a foresight at breath that the, you know, your exhale and then your inhale and then your hold and then your exhale and leave. Each one of those are the sides of a box. Okay. Those, if you're doing five seconds or 10 seconds or however long, those are going to indicate how quickly you get into sympathetic. Wade Lightheart: And usually once you get over that between five and 10 seconds, if you can get into that range, you're going to be moving into sympathetic nervous system, or excuse me, parasympathetic nervous, out of sympathetic into parasympathetic, so out of fight or flight into healing. And think about this. When you're in a stressful situation, let's say something's coming up or you're going to go on stage to speak, or you've got a fight coming up or something stressful is coming in, what do people naturally do? They go, you know that you, you instantly do this. And so what you're doing is consciously leveraging that response, slowing it down so you don't go into that adrenal fight or flight vote. And now one last piece before we kick it over to Matt is there's a lot of different ways that you can do this and there's various techniques where you start actually working in feeling the energy revolve inside your system. And that's what people are talking about, chi or prana. And as you deeply meditate, you actually get to feel these systems that aren't available to us. But when I was in the middle of my fight or flight craziness was literally the first time in 20 years that I wasn't able to do my meditations. Wade Lightheart: I literally couldn't do my meditations because I wasn't able to escape the fight or flight mode. It was so ingrainly deep. And that was of course a extremely painful. Matt Gallant: So there's also, first of all there's a lot of different breeding techniques and what we do is great and it does get a lot of benefits to clearing out CO2 and and different things. Um, I got wired to a medical grade breathing HRV machine. So let me just talk about heart rate variability for a second because it's probably the most useful number to manage your nervous system, your age, your heart rate variability. HRV is the best indicator to see where you're at in which direction you're going in. So what that means, it's actually the time in between the heart beats and going back to breathing. When you inhale, you will typically see a shortening of the time. Matt Gallant: And then when you're exhaling that it, it goes a little longer. Now if you're stressed out, there is no, there's very little variability. That means the heartbeat is like kinda like a piston. I remember thinking is not a good thing. No, it's not means your body's stress versus if I'm breathing and I'll talk with the kind of the metric breathing naturally, I'll just call it. Uh, I should see massive variability, which by the way, a couple of tools to measure that. One is the o-ring, which I have one right here that kind of gives me my score for the night. I can see kind of a graph of what happens to my heart rate variability. Um, and another one, which is more of a real time is called the buyer strap. So we'll put a link, um, and, and the again bioptimizers.com/nervoussystem so you can see the, the links and perhaps invested in was quick, quick, quick question, which do you prefer? Wade Lightheart: Um, for what reason? The bio strap versus the oura ring. I think that's a good distinction. Matt Gallant: I like, I liked the oura ring for measuring how fried my nervous system is in the morning. I think. I think it's got a better set of metrics and algorithms, but the buyer strap, um, let's, I want to do something and just see what my HRV is or again, it's not just HRV, it's got a bunch of metrics. I can't do that with the o-ring. So the bio strap for like more real time. I, let's say you want to do an experiment, see, Hey, how did that affect my HRV? Literally two minutes you push a button and two minutes later you get a score. So I like both of them. I use them for different things. But so that's a good question. So anyways, HRV is the most important thing. Going back to this machine that I got wired to. The way it works is you, you do these different breathing times and again, it's not a box breath. It's you know, either four seconds usually starts four seconds and four seconds out, five seconds in, five seconds out. Like you fold the system and then it tells you exactly what your optimal breathing pace is to maximize HRV. In other words, to relax your body. And for me, for an example, it was like six and a half seconds. So in other words, if I just breathe like Matt Gallant: I mean no, no holding and no pressure, no pushing. Cause it was interesting if I, if I kind of like, cause I did, I've done a yadda, a lot of yoga and yoga you do like you kind of like, you know, kind of squeeze your throat a little bit to push the bread out a little slower. If I did that, it would actually stress out my nervous system a little bit. So again, there's a lot of different breathing techniques. I'm just sharing this one. So for most people's like five, six seconds just in out, um, no, nothing for his big belly breath like Wade said, those, those things work. So anyways, that, that I think covers exercise. There's a lot of other stuff to talk about. But this is a great segue into brainwaves. Matt Gallant: So both Wade and I have done several rounds of medical wiring level, neuro feedback. So what is neurofeedback? It is a brain measuring feedback system. You get these electrodes wired to your brain and they feed back to you what's happening. So if you're doing the right thing, you get a a reward in the form of these beautiful audio tones. And if you're doing the wrong thing and go silence, your brain's like, Whoa, that didn't work. Let me try something else. And when you're doing the right thing, you're like, Oh, okay, that's what I need to do. Let me do more of that. So think of it kind of as a GPS. If you're driving around and you head on on the wrong street, the GPS has a turnaround. Um, that's basically how it is. But you're training your brain to hit all these different States. Matt Gallant: So there's five major groups of brainwaves and there's three of them that are in the healing side, and two are more on the fight or flight side. So on the healing side, yet alpha, which is relaxed but alert. And then that's a great kind of first goal for meditators is to reach that state. Um, then if you slow your brain waves down even more to I four to seven Hertz, then you hit feta, which is a lot slower and much deeper state. And then if you slow it down even more, which is what we hit when we sleep also is about zero to four Hertz. That's Delta. So if you think about how much healing, how, like all the healing in your body pretty much happens when you're in Delta. Deep sleep, most of it, right? Your growth hormone, your testosterone, all your hormones get produced in that phase. Matt Gallant: So again, going back to that's the healing side now on the fight or flight side, yeah, beta. So right now we had an hour in beta, we're engaged, we're focused, we're thinking, and you know, if, if beta goes too high in the wrong places, the brain, that's what anxiety looks like. That's what happens. It's like your brain has too many, uh, the of these beta brain waves and you know, we all know people like that. They're kind of stuck in that mode. You know, the way I would describe these people is they sleep. They, you know, that's the only time they're in parasympathetic, the only time during healing and they fall asleep. And most of them actually, if you have a lot of beta usually is bad sleep. It's a whole other topic. And then they wake up, they go right to beta, have a cup of coffee, go, you know, and then they fall asleep at night and then they repeat that cycle and they, they, they're kind of stuck into those two zones. Wade Lightheart: Can, can you talk about, cause I see this happening so much more with the role of digital devices now, and you could talk about blue light or stimulus and, and all that sorta stuff, which is, you know, Dr. Cruz talks a lot about this stuff. What's your take on all that and, and, and the role of technology of keeping us locked into beta and also maybe people not getting out into nature. Wade Lightheart: Yeah. That's, um, let me just finish the fight or flight on the brainwaves and we'll, we'll segue right into that. Cause it's a perfect segue. So the last wave I'll put in fight or flight is gamma, which gamma is an incredibly high spiritual state. Like you just kinda have this universal connection with higher power would say it that way. And one of our mutual friends, um, we named his name just to protect his anonymity, but he has the highest gamma that's ever been recorded at one of these brain, uh, facilities. And, you know, it fries him. I mean, it's a very, very intense brainwave. I mean, it's very intense. It's very powerful. It's incredible spiritual, but there is a cost to it. So, so that's why I kind of put in fight or flight anyways because the, a lot of psychics and stuff in that zone, I would think. Wade Lightheart: Or they kind of, you know, it's kinda like the wizard on the movie that pulls off the magic spell and then they're kind of wiped out on the song. It's kinda like, well, all right. So just to be completely unfiltered, um, one of our main spiritual mentors, David Hawkins, it does a lot of stories like this. They kind of had these massive spiritual jumps. Now, in my opinion, what's happening physiologically based on what we currently know is they have this massive, massive gay gamma Brae burst like a gamma burst on stars. They're just like, they're the same GAM all the time. And what we know with these experiences is that it takes them years in order to learn how to live with that, learn how to manage that and for do a Cawkins took them about seven years, um, at cart, totally three years anyway. It was all come on him or her Rishi didn't talk for years. Wade Lightheart: You can look through the histories of these kind of advanced mystics who been floated. Most of them go through this period where they're just, they're just not functional in the world at all. And I think a lot of it is learning to, to function with gamma, learn it that, you know, having the nervous system respond and adapt so that it had been as back to your question, um, first of all is, so let's segue to your transmitters and then we'll segue into your question because the neurotransmitters are the explanation to your question. Correct. So on the healing side, we have four main treat neurotransmitters. We have serotonin, which gets released when you eat sugar. That's one of the reasons people eat a lot of sugar because it makes them feel a little more relaxed. We have endorphins, which, you know, if you go to the gym it's kind of the rewards you get afterwards. Wade Lightheart: Running long distance biking. Endorphin highs. Matt Gallant: We have oxytocin, which is kind of the, the love molecule. When you first started dating someone first 12 months, there's a huge, or when a woman gives birth to a baby through the birth canal is the biggest boost of oxytocin. There is, I think. Right. And also that's why women love cuddling after sex. Cause there's a big oxytocin release and then there's an end of mine, which is the bliss molecule. So all four of those are more and bliss potential, easier in fight or flight. But those are on the healing side. And then on the fight or flight side, we have adrenaline, noradrenaline, and dopamine. So if we look at technology and you know, all the phones and all the apps, they are, they are hijacking or dopamine system. So every time you get notifications that's activating dopamine, your brain feels like, Whoa, Hey, I'm a little bit important. Matt Gallant: Somebody reaching out. Somebody liked something, somebody messaged me. And when people are messaging you and commenting on your stuff or liking your stuff, that is releasing dopamine every single time. So most of us, and I'm not immune to this, we're all trapped in these dopamine loops to various levels. And you know, there's a lot of things we can do to manage that. Um, and some people again are really completely lost in it. Now blue light is, is actually more fight or flight. We know this because it's designed to wake us up, right? When somebody hit our eyes, it's like go time versus you know, other colors of light like orange and the reds or more relaxation. And you know, if for those of us that wear blue light blocking glasses, we know that our brain starts just shutting down and downregulating. So that's the price on your nervous system of using these devices in a perfect world, probably three hours, four hours before bed. Matt Gallant: You just, you just get off the phones and the iPads. Your other thing too is that, ah, sorry, TVs, TVs. I mean old TV watching TV is an alpha. It actually increases alpha. It's where a lot of people like watching TV. I like watching TV. For me it's a good segue. Now the light is a different story, which I can hack with glasses. Now obviously depends on what I'm watching. If I'm watching horror movies and Rambo and commando and whoever, shoot, that's more dopamine, right? That's going to, so what you're watching is going to influence your neurotransmitters. Correct. But I like why wearing glasses couple of hours before bed. And that will again tell my brain to, it's nighttime, let me shut things down. But there's also the effects of wireless waves. So Bluetooth, wifi and what it seems to be doing is increasing dopamine. So even even just the, the waves that are blasting us nonstop, right. If I put my phone, probably 15 wifi that I can catch with my phone. So, and there's all kinds that I'm not seeing. Right. Um, so those waves seem to be increasing dopamine. So we have w the, the dopamine from the apps that dopamine from the blue light and the dopamine from all these singles. So it's not, it's no mystery that people are being hijacked from this stuff. Wade Lightheart: Yeah. Powerful information. Okay. So here's the stressors. How do we get it? So what are some physical indications that you've seen? If you could maybe walk me through some stages that people might notice when they're becoming overstimulated and headed to run down. What would you say from your observation? Cause you know, you've, you've dealt with a lot of high performers, you've coached a lot of high performers in you, you're pretty much surrounded by high performers. I was like what do you, what did you notice that they've given you feedback as well? Matt Gallant: So, well one of the big X factors of whether you burn out or not is resilience. So we could do a whole podcast on resilience cause it's a really interesting thing. Um, and resilience is primarily an emote. It's more of a limbic system thing. Now there's a physical component. Resilient. How tough are you in your pretty example wave? You know, you're as tough physically as, as anyone else I am that I know. But you know, one of the things that I've done, um, to to like probably increase my resilience, I'm going to say like 500%, maybe more in the last four years has been the neurofeedback but, but it's more specifically I'm cleaning out my limbic system. So you have all these, Wade Lightheart: when you say w when you say limbic system for our listeners, what do you mean by the limbic system? Matt Gallant: Okay. So the limbic system is one of the components of our nervous system. Okay. So it's kind of a sub component of it and that's where all of our emotions, so the emotional part of our nervous system is the limbic system, we'll just call it the emotional system. So we had this emotional system and when we see things that are similar to other painful experiences that we've had in the past, and if these painful experiences are not healed, okay, heal is the key word. If they're not healed, we will feel you're threatened by that experience or something similar. That experience for exactly whatever this, this thing that's in front of me that's reminding me of that thing that was painful. I go right to fight or flight, right, right. To fight, flight or freeze. I mean it's immediate because, and, and a great example, and we all know people that been bitten by dogs and you know, they're 40 50 60 years old, they'll still be scared of that, of that dog, even if it's like a small little dog. Wade Lightheart: A dog comes into the elevator, there's sweat, perspiration comes up, their tension comes up, the heartbeat adrenaline response. If you were to look at that, it's pretty significant. Or someone that's been in a car accident, they get in the car again and all of a sudden they start having a physiological response. Matt Gallant: Yeah. And it's very true even on micro levels. So for an example, you know, your mother told you, uh, you know, your grades aren't good enough. You know, like one of the things my dad told me like one time I hit like 96 and he's like, where's the other four? And that was something that I had to, to identify and heal because it was kinda driving the perfectionism in me and, and it was so, so there's a whole consequence cascade of consequences that can literally lead to character defects and sometimes character assets. Matt Gallant: Uh, and I love Joe Dispenza, us models on that. But going back to healing, one of the things that works incredibly well is EFT. So EFT immediately starts shifting your nervous system into parasympathetic. It's a very, very fast response because you're hitting these nine points. EFT stands for emotional freedom technique by the way. Correct. And there's probably more commonly known now as tapping. So you have these points you have, and if you're watching the video, you have this karate chop point, top of the head, top of the I side, below the eye, below the nose, below the lips, right where the crease in the chin, his collar bone, and then ribs. And when you tap these points, you're, your nervous system literally shifts over, which, so if I bring up and I like guide, I'm actually certified and I've guided people countless times to do this and I've never seen it not work. Matt Gallant: And I'm talking about like bringing up really painful experiences and shifting from, Oh wow, that was a really traumatic experience too. I'm at peace with it. I mean, big ones might take 15 minutes, but usually it's like five minutes. And for me, because I've done it so much, um, it's probably like 60 seconds, two minutes sometimes. So it's really good a thing. Probably one of the best sites to learn is that www, EFT, universe.com, or you can go to YouTube, just countless videos. So that's one thing. Um, the other thing you can do is neurofeedback, which again we talked about, so we don't really have time to talk with. That'd be a whole other podcast. Um, you know, meditation is definitely parasympathetic and, and you know, especially again, if you hit as soon as you hit alpha, you're in healing mode. So alpha theta you hit start handies a slower brain waves and that's the people that are stuck in beta all the time. Matt Gallant: If they could just learn to shift their brain waves over to a slower mode, they're are going to start healing. Um, so things you can do when you meditate that are highly effective. And again, these are different emotions that are parasympathetic, that are healing. One of them is gratitude, which is this at this point is extremely highly researched. Um, if you're actually feeling gratitude, you're in parasympathetic, you are in healing mode. You cannot, and I'm not talking about saying thank you verbally. I'm talking about feeling gratitude in your heart, in your body. If you're feeling that sensation, you are definitely in healing mode. There's no two ways about it. There's a lot of new techniques that people are talking about is starting the day by doing a gratitude list or sharing your gratitude list or what you're grateful for getting this as a practical implementation because a lot of people don't really feel gratitude, you know, in the world today, even though as humans listening to this podcast, we're in the top 1% of humans in history of the planet, most people are focusing on what they don't have as opposed to what they are. Wade Lightheart: And that that's the comparison problem is, is real and present and bring yourself back to that gratitude practices is a great, is a great thing. Yeah. Um, happiness in general. So you know, if you're feeling happy probably in parasympathetic joy, which you can kind of measure with laughter, which is one of the things I kind of pay attention to is like how much am I laughing? And if I, if I'm not laughing, I'm probably in fight or flight. Like, you know what I mean? Whatever. If I'm laughing a lot that I know I'm in a good space first my nervous system goes and if I notice that I haven't, I'm not really laughing. You know what I mean? Uh, and it's one of the things I look for in people too. Are they laughing a lot or do not laughing and I can kind of gauge where they're at, um, feeling, you know, peace, serenity. Matt Gallant: Obviously if you're feeling peace and serenity, serenity now as they said in Seinfeld, then yeah, you're in parasympathetic versus you know, fear, anger. Obviously those are total fight or flight or freeze emotions and then even drive like, you know, getting stuff done like Wade, you burn, you are burning yourself thought necessarily fear and anger for you is dry. That, that intense willingness. So you know, and I spend probably like eight hours of my day, sometimes 10, sometimes 12 in that zone. And it's just something to be mindful of. Is that, yeah, when we're driving hard on our projects or business or jobs or careers that you know, that his fight or flight like and it's a low level or fight or flight, I mean sometimes it's high level if you're really dealing with a lot of stress, which goes back to resilience, but you know, driving this is a fight or flight thing. So any comments on that Wade? Because again, that's really what took you out. Yeah. Wade Lightheart: I think there's also part of the representation of it comes down to what is valued in your own life and, and not understanding the recovery to drive ratio and how the, the harder you drive, the more to you need to manage your recovery. And uh, there's a great book, the powerful engagement, uh, which really breaks this down about the difference that started off with tennis players. And even though they all had relatively the same level of skills, the guys that were doing these micro arrests were actually dominating the tennis field. And it was an unconscious practice which had all kinds of applications in the business world. And one of the things that I think you were really clear about, um, is your commitment to both micro and macro recovery. You kind of went into that earlier cause you probably hit that burnout zone in your 20s and said, okay, I, and you know, we talked about how you, that became kind of like a, uh, an a breakthrough attention unit and for people who are listening to this podcast, that's what our whole point here is to create a breakthrough awareness level that the harder you want to drive, the more you need to focus on recovery and micro recovery and macro recovery as well Wade Lightheart: recovery components. It's like a race car and F1 formula cart. If you think about it as going around the track at 200 miles an hour and guess what? It needs to be fueled up a lot more than your regular car. It's burning through tires at a lot more than a regular car. Um, so if you wanna drive at 200 miles an hour in your life, you better have a pit crew and you better be putting all the high components or recovery on it or you're going into the wall and you're going to crash and burn. Matt Gallant: So we're, we're, we're about at the end of the, of the show. So I just want to start talking about, you know, supplements and different things that shifted nervous system. Let's start with the easy one. The fight or flight stuff. Um, coffee, you know, any type of stimulant, you know, even the new nicotine, I mean, all of those are, you know, we'll put cocaine, amphetamines, you know, all of that stuff is, is fight or flight or freeze, right? Wade Lightheart: What's your opinion on, uh, all the kind of, uh, cognitive enhancers that you see people using in the digital world. And also in, um, education universities like Ivy league schools and stuff. What would you clarify those and, and it, Matt Gallant: most of them are fight or flight on the Modafinil goals and which the, I would, Daphne knows probably like a two out of 10 cause there's a scale right? Like not everything is just tense. Wade Lightheart: Let's just talk about that because I think there's a lot of people that are using these things. I mean like Ted talk, I talk about the guys on wall street are now on cocaine, testosterone and Aderoll, you know. Matt Gallant: And you don't see testosterone is more of a fight or flight versus estrogen's more healing. So you know, the point is that yeah, like is probably like a seven or eight Modafinil is probably like a two on that, on that fight or flight scale. So there is, you know, again scale. But yeah, almost all the nootropics now there are some exceptions. So let's shift over drug the drug based nootropics. Yeah. But even, yeah, even some of the cleaner stuff. So if we shift over to [inaudible] and so the better blends are a combination of boats or for example LFE is parasympathetic, parasympathetic healing, which counterbalances a lot of the caffeine issues. So you can stack parasympathetic substances with stimulants and have a much more balanced nervous system response versus just going completely fighter flights would. That is a great tip for everybody. Well, just to cover some substances. Matt Gallant: We got reishi, I would probably rate it pretty low on healing, but you do feel a little bit of a shift. El Athenian, one of my favorites, I take about 400 milligrams before bed every night. CBD, CBN, CBG, those are three different cannabinoids. They are definitely on the parasympathetic side versus THC. More fight or flight lavender oil, one of the only oils research to show to increase alpha brainwaves, which is healing. I like taking a actually oral lavender oil before bed. Ashwagandha, I took two grams last night. I was a little wired, um, during the day. Shifted me right over and had a decent sleep. But the one I want to talk about and we'll do a whole podcast on this, uh, because they're gonna run out of time, but it's magnesium in both Wade and I uh, healed ourselves, healed our nervous system using magnesium. Like I got to the point because I was uh, you know, squeezing my drawings too much and my nervous system was literally getting raw. Wade Lightheart: You can burn the myelin sheet off your nerves and I couldn't drink coffee anymore. Like, if I drank coffee, I instantly felt like frazzled. I didn't get to it to the level we'd got, but I'm like, okay, I can't drink coffee anymore. I'm done. So I did a big magnesium cycle for around I think 90 days and around the 60 day Mark I'm like, I felt completely different. I felt kind of permanently relaxed. The magnesium is kind of the, the parasympathetic mineral, you know, nothing shifts you over on a mineral level or a macro. Probably the greatest deficiency out there in North Americans right now is magnesium, I think. I think it's only 32% of the population is getting the RDA levels. And that's not what the optimal level is. Yeah. Because probably there's the hard to get from food. That's the problem. It's almost impossible to eat enough magnesium. Correct. Like it's, that's, that's the fundamental challenge. So even if you're, you know, one of these, Hey, let me try to get the perfect guide going. Um, it's, it's really challenging to do that. So that is the list of, um, parasympathetic and sympathetic. Like I said, go to box.com/nervous system. I've got this entire doc including a couple of things we didn't have a time to cover. Wade Lightheart: We'll add them in and throw in a couple of things. So we'll go a little bit longer. What else can we do? Cause I know you've gone, you spent years in testing, literally has insurance of substance and social unload on us a little bit and give us a little extra bonus. Matt Gallant: Yeah. Um, so I'm going to talk about my favorite favorite thing like which this is about biohacking thing. It's not a substance, but it does relate to magnesium. The number one thing for me, like by a long shot, I've talked a lot about our guys. Joe Rogan's, a huge fan is floating. So floating is a sensory deprivation tank. You're literally floating in this salt magnesium, salt soup. It's made with Epsom salts, which is a magnesium salt and you're floating. The water is the same temperature as your body. It's pitch black. So all your senses get a reset. Like you're not getting stimuli like you normally would. Like even if I'm sitting in this chair, I'm feeling gravity right now, right? Like, my feet are feeling gravity from the floor. My butt's feeling gravity from the chair. But when you're floating, you kind of just not feeling anything. Matt Gallant: You're just, you're not really feeling the water. You don't have light against stimulating your brain. It's really usually completely pitch. There's no sound and you're absorbing magnesium. So I love to float for like 90 minutes. And I mean, the level of shift, like I've gone places. I remember we went in LA, I flew in Venice beach, right? Yeah. Flare crash, got the best tanks. That's the one he makes. Joe Rogan's tax. Um, float labs is a, his company. So I flew to LA. I could tell like my, you know, when I get fried, I get these swollen plans here, the lymph nodes, so I could, I was fried. I said, Hey, wait, let's go. Floats away. And I went floating and after the float, all my, you know, all my glands were, we're back to normal and I felt incredible. So there, there's one thing I could recommend is definitely floating, um, to, to shift over your, uh, nervous system. Wade Lightheart: Chiropractic too. I have a world-class chiropractor, which I'm actually going to go see here in about an hour and a half. Um, is also way that you're able to take relief off the nervous system if you have a really good chiropractor. Of course. Uh, I've got what we call the wizard here in Vancouver. There's a Gary down in LA that his, his whole thing at the human garage, they've got some really great things to switch you into that healing mode. And, and a really good chiropractor will be able to take load off the nervous system. And one of the things that I didn't have on those travels is I didn't have my chiropractor Wade Lightheart: who was always giving me that feedback of where I was. And one of the big recovery modalities that I've experienced is by using chiropractic care. Matt Gallant: I will call it out for a shameless pitch. We have a new product called magnesium breakthrough, which is seven different magnesiums, including cofactors in our humble opinions. It is the best bang museum out there. So what we recommend you do if you're feeling a little fried, a little bit in the fight or flight system, is to take around three doses a day. It is better to spread your dose because if you take too much magnesium at once, you may run to the bathroom because it can disaster. But however, key, powerful note, we formulated this, the minimize that effect. So when we, when we formulated this cause it goes different magnets, some magnesiums pull a lot more water than others. Matt Gallant: Um, we minimize the, the water pulling effect. So we recommend starting off it probably half a gram three times a day and then building up to three grams. So it'd be a grand three times a day. That's probably a good dose. Um, I mean if you really want to push it, you can try to get to like four or five, six grams. That's, that's where I ended up, uh, when I was really healing that thing and got it to five grams, um, and felt incredible. So anyways, that is our new product. Uh, magnesium breakthrough.com. You can go on our sidebar optimizer.com and check it out. So amazing product. Really excited to share this because we know both Wade and I have experienced the, the healing benefits of magnesium. Um, it's, it's incredible. It's literally one of the best supplements that I've ever experienced in terms of real world experiential benefits. And that's why we wanted to do a magnesium product and we didn't want to just do another me too. Magnesium. We wanted to do something special, which we have. So wait, maybe we'll close off your final thoughts on magnesium and your experiences. Wade Lightheart: Yeah, so, uh, I went the, uh, of course I'm an all in kind of guy as you imagined. And what I did is understanding when I was cooked a

My guests on today's show are coming back for a three-peat. They first appeared in the episode... "..." Then appeared again in... They are Matt Gallant and Wade Lightheart. Matt Gallant is an entrepreneur, a poker champion, an ex-rock guitarist, a serial entrepreneur (who's built 13 companies in the last 20 years) strength and conditioning coach with a degree in kinesiology, the CEO and co-founder of a company called BiOptimizers. Wade T. Lightheart, host of the AWESOME Health Podcast, 3-time All Natural National Bodybuilding Champion, advisor to the American Anti-Cancer Institute and Cofounder of BiOptimizers. He is also the author of several books including the best-selling books, “” and “.” This episode is for you if you you ever experience digestive issues when you eat high fat meals...such as constipation, diarrhea or a meal just sitting in your stomach... ...or if your intense exercise or peak athletic performance has taken a dip since you switched over to lower carbs... ...or if you want to experience a new level of energy, mental clarity and focus without relying on stimulants... Matt and Wade have cracked the code on solving the major metabolic deficiencies that block you from thriving on keto.  They've actually turned hundreds of people onto keto over the last couple of decades. Unfortunately, most struggled with three core metabolic issues — which Matt and Wade never knew how to fix until recently. They began doing hundreds of hours of research and testing on the different nutrients that could help solve these challenges. It wasn’t easy... it took them pouring through a TON of studies (which we talk about in today's episode)... massive amounts of real-world testing... until they ultimately discovered the perfect combination of nutrients for optimizing fat digestion, energy metabolism, and fat loss enhancement. They're thrilled to finally reveal solution that solves all of these problems—in just 7 seconds... and gives you a new level of energy that rivals coffee. Smooth consistent bowel movements and fat loss on a low-carb or keto diet are now possible. These results are made possible by a solution we talk about in today's show - a solution that takes just 7 seconds to open the lid of a bottle, pour the capsules in your hand and throw them in your mouth. During our discussion, you'll discover: -Interesting biohacks Ben, Matt and Wade did prior to recording the podcast [7:23] Wade's 3 day water fast Maintained regular workouts Rebounder in the morning, weights in the afternoon Last day, go for a long walk, then into steam room to force the body to convert fat into water How Mark prepared for the call: Microdosed vyvanse Lucy gum (nicotine) Ben: Blood draw Peptide stack Grounding and earthing mats () -About nutrigenomics [24:20] 7 keys to biologically optimize your diet: Sustainability Lifestyle Genetics Allergies Gut biome Biofeedback Goals 3 categories: Aesthetic goals Performance Health (anti-aging) Geography of ones ancestors influences the proper diet for us -Vegetarian genes [30:45] AMY1A (amylase) LCT, MCM6 (lactase) FUT, SHBG (fiber, dietary, B12) FLAD1 (biosynthesize omega 3 and 6 from polyunsaturated fatty acids) BCML1 (polymorphisms) -Ketogenic genes [38:10] CPT1A - arctic mutation for fatty oxidation FAD 1, FAD2 ADRB2 (saturated fats) APOE2 (satiation) FTO3 (body fat) LPL APOC3 PPAR Alpha (coastal adaptation) -Whether Wade follows his current diet because of his genetics [47:30] Didn't do well on a plant-based ketogenic diet, but does well overall on a plant-based diet Does great on a high carb diet "Don't discount lifestyle and environment and place all the weight  on genetics" Book: by Robb Wolf -The biochemistry of Kapex and how it addresses some of the fundamental mistakes of keto [53:23] -Specific uses and applications of Kapex [1:09:10] 7 keto DHEA raises metabolism by ~5% Increases 3 different enzymes in the liver Activates PPAR Alpha Even if you don't need it for its nutrigenomics benefits, people love the simple energy boost -Interesting biohacks Ben, Matt and Wade have planned for after recording the podcast [1:17:30] -And much more! Resources from this episode: Longevity blood testing panel ( or ) Ben did the morning of the podcast Ben's with Dr. William Seeds Matt was chewing during show (use BEN10 for a $10 off the $60 subscription) Book: by Robb Wolf Episode sponsors: -: Support for normal blood sugar levels and healthy energy metabolism, even after large, carb-rich meals. Ben Greenfield Fitness listeners, receive a 10% discount off your entire order when you use discount code: BGF10. -: Enjoy all the benefits of the 11 superfoods and their micronutrients that help increase resting metabolism, support cardiovascular health, and remove toxins to turn back the hands of time! Receive a 20% discount on your entire order when you use discount code: "BENG20" -: I’ve been using Four Sigmatic products for awhile now and I’m impressed by the efficacies of their mushroom products. I use them. I like them. I support the mission! Receive 15% off your Four Sigmatic purchase when you use discount code: BENGREENFIELD -: Safe, simple, effective products that people use in the bathroom everyday. Native creates products with trusted ingredients and trusted performance. Get 20% off your first purchase when you use discount code: BEN Do you have questions, thoughts or feedback for Matt, Wade or me? Leave your comments below and one of us will reply!

So, what do multiple bodybuilders who have previously been on The Entrepology Podcast have in common? It is that nearly all of them, following a period of intense competition, saw a massive deterioration of their health. Now think about this: these are athletes performing at their highest level. They're at the most optimized state of physical physique — and yet, their body is falling apart on the inside.   Today I am joined by Wade Lightheart. Wade is a former Mr. Universe competitor, a 3X Canadian Bodybuilding Champion, and the co-founder and Director of Education for Biooptimizers. Wade is also the host of his podcast, The Awesome Health Podcast. And all around, he's just an absolute wealth of knowledge! He's highly articulate and extremely well-researched in the areas of health optimization. In fact, it was Wade's own journey — one through watching his sister move through deteriorated health — and then his own (coming out of his bodybuilding period) that really encouraged him to delve deep into exploring this issues.   What was really enjoyable about today's conversation with Wade was the way in which he was able to weave — not only a philosophical perspective on health — but some tangible research-focused elements into our conversation that related to biohacking from the inside-out. So much of Wade's work focuses on the gut and digestive health issues — because, even as Hippocrates said 2,500 years ago, all health starts in the gut.   So, for anyone who's interested in taking their health to the next level, understanding how to optimize your digestive health is where things absolutely must start! And there's no better person to get us started on that conversation than Wade Lightheart himself!   Key Takeaways: [1:38] About today's episode! [3:41] Welcoming Wade to the podcast! [3:48] How did Wade get to where he is, right now, today? [5:10] Is it common in the bodybuilding industry for bodybuilders to focus more on their physical physique rather than their health from the inside-out? [7:37] Was it Wade's work in bodybuilding and his own health crisis that led him to do the work that he does now? [8:49] When was Wade's ‘aha moment' of realizing the gut was the root cause of all the downstream effects he had been seeing in his own health and others? [10:37] The key metrics Wade wants people to look at in order to measure their health. [12:47] When Wade is working with some with respect to gut health, where does he start with them? And what is the process he takes them through to get them back on track? [23:01] Wade shares his thoughts on the attention people get from being sick. [26:50] How Wade defines health. [27:15] Wade speaks about some of the interventions on how to begin remedying gut issues and restore optimal digestion. [31:26] Should we be supplementing enzymes? And should you stay on them consistently? [42:58] Wade's key performance indicators! [45:45] Where to learn more about what Wade is up to!   Mentioned in This Episode: Mr. Universe Journal of Gastroenterology Food Enzymes for Health & Longevity, by Dr. Edward Howell Enyzme Nutrition, by Dr. Edward Howell Yuval Noah Harari 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, by Yuval Noah Harari Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, by Yuval Noah Harari Bioptimizers.com/Entrepology — Visit Wade's website for access to the AWESOME Health Course! You can also enter ‘Podcast10' for 10% off any of his products!   More About Wade Lightheart Wade is a three-time All Natural National Bodybuilding Champion, advisor to the American Anti-Cancer Institute, Director of Education at BiOptimizers Nutrition, Founder of the Prosperity & Health Alliance, and Enagic Master Trainer! He is also the author of several books, including the best-selling books, Staying Alive in a Toxic World and The Wealthy Backpacker.   Wade travels the world to spread his life mission, helping other's achieve a richer experience of life through daily practice of rituals that lead you to true health, real wealth and peace of mind.   Connect with my Guest: Websites: WadeLightheart.net and Bioptimizers.com   If you enjoyed our conversation and would like to hear more: Please subscribe to The Entrepology Podcast on Stitcher or iTunes. We would also appreciate a review!   Join our badass Women's Facebook Group, Legacy Performance Labs If you want to be something amazing, you need to surround yourself with amazing people! The Legacy community is made up of badass women living — not leaving — their legacy every single day. If you are on a mission and get it that your health is the key to your unlimited potential — Join us on Facebook!   BRAIN HEALTH CHECKLIST! What if I told you that your brain biochemistry can help amplify your mindset and your capacity to be effective and help accelerate your mission in the world? Well, I've pulled together a very quick checklist so that you can have a better understanding of the things you're doing every single day to amplify your nervous system or downregulate it in a way that isn't necessarily serving your mission. If you want access to this information and want to learn a little bit more about how you can optimize your brain health for success, visit: MeghanWalker.com/BrainHealth to grab your handout now!   CALL TO ACTION You can begin remedying your gut issues and restoring optimal digestion today! To start, Wade recommends getting a journal out and just tracking how you feel after everything that you get. You're going to start noticing patterns and inflammatory agents just from that. Let us know about your aha-moments you get from tracking your diet and follow-up with us on the The Entrepology Podcast Facebook page — because when you're accountable, you're helpable.

“Health is the greatest gift.” - Buddha Is one of you goals to live a healthier life?  If so, you can do two things immediately...   Listen to this episode of the podcast Put Wade's advice into action On this episode I had the great pleasure to talk to THREE TIME natural body building champion Wade Lightheart.  We, as leaders, need to take care of ourselves.  If we're not running at our optimum there is no way we can be 100% on point for our teams. Wade opened my eyes about a lot of health prevention issues and strategies.  AND...he gives a special offer at the end of the podcast for those who care to partake. I really enjoyed the candor that Wade shared on the show and also his ability to take some complex issues and make them easy to execute.   CHEERS! More on Wade.. Wade T. Lightheart, host of the AWESOME Health Podcast, is a 3-time All Natural National Bodybuilding Champion, advisor to the American Anti-Cancer Institute and Director of Education at BiOptimizers Nutrition, one of the world’s most innovative nutritional supplement companies. He is also the author of several books including the best-selling books, “Staying Alive in a Toxic World” and “The Wealthy Backpacker.” The AWESOME Health Podcast is a big part of his mission to help others x their digestion and transform their health with the daily practice of positive principles, rituals and optimizers. Few alive have traveled farther or crusaded harder on behalf of helping individuals transform their digestive health, wellness and overall lives than Wade T. Lightheart. A er competing in Mr. Universe and his health failing him following a competition victory, Wade began to search for answers. In the process, he learned so much about what makes digestion work, along with other principles that form what he calls the AWESOME Health system. Wade’s journey into vegetarianism and bodybuilding took his health to new heights, empowering him to help others with a unique perspective. Wade also serves as an advisor to the American Anti-Cancer Institute, and is the Co-Founder and Director of Education at BiOptimizers, a digestive health company. Check him out at:  https://bioptimizers.com/ AND http://www.wadelightheart.net/

Wade T. Lightheart is the host of the AWESOME Health Podcast, a three-time All Natural National Bodybuilding Champion, an advisor to the American Anti-Cancer Institute, and a co-founder at BiOptimizers Nutrition – and all of this contributes to his mission to help others fix their digestion and transform their health with the daily practice of positive principles, rituals, and optimizers.   Because ¼ of the population is on medications for digestion, with millions more suffering from common digestive issues, such as bloating, constipation, diarrhea, food sensitivities, Leaky Gut, and acid reflux. Most have also damaged their gut health through the use of antibiotics, antibacterial cleansers, GMO food, and other toxins.     That's why focusing gut health is non-negotiable. You must correct your gut in order to thrive.   Wade actually participated in the Mr. Universe bodybuilding competition as a drug free vegetarian – and that's quite out of the ordinary, if you've ever met a bodybuilder. These are people who maximize their protein input to maximize muscle gain, often with the assistance of drugs, and that all puts a pretty strong toll on the human body... especially the gut!   In Wade's effort to compete at this level without animal protein, he ended up making a mistake that, ultimately, changed the course of his life. He replaced all of the protein in his diet, pretty much all at once, with whey protein. He bloated up from water and he felt terrible, and then he got some life-changing advice from an exceptionally fit and healthy senior citizen:   He had spent years learning how to build his body from the outside in, but he hadn't learned how to build a body from the inside out.   Over the next four years, with the assistance of some enzymes and probiotics, Wade was able to not only regain his physical form, but feel way better than he ever had before. He entered the world championships again, but instead of eating 250 grams of protein like most competitors, he was only eating 85-100 grams every day, and all of it was plant protein.   And it isn't just the food that you eat – it's also the enzymes and nutrients in your body. It took him four years to figure out the science of digestion and how to design a performance-based lifestyle, but now he teaches others through his podcast, BiOptimizers, and books.   Because performance isn't just based on the food you eat, or at least not the way you traditionally think of food. It's not just about getting the right amount of calories. It's about consuming the enzymes and probiotics that aid the digestive process. Because, naturally, all species on this planet eat an enzyme-rich diet – except some humans.   We're used to chemically-enhanced foods that trick our brains, and even cause us to become addicted, or we cook our foods in ways that damage the enzymes our bodies need. And as a result, our bodies slowly break down into dysfunction. Our bodies don't all need the exact same things to function optimally, like not all cars need the same parts or fuel, so it does take some work and education to figure out what works best for you.   But this also isn't a journey you should take alone. Even Wade, who is an expert in this field, has a Jedi Council for his health: a chiropractor, a metabolic guy, an epigenetics guy. He has all of these people giving him feedback so that he can course correct when necessary, and this is an important step that a lot of people just gloss over.   If you want to learn more and get your gut back on track, Wade is offering Rebel Health Coach listeners FREE access to http://www.bioptimizers.com/rebel (The AWESOME Health Course)! Just head over to http://www.bioptimizers.com/rebel to download the course now.   --     Resources: Learn more at wadelightheart.net Check out https://bioptimizers.com/ (bioptimizers.com) Awesome Health Podcast: bioptimizers.com/category/podcast Read: Enzyme Nutrition: The...

Today our expert guest is Wade Lightheart,  a 3-time All Natural National Bodybuilding Champion, Advisor to the American Anti-Cancer Institute, and Director of Education at BiOptimizers Nutrition, one of the world's most innovative nutritional supplement companies   He is also the author of several books and host of The Awesome Health podcast, which helps him accomplish his mission to help others fix their digestion and transform their health with the daily practice of positive principles, rituals, and optimizers.   Wade was mortified into action when he learned that 12 percent of emergency hospital visits are due to gastrointestinal conditions and over 95 million Americans suffer from some form of digestive distress – and if things keep going the way they are, the problem is only getting worse!   So, for starters, where do things start going wrong in our digestion?   We're the only species on the planet that cooks our food. There are some advantages to that, but it also means we're destroying all of the enzymes in our food. As a result, our bodies have to manufacture more enzymes, which comes with an energetic or metabolic cost. Especially when we get older, our bodies will stop breaking down certain enzymes, which can lead to low energy, feeling bloated after meals, or skin problems. Beyond that, Wade says that 25 percent of our population is actually suffering from depression because they're not breaking down their proteins correctly. By the time most of us are 30-40, we don't produce enough hydrochloric acid. This is what disinfects our food; our first line of defense in our immune system. So as it diminishes, we start experiencing digestive problems and/or sick.   The Golden Age of Digestive Health   Luckily, Wade says we're entering The Golden Age of Digestive Health!   So, while health issues rooted in the gut are rampant, our ability to diagnose and treat these problems through holistic solutions, as well as our general understanding that there is a problem, is also increasingly greatly.   But instead of sharing the supplements and tests that someone might take to improve or identify gut problems, we have a different call to action: hire an expert that can help!   It will cost a little bit more money up front, but it will save you much more money in the long run because you will select the right products for you, at that particular time, and it will reduce your healthcare costs in the future.   Wade is also generous enough to share the FREE Awesome Health Course with Daily Helping listeners!   It will help you learn more about your health and find the right experts to support you. You can get started for free at https://bioptimizers.com/TDH.   The Biggest Helping: Today's Most Important Takeaway   “Take action on your health now, before you run into serious problems.   “In today's world, it's very easy to be busy, it's very easy to be dialed into the digital work, it's very easy to put off those little things that we know we need to address... But when your body is giving you a message that something is not working, you need to pay attention.   “When your body is giving you a message that something is not working, you need to pay attention.”   --   Thank you for joining us on The Daily Helping with Dr. Shuster. Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or Google Play to download more food for the brain, knowledge from the experts, and tools to win at life.   Resources: Learn more at https://bioptimizers.com/ Awesome Health Podcast: https://bioptimizers.com/category/podcast/ Take the FREE Awesome Health Course: https://bioptimizers.com/TDH The Daily Helping is produced by Crate Media

Wade T. Lightheart Wade T. Lightheart, host of the AWESOME Health Podcast, is a 3-time All Natural National Bodybuilding Champion, advisor to the American Anti-Cancer Institute and Director of Education at BiOptimizers Nutrition, one of the world’s most innovative nutritional supplement companies. He is also the author of several books including the best-selling books, “Staying Alive in a Toxic World” and “The Wealthy Backpacker.” The AWESOME Health Podcast is a big part of his mission to help others fix their digestion and transform their health with the daily practice of positive principles, rituals, and optimizers. Few alive have traveled farther or crusaded harder on behalf of helping individuals transform their digestive health, wellness and overall lives than Wade T. Lightheart. After competing in Mr. Universe and his health failing him following a competition victory, Wade began to search for answers. In the process, he learned so much about what makes digestion work, along with other principles that form what he calls the AWESOME Health system. Wade’s journey into vegetarianism and bodybuilding took his health to new heights, empowering him to help others with a unique perspective. Wade also serves as an advisor to the American Anti-Cancer Institute, and is the Co-Founder and Director of Education at BiOptimizers, a digestive health company. http://www.wadelightheart.net/

Living All Natural Requires Hard Work. Staying Alive In A Toxic World Is Even Harder. Learn About Toxins Impact On Your Gut Health and Much More:Wade T. Lightheart, the host of the AWESOME Health Podcast, is a 3-time All Natural National Bodybuilding Champion, advisor to the American Anti-Cancer Institute and Director of Education at BiOptimizers Nutrition, one of the world’s most innovative nutritional supplement companies. He is also the author of several books including the best-selling books, “Staying Alive in a Toxic World” and “The Wealthy Backpacker.” The AWESOME Health Podcast is a big part of his mission to help others fix their digestion and transform their health with the daily practice of positive principles, rituals and optimizers. Finally Live With Awesome Health. - Wade Lightheart Few alive have traveled farther or crusaded harder on behalf of helping individuals transform their digestive health, wellness and overall lives than Wade T. Lightheart. After competing in Mr. Universe and his health failing him following a competition victory, Wade began to search for answers. In the process, he learned so much about what makes digestion work, along with other principles that form what he calls the AWESOME Health system. Wade’s journey into vegetarianism and bodybuilding took his health to new heights, empowering him to help others with a unique perspective. Wade also serves as an advisor to the American Anti-Cancer Institute and is the Co-Founder and Director of Education at BiOptimizers, a digestive health company.   [spp-tweet tweet="You Too Can LIVETHEFUEL! @bioptimizers "]   Top 3 Hot Points:Cut Sugar, Grains, and Toxins Bodybuilding Diets Can Trigger Gut Health Issues Rebuild Healthy Gut Bacteria   Final Words:First, I think if you're listening to the podcast, you probably have an interest in health and performance and being the next level you wouldn't be otherwise you'd be watching something distracting. So first I want to honor that. Second I want to say is be willing to experiment, be willing to take steps you can always on to nowadays you can usually find someone that's already been down that pathway that you want to experiment with and you can see if that works for you. I think that's a great tool. Third, always keep learning because the game keeps changing all the time. Then the final piece I would say is don't underestimate the power of fixing your digestive system. My business partner is a ketogenic guy, I'm a vegetarian, we're both as far off the spectrum of mutual formats or dietary choices. We're dietary agnostic, and what I mean by that is that I think that everybody should choose the diet that works for their lifestyle, their genetics, and epigenetics. Remain flexible enough that they're willing to spend a bit of time experimenting with other things in order to see if there's something they might be able to add from some other perspective as opposed to narrowly attacking other people because they're doing something that's right for them, which I think is so asinine.   Resources: bioptimizers.com (http://bioptimizers.com/)   Influencers Mentioned: Dr. Anthony Jay Ph.D (http://ajconsultingcompany.com)   On This Episode You Will Hear:[spp-timestamp time="00:30"] Introduction [spp-timestamp time="10:00"] The good news is if you're not happy with where things have led you to this point, all you have to realize is that you need to take yourself and the seed of potential and plug it into a different environment. [spp-timestamp time="20:45"] What's interesting is almost every person that I've interviewed, has produced something really cool or has gone through some sort of extreme challenge or transformation in their home life. [spp-timestamp time="30:00"] There is significant evidence that we've got major issues

Wade T. Lightheart, host of the AWESOME Health Podcast, is a 3-time All Natural National Bodybuilding Champion, advisor to the American Anti-Cancer Institute and Director of Education at BiOptimizers Nutrition, one of the world's most innovative nutritional supplement companies.  He is also the author of several books including the best-selling books, “Staying Alive in a Toxic World” and “The Wealthy Backpacker.” Website: https://bioptimizers.com/   Health course: https://bioptimizers.com/IAMCEO Products on amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/Premium-Digestive-Enzymes-Women-Men/dp/B01N0VM4E8  

“Health is the greatest gift.” - Buddha Is one of your 2019 goals to live a healthier life?  If so, you can do two things immediately...   Listen to this episode of the podcast Register for the AATH conference.  www.aath.org (Those two things can be done in any order but must be done before you leave the house today). On this episode I had the great pleasure to talk to THREE TIME natural body building champion Wade Lightheart.  Within AATH, we talk a lot about how humor and laughter impact health but (as well all know) there's more to health than laughing (although it is my preferred workout). Wade opened my eyes about a lot of health prevention issues and strategies.  AND...he gives a special offer at the end of the podcast for those who care to partake. I really enjoyed the candor that Wade shared on the show and also his ability to take some complex issues and make them easy to execute.  ENJOY! More on Wade.. Wade T. Lightheart, host of the AWESOME Health Podcast, is a 3-time All Natural National Bodybuilding Champion, advisor to the American Anti-Cancer Institute and Director of Education at BiOptimizers Nutrition, one of the world’s most innovative nutritional supplement companies. He is also the author of several books including the best-selling books, “Staying Alive in a Toxic World” and “The Wealthy Backpacker.” The AWESOME Health Podcast is a big part of his mission to help others x their digestion and transform their health with the daily practice of positive principles, rituals and optimizers. Few alive have traveled farther or crusaded harder on behalf of helping individuals transform their digestive health, wellness and overall lives than Wade T. Lightheart. A er competing in Mr. Universe and his health failing him following a competition victory, Wade began to search for answers. In the process, he learned so much about what makes digestion work, along with other principles that form what he calls the AWESOME Health system. Wade’s journey into vegetarianism and bodybuilding took his health to new heights, empowering him to help others with a unique perspective. Wade also serves as an advisor to the American Anti-Cancer Institute, and is the Co-Founder and Director of Education at BiOptimizers, a digestive health company. Check him out at:  https://bioptimizers.com/ AND http://www.wadelightheart.net/  

Wade T. Lightheart, host of the AWESOME Health Podcast, is a 3-time All Natural National Bodybuilding Champion, advisor to the American Anti-Cancer Institute and Director of Education at BiOptimizers Nutrition, one of the world’s most innovative nutritional supplement companies. He is also the author of several books including the best-selling books, “Staying Alive in a Toxic World” and “The Wealthy Backpacker.” The AWESOME Health Podcast is a big part of his mission to help others fix their digestion and transform their health with the daily practice of positive principles, rituals and optimizers. Wade talks with Mark Alyn about exercise and clean eating.

Wade T. Lightheart, host of the AWESOME Health Podcast, is a 3-time All NaturalNational Bodybuilding Champion, advisor to the American Anti-Cancer Institute andDirector of Education at BiOptimizers Nutrition, one of the world’s most innovativenutritional supplement companies. He is also the author of several books includingthe best-selling books, “Staying Alive in a Toxic World” and “The Wealthy Backpacker.”The AWESOME Health Podcast is a big part of his mission to help others fix theirdigestion and transform their health with the daily practice of positive principles,rituals and optimizers. Wade talks with Mark Alyn about exercise and clean eating.

Wade T. Lightheart, host of the AWESOME Health Podcast, is a 3-time All Natural National Bodybuilding Champion, advisor to the American Anti-Cancer Institute and Director of Education at BiOptimizers Nutrition, one of the world’s most innovative nutritional supplement companies. He is also the author of several books including the best-selling books, “Staying Alive in a Toxic World” and “The Wealthy Backpacker.” The AWESOME Health Podcast is a big part of his mission to help others fix their digestion and transform their health with the daily practice of positive principles, rituals and optimizers. Wade talks with Mark Alyn about exercise.

Wade T. Lightheart, host of the AWESOME Health Podcast, is a 3-time All NaturalNational Bodybuilding Champion, advisor to the American Anti-Cancer Institute andDirector of Education at BiOptimizers Nutrition, one of the world’s most innovativenutritional supplement companies. He is also the author of several books includingthe best-selling books, “Staying Alive in a Toxic World” and “The Wealthy Backpacker.”The AWESOME Health Podcast is a big part of his mission to help others fix theirdigestion and transform their health with the daily practice of positive principles,rituals and optimizers. Wade talks with Mark Alyn about exercise.

97 Wade Lightheart On today’s show we have Wade T. Lightheart, host of the AWESOME Health Podcast, Wade is a 3-time All Natural National Bodybuilding Champion, advisor to the American Anti-Cancer Institute and Director of Education at BiOptimizers Nutrition, one of the world’s most innovative nutritional supplement companies. He is also the author of several books including the best-selling books, “Staying Alive in a Toxic World” and “The Wealthy Backpacker.” The AWESOME Health Podcast is a big part of his mission to help others fix their digestion and transform their health with the daily practice of positive principles, rituals and optimizers.  On today’s interview you’ll hear how Wade averaged 5 street fights a week for a year and a half as a doorman at a very rough club before graduating to bartender. Along with some great info on staying healthy while traveling and how to eliminate brain fog.  For more info on Wade and his work check out bioptimizers.com and get your free AWESOME Health Course by clicking here. I also wanted to briefly mention a book I recently finished called Bluefishing: The Art of Making Things Happen by Steve Sims. The man who created Bluefish, the internationally famous company that makes once-in-a-lifetime events happen for the rich and famous, reveals to the rest of us his trade secrets for making things happen. Some takeaways you’ll learn are:  ask why three times, never be the first call, and don't be easy to understand, be impossible to misunderstand. As a thank you for listening to the show today you can get Bluefishing for FREE by going to Entreneato.com and clicking the FREE BOOK tab at the top of the page. Thanks to our friends at Audible! As always thank you for listening and don’t forget to comment, rate and subscribe on iTunes, now onto our interview with Wade!

Today’s guest is a 3 Time Canadian Natural Bodybuilding Champion, an author, and a huge advocate for natural nutrition and training methods. He’s the president of  BiOptimizers , a company that helps to fix gut health, AND the host of the Awesome Health Podcast. It is such an honor to have Wade Lightheart on the show today! Video Version: https://youtu.be/M57BPWkEtbc Wade Lightheart's Website: http://www.wadelightheart.net/ Speaker Questions You’re the first bodybuilding champion we’ve had on the show, tell us how you got started in the world of Bodybuilding? How did you transition into the world of gut health and digestion, is this something you suffered with personally, did you see a lot of other bodybuilders struggling with this? So what all do you offer through Bioptimizers? I was browsing the site and the Gluten Guardian caught my eye because my body does not handle gluten well and I know many of our listeners struggle with this too. But it’s more than the supplements, you offer courses and so many resources. You talk openly about being vegetarian, what caused you to make this decision, and what changes have you noticed in your body since you made the switch? You are also a fan of Intermittent Fasting, how long have you been doing this, and what is your daily eating window like? What kind of feedback from the body-building community did you get when you started talking about fasting? Before we get started with listener questions, I always like to ask my guests “what did you eat yesterday?” Walk us through a day in your life.   Listener Questions: Q1: 24:26 My friend recently purchased a Kangen water system and is a HUGE fan. Not only does she drink it, but she told me about adjusting different PH levels for things like soaking vegetables, treating moles on her skin, showering, etc. I know it is quite the investment, and I am wondering about the science behind how this works, and is it worth the money, or in her head? She tells me it’s not just about the PH, but also the ionization that breaks the water molecules down. -Amy in Virginia Beach Q2: 30:21 I’ve been researching proteolytic enzymes because I have heard they can be so good for the inflammation that I deal with, as well as Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Is it safe to take these while I am doing my longer 24-48 hour fasts? Also, are there any particular brands that you recommend? What are some foods that I can eat which are natural sources of these powerful enzymes? -Clare in Nevada   Q3: 35:38 I had a sinus infection that just wouldn’t go away, and my doctor insisted on putting me on an antibiotic. I hate taking an antibiotic and really didn’t want to do this but it did help me clear up. What can I do/take to get my gut back to normal after the antibiotics infiltrated my system? -Carter in Gainesville   Q4: 37:32 This is so gross, but something I am so curious about! I recently read something in Women’s Health about different poop colors revealing different health issues, or areas of concern. Is this really true? If so, what should I be looking out for? What are some signs of a really good, healthy poop? -Anonymous   Q5: 39:35 I recently saw an article about Round Up pesticide being traced to cancer, which is scary. I buy about 90% organic produce, but on your podcast the other day, I heard that even some produce from a farmers market could have pesticides on it! How can I know that what I am buying is safe, and how do you recommend that I wash my produce in order to be extra sure? Laura in Western Branch   Q6: 41:39 This question is so controversial, literally every person/expert says something completely different, same with every article/book that I read on the subject. What is the healthy number of times to go to the bathroom per day or per week? I hear so many people say they go every day, and that is just not the case for me, I am lucky to go 3x week. I feel fine, I don’t have any symptoms that lead me to believe I have gut issues otherwise. Is everyone different? -Rebecca in North Carolina ---------------------------------------- To learn more about the principles of intermittent fasting, purchase Chantel's book, Waist Away: The Chantel Ray Way NOW by visiting http://amzn.to/2CVmTgs YouTube Channel Link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCteFjiVaY6n0SOAixcyZbWA Like us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TheChantelRayWay     Things we love: https://chantelrayway.com/things-i-love-2/  Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheChantelRayWay  ***As always, this podcast is not designed to diagnose, treat, prevent or cure any condition and is for information purposes only. Please consult with your healthcare professional before making any changes to your current lifestyle.***

Wade T. Lightheart, host of the AWESOME Health Podcast, is a 3-time All Natural National Bodybuilding Champion, advisor to the American Anti-Cancer Institute and Director of Education at BiOptimizers Nutrition, one of the world’s most innovative nutritional supplement companies. He is also the author of several books including the best-selling books, “Staying Alive in a Toxic World” and “The Wealthy Backpacker.” The AWESOME Health Podcast is a big part of his mission to help others fix their digestion and transform their health with the daily practice of positive principles, rituals and optimizers. Few alive have traveled farther or crusaded harder on behalf of helping individuals transform their digestive health, wellness and overall lives than Wade T. Lightheart. After competing in Mr. Universe and his health failing him following a competition victory, Wade began to search for answers. In the process, he learned so much about what makes digestion work, along with other principles that form what he calls the AWESOME Health system. Wade’s journey into vegetarianism and bodybuilding took his health to new heights, empowering him to help others with a unique perspective. Wade also serves as an advisor to the American Anti-Cancer Institute, and is the Co-Founder and Director of Education at BiOptimizers, a digestive health company.

I've been getting a lot of questions lately about the mysterious molecule I consume before I eat bread and pasta - a compound that allows me to digest gluten without any of the "bathroom decommissioning" that so notoriously occurs after a hefty bout of gluten consumption. After all, I don't want to not eat bread or pasta for the rest of my life. I find them enjoyable. But due to glyphosate exposure from pesticides and herbicides, stress, a leaky gut and other modern assailants that make gluten a bigger issue than it ever has been in human history, I use a bit of better living through science to make gluten digestible. In today's podcast, I interview the inventors of Gluten Guardian - Matt Gallant and Wade Lightheart - the guys who first appeared in the podcast "" and later in my article "". Matt Gallant is an entrepreneur, a poker champion, an ex-rock guitarist, a serial entrepreneur (who's built 13 companies in the last 20 years) strength and conditioning coach with a degree in kinesiology, the CEO and co-founder of a company called BiOptimizers. Wade T. Lightheart, host of the AWESOME Health Podcast, 3-time All Natural National Bodybuilding Champion, advisor to the American Anti-Cancer Institute and Cofounder of BiOptimizers. He is also the author of several books including the best-selling books, “Staying Alive in a Toxic World” and “The Wealthy Backpacker.” MARGE LINK TO WADE'S BOOKS During our discussion, you'll discover: -Why Matt eats between 6-10,000 calories every Sunday...7.36 For the calorie spike. One meal per day for 6 days. A combo of healthy and regular food. Matt feels great afterwards. He takes the day off from training. -Why we should be cognizant of our gluten intake, even if we don't have celiac disease...10:30  New England Journal of Medicine listed 55 diseases that can be caused by eating gluten. Many times we're not aware of these diseases; can be immune, neurological and psychiatric. Differences between wheat germ in the gluten and gluten itself. Different type of protein. Both are resistant to digestion. Can make the gut more permeable. (Leaky gut) Amylase/trypsin inhibitors come packaged with gluten - specifically wheat. What about other factors to leaky gut such as stress and glyphosate. 4x increase in celiac disease; traced to glyphosate interrupting the digestive process. Will continue to increase due to the exposure to glyphosate.  -The use of enzymes in the preparation of food to increase its palatability...18:10 In a perfect world, you'd be eating pre-digested food primarily. You use enzymes to assist with breaking food down. -Do Matt and Wade recommend any panels for evaluating gluten sensitivity or gluten cross reactivity?...20:30 Anti-tissue trans glutaminase or endomysial antibody. Recommend Cyrex. Helps you know if other foods such as coffee or quinoa are exacerbating your level of gluten intolerance. Also testing gliad and peptide antibodies. How does gluten negatively affect the brain?...24:00 Inflames the brain by causing an auto-immune response. Antibodies intended to protect your body actually attack your body. During the digestive process, gluten can be broken down into proteins similar to psychedelic drugs. Has an addictive quality. Overloads the brain with glutamate. Irritates and damages brain cells. Negative impact on your social life. -What Wade REALLY thinks about Monsanto...29:50 They were written into protection against lawsuits by federal law during the previous administration. Demonstrable evidence of their products causing damage to the body. Has been bought out by Bayer. Food has essentially been mutated, much to our detriment. Destroy livelihoods of small farmers. -The product Matt uses to pre-digest gluten before you even eat it...37:00 Dipeptidyl peptidase 4, also DPP-4. Dissolves bread placed in water in 15 minutes (watch the video below) You take it while you eat. Does DPP-4 actually mitigate symptoms of gluten intolerance? Depends on the dosage. Can be taken as late as the day after eating. Citrusy foods have been found to inhibit DPP-4 Breaks down various hormones in the body such as insulin. -Does DPP-4 have any effect on foods not containing gluten?...45:00 Milk proteins, but not milk sugars like lactose. Good idea to add DPP-4 if you have a plant-based diet. Just mix and match until you find the right combination for you, and for the right meals. Safe for children to ingest. -More on Matt and Wade's diet and workout regimen...49:50 -How do HCL and hydrochloric acid work with Gluten Guardian?...54:55 Plays a supportive role Stomach acid decreases after the age of 35 Simulates the effects of apple cider vinegar P3-OM  Optimal time to take is before bed or first thing in the morning, rather than meal time. -Matt plays "myth busters" with colonizing properties of probiotics...58:41 -Special offer from Matt and Wade...1:04:15 Get 10% off your order of Gluten Guardian when you use code "greenfield" at 365 day unconditional money-back guarantee Brand new offer: "we'll fix your digestion guarantee" Resource from this episode: -Masszymes -Cyrex blood panel for gluten allergy -Book: Grain Brain Episode Sponsors: - utilizes sound waves to optimize sexual performance and reverse the effects of ED. Purchase 6 treatments, and get the 7th treatment for FREE. - Discover Omax3, the 93.9% pure omega-3 supplement developed by Yale-affiliated scientists. Use my link and you can try an entire box for FREE, plus get 60% off your first month's supply. - Organic brands you love, for less. Get your favorite Organic & Non-GMO brands delivered to your door! Get 25% off your first order when you use my link. - Make the cold your secret weapon with next-level cold gear. Enter code "ben" at checkout and receive 15% off your order! Do you have questions, thoughts or feedback for Matt, Wade or me? Leave your comments at http://bengreenfieldfitness.com/glutenpodcast and one of us will reply!

Wade is the host of the AWESOME Health Podcast, is a 3-time All Natural National Bodybuilding Champion, advisor to the American Anti-Cancer Institute and Director of Education at BiOptimizers Nutrition, one of the world’s most innovative nutritional supplement companies. He is also the author of several books including the best-selling books, “Staying Alive in a Toxic World” and “The Wealthy Backpacker.” For show notes see http://fuelradio.com

Wade is the host of the AWESOME Health Podcast, is a 3-time All Natural National Bodybuilding Champion, advisor to the American Anti-Cancer Institute and Director of Education at BiOptimizers Nutrition, one of the world’s most innovative nutritional supplement companies. He is also the author of several books including the best-selling books, “Staying Alive in a Toxic World” and “The Wealthy Backpacker.” For show notes see http://fuelradio.com

In this bonus track, I speak again 3-time All Natural National Bodybuilding Champion Wade T. Lightheart who was spotlighted previously in episode 27 of Mind Flipping as he shares a morning routine that combines  progressive muscle relaxation with breathing exercises in order to start his day with increased focus, relaxation, and awareness. By completing this short mindfulness technique each morning, you can begin your day with mindful meditation that will both relax you and increase your energy levels, allowing you to maximize your potential right from the start of your day.  Learn how to use tension in order to relieve tension as Wade details his quick and easy relaxation and awareness technique!   Wade is a 3-time All Natural National Bodybuilding Champion, Advisor to the American Anti-Cancer Institute, Director of Education at BiOptimizers Nutrition, Founder of the Prosperity & Health Alliance, Enagic Master Trainer. He is also the author of  several books, including best-selling books Staying Alive in a Toxic World and The Wealthy Backpacker. Wade is also the host of The Awesome Health Podcast.   As a reminder,  access Wade’s 12 week Awesome Health Course for FREE!  In order to maximize your health, energy, and focus.   If you enjoyed this bonus track, be sure to check out Wade’s full feature, episode 27, and listen to other tips and tricks to flip your mind for a more positive, focused, and relaxed lifestyle.   As always, feel free to contact me, Rick Paddock, with any comments or questions (and reviews!) of my show. I would love to hear from you as you continue to flip your mind and become a more positive, mindful, and relaxed person!

Don’t miss the aftershow here! http://2questions.tv/the-2questions-tv-after-show/In today’s episode, Susan talks with Wade T. Lightheart, host of the AWESOME Health Podcast, is a 3-time All Natural National Bodybuilding Champion, advisor to the American Anti-Cancer Institute and Director of Education at BiOptimizers Nutrition, one of the world’s most innovative nutritional supplement companies. Susan and Wade talk about how you can look healthy but not be healthy. They discuss supplements and what works and what doesn't.Wade's website: http://bioptimizers.com/2questionsWatch the After Show here: http://2questions.tv/the-2questions-tv-after-show/Susan’s websites:Everything Susan: http://suebmoe.com2Questions.TV: http://2Questions.TVBaroncini-Moe Executive Coaching: http://susanbaroncini-moe.comBusiness in Blue Jeans: http://businessinbluejeans.comShare your thoughts in the comments below!Equipment used for this video:- Zoom.us- Blue Yeti Microphone- MacBook Pro Subscribe to 2QuestionsTV for more interviews and behind the scenes footage! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Wade Lightheart is a BodyBuilding Champion and host of the AWESOME Health Podcast. He is also the author of several books including the best-selling books, “Staying Alive in a Toxic World” and “The Wealthy Backpacker.” The AWESOME Health Podcast is a big part of his mission to help others fix their digestion and transform their health with the daily practice of positive principles, rituals, and optimizers.You can find out more about Wade at www.wadelightheart.netAnd for FREE access to his 12-week AWESOME health course, go to www.bioptimizers.com/healbetter

Today's guest – Wade Lightheart - is probably one of the most unique individual's I've ever spoken with. That's because Wade has packed more in his lifetime than most people could pack in 10 lifetimes. Wade is a fitness and wellness enthusiast, entrepreneur & businessman, and author of several books. He's also the host of the Awesome Health Podcast, where he is on a mission to help others improve their digestive health. If you want to learn how you can improve your health and live a better life, then don't miss this interview! http://nextyearnowpodcast.com/36

Get Wade’s 12 week Awesome Health Course for FREE! Visit mindflipping.com for info--- Wade is a 3-time All Natural National Bodybuilding Champion, Advisor to the American Anti-Cancer Institute, Director of Education at BiOptimizers Nutrition, Founder of the Prosperity & Health Alliance, Enagic Master Trainer. He is also the author of  several books, including the best-selling books Staying Alive in a Toxic World and The Wealthy Backpacker. Wade is also the host of The Awesome Health Podcast. Wade shares how loss, body building, quiet and being rejected by monks led him on a path that would change his life and flip his mind. He also shares tips for cultivating health, wealth and success in your life. Wade’s 12 Week Double Your Energy Course Wade’s BiOptimizers Gut & Digestion Products (I take these and have noticed the difference morning, noon and night. I no longer wake up with a stomach ache and go to bed w/o the acid reflux that I had before)  Join our Facebook Group - Click Here​​​​​​​ and join the conversation   Show Notes:   2:50 The two different types of Mind Flips 3:48 Wade’s Reflective Mind Flipping Story 6:12 “To me the only risk is not taking your shot.”—Wade Lightheart 7:02 The problem with devices & benefits of quiet space 8:00 Wade’s personal Mind Flipping Story: The benefit of being rejected my Monks 11:05 The pain of indecision 12:06 The vision that lead Wade to meditation 13:17 Using psychedelics as tool 13:56 Tim Ferris Podcast with Phil Khogeon 15:16 Wade’s Mind Flipping Story: Body Building from the Inside Out 18:33 Mind Flipping health and disease 21:45 Client Mind Flipping Story: The Crumbling 22 year old Body 24:14 The power of encouragement 24:49 Deep & Simple Hypnosis 24:53 Word of the Day: Awesome 27:19 Wade’s gift of the Near Death Experience 31:28 Cultivating a sense of urgency in your life 33:06 What’s on Wade’s Internal Get Out of Jail Free Card? 34:12 How to achieve greatness, success and excellence 36:59 “The only way out is further in.” – Wade Lightheart 38:05 Tom vs. Time 38:31 The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin 40:10 Wade’s Request for Listeners: Invest in your health 43:01 About BIOptimizers   For more information about Wade, CLICK HERE to visit his website. Get Wade’s 12 week Awesome Health Course for FREE! Visit mindflipping.com for info.

Wade T. Lightheart, host of the AWESOME Health Podcast, is a 3-time All Natural National Bodybuilding Champion, advisor to the American Anti-Cancer Institute and Director of Education at BiOptimizers Nutrition, one of the world’s most innovative nutritional supplement companies. He is also the author of several books including the best-selling books, “Staying Alive in a Toxic World” and “The Wealthy Backpacker.” His overall mission is to help others fix their digestion and transform their health with the daily practice of positive principles, rituals and optimizers. Click here to access Bio-Optimizers Products! Free 12-week Course Mention in Today's Show Are you looking to band together with like-minded alpha males who are looking to build discipline, regain control of your time, build wealth and ultimately live life on your terms? We have recently launched the Infinite Results Mastermind where you can do just that. If you are interested in committing to getting exactly what you want in your life then join us at the link below: Infinite Results Mastermind Are you looking to build rock-solid discipline? Regain control over your time? Build your bank account? Connect on a deep level with your family? If so and you're willing to invest the time, money and energy into reaching your goals checkout my discipline coaching program! I teach you the fundamental tools, strategies and tactics necessary to have discipline in every area of you life! It's by application only and I only have a few spots for this! Discipline Coaching Connect with us here: Check out our blog! Zero Xcuses Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ZeroXcuses/

Wade T. Lightheart, host of the AWESOME Health Podcast, is a 3-time All Natural National Bodybuilding Champion, advisor to the American Anti-Cancer Institute and Director of Education at BiOptimizers Nutrition, one of the world’s most innovative nutritional supplement companies. He is also the author of several books including the best-selling books, “Staying Alive in a Toxic World” and “The Wealthy Backpacker.” The AWESOME Health Podcast is a big part of his mission to help others x their digestion and transform their health with the daily practice of positive principles, rituals and optimizers. Also mentioned:http://www.BiOptimizers.com/stuff for access to Wade's amazing products!!! & your free gift!!!  http://www.AwesomeHealthCourse.com/stuff, In this 12 week program, you’re going to discover how to achieve AWESOME health and double your energy with natural, tested, and scientific strategies FREE!! Healthy Gut Girl is sponsored by Health IQ, an insurance company that helps health conscious people like runners, cyclist, weightlifters and vegetarians get lower rates on their life insurance.  Go to healthiq.com/stuff to support the show and see if you qualify. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Wade T. Lightheart, host of the AWESOME Health Podcast, is a 3-time All Natural National Bodybuilding Champion, advisor to the American Anti-Cancer Institute and Director of Education at BiOptimizers Nutrition, one of the world's most innovative nutritional supplement companies. He is also the author of several books including the best-selling books, “Staying Alive in a Toxic World” and “The Wealthy Backpacker.” The AWESOME Health Podcast is a big part of his mission to help others fix their digestion and transform their health with the daily practice of positive principles, rituals and optimizers. Purchase the BEST Probiotics & Enzymes in the World: Biooptimizers Enzymes: http://rawnoni.bioptimize.hop.clickbank.net/?w=mz-v2&type=rec Biooptimizers Proteolytic Probiotics: http://rawnoni.bioptimize.hop.clickbank.net/?w=p3omland&type=rec Wade Lighthearts Awesome Health Course: http://www.awesomehealthcourse.com/ronnie Wade Lightheart: http://www.wadelightheart.net/ Ronnie Landis: http://www.ronnielandis.net

Wade T. Lightheart, host of the AWESOME Health Podcast, is a 3-time All Natural National Bodybuilding Champion, advisor to the American Anti-Cancer Institute and Director of Education at BiOptimizers Nutrition, one of the world's most innovative nutritional supplement companies. He is also the author of several books including the best-selling books, “Staying Alive in a Toxic World” and “The Wealthy Backpacker.” The AWESOME Health Podcast is a big part of his mission to help others fix their digestion and transform their health with the daily practice of positive principles, rituals and optimizers. Purchase the BEST Probiotics & Enzymes in the World: Biooptimizers Enzymes: http://rawnoni.bioptimize.hop.clickbank.net/?w=mz-v2&type=rec Biooptimizers Proteolytic Probiotics: http://rawnoni.bioptimize.hop.clickbank.net/?w=p3omland&type=rec Wade Lighthearts Awesome Health Course: http://www.awesomehealthcourse.com/ronnie Wade Lightheart: http://www.wadelightheart.net/ Ronnie Landis: http://www.ronnielandis.net

Wade T. Lightheart, host of the AWESOME Health Podcast, is a 3-time All Natural National Bodybuilding Champion, advisor to the American Anti-Cancer Institute and Director of Education at BiOptimizers Nutrition, one of the world’s most innovative nutritional supplement companies. He is also the author of several books including the best-selling books, “Staying Alive in a Toxic World” and “The Wealthy Backpacker.” The AWESOME Health Podcast is a big part of his mission to help others fix their digestion and transform their health with the daily practice of positive principles, rituals and optimizers. Few alive have traveled farther or crusaded harder on behalf of helping individuals transform their digestive health, wellness and overall lives than Wade T. Lightheart. After competing in Mr. Universe and his health failing him following a competition victory, Wade began to search for answers. In the process, he learned so much about what makes digestion work, along with other principles that form what he calls the AWESOME Health system. Wade’s journey into vegetarianism and bodybuilding took his health to new heights, empowering him to help others with a unique perspective. Wade is also an advisor to American Anti-Cancer Institute and is one of the Co-Founders at BiOptimizers Nutritional supplement company. Thank you so much for your interest in this show of Exploring Mind and Body, if you haven't done so already please take a moment and leave a quick rating and review of the show in iTunes by clicking below. It will keep us delivering valuable content each week and give others an opportunity to find the show as well. Click here to subscribe via iTunes (and or leave a rating)

*Get ready for a high energy guy who’s had an amazing journey from a Mr. Universe dream that took shape as a teenager in the deep backwoods of New Brunswick, Canada, and came true all the way to his landing spot in the bodybuilding epicenter of Venice Beach, CA.* Wade Lightheart pushed the limits of physical training, work ethic, and competitive intensity in the most extreme of sports and learned some hard lessons that helped shape a lengthy career in performance optimization and a health and nutrition supplement business with his company, Bio Optimization. After reaching the highest levels of international bodybuilding, Wade completed a contest and his body went to heck. He gained an astonishing 42 pounds in 11 weeks! This launched his quest to align fitness pursuits with health instead of compromise health. Wade realized that *we pursue fitness goals for three reasons: aesthetics, performance and health* ; and that quite often, *our pursuit of the first two severely compromises the final one.* Long before the emerging topic of gut health became the hot issue of the day, Wade realized that his digestion was trashed, largely on account of chronically excessive protein intake combined with a bodybuilder style starvation diet that lasted too long. This free flowing show also touches on issues like performance-enhancing drugs in sports and how the increasingly sophisticated biohacking strategies of the day are closing the gap between a doped athlete and a clean athlete doing everything right. Wade proved this insight to be true when he returned to bodybuilding after a four-year layoff and performed better than his previous efforts as a less healthy human. You’ll also learn about the three issues that can be causing gut dysfunction and how to quickly home test for them. Learn more about Wade and his operation, including a free 12-week peak performance program at BioOptimizers.com ( http://biooptimizers.com ) and enjoy his Awesome Health Podcast ( https://bioptimizers.com/awesome-health-podcast-archive/ ) , including a 2020 interview with me! *TIMESTAMPS:* Wade talks about how he got into bodybuilding and was inspired by Schwarzenegger’s advice: He said you can achieve anything you want with hard work, self-discipline, and a positive attitude. [05:28] After working for many years on his dream of becoming a champion bodybuilder, Wade was in Mr. Universe contest and immediately thereafter gained 42 pounds in 11 weeks. [09:27] He realized he had built his body from the outside in and he had to learn to build the body from the inside out. [10:59] Many of the bodybuilders eventually end up in some health crisis. [12:51] Wade has learned from his experience and has applied this to his biological optimization formula. [15:33] Athletes are fit, not necessarily healthy. We have sacrificed health in pursuit of performance. [18:03] After Wade was in the contest, what happened that caused his body to blow up? [20:22] The use of performance-enhancing technology is pervasive in the athletic community maybe going back 60 to 70 years. [25:15] When traveling to India for a contest, he connected with like-minded people and started the BiOptimizers development. [32:11] When you're in the midst of a highly engrossing competitive challenge and drugs are part of the game, it's easy to rationalize and join up with the pack to try to stay with the pack instead of get dropped. [34:21] How did Wade learn about the gut microbiome so long before what we know today? [38:47] A hundred million Americans on any given day are suffering from some sort of digestive distress that is either an over-the-counter or prescription medication for digestive related illnesses. [42:39] The USDA allows 50 different chemicals on organic produce and we don’t get to know about genetic modification in many places. [44:11] A person tries to eat healthy, selecting carefully, knowing that there are still problems. There are probiotics available in the stores. How do we know which ones are best? [45:53] A one-degree difference in temperature in a probiotic stream is going to cause a doubling of the activity of that probiotic. You need a prebiotic. [47:00] Wade and his partner have disparate dietary patterns. Is it important what genetic particulars are present when it comes to choosing the best diet? [50:01] Three areas where people run into digestive issues are lack of proper enzymes in the food, being low in hydrochloric acid, and microbiome imbalance. [55:28] Magnesium is the most common deficiency mineral in virtually everybody’s diet. [58:56] *LINKS:* * Brad ‘s Shopping Page ( http://www.bradkearns.com/shop/ ) * BiOptimizers ( https://bioptimizers.com/ ) * Wade Lightheart ( https://www.google.com/search?bih=814&biw=1395&fir=UHzq9e5byKaddM%252Cvjuqh8ioaYO0lM%252C_&ictx=1&q=wade+lightheart&sa=X&source=iu&sxsrf=ALeKk01m286iBAhWRlkhDbjbfLmSfHUfJQ%3A1600542465043&tbm=isch&usg=AI4_-kQYUqr9JnHv35XkKTKo2zOv6B1SXQ&ved=2ahUKEwi_os6o9fXrAhVKOKwKHZakA-8Q9QF6BAgJEC4&vet=1#imgrc=UHzq9e5byKaddM ) * Dr. Edward Howell ( https://www.foodenzymeinstitute.com/products/Enzyme-Nutrition-by-Dr-Edward-Howell.aspx ) *Follow me on social media for more great content!* Instagram: @bradkearns1 ( https://www.instagram.com/bradkearns1/ ) Facebook: @bradkearnsjumphigh ( https://www.facebook.com/bradkearnsjumphigh ) Twitter: @bradleykearns ( https://twitter.com/bradleykearns ) *Sponsors* Check out each of these companies because they are absolutely awesome or they wouldn’t occupy this revered space. Seriously, Brad won’t sell out to anyone if he doesn’t love the product. Ask anyone. * Almost Heaven Sauna ( http://almostheaven.com/ ) : Affordable at-home sauna kits for the ultimate relaxation and hormonal boost on demand * Brad’s Macadamia Masterpiece: ( http://bradventures.com/ ) Mind-blowing, life-changing nut butter blend * CAR.O.L bike: ( http://carolfitai.com/ ) Cardiovascular optimized logic stationary bike for a highly effective eight-minute workout * Male Optimization Formula with Organs (MOFO): ( http://bradkearns.com/mofo ) Optimize testosterone naturally with 100% grassfed animal organ supplement * Perfect Keto: ( http://perfectketo.com/ ) The cleanest, purest, most potent ketone supplements and snacks * LetsGetChecked ( http://lgc.com/brad ) : At-home medical testing with great prices, quick results, and no hassles * Vuori Activewear: ( http://vuori.com/ ) The most comfortable, functional, and fashionable gear, evoking the chill SoCal coastal lifestyle *Donations* ! 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