0
SPEAKER_00
This is the art of charm.
0
SPEAKER_00
Learn everything you need to know to crush it in business, love, and life.
0
SPEAKER_00
Today we re talking with Dr. Rhonda Patrick, PhD, scientist at Children s Hospital, but also investigator of micronutrient deficiencies and the effects on metabolism, inflammation, DNA damage, and aging.
0
SPEAKER_00
We re gonna talk a lot about what she s passionate about here with the vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acids.
0
SPEAKER_00
It s a little science-y, but nutrition and bodily health matters.
0
SPEAKER_00
We re gonna tie it to brain function, which is the
0
SPEAKER_00
connection to what we actually teach here at The Art of Charm, how ignoring your health will lead to consequences that impact mental performance.
0
SPEAKER_00
Talk a lot about inflammation, vitamin D, how to get it, omega-3 serotonin system, blood-brain barrier.
0
SPEAKER_00
It gets basically to the heart of the issue of why what you eat or what you re not eating most likely is going to affect your mental performance and make you age faster.
0
SPEAKER_00
So if you know somebody who s your age and looks like crap, this is probably why.
0
SPEAKER_00
So this will be interesting and enlightening for those of us who are into that sort of thing.
0
SPEAKER_00
If you re not super sciencey or if you don t feel like getting into the nutritional aspect, it s a little bit of a heady show.
0
SPEAKER_00
You might want to save this one for later and if that s not your type, if that s not your bag.
0
SPEAKER_00
So with that, welcome to The Art of Charm.
0
SPEAKER_00
I m Jordan Harbinger.
0
SPEAKER_00
The Art of Charm brings together the best thought leaders, teachers, and exceptional individuals to teach you how to be a top performer in life, love, and at work.
0
SPEAKER_00
Imagine having a mix of experienced mentors teaching you their expertise
0
SPEAKER_00
packing decades of research, testing, and tough lessons into a curriculum.
0
SPEAKER_00
We may not have all the answers, but we definitely have all the questions.
0
SPEAKER_00
Make sure to stay up to date with the Art of Charm and get some great stuff that we don t share on the show by signing up at theartofcharm.com.
0
SPEAKER_00
We ll email you our Fundamentals Toolkit.
0
SPEAKER_00
Covers everything from body language and nonverbal communication to persuasion, networking, public speaking, negotiation, and a whole lot more.
0
SPEAKER_00
And of course, our weekly videos with drills and exercises to help you move forward every single week.
0
SPEAKER_00
I also invite you to join us in our social capital challenge at theartofcharm.com slash challenge, or text charmed to 33444.
0
SPEAKER_00
This is about improving your networking skills, your connection skills, and inspiring more people to develop a personal and professional relationship with you.
0
SPEAKER_00
And of course, if you want accountability, invite your friends as well, theartofcharm.com slash challenge, or text charmed to 33444.
0
SPEAKER_00
Now, Dr. Rhonda Patrick.
0
SPEAKER_00
So tell us what you do in one sentence.
0
SPEAKER_01
I do research on the interface between how to optimize physical and mental performance and aging.
0
SPEAKER_00
Why are those two things connected?
0
SPEAKER_00
I didn t see that coming.
0
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, physical and mental performance and aging.
0
SPEAKER_00
We just assume it goes down as you get older, right?
0
SPEAKER_01
It does, but, you know, in some cases, things that optimize mental performance or physical performance can come at a trade-off for long-term health and for the way you age.
0
SPEAKER_01
And so I sort of try to look at the overlap between those two fields of, you know, peak performance, both mentally and physically, and also, you know,
0
SPEAKER_01
aging the best way you can.
0
SPEAKER_01
Optimal, what s called health span, which is like, you know, basically the way you age.
0
SPEAKER_00
Right, okay, that makes sense.
0
SPEAKER_00
And we ve talked about aging on the show before with guys like Aubrey de Grey.
0
SPEAKER_00
Do you know about him?
0
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, I interviewed him on my podcast a few months ago.
0
SPEAKER_00
Okay, yeah, strange guy with a strange mission.
0
SPEAKER_00
That s pretty cool, right?
0
SPEAKER_01
For sure, yeah.
0
SPEAKER_01
Him and I have some differences in our beliefs in the field of aging.
0
SPEAKER_01
We also have some overlap as well.
0
SPEAKER_00
One of the things that you mention in your work, and then we talked about pre-show, is the effects of what you call micronutrient deficiencies.
0
SPEAKER_00
What is that, why is that important, and is this new science?
0
SPEAKER_00
I mean, is this something we ve just discovered?
0
SPEAKER_01
Micronutrients are around 30 to 40 essential amino acids, vitamins, minerals, and essential fatty acids.
0
SPEAKER_01
So they re definitely not new.
0
SPEAKER_01
I mean, we ve known about vitamins and minerals and their importance in health for over 100 years.
0
SPEAKER_01
However, the way people think about them is sort of outdated.
0
SPEAKER_01
the vitamin and mineral deficiencies most people think have been eliminated because people aren t walking around with severe diseases like scurvy, you know, which is a vitamin C deficiency.
0
SPEAKER_01
That s a pirate disease, right?
0
SPEAKER_01
Right, exactly.
0
SPEAKER_01
You see, it s a pirate disease.
0
SPEAKER_01
It doesn t exist anymore in the modern world.
0
SPEAKER_01
It s really kind of what s in people s minds.
0
SPEAKER_01
And what I have been working on experimentally and also just by doing a lot of research
0
SPEAKER_01
in what has been put out there over the last, you know, several decades is looking at how micronutrient inadequacies, so you re not in a severe deficiency, deficiencies are often defined as a level that can ultimately lead to death, like scurvy, eventually it s going to kill you.
0
SPEAKER_01
But inadequacies refer to just not quite deficiencies, but you re just you re not getting enough of the vitamin and mineral
0
SPEAKER_01
to maintain long-term health.
0
SPEAKER_01
And so, the way I look at this is there are vitamins and minerals that are required for short-term function for making sure that you are able to survive long enough to pass on your genes to reproduce.
0
SPEAKER_01
You know, that s an important part of evolution is to, you know, pass on our genes.
0
SPEAKER_01
And so, if you have certain genes that are essential for short-term survival,
0
SPEAKER_01
For example, blood clotting, you definitely want to make sure you re able to have your blood clot because if you are injured, you don t want to potentially hemorrhage and bleed out, which could ultimately kill you.
0
SPEAKER_01
So blood clotting is a very important short-term function.
0
SPEAKER_01
And blood clotting happens to require one very important micronutrient, vitamin K, which is found in dark green leafy vegetables.
0
SPEAKER_00
Of which I eat virtually none.
0
SPEAKER_01
You and probably most of Americans these days.
0
SPEAKER_01
Although it s becoming a little more popular.
0
SPEAKER_01
People are drinking green smoothies.
0
SPEAKER_01
kale shakes and stuff like that.
0
SPEAKER_00
on this stuff as a layperson?
0
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, we live in an age now where we have access to too much information and not all the information at our fingertips is necessarily accurate.
0
SPEAKER_01
And there are a lot of people that are on the interwebs that are giving health and nutrition and fitness advice and aren t necessarily qualified.
0
SPEAKER_01
And you don t necessarily have to be qualified in the sense where you have a bunch of letters after your name like I do, but you really should have a deep understanding of the biological mechanisms that are going on if you re going to give out health advice.
0
SPEAKER_00
I feel like this is one of those areas, one of many of the same type where a little knowledge can actually be harmful, whereas a lot of it is something that they don t have the patience to acquire.
0
SPEAKER_01
Yes, it s true.
0
SPEAKER_01
It takes a lot of time to figure out how things are working, especially when it comes to the human body, extremely complicated and complex.
0
SPEAKER_01
And sometimes what is intuitive is actually not the correct explanation.
0
SPEAKER_00
which is even more confusing.
0
SPEAKER_00
So, well, one of the things that we had mentioned pre-show is that the brain is really very intimately tied to the rest of the body in ways that we just continue to uncover and unravel and discover and that there s connections between the brain and our immune system and that s sort of like a new discovery, which for some people they go, well, duh.
0
SPEAKER_00
but we didn t know about that, we couldn t prove that, and so things like ignoring our health, having these micronutrient deficiencies, not getting enough exercise or whatever else can actually impact our mental performance and our ability to be effective as well, which I think is something we wanna really get into here this hour.
0
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
0
SPEAKER_01
And it s a fascinating field.
0
SPEAKER_01
And I think it s very important because most people don t think about, you know, what they re putting into their body or the way they re living their life as affecting their cognitive function.
0
SPEAKER_01
They usually think of, well, I m born with these genes, I m either smart or I m not.
0
SPEAKER_01
And it s just not the case.
0
SPEAKER_01
You know, as you mentioned, the immune system is
0
SPEAKER_01
we now know directly linked to the brain.
0
SPEAKER_01
And that was a real mind blower for, you know, not only people, lay audience, but scientists in general, because, you know, we ve been trying to figure out that link for decades and have not found direct evidence showing that the immune system is directly linked to the brain.
0
SPEAKER_01
But we have known for quite a while that inflammation, which is
0
SPEAKER_01
sort of a byproduct of your immune system being overactive.
0
SPEAKER_01
And, you know, inflammation does affect cognitive function, and that has been known for some time.
0
SPEAKER_01
For example, if you are making more
1
SPEAKER_00
or inflammatory cytokines for whatever reason, either you re stressed, stress hormone, cortisol for one, cortisol can increase the production of inflammatory cytokines.
1
SPEAKER_00
Cortisol being a stress hormone, colloquially known, correct?
1
SPEAKER_03
Correct.
1
SPEAKER_03
What are cytokines?
1
SPEAKER_03
I have no idea what that is.
1
SPEAKER_00
Cytokines are kind of like, you can think of it as like ammunition, like gunpower that your immune system s firing out there to kill off what it thinks is a foreign invader, like a bacteria or a virus.
1
SPEAKER_03
So like white blood cells?
1
SPEAKER_00
White blood cells fire off cytokines.
1
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, cytokines are like secreted from the white blood cells.
1
SPEAKER_00
And these cytokines can damage other tissues, but they also can cross over into the brain.
1
SPEAKER_00
So your brain is usually protected from molecules and other compounds entering it by something called the blood-brain barrier.
1
SPEAKER_00
That s very important, you know, you wanna make sure that not everything s getting into your brain.
1
SPEAKER_00
Your brain is very important.
1
SPEAKER_03
Some of us spend a lot of time trying to make sure things get to our brain.
1
SPEAKER_03
Some of our mutual friends, in fact.
1
SPEAKER_00
Yes, yeah, there is that.
1
SPEAKER_00
But things that are insidious, like these little cytokines that are known to the layman as just inflammation or inflammatory mediators, these things are getting into the brain.
1
SPEAKER_00
They are depleting the brain of serotonin, which most people know as a neurotransmitter that regulates mood.
1
SPEAKER_00
Well, it actually also affects
1
SPEAKER_00
learning and memory and well-being and behavior, impulse behavior.
1
SPEAKER_00
So if you have something that s depleting your serotonin, not only does your mood become affected and you have a poor mood, but you also do worse on learning and memory tests, you re more impulsive, and also have more anxiety, higher anxiety.
1
SPEAKER_03
So does this mean that anxious people, stressed out people learn worse than somebody who s happy or more relaxed?
1
SPEAKER_00
Well, it does and it doesn t.
1
SPEAKER_00
So it depends on what you re trying to learn.
1
SPEAKER_00
So studies have shown, at least in humans, that if you re stressed and you re making the stress hormone like cortisol, that can be beneficial for a certain type of learning or remembering something like an emotional type of memory.
1
SPEAKER_00
So something that s more autobiographical, something that involves
1
SPEAKER_00
Interacting with other humans, you know, anything that s going to elicit emotional response, which, you know, typically happens to be something you re experiencing.
1
SPEAKER_00
Emotions and stress hormones can actually make those memories stronger.
1
SPEAKER_00
I mean, if you talk to people like in my parents  generation, like my mom and my dad both remember what they were doing when JFK was shot.
1
SPEAKER_03
That s why everybody remembers like where they were on September 11th type stuff.
1
SPEAKER_00
Exactly, exactly.
1
SPEAKER_00
And so, you know, in a sense, the stress hormones can help solidify those memories that are emotional, but it does the opposite for what are called like more neutral memories or more of a declarative type of memory.
1
SPEAKER_00
So when you re trying to remember facts, when you re trying to remember pieces of information that are not like tied to an emotional
1
SPEAKER_00
response, you actually do poorly or you remember things more poorly in the context of being stressed.
1
SPEAKER_00
So if you re trying to remember things, like on this podcast that I m talking about that may be new to you, or any sort of tests you re trying to take, or just anything you re learning in school for that matter, stress hormones have been shown to actually dampen the brain s ability to remember these things well.
1
SPEAKER_03
What is inflammation?
1
SPEAKER_03
I don t know what this is.
1
SPEAKER_03
It seems like a modern health boogeyman that s blamed for everything.
1
SPEAKER_00
You know, Jordan, you nailed it because inflammation has recently been identified as the driver of the aging process.
1
SPEAKER_03
And of sales for many people s e-books.
1
SPEAKER_00
Exactly.
1
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, so what is inflammation?
1
SPEAKER_00
Inflammation really, what it s referring to is
1
SPEAKER_00
a chronic activation of your immune system that s producing chemical warfare in your body by your immune system.
1
SPEAKER_00
When I say chemical warfare, it releases things like hydrogen peroxide, or hypochlorite, which is also known as bleach.
1
SPEAKER_00
So it s releasing all these like very
1
SPEAKER_00
harsh chemicals that you and I know.
1
SPEAKER_00
I mean, bleach is pretty harsh.
1
SPEAKER_00
Hydrogen peroxide is pretty harsh.
1
SPEAKER_00
It does a lot of damage.
1
SPEAKER_00
These things are being released inside of your cells.
1
SPEAKER_00
Normally, if it s an acute condition, like you are being infected with rhinovirus or the influenza virus, you want your immune system to release this stuff to kill it.
1
SPEAKER_00
But the problem is, is that our immune systems now are being active chronically in the absence of these types of viruses and bacteria.
1
SPEAKER_00
And the causes of...you know, there s many different causes of this.
1
SPEAKER_00
And this is really what inflammation is.
1
SPEAKER_00
Inflammation is just the overactive of your immune system chronically releasing these toxic chemical warfare that damages everything inside of your cells from your DNA to the lipids, you know, the fat.
1
SPEAKER_00
proteins, everything inside of yourself.
1
SPEAKER_00
So it s wreaking havoc on your body and on your brain.
1
SPEAKER_02
Over the last 17 years, we have launched our fair share of online courses, coaching programs, and finding the right platform has always been a challenge.
1
SPEAKER_01
They say if you do what you love, you never work a day in your life.
1
SPEAKER_01
But if you re an entrepreneur, you know the hard work that comes with it.
1
SPEAKER_01
That s why you need Kajabi.
1
SPEAKER_01
Kajabi makes it easy to run your entire online business from one platform so you can focus on what you love, creating.
1
SPEAKER_02
Kajabi is the ultimate all-in-one platform that helps creators and entrepreneurs build successful online businesses by unlocking predictable recurring revenue.
1
SPEAKER_01
No matter your niche, Kajabi makes it easy to turn your skills, passions, and experiences into enriching online courses, exclusive membership sites, subscription podcasts, thriving communities, personalized coaching, and more.
1
SPEAKER_02
The best part, Kajabi doesn t cut into your revenue because everything is owned and controlled by you.
1
SPEAKER_02
So keep 100% of what you earn.
1
SPEAKER_01
And with Kajabi, you also get robust analytics, easy payment options, email marketing tools, and customizable website templates, all built in.
1
SPEAKER_02
You don t even need a huge audience to make sustainable income.
1
SPEAKER_02
There are thousands of creators on Kajabi making six and seven figures with less than 50,000 followers.
1
SPEAKER_01
Right now, Kajabi is offering a free 30-day trial to start your business.
1
SPEAKER_01
If you go to kajabi.com slash charm, that s K-A-J-A-B-I.com slash charm.
1
SPEAKER_02
Go to kajabi.com slash charm and join the creators and entrepreneurs who have made over $7 billion.
1
SPEAKER_01
Hey, Art of Charm listeners, I m excited to share a new podcast I ve been absolutely binging.
1
SPEAKER_01
Winning is an everyday mindset, and Craig Robinson and John Calipari are here to help.
1
SPEAKER_01
On Ways to Win podcast, Craig and Coach Cal use their on-court wisdom to solve your off-court problems.
1
SPEAKER_01
Whether it s trouble at home or a workplace dilemma, the coaches will help you find a winning formula for success.
1
SPEAKER_01
You ll hear from prominent athletes, business leaders, and celebrities who reveal insights that made them into the leaders they are today.
1
SPEAKER_01
And don t miss President Obama sharing how he deals with pressure by projecting confidence, believing in your team, and taking criticism.
1
SPEAKER_01
Listen to Ways to Win wherever you get your podcasts.
1
SPEAKER_03
This is basically, right, so if your white blood cells in your immune system are shooting cytokines everywhere and those are kind of like bullets, like you said, ammunition, there s collateral damage whenever it s attacking a disease.
1
SPEAKER_03
But when it s just attacking for the sake of attacking and there s no disease to be had, it s just shooting up the place, trashing it.
1
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, exactly.
1
SPEAKER_00
It s shooting up the place and trashing it.
1
SPEAKER_00
And this is something that s happening at a low level, you know, in all of us.
1
SPEAKER_00
It happens with normal aging, but depending on our diet and our lifestyle, it can happen, you know, to a much, much greater degree or to a much, much lesser degree.
1
SPEAKER_00
And this has been shown, you know, a recent study came out that showed young people actually age at very different rates.
1
SPEAKER_00
You know, so.
1
SPEAKER_03
Well, you can see that and maybe I m just maybe I m conflating something, but I feel like there s other guys my age where I m like, why are you bald and frail?
1
SPEAKER_03
We re 35.
1
SPEAKER_00
And this has been shown, like you said, you can see it in this study that I m referring to.
1
SPEAKER_00
Their researchers looked at about 18 different biomarkers of aging.
1
SPEAKER_00
And what they found is that people in some cases were biologically, they were 10 years older or 10 years younger than their chronological age.
1
SPEAKER_00
And in fact, if photographs were shown to other people to guess their age, what was really interesting was that these people would guess the person s biological age rather than their chronological age.
1
SPEAKER_00
So if they looked younger, they would say, oh, they look like they re 20 years old, when in fact they were 30.
1
SPEAKER_00
So they were biologically healthier and vice versa, you know, so, you know, the fact of the matter is, is that our diet, what we re putting in our body and what we re not putting in our bodies is what s causing this inflammation.
1
SPEAKER_03
So inflammation sort of dot, dot, dot causes aging or exacerbates the process.
1
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, it does.
1
SPEAKER_00
It does exacerbate the process.
2
SPEAKER_00
process.
2
SPEAKER_00
And what most people don t realize is that the major source of inflammation in the body is actually coming from the gut.
2
SPEAKER_00
The gut is actually the major source of all immune cells.
2
SPEAKER_00
It has the highest concentration of immune cells in the entire body.
2
SPEAKER_00
Most people don t know that.
2
SPEAKER_00
Like if you were to ask a random person, where do you think most of your immune cells are, they might say, oh, in my blood, or, you know, they ll say in my spleen, or thymus, but no, it s actually in your gut.
2
SPEAKER_01
And gut being lower intestine, larger intestine, colon, what else?
2
SPEAKER_00
Well, yeah, so they re in the, between the small and the large intestine, so there s something called the pyropatch, which is where most of the immune cells are concentrated, and it s right at the very, very end of the small intestine and right at the beginning of the colon, you know, towards the larger intestine.
2
SPEAKER_01
And that thing is just inflamed like crazy?
2
SPEAKER_00
Well, what s happening is, you know, the immune cells are there for a reason because your gut s exposed to the internal environment.
2
SPEAKER_00
When you eat food, you know, the food sees the inside of your body.
2
SPEAKER_00
And so if you re eating something that s potentially deadly or, you know, can be life-threatening, you want your immune system there and ready to react to it, right?
2
SPEAKER_00
coli, for example.
2
SPEAKER_00
The problem is also that the immune cells in our gut are also regulated by our gut and by our gut health.
2
SPEAKER_00
So in addition to our gut having a lot of immune cells, our gut also hosts a large and very diverse variety of bacteria.
2
SPEAKER_00
a lot of people, it s kind of a buzzword now, the gut microbiome, I think most people are familiar with the fact that we have a lot of bacteria in our gut, good bacteria, bad bacteria.
2
SPEAKER_00
Well, these good bacteria are actually doing a lot of things for us, including making sure that our immune system is
2
SPEAKER_00
in check, making sure that we re not making so many of this chemical warfare, making sure that we re making the right types of immune cells.
2
SPEAKER_00
So in order for our gut to be able to do that properly, we have to feed the bacteria what they eat and what the bacteria eat is fiber.
2
SPEAKER_00
That s the big problem because our society, at least here in the United States, is very fiber deficient.
2
SPEAKER_00
So you can find fiber in foods like vegetables, legumes, beans, oats, nuts, seeds, fruits.
2
SPEAKER_00
These things all are really high in fiber.
2
SPEAKER_00
What s not high in fiber is pizza, fast food, packaged food, canned food, refined carbohydrates, pastas.
2
SPEAKER_00
Those things are low in fiber and it s what the majority of people are eating.
2
SPEAKER_00
The way to think about it is most of the bacteria that we have is in our colon, which is the very end of our gut.
2
SPEAKER_00
And when we eat food like fat or protein, which is, you know, not fiber, that gets digested in our upper, our smaller intestine.
2
SPEAKER_00
And so nothing makes its way to the colon until all the bacteria in the colon get hungry and they have to eat something.
2
SPEAKER_00
The hungry colon.
2
SPEAKER_00
And so what they end up doing is catabolism.
2
SPEAKER_00
They end up eating part of the colon, which is called the gut barrier.
2
SPEAKER_00
So they start to eat this mucus lining that separates the immune cells in our gut from the bacteria.
2
SPEAKER_00
It also separates the food in our gut from our internal part of our gut.
2
SPEAKER_00
And so they start to break that down and eat it because they re starving because they don t get fiber.
2
SPEAKER_00
I think it s a good way to think of it as a high-protein, high-fat diet.
2
SPEAKER_00
It can feed ourselves, but it starves the bacteria in our gut and ultimately ends up causing the bacteria in our gut to break down the gut barrier, which activates the immune system radically.
2
SPEAKER_00
The immune system starts firing off all this chemical warfare, and this just kind of chronically happens as we eat less and less fiber.
2
SPEAKER_00
I recently interviewed a couple of researchers at Stanford University, Justin, Eric, and Sonnenberg.
2
SPEAKER_00
They re doing a lot of very interesting research on the gut microbiome, and they were talking about how hunter-gatherer societies that are now living, you know, currently in, like, Tanzania, places like that, they get around 200 grams of fiber a day.
2
SPEAKER_00
compared to the standard American diet, which is less than 15 grams of fiber.
2
SPEAKER_01
Oh wow, that s terrible.
2
SPEAKER_01
And fiber just being like vegetable fiber and fruits and stuff like that or whatever?
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, vegetable, fruit, and beans, nuts, seeds, these are all sources of fiber.
2
SPEAKER_00
So really increasing the intake of fiber is one of the main ways you can actually lower inflammation at the level of the gut.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, Metamucil is straight fiber.
2
SPEAKER_00
One of the caveats to just doing that is that there s many different types of fiber sources, like the fiber source in a carrot and celery versus the fiber source in the apple peel versus the fiber source in a black bean or a lentil bean or in a walnut or in an almond, for example.
2
SPEAKER_00
They all are sources of fiber, but they re different types of fiber.
2
SPEAKER_00
And what researchers have been learning now is that
2
SPEAKER_00
the different types of gut bacteria, you know, in our colon, eat different types of fiber.
2
SPEAKER_00
And so, I think it s really important to try to get more of a broad spectrum of fiber if you can, as opposed to just downing your metamucil
2
SPEAKER_00
which is just one type of fiber.
2
SPEAKER_01
Right, so that gut bacteria likes a little variety in its diet.
2
SPEAKER_00
They do, yeah.
2
SPEAKER_00
And this has been shown to affect mood.
2
SPEAKER_00
It s been shown to affect cognitive function and anxiety.
2
SPEAKER_01
So eating vegetables and getting enough fiber for your colon can affect your brain function?
2
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
2
SPEAKER_00
So there s a direct line between the gut and the brain.
2
SPEAKER_00
This is called the vagal nerve, and it s literally just a nerve that connects the gut to the brain.
2
SPEAKER_00
And this has been a really fascinating field of research that we ve been learning more and more over the past, you know, five years that the bacteria in our gut specifically can also affect, you know, anxiety, cognitive function, for example.
2
SPEAKER_00
So this has been done.
2
SPEAKER_00
Scientists have taken gut bacteria from mice that have been very anxious.
2
SPEAKER_00
and transplanted it into mice that are not anxious, and it makes the mouse anxious, and vice versa.
2
SPEAKER_00
So gut bacteria from mice that are not anxious, that are calm, can be transplanted into mice that are anxious, and it can calm the mice, and the mice become
2
SPEAKER_00
you know, calmer and less anxious.
2
SPEAKER_00
And it s also been shown that giving people a certain strain of probiotic bacteria called lactobacillus raminosus, which is thought to increase GABA levels, GABA is an inhibitory neurotransmitter.
2
SPEAKER_00
It increases the GABA levels actually in the gut.
2
SPEAKER_00
And this somehow is able to, through the vagal nerve, send a signal to the brain to calm it.
2
SPEAKER_00
And so people that have taken these supplements become calmer and less anxious, which is very fascinating.
2
SPEAKER_00
It s a very fascinating field of research that we re sort of beginning to scratch the surface on.
2
SPEAKER_00
But I really think it sort of drives home how important inflammation is, gut health, and this connection between the immune system, the, you know, inflammation in our body, the gut bacteria, and our cognitive function and our brain function.
2
SPEAKER_00
It s a growing field, and I keep becoming more and more amazed at the new studies coming out.
2
SPEAKER_01
What about the serotonin system that you had mentioned earlier?
2
SPEAKER_01
That obviously affects mood, well-being, brain function.
2
SPEAKER_01
What things can we do to counteract damage or attack against our serotonin system?
2
SPEAKER_01
Because are there things we can be doing
2
SPEAKER_01
just with simple supplements or even vitamins or diet that we can do to counteract that because that seems like a really easy sort of switch or knob that we can turn externally without being super scientists or going to the doctor.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yes, actually there is and I actually published a study a couple of years ago where I found a connection between vitamin D and serotonin.
2
SPEAKER_00
So serotonin is made from the
2
SPEAKER_00
essential amino acid tryptophan.
2
SPEAKER_00
Tryptophan has to be transported into the brain.
2
SPEAKER_00
Once it gets into the brain, it s converted into serotonin.
2
SPEAKER_00
Well, what I found in my research was that the enzyme that converts tryptophan into serotonin in the brain is activated by vitamin D.
2
SPEAKER_00
So, you know, vitamin D is extremely important.
2
SPEAKER_00
It s actually much more than a vitamin.
2
SPEAKER_00
It s a steroid hormone.
2
SPEAKER_00
It gets converted into a steroid hormone inside of the body, which actually regulates about 5% of the human genome, which is a lot.
2
SPEAKER_00
when I say regulates, what I mean is it actually activates genes and it deactivates genes, you know, 5% of genes in our body and in our brain, which is a very large percentage.
2
SPEAKER_00
But what I found was that it activates the gene that converts tryptophan to serotonin in the brain.
2
SPEAKER_00
And so one easy way that I think
2
SPEAKER_00
people can optimize their serotonin levels is to make sure they re getting enough vitamin D. And believe it or not, around 70% of the U.S.
2
SPEAKER_00
population has inadequate levels of vitamin D, which are considered to be blood levels below 30 nanograms per
3
SPEAKER_00
milliliter.
3
SPEAKER_00
I think the optimal range of vitamin D blood levels to have is between 40 and 60 nanograms per milliliter, which has been shown to be associated with lowest all-cause mortality, meaning non-accidental deaths like cancer, cardiovascular disease, neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer s disease.
3
SPEAKER_00
So people that have blood levels of vitamin D between 40 and 60 have the lowest all-cause mortality compared to people that have the lowest levels of vitamin D.
3
SPEAKER_01
What do you do to keep your vitamin D levels high?
3
SPEAKER_01
Do you just take supplements or is there...
3
SPEAKER_00
The thing about vitamin D is it s so important that we actually make it in our skin when we re out in the sun and UVB radiation or UVB light hits our skin and we convert something in our skin into vitamin D3 which then gets released in the bloodstream and converted into the hormone.
3
SPEAKER_00
Well, the thing is is that anything that blocks the UVB rays also blocks the ability of our body to produce vitamin D. So that could… So sunscreen is bad for you.
3
SPEAKER_00
Exactly, sunscreen, melanin, which is the dark pigment that protects people from the burning rays of the sun, and actually age also.
3
SPEAKER_00
A 70-year-old makes four times less vitamin D than their former 20-year-old self.
3
SPEAKER_00
So aging affects the way we re making vitamin D as well as where we live, latitude.
3
SPEAKER_00
So people that live in more northern latitudes, so what s called above the 30-degree parallel from the equator.
3
SPEAKER_00
They actually, about five to six months out of the year, UVB rays don t even hit the atmosphere in those regions.
3
SPEAKER_00
So being where I m at in Southern California, it s not really a problem.
3
SPEAKER_00
UVB rays are hitting the atmosphere 12 months out of the year.
3
SPEAKER_00
But people that are living in Minnesota, for example, they have to be very careful because five to six months out of the year, they can t even make vitamin D.
3
SPEAKER_00
So, vitamin D supplementation is probably the easiest way for people to optimize their vitamin D levels.
3
SPEAKER_00
Typically, 1,000 IUs of vitamin D can raise blood levels by around 5 nanograms per milliliter.
3
SPEAKER_00
So, if you re someone that s deficient and you have blood levels that are like 20 nanograms per mil, you d have to take at least 4,000 IUs to get up to 40 nanograms per milliliter.
3
SPEAKER_00
And that s what I take.
3
SPEAKER_00
I actually take a vitamin D supplement every day, which is 4,000 IUs.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I get my blood levels measured routinely, and they hover around 50 to 55 nanograms per milliliter.
3
SPEAKER_00
So that s, I think, one really quick and easy way to optimize for serotonin.
3
SPEAKER_00
And also, like I said, vitamin D is regulating 5% of the human genome.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s doing a lot.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s also been shown to inactivate an enzyme that produces the stress hormone cortisol.
3
SPEAKER_00
So having
3
SPEAKER_00
optimal levels of vitamin D will also make it so that you re not making so much cortisol, which, as we mentioned, is a problem.
3
SPEAKER_00
You know, the stress hormone cortisol causes inflammation.
3
SPEAKER_00
It has negative effects on cognitive function, performance, and also on the aging process in general.
3
SPEAKER_00
Another thing that is very easy to optimize for serotonin and also for inflammation in general because, as I mentioned,
3
SPEAKER_00
inflammation, the production of this chemical warfare, these things get into the brain and they actually stop serotonin from being released.
3
SPEAKER_00
And so that s a problem as well.
3
SPEAKER_00
Well, it turns out that omega-3 fatty acids, which are found in fish, so the marine omega-3 fatty acids like EPA and DHA, have been shown to prevent these inflammatory molecules from inhibiting serotonin release.
3
SPEAKER_00
And they also optimize for serotonin function.
3
SPEAKER_01
So eat lots of fish.
3
SPEAKER_00
Eat lots of fish, or I actually really think taking fish oil supplements is probably on the top of my list of supplements to take.
3
SPEAKER_00
I take fish oil supplements every day.
3
SPEAKER_00
I actually take quite a bit.
3
SPEAKER_00
I take two grams of EPA, which is actually the major form of fish oil that is
3
SPEAKER_00
dampening inflammation.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s preventing a lot of these immune cells from making all these inflammatory molecules.
3
SPEAKER_00
So I think that I take two grams of EPA and about one gram of DHA, which is the other marine omega-3 fatty acid.
3
SPEAKER_00
That s very important for basically for your cell function.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s just a very important...about 30% of the brain is made of DHA.
3
SPEAKER_00
And, you know, so getting your DHA is very important for optimizing cognitive function,
3
SPEAKER_00
It s been shown, you know, to be important for making synapses, which are the connections between neurons that are important for learning and memory.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s been shown to improve and enhance cognitive performance.
3
SPEAKER_00
Fish oil is on my, you know, like I said, one of the top of the supplements that I take.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I actually think the source of fish oil is very important.
3
SPEAKER_00
You want to get a high-quality supplement?
3
SPEAKER_01
something that s like mercury-free and all that jazz.
3
SPEAKER_00
Mercury-free and isn t all oxidized.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I personally like taking Nordic Naturals.
3
SPEAKER_00
I don t have any affiliation with them.
3
SPEAKER_00
I just, I like their product.
3
SPEAKER_00
They isolate their fish oil under nitrogen, which means no oxygen present, so they can t get oxidized, which is the major problem with fish oil is if it s oxidized, it becomes rancid.
3
SPEAKER_00
You know, rancid fat, very bad for you.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_00
And you can actually pop open a fish oil capsule.
3
SPEAKER_00
By the way, fish oil should always be refrigerated.
3
SPEAKER_00
Always.
3
SPEAKER_00
Period.
3
SPEAKER_00
All fish oil, when you get it, should put it in the refrigerator.
3
SPEAKER_00
It slows the oxidation process.
3
SPEAKER_00
But you can pop open a fish oil pill and smell it, and if it s rancid, it ll smell really bad.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, like rancid fish.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, it ll smell rancid like rancid fish.
3
SPEAKER_00
And if you smell that, toss out the fish oil container or bottle and just order a new one.
3
SPEAKER_01
So do you take the kind that s liquid form in a metal bottle?
3
SPEAKER_01
I take that.
3
SPEAKER_01
Or do you take tablets?
3
SPEAKER_00
I used to take the kind, I used to take Carlson s, which comes in a big bottle that you can like pour on a spoon.
3
SPEAKER_00
But I ve switched since then because I became a little paranoid that every time I opened the container, oxygen was getting in there.
3
SPEAKER_00
And so I d switch to the capsules, which are the fish oil capsule.
3
SPEAKER_00
Because it s enclosed in the capsule, it s like not being exposed to oxygen every time I opened the bottle to get a capsule out.
3
SPEAKER_01
Can t you just use a little pump top that would keep that from happening?
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, I guess theoretically a pump top should, you know, let less oxygen in.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I don t even know, you know, I m just, this is just my paranoid brain kind of... Well, you re the scientist.
3
SPEAKER_00
I don t even know if it s necessarily true.
3
SPEAKER_00
But like I said, I like Nordic Naturals just because the whole
3
SPEAKER_00
isolation process where, you know, like most fish oil that you buy out there on the market is molecularly distilled.
3
SPEAKER_00
And the reason it s distilled is because they want to purify away all the mercury and PCBs and all that contaminating those things that are contaminants that can cause harm.
3
SPEAKER_00
But the whole process of doing that distillation exposes the omega-3 fatty acids to oxygen and can make it more oxidized.
3
SPEAKER_00
The reason I like Nordic Naturals is because they do that entire process in a big nitrogen-like container that is pouring out nitrogen, which means there s no oxygen that s even in the atmosphere that they re doing the isolation process in, which means no oxidation can occur.
3
SPEAKER_00
If there s no oxygen present, nothing can get oxidized.
3
SPEAKER_00
So, I really like that company because they do that.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s very unique to isolate it under nitrogen conditions.
3
SPEAKER_00
And if you re wondering if the fish oil that you buy does that, you can call up the company and ask them.
3
SPEAKER_00
Usually, they ll tell you.
3
SPEAKER_01
Are there other ways that we can lower cortisol?
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, there s another very interesting study that I recently came across and I ve been getting into showing that early bright light exposure can dramatically lower cortisol levels.
3
SPEAKER_00
So we all have an internal clock inside of ourselves and this internal clock.
3
SPEAKER_00
regulates our metabolism, regulates our stress hormones, regulates the way we maintain muscle mass, our brain function, everything.
3
SPEAKER_00
I mean, it s just everything s being controlled by it.
3
SPEAKER_00
And this internal clock is regulated by when we are exposed to bright light.
3
SPEAKER_00
So the earlier we re exposed to bright light, that sets the clock, it says start now.
3
SPEAKER_00
And we run on this, you know, 24 hour
3
SPEAKER_00
light and dark sort of cycle.
3
SPEAKER_00
And it tells us, you know, when to be active, when to be metabolically active, when to make stress hormones, when to have our brain function optimal, and then when to rest, when to repair, when to repair all the damage we ve accumulated throughout the day.
3
SPEAKER_00
What has been shown recently is that humans that have been exposed to what s called 10,000 lux, it s a light
3
SPEAKER_00
measurement that s very equivalent to like bright light of the sun.
3
SPEAKER_00
When they re exposed to 10,000 lux for about seven hours a day, this can lower cortisol levels by up to 25% the next day.
3
SPEAKER_00
Making sure you re exposed to a lot of light is very important, not only for setting that internal clock, but for also making sure you re not making too much cortisol.
3
SPEAKER_00
As you can, you know, think about our modern
3
SPEAKER_00
society, most people are indoors, we re working at our desks and our cubicle, we re not getting exposed to bright light, and especially
4
SPEAKER_00
if we re working a type of desk job.
4
SPEAKER_00
Bright light exposure early in the morning, and in fact, even up to two hours can be, one to two hours can be enough to set that internal clock.
4
SPEAKER_00
If you get just that internal clock going in the beginning of the day, early in the morning, that s enough to actually set the clock so that you re good for the rest of the day.
4
SPEAKER_01
So wait, so we get up early and we, do we just go outside or do people buy those blue lights and stuff like that too?
4
SPEAKER_00
Going outside is the best, but, you know, if you live in a place like the UK or, you know, in places like Norway or, you know, where...or Finland where, like, half of the year, it s, like, dark...gets dark at, like, 2 in the afternoon, you can buy one of these.
4
SPEAKER_00
Like, they usually...they re called, like, SAD lights, like the sad, you know, seasonal affective disorder lights, which if it s a sad light, most likely it s going to be at least 10,000 lux, which is the brightness of the study that I mentioned.
4
SPEAKER_00
I know people that live in the UK that actually use those lights and they say it works.
4
SPEAKER_01
Lots there on inflammation.
4
SPEAKER_01
I just wanted to debunk that or at least clarify it because it s so confusing and it s such a buzzword and people use it all the time and it s like don t eat peanuts because they re legumes and they ll cause inflammation and you ll die or whatever.
4
SPEAKER_01
And it s like there s all these sort of trendy diets and things like that that are supposed to be anti-inflammation and it s kind of just dubious, right, with the wheat gluten and everything.
4
SPEAKER_01
And they try to confuse people so that they buy the latest smoothie add-on or whatever or their supplement and do with it.
4
SPEAKER_01
Obviously fish oil is something that pretty much everybody agrees on, I would say.
4
SPEAKER_01
And the vitamin D, do we have to take that multiple times a day or can we just take a multivitamin in the morning that s liquid and get enough vitamin D?
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, you don t need to take vitamin D multiple times a day.
4
SPEAKER_00
I mean, taking it once a day is plenty.
4
SPEAKER_00
And like I said, most people can increase their blood levels by five nanograms per mil if they take a thousand IUs.
4
SPEAKER_00
a day.
4
SPEAKER_00
So 1,000 IUs raised your blood levels by five, which if you re deficient is not enough and you have to probably take multiple, multiple thousand IUs.
4
SPEAKER_00
I take 4,000 IUs.
4
SPEAKER_00
But I do want to mention that even if you re taking a vitamin D supplement, some people have a variation in one of their genes that converts vitamin D into the hormone and makes them do it less efficiently.
4
SPEAKER_00
If you never get a blood test and you re taking 4,000 IUs of vitamin D a day, and you think, oh, I m getting enough, and you never get a blood test, you may not realize that, indeed, you re one of those people.
4
SPEAKER_00
I ve met, I mean, several people that I ve met have had this issue.
4
SPEAKER_00
You ll actually have to take much higher dose of vitamin D that normal people would not take.
4
SPEAKER_00
Now, vitamin D is one of those things where you don t want too much of it.
4
SPEAKER_00
That s the reason why I say blood levels between 40 and 60 nanograms per milliliter.
4
SPEAKER_00
It s really easy to get a blood test.
4
SPEAKER_00
Ask your doctor.
4
SPEAKER_00
They re really, really cheap.
4
SPEAKER_00
I think that most people should just do one like they do when they do their standard physical checkup.
4
SPEAKER_00
Vitamin D should be on that list where you ve got your vitamin D levels measured.
4
SPEAKER_00
But you can get too much vitamin D and too much vitamin D can be bad.
4
SPEAKER_00
So it s really important to not just go, oh, vitamin D is good.
4
SPEAKER_00
I m going to make a dose.
4
SPEAKER_01
What happens if you eat too much vitamin D?
4
SPEAKER_00
Well, studies have shown that blood levels above 60 nanograms per milliliter is associated with a higher all-cause mortality.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I think this largely has to do with the fact that vitamin D causes you to absorb about 40% more of your dietary calcium, which can be good, you know, vitamin D is
4
SPEAKER_00
You want your calcium.
4
SPEAKER_00
You need calcium.
4
SPEAKER_00
Calcium is an important component for your bones.
4
SPEAKER_00
It s an important component for many different enzymes inside of your cells.
4
SPEAKER_00
However, if you are, you know, absorbing a lot of calcium and you re getting a lot of calcium,
4
SPEAKER_00
And it s coming into your bloodstream.
4
SPEAKER_00
It can easily precipitate and form a little plaque in the blood vessels.
4
SPEAKER_00
And the calcium plaques in the blood vessels can be a very bad thing for your heart, for blood flow to the brain, blood flow to the heart.
4
SPEAKER_00
It leads to atherosclerosis.
4
SPEAKER_00
Something that can prevent that from happening is making sure that the calcium you get goes to your bones, goes to your organs where it needs to.
4
SPEAKER_00
And something that is able to do that is vitamin K2.
4
SPEAKER_00
Vitamin K2
4
SPEAKER_00
activates genes inside of your vascular system and makes those genes pull calcium from your blood and bring it to your bones where it s supposed to go.
4
SPEAKER_00
Vitamin K2 is found in fermented cheese, it s found in natto, but it s also a large community of bacteria in our colon
4
SPEAKER_00
in our gut make vitamin K2.
4
SPEAKER_00
And guess what?
4
SPEAKER_00
If you don t eat enough fiber, that bacteria that makes vitamin K2 rapidly gets depleted.
4
SPEAKER_00
So you want to make sure that you re getting your fiber to make sure you have enough of the vitamin K2 producing bacteria.
4
SPEAKER_00
I personally take a vitamin K2 supplement from Natto as well.
4
SPEAKER_00
just to make sure that my calcium is going to where it needs to go.
4
SPEAKER_00
And there has been no toxicity associated with vitamin K2 supplementation.
4
SPEAKER_01
So we re talking a lot about gut bacteria and fermented stuff.
4
SPEAKER_01
Are cultures that eat a lot of fermented stuff, are they generally healthier?
4
SPEAKER_01
I mean, I m thinking like Koreans eat a crap load of kimchi, Chinese people are eating a lot of fermented stuff, just Russians and Norwegians and people like that are eating fermented stuff all the time.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, well actually the Japanese eats the natto, which is a fermented soybean.
4
SPEAKER_00
Japanese children, I mean, it s like if you look at the breakfast that these children in Japan are getting, I mean, for anyone that s eating or that s trying natto, the fermented soybean, it s like disgusting, gooey, I mean, you should try it at some point, Jordan, I mean, it s really... It sounds vile, yeah.
4
SPEAKER_01
But I like weird stuff, like I ll eat kimchi, I ll just shovel that in.
4
SPEAKER_00
Oh, I love kimchi.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_00
Kimchi is another one that, like you said, in Korea, but you know, the Japanese actually have the longest lifespans out of any culture.
4
SPEAKER_00
You know, so if you re looking at, you know, lifespan as according to country, Japan s number one, they have the longest lifespan compared to anyone in the world.
4
SPEAKER_00
So, and they also eat a lot of fish, omega-3 fatty acids.
4
SPEAKER_00
But yeah, you know, I think that s a great point.
4
SPEAKER_00
It d be kind of interesting to see a study done that looks at
4
SPEAKER_00
different populations that eat a variety of fermented types of foods and ranks their lifespan.
4
SPEAKER_01
What about Japanese people in America though?
4
SPEAKER_01
Are they just as unhealthy as the white people?
4
SPEAKER_01
Because that s the question, right?
4
SPEAKER_01
That s what would separate genetics from, I guess, environment.
4
SPEAKER_00
Right.
4
SPEAKER_00
Well, what s really interesting is that if you look at the lifespan of Japanese people
4
SPEAKER_00
Each year, the World Health Organization and some other organizations put out data that they ve compiled on people, you know, on lifespans according to the country.
4
SPEAKER_00
And if you look at Japan, their lifespan is gradually going down as they have become more westernized.
4
SPEAKER_00
know, in Japan now, you know, there s a lot more McDonald s, you know, there s a lot more fast food chains that are that weren t as common a couple of decades ago.
4
SPEAKER_00
It s kind of interesting that their lifespans actually been gone down on a national level.
4
SPEAKER_00
I m not sure if that s the case, but I m sort of inferring
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, one possibility.
4
SPEAKER_00
But yes, people that do move to the United States from other cultures like Japan, they can easily become type 2 diabetic as they become exposed to eating more processed foods, to eating more fast foods, more refined carbohydrates, just junk food, things like that.
4
SPEAKER_01
Now, one of the things we talked about that was interesting pre-show is how using things like saunas can improve anxiety and help us deal with stress better.
4
SPEAKER_01
How does that work?
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, for anyone that s listened to me or heard me, I ve been speaking about this sauna for a couple of years.
4
SPEAKER_00
I actually became very interested in it from a personal experience that I had.
4
SPEAKER_00
When I was in graduate school, it was a very stressful time for me.
4
SPEAKER_00
I got my PhD in biomedical science, and I joined this very high-stress lab where it s like not only did I have all this coursework and classes and these A s I was trying to get, but I also had a bunch of experiments I was doing and trying to troubleshoot.
4
SPEAKER_00
Science is hard, so I was very stressed.
4
SPEAKER_00
And what I noticed, I lived across the street from a YMCA.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I started going and using their sauna in the mornings before I went into the lab and started doing my experiments.
4
SPEAKER_00
And what I started to notice was that my stress and my anxiety level
4
SPEAKER_00
was completely affected, I became so much more comfortable and less stress.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I was able to actually deal with stress better.
4
SPEAKER_00
As I, you know, started frequently using the sauna, and it was so noticeable to me that I was like, what s going on, I need to figure this out.
4
SPEAKER_00
So I started to dig into the scientific literature to try to understand like, how this could possibly be
5
SPEAKER_00
affecting my anxiety and how it could help me deal with stress better.
5
SPEAKER_00
And what I found was very interesting.
5
SPEAKER_00
So when you are exposed to the heat, whether that s from a sauna, or a steam room, or you re sitting in a you know, a jacuzzi, or you are doing an intense workout where you are elevating your core body temperature, like an endurance run or a bike ride, and you start to feel really hot.
5
SPEAKER_00
The same time that you re feeling that heat stress,
5
SPEAKER_00
You also start to feel uncomfortable.
5
SPEAKER_00
It s kind of you re physically uncomfortable where you re like, Oh, I want to stop doing this.
5
SPEAKER_00
I want to stop running.
5
SPEAKER_00
I want to stop.
5
SPEAKER_00
I want to get out of the sauna.
5
SPEAKER_00
It s too hot.
5
SPEAKER_00
You know, that discomfort sort of feeling.
5
SPEAKER_00
Well, it turns out that discomfort feeling is actually part of the brain getting activated.
5
SPEAKER_00
And this part of the brain is part of the opioid system.
5
SPEAKER_00
And so the opioid system consists of
5
SPEAKER_00
the feel-good opioid called the mu-opioid, which most people associate with, like when endorphins are released, they act on a mu-opioid receptor in your brain and you feel really good.
5
SPEAKER_00
Morphine derivatives, all those things affect that same pathway.
5
SPEAKER_00
But there s also the counter to the feel-good opioid pathway, and that s called dynorphin.
5
SPEAKER_00
And dynorphin is that
5
SPEAKER_00
It s an opioid that is responsible for a dysphoric feeling that accompanies, you know, being hot or, you know, exercising really hard or even eating spicy foods.
5
SPEAKER_00
And the dynorphin affects a receptor in the brain called kappa opioid.
5
SPEAKER_00
It s a counter to the mew.
5
SPEAKER_00
When you re hot and you sit in the sauna, dynorphin levels rapidly rise.
5
SPEAKER_00
And so you start to feel really, really uncomfortable.
5
SPEAKER_00
And anyone that s sat in the sauna or in a hot tub knows exactly what I m talking about.
5
SPEAKER_00
Well, the reason for that is the reason you re making the dynorphin is because dynorphin actually cools the body.
5
SPEAKER_00
In fact, when you inject rats with dynorphin, it rapidly cools their body temperature.
5
SPEAKER_00
So your body s responding to the elevations in the core body temperature to the heat stress by trying to cool itself.
5
SPEAKER_00
And the way it does that is by making dynorphin.
5
SPEAKER_00
Turns out, well, dynorphin also makes you feel really uncomfortable.
5
SPEAKER_00
But here s the part where it gets really interesting, is that the activation of
5
SPEAKER_00
the kappa opioid receptor by that uncomfortable dynorphin opioid causes the feel-good endorphin system, the immune opioid receptors, you make more of them and they become sensitive to endorphin, meaning that
5
SPEAKER_00
you know, the next day or later on that day when you re out of the sauna or two days later, anytime you release a little bit of endorphin, whether that s from, you know, kissing someone you like or because you got a good grade or you saw a friend that you hadn t seen or you talked to your mom on the phone or whatever it is that s causing you to release a little bit of endorphin, all of a sudden becomes that much more potent because you ve activated that uncomfortable dynorphin pathway.
5
SPEAKER_00
So, I became very interested in that because it s like, oh, the activation of this uncomfortable feeling, that stress response, sitting there and making more dynorphin, that dysphoric feeling, had a positive effect on the feel-good endorphin pathway in the brain.
5
SPEAKER_00
And I was like, that must be it.
5
SPEAKER_00
That must be why I was so dramatically affected by using the sauna.
5
SPEAKER_01
So what do we do to take advantage of this?
5
SPEAKER_00
Well, I think that the sauna has a lot of positive health benefits in addition to helping people, I think, cope with anxiety and helping them being able to deal with stress and handle stress better is the way I like to put it.
5
SPEAKER_00
I think using the sauna two to three times a week
5
SPEAKER_00
is a really, really good.
5
SPEAKER_00
And that s something that I ve, you know, like I said, this is firsthand experience using the sauna two to three times a week absolutely made a difference in my ability to handle other stressful life events better, you know, but the sauna also has a very interesting effects on aging.
5
SPEAKER_00
In fact, a very recent study was published in the Journal of American Medicine that was published
5
SPEAKER_00
in Finland and showed that, you know, in a steady population of around 2,000 middle-aged men, those men that used the sauna two to three times a week had a 24% lower all-cause mortality, and those men that used the sauna four to seven times a week had a 40% all-cause mortality compared to men that only used the sauna one time a week.
5
SPEAKER_00
So there was sort of, you know, this dose-dependent response, meaning the more times they use the sauna, the lower, you know, all-cause mortality or the lower their risk of dying from any non-accidental disease was at any time, which is very interesting because it s, you know, affecting longevity.
5
SPEAKER_00
One of the ways I think it s doing that is the sauna can robustly activate a whole stress response system in the body through activating something called heat shock proteins.
5
SPEAKER_00
So when you re exposed to heat from the sauna, these heat shock proteins get very robustly activated.
5
SPEAKER_00
And heat shock proteins are doing everything from becoming a very potent antioxidant in the body, you know, to lowering inflammation, to also preventing muscle atrophy.
5
SPEAKER_00
which is another very interesting effect of the sauna.
5
SPEAKER_00
In fact, it s been shown like if you expose a mouse to 30 minutes of like a little sauna, a little sort of heat treatment that s kind of equivalent to what we would call a sauna, and then you make them immobile for seven days, that the mice that are exposed to the sauna, they can regrow their muscle like 30% faster
5
SPEAKER_00
than the mice that are immobile and aren t exposed to the sauna.
5
SPEAKER_00
And that was shown to be dependent on the activation of heat shock proteins.
5
SPEAKER_00
So these heat shock proteins actually prevent your muscle from degrading proteins.
5
SPEAKER_01
All right, back to the show.
5
SPEAKER_00
Maintaining your muscle mass is also something that becomes more and more difficult.
5
SPEAKER_00
By the time we hit middle age, we lose on average between 0.5% and 1% of our muscle mass per year.
5
SPEAKER_00
And that just becomes accelerated as we get older.
5
SPEAKER_00
And having a higher muscle mass prevents you from falling and breaking a bone.
5
SPEAKER_00
It protects from frailty, which is a major cause of mortality as humans get older.
5
SPEAKER_00
So the sauna has a very robust effect on maintaining muscle mass.
5
SPEAKER_00
It also increases growth hormone.
5
SPEAKER_00
In fact, in some cases, it can increase it by extremely high levels, anywhere between 7 to 16-fold, depending on how frequent the sauna is used.
5
SPEAKER_00
Growth hormone has also been shown to prevent muscle atrophy.
5
SPEAKER_00
So there s a lot of really interesting and positive effects from heat stress, from using the sauna.
5
SPEAKER_00
Of course, there s the one that everyone always talks about, which is when the sauna causes you to sweat.
5
SPEAKER_00
One of the reasons it causes you to sweat is because you re trying to cool yourself.
5
SPEAKER_00
Well, it just so happens that a lot of toxic
5
SPEAKER_00
chemicals that we re exposed to in our environment, like mercury, PCBs, bisphenol, BPA, you know, all these types of chemical products that we re exposed to, actually, we sweat out.
5
SPEAKER_01
Interesting, right?
5
SPEAKER_01
You sweat it out.
5
SPEAKER_01
So you do sweat out toxins, essentially.
5
SPEAKER_00
You do, and that s one thing that I like.
5
SPEAKER_00
It s something I have focused on the least in terms of the benefits from the sauna because I feel like that s the only thing that everyone else in the world focuses on.
5
SPEAKER_00
Arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury, they re all excreted through sweat.
5
SPEAKER_00
Whether that s sweat from moving, exercise, or sweat from using the sauna, which really makes you sweat.
5
SPEAKER_00
And, you know, it gets dumped.
5
SPEAKER_00
But one thing to keep in mind is that you re also sweating out good things like electrolytes, sodium, potassium, magnesium, chlorine.
5
SPEAKER_00
You know, these also are excreted to the skin when you re sitting in the sauna.
5
SPEAKER_00
So you want to make sure after you do a sauna session that you rehydrate.
5
SPEAKER_00
So, getting your electrolytes by either coconut water, it s been shown, or also what I like to do is I make a smoothie where I kind of blend up spinach and kale and some chard, which is very high in sodium, potassium, and magnesium.
5
SPEAKER_00
They re all very high in green leafy vegetables, and I ll drink that.
5
SPEAKER_00
So heat stress is serious business, so obviously if you re gonna do it, make sure you do it wisely and you re not dumb.
5
SPEAKER_00
Also, you don t wanna drink alcohol while you re in the sauna ever.
5
SPEAKER_00
That can lead to serious, serious problems like that.
5
SPEAKER_01
So take vitamin D, take fish oil, go to the sauna two to three times per week, don t do it drunk.
5
SPEAKER_00
And get your fiber.
5
SPEAKER_01
And get your fiber in there to feed that gut bacteria and eat some kimchi.
5
SPEAKER_01
Well, thank you so much, Rhonda.
5
SPEAKER_01
Patrick, of course, will link to your stuff in the show notes as well.
5
SPEAKER_01
Really appreciate your time and your expertise.
5
SPEAKER_01
Your sciency brain comes in handy here.
6
SPEAKER_00
at The Art of Trump.
6
SPEAKER_00
Great.
6
SPEAKER_00
Awesome.
6
SPEAKER_00
My pleasure.
6
SPEAKER_00
Thanks a lot.
6
SPEAKER_00
Lot of science in there, definitely interested in taking a little vitamin D, taking some good fish oil, I ve got that unlocked.
6
SPEAKER_00
But the sauna idea is pretty cool.
6
SPEAKER_00
Who knew that the sauna could actually not only improve immune function, but brain function, and also get rid of some toxins.
6
SPEAKER_00
I mean, you kind of think about those kind of thing, but you never really think about it being backed by science.
6
SPEAKER_00
And you certainly don t think about it being that beneficial.
6
SPEAKER_00
I just thought it was something that
6
SPEAKER_00
Frankly, old people did because it was something else to do after you worked out and they like putting themselves through hell for some reason and sweating a lot.
6
SPEAKER_00
I ve never been a huge fan, but it does feel good.
6
SPEAKER_00
It does pump up the endorphins.
6
SPEAKER_00
Sometimes, though, it s just agonizing for seemingly no reason.
6
SPEAKER_00
So I m definitely gonna check that out.
6
SPEAKER_00
I encourage you to as well.
6
SPEAKER_00
I d love to hear what your experience is with this and whether or not there s other folks that do this as part of their sort of health ritual or regiment.
6
SPEAKER_00
If you enjoyed this one, don t forget to thank Dr. Rhonda on Twitter.
6
SPEAKER_00
We ll have that linked in the show notes as well as her resources over at FoundMyFitness.
6
SPEAKER_00
You can tap our album art and most mobile podcast players to see the show notes right on your phone.
6
SPEAKER_00
I m also on Twitter, at The Art of Charm.
6
SPEAKER_00
Come say hi.
6
SPEAKER_00
Bootcamp details, bootcamp.theartofcharm.com.
6
SPEAKER_00
Remember, we re sold out a few months in advance, so if you re thinking about it, get in touch ASAP and plan ahead.
6
SPEAKER_00
Review us on iTunes.
6
SPEAKER_00
When you write us a review, it not only makes us feel proud, it helps keep us up in the ranks so other people who can use this information can find the show more easily to get the credible advice they need.
6
SPEAKER_00
And it s also the best way to support the show,
6
SPEAKER_00
other than purchasing products and training from us.
6
SPEAKER_00
Special thanks to both Jason s and to Fogarty for their help in production of the Art of Charm podcast.
6
SPEAKER_00
Go ahead and tell your friends because the greatest compliment you can give us is a referral to someone else, either in person or shared on the web.
6
SPEAKER_00
Now have a great week.
6
SPEAKER_00
Leave everything and everyone better than you found them.
6
SPEAKER_00
Thanks everybody.
6
SPEAKER_01
Thanks for listening to the Art of Charm.
6
SPEAKER_01
Get more confidence, relationship skills, life hacks, and more at theartofcharmpodcast.com.