If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind pump. Mind pump. With your hosts, Sal DeStefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. In this awesome episode of Mind Pump, who's awe-inspiring. We talk about Justin's storytelling. I have a gift. Ability. Sal's rambling. We're talking about how much me and Adam, I threw you in there, buddy, have a tendency to maybe ramble. And the importance of chemistry between hosts. We knew Mind Pump would be excellent because we were all super attractive to each other when we first met. Then we get into the questions of this Q&A episode. The first question was, is there such a thing as squatting too low? Believe it or not, the answer may surprise you. You're going to have to listen to this episode to find out. I know. Can you go? Then we talk about a gentleman who does not like treadmills and ellipticals, but loves going out and playing sports. How do they compare? Which one's better for fat burning? Then we answer the question about whether or not women should eat and train differently based on their cycle. Or as Adam liked to call it in this episode, period time. Yeah. Men can man straight. Then we talk about breatharians. It's this new diet people are doing or lack thereof.  If you're considering doing this. It's made up.  Listen to this episode to find out what we really think about it. Also, this month, we got a great promotion going on this month. Enroll in any program, any maps, program or bundle, and you will get access to our forum absolutely for free. So if you're just getting started off and you like the foundational strength program, enroll in Maps Anabolic. If you are somebody that's interested in overall mobility and athletic performance, well the program is Maps Performance. If you want to get on a stage and look your best or you want to train for a particular event and you're aesthetically driven, then enroll in Maps Aesthetic. If you want a program that doesn't require you to go to the gym, you enroll in Maps Anywhere. Enroll in any of those programs, you get the forum for free including Maps Prime or Maps Prime Pro. The place to get these programs is mindpumpmedia.com. Everybody put your hands together for Baby Cakes Justin in his new song, his new song Run and Starve. All it takes girl. Run, run, run, run, run, run, starve yourself. Run, run, run, run, run, run, starve. Run, run, run, run, run, run, starve. Dang. It's a song that he wrote. He was on Instagram and he was looking at some popular fitness people. Yeah. And it's just terrible. It just came to me. He was singing about all they ever teaches to run and starve. That's pretty much the formula, right? He made up the song that was really good the first time he did it. Run, run, run, run, run, run, starve yourself. That's not good anymore. Did either one of you get to the post I saw this morning on the forum? I was just about to answer it when we were getting ready to do some work here where someone was asking about her running dilemma she's having. No. Did you read that? No. Oh, damn. I think it would be a good topic because she's probably not alone. And I saw she wrote quite a long post. I did see some several people.  Yeah. With what?  Yeah. Yeah. It was totally a joke. Yeah. Just don't do that. I know. I'm just saying. Yeah. Put it out there. Let me find it here. Let me find it here. Let me find it here. Did you give us a general synopsis? No. No, not really. Synapse. Well, I think this is a great time to segue to the side effects of marijuana usage. One of the number one side effects is memory loss. This forum moves too fast. You can't keep up with it. I got CTE. Adam has other problems. You didn't have product, traumatic, and salopathy. How many times do you... Did I say in salopathy? How many times do you think you check this thing a day now? The forum? Yeah. Did you see that latest... 10, 15 study? It has to be. 111. What? The cases from the NFL. You know how many had CTE? How many? 110. Wow. Yeah. What? Yes. Wait a minute. What did they do? They did like autopsies of 111 people who died? You know what? That's a good question. But they tested 111 players. Yeah. And 110 of them had signs of... I'm pretty sure it was just a test. I don't think they did autopsies. Of CTE. Yeah. Wow. Yes.  Either way, it was alarming to somebody like me who's got their head bashed in for like a decade or so. So like 20 years ago, were you like a brilliant linguist? Oh, 100%. I had like the best stories.  Like everybody would just gather around. And somebody would make a fire. I would wear this like special jacket, like a smoker's jacket.   And what you're telling me right now is this is... What we're experiencing is retarded, Justin. You were smart before. Yeah, man. I'm telling you guys. I was on another level. You must have been... Yeah. And a good storyteller too. Yeah. People gather from the hills. No. Somebody would mention, you know, oh, look out yonder. Justin's about to tell us an epic tale of heroine conquests. You know what I catch myself doing? I don't know if you've ever done this before, but when he tells stories, especially ones I know, I'm wanting him to get the story right so well. Adam's always like revving up. Like he's like posturing. I am. My lips are... It's like he's at the point of orgasm. I want to jump in and save the story. I know it's a good story. I've heard it before. Let me help you tell it. I have a bad habit of... Sometimes I lean on people for that. I have a bad habit of thinking this in my head when people tell a long story. This is what I'm thinking in my head. To make a long story short. Yeah. And to make a long story short. I just keep saying that over and over again. Yeah. You can quickly... We have to be engaging with it, right?  I'm thinking that. Yeah. I have said that too. People will tell a long story and I'll stop them in between. It's so to make a long story short. I just go... It's all about how you tell the story though, right? If you can engage people for a long time, even if it takes a long time to get to the point, I think it's okay. It's when you ramble. It's when you ramble. It's bad. Who's the ramble? I ramble. I know I ramble. I think you and I both ramble. Do you? He's a rambling man. So I told Katrina that day. You and I got interviewed the other day, right? Who rambled more? No, she asked me. I'm always making a competition. I'm the most rambler. Who's the ramble? Let's have a ramble off. Isn't that... Is that a car?  It's a rambler. No. It wasn't a rambler? Rambler? Was there? That just sounds... It just sounds like a small, squirrely car. Yeah. You know what I mean? It's kind of quick but not fast. It's like a rambler. Anyway, sorry. Sorry, Adam. There was no rambling going on just now. Yeah, that was... That was a high guy thought. Katrina was asking me about taking over high guy. They were dynamic on the radio, right?  You don't do any of this stuff. Like, how do you know when to talk and when not to talk? And was it really hard for you when you and Sal did that interview the other day? Because she was asking about it, right? And she goes, was it really awkward and weird? And I was like, no, no. It was totally fine. And I said, you know, Sal and I were on the same page, you know? And she goes, well, what do you mean? I'm like, well, there... I've now done so much time with both of you that I know and I know them so well, right? So I can tell when Sal is just feeling dead air or he's actually making a solid point. So when he's making a solid point that I think is really powerful and people should hear and they need to hear... We pumped the brakes. Yeah, of course. I keep my mouth shut. And then normally it's very natural conversation. So you don't have to do a lot of thinking, but every now and then I'm not sure if he's done, but then I'll catch him rambling for a few minutes, which it sounds like rambling to me, but for average people, it probably sounds really good because he has that gift. But it's really, I know he's feeling dead space. Like I go like, oh, he's circling the wagon and like repeating himself now. Like now I'm going to interrupt him. I just know immediately when you're going to search for a word and already like going through my roll index ahead of time, you need to help you. So I have that ability. Yeah. So what Adam is trying to say. Exactly. Calculator. You know what I mean? I'll just throw it out there. He's a rambling man. Yeah. But I, you know what though, if someone doesn't pick up on it, I have a bad time. I will. I'll keep going and going and going and going. And sometimes I know. Yeah. You'll say the same thing, but in a different way. Yeah. You know what I mean? Well, that's actually the whole, I do the same thing.  And if you didn't get it this time, I'm going to tell a different story that says the same thing. That's what I said. That's what's referred to as circling the wagon. Right. So I just keep, that's what I mean. Think about that from an educational perspective. You know, somebody's not going to digest it completely. You know, the first time around. That's why I come in and hammer that point home. And boom, it, you know, it makes sense. That's why it's effective communication. Yeah. Right. It's like, I'm going to tell you one way. Hopefully I picked up a majority of people. Then another way. And then another way. And then it's, it is, it's a very same process. Like you say a point and then someone goes, no, I still disagree with you. No, you're wrong. Okay. But check this out. Wait, what about this saying? So this is what led me to tell her, like as I was telling her like very confidently, right? And she's like, you don't know that much. That's how it goes. I said, absolutely. I can totally break down. You're okay. What you're doing is you're breaking down what happens naturally. Yes. Yes. Yes. It's what happens naturally. And then afterwards. And you came in and reiterated. Right. So you fucks. Yeah. But what, what it is though is. You guys. I told her sometimes we're really on fire and sometimes we're not. I said, there's absolutely times where we're just off a little bit. And sometimes that could do with one of us in our energy. If so, one of us has got a lot on their mind outside of here coming in, then then it's like, we're just a tiny, we're still on, but it's off. Right. And I said, give an example is what will happen when we're on it. Like I was telling her this interview for this, for example, that's what we're talking about. I could tell we were on was it was just, you know, factor to factor point after point of each person back and forth seamlessly without any break at all, without either, I think losing anybody either by going too deep, too far overwhelming people. And I said, when that happens, I think it's really, it's really neat. And I can always tell.  Ever been dead air on the show. Just right there. Yes. I knew you guys didn't do that. Well played, sir. I swear to God, we're all connected. I wonder how many lifetimes we've lived together. I was definitely a warrior. I think you were our kid. I was the best.  We were so proud of you, too. We're like, it's the best kid just nurturing me. Just feeding me. You definitely have your father's glutes. Do you guys not agree with me though, Sal? Do you ever, do you ever, I know you listen.  Can you tell when, when that energy is going or right after an episode when we do something? I've called it, people will say chemistry or whatever. It was the first day we all met. We all sat down and it just worked out that way. And probably the most difficult thing for like Doug to do when we are doing something is to try to like reign us in because we just go and it's our strength. It's also can be a weakness, but on a podcast it's a strength because what are you supposed to do on a podcast? You're supposed to talk and go off on tangents and discuss things and elaborate on things and go deep on things. And afterwards you can analyze it, but while it's happening it just tends to happen, you know what I mean?  You can analyze it real time and talk about it. It's just a great time. Well, it also our strength feeds into I think, and here's where luck always plays a role I feel like in business too, is that it's lucky at this time I think that the whole being transparent message and that is on the rise. And real soon here it'll be the norm. It'll be the norm because you'll have to. I'll tell you what, it's so much more liberating. The stress levels are way down when you can just be who you are and not put up this whole facade and everything, it's just so refreshing. I wish more people would do it. If you think about it, that's our weakness. Not being real, but trying to be fake because if let's say a company, I don't know, came on board and was like, hey guys, I love your show. You guys are going to be huge. We're going to pay you guys millions of dollars but here's what you're going to talk about on Monday. Here's what you're going to talk about on Tuesday. Here's what we're going to plan everything. You have to look like this. You have to say that. It's like nails on a chalkboard.  We would be a terrible podcast. 100%. It's very much like we just have to do our thing because we even tried a couple of times where we have a podcast up and we're like, okay, this is what we're going to talk about. This is the formula. Yeah, and it just, we're like, all of a sudden we have lost a word. Yeah. Don't know what to say. I like that's going to happen. Exactly. Doug, bring on the yogi motherfucking bird, please. This clause brought to you by OrganiFi. For those days you fall short on getting your organic veggies or whole food nutrition. OrganiFi fills the gap with laboratory tested certified organic super foods to help give your health and performance the added edge. Try OrganiFi totally risk free for 60 days by going to OrganiFi.com. That's O-R-G-A-N-I-F-I.com and use a coupon code MINDPUMP for 20% off at checkout. All right, our first question is from Mark Wolz. Is there such thing as squatting too low?  You know what, this is a good question because I know that we talk about this a lot and we've all been working towards it. I know those that have been following my journey, I've been working towards this. But I do think it's important to note that it takes time. This is not something that you just go do. If you haven't been squatting low your whole life and never stopped because most of us were doing it as toddlers. And then as we've gotten older, we've lost that ability to squat really low. So if you kept that that entire time, well then you can go as low as you can possibly go. But if you're somebody who has lost that over years and years and years, you don't go from I can barely break 92, oh, I see the guys at MINDPUMP talking about going deep, deep squats, I'm going to go right to doing deep squats. You need to be able to work up to that. The short answer to this is yes, you can squat too low. If you squat below where you are lower than your body has the ability to control with good tension and good stability and good mobility, you have squatted too low. The idea with exercise and range of motion with exercise is to constantly train within and test the edge. You want to dance on the edge. You want to find your edge. You want to play with that edge. Get better at the edge. Strengthen that end range and express it further. Exactly. So it moves further. And then the next time you work out, you can move it. It takes time. It not only does it take time, but it's actually a difficult thing to manage if you're a performance-oriented individual because Adam and I have both hurt themselves because we felt good going lower and doing better. I just did it recently. I'm now completely focused on mobility and range of motion for my lower body.  I got excited that I was able to do this assisted pistol squat and get down all the way at the bottom. And then the next day, I didn't even feel it while I was doing it. It was just the next day I went to go run.  So I squatted too low. The key, remember that here's the thing. There is this ideal form and ideal range of motion that you're looking for. But there's also the ideal range of motion of form that you can do at this moment. Both of them are different. So if I take somebody with limited range of motion or a problem with their knee or their hips or whatever, there is an ideal range of motion for them right now. There's an ideal form for them right now and it may not look like the perfect, eventual, long-term range of motion of form, but it's what's going to work now and it's what's going to get them there the safest way and the most effective way. There's a real easy way to test this. We included this in Maps Prime.   You want to be able to maintain those three points of contact all the way to the bottom of your squat and wherever you lose any of those three points of contact, that's your range of motion right now. You want to be able to maintain those three points of contact as deep as you possibly can go and as soon as you break down in form, you'll lose it in one of those three areas. That's why it's such a great test. So that's a really easy way to see, am I going too low and where exactly where that point is at, will be right where you lose the contact of the PVC pipe and this is why we included this in Prime is so one, you can assess and then from there, when you break down somewhere, so let's say for example, like I already know where I would break down at the very bottom of mine, I start to lose my thoracic mobility and I get a slight forward head so the top of the PVC pipe separates from the top of my head. That tells me that I need to address things in zone one. So we split the body up in zone one, two, zone three, and I know that when this disconnects from the back of my head, I need to address these movements to help me. So this is why we did that. Well, let's talk about that too. Like if you do lose connection, kind of what that means. So like as you go down and let's say like all of a sudden, now I can't maintain like core being involved and I'm relaxing, I'm arching my back just a little bit. Just think about like when you're in a situation doing that with a back loaded squat where you can necessarily do it. You can get through the rep, but now all of a sudden now your core is a bit disengaged and you're utilizing, you know, your joint to absorb a lot of this force. Whereas, you know, the most effective way, like if you can stabilize your spine better, it's gonna like improve the overall performance and you're gonna be in a safer position with that. So I can already hear people right now who are thinking, yeah, but you know, I don't know if my form is perfect, but if I do it all the way down, it doesn't hurt. So maybe I can do it all the way down. Because since it doesn't hurt, it's not a problem. That's why that's also not the case. That's why the test is important. The test is important. That's one of the reasons why the test is important, because once you hurt, I mean, pain is an easy one to read. The harder one to read is just you've got poor recruitment patterns and what you need to understand is what you train, you strengthen. Okay, I'm gonna repeat that. It's very important. What you train is what you strengthen. So if you're doing a squat or any kind of a movement and there's a recruitment pattern that's less than ideal, that's the pattern that you're going to strengthen. That's the one you're gonna turn into your normal pattern. And it's a good idea to train within those edges and keep moving that edge further and further and strengthen good patterning, because that's easier than erasing bad patterning. You don't want to develop. It's very difficult to take someone who's been squatting for every single week for years, poorly, all the way down. No, hard it would be to correct that person's squat. It's very, very difficult because I gotta erase that old pattern, reintroduce a new one. It could take a year before that person gets comfortable or even longer doing a better positioning. So definitely can squat too low, stay within your edges, bump those edges slowly, good control, good stability, good mobility will determine how low you should go. We'll just think about quality over just trying to hit a marker. Is everything, like, do you have all those checkpoints accounted for? Quick commercial break, you guys. We keep getting asked all the time, how can I support the Mind Pump family? Here's one of the best ways you guys can. You guys love that Chimera coffee that we have. Chimera coffee with a K. You go to chimeracoffee.com, put in the discount code Mind Pump for 10% at the checkout. Also, if you guys want to know how I have this luxurious beard and you want one too, go to bigtopbeardcompany.com, put in the discount Mind Pump again, but this time for 33% off. Also, you guys, if you guys have not tried Ben Greenfield's new bars out, they're fantastic. If you want some, go to bengreedfieldfitness.com forward slash nature bite, put in the code Mind Pump and get 10% off. Go check it out. All right, our next question is from Fierce Phoenix. Do you think it would be better for women to eat and train according to their cycle? Great. That is an interesting question. I'm an expert on this topic. Great, great question. I used to tell clients to load up on the spinach and the raisins and banana and stuff all around period time. So this is a... I used to hand out to my ladies this big salad recipe I had put together. Why are you laughing, Justin? I don't know. I'm just listening to Adam in his period time. You know, ladies, here's a cornucopia of... Adam is not known for his coot. This is the difference between Justin and I for sure.  I would totally sit down and like, let's talk about this. Well, the difference between me and you... Right, I don't talk about it. ...as I'll be like, so around the time of your menses, that's how I would say it. And Adam's like, is it period time yet? Let's talk about nutrition. Period time. Period time. You're right. Have a banana. Here you go. So here's the thing. Does it make a difference in your nutrition and exercise? Definitely. Absolutely. You're having changes in hormones in your body and things are happening in your body. You're losing a ton of red blood cells, right? You're losing, obviously, blood, but you're also having changes in hormones like progesterone and estrogen that are designed to make you first more fertile and then now you're getting rid of what you didn't use and your body changes throughout this entire cycle. So training in nutrition can change. Now, I've had good success with female clients around their period in some very easy to remember basic ways. One of which is... Now, we always advocate undulating your calories, okay? So what that means is whatever your calorie maintenance is, let's say you eat 2,000 calories a day and that keeps you where you're at and you're happy where you're at.  I recommend some days are way under 2,000 calories. Some days are 2,000 calories and some days are way over. And I recommend undulating because it tends to prevent this metabolic adaptation where people's metabolism tends to slow down. It's also psychologically beneficial because people have days where they eat more, which is great because they get to eat more and there's also days where they have to eat less, which is great because it resensitizes their body to certain foods and flavors and taste and all that good stuff.  Their appetite will definitely go up at certain times during this period and so I'll say, hey, those are the days we're going to bump calories.  The other thing is I would also have women many times I would recommend that they supplement with evening primrose oil. Evening primrose oil is one of the few things that has proven benefits to prevent things like cramping and just overall general fatigue and malaise during PMS and during their period. And lastly, depending on the female and how heavy her cycle was, I would recommend sometimes that they would take a multivitamin right around the time when they were actually having their period. I never or really rarely ever recommended people taking it. Now, what's the whole multivitamin? What's the theory behind it? Nutrient loss. Well, of course, nutrients. All the nutrients though? You know, I would think like iron and things like that, but why everything? You would think iron, but iron's an interesting one to supplement with. You don't really ever want to supplement with iron unless you're... Well, I don't think you supplement. That's why I said the comment about the raisins and the spinach. I normally make sure they're getting a lot of iron in their diet going into that around that time. Yeah, no, it's more so because of just general nutrient loss. And this is anecdote, by the way, there is no evidence to support what I'm saying besides evening primrose oil. There's evidence to support that. But with the multivitamin, I just noticed anecdotally that with women, with female clients, my ex-wife was like this as well, that when they would take a multivitamin while they're on their period, they would just start to feel better and they'd have better color in their face because sometimes you'd see like the paleness thing going on. As far as training is concerned, always listen to your body. And one of the things that in my experience, I've trained a lot of people, so I've trained a lot of men and women. And a lot of women would experience anxiety right around the time of their PMS or their period. And so the training would change accordingly. So I would have them, and the way I would tell them about this is as they look, you know what things you can do that make you feel better when you're anxious. What are they? And they would list them. From an activity basis, like, okay, yoga makes me feel better. Meditation makes me feel better. Walking outside makes me feel really good. I'd say, okay, we're going to replace your other forms of exercise with those things. And as far as resistance training is concerned, when you come in here and lift weights with me, we're going to focus on form. We're going to focus on range of motion. The routine's going to be much slower. We're going to avoid, sometimes I would avoid direct core work because they would feel bloated in their midsection, which would, of course, reduce activity of the core muscle. So why am I going to target the core when we're just going to end up solidifying a strange recruitment pattern? One, that is not ideal. So I would avoid direct work. So we would end up slowing things down. But this speaks to, this doesn't just speak to women. I think the ultimate, or at least the underlying theme here is what? Listen to your body. Yeah, I mean, is that advice any different for men? You know what I mean? If I had the same thing you just suggested, it would be the same way I would treat, like maybe a client who comes in to me, who's an older guy, who's a business guy, high stress level, low back pain. So you're going to avoid the area that's bothering him. It doesn't make sense to stress that area out. You're not going to do something super high-intensity with that person because they're already stressed to the max at work. The first time you're going to do work with them, that's not ideal. That's not what's going to really help them. So I mean, it's really learning that. I think that's the true art is helping people, and we talk about this on the show all the time, is that relationship with yourself, that relationship with exercise, and then that relationship with food, and then becoming aware of it. And that's the first step. I was actually breaking this down in my hair stylist yesterday. She needed some words of wisdom. She said it with her health and fitness journey, and that this is what I gave her, was the relationship. She said, oh, you know, you say that, but when you look at certain foods, and she does this all the time, where she'll talk about a food, and she'll be like, I don't want to have that because that'll make me fat. I'm like, well, that's not a good relationship with food when you say that.  So think about that for a second. Like you are connecting that food with you either being skinny or fat when it shouldn't be that way. It should be about how it makes you feel and how it nourishes your body, but you first have to learn how to connect those dots before you start to look at food that way. What you first have to start by looking at yourself differently, right? Like you always say so. Yeah, I'm glad you said that. You know, kind of an epiphany that I've had lately talking to some of the gut health experts we've been around, like Dr. Ruscio and the Gentleman's from Thrive Podcast, which I don't think will be aired when this is up yet, but that'll be coming up soon. I've had a few epiphanies talking to them because we're discussing things like hunger and appetite and cravings, and I'm reading all these studies about how if you lose sleep, now there's several studies that show, like if you're slightly sleep deprived, you're craving foods that are higher in sugar and foods that tend to be processed, and if you're depressed, these are the things that tend to happen to your appetite. So I'm thinking to myself, like, okay, these are easier to test types of things, and then we're talking to Dr. Ruscio about the body signaling system of thirst and knowing when to drink water and how accurate it actually is at regulating how much water you need. Hunger is really the same thing, and the problem is that our bodies are so out of whack with sleep, with activity, with our connections to people, with our thought processes, especially in modern times where everything is so in our face all the time, go, go, go, nobody ever shuts off, nobody ever has a second to themselves, where it's quiet, nobody knows how to sit by themselves, and our nutrition is all replaced with sleep and all this other stuff, that of course we deal with food problems. Like of course we deal with all these issues because our signals are fucking all over, they don't reflect what they truly should reflect, we've thrown them all off, and so what the epiphany I had was is if you place your body in a state of balance, and I hate to say balance, but that's just the only word I can think of, of balance from a whole perspective, everything, emotional, spiritual, you know, nutrition, sleep, food, all that stuff, then there is no diet, there is no activity, your body will literally tell you what it needs and it's a very good gauge, it will tell you when to stop eating, it will tell you when it's time to enjoy this glass of wine and this piece of cake because I'm in a social setting with these people that I'm connecting with, it'll tell you when it's time to move hard and fast and train in a certain way, it'll tell you when right now I need to relax and let my body recover and rest, it'll tell you when I sleep more, it'll tell you when you need to sleep less, these signals become very accurate and very clear and I'm starting to realize that really the key to long term fitness and health is learning how to hone on those and understand those because then it's just you living, you know what I'm saying, it's no longer like watching what I need to eat, what I don't need to eat, what I gotta do here, what I don't want to eat. There's so many levels to that, bro. So many levels. I love when you say it so like, it's just easy. Yeah, there's so many, it takes so many levels of awareness because many times, and we talk about paradigm shattering moments, right? You will, your paradigm will be shattered.  There'll be things that you said a certain way that you realized, oh, that's really not me. Or there's things that you said you never would do that you end up doing because you know it helps you. So much of that happens in that journey of figuring that out about yourself that you have to be open to that. And another thing that, I mean, and one of the reasons where I'm at with this is I read a study, someone in our forum posted it where they had overweight people either do a structured diet or just practice mindfulness every day. Or they had a control group that did nothing. The mindfulness group did better than everybody. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Explain the study again. There's three groups. They had three groups. What was it? What are they studying? What's the test? Weight loss, fasting glucose, weight loss and blood markers of health. Okay. And so one... All those were separate categories or just in general? No, separate. So they took three groups of people. They used one as a control. So they said, don't do anything. We're just going to monitor you. Then they took a group and they said, you follow this diet. Like, we're going to give you a structured nutrition plan. Okay? Then another group where they taught them how to practice mindfulness, which is like meditation, right? Where every day they had to sit down and do this practice of mindfulness. The mindfulness group... What was that? Was it like just saying a chant to themselves? Like, I am valuable. I actually... I should not put bad food in my mouth. No, no, no, no, no. Learning how to become the observer. Learning how to become present. I don't know what their methods were, but I would assume it's a form of meditation. Okay. They did better than the other groups and they speculate it's because they made better food choices and all that stuff because they were in a better state of mind.  And it's so funny. How much better though? The psychology. What was it? Yeah, what was it? I'll look at the study again. In fact, we'll post the link in the show notes. I mean, was it... Were you surprised? Like, holy shit? What surprised me was two things. One, I literally brought that up five episodes ago. I said, I would love to see a study that's like this and then lo and behold, the study actually exists. But the thing that surprised me is kind of what we've been thinking and talking about, and now they've got a little bit of evidence to show that that may be the case. We need way more studies, way more control groups to see if this is actually the case. But I would venture to say, man, you fix the mind, you fix that psychological piece and then everything else kind of falls into place. You know what I mean? Oh, we had a great... Who was Alvin? Alvin with Ben Pakulski? Simon in Theodore. Oh. No, his buddy Alvin, they go back like 12 years, had a good time. I mean, that was... That was what he was talking about. Yeah. Ben has him for that exact reason, I believe. I believe he's hired him as a full like... Yeah, he's really insightful. He goes deep for sure in that podcast. Big time, big time for sure. Our next question is from Zachary Watson, 27, who hates treadmills and ellipticals. He and his wife play basketball, tennis and volleyball. How do those activities compare? That's a good... That's a very good question. It's a good question.  Right away, just so you know too, easily we can do a whole list of pros and cons of both. Yeah. I could sit here and on a comparison of a comparison basis, if I factor out the fact that he likes one and hates one, then I could show you why one's better than the other and basketball, tennis, and volleyball. Yeah. Then you look at joint health and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, because basketball, tennis, and volleyball burn more calories, but they're more dangerous and the other ones are easier, but they burn... None of that matters. No.  And you're active constantly. So the one I'm going to tell you to do is the one that you like is the one that you like because that's the one you're going to do.  Because I get this question a lot with somebody who's like... Comparing cardio forms. For the last three years, they play basketball. Monday, Wednesday, Friday is in their league and volleyball is on Saturday. And they've been doing that for three years because they love doing it.  And they come to me and they want to lose 15 pounds. And I say, hey, I need you to get on the treadmill for an hour. And they go, oh, well, I play basketball on Mondays for an hour and Wednesdays for an hour. So that is already factored into your norm if that's your norm. And if you're wanting to know how they compare as far as burning fat, well, if you never get on the treadmill on the elliptical ever to train and all you do for a long time is play basketball, your body's become very efficient at playing that sport. So you're now good at basketball. You're good at tennis. You're good at volleyball. The body is not having to work as hard as it used to have to work. If you never get on and do treadmill sprints or get on and do a stair master or do something like that, it will be different. It'll be a different adaptation for your body. And so you will see greater change aesthetically by doing that. And here's, well, this would be interesting. Actually, it would be comparing groups of people. Here's another cool study. It would be comparing groups of people who did the same amount of calorie burn and same amount of cardio. But one group constantly changed their cardio. They have this study. So this is how this study goes. So there's three groups. One group does something different every single day. One group does exactly the same thing for four weeks. It was four weeks or eight weeks. I can't remember how long this was. I think it was eight weeks. Sorry. Like eight weeks. And then the other one changed it every two weeks. The one that changed it every two weeks saw the most difference. But barely outdid the person who changed it every single day. And then the one who saw the least amount of change was the ones that did the difference. I'm going to try and find that study. That's awesome. I read that a long time ago. That's where you hear me come up when I tell people that like your body gets adapted to cardio within about two to four weeks. So I've said that before and that's where I get those. That's where those numbers come from.  I can't remember studies like sound deaths. I read them somewhere though. I hate when people ask me exactly. They're like could you tell me I'm sorry dude. I wish coming up through my 20s I was like as I was reading stuff I was like I need to put this to the side like sound did file it away in that brain fitness article.  I promise I'm not trying to use this. Here's the other thing too. There's a lot of benefits that you're getting from basketball, tennis and volleyball that have nothing to do with the activity.  Right. And it's outside the sun. That's what I'm saying. I mean you're getting a lot of great health benefits from that. I could write a whole list of pros and cons of both for sure. And Sal said it best. The best answer is which one do you enjoy doing most and it's outside with your life. That's a no brainer but I also think it's important because a lot of times when this question is asked it's why they're asking is because they want to know if they need to do that in order to lose body fat because that's what people are telling them to do and they like playing basketball or doing these sports. Problem is your body is pretty efficient at that. You're not going to see much aesthetic change if you've been doing that for quite some time. Quick commercial break. Hey, people ask us all the time how they can support Mind Pump. Here's what you can do. You can go to www.brain.fm forward slash mind pump and get 20% off brain fm for meditation or focus. You can also go to audibletrial.com forward slash mind pump and get a 30 day trial plus one free audio book. Lastly, you can go to www.getnatureblend.com forward slash mind pump and you will get a discount on Ben Greenfield's CBD product. The next question is from Joe Begadonnetz. Yeah, good old Joey. There's my cousin again. Yeah. Please talk about breatharians. People who eat and drink nothing but air. I didn't even think this was a real thing. Why did we, this one? So, here's why I didn't want to answer this. When we first wrote this question up, the reason why I don't want to answer it right away is because I don't want to breathe life. Stop. I know.  Okay, so there's people online. There was an article that was written, I think the Guardian wrote it. That should tell you enough right there. And it went viral where this couple says that they barely or don't eat at all and they survive on the energy of the universe. Yeah, man. And they said that all they ever have is like a tiny bit of soup I think once a month or never. And they've been doing this for years and years and years.   This is when I'm okay with that. Actually, in fact, if you think it's a good idea to survive with no eating water, go ahead and do that because we could use less people like you in the world. I mean... Dude, that's so wrong. I know. People actually people actually did It's mean but true.  Yeah. You know what I'm saying? I just don't... Yeah, like when you get in all the signs from your body, eating everything in my muscles and everything, like really, you can't tell me that there was some serious miserable days leading up to that death. That's what I'm saying. It didn't happen overnight. When you starved to death, it's not like all of a sudden... That takes a long time. That takes a long time to get shot with a bullet. It's like day seven of almost dead. Universe, where are you? Maybe it hasn't been sunny enough. I'm not using the energy effect. It'll happen eventually. I just know it. Honey, breathe. Just breathe. Just keep breathing. How do you coach somebody like that? God, this tells you the psyche of the human mind. How powerful we are at fooling ourselves so much that we'll literally fool ourselves to starving to death because we think... It's good for... I mean, you'll save a lot. I can see the... I can see the pole of this. I can see the... How big is this community? It's not like... It's not flat earth community size. There is no community because... Is it that big? The community died. They're dying off. They're getting blown in the wind. There's only three survivors. They've only been doing it for three months. I'm reading about one of them. Of course. He lives between California and Ecuador. Wow. Why does California have these fucking... How many ribs can you see? And they have two kids. Please don't tell me this is... You're actually... Of course they're not doing it. I'm looking at pictures of them. They can't be real. And they obviously eat. Okay, there's no way. But it says here that... What does that mean? Because they don't look like... If I looked at a picture of them and they look like death, I'd be like, ooh, maybe they're doing something like... That's what I would expect if they didn't eat any food. No, they look fine. This is like the guy who doesn't take shits. Yeah. Universe twinkies. Thank you. Wow. Look at this. They're just like sneaking them in. This is a quote. This is a quote from both of them. Humans can easily be without food as long as they are connected to the energy that exists in all things and through breathing.  You don't need to breathe either. Energy will just... Just hold your breath. Yeah. And the energy will sustain you. And it says, For three years, my husband and I didn't eat anything at all, and now we only occasionally like if we're in a social situation. And then this is the wife. With my first child, I practiced a Pertharian pregnancy. Hunger was a foreign sensation to me, so I fully lived on light and ate nothing. Ooh, light. So they actually did some research into this couple and it was like the biggest troll of all time. Like, they did this.  Of course. There's a few things. You got me. It's like an article in The Onion and you don't realize The Onion wrote it. Oh, I love those. Yeah. That was my favorite. Yeah, Trump is deporting all women.  Oh, wait, it's The Onion.  It's a... Gosh, yeah. Anyway. People get fooled. Yeah, people can be... It's funny because things go viral and then people start believing them. But I'll tell you what... You can fast for a long period of time but not years, dude. Exactly. So I bet you... Maybe 40 days? Yeah, if they would have been a little more reasonable about that. Yeah. I wonder if some... 40 days. I wonder if some people are like they buy into it and they're like, okay, let's see how the first two days goes because I don't know if I can survive and they make it two days or like, I'm survived. There's something to this. Energy off the... Yeah. Not realizing humans can go quite a while without food. Actually, one of the... There's a few things we know in science to be totally true about human metabolism. One of them is this. You need to eat food in order to live. That's it. That is a fact. We'll leave it at that. And taxes. Check this out. Mind Pump is offering 30 days of coaching for free. Go to mindpumpmedia.com or register yourself. Again, 30 days of coaching for free. Also, if you'd like us to answer a question that you want to ask us, the place to ask it is on Instagram and the page to ask it on is Mind Pump Media. Finally, we all have personal Instagram pages. Come take a gander at them. My page is Mind Pump Sal. Adam is Mind Pump Adam and Justin is Mind Pump Justin. So just the other day, Sal, you brought up Art of Charm. Man. And it had been a while since I'd been on its podcast just because we've been so busy with all the podcasts you were doing, all the traveling we're doing. So I love to listen to Jordan. In my opinion, one of the, one of the best interviewer. And he's always got incredible guests on there. And I know you were just listening to the KGB guy not too long ago. So I get on there and I'm scrolling through and I find Tim Grover and Tim Grover, I know I knew that name. I'm like, I started looking through all the notes and he was one of the guys like that was helping out with Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Dwayne Wade. So he's been in these, some of the greatest athletes. And I know you don't know all those, all those athletes. Yeah, I know, right? I know you don't know all those athletes names. But right away, I was drawn to that. And man, what a killer episode. And I'm here with Jordan right now. We have him in studio with us. And I just wanted to get a chance, Jordan, you got to tell these people what it was like to talk to this man. This guy is intense.  And he, he's like, I don't know if I can even make this comparison, but he's kind of like the Gary Vaynerchuk of sports. Although Gary Vaynerchuk is like this sports guy of business. But he's really intense. And you can tell that this is why guys like Kobe, Michael Jordan call him when they need to be at the top of their game. And he really talks a lot about what closers and coolers and cleaners do. These are like these three archetypes of high performing athletes. And he talks about the concept of relentlessness, what it is, what it involves, that it can actually be taught and that each of us has a trigger that puts us in the zone, which is great. And the really fascinating thing that came out of this episode, in my opinion, was something called the dark side.  He says that the dark side is not just this side effect of being successful in life or sports or business. He said it's almost a requirement not to be a bastard, but to have this sort of like side of yourself that is not wholesome, that is just gritty and it's not a side effect of success. It is part of what makes that person so intense that they can get it done on the field or on the court. And that to me was a worthy of discussion. We spent a lot of time talking about the dark side, how to harness it, not let it control you. So I love this episode with Tim Grover. He mentioned some cool stories about Michael Jordan and can you go into that just for a second? Oh, yeah. So one of the stories about Jordan that was funny and took me, I asked him about this and how this works. Jordan used to go into, Michael Jordan used to go into the locker room of the opposing team.  He'd walk into the locker room of the Pistons and he'd pretend he was saying hi to somebody. You know, he'd be like, oh, what's up, man? Just want to come in and say hi. And he'd just walk around their locker room like he owned the place. So of course, you know, if the coach is talking or the players are talking or they're warming up, stretching and getting ready, he just walks in like, what's up everybody? You're basically, you're in my house. This is what's, and now they're thinking about him. They're not thinking about the game. And this is all deliberate. And Michael Jordan talked about this after he retired about how his performance would start before he would get in the car. So he'd only drive like a washed car. Even if it's raining to the venue, get out, say what's up to a few fans, dress to the nines. He's not wearing a custom three-piece suit when he wakes up and he puts it on, gets in the car, takes it off immediately and gets ready. It's a performance from when he gets out of the house and it doesn't end until he goes home. And he talks about this in detail on this episode. So badass. So badass. Episode 636. Make sure you guys check that out. That's on iTunes. Obviously you're listening to a podcast right now. All you have to do is search Art of Charm. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Superbundle at MindPumpMedia.com. The RGB Superbundle includes Maps Anabolic, Maps Performance and Maps Aesthetic. Nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal Adam and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels and performs. With detailed workout nutrients and over 200 videos, the RGB Superbundle is like having Sal Adam and Justin as your own personal trainers but at a fraction of the price. The RGB Superbundle has a full 30-day month and full 30-day money-back guarantee and you can get it now plus other valuable free resources at MindPumpMedia.com. If you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a five-star rating and review on iTunes and by introducing Mind Pump to your friends and family. We thank you for your support and until next time, this is Mind Pump.


The challenge of the Yukon. The Wonder Dog King, swiftest and strongest of Eskimo-Leet dogs, blazes the trail through storm and snow for Sergeant Preston, as he meets the challenge of the Yukon. Sergeant Preston was typical of the small band of northwest-mounted police who preserved law and order in the new northwest country, where the greed for wealth and power led to frequent violence and bloodshed. But in spite of the odds against them, Sergeant Preston and his Wonder Dog King met that challenge, and justice ruled triumphant. Strong ice-flexed wind drove itself like so many pinpoints against the small group of men standing together in front of the trading post in Hammerhead City. The Great Dog King stood close to his master. His long bushy tail curled high above his lean, powerful body. His head turning briskly as he watched with bright eyes, the sled skimming lightly over the snow-crusted street. There was vigor and stamina in this dog, whose name was as well-known throughout the north country as that of the man who owned him. But the trappers and prospectus standing around the mountain weren't talking about King. Their attention was focused on a lead dog a few yards away, who was harnessed in mind with some of the finest animals to ever pull a sled in the Yukon. There was an imperious lift to the lead dog's head, as if he were conscious of his superiority and impatient of having to wait for his master. Why, the finest team of dogs I've ever seen. Look at the line of them. You can have the rest of them. The lead's worth more than the whole team put together for my money. If you want me to, I take four or five days to get them through, though. Try and order them. I don't want you to do no favors for me. All right, you huskies. Get set to travel.  How much? Much before I lash your hikes open. Angus MacTavish's sled pulled away from the treading post, and Sam Rurden, the owner of the post, stood in the doorway, his hands on his hips, looking after the dower, Scotchman, who lashed his dogs with such a heavy hand. Sergeant Preston and the man with him moved slowly toward the doorway. Hello there, Sam. Hi, Sergeant. Come on in. This is temporary and sweetened up none, as you could see. He seemed to be in an unusually bad mood. I want to talk to him, too, but I thought the better of it. Better not to talk to him at all. Something I have to do. His cabin's at an important place on the main trail. Travelers who've stopped there tell me he's refused them food and shelter. I want to see if I couldn't persuade him to cooperate. It's a bad thing when a man runs out of supplies on the trail. You're telling me. But the trails could be littered with corpses that died of starvation for all that Scotchman cares. And I ought to know. I was caught short by his place once myself. I didn't know that, Sam. Well, I wouldn't have stopped his cabin anyway. But it was a bad storm. He sure didn't put out any welcome sign. I can tell you that. I remember him standing. He starts out in the trail. He ought to know how long he'll be on it. It ain't my business if you miscalculated. I don't have many supplies myself. And what I have, I don't aim to give away. I'll pay for them, Angus. That ain't the point. I don't bother no one for anything. I figure they can do likewise. Just what have you got against people? The more I see of people, the more I think of my dogs. They don't tell me no lies. I can depend on them. They don't ask any more than to be fed. And they work for what they eat. I got the best dogs in the Yukon. I got money in my pockets. And I don't need nothing from nobody. Best dogs in the Yukon, huh? You ever heard of Sergeant Preston's dog, King? Yes, yes. I have heard of that scurvy animal that follows the mountain round like some lap dog. I like my dogs with spirit, man. Without spirit, they ain't worth a thing. Yes, I take it you never seen King.  He ain't no lap dog. See that you don't, Sergeant. They ain't hard to get along with. If McTavish wants to be let alone, then we let him alone. But he's as good as committed murder when he refuses to help somebody to get stuck on the trail. Well, he's right about his dogs. That's a fine lead he's got. What do you say about that, Sergeant? Well, he's got the size and the strength. And he looks like he's got the intelligence to be a good lead dog. But for some reason, I... You were what? I don't know. I just wouldn't trust him. Well, what do you mean? Well, maybe it's a hunch. Maybe I'm completely wrong. But I think that dog's got a mean streak in him. He's wild at heart. Well, he's in harness against his will, and that whips the only thing that keeps him there. Well, you saw how he started that sled out. He could pull three times his weight. Never notice it. Oh, it's not his strength, I question. Bob, it's his loyalty. I'll wager that in a showdown, the only loyalty he'd recognize would be to himself. Well, you might be right, Sergeant. If that's true, then him and his master are well matched. Yeah, I hope you're wrong about Angus. But I suppose I'll soon find out. Why? I think the best place to talk to him would be at his cabin. Probably I'll have a tall job of persuasion on my hands if I do manage to convince him of his responsibility to help those travelers. Well, I sure wish you luck, Sergeant. And believe me, you need it. Sergeant Preston lucked the trading post. And as he and the great dog King walked down the street, the Mountie was silent. A high wind whipped at him mercilessly, forcing him to bend his head, bucking it. Angus McTavish had already left town, heading for his cabin. And the policeman debated the wisdom of following him. Speculatively, he looked at the sky. Well, King, there's a storm coming up. It'd be a real blizzard, I'm afraid. Still, if you set a good pace for the dogs, we'll be able to hold in. If not at Angus' place, we'll stop at Allison's. Come on, fella. We get the dog started. A short time later, the Mountie sled was on the trail outside Hammerhead City. The great dog King led the pack. Every muscle of his body quickening with a vitality that accepted consciously and vigorously the challenge thrown down by the elements. His master, too, had been used to long days and nights on Yukon trails. But as he looked again at the sky, his mind was filled with doubt. I don't know. Perhaps it would have been wiser to have stayed in town. But for some reason, I can't help feeling it's better we left. Well, no matter. Un-King! Un-New Malamute! Far ahead of the Mountie, Angus McTavish drove his dogs hard as the wind increased its fury, lashing his hardened bodies so that he felt its bite even through his heavy Mackinac and parka. True, the Scotsman had a good team of dogs and a leader whom he believed had no equal in the Yukon. There was no reason why he shouldn't make it to his cabin before the Blizzard really set its teeth into the North Country. Smoky! Smoky! Get those dogs moving, you hear me? Marsh! The dog bit his head, obstinately slowing his pace, the rest of the team taking their cue from him. Smoky knew from an instinct that was as old as the weather itself that the Blizzard was nearly upon them. His intention was to curl up on the snow, cover his nose with his tail, and stay there until the storm had worn itself out. But Angus had no such thought. His whip cut the air ruthlessly, descending again and again, with blowering eyes the lead dog turned and looked at his master. It was one will pulling against another. Smoky!    You stubborn scurvy brute! Get up and pull in dogs! The menace that passed slowly while MacTavish stood flogging his dogs were electric with a clash of two powerful personalities. Angus held a whip hand. Because of this, Smoky pulled himself to his feet, a surly menacing growl in his throat.  Oh, sifted through the air lightly at first, small dry flakes, eddying and whirling driven by the wind. Again and again, MacTavish brushed them from before his eyes in order to see the trail. And I was a fool to try to beat this storm. But I'll save time by crossing the creek and going that way. Or to be frozen over. Marsh, you malibu! Marsh! MacTavish stopped his dogs at the creek and then went forward on foot to test the ice. He was far too cautious to risk his team to ice which may not have been thick enough to hold them. As he walked to the edge of the creek, the man slipped. In a moment, he was down. And in that one moment, the dog Smoky with a savage growl and buried teeth lunged forward. Still in harness, he dragged the others after him. Now Madness seized the pack. MacTavish raised himself on one elbow to look into two gleaming eyes, alive and glowing with a vindictive hatred. He felt in one terrible instant the warm patting breath. Smoky! Smoky, you bloke! Stay back! Back here! MacTavish was conscious of a sudden sickening realization. He knew with a blinding sureness that the dog would kill him. And for the first time, since he left his boyhood home in Scotland, a desperate cry came involuntarily from his lips. Help! Help! The wind blowing toward King and Sergeant Preston's team brought Angus' call for help to the great dog's ears. King heard too the cries of the frenzy dog team and almost like a streak of lightning, the great malamute raced through the snow. His boars barely touching it. His head in the air, following the scent, the wind held to guide him. No, Smoky! No, no, no! No, Smoky! As King saw the dog team, he caught the unmistakable scent of human blood. He knew it was only a matter of seconds until the wild lead dog would finish what he had begun. MacTavish saw the dog through fear-glazed eyes. This powerfully built malamute had come from nowhere. Did it be that this dog would fight Smoky, fight for the prize that would be Angus MacTavish? Weekly, the man closed his eyes, not daring to think. Fiercely, Smoky turned on King. Somehow, the wily animal had slipped from the harness that had held him. The two dogs were on equal terms, and then there were at each other's throats, parrying, thrusting, gleaming, death-dealing fangs the weapons that found their mark, tearing fur from flesh, dodging and lunging they battled. Smoky fought cunningly, but it was a battle in which stamina as well as strength was involved. And by the time Preston arrived at the edge of the creek, he found Smoky panting and motionless in the snow. Slowly, MacTavish had crawled to his sled, or he pulled himself up to grasp his revolver. You all right? I'm all right. That's your dog. Yes, what about Smoky? There he is, lying in his own blood. Is he dead? No, though your dog didn't kill him. But I'm gonna do that now. He would have killed me. Angus, here, let me help you. We're not far from Allison's, Captain. Come on, you'll be taken care of there. A short time later, Angus MacTavish sat beside the warmth of Tom Allison's fireplace. And from his chair, he looked admiringly at the magnificent Malamute at Sergeant Preston's feet. He's a great dog, Sergeant. I rate the best it ever was. Yes, he is. At least that's always been my thought. Ah, and it's anybody's thought. Angus MacTavish isn't one to deny the truth when he sees it.  You can't live without extending the helping hand of the other fellow when he has the need of it. Now, what would I have done it? Ah, Sergeant, how much do you want for him? Name any price, man. I'll give you my word.  Any price. I'll pay in cash, here, now. As if he understood the Scotchman's words, King raised his head to look at his master. And between Preston and the dog was a look of complete understanding. To measure the dog's devotion to his master would have been impossible. It was boundless, and as constant as the heart that beat within him. Sell, King? Angus, there isn't enough money in the world to buy him. Yes, fellow, I think everything's going to be all right. These copyrighted dramas originate in the studios of WXYZ Detroit, and all characters, names, places, and incidents used are fictitious. They're sent to you each week at the same time.


Nicotinamide mononucleotide, or NMN, is popular among longevity enthusiasts and bio-hackers who take it for its potential but as yet unproven longevity benefits. Now, a recent action taken by the FDA has industry and the life extension community worried that it could be banned. We'll attempt to get to the bottom of it in this episode of Lifespan News. And we are always experimenting with the latest in AI and automation, so this episode will be hosted by an AI avatar. This is just an experiment, but it's one worth running. So let us know what you think in the comments below. Reversing its own earlier decision, the FDA has informed an NMN manufacturer that the molecule can no longer be marketed as part of dietary supplements. Another company that is testing NMN as a drug probably contributed to the decision, which is not being enforced as of now. NAD is a multi-role coenzyme central to metabolism. It facilitates energy production in cells and acts as a substrate for important enzymes, such as certuans. NAD levels decline with age, contributing to multiple age-related diseases. Studies have confirmed various health benefits of NAD supplementation in animal models, although human trials are scarce. NAD levels can be boosted via its precursors, which include nicotinamide riboside and NMN. NMN-containing supplements have been gaining popularity in the longevity community, even though not everyone agrees on their effectiveness or safety. NMN naturally occurs in foods such as broccoli, cabbage, cucumber, and avocado. Considering NMN's popularity, the news that the FDA has effectively banned its use in dietary supplements came as a shock, especially since this had nothing to do with the molecule's efficacy or safety. To market a compound in dietary supplements, a company must file a new dietary ingredient notification, or NDI, with the FDA. Explicit approval is not required, but if the FDA raises objections, this precludes the compound from being used in supplements. While NMN has been sold in some markets since at least 2014, it is a relative newcomer to the US. In the past two years, several companies have filed NDI notifications. And FDA did object to them on various grounds, mostly claiming that there is insufficient proof that NMN supplementation is safe. In the last few years, new human NMN studies have been published, which might have alleviated FDA concerns. In May, the FDA acknowledged an amended NDI notification from one company without objections. However, recently, responding to another NDI notification the FDA changed course and declared that beta-NMN cannot be marketed as a supplement due to it already being investigated as a drug. The FDA decision was based on a provision in the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 stating that a dietary supplement cannot contain an ingredient that has been authorized for investigation. As a new drug for which substantial clinical investigations have been instituted and for which the existence of such investigations has been made public. Unless the investigations began after the ingredient had been approved for use in supplements. The reason for the reversal is unknown, but as reported by Natural Products Insider, in December 2021, Metro International Biotech, a startup pharmaceutical company, wrote to the FDA as a company that has instituted publicly available clinical trials on beta-NMN. We request that FDA take the preclusion provision seriously to protect the rights of companies that have spent significant time and research to develop drug products from competition from dietary supplements. According to Insider, the FDA confirmed that it had considered Metro's request. Metro International Biotech, co-founded by David Sinclair, is targeting several diseases with NAD precursors. It has developed a proprietary version of beta-NMN called MIB 626 and asked the FDA to approve its investigation as an investigational new drug. The earliest information about an MIB 626 trial found on clinicaltrials.gov is dated September 2021. Apparently, at least two of the three criteria needed to trigger the exclusion clause were satisfied, MIB 626 is a subject of substantial clinical investigations that has been made public. However, it is not clear when exactly the drug was authorized for investigation. According to the FDA, this depends on when the IND authorization goes into effect, but surprisingly, the FDA does not disclose this information, and it also does not immediately become public. The FDA can decide whether to enforce its own rulings on supplements. In a notable example, NAC was excluded from the definition of a dietary supplement on similar grounds in 2021. But several months later, in response to an outcry that included citizen petitions and litigation, the FDA decided to exercise enforcement discretion with regard to NAC, effectively leaving its manufacturers alone for now. While the law does not provide a rationale for the exclusion clause, it appears like it is there solely to protect pharma companies that pour massive resources into investigating new drugs. However, some could see this as unfair towards supplement companies and their cleontel. In this particular case, the companies were engaged in months of back and forth with the FDA, addressing various concerns and amending their proposals only to have them dismissed on entirely different grounds. Currently, there is no sign of any NMN containing supplements being taken off the shelves, and it is not clear whether the FDA will ultimately choose to enforce its ruling. Manufacturers of NMN supplements will likely continue pressing the FDA to exercise enforcement discretion with Metro Biotech pulling in the opposite direction. Metro Biotech did not respond to a request for comment. An FDA spokesperson contacted by Lifespan.io did not explain the rationale behind the exclusion clause, adding that the FDA does not comment on whether or not it has, or will commence enforcement actions. Please subscribe to Lifespan News, and we'll keep you updated as this situation unfolds.


Welcome to the show. Oh my gosh, there's so many of me there. There I am. Just one now. Here we go. Hey, welcome. It is time for another episode of JP's Product Pick of the Week. Thank you all so much for stopping by. We've got some people over in our chats on YouTube, as well as the Discord. I just got distracted because Futari asked, are you mouthbeat boxing that live? No. That would be cool, though. Yes, it is actually Lars. Fantastic mouth drummer. Lars. What's Lars up to, anyway? He's back there chilling. So we've got a really hot product pick of the week this week. But before I go there, let me just send you on over to the site if you want to check it out. That is the QR code. And that is the URL for the product pick of the week. We have a tremendous 50% off discount going this week. And you can watch this show inside that product page. So head on over there. And so you know, you don't need a coupon code for this discount. 50% off, just put it in your cart and go. There's nothing else to do other than get it done before the end of the show or before we run out. But I think we have plenty. I heard from Tom we have plenty of these in stock. So you should be good up to 10 you can get depending on your big, big plans. So before I go into any more detail on this, let me have Lady Aida jump back a little bit into the past and tell us all about it. Take it away, Lady Aida. We spin of one of our favorite old products, product 390. One of the first ones we've made that's a really old product ID was our USB DC solar charger. And it's done us very well for many years. But I wanted to upgrade it first up because I wanted to put USB-C on it, but also want to see if there are some other chips that had come out in the meantime that could improve the capability of a universal charger. So what I did is I found the BQ24074, put on a breakout board with 2.1 millimeter DC jack, USB type C, two JST outputs. And this is a really nice universal charger. So let me tell you what it can do. You can use any DC power from 5 volt to 10 volts. So that's higher than our previous breakout, which maxed out at 6. So you can go up to 10 volts. It also has input protection up to 28 volts. USB type C connector makes it easy to plug in power from any wall adapter or computer. It'll use 5 volts off of that. If you want, the D plus and D minus pins are available also, so you can chain this into a dev board. The output, there is a charge port. The charge port can charge up to 1.5 amps, which is pretty high. Very handy when you've got one of those 2,000 or 3,000 or even 6,000 milliamp hour batteries. You want to charge it a little faster. This will do 1.5 amp charge rate. You can also set it to 1 amp or a 0.5 amp, or if you want, just cut the jumpers all together and put in your customer resistor. The output is load shared. So if you plug in the battery into the charge port, the output port will always have no more than 4.4 volts on it. And it will automatically use the USB or DC power if that's available, and only supplement it with battery power if you end up drawing more current than that's available from DC and USB. So basically, it tries to not drain your battery. If you have a USB or DC plugged in, your load will never be higher than 4.4 volts, so it's good for 3.3 volt linear regulators. It's also good for up to 5 volt boost converters. It's a nice voltage. And you'll have automatic load sharing up to 1.5 amps. It's got an optional thermistor input. If you want to use a thermistor, there's a power good LED. There's a charge LED. Best of all, it works with solar without needing any extra capacitors or anything. It's got a built-in capability to automatically reduce the amount of charge current so that the voltage doesn't collapse. It's like an input dynamic power path thing that's built into this charger chip. So if you use a solar panel, I just plugged one in, it'll automatically draw as much current as it can, basically kind of like a max PowerPoint type thing before the voltage dips below 4.5 volts. So you get the most current output. It's nice and stable, doesn't oscillate. So this is a great universal charger. Even though it works for solar, you don't have to use it with solar. DC power, 9 volt, 5 volt, USB-C, all works with it. So it's like an all-in-one, everything you ever wanted to charger. Yes, that is in fact our product pick of the week. Let me jump down here and get one myself to check out. Look at that lovely little guy. Product pick of the week this week, it is the BQ24074 USB DC and solar battery charger. Did I get that name right? 24074, I think I did. So that's the chip on there and this is a really great charger for a whole bunch of different uses. So you may not be sure exactly what your needs are gonna be for battery charging and this will probably take care of it. So here I've got a typical LiPoly battery and what I can do is plug that into the charging side. So there's a little indicator on there on the silkscreen, this is LiPo. So if I plug this in, this is now ready to be charged over USB. It's got a USB-C on there, plug it in and it is off and running, it's charging. You can go anywhere from, I think it's four to 10 volts DC, plug that right into there and it'll go off of DC, so a wall wart or some other barrel connector that you have going to DC. And then the super cool feature of this is of course solar. So here I've got a nice big voltaic brand solar panel and it has just been so hot out that it's really nice to know. You can at least use that blasted sun for something, which is plug it in and get some solar. Now I'm not going to get any in here in the workshop, but you can imagine, put that out in the sun, kind of hide this in the shade so you don't overheat things and this is off and running and charging. So a couple of other features I wanted to show. Let me go to a down shooter here and I'll just put a little me in the corner. So zoom out just a little bit. Here's a typical setup. Besides using this to charge, you can use this with something like a power boost in order to get five volt USB out of it, right? So this is charging, could be, I think this is a six volt cell, but you can, like I said, go anywhere up to around 10 volts with your input. You'd get five from USB. It's charging up this battery and this battery wants to give out 3.7. So this second JST connector here allows you to hook up something that wants that 3.7 volts off of the battery. And in this case, I'm going to plug in one of our little USB power boosts. So this is now converting whatever's coming off that battery or whatever's coming over the USB or DC if it's sort of a more stable and better supply than the battery. So it's kind of a continuous supply. And now I can plug some USB whatever into it. So you could charge a phone off of here. In this case, I've got one of my little Korg NTS-1 synths plugged into here. And so now, right, I've got a USB device. I'm in the sun. I'm charging. I'm running this off of here. I'm charging the battery. So I'm running off of a stable supply. And then we could come along and say, oh, you know what, let me plug in a USB-C. Come in, grab a USB-C, plug that into there. And now the source isn't the battery. It's actually this USB. Unplug that. And you'll notice that whole time my device stayed powered on. So there's no dip there, which is great. So there's a few other features on here. Let me get a little better camera there. You can unplug that there. We have, you don't need it, but if you're a real paranoid about it, you could put a big charging capacitor there. And then we have jumpers for choosing your charge rates. So depending on the size and heft of the battery, you can pick different charge rates. You can charge them faster. It's also got some solder points for a temperature monitor through MISTER. So you could put a temperature probe there. And depending on your monitoring situation, you could use a microcontroller to monitor. So let me jump over to the product page again for this. So you can see here, there it is, right now $7.48, which is really great for a universal charger like this. I'll refresh it. There we go. If you check out the links and the specs in here, you will get down towards the bottom, of course, a learn guide link because we don't wanna leave you hanging. So if you click on this, this will tell you everything you need to know about the device, specifications, the pinouts, how to hook it up, how to prep it for use. And you can see there's also some ideas on your panel preparation. So a lot of these panels use a smaller little plug. So we sell a couple of different adapters. This is a little right angle adapter that gives us the solar panel to DC jack that we need. And there's also a little pigtail version that you can see there on that site. Whoops, there goes a battery. Depending on the cell, some older ones needed you to do a bit of preparation, but I think all the panels that we sell now don't require that. Plug them directly in. And there's the array of panels that we sell. So you can see there's a bunch of different sizes and prices depending on your needs, probably not gonna get far with this little 40 milliamp one. The brand of panel that we sell for a lot of those bigger ones is this one here, Voltaic. And this is a cool site if you're interested in learning more about solar charging and sort of in the field operation of your devices. So let's see what else I wanted to do. I did wanna show a slightly more advanced use case that I had put together. So let me zoom out here and I'll refocus a bit so that we can see this. There we go, that's pretty close. So in this use case, I was going directly into the power boost converter. I set up a monitoring version of this and I put it in a little waterproof case. It's kind of disassembled now just so I could get this out to show you today. But the idea with this one is that I'm doing a LiPo charging monitor. So I'll pass my output of the charger into this little monitor and then you can see I've got a little cutie pie in there along with an OLED so I can get updates about the status of the battery. And then I've got a, this is a different power boost here and instead of a USB plug directly connected to it, I ran a USB plug out of the little cable gland on this waterproof case and I added a little power switch for the whole thing. So if we plug this in and power this on, you'll see LiPo gauge on here 4.1 volts and 82% charge. So that's telling me the status of the battery and then if we go out in the sun, presumably, you'll, if we're not drawing much current from the battery, you'll see that start to go up and you could get more sophisticated with that adding other types of monitoring, including temperature to that. But all of this doesn't look at right now, but all of this fits inside of there and there's a little sort of water resistant top that can go on there.  So let's see if there's any questions in any of our cats here. Sorry, YouTube, I wasn't checking you because you got hidden by a window. When you say power boost, do you mean power boost 1,000 basic? I'm actually, I have the 500 on here. You could do the 1,000, I think with, as Lamar mentioned, cutting a trace or changing a resistor, you can get 1,000 out of that. That guy right there, even though I think it's maybe rated for less, I think that works pretty well. Yeah, the one I have, I think in both of these cases that I'm using is a 500, but that's actually just, because that's what I had on hand. So I think you could go up a little higher than that. And there's a really detailed, I'll say if you wanna dig into that more, don't take my word for it. If you head back to the learn guide, there's a, this design notes section has a lot of info about how this type of chip works for solar charging. And I believe some of the minimum and maximum specifications for voltage and current. So, yeah, David, I found it, the PowerBoost 500 charger. That's the one I'm using right there. That's obviously gonna be slower for charging some devices, but I found even plugging in my iPhone 12 into that PowerBoost running off of a battery in this solar charger, it was able to charge the phone. It just wouldn't be as fast as a 1000. I think some devices like an iPad just won't charge. They require like two amps to even think about it. So, let's see, any other questions? Yeah, that's right, I'll never run out of battery now. Or at least Lars won't. Yes, this is designed for a single-lipo cell. All warranties are void if you start hacking your batteries. Be careful with that. All right, good. Okay, so I think that covers it. Let me know if you have any other questions in either of the chats, but if not, we will wrap things up. Oh, hold on, my software got glitchy there for a moment. Stay together with it. All right, hopefully you're still hearing audio and that didn't go away. Good. So, let me see if I can fashion a quick little hanger for this out of one of these cables. I'm always thinking of that a little late. There we go. So, product pick of the week this week, it's the BQ2407 for universal charger with DC, USB, and solar. That's gonna do it for another episode of JP's product pick of the week. Thank you so much for tuning in. Please tune in tomorrow for 3D Hangouts and Show and Tell, Ask an Engineer after that. And then on Thursday, I'll have my workshop show. Friday, we'll have Deep Dive with Foamy Guy. So, that's gonna do it. Thanks everyone for stopping by. I will see you next time. Bye-bye.


update. Okay, folks, Larry Pesa Vendor, a mid-afternoon update for TFNN. Boy, folks, it's a red day everywhere. We've got the end. NASDAQ is up very slightly. The S&P is down. The Russell is down. The Dow Jones is down. The only other commodity that is up is live cattle, and it's been down for six days, so it's bouncing up just a little bit. So there's a lot of negativity in the markets today, not to be unexpected. I posted the chart of the NASDAQ today because those of you that follow the magical 3A2 retracement, you'll know that it went up exactly to that level, and that's when the S&P was trading at 44.18, and it's about 10 handles under that right now. Whether that will continue or not, we'll wait and see, but we are oversold a little bit. We're down since Friday, so this is our third day down, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Our guest today, we're going to have Rich Anderson on to talk to us about the grains and oil seeds at this first break, and then we're going to have Shane Smollion, the WolfTrader.com will be our guest showing the last part of the trading day for us, and he'll be able to give us some really good indication. He's been extremely accurate on what's going on with this S&P and was saying that we were probably getting ready to see a pretty good correction. Well, three days correction in a bull market like this is certainly not very much, but at least it started down in the right direction, the main thing. Also, we're getting very, very close folks to our long-term target in the gold market at 1915 to 1905. We're at 1923. We've got silver just about ready to break that $22 level, and if we get that down about 2115, we've got Christmas Day written all over these trades. So we really want to be following it very, very closely here. So if you get a chance, you know, stay tuned and we'll have some really good trading information for you. The only position that we have on for our service today is the natural gas. It has a five point profit in it. We have our stop and break even. And so we're basically in a risk-free trade. We covered the short gold and we covered the short S&P for very nice profits. And now we're waiting to buy these grains, but it'll be down the road a little bit. So stay tuned here to make a few commercials and we'll be right back with Rich Anderson.