Top 5 Strategies to Handle Stress and Fear during the Current Global Health Concern | Podcast #277

Because of current global health concerns, stress is a common thing to most people nowadays because it affects businesses, economy, and so much more. Stress can affect our body negatively, but Dr. Justin and Evan Brand are here to help. Today’s podcast is about conquering fear and stress. Dr. Justin and Evan share strategies on how we handle stress during current events, the herbs or supplements that can help, foods to take and so much more. More on the podcast below.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani

In this episode, we cover:

0:54     Strategies to Relieve Stress

11:22    Emotional Freedom Technique

16:30   Herbs and Nutrients that Help

21:20   Sauna, Acupressure

28:19   Fresh Goods, Foods for Stress

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Hey there, it’s Dr. Justin Marchegiani. Today’s podcast is going to be about conquering fear. In the uncertain times a lot of this has to do with coronavirus in the economy and jobs and people having to be isolated at home. We’re going to talk about some natural strategies. Evan Brand, how are we doing today, man? 

Evan Brand: Hey, man, I’m doing well. I’m looking forward to helping people relax a little bit. My wife and I have discussed that even if you don’t personally freak out. If society around you is freaking out, that kind of rubs off on you. And even if you’re not an empathic person, you could still go into the grocery store and see things wiped out and that could make you feel unsettled, uncertain, so I can’t restock the grocery store shelves. What I hope to do is you and I talk about strategies to help kind of mitigate that stress response and try to turn off that reptilian brain that fight or flight nervous system that’s freaking people out.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah, exactly. I think number one is to stop listening to the mainstream media. That’s like number one. The first thing is you have to get context. And context requires you to take in data. And if people are giving you data that’s skewed or omitting data to push your physiology and your emotions in a certain direction. That’s not good. That’s not good. So my general recommendation is if you are going to listen to the media, you have to compartmentalize things. You have to be able to compartmentalize the emotion, from the facts and from the data from what’s happening. That’s kind of like number one. And if you don’t have that ability to really compartmentalize, you just got to find some more time new sources online that just kind of give you the data and not give you the opinion most news out there is editorialized it’s someone telling you their opinion, and there’s not a lot of facts or evidence behind it. So you really want to look at just the data. So then you can kind of come in there and make a more unbiased, a non biased kind of perspective on it and then find news people that if they’re going to give you their opinion, have it backed by data and then also have context we can talk about context. We’ve talked about this in our pre show. What’s happening today is what’s the context for it, you know, past examples of it. I think we are in uncharted times because the economy just went to hell in a handbasket. There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with the economy. Essentially, everyone just decided to go on furlough for hopefully a couple of weeks because of the virus scare. So there’s nothing fundamentally wrong. This isn’t the 2008 housing crisis where millions and millions of loans were given out to people that couldn’t pay them, right. This isn’t that, okay? This is something totally different is nothing fundamentally wrong. And this too shall pass. So I think at first off regarding the economy, just know nothing fundamentally is wrong, number one. Number two, there’s countries that are doing great out there that had, let’s say, a lot of viral impact like South Korea, South Korea, for instance, is the size of California. I think it’s like 35 million people. So Korea did an amazing job getting through the virus. A lot of I think They had a little bit more common sense tactics because the the virus the corona virus is hitting elderly at a much higher rate. I mean, barely anyone on the younger side is actually passing from it. And then when we can play when we compare flu statistics, it doesn’t even come close yet it will come to a crescendo to a bell curve on this thing. And it will go up a little bit, but it will come back down very soon. And just know just know that with South Korea, they quarantine all the elderly, and they quarantine the sick and the immunocompromised and they kept their economy relatively moving. And I’m hoping that that’s what we’re going to move to in the next couple of weeks here. Right now. We’re just trying to compress that bell curve to decrease our hospitals need and usage from all the people needing vents and support at the same time. So hopefully after this couple of weeks, we’ll have a more common sense approach that can get the economy going. So I’m far more concerned about the economy long term being destroyed, the people being homeless and and not having the utilities or the food or the resource they need to act to be healthy and survive.

Evan Brand: Right. Yeah, that’s a great point. You mentioned how all these statistics that come out are people saying certain things, if they’re not backed up, you don’t want to get to, to fear monger by them. So for example, you’ll look at some of these news articles where they’ll say that they expect X amount of infection and X amount of death. But so far every prediction has been under what it was supposed to be. So if they say a million people are going to get infected, so far, it’s a tiny fraction of that you’ve got 35 million illnesses of the influenza this year, and we’re still counting. You’ve got 35 to 50,000. The numbers aren’t final on the flu. And no one’s blinked at anything. So I just I don’t foresee these numbers getting even close to the numbers of the flu. I guess maybe I’ll be proven wrong. And I’ll go back and look at this interview. And everybody’s gonna say, Wow, Evan was so dumb, he was wrong. But I don’t foresee that big of a spike where we’re going to get to a 50,000 death point.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: No, I don’t see that either. And again, people will talk and say, Hey, you guys are using reason, logic and evidence and truth but that’s going to create your responsibility. And, and if we’re not creating hysteria, people aren’t going to do the right thing. Well, I reject the premise. I think number one, people need to hear the truth, unbiased, and then actual action steps people can take that are going to empower them. So like number one, we want to have comparison that data. Okay, so first off, what is it last night it was 450 people dead of the corona virus in about three, three and a half weeks. Last week, about 1000 people died of the flu. Okay, thousand people. So let’s keep that in perspective. Let’s go look at past occurrences. Let’s look at the swine flu. Okay, over 100,000 people pass the the swine flu in this country, a million in the world. We didn’t have we did not have a national emergency call for the swine flu until we were six months into it in 1000 people had died. So there’s just not a there’s not there’s no symmetry or parody in how one response is handled versus is the common response. And then number two, if we look at the World Health Organization, the amount of like the statistics and what they say the infection is going to do or kill is always wrong initially. And if we go look at what the recommendations are, what they projected with the swine flu, I think it was like 1.4% death rate, and they ended up revising it down four years later, 2.01% they were off by a factor of 63 X, okay, why? Because when you look at pandemics they have the middle number here is gonna be how many people die. That’s number one. The second number is how many people actually got the virus. Now, this is the hard part. Because in the beginning, we don’t have all this data. We have people that have symptoms, and that test positive. So we know that number, but then the outer data is how many people got it and didn’t get sick. Now according to the head, the head CDC person in Ontario, Canada, forget his name, but he said there’s More than likely 20 x times the amount of people who are getting this infection and showing no symptoms. One study I posted on the YouTube video last week said 86% are asymptomatic. What does that mean? That means about for every one person that has symptoms seven to eight don’t have symptoms. So once you factor in the bigger number that decreases the mortality, right? As incidence goes up, mortality drops, just basic math, right? So we have to know that off the bat, because that’s going to decrease a lot of the a lot of the fear, right? When you know that these pandemics always get rounded down significantly. That’s the trend and the reason why is because pandemic math takes time to do because you need to let the dust settle, and you need to get some testing to figure it out. So my general perspective is right now testing helps with the long term trends but it doesn’t help you get better because you do a test. It doesn’t change anything. Okay? If you high risk quarantine If you have symptoms, quarantine, if not do all the good, healthy social distancing, but still get outside still get air still walk, still get sunlight. If you have a sauna, or you have access to any exercise inside kettlebells or a trx or some kind of in house yoga, do something to get some movement in there. Don’t be you know, don’t just be totally isolated in this time. It’s really important.

Evan Brand: Yeah, well said and I’ve got just a couple more stats I want to mention. And then let’s talk about some of the lifestyle stuff, maybe some herbs and nutrients to help with the nervous system. So our mutual friend say your G. Green Med info, he had a really good article linking to some of these Italian studies that just got published by the National Health Authority in Italy. More than 99% of the coronavirus. fatalities were people already suffering from previous medical conditions. And also more than 75% had high blood pressure issues in 35% had diabetes and at least 30% or more already had heart disease. And the average age of someone passing is 79.5 years old. So 99% they already had previous medical conditions.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: 100% and not to mention, because I’m looking at all the data, I look at it multiple times a day and I graph it out so I can understand the bigger trends. The thing with Italy, they’re getting hit a lot harder than other countries. And I sit there I asked the questions Why? Well, number one, the biggest thing that we can do in the beginning is a travel ban. That’s the biggest thing because that just decreases exposure, right? The whole reason why we’re quarantine quarantine is decreasing exposure. That’s essentially a quarantine for a country so to speak. So that was the number one thing that we did that Italy and the rest of Europe didn’t do. Okay. Number two is a lot of smoking, a lot of respiratory potential issues there. A lot of comorbidity, like you mentioned 123 different diseases, a lot of multi generational household living, where kids and parents can pass the infection off to grandparents that may also be living in the same home. Okay, and then also how they are collecting the data in Italy, maybe a little bit off. So essentially, you’re 80 years old and you die of a heart attack, you come in, they test you for Corona virus, they may say that, you know, they may add you to a Corona virus statistic even though you died of a heart attack, because you tested positive with Corona virus. So we have to, you know, hate is that happening is that inflating statistics, so we’re gonna have to look at all the data and compare in the end to see if that is the case or not. And then, um, you know, number two, we’re going to have to also compare flu deaths because in the end, Italy on average at about 25,000 deaths a year because of flu. So a lot. They had 500,000 cases of flu the week of January 20. That’s a lot. And if you look at people dying a flu with comorbidities at point 9% Well, that’s that’s a lot of people potentially dying of the flu. That’s potentially four to 5000 people dying of flu in one week. If they are That higher comorbidity age, right? So a lot of people maybe be taken out by Corona virus that may not be taken out by flu. Does that make sense? So we may be exchanging some Corona virus test for flu deaths, we’ll have to see how it all parses out. So what we’ll do is we’ll look at the overall mortality curve. And we’ll see if that includes all deaths, and we’ll see if that changes at all. See if there’s a spike in that or not.

Evan Brand: Yep, yeah. Well said, All right. Well, let’s move on. Let’s talk about some actual strategies now that we kind of laid the groundwork here. Yep. I think the easiest thing for me that comes to mind which is free is EFT. You and I are both big fans of Emotional Freedom Technique, the tapping technique, you can basically just look up any website. I mean, it’s all the same. There’s a couple different ways people could tap but in general, you’re starting at top of the head side of the eye under the eye, and then you can move on to under the nose, the chin, the clavicle, and there’s different acupressure meridians. Basically what this is, is acupuncture without the needles. It’s amazing. You could create a change in your nervous system. Very quickly is this just some like hippy BS? No, it’s not. I’ve actually put on a heart rate variability monitor, I strap myself up. That’s one time that I use Bluetooth in my life is when I’m strapping a Bluetooth monitor to my chest and I hook it up to my phone with a heart rate variability app and I’ll do three rounds of tapping. And I’ll just think and say something like, I’m calm, I’m calm, I let go, I release my stress, and then boom, the heart rate variability increases, indicating I’m more in a parasympathetic rest and digest state, and it can happen in as little as 30 seconds.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. And what I also like about EFT is some people when they’re in a negative perspective, it’s hard to be like, think about what you want. Think about what you want to manifest. That’s hard. So with EFT you can also just talk about the problem. Hey, I’m really stressed over the economy. I’m really stressed with my job. I’m really stressed being inside right now. I’m feeling really isolated. So you can kind of just talk about the problem with yourself while you’re tapping these different meridian points. And it’s helpful because sometimes people just want to Talk about it. And if you don’t have someone to talk about it with, you could just talk to yourself while you hit these meridian points, which then comes down the sympathetic nervous system, which helps you process it better. And then as you come down from it, then I recommend switching like, Hey, you know, I’m attracting health in my life, I’m doing the right things to be healthy. I’m really blessed and fortunate in my health, and you can kind of do some of the Attractor Factor stuff where you focus more on what you want to pull in versus the problem, but it’s hard because if you’re, if the if your nervous system is on edge, you kind of have to calm it down before you can get appreciative and grateful and thankful.

Evan Brand: You’re totally right. I already feel better. I was noticing I was taking some more belly breaths than I was when we first started just after doing that. So the clavicle one. I don’t know why but the clavicle one for me, if you can only do one like if you’re driving the car for some reason, or you just you’re in a place where you’re in panic mode where you can’t think about going through the full motions of the EFT, then even just clavicle. I’m calm. I’m calm, just something like that could be enough to settle You down. And like I said, this is not just something we’re making up. There’s practitioners that they literally only do EFT that goes to show how powerful it is meaning they’re not doing lab testing and supplements and other things that we’re doing. They’re just teaching you to do EFT. And that’s their, that’s their practice. And that is successful. So it does work.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. And I’ll tell you, the big thing is bugged me the most right now is the hysteria because I personally don’t think it’s proportionate. And I’m just concerned that the hysteria will go on a little bit too long and have a negative impact on the economy. And I want people to have their jobs and their lifestyle and we’ll support their families I’m more concerned longer term with the economy then this blip we’re going to get through the viral blip no problem. And we should still social distance and anyone that has risk factors should do more in quarantine. But um, yeah, so we have to we have to talk about, you know, what the issues are and then also what strategies are so, you already mentioned the EFT that’s great. Also do something to boost your immune system. Most people are talking about washing their hands and social distancing. That’s the equivalent if you have a income issue like you have, you’re in debt, that’s the equivalent of like cutting down your spending. Great, that’s awesome. You cut down your spending, you curtail your spending. But what about the other side which is increase your income? Hey, let’s do some gigs let’s Uber at night let’s let’s try to make more calls at work let’s try to maybe work harder or think about it differently or apply for a different job meaning we’re trying to get more income in so getting more income in my example, is getting a higher level of immune function.

Evan Brand: And why is that not the headline? Explain to me why you think I mean, okay, if it were so important and and in the media, or whoever’s putting out all these these kind of fear based articles, if they cared that much about the old people or whoever or society? Why would there not be hey, here’s so and so’s top 10 strategies to boost your immune system. Why is that not the top headline? 

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Well, I think if it bleeds, it leads, right? Into Solution oriented and it puts you in the driver’s seat and makes you feel good about it. It’s not as much traction not as much clicks. So I think a lot of it you have to understand that there’s money to be made on manipulating your fears and emotion and when you understand that you’re in the driver’s seat. So once you get that perspective, you’re in the driver’s seat. So common sense things and again, these are generalized things. We have people out there that are like well, you have to customize it. Hey, this is not the time for customization. These are good generalized tips. Number one, vitamin D levels, getting them up is adequate. Great study posted this morning on vitamin adequate vitamin D being very helpful to acute respiratory infections. Now again, if you have vitamin D and you take too much of it fine, but you know, most people are low in vitamin D, especially this time of the year. Number two is a lot of the herbs and nutrients we mentioned last week, we can go over them briefly. Astragalus immune boosting, vitamin C is going to be immune boosting and acetylcysteine will help with the lungs and mucus that also decreases viral replicate elderberry kind of works on that neuraminidase pathway and inhibits viral viruses as well. Reishi or medicinal mushrooms, immune boosting, those are just kind of four or five right there. A vitamin A, cod liver oil, really helps with the epithelium and helps improve immune function. What else Evan, do you want to add?

Evan Brand: I would say oral and nebulize glutathione could be helpful, especially if you’re someone who does actually end up with some lung problems. nebulized glutathione can really help to open up that breathing pathway. And I’m not going to say hey, if you’re in the ICU that nebulized glutathione is going to cure you I’m not saying that but am I saying it could be helpful? Absolutely.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh yeah. And um, if I’m in the hospital man, I’m having them drip IV vitamin C I’m going to have them drip. I’m going to try to have them nebulized glutathione you may not be able to get this done in the hospital so don’t have your own. Try to have your own stack ready ahead of time I have my own nebulizer. I have my own. You know silver I’m ready to nebulize or glutathione if I need right now. I’m just doing knack. That’s enough, but I may do around here. After our call and do some nebulize go to file just to get my levels ready to go. What that does is that up regulates your redox pathways, okay? Your redox pathways are the pathways, they work in your mitochondria and they give off electrons to help stabilize oxidative stress and excess inflammation. So a lot of these infections are going to create inflammation and inflammation is gonna create a whole bunch of issues and can result in pneumonia and and decrease oxygen exchange and all these different things that require a ventilator and antibiotics. So the more we can squelch that fire, right, and support the immune system, because glutathione also modulates the T regulatory cells which help with the immune response. It’s going to help you not even pray, right. We want to be in the 10 to 20 X of people that get sick and have no symptoms. That’s what we want to be.

Evan Brand: Yep, absolutely.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And that’s important right there too. So let’s just let’s hammer that. 90 plus percent of people that get sick, have no symptoms and get Guess what, you’re probably going to have lifetime immunity. So if we’re if we’re concerned about getting sick, well, why don’t we lead with the information you have a 90% chance of getting the virus and having no symptoms at all and having lifetime immunity? How about that? That’s pretty awesome.

Evan Brand: Yeah, well, you know, what’s interesting to my mom called me because she’s in Las Vegas and Las Vegas is basically shut down, because of all that all the casinos and the industry basically just kind of closed up overnight. And she asked me the question, she said, Evan, I looked up the symptoms, and all I could find were really like fever and cough. So she was asking me, why is everybody saying, well, this many people infected this person tested positive, that person tested positive, as if it’s a death sentence if you get a positive result? And I told her Well, I think what you said was very true, which is what I told her if it bleeds, it leads, the numbers take away from the reality of the symptoms like Senator Rand Paul tested positive. He says he has zero symptoms. He feels perfectly fine. He’s amazing and ready to work. So I just told her that if they try to change the story of Tom Hanks tested positive, but yet he feels great. That does that doesn’t sound very good. That’s not a very good article instead is Oh my god, Tom. Tom tested positive. Here’s what he’s doing, you know.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: 100% and I saw a study or information I think by the who and an article over the weekend that 95 to 99% of people that are going in that think they have coronavirus and they get tested. don’t have it. And I heard one anecdote this weekend from a doctor at a hospital in upstate New York. And I’m not sure how true this is a couple but they said yeah, hey, we have over 100 people in our hospital right now that are sick. Not one Corona. They’re all flu, which statistically makes sense. That’s why I’m like, man, I don’t understand if 35 million people are getting flu and, and like 1% of them are hospital. So a lot of people that are coming in from flu, you would think a lot of these hospitals are already occupied with flu, and that we’d be used to that level. So we’ll have to see how All flushes out statistically, I’m really, really peaked. So in general, in general, look at the data and just know you have a much higher chance, especially if you’re under the age of 6570. And you don’t have any respiratory issues, you know? Yeah. All right. And then if you do if you do do all the extra things to help those redox pathways work NAC, vitamin C, etc.

Evan Brand: Yeah, let’s get back to a few other action steps. I think acupressure mats could be very helpful. Yeah, it’s basically like a little piece of foam with a bunch of little plastic, sort of fine needles. Now they don’t actually penetrate the skin. They don’t puncture the skin, but they just sort of rest up against your body so you can lay on an acupressure mat and within five to 10 minutes you get this rush of endorphins and it’s extremely relaxing. You may get goosebumps when it happens but you can feel that parasympathetic response kind of turn on so acupressure mats or something if the massage studio is closed and you can’t go get an in person massage to me. You know if you had your your spouse give you a massage or if you had like a hurricane or some sort of like a massage tool, you know, like a lot of chiropractors offices will carry some of these massage type self massage tools, and then the acupressure mat. I think those are also going to be great just because people when they’re in the fight or flight, they tend to tense up right. So, so now you’re tensing your shoulders and your back. And we’ve got a lot of people that may have fibromyalgia or other issues that are flaring up just due to their bodies being tense from a physical perspective. And then let me piggyback on that. Epsom salt baths are something you could do at home. Now I’ve gotten several emails from some of the local floatation therapy locations. Their water’s always been purified with UV and ozone and hydrogen peroxide and all that. So they’re saying, Hey, we’re still open for business, you could still come in and do a flotation tear therapy where you’re floating in 800 to 1000 pounds of Epsom salt. And that’s very beneficial for the nervous system. But if you’re paranoid or your places are closed, you know, throw a pound or two of Epsom salt at home and that would be very beneficial as well just to calm me down.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: 100% and also there are some strategies it’s like with the accent Kind of being on lockdown. It’s like, we can talk about some of them. But if you if with the economy’s closed down, you may not be able to access them. So I’m going to talk about things that I’m doing and then maybe add these to your toolbox for next time. So I have an infrared near sauna far infrared, near infrared. So I’m utilizing that daily to increase my body temperature, the virus does not like higher temperature. Number two with the humidity and the temperature increasing studies that I showed last week in my YouTube videos that the virus doesn’t like it doesn’t live as long as replicated as well. So higher temperatures will be helpful. utilize a sauna, if you can help improve your body temp. I’m also using near and far infrared or near infrared, infrared or red light to help stimulate my immune system as well. So those are big strategies I’m doing on top of that. And then you mentioned the Epsom salts if you have access to Epsom salt, dump a couple of pounds in your bathtub, and instead around float around for 20 30 minutes and really get that parasympathetic system stimulated.

Evan Brand: And here’s one other point to even if you look into the research and you I see conflicting studies on sauna for colds or sauna for flu or viruses or whatever. Even if that’s true, it’s still been proven that sauna reduces overall mortality period. I’ve looked at dozens of studies just on overall mortality, hypertension, all those things that are comorbidities along with these deaths, those situations get improved, meaning if you’re somebody who has borderline hypertension or you do have hypertension, the sauna alone will therefore reduce the blood pressure and therefore that reduces your risk of Corona being a bigger deal if you were to get infected so you can so even if someone you know I’m always thinking devil’s advocate, well Oh, sauna, you know, conflicting studies on the flu Okay, so what it still helps blood pressure, it still helps increase circulation and increases blood flow, those are all beneficial in their own right, even if you remove the possibly conflicting studies on whether it really helps with the virus or not.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: 110% 110% So really, really good Intel there on that. There’s a couple of other things you said that I wanted to hit. So we’re talking about the absence Oh, also just really understand the people that are higher highest at risk or senior citizens. Why are they higher at risk? Right? It’s not just because they’re older. They’re higher at risk. Okay. Number one, older people have what? Less hydrochloric acid. What does that mean? They’re not going to have the ability to digest certain minerals, magnesium, zinc, they’re not going to have enough of the the digestive nutrients to break down fatty acids. So part of the reason why elderly people have weaker immune system it’s not. It’s not rocket science, a lot of the amino acids like glutathione precursors and nak and vitamin A and these minerals like zinc and selenium, and magnesium that are important for their immune function. They’re just so low in it. So if you’re at home and you’re in your eating, make sure your diet is pristine, get extra water mineral with minerals in it. Take a high quality multi vitamin supplement get extra cod liver oil and fish oil. Eat high quality meat like do your best to make sure your diet is perfect right now because part of the reason why the elderly are so affected is because there’s compound interest so to speak, right compounding bad habits working against them. And you have compounding nutrient deficiencies getting worse into their 60s and 70s and 80s. And now their immune system is compromised because of it.

Evan Brand: Yep well said and you know when my wife and I were at the grocery now granted if we go somewhere like Whole Foods, there’s generally going to be healthier options, but you could still buy unhealthy crap at Whole Foods. You can’t go buy tons of sugars and chocolate chip cookies and graham crackers and and all that stuff was wiped out. So I know people are trying to focus more on like your non perishable items but you want to try to think about more healthy non perishable choices so maybe like some grass fed beef jerky. I’ve got some bison jerky, I’ve got elk meat, I’ve got all sorts of different various nuts and seeds mixes, pumpkin seeds and things. like that so just because it you have to think. And I don’t even know if I don’t see so far I read that. Los Angeles, for example, is working really hard to make sure that no power interruptions of the electrical grid happen at all. So you kind of don’t have to think, nonperishable, you should be fine to be good fresh items

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: should be good. Like for me, lots of collagen, amino acids, lots of coconut oil, so I can always lean on those amino acids and fats. And then you can always buy a whole bunch of cans of lentils. I don’t love them, but they’re at least they stay around a while. So if you want to buy a couple dozen cans of that, just for more peace of mind is worst case scenario, have a backup plan. But if not, we can. There should be no shortages right now, thank you to the truckers in our country and the supply chain is still intact. There’s nothing wrong with the supply chain. So there shouldn’t be an issue with that just people be smart. No, go buy two, two months of toilet paper at one time because the supply chain can’t handle that much demand at once. So people if you’re out there, just cut by a reasonable amount and hopefully stores will start setting limits on x people are just one store yesterday guy came in and bought all toilet paper in one store at one time. It’s just crazy. I don’t get it.

Evan Brand: Yeah here locally, they’ve there’s pretty much signs on everything. You can only buy two of these for these like Whole Foods was maxing you out at four bags of frozen vegetables and for basically four of everything was butter, butter. I think you could only buy two packs of butter at a time. But here’s the thing-

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And that’s another great a great, great calorie source a buy a bunch of sticks of butter if you can, because dense calories, a lot of fat soluble vitamins. You don’t need a lot of it.

Evan Brand: Yeah, I mean, I’ll give my daughter a half tablespoon or a tablespoon of butter and she’ll love it. I mean, it’s it is super super fuel. So if you’re thinking non perishable, though, I saw no shortage of beef jerky, grass fed meats that were dried out. Epic bars are something that we’ve talked about before I buy a company called mission meats. they’ve treated me really well. They have like Turkey sticks and things like that you can have so There are and then also, let’s just say you do get a bunch of berries, you could you could freeze them if you needed to if you’re like, Okay, I bought these, you know, four pounds of berries now they’re gonna go bad, okay freeze them like it’s nothing wrong with having a freezer full of blueberries.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: 100% and then we’ve already done podcasts on what to do when you get sick and to prevent sickness. We’ve done in the last two weeks different podcasts on that topic, and I have an article on what to do when you get sick. Part One, part two. So we’ll just kind of reference those four the more in depth information and if you guys are aware of it and you digest it and you listen to it, that’s going to empower y’all and then in the future, we’ll make sure you know you’re stocked up have a little bit of extra nutrients and immune support coming into the holiday season. So absolutely, man. Anything else you want to highlight today, Evan?

Evan Brand: I could go I could go on and on with some of the stressor stuff. Ah ashwagandha is very helpful. There’s many different benefits for it. But ashwagandha is particularly beneficial in this time. Lemon holy basil, holy basil as well. I love holy basil. I feel great. On it holy basil would be another great strategy right now for the nervous system. Lemon balm is awesome mother wart is another good favorite calming herb of mine passionflower could be very helpful if you get into kind of a panic attack mode passionflower could really settle you down so if you’re in like full bump panic, I don’t know maybe a news article triggers you or you see a video or something triggers you Okay, let’s say you’re in crisis mode. top five things I would do number one, start running your Epsom salt bath. If you could throw in maybe a couple drops of some lavender essential oil into your bathtub as well turn on some classical music start listening to that put on like a nice organic with candle without fake fragrance in it. Go ahead and start tapping I’m calm I’m calm even though I have this anxiety I deeply love and accept myself. Yep, take a shot a passion flower. Get you a magazine you know I you know I bought my daughter like a magazine all about dogs she just loves look at the pictures of the dog. Find something that takes your mind off it if you go hop in a bath with Epsom salt you’re playing classical music If you took a shot of passion flower and maybe you’re drinking some chamomile tea, I think you’re going to be settled down pretty darn quick.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah, I think you will be to 100% and then also I’m just kind of have a list of things that you can you can go to if you do get sick, so then you have that list already ready to go. Also, melatonin has been shown with this virus to be very helpful at supporting it something the virus interacts with the melatonin receptor at some way and the melatonin seems to be supportive. So if you’re having a hard time winding down at night, I’m okay with you know, one to three milligrams of melatonin before bed, they kind of get your nervous system at ease plus melatonin does drop down cortisol so acutely, I’m fine with a little bit higher dose on this just to help with your immune system and to help with the virus.

Evan Brand: Yeah, well, Melatonin is a super powerful, powerful antioxidant as well. So I think that’s got a side benefit too. So yeah, I think that’s a great, great idea.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Absolutely. Anything else you want to highlight?

Evan Brand: No, that’s it. We’re still available. We’re still running full time here. So if somebody needs to reach out even if it’s just for this kind of urgent Hey, I need help type situation you can feel free to reach out to Justin at JustinHealth.com for a consultation via phone. You don’t have to be anywhere you could be sitting on your couch talking with him or me EvanBrand.com is my website. And we’re happy to help Of course we’re wanting to just build up our clients in general meaning get you with hell as healthy as possible. So you have the least amount of risk now, but we’re also doing a few tweaks and other strategies to implement like the air purifiers those can kill viruses or knockout viruses to them. So So air purification, water purification, all the stuff we always talk about, it still counts.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: 100% Yeah, and if people want to reach out, a lot of people are restricted because of the situation not going out and such as much. We’re available virtually all over the world. So feel free to head over to EvanBrand.com or JustinHealth.com and reach out. Put your comments down below. Let me know your thoughts on things. What are you doing, what aren’t you doing? And how’s your health in general? I want to know strategies that you’re using to help keep you healthy right now. That’s that’s making a difference. Anything else Evan?

Evan Brand: Yeah, last thing, and I’m opening a can of worms at the end. So I apologize. But keep in mind that 80% of your immune system or more is, is in your gut. And so if there is something going on bacterial overgrowth, Candida, parasites, things like that, I’m not going to say, quote, you’re more at risk. But I would just say that it would be good to get those gut infections and other issues addressed if you can try to gain the upper hand on those, reduce your stress bucket, reduce your toxin bucket, and that would include those infections.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. And let’s shift our thinking to if I say you have a 1% chance of dying, that kind of stresses you out a little bit. But if I say, hey, you have a 99% chance of surviving, it is a different physiological response. I think you feel a little bit better when you focus on the 99% number, would you agree? I would totally agree and that affects your cortisol levels and your cortisol impacts your immune system. So try to look at everything and spin it into your favor, not saying you lie to yourself. I’m just saying you look at everything in a way that empowers You versus disempower you?

Evan Brand: Yeah, think about Okay, I just read this article do I feel better or worse after reading it? I feel worse Okay, what can I do to feel better because feeling worse is not going to help me I’m still in the same situation. I’m still in the same boat. I still have to go through my daily routine, put my pants on feed myself take care of my family. So what can I do to take that away? Okay, I’m going to focus on Hey, vitamin C. I will I’m gonna go drink some vitamin C or pop a couple cups. Okay, you know what, I feel a little better. Maybe I’ve reduced my risk by 5% great. I feel good focus on the positives. It’s it’s easy to forget.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Excellent, Evan. Hey everyone. If you guys enjoyed this Sharing is caring. Give us a thumbs up a like a comment, share it to family or friends that can benefit we really appreciate it. You guys. Have a good one. We’ll be back and I’ll be doing live q&a this week. So make sure you tune in for more great Intel. You guys take care.

Evan Brand: Take care. Bye bye.

References:

https://justinhealth.com/

Audio Podcast:

https://justinhealth.libsyn.com/top-5-strategies-to-handle-stress-and-fear-during-the-coronavirus-podcast-277

The Visible and Invisible Stress Connection – Podcast #50

Meet Evan Brand, the new new guest co-host of Dr. Justin Marchegiani for Beyond Wellness Radio. Today’s topic is all about stress and how to handle it. Find out what Shinrin-yoku aka “forest bathing” is all about and what adaptogens help with relieving stress significantly. This podcast discusses about the Paleo template, power poses and how posture can impact your hormones, as well as other lifestyle recommendations. 

Evan Brand is the creator of Not Just Paleo who shares great advice on taking control of your own health, happiness, and vitality. Learn more about the different kinds of Ginseng depending on where they’re grown and the kinds of mushrooms you can take as supplements. Listen and discover how to find good quality herbs and what types of blends are recommended.

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Podcast: Play in New Window|Download

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Hey, there!  It’s Dr. Justin Marchegiani and welcome to another awesome episode of Beyond Wellness Radio. We now have full podcast transcriptions over at JustInHealth.com.  Head over to JustInHealth.com, click on the Podcast button and you’ll be able to access all shows forward and past.  And while you’re there, feel free and sign up for the Thyroid and Hormone Video Series.  Some great information there for everyone and while you’re there, you can also sign up for the Podcast Newsletter where you’ll get access to these podcasts right in your inbox before anyone else.  While you’re there, you can also schedule a consult with myself, if you wanna dive in to any other functional medicine or health issues.

Again, stay tuned for the show and if you’re enjoying it, please feel free and share it.  Sharing is caring.  Think of one person that could benefit from this show and share it.  And also, feel free and head over to BeyondWellnessRadio.com/iTunes and send us a review.  We really appreciate it.  Thanks and enjoy the show!

Hey, this is Dr. Justin Marchegiani here with Beyond Wellness Radio and I am super stoked that we have our new guest co-host here Evan Brand from notjustpaleo.com?

Evan Brand:  Yup, that’s right.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Awesome, Evan.  Great!  So today we’re gonna be chatting a little bit about stress and–and things you can do to help reduce stress.  But again, feel free and check out JustInHealth.com and BeyondWellnessRadio.com.  We have all of the podcasts up for full transcriptions and you can subscribe to the YouTube channel to also get the podcast as well.  And a lot of nice freebies on the website like our Thyroid and Female Hormone Video Course as well.  Evan, what’s going on with you today, man?

Evan Brand:  Oh, not much.  I’m staring at the clouds hoping they’ll break up so I can get outside and play in the woods later today.  But I’m excited to talk about stress today, man, just because it’s such a timely subject for myself trying to multitask 20 different things at the same time without burning myself out.  So I’m sure other people are in the same scenario.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Yeah, and how can people find your podcast?

Evan Brand:  They could just search notjustpaleo or I–I’m that cool now that if you just Google Evan Brand, you’ll find me that way, too, and all my podcasts.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Good, awesome!  I figured it maybe Russel Brand would come up there in the search, too.  But–you out–outbid him.

Evan Brand:  Yeah.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  That’s good.  Very cool!  It’s good to have your own brand, right?

Evan Brand:  Yup, definitely.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Pun intended.

Evan Brand:  Yup.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  So, yeah, let’s talk about stress.  Why don’t you go first?

Evan Brand:  Sure, so I guess it’s helpful to talk about my first realization of stress.  You know, I’m a pretty relaxed guy overall and I didn’t really get my first taste of stress until I moved down to Austin a couple of years ago and had a–a big, big cool desk job career and all of that and moved down there with my–my now wife, and we got our own place and paying all the big bills, you know, growing up, becoming a man, and–and moving thousands of miles away to–to chase my dream.  And I started to have all these weird symptoms like insomnia.  I was just laying in bed staring at the ceiling.  I couldn’t figure out what was going on because I was exercising, I was eating Paleo, I mean it’s like–

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Yeah.

Evan Brand:  Come–come on, I mean, I’m doing everything right.  What’s going on?  And so it slowly became harder for me to adjust to stress.  I was becoming easily startled.  I mean, if I heard a loud boom, I would kinda jump when I used to not jump.  So I figured that some–some nervous system taxation was happening and I needed to figure out how to recover it.  So I basically just began researching adaptogens at that point and relied heavily on them as a–

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Yeah.

Evan Brand:  As a stepping stone or maybe a crutch if you will for the time being, and then long story short, I ended up writing the Stress Solutions book, which I still don’t think I’ve given you a paperback copy of, but I basically tried to boil everything that I was going through down–

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Yeah.

Evan Brand:  Into an actionable plan so that other people could apply it.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  That’s great.  I mean, stress is one of those, you know, things that people just kinda think about emotional stress as being stress, right?  As stressful.  They don’t think about, “Hey, I’m sitting all day or I have low blood sugar or I have reactive hypoglycemia or maybe I have low stomach acid.”  We don’t think of those things as being stressful.  And I think with functional medicine, we really wanna highlight the underlying chemical stressors that people forget about, because those are like the–the hidden energy zap of your adrenals, of your body’s reserve, and–and the lower your adrenals are, typically the lower ability that you have to adapt to stress.  Because it’s really all about adaptation and that’s one of the cool things that, you know, mean you’re both really passionately about is adaptogenic herbs because they really help your body deal with stress. We just gotta make sure the–the diet component is down because that’s such a–a big factor as you talked about to–to just being the foundation of helping to deal with stress.  Having those good meals, having that good sleep.  That really sets the foundation throughout the day so you can deal with more stress.

Evan Brand:  Yeah, well, I think the–the part you’ve kind of alluded to where people mess themselves up with stress is that they get so busy, right?  They’re trying to be so productive that they forget to eat.  I mean, you and I are probably are guilty of this ourselves sometimes we’re–

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Uh-hmm.

Evan Brand:  Sitting on the computer and you look and, “Holy crap!  It’s–it’s 2 PM and I haven’t eaten lunch yet,” and the blood sugar issues.  I mean, you’ve even hounded me before, “Evan, you gotta get that blood sugar in check, man.”  And it–it’s a huge deal for general stress.  It’s a stress to the adrenals, you’re having to produce cortisol to raise up your blood sugar levels and people that–people may be familiar with cortisol and how it’s–it’s not always evil, you know, it has a place in your body.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  It does.

Evan Brand:  Otherwise, you wouldn’t be able to–to get up and–and do your work in the morning when you get hopefully, you get bright light exposure outdoors.  But you know, the cortisol picture when it comes to food was a–was a huge deal for me and I had to become more regimented in eating my meals.  So if you’re trying to get a take away from this, it would be to eat regular meals.  Try not skip meals, intermittent fasting and things like that have a great place but if you’re the type of person that’s listening and you feel like you’re recovering slowly from cuts and wounds and your sleep is messed up and you’re relying on the cups of coffee to keep you fueled up, then you may be–you may want to look at that diet picture and make sure you’re getting enough food but that you’re getting it in somewhat regular frequency, wouldn’t you say?

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Yeah, I think so, too.  And having a Paleo template, I don’t like the word diet, I like the word template because it allows the individuality of what your macronutrients may be best for you.  Again, my default is always to a lower carb Paleo template because lower carb tends to emphasize more on the vegetables and less on the starch and–and sugar or fruit so to speak.  Again, there’s a place for starch, there’s a place for fruit.  But anyone that has weight gain as a complaint in their top 5, emphasizing the lower carb is a starting point for their low carb Paleo template.  I think it’s a really good place to start with.

Evan Brand:  Uh-hmm.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  And I think, 1 pat p2, sorry to cut you off there, is there are a lot in the Paleo community and this really drives me nuts where they make the exception the rule.  Where they may be able to eat something or they may be able to fast all day or they may be able to do that and then they go on and blog and talk about their–them being the exception and this is the rule and recommend it for everyone.  And I’m in a unique position because I’m in the trenches dealing with 40+ functional medicine patients a week from all over the world and I get to see the common trends in why and–why and what these people who are sick are doing.  And it’s a common trend of blood sugar stability being a major issue as a common trend of skipping meals and not eating breakfast, and there’s a lot of–when these issues are addressed from a–a diet and lifestyle perspective, people see an improvement.  So not everyone may be able to fast and do intermittent fasting.  Not everyone can skip breakfast.  People really have to be more diligent with their meals, the more broken or stressed their physiology is.

Evan Brand:  Yeah.  A man–a woman I was actually working with yesterday, she said, “Evan, I’ve read all the Mark’s Daily Apple Success Stories and I’ve done everything they’ve done, but yet I’m not losing weight,” and it’s–it’s so simple to see that and you see what works for someone so everybody does all of this self-diagnosing and self-treating and I think that’s a really good part about the Internet is that people are allowed to empower themselves but–

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Yeah.

Evan Brand:  I think that’s where the role of you and I really come in because people have tried to fix themselves and it just doesn’t work because they’re basing themselves off of someone else’s unique bio-individuality and you’re destined to fail that way.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Yeah, I mean it’s like if you get summons to court.  Let’s say something happened.  You’re called to court. I mean do you go online and just try to figure out the hacks so you can do good in court?  I mean, 9 times out of 10, the people that represent themselves in court, unless they’re a lawyer themselves, they don’t do too well.  So it’s like you get the lawyer because it’s worth it in the end because if you don’t, you know, a lot of bad things could happen.  And same thing in functional medicine and the functional nutritional world is that you can waste a lot more time because, you know, you only have your m=1 to go from.  You only have just your experience and it’s hard to connect the dots when you haven’t seen a lot of different experienced and–and then connect the commonalties.

Evan Brand:  Uh-hmm.  And I wanted to talk a little more about the lifestyle part of stress and something that’s really cool in the research lately and that’s Shinrin-yoku, aka “forest bathing”.  I think I may have talked–talked to you about it before–

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Yeah.

Evan Brand:  But for people that–that don’t know, it’s called Shinrin-yoku by the Japanese and when you’re looking in PubMed if you’re, you know, a physician listening and you wanna research it yourself, type in Shinrin-yoku or forest bathing, and you’ll see the results these Japanese researchers have taken.  There was one particular study that took 420 individuals out into the woods, several different forests and they took them–some out–were out there for a few days and some were out there for just 15 minutes and then the control group were people that were walking down the sidewalk in the city and they took salivary cortisol measures before and after this.  And there was a significant reduction, I don’t remember the exact percentage, but–

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Wow.

Evan Brand:  A significant reduction in reduction in cortisol levels after just 15 minutes in the forest but even more interesting is that their NK killer cells, they’re immune cells were boosted not only for that day, but even 1 month after.  I do remember this percentage, 23% boost in NK killer cells, 1 month after a hike in the woods.  So–

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Whoa!

Evan Brand:  If you have the opportunity to take a trip to the woods or if you have maybe a trail behind you–when I was in Austin on the southwest side of town there was a pretty good patch of woods back there and I would go walk through there at the end of a stressful day and I felt significantly better.  Obviously the peace and quiet, not having to hear car alarms and sirens and things like that is helpful in itself but it kinda boils down to the airborne chemicals; they call them the–the phytoncides I believe it is.  It’s these airborne chemicals that trees and plants put off.  Of course, your body’s gonna benefit from those.  That’s what we’ve naturally been exposed to for a million years at this point.  So I just wanted to kinda throw that piece of research out there and encourage people to get outdoors.  If you’re stressed out at your desk, there is a reason.  Get off your desk and go out there and just try to get a change of environment.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  And that’s really important to get out there, get your Vitamin D, do some grounding, lots of good benefits and I love having some of the physiology, some of the objective markers behind it.  Because you hear some of these things and you’ll like, “Oh, you’re just a hippie or whatever.”  It’s cool to have the science behind it because you’re like, “Oh, wow!  This is–this is legit.  This isn’t just like, you know, some hippie telling me what to do.”

Evan Brand:  Exactly.  Totally.  I know it definitely helps my credibility.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Yeah, and there’s another cool thing because, you know, frankly we’re not gonna–we’re gonna spend more time inside, most of us.  That’s just the way it is.  So what can we do to help with that?  I’ve invested in my office at home and my office at work to have stand desk where I can have my desk literally go up or down.  And I’m sitting right now as you can see on the feed here, but I’ve been standing most of the day and I will stand most of the day.  And that makes a huge difference for me, the standing, being able to move around and posture is so important.  Amy Cuddy did a TED talk and she again let’s take some of the objective markers here.  She took people that were in this kinda slouched over posture and she ran salivary cortisol and she had them stand up and pull their shoulders back, and they went to this power pose with their arms up reaching overhead, kinda like maybe they’re running back when they score a touchdown or Stallone in the Rocky movies once he gets to the top of those steps and he puts his arms up.  And she had people literally just take their arms, put them above their head and hold them there for 2 minutes.  And she ran salivary cortisol and testosterone and she saw a 20% reduction in cortisol, that stress hormone and an improvement in testosterone just with a postural change for 2 minutes.

Evan Brand:  That’s awesome.  Yeah, I mean, and I–I write some stuff like that on my lifestyle recommendations when I’ll make a plan.  I’ll tell people, “Look, I want you to stand with your hands on your hips and–“

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Yes.

Evan Brand:  “Put your chest up,” and I do feel a bit like a hippie when I’m telling people that, but I’m glad that there’s more verification there.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Yeah, I mean, she ran salivary cortisols, salivary hormones, and you know, we do that in our practice with our patients and it’s great to see simple things like posture.  And when I got to the gym I do like foundation training exercises which is like Eric Goodman’s work or I’ll do work where I’ll sit up against the wall, ankles, butt, shoulders and head, and I’ll keep my jaw level with the–with the ground.  Then I’ll pull my head back into that postural position and really work on strengthening the deep cervical flexors in front by the neck and stretching those back posterior cervical extensors and really work on good posture because we know posture is so important even to your hormones.

Evan Brand:  That’s cool.  So, I mean, that all does tie into stress because you–when you are stressed, you’re more likely to curl up in a ball–

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  You are.

Evan Brand:  And just feel depressed, and I mean, there’s no better word, depressed.  Your–your physiology is depressed, your posture, I mean, everything about you is exuding depression and stress.  So I mean, if you are feeling stressed this may be a time for you to stand up while you’re listening to this podcast and–and try out some of these poses.  When I’m out in nature, expressing, and I like to put arms out and put my palms up and just, “Ahhh” just open up like, “I’m powerful!”  You know?  And it’s goofy but–

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.

Evan Brand:  It makes you feel better.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Yeah, my wife caught one time in the office, me doing the power pose reaching the arms overhead, and she’s like, “What are you doing?”  And I’m like, “Ahh, power poses.  Trying to decrease my cortisol.”  And–and she gets it though.  So, yeah, those power poses are coo, maybe play a little Eye of The Tiger and you know, get in that position, you know, and get–get pumped throughout the day.  So, yeah.  I agree.  Posture is a–is a big one and it can really help your hormones.

Evan Brand:  Definitely.  Well, what–what’s the next topic of–of stress?  Or what’s the next facet of stress you think that we’ve hit on?  We’ve hit on the lifestyle a little bit.  We’ve hit on the diet.  What am I missing?

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  So I think the diet and the lifestyle stuff, that’s the foundation.  Don’t do anything else until you have that mastered because that’s gonna be your best bang for your buck.  But you know, we’re big fans of adaptogens. I know you’ve worked at–on it for a bit, designing some of these custom blends and I have some blends in the work here that I use with my patients with various adaptogens.  I’m a huge fan of them because, I mean, everyone should be on an adaptogen in my opinion.

Evan Brand:  I agree. Yeah.  I took my adaptogens this morning.  I actually have been experimenting. I don’t have any affiliation with them but I’ve been experimenting with the Organic India Joy! blend–

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  I think it’s a–

Evan Brand:  And it’s Ashwagandha, Shankpushpi, Gotu Kola, and one– Bacopa.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Bacopa.  Ooh, that’s a nice one.

Evan Brand:  It’s an awesome stack.  I mean, when–actually I didn’t take it this morning.  I should have for this podcast but I end up with a perma-grin for a few hours afterwards.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Oh, wow!  That’s good.  I’m gonna have to give you one Paleo to merit today for not taking your adaptogens.

Evan Brand:  Well–well, no, I did take–I did take Ashwagandha and I take a–a mushroom complex as well.  So I’m on some adaptogens but not that one yet.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Nice.  Nice.  Yeah, I’m on about 800 mg of Eleuthero and also about 600 mg of Rhodiola today.

Evan Brand:  That’s great.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  So it’s just a Rhodiola-Eleuthero day and I’m feeling good. My wife, she forgot to take her adaptogens for the last couple of weeks, just kind of got into that–that stress routine and I could see, like there was a big difference in her mood, and we just got her up on the adaptogens in which she came home from work, her mood was just a thousand times better and you know, she’s–you know, an executive of a really big Internet company so she has a lot of stress on her and–and adaptogens for her make a massive difference–

Evan Brand:  That’s so cool.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  In how she performs.

Evan Brand:  Talk–talk about her stack a little bit.  I’m sure people are curious about–if she is taking capsules, tinctures, etc.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Yeah, so for her, we have her on some female hormone tincture blends to help with hormones and keeping her cycle optimized.  And then she is on a similar stack as me right now because I create her regimens and programs, so it’s easier for her just to kinda piggyback on what I’m doing.  So we use some of the same adaptogens, but typically I go back and forth between Ashwagandha, Rhodiola, Eleuthero, I’ll mix in some Panax Ginseng or Red Root Ginseng, and we’ll even do some Holy Basil at night and those are the big ones that I–I tend to go for.  Yeah, for adaptogen in qualities.

Evan Brand:  So Eleuthero, that’s the same thing as–that’s the Siberian version of Ginseng, right?

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Yeah, so Ginseng is typically or made up of where they’re–where they’re grown, right?  The phyto signature in the soil makes up a huge difference.  So for instance, with Eleuthero, that’s kinda more the Siberian-Russia area, okay?  And then you have the Maca which is more of your Peruvian Ginseng.  You have your Ashwagandha which is more of your Indian Ginseng.  Your Panax Ginseng is more of the American Ginseng, American soil.  You have the Red Root Ginseng which is more your Korean Ginseng.  And then you have herbs like Tribulus which tend to have a better phyto signature growing in Bulgarian soils, so etc.  These herbs are really important.  You talk to any master herbalist, the quality of the soil is just as much to do with the quality of the herb.  So I like, you know, wild crafted, meaning you get guys that go out there and–and pick them up by their hands and–and you get really good quality and you don’t have like, you know, cheap herbs grown in countries where the soil isn’t good and, you know, you get bad soil so maybe there’s some heavy metals in the soil, like grown in industrial Chinese areas and then you get crappy herbs with a whole bunch of metals.

Evan Brand:  Yeah, that’s an important distinction you made.  If you’re concerned about that, you know, you can look for the organic.  You can look for the wild crafted certification and things like that, and always I mean, I go super geeky sometimes and contact the manufacturer or the company themselves and just say, “Hey, do you have heavy metal testing?”  Most of the time, I mean, generally speaking, if a company is reputable, they’re gonna have that testing available and they’re gonna have it done.  They’re not gonna have it on the shelves but I’m sure there’s some–there’s some shady adaptogens you can find in a little store on a corner somewhere.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Yeah, and you know, I always recommend companies that are third-party independently tested as well.  Because if a person’s–if a company is willing to go to that extreme that means they’re very, very confident because independent tests don’t lie and–but patients will either choose an adaptogenic herb or will use a blend, a combination blend, and I’m–I’m gonna have some in the works right now that I’m creating in my private line for my patients.

Evan Brand:  That’s exciting.  I can’t wait to get a batch.  You have to send me the–the first bottle that comes off the line.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Absolutely and I know you’ve worked on blends with on it.  What are some of the blends you’ve worked on?

Evan Brand:  Yeah, there’s one that I don’t even know if it’s gonna hit the shelf.  I’m–I’m still kind of anxiously waiting to see and one was, basically, it was a workout supplement for women but what I did was is I basically added some adaptogenic support to this workout supplement but also a little bit of blood sugar support, too.  Because I’m guessing that women, they’re gonna be busy, it’s a fast-paced woman who wants to work out right after–right after she, you know, gets out of the office, things like that.  So what I did is I created a combination of some blood sugar support like some 7-keto but then I also added in some Ashwagandha and some Rhodiola and then I added just a little bit of Cordyceps to give the more oxygen utilization side of things.  It was too big.  I ended just having so much fun combining the blend.  It was–it was too big to fit in 2 capsules.  It’d be like 10 capsules or something ridiculous so it would have had to end up becoming a powder and then of course, the whole issue becomes how are you gonna make it taste decent with Stevia and can you get true natural flavors and things like that.  So I basically came up with all the ingredients and then sent it over to Aubrey, the CEO, and said, “Hey, here’s what I got.”  And then he goes to his stepmom who’s a doctor and she verifies and tells me whether I know what I’m talking about or not, and then it would go onward to, you know, the flavoring department and things like that.  So that was probably my biggest and most fun project.  But then I just worked on some of the science, too, behind the other pages of–like the Alpha BRAIN for example, the Shroom TECH Sport, the Vira Tech, it was like a vitamin C and alpha-lipoic acid, immune-boosting type supplement, making sure that the science was there to support the use of lysine to balance out your arginine and things like that.  I did a–a lot of the behind the scenes stuff, but if I see that product hit the shelves with a–with a label, I’ll be sure to–to have it framed or something like that in a little special box.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  That’s great, and I saw that you put out some affiliate codes for the–for the some of the Onnit products this morning.

Evan Brand:  Yeah, finally.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Daily now.

Evan Brand:  Yeah, I finally got a–a 10% code for people.  So if you wanna check that out, they can just go to notjustpaleo.com/supplements and then I have my little built-in code where you get 10% off because who likes to pay full price for supplements if you can get a discount, you know?

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  That’s great.  Very cool.  And you also mentioned Cordyceps, too.  And Cordyceps are a mushroom, they’re not necessarily an herb but they have adaptogenic qualities which is cool.  They really support the adrenals.  They help with glutathione production and they boost up DHEA which is that sex hormone precursor that tends to be depleted with chronic stress.

Evan Brand:  Yeah, I take Cordyceps every day.  Actually right now, I’m using Lucky’s Market.  They have just a store brand of organic mushroom blend.  I mean, it has everything.  You would love it.  It has Maitake, the Shitake, the Reishi, the Cordyceps.  I’ve been feeling so good.  I told Hannah my wife yesterday, I said, “Babe, I’ve been feeling so good lately because I’ve just added in a couple new combinations of nutrients to my stack, and I–I’ve been on fire.”  I mean, I’ve been really feeling good.  So if I mean, if someone’s questioning, “Do I really need this stuff?”  To me, it’s a 21^st century pre-requisite to have a good stack on hand.  I mean, life is stressful.  You’re pulled in 50 directions.  You’ve gotta have some sort of solid basis of nutrients that are going in.  Of course, diet–that diet’s the first part.  But you know, assuming that you and I are following something like Dr. Justin and I, supplements or that thing that takes you to the next level and separates you from the competition.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Yeah, and I had a patient that, you know, asked me like, “Do I really need this?”  And I say, “Well, would you describe your life at all stressful?”  She’s like, “Yeah, I have this and–,” and even though it’s like this person wasn’t a full-time, you know, in the corporate world, they were a full-time mom which a lot of times is even more stressful and it’s like, unless you can tell me that your life is stress-free and is relatively easy, you’re gonna benefit with some level of adaptogenic support and/or nutrient support because when we’re stressed we also burn through B vitamins.  So I also add in some extra B vitamins and in my patients at some level we do organic acid testing and we’ll look at the B vitamins because they’ll burn through those suckers pretty fast with extra stress.  So some level I–I have an adaptogenic herb or two in my protocol.  I’ll have extra stress nutrients.  Nutrients that go down or should say drop with stress or we’ll be burned up with stress and then a mushroom is great.  I’m a huge fan or Reishi just because of the fact of its immune-modulating effect that’s called the Ten-Thousand-Year mushroom so it’s been around longer than any, you know, any supplements so to speak and you know, it’s amazing you hear some of the people in the pharmaceutical industry saying, “Well, some of these supplements or herbs that are untested.”  They’ve been around so long, some of them––it’s not even funny.  The question is, do we have good quality?  And again 95% are crap so we just have to know the right places to get it from.

Evan Brand:  Totally.  Yeah, I–I love you mentioned that.  I mean, some of these drugs will come out and they’ll be out on the market for 2 years and 1 rat study for 6 months or something just proves that it’s safe and then you have ancient Chinese wisdom or something that’s been written in books on hemp and papyrus–

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Yeah.

Evan Brand:  And that’s–that’s the real stuff that we’re really starting to respect and the science keeps continuing to back up the, you know, the evidence and the great value in these things so–

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Yeah.

Evan Brand:  Keep an open mind really.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Yeah, especially with stress.  I mean, you could–some of these scientific journals in these oriental countries, I mean, you have like Reishi being used as a first line therapy in cancer.  They’re using Cordyceps mushrooms for kidney transplants.  I mean, this is crazy, like–

Evan Brand:  Yeah.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  People in the United States have no idea.  Just go on to PubMed and punch some of these things in and you get lots of scientific journals in other countries that are researching this stuff and it just doesn’t make its way over here and it’s sad because, you know, medicine is pretty much co-opted by the drug industry so unless a drug company has billions of dollars behind something, it’s not really gonna get out to the everyday person just because it’s so expensive to bring something to market.  It’s hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars and if you can’t patent it, you’re not gonna get the money back.  So other countries they’re–they’re laws are more lax and it’s easier to bring things to market so it’s–it’s easier, and you know, the US–I think the US and I think New Zealand–it’s either New Zealand or Australia are the only 2 countries that actually market their drugs to the consumer on TV.

Evan Brand:  Oh, yeah.  Yeah, yeah.  I’ve–I’ve actually had some friends that have come from overseas and they see a drug commercial and are like, “Holy crap!  You can do that?”

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Yeah.

Evan Brand:  Ask your doctor?  What do you mean, ask the doctor?  I thought the doctor was supposed to tell you?  Nope, you’re asking your doctor these days, you know.  So that’s just–that’s a whole another podcast.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Oh, yeah.  And it’s 70 to 80–the research is clear.  70-80 percent–70-80 percent of the time when the patient goes into the doctor and request the drug because they saw it on TV, they get the prescription.  It is a major effect on influence and the doctor.

Evan Brand:  That’s incredible.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  So kinda tie in this back to stress, I’m a big fan of mushrooms.  Alright, huge, huge fan.  Helps with stress.  I like Cordyceps and I like Reishi and also if you’re dealing with any chronic immune stuff like cancer, Coriolus is another awesome mushroom typically using that in conjunction with Reishi works phenomenal.  Love it.

Evan Brand:  Sweet.  Well, I think–

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  And I take these mushrooms individually, too.  Like I don’t use a lot of blends because I wanna get 3 grams of Reishi, I wanna get 4 grams of Reishi.  When you look at these blends, I mean, you’re lucky to get maybe 100 or 300 mg.

Evan Brand:  That’s a good point.  I probably am fairy dusting myself–

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Uh-hmm.

Evan Brand:  With­ some of these.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Yeah, I think it’s good to just have like just a straight Cordyceps, a straight Reishi, and just kinda mix it that way.  That can be a good way to do it.  Just mix the whole herb straight in.

Evan Brand:  Uh-hmm.  I think we only got a couple minutes left but man, we could probably spend 3 hours on this topic.  This is–I didn’t realize how–how enjoyable both–both you and I would–would dig in this today.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Yeah, I’m really happy we have this extra, you know, once or twice a month, we’re gonna be having these conversations and really diving in deep and it’s great because I get to bring my clinical experience working with thousands with patients and you get to bring your clinical experience working with lots of patients as well, and we get to kinda share it with the listeners which is awesome.

Evan Brand:  It’s a blast.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Yeah.  Well, anything else you wanna add today, Evan?

Evan Brand:  Not really.  If people are interested in, you know, they can check out my podcast as well.  Dr. Justin, he’s been on there, and I’m still getting emails like, “Wow!  That Dr. Justin guy kicks ass.”  So check out that episode if you need a good place to start but there’s plenty more where that came from, and you know, 99% of the stuff that Dr. Justin and I both put out is free.  So there is hope, stay confident, and stay positive.  Take baby steps in the right direction every day and I guarantee you’ll get massive results.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Yeah, and if you listen to these podcasts or read some of our blogs and posts and you feel like, “Well, I don’t know where to start.”  You know, this is kind of the best step, is to reach out to either me or Evan and we can kinda help guide you in the first couple of steps to take because you know, you’re always gonna do better with, you know, with a trail guide that’s already hiked the mountain a few times, that can help navigate all the pitfalls.

Evan Brand:  Definitely.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Well, Evan, hey, it was great talking today, man.

Evan Brand:  Yeah.  Likewise.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Have a good one!

Evan Brand: You, too.

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