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:
Audio Podcast:
Amino Acids for Anxiety and Sleep – Podcast #146
Dr. Justin Marchegiani and Evan Brand talk about some of the effects of amino acids, specifically how these organic compounds can help improve sleep and anxiety. Also, learn about the different ways on how to overcome issues related to sleep and anxiety.
Majority of adults whose sleep are affected by stress and anxiety are more likely to resort to violence and rage. Fortunately, such circumstances can be avoided by incorporating several healthy changes in one’s lifestyle. Listen to this podcast and learn more about this.
In this episode, we will cover:
02:50 Myofascial Release and Active Release Techniques
06:35 Causes of Anxiety
10:39 Macronutrient Gnostic
13:04 Sleep is a Priority
20:36 Different Ways to Distress
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Hey there. It’s Dr. J. It’s wonderful Monday. Evan, how are we doing today, brother?
Evan Brand: Doing great, man. Summer’s here, and I’m hoping it doesn’t fly by. How are you doing?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Excellent, man. I got a new set of water-skis, and I was out in Lake Austin ripping it up. I had one run. Anyone who does water-skiing knows this. I had one run that probably lasted over ten minutes, and my legs are feeling like literally just jello right now. And I’m like, you know, I’m not just standing, I’m like making slalom terms, like you know, giant slalom turns. Like doing over the wake and doing jumps doing some tricks. So, I posted some of that. I got them in my iPhone right now. I’m recording on Facebook here on the other phone. So, I’ll post that up to my Facebook page and Instagram later on today so people can see me ripping it up and…
Evan Brand: Yeah. People want to see the behind the scenes. They want to see when you’re having the Polo shirt on. What are you up to?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Evan Brand: They want to stalk you.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I think that’s a good idea so I’m gonna post that up there. And also, it’s great neurological exercise, right. When you’re doing things, when you got a stabilized in a– in a three-dimensional setting, right. You got to wear a bag on forwards-backwards, left-right. So, you got to really activate all of those proprioceptors and mechanoreceptors, and all of those stabilizing muscles that, typically, don’t get used if you’re doing, you know, just conventional lifting, especially machine-based lifting, right?
Evan Brand: Yep.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Evan Brand: Now we’re [inaudible] …
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Look at you. [inaudible]
Evan Brand: …your abs or just your– your legs.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I mean, you know, when you first start, like your abs will be sore ‘cause you got to stabilize, right. “cause you got things rope right here. Yeah. This rope’s pulling you, the boat’s pulling the rope, right. So, if not, you’re bending over, right, ‘cause the rope’s pulling you. So, you got to keep this whole entire posture chain stabilized.
Evan Brand: Yep.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And then you need your core in tight ‘cause you got to keep everything upright. Right? “cause sometimes if you hit a bump, you may want to fall backwards. So, you got to keep that core rock solid ‘cause you can go backwards or forwards, right?
Evan Brand: Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: You got to keep that whole entire thoracolumbar chain activated. So it’s pretty cool.
Evan Brand: Sweet. Well, good job. Glad you didn’t hurt yourself. Let’s get into this podcast. We did a– last podcast on amino acids. We talked about energy and we talked about mood.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh. It’s a– by the way, I wanted to ask you. Are you okay?
Evan Brand: Am I good?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. Are you okay?
Evan Brand: Is this like a trick question? What do you mean?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Well, I’ve seen you got attacked by the sleeve monster, so I just – I wanted to know. It seemed like you survived the attack, but you know, the sleeve monster made a way with two of your sleeves. So, I just wanted to question you about that. How are you doing?
Evan Brand: I had to rock the tank top today, man.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: You’re rocking the tank top, man.
Evan Brand: I’m feeling good. Well, so, just for listeners, I won’t– I’ll make this quick. But, I had an abdominal wall injury about two years ago. I tore my abdominal wall. I thought it was a Hernia, and got the ultrasound. They said, “It’s not a Hernia but a tore abdominal wall. Be very careful ‘cause if yyou continue to lift heavy weights, you’re gonna get a Hernia.”
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Evan Brand: And, I tried it with you and I was like, “Dude, this scar tissue is not healing.” And you said, “Well go get a Myofascial Release therapist.” And that’s what I did. And now, for the first time, I was – In a couple of years, I was able to lift without pain. So, thank the Lord and thanks so much for the recommendation. Anybody listening, if you’ve got issues with not being able to lift, or you’re having pain in weird areas, Myofascial release is magic.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. Yeah, and even better than Myofascial release is Active Release Technique. Active Release takes one step further. Active Release involves Myofascial Release but then it adds in the active range of motion by the patients. So, Myofascial Release is like – they’re kind of moving you in the direction, so they’re finding that adhesion and they’re like, let’s say it’s my bicep, right. So, this is like– so, eccentric contraction means like elongating, concentric means shortening, right? So, this is the conce– say I’d had adhesion right here in my bicep, right? I find the adhesion. I shortened the muscle, right? It’s concentric. And now, I’m lengthening it as I extend out, right? So, Myofascial is like the person is doing it for you. That’s step four, and then step five is then like, you’re actually doing it for you at the end. So, kind of gives you an idea: one’s passive, one’s active. And it’s always good to go from passive into active, because obviously, if you’re in pain, it may be harder for you to do that yourself.
Evan Brand: Makes sense. And also, my low right back, I had issues there where I hurt my back working at UPS in College, and the therapist, she goes, “Your issues not on the right side. Although the pain’s manifesting on the right side.” The issue is on the low left side of my back that was tightening the right side, so, she fixed that area too. So, I’m a huge proponent.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah, I mean, when I would do like a lot Applied Kinesiology Chiropractic work, we’d like, you know, put people like at a 45-degree angle, like kind of like crawled up like to do in a sit-up, and then we’d hold them like this. We’d apply pressure. Hold them like this. Apply pressure. We can find out like was it an internal oblique, external oblique, just rectus abdominis-like weakness. And then from there, like, a lot of times, I was using the ARP Wave. So, I would use like electricity to go through there. But then, you can also take one of those stones. This gausious stone, I think they’re called. Let me put it out.
Evan Brand: Is it pretty cool?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. these little stones are called gausious stones. And then you can take it. then you can like– let’s say I had adhesion on my bicep, I could like take a little bit like coconut oil. Then I could just work out the adhesion like this, almost kind of like a– like a Graston technique.
Evan Brand: Yep, good work on it like that.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: But it’s not gonna be as functional as like the Myofascial because the Myofascial takes it and really works it within the contractile plains of the muscle tissue and the muscle fibers. That’s the big difference.
Evan Brand: Cool. Cool. Yeah, I mean, you need to test them. Need to do some more hands-on videos. I think people would really appreciate that.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. I mean, I used to do a lot more of that earlier in my career, and then I’m just booked out three months of functional medicine.
Evan Brand: Right.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: You know I just enjoy that– just more because I have so many different issues I can address.
Evan Brand: Agreed.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Functional medicine. And I see so many pain issues that normally would be a Chiropractic kind of issue but we fixed with diet and lifestyle alone. But I’d always suggest getting a holistic Chiropractor on board to work on this thing [crosstalk]… just yield so much better and the nervous system functions a lot better. And yeah, Graston’s similar to what I’m saying. Graston’s great. Again, I like uhm– techniques that also involve the range of motion too.
Evan Brand: Cool. You want to chat about amino acids.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. I got a patient here coming up soon so we’ll keep this podcast a little bit shorter. So, we talked about amino acids last week. And we talked about them in regards to mood and energy. Today, we’re gonna focus on anxiety and sleep. And again, we’ve done podcasts on this topic before but, you know, it’s a new day. It’s 2017 here in July. You know, new things come our way. New clinical experience gets plugged into that open loop that we have of new information coming in so it’s always good hitting new things. So, off the bat, anxiety can be caused by a couple things, alright. Anxiety, obviously, people know anxiety a pretty self-explanatory. That uneasiness, those feelings that come in, the butterfly little tingly spider sensations to come in, and it can be subtle, right? Or it can be really extreme where it gets to a panic attack level. And a lot of times, things that can drive back can be over-adrenaline or increased adrenaline. It can be caused by increasing Cortisol. And then things that can create increase in adrenaline and increase in Cortisol are gonna be things that stimulate the sympathetic fight-or-flight nervous system so, any stressor that could have an effect on that, we really want to look at addressing. So, blood sugar’s a big thing. People skipping meals tends to drive a lot of anxiety issues. People not eating a balanced meal, within a fat and protein, can create issues because you have lack of blood sugar stability. When blood sugar goes up and down, you get surges of Insulin and you get surges of adrenaline and Cortisol on the dropping end. And all that can create mood issues and adrenaline issues. And then also just looking at the Cortisol rhythm, a lot of people, they make really drop out in the latter half of the day with their Cortisol, which may create more stress on the body to generate– to get the blood sugar up in which can create issues there too. So, that’s just kind of my little opening there.
Evan Brand: Yeah. I had a client a few weeks ago. He’s relatively new so he’s not a super large amount fat eater yet. He’s still kind of stuck on carbohydrates, and he was having panic attacks. I said, “What do you eat for breakfast?” He said, “Oh. It’s a pretty good breakfast.” “What does that mean?” “It was a banana and gluten-free cereal.” And I’m like, “Good Lord. That’s sugar and carbohydrate.” And so, for us, you know, we really want people – if you’re doing like an Intermittent Fasting protocol and you’re pushing your breakfast back, you know. Fine, if you can handle it, but if you’ve got adrenal stress, you’ve got anxiety problems, you know, Intermittent Fasting might not be a good fit for you. You may need to make your breakfast a bit sooner. You may need to do uh– within 30 minutes of waking up, you may need to eat something because if you ate dinner last night at 6 PM, and it’s now 6:00 or 7AM, and it’s 12 hours since you’ve eaten, and you’ve got anxiety, that blood sugar could be crashing and you’ve got to eat. So, whether it’s a coconut, you know, just coconut meat and might not have to be coconut oil. I’ve made some coconut chips, which are pretty cool. Just get some shredded coconut flakes and you can toast them a little bit if you want. Those are great. If you want to do a smoothie. I like smoothies over juices. Juices, typically, they’re gonna have too much sugar if it’s a store-bought juice, so smoothies, you’re gonna have the whole fruit in there. And you can add the coconut flakes or your half avocado, or some other type of fat source. If you just don’t like the coke in the morning or you just don’t have enough of an appetite. I would push someone into eating a smoothie over skipping a meal completely. And then GABA, too, is another thing that people forget about. I call it kind of the Forgotten Neurotransmitter. When you’re stressed, like Justin has talked about with Cortisol issues, you’re gonna deplete GABA, which is kind of the brakes of the brain. And so, your conventional doctors are gonna prescribe Lorazepam or Xanax, or some other sort of benzodiazephine.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: [inaudible] exactly. Some kind of benzo to help with that, for sure.
Evan Brand: Yeah, and it’s crap. And it’s not addressing the root cause and the issue with pharmaceuticals is it downregulate your own production. Just like Melatonin. Supplemental Melatonin could be helpful but you do turn down your brains productions. So, if you’re taking GABA-ergic drugs, you’re turning down GABA and that’s why people have worse anxiety and panic attacks trying to come off of Xanax and other benzos. And so, for us, we may push somebody towards like a L-Theanine…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Evan Brand: …or you’ve got Lemon balm, or you’ve got Chamomile extract. You’ve got Valerian, you’ve got Passionflower. There’s a lot of other cool things you can use to support anxiety without damaging yourself.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: One hundred percent. Now, low-hanging fruit, of course diet, making sure the diet’s dialed-in. Reducing inflammation’s gonna be huge, right? Anti-inflammatory, nutrient-dense, low toxin diet. And we like talking about things regarding food in a template fashion because template allows us to be macronutrient gnostic, meaning, we’re not buying store for that. If someone’s having more Insulin resistance and does better kind of Intermittent Fasting, Cyclical Ketogenic, then we go lower. People are more active, then you need a little more carbs. You make it a little bit higher. So, we’re kind of gnostic when it comes to macronutrients. Macros are protein, fat and carbohydrates. But of course, everything that we want is gonna– you know, needs to be nutrient-dense. So, in the micronutrients side, we can still have very nutrient-dense foods on the micronutrient side, but still be macronutrient gnostic, because all the foods on our palate, if you will. Like for an artist painting something, and we have all these colors to paint from, choose from. Same thing with the diet, we have all kinds of foods on our palate that may be higher carb, lower carb, higher fat, lower fat, but the one common thread– the three common threads, I should say, is nutrient-dense, high amounts of nutrition per ounce of food, anti-inflammatory, coming down inflammation, and also gonna be low in toxins: round-up, pesticides, chemicals, and even things like Lectins and phytates and oxalates and more irritating compounds in the gut too.
Evan Brand: Perfect. One other amino acid we could mention would be L-Glutamine. Even though it’s not necessarily an anti-anxiety amino acid, Glutamine can be great for stabilizing blood sugar. So, I tell women that, you know, especially women because they’re a little bit more susceptible. Keep the Glutamine in your purse. If you’ve got a sugar-craving, that blood sugar’s crashing, you pop open the Glutamine and pour it in your tongue, and within five minutes you can feel a bit better. If you’re having like a blood sugar crisis and you don’t have anything good, or you just don’t want to eat something garbage, L-Glutamine could be another good one. So, Glutamine, Theanine, we talked about Lemon balm, which isn’t an amino acid, but is a [inaudible]
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: [inaudible] same thing. Yep, Lemon balm. Absolutely. I got my Liposomal GABA here as well. Huge fan of GABA. Some people say that the molecule’s a little bit too big to cross the blood-brain barrier, that’s why I use the Liposomal form. I take a couple hits here, right now on the show.
Evan Brand: Nice. How quick does that hit you?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Ughh! I mean, it depends because I’m not really an anxious person anyways so for me, I don’t notice a huge hit but I’m feeling like a little bit more stressed. I do feel like it’s kind of helpful and soothing. So, GABA’s great with that. Also, just really simple, and some of these things, we got to have our hierarchy of treatment in line, right? If you’re doing these things but your diet sucks, your blood sugar’s everywhere, your sleep stinks uhm– and again, it’s kind of contradictory but, sleep will help anxiety the next day, right? Because you’re gonna recharge and recycle a lot of your neurotransmitters when you sleep. So, having good sleep’s definitely top priority. Now, part of your issue is you’re not getting good sleep, then we can talk about that later on the show, but GABA’s great. Also, a little bit of lavender, essential oil’s phenomenal. Do it on your wrists. You can do it right on like kind of a lymph nodes here in the jaw or back at the neck here. May have sip on the lymph nodes, that’s great. Or just even go like this on your hands and then just [does palm inhalation], then you get right into the respiratory system and it starts activating right away. So, a little bit of lavender can be very, very helpful. Then of course, Magnesium as well. These are kind of like low-hanging fruits, right? Magnesium, lavender, Lemon balm, right, or GABA, especially Liposomal GABA, right? You mentioned Melissa, you mentioned Vicky, you mentioned Valerian root. I know you mentioned L-Theanine. They’re all awesome. We may even stacked on there, some Ashwagandha.
Evan Brand: Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I used my Adrenal Revive. It’s got a combo of them in there. But I also have a support that’s called Ashwagandha Supreme that has just Ashwaghanda. So, I used that a lot too. Ashwagandha’s pretty cool. It means Sanskrit. It’s a “to impart the strength of a horse.” So, a pretty cool little translation there.
Evan Brand: You want to know something else cool about Ashwagandha.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: What?
Evan Brand: So, the Withania somnifera, the Latin…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yep.
Evan Brand: …I was looking at the translation. It means ”to induce sleep.”
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: To induce sleep huh?
Evan Brand: Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah, Withania and then yeah– Withania somnifera’s the active name. Yeah.
Evan Brand: Cool.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. Also known as Indian Ginseng as well.
Evan Brand: I love it. I think that’s a great recommendation, and then, Reishi mushroom too. That’s a cool Immune Stress Support that you can take and you can stack on the Ashwagandha too. And then Motherwort, I really like Motherwort. I’ve mainly tried it in tincture. I’ve not tried it in herbal, like a capsule, but I’m sure Motherwort capsules do exist.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. Absolutely. And also, just simple thing we talked about the last time, like B Vitamins, like making sure B12 and B6 are gonna be present. That’s gonna be really important. B6 is really important with neurotransmitter synthesis and communications. We don’t have enough B6 or P5P, Pyridoxal-5-Phosphate. There’s Pyridoxal hydrochloride, but Pyridoxal-5-Phosphate’s gonna be an activated B6, Vitamin B12’s gonna be really important. Especially Vegan vegetarians, there may be some nutrient density issues with some of these things. Can people don’t understand that just look at liver compared to Kale for instance. People think Kale’s a superfood in the veggie community, which I love it. I think it’s great, and it should be a part of everyone’s diet, but it doesn’t hold a candle to liver. So again, some of these animal products are incredibly bioavailable and nutrient-dense, and I like that a lot. We talked about Magnesium, that’s phenomenal. Amino acids, we talked about it last week. We talked about it– 5-HTP…
Evan Brand: Yup.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: …right? Is great for Serotonin. Serotonin can be very, very common. So, man, I take Brain Replete, which got a little 5-HTP in it as well. Sometimes, we’ll take the 5-HTP by themselves though because– just because we get a little bit of individual dose in that way, and it’s got some B6 in it. So, I like that because of the extra Serotonin. Serotonin can be calming and relaxing. A lot of doctors think you don’t need to do GABA if you have the Serotonin and Dopamine kind of dialed-in. GABA’s kind of a subsidiary of that. So, we take care of, you know, the upstream neurotransmitters. The downstream neurotransmitters kind of take care of themselves.
Evan Brand: Uh. Interesting thought. I still think the GABA’s worth having on-board. I know the significant difference. I might need it.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I think it’s helpful. I mean people that have, you know, panic attack issues or anxiety issues, you know, I give them a bottle like this and they’re doing two/three drops every couple of hours all day long. And, you know, we’re getting to the root cause, right. We’re getting the blood sugar under control. We’re also supporting the adrenal glands because the adrenal glands help that blood sugar stay unstable. So, if you’re that person and if you skipped a meal, you get anxious and you get really irritable. You got a blood sugar issue there and your adrenals probably need more help and more support to get that back on track.
Evan Brand: Yeah, so let me just say in another way. If you’re getting hangry or you’re freaking out because I’m gonna kill somebody if don’t eat, that’s the sign your blood sugar’s off. Those people could have blood sugar issues, along with anxiety issues.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And even people that do it right. Like, if you do it right, it’s better, because of course if you do more refined sugar, and not enough of those good macros like the fats and proteins, your blood sugar’s gonna drop really fast because– Well, just go camping, right? Go start a fire. Try starting a fire with twigs and paper. The fire’s gonna be up and out, up and out, up and out. That’s your blood sugar, right? Twigs and paper equal refined sugar, excess carbohydrate. Logs and the fire, logs and kindling that equal protein and fat. So, kind of keep that analogy because every time you eat you’re really trying to stog that metabolic fire. And again, of course, you know, we know maybe some gasoline, maybe a little paper may help that fire catch faster. That’s kind of where the macros kind of, you know, the constant decisions involved. So, you got to figure out what works best for you, but for default, right? You want a long-lasting fire, you actually have to show up with some wood, right?
Evan Brand: Agreed. [crosstalk] johnny said that…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: …[inaudible] you need some wood to start a fire, right?
Evan Brand: Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Makes sense? Protein, fat.
Evan Brand: Sorry to interrupt you. Johnny here left comment for– He said he tried float tanks last week, five days in a row and it was amazing for mood and stress. Yeah, I mean the lifestyle stuff’s great too. We always implement that amino acids on top of float tanks. That’s awesome too. James, he had a question, “Any amino acid for instant relief of SIBO and digestive issues, mostly bloating and gas?” What’s your take Justin about aminos and digestion?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Well, B6 and 5-HTP is very helpful for that migrating motor complex communication. Also, some ginger can be very helpful. But again, let’s face it. You actually have to knock out some of that bacteria, right? If SIBO’s what’s driving that issue, maybe it’s a Citrobacter or Proteus overgrowth, or maybe it’s Klebsiella, right? My old joke in Microbiology class, right, when we’d nerd out, you know. If you’re a bacteria, where is the place to party, right? You go to Klebsiella.
Evan Brand: [laughs]
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I know. It’s bad. It’s really bad, but that’s the joke. So, anyway, Klebsiella, any of those critters could be at bay there. So, you got to knock out the critters, and you may even want to starve them out on the flip side with low fat map kind of Paleo template to start. That can be a good template. You starve them on one side, right? You support the migrating motor complex here. Maybe add in some Hydrochloric acid and enzymes to work on that, and then you kill them over here. And then a slide to the left, and then you add maybe some more probiotics in afterwards. That’s kind of like our sequence for dealing with that. But of course, supporting the adrenals in the process is helpful because if it’s inflammation in the gut, inflammation does what? It’s gonna get the sympathetic nervous system going. What does the sympathetic nervous system do to digestion? Decreases digestion and decreases motility. It decreases Hydrochloric acid and enzyme secretions too.
Evan Brand: Well said. Well said. So, James, get to the root. We like having a unnatural treasure chest of things you can use, instead of, say, Pepto-bismol. But you still got to work back towards that root cause, so fix those gut issues and you won’t need anything for temporary relief. You’ll just feel amazing permanently.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. And we talked about a lot of things that are great to use but it needs to all be in the context of – okay, but also get to the root cause.
Evan Brand: Yep.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: But also do this too. Just so we’re clear.
Evan Brand: We’re cool. I think this was a pretty rapid-fire podcast. Anything else you wanted to mention on this topic?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. Ashwagandha’s gonna be great. Of course, you know, if you’re more on the anxious side, be very careful with coffee. Be very careful of alcohol because that could obviously get more of the adrenaline and the catecholamines revved up, so that component’s really important. Also, meditation’s nice. I mean, I have my little Mwave BAP here. I may go do this here in-between patients.
Evan Brand: Yep.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Plug this in to my iPhone. Plug it on my ear and I try to get into a state of coherence with the heart and brain or in this uhm– connective state. And you can see that based on heart rate variability. So, you can do that. That’s another excellent technique as well. Uhm – couple other herbs I think we didn’t quite mention, but Chamomile’s great. Valerian’s great. Tulsi, or I think it’s Octa Noctum. Tulsi’s great. Holy Basil’s – it’s the same thing, right? They’re all the same thing.
Evan Brand: Yep.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Same name. Uhm– those are all phenomenal. I’m getting some exercise in. It’s huge to help [crosstalk] destress, to decrease anxiety. Uhm– you’ve talked about– I forget what the [stutter] the oriental name of it is, but it’s a– you go at the forest bathings. The Japanese were…
Evan Brand: Oh, yeah. Shinrin-yoku, yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: yeah, yeah. Shinrin-yoku. Wow. Man, I thought I have a tough with it with my last name being Marchegiani.
Evan Brand: I know.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Shinrin-yoku. Okay, cool. I like that. [inaudible]
Evan Brand: Samuel left us a comment.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: What’s that?
Evan Brand: Samuel left us a comment before we get off here. He said that he’s halfway through his H. pylori protocol and his anxiety has diminished tremendously. Really happy to hear that Samuel. We see that all the time with gut infections. For me, I had two parasites. I mean I were calling Justin up one night. I’m like, “Yow. I feel like my heart’s beating out of my chest, man, what do I do?” And I had those infections at that time, so like, you know, I had some supplements to help me. But my gut issues were definitely driving my anxiety. And I’m not an anxious person by nature so it was bizarre. But once, I’ve treated the infections, and I’m infection-free now. You know, I’m back to being pretty chilled out again. So yeah. That’s a true testament. What he’s talking about. Gut infections, definitely do drive anxiety. Your doctor’s not gonna figure that out, though. They’re just gonna give you anti-anxiety meds. They’re not gonna say, “Hey. You might have something going on in the gut.” They just got no clue.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Hundred percent. Let’s talk about that mechanism, right, that Samuel brought up. So, that’s the mechanism is through Lipopolysaccharide reduction. Lipopolysaccharides, another antonym or synonym for endotoxin, right? Endotoxin’s the outer second layer of these gram-negative bacteria. And these endotoxin’s, one, that can drive leaky gut. Two, when they get into your bloodstream, they can make their way to the brain and create leaky brain. But when they get into the brain, they can create a lot of mood issues and anxiety issues. There’s some studies where they talk about– and they look at what are– you know, uhm– Lipopolysaccharide antibodies and they see people to have these antibodies have like more anxiety and mood issues. And then when they would reduce the bacteria load by knocking out the bacteria, Lipopolysaccharide levels will drop and also their anxiety and mood will improve too. So that’s pretty cool. That’s another excellent mechanism there. Through leaky gut, through the gut, through infections and how that can also drive mood issues. And that has to be looked at, right? You have to actually address the infection to get that and get relief in that area.
Evan Brand: Wow. If I ever became a psychiatrist, I mean, my first place to go would be the gut.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh, absolutely. I mean, Julia Ross has talked about it many times. She’s a MFT so a Marriage and Family Therapist, and she’s talked multiple times, where she has– you know, she has clients and therapy. They were just talking about their issues and [pauses] for decades, right? Just talking about their issues, talking about their problems, start fixing their diet, fixing their neurotransmitters, and then they show up the next like week or next month, and then they’re just like, “Yep. That doesn’t really bother me anymore. It’s not really an issue.” Right? It’s just kind of like they can process their emotions much better. So, things come up, they can process it and move on.
Evan Brand: Yeah. That’s the thing I’ve noticed about adults. They act more like children when they’ve got blood sugar or amino acid issues. If you’re not eating protein, for example, you know, this isn’t to throw to much shade to vegetarian Vegans but you and I see them all the time. You know, they’ve had some temper issues. I’ve talked with some Vegans, they can fly off the handle. And they’ve just got no amino acids to help regulate their mood. So, the mechanism there, if you don’t have amino acids, the raw building blocks for your neurotransmitters. You don’t have GABA, you’ve got no Serotonin, so you have no emotional flexibility. You’ve got low Dopamine, so you’ve got a lack of focus, a lack of drive, concentration. You’re easily bored. You’ve got attention deficit. You know, all these neurotransmitter deficiencies caused from a lack of quality animal proteins in a diet. It can really, really add up.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. Check this out. It’s a really cool study. I’ve seen this quite frequently. Where they’ve supplemented like fish oils and like fats in jails, you know, actual criminal environments, and they found out like violence in the prisons like significantly, significantly dropped. They’ve done study where they looked at violence, and a lot of violence tends to happen in low blood sugar environments. How about that?
Evan Brand: Cool.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I’ll read this one study here for you.
Evan Brand: Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: The– Let me show you this and get to the conclusion. See if I can summarize it pretty fast. It talked about aggression, and violence often start when self-control stops. Of course, right now, what’s self-control? Self-control’s gonna be caused by the neo frontal cortex. You have about 0.25 milliseconds to take an impulse that you initially– you know, you think of, “I want to punch the wall because I’m so mad,” but then frontal cortex, right? 25 milliseconds, you override it because you’re like, “Ooh!c Broken hand, not good, right? I got to type the next day. I got to do work with it. Not a smart idea. So, then you punched a pillow instead, or you just, you know, go for a run or something, right? So, you got this frontal brain that kind of overrides a lot of that thinking. The problem is – let me just kind of hit a little bit more. “For society to function peacefully, people must control their aggressive impulses. Self-control requires a lot of brain food in the form of glucose. Thus, people who have difficulty metabolizing glucose, breaking it down into a useful form and keeping it at constant levels– I’m gonna highlight that. Breaking it down in the useful forming, keeping it at constant levels are at a greater risk for aggressive and violent behavior. The inability to metabolize glucose is not only a risk factor for health problems and those afflicted with the disorder, but it’s also a risk factor for aggression and violence in all members of society. The healthy metabolism of glucose may contribute to a more peaceful society by providing individuals with a higher level of self-control energy.” This is profound. Now, I’m gonna go highlight a couple things here. A couple missed numbers. People are gonna think here. Well, that just means I have to eat sugar constantly throughout the whole day. You got to be careful, because by doing too much sugar, you can create Reactive Hypoglycemic spikes and drops. So, it’s about having the right amount of Carbohydrate, and not all Carbohydrate’s equal. So more non-starchy vegetable-based Carbohydrates with the right amount of low-glycemic fruit and/or starchy Carbs according to what your needs is, and then you can kind of dose in some of the higher glycemic fruit as well. But this is profound, because table blood sugar have as produce better activation of the neo cortex. And, when the blood sugar drops, guess what part of your brain you’re using.
Evan Brand: Yeah, the reptilian hindbrain.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Reptilian hindbrain. So, that’s fight-or-flight, right? And a lot of spousal issues happen. Yelling and fights and issues happen with friends and family, typically, in and around food and blood sugar being low. So, very important. Let’s say, one big tip is to have your dinner and then talk about issues of stress after the fact that your food in there get your digestion going and get your blood sugar stabilized. And then you can activate that neo frontal cortex so much better.
Evan Brand: Yep. Well said, man. And I’ve seen the same thing here in the west end of Louisville. Pretty, pretty low income, definitely ghetto part of the town. It’s a food desert. There’s articles written about it all the time in the local newspapers here. There’s no high-quality food available. It’s all fast food and junk food, therefore tons of blood sugar issues. There’s the most crime in the city. I mean I [crosstalk] probably have an overlapping layer of food quality and availability, and then crime. And, I guarantee where we see higher quality food, we’re gonna see less crime because people are eating and they’re not losing their mind.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. hundred percent, and you know, we subsidize junk food in our country so it’s two to 20 billion dollars a year. So…
Evan Brand: That’s ridiculous.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Soy and corn, all this crap. It’s artificially cheap. So you know, when you look at the dollar menu, right? The reason why it’s so cheap is because it’s subsidized a ton. Now, again, we just combat that. It’s really simple, right? I don’t look for the government to do anything for me. I just vote with my wallet, and I say, “Okay. Great. Let’s try to, you know, invest in foods that are gonna make us healthier.” Now again, as a doctoral student, I was literally living on nothing, financially. I think I had like– I had just enough to pay my housing, and then maybe, I think at the end of the month, I hahd like– This is like total, I think I had 500 dollars after I paid for my housing. So I’m in the bay area, right? So, that includes groceries, car expenses, everything at 500 dollars at the end of the month. Like, you know, for the whole entire month to spend on food, you know, car, everything. So, I have to be very judicious, and I budgeted everything out, and I would buy like a lot of my meat in bulk from whole foods. I would do a lot of family pack stuff. I would do like if I needed to save money, I would do like organic vegetables frozen. That would help a ton, and then just like lots of good fats, right? Lots of good coconut oils. I’d buy it in bulk, like a gallon. You know, a gallon top of it at time. Like lots of good grass-fed butter. There’s like, I would try to make every dollar I spent just to get the highest amount of nutrient density for me.
Evan Brand: Yeah. Avocados, you can get those for a buck on sale. Five big bag of avocados you can get– I think my wife today, I think she bought five avocados for four bucks or something like that. Or four [crosstalk] avocados for five bucks. So–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Exactly, and Costco’s got them pretty good too, and a lot of the food options. I mean, you can get like I think berries for like four bucks. It’s like insane, like you can’t even get a job fast enough. So, lots of good options for you. Again, I lived it when basically, you know– California, I would– you know, when you’re a doctoral student. I was at the poverty level, [laughs] right?
Evan Brand: Right.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: You know, I was at the poverty level for where I lived, you know, the bay area in California, and I was able to do it. It was just a matter of priority. And just – I didn’t have a smartphone back then either. I said, “You know what, I rather just take that money and put it towards food.” And then I got one after I graduated, right? So…
Evan Brand: Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: It’s just about priorities and we’re just trying to put this information, this education out there. We prioritize your stuff. Get healthier. When you’re healthier you can do more at your job. You can be better and then you can climb up that economic ladder and continue to improve yourself.
Evan Brand: Yep. Well said. I know we got to wrap this up. We both got calls to get to. Let’s hit this quick, quick last comment here by Dennis. Any idea why Diphenylalanine did not work for me as Julia Ross reports from her patients. I’ll first hit on this. I would say because there’s an underlying issue that you’ve not addressed, Dennis. [crosstalk] Amino acids are not a replacement for getting to the root cause. Amino acids are great to get you from point A to point B, but you still got to dig deeper. So, there’s probably something going on. Whether it’s H. pylori, parasites, bacterial overgrowth, something in the gut that’s throwing off your brain chemistry that you just can’t throw a pill at.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Absolutely, and again, I’m thinking Diphenylalanine. I’m thinking there’s maybe a pain issue, right? Diphenylalanine helps improve beta-Endorphin. Beta-Endorphin takes 19 amino acids to make. Go back to the gut. But if it’s pain issues, you know, go see a really good functional Chiropractor that will look at things holistically. And then also, feels like structural disc issues or ligament issues, high-dose Collagen, get the gut working better, make sure there’s not protein in your diet. So, you have structure material to heal.
Evan Brand: Yep. Cool. I’m gonna write down our links, which I think YouTube doesn’t allow me. Nope. They don’t allow me put web addresses in the comment box, but if you want to reach out to Justin and schedule a consult, just go to justinhealth.com. If you want to check out my site, you can go to evanbrand.com. Look us up. We have over 200+ episodes of other topics like this. So if we didn’t answer your question today, I’m sure we’ve answered it somewhere someplace sometime. So, reach out. Happy to help you all.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I’ll put it in right now, and I’ll put the what the reference for today’s article in there too. [crosstalk] So, I’ll just put them there now. Awesome, man. I’m gonna jump on to a patient. I know you as well. You have an awesome day, brother.
Evan Brand: Good chat with you, man. See you.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Take care. Bye. Bye.
REFERENCE/S:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4073202/