Bouncing Back After a Poor Night’s Sleep
By Dr. Justin Marchegiani
Let’s face it, most of us aren’t having a perfect night’s sleep, every single night. Whether it’s an impending deadline has you crunching out work til the wee hours of the morning, a racing mind keeping you up, or a night of tossing and turning, most of us know what it’s like to go through life the day after a crummy night’s sleep.
Today I want to outline the best ways to bounce back after a poor night’s sleep, as well as provide you with tips to optimize your sleep quality on a nightly basis. Let’s dive in!
How to Bounce Back After a Poor Night’s Sleep
Get Outside: The best way to set your circadian rhythm (your body’s internal clock) is to get outside! Sunlight signals to the photoreceptors in your eyes and skin that it is day time and boosts alertness (and improves mood, which helps with sleep deprived grumpiness!). Take your shoes off and let your feet touch the earth. The electrical exchange of free ions from the earth are scientifically proven to lower inflammation and help cellular health, which is much needed after missing sleep.
Hydration: Sleep is when the body repairs both physiologically and psychologically. Muscles, bones, ligaments, neurotransmitters, hormones, and more are recycled and repaired during the night to keep us functioning optimally. When we miss a night of sleep, it’s crucial to support cellular health. One way to boost cellular health is to hydrate while replenishing minerals. Add trace mineral drops or even a high quality sea salt to your water. This helps optimize the cellular environment, prevents effects of dehydration, and curves appetite.
Caffeine: When you miss a night of sleep, you may be extra drawn to the coffee maker. Be cautious not to overcome caffeine, or else you may suffer the consequences when you hit the pillow that night. Stick to one or two cups of coffee, tops.
Diet: Sleep deprivation does weird things to hunger hormones! Cravings can come on strong, while satiety may never seem to come. Don’t give in! Keep carbs low and eat protein and foods rich in healthy fats to assist your body during this time of physiological stress.
Immune Support: During a normal sleep cycle, the immune system fights to keep your body healthy. When you miss sleep, immune system function declines while inflammation increases. When you miss sleep, you’ll want to use supplementation to boost your immune system. Oil of oregano, probiotics, Immuno Supreme, and activated charcoal are all immune supporting supplements that can really support you when you’re sleep deprived!
What’s Keeping You Up?
Awareness of the cause of sleep deprivation is the first key to unlocking the door to a great night’s sleep. Physical factors such as sounds, temperature, and light are some of the easiest to resolve. You essentially want to be sleeping in a cool, dark, quiet cave. I recommend blackout curtains. You can use a white noise machine to help lull you to sleep if there are neighborhood noises that distract you from sleeping. Also, be sure the temperature is not too warm. It can be appealing to climb into a warm cozy bed, but biologically we need to be sleeping at around 65 degrees.
If your sleep disturbances are psychological or hormonal in nature, such as work stress of an autoimmune condition, I recommend a consultation with a functional medicine doctor who can help you address the underlying issue and help you fix things at the root of the problem.
Tips for Better Sleep
Get outside and move every day. Exercise can increase human growth hormone which has an excellent effect at blunting cortisol and increasing the repair of your body. As discussed, natural sunlight and grounding set your circadian rhythm, which tells your body when it’s time to be awake, and when it’s time to wind down.
Avoid blue light and reduce EMF at night. Blue light (emitted from screens and devices) signals to your body that it is day time, and keeps you up for hours after you last saw a screen. Limit screen time before bed, and if you must be on a device, look into apps that block or reduce the blue light they emit.
To calm down before bed, try a relaxing tea, like chamomile, which can increase neurotransmitters like GABA to help promote relaxation.
Do you have other tips for better sleep? Share down in the comments below!
References:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2077351/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12480364
http://www.scienceoflight.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/journal_pone_0092251.pdf
Natural Solutions To A Good Night Sleep
By Dr. Justin Marchegiani
Roughly half of all Americans suffer from insomnia, and according to the National Center for Sleep Disorders, around 15% of the population deals with chronic insomnia on a daily basis. What’s more, the WHO (World Health Organization) considers shift-work or sleep deprivation the only non-substance carcinogen known to man. That puts a lack of sleep in the same class as cigarettes, asbestos, and other known carcinogenic chemicals!
Sleep is vitally important to help repair the body physiologically as well as psychologically. Physiological repair, such as building muscles, bones, tendons, joints and ligaments etc., occurs between the hours of 10 PM and 2 AM. During this timeframe, HGH (human growth hormone) peaks. You can think of HGH as your anti-aging hormone, consider getting maximal sleep as gaining $2000-$3000 of anti-aging treatment per month for free!
After your body’s HGH peak comes the mental repair. Between the hours of 2 and 6 AM the body psychologically regenerates, and neurotransmitters and other neurochemicals that help with mental health are recycled and repaired.
Cortisol and it’s Circadian Rhythm
The accelerated health risks for poor sleep
Studies have associated numerous health risks with a lack of good sleep. These include:
Increased risk of diabetes
Accelerated aging
An increased risk of cancer
Decreased immune function
Obesity and excessive weight gain
Poor physical performance
Slow mental acuity
It’s estimated that over $100 billion is lost each year due to the loss of productivity that a lack of sleep causes. Lack of sleep is also the leading cause of 100,000 vehicle accidents per year and the associated 1,500 deaths.
The major underlying causes of sleep deprivation:
17% of all US employees are shift workers who stay up working during the night instead of sleeping. If I can urge you to make one decision as an investment in your health, the first thing would be finding a job that allows flexibility to sleep during normal sleep hours. The research is very clear, the increased risk of chronic degenerative diseases and lack of performance will cost you more in the long run financially and physically.
Chronic stressors can be a huge underlying cause of sleep problems. This includes relationship stress, caffeine, chronic illness, infections, blood sugar imbalances, family stress, and hormonal imbalances. One thing that all stress has in common- whether it’s internal stress or external stress- is the increase of cortisol and adrenaline.
Knocking your cortisol and adrenaline out of balance puts a great deal of stress on your adrenal glands. Your cortisol rhythm at night is intimately linked to your melatonin rhythm (melatonin is your night time/sleep hormone). The more you push your cortisol and adrenaline out of balance, the more your melatonin will also be negatively impacted – and so will your sleep.
Stimulants such as caffeine can prevent you from getting to sleep on time. Caffeine has a half-life of up to eight hours, so be sure to consume your coffee or caffeinated tea before 2 PM in order to give your body enough time to metabolize the caffeine before your bedtime.
Certain medications can also interfere with sleep: antidepressants, corticosteroids, allergy medication, and blood pressure medication to name a few. If you are currently taking medication and also have a sleep problem, please look up the possible side effects of the medication you are taking to see if sleep disturbances are a potential side effect.
Click here if you are having sleep difficulties.
Dr. Justin’s Top 7 Sleep Enhancing Tips
- Exercise daily. Burst training and resistance training can make a significant impact on your sleep. The right kinds of exercise can increase human growth hormone, which has the ability to blunt potential cortisol spikes and to increase your body’s repair.
- Pick relaxing teas, such as chamomile or sleepy tea, before bed. These types of teas contain particular amino acids, such as L-theanine, which help to increase certain neurotransmitters like GABA to help promote relaxation.
- For certain individuals melatonin can be a great choice. I recommend using a sublingual variety, which helps increase absorption as well as increasing activation time. However, melatonin may not be right for every single person. For some individuals, taking melatonin actually makes sleep issues worse! When this occurs there’s usually an underlying hormonal imbalance present.
- Many of my menopausal female patients have hormonal imbalances that need to be addressed. Low progesterone is a common cause of sleep deprivation and insomnia. Progesterone has a relaxation effect that occurs by opening the GABA chloride channels in the brain, and can have an effect similar to taking a Xanax– without the side effects. Running a female hormone test can help evaluate this imbalance as well as provide the specific dosing information.
- Buy a white noise machine or even download a white noise app- there are plenty available for free! White noise can be very helpful at blocking out ambient noise that could potentially wake you up throughout the night. If you opt for an app, please be sure to keep your phone in airplane mode while you’re sleeping (you should be doing this at night regardless). The EMF from your phone can disrupt your sleep and can even prevent you from getting into deeper phases of sleep!
- Eating a little bit of protein and fat within two hours of your bedtime can help stabilize your blood sugar and prevent cortisol spikes during the night. The suggestion may go against conventional wisdom in regards to eating right before bed, but low blood sugar throughout the night will cause your cortisol to go up, and that cortisol spike can disrupt your sleep and cause you to wake up. A little bit of protein and fat before bed can make a big difference.
- Give yourself at least one hour before bed to wind down. Turn off the TV, tablets, computers, phones, etc. and pick up a non-stimulating book instead. Engaging in meditation and prayer before bed can be very helpful as well. It doesn’t have to be complicated- a simple meditation is simply counting backwards from 10 to 0 with all of your attention focused on your breath, not the problems and stressors of yesterday or tomorrow. Engaging in prayer- especially focused on gratitude and all that you have to be thankful for in your life- can provide a natural neurotransmitter and hormonal boost that can set you up for a great night sleep!
To receive my full handout entitled “33 secrets to a good night sleep,” click here!
To help get your sleep and energy back on track click here!
Hack Your Brain and Your Sleep – Evan Brand Podcast #29
Sleep plays a huge factor in one’s health, creativity and productivity. The lack of it affects our blood sugar levels, hormones, ages our skin, as well as make our brain foggy. Sleep problems can even lead to a more serious illness if not properly addressed.
In this podcast, learn from Evan Brand of Not Just Paleo ways to beat stress, improve brain function, performance and well-being through Biohacking protocols, supplements and other cutting edge techniques for enhancing one’s sleep.
Evan Brand is a nutritional therapist and personal trainer who specializes in Paleo and ancestral nutrition, blood sugar regulation, digestive health, cognitive enhancement, stress management and sleep enhancement.
In this episode we cover:
18:40 Adaptogenic herbs
22:20 Brain hacking supplements
30:41 What is PQQ?
32:31 REM Rehab Program
37:29 Grounding and Earthing
39:10 Spirituality and Gratitude
45:05 Moving Meditation
Podcast: Play in New Window|Download
Justin Marchegiani: Hey, there this is Dr. Justin and welcome back to Beyond Wellness Radio. Again we have our guest today, Evan Brand, from notjustpaleo.com and we are really fortunate to have you on the show today, Evan. How are you doing?
Evan Brand: Hey, I am doing great, Justin and probably ten times better because you and I just got to talk and hang out for an hour beforehand.
Justin Marchegiani: That was awesome. Great experience. I am looking forward to repaying the favor here.
Evan Brand: Yes, Sir.
Justin Marchegiani: So, Evan, tell me a little bit more about you. How did you get into this phase?
Evan Brand: It started out in college. I have realized that the nurturing of my grandparents and my parents and all that had been shielding me from the reality of becoming a man. And I have realized that once you get your first taste of real stress of being an adult that it tends to put an impact on your health. So I was working at UPS, third shift to pay for college. They had this pretty cool program there where you get 100% of your tuition paid for at the University of Louisville. So I thought, cool I am going to try it out and I am going to business school, and I had these, all these dreams and all that and I have always been an entrepreneur. I started out selling hot fries in middle school to all the kids, you know. Going to Sam’s Club and buying them for 15 cents a pop and selling them for a dollar. So I have this entrepreneurial mindset from the very beginning and eventually transition that into other things as I got older. But really once I was having trouble getting out of bed; it was 3 pm when I was waking up I was having trouble getting out of bed. My shift at UPS would start a midnight or 12:30 even. I mean it was ridiculous. I was killing myself literally. I just kind of got fed up with it. My acne was out of control. My gut was out of control. I got the official “diagnosis of irritable bowel syndrome”. So it was just sort of a combination of all these things that really started to add up. I got fed up with being told that all I could do was take acid blockers and take, I do not even know what all, I mean, these ridiculous recommendations that had nothing to do with what was actually the problem. So, I think, often the best teachers are the ones that struggled themselves with their health. And so I am kind of the perfect candidate for that.
Justin Marchegiani: Totally makes sense. So how was your transformation like? What was it like? So you had all these issues. You had some of the IBS. You had these skin issues. What were some of the first steps that you took to kind of get better and heal yourself?
Evan Brand: Well, I had a friend who was into amateur body building. So, I took this super-high protein approach. Just tons of chicken breasts and green beans and broccoli and rice and pasta at that time because, “Oh you got to be high carb, right?” To be an athlete. So, I put on a pretty good amount of weight. I went from 120 pounds to about 170 in about a year or two. So, fifty solid pounds and stayed relatively lean but my stomach was still screwed up. And then I found out, “Oh pasta has gluten!” Gluten tears up your stomach. And so I pulled it out and then magically all of a sudden my acne was not nearly as bad and I was not running to the bathroom with diarrhea. I was kind of like, “Whoa, this is ridiculous.” One little tweaking of the diet, pulling out one, it was a food group, man. It really was. Pulling out that food group of pasta was enough to make me feel better. That was kind of like the catapult into I guess what you call the alternative health space. I hate that it is called alternative but that was my entry point. And then, from thereon delving into supplements, delving into herbs, adaptogens, smart drugs, I mean I have done the gamut of, you know, float tanks and acupressure mats and just anything and everything that may make me better or feel better or think better, I am down with that.
Justin Marchegiani: So what was your experience from people around you and your health care providers when you are like, “Yes, I am just going to cut out these food group, called grains.” What was your experience? Was it a blow back?
Evan Brand: There always is. I mean, even my grandma, “Evan, you need to eat. You are going to get too skinny. You need to eat some bread.” “Grandma, I am fine. Look, I promise, you know.” There was a little bit of blow back but not so much from the medical profession because I just quit seeing them. I did not have the opportunity to go back and waste my money saying, “Hey, look I am better; here is what you need to teach your people.” So, I am curious as to what they would have said though.
Justin Marchegiani: Isn’t amazing how from certain people I find this when you are telling your story to people, they feel guilty? Their response is like, “Isn’t that extreme? You just need a little more balance or moderation in your life.”
Evan Brand: Right.
Justin Marchegiani: They try telling Superman that he just needs a little bit more moderation with kryptonite.
Evan Brand: Right.
Justin Marchegiani: He needs a little bit more balanced approach with kryptonite because it is just kryptonite, right?
Evan Brand: Yes, and that is the same thing with people that still to this day try to offer you just one bite of a brownie or one bite of a cookie as if there is some sort of, if it is less than this threshold then you are fine. For me the threshold is zero. I mean even just a little bit is not worth it for me. I do not want to feel brain fogged and I think that is something for people to take home is that the little people that want to temp you and kind of poke at you.
Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Evan Brand: Just let that blow off your shoulder. It is definitely not worth the side effects.
Justin Marchegiani: So, it really sounds like you are in touch with what your kryptonite was and then you were committed to kind of cutting that out of your diet to improve your performance.
Evan Brand: Eventually, yes. It sounds simple like that but it was a lot trial and error and lot of days spent hanging out near the bathroom because my stomach was just, pshhh… flushed everything out. But eventually, yes, it became that simple.
Justin Marchegiani: So, if you could have gone back in time when you were dealing with all of these problems, what would you have told yourself so you could have gotten better faster?
Evan Brand: That you should not listen to other people mostly and that you need to listen to yourself and that if you go to eat something. I mean even something like if I were to do a protein shake that probably has sucralose or artificial sweeteners or things that were destroying my stomach I have this inherent gut feeling that something was not right. But I was listening to other people. “Yeah, man. You got to take this protein. This is how you get big. This is how you build muscle.”
Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Evan Brand: And so, to go back and answer the question, pay attention to myself or me speaking here, pay attention to yourself. If your gut is telling you something is not right, it is probably not right. If your heart is telling you that this is not the path that you need to go, that is not the path you need to go. If third shift is killing you and you know it is killing you, you need to quit that job sooner. Do not wait two years down the road until you cannot even drag yourself out of bed and now you decide that you want to quit. So taking action sooner would probably be the biggest message.
Justin Marchegiani: That totally makes sense. And I know you coach patients, I think from all over the country, right? All over the world.
Evan Brand: Yes, I mean, it is always hard with the time schedule once you get passed a certain amount of time zones.
Justin Marchegiani: Exactly. So what are the main issues that you are seeing with your patients or clients?
Evan Brand: It is always stress related. I mean I could go in, I probably do not go as deep as you into blood testing or things like that. That is something I am eventually going to work into. But for me, I do not need to go that deep because if I can just figure out what are the huge stressors that are causing people their issues, I can fix that without ever having to draw a drop of blood. I would like to get to that level. But at this point, whether it is work stress or even relationship stress. For example, the average 42-45 year old woman whose husband still wants to eat pizza and ice cream and he thinks that dieting is stupid and that Paleo or anything close to it, a Primal or Ancestral whatever type diet, it is a diet. I do not want to do that.
Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Evan Brand: And so it is just hard for me to convince the spouse that this is not a diet. Everyone has a diet. This is going to make the difference between your relationship because if your mood is jacked up because your gut is jacked up because the diet is not right. I mean I could probably say that I have saved a couple of divorces from happening because I fixed someone’s gut by fixing the stress, by fixing the diet. So really that is kind of my approach. If I could just zoom out and see what are the biggest roadblocks. “Oh, your husband thinks that what you are doing is stupid. Okay, let us fix that.” Usually everything downstream tends to go a little bit smoother.
Justin Marchegiani: That makes a lot of sense. And I see it’s a lot of the women that are really proactive. And a lot of the guys that I treat, they typically come into my office with their wife or their girlfriend kind of pulling them by the ear. Is that kind of your experience, too?
Evan Brand: Oh, definitely, yes. I mean, it is probably 80% women and 20% men. And the men, they have trouble admitting that something is wrong. Or they have, I do not know, it makes men feel weak to cry and to say that I am hurting and I am in pain. And I think we have been conditioned to feel like we have to be so macho. And I have been broken down to the point in tears, man, just from being ill.
Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Evan Brand: And that is okay. And just being honest with yourself. I mean, that goes really far as opposed to just repressing your negative emotions.
Justin Marchegiani: Right. And a lot of the guys that I see and treat, they are biohackers. They are like at a level and they would like, “How can I get to the best level?” So you get those kind of guys and they are really great patients. And then you get the other guys that get dragged in. So, when you are dealing with a woman, a spouse, her husband, and maybe the husband more than likely is not accepting some of the diet changes. How do you go about getting everyone on the same page?
Evan Brand: Basically just explaining that it is not anything that sounds ridiculous at all. I mean there are some guys, especially here in Texas that are hunters that live out in Bastrop or somewhere outside of Austin and they are hunters. And it is like, “You know what, man? That deer meat is probably the best thing in your diet. You know. You have pork rinds and slim jims and stuff like that but, man, did you know what you are eating, that venison there is probably what I would almost consider a superfood for you.” And just breaking it down like that it blows their minds. It is like, “Oh I have been hunting for 20 years, man. This is just my way of life.” And it is like, “Okay, you are doing the right thing, man. There are just a couple of other things that we need to align here.” And so I try to reward what they are doing right as opposed to hit on what they are doing wrong and to harp on that. I feel like if you give somebody a compliment that literally opens the door of perception and then you could say, “Hey, but the pasta you are having or the noodles you are putting in your venison chili that maybe is something that we need to swap out.” And then they are a lot more receptive of that message.
Justin Marchegiani: Right. So, focus on what is going right, do not complain about what is going wrong.
Evan Brand: Yes, well, I eventually get to what is going wrong.
Justin Marchegiani: Of course.
Evan Brand: But I definitely try to start.
Justin Marchegiani: Yes, that makes a lot of sense. Now in our pre-interview before the show, you mentioned some really cool things that I did not know about you. So you mentioned that you formulate and you worked with Onnit Supplementation. Can you talk to me about kind of what your role was in formulating supplements and how you go about doing it? Were you researching? Were you experimenting on yourself? Can you kind of touch upon that?
Evan Brand: Yes, Sure. It was a really sweet job that I am not doing anymore. But basically the CEO of Onnit, his name is Aubrey Marcus and he is a guy who has a long history of playing with supplements and things like that himself. He has formulated most of the product line with the help of a couple of doctors and things like that. He always knew about my experience because we have staff meetings where, it was kind of like bring your supplements to work daily at the staff meeting. And I brought in this huge backpack and I started talking among the entire staff. Like, “Oh, you know this is L-theanine, this is if I am trying to boost GABA levels, you know induce a calm state of nervous system.” And I just kept going on eventually he cut me off. He said, “Man, let everybody else go out of the office, let us talk.” And so we started talking about everything I am up to. And he is like, “Man, what do you think about the position of helping me work on supplements. Whether improving them, making sure the research and the science is backed up behind them because you know how competitive it is these days. You have to have studies that are going to back up your Cordyceps mushrooms, for example.
Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Evan Brand: Know the oxygen utilization that you are improving, things like that. So, I said, “Of course, man.” That is why I moved down to Austin was to work for Onnit anyway so I gladly accepted that position. And I got to try out a couple little top secret behind the scenes, you know, version 2.0’s and version 3.0’s of supplements that sometimes went really awesome and sometimes I felt like I had to rip my shirt off and sprint out in the woods, you know, to recover because I got boosted up on too many B vitamins a couple of times.
Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Evan Brand: But it was an awesome experience and it kind of made me have a deep respect for the combination of nutrients out there. And it really made me respect the position of companies to where they feel like people do not want to have to take 50 pills to get healthy. But you have to be careful in specific on the interaction between different things. And so that was kind of what I learned. And when you look at science you could say that, say Rhodiola has a good adaptogenic benefit and you could combine vitamins B5 with it because you know that B5 is good to support the adrenal glands or something like that.
Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Evan Brand: And then, oh vitamin C is good for that too. So, oh add vitamin C. But just because something makes sense in the science when you actually put it into a capsule, put it into a human, you may get a different effect. So, I think, I do not know if that answers your question, but that was just a takeaway that I learned from him.
Justin Marchegiani: Right, right. So, in isolation, things make sense but when they are combined they may not quite work the same way, you would have thought.
Evan Brand: Right. So it is just more power to the thought that you really got to test specifically how the blueberries affect you versus raspberries or how does this vitamin affect you versus this vitamin. So I did a couple of cool things behind the scenes and ran some trials myself on a product that is not out yet but it was a women’s product that was pretty sweet. And I got to do the before and after pictures and things like that. So that gives you a little hint on what I was working on.
Justin Marchegiani: Cool.
Evan Brand: It was super fun and then you know, surely before my time was up there, I put in a formulation for another product which may eventually hit the shelf. So if it does I am going to be super pumped up.
Justin Marchegiani: That is great. So, based upon what you are at liberty to talk about now, I know there’s some stuff that is still on the works that you cannot touch upon. What are some of the, maybe the three coolest things, the three coolest products or things that you learned in your research or your supplement design that works the coolest for you?
Evan Brand: Well, I would say that part of my job was to work on a product for women. It was basically a thermogenic product. And so immediately when you hear something that hints its fat burning, people automatically think green tea extract to caffeine, all of these metabolism-boosting ingredients.
Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Evan Brand: But for me, when I started digging into the research first, I had to spend a lot of time researching ingredients before I even knew what to put in there, right. And I found out, for example the mainstream has taught that fat burning is all metabolism-based and in my experience in working with people fixing blood sugar and therefore fixing hormone issues and things like that.
Justin Marchegiani: Insulin, right.
Evan Brand: Yes, fixing insulin had far greater impact on fat loss than me just trying to crank somebody up on caffeine. So, basically I kind of disguised what I was working on as a fat burning product but in reality it was basically sort of an almost like an anti‑diabetic supplement with a lot of blood sugar support. Some 7-keto in there and other things that I thought were going to really hit the root cause of why the person was struggling with fat gain anyway as opposed to just, “Oh let me crank you up on caffeine and tell you to jump on the cardio machine.”
Justin Marchegiani: Totally makes sense. That makes a lot of sense.
Evan Brand: So that was one thing I did that I thought was pretty cool. And then just inside of the research, I think just something that other people can take away from my experience is that to get in to PubMed and to look around for ingredients yourself and to do your own research, it is not really that hard. A lot of us in the health community we love to talk about studies and things like that. And there are a lot of people that only want to hear studies and what the results say and what they are, and that is fine. But the barrier of entry is really not that bad to just jump on there and you could just research a couple of ingredients on whatever supplement you are taking and see what the science says. So I think that is pretty sweet, it is easy, you know.
Justin Marchegiani: Very cool. So this is awesome because you got this experience and you are kind of well-versed around the research and around these topics. What is your favorite adaptogenic herb?
Evan Brand: Oh, man. I would have to say Rhodiola as you and I talked about on my show.
Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Evan Brand: You are taking Ashwagandha and I am taking that right now which I know it is sort of more closer to a tonic, some sort of long-term thing. But I really have a lot of good results with Rhodiola especially when I used to work out in the park. There is a place that people can look up called the Parklands; it is in Louisville, Kentucky and it is 4000 acres. And so my job was to literally, man, hike all day. And I was out in the forest. There were a few lakes on the property where I had to walk around and make sure they were clean and inspect the trails. Make sure a storm did not knock a tree down and block a trail so mountain bikers comes along, you know, dominates himself on a branch.
Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Evan Brand: So, I wanted to have the upper edge on hiking. And this sort of walking, this long steady state low-impact movement and my diet was good but I still was pretty fatigued at the end of the day. So, I started adding in some Rhodiola. I am sure it was extracted to the 3%, Rosavins, I believe you call it.
Justin Marchegiani: Yes, Rosavins, exactly.
Evan Brand: And so I had to make sure it was a good quality one. But after about a month of taking that every day, I mean, after I got off work I could do another 8 hours of hiking. I felt so good. Of course, I was eating a lot of jerky and almonds and things like that throughout the day too to keep me going. But I was really amazed at how just one little simple adaptogens can make a difference in not only my physical strength but my mental capabilities too. I was listening to a podcast a lot which also kept me into the health field at that time. And I felt like my memory formation was better. I was processing things better. So it was really amazing to see not only a physical benefit but a mental benefit too. So, Rhodiola is my pick.
Justin Marchegiani: That is great. And what was the dosage you are using?
Evan Brand: 500 mg.
Justin Marchegiani: Just once a day?
Evan Brand: Yes, just once a day.
Justin Marchegiani: That’s it. Wow! So when I use adaptogenic herbs, well, let us just back up a little bit. The adaptogenic herbs are a family of herbs that tend to modulate stress. So there are some that help more with the adrenal side of things where if you are stressed it actually bring the stress down. If you are under energized they can actually bring you up. So, there are certain families where Ashwagandha or Indian Ginseng tends to be helpful with anxiety and thyroid. Rhodiola tends to be helpful with depression and mood. Eleuthero for immune system and sex hormones. Maca for libido. Ginseng for energy. So there are all these different families of herbs and they really have a different kind of a profile in how they help. So you like Rhodiola the best, you said, right?
Evan Brand: Yes, and I initially went in, I mean, depression was a huge thing for me which you brought up. That was a huge thing for me and I noticed an improvement in that as well. And I am sure being out in nature which we could talk about a little bit. Maybe some of the science behind forest bathing and things like that.
Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Evan Brand: I was definitely getting my neurotransmitters boosted and/or balanced out from being immersed in literally a dense forest with often times a creek running through it. That was a huge impact.
Justin Marchegiani: Very cool.
Evan Brand: It was nice to see that the depression/energy boost from Rhodiola. Yes the adaptogens are awesome.
Justin Marchegiani: They are really cool. Alright. So that is Rhodiola as your number one there. What is your best brain-hacking supplement or your favorite?
Evan Brand: Oh, man. Well, so I had free access to Alpha BRAIN which is Onnit’s bestseller.
Justin Marchegiani: What is in that? Is that Alpha GPC? PQQ?
Evan Brand: No PQQ but Alpha GPC, tyrosine. There is a little bit of theanine in there.
Justin Marchegiani: Or GABA.
Evan Brand: And Phosphatidylserine. So just a pretty what is considered more of a balanced brain vitamin. I had a lot of good experience with it. I would say it is definitely on my top 5. Another company TruBRAIN. I had the guy Dr. Andrew Hill, the neuroscientist who formulated it. I had him come on my show to talk about why he thinks this is a superior product. And it was full of smart drugs like Piracetam and Oxiracetam. And also has some alpha GPC’s and tyrosine, magnesium, things like that and so I took that. I mean, I was blown away. But those are two separate categories. You know, you are talking smart drugs that are more synthetic as opposed to like a plant-based brain vitamin. So, I would say that those are probably the top two. I cannot think of any others right off.
Justin Marchegiani: What is that brand called by Dr. Andrew Hill?
Evan Brand: Yes, it is called TruBRAIN.
Justin Marchegiani: Those are nootropics? TruBRAIN.
Evan Brand: Uh-uh.
Justin Marchegiani: Okay. Got it.
Evan Brand: Yes, and so I am sure they would send you a little care package. What they sent me are the drinks. They are calling it actually the first nootropics drink and so it is just a little packet.
Justin Marchegiani: Nootropics.
Evan Brand: Yes, and so it is like a little squeeze pack basically. The taste is pretty good. I think they sweetened it with stevia or agave or something. But anyway, this is kind of a fun little portable way. I think I would consider that like a level 2 for somebody. I mean, if they already had experience with nootropics and stuff they could go into that. But to start off by going straight to Oxiracetam which is very potent…
Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Evan Brand: I do not think that is necessary for most people.
Justin Marchegiani: Right. And would you do that every day or would you more like to save it for like studying for a test or you are in a really intense conference for a weekend and you are learning a lot? Like when would you use it? Would it be daily?
Evan Brand: Definitely not daily for me and definitely closer to the second thing that you mentioned, conferences I love to be on adaptogens especially like Paleo f(x) and come time for conferences, man. I am pumping extra vitamins and adaptogens there to be on top of my game.
Justin Marchegiani: Oh, yes.
Evan Brand: So that is kind of more my use; use as needed. The first time I had just received it before I was going to take some test for my schooling that I am going through right now to be a nutritional therapist. And it was a 3-day weekend. So I took one dosage of it for everyday for those 3 days for that entire weekend. And everyone else was so burnt out and so fatigued by the end of three-eight hour workdays, basically. And I was still feeling pretty good. I was tired but, I mean, I had a huge improvement in recovery. The gas tank did not get depleted as much as it normally would have.
Justin Marchegiani: Yes, I see a lot of these adaptogenic herbs and you can use them everyday because of the science in them. The Russians had so much studies in the 50’s and 40’s and 60’s on theses adaptogenic herbs on their soldiers, on their astronauts, their athletes to really improve function. They did lots of long-term studies with great success. So, I see the adaptogenic kind of being like an everyday kind of thing. And then some of these nootropics is being like an acute, “Hey, its finals time.” “There’s a conference coming up.” “I got to cram and get this book done.” And whatever it is as being a more punctuated kind of a thing.
Evan Brand: Definitely, man. Yes, you hit it on the head. And for me, I am always, not concerned but a little bit skeptical and cautious about dipping my toes into certain smart drugs and things like Oxiracetam where if you look at PubMed you are not going to find anything over ten or even twenty studies on it. And a lot of the times these were done on rats that were induced with brain disorders, you know. They would give rats Parkinson’s or something like that and then test it. Which is showing great benefit but there is just a lack of human studies at this point which still, I think, adds to the barrier of entry for most people.
Justin Marchegiani: So what do you think about Piracetam or Aniracetam? One is water-soluble, Piracetam and one is fat soluble, Aniracetam.
Evan Brand: I have taken both. I got my dad on Piracetam for a while. He was taking a few grams per day.
Justin Marchegiani: Wow!
Evan Brand: Yes, because his doctor wanted to prescribe Adderall. I was just like, “Come on! I have seen way too many people get destroyed by Adderall, long-term, long-term. And maybe you could pitch people in on that too in your experience. So I had him on Piracetam for a while and he had pretty good benefit. Me, personally, Piracetam did not do too much for me but I did not take it very long term. I took it maybe for a couple of weekends. I also experimented with things on the other end of the neurotransmitter spectrum like Phenibut then started playing around with GABA levels. I tell this funny story. Me and my dad, we went to this place called Huber’s in Indiana. It is a winery. And so you are not supposed to mix stuff that is going to mess with GABA and alcohol.
Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Evan Brand: So, anyway.
Justin Marchegiani: That is way you are not supposed to drink and then take Xanax. Just FYI.
Evan Brand: Right, right. So me and my dad took a little pinch of Phenibut. Some people pronounce it “fe-ni-byoot”.
Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Evan Brand: And I am not trying to get away from your question but this is in the same category of nootropics here. So we took a little pinch of that and we did a wine tasting. Actually, I did not think I was 21 so I do not think I drank anything but my dad did. And I kind of mentioned, “Dad, you know, you are adding fuel to the fire here.” And so we went through this little wine tasting. He tasted maybe five or six, I am telling you, just little pinches of wine. (Laughs) And by the end of this wine tasting, I mean he was like cloud 9. I mean, he was feeling good. He was not sick or anything but he was like, “Oh, my God!” He was like, “I felt like I drank six shots of whiskey or something and like what is going on?” And so that was kind of a lesson for me that this stuff can be very impactful but nonetheless, it resulted in that whole area as a memorable day.
Justin Marchegiani: That is good. And I am glad to hear that you were not under age drinking. If you were though, your secret is safe with us and the podcast listeners. So do not worry. (Laughs)
Evan Brand: (Laughs) Thanks for that.
Justin Marchegiani: No problem. So, you did kind of side stepped my question so I am going to come back and corner you a little bit. So you mentioned Piracetam not the best for you. Your dad liked it. What do you think about Aniracetam? I know people like, Dave Asprey like Aniracetam. What is your take on Aniracetam?
Evan Brand: So, I actually have a bottle with me of Aniracetam from when Dave was actually still, I don’t even know if you would call it, illegally selling Aniracetam, it ended up getting pulled off because you cannot really do that. But I still have a bottle of it.
Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Evan Brand: I mean, it is great stuff. So when I drove down here to Austin, it is a 15-hour drive from Louisville, Kentucky when I moved down here. I took two capsules of Aniracetam, man. And that is by far the greatest thing I could have done to improve my mental focus for one on the road. You know, how you can start to get sleepy on road trips.
Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Evan Brand: I was zoned in, man. I was grabbing that steering wheel.
Justin Marchegiani: It was like you are on.
Evan Brand: I was jamming with the music. I am like get me there. So I am like more of an acute user of it. But honestly I have not touched it in the last six months probably even a year. But when I did use it my brain was on a whole another level. And while I was driving, of course the road trips are a good time for anybody to think. My creativity was definitely enhanced.
Justin Marchegiani: Oh, yes. That is great. I have been doing, like the bulletproof coffee with the MCT and then really hitting up high doses of PQQ with adaptogenic herbs and then some of the neurotransmitters for serotonin and dopamine. Dopamine, the 5-HTP and the L-tyrosine, that just like gets my brain on.
Evan Brand: Tell me a little bit about the PQQ. I am sure other people are curious about it too.
Justin Marchegiani: Yes, so Dave Asprey put in one of these new products and that is a good one too. But PQQ is this Pyrroloquinoline Quinone, it is really a long kind of weird word, but PQQ is the nickname for it. Basically, it is like a mitochondria fuel. And it also has the ability to bring back to life damaged mitochondria which is really cool. So anyone that is not familiar with bio chem, your mitochondria basically are like little powerhouses of the cell that generate ATP and fuel and it also burns fat for fuel. So a lot of toxins and a lot of drugs actually damage mitochondria. So PQQ is going to help your mitochondria create more energy and also help bring back to life some of the damaged mitochondria from neurotoxins or stress or the environment whatever.
Evan Brand: Sounds like everybody should probably be taking it.
Justin Marchegiani: Yes, I use that with the combination of CoQ10 on days that I really want to be on and it’s like, Boom! Ready to go.
Evan Brand: That is great. Well, thanks for explaining that.
Justin Marchegiani: Yes. And you like this TruBRAIN. So I like that. I am going to give them a call and try some of this.
Evan Brand: Yes, definitely. I can just email them and forward your email over to them. They would love to hear from you and he would be a good guest for your show as well. He has got tons of experience working with addiction and rebalancing neurotransmitters and thing like that. So you guys would hit it off.
Justin Marchegiani: Awesome, thanks.
Evan Brand: No problem.
Justin Marchegiani: So tell me a little bit more about your REM rehab. I know you mentioned a lot about kind of getting out in nature to kind of reset things: from a sleep rhythm, from just a stress rhythm. I know you got this new stress program that is out. Can you talk more about your REM rehab and just some of your experiences with nature?
Evan Brand: Yes. So, REM rehab it was my, basically like I mentioned I struggled first and then solved my own health problems. And so that is why I created it because sleep issues are epidemic. I mean, it is 70 plus percent of the population. I mean probably a hundred million or more people are struggling in the United States alone from chronic sleep deprivation and sleep related issues. So basically this program, it is an e-book, an audio book, and then 4 hours of interviews with naturopathic doctors and other people to give their specific lens on sleep but then I go in to eating for sleep, making sure that you are getting good quality meats that are going to provide the raw materials to make your neurotransmitters.
Justin Marchegiani: Tryptophan, right, yes.
Evan Brand: Yes. So, and kind of explaining the process of the conversion from tryptophan over to serotonin and the co-factors and eventually the melatonin. And I kind of explained why vegetarians and vegans that come to me they have horrible sleep. Because they may be eating some nuts but they are not getting the quality meats that are going to provide these raw materials to make neurotransmitters for sleep. So I am kind of dispelling some myths there. But then also after providing eating for sleep information I go into some more, I guess you would call Biohacking protocols using things like light therapy. For example, the average indoor light bulb under fluorescent lighting someone in an office is exhausted. You are getting maybe 500 lux which is a measurement of brightness and I was using a 10,000 lux light box.
Justin Marchegiani: Wow!
Evan Brand: And I was using that before I went to work because obviously I was doing the vampire shift so I was using a light box at 11:30 to basically trick my brain and basically biohack to teach my brain that it is morning when technically it is midnight and I am about to go in for a 5-hours shift.
Justin Marchegiani: Wow!
Evan Brand: So, I am not saying that people need to do that but light therapy is one of the protocols that I use in that program to help people reset their circadian rhythms. If there is someone who is freezing, like you mentioned you are from Boston. If you are in Boston this time of the year you are freezing and you probably do not want to go outside, so it will be much more easy to convince you to use a light box in the comfort of your home instead.
Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Evan Brand: So, that is one thing. And then also I talk about sensory deprivation tanks. I am a big proponent of using float tanks to basically not only help for mediation purposes which can clear the mind and allows you to sleep. So I am hitting on the mental aspect of sleep but also just the transdermal absorption of magnesium is super, super helpful for relaxing the nervous system and allowing you to fall asleep easier. So that is just some of the kind of stuff that is in REM Rehab but people can check it out on my website if they like.
Justin Marchegiani: We are going to put links to this, Evan on the show notes. So anyone that really wants to dig a little bit deeper which, I deal with patients all the time with sleep issues. I am going to have to get this and read it myself and see if I can pick up some more tidbits. So, we will put it on the show notes and feel free to click on it and support Evan.
Evan Brand: Sweet. Yes. I will send it right over to you.
Justin Marchegiani: So, without giving away too much, because you want people to get the book, what are like one or two, just from a lifestyle perspective that people can do to help improve their sleep?
Evan Brand: Well, I think so much in the modern world we are so focused on killing it and crushing it.
Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Evan Brand: And you see all these social media pictures and posters about you being a sissy if you are not working any 8-hour work weeks and all of that. And I think that is ridiculous. I really do. I am all about being productive. You and I are both fans of increasing our productivity.
Justin Marchegiani: Absolutely.
Evan Brand: And the minimal effective dose of whether it is exercise or blog writing or whatever, we want to crank it up and get it done, right?
Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Evan Brand: I am not a fan of this work until you die mentality. And it is really detrimental to the body but just to your happiness. And a lot of sleep issues stem from the fact that people are just working, working, working and they are not meditating. They are not spending time outside ever. They are not spending time in nature specifically and so at night the mind is going sort of through this mental detox like, “Look, man! You have never thought about how you are enjoying your current life. You have never thought about what you said to your wife last night at the dinner table.” And so now these stuff are going to come up. Because you know what? You have not taken the required time that humans always have when we were hunting and gathering. All these time spent out on the trail walking. I think that was the time for mental decompression. And we simply do not have that. So, one of the things that I hit on is the fact that you have to integrate some sort of either meditation practice, even just a 5 or 10 minute walk around the block.
Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Evan Brand: Something to open these channels of thought to really expel some of these pent up emotions and pent up thoughts so that they are not keeping you up at night. And I think that is huge.
Justin Marchegiani: That is good. Good. And what do you think about grounding or earthing? I mean, you got like the Earthing mats I sleep on one of those. What do you think about going barefoot outside before bed? What are your takes on earthing or grounding?
Evan Brand: Yes, so it is definitely in the hacking sleep protocol. It is right there next to the float tanks. I was sort of skeptical of earthing mats and things like that before. I definitely have one and I sleep on one a few nights a week myself. But it is a no brainer.
Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Evan Brand: It is one of those things where people have to have some scientific explanation. It is like there is not even a need to explain it. We have always been bare feet. We have always been immersed in nature. We were always touching the grass or touching the dirt or touching the trees. So to be skeptical about the idea that that could heal and even reduce inflammation and improve your sleep quality, I mean, it is a no brainer. So, yes I love the idea of earthing. And for people that are travelling over multiple time zones, I would say anything more than like three to four time zones that is the best thing you can do. I told my dad when he flew over to China for work, and I told him, I said, “Dad, when you get over there you are going to be jacked up. You need to make sure you that you get your bare feet on some grass over there and take a little bit of melatonin to make sure that you are going to adjust.” And he said that it helped him.
Justin Marchegiani: Yes, and I think, just to add on to that. I think exactly what you said it is seeing, taking the melatonin at sunset but also being grounding and watching the sun rise is really helpful. Gets that pineal gland and the hypothalamus, it is just like, “All right this is the new rhythm now. Sun is coming up cortisol needs to come up now. So, I totally agree.
Evan Brand: Yes, and also try to have this undertone of adding spirituality to your overall life. We are spiritual creatures by nature and that does not automatically infer religion or anything like that.
Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Evan Brand: But we are spiritual creatures. I mean even the Native Americans thought that the rocks, and the wind, and the waters, and the trees all spoke and had this certain alive energy and they are alive. And I think just trying to re‑frame your current outlook on nature. I mean, you could work in a 50-floor high rise in New York City while you are listening to this show but you are still dependent on the natural world for your produce, for your water, for the very food that you eat that sustains you. And so, I think trying to bridge the gap between that disconnection to the natural world can be really helpful for not only reducing your stress but therefore improving your sleep quality.
Justin Marchegiani: Great, great question. You touched upon one of those trigger words for me, spirituality. It is a very abstract word. So I want to dig a little bit more into that at how someone could be more spiritual. Is that more about gratitude? About realizing you are part of something bigger, giving forward to your community, in saying thanks for the food you eat. What does that mean to you? And how can our listeners try to be a little more spiritual?
Evan Brand: Yes, I would say a gratitude journal is the best place to start. Actually I just had to look at a study yesterday talking about how people like you and I, people that are health care practitioners are chronically stressed.
Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Evan Brand: And more stressed than the average person. And so they took some nurses and had them do either a complaint or a gratitude journal and then of course there was the control group. And they had these nurses fill out a gratitude journal only twice per week for four weeks. And that was enough to significantly reduce their stress. And I am pretty sure they threw the word spirituality in there somewhere because that was the context that I was searching for. Health care practitioners aside, everybody could add gratitude to their life. It is so easy to get caught up in, you know, the first world problems and thing like that.
Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Evan Brand: That we really lose sight of the great luxuries that we have presented to us. I mean the light switch, the availability of clean drinking water and things like that. Those are super amazing things that would blow the minds of people across the planet today.
Justin Marchegiani: I totally agree.
Evan Brand: And it is easy to forget that we have that, man. So every time I even take a drink of spring water it is not like I am bowing down to it but I just try to, “I am so thankful for this water that is going to hydrate me right now.”
Justin Marchegiani: I agree. I think you hit it right on the head. It is really just realizing, you know, we are part of something deeper and then really having gratitude and thanks and humility for it. I start my day personally, I wake up, I get my shoes on and I do some reading to really get my, change my state and I go into a state of gratitude for about 5 to 8 minutes just as I am walking and I am just kind of talking to myself or thinking about all the things in my life that I am thankful for. And it is a huge shift in the stress.
Evan Brand: Oh, man that is beautiful. You are already a proponent and it sounds like you are already experiencing the results too which matters the most.
Justin Marchegiani: Especially a lot of the people that listen to our show, they are doers, they are executives, and they are entrepreneurs. They are out there doing, doing. And it is so easy when you are motivated to be just focusing on what is next, what is next, what is next and you are focused on getting to point B but you have not looked behind you and see how far you have gone from A to B. And you got to kind of have some gratitude and thanks for that.
Evan Brand: Amen, yes. I mean I am guilty of that myself. I see the podcast stats and I have hit like 23 on the top health charts. And I like, “Man, I want to be top 10!”
Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Evan Brand: And I feel like my content is top 10 worthy but yet I do not realize just two years ago I was in my bedroom just scribbling on a little notebook of this idea of what is now called “Not Just Paleo”, you know. And I had to basically slap myself and say, “Look, man! Look where you’ve came from. You were just a dude, a college kid struggling and now you are helping people.” And it is kind of like a slap to the face to really let me re-frame and appreciate the journey that I have been on myself. And I think everybody could do some sort of re‑framing activity like that and find that there’s a lot to be grateful for.
Justin Marchegiani: I totally agree. And I think it has a huge help and a huge support, I mean, on the neurotransmitters and on the adrenals. And I have talked to and worked with a lot of professional athletes. And when you work with people at a high level, even for them it never ends. Like, okay let us say your goal is to get to the NFL or the NBA. Now once you are there, now the goal is to be the best, to win the World Cup, or to win the National Championship. Or now it is to be, you know, the All-Pro and get the MVP, it never ends even at the highest level. So it is like you just got to stop resetting yourself and really have some gratitude. Because it would just never end no matter how good you are at.
Evan Brand: Oh, definitely. I think that is part of why we have come to what we are. I mean, if the caveman was happy with the cave he never would have built a hut. And if the guy who built the hut was happy with the hut he never would have built the village and then the civilization. And then now we have the mansion and then you have the speedboat but now you want a faster boat and you want a bigger boat. You know, it is cool to do that. It is awesome to continually advance and I think that is what makes us a great species. But also we got to appreciate the small wins and look at where we have become. I mean even a light bulb, something like that would have blown your great grandparents minds, you know.
Justin Marchegiani: I think that is really great. Our human needs are infinite and I totally agree. Just that kind of a little exercise in re-centering is important. You touched upon meditation. Can you talk about what someone could do if they wanted to get into meditation? Right now, I use the Headspace app. Because it is like meditation for dummies that kind of holds my hand through it and it kind of creates accountability for me. But what are you doing right now for your meditation? And what can our listeners do?
Evan Brand: Sure. I would just say go for a walk outside. I happen to live on a place where there is a patch of land here that is about 50 acres of forest. And I think that is the easiest level of entry. No matter where you are, I know you maybe in the city but I guarantee there are some places you can go and just go for a walk out in nature. Whether it is with your dog or just by yourself, and I think that is the best way to get introduced to the idea of meditation. If you are somebody who has heard of it and all you can picture is just somebody sitting there with headphones and binaural beats and their eyes closed and legs crossed and all that. I am a big fan of moving meditation.
Justin Marchegiani: Huge fan.
Evan Brand: Yes, and you could probably attest to what happens in your morning walks that you have alluded to. There has got to be some meditative aspects to that. Otherwise, you would not continue doing it.
Justin Marchegiani: Yes. Absolutely. I totally agree. And I just want to shift gears just backwards a little bit. Kind of bring it back to your book, REM Rehab. You have mentioned a couple of things there about melatonin. I use melatonin. I try not to get my patients on it every night unless I see it low on a lab test. I always want to get to the root cause of it. But what is your take, as you are a supplement researcher as well, what is your take on melatonin, on the pineal gland, on the various feedback loops? What is your take on it? Is it safe to use every day? What doses? And how do you kind of wrap your head around that?
Evan Brand: Definitely not safe for every day usage. It is definitely over prescribed, over abused, over used. And the, whatever you call it, alternative health’s self-help health category, I mean it is ridiculous. You will see 5-10 mg melatonin tablets. That is ridiculous.
Justin Marchegiani: Yes, I know.
Evan Brand: And I found that the pineal gland is only going to secrete micrograms, I mean not even a milligram in most cases. And maybe in your lab results, you can fill us in more but I have never seen the reason to use anything over a milligram, maybe 3 mg at the most, an acute use dose if you are doing some extreme travelling, you are just really having some issues with setting your Circadian rhythm. Maybe you have just, I do not know, went on a vacation in another part of the world and your rhythm is just so screwed. But it is literally sort of the only use it for emergency, break the glass open and pull out the bottle and use it.
Justin Marchegiani: Yes, I am kind of the same approach. I try to only use melatonin just to reset my cycle for the week if I am up late. And I only recommend it to patients that again have low melatonin on their lab tests. And then will use, again I try to do about a half a milligram for myself or at the most 1 mg. So I am in that same boat as you in using them.
Evan Brand: Yes. So I had access to the melatonin, these little chewable tablets that also contain lemon balm and things like that. And so it is a 5 mg tablet. So if and when I needed to use it I would literally just nibble a corner, and then that will be it. And so I am going to guess that was probably half, maybe 0.75 mg and that was enough to do the job.
Justin Marchegiani: That is great. Awesome. So, I think now we are going to wrap up the show here. But before we do that, I want to just give you an opportunity just to kind of fill in our listeners what the three most powerful things are that you are doing right now that would help them in their lives?
Evan Brand: I feel like a broken record. But honestly going for daily walks in nature.
Justin Marchegiani: Cool.
Evan Brand: Right after you and I get off here I am probably going to go for another walk. We finally got sunshine back in Austin again.
Justin Marchegiani: Yes, it is great out today.
Evan Brand: Number two, I would say to cultivate and nourish love in whatever aspects. I got married in July so I am still pretty much a newly wed. But just really feeding into love and feeding into a relationship. I do not care if you love your dog and that is all you have to love right now. Just loving something it really is a powerful thing. And you have heard so many quotes throughout your life. Some of them cheesy, some of them really profound about love, you know, overpowering fear. But that is a good one. And then thirdly, I would just try to create some sort of plan on paper for your life. There are a lot of people that are listening to your show that want to take it on the next level, like you have mentioned. And you are focused on B, you can see B know what point B is, you know that you want to have your own business, you want to become a health coach, whatever it is. But the road to get there and I will tell you myself it is not going to go the way you expect it to go. It is going to have tons of ups and downs. Some months are going to be so much better than others. Some years are going to be better than others. You have been in the health field much longer and you could attest that there is an ebb and a flow to success. And everybody is achieving success in some shape or form. But my recommendation for you is to write down just simple little baby steps to how do you get there. What is the first step? For example, if you wanted to start a podcast, you first need to figure out where you get a microphone, you know.
Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Evan Brand: Okay, now what do I want to talk about? Who do I want to interview? And so instead of you just visualizing the end result that you want to have a top rated health podcast and you are changing millions of lives across the planet that is cool. But just start by figuring out how you even hold a microphone and speak into the microphone properly.
Justin Marchegiani: Exactly. I remember that journey last year and I get it. You got to break it up into small little baby steps. That makes a lot of sense.
Evan Brand: So, yes, that is number three.
Justin Marchegiani: Evan, thank you so much for coming on the show. We are going to have you back next year. Really appreciate the great info and I think the listeners would love it, too.
Evan Brand: Well, thanks for having me, man. You are an awesome dude and an awesome host. So, I wish you the best of success and you are going to continue to change lives with this show. So, thank you for having me.
Justin Marchegiani: Thanks, Evan, you as well.
Brain Hacking and Brain Supplements – Podcast #25
Do you suffer from memory lapses, mental exhaustion, or problems with concentration? These can be linked to several factors like lack of sleep, stress, lifestyle and diet or even menopause for women.
Find out in this podcast how one can overcome brain fogginess and improve mind performance through proper diet of good fats, sleep and the right exercise for brain health. Learn more about PQQ, CoQ10 and other brain supplements as well as some adaptogenic herbs that powerfully boost one’s cognitive function.
In this episode we cover:
01:58 What Dr. Justin ate for breakfast
03:30 Building the right foundation
08:17 MCT
27:41 PQQ, CoQ10, Omega 3
42:52 Caffeine Benefits
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Baris Harvey: Welcome to another awesome episode of Beyond Wellness Radio. In today’s show we are going to talk about brain hacking and brain supplements and overcoming brain fog. But before we dive in to the show today let me tell you about our newsletter. Make sure that you go to beyondwellnessradio.com and hop on the newsletter. By going on to the newsletter, you will be the first to see all of our updates on our podcasts and any other awesome information that we have for you. Also I want to make sure that you guys go to justinhealth.com which is Dr. Justin’s site where he has all of his content and information for you and he also has a video series on thyroid health that you guys should definitely dive into. It is loaded with information and helpful tactics that you can start implementing today. So make sure you go to justinhealth.com and signup for the newsletter. Also go to reallyhealthynow.com and you can sign up to the newsletter as well and you can be ready to receive the first copy of my book as soon as that is done. So that is what is up for today. So Dr. Justin, how is it going?
Justin Marchegiani: Baris, it is going great today. We have a nice little morning here. Just running a current across my wrist here to help stimulate some collage repair. Just hit a little bit of PQQ which is a compound to help up regulate mitochondrial function and actually repair mitochondrial neurons. So I am doing that to make sure I am in the zone today. And breakfast today was just four eggs sunny side up and then a little bit of protein powder afterwards with some butter and MCT in my coffee. How about you?
Baris Harvey: Yes awesome. I drove down to the Bay Area this morning. So I actually had some Trail Mix, had some organic beef jerky and had some cashews, almonds and a little bit of cranberries. So that was my snack for this morning.
Justin Marchegiani: I am glad to hear you had no oatmeal on your Trail Mix.
Baris Harvey: No oats. None of that. No.
Justin Marchegiani: Good. That would definitely be a Paleo.
Baris Harvey: Yes. Right, exactly. So you mentioned the PQQ that you are taking. In today’s show, we are going to talk about kind of like this brain hacking, this is kind of like a big thing. But even for people that, let us say they are trying to hack it, optimize brain function. There are a lot of people today that have like brain fog or overall issues. Let us help all these listeners out and try to find a way to remove some of those things that are blocking their brain from doing what it should be able to and get people able to focus, able to sustain a long day, able to fully utilize, I believe, which is our super power as humans, is our brain power.
Justin Marchegiani: Absolutely. And before we go into that 100%, I think it is important that there are some great supplements out there and I am all into bio‑hacking and tweaking certain things. But I just want to say if you do not have the foundations right, you are just going to be pissing your money away on a lot of expensive stuff.
Baris Harvey: Uh-huh. Yes.
Justin Marchegiani: So like I get results with my patients because I am annoying about the foundations.
Baris Harvey: Yes.
Justin Marchegiani: So let us go over like some of the foundation. So if you are having brain fog, brain fog is typically a cause of inflammation. So if you are having inflammation just look at the first couple of things. Just do an audit first of physical stress. Are you over exercising? Are you not getting enough exercise? Personally, my biggest thing on exercise is the fact that it helps with brain stimulation. It helps with increasing a protein known as brain-derived neurotrophic factor which helps increase synaptic activity, which means it helps connect brain neurons together, right?
Baris Harvey: Yes.
Justin Marchegiani: If your brain neurons communicate faster and better, you are going to be able to have better brain power. You are going to be able to mile on it better. You are going to be able to create better habits faster. You are going to be able to perform better. Have better stamina, better focus. Be in the zone longer and easier. So again, I look at things like exercise is more like stimulating brain as well as hormones. Okay that is like one foundation.
Baris Harvey: Uh-huh.
Justin Marchegiani: Do not exercise too much because chronic cortisol from over exercising will eat away parts of your brain. Dr. Robert Sapolsky over at Stanford, he wrote the book, “Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers.” He is kind of a stress doctor. He looks at the stress response from one species to another. And what he has found is that excessive levels of cortisol literally will eat away at the hippocampus.
Baris Harvey: Uh-Huh.
Justin Marchegiani: The hippocampus is there in the brain, the bottom part of the brain that helps control memory and learning. So again let us get cortisol modulated so we are not eating away our hippocampus. So on the physical stress side of things, do not over exercise. Choose smart exercise. So smart exercise could be anything depending where you are at, right? If you are obese and you are not doing much just get out walking a little bit. Get out and do some isometric movements where you are doing the isometric lunge or an isometric squat with really good form. If you are already today are on some resistance training, it will be good using functional movements, right? Squatting, pulling, pushing, bending, things like that are going to be great. And then if you are there as well, you can also add in some high intensity interval training using whatever modality you want. Whether it is rowing or biking, running or sprinting. You do not have to make exercise that complicated. Now if you are training for sport specific things because you are an athlete and you are competing, well, obviously you have to do the movement pattern that you are going to be competing in or choosing movements that are going to translate to performance on the field. So we are not getting in to sport specific stuff. We are just getting into how can you make your muscles and your body perform well, physically. But also, how can you do it so you can choose movements that will mentally allow you to perform well and make more BDNF.
Baris Harvey: Definitely. I think that is a great portion because like you said before, we have to understand that our bodies were designed to move. And not only is movement just going to help us burn fat or build muscle but there is also some brain activity that is going on. It is the communications with the neurons between your muscles. It is like you mentioned earlier, you have a stimulation thing currently running to your wrist and it is using the electricity and stimulating your muscles. And we have to understand like those are brain chemicals that kind of manipulate our muscles. And having that awareness is really a good way to stimulate our body and also not to overdo it though and not to stress your body out because it is easy to do that as well.
Justin Marchegiani: Exactly. Like for instance, I am stimulating production or increase blood flow which will hopefully translate to additional collagen being lined down and to help build up cartilage. But I am also sleeping really well. I am also eating a very anti-inflammatory, I am eating, you know, high anti‑inflammatory fats. I am also taking extra collagen support so I have the building blocks, right? A lot of bio-hacking devices they stimulate. But the problem is if you do not have the building blocks then it is like whipping a tired horse. So if you combine the two it is almost like magical.
Baris Harvey: Yes, definitely. You just mentioned too, you are eating a really good diet and that plays a big role. And there are a lot of foods that can be beneficial. One food in particular when it comes to like fats, it is something that you often put into your coffee every day. Or even like cook with Caprylic acid from like coconut oil, right?
Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Baris Harvey: Can you tell us about how MCTs can be beneficial to our brain?
Justin Marchegiani: Okay. So MCT is the medium chain triglycerides. You are going to get some MCTs in coconut oil. The problem is, MCTs typically consist of Capric and Caprylic acid, 8, 10 and 12 carbons in length. Those are kind of your medium chain triglycerides. The problem is most of your MCTs is going to be in the 12 carbons. So taking in supplemental MCT that is 8 to 10 carbons primarily, you are going to primarily get 8 and 10 carbons in MCT. So people say, “Oh, well you get enough MCT in coconut oil.” In my opinion, that is nonsense because you are not getting the beneficial ones, the 8 and 10 carbon ones. So using MCT is going to be awesome. Using it in your coffee is great. So there was a research done at Harvard, Dr. Veech and he has done a lot of research on ketogenic diets. And basically, ketogenic diet since your body is using various ketones whether it is acetoacetic acid, acetone or hydroxybutyrate, things like that, your brain can actually run on them. He has done research to show up to 80% of your brain can run on them. So there are a couple of ways when you think about it, right? Some people may benefit cutting their carbs super low. That is one theory. That is one approach that may work. Some people may do a cyclical ketogenic where they go low carb, you know, 20, 30, 40 grams of carbohydrates. And that is a little debatable because Ben Greenfield has done some research showing that he has been able to keep his carbs at 200 and still be in ketosis. So it really depends upon your activity level. And so we have the dietary aspect but we can also just put something like MCT which will easily shove downstream into ketones. So we can still have the benefits of ketones even if we are not going super, super, super low carb.
Baris Harvey: Yes. Definitely.
Justin Marchegiani: So that is one aspect. And he has found that the brain can run very efficiently off these MTCs and some areas of the brain actually love it. So you kind of get the same kind of physiology that you would get with fasting. So a lot of research has shown that your brain does better, you know, fasting sometimes. That is kind of where the whole school of thought of intermittent fasting or low calorie dieting has shown beneficial effects. In my opinion, you can try to tap in to some of these benefits by using MCT in your coffee to get some of these benefits that, you know, so you do not have to starve yourself. So you actually feel full and satiated and not tired and not down regulate your thyroid because low calorie diets will mess up your thyroid. Just go to PubMed and type in low calorie diets and hypothyroidism and you will see a whole bunch of studies on that. So that kind of gives you just the bird’s eye view off the top there.
Baris Harvey: Okay. Cool. So we are not going to be glucose deficient, are we?
Justin Marchegiani: Well, your brain needs about 20 grams of glucose a day to function. So if you are getting enough fat in your body and you are keto‑adapted, meaning your body is used to running off with ketones, you are not going to have a problem. Although I do recommend if you are doing more glycolytic exercise, you are probably going to feel better getting a little bit of sweet potato in your diet. A little bit of safe starch in your diet, if you are doing a CrossFit style of movement. So it really depends. Like some people who are, I would say, they are carbohydrate sensitive, they cannot tolerate much carbohydrates. You are better off starting ketogenic and not going into some of these high intense glycolytic movements for at least a long period of time because you want to get your body keto-adapted. And you can create lots of cravings if you are doing glycolytic movements for longer than 45 minutes of an hour. Like if you are someone who maybe has metabolic syndrome and you are just jumping into a CrossFit, may not be the best thing for your blood sugar and your metabolism off the bat. A good ramp up and may be a good way of doing it and starting ketogenic can be a good way to really feed the brain with those ketones that it may need.
Baris Harvey: Yes, awesome. We are talking about getting the foundation right. And you also mentioned that is only the real big reason why you are successful with your clients. It is because you harp a lot on the foundations on the basics. Make sure you remove the inflammatory foods and give them the anti-inflammatory, antioxidants foods into the diet.
Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Baris Harvey: I think one of those foods that people know that are good for the brain and like the more agriculturist I go, berries, berries are really good. They are good for your brain because of their antioxidants.
Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Baris Harvey: What are some other just good foods that we should be adding to our diet like that might have really good flavonoids or other kind of brain nutrients or minerals that we might not be getting but we should?
Justin Marchegiani: So one, you know making sure you are eating foods that are going to stabilize your blood sugar. Because blood sugar dips are actually going to cause problems in your brain, right? You are going to increase your microglial cell activation with low blood sugar dips. So I would say not just what to eat but eating the right amounts of proteins, fats and carbohydrates for your body to have stable blood sugar for at least 4 or 5 hours. Because that will prevent dips in blood sugar and those dips in blood sugar will create hormonal cascades that will again, you will go into a low blood sugar dip that will activate the adrenal glands to produce adrenalin and cortisol. And that will activate the microglial cells in the brain to produce glutamate and you will basically starve the frontal cortex for blood. And then again that is why a lot people do stupid things with low blood sugar. There are actually a couple of studies on this. They have done studies of violent crimes where they find a lot of violent crimes are done with super low blood sugar, crimes of passion. Because you got about, I want to say, one tenth of a second to have the frontal cortex clamp down on the impulse of punching the guy that you are really pissed off at. So if your brain is starving because your blood sugar is dipping up and down because you are going into reactive hypoglycemic drops of blood sugar, it is just going to make you stupid and make you do stupid things.
Baris Harvey: Yes. So basically that part of your brain, your, you know, the prefrontal cortex is going to be basically turned off and your decision making, basically the things that makes us human, right?
Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Baris Harvey: This is going to be turned off and we are just going to be a baboon, literally.
Justin Marchegiani: Yes. You are like literally functioning or relying upon the brain stem, right? The reptilian brain to make very reactionary stupid decisions. So like the concept that I am referring to is reactive hypoglycemia. That is when you eat potentially too much carbs for your body to handle. Your body reacts, that is why it is called reactive. Your body reacts by spitting out a whole bunch of insulin and drops that blood sugar too low. When that blood sugar is too low the fight or flight nervous system has to turn on. And that turning on activates parts of the brain that can create glial activation which is like the immune cells in the brain. And that can activate inflammation or starve out blood flow to the frontal cortex and that can prevent you from making good decisions.
Baris Harvey: So do not eat the little chocolates when that is on the counter when you are buying a car decision or any of those kinds of things.
Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Baris Harvey: And make sure you are well-fed.
Justin Marchegiani: Yes, that is why I am a big thing of having breakfast in the morning. Even things like good coffee and butter and fat. If you are under a lot of stress and maybe you are exercising, too, you know have a little bit of protein and fat together in the morning. You know, not just fat but have a little bit of protein as well. Because protein you can always convert some of those amino acids into glucose via gluconeogenesis. Your liver can take some of that protein and just cleave it off and create some glucose from it. And when you go to gluconeogenesis, it is a nice time-release form of glucose. It is time released so you actually get nice slow and steady supply. So you do not get this reactive hypoglycemic drop afterwards.
Baris Harvey: Okay, perfect. So we want to make sure we are stabilizing our blood sugar. We do not want making irrational decisions. Another thing, that is probably a beneficial one that you ate this morning are eggs, right? Eggs have B vitamins and choline. You test a lot of people in your practice. Are you seeing some people you know that seems like such an easy fix. People that are B vitamin deficient then they can easily take maybe some B vitamins and making sure that they are getting some darker meats or some organ meats and making sure that they are getting the B vitamins covered and helping their neurons.
Justin Marchegiani: Right. So regarding the patients and the practice, we may see on a CBC some of their indices high. These are like the markers like the MCH, MCHC, MCV, RDW. These are key markers that are indicative of B vitamins issues like B6, B9, B12. May run organic acid test and find some of these B vitamins low. I am seeing a lot of people with methylation defects especially the MTHFR reductase defect. So we are using some specific folate that has been converted to an L-isomer form so that it can be converted better to folate.
Baris Harvey: Uh-huh.
Justin Marchegiani: Obviously we have seen a lot of people with gut issues too that have damage and they are not able to absorb B12 as well. So it really depends. I mean, people if they are eating a bad diet high in refined sugar, they are automatically going to have B vitamin issues because you need B vitamins to absorb and metabolize sugar. And if the sugar that is coming in does not have B vitamins with it you are going to become deficient. And again, most of the time the people eating good quality grass-fed meat, organic vegetables, safe carbohydrates for their metabolic demand, they are going to be okay and we will kind of follow up with a good general multivitamin, with some really good soluble B vitamins there. Or we will look at the blood work or the organic test and we may supplement with some individual ones depending on their unique deficiencies.
Baris Harvey: Yes. Interesting because it is funny too often times we were so just like just poor forms of B vitamins inside of like the five-hour ENERGY or something like that. And this is just usually like caffeine and B vitamins but it is like three or five dollars per dose.
Justin Marchegiani: Yes, you definitely get what you pay for when it comes to supplements. And I have tried to research the best companies where you are going to get the best absorption and the best bang for your buck. So going with good companies is definitely the way to go. And saving money on it I mean you are better off not taking anything, for sure. But you know, supplements they are meant to supplement a good diet. They are not called replacements. They are not designed to replace the diet. They are meant, you know, you take them with your grass-fed meat and your really good spinach salad or your safe starch. It is meant to supplement.
Baris Harvey: Uh-humm.
Justin Marchegiani: Like nails. The food is like the board and the nails are like the vitamins. So we want to use good vitamins to hold everything together.
Baris Harvey: Yes. Definitely. One thing, we should probably bring up briefly is sleep. And we have done a whole episode on sleep before. So people make sure if you guys have not heard go back into our archives and make sure that you, or just even start to go to YouTube and search Sleep Beyond Wellness Radio. When we talked about sleep and how it affects the brain and people should know this immediately but for some reason we still find ourselves or many people, not necessarily me all the time, sleeping 6 hours and then wondering why we are having this crash in the middle of the day and you know, go into Starbucks and try to get coffee. Briefly just to talk about again how important sleep is but also how it affects your mental focus.
Justin Marchegiani: Sleep is vitally important. I got an email from Ben Greenfield this week and he posted a really cool blog via WellnessFX and he also put a really cool info graphic on board too. And some really good quotes in this article and we will put it on the show notes, from athletes regarding their sleep time. So for instance, I got a couple of quotes here. Let me pull it up. So Usain Bolt, right? Fastest guy in the world says, “Sleep is extremely important to me. I need to rest and recover in order for the training I do to be absorbed by my body.” That is one person right there. Roger Federer gets on record 11 to 12 of sleep at night. LeBron James 12 hours of sleep at night. Again there are studies that after four days of restricted sleep athletes’ maximum bench press drops 20 pounds. Studies have shown split second decision making ability reduced by about 5%. And again tennis players with adequate sleep get about 42% boost in the accuracy of their shot. So again sleep is very, very important.
Baris Harvey: Yes. Check this out. You know I have mentioned to you before my football team, we would work out like 6 am and which means we get to the facility..
Justin Marchegiani: So the worst thing a coach can do. That is the stupidest thing. It is like you got this mindset in sports where it is like toughness comes from like crucifying yourself. It is just stupid training. It is just like, well, you can just be better by having willpower and not using our physiology to help us get better. I am sorry I interrupted.
Baris Harvey: Yes. I know, that is totally true.
Justin Marchegiani: It drives me nuts!
Baris Harvey: But check this out. I forgot why we did this. I am glad that we did. But I think we had our bye-week. Last week we decided not have our 6 am lift in the morning and basically I got to sleep in a little bit. And we instead worked out in the afternoon around 3 o’clock when your body is most prime to do so. This was the first week in about six weeks that I remember being like physically sore. When my legs felt sore in a good way it is as if like, “Oh, okay I am building muscle because all my other workouts were pretty inefficient because I am tired. How am I supposed to perform this way?” So I just thought it was interesting. Sleep is vitally important when it comes to not just training but your mental performance and almost every aspect in life. So sometimes people you want to push harder, push harder but if you are not sleeping I mean, you are kind of wasting your time and you could even be hurting yourself.
Justin Marchegiani: Absolutely. It is just trying to work harder not smarter. I mean, I remember in high school because I play football and I remember doing conditioning at the very end of practice. It is like the stupidest thing. It is like let us just ingrain in our body poor motor patterns, right? Let us just work on and develop our skills and poor motor pattern. It is just like silly. You much rather keep the conditioning separate and the fine tune motor skills when you are prime so you can really build up those motor pathways. Especially in certain sports, I remember in football for instance, we have linemen and linebackers running you know 30, 40, and 50 yards sprints. But it is like wait a minute, each play, what are you running on average? 5 to 10 yards? I mean the lineman is running 2 or 3 yards. So it is like, why are we not doing sport specific movement that actually carries over? And so much of these coaches, they are just doing things to do it not because it correlates and actually really makes sense.
Baris Harvey: Yes. I probably should not be doing the same thing my 290 pound teammate is doing. He is probably lifting stuff super heavy and maybe 10 yards sprints at the most for him. Whereas I can probably go a little bit farther, right?
Justin Marchegiani: Absolutely.
Baris Harvey: So super important.
Justin Marchegiani: And I do not want to burst anyone’s bubble but I have treated a handful of college athletes, professional football players and such and that is one sport I would more than likely, I could change my mind, but I will not allow my kid to play. I see lots of neurological deficits. I think you are going to be seeing an epidemic in the next 10 or 20 years of massive amounts of brain injuries. So if you are an athlete, man! Especially football, you need to be on magnesium. You need to be getting lots of ketones being produced. So ideally either lower carb. But if it is glycolytic stuff, you want to get some MCTs in there, PQQ, CoQ10, magnesium is really important. Again if you ever get head injury, one of the best things you can do is to go low calorie the next day or two to help increase cellular autophagy, to help clean up the damage. And those are a couple of things sleep is used. Like the last week, I have been going to bed at 10 o’clock and getting up at 7:30 to 8 o’clock and I have been feeling so much better because I have been listening to my body.
Baris Harvey: Yes. I mean the past week I had to take a nap in the middle of the day because I was so exhausted. But, man, I just felt so much better and so much more productive. And this will mean l will listen to my body and say, “Hey, you need to, you know, shut it.” And I mean that is what it feels like and what happens sometimes when people end up getting sick because they are evading sleep. They are not giving anything back to their body and their body just does not know it. I am going to have to shut you down for you. And when you get sick and then we are going to force ourselves to stay in bed, you know what I mean?
Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Baris Harvey: So, I just felt like I did not get to that point but I was like, “You know what? It is the middle of the day but I am going to take an hour nap before I go back to school.” And I felt like so much better. Yes, so sleep is super important. It is no wonder why you might be cranky or grumpy, you cannot even focus. And also like we talked about like the blood sugar regulation and how that throws off your decision making, your mood and your focus. If you are not sleeping that is also going to mess with your metabolism and you are going to crave more of those things. So it just makes it so much harder.
Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Baris Harvey: So you eat the right foods, you eat some more fat. You want to balance it and make it balance per who you are individually. But if you go to sleep more and you eat the right foods and preferably if you can some more fat it makes it a lot easier to regulate those cravings.
Justin Marchegiani: Exactly. Exactly. So kind of my thing is, we have macronutrient quality. I am macronutrient agnostic, meaning you just change the ratios up and down according to your needs. Now my bias is low carbohydrate, high fat, moderate protein. That is my bias because I kick ass there. And I find a lot of people who are metabolically damaged kick ass there. And a lot of people have been on a low fat movement so they just do so much better getting high quality fat in their diet. But from there, there are some people that are athletes that are super, you know, healthy already and they may be able to handle a little bit of white rice or some sweet potatoes or a little bit of glucose from other safe starch sources. So again, it is to figure out what works for you. I ran people low carb, super low and then we ramp up and we will taper up exercise and we will see how we feel. We may find that we do not want exercise that much and we just go super low ketogenic and then cycle in and out every three or four days. And figure out kind of where you feel your best.
Baris Harvey: Definitely.
Justin Marchegiani: So what do you think? Are you ready to talk some supplements a little more?
Baris Harvey: Let us talk some supplements. Let us get to the fun part. We always got to make sure that we will do the right things first. Because like we said supplement is a supplement. That is the whole point of it.
Justin Marchegiani: Okay.
Baris Harvey: But they are fun and that is why, you know, that is what we shoot at and keep at. Let us talk some supplements. Of course you talked about vitamin B12 as one of those basic things that should be covered. You know, make sure that you are getting that. Also you want to talk about this, it is not necessarily that new but it is starting to get a lot more coverage, the PQQ.
Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Baris Harvey: Let us talk about that and how it affects mitochondrial health and overall brain function.
Justin Marchegiani: Right. So PQQ is Pyrroloquinoline quinone PQQ. It was created in the 80’s I want to say or discovered in the 80’s basically through like a fermentation reducts reaction of a certain B vitamin in the gut bacteria. There are a couple of things. It helps with the regeneration of the mitochondria. And mitochondria are like these little powerhouses of your cells. They are like little furnaces that help create energy or ATP which is like the cellular currency that your body runs on. It also helps regenerate mitochondria and that is important because guess what? A lot of the medications that people are on, yes, they actually damage their mitochondria. And a lot of the drugs and the pesticides and the environmental chemicals that are out there, yes, they also damage your mitochondria, too. So a little bit of PQQ will be something that could be very helpful. It is typically combined with CoQ10. There are a couple of brands that are out there. Dave Asprey has got a good one. I have used his. Typically the dose is between 10 to 40 mg depending on where you are at. Like today I am already on 20 mg. I will take another 10 hits after here just to keep me really focused and plowing through my day. Let me think here. My train of thought was just lost for a second. I need some more PQQ. (Laughs)
Baris Harvey: Uh-huhh.
Justin Marchegiani: So yes, 20 to 40 mg tends to be a really good place. There have been some studies in the show that helps with Parkinson’s. It is also neuroprotective and helps with oxidative stress. And oxidative stress is kind of, you know, the damage from free radicals which are little guys that come around and knock off little pieces of your DNA. So that can be a good compound that is helpful.
Baris Harvey: Yes. Definitely. Talk a little bit about CoQ10 and maybe why that is linked up with it or even why that can be beneficial itself.
Justin Marchegiani: Yes. So CoQ10 is a fuel used by the mitochondria as well. It is basically kind of the coal in the mitochondrial furnace, if you will. Very helpful. A lot of people specially people that are on statins for instance, they are going to have problems with production of CoQ10 because the mevalonate pathway is blocked by the HMG-CoA reductase enzyme of the statin. So just basically when the statin blocks the production of cholesterol downstream a couple of steps you are going to see CoQ10 produced. So if you are on a statin definitely a no-no for your brain. CoQ10 again is a cellular currency. So if you are eating good grass-fed meats, you are having a little bit of glandular meat, you are going to do really, really well in that department. If you are getting over 50 years old and/or you are on statin, you need to supplement with some CoQ10. That is going to be very helpful.
Baris Harvey: Okay. Definitely. Another kind of basic one that people might not forget or something that people should probably be taking anyway, let us talk about some omega 3 or like a DHA supplement.
Justin Marchegiani: Yes, so omega 3 you have two kinds of, well actually there are three more, there are three facets. Alpha-linoleic acid which is the parent omega 3 comes from like flax. Not a big fan of it because only about 10 or 20% of it gets converted into your 20 carbon and 22 carbon DHA and EPA. So not a big fan. If you are insulin resistant or you have inflammation you will not be able to make any conversion. So getting some quality EPA. EPA is going to be great to tune down inflammation. DHA is going to be a better building block for the brain. So getting high quality EPA and DHA in will feed your prostaglandin one and three pathways. And these pathways are your natural anti-inflammatory. They activate certain enzymes known as the cyclooxygenase enzymes or the COX enzymes. These are the same enzymes that Vioxx knocked too much and it caused heart and stroke problems. But when you take natural compounds they tend to have a modulating effect not a drug effect so you do not get all the side effects.
Baris Harvey: Yes. Definitely. Another one that is good for the brain and anti-inflammation is curcumin.
Justin Marchegiani: Curcumin is excellent. If you look at a lot of what the drug companies are doing today they are trying to create drugs that have derivative effects of turmeric or curcumin. They are trying to create compounds that have the same effect. Because if you look at what they are doing turmeric is having a massive effect at blocking various inflammatory mediating compounds, nuclear factor kappa beta (NF-kB), TNF alpha (TNF-a), C‑reactive protein, so very helpful. Again if you are just taking turmeric and you have all these bad lifestyle habits, they are driving inflammation, again we kind of already addressed that. But if you are doing your best to knock down inflammation and you are taking turmeric, it is just another way to just kick butt better.
Baris Harvey: Yes. Definitely.
Justin Marchegiani: And I strongly recommend if you are going to do turmeric, I find that people do a little bit better with a liposomal turmeric. There is a patented one by a company over at Italy; I want to say the company is Indena. The compound is trademarked as Meriva. Yes, Mereva is great.
Baris Harvey: Yes.
Justin Marchegiani: Liposomal better absorption. Again a lot of turmeric does not get absorbed to the gut. So liposomal tend to be a better way to go.
Baris Harvey: Yes. Liposomal is usually really good. You said Meriva. I know there are other ones that might have Meriva. And they might have black pepper in it as well because black pepper is supposed to help with the absorption. So these are the things that you should be looking for in your curcumin supplement.
Justin Marchegiani: Absolutely. And also, the CoQ10 I use is liposomal as well. I just see too many people that have gut issues so we want to use things that have a liposome, if possible because you are just going to maximize absorption, so CoQ10 with the liposome. One of the brands that I use is called Q‑Best.
Baris Harvey: Yes. Definitely.
Justin Marchegiani: I will try to put it on my store in my site so if people want to support the show they can go to the justinhealth.com/shop and they can check it out there, too.
Baris Harvey: Yes. Definitely. Another one that you can find like in your breakfast, like the eggs and maybe liver, is choline. How about maybe choline or even things that are kind of other nutrients like Alpha GPC and Huperzine?
Justin Marchegiani: Yes, these are just awesome compounds that are going to help with brain repair. There was a study in Italy using Alpha GPC to reduce oxidative stress post-stroke. Excellent stuff there. There are actually some products that I have used that combined the Alpha GPC with the PQQ. Those worked very well. We also have compounds like Piracetam or Aniracetam. These are from the nootropic or racetam category. Piracetam is water soluble. Aniracetam is fat soluble. You take the aniracetam with your butter and coffee is a good what to do it. But that is going to up regulate and have an effect with GABA. It is going to have an effect with GABA. The mechanism really is not known too well but has effects in increasing vascularity, blood flow and also somewhat acting as a stimulant but also having a calming effect. Because GABA has that like inhibitory relaxation effect, too. So you get this steady relaxation yet you are very focused at the same time.
Baris Harvey: Yes. Definitely.
Justin Marchegiani: And you will see things like Modafinil or a compound known as Deprenyl, also Provigil. I think Modafinil and Provigil are the same names.
Baris Harvey: Yes. They are the same.
Justin Marchegiani: And they have a similar effect. People do not know exactly how they worked. But they activate some of these acetylcholine cholinergic ACh receptors that again affect the memory. So, these are good things to try. I always recommend using more of the nutrients before you go into some of these things. Because you may find just using things like fish oil and turmeric and also one that everyone should have in their diet is magnesium. Because our diets are so deficient in magnesium. Just go to PubMed and type in incidence of magnesium deficiency and you will see like almost a 50% reduction in the last 50 or 60 years in our food. So, getting a magnesium dimalate or a magnesium glycinate or if you have some brain issues you can use magnesium threonate and do a topical and have it go right to the brain and have a dampening anti-inflammatory effect. Fair amount of studies on using magnesium to help with brain inflammation, there has been studies on rats, studies on people. Dr. Russell Blaylock has found that when he put patients after brain surgery on magnesium, they recovered and did so much better than patients that were not put on magnesium. And he was just looking at all of these counterparts that were not doing it. And his patients would just get better faster just using things like turmeric, magnesium, fish oil and avoiding a lot of the oxidative stress compounds like glutamate and MSG and aspartame and Splenda. Things that cause microglial activation, these are the white blood cells of the brain.
Baris Harvey: Yes. Definitely. Definitely makes a big difference. Now you mentioned the racetams and these are kind of like weird category of like not really a hundred percent sure if they are supplements or they are pharmaceuticals. They are kind of in between. And always of course people need to be smart out there when it comes to these pharmaceuticals. But how have you gotten a chance to use some of the racetams? And give something like your experience about it.
Justin Marchegiani: Yes. I have done well with Piracetam. I pretty much top out about 800 mg. I do well with that in my coffee. Well, not in my coffee but I take it with my coffee. I like PQQ 20 to 40 mg tends to do awesome. Also a big fan of adrenal glandulars, you know. Taking adrenal glandulars that have adrenal support tend to be helpful. I am a big fan of adaptogenic herbs. And these are a family of herbs that can help modulate their stress response up or down. So if you are feeling low and you need that extra kick it will help bring you up. If you are overly stressed it will help bring you down. One of the biggest ones that I am just a huge fan of and then it also has a nice profile to help with sleep is Ashwagandha or withania somnifera. Ashwagandha is actually Sanskrit, means something like to impart the strength of the horse. So it is a pretty cool little translation. But they did a study here. I will kind of reiterate the study; it was double blind placebo control study. And in 64 subjects and they were giving about 300 mg of Ashwagandha twice a day for 60 days. So they started off the study giving people this General Health Questionnaire 28. It is basically a questionnaire that has been kind of certified and assessed. And it looks at anxiety. It looks at insomnia. It looks at social dysfunction and depression. And then it also had an anxiety stress scale or the DASS along with it. They looked at these various scales. We can put it in the show notes. But you are going to see the placebo and you will see the actual study where the groups that used the Ashwagandha right afterwards, massive, massive improvement in stress reduction with the group that were actually using the Ashwagandha. Every single category improved. The PSS questionnaire improved. The GHQ questionnaire improved. The Social Anxiety questionnaire improved. And there was a significant difference in the modulation of the salivary cortisol as well, which is really cool. And it was the Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine. Again, you are not going to see much of these studies here in the US because of the competition with the pharmaceutical companies. You are just not going to see it but you will see it in other journals.
Baris Harvey: Yes. And you know it is funny about that too, you mentioned a lot of these adaptogenic herbs. But even if you go to the like the natural food store and you go the vitamin section and you grab a lot of these like brain boosting stacks. A lot of them are going to have amino acids that kind of influence the mood, right? Like L-tyrosine and L-theanine and GABA and all these different amino acids that are kind of like mood regulators. And we notice that when we are in a good mood we are able to function better. Like we mentioned before if you are grumpy if you are stuck in traffic and you are starting to yell, you are probably not going to make the best decisions. You are not going to focus. But when you are in a good mood, you are relaxed and you are able to focus. And you feel better and you will make better decisions and you would eat better. If your emotionally distressed and you have lower EQ you might end up like, “Oh, okay. Well, maybe I am just going to eat like way too much dark chocolate and just eat a thing of ice cream and sit on my couch and watch a movie or something.” Right? So our mood is really important too. And like you mentioned, there are a lot of drugs out there to cover up and change the mood. So it is going to be hard competition in the US to kind of fight with the pharmaceutical mood enhancers.
Justin Marchegiani: Exactly, exactly. And let me just read the conclusion of the study. So again, this was a double blind placebo control study. 60 days with all the various questionnaires that assessed everything and all the salivary cortisol but also looked at the physiological stress response. The conclusion was the finding of this study suggest that a high concentration of full spectrum Ashwagandha root extract safely and effectively improves the individual’s decisions towards stress thereby improves self-assessed quality of life. And that is the Journal of Indian Psychology and Medicine, 2012 July. And I will shoot you over that link here, Baris and we will put it in the show notes. But this is important. Getting a high quality herb and again using the whole herb. I find people tend to do better with the whole herb not just like a standardized extract but the whole herb. And I try to make sure that the herbs that I procure are all organic and independently tested to make sure that there is no concentration of chemicals, arsenic or metal or things like that.
Baris Harvey: Definitely. Now one thing that we did not mention yet which is probably one that I think a lot of people use is caffeine. So talk about caffeine real quick.
Justin Marchegiani: So caffeine can be an awesome source, an awesome boost because it is going to help. One, it is going to increase free fatty acid oxidation so your body is going to mobilize more free fatty acid and hopefully start to burn them for fuel. Hence, if we are doing a little bit of caffeine in our coffee, right? Caffeine also has same various alkaloids that are antioxidants. If you are choosing good quality, clean coffee that is better without the pesticides and chemicals. If we add in the butter, the butter is going to make the caffeine more time released. Time release is good so we do not get the massive bolus of caffeine which is going to shoot up our blood sugar. So we get more of a magic carpet caffeine ride, if you will. And then we add in the MCT which is going to increase more fatty acid precursors in our blood stream. It is like we got it made. We are set. We are stimulating more fat burning. We are time releasing the caffeine so we are not getting a punctuated stress response but more of a time released. And then we have the MCT which drives that precursor for ketones so our brains have a steady source of fuel for like 3 to 6 hours, it is great.
Baris Harvey: Yes. I have only used Piracetam before but meaning to try some of the others. But I heard that caffeine actually helps with the racetam. It actually helps basically make it work in a synergistic way. So if you are taking one of those, having that Bulletproof Coffee might be even more beneficial. So it is kind of neuroprotective and will help your brain function very well and then making sure that you are eating the right diet. So maybe if you can pick and choose some of these other different stack that you might want to add in to try to up your performance.
Justin Marchegiani: Yes. And again like you got some studies here like the Cochrane Collaboration. That is like a big review on collaborative that looks at studies and looks at med analysis. They found like Piracetam, there was no evidence to support it. But there are others studies out there that show positive effects with post-stroke. There were studies out there that show positive effects following heart and brain surgery. Positive effects with epilepsy and aphasia. There were also positive effects with learning disability people. So again, like why is the Cochrane Collaboration seeing a bad result? I mean you got some studies and not all studies are created the same way. So I think if you looked at some of the studies that were producing positive effects, you probably are going to see something different in the dosaging that it is there with the studies that were having negative effects. And you see that a lot with herbs and nutrients where they are just using either bad quality nutrients or herbs or they are not using the therapeutic dose to get the right response.
Baris Harvey: Yes. Exactly. Definitely. Anything else that you want to add in?
Justin Marchegiani: So with Piracetam I kind of topped out at 800 mg. Figure out kind of where you are at.
Baris Harvey: Same here. Uh-humm.
Justin Marchegiani: I could not go higher. I just felt like crap if I went higher. So the big ones for me are going to be Ashwagandha, magnesium, let us see here, PQQ, CoQ10. These are all simple ones. You can add in the Piracetam. The foundational stuff like MCT, good quality fat in your coffee, stabilizing blood sugar and sleep. But I also said there are other families of adaptogenic herbs that work very well. Some like Eleuthero or Siberian ginseng works excellent. There is a protocol and is a Russian protocol that is used in a way to allow Eleuthero to have anabolic effects in increasing sex hormones like DHEA dehydroepiandrosterone. And that is an anabolic sex hormone that if you look in the research, it is going to have a neuroprotective effect. Just google DHEA and neuroprotective effects and you are going to have really good support there.
Baris Harvey: Yes.
Justin Marchegiani: So using that, yes, that is another great way to boost up your anabolic sex hormones that will help repair your brain. Even some people if they are adrenally stressed, taking a little bit sublingual bio-identical DHEA can be very helpful too, to protect your neurons.
Baris Harvey: Uh-huh. Definitely. Same thing here.
Justin Marchegiani: Now one more thing, too. If you are like a female who is menopausal with that sudden drop in estrogen come menopause, because your ovaries are not spitting it out like you used to when you were cycling, that sudden drop can actually cause brain inflammation. And estrogen tends to be very anti-inflammatory. The estriol especially tends to be very anti‑inflammatory for the brain. So if you are menopausal and you are starting to have some issues, look at getting your adrenals looked at as well as getting your female hormone supported to help prevent that brain stress. And also female hormones in women who are cycling low progesterone or estrogen dominance can also create brain stress. And if you look at progesterone, that tends to also be very neuroprotective. You just want to make sure you take it in an appropriate way so it does not screw up your cycle. And in my opinion, I find cycling females do not do better with progesterone cream because you cannot time it right in their cycle and its spills over the follicular phase and just messes up the timing.
Baris Harvey: Yes. Definitely. And make sure that you are balancing it right.
Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Baris Harvey: Yes. Same thing here. Doing a lot of the MCT. Doing the different adaptogenic herbs on a daily basis. I take turmeric.
Justin Marchegiani: That is another good one. Green tea.
Baris Harvey: Turmeric and green tea. Bacopa.
Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Baris Harvey: On a daily basis. So all of those are very beneficial and I am making sure that I am getting a lot of fats in my diet. Usually when I am making a smoothie, my sweetener is usually going to be berries. Like frozen wild berries. So I am making sure that they are not like super-duper sweet. But I am getting a lot of the lower glycemic type fruits that have more of the antioxidants. And then at the end I might dump a couple of you know, three raw eggs in there and I am getting some of the B vitamins and choline and different parts of each of that bringing a lot of those brain nutrients in there.
Justin Marchegiani: Yes, there was a study looking at blueberries because of the OPCs in the blueberry, the oligomeric proanthocyanidins. They are the various anti-inflammatory bioflavonoids. They did a study looking at blueberries and it having a reduced neurological inflammatory effect. So that is pretty cool. Just a handful of blueberries.
Baris Harvey: Yes. Exactly. Let food be thy medicine. And it is so crazy that we are looking at food right here and how it can be beneficial but somehow we are just like, “Oh, yes we will just wait for people to have Alzheimer’s and just give them drugs.” Or we can just eat really, really good food.
Justin Marchegiani: Yes, yes. And then also I forgot to even mention one last thing, gut infections can definitely cause brain inflammation.
Baris Harvey: Yes.
Justin Marchegiani: Because these gut infections, whether it is SIBO producing lithocholic acid or endotoxins or mycotoxins from fungus or the various biotoxins from parasites, these can create toxins and poison the brain. I mean, acetaldehyde produced from fungus can make you feel drunk and brain fogged. I find with people going on an anti-candida program, if it is candida they feel significantly better. If they have gut infections, getting rid of those infections help them feel significantly better. If they have conditions like Lyme or Lyme co-infections like ehrlichia or bartonella or babesia or things like that, getting those infections cleared out and supporting the immune system they do feel a lot better.
Baris Harvey: Yes. So just making sure that we eat right for our type. And if we can, if our body allows us, probably more fats, right? And some of these really high quality MCT fats. Making sure that we get enough sleep and treating ourselves right, just relaxation, making sure we have high quality sleep.
Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Baris Harvey: Moving appropriately and making our muscles move and increasing our brain capacity. Like we interviewed, Oh, my goodness! I am losing it. The guy from… See now I am going to feel bad. I have not eaten all these beneficial foods yet this morning so my brain is not super on point. But I will remember it eventually. But he talked about…
Justin Marchegiani: Is this the guy that does the all-day energy diet?
Baris Harvey: No, no, no.
Justin Marchegiani: Not Yuri? Okay.
Baris Harvey: Not Yuri but do what you love for exercise, right?
Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Baris Harvey: So if you can, if you want to play like basketball or tennis…
Justin Marchegiani: Are you thinking about Mark Sisson?
Baris Harvey: Not Mark Sisson.
Justin Marchegiani: Okay.
Baris Harvey: We interviewed him when we did..
Justin Marchegiani: Oh, I think you are thinking of Kevin Geary from Rebooted Body.
Baris Harvey: Kevin Geary, there you go. Rebooted Body. I was thinking of a fit life.
Justin Marchegiani: Yes. Kevin Geary, yes.
Baris Harvey: Yes, I had the K in my head but just not, yes, Kevin Geary when he talked about do what you love.
Justin Marchegiani: Exactly.
Baris Harvey: Hiking and doing all these things. Especially if you can have like some kind of sport. You are going to be involving your brain more, right? So these are fun ways that you can do things. Go swimming, move your body and your brains is going to get activated and plus you are going to be put in a good mood. So when you are in a better mood you are more motivated to do what you need to do. I find it a lot easier when I am happy and I am in a good mood.
Justin Marchegiani: Exactly.
Baris Harvey: I am going to cook a really good meal that is healthy for me versus like I feel crap. It is really easy to fall right into the trap to be like, “Well, let me just order a pizza.” You know what I mean? So making sure that you get these things down. Eating the right foods, getting enough sleep, moving your body and then the cherry out on the top is once you get those foundational things put down what kind of supplement can you do to get to the next level, right?
Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Baris Harvey: And like you mentioned before if you still have, you have mentioned this analogy before, you still feel that e-break. Like you are working so hard but there are still things that are not there, you probably have some things still holding you back. And you mentioned the gut infections. You might be eating some food that you might be sensitive to, right?
Justin Marchegiani: Exactly.
Baris Harvey: So making sure that we get those out of the system.
Justin Marchegiani: Yes, making sure if you got hormonal stress, get your adrenals or thyroid looked at. If you got chronic infections or leaky gut stuff get your gut looked at. Again, if your thyroid is not working well, you need thyroid hormone to activate basically cellular metabolism in almost all cells. So if you got low thyroid hormone, you want to get that fixed because taking PQQ or even CoQ10 is not going to be the answer. It will be a Band-Aid but would not be the real true answer. So we have like things in the functional medicine hierarchy that should be in alignment before we do other things. But it is just a good starting point.
Baris Harvey: Yes, yes, yes. Definitely, it sounds awesome. Anything else that you want to add today?
Justin Marchegiani: I would say everyone or anyone listening that wants to start this out and just get their diet and their blood sugar and their sleep going first, start their day with momentum. Whether it is getting up and doing the Tabata or a high intensity interval. Having some good protein and fat to start their day, put some MCT or butter in their coffee. Take a little bit of magnesium or some adaptogenic herbs to start your day. You are going to just create momentum and momentum continues to create more momentum. And just starting your day on these upper planes so you feel like you are running downhill not running uphill is always helpful.
Baris Harvey: Yes. Definitely. Thank you guys for tuning in to another episode. Make sure that you guys go to ITunes and leave a review. So if you go to beyondwellnessradio.com there is a button right there that you just click and it will send you right to it. It makes it really easy. Continue to send in your questions. So if you guys have any questions that you want answered from any of the doctors, make sure that you send that in. If you guys have somebody that is like a great doctor that you have or a great practitioner that you have read their book and we might have not come across them, send us an email and we will go ahead and check them out and see if we might want to bring them on the show. Because there are always these awesome people that are popping up but you know sometimes they are not always on our radar for a while. So if you guys have any suggestions for a guest or someone who you want to hear on the show, let us know and we will reach out to them and see if we can get them on the show. If you guys are finding that you might have any of these e‑break like symptoms and you feel like you are not going 100% like you could be, make sure that you go to justinhealth.com and schedule yourself a consultation. So that way, Dr. Justin can do his detective work and see if there is something hidden that you have not found that could be holding you back. And again go to beyondwellnessradio.com and signup for the newsletter. That is the best way to stay updated and have all of the information available to you. So thank you guys again. Go ahead.
Justin Marchegiani: Thanks so much, Baris and everyone listening. Sharing is caring. So keep sharing the show with all of your friends and family that could benefit.
Baris Harvey: Yes. Thank you.
Justin Marchegiani: Thanks have a good one.