In this episode, Dr. Justin Marchegiani and functional medicine practitioner Evan Brand explore the top strategies for regulating the nervous system to support better sleep, stress relief, and mood. They cover the root causes of nervous system dysregulation — including mold toxicity, blood sugar imbalance, gut inflammation, and over-training — and share practical tools ranging from EFT tapping, vagus nerve stimulation, breathwork, and meditation to targeted nutrients like magnesium, theanine, GABA, and passionflower. Whether you're dealing with anxiety, brain fog, sensory overload, or chronic stress, this episode offers a comprehensive functional medicine framework for restoring nervous system balance from the inside out. To work with Dr. Justin visit http://www.justinhealth.com/free-consultation
Ready to investigate what's keeping your nervous system dysregulated? Visit http://www.justinhealth.com/free-consultation to work with Dr. Justin directly.
🔹 Related resources: http://www.justinhealth.com/thyroid-hormone-balance | http://www.justinhealth.com/female-hormone-balance | http://www.justinhealth.com/gluten-video-series
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Hey guys, it's Dr. Justin Marchegiani. Welcome to the Beyond Wellness Radio podcast. Feel free and head over to justinhealth.com. We have all of our podcast transcriptions there, as well as video series on different health topics ranging from thyroid to hormones, ketogenic diets, and gluten. While you're there, you can also schedule a consult with myself, Dr. J, and our colleagues and staff to help dive into any pressing health issues you really want to get to the root cause on. Again, if you enjoy the podcast, feel free and share the information with friends or family, and enjoy the show.
And we are live. It's Dr. J in the house with Evan Brand. Today we're going to be talking about all things your nervous system — how to regulate your nervous system to calm yourself down so you can deal with stress. That's going to be applied to adults and kids, and we'll dive into all the functional medicine principles and root causes that could throw your nervous function out of balance.
Evan, how we doing, my man?
Evan Brand: Hey man, I'm doing great. I ignored my nervous system for a long time just because — I think it's a male thing. You're just like, “I'm in charge. I'm going to be the boss. I'm going to power through.” It's this American attitude, right? You're just like, “You know what? If I just work a little harder, grind a little more, lift a little heavier, everything's going to be fine.”
And it wasn't until I talked with Margaret Christiansen years ago — she's an OB/GYN who had her own practice and she ended up with mold. She had me on her mold summit and I was talking to her and she said, “Evan, if you don't address your nervous system, you're never going to heal.” And I was like, “Ah, okay, whatever. I'll just take some more adaptogens.” But she was right.
And so once I started working on my nervous system — doing guided meditations, doing float tanks, doing massage — ketamine was an absolute game changer. I started to see, okay, I'm part of the problem because I'm stuck in fight or flight based on these toxins and infections.
And so one of the mechanisms of nervous system dysregulation — I would describe it in a general sense as toxins. That could be heavy metals, pesticides, mold, infections, and even gut bacteria can aggravate not only your immune system but your nervous system. And so it's very common for people to feel anxious and worried and stressed even though on the outside looking in their life looks fine. If you're sitting here listening and you're like, “Hey, I feel stressed even though nothing bad is happening,” it's probably something inside of you.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. When it comes to root cause things, I always tend to be more focused and dialed in on the root cause of why there's stress, why there's anxiety. I kind of have a bias against things that I consider to be more palliative, whether it's THC or ketamine, for instance. I want to get your take on it. So what was your experience with ketamine? Obviously, ketamine's used as an anesthetic.
Evan Brand: For me, it was definitely a nervous system reset. My chemical sensitivity — and you and I have been recording together for 10 years now if not more, so cheers to that —
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: 10 years, baby. Yes, sir.
Evan Brand: And you've seen me go through the chemical sensitivity. It was so bad I couldn't be around anyone with fragrances or scented laundry. Tide and dryer sheets would just set me off. It would cause my blood pressure to spike, and that was all triggered by a combination of mold, Lyme, and Bartonella all at the same time. My blood pressure would literally go up to 150 over 100 when I had exposure to fragrances.
And so I was using root cause stuff — mast cell stabilization techniques, quercetin, perilla leaf, and things like that — but I still wasn't fully better. One session of ketamine was able to knock down my chemical sensitivity by about 50 to 60% overnight. How much was that palliative versus root cause? I think it's both. If you look at the literature on ketamine and mast cells, ketamine is an incredible antihistamine and mast cell stabilizer. So I think it was able to knock my histamine bucket so low that I was able to reset, and then keep it low based on doing guided meditations. But if I got lazy on guided meditations, I could feel the histamine bucket climbing.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So do you feel like if you just did that and didn't do anything else, those symptoms would eventually come back?
Evan Brand: Oh, for sure. Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: How long was your relief window on that?
Evan Brand: Probably six months. So one ketamine session lasted six months, but I was doing a lot of other things — supplements, diet changes, lifestyle.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah, and without all of that, it probably would have been more short-lived.
Evan Brand: Yeah, for sure. What it does is it just opens the door of perception for you to see yourself and your stressors in a different light. The mechanism is in the amygdala — the blood flow to the amygdala is reduced, which turns down that fight or flight part of the brain. You could hear negative news, go through stressful things, and not become frazzled. In Dr. Neil Nathan's book, Toxic, there's a whole chapter about it. That's where I originally got introduced to it. I thought, “I don't feel comfortable recommending something clinically unless I've tried it.” So it was personal experimentation, but it was pretty profound.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. If you look at how ketamine works mechanically — it's an NMDA receptor antagonist. It blocks the NMDA receptor site, which is a subtype of glutamate. That receptor is overactive in depression, anxiety, and chronic stress. So I look at — okay, what natural compounds can also help with blocking that glutamate NMDA receptor site? The big ones are curcumin, omega-3 fatty acids, polyphenols like green tea, ginkgo, bacopa, zinc, theanine, N-acetylcysteine, and lion's mane. There are a lot of compounds that support this.
I would always say jump on the nutrients in supplement form first since they're easier to do daily and not everyone can do a ketamine infusion. But it's a good option when appropriate. What are your takes on supplements you've added in?
Evan Brand: Yeah, the supplements are great. I was on that stuff for a decade-plus, so I was already on the foundational supplement side — the anti-inflammatories, the curcumin, the ginger, the boswellia. I've been on that stuff for a decade just to help with some of the Lyme symptoms. And ketamine was like that times 10 in terms of effect. I'm anti-drug, anti-pharma as much as it gets, but that was one compound that was pretty life-changing.
On the nervous system herb side, passionflower, motherwort, and skullcap are probably my top three — you can get those in tincture form, which is great. If you have kids or grandkids and you're listening to this and you've got some children that are dysregulated — which by the way is a very common problem, one in five kids has a chronic disease — those are amazing to have on hand. If you see they're having a sensory issue, meaning the clothing is too tight, they don't like to wear socks, they're complaining about their shoes or pants, they appear to have sensory issues — five drops of passionflower can quiet that nervous system dysregulation very quickly and effectively.
I would also throw in the chewable GABA, which has been a game changer for me personally. A child could do around 50 milligrams of pharma GABA, which is created from fermented pickles — Lactobacillus hilgardii is where they extract it from — and it crosses the blood-brain barrier. You're going to take your child who's stuck in beta, just overdrive, anxious, irritable, and put them more in an alpha state where they're calm. They're going to go from throwing toys to coloring. That's how quickly you can shift them.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And I always prioritize nutrients first. Hydrate, electrolytes, good sleep. Don't overstimulate with technology and screens and video games. Do things that physically move their body to get out energy. Do things that are creative — drawing, building, whatever. Make sure there's protein and fat at each meal. Make sure your kid's breaking down that protein and fat. Make sure you're getting magnesium and theanine. Theanine will help with GABA — it will help convert the excess glutamate in the brain to GABA, which promotes relaxation.
Evan Brand: Tell us about your kids. You were telling me pre-show about getting them into some physical sports and how you're noticing a difference.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah, the biggest thing is we got them into wrestling right now, and that's a big thing. They come back and they're just chill. If you think about it, 98 to 99% of society was involved in farming 100 years ago. Most people were out on a farm working hard all day. Kids would go out, they'd expend all that energy, and they just weren't going to be as whiny or complaining. The physical element really relaxes my kids out, gets that energy out, and allows them to perform better.
Evan Brand: Yeah, you make a good point. Even just 100 years ago — I'm thinking 1,000 years, 5,000 years. We were outside 24/7. This idea of being cooped up in a box, having cabin fever — we're recording this now in November, so for the Northern Hemisphere we're getting into cooler weather. That's probably more screen time for most people. The earlier sunsets are hard on people.
Last night I was out in the street with my kids on these little foot scooters and they just got toast. They did a few laps around the neighborhood and that was just a way to settle them. This is underrated — the impact of exercise on your nervous system. Mike Tyson famously said in an interview that he's a monster if he doesn't train in the morning. He wakes up grumpy, he trains, and then he feels like his normal self. A lot of us use the excuse of being too busy or too tired. Even if you just do 10 minutes with dumbbells, you can get a lot done for your mental health.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Even just go do a Tabata session. Get on your air bike or a rower, 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off, do that for four minutes — eight sets. That's going to be huge. What do you have at your house? You have a rowing machine, right?
Evan Brand: I have a Concept2 rower and a Rogue Echo bike.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: The Echo bike I think is the best because it's arms and legs going at the same time. The rower's good too. Anything that gets arms and legs going simultaneously. The benefit of the air bike is it blasts you with air so you don't really sweat — you're constantly getting dry as you go. The faster you push and pull, the more resistance you get from the fan. And it's not high impact.
Evan Brand: Yeah, and that's pretty low impact. Even if someone's worried about injuries, that's a solid option.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That's the thing. You want things that are lower impact, that will get your heart pumping and get your muscles going, but not pounding on the joints. It's the pounding that's going to cause knee wear and tear, hip wear and tear.
Evan Brand: Now I'm curious to see what all these fitness influencers are going to look like in 10 to 15 years. These guys posting a screenshot of their Garmin watch showing they did a 20-mile run around the city. I just don't know if that's sustainable.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: It's tough. You've got to think long term, think about what your goal is. If you're going to run, be smart — do it on grass or uphill, have really good shoes, consider orthotics to buffer the blow, make sure your form is good. But in the end, there's going to be some wear and tear, so you've got to be smart. Work smarter, not harder.
With kids and adults, getting some energy out — even a walk in the morning, having your feet on the ground in the backyard, getting some sun. Especially morning light, which is more red light — that's very helpful. It will restart that pineal gland, especially if your sleep cycle is off.
Evan Brand: You made me think of the gut piece too. I'm picturing runners trying to get their runner's high, battling their nervous system demons through endorphins. But there's an impact on the gut. What I've found working with chronically over-trained athletes is that these people end up with IBS-type symptoms from all the successive training and running, which then worsens anxiety and depression. Most people aren't chronically running, but if you are doing marathons or five-plus miles daily, and you have an anxiety problem, you might actually need to dial it back. Go from running to walking, interval training, or swimming. I would encourage more swimming and less running from a nervous system perspective — who doesn't feel good after a swim?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Check out this study — “Is there an exercise intensity threshold capable of avoiding leaky gut?” — from Nutrition, March 2021. “Endurance sports athletes have a high incidence of GI disorders. An increase in several pro-inflammatory cytokines — LPS, interleukin-6, CRP — have been observed in ultra-marathoners and triathletes.” And it says recently shown — 60 minutes of vigorous endurance training at 70% of work capacity led to characteristic responses of leaky gut.
Evan Brand: Think of your average person going to the gym with their Apple Watch, thinking they need to do an hour. It's saying right here that an hour of vigorous endurance work could be compromising your gut. And if we want to fix one thing like mental health — let's get an OAT test done.
How do we actually approach the nervous system from a biochemical perspective? What functional labs would we use beyond just throwing some passionflower at you? We would get an OAT test, because what I've found personally is that people who have mold are more stuck in fight or flight. And when I interviewed Ashok Gupta, who does these guided meditations, he told me that any toxin affects the amygdala and can cause it to become more sensitized. Think of it like a gun with a really sensitive trigger — that's you if you've got mold.
And the term “mold rage” is linked to those same pro-inflammatory cytokines you referenced in that exercise study. The goal is to down-regulate those pro-inflammatory cytokines, but you've got to get the OAT test because that's going to show whether or not there's a fungal problem. Can you just take supplements and address this? Maybe, but I would definitely encourage you to look deeper.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And if we have mold or any environmental issue, some really simple things — don't store your food or water in plastic. Have a really good HEPA air filter with some kind of activated carbon in it. We like the Austin Air. Air Doctor is decent. There are some decent ones at Costco that are a little bit cheaper, not as good, but something.
Clean your clothes without fragrances. Don't use the Glade plugins. Use a wash soda and a free-and-clear hypoallergenic cleaning solution. Soak your clothes in wash soda, which pulls out a lot of chemicals. Wash soda also disrupts mold and fungus molecules, which is really great.
Outside of that, blood sugar is a big thing. If your blood sugar's going up and down, that can definitely have a big impact on your nervous system. Wonky blood sugar is a big deal. It can impact your adrenals. It can impact fight or flight. It can deplete nutrients like B vitamins and magnesium. So good proteins and good fats at each meal, and we've got to make sure we have good digestion.
Evan Brand: Yeah, the blood sugar thing is huge. A lot of people are doing intermittent fasting, but if you're chronically stressed, over-training, not getting enough sleep, and you've got a bunch of crazy kids driving you crazy, it's hard to handle the stress of fasting. Have you seen cortisol issues related to hypoglycemia or too much fasting?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah, it's like exercise — you want to get to a really good level of health before you do harder, more intense things. Intermittent fasting is something you have to be ready for and already have good health to do well. You wouldn't just jump on and do a Murph in CrossFit — you'd get ready for that first.
If you're a female and you already have hormonal issues, you're going to be more sensitive to fasting. I would say work on cutting the carbohydrate and sugar down first. Most people have high cortisol in the morning naturally based on our circadian rhythm. Just make your morning meal easier to digest — it could be some bone broth and collagen, collagen in your coffee or tea, or a simple protein shake. Something very easy to digest with good protein and good fat is still good without putting heavy food in your stomach in the morning.
And of course, we're going to be using nutrients like magnesium, theanine, and N-acetylcysteine to calm down that NMDA and glutamate activity in the brain. Very important. And there's also skullcap, California poppy, passionflower — some kind of relaxing herbs. If someone's overly in fight or flight, those can be great options as well.
What app are you doing for meditation, and how much time are you putting in?
Evan Brand: So I just downloaded the Gupta Program meditations to my phone. I actually bought the program, but I think you can get a free trial. I've got 10, 20, and 30-minute ones — there's a gratitude meditation, contentment, compassion. They're really great, and I can tell you that my sleep quality is much better if I do that as opposed to going to bed with a bunch of stuff on my mind. If I can do a 10 or 20-minute meditation while going to bed, it's a way different sleep profile. And I've tracked it with the Oura Ring — this isn't just me feeling it. I can see the difference. I'll get an extra 20 or 30 minutes of deep sleep if I do a meditation towards the evening as opposed to just talking with my wife and then going straight to bed.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That's good to know. And Calm has some good meditations too — three-minute ones, five-minute ones. If you can just pull a three-to-five-minute one and step aside for that amount of time, that's a game changer. Just simple stuff to support your nervous system.
From a functional medicine standpoint, the more you can gently walk — even just Tony Robbins' five minutes of power or 15 minutes of fulfillment in the morning, where you take a five-minute walk with deep breathing in and out four times while focusing on appreciation and gratitude — that is a huge thing. Anytime you can move and change your thoughts and breathing at the same time, there's just synergy in all those things together.
Evan Brand: Yeah. And just take a bath. How simple. I ask a lot of people, “When's the last time you took a bath?” And most people say, “I don't know. I just take showers.” We just feel that we're only successful if we're so busy. “How are you?” “Busy.” It's not really that great of an accolade.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. And also, a bath may feel like it takes a lot of time. I just tell patients — do a foot bath. Get your basin, fill it up, add one cup of Epsom salts, and start absorbing magnesium through your feet. Epsom salts are magnesium sulfate. It's a great way to bypass the gut — if your gut's a little bit sensitive, magnesium can cause loose stools. Getting it in via the skin is effective without that concern. Some patients do get a little loose stool even from the foot bath, so just feather it out — start with a half cup. It's a great way to start getting some relaxation without having to do any food or supplements.
Evan Brand: And if you're in a regular city, you'll probably have access to a float center. I would highly recommend doing a massage first — 30 to 60 minutes — and then doing an hour or hour and a half float tank. It changed my life forever. They call it REST therapy in PubMed — Restricted Environmental Stimulation Therapy — and they use it for PTSD, trauma, and anxiety.
It's essentially a giant filtered bathtub in a private room. You shower off, get in, and you're floating on the surface of the water. The temperature is so perfect to your skin temperature that you don't feel the water — you basically just dissolve into the environment. It takes about 30 to 40 minutes to fully let go, but you can have a genuinely profound experience while in a float tank. Your mind has no sound, you're completely in pitch black, and you have zero gravity because you're floating, so your mind starts producing all these vivid visions. It's a remarkable experience, and you're looking at maybe 150 bucks for a massage and a float combined.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah, and the cool thing about it is there's zero sensory input — it's all dark, and so your nervous system just has to down-regulate. Sometimes your brain can get a little anxious at first, but then you calm down. You're in about 1,000 pounds of magnesium salts, right? About eight inches of water — that's why you float so well.
Evan Brand: And don't freak out thinking you're going to drown. You're in about eight inches of water.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah, the magnesium keeps you so buoyant. You just do your starfish pose in the water, you're right at the very top, and you're absorbing so much magnesium that your brain just gets relaxed. When you finish, you're just on cloud nine.
Evan Brand: Oh yeah, you're restored. Walking out of the place, you're going to be like, “Whoa, I am restored.”
I bet you've got a float center around you — have you checked any out there?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I'm pulling one up right now. I'm going to go check this out this week. I'm ready.
Evan Brand: It's a good reset, especially when the weather starts cooling off. The float tank feels warm at first, and then eventually it feels neutral — it's about 98-degree water.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes, I've done it a couple of times a few years ago and I've always loved it. It's amazingly relaxing. You're also getting the magnesium, which is very anti-inflammatory for your brain.
So we'll add that to our list. Gut inflammation plays a big role because a lot of your neurotransmitters are sourced from amino acids and healthy protein — we have to be able to digest those things.
Vagus nerve — this is really cool. This is from Dr. Nick Hoolest. He gave it to me — we did a podcast last year. It's the VeRelief Prime vagus nerve stimulator. The part of the parasympathetic branch that connects to the vagus is the trigeminal nerve, and it comes out the back of the ear. So I put it right here at the back of this mastoid area where the nerve comes out, and it's literally stimulating the vagus nerve.
The protocol is you do four breaths in, and then through pursed lips, seven out. You do that because the increased pressure as you breathe out does something with CO2 in the brain that creates more parasympathetic activation. So it's four in and then seven out through pursed lips. This is pretty cool — it does stimulate that vagus nerve more. Pick this up, get stressed in between patients or whatever, just do this protocol for five minutes. Great relaxer right there.
Evan Brand: Let me see the tips of it. It looks like it's got rubber tips on it.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: It's got little rubber things. So it transmits right through those — it's like a TENS unit but you can control the intensity with the lights here. I have it at one. I prefer it at this amount — you put it right there and hold it. I like it because I can feel it — it does an on and off kind of cycle.
Evan Brand: You know what would be interesting is if you had a Bluetooth heart rate monitor and an HRV app and you were live-tracking your HRV to see if that's actually impacting HRV scores.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I know, exactly. So this is powerful. I also find magnesium and theanine very effective. I used to get some nightmares and be more restless at night, and I found magnesium malate and glycinate before bed gave me zero nightmares — a huge reduction. And I was just in my bed not moving, where I used to roll or be restless. Magnesium was a game changer on that front.
Evan Brand: And everyone is deficient, by the way, because the soil is depleted. You and I have pulled up maps of magnesium deficiency in the US before. The soil is toast. So please eat organic, but organic doesn't guarantee there's magnesium in your food.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And I was talking with Brendan at Santa Cruz Medicinals last week on his podcast about this. What are some easy, simple nutrients? Potassium and magnesium — most people don't get enough of either. Half the population is deficient in magnesium. And if you're overly inflamed, eating too much processed carbs, you're depleting B vitamins and magnesium just through the metabolic process of processing all that extra carbohydrate.
Now, do you only do one side with the vagus nerve stimulator, or do you do both?
Evan Brand: You can do both.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah, that trigeminal nerve does hit the vagus. It goes up to the brain stem and has an impact on it, so it's really nice. And if you do the breathing with it, I'd say look at getting one of these and do your meditation with this on. Just hold it there and do the same breathing — it just stimulates it more.
Evan Brand: I think I've seen a headband or something that kind of wraps around the back of the neck too.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah, I have one of those over here too. There are a lot of cool devices out there whether it's biofeedback or vagus nerve stimulation that are very helpful.
Now, what else on the functional medicine side? We talked about toxin and mold — that could be deeper, could involve getting Evan or me on the phone to talk about testing your home. I always prioritize the home first because if you live in a really moldy home, you can only detoxify so much before going back to the same environment.
I've had people in compromised apartments who couldn't remediate and were going to leave in a few months. We tested their mold levels and it was sky high. We got really good air filtration, got really good dehumidifiers, and had the visible area wiped down with diluted vinegar and peroxide and microfiber cloths. Weeks and months later when we tested, it actually came back great. Even knowing there was mold behind the walls, at least it wasn't airborne anymore. So those simple modalities — air filtration, dehumidification, topically addressing anything you can see — are putting less load on your body in the meantime.
Evan Brand: Yeah. And let me pull this up — this video kind of went viral. Here's my blower fan. This is me hitting it with 12% hydrogen peroxide, and then we ended up pulling out all that insulation and replacing it, and replacing the door. This got about a million views. People resonated with the idea of “I'm eating clean and taking supplements — why am I not getting better?” And there's the blower fan covered in mold.
I encourage everyone to check their blower door once a year. If your AC or heat is kicking on and you're blowing mold spores around, you can do all the sauna you want — you're not going to address that issue. And if you're in an apartment, you can still access your blower door to improve air filtration by upgrading your filters. Don't think that renting means you can't do anything about it.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah, you can at least look at your unit. You can topically spray it down with peroxide — just be smart about it, don't spray anything while it's plugged in. Have an HVAC professional look at your units twice a year. Have them spray things down appropriately and wipe with microfiber cloths. Buy a bunch on Amazon and toss them afterward. That's a pretty easy way to do it.
Evan Brand: Yeah, the 12% hydrogen peroxide is useful because if it fizzes or foams on contact, you know there's something there. If you spray it and nothing happens, it's probably a non-issue.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That's what I tell patients — 12% peroxide is wonderful because it's diagnostic as well as a treatment step. It will bubble if there's something there.
Evan Brand: You know what's crazy — the Petri dishes from my blower door showed nothing. The blower door was a mess and the Petri dishes looked clean.
Here's the interesting thing — the HVAC guy and I were talking and I asked him what his explanation was for why it wasn't worse throughout the whole house. It turns out the previous owner had installed a REME Halo Zero. This is a hydrogen peroxide-based air scrubber. The reason they call it “zero” is that their other version uses ozone — this is the newer technology, which they call an AGHP cell, verified zero ozone. So it's literally hydrogen peroxide in your system.
What happens is as air enters the duct, it hopefully gets filtered somewhat by a good filter like a MERV 11. It goes into your blower, and then right after it exits the blower — before it ends up in your ductwork — it hits the Halo. It gets blasted with the hydrogen peroxide right there, and then there's a small amount of residual airborne gaseous hydrogen peroxide that comes through the ductwork and actually treats your ducts too.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And I still think cleaning ducts is good if you're using some kind of a HEPA vacuum — if they can do it with the vacuum unit outside of the home and give you a before and after, I always feel better about that.
Evan Brand: Yeah, he was talking about how typical duct cleaning is mechanical and can tear up the ducts. But a HEPA vacuum sounds much better — for drywall dust and that kind of thing, you want to make sure you're actually capturing it, not just stirring it up.
And I know this seems geeky to some people. But it connects back to the nervous system. If you're living in an environment that's poisoning you, your nervous system is going to be stuck in fight or flight. You can go to Pilates, sip your matcha latte, jump in your sauna, and take your magnesium, but if every breath — and the average human takes 20,000 breaths per day — if those breaths are contaminated with airborne mold and mycotoxins, your nervous system will remain stuck. All the biohacking tools will not counteract a sick environment.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Correct. And keep your air filters in your unit changed. If you're in a hot climate using HVACs most of the year like you are in Florida, get your HVAC looked at twice a year. Have your HVAC technician look for visible mold.
What's the install cost on getting one of those hydrogen peroxide units put in?
Evan Brand: Oh, it's so easy — they just cut a hole right in your plenum box and shove it in. You're looking at less than 1,000 bucks all in. And you can't smell the hydrogen peroxide in the house at all — it's really diluted. Any HVAC technician should be able to do that install. You literally cut a hole in the plenum box, shove it in, and run a wire to connect to your HVAC wiring. Zero maintenance. The technology creates a low concentration of airborne gaseous hydrogen peroxide with a bipolar ion that disperses throughout the space — incredibly effective at reducing allergens, viruses, bacteria, mold spores, and odors. When I take a real deep breath in this house, it's very crisp. Love it.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. And this is your new house, right? You moved in about a month ago?
Evan Brand: Yep. I'm very happy. Anything else you want to highlight in regards to calming the nervous system?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I know we talked about some of the meditation stuff. Let's wrap it up with EFT.
Evan Brand: Let's do some EFT together.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah, so EFT tapping is great. What I recommend — when you're ruminating on a problem, just talk about the issue as you go through all the different points. Inner eyebrow, outer eyebrow — I like doing both sides, double time it — under the eye, under the nose, under the chin. I'll do them at the same time. Just talk about the problem, whatever it is — relationship stress, financial stress — and then end with, “Hey, I deeply and completely accept myself.” You've got the dual collarbone, the dual armpit, the dual liver area.
Just take three to five minutes and do this, and just try to get whatever sensation you feel — on an intensity scale of one to 10, 10 being the most — and try to cut it in half. If you're at a six, get to three. If you're at an eight, get to four. Just cut it in half.
Evan Brand: It's hard to believe how well it works. Even just two full rounds of it, I can already feel a difference. I breathe into my diaphragm a little more than my chest. And basically, the way you and I have talked about this before — it's like acupuncture without the needles.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Basically. You're doing that, and it's helping with the sympathetic response. The thing I like about EFT is I can just talk about the problem to myself, look right in the mirror and just talk about my frustration, hit it, and then every minute or so come back to “Hey, I deeply and completely accept myself.” That's a great way. If you've got three to five minutes and you want to bring yourself down — grab a magnesium, grab a theanine, do a little tapping, end with a five-minute or three-minute meditation, and in 10 minutes you can shift your whole nervous system. And if you can go sit outside and ground your feet and get some light at the same time, now you've got six modalities going all at once. It's all stacking. Easy things you can do.
Evan Brand: Yeah. Think about the last person who flicked you off on the highway — they probably were not doing EFT that morning.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: No, exactly. So the more you keep your nervous system in good state, you're going to be able to adapt to problems and roll with the punches effortlessly.
Evan Brand: Yeah. And at the end of the day, that's why this is so important — because everyone has stress, but what matters is how you respond to it. The richest man in the world and the poorest man in the world both only have so many hours per day to handle their battles. How you're adapting to that is dependent upon your nervous system's health, and over time — stress, age, and toxins affect your ability to handle that.
So if you're having sound sensitivity, light sensitivity, feeling irritable and overwhelmed, scatterbrained, brain fog, panic attacks, heart palpitations, eyes twitching — those are signs you're dysregulated. Hopefully you've taken a few of these tools today, and if you want to look deeper, let us help you. We can investigate toxins, parasites, bacteria, gut inflammation, and brain inflammation. Quinolinic acid is a factor. We can look at all the neurotransmitters via organic acid testing, stool testing, and other testing.
If you want to reach out to Dr. J, that's at justinhealth.com. Consults are available worldwide. And myself — evanbrand.com — we'll be happy to help you.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yep. And last thing here — when you get stressed, people start breathing through the deep cervical flexor muscles, the scalenes, which attach to rib one and rib two. Think of someone panting, chest rising. Very simple fix: hand on your chest, hand on your abdomen, breathe in, breathe out. The bottom hand is what should be moving. You should almost look like you're six months pregnant at the end — your diaphragm goes down, your guts go out, and you're breathing through your belly.
So this hand should not move. The bottom hand should move first. If the top hand moves, it should be at the very end of the bottom hand's movement. That's just a good cue.
Evan Brand: And watch your kids, watch your babies, watch your young children — they know how to breathe. Innately they have the intelligence to do belly breathing.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: The biggest thing is when you get stressed, the first thing that changes is your breathing. So change the breathing, and try to reframe and find something in your life that you're thankful for right now. Just that one little thing. And that's something you can do in a meeting with anyone, comfortably in the moment, and no one even knows you're doing it.
Evan Brand: You mentioned earlier this idea of pursing your lips. That's been very effective for me too — just literally exhaling as much as you can. It's hard to not belly breathe after you've fully exhaled like that.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Exactly, because you need that strength out here to contract and create that pressure. So yeah, like after this podcast I'm going to go jump outside, ground here, do some breathing and meditation, and do exactly what I just described for five or ten minutes, and then get back in the flow. People can do that — just a five-to-ten-minute break, or even three minutes. Think about it — people go out and smoke a cigarette and go to the bathroom. Just take that same time and do something healthier for you.
Evan Brand: You know what's funny — the people who are smoking a cigarette are probably actually belly breathing. They think it's just the cigarette, but if you think about it, that's quite a deep breath. They're probably diaphragm breathing without knowing it.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: All right, guys — evanbrand.com to reach out to Evan worldwide. Dr. J at justinhealth.com. We are here for you. If you guys want more insight or input, please put it in the comments — we look at that as inspiration for future topics. All right, guys, you have an awesome day. Take care, y'all. Bye-bye.
Evan Brand: Bye now.
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