The Human Upgrade: Biohacking for Longevity & Performance

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, my guest shares her compelling story of attempting to solve the riddle of her own and her family’s complex health challenges. She, her husband and her children were all tired, cranky and sick with various illnesses and she didn’t know why. Dr. Margaret Christensen also didn’t know it at the time, but severe toxic mold exposure was the root cause of her family’s physical and mental health issues. She became all too familiar with chronic fatigue, Fibromyalgia, autoimmune, hormonal, neurological, and psychiatric consequences of unrecognized Biotoxin illness. There have been devastating, long-lasting effects on her family.The experience also took her in another medical career direction—from an obstetrician-gynecologist to a doctor specializing in Functional Medicine. She now researches and treats hormone disruption and neurodegenerative diseases caused by toxic mold.Mold exposure is a multifactorial challenge, Dr. Christensen says. “The way I approach it is I'm not just dealing at the physiologic level, the physical level, of course, using binders and to pull things out and upregulating detox mechanisms with things like glutathione. I do a whole lot of work in the limbic system, because oftentimes, people who've had toxic mold exposure, it's not one exposure.”“It's multiple and accumulated over time,” she continues, “and with a lot of antibiotics, a lot of other stressors, etc. Particularly if you've had ACES or adverse childhood events or major traumas in your life.”Dr. Christensen has been a board-certified ob/gyn for 23 years. She currently runs The Carpathia Collaborative, a large multi-disciplinary, Functional Medicine Practice based in Dallas. Her clinical focus areas are mold toxicity, nutritional biochemistry and environmental toxicology. Enjoy the show! And get more resources at https://blog.daveasprey.com/category/podcasts/* FOR BULLETPROOF RADIO LISTENERS* The free Toxic Mold Summit airs online Aug. 17-23, 2020. Register at https://toxicmoldproject.com. You’ll hear several dozen experts talk about all things related to mold in the body, brain and environment. You can also join in the free encore weekend Aug. 28-29.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

18 Aug 202053min

Join the Dave Asprey Sleep Challenge starting Aug. 17 at https://daveasprey.com/sleepchallenge/In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, my guest is Matthew Walker, Ph.D., author of the international best-selling book, “Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams."“We’re in the midst of a “catastrophic sleep-loss epidemic,” he says. With candor like that about a subject I've talked about and written about for years, I had to have him on the show.I was eager to have a discussion about our lack of sleep and examine sleep’s connection to health and brain function. Our conversation covers all that and much, much more. “There is no single system of the body or the brain that isn’t optimally enhanced by sleep when you get it, or detrimentally impaired when you don’t get enough,” Matthew says.As a professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and director of the Center for Human Sleep Science, his research examines the impact of sleep on human health and disease.Don't miss Matthew’s TED Talks on sleep:Sleep is Your Superpower Why Sleep Matters Now More than Ever A Walk Through the Stages of Sleep Matthew has been featured on television and radio outlets, including CBS’s 60 Minutes, the National Geographic Channel, NOVA Science, NPR, and the BBC, as well as in national and international publications, and on numerous podcasts.Enjoy the show! And join the Dave Asprey Sleep Challenge starting Aug. 17.Note: This episode of Bulletproof Radio is a re-release of my interview with Matthew Walker in August 2019, also titled "Sleep is the Boss of You" #616.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

17 Aug 20201h 9min

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, we’re putting the spotlight on kava. It’s a powerful plant-based stress relieving, nootropic drink from islands in the South Pacific that boosts mood, enhances cognitive abilities and relieves anxiety.My guest is Cameron George, a researcher, writer, entrepreneur and the founder of TRU KAVA.His profoundly personal experience with kava compelled him to research and develop products that could help others. He credits the kava with saving his life. “My story was definitely one of those what I call a pain-to-purpose journey,” Cameron says, “meaning that a lot of these discoveries that I made and even a lot of the other stuff that I'm involved in now all came out of my own pain.”TRU KAVA is setting the industry standard for quality, safety and education around kava within the mass market. “There are more than 200 strains of kava that are used regularly in Vanuatu and Fiji mainly, and then other islands, as well,” Cameron explains. “Just like the world of cannabis, there are all these different strains. … Noble kava is kava that has to meet a certain chemical composition standard.”Kava has been highly regarded for 3,000 years as a safe, natural alternative to drugs and alcohol. The effects are comparable to alcohol, without the drunkenness. The experience often is described as a calm, enhanced state of natural sobriety. Kava is completely non-addictive.Kava also is commonly known as “the great protector” because it is one of nature’s most profound and complete protective substances. This means that when humans consume kava, it helps both protect the body from all forms of stress (physical, chemical, emotional) and rid the body of built-up stress.Cameron says from its signature and its life force, Kava is a protective substance. “That's why it has... protective pathways from reducing glutamate levels through GABA and sodium calcium channel blocking to activating cellular autophagy and turning over fat into ketones. All of these things are protective, and the same thing with COX stuff and everything and the NRF2 upregulation, as well, that occurs. These are hormetic stress pathways.”In the islands, kava is also known as a very gentle entheogen (psychedelic) that brings about creative and introspective thinking and makes users more empathetic.“The entourage effect that we hear about in these plant medicines comes from the fact that a plant medicine or a fungal medicine is a living system,” Cameron says. “It's a living, intelligent system just like the human body is a living, intelligent system. It has a multitude of different active compounds in it that work synergistically. They're biologically compatible because they come from our natural ecology.”Enjoy the show! And get more resources at https://blog.daveasprey.com/category/podcasts/*SPECIAL OFFER FOR BULLETPROOF RADIO LISTENERS* Visit TRU KAVA and get 15% off products with the coupon code DAVE15.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

13 Aug 202056min

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, you're going to hear about breathwork, epigenetics, and the effect of chronic stress on multiple generations of the species and what to do about it. You're also going to learn why you should be touching yourself right now and what that actually means. (And no, it’s not what you think.) This is part 2 of my conversation with Dr. David Rabin. Listen to part 1: Your Brain Thinks All Pain is the Same: Touch Therapy Can Help – Dr. David Rabin with Dave Asprey – #729. “Breath and touch help us to restore a sense of control and agency in the present moment, by bringing us back to our bodies,” Dr. Rabin says. “Our minds can be anywhere. They could be the past. They can be in the present or the future, but if we're not conscious of where they are, then they're generally in the past or the future. So by focusing on that breath, focusing on the feeling of soothing touch, it instantly brings us back into our bodies, which helps us center us firmly in the present, which is literally the place where we have the most control of what's going on in our lives.”He’s been studying the impact of trauma and chronic stress in humans for more than a decade and has some ideas on how you can manage it. In our conversation, we look at new ways that psychedelics are being combined with psychotherapy.“Psychedelic medicine is unique because it allows us, whether it's MDMA or LSD, or psilocybin or ketamine, to step outside of that default mode and look back at ourselves, and really reappraise what it means to be us,” he says.Dr. Rabin’s a neuroscientist, board-certified psychiatrist, health tech entrepreneur, inventor and researcher. In his clinical practice, he specializes in mental health disorders that can be resistant to treatment, like PTSD and substance abuse. He’s also co-founder and chief innovation officer of Apollo Neuroscience. Apollo is a new kind of wearable technology that delivers touch therapy, scientifically validated to lower stress.“We need to remember the importance of touch in our lives because touch is the single most powerful way that we convey safety to one another,” he says. “It's literally hardwired in our nervous system.”Certain combinations of low frequency inaudible sound waves (vibration that you can feel but can’t hear) can safely and reliably change how we feel through our sense of touch. We then can measure those physiological changes in near real time.Developed by physicians and neuroscientists at the University of Pittsburgh, Apollo delivers gentle vibrations of low-frequency sound that are clinically validated to improve heart rate variability (HRV), helping you to relax, sleep well, focus, and stay energized.Enjoy the show! And get more resources at https://blog.daveasprey.com/category/podcasts/*PODCAST LISTENER SPECIAL OFFER* Get 15% of an Apollo Neuro device.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

12 Aug 202048min

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, we’re going all in on stress and anxiety. Dr. David Rabin is going to take you into the brain, discuss mental health, show how psychedelics can help, and introduce you to the world’s first adaptogenic wearable technology. This is part 1 of my conversation with Dr. David Rabin.Listen to part 2: Healing Trauma with Touch, Breathwork and Psychedelic Medicine – Dr. David Rabin with Dave Asprey – #730He's a neuroscientist, board-certified psychiatrist, health tech entrepreneur, inventor and researcher. In his clinical practice, he specializes in mental health disorders that can be resistant to treatment, like PTSD and substance abuse.“We've all had these experiences and they all impact our lives and it may impact the way we see ourselves and the way we see the world around us,” Dr. Rabin says. “It could be like the first time you watched a war movie to some first time you've had a terrible nightmare, or the first time that somebody bullied you in school. These things are dramatically impactful to us. And until we take the time to look at ourselves and try to understand what makes us who we are, ... sometimes they evade us, right? And they elude us to the point where we don't realize that we act in ways that are reflective of these things that have happened to us.”Dr. Rabin’s been studying the impact of trauma and chronic stress in humans for more than a decade and has some ideas on how you can manage it. He’s co-founder and chief innovation officer of Apollo Neuroscience. Apollo is a new kind of wearable technology that delivers touch therapy, scientifically validated to lower stress.Certain combinations of low frequency inaudible sound waves (vibration that you can feel but can’t hear) can safely and reliably change how we feel through our sense of touch. We then can measure those physiological changes in near real time.Developed by physicians and neuroscientists at the University of Pittsburgh, Apollo delivers gentle vibrations of low-frequency sound that are clinically validated to improve heart rate variability (HRV), helping you to relax, sleep well, focus, and stay energized.Enjoy the show!*PODCAST LISTENER SPECIAL OFFER* Get 15% of an Apollo Neuro device.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

11 Aug 202049min

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, Garrett Salpeter, otherwise known as "The Health Engineer," joins me to talk about a special kind of electrical stimulation for the body. He put his engineering and neuroscience background to use to create an electrical stimulation method called NeuFit®. It’s based on neuromuscular re-education of the nervous system and specifically designed for injury rehabilitation, pain reduction, and improved body performance. I actually demonstrate how the technology works during the show. I break a sweat using his Neubie® device – and even yelp a few times – but it’s all worth it.(Note to Listeners: This episode was recorded at 40 Years of Zen before the coronavirus pandemic travel restrictions and shutdowns.) This is a unique type of direct electrical current, Garrett says. “As opposed to traditional electrical stimulation, which is typically alternating current and causes muscles only to contract, this actually can allow us to preferentially reprogram muscles so that they lengthen, so they're more relaxed, more pliable and more resilient, and that allows us to move through greater ranges of motion. It opens up the pathways physically for the body to actually send the blood and raw materials and resources to help you heal, and it optimizes function in a way that just improves the overall recovery process.”Science, research and functional neurology provide the backbone for NeuFit®. Garrett evolved his unique electrical stimulation protocols over the past decade and now helps athletes of all levels, as well as people recovering from spinal cord injury, stroke, and MS.He and his team work directly with MLB, NHL, NBA, and NFL teams; major NCAA universities; hospital systems; physical therapy and chiropractic clinics; and fitness facilities. Listen on to find out how to recover faster from injuries, reverse chronic pain, and experience big improvements in fitness and performance.Enjoy the show! And get more resources at https://blog.daveasprey.com/category/podcasts/Special Offer: https://www.neu.fit/daveSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

6 Aug 202054min

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, we’re talking about hair—the thin and the thick of it. For anyone experiencing hair thinning or loss, this episode covers all the latest hair science—what works, what’s new and what you can realistically expect—for both men and women. My guest, Alan J. Bauman, M.D., is the founder, CEO and medical director of the medical hair loss practice he started 23 years ago. He’s a board-certified hair restoration physician and hair transplant surgeon who has treated more than 30,000 patients and performed more than 9,000 hair transplant procedures. He’s one of approximately only 200 physicians worldwide to achieve certification from the American and International Board of Hair Restoration Surgery.This episode is airing during National Hair Loss Awareness Month in August to bring you all the latest science and technologies that are available. A lot of you are dealing with this problem. According to the American Academy of Dermatology, 1 in 2 men in the U.S. will experience hair loss in their lifetime and 50 million will be affected by male-pattern baldness. Woman are affected, too. 1 in 4 women suffer from hair loss and thinning hair and 30 million women are affected by hair loss.*Dr. Bauman’s been extensively featured in media worldwide as an elite medical hair loss expert for pioneering numerous technologies in the field of hair restoration. I traveled to Bauman Medical, a “hair hospital” in Boca Raton, Florida, before the pandemic lockdowns began in the U.S. to find out more about his treatments and how they worked.Scalp Health: Why it’s important and what it says about what’s going on in your body.“Scalp health is a big problem,” says Dr. Bauman, “and we know now that there's a direct link between scalp health and the inflammation (in the body) that's going on. The hair fiber is dead but the follicle is alive, and when there's inflammation going on in and around that area the follicle just doesn't perform as well. So, scalp health is really important.”Hair Loss and Hair Thinning: It’s super common for both men and women! How to get the right diagnosis, evaluation and treatment options for the hair on your head, eyebrows and even beards.Topicals: What works and how to keep your scalp healthy along the way.“There's now skin microbiome – microbiome of the scalp,” says. Dr. Bauman. “It's a new frontier of hair health that we're just starting to learn about.”Non-Surgical Hair Replacement Options: How lasers can optimize hair follicles.“Low-level laser light therapy is a great technology, non-chemical, non-invasive way to impart energy to the hair follicles,” Dr. Bauman says. “We've progressed over 15 or 20 years from small hand-held devices, to little bands, to laser caps, and certainly now the devices are a lot more sophisticated, a lot more portable, and a lot more powerful, too.” Hair Transplants: Debunking the myths and misconceptions, so you can find out if you’re a candidate.Bye, bye painful “plugs.” Comfortable, sophisticated, artistically-performed procedures can be undetectably natural with minimal downtime.Hair Regeneration: Stem cells and platelet-rich plasma are game-changers.“We've leveraged platelet-rich plasma treatments, and the growth factors that they provide, for better hair regrowth,” Dr. Bauman says. Mesenchymal stem cells can be harvested and used for hair regrowth, too.3D-Printed Hair & Scalp Prosthetics: The possibilities are life-changing for many.“Hair restoration has changed so much just within the past five or 10 years – going from such an invasive process to something minimally invasive,” Dr. Bauman says.Enjoy the show! And get more resources at https://blog.daveasprey.com/category/podcasts/See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

4 Aug 20201h 7min

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, my candid conversation with Paul Chek continues into the metaphysical, states of consciousness and why so many of us are in fight-or-flight mode.Note to Listeners: This is the second of a two-part show and focuses on the metaphysical drivers of our lives. Part 1 focused on physical health: DON’T BS YOURSELF; DO THE FOUR BASICS OF HOLISTIC HEALTH – PAUL CHEK WITH DAVE ASPREY – #725.“Our biochemistry is changing constantly to enhance our ability to survive and no belief system is nearly as dynamic as the truth of our own bodies,” Paul says. The truth of our bodies is that we’re under a tremendous amount of stress–some that’s within our control, some that’s not. This makes us reactive and takes us to lower levels of consciousness. For more than 30 years, Paul’s trained, guided and helped people level up their physical, mental and spiritual health. He’s an expert in the fields of corrective and high-performance exercise kinesiology, stress management and holistic wellness. What he’s seeing right now is a tipping point. “So what's happening in my observation,” Paul says, “is that the world populace due to the destruction of the environment, due to the chemicals in the environment, due to the electromagnetic pollution, due to overstimulation, due to the lack of sleep, due to the manipulation of people's biochemistry by medical drug use, … we're going lower and lower into our levels of consciousness, which is putting us more and more in a fight or flight state, which is making us more and more reactive. Therefore, we're not able to transcend to the higher levels of consciousness that are needed.”We can see what’s happening in the world and can’t escape it. But everyone in the world has a chance to participate and we have to do it, Paul says. “Every human being has genius within it. We can use the same technology and the same level of brain power that got us in trouble to reverse it.”Paul is a Certified Neuromuscular Therapist and Clinical Exercise Specialist (ACE) who’s studied with experts worldwide from many disciplines. He’s also an inventor who’d accrued three US patents for posture calibrating, hydrotherapy and equipment inventions, and has designed several pieces of functional exercise equipment. He’s released more than 50 videos, half a dozen books, several e-books, and nearly 20 advanced level home-study educational lessons.Enjoy the show! And get more resources at https://blog.daveasprey.com/category/podcasts/See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

31 Jul 20201h 3min