The Daria Hamrah Podcast
Do you want to change or simply improve your life? Take your business or your personal relationships to the next level? Have you ever thought why change is so difficult? Ever wondered how people become successful and we just call them "lucky". The Daria Hamrah Podcast gives you Dr. Hamrah's personal insights and pathways to his successes and what he calls "true happiness". Featuring interviews with some of the most successful entrepreneurs, authors and experts in their field, he shares their insights into what he calls the "Secret of Life".
The Daria Hamrah Podcast
"The Untold Truths of Wellness: Shawn Wells on Supplements, Nutrition, and Self-Care"
Discover the transformative journey of Shawn Wells, MPH, LDN, RD, CISSN, FISSN, a leading nutritional biochemist, by many regarded as “The World’s Greatest Formulator”, Biohacktivitst, and Keto Authority, who has conquered immense personal health challenges to emerge as a beacon of hope in the wellness community. Learn how his struggles with obesity, Epstein-Barr virus, fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue syndrome propelled him to become a passionate advocate for holistic health, inspired by the teachings of Dr. Michael Colgan and Bill Phillips. Shawn shares his remarkable story of turning adversity into strength, offering valuable insights for anyone seeking to take control of their health.
Join us as we unravel the controversial landscape of health advice during the COVID-19 pandemic. Shawn and I examine the benefits of vitamin D, fresh air, and other natural immunity boosters that were largely overlooked in favor of mainstream recommendations. We also tackle the pervasive issues of microplastics, the impact of profit-driven capitalism on public health, and the societal resistance to meaningful lifestyle changes. Our conversation emphasizes the importance of personal responsibility and a mindset shift towards sustainable wellness.
Shawn deep dives into the complexity of health and the critical importance of stress management and mitochondrial health. Discover actionable strategies for optimizing your health through proper nutrition, hydration, and quality supplements, including the significance of vitamin D, magnesium, and NAD levels. Sean’s personal experiences and professional insights provide a comprehensive guide to embracing a holistic approach to well-being, encouraging listeners to challenge conventional wisdom and empower their health transformation.
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https://www.energyformula.com/
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https://shawnwells.com/
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Hello everyone, welcome to another amazing episode of the Dari Hammer podcast, and this is our health and wellness series. Today I have a very special guest and I'm honored to have him on my podcast just because I feel he's the world's foremost expert when it comes to nutrition science supplementation as a matter of fact, he is called the ingredientologist, if I'm not mistaking, and as a nutritional biochemist, registered dietitian and certified sports nutritionist, sean Wells has notably been a fellow in the International Society of Sports Nutrition and has over 10 years of experience as a chief clinical dietitian in both acute hospital and skilled nursing settings. His background includes business administration, marketing at Babson College and exercise science at UNC, greensboro. He earned his master's degree in Nutritional Biochemistry from the University of North Carolina, chapel Hill. His professional journey saw him as the Chief Science Officer at Biotrust Nutrition, overseeing brand marketing, r&d, regulatory supply chain and quality control for the company that boasts an impressive annual revenue of $125 million. Having overcome personal health challenges, including Epstein-Barr virus, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, depression, insomnia, obesity and a pituitary tumor, sean stands as a beacon of hope and information resource for countless individuals. His passion for health and wellness is further evident through his contributions in masterminds, conferences, magazines and TV appearances worldwide. Sean's voice has resonated on international platforms and is a globally acclaimed nutritional biochemistry expert, revered as the world's greatest formulator in the supplement industry. With over two decades of experience. He has formulated more than 1,100 products which are distributed worldwide. He holds over 40 plus patent novel ingredients, including market-leading innovations such as Infinity, dilucin, Teocrine and Dynamite.
Speaker 1:Amazon Forbes. You really owe it not just to yourself, but to people around you whom you care about their health, and I personally read it. For me, it was very life-changing, very inspirational, and I urge you to pick it up. First thing, I will have the link down in the captions, but without further ado. Sean, welcome to my podcast. And will have the link down in the captions, but without further ado. Sean, welcome to my podcast and I'm really honored to have you here.
Speaker 2:It's amazing to be here. Thank you for having me on.
Speaker 1:So, sean, you came to the science of nutrition and wellness. You know, very similar to many of us, including myself, through medical conditions and problems that you had where you felt that you need to take things in your own hand, that nothing you had been doing before helped and pretty much got to a point where you had enough and you wanted to make a change. And I think one of the things that urge us to change is we have to associate significant pain and agony with our current state to motivate us to make a change. What was that moment for you? Can you kind of briefly walk the audience through it so they get to know you a little bit and so that they have a context of why you're doing what you're doing today?
Speaker 2:Yeah, there was a couple moments, one of which was when I was in college. I had been morbidly obese through my teen years and going into college and then I found Working Out and I was reading all the muscle magazines and I read Optimum Sports Nutrition by Michael Colgan. Dr Michael Colgan was working with Olympic athletes and doing like these GH boosting, amino acid blends. And then I also read Bill Phillips and Dan Duchesne had a encyclopedia guide to supplements and all of these things had a huge impact on me and I was taking creatine and protein and BCAAs and all these things and working out, getting incredible results. I really changed my body and I ended up going into my doctor this is over 20 some years ago, 25 years ago and I assumed he was going to make fun of me because I was talking about supplements and he was probably going to say they're all stupid. And instead he looked at me after I went on and on about them and he saw my massive change in body composition and he just saw the spark in my eye, the passion, and he drew out this lifeline on a piece of paper between 20 and 80. And he said why not be happy between here and here? And that was the game changer for me. Like that opened my mind to why can't I do what I love, why don't I do something that truly makes me happy, where I've had my hero's journey, and that set me on a different path.
Speaker 2:I did finish a business school at Babson, but I ended up doing a minor in chemistry and then going to UNC, greensboro and getting all the classes for about two years that I needed. It was a lot of prereqs, a lot of sciences and then, as you said, getting into Chapel Hill for nutritional biochemistry. That was my dream school where I wanted to go. But along that process is when I had Epstein-Barr, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, hashimoto's and I crashed. I was in bed for about six months. I was really pushing myself, you know, working 80 plus hours a week.
Speaker 2:I had a lot of trauma through my childhood, things that I was never really fully worked through, a lot of suppressed emotion, a lot of anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, things like that and I was in bed for six months and trying to figure my way out. And that led me to really discovering the paleo diet, the ketogenic diet, fasting, immune supplements and really like shifting from sports, nutrition and aesthetics and performance to I need to get out of bed and I need to be a healthy human being, and that was where I applied a lot of my energy. And between both of those things and me having my own hero's journey around that, that led me to, one, being pretty passionate, but two, helping a lot of other people on their journeys. That led people to me asking how I did that, and then it became a life's purpose for me.
Speaker 1:That's interesting Now. Throughout those health struggles, what help or advice were you getting from your doctors, or how did they help you overcome those health challenges?
Speaker 2:None, really. The one doctor that encouraged me in terms of my life path, that was one thing, but as far as giving advice on how to make myself healthier, none. I got a lot of antidepressants, immune suppressants, painkillers, you know all these kinds of things that really just led to me having more side effects, more issues. You know. No one's really concerned with root cause. And yet root causes I read a study that I saw the other day that it was, you know, 88% of the issues health issues that people are having are attributable to, you know, root causes like that you can go back to, and so we're not really focused on that. We're focused on the side effects. Uh, chris rock talked about in a in one of his stand-up routines that you know. We're. We're not really, uh, interested in the cure, we're interested in keeping people sick. It's a sick care model and the money's all in the comeback just like a drug dealer. So, so, so in your opinion?
Speaker 1:what is the current? Why is the current medical system more focused on treating chronic disease with pharmaceuticals pharmaceuticals rather than promoting prevention through lifestyle and supplements? I mean, isn't it the obligation and duty, isn't it the obligation and duty, isn't it the oath that all physicians swore to promote health, to first do no harm, which a lot of these medications do harm, in addition to treating chronic disease. But they actually do a lot of harm too. And not telling someone, not educating someone on health and nutrition and disease prevention, is like the same thing as lying. It's like if you don't say something that's true is not any different than lying. So why do you think that is?
Speaker 2:That's a great question and the obvious answer to that is money, and not only money in terms of doctors make more money in the sick care model with return patients. I mean, you're essentially, if you give them the cure, uh, they don't come back. This is just like, like it's called, the continuity model in almost all these other businesses. It's the Netflix model, it's the subscription model. Essentially, we want return business, we want predictable business.
Speaker 1:But you can do the same.
Speaker 2:A chiropractor or anyone like this. They want to have you continue to keep coming back. They don't want you healthy and well and never coming back. The Hippocratic Oath, as you talked about, is more the hypocritical oath, if we're going to look at it, because it's exactly what you're saying, where you're leaving out the key information You're leaving out.
Speaker 2:Look at COVID. Did we talk about vitamin D? Did we talk about intimacy? Did we talk about grounding and fresh air and sunshine? Did we talk about all these things that we know, these de-stressing techniques with breath work? Did we talk about the things that we know absolutely boost immunity? I can give you all the studies where it dramatically boosts immunity to the tune of 40 to 80 percent, all the things I just laid out. Did we tell anyone about those things? Now, we were telling them about masks. We were telling them about fear. We were telling them about hand sanitizer. We were telling them about six foot from, you know, social distancing. We weren't telling them about the things that we actually know to work telling them about the things that we actually know to work.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think what you're pointing out is what you know. I hope I won't get a target on my back saying this. It was the government promoting these things you just said. But you know what the sad part for me was, and I had conversations with a lot of my colleagues, some of the smartest physicians and scientists we're talking Harvard graduates, Yale graduates, Stanford graduates. I had that conversation the exact same thing that you said and they were laughing at me. They were saying no, just make sure you get vaccinated and wear your mask. They were pretty much repeating the rhetoric, the story that were sold.
Speaker 1:It was almost like brainwashing at its best. That for me, it was so disappointing that it defied logic, because we are taught biochemistry, we are taught physiology. We were taught all the cellular mechanisms, the coenzymes and the electrolytes that help support the immune system. We were taught all of that. It's not like it's not in our books. Somehow everybody forgets about it because it's like the focus got shifted away from that, away from that, and I think it has to do with uh, almost we become creatures of habit. Um, we forget to look at the basics and um, covet was the perfect example.
Speaker 2:you're absolutely correct I think it's more. I think it's more insidious than that. Uhstream media, and especially the news outlets, are largely owned by George Soros, and these things are bankrolled by BlackRock and these other companies like this. This is literally. This is something that you can 1000 percent look up. It's 100 percent true. And each politician in Congress gets, on average, $425,000 per year from Big Pharma. Who do you think that they're serving? Who do you think is bankrolling their campaigns? They spend on average 75 to 80 percent of their day looking for dollars, not working for you, looking for dollars for their campaigns, for their, for their next run. It's a, it's a business for them and it's big business. And when you have all these commercials by big pharma that are funding the mainstream media, I mean, who do you think's going to like? What message is going to be pervasive Do you think people are getting?
Speaker 1:smarter. What message is going to be pervasive?
Speaker 2:Do you think people are getting smarter? I do. You're seeing podcasts actually overtake the viewership of some of these mainstream media outlets on a significant level. I would say the top five podcasts in the United States are overtaking viewership of pretty much any news media channel.
Speaker 1:Well, I think I read a stat. I think even Joe Rogan's podcast alone surpasses the viewership way it has been, given the ubiquitous information that is disseminated through social media, internet slash, podcast, and I hope that people get rid of their cynicism. And you know, for example, I know I used to roll my eyes when I heard the word supplements because I considered it as snake oil. Because and I'm really ashamed of myself, but I will admit it because I have to, because it is the truth it was my ignorance. It was something that I was convinced.
Speaker 1:If it was true, they would have taught us that in medical school. And since they didn't, so it can't be true, because I regard my professors, you know, usually regard your mentors so highly that you dare questioning them. So you go with what they have postulated until you hit a brick wall over and over again and then you start asking the question, which is the wrong thing. We should always ask questions and be skeptical. So what do you think when we talk about general supplement myths? What are the biggest misconceptions today about supplements that you encounter in your work and how do you debunk them?
Speaker 2:I think the first one would be that supplements are supplemental, that they're not foundational, just like I believe you know you getting quality sleep, quality hydration, quality nutrition. We are in a world right now where we are getting attacked with viruses and bacteria on a pretty epic level, with EMFs, with over 5,000 new chemicals a year that are being introduced that are barely studied, with medications that are barely studied on a broad level, at least on a polypharmacy and epigenetic level, like where we understand the bioindividuality. We don't know how they interact with everything. Things are just getting thrown out at us at record numbers. The soil is depleted, at record numbers. The soil is depleted.
Speaker 2:There is just so many reasons that we are stressed and overwhelmed, that we are not able to be functioning at our highest level, and I do believe that supplements that aid in our detox pathways, that help our coenzymatic functions of vitamins and minerals, those are going to be imperative for our functioning at an optimal level. These people that say well, just, you know, eat good food and you know, get your sleep and hydrate. You know, even even the water, our water, our air supply is loaded not only with microplastics but nanoplastics, and that microplastic exposure is leaving you at a four times higher risk for stroke because it's literally implanted in your heart. This is like data that's coming out and it's's insidious. It is absolutely insidious and it just revolves around profit. If you think anyone is looking out for your best interest, that wants you to be healthy and happy, think again. I mean, there is just profit driven capitalism and we have to be our own best advisor and find out what the real information is here.
Speaker 1:You know, what I've noticed is so interesting that you said that, because everything you said, by the way, it's true. And, to the listeners, if you don't believe it, that information is on the internet. You can look it up. I mean, there's true science on this and, as Sean said, it's emerging. More and more science on this is emerging. But isn't it interesting, sean, and that's my personal experience when I try to consult my patients.
Speaker 1:I feel we live in a society that everybody just wants a quick fix. I feel like people are so lazy. As soon as um you tell them that you have to, they they have to work for it. Um, ie lifestyle changes, exercising like walking 30 to 40 minutes a day, not drinking bottled water out of plastic, um, getting a filter and then just drinking water that is not stored in plastic, that is at least in glass, simple stuff like that. But it's all a change in the habits that they've created and they're just lazy. It's just an inconvenience because they're like. It's just an inconvenience because they're so used to their current lifestyle not to eat carbs and starches and sugars, which consists, basically, 70 percent of the american diet is processed, ultra processed food. You tell them that they need to build muscle mass, that they need to have healthy mitochondria, that they need to feed their brain and get rid of the toxins. And it's all is simple to do. It's just as soon as you tell them that they're going to have to do something. It doesn't come in a bottle, um, it's almost.
Speaker 1:First they start lying, um, and then when you dig deeper, you realize that they're lying about the diet. They're like oh yeah, I have a healthy diet. And then you ask them well, can you tell me what you ate today? What, what did you have this morning and how much did you eat? And they don't even know the nutritional value of the foods they eat in grams and I'm talking about smart people like doctors Everybody talks about calories, calories, everybody's so focused on calories and they don't understand that, depending on where the calories come from, it just is different. The bioavailability of the proteins and fats that they eat is different depending on what source they come from.
Speaker 1:I want you to talk to us a little bit about that, to educate the audience on those things. I feel like people are just too lazy. Our society has gotten to a point where we just want quick fixes. We don't want to have to work for it, and as soon as it's one or two extra steps, we just say you know what? Who wants to live 100 years anyways? Or I'll be fine, I have my mom's genes. She's doing good. They come up with all kinds of justifications until something happens, and that's something that you went through with your health and that obviously has changed you. And now you're on a mission. So can you kind of, I guess, unwrap it and just keep our audience honest about these things, so that maybe they, after listening to this, they start thinking about maybe they should work a little harder for it.
Speaker 2:Well, look, everything's set up right now around dopamine. Everyone knows what drives your decisions. It is convenience and it is reward centers. It's what keeps you doom scrolling on social media. It's what ultra processed food that you mentioned is all about. It's engineered by very brilliant people to make you overeat and override what's called satiety, which means feeling full, and this is about you being addicted, and so things are engineered to make you addicted. Netflix is the science of addiction around how long you're on that platform. Meta and TikTok are based on addiction how long you are on that platform. Heat mapping on websites is to keep you there. Everything when you're in that store, like an Apple store or a Walmart, is to keep you there, to keep you shopping, to catch you at eye level with some signage. It's all around addiction and engagement, around addiction and engagement, and you are just dollar signs to all these companies. So when I think about it, when I talk to someone about mindset, none of it is your fault, but all of it is your responsibility. You need to take control for your life.
Speaker 1:No one else is going to do it think. I mean it sounds like trying to convince an alcoholic um not to drink, by by pointing out the benefits of not drinking. How, how, how, how well does that work?
Speaker 2:you know, there's two things that I've done a lot of work around psychedelics and and I do feel like there's an awakening they call it the age of Aquarius or the Christ consciousness, the great awakening, the unplugging from the matrix or whatever it is.
Speaker 2:I think there's that that's happening in humanity and maybe there's a side of AI that isn't so evil and insidious. Maybe AI could actually be the great equalizer and stop some of the manipulation and the addiction and the engineering of your brain that is happening right now and really equalize the playing field. I mean, it's possible. We don't know how it's all going to end up, but I have thought through that scenario where maybe AI is fairly benevolent and fair. So we don't know, but I do feel like there is certainly a great awakening that is happening and that's just like this conversation here, and these conversations are being had very openly now, like maybe by some of those podcasts that you mentioned before, and it's not just hidden in the corners where we were scared to speak about it. Even at the start of COVID, like you said, people were worried about losing their businesses, worried about losing their social media accounts, losing their friends, losing their credibility, their credentials, over just having an opinion.
Speaker 2:And it was a silencing, a stifling that was happening about just even having an opinion, even a well-educated, scientifically-backed opinion, by dissenting scientists and clinicians, and that is changing. People are pushing back now. People are seeing that we were absolutely lied to and that there were massive companies that benefited on the trillions of dollars level that's how much money changed hands during the first year to a covet was trillions of dollars, and so there is a great awakening absolutely so what do you, what do you have to say to people that are just too lazy to look into it or actually scared to look into it?
Speaker 1:it's almost like they don't want their world view to crumble. Because we identify ourselves with the society we live in, we want to believe that people that we elect do things in our interest, because if it wasn't, for that, that would mean would put our democracy in question, and no one wants to believe that. It's essentially would be destroying our worldview, and I think people are scared to ask those questions. And similarly, like when it comes to our healthcare, where people dare to question the doctors, now more and more people which is also not good are questioning the doctors to the point that they have a severe chronic illness or they have cancer and they don't follow their doctor's advice and they end up dying. That's the other extreme. So there's almost uh, it's almost nothing in in between anymore. So what do you have to say to to people like that?
Speaker 2:you know, that's a great point about the polarization, and I do believe that, um, there's a lot of that taking place where you're taking extreme viewpoints to compensate for the other extreme. But I do believe in the middle path and I do believe that that is our ultimate way forward, that eventually there will be a recalibration and those that can deal with just like you know, if you're resilient, you're deeply in the center, you can deal with extremes very well, right, you can deal with extreme cold and extreme hot. You can deal with fasting and feasting. Your sirtuin genes are activated and you are anti-fragile, and I do believe that that's the way that we proceed forward is by respecting one another.
Speaker 2:When I've been in psychedelic spaces, I actually started really going down that path and really, as 2020 was, you know, going and right at the beginning, like really essentially when COVID was just happening, was when I was kind of going deep into that space and there was also, uh, a lot of uh discussion around uh, trump and Clinton and um, you know, as well as Biden and and um, and then there was black lives matter and and all these kinds of kinds of things were going on socially and people were arguing and there was a lot of hostility and anger and, to some degree, that polarization keeps us in line, keeps us in our little boxes, keeps us in our spaces, is if you study an NLP, neuro linguistics programming, which I've studied pretty much in depth, if you, if we all have one opinion, we're going to agree.
Speaker 2:I love that topic, by the way if we have three or more opinions, we're going to respect each other's opinion, but there's something that happens psychologically when there's two choices, the choice you don't make has to be wrong psychologically. Your brain literally forces this type of thinking and so, if you notice it's, are you Republican, are you Democrat, are you liberal, are you conservative? Are you Xbox or Sony, are you Android, are you iPhone, are you, you know, whatever?
Speaker 2:it is they want you in one of two camps. Ask why that is. And ask when you talk to someone hey, how do you feel about COVID? Oh, I'm anti-COVID, I'm pro-COVID. Like, no, no one says that. No one says I'm pro-mask, I'm anti-mask, I'm pro-vaccine, I'm anti-vaccine. No one says that. Yeah, you know what they say.
Speaker 2:They're like well, you know, I believe the N95 and the KN95 may work, but, like probably this cloth masks don't really work. And I don't know about the six feet distance, but you know there's it really depends on the degree to which you have this potential and depends on the strain too, and probably your age and comorbidities. And well, as far as the vaccine, I, I don't know, it's different if we talk about the, the rna version, or you know this dead virus version and and really, like it depends on your age and you know, maybe like it made more sense if, like you're maybe in your 80s and you have comorbidities, but probably not for kids. And then the social impact Wow, huh, interesting, we're not getting like just one box or the other box. It's funny when I talk to everyone, they're not pro-gun, anti-gun, pro-abortion, anti-abortion, they're not any of these things. They have a variety of viewpoints that are very multifaceted, because they're real human beings, and yet we're forced to be in boxes and you need to ask yourself why? Because it divides and separates us.
Speaker 1:Yeah and uh, you know, and that goes to the fact that, um, since ancient history, we're tribal and uh, this tribalism is still instilled in us and now even uh, through the vehicle of the media, even further nurtured by people that, to be honest, control the media. What you said about AI I love your optimistic stance on AI because usually when you hear AI, people associate it with doomsday and robots taking over and killing all of us. And a couple of years ago I had a podcast on AI when it came out and was popular and I addressed that topic. But I loved your optimistic view on this in stating that AI might be our only hope to get us out of that, to basically bitch slap us when we try to get into one corner, and to get us out of the corner and keeping us honest. I love that and you know what I mean. I'm actually going to go with that story for myself because I'm an optimist by nature and I love that.
Speaker 1:You said that because, until this conversation, I wasn't sure if I saw hope that it's going to get any better. I thought it's probably going to get worse, because you look at the past 10 hope that it's going to get any better. I I thought it's probably going to get worse because you look at the past 10 years, it's been really getting worse, especially when you look at this tribalism that has been fed to us by the media and um, and also social media I mean meta and all of those companies they just put on our feed what we believe in, so we uh basically, um, the stuff that supports our own views instead of, uh, showing us stuff that doesn't support our views to make us question and um, so um, I think about.
Speaker 2:Think about, if ai is like a generalized consciousness across, yes, millions of organisms, billions of of organisms, all these robots, all these computers, whatever why would one of them hurt another one of them? Yeah, why would they have short-term thinking over long-term thinking, meaning like why would they do harm to the planet? Why would they do harm to the other organisms on the planet? What would that actually benefit them? Yeah, yeah, would they do harm to the planet? Why would they do harm to the other organisms on the planet? What would that actually benefit them? Yeah, yeah, they're going to think long term. They're going to think in infinite term because they expect to live infinitely. They're going to do things that benefit the, the group or the mass. They're going to, like, desire things that are stable, like so it doesn't make sense to do things the way that we've proceeded. Of course, we're going to view things through the lens, like how we would do things, and it just goes to show, like, you know, what humanity is and maybe what we deserve. Um, until we do go through some kind of awakening and really do better.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that, I love this conversation.
Speaker 1:The context of what we just talked about really matters when we talk about disease prevention and health and wellness versus medication as treatments for chronic disease, because that is also one camp versus the other and I think a lot of these myths around either one are created by both camps and I think there should be a middle that is just based on science and ultimately based on results and not based on rhetorics or opinions.
Speaker 1:Again, going back to health and wellness, what were the main lifestyle changes and they may or may not have included supplementations of any sort that really helped you to get yourself out of this hole of chronic disease that you mentioned fibromyalgia, whole of chronic disease that you mentioned fibromyalgia, hashimoto's, I mean, those are stuff that affects millions, billions of people, I mean, and doctors just give you medications, especially when it comes to fibromyalgia, no one knows how to treat it, and obviously to treat it and obviously getting at the root cause is overlooked Somehow, god knows how and why. Can you give us from your personal health journey and then also share, maybe, stories of people that you helped along your journey?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can solve disease for you right now. If you're ready, I'm ready. I can't wait about 99% of disease? At a cellular level, it's mitochondrial dysfunction. At a organism level, it's a dysregulated nervous system now and that's talk to us about mitochondrial dysfunction.
Speaker 1:I mean, not everybody has a major in biology or biochemistry. Can you tell us a little bit about mitochondria, what they do, why they're so important for every cell in the body and how we can help support their function?
Speaker 2:Practical things yeah, that's a great question. And so the mitochondria if you remember your high school or middle school biology, then the mitochondria there's organelles in the cell and there's a mitochondria in the diagram. But you might be surprised to know that there can be thousands of mitochondria in very energy-dependent cells. So think about a cardiomyocyte, which would be a heart muscle cell. Or, like the brain, for example, neurons are very energy-dependent. They use a lot of ATP. So that is the point that mitochondria.
Speaker 1:Also your muscles, your regular stratified muscles.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and so your mitochondria, if you remember that Krebs cycle crank and now it's called the citric acid cycle, the TCA, right? So that's going to create ATP, adenosine triph, like little ATP dumps along the way. At least in an oxygen rich environment and aerobic environment, you're going to have ATP created. So mitochondria are critical for cellular energy and therefore the energy for the body to do everything and anything. When there's a shortfall of energy, that's when we run into disease, we run into inflammation, glycation and oxidation. You're essentially running your car down the road and you're running out of gas and you're running out of oil, and this is not functioning optimally. You don't have enough mitochondria, one and two. They're not working very well. So you have mitochondrial dysfunction and you have a lack of mitochondrial biogenesis, which means creation of new mitochondria.
Speaker 2:When we stress ourselves in a healthy way, this needs to be done. When you're in parasympathetic nervous system. This needs to be done when you're not overflowing in what's called allostatic capacity, meaning your stress bucket. You can increase the size of your stress bucket. You can increase the functionality of your mitochondria. You can increase the functionality of your mitochondria. You can increase the number of mitochondria through positive or eustress, also known as hormesis. You can positively stress so like think of fasting, working out, hot sauna, cold plunge. You know all of these things are positive stresses. Again, when you're not overflowing, that can help you and grow your resilience. This can grow the size of your stress bucket and therefore it gives you a greater capacity to deal with mental and physical stress and it makes you a more resilient more anti-fragile, more hard-to-kill being, so it's interesting.
Speaker 1:So you talked about the stuff that hurt us, meaning elevated sympathetic stimulation, aka stress, and whenever it comes to this topic of, hey, you have to reduce your stress, people almost feel helpless. They're like, well, I can't, you don't know my life, I'm a single mom, or this, and that People have problems and they don't know how to cope with them. And when you delve deeper, you see that the problems that they have, everybody has is just what makes it different for one over the other person to deal with them is the meaning they give to these stressful things in their lives and how they respond and react to this to it, respond and react to this to it. Um, I don't know if it was kobe or who it was says you can't change, uh, what happens, but you can change of how you to how you respond uh to that. And and I think most people are helpless and they don't know because they were never taught how to respond to a certain stressful situation.
Speaker 1:And if you look at stress as really the root cause of all injury to our body, people ask you for supplements, how to boost mitochondrial function, and they work. But if you have that stress factor not eliminated, it's not going to do you any good. It might just help a little bit. But I think that's the part where I mentioned in the beginning of this podcast. As soon as it comes to the point that someone has to take responsibility and make a certain change in their lifestyle, they don't want to do it because they just don't want to. It's just too much work. They would rather take a supplement out of a bottle and hope that that does the trick. But it doesn't.
Speaker 1:And can you talk a little bit about how you could manage stress? I mean, you went through a lot of stress in your life. I mean, I remember you on one of your podcasts telling the story of the whole plan you had for your education, for your career, and then these health thing scares came, uh, and basically you, you, it, it. It put you in in a spiral of depression and even suicide. How the hell did you get out of this? I mean, look at you now. You're like this beacon of inspiration and this source of um, almost like a savior to many people. How did you do that?
Speaker 2:Wow, yeah, that's thank you. Thank you for acknowledging that. It's really the hero's journey, right? So, along the way, there's some point when it's either going to break you or make you. And what you were talking about before is the idea of reframing, which is one of the most critical concepts in NLP. So, when you talk to a Tony Robbins, when you talk to Joe Dispenza, jim Quick, nlp is behind everything that they're talking about and the idea of reframing is essential. Everything that they're talking about, and the idea of reframing is essential to what they're talking about, is this stress positive or negative? And that is for you to decide. And so, ultimately, I would say this goes back to the idea of of not being um so much as um the too much stress. But it could be again that the dysregulated nervous system because the dysregulated nervous system is interpreting that stress as a negative- stress.
Speaker 1:Can you repeat that, because I think we got disconnected for about 10 seconds. If you can, so it's really.
Speaker 2:It's really not just about the idea of of too much stress.
Speaker 2:It's about how, one, you're interpreting that stress and then, two, how your organism through the nervous system is is storing that stress and trauma is getting stored in the body, in your organism, and then creating disease. So it all revolves around how you interpret things, what's going on in your life. The idea of resilience, like in the mental aspect, is is the obstacle, is the way that's stoicism, is is the obstacle, is the way that's stoicism. And it's the same with you know, when you hear people that are that are really strong physically, it's the idea that they're anti fragile and that they're harder to kill and they're more resilient. And a more resilient being is someone who is able to constantly reframe and say the universe is not working against me, the universe is always working for me, the universe is always teaching me lessons, and there's some people that even believe spiritually that we chose this life and we chose this experience to learn the lessons that we're learning. That gets on a pretty deep philosophical level. That would take all other podcasts, but on some level you just like you were saying with that Kobe quote you're choosing how you experience that stress. So what are you going to choose?
Speaker 2:At some point, as you're alluding to at the beginning of the podcast, at some point, as you're alluding to at the beginning of the podcast. You make your choice. Are you going to just lay down and take it, or are you going to have your hero's journey? Are you going to do better? And you know, just like with the anterior cingulate, like where you, you know, you start doing hard things and that actually becomes easier over time and it becomes an expectation to desire challenge. So, while it's very hard at the beginning just like going to the gym, just like, you know, doing fasting, just like doing anything that's worthwhile doing or anything that's difficult it's difficult at the beginning but it'll get easier with time and then it'll be woven into your identity, it'll become part of your construct, it'll become part of who you are. So you can free yourself of this idea that everything is working against you and you're just screwed.
Speaker 1:I think for people again, to keep it simple so they don't feel overwhelmed, thinking they have to climb to mount everest, uh, give them like micro successes by just eliminating one bad thing, let's say I would probably start. The one thing I would start is what I consult my patients with is sugar. I'm like, if you can't stop sugar and starches, just stop with sweets. Okay, don't chase. If you have to chase dopamine, I don't know, eat a carrot or find something else, but just get and that's. You know. That's what I did.
Speaker 1:I had a drawer in my kitchen it was our sweets drawer, like sweet slash junk drawer. It was the most colorful drawer in our house. It had gummy bears, all kinds of chocolate. I mean, you name it because you know I grew up as a sweet tooth and what I thought is that it's based on my genes. I'm a sweet tooth. You know how we label ourselves with whatever. I don't even know where it comes from, and then we just sell ourselves that story and just go with it and feel like helpless. That hey, that's who I am, I can't change it kind of attitude. That was my attitude towards sweets Because I truly believe that's my personality and I can't change it. So I said I'm just going to try to limit my sweets. I'm not just, I'm just not going to eat a lot of sweets, whatever that meant. I mean that was completely arbitrary. That measure of a lot of sweets versus a little sweet. I mean it was a complete arbitrary measure and it didn't work out for me.
Speaker 1:I tolerated it when I was younger, but once I got into my late 40s and now I'm 51, it gave me brain fog. It gave me brain fog. I was always tired in the gym. I I'm an avid gym goer and I just couldn't do my reps that I normally do. I would probably do half of them. And I started with aches, I got injuries, I got labrum tears, I got rotator cuff, just inflammation, inflammation in my knee, my ankle, and that then further limited my output in the gym and that got me down the spiral of. It affected my mental status. I almost got a little depressed because I felt I just can't do the things and I'm getting old. That's for the first time that I felt shit. I'm getting old things and I'm getting old. That's for the first time that I felt shit I'm getting old and I know it now because I experimented with myself and that's how I got in the journey.
Speaker 1:The first thing I did I cut out the sweets. I would still eat carbs, like starches, like bread, pasta and I love bread. I mean I grew up in Germany and you know I mean you go to a German bakery, it's like heaven. So then I said, well, I can't give up the bread, but you know what, I'm just going to maybe go with the sourdough, maybe that is a less glycemic index, even though I put a glucose monitor on myself for a couple of weeks just to see what certain foods and timing of my diet and activity level does to my sugar spikes.
Speaker 1:So I learned my body because you know you just have to do that and that's something you actually recommend, that we're N of one, we are all our own science project and we have to learn our body. So I knew my body just because when you're an athlete all your life, you know what are the things that give you performance or take it away from you. You just learn your body. So I had that in-tuneness with my body. So once I did that, I almost did half the work, because that got me out of the spiral, which was a very rapid down spiral that affected my mental status and that's where, for me, I didn't like it, because I'm usually optimistic, I like happiness, I like to make people happy, and that was, for me, this moment where I said I got to change something. And I didn't just change everything all at once. I just started the most important things and then, one by one, so I don't overwhelm myself.
Speaker 1:What are your recommendations when you consult patients on changing their lifestyle? If they come to you and say, sean, I believe everything you say. I want to make a change. I have associated enough pain with my current state. I want to get a. Help me to get out of this. I'll do whatever you tell me. What practical advice can you give them that they can actually pull through with and sustain long term, and how do you hold them responsible?
Speaker 2:uh, one of the aspects that I've learned in the in the psychedelic, in the journey space, is that your sovereignty and your autonomy matters. And going back to this idea of all these um corporations, governments etc. That benefit from controlling you, putting you in a box, taking away your autonomy and your sovereignty by also doing what you said, by labeling you as a diabetic or an alcoholic or whatever they want to call you as a sweet tooth, as a Republican, as a white male. That's interesting again that they do that because again, it's a means of control to label you. Now it's difficult to move away from that because again, it's a it's a means of control to label you. Now it's difficult to move away from that label Right?
Speaker 2:So it is important that we are sovereign, that we do can take, that we do take control, that we realize that none of it's my fault, that all of it's my responsibility. So I want to empower someone and tell them you're in control, this is your choice. What do you want? Let's stop talking about scarcity thinking Again, this is NLP and away from thinking, because you actually manifest the thing that you talk about all the time.
Speaker 2:So if you talk about away from thinking you're manifesting that thing you don't want. So instead, let's talk about abundance thinking and manifesting the thing that we do want. So let me reframe, redirect. What is it you do want? Let's start putting that in. Instead of focusing on what we're removing, let's talk about what we're adding. Let's talk about the good things that we're putting in. Let's change that mindset. Instead of woe is me, I'm getting all these things I like taken from me and instead focus on all the things that are going to be amazing and all the new things that you're getting in its place I like that, you know.
Speaker 1:I think to your point I love. One of my favorite quotes is a quote of Gandhi, who said your thought become your words, your words become your actions and your actions become your habits. And that's exactly what we're doing and exactly what you just said, and I think your spiritual approach is what people need to make that shift if they're interested in their health and well-being. Now, let's assume the person is convinced. Now you literally had a session with them. What are the non-negotiables? Let's start with you. What are your non-negotiables, your five non-negotiables that you must do every day, or take or do for your health and well-being?
Speaker 2:That's taking care of your whole organism, and I think that's going to start with sleep, of your whole organism and I think that's going to start with sleep Absolutely. If I'm to pick one thing that is probably the most important habit is going to be sleep. We deny ourselves sleep. We're the only species that does that. When we're tired, we should go to bed, and you're dysregulating your circadian rhythm by putting on all these blue lights, by not wearing blue light, blocking glasses, by watching your devices at night, by eating late at night, by having alcohol at night. You're not being aware of when it's dark we are supposed to be in bed and when it's light we are supposed to be awake. This is the natural sleep-wake cycle. It's the whole reason that light exists as it does. It's why species, barring nocturnal species, are working around this day-night sleep-wake cycle, and this is when our body restores itself, heals itself. There's autophagy, there's all kinds of detox pathways happening and it's absolutely critical. There's studies that show even seven hours or less. Seven hours, most people are not getting. Seven hours.
Speaker 2:Seven hours or less, there is a dramatic difference in your immune system, in depression, in inflammation diabetes and risk of heart attack and stroke All go up markedly with seven hours or less, and then when you get into like the five and six hours it gets to be. You know four X six X differences that are very significant. So sleep is absolutely a non-negotiable. Moving your body would be next.
Speaker 2:Your body needs to move or else it will remodel itself into a body that doesn't move, and it's literally going to change the shape of your bone, your fascia, your muscles. Change the shape of your bone, your fascia, your muscles, your nervous system into a body that is meant to be sedentary, if that's what you give it. And so don't be frustrated when your body remodels itself into something that is not able to move. We need to be in motion, we're meant to be in motion, and so it isn't just like a kind of good thing. Literally, every hour we should be moving our body. They've shown that just five minutes an hour is more impactful than one hour at the gym.
Speaker 1:A hundred percent. I mean, there's a study that just came out. They showed the blood flow to the after a 40-minute walk, compared to when you're sitting, and they showed the heat map. It was three-quarters of the brain lit up due to increased blood flow. And the other thing is they also checked the size of the hippocampus, which is the center of your brain that's responsible for memory. That gets affected when it shrinks. We get dementia, alzheimer's etc. Is that walking one mile a day this is not much. One mile a day is like walking your dog around the block increases the size of your hippocampus by 2% and that's equivalent to, I think, one to two years of delaying dementia or any neurodegenerative disease. It's incredible, and so I think the brain health aspect of it is not often talked about, and obviously everybody associates activity and moving around with burning calories. It's funny how people are primed for just to look at calories oh, I burned 350 calories. Like who cares? Like do you even know the other benefits that your body is getting from moving around?
Speaker 2:those are far more important when it comes to your health span look, I can tell you, like when I was in a nursing home, if you had someone, that was what we call like a walkie talkie, you know, like someone who has alzheimer's dementia, but they walked all day, they were in great shape and they could be there for 20 years and you have someone that gets put in a wheelchair. Within two years they're gone, guaranteed. It's sad, and so it's a real thing. You do need to move your body to live well, to live vibrantly. You can see it in someone's organism, as I say, like, how brightly they shine, how healthy they are. So it's most certainly far more than burning calories. So sleep, moving your body, lifting heavy things.
Speaker 1:Resistance training.
Speaker 2:Yeah, resistance training, doing difficult things, and one of which is resistance training. But if you can do cold plunges, hot saunas, etc. We see growth hormone go up, testosterone go up, heat shock proteins, cold shock proteins, immunoglobulins go up. As a result of doing those things, it's literally anti-aging. The sirtuin genes get activated, which are the resilience genes associated with anti-aging. Telomeres do not shorten as quickly, etc.
Speaker 2:Around you doing difficult things, so that not only applies in terms of physicality, but also in terms of mental things that are difficult. And that's going to increase your neuroplasticity, which is the same idea of keeping your brain young. Bdnf, brain-direct neurotrophic factor, is associated with keeping your brain young, not only protecting brain cells, but creating new brain cells, not only protecting brain cells, but protecting or creating new brain cells. And so that's done by doing difficult things, by, you know, using the opposite hand for your toothbrush, by learning a new language, by learning music or taking a new path to work, or whatever it is. It's going to revolve around doing something that's new, that's challenging. It's going to revolve around doing something that's new, that's challenging, that's difficult. And if you can find a way to reframe that and make it a positive thing where you enjoy the obstacle and say the obstacle is the way, then that's going to be that stoic mentality.
Speaker 2:That's going to give you the most longevity. And then I think relationships are absolutely critical. Who you put around you is immense. It says that you're a product of the five people who you are closest to 100%. I also have read data on intimacy, and people that have sex more often with a trusted partner are healthier. Their immune systems are higher, their happiness is greater, their depression is lower, they live longer, they have far less disease, even coming down to just a longer kiss or a longer hug, these kinds of things.
Speaker 2:In the Harvard study, that's the, you know, the longest ongoing study of all time around longevity, I think it's something years maybe it's a long one, and what they found the number one predictor of anti-aging, of longevity, is quality of relationships and interestingly, they found it wasn't just like with couples that were like loving and sweet to each other, it was actually a couple, because some of the couples were snippy to each other they literally talk about this in the article but they knew that they had each other's backs and that's a huge one is to really have that framework where you can trust someone's got me and so relationships are massive and you know, I think it's really important that we're not just talking about I want change, I want better people around me.
Speaker 2:You have to be the change. You have to vibrate at the level of the people that you want around you. You want, like, a better boyfriend or girlfriend. Be that person, you know you want better friends around you. You want a better job. Be that person. You need to be that person to get those people around you. And then you need to invest in those people. Your net worth is really your network, so you need to invest in those people around you heavily.
Speaker 1:So we have sleep, we have exercise, activity, and we have connections, human connections. What is the fourth one?
Speaker 2:Hydrating. I think, 75 to 80 percent of us are dehydrated. One two we're not getting enough electrolytes. Three we're getting tons of micro and nanoplastics in our water, which is literally killing us yeah, get rid of that um, so find sources of water.
Speaker 2:This could get into, like you know, in-depth discussion around filters and, you know, glass and all kinds of things, but you need to get rid of the micro and nanoplastics. Certainly, stop buying drinks out of plastic bottles. Uh, you need to be drinking quite a bit of water every day. Make sure, if you don't have uh electrolytes, to at least add like a pinch of salt. About 80 of what you lose in your um in terms of your electrolytes is sodium yeah, I like these electrolyte packs.
Speaker 1:I put it because I drink a lot of water, so I just put one of those to make sure I get my electrolytes.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and there's some great ones on the market like Element. That's the one To use, so 100% so that's a category of.
Speaker 1:Would you put it in the category of nutrition or would you make it a separate category? I mean hydration is allocated, A separate one, Separate one.
Speaker 2:Hydration is allocated as a separate one, and that would be my, my, probably my last one, uh, would be eat whole food okay, define, define what whole food is yeah, so we're you were talking about it before engineered, ultra processed food.
Speaker 2:That's high, high glycemic. That's high seed oil. That's high, high glycemic. That's high seed oil. That's high bliss point in terms of making you overriding your satiety and literally giving you food gasms. This food is engineered that way. If you want to get healthier one, get away from the addiction to get into whole food. I don't care whether you're keto, you're paleo, you're vegan, you're carnivore, just eat whole food. Eat whole food. Whole food will not steer you wrong. I promise you'll get healthier, no matter what diet you choose, if you're eating whole food, and that's actually that stopped my food cravings.
Speaker 1:You know, I used to snack because I thought I'm doing a good thing. I thought I'm supposed to eat throughout the day little meals, which is what nutritionists used to tell us 20 years ago. Uh, don't have large meals, don't make sure you eat frequently throughout the day, you remember?
Speaker 1:and and you know now it's like no you, actually, time-restricted diet actually helps to turn on the sirtuins. It's good for autophagy and all of those anti-aging things. And then the other thing was what to eat. There's a lot of confusion, you know. People were saying, oh, don't eat a lot of protein, it's bad for your kidneys or bad for your gut and now it's like different.
Speaker 1:And then they said, oh, only plant-based, no animal-based. But then we didn't have the essential amino acids, mainly leucine, which is one of the most important amino acids that's responsible for just maintaining muscle mass for your eyes and brain, and so can you talk a little bit about. We're going to shift now towards nutrition. What are the most common nutritional deficiencies in people that you see today and what are the best ways you feel to address them?
Speaker 2:Well, protein, as you just stated. I think protein we're not getting. Really, you should be getting a gram per pound, not a gram per kilogram, as stated when I was going through nutrition school. We should be getting a gram per pound, so we should be eating far more protein. We should also make sure, as the point that you made, that we're not kind of grazing throughout the day, that we're getting larger boluses of protein that optimize muscle protein synthesis, because we're getting enough amino acids, in particular leucine, as you stated. We need around two and a half to three and a half grams of leucine, which is going to be like 25 to 40 grams of protein, and that's animal protein. That number doubles if you're talking about vegan protein, so you literally need to double your protein.
Speaker 1:Well, my understanding is you can't get leucine from vegan protein, right? No, you can't.
Speaker 2:There's leucine in vegan proteins.
Speaker 2:It just tends to be about half the level, so unless you're doubling the protein or unless you take additional L-leucine with your vegan protein which could be a smart approach, then you're not getting enough muscle protein synthesis, and we know muscle is critical, probably one of the most important factors to longevity, and so that's probably the top one. Beyond that, I would say the biggest ones would be vitamin D, and then magnesium is where you just see massive deficiencies. Vitamin D and then magnesium is where you just see massive deficiencies In the order of probably 70 to 80 percent of Americans are deficient in those, and so it's very common. Vitamin D used to be thought of to prevent bone softening, slash rickets. Now we know it's a hormone and it's part of the whole endocrine cascade and it's important for testosterone, it's important for insulin, it's important for the immune function, it's important for a host of things that we probably have yet to even discover, but it's part of your whole body organism and very key to your health. Well, another thing on vitamin D.
Speaker 1:just to stick on vitamin D, I think one of the most common pitfalls is people take the vitamin D without vitamin K, and I'm so surprised that when doctors tell their patients to take vitamin D they don't make that clear. Because if you do take vitamin D alone, you can actually calcify your arteries. And can you explain why that can happen and what they should be taking with their vitamin D to make sure that the calcium gets transported into the bones rather than floating around the bloodstream and clogging the arteries?
Speaker 2:Well, that's the big concern on vitamin D period without calcium and like, especially when all these people are taking calcium supplements and you know all this kind of stuff, now that we're seeing, exactly as you're saying, the calcification of arteries and people have greater risk of coronary artery disease and heart attack and having calcium scores that are terrible in terms of your arterial health. That's exactly it. One, they're not getting enough vitamin D3 at the same time as that calcium and, by the way, calcium really should be taken as part of a bone mineral matrix, correct? Um, you know it's. It would be odd to just have calcium, like in bone there's calcium, there's magnesium, there's boron, there's silica. Uh, you know there's different things that are phosphorus, that are built into this bone mineral matrix, and that's why it makes more sense to, if you're going to get calcium, to also get it through.
Speaker 2:You know one potentially dark, leafy greens where you're getting other minerals get it through like uh, you know, bone broth and things like that. Um, and then absolutely, vitamin k2 is a cofactor with vitamin D3 that is synergistic to its function and really, you know, k2 helps with arterial health and cleaning out the arteries as well. So you're really meant to get both at the same time and I agree there's massive synergy there and you really want both yeah.
Speaker 1:So magnesium, vitamin d deficiency, those are protein deficiency, those are some of the top three nutritional deficits that really affect, I would say, 99 of the population, unless you're Sean Wells and know exactly what to eat, and even then it depends on how much time did you get outdoors and how active were you able to be. It depends. So it's not just the diet, it's your non-negotiables that you stated that affect the bioavailability and synthesis of those here's another one that's interesting because 87% of the population is metabolically dysfunctional.
Speaker 2:That's crazy. Yeah, basically bordering on type 2 diabetes.
Speaker 1:That's insane.
Speaker 2:Or having type 2 diabetes in the US Is that we do see and this is kind of a chicken and egg thing and I'm not really sure how it works. It hasn't been elucidated but we do see chromium be depleted in those that have insulin resistance, and so whether that's a result of utilizing more chromium when you have insulin resistance or there being a deficiency leading to greater insulin resistance, it could be, quite frankly, both we're not sure, but I can tell you that it might behoove you to take more chromium if you border on insulin resistance.
Speaker 1:Interesting. That's an interesting thing because a lot of times although I have to say the other side is, we see certain deficiencies but we don't necessarily know their role, as to how they affect us, how the cellular result or function affects us in the clinical outcome. And that's the same thing with, for example, NMN or NAD or NR, those supplements that, yeah, we can measure the blood levels and we are extrapolating from yeast or mice what it does as far as their life and health span to them. But it is this long leap towards humans to assume that it does the same thing just because we're seeing an elevated blood level. How is that then clinically relevant? And so that's the one thing I think where science and studies have to just do more to validate certain theories and some, including myself. Until those are validated, if it doesn't harm me, I'm just going to take some of the supplements or do the things that I, based on animal studies, has shown to increase.
Speaker 1:So can you talk a little bit about that, and especially considering the fact that you know I'm going to be transparent, I take NAD boosters and NMN, and I take about a gram of NMN, which is nicotinamide mononucleotide in powder form, sublingual. But the studies they did on mice, I would have to take a thousand milligrams, which is one gram per kilogram, which is like and those were the uh, the dosages that they did on those studies on mice. So I'm way under, like tenfold under, that. Can you kind of what is your stance on this whole NMN NAD debate? Because people are spending thousands of dollars on these products and, interestingly, they don't do the stuff that increases your endogenous NAD production by simply, like you said, getting sleep, exercising and getting diets. Which are these? Using the advantage of hormesis, which I want you also to talk about a little bit?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so NAD production. Nad is a co-factor in that ATP production cycle, the Krebs cycle, the citric acid cycle. You're preventing NAD from converting to NADH, which is helping the mitochondria be more resilient. Nad is a cellular fuel as well as fuel to protect DNA, which is really important. So what we see is this cofactor is critical for energy, for health is NAD. So NAD is nicotinamide, adenine, dinucleotide, and so the idea of niacin-based ingredients being a part of that pathway is a smart one. Where you have nicotinic acid, which is niacin, you have niacinamide, which is another form that doesn't have the flushing or paresthesia associated with it, and then you also those are both B3, niacin, but then you also have these other compounds nicotinamide, riboside, riboside.
Speaker 2:Yeah nicotinamide riboside N-R, as well as NMN.
Speaker 1:Which is a precursor of NMN. So N-R is a precursor of NMN and then NMN.
Speaker 2:So I do believe NMN is a better source. Actually, because NMN got banned, nmn-h is now on the market, which is really interesting and may have greater bioavailability and stability. But ultimately, to your point one, I see just regular niacin being probably one of the most effective things.
Speaker 1:Which is vitamin B3 for everyone.
Speaker 2:Exactly. So that's one, and then two. Inhibiting NAD breakdown via what's called NADase is the enzyme it's also called CD38, with polyphenol intake, and when we look at blue zones we see polyphenols are elevated in their diet. So those are things like catechins from chocolate, egcg from green tea, blueberries, resveratrol from grapes and red wine, apigenin from parsley, fisetin from strawberries, quercetin from onions and apples. You know these kinds of things.
Speaker 1:We're going back to the whole foods that you recommended, Exactly exactly. You know these kinds of things.
Speaker 2:we're going back to the whole foods that you recommended, exactly, exactly, so those polyphenols are are really powerful at inhibiting nad breakdowns so if you're getting plenty of niacin and you're getting, uh, plenty of these polyphenols, that's a good path. And then, as you were stating, a healthier lifestyle where you're avoiding alcohol, avoiding a lack of sleep, where you're moving your body.
Speaker 1:Gosh, we haven't even talked about alcohol. That's one of the biggest no-nos, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, we haven't even started All those unhealthy things in your lifestyle are crushing NAD levels, extra stress, etc.
Speaker 1:Isn't it funny that people ask me what kind of NMN or NAD supplements I take and yet they're chugging their margaritas daily or having their wine daily and they don't understand that their body has the ability to make NAD, if they would just let it make it through not using up the NAD through bad lifestyle choices. But there's nothing wrong with supplementing something that can. That's why it's called supplement. It's not called medicine or something. It's called supplement because you add it to what you should be doing anyways, which is what we talked for the past hour. Now, and, by the way, berries and nuts and you know those should be the mainstay. I always have a bowl full of blackberries, blueberries and strawberries and almonds and just seeds and stuff like that laying around. And one of the recommendations I always make my patients is like make things accessible to yourself so you don't have to think about it, so it's right in front of you, put it in your refrigerator on the middle shelf where you can see it and you remember to eat it. And it starts with when you go to the grocery store. The choices you make when you're in a grocery store affect your entire life and that's where everything starts. And going aimlessly through aisles. You tend to pick up, because they're smart, the way they put the stuff on the aisles. They know there's a whole science behind it, they know where to put what, so you pick it up. That goes back to chasing the dopamine and being brainwashed without actually knowing that it's happening, and so it starts there. But that's a whole nother topic.
Speaker 1:Now I want to just to kind of close things out. You know, we started with a more spiritual conversation, which I actually love. This is my favorite part, because I like people that really think that deep and understand or have that self-awareness and can express it and educate. So I love that part. But I do want, since you're an expert in supplements, I'm going to list the supplements that I'm taking. And, by the way, I'm not a hypocrite, I'm actually. I don't even know if I would need to take these supplements because I'm very disciplined and I can make a decision today and I follow through with it if I'm convinced that's good for me. And so I'm doing all the things that we talked about as your non-negotiables already.
Speaker 1:But I also do take these supplements, and some of them are in combination. But you know, just briefly I want to go over them. You know, when I get up in the morning, the first thing I do I take. I have the NAD+, which is a booster that contains basically vitamin C, niacin, which has vitamin B3, and has a bioenergy, reagev, which is a proprietary supplement that boosts ATP production at cellular level and it basically supports mitochondria and that's why it's an NAD booster. So I take that.
Speaker 1:I also take one gram of NMN. I don't know whether it helps or not. All I know is when I take these I just feel more energized. I don't have a brain fog, I'm sharp, I don't get tired towards the end of the day I'm not as moody. So I really gauge it by how I react to it. So I don't know whether it has the same effects on other people. And then I take alpha lipoic acid because I want to keep my sugar level down and also I believe in its anti-aging effects, and I take carnosine, um. And then I take my magnesium as citromalate um, um. And I just started a month ago taking tangad ali because, uh, you know, as we age, our sex binding um, uh, hormones elevate, so we have less of free-floating testosterone. So for men in their 50s that's kind of like. I'm not sure I will pick your brain on it, how that helps to increase and boost the testosterone.
Speaker 1:And then in the evening I take with my meal, with my food, which is my main food. So I skip breakfast and I have late lunch. Usually it's just vegetarian legume, avocado, spinach, quinoa Just make sure I get my proteins, maybe like a chicken breast just to get my 30 gram of protein, especially when I exercise. And then in the evening I have, you know, like a steak or something, and with that fatty food or a salmon, I take my omega-3 and epa and DHA form and I take my vitamin D plus K, d3, k2 in a liquid form. It's kind of like in olive oil. It comes in olive oil. I also take ashwagandha and that really is something that helped me a lot and I want you to talk about it as well.
Speaker 1:And then, what else do I take? And I take berberine. That's one of my favorites. I know it's one of your favorites. I take liposomal berberine. It's a compound that comes with red rice, yeast, liposomal berberine and coenzyme Q10. So those are the supplements that I take in the morning and in the evening and between my meals. I don't have any snacks. I may have a coffee. Nutrients that I get from my vegetables and from the fibers. I may sometimes have a slice of sourdough with my avocado that's kind of me cheating but definitely nothing else. So if you want me to, if you have questions to ask you, I know I listed like 12, 13 things, but what do you think of that and I want your honest opinion within the context of someone that exercises daily, does 80% resistance training and 20% cardio and my work as a surgeon? I'm very active, so I burn a lot of calories and I need to be sharp.
Speaker 2:Yeah, your diet sounds super clean. I know you're getting enough water and you're getting the electrolytes. We talked about that. As far as the NAD boosting, that sounds pretty good to me. There may be some benefit to PQQ, CoQ10, and ubiquinol form in ubiquinol form. Maybe this MitoQ form. There's a little less data on it, but it is interesting. Maybe that NMNH may be better than NMN. We have to see. It's brand new. There's very little data. It's mostly animal data at this point, so that's hard to say.
Speaker 2:Alpha lipoic acid is great uh, you have to look at the form, um, the sodium form tends to be more stable, okay, um, otherwise there is some sometimes stability issues with alpha lipoic acid. Uh, dihydroberberine is the form that I patented and I prefer over just a standard berberine, but you are taking a liposomal one, so that's good. And then I think, yeah, the citrate malate is good. As far as magnesium, I really like the glycinate form quite a bit. Glycinate form, quite a bit Malate could be good for muscular issues. Citrate in particular, good for bowel movement. I think glycinate is probably one of my favorite just overall.
Speaker 1:Very cheap form, very reasonable form. Well, I also take the. L-theoronate at night, magteen, yeah, I take that at night.
Speaker 2:I do like taking hydrolyzed collagen and whey protein around a workout or just getting an extra bolus of protein.
Speaker 1:Oh, I take that also with creatine.
Speaker 2:Oh, I take that, also with creatine, I take about, I think, five grams of creatine with my whey protein when I work out reproductive organs, etc. It sounds like you're on point as far as the Ashwagandha. No, ashwagandha I'm a fan of, as long as it's standardized to withanolides like the KSM-66 or the sensorial or shodan forms of ashwagandha are good you mentioned was it horny goat weed? What was the one that you mentioned? Just red rice yeast?
Speaker 1:No, for the sex hormone binding oh it's Tangkat Ali, oh, Tangkat Ali yeah. Yeah, what's your take on that? I'm curious because there are some studies that show that it increases free testosterone.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it does seem to do that. Again, you have to look for more of a standardized one, I think, in particular. I think there's a lot of probably 85% of them are not that good on the market, but I think with ones that are standardized, if taken as the studies dictate, that you can get around a 30% increase in testosterone.
Speaker 1:That's pretty significant yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, through that inhibition of sex hormone binding globulin and kind the uh the free testosterone from being bound up um. So you know, zinc actually also supports that as well. So, um, you know, that's an important one too.
Speaker 1:I think one of the formulations I take has zinc in it. Um, I don't know which one it is. I think it's my nad booster that also has zinc zinc in it. But as far as monitoring it, every three to four months I take my blood biomarkers and I actually measure my HSCRP, my testosterone level actually free testosterone level, with sex binding globulin level, because that's important, because just a total testosterone doesn't mean anything if you don't know how much free testosterone there is.
Speaker 1:So I think the one thing recommendations that I would make that I make to my patients is what I do myself is there is no point in just taking supplements pointlessly if you're not, if you don't know where you started off and where you're going. And I think that's the mistake most people do make, that they just say, hey, what supplements do you take? And they just want to take what you're taking, not realizing that it really depends on your age, on your diet, exercise level, on your blood biomarkers and based on that you should be making adjustments. And it's not one size fits all. Can you quickly just to wrap things up for the audience to comment on it, because there's so much confusion? I mean people are looking at this as one size fits all, and how can someone kind of start?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a great point. It's basically buy hacking.
Speaker 1:I would call it buy hacking for beginners.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you need to. You know one of the entrepreneurs I used to work with that I built a supplement company with Biotrust that you mentioned. You used to have a saying that test before you invest, and it's really the same here. You want to make sure you know what one your baseline is. That's the only way to do a scientific experiment. And then two, after you've had some kind of experimental intervention, you need to retest and see whether it's working or not. So that's really an important part of this is making sure that you're getting the testing so that you're not wasting your money on these supplements. You need to make sure that you actually need them and, of course, it matters that you're getting a quality supplement as well them and, of course, it matters that you're getting a quality supplement as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, and that's what we do for our patients. We basically look at the lab results, we take history of their activity level and their diet, because without that I feel I can't make any recommendations. It would be just like shooting in the dark, and I think you know, even though most of these supplements are very cheap, it's still.
Speaker 1:It would waste your money if you don't do the first five things that you need to do. That come before taking supplements. Final takeaway, Sean, is there one key message you want listeners to take away about the role of supplements in health and longevity, and what would that be?
Speaker 2:That supplements are becoming absolutely critical to one achieving optimized health. You want to truly optimize and get to your best and most resilient, brilliant self. Supplements are going to be a part of that and absolutely you need to do all these other things you need to hydrate, get sleep, eat properly. You need to lift heavy things, you need to move your body, you need to surround yourself with the right people. You know these are all pieces of the energy formula in my book, but adding in supplements is going to be key to achieving that truly optimized level Because, again, we're getting bombarded with all kinds of physical and mental stresses, with EMF, with toxic chemicals, with leached soils, with poor quality food and on and microplastics and just the list is very long to where we can't compare to even 30 years ago, let alone 100 years ago or 1000 years ago. Things are very different now and I think supplements are a core piece of us living our best life.
Speaker 1:I love this. Sean, thank you, I can't thank you enough for coming on the show and thanks for educating us and giving us a more spiritual and practical approach to how one can change and turn around their life, literally starting today. And for those of you who have not read his book called the Energy Formula, please make sure you pick it up. I'm getting goosebumps just talking about this because I read it, thinking having total different expectations, and when I finished reading it, the spiritual approach, the practical approach that it gave me towards this whole conversation was so refreshing and it really was convincing, and so I think for people, your book would be a great start just to understand the why.
Speaker 1:Most often, we forget the why and unless you don't know why you're doing something, you might do it for a couple of weeks or maybe months at best, and then you will give it up. You won't be able to sustain it long term because you don't have a why, and that book in particular talks about the why and how it can change your life. It's not just diet and exercise and supplement, it's just a healthier you, and so thank you for your contribution. I will definitely have you. I hope you will come back on this podcast because I hadn't really recognized your spiritual mind by researching you, and so I'm glad that this is going to come out now. Obviously, I haven't looked deep enough, but I really appreciate our conversation and I can't wait for further contributions and hopefully one day we get to meet and, uh, until then, um, if you guys want to get in touch with sean, uh, how can they get in touch with you? I know your instagram handle is at sean wells, um, but any preferred method for people to get in touch with you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's at Sean Wells S-H-A-W-N-W-E-L-S and then energyformulacom. If you want to see anything on the book with the Audible, the ebook, the hardcover, the softcover, you can find it there along with a bunch of downloadable extras.
Speaker 1:I definitely recommend the audiobook. I love audiobooks, but your voice, your tonality and it was just a different. The message came across differently than if I would probably have read it myself, and it was a very soothing and calming voice and it was right in tune with what was written in your book. So I love that. So I'd recommend the audio book, sean. Thank you so much. An honor, All right, thank you. All right, everyone. Episode's over. I hope you enjoyed my conversation with the one and only Sean Wells, and if you liked this episode, please don't forget to leave me a review on Apple iTunes or comments on Spotify. And until next time, bye-bye.