Kind: captions
Language: en
if you're going to dominate and do
things that others consider impossible
you're going to have to become capable
of what others aren't namely discipline
you will have to relentlessly cut things
out of your life for every one person
that manages to generate success while
regularly drinking alcohol smoking weed
stuffing their face full of sugar
there's a 100,000 people that become too
inefficient to succeed today human
optimization expert Gary Brea and I
discuss the one true path to
winning Gary Brea welcome to the show
great to be here man it's great to have
you so basically everybody has some kind
of addiction whether it's alcohol sugar
social media weed any number of things
right uh and even if it's not bad enough
to require you to go to rehab it is
going to be bad enough to slow you down
such that you're stuck in a pattern of
mediocrity assuming that you agree with
that I do agree with that that's it's
the first time I've ever said heard
somebody say that everyone has some form
of addiction but I agree with you
probably not for the reason you think
but I do agree with you all right give
people your most compelling argument as
to why those things are probably worse
than they think well because um you know
we used to say in the mortality space
and I was a mortality researcher for 22
years that the absence of dopamine is
the presence of
addiction and if you look for example at
sugar addiction um most people are not
liking the taste of sugar yes we like
the sweet taste of sugar the truth is
most of us don't like sugar addicted to
sugar and why is that because when we
eat sweets um we actually get a dopamine
reward right we get an actual little
enderin um reward if you look at the
most addiction the history of most
addiction if you've ever been an addict
or you've known a true addict addiction
has a tendency to shift and not really
ever go away alcoholics become drug
addicts drug addicts become Workaholics
Workaholics become Workaholics
Workaholics become gamblers so why does
addiction have a tendency to shift
because you can cure the physical
addiction but the dopamine deficiency
drives the behavior like serotonin is
one of the main drivers of mood dopamine
is one of the main drivers of behavior
it's why I often say you show me a child
that can play video games for 14 hours a
day I'll show you a future addict right
they're generally not playing the video
game because they they like the video
game they're playing the video game
because it makes them feel normal in
fact most addiction does not begin with
the search for getting banged up you
know most add didn't wake up one day and
go I want to get really banged up they
woke up one day and said I want to feel
normal and it was a search for normaly
that led to an addiction and then once
they had a physical addiction now
they're running from a low they're not
running towards a high right if you talk
to a true Al alcoholic a true drug drug
addict very often that habit is
continuing because they do not want to
go off the the that cavernous hole
that's right behind them and it's not
that they are any longer chasing chasing
that high so I do agree with you you
know a lot of people have a dopamine
deficiency which drives different types
of addictive behavior and we have
addictive behaviors that we would
consider healthy addictions right I mean
when I was a triathlete I was never a
professional triathlete but I was a very
competitive amateur triathlete I would
say that 35 or 40% of the guys that I
raced with were recovering addicts of
one form or another so this was their
new Addiction you know centuries 100
mile bike rides two and half mile swims
13 Mile runs you know this was their new
addiction and they were psycho committed
to it I know there's people that are
going to listen to this and they will
not like the fact that I use the word
Addiction the reason that I use that is
I think that there are things that we do
habitually so from a the classic
definition of an addict of somebody who
will do something even in the face of it
absolutely destroying their lives right
I think that there's a for the people
that watch this show there's probably a
higher likelihood that they have a
different a different avenue of thing
that is softening the quality of their
life and those are the things that I
want to call out and see map sort of
your thinking around this so when I
think about alcohol use there's a lot of
people that they can do it without it
being addictive like I don't have an
addictive personality right but when I
go in on something I go way in on that
thing and so I know people will go
through a party phase so I'm always when
people come to me and say Hey I want to
be an entrepreneur I'm like amazing if
you really want that though you're going
to have to sell your 20s so most people
are going to sell their 20s to partying
if you want to be an entrepreneur you're
going to have to quote unquote sell your
20s to that so you're going to have to
be in skill acquisition going hard okay
and so if you've got somebody that comes
home every day and they're smoking weed
they're going out you know Thursday
Friday Saturday drinking uh I have no
moral problem with that whatsoever but
in terms of if you want to do something
EX extraordinary with your life those
two things are incompatible I totally
agree with you I mean the passion has
got to be greater than the problem right
so if that's the problem your passion
has to just far outweigh I mean that
that's not even a consideration any
longer right I mean you know I feel
extraordinarily blessed because I I feel
like through God's grace one way or
another I found a career that I would
otherwise do for free and and somehow
monetized it so it never feels like work
to me like this doesn't feel like work
to me right now I'm pumped to be here
I'm excited about this conversation um
when this is over I can't wait to get to
the next meeting the next conversation
the next client to talk about the next
issue because I'm just almost possessed
by it and when I'm done the end of the
day I'll spend two or three hours
reading peer reviewed science or looking
at a journal article or watching a
podcast on you know one of my mentors to
try to further educate myself like I
can't get enough of it and I think a lot
of times that you know when people say I
want to be an entrepreneur they I think
they really want to be
rich um it's not that they really want
to be an entrepreneur um because
that's it took me 45 years to figure
that out I I spent you know the better
part of my life until my early 40s being
very inauthentic and really desperately
wanting to be wealthy and I was very
good at what I did I was a mortality
expert insurance industry but I was
spending my entire time
predicting how soon people were going to
die
you know and predicting death to the
month and and allowing myself to believe
that that weren't you know that this was
just data and I I couldn't have any
effect on it and these were just numbers
and this was just a spreadsheet and I
didn't cause it and it wasn't my
responsibility to get people out of this
it just my responsibility to Crunch the
data and really kind of all I cared
about at the time was I just so
desperately wanted to be wealthy and I
had a major capitulation in my life you
know when I realized that there were
human beings on the other other side of
these spreadsheets and that this wasn't
just data and when I left that industry
and started focusing on people's
well-being and stopped focusing on
becoming
wealthy I
became
wealthy um and and now my focus isn't on
wealth it's on well-being and the wealth
just seems to keep coming and so I think
I think it's an interesting way that the
Universe works so as somebody that has
literally switched the direction of your
life to help people with their
well-being what is it about some of the
most common vices like drinking or weed
smoking or whatever that have become
really just you get a pass in culture if
you do those things or even some of it
quite frankly is encouraged um what is
it about those things that's going to
damage somebody's whether it's mental
Fitness as you call it or just metabolic
Health you've talked a lot about oxygen
transportation and mitochondria like are
devic that really mess people up are
they things that mess with oxygen
Transportation like what what or do you
think that that's not true and people
can drink and um stay up late and um do
recreational drugs I'm not talking about
somebody who's like shooting heroin but
I'm saying the ones that like culturally
people are like yeah no there's no big
deal um do you think there are a big
deal um well number one I think they're
a big deal and I think they're a big
deal because your purpose isn't big
enough right because if the purpose is
big enough then that stuff pales so far
in comparison that you know like
anything that would take me off my game
even momentarily and I think you get a
pass in in society for it sure but if we
go really to the root cause of this or
or the root drivers of this like if you
said to me Gary what is a mood what is
an emotional state like what is it
what's happiness what's Elation passion
Joy arousal what is libido I mean what
actually are they in the human body well
they're collections of neurotransmitters
right like a recipe um bound to to
oxygen at least the elevated emotional
states are so if you think about for
example all of the elevated emotional
states passion Elation Joy or rouso
libido kind of all the hell yeah I won
the lottery
emotions they all have one thing in
common they have oxygen as a part of
their molecular structure all right this
is this is why nobody has ever woken up
laughing right you haven't woken no one
no human being is ever woken out of a
deep sleep laughing why because you
don't have the oxidative state to
experience laughter but can you wake up
angry sure I mean if you want to do a
really cool experiment tonight just
pinch your spouse while she's in a deep
sleeve it sounds like a very bad idea
Gary yeah no I said you do the
experiment not me that see that's why
I'm using you as the guinea pig Tom um
but and and why is it that's because
anger and despair and jealousy and
resentment these are very low not only
they low frequency emotion emotions but
they're low oxidative emotions right so
they don't require an elevated oxidative
state
and so very often what happens is people
have a hard time maintaining elevated
emotional states so they reach elevated
emotional states like a heart monitor
right not like Rolling Hills where they
can stay in in in an elevated mood for a
prolong period of time but they reach it
like a heart monitor and they fall and
why is that it's because their
physiology drags them into the state
where it most comfortably exists so now
it is harder to push yourself into these
emotional states one of the ways to get
there is drugs and alcohol one of the
ways to get there is like um promiscuity
or like dramatic activity right um
shocking activity that actually gets you
into that emotional state you try to
hold on to it and it falls and this is
why lots of people will spend a lifetime
doing the right things like trying to
journal pray they develop a morning
routine they try to focus on positive
thinking they go to the right seminars
they try to put themselves in the right
rooms and they can't seem to maintain
that elevated emotional state it's
because their
physiology is dragging them back down
into the state where you most
comfortably exist and so now if we talk
about well what are some of these
recipes like well what is happiness and
and this is an exact recipe but let's
say happiness is so much nor Ben so much
epine so much dopamine so much serotonin
boom you have the emotion happiness okay
well what if you have an issue in the
gut just methylating one of those
neurotransmitters right so take
serotonin for example 90% of the serot
in our bodies is right here so crazy if
you don't have it here you can't have it
here so very often the absence of
something certain emotional states
doesn't begin in the outside environment
like anxiety rarely begins in your
outside environment it almost always
begins with your physiology and you can
prove this so let's say for example that
you're having a difficult time
methylating serotonin what does that
mean it means turning an amino acid
called tryptophan into the
neurotransmitter serotonin or dopamine
the main driver of behavior turning
phenol alanine and tyrosine into the
neurotransmitter dopamine well you don't
have a mood disorder you don't have a
mental illness you are missing a raw
material that's required to assemble
certain emotional states it's just like
going to a bakery chef and saying listen
you could bake whatever you want you
just can't use butter okay well it
doesn't sound like a big deal right um
you know it's only one ingredient but if
you think of the number of recipes that
that would affect cookies pastries pies
brownies you know what have you just by
removing that one ingredient it's no
different than going to a human being
and saying you can be in whatever
emotional state you want you just can't
use
serotonin okay well that just wiped out
a whole tier of emotion and that's why
you
know part of my message is about
physiology and diet and what we can do
to naturally restore proper methylation
of neurotransmitters the creation of
these neurotransmitters so they are
readily available for us to assemble
mood so we don't have deficits that
cause us to seek the types of behaviors
that short-term Spike those moods dude I
love that I have said many many many
times on this show that I want my
Tombstone to read no no no not I didn't
say that what I what I've said many many
times is on my Tombstone I wanted to say
you're having a biological experience
and the reason that I bring this whole
thing up is that I think people fail to
understand that they're having a
biological experience that they're going
to experience their entire life through
the lens of how they're maintaining
their biology
and any I'll call it a vice but like I
don't even think of it like that any
anything that you're doing whether it's
just for fun you're going out to hang
out with your friends you're having
drinks because drinking makes me feel
like I'm suppressing the urge to dance
on a table it feels awesome like it is a
wonderful feeling and if it didn't have
negative consequences to me from a
longevity perspective from an ability to
think clearly perspective I would do it
a lot I have no moral problem with it
whatsoever right but you're having a
biologic experience and once people
understand that life is you trying to
modulate your brain States M that's it
like you're playing with your emotions
why do you go watch a movie because it
plays with your emotions in a way that
we find pleasurable why do you play a
video game because it plays with your
neurological State dude I have seen
videos of a moose getting drunk on
fermented apples that have fallen off
the tree or whatever they were it it is
just hardwired in animals to modulate
their own neurochemistry this is exactly
why we do drugs why I say that people
have addictions and though most people
will not think of them as addictions
you're trying to fiddle with the knobs
on your brain like that's what this game
is and so I'm saying hey word you're
going to fiddle with your knobs we all
are be very careful that the knobs that
you're fiddling with do not create a
state where either you're constantly
chasing something so you don't feel good
right so you have low energy and you're
chasing just feeling normal or you are
getting to the point where you have
brain fog and you can't think clearly
because you've gone out and you've pared
and you don't realize how long that
takes to really get out of your system
right I mean just on and on and on
people are doing things my own battle
with anxiety this is one of the things
that made me so eager to have you on the
show I am utterly convinced that the not
not the sum total but the vast majority
of my anxiety is Diet related every time
I figure out a piece of that puzzle I'm
like Oh my anxiety now has gotten less
gotten less gotten less and so getting
people to understand the things you do
are going to matter a lot and if you're
watching this channel the odds are that
you're trying to do something
extraordinary in your life and I'm
telling you right now as much as dude if
you've never smoked weed and had sex it
is a different sport it is amazing I
love it the most yeah but because it has
in I get this is going to be very
controversial for me it if I try to do
it frequently I I just I'm so lethargic
is probably the right word I just don't
feel sharp I don't feel sharp and if you
are not at the razor's edge of your
abilities you will never be able to do
anything extraordinary and you're not
going to be at the razor's edge of your
ability unless you're doing all kinds of
things to optimize your physiology
couldn't agree with you more in fact you
know when we when you look at anxiety
for example um when you ask most people
what anxiety is they describe the
emotional state of anxiety right a fear
of the future um a fear fear of
anxiousness or they describe situations
that they're in that actually can
generate these fears right and true
situational anxi anxiety does exist but
if you want to prove that anxiety is
coming from your physiology and not from
your outside emotion you got to ask
yourself these three questions or ask
somebody that you know that's suffering
from anxiety these three questions and
what you'll find is that it's actually
not coming from their outside
environment what we usually call cluster
of symptoms it's it's coming from their
physiology and if you don't address the
physiological root then all you're left
with are coping mechanisms
right the majority of what's available
to people with anxiety are coping
mechanisms right diazapam olium nitrate
you know volume Xanax um therapy
counseling which I am not poo pooing by
any stretch I think people that get
counseling or therapy actually it's a
sign of strength not a sign of weakness
but what I'm saying is rather than learn
to cope with what you have why don't you
dig in and get rid of it because if you
take another layer deeper and you say
okay have I had an xiety on and off
throughout my entire lifetime you ask
most people that suffer from Che anxiety
they'll say yes I've had it in one form
or fashion on and off throughout my
entire lifetime there's your first
science coming from your physiology very
likely coming from a gene mutation
called
MTHFR which between 44 and 60% of the
population has which is directly why I
agree with you that diet has a massive
impact on anxiety because methyl folate
has a massive impact on anxiety um and
if you ask him a second question um can
you point to the specific trigger that
causes it I mean every time you start to
feel anxiety can you point to the
specific trigger that causes it the
majority of time they'll say no and the
third question is well if you've ever
tried anti-anxiety medications have they
worked and most of the time they'll say
no it just makes me feel like a zombie
there's a dead indication that is coming
from your physiology so now if we take
it another step deeper and we say well
then what is it in my physiology that is
causing me to feel this way well there's
a category of neurotransmitters in your
brain um and other areas of your body um
that's called catacol amines and catacol
meines are fight ORF flight
neurotransmitters right norepinephrine
epinephrine dopamine fedrin which we
also call
Adrenaline so these are fight ORF flight
neurotransmitters and understand that um
the brain as sophisticated as we'd like
to think it is it's it's actually not
the brain is actually very Primal what
the brain cares about is the brain cares
about survival and so so if you for
example drove home tonight and you got
out of your car and somebody was
standing in front of you with a knife
okay that's a very real fear your pupils
would dilate your heart rate would
increase your extremities would flood
with blood you would start having a
fight ORF flight response which is a
flood of catacol amines into the brain
and this could save your life right
you're instantly prepared to fight or
flight uh your field the vision wired um
widens your your hearing gets more cute
which is why people that suffer from
anxiety also don't like a lot of bright
lights that usually like loud music they
don't like a lot of stuff going on a lot
of sensory input right because cataca
means heighten that awareness State you
can actually pick these catac colomines
up in the urine of people that are
having anxiety urinary catacol meines
are directly related to the state of
anxiety
so first of all we know the cacom are
released into the brain but what if I
wasn't driving home and and getting out
of my car and having somebody stand in
front of me with a knife what if I was
just laying in my bed here in Los
Angeles um and we're pretty far up to
Hill here it's pretty pretty nasty W you
drive getting here and you started
thinking about getting eaten by a shark
so you're laying in your bed here at the
top of this hill and you start thinking
about getting eaten by a shark the
chances of a shark getting out of that
Pacific Ocean and making it up that even
if it got an Uber making it up that road
into your bed and biting you are zero
have you not seen shark NATO Gary I I
can we really say it's zero
is I said are almost zero I'll Grant you
you never you never know that you know
maybe maybe the sharks in you know out
in California can call an Uber I don't
know shark Cooper oh God that's let's
not try comedy on here I'll stick to
science my point is that you're in a
very real visceral threatening situation
somebody in front of you with a knife
and you're an entirely perceived
imagined situation laying in your bed
thinking about getting eaten by a shark
but you can have the exact same response
pupils dilate heart rate increases
extremities flood with blood hearing
gets more acute pupilary Vision dilates
you can have the exact same response and
why is that because the same physiologic
root a dump of catacol amines into the
brain so if we even take it a step
further and we say well are there people
that have impaired catacol amine
regulation that have an impaired ability
to downregulate catacol amines yes about
35% of the population has a genetic
mutation called compt CT catacol othl
transferase if you have this gene
mutation you have it's possible that you
have very slow breakdown of catac
colomines which means that these fight
ORF flight neurotransmitters can rise in
your brain very slowly but eventually
they trigger a state of anxiety you're
not actually fearing you're not having a
feeling of anxiety you're having a
feeling of heightened catacol amines in
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notes and the same thing happens when
these people lay down to go to sleep at
night right people generally people that
suffer from this type of gene mutation
will lay down and go to bed at night and
as their environment quiets their mind
will wake up and they'll tell you I'm
body tired but I'm mind awake I just lay
there and I think about the most
innocuous little thoughts like nothing
that couldn't wait till the next day
right they're like you know did I get
everything on my grocery list did my
belt match my shoes you know did I
return that email sometimes they and
sometimes they'll just wonder you know
if I had a Thanksgiving Day party what
color dishes would I use and then and
then they can catch themselves and go
the hell am I thinking about
Thanksgiving Day dishes before it's 2
o'clock in the morning because your mind
is awake your body is tired your mind is
awake so what if you could restore and
you can through proper supplementation
which also comes from proper diet so
what downregulates catacol amines things
like the proper B vitamin balance
methylfolate the a complex of B vitamins
specifically the types of B vitamins
that are found naturally in nature like
hydroxycobalamin methylcobalamin and um
a denol Calin those things that are
found in green leafy vegetables
grass-fed Meats um you know um eggs and
cruciferous vegetables those have high
amounts of folate B vitamins very
bioavailable forms and so now the body
has the raw material to break down
catacol amines which is why diet can
affect the incidence of anxiety it's the
way it's why some people can take
certain methylated vitamins and their
anxiety goes into permanent or
semi-permanent remission they go holy
[ __ ] I didn't think it could be that
easy it is if you understand human
physiology okay so I have a hypothesis
that there is a
relatively um small basket of things
that people do on a pretty regular basis
that cause maximum damage I'll give you
a couple examples and then give me your
basket so uh if you let me pull a few
levers in somebody's life I think I can
change it forever and for the better
I'm going to control their sleep I'm
going to control their access to the Sun
and if I'm going to stop at 3 uh I would
control their sugar intake their blood
glucose levels is actually what I would
steer by yeah there's a few more that
are pretty high impact but I'll stop
there what do you agree that there is a
in terms of common that there's a
relatively small basket and if so what's
in the basket I would first of all I
would absolutely believe um those three
um are are certainly in the top five I
might add two more but um yes you know
what's interesting I I was just talking
to my wife about this as I sort of
travel around the world I meet with you
know some of the world's leading
anti-aging longevity biohacking experts
I mean you know a lot of these
researchers that are doing fascinating
things in gene therapy um I go to a lot
of Retreats and events what's really
astounding Tom is that the the science
of Bio optimization is coming full
circle
meaning we're just getting back to the
basics which is exactly what you're
saying forget the fancy you know
equipment um you know forget this rare
Amazon rout that this company has that's
patent and licensed and trademarked and
it you know they skin it and boil it and
dry it and this is the secret Elixir
life it's back to the basics the further
we get away from the basics the sicker
we become can you break out what are the
basics so the basics are what we get
from Mother Nature which are three
things we get um light from the sun so
I'm completely with you on light um we
get oxygen from the air most of us are
not breathing properly anymore sedentary
lifestyle is the leading cause of all
cause mortality we're not moving we're
not getting enough oxygen into our
bodies which is why I'm a huge fan of
breath work in the morning um and we're
not touching the surface of the Earth
you know the whole time I've been
researching you I'm like Jesus I never
and I mean never and Barefoot unless I'm
on vacation which is like once a year oh
you need to get a pemf mat yeah or start
touching the surface of the Earth you
know that's too far away it's it's right
outside your door not really will my
driveway count my driveway is artificial
grass oh you don't have any grass on the
side we have like one little patch I
wondered if that would count yeah
because you don't need to move just
touch how but how deep does that have to
be like I'm sure it's sitting over tanks
and things like that so it's not mean
look you can get a g meter and check it
but I mean most soil dirt grass sand is
perfect if not you you when when people
are like oh I don't don't want to buy
all this fancy equipment there's no
fancy equipment you have to buy if you
can touch the surface of the Earth if
for whatever reason you can't touch the
surface of the Earth and invest in
something like a p MFM pulse
electromagnetic field that puts low gous
current through the body and mimics the
magnetic field of the earth so those are
those are some of the basics you know um
sunlight um breathing oxygen and
contacting the surface of the Earth and
I am absolutely with you the the the
third or fourth would be gly IA control
blood sugar control sugar is the root of
all evil the Bible should say sugar is
the root of all evil not the love a
bunny right because I don't think people
are dying because they love money but
they are dying from blood sugar and in
my entire is it just that they're
overeating sugar makes them overeat and
that's the problem or sugar itself even
in small quantities is going to be
problematic it's the fact that sugar is
hidden in everything now you know our
our sugar consumption since 1964 has
gone up 400 fold not not 400 you know
it's gone up because it's in everything
and then we had a massive war in the 90s
on on on fat which was like the worst
thing that ever happened to the food
pyramid was to have this massive war on
on on fats in general and saturated fats
and and you know natural oils and you
know we started to replace everything
with processed foods and sugars which
really spike your insulin and you know
we know now for example that a lot of um
mental and PSY atric illness has its
root in blood sugar for example you know
we know now that
Alzheimer's disease is Type 3 diabetes
it's insulin resistance in the brain
right I mean the brain is so crack
addicted to Sugar that it secretes its
own insulin right most most even even
Physicians think no the pancreas is the
only place the beta cells the eyelets
and the pancreas is the only place that
insulin's made that's not true the brain
makes its own insulin it is crack
addicted to sugar and when the brain
wants sugar the brain gets sugar right
the brain's nasty it's like a little IM
Jong-un of dictators it just sits up
there and it takes everything for itself
if it wants calcium it'll leech it from
the bones if it wants amino acids it'll
strip it from lean muscle and if it
wants sugar it'll activate a receptor on
the back of the tongue called the rf12
receptor which also provides a dopamine
ding for giving it sugar but the trick
is you have to swallow right so in order
we we swallow these sweet products and
it gives us a dopamine reward in fact if
you look at the Genesis of most
artificial sweet sweeteners only a
fraction of the chemical sweetener is
actually designed to meet the taste of
the sweetener the entirety of the rest
of those chemicals are designed to ding
the dopamine receptor wow which is why
artificial sweeteners are so addictive
it's why you know people that drink 12
um I'm not saying you know but most of
us know somebody they'll drink like six
eight 10 um you know Diet Cokes in a day
I used to drink three full sized cans of
Monster Zero Calorie zero calorie but
arici sweeners out the ass uh plus one
to three diet CES that was obviously
Peak anxiety I didn't yet understand
that diet could play a role in that uh
yeah the bad news is I got lean as hell
it was awesome and it was how I managed
my hunger and PS they taste amazing yeah
uh but this is my whole thesis is that
you're getting one thing out of all
these things you do that damage your
physiology but if you understand that
there's like a trade-off like like
Monday through Friday I don't allow
myself to drink diet coke on Saturday
I'll have half a Diet Coke and on Sunday
I'll have half a Diet Coke not because I
think it's good for me because I think
it tastes good right uh but because I
understand that there's a knock on
effect of everything I put in my mouth
or don't put in my mouth or on my skin
or you know on and on uh you start to do
a different calculus and that calculus
that I think is so important to
understand if you're trying to really
optimize right I I couldn't I couldn't
agree with you more and and the truth is
that most of us are walking around at
about 50 or 60% of our true state of
normal and and we are very likely just a
few nutrients away from being completely
optimal but we just don't know what
those nutrients are you want to talk
about magic things happening in the
human body magic happens in the human
body when you give it the raw material
it needs to do its job and if we start
with the understanding the very truthful
understanding that there's not a single
compound known to mankind not one
there's no vitamin no mineral no amino
acid no protein no carbohydrate of any
kind that we put into the human body
that's used in the format that we put it
in without a single exception everything
that enters our body has to be refined
into the usable form it goes salt even
salt yeah sodium sodium chloride NAC is
not used in the in the sodium chloride
form it's actually broken that molecule
was broken down and put into different
physiological reactions if you look at
the way the mitochondria uses water for
example it breaks off the hydrogens and
it breaks off the oxygen the oxygen goes
into one side of the CB cycle the
hydrogen's bind to NAD plus and reduce
it to nadh and then it enters the um
kreb cycle and electron transport chain
so everything that enters our body you
eat a piece of chicken the chicken is
useless until it's broken down into
amino acids you in ingest folate or
folic acid it's useless until your body
turns it into methola
this process in human beings is called
methylation we do it the process of
turning something into its constituent
Parts yes into methylation was marking
DNA no so methylation is also called one
carbon metabolism so basically what
methylation is I liken it to pulling
crude oil out of the ground right so we
take crude oil out of the ground but we
can't put crude oil into our gas tank
right because the car doesn't understand
that fuel source crude oil has to be
refined into gasoline now the car can
operate human beings are no different we
put all kinds of nutrients vitamins
minerals amino acids into the human body
and the human body takes them and
converts them into the usable form if
you can't make this conversion you have
a deficiency and it is this deficiency
that is robbing us from being in a state
of optimization it's this deficiency
that leads to some of the most common
conditions conditions that we call call
genetically inherited disease um you
know the whole the whole concept of
genetically inherited disease is is in
my opinion such a fallacy yes there are
rare conditions that are true diseases
that are passed from generation to
generation but why is it that 85% of all
hypertension is idiopathic meaning of
Unknown Origin and we say well Tom
you're um your you know grandmother and
your mom's side had hypertension your um
father and your grandfather had
hypertension now you have hyper tension
so you have familial hypertension you
have genetically inherited hypertension
if a doctor said that to me I would say
well what Gene did I inherit that gave
me that hypertension because they
wouldn't be able to tell me because that
Gene doesn't
exist okay so I'll push on that one so
the gene might exist but not be known it
could be a Confluence of 150 Gene
interactions or it could be Modern Life
that was one of the big questions I want
to ask you so going through the research
with you
that was the question I kept wondering
is this all like at a generic level for
me because I don't have the the depth of
medical knowledge that you have but when
I look at it I'm just like oh we're at
of step with how we came up from an
evolutionary standpoint there's just too
many things that are off like the fact
that I never walk on the ground right
and so if Nature has assumed whoa you're
going to be um in constant contact with
the Earth and there's going to be
whatever ion transfer I don't know
what's actually happening but whatever
that is I can
right and now that it's not happening
things just start to knock on and
there's hundred things like that like
hey I didn't expect you to drink diet
sodas because those did not exist from
an evolutionary standpoint and now any
one soda doesn't matter but yeah it
starts to build up exactly so is this a
DNA thing that we need to understand
like hey Tom you have the MTHFR mutation
and you're not processing folate
correctly or is it just that Modern Life
Is So anathema to the way that we
evolved that this really is about going
back to the basics like you well I think
you know if in in a perfect world you'd
go back to the basics right sunlight
grounding breath work um uh you know you
know being in regular contact with the
Earth not eating processed foods eating
Whole Foods in fact my whole theory on
dieting is not vegan vegetarian keto
paleo carnivore it's a whole food diet
right eating it's usually not the food
itself it's the distance from the food
to the table you know I just got
censored all over Instagram for doing a
whole post on seed oils and I said that
industrial process seed oils were bad
for you and people just came out of the
woodwork seed oils are not bad for you
and I said well listen if you take a
canola plant and you put it in a
commercial press and it comes out gummy
and then you de gum it with hexane which
is a no neurotoxin and then you heat
that oil to 405 degrees and turn it
rancid and then you take that Rancid
neurotoxic oil and you and you deodorize
it with sodium hydroxide which is a
known
carcinogen now it's toxic yeah maybe the
original C cold press canola plant
wasn't going to harm you but it's the
distance from there to your table right
it's the industrial processing that
harms you but back to that process of
methylation you know there you could go
down the role of genetic science until
you know your eyes rolled back in your
head but there are five major genes of
methylation
mtfr
MTR
mtrr one called ahcy and one called
compt if you got a genetic test and you
looked at which if any of those genes
were operating and which ones are not
operating whether they were broken or
not and you simply supplemented for
their
deficiency my hypothesis is it would get
you 85 to 90% of the way to where you
want to be and it would pull so many
anchors up off of your Stern it would be
absurd anx xiety anxiousness ADD ADHD
OCD manic depression bipolar poor gut
issues poor sleep waking mind poor focus
and concentration these all come from a
lack of very specific nutrients in your
body and most of us do not have clean
enough diet and a clean enough um fuel
sources like the water that we're
drinking to get there without
supplementation I mean my I believe
everybody should be on a good methylated
multivitamin meaning don't worry about
whether or not your body can break
something down into the usable form feed
it the usable form right so in other
words don't take folic acid take
methylfolate don't take cyanocobalamin
take methylcobalamin so a good
methylated multivitamin would fill in
those gaps and give your body the raw
material that it needs to do its job in
the absence of going out and actually
getting a genetic test done which I I
think everybody should do once in their
lifetime because it your genes never
change um then you can begin to
supplement for deficiency instead of
just the sake of supplementing right
there's lots of incredibly good
supplements out there ashwag Ganda and
CoQ10 and St John's Ward and and and all
kinds you know vitamin C I can make an
argument for vitamin C you can make an
argument for all of these different
supplements but the question is does
your body need them and how do you know
you have to know what your body can
process and what it can't and as soon as
you know that piece of information now
you supplement for deficiency and watch
the magic happen and this will affect
you know it's this process of
methylation Tom is almost like the The
Hub of a wheel with a whole bunch of
spokes right so people with anxiety
usually have three other conditions that
they don't link to their anxiety right
they have um poor sleep right they have
a hard time falling asleep because their
mind keeps them awake or they fall
asleep and they have and they wake up at
night and they have a hard time going
back to sleep me because their mind
wakes them up um almost every person
that suffers from um rampant anxiety
also has gut issues and why does someone
with anxiety have intermittent gas
floating diarrhea constipation
irritability and cramping because they
don't actually have those conditions
pathologically they have them because
the same gene and the same deficiency
methyl folate that causes poor catacol
amine regulation also causes poor
intestinal motility so they chase
allergies all of their life they're like
well I went and got an allergy test done
I'm allergic to wheat soy corn Dairy
blueberries bananas I'm allergic to all
this stuff so I cut it all out of my
diet I'm like okay how's it going for
you I still get cramping I still get
bloating I still get gas I still get
constipation okay because it's not the
contents of the God it is the pace of
the gut remember our our intestinal
tract is a 30 foot long conveyor belt
you put contents on it at one end and as
it you know as it exits the stomach as
it traverses the small intestine and
eventually into the large intestin the
colon and it exits the rectum it goes
from being very alkaline I mean sorry
from being very acidic to being very
alkaline and the sequence of events is
important and just like any Factory
that's running on a conveyor belt system
if you walk in that factory and double
the speed of the conveyor belt or triple
the speed of the conveyor belt or even
worse reverse the speed of the conveyor
belt the entire assembly line would
break down but there's nothing wrong
with the conveyor belt or the part
that's on the conveyor belt or the
people that are working there it's not
the it's very often it's not the gut
bacteria or the contents of the gut it's
the pace of the gut so by missing these
simple nutrients you get the expression
of all of these conditions right if I
was able to magically go into your body
and just deplete methyl folate or
deplete the complex of B vitamins I
promise you your anxiety would come back
like the tide and when your anxiety came
back so would your sleep Interruption
and your gut issues you would have a
skyrocketing incidents of gas bloating
constipation irritability cramping and
you may or may not relate it to that
efficiency but it is when I was in the
when I was in the um you know the
mortality space I was reading medical
records for a living for 20 years and I
read thousands and thousands and
thousands of medical records and I was
po through these medical records and it
was always astounding to me that you
would see people with chronic conditions
doing the same thing over and over and
over and over again and the chronic
condition would never heal right so like
people that would have chronic anemia
generally the the treatment for that is
um you know um
B12 folic acid and iron well 44% of the
population can't process folic acid so
you're treating people that have anemia
with folic acid which they can't process
and so you keep feeding it to them and
the anemia never gets better some of
those people would stumble upon
methylfolate the form that your body
converts it into and instantly the
anemia would go away now when the anemia
goes away the energy returns when the
energy Returns the sleep deepens so You'
see this whole myriad of things get
fixed just by putting the right raw
material back into the human body I mean
if I depleted vitamin D3 from your
bloodstream um if I can magically go in
and just deplete the sunshine vitamin
which I think is arguably the most
important nutrient in the human body
it's the only vitamin you know human
beings make on our own you start to
deplete that the first thing to to fall
is the immune system right which is why
D3 deficiency was the second leading
cause of morbidity in Co it's also why
vitamin D3
deficiency um which is more prevalent in
minorities um made people say well covid
disproportionately affects minorities
that's true it had nothing to do with
them being a minority it had to do with
the pigment of their skin the darker the
pigment of the skin the lower the
vitamin D3 the lower the vitamin D3 the
more compromised the immune system the
more susceptible you are to all kinds of
viruses and pathogens not the least of
which is co so this wasn't this was an
issue with a nutrient deficiency D3 not
an is an issue with a massive Auto
immune um you know Ma massive amount of
imuno comprom compromised people this
was an issue with a massive amount of
nutrient
deficiencies and if you if you trace the
nutrient deficiency in a human being and
you find it and you put that raw
material back into their body they
thrive in ways they just never could
have imagined and how broad of a
spectrum is the missing um elements so
if I were to go and take a DNA test am I
going to fall into one of five
categories or one of 500 categories one
of about five categories because we're
human beings we're all very very similar
right so these five genes are in every
human right and they're the five
methylated genes um and there are other
genes that you could look into I mean
like I said you can really go down the
rabbit hole of genetic testing but what
you want what you want to find out is
what basic raw materials that my body
needs to perform the majority of its
functions am I deficient in right the
majority of us are deficient in vitamin
D3 or deficient in methylfolate not
folic acid folic acid we've been led to
believe is a vitamin it's not vitamin B9
folic acid is an entirely man-made
chemical we make folic acid in a
laboratory you cannot find folic acid
anywhere on the surface of the Earth it
does not occur naturally in nature and
you'll never convince me that something
that we synthetically make in a
laboratory is somehow necessary for
Optimal Health it's interesting that's
how I feel about supplementation in
general so anybody that's been following
me for a while knows I don't do
supplements I will try you have a good
diet yes but that's not why I don't do
supplements the reason I don't do
supplement is so often you hear oh my
God this thing is like super critical
you've got to have it oh sorry by the
way it kills you and the the number of
times I'm at an age now where the number
of times something started out as a
miracle cure only to find out it causes
cancer or whatever whatever and so now
I'm just super paranoid now having said
that in full disclosure because in the
research I heard you say that thing
about methylated uh multivitamin I
literally bought one right away I'm like
let me just try cuz I I don't have a
Phil philosophical problem with it I
just worry about isolating compounds
when you isolate a compound who knows
like nature expects you to get things in
a certain way right so like I'm always a
little I do it I want to be very honest
but I'm I'm it makes my radar every time
I separate a yoke from an egg white I'm
like nature doesn't expect me to
separate these two things and so is
there some problem that you can generate
anyway so I just I'm a little paranoid
about isolating compounds uh so I guess
in that since I'm very on board with
being super skeptical of folic acid um
but I'm alsman that's the other one yeah
I'm also skeptical though of like
metformin All the Rage the number of
people I've talked to even off camera
who are like bro I was willing to say on
camera this is important even off camera
I'm telling you right now like I'm into
this thing I just cannot bring myself to
do it yeah I'm not a huge fan of
Metformin metformin has all kinds of
secondary consequences I mean it's a
good gluc ofage but um but you can get
you know if you look at side by side
clinical studies that berberine which is
a root performs better than metformin at
not only just hemoglobin A1c lowering
hemoglobin A1c which is a three-month
average of your blood sugar but also
controlling insulin levels and there are
virtually no side effects to berberine
right um now there's a trade-off to
glucoses like metformin and some of
these other ones with zampi or eptide
you know gp1 really fast just because
it's a fancy word and I'm married to a
Greek woman so FJ means to eat basically
so glucose eater is yeah yeah
gluc um but you know if you're morbidly
obese and a type two diabetic um
metformin could save your life right
like insulin could save your life but
the thing is do you want to have a
dependency on those things long term and
I would agree with you the answer is no
um I'm you know I'm a huge fan of basic
supplementation if you're not getting
enough vitamin D3 you should not be it's
the one supplement I will take during
the winter okay yeah I hear you on that
so uh okay so methylated multivitamin
what happens if I overdo it what happens
if I don't need it and I take it that's
a good question um so number one that's
one of the reasons why you get a genetic
test because you can see if your body
can can methylate it or not so if you
you know that if you if you don't have
the gene that codes for the conversion
of folate into methyl folate for example
you can very safely supplement with
methylfolate but let's say that you over
supplement um the difference between
over supplementation with water soluble
vitamins um a