[00:00:00] Carl Lanore: [00:00:00] Hey, Hey, welcome back to another episode of superhuman radio. Today is March 23rd, 2020 we're about halfway down the coronavirus lockdown here in the United States, and really nothing has changed in my life except that I'm not training at the gym. I'm training at my home, gym and outdoors, and, uh, we have to thank, first of all, a title sponsor, legendary foods, eat legendary.com is the place to go.

[00:00:26] If you haven't heard. I bought the tasty pastry. It's an upgraded pop tart with nine grams of protein and want less than one gram of sugar. And if not for yourself, for your children too, it's a great dessert. Uh, but also check out their nut butters because they're insanely delicious. Literally, I eat them with a spoon.

[00:00:45] I don't even bother. Putting the nut butters on anything. I eat them out of the jar with a spoon, and I go through jars a couple jars a week because that's my form of dessert. When I want something sweet after a meal, I just take a couple tablespoons of that and I'm done. So check out that nut [00:01:00] butters too.

[00:01:00] And I challenge you to try this. Take two tasty pastries and smear your favorite nut butter on the top of one and put them together like a sandwich and you will be. In heaven, but without the guilt. So check that out. Uh, so we're all pretty much training at home right now. And my guest today is none other than Ben Greenfield.

[00:01:21] Here he is, and he's actually out there walking the walk. How are you doing, Ben?

[00:01:25] Ben Greenfiled : [00:01:25] Um, I'm good, but now I wish I had a pop tart or some nut butter. You know, one of the things I've been doing just stuck at home with, with cabin fever here during this coronavirus thing is of course, you know, spend a lot of time in the kitchen cause my wife and my kids are.

[00:01:40] They're little, little foodies. My boys are in my, my wife's a fantastic chef, and so I'm playing catch up, but, um, uh, pun intended, I guess the, uh, the, the, um, I, I'm, I made a nut butter the other day with that was absolutely out of sight. Fantastic. Uh, [00:02:00] hopefully I'm not competing with your sponsor. Uh, no. I took these, um, I've got all sorts of crazy recipes.

[00:02:07] I like to. Doing the kitchen. I'm doing a bunch of ferments and yogurts and Keifers and, uh, I just started sprouting broccoli and alfalfa and red Clover. So I've got these jars and they're just exploding in the pantry right now, which is great as far as far as prepping goes between that and my, uh, my, uh, my bow here and all the white tail around our property.

[00:02:26] I think that if grocery stores. Go into complete lockdown, we'll have food, but this duck butter, I did a, I took these, uh, have you, have you tried any of those burka nuts yet? I have not. They're thirst. They're so good. I got my hands on something like, they taste like peanut butter, one of these nuts. And I, um, I put those in the food processor with coconut oil and cinnamon and the lung hog out a Monkfruit.

[00:02:53] Right. And Oh my goodness. It's like the best nut butter. Ever had. And so my project this week is I [00:03:00] got some, uh, some organic blueberry powder, which of course is amazing right now. There's, there's even, um, you know, uh, Davidson, Claire was talking about how he's, he's got a little bit of research on some of these sirtuin activators and how he might have a little bit of a, uh, an immune enhancing component.

[00:03:16] And I'm going to make a good to use the Bruker nut. Like a butter and make a blueberry Baruch and not cheesecake. So

[00:03:25] Carl Lanore: [00:03:25] I now, what did they go? What's

[00:03:27] Ben Greenfiled : [00:03:27] that channel? Kick the ass of your pop tarts.

[00:03:29] Carl Lanore: [00:03:29] There you go. What? What cheese do you use to make your cheesecake? You use cream cheese or you use ricotta cheese or what do

[00:03:36] Ben Greenfiled : [00:03:36] you make?

[00:03:36] I make, I'm making cheese out of the nuts. I'm going to use a nut cheese. No

[00:03:41] Carl Lanore: [00:03:41] kidding. I never heard of

[00:03:42] Ben Greenfiled : [00:03:42] that before. Yeah, well, well, I mean, that's what like if you go, I first discovered raw cakes when I was speaking in Finland at a, I'd like a bio hacking event over in Helsinki and all the coffee shops over there, they have what they call raw cakes, but they're all made out of like, like a nut base.

[00:04:00] [00:03:59] And a lot of them are using cashew, uh, but these, uh, these, uh, Brookins as you can do the same thing can make a cheese out of 'em. So I'll make cheese out of the nuts and use that as my, as my, as my quote, cheese on quote.

[00:04:13] Carl Lanore: [00:04:13] So yeah, she'll show me where you walking to flip. Could you turn your camera around so I can see what you see as you're walking straight ahead?

[00:04:18] Ben Greenfiled : [00:04:18] Well, right, right now I'm out in the trees. I was gonna walk up on the farm roads back behind my house, but it's very windy today and I didn't want it. Disrupt with when. That's actually my house there. They can see through the tree. I see it.

[00:04:29] Carl Lanore: [00:04:29] I see. Yeah.

[00:04:29] Ben Greenfiled : [00:04:29] Yeah. So I'm walking down towards the house and I actually, I built an obstacle course cause I did a, I was sponsored by Reebok for about four years, did a professional obstacle course racing.

[00:04:39] So I built the whole circuit around my house, about a half mile obstacle course with 30 foot ropes. And. Some military obstacles and, uh, you know, a bunch of heavy tires and stuff. So I'm just going to go walk the course instead while we're talking instead

[00:04:50] Carl Lanore: [00:04:50] of wow. Very, very cool. That's very cool too. We actually have you, while you're training, you're walking.

[00:04:55] How much, how, how far do you walk typically when you do this type of a walk?

[00:05:00] [00:04:59] Ben Greenfiled : [00:04:59] Oh, I, I. D I usually take about 15,000 to 20,000 steps a day. That's, that's usually my target, but a lot of it is when I'm, you know, talking with my clients on the phone or. You know, taking calls, stuff like that. So I don't have a, uh, an exact number of miles that comes out too, but I, I walk a lot, you know, and that's during this, during this whole Corona virus thing, I've actually stepped back on the amount of intense training I've been doing, just so I'm not in as inflamed the state.

[00:05:27] I've been doing a lot of BFR training, uh, just about every day I'm either doing a VFR resistance training or, or the Vasper. Not only for the nitric oxide, which, which can actually have a little bit of an answer, viral effect in and of itself, but also just just to get some muscle maintenance without as hefty and inflammatory response.

[00:05:46] Cause we know there's still a satellite cell response and mitochondrial proliferation, even in the absence of significant inflammation with a, with BFR. So I'm a, I don't even do it. Some of my walks, like, I think you do this as well, just in my walks [00:06:00] with the bands on. And then, um. I'm doing a, another thing I think is tremendous, tremendous.

[00:06:07] You know, there's so many people talking about supplements, you know, vitamin C and glycerin, ACC acid, and you know, shoving ozone up your ass and all these tactics. But the, um, the, the things that I think are, are just super, super simple, you know, in addition to something like, like BFR for nitric oxide and some of the other effects as well as walking in the sunshine for the same type of effect.

[00:06:29] Yeah. So I'm doing a lot of sunshine walking is, um, three, three things. And I've been doing this with my kids every single day. First of all, breath work, breath work is, you know, I, I have a whole chapter in the book on, on managing stress, uh, via, via a host of different breathwork tactics and this idea of a, and a author, Andres Olson, and also Patrick McCowen really highlight this quite a bit.

[00:06:55] This importance of co two retention. You know, we know that long livid [00:07:00] species like the, you know, the bowhead whale and the naked mole rat, they display naturally high levels of carbon dioxide, which based on the Bohr effect and exercise physiology, uh, does a great job at associating oxygen into tissue more readily if you, if you're retaining Simon simultaneously high levels of OTU and CO2.

[00:07:18] But it turns out that that CO2 in and of itself. And a James next door. Also. He has a new book called breathe, which gets him to this fantastically, or these high levels of CO2. They actually have some, uh, some antimicrobial effects. And when you pair that with the nitric oxide that you get from breath work, doing CO2 retention, breath work is a, is a really, really good strategy.

[00:07:40] Meaning, meaning essentially you're doing very long, relaxed exhales, you know, with, with. With about a a one to two inhale to exhale ratio for maintaining high levels of, of a CO2. And then if you're doing that, and a lot of it's through the nose, we know that the, that the higher temperature of the air that's reaching the lungs may have an [00:08:00] antimicrobial effect.

[00:08:01] We know we're scrubbing the air, we breathe through the nose, we know you've got a higher nitric oxide release through the nose and you know, and of course in the time of anxiety and stress, which a lot of people are under. Yeah. We were not triggering the bear receptors in the chest quite as much with the deeper diaphragmatic breath work that occurs through through nasal breathing.

[00:08:20] So what I'm doing, uh, with, with my families, every day we go into the sauna and we're doing about 20 to 30 minutes of pretty intensive co two retention style breathwork and following that up. And we just do this every night before dinner. Five to 10 minutes of cold water swimming. So every day my family's doing breathwork, heat, cold.

[00:08:42] And then I'm just combining that with BFR training and these long walks in the sunshine. And I tell you what, mate, maybe it's me not being on airplanes and in airports as much, you know, with everything was getting shut down and not traveling. But I feel just, just amazing these days. I mean, I, my body [00:09:00] just feels

[00:09:01] Carl Lanore: [00:09:01] because you, you, you, you are so intense with your training.

[00:09:04] That this is kind of probably allowing a lot of things to reset. I'd like to offer something else about the breath work that you're talking about. People die from Corona virus and other viruses, not because the virus vanquishes their body. But because their heart and their pulmonary system can't keep up with the demand.

[00:09:22] And so you have frail, older people who couldn't even run if they had to. They succumb to this because while they're laying there in bed panting, their body is working, their heart and their lungs are working so hard to scavenge any oxygen. I would submit, yup. That breathwork does something else by getting used to those higher levels of CO2.

[00:09:41] And I'm a fan of breathwork. Ron Penna is really the guy. And, and uh. And, uh, what's his name? Uh, Andrew's,

[00:09:47] Ben Greenfiled : [00:09:47] uh, we're the ones that introduced me to Bob. Both Ron and Anders are in my book, actually.

[00:09:51] Carl Lanore: [00:09:51] Yeah. And so, you know, when you, when you look at the effects of getting used to higher levels of CO2, it, it reduces [00:10:00] anxiety.

[00:10:00] And. Your, your demand. You don't feel like you're suffocating is quickly when you don't have as much oxygen. So if these people started to practice that in their poor conditions, they probably would actually survive. They've give the heart, they give the heart a break.

[00:10:15] Ben Greenfiled : [00:10:15] Well, a couple other things related to that.

[00:10:17] There. There are clinics now in the U S administering carbon dioxide as a therapy for anxiety and stress. You can actually go get CO2 therapy where you're literally just huffing CO2. Well, of course you can simulate that without a clinic, just by learning, you know, CO2 retention, breathwork tactics. But then the other thing that of course is going to increase the availability of oxygen.

[00:10:38] I, I jokingly referred to, you know, rectal insufflation of ozone, but I'm actually not opposed to using, you know, not only ozone saunas, but like a home ozone generator to, you know, that you, they fill a bag with ozone with, and, uh, you know, administration of rectal insufflation of ozone. It's going to increase oxygen availability, which when combined [00:11:00] with CO2 retention tactics, you know, nasal breathing for the nitric oxide, you've got high nitric oxide, high CO2, and high oxygen, and that's kind of a Holy trifecta for just overall cardiovascular physiology.

[00:11:12] So

[00:11:13] Carl Lanore: [00:11:13] let's talk about the book for a second. So all this great stuff everybody's listening to, they're like, man, I wish I could remember this. I wish I could write this down. You can. You don't have to. Ben already wrote it down. It's all in this book. This book is amazing. This book is like an encyclopedia of everything that Ben has ever learned and, and is still learning is right in this book.

[00:11:32] I want to ask you a couple of questions specifically about chapters in the

[00:11:36] Ben Greenfiled : [00:11:36] book. It

[00:11:37] Carl Lanore: [00:11:37] if you had, if you had somebody who said, Ben. I only can do one thing. I can't do all these things. Would sleep be the thing that you get them to fix?

[00:11:48] Ben Greenfiled : [00:11:48] Oh, well, I mean, you know, we live in an era where self quantification is his STO, you know, so, so simple and easy that I'd say it's good.

[00:11:56] It's got an a panned on on where you're at. But I, you know, I, [00:12:00] I wouldn't say one tactic as much as one. Goal, and that would be mitochondrial optimization. And I would say as far as mitochondrial optimization, you know, if you already have a movement practice and you're already eating a, you know, a whole foods diet, you know, whether it's, uh, you know, I, I pay me with a broad brush, even though I don't think there's one diet for everybody.

[00:12:21] I think kind of a low carb, Esq. A Mediterranean approach is, is a relatively good scenario for a lot of folks, even though, you know, I'm, I also, you know, recommend. You know, from an autoimmune standpoint, short term things like a carnivore or an autoimmune paleo or, you know, I'm, I'm a fan of a wall's protocol for nervous system function.

[00:12:41] Like it, like kinda depends, but let's, you've got your exercise and your nutrition practice set up a mitochondrial optimization, in my opinion, comes down to sunlight. Earthing or grounding, right? Whether it be using earthy and grounding mats, pulsed electro magnetic field therapy, [00:13:00] uh, you know, being outside barefoot, being in sand, being on beaches, being in the ocean, et cetera.

[00:13:06] Heat, cold water and minerals to actually carry the, the electricity through the body. And then some amount of deep tissue work for the, for the, uh, you know, we know that fascia almost acts as it on a, on a PA to electric principle. To also keep the body's battery charge. So, you know, again, you go way back and read a book, you know, like Robert Becker's, uh, you know, body electric or Jerry tenant's, uh, healing is voltage books.

[00:13:33] And we know that if we, if we can do things to keep the body electrically charged, that's gonna optimize mitochondria. So I would say, if anything, start with attention to the mitochondria. Start with attention to treating the human body as a battery. And the top six things you could do. Would be, uh, would be sunlight or photobiomodulation.

[00:13:52] That's fine too. If you're using an infrared near infrared panels, infrared sauna, you know, I'm a fan of, of, you know, both the natural and, and the bio [00:14:00] hacking approach. And, uh, in addition to light, earthy and grounding, heat, cold water and minerals. And that's a great tactic for, for the immune system in these times as well.

[00:14:10] So I'd say, I'd say start there, start with the body electric, start with the mitochondria. How long

[00:14:16] Carl Lanore: [00:14:16] did it take you to write this book then?

[00:14:18] Ben Greenfiled : [00:14:18] About three years. And it wasn't just me. I mean, I had a team of research assistants and, and editors. It was, it was really a, uh, a group effort. But, you know, I, uh, three years ago I wanted to write a book on longevity in anti-aging.

[00:14:31] I got, I got big into, you know, he's studying up, you know, as controversial as it is based on some of the epidemiological data studying up on, on the blue zones or the so called blue zones to, you know, a lot of this stuff that I know you're very familiar with. Uh, you know, peptides and, uh, and, and hormone replacement and some of these other strategies for aging in our serotonin's NAD, et cetera.

[00:14:53] And then, and I got into writing the book and I realized, I, I, I want to do more of just a blueprint for the [00:15:00] entire human body and go beyond antiaging and longevity. So kind of morphed, turned into about a 1200 page manuscript when I turned it into the editor and we refined it down to about 650 pages, but start to finish, it was about a three year project.

[00:15:14] Carl Lanore: [00:15:14] It's really like a. The human operating manual. I mean, it's, it really is. I mean, it's an amazing work. It's, uh, it's, it's, it probably will go down as a seminal work and TA, uh, stringing a bunch of different things. Like everybody has their wheelhouse. You know, everybody's got their area where this is the answer.

[00:15:35] What you've done with this book is you've taken all of that stuff and strung it together to show how they all play in, uh, together to, to. Reach some sort of optimal level of performance and health. And let's face it, you know, when we talk about performance, we're talking about health. You can't perform at a high level because your immune system, as you point out a second ago, takes a beating when you perform

[00:15:59] Ben Greenfiled : [00:15:59] a level.

[00:15:59] I [00:16:00] mean, I, I think that is very difficult to yoke performance, to help them longevity. I think in many cases, you know, athletes, gladiators, warriors like. You know, the goal there is to perform and, and probably take some years off your life and possibly die. Like, you know, that was, that was my M O for years and years.

[00:16:16] You know, racing as an iron man triathlete and adventure racer and an obstacle course racer, et cetera. I think, I think it's difficult to, to justify that that performance is necessarily going to be synonymous with health, especially performance at a high level. But you're right, if you optimize health and longevity, you are going to perform better in some cases.

[00:16:37] But at the same time, if, if you are, if you are, for example, maximizing autophagy via strategies such as say, fasting or carbohydrate restriction, and you are maximizing recovery and even mitochondrial health through some of the strategies that I just talked about and you're [00:17:00] avoiding a lot of over-training even properly, period eyes.

[00:17:03] You know, periods of overtraining, I think, yeah, you'll, or you'll sacrifice a little bit of performance for health and longevity, but you know, let's face it, unless it's your paycheck to have a lot of muscle or to, you know, to be able to ride your bike really fast down the highway. Um, you know, I, I think optimizing performance while at the same time maximizing health and longevity is key.

[00:17:26] And that was my thrust with the book. I mean, my previous book before that. Beyond training was more focused on strength, speed, power, endurance, VO two max, lactate tolerance, et cetera. But this book, I wanted to come at it more of a standpoint of, you know, co com combination of lifespan and healthspan with, yeah.

[00:17:45] Good performance, but not performance at all costs.

[00:17:48] Carl Lanore: [00:17:48] Yeah. So there's more of a balance in it. So you, you, you have a, a pair, a pair, a chapter in there where you look at, uh, at aging and, uh, and you have a, a section there where you look at six [00:18:00] people who you feel have really aged

[00:18:02] Ben Greenfiled : [00:18:02] well. Oh yeah.

[00:18:04] Carl Lanore: [00:18:04] But what are the things in that, uh, in that passage that I agree with you and I want you to speak about it, is that people who seem to have longevity.

[00:18:14] They're very regimented. They have. They have, uh, you know, daily routines that they stick to day in and day out, don't they?

[00:18:23] Ben Greenfiled : [00:18:23] Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, something as simple as, uh, you know, like Olga, that, that 90 something, you know, female track and field star who was kind of a phene almond who has since passed. Uh, but, but, you know, it was w it wasn't remarkable health with, you know, speak of the devil.

[00:18:37] Pretty decent performance as well as longevity. I mean, just, just very simple things like, like she would do. Deep tissue work, you know, every night before she'd go to bed. Um, you know, you look at somebody like, uh, you know, my friend Laird Hamilton, he's another guy who I talk about and feature in the book.

[00:18:55] He's just constantly learning new things and also planning along with, uh, [00:19:00] Don Wildman, uh, who's also, I believe since passed, uh, you know, plan planning out Epic adventures, things that are just a little bit scary every once in a while. And, you know, for me, that's typically, you know, and, and. Uh, a hunting trip or a spear fishing adventure, or, you know, going to play open mic night on my guitar, or just something that kinda kinda takes you outside of your comfort zone.

[00:19:20] Right. Um, you know, and then you've got, you know, uh, who's, who's another person that's in there, um, Mark Sisson. Yeah. Yeah. Mark systems in there, you know, his whole, his whole lift move sprint principle, which, uh, which I'm still a huge fan of. You know, I, I learned this from him. I always have a hex bar. Uh, it's actually in the room next to my office.

[00:19:39] It's always loaded up. I drop in there, I do five to 10 reps and just use that cold lifting approach at multiple points throughout the day. And you know, in the book I even get into kind of like in the minimalist gym and it's pretty much kettlebell, PEX bar, pull up bar, some VFR straps. And you know, even with something as simple as that, [00:20:00] I can jam all day long in between calls and not really have to do a formal workout at the, you know, at the beginning or the end of the day.

[00:20:07] And really like, that's an ideal day for me is. Wake up, walk in the sunshine or, or you know, a quick sauna session with a cold. So go through the whole day, thrown in hex bar, dead lifts, kettlebell swings, and uh, and pull up some amount of brachiation. You know, I've got some, I've got a lot, I'm a big fan of inversion as well.

[00:20:24] I, yeah, I mean, I've got a yacht. I've got a yoga swing in my living room. I've got a feed up trainer in the office. I've got a, you know, the gravity boots in the, in the gym, and then an inversion table. And so, you know, going, going through the entire day like that. And just putting in those little micro workouts, which, which again, where we're at right now as far as maximizing fitness while decreasing inflammation.

[00:20:47] Also really, really great for for lymph circulation. It's a great strategy. And then when you get to the end of the day, man, if, if, if you've stayed physically active like that, and you, you know, like I do right now, you know, taking some phone calls while you're walking, [00:21:00] etc. If you can take that, that gym hour at the end of the day.

[00:21:05] And instead do something like some really targeted breath work and a sauna with a little bit of cold. You know, it's kinda like an end cap to the day. I mean, you're, you're gonna feel amazing. And if you're not doing, you know, formal, you know, 45 to 90 minute gym sessions.

[00:21:18] Carl Lanore: [00:21:18] I agree with you 100% because I absolutely feel a lot better when I tend to do more throughout the day as opposed to when I just have an intense workout in the morning.

[00:21:26] And then I come to the studio and I don't do much. And so that's prompted me to do things like during the commercial breaks, I get up and I go, do. Body weight squats, or I've got a set of dumbbells here and I'll do something. I'll do some pushups and then I'll sit back down. When I, when I am regimented enough to do that, I find that I feel better and I sleep better that night and I wanna.

[00:21:47] I want to take a break and talk about sleep because one of the problems that people have with not understanding sleep is that what you do. The day before actually sets up asleep and that, that, that takes a lot of [00:22:00] discipline. You know, you, right now you have a great coffee product. Keon. And,

[00:22:05] Ben Greenfiled : [00:22:05] Oh yeah,

[00:22:06] Carl Lanore: [00:22:06] yeah, but, but you point out in the book like, but don't depend on caffeine.

[00:22:11] I want to talk about that when we come back. Okay. Yeah. I say to them, but right back with more of a Ben Greenfield, we're talking today with Ben Greenfield. He's on the moon. He's out there walking, doing the things that you should talk to Ben, talk about sleep for a second. Say I'm a, I'm a huge fan. Of looking at people's sleep when they complain about lots of different problems.

[00:22:32] And one of the things I've learned that you talk about in the book is the fact that the sleep quality starts the day before, doesn't it?

[00:22:39] Ben Greenfiled : [00:22:39] Yeah, it does. And let me just stop for just a second here. This is, there's live podcasts and put my phone in my pocket cause I stopped during the commercial break to take a pee.

[00:22:47] And I forgot to, I forgot to tie my jogging pants.

[00:22:50] Carl Lanore: [00:22:50] No, no, that w we got the whole urination out on video. You don't

[00:22:53] Ben Greenfiled : [00:22:53] talk to me walking around with my pants around my ankles. Good. I'm tired. I'm tied up now. [00:23:00] Yeah. I mean, there's this idea of circadian rhythmicity and you know, this whole concept of the so called zeitgebers or circadian rhythm cues, it's so important.

[00:23:09] I think a lot of people understand, you know, normal sleep hygiene and the concept of cold. And the end of light and of silence and a good parasympathetically driven state at bedtime. But sometimes, you know, the actual implementation of that from a practical standpoint gets a little bit confusing to people or lost in the shuffle.

[00:23:30] Like, like for example, you were talking about, you know, when the sleep cycle actually begins. And, and you're right, it's, it's not when your head hits the sack at night. It's, it's the presence of, of blue light often, uh, often a meal Q and a movement queue in the morning. And, you know, not only the, the, the presence of blue light, natural light in the morning, but the, the presence of that along with, and this gets lost in the shuffle with all these, you know, blue light boxes and, you know, things that are used for seasonal effective.

[00:23:59] That's sort of [00:24:00] too. Deliver a lot of blue light to people. You got to have that combined with a, with the full, uh, red light spectrum, you know, near infrared farm for red and red light. And, uh, this, this is why, you know, when I get up in the morning, a lot of people will wear those, those blue light blocking glasses with a red or an orange tent at night.

[00:24:19] And I put those on when I get up in the morning because, you know, when you're flipping on lights in the house. And you're walking around and you might be looking at your phone or checking the computer. You're, you're getting a lot of blue light, which granted, you know, is beneficial in the morning for jump-starting the circadian rhythm.

[00:24:36] But in the absence of infrared life, it's actually not sending the right cues to your body. So I'll wear those, those orange or red tinted glasses, typically for about the first hour of the day. So I'm kind of simulating sunrise, even if I'm not, you know, up at four 30 or 5:00 AM and actually. Watching the sun rise.

[00:24:55] I, when I get into my office, you know, I've got these light panels, you know, these near infrared and red light [00:25:00] panels that I flip on to just bathe my body in more of the red light while I'm looking at the blue light coming out the back screen, you know, the backlit led screen of my computer monitor. So that's one thing is just attention paid to the full spectrum of light in the morning.

[00:25:17] And then of course, and I think everybody's aware of this at this point, the absence of that, that blue light. And especially the, uh, the non-native light at night. And we, you know, we've gone so far in our house to even replace all the bulbs in the house rather than with led, which produces a pretty perceptible flicker and can cause some, some low level damage to it.

[00:25:38] And, uh, and also just mild I irritation throughout the day. We've just replaced all the cans in our house within Candescent and in the bedroom. It's actually red in Candescent. So it kind of looks like a. Like a strip club or you know, like a Amsterdam nightclub when you walk into the bedroom. But the master bathroom, the master bedroom, my kids' bedroom, and [00:26:00] even my office at night is all lit with red.

[00:26:03] Incandescent light. So that, that's one thing that's important. Another one is, uh, you know, when we talk about temperature, you know, I, I'm a huge, huge believer, especially for the deep sleep in sleeping cold. Like for me, perfect sleep temp is when you don't want to take your clothes off to get into bed cause it's that cold.

[00:26:21] But then once you do get into bed and you're kind of snuggled up, you feel pretty good. So, you know, we keep the house about between 60 and 64 Fahrenheit. Uh, at night, generally kind of wrap up the day as a book end with a quick jump in the cold pool, sleep with wool socks on, which has actually been shown in research to decrease sleep latency about three fold increase in the amount of time it takes for you to fall asleep.

[00:26:46] And also allowing for it for a better cooling of the core when you wear something like Smartwool socks to bed, you know, I also have one of those rulers, you know, those pads that circulate about 55 degree cold water under the bed, but. Man [00:27:00] sleeping cold. That's also big and it comes down to more than just, in my opinion, just like keeping your house cold.

[00:27:06] Carl Lanore: [00:27:06] Well, you don't want to stay with that for a second because there's some evidence that people who say, Oh, I have a racing mind. I can't fall asleep. That if they take a plastic bag with some cold water and ice cubes in and hold it on their forehead for about 10 or 15 minutes before they go to sleep, they fall right to sleep.

[00:27:20] Their mind stops. So you're right, we are designed to sleep cold. We keep our home the same way around 64 degrees at night. It's wonderful.

[00:27:28] Ben Greenfiled : [00:27:28] Yeah. The company called EBD actually just came out. I think it's ebb with a, with a head worn device that's kind of like the ruler, but for your head and you literally slap this thing in your head.

[00:27:37] It circulates. I think it's about 55 degree cold water on your head while you're falling asleep. I have one, I own one. I don't use it that much cause I'm a side sleeper and I don't find it stays on very well. When you're on your side, but it's, it's, you know, it's, it's an interesting idea. Cooling, not just the body, but also the head, especially for, as, as you mentioned, kind of the racing thoughts, the anxiety, I think, I think [00:28:00] that, or something like a, you know, like a Fisher Wallace Circadia or a new column for some of the vagal nerve stimulation.

[00:28:06] It's really, really great for shutting down, uh, racing thoughts. And then, um, you know, in addition to that, uh, that cold component. You know, silence, you know, we know there's all these different noise generators that you can use to dry down barking dogs or you know, alarms that turns out that of all the different forms of noise, like white noise, Brown noise.

[00:28:26] And I get into this in the books, some different apps and you know, bedside noise producers, you can get a pink noise. Pink noise is the, is the actual noise that's the best for a, for deep sleep. So I usually use, I use an app called sleep stream that I set in pink noise mode. For the night of sleep too, to drown out sound.

[00:28:45] And then, um, you know, there, there's a ton of sleep tips in the book. But one other one that I think is often neglected is this idea that the bedroom should not be a place where your body is innocent in a sympathetic state. And the bed itself should not be associated [00:29:00] with work. So I, I used to, when I check into a hotel room, you know, flop on the bed and my belly open my laptop, get some work done, I now have a hard and fast rule that my laptop does not come anywhere near the bed.

[00:29:11] Because that causes my body to begin to associate the bed with work. Even the books next to my bed stand are not business books or marketing books or entrepreneur books or anything like that. Even fitness, nutrition, health. I'm careful with reading that stuff at night. Cause often I'll begin to, to think of things that related to business and go into work mode.

[00:29:30] So for me, it's all fiction. I'm, I'm actually reading a book right now on the, uh, on the Spokane Indian tribe. Uh, that's up next to the bed right now. But this idea of ensuring that. Any activities you do in bed or are in no way associated with the sympathetic state or work. I think that's really important.

[00:29:46] Just so the bed is, is a place of, of safety and that whole idea of safety actually is related to another thing that I find very useful. I don't travel with this cause too heavy, but I have one at home, one of these, a 25 pound gravity [00:30:00] blankets and man, when you pull a gravity blanket on. It's just like, like sleeping in in this protected piece of armor and your body automatically begins to shut down cause it feels super duper safe under one of these, these gravity blankets.

[00:30:14] And there's some companies now making gravity blankets that do, you know, they're breathable, they're cool. They're not as warm as you'd think for 25 pounds. And you know, I'm a huge fan of a gravity blanket on top. And one of those little. No cooling that's underneath.

[00:30:26] Carl Lanore: [00:30:26] You know, it's interesting. So, so deep sleep inducing peptide, which a lot of people have tried and say anything from it completely wreck my sleep too.

[00:30:35] It didn't do anything at all. And what we've discovered is the time to take DSIP is first thing in the morning. DSI first thing in the morning will improve your sleep that night. And this goes hand in hand with your discussion about . The circadian rhythm and, and sleep, uh, starts in the morning or the day, or even the day before.

[00:30:54] But if you take DSIP at around a hundred micrograms first thing in the morning, you'll find that you [00:31:00] sleep better. If you take it right before bed, it wrecks your sleep.

[00:31:03] Ben Greenfiled : [00:31:03] That is interesting. That is interesting. I, I didn't know that. I, you know, I, I knew that there's a, uh, you know, it's just. Pretty pronounced attack with the lactic response with overuse of DSIP, and I've always been advised about two to three hours prior to bed, but that's interesting about the morning.

[00:31:18] I might have to try it. You'll see. You'll

[00:31:20] Carl Lanore: [00:31:20] see it in the morning now. It doesn't work for everybody. I mean, in general, DSIP itself doesn't work for everybody, but the people who it works for, if they take it in the morning as opposed to right before bed, they see improved quality of

[00:31:32] Ben Greenfiled : [00:31:32] their sleep dramatically.

[00:31:33] Yeah.

[00:31:33] Carl Lanore: [00:31:33] Well, where should people go get the book at your website, Ben Greenfield, fitness.com.

[00:31:38] Ben Greenfiled : [00:31:38] Uh, actually the, the book website boundless book.com is, is a pretty good spot. See here, by the way, those are some of the ropes hanging from the tree. Those are a couple of the, uh, the 30 foot ropes. That right there is the, uh, that's the happy place.

[00:31:51] That's, that's the gym. It's a gym I built kind of separate from the house. Sorry, I'm, I'm, uh, Noah. This is great. I'm rabbit [00:32:00] holing here. I looked down there. That's, that's where all the Nigerian dwarf goats and a whole fleet of, uh. Icelandic chickens are. Then we got about eight raised the garden vegetable beds up there.

[00:32:12] So we're, we're right now just just in hefty motive, planting seeds, taking care of the chicken. So we got a lot of eggs. We've got some Apple and pear trees down there that we're growing. And then inside we're doing a ton of indoor grows right now with a. With sprouts, with grasses, with micro greens, and with a lot of ferments and yogurts.

[00:32:31] They'll show you the, uh, I've got two gyms. I've got a garage gym with a bunch of sandbags and kettlebells, and, uh, you know, just the Airdyne. And then this is kind of the more and more biohacking gym where I got the katsu device. I've got a Vasper over there with a, uh, a live OTU for exercise with oxygen therapy.

[00:32:49] And then, uh, you know, inclined treadmill, another hex bar. And, uh. Uh, uh, uh, really good Russian East end machine called, uh, called a newbie there. So this is where I'll do kind of more [00:33:00] of the trick Dow biohacking kind of workouts. And then the, the garage has got all the other other shit. Um, so anyways, uh, yeah, boundless books.com.

[00:33:10] I, I've got the audible version now. I've got a Kindle version. And I really liked the physical version because I think you have one, right? Yes, I have it. And  illustration.

[00:33:22] Carl Lanore: [00:33:22] Ivo shoe. I put this up earlier, but I'm going to put it back up again. He said that he keeps it on his coffee table. It's a great conversation starter.

[00:33:30] Ben Greenfiled : [00:33:30] Yeah. I wanted it to be a book that wasn't like a flash in the pan air, you know, airport bookstore, pick it up, 200 300 pages with a bunch of dumbed down language and you know, you finish it and toss it out. I want this to be something people can come back over and over again. It's kind of like a kinda like a a cookbook.

[00:33:46] And I took, you know, the 500 plus pages that got cut. I put up a page for every single chapter, all the books, all the articles, all the podcasts, everything. People need to take a deeper dive as well as the information that I cut. You get access to [00:34:00] all of that when you get the book and, uh, you can't quite see it up there, but I've, uh, I've got a bunch of solar panels up there and then, uh, uh, well over there.

[00:34:08] So we're pretty much good to go if, if shit hits the fan and there's a zombie apocalypse, Carl, you can, you can fly over hair.

[00:34:14] Carl Lanore: [00:34:14] I'll

[00:34:14] Ben Greenfiled : [00:34:14] be their brother and uh, we can eat venison.

[00:34:17] Carl Lanore: [00:34:17] Yeah. So I gotta I got a freezer full and so I just leased a hundred acre piece of land to start hunting. And so I know you're a big fan of bow hunting.

[00:34:24] I haven't bow hunted since I was in my. Uh, probably 19 years old, 18 years old, and back then it was all recurves and compounds. But I just looked at some of these new crossbows, these arrows are moving 400 feet per second. It's amazing. Oh yeah. Knology has changed.

[00:34:41] Ben Greenfiled : [00:34:41] Yeah. Even with a calm town, we, my compound shooting three 22 FTS, you know, and that, that'll take down a grizzly.

[00:34:47] I mean, those things will open up a whole, I don't use the, uh, I don't use the mechanical broadheads, which are. I think the flight of the arrow can, can be affected pretty dramatically, especially if it opens during flight. I still use the fixed [00:35:00] plate broadheads but you know, with, uh, I'm shooting a Hoyt carbon ignite right now and that'll think nothing will spit out arrows like a shotgun.

[00:35:06] So, so yeah, I, I'm a, I'm a big fan of, of bow hunting, although I have to admit that if, if it gets to the point where I just got to start, you know, harvesting a lot of meat out here because of the whole coronavirus thing. If this goes on for months and months, like some people are saying, you know, I'll just use the, uh, I'll use the rifle.

[00:35:24] Carl Lanore: [00:35:24] What's your favorite, what's your favorite rifle to hunt deer with?

[00:35:27] Ben Greenfiled : [00:35:27] A, I got a 30 out and, um, then also a two 44, and I don't even like to hunt with a rifle, but. Yeah. No. So I'm, I'm not really married to any, any particular caliber, but uh, but yeah, that's what I have in case I need it.

[00:35:43] Carl Lanore: [00:35:43] The 31 six is a favorite of everybody's.

[00:35:45] I mean, I, yeah, it's probably the most popular caliber, most versatile caliber

[00:35:48] Ben Greenfiled : [00:35:48] out there,

[00:35:49] Carl Lanore: [00:35:49] Ben. Man, it's been great. I know you're, you're, you're a busy guy and you made time to do the show today, and I really appreciate that. And I'm telling people right now that this book is worthy of your, your investment, and it is an [00:36:00] investment.

[00:36:00] This isn't a book. Um, this is an owner's manual for your body, and Ben has gone to I, I'm so impressed with this book because it's not only just thorough, but he connects the dots for people so much easier than any of the book I've ever seen out there. One of the things I really love about Ben is he's not trying to impress you.

[00:36:19] With his knowledge he's trying to teach you, and that comes across in the book. There's a big, big difference between people who want to get paid by the word and people who just want to give you the information and let you go with it. This is a great book, Ben. Big, big, big, big kudos for this man.

[00:36:35] Ben Greenfiled : [00:36:35] Oh, thanks Carl.

[00:36:36] Thanks. I mean, he's a lock him up for me and man, I love what you're doing at superhuman radio and, uh, just, uh, just love what you've put together over there. You're, you're doing, you're doing great work. And, uh, I think especially, um, you know, some of the information you do on, on anti-aging and peptides is just top notch, so, so keep up the good work yourself.

[00:36:54] Thank you brother.

[00:36:54] Carl Lanore: [00:36:54] Uh, you have a wonderful day and we'll talk again soon. Okay.

[00:36:58] Ben Greenfiled : [00:36:58] All right, brother. You [00:37:00] take care.

[00:37:01] Carl Lanore: [00:37:01] All right. We're going to take one quick commercial break and when we come back, I want to talk to you about something that I posted on Facebook this morning that got me a lot of heat. You know me, I always get myself in trouble.

[00:37:09] Stay to where we use

[00:37:11] Ben Greenfiled : [00:37:11] oxygen for the power of

[00:37:13] Carl Lanore: [00:37:13] good.

[00:37:24] welcome back. The two things I want to talk about. First of all, I made the fatal error today of suggesting

[00:37:35] Ben Greenfiled : [00:37:35] that, uh.

[00:37:37] Carl Lanore: [00:37:37] This, a current form of Corona virus

[00:37:41] Ben Greenfiled : [00:37:41] is actually

[00:37:44] Carl Lanore: [00:37:44] has actually been manmade and there may be a reason for it. You know, like a, I know already, like when I say this, people are going to be like, Oh Carl, but I'm just going to put it out there.

[00:37:55] If you wanted to tank the global economy, this is the way to do [00:38:00] it. I mean, because look at this, I mean the, the, the, the death rate of this virus, I predict, and remember I said this, when this all shakes out, whether it's in may or June or July, we're going to realize that the seasonal flu killed more people during this same period than the coronavirus did.

[00:38:17] And those same people have been sequestered because of the coronavirus. So people are gonna say, Oh, Carl. That's because you know, no, the seasonal flu is happening side by side with this coronavirus so theoretically the seasonal flu should drop as well and when it doesn't and when it actually kills more people than the Corona virus did, people are going to start to ask, why did we do this?

[00:38:41] Our economy here in the United States is going to take longer to recover. Then this virus. Uh, people are going to be better and out of the hospital and jobless. I really am questioning deeply. I want to believe. I want to [00:39:00] understand why we, I mean, look, uh, now they're closing retail stores here in Kentucky.

[00:39:05] You can't go to Macy's. You can't go to, unless it's a grocery store, like target. They sell food to them. They can stay open. But even worse than that. How would Schultz has ordered the closing down of all Starbucks, which I actually, I think his coffee's causing a lot of problems in our population with their gut.

[00:39:23] But. Like really it's a drive through. I thought drive throughs. Okay. Why would you go that far in Kentucky? We only have like, I don't even know if it's like a hundred and something cases in the state of Kentucky, maybe like 119 and I ended. The death toll in Kentucky is in the tens. I don't know if it's 20 or 30 people or 15 people, but it's, it's, it's very small.

[00:39:48] The epicenter is like New York and Washington and LA, New York being the biggest epicenter with close to 60 or 70% of all of the cases and deaths. Just keep that in mind, but [00:40:00] we, we lose between 20 and 40,000 people. During from October to February every year from the seasonal flu. Think about that. If we don't lose 20 to 40,000 people in this virus, and yet the seasonal flu continues to tag people and kill them, what did we just do and why did we do it?

[00:40:25] Okay. That's one thing I want to say. The other thing I want to say is this, that too. Actually, uh, almost three weeks ago, March a second, I believe it was, I published a blog article that shows, uh, with, with great, let me turn this off and put it up there. Oh, let's get rid of that. I sh I posted a blog article on superhuman radio's a website.

[00:40:49] Su-Preme radio.net. On. Let's see here. I think it was on the second here. Let me, let me see if I can make this smaller. It's easier to read. Then [00:41:00] I published this, the uh, urgent link between sun exposure and the Corona virus and what I did here was a very, very deep dive into the mechanism that. Sun and it's primary hormone, vitamin D three, and its conversion to 25 OHD.

[00:41:22] And you can see right there, I marked forth, uh, actually has the ability to stop the replication of, uh, of, of retroviruses. Retrovirus is a very unique form of virus. It leverages an enzyme so that it becomes part of your DNA, and it replicates faster than any other viruses out there because it actually turns every cell in your body into a factory, making the virus and both vitamin D three oral injection, uh, or from the sun.

[00:41:57] Is effective at [00:42:00] reducing the replication of things like HIV, Ebola, and obviously coronavirus. And I wrote this article because I looked at the research and the article has all the data in it. You can go there. It has all the sources cited in it. You can go there and read This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. pass it around to your friends.

[00:42:18] I'm telling you because now, just this morning, a former head of the CDC came out and said, the reason that people are so susceptible to this coronavirus is because our population is severely lacking in vitamin D three. And Elisa reminded me of something I've been saying for a long time. And that is the new evolutionary selection pressure is where you get your information from.

[00:42:43] And those of you who have been devoted to this show and carried me along for all these decades, a while, all these years, I should say, almost a decade and a half now, uh. You have supported the show. You've made this show possible. I have tried my best to spread [00:43:00] good news and good information so that we can survive and thrive.

[00:43:06] And here we are way ahead of the pack on the whole thing about vitamin D three way ahead of everybody. Now that now everybody's coming out and talking about D three when I published this, this article, nobody was talking about it and really very few people paid attention to. I sent this article to news outlets.

[00:43:24] I said, I thought, you know what? Let them read the science. Let them check my math, let them see if it's right and see how much play we can get. Nothing. I got nothing, but it turns out that it's accurate and I do a better job in my article that connecting the dots between the science of why you should pay attention to your D three levels, your 25 hydroxy levels right now during this epidemic, this pandemic.

[00:43:49] Then the CDC guy does. Then just, you know, take  and here's what it's good for. I literally show you the research that is behind the logic. [00:44:00] And so I'm asking people in this audience to go to my website, super yum radio.net and share this article because we can literally, so the whole purpose of this, a self quarantine and all the things we're doing crashing the economy is to help more people survive.

[00:44:16] This pandemic, pass this article along and you can actually help people survive this pandemic. You can go to any lab test now or any of these testing facilities and do your 25 hydroxy levels, get them up into the fifties and sixties I don't think they need to be in the hundreds, you know? That's a little too much.

[00:44:36] Most of us, if you're fair skin, you probably get away with taking 5,000 IUs. Use a day. If you're dark skin like me and you have more 25 hydroxy binding protein because I, my ancestors toiled in the sun for thousands and thousands of years, so I have more melanin. I can spend more time in the sun. We have to take more.

[00:44:57] I'm actually taking between 10 and 20,000 I'll use a day [00:45:00] right now and have been for a long, long, long, long time. When when the summer disappears and I can't lay out, I start using supplemental D three but please pass this article along, send it to people, email them the link. Don't just share it on your Facebook.

[00:45:17] Share it, send them the link so that they can open it and read it and pass it along. Because I, this isn't about me promoting myself. This isn't about me promoting the website. It's about educating people in the evolutionary links to our biology. And why the sun and if there's no sun, supplementing with vitamin D three is so important.

[00:45:42] And of course there's going to be people that are going to come out now and say, Oh no, vitamin three is no good to take because the way to be popular today is just be contrary. Look, we evolved under the influence of the sun. The sun played a large role in making us what we are [00:46:00] today. This idea that we can live without the son.

[00:46:02] Listen to Ben talking about artificial light. It's not only that we don't live with the sun anymore, but we've gone the other way and all we live with is artificial light. So. Mine. Okay, so Ivo. Sue asked, what am I levels minor in the low sixties right now I have to take 20,000 IUs a day and once in a while, 10 I backed down once in awhile.

[00:46:25] Instinctively with high fat food. I take it in the morning because D three 25 hydroxy is a daytime hormone the way melatonin is a nighttime hormone. Don't take your D three at night before bed. Your body doesn't know it's your body will think it's daytime. Wow. We must have been laying in the sun just now.

[00:46:43] How'd we get all this D three in our blood? You don't want that spike at night. Take it in the morning with some eggs, uh, with some whole fat milk or cream or something that you enjoy that has fat in it because it allows you to absorb more of it. People who take vitamin D three on an empty stomach, they probably only absorb [00:47:00] 25% of what they're taking.

[00:47:01] Take it with a whole fat meal. Uh, w with a meal with a lot of fat in it first thing in the morning, but I have to take 20,000 IUs a day to get into the 60s if I lay in the sun all day, I'll get into the 60s but I can't, I'm not a brick Mason like my ancestors were. They, you know, they took their shirts off and they, they built walls.

[00:47:23] That's what my ancestors did. They had great vitamin D levels. My grandmother Concetta every day in the summer, we grabbed my father and all his siblings, 11 of them. I take them to Coney Island, and when they started getting old enough to work, she kept taking the younger ones. But you would take them to Coney Island.

[00:47:43] She loved the beach. In fact, she is where I get my Northern African blood from. It's clear. If you see a picture of her, you'll think that she's mulatto. You think that she's not white. She's, she's half black and half white at least. So I get my Northern African blood from her. I'm 14% [00:48:00] Northern African. And she knew she loved the sun.

[00:48:04] She went out in the sun. She was so dark. She was much darker than me. She was darker than my father. My father was darker than me. My mother has fair skin because my grandfather Valario while he was lived in Calabria, he was probably Austrian. He had red hair and blue eyes. He was adopted by an Italian family.

[00:48:23] He was an orphan and he probably either came from Northern Italy where it's cold, colder, less, uh, less sun. Uh, or he was actually Austrian or Swiss or something like that, cause he had jet red hair, blue eyes, very fair skin. So my mother has more fair skin than my father did. My father is very dark like me, but I'm sure that that is, uh, that is why I have to take more D.

[00:48:49] and those of you out there that are black. African-American, whatever you want to call it. I don't know what the politically correct thing is. I mean, I, but you need more D [00:49:00] three than the average white person because you have more of that binding protein because you are closer to that ancestor that spent all their time in the sun.

[00:49:10] And this is why your skin has so much melanin in it. So you have more binding protein, which means that if you took 20,000 I'll use, you probably only get into the forties. So pay attention to your vitamin D, not only for this pandemic, but when the summer goes away, start supplementing with D and you'll find out you don't get the seasonal flu.

[00:49:32] And the past 15 years, I've only gotten the flu a couple times, I think, and it probably, now that I think about it, I wasn't taking any D three at the time because I don't even remember to do things sometimes. But yes. Uh, in order for me to get into the low sixties, I have to take 20,000 IUs a day. I'd rather lay in the sun.

[00:49:51] I'd rather my body also take advantage of my Melana cordon system, which stimulates and does mulatto, mulatto, Courtin [00:50:00] system helps people from developing chronic. Inflammation. We have a world of chronic inflammatory disease today. Why? Maybe it's because people don't lay in the sun anymore. They don't stay, don't work in the sun, or when they are in the Sunday, slather themselves with things to block the sun.

[00:50:16] We're all mixed up today. We are all mixed up. The sun is good for you. It's not bad for you. You don't get skin cancer from the sun. You get skin cancer from the dings. You eat that deposit themselves in your skin cells and all of your organs. That happened to be costing agentic when they're photo activated.

[00:50:34] Just the way taking a certain carotenoids and vitamin real vitamin a protects you from skin cancer. There are things in your diet that cause skin cancer. The sun is an unwilling participant. But don't be afraid of the sun. It will make you live longer. That's why I say sleep, sex, and the sun. Those are the three most important things that you can do to [00:51:00] improve your overall health and live a better life.

[00:51:05] So share that article please. I'm asking you. Let people read it. Let them connect the dots in the science, let them make their own decisions, but at least let them know there is something that you can do. That's it for today. Tomorrow is Tuesday. I'll be joined by a coach, Rob ruggish for the blueprint power hour.

[00:51:20] We got great shows for the rest of the week. Thank you for hanging out. Don't forget, show Ben Greenfield, some love, a boundless, the book.com or Ben Greenfield, fitness.com. I'm sure you can find a link from it there. It's a worthy book. I love this book. I could see it anytime I have a question, I can turn to it.

[00:51:39] Hell, I could probably do shows from chapters of this book. Who knows? Maybe I will. I see you tomorrow. Thank you for watching. Stay safe. Stay strong. Take your vitamin D three for you tomorrow. [00:52:00]