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Healing Chronic Illness with Dr. Kien Vuu - E40
25 Plays2 months ago
Living with chronic illness can often feel like an uphill battle, leaving you feeling exhausted, hopeless, and trapped in a cycle that seems impossible to break. Conventional treatments can fail to address the core issues, leaving people without effective solutions. In this episode, we take a different angle on healing from chronic illness. We'll explore more innovative and out-of-the-box thinking, as well as a shift in perspective that addresses not just symptoms, but the root causes through lifestyle changes, mindset shifts, and deeper social connections.
Dr. Kien Vuu, known as "Doctor V", is a performance and longevity physician with training in nutrition, personal development and spirituality. He was an assistant professor of Health Sciences at UCLA, where he specialized in Interventional and Diagnostic Radiology, and earned board certification from the American Board of Anti-Aging and Regenerative Medicine. His personal journey of overcoming chronic illness led him to explore modalities outside of traditional medicine. This included personal development, anti-aging, and regenerative medicine, which transformed his approach to health. His clients and audiences benefit from his engagements at global conferences and events where he shares insights into living a vibrant life.
“Intermittent pressure or stress in a healthy ecosystem over time will lead it to growth and resilience.” - Dr. Kien Vuu
In this episode you will learn:
- How Dr. Vuu transitioned from traditional medicine to a broader understanding of health by reversing his own chronic conditions through lifestyle changes.
- The significance of the default mode network in the brain and its impact on mental health, stress, and overall well-being.
- Dr. Vuu's daily practices for increasing awareness and presence, including the I.M.P.A.C.T. technique for managing emotional triggers.
- The importance of genuine social connection and how to cultivate it through generosity and vulnerability.
- Dr. Vuu’s approach to sleep hygiene and its critical role in regulating the nervous system for optimal health.
- The benefits and nuances of intermittent and prolonged fasting, emphasizing the need for personalization in hormetic practices like exercise and diet.
Resources
- Connect with Dr. Vuu on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doctorvmd
- Find out more about Dr. Vuu’s techniques and resources, Thrive State: https://thrivestatestarter.com/
- Shop all the products Dr. Vuu mentions in this episode: https://alively.com/products/kien-vuu
This podcast was produced by the team at Zapods Podcast Agency:
https://www.zapods.com
Find the products, practices, and routines discussed on the Alively website:
https://alively.com/
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Dr. V and the Home of Healthspan podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
So many people you know say, you know, how do you succeed in life? And so many people say giving. Well, giving is something that actually works so much is because you're quieting down the part of you that is ego based and bringing up the part of the you that's soul based.
00:00:13
Speaker
And it's actually good for your health at the same time. So if we can give generously without expecting anything in return, we start to build that trust with other people.
00:00:25
Speaker
This is the Home of Health Spam podcast, where we profile health and wellness role models, sharing their stories and the tools, practices, and routines they use to live a lively life.
00:00:38
Speaker
Dr. V, it is wonderful to see you. how are you doing today? i am doing beautiful. Thank you so much for having me. And I'm appreciative of the way we connected. It was actually, I don't know if you know this, I was starting as I was getting into the space, a health span hack series that i post on Mondays on Instagram and LinkedIn. And was like, I wonder if anybody else has used this hashtag and came across you. I think you were the only other person that did and came across your events that you were putting on.
00:01:06
Speaker
It was absolutely phenomenal and became acquainted with your work and so reached out and I'm so happy you responded. We got to actually connect. and that we can share all your wisdom with our listeners today. So thank you.
00:01:19
Speaker
You're very welcome. the The mission that you have out in the world is beautiful.
Dr. V's journey into health and personal development
00:01:23
Speaker
And when I started to study you and your work, especially your pillars, I was thinking, wow, we are on the same wavelength. We are a brother ah elevating humanity together.
00:01:34
Speaker
That is the dream. And, you know, it is it takes ah collective effort. And so i'm I'm so happy for the work you do and that we can do it together. So before we jump in to all the work you do and and kind of your journey there, how would you describe yourself or define yourself?
00:01:50
Speaker
Well, I am a lively physician, thought leader, ah influencer with what some people might call me. But but I think I'd like to rest on. I am a lively human being that cares so much for humanity, that just wants to do my part in the things that I've learned to help humanity elevate together.
00:02:11
Speaker
That's beautiful. And i I want to start with that physician piece, right? Because, you know, when we talk about health, especially in modern society, so much of it is an absence of sickness, an absence of disease or treating sickness.
00:02:26
Speaker
And that's kind of how the education systems set up. I've recently i came across someone who was saying it in med school, they got a total of two hours on nutrition.
00:02:38
Speaker
When you think about pillars of health, that's what you get nutrition. And you were not the prototypical, okay, here's what I learned and here's, I'm just going to write scripts and that's what it is coming in every 12 months.
00:02:49
Speaker
You look at health in an entirely different and I think personally correct way. And I'm curious, what was your path to that? How did you come to that given going through the traditional ah med school system?
00:03:03
Speaker
I would have probably believed everything that I've learned throughout my education system if it didn't fail me. You know, because I was at a place seven, 10 years ago where I was overweight. I was diabetic. I had high blood pressure.
00:03:15
Speaker
Yet I was the chief of interventional radiology at my hospital. I looked in front of my the mirror at mornings and just realized I was fatigued. I was tired. Not only did I have chronic disease, I was, again, diabetic and had high
Shifting from ego-driven to soul-based living
00:03:29
Speaker
blood pressure. And I knew the fate of...
00:03:32
Speaker
how it would turn out was I was going to end up in my own operating room table. And so that allowed me to just ask myself, what is missing here?
00:03:44
Speaker
and um how I living my life really contributing to this. And I didn't know what moves to make initially, but I just took a pause in full-time medicine. and I dove deep into kind of personal development. I did an additional fellowship.
00:03:58
Speaker
I trusted more science. So I did a fellowship in anti-aging, regenerative medicine, and longevity medicine. And so much of what I learned there was how we live our life can potentially be medicine.
00:04:09
Speaker
A lot of it was lifestyle. And in a very short period of time, I reversed all my chronic conditions. And as I dug deeper in the rabbit hole of personal development spirituality, I started to understand that how I was looking at life, my lens of life, my lens of feeling like I was not worthy, not enough, led me to live a life that in ego survival fear mode and I was unconsciously giving my my cells the signals of danger in my body which as we know now in epigenetics when we get those signals in inflammation goes up our immune system goes down our cellular health
00:04:46
Speaker
diminishes poor cells leading to poor tissues, leading to poor organs, leading to poor systems. And that's how you have poor performance. That's how you have brain fog. That's how you get chronic symptoms. That's how you got chronic disease.
00:04:58
Speaker
And so it was really going through the process myself, understanding that I was potentially indoctrinated in such a way from even elementary school, you know, uh, I don't think we're we're teaching humans how to be humans and how to how to master their own gifts of expression. We're told to sit down, learn things that might not light you up. And as long as you could follow that route of of being a good, conforming person, that you would get to a place in life that you will be respected.
00:05:27
Speaker
But unfortunately, so many of that, so many of us... go through life where we're not the most authentic version of ourselves. And I think it shows up um in our mental health and certainly in our physical health as well.
00:05:40
Speaker
I'd actually love to start with that ah mental health side and the mindset right of there's this one path and i think a year story, my my father was a pediatric cardiologist and kind of went on his path and then introduced him to a slow carb diet. And he lost 65 pounds in a year and started running half marathons and transformed his life. And he said, basically I had to unlearn everything they taught me in med school about nutrition and put thousands of his patients saying, look, what what they're showing us in the food pyramid, all this is just lies.
00:06:11
Speaker
um And so you could say nutrition, but it's, it's really a mindset. You have to start with that mindset.
Understanding mindset through neuroscience
00:06:16
Speaker
And so you had a certain wake up call as you're treating patients, as you're saying, okay, here, I'm i'm treating all these diseases. Wait, I'm living these diseases.
00:06:25
Speaker
How, how did you at that time transition that mindset over? Well, it was um certainly a journey. And this is a journey I continuously go through. There is not a single day that goes by that an older version, an older mindset creeps in and judges the outside world and thinks that it's in danger somehow.
00:06:48
Speaker
Anxious that my bank account is is dropping, somebody cutting me off on the freeway, me reacting to that. You know, I really do believe life is a blessing. Life is a gift. And every moment is taught to, you know, to give us a gift, a gift of something that makes us very happy or a gift to give us an opportunity to grow, to learn, to become more resilient.
00:07:09
Speaker
This isn't something we're we're naturally taught. And so neuroscientists, as I started to understand more in the longevity space, I dove into the science of kind of spirituality and of our of our consciousness. And what we're starting to learn is there's a part of our brain called the default mode network.
00:07:25
Speaker
It's a very primitive part of our brain and nervous system. And when we were young, it just downloads inflammation, information from our parents, from our teachers. Yes. It actually causes inflammation when the default motor work is overactive. And so it downloads all these things from all the different sources out there. It makes sense of how the world works, how we, where we fit in the world.
00:07:47
Speaker
And since it's our survival mechanisms, always looking for what can hurt us. It's intimately tied to our amygdala, our, fear center and our hippocampus, our memory centers, and so remembers past traumas.
00:07:59
Speaker
And so you've got basically this operating system in our brain constantly looking for but what's wrong. And when we're children, not feeling safe, not being loved, not feeling accepted,
00:08:11
Speaker
We will go out of our way to adapt, to conform. And so we'll develop these traumatic responses, which might include people pleasing, seeking success, keeping busy, avoidance, aggression.
00:08:25
Speaker
They become the seat of our ego. And throughout our life, unless we're aware of it, we're making choices from this unconscious, conditioned autopilot and survival mode of the brain. You know, the version of myself that didn't feel like I was enough, that didn't feel like I was worthy. And I think, you know, you know every time I share this story, so many people say that they have some version of that.
00:08:45
Speaker
It's a very human story. And then they become inauthentic versions of themselves. And when they live life through that lens, you are making choices from this place of I'm worthy.
00:08:56
Speaker
I'm not enough. And for for me, i was constantly trying to strive to become the top physician, to get the most patients, to get the car, to get the house. And in doing so,
00:09:09
Speaker
wasn't worried about my sleep, didn't worry about my exercise. I was eating the crap that they ah fed us in the hospital. My relationships were crap because I was always transactional and I was always living for me rather than living for other
Rewiring the brain for health
00:09:22
Speaker
people. And so unconsciously, I was making these choices and those choices actually created an energetic environment around my myself.
00:09:31
Speaker
And we know now through epigenetics that our DNA isn't fixed, so it's not programmed to do certain things. It's constantly listening to the cues around its environment. And we could make conscious choices that create a very lively and environment for ourselves, or we can make unconscious choices from that ego space that makes us feel like we're in anxiety and stress and that we have a saber tooth tiger running at us 24 seven all the time.
00:09:58
Speaker
And that actually turns on the genes that raises inflammation in our body, those shutdowns, the genes that um give us our immune system. And that basically sets the stage for chronic symptoms and chronic disease. And so,
00:10:11
Speaker
It was uncovering the work of the program I was living in, the stories, the limiting beliefs that had me live a life that created a disease in my body. And was slowly peeling the onion that I continuously do every single day.
00:10:28
Speaker
Every single day, i find i catch myself comparing myself to other people. Every single day, you know I find myself angry that somebody's treating me so you know with such malice.
00:10:39
Speaker
And the key there is to, you know, have the gift of awareness. And once you have awareness, then you have choice. And when you start making new choices over that old program and you can basically rewire and tire your entire body and nervous system and your energetic state for you to turn on the genes of longevity, performance and optimal health.
The role of presence and awareness in daily life
00:10:59
Speaker
And on this, I mean, you brought up a few times, right? Like you, like i would think most, if not all of our listeners like me are not Buddha, right? So you can intellectually know this yeah and still the default, because it's what natural is you find yourself in that place. yeah And so it, I believe becomes more of a practice of getting better at noticing.
00:11:21
Speaker
and they're noticing sooner to pull yourself out of that default. And so now, given where you are in your journey, do you have a daily or weekly practice to help with that noticing, help with that awareness?
00:11:34
Speaker
Absolutely. Well, I mean, as um as we're talking now, this evening, I'm going to fly over to Bali. I'm going to spend about a week or so learning deeper spiritual work and working with some energetic masters that could help remove maybe some of the stuck traumas and programs out of me.
00:11:51
Speaker
And I think that's one way to accelerate things. Some people have psychedelic journeys, some people have strong breath work, things where they what we actually see on f MRI machines where they quiet it down the default.
00:12:03
Speaker
And if you quiet down the default, you are more in touch of who you are as an essence, as a soul. And then if you have those experiences, you can remind yourself, particularly when you get triggered, what the truth really is. So I thought i find that to be helpful. However, if you haven't had time to have these big retreats or a psychedelic journey or any of that stuff, you You also might remember there are times in flow.
00:12:26
Speaker
There are times where times time slows down, whether you're out in nature doing something you really enjoy or you're just in a meditative and relaxed space after meditation or breath work.
00:12:38
Speaker
that you're like, wow, the thing that was just triggering me is not that. And you have an opportunity to almost define who you are. Are you joy? Are you generous? All these things here.
00:12:51
Speaker
So I think one, developing that awareness and developing the practice is very important. I have this technique called impact. Now, during breath work, during meditation that that I'll do at times,
00:13:03
Speaker
There are things and words and beliefs that I use as mantras. And the three things that I repeat over to myself is i am joy, i am love, and I am playful.
00:13:15
Speaker
And I try to come back to these things that this is who I am. That is my I am. Then I've got this phrase called impact. I am, and it's in my book Thrive State, I am P-A-C-T. So I am, pause, awareness, choice, and then take action.
00:13:32
Speaker
So every moment I have, and I would almost build this into sort of my day, when I walk underneath a doorway, before I step over, I go impact. I pause.
00:13:44
Speaker
like and I can take 10 deep breaths in through my nose, out through my mouth, do some 4-7-8 breathing. And then I have awareness. Am I being triggered right now? Where's that trigger coming from? I have that ah awareness.
00:13:56
Speaker
Then C, I choose. What do I choose? I choose my I am. I choose love. I choose playfulness. i I choose presence. And then I immediately take action. I'm like, okay, I'm going to put myself in this space. And when I cross this space, no matter what's happening on the other side of this, I am love and I am playful.
00:14:14
Speaker
This is how you can build in different micro moments throughout the day for you to remember to be conscious of who you are rather than, you know, have the default mode. I use this every time I get triggered.
00:14:26
Speaker
You remember there was a moment my daughter had a traumatic birth and I remember being very angry at the hospital for like screwing things up. She had a core wrap around her neck and ankle. I wasn't able to see her the entire time because of COVID.
00:14:39
Speaker
And then when that happened, I was pissed off at the hospital and at the staff. And i I take myself through this process. I pause, 10 deep breaths. I have the awareness that I'm reacting, that I feel helpless.
00:14:52
Speaker
And I feel that in my body that I choose. Then I choose a belief this time. I choose the belief that everything's happening for me, not to me. And then I take action. And to be honest, I didn't know what action to take at the time. And so I just asked, how is this happening for me?
00:15:06
Speaker
And I remember the nurse handing my daughter to me for the first time after I asked that question. And I got a chance to look at her and I wasn't quite sure if she was going to have brain damage from from having her core wrapped around her neck. But I just remember feeling immense love for this for this human being that's alive right now.
00:15:24
Speaker
And I just remember at that moment, like health complication or not, or who she is, she's absolutely worthy of my love. Absolutely. Just because she is who she is. And in that moment, I just recognized, wow, how silly of me to ever think that I was not enough or that I'm not love.
00:15:40
Speaker
And I remember just some wave of healing that just washed some of that away. Don't get me wrong. I still carry those not enough feelings every now and then, but I could catch myself and I can make new choices.
00:15:52
Speaker
And so that would be the number one, I would say, habit that I've instilled multiple times throughout the day. And then I would include it every week and every quarter. You can ask yourself impact. And really it it comes down to who you want to be.
00:16:06
Speaker
And that is something that I find to be most important. Who are. B actually creates our health, our relationships, and probably everything we want to build in life.
00:16:18
Speaker
Yeah. i mean Everything about that is amazing. I, I, I have a ah calendar reminder twice a
Improving sleep and overall well-being
00:16:24
Speaker
day for a four, seven, eight breath to, to just kind of pull back and build that awareness. And I'm curious on your take on it. Cause what I find is maybe 50%, maybe even more now. I don't know. It's more going through the motions. I'll be checking email while I do it. I'll be trying to eat right while I do it, where which it could be perfect, right? To do right before you eat, to build that awareness and that presence, and then just get really in it versus, oh I'll just do it. Like, well, I'm, I'm shoveling food in my mouth.
00:16:49
Speaker
And yeah, one side of me says, hey, look, even if I'm 40%, it's better than the 0% I was before. So like this this is progress. This helped me get it there. But I don't know if you have any tips or or practices you use to not make it rote or going through the motions to say, no, no, like i'm really...
00:17:10
Speaker
going to be here for this and take this seriously? Because way you describe it, that i mean it can have real dramatic impact. And I just wouldn't want to lose that over time.
00:17:22
Speaker
Yeah, no, it does have a real dramatic impact. And I think just recognizing what that can potentially feel like, you know, to give yourself that presence, I think is a beautiful thing.
00:17:34
Speaker
I think so many people in the biohacking space these days recognize that there are many hacks and the ah type A high performing individuals like, how do I squeeze as many of these hacks in the day? How do I meditate while in a red light sauna and all these things so that I i can crush my performance.
00:17:53
Speaker
And i think there are certainly some positives to that. But again, what is the consciousness that's driving that performance that makes you feel the need? I got to attack all these things at once.
00:18:09
Speaker
It takes some time for me to go, oh, okay, perhaps potentially it's just another upgraded version of the default mode, you know, seek you know seeking to to to conquer, to succeed and to do better.
00:18:23
Speaker
That's robbing me from the presence and the gift that I can give myself in this moment. And the more I have awareness of that, the more I can just say, all right, I don't have to have five. I don't have even have to have 10 minutes in 30 seconds or in a minute. Can I give that to myself?
00:18:39
Speaker
Honestly, truthfully, can I give that to myself? And the shorter you make those times, the less inclined you are to try to just squeeze it in. You know, make it really, really short. But when you're there, just like, hey.
00:18:51
Speaker
This is the time you're really, truly, truly giving yourself the gift of being present in life and and driving everything else away. And that really, you know, ah regulates your nervous system in a beautiful way.
00:19:03
Speaker
And what I can say is if you give yourself that little bit of time, whether be 30 seconds, a minute, I guarantee you, your performance, your clarity, your ability to to innovate and be creative for the task that you're to after that is going to be amazing. so Yeah, I am eating all this up. I'm sorry. This is so good.
00:19:24
Speaker
ah you You referenced before, right, that you're you're type eight, you're doing all the work, you're you're doing everything. And you weren't focused on a number of things. And sleep was one of those. And and I think back being child of two physicians.
00:19:37
Speaker
There was a time in my life, my father literally said to me, hey, look, you can train your body not to need sleep. like Through residency, all this, you can do it not to need it. And then you read Dr. Matthew Walker's book, or these others, you're like, no actually, you can't. right like If you could train it out, probably evolution would have. This is an incredibly...
00:19:54
Speaker
important part of being an animal, right? Not just a human, but any animal needs this. So what is your sleep practice like now that you came to that realization of, look, I was mortgaging this and now I understand its core importance to ah healthy and fulfilled life?
00:20:12
Speaker
Well, I to tell you and be honest, I haven't fully mastered this. I thought I did, but now that I'm traveling a lot all over the world, different time zones, and it's become more of a challenge. But what I can say is this, that our ability to sleep well at night really comes down to you know giving our body the signals of safety when we go to sleep.
00:20:33
Speaker
And it that starts way from the beginning. All right. So in the morning when I wake up, I try to go outside, get some morning sunlight. And so I'm getting the, you know, rays in my ah in my body, on my skin. And that allows us to reset our circadian rhythm so that our body goes, OK, timer. Boom. This is morning.
00:20:52
Speaker
We know that, you know, 16 hours from now, we're probably going to try to you know get back to bed at some point. It resets our whole circadian rhythm around that. Throughout the day, including those impact moments, including some meditation, I love yoga nidra, very free thing that you can do. Huberman ah has a couple of practices. there's There's a lot of other practitioners you can get for free at YouTube.
00:21:17
Speaker
But in just 10 to 20 minutes, you can learn a practice that allows you to combine breathing and mindfulness, and it's like a super powerful power nap.
00:21:28
Speaker
I include that throughout the day. And i I do that because it allows your your system, your your you know you're going on the track, you know even in the, you know and don't watch racing, but you know when when when you watch the racing, they all have their pit stops where they have to change their tire and just reset.
00:21:45
Speaker
And we need that throughout the day because otherwise it's going to build that all up until the evening. So I make sure I include a couple of those things throughout the day. I'm making sure that, you know, I'm not taking in any more caffeine past 2 p.m.
00:21:58
Speaker
I hardly drink anymore. But alcohol is one one of those things that even if you have before you go to bed, you think you're going to go to bed. But, you know, you're not going to get that deeper REM sleep when you get there.
Supplementation and mitochondrial health
00:22:08
Speaker
And then finally, later in the evening, it's like really allowing yourself to get into a routine where you're winding down.
00:22:15
Speaker
And one of the hacks that I do myself is almost sort of creating like. What do I want to dream of? What do I want to you know have my body my body and mind like help process in the evening and create something where I'm looking forward to sleep?
00:22:33
Speaker
I could tell you that five years ago, every time i i went into bed, i would be dreading going to sleep because I know I'm going to be in bed, not being able to fall asleep.
00:22:45
Speaker
The strange thing was like, I would be watching TV just to kind of distract my mind and I could fall asleep to that. But the minute I turn the TV off and try to actually go to bed,
00:22:56
Speaker
like the mind would turn on again. And so I almost needed that distraction. And so that's kind of why it's so difficult for us to be able to go to sleep. Our default mode, whether it be the things that are happening at work, in our relationships, are constantly in our mind.
00:23:09
Speaker
And if we don't allow our nervous system to regulate throughout the day, it's going to be very difficult because what's happening is you're telling your body, is it safe to go to bed?
00:23:21
Speaker
Because there might be a saber-tooth tiger that's going to come get me. And what is that unwinding process? So I get the morning and throughout the day to kind of not get behind the eight ball. But then once what time does it start? Like last meal, that kind of thing. I will try to have my last meal by 6 p.m.
00:23:36
Speaker
and not eat any later than that. Or sometimes I might just skip dinner, ah you know, because I find myself not getting the deep rest that I need if I'm eating something late at night. It also means that by 6pm, I'm really spending that time connecting.
00:23:50
Speaker
That's a, you know, connecting with other people is a beautiful time and raises our oxytocin level that actually relaxes our body, drops our nervous system down. And I'm not trying to answer any emails, i'm I'm off devices, I'm really trying to spend quality time there.
00:24:05
Speaker
I do a nice little um sort of meditation, whether it be a short breath work session, or some meditations that I have in in one of my courses. I'm doing that and that really kind of primes my body and and then enjoying the hack using a little bit of time where you're journaling, you're writing down the things you know, ah you did during the day, you're you're writing down things that you were grateful for during the day and then kind of what want to get done tomorrow.
00:24:31
Speaker
What does that do? That actually actually just like puts everything that might be in your mind that's left over onto a piece of paper so you're not, you know, perseverating it, you know, before you're you're going to bed.
00:24:43
Speaker
You know, I like to use a little bit of lavender mist before I go to bed. I'm making sure that the bed is a nice little sanctuary where I'm like, oh, this is going to be my peaceful space.
00:24:54
Speaker
And I'm really treating it as something that i look forward to doing versus like, oh, God. I got to get sleep. Otherwise, I'm not going to be able to perform. and And it becomes this thing that you have to do versus this thing that ah is just beautiful to do and that you can create a beautiful space for yourself doing it.
00:25:11
Speaker
And do you use any eye masks or mattress cooling technology? Because in my space, I create all of the things. So we have an Uler pad. We use different kind of eye masks, but we've lost so many of them.
00:25:24
Speaker
ah But we we use that. ah We used to have a weighted blanket that we don't use anymore, but that's basically it. And then do you do, because there's so many options out there on sleep supplementation, do you use anything for sleep supplementation?
00:25:38
Speaker
Not anymore. I used to supplement with a little magnesium, a little glycine. I've tried some fossil petal serine and different things that are out there. But, um you know, that... I would probably say supplementation for me is something that is quite cyclical.
00:25:53
Speaker
And I'm not a, you know, I'm not, you know, I'm just not good at taking pills
Fasting, hormesis, and longevity
00:25:58
Speaker
regularly. So, so outside of sleep, are there any that you're currently taking? Yes, so um I find with mitochondrial health, ah you know, a couple supplements that I find is really um beneficial for me, ah ubiquinol, that's basically the active form of CoQ10, and certainly anyone on on a statin should be taking this.
00:26:20
Speaker
And a new one that's come out is MitoPure, which is basically a mitochondrial supplement that increases mitochondrial biogenesis, mitochondrial autophagy, On occasion, I basically take a multivitamin.
00:26:33
Speaker
I'll also take some fish oil. I'm constantly low in vitamin D, and I find most people that that I test is low in vitamin D, so I end up doing that as well. And then on top of that, I would just sort of cycle through what i what I'm feeling my body needs and what my my labs are telling me.
00:26:49
Speaker
Okay. Do you supplement with protein at all, or do you get it all in your diet? Yeah, it's not a regular so supplementation. I would sometimes take my protein. Actually, you know, um Timeline Nutrition or MitoPure actually has a whey protein that actually also has their MitoPure that's in it.
00:27:06
Speaker
And I'll sometimes include a little bit of collagen ah with my coffee in the morning. But, ah you know, I take a good amount of protein ah throughout the day. There are two questions that are kind of more selfish and personal than I have on that. Because you you mentioned the mitochondrial autophagy.
00:27:22
Speaker
As a physician in this space, what is your thought on fasting and not just intermittent, but more prolonged fasts and on autophagy and the benefits or not of that?
00:27:37
Speaker
This is a great question. And I really do feel people need to understand the nuances of doing hormetic practices. Our human body is an ecosystem.
00:27:49
Speaker
In our ecosystem, and basically all of life we see are different ecosystems, whether it be single cell organisms, where whether we see nature, ah whether you even can see in business, we've got these ecosystems.
00:27:59
Speaker
These ecosystems are made up of individual units. They all interact with each other ah that form a healthy ecosystem. Now, if the ecosystem is healthy. if you challenge it so we take these amoebas right these single cell organisms if that amoeba is healthy if you were to stress it say you change the ph of the environment say you take away nutrients or you change the temperature if it is healthy it will adapt to that stress over time and it will create processes in the body to make those amoebas stronger more resilient than they live longer
00:28:32
Speaker
So intermittent pressure or stress in a healthy ecosystem over time will lead it to growth and resilience. That's the process of hormesis. So the key factors there is apply stress, but also make sure you have got a healthy ecosystem.
00:28:49
Speaker
If that amoeba was not very healthy, any type of stress will tip it over. Okay, so if we start to look at some of these hormetic practices that we have in the biohacking space, one being fasting, one being ah cold therapy or sauna, or even exercise, right? 100% exercise.
00:29:10
Speaker
So all those are are stresses. If you are not focused on the the health pillars and you are already stressed out, then a HIIT exercise is going to knock you over and you're not going to do very well because your body doesn't have the um adaptive capacity to handle that stress to make you stronger.
00:29:28
Speaker
That goes the same for fasting. And it goes for the same for like, you know, um and I think for women, their whole cycle is ah changes their entire physiology, there's going to be certain times where your body needs more resources, particularly during menses, and you shouldn't be doing any high intensity to interval training or heavy fasting during that time because your body just needs to relax and then you can start to ramp up and that goes the same for everybody in terms of how much stress you are you going through in your body now so some of the prolonged fasting i think is great but if you are a high level ceo and you're going through a bunch of stress already that's not something i would necessarily you know um prescribe for that person
00:30:13
Speaker
So in in saying that, you know, as it pertains to fasting in general, our body has already adapted mechanisms. Every single organism throughout the world is able to have mechanisms to adapt when there's food and energetic resources around and when they don't have it around.
00:30:30
Speaker
And that intermittent stress actually allows adaptive capacity like autophagy, which is getting rid of old stuff and building in new new things. And that's actually something that has that organism, ah you know, develop mechanisms to live longer and become more resilient.
00:30:47
Speaker
And so there's many benefits of fasting. And so ah we were not adapted to be, you know, eating all the time throughout the day and the junk that we are eating.
00:30:58
Speaker
ah So I do think that narrower time windows are more likely how humans were designed ah to be. And then some occasional longer term fasts are, i think, beneficial.
00:31:12
Speaker
And it's almost sort of spiritual in a way. We take a look at the spiritual ah practices that have happened throughout history, people are kind of praying, people aren't going out and like, you you know, working their ass off during their longer fasts.
00:31:26
Speaker
Again, you're just adding more stress throughout the body. And so, you know, everybody's a little bit different, but I want people to understand the context of how you should approach fasting and these hormetic practices.
00:31:38
Speaker
That's personally very helpful. You know, I do, I used to do four, and I do two five-day fasts a year. And so I'm going to think more through the timing versus, hey, this is just a week on and what
Personalized nutrition and resistance training
00:31:49
Speaker
else is going on. No, yeah. If you're doing those five days fast, I mean, you know, I think work on the pillars of of spirituality, who who you are, how you want to, you know, how you want to grow as a human being and not like challenge yourself too physically during that time. Certainly exercise, i wouldn't be doing HIIT and all that stuff, but, you know, really kind of create that time, I think, you know, in the traditions that that have these longer fasts really have the spiritual component where they're not exerting themselves so so hard in other times.
00:32:18
Speaker
And so on, is before we move off this, and not to jump into the the religious wars and nutrition, but When you think about food, because we talked about these rich foods that come in know separate from supplementation, how do you think about fueling your body?
00:32:35
Speaker
and And what does that look like over the course of the day or a week? Great question. So I have come up, or I've actually ah met somebody that's created this technology that's been super amazing.
00:32:48
Speaker
It's called SHAE, S-H-A-E dot A-I. And basically what they're able to do is take a snapshot of your body. And using 16 different type of sciences, reverse and engineer how this body formed from the DNA and all the life experiences of all the hormones that you've gone through to create exactly your body.
00:33:09
Speaker
And so it basically can reverse engineer what your body type is, what your personality is, the diseases that you're prone to and the type of foods that you should be eating.
00:33:20
Speaker
and so Now i have slightly i have slightly changed sort of my proof food preferences based on this, and I've noticed a dramatic response. ah Prior to Shea, for me, my approach is I just want to fuel my body with the you know, the best nutrients and ingredients. And for me, it was just clean meats, clean proteins and ah and vegetables.
00:33:44
Speaker
I try to stay. know, I've got a history of diabetes, so I'm staying away from like simple starches, ah processed foods, seed oils as best as I can. And I could probably say for anyone, if that's going to be your general approach, it's probably going to be pretty good.
00:34:00
Speaker
um For certain people, you'll notice that certain diets you can try as a therapeutic type of approach to maybe decrease inflammation and autoimmune disorders for a time. So they'rere they're like kind of elimination type diets.
00:34:15
Speaker
But that's kind of how I approached it previously. But now that I've got shea, I'm like recognizing, oh, there are certain vegetables that are probably going to be better for me than not. And I've really noticed changes in my body.
00:34:28
Speaker
So it's a super exciting technology. And I think they're they're going to make a you know a bigger splash in the years coming. And I can't wait for that to hit the ground because it's going to give us a real new access to personalized health ah when it comes to, you know, ah nutrition or sleep and all these things.
00:34:47
Speaker
That's really exciting. I'm going to definitely check that out after this. Well, and so on the fitness side, so you mentioned, you know, if if you're going under other stresses, you have to be careful on what you're doing on that front. When um what does your personal fitness routine look like now?
00:35:05
Speaker
Yeah, so I keep mine relatively simple, and I would like to include a little bit more ah flexibility with yoga. But currently, ah the two main things that I use are um resistance training, ah weightlifting.
00:35:19
Speaker
And I find that to be probably, you know, one of the most important things as we consider longevity, because sarcopenia or muscle loss with age is the, you know, super associated with a lot of, know,
00:35:34
Speaker
Yeah. Accidents, you know, growing up or, you know, as as we get older, a lot of falls and things of that nature and people not being able to recover. And it's also a marker for an earlier death if you've got less muscle mass.
00:35:48
Speaker
So I focus on resistance training. And the other thing was before I used to have, um you know, some high intensity and interval training that was really a stress on my body. But I've discovered a biohack.
00:35:59
Speaker
The BBC actually had a documentary where they were talking about resistance. reduced exertion high intensity training so that's like a HIIT exercise but what's the minimum level of HIIT that you can do so what you would do is you would stress your body out and this actually mimics what things were like for our ancestors when you saw like saber-toothed tiger and you're like holy crap and you're running away from the saber-toothed tiger but once it's gone you can finally relax. And we're we're finding that our ability to go through these powerful bursts and then getting into a relaxation mode actually has huge benefits for our body, particularly our mitochondria.
00:36:41
Speaker
This increases VO2 max, which is our ability to efficiently extract and use oxygen in our body. And that's actually ah major marker for longevity. um We've seen you know people lose weight on it. We've seen people decrease their blood pressure.
00:36:56
Speaker
And the one technology that's out there that i found you know I've actually found to be quite game changer and wish I could carry it around with me everywhere I go is the Carol Mike, C-A-R-O-L.
00:37:08
Speaker
And basically it's so a bike that just mimics what I just talked about. You'll be cruising around for about two or so minutes. You'll be sprinting or do an all out effort and then use AI technology to adjust the resistance so that you're actually doing that effort safely.
00:37:24
Speaker
ah You do that for 20 seconds. You're resting for about two minutes, another 20 seconds, and you're done in about five minutes. And you can just do this, you know, three to four times a week. And they're noticing, again, people have um increases in their VO2 max.
00:37:38
Speaker
ah They are losing weight. You've got improved insulin ah sensitivity and all the great biomarkers that are there. So ah those are the two main ones that I'm doing. But I would like to incorporate more type of stability and and flexibility exercises as well.
00:37:55
Speaker
And so the the frequency of those, so is it is it three or four days of the the hit and then three days of resistance? Yeah, up typically about four to five days where I'm incorporating ah one or both of them.
00:38:09
Speaker
Okay. Yeah, I guess when you're doing five minutes, you can do it on the back end. Exactly. i went to the gym for about 30 minutes. I knew I had this ah conversation I had to do. And then I've got the I've got the bike in my garage and then like five minutes in. Boom.
00:38:23
Speaker
It's easy. Yeah, that's incredible. I came across it. You know, Dave Asprey's new Smarter, Not Harder, ye um the Carroll bike. And then me because my normal is once a week I try to get that the Norwegian head right like five by four minutes on super hard and then four minutes off whether it's on an earth or a bike or swimming that's my go-to so like okay let me go try this but of course it being me would do the 20 or 30 seconds and then I take three or four minutes off but then I did it for 40 minutes right like i I didn't do it just the twice I just kept repeating um but not on the carol bike I just I just had a normal bike to do it yeah it's fascinating I mean just all these things we're learning how long have you been doing that
00:39:03
Speaker
I've been doing that for about a couple of months. they They sent me a bike and I was like, this is great. Now you can do this just sprinting or sprinting up a hill. And so that's, that's what I was doing before.
00:39:15
Speaker
Although I would probably say on two separate occasions, I pulled ah different parts of my body when I was doing that. so one of the great things about the Carol bike is because it's AI assisted, it's going to ramp you up in such a way where you're where you're less prone to injury.
00:39:30
Speaker
And certainly if you're an older person, that's great. But yeah, I've injured myself twice that put me out for a couple of weeks from doing that previously.
Social connections and fitness
00:39:38
Speaker
Yeah. and I mean, I think that's an important point too on any of this in terms of not letting perfect be the enemy of good and pushing so much because it's, as I understand it the decline, especially in physical health, isn't a slope. It's kind of these step changes.
00:39:55
Speaker
So it's after an injury takes you out of commission for a while, you end up with the the loss of muscle, all this. Like a new baseline. That's like, yeah. And it's that much harder to to get back to where you were before. So that kind of safety procedure in place makes a lot of sense.
00:40:11
Speaker
So you have the Carol bike at home for the resistance training. Do you have all that stuff at home as well? Or do you go to a gym or I go to a gym? I mean, for for me, so one of the things I've also discovered with Shay is we've got sort of different personality types. So the thing is,
00:40:26
Speaker
The whole thing with Shea is form tells you your function. So take, for example, if you were to take any animal and use you saw an animal, you saw a wing and you go oh, this animal flies.
00:40:37
Speaker
Or you took another ah look and you saw an animal have wet feet. Oh, this animal must swim. And so we are designed exactly the same way. um And based on kind of how my body is, um I am a specific health type that's a connector.
00:40:51
Speaker
And so for me, I thrive in social environments. I am in my flow state when I start connecting with people. Different people are are different when it comes to this. And but for me, when I'm around other people,
00:41:03
Speaker
I tend to do a lot better and I feel a lot better. and And I noticed this as well is when I'm at home just working you know at home alone or even workouts on my own, I'm just like, i'm kind of dreading it versus like being out there.
00:41:16
Speaker
So this is really, you know, Shay has really allowed me to have a better understanding as to how I function best ah in the world. And I find myself just more in flow states following their recommendations.
00:41:28
Speaker
On that social side, I mean, was that something you more deliberately started doing after Shea? I always knew I flourished in social settings, but then like after a while as an entrepreneur, there's going to be times where you've got to put your head down and work.
00:41:44
Speaker
and And then you feel like you've got to work a certain way because you hear other entrepreneurs and how they do it. And you're like, oh, no, this doesn't feel right. You know, I'm burned out more. and And you just don't you kind of don't really think about it.
00:41:58
Speaker
But then with Shay, it kind of tells you exactly what your geniuses are, how you tend to show up with other people, how to best communicate with other people. So they've got very interesting verticals like Shay for relationships, Shay for parenting, because we're all developed differently.
00:42:15
Speaker
And if you start to understand who you are as a huge human being and how your body was constructed, you can you know make sort of better choices to you know you put yourself in states that you know raise your energy and put you in flow states versus draining who you are and and and draining ah your energetic life force.
00:42:34
Speaker
The social engagement one's an interesting one, though. The the most recent global well-being report, ah Cited that people who felt socially connected in doing their fitness activities had 20% higher well-being scores.
00:42:50
Speaker
It's a thing. And if you felt lonely, right your risk of dementia goes up 50%. It's the equivalent of having alcoholism or obesity or smoking 15 cigarettes a day. And so even...
00:43:02
Speaker
Maybe I'm wrong, but even if she would say, hey, you're super, super social person. i mean, we evolved to be these very social creatures that kind of need each other.
00:43:13
Speaker
And so it it seems like you should be getting some amount in there, you know, some six hours a day or certain number of physical touches because we're not meant to be these isolated creatures. Exactly. we We are meant to be connected beings, but how we connect and how much we need the connection is going to differ for people.
00:43:29
Speaker
So this is what I found very interesting as well. It's like Shay started to do some research on, for example, high intensity and interval training and, you know, across the board.
00:43:40
Speaker
You know, we don't see the same type of people respond to high intensity interval training. So this is a great hormesis, but it was just if your health type and body type is such where that's not where you're going to get the bang for your buck, then um those resources are are wasted with things like that.
00:43:55
Speaker
And, ah you know, it would be a very interesting study to go. Yes, we need to feel connected, but. you know, person A might need more group people, more physical touch to feel that connection versus other people, you know, can feel connected just by you know, ah you know, light conversations and they might not need it so much.
00:44:16
Speaker
but the but But the idea is we do need connection across the board, how much we need it and how we best engage in it to get that connection. i think going to differ, which is really, really cool about what Shay is telling us.
00:44:27
Speaker
Yeah. that and And so, you know, one of the ways you do it, it sounds like instead of just working out at home and it's your own personal, you're you're going out to a gym. So you're engaging with the community, with other people there.
00:44:39
Speaker
but there Are there other practices that you had in place already or had put in place since learning that to make sure you're getting that social connection ah across your life?
00:44:51
Speaker
No, this is actually one of my top priorities. I realize I'm I realized that the connections that I have um are probably not the type of connections that I know I have when I go to these events that I speak at, where there's ah all this, you know, you know, heart center people that, that I'm around.
00:45:10
Speaker
ah My current lifestyle is such where am on the road a lot. It's very difficult. And so I want to make a more conscious effort to kind of start building some of that, you know, in my life. And I would probably say, you know, at the time being,
00:45:26
Speaker
I like to create ah team environment and atmosphere that really reflects that for myself. And so, um you know, if if you start to understand that you are kind of more of an extroverted person, that your energy is lifted with other people, how do you so you know create masterminds? How do you create meal opportunities, exercise opportunities, where you're working on these five other pillars, but you're actually elevating the that social connection piece while you're doing it and you're not doing it in isolation?
Embracing generosity and vulnerability
00:45:53
Speaker
Yeah. And so, I mean, one is that mindset of just recognizing, being conscious of it. Hey, this is the thing. If if ah I'm going to go work on fitness, let me do it with other people. If I'm going to have a meal, let me do it with other people. Let me engage.
00:46:05
Speaker
Are there any tools or specific practices other than, hey, this is something I am going to focus on and make sure I'm incorporating that you use to make it easier or more effective or hold yourself to account on that front?
00:46:22
Speaker
Yes. So I try to cut out some small talk now, and I'm a little bit more intentional with the type of conversations I have with people. And two of the things I try to lead with is this.
00:46:36
Speaker
So connection is is not something that connections are feeling is not being physically close to someone. Right. My friend, Keith Ferrazzi, who is a a global connection expert, says that only 50 percent of Americans feels like they've they've got someone that that's got their back and get this. Sixty percent of those are people who are married.
00:46:59
Speaker
And so you be physically next to another person, but still not feel connected. So connection is a feeling, you know, and how do we start to build that connection is ah building trust with another person.
00:47:12
Speaker
And so there are three things underlying trust, which is feeling safe, which is feeling love and then feeling accepted. And then, so how as an individual, can you start to cultivate this stuff um even when,
00:47:28
Speaker
You've got different personalities that are out there. One is really ah just being generous. And you can be generous with your time. You can be generous with your money. You can be generous with your advice. You could be generous with even forgiving someone, you know,
00:47:44
Speaker
And as you give without getting anything in return, a couple of cool things happen. Number one, you turn off the default mode network. You know, so many people you know say, you know, how do you succeed in life? And so many people say giving.
00:47:56
Speaker
Well, giving is something that actually works so much is because you're quieting down the part of you that is ego based and bringing up the part of you that's soul based. And it's actually good for your health at the same time. So if we can give generously without, you know, expecting anything in return, we start to build that trust with other people.
00:48:14
Speaker
And then the conversations that we have with other people, well, human beings, you know, we all have our dreams and we all have our struggles. And if we could start being a little bit um more authentic and sharing that with the people that were around, sharing it with people that want to know your dreams, sharing and being vulnerable to be able to say, geez, you know what? um You know, I kind of feel like a failure because last month I didn't make X and X or my relationship is currently,
00:48:41
Speaker
um you know ah very difficult with my partner and x y and z are showing up with me or like i'm really afraid um because so and so you know my my bonus starter starting a new school and we know the type of transitional things that she has to deal with with with me you know being in her life so these type of things if you we can leave with generosity and we become very vulnerable and authentic with our communication we start to build that trust and so We can do that virtually. I lead organizations and teams on how to start to build more of this with each other.
00:49:15
Speaker
But just having more touch points. It could be virtual where you could deeply feel connected. So being virtual doesn't take away connection. Connection is something that we build.
00:49:25
Speaker
And energetically, we could feel that as long as it you know we we lead with generosity and vulnerability. Yeah, I think it's beautiful how this has come so full circle, because I think we we started very much in the beginning of kind of your personal journey and realizing how inward looking was not helpful. And you had to think, how do I engage in the world? how do How do I put myself out there? And With what you shared today, the the work you're consistently doing, whether it's on stage, through your programs, through through your practice, I just can't thank you an enough. I have absolutely loved this conversation and personally taken a lot out of it.
00:50:05
Speaker
Before we go We've covered a lot. And, you know, this isn't something you came to overnight, right? This is a process and a journey.
The transformative power of love and connection
00:50:17
Speaker
And so whereas somebody might hear and be overwhelmed and say, hey, look, you don't have to put everything into place today. Where would you suggest if if they're just getting started? What what is that first step for people that would recommend?
00:50:30
Speaker
The first step is a breath and just sort of asking yourself and knowing and that you are loved. I think if we could truly, truly feel that, that's the most authentic version of us. And if we can be love and know that we are love, the thing that follows, whatever action we take from that energetic space is a space that's going to allow us to evolve into a better, healthier, higher performing version of ourselves.
00:50:58
Speaker
So much of my entire life was living through a lens that I am not love and that I got to go chase. And that completely shifted the energetic around me. So I think two of the most important choices that we can make that will not only shift your own life, but shift the life of the planet one,
00:51:16
Speaker
one you know love yourself, but then also love each other. you know We didn't get into this today, but you know how I feel our human body is like made up of all these different cells is basically how humanity is. Humanity is an organism made up of us as individuals.
00:51:32
Speaker
And I currently think humanity is sick right now with the wars that are going on, with the name calling. We've got autoimmune um ah ah disease happening in our humanity. We've got cancers in our human body where certain cells are taking more than they actually are giving.
00:51:47
Speaker
it's it's It's a really cool analogy, but if we could start to really understand that we are love, we we're all connected with each other and we can love each other, that's going to transform your health, that's going to transform your longevity, that's going to transform the planet as well.
00:52:03
Speaker
That analogy, I mean, when you say it, it seems so obvious. And the epigenetic side, too. It's like we all have the genes in us on the light and the dark. And depending on the environment we have around us and we create, we can turn either on. So we have it right there. Your response did you say that?
00:52:19
Speaker
yeah that's... Man, Dr. V, this this is golden nuggets left and right here. This is amazing. Okay, before we go, so we talked a lot around health and and you had unhealthy time, but do you have a guilty pleasure?
00:52:32
Speaker
Or maybe it's guilt-free, but something that people would look from the outside and say, that's not exactly super healthy. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I've got tons of those. And why I have that currently, and I don't know how to perceive this otherwise. And I think I'm going to really work on creating more food options for other people. But I've got a daughter who's three and a half that is exposed to ice cream and exposed to candy and things like that. And I am a sucker when we walk past something and she really wants something and she really wants to dive into something.
00:53:06
Speaker
And just to see the joy in in in her eyes when we say yes to ice cream and be able to kind of share that moment with her. I'm a hell yes for that. And so, you know, I've got probably a sweet tooth and I tell myself, look, we all have some adaptive capacity.
00:53:25
Speaker
And if we're going to, make choices, make some conscious choices. And if I'm going to enjoy some dessert, if going to enjoy some ice cream, if I'm going to enjoy some sugar, you know, let that be something that's really damn good and enjoy the crap out of it.
00:53:41
Speaker
You know, rather than, you know, shaming yourself and putting yourself through guilt that you're having that or shaming somebody else for doing that, you know, even though they're in the health space. And so I've got lots of different versions of that that is there, but I would probably say that the choices are a lot more conscious now.
00:53:57
Speaker
And at the end of the day, we are we are we are a human and I'm going to enjoy the human experience um as best as I can. And some occasional ice cream and and and chocolate with my daughter is something that I'm going to continue to do.
00:54:12
Speaker
Yeah, because what's the point of adding the years to our life if we're not also adding that life to our years? Absolutely. And love love the way you frame that. Well, Dr. V, this, again, has been absolutely phenomenal. I cannot thank you enough for everything you're sharing.
00:54:27
Speaker
And I'm excited to to debrief after this Bali trip. No, it's going to be and immensely deep work because I truly believe when we look at the people, the blue zones, it's basically when you step into these environments, it's an energetic shift.
00:54:44
Speaker
And I think that energy that we feel that we create around is also the energy we're we're giving ourselves. And if people want to find out more about this, actually youll learn a blueprint. you know you know We've got courses on our site, mythrivestate.com slash pro, where you can learn basically how to shift the energy in your life. I think it's going to be very helpful for a lot of people.
00:55:04
Speaker
Yeah. And we'll definitely have those on your lively page in the show notes for people to easily access all that, because it's, it's like you said, it's just a lot of wisdom, a lot of benefit to people, uh, as long as you're willing to engage and do the work.
00:55:16
Speaker
So first all thank you for putting it out in the world. Thank you for joining us on today's episode of the Home of Healthspan podcast. Remember, you can always find the products, practices, and routines mentioned by today's guests, as well as many other healthspan role models on the lively.com.
00:55:33
Speaker
Enjoy a lively day.