Improving Sleep, the Gut-Brain Connection, and Indisputable Health Tips – Ben Greenfield on The Portal, Hosted By Eric Weinstein

Check out The Portal Episode Page & Show Notes

Key Takeaways

• Three comprehensive markers for overall health:
  • Glycemic variability
  • Inflammation
  • Heart rate variability
• Because there’s a constant interplay between the nerves of your gut and brain, gut-brain health is a package deal—caring for either requires caring for the other
• To improve your sleep:
  • Sleep in a cold room
  • Cool your body down with a cold shower before bed
  • Wear heavy socks to bed (this helps cool the rest of your body)
• Indisputable health tips:
  • Move throughout the day as much as possible
  • Frequently expose yourself to sunlight
  • Every day, make an effort to walk outside barefoot
  • Frequently expose your body to heat and cold
  • Drink enough good, clean water

Products Mentioned

• The chiliPAD is a mattress topper that circulates temperature-controlled water (varying between 55-110 °F), allowing you to optimize your sleep environment
  • For 25% off the chiliPAD, use the code “Podcastnotes25” at checkout
• The OOLER is Chili’s follow-up product The main difference? It’s app-controlled, allowing you to set a schedule that changes the temperature throughout the night.
  • For 15% off the OOLER, use the code “Podcastnotes15” at checkout
• Taking CBD before bed can improve sleep
  • Podcast Notes Trusted CBD: Use the code “PODCASTVIBES” for 15% off at checkout . Why do we trust Sabaidee? It’s 100% Organic, American Made, and 3rd Party Tested (+ results transparently posted on their site) to ensure nothing else is in the CBD.

Intro

• Ben Greenfield (@bengreenfield) is the host of the Ben Greenfield Fitness Podcast (Podcast Notes) and author of the new book, Boundless: Upgrade Your Brain, Optimize Your Body & Defy Aging
• Host: Eric Weinstein (@EricRWeinstein)

A Healthcare Revolution is on the Horizon

• Image a future where people can self-test for biomarkers at home, and feed that data into an AI algorithm for specific/actionable health advice
  • Picturee a toilet that automatically analyzes feces/urine, and spits out data about your microbiome!
• “We live in an era now where the type of self-quantification that would’ve been prohibitively expensive 10 years ago is now readily affordable and available” – Ben Greenfield
  • Ben expands: The ability to gather personal health data, and then decide what type of nutrition, exercise, and supplementation protocol would be most beneficial allows you to bypass a lot of the epidemiological data that paints with a broad brush

Three Comprehensive Markers for Overall Health

1. Glycemic variability: how often, and to what extent, your blood sugar varies over time
   • Ben finds that the easiest and most effective method of reducing glycemic variability is full-body exposure to cold temperatures
2. Inflammation: a stress response by the immune system to protect the body against foreign invaders
   • Currently, you can only test for inflammatory markers by getting blood drawn at a lab or clinic
   • One note: Be mindful of your inflammation test timing
     • For instance, after exercising, your body will show seemingly abnormal inflammation levels
3. Heart rate variability: the inter-beat variation from heartbeat to heartbeat
   • The vagus nerve is a major cranial nerve that controls your heart rate variability and other aspects of your parasympathetic nervous system, such as digestion and breathing
     • You can tone the vagus nerve, and thus improve heart rate variability, through simple activities like singing, gargling, and breathwork
   • “I originally became interested in heart rate variability because it’s an excellent predictor of injury and illness in athletes. If you’re training a team or an individual athlete, and heart rate variability begins to drop, typically, you can predict injury or illness 2-3 days later with surprising accuracy.” – Ben Greenfield

The Gut-Brain Connection

• Your gut has a nervous system of its own: the enteric nervous system (AKA the “second brain”)
  • “The efferent fibers of the vagus nerve feed from the central nervous system to a wide variety of organs. You have a pancreas to control insulin, kidneys to control blood pressure, and a liver & gallbladder to control bile production & detoxification.” – Ben Greenfield
  • “The afferent fibers travel from all of those organs, including the microbiome, back to the brain—there’s this constant interplay going between the gut and the brain” – Ben Greenfield
• Gut-brain health is a package deal—caring for either requires caring for the other
  • Examples:
    • A healthy gut biome improves cognitive performance
    • Reducing your stress levels aids digestion and metabolism

The Mediterranean Diet

• The Mediterranean diet stems from Greek Orthodox religious practices
• Ben believes the Mediterranean diet, properly practiced, provides the greatest benefits for the most people out of all the ‘fad diets’

How to Improve Your Sleep

• Ben’s entire bedroom is lit with red incandescent lightbulbs; why?
  • Red lights don’t suppress melatonin (this is useful when flipping on the lights at night to pee, or when getting ready for bed)
• Here’s what Ben finds improves his sleep the most:
  • Sleeping in a cool room
  • Cooling his body down with a cold shower pre-bed (this is especially important after a big meal or a late-night exercise session)
  • Wearing heavy socks to bed (it cools the rest of his body)
  • Taking CBD before bed
    • Podcast Notes Trusted CBD: Use the code “PODCASTVIBES” for 15% off at checkout
• The only two things you should be doing in your bedroom: sleeping and having sex
  • (You don’t want your brain to associate your bedroom with anything besides those two)
• “If you’re sleeping and your brain is convinced you’re in a safe environment, you sleep much better. This is why so many people struggle with sleep when they’re traveling.” – Ben Greenfield
  • Sleeping with a weighted blanket can help facilitate a sense of security
• Cooling your forehead is particularly effective for reducing sleep latency, the time it takes for you to fall asleep

Ben’s Take on Psychedelics

• What concerns Ben most about psychedelics: the cultural acceptance of abusing them (and covering abuse up with excuses of spiritual discovery and self-healing )
• Ben’s personal psychedelic usage:
  • He writes every Friday on a 20 microgram “microdose” of LSD
  • Ben and his wife undergo a guided couples therapy journey on a quarterly basis
• Ben preps extensively for his psychedelic journeys and makes sure to supplement afterward to replete his neurotransmitters & counteract the neurotoxic effects
• “I think we’re gonna see this strange hybrid physician-shaman type of model where folks are actually medically educated in clinical management, but also understand Amazonian and eastern medicine” – Ben Greenfield

Indisputable Health Tips

• Move throughout the day as much as possible
• Frequently expose yourself to sunlight
  • (The biochemical processes from photon interactions heal the body, strengthen bones, produce testosterone, and improve mood)
• Every day, make an effort to walk in nature barefoot
  • (This helps balance your body’s electronegativity)
• Expose your body to both heat and cold
  • “We know from Finnish longevity studies, for example, that sweating and being hot on a frequent basis is very good for the body. We also know that cold thermogenesis, cryotherapy, and cold showers—things like that—are wonderful for weight stability, nitric oxide production, blood flow, etc.” – Ben Greenfield
• Drink clean water
• Ensure your body has enough high-quality minerals

Additional Notes

• Castbox is a podcast and audiobook app which allows users to search audio
• To assess his gastrointestinal health, Ben gets a yearly stool panel from Genova Diagnostics
• Ben wears a Dexcom G6 continuous glucose monitor
• To assess his hormonal levels, Ben uses a urine test from DUTCH Testing