The Human Upgrade: Biohacking for Longevity & Performance

Latest Episodes:

Not-So-Science Fiction: Extending Your Healthspan Gets Real – James Clement : 608 Jul 11, 2019

Show notes

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, I take a deep dive into my favorite topics—anti-aging and longevity—with James Clement, who is leading research and groundbreaking developments in these areas from a particularly personal perspective.

A self-described transhumanist, he’s now is the president and director of Betterhumans, the world’s first specifically-transhumanist bio-medical research organization. James’ view of longevity is focused on healthspan and the humane aspect of being human over the long haul. He doesn’t want to cheat death, he wants to extend life in the best way possible.

James has an interesting backstory as a former international tax lawyer who became an entrepreneur and then a scientist. He’s currently running anti-aging clinical trials and engaged in anti-aging molecular biology research with top science researchers. He participates in the clinical trials, too.

Join us as we talk about the current science biggies: senolytics, NAD, exosomes and rapamycin, and what makes supercentarians so super.

“There are two simultaneous things that we have to do to live longer,” James says, “and I divide it up as first we have to get to 100. Getting to 100 is, for those of us who weren't lucky enough to inherit supercentenarian genomes, it means doing everything we can in our lifestyle to live longer.”

“And then the idea of ‘how are we going to live beyond 100?’” he continues, “There's going to be a lot more that we have to do and that's going to be where more radical therapies, which include nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals, lifestyle changes, but also genome editing, will all be necessary to get us far beyond the 100 threshold.”

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How to Use Mind-Wandering for a Better Brain - Jonathan Schooler, Ph.D. : 607 Jul 09, 2019

Show notes

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, we get into the pros and cons of mind-wandering—why it’s good for you, when it’s too much, and how to use it to your advantage.

My guest is Jonathan Schooler Ph.D., a professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of California-Santa Barbara. He has studied mind-wandering extensively, and his research includes mindfulness, cognitive psychology, memory, and consciousness.

“The idea is that when people are mind-wandering, it's basically sort of stirring the pot and allowing unconscious associations to reorganize and consolidate, and allowing new things to come to mind,” Dr. Schooler says.

He explores topics that intersect philosophy and psychology, such as how fluctuations in people’s awareness of their experience mediate mind-wandering and how exposing individuals to philosophical positions alters their behavior.

Our conversation goes deep into mind-wandering, why we often have a deficit of it, and why it’s vital to human performance.

Listen on to find out:

How to identify four types of mind-wandering;
How meta-awareness helps you realize when you’re mind-wandering instead of paying attention;
Why mind-wandering is important to the creative process; and
Why the most effective techniques for helping with mind-wandering and focus are mindfulness and meditation.

Stick with this episode all the way through because I’ve added a special feature and a bonus topic. Enjoy the show!

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Break Your Expectations, Get Closer to Your Heart – Kyle Cease : 606 Jul 04, 2019

Show notes

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, I’m interviewing a guy I just met at the Consumer Health Summit in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Kyle Cease is a well-known comedian who has two No. 1 Comedy Central specials to his credit. He’s also a “New York Times” best-selling author of “I Hope I Screw This Up” and a transformational speaker who helps people release anxiety and fear on stage.

Kyle comes from an extended family of entertainers. He started asking to do stand-up routines for his classmates in second grade. By 18, he was on a wild ride more than 250 nights a year headlining comedy shows. He did this for years at the expense of his physical and mental health. A bout of pneumonia took him down after a particularly brutal touring schedule; he developed crippling stage fright out of nowhere; and he was disparaged by the comedian community of which he’d been such an integral part. After that, he reassessed everything about himself and the life he’d been living.

I did not know who Kyle was until I met him at the summit. I sat next to him at dinner and thought “This guy has an amazing brain where we can talk about humor, and we can talk about how that turns into letting people really talk about what's going on.”

His wit is sharp, and his improv is hands-down amazing. Prepared remarks? Nah. Bullet points on a presentation? Nope. He’s the master of riffing and creative flow in the moment. And while he may be spontaneous, he’s deeply grounded in self-awareness. He believes strongly and says so. So instead of jokes, he shares insights about our all-so-common human condition during our interview. (As well as his foray into raw veganism and tuning into his body vibrations.) Here are some of his zingers:

Happiness: “I find that one illusion that every human is in, is the illusion of when something happens, I'll be happy.”
Expectations: “I have a belief that no one can break your heart, but they can break your expectations.”
Creativity: “I believe if you're not continually creating, your mind will creatively sabotage you.”
Life: “A lot of us spend a lot of our life trying to protect a life that we're not living.”

You’re going to learn a lot today from this interview, because Kyle uses humor in a way that gets way underneath what's really going on with you.

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The Dark Side of EMFs – Peter Sullivan : 605 Jul 02, 2019

Show notes

Peter Sullivan, CEO and founder of Clear Light Ventures, is a major environmental health funder who focuses on two things that I care a lot about: one is toxins and the other one is wireless safety. I actually really like my wireless devices. I think they're really useful, but I also know that they are not without a dark side.

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, Peter shares how he recovered from the effects of high levels of wireless and EMF exposure, as well as mercury poisoning. He’s also spent the last 15 years successfully recovering his two sons from autism and sensory issues.

His efforts are now focused on raising awareness about the known health effects of wireless radiation and EMF (electromagnetic fields), both of which are listed as group 2B carcinogens by the World Health Organization. Peter is one of the leading funders in the country in this area of research, funding work at Harvard, Stanford, University of California-Berkeley and several leading environmental health non-profits.

“What we need to talk about in this area in general—and this goes for autism and chronic disease—is that it's total load, that it's never one thing.” Peter says. This is a mistake I made. This is a mistake everybody makes. You start out thinking it's genetic. Then you do diet and you start stuff. You try to find the one thing.The human body, unfortunately, is so much redundancy that by the time you see a symptom you've had a cascade of failures.”

“We're pretty awesome beings, but we're not above the laws of physics,” he says.

The magnetic fields that are in our houses surround us but come from different angles and different frequencies. They create an interference pattern and can really disrupt sleep and many other biological functions. Peter and I talk through many examples of health issues disrupted by tech and how to take safety measures to reduce your exposure. We’re both convinced that in the future, safe technology is going to be a requirement—think seat belts in automobiles. We’re not there yet, but we're going to continue working toward making our now-omnipresent tech and devices safer.

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Healthy Aging Begins and Ends in the Gut – Dr. Steven Gundry : 604 Jun 27, 2019

Show notes

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, I’m excited to once again be talking to Dr. Steven Gundry, renowned heart surgeon, celebrity doctor, medical researcher and a New York Times best-selling author.

You may know Dr. Gundry from either his previous appearance on the show, episode #417, or by his book, “The Plant Paradox: The Hidden Dangers in “Healthy” Food That Cause Disease and Weight Gain.” He’s a leading expert on the lectin-free diet and believes we have the ability to heal ourselves through nutrition when certain dietary obstacles are removed.

He’s now tackling gut health and many of the myths surrounding healthy aging in “The Longevity Paradox: How to Die Young at a Ripe Old Age.” And he starts with the premise that bacteria, rather than our genes, makes us complex and defines our human-ness.

We cover many facets of the microbiome that are contributing to how we age, and Dr. Gundry gives it to us straight:

“Aging, at its core, is inflammation,” he says. “I, and others, believe that inflammation is from leaky gut, period.”
“The deal with getting younger is your gut wall is your skin turned inside out,” he says. “What happens on the surface of your gut is reflected on the surface of your skin, they are the same organ.”
“The reason we're all so screwed up is that our (gut) soil is also dead, just like our soil that our crops are growing in and no wonder we've got such a problem,” he says.

Listen in on this informative discussion about how our bodies are wired to deal with environmental stressors; what long-term health looks like in other parts of the world; and how you can improve your own gut health.

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Mushrooms Are Your New Anti-Aging Strategy – Life Cykel : 603 Jun 25, 2019

Show notes

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, we're going to talk about mushrooms, but not the magic kind. We're going to talk about the other kind of mushrooms. The kind that has medicinal value, the kind that, depending on which species you use, can do almost anything a lot of the big pharmaceutical drugs can do,as well as things that are really important for our soil, for our food supply, and things like that.

Your cells, mitochondria, immune system, sleep patterns, inflammation, nerve growth pattern, and energy levels all benefit from mushrooms. These fungi are full of compounds and nutrients that your body will love. There’s a whole lot of science behind this now.

Julian Mitchell—co-founder and CEO of the Australian-based company Life Cykel—and his team are doing amazing work with mushrooms as innovative food sources and medicinals in Australia.

For day-to-day use, you’ll definitely want to go with cooked, not raw mushrooms. For those of you who aren’t fans of actually eating mushrooms, there’s an option for you, too: “Having it as a tincture makes it very easy to add to a coffee, add to a tea, add to a smoothie,” Julian says. “It's quite tasteless and at the same time micro-dosing it in small amounts straight into your mouth is a great way to have it as well and absorb it straight into your blood system.”

You’ll also learn about the naturally (sweet!) ingredient infused into the Life Cykel tinctures and powders. It’s a native Australian fruit rich in antioxidants and antiviral properties that amplifies the benefits of the mushrooms.

And for those of you who are chasing sleep, I found nothing else that increased my REM sleep as much as the specific extracts of one species, which I’ll tell you about during the show.

Mushrooms are having a moment—and likely many more. Here’s what Julian says:

“Mushrooms and mushroom-based foods are going to play a huge role in the future of food. They grow quickly requiring very little resources in terms of water, power, and land. They have an amazing nutritional profile, and of course, they are 100% natural.”

“The more we look to the natural world for solutions, the better off we're going to be and so, mushrooms and the fungi kingdom are hugely important to our evolution.”

“Mushrooms are almost an uncharted continent, with infinite applications not just in food but in biotechnology.”

It's going to be a fascinating episode. You're going to find some things you didn't know about some of the mushrooms you already eat. As well as some of the mushrooms you probably should be eating but aren't. And I'm also going to ask the hard questions about why mushrooms suck.

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How to Master Your Emotions – Joan Rosenberg : 602 Jun 20, 2019

Show notes

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, you’ll hear from an expert psychologist who is known as an innovative thinker, trainer and speaker.

Joan Rosenberg, Ph.D., guides individuals to achieve their highest potential by helping them create, master and sustain desired life changes. Her newest book: “90 Seconds to a Life You Love: How to Master Your Difficult Feelings to Cultivate Lasting Confidence, Resilience, and Authenticity,” puts you in control of your own emotions.

“My approach is centered on helping people experience and move through eight unpleasant feelings (or emotional states),” Joan says. “Sadness, shame, helplessness, anger, vulnerability, embarrassment, disappointment and frustration.”

Within those eight, you’ll find a commonality.

“The single most important thing I can do is to recognize someone's pain, and just in essence, hold a mirror up to it, even if it sounds like you're saying the things that are so obvious,” Joan says. “It has a huge impact of calming someone else's nervous system down.”

And you’ll learn the art of productive confrontation.

“If it’s coming from a place that’s positive, kind, and well-intended, people will feel more well-understood and validated,” Joan explains. “Confrontation is one of the deepest forms of empathy.”

Joan puts it all out there and doesn’t let anyone off the hook—asking you to take a look at your life stories and then making sense of them through a series of questions that get right down into the impact and meaning of your life experiences.

Dealing with unpleasant feelings, is, well, unpleasant. So, let’s get to it and hack those emotions.

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Get a Grip on Your Blood Pressure – Zona Health : 601 Jun 18, 2019

Show notes

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, we take a deep dive into a part of your biology you may not be paying enough attention to.

Your blood pressure. If it’s running too high for too long, it puts you at risk for heart disease and stroke.

The American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association recently redefined hypertension as a blood pressure reading of 130/80 or higher. Previously, that threshold was 140/90. That change resulted in 31 million more people falling into a range of hypertension—meaning about 105 million U.S. adults age 20 and older.

Putting the power of health directly into people’s hands always makes me happy, so I talked with Mark Young, CEO of Zona Health, about a solution.

Lifestyle factors play a key role in keeping blood pressure within a healthy range—diet makes a difference and so does physical activity. And medication doesn’t have to be inevitable. For those of you whose numbers may be higher than optimal, there’s a software-controlled, handheld device available that uses a series of uniquely-calibrated algorithms to determine the perfect hand grip exercise for each individual user.

Hand grip? Well, yes.

“It's a medical device that uses isometric exercise to ultimately lower blood pressure,” Mark says.

“The Zona is helping you do exactly what your body's naturally programmed to do,” he continues. “The device is not solving the problem; the device is training your body to solve its own problem.” (It’s also hacking time, taking only minutes per day to use.)

The cool factor? This device technology is based on decades of g-force experiments done by the U.S. Air Force. And did I mention the connection between nitric oxide production and erectile dysfunction? We chat about that, too.

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The Good Life: Peace, Strength and Wisdom – Arianna Huffington : 600 Jun 13, 2019

Show notes

Here we are—the 600th episode of Bulletproof Radio! This incredibly special show features Dave Asprey’s fireside chat with Arianna Huffington at the Upgrade Labs 6th Annual Biohacking Conference. The conference keynotes featured amazing people who are renowned thinkers, leaders and experts within their chosen fields and industries.

Arianna Huffington is one of those people. She’s a remarkable business leader, author and the founder and CEO of Thrive Global — an organization that’s on a mission to unlock human potential. “The ultimate disruption is changing the way we work and live,” she says.

In this delightful conversation—full of humor, wisdom and straight-up life advice—Dave and Arianna talk about prioritizing health, behavior change, habit stacking, the advance of AI, shifting workplace culture, and much more: “What I love is finding unexpected ways to work with people,” she says.
The discussion gets real about the damaging effects of stress and burnout: “It has become my mission to help wake up the world to the importance of sleep, of recovery, of recharging and realizing that, actually, if we want peak performance, these are tools in the tool box that we need,” Arianna says.
And they touch on the vital importance of human connection in an increasingly technical world: “Why not grow our eulogy virtues—not just our resume virtues—throughout our lives?” she says. To which Dave replies, “That’s a powerful statement.”

We’re excited that you’ll be listening to what Arianna shares about the work she’s doing in the world to touch people’s hearts and souls. Enjoy the show!

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Heal Yourself from the Inside Out – Dr. William Li : 599 Jun 11, 2019

Show notes

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, you’ll find out why “We are at a turning point in the fight against disease.” Those words begin Dr. William Li’s new book, “EAT TO BEAT DISEASE: The New Science of How Your Body Can Heal Itself.”

Dr. Li is an experienced internal medicine physician and a research scientist, specifically a vascular biologist. He’s been conducting angiogenesis research and clinical analysis—angiogenesis is the development of new blood vessels—for more than two decades and is considered to be one of the world’s leading experts in the field.

He’s also known for providing various food remedies for the prevention and treatment of advanced medical conditions like cancer, diabetes, blindness, and heart disease. And he’s most interested in the common denominators of disease—what unites and connects diseases across body systems and across human populations.

Today’s conversation focuses on the importance of taking a systems-based approach to health and the prevention, treatment, and reversal of disease. “That's where the tipping point comes,” says Dr. Li, “because when we think that we can prevent the disease or reverse the disease, we're suddenly in a completely different place than healthcare has been for 150 years.”

Dr. Li gives practical examples of how foods used as medicine can boost the body’s five main defense systems: angiogenesis, regeneration, microbiome, DNA, and the immune system. “Our health is not simply the absence of disease,” he says. “Our health is the result of our hardwired defense systems that protect us from the day we're born until our very last breath. And guess what? Food can actually activate those health defenses.”

Want to know how to downturn chronic inflammation or right-size your microbiome? Then this is the episode for you!

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