Aging Well For Life

Victoria is the Nutrition Science Liaison for L-Nutra, the leaders in the field of nutrition related to longevity and health-span.

L-Nutra develops nutri-technologies that mimic the effects of fasting, to enhance the body’s natural ability to rejuvenate itself and promote longevity.

Victoria is a Registered Dietitian and Nutrition Science Liaison with a Master of Science in Nutrition, Health-span, and Longevity from the University of Southern California.

She also functions as an inpatient clinical dietitian and has a background in nutrition research covering a wide range of topics including nutritional sufficiency in specific populations and the ketogenic diet. She has a passion for research and evidence-based practice.

Fasting has become a popular lifestyle-hack that has been proven to provide some impressive physical changes that have a direct impact on extending health span as well as a lot of promise when it comes to the future treatment of many of the diseases that we associate with aging.

I’ve been fascinated with the concept of prolonged fasting ever since I first heard doctor Valter Longo PhD interviewed on Rhonda Patricks foundmyfitness podcast way back in august of 2018.

If you’ve never heard of Dr. Longo, trust me, you will. He is one of, if not the, foremost researchers on anti-aging in the world.

He has focused many years of research on prolonged fasting. Dr. Longo’s research, along with many other’s, has shown that prolonged fasting instigates rejuvenating changes that can affect every cell in your body.

• What is prolonged fasting and how is it different than time-restricted eating? • Who is Valter Longo, PhD and how has he been involved with prolonged fasting research? • Why did he develop the Fasting Mimicking Diet®? • Is prolonged fasting with the Fasting Mimicking Diet® safe for everybody? • What is in the ProLon Fasting Mimicking Diet®? • What happens to your body when you fast with the Fasting Mimicking Diet®? • Does my body go into ketogenesis on the Fasting Mimicking Diet®? • Are there any potential problems with trying to create your own Fasting Mimicking Diet®? • How does one prepare for a fast using the Fasting Mimicking Diet®? • Can I exercise while on the Fasting Mimicking Diet®? • Can I resume eating normally when the fast is over®? • Can I continue to take my usual supplements during the Fasting Mimicking Diet®? • What should I do if I am still hungry during the fast? • What kind of support does L-Nutra provide for people fasting with the Fasting Mimicking Diet®? • Do you have any tips to help improve the Fasting Mimicking Diet® fasting experience? • Where can people find out more about prolonged fasting with the Fasting Mimicking Diet®? • Do you have any final words you’d like to share for people who are considering doing a 5-day fast with the Fasting Mimicking Diet®?

HEALTH BITES is a short podcast meant to provide you with some basic understanding of the often-times complex concepts that are central to the many biological processes responsible for extending our health span.

Today, I want to share with you the awe and mystery of autophagy.

We touched a bit on it back when I talked about zombie cells.

Autophagy literally means self-eating and that is exactly what happens to cells when they are in the state of autophagy. They literally consume all the junk protein by-products from everyday metabolism along with other pieces of cellular components that accumulate within the cells. Your body then breaks it down and re-uses the basic components for other cellular processes.

This process is related to apoptosis, where cells commit suicide and die. In the great scheme of things autophagy is a cells 1st line of defense when it is damaged and becoming non-functional. If autophagy fails to get the cell back to functionality, then they throw in the towel and commit hari-cari, through the process of apoptosis. That’s a good thing because it triggers your body to produce new cells to replace them.

There are several types of autophagy. The differences are in the type of cell that the autophagy occurs and what triggers it within those cells. For those of us interested in health-span we are more interested in two forms of autophagy.

One is mitophagy. This occurs when your mitochondria, the little engines of our cells, go through the process of autophagy. This results in our mitochondria becoming more efficient, much like a tune-up for your car. It enables our metabolism to run more efficiently without causing oxidative stress on our bodies. Mitophagy also causes our body to create new mitochondria so it’s like throwing a new engine into that car of yours. That’s a good thing. If mitophagy is diminished by age or other processes than it could lead to chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s’ disease and kidney disease.

The other prominent anti-aging autophagy is called Xenophagy. This is how the cells of your immune system remembers threats from foreign invaders such as bacteria and viruses.

Autophagy is typically triggered when our bodies are in stress. This can often come from external stresses such as changes in our environment such as the heat stress produced by sitting in a hot sauna or from exercise.

Exercise has been shown to effectively trigger autophagy in the brain, and with the liver, pancreas, adipose tissues and muscles. This is one of the reasons why exercise is so effective at increasing health-span as well as helping to protect us against chronic diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and neuro-degenerative diseases.  

Fasting also triggers autophagy in our entire body. Particularly with prolonged fasting of 3 days or more.  Dr. Valter Longo, out of USC, has found that prolonged fasting with the fasting mimicking diet, will substantially increase autophagy throughout your entire body.

The beauty of the fasting mimicking diet is that it provides the health and anti-aging benefits of a traditional 5 -day water fast while it prevents the extreme hunger cravings, along with other potential health risks.  

Click on the button below for more information on  joining me on a 5-Day fast using the  FASTING MIMICKING DIET MAYBE! TELL ME MORE!

We are a small, but mighty, private Facebook group comprised of vital, active, and very smart baby boomers and honorary boomers  who are all interested in extending our healthy years to live a long and happy life.

This podcast is a major update to episode #36 on sleep that I did years ago, prior to all of the latest research that has emerged.

My eyes were opened to the importance of sleep from listening to the audio book, Why We Sleep, written by Matthew Walker PhD. Dr. Walker is a sleep researcher out of UC Berkeley. He’s been doing sleep research for over 20 years so he knows what he’s talking about. I highly recommend that you read his book. It should be required reading for everybody in high school and beyond.

I also encourage you to listen to interviews of Dr. Walker by Rhonda Patrick PhD on her FoundMyFitness podcast and with Joe Rogan on his podcast. They are both excellent and will provide you with much more valuable information than I can talk about here.

I urge you to listen to all of this podcast. I know it’s a bit long but it’s very important and relevant to you, no matter what stage of life you’re in.

You may already think you know all there is to know about sleep but trust me, most likely you don’t.

And please share this with your younger friends and family. I wish that I had known this way back when I could have had a head start on preserving this precious gift that is free for the taking.

It’s packed with the latest science-based tips that can go a long way to help you get those full 8 hours of quality sleep that we, as boomers, need as much as we need oxygen.  This PDF also contains some great resources to help you to get those zzzz’s that you need.

In this 2nd edition of Health Bites, Jim Jensen talks about how our cells can become zombies and what to do about it if they do.

In episode 57, I share a lifestyle hack that can provide very quick benefits to your present health, as well as adding many healthy years to your life.

Click on the button below to download your PDF

Most people are aware that too much sugar can cause health issues like diabetes, childhood obesity, tooth decay and hyper-active kids and that sugary soft drinks are becoming a target for law-makers and TV talk shows trying to curb the proliferation of these serious health issues.

But many people are unaware of the pervasive and hidden nature of processed sugar, how it gets into our food, and how damaging it is to our health. This danger is amplified as we enter our middle age and senior years because we become more vulnerable to the many serious diseases of aging such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease and more.

Now I’m not demonizing all sugar. Every cell in our body needs sugar. I’m focusing here on the processed sugar that you’ll find in sodas and food sweeteners like sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup .

We’re also looking at fruit and some vegetable juices. This type of sugar is often added to other processed foods like cookies, cereal, pasta sauce, peanut butter and yogurt. These sugars are causing many health issues for many people. And sadly, many people don’t even realize that it’s in their food.

We now know that this kind of sugar can create a strong addiction that works by the same process as does a heroin addiction. It’s that insidious. That’s why it’s so hard for many people to cut down or eliminate sugar from life. The cravings can be very strong.

And withdrawing from sugar can cause some pretty nasty symptoms such as anxiety, agitation, insomnia, sweating, fatigue, muscle aches, nausea and vomiting. And the addiction can be so overwhelming that it may require medical intervention. It can take up to 3 months to wean yourself off sugar. So, it’s really no joke.

Chowing down on refined sugar causes your body to release dopamine, your body’s natural feel-good hormone, which is the same rewards pathway as the addiction to heroin, cocaine, and nicotine uses. Over time you can become very dependent on refined sugar.

And as if that isn’t bad enough, refined sugar makes you crave more sugar.

And fructose is the culprit here.

It turns out that refined sugar (sucrose), and high-fructose corn syrup,  contain both fructose and glucose. Sucrose, or table sugar, is made from sugar cane or beets and is about a 50/50 combination of fructose and glucose.

High-fructose corn syrup contains about 55% fructose and 45% glucose.

Glucose isn’t really the bad guy here. It is broken down by every cell in your body and causes your body to release insulin, to break it down and remove it from the bloodstream. This process also release leptin, a protein that helps to make you feel full, thus curbing your hunger.

But fructose, does not trigger your body to send the insulin and the leptin. Instead, fructose is broken down inside the liver. The problem is that without the leptin, you still feel hungry, and thus the sugar cravings. Fructose also elevates your triglyceride levels thus elevating your risk for heart attack and stroke.

Not at all. The fructose in fruit is bound up in what they call the food matrix.

This means that it’s enmeshed with cellular material and fiber. This causes it to be broken down slower and thus doesn’t cause the big spikes in your blood sugar. Also, the fiber makes you feel full.

But fruit and veggie juices are a different story. You remove the food matrix and are left with mostly fructose, which then becomes the bad guy again adding to your sugar addiction and spikes in your blood sugar. So, avoid fruit juices or consume them in moderation.

You should also be aware that many foods will show that they contain NO ADDED SUGAR on the label because they add fruit juice instead. But fruit juice is almost 100% fructose, which is actually less healthy than sucrose. So read the labels carefully. More on that later.

So how big of a health problem is the consumption of refined sugar?

Very big. Almost 75% of all adults in the United States get a 10% of all their daily calories from refined sugar while 10% of adults get a whopping 25% of all calories from refined sugar. That’ a lot of sugar.

It is estimated that the yearly cost of sugar-related health conditions on our health care system is over $1 trillion dollars. That’s trillion with a capital “T”.

In 2010, sugar sweetened beverages, like sodas, were responsible for 133,000 deaths from diabetes and 45,000 deaths from cardiovascular disease, and 6450 from cancer worldwide. This is from sugar free sodas alone. In one study, they found that adults who drank just one soda per day were 46% more likely to develop pre-diabetes.

One of the most insidious and dangerous effects of the habitual consumption of processed sugar is its negative effect on your sleep. They now know that consumption of refined sugar adversely affects your quality of sleep causing more fragmented sleep and thus contributing more to sleep deprivation.

Now that’s only the beginning of your sugar induced problems. It turns out that the lack of sleep only increases your body too feel hungrier all the time due to the suppression of leptin, the hormone that makes you feel full. In fact, sleep deprivation actually causes your body to create hormones that make you feel hungrier. It’s a vicious cycle.

And worse yet, poor sleep has been shown to make you want to eat junk food more. So, the sugar cycle just gets worse.

And we are learning more and more about how proper sleep is really the driver of good health. So, a disturbance in your sleep can have deleterious effects on your health. If you end up in this merry-go-round then your best move may be to seek professional help. It could save your life.

And sleep is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the negative effects of processed sugar.

It seems like every day there is a new link between sugar and cancer. There are studies that show that refined sugar is a factor in almost 1/3 of all cancers worldwide.

In another study they found that men tripled their risk of prostate cancer by regularly consuming sugar-sweetened drinks.

So how does sugar cause cancer?

One way that cancer cells are created in our body is from damage to our DNA.  All of our DNA has protective bumpers at the ends of the DNA strand. These protective bumpers are called telomeres. They’ve been in the news a lot lately.

These telomeres act as protective buffers preventing damage to your DNA.

When we are young our telomeres are very long thus making our DNA very resistant to damage. But, as we age, our telomeres get shorter and thus make us more vulnerable to DNA damage. You can accurately determine a person’s biological age simply by measuring the lengths of their telomeres.

Many things can affect the length of your telomeres. Negative lifestyle factors such as smoking, stress, obesity, poor exercise and poor nutrition can cause shortening of your telomeres. While positive lifestyle factors like low-stress, meditation, good exercise and good nutrition can actually increase the length of your telomeres.

Well, refined sugar causes a shortening of your telomeres leading to pre-mature aging and potential DNA damage which increases your risk of cancer. In fact, in one study it was shown that people who drank only one soda per day had the equivalent aging of 4.5 years due to the shortening of their telomeres. That’s a high price to pay for a can of soda.

We also know that excess refined sugar can cause your gut to produce and accumulate something called beta cotinine, which is a type of gene that normally affects the proliferation of our cells.

With too much of the beta cotinine, our worn-out, senescent cells, which normally would go through a natural process of cell death, called apoptosis, are instead made to be immortal, and thus prime candidates to become future cancer cells.

Inflammation is now known to be the driving factor in many of the conditions associated with aging such as cancer, heart disease, neurological diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, along with many others.

Inflammation is caused by our natural immune response to illness, or injury. It’s what is causing the swelling, redness, and pain. Reducing inflammation is very important for successful aging.

As you would expect now, our nemesis, refined sugar is front and center when it comes to producing inflammation. In one study.  Men who consumed a 20-ounce sugar drink every day for 3 weeks experienced an increase in their inflammation by up to 100%.

And men, if you’re interested in holding on to your testosterone for as long as possible then you’ll want to be cutting down on the processed sugar. In one study, the testosterone of men who consumed the equivalent of a soda and a doughnut, dropped by 25% for up to two hours. So, you may want to avoid that coke if you have some amorous plans in the near future.

And, as you may have guessed already, excess sugar consumption can have a profound affect on your brain. Studies have shown that long-term refined sugar intake can have the same negative effects on the brain as some very powerful stimulating drugs, such as amphetamine, cocaine, and nicotine. Effects include brain atrophy, concentration, and emotional and memory problems.

Well, I think you get the idea. Refined sugar is really bad for you and well worth reducing and eliminating from your diet.

Great! I’m one step ahead of you here. I have created a companion PDF with 13 tried and true tips that will really enable you to take charge and eliminate your sugar tooth for good. This PDF will arm you with some solid tips that will make your path to reducing your sugar as painless as possible to help ensure your success.

Click on the button below to download your PDF

The silver lining to the mass of negative health effects caused by refined sugar is that for many of them, simply removing refined sugar from your diet can quickly start to reverse the damaging trends that the sugar caused.

In one study conducted in the UK, people reversed their risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 25% simply by eliminating one sugar sweetened soda per day.

Within a few weeks of substantially reducing your processed sugar intake you can expect to see at least a 10% decrease in your LDL cholesterol along with a 20% decrease in trigylcerides. That will make your heart a happy chappy.

You will also significantly decrease your chances of developing type 2 diabetes.

You will also notice a marked improvement in mood and anxiety.

You will find it easier to get off of the bad sleep merry-go-round that is caused by poor diet and lack of sleep. And guess what? No more sugar crashes.

You will also be able to win the battle of sugar and sleep-deprived brain fog. Wouldn’t that be nice to remember the names of your kids again?

You will also get a nice surprise when you jump onto the scale and notice the 10 lbs or more that you lost from giving up the hundreds of additional calories consumed from sugar.

You will look and feel years younger, all from taking the leap to adopt this very important lifestyle hack. And the real reward will be the additional years that you’ll spend with the people that you love. That has no price.

Lastly, here are some foods that contain a lot of hidden sugars

Low Fat Yogart

No sugar added foods! – Yes, they add fruit juice instead, which is fructose, an added sugar.

Crackers

Smoothies. Some can contain more than 60 grams of sugar!

Alcohol mixers

Fruit snacks

Nut butter

Instant oatmeal

Cereals

Jam

Granola and granola bars

Dried fruit

Coffee drinks

BBQ and other sauces

Non-dairy milk

Bread

Flavored Bottle Water

Gummy vitamins

Bottled Tea

Juice

Salad dressing

Lemonade

Marinade

Sports Drinks

Jerky

Protein Powder

Tomato Sauce

Energy Bars

The list could go on and on…

If you need additional support or if you have any questions or comments then you are welcome to contact me via email at [email protected]

And…I would be remiss not to give a big thanks to my favorite blues guitar player of all time, Mr. Dave Hydie for generously providing such a great intro and outro for each of my podcasts. I love you Dave, you da man.

In this premier Health Bites podcast, Jim Jensen, founder of The Essential Boomer, talks about Hormesis and why it is such an important concept to the process of extending your healthy years while avoiding those terrible chronic conditions typically associated with aging. Boomers! Check it out!

In episode 55 I talk about a simple life-hack that is relatively new to me, but I’ve felt its positive effects in just the few short months since I incorporated it into my weekly routine.

The hack I’m talking about is the regular use of the dry sauna. Maybe you’ve been hearing a bit about its beneficial effects in the news or on social media.

I first heard about the benefits of sauna use from listening to a podcast by my hero, Rhonda Patrick, PhD. If you’re a regular follower of The Essential Boomer and have been listening to my podcasts, then you should be already be familiar with Rhonda.

For those of you who don’t know her. Rhonda is a researcher who received her PhD in biomedical science and has done extensive research in the fields of cancer, aging and nutrition.

Rhonda has also done research on aging at the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences in Southern California. Her website, Found My Fitness, is my go-to reference for solid, up-to-date, science-based, information on extending one’s health span.

Rhonda's videos and podcasts provide a rare peek into the cutting-edge science of aging and how to avoid the chronic conditions that are associated with it. I love her podcasts and videos. I do find them very technical and so I often need to listen to them several times to really get a handle on the meat of their concepts.

So, as I was saying, I first heard about the benefits of the sauna from listening to Rhonda’s podcast where she interviewed Dr. Jari Laukkanen, M.D., Ph.D., a cardiologist and scientist at the Institute of Public Health and Clinical Nutrition, University of Eastern Finland. Dr. Laukkanen conducted a long-term study looking at the benefits of regular sauna use with over 2,000 middle-aged men over the course of 20 years in Finland.

I decided to do this podcast to present this important information from a higher viewpoint making it a bit easier to digest for us normal folk.

In this 20 yearlong study, they controlled for such factors as age, obesity, smoking, alcohol, cholesterol, prescription medication, and type 2 diabetes as well as socio-economic status and physical activity so it accurately isolated the effects of the sauna use.

And the findings are dramatic. The study found that death by cardio-vascular disease decreased by 27% for men who used the sauna 2 – 3 times per week as compared to men who used it only once per week. And for men who used the sauna for 4-7 times per week, death by cardio-vascular disease decreased by 50% compared to the once-a weekers.

They also found that all-cause mortality, which is death by any disease or toxic exposure, other than by accident, decreased by 24% for the men who used the sauna 2-3 times and 40% for the men who used it 4 -7 times as compared to the once-a-week sauna user.

I would have loved to have them compare these results to the men who never use the sauna. I can’t imagine how much higher the numbers would have been with that comparison.

Long-term sauna use has been shown to improve blood pressure, endothelial function, which is the working of the inside linings of your blood vessels, which affect the stiffness of your arteries and ventricular function, which is very important to your ticker.

Long-term sauna us has also, not surprisingly, been shown to reduce the occurrence of strokes by 12% in the men who used the sauna 2-3 times per week and by a whopping 62% in the men who used the sauna 4-7 times per week, again, compared to the once-a-week group.

In fact, a 20 minute or more session in the sauna can drive your heartrate up to 150 beats per minute, which is what you’d expect from doing a fast run. Have you ever checked your heart-rate after a sprint? It will be in the same range.

Sauna use has been shown to increase cardio-vascular endurance by increasing blood flow to skeletal muscles and increasing their efficiency. It also has been shown to increase blood flow to the heart thus reducing cardio-vascular strain thus allowing for longer physical activity as compared to a non-heat acclimated person.

Long term sauna use also enables increased blood flow to the skin resulting in a lowering of the body temperature at which you start to sweat, thus enabling you to maintain a lower body temperature.

In one study, male runners who did a 30-minute sauna 2 times per week were able to increase their running to exhaustion by 32% compared to the non-heat acclimated group.

Hmmm…

This sure sounds a lot like the effects of cardio-vascular exercise to me.

But how about resistance exercise? Can long-term sauna use replicate the benefits of weight training?

Yup…

In fact, long-term sauna use has been shown to increase muscle hypertrophy, which means you are actually building muscle by sitting on your butt in a hot sauna.

But how?

Well, your muscles are constantly going through a process, kind of like your bones, where they tear down existing muscle tissue while simultaneously adding on new muscle tissue. Your body does this to maintain a balance to preserve your muscle mass.

When you do resistance exercise you are mechanically damaging your muscle tissue causing them to repair the damaged tissue while adding on more new muscle. Thus increasing your overall muscle mass.

Well, when you are exposed to heat, it causes your body to slow up on the process that tears down your muscles, while increasing the processes that causes you to grow more muscles. So, it’s like doing resistance training merely by sitting in a sauna. And this affect has been shown to last up to 48 hours after the sauna use.

This can be very beneficial for providing therapy to damaged muscles. Normally, when you damage a muscle, you have to isolate and rest the muscle to prevent more damage and inflammation, and to allow the muscle to heal. This will usually cause muscle atrophy along with the subsequent loss of muscle mass and strength.

So, with regular exposure to the heat of a sauna, you can actually prevent the loss of muscle mass while still protecting it from further damage.

It had been a couple of weeks since the crash and my calf seemed to be only getting worse with much more pain, and swelling, making it very difficult to walk, even with crutches.

I live very close to the YMCA, which has a killer sauna, so I decided to give it a try. I started going to the sauna at the Y 3 to 4 times per week and I haven’t slowed down since.

It was during this time that I started to see a real turn-around with my healing and level of pain. Now, don’t get me wrong. I don’t claim that the sauna was solely responsible for my accelerated improvement because it was at the time where my injury should have been showing signs of improvement. But I only started to feel better after I started my sauna routine. And it healed very quickly after that.

Now intuitively, to me, it makes sense that the sauna can be beneficial to your health because of it’s similarity to cardio-vascular exercise and the hypertrophy benefits are just icing on the cake but it turns out that all that is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the health benefits derived from a sauna.

One of the main drivers of these benefits is something called heat-shock proteins. Just like they sound, heat-shock proteins are activated by your genes as a response to exercise AND to extremes in temperature, both cold and hot.

Heat-shock proteins are very beneficial to your health because they work to maintain and repair the 3-dimensional shapes of your cells, which can lose their shape due to environmental stress as well as normal cell metabolism. When a cell loses it proper 3-dimensional shape, it can affect the functionality of the cell often-times leading to an increase in the accumulation of protein aggregates in the cells thus leading to an increase in inflammation.

Think of protein aggregates as bits of garbage in your cells which trigger your immune system to attack them, thus leading to an increase in inflammation, which can be the cause of some pretty nasty conditions such as cardiac disease, atherosclerosis, cardiomyopathy as well as the before mentioned neuro-degenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s and Parkinson’s disease.

Heat shock proteins are very important to help maintain the structural integrity, and thus the functionality of your cells.

But sometimes your cells can become so damaged that they lose all normal functionality becoming more like zombie cells in that they aren’t quite dead, yet they still produce the garbage-like protein aggregates that accumulate in your cells. These kinds of cells are called senescent cells.

As we age, we tend to accumulate more and more of these senescent cells producing more and more protein aggregates thus causing more inflammation which increases the likelihood of contracting many of the conditions associated with inflammation caused by protein aggregates. The accumulation of senescent cells are now considered a major contributor to the entire process of aging.

The senescent cells can mutate into cancer cells. So needless to say, if you could get rid of your senescent cells and the resulting protein garbage in your cells that it would be a very good thing. But how?

Research now shows that long term exposure to heat stress, as in a dry sauna, causes your body to activate the expression of an amazing gene, that they now call the longevity gene – FOX03.

FOX03 is frigging amazing. In fact, people who have a genetic disposition to create more FOX03 have a 2.7 limes increase in their chances to live to be 100.

FOX03 is the master regulator of many genes. It has been shown to make your cells more resistant to many of the stressors that come with age. It acts like a dietary anti-oxidant except way more potent.

FOX03 increases the expression of genes responsible for autophagy, which is the process of cleaning out all that garbage in your cells that is produced by those zombie senescent cells thus helping to reduce inflammation. FOXO3 also enables your body to produce proteins that will cause those senescent cells to kill themselves through a process called apoptosis. This prevents them from producing any more protein garbage as well as preventing them from mutating into a cancer cell.

And speaking of cancer. FOX03 also produces proteins that cause cancer cells to die. And, as if that isn’t enough, FOX03 also increases the expression of genes responsible for improving your immune function, which normally declines with age.

As if these aren’t enough benefits to make you want to commit to incorporating sauna into your lifestyle… there’s more!

Studies show that regular heat exposure in a sauna causes increased neurogenesis, which is the growth of nerve tissue in your brain. This is caused by the expression of the brain derived neurotrophic factor BDNF which plays an important role in neuronal survival and growth. Heat stress is also responsible for the increased production of the stress hormone norepinephrine, which promotes myelin growth and makes your brain function faster as well as repairing nerve cell damage to the brain.

This is all very good news for anyone with any kind of neurogenic disorder such as MS, Parkinson’s, traumatic brain injury and Huntington’s disease.

And as a capper, the sauna can also help with depression. The afore mentioned neurotrophic factor BDNF has been shown to be a valuable factor in reducing depression.

Your body produces the protein dynorphin, which is responsible for the sensation of dysphoria, or discomfort that you feel when exposed to intense exercise OR spicy foods OR extreme temperatures, like those found in a sauna.

Dynorphins make you feel bad, but they trigger your body to respond by creating endorphins, your body’s natural opiate, which makes you feel good… really good. In fact, as a response to the presence of dynorphins, your body increases your level of endorphins and it can last for up to 48 hours beyond the initial exposure. And… the body’s uptick in dynorphins causes you to become more sensitive to any discomfort which causes your body to produce more endorphins as a response.

Now, that can’t be bad can it?

Just think…All of these amazing benefits are triggered by simply sitting on your rear in a hot sauna for several times each week. Now that’s a lifestyle hack I can live with.

So, the questions now are how hot does the sauna need to be and how long do I need to sit in it to get all those great health benefits?

Good question…

According to Dr. Laukkanen study, you will need to sit in a sauna for at least 20 minutes at a temperature of at least 174 degrees Fahrenheit to derive all the health benefits mentioned earlier. Now I know what you’re thinking. 174 degrees! That is way too hot for a normal human to endure. Why I can barely stand to sit in a 105 degree hot-tub. 174 degrees will kill me!

Au contraire mon frere. ..

If you’ve never been in a dry sauna before then 174 degrees sounds flaming hot but in reality, it’s not nearly as bad as it sounds. It’s dry air as compared to hot water in a hot tub. The sauna at our YMCA is a steady 184 degrees and to me it’s perfect.

It did take me a bit of time to work up to 20 minutes, but I am baby when it comes to discomfort. I will often do the sauna after a 10-mile bike ride so I’m already heated up. When I do that it takes a lot less time to get a sweat going as compared to walking in it without exercising first.

I think the hardest part of doing a sauna is the residual sweating for ½ hour or more after leaving the sauna, even if I take a tepid shower. It can be a bit embarrassing. The only way to really avoid that is to take a really cold shower after the sauna to drive your temperature down. Now I’m a baby when it comes to cold showers, so I usually put up with the post sauna sweating and just avoid venturing to places inhabited by a lot of people for an hour or so.

A question that comes up a lot is whether you can get the same benefits from an infra-red sauna as you can from a dry sauna. As far as the study, it was shown that you need to get at least 174 degrees Fahrenheit to derive the most benefits and an infra-red sauna doesn’t get anywhere near that temperature. So, I suspect that you wouldn’t get as robust a response from an infra-red sauna.

People also ask a lot whether a hot tub can also provide the same health benefits and again, there are no studies to verify that claim one way or the other though I do suspect, from personal experience, that sitting in a 110 hot tub or spa for 20 minutes or more will certainly get that heartrate and sweating response up there so I’m more inclined to think that a really hot, hot tub may have similar benefits. So if I didn’t have access to a sauna, then I’d certainly consider trying to find a friend or facility with a hot tub.

I tend to think that the important factor is to heat up your body to the point where you are sweating profusely and experiencing moderate discomfort. But again, the science right now is with the dry sauna.

1 – NEVER sauna alone. If you pass out, you could die. Enough said.

2 – NEVER use a sauna when drunk, high, or pregnant or if you have ANY medical condition that can be exacerbated by heat stress. Check with your doctor prior to incorporating regular sauna sessions into your lifestyle.

3 – If at any time you feel sick, dizzy or faint… get out immediately.

4 – 25 – 30 minutes is way enough time to derive maximum benefit for most people. Don’t get crazy.

5 – drink 2 – 4 glasses of cool water after each sauna session.

And…I would be remiss not to give a big thanks to my favorite blues guitar player of all time, Mr. Dave Hydie for generously providing such a great intro and outro for each of my podcasts. I love you Dave, you da man.

 One of the subjects that I have recently been fascinated by, to the point of obsession, is the concept of health extension, or how to increase our health span. Health span is the time in our lives where we are functional and relatively free of the many serious chronic diseases that are usually associated with aging. I’m now 66 and statistically entering the limits of my health span, so it is of vital interest to me and for you too, if you are a baby boomer or beyond.

There has been an enormous amount of exciting research, both animal and human, in this area, particularly over the last decade or so. Yet most baby boomers aren’t familiar with the research and it’s ramifications.  That’s why I’m so excited about sharing this valuable information with you.

I am particularly interested in hacks that we can do to our lifestyles that are relatively painless and provide a whole lot of bang for buck, so to speak. Today, I’m going to share with you one of the best hacks that I have found that I have personally adopted with some impressive results.

This fairly painless hack has the potential of dramatically changing the way you feel as well as adding many years of additional healthy living to your life. And, if you are already struggling with a chronic condition, it could go a long way to minimize, or even eliminate your present symptoms. Do I have your attention yet?

Today, I will be sharing with you the awe and mystery of Time Restricted Eating. Sorry, I couldn’t help but throw in that reference to the Outer Limits, a very cool and creepy TV show from my youth.

Time Restricted Eating

Sounds ominous doesn’t it. It isn’t nearly as bad as it sounds. It doesn’t require any major changes to your diet or cutting out your favorite epicurean delights. Though, improving the quality of your diet will certainly increase its effectiveness on your overall health.

Time Restricted Eating simply means that you will be eating all your meals within a 9 – 12 hour window during the day. So, say you get up and have your first cup of coffee at 8:00 AM. You will then plan on having your very last bite of anything by at least 8:00 PM, or earlier if possible.

Research shows that the smaller the window, the more profound the effect of the Time Restricted Eating. I personally shoot for 10 hours.

That’s it! Really. You don’t have to make any changes to your present diet to experience significant improvements with your health. And you can even cheat on weekends without going off the tracks. It really is pretty dang painless. I’ve been doing it for a bit over 2 months now and the benefits for me have been very apparent. I’ve even lost 9 pounds, though this was not the reason that I adapted this lifestyle.

And prior to adopting this eating schedule, I typically would have a late snack at around 11:00 so I wouldn’t feel hungry when sleeping. In fact that was my main concern when adopting this lifestyle hack. 

In reality, it has been very easy and I haven’t experienced any issues with being hungry.

Ok Jim, so what are the so-called benefits to Time Restricted Eating anyway?

• Decreased body fat
• Increased lean muscle mass
• Improved blood lipid profiles
• Reduction in inflammation
• Improved metabolic efficiency
• Improved sleep
• Reduced risk for cancer, heart disease, stroke and metabolic syndromes such as arthritis, MS and Parkinson’s Disease.
• Significant improvement in gut-related conditions such as IBS and Crohn’s Disease.
• Better recovery from surgeries.
• Increased lifespan
• Increased health span
• Dramatic improvements in mood

Sounds too good to be true, right? But it is true, and it’s based on solid-research, most notably, from Dr. Satchin Panda, out of the prestigious Salk Institute of Biological Sciences in Southern California. He has been researching and performing studies on animals and then humans. This is based on good science.

So how can this relatively painless hack have such a dramatic effect on your health?

It’s the difference between night and day. Really!

It turns out that every cell in our body is programmed to operate within the circadian clock. That means that they evolved to function within the confines and as a direct result of daylight and night.

Even the bacteria within our gut is programmed to operate by the circadian clock. We all know that the gut, and the billions of bacteria that live in it, are hugely responsible for our overall health and metabolism.

The bacteria that are active in the morning are a completely different group than the ones that are active in the evening.  This dramatically affects the workings of our metabolism.

It is known that in the morning, our insulin sensitivity is much higher than in the evening. So, WHEN you eat has a dramatic impact upon your metabolism and thus your entire body. If you compared the morning and evening, insulin responses, from the exact same meal, you would see a dramatic decrease in your ability to process carbohydrates in the evening, as compared to the morning.

So, our own circadian rhythm has a dramatic impact on our bodies. The other factor, or trigger, that affects our metabolism and health is food itself. The consumption of all non-water food starts our clocks in the morning. It sets our metabolism from that moment. It signals your body that it’s morning and you have started your day. That triggers your metabolism to start the many processes that evolve and change throughout the day.

And, as I mentioned earlier, this is when your body is most insulin sensitive and thus able to more efficiently metabolize carbohydrates, as well as fats and protein.

Through Dr. Panda’s research, they have found that the many health benefits I mentioned above were attained by eating within the 12 hour window, with 10 hours or less, being the point where the most robust results were found.

When you take your last meal of the day is when you start your evening fast.

This is when your body goes through its daily repair process. Most of this happens during sleep. It has been shown that a 12-14 hour fast enables your body, through the processes of autophagy and apoptosis, to rid your cells, much like a vacuum cleaner, of unwanted junk.

Autophagy is the body’s process of eliminating the junk in our cells that accumulate as a result of normal metabolic processes as well as useless protein aggregates that are produced by senescence cells spitting out useless protein.

Senescence cells are cells that have stopped functioning as they were supposed to and thus now only produce protein that attracts our bodies immune cells thus increasing inflammation. We produce more senescence cells as we age.

Apoptosis is the body’s ability to induce senescent cells to commit suicide. This is a good thing. It prevents them from producing any more junk protein which causes inflammation and it prevents them from becoming cancer cells.

So, by these processes, the 12 – 14  hour fasting period maintained in this diet, helps to rid our bodies of inflammation and cancer producing cells. Time Restricted Eating has been shown to  reduce the risks of many types of cancer as well as reducing tumor growth in existing cancers.

And the reduction in inflammation is very dramatic too. 

Eating within the 10-12 hour window has also been show to be very effective at reducing the lipids in the liver and the rest of the body. This is due to a dramatic increase in metabolic efficiency.

In fact, Time Restricted Eating has been shown to substantially increase mitochondrial volume. Mitochondria are your body’s little burners for producing energy. Among many other benefits, this helps to increase your cardio-vascular endurance.

It has also been shown to reduce body fat while increasing lean muscle mass. This helps to protect people from obesity, heart disease, stroke and liver disease. As I said earlier, I lost 9 lbs without even knowing it.

After eating, for most people, it takes about 10 to 12 hours of fasting to deplete the body of liver glycogen, which are the byproducts of metabolizing carbohydrates. After that the body then releases fatty acids to the liver where it starts to make ketone bodies which are then used for energy.

Ketone bodies can cross the blood-brain barrier and provide energy for the brain. They have also been associated with improving heart disease risk factors, improving insulin sensitivity, improving all major symptoms of metabolic syndrome. Studies also suggest that they may have benefits for people with Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, Parkinson’s and acne.

Time Restricted Eating also has been shown to improve the quality of your sleep, which is very important for good health. There is a significant decrease and even elimination in the reports of acid reflux from people incorporating Time Restricted Eating into their lifestyle.

Time Restricted Eating really works by coordinating the 3 pillars of good health; sleeping, physical activity, and eating, to all work together with their own circadian rhythms. That’s the way that we have evolved. When all three of these systems are running smoothly than we can reap the benefits of good health.

Simple, just eat ALL your meals and food within a 10-12 hour window starting from your first cup of coffee in the morning. Yep, even coffee starts your timing. Tea or flavored water even starts the clock.

And after your last meal resist the urge to eat or drink ANYTHING except for water. Eating anything would reset your metabolic clock thus reducing the benefits of this lifestyle. Even a cup of tea before bed will break the fast.

Eating during the fasting period can also cause your own circadian clock to reset, thus confusing your metabolism. This could cause your body to be ready to go into the fasting period when you are just ready to chow down on breakfast.

Remember too, that you can cheat up to 2 days each week without losing the benefits of the other 5 days so there’s always a break available if circumstances demand it. But you should know that most people who do Time Restricted Eating for several months report that they get a food-over, like a hangover, on the days that they do cheat.

Now I have some great resources to help you out with the process as well as providing in-depth information on Time Restricted Eating.

First, you can learn a whole lot more about Time Restricted Eating from Dr. Panda himself by going to his website, MyCircadianClock.org.

From here you can learn a whole lot more about Time Restricted Eating and you can even become part of an ongoing study to research the effects of Time Restricted Eating on humans. It’s a great resource.

Second, you can watch 2 fascinating interviews of Dr. Panda by Rhonda Patrick PhD on her great website foundmyfitness.com. It is my absolute favorite podcast.

Third, you can easily time and record your Time Restricted Eating on a great free app called ZERO, created by Kevin Rose.

It makes tracking your fasting and eating very easy. It’s available for both IOS and droids.

So, the bottom line is that Time Restricted Eating can significantly improve your health, and if you are presently eating a typical American diet of meat and potatoes combined with a lot of sugar and processed food, then eliminating the sugar and processed food from your diet, while increasing your consumption of fresh vegetables and leafy greens will create changes within your body that will blow you away.

Seriously. You will feel decades younger and will most likely add decades of good health to your life. What a great gift for you to give to your family and yourself. It really is a no-brainer.

I’ve been doing it and LOVE the way I feel. Give it a try. It’s way easier than you think and the results are life-changing.

I would also be remiss not to let you know that all the information in this podcast is for information purposes only. You should never try any kind of changes to your diet or lifestyle without first consulting with your physician. Fasting can have negative effects and can even be dangerous for some people. Play it safe!

This is a special relaunch of The Essential Boomer Podcast so I want to share with you a great topic that can be of immense benefit to you,  and everybody else who listens. Therefore, I have chosen to share with you the awe and wonder of….

Okay, now don’t get all bleary-eyed on me now. I promise that if you listen to, or read, this whole podcast that you will be consuming sulforaphane within a week. So hang in here with me. It will be worth it.

Now, What if I were to tell you that there is a natural food supplement available that has been researched extensively in animal AND human studies that is shown to be one of, if not the, most powerful NATURALLY OCCURRING anti-inflammatory AND anti-oxidizing substances known to exist?

And... what if I told you that this substance has been shown to significantly lessen your chances of getting cancer, heart disease, strokes, diabetes, liver disease, kidney disease, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, traumatic brain injury and depression among many others?

And…what if I told you that this same substance has been shown to successfully treat many of these serious conditions if you already are struggling with them?

And… what if I told you that this supplement can significantly affect both your quality of life and your lifespan?

And…what if I told you that this supplement is readily available in your supermarket or that you can easily and quickly grow your own with a minimal investment of just a few pennies a week?

I bet I have your attention now.

Well, all that is true. That supplement is called sulforaphane and the best source for this amazing compound is from cruciferous vegetables.

Yup, Cruciferous veggies.

These include: Arugula Bok Choy Broccoli Brussels Sprouts Cabbage Cauliflower Collard Greens Kale Kohlrabi Maca Mizuna Mustard Greens Radish Rutabaga Turnip Watercress Wasabe,

YES wasabi!

   And ... broccoli sprouts

We’ll talk a lot more about broccoli sprouts in a bit.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. "Yea, yea. I know that a diet with veggies are healthy and good for you and all that blah blah blah. I thought that this was going to be about something truly powerful."

Au contraire mon frere… I’m talking about a lot more than just a healthy diet with veggies. I’m talking about a very powerful substance for the prevention and treatment of the diseases that are game-enders for people like you and me. 

Stay with me here…

First, Let’s take a broad look at some of the studies involving cruciferous veggies.

Back 2011 there was a study published in the American Journal of Clinical nutrition that showed that the people in the top 20% eating the most vegetables had a 16% reduction in their chances of dying from all non-accident causes. That covers a lot of physical causes of death. Still, no big epiphany, right? 16% meh...

BUT, if we look at the top 20% of Americans that were consumers of cruciferous vegetables then this number goes to 22%. Not bad eh?

That’s just the very tip of the iceberg. 

Cruciferous veggies and cancer

Men who ate three or more servings per week of cruciferous vegetables show a 41% decrease in their risk of prostate cancer.

In another study, men who ate 2 or more ½ cup servings of broccoli each week saw a 51% reduction of bladder cancer, compared to the low broccoli intake group.

It even benefits smokers. People who smoked cigarettes and consumed 4.5 servings of raw cruciferous vegetables PER MONTH had a 55% reduction in lung cancer risk compared to the ones who consumed less than 2.5 servings per month.

There are also studies that show that women who consume 1 – 2 servings per day of cruciferous veggies have a 40% reduction in the risk of breast cancer compared to those who consume 1 serving or less per week.

In another study, people with bladder cancer, who consumed at least an average of 3.9 servings of raw broccoli per month, saw a 57% reduction in bladder cancer mortality and a 43% reduction in overall mortality rate, compared to those that had one serving per month.

Obviously, there is something very interesting and powerful going on with cruciferous veggies. But what?

I’m going to get a bit geeky for a bit here so stick with me.

All cruciferous veggies contain substances called glucosinolates.

One of these glucosinolates is called glucoraphanin.

When the glucoraphanin in the veggie is lightly cooked, chewed or crushed it changes, with the help of an enzyme, to become what is called an isothiocyanate.

Sulforaphane is one of the isothiocyanates, that has received a lot of scientific scrutiny because of its amazing potency.

In technical terms, sulforaphane is one of the most potent activators of the NRF2 genetic pathway which regulates over 200 different genes, many of which are anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory. So, they are responsible for de-activating many harmful compounds within your body.

To you and me, this means that it affects a lot very important processes that directly affect our immune systems and how we age.

Broccoli sprouts contain the highest concentrations of glucoraphanin, which becomes sulforaphane.

It has 100 times more of this precursor than broccoli.

Now if you’re eyes are crossed that will be pretty much be it for the hyper-geeky talk

It’s important to say here that a lot of the studies with sulforaphane has been done on animals so we have to be careful not to use them as absolute proof that they’ll work for people. But, there is a fast-growing list of studies on humans with sulforaphane that show great promise for replicating the impressive results found in the animal studies.

The bottom line is the sulforaphane, found in cruciferous veggies, can significantly reduce your risk of cancer, along with many other diseases. One way that it does this is by preventing and repairing damage to your DNA.

One of the amazing properties of sulforaphane is that it is able to selectively target and kill cancer cells, while having very little effect on the non-cancerous cells.

Sulforaphane and cancer

Sulforaphane kills colorectal cancer cells, breast cancer cells, cervical cancer cells, oral squamous cell carcinoma cells, liver cancer cells, leukemia cells and prostate cancer cells. There are several studies looking at the effect of sulforaphane in men with prostate cancer.

In one study, men given sulforaphane decreased their PSA doubling rate by 86% compared to the placebo group. 86%!

Guys, are you hearing that?

Sulforaphane has been shown to be very effect a deactivating and removing carcinogens from the body, such as benzene, which is associated with air pollution, automobile exhaust and cigarette smoke.

Studies have also shown how sulforaphane has demonstrated the remarkable ability to prevent the growth of tumors as well as slowing the growth of existing tumors in animal and people. Hell, sulforaphane has been shown to actually remove cancer cells from the body.

Multiple studies show that three to five servings of sulforaphane per week, in the form of cruciferous veggies, is able to reduce your risk of cancer by 30 to 40%. Wow. I’ll talk more about portions and servings in a bit.

The bottom line is that sulforaphane can significantly decrease your chances of getting cancer and if you do have cancer it can significantly and positively affect the progression of the cancer.

How about the effects of sulforaphane on heart disease?

Many studies have show that the consumption of sulforaphane can significantly lower many of the common risk factors for cardiovascular disease, heart attack and stroke. Sulforaphane has been shown to lower the LDL cholesterol and increase the HDL cholesterol in humans.

It has also been shown to decrease blood pressure in rats with hypertension.

It also has been shown to protect the heart against oxidative stress and reduced the heart damage after heart attacks in rats.

One of the driving factors for heart disease, as well as many other diseases is inflammation.

Inflammation

Inflammation, and the bio-markers it produces, is the single most important predictor of successful aging and cognition.

Sulforaphane has been shown in multiple studies to have a significant effect on inflammation in humans. Through this mechanism sulforaphane has been shown to protect against hardening of the arteries along with inhibiting blood clot formation in rats.

Effects on brain behavior

Inflammation has also been shown to adversely affect the brain. Sulforaphane has been shown to cross the blood/brain barrier and therefore has a direct affect on the metabolic processes within the brain. There are studies using sulforaphane in young men with autism that show that sulforaphane improved autistic behavior checklist scores and improved social interaction, abnormal behavior and verbal communication.

Another study showed that sulforaphane was able to improve cognitive impairment in small group of medicated patients with schizophrenia.

Can sulforaphane help me if I get the flu?

It appears so. In human studies sulforaphane increased the human antiviral response as well as reducing the amount of virus with the body. It was also shown to help prevent HIV infection.

How about protection from bacteria? Does sulforaphane have antibiotic properties?

Yup. In one study, sulforaphane was able to inhibit 23 out of 28 tested bacterial and fungal species. Sulforaphane has been shown to increase the antimicrobial processes in humans.

How about Depression?

There is a lot of evidence that nutrition places a large role in depression. Again, inflammation has been shown to play a causal role in depression. Sulforaphane was able to illicit the anti-inflammation properties of the brain and in conjunction, the symptoms of depression, found in mice. It was shown to be more effective then Prozac.

Yes, these were mice and we need to wait for human studies to claim the same result in people. But it is very promising seeing that we both use the same metabolic process in inflammation and the resulting depression.

What about the effect of sulforaphane on neuro-degenerative diseases?

Brain inflammation and high oxidative stress are very prominent in neurodegenerative diseases like Huntington’s Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease so the anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative properties of Sulforaphane appear to have a positive effect on these diseases.

Sulforaphane has also been shown to increase dopamine levels, reduce tremors and tremors in mice genetically altered to replicate the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.

It has also been shown to increase spatial working memory and working memory in mice injected with chemicals that cause them to experience the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. And It has been shown to clear aggregates in mice induced to have the symptoms of Huntington’s disease.

Traumatic Brain Injury has a strong association with inflammation of the brain and studies have shown sulforaphane increases the brains ability to heal itself while also reducing inflammation.

Sulforaphane has also been shown to protect against seizures in rats.

In studies with rats, sulforaphane was shown to significantly inhibit both the development and severity of MS-like disease symptoms thus decreasing the disease progression and demyelination in the spinal cord.

Can sulforaphane provide any benefits for people with osteoporosis?

It is looking very promising. Sulforaphane has been shown to increase bone production and volume by about 20% in mice. It appears to do this by increasing the functionality of the osteoclasts, the cells that produce more bone while reducing the activity of the osteoblasts, the cells that dissolve your bone cells.

Can sulforaphane protect my liver?

 Yes! In a human study with men that had fatty livers, sulforaphane improved liver function over the control group. It has been shown to protect the liver from a several liver diseases caused by alcohol, drugs, toxic chemicals and high-caloric diets.

How about my kidneys?

Yes again. Sulforaphane has been shown, in studies with animals prevent inflammation and kidney damage from cisplatin, a drug used in chemotherapy.

Would you like some natural protection from the damaging rays of the sun?

Sulforaphane again. Yep. It has been shown to provide protection against both UVA and UVB sunburn and skin damage.

It can even protect your skin against blistering.

Sulforaphane sounds too good to be true. Next you’re gonna tell me that it can help with my baldness… Well…

Sulforaphane may also be able to help you to increase your hair growth. Androgenic alopecia is the most common kind of hair loss. There’s a study that shows, in mice, a fairly strong response to sulforaphane for re-growing lab-induced hair loss.

What about negative effects? What would happen if I consumed too much sulforaphane?

Well, there was some concern about creating iodine deficiency leading to goiter, but that only seems to be a possible for people with a very limited intake of iodine intake to start with. In a randomized, double-blind studies on humans consuming approximately the amount of sulforaphane that was used in many other animal and human studies it was shown that there were zero people who experienced negative effects on their thyroid or any liver toxicity.

So it certainly seems like the potential benefits of sulforaphane far outweigh any potential harm.

Growing your own broccoli sprouts!

Okay, so by now you are probably ready to get your hands on some broccoli sprouts tout suite. Luckily, broccoli sprout seeds are easily available and growing the sprouts in a wide-mouth quart mason jar is a very efficient, safe, and easy way to keep a constant supply of them on hand.

You can pick up wide-mouth, quart, mason jars from a variety of sources very cheaply. I would make sure to have 4 – 6 of these on hand to ensure that you always have a fresh supply of your beloved broccoli sprouts available.

You should also pick up a wide-mouth screen lid for your mason jars to enable you to easily rinse and drain the broccoli sprouts during your sprouting. These can be had for abut $3-$4 apiece on Amazon. You can jury-rig your own screens with different screening materials but I like the stainless steel ones because they are easy to clean and won’t absorb any bacteria or water, like some netting material might.

You can also pick up a 2 ½ lb back of seeds from Amazon and other sources for around $40 or so. This amount is enough to keep you up to your neck in broccoli sprouts for months.

So, once you get all your materials together it’s time to actually grow those little puppies.

I suggest processing one jar per day to make it so you will have a crop of sprouts available every day. There are a lot of videos on YouTube showing you how to grow broccoli sprouts. There are some minor variations but the method that I use is as follows:

1 – Add 2 tablespoons of the broccoli sprout seeds to an empty mason jar

2 – Add fresh water to about ½ to ¾ high in the jar

3 - Attach the screened lid on the top and then place it in a cupboard or cool, dark place to set overnight.

4 – You will then set up a routine where you rinse the seeds and baby sprouts twice a day with 2 rinses of fresh water. I always let the water fill to overflowing through the screen and then swirl it around a bit and then let the water completely drain out. This prevents the growth of bacteria and mold.

5 – Then I store the inverted jars at about a 45 degree angle in a kitchen strainer that I have that fits over ½ of my sink in the kitchen. Some people use a small bowel and others get a fancy dancy stand to hold it at the 45 degree angle. This will allow for adequate light and drainage for the sprouts. You will end up with 4 – 6 inverted jars with sprouts of varying degrees of growth. It’s pretty cool.

6 – Keep up the above routine until around day six or seven when you have a jar packed with green broccoli sprouts. They are then ready to consume or freeze.

Me, I freeze mine for several reasons. First, it allows me to safely store the sprouts for future use without worrying about them going bad.

Second, it allows me to easily get ahead of my almost daily consumption of the sprouts.

So, now you have a quart jar jam-packed with wonderful looking sprouts ready for action. What now?

How many sprouts should you consume for an effective dose to get all the benefits?

According to Dr. Rhonda Patrick, there is a wide range with the amount of sulforaphane that is used in the various studies. Using the quart mason jar method, each jar filled with raw broccoli sprouts yields about 120 milligrams of sulforaphane. This is within the single dose range that show beneficial effects in most of the studies. It’s important to know that this is based on the raw sprouts.

Now, if you consume the sprouts raw, then you must either chew them or crush them to enable the process of converting the sprouts to sulforaphane.

You can significantly increase the bio-availability, and thus the total amount of sulforaphane by gently boiling or steaming the raw sprouts for no more than 10 minutes at 158 degrees F. Any longer or hotter and you will significantly decrease the sulforaphane. This heating can increase the bio-availability of sulforaphane by up to 2-3 times the amount found in the raw sprouts. You can then just drink it like a tea, etc.

But, and this is a big but, There is another great option for you - Freezing the broccoli sprouts!

If you freeze the broccoli sprouts and then create a smoothie where you add them while they are still frozen, and then drink them right away, then you will increase the bio-availability of the sulforaphane by 2 – 3 times.

That in-turn greatly increases how many doses you can get from a single one-quart mason jar meaning that a single quart jar full of sprouts can easily make 2 – 3 single doses.

This is great news because the broccoli sprouts have a flavor that is not enjoyed by most people. I’m kind of weird. I like it. But then again, I’ve always been a goat when it comes to veggies.

To me they taste like radishes, so having a smoothie made only of coconut water and frozen broccoli sprouts tastes just like a radish-flavored drink. So I like it but Laura, my way better half has to actually brush her teeth right after consuming it because of the repugnant flavor so you may want to experiment with different combinations of fruits or veggies in your smoothie to make it more palatable.

Here is a big-time tip for making sure that your frozen sprouts don’t get ice-burned and stay fresh-like. I use a FOODSAVER vacuum Sealer to store all my sprouts. They sell for about $175 on amazon.  It makes it very convenient and easy to store individual doses in your freezer.

I divide all the sprouts from one mason jar into two portions and then seal them with the Foodsaver and toss them in the freezer. Each portion is enough for 2 to 3 people.

So. Are you now ready to grow your own sprouts?  Go for it. You will be amazed at how good you feel. Your body will thank you. And do you really want to pack some power to your diet? Just add some cruciferous veggies like broccoli, cauliflower and Brussel sprouts to your weekly diet. Talk about health insurance that is also delicious. Wow.

IMPORTANT! This podcast is meant to be for general information purposes only. It should not be construed to be medical advice. It is highly recommended that you only make changes to your diet or lifestyle while under the supervision of a medical professional.

CLICK HERE to watch Rhonda Patrick PhD's video on Sulforaphane and Its Effects on Cancer, Mortality, Aging, Brain and Behavior, Heart Disease & More.

Episode 51 marks the one-year anniversary of the essential boomer podcast and in honor of the of this I’m bringing back the guest who started it all for me back in episode one, Paul Zavagno.  

Paul is an educator, a retired school principal, a great humanitarian and a certified facilitator of the work of Byron Katie and he is my life-long friend. So in this episode we do a deep-dive into Paul’s actual coaching practice.

• Can you tell us the story of how you were attracted to this particular practice of life coaching?
• Will you tell us the story of how Byron Katy came to create this method of life coaching?
• It seems that this work, like a lot of great teachings is built upon a very simple basic structure. Do you think that that contributes to its effectiveness?
• Was Byron Katie influenced by Buddhism in creating The Work?
• What does a typical coaching session look like?
• Are there any benefits of this type of coaching for people who are suffering from chronic physical issues?
• Does this type of work would lend itself well for people facing the ends of their lives such as in hospice?
• Do you have any final words of advice that you’d like to share with your fellow boomers?

CLICK HERE to email Paul

Follow Paul on Twitter

CLICK HERE for more information on the work of Byron Katie.

Paul is a board member of the Infinity foundation

Paul is also very active with the organization, Habitat for Humanity.