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In this episode, Dr. Rhonda Patrick chats with Dr. Darya and Kevin Rose. They chat about Darya's fascinating experience on a 10-day silent meditation retreat where she spent around 7 hours a day doing seated meditation, intermingled with another 6 hours a day of walking meditation. They discuss the biological significance of mindfulness while eating, unlocking the mysteries of blood glucose by actually testing your response to foods, or, in Kevin's case, alcoholic beverages. Kevin talks about his experiments with a ketogenic diet featuring large amounts of vegetables combined with fats to drive his ketosis and other ideas and projects he is working on. They also discuss how intermittent fasting and how intermittent fasting functions as a beneficial hormetic stressor that activates gene expression changes that can actually make you more resilient and much more!

Dr. Pierre Capel

Dr. Pierre Capel is a professor emeritus in experimental immunology at the Utrecht University in the Netherlands where he researched a wide range of topics from genetic modification to cancer immunotherapy.

Pierre also works with Wim Hof, otherwise known as the iceman (guest on the last podcast) who is especially well-known for some of his amazing physical feats, like staying in a tub with direct contact to ice for over an hour and fifty three minutes.

Pierre explains some of the science behind how Wim is able to withstand cold temperatures for prolonged periods of time. The explanation comes down to what the 2014 PNAS study on Wim's technique showed: that reductions in carbon dioxide temporarily increased blood pH. The missing piece to the puzzle that Pierre brings in is the simple fact that pain receptors that are critical to feeling cold temperatures actually rely on what are known as "acid sensing ion channels", which have been shown in other studies to become inactive within the pH ranges Wim and his trainees are able to increase their blood to.

In this episode, we discuss...

• (00:00) Introduction
• (05:45) Harmful chronic stress vs beneficial eustress
• (09:18) Exercise improves a person's ability to deal with chronic stress
• (12:55) Meditation causes a measurable change in DNA expression
• (15:51) Loneliness caused 60% increase in tumor incidence in rats
• (19:02) Loneliness causes an increase in transcription factor NF-kB
• (23:32) How mood affects the immune system through cortisol and circadian rhythm
• (26:50) Immune responses activated in the gut can cause depression
• (30:25) How meditation affects the brain and relieves chronic stress
• (40:02) Dr. Capel talks about his meditation practice and why he does it
• (44:42) How Wim Hof endures freezing temperatures for hours
• (58:16) Mice exposed to severe cold stress experienced beneficial brain reconfiguration
• (01:08:05) The close relationship between love and smell

If you're interested in learning more, you can read the full show notes here.

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Dr. Rhonda Patrick interviews Dr. Pierre Capel, professor emeritus in experimental immunology at the Utrecht University in the Netherlands where he researched a wide range of topics from genetic modification to cancer immunotherapy. Pierre also works with Wim Hof, otherwise known as the iceman (guest on the last podcast) who is especially well-known for some of his amazing physical feats, like staying in a tub with direct contact to ice for over an hour and fifty three minutes. Pierre explains some of the science behind how Wim is able to withstand cold temperatures for prolonged periods of time. The explanation comes down to what the 2014 PNAS study on Wim's technique showed: that reductions in carbon dioxide temporarily increased blood pH. The missing piece to the puzzle that Pierre brings in is the simple fact that pain receptors that are critical to feeling cold temperatures actually rely on what are known as "acid sensing ion channels", which have been shown in other studies to become inactive within

the pH ranges Wim and his trainees are able to increase their blood to.

In addition to talking about some of the thermo- and pain- receptor stuff, Pierre and Rhonda also discuss other cool literature he's familiar with, including:

1.) Good stress and bad stress and how meditation affects the expression your genes.

2.) Meditation and the speed with which it affects fMRI changes.

3.) How even loneliness can change gene expression, including some involved in metabolism, inflammation, and the endocrine system.

4.) The effect of social isolation in mice on cancer metastasis, and conversely how wound healing can be affected in mice just by changes in their environment.

5.) What affects the stress hormone cortisol has on gene expression.

6.) What the inflammasome is and how its activation can be linked to the central nervous system.

7.) How the limbic system regulates emotions (and this is not easily controlled) but meditation has been shown to help control the limbic system.

Wim Hof

Wim Hof, also known as "the Iceman", holds the world record for the longest ice bath (1 hour and 53 minutes and 12 seconds), just to name one of his many impressive feats. Dr. Patrick and Wim talk a bit about Wim's back story that culminated in him trying out cold water immersion, the relatively recent 2014 scientific publication of the "Wim Hof Method" which includes cold exposure during training, exposure to bacterial endotoxin, Wim's breathing techniques, and meditation.

In this episode, we discuss...

• (00:00) Introduction
• (02:08) Wim Hof tells the story of how he fell in love with the cold
• (08:35) Activating the sympathetic nervous system to lower inflammation
• (14:37) Hyperventilation changes blood pH enough to inactivate pain receptors
• (16:24) Just four days of breathing exercises decreased inflammation
• (28:06) How much of the effects of meditation are due to breathing technique?
• (36:45) Cold exposure increases norepinephrine two- to three-fold
• (44:05) Treating depression with cold therapy

If you're interested in learning more, you can read the full show notes here.

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In this audio recorded Oct. 3rd, 2015, Dr. Rhonda Patrick delivers the keynote lecture at the Orthomolecular Medicine Congress in Bussum, Netherlands (MBOG Congres 2015).

Discussion includes how micronutrient inadequacies are very prevalent, and how her mentor, Dr. Bruce Ames, found that the body does a strategic rationing so that those proteins and enzymes in the body which are essential for short-term survival get their share of vitamins and minerals at the expense of other proteins and enzymes that are essential for long-term survival. This results in insidious types of damage and may lead to diseases of aging such as cancer and neurodegenerative diseases.

She also discusses her ongoing clinical research on the role of DNA damage in cancer and aging and how her data shows that obese individuals have much more DNA damage than lean individuals, her recent research on how vitamin D is needed to produce serotonin in the brain and how this may be relevant for the prevention of autism because serotonin shapes the structure and wiring of the developing fetal brain. Finally, she talks about her research on how omega-3 fatty acids regulate serotonin release from neurons and receptor function and how vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acids are important to prevent brain dysfunction particularly in individuals that have gene polymorphisms in the serotonin pathway that predispose them to low serotonin.

Dr. Rhonda Patrick delivers the keynote lecture at the Orthomolecular Medicine Congress in Bussum, Netherlands (MBOG Congres 2015).

In this talk, you'll learn about:

• (00:00) Introduction
• (04:52) Micronutrient inadequacies and triage theory
• (10:42) Role of DNA damage in cancer and aging
• (21:10) Vitamin D, serotonin, and the development of autism
• (41:39) Omega-3s also regulate serotonin

If you're interested in learning more, you can read the full show notes here.

Join over 300,000 people and get the latest distilled information straight to your inbox weekly: https://www.foundmyfitness.com/newsletter

Become a FoundMyFitness premium member to get access to exclusive episodes, emails, live Q+A's with Rhonda and more: https://www.foundmyfitness.com/crowdsponsor

In this podcast, I discuss some of the mechanisms by which chronic stress (and rumination) affect health and aging and how meditation can reduce rumination and buffer stress.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• (00:00) Introduction
• (02:41) Eustress such as exercise vs distress such as fear
• (06:15) Effects of stress on the brain
• (07:30) Effects of stress on the gut and microbiome
• (10:21) Stress accelerates biological aging
• (15:04) Meditation reduces rumination and promotes empathy
• (19:53) Effects of meditation in the brain
• (24:28) Meditation slows biological aging and lengthens telomeres

If you're interested in learning more, you can read the full show notes here.

Join over 300,000 people and get the latest distilled information straight to your inbox weekly: https://www.foundmyfitness.com/newsletter

Become a FoundMyFitness premium member to get access to exclusive episodes, emails, live Q+A's with Rhonda and more: https://www.foundmyfitness.com/crowdsponsor

In this podcast I discuss some of the mechanisms by which chronic stress (and rumination) affect the brain and brain aging, the gut and inflammation, the immune system, and biological aging through acceleration of telomere shortening. I talk about how meditation can buffer these negative effects of stress and improve cognitive performance, brain aging and biological aging in general. Get the free report: foundmyfitness.com/meditation-report

In this episode Rhonda talks about:

• (00:00) Introduction
• (03:00) Heat stress makes the body more resilient to the stresses of aging
• (14:45) Possible mechanisms why sauna use reduces heart disease risk
• (16:45) Sauna enhances athletic endurance and muscle growth
• (28:16) Sauna use stimulates neurogenesis and improves cognitive function and mood
• (37:34) Sauna use detoxifies BPA, PCBs, phthalates, and other metals
• (51:10) Practical applications sauna use and other heat stressors like hot yoga

If you're interested in learning more, you can read the full show notes here.

Join over 300,000 people and get the latest distilled information straight to your inbox weekly: https://www.foundmyfitness.com/newsletter

Become a FoundMyFitness premium member to get access to exclusive episodes, emails, live Q+A's with Rhonda and more: https://www.foundmyfitness.com/crowdsponsor

In this episode Rhonda talks about how heat stress from using the sauna makes the body more resilient to the stresses of aging, possible reasons why one study associated sauna use with up to a 40% lower all-cause mortality as well as a 50% lower cardiovascular disease related mortality, how it enhances athletic endurance, staves off muscle atrophy, improves regrowth of muscle after disuse, and some of the profound effects on the brain, including the growth of new brain cells, improvement in focus, learning, and memory, and even potentially ameliorating depression and anxiety. She also talks about how BPA, PCBs, phthalates, and other metals are excreted through sweat. In addition, she addresses some practical applications like temperature and duration in the sauna, the difference between a dry, wet and infrared sauna, sauna timing, as well as other forms of heat stress such as steam showers, hot baths, and hot yoga.