Detoxing. Everywhere we look, we see adverts about the importance of detox and how removing toxins from your body improves health and lowers risk of disease. We are inundated with posts on what foods to eat to detox different parts of the body. There is actually so much information on the internet that it can be really difficult to navigate in all the different tools and identify the ones that can safely detox your body. So what is the truth? What is the scientific answer to how to detox your body?

This week, I am talking to my Dr. Bryan Walsh, who, in an attempt to understand what science really says about detoxes, has spent countless hours on researching all the detox studies he could find. What he has to share is really interesting and will absolutely change how you view the detoxification process.

In this podcast, you’ll learn:

• How the 3 phases of detoxification works (and the recently discovered 4th one)
• Why carrots, apples, and celery aren’t what they are hyped up to be
• What Dr. Walsh has found to be the most essential tool for detoxing
• The truth about toxicity tests
• The most common ways you are exposed to toxins
• Why using detox protocols during fasting and weight loss are crucial to your health
• Why binders and chelators are crucial to the detoxification process

One of the keys to health and high energy levels is nutrition. It’s just fact. Your energy levels are influenced by the foods that you put into your mouth. Unfortunately, we, in the modern western society, have become so diet focused (and often follow a reductionistic approach) that our relationship with food is becoming increasingly unhealthy. Many have started to identify themselves based on their dietary lifestyle choices. ”I am vegan.”  ”I am Keto” or ”I have to lose weight, so I cannot eat sugar, flour, and carbs” these small statements seems relatively harmless, right? In truth, they aren’t. The focus on what we can and cannot eat is causing a lot of stress to the point that many are likely to develop an eating disorder. And it doesn't end there. People who are struggling with eating disorders are often also suffering from symptoms like fatigue, withdrawal from social activities, food obsession, and for women it is one of the causes of irregular periods (also known as hypothalamic amenorrhea) What does that mean to you? Could it be that you have an eating disorder without knowing it? What are the effects of these eating disorders on your health and day-to-day life? But the most important question is, how can we change our relationship with food so we can develop healthy eating habits and heal our energy levels?

This week, I am talking to nutritionist Chris Sandel, the owner of a company called 7 Health. He's a UK nutritionist and he uses a very special, very unique, non-diet approach to help people resolve their unhealthy eating habits. His primary focus is body image and the relationship with food, and he has a deep interest and a passion for the psychology of eating and helping people to overcome food phobias and disordered eating habits. Listen in, as we discuss how your relationship with food can impact your life and, more importantly, how you can get a healthy relationship with food.

• The effects of eating disorders on your health, energy, and psyche
• What healthy eating habits look like and how to develop a healthy relationship with food
• The most common causes of eating disorders
• The eating disorder paradigm change (why you might be suffering from disordered eating habits and not an eating disorder)
• Why extreme diets often result in eating disorders
• How you can reverse the effects of an eating disorder and heal your body (and your period)
• Why the effects of eating disorders are one of the causes of irregular periods

Coffee and caffeine are often thought of as energy boosting substances? And indeed, immediately following caffeine consumption, you will feel a boost in energy. Yet, the story of how coffee relates to energy levels (and fatigue) is more complex than it seems on the surface. I'll give you a clue why I say this: Every day, thousands of people do Google searches with questions like "why does coffee make me sleepy?", and "coffee makes me tired?", and "can coffee make you tired?"

The truth is that while coffee and caffeine do give an immediate boost in energy, daily consumption of coffee is actually slowly degrading your energy over time without you realizing it. And at the same time, it's making you dependent on coffee to function. Sound hard to believe? Get ready to explore the actual research! (Hint: If coffee were just an energy booster, there probably wouldn't be thousands of people using the internet every day trying to figure out why it seems to be making them sleepy or tired.) Get ready, because there are a lot of twists and turns to this story, and there is some shocking research that will likely shock and amaze you...

So what's the deal with coffee? What is really doing to your energy levels? And what is it doing to your overall health?

It's hard to know the truth, right? After all, some health gurus are telling us that coffee is terrible for our health and that we should avoid it at all costs. Other people are telling us it is a health food or even a superfood that is packed with all sorts of beneficial antioxidants and phytochemicals that give us energy and help us perform better.

So which one is it?

It turns out the story with coffee and caffeine is actually not so simple...

There is scientific research showing health benefits from coffee consumption, as well as negative side effects. In particular, while coffee can help protect us from several diseases and gives us a temporary boost in energy and performance, drinking it everyday also cause changes in our brain function during the time we don't have caffeine in our system -- it can impair our mood, worsen our performance, and lower our energy levels. Many people suffer low-level fatigue chronically as a result of chronic caffeine use and don't even realize that the problem is because of caffeine.

Now, don't worry, because I'm NOT going to tell you to stop drinking coffee! (In fact, if you love coffee I want you to keep drinking it because it actually has lots of potential health benefits). What I'm going to show you is how to get the benefits without the drawbacks. It all comes down to how you use it.  

I am cutting through the hype and teach you the science on caffeine, how it interacts with your brain, and why the way most people use it is actually hurting their energy levels and causing caffeine fatigue.

• Why most people use coffee in ways that are counterproductive and are hurting their mood, performance, and making them tired
• What it means when you get a caffeine crash
• Why coffee is not giving you the boost that you think it is giving you
• How you can use coffee to get the health benefits while keeping your energy levels high

When diagnosed with Hashimoto's your life changes, and you now have to find out what it means to live with the disease and all the symptoms (depression, weight gain, and fatigue) So, what does it mean to be living with Hashimoto's?

This week, I am talking with Holly Bertone. Holly had to learn about what it meant to live with Hashimoto's and Chronic Fatigue after she recovered from cancer. Not only that, she had to learn more about what her rights were. That lead her to write her book, Thriving in the Workplace with Autoimmune Disease: Know Your Rights, Resolve Conflict, and Reduce Stress. She will uncover her own experiences and what rights you have.

• Holly's story
• What it means to live with Hashimoto's
• What some of your rights are when you suffer from a chronic/ autoimmune disease
• How you can work with your workplace to find solutions to your challenges

How can I increase my lifespan? This might not be a question that we often ask ourselves as we live longer, today than we did 100 years ago. But even though we do live longer, many do end up suffering from diseases and have to live on different medications just to survive or end up in an elderly home. So, what is the big secret to living longer while staying healthy?

This week, I am so fortunate to speak to longevity researcher Jason Prall, who has made it a life's mission to learn about and understand what is essential for an increased lifespan. He has spent the past 18 months researching literally all the studies on health and traveling the world to interview not only the centenarians living in the ”Blue Zones”, but also experts on health and longevity. He will uncover some of the major keys to a long healthy vibrant life.

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• Why the gut bacteria (microbiome) is essential to health
• Why strong social relations and helping others are crucial to living purposefully
• The relationship between the gut, mitochondria, and DNA (and how all these factors into a long life)
• Why your genes are a part of who you are and should not be regarded as something negative that needs fixing
• The age which healthy lifestyle is made a habit
• The best approach to reading health studies
• Why approaching your health from a reductionistic perspective is counterproductive to long health
• Why the Human Longevity Project is unique and differs from other health docu-series

Do you want to live a happy healthy life? Then you should definitely incorporate hormesis into your daily routines. (Hormesis is the process of adaptability to stress.) Hormesis is the key to mitochondrial health, a better immune system, and a long happy healthy life.

This week, I am so lucky to talk to Ori Hofmekler, author of The Warrior Diet and The Seven Principles of Stress. Ori will uncover the power of hormesis and why it is essential for your health, happiness, and well-being.

In this podcast, you’ll learn

• What inspired Ari to start fasting
• Why a plant based diet is the best for health
• Why you should get your antioxidants from foods only
• The best types of hormesis you can incorporate into your life for a happy healthy life
• The real cause of aging
• The power of the warrior diet
• Why hormesis is crucial to your health

When you have a chronic disease or fatigue, and you have tried all the conventional approaches to help yourself recover but nothing helped. What do you do next? One thing you could do is see a clinician who is specialized in functional nutrition and holistic medicine.

Today, I have the pleasure of talking to Andrea Nakayama, one of the leading functional nutrition experts. She is considered the crème de la crème of functional nutrition, which is saying a lot. She will tell you about the importance of the functional nutrition and holistic medicine approach to healing ”incurable” diseases.

• Why functional nutrition and medicine is important to treat a patient
• Why and when conventional medicine is crucial
• What testing is all about and how you can use it to your benefits
• Why elimination diets can become a health issue, and how you can fix it
• Why passion and purpose are crucial for good health
• How your gene tests are used in the practice of functional nutrition and holistic medicine

Wondering how to overcome fatigue?

If you've been searching for an answer, you've probably stumbled across lots of information online about "adrenal fatigue."

But as it turns out, the evidence really does not support the notion that your adrenals are a primary cause of chronic fatigue.

So if not the adrenals, then what is really causing your fatigue? 

Over the last 10 years, scientists have been focusing on a new model of chronic fatigue -- a new understanding, where mitochondria (the energy generators in our cells) are the big key to understanding and fixing chronic fatigue.

So how do we recharge and rebuild our mitochondria? And how we build bigger, stronger mitochondria and even more of them so that we can have more energy?

This week, I am talking to Dr. Lee Know, who will help answer those questions. Dr. Know is a naturopathic doctor, has had various roles as a research specialist, and the author of the wonderful book: Mitochondria and the Future of Medicine. This is simply the best book on mitochondria for the general audience I've ever come across, and I highly recommend it. In this interview, he will share his knowledge on mitochondria and health, how to increase mitochondria, and overcome fatigue.

In this podcast, you’ll learn

• What mitochondria are and why they matter to health and vitality
• How free radicals and antioxidants work in your body (this will shock you -- it's not what you think!)
• The origins of mitochondria
• The number one thing you can do to make your mitochondria stronger and keep them healthy
• Why taking antioxidants close to exercise is counterproductive
• The secret key to understanding aging and fatigue
• The best nutrients for your mitochondria (ladies, you are going to LOVE this!)

Heart disease is the cause of hundreds of thousands of deaths a year in the U.S. alone. There are many theories about what causes heart disease. So what is the truth? Is it cholesterol? And what is the link between saturated fat and heart disease?

This week, I am talking to Dr. Joel Kahn, who is a holistic cardiologist and the author of The Plant-Based Solution. Together we will discuss the science on cardiovascular diseases and what you can do to minimize the risks getting heart disease.

Some of you might recognize Dr. Joel Kahn from a previous podcast about fasting and longevity. If you haven’t yet listened to that one, go to the bottom of the article where you can find the link to that one.

• Why saturated fat is linked to heart disease
• Which genes can contribute to heart disease
• How to eat to prevent heart disease
• The truth about cholesterol
• Why there are so many people promoting saturated fat despite the science stating otherwise

In recent years, fasting has become a trend. Intermittent fasting, water fasting, 5:2 fasting, and now there is something called the fasting mimicking diet (or FMD Diet). As with most other new trends, there is so much new information and it is hard to make a choice.

That is why I am happy to introduce Dr. Valter Longo on this week’s podcast. Dr. Longo is the director of the Longevity Institute at the University of Southern California and of the program on longevity and cancer at IFOM, which is the molecular oncology FIRC Institute in Milan.

What’s unique about Dr. Longo’s approach is that he has studied all the research that has ever been made in humans when it comes to health and longevity. And he is here today to share what he has learned about health and longevity and why the fasting mimicking diet is a great way to improve overall health and lifespan.

• The health benefits of the fasting mimicking diet
• How much protein you should consume for longevity
• The problem with the vegan diet (it is not what you think)
• Why five days is set off for the fasting mimicking diet
• The best diet for longevity
• How often you should follow the fasting mimicking diet