#Biohack Your Way to Optimal Health: Hormones | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

jubjubinc · 4 years

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Welcome to the Board!

We're gonna do a little miniseries about,peptides today is going to be basically,an introduction welcome to this channel,I am dr. Stephen Davis the lifting,dermatologist and this is my partner,Danny Bosa if you want to learn more,about the most cutting-edge science,based information in the world of,hormone optimization please like and,subscribe I also invite you to join my,other youtube channel the lifting,dermatologist the link you can find in,the description of this video,hello everyone welcome to the TRT and,hormone optimization youtube channel I'm,Danny bossa I'm joined today with a,pretty cool guest from my neck of the,woods near Montreal Jarvis what rumbly,how are you Francois I'm very good thank,you great Java's what comple is a,student at researcher at university,Quebec Memorial he studied exercise,physiology biochemistry and has a,master's in pharmacology it just so,happens that Java certainly is one of,the world leading researchers in,peptides he's been studying psalms and,peptides since the 1990s I've wanted to,do something along these lines for quite,some time but there was a good period,that I was not allowed now I'm allowed,which is kind of cool consider gets my,channel and I like to learn and you guys,like to learn so we're gonna do a little,mini series about peptides today is,going to be basically an introduction as,to what they are explained right from,the beginning as if we've never heard of,it we don't know what it is he's gonna,explain it a good general overview what,it is and then we'll do another two or,three videos broken down to different,types of topics involving that and at,one point we're going to try to organize,a live Q&A and the stuff on the subject,so this will be interesting information,for anybody that's looking for,information about that coming straight,from one of the leading researchers in,the world which is very cool and we've,been talking offline in our mother,tongue of québécois so yeah he's got a,heavy chemical accent well,about ten minutes they'll be used it,so Jean floss wah I you're gonna tell me,I'm gonna take everything I know about,peptides that I'm gonna erase it from my,brain I've never heard of a peptide I,don't know what it's from I don't know,where it's the right from I heard you,know nothing about it okay with me what,is a peptide exactly well basically it's,it's a little chain of amino acids if,you want to have an idea of what it is,you have proteins are made of amino acid,so when when you eat meat or any protein,that protein is broken down into smaller,proteins to eventually being broken down,into peptides and those peptides are,then broken down into amino acids and,then they can enter the system you know,through the intestine lining so,basically this is it so it's a chain and,it has to be only amino acids linear,chains sometimes they have REM acacia,ramification but technically that makes,it a protein then but there are a few,exceptions so this is it it's the body,produced them naturally it is suspected,that we produce close to 200,000,peptides in our body not that we ingest,that we do produce there are over seven,that that's kind of a guess but,identified there is over 7,000 and out,of that 7,000 I don't know what,percentage small percentage we know what,they do so many times there is a,research paper coming out about new,peptide it's not actually about,the novelty of the peptide that's more,that now they found out what it does and,part of the research is that to take,those peptides and I'd say okay this one,what does it do in the body is it good,and can it be using the therapeutic,application okay so would this be I'm,gonna just maybe use this you might call,this a silly analogy but if you know I,get protein from my steak like you were,saying earlier yeah if you're just,eating a lot of steak would you be,getting a lot of these peptides or is it,kind of like when you're not getting,enough vitamins from your food you take,a supplemental vitamin no because in the,intestine peptides are broken down into,amino acids so yeah you may you will,have some peptides some that are totally,useless in terms of action other ones,maybe they would be but you will break,them down and that's why actually most,peptides almost all of them you cannot,take them orally they need to be,injected because you take them orally,you're gonna digest them like a small,protein into amino acid and then by,breaking it down it loses all activity,of course okay so yeah so what would be,the reason why if this is something,that's made naturally or something,that's the right form amino acids,whatever it doesn't sound like anything,that's really any type of synthetic,chemical or drug in a way why is it,what's the big the reason there's so,much controversy around them because,they're infected does it really just,that and okay there is many ways to,answer that one is that because we,produce them naturally they cannot be,patented now you see where I'm going,right so the pharmaceutical industry,knew about them,since the beginning they would just shut,up they would didn't mention them leave,them alone and there was kind of an,underground sub underground people not,on the ground but how do you call that,no small group of people biohackers and,all that that tweaked with them and had,good result but it never became,mainstream except that with the rise of,the internet well that well what was not,mainstream suddenly became mainstream it,was now you have all those face group,groups talking about that tides you have,ready at all those forums now and it,became very big a few years ago and so,big that actually in the u.s. now many,many doctors prescribed them the FDA at,this point a la that there is a covered,and many states in the US its,investigative medicine it's called so,there are as long as it's not prohibited,by the FDA then they can prescribe so it,is not forbidden by the FDA so now,actually it became so big and because it,cannot be patented you know just a,little parenthesis so people they get a,better view of what's happening and,probably custard a lot of money is,lobbying but now what pharmaceutical,company do is the patent well they use,before but it's useless but are they,patent the the peptide and its,applications and they list everything,that is known so now that forces any,company making peptides that sell at,that tide or more so if it because a few,are sold in pharmacies in the you,so if a doctor is to prescribe that,peptide for this condition then he has,to use the one that is sold by the,company that has a patent for that,application so now that's how they,grabbed the market of peptides and now,they got it you're going to see there,are two or three already that are on the,market in the US and soon you'll see,them popping out and what they are doing,- now they are looking a lot into,fraction of peptides because big,peptides with multiple use like they can,be intimately repairing and immune,system balancing in one peptide so they,break it down the isolate a circuit this,section of the peptide does as that,specific activity and it does work but,now it's it doesn't exist naturally in,the body so now they can put a patent on,that and market it as such obviously for,the people well it's huge difference,like very huge difference in prices but,that's what they do so basically that's,what happened with it like pretty,inexpensive to make generically yeah if,you would compare okay there are three,levels of cells you have the,pharmaceutical one then you would in the,u.s. you have compounding pharmacy that,do compound peptides and then you have,those internet sellers that ninety,percent ninety nine percent it's,actually imports from China,maybe another podcast if there was an,interest I could talk about that but,there is a big problem with that most of,this company now they're running out,because of first because of in December,the US through a treaty with China was,able to for,try not to stop making a lot of,compounds including peptides and that's,an attempt again by Big Pharma to kind,of stop the generic business with,killing their business since it's more,than 85% of raw material is made in,China so if they stop making it and,trying making those ones in China then,the color of the supply to the generic,companies and that included peptide so,now all those companies they're starting,to have problems plus because of the,virus right now the current a virus they,kind of cut off exports you know in 1st,of January they start making but they,still add stock and they were a lot to,ship it out so nothing nothing for now,they can even ship out the stocks so,you'll see a bunch of company being out,of stock indefinitely on products,because and company that's initially,they would be proud to claim it was made,in the US well they they were not okay,so what about understanding so far is,there basically a form amino acid,derived from marine right I mean why I,said but you can't ingest it because,you'll break it down exact when you,digest it so it needs to be injected,you're saying once it's being injected,that's when a lot of people raise their,eyebrows if they okay just to show you,the difference because it's injected it,becomes a biological compound you,introduce in the body so for the FDA and,Health Canada that's medicinal,if they were absorbable by mouth then,that would become a food supplement okay,let's say it's a mini protein basically,because you can use a vitamin b12,injectable or anything else because the,FDA approved it that's okay but that's,exactly,they say for that that's cool but they,didn't for peptides okay,so then there's certain peptides are,saying that the larger ones can have a a,bunch of different benefits but now that,they're finding ways to cut those down,even smaller to say I just want this one,little piece let me give you an example,you know I go ahead but there is one,peptide that's called time is in beta,for that generally was used to heal,tissues it's amazingly good at repairing,all tissues in liver lungs kidneys,everything muscle ligaments so at the,beginning actually it was used mostly in,sports you know to heal ligaments to eat,the old tendons that was the wealth kept,secret you know you would see an athlete,professional athlete hurt himself and,you many times you would think though,that's it it's gone for the season and,it would be back in three weeks so,everybody would say hey well he has a,good doctor yeah yeah a good doctor that,knew about that basically and that's its,DOS peptide so this peptide is amazingly,good for healing tissue but it has other,activities and since amatory and for,example or modulating the immune system,so not they found out it's okay amino,acid for example for healing tissues,it's the section semi no acid 17 to 23,it's this section you can take it out,and you will have only the tissue,repairing musculoskeletal repairing,those tissues specifically and they a,lot of research is done with that,tanning peptide that has an,anti-inflammatory effect but the problem,with it is if you would use it in,dosages that are like,efficient in as a systemic and sinful,matauri well in no time,somebody white like you people would ask,you if you are from the India or from,Africa I was asked a couple of times in,my life where I did abuse the tanning,peptide if I was from India actually so,it would call from high dosages all the,time and you would turn like but very,very dark so now they found out actually,it's the last three amino acid of that,sequence that has the intense a matter,effect so now you can just sensitize,those that little chain you would get,very potent and since Rama Tori effect,and of course no tanning effect no no,other thing so a lot of research right,now is done in that direction to so when,we spoke by phone the other day we spoke,for a little good long while,you told me something that really stuck,out you said you know you're you're,doing TRT right now and you're in this,trt group and you know optimizing,hormones is good oh yes you said that in,your view that optimizing guys that want,to do biohacking if it's this the,testosterone is here t is like a really,is because your team is many of those,anti-aging clinics in the US and then,the bahamas in those places you pay,fortunes to to have therapies they're,not anti-aging basically they give you,trt and growth hormone replacements,that's not anti-aging actually it was,shown that if you have higher,testosterone levels you will live a bit,less the other extreme if you castrate,yourself that's the the other like full,extreme you will live longer you know in,Nuuk are i've been shown to live longer,it's a question of choice basically but,they're not anti aging,they're healthy aging,which is very different it's not it's,not gonna make you live longer but it's,gonna make you live healthier,during those later years which is good,and that's about it again it's a quiz,mix you know there you cannot take one,concept and put it in a box because of,course if you are healthier chances are,that you will live a bit longer too,because you won't get that disease or if,you talk about the stuffs wrong and,growth hormone of course you're gonna,maintain a better muscle mass so you'll,be less prone to frailty so when you're,frail that brings about its own problems,that you know not direct but indirect,how many times you hear of somebody and,older people they break their hips,because they they couldn't stand them,but you know because they were shrilled,fall and dying three months after,they're dead because it brings about you,know the it's a big break,big damages may be needed operation you,know it's it just starts a cascade of,events that makes them not live so long,after that so by by by by having a,better muscle mass from maintaining,testosterone levels and growth hormone,then you you avoid that and it's not,nothing and just in Quebec I think there,are estimated like billions of dollars,spent,due to frailty and the older population,it's ridiculous so you're saying that,the health care's HRT would be more,living healthy having more muscle mass,maybe having less fat having so stronger,bones exactly a quality of life yeah but,that peptides could could actually be,more considered anti-aging okay,I'm gonna dump on you now when I tell,what I say now my conferences it's very,depressing actually the day you cannot,reproduce for nature 100% nature's view,the day you cannot reproduce you become,useless for nature and basically we are,genetically programmed to die you know,there is no way out actually I was,thinking about that but it's it's very,deeply program because you know,sometimes you have genetic aberrations,but in the whole history of man there is,no gene it never happened once that,somehow the the the death gene was,altered so the person wouldn't die so,that just makes you think it's a,combination of many genes but the point,is we are programmed to die so,everything you hold biochemistry when,you're young is there to build you to,make you stronger to survive and to be,able to reproduce but as you get older,that same biochemistry driven by your,genetic turns against you for you to die,so there is no way out so what I call,anti-aging therapies are ways to tweak,with that biochemistry you have to go at,the deeper level and just take,testosterone and growth hormone you,really need to tweak with that,biochemistry so you push that debt time,further and yeah so basically that's it,you know nature they want you dead by,the age of 50 and they want seven five,children's out of seven dead before the,age of,that's right this we have shown us it's,not happening anymore because I'm Tamiya,takes this and that but natural point of,view this is it,so everything that bring that higher in,terms of time is our things that we do,you know you get an infection you take,antibiotics so now that's you tweak with,that in the sense that it's you with,your brain with your technology you,decided okay I'm gonna do something,about it now it can be done done in a,much profound level with peptides there,are other compounds that are not,peptides but a lot can be done with,peptides because they are signaling,molecules so they really work into the,cells to signal pathways to do this or,start doing that they're really at the,root of what's happening are you in the,biochemistry so they're very very potent,little molecules that you can now do a,lot with them so can you give us an idea,of some of the things that peptides can,do okay well just repairing peptides I,had a consult,just before that and with a client and,she was asking me okay how long will it,takes to repair with the peptides I,don't know I'm not a specialist in,injuries so I told her I said the best,to ask to is ask your doctor who have,seen hundreds of the same so he will,have a pretty good idea how long it,takes and for with those repairing,peptides I like to tell people all it's,easy whatever time he gives you cut it,in half so if it would take two months,it's gonna they take one month to repair,maybe less depending on dosages and,other things you do so they're very very,efficient at accelerating it make turns,into a mini Wolverine basically,oh they're really really good and you,know I won't go into detail more in,another podcast but the the doodle,repair in a more organized fashion you,know if you break a ligament when it's,gonna repair there's going to be kind of,a scar on the ligament you know the,fibers the alignment won't it's gonna be,all entangled like that as if the repair,is done under the action of the peptides,the the fibers if we could call them of,the ligaments would be in line so it's,gonna be a much cleaner repair than if,you let it happen naturally so it's,actually not just a quicker repair a,better repair it is yeah okay other than,repair what else okay if if you want to,categorize you have peptides that I'd,like to classify as repairing peptides,you have cosmetic but I'd like that,turning to time melanotan that gives you,a tan but it's still a bit of it's,cosmetic in many ways because when when,you tan but you don't tan under the Sun,like with the peptide but even when you,sorry when you turn under the Sun the,skin thickens up to three times the,normal thickness so it's a very good,approach for anti-wrinkles gonna take,thick skin wrinkles less that's why,black people have less wrinkles than,white people as they have a thicker,stick in because they're at the extreme,of tanning if you could say so but it's,still cosmetic and there is a whole,array of cosmetic peptides like that,then you have what I like to call,anti-aging peptides that are more,specific to anti-aging you ask Tara,predict peptides now that are used in,specific conditions and that can go from,chronic fatigue - even Lyme disease if,we go to the extremes - autoimmune,response ALS even the religion call,diseases now very good results with that,tight therapies and more and more with,time coming so if somebody was to if you,you had a menu that you could hand to,somebody and say here are all the,peptides and next to this is what they,do and you can pick how many roughly,peptides would be on this menu of,different actions let's say because I'm,sure maybe there's maybe a couple that,do fat loss or maybe a couple days yeah,at this point in time less than a,hundred actually it's really because,okay you mentioned I started to not,research but more got an interest in,peptides back in the 90s because there,wasn't that many actually there was one,that came out and was a tanning peptide,I got interested to then the growth,hormone secreted geiges and you know it,added up so with time more and more but,yet there aren't that many not EF every,week of almost a new one pops out so,it's growing very very fast but at this,point there aren't that many but they,are enough to do a lot of things and I,cannot even imagine well actually I do I,foresee if things go the way they should,go,medicine you would go see a doctor in,five to ten years and most of his,prescriptions are gonna be peptides and,if then things go well probably to,probiotics big science is developing,around that the medicinal application of,probiotics and,a few years is going to become,mainstream as medicinal applications,those toward the next frontier of,medicine this is kind of like the,beginnings of true biohacking if you are,oh yeah it's close to what some because,a lot some of them they actually work at,the gene level because there is another,category I'd like to talk separately,about their bio regulator they call,they're called and those ones maybe some,people they'll have earned about AP,talam which is mostly known for its,anti-aging but it's part of class of,peptide that are called bio regulators,and basically they exist in every every,organ or systems as its specific bio,regulator and what it will do it will,work a bit like an adaptogen it will,bring that's it's the one for the liver,so it will bring the lever to its,optimal activity so if something is,working too much for some reason then,it's going to bring it down if it's not,working if it's sluggish and it's gonna,bring it up but through natural,biochemistry you know to make everything,work as it should and those ones,specifically they're the act they are,small enough they introduce themselves,in the DNA of the cells and depending,which organ so they will have different,places where they will hook so let's say,this section is the section that our,genes that are expressing themselves in,the liver so the peptide will bind there,and kind of slightly make it expand a,little in that zone which will increase,the expression of those genes that are,specific to the liver and so that's,basically that's,pathetic to its root you know you,directly affect the expression of the,genes directly no nothing in between so,they're very potent to and very useful,and those have been around for 50 years,actually they were discovered in Russia,back in the Cold War same as the other,countries they got a doctor they say,find something to make her our soldiers,better and bang I don't know probably,they were not very happy with him,because he didn't make super soldiers,but it sounds something you found that,category of peptides and that's like 50,years ago so it's not you it's what is,new is that we hear about them yeah,we're hearing about them more more yeah,yeah a few years back all these like it,was really you with here and that's one,thing because that's a lot in the realm,of biohacking actually and who wear the,modern so to say first biohackers thank,who started by liking really I'll tell,you body builders okay that respect yeah,they started first of course to tweak,with hormones testosterone in the 50s,and the derivates after so that that's,biohacking,what can you take to make her body,function better and and some of them I,don't want to become descendant but some,of them as a brain and they really look,into that and they say okay now what can,we use to train better to have better,concentration it was all around training,in their sports so what can we do to get,better training and they started to look,into know tropics back in the 70s and,eventually it kind of spread out to,other people or you know those healing,peptides all together okay what can,take to heal faster because I have a,competition in one month and I want to,go so they they tweaked with all those,things back then me because of my,background and where I was at the time I,did my degree in kinesiology in Ottawa,there were as Olympic athletes training,there and powerlifting an Olympic,lifting bobsleigh a bunch of sports and,bodybuilders all that and very soon I,was introduced to what was done there at,that level and that's when I say and and,then it's funny because I was only 19,there is that book that came out life,extension and I bought it and wow I said,that that's a good book so and it's,still for many thing it's still very,up-to-date and I got interested in that,anti-aging thing because it entered,tweak you know you left better you will,live longer because what kills you at,the end it's some kind of disease so the,healthier you are or less chances are,that you're going to die younger than,you're supposed to because that's,another concept you have to keep in mind,you know I said we're genetically,programmed to die but as I believe that,overall were genetically programmed to,die around the age of 120 it's even,biblical actually but what I mean is you,look now there are more probably not,more but the population is bigger so yes,there are more people and again because,of Internet we hear more about them,the that's about you know 111 117 you,know they rotate under 120 I think so,for very few past 120 and not much so it,seems that yeah that's the top age that,the deep programming is set to so,basically what you do,tweaking with the biochemistry by having,a good diet by optimizing your hormones,by doing exercise everything you you you,you don't add years to how long you're,supposed to live that's program you just,you just don't take years away you're,born with a hundred twenty years now,everything you will do either will make,you go close to that or will take years,away so contamination bad hygiene sleep,I Jean you know everything you can throw,in there if you don't respect those,things then you take years away but when,you were born,well not today because you know that any,baby born today is already born with 200,and more parlament,in his blood that he got from the mother,as a work but fight for that so but you,know you understand the idea no so and,and again all that is done by tweaking,the best we can with what we have and at,this point I believe most of it is from,peptides good so are they considered you,know if somebody's watching this video,says oh I want to you know I want to get,some peptides is it is it a league is it,legal to buy and have it depends is it,something only a good doctor,it depends where you live most of those,internet companies including mine we,sell them as research compounds so,that's not a national law that's an,international agreement that's why I,didn't take it off that a la university,research centers or even individual to,buy compounds under that classification,and,officialy do research now once they got,them as an individual what they do with,it it's up to them so legally we can,sell them as research compounds what you,do with it after that's all it to you,and nobody's gonna knock at your door to,find out what you're doing with them so,they are in that gray zone for that,intern market if you're in the US a lot,of doctors now prescribe them they're,sold through compounding pharmacies they,are more expensive but yeah and soon,through pharmacies so it's still a gray,zone where it's still permitted and,allowed who knows in two years and five,years but for now it can be done this,way no problem earlier you mentioned,China say yeah some of them are coming,in from China so I'm going to assume,that you meant that the stuff coming,from there isn't really that great,quality whereabouts right now,I've been known to be every can pass a,fast when they will let me give you an,example when growth hormone was,sensitized not extracted from the glands,then China started to sensitize growth,hormone but there is one company in,particular back then what they did is,that that's pretty extreme but that's,the kind of things that you could expect,only from China so they started to sell,growth hormone the best quality you can,get so people were using it and it was,like wow and one of the effect you get,to growth hormone that its telltale that,it's you have the right stuff is you,will develop the,you know that syndrome internal syndrome,yeah you'll develop that and if should,take higher dosages pretty fast so,people were getting that syndrome very,fast because it was good and after a few,months they switched the growth hormone,for a drug I don't remember the name of,what it is that has nothing to do with,growth hormone with a lot cheaper but I,the side effect that it would give you,the carpal tunnel syndrome,so people for a couple of years they,continue to use it and say no it must be,good I get that approach to no,inflammation and one day somebody,decided to analyze it and they say no,there's no growth hormone and they are,there is this what they will do there is,a study that came out not so long ago,five six years ago we're in one of those,kind in Asian countries they ordered,from different Internet company,melanotan that tanning peptide and they,analyzed them and the purity was ranging,to very high quality to not so high but,what was consistent and from all the,vials is that they were all sold as,containing ten milligrams and,systematically they contained five so,they were selling you five for the price,of ten but that's when you repeat a lie,often enough it becomes true so you use,it and eventually yes we will get a tan,and it's going to take this time your,friend is using from another company,same kind of results and so you know,that lie became truth okay the standard,that yeah okay it's good and they don't,expect people like you buy peptides are,you gonna go to a lab to have it and,it's gonna cost you like ten times what,it costs you to buy the peptides to have,it analyzed,and it comes down to nobody does it so,and they counted on that so they say,okay because there is a visual effect we,have to put the real stuff in there but,you know have those they will get a turn,eventually and everybody's gonna be,happy,another thing they will do it's in the,process of making it meaning when we,make it in a lab we stick skip those,details but basically we we oak one,amino acid to the next to complete the,chain right but at every step,there are amino acid that don't hook up,to the first one you know so they will,float around so if it's properly done,that's the way we do it anyway,at every step we analyze we do HPLC to,see the percentage and then we clean it,so at every time you start from a,hundred percent percentage why because,if you leave those free amino acids,floating then they will hook up later or,they're not supposed to so let's say at,the fifth amino acid in the sequence,glycine is supposed to go there but you,had some tryptophan floating around so,the tryptophan will take the place of,the glycine and and you will build that,that one chain on that tryptophan,instead of glassing so at the end your,peptide won't be active because it's,it's it's activity it's based on the the,perfect sequence for that that type but,because it's all made up of the same,amino acids when you will test it so,because some people do that they order,about from China and then test it on the,HPLC and it shows a high percentage but,let's say chose 98% but,maybe 8% is their nitrate that peptide,so it's gonna be the same way because at,the end it's all the same amino acids,I've been using so the HPLC doesn't tell,you which I mean no acid does it gives,you the weight of the molecule which is,very specific but since you build it,with the same amino acid but they are,not at the right place you may have a,high percentage of the peptide that,won't be active so that's a lower,quality and there is no way no cheap way,to test for that so they know nobody,does it so you say hey let's keep those,steps it's gonna make production much,cheaper and that's what happened you get,them very cheap there but what happened,you'll get a batch,working the next batch is not working so,well you get those variations in results,and more so today when you work with,with medical application you don't want,that kind of variations so you might,think that they wouldn't want to send,you something that that's that's crap,well it's only gonna buy them anymore,right no well you know what happened in,China they don't care because let's say,you buy from the Internet company,because in China there isn't like a,hundred companies that make peptides it,China and it's government regulated so,there are maybe two companies that,sensitize peptides in China so and they,they're it was assigned by the,government they say you and you you make,this you you make this anybody who has,been to China or heard about it you know,it's all by areas you have a,biochemistry area you have a,technological area you know there are,provinces that are dedicated to,industries and each within the industry,what each company does it's government,assigned so there is only one or two,that mass-produce and then if you go on,Alibaba you will find a hundred that,they're resellers they exist as a,company only on the,Internet it's actually a guy in front of,his computer so the company makes I,don't know a hundred thousand vials of,one peptide so they're gonna call those,resellers it's okay we just made a,hundred thousand how many do I keep for,you how many for you and not they will,go sell so you will have company X and,the u.s. buying from this revenger and,company y in the u.s. buying from this,revenger but at the end they all come,from the same place hands when they,bought from 15 different companies,systematically they were at five,milligrams because they are bottled,there so you know it's I just Schwartz,it and there was one source for,melanotan it was so that's why maybe the,revenger doesn't know that for sure the,guy in the US doesn't but it goes that,far you know somebody did it but there,are no reason to tell the next guy down,the line but they do that and why China,has a reputation of selling cheap stuff,not only chemicals because if they have,a chance to make something cheaper by,cutting corners,they will that's what they do is in,their genes I guess so that's the thing,that floating thing that they don't have,control so sometimes they'll be lucky,and the quality will be a bit higher,sometime it's going to be lower so,you're gonna buy a peptide from a,company in the US and they bought maybe,six months ago so it was a batch this,other company just bought a new the same,peptide it's a newer batch luckily this,one worked better so you'll hear I know,this company is better this company now,they were just lucky at this time and,maybe the next time they buy they won't,get the same results and they won't I've,seen it because before we started that's,one of the reasons,why I started this company because I was,a bit tired of that you know sometimes,it works and I was buying straight from,China before I never bought through,those companies and I know what other,prices I know how they work and price,has changed up and down but you know,it's between competition between vendors,they circled is one more but this one,less at the end they all make about the,same money that's why all those,companies they all sell pretty much the,same array of peptides and the same,dosages and and they all have those,color cap that's that's telltale sign no,red capping cap blue cap so us to,differentiate for that we only have,white caps so you know so just to make a,bit of difference at that level there,was something you told me before when,you're talking about a ch-ch-ch and I I,started laughing inside,I bought some HGH online that was,obviously was it wasn't prescription but,I had looked it up and they said it was,pretty good on some of the forms I went,to go so I got two months supply and I,didn't take a ton of it and I tried it,for two months and after two months I,was like my sleep isn't improved feel,the same I looked the same this it's,like I might as well just be drinking a,glass of air but I had carpal tunnel and,I and I didn't know that that had an,effect carpal tunnel what point my wife,says could it be your HGH at you taking,that's the dwarf well why would HGH,cause that I thought it was silly and,she was it's the only thing you changed,I stopped taking it I threw the rest out,because I was fed up it wasn't doing,anything and my carpal tunnel went away,and now I'm wondering if I gotta bashes,something that wasn't HGH biscuit yeah,because they've done it that wouldn't be,the first time you know it's crazy I'm,telling you that's why when I realized,all that you know I approach I mean and,biochemist strike of luck,started the company and it's it's good,because people they see it they relocate,just to give you an example about,melanotan when you start to use,melanotan the first few doses you'll,have a bit of upset stomach and if you,take too much actually you're going to,throw up so it's not it's just after a,few days it goes away or in what you do,you start at smaller dosages and add,people who used melanotan for years and,but under those and when they tried mine,they took what they thought was right,those and they threw up and they never,threw through that before because mine,was about twice more more concentrated,than you know the they said whoa I said,yeah that because now you're getting the,right dosage you say that let's say what,we're going to use HGH we're talking,about is there a benefit to using,peptides over HGH do you think that's,peptides can pretty much do everything,exchange they're a Serie of peptides,that make you release your own growth,hormone and for optimizing wrote hormone,that's enough you know you're not,talking you don't need soprofesh,illogical levels because the the pitcher,a gland unless there is a malfunction of,the gland it still can produce full,amount of growth hormone until the day,you die you're 90 years old the reason,it doesn't that the levels are dropping,it's the stimulation of the pitch where,is not there anymore,so now there are peptides that's replace,that may provoke that stimulation and,one injection 5-10 minutes and you have,Peaks that and if you combine them pigs,that you probably never had in your life,higher,and in term of I use it matches when to,I use a day which is a normal hormonal,replacement therapy so no problem with,an advantage okay when you work with,growth hormone you're looking at two,effects the the actual effect of the,growth hormone that it has on pretty,much every tissue in the body bone,muscle liver everywhere brain kidneys,there are receptors for growth hormone,pretty much everywhere in your body like,for testosterone but then if it's taken,at the right time meaning when your,greasy Mia is low then it will stimulate,the production by the liver of igf-1,which - as different receptors all over,your body with a bit different,activities so now when you inject wrote,hormone you have the direct effect of,the growth hormone and the indirect,effect of the igf-1 when you take a,peptide those growth hormone releasing,peptide and the growth hormone releasing,hormone it's true in another podcast I,explain the difference but you use them,together and it's like one plus one,equal five,those peptide actually have their own,receptors all over the body because,they're their derivates of the Grillin,hormone you know the hunger appetite but,not as much more it turns out that the,the Grillin and the growth hormone,releasing hormone are very similar,eventually they have better categories,where the you cut off that hunger effect,but you keep the growth hormone,stimulation but you have receptors for,that actual peptide all over the body so,now you add the third layer of positive,that you don't get when you inject,peptides so it's even better using the,peptides to release your own growth,hormone and it is a lot cheaper which is,why I ordered usually it's good so,that's why if it's for hormonal,replacement therapy healthy aging,therapy go for the peptides all friends,with that so we're gonna do some other,videos then where we can do maybe more,of a deep dive into let's say peptides,for repair I would imagine some of the,strategies that people can use of course,sometimes on the cosmetic side maybe,it's for you know you want to get a more,of a tan or you want to do fat loss or,you want to do whatever well well we'll,talk then but there is a very safe,effect side effect from those starting,peptides remind me to tell you about it,I did I'm supposed to print and I've,never heard of peptides but I have one,friend of mine that tried the melatonin,and he told me that his little friend,that downstairs was like this for it's,pretty much the strongest thing you can,do for that,unreal by far without side effects and,we have time I'm sure just because nurse,from next time okay it's like a turbo,cialis on turbocharged there is a bunch,of receptors in the brain they're called,melanocortin,receptors and a message whether time is,a derivate of a message one,it's melatonin stimulating hormone but,as I told you it to us until some,battery activities and all that so,anyway the effect is in the brain it's,not local and it turns out that it,stimulates how it stimulates down there,I don't know,but it's not a local effect it's true,the primitive brain and so you get can I,say it with the greatest erections with,that but more than that it increases the,actual Libby dough to the degree that as,men and I assume woman to because I've,seen them when I was younger you know,you're 17 18 and you got that drive you,need to go out and you know that's you,need a girl and you don't care even if,it's the fat ugly one you know sometimes,you ain't bang you know that drive that,you cannot reason it comes back when you,use melanotan,and it increases the the orgasm it's,better so you win at all levels with,that and now there is a derivate of,melanotan,PT one for one that has all those effect,without the tanning because again when I,told you if I was asked if I was in ten,well I I wasn't doing it for the tanning,and I took too much so now there is a,variant of it that doesn't make you tan,or it does slightly you would have to,take tons of it to tan and you get those,effect and actually it's not it's one of,those few peptide that is on the,pharmaceutical market and it's actually,marked market to toward woman because it,increases their libido and orgasm and,everything like this something just,because run to something something you,take kind of like a short term over a,period of weeks and you have to stop or,is it something you could take long term,my dependence why for tanning why the,roar let's say okay well no basically,you you would like anything else you,would time,things you know if should go if you know,that you're going to some seminary,somewhere and I would assume that you,know you're gonna be you know that's it,you know no no sexual activities then,you know you don't take it otherwise you,just make everything much harder much,harder if you're pretty sure that your,gets like a day yeah you take it or you,know you're married those things can be,decided the equivalent of taking a,cialis exactly except the duration it,can be pretty long some people that's,more individual the offset is long for,some people it up to 12 hours to kick in,but when it kick in venal and and the,effect can last anything from 16 to 48,hours after again that's individual no,you have to tweak a bit and learn and,basically knowing the offset time and,everything then you know when to get,your shot and so you you know when,you'll be ready and you take it and then,bang literally bang yeah no no it's it's,very impressive and people that viagra,cialis all those didn't work they take,those and they work well the difference,is with cialis and viagra in particular,I've tried cialis I've never tried,viagra but viagra you're just up whether,you like it or not good yeah it's it's,no libido when it kind of headaches and,and and and again it doesn't work for,everybody there is a percentage of,people there is no amount of younger,they can take it's not gonna work,and the melanotan or the PT one for one,will work there is a percentage of,people it's not gonna work,at the beginning so what you have to do,is kind of teach the body so you do it,for a couple of weeks and suddenly bang,it's gonna work and afterward it's gonna,work as you expect but some people they,need some kind to train the body to the,that time I once heard that analogy with,smoking weed,some people they have to smoke it a,couple of times and nothing happens yeah,yeah and then they're good you know next,time they're good yeah for a small,percentage of people but eventually it,will work a hundred percent cool okay so,I know what our next videos are gonna be,about cuz I'm gonna get a lot of the,peptides for cosmetics peptides for,tanning peptides for fat loss,peptides for what is right and resurrect,sex since you work with or mono mainly,with hormonal replacement therapy as,suspect that you know that healthy aging,aspect anti-aging a lot of people will,be interested in that but yeah I'm sure,when you get into it and what I love,about working with peptides is that they,don't have side effects you know,nobody's gonna call you at 4:00 in the,morning and the emergency yeah they're,pretty much side-effect free not that,you have to be careless about it there,are considerations to be taken but,generally nothing to worry about,side effects or bad effects or things,like that there are pretty good things,how would people reach you they watch,this video and they say I gotta talk to,this guy I don't think it's someone good,about okay you defer for a talk first,yes on Facebook can lab see a and lb as,a page where you know they can write I'm,the one answering the messages but,usually I mostly answer messages related,to the company not like because,sometimes the people they ask me,questions that would require a book,chapter and you know I just don't have,time for that,but usually and for your listener if,they ask me questions that require short,answers then I will but don't expect too,much explanation because then that's,where the book chapter comes in but,usually if the answer could be yes no,maybe I don't know I will answer if it's,a question because I had had people,writing me and you know they like the,layout they're come done this and have,disc and bang that that would take like,an hour to answer and I just don't have,time for that but you know general,question I have this would that be good,for me yeah sure you know now I would,look more into this you know I try more,to educate people so they don't need to,ask those questions that's why I do a,lot of podcast I'm not much of a writer,and so on that Facebook page I have a I,write sometimes short things that I find,pertinent at the time and I'm,interacting in a few peptide groups but,the main one I'm very active and if,people want to join it as an extra group,and what I do in that particular groups,I do a podcast twice a month Russ,where I kind of answer you know I left,question,gather up or I see the overall direction,of the questioning in the group and then,in the instead of writing ten times,different post then I make a podcast and,I answered those questions or I talk,about what I feel is a general topic,that is unclear to most people so the,group its bio hiking superhuman,performance I didn't come up with the,name but a good friend of mine in,Toronto is managing it and you know,there you can find more podcast where,I'm I'm much more specific I may talk,about one peptide for an hour you know,what it does why white people say this,because there are a lot of,misconceptions too in that word and I I,try to clear that up too so that's a,good group and then in your group I'll,be there too so you know yes I didn't,write you sure as long as you know the,quest the answer doesn't require me to,write for half an hour but you know I'll,just usually people you know they ask,the questions and and sometimes I see,another member the the answer is correct,so I don't need to so I will just like,the answer and that's like my okay,nothing to add to because I don't,pretend to this is kind of the reason,why I do these videos is somebody'll ask,a question the group and I'll be like oh,yeah I did a video about that with this,person I'm like here watch this I just,yeah the link and and go there you go,you know and and actually can lab as I,they're not all there but if they go on,YouTube they can lab channel there is,already a couple of those little podcast,I've made in that group so I do them for,that group but then and I put them on,the cat you,tube channel scan lab so they can go,there and yeah true podcast and,conferences sometimes you know I try to,educate people that's like cool so guys,our group in case you're wondering it's,the same name as the YouTube channel t,RT and hormone optimization so I'm gonna,send them an invite so again this is,just this was really meant to be an,intro yeah we touched on a whole bunch,of different things but we're gonna try,to do another two or three or we're,gonna go in depth on some more specific,subjects in a lot more detail and like I,said have a live Q&A so I can get a,bunch of questions from the Facebook,group and then I also have people on,YouTube chat you know putting questions,up in real time to ask so if you know,just to make sure you guys don't miss,these videos click subscribe like the,video if you liked it click that,notification bell so you'll find out and,then when these videos come out you'll,know about them right away you won't,miss it,oh and and to in groups because some,people they steer their questions to,become a private consultation basically,you know and then I I don't I do private,consultation and it's part of my living,and I charge for those you know I'm not,pushing it right now but just to talk if,somebody would ever be interested to go,deeper specifically for them you know a,specific case specific then they can,just go through private consult and we,go the as deep as we can go specifically,for the person I consult with so and I,don't like you through the can lab,Facebook page yeah or yeah they can buy,them to the can lab dotnet that our,webpage which is simpler that than that,you cannot find no people they'll get,errors and you know no pictures it's,like a very simple thing,but it serve its purpose because the,problem with that too to be too specific,to one person in a group many people,because many times its factory,therapeutic but if I start to give too,precise of advice for this person other,people of the group won't use it as an,educative tool but they'll just do a,copy and paste to them or to other,people and that might not be the best,idea,so that's why I have to be careful for,that too for the sake of people because,what I could suggest for you for a,specific condition might not be the best,for the next guy and I don't want people,to fall into that I really want people,to learn but eventually they can come to,the right to the right what they should,do without consulting you know they know,enough they understood the whole thing,and at the beginning it's very,complicated of course it's new but as I,told you put eyes there isn't like mm at,this point you know there's a few dozens,that are actually being used so,eventually you kind of get a grabs of,what does what and how to use and merci,beaucoup the officer also to say set a,set that has a joke with you so guys,that's about it for today make sure you,stay tuned in for the next ones coming,out I'll be buggin Chaves why very often,basically get what I get to do the next,one I'm around okay thank you very much,very welcome talk to you soon find out more on https://researchpeptides.net

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nefarioussdotcom-blog · 5 years

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Biohack Your Sleep

When was the last time you woke up without an alarm clock feeling energized and not needing caffeine? Have you slept well this past week?

If you answered no to either of these questions you are in good company. Two-thirds of Americans report getting less than the ideal 8 hours of sleep per night.

Why Sleep Matters

In this modern age of “rise and grind”, it can be almost shameful to announce to your friends and family that your bedtime is 10 pm. We live in a culture that is in a constant state of stimulation and hustle. No wonder we are seeing an exponential increase in diseases like Alzheimer’s, obesity, and autoimmune disorders.

The obesity epidemic continues to grow and is costing our healthcare system millions of dollars a year. A study done at University of Chicago put participants on a calorie restricted diet for 8 weeks. One group slept 5.5 hours a night and the comparison group slept 8.5 hours a night. The group that slept for at least 8 hours lost 55% body fat with all other factors remaining constant.

While sleep is not the only factor in sustaining weight loss, it is a key component that is often overlooked. If you have serious trouble getting enough sleep, seek out the help of a functional medicine practitioner to help you get your sleep under control.

Sleep and Our Hormones

Excellent sleep is a delicate balance between key hormones produced in our bodies and each one plays a vital role in quality sleep.

Cortisol

This hormone is often associated with stress and given a bad reputation. If we didn’t produce cortisol after exercise or during stressful situations, we would not survive. The key to optimizing cortisol is producing it at the right time and at the correct amounts. Normally your cortisol levels should peak around 6 am and drop to their lowest levels around 10 pm. Chronic sleep deprivation has a correlation with elevated nighttime cortisol. Cortisol function is one of the many speciality tests we perform at Parsley Health.

Human growth hormone (HGH)

The highest production of HGH is during the first half of our sleep in delta sleep stage. This is when we achieve our deepest sleep and potential for restoration. That’s why it’s also known as the fountain of youth hormone! It aids in building more lean muscle tissue, protects your muscle from breaking down and gives you energy. This means you are able to lose weight more efficiently and maintain lean body mass when you sleep well.

Melatonin

Available over the counter at local stores, this supplement is actually a powerful hormone produced by the pineal gland. It increases our bodies brown adipose tissue and burns white adipose tissue. As we age our bodies naturally lose brown adipose tissue. Research has shown that higher levels support bone health, improve insulin sensitivity, and increase lifespan. Recommended dosing varies and is best discussed with your doctor.

Leptin

The satiety hormone. One night of poor sleep reduces leptin levels and makes us want to eat the whole pint of ice cream.

Ghrelin.

The hunger hormone. These levels increase by 15% increase after one poor night of sleep. This is why we want to eat more sugar and carbs when we are tired.

Your Brain On No Sleep

Compared to all the fancy technology that exists today, our bodies are still pretty primitive and basic. There is no gadget or app that can replace good, old-fashioned quality sleep. Not getting enough sleep impacts our long-term brain health, memory, and detoxification.

Have you ever craved broccoli at 1 am while binge-watching on Netflix? Of course not! We crave foods like chips and cookies when we are sleep deprived. Sleep decreases glucose to the brain which is its primary fuel source. Our bodies naturally seek out quick forms of glucose even when it’s not healthy for us. UC Berkeley did a study that showed increased activity in the amygdala (the reptilian part of our brain) and decreased activity in the insular cortex and frontal lobe (responsible for willpower). This means even when we know we shouldn’t eat that cookie, our willpower to resist temptation is drastically reduced when we are sleep deprived.

Not only does lack of sleep cause cravings and weight gain, it also affects our brain health and memory. When we sleep our glymphatic system is 10x more active. This system is composed of glial cells that are responsible for sweeping away all the toxins that have accumulated throughout the day. In fact, our brain cells shrink about 50% during sleep to allow the glial cells to work efficiently.

Some researchers have reported that the increased incidence of Alzheimer’s is connected to the rise of insomnia in Americans. Alzheimer’s disease is characterized by an increase in amyloid plaques in the brain. One of the waste products cleared during sleep is beta amyloid so Alzheimer’s may just be a buildup of waste that hasn’t been cleared over time.

A Note On Alcohol

Alcohol is ingrained in our society as a way to both relax after a long day and socialize with friends and family. When it comes to sleep though, it can be very detrimental to our health. Alcohol blocks REM sleep which is our dream state as well as when our memories get solidified from short to long-term. Even just one glass of wine can produce a REM rebound effect where we wake up feeling hungover. This is because the quality of our sleep was poor even if we technically slept 8 hours.

Sleep Smarter

Hack your way to better quality sleep with these simple tips.

1. Cycle your coffee.

There is on average about 200 mg in 1 cup of coffee. It takes 72 hours to completely detoxify caffeine from your system to reach that same level of “buzz”. When you regulate your coffee intake, the receptors don’t down-regulate and makes the caffeine more effective when you do drink it.

2. Set a screen curfew.

I know it’s hard for all of us. Why? Each time we scroll through Instagram or watch one more episode on Netflix, we are activating the dopamine reward centers in our brain. These centers are constantly seeking and always want more even against our better judgement. It takes practice and commitment but power down all your devices at least 30 minutes before bedtime for quality sleep. The blue light emitted from our devices lowers melatonin by up to 50%.

3. Heal your gut. Heal your sleep.

We have 400x more melatonin in our gut than in our brains. In addition, the bacteria in your gut also interferes with this key sleep hormone. Eating a diet rich in prebiotic foods and foods that are high in sleep nutrients are essential. Potassium, for example, helps us stay asleep and can be found in avocados. Magnesium helps us to fall asleep and 80% of us are chronically deficient! This is one of the few nutrients I recommend taking a supplement for as foods aren’t going to provide adequate amounts.

4. Time your workout accordingly.

When we workout, cortisol is naturally produced. To mimic our natural cortisol curve it’s best to workout in the morning to sleep better. Even if it’s just for 5-10 minutes, doing a re-bounder or a few rounds of weights can have a profound impact. Or try to get sunlight in between the hours of 6-8 am as this helps to make cortisol drop lower at night.

Final Thoughts on Biohacking Your Sleep

Getting enough sleep is one of the most important things you can do for your overall health.

Not getting enough sleep impacts our long-term brain health, memory, and detoxification.

Limiting screen time before bed, cycling your caffeine intake and healing your gut with probiotic right food can help to significantly improve the quality of your sleep.

Article by: Tiffany Lester, MD

#sleep #i need sleep #sleep well #sleep apnia

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gethealthy18-blog · 5 years

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308: How to Use Your Hormones to Your Advantage With FloLiving

New Post has been published on https://healingawerness.com/news/308-how-to-use-your-hormones-to-your-advantage-with-floliving/

308: How to Use Your Hormones to Your Advantage With FloLiving

Child: Welcome to my Mommy’s podcast.

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Katie: Hello and welcome to “The Wellness Mama Podcast.” I’m Katie from wellnessmama.com. And this episode is all about hormones, specifically for women, and how we can use our hormones and monthly fluctuations in hormones to our advantage. I’m here with Alisa Vitti, who is a women’s hormone and functional nutrition expert and a pioneer in female biohacking. She is the best-selling author of a book called “WomanCode,” the creator of “Cycle Syncing,” which is a female-centric diet and lifestyle program that leverages our hormonal patterns for optimal health, fitness, and productivity. As the founder of floliving.com, she has built the world’s first menstrual health care platform that helps women around the world put their period issues to rest using her natural protocols. She’s also the creator of an app I use all the time called MyFLO, which is a period tracking app. But it’s the first and only one that gives functional medicine period tracking advice, and it’s designed to help users eliminate symptoms and schedule our lives according to our cycles. It’s consistently ranked one of the top 10 paid apps in health and fitness. And in this episode, we are going to go deep on all things related to female hormonal health, and how you can use your hormones to your advantage. Alisa, Welcome, Thanks for being here

Alisa: I’m so happy to be here, Katie. Thanks for having me.

Katie: I’m so excited to chat with you, mainly because you’re so fun to talk to anyway. And also because you have so much important information to share This topic is increasingly important. I know you’ve just written a new book “In the Flo” and a term that stood out to me and I think we need to establish as a starting point is the idea of infradian biological rhythm. So, if you don’t mind, let start there. Explain what that is.

Alisa: Yes. Yes. Yes. I mean, for me, so the infradian biological rhythm is the special biological rhythm that women have in their reproductive years. So, from puberty to menopause, you have this activated infradian rhythm. And, you experienced that, you know, across the month in your monthly cycle. However, it isn’t just something that affects your reproductive health. It affects five other systems of the body and really, you know, dictates the quality of your overall health. And it’s something that is a term that comes from, you know, chronobiology, but it’s not a term that we’ve heard about before.

We’ve heard all about the circadian rhythm. We know how important that is. We know we should be taking care of it with our blue-light-blocking glasses and with, you know, getting to bed when it’s dark, and waking up with the sunrise, and not messing with that. And there have been numerous studies, for example, the nurses study back…it’s been a multi-decade study confirming that if you disrupt that circadian pattern, you will develop big disease of inflammation. And what I was really so excited to share in this new book is just how critical, health critical it is for women to be caring for their infradian rhythm while it is active as really the foundation, the cornerstone of absolutely everything they do because it affects so many systems of their body while it’s active.

Katie: Yea, that makes a perfect sense and that’s actually probably a new term for a lot people. It was definitely a new term for me. And I’d love to hear, I’ve read some of the research and I hear from a lot of people daily about women who are struggling with health and especially with hormone related health issues. But I know, in your research, explain some of the stats. How big of a problem this is that we are facing now.

Alisa: Oh, my goodness. I mean, you know, 47%, and I think that’s a conservative number, of women are dealing with a hormonal health issue. You know, 90% of moms feel like they’re chronically stressed and exhausted. You know, almost all research, medical, fitness, nutrition research is being done on men, but then those suggestions and recommendations are being shared to women as things that are going to help them, and then they end up feeling worse because their infradian rhythm’s disrupted. And I think it’s just so important that we recognize that if we’re not specifically supporting and working with our infradian rhythm, we are actually disrupting it and making ourselves unnecessarily sick, stressed, fat, tired, you know, you name it, and, of course, hormonal. But nature really with this infradian rhythm has designed you to be super optimized, and it’s really the ultimate biohack, in my opinion.

Katie: Yea, I love that. I think understanding that gives us more tools in our toolkit to address these things. But to circle back, you mentioned that all these studies are done on men. Explain that. Explain why, because you’re right, a lot of studies I read even on Pubmed, are on male. Is there a reason this is the case?

Alisa: Yeah. So, I mean, there’s a long history of women being excluded from medical research. I mean, some of it is just some good old fashioned research bias in terms of whoever has been historically conducting research. You know, you have to keep in mind, women have only been allowed to practice medicine recently in recent history, so you had a lot of male researchers just coming from their point of view. But then there was also sort of a big, terrible crisis that happened with a drug trial for thalidomide in the ’60s that caused a huge amount of birth defects, and so women were then actively, during their reproductive years, excluded from drug trials.

However, in 1996, the National Institute of Health put out a special committee to request that medical research actively go out of their way to include young females in their studies, young being women, you know, over the age of 21 and not postmenopausal. And then, in 2016, VWC Women’s Health Collective published kind of a progress report following that mandate, and, you know, the unfortunate update was that progress has been basically slim to painfully slow. And, you know, we’re just nowhere being included. And that’s important from a medical point of view because, of course, you know, medications and all these things are not being developed or dosed, you know, within a female ecosystem, but then it also has transmitted this sort of gender bias into nutrition and fitness research.

So, again, here, all nutrition and fitness research is really mainly done on men and postmenopausal women because they find it to be, I guess, too difficult to try to figure out how to create experiments for women in these different stages of their infradian rhythm. But what then happens, of course, is that you’ll get, you know, some sort of new discovery like intermittent fasting is probably my favorite one to talk about because it’s so…you know, the promise of intermittent fasting is absolutely fantastic, right? It’s going to help with insulin sensitivity, it’s going to help with cellular health and anti-aging, and it seems to be this universally wonderful tool to help you stay healthy.

But the truth is that those studies are done on men and postmenopausal women for whom intermittent fasting is a fantastic health tool. But for women in their reproductive years, the few studies that have been done, which I sort of detail in the new book, they actually show that it has the opposite and adverse reaction in women in their reproductive years. Meaning if you do intermittent fasting while you have your infradian rhythm active, you will make your insulin sensitivity worse, right? So instead of improving it, which is what all the intermittent fasting research shows for men and postmenopausal women, for women in their reproductive years, you’ll have worse insulin sensitivity. You can gain weight. You can increase your cortisol levels dramatically. You can shrink your ovaries, stop ovulation, disrupt sleep, and dysregulate your mood. So it’s not like a little bad for you. It’s completely bad for you.

And I think that’s really important because we need, just like medicine is moving to more bio-individual forms of treatment for cancer, for example, for all sorts of diseases, we really need to look at making the nutrition information that we’re being given specific to the biological rhythms that are affecting that individual. And that sometimes can be gender-based.

So I love the idea of women sort of understanding that not everything is something that they should try. And it really should be much more detailed about, you know, “This study was done for men, or for postmenopausal women.” But if you’re in your reproductive years, I’d love to see that kind of coverage being shared in mainstream articles that, you know… You know, for example, and I know Mark Sisson has done this in some of his blogs when he shares about the ketogenic diet, and how that has…the few studies that have been done show that actually can disrupt women’s thyroid hormones and not have them have all the weight loss. It can disrupt fertility.

So to make sure that that is being presented to women when they’re reading about these health trends, I think, is so important. And it’s important because we have been sort of, you know, living in an environment, culturally as women, that basically has told us one story, which is, you know, “Your hormones are crazy and not to be trusted. Your metabolism is slower than men’s, and therefore, you have to compensate for that by just generally finding new and better ways to have some sort of restrictive diet and to work out more. And that’s how you’re going to ‘have the body or control your body in the way that you want.’

And that is just not accurate at all. In fact, in the book, I kind of go into how your metabolism actually is affected by the infradian rhythm and how you can eat to, you know, maximize your metabolism. It’s completely different than what we’ve been taught.

Katie: That’s so fascinating. And I get in the research sense why it’s easier to work on men because their hormones are more stable. But, like you said, it’s a disadvantage to women and I think a lot of women have turned to figure out what works for them individually because of that. Because there’s not a lot of knowledge of this in the medical system. I’m curious, you mentioned you can eat in rhythm with your infradian rhythm and that can be really beneficial. Is that also true for time restricted eating or for any type of fasting. Because like you said, the research is really amazing on what fasting can do in the body and I know a lot of women want to try it. Is there a time in the cycle that is less problematic?

Alisa: Yeah, you can do intermittent fasting much more safely in the first half of the cycle when your metabolism is naturally slower and you need less calories. But for women in their reproductive years, the only amount of time that is safe to do intermittent fasting is the 12-hour kind of like between dinner and breakfast fast. So, you wouldn’t want to…as soon as you push past the 12-hour mark, then you start to have all the adverse reactions that the studies sort of outline. So you don’t want to do like a two-day fast or, you know, a 13…even the 13-hour fast is too much. Again, once you’ve completed your…you know, once you’re postmenopausal, you can go to town and do as much intermittent fasting as feels good to you. But while you’re in your reproductive years, you know, let’s say you’re done with dinner at 7:00, just don’t eat breakfast till 7:00 the next morning, and that will be every-single-day intermittent fast that is hugely health beneficial and will give you all those great benefits without harming you. And that will be much easier to do in the first half of your cycle because of your metabolic changes.

Katie: That makes sense and I think that’s another important distinction. We all “intermittent fast” while we’re sleeping, no one is eating while they are asleep. I know there is good data, even for women, about not eating too late at night. Because that digestive system interrupt and how you want your digestion to be pretty calm so your body can do other things.I think that’s an easy, like you said, even when you’re pregnant, you can choose to not eat after 7pm and just eat a good breakfast.

It’s not like you have to eat every three hours while you’re sleeping, but it means you don’t have to do a super long fast either. I also think, I wonder if there’s an alternative side to this. Which is yes, women are harder to research because our hormones change, but because of this, we get so much more data if we pay attention to our hormones than men do. And I know you have an app that I use regularly, the myflo app, and seeing those hormonal changes and getting input on what you’re supposed to eat that time of the month, it makes a huge difference. And so I try to think of it, on the positive side, I think we also have this amazing benefit if we learn to pay attention to it of how our hormones change. So, walk us through some of those things that those monthly fluctuations and hormones tell us.

Alisa: Well, I mean, first of all, the fact that we think that our hormones are not stable, or that, you know, it’s harder to research, it’s just not medically accurate, you know, which I go into great detail in the book. You know, the truth is, the men’s hormones fluctuate, they just fluctuate in a pattern that mimics the circadian pattern, meaning…and I like to kind of contrast this to just…and I’ll go right in into how your hormones fluctuate in the infradian rhythm.

But for example, men, they make all their testosterone while they’re sleeping. They wake up with the full dose of testosterone that is concurrent with their big surge in cortisol that everyone gets in the circadian biological rhythm. So they wake up with all of this. And then they get, you know, two, three more pulses of that in decreasing concentration throughout the day. So you’ll get a big dose at 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning, then there’ll be another pulse at like noon, another one around 3:00, and then that starts to really taper off so that they can wind down for the evening and go to sleep.

But this is exactly why that it’s easier for them to, let’s say, do research on men because they’re just tracking the sort of one or two, you know, cortisol and testosterone, but they’re tracking it throughout the day. So they are factoring in time differences and hormone differences. So, for example, Olympic coaches who train Olympic athletes will have men do any sort of training that will help them gain muscle in the early morning when testosterone and cortisol is at a maximum. It’s going to make that happen more easily, and it’s going to help them be able to do that with less risk for injury versus, let’s say, having them train later in the afternoon. And they’re doing this based on all this research that goes deep into the fluctuating levels of hormones for men. It just happens in a shorter timeframe in a day, 24 hours, versus women happening over 30 days.

But the technology or the technique to create studies that factor in these changes already exists because they’re using them for men. So I think the medical community realizes they need to figure this out. They actually have created a menstrual cycle in a petri dish, you know, hooked up to a computer, and they’re starting to do some testing of medications throughout the cycle, which I think is a huge step forward. There’s a long way to go. But I think the more that women like you who are tracking where you are in your cycle, and I’m so thrilled you’re using the MyFLO app, you know, that we can actually participate in studies with the full knowledge of where we are in our cycle. And so people can do studies for women who are just in the follicular phase, or just in the ovulatory phase, or just in the luteal phase, or in the menstrual phase.

And these four phases have their own distinct hormonal signature, a ratio of hormonal combination that create a certain response in these six systems of the body, which include the brain, the metabolism, the immune system, the microbiome, the stress response system, and the reproductive system. So, you know, any sort of testing or research could be done on any of these systems of the body to see how they fluctuate. In fact, in 1996, Catherine Woolley from Northwestern University published a really important paper, you know, in psychoneuroendocrinology about her research looking at the fluctuating levels of estrogen throughout the infradian rhythm and how the brain actually changes 25% across the cycle. And just knowing that is really important because, you know, knowing that your brain is going to change throughout the cycle can help you set yourself up for, you know, better productivity, better workflow with less stress throughout the month, for example.

And, of course, this can be applied to your workouts, to your eating. And it’s just amazing once you understand these fluctuating patterns, just how easy it is to just work with that, to go with the flow, to get in your flow, and to start making everything just less of a push, less of a force, and more of this state of flow, which I just think is so important.

And I don’t know about you, Katie, but, you know, I’ve done all the fun, personal growth and development things. Like I’ve attended one of my favorite Tony Robbins, you know, the weekend, where you walk across the firewalk and, you know, listening to people and experts talk about these peak flow states and biohackers talk about these peak flow states. And I always found…I felt a sense of disconnection from achieving that because it was all predicated on this concept that you have to do the same thing day in and day out to achieve that peak flow state, to put you in a peak flow state, right, to optimize for that. And that really makes sense, you know, to have a morning routine, for example, that’s the same day in and day out if you have the male hormonal pattern that closely mimics the circadian biological rhythm. Because it does make sense for them to get up in the morning, to do a big workout, to do some of their big deep work first thing in the morning when their cognitive focus is really turned on. But it doesn’t make sense for women. In fact, I find it…it kind of feels like this…for me, that somehow I have to feel like I’m a failure already even though I haven’t started my day, right, because I don’t always feel like depending on where I am in my infradian rhythm, jumping out of bed in the morning and doing a workout. And the pushing and forcing myself to do that actually is infradian rhythm disruptive. And so what I want to say to women is you can achieve a peak flow state, but it’s going to look very different from that of men. And it means that instead of trying to force yourself to be the same every day, to do the same routine at the same time, to eat the same food day in and day out, week over week, month over month, that actually is disruptive to you and forces your body to perform sub-optimally. The way you’re going to achieve your peak flow state is to really work with your infradian rhythm and to optimize for that week over week. So, your state of flow is going to look very different from that of men.

And I also think it’s really interesting that biohacking is such a popular concept among men. And that also makes sense because there is a real energy cliff that happens for them around 3:00 in the afternoon when testosterone and cortisol really start to move toward their lower serum concentration levels in the body, so they’re less able to focus on deep project work, they have less energy and stamina for workouts. And, you know, using nootropics or upgraded coffee or things like that really do help in that timeframe to help with that natural energy cliff. But as women, we don’t have these energy cliffs. You know, because we’re the ones that carry babies when we’re pregnant, natures made our bodies extremely good at conserving nutrients and energy. And so if you support your infradian rhythm, what you’re going to find is that you don’t ever fall off the energy cliff.

And Katie, you might be saying now to yourself, “Well, what about PMS and all the things that happened to women around their period where they do feel so bad?” I’ve been taking care of women with their hormones and their periods for close to 20 years now. And myself, having suffered from a major, you know, bout of PCOS in my 20s, in my teens and 20s, and having recovered from that, what I can tell you is, the reason, the deepest reason why so many women are struggling with their hormones is because everything we’re doing, the way we’re eating, the way we’re working out, the way we’re organizing how we work during the day is disrupting our infradian rhythm. And when you disrupt your infradian rhythm, you disrupt all those six systems of the body, and you just can’t feel your best. You can’t be your healthiest. You can’t have the energy you want. It’s not in your head. And it’s not that you’re a failure and you have no willpower and you just can’t stick to these days, you’re just using the wrong system to support your biological rhythm.

Katie: That makes so much sense. And a couple of follow-up questions to that, a short one to begin with. So I do regular blood tests just to keep track of all my metrics, and I also track, like through my Oura Ring, for instance, and, like, kind of line that up with my cycle so I can see what’s going on. Is there a time of the month for women that’s the best to get blood test if you’re going to do regular blood testing, or is it more about getting it at the same time in your cycle?

Alisa: It really depends on what you’re trying to test. So if you’re trying to test progesterone levels, right, you would want to test those in the luteal phase, you know, because that’s when your progesterone levels are active. You know, if you’re doing fertility testing, some people will recommend that you do that on day three of your cycle. So it just depends on what you’re looking for. If you’re trying to test for cortisol levels, you can do that, you know, sort of in a 24-hour saliva testing situation. I really just think it’s about what you’re trying to test. And, of course, that’s for static blood tests where it’s a standard blood draw. I think there’s a lot more sophisticated things now that you can be using like Dutch testing and for urine analysis and saliva testing that gives you a spectrum of hormonal levels over time. That’s always the best way to see things, is, you know, how do your hormone levels rise and fall over the whole course of the infradian rhythm? And the first place to really start doing that, you know, every single day is just with some basic basal body temperature tracking to just see. Even though many people use that for fertility, it also will sort of indicate, you know, how your infradian rhythm is performing over the course of a month. Katie: Got it. Okay, that’s really helpful. So then you’ve mentioned several times, like, different ways we can start to support our infradian rhythm, through different lifestyle factors, through diet. I’d love to go a little bit deep on some of these, maybe starting with diet. I love and totally resonate with that idea that if you are having trouble sticking to a diet, it’s probably not really that you’re doing it wrong, it’s that you’re on the wrong type of system for your body right now. So let’s start with food. How can we support our infradian rhythm using food?

Alisa: So first, we have to understand how the infradian rhythm affects our metabolism. So in the 30-day period where the infradian rhythm makes ts like one rotation, right, as opposed to in one day, you will have a pretty dramatic fluctuation in your metabolism. So in the first half of your cycle, meaning the follicular phase and the ovulatory phase, your metabolism is naturally slower. So you can actually get away with fewer calories and, you know, lighter meals, in general, and I’ll go into specifics of what you should be eating.

In the second half of your cycle, the luteal phase and the bleeding phase, your calorie requirements are higher, in fact, up to anywhere between 16% and 20% more caloric levels are required during this time and your metabolism speeds up because there’s an epic amount of structural changes happening inside the body during this phase of the cycle from a reproductive standpoint. You know, the lining of the uterus is being built and maintained, the corpus luteum is growing, and, you know, all of this is happening, and it takes nutrients to make it happen. Plus, you have to build, manufacture bigger levels of estrogen and progesterone to have a healthy cycle.

So, again, the nutrient requirements are much greater in the second half of the cycle, and your metabolism speeds up. It’s important to know that for, let’s say, metabolic maintenance, or another way to say this, like weight maintenance or blood sugar stability, that when your metabolism is slower, right, you can eat lighter. So I always suggest in this phase of the cycle, you know, and I break it down by each of the four phases. But for today’s purposes, we’ll kind of just talk in sort of broader swathes here, that in the first half of the cycle, you can eat more, let’s say, raw foods, salads, smoothies, kind of like what you would associate your typical diet, healthy light eating, right?

You know, steamed veggies, and poached fish, and things that are going to be easier on the digestion because your metabolism is slower. It’s going to seek to conserve those nutrients. You don’t need to snack as frequently because, again, slower metabolism, you’re going to conserve these nutrients for longer. And you can just get away with a lighter, less fat in the diet, in the food preparation during this time.

Then when you switch to the luteal phase and the menstrual phase, this is when… I’m trying to think of like a dietary type that you could easily grab on to. This is kind of like the luteal phase, which is 10 to 12 days. I always say this is kind of like your macrobiotic phase where you really want to be eating proactively slow-burning carbohydrates, and whichever ones work for you. If they’re legumes, great. If it’s some grains, great. If you can’t do grains, you can do root vegetables, whatever your digestion and food sensitivities can handle, but making sure that you’re proactively eating more of them because your metabolism is so much faster and your caloric needs are higher, you have to put that in proactively. We all know what happens when we don’t, right, when you try to stick to this stereotypical lighter eating, the salad life, you know, in your luteal phase, what happens when you do that all day, right? You have your smoothie in the morning, you have a salad at lunch. And you get home from work, and you just start eating, and you don’t stop, and you don’t know what happened like four hours later. You’ve eaten chips, and crackers, and pasta, and cheese, and cookies, and your body is like trying to make up for its caloric requirement, but you’re now binge eating because you haven’t proactively been eating slow-burning carbohydrates throughout the day.

So we have specific meal plans and recipes to help you really understand what to eat when so that this is not confusing for you at all because I know this can be an adjustment because we’ve been told just to eat the same way every day, and that’s completely wrong for your infradian rhythm. And then in your menstrual phase, you don’t need as many complex carbohydrates, but you do need more fats and proteins. And so this would be more of like, let’s say your paleo or keto week, if you will.

So to help you kind of break it down into these diets that you are familiar with, that would be the way to think about it. And doing this stabilizes blood sugar throughout the infradian rhythm, optimizes your metabolism, works with the metabolic changes that are happening, and keeps your energy and your mood, like, supercharged, right? So instead of falling off the energy cliff around the luteal phase because you’re not nourishing your body the way it needs, and you’re now tired, PMSing, fatigued, stressed, moody, instead you’d feel the opposite. You feel good, you feel energized, you feel clear-headed and happy, and you don’t have PMS symptoms that, you know, certainly will balance that out because you’re also eating foods that are going to help you make more hormones and break them down more efficiently.

So some of us struggle with, let’s say, estrogen dominance. The foods that you’re going to be eating, the foods that are in the food chart in the book are going to help you, you know, both manufacture and metabolize hormones really efficiently as well. So that really helps stabilize any symptoms that you’re having throughout the cycle.

Katie: Yeah, when I learned of this concept from you, it was kind of like a paradigm shift for me because I started just paying attention to what was already happening but that I had never really paid attention to because I didn’t know to pay attention to, and I definitely noticed that shift. Like, in the first half of my cycle, I really wasn’t that hungry. I could do like soups, and salads, and light stuff and like generally not think about food. I’ve been on a pretty big, like, weight loss journey the last year as I’m finally now not pregnant or nursing a baby. And I’ve noticed that first half of my cycle, it’s easy to lose weight, and then that’ll, like, stabilize. I won’t gain weight in the second half, but it’ll just kind of like rest there for a while, and then the next first half of a cycle I’ll lose more weight. And I also noticed, like, when we start paying attention to our hormones, it’s like my cravings now are telling me what I actually need. So in the second week of my cycle, I’m craving like salmon, and sweet potatoes, and tons of olive oil, and like all the green things I can possibly eat for the micronutrients. Like I’ll make a pesto out of, like, so much parsley, and cilantro, and all these things.

Alisa: Oh, my gosh. I’m so proud of you.

Katie: But it’s just amazing when you have that lens to look through. I just, like, start seeing those patterns, and then it’s, like, I don’t have to stress about it. I can be like, “Oh, first half of cycle, I don’t have to really worry about getting enough calories. I’ll just eat when I’m hungry. It’s totally fine.” And then second half, I pre-plan, so I know I’m not going to hit that afternoon like, “Oh my gosh, I’m starving.” I have sweet potatoes pre-made or whatever it may be, and like just having that prep makes it so much easier. I’m also curious, are there different nutrient needs at different times as well? Like, are there supplements that can be beneficial at certain times, and is it also that we shouldn’t take the same supplements every single day?

Alisa: So that’s interesting because there are micronutrients that are, you know, pretty universally required by the endocrine system to function. So, you know, I think the endocrine system, we want to be supporting that too. So, I would say that yes, nutrient needs do change throughout the cycle, but certain baseline nutrients like B vitamins which are water-soluble, and you need to put that in every day. Magnesium, which is lost daily, again, water-soluble. So some of these very transient micronutrients that we tend to be very deficient in or easily depleted with due to stress, or caffeine intake, or chemical exposure, it is really helpful to keep putting those in on a daily basis, especially if you’re someone who’s dealing with a health issue. Giving yourself that extra boost of certain micronutrients, which I outline in the book can be really, really helpful. But from the food point of view, and taking micronutrients is one thing. Macronutrients, which are these food changes that you make, you know, we’re really talking about, for example, in the ovulatory phase as you know, Katie, because I know you’re a cycle syncer, is that, you know, you’re eating foods that are high in glutathione and in the most bioavailable form. And this is because estrogen is at its peak concentration, that it will be, throughout the cycle, that its most serum concentration that you’ll ever have. And so depending on how your body is functioning, right, if your liver is optimized, for example, for elimination, or if you’re having great bowel movements, or if you’re having constipation, you may be more sensitive to that estrogen, right?

So if you’re breaking out during ovulation, that’s a sign that you’re not metabolizing that estrogen efficiently. But by eating the foods in the ovulatory phase that I’m outlining for you in the book, you’re going to break down that estrogen as quickly as possible because you’re supercharging the liver with glutathione. So that’s a great example of these types of macronutrient and micronutrient intersections that happen throughout the cycle. And I think the more we leverage that like you’re describing in your own experience, you lose weight more easily. You know, you maintain your energy.

And I think this weight loss thing, this is like a personal thing for me because, you know, you know me. I used to be 60 pounds heavier, and I gained quite a bit of weight when I had my pregnancy. And I’ve lost all that without dieting, right. And I love saying that to people because that just doesn’t make any sense given the current cultural narrative about how you’re supposed to lose weight as a woman. You know, actually, it’s not really gender specified, though it should be.

So how men lose weight is just by restricting calories and working out more, but how women lose weight is not by restricting calories. So you actually have to nourish yourself in order for your metabolism to work optimally. And I love that you’ve already seen for your own weight loss journey that you are able to take advantage of that slower metabolic phase, right, the first half of the cycle, the follicular and ovulatory phases to slower metabolism, which, if we listen to the current rhetoric, would mean that you wouldn’t be able to lose weight during that time. But by eating the right way during that time, you do lose weight.

And then instead of eating the same way during the luteal phase, which would if you continue to eat the lower-calorie, let’s say, format in the luteal and menstrual phases, you jack up your cortisol levels, okay, because that creates internal stress on the body to be calorically deprived when you have new caloric requirements. And that cortisol increase signals to your fat cells to stay put, right? So now you’re gaining weight, or at least not losing any weight, and that’s why women feel so frustrated like they can’t lose weight. They’re like, “I don’t get it. I’m depriving myself. I’m counting my calories. I’m doing the same thing each and every day.” But if you do do it each and every day, you’re actually, again, disrupting your hormones, disrupting the infradian rhythm, and you’ll end up either, at best, not losing any weight or, at worst, gaining weight. And this also has big implications when we start talking about fitness as well.

Katie: That makes sense. And I want to…let’s jump into fitness in just a second. But to reiterate what you said as well, that was the other really staggering thing for me. I think there’s, especially for women, that we often underestimate how much the emotional and mental side really is important for stress, and for weight loss, and for everything. And I know that’s an area I fought for a lot of years. And when I finally addressed that, it was like my relationship with food entirely changed. And I was able to lose weight without dieting, without really changing my diet or exercise at all.

I think there was such a shift in my stress response, and so I think that’s another issue. I always say to women, like that’s really worth looking at, whether it’s therapy, whatever your process is going to be. That was hugely pivotal for me. And I want to talk about fitness too because I’m really curious now. So you said men have this 24-hour cycle, and they’re better to train in the morning. For women, are there times of the month that we should maybe look at different types of training that can really line up with our biology?

Alisa: You bet. In fact, not only is this like…And, by the way, this is like not just a nice idea or like, “Oh, this would be fun to try.” This is a must-do. Like just as much as we now know disrupting the circadian rhythm causes disease, disrupting your infradian rhythm really messes with your health. And so much so that the U.S. women’s soccer team is cycle syncing and training their athletes based on this methodology because they understand that there are metabolic changes and, you know, fitness requirements of the body that really affect performance as it goes throughout the cycle.

So what that means is in the first half of your cycle, let’s say you want to put on some lean muscle and lose some body fat, like who doesn’t want to do that right? And that’s just good for all-around well being. The way you want to accomplish that in the first half of your cycle is with cardio-based exercise, and then high-intensity interval training. However, if you were to continue to do the cardio and the high-intensity interval training, which, by the way, is kind of what we’re told to do every day, right? Like, I mean, think of any workout slogan like Nike, like “Just do it.” Push yourself. Don’t quit. Just commit. No pain, no gain, right, all of this like… Just even if you don’t want to, you should keep trying to do the same thing every day. That’s really good for guys, really bad for you. Because if you do cardio and high-intensity interval training in the luteal and menstrual phases, you turn on fat storage and turn on muscle wasting.

So, here you are. And I discovered this years ago in my practice because I routinely be like, 15 years ago, there was this trend for people to get fit by training for a triathlon, even if they weren’t like athletes. They just used it as an excuse to get in shape. And I had many, many clients coming in to see me say, you know, “Gee, I don’t understand what’s happening. I’m running five miles every day, I’m swimming, you know, four times a week,” and whatever else they were doing, “and I’m eating what I’m supposed to be eating according to my trainer.” And they’ve put on 20 or 25 pounds at the end of three months. And I, you know, looked into that, and, of course, the answer was very clear, “Because your metabolism changes. And if you do the same physical activity at the same intensity day over day throughout the infradian rhythm, you disrupt it, you increase cortisol, you mess with estrogen levels, and you end up gaining weight. And that’s the fact.”

So if you are somebody who’s been, you know…you know, New Year’s resolutions or you sign up for some online fitness program, and it’s the similar kind of workouts every day, high-intensity interval training, you should expect, at best, not to gain any weight, or sorry, not to lose any weight. But at worst, you’re going to gain some weight. And that’s what’s so frustrating because we’re told the wrong information. We’re told information that’s meant for men or postmenopausal women. And if you’re in your reproductive years, you need the right information. And that’s why I’m so excited about having written this book because it’s finally just clearing this up once and for all.

There is an infradian rhythm, you have to work out differently. First half of the cycle, you’ll do your cardio, you’ll do your high-intensity interval training. Second half of the cycle, you’ll do body resistance or slow strength training with no cardio component. So that could be lifting a heavy set at the gym or in your home gym, that could be just doing push-ups and, you know, squats up against the wall, or that could be doing pilates, or doing, you know, strenuous yoga.

And then in the menstrual phase, it could be walking, it could be just like a yin yoga stretching class, or it could be napping. And I say that, and I know that that might make some you laugh, like, “Oh yeah, I’d love to take a nap during my period.” But actually, depending on your hormonal status quo, meaning if you have hormonal issues, if you’re dealing with elevated levels of cortisol due to, you know, emotional or lifestyle stresses, taking a nap can be hugely restorative and actually boost your metabolism during the menstrual phase. So that is one of the exercises that’s listed in the exercise chart in the book during that phase because it is so beneficial. And it’s so important that I point that out because the truth of the matter is when you work out with your infradian rhythm, you can work out less and get more fit. And you can work out less at the right times, including napping during the menstrual phase and still, at the end of the month, either maintain the weight that you hope to maintain or lose weight if that’s what you’re trying to do.

And, again, having done this myself two times with big numbers, you know, 60 pounds the first time and 40 to 50 pounds the second time with my pregnancy again using this methodology, it’s just so effortless. It’s just so easy. It’s not a push, it’s not forcing. You don’t have to just do it. You don’t have to push yourself. There’s no pain and all the gain that you want. And I think that’s just such a comforting thought because I don’t know about you, but I’m just tired of this idea that you have to work so hard to achieve small results because we’ve been working for these little crumbs with the systems that were designed for men when if we simply use a system that was designed for us, we could really get the gold.

Katie: Yeah, I couldn’t agree more. And I think that’s been a really big shift for me as well, the effortless part of this. My whole adult life, it feels like I fought my body trying to get it to do what I wanted. And then when I finally learned to love and support it, it just naturally started doing those things I had hoped to do all along. It reminds me there’s a beautiful quote online, I’ll have to look up who said it, but it’s basically the idea that, like, “I said to my body, ‘I want to be your friend.’ And it took a deep breath and said, ‘I’ve been waiting my whole life for this.’” And I think that’s what you teach. It’s so beautiful. And you’ve kind of explained the concept of cycle syncing. But for anyone who’s new to this, can you just kind of give us like the really technical definition and what that looks like?

Alisa: Yeah, so I created this term, gosh, many, many years ago now, but it was this idea that once I really understood the infradian rhythm, I wanted to create a term that would help women understand the active part of what it means to connect with that, to support it. And so cycle syncing, syncing your activities, your food, your fitness, your sex drive, your relationships, your career, your parenting styles, all of that can be synchronized with your cyclical changes with these fluctuating hormones, with these four phases of the infradian rhythm. And when you do that, things just get in the flow.

Katie: Makes so much sense.

Katie: I know it’s not, or I’d love to talk about a little bit like the emotional and stress response side of the cycle as well, and if there are things we can do, A, to optimize those, and, B, like how we can use that to our advantage in relationships.

Alisa: So, you know, you are more sensitive to cortisol in the second half of the cycle, which is why it’s so important to do the right eating to stabilize blood sugar so you’re not, you know, adding the cortisol demand in the second half of the cycle and that, again, you’re doing the right workouts. Doing those two things will decrease your stress levels dramatically in the second half of the cycle. And, by the way, if any of you are struggling with, you know, luteal phase anxiety, or depression, or mood swings, or irritability, again, just doing these first two components of the cycle syncing method with the food and the fitness, you will see enormous impact in a positive way on your mood and your energy levels. And, again, it just it’s remarkable what happens when you start taking care of this biological rhythm.

So I think we have to look at stress as external stress, right, things that are like, I don’t know, the kids are driving you crazy, you’re having friction in your relationship, something is going on that’s stressful at work. And that these are things that involve other people that are outside of your control, and that’s just life, and we all have to learn how to balance our emotional reactivity in those situations, to not take things personally, and to really rise above and figure out how to navigate that with a lot of emotional intelligence. But then there are these types of stressors that can be managed by understanding the infradian rhythm.

So, for example, we just talked about how you can create unnecessary amounts of stress cortisol level in the body by eating and exercising incorrectly during the luteal phase, for example. But you can also have stress created at any point in the cycle by, let’s say, you know, not feeling…and let’s pick career or work, right? So I obviously cycle sync absolutely every area of my life, which I outline in great detail in the book and give you every chart that I created for myself. But in work, for example, because we know the brain changes by 25% over the course of the month, there are certain times that you’re more naturally inclined to do certain activities. You can do anything you want anytime you want, of course, but when you’re in the mood to bake cookies, right, that’s like more fun. But then when you have to make cookies for the class, you know, fundraiser and it’s late at night, you don’t feel like doing it. It’s stressful, right? So that’s a great example of doing things when you’re in the mood to do something. They feel effortless and pleasurable versus pushing yourself to do it when you, you know, don’t really feel like doing it.

Wouldn’t it be amazing if you could set up your workflow to just kind of always pick the things that you’re naturally in the mood for so everything feels like that joyful, like, “Oh yeah, I’m so happy to be baking these cookies right now, you know? I’m so happy to be working on this marketing copy, or I’m so happy to be doing this report for my boss, or I’m so happy to be doing this customer call because just really my verbal social center is being stimulated right now by my estrogen in my ovulatory phase. This is working for me I’m feeling really good.” It’s so fun since these changes are predictable, and they repeat, you know, every month. You can map out your calendar to optimize your work around this. And, in fact, I put in my own daily planner into the book because…this is another fun funny personal aside.

But years ago, I mean, I was always an eager student, you know, even at a young age, I remember I convinced an employer of mine. I had an internship in high school, I said, “I believe that the key to success is figuring out how to manage your time successfully.” So I convinced them to send me to a time management class, Franklin Covey. And specifically, you know, that’s that whole rhetoric of like, “You gotta sharpen the saw every day and do the same activities and big rocks and the whole thing,” right?

And I had the planner in the analog days, so, you know, it was a big notebook, spiral notebook. And I remember being so excited. I literally was holding this, like, “This is going to, like, change my life.” I filled it out, and, you know, I was, like, really diligent for a week or two and then something changed. I didn’t know what then because I was only in high school, I hadn’t yet done all this work that I now do, and I just felt like I couldn’t do the things that I had mapped out in my calendar. They felt like a burden, and I felt so bad. I felt so self-critical. I said, “Oh my God, I’m so lazy. I’m so undisciplined.” That inner critical voice just started raging, like, “What’s wrong with you?” And I kept trying for several months to just like really stick with whatever it was that I was… Like, every month would start off the same. Like, I’d be, like, “Okay, great. I’m in the zone. I’m doing what I said I was going to do each day,” and then something would change.

I didn’t realize then it was my hormonal brain chemistry was changing. Then I couldn’t follow those same plans in the schedule, and I felt so bad. I literally, after a few months, was so upset about the whole thing. I stopped using that planner. I broke up with time. I stopped wearing a watch. I was like, “That’s it. I’m just never going to be a success because I can’t manage my time.”

Then fast forward years later when I discovered the infradian rhythm, and I create the cycle syncing method, and I start, like, planning all of my work around my biochemical advantages throughout the month for each week. The amount that I could get done in a month astonished me. I mean, I just couldn’t believe it. Because I was enjoying what I was doing. Everything was flowing in terms of my work, and my productivity, and my creativity, and I wasn’t draining my energy, right? We cannot make more time, but we can make more energy. And by working and doing the things that are my natural proclivities based on my infradian rhythm at any given week, I never put myself in the energy hole, right.

Like, you know, when you bake these cookies at 8:00 at night, you don’t really want to do it. You feel exhausted afterwards, and you feel sort of energy hungover the next day. Because we’re not planning our productivity and our creativity around our infradian rhythm, we’re in an energy hangover, in fact, an energy crisis all of the time. And I did say earlier, 90% of moms feel exhausted and to the point where just last year, the World Health Organization made burnout an official medical diagnosis. We’re all working in a way that’s not supporting our infradian rhythm, and that’s really to our detriment.

Katie: It makes so much sense. And I’m so glad that there are people like you out there really breaking this down for women and giving us practical tools, even if the research hasn’t quite caught up to our hormones yet. I think that’s been the lesson for a lot of us. I know it’s part of my story and part of yours as well is that, at the end of the day, we do have to take our health into our own hands. And doctors can be amazing partners, and hopefully, we find some incredible ones to work with. But at the end of the day, we’re the ones responsible for those changes and having tools like this make it so much easier.

And that point we’ve mentioned several times in this interview of just not having to fight your body, that alone is just a complete paradigm shift for women. And so I love that you are spreading the word about this, and I highly recommend your new book. Of course, it will be linked in the show notes at wellnessmama.fm, but any starting advice for women who are listening to this going, “Oh my gosh, yes. I need to do this.” Obviously, get the book but what else? Where can we start?

Alisa: I mean, I think you’ve got to know where you are in your cycle. So like yourself, Katie, if you haven’t downloaded the MyFLO app, that’s a great place to start because it’s going to tell you…it’s the world’s first and only cycle syncing app, of course. I had to build one. So, you know, you’ll know which phase of the cycle you’re in, and it will start to teach you what you need to know about that phase when you go into the cycle syncing section. And it will remind you and send you reminders about, “Okay, you’ve just moved into this phase, you know, you want to think about eating these types of foods, etc.” And we also have content that, you know, you can get more recipes and meal plans, and workout videos, and all of that as well with the cycle syncing membership. So that’s a place where you can get more support. But I would say start with just being aware of where you are in your cycle.

Of course, we didn’t get a chance to talk about, “Well, what if you have hormone problems, or what if you’re on the pill?” And I’ll just quickly say that if you have hormone struggles, you know, I would say, you know, if you have a diagnosed condition like PCOS, or fibroids, or endometriosis, or you have irregular cycles, you do need to do kind of the cleanup work that I describe in my first book, “WomanCode,” to help your body, your endocrine system, let’s say, recalibrate or get back to homeostasis so you can get yourself to a regular cycle so your hormones are giving you the opportunity to have a healthy infradian rhythm.

If you’re on a hormone suppressive birth control, whether that be a pill, or a device, or an insert, unfortunately, then you will not be able to…it kind of really messes with the infradian rhythm, and so you’re not going to have the cycle happening over the 30 days. You’re kind of in this like phaseless no cycle zone, and so you won’t experience these changes. And, of course, I go into detail about what you can do in the book to kind of understand what you need to know about that.

So first things first is just to understand where you are in the cycle, and then pick a lane, right? So there are five different areas in the book that you can start with. You could start with food. You could start with fitness. You could start with the new daily planner, the time and, like, your work, your monthly project list. You could take this into looking at your sex life and relationships, romantic relationship, and you can look at motherhood.

So there are these five charts in the book, then you can just pick one of them and decide that you’re going to just do an experiment for that month. You’re going to just change your food for one month and see how that makes you feel, or you’re just going to do the workouts for a month and see how that makes you feel, and then you start to slowly add, right, because this is really about a system that allows you to really optimize every area of your health and life. So, you can’t expect to make all the changes at once, but you want to build on them over time. And using the charts in the book are really going to help with that. In fact, we also have a great, like a starter, you know, in the flow quick start guide that people are getting when they order the book that’s on the book website. So before the book arrives, you can start to figure out, you know, which life area you want to address, health, work, or relationships, and start to make these changes for that week that you’re waiting for the book to arrive to see how you can apply this in each of these four phases. It’s much easier than you realize once…like, Katie, you’ve been saying, you just start to have that awareness, and then it goes from there.

Katie: I love it. And we might have to do another round one day to address those specific hormone-related, like if you have PCOS, but I love that we covered this for now. And lastly, is there a book or number of books that have really dramatically impacted your life besides obviously your own?

Alisa: Oh, well, yes. There are… I mean, my books are my, like, prized possessions, I would say, and I was really thinking about this. So I think, for me, the very first book that woke me up to the idea that our bodies are special and sacred were “Daughters of the Earth,” which is a book about Native American menstrual rights that I came across as a junior high schooler in my local library, and just something about that was really like a call home in some way. And then Natalie Angier’s book, “Vagina,” hugely eye-opening, and Clarissa Pinkola Estés, “Women who Run with the Wolves.” Also a very game-changing book for me.

Katie: I love it. Those are all great recommendations. I’ll make sure they’re in the show notes as well. But Alisa, thank you so much for your time and being here. I love the education and the work that you do. And I’ll, of course, make sure everything we talked about and a link to our website are in the show notes so you guys can find those if you are walking, or running, or driving while you’re listening to this. But thank you so much for being here.

Alisa: Thanks for having me. It’s always a joy to have a conversation with you about cutting-edge health information.

Katie: I love it. And thanks as always to all of you for listening, for sharing your valuable resource, your time, with both of us. We’re so grateful that you did, and I hope that you will join me again on the next episode of “The Wellness Mama Podcast.”

If you’re enjoying these interviews, would you please take two minutes to leave a rating or review on iTunes for me? Doing this helps more people to find the podcast, which means even more moms and families could benefit from the information. I really appreciate your time, and thanks as always for listening.

Source: https://wellnessmama.com/podcast/floliving/

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pearmelody94-blog · 5 years

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Sunlight Makes You Skinny & Blue Light Makes You Fat: 11 Ways To Biohack Light To Optimize Your Body & Brain.

Many people consider light to be, well, light!

After all, light is just a wave of energy that signifies the absence of darkness, right? Fact is, light has a profound impact on human biology, for better or worse. In my last article on sleep, you learned plenty about the effects of artificial light and blue light on circadian rhythm and sleep, and in other articles, I’ve filled you in on biohacks such as photobiomodulation, near infrared, far infrared, UVA and UVB, including: How Modern Lighting Can Destroy Your Sleep, Your Eyes & Your Health, The Ultimate Guide To Biohacking Your Testosterone, How To Use Low Level Light Therapy and Intranasal Light Therapy For Athletic Performance, Cognitive Enhancement & More. & What’s The Healthiest Way To Tan

But the effects of light go far beyond its potential for positively hacking sleep or enhancing recovery, especially when it comes to the potential for artificial light to damage your overall wellness. The negative health impact of artificial light sources on endocrine and cellular levels in humans includes the risk of cataracts, blindness, age-related macular degeneration, mitochondrial dysfunction, metabolic disorders, disrupted circadian biology and sleep, cancer, heart disease and more.

For example, multiple recent studies have reported that exposure to artificial light can cause negative health effects, such as breast cancer, circadian phase disruption and sleep disorders. One 2015 study reviewed 85 scientific articles and showed that outdoor artificial lights (e.g. street lamps, outdoor porch lights, etc.) are a risk factor for breast cancer and that indoor artificial light intensity elevated this risk. This same study also showed that exposure to artificial bright light during nighttime suppresses melatonin secretion and increases sleep onset latency and increases alertness and that the circadian misalignment caused by artificial light exposure can have significant negative effects on psychological, cardiovascular and metabolic functions.

One perfect example of the effects of modern light on human biology is that of LED (light-emitting diode), which is rapidly replacing compact fluorescent (CFL) bulb, primarily because LEDs do not contain mercury like CFLs and they’re far more energy efficient. LED lighting is used in aviation lighting, automotive headlamps, emergency vehicle lighting, advertising, traffic signals, camera flashes, and general lighting. Large-area LED displays are also used in stadiums, dynamic decorative displays, and dynamic message signs on freeways. But LED’s pose significant environmental risks and toxicity hazards due to their high amount of arsenic, copper, nickel, lead, iron, and silver.

But LED’s can also cause severe retinal damage to the photoreceptors in your eye and have even been shown to induce necrosis (cell death!) in eye tissue. The American Medical Association even put out an official statement warning of the health and safety issues associated with white LED street lamps. Things get even worse once dimming and color changing features are introduced into LED lighting, which is a common lighting feature in modern “smart homes”.

The reason for this is that LED lamps are a form of digital lighting (in contrast, the incandescent light bulbs and halogens light bulbs you’ll learn about momentarily are analog thermal light sources). In a color changing system that allows you to adjust the dim or color of the lights, there are typically three different LED sources: red, green and blue. The intensity of these three sources has to be changed to achieve different colors, and this feature must be controlled digitally via a mechanism called pulse-width modulation. This means the LEDs rapidly alternate between switching to full intensity and then switching off over and over again, resulting in a lighting phenomenon called “flicker”, something I recently discovered during my Building Biology analysis occurs quite a bit even in my own biologically friendly home (influencing me to make some of the lighting changes you’ll read about later in this article) and something that I’ve also learned quite a bit about from my friend Dr. Joe Mercola.

Get The Low Carb Athlete - 100% Free!Eliminate fatigue and unlock the secrets of low-carb success. 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Even though it appears to your naked eye that the LEDs really aren’t changing color or intensity that much, your retina perceives this flicker, and you can often observe this phenomenon if you use an older camera, or a device called a “flicker detector” to record an LED light in your house or an LED backlit computer monitor. Unfortunately, this trick doesn’t work with newer cameras and smartphones, which have a built-in algorithm that detect the flicker frequency and automatically change the shutter speed to improve the recording quality. However, I’ve found that by switching my iPhone to slow-motion video recording, I can often detect flicker in a monitor or light. Ultimately, the problem is this: research has shown that this flicker can irreparably damage the photoreceptor cells in the eye’s retina, resulting in issues such as headaches, poor eyesight, brain fog, lack of focus, increased risk of cataracts and sleep disruptions.

Unfortunately, energy saving lamps such as compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) can also cause similar issues and can induce oxidative stress damage that affects not only the eyes but also sensitive photoreceptors on many other areas of the skin, along with endocrine and hormonal damage.

But light can be good too and in fact, the therapeutic use of full spectrum light – also known as “photobiology” – offers many surprising health benefits. For example, in the 1700’s, scientist-inventor Andreas Gärtner, built the first phototherapeutical device, which was a foldable hollow mirror he could use to concentrate sunlight onto the aching joints of patients. A gold leaf on the mirror absorbed UV radiation from sunlight, then transformed this light into near-infrared and red wavelengths very similar to those used in modern times by people who use infrared saunas to manage joint pain. , which is beneficial because it can penetrate deeply into the tissue. In the 1800’s, a General Augustus Pleasonton published the book “Influence of the Blue Ray of the Sunlight“, in which he describes “Influence Of The Blue Ray of Sunlight and Blue Colour Of The Sky In Developing Animal And Vegetable Life And In Restoring Health From Acute And Chronic Disorders To Humans And Domestic Animals”. In the late 1870’s, Dr. Edwin Dwight Babbitt published his book, “Principles of Light and Color“, reporting on research in which he used colored light on different parts of the human body to elicit therapeutic results. In 1897, Indian physician Dinshah Ghadiali used chromotherapy in the form of indigo-colored light as a treatment for gastric inflammation and colitis, and late 19th century Niels Ryberg Finsen of Denmark, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology in 1903, used red light to treat smallpox, and other light spectrums to address chronic disease such as tuberculosis. In the decades following, Finsen phototherapy became more developed as a cutting-edge therapeutic intervention in modern medicine, including the groundbreaking book “Light Therapeutics” by Dr. John Harvey Kellogg and work by Dr. Oscar Bernhard, a Swiss surgeon who used heliotherapy (sun therapy) during surgeries.

Light can drastically affect our metabolism too. For example, the master fuel sensor in our cells called mTOR (“mammalian target of rapamycin”) facilitates protein synthesis and growth while inhibiting internal recycling of used or damaged cells. Plants and humans grow more in the summertime because there is not only more food abundance but usually more natural light too, which can activate mTOR. But your body needs a darkness – a winter, so to speak. The master fuel sensor in the winter, and in darkness, is AMP-0activated protein kinase (AMPK) which optimizes energy efficiency and stimulates recycling of cellular materials. This cycle happens during the night. Now, consider what happens if you are in a constant stage of light: your hormones and metabolism shift towards constant mTOR activation growth and anabolism – which is generally associated, when in excess, with issues such as cancer and shortened lifespan. On the flipside, by introducing periods of darkness (along with, ideally, fasting), you strike a balance between constant anabolism with zero cellular cleanup and smart catabolism with adequate time for natural cell turnover.

So how can you mitigate the damage of the wrong kind of light and maximize the benefits of the right kind of light? You’re about to find out, along with how sunlight makes you skinny, blue light makes you fat and 11 ways to optimize light in your home and office environment.

11 Ways To Biohack Light To Optimize Your Body & Brain.

#1: Choose Your Lighting Carefully.

One way to ensure you are purchasing a healthier lightbulb is to look at at a value on the light label or box called the Color Rendering Index (CRI). CRI is a quantitative measure of the ability of a light source to reveal the colors of various objects accurately in comparison with an ideal or natural light source. For example, sunlight, incandescent light bulbs and candles all have a CRI of 100. When purchasing LED, look for an R9 (full red spectrum) CRI of close to 97, which is the highest CRI you are likely going to be able to find and can get you as close as possible to natural light. You also need to look at the color temperature of the light, which is the temperature of the light expressed in Kelvin (K) degrees. For example, the sun has a physical color temperature of 5,500 K, and a correlated color temperature (how the light source appears to the human eye, of about 2,700K. So although many LED’s have a color temperature of up to 6,500K, an ideal LED choice would be an LED with a color temperature as close as possible to 2,700K (in comparison, most incandescent lamps have a maximum color temperature of 3,000 K, since the light filament would melt if the temperature were any higher).

You can also consider the use of “biological LED”. For example, the company “Lighting Science” produces a line of biological bulbs that give off light meant to complement the circadian rhythm, not disrupt it. The light that emanates from Lighting Science’s Sleepy Baby bulb, for example, does not interfere with melatonin production, the hormone that helps you and your baby sleep, and is designed to be as close to candlelight as possible. In contrast, their GoodDay spectrum of light is engineered to provide light energy largely missing from conventional LED, fluorescent and incandescent sources, specifically providing a rich white illumination with high color rendering inspired by morning sunlight that supports alertness, mood and performance. Unfortunately, while these light bulbs are a decent option for “customizing” certain areas of your home to have high or low amounts of blue light depending on whether that area of the home is a “waking” area (e.g. office, gym, garage) vs. a “sleeping” area (e.g. bedroom, master bathroom, etc.), they still do produce a significant amount of flicker based on both my own testing and the testing of the building biologist I hired to audit my home.

For the ultimate solution, although it can be more expensive and far less energy efficient, I recommend switching as many lightbulbs in your home and office as possible to A) the old-school style of clear incandescent bulbs, preferably without any coating (which changes the beneficial wavelengths) B) a candlelight-style organic light emitting diode (OLED), which is a human-friendly type of lighting because it is blue-hazard-free and has a low correlated color temperature (CCT) illumination, which means the candlelight style is deprived of high-energy blue radiation, and it can be used for a much longer duration than normal LED’s without causing retinal damage.

If you decide to go with incandescent, many incandescents are not clear, but instead coated with white to make them more aesthetically pleasing. Steer clear of these, and instead choose a 2,700 K incandescent light bulb or a low-voltage halogen lamp. The one benefit of the latter is that low-voltage halogen lights are very energy efficient compared to a standard incandescent lamp. However, most halogens operate on an alternating current (AC), which generates a large amount of dirty electricity, so you must use a direct current (DC) transformer with them. The problem is that to do this, you need an inverter switching power supply to convert AC to DC, and this can cause high voltage transients (dirty electricity) and relatively high electrical fields, both of which were measured by my friend Dr. Mercola when he tried to pull this off. So the only way to make a halogen lighting solution work is to go off-grid and switch your entire house to all DC power, or to use solar panels with no AC inverter installed, and used the solar power battery to run the halogens. I suspect this is too much trouble for most folks, and because of that, a limited use of biological LED along with either low-temperature incandescent bulbs or blue-hazard-free candlelight OLED lighting appears to be the best option.

#2: Get Morning Sun

Unless you’re trying to send your body a message that it “isn’t morning yet” to shift your circadian rhythm forward (see my last big article on sleep), you should actually expose yourself to as much natural sunlight as possible first thing in the morning. In fact, the more sun you get in the morning, the more melatonin you make at night. A morning, fasted walk in the sunshine is one of the best ways to optimize your overall health, and the full spectrum of UVA, UVB and near and far infrared from sunlight can also mitigate some of the damage of artificial light the rest of the day.

Interestingly, based on research by my friend Dr. Chris Masterjohn, it turns out that if you are deficient in the fat-soluble vitamins A and D, your photoreceptors become less sensitive and the strategy of getting adequate sunlight becomes less effective – so be sure to implement everything that makes sunlight able to charge your internal battery, including not only a diet rich in healthy fats, but also high in minerals, clean, pure water and frequent skin contact with the planet Earth. This is also yet another reason I am a fan of daily use the SuperEssentials brand of fish oil: not only does it have high amounts of Vitamin A and D added to it from purified fish liver oil, but it also contains a full milligram of astaxanthin, which can protect photoreceptors from oxidative damage generated by artificial light!

#3: Use Blue Light Blockers.

Seven years ago, in an attempt to minimize the slight headache and eye discomfort I often experienced after spending long periods of daytime work on my computer, I purchased my first pair of “biohacked” glasses from a company called Gunnar. While these glasses significantly reduced my exposure to monitor flicker and even allowed me to wander through malls and grocery stores without being bothered as much by the harsh artificial lighting, blue light blocking technology has come a long way since then. For example, many companies, such as Amber (code: GREENFIELD), Felix and Swannies (code: BEN10), now produce untinted, anti-glare glasses that can block the higher range of the blue light spectrum, and other brands, such as Spektrum, produce slightly tinted glasses that reduce even more of the blue light spectrum. Gunnar and Swannies now make yellow-tinted glasses that block most blue light, and Ra (code: BEN 10), Uvex and True Dark make orange and red-tinted glasses that block all blue light. I personally wear clear or yellow lenses for daytime computer work, nighttime dinners out or driving at night, then switch to the more effective but far less attractive orange or red lenses for the evening at home. If you want to get very specific with blocking the most harmful wavelengths of light, you should check that the glasses block the spectrum of 400-485nm (The Ra glasses are an example of a lens that blocks that specific spectrum).

#4: Avoid Artificial Light Not Only At Night, But In The Morning Too.

You’ll often hear that you should be careful with isolated and concentrated sources of blue light at night, but this rule applies to the morning too. Especially until you’ve gotten out into the sunlight, you should avoid artificial light as much as possible in the morning, particularly by limiting harsh, concentrated sources of blue light such as artificial home and office lighting or bright screens, and by instead opening curtains to allow as much natural light into the home and office as possible. In addition, you’ll often find me wearing blue light blocking glasses for the first couple hours of the morning, and avoid turning on the kitchen lights, bedroom lights, etc. unless absolutely necessary (trust me: making a big cup of hot coffee in the dark isn’t a good idea).

#5: Use Red Light In The Evening.

For the bedroom, consider red incandescent bulbs, particularly in the light fixtures near the bed. Candles are also an excellent option for both the bedroom and the dinner table, although you must choose fragrance-free, natural palm or beeswax candles, since many modern candles are riddled with paraffin, soy, toxic dyes and fragrances. If your phone or e-reader has the option, always switch it to night mode or, better yet, red light mode in the evening. Here’s exactly how to do”The Hidden Smartphone Red Screen Trick”.

#6: Install IrisTech On All Monitors.

I first became aware of IrisTech software when I interviewed a 20-year-old, brilliant Bulgarian computer programmer named Daniel Georgiev on my podcast. Daniel invented a special piece of software that goes far beyond the blue-light blocking computer software called “F.lux” that many people are already familiar with. IrisTech controls the brightness of the monitor with the help of your computer’s video card, allows you to have adequate brightness without monitor flicker, reduces the color temperature of your monitor, optimizes screen pulsations to reduce eye strain, adjusts the brightness of your screen to the light around you, and even automatically adjusts your computer monitor’s settings based on the sun’s position wherever you happen to be in the world. It has settings for pre-sleep, reading, programming, movies and many others, and even allows you to receive pop-up reminders for activities such as eye exercises and stretching. Click here to get IrisTech.

#7: Use An Anti-Glare Computer Monitor.

Fancy, modern LCD monitors are not flicker-free, even though many people think they are because they don’t seem to appear as harsh as older computer monitors. These LCD monitors originally started out by using something called CCFL (cold cathode fluorescent lamps) as a backlight source for the monitor, but in recent years manufacturers have shifted to using LEDs (light emitting diodes). If you have one of those thin monitors, then you probably have an LCD monitor with LED, and if you are unsure, you can check the model number on the backside of the monitor and Google it. Due to the way brightness is controlled on LED backlights, it produces the same LED light flicker you’ve already learned about. The monitor I use is an Eizo FlexScan EV series, which regulates brightness and makes flicker unperceivable, without any drawbacks such as compromised color stability.  It allows you to lower the typical factory preset color temperature setting of 6,500 K down to the more natural 2,700K and also has a “Paper Mode” feature, which produces long reddish wavelengths and reduces the amount of blue light from the monitor. The Eizo monitors also have a non-glare screen, which reduces eye fatigue by dissipating reflective light that otherwise makes the screen difficult to view.

#8: Use Light-blocking Tape Or Stickers.

Even if you are blocking light from reaching your eyes at night by using blue light blocking glasses, a sleep mask, black-out curtains, etc., you still need to be cognizant of items in your bedroom that produce LED lights, such as televisions, clocks, power strips or computer chargers. This is because even if your eyes are covered, your skin has photoreceptors that can detect all these sources of light. Even if you have mitigated all light sources in your own bedroom, walking into any hotel room at night presents you with a veritable Christmas tree-like lighting experience. at hotels. Fortunately, you can easily purchase simple and affordable light blocking pieces of tape, such as “LightDims” that are specially designed, removable tiny covers which act like sunglasses for irritating LEDs on electronics. They can dim or completely cover unwanted LED glare or flare in any room. You simply peel off a sticker and apply it to your electronics, keeping them functional while dimming annoying LEDs to a comfortable or completely unnoticeable level. If you ever feel like you are being bombarded with LED’s or external sources of light in any room – even when you feel like you’ve already shut everything off, these stickers work perfectly.

OK, I’m going to stop for a second and go down a rabbit hole here: why on earth would you want to limit the amount of light that your skin is exposed to? Frankly, because your skin is an eye.

See, in the animal kingdom, light-sensing photoreceptors that go far beyond the eyes are actually quite prevalent. Most of the photoreceptors scientists have found outside the eyes are usually located in the brain or the nerves (or in insects, on the antennae).

But a number of different photoreceptors have been found on animal skin too, particularly in active color-changing cells or skin organs called chromatophores. You likely know these better as the black, brown or brightly colored spots on fish, crabs, frogs, octopus and squid. In many cases, animals can control these chromatophores for camouflage (to match the color and pattern of a background) or to produce colorful signals for either aggression or attracting a mate.

But aside those photoreceptors utilized for camouflage or mate attraction, what in the world is the purpose of all the other photoreceptors? It appears that they help to maintain a normal circadian rhythm, even without precise knowledge of a light source’s location in space or time. These circadian rhythms include the timing of daily cycles of alertness, sleep and wake, mood, appetite, hormone regulation and body temperature. In some animals, they have a quite different task: magnetoreception, which is the ability to detect the Earth’s magnetic field for the purposes of finding direction – an underlying mechanism for orientation in, for example, birds, bees and cockroaches.

But it turns out that people have nonvisual photoreceptors too. With the discovery of light-sensitive retinal cells in addition to rods and cones in mammalian retinas, it has become obvious that humans must use some sort of nonvisual pathway for at least some of the control of behavior and function. For example, pupil size and circadian rhythms vary with changing light, even in functionally blind humans who have lost all rods and cones due to genetic disorders. Recent research with rodents at Johns Hopkins University suggests that these nonvisual pathways can even regulate mood and learning ability.

It turns out that these photoreceptors in humans go far beyond the eyes and that, just like animals, they are found in our skin, subcutaneous fat, central nervous system and host of other areas in our body. Because the human skin is exposed to a wide range of light wavelengths, one recent study investigated whether opsins, the light-activated photoreceptors that mediate photoreception in the eye, are expressed in the skin to potentially serve as “photosensors”. They showed that four major opsins are indeed expressed in two major human skin cell types: melanocytes and keratinocytes and that these opsins are capable of initiating light-induced signaling pathways to the rest of the body.

Another recent study at Johns Hopkins University discovered melanopsin inside blood vessels. Melanopsin is another one of the photoreceptors used in retinal nonvisual photoreception. The researchers found that this light-sensitive protein can regulate blood vessel contraction and relaxation, and can also be damaged by exposure to blue light. Interestingly, melanopsin tends to be much weaker and more susceptible to this damage when fat-soluble Vitamins A and D are deficient.

Another recent finding backs up the fact that it is not only light falling on our eyes which determine our “circadian rhythms” – the body’s internal clock. In this study, it was shown that shining a bright light on the skin (in this case, behind the knees) has the same effect as shining light on the retina when it comes to regulating our 24-hour circadian clock. Scientists suggest that one reason that humans have circadian rhythm photoreceptor on their skin is that when light falls on blood vessels near the skin, it increases the concentration of nitric oxide in the blood, which can significantly shift the circadian clock. This should be especially important to you when you learn this: blue light can penetrate skin as deep as blood vessels, which means that artificial light on your skin can directly affect your circadian rhythm.

Then there’s a photoreceptor protein called “neuropsin”, which is primarily found in the retina but is also located in the skin and is another of the light-sensitive pigments that have been found to help run the body’s master clock. Neuropsin responds to UV-A and violet light, while melanopsin seems more sensitive to blue and red light. This may partially explain why going out into the sun during the day (which activates neuropsin) may work so well for regulating your circadian rhythm.

Finally, it seems that these photoreceptors strongly interact with hormone production and fat burning too. In one study, researchers put some fat cells under lamps giving off visible light that simulated the sun for four hours and kept other samples in the dark. After two weeks, the fat cell groups showed remarkable differences, including fewer lipid droplets (these are the organelles that store fat), compared the cells that didn’t get any light. This means that exposure to adequate sunlight (on both the skin and the eyes) could actually cause your cells to store less fat – and based on a number of compelling studies, artificial light (especially blue light) may have the complete opposite effect!

If you want to take a deep dive into how profoundly light can interact with the skin, you should check out work of my former podcast guest Dr. Jack Kruse, who even talks about how light exposure to the eyes and the skin affects your carbohydrate sensitivity, thyroid activity, hormone production and much more.

Fascinating, eh? Alright, back to the light-hacking tips…

#9: Use Driftbox For Your TV.

The Driftbox is a small box that you plug into your TV. It removes a percentage of blue light from the content you watch, and allows you to view the TV screen at night with far less artificial light exposure. You can set how much blue you want to take out. For example, you can set it to remove 50% (or any percentage in increments of 10%) of all blue light over a period of one hour (that way, the transition is seamless and virtually unnoticeable if you’re watching a movie at night).

#10: Don’t Overuse Sunglasses.

Unless I’m trying to avoid snow blindness from a day of snowboarding on a glaring bright white slope or I’m at a windy beach getting sand blown in my face, you’ll rarely find me sporting sunglasses. Why? Our bodies are designed to be able to perfectly cope with sunlight. The retina in your eyes actually registers how bright it is, then secretes specific hormones to keep you safe from the sun. Specifically, sunlight stimulates your pituitary glands, via the optic nerve, to produce a hormone that triggers the melanocytes in your skin to produce more melanin, which allows you to tan and offers some protection from excess UV radiation. When you wear sunglasses, less sunlight reaches the optic nerve, and thus less protective melanin is made and the higher the risk of a carcinogenic and uncomfortable sunburn. However: if you don’t happen to have a set of blue light blocking glasses handy, there can be an advantage to “wearing sunglasses at night”, especially while driving: car headlamps are notorious sources of concentrated blue light from LED!

#11: Use Photobiomodulation Daily.

Photobiomodulation therapy involves using light of all wavelengths, including visible light, ultraviolet and red near-, mid- and far-infrared wavelengths to combat the effects of artificial light and to also elicit some surprising research-proven health benefits for the entire body. For example, blue light therapy has been shown to be good at relieving joint pain, although it can be harsh on the eyes and the circadian rhythm if you overdo it. Red light has a host of research proving it’s efficacy for relieving inflammation, balancing blood sugar, lowering fat deposition, improving macular degeneration, assisting with melatonin production, increasing blood flow to the brain, building stem cells in bone marrow, and even enhancing kidney and thyroid function. Perhaps most surprisingly, Olympic athletes are now using red light therapy devices as a performance-enhancing aid to increase time to exhaustion. One of the most commonly used wavelengths of light in photobiomodulation is near-infrared, which begins at about 750 nanometers (nm) and goes all the way into 1,200 nm. In the lower range, near-infrared penetrates beneath the skin, and at the high range, deep into the body, resulting in a significant release of nitric oxide and stimulation of mitochondrial pathways that assist with ATP production. Far-infrared is another spectrum frequently used in photobiomodulation, especially in the form of heat lamps or infrared saunas. It is absorbed by the water in your body, which is why it cannot penetrate as deeply as near infrared, but also has significant healing effects on the body, especially if you are well hydrated on some form of “structured water” while using it (read Gerald Pollack’s book “The Fourth Phase of Water” for more on this).

A word of warning: there appears to be a “Goldilocks effect” when it comes to photobiomodulation: most photobiomodulation devices use a power density that is between 10 and 20 milliwatts per square centimeter. That is the equivalent light dose of 1 joule per 100 seconds, and since approximately 10 joules is considered to be a therapeutic dose of light, you really don’t need to use photobiomodulation for much more than 20 minutes per day (depending on the power of the device you use and your distance from the device). In addition, all light emits a frequency, and it appears that the ideal frequency is 10-40 hertz – with higher frequencies potentially causing a negative biological effect. I personally use a photobiomodulation panel of clinical-grade red and near-infrared light called a JOOVV (placed near the standup desk in my office) for 20 minutes per day, along with a head-worn device called a “Vielight” (code: GREENFIELD) for 25 minutes every other day, and finally, a far infrared sauna for 30 minutes three times per week.

Summary

Ultimately, you should now realize how profound an impact light has on your biology, why sunlight can regulate hormones and metabolism to allow you to stay lean and healthy, while artificial light can do the opposite, and the best way to “use light” to your metabolic advantage. I hope this has been helpful to you. Do you have questions, thoughts or feedback for me on any of these light hacking tips you’ve discovered? Leave your comments below and one of us will reply!

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Source: https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/article/biohacking-articles/best-lighting-home-office/

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drstevengabriel · 6 years

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How To Biohack Yourself Today:⠀ ⠀ 1. Try doing The Longevity Diet. The belief behind this lifestyle is that what you eat determines how long you live and how well you live.⠀ ⠀ Basically, you want to reduce or completely eliminate eating food that will decrease the quality of your life, making it shorter and sicker and to increase eating nutrients that will make your life longer and healthier.⠀ ⠀ The Longevity diet is proven to help you:⠀ -Activate stem cell-based renewal in the body for anti-aging benefits.⠀ -Lose weight and reduce abdominal fat for greater health.⠀ -Extend your healthy lifespan with simple everyday changes.⠀ -Prevent age-related muscle and bone loss.⠀ -Build your resistance to diabetes, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's, and cancer.⠀ ⠀ Think of food as a mechanism to repair, build, support, and enhance your biological processes.⠀ ⠀ 2. Cut added sugars from your diet, which increases inflammation in the body and lowers your energy levels.⠀ ⠀ 3. Get more sleep to reduce your risk of chronic disease, lower functioning immune system, depression, lack of focus, irritability, increased appetite, and unbalanced hormones. Your body repairs itself while you are sleeping, regenerating cells and cleaning out the environmental toxins you endure throughout the day.⠀ ⠀ 4. Take time to meditate and zone out. This is especially important if you suffer from anxiety or stress. It also helps you sleep, and boosts your mental and physical health.⠀ ⠀ 5. Get moving. Think of exercise as a basic component for creating optimal health and not as a way to lose weight fast. Most of us live sedentary lives, which is why making time for daily movement is so important.⠀ ⠀ 6. Take nootropics, which are brain-enhancing drugs and supplements. Nootropics range from turmeric and vitamin D to adaptogens.⠀ ⠀ 7. Take cold showers to start your day. This increases circulation, mental clarity, and jolts the body.⠀ ⠀ 8. Hang upside down. This forces blood to your brain and may help strengthen capillaries in the brain increasing mental performance.⠀ ⠀ #practicelife⠀ @prolonfmd⠀ #thelongevitydiet⠀ #biohacking⠀ #biohackyourself⠀ #meditation⠀ #nootropics⠀ #fastingmimickingdiet — view on Instagram https://ift.tt/2Xe1lpH

#Instagram #IFTTT

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ecocore · 7 years

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Open Source Gendercodes

Ryan Hammond is an interdisciplinary artist and researcher whose current work, “Open Source Gendercodes,” focuses on the interplay between gender variation and technoscience. By developing novel sex hormone production technologies, OSG attempts to queer current regimes of ownership and biopower.

Ryan and Lee Pivnik discussed OSG, and where the work is at currently for ECOCORE - The Queer Issue.

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LP: I think it’s important to start with some detailed explanations. I don’t think I’m alone in regrettably feeling ignorant towards the histories of production for most products I consume, and when it comes to hormone production, I never even considered how something like Estrogen makes it from the lab to the individual. Could you explain how hormones are currently being produced, and how your project works to disrupt and democratize that?

RH: In human bodies, all steroid hormones including estrogens (estradiol, estrone, etc.) and androgens (testosterone, dihydrotestosterone, etc.) are produced from cholesterol. Cholesterol is the “substrate” that’s transformed through a series of enzymatically catalyzed chemical reactions to make pregnenolone > progesterone > androstenedione > testosterone > estrone > estradiol. Pharmaceutical steroid hormones are currently produced through multistage fermentation processes, sometimes combined with chemical synthesis steps. Often animal fats, or soybean oil and other plant oils containing phytosterols are used as substrates for microbes that enzymatically transform them. The development of these production technologies from the late 1800’s up to the present is entangled with power structures and ideological frameworks that co-create bodies, subjectivities, and genders. Efforts to eliminate queer, gender non-conforming, non-reproductive behaviors - as well as increase heterosexual prowess and enable lifelong performance of sanctioned masculinities and femininities drove the development of these technologies. Geopolitical forces, state enforced frameworks for the ownership of organisms and biomolecules, colonially imposed and medically enforced binary frameworks of sex and gender, population control and reproductive regimes have sculpted and co-created what we commonly refer to as “male and female sex hormones.” This is what’s most interesting to me, to collage and patch together an image of molecular technologies of gender as hyperobjects that I’m inescapably tangled in, and then involving myself in the parts that are least visible or accessible to me.

Initially I had hoped to help create a way for people to cheaply produce their own sex hormones and form coops for distributed control and production of drugs. While this is technically feasible with current production technologies and emerging Synthetic Biology techniques (the US military is currently funding several initiatives to produce on demand pharmaceuticals in combat zones in briefcase-refrigerator sized bioproduction units) -- the prospect of an affordable device that could produce hormones in transgenic yeast or plants, and additionally perform extraction, purification, and dosage in a safe way is far in the future.

Using SynBio to develop technologies for, cheap, democratized bioproduction is not an interesting research pathway to pharmaceutical companies because this does not grow profits and consolidate power. If we are going to imagine the “radical potential” of these types of technologies to create alternative futures, we have to find alternative ways to drive research in those directions. This is a special time for synthetic biology as it emerges: regulatory frameworks in the U.S. have yet to constrain the use of gene editing technologies, and the tools of the trade are becoming more accessible and affordable. In the popular imaginings that headline the pop discourse of these technologies, they have the capability to create utopian societies of ecologically synchronous abundance and guilt free consumption, or produce apocalyptic deserts at the whims of basement bioterrorists or unwitting experimenters. Most realistically, these technologies have great potential to calcify and reinforce the current imbalances of power and privilege.

Thinking on a smaller scale, outside of this utopian ideal of democratized bioproduction technologies: development of new, cheaper production methods - and their dedication to the public domain, could enable smaller generics companies to enter the market, drive down prices, and increase availability. This is the logic of the team working on the Open Source Insulin project at Counter Culture Labs as well. Creating “open source” drug production protocols is an act of biotechnical disobedience aimed at interrupting the cycle of patenting and legal monopolies that enable price jacking and profiteering in the health industry.

Additionally, could you briefly explain why tobacco plants work best for this?

I’m not necessarily interested in the tobacco plant itself, but in plants in general. It’s been shown that plant based bioproduction systems have several attractive advantages over yeast, bacterial, or mammalian systems. Namely that they’re less susceptible to contamination, and can dramatically lower the cost of production. This also, in my mind, makes something like an algal bio production system an ideal starting point for small scale, “democratized” bioproduction technologies. I focused on the tobacco plant early on in the project because it is a “model” organism, meaning there is already a large body of research on the plant, it’s genetics, metabolic pathways, etc. It has been metabolically engineered to produce human collagen as well as several vaccines. It also has an unusually high level of cholesterol compared to other plants, and has been previously successfully modified to accumulate cholesterol, and to express the first gene in the human steroid hormone metabolic pathway which effectively increased production of pregnenolone and progesterone.

[IMAGE CREDIT Ma, Julian K-C., Pascal M. W. Drake, and Paul Christou. "Genetic Modification: The Production of Recombinant Pharmaceutical Proteins in Plants." Nat Rev Genet Nature Reviews Genetics 4.10 (2003): 794-805. Web.]

The other reason I’m focusing on a plant system is because a French pharma company has already successfully engineered yeast to produce human steroid hormones (their published research deals with hydrocortisone specifically) and subsequently filed for patent. As far as published research goes - higher plants and algal hosts are uncharted territory for estrogen and androgen production, and aren’t currently subject to ownership claims.

I understand that you’re in a trial stage currently, and you are working on “synthesizing necessary genes and producing transformation plasmids that will be shared with collaborators.” Can you explain this process as well?

Yes - basically, there are established methods for “designing” genes - creating sequences of nucleotides that are optimized to do what you want them to do in an organism. There is a lot that is not understood still, and a lot of unpredictability -- but there are ways to designate expression levels of genes, ensure proper folding of proteins, signal transport to specific areas within the cell, and support interaction with other molecules through the design of the gene sequences. It’s a lot of reading papers, seeing what worked for other people, messing with sequences of nucleotides, and the eventually sending off your designed sequence to a company that does gene synthesis. Once the gene is synthesized and mailed to you, it can be ligated (covalently bonded onto other DNA fragments with an enzyme called ligase) into a plasmid -- which is just a circular segment of DNA that can be easily transformed into microbes for expression and replication. With the assistance of a plant pathogen called agrobacterium - the synthesized genes can be inserted into plants. In the wild, agrobacterium genetically modify plants - inserting genes that encode production of auxins (plant hormones that induce tumor growth) and other genes that cause the plant to produce nutrients for the bacteria to feed off of. The tumors are called, “crown galls,” once I learned what they look like, I started to notice them everywhere.

You’re taking new precautions during this stage of the project to protect the work from being co-opted and monetized. What led you to this development, and how are you ensuring that you keep the project open to collaboration but guarded from the same companies and corporations that create this accessibility issue in the first place?

There is a trend in the “open source science,” biohacking, and diybio community to open research and dedicate scientific tools to the public domain or “commons” by publishing (after which it is considered “prior art” rendering it unpatentable and open to reuse or modification by anyone). The problem with this is that small modifications can still be patented. For example, let's say that publicly funded research shows that a newly discovered plant contains a potent cancer-therapeutic, which the researchers successfully produced in a bioreactor with transgenic yeast. A pharmaceutical company could then tweak the system outlined in that study to make production more efficient -- then patent the organism or process as an invention and monopolize the market. And this in fact is what happens all the time - research is funded by public tax dollars, and then snatched up by a private company that claims exclusive rights to something which stands on the shoulders of an entire community outside the patent holder.

I also had some discussions with activists and organizers in Baltimore’s queer and trans community and the one message I was hearing from everyone was, “are you really doing enough to protect the work from being co-opted and monetized?” That really resonated with me, so after that I started to work harder to educate myself and search for some way to create this “openness” that is necessary for collaborative science (especially something as complex as metabolic engineering), while still protecting the work from being scooped up and patented by some “business-minded” person.

So with all that in mind I’m working on a web platform to enable secure communication between contractually bound collaborators, as well as to provide a public facing component. Last fall I connected with a biotech lawyer who offered to do some pro-bono work for the project and create a terms of service document for the website which stipulates that if a person uses information or plasmid DNA provided through the website, they must agree to contribute their results and data back to the community under the same terms

After you produce the work that can be shared with collaborators, where can you see this project going? Do you have a desired outcome? --I’m sure outcome is the wrong word, but I’m interested in knowing what effects this research could have.

I am not trained as a scientist -- I am really pushing my mind to do this work because I love the idea and I want to see if flourish. I enjoy the challenge, and the process has been very transformative for me. Scientific research takes a long time, and is inherently uncertain -- especially when dealing with the complexity of biological systems. I’ve had to learn to be open to that uncertainty and to the possibility of finding answers that are not necessarily leading in the direction I started with.

Did you imagine there would be such an overwhelming response to this project when you began it?

I really didn’t -- and I think overwhelming is such a good way to put it. It was actually so beautiful after running the crowdfunder, to hear from many other people who had thought about pursuing the same research and wanted to see it progress. There were also many valid critiques of what the project could become that I had to spend a lot of time with before I felt comfortable proceeding.

Have you found many others working between these communities? Any other exciting people or projects you’d like to highlight?

I’m very excited to see the Open Source Insulin project progress.

There is a group called Gynepunk out of Spain that I think is doing very interesting work on creating DIY/DIWO tools and methods for gynecology.

I’m also a big fan of Paloma Lopez and Leslie Garcia’s work. They have started the Interspecifics Collective in Mexico City, and work on creating open source tools to explore interspecies communication and aesthetics -- generating sound compositions from the movement and electromagnetic activities of microbes and plants as they are affected by human touch and other interactions.

There is also a person named Mary Maggic who is doing what she calls “River Gynecology” by adapting protocols for detecting estrogenic and endocrine disrupting chemicals in waterways with transgenic yeast to a DIY/DIWO context.

I also think that “biohacking” is such a buzz topic right now because it seems very edgy and punk, but there’s a lot of really exciting work happening within the “open source science” movement that isn’t highlighted because it’s not as slick and high-tech heavy as other things. Mboa Nkoudou is doing really interesting work -- expanding on Shiv Visvanathan’s concept of, “Cognitive Justice” to contextualize the open source movement or the “maker movement” to the global south. I met Mboa at the Global Open Science Hardware Conference, where he facilitated discussions on the ways “Open Source” and “Maker Culture” participate in neo-colonialism, and how to change the culture of these communities in the west so that we’re not contributing to neo-colonial efforts intentionally or ignorantly.

Max Liboiron who runs a feminist marine science lab in Canada called Civic Laboratory for Environmental Action Research (CLEAR) is also doing really great work to have critical discussions about equity in the Open Source Science Hardware community.

I was reading about a previous project you did in 2014 titled In Between Utopia and Dystopia, which involved collaborating with a group of high schoolers to speculate how emerging fields in science and tech may shape the future. I’ve been reading José Esteban Muñoz’s Cruising Utopia, The Then and There of Queer Futurity, which challenges us to consider a Queer Utopia.

In his introduction, Muñoz states “Queerness is essentially about the rejection of a here and now and an insistence on potentiality or concrete possibility for another world.” and argues that a queer utopia is necessary to envision as it provides a roadmap towards a better future and an escape from a present where a shortsighted queer politics edges towards assimilation.

Because of your project’s intrinsic futurity and your practice’s history with speculative design, I wanted to know if you’ve considered a Queer Utopia - or would like to, if only for a moment.

[SPECULATIVE PRODUCT DESIGNS BY Se’daysia Cooper-Lee, Nhiaya Williams, Tayler Corporal, Reona Macklin, Dominique Stepney ]

Yes definitely, this work actually grew out of a speculative fiction practice where I was thinking a lot about what utopic technologies might look like to me. That period of time when I was facilitating speculative fiction workshops was the same time period when I started getting involved at the Baltimore Underground Science Space. In my personal life, I had for a long time been following this scientific discourse on gender and sexual variation that I was exposed to when I was in college in neuroscience classes, and I didn’t really know what to do with it yet.

For me as a non-binary queer person, to learn that there were people putting so much time and money into studying gender and sexual variance was really striking. There’s an immediate anxiety, when you see that people are working so hard to find genetic and neuronal and hormonal differences to define and categorize you (and making money off of it), but there’s also this element of curiosity involved when you see someone offering a neat and tidy deterministic explanation for your own experience. There’s also the underlying fear that the search for a cause, always has the potential to become the search for a cure, or some method of biopolitical regulation of subjectivities.

One of the areas that was really fascinating to me was the study of human pheromones. These experiments were very controversial because the way they were structured was filled with bias, and others were not able to reproduce the results consistently. But independent of any discussion of their validity as scientific contributions, they started to become folk knowledge as all these pop articles started circulating their claims: that women were happier and more productive in the presence of male sweat and male pheromones. I started to hear these ideas repeated, I think because it fit so conveniently into our binary socialization of man as a physical laborer and woman as the emotional laborer or the fem customer servant. And it was as if the studies were attempting to naturalize this social contract as reciprocal, innate, and inescapable: Male labor produces sweat, and optimizes the female to do emotional labor. This became my entry point, and I started imagining advertisements for a product that would take advantage and capitalize on this discourse. A desktop bioreactor housing engineered microbes that produce “male” pheremones, marketed to women as a mode of neoliberal empowerment -- or marketed to companies as a way to “optimize” the female worker.

As I dug deeper in the literature, I learned that a lot of pharmaceutical hormones used in birth control and hrt are actually produced by feeding plant oils to microbes during a fermentation process. These pharmaceutical production facilities are like massive prosthetic organs that modulate the enactment of binary gendered subjectivities. This invisible symbiotic relationship between our society and microbes which we’re reliant on for external production of hormones was really interesting, so I started exploring ways to create wearables that might foster a closer or more intentional symbiosis with these microbes.

But ultimately I was drawn more to the possibility of using metabolic engineering to develop a bioproduction system for sex hormones, and dedicate it to the public domain. This drew me I think because it has the potential to act on a poetic and performative level, as well as on a more pragmatic level -- becoming a platform to imagine and manifest desires into a queer technology, rather than just a speculative fiction or a “cultural critique.”

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