January 28, 2024 • 43 mins
In Episode 160, we are joined by Emily McDonald who engages us on the topic of neuroscience and its involvement in health and wellness. We start with a discussion on the nervous system and how it impacts anxiety, and then explore the negative effects of social media on brain function and overall mental health. Regular exercise can provide a more natural outlet for mental focus, but also help to regulate healthy releases of neurotransmitters such as dopamine. The conversation also covers issues around use of cannabis, caffeine and specific supplementation solutions to improve brain health and daily function.
With a passion for neuroscience, a wealth of research experience, and a deep understanding of the power of the mind, Emily is your go-to guide for transforming your life from within. Armed with a master's and bachelor's degree in neuroscience, she seamlessly blends scientific knowledge with practical wisdom to help you rewire your brain and manifest your dream life. Drawing on over 4 years of dedicated research in the field, Emily has unraveled the intricate workings of the brain and its profound impact on our perception, behavior, and overall well-being. Her expertise extends beyond the confines of academia, as she boasts a substantial social media following of over 280,000 engaged individuals. Countless testimonies bear witness to the positive influence she has had on their lives.
You can find out more information on Emily McDonald below:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emonthebrain/
Website: https://www.emonthebrain.com/
The D&D Fitness Radio podcast is available at the following locations for downloadable audio, including:
iTunes – https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/d-d-fitness-radio-podcast/id1331724217
iHeart Radio – https://www.iheart.com/podcast/dd-fitness-radio-28797988/
Spreaker.com – https://www.spreaker.com/show/d-and-d-fitness-radios-show
Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/show/5Py2SSPA4mntNwYRm0Opri
You can reach both Don and Derek at the following locations:
Don Saladino: http://www.DonSaladino.com
Twitter and Instagram - @DonSaladino
YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/donsaladino
Derek M. Hansen: http://www.SprintCoach.com
Twitter and Instagram - @DerekMHansen
YouTube - http://youtube.com/derekmhansen
With a passion for neuroscience, a wealth of research experience, and a deep understanding of the power of the mind, Emily is your go-to guide for transforming your life from within. Armed with a master's and bachelor's degree in neuroscience, she seamlessly blends scientific knowledge with practical wisdom to help you rewire your brain and manifest your dream life. Drawing on over 4 years of dedicated research in the field, Emily has unraveled the intricate workings of the brain and its profound impact on our perception, behavior, and overall well-being. Her expertise extends beyond the confines of academia, as she boasts a substantial social media following of over 280,000 engaged individuals. Countless testimonies bear witness to the positive influence she has had on their lives.
You can find out more information on Emily McDonald below:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emonthebrain/
Website: https://www.emonthebrain.com/
The D&D Fitness Radio podcast is available at the following locations for downloadable audio, including:
iTunes – https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/d-d-fitness-radio-podcast/id1331724217
iHeart Radio – https://www.iheart.com/podcast/dd-fitness-radio-28797988/
Spreaker.com – https://www.spreaker.com/show/d-and-d-fitness-radios-show
Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/show/5Py2SSPA4mntNwYRm0Opri
You can reach both Don and Derek at the following locations:
Don Saladino: http://www.DonSaladino.com
Twitter and Instagram - @DonSaladino
YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/donsaladino
Derek M. Hansen: http://www.SprintCoach.com
Twitter and Instagram - @DerekMHansen
YouTube - http://youtube.com/derekmhansen
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:14):
Welcome to the D and D Fitnessradio podcast, brought to you by your
hosts Don Saladino from New York Cityand Derek Hanson from Vancouver, Canada.
Hey, hey, hello, howare you. I'm doing well. How
(00:35):
are you guys doing well? SoI'm trying to figure it out. You
and I did not meet at thestrong event, right, I don't remember.
I might have briefly said maybe it'sa quick passing, like hey,
yeah, awesome, So it's goodto get connected with you. This is
Derek, Derek's Bean, my podcastpartner. I think we're going on like
two hundred episodes and we just kindof dive into it in Miami, right,
(01:00):
Yeah, I'm I'm actually in FortLauderdale, but close to Miami.
Yeah that's cool. How do youliking it down there? I love it.
I love Florida. I'm not acold person. I don't like the
cold, so yeah, you wouldn'tlike it up here. I'm in New
York, Garrickson, Vancouver, sowe're in like split ends over here.
Yeah. I was actually I wasborn and lived like the first eleven years
(01:22):
of my life in Albany, soyeah, I know the cold. Yeah
yeah, no, wonder you don'tlike. No, wonder you don't like
the cold. So listen, thanksfor thanks for coming on. And I
think the purpose of today is wejust want to kind of showcase what you're
doing tied into our communities a littlebit. Just have a really loose conversation.
We're here to make you, youknow, to elevate you and to
(01:42):
make you look good. And there'sanything we can ever do afterwards you let
us know. Awesome, cool,Thanks, Let's let's do it, Derek,
anything to add I know, yeah, let's say. I just want
to learn more about you. Yeah, definitely, So I'm excited. So,
Emily McConnell, I've been hearing yourname for a little bit. I
think it's because we've been we've rollingin you know, similar circles. I
(02:02):
know at the Strong event. Wewere at the same event too, I
heard your name, Emily. Derekis, as you know, a neuroscientist,
right, which is, if Iscrew this up, it's a branch
of biology, correct. I meanyou're measuring the nervous system. I'm really
gonna measure the brain and the spinalcord, is it? Then? Am
(02:23):
I getting that right? Yeah?Well, the brain, the spinal cord
is the central nervous system, andthen we have neurons throughout our whole body,
and that would be the peripheral nervoussystem. Okay, so it's kind
of all of that tied until yeah, awesome, awesome. So you are
a coach, a consultant down inobviously in the Fort Lauderdale, Miami area,
(02:43):
and just yeah, I think I'mmore excited to me obviously meets you
speak to you and here about onehow'd you get involved in this realm of
science? And the two? Youknow, I definitely want to talk about
this a bit and discuss how.You know, so many times people think
that you and you hear I'm tired. Why am I tired? You know?
(03:06):
Is it? Are you not inshape? Or are you just doing
so much that your body can't recoverfrom that? So I think Derek and
I are gonna have a bunch ofquestions that we want to fire off to
you. So firstly, like,can you give us some backstory? You
know, where you're from, youknow how and how you dove into this
lane. Yeah, so I'm kindof from a few different places. I
(03:27):
had just mentioned I grew up partof my childhood in Upstate New York,
and then my family moved to Dallas, so I lived in Dallas for a
while and then I went to undergradat UT Austin and I actually was a
biology major at first. So whenyou're saying kind of biology will neuroscience is
really kind of like it's known asbeing like integrative, so it's integrates a
(03:49):
lot of different branches of science,like biology, physics, chemistry, all
of those things. But I hatedbiology. I really didn't like it.
It was a lot about plants andthings, and I just wasn't enjoying it.
And I was in an organization atUT Austin and someone and I told
my friends. I was like,you know, I'm just not enjoying biology.
(04:09):
What should I do? And theywere like, just switch your major
in neuroscience. And I'm the typeof person that I just do things.
So I decided to switch my majorin neuroscience. And I fell in love
with the very first class. LikeI aced my first exam, my professor
reached out to me and was like, you couldn't have done better. I
was like, put me in aresearch lab. I want to be researching
neuroscience. So right off, theBAT I started working in a research lab
(04:30):
setting learning and memory in kids throughoutdevelopment, how we organize events in time.
It was really interesting, really cool, but I kind of wanted to
go more the clinical route in thefuture. So I graduated with my Bachelors
of Neuroscience from UT Austin and wona whole bunch of rewards throughout research,
(04:51):
which was really cool, and thenwent straight to the University of Arizona to
get my PhD at neuroscience. Andfrom there I also was kind of going
through some major life changes, likea breakup, and just like a lot
of things that you know, itkind of puts you on this launch pad
I feel like afterward where you wantto just start leveling up. And I
(05:11):
went on this huge self development selfimprovement journey, and I started learning about
a lot of ways to improve yourhealth, improve like nervous system functioning,
and just honestly improve your life.And when I started learning all these things,
I started to make all these connectionswith the neuroscience knowledge that I had,
and I started like I changed mylife completely, Like I went from
(05:33):
being depressed. I had really badmental health when I was younger, and
I just literally it was to thepoint where people would ask me if I'm
on drugs and people would be like, are you high. I'm like,
I'm high on life seriously. So, so I was just posting at that
time. I was transitioning into myPhD, and I was just posting,
like on my stories, like hey, guys, like go Od's side and
(05:54):
get sunlight in your eyes, likeit's so amazing, Like listen to me,
like do your affirmations, like talkto yourself in a positive way.
S I brain all these things,and my friends actually were the ones that
were like, hey, this isreally helpful. Keep posting, like you
should post this stuff from TikTok.So it was actually my friends that told
me I should start creating content aboutthis. So in the beginning, I
(06:14):
had absolutely no plan of being acontent creator at all. I just was
helping myself and wanted to keep helpingother people, and so I was kind
of doing I was when I wasin the PhD. I started the PhD
and I was really full time.A PhD is so much work. So
I was working twenty four to sevenin the lab and I would just post
(06:34):
every so often when I could onTikTok and when I started doing that,
I very quickly started growing. Ithink it was like a year and a
half ago when I had my firstvideo like hit a million views, and
ever since then, it just tookoff and it got to a point where
(06:55):
I was in my PhD. Ifinished all of my courses in the PhD,
and I was having all of theseopportunities outside of school that I was
really starting to resent that I washaving to pass up because of school.
And there were some other things aswell, like academia is not really honestly
a place for the best mental healtha lot of times. And so I
(07:17):
decided I was in a place whereI could get my master's. I took
two exit exams, like the sameexams you take to become a PhD candidate.
I took those and then from thereI was able to get my masters.
So I just graduated in May thispast like so I guess it was
six months ago. And from Igraduated so I could go full time.
So I went full time content creationand I was already mentoring people before,
(07:42):
and so I just started I turnedthat into a coaching business because I love
helping people, mentoring people, coachingthem, So I turned that into a
coaching business, and then also justdifferent companies were already reaching out to me
like hey, like like hypnotherapists andthings like can we get your neuroscience perspective
on this? So I do thatas well. And honestly, I think
it was a couple of weeks afterI graduated I posted a video and it
(08:05):
ended up getting like thirteen million views, close to thirteen million views on TikTok,
and then they had me in theNew York Post and they had me
in all of these different news channelsand ever since then, which for me,
it was just like a sign like, yeah, I've made the right
decision. And ever since then,it's just been a whirlwind. It's been
the craziest past six months, butit's been absolutely amazing, and the growth
(08:26):
I've seen is so is so amazing. So I'm just really excited to be
doing what I'm doing now and keepgrowing with it. So the question I
have right away is will you goback to do a PhD? Is that
something that still kind of drives you? So for me, I think it
(08:46):
kind of it's when I was inthe PhD, I started to realize that
maybe my long term goals were differentthan what they were when I started.
Because when I started, I studieddrug addiction in the PhD. I was
researching novel therapies or new targets totreat relapse to drug addiction, and I
like my life goal was like tocure addiction. I wanted to cure drug
addiction, and I wanted to havemy own research lab. I wanted to
(09:09):
win a Nobel Prize for all ofthat. And in throughout that process,
I think I just started to realizeand I also wanted to help people in
a way that like I had healthissues growing up and doctors a lot of
times they couldn't help me because theyjust didn't have the information, Like it
just wasn't available. And so Iwanted to do research because I wanted to
come up with new therapies to beable to give that information to doctors to
(09:31):
help people in that way. AndI think that when I was in the
PhD, I just started to realizethat maybe this isn't the route that I
want to go by helping people.So when I started to see like my
content and people dming me and commentinglike this is really helping me, this
is changed, Like you changed mylife and things like that, I just
started to realize, like this ismore fulfilling to me. And so when
(09:56):
I was trying to make the decision, it was a tough decision to leave
the PhD. When I was tryingto make the decision, someone asked me,
is just like think of your longterm goals and like what do you
need to get there? And mygoals had kind of changed toward the end
when I was there, like aroundthis time last year, where I just
was honestly just trying to finish thePhD just for the credentials of it and
(10:18):
then just do what I'm doing rightnow. Like my plan was literally to
do what I'm doing right now.I have some like other plans for more
physical products that I'm really excited about, and I just realized, like the
PhD isn't really necessary to do whatI want to do, and it's always
there if I want to go back, And I think that's kind of what
was made my decision easier was thatschool will always be there if I choose
(10:41):
to go back, and I alreadyfinished all the PhD level courses, so
it would be kind of more ofa smooth sandling if I were to go
back. But as of right now, I have absolutely no desire to go
back to school, Like, I'mso happy with my choice, Like I
have not looked back since. Honestly, you know, it's amazing because throughout
the process of work in life,and I'm a lot older than you,
(11:05):
things are going to change, They'regoing to evolve, right, and twenty
years ago, you wouldn't have beenable to do what you're doing now in
the sense of reaching this many people. And it actually frustrates me sometimes because
people will look at someone who's creatingcontent it's like you're a source, You're
a scientist, your source. It'slike we're in the past. You would
go to a Barnes and Noble andyou would buy a book on neuroscience.
(11:26):
Now people can consistently get educated bysomeone like you, or they can get
coached by someone like Derek or I, whether it's sprinting or business or fitness,
whatever it is. So your reachis so much more now. And
that's the coolest thing about all thisis that like you've taken content creation and
you've made it into something incredibly positive, incredibly useful. Right, It's so
(11:50):
many people aren't thinking of neuroscience aslike, oh, well maybe you know,
maybe it's just my nervous So whyis it? Why is it?
I've been doing this program for andI was feeling great and suddenly like I
feel terrible, Like the program didn'tchange. But then you're like, oh
it, well maybe something your lifestylechanged. Can you dive into that a
bit, because that, to meis like almost the bare bones. That's
(12:13):
like phase one explaining to people onhow this might You know, this is
something that we all deal with.This isn't a choice. It's not like,
well, your nervousness. I don'teven worry about my nervous system,
like of course you do. It'sit's this is something that we all have
and we all have to deal with. And the example I like to give
is you can be eating a certainway, training a certain way, living
(12:33):
a certain way. Three nights ofbad sleep goes by, or you find
out your child's sick, or yourparent suddenly is struggling with something, and
your whole world gets flipped. It'ssuddenly it's like, what was so it
was so great for you in onemoment? Probably it can become the maybe
the worst approach for you to take. Can you dive into that a bit.
(12:56):
Yeah. I think that's actually probablyone of the reasons why I love
neuroscience much is just because everyone hasa brain and it's applicable to everyone in
every situation. The nervous system andthe power like the power of our minds,
Like we just are so powerful inour brains and our nervous systems,
but it really is like it canbe our best friend and it can also
(13:18):
be our worst enemy. And understandinghow our nervous system works and just having
the knowledge of it makes us sopowerful because yeah, say there's a day
where I'm not feeling the best orI'm feeling tired, well, I can
think like, okay, like whatare my first three thoughts? Like did
I get adequate sleep? And justbecause I slept a certain amount of hours
(13:39):
does not mean that I actually gotquality sleep. And so it's like did
I get enough friends? Did Iget enough of the slow wave sleep?
Those two things are really important thingsthat nobody thinks about. But just because
we're sleeping doesn't mean that we're actuallygetting the sleep that we need. And
then like just another like example ofhow it ties into our life, like
the food that we're eat and thegut and how most of our serotonin is
(14:03):
made in the gut, and serotoninis what's responsible for regulating our moods and
emotions, Like are you. Isee people that struggle really badly with anxiety,
and they have tried all the medicationsthat they've like all the medications they've
been prescribed, so many different things, and they're like, nothing's helping.
I'm like, okay, well,what's your diet, Like I'm like,
yeah, I eat a whole bunchof fried food and I drink all the
(14:24):
time. And I'm just like,okay, well, then you know you
can't, like medications to help regulateyour serotonin aren't going to help you if
you're not producing serotonin in your gut. So we need to start there.
And I think it's just like littlethings like that and how it's really all
connected, and then just being ableto regulate our nervous system, like through
(14:46):
things like meditation and having control overour olympic system, which are the areas
of the brain that are responsible forour moods and emotions and fear and our
negative reactions and things that can justtrigger us throughout day. Like you were
just explaining, like how one momentwe can just flip. Doing things that
exercise the prefrontal cortex and executive control. It can help us be able to
(15:09):
navigate through life in a way thatwe can stay more centered. And when
you have that ability, it's asuperpower. And that's why I always tell
people like, meditation gives you superpowers, and just mindfulness activities in general,
doing things that are difficult, strengtheningcertain areas of the brain so that whenever
things do happen, because that's life, like change happens, things happen that
(15:31):
we can't plan for that maybe wedidn't even want to happen, or horrible
things can happen to us. Butif we have the toolkit and we have
the understanding of how our nervous systemworks, it allows us to be able
to at least self regulate and knowbecause I think that a lot of times,
like just not even being aware ofwhat's wrong and it creates a sort
(15:52):
of fear and then we're like,oh, and and that perpetuates the negative
symptoms. Right. But for me, like if I'm having a love I'm
like, hey, I remember thatresearch paper where it's like, actually good
to be sad, and you shouldfeel these feelings right now. Because it's
going to be really good for youlater. Just knowing that and then thinking
about that it helps me and I'mlike, okay, yeah, I'm just
gonna be sad for a little bitand just enjoy it and just be this
(16:15):
emotion for a little bit and bein it. So just literally having the
knowledge of how the nervous system worksand how the brain works, it completely
changed my life. How does thatawareness feed into And I know we all
kind of rely on social media toget our message out, but if you
understand from a neurotransmitter level or youknow, dopamine or whatever you want to
(16:37):
call it, and how social mediacan impact people negatively, how do you
balance that off that double edged sortof like getting your message out but also
warning people about maybe some of thebad things that can happen by over relying
on social media for your information orjust watching it all the time. Yeah,
so I actually have a video richeright up. I'm like, don't
(17:02):
scroll on social media. I thinkit's it's kind of funny because it's counterintuitive,
like I want people to be watchingmy videos, but at the same
time, like I don't scroll onsocial media like really rarely, And so
for me, that's been something that'simproved my mental health so much, and
so I am not quiet about thaton social media, Like I tell people,
(17:22):
and a lot of my content likemorning routine and nighttime, I'm like,
do not go on your phone withinthe first at least thirty minutes after
waking up. Just don't do it. And then I explain the science behind
why you shouldn't, and then peopleare usually like, this is the first
video that popped up on my timelinewhen I open my phone, closing social
media now, and I'm like,yes, that was the goal, thank
god. But then another thing isI talk about like how social media is
(17:47):
addictive and how it perpetuates a stimulusresponse behavior. And I studied addiction,
so for me, it's just liketextbook stimulus response behavior is just whenever we're
reaching for something and we're not eventhinking of it. That's what social media
does to us a lot of thetime, and so it hacks our dopamine
system and it hacks our reward system. But then, also, like you
(18:08):
said, the information purpose, Ialways try to touch on awareness and thinking
for yourself. I think, likefor me, I love to consume science
content like my my my feed,is pretty much science, wellness, health
related things. But if I'm everwanting to talk about a topic, or
(18:32):
I think a topic is interesting thatI see or I haven't heard of it,
my first instinct is to go tolike Google, scholar or PubMed and
read research papers about it, becauseI know that there are so many different
sides to the same story. There'salways a ton of different sides. And
in science, it's kind of funnybecause what I realized in the PhD,
(18:52):
and what they kind of like nailinto our brains as well, is that
there is so much debate even betweenscientists, like there are so many things
that are not agreed upon. Wehad a course actually that every student had
to take every semester where somebody wouldpublish a paper and then we would just
sit and critique it. And theywould be really high level papers, like
papers published in Nature, neuroscience,like top notch journals, and we would
(19:15):
sit there and talk about all ofthe things that are good about it,
but then also the things that arewrong within, things that we could have
done better. So just knowing alsothat science is always evolving, and it
just kind of it's a reminder liketake everything with a grain of salt,
and also to do what you feelis right and believe and kind of always
I always try to make sure toput at the end of my videos and
(19:37):
in my captions like always do whatresonates with you, like just because someone
says something, just because I evensay something like if it's not resonating with
you or you don't feel like that'strue for you, then always do your
own research and try to find theinformation for yourself. So you mentioned about
thirty minutes after you wake up youshouldn't be scrolling on social media, which
is actually the exact amount of timeI've heard and revenue the past one.
(20:00):
Why is that? And I knowthe answer, but I'd like you to
explain to your to our listeners.And in two, is there anything in
reference to social media hygiene that youcould and I just made that. I
don't even if that term exists ornot. But in reference to you know,
if you are on social media becauseit is your work and is your
business, is there a certain amountof time you should allow yourself a day,
(20:22):
So like when you said thirty minutesafter that's great, fifteen minutes a
day, thirty minutes a day?Is there a limit that you should be
giving our listeners or you give youknow, the people that follow you.
Yeah. So as for a limitto the amounts during the day, I
think it's hard for me, LikeI don't even put a number on myself,
But as soon as I feel likeI always like, I'm very big
(20:45):
on intention So whenever I go toopen up my social media app, I
always try to be mindful of it, and it's like, what's the purpose
that I'm going on here right now? Am I going on here to post?
Am I going on here to replyto comments? Am I going on
to share a story? So Ialways try to be mindful of the reason
why I'm going on. And ifI'm going on to just consume content and
scroll for a little bit and havesome entertainment check up on my people that
(21:07):
I'm following, that's fine. Butthen I make sure that I'm mindful of
that and that's my reason and Itry to keep that period of time short.
So I think really like the waythat I try to restrict the time
is just being intentional with why I'mon the app and not allowing it to
become a mindless activity. As forthe morning, there's three reasons that come
(21:30):
to mind three main reasons. Thefirst is that as we're waking up,
our brain waves are transitioning from slowwaves like delta and theta waves through alpha
and then they go into beta,which are kind of more of like are
awake and alert brain waves. Andobviously there's always a mixture of brain waves
going on, there's never just onehappening, but this is when these are
the waves that have a higher powerat this time. So this transition is
(21:53):
really important because it's just from sleepto wake. Right. If you go
on your phone as soon as youwake up in the morning, you're disrupting
this transition and you go straight intobeta, which primes you to or i
say, into beta, but youkind of cut through a lot of that
slow transition and you wake up thebrain really quickly, which primes you to
(22:15):
be more stressed throughout the day andmore anxious throughout the day. And then
another reason is that neuroplasticity is actuallythought to be higher when theta waves are
increased, and neuroplasticity is just thebrain's ability to learn and adapt and basically
neurons we're always like, our brainsare changing all the time as long as
(22:37):
we're using intentional effort, but especiallywhen data activity is high, we have
an increased ability to learn. Andso it's kind of thought that when you
go and consume whatever you're consuming,especially if it's as soon as you wake
up in the morning, that's goingto have a greater impact on your mindset
and your mood for the rest ofthe day. So it's really important to
be intentional with what's your putting intoyour mind as soon as you wake up
(23:00):
in the morning. And then thethird reason is dopamine. So we kind
of have like a we always havea baseline level of dopamine firing at all
times, and when if you goon your phone as soon as you wake
up in the morning, you arecausing a huge spike in dopamine, Like
you are just driving your dopamine reallyhigh as soon as you wake up in
(23:22):
the morning, because social media givesus dopamine, and so what that does
is it actually decreases our baseline forthe rest of the day. So one
like our baseline levels of dopamine.So as soon as you increase your dopamine
from social media as soon as youwake up in the morning, now for
the rest of the day, you'regoing to be seeking that dopamine high,
So you're going to keep wanting tocheck your phone so that you keep getting
(23:45):
those dopamine spikes because you primed yourbrain for it as soon as you woke
up in the morning. And alsoyou're just going to have a decreased dopamine
baseline throughout the rest of the day, which also is going to drive you
to seek. It's going to becausing to be more distracted and just seek
other things that boost dopamine rather thanbeing more focused and zoned in for your
(24:07):
day. Love it, Love it, Dave. Yeah, And then my
question would be like, what isthe impact if we talk about early mornings
and getting some positive effects, whatare the impacts of exercise that you found
on the brain's function and maybe wedo an early morning workout, How is
that much more positive? Yeah?I always work out in the morning.
That's like my favorite time to workout one because when we wake up,
(24:32):
actually we have a denazine in oursystem which makes us tired, and exercise
helps clear that out if we wakeup if we work out as soon as
we wake up in the morning,so it actually and then it also increases
dopamine. It increases nourepinephrine, andit increases endocannabinoids. And endocannabinoids are one
of my favorite things to talk aboutbecause a lot of people don't know what
(24:53):
they are, but it sounds likecannabis because it binds to the same receptors
in our body as cannabis, andthey were actually discovered after cannabis was a
thing. So that's why it's namedendocannabinoids because endo like meaning inside and then
cannabinoids, so like cannabinoids made fromour bodies, and so they bind that
(25:15):
receptor and we literally get a naturalhigh from working out, and that's kind
of like a lot of times peopletalk about like endorphins, and those are
the things as well, but reallyit's the endocannabinoid system that really drives that
natural high that we get from exercise, and so that just primes us to
have a great move for the restof the day. But also the dopamine
and norepinephrine we get from exercise,especially higher intensity exercise, that will help
(25:41):
us have better focus and more energythroughout the rest of the day as well.
Now that I mean, I wasn'teven going to bring this up,
and it's not even part of myquestions. But you mentioned cannabis, right,
and the effects of you know,some people utilize very small dosages for
sleep. I know there's not aton of research or chat yet and nothing's
really concrete, and I've spoken tomany functional medicine doctors that some are forward
(26:06):
and very small dosages and some arecompletely against it. It's never really been
my thing. But are you findingin your own research? And I'm not
saying what's stated, I'm not sayingwhat's found in PubMed But do you have
or can you voice your opinion onmaybe small dosages of cannabis for people who
struggle to sleep or struggle to recoveras being valuable or you completely against it.
(26:30):
I wouldn't say I'm completely against it, just because I always try to
keep an open mind when it comesto science because you never know what's gonna
come out. And also everyone isdifferent, so I think it definitely depends
on the person. But I canimagine that well from like my own research,
I can imagine that there are peoplethat are like, aren't producing the
(26:51):
level of endocannabinoids that other people are, and maybe lo doos like I'm actually
I was kind of just brought ontothe scene of micro docinctape. I actually
hadn't heard of it until kind ofrecently, so I've just been looking diving
into the research recently, and itcan be very beneficial for people, especially
like like you mentioned, for sleepand mood as well, and obviously like
(27:15):
there are other there are other benefitslike appetite for people that are having other
mental health issues and things. SoI think that it can be helpful for
some people, but then also itcan be harmful for some people. And
I think the emphasis is low dosebecause at higher doses then you start to
see like differences in brain matter volumeand things like that and brain scans,
(27:37):
so like long term heavy use ofcannabis, just like I can't say that's
good for the brain like it's it'snot, But there are like health benefits
to it as well, and thereis a lot of research on the effects
and the benefits of it for people, especially like chemotherapy for people that are
going through cancer and all of that. So there there are benefits to it,
(28:00):
and there are therapeutic there are waysto use it therapeutically. So great
answer. Thanks. I'm going tocontinue on the letter C. What about
caffeine coffee and its effects, becausethat's obviously a big thing in society now
is oh, I got to havemy coffee, and oh that it affects
my sleep. But I think there'ssome positive things about coffee out there.
(28:23):
But what have your experience have beenlooking through the research and just throw an
anecdotal experience. Yeah, I lovewhen people say caffeine is not good for
you, because there's plenty of scienceto show that it's a cognitive enhancer.
It speeds up people's reaction times.The cash to me too, is just
like at the right dose, becausethere is a very obvious curve to where
(28:47):
as soon as you have too muchcaffeine, it's very harmful. And I'm
sure we've all experienced that where wehave too much caffeine and it's we're not
okay. And so personally, likeI was diagnosed with ADHD when I was
young, So caffeine honestly always mademe tired, Like I would like if
I would drink a cup of coffee, I'd fall straight to sleep, and
(29:08):
so I just kind of like,I love coffee, so I would drink
it, but it was never reallyfor like energy purposes until I found Macha
and green Tea and cacao on accident, and I realized that they actually gave
me a lot more energy than coffeewould. And so when I started doing
research, I actually found and discoveredthat there is a lot of research and
(29:33):
studies showing that the combination of elfbeianine and caffeine together boost well. Elthenine
boosts alpha waves in the brain,and alpha is known for kind of being
in a sense of flow and throughoutthe day. So but there's a lot
of research showing that, especially inpeople with ADHD, the combination of elfenine
and caffeine it boosts focus, sustainedattention, and motivation. And so I
(29:57):
found that discovered that on accident.But I feel so amazing when I drink
green tea or macha versus coffee.So now I actually have elfa and eene
powder, and if I want tohave coffee, because I really do enjoy
coffee, I love it, I'lljust add a little elfy and into my
coffee and the difference is crazy.I just I find that it takes away
(30:18):
the jitters as well. So ifyou ever feel jittery from caffeine, just
put a little elthianine in there andit makes a world a difference. And
that's like something I love talking abouton social media as well, just because
it's something that isn't really discussed alot. But every one of my comments
is always like I try, I'mtrying it and it's completely changed my life,
Like it's the best. I respondexactly how you respond to coffee.
(30:38):
It's so funny. I've never I'veonly used coffee more as like a performance
enhancer. It's something that I havea rule. I'll use it always before
workout, never after workout. It'sprobably something I'm consuming at seven eight in
the morning, right and if Ihave even a little bit of it,
I don't feel as well I wouldif I was drinking Save green tea or
(31:02):
anything else. So the elfenine Iactually never heard of during the coffee.
I've actually heard is it being somewhatof a Some people are using it as
almost a sleep aid that I'm hearingthat they're mixing it more with like magnesium
bike glsen it or I can neversay anostdal or glycine or you know,
elfhenine. I'm hearing people throw itin there. But I'm also mushroom powder
(31:25):
was the one thing that I wasable to throw into my coffee, and
for some reason, if I uselike a high quality lines made or like
a cordyceps or something like that that'smixed into my coffee, for some reason,
that kind of takes that edge offand it doesn't allow me that caffeine
would make me actually crash in theafternoon. If I had green tea,
I wouldn't have that crash. It'salmost ironic, even if it's the same
(31:47):
in caffeine. Yeah, So elfanine is also known well alpha waves are
kind of that Like when I wasmentioning earlier that transition from waking and the
same thing happens at night, soas we're falling asleep alpha waves or flow
state when we're awake, but alsoa sense of calm as we're falling asleep.
And so I actually have like amagnesium ELFI and eine powder that sometimes
(32:08):
I'll drink at night, and itis for sleep, but it just works
wonders in in caffeine to take aYeah, yeah, so that's kind of
the reason. So I discovered thaton accident. But that's the reason why
Macha and green tea, like theyjust work so much better for me personally.
And then cacao has I'm like thebiggest fan of cacao ever. I'll
(32:31):
actually put cocau in my macha sometimesand that's like cacau not cocoa. A
lot of people I've always like asking, but there's a there's a big difference.
Cacau is straight from the plant.It's not processed, there's no sugar,
it's not sweet, and it's raw, pure, raw cocu powder.
And it has another and it increasesserotonin, and it has a low amount
(32:52):
of caffeine preserving probably like thirty milligramstwenty milligrams. Yeah, but it also
has some thing called theobromine in it, and theobromine is incredible, it's really
well. Cocao has a lot ofbeneficial effects on the heart and blood circulation
and all that. But one ofthe reasons why is because theobromine actually dilates
(33:13):
our blood vessels and it increases bloodflow to the brain. So you get
this like natural sense of energy justbecause you were actually getting more oxygen to
your brain. And so I actuallyalso discovered that on accident because I gave
up caffeine. Didn't realize coco hada little bit of caffeine in it.
But I started drinking cocao tea andjust feeling amazing, and I was like,
whoa, this is giving me moreenergy than my espresso would. And
(33:37):
so I love cocao as well,and sometimes I'll add a little bit of
that. But I also like,you have a mushroom powder. It's called
the one I use, is calledbrain dust, and it has like lions
made. It also has ginko init, but it has like reischi I
think, and just a few differentadaptogens like mushrooms that are known to enhance
focus. And I can have thatwithout any caffeine in it at all,
(34:00):
and I feel a little bit.I feel like the focus. I'm big
on it. I'm big on itnow. I think in the beginning I
was taking it, I really wasn'treally noticing much. And then I found
a brand by I don't know ifyou know, doctor Dwayne Jackson. He
runs all of the curriculum for prescript, which is doctor Jordan Shallow's certification company
created a company called law Vibe,and I started taking it and I was
(34:22):
like oh yeah, yeah yeah,And out of nowhere, it's like you
almost become a bit addicted to it. You're like, oh my god,
like my awareness, I'm not gonnashakiness. It's like it really is.
There's a lot of value to it, but in my opinion, it depends
on the the the the equality ofthe mushroom that you consumer it totally totally,
and it's away with supplements as well, like of course the quality that
(34:43):
you're It's the same thing with food, like it's not all created equal.
Well, listen, I got topivot to another question. I know Derek's
gonna love in reference to wearables.Now, the nervous system, that's something
that most people, I mean,you you myself, Derek. I mean
we're going to be able to gaugereadiness by you know, maybe how we
(35:04):
feel or are you utilizing any typeof products or any type of wearables to
help, you know, gauge someone'sreadiness or or their or their nervous system
or or you know, how they'reresponding every day because sometimes and people don't
really know it's a very tough thingto quantify, right, It's it's well,
I'm stressed out. I'm always stressedout. It's like, well,
(35:25):
why am I suddenly feeling worse rightnow? Like are you using anything or
are people just coming to you sayingI don't feel right, something's off,
And I listened to social media postsand I think it might be you know
the posts that you you know mentionedto me on Tuesday. Is there any
way that you have people quantify whetherthey're in a successful state or not successful?
(35:46):
Yeah. So if people so,I don't like tell them go out
and buy this. But if peopledo have the device, and I'm one
hundred percent like, let me seeyour time in rem and your deep sleep
and like seeing our heart rate variabilityall of that, because that kind of
tells me how like the Vegas nerveis doing and all of that. But
(36:07):
personally, I don't like use one. I way back in the day,
I had an Apple Watch and Ilost it, and I think that was
kind of just divine intervention because Ilike, as you can tell right now,
I use wired headphones. I don'tlike. I wear bluetooth headphones when
I work out, but that's theonly time I will wear bluetooth headphones.
I actually I get a headache fromhaving like bluetooth headphones on my head all
(36:30):
day. And it's kind of funnybecause I was listening to Andrew Rubman's podcast
about bluetooth and all that, andhe said the same thing. So I
was like, I wonder if Iwas brain people like we're just too in
tune with our brains or something.But yeah, so I don't. I
don't like I don't like wearing honestlytechnology on my body usually so and then
also I feel personally that if I'mlike wearing an order ring or wearing a
(36:52):
whoop band and it tells me Igot less deep sleep, then I might
start to get some no cebo effectswhere I'm like, oh, I didn't
get an that's sleep, I'm gonnabe tired today, and then I'm more
tired than if I just didn't know, you know what I mean. So
personally, I would rather just kindof do what I feel is best.
But also I think I have theknowledge to where like, if I'm feeling
(37:13):
a certain way, then I'm like, oh, I didn't take my magnesium.
Let me take my magnesium tonight beforeI sleep, and that'll help.
Well, that's you. But howdo you how do you give advice to
someone out there who's because a lotof people aren't aware of this. Yeah,
it's like, how do you dowhat are some of the signs that
you would tell them that it's probablyit may not be your fitness, it
(37:34):
may or it might or it maynot be your nutrition or it might or
you know, there might be adeeper problem here. Yeah, So usually
my first coaching call with a clientis going through their entire day and routine
and what they eat and even likemindset, like just I want to know,
like who are the people you surroundyourself with? Like how are you
(37:54):
talking to yourself? How are youtalking to others? What is your job?
What do you do? Do youenjoy that job? Like what are
you eating? And then how areyou sleeping? What are you are you
eating before you sleep? Are youdrinking water before you sleep? What supplements
are you taking? Have you hadyour blood tested before? Because I work
with inside Tracker as well, andso that's super helpful for me personally,
(38:15):
like that having that information like that, I can tell you so easily,
and they can tell you so easily, like that's let's start with this supplement,
let's start with this. But usuallyfor me, I can just I
just ask pretty much everything about theperson's life that I can possibly get,
and then from there it's pretty easyfor me to be able to pinpoint at
(38:37):
least like a top three things thatwe can target first, because I never
want to or like one or twoeven because starting with too many things,
a lot of people like you say, they just are they they just when
it's all up in the air,you got to pick one thing to start
with to kind of anchor us.And so usually for me, that's the
(38:58):
first thing I help people with isa publishing some sort of routine at least
a night like a morning and anight time routine, and it can be
literally like five or ten minutes.It doesn't have to be like a whole
extra thing. And then prioritizing likehow the sleep we're getting, because sleep
is one of the most important thingsfor the brain, and if we're not
getting good sleep, then we can'tdo the work that we need to do.
(39:20):
AWESO, have you been doing someresearch into the was it the semi
glue tide ozepic type drugs and theimpact on not just obesity but also addiction.
That's what I've been hearing about,is that it can help people with
addiction. And I don't know alot about it and how it affects the
brain, but I'm wondering if you'vedone any sort of research into that.
(39:44):
I haven't looked into the research foraddiction. I know how it works kind
of for obesity, but that wouldbe interesting to look into. Actually,
I would imagine, like I knowhow it works like with the glucose and
insulin, and so I can seeit helping people with food addiction of course,
but regular addiction I have I mean, I would have a feeling that
(40:07):
it definitely impacts our reward system andkind of just the basil ganglia dopamine system
and so. And actually, Ithat's like a hunch I have because there
used to be a drug way backin the day that was an obesity drug,
and it actually got discontinued because ithad this effect on the reward system,
but it was to such a greateffect that it was actually making people
(40:28):
suicidal, and so it got takenoff the market. And that was kind
of like that was my biggest concernwith like ozepic and all these things coming
out, like when people talking aboutthem, and I have a friend that
told me her sister's taking it andor doing the shot or whatever, and
that was my first concern was justlike how was her mental health? Because
it was a very fine line betweenyou know, disrupting the nervous system,
(40:52):
helping people like quit any sort oflike dopamine craving thing that they have in
their life, and then kind ofmaking nothing in their life give them dopamine.
And when nothing in your life isgiving you dopamine, then you're at
risk for depression. Huh. Canyou? Can you let all of our
listeners know, like what are yourservices that you offer? Because I think
(41:14):
this is going to be very intriguingto a lot of people, and I
think they're gonna want to you know, now they don't have to go to
a doctor's office anymore, right,Like this is stuff that you can do
virtually. Can you just give usa little background on it? Yeah?
Yeah, So if you want todo coaching with me, I have a
website. It's moonthebrain dot com andI have kind of my main pillars outlined
there and everything that I like totouch on in a coaching In coaching I
(41:38):
do, I do, I'll doprograms, but then I also will I
have a lot of people that justwant to do one call and then they
just want to kind of get theirfeet wet and then we'll catch up in
a few weeks or in a monthand we'll talk about some more things.
And so it's kind of totally upto the individual how they want to move
forward with that. And you cango to my website like I just or
(42:00):
my link in bio if you followme on social media, I'm on the
Brain. My link in bio haskind of some quick links to signing up
for it as well. So there'sjust a little form that you fill out
about yourself and we can get flowingthrough there. Yeah, I love it.
I love it. I mean,I think this is obviously one of
the most overlooked areas I think ofjust wellness in general. Right, everyone
(42:21):
thinks these things get solved with thesupplement or an exercise routine, and I'm
like, oh my god, it'sso far beyond that. Listen, thank
you, listen, thank you somuch for coming on. If there's anything
we can do, we'll let youknow when this goes live. We're going
to direct people to your site.We're going to direct them your social media
handles. I'm in New York,Derek's and Vancouver. If you're ever up
in New York, love you tocome check out the facility to get a
(42:42):
work out if you'd like. Ifthere's anything you need, you let me
know. But I really appreciate itand looking forward to meeting you in person.
Yeah, thank you guys so muchfor having me on. This was
awesome. No, it was alot of fun. Take care of me.
Thank you.
Welcome to the D and D Fitnessradio podcast, brought to you by your
hosts Don Saladino from New York Cityand Derek Hanson from Vancouver, Canada.
Hey, hey, hello, howare you. I'm doing well. How
(00:35):
are you guys doing well? SoI'm trying to figure it out. You
and I did not meet at thestrong event, right, I don't remember.
I might have briefly said maybe it'sa quick passing, like hey,
yeah, awesome, So it's goodto get connected with you. This is
Derek, Derek's Bean, my podcastpartner. I think we're going on like
two hundred episodes and we just kindof dive into it in Miami, right,
(01:00):
Yeah, I'm I'm actually in FortLauderdale, but close to Miami.
Yeah that's cool. How do youliking it down there? I love it.
I love Florida. I'm not acold person. I don't like the
cold, so yeah, you wouldn'tlike it up here. I'm in New
York, Garrickson, Vancouver, sowe're in like split ends over here.
Yeah. I was actually I wasborn and lived like the first eleven years
(01:22):
of my life in Albany, soyeah, I know the cold. Yeah
yeah, no, wonder you don'tlike. No, wonder you don't like
the cold. So listen, thanksfor thanks for coming on. And I
think the purpose of today is wejust want to kind of showcase what you're
doing tied into our communities a littlebit. Just have a really loose conversation.
We're here to make you, youknow, to elevate you and to
(01:42):
make you look good. And there'sanything we can ever do afterwards you let
us know. Awesome, cool,Thanks, Let's let's do it, Derek,
anything to add I know, yeah, let's say. I just want
to learn more about you. Yeah, definitely, So I'm excited. So,
Emily McConnell, I've been hearing yourname for a little bit. I
think it's because we've been we've rollingin you know, similar circles. I
(02:02):
know at the Strong event. Wewere at the same event too, I
heard your name, Emily. Derekis, as you know, a neuroscientist,
right, which is, if Iscrew this up, it's a branch
of biology, correct. I meanyou're measuring the nervous system. I'm really
gonna measure the brain and the spinalcord, is it? Then? Am
(02:23):
I getting that right? Yeah?Well, the brain, the spinal cord
is the central nervous system, andthen we have neurons throughout our whole body,
and that would be the peripheral nervoussystem. Okay, so it's kind
of all of that tied until yeah, awesome, awesome. So you are
a coach, a consultant down inobviously in the Fort Lauderdale, Miami area,
(02:43):
and just yeah, I think I'mmore excited to me obviously meets you
speak to you and here about onehow'd you get involved in this realm of
science? And the two? Youknow, I definitely want to talk about
this a bit and discuss how.You know, so many times people think
that you and you hear I'm tired. Why am I tired? You know?
(03:06):
Is it? Are you not inshape? Or are you just doing
so much that your body can't recoverfrom that? So I think Derek and
I are gonna have a bunch ofquestions that we want to fire off to
you. So firstly, like,can you give us some backstory? You
know, where you're from, youknow how and how you dove into this
lane. Yeah, so I'm kindof from a few different places. I
(03:27):
had just mentioned I grew up partof my childhood in Upstate New York,
and then my family moved to Dallas, so I lived in Dallas for a
while and then I went to undergradat UT Austin and I actually was a
biology major at first. So whenyou're saying kind of biology will neuroscience is
really kind of like it's known asbeing like integrative, so it's integrates a
(03:49):
lot of different branches of science,like biology, physics, chemistry, all
of those things. But I hatedbiology. I really didn't like it.
It was a lot about plants andthings, and I just wasn't enjoying it.
And I was in an organization atUT Austin and someone and I told
my friends. I was like,you know, I'm just not enjoying biology.
(04:09):
What should I do? And theywere like, just switch your major
in neuroscience. And I'm the typeof person that I just do things.
So I decided to switch my majorin neuroscience. And I fell in love
with the very first class. LikeI aced my first exam, my professor
reached out to me and was like, you couldn't have done better. I
was like, put me in aresearch lab. I want to be researching
neuroscience. So right off, theBAT I started working in a research lab
(04:30):
setting learning and memory in kids throughoutdevelopment, how we organize events in time.
It was really interesting, really cool, but I kind of wanted to
go more the clinical route in thefuture. So I graduated with my Bachelors
of Neuroscience from UT Austin and wona whole bunch of rewards throughout research,
(04:51):
which was really cool, and thenwent straight to the University of Arizona to
get my PhD at neuroscience. Andfrom there I also was kind of going
through some major life changes, likea breakup, and just like a lot
of things that you know, itkind of puts you on this launch pad
I feel like afterward where you wantto just start leveling up. And I
(05:11):
went on this huge self development selfimprovement journey, and I started learning about
a lot of ways to improve yourhealth, improve like nervous system functioning,
and just honestly improve your life.And when I started learning all these things,
I started to make all these connectionswith the neuroscience knowledge that I had,
and I started like I changed mylife completely, Like I went from
(05:33):
being depressed. I had really badmental health when I was younger, and
I just literally it was to thepoint where people would ask me if I'm
on drugs and people would be like, are you high. I'm like,
I'm high on life seriously. So, so I was just posting at that
time. I was transitioning into myPhD, and I was just posting,
like on my stories, like hey, guys, like go Od's side and
(05:54):
get sunlight in your eyes, likeit's so amazing, Like listen to me,
like do your affirmations, like talkto yourself in a positive way.
S I brain all these things,and my friends actually were the ones that
were like, hey, this isreally helpful. Keep posting, like you
should post this stuff from TikTok.So it was actually my friends that told
me I should start creating content aboutthis. So in the beginning, I
(06:14):
had absolutely no plan of being acontent creator at all. I just was
helping myself and wanted to keep helpingother people, and so I was kind
of doing I was when I wasin the PhD. I started the PhD
and I was really full time.A PhD is so much work. So
I was working twenty four to sevenin the lab and I would just post
(06:34):
every so often when I could onTikTok and when I started doing that,
I very quickly started growing. Ithink it was like a year and a
half ago when I had my firstvideo like hit a million views, and
ever since then, it just tookoff and it got to a point where
(06:55):
I was in my PhD. Ifinished all of my courses in the PhD,
and I was having all of theseopportunities outside of school that I was
really starting to resent that I washaving to pass up because of school.
And there were some other things aswell, like academia is not really honestly
a place for the best mental healtha lot of times. And so I
(07:17):
decided I was in a place whereI could get my master's. I took
two exit exams, like the sameexams you take to become a PhD candidate.
I took those and then from thereI was able to get my masters.
So I just graduated in May thispast like so I guess it was
six months ago. And from Igraduated so I could go full time.
So I went full time content creationand I was already mentoring people before,
(07:42):
and so I just started I turnedthat into a coaching business because I love
helping people, mentoring people, coachingthem, So I turned that into a
coaching business, and then also justdifferent companies were already reaching out to me
like hey, like like hypnotherapists andthings like can we get your neuroscience perspective
on this? So I do thatas well. And honestly, I think
it was a couple of weeks afterI graduated I posted a video and it
(08:05):
ended up getting like thirteen million views, close to thirteen million views on TikTok,
and then they had me in theNew York Post and they had me
in all of these different news channelsand ever since then, which for me,
it was just like a sign like, yeah, I've made the right
decision. And ever since then,it's just been a whirlwind. It's been
the craziest past six months, butit's been absolutely amazing, and the growth
(08:26):
I've seen is so is so amazing. So I'm just really excited to be
doing what I'm doing now and keepgrowing with it. So the question I
have right away is will you goback to do a PhD? Is that
something that still kind of drives you? So for me, I think it
(08:46):
kind of it's when I was inthe PhD, I started to realize that
maybe my long term goals were differentthan what they were when I started.
Because when I started, I studieddrug addiction in the PhD. I was
researching novel therapies or new targets totreat relapse to drug addiction, and I
like my life goal was like tocure addiction. I wanted to cure drug
addiction, and I wanted to havemy own research lab. I wanted to
(09:09):
win a Nobel Prize for all ofthat. And in throughout that process,
I think I just started to realizeand I also wanted to help people in
a way that like I had healthissues growing up and doctors a lot of
times they couldn't help me because theyjust didn't have the information, Like it
just wasn't available. And so Iwanted to do research because I wanted to
come up with new therapies to beable to give that information to doctors to
(09:31):
help people in that way. AndI think that when I was in the
PhD, I just started to realizethat maybe this isn't the route that I
want to go by helping people.So when I started to see like my
content and people dming me and commentinglike this is really helping me, this
is changed, Like you changed mylife and things like that, I just
started to realize, like this ismore fulfilling to me. And so when
(09:56):
I was trying to make the decision, it was a tough decision to leave
the PhD. When I was tryingto make the decision, someone asked me,
is just like think of your longterm goals and like what do you
need to get there? And mygoals had kind of changed toward the end
when I was there, like aroundthis time last year, where I just
was honestly just trying to finish thePhD just for the credentials of it and
(10:18):
then just do what I'm doing rightnow. Like my plan was literally to
do what I'm doing right now.I have some like other plans for more
physical products that I'm really excited about, and I just realized, like the
PhD isn't really necessary to do whatI want to do, and it's always
there if I want to go back, And I think that's kind of what
was made my decision easier was thatschool will always be there if I choose
(10:41):
to go back, and I alreadyfinished all the PhD level courses, so
it would be kind of more ofa smooth sandling if I were to go
back. But as of right now, I have absolutely no desire to go
back to school, Like, I'mso happy with my choice, Like I
have not looked back since. Honestly, you know, it's amazing because throughout
the process of work in life,and I'm a lot older than you,
(11:05):
things are going to change, They'regoing to evolve, right, and twenty
years ago, you wouldn't have beenable to do what you're doing now in
the sense of reaching this many people. And it actually frustrates me sometimes because
people will look at someone who's creatingcontent it's like you're a source, You're
a scientist, your source. It'slike we're in the past. You would
go to a Barnes and Noble andyou would buy a book on neuroscience.
(11:26):
Now people can consistently get educated bysomeone like you, or they can get
coached by someone like Derek or I, whether it's sprinting or business or fitness,
whatever it is. So your reachis so much more now. And
that's the coolest thing about all thisis that like you've taken content creation and
you've made it into something incredibly positive, incredibly useful. Right, It's so
(11:50):
many people aren't thinking of neuroscience aslike, oh, well maybe you know,
maybe it's just my nervous So whyis it? Why is it?
I've been doing this program for andI was feeling great and suddenly like I
feel terrible, Like the program didn'tchange. But then you're like, oh
it, well maybe something your lifestylechanged. Can you dive into that a
bit, because that, to meis like almost the bare bones. That's
(12:13):
like phase one explaining to people onhow this might You know, this is
something that we all deal with.This isn't a choice. It's not like,
well, your nervousness. I don'teven worry about my nervous system,
like of course you do. It'sit's this is something that we all have
and we all have to deal with. And the example I like to give
is you can be eating a certainway, training a certain way, living
(12:33):
a certain way. Three nights ofbad sleep goes by, or you find
out your child's sick, or yourparent suddenly is struggling with something, and
your whole world gets flipped. It'ssuddenly it's like, what was so it
was so great for you in onemoment? Probably it can become the maybe
the worst approach for you to take. Can you dive into that a bit.
(12:56):
Yeah. I think that's actually probablyone of the reasons why I love
neuroscience much is just because everyone hasa brain and it's applicable to everyone in
every situation. The nervous system andthe power like the power of our minds,
Like we just are so powerful inour brains and our nervous systems,
but it really is like it canbe our best friend and it can also
(13:18):
be our worst enemy. And understandinghow our nervous system works and just having
the knowledge of it makes us sopowerful because yeah, say there's a day
where I'm not feeling the best orI'm feeling tired, well, I can
think like, okay, like whatare my first three thoughts? Like did
I get adequate sleep? And justbecause I slept a certain amount of hours
(13:39):
does not mean that I actually gotquality sleep. And so it's like did
I get enough friends? Did Iget enough of the slow wave sleep?
Those two things are really important thingsthat nobody thinks about. But just because
we're sleeping doesn't mean that we're actuallygetting the sleep that we need. And
then like just another like example ofhow it ties into our life, like
the food that we're eat and thegut and how most of our serotonin is
(14:03):
made in the gut, and serotoninis what's responsible for regulating our moods and
emotions, Like are you. Isee people that struggle really badly with anxiety,
and they have tried all the medicationsthat they've like all the medications they've
been prescribed, so many different things, and they're like, nothing's helping.
I'm like, okay, well,what's your diet, Like I'm like,
yeah, I eat a whole bunchof fried food and I drink all the
(14:24):
time. And I'm just like,okay, well, then you know you
can't, like medications to help regulateyour serotonin aren't going to help you if
you're not producing serotonin in your gut. So we need to start there.
And I think it's just like littlethings like that and how it's really all
connected, and then just being ableto regulate our nervous system, like through
(14:46):
things like meditation and having control overour olympic system, which are the areas
of the brain that are responsible forour moods and emotions and fear and our
negative reactions and things that can justtrigger us throughout day. Like you were
just explaining, like how one momentwe can just flip. Doing things that
exercise the prefrontal cortex and executive control. It can help us be able to
(15:09):
navigate through life in a way thatwe can stay more centered. And when
you have that ability, it's asuperpower. And that's why I always tell
people like, meditation gives you superpowers, and just mindfulness activities in general,
doing things that are difficult, strengtheningcertain areas of the brain so that whenever
things do happen, because that's life, like change happens, things happen that
(15:31):
we can't plan for that maybe wedidn't even want to happen, or horrible
things can happen to us. Butif we have the toolkit and we have
the understanding of how our nervous systemworks, it allows us to be able
to at least self regulate and knowbecause I think that a lot of times,
like just not even being aware ofwhat's wrong and it creates a sort
(15:52):
of fear and then we're like,oh, and and that perpetuates the negative
symptoms. Right. But for me, like if I'm having a love I'm
like, hey, I remember thatresearch paper where it's like, actually good
to be sad, and you shouldfeel these feelings right now. Because it's
going to be really good for youlater. Just knowing that and then thinking
about that it helps me and I'mlike, okay, yeah, I'm just
gonna be sad for a little bitand just enjoy it and just be this
(16:15):
emotion for a little bit and bein it. So just literally having the
knowledge of how the nervous system worksand how the brain works, it completely
changed my life. How does thatawareness feed into And I know we all
kind of rely on social media toget our message out, but if you
understand from a neurotransmitter level or youknow, dopamine or whatever you want to
(16:37):
call it, and how social mediacan impact people negatively, how do you
balance that off that double edged sortof like getting your message out but also
warning people about maybe some of thebad things that can happen by over relying
on social media for your information orjust watching it all the time. Yeah,
so I actually have a video richeright up. I'm like, don't
(17:02):
scroll on social media. I thinkit's it's kind of funny because it's counterintuitive,
like I want people to be watchingmy videos, but at the same
time, like I don't scroll onsocial media like really rarely, And so
for me, that's been something that'simproved my mental health so much, and
so I am not quiet about thaton social media, Like I tell people,
(17:22):
and a lot of my content likemorning routine and nighttime, I'm like,
do not go on your phone withinthe first at least thirty minutes after
waking up. Just don't do it. And then I explain the science behind
why you shouldn't, and then peopleare usually like, this is the first
video that popped up on my timelinewhen I open my phone, closing social
media now, and I'm like,yes, that was the goal, thank
god. But then another thing isI talk about like how social media is
(17:47):
addictive and how it perpetuates a stimulusresponse behavior. And I studied addiction,
so for me, it's just liketextbook stimulus response behavior is just whenever we're
reaching for something and we're not eventhinking of it. That's what social media
does to us a lot of thetime, and so it hacks our dopamine
system and it hacks our reward system. But then, also, like you
(18:08):
said, the information purpose, Ialways try to touch on awareness and thinking
for yourself. I think, likefor me, I love to consume science
content like my my my feed,is pretty much science, wellness, health
related things. But if I'm everwanting to talk about a topic, or
(18:32):
I think a topic is interesting thatI see or I haven't heard of it,
my first instinct is to go tolike Google, scholar or PubMed and
read research papers about it, becauseI know that there are so many different
sides to the same story. There'salways a ton of different sides. And
in science, it's kind of funnybecause what I realized in the PhD,
(18:52):
and what they kind of like nailinto our brains as well, is that
there is so much debate even betweenscientists, like there are so many things
that are not agreed upon. Wehad a course actually that every student had
to take every semester where somebody wouldpublish a paper and then we would just
sit and critique it. And theywould be really high level papers, like
papers published in Nature, neuroscience,like top notch journals, and we would
(19:15):
sit there and talk about all ofthe things that are good about it,
but then also the things that arewrong within, things that we could have
done better. So just knowing alsothat science is always evolving, and it
just kind of it's a reminder liketake everything with a grain of salt,
and also to do what you feelis right and believe and kind of always
I always try to make sure toput at the end of my videos and
(19:37):
in my captions like always do whatresonates with you, like just because someone
says something, just because I evensay something like if it's not resonating with
you or you don't feel like that'strue for you, then always do your
own research and try to find theinformation for yourself. So you mentioned about
thirty minutes after you wake up youshouldn't be scrolling on social media, which
is actually the exact amount of timeI've heard and revenue the past one.
(20:00):
Why is that? And I knowthe answer, but I'd like you to
explain to your to our listeners.And in two, is there anything in
reference to social media hygiene that youcould and I just made that. I
don't even if that term exists ornot. But in reference to you know,
if you are on social media becauseit is your work and is your
business, is there a certain amountof time you should allow yourself a day,
(20:22):
So like when you said thirty minutesafter that's great, fifteen minutes a
day, thirty minutes a day?Is there a limit that you should be
giving our listeners or you give youknow, the people that follow you.
Yeah. So as for a limitto the amounts during the day, I
think it's hard for me, LikeI don't even put a number on myself,
But as soon as I feel likeI always like, I'm very big
(20:45):
on intention So whenever I go toopen up my social media app, I
always try to be mindful of it, and it's like, what's the purpose
that I'm going on here right now? Am I going on here to post?
Am I going on here to replyto comments? Am I going on
to share a story? So Ialways try to be mindful of the reason
why I'm going on. And ifI'm going on to just consume content and
scroll for a little bit and havesome entertainment check up on my people that
(21:07):
I'm following, that's fine. Butthen I make sure that I'm mindful of
that and that's my reason and Itry to keep that period of time short.
So I think really like the waythat I try to restrict the time
is just being intentional with why I'mon the app and not allowing it to
become a mindless activity. As forthe morning, there's three reasons that come
(21:30):
to mind three main reasons. Thefirst is that as we're waking up,
our brain waves are transitioning from slowwaves like delta and theta waves through alpha
and then they go into beta,which are kind of more of like are
awake and alert brain waves. Andobviously there's always a mixture of brain waves
going on, there's never just onehappening, but this is when these are
the waves that have a higher powerat this time. So this transition is
(21:53):
really important because it's just from sleepto wake. Right. If you go
on your phone as soon as youwake up in the morning, you're disrupting
this transition and you go straight intobeta, which primes you to or i
say, into beta, but youkind of cut through a lot of that
slow transition and you wake up thebrain really quickly, which primes you to
(22:15):
be more stressed throughout the day andmore anxious throughout the day. And then
another reason is that neuroplasticity is actuallythought to be higher when theta waves are
increased, and neuroplasticity is just thebrain's ability to learn and adapt and basically
neurons we're always like, our brainsare changing all the time as long as
(22:37):
we're using intentional effort, but especiallywhen data activity is high, we have
an increased ability to learn. Andso it's kind of thought that when you
go and consume whatever you're consuming,especially if it's as soon as you wake
up in the morning, that's goingto have a greater impact on your mindset
and your mood for the rest ofthe day. So it's really important to
be intentional with what's your putting intoyour mind as soon as you wake up
(23:00):
in the morning. And then thethird reason is dopamine. So we kind
of have like a we always havea baseline level of dopamine firing at all
times, and when if you goon your phone as soon as you wake
up in the morning, you arecausing a huge spike in dopamine, Like
you are just driving your dopamine reallyhigh as soon as you wake up in
(23:22):
the morning, because social media givesus dopamine, and so what that does
is it actually decreases our baseline forthe rest of the day. So one
like our baseline levels of dopamine.So as soon as you increase your dopamine
from social media as soon as youwake up in the morning, now for
the rest of the day, you'regoing to be seeking that dopamine high,
So you're going to keep wanting tocheck your phone so that you keep getting
(23:45):
those dopamine spikes because you primed yourbrain for it as soon as you woke
up in the morning. And alsoyou're just going to have a decreased dopamine
baseline throughout the rest of the day, which also is going to drive you
to seek. It's going to becausing to be more distracted and just seek
other things that boost dopamine rather thanbeing more focused and zoned in for your
(24:07):
day. Love it, Love it, Dave. Yeah, And then my
question would be like, what isthe impact if we talk about early mornings
and getting some positive effects, whatare the impacts of exercise that you found
on the brain's function and maybe wedo an early morning workout, How is
that much more positive? Yeah?I always work out in the morning.
That's like my favorite time to workout one because when we wake up,
(24:32):
actually we have a denazine in oursystem which makes us tired, and exercise
helps clear that out if we wakeup if we work out as soon as
we wake up in the morning,so it actually and then it also increases
dopamine. It increases nourepinephrine, andit increases endocannabinoids. And endocannabinoids are one
of my favorite things to talk aboutbecause a lot of people don't know what
(24:53):
they are, but it sounds likecannabis because it binds to the same receptors
in our body as cannabis, andthey were actually discovered after cannabis was a
thing. So that's why it's namedendocannabinoids because endo like meaning inside and then
cannabinoids, so like cannabinoids made fromour bodies, and so they bind that
(25:15):
receptor and we literally get a naturalhigh from working out, and that's kind
of like a lot of times peopletalk about like endorphins, and those are
the things as well, but reallyit's the endocannabinoid system that really drives that
natural high that we get from exercise, and so that just primes us to
have a great move for the restof the day. But also the dopamine
and norepinephrine we get from exercise,especially higher intensity exercise, that will help
(25:41):
us have better focus and more energythroughout the rest of the day as well.
Now that I mean, I wasn'teven going to bring this up,
and it's not even part of myquestions. But you mentioned cannabis, right,
and the effects of you know,some people utilize very small dosages for
sleep. I know there's not aton of research or chat yet and nothing's
really concrete, and I've spoken tomany functional medicine doctors that some are forward
(26:06):
and very small dosages and some arecompletely against it. It's never really been
my thing. But are you findingin your own research? And I'm not
saying what's stated, I'm not sayingwhat's found in PubMed But do you have
or can you voice your opinion onmaybe small dosages of cannabis for people who
struggle to sleep or struggle to recoveras being valuable or you completely against it.
(26:30):
I wouldn't say I'm completely against it, just because I always try to
keep an open mind when it comesto science because you never know what's gonna
come out. And also everyone isdifferent, so I think it definitely depends
on the person. But I canimagine that well from like my own research,
I can imagine that there are peoplethat are like, aren't producing the
(26:51):
level of endocannabinoids that other people are, and maybe lo doos like I'm actually
I was kind of just brought ontothe scene of micro docinctape. I actually
hadn't heard of it until kind ofrecently, so I've just been looking diving
into the research recently, and itcan be very beneficial for people, especially
like like you mentioned, for sleepand mood as well, and obviously like
(27:15):
there are other there are other benefitslike appetite for people that are having other
mental health issues and things. SoI think that it can be helpful for
some people, but then also itcan be harmful for some people. And
I think the emphasis is low dosebecause at higher doses then you start to
see like differences in brain matter volumeand things like that and brain scans,
(27:37):
so like long term heavy use ofcannabis, just like I can't say that's
good for the brain like it's it'snot, But there are like health benefits
to it as well, and thereis a lot of research on the effects
and the benefits of it for people, especially like chemotherapy for people that are
going through cancer and all of that. So there there are benefits to it,
(28:00):
and there are therapeutic there are waysto use it therapeutically. So great
answer. Thanks. I'm going tocontinue on the letter C. What about
caffeine coffee and its effects, becausethat's obviously a big thing in society now
is oh, I got to havemy coffee, and oh that it affects
my sleep. But I think there'ssome positive things about coffee out there.
(28:23):
But what have your experience have beenlooking through the research and just throw an
anecdotal experience. Yeah, I lovewhen people say caffeine is not good for
you, because there's plenty of scienceto show that it's a cognitive enhancer.
It speeds up people's reaction times.The cash to me too, is just
like at the right dose, becausethere is a very obvious curve to where
(28:47):
as soon as you have too muchcaffeine, it's very harmful. And I'm
sure we've all experienced that where wehave too much caffeine and it's we're not
okay. And so personally, likeI was diagnosed with ADHD when I was
young, So caffeine honestly always mademe tired, Like I would like if
I would drink a cup of coffee, I'd fall straight to sleep, and
(29:08):
so I just kind of like,I love coffee, so I would drink
it, but it was never reallyfor like energy purposes until I found Macha
and green Tea and cacao on accident, and I realized that they actually gave
me a lot more energy than coffeewould. And so when I started doing
research, I actually found and discoveredthat there is a lot of research and
(29:33):
studies showing that the combination of elfbeianine and caffeine together boost well. Elthenine
boosts alpha waves in the brain,and alpha is known for kind of being
in a sense of flow and throughoutthe day. So but there's a lot
of research showing that, especially inpeople with ADHD, the combination of elfenine
and caffeine it boosts focus, sustainedattention, and motivation. And so I
(29:57):
found that discovered that on accident.But I feel so amazing when I drink
green tea or macha versus coffee.So now I actually have elfa and eene
powder, and if I want tohave coffee, because I really do enjoy
coffee, I love it, I'lljust add a little elfy and into my
coffee and the difference is crazy.I just I find that it takes away
(30:18):
the jitters as well. So ifyou ever feel jittery from caffeine, just
put a little elthianine in there andit makes a world a difference. And
that's like something I love talking abouton social media as well, just because
it's something that isn't really discussed alot. But every one of my comments
is always like I try, I'mtrying it and it's completely changed my life,
Like it's the best. I respondexactly how you respond to coffee.
(30:38):
It's so funny. I've never I'veonly used coffee more as like a performance
enhancer. It's something that I havea rule. I'll use it always before
workout, never after workout. It'sprobably something I'm consuming at seven eight in
the morning, right and if Ihave even a little bit of it,
I don't feel as well I wouldif I was drinking Save green tea or
(31:02):
anything else. So the elfenine Iactually never heard of during the coffee.
I've actually heard is it being somewhatof a Some people are using it as
almost a sleep aid that I'm hearingthat they're mixing it more with like magnesium
bike glsen it or I can neversay anostdal or glycine or you know,
elfhenine. I'm hearing people throw itin there. But I'm also mushroom powder
(31:25):
was the one thing that I wasable to throw into my coffee, and
for some reason, if I uselike a high quality lines made or like
a cordyceps or something like that that'smixed into my coffee, for some reason,
that kind of takes that edge offand it doesn't allow me that caffeine
would make me actually crash in theafternoon. If I had green tea,
I wouldn't have that crash. It'salmost ironic, even if it's the same
(31:47):
in caffeine. Yeah, So elfanine is also known well alpha waves are
kind of that Like when I wasmentioning earlier that transition from waking and the
same thing happens at night, soas we're falling asleep alpha waves or flow
state when we're awake, but alsoa sense of calm as we're falling asleep.
And so I actually have like amagnesium ELFI and eine powder that sometimes
(32:08):
I'll drink at night, and itis for sleep, but it just works
wonders in in caffeine to take aYeah, yeah, so that's kind of
the reason. So I discovered thaton accident. But that's the reason why
Macha and green tea, like theyjust work so much better for me personally.
And then cacao has I'm like thebiggest fan of cacao ever. I'll
(32:31):
actually put cocau in my macha sometimesand that's like cacau not cocoa. A
lot of people I've always like asking, but there's a there's a big difference.
Cacau is straight from the plant.It's not processed, there's no sugar,
it's not sweet, and it's raw, pure, raw cocu powder.
And it has another and it increasesserotonin, and it has a low amount
(32:52):
of caffeine preserving probably like thirty milligramstwenty milligrams. Yeah, but it also
has some thing called theobromine in it, and theobromine is incredible, it's really
well. Cocao has a lot ofbeneficial effects on the heart and blood circulation
and all that. But one ofthe reasons why is because theobromine actually dilates
(33:13):
our blood vessels and it increases bloodflow to the brain. So you get
this like natural sense of energy justbecause you were actually getting more oxygen to
your brain. And so I actuallyalso discovered that on accident because I gave
up caffeine. Didn't realize coco hada little bit of caffeine in it.
But I started drinking cocao tea andjust feeling amazing, and I was like,
whoa, this is giving me moreenergy than my espresso would. And
(33:37):
so I love cocao as well,and sometimes I'll add a little bit of
that. But I also like,you have a mushroom powder. It's called
the one I use, is calledbrain dust, and it has like lions
made. It also has ginko init, but it has like reischi I
think, and just a few differentadaptogens like mushrooms that are known to enhance
focus. And I can have thatwithout any caffeine in it at all,
(34:00):
and I feel a little bit.I feel like the focus. I'm big
on it. I'm big on itnow. I think in the beginning I
was taking it, I really wasn'treally noticing much. And then I found
a brand by I don't know ifyou know, doctor Dwayne Jackson. He
runs all of the curriculum for prescript, which is doctor Jordan Shallow's certification company
created a company called law Vibe,and I started taking it and I was
(34:22):
like oh yeah, yeah yeah,And out of nowhere, it's like you
almost become a bit addicted to it. You're like, oh my god,
like my awareness, I'm not gonnashakiness. It's like it really is.
There's a lot of value to it, but in my opinion, it depends
on the the the the equality ofthe mushroom that you consumer it totally totally,
and it's away with supplements as well, like of course the quality that
(34:43):
you're It's the same thing with food, like it's not all created equal.
Well, listen, I got topivot to another question. I know Derek's
gonna love in reference to wearables.Now, the nervous system, that's something
that most people, I mean,you you myself, Derek. I mean
we're going to be able to gaugereadiness by you know, maybe how we
(35:04):
feel or are you utilizing any typeof products or any type of wearables to
help, you know, gauge someone'sreadiness or or their or their nervous system
or or you know, how they'reresponding every day because sometimes and people don't
really know it's a very tough thingto quantify, right, It's it's well,
I'm stressed out. I'm always stressedout. It's like, well,
(35:25):
why am I suddenly feeling worse rightnow? Like are you using anything or
are people just coming to you sayingI don't feel right, something's off,
And I listened to social media postsand I think it might be you know
the posts that you you know mentionedto me on Tuesday. Is there any
way that you have people quantify whetherthey're in a successful state or not successful?
(35:46):
Yeah. So if people so,I don't like tell them go out
and buy this. But if peopledo have the device, and I'm one
hundred percent like, let me seeyour time in rem and your deep sleep
and like seeing our heart rate variabilityall of that, because that kind of
tells me how like the Vegas nerveis doing and all of that. But
(36:07):
personally, I don't like use one. I way back in the day,
I had an Apple Watch and Ilost it, and I think that was
kind of just divine intervention because Ilike, as you can tell right now,
I use wired headphones. I don'tlike. I wear bluetooth headphones when
I work out, but that's theonly time I will wear bluetooth headphones.
I actually I get a headache fromhaving like bluetooth headphones on my head all
(36:30):
day. And it's kind of funnybecause I was listening to Andrew Rubman's podcast
about bluetooth and all that, andhe said the same thing. So I
was like, I wonder if Iwas brain people like we're just too in
tune with our brains or something.But yeah, so I don't. I
don't like I don't like wearing honestlytechnology on my body usually so and then
also I feel personally that if I'mlike wearing an order ring or wearing a
(36:52):
whoop band and it tells me Igot less deep sleep, then I might
start to get some no cebo effectswhere I'm like, oh, I didn't
get an that's sleep, I'm gonnabe tired today, and then I'm more
tired than if I just didn't know, you know what I mean. So
personally, I would rather just kindof do what I feel is best.
But also I think I have theknowledge to where like, if I'm feeling
(37:13):
a certain way, then I'm like, oh, I didn't take my magnesium.
Let me take my magnesium tonight beforeI sleep, and that'll help.
Well, that's you. But howdo you how do you give advice to
someone out there who's because a lotof people aren't aware of this. Yeah,
it's like, how do you dowhat are some of the signs that
you would tell them that it's probablyit may not be your fitness, it
(37:34):
may or it might or it maynot be your nutrition or it might or
you know, there might be adeeper problem here. Yeah, So usually
my first coaching call with a clientis going through their entire day and routine
and what they eat and even likemindset, like just I want to know,
like who are the people you surroundyourself with? Like how are you
(37:54):
talking to yourself? How are youtalking to others? What is your job?
What do you do? Do youenjoy that job? Like what are
you eating? And then how areyou sleeping? What are you are you
eating before you sleep? Are youdrinking water before you sleep? What supplements
are you taking? Have you hadyour blood tested before? Because I work
with inside Tracker as well, andso that's super helpful for me personally,
(38:15):
like that having that information like that, I can tell you so easily,
and they can tell you so easily, like that's let's start with this supplement,
let's start with this. But usuallyfor me, I can just I
just ask pretty much everything about theperson's life that I can possibly get,
and then from there it's pretty easyfor me to be able to pinpoint at
(38:37):
least like a top three things thatwe can target first, because I never
want to or like one or twoeven because starting with too many things,
a lot of people like you say, they just are they they just when
it's all up in the air,you got to pick one thing to start
with to kind of anchor us.And so usually for me, that's the
(38:58):
first thing I help people with isa publishing some sort of routine at least
a night like a morning and anight time routine, and it can be
literally like five or ten minutes.It doesn't have to be like a whole
extra thing. And then prioritizing likehow the sleep we're getting, because sleep
is one of the most important thingsfor the brain, and if we're not
getting good sleep, then we can'tdo the work that we need to do.
(39:20):
AWESO, have you been doing someresearch into the was it the semi
glue tide ozepic type drugs and theimpact on not just obesity but also addiction.
That's what I've been hearing about,is that it can help people with
addiction. And I don't know alot about it and how it affects the
brain, but I'm wondering if you'vedone any sort of research into that.
(39:44):
I haven't looked into the research foraddiction. I know how it works kind
of for obesity, but that wouldbe interesting to look into. Actually,
I would imagine, like I knowhow it works like with the glucose and
insulin, and so I can seeit helping people with food addiction of course,
but regular addiction I have I mean, I would have a feeling that
(40:07):
it definitely impacts our reward system andkind of just the basil ganglia dopamine system
and so. And actually, Ithat's like a hunch I have because there
used to be a drug way backin the day that was an obesity drug,
and it actually got discontinued because ithad this effect on the reward system,
but it was to such a greateffect that it was actually making people
(40:28):
suicidal, and so it got takenoff the market. And that was kind
of like that was my biggest concernwith like ozepic and all these things coming
out, like when people talking aboutthem, and I have a friend that
told me her sister's taking it andor doing the shot or whatever, and
that was my first concern was justlike how was her mental health? Because
it was a very fine line betweenyou know, disrupting the nervous system,
(40:52):
helping people like quit any sort oflike dopamine craving thing that they have in
their life, and then kind ofmaking nothing in their life give them dopamine.
And when nothing in your life isgiving you dopamine, then you're at
risk for depression. Huh. Canyou? Can you let all of our
listeners know, like what are yourservices that you offer? Because I think
(41:14):
this is going to be very intriguingto a lot of people, and I
think they're gonna want to you know, now they don't have to go to
a doctor's office anymore, right,Like this is stuff that you can do
virtually. Can you just give usa little background on it? Yeah?
Yeah, So if you want todo coaching with me, I have a
website. It's moonthebrain dot com andI have kind of my main pillars outlined
there and everything that I like totouch on in a coaching In coaching I
(41:38):
do, I do, I'll doprograms, but then I also will I
have a lot of people that justwant to do one call and then they
just want to kind of get theirfeet wet and then we'll catch up in
a few weeks or in a monthand we'll talk about some more things.
And so it's kind of totally upto the individual how they want to move
forward with that. And you cango to my website like I just or
(42:00):
my link in bio if you followme on social media, I'm on the
Brain. My link in bio haskind of some quick links to signing up
for it as well. So there'sjust a little form that you fill out
about yourself and we can get flowingthrough there. Yeah, I love it.
I love it. I mean,I think this is obviously one of
the most overlooked areas I think ofjust wellness in general. Right, everyone
(42:21):
thinks these things get solved with thesupplement or an exercise routine, and I'm
like, oh my god, it'sso far beyond that. Listen, thank
you, listen, thank you somuch for coming on. If there's anything
we can do, we'll let youknow when this goes live. We're going
to direct people to your site.We're going to direct them your social media
handles. I'm in New York,Derek's and Vancouver. If you're ever up
in New York, love you tocome check out the facility to get a
(42:42):
work out if you'd like. Ifthere's anything you need, you let me
know. But I really appreciate itand looking forward to meeting you in person.
Yeah, thank you guys so muchfor having me on. This was
awesome. No, it was alot of fun. Take care of me.
Thank you.
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