The Essential Boomer

The Baby Boomer's Guide to Adding Years of Optimal Health to Your Life.

Health Span Podcasts

61: How the Fasting Mimicking Diet Takes the Pain Out of Fasting

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In episode 61, I have a fascinating conversation with Victoria Hahn, MS, RDN, about prolonged fasting with the Fasting Mimicking Diet ®

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

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

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

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

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

Valter Longo PhD

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

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

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

Dr. Longo developed the Fasting Mimicking Diet ® as a means to make the many benefits of prolonged fasting accessible to most everybody.

In this in-depth podcast, Victoria Hahn MS, RDN answers the following questions about the Fasting mimicking diet ® :

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

Come join Laura & me on our very first fast with the Fasting Mimicking Diet ® – July 2019!

Are you ready to join me on my very first fast with the Fasting Mimicking Diet ® ?

Experience your very first prolonged fast in a friendly, supportive group!

Learn about the truth about fasting in this FREE E:Report

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The Truth About Fasting

Turn On Your Body’s Natural Wellness Mechanisms so You Look and Feel Great from the Inside Out Using the Fasting Methods in “The Truth About Fasting”!

Learn all about ProLon and the Fasting Mimicking Diet ®

The Fasting Mimicking Diet®

Learn all about the benefits of Prolon’s Fasting Mimicking Diet ®



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Mr. Dave Hydie

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

DISCLAIMER
The statements on this site have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

How Autophagy Can Add Years of Great Health for Us Boomers!

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Hello and welcome to health bites!

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

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

Autophagy plays a leading role in many of the life-hacks that have a major impact on your health-span.

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

Mechanism of cellular authophagy, illustration for Nobel Prize Award in Medicine 2016. 3D illustration showing fusion of lysosome with autophagosome containing microbes and molecules

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

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

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

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

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

Autophagy is a vital function for maintaining our health. So how do we help our bodies to increase our level of autophagy?

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

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

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

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

Incorporating exercise and periodic prolonged fasting into your lifestyle can have very powerful anti-aging affects on your life.

Come join me on my very first prolonged fast!

Join me on my first prolonged fast in July 2019!

Click on the button below for more information on
joining me on a 5-Day fast using the
FASTING MIMICKING DIET


I also want to extend an invitation to join The Essential Boomer Members Community!

Come Join US!

The Essential Boomer Members Community

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

59: Heads Up Baby Boomers! This is the Wake Up Call That Could Save Your Life!

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What if I told you that there has been a scientific breakthrough for a new medication that has been proven to protect you from cancer, heart disease, diabetes, colds and the flu?

And… that this medication has a powerful healing effect on every system and cell in your body…

And this amazing medication can also enhance your learning ability, memory, and creativity, all, while making you happier, looking younger, thinner, and even improves your sex life?

Plus, this new medication has no negative side effects and is completely free.

Would this be of interest to you?

If so, then I have some very good news for you. This miracle cure-all does exist and is yours for the taking.

It’s called quality sleep.

In episode 59 I’m going to be sharing with you what I believe to be the most important and timely podcast that I have ever produced over the last 5 years or so.

Good, quality sleep is so much more than a luxury for us boomers. It is an absolute, vital necessity to our very lives.

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

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

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

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

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

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

If nothing else, I encourage you to download my free 20-page companion PDF – 20 Solid Tips to Enable Baby Boomers to Get a Great Night Sleep Every Night.

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20 Solid Tips to Enable Baby Boomers to
Get a Great Night Sleep Every Night

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

I recommend that you read this PDF while connected to the internet because there are many links to information and resources that will help you to get that quality sleep that you’re looking for.

Sleep. We all know that we need it, yet so many of us treat it as an optional commodity.

How many of us have spent most of our lives sacrificing a full 8 hours of sleep in order to pursue “more important” goals such as getting off to school early, leading to getting off to work early, which turns into just getting up earlier in retirement because you don’t need as much sleep as you used to.

I can hear many of you now…

I can get along just fine on 6 hours of sleep. I have for years. And besides, it’s been proven that we don’t need as much sleep as we get older. I’ll sleep when I’m dead.

Well, that may be a prophetic thought because we now know, for sure, that chronic sleep deprivation will lead to an earlier death, which quite often follows a serious bought with cancer or heart disease or a long, losing battle to hold on to your cherished memories, with Alzheimer’s disease.

And science now has proven beyond a doubt that almost everybody needs 7 – 9 hours of sleep nightly. Many people think that they can do fine on 6 hours or less. Sadly, this just isn’t true.

The problem is that people that are chronically sleep deprived may often feel like they get plenty of sleep. This is because their body adjusts to the sleep deprivation, but it is still putting them at serious risk for serious physical, cognitive and emotional problems.

Oh, then I must be in that small percentage of people who can get on with less than 7 hours just fine.

Okay. Well, that is extremely unlikely. In fact, the odds of you being one of those people who genetically are fine with less than 7 hours sleep is way less than your odds of being struck by lightning.

Or, another way to look at it is the percentage of people on this planet with that rare genetic pre-disposition, when rounded to the nearest whole number, is ZERO. So no, you aren’t one of those people.

The fact is that sleep is a lot more important than most of us could have possibly imagined. It is THE MAIN driver of our health and happiness.

There are 4 stages of sleep that you experience every night.

This is broken into two sub-categories with one called REM, or rapid eye movement sleep. This is the period of sleep where you are dreaming and experiencing a lot of brain activity and cardiovascular activity. Then there is non-REM sleep or NREM sleep, which contains levels 1 – 3, with level one being the lightest and level 3 being the deepest. In fact, it is often referred to as deep level 3 sleep. This is where many of the restorative processes take place.

In a typical night’s sleep, you will go through all these levels every 90 minutes with NREM sleep dominating in the early evening with a slow progression of increased REM sleep until it dominates the 90-minute cycles toward the end of your sleep in the morning.

Every stage of sleep is important for your physical, psychological, and emotional health and thus cutting short any of your sleep with going to bed too late or getting up too early will disturb this pattern causing sleep deprivation.

your quality of sleep affects every aspect of your life. And, like a double-edged sword, obtaining regular, quality sleep has truly wondrous health benefits, while depriving our self of it, has predictably tragic consequences.

If there is one overriding theme in the plethora of studies looking at the effect of sleep on our health it is this…

The shorter your sleep, the shorter your life.

And the shorter your telomeres…

You may recall from previous podcasts me talking about telomeres and how important they are to our health and aging. Telomeres are protective bits of DNA, like little bumpers or caps, that are attached on each end of all of our DNA strands.

These telomeres protect our DNA from damage, which can wreak havoc on our health causing cancer and many other health related problems.

You can accurately determine the biological age of someone by the lengths of their telomeres. So, the longer the better.

Many factors affect the length of your telomeres. Negative lifestyle factors like poor diet and stress can cause premature shortening of your telomeres. And, as you probably have already guessed, sleep has a significant affect on your telomeres.

A healthy, 7 – 9 hours of quality sleep promotes the lengthening of your telomeres, while a consistent 6 hours or less, causes a substantial decrease in the length of your telomeres. This alone, significantly increases your risk of cancer.

And, speaking of cancer. Here’s a sobering fact:

We all have cancer.

Every single day, our immune system seeks out and destroys cells in our bodies that have become cancerous. It is our immune system’s T-cells that are responsible for this very important mission. Obviously, we owe our very existence to the combined efforts of these amazing ninja-style warriors within our immune system.

Studies have shown that with even one single night of only 4 hours of sleep in a young, healthy person will diminish the number of T-cells in their bodies by 70%. And that’s after just one single night of sleep deprivation. Imagine multiplying that kind of sleep deprivation by weeks, months, years or decades.

It is estimated that 1 in 3 Americans suffer from chronic sleep deprivation. It’s no wonder that cancer is the number 2 cause for death behind heart disease.

And speaking of heart disease. We now know that deep sleep is very important for the maintenance of a healthy cardiovascular system. It is in deep sleep that our body re-calibrates the cardiovascular system and lowers your blood pressure. We know that even one night of poor sleep will have significant, negative effects on our blood pressure.

And we also know that, due to the constant onslaught of brain atrophy, that starts in our 20’s, that we slowly lose our ability to generate the deep sleep that is so important for our health. By the time most people are 50, they will have lost 50% of their ability to generate deep sleep and by the time most people are 70, it’s down to a paltry 5%.

So, it’s no big surprise that heart disease is the number one killer of American’s. Most of us have lost our abilities to adequately care for our cardiovascular system with deep sleep.

Here are some sobering statistics. In a ½ million person study done in 2012 which included people from 8 countries with varying ages, races and ethnicities. Progressively shorter sleep was responsible for a 45% increase in developing or dying from cardiovascular heart disease. And, in a similar 14-year study in Japan which looked at over 4,000 males. Those participants who slept for 6 hours or less over this 14-year period were 400% to 500% more likely to experience a heart attack as compared to those who slept for 7 or more hours over the same 14 years.

And as we get older, it gets worse. In another study 45-year-old or older adults who slept less than 6 hours per night were shown to be 200% more likely to experience a heart attack or a stroke at some point in their life.

The problem can be boiled down to the fact that sleep deprivation ramps up our sympathetic nervous system, otherwise known as our “fight or flight” system. When we miss out on our healing, quality sleep that would normally take our heart rate and blood pressure way down in deep level 3 sleep. So, as a by-product our bodies end up in a constant “fight or flight” mode with a higher heart rate and blood pressure, which quickly puts an unsustainable load on our cardiovascular system.

REM sleep has also been shown to be very important for your cardiovascular system. One of the reasons is that, unlike the very slow heart rate characteristic of deep sleep, REM sleep sees a very high variability of your heart rate from very slow to high. This seems to be of particular importance to the health of your cardiovascular system.
Many of these studies are long range studies showing the effects of sleep deprivation for weeks, months or years. But how important is a single night’s sleep? Surely that can’t cause much harm to anyone.

Well… You and I have all been participants in a huge yearly study with over 1 and ½ billion other people where we all lose only one hour of sleep in a 24-hour period. You know this as daylight savings time when we all turn our clocks forward for one hour in March, thus causing the loss of a single hour sleep for over 1 and 1/2 billion people.

When you go over all of the hospital records for the day following this change in time, there is an obvious and sharp spike on heart attacks and car accidents. And, when we go back to standard time in fall, and gain an hour of sleep, we find just the opposite. There is a huge dip in heart attacks as well as car accidents. All from the loss or gain of a single hour of sleep.

And it’s not just your susceptibility to heart disease and cancer that is affected by chronic sleep deprivation. Literally every system and cell in your body is adversely affected.

sleep deprivation has a profound effect on your ability to metabolize sugar due to a desensitization of your body’s insulin response.

In many studies, where normally healthy, young subjects were subjected to 6 hours of sleep or less for one week, it was shown that their body lost over 30% of their insulin response. To put that into perspective, if they were to go to their doctors in such a state, they would immediately be placed on a major pharmaceutical-driven protocol to prevent them from developing full-blown type 2 diabetes.

Just imagine how your body would respond to chronic sleep deprivation of 6 hours or less over years.

It has also been demonstrated in multiple studies that sleep deprivation is a major driver of obesity due to this metabolic effect, as well as changes in the brain, which increases your appetite along with your craving for junk food high in sugar and carbohydrates. It’s a vicious cycle, driven by the lack of sleep.

Sleep deprivation is now known to be a major contributing factor in neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease. Scientists now know that the buildup of amyloid plaques are the culprits that cause the destruction of certain areas of the brain, which lead to the neurological symptoms associated with these diseases. So what causes these amyloid plaques to build up.

It turns out that during normal deep sleep, our brains flush out the amyloid plaques in the cells of our brain with something called our glymphatic system, which like our lymphatic system, rids our bodies of cellular waste products.

What makes this even more insidious is that these amyloid plaques tend to build up in the prefrontal cortex of our brains which is the same area that deep sleep is generated. This creates a viscous cycle where the loss of our ability to generate deep sleep actually increases the destruction of the very area responsible for deep sleep.

And let me make one more point here.

The loss of deep sleep only, for even one single night, has been shown to increase the amount of amyloid plaque in a person by 25-30 percent. Let that sink in.

But this system does not work well when our deep sleep is diminished, from age, or from sleep deprivation. This is when these amyloid plaques start to build up in certain areas of the brain, eventually leading to neurological disease.

Sleep deprivation is also a major contributing factor for anxiety, depression as well as many other psychological disorders. The connection is undeniable, starting within even 15 hours of wakefulness, after a night’s sleep.

Poor sleep is the trademark of literally all psychological and emotional disorders. Said another way, healthy, quality sleep has never been found to be associated with anybody suffering from ANY psychosocial or emotional disorder. Does this mean that lack of sleep is the cause of all these conditions? No, but it appears that there is a strong correlation between mental illness and the quality of sleep one receives and sleep has been shown to play a major role in mental illness.

Deprive anybody, of sleep for a single night and they will all exhibit symptoms of psychological and emotional disorders that increase rapidly with the continued lack of sleep.

We now know that it is during quality sleep, that we process all the information and memories from the day before into permanent memories. And, the lack of quality sleep will dramatically affect our ability to learn by processing memories.

Therefore, many of us baby boomers, and seniors, experience significant problems with learning and memory, due to the chronic sleep deprivation that many of them have due to loss of their ability to obtain both deep sleep and a full 7 hours or more sleep each night.

And men! chronic sleep deprivation can seriously impact your testosterone levels.

In one study, men who regularly slept for 5 hours or less were shown to have levels of testosterone that were in line with those who were 10 years older. It’s no wonder that Viagra has brought in 10’s of billions of dollars since it was introduced to the market over 20 years ago.

All of this should underscore an important point that should be blatantly obvious to us baby boomers, and that is that big, bright, flashing sign directly in our face that says…

SAVE YOUR SLEEP!

Preserving what you have left of your ability to generate quality sleep is your prime directive if you’re seriously interested in extending your health span. This isn’t optional. It is mandatory. It is use-it or lose it, big-time.

Okay, so hopefully by now you have a renewed reverence for sleep and fully understand the importance of preserving it.

So how can you fully optimize and preserve your precious ability to sleep so you can reap the benefits of a good night’s sleep for as long as possible?

Get your FREE Companion PDF!

20 Solid Tips to Enable Baby Boomers to
Get a Great Night Sleep Every Night


Click on the button below to download your PDF

Here are some resources to help you to get a great night’s sleep EVERY NIGHT!

Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker PhD.

This is a MUST READ for anybody interested in how to protect their health and preserve their sleep. Dr. Walker has been doing sleep researcher at UC Berkeley for 20 years. This is the latest science on sleep.
It is available in all formats. I got the Audible version and listened to it 3 times!

CLICK HERE for more information from Amazon

Alaska Bear Natural Silk Sleep Mask, Blindfold, Super Smooth Eye Mask (One Strap)

A sleep aid and eye relaxer, made of 100% top-quality 19 momme natural mulberry silk on BOTH sides. Only super-soft, super-smooth pure silk offers the breathable, cool relaxation of the soothing masks found at the world’s premier spas

Gentle, easy-to-adjust headband won’t tangle hair or snag pillow. And the plastic adjuster stays at the back of your head, not at your temples, which can be uncomfortable for side-sleepers. Fits comfortably with ear plugs and even with a CPAP facial mask. Fully adjustable strap from 15.8 inches to 27.6 inches, suitable for women/men/kids

Ideal for insomnia, migraine headaches and dry-eye sufferers, as the breathable, natural fibers of hypoallergenic silk allows healthy oxygen in while keeping dry air out. Get the benefits of total blackout, whether at home, in a hotel or on the plane (where bright led light and dry air can be especially harsh).

CLICK HERE for more information on Amazon


Howard Leight by Honeywell Max Lite Low Pressure Disposable Foam Earplugs, 200-Pairs (LPF-1)

Protect your ears from hazardous shooting noises with Howard Leight by Honeywell Max Lite Low Pressure Disposable Foam Earplugs.

These foam earplugs are specifically designed to fit smaller ear canals.

The low pressure foam expands gently in your ear, providing a comfortable all-day fit, while the contoured T-shape makes for easy insertion and removal.

A noise reduction rating of 30 offers excellent hearing protection in almost any workplace. 200 pairs of disposable earplugs per pack.

CLICK HERE for more information on Amazon

Verilux HappyLight Compact Personal, Portable Light Therapy Energy Lamp

A Verilux Best Seller, the HappyLight Liberty energy lamp provides safe, comfortable natural spectrum light therapy in a compact solution.

5,000 Lux moderate UV filtered output for extended daily use. Light therapy can help improve your mood and combats sleep issues by resetting your circadian rhythm.

Compact, weighs only 1.5 lbs., perfect for small spaces and on-the-go portability.
Durable, long lasting, and safety tested to the highest standards of compliance.

CLICK HERE for more information on Amazon

 
Theramu CBD Oil Elixirs

There is no THC in Theramu CBD oil elixirs. Dr. Walker states in his book that CBD does not seem to have the same negative effect on your REM sleep that THC does.
Theramu CBD oil elixirs act as an anti-inflammatory from the inside out, helping to quiet agitation and spasming, promote healthy sleep patterns, and soothe general body aches and discomfort.

As with all Theramu products, Calm uses 100% all-natural ingredients and organic fruit extracts, with no unnecessary fillers or additives.

I am a big fan of Theramu products. They are a quality family-run company that creates excellent products. I am proud to have an affiliate relationship with them because I believe in their company and their products.

Use the coupon code BOOMER at checkout to get a 20% discount FOR LIFE!
CLICK HERE for more information on Theramu and their fine products.

CLICK HERE to join The Essential Boomer Members Community Private Facebook group. It’s FREE!

Mr. Dave Hydie

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

Disclaimer

Any information as found within our Website, Facebook groups, and associated materials is for general educational and informational purposes only.  This information is not intended nor otherwise implied to be medical advice.

It is strongly recommended that you consult with your physician prior to embarking on any changes to your lifestyle as discussed in this report.

CLICK HERE to view all The Essential Boomer LLC important disclaimers

Help! I Have Zombie Cells and Don’t Know What to Do!

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Today on Health Bites, I’m going to be talking about your body’s cells and why you don’t want them to become zombies AND, how to get rid of them if they do.

I know that sounds strange but it really can happen. This is a really interesting and important concept that directly affects your health and how fast you age.

Most normal cells in your body periodically go through the process of cell division, where the cell creates a duplicate cell, to carry on their various tasks throughout the body. Every time they divide, they experience a loss to the structure of their protective telomeres, which are like protective bumpers situated at the end of their DNA strands.

As they get older, and their telomeres get shorter, they start to experience more DNA damage, which can adversely affect the function of the cells. The cell’s DNA can also get damaged from other environmental stresses often caused by poor lifestyle habits.

And when your cells get older and stop dividing, they’re supposed to go off and kill themselves through a process called apoptosis.

But sometimes, they don’t get the message that they should be offing themselves, so they live on as zombies. Technically, these zombie cells are call senescent cells.

The problem is that because of all the wear and tear on their DNA, these senescent cells no longer can function like they’re supposed to. Instead, they just hang about and spit out useless proteins that accumulates in the cytoplasm of the cell. Typical zombies, right?

So, when the zombie cell starts spitting out all that crappy protein, your immune system responds to what it thinks is a foreign invader, and attacks the junk proteins, thus increasing your inflammation. Not good.

And, to make things worse, these zombie cells can retaliate by becoming cancer cells. Friggin zombies.

So, how do prevent your cells from becoming zombies?

You basically, want to make sure that they get the original message to commit hari kari when they lose functionality.

Well, scientists have been madly working on this. They have developed some promising drugs, but it’s very hard to test them on anything except for rats. There’s a lot of promising ideas, but no real solutions in the pharmaceutical department yet.

But, we do know that the simple, life-style hacks, that I have been sharing with you have the beneficial effect of coaxing your senescent cells into the big sleep, so to speak.

You may remember my last health bites podcast where I talked about the positive benefits of hormesis. That’s the term for benefits of low-level stresses to our health.

Well, it turns out that one of the positive hormetic benefits of exercise, intermittent fasting, sauna use, and the consumption of broccoli sprouts, and other such natural lifestyle hacks, is that it helps to encourage your zombie, senescent cells to kill themselves. And as a bonus, these hacks also, through a process called autophagy, help to remove all those dead zombie carcasses along with all their protein expectorants.

So, there you have it. Why you have zombie cells and how to get rid of them.

For detailed information on how to get rid of your zombie cells just check out some of my lifestyle hack podcasts.

Thank you so much for listening! So until next time, have a great day… and keep those zombies away!

57: Why You Should be Eliminating Refined Sugar From Your Life NOW!

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

This important lifestyle hack is the drastic reduction of refined sugar from your life.

Get your free companion PDF
13 Sure-Fire Tips to Kick Your Sugar Habit for Good!

Click on the button below to download your PDF

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

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

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

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

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

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

So why is processed sugar so addicting?

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

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

And fructose is the culprit here.

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

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

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

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

But fructose is derived from fruit. Does that mean that fruit is unhealthy?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let’s talk cancer…

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

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

So how does sugar cause cancer?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let’s talk inflammation…

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

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

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

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

Does process sugar affect my brain?

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

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

Okay, so I’m ready to take that leap for myself and my family. How do I do it?

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

Sign up for your FREE PDF below!

Get your free companion PDF
13 Sure-Fire Tips to Kick Your Sugar Habit for Good!

Click on the button below to download your PDF

Okay, I’m on the road to less sugar and better health!

When can I expect to see some results?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Low Fat Yogart

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

Crackers

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

Alcohol mixers

Fruit snacks

Nut butter

Instant oatmeal

Cereals

Jam

Granola and granola bars

Dried fruit

Coffee drinks

BBQ and other sauces

Non-dairy milk

Bread

Flavored Bottle Water

Gummy vitamins

Bottled Tea

Juice

Salad dressing

Lemonade

Marinade

Sports Drinks

Jerky

Protein Powder

Tomato Sauce

Energy Bars

The list could go on and on…

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

Come join the Essential Boomer Members Community Private Facebook Group!










CLICK HERE to help support The Essential Boomer

Mr. Dave Hydie

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

55: How the Sauna Habit Can Make You Younger, Healthier & Happier

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The simple life hack that can change your life!

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

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

Rhonda Patrick PhD

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

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

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

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

Dr. Jari Laukkanen, M.D., Ph.D

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

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

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

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

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

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

The protections that regular sauna use provides for cardio-vascular related conditions are profound.

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

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

If you’re thinking that regular sauna use replicates the benefits of cardio-vascular exercise you’d be spot on… It does.

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

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

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

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

Hmmm…

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

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

Yup…

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

But how?

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

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

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

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

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

I experienced this first hand. At the time I listened to Rhonda Patrick’s interview with Dr. Laukkanen, back in august of 2018, I was couch-bound after a gnarly bike crash where I had seriously damaged my calf.

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

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

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

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

We now know that long-term, regular sauna use can also help protect your body against neurogenic diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s and Parkinson’s disease.


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FOX03, the longevity gene to the rescue!

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

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

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

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

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

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

It turns out that regular sauna use is very good for your brain.

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

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

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

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

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

Now, that can’t be bad can it?

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

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

Good question…

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

Au contraire mon frere. ..

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

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

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

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

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

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

There are also some common-sense safety guidelines that you should follow when using a dry sauna:

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

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

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

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

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

So, I hope by now that you are seriously thinking about adding the sauna to your weekly lifestyle routine IF you don’t have any pre-existing physical conditions that may prevent you from exposing yourself to that kind of heat stress.

If in doubt, I would first run it by your doctor to make sure that it’s safe for you.

Resources

CLICK HERE to go to FOUND MY FITNESS, Rhonda Patrick PhD’s amazing website.

CLICK HERE to go to Rhonda Patrick PhD’s interview with Dr. Jari Laukkanen, M.D., Ph.D.

CLICK HERE to go to ALL of the resources for sauna use on FOUND MY FITNESS.

CLICK HERE to help support The Essential Boomer

CLICK HERE to join The Essential Boomer Members Community Private Facebook group. It’s FREE!

Mr. Dave Hydie

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