The Bad Medicine of Travel: Why Airplane Food and Jet Lag Are Ruining Your Gut

Most people, they focus on jet lag. That's the only thing they're thinking. But what if I were to tell you that there are 5 major systems that are getting biologically disrupted when you are traveling? And this is not even when you're necessarily flying, even when you are commuting to work, getting on a train, when you're doing a weekend trip, even short trips.

Well, Dr. Vanote, thank you so much for joining us on Bad Medicine. We're thrilled to have you talk about travel gut. On Bad Medicine, we do like to highlight those things in medical practice, conventional and alternative, that are less than optimal. So I'm sure we'll cover a lot of those things as we go along. Thank you so much.

Welcome. Thank you so much for having me here. I'm looking forward to our conversation and sharing what my experience has been and what I know and maybe opening eyes of the listeners to a new way of thinking about their health and their body.

Yeah. Yeah. And I think the idea of travel right now, I think Nick said coming back from travels, you know, I've gone to Japan, Korea, Mexico, different time zones, the circadian rhythm. How does one eat? Which time zone do you respect? You know, so confused. And I know people always relate travel with jet lag. That's the one thing everyone asks me, how do you handle jet lag and how are you so active and how are you? And I never know exactly what to say. I always say, well, my body just adapts, but I think there's a much better answer and I'm hoping that you're going to give us that.

There is, because people ask me the same thing, like, how is it that you're in Southeast Asia as if nothing happened and you have the same energy, the same focus, all of that. What are you doing? And even if it's not going that far and just going from East Coast to West Coast, there are shifts that happen in our body. And most people, they do focus on jet lag. That's the only thing they're thinking. But what if I were to tell you that there are 5 major systems that are getting biologically disrupted when you are traveling? And this is not even when you're necessarily flying, even when you are commuting to work. Getting on a train, when you're doing a weekend trip, even short trips. So there's 5 major pathways I would say that we can look at. And one of the major ones of course is the gut, right? So our digestion is one that gets disrupted. And I'm going to give you the high level, what gets disrupted, and then we could dive into each of them. And I'm sure we'll spend quite a bit of time at the gut. Cause I know your focus is also the microbiome. So digestion is one thing. We've all probably felt it where you're either feeling bloated or you're feeling more heavy or your bowel movements aren't the same when you've traveled. The second one I would say is immunity. Immunity is a big one where it's like, oh, you come back, you were fine when you were traveling, you come back 3 days later and now you're sick.

Classic.

Yeah.

The third one that happens is going to be around focus. So your brain, right? So how many hours does it take you to get that brain fog and get that back where I need to be? And I wake up, I know what room I'm in, that kind of stuff, right? So the brain focus, cognition is the third factor that gets impacted. Then the fourth one I would say is energy. What do we do when we don't have energy? We just go get more caffeine. We get more coffee, we stop at the Starbucks, but no, there's a deep mitochondrial or cellular thing that's happening there. And the last one would be recovery. And most people think of recovery as sleep. And I'm like, oh no, there's a whole, like you said, circadian thing. Going on there. So what many people don't realize is yes, they're circadian, but when we go back up to the gut and start the story with the gut, the gut actually has its own circadian clock.

I did not know that.

That's where it's like, what, what are you talking about? I knew it had another brain, but now it's got another clock. What, like, what is all this going on in the body? But it does. And, and it's dependent on the individual's clock. So you as a person are influencing the circadian clock of the microbiome, and that's really important for your daily rhythms.

Yeah, I think I came across a study that said even one day when your circadian rhythm is compromised, your microbial diversity tanks so badly, takes about 7 days to recover that diversity. I mean, I believe that because travel can really do a number. And that's one of the reasons I tell my clients let's not do any microbiome testing soon after travel. It's as bad as after an antibiotic or something, because everything changes.

Whoa.

Yeah, absolutely. 24 hours, like one circadian rhythm or that 24-hour clock cycle can change your microbiome. And then if you also put on top of that, that you've changed what you were eating compared to what you would be normally at home, that would change it. Then on top of that, you change the times that you're eating. So now we're getting all these like whammies at our gut microbiome and we're thinking, oh, it's just jet lag. And I'm like, no, there's more going on there. There's a whole deeper thing going on there. So with that, I think maybe we'll talk a little bit more about the gut microbiome because I think that is one of the ones, like, I think people can resonate with because they might go to the airport, wake up super early for a flight. Soon as they get there, they go get through the security check, go grab their Starbucks, go sit down. Wait for the flight, get on the flight, and maybe even if they're waiting, depending where they are, they might have a meal or something. And I'll tell you, airport food, at least in the States, is awful. Internationally is actually pretty good. In the States, it's like just fast food, right?

Yeah.

So you do that and now you're getting on the plane and whether you're taking a 2-hour flight or a 6-hour flight coast to coast, whatever you're doing, you've basically influenced your digestion. And one thing you might notice right away is when you are flying, you're now 30,000 feet up in the air. What happens when we are up in the sky? Gas expands. And you often see that sometimes you get those like bags of pretzels and stuff and they're expanded until you open them and then all that gas is released.

Yeah.

Well, this is actually what's happening in our gut. Too. So that's already contributing to it. So the gas in your gut is expanding because you're sitting around. Your motility is also decreasing now. So anything you ate at the airport that morning is just literally sitting in you and not moving. And it makes me laugh because there is a reason you see people wearing like yoga pants when we travel and like sweats and it's comfy, right? Because who wants to unbutton a pair of pants? It's Spanish. It's because you will expand. It's just, it's human nature to expand because that's just gas in the body. And then on top of that, the lady comes down the aisle, she hands you the pretzels, and then she's like, all right, what would you like to drink? Tea, water, soda, whatever. And of course everybody gets coffee, therefore making the motility less. Or maybe you're like, oh, I'm going to be smart and I'm going to get ginger ale because I know that's going to be good for my gut. No, because all that's going to do is those bubbles. Are gonna expand the gas even more. So, so there, there's this whole process going on. It's almost like those things we do every day on autopilot and never realize that from a health perspective that it's influencing our microbiome. And people might be like, well, what's the big deal with the microbiome? Why is it even important? Well, what if I said all disease starts in the gut? So if your gut is unhealthy and your microbiome is unhealthy, you're pretty much exposing yourself to the next problem, which is the immunity, you know?

Right.

I know you brought up one of the key things that will then influence your immunity, right? So when you have elevated cortisol levels, that will actually suppress your immune system, making you more prone to catching whatever bugs are out there. Right. So many people might be like, oh, traveling is not stressful. I'm going on vacation, I'm doing this and that, but that's not the kind of stress I'm talking about. I'm talking about like physiologic stress on the body. The body is out of its normal everyday environment, which is its normal sleep cycle, which is its normal feeding cycle. And all of that is stress on the cellular level.

Yeah. So you're not saying threat, but it's more like stress on your physiology. Yeah. Makes a lot of sense. Yeah.

Yeah.

The world is stressing our physiology and our body is reacting to it.

Correct. I think you've explained why we encounter so much gas from other people. Flatulence on flights. I think it's a pretty common anecdotal experience. Like, oh my gosh. It seems like that's it.

Even this, like we're talking about travel, but I even think of this shift like this circadian clock, like I said, we have our 24 hours that we have that is regulated by light, right? So it's regulated by the light in the day, like seeing the sun, being outside, affecting a specific part in our brain, the suprachiasmatic nucleus, right? And then all of that trickles down. But we see this not in people just who travel. We also see it in people who do night work, like shift workers. We see it. Hey, I remember the day was when I was a medical student. This was before there were like rules where you could only be in the hospital for like a certain number of hours. I used to do 72-hour shifts and they made me sick, but I used to do them. Now I know why they made me sick. I'd come home after 72 hours and just be like, eventually done. But so these kinds of things like shift work, the jet lag that we've talked about, the I want to call it social jet lag. So what I mean by that is like, okay, you might have a great routine during the week. You have your regular sleep schedule. You go to bed at 11 o'clock, you wake up at 7 o'clock, but then on the weekends, your behavior changes where you're up late at night on a Saturday or Friday night. And now you're going to bed at 2 o'clock and you're waking up at 11 o'clock. And so that's more of like a social jet lag, right? We have individuals who are eating late at night. Yeah. So that is disrupting their circadian rhythm. That is a big problem. I mean, I know I've done it before and I'm like, God, why do I feel worse? And it's identifiable when you realize. We have individuals who have sleep problems, right? So sleep apnea can affect your microbiome.

And we have our weekend warriors who just get all of the exercise done at the weekend. And that could also be stressing the body. I know my Oura Ring always says that I'm more stressed at the weekend and that could be it because you change your rhythm a little bit. You say, oh, it's the weekend. Let me just sleep in or let me just catch up on something. And that happens to a lot of us. So would you say that is also reflective? I know Oura Ring says, oh, you probably are doing something really fun and all that, but still your body is stressed.

I'm like, you're not helping me here. Yeah.

Yeah, it can be anxiety provoking.

Yeah. Our rings, like actually a lot of these wearables for a particular individual can be very anxiety provoking, which then defeats the purpose because now you've released more excess cortisol than you needed. I think the important thing to recognize is, okay, there's all these different factors that could contribute to this circadian disruption. Not just at a human level, but at a microbiota level.

Yeah.

And because they do that, how does it affect your overall health? So when we have this disruption, we will see lower formation of short-chain fatty acids by the gut bacteria. We will see a difference in which gut bacteria are there depending on when you're eating. We will see decreased diversity, which I think Anu, you already mentioned, right? So all of these are key things for our health.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Thus the gas.

Yeah. I have a client who will tolerate gluten fine, you know, but she will have a reaction when she's traveling, when she's actually in travel and there's more of the LPS being released. There's a lot of endotoxicity from, and that could be so connected to what you're saying. There's so many changes that the body was like, Hyperpermeable.

Hyperpermeable at that time becomes more hyperpermeable. So now these things that wouldn't normally bother her do bother her. So yeah, yeah, absolutely. And okay, so you might be like, oh, well, okay, well, whatever. It's not that big a deal. No, here's the chronic long-term problem is all the chronic diseases that come from an imbalanced microbiome. And even if we just look at the metabolic ones, which people are experiencing these days from obesity to diabetes, to cancer, these things, it's a lot more than we ever had.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Amazing.

Just, yeah, the stress from travel.

Our like modern lifestyles.

So, which begs the question, what do we do? How long before the travel do we prepare for this travel?

We can prepare for it, but you just made me think of this study that I did come across where individuals who had to do public speaking and were nervous about it. So the nerves that come before public Speaking actually increased their intestinal permeability compared to being in a peace line. So even something as simple as that. So it always takes me back to, wow, like when people are just so agitated and stressed with everything from like driving on the road to being late or standing in line, I'm like, God, your microbiome is like shaking.

Or taking an exam. I remember that so clearly. I don't know if you guys know the whole Indian system of it's like a public school exam with tons and tons of questions. I always remember having the runs before the test and that was it. I didn't know it was the microbiome at that time. I thought, what the hell is happening? I was fine a couple of days ago, but that's pretty common, I think.

Yeah. It's like, we don't think of these things in that way, but there is this very strong physiologic thing going on in the background when we're just doing things that are just our normal day-to-day.

Yeah, I think it's tricky because there's always obviously some value in testing and giving someone who's unaware that feedback. Like I'll do CGM in my practice and you can see these big glucose spikes just from stress from like public speaking. And so then they're like, oh wow, I learned that. But then you have the dark side of the CGM, which is like, the anxiety piece of it. So where do you thread the needle where you give them enough feedback to know and make changes without completely overwhelming them with 24/7 data that makes them feel bad about every imperfect decision?

Yeah, I think we live in a very complex modern world and we have more stressors now in our lifetime than we had 30, 40 years ago. I mean, it's between cell phones pinging and just all this being on, there is a lot more stressors. I think it's about being conscious and intentional about what is our priority. And when I know when I'm working with my patients, we only really do testing on something that's actionable. Cause I'm like, we don't need data that we can't actually change. And I always approach it from a lifestyle perspective. Right. And I give them the choice, like, all right, which part of your lifestyle should we start with? Do we want to start with your nutrition? Do we want to start with Do we want to start with sleep? Which one for you do you feel would be the biggest needle mover for you and that you don't have a mental block for? Because lifestyle change is hard. There's, there's no doubt about it for everybody, even professionals, even doctors, like giving up like certain things. It's hard.

Do you have patients on Ozempic and how do you handle that?

I do have patients who are on Ozempic, not prescribed by me. I'm a fruit and veggie dealer, not a drug dealer, but. We work through it, right? They become a little bit dependent on Ozempic mentally because, yeah, they're seeing results. They're like, oh, I haven't lost weight like this in my whole life and now I'm seeing results. So now I'm dependent on it in a way and holding their hand to start also making those lifestyle changes along with it because you can't be on Ozempic forever without understanding that there is very serious side effects that will come with it, like any medication. Medications are not without side effects. So this is really about, okay, this is where you are now, but this is where we want to go, and let's take those steps together.

It's great.

Yeah, yeah, it's like guidance. So important. Yeah, lacking.

I do want to know, how do I prepare for my next travel?

Next travel, right? So if we go back to The 5 major disruptors, right? So the gut microbiome. One of the key things is as soon as, like, wherever you land, you want to work to reset your circadian clock, which means if you took an overnight flight to like Europe or across the world, like if it is daytime there, do not go to bed. Okay. That is not going to help you reset your circadian rhythm. And often what I find, even like when I'm traveling to Europe, it's an overnight flight. You arrive at 9, 10 in the morning. You can't check in the hotel anyway. So you might as well go take a short walking tour or something like that, just so you are getting the proper daylight. The second thing is the eating window. So we have seen that time-restricted eating or fasting can help reset your microbiome circadian clock.

Okay.

It resets our own circadian clock, but also the microbiome circadian clock. They've done research on that. So. Because food is being fed to you on an airplane doesn't mean you need to eat the food.

Right.

Honestly, plane food is really not that good.

So it's gone downhill.

Yeah, it's really gone downhill unless you're sitting in business class, which even that, depending on which business class. So the idea is that you want to eat at the time of your arrival destination. So you wouldn't normally be eating at midnight at home, but then when you get on a plane and you're taking an 8 o'clock or 9 o'clock flight and they give you food at your midnight, you would never be doing that at home. Yet that's what we do, because anybody who gives you free food in front of you, you just—

exactly. And it's a social thing, right?

Yeah, free food is the best tasting food.

Yeah.

Doctor's lounge. Trust me, I know. It's like, oh, somebody's dropping something off. Trust me, I've been there. But from a health, gut microbiome, longevity perspective, not ideal.

Okay.

So I would say those would be the two things to at least start with the gut. Definitely there's like botanicals, herbs, and things like that that I utilize and recommend to my patients when it comes to helping address bloating and beverage choices and all that. And then I think from an immunity perspective, I carry a lot of wipes with me. You would think I had children or something, but I'm like wiping down like wherever I'm sitting, the tray, the armrest. The people next to me are asking for the wipes because the planes hold on to a lot of germs. Yeah, a lot. Okay, so now imagine you got your tray down, you got your drink, you're touching it, you're not even realizing Yeah, they might wipe it, but it's not the way it should be. So I definitely do that. I wipe that all down. For my immunity, I'm a big fan of supplements. I've got an entire apothecary that I essentially travel with, which has now been abbreviated due to a certain product. But for immunity, I always want to make sure that I have elderberry or some things like that. I do a lot of teas, like herbal teas. I will use a mask if needed. I still carry a mask around. And then after immunity came back to focus and brain fog. And for me, I think a big part of that is because usually when I'm traveling, I mostly travel for work, which means like I'm getting somewhere, some other country, and I'm going and usually speaking on stage or doing something like that. So my brain really, really has to be working. So I definitely have herbals that I use for that and botanicals. And I think prioritizing my diet wherever I am based off of the timing is also key. I personally am plant-based, so making sure that I have all the nutrition that I take with me is key. I do travel with food. I joke now, travel with tofu because I literally travel with tofu now. Um, I found these already cooked tofu blocks where I'm like, this is easy because if you go to a conference and all they have is salad for you, where's my protein? Yeah. I'll travel with tofu. I'll also travel if I'm domestic with quinoa or something, you know? So I kind of travel with food too. And then from an energy standpoint, I am not a caffeine person. Caffeine actually makes me sleepy. Sleepy, it doesn't really work on me anyway. I don't really do caffeine, but I think movement is a great way to activate your mitochondrial biogenesis. So activate the mitochondria that produce energy. So the combination of whole foods plus moving your body is going to provide energy.

Do you mean, Dr. Maneesha, on the plane or when you get off?

Great question. So I recommend every hour you're on the plane, getting up and moving. Every hour. And then another trick is, okay, sometimes if you're like me on a window seat, cause I'm always a window seat, I also bring the resistance bands, right? So resistance bands that you can always like just put on over your ankles and your legs and do little resistance exercises or calf raises or that kind of stuff. Because when you're sitting for so long, the body, it's really stagnant, right? So the fluids build up, which is why you go to put your shoes on after a flight and you're like, oh God, what happened? My shoes don't fit anymore. It's because the fluids collect.

So how about compression stockings? Do you do that?

Compression stockings are recommended. I personally don't do that because they just have never worked for me. And I think that's an individual thing. They can work for some individuals and for me, they just don't.

Good reminder. Yeah.

I have a client who's a flight attendant and she always says, Anu, just always carry a blanket and wrap your seat with it because you have no idea the gross things that people do on that seat.

That's scary. What did she mean by that?

Well, I don't know what to think, but I don't think we should go there. I have a feeling she's seen a lot of different things. So that always stuck with me. So I usually use like a blanket or something. I mean, if you travel business, of course they give it to you. And then when I come home, I always put everything in the wash at least a couple of times before I use it.

Yeah. Yeah. No, I do travel with a travel blanket. I'm like, huh, what's going on here? Those are some porous seats, you know, and they have a strict timeline to clean them. 2 people in a row.

So, you know, 2 people in a row. What could we be doing? I got you all thinking.

Yeah. Yeah. And then the last one obviously is your recovery and your circadian rhythm. So once again, going back to that cycle of that clock, right? So full kind of circle here with how do you get back to that? And it gets back to having that daylight, that sunlight, resetting that clock, whatever time zone you're in, even if it's a difference of 1 or 2 hours of a time zone, just resetting that. And I know for me, because I literally am on every continent, like every couple months, like I pretty much do, like, I think last year I was away 160 days of the year, away 50% of the year. Yeah. And having that ability to reset quickly between the lifestyle parameters, the different things that I do to the botanicals and herbs and all this and the food and the nutrition and all this stuff that I do.

Yeah. So you've done a great job giving an overview of all the things to do. I wonder, is there a lot of bad medicine in this field where people promote certain things or certain practices that don't really work that are very popular?

Don't get us started.

Don't get me started. So when I was really looking and diving into what is available as solutions out there for the people who travel a bit, quite a bit, the ones who are high performers who need to have their brain on, like whether they're business travelers and then they need to get to a meeting and be on point, or they're like retirees and they want to get somewhere and not be stuck in a hotel room because they're fatigued, whichever it is. And when I started really looking at it, I'm like, wow, there is nothing really available. And what is available is what I joke, I'm like, oh, this was made for like the frat boys going on spring break because it's made for like hangovers, or because it's like caffeine, or it's sugar, or it's things that are not really clean ingredients that are provided. And people think, oh yeah, this is working. And I'm like, well, yeah, sugar will work. Just go eat a chocolate bar. You'll feel like really high for a second and then you'll go down, right? So these aren't the ingredients that are working on a real deep cellular longevity perspective. So when I was looking at that, I was like, wow, I've been taking some ingredients for like ever. In fact, I even tested it again last year on my dad who traveled with me to Southeast Asia. We were gone for like a month and he's 75 years old. So I'm bringing my dad across the world. I'm like, Dad, we're going to be like going on all these tours. We're going to be doing all this and that, 20,000 steps a day. I need you to keep up. So I put him on my protocol.

Nice.

Can I tell you this guy, we were in Kuala Lumpur in the Batu Caves. I don't know if you've ever been there, but they are like this temple that's built into these caves, but the only way to get to it is to literally go up hundreds and hundreds of steps. So we get there and he's like all the way up at the top. And I'm like, Dad, can you wait for me? Like, but my point being that it was working on him. And so I'm like, all right, that means that this works on all different age groups and the ingredients to me, they go back to my own culture. So what I was carrying in my apothecary was a lot of Ayurvedic herbs. That I was using to work on this like deep cellular level and then to keep everything going. And I'm like, wow, it works. I haven't stopped taking these herbs for over a year and a half.

Can you tell us a little more about, I think you, you've—

Yeah, but product?

Put a bottle together.

Should I tease you with the product?

Just sell it. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. So because carrying around an apothecary of herbs sometimes alerts the Authorities. When you go through and you're like, what are all these tins of things right now? So I'm like, all right, this has to be formulated into an easy, like, daily capsule that we can take and feel the benefits. So that is exactly what has been created. It's a travel wellness blend specifically focused with its core on longevity. And it's a combination of Ayurvedic ingredients. I call it botanical intelligence. So really using the botanicals and the synergism that is available between certain herbs. And then also using our longevity science that we have with knowing that what individuals are missing in their body and they need because of our modern exposure. So things like glutathione, PQQ, Reverstrol, CoQ10, things that I've seen with decades of testing that most of us need a lot more of just because of those environmental things. And then things people wouldn't think they need, but work beautifully with our modern life stressors, including travel, which would be things like bacopa, gotu kola, holy basil, amla. So there's a whole, what I call travel resilience complex, like a proprietary blend that we have. Put into this, plus all the scientific stuff. And that's what we have. Uh, yeah, it's exciting. It's called Travella Essentials is the product, and it will be available for the public in March.

Awesome. We should bring you back then.

Very cool.

Very cool. I'm happy to talk about it because yeah, we're going to start clinical trials and everything on it too. And it's going to be really good. Yeah.

It's exciting.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Very exciting.

I think a lot of travelers just sort of deal with it and just try not to think of the lost days that will occur. And so it's nice to have something.

Yeah. And it's not even about the lost days. It's the wear and tear that's happening to the body that can be both prevented and protected. It doesn't mean you don't travel. It just means, oh, okay, we have all these exposures. I didn't realize that this was happening. How can I protect my body and I basically created a solution that doesn't exist unless you want to take like a whole bunch of like 20 different bottles. You can do that too.

But I was just in Colorado skiing for 4 or 5 days and I have an Oura Ring and it's at the currently the lowest resilience I've ever seen on my ring. And for me, I know altitude probably is the number one and I take it in stride. I imagine some people can get pretty anxiety provoking. But yeah, it would be nice to just have something that gives me a little more resilience when I put my body into that kind of strain for a concentrated period of time.

I think you will definitely love this.

Oh yeah. Any traveler out there is going to be excited.

Yeah. And it does have a vascular component to it because as our vessels, the blood flow is compromised and stuff when we have low oxygen experiences, whether we are in Colorado skiing or we are flying somewhere. Right. So. Oxygen is part of the blood supply bringing nutrients to the rest of the body. So when that gets compromised, so having some ingredients in there that actually work on the endothelium and the blood vessels was also key as part of the formulation.

And is that also an herb?

One of them is an herb and then one of them is more of a supplement. Yeah. Yeah. Nice.

All the airline carriers should have it in your first aid box too.

Well, so here's the thing. Supplements don't work like medicines where it works like, oh, you take an antibiotic for 5 days and it's supposed to do something. Botanicals and supplements in themselves take quite a few months to work, like to have like good amounts and to get the body functioning because they're working on all these different pathways. So this is actually, it's a daily wellness supplement for individuals who are focused on travel and longevity. It's not like. Oh, you take it because you had jet lag and you need to wake up the next day. That's not the way it works. That's where that caffeine and those other things on the market come in that never, in the long run, don't really make a difference. Like, they might make you feel good for that next day, but in the long run, they're actually probably creating more problems than anything.

Yeah, but I'm thinking more like high blood pressure on a plane. Because I know I've seen studies where even just having certain kinds of greens or hibiscus tea can really bring down pressure pretty drastically considering it's, like you said, said a supplement. So I was thinking more on that level.

Well, yeah, definitely hibiscus tea. It will work. Like, you'll feel it, but to get the real effects, it's like that continuous process. Like I said, I haven't stopped taking it for over a year and a half. And I noticed like if there's a day that I miss it, I'm like, why am I not productive anymore? And I'm like, oh, yeah, because I'm missing that. Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, thanks for coming and really whetting our appetite, I guess, for more. It's you were successful in that. Can you maybe tell us where people can find you? Website? I believe you have a book as well.

Tell us a little bit about that. Oh, it's out in March.

So my book is called The Anatomy of Wellbeing. It is now available on audiobook as well. So you can find that everywhere, all the book retailers and all the like Audible, Apple, wherever you need to find that. So that's available there. My website is drbenote.com. Benote.com and all my social from my Instagram to Facebook to Pinterest to YouTube is all Dr. Benote. I'm super easy to find. And yeah, stay tuned for Travella because I think we'll come back and we'll talk about it.

Yeah.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you so much.

Yeah.

Nick, do we have a rapid fire question to end up?

I think we covered some of them, but we could do it if you want. All right. These are brief though.

This is like a one-word rapid fire. Rapid fire is rapid fire.

I don't even know these questions. What could they be?

Very first thing you do in the morning.

Does wake up count? No. No. Breathwork. Breathwork.

If you could only cook with one anti-inflammatory spice, what would it be?

Turmeric.

Nice. One wellness trend popular right now that you think is harmful for ourselves.

High protein.

Yeah.

Done wrong. High protein done wrong.

Ah, okay. I like that.

I like that.

One supplement that a lot of people buy that is a waste of money.

There are many. I can't say that there's one. I guess I could say collagen powder. Let's say collagen powder. Okay.

Okay.

And then of these, what is the most underrated free biomarker? Waist circumference, resting heart rate, sleep duration, or step count? Underrated.

Oh, out of those, I would say, gosh, because it's not sleep duration because it's quality of sleep, right? And it's step count is going to vary for each individual. They'll need different ones. Waist circumference maybe is the choice. What was the fourth one?

Resting heart rate.

Resting heart rate. I prefer heart rate variability over resting heart rate. So good.

I like how you've dissected, but waist circumference seems to be standing maybe as maybe underrated.

I guess. I guess. Because clearly being obese is not gonna be good for you.

Yeah.

Brilliant. Perfect. That was the 5. Well done.

That was the 5. Okay.

Yeah. Nice. Wonderful.

Yeah.