Bulletproof Biohacker News Episode 6 With Dave Asprey

Dave I'm Dave Asprey, and this is Biohacker News, a segment of Bulletproof Radio. Biohacking is the art and science of changing the environment around you and inside of you so that you have full control of your own biology. First, Biohacker News. Traces of glyphosate pesticide have been found in beer and wine. If you like the occasional glass of wine, this new report from the U.S. public Research Group Education Fund might spoil your next happy hour. Sorry about that. Researchers found trace, but I would say meaningful amounts of glyphosate, which is the active ingredient and Roundup weed killer in popular wines and beers, even organic varieties. Traces of glyphosate were found in all but one brand, which was Peak Organic ipa. Even though glyphosate isn't allowed in organic farming, studies show that the chemical can linger in the soil for more than 20 years. And it also moves around with water. So your fancy organic wine might still contain trace amounts of toxic weed killer if it was grown on vineyards that were exposed to Roundup in the past or next to Fragments farms where it's used. The levels of glyphosate in the report are below EPA risk tolerances for beverages, but even small amounts of glyphosate can be problematic. It increases your risk of cancer, it's toxic to your cells, and it disrupts endocrine function, which interferes with your hormones. Unfortunately, glyphosate is pretty common in food and water, including booze, which means one of the smartest things you can do is limit your overall exposure. That means you want to eat organic. Eat local. Follow the bulletproof detox methods to help your body flush toxins out of your system. Things like activated charcoal, staying hydrated, and eating high fat anti inflammatory diets are all biohacks that can help your organs do a better job of detoxing. And if you've believed the news that says glyphosate won't harm you because it only harms bacterial pathways. Bad news. Your microbiome is made of bacteria, and if you have small amounts of things that harm bacteria in your food, it will affect your gut biome, which can have all sorts of unpredictable effects on your biology guys. You don't want glyphosate anywhere in your food. In fact, we don't want it on our soil as human beings. So take steps to avoid that in your life. If you want to protect your heart, go to sleep. Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital discovered that sleep actually protects against the buildup of plaque in Your arteries, also known as atherosclerosis. In the study, researchers interrupted the sleep of mice to replicate the experience of someone waking up because of noise or discomfort or children. The weight, cholesterol levels and glucose tolerance of the sleep deprived mice didn't change, but they had higher levels of inflammation in their blood vessels and larger arterial plaques. Sleep helps keep inflammation at bay. By that same token, not sleeping enough leads to more inflammation, increases your risk of cancer, heart disease and autoimmunity. If you want to perform well at your peak, sleeping well is essential. And I'm not talking about sleeping longer, I mean sleeping better. To improve your sleep quality, immediately sleep in a cool room that's pitch black. Turn off your electronics two hours before bed and stop drinking caffeine after 2pm These hacks are completely free and they really work. You'll notice the difference when you actually wake up feeling energized, not like a zombie. And really, interestingly, your gut bacteria have a circadian rhythm. And if you don't get enough sleep or you wake up, they don't get enough sleep and they wake up. And when your gut bacteria are unhappy, they make a compound called lipopolysaccharide or lps. The this is known as an endotoxin. And it's those endotoxins that can cause a lot of inflammation in your body when you eat the wrong foods, when your gut lining is disrupted, and when you have the wrong bacteria present in your gut. But even if you have the right ones, if you don't let them sleep and relax, they get cranky and they make you cranky. New molecules reverse memory loss linked to depression and aging. This comes from Science Daily. These new molecules, developed at Toronto's center for Addiction and Mental Health, support the idea that if you want to reverse aging, you need to increase GABA levels in your brain. GABA is a neurotransmitter that calms neurons and relaxes you. In a series of studies, researchers looked at people with depression and age related memory loss, and they found impairments in the brain's GABA receptors that likely caused mood and memory symptoms. The new molecules they invented are chemical tweaks of benzodiazepine, a common drug for treating anxiety that activates gaba. In pre clinical trials, researchers found that new molecules actually improve cognitive performance and helped regrow aged cells and improve depressive symptoms. This is promising news for the future of anti aging because it supports the theory that activating GABA is a great way to biohack your way to a healthier brain. The best part of this is that there are natural ways you can do it, that you can start right now even if you don't have these new compounds. And one of the ways to raise your GABA levels is nootropics. Things like kava, ashwagandha, or L Theanine, the amino acid from green tea, are all shown to activate gaba. You can also take GABA itself as an amino acid. You can also do lifestyle upgrades like meditation, yoga, and exercise, or do all the above like I do. Your brain is going to thank you. Researchers identify how a fungus cripples your immune system. This piece of news is near and dear to my heart. Because toxic mold is such a big thing, I filmed a whole documentary about it. Yet it's still largely missing from a lot of medical exams and conversations about people who just aren't feeling very good. In this case, an international research team has figured out how a potent mycotoxin called gliotoxin weakens your immune system. Gliotoxin is found in Aspergillus fumigitis, a fungus that occurs virtually everywhere on the planet. It's a soil fungus. We already know that gliotoxin suppresses the immune system, but this new research explains exactly how that happens. The toxin shuts off an enzyme called LTA4 hydrolase, which interrupts communication between immune cells and destroys their defense mechanisms. Once that defense system is down, the fungus is free to wreak havoc on your tissues and organs. Your immune system is supposed to naturally filter out the bad guys like gliotoxin, but those toxins can affect you at parts per billion level. The biggest sources of kryptonite like that are mold and mycotoxins in your environment and in your food. Mold in food is known as either a field toxin if it grew on the food in the field, or a storage toxin if it grew. Well, say grains were stored over winter and. And either storage toxins or field toxins can wreak havoc on you. Did you know that more than a quarter of the world's crops are lost to things like that? And this problem with mold is especially impactful if you have a compromised immune system or if you're part of the roughly 30% of people that I covered in Moldy Movie the documentary who are genetically predisposed to be extra susceptible to toxins? Yeah, I'm one of them. Toxins trigger chronic inflammation in your body. I grew up in a basement that had toxic mold, and it's affected my biology, even up until today. Although I've gotten Rid of almost all of the problems through biohacking. If you feel anxious, fatigued and foggy all the time, you're dealing with regular congestion and sinus infections. There's a really good chance that you're living with mold exposure. This could be in your office, it could be in your car, it could be in your home, and possibly even in your food. To successfully detox from mycotoxins, you've got to get rid of the mold in your environment. And, and that means if you're healing from things, you want to be extra careful on food. You can even order mold test kits online that test the home and even your blood. On top of that, eat a low mold anti inflammatory diet and get it out of your food. And follow a detox protocol that includes activated charcoal, infrared sauna, plenty of glutathione and calcium D glucarate, and enough exercise to get your blood flowing. It turns out that juice cleanses really aren't going to do much of anything on that level. But. But this list of detox methods is real. New research strengthens the link between what's happening in your gut and how it influences your brain activity. For better or worse, your gut and brain are in constant contact thanks to the gut brain axis, which occurs along the vagus nerve pathway. In a recent study, researchers used DNA sequencing to analyze the microbiomes of more than 1,000 people enrolled in Belgium's Flemish Gut Flora project say that three times fast. They compared the data with a participant's quality of life and rates of depression. They they found that two groups of bacteria, coprococcus and dialester, were reduced in people with depression. They also found a positive correlation between quality of life and the gut's ability to synthesize a breakdown product of the neurotransmitter called dopamine. And that breakdown is called dopak. Those results are some of the strongest yet to show that a person's gut biome influences mental health. Your gut bacteria stimulate neurotransmitters that impact everything from hormone production to your bacterial diversity. And, and that's why diet's everything. If you want to feel great and perform at your peak, if you want to change the world, change your diet to support good gut bacteria. How do you do that? You follow what I've been saying since 2014 when it came out with the bulletproof diet. Stop eating so much sugar. Eliminate processed inflammatory foods, including whole grains that make you weak. Turns out that growing up in the great outdoors may improve mental health in adulthood. A story out of Aarhus University in Denmark. It might be pronounced aardvark. I'm sorry, my Danish friends, I do not know how to pronounce the name of that university found out that children who grow up with greener surroundings have up to 55% less risk of developing various mental disorders later in life. This was true even after researchers adjusted for risk factors like socioeconomic status, urbanization, and family disorders that are multigenerational. Researchers used satellite data from 1985 to 2013 to map the presence of green space around the children's homes in almost 1 million Danes. Their data set shows the risk of developing a MENT disorder decreases the longer people grew up surrounded by green space from birth until age 10. Factors like noise and air pollution have been shown to increase the risk of developing a mental disorder. But when kids have access to nature, they have the opportunity to run around and exercise, interact with other kids, and form social bonds. We know that these things are good for kids and their cognitive development, and you don't have to live in the middle of a forest to make that happen. A separate study from the University of Alabama in Birmingham found that spending just 20 minutes in an urban park promotes emotional well being. That's because engaging with nature and having fun is actually good for you. Talk about controlling the environment around you so that you have more control of your own biology. You can do that in a park, so take your kids to the park or let them run around in the forest. And for extra benefits, go barefoot. It'll increase gut biodiversity from the soil microbes on their skin, which will boost their immunity and maybe make them smarter. One of my favorite pieces from today's Biohacker News is that brain scans confirm that night owls should actually sleep in Go Night Owls. A new study published in the journal Sleep confirms that waking up early is actually bad for your brain, at least if you're wired to be a night owl like I am. Scientists analyzed the brain function of 38 people while they slept and then asked them to report on their energy levels throughout the day. Morning people had higher resting brain connectivity, which is linked to improved focus and less daytime sleepiness. Meanwhile, night owls who are forced to wake up early have lower resting brain connectivity. That's a big deal, because low resting brain connectivity is associated with poor attention, slow reactions, and increased fatigue throughout the day. If you naturally go to bed later, you aren't lazy. It's just your biology. Some people are genetically hardwired to wake up early, while others naturally go to bed late. Here's why your circadian Rhythm is your internal body clock and it's a little bit different for everyone. When you go to sleep and wake up in accordance with your body's natural circadian rhythm, you'll sleep better and feel more alert and productive during the day. In my latest book, Game Changers, which you totally have to read, Law 19 says waking up early does not make you a good person. If you want to optimize your sleep and feel great, listen to your circadian rhythms and stop waking up at 5am if it makes you feel like crap, even after you've done it for a while. Instead, start your day a little bit later. And when you do go to sleep, make sure those hours count by upgrading your sleep quality. And to learn how, check out the video linked below. And from a personal note, for two years I woke up at 5am every morning because that's what makes you a good person. And it turns out it just made me tired and less creative even though I could do it just fine. And I switched back to staying up later where I have a lot of creativity and and sleeping in a little bit more to get the same amount of sleep. My health was better, my happiness was better, and my brain worked better. And what this means is that what you do in the morning really does matter. It's just your definition of morning may be different than someone else. And if you're a teenager, you're wired to sleep in. And that's okay too. If you like Biohacker News, you totally need to subscribe to Bulletproof Radio. You can go to bulletproof.com iTunes. It'll take you there for the link and you can review the show too. Just let me know. This is worth your time. I really appreciate that. You can also follow Bulletproof on YouTube and where I put all the video for these so you can really get quick access to them. And if you go to the Bulletproof blog, you'll find deep knowledge about each of these different things. How to sleep better, how to fix your gut bacteria, what to eat, how to be happier. All that kind of stuff based on science and based on my own personal mission. Spending a million dollars in 20 years to lose 100 pounds, turn my brain back on and be awesome at everything that I do to the very best of my ability and make that better each day. I I'd love to show you how to.