https://www.listennotes.com/e/c1fa65e75bf34d55a8cb1e7c9942037c

Imagine reducing your stress, getting rid of toxins, supporting your heart, recovering faster, maybe even helping your body burn fat while you're watching your favorite show. That's what infrared sauna therapy can do for you, and that's why I use my Sunlighten sauna almost every day. It's a type of good, mild stress that strengthens your cells and still supports recovery. Traditional heat saunas are great, but for some people, the intense heat can be too stressful and uncomfortable. Infrared is way more comfortable, and it works without stressing your nervous system. You're delivering light energy that supports circulation, cellular energy and recovery in a way that your body really likes. And consistency is what compounds results, not heroic sessions you do once a week. Infrared makes it easy to show up even on busy days, so you get results that last and feel good while you're doing it. Sunlighten delivers one of the highest quality infrared saunas on the market using very precise wavelengths, so you get effective absorption and you get the most benefits. The focus on quality is why they've led the infrared space for more than 25 years. I've used a Sunlighten for more than 10 years. If you want a recovery tool you'll actually use, that you'll actually feel, this is it. So go to sunlighten.com/dave to save up to $1,600 with additional savings throughout the year. That's sunlighten.com/dave.

What if there was something you could add to your water to make you perform better, have more energy, and protect your cells from damage? Hydrogen is the smallest molecule in the universe and the only one that can get deep inside your cells, mitochondria, and even your DNA. It fuels energy production, crushes oxidative stress, and supports sharper brain function. Hydrogen's a gas, so you can't take it as a pill, so you either have to breathe it in or infuse it into your water. But your tap, bottled, or filtered water doesn't have it. That's why I use the EcoFlask. EcoFlask is a hydrogen generator that uses advanced electrolysis and a proprietary proton exchange membrane to infuse your water with pure hydrogen. No chemicals, no pH change, just therapeutic, science-backed hydrogen. I've noticed more energy, faster recovery, less inflammation, and mental clarity that lasts all day. Go to echowater.com/dave and use code Dave10 for 10% off your Echo Flask. You'll feel the difference in days.

The world is obsessed with dopamine right now, and for good reason. If you have good dopamine regulation, you care about doing things that matter in the world, and that's a good thing. It motivates you to pursue stuff that's important to you. And every productivity expert right now says dopamine addiction is killing your focus, even though dopamine's actually driving your focus. You don't want to be addicted, but there's something else going on underneath it. And you can do all this stuff like a dopamine detox, but you might not be getting the results. You could say, I've got no apps all day. I'm eating a clean diet. Maybe you're just having a cup or two of coffee instead of having coffee all day. But you're still tweaked and drained by noon. What's going on? Maybe it has nothing to do with your dopamine levels. Maybe you have a brain energy crisis, and when your brain doesn't have enough energy, it can't make enough dopamine. And it turns out that there's a safe, legal compound that biohackers like me and doctors recommend to recharge your brain's battery, and it takes you 10 seconds every morning. You can do this. Your brain, it doesn't run on willpower or motivation. It runs on energy because it needs energy to make willpower and to make motivation. So dopamine might not be the problem, or if it is a problem, it's a downstream problem of the real problem. What you're experiencing isn't dopamine withdrawal. It's fatigue from an energy shortage in your brain. The energy currency your cells use in order to be able to function is adenosine triphosphate, which everyone likes to talk about, but we really know it's called ATP. And your brain uses more ATP than any other part of your body, except maybe your heart some of the time and your reproductive system some of the time. You know what I'm talking about. Turns out though, your prefrontal cortex, this part of your brain responsible for planning, focus, and resisting distractions, the part of your brain that kind of feels like it's you, it's one of the most energy-hungry regions of your body. Oh, aside from the part of your brain that makes dopamine. That's also energy-hungry, like the prefrontal cortex. So every time you think deeply, you make a good decision, or you're trying to ignore some distraction, you're burning ATP. And when you run low, of course your brain slows down. And it misfires, and you try something, you're applying effort, there is no energy there. Imagine you're in your car and it's slowing down, so you push the accelerator. It's already on the floor. You push harder, there's nowhere to go. That's happening inside your brain, and that's where the kind of brain fog that used to define my existence— that's where it comes from. When you can't remember why you went to the store or opened the fridge or what you were going to say, That's where it comes from. And even that emotional irritability where, God, I can't believe I said that to someone I care about. It's not because you're a bad person. It's because you ran out of ATP. You ran out of energy in your brain so you couldn't regulate your emotions. It happens. And it happens because of things like stress, getting crappy sleep, and eating ultra-processed foods that aren't compatible with your biology. That's going to lower ATP production. It damages mitochondria, those little things that do produce power inside your cells. And of course your neurons, which need a lot of energy, they're underfueled. They do their best. You do your best, but it's not very good. So even when you think you've done everything right, maybe you got 8 hours of sleep, you ate what you think is clean food, and maybe you're right, maybe you're not. You avoided distractions, but you're still mentally flat because your neurons don't have the energy they need to fire at the full power that they're capable of. When they don't fire the way they're capable of, you don't do what you're capable of, and it is a direct relationship. That's why if you want to fix your focus, you stop patching symptoms and you start going to the root cause. Low dopamine is a symptom. Low energy in your brain is the cause of the symptom. That means you need to solve for mitochondrial function and ATP, and that starts with protecting your mitochondria, because your mitochondria make ATP, the energy you need to be you is from mitochondria. And when they are unhealthy, you are unhealthy, and your energy production just collapses. Even if you're eating well, even if you're sleeping enough, doesn't matter. They have to work. So how would you protect and restore your mitochondria energy production? This is at the very core of biohacking. It's the core of longevity. How do we solve that problem? First, reduce what's damaging your mitochondria in the first place. Chronic stress floods your body with excess cortisol. Cortisol is really good for you at the right time in the right amount, but when you have too much of it at the wrong time, that's going to cause inflammation. It's going to cause oxidative damage throughout your body, and it can cause scars in your mitochondrial membranes. They don't work as well. So what do you do? Prioritize deep sleep. Do you know how hard that is? I worked for decades. On getting deep sleep. When I started measuring my sleep almost 20 years ago, I became CTO of one of the first companies to get that from your wrist. I got 5 minutes of deep sleep every night, no matter how much I slept, and I never felt good. Well, that's because your brain repairs mitochondria at night. So if you skip deep sleep, you're going to wake up already with an energy deficit, even though you didn't want that. You can do what I did, eliminate processed seed oils, eliminate refined sugar, and those things do impair mitochondrial function and they increase free radical damage. So after you reduce damage to mitochondria, you would want to stimulate the growth of new mitochondria. It's like you get a new electric car. Do you want the one with the big battery or the little battery? Be the big battery. That's what mitochondrial biogenesis gives your brain. It's the process of actually making more mitochondria. Your body can grow new mitochondria and more of them if you give it the right signals that say it's time to grow more, you're gonna need them. That means things like short bouts of high-intensity exercise, not going for a long run. It means things like intermittent fasting, not eating 8 times a day the way I used to when I was fat, because somehow I thought I would gain weight if I didn't eat 8 times a day. Doesn't make any sense, but that's what some people still believe today. Skip breakfast or dinner, you'll be better off some of the time, not all the time. You might even want to expose yourself to mild stressors, the good kinds, like cold plunges or an infrared sauna. And those good stresses tell your cells, you know what, it wasn't overwhelming stress, it wasn't chronic stress, but you're going to need to be able to handle that at some point, so you should build more power plants. And the next time, instead of being in a cold plunge, Your brain says, okay, I gotta focus, I gotta focus. It's going to be able to respond. It's like you're pushing that pedal down, but now there's more room to push and you go faster. You've got a bigger energy budget to work with. And one of the most important things you could do, just have more ATP directly with compounds that make your existing mitochondria make more energy. And there's a few ways to do that. And there's one molecule that outperforms the rest. Because it's really cheap and it has really good science for decades and decades behind it. But most of us in the world of longevity don't know about it. And it takes seconds to add it to your smoothie or to your coffee and you won't taste it. It's one of the simplest ways to restore your cellular energy and it works really quickly. In fact, it works the very first day you take it and it restores your brain's energy so it stays sharper. For longer, and you can handle more pressure than you thought you could. You don't just need a better signal, you need more power. You need something that directly rebuilds your brain's energy reserves. So instead of just pushing your neurons to work harder and harder on an empty tank, they have more capacity. To do that, you want to support the system that recycles ATP, and it's called the phosphagen system. And think of it like your brain's instant backup battery. It buffers sudden energy spikes and energy demand. So when you're just doing nothing and then you want to snap in and focus, you can because you can pull up the energy to do that. And it's useful for stress. And you just want to sit there and figure out what crypto is going to go up and what AI agent should I build today. You need mitochondria to do that, to solve complex problems. Or maybe like me, you woke up at 4:00 AM yesterday in New York City, hopped on an airplane and worked for 12 hours a day, went to sleep at 3:00 AM and woke up and recorded this video, which I actually did. And I did what I'm going to teach you to do in this video so that I can do this and look and feel like myself no matter what I do.

Modern life keeps your nervous system in overdrive. Most solutions try to change your brain chemistry, but your body also runs on electrical signals and rhythms. Your brain uses electrical waves. Your heart beats in patterns, and your nervous system sends signals through tiny pulses. Light and sound are also forms of energy your body can sense. Scientists have studied them for decades because certain wavelengths and frequencies influence how cells and nerves respond. That's why I use the One device. It combines light and sound in a wearable. It sends gentle signals your body can respond to while you work, meditate, or wind down. Most wearables just track stress. The One device supports your nervous system directly without any Bluetooth or EMFs. People who wear it report sleeping more deeply and feeling calmer, more focused, energized, and grounded. It's wearable frequency support you can use all day long. Learn more at theonedevice.com/dave. What if quantum physics could make your supplements work at a whole new level? Igniton is the only company that quantum charges their clinical-grade supplements, so they work better than the same ingredients without the charge. This isn't some woo-woo idea. This is real physics with real results. University studies show Igniton's cognition formula improves memory, attention, and mental performance more than 10 times more than the non-charged version. And their longevity formula supports healthier aging markers like IL-6, CRP, and blood pressure better than the same ingredients without quantum charging. They do this with absolutely no fillers and no stimulants, just clean inputs carrying the same kind of life force energy that ancient cultures called world spirit. Think of what Google and NVIDIA do for quantum computing. Igniton does that for your biology, I spent time in their Colorado lab. I saw the tech. I used the supplements. In fact, I believe in it so much that I invested in the company. So if you're serious about living longer and having a brain that works better, this is for you. Go to igniton.com and use code Dave for 15% off your first order. That's igniton.com. Code Dave. Igniton. Born from light. Backed by science.

Cuz when my backup battery's full, my brain stays sharper for longer, and yours does too. And it's because you can rapidly regenerate ATP. That works a lot better than waiting for slower energy pathways to catch up. Now, what's this one molecule that fuels your backup battery better than anything else I've found in any of the research I've read? It's boring. It's creatine, and you've probably heard of it as a muscle supplement. In fact, I tried it when I was 300 lbs. I added a couple grams of creatine, nothing happened, and I said, well, it seems to work for gym bros, and I'm in the gym every day, but I'm fat, doesn't work. I didn't know how to use it right. No one's ever told you is that creatine might be the most powerful cognitive focus drug you could buy off a store shelf today. On par with things like coffee and nicotine even, which is another way of focusing, right? But creatine doesn't have any of those stimulatory effects. It has an energy effect. A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials found that taking creatine improves the performance of your memory. So if you want to remember something, that person's name, that thing you were working on, Maybe having enough creatine would be good for you. And a study— this is a study from 20 years ago. We've known this, but no one talks about it. 2003 study, double-blind placebo-controlled, like we use in Big Pharma, found that creatine improves working memory and IQ scores. One of the reasons that the biohacking movement became popular is that I've talked about raising IQ and the ways you can do it. I wrote a New York Times bestselling science book about how to raise IQ. And creatine, it improves working memory, reaction time, decision speed, mental clarity, and your score on intelligence tests. So you think if you're going to school right now or you have a demanding job, maybe you should be on creatine. Oh, it's neuroprotective too. It helps keep your neurons resilient even if you work the night shift or you just stayed up all night having some kind of fun. If you have sleep debt, you have high stress, or you're just overwhelmed with cognitive stuff, which happens to a lot of us right now, well, creatine will save your neurons. So it doesn't just give you energy for one intense task, it makes your whole cognitive system more stable and resistant to burnout. So it's very safe, it has no flavor. Oh, and it's synergistic with my favorite thing on Earth, caffeine. Which is here on my arm, this little tattoo here. Scientists have studied creatine for decades. It works in aging brains. It works in professionals who are stressed out. And get this, if your kids can't pay attention or they have neurological disorders the way I did as a kid, creatine might help them. And that's why I think creatine is so important. You might want to put it in your morning coffee right alongside MCT oil and grass-fed butter. And since I'm talking about coffee, Danger Coffee is my new coffee company. Try Danger Coffee because it does have electrolytes and minerals that synergize with creatine and everything else I'm teaching you here. Creatine is one of the fastest ways to replenish your brain's energy reserves so you have cellular energy to stay that way. When I say fast, you take it, 15 minutes later, a half hour later, you're going, what? I think I feel different. I'm not as tired. I'm not as tweaked. And if you're dealing with jet lag, just completely different experience. But most people miss out on creatine's benefits for the brain because they treat it like a gym supplement instead of as a cognitive-enhancing brain supplement, a nootropic. The standard gym bro dose is 3 to 5 grams a day, and that works for muscle recovery, but your brain is different than a muscle. It actually needs more energy than muscles, and neurons are very, very small. But they burn through ATP faster than muscle tissue. Muscle tissue might have 1,000 mitochondria in them, a muscle cell. Neurons have 15,000. They could have 5 or 10 times more mitochondrial demand. And that's why you feel it in your brain first, not just your muscle. And if you're solving problems, if you're multitasking, or you're dealing with a lot of stress, that's when you need the most ATP in your brain. And warning, I was a vegan, then a raw vegan, and I've been a vegetarian. If you're in those camps still, your baseline creatine levels are lower in studies because the creatine you get from your diet comes from animal products. So you're going to be deficient if you're vegan or vegetarian. Even if you take 5 grams a day of creatine, it can take weeks or months to saturate your brain's creatine stores. It means most people who use creatine never actually reach the level that would give you that amazing cognitive difference. And on top of that, a lot of people buy the wrong kinds of creatine. There's tons of creatine that works, and there's tons that are full of flavors and sugars, fillers, and additives that mess with your digestive tract, or they degrade in the liquid, or they mess up your gut bacteria. And you don't want to do that to yourself. So you want to upgrade your brain, here's how you do it. Just take pure creatine monohydrate. No blending with weird stuff, no flavors. There are a few other forms, very, very similar results, but creatine monohydrate is well understood, is very cheap, and it works really well. You could take creatine HCL, you could take creatine with something called GAA. Those are also safe forms, they're just more expensive. Of. And many people do a loading phase, and I highly recommend that if you want to feel what your brain's actually capable of. And if you're exhausted in your 20s, you have never felt what your brain can actually do, and it is liberating. And if you're 50, 60, 70, you might remember a time when your brain responded like a sports car instead of like an old minivan. You want to do the loading phase. Because it's going to give you that feeling like, whoa, this is what I'm capable of. You take 20 grams of creatine a day for 5 to 7 days, and it's better to split it into 2, maybe 3 servings of 5 grams throughout the day, or 7 grams, something like that. Just make sure you get 20 grams a day. I like to take it earlier in the day because if I take it before sleep, I feel so good that I wake up, I don't want to sleep. Even though I probably should. So after you've done your 20 grams for a week or so, move to a maintenance dose to somewhere around 10, maybe even 15 grams a day. Put 5 grams in your morning coffee. Take another 5 grams in the afternoon in water or maybe tea. And splitting the dose can help to avoid discomfort and it keeps your energy curve stable throughout the day. But here's the thing. If you put creatine in cold water, you just have little bits of dust floating around. That's what causes gut irritation. If you put it in your danger coffee or anything, even hot water, what'll happen is it'll dissolve kind of like salt dissolves into water. And when instead of having it float around in the water, you've actually made a solution of creatine, it absorbs better and it doesn't cause gastric distress. So if you have a delicate stomach, definitely hot liquid. And there are some studies that say you don't really need to do the loading phase, but I find it works better, especially so you can feel it. You could try just straight 10 or 15 grams a day. And if you put it in a smoothie, it's probably not going to upset your stomach. If you put it in plain water, it probably is. So make your danger coffee in the morning, put in 5 grams of creatine. It'll dissolve very quickly. You will not taste it and you'll drink it and you'll say, what just happened to me. And what happened is you are at your full power. Drink plenty of water with electrolytes throughout the day, or at least put salt, as much as you want, on your food. Sea salt is better. MindSalt is better. And the reason for this is electrolytes, like the kind that are already in the Danger Coffee, support creatine transport and uptake. And if you're older, you're under a high stress situation in your life, which basically means you're young right now. Or if you're on a plant-based diet, you want to stay at the higher end, 15 grams, maybe even 20 grams a day. You can test what works for you. And that's because your natural creatine, well, it's going to be lower. And if you're a woman, your creatine levels are lower than a man's on average, which means creatine is even more important for you and for your cognitive function. So make sure you try this and find the level that works for your biology. And if you do it consistently, make it a part of your morning routine. Brew your coffee, add your creatine. You'll feel so much sharper in the morning, and creatine is very affordable. You'll feel less mentally fatigued all day long. And even if it's a really big day, at the end of the day, you're still you. Here's what I like to do. First thing in the morning, I have my danger coffee. I add 5 to 10 grams of creatine and I drink it and I feel amazing. But I need my electrolytes all day long, even when I'm done drinking coffee. After that, I switch to LMNT. And LMNT is a sodium-based electrolyte that works really well. And since your body needs electrolytes, whether it's from coffee or LMNT, in order to get that creatine into your cells to make ATP, you might as well have some LMNT. It tastes good and it works. There's a code for it in the description.

The Human Upgrade, formerly Bulletproof Radio, was created and is hosted by Dave Asprey. The information contained in this podcast is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended for the purposes of diagnosing, treating, curing, or preventing any disease. Before using any products referenced on the podcast, consult with your healthcare provider. Carefully read all labels and heed all directions and cautions that accompany the products. Information found or received through the podcast should not be used in place of a consultation or advice from a healthcare provider. If you suspect you have a medical problem or should you have any healthcare questions, please promptly call or see your healthcare provider. This podcast, including Dave Asprey and the producers, disclaim responsibility for any possible adverse effects from the use of information contained herein. Opinions of guests are their own, and this podcast does not endorse or accept responsibility for statements made by guests. This podcast does not make any representations or warranties about guest qualifications or credibility. This podcast may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products or services. Individuals on this podcast may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to you're in. This podcast is owned by Bulletproof Media.