IG Live! Amy Purdy and Dave Asprey on Biohacking Recovery

What's up, everyone? Instagram is telling you that I'm live and so far there's a couple people joining, so you are going to get a chance in about three minutes here. We just finished this coolest podcast ever with Amy Purdy. Amy is a very well known Dancing with the Stars award winning Paralympic snowboarder who lost both her legs when she was 19 and went on to just an incredible career where it didn't stop her. And we just talked for actually an hour and a half, which is why I'm late for this. Oh, there we go. She's already coming online right now. Here she goes. And we talked about some new stuff for biohacking her and to talk to this incredible human being. We're waiting for her to join right now. She's gonna accept. Hopefully she's connecting. There we go.

Hi. I guess I don't need my headphones this time, huh?

Probably not. I don't think so.

Let's see. Okay.

All right. There we go.

I'm here.

All right, so we just recorded this amazing episode where we talked about the latest thing that's happened in the last year where you had another life threatening challenge that you are in the middle of successfully hacking. We talked about how to hack it and the mindset. So I want people to be able to ask you questions and I'm reading them through. My team will pull them up as well. So Kelly says, oh, my God, girl, you're so beautiful. Okay, guys. So Marco, you agree? So many people think that you're beautiful and you are there. Marco's sending you love in the eyes. But seriously, she's also like a super badass who, like, lived through more than most humans have ever dealt with. All right, here's what Sarah Jessica says. What role is visualization? And the idea of thinking yourself better played in legitimately affecting your process. We talked about that in the interview. But share with people how your thought process changed your ability to deal with first losing your legs and then this recent, like, major injury.

Yeah, well, definitely visualization. Actually, that's what pretty much my whole book is about, which we didn't get to talk about on the podcast. But. But visualization has always been huge for me because I was 19 years old, laying in bed, didn't have my legs, my kidneys had failed completely and I needed a kidney transplant. I lost all the hearing in my left ear. So I had lost a lot. And I felt completely out of control of my life. And I think the one thing that I could do, I realized that all I had control over was my thoughts and how I was going to use my thoughts to hopefully get through this and not just survive, but hopefully thrive. And so I'm a huge daydreamer. And I remember laying in bed, no legs, daydreaming about seeing myself snowboard again. And I saw it so strongly that I could feel it. I could feel the wind against my face. I could feel the beat of my racing heart. I could feel myself as if I was snowboarding in that moment. And that's when I knew that I would do it again. I didn't know how I would do it again. I just knew that I felt it and I believed it. And. And so then I went on this mission to get creative. I ended up making a pair of legs so that I could snowboard. And I actually made the feet. They're like Frankenstein feet. I made them from different feet so I could snowboard again. But I knew, I felt it, you know, I felt inside. So I always feel like visualization, it's not just hoping for something, it's not seeing it. You have to feel it. You have to feel that it's possible. And if you can feel that, then you know it's possible. And I feel like that's been a huge. Just a huge thing that I've used in my life. And I. And I'm using it right now, too. I mean, I'm constantly trying to think of, you know, and. And see myself get through this and see, you know, see myself in the future, not as I am today, but how I could be in the future. So visualizing is huge for me.

What do you guys think about that? Psychology is so amazing. Well, I. On the podcast, I mean, you actually were really nice. You're like, hey, look, here's how the inside of the leg works. Like, we got to look at a prosthetic leg, which was really cool. And you talked about how it had affected your leg, but you also talked about how, oh, there you're doing it right now. Okay, I love that. If you guys are ever just, like, curious, like, oh, my God, this is a piece of technology that is. Yes, it is a pipe in there. But, like, the amount of progress that's happened there, I'm. I'm blown away. It's probably 3D printed at the top, is my guess.

It's not 3D printed. However, they are looking into 3D printing sockets. Yeah, there's a few issues that they're having with that, but, yeah, it's. It's interesting. It's like high tech, low Tech. It's like, yes, carbon fiber, titanium. There's definitely some high tech stuff. At the same time, the ankles really are just like pipes bolted together, like straight out of Home Depot. So, you know, it's. It's this mixture.

It's. It's also interesting that you talked about how you, you kind of connected with the kidney that you got. You got your father's kidney when you were 19 and how to keep it from. From rejecting itself and how you use visualization for that. Can you just share with people what you did for that visualization?

Yeah, I mean, I. So I had a kidney transplant as well as losing my legs. All of this happened at the same time pretty much when I got meningitis. And as you can imagine, it was huge to try to wrap my head around the fact that I was losing my legs and how to walk on two prosthetic legs. Then I had to face the fact that I needed a kidney transplant and I would have to take immune suppressive medication for the rest of my life, which you can imagine right now with this virus going around. It's kind of, you know, challenging to want to take this medication every day. But something that I've done from the very beginning and is, I've kind of, you know, it's all about really kind of tricking ourselves. I think I've kind of tricked myself into believing that every time I take these immune suppressive medications so I don't fight my kidney off, that it's good for me. And I literally believe that every time I take that medication, I'm thinking, this is actually good for me. Not, I'm not thinking of all the side effects. I'm not thinking, oh, eventually my kidney could fail. And this is why I'm not thinking, oh, you know, all the things that the medication can cause, that's bad. I literally trick myself into believing that every time I take this medication, it's good for me. And I also just mentally put the effort into accepting my kidney mentally. So I thought if I accept my kidney mentally, maybe my body would accept it as well. Instead of fighting it, instead of fighting the idea that I was having a transplant, instead of allowing myself to be fearful of it, instead I thought, I'm so grateful to have this kidney. I am so grateful to have this opportunity. My dad donated his kidney to me, and I've been very lucky that I have been incredibly healthy. It never rejected at the time that I had my transplant, the average kidney transplant only lasted nine years. I'm now at 20 years and perfectly healthy. My kidneys functioning like it's a part of me. And I've always just believed that the fact that I mentally accepted it and I was grateful for it, that that allowed my body to physically accept it. And I'm not sure. I'm not sure if that's, you know, why. Why my body's done so well with it. But I try to keep that practice up every day because I. And then. And then I become more grateful. Right? Like, gratitude inspires gratitude. Now I'm grateful every day because I am healthy. I'm able to do so much, and it keeps me on my toes because I know. I know in the back of my mind that, you know, because this is what the doctor said, that my kidney could fail at any time. So every day that I'm healthy, every day I'm healthy, I'm lynching myself. I'm looking at the possibilities, and I'm saying, what can I do with my life today that keeps me on my toes every single day? Oh, no. I think it froze.

Well, that could be a bummer.

Shoot.

I think I'm back. Am I back?

You're back. Okay, not back. You're back.

I'm not back.

Well, Ish. You're back. Ish.

All right, let's see what happens. So one of my family friends was the longest lived by almost twice as long as anyone else. Recipient of a human heart transplant, and he had gotten himself down to 80% reduction in the rejection drugs he took via visualization every day. One to two hours of this over the course of more than 10 years. And he passed away. He did not pass away from anything ever to do with his health. He passed away from lead poisoning as a result of a home invasion. Not really lead poisoning. It was, you know, a violent crime. He would have lived another 10, 20 years, we all believe, because he had that kind of, like, the power, like, the stuff that sits here. So the path you're on and you've been on for 20 years with your kidney of just like, grateful gratitude, acceptance. I truly think that the cells in your body have their own dumb little consciousnesses, and they feel that stuff and they respond to it. So the way you learned that, how you intuited that, is part of our interview on Bulletproof Radio. Yes, guys, that's a blatant ask. You should go. You should subscribe on itunes so you can hear the thing. But I just. I think that your description of how you kind of figured it out and you just did it and it felt right. It's pretty inspiring. I Think it's meaningful and useful. And I just want to say thanks for sharing that.

Thank you. Yeah, thank you. You know, another thing that we didn't get to cover, but I was just going to mention is, so when I was told I was going to have this kidney transplant, they tell you all the side effects of the medication. I needed to be on major steroids at the beginning and they would wean it down, but then it's still taking prednisone every single day. And they had told me that I would never be able to gain muscle, really, because your body, when you're on steroids, wants to hang on to fat. So they said you might have an issue with weight gain, you might not be able to gain muscle. And then I went on to be a three time paralympian, stronger than I've ever been in my entire life and gain way more muscle than, well, and become incredibly strong. I mean, I've become way healthier, way physically stronger than I ever was before my transplant. Even with taking the medication I'm supposed to take. And I, I think it's because, you know, first of all, I've really worked at it. I've worked at it, but I believed it. I believe that, that, you know, when I work out every day and I weight train, I know my muscles are growing. I'm visualizing my muscles growing and I can't, you just can't listen to what they say, like this is going to happen, this is going to happen. You know, I mentioned on the podcast that they said with my transplant, I lose hair on my head, I gain hair on my face. With all the stero. The opposite happened for me. I actually, the hair on my head got thicker, my eyelashes got longer. I mean, you just can't listen to what the doctors have to say. You have to believe that your body is going to heal and that's what it's made to do and if you support it, it will be healthy. And that's what I've just focused on doing. And I've been able to kind of not even have these side effects that the doctors said I would have.

People are asking now, what are you doing differently for your current medical challenges? One, a year ago where you had, you almost lost the rest of one of your legs because of blood clots. What are you doing differently 20 years later than you did the first time? Like, like, how's your approach different?

I mean, this time, you know, last time was more mental, how to mentally get through losing my legs and having a kidney transplant. This was more physical. So, like, just the therapies that I'm putting into play as far as. So I did the hyperbaric oxygen chamber for six weeks, and then I also do the EMF machine, right? That's Beamer. And I am telling you, I swear, that it's helped because I also had a majorly injured wrist that hurt for about six months. I mean, I had tendonitis. It's called De Quervain's tendonitis. And it's so painful. And I've been on crutches, so that makes it worse. And the Beamer literally healed it in two weeks. And so I have no doubt that that's helping as well. And that helps with sound waves. It kind of helps to. Supposed to help to relax your blood vessels so more blood flow gets to the area and can heal the area. You know what I'm doing, too, that we didn't mention on the podcast, I'm actually doing. So all the doctors are telling me to keep your leg warm because, of course, that keeps your blood vessels more open, right? But I actually started doing ice baths because I. Because I figured if I'm just. If I'm like, enabling my body, if I'm just always keeping it warm, I want to force my body to do it on its own. And so I've been doing, with another doctor's help, just consulting with them. I do hot, cold baths, and my leg feels better than ever ever since I started that. And that's totally the opposite of what the doctors tell you to do. But I figured as long as you.

You finish on a hot cycle, though, right?

You know what? I actually finish on a cold cycle. And that's so I. And that's what that. That was suggested to me. And the reason I stopped on a cold cycle was because then it forces my body to have to heat up on its own. And so, so far, so far, it's actually been amazing. And. And if I ever feel a weird episode, the episodes I'll feel with my leg right now is sometimes there's just a weird numbing feeling. I'm not sure if it's circulatory or if it's nerve, but if I ever feel that I actually get enough, do a hot, cold bath, and it goes away right away. Another thing that's interesting, when you get in cold water, you know, the blood flow goes to your leg or at least goes to the surface. So, like, my legs get really red from blood flow when I'm in cold water. It, like, dilates all the little Surface, you know, circulation initially. And so it's kind of just interesting. It's always. I feel like everything's opposite of what you're told.

That one's a challenging one. I mean, traditional Chinese medicine, and I would say, you know, stay warm for resilience, but the idea of cold, warm, cold, warm. And then Wim Hof will tell you end on cold and kind of muscle through it. And I'm. I'm of two minds about it. Like, if you're well recovered, I think that's exactly the right thing to do. But if it's, you know, been a rough day, you didn't sleep as well, you're a little tired.

Right.

It's okay to cause, you know, give your body even a half hour of warming up, but then finish off when it opens up. But we don't have any evidence about which one is. So I'm going to go with what your mindset says.

Yeah, yeah, I agree. But so, yeah, so right now, and Dave and I were talking on the podcast, too, about angiogenesis that's growing new blood vessels. And so I've been looking at. There's not a lot out there about the foods that help to grow angiogenesis, but there's a lot out there about the foods that stop angiogenesis. Because some people who have cancer, you don't want angiogenesis, you don't want blood, you know, little blood vessels to grow in your body because it will feed tumors. So there's a lot out there on how, what to eat to stop angiogenesis. So I, of course, want to make sure that I'm not hindering the angiogenesis in my body. So I've stopped eating certain foods.

Screw kale. Oh, sorry.

Kale is one of them. Exactly. You know, green tea is one of them. I love green tea, but it's, you know, I certainly don't want to stop my body from growing new blood vessels. In this case, that's what we're trying to do, right? Is grow new blood vessels. So.

And Amy, remember I talked about some of the intermittent hypoxic training stuff?

Yeah.

This is one of the machines from UPGRADE labs. Looks like a fighter thing. I don't know. Like, it actually is made out of a cockpit from an airplane or from a fighter jet. So that's something that raises angiogenesis from UPGRADE labs. And this thing over here, this big bag fills with oxygen for breathing. Zero oxygen air, intermittent hypoxic training. The oxygen concentrator, though, it's not there, it's giving oxygen to my dog who got pneumonia.

Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh.

It's nice to have an oxygen concentrator just floating around.

Yeah. So I need to come. I needed to come to your house.

You're like, you're always welcome. Or. Well, when it's opening and you come to la. But travel is a pain in the ass right now.

Yeah, yeah.

And speaking of my house, I'm walking towards it, which means it's about time to end the show because I got the text that said, dave, lunch is ready. We're sitting down. Where the heck are you? So, Amy, thank you for sharing your story. I think we. We talked about some of the psychology and emotional stuff that you haven't talked about in your other, like, 5,000 interviews and being on Oprah's stage and stuff. So thanks for going deep with me on the show. It's a lot of fun.

Thank you.

Thanks, everyone, for tuning in, asking questions.

Thank you so much.

Little ones back there. See you guys.

Thanks, you guys. Thank you.

Bye.