Why Most Supplements Are a WASTE of Money (And What Actually Works) : 1291

I think that adaptogens are generally good if you're blocking your cortisol and blocking your stress response entirely. That's not an adaptogen, that's a sedative.

I love adaptogens. They get their name from helping your body adapt to the stresses of life. Cool thing about adaptogens is they'll help you rev up or rev down. So they're very dynamic. It's kind of an overused term. Like, there really aren't as many adaptogens as people claim. There's so many supplements out there with merit that you don't feel.

There are definitely some that have metals, some that don't have the right ingredients. And if you go to Amazon, at least half are not real, they're counterfeit.

I just read Yesterday that, like, 80% of supplements out there just crap on Amazon anywhere.

How do you know when you look at a brand, whether it's a scammer brand or a real brand? You're listening to the Human Upgrade with Dave Asprey. You have done something interesting. And so I want to have you on the show where you're looking at what is the combination of things you could do in the morning that makes people feel really good? This has been my obsession for 30 years because I didn't feel good. And you used some really unusual things. One that I wanted to call out was saffron. Why would you put saffron in any person in the morning?

Saffron, I mean, saffron's the best. I love it for, you know, the mood and what it does for you at night doesn't help you fall asleep, but once you are asleep, it gives you this better, fuller recovery, deeper sleep, faster to rem. Things that I find are really foundational to feeling good. Right. Like, nothing replaces a good night's sleep.

As far as I can tell. And from talking with the first company that made a saffron extract. I formulated something years ago when I was at Bulletproof. And it might have been, or maybe was, the first commercial formulation with a saffron extract. And the data was. Was so strong. And I'm not at Bulletproof. I don't think they even make that stuff anymore. So having a good source of it in MTE is important. The studies on it are insane. Like, they. It works better for depression than some SSRIs.

Totally.

And it's good for the brain. Daniel Aman, who's a good friend who's been on the show many times, talks about it a lot online. I think it's his favorite Cognitive enhancer. So it's one of these things where. Wait, I thought saffron was for making rice yellow.

Right, right, right, yeah.

How many other herbs are actually medicinal? And we just like the taste?

Good question. I mean, holy basil.

Right.

Like, there's. I mean, the list goes on, but I think Oregano. Right, Right. I mean, I just took My son's fighting off a cold, and I woke up feeling more tired than I felt like I should have. Two oregano right down the hatch. You know, it's like nature's antibiotics. Right. Like, I love oregano. Put it in the diffuser, like, get a natural source of it.

Tastes terrible. Yep.

So we keep it out of the formula.

But, yeah, I can't imagine oregano and mt.

We have like, ashwagandha as an example. A lot of people are like, how much ashwagandha do you have? You know, is it. Was it for mood? And I'm like, look, the ashwagandha's adaptogenic in our formula. Mood. Like this. The clinicals on our saffron look at placebo for reduced depression versus, you know, 28 milligrams is what we use. It's 4x, right. The reduction in depression, anger, confusion. Right. All these. These mood markers, it's just. And then now we're starting to see they just released in clinical studies and actually helping them menopause symptoms. And like, the physical manifestation, it's reducing heat flashes is. You know, it's. It's reducing a number of different symptoms pertaining specifically to menopause, which. Which I thought, okay, it'll be cognitive. But when I started hearing, it was actually also physical manifestation of it. I mean, saffron's the best. I love it.

Yeah.

And I do like. And I love paella, too, so I.

I use it to color the rice also. You had me for a minute. I'm like, paella, is that a new supplement? I'm like, no, he's talking about food. Okay, that was funny.

I look at MTE as a vessel and not a. And not a fixed formula. Right.

So it's the right way to do it.

Right. So we're continually, like, one of the things I'm really considering putting in it. I want to learn more. Maybe you can advise me. I know you know this stuff, like, better than most is ergothioneine. Like, I've become aware of it and just sort of obsessive about, you know, like, glutathione and what it can do, but its half life is so small.

Ergothione is the Next. Glutathione.

Right.

I believe there's a couple companies I've heard that are kind of investigating it. You know about the business of biohacking Conference.

Yeah.

Yeah. So somebody who was there last year was thinking about it, but I don't remember who it was. Okay. So I think you could do it. Your challenge is if you promote a hero ingredient that other people promote, right?

Yeah.

There's a downside. Like I promoted MCT and Collagen. Right. They're both billion dollar industries now and I captured my share of them, but others captured a greater share than I did. But that's ok. Like it needed to happen and everything's good.

Right.

But if you're going to put a marketing dollar in, you know, if ergothioneine is a major portion of your cost structure and you're, you're doing the whole formula. Does ergothioneine have enough sensation per dollar of cogs?

Right.

To make it worth it?

Yeah.

And that's a hard thing to judge, but that's how I look at it.

It's an interesting view because I would never look at it that way. I think that's the right way to look at it, to preface it. But I look at it, you know, probably the less sophisticated way where I'm like, do I want to take this?

I do the same thing. And just having made formulas that are so epic. But it's 120 a bottle, right. Like no one, no one will buy it.

Right.

So then it's like how do I maximize for consumption? Right. And if I have an 80 solution that 80% of people take or I have 100 solution that 20% of people take, I've done less good in the world. Is painful. I almost want like the, the pro version that only 2,000 people are going to take.

Right, right, right.

And that may be the answer. Like the VIP version where like you know, we went all out and you have to have taken the regular stuff, even be qualified. Like this is our insiders club and you're going to get first access and it's going to cost more, but it's going to be worth it. There's probably some business there depending on juices flowing.

I love that because I, I love that from a consumer and a brand new.

Right.

Because I would do just that. And, and it's fair because some people are like, I mean first of all it's, it can be unapproachable.

Yeah.

In a real way. Some people I think just don't see the value in themselves. You know, when somebody sits here and says, this is too expensive, I'm like, it's $3 a day, right? Like, what are you spending $3 a day on?

Yeah, it's less than, like a brewed coffee. It's less than French fries at McDonald's, right? Yeah.

You know, so if, if it's, if that's expensive and you know, and you're like, but you're on your thousand dollar iPhone telling me it's too expensive, right? I think there's, I think we're missing something.

Or if you drink any alcohol at.

All at like one beer, right? Like one beer a month, you know, it's like, yeah, totally. And so it's, it's interesting. I, I'm with you because I don't, you don't want to create something that's unapproachable. Like, we talk about that with the team all the time. This amazing product in the corner that nobody knows about and it's unapproachable and nobody gets it. I've just made it for myself. Like, I shouldn't have bothered with the website and all that other shit. I just have my own formula I could just take.

It's funny that we're talking about this because, I mean, when I started the world's first clean coffee back at Bulletproof, the market size was zero. I just hope 100 people will come in and just to help offset the cost of lab testing and all this stuff I want to do, the market size was much larger. But I wasn't betting on a market. I made a market and now Biohacking's like a $63 billion industry in 2032 or something, if you believe the analysts, which I never do. So it's like, great, that all worked out. But the idea was I wanted that coffee and then the supplements when I started, I'm like, I want that. I don't care about the cost. And you can get the very high end of the market. And at a certain point though, everyone's like, I want to do that. And then you're saying, well, if this ingredient made it double in price, it's a great ingredient. But that means a large number of people just aren't going to do it. So maybe I'll break that. Its separate product, right? And no one knows, like, what's the optimal breakdown. Especially because for, you know, for you, Saffron may be like the life changing ingredient. And for me maybe it's L Theanine.

Yeah, right.

But I know Saffron's more Expensive than theanine. Like, ah, like, how do we do this? So for, for people listening, we're all working to, to help you out. If we're working for the good guys. And there are other people who are just saying, how can I buy cheap stuff and put a pretty label on it?

Right?

How do you know when you look at a brand that's not mte, whether it's a scammer brand or a real brand.

Let me just go back to your point real quick. The people listening, Saffron's worth is worth every penny. It's a good question. I just read yesterday that like 80% of supplements out there just crap right on Amazon anywhere.

You know, I kind of think the person saying, I'm not sure who said that exact one. I kind of think that they're maybe biased towards selling you their brand or from big pharma. That number seems high to me.

Okay.

But there are definitely some that have metals, some that don't have the right ingredients. And if you go to Amazon, at least half are, are not real, they're counterfeit. Right? So you have to buy them from the brand store on Amazon. And if you're a good person, you go to the vendor's website and you buy it because they make more money, which keeps them in business. And Amazon doesn't need any more money.

Isn't that the truth?

So I'm hopeful that I can have an AI agent. And I'm working on this stuff pretty soon where anything that I want to buy on Amazon, it'll redirect it to the vendor's website without me having to do anything.

That's interesting.

Wouldn't that be cool? Because then they could just go right to MTE and buy it from you. And like, what's the difference in your business? If someone goes to mte, was mte.com, what's getmte.com so getmte.com if they go there and they buy something, like, what's an approximate margin there? If you can, if you're willing to.

Talk about that, it's significantly more than Amazon.

I can tell you that Amazon will take 30% of your.

And the storage fees and the shipping fees and.

Yeah. Oh, and when people buy on Amazon, you pay the shipping and they wonder why it's more. So my stuff usually is a couple bucks more on Amazon, not because I want to screw people, just because Amazon is taking that from me. And there's times where, like, you break even on Amazon if you sell it at the same price. As your store because there's such a fat. So I'm like, Amazon already is. Is selling counterfeit things because the controls aren't good. So I do my best to not buy my supplements. And if I do, I always go to the brand store.

Brand store. Yep. Yeah, it's interesting. I. Because the friction of having to put your, you know, like, you think about just a general person in the world and wants to have a supplement stack. You've got, you know, here and here and all these different sites. And then do I want a subscription? I'm not sure if I love it enough. So I'll get a one off and try it or get a couple months worth, you know. You know, the. The like the pretty well worn path.

Yeah.

Or just go to Amazon. Click, click, click, click, click. Right. So like, we like Amazon. I mean, we're on Amazon, but we also like it better.

You don't. You don't like Amazon. You're saying that because you're afraid they'll take your thing off. Come on, dude, you can be truthful.

I don't think they would. We're too small. They're like, they don't care about us.

I have to tell you this. There was a time I was spending $400,000 a month on ads on Amazon and I was at their headquarters in their fishbowl recording something, and they shut my Amazon store down in the middle of it.

Why?

They said fake reviews. Okay, now there were no fake reviews. Yeah, there just weren't any. We weren't doing it. No one was doing it. Our reviews were real. They were just very positive. Right. And they're saying, oh, no, no one did that. That was just an automated thing because you had a lot of positive reviews and it just happened in the. So, no, they don't care about you. They don't even know what the heck's going on. So I don't want to be like, anti Amazon. It's also like, makes it easy to buy stuff. But I'll just say if you're listening to the show and you appreciate what I'm doing, you appreciate mde, you appreciate any of this stuff, like, support the people making it. Because it's rough these days. You sell somebody on Amazon, it's like you're as an entrepreneur making minimum wage by the time you pay all their stuff and they're looking for that monopoly. It's kind of gross what he said. By the way, you can go to Amazon and buy all my props. Talk to me about theanine.

Yeah, love it. So I, what I really like is theanine and gaba. So one of the first things I went to when I had the high blood pressure and I was trying to supplement myself out of it, you know, in addition to meditation and doing different things, was a supplement that was theanine and gaba alone. It was sublingual. And I loved it. It just, I just felt good, if you will. And you know, and I remember taking it and thinking, I don't know, what if this is doing anything for my blood pressure, But I just love the way I feel with this combination.

Right.

And so.

And it doesn't make you tired when you do it in the afternoon?

No, no. It gives me, I think when you, when you balance it out with something that has, you know, a little bit of the stimulus, it has the nice.

Yeah.

Right.

There's a, a few brands who try to sell you theanine in, in coffee. I don't think it tastes amazing to blend them together like that. It doesn't need to be in the coffee. You just take it with any source of caffeine at the end. Takes the edge off.

Right.

And it's just an amino acid from green tea. But the studies on theanine for lowering cortisol are pretty meaningful.

Yeah.

So you could see why if, especially people, they get the afternoon crash. If you have high blood pressure, usually there's an insulin issue, so you're gonna have hypoglycemia. The 2 o' clock crash I had in my 20s. So the body feels physiological anxiety when blood sugar crashes and you're like, yeah, like I'm tired and I'm wired and like brain fog. So GABA chills you out. Theanine is a different feeling than gaba, but it's almost a little bit nootropic and calming. But neither one makes you tired. And you can take them both before bed because of the chill out effect, but they're not sedating.

Yep.

Right. So now you've smoothed out that afternoon. Like it's actually an adrenaline cortisol thing that happens when blood sugar crashes.

Yeah.

So you've smoothed that out, People are feeling better. Yep. One of the more intriguing ingredients that you have in MTE is bht, the preservative that Vonnie Harry hates. Why would you do that?

Bht?

Yeah, butylated hydroxytoline. I can't believe you do that.

What is that?

Sorry, I'm just messing with you.

What is bht?

BHT is a synthetic oil antioxidant. Okay. And it, it's Used in, like, big food as a preservative to stop oxidation of foods.

Okay.

At low levels, it's an endocrine disruptor, and you don't want it. We took it at high levels in the 80s and 90s for longevity because it stabilizes cell membranes, and I wouldn't use it for that anymore. But it is a rapid cure for any pox virus, including chicken pox or shingles or herpes.

Really?

At high dose?

Yeah.

300 milligrams a day. Way more than you'd ever find in food. The food, it's. They paint it on the packaging and small amounts stop oil from going rancid. So I would say it's not good to have it in your food all the time, but if you have a pox virus, you want that. But I was just kidding because Vani Hari of Food Babe, who's a good friend, she's just on a thing against bht and she's right. And at the same time, like. But you could use it medically. So anyway, I was just trying to just mess with you, but since you're not into the. The BHD thing, it didn't work. So I'm. I failed, man.

I'm sorry. My ignorance disappoints.

Oh, man. Well, it's because you're focused on adaptogens and things like that.

You.

You actually do have an ingredient that I haven't done a lot of research on, so I want you to teach me about it. Amaranth. Is this an extract? Just a. Yeah, like some grain in there. I know what amaranth is. I've eaten it.

Yeah.

And I don't recommend it as a type of amaranth bread or something. Why would you include it in mte?

So we wanted a couple superfoods in there.

Okay.

So spirulina, amaranth, which sort of, you know, it's. We wanted sort of a triangle, right? Nootropic adaptogen superfood. And so, you know, the guy that really helped us as an IRATEC formulator, who really helped us mastermind this formula, is we sort of tinkered and tweaked around, and he just kept selling amaranth. And I was like, dude, I don't even like red spinach. I don't know. I thought spinach was green. And, you know, he was like, nah, dude, trust me. We need amaranth. We want amaranth. Here's why. And so, you know, he just. He just kind of sold us on, you know, amaranth being clean. Great. The Only thing that. That he really sold us on was, you know, high doses of it, you don't want.

Exactly. Right.

So it's a. It's a low dose, not a. It's not a pixie dust, but it's a. It's a low dose.

It's enough to feed your gut bacteria to cause a shift. Right?

Correct. Okay, correct. And then we've got the chicory root, just sort of amplifies that. Right. So, you know, that was. It was all sort of like in a vacuum. No, in high doses, no. But in conjunction with the 10 other ingredients.

Perfect.

And we were like, okay, let's do it. And.

And so it's mostly a prebiotic effect that you're getting from amaranth. That makes sense. And as I recall, amaranth doesn't have any gluten in it. Correct. It's safer people and things like that.

Yep.

And I'm. I'm generally like, don't eat grains, however, I'll call it microdosing. A grain like that to cause your gut bacteria to shift is not really eating. It's a medicinal use of it, which is. Which is kind of cool. And then spirulina. I've done whole episodes on spirulina, and sometimes I love it, and sometimes I'm like, I'm not sure. How do you know you have good spirulina in there?

Well, it's funny you say that. So same deal. Like, I've. My philosophy is most of it's bad. I think that there's a bunch of junk, spirulina out there. And one of the things we do, and I'm sure you're familiar with this being in the. In the space, is there's all sorts of testing. Right. Like, you can just test and confirm that something's in it and the test stops there, or you can test that something's in it and that's all that's in it. Right. Like, those types of things, I think, are important. Right. Instead of just saying, oh, yeah, sure, there's. There's a little bit of spirulane in there, but it's also this and this and this and this that you didn't test for, because all. All you wanted to know is whether or not there's a certain property. So.

So you tested for metals and things like that.

Totally.

Okay, good.

This is unrelated, but my brother owns a coffee farm in Hawaii.

Oh, no kidding?

Yeah. And so we. He ships us our stuff, and we call it liquid gold. That's not what he calls it. He calls it pura vita and like love it. Most of coffee I get it tastes bitter to me or whatever. Like, I just don't like it. This is incredible.

Thanks.

This is really good.

Yeah, the, the substrate coffee for danger is, is, is very high end. And the minerals, I think you don't taste them, but your brain knows. Yeah. Like, oh, there's something in there. So yeah, I'm, I appreciate it every morning and thanks for the compliment.

Yeah.

I'm always somewhat concerned with adaptogens. The reason is that if I'm going to go work out, if I'm on adaptogens, am I going to get the results of the workout?

Why not?

I mean, if I don't have the stress response I was supposed to have, like if someone's training.

Yeah.

When would you use or not use MTE or any other adaptogen?

So, you know, I think there's a bunch of school thoughts on that. But the stance we've taken is, you know, we kind of went back to the origin, right. Where this is a product of the Russian athletic and space program. So looking at it in the way that they used it, which was for athletic performance and physical performance and kind of noting, sure there's cognition, but really that was an afterthought for the Russians.

Right.

And the OG or like Siberian, Siberian ginseng and all those things. This is more about physical manifestation of performance.

Like, can you kill the enemy?

Yeah, yeah, totally. With that accent.

That's good.

It's like spies like us.

Not a very good accent. I get it.

So that, so we felt like, look, it just helps you adapt to some of that physical stress, but not so much where you're not able to break down and then rebuild and get, and get the benefit of the actual exercise. So you know, it's to me, it's sort of like, like modern day, I think about cold plunge. Right. Some of the studies are like, if you cold plunge right after you work out, you may be doing yourself more harm.

Yeah, you should do it before you work out.

Right. So that occurred to us and I was like, is this, is this going to inhibit, you know, everything you just articulated? And the feeling was it, it won't because frankly it has some elasticity. Right. Like at some point you're, it's. You're going to exceed the load will exceed its ability to help you adapt to the stress. Right.

I, I think that adaptogens are, are generally good if you're blocking your cortisol and blocking your stress response entirely. That's not an Adaptogen. That's a sedative. Right. So what adaptogens originally were deployed for? It was the. The medicine witch people working with soldiers.

Yeah.

And they would. This is like a Russian Siberian Altai Mountains and another thread in ancient Chinese military. So those two things, and maybe some from Ayurveda, but I'm unfamiliar with the military use that far back. So the table soldiers, they worry about battle all night long. They wake up, they get into a fight. Right. They have their battle, and then they're tweaked for another day or two. And this is bad because you want them to fight every day. So. And this is also uniquely Russian thinking. Like, they're like, let's hack our people, which is why Russians are great biohackers. So then they're like, okay, maybe the right thing to do is let's find the herbal combination that allows them to turn stress on instantly and turn it off instantly. So instead of this long, slow cortisol area, it's like, stress on, stress off. Stress on, stress off. Well, that means if you exercise and you lift heavy and you're on adaptogens, your stress will turn on. It'll turn on more quickly, which causes more rapid adaptation, according to my last book. And it'll turn off more quickly, which also causes rapid adaptation. So it's not the amount of time you were stressed that built the muscle. It's the degree of the stress and the degree of the recovery, and that makes it really easy. So this is why I'm a huge fan of adaptogens. And I don't worry about adaptogens limiting muscle growth or something, but antioxidants in excess will limit that, and so will cold exposure after exercise. But it'll amplify it before exercise.

Right?

Right. So it's. It's an interesting world where there's so many misconceptions out there about things and people don't understand the mechanisms behind it. And one of the reasons I want to chat with you is you have kids.

Yep, ages 14 and 11.

All right, so you've got some experience here. Talk to me about parenting, burnout and energy drain. What have you learned?

I love. I like. It's my favorite thing. Like, I didn't know. I didn't want kids.

I mean, worse from a stress perspective, as in, it's unrelenting. If the kids need you, you have to be there.

Unrelenting. Like, the other day, I was backed up. I hadn't gotten as much work done as I needed to do, and I knew the rest of the week was going to be unrelenting. And my daughter was like, I have a math test tomorrow. I'm wildly unprepared for it, and I need to study for like, four or five hours.

Yeah.

And I was like, okay, drop what you're doing, and, you know, go do that. But it was like, you know, it was two nights ago. She aced the test. Everybody's happy. My work is still got done.

Did you give her some mt?

I did not.

Why not?

She doesn't like it. She doesn't drink anything. All her peers drink a bunch of stuff that I won't mention. And I'm like, you got to get them on mt. Like, get them on something good for you. But she. She doesn't drink anything like that.

She just.

Wow. She drinks water.

It's her bag, you know, I was so incredibly grateful. My daughter a couple years ago was like, dad, sometimes I don't get enough sleep and I have tests, you know, she kind of noticed me taking handfuls of stuff.

Yeah.

Like, what can I do? And so like, well, let's get you on some electrolytes.

Yeah.

And she's like, I noticed a difference. And then let's get you on, you know, some adaptogens. And so she knows if she didn't get sleep and she wants to perform on the test, she's got the tools, and she doesn't take that stuff every day, I don't think. Right. But just knowing if you're a teenager, there's some stuff you can do that will probably give you 10 more points on your test without you having to study more just because your brain works better because you didn't punch it in the face. Like. Like, that seems like a plan. MT is a. That's a great thing.

More blood flow. Like all the things.

Yeah, all the things.

Yeah.

It's not that hard.

But the trick is, the difference is you have to tell her. If I tell her, then we're going to, you know, she's going to. Oh, yeah. You know, that's how that goes.

It's funny, just from a parenting perspective, One of the greatest hacks I ever learned was my kids. Even though they're amazing and sometimes they'll listen to me, but they'll by nature's wiring, listen to other people more.

Right.

So you can pair up with another dad and be like, you tell him some stuff. Right. And then I'll tell you some stuff.

Right.

So, kids, you should know that, like, parents, we're playing chess, you're playing checkers. It's supposed to be that way. Just remember that. And.

And then. And you'll. You'll be back. You're like 22.

Yeah.

You know, ish. Then. Then all of a sudden, Dad's not a complete moron again.

Since my kids were five, I've been telling them, you know what? There's going to be a time when I become the stupidest human on Earth. And they're like, daddy, you're perfect. You could never. You're the best. And I'm like, I know. It totally feels that way. Just remember. And it's so. It's Mother Nature hacking you so that you will go to another tribe, even if a tiger might eat you on the way, because I'm going to be so incredibly stupid. And that's to make sure that you don't reproduce with your family. So this is for gene expression, and this is just how it works. So it's okay that I'll be really dumb?

Yeah.

Like never. And then suddenly one day it happens, and then I go, see? I told you so. Right. And then it's like, can they double eye roll? Because they. The first eye roll was the sign that it worked. And so it's been really funny. But I think it gave them permission to have those feelings. And like you said, they come back when they're about 24. The PFC comes online. I guess Dad's not that dumb. So. I don't know. I've got. Mine are a couple years old with nurse, and I love my kids and they can. Yeah. Believe me or not.

Yeah.

But your kids can believe me and maybe mine will believe me. Yeah, There you go. There you go.

I love that.

How do you teach your kids to regulate their nervous systems? Because you've had to learn how to regulate yours. Yeah. What's the trick I.

For. For me, I mean, it's. It's the phones, Right. I mean, it starts there, Right. So the one thing that we try to do is keep it in perspective. Right. Like going into perspective or it's something. And my daughter, as an example, she goes to school without it. Like, no phone to school, no phone in the morning. And it's not like this is what we're doing. These are the rules. It's more of selling it to her and helping her understand. Look, it's processing your mind, right? That's not nothing, Right? You're looking at this. You're activating your mind. You're engaging it over and over. And these algorithms, if you're on whatever you're on.

Right.

If you Just did a chatgpt Google search. Certainly if you're on social media. So selling to her. Look, if you're on a treadmill 20 hours a day, you would drop, right? Like, you know, or if you ate nine meals, you know, in a 30 minute sitting, you would, you would throw up. But your mind for some reason isn't wired really to tell you, especially at that age, we can't take anymore. We'll just keep going and keep going and keep going and then until you, you either are just totally fried or, you know, something bad happens, right? So we've, we've sold that to her and to her credit, like she's bought it. I think we got to her before we became total idiots. Right. And you know, and so the phone now is a tool. So I think it started there. And then we just, you know, constantly just try to slip in little things, perspective time for yourself. It's okay to be bored, right? Contemplate things, think for yourself. You know, just small things, little hacks here or there. Some of them she'll adopt like, holy. Some of them she'll adopt 5%, you know, and then sometimes she's like, yeah, rolls her eyes and then two weeks later I'll hear that it's kind of found its way into her vocabulary, you know, so you're like, yeah, so that's really helped. And, and you know what it's given her? You know, she's 14, she's eighth grade, my son 11 to, you know, fifth grade. It's, it's given them both. I think it's like their superpower, it's giving them the calm. Because it's different where we grew up.

Their phones, when we grew up, it.

Was like everybody talks about it, right? You go out, you play till the, the street lamps come on, come home for dinner type of thing.

Yeah. I had to ask my dad for permission to have the right number of bullets.

Right?

No, I'm from New Mexico. I'm not kidding. The desert and shoot some cactus. Okay, son, you know, make sure there's no one behind the cactus. Right, right. It's so different now.

Oh, can you imagine? I mean, you can't even. Somebody. I read somebody got arrested the other day because they, they just, they let their kids go to the park by themselves and people found them playing.

At what point do we arrest the cops for doing that crap?

Right?

Right.

I mean, it's insane. It's insane.

Yeah.

Like, truly, it's like that's how we all grew up. I'm sure the cop arresting him probably.

Grew up that way, but I don't think so. He wouldn't have been a cop if he grew up that way. That's not true. I know some really good cops. It's the ones who become cops who act that way. Because there's a ton of cops who would just be like, you know, like, like maybe those problems drop the kid off, but whoever does that to the parents, man, that, that's a person doing evil and they have to know it, right?

Yeah, seemingly. But anyway, I mean, that's a whole other rabbit hole. But I, I, I think it's given them that's, you know, a little bit old school and, and the in modern day chaos. And I think it's really helped them, you know, and it helps us too. I mean, we need it too. Right. So it's kind of, it's kind of a good reminder to us, like we need to chill and not wake up and lead by example. And on it goes.

I noticed just in parenting, the more regulated my nervous system is, then the more my kids will be regulated because they're unconsciously copying us totally. And adaptogens help with that. Like, and anything that helps me manage my biological state helps me manage my energetic state that the kids are gonna pick up. So it's, it's, how do you separate the line between physical and emotional? They're so connected.

Yep.

And so if I had come home from, you know, I had to walk across the garden from the barn, but still, you know, changing from work mode, dealing with tens of millions of dollars and all sorts of big decisions, and then coming home and shifting my state, if I'm tweaked from something, it's not going to be a good dinner. So the ability to make that shift consciously and biologically at the same time seems to be one of the most important parenting things. And of course there's times I get stressed or pissed off and say things you regret and all that, but minimizing those by managing my biology, I think is important for parenting.

Totally.

So I could see theanine and gaba, some of your ingredients kind of helping.

Right? I love that.

Yeah.

Because look, when you feel good, you're better.

Yeah.

Whether it's, you name it.

Right.

It's holding the door for somebody, is letting somebody in, in traffic, whatever it is, the dinner table. And when you're, when you're tweaked, I mean, I think it's one of the, the greatest powers that a parent can have is not bringing home work. Right. Good or bad. Right. Like because it's different. Right. Like now you're. You're with your family. They're not your work, they're not your job. And even though that's you, you know, you need to sort of. It's like walking into a different room. What was happening in this room is not happening in that room. And there's a wall there and they can't see it. They have no idea. So you can't come in and assume they know they're in on it. You know, you have to bring a whole different. And it's. And on the flip side, it's a great opportunity. You can walk through the door and hit reset.

That's true.

Right. You don't have whatever cause the disruption at work on the other side. You just have like a willing, happy, energetic. Right. Like switch energy. It's. It's like perspective. Right. Like I have an amazing opportunity to put all that behind me immediately and just come in and, and just have a strong end of the day with my community.

Totally, totally real. I think there's also value if you have the ability to manage your stress and you're self aware. There's been times where I'd come back home and just say, hey, guys, it was a really rough day today. I'm a little tired. And admitting that to the kids, when they're appropriate, age 7, they can understand that I'm a little tired. And then as somebody, like why? And then you can talk about it. So suddenly they're learning a little bit about business, but they're also knowing that I'm aware of my state. Yeah, right. And that I'm doing something about it or not doing something about it.

Yeah.

I hope that was a good parenting thing. And when I work with entrepreneurs all the time, it's that. So just understanding our biology does that. And it does it because the more stress hormones you have, the more dysregulated you are, the more the emotion feels big. Right. And the cure for that is to be less dysregulated or to be more regulated. And so I'm hopeful that because I fed my kids right. Because I made sure they sleep, that whenever I'm an it left fewer marks. But I don't know. I'm just doing my best. Right.

It's only one way to find out.

Yeah. Well, a B, test them, right?

Yeah. There you go.

Can't do that in parenting.

Right. We're. We're very, very committed to good night's sleep for them.

Oh, it's the most important thing that's how we feel.

I mean, we are. We're pretty rigid about it. And.

But it's.

I mean, you can just see it bearing fruit, like. And that's what's cool about it. You can see it in real time and long term. I mean, it's just. They're healthier, they're happier, they're more. They're more prone to understanding. It's kind of like it's the ultimate adaptogen.

Right.

It's just good night's sleep. It.

It's completely true. We've always blacked out their bedrooms, which means they're not afraid of the dark. That's ridiculous. Yep. And the house has always had dim red lights if we need them at night.

Yeah.

So understanding circadian biology is just part of what they do. And I know, especially my son, sometimes he's probably staring at a screen later than they should. Whatever. Like, they. They're getting it well enough.

Yeah.

That man getting good sleep. It's, It's. It means they're impervious to the stress that comes with being in high school. And as an entrepreneur, getting good sleep means I can do, you know, six episodes today and I'm not going to lose my energy. But if I slept like a zombie last night, not in a good way, but in a, you know, my sleep isn't working way, I wouldn't be able to do it. So I, I consider it to be important. But on the flip side, if you're stressed during the day, you're going to need more sleep and it won't be as good.

Right.

And that's why stacking it with something like MTE is a good idea. And I. I also wanted to thank you. You offered our listeners use code Dave for 20% off getmte.com so, guys, you want to try something that tastes good, even though I guess you said your kids don't like it, but it tastes good.

One of them does.

One of them.

One of them loves it.

Yeah. I think most kids actually would like MD because it tastes good. So my guess is maybe that one kid, maybe they don't like it because it's yours.

I. Yeah, I think she just buy me.

Everyone who's tried it says it tastes good. I. I think it tastes good. So. Yeah, like, that's weird. All right, so to. To your child who. Who does that? Dude, I see you. We've got your number. We know. So there now it won't work anymore anyway. Getmte.com use code Dave. Guys, you want to try a cool stack? You can take it in the morning. If you tweak in the morning.

Yeah.

And your primary use case is use it noon to 2 or something for me.

And I love the focus and the mood and the. And just a strong finish. It gives me today the light euphoric energy.

Sweet.

You know, and then setting me up for success, for recovery later.

And you don't use it at night?

If I'm going out or I'm having a later night.

Okay.

But usually no, it's because it's probably.

Too stimulating right before bed.

Yeah. It's not. Yeah, right before bed. No.

Okay.

I've never gotten that.

And just given the ingredients that they. I think this is like, you know, if you're staying out late, whatever, but probably you want to end it like maybe 4pm Yeah, I think that's about right. Just based on the half life of ingredients and all. Yep. And if you're at Burning man, take it all night long. That's fine. Right?

100.

Okay. Do you go to Burning Man?

No.

No. But I mean, I have a lot.

Of friends that did.

I mean, you're in logistics. You guys are too like straight laced to go to Burning man, right?

Not me.

Dripping Springs.

I've always had the freak flag up, man.

I'm just. I'm just giving you our time. I'll be going again this year. I think this will be my 12th year.

Really?

Yeah. Wow.

What's your, like, what do you take to barter? What do you guys do you guys do or.

For a while, I built an art car. It was like 50 grand and it was a giant stick of grass fed butter.

Okay.

With a coffee cup from Disneyland that spun around on top. No branding or anything like that. And we give away 5000 cups of unbranded coffee blended with butter and MCT. Cool. Because in the middle of the night when you're on substances and your mitochondria are just punched in the face, people drink a little of that and they're like, I got my. I got my trip back. And they're just so much happier. Did that for a few years, but the department of mutant Vehicles, I don't know, they were very picky. And I'm just like, I can't. Like, it was costing so much money and so much time. Like, I had a whole team, me and other people, like all the time we're driving and fixing. And so finally we quit doing that. So now we just have a stationary, like, come and get really good coffee. And it's free.

People find you?

Yeah, they. They find me. Cool.

That's cool. I like that.

It's fun. And it's one of those things where Burning man, by its nature, it has no branding. Like I, I've.

Right.

I don't. You know, people might know it's me. They might not. Like, here's really good coffee, have some. But we don't put stickers on or any of that crap because it's not a commercial thing. It's.

No, that would turn. That would be a turn off.

Yeah. How do you help people out is what it's about.

Yeah.

Yeah. And you know, I, I appreciate you coming out and I appreciate you offering listeners a good discount on it. Guys, get mte.com use code Dave. Seems like Code Dave works in lots of places by, by design, so.

Right.

Yeah. This is one of those things where easy to do, don't swallow pills. And it's got saffron in it, which is a critically important ingredient and a bunch of other good stuff. Yeah. So like the way I would say with any of the biohacks that I try it and if it works, keep doing it. If it doesn't work, stop doing it. Right. You don't have to believe something works if in fact that's really toxic. Just test it out. Is your HRV go up? Do you feel better? And so you win.

And one of the, one of the things that was important to us and we built it was that you could feel it. You know, we wanted something. There's so many supplements out there with merit. Yeah. That you don't feel right. You know, so we wanted to sort of take an opposite tact and say, I want people to feel this. I want them to actually feel good and be like, man, yes, this is good for me. And I feel this good. I'm in. That was the goal. So absolutely. Try it. Give it seven days, give it 30 days. And. But you should feel it day one.

Right.

I mean, some of the accumulating benefits over time, but day one, you should feel a little bit of a lift and, and feel better. And if you, if you do, then make it part of your habit. I have a question for you.

Sure.

What do you keep the rooms at when you sleep? Temperature wise?

68.

Yeah. Yeah.

And I also have a eight sleep on my bed. That makes the mattress about seven degrees cooler than that when I'm asleep. And when I'm going to sleep, it's about 2 degrees cooler. But it'll manipulate the temperature based on my sleep state. So like last night, there was 28 adjustments in the temperature and it gave me about 12 more REM sleep.

Amazing. What? That's just like a mattress cover, by the way, guys.

Probably use code dave on8sleep.com. Wouldn't surprise me. It's been a couple years since I.

Started plugging it in everywhere.

Well, I've been doing sleep hacking, tracking my sleep for 17 years. And it's like dim red lights. If there are brighter lights, I use the true dark glasses for sleep. My air is at 68, which. And there's studies between 65 and 68 Fahrenheit. Different studies conflict. But I have a girlfriend, 68, because she gets cold. And then the mattress control is amazing. The very first mattress chiller launched on the show, like 11 years ago.

Okay.

And eight sleep. I like it because when my aura ring is out of charge, like it is right now, eight Sleep also gives you a sleep score just built into the mattress.

Oh, very.

So that. That's why I use that one.

Okay.

And if you do those things and you don't eat after the sun goes down, like, you'll probably get a good night's sleep. It's kind of amazing, right?

So it's. Imagine that.

Cool.

I love it.

Okay.

This is great, man. I'm. I've long. We do 68. We. We do everything you just articulated. But I don't have a mattress chiller yet.

Worth it.

I'm gonna get one. Yeah.

And if. If you want just the full master class, that's free. Sleepwithdave.com okay. That is by far the best URL of my entire life. But yeah, I was gonna say it sounds very provocative. It's like everything I know about sleep, it is not my only fans page. It is just like, here's Dave's sleep class.

I love that.

Nice. All right, guys, we'll see you on the next episode. See you next time on the Human Upgrade Podcast.

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