Dr. Jeffrey GladdenFounder & CEO of Gladden Longevity

Rest: The Key to Recovery 🛌

28 Feb 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:52

In this segment Dr. Jeffrey Gladden draws a parallel between the clinical use of beta‑blockers in congestive heart failure and the body’s need for rest during recovery. He recounts how early cardiology training emphasized forcing the heart to work harder, which increased mortality, whereas beta‑blockers allowed the heart to rest and regain function. He extrapolates this to a broader health context, arguing that true recovery requires simultaneous rest of the physiological systems and the nervous system. By enhancing vagal (parasympathetic) tone, the body can achieve a deeper, more effective reset, making rest a therapeutic tool rather than merely a passive state.

Chapters

If we allow it some space to do that, it's a little bit like giving beta blockers to a congestive heart failure patient. You know, back when I was training in cardiology, everybody was giving, you know, things that would actually cause the heart to contract more vigorously. Right. And they found everybody dying sooner. So those studies all got stopped, and then somebody put them on beta blockers, and it's like all of a sudden, when the heart was rested, it actually started to recover function. Right. So there's kind of a takeaway here that sometimes what your body needs when you're trying to reset and all of this is just a rest is rest. Right, Right. And when you think about vagal nerve tone, being able to rest, you know, so that your parasympathetic nervous system tone comes up, is really a wonderful complement to the other rest that you're doing. Right. So you want to be resting your. Your nervous system at the same time you're resting your physiology. I think that's kind of the magic combination. That's kind of how we think about it.