How A Nomadic Biohacker Eats Healthy And Stays Fit While Traveling The World.

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Hey folks, it's Ben Greenfield. And I know that many of you travel, many of you are into tracking things like your biomarkers and your health. Many of you are into eating healthy. But today's guest has kind of wrapped all those three things into one. His name is Damian Blenkinsopp and he describes himself as a digital nomad. He actually changes the country that he lives in every three to six months. So he really doesn't live anywhere and he doesn't have access to all this latest tech or modern amenities of life. But he's still hacking and optimizing his health and fitness at a pretty high level and he's making it work. He even does things like test his blood and stay in really good shape. And he eats Paleo in places you'd never think that that was possible. And he's really got a lot of cool tricks up his sleeve. And we've got the pleasure of having him on the call today to talk about all of this. So before I jump in and welcome Damian to the call, I did have one quick thing that I wanted to mention to any of you listening in who are really interested in this concept of world travel and kind of this nomadic lifestyle. This episode is brought to you by audiblepodcast.com Ben and the book that I want to recommend to you over@AudiblePodcast.com Ben is a brand new book that just got released on audio. It's called Vagabonding An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long Term World Travel. It has an introduction by Tim Ferriss and it's about taking time off from your normal life, anything from six weeks to four months to two years to discover and experience the world. And I think it's a fantastic book to check out. It tells you how to finance your travel time, how to figure out where you're gonna go, how to even do things like work and volunteer overseas, how to handle a lot of the curve balls that are gonna get thrown at you as you're traveling to all these different places. So again, check it out@AudiblePodcast.com Ben. You can listen to it for free if you follow that link that I just Sent you and you live in the US or Canada. So it's Vagabonding an uncommon guide to the art of Long Term world travel. So now that you've got written down on your wish list, let's go ahead and welcome Damien. Hey Damien, thanks so much for coming on the call, man.

Thanks for the invite.

So you live, you look quite an interesting lifestyle, man. Can you kind of fill us in first of all on how you got started doing what you're doing in terms of living this nomadic lifestyle?

Yeah, sure. I guess I didn't really choose this lifestyle. It's kind of my parents fault. You know, when I was 11 years old they, they moved, they moved me out of my country, which was England to start with, and that somehow stuck with me. And ever since the age of 17 I've been kind of moving around and at first I would get different jobs and eventually I built my own company, Internet company, and I've been a lot more free since then.

Interesting. So you're basically working from the road, working from your computer and are you literally moving on purpose every few months just to kind of experience life or.

Yeah, well, at different times I've done different things. When I find a place I really love, I end up staying there for a while. But sometimes I have a rule of three months or six months. I think three months is a really good time to get to know a place and really get the feel of it. And if it's a bit more complex place with a lot going on, then six months is a good amount of time.

Okay, gotcha. Now you also are really into healthy eating and kind of keeping your body fit, but is that something you've always done eating healthy or is this kind of a new thing that you've started to do?

Well, I've always been interested in fitness. That's definitely been something that's been big for me over the last. And then I took more of an interest in health because I had some chronic health issues. So I basically have chronic fatigue syndrome right now. Although I'm pretty much, I'd say, I know 70% recovered by now. I'm doing pretty well. I've had it for about 18 months, but for the last five years I've had some kind of health issues. It started when I was living in China, so that's when I took a real, really big interest. In the last 18 years, 18 months, I've spent most of my time researching and improving my health.

So when you say chronic fatigue syndrome, did you kind of self diagnose that or did you go out and get blood tests or what exactly happened with that?

Yeah, well, what happens is chronic fatigue syndrome. No one knows what you have, so you end up wandering around getting diagnoses of like, I had brain cancer. What else did I have? That was nice. You have all sorts of crazy stuff. I had stroke. And then. And then eventually you find someone who gives you a diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome, which is pretty flimsy. The whole science of chronic fatigue syndrome isn't very clear. So you get this diagnosis based on some blood tests, basically some blood markers, but kind of flimsy. Now I actually have a much better view, and it's a lot more detailed on what I'm working on in terms of the disease, and I'm working with some specific providers. So I don't actually call it chronic fatigue syndrome what I have anymore, because I see it as more specific, but no one really knows about the terms I use. So I just say chronic fatigue syndrome, and then people can relate to it.

Okay, I gotcha. So are you actually able to test your blood or test your biomarkers when you're traveling around the world? I mean, I know that in the US and to a limited extent in Canada and in the UK a little bit, people are testing their blood or kind of taking charge of their own medical care, so to speak. But have you found that that's doable when you're traveling a lot?

Well, from one standpoint, it's actually easier. You have kind of a regulatory barrier in the UK and the US and other countries, which is that you have to go through physicians. And there's a lot of. It just makes life a bit of logistical hassle. You have to find a physician. And sometimes these are very basic tests which you know very well. You know, you just want to get them. You don't need to go for an appointment. Or if you're traveling like me, I don't want to get a new physician every time I'm in a new town. So the nice thing about when you're traveling is most countries, like outside of the Western world, you can just walk in and get your own labs done. And you don't have to go through a physician. You can get them results straight back. So I'm in Mexico right now. I can just walk into a lab. I get my test results. There's no hassle.

How do you find a lab? Are you just walking into a hospital or are you going to an actual blood lab?

I normally look for private clinics. That was one of the lessons I kind of learned hospitals tend to charge too much. That's the main reason. And they often force you to see a doctor and to look over your results as well as you pay some extra fee and you kind of waste time as well. So I just look for the private clinics and I also find that they're a lot more efficient and professional in terms of how quickly you get your results back and you get some nicer printouts and stuff. Generally when you go to a private lab rather than a hospital.

Now you've got a website. I haven't mentioned your web URL yet, but it's@Biohacked.net and I noticed that at Biohacked.net you actually have some specific biomarkers that you, you test for yourself. You've got some things like visual contrast sensitivity score, you've got homocysteine, hscrp, LDL cholesterol. Now, when you walk into one of these labs, are you asking for specific tests based on you wanting to keep track of chronic fatigue syndrome, or are you basically testing these parameters because you found them to be the biggest wins, so to speak, for you to keep a handle on your health as you're traveling?

Right. So there's a few things I track just to keep an eye on my body, what's going on? Chronic fatigue syndrome. Some of the things that are going on is that you have problems with your liver, for instance, so you have problems with detox. So that's something you want to keep track of. And you know, I've had raised outs and things along the lines. I know when to kind of like chill out, give it a rest and focus a bit more on detox and give my body more rest when that's, that's getting a hard time, if you like. So, you know, there's things I track every month and I'd probably be doing them even if I didn't have chronic fatigue syndrome, now that I've learned about them anyway, because it can, you know, things like for instance, crp, C reactive protein that can be a good predictor of something that's coming. So if you just feel a little bit tired. But if you're tracking this monthly, you can actually see something that's going to happen in months time. And that's the same I found with ldl. Another role of LDL is that it helps with infections. So you'll see LDL go up just before you get some kind of problem. Right, Normally. So these can be kind of good warning systems if something's going to happen. So it can alert you to like, you know, if you're maybe working too hard or you're over stressing your body or something like that, you can calm down a bit to let your body deal with whatever the infection is or whatever else is going on. Or you could look into it yourself.

Tell me about this visual contrast sensitivity score. What is that?

Well, this is something very specific to me, but I actually think it's something that could be interesting for many people who've been traveling around like me, because this is related to biotoxin illness. So I said that I don't really consider I have CFS anymore because that's a very general, undefined definition. What I have is a biotoxin illness. I have a very specific problem with molds and mycotoxins, which have damaged my body from having lived in buildings where these have been present. And I have a genetic susceptibility to those. So what we call, we call this a biotoxin illness because it's molds emit biotoxins, which we call mycotoxins. What the visual contrast sensitivity does is it measures how many biotoxins you have in your body. Because what happens is the neurons in your brain stop working properly when you get to a certain level of biotoxins. And the higher the level of biotoxins, the more interruption of your, your nervous system. If you want to talk about it like that. Visual contrast is basically a function of our brain. We think of it like our eyes. You can't see the difference between two different grays. If you have two grays that are very similar, you can't really see the difference to them. For instance, when I first did this test, I had a very, very low score of about 40. And all of the pictures I were looking at looked the same. They just looked like one sheet of gray. Now when I look at it, I see lots of black and white lines, right? So this is actually your neurons in your brain interpreting what your eyes are seeing. And they get interrupted when you have high levels of biotoxins in your body. So I think anyone really could have some level of biotoxins in their body. If you've been traveling around, if you've been exposed to different things in different third world countries especially, I think it's something worth testing just to see if you have an issue. And then you can simply take some things to take those toxins out of your body and it will help your brain work better and you'll be healthier.

So this is a test that you can do online this visual contrast sensitivity test.

Yeah, that's the best thing about it. It's just super convenient. So you can do it anywhere. Right now there's only. Well, it actually started what they would, they would be actually using it with basically a piece of equipment you would put set up in front of you to do this. But Dr. Shoemaker, who's basically headed up a lot of the research on biotoxin illnesses and mold illnesses, he developed this tool so that it could be used online. So now you can go to I think it's chronicneurotoxins.net or.com and he has the test there and you can do it online.

I'll hunt it down and put a link in the show notes for people who want to try out this test because it looks like a cool parameter to track if you wanted to kind of keep track of your neural health. For sure. I really like it. It's one I hadn't seen before. Now, do you follow a specific diet, Damian?

I would say I'm kind of Paleo upgraded. So obviously I've read a lot and I've tried to lower. Like I told you, I had liver problems. So I've had to be pretty extreme about my health habits to get myself back to recovery and, you know, help my body along the way. So what I've done is basically taken as many toxins out of the diet as possible and just give my body an easier time. So of course, if you, you know, if you know a bit about Paleo, it's. It's a lot about taking grains and gluten and casein and other things that are the diet. So that I noticed quite that helped a lot. Like when I first got ill, I would go into restaurants and eat normal food and I'd basically be sick afterwards and even be vomiting sometimes. So I got really sensitive to it. So I could really notice when I did a Paleo upgraded. And Paleo upgraded for me is basically a mix of a few guys I've been reading. So you probably know Chris Kresser, Dave Espre. Yeah, for sure. Paul Jaminet. So basically I read a bunch of guys blogs and their ideas on Paleo and I take the ones I think are worth have some kind of impact or I test them out and that's why I go with and I think everyone's a bit different anyway.

Yeah, for sure. Well, all those three guys are fantastic resources. Absolutely. Now let's jump into the nitty gritty. We like to get into brass tacks on this podcast. So You've got the unique perspective of you kind of tying in the dietary philosophy philosophies of these really great diets, like the things that Chris Kresser and Dave Asprey and Paul Geminet are putting out. But you're doing this kind of thing when you're traveling. So let's go ahead and jump into some specific travel questions here. I'd like to start with the airplane and navigating through airports and airplane food. Do you actually find that you can eat by marking the gluten free box or whatever when you're traveling on the airplane or, you know, ordering salads and things like that in the airports, do you find that you can eat what's available there? Do you travel with your own food? Do you do a little bit of a combination of both? Or what exactly do you do when you're navigating through airplanes and airports?

Yeah, I really don't think you're going to like the answer to this question. I've found, you know, over time I found that, you know, just the quality of food in airports and airplanes in particular is just terrible. So what I do today is avoidance, right? I don't bother trying to take anything or anything, but I know you probably know about intermittent fasting and the benefits of that. So I don't really see it as a problem. And I do fasting sometimes anyway. So what I do is I will kind of load up on fats like ghee, MCT oil, so I'll have a good fatty meal, egg yolks, that kind of stuff before I go on any trip. And you know, I won't really feel that hungry. I mean, if you, if you, if you get into the habit of doing this kind of thing, you don't really get that hungry when you load up on fats. And you know, I just won't eat anything. I'll just be drinking water, basically. That, that's all, that's all I do on airplanes because I just say I feel it's really underwhelming, the quality of food on there. It doesn't matter. Like what I used to do was I used to order the special meals. So you've got an option when you book flights. You can have the gluten free, you can have the diabetic meal, which is kind of like low carb basically. And there's a few different things like that you can choose. And I used to go through those, but there's still not much to eat, I don't think, because what I found as I've been traveling, I mean we will talk about this a bit more is that the quality of food is as important as the preparation and the quality. Where are they buying the vegetables, where are they buying the meat, where they're getting it from? The meats are really sensitive to this kind of. This kind of. Right, right. So as I got really sensitive to this, I just found that, you know, I, I basically would be reacting to things that weren't, you know, good quality. So it wasn't even just about the cooking because Paleo also has like a large focus on the cooking. Right. Use the right oils and you know, and that kind of thing, which helps a lot. But I think it's really the quality of where you buy this stuff now that, that's what has been from my journey that's really been the biggest learning, I think.

Yeah, I've run into a lot of the same issues even marking the gluten free box or whatever when I'm on airplanes. And my problem is I just get, I get hungry even though I'm ketogenic and everything. And many times I'm landing and the next day I'm going to race. So I can't do a full day of fasting before I race. So for me I tend to put avocado and a little can of sardines. And then I also travel with healthy like organic meal replacement powders. Like I use one, I use a company down in Florida, they make this stuff called Living Fuel and it's, it's pretty close to real food. And I'll put like a Ziploc powder bag full of that with a handful of raw almonds for a little crunch thrown in. You know, travel with those kind of things in my bag.

But yeah, that's, that sounds really good as, I mean because obviously most people, I don't think most people are into fasting. So, you know, yours are a lot more convenient and accessible for most people, I think.

Yeah. And for me just exercising when, when I get to where I'm going or racing, when I get to where I'm going, I just, I, I never have quite that, that pop in my legs when I fast while I'm traveling. But yeah, that's certainly, it's certainly an option. And I think you make a great point that even if you do order the airplane food that's gluten free or vegetarian or whatever, it's still sourced from a really crappy source, I guarantee.

So very economic focused now.

What about when you get to where you're going? Do you shop at the grocery store. Do you eat at restaurants? Do you kind of do a combination of both or do you just kind of have, have your own method?

Well, keep it, keep in mind that a lot of the time I'm in countries which, you know, are mostly third world or, you know, there's somewhere out there on the, on the spectrum, not necessarily as like, like the US where you have access to everything. So for restaurants, I've really found, you know, to get quality food, it's very, very difficult. So I spend most of my time cooking at home and getting groceries. When I go out, it's more for socializing and I don't eat very much. You know, I'm just, I'm kind of limiting myself. You know, as I said, maybe I'll have a meal of fat or something earlier and you know, I just go out for socializing, but I'm not really there to eat because I don't expect much. In fact, it's to the point now that I'm just, I just don't see the value in the food. You know, you go and you pay, especially in a tourist destination, you pay this like, you know, quite high price for some food. And I just, you know, it's hard for me to understand it because health wise it's like a negative. And you know, then they can charge this high price for it because it's, it's focused on your taste buds and it's got some nice sources and stuff in there. But when you look at from a health focus, you're just like, well, I'm paying money to lose here.

So yeah, tell me about some foods that you can eat even in a third world country. If you landed and you were in a third world country and you went to the farmer's market or you went to the grocery store. What kind of foods have you found to be conducive to kind of like really eating in this upgraded type of fashion, this paleo type of fashion and ultra healthy fashion that you eat in? What kind of foods do you actually get what goes into your refrigerator or do you bring home with you?

Well, you've already mentioned the number. Like the number one easiest I've found actually is avocados. Guacamole. More specifically like guacamole, for instance, in Mexico, obviously you can get it in most restaurants. So that's something that I always turn to. And it's a side dish, right? I can just order some guacamole whenever I want. And it's great. And the nice thing about that is it's also protected a bit against pesticides. So you can buy that and you don't have to worry about it organic or anything. Because one of the bigger problems in a lot of these third world countries is there's a lot of high use of pesticides and it's completely uncontrolled. So I found for me that caused problems. So avocados are great because they are one of the ones that are a bit more resistant. Some of the other things I go for, basically my first step will be to go to the big supermarket chains. Right?

Right.

So every country has its biggest big supermarket chains and you want to go for the more upper market ones, like the larger ones, not necessarily the economic ones. Because especially in countries, countries like Mexico and Bangkok, they can have very, very cost efficient supermarkets which are going to have very, very low cost economic, but not the greatest quality of food. So for instance, in Mexico I found that Walmart's terrible actually here I have never been to in the US but, but here I really can't find much to buy.

It depends where you go in the US Actually some of the Walmarts have pretty decent okay foods and you can actually, you can eat pretty gourmet from a Walmart. They even sponsor the Master Chef Gordon Ramsay's MasterChef competition here in the States and they eat really gourmet. My issue with Walmart again is kind of like the source of the actual food. So you know, like if I don't know where the meat's coming from, I just don't get meat and primarily get fruit and veg and wash it really well and do some seeds and nuts and stuff like that. But yeah, Walmart, it depends.

Right? Well yeah, that's an interesting point actually because before I go to a place I also, you know, I basically plan where I'm going because some places will be really, really difficult to find any decent food and some places are going to be easier. And one of the factors that influences that is kind of the population. Wherever you're going, if there's a reasonable population of people with a higher standard of living, then you're more likely to find these things in the supermarkets. So like you're saying Walmarts in every place aren't the same and it's the same for in Mexico they have Mega, which is the one I found to be the best. And each Mega is different, each city Mega is a bit different. So you can find some pretty cool things in the Mega here in a good town like this one. So you got grass fed butterfly Anchor, which is, you know, as you. As you've heard me bring up already, is kind of one of the big things in my diet. I make ghee out of it to take the milk solids out of it.

You make your own ghee?

Yeah, it's very, very quick to do. You walk into a.

You're probably about to explain why, but. Or explain how. But go ahead, tell us how you do the ghee.

All right, so the how is basically you walk into just a local pharmacy and you ask for a few medical gauzes. These cost nothing. They'll give you a little packet of those, and then you just heat the butter in a pan, and then you filter it out through the gauzes. You put a few of the gauzes on top of each other to make it like a filter, and then you just filter it into a container and you put it in the fridge and then you got your ghee.

Very cool. Very cool. So you've got these type of strategies that you use when you're traveling. Now when you walk into a restaurant, let's say you're eating at a restaurant. I know that a lot of third world restaurants might be a little bit more difficult to do this in, but do you have specific go to items if you're at a restaurant when you're traveling that you look for on the menu?

Yeah. So the first one I mentioned is guacamole and avocados in general. So Japan as well, Japanese kind of restaurants, they have the kind of avocado thing going for them as well. You know, you see different things. Lamb is one thing that I tend to go for just because it tends to be more grass fed and a bit cleaner. Obviously, you know, I'm trying to go for things with less sources and just with less treatment, basically, because, you know, the more treatment they have, the normally it goes in the wrong direction. I find sardines. You mentioned earlier that that's, that's another thing I'll order in restaurants sometimes because it's a bit easier to deal with.

And when you're at. When you're at a grocery store, are you able to find those canned, like canned sardines, canned anchovies, that type of thing?

Yeah, yeah. So I actually like. Right. Right now, like, I'm in Mexico, so they have. They have ones from Europe, from Spain and Portugal, and they have some from Mexico. I find the ones from Europe a little bit better in quality, but, you know, this may not be much difference there.

Yeah, gotcha.

Yeah.

Portugal, I think, is the very best Place in terms of sardines. If you can find sardines off the coast of Portugal, from what I understand, that's. That's the very best. But, yeah, those are all that's interesting. Our dietary strategies overlap. At restaurants, it seems. I also look for avocados, sardines, fish. But I'm always looking for the source as well. And that kind of leads me into my next question. You mentioned a guy like Dave Asprey, for example, who I know travels with. He talks about how he travels with activated charcoal to leech or absorb some of the toxins that he might get when he's eating meat from which he doesn't know the source. And I do the same thing. Do you have supplements like that that you travel with or other supplements that you use that you found to be particularly helpful for you when you're traveling and trying to feel really good and stay healthy while you're traveling?

Totally. This is actually pretty important as well. So activated charcoal you mentioned is pretty key. I carry that around with me just like Dave does now, and he actually switched me onto that. Another thing I was playing around with before was bentonite clay, which is similar. I don't know if you heard about that. The thing with that is that it's more difficult to carry it in these bottles, whereas the activated charcoal is just these capsules, so they're a lot easier to carry. So I don't really use the bentonite clay anymore. Although you could argue maybe one's better than the other or whatever. So there's that. Then something else, which I found a really key thing is grapeseed extract liquid. So what you can do with that, that will clear up most things. Like, so if you get food poisoning from bacteria and stuff like that, basically, as soon as you feel a bit bad after a meal, I'll take some activated charcoal and some grape seed extract. And you just put this. You put a few drops of this liquid into the water and you take a glass of water with. And that normally fixes you before it hits you, basically.

So you combine the charcoal with the grapeseed?

Yeah, totally. I just hit it with everything.

Okay, cool. I'm taking, by the way, for people listening in, I'm taking notes that you guys can go to the show notes and check out some of this stuff. So you. Activated charcoal, you do grape seed extracts. Anything else?

Yeah, those are the two biggest things. More on maintenance. I'm taking all the time. Wild oregano oil.

I don't go anywhere without oregano oil as an antiseptic and antiviral. Especially when I'm in crowded areas. That's good to know that you use that as well. What was that other one you said? Caprylic acid.

Caprylic acid. It also helps. And specifically, I'm taking those. I got onto those specifically because of the mold mycotoxin connection, because they're one of the things that. I guess with fungal and the mold world, there's less things that are powerful against them. It seems like the fungal species are a lot harder to deal with. So I found that those are the things and grapeseed extract that work well with that.

Yeah, caprylic acid is actually quite commonly used among ketogenic dieters in liquid form to maintain elevated levels of ketones. But you're correct, it does have some of those. Those antiviral, antiseptic properties as well. Do you just take it in capsule form?

Yep, I take both of those in capsule.

Got it. Anything else that you use as kind of a staple when you're traveling?

Yeah, so I also carry iodine. Iodoro.

Oh, iodine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We. We also use that. I was actually talking to my wife last night because we're getting ready to head off with the kids to Thailand. And the three of the things that definitely go into our travel medical bag, so to speak, are oregano, oil, iodine, and charcoal capsules. So do you just do iodine as a daily when you're traveling, or do you use it for when you actually get sick in higher doses?

Well, as you probably know, there's some thyroid implications there as well. So I was originally taking it for the thyroid, but and also for antiviral properties, because one of the first things before I had was a brain virus. But, you know, since then I've kind of, you know, I use it more. More specifically when I think there's problems. And I can give you example. Like, my girlfriend, a few weeks ago, she. She woke up with three bites on her head, which I look like the nastiest, like, wounds I've ever. I've seen in a long time. And they didn't go. And for about a week we didn't treat it. But then we started, you know, putting iodine on it. And we're at that point we were going to go to the hospital because she was starting to get these strange headaches and stuff. But we started putting iodine on it just, like, daily, and it quickly cleared up. So it's really powerful stuff.

Yeah, absolutely. Okay, cool. So I know that you're also into fitness, and I wanted to ask you A little bit about staying fit when you travel and if you have specific workouts, phone apps, books, things of that nature that you use or rely on for your fitness routine when you're traveling.

Yeah, well, so this is really for me, semi dated information because I haven't been able to work out since I got chronic fatigue syndrome. I'm just starting to do some kind of exercises but it's really low level because my body can't handle it right now. But what I was doing before was I was pretty focused on a very, very time efficient and body workouts because I was traveling. I lived on islands a few times so I didn't have any mach. You know, I didn't have a gym or anything I could go to. So I would be using things like just you know, press ups body like planks like step ups. So if you just find a rock, you can do step ups up and down and that can be pretty effective. But you know, just generally pull ups on trees. I really find. And I have to say that one of the times I got the biggest was when I was living on an island and all I was doing was these body, body weight exercises. There was nothing much to it. I was doing them like two or three times a week and that was it, you know. And a lot of my friends like will comment now like, yeah, you were really big when you came from that island, you know. And all I was doing, you know, I think also you have to take in the recovery factor which I know you're into for the HIV and stuff. And obviously I was very relaxed and everything on that island at that time. I was just writing and working out and very relaxed lifestyle. So I think that probably had a lot to do with it too.

Yeah. I've got two resources that I kind of use when I travel. One is this book called the Fitness Explorer. And it's kind of like a combination of parkour and body weight moves. You can just kind of like find a local park or playground. And I'm looking at my hands right now, they're actually still kind of. They have these bloody calluses on them from a playground workout I threw down a couple days ago when I was down in California. But the Fitness Explorer, you don't necessarily have to work out until your hands are bloody. That's a good one. That book that's written by Daryl Edwards. And there's another app that I like called the Safari Fit app and that's kind of just like a bunch of animal based exercises like the lion and the parakeet. And the wolf and it walks you through about a 30 minute routine again that you can kind of throw down anytime, anywhere. So that, that's a cool one, the Safari Fit app. But those are a couple that I use for staying in shape. Now for you with chronic fatigue.

Are.

You experimenting at all with yoga, tai chi, any of these kind of nervous system type of stabilizer exercises?

Well, so I'm just starting into yoga. I've done yoga before. I'm actually looking into Kundalini though, because it's, it's more related to the nervous system. So you're right. Like there's a focus of chronic fatigue syndrome and what it does to your body. It's about the nervous system. So I'm more focused on the benefits there. It's not really from the exercise perspective and Kundalini is more focused on that aspect than other types of yoga. But with respect to exercise, the other thing I'm doing is that a specific problem with chronic fatigue is low blood volume. So when you exercise, you basically have to lie down because your body's strained when you're standing up because you don't have enough blood. And it's trying to push it around but there's not enough of it. So that's basically a stressor just in itself. But if you lie down, if you're doing planks, if you're doing push ups or you're pushing things off the ground, it's a lot easier for your body to handle. So that's kind of the way to start.

Okay, gotcha. Gotcha.

But I guess that's relevant for anybody, right? Anybody who's like sick or, you know, they're maybe feeling a bit more fatigued or they need to recover more. Those kind of exercises are probably less strenuous.

Yeah, yeah, you're right. You know, I wanted to also ask you about, because I know you probably look around you and you see a lot of other people. When you're traveling and living this nomadic lifestyle, what do you think are the biggest mistakes that people make when it comes to eating healthy or when it comes to staying fit while traveling, do you consistently see people kind of messing up in the same areas over and over again?

Yeah, I mean, look, when people go traveling, a lot of the digital nomads, I said, they get kind of enamored with the fact that they can go to, you know, it's cheaper in places like Thailand and in China it's cheaper to go out eating and there's a lot of street food and like I've seen a Lot of the paleo bloggers who go to Thailand and they talk about how great Thailand is for paleo foods and for street food, but I don't think they're not really looking at the oils they're using.

That's exactly what I was just going to say. There's a heck of a lot of vegetable oil, like heated oxidized oils that get used in Thailand.

Really?

Really? That's my biggest complaint because I go over there a lot and that's one thing I have to be really careful with.

Right, right. So the street foods, I mean honestly, like you're walking along the street, the oil will hit you in the face because they add spices to it and it's really, really harsh stuff. And the other thing I'd say is parasites and just general bacteria. So the number one is hygiene, lacing your standards on where you're eating, eating cheaply. You're always going to pay for it in my mind, if you're paying these lower prices. And a lot of my friends have had some kind of infections, parasites. I've had all the tests myself and as I was going through this whole process and I found a bunch of parasites that I've probably had since I was in China, which is like going on 10 years now. And you know, it takes a real, it can take quite a while to get rid of these things and they drain your energy. And you know, and I've been suffering with energy issues for years. So that's one of the main issues. I say like you just really want to avoid those types of infections if you can by maintaining some kind of standard and not going cheap, cheap and you know, streets and this kind of thing.

Yeah, one other thing that I'm really careful of. Well, two things I'm careful of in something like Thailand. One is that a lot of these inflammatory omega 6 fatty acids that you get from vegetable oils, those are, those are adhering to the same receptors as like a, like an omega 3 fatty acid. So you can use, if you're able to manage to keep it cold and at a decent temperature when you're traveling. Higher dose fish oil when you're traveling can help out quite a bit to take up some of those receptor sites and keep the vegetable oils from causing as much damage. So I'll usually like, I take a fish oil called Super Essentials and I'll double up on that when I'm traveling if I'm able to actually keep it in my, in my carry on bag. I don't, I don't get in the belly of the airplane because I know it'll get hot there. So that's one thing. And if, if you do know that the fish that you're eating is from a good source, you can also just eat a ton of fish. If you know you're also going to be say like you know, eating some street pad Thai or something like that just because fish is going to be a good source of those omega 3s as well. And then the one thing I'm really careful with is their, their goong or their, their shrimp. That's. Shrimp is notorious for being really laden with a lot of, of nasty chemicals and heavy metals and toxins and stuff from the ocean. That, that one tends to be a big issue. So I mean, even if you had to do chicken, which, which is often, you know, chock full of omega 6 fatty acids, it's still a safer bet. Thank you. Than shrimp. Those are a couple of things that I'm careful with when I'm, when I'm over there.

So yeah, there's, I mean, I lived in Thailand for a bit and there's issues with certain type of fish there. So I think it's kind of local. With fish you have to be aware of it. As you say the prawns pretty much everywhere. You know, you have to be really careful. But depending on where you are also you can kind of learn about it in. So I mean, one of the things I tend to do now is if I'm ever having fish, I'm taking chlorella as well, which doesn't remove all the nutrients. It's better than activated charcoal like that, but it can remove some of the bad stuff. So that's a useful thing to carry around with you. I hadn't heard about that omega free thing. That's a really useful tip. Do you use. So is this krill oil or is this some kind of.

The stuff that I use is. It's a cod liver oil that's mixed with triglyceride based fish oils. It's one of the. And it's packaged with astaxanthin. So. Right. It stays relatively free of oxidation. That one's called Super Essentials. It's not the least expensive of the fish oils out there for sure. It's like 50 bucks for a bottle of it. Or actually I think it's 40 bucks. But that's the one that I use and they're like these black capsules and I'll take eight a day when I'm traveling. So that comes out to about 8 to 10 grams of fish oil.

Have you tested your phase? I'm just interested.

Yeah, I did an omega 3, omega 6 index about a year ago and I tested really high on the omega 3 fatty acid levels. I don't actually do that as a regular test for the blood panel that I do every three months. But what I do keep an eye on is my HSCRP levels just as a general marker of how well I'm doing from an anti inflammatory standpoint. And the last time I tested HSCRP it was below 0.2. So it's just, you know, it's rock bottom, which I'm very happy about considering I'm, you know, I'm beating up my body with, with Iron Man.

That's, that's amazing. I, I'm at that level too. And at first I was a bit worried about it. I thought like the tests were going wrong. My FA levels like you know, about 1.7 I think now Omega, Omega 3 to Omega 6. So I've actually stopped taking fish oils and everything because, because I figure with my clean diet and everything, I don't really need to get too omega free over laden now.

Right. And then the other thing I should toss in there. If folks want even a more stable source of omega 3s, there are like chlorella and spirulina, like 100% organic cracked cell wall spirulina and chlorella sources that you can travel with. And if I had to choose one food to take with me on like to a desert island, I would probably choose chlorella, like just, just in terms of having the complete spectrum of really good nutrients on board. So I always travel with a bag of chlorella tablets as well, just in case. So those work out really well. Again, they'll just like munch on. If you're like me and you don't like to fast on the airplane, I just don't have that amount of discipline. So this has been really interesting. Now as far as your website, biohacked.net Damien, is there anything else that you found on there that you've put on there that you want to point people out to? Any extra advice you want to give out, Things that I haven't had a chance to ask you or things that you want to bring up to the audience as far as traveling or living this nomadic lifestyle?

No, I mean, I think we've kind of done the tour. I'm just like, for me it's just a hobby. It's not a professional site or anything. It's just a site where I'm putting up new things that I discover. I'm constantly trying to learn and improve myself. So when I find something out, I put it out there. And so it's more like a heartbeat for me.

Yeah. Gotcha. Well, it's kind of cool. You do have, like I mentioned, a lot of your results from your HSCRP and this visual sensitivity scale test that you do and everything tracked over there. So I'd invite people to go to your website@Biohack.net and click on the tab that says Biomarker reports. And Damian also has shown his cumulative history health investment as far as since he got sick with chronic fatigue last year, kind of what he spent on lab tests and devices and travel and shipping and all that jazz. You can kind of get an idea if you travel a lot, you know what kind of expenses you're looking at as far as your investment in health and some of the other things. And he also has some good articles. He has an article called Eating Paleo in Thailand where to Get Hard to Find Items. He has an article called Getting Blood Tests in Bangkok Private Labs versus Hospitals. And he also has a blog post there for those of you who are also dealing with chronic fatigue called Treatment Strategy for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, a work in progress. So a lot of interesting articles, another one on eating Paleo in Mexico. So go check out biohacks.net and I would also invite you if you're listening in and you have questions that you want to ask myself or Damian, leave them in the comments section for this podcast over at BenGreenfieldFitness.com where I'm also going to put resources to everything we talked about, from nascent iodine to that online visual contrast sensitivity test. I'll put a bunch of links over there for you if you want to go and dig in more to some of the resources that we talked about as well as the book brought to you by audiblepodcast.com Ben which you can get for free. It's called Vagabonding An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long Term World Travel. So, Damian, thank you so much for your time today and for coming on the call.

Thank you. It's been a lot of fun.

All right, folks, this is Ben Greenfield and Damian Blekinsoff signing out for Ben Greenfield Fitness.

Visit BenGreenfieldFitness.com for even more cutting edge fitness, nutrition and performance advice.

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