The Zen of Chinese Herbs – Everything You Need To Know About How To Boost Your Brain Power With Herbology.

Hey folks, this is Ben Greenfield and I have in the past year or so been using, typically in the mid morning or the mid afternoon, a mix of Chinese herbs to basically improve my mental performance, improve my focus, improve my thought clarity. And this stuff is pretty powerful. And I've got the guy who formulated it on the call. His name is Roger Drummer. He is a diplomat of Chinese herbology. And I'll have him explain to you exactly what that means. He travels around the world lecturing about the benefits of Chinese herbs. He is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to nutrition. He's worked with literally tens of thousands of folks and created several patents on these, or at least one that I know of on the use of these Chinese herbs and medicinal mushrooms and some really, really cool cutting edge stuff when it comes to nutrition. Roger, thank you for coming on the call today.

Well, thanks for having me.

So I know that I just mentioned that you are a formulator and a diplomat of Chinese herbology, and I also happen to know that you've dabbled a little bit in triathlon as well. But it sounds like you keep pretty busy and I'm really not sure what a formulator does. So can you kind of walk us through before we talk a little bit more about the mixes that you make, kind of what you do when you wake up in the morning? Because the thought going through my head is you kind of like standing over a vat with a big stick, stirring a bunch of stuff in a big pot. What exactly is it that you do?

Well, it's, it's funny, but formulating is kind of like cooking. But what I do is, well, add some clarity to what a diplomat of Chinese herbology is. That's the certification title the US Government has for someone who practices Chinese medicine but does not do acupuncture. Years ago, they had so many problems with people graduating from acupuncture school realizing they didn't like sticking people with needles and so they didn't have anything, anything to do with their education. And so many people dropped out of the whole health field. And so what they've done is they've separated it out and decided that for those people that just want to practice Chinese herbology, you know, as Chinese medicine, because in actuality, 85% of all Chinese medicine is herbs. So those people can now get licensed or certified just as a diplomat of Chinese, her biology and still practice. So as a formulator, what I do is I've always had a knack for this, partly because of the type of training I had and the environment I had, but I've always loved putting things together in the United States in the environment I grew up in. It was a store that had four or five hundred different herbal products, very similar to how they do Chinese medicine in Japan, and it's called Kenpo in Japan. What they do is that's different from Chinese. Practicing traditional Chinese medicine is that instead of having single herbs and thousands of them, they have hundreds of formulas. And when someone comes in and needs a program, you put together formulas and have them take a certain amount of each to create a new formula for that person. So in theory, I was always formulating with every person that I worked with, and I loved mixing and matching, and it was a great thing of getting so much direct feedback that I just naturally went into starting to make formulas for the business that I worked at. Formulas for the bar, the Chinese herbal bar, where you learn a lot. And then that translates over into what I do today is basically I try to look at different diseases or health states and figure out how to use novel new ingredients and put it into the theory of Chinese medicine so it works on the same level. So I formulate for different companies and put together things for my own.

Gotcha. And just really quickly, before we move on into what exactly these formulations are, is it true that you've dabbled a bit in triathlon?

Oh, I did, yeah. Back in the early 80s, I had moved to Arizona from Ohio and really got into running. And I loved running and I did a few marathons and a lot of 10Ks and half marathons. And then I just kind of discovered triathlons. And Dave Scott was the big guy then. He was the original number one superstar at all, you know, as a triathlete. And I used to follow that a lot. So I got into it in Arizona and I just did it on my own. I didn't have anybody to train with and have anybody to talk to, and I just went out and pounded the pavement and rode my bike a lot and got into shape and did a few triathlons and I loved it. But I suffered from lack of knowledge, so to speak. I didn't have a trainer. I didn't realize I was over training and, you know, that whole thing. But I loved it. And I did probably three half Ironman, and I wasn't too bad at it for lack of experience. I usually came in, in the top 10% of a race and I just loved doing it.

Nice. Okay, cool. So in the, in the realm of performance, you know, talking about triathlons, when it comes to Chinese herbs. I think a lot of people do maybe think about acupuncture, perhaps relaxation, decreasing stress, things like that. But in terms of mental or physical performance, how does, like a mix of Chinese herbs, you know, for example, the mix in the tea and cheese stuff that I've been drinking, how does that actually work, like, on a chemical level, how does using an herb do something like, enhance your clarity of thought or the way that you perform, say, mentally?

Well, what happens is, as far as athletes, an easier way to think of it is that I specialize in tonic herbs, which means it's a class of herbs that they consider to be food that you don't normally have in your diet. So they're very concentrated foods that have all traditionally, for thousands of years, been known to strengthen particular organs or glands and improve digestion and breathing, all these things that are important to athletes. And so when you use them, it prevents the body from getting as worn out as if you didn't have them. So for an athlete, it's much easier to maintain a certain level of activity without becoming too worn out. So you recover quicker. You're able to have better workouts and not reach that burnt stage.

Now, when you use a term like worn out, that seems like kind of a. Kind of a catchphrase. What do you mean when you say worn out?

Well, for instance, when someone's doing a lot of endurance training, it's very wearing on your adrenals. It's very wearing on your glandular system. You tend to be. Sometimes when you run out of physical energy, what happens is you start tapping into your adrenals, what the Chinese called jing, and then you run on that. A lot of people do that, that are stressed, they skip meals, and then they don't eat and drink a lot of coffee. And that basically just hyperactivates their adrenals and they run on that.

So we're talking about like, like too much epinephrine or adrenaline or those type of things that.

Those type of things. But the Chinese even look at it as a little deeper. Like, your glandular system is part of your life force that you're born with, and it holds a certain amount of energy, and you're not supposed to tap into that. So as an athlete, though, it's easy to go, especially when you get into the real endurance activities. It's easy to push yourself because you feel like you can do just about anything. And you get that runner's high and you've been working out a. And then that pushing oftentimes you'll cross that gap to where you're running out of physical energy, yet you just want to do it, and you kind of use up too much energy. And herbs have this ability of putting it back into your glandular system.

Gotcha. So in terms of putting energy back into your glandular system, how does that actually work? I mean, is this something that decreases the amount of cortisol, like, I know a lot of stress relieving herbs do, or do they work on different levels, something like a mix of Chinese?

Well, they all work on different levels, but adaptogens in particular, which is the main part of what TNT is about. Adaptogens actually regulate the HPA axis, meaning the hypothalamus pituitary, adrenals, so that if you're stressed, you'll still have a stress reaction, but your body will be able to shut it off at the appropriate time. And once that shut off, then the body goes into a normal phase of energy where it allows the adrenals to regenerate or to soak up energy again. A lot of people that are hyper stressed never go into that phase where they shut it off completely, so they never restore their energy. Adaptogens work almost immediately to regulate your pituitary, and once that happens, your nervous system calms within seconds and it goes into a different phase.

Interesting. What about the increased mental clarity? Is it just an issue where you are decreasing stress, or is there something in a mix of Chinese herbs that, I don't know, increases blood flow to the brain or causes enhanced neuronal function or something of that nature?

Well, in general, if we're just talking about herbs, in Chinese herbology, the adrenal energy is part of a system called jing, and in their sense of energy that directly feed the brain. So you might. You know, it sounds a little odd when, because we're always just talking about energy, but the reality is, think about the last time you were really exhausted. You could bear. You don't think clearly, you don't breathe very deeply. All these different things happen when you're exhausted, which is a sign that you're. You've used up too much adrenal energy. You want to put energy back into that or prevent it from actually getting to that state. Just keeping your adrenals strong and keeping that energy system strong will allow you to have much more mental stability or clarity all the time. Then in the case of Tianji, I actually combine the ability to calm your nervous system and to rebuild your glandular system with some very potent direct nutraceuticals for brain Activity, the combination. I use tyrosine to peak dopamine, which is the main neurotransmitter in your brain that's responsible for controlling your cravings for sweets. It also powers up your brain. It's kind of like booting your computer up in the morning. Once you get a dose of dopamine early in the day, your brain stays pretty much powered up for the entire day and you have very less, you have less cravings even for alcohol and tobacco.

Hmm, interesting. So you're basically increasing the level of dopamine, or as you call it, dopamine, and essentially helping yourself to feel almost like more, I don't know, to use to, to feel good phrases. More satisfied and happy.

Yeah, more satisfied, happy and able to make better choices because your brain energy isn't moving all around all day. A typical person that gets up and just has some sort of food in the morning that's sugar based or way too much carbohydrate and some coffee falsely stimulates dopamine. And so as soon as it starts to wear off, your brain just goes searching for it. And without even thinking you're reaching for another cookie bagel, something that's carbo, and you're on that roller coaster all day. Whereas if you started your day differently, you really don't have those same cravings throughout the day.

Interesting. So I've personally heard a lot of horror stories about Chinese herbs. Like how they sit in bins over in China for years and they get sprayed with ethylene oxide or some other anti mold or antifungal or pesticide or something of that nature. And you have to be really careful when you're using Chinese herbs. So can you kind of explain how a formulator would kind of get around that issue?

Oh, sure. I've been around Chinese herbs now for, oh, almost 20 some odd years. And there's a lot of Chinese herbal products I wouldn't touch no matter what you told me they did. And a lot of those are directly made in China and imported into this country as finished product. And Hong Kong is famous for copying good Chinese herbal products and making cheap copies and shipping them over here. So I wouldn't buy literally anything in a pill or a cap that was originally made in China. I just won't do it myself. What you want to look for, what I do is I've had a very good importer of Chinese herbs that I work with and they're importing just extracted, single herbs. They're very highly extracted and pure and they're tested for all kinds of any type of chemical. In fact, the only company that I use, all their herbs are wildcrafted. There's no sprays used on anything. They're all tested. They're grown in a factory that does kosher testing. It's organic, certified. The factory is. So then they get sent over the United states in large 100 kilo drums that the FDA inspects and does a lab report on, and then it's put into a warehouse in the United States. Then I buy mixes that I send to them that I want. I buy different kilo amounts of individual herbs and I mix them myself. Or I have that company mix something for me in China and make it under my direction so that way I know it's pure. There's no additives to it. They're not using herbs that are ever sprayed. All those things are done before I ever get my powders.

So once you actually extract the herbal extracts from these raw herbs, are they mixed with something else or. I mean, how do you actually go from these herbs that you extract into the actual. In this case, like a packet that I personally would pour into a glass of water.

Okay. Well, with the herbs I use, the factory and the company I use will tell you that they'll have different grades that you want to buy. The normal grade of herb that's out on the grocery store or the health food store shelf is usually a 5 to 1 or a 4 to 1 extract. That's okay with certain things, but with most herbs, that's a very weak extract. That means they've not extracted it out to its natural strength. And oftentimes it's sprayed dried with corn starch or something else. The reason I use the company I've been using for 15 years now is, is that they specifically do not spray dry it onto any carrier so that it's 99.9% pure herb. There's nothing else to it. And they extract every herb at its natural extract strength, meaning they take it as high as it'll go without losing any of the synergistic components to it. Because once you do that, then you've basically killed off the energy of the herb. It doesn't work as well. You can always concentrate one single ingredient, but that single ingredient never works as well as something that's extracted to natural strength. And that natural strength is usually between 8 to 12 or 13 to 1, depending on the herb.

Gotcha. So you've got all these different wild crafted herbs that you're using. And in this case, in the case of the the formulation that I'm taking, this TNT stuff you've got, I guess I could count, but it looks like maybe 15 different things in there. How do you kind of choose. I mean, is this just a random cocktail that you're just, you know, grabbing some stuff and throwing it all together, or is this. Is this formulated kind of from a specific scientific standpoint?

Well, when you formulate a Chinese herbal formula, you always have the main segment, which could make up anywhere from 3/4 of the formula, but at least one fourth of the formula. That segment of the thing is what the whole formula revolves around. In this case of the Tian Qi, it revolves around the work of adaptogenic herbs. There's four, probably five if you want to classify it, major adaptogens in that formula. And so it's designed to regulate, and this is one of the main functions of it, regulate stress response. Almost everybody is so locked into stress, their body's highly inflamed, and it literally throws off every function of your body being locked into stress response. So that whole segment is just to take the pituitary, help it to regulate the nervous system and allow the adrenals to somewhat regroup and soak up energy. Then the next segment of the formula is designed to help have herbs in it that are directly for building up jing, which includes your adrenals and your glandular system. Once the major focus of the formula does its job of calming your nervous system, you want herbs there that particularly are just great for rebuilding adrenal energies. Things like He Shou Wu you talked earlier about. How do they affect your adrenals? Well, He Shou Wu has a chemical in it that is almost identical to some of the very same chemicals your body makes in your adrenals. That being there, your body just soaks it up quite readily. Then there's a couple herbs in it that just support the action of both groups of herbs. There's an herb called Polygalla and one called Albizia flower that just opens up a channel in your heart. It's running between your heart and your adrenals. So it kind of connects your emotions to your physical energy, and it allows energy to move freely throughout the body. So it kind of are connecting type of herbs.

Then there's a couple herbs. Interesting. Actually, I'm interrupting you because I've been experimenting with heart rate variability for. For the past two months. What that means is you can sit down with a unit that is connected, in this case to your ear, taking your pulse, and it calculates the amount of time difference between each of your heartbeats. So ideally, when your heart rate variability is in an ideal state or an ideal beat, there's an even space of time between each beat. And if you are over trained or you are overstressed, then what happens is the delta or the change in time between each beat is longer or shorter. And I have actually noticed a change in heart rate variability when I'm using this TNT in terms of it actually being more consistent. Now some of this sounds kind of, you know, kind of far out there because one of the ways that you're supposed to be able to improve your heart rate variability is not only by being de stressed, but also by having lots of love and appreciation and friendship and things of that nature in your life. And you can think about those type of things as you're taking your heart rate test and testing your heart rate variability. And it actually helps to stabilize your heart rate variability score. But I have noticed that when I'm taking tnt, when I'm doing a heart rate variability training session, I can get into what's called the zone where the heart rate variability is even within about 60 seconds. I mean, I can just get right there. And heart rate variability is something they've used especially over in Europe for a long time to track sports performance. It's just now kind of hitting the US which is why I'm testing everything from, from supplements to thoughts to recovery with it. But it's very interesting that you bring that up.

Well, you know, since you mentioned it, this is fascinating. I'm so glad you told me that. But part of the whole idea of stress and the formula is with Chinese herbology, you're always looking at the physical ingredients of the herbs, you're always looking at how they physically affect your body. But there's an energetic component to it also. And it's the same way with stress. In Chinese medicine, when they say there's something wrong with your liver, what they really mean is your nervous system is way too peaked. Oftentimes your liver energy, someone will go to an acupuncturist, they'll take their pulse and all your liver. And the American will think, oh my gosh, my liver is all messed up. Really, what they're saying is your nervous system is so high strung that your body can't relax and so nothing circulates energetically around your body. Well, one of the things about opening up your heart on an energetic level, again with Albizia and Polygala, is that when you open the heart center up to allow it to go back to its normal state of energy deliver energetically. It just naturally calms. The energy center associated with it has to shrink when the heart regains its normal size. So part of the formula again is to open that energy center so that the body relaxes a bit and allows energy to move and not stagnate in any place in the body. Because when the liver stagnates energetically, it causes energy to sit on your chest and you just get, you feel pressure, you feel overstressed. That's the type of person that will wake up at two in the morning and feel like someone standing on their chest because they're so stressed they think there's something wrong with their heart, when in actuality it's just the liver is not processing energy.

Interesting. Yeah, this stuff is fascinating. I'm going to make sure that I put a full list of all the TNT ingredients or a link to it on the website on the show notes where I release this post. But in terms of just use, you know, if somebody gets this stuff and wants to use it, how do you maximize the results? Like empty stomach in the morning with the meal at lunch? I mean, when should you take it?

Well, the best way to always take it is on a empty stomach. For a lot of people, let's say, for example, someone's dieting, best time to do it is first thing in the morning. By itself, don't eat for 45 minutes because the way it sets up your brain for the power with which it works and how fast it works will immediately happen and then it will curb your cravings for sweets, which is the main issue in most dieting, then you basically set up your brain for the whole day. Now if you can't do that, if you're someone who really has to have breakfast with maybe you like coffee or tea or something, that's perfectly fine, but then wait two and a half hours and maybe take it a half hour an hour before lunch. Or if you're someone that just, you know, has a huge evening ahead of you, you can take it in the middle of the afternoon, but always give it at least a couple hours from your last food so it goes into your body completely on its own.

Okay, gotcha. Cool. I know that that we are gonna offer a free shipping code for folks for the next week after this podcast comes out with Roger, if you want to get your hands on some tnt, I'll put that that coupon code in the show notes for you over@BenGreenfieldFitness.com I'd highly recommend you grab at least, at least one box of this stuff and try it out for about 20 to 30 days. Like I said, I've been using it pretty regularly. Recently, a few of my clients have been using it. And it's one of those things where some supplements you just kind of blindly take in a assume that it's helping you get healthier, like, say, fish oil. This stuff kind of amplifies your mental performance in an enormous manner, I've found. And also that heart rate variability bit really impressed me as well. Roger, thank you so much for coming on the call and explaining this stuff to us.

Oh, you're welcome. Part of what I do is just educate people and that's why I travel around so much. I love teaching people basic things about Chinese herbs and kind of demystifying how it all works.

Yeah, it's. It's good stuff. So, folks, that's Roger Drummer. I'll also put a link to, to his website in the show notes. If you want to go check out some of his articles and some of his writings over at his askrogerdrummer.com site, I'd highly recommend it. So until next time, folks, this is Ben Greenfield and Roger Drummer signing out from BenGreenfieldFitness.com.