Tim Gray: How Fixing Leaky Gut Cured My Adrenal Fatigue | TUH #046

Fixing the gut fixed my low energy, my low mood, my anxiety, and then.

We actually had a shot at overcoming some of the most debilitating ailments. UK's leading expert on biohacking, Tim has.

Been optimizing his health, energy and mind.

For over seven years using a vast array of modalities.

I got ill. It started with urinary tract infections and kidney stones. I was in and out the doctors and I said to him, like, what's wrong with me? He shrugged his shoulders and said, can't find anything wrong. And yet, you know, I was falling apart.

What are a sequence of activities that you think every human being should be doing that could change the trajectory of their life?

The first thing that anyone should do is.

Ultimate human. Hey guys. Tim Gray is widely recognized as the UK's, the United Kingdom's leading biohacker. He's renowned for his significant contributions to the field of health and optimization. Tim's journey into biohacking began due to a personal health challenge, including his chronic illness that left him bedbound at the age of 32. And as you know, I love having guests that have been on a personal journey. And through this extensive self research and the application of biohacking principles, Tim was able to transform his health, effectively reducing his biological age by nearly a decade. His personal experience fueled a passion to educate and empower others, leading to the founding of the Health Optimization Summit Summit, which I actually intend to speak at this coming June. This is Europe's largest health conference that bridges the gap between biohacking, nutrition, fitness and preventative medicine. Tim's approach to biohacking is grounded in practicality and accessibility, emphasizing simple yet impactful challenges and changes to daily routines. He really advocates for natural sunlight exposure, reducing the blue light exposure at night, grounding, walking barefoot on the surface of the earth, which you know I am a huge fan of, and ensuring adequate sleep is a foundational practice that significantly enhances health without any cost. Additionally, Tim stresses the importance of clean drinking water filtered to improve impurities and suggests adding minerals back to the water to support the body's immune system. His daily regimen includes practices like using a standing desk to improve concentration and blood flow. He champions a diet rich in proteins and fats over carbohydrates to stabilize blood sugar levels. And he also highlights the critical role of sleep in the immune system's function and overall health. He advocates for quality sleep as the cornerstone of health optimization and informs patients that regular blood testing forms a part of the strategy to monitor and address nutrient deficiencies. Again, major major area of focus for myself, further tailoring his biohacking efforts to his body's specific needs. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the podcast. Tim Gray. Hey guys, welcome back to the ultimate Human podcast. I'm your host, human biologist Gary Brecker. Where we go down the road, everything anti aging, biohacking, longevity, and everything in between. You know who today's guest is, and you're probably just as excited as I am. You know, I, I, I often feel that the greatest impact on humanity and some of the most amazing and impactful health journeys are born from need. You know, there's a lot of great researchers, MDs, PhDs, clinicians out there in the world, but some of the greatest minds are born from the darkest place in their life and solving a real issue. And in the solution, they found that they had something, a gift that they could give to humanity. And that is really the gift I believe that my next guest is going to share with you. I'm really excited about this podcast. He is known as the, I know he hates this title, recognizes the UK's leading biohacker, and he hates that. But welcome to the podcast. Tim Gray. Man, I'm really excited to have you on today.

Thanks for having me.

Yeah, so we actually, we just shared the stage at a biohacking summit here in, in, in Miami. But what I really want to do is, you know, to get, let my audience get to know you. For those of you that, you know, not aware of you and your work and your impact on humanity, I really like to talk about where the journey began for you because I think that the journeys that mold the rest of our life sometimes create the greatest impact on the rest of humanity. And I've, I've interviewed some just unbelievable minds on the podcast and I found that the ones that had a really deep personal journey, found a solution, are the most dedicated and they're the most committed to getting their message out. So talk a little bit about, about your journey.

Okay, so I'm trying to think what to, what to leave out and what's the most relevant. But I guess I was work hard, play hard, mentality. I was running a marketing agency at the time, and actually two companies at the time. And I would wake up at 8, 8:30, I'd have a coffee, maybe two. I'd rush out the door, sit in traffic, get into the office, work through till 6, 6:30, and then drive to the next place and work through till 8, get home through the door at 9:30, eat something, jump into bed, wash, rinse, repeat. Saturday night I'd be so stressed, I'd be like, I would think my, what I now know to be meditation and calming my mind was going out and getting absolutely wasted on a Saturday night, being hungover all day Sunday, thinking that spending the day in bed was good for you.

I. The audience is going, what's wrong with that so far?

I mean, I guess I was your typical Homer Simpson, except skinnier. And, and I thought that that was okay. And then I went to, I went traveling. I had some, a few jabs before I went for various things. And you know, I think that was part, a small part of, you know, the, the compound effect of all these negative things that I was doing. And then I went to Bali and on the way back, as literally as soon as I landed, I started having this insane cutting feeling in my side. Anyway, it turned out I had formed kidney stones because I was so dehydrated and I had, it turns out, leaky gut and various other things. But I went adrenally fatigued and I just couldn't carry on anymore. And I went from being a successful business guy earning pretty good money, running a great company full of vibrant people that are all drinking Coca Cola and eating birthday cake and all this stuff, thinking, hello. And I guess it was the straw that broke the camel's back. All of these things came together and I couldn't leave the house. I was stuck in bed and I was in and out of the doctors every single day in one particular week, every single day. I got to know the receptionist at the doctor's surgery by first name. Basis in fact. I could text them and say I need to come in. But where it came to a head was one day I said to the doctor, like Dr. Norris, what's wrong with me? And he shrugged his shoulder and said, can't find anything.

Can't find anything.

There. There I was, found out to be adrenally fatigued. Kidney stones, bloating, digestive issues, prostate infections, urinary tract infections, and how old are you this time? So I would have been 32, 33. And, and I was peeing 30 to 50 times a day. And that's no exaggeration. I'd have a cup of tea like a true Brit would, and I'd end up paying it almost straight out. So, and, and all they got me to do was 24 hour pee challenge test to see what was in my urine, but they said nothing wrong. So it's like got to the point when the doctor shrugged his shoulders and said, there's nothing that we can do there's like nothing wrong. It's like this can't be right. And it was kind of like it was a give up or go all in approach. And I'm always an all in type. I either do it right. Like a lot of us biohackers, you know, we're either all in or nothing. And so I got a pack of post it notes. I wrote down all the symptoms, I stuck them on the wall and looked at the cause and effect and researched each and everything so I could trace them back to one point. And for me, it actually came back to high levels of mercury.

Really.

But then obviously, years later, as methylation became, I mean, early days of methylation and you know, how things with DNA evolved or DNA analysis, it turned out that I have the two MTHFR snips and MTR snips as well. So I don't detoxify mercury very well.

Right.

Which meant it built up, which then meant that I had low white blood count, cell. Cell count and various other things. So it was like this spiral effect. So then I got to know Andy Cutler's work in mercury collation and then Christopher Shade and Daniel Pompas and everything.

I just had Daniel Pompa on, on the podcast Incredible Human Similar Journey. Right. Because, and this is what I mean, it was born, his, his journey was born out of just a need. He was so sick, he couldn't get out of bed. He wasn't of being a father, wasn't being a husband, didn't have really a career to speak of. And he was a chiropractor that was trying to treat patients.

I really. He's a really great guy.

Amazing.

He's actually part of a mastermind. And so we hung out on an island in Croatia last year. So I got to know him then.

All right.

Yeah, so, so really it, it turned out that it was mercury poisoning, which meant, you know, things like antibiotics I was on for three months ruined my gut, which means I wasn't digesting food properly, which meant I then got deficient in nutrients. And also because of the gut issue, it turned out that the frequent urination was actually low in minerals. So I tested one by one different minerals to see what helped me retain the water. And for me, the thing that went from paying 30 to 50 times a day to peeing five times a day within 48 hours was adding potassium into my diet. Wow, that's. It literally never happened again. And my, my doctor said impossible. But when you understand hydration and retaining water or expelling water and Everything in between and mercury poisoning and how mercury competes with a cell to stop magnesium. Getting to it, for instance. Actually, it's like, that's it. So I never had the problem ever again. So it's these things. It's kind of like I realized that the doctors understand medicine and how to hide symptoms, but those symptoms are saying, hello, we've got something going on here. Don't ignore us. You know, they're like messengers. So I carried on and then I realized that I was operating at probably 50 or 60%. And then of course, the more biohacks you do or whatnot, the more you realize how unoptimal you are. And then it becomes almost an addiction to the point where you're doing all the supplements and all of the technologies and you're addicted to it. And, you know, that's kind of been the journey to this point. One thing that I found about 2016, and this is when I started to get, I guess, known and started getting the title the UK's Million Biohacker, which I'm so embarrassed about, but was I heard, I heard about hyperbaric oxygen therapy and what time frame is this? So this is about 2015, 2016. Um, and I had one session of it and I was thinking, like, I'm doing this crazy thing. I don't know anyone else that's ever done it. And I'd heard about it on a podcast in America, right? Yeah.

You knew about it for the dive, the bends, right? I mean, that's the only thing that people associate it with.

Exactly. And it's just like there's this pressure coming up and I'm like, I don't know what's going on. Anyway, afterwards I got on the train to go back because it was a two hour journey and I fell asleep on the train and missed my stop. I was like, there's something in this because I don't sleep during the day. I'm so wired and tired, traditionally adrenally fatigued. Something's in this. So I explored it, opened up a clinic because I couldn't travel outside of London. Started inviting, you know, performance athletes and, you know, well known people to the clinic. Started sharing my journey about it, got heard and. And then I got to know the bulletproof guys and I was invited to the pasadena event in 2017. Loved the event. Came back to England to realize that we didn't have anything like it created a meetup which grew to like 300 people. And everyone was saying, what's biohacking, though? So, yeah, as a marketer I said, well, it's health optimization that then grew to thousands of people, and then I created the summit.

So that's really the journey health optimization summit. Yeah, yeah. And, and, and, and so, you know, looking back, but first of all, I'm a huge believer in the basics, right? I mean, Human beings need 91 essential minerals. We need eight essential amino acids. We need three essential fatty acids. As you become deficient in those just basics, you get the expression of disease, which is what you had. You know, you have. The expression was frequent urination, but it wasn't a pathology or a disease. It was a deficiency. And I, you know, I'm an enormous believer in that, that, you know, the majority of time, people are not as sick as they think they are deficient. So, you know, looking back, what was it that the hyperbaric chamber did for you that was such a. Was such a game changer?

And correcting this, I was a mouth breather, I was a snorer, and I wasn't exercising properly because I was so fatigued, and I was seriously unoxygenated. And because of the antibiotics and the gut issues, I wasn't utilizing the nutrients properly, such as. And so oxygenation, obviously, iron levels weren't particularly great.

Right.

And I just wasn't oxygenated properly. And my brain, like. And my posture was even, like, even worse. It's one of the things I have to work on. As an ectomorph with really bad posture and tight muscles at the front, I have to always work on my posture. I always have to push working out. Even though I'm super skinny, I work really hard on that.

The point you work really hard to be skinny.

Really, really hard to actually keep any muscle on it. Right. Actually, I was talking to Ben Greenfield about it, and he's like, I'm an ectomorph, too, dude. And it's always hard to continue to build. So it's like I have to work like most people do to build, just to maintain. It's crazy. So the point is hyperbaric. And anyway, I felt like it gave my body one of the major building blocks that I couldn't get until I changed my posture. I got into nose breathing, I was hydrated properly, and I'd fix my gut. So I think hyperbaric was a shortcut, right. Which kept me going. And I was doing a session every single day at one point. Every single day.

90 minutes.

Yeah, well, 60 to 90 minutes, depending on how much work I had and whatnot. And it was great for about six months. And if I did one session a week, my energy peaked and then over the week it came down. If I did two, it kind of like improved longer. Three, perfect. Above four, it was just no difference. So I then tapered it back to four times a week. And then when I had fixed the hydration and my gut and all these things, I found that hyperbaric is great before and after travel, but doesn't really do much for me on a day to day.

Right. And for, and for the folks that are not familiar with hyperbaric, I mean, talk a little bit about what hyperbaric is. I mean, pressure and you know, what sort of physiological change and impact is it having on the body?

Yeah. So we, depending on the atmospheric pressure, we dissolve significantly more oxygen in the blood when we're under different atmospheric pressures. So with a hyperbaric chamber, you have 95 to 99% oxygen via a mask. In a chamber where you have increased atmospheric pressure. So you dissolve more oxygen in the blood, basically. So when the body is struggling to get oxygen or doesn't have enough and it's suboptimal having hyperbaric, I think it's up to 15 times the amount of oxygen available to the body to repair. So for instance, people typically no hyperbaric, as you mentioned, for the bends. So.

Right.

And diving problems. But actually it's now being recommended quite frequently for people with diabetic foot wounds, for instance, where they'd usually have to have their foot amputated.

Right.

But having hyperbaric actually gets it healing again so they don't have to have an amputee. That's how amazing it is from getting you to heal from the inside out. Now the interesting thing is, is like clients that we had, and I use the word clients, not patients because we were a wellness center when I had my clinic. The amount of people that had hyperbaric, they did very well with it. They started healing better, but then couldn't commute into London to do it. So we gave them breathing exercises, five minutes of breathing exercises and movement at the same time. And they found that they didn't need the hyperbaric so much anymore. So it's just showing that sedentary lifestyle, as we know, is one of the biggest indica, one of the biggest issues for short life. Well, these people weren't moving around enough. They weren't exercising and just giving them simple breathing exercises and some movement.

Yeah.

Help fix that. So hyperbaric basically oxygenates your body and helps it heal from the inside out. And as we know, we can't go without oxygen for very long. So what happens if we're just a little bit deficient for over a period of time? The body is in a protection mode, which means it can't be relaxed. We're in a sympathetic versus a parasympathetic state, and then we're never going to heal.

Yeah. So we're not interested in digesting. I mean, first of all, you're like hitting on some of my favorite topics and I'm, I'm a huge fan of breathwork and, and some of the simple things that you can do that don't cost anything that will change the trajectory of your life. And I, I think the problem, if there is one with things like sunlight and grounding and breath work is number one, they're free. Number two, they're very easy, they're portable, you can do them anywhere. So people don't really think, well, you know, how can that have such an impact on my health? I mean, I can harness that every day. You know, I could walk right out on my balcony, expose my skin to sunlight. I could do some breath work. I could, I could touch the surface of the earth and ground and they, they really poo poo the impact that that could have.

So interesting point on this. One of the patterns that I saw quite a while ago actually, and Dr. Ted Akikoso actually succinctly said it, but after, you know, and I, and I love it and I talk about it quite a lot, is that everything that we call a biohack is using technology to mimic a natural environment.

I agree.

Hyperbaric breath work, clean air, red light therapy, sunrise, sunset, you know, like grounding bed sheets, shoes off in the grass, you know. Yeah. Mineral remineralizing and reverse ostosis water, for instance, natural water, you know, all of these things is like. So whenever I see a new technology now I look at it and I think, how is this mimicking nature? So when people say, well, I don't think nature actually is impactful, you're actually just looking at a slightly diluted version, the natural one that our body evolved using and then using some of these devices is like bombarding it with, to fill the deficiencies.

Right.

So that's, that's the pattern. So that's why like Dr. Ted Akakosa actually says, the prescription for optimal health is eat well, sleep well, hydrate well, ground well, love well, move well, breathe well, sun well.

Yeah.

And I think it's not as sexy as saying buy this grounding bedsheet or buy this red light device and people Want, they want the painkiller, not the multivitamin.

Right.

So I think when it's wrapped up together, as in like, do you do eat well, you know, sleep well, ground well, it's almost a branded product which then people can attach to and say, oh, here's my tick list for the day.

Right.

So this is, you know, how I think that going from a complete layman and not knowing anything about health and not even caring about it to being an addict of, you know, 50 plus supplements a day and all the technologies and not doing the basics, realizing the basics are connected and then doing the basics and then the other things as a bolt on you go through, this is it. I'm trying to remember the name of it, but it's like when you think you know everything but actually you know very little.

Yeah. There is a name for that paradox.

I can't remember. But the point is, is you've got to know nothing to learn something. And then when you learn this, you then break it down into the basics. So in fact, I gave a talk in India a few weeks ago and they're all pro biohackers. Like many billionaires in the room, many of the top biohackers, which I will not mention the names. And I said in my talk as I was asked to give one ad lib, mark down these 12 things on a 1 to 10 scale of how well you do it. So eat well, sleep well, hydrate well, whatever, detox well, etc. Etc. The average score was 58. Wow. Out of 120 points. And when I had 105 points when I did it, I thought I'm a slacker. So actually 58. And I said, okay, if you're under 100 points for every supplement and technology you have take off two points for.

Every technology and supplement you have take.

Off two points if you're over 100. And then add on to. Because then it shows that you're either a novice or a pro. Mm. I'm not gonna say how many people ended up at zero or a minus.

Wow.

That's the thing. So the point is, is even the pros sometimes get so stuck in the woods that they get lost for the tree that the expression taking it back to basics, nailing those. And then the body should operate as it needs. And then to your point, feel the deficiencies. Yeah. Gives the body what it needs.

Yeah. You know, you said that you part of your journey was healing your gut and I didn't want to just like gloss over. We know so much More now in the last, especially in the last five or eight years about the gut brain connection, about the influence that the gut biome has on, on, on brain health. I actually had a PhD, an MD from, from Harvard here yesterday. And he was, he's a psychiatrist, Harvard trained psychiatrist. And he has been healing some of the most drug resistant psychiatric illnesses. And we're talking severe psychiatric illness, schizophrenia, paranoid schizophrenias, severe OCDs, crippling, debilitating mental illness that is actually torturing people in their own bodies that put their drug resistant. And, and he started with a keto diet and, and then he realized that the common theme between all this is his words, not mine, between all psychiatric illness was mitochondrial deficiency. And if we started at the mitochondria and worked our way out and then we actually had a shot at overcoming some of the most debilitating ailments. And the pushback that he got from his community to say, you know, you're gonna have meat, a freaking avocado, you know, rather than take, it's not that simple, but you know, rather than, you know, take an ssri. And he said, yeah, because the patients that I had that I. And he discovered it by accident because, you know, he had obese patients that were drug resistant and he was like, well look, at least we can address the obesity. And he would address the obesity and then, wow, the mental illness would go away. And so I wanted to sort of dive into your journey on, on the gut, because leaky gut has got to be one of the most overlooked things in, in.

I'm just going to put a marker on that as leaky gums is also a thing. And my friend Dr. Dom nichewitz talks about leaky gums and leaky gut and they're quite intertwined. So I'll touch on that.

Yeah.

But the interesting thing about schizophrenia or bipolar disease or any of these things and you know, typical medicines, again, they're a good plaster. They're like a fantastic plaster. We know that they work for many people. However, there was a study, and I can't quote the specifics, but from my psychology journey. I started psychology back in 2003 and have been doing it ever since. But one of the things that I remember reading was that there was inmates that were tested for deficiencies. And the ones that were schizophrenic or had the most extreme mental issues were deficient in certain minerals and vitamins. And when they replaced these, their personalities completely changed. Now if we think sidestep for a second mercury, we have the saying mad as A hatter, mad as a hatter because of the mercury they used in the lining of the hats. Now, if you look at how the cell looks, and this is, I think it's Professor Kane's work actually the brand body bio is grown out of. This is if you look at the cell membrane with mercury toxicity, you can see it's almost like barbed wire and it stops magnesium getting into the cell. So mercury toxicity ruins the cell membrane, stops nutrients getting in, stops toxicities getting out. So therefore matters a hatter. You can see the cause and effect in this. And from my post it note exercise I mentioned earlier on this is exactly what I found because I was depressed or unhappy. Now the sidestep for that is if you look at SSRIs or depression, if you ever have done MDMA for instance, you would know that 5 HTP is fantastic to boost your serotonin the days afterwards. And they call it suicide Sunday for a reason.

Right after greatest Saturday of your life next to the worst Sunday of your life.

Exactly.

Back to back. I live in Miami, so we're well aware of that. Yeah.

And it's like. Well, actually, so when I'd had antibiotics and there was a specific type that I took, there was a study done on it that showed that 40% of people in this study that took this antibiotic ended up clinically depressed. And that's because of the certain bacteria that the good bacteria that it kills off. So you're not getting tryptophan properly from your diet and then so you're not converting it to 5 HTP, which then means you don't get it to serotonin. But the interesting thing is, is then lay the genetic aspect onto that for your conversion of 5 HTP to serotonin. If you have the double impact, you're going to be the depressed type. So repopulating your gut bacteria is critical in this as the first step and SSRIs in the meantime, if that's, you know, if that's what your doctor recommends. So it's just that for me that the correlation and all of the research I've done around these areas is just too clear to ignore. Now you mentioned about the gut microbiome. When I had the started having these issues, we didn't know what we know today.

Right.

I was looking at forums, you know, like Cure Zone and things like that to find out anything I could. Now obviously methylation and microbiome, the two areas are growing so much. There's so much research going on and actually it's like the Stuff that I realized back then is becoming mainstream, although I was called crazy at the time, right? So fixing the gut fixed my low energy, my low mood, my anxiety, all of these issues. But the one step that I took it further than that was actually I realized that my digestion wasn't great because of the antibiotics and stool color changed quite significantly from darker to lighter. And I was like, well, what causes that? And actually it's actually a bile deficiency or the liver being stressed. So I figured out by supporting the liver with Swedish bitters, or in the short term taking ox bile for instance, increased bile flow, which helped detoxification, which then meant your gut is cleaner and your liver's not then reprocessing all the toxins so much. And my health kind of like just accelerated. Like, wow.

Now we're using enzymes, probiotics, prebiotics, any, any of those kinds of things. How did you change it? Yes, yes, yes, yes.

Everything, everything. And in between, I mean, I. One thing that I really must give massive respect to is Wade Lightheart from Bio Optimizers, just because I heard a podcast that he did about digestive enzymes and how he nicked a whole bottle every day and how it broke down so many free floating proteins in the blood and how it improved his digestion and how he got 40% more protein from his current diet without adding more protein in because of the right enzymes.

Wow.

And just like this is too good to not understand more of now, the thing is, is we're discussing this last night, dinner with Patrick Porter and Barton Scott. It's like my, my friend once sat and had his hands over his food like this, praising his food before we ate. And he was well known, respected guy in the space. And it's just like, this is, this is out there, this is out there, but I'm gonna do it anyway. I'm gonna do it anyway. And he said since he had been doing it, his digestion was better. So the interesting thing here is, and this is a slight sidestep, but it's highly relevant, is that we evolved preparing our own food, our bodies prepared the enzymes, digestive juices to break down this food because we're subjected to it as a sense, but now we're handed the food. Our body's not prepared for the food and therefore we don't digest the food as good as we could. Wow. So when you have digestive enzymes, obviously you're bombarded in the system and saying, here's a whole load of enzymes, full spectrum, whatever helps digest your food. So it's Fantastic. So I tested this hypothesis. I had a surgery that I had some metal coils in me, 30 meters of metal coils from years ago.

Metal coils.

Metal coils, yeah. Platinum metal coils blocking up a vein because I had a vein.

Okay.

Anyway, they cut them out, but when they gave it to me, they gave it to me in like a, a test tube sealed. And they said, here's what we cut out of you. But we're bin it because of the vein around it. It's like I got some bio optimizer.

Yeah.

So I put some of the enzymes in the test tube and left it overnight and it dissolved the whole vein completely. So it shows how it breaks down foods, substances very well. Now I tested it by having probably about 200 supplements of it this enzymes a day, just to see what it did. Now Wade actually said, don't worry, it doesn't digest your body, it digests your food. If you take it on an empty stomach, it then goes systemic. So proteolytic.

Right.

And breaks down free floating proteins. And obviously around viruses and bacteria we have a protein. So it helps dissolve that.

Yeah, nuclear capsule.

So and then my digestion improves and added in Swedish bitters, digestive enzymes, prebiotics, obviously probiotics based on the ones that I actually needed, not just throwing kombucha down my throat. And, and all these things just meant I went from being bloated all the time to concave.

And, and so, you know, you have to attribute that to fixing the gut bacteria. But now you. There's a secondary issue with leaky gut.

Right.

So the luminal wall of the gut, was there anything specific that you did to repair? Well, the gut?

Yeah. I would put it down to like supporting the liver and having more bile production actually and removing some of the things that were irritating the gut. For instance, they say that bile from the liver and gallbladder is like dish soap, so it makes the food slip through and all the different digestive processes faster and better. And the more bile you produce, the darker your stool is. With some exceptions, if stuff is stagnant and not moving through fast enough and there's not enough dish soap to clean, it's going to irritate the gut, which is going to open up the tight junctures so that then it turns into leaky gut. Obviously, as we know now, vitamin D is one of the biggest, best things to fix tight junctures. And obviously I was vitamin D deficient severely. I mean, I live in Britain fully clothed, usually in a three piece suit in London, where it's raining.

Yeah.

So my vitamin D levels, you got.

Seasonal affective disorder and your deficient in D3.

Exactly, exactly. So it's like these, I think the, the ox bile, which was a short term fix, and then supporting my liver on the long term were the main things and then improving my vitamin D levels, so.

Because I think that, you know, it's amazing for people that are watching this podcast and need to go on a similar journey to realize that they can kind of take this in into their own, into their own hands. I mean, you did it, you did it on your own. I don't expect them to become that level of citizen scientists. But because of the trailblazing that so many people have done, the digestive enzymes are out there, the colostrums, even the peptides, like BPC 157. Where do you fall on peptides?

I mean, I love, I mean, I think it's natural medicine, you know, semi natural medicine.

Yeah.

It's funny because you mentioned that. It's actually one of the, the realization moments for me about the like mimicking nature with technologies was actually. And the, and getting the basics right. Was. A friend of mine messaged me on Instagram, said, tim, my girlfriend's got terrible digestive issues. Do you recommend BPC 157 to fix a gut? I said, what's the diet like? You said vegan. And I was like, like, what else does she have? Oh, just basically plants. So like eating mainly processed plant, plant based stuff. I was like, why do you want BPC then? Like, why wouldn't you fix her diet? And I'm not saying add me in if you're, you know, due to your ethics or whatever. I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with that. However, if your digestion is bad and your health is falling apart, why would you want to start with the peptides? You would want to get the basics right first. And that was the, that was the aha moment of like, get the basics right. So I love peptides, definitely. I mean I've used many different types of them. Currently using Thymosin Alpha 1 for immunity. Yes, exactly. And BPC157, when I damaged my wrist, I was on a balance board, tried to look cocky, came off of it, bang, partner landed on my wrist. And the physiotherapist that just happened to be with us is like, yeah, you're gonna have to take this super easy. I got BPC157 and I was injecting a vial into it. Which was insanely painful around the wrist.

Especially when you're skinny.

Within two weeks, within two weeks of using it. And I, I didn't use it straight away. Within two weeks it was completely okay. And I've never had a problem with it again.

Yeah, and, and, and I like what you're saying about harnessing the body's ability to heal itself and, and sort of mimicking nature. One of the reasons why I'm such a fan of peptides is, you know, for the most part they're amino acid sequences, so they're, they're metabolites. So the body recognizes them, breaks them down, and they help to mimic the natural actions in the body, not chemically or synthetically. Take it over. So, so now you fixed your gut, you found your way to hyperbaric driven drove oxygen to the tissue. You're turning the corner and now you know, you, you, you go on this journey, you're starting to get the word out. And one of the things I, I really enjoyed about reading in your, in your bio is you are really a back to the basics kind of kind of guy. So what is a low cost or no cost morning routine? What are a sequence of activities that you think every human being should be doing that could change the trajectory of their life?

Yeah, great question.

Even in cold, rainy, well, depressing London.

The reason, the reason I go simple.

Just kidding guys, if you're from London. Yeah.

Is because I think we've got a lot of detailed biohackers for a start. There's a lot of detailed biohackers and significantly smarter than me. I do not, I don't like being, you know, I want to be in the room with smarter people than myself and everyone is more extreme than me. And I, and I'm happy with that because I like learning from everyone and distilling it and making it easy and accessible because then it brings more people into the space.

Right.

Then actually become more extreme in the areas they need. So, so I just wanted to put that caveat in there because some people say, oh, he just talks about grounding in the sunlight. You know, he's not really a biohacker. But you know, you have to learn this stuff to let go of this stuff and know what's relevant for the morning routine question. I would say the first thing that anyone should do is wake up and have remineralized purified water to support their adrenals and their electrical system the moment they wake. And you know, to quote Andrew Huberman, you know, wait two, two hours. I would Say that's a bit extreme. I'd say more of an hour for your own cortisol spikes. You don't rely on the caffeine to give you that cortisol spike. Right. Otherwise you always rely on that caffeine. So, yeah, wait, at least I saw.

His podcast on that. It was really. I started delaying my coffee to 90 minutes after that and, and he was astounding the difference. I, I think when, when you wake up and go straight to the coffee maker, which is probably what 99% of us do, that drink coffee, you, I think eventually it's just out of habit. It's not out of actually what you get from it.

I think yes and no. So I just want to put my perspective out on this because we crave that which we need. Now processed food is. Tricks our systems into thinking that we need something that we don't, so we want more of it. But for instance, if you look at pregnant women, they crave certain foods which often have the nutrients that they need at that time because of deficiencies. So I think waking up and needing a coffee or the habit of needing coffee is the body going, I need cortisol because I'm not waking up quick enough. So it's the caffeine addiction, but also the cortisol spike that we crave. So I noticed that when I actually stopped having my coffee and I wait an hour, I don't wait 90 minutes just because I love the stuff and it's part of my morning routine I need. But when I delayed it by an hour, I noticed I woke up so much better and actually I needed less coffee and I'm craving it. The same.

Yeah, the same thing for me, I delay it 90 minutes. But when I do that, there is a significant difference. I. I've set up my, my house so that I sort of earn my way to the coffee maker. I have this little game that I play with myself and I, you know, I splash water on my face, brush my teeth, I get in the cold plunge, then I do this little walk on the treadmill, you know, and then sometimes I'll do red light or just go out and do my, you know, morning breath work. And then I go to the coffee maker. I sort of feel like I've earned it.

You know, atomic habits. This is it. I mean, again, I. Very similar to this. So, you know, start with hydration first thing and then coffee in due course. I. Then there's a book I read called the Morning Miracles. And I've always, I always struggle with meditation, but So I use a device like the sensei or brain tap or one of these things. But I always wanted to learn to conquer it on my own. Now when I read this book, the Morning Miracles, it teaches you savers. So silence, affirmation, visualization exercise and reading and journaling, which is scribbling. So I incorporated that into my task app so that every morning I wake up and I have this morning routine and the exercise, obviously I have subset points of that depending on what I feel is right for that day. So if I'm at the gym with my trainer, I don't do the workout stuff at home, but I will do red light therapy and my shoulder opening exercises or one of the biohacks I have around the house I feel that I need at that time. But the interesting thing is, is that my morning routine used to be like two or three hours long every day. And then I heard a podcast somewhere where they said all the successful people have amazing morning routines and they spend two or three hours doing it. And I'm like, this really interesting point, they do. But on the podcast it said, well actually before that they were successful. They woke up and they grind, right? They didn't spend two or three hours doing this morning routine. But then when they become successful and they learn to structure their day better and they have teams doing stuff, then they have that luxury. So I went from doing two or three hours to having an hour, including my reading of 30 minutes within that. So it's very basic.

But I wish mine, yeah, if I.

Was in the country, I would be out in the garden doing it barefoot. But because I'm in the city, I have a samina bed. So I'm grounded for eight hours of the day. So I don't need to worry about my grounding when I'm in London. So a lot of these hacks are integrated into my day. Just like you say with your, your route as you get up and walk around until you get to the coffee. I have very similar and it's for instance when I go into the bathroom, there's a pull up bar. And so I do three pull ups every time. Or like before I get on my rebounder, I've got actually fingertip pull up bar. So. And so I incorporate this throughout the day because, you know, compound theory. Yeah, the compound effect is real. And you know, that can be in negative senses in terms of just one burger every few days or, or you know, just one more drink. You know, all this adds up. Or just one day where I overeat on Calories for instance, not that I'm a massive calorie person, but for instance, if you have that three times in a week, you look at the compound effect and what it ends up as. So in the negative sense it works, but also in the positive, and I think if you're doing three extra reps every time before this or two extra reps before that, it adds up. And then all of a sudden it becomes habit and you don't even realize it. So my morning routine takes that form these days.

It's funny because I have something I call snacking on exercise. And so sometimes I, you know, I have the full amount of time in the morning to do, to do my routine. Sometimes my schedule starts earlier in the day then just, just because there's something that I can't move. And what I have no clinical study to, to support this at all other than my own anecdote, anecdotal experience. But I find that when I do shorter workouts multiple times a day, I actually feel better for longer. And I actually have seen more of a body morphic change in my body. And by shorter workouts, I mean as simple as like, Well, I got 10 minutes between phone calls and you don't need a massive gym. I, I, I walk into the other room and I grab some dumbbells and I do a set of 25 curls. I do a set of 25 overhead presses, I'll bend over, do 25 flies. I, I, I do it because it kind of wakes me back up and I like, I, I like that feeling. Maybe it's the ender rush. I go back to my desk, I sit down at the, at, you know, my zoom call starts and I'm like, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm awake. I haven't done much. I mean, I'm going heart rate up just a little bit. I'm not sweating. I, I'm, I'm usually in the clothes that I'm in my, taking my, my call with. And I really actually enjoyed this snack on exercise. I mean when I travel, I'll do air squats on the plane, air squats in the hotel room, push ups in the hotel room, rounds of breath work and I'll just sort of sprinkle it throughout the day. And I really want to do a randomized clinical trial on it because what, what I've found really anecdotally is I, I feel better throughout the day and, and I notice in the mirror the changes in my body are more profound than when I did, you know, when I dedicated the full 45 minutes to my workout in the morning or an hour. And then sometimes I would. What, what would happen is I would, I would realize that I don't have an hour, so I would just skip the workout instead of doing, hey, well, I do have 20 minutes, but I would just think I couldn't get it done. So is yours a set routine that you do every day?

No, I vary. I mean, because, because it's London and I don't have a gym at home because it's lot. Yeah. So I, I see my trainer two or three times a week and then in between do my own thing for that. But it's interesting because you say about doing it throughout the day, so you're, you're getting the body moving, you're getting your heart rate up, you're oxygenating yourself better. And if we think evolutionary, like caveman, the usual, you know, example, it's like they weren't going to the gym and working out for an hour a day. They were doing stuff throughout the day ongoing. And that's how we've evolved to operate and grow. And the, the muscle growth is a result of the damage because it says we need to be stronger, otherwise we're going to damage our body. So it then naturally progresses over a period of time. So the more you're doing it, but giving your body time to recover in between and take the nutrients into repair, the better it is. So evolutionary speaking, it makes absolute sense to do it scattered throughout the day.

And, and I always felt like, you know, a good workout was when you really got in there and you really got after it and you did a drop set and you maybe did, you know, you did also some heavy weight and you did some high reps and you, you know, you're sweating and you know, when you get it going to the locker room to change, you're like, okay, I earned that workout. And, and yet when I sprinkle it throughout the day, I don't feel like I've ever really blasted myself. But it's, it's almost like it's, it's little like dopamine dings throughout today and I'm. And I feel better. Most of us have a very difficult time meeting our protein needs. And certain protein sources like whey protein and others can be as little as 20% absorbable. This is 99 absorbable, and it has all of the essential amino acids that the body needs to build lean muscle, to recover, to improve our exercise performance, and most importantly, to repair after we have intense exercise. So this is called perfect amino by Body Health. It's like I said, 99% absorbable. It only has two calories. Eventually the caloric intake has virtually no caloric intake. It will not break a fast. It tastes amazing. You mix it in water. I take this literally every single morning. If you're working out in a fasted state, you have to take a full spectrum amino acid prior to your workout to preserve your lean muscle and make sure that you're recovering properly. And again, it will not break your fast. So the caloric impact is virtually zero. You get all of the full spectrum amino acids. It tastes wonderful. I use it every single day. You can go to bodyhealth.com forward/ultimate. That's bodyhealth.com forward slash ultimate. And look for the perfect aminos. They actually come in capsules if you're on the go. Or it becomes in several flavors that they make in a powder, which I love. It's flavored with natural means of flavoring. So there's no artificial sweeteners in here. So this is one of my absolute favorite products. Give it a try. If you're working out at all, you need a full spectrum amin amino acid, go to bodyhealth.com forward/ultimate. That's bodyhealth.com forward slash ultimate. I love their lab tested products. You can actually see the absorption rate for all of their products. They've got great electrolyte protein combinations. My favorite is the perfect Aminos. Bodyhealth.com/forward/ultimate. And now back to the ultimate human podcast. So talk a little bit about what you do when you're on the road because you travel quite a bit. And how are you, how are you making this portable? Like what, do you have any hard and fast rules? Do you have any guidelines you use on the road?

Yes and no.

Great answer. Thank you. And if you forgot, maybe.

I mean, the reason I say that is that I once had this. A saying is like, guy goes to the doctor. Probably not the best person to ask in this case, but doctor, I want to live forever. He said, do you drink? No. Do you smoke? No. Do you eat crappy foods? No. Do you skydive? No. He goes, well, why do you want to live forever? So it's like, that's true. I always remember this, but that I don't use that as an excuse to cheat. I use it as an excuse to, as a, as a reason, sorry, Freudian slip maybe is don't stress about it if you don't do it, but make sure it's the the rule that you do not and have it as the exception because as you know, excess cortisol or like ongoing is actually a bigger killer than actually probably eating one junk piece of food, for instance.

Right.

That doesn't mean that I'm an advocate of eating junk food. But the thing is, it's like someone said to me the other day, so when you're traveling, do you drink out of plastic, bottled plastic bottle water. Like if I'm dehydrated or I need water, then yes, I will. I'm not going to stress about it, but I just make sure that that's the exception, not the rule. Right. Because even drinking from a glass bottle water, it's cleaned out with detergent. So you, either way you're having some form of poison. You can't carry a reverse osmosis filter with you everywhere you go. So my, my point was more morning mindfulness reading for 30 minutes every day to keep my brain exercise.

And what are you reading? What, what are your, what are your go to's?

Depends on what my, what my need is at that moment. For instance, if I pick a book up and I'm not interested in that topic at the moment, I just don't enjoy it. But when it's relevant to my life in that moment, then I destroy it. Like literally, word for word. For instance. And this is an ego thing, actually, my brother once said to me, you should read this book. It sounds like you. So of course when my brother says that, I'm like, how does my brother see me? And it turned out it was Never Eat Alone by Keith Razzi. And actually I read the book, I destroyed it word for word, like literally. It was amazing book. And when I built the summit, I actually refined my approach using Keith's work. Now the interesting thing was one of the leading biohackers couldn't make an event. And he said, can you sit in for me? It's with my friend Keith Farazi. So it's like I was very curse works. And then the same with Atomic Habits. Another classic example of like I want to stack my day and be more efficient. So read Atomic Habits. And then you know, obviously there's sometimes there's friends books where they say, can you read over this before it goes out? So that's also. Or there's a speaker that I want to come to the summit, so I need to understand their work better. So that or a podcast and things like that. So now it depends on the need so much. One book I am reading right now for the third time is Trust Me, I'm Lying by Ryan Holiday.

Trust Me, I'm Lying.

Yeah. So it's the tools of the media manipulator of how, how the media manipulates us and how marketers are manipulating the media. It's absolutely amazing book.

Really.

Ryan is fantastic, fantastic author.

I'm a big believer in media manipulation.

Have a read of Trust Me I'm Lying. It's a game changer.

Trust Me, I'm like, what? Does it help you understand that?

Yeah, it helps you understand how nowadays it's about clicks and not necessarily about high quality content because people aren't picking up a newspaper every day saying, I need the best content. That's not the monetization. The monetization route now is how many impressions do they get advertisers on the page. So click baity titles that draw people in. And sometimes these facts aren't facts at all and it's just to create controversy, to get more traffic, to get more clicks. So therefore the model has changed from high quality, long, longer form content to short little pieces to draw people in, to get the, to get the impressions right. And then what people such as Ryan did when he was American Apparel, like leaking something that wasn't supposed to be in public view, even though it was because he wanted it to be. The press then grab hold of it thinking, we've got a scoop on this, it's controversial, and then it spreads out everywhere viral. And he's got free marketing.

No.

So this is, that's an example of where I'm like, actually it's super interesting, especially running a summit which has a lot of big speakers like, how can I, how can I work with the media better? Or how can I understand them better? So that's, that's an example of the type of books but I like, obviously I like reading about health and things that come out, such as a book on methylene blue recently.

Oh, great book. I, I read that one too. Now, now I'm a huge fan of methylene blue.

Yeah.

And, and then we, we, we, we've seen it too, seen the impact of it in our clinical practice, especially when used in conjunction with red light. And it's in its impact on mood and depression. And not that, not that our clinics treat a lot of mood disorders or depressive disorders per se, but I mean nearly everyone that takes the 10mg AM PM and then does the, the red light reports like, wow, I just feel great after a single session.

Yeah, I love it actually. I, I, I had 270 milligrams a few days ago when I went for a procedure in Sarasota.

By IV. Yeah, 270. Wow.

That's 4 milligrams per kilogram, which you can go up to 7, apparently.

Okay.

I've only ever gone.

That sounds like a John Laurence. It was. Okay. Sounds like something John would do in Sarasota.

I've only ever gone to 50 milligrams before. He's like, we do this with many people. I was like, okay, go for it.

And. Yeah. And how long was the IV drip?

Must have lasted an hour and a half.

Yeah. Did you do red light in conjunction?

I actually put a red light device next to the bag as it's dripping out into you, as well as having red light stack in front of me at the same time.

Oh, wow.

So his next. Next level. I mean, he. I'd say stacking biohacks like you do. Yeah, he does very.

Oh, no, he's a huge fan. He came. He. He actually came and stayed with me a few. Few months ago, and I used his methylene blue drops in the eyes, which were pretty wild. And when I was done, and we did. We. We did some horizon gazing. We did some. Because, you know, when you're first doing. You're like, okay, this is a little out there, but. But, you know, I'm gonna do it. And I used to. I used these drops. It was pretty. Pretty impressive. I go, could I work? Could it work that fast? I really feel like I'm looking through a 4K screen. And I've been deep down the rabbit hole since reading a methylene blue blue book as well. And I think it's just astounding how many, you know, some of the research in there on. On, you know, what they did in spinal injections with. With paramilitary guys and the level of efficacy they had in injecting these into discal spaces. And then also the. You know, the. The. The oral limits of. Of methylene blue and really the lower risk profile. I mean.

Well, that's why I went to see Dr. John in his practice, actually, and someone in his practice. I went. I actually saw Ben Greenfield talk about having prostate methylene blue, ozone and antibiotics, injections.

I saw that it looked a little gnarly, and I.

For me, I winced a little bit when I saw it. But I just, like, if Ben's doing it, I've got to explore this. And, you know, I recently had a cystoscopy to check the prostate and under general anesthesia, which was brutal for a few days afterwards. But I Was just like since my antibiotics use and prostate issues, you know, 10 years ago, it's always been a slight problem for me. So I'm like, I'm gonna go for it. So I went to see Dr. John and his clinic for the procedure and had methylene blue injections into the prostate. It's actually been night or day difference within 48 hours. As soon as the initial inflammation had gone and the ozone gas had dispelled, should I say, is actually fantastic. So I think any, any guy that has had prostate issues or slowing urine flow or, you know, waking to pee several times in the night, highly recommend it. It's a bit scary until it happens because you're like, well, actually I'm having a 5 inch needle going through my bladder into the prostate. So. Right bit out there. But I think my point is, is that the methylene blue application for that as well as the ozone, what was.

The, what was your pain level during that procedure? One to ten?

No, pretty low. I would say two. But I, I, I did ask for a specific painkiller.

Even biohackers ask for painkillers.

Yeah. So I was pretty, I was half out of it. But you know, they do use one of the traditional painkillers as well, which they inject in at the same time and nitrous oxide often as well. But I asked for something else iv, which to be honest, I just, I came around afterwards and completely fine. Nothing, just I felt like, you know, a little bit sore on the belly. But I would say pain level two, if, if not less.

And when you say 48 hours, you noticed improvement. Was it the urinary flow, the stream, and just improved dramatically.

A lot.

And how long ago was that procedure?

Six days ago.

Ah, okay, so we're six days. And I was going to ask you, what if it's, if it's lasted.

Yeah, I mean, the thing is he, he does actually find the best results when you have it three times because obviously the prostate is like capsulated. You know, this is, it's like an.

Orange inside of an orange peel, basically.

Yeah. And this is why when neurologists treat prostate infections with antibiotics, they give you three months, which is what I had, because it can't generally get in there very well. So by going straight in and injecting antibiotics and obviously ozone and methylene blue all at the same time, it's just like nukes. Any bad bacteria. One of the things that actually made me put me over the edge with doing it was actually partners in the past, not, not so recently, but would often get cystitis after having intercourse. And it's like I always thought, well, it can't be me, it must be them having an imbalanced vagina microbiome. But when Ben shared that and I spoke to John, it's like, well, actually we find that a lot of partners get cystitis because the partner has actually got bacteria in the prostate that's built up for years. So of course when you have intercourse, this irritates the woman and it looks like it's the woman's fault, but in fact it's the guys.

Wow. So probably a lot of things like that.

And they test, they test semen to see what bacteria is actually in there. I came from the uk, obviously, so tests are a little bit more difficult to do.

Right.

And get them over here. But point is that they find the specific bacteria, use the antibiotics for it. So it'd be really interesting to see, you know, if it ever happens again. And I want to do a course of three of them. So actually I'm coming back next month anyway.

Oh yeah, what do you do them every six weeks or eight weeks?

He recommends every two weeks.

Oh, every two weeks.

But I'm not going to be here in two weeks. So we do it. Okay, but yeah, so that's a super interesting protocol, but uses methane blue, which is like fundamental medicine in a e or in an emergency, care for carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide poisoning and things.

Yeah. So, and it's astounding because it's a fabric dye. I mean, that's health. How, how I want to know the first guy to use it. Like he said, you know, Stan, we probably could inject this fabric dye. And I mean, but, but it is astounding. And now obvious safety profiles, you know, been, been well established, I, I, I think. But, but how they made the leap from a fabric die to, to that is pretty, pretty astounding. The first guy to do it had had some balls. We need to find out who it is and, and give it, give him some credit. You know the other thing, you know, that John did for me, he did a balloon nasoplast. And I don't want to divert to podcast because it's about you, but, but it was incredible procedure for me because I didn't realize how poorly I was breathing through my nose and I didn't feel like I had any nasal breathing issues, but man, my gosh, when that was done, it wasn't a particularly comfortable procedure. But the pain is like two seconds. It goes from a two to a ten to a Two and, but, but I, I'm, I'm so happy that I did it. And now I'm a nasal breather at night, easy. Sometimes I'll use the hostage tape and you know, go to sleep and in the morning I don't even, I've never fought it to try to get the, the, the, the tape off. And I wake up and I'm still nasal breathing. And it's had a dramatic effect on my hrv.

Yeah, I, I, I have the same findings actually. I mean I had it done in London a few years ago, but I realized the health fundamental nose breathing was for sleep because actually I tracked my snoring or tracked my snoring levels and with using an app is fantastic. And while it's very minimal, you get to hear what you're snoring like, I found that when I use sinus spray for decongestion, the snoring went completely. So it wasn't throat and it was something to do with the nose. Of course, having the balloon treatment in your nose and obviously Dr. John didn't do it for me. Yeah. Is also really good for if your partner or you snore.

Right.

Have this done. And also the mouth taping. But like you say, some people.

Oh, I would never have been able to tape my mouth beforehand.

Right.

If I hadn't had that done. Which is what made me realize after the procedure how actually constricted that I was. And maybe people don't realize how, you know, over time, I mean they, you get inflammation in there. There's those crib perform plates start to actually close in and you can actually widen them and it stays for a year after you.

My cheek, my cheeks and face structures changed since I've been doing nose breathing really probably three, three and a half years. And you can, you can noticeably see and also, also in inside the mouth as well. The oral cavity has changed. So. Yeah. So that combined with chewing gum and nose breathing. In fact my, my jaws improved instead of just being like all one piece and my cheekbone structure as well. So it's really like fundamental, fundamental stuff again. And it's basic things.

Yeah, I agree. I, I think before we wrap up the conversation about your journey and the gut, you know, this weekend you spoke about oral, not just oral hygiene, but the impact of the oral cavity on the rest of the biome. I had a phenomenal biologic dentist on named Dr. Gandhi a few months ago and we put out a podcast, got heavily censored because the dental community basically said there is no connection between teeth in the mouth and individual organs in the body. And you and I are definitely not on that bandwagon. But so talk a little bit about what you did with your oral cavity. And, you know, before we got on the podcast, you were talking about some. Some issues you were having in your. In your gut and how they instantly went away. I had a similar experience. And now I am a huge proponent of biologic dentistry. And the more I read and study and investigate it, the more I realize so many pathologies and diseases and dysfunction is happening in our bodies because we're not taking care of the oral cavity.

So I think, first of all, a massive respect for dentists for fixing bites, because if you've got a bite problem, fantastic. Let's be honest, they sort it out. But in terms of health, are they trained in health specifically? Not so much. And, you know, we know very well that certain teeth infections can cause heart issues.

Yeah. We find the same bacteria in cardiovascular disease that we actually find in cavitation. Exactly.

And so we know this. And yet they say teeth aren't connected to the body dentists. The problem is they just haven't been trained in it. And if you think about the mental impact, the psychological impact on dentists, for instance, being told they've been putting mercury, which is toxic to people, in people's mouths for 20 or 30 years, like, actually, I'm here to help people, not harm people. So they have a natural bias, or they will have a natural bias to think, no, I'm not wrong here. You know, so. So that's the first thing I just want to say. Massive respect.

Right.

I do get a lot of pushback when I talk about dental.

Would you mind grabbing my phone? There's actually an image I want to show. This is. This is something I think really needs to. To. To get out. This is an image that. This is an image my biologic dentist sent me that really drove.

It.

Drove it home for me. I'll show. We could splice this in. Right. Okay. And just starting off, this is a image.

Okay.

So. So this is an image my. My dentist sent to me, and it really drove home for me the. The integration of the oral cavity and the connection to the rest of the body. And if you look at the. This is the integration. The nerve integration into the brain from the oral cavity. And what he said is, you know, these. These represent highways into and out of the brain. And. And to think that you could have a cavitation parasite, bacteria rot in. In this area and not have some kind of effect would be Sillier than.

Thinking that it's when they take out root canal treated teeth and test them. And a traditional dentist probably wouldn't ever have done that. They find things like Interleukin 6 in there or candida or all sorts of different bacterias. And they say, but no, having a root canal treated tooth, we kill all the bacteria and, and everything's gone. But in fact when biological dentists, and I'm saying proper biological dentist, not someone that just says I remove metal, then, then they find something very different. And I've seen hundreds of hundreds of scans, hundreds of cavitations, very, very close friends with Dr. Dom Nichrich from Germany, one of the, the leading biological dentists in my opinion. And when you see the data in clinical evidence time and time again and the reports of what they find, it's pretty significant. And so a traditional dentist that doesn't believe in it just in my opinion hasn't gone down the rabbit hole and is trying to protect themselves. Yeah, in some form with regards to that nerve and the brain pitch. I mean, you know we get, some people get migraines and often if some people get like, have had a root canal or mercury filling or whatever it may be, get migraines and often it can be behind the, one of the points of the trigeminal nerve right here. Which is why some people have pressure headaches here. Obviously it can be for other reasons having a migraine such as dehydration. But the point is, is that people that often have a lot of migraine issues often have teeth issues such as root canal treated teeth or cavitations, having these bacterias that the body's always fighting so it's always in fight or flight. So you see after people have had and there's a concept called the all in one concept where actually they do all of the dental work in a few days and the body heals once all the burden, toxic burden's gone. And I see that the heart rate variability on the patients increases massively. Yeah, it's not fighting for, to protect itself.

Yeah, I had that, I had that experience myself actually. And it was, it was astounding to me because I consider myself pretty woke to wellness. And you know, here I had this cavitation, this, this parasites bacteria going on in the gut. And I asked him, I said how come I didn't feel it, I don't have any pressure, I didn't have any excess mucus. And he said, well you know, if forms a cavity and meaning a pocket cavernous, a pocket and because you had a root canal, you're not feeling the pressure and so the pain is not there. And it's normally our first sign that something is wrong.

So.

So talk a little bit about your oral journey into.

So, yeah, so I had dental issues my whole life or you know, not great teeth. I mean, I'm British and we don't have great teeth anyways.

Is that, is that a rumor or is that actually a thing? Is like.

It's so true.

It's so true.

I mean, I think they need to go and have them cleaned more frequently as well, but. And partly I think it's down to the vitamin D status in England. Yeah, for me, I had always had cavities and teeth issues and I ran out of the dentist screaming when I was a kid many times. But as I got older, I had more and more root canal treated teeth done. And when my immune system was at its worse, like 10 years ago, I was, seemed to get a new tooth infection all the time. I now know it's because obviously I wasn't, didn't have enough vitamin D and my immune system was shot. So if there was something tiny underlying, it got bigger and then I had to have the tooth pulled. So that combined with having several metal, seven metal fillings and you know, my research into what was causing my health issues, these things kind of came together and I got to research more and more and more. And it's before biological dentistry was a label really, it was more. They called it holistic at the time, which. Holistic always has an element of woo to it.

Yeah, right.

And biological dentistry, just like the gut bacteria and methylation and things like this have evolved very quickly and becoming much more solid practices or well known and more science behind them. So for me I really researched why these things were happening. I got to know know several biological dentists around Europe before meeting Dr. Dom Nitschwitz. And I had a tooth, it was the lower left five, I think it was when I went in for surgery and I'd had a sinus lift as well to rebuild the bone so I could have an implant here. I'd had my four wisdom teeth taken out, which all had cavitations, big ones. And it was like a centimeter centimeter of cavitation.

Oh my God. And, but cavitation, by the way, is a pocket of infection for people that are cavitation.

And some people have more than that. Yeah, but when I was lying on the chair in one of the, in one of the surgeries, my descending colon was twitching. It was like really strange. And bear in mind I've had IBS for years because of the antibiotics and various other things, you know, and it was twitching and I couldn't say anything because I was semi high on everything that had been injected and my mouth was full of people.

Right. Full of people.

And IV hanging out my arm and all this stuff. And, and I couldn't say anything. But I said to Dom afterwards, I was like, my digestive system was twitching. He said, which tooth? And I said, this one here. He said, that's because it's on the meridian for your digest, for the, for that part of the digestive system. I never had IBS after that day again. And I tried. I mean, I, I optimized my microbiome. I did all of the things that we discussed earlier on.

Yeah.

But nothing was the, the nail in the coffin for it. But that surgery was. And that was back in 2019 now.

Oh, 2018. That's where it's just, I think it's becoming more mainstream because you have real, you know, biologic dents that are, that are, that are platforming it. But, but I've had a, you know, experience on my own, so sort of bringing all this together. I mean, we wandered around a lot. You know, I have, I have sort of a split audience. You know, some are ultra woke biohackers and, and sometimes I feel like a lot of ultra woke biohackers just speak to ultra woke biohackers. And we don't bring the message down to humanity very often. But for the, for the masses, what is your message? You know, for people that are, that are starting this, this journey? Like, where do they begin in the whole myriad of possibilities out there, where do they start this journey into bio optimization?

Very good question.

I know. I knew that would get you. I was trying to actually stomp you, and I clearly did. My mind is going, staring off into the abyss, completely devoid of thought.

Like this, this, this, this. It's like when someone says, what's your favorite?

I know I do the same thing. It's like, what's the single most important nutrient in the human body?

I'm like, that's a great question.

I hate being put on the spot like that. And that's why I'm doing it.

It's the same whenever anyone asks me my favorite book or my favorite meal, and I'm just like, I don't want to pick one. Like it depends on the Bible.

And then you're good, you're safe.

You know, I would say that if you Wanted to start optimizing yourself that we, we. And not to sound like everyone talking about sleep right now, but we sleep to reverse the damage that we've done to our bodies during each day. And if we look at sleep like it's a tick box, I'm tired, I must sleep, then we not have enough time to reverse the damage that we've done on that day. And sleep should be respected as one of the most important things that we will ever do. Even though it's downtime, it's healing time, and obviously, you know, with the. That brings in blue blocking glasses, you know, after sunset, and, you know, making sure you align your circadian rhythm with seeing sunrise whenever you can, and making sure you don't eat within extra amounts of hours of sleep so that your body is not obviously digesting too much food. I would say, you know, understanding that is the single most important thing you can ever do. Adding things in, like, you know, an aura ring or ultra human ring, or, you know, whichever ring or tracking device of your type will give you an idea of what 30 miles an hour feels like when you're driving a car. And until you've driven a car at 30 mile an hour, you don't know what 30 mile an hour feels like, and you can't gauge it naturally. And it's the same with tracking your sleep. Unless you've tracked it, even if it's for a week or two weeks, you don't get that internal feeling of what a good sleep feels like or what, for instance, drinking alcohol does to your heart rate variability or your oxygen saturation or whatever. So I'd say respect sleep. Know it is the single most important thing you can do for your health and track it for a period of time. Like there's nothing more powerful than that, you know?

Yeah, well, I, I love that because I've heard a lot of answers and, you know, that's arguably, you know, one of the best. And, you know, as I, as I wind down every, every podcast, I ask every guest the same question and there's no right or wrong answer for this question. And, and it. Does it mean to you to be an ultimate human.

Boy?

I got up twice, back to back.

It's not often I'm stuck for words.

I got to be honest, that's twice in one podcast.

I'm an extrovert that likes.

I'm. I'm going to. I'm going to blast this all over the Internet. Just a blank stare. Greatest biohacker in the world goes blank.

I would say the abstract of being an amazing human being to other people. And that doesn't mean at your own expense. But, you know, it's known in the biohacking space, you know, the better your mitochondria or the better your energy, the nicer human you can be. And this is quoted by various biohackers multiple times. Yeah, but when you, when you've done all the details, ultimately it comes back down to your relationships and how you are as a human to other humans, because, you know, that's the one of the biggest indicators for a successful life in tribal times. So if you can't be a good human and help other people, not again at your own cost. Too much where you're in a savior complex. I think that's what an ultimate, ultimate human is because it means that they're doing all the work to be a great human. You know, everything before it and how they treat people and look after people and those around them and how well they love and accept love, you know, is a heuristic for everything else below it. And if you're not sleeping well, for instance, we know how easy it is to bite, you know, or be snappy when we haven't slept well.

Right.

But you can't be a good human if you haven't slept well, so everything else falls below it.

I think that's amazing. Tim Gray, thank you for coming on the podcast today. It's been, it's been, it's been absolutely astounding. Where can people find you if they want to look?

Tim Biohacker on Instagram is probably the, the most accessible place.

Tim Biohacker on Instagram. And, and where can they find out more information about the summit?

So Health optimization, summit dot com. Okay, and that's everything.

And for the record, it's coming to America and usually occurs in the uk, but it's coming to America. Coming to America.

Dates and city to be announced.

Well, he did say Austin maybe, but he didn't give me the date.

I didn't say that.

He didn't say that.

I did not say that.

All right, Coming to America, I promise you this. I will be a big supporter. And you know, if you're, if you're following me or the Ultimate Human podcast, we will definitely be announcing the. The summit. Tim Gray, thank you so much, my friend. And as always, that's just science.