Optimize Yourself: A Scientific Approach to Wellness with Dr. Edgar Vanderhorst

People understand the body is, we can say, it's the most machine that we are living this life experience and help us to be ourself. And something that I always say, when you die, nobody, this body won't like reincarnate, someone else will use it. So you only have this lifespan to get the best of this body that you can do. So for me, that's amazing. And if people want to dig in more, like how our body works in physiology, they will be amazed about that.

Edgar, welcome to the Book Thinkers Life-Changing Books Podcast. I'm excited to chat with you about your book, Wellness: Optimizing Yourself. And to kick things off, I'd love to ask you a little bit about what it was like for you growing up. Tell us, where did you grow up and what was life like?

Hi, Nick. Thank you so much for this invitation. Yeah, let's start digging. Well, I'm from the Dominican Republic. For all of you who doesn't know where is the Dominican Republic, it's a half island in the Caribbean. So for me, we only have one season in the entire year. It's hot. And I come from a really close family. So when I say close family, we are a family that we were devoted to help the orphan kids because my grandmother was orphan. So since a young age, I was surrounded in that environment to help orphan kids. We built churches, we were giving like donations. And honestly, that when I was young, that ignited in me this urge to serve others in the best way that I can. And in that regard, that also made me realize that I want to become a pediatrician because I want to help kids. So, that environment helped me to raise that part. I am the youngest out of 3. When you are the youngest out of 3 boys, you are always fighting most of the time. But because you are the youngest, you always want to raise your voice. And one fun fact about me, when I was young, I lived in Japan half a year. When I was 3 years old, I lived in Japan because my father was doing a PhD. So I was always around about science, like in the dining table, we always talk about science because my dad, he reproduced like plant cells, and we were talking about how the cells work, the organs. and stuff. And honestly, I was always really close to my cousins and everyone there, because for me, when you hear my last name, Vanderhorst, we are only one family in the Dominican Republic. So we were just a tiny, small group of family that we know each other and we gather together. And we have also, if you, I strongly recommend, if you go one day to the Dominican Republic, there is One of my favorite places is called Las Terrenas. My grandfather, we were in the coconut, we can say in the coconut factory because we were exporting coconut outside the country, like to United States. So we have a big landfill of coconut and we have a house near to the beach where all the family gathers together. And I have like wonderful memory about that. And Honestly, yeah, I think that's the flashback that I have about my childhood that I really like it. And yeah, after growing up and becoming— go to medical school and then becoming a pediatrician, you know, everyone have their own journey. I had to fight my own things with different mindset that sometimes you have in your family that people doesn't have the same, we can say, perspective. And when you have a dream, sometimes few people doesn't have the same view that you have when you have a dream that's different. But that's something that you had to deal with it, and that's okay if people don't understand you, but you had to stay true with what you think and what you believe on it.

Well, I, I love that flashback, and I think it helps lay a good foundation, uh, for who you are and, and a good understanding for some of the subjects that we're going to talk about today. I think it's so cool that you grew up in the Dominican Republic. I have been before, so we'll have to chat about that after. And I definitely plan on going back. I love the Caribbean. I love the warm weather. I love the palm trees and the coconuts. And I think when you grow up in a place like Boston, Massachusetts, where it's really cold for half the year, it's a great escape. And that's why I think a lot of people in the Northeast and maybe even in Chicago end up vacationing down in the islands. What was it like spending time in Japan? How old were you?

Yeah, I was 3 years old. I did half a year. Honestly, I was in the school. I only have flashbacks, but my mom and dad told me that I was kind of popular. Everyone wanted to play with me, but I was a little like, just play with you then. And I told him like, how I communicate with them? He told me like, I don't know, kids, they communicate each other. They just play, just playing and that's it. I said like, okay. I still, I know a few words in Japan, in Japanese, because my dad sometimes speak to us in Japanese. Like I know how to say like "mizu" "ohayo gozaimasu" "genki desu ka" is like hi, how are you? All those things. But yeah, just basic basic knowledge in Japan, and I really like it. Like the flashback that I got and the remember, I really like it. That's gonna stay with me.

Yeah, that's really cool. Japan is a country I would love to travel to someday. And Vanderhorst. So what ethnicity? Where does that last name come from?

Yeah, indeed, we have a book like when the Vanderhorsts come from. It's a Dutch last name, but it comes from the Dutch that used to live in United States in New York. There was a big fire in the 1400s that they immigrate from New York to North Carolina. You can Google in North Carolina Vanderhorsts. We have a street named Vanderhorsts. And then after that, the son of Mr. Vanderhorsts, he wanted to go out and then he ended up in Samana, It's a, it's a province in the Dominican Republic. And then he built his legacy over there. So Vanderhurst, it's mainly for Dutch, but now in the Dominican Republic, all the Vanderhursts are Dominican. Yeah, that's our grandparents.

That's funny. I know that not too far away, Aruba, which is also in the Caribbean, is a Dutch island. And there are a lot of Dutch people in Aruba. So I didn't know if that, if there was any connection there.

Well, with Aruba, no, certainly. But yeah, most of like we can say immigrate, it was like from England, Dutch, and United States, they immigrate to the islands. Um, also it was in the time when there was the slavery and people want to escape also.

Okay. Yeah. Well, thank you for sharing. Now, how did you end up in the United States?

Well, um, for me, when every time when I was in high school, uh, my summer, I always go to summer camps abroad. So I did summer camps in Boston, in Canada. I went to Canada too. So when I finished high school, uh, my parents decided like, do you want to go right away to the university, or do you just want to like settle down your English and also probably go to college in the United States? So I say yes, but I decide I went to Canada. I lived in Canada for half a year. My father was like, do you want to go to medicine or do you want to do business? I said like, well, I really want medicine. I really want to become a pediatrician doctor. He told me like, okay, just enjoy Canada and think about it. I start to like do the IELTS test and do my personal statement to apply for university in Canada. But I realized, no, I want to really medicine. And I said, I will go, go back to DR. And in the DR, in my university, they have some agreement because they teach you, if you're going to become a doctor, you're going to do your specialty in the United States. Because in order to go to the United States, you had to take the United States Medical License Examination, USMLE. And my university, it's one of the best in the Dominican Republic that help you to learn and to strive in that path. So when I embark in the medical school, I always say to myself, I want to become a pediatrician. You do rotations in medical school, and I did rotations in the United States, my pediatric clerkship. I did it in New Jersey, one of the hospitals. I don't want to say the name. If I can, I will do it. And I have a story that really impacted my soul when I was doing my pediatric clerkship. So, as I told you, I always knew that I wanted to become a pediatrician, but becoming a neonatologist, that was later on with this experience. So, I was in the newborn nursery. Newborn nursery, it's when you have the healthy babies. Sometimes the mom, they do C-sections and they cannot have the baby next to them. place all the healthy babies in our rooms together with the nurse. And I was the resident— well, I was the medical student who was taking care with the nurse of those healthy babies. And I saw one of the babies was crying a lot and it was irritable. And I told the nurse, like, hey, what can I do for this baby? And one of the nurses, she sat me down, took the baby to the arm and put me in my arm. And she started to say, you know, this baby needs love from someone. And then she started to tell me that this baby came from a mom that she was sustained abuse. So this baby was in withdrawal syndrome. The mom run out of the hospital, and when the baby's on withdrawal syndrome, it's meaning that the baby need the system that the mom was taking. And sometimes when you giving the, we can say the warmth from a person, the withdrawal syndrome calm down. So the baby calm down, and just for the fact that the baby calm down in my arm. I say to myself, I really want to help the most vulnerable population in pediatrics, which is this one, because who defends them? Like, they don't talk, they don't do anything. We are the ones who have to help them. And since that experience, that sparked in me that I want to become a neonatologist.

Oh, wow. Thank you for sharing that story. You gave me goosebumps while you were telling it.

Yeah, honestly, for me, me too. Every time that I tell the story, I still remember it, and that's, that's my purpose, and that's my goal. That's why I'm here. That's why I'm an anatologist now.

One of the reasons that I loved reading your book and I loved talking with you is because you view wellness from a holistic sense. Um, in your book, you talk about sleep, but you also talk about gratitude and everything in between.

Right.

So there's this balance of both physical and mental wellness. And I think that sometimes, at least from an objective perspective, it feels like that holistic sense is missing from the traditional medical care system in the United States. So do you find a lot of the people you work with are also talking about these subjects and listening to these podcasts, writing books and reading books, or do you stand out a little bit for that?

Well, thank you that you deep down that subject, because when I was doing my pediatric residency, I started to do like lectures about wellness because I realized as doctors, we understand the body, we understand like the mental aspect, but we only, only prescribe to patients. We do not do it to ourselves. And when you are working, you are working under stress, and you only have the information but you don't apply the information to yourself, it's chaos. And honestly, I realized that here we know the information but we don't know how to implement it ourselves. But why I tell that we know the information but we don't implement, it's sometimes the environment, because the environment is not used to or doesn't allow you to implement Why? Because you only got this knowledge, but you have so many tasks that you had to do it that it's hard for you to think about it and understand that part. And for me, honestly, that's also a different subject when we talk about wellness, because people first, they need to understand what wellness means. Because when they talk about wellness, they have different meanings. And you hear people say sentences about wellness, Yeah, I'm gonna do a spa for my wellness, but you really understand what wellness means? What you're going to work, what you're going to do for your mental health? So for me, I start to understand that probably we got the information, probably we haven't implemented yet, but it's because we haven't understood what wellness means, what the mental aspect and the physical aspect that we have to work on it.

Well, I want to unpack a couple of things that you said. First, I agree. I think the average person in any discipline, whatever type of information you're learning, we need to slow down and we need to implement what we learn. One of my favorite quotes is from Napoleon Hill. He says, action is the real measure of intelligence. Action. You need to take action on what you've learned and apply it to yourself. So that you have more— I don't know, you, you not only do you gain progress in your own life faster, but you can also speak with experience to the people that you're trying to serve. And I also like how you, you talk about what does wellness mean. So I mean, I guess, do you have a simple definition of wellness that you can share with everybody?

Yeah, indeed. For me, wellness— and also it's because I dig down what wellness means with different like World Health Organizations and the Wellness Institute. Wellness is the active pursuit of your best self, that it's related with intention, choice, and actions. When you deep down these 3 things, it's meaning that in order to get the wellness, you had different steps that you had to do it. So, when we talk about wellness with that definition, we had to dig down like, what tools can I use to nail that step to reach the best version of myself. That will be the wellness.

Yeah. And in, in your book you talk about— well, I'll give an example that maybe we could talk about with your book. I wonder what percentage of the people reading your book, when they read something like the Van Horst breathing technique, what percentage of people just read it and move on versus stop and practice the technique for 5 cycles and just see how it feels? You know what I mean? That's the implementation of information right there.

Yeah, honestly, I have few people that they say like right away when I hear it, I just take back and I do it because I really want to know like if my heart rate go down. I have one person, one friend of mine that we have what we call oximeter, pulse oximeters that you can put in your finger and that measure your heart rate and your oxygenation. And he told me like, let's see if that's Van Hori work. And we were starting to doing the The bagpipe technique, the breath technique, and indeed he was decreasing heart rate. He told me like, oh, Dan. I said like, yeah, indeed. And but you have to understand, when you decrease your heart rate, you're calm. That's why we know the time. How we can count down the heart rate if we don't know like what's the average between in 1 minute, like in adults and kids? So when you understand that part, you say, okay, how can I be calmed down? Let me do this. Let me implement this tool that helped me to be more present.

Why does that technique work? Is it because the exhale is longer than the inhale?

Yeah. So in physiology, when you inhale, you have blood return to your heart. And when you exhale, all the blood goes to the organs and the muscle. In order for all the organs to work, they need the nutrients and the oxygen. and all the oxygen and the nutrients go by the endothelial cells, by the blood, by the red blood cells that have oxygenated blood and they give the oxygen. When you exhale slowly, you give more time to all these nutrients and the oxygen to go to the tissues. But at the same time, because we have a negative pressure in, we say, in the thoracic cavity, when you make the lungs to go down slowly, it made the heart to also go down slowly. Because even if the heart is pumping faster, But your lung is telling you go slowly, you're gonna synchronize your heart with your overall respiratory rate.

Oh yeah, see, this is fascinating. I, I love the explanation. Thank you for that. Um, and maybe just describe the technique for everybody in the audience. You know, maybe this is a cool opportunity for people to pause the video or pause the audio, and as long as they're not driving in the car or something, they could try this technique. So describe it for us.

Yeah, perfect. So this technique helps you to decrease your heart rate. So what you're going to do, you can do laying down with your eyes closed, sitting down, or when you are under stress. You're gonna inhale for 4 seconds deep. You're gonna hold it for 2 seconds, and then you're gonna exhale slowly for 6 seconds. And then you're gonna hold them for 2 seconds more. You're gonna repeat this cycle 5 times. You're gonna feel a sensation that you can feel your heart rate, how you can feel the heart pounding on your chest, but it's a sensation that is coming down. You can do it in the morning when you want to set the tone of your day. You can do it when you are under stress. It's easy. Doesn't take much time because it helps you to see reality as it is rather than our thoughts and the environment tell us. And also it helps you to make choices because sometimes we do choices and we choose because our thoughts tell a few things because we are reacting to the stimuli, not responding the way we want it.

Yeah. Oh, that's fun. And, and how long do you do it for every day? Just 5 cycles or longer than that?

Every, every morning I do it for 10 minutes. You have to understand, when you're doing 10 minutes, most of the people, our thoughts will go all the way and we forgot that we're doing the breath technique. But that's okay, you're gonna have to go back and restart again and do the breath technique for 10 seconds. You can do it laying down. Well, that's what we call Yoga Nidra, doing laying down with your eyes closed. And just repeating the cycle, repeating the cycle for 10 minutes. That will help you. That is something I am really amazed. It is a quote by Viktor Frankl that says, between stimulus and response, there is a space. That is a space or superpower. So, in order to practice that space, to be in that space, to respond to the stimulus the way you want it, you have to practice to be calm. And as we talked before, like, we are given the tools, but sometimes when we are under chaos, when we are doing like the morning routine, we forgot. So that's also that my book, it helps you to— you can develop your self-talk, because with your self-talk will help you to remind yourself, oh, I know this tool, let me do this tool at this time that I need it, because this tool is to use it when you need it.

Yeah, I, I first started reading about meditation and breathwork about 10 years ago, and at first I found it very difficult to sit with my own thoughts and, and be peaceful, right? Just like you highlighted, my mind would race everywhere, and I thought I was doing it the wrong way, right? But then I read a great definition of meditation somewhere, and they said meditation is the return to your breath. And so that process of losing control and thinking about something for 5 minutes and then realizing, oh wait, I'm supposed to be meditating, and then returning to your breath— that is meditation. And so one of— and I just wanted to share that with everybody who tries the technique and can't do it for 5 rounds without losing control or anything like that. It's okay. That's part of the process. And you'll get better over time. Um, the other thing that I wanted to share related to your Viktor Frankl point is that sometimes people ask me, Nick, what— how has your life changed? You've been meditating almost every day for 10 years. What's the difference? Well, the difference is I have more processing time. I have more time between the input to my brain and my response, and I'm able to operate from a place of logic And less emotion. I'm able to process more efficiently, take in my surroundings, and slow things down, and maybe have a little bit more emotional intelligence. And by the way, that is worth its weight in gold. I'm so much less emotionally reactive. I'm a lot calmer in stressful situations, and I'm able to regain, you know, that kind of standard heart rate a little bit faster. Um, have you had similar experiences?

Yeah, honestly, for me, when I started to do this technique in my process, because I started to develop this technique and I practiced my wellness, was in my— we can say when I hit my own version of rock bottom, that I decided I need to change a perspective of how I see myself, how can I work to strive to be the best version of myself. So when you do this technique, you also are present and you respond with your authentic self. What does that mean? Let me be clear. So when you are calm and you don't react, because sometimes we have emotions, and emotions, it's not bad. Emotion is just information about yourself. It's just information of how you interpret the situation that is happening or the things that is happening to you.

Okay.

So when you analyze and you have those emotions and you have those information, what is happening, what your thought is telling you, And you respond the way you want to do it because you are unique. People say, like, it is okay, you want to compare yourself, but since you were born until now, no one had the same experience as you. We call, what we call in science epigenetics. It is all the change that happened on top of your DNA based on your experience. So if you want to be fair enough, you can never compare yourself with no one because you are the only one who knows your own advantage and disadvantage. However, nobody gives you a script or paper how to be yourself. You are learning how to be yourself. This is a life experience. So in this process to understand who you are, you are responding with the information and the things that you know at this time. It does not mean that you will have like the right or bad response. It is just that you have your response based on the information that you have, and later on you will learn. Based on the outcomes, because that's how life it is. This is a life experience to learn how to be yourself, and you're the only no you are you are the only person who know how to be yourself. That's why they give you that role. So but you have to be present to stay tuned with yourself, with who you are.

Yeah, I think that's a beautiful message, and I and I agree. And by the way, it feels good to hear that from somebody like you who's in the medical space, who studies science, but is also talking about subjects like self-love and gratitude and the importance of these things. And, um, yeah, it's refreshing. My next question for you is about a subject that you write about, and, uh, I'm a total nerd in this world, and that is sleep. I love working on my ability to get better sleep. I love reading about sleep. I love practicing different things related to sleep. I think that for a lot of people listening to this podcast, if they just slept a little bit more, it would have a very outsized positive impact on their health. So just tell us, what are some of your favorite sleep tips?

Yeah, and honestly, I also read in your book about sleep hygiene. You also have it. Yeah, but for me, uh, we have, uh, I wrote in my book that sleep hygiene is a doctor that we recommend. I will tell you the ones that I do that help me. I always, before I go to bed, I take a hot shower because I want to relax my muscles. Okay? I always put my room to be dark and I don't use the phone because when you use the phone, what it does to your eyes is increase the melatonin. So decrease the melatonin. So when you decrease the melatonin, it tells your body that you have to wake up. That's what we call the circadian rhythm.

Okay.

That's why we sleep at night and we wake up in the morning. So when that is dark and also when it's cold, it helps you to hit the drowsy state that you need. And also sometimes you say, but my thought is running a lot, like my mind is all over the place. Even if I'm in bed, I take the hot shower and it's dark. You can do the breath technique because also when you're calmed down, that also helps you to feel drowsiness. And also to feel the body sensation to go to sleep. That's something that I normally do. So hot shower, the room temperature to be cold and dark for me. I don't use the phone next to me. And I sometimes do the breath technique to help me to calm more down for me.

Yeah, I think those are great suggestions that everybody in the audience can try out. What temperature do you typically set the room to?

I normally put like 68 Fahrenheit. That's where I like. Some people like a little higher, 72, 70. It all depends, as long as it's cold. Because some people will say like, oh, that's too cold for me, I will be shivering. I said like, well, my, my point is not for you to shiver, it's just to set the temperature that it's cold for you, that put you in a state that go to bed.

Yeah, I've, you know, I've heard podcasters like Andrew Huberman talk about, um, one of the, one of the reasons that taking a hot shower, other than relaxing your muscles, um, and lowering your, the temperature in your room, one of the reasons that those things are important is because you need a drop in body temperature to fall asleep. And so when you're hot from the shower and then you go into a cold bedroom, it's, it, you're sort of accelerating that movement of lowering your body temperature a little bit, like 1 to 2 degrees, and that helps you fall asleep a little bit faster too.

Yeah, excellent. And to be honest, I love Andrew Huberman. He was one of— when I was in my, we can say, rock bottom phase, I saw he had an episode with Rich Roll and he was talking about the dopamine. And for me, with my medical background, I was like, I totally understand what dopamine means and all the pathway. And I started to dig in Andrew Huberman's work, and for me it was blowing my mind. I said like, Oh, I really understand everything that he's saying.

Yeah, yeah, he's a great podcaster because he just— you can listen to him talk for hours and it's all full of information and it's all entertaining at the same time. Let's talk a little bit about diet. What are your recommendations for people as far as diet is concerned? How does the food that you eat impact the rest of your life?

Yeah, for me it's different. I'm gonna be honest, I'm a vegetarian. So all it started, I saw— I was reading the Rich Roll book. He had Voice and Changes, and it said like do a 30-day challenge without food, like sorry, without animal diet. But let me get the context. So in our intestine, we have microbiomes. You have different microbiomes. Like you can see now that you have your beautiful baby. You can see the stool was changing in color. The first one was black, then was green, yellowish. That changing color is also based on the microbiome. So for me, I was really seeing in the field what the microbiome does. So the research said that based on your microbiome, your microbiome produces cytokines, cytokines that help you or your body. So they say when you have an animal diet, You have microbiome that produce cytokines that are pro-inflammatory. When I say pro-inflammatory, it means that cause inflammation, but cause inflammation in the vascular endothelium. As we spoke before, all the nutrients and the oxygen go through the vessels to the endothelial cells with the blood. So, when you have inflammation, sometimes you can compromise that. And there's other microbiomes that derive by plant-based diet. That produce like serotonin, enhance your immune system. So when I start to do like the 30-day challenge of just plant-based diet, I feel more energized. However, let me talk more about diet in general. People need to understand their own body because everybody's different. Also, sometimes people say fasting, fasting is good. When you do fasting, Well, you can do fasting once a week. Let me do it this way. So our body produces cells. In order to produce cells, you need resources. But sometimes your body produces some bad cells, good cells. So when you do fasting, you tell your body, oh, I don't have the resources to continue producing cells, so let me just stop and let me get the energy that I need from the bad cells that I produce. So, they start to— we call artifact. So, when we start to digest just the bad cells that we have. The other time is, for me, I strongly recommend just increase your plant-based diet, 1 fruit a day, 1 vegetable. If you want to become a vegetarian, that's okay. But for kids, I— right now, I cannot tell, like, yeah, kids can be vegetarian. Because kids need a lot of sources of protein to produce cells. We haven't get like plant-based diet to have higher amount of protein. That's why, I don't know if you know that it was in the 1980, 1970 that we started to notice like in the United States that we have undernourished kids. And that's why they started to do all the sausage for proteins so kids, they can— and have more protein. But when you have more plant-based diet, like your fruits, vegetables, you increase your microbiomes in your daily diet, and you can have more serotonin, boost your immune system, something that will help and give you more energy. You can continue with your animal diet, the ones that have less fat, like the chicken. That's good. Turkey. Beef are the ones who have more fats than the other ones. But that's— I can recommend that. For me, when I say diet, it's like a really debatable subject because they have different sources, different information about that. But we had to be right. We had to understand when you increase your plant-based diet, you have good microbiomes. When you do fasting once a week, it helps you with your body. So, and also you need source of protein that you can get the source of protein with chickpeas, beans, lentils. That's something that Greek yogurt too. But that's something that, that's, I can recommend and I don't predetermine like, oh, you should do this diet, but I give you the information and you digest the information the way you want it.

I like that you digest the information. So, you mentioned fasting once a week. How long do you recommend fasting for or how long do you fast for each week?

So, in order to call fasting— so, we have a period of time like when you're not eating, we have what we call glycogens. It's a source that we have in our liver that we break down in order to get the energy when you're not eating. In order to run out all the glycogens, we say fasting for about 16 to 18 hours. When you pass the 16 to 18 hours, that's where your body doesn't have any sources to get the energy, and that's why they're gonna get the bad cells. So, I do fasting 18 to 24 hours.

Yeah, I've been practicing different forms of fasting for years and years and years now. And, uh, funny enough, this week I did a 72-hour fast.

Wow.

And, uh, I felt really great. I felt great because I, I normally try to do an intermittent fasting schedule like 16:8 Or something like that every day of the week, and I feel great doing it. But every once in a while, like once a month now, I've been trying to do a 72-hour fast because of what you're talking about— cleaning out my body. I love focusing on longevity. I love doing things that Nick in 20 or 30 or 40 or 50 years will look back and say, thank you for paying attention to me. And fasting just seems to be so good for so many different reasons.

Yeah, when you say longevity, I hear a doctor— I, uh, well, I forgot his name, but he talked about the telomeres, about when you do fasting, you tap the telomeres of the cells and you have more longevity. Um, but yeah, there's a lot of information about that that you can do. I think it's Dr. Longo.

Yeah, yeah. And on this podcast, we've interviewed, uh, Dr. David Sinclair, who wrote Lifespan.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

So he's been on this podcast before. I bumped into him in the airport one time after I interviewed him, um, and got a— we were both waiting for our bags when we landed, so we got to talk for about half an hour, um, which was a lot of fun. And I've, you know, we've had a number of other people on here talking about those subjects, uh, Peter Diamandis, who co-authored Life Force with Tony Robbins, and a whole bunch of people. I just I love that subject so much.

Yeah. And honestly, to be honest, I feel inspired by you because you get— for you, it's not only like one people telling you, interview different people, you get the information and you implement the things that we're talking to, to know like, oh, that's really worth it. That's how it helped. But yeah.

Yeah. And you know, that's the thing is like, I think it's okay to learn different perspectives. For instance, With me, and I wouldn't recommend this for everybody, but with me, when I have a lot of animal products in my in my diet, a lot of red meat, a lot of healthy fats, I feel great. I feel a lot better than when I'm going without those foods. So just like you're highlighting, it's different for everybody. And also test. You know, I do a lot of different food inflammation tests. I just got this Dutch test, which I'm going to do soon. Um, you know, I'm just looking for data. Um, I like— I love exercising while I'm fasted. And then recently I had somebody say, I bet that's actually not very healthy for you. He said you should test your blood while you're fasted after an exercise and compare it to exercising after you're well fed and look at the difference. See if there are any biomarkers that are negative, like an increase in cortisol that's really, really, really high while you're fasted. And I said, okay. I'll test it out. Why not? I just want to learn. So I'm open to hearing anybody's opinion and trying it out and just seeing what works for me.

Yeah, and that's interesting. That's, uh, everybody, like, everybody, it's different. And also there's a lot of research and you had to— what I always say, you had to be sure for yourself and you have all the information and you have also all the tests that you can do for yourself to make sure that Am I doing the right things? Am I not what this research says or not? But yeah, definitely. Yeah, that's awesome. Something that I recommend, you can do a cold shower before doing exercise. There's some research that when you do a cold shower before doing exercise, you increase your testosterone.

Yeah, I'm, um, I— we only got introduced to each other, I don't know, a couple of months ago, um, but last year I did Uh, the cold plunge almost every day, breaking the ice and getting into that cold water for a few minutes. And woof, the dopamine spike that you get, and it lasts a while, um, is fantastic. And yeah, just like you've highlighted, I think that if you do the cold before you exercise, yeah, there's a boost in testosterone. And, uh, the body is such an amazing thing, isn't it?

I love the body. Like, it People understand the body is, we can say, it's the most machine that we are living this life experience and help us to be ourself. And something that I always say, when you die, nobody, this body won't like reincarnate, someone else will use it. So you only have this lifespan to get the best of this body that you can do. So for me, that's amazing. And if people want to dig in more, like how our body works in physiology, they will be amazed about that. Yeah.

All right, good. Well, listen, I've got a couple more questions for you and then we'll wrap it up. My first question is this: who is the target reader for this book? Who in your mind should be reading this book?

Perfect. In my mind, it's Everyone who have the curiosity, who wants change the perspective, and also everyone who want to change in their life but don't know when, how to start. And they want like a clear, concise thing that they want to— what to do and where to do in the daily life. Because one thing is people say, I want to change. The other thing is, oh, that's too hard, I cannot do it. No, you want something that is clearly concise, easy, and also you have all the information that you can do the research by yourself. You can have all the links in the book because for me it's just sharing information. So for me, it's everyone who had the curiosity because for me, one, I always say you can give the information to people, but sometimes people won't change. It's their own responsibility. But if you had the curiosity to start the change, it's all to you. It's flourish.

Yeah, no, I think that's fantastic. It reminds me of that saying that's like, uh, you can give a man a fish or you can teach him to fish and he'll feed himself for life, or something like that. You know what I'm talking about?

Yeah, yeah.

Uh, but it starts with the curiosity or the desire to learn how to fish, right? Um, uh, I had to— oh, do you give copies of the book to your clients or I mean, I guess I wouldn't call them clients, uh, you know, the parents of your patients. Like, are you able to, to give the book to people that, uh, are working with you?

Well, in that regard, no, I don't do it because sometimes I— most of the time I talk with the parents in a, we can say, uncomfortable and difficult situations. Because when I'm talking with the parents that are dealing with their kids that are sick In premature babies. So that's why I don't do like, oh, let me give you my book so you can read it. I just give the tools and advice and talk to them, but I don't give it right away because it's not the right moments most of the time that I'm talking to parents. That's— yeah.

That totally makes sense. Yeah, especially I'm sure having a premature baby is, is chaotic and stressful and And scary. And yeah, you don't want somebody saying, hey, by the way, you should learn how to sleep better so that you have a better relationship with your kid, you know? Um, all right, fair enough. 2 more questions for you. My first is this: for people that want to buy a copy of the book or learn more about you, where should they go? What should they do?

Perfect. Yeah, if they want to buy a copy of the book, my book is on Amazon. I have the hardcover, paperback, audiobook. and the ebook that you can find it. Also, I'm in social media, in Instagram. You can find me at Edgar Reynoso Vanderhorst, most known as Dr. Vanderhorst. LinkedIn name as the same, Edgar Reynoso Vanderhorst. And you will get to know more about me. And also I will give you more tips and understand this new perspective, how to be your best self.

All right, great. We'll make sure those are linked in the bio. And then here's our last question for today. If the book was accidentally deleted, but you could leave the world with just one message from that book, what would it be?

Wow, I really like that part. Um, for me, I want— I love this quote for Carry On, and if the book gets deleted, I will give that. It says, the world will tell you who you are, and if you don't know who you are, The world will tell you. Oh wait, if I said it right at the same time. But yeah, it's go that way. The world, yeah, the world will tell you who you are. If you don't know, the world will tell you. Yeah.

Yeah, you know what I love about that lesson is, is a lot of people think that they deserve something different, but where you are today is in accordance with how you've been behaving, right? James Clear in Atomic Habits He would say something like, every action you take is a vote for the person you're becoming. And so the result of where you are today is a result of the actions you've been taking for years and years and years, right? So, um, yeah, if you're unhappy with your situation, you need to change your habits and behaviors, and you need to start focusing on subjects like the ones that you do in this book. Absolutely.

Excellent. And I will revise the quote and I will say it again. It's, the world will ask you who you are, and if you don't know, the world will tell you. So be yourself, be your authentic self, and be sure that you know what you want in life.

Thank you for coming on the podcast today.

Thank you so much, Nick.