Episode 100: Celebrating One Hundred Steps towards Discovering Your Science and Optimizing Your Life

Welcome to a monumental milestone, dear listeners! As we stand at this significant crossroads, it's both humbling and exhilarating to reflect on how far we've come together. From the first episode, my mission has been to bring you the most cutting-edge insights and practical wisdom for enhancing your life through science. Today, as we celebrate our 100th episode, it's a heartfelt reminder of the incredible voyage we've embarked on, driven by curiosity and a shared passion for unlocking the fullest potential of our minds and bodies.

In this special episode, we’re not just commemorating a number, but celebrating the essence of transformation and growth. Each conversation, each expert guest, and every piece of knowledge shared has been a step towards our collective enlightenment and well-being. As your host, I've had the privilege of learning alongside you, diving deep into the realms of physiology, psychology, nutrition, and beyond. This centennial episode is much more than a look back at our journey; it’s a springboard into the future of personal optimization. We stand at the brink of new discoveries and uncharted territories in our quest for health and peak performance. So, let’s continue to challenge the norms, push boundaries, and, most importantly, grow together. Here's to the next hundred episodes and beyond, where we will keep exploring, learning, and transforming.  Let's celebrate this milestone as you discover your science and optimize your life Welcome aboard!

Key Points From This Episode:

[00:11:50] Interoception and biohacking.
[00:16:54] Nasal breathing and performance.
[00:18:03] Managing exposure to light.
[00:22:53] Psychedelic benefits of psilocybin.
[00:24:22] Efficient sleep and late-night eating.
[00:27:37] Feedback, questions, and suggestions.

Looking to discover your science and optimize your life?

APPLY FOR HEALTH OPTIMIZATION COACHING


Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Click HERE to save on BiOptimizers Magnesium
RA Optics Blue Light Blockers
David "Jacko" Jackson - BREATHE BETTER: Breathwork Explained!
The Joy of Movement
Know Your Physio (website)
KYP Team

Transcript

Andres Preschel:
Hello and welcome to episode number 100 of the Know Your Physio podcast. I'm your host Andres Prischel, helping you discover your science to optimize your life. And today's episode is a huge milestone for two reasons. It's a double whammy. Not only is this episode number 100, but it's the recorded lecture of my live performance on stage at the Biohacking Congress that took place here in Miami just three weeks ago, where I got the chance to, well, fill everyone in on what it means to know your physiology. Lecture was a huge success. I mean, I absolutely crushed it. We crushed it really because it was a team Effort, I would have been impossible without the help of or we all came in my beloved co-founder registered nurse and scientific writer and without My executive assistant robin who put all this together for us into a beautiful presentation So this is available as a video for those of you that want to tune in now podcasting has been my biggest personal and professional growth project, by far, of anything that I've embarked on. And with the discomfort and bliss, joy, that was my onstage performance, I know that the next growth spur is gonna come with more engagements onstage. So keep your eyes out. I will be on more stages in the very near future. Now, I wanna say thanks again to Arielle, To samar robin My other co-founder stefan who's like a brother to me who's here in miami flat from germany to spend some time with us and focus on some incredible work and uh, of course, this would have been impossible without them and without my countless colleagues and mentors without all the incredible guests that we've had on this show and especially You know my beloved friends family clients and my girlfriend I also want to give a huge shout out to the Biohacking Congress, especially Olya and Mick and all the experts that were able to make it to the event. Had so much fun being there enjoying these amazing moments with you guys. The NeuroPhysio team was there serving as an official media partner and that would have been impossible if it weren't for the massive success that we've had. Hosting this podcast, you know, I started doing this podcast because I was already enjoying amazing conversations with experts in evidence-based health fitness longevity performance and I wanted to find a way to make their scientific knowledge and wisdom more actionable and more accessible to people like myself, because it's what I wish I could have gotten my hands on earlier. And this was difficult at first. It was extremely uncomfortable. It was work that I was resisting. But as I've learned, and this is one of the biggest, if not the biggest lessons that I've learned since I started this podcast, there is magic in the work that you're most resisting. Now, I would have never imagined that in just 100 episodes of, well, pursuing the Work that I was resisting That I'd be enjoying such intimate conversations with such highly esteemed guests that we'd be in top 3% Of all podcasts in over 3 million shows that we'd be ranked top 1% Worldwide in the health and fitness category and above all that our platform would be serving tens of thousands of people just like you my dear listeners You guys are the most amazing and curious citizen scientists and I can't thank you enough for tuning in And leaving your honest reviews of this podcast on your favorite platforms now last thing I want to share with you guys here before we dive in is uh, well, I have a 10 second favor to ask of you So we have a ton of new listeners to the podcast. My goal is to get to know as many of you as humanely possible So, either before you start this episode or right after you finish it, shoot me an email to Andres, A-N-D-R-E-S, at knowyourphysio.org. If you want the easiest option, like the two-second option, just say hi in the subject line and I'll respond to get the conversation going. And if you're a little more ambitious and maybe you have 30 seconds of spare time, email me telling me a little more about yourself and why it is that you listen to the Know Your Physio podcast. Anyway, I can't wait to get to know many more of you over the coming days and now for today's episode episode number 100 I'm gonna help you discover your science and optimize your life and I'll see you on the other side Alright after speaking with my editor, it turns out that I should probably mention this before we start today's show I know that it is absolutely criminal that we haven't published an episode in over six weeks Anything beyond a week is criminal because that's what you guys Expect and I want to honor that But I hope you can understand that this pause was extremely intentional. We wanted to publish this lecture as episode 100. We think it's very symbolic. And then while this took place about three weeks ago, it took us some time to get the files finally, edit them, etc. And to prove the point this was intentional I have recorded more episodes in these past six weeks than I think I ever have in my life there's like a dozen episodes that I've recorded since then that we'll be releasing again on a weekly basis and Some of the guests include dr. Stephen Gundry and Lane Norton PhD or biolane on Instagram along with a handful of Most amazing incredible guests. So hope you guys can forgive me and I hope that you understand this Well circumstance anyway, let's jump right in no more interruptions Love you guys, and I'll see you on the other side for real this time There is only one supplement that I think almost everyone on this planet should be taking and that's a full-spectrum and highly bioavailable magnesium supplement because, well, let's face it, ever since the industrial revolution, our soil has been depleted. of magnesium and therefore our food is depleted of magnesium and on top of that our modern environments which are inherently overstimulating and stressful are constantly depleting our body of magnesium and unlike other nutrients this is not something your body can produce on its own it literally needs to get it from the diet, and one individual kind of magnesium alone is not enough. And so the folks at Bioptimizers have made it very easy and convenient to add back in what the modern world leaves out. They've created Magnesium Breakthrough. Now I've been taking this for the past two years and the biggest benefits that I've seen are related to my evening wind down sessions and my sleep. I tend to be pretty overactive in the evenings, just totally overthinking everything that I do. And this has helped me wind down and get more restorative, more efficient to sleep. So I wake up feeling way more refreshed, more energized, more clear, more ready for the day. And the way that I see it, sleep is upstream of essentially every other health and wellness related habit and decision. Because if you're sleeping better automatically, you're gonna have more regular cravings. You're gonna have higher insulin sensitivity You can derive more of all these inputs like fitness, right? You make more gains you gain more muscle you burn more calories and you wake up feeling refreshed so that you can do it again and again and again, and then beyond the fitness you have more energy to go for a walk, to do fun activities with friends, you are less stressed so you can socialize anxiety-free, and you're also going to be retaining, refreshing, and refining your skills and information much, much better so you won't forget any names. And, yeah, I mean, like I said, over 300 chemical processes that you're supporting with magnesium. And sleep, I mean, wow, better sleep is just a better life in general. So, I found that extremely helpful on a personal level, and I'm sure that you guys will find it helpful too. Your mind and body, and maybe even your spirit will thank you. So anyway, if you want to get a sweet little discount off of this amazing, amazing magnesium supplement from Bioptimizers, all you have to do is visit the show notes. So you scroll down right now, takes just a couple seconds and boom, you'll have access to all seven different kinds of magnesium that your body needs. All you have to do is hit the link and use code KYP from Know Your Physio. KYP. That's all. Enjoy 10 to 22% off depending on the package you choose, whether or not you subscribe. I'm obviously subscribed because I don't even want to think about whether or not I'm going to get this essential supplement in the mail. And yeah, hope you guys enjoy that awesome stuff. And that's all for now. I'll see you guys on the show. So my name is Andres Purcell. I'm an applied physiologist. I have a background in physiology, nutrition, psychology, and I'm currently involved in a biomedical neuroscience master's program. I run a world-leading podcast called Learn Your Physio, where I take expert knowledge and I distill it into actionable steps and insights that almost anyone can apply and enjoy. And I'm a health coach and consultant to some of the world's highest performers. So these include Fortune 500 CEOs, Le Mans racing champions, World Series Olympic champions, the best athletes in the world, and even very ambitious average Joes that want to level up through science. So before I dive into the presentation, who here actually knows the definition of physiology? Raise your hand. Okay. Yeah. Well, all right. So I'll put it this way. It is how the body works. It's a branch of biology that deals with the normal function of living things in their parts. The key word there is normal because in this modern world that we live in, there's no such thing as normal. The issue here is the way that we describe optimal health, let's say, which is what we're all trying to pursue through, let's say, biohacking, is we're trying to return to this evolutionarily preserved way of life in the modern day. And so for me, the definition of physiology is relative because to arrive at normal function in this day and age, we have to biohack effectively and safely to really see what our physiology is capable of, what our science is capable of. So what's the problem is our technology evolves so much faster than our physiology and that creates a gap and a disconnection. So we have access to all these amazing technologies here at the conference. and they're evolving. Every time we're here at the conferences, you see these new hacks, these new tricks, these new technologies. And at the same time, our body doesn't evolve that quickly. And so this disconnect creates a series of issues. And what I'm here to help you do is to discover your science so you know what to add in and how it works in a way that really makes sense and agrees with you and in a safe way. So the way that we do this at KnowYourPhysio through our content, through our coaching, through our community is we really rely on data to give us that headway. So the way that we use data, we'll do all sorts of testing. We have clinical grade wearable devices that we use. And while I love data and I love wearables, the main idea is to use this as a way to build the backbone of what eventually becomes your intuition. The process of becoming healthier and putting back in what the modern world leaves out, which is my definition of biohacking, You have to, it is intuitive and it can be intuitive. And in physiology, we have a word for this. which is interoception. Interoception is a deep bodily awareness that we hope that if you're curious and if you're all about understanding the science and the mechanisms, you will eventually develop interoception. And again, we arrived at the quality of life that nature intended. Although, let's face it, biohacking is just a gimmick, right? Like how many of you guys here have all your fancy tools and biohacks and some of your other friends who aren't part of this community, they're like, What are they doing over there, right? Otherwise, if you don't know your physio, biohacking is just a gimmick. That's the way I see it. And so this disconnect between the velocity of evolution of our technology and the difference in our personal evolution creates that disconnection. And I know this. intimately because I suffered with about 10 years of this disconnect. I was medicated for Adderall, which sure helped me get by in school and it was a really nice self-esteem boost at the time. It ruined me. It ruined my body. I was surviving on insure shakes. I was super anxious. I would never get on a stage and I just felt disconnected of my body. And what I had the chance to do was I had the chance to explore a neuroscience program while I was in high school at the University of Miami where I ended up studying. And this is where I learned for the very first time about neuroplasticity and the ability to change my brain. And as soon as I learned that, I became obsessed. And mind you, I was on a summer break, so I wasn't medicated. And I had unlimited access to the dining hall, to the gym, and social life. And within just a few months of learning about neuroplasticity and adding these things back in, I gained 30 pounds of muscle. I was confident. I felt like I was bringing my real genius to life. Didn't need drugs to do it. I had more friends than ever before and I just felt great. And I told myself, all right, I need to hone in on the science. And so I literally signed up in that same school, the University of Miami, and I studied applied physiology, psychology, nutrition. And here's the truth is I don't think you need to do that to learn the essentials of your physiology, right? I think that we shouldn't have to go to school to learn what our bodies need to thrive and to learn what it takes to add back in what the modern world leaves out and to remove the convenience that this modern world adds into our lives that is slowly but relatively more Uh, deadly. It's killing us. So, Know Your Physio really does put that bio back in biohacking. Uh, the hacking part is really cool, but unless the bio is there, what are we really doing and how is it really influencing us? So now you guys know why it's so important to get to know your physio. Alright, like, how do you actually get to do that? Well, like I said earlier, it all starts with that curiosity. A lot of you guys here probably know a guy named Jim Quick. right? He's this amazing brain expert and he can help you read faster and receive more information. And he once told me, he said, if you want to be great at anything, you have to have the curiosity to get to know yourself and the courage to be yourself. And that spoke to me, that really spoke to me. And so in my opinion, the number one thing you guys can do here today at the conference and beyond is to stay curious and to pursue that scientific self-discovery, understanding how and why things work in your body before you add anything in. And eventually that will lead to, well, the right action and the right intuition. You're going to gain clarity about what works, what doesn't. And then that leads to an intuitive process, to that interoception, really feeling the body. And again, if you use data to monitor this process, then you can eventually use that as a backbone for the intuition. And then you have a clear set path for optimization. The way that we do it at Aerophysio is we have an incredible podcast, an incredible community, an online presence, and coaching and consulting. But you guys have seen this now in a number of podcasts, like the human podcast, for example, right? There's so many people that are already helping you apply science to level up. We believe that in order for you to do the research justice, which is there to help us, you actually have to be engaged in it. So we try to bring this enthusiasm and this sexiness to science because we know that at the end of the day, it's going to help us accomplish a greater mission to discover science and optimize your life. So we've got the podcast. Podcast is amazing. I'm very grateful to see how much it's grown over the years. We're top 3% ranked worldwide out of all podcasts, top 1% in the fitness category. You guys have probably seen these faces before. I've had them on the show and had some amazing affiliates and our team here that's actually here today for the first time ever. You know, we have a worldwide team, all kinds of different minds and cultures that come together to help us accomplish this mission. All right. So now you know the why. Now you know the how. What can you actually do right now to get more in tune with your physiology, with your science? There's a few things. In my opinion, there's a few essentials that everyone here has to absolutely nail. You have to master these. They're going to seem simple, but it's a matter of doing them consistently and building intuition with them. You guys ready? All right. First thing, nasal breathing. It's what I can't do right now because I'm speaking to you. So I'm in more of a sympathetic state, right? You guys are hopefully listening very closely and you are nasal breathing, breathing through your nose and automatically using more of a diaphragm. So you're more of a parasympathetic state. And this is the ideal state for recovery to take place, for peak performance, for flow. It's an incredible default breathing state. It's more efficient, it better humidifies the air, better filters the air, promotes an increase in nitric oxide, a nasal dilator. So you want to make sure that you're nasal breathing as much as you can. Automatically, you're going to help set the stage for more efficient physiological function. And if your breathing is efficient, you are more efficient. Next thing here is managing your exposure to light. Funny enough, I have these glasses here, but because I took so much L-theanine today, I don't even need these, just being in the sympathetic state with you guys. So you want to make sure you manage this exposure to light, right? In the morning, making sure that you're getting, you know, at least 10 minutes of direct sunlight for, you know, within the first 30 minutes of waking. And the incredible thing about light is, well, if you look at our circadian rhythm and our suprachiasmatic nucleus, which is the biological clock in our brain that responds to light, it's automatically understood as a very high leverage phenomenon because the circadian rhythm orchestrates thousands of biological functions. Every biological function in your body is orchestrated by circadian rhythm. So if you manage your exposure to light, you are better managing your biology, your physiology. And what I like to say is, you know, you can never outperform a poor night of sleep, even with the best morning routine, even if it includes sunlight. Which brings me to this next point. So with sleep, we've done webinars that are hours long on sleep. We've written eBooks that summarize all the best and latest science on sleep with hundreds of references. So I'm not going to go super in-depth on sleep. But what I will say is that, again, our modern lives are inherently overstimulating. And so they promise productivity. but instead they guarantee a detrimental influence in its prerequisite which is sleep. If you guys are sleeping more efficiently, automatically your body can orchestrate better physiological function. And in this day and age, we are constantly stimulated by background stress, by social media, by blue-white. If you guys can make the point to sleep more efficiently, making the room darker, blocking blue-white at night, making the room cooler, and creating a sleep environment that is consistent with our evolution, right, that mimics the action of the sun getting to a lower angle in the sky, then automatically your body can take care of itself. And this, again, builds that intuition. If you're sleeping better, automatically you're going to have more sensitive hunger hormones and insulin sensitivity. So you're going to be driven to make better decisions about your nutrition that just makes sense to you. And then if you got the sleeping care of and the recovery and the fuel, the nutrition, odds are that you're going to be more motivated to move your body. And when you move your body in the ways that we think are the most important for longevity, such as like hip training and weightlifting with compound movements, you can derive more benefit from those movement styles when you're sleeping right and you're eating right. And if you're sleeping right, you're eating right, you're moving right, Odds are your mind is going to be in a pretty good place. So this is how we set the stage for physiological excellence. Now, there's a couple of runner ups here. There's three. There's a few more things that I can mention beyond the light, the nasal breathing and the sleep. You know, quality water, spray water, structured water, grounding. You know, we're trying to add these things back in so that we can replicate the way of life that we evolved with. And to summarize, you know, I believe that discovering your science, which has curiosity as a prerequisite, you can gain clarity about how you need to live your life. And that clearly leads to the right action, intuition, and eventually interception, deep bodily awareness. And boom, you can enjoy living the life that you want. The ideal quality of life that nature intended in this modern day. And look, if you don't know your physio, then biohacking is really just a gimmick. So what I ask for you guys to do to help us with our mission here at the conference is whenever you see one of these nice tools, tips, tricks, services, technologies, ask why or how does this work and how might it work for me? Be curious. Stay curious. And that's all. Thank you. If you guys have any questions, please be sure to ask. So how do I see the use of psilocybin? That's a great question. Obviously slightly controversial, but we're at this Congress and I think it's a very appropriate question, a very appropriate theme. I'll tell you what, starting with the anecdotal evidence, I have used psilocybin microdosing and I've done therapeutic doses and I found it to be very beneficial. I love that it is such a neuroplasticity and brain boosting compound when it's taken intentionally. I think that's the most important thing. Honestly, I think that psilocybin, which I take occasionally as a microdose, has helped me replicate a lot of what I did like about Adderall, believe it or not. There's a few things that I did like about it, which is that very intentional focus I guess with Adderall, it's not so intentional, but you feel like you should be working on whatever you're working on. I think mushrooms can replicate that, but it can help you do it in a way that is a little more authentic to you. And so I personally love it. And I've actually had a few experts on the show who are MDs that are experts in psychedelic medicine, psilocybin or magic mushrooms included. And so I recommend checking those out. So you have really good resources as far as the vast literature that's available and how it might pertain to you and your goals. Great question. Any more questions you guys? you enjoy, period. And I think that if you're just starting out especially, do this in a group setting. There's a great book by Kelly McGonigal. She's a Stanford psychology PhD. She has one of the best TED Talks of all time. It's called Making Stress Your Friend. And she wrote a book called The Joy of Movement. And one of the main themes in this book is how we are designed not just to move, but to move together, and how moving together produces this incredible endorphin rush that helps us show up more often, that helps us go harder because we quite literally feel like we have, like our friends have our backs. And, um, believe it or not, it helps protect us from the detriment of stress when we go too hard. So we have these built-in mechanisms to fight stress, such as oxytocin, which your heart can actually pump out when you're stressed. And when you're among other people, it's an incredible way to go harder in a safer way. So I took ketonade. Ketonade, KE4 specifically, that's the world's most powerful ketone esters. It doesn't give you more energy. So I take it before a speech or before I log podcasts, I do a lot of real-life podcasts. And I feel like when I take this stuff, I'm just wired for quite a while. But believe it or not, it's actually really good for sleep as well because from a metabolic perspective and for sleep, for the sake of getting good sleep, you want to be in a ketogenic state because you see a shift in something called the respiratory quotient when you're in ketosis, which literally means you can afford lower breaths per minute to get enough oxygen. And as a result, your body is in more of a parasympathetic state and that's obviously better for sleep. So what this means is you don't have to stay K4 for efficient sleep, but what you should do every night is make sure that you're not eating within three hours of your bedtime. And if you eat late, make sure that you go for a walk to kick up your insulin sensitivity. Before a large dinner, you can take insulin mimetics like berberine, you can take bitter melon, ACV, apple cider vinegar, diluted in water. And the point is that you want to make sure that you're in a ketogenic state because it will lead to better sleep. In fact, I just had the VP of data science from Whoop, one of the co-founders of Whoop, on my podcast. And one of her biggest takeaways for better HRV in the morning, better recovery was, Make sure you're not eating a late dinner. What actually initiates sleep, most people don't know this, is a decline in your core body temperature. And if you had this large amount of food in the stomach, you have all this warm blood coming in to digest it. And while you may feel sleepy, you have higher serotonin, which eventually becomes melatonin, and your body's telling you to sit down so you can digest. It's not going to lead to better sleep. So anyway, that's that on the ketonate. I love ketonate so much. It's the best. Any more questions, you guys? Yeah, OK. So my opinion on caffeine and mushroom coffee. I love caffeine. Caffeine is a very convenient way to reduce the perception of fatigue and it's the most studied, most efficacious herbigenic aid or work-reducing aid. What I think, however, is you should be, again, mindful about when you consume caffeine. We all have a different amount of liver enzymes to process it and so some people might get away with a late night coffee and they're fine, but what the literature shows is that you shouldn't have caffeine within 10 hours of your bedtime because the half-life of the five hours is important. There's no way to really bypass that. So have caffeine, just don't have it within the first hour of the day. Instead, get sunlight to get a natural endogenous rising cortisol to get you motivated, activated, focused, and have it around, let's say maybe an hour and a half to three hours after you wake up and not within 10 hours of your bedtime. As far as mushroom coffee goes, I love mushroom coffee because it does, typically they have a lower dose of caffeine and they add things like lion's mane and cordyceps, which are good at giving you energy. and put you in a flow state, but they do this, they can achieve this with relatively less casting it. My favorite is Everyday Dose. This is not, you know, I'm not affiliated, this is not a paid advertisement, neither was the Ketone A1, neither is anything really that I'm going to say here on stage, but I love Everyday Dose. And I really like the founder because his story is very similar to mine with Adderall and everything. So I love their mushroom coffee. All right, do you guys have any more questions? Be sure to send me an email on dressandnativephysio.org, find me on Instagram, and we'll connect through there. Thanks again, you guys. So that's all for today's show. Thank you so much for tuning in today. For all of the show notes, including clickable links to anything and everything that we discussed today, everything from discount codes to videos, to research articles, books, tips, tricks, techniques, and of course, to learn more about the guest on today's episode, all you have to do is head to my website on dresspreschel.com. That's A-N-D-R-E-S-P-R-E-S-C-H-E-L.com. and go to podcasts. You can also leave your feedback, questions, and suggestions for future episodes, future guests, so on and so forth. Thanks again for tuning in and I'll see you on the next one. Have a lovely rest of your day.