Sestrin: The Stress-induced Protein that Ages You in Reverse

Sestrin: The Stress-induced Protein that Ages You in Reverse

When I was in my twenties, I made a decision to never grow old. I want to continue having birthdays — I plan to live until I’m 180. But when it comes to my body and brain, I plan to crush it like I do today, even as I’m pushing 200.

That’s why I’m pumped about new anti-aging research about sestrins — proteins that “wakes up” in the presence of stressors like low oxygen,[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12203114″] oxidative stress,[ref url=”https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/ars.2010.353″] low nutrients,[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27692174/”] and exposure to things that damage DNA.[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9926927″][ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18692468″] 

When they’re activated they work a lot of anti-aging magic. Sestrins have a huge effect on how you muscles work, how your body fights tumors, cleaning your body from the inner-cells and on out, burning fat… the list goes on. Keep reading to learn about the many superpowers of sestrins.

Sestrins counteract age-related loss of muscle mass

After age 30, you lose 3-8% of muscle mass each decade, and the decline gets sharper after you turn 60.[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2804956/#R4″] That’s why the elderly experience weakness and falls, and difficulty recovering from injury.[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16124998″]

Conventional advice tells people to start doing resistance training to counteract muscle loss due to aging. Here’s the thing, though. If you don’t have sestrin protein in your muscles, you don’t get the full benefit of exercise. It’s a snowball effect. You lose muscle mass because you’re getting old, so you have less sestrin available to help you out. You exercise, but since you don’t have as much sestrin, so you don’t get the as much benefit from the exercise as a younger person would. Talk about frustrating.

It’s true that sestrin builds up in your muscle tissue after exercise.[ref url=”https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-13442-5″] If you’re older and you don’t have as much sestrin, it just takes longer to see the benefit.

The answer? Supplements.

Have you ever worn a cast and found that your muscle had gone weak or even shrunk because you hadn’t used it? Researchers think that supplementing with sestrin could prevent that from happening. Having good levels of sestrins prevents muscle wasting associated with inactivity or even age.[ref url=”https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-13442-5″]

Sestrins prevent muscle wasting by activating autophagy

If you’ve been following the blog or you’ve been listening to the Bulletproof Radio podcast for a while, you know that autophagy is your cells’ way of cleaning out waste and keeping you young from the inside out. Imagine having to drive around piles of trash and clutter every time you had to get somewhere. It would slow you down, right? Trash on the freeway during rush hour would cause annoying bottlenecks and traffic jams.

Your cells work the same way. When your cells are clear of waste and debris, they work more efficiently, so your organs and systems run more smoothly, and you feel younger.

One of the ways that sestrin proteins activate is when they sense that you don’t have enough energy from food.[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27692174/”] This can happen if you restrict calories, which isn’t fun for you or anyone who has to be around you. Or, it can happen if you switch to a low-carb, high-fat, ketogenic diet like The Bulletproof Diet and you deplete your carbs (which is the goal — that’s when the magic happens).

When sestrins wake up due to low sugar and carbs, they activate autophagy so that your body burns cellular “trash” for energy instead of going after muscle tissue.[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5549001/#R147″] Because your metabolism’s attention is diverted to cellular waste instead of muscles, the whole process prevents muscle wasting.

Sestrins suppress mTOR to preserve (and grow!) muscle

Your body has a protein called mTOR that triggers muscle building.[ref url=”https://jcs.biologists.org/content/122/20/3589.short”] Sestrins suppress mTOR.[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18692468″]

You’re probably wondering why suppression is a good thing. Wouldn’t you want as much mTOR as possible? Why would you want to suppress a protein that builds muscle?

It’s all about the bounceback. When you suppress mTOR, it bounces back stronger than before. Think about your breathing rate right now. You’re taking normal breaths in, normal breaths out. What happens when you hold your breath underwater a little too long? When you come up for air, you’re filling your lungs way more than you would if you were poolside in the lounge chair. It’s like that.

The cool part is, the more you suppress it, the stronger the bounceback.

Another superpower of mTOR suppression is an antioxidant effect.[ref url=”https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0891584915002750″] More on that, coming up.

Sestrins and metabolism

As any older person will tell you, one of the hallmarks of aging is that your metabolism changes. Keeping extra weight off doesn’t look the same when you’re 60 as it did when you were 20.

That’s partly because your hormone levels change. New research on sestrins is showing that they play a role, too. Scientists have been able to show that sestrin proteins regulate fat burning[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24825887/”][ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26257706/”] and protect mice against diet-induced insulin resistance,[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5549001/#R218″] which plays a role in not just body composition but cognitive ability, too. It has such a strong impact on metabolism that researchers are exploring its potential as a treatment for diabetes.[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4504765/”]

Sestrin’s role in cell stress, oxidative stress, and cancer

Cancer is one of the four killers that I talk about in my New York Times Bestseller, Super Human. Your risk of cancer increases as you age, but that doesn’t have to be the way it plays out for you. Anti-aging science is advancing every day, and sestrins are working their way into the anti-cancer narrative.

One major way cancer forms and thrives is in the presence of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which are damaging oxygen atoms that your body produces through natural processes, or that you come into contact with by breathing polluted air, flying in an airplane, eating non-organic food… the list goes on. Free radicals can damage the DNA in healthy cells and cause them to mutate and form turmors. Further, they weaken your body’s natural mechanisms that identify and destroy tumor cells.

Your body has a lot of ways to deal with ROS. Polyphenols in food help. Your body makes glutathione, your “master antioxidant” that snaps up free radicals more efficiently than nearly any substance on the planet. Another way your body deals with ROS is with sestrin proteins. As described before in the context of muscles, sestrins suppress mTOR which through a complex pathway reduces cell damage by oxidative stress and as a result, prevents age-associated diseases.[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27174209/”]

Sestrins reduce the effects of stress on cells. They “wake up” in response to cellular stress[ref url=”https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/ars.2010.353″] and activate response proteins that reduce cellular damage from whatever the stressor is, which increases healthy cell survival.[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5549001/#R195″] In one study, suppression of sestrin in flies caused a buildup of oxidative damage[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20712410/”] that is associated with the more unpleasant effects of aging.

Anti-tumor and anti-cancer effects of sestrins

cbd oil and cancerIts antioxidant effects have shown tangible cancer prevention benefit. Here’s what the science says:

  • Sestrin protein suppressed colon cancer in humans[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26913956/”] and inhibited colon cancer tumor growth[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27840318/”]
  • Sestrins caused lung cancer cells to self-destruct[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26313705″]
  • In non small cell lung cancer, having high sestrin 2 was associated with longer overall survival than having low sestrin 2[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27186314/”]

When you think of aging, what does that look like for you? Do you picture you think of wheelchairs and pill bottles? If it’s the latter, I encourage you to think of what the world looked like 50, or even 20 years ago. Things are possible now that people would have never thought would be a reality. Imagine what the world will look like 50 years from now in the world of anti-aging. It’s changing fast, and it’s going to blow our minds.

The way science and biotech are moving, you can decide what your own aging process looks like. The things you do and don’t do every day have a lot of influence on your lifespan, and what life will look like for you later on. It lights me up to be the first one to try different supplements and technologies to show you which ones actually work.

 

Hormones Flex Their Superpowers – Dr. Jolene Brighten – #670

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, Dr. Jolene Brighten returns to the show with more wisdom and honest talk about hormones. As an international speaker, clinical educator and medical advisor within the tech community, she’s considered a leading authority on women’s health.

She’s a prominent voice in the field of women’s medicine and the emerging science of Post-Birth Control Syndrome. As a Functional Naturopathic medical doctor and nutritional biochemist, she concentrates her efforts on the effects of hormonal birth control on female health. She works to uncover the root cause of hormonal imbalances.

“We can acknowledge that all medical interventions have risks and that all forms of hormones that you are on internally making and also exogenous also have side effects,” says Dr. Brighten, “They can be out of balance, they can be used in the wrong way. Your genetics can come into play with all of this.”

When she was on the show for episode #617, we talked about her new book “Beyond the Pill: A 30-Day Program to Balance Your Hormones, Reclaim Your Body, and Reverse the Dangerous Side Effects of the Birth Control Pill” and how to have way better sex without it—among other things. Before that, we looked at how women’s hormones affect their bodies and brains at different ages and stages of life in episode #415.

This time—we’re heading right into hormonal superpowers and why women are stronger in every way when their hormones are working in sync with their natural rhythms. When hormones—and even the immediate environment—are not aligned, gut health, brain health and virtually every body system is affected.

“When I talk about your hormones giving you superpowers,” says Dr. Brighten, “it’s understanding how to leverage their strengths throughout your menstrual cycle.”

She offers up knowledge and real solutions so you can manage your hormones at any age in ways that are as individual as you are.

(And for our guys listening who want to understand how hormones affect the women in their life, this information is for you, too.)

Enjoy the show!

Listen on Apple Podcasts or iTunesListen on Google Podcasts

Follow Along with the Transcript

Hormones Flex Their Superpowers – Dr. Jolene Brighten – #670

Links/Resources

Website: drbrighten.com
Facebook: facebook.com/drbrighten
Twitter: twitter.com/drbrighten
Instagram: instagram.com/drjolenebrighten/
YouTube: .youtube.com
Pinterest: pinterest.com/drbrighten/
Book: Beyond the Pill: A 30-Day Program to Balance Your Hormones, Reclaim Your Body, and Reverse the Dangerous Side Effects of the Birth Control Pill drbrighten.com/beyond-the-pill/
Book Bonuses: beyondthepillbook.com
Free E-Book: Brighten’s Post-Birth Control Syndrome Detox Diet Quick Start Guide drbrighten.com/pbcsdiet/

Bulletproof Radio
Way Better Sex Without The Pill – Dr. Jolene Brighten – #617 

On Women’s Health, Post-Birth Control Syndrome, and Brain Injuries – Dr. Jolene Brighten – #415

Dave Asprey Blog
What Is Post Birth Control Syndrome And Do You Have It?

Cycle Syncing: How To Hack Your Menstrual Cycle To Do Everything Better

Ditching Hormonal Contraceptives? 11 Non-Hormonal Birth Control Options

Key Notes

  • Hormones that I am on right now – 5:10
  • Your shamed either way in woman’s medicine – 6:18
  • Women are disproportionately affected by Alzheimer’s disease – 9:16
  • Night shift workers get cancer at a higher risk – 11:40
  • Historically speaking, we weren’t living this long and now we are – 12:55
  • There are lifestyle practices that we can use to hack our hormones – 15:10
  • A lot of people are walking around not understanding their bodies – 17:40
  • What are the specific hormone superpowers that you talk about? – 18:59 
  • We can actually gain more muscle mass in that follicular phase – 20:53
  • Bottom line is attention is a currency – 23:50
  • Mother nature is really smart – 26:57
  • Gut health and liver health, everything to do with hormones – 28:27
  • Calcium D-glucarate. This is a supplement that everyone should know about  – 31:04
  • How does a woman know when to take progesterone – 34:06
  •  I listened to this podcast and I think it might be helpful for you – 40:48
  • U-shaped dose response curve – 45:37

 

Go check out my new book Super Human: The Bulletproof Plan to Age Backward and Maybe Even Live Forever and also “Game Changers“, “Headstrong” and “The Bulletproof Diet” on Amazon and consider leaving a review!

If you like today’s episode, check us out on Apple Podcasts at daveasprey.com/apple and leave us a 5-star rating and a creative review.

The Birth Control Pill and… Music? Sex Hormones and Your Ability to Recognize Courtship Cues

Today we welcome guest author Sarah E. Hill, Ph.D., who leads evolutionary psychology research at Texas Christian University. Her primary research interest is the effect of hormonal birth control on women. She is the author of a book on that very topic: “This is Your Brain on Birth Control: The Surprising Science of Women, Hormones, and the Law of Unintended Consequences,” which illustrates the many ways the pill changes women. To learn more about how the pill affects you, check out this episode of Bulletproof Radio

 

The Birth Control Pill and… Music? Sex Hormones and Your Ability to Recognize Courtship Cues

by Dr. Sarah E. Hill

Even though this might feel like a reductionist way to see the world, sexual motivation is, ultimately, at the heart of many things that we do. It’s one of those pesky byproducts of being designed by a process that rewards gene transmission. A lot of our traits – especially those traits that come into full bloom right around the time in our life when fertility is high – are maintained as part of the human nature playbook because they helped one of our ancestors reproduce.

This means that sexual motivation – which is a psychological program coordinated by our sex hormones – is related to a lot of things that don’t feel like they have anything to do with sex.

Outward signs of sexual motivation

Now, some of the things that we do to attract partners are pretty obvious. Like, doing things to look attractive. This is something that women do for lots of reasons, but one of those reasons is that it increases attractiveness to men.

And this isn’t me being sexist, here, this is just what the research tells us. When women are looking to attract a man’s attention or entice a partner they already have, one of the first (and most effective) things that most women do is spend a little extra effort on their appearance[ref url=”https://experts.umn.edu/en/publications/ovulation-female-competition-and-product-choice-hormonal-influenc”][ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22642483″][ref url=”https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1996-01769-006″]

For example, research finds that women’s mating motivations are at the heart of things like clothing choice and cosmetics use, as well as doing things like dieting, exercising, and visiting tanning beds. Mating effort begets beautification effort, and although this isn’t the only reason that women like to make themselves look good, it’s one of them.

The relationship between mating behavior and music

Now, other things that mating effort might be linked to are less obvious.
Take music, for instance.[ref url=”https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4615-1221-9_9″] Music is interesting because it’s one of those things that all cultures create, but without an obvious survival purpose (you can’t French horn your way out of a wildebeest stampede). This is usually the hallmark of a behavior that is maintained to serve a courtship function.

Consistent with interpretation, almost all organisms that create complex acoustic signals, do so for the purposes of mate attraction. This is why birds sing, howler monkeys howl, and red deer roar. Acoustic signals make a nice medium for discriminating between potential partners because they provide all sorts of information that is useful for females (they’re usually the choosers) to use to determine whether a male is of high quality or not.

This is because rhythm is a product of the nervous system. And nervous systems that are better put-together can produce more coordinated, complex rhythms than nervous systems that are less well-put-together. This is why so many species use rhythmic displays such as song and dance as a means of mate attraction. They tell us something about the individual’s motor control, as well as their self-confidence and creativity, which are other traits that bespeak high genetic quality.

There is no reason to think that humans are any exception to this rule. Rhythmic displays created by whales, wrens, frogs, flies, honeybees, and humans all show off the functioning of the nervous systems to prospective mates. The Keith Richards effect – where a kind of road-worn guy with good musical skills can get access to an almost alarming number of sexual partners – is no joke. This is why almost all adolescent males eventually try their hand at the guitar. A well-executed rhythmic display attracts mates. If you don’t believe me, ask Keith.

Now, given that any courtship display that’s worth doing is going to have an audience that is attuned to all of its brilliant rhythmic nuances, we should also find that women’s attunement to rhythmic displays is similarly tied to mating effort.

Although this is a relatively new idea (we’re actually actively researching this question in my lab right now), research in non-humans is largely supportive of the general idea that fertility may increase females’ attunement to the quality of rhythmic displays. Women’s ability to discriminate between high- and low-quality displays should be more pronounced at high fertility and lower at other times in the cycle because conception is possible.

Artificial hormones mess with your ability to recognize attraction

So, what does all of this mean for women on the pill? Well, there is a lot of research that needs to be done on this topic before we can know for sure. But, I think that there’s a good chance that the pill might influence women’s direct mate attraction efforts (beautification and the like), as well as their attunement to courtship cues, like music.

I say this for a couple of reasons.

First, this is what theory would suggest. Sex hormones fuel mating effort. Mating effort drives mate attraction behaviors and attunement to courtship cues. It doesn’t take a huge leap of the imagination to predict that preventing the hormonal surge that prompts mating effort (both in terms of releasing an egg and wanting sex) will also suppress behavioral offshoots of this same motivational pathway.

Second, although we need more hard data on this, this idea is something that has come up more times than I can count when talking to women about their experiences of being on and off the pill. Many women I have interviewed have told me that they noticed an uptick in their interest in their appearance after going off the pill that coincided with the return of their sexual desire.

For some, this meant that they started clothes shopping again and growing their hair long after being short for years when they were on the pill. For others, this has meant a renewed interest in healthy eating and working out. For others yet, this has meant cosmetic surgery and teeth whitening.

Now, I don’t know for certain whether the pill, per se, was responsible for any of this. Right now, this evidence is anecdotal. And I’m also not saying that it’s bad to care less about your desirability. Most of us would probably benefit from a healthy dose of “I don’t give a sh** about my appearance”. This is just something that might be worth noting as you consider your options and your experiences.

For me, the most noticeable change was the music thing. And I have since heard this repeated back to me by several other women.

To provide you with some context, I had loved listening to music all through high school and early college years and then, I just…stopped. I never questioned why this happened. I didn’t even notice. I just stopped listening to it, favoring podcasts and NPR when I was traveling or in my car. Although I don’t have perfect documentation of any of this, this change in listening habits corresponded to the time that I began the pill.

Now, flash forward eight-ish years (a couple of months after going off the pill), I started downloading new playlists to listen to in my car for the first time in forever. I got a subscription to Spotify. I finally downloaded Pandora. It was only after a friend had commented on my rekindled interest in music that I even had my attention drawn to the fact.

Even then, I figured that my renewed love of music was probably just a byproduct of needing more things to listen to since I was working out a lot more than I used to (that happened to me, too). And although I can’t be 100% certain about the pill having anything to do with any of this (you can bet we’re collecting data on this, too), I would be very surprised if it didn’t. Mating effort and attunement to courtship cues are driven by sex hormones. There is good reason to think that – at least for some women – these things might change on the pill.

So, sex is more than just sex. And having a diminished desire for actual sex (like, sex-sex) may be a canary in the coalmine of much more pervasive changes in women’s motivational states. While a lot of this thinking is still in its infancy, it’s worth considering if these outcomes might be meaningful to you.

 

The Superpowers of Magnesium and How to Choose the Best Supplement to Take

Your magnesium levels affect how every cell in your body works. You’ll feel it if you’re low in magnesium — you may have low energy, a distractible brain, muscle cramps, and more.

Even when your diet is on point, you can come up short on micronutrients like magnesium. Modern farming practices deplete the soil, so vegetables don’t have the mineral content they did a few generations ago. In fact, in the US, most adults are deficient in magnesium.[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12949381?dopt=Abstract”]

In an episode of the Bulletproof Radio podcast, Matt Gallant, founder of BiOptimizers explains why they decided to develop a high-quality magnesium supplement.

Keep reading to learn why magnesium is crucial to feel like yourself, and to find out which best magnesium supplement will work best for you.

The function of magnesium in your body

Your body depends on magnesium for a lot of processes, like:

  • Maintaining healthy DNA
  • Controlling blood glucose
  • Making proteins
  • Helping your muscles work more efficiently (and not cramp up)
  • Maintaining blood pressure
  • Managing nerve cells

“We really see improvements on just about every part of the body, starting with even blood sugar. It helps move blood sugar into your muscles and dispose of lactate which can help build up during exercise and cause pain, so you can see an exercise performance on that component. We’ve seen improvements with athletes, the elderly. We’ve seen volleyball players be able to improve their jumping and arm movement. We’ve seen athletes who were cycling and swimming improve their performance. They also had reductions in insulin and stress response. Magnesium can help with fat loss. Again, it’s not a fat loss supplement, but it can really help,” says Gallant.

So, you find yourself ready to pick up a magnesium supplement. It’s not just a matter of choosing the best brand. There are different types of magnesium that do different things in your body. Here’s how to pick.

How to choose the best magnesium supplement

Woman shopping at grocery storeIf you’re ready to add a magnesium supplement to your stack, first decide what your goal is. Do you want to increase energy? Sleep better? Think more clearly? Get rid of that twitch in your eyelid? Different magnesium supplements will act on different things. You might have some trial and error to find which magnesium supplement vibes with your biology. Luckily, magnesium is usually pretty cheap to buy.

Pro tip: every time you try a new magnesium type, brand, or dose, plan to take your first few doses when you’ll be home for the next few hours. Especially when you’re figuring out your dose, you could have some digestive discomfort and extra bathroom time.

These are the types of magnesium you’ll find in stores, and what they do in your body.

I strongly recommend Bioptimizers for Magnesium

Magnesium threonate: cognition, memory, focus

Magnesium threonate readily crosses the blood-brain barrier, which means it absorbs quickly and acts fast.[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2821140/”]

Research shows that it helps with learning and memory,[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6997753″][ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28842432″] and may slow down age-related cognitive decline[ref url=”http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1517/14728222.2014.941286″] In a rat study, magnesium threonate reversed Altzheimer’s disease.[ref url=”http://www.jneurosci.org/content/33/19/8423.short”]

Magnesium threonate is so powerful that it is served at 40 Years of Zen before brain training and meditation sessions as an extra brain boost.

Magnesium chloride to address overall magnesium deficiency

In stores, you’ll see magnesium chloride “oil” that comes in a spray bottle for your skin. Thing is, magnesium oil isn’t an oil at all – it feels oily because magnesium chloride is slightly more alkaline than water. You absorb a lot of magnesium through the skin using magnesium oil sprays.

Topical magnesium spray works well if you have digestive trouble, because you might not get as much nutrition out of your food. People who have trouble maintaining mineral balance also benefit from topical magnesium. You might experience these if you have conditions that affect your minerals like insufficient stomach acid or adrenal fatigue.

If you’re low, you may notice tingling or itching after you apply the spray. Think of it as your skin and blood vessels opening up to “grab” magnesium because your body really needs it. As your magnesium levels increase, you’ll no longer itch when you spray on magnesium oil. If the itching bothers you, you can rinse your skin as soon as it dries. Most of it will have absorbed by then.

Magnesium sulfate: detox, muscle pain

Magnesium sulfate might be the easiest form of magnesium to find. You can pick up a bag of epsom salt, which is pure magnesium sulfate, in almost every grocery store or pharmacy.

Soaking in a bath with epsom salt soothes sore muscles and pulls toxins out of your pores. You don’t absorb much magnesium, but you’ll get just enough to feel the calming effect.

If you want to elevate your experience, try a sensory deprivation float tank. the water in float tanks is saturated with magnesium sulfate so that you are buoyant, and you get extra relaxation effect when you combine magnesium with sensory deprivation.

Some people take magnesium sulfate internally, but it’s easy to take too much and end up in the bathroom for a while.

Magnesium malate: energy, muscles

If you’re looking to boost energy throughout the day, magnesium malate may help. The elemental magnesium is bound to malic acid, which helps your cells produce energy.[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3705282/”]

It calms overactive nerve cells, which may help with pain by relaxing tense muscles. Some fibromyalgia patients have experienced relief when taking magnesium malate.[ref url=”https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijcb/2014/709828/”]

Magnesium glycinate: sleep

Magnesium glycinate is a highly absorbable form of magnesium in a capsule[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7815675″] and will raise your overall magnesium levels quickly. It is also one of the forms that is not likely to cause digestive trouble. With magnesium glycinate, magnesium is bound to glycine, an amino acid with a calming effect that improves your sleep quality.[ref url=”http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1479-8425.2007.00262.x/full”]

Magnesium oxide to stay regular

If you’re not pooping every day, taking small doses of magnesium oxide a few times a day can help keep things moving while providing magnesium that your body needs anyway. On the flipside, you’re making enough (or too many) bathroom trips, it’s probably a good idea to pick a different form of magnesium.

One more time for emphasis: take small doses. This one is most likely to cause bathroom trouble, but for the same reasons, it’s super effective for constipation. Experiment at home.

Even though you feel its effects, you don’t absorb much magnesium oxide[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7815675″] because you end up flushing a lot of it — literally.[ref url=”http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07315724.1990.10720349″] You can take other forms of magnesium to boost your levels.

Magnesium citrate: sleep and calm

Magnesium citrate has a calming effect, which makes it a great supplement to take at night. This is also the form to reach for if you want to address muscle cramps and twitches.[ref url=”https://www.medscimonit.com/abstract/index/idArt/420841/act/3″]

You absorb more magnesium from magnesium citrate than magnesium oxide,[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7815675″] but you still risk going overboard and having bathroom trouble. Use a small dose at first, and work up until you find your ideal dose.

Some people experience anxiety or racing heart when starting magnesium. If that’s the case, stop taking it and make an appointment with a functional medicine doctor to test your mineral levels and get back into balance.

You may need to do some experimenting, but magnesium is inexpensive, so experimenting won’t break the bank. Soon, you’ll find the form that’s right for you.

 

Magnesium: The Master Mineral That Conquers Stress – BiOptimizers – #669

BiOptimizers founders Wade Lightheart and Matt Gallant join me on Bulletproof Radio to share exciting new research about magnesium and why you need the right kinds in the right amounts to get all the benefits.

Wade and Matt are known fondly as the “we fix digestion” guys. You may know them from their previous Bulletproof Radio episodes: #515—How to BiOptimize Your Gut & Digestion and #611—Every Little Enzyme Does Its Magic. (If not, take a listen!)

After experiencing some unexpectedly stressful life events, they turned their attention to researching magnesium. Especially the types of magnesium that play a critical role in your body functions. “What’s amazing about magnesium is we know it’s involved in 300 different metabolic processes,” Matt says.

In this episode, you’ll learn about the big 7: Magnesium Chelate, Citrate, Bisglycinate, Malate, L-Threonate, Taurate and Orotate. Getting all of these forms of magnesium, in the optimum dose, can upgrade virtually every function in your body. It’s especially important when combating all the stressors of our modern life—physiological and environmental. “One of the stress responses is that you actually burn out a lot more magnesium out of your nervous system,” Wade says.

Supplementing a little bit of magnesium won’t cut it—especially if you’re aiming for superhuman-level performance of brain, body and mood. Listen on for tips on how to change up your approach to magnesium.

Enjoy the show!

*Special Bonus*

Go to magbreakthrough.com/DAVE. Enter coupon code DAVE10 to get 10% off your purchase.

Listen on Apple Podcasts or iTunesListen on Google Podcasts

Follow Along with the Transcript

Magnesium- The Master Mineral That Conquers Stress – BiOptimizers – #669

Links/Resources

Website: bioptimizers.com
Facebook: facebook.com/BiOptimizers/
Twitter: twitter.com/BiOptimizers
Instagram: instagram.com/bioptimizers/
YouTube: youtube.com/user/BiOptimizers
Blog: bioptimizers.com/blog/
Podcast: bioptimizers.com/category/podcast/
Bulletproof Radio: Every Little Enzyme Does Its Magic – BiOptimizers #611
Bulletproof Radio: How to Bioptimize Your Gut & Digestion – #515
Dave Asprey Blog: The 5 Stages of Digestion
Bulletproof YouTube: How Digestive Enzymes Help Your Mitochondria
Bulletproof YouTube: The Five Stages of Digestion

Key Notes

  • Why magnesium pairs with stress 00:04:20
  • How Wade got himself out of a deep stress state 00:06:00
  • The problem with RDA 00:07:20
  • Why Matt couldn’t drink coffee at all for a while 00:08:45
  • Is it caffeine, magnesium or mold? 00:10:15
  • Testing for magnesium deficiency 00:12:50
  • How biohacking allows you to hit the wall, going full speed 00:14:40
  • “Disaster pants” is the best test for magnesium 00:16:35
  • Can you get enough magnesium from food? 00:22:05
  • Blankets are the first trans-humanist tech 00:23:05
  • Why one-pill-a-day is decorative 00:25:50
  • The different types of magnesium and what they do 00:26:50
  • Take all the magnesiums that end in “ate” 00:31:20
  • Be careful with dosage 00:37:20
  • How magnesium can aid in fat loss 00:39:30
  • Using technology to combat technology 00:49:20
  • Magnesium is the “master mineral” 00:52:45

Go check out my new book Super Human: The Bulletproof Plan to Age Backward and Maybe Even Live Forever and also “Game Changers“, “Headstrong” and “The Bulletproof Diet” on Amazon and consider leaving a review!

If you like today’s episode, check us out on Apple Podcasts at daveasprey.com/apple and leave us a 5-star rating and a creative review.

Face Aging with the Science of Beauty – Rachel Varga – #668

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, the topic of skin gets to shine. Caring for your largest organ can take many forms. What’s right for you could range from skincare to rejuvenation procedures to lasers or light therapies. It’s all about your individual aging goals.

In this judgment-free show, I talk with skin rejuvenation and anti-aging expert Rachel Varga, BScN, RN, CANS. She’s been a Board Certified Aesthetic Nurse Specialist since 2011. She’s an international clinical trainer, speaker, podcaster, and academically published award-winning author in the field of plastic and aesthetic nursing.

Through education on skin care, rejuvenation procedures, non-surgical solutions, and healing lifestyle practices, Rachel helps inspire others with her unique toolkit. “It’s all about the science of beauty, and it’s half art, half science,” she says. She helps people optimize aging through aesthetic medicine.

Understanding the biological happenings and the underlying science of again can help you decide what to do about it—if anything. “Three facets—the changes in the skin, the bone, and the fat—are really some of the key players that result in facial sagging and everything kind of going downwards,” Rachel says.

Listen on to learn practical tips about product safety, treatments to avoid, and how you can choose the skin rejuvenation options that match how you want to age.

Enjoy the show!

*Special Bonus*

Use promo code “DAVE” to get 15% off Rachel Varga’s virtual consultation, eBook and/or masterclass. Learn more here.

  • 1:1 Virtual Consultation: Assessment and education on skin care, skin/laser treatments, and non-invasive skin rejuvenation
  • Unlocking Your Vitality eBook: A strategic guidebook for learning about the effective rejuvenation solutions
  • Unlocking Your Vitality Masterclass: Exclusive 30+ expert video series that shows you how to  get the skin you want and age impossibly well

Listen on Apple Podcasts or iTunesListen on Google Podcasts

Follow Along with the Transcript

Face Aging with the Science of Beauty – Rachel Varga – #668

Links/Resources

Website: rachelvarga.ca
Facebook: facebook.com/RachelVargaOfficial
Twitter: twitter.com/rachelvarga2019
Instagram: instagram.com/rachelvargaofficial
YouTube: youtube.com/channel/UCZUxR4hUHm4Lf0WisIrudqw
Pinterest: pinterest.ca/rachelvargaofficial/
Podcast: rachelvarga.ca/category/beauty-podcast/

Key Notes

  • The five Ds that destroy your skin 00:07:00
  • DIY rejuvenation has become popular in the U.S. 00:10:50
  • How risky is it to not go to a professional? 00:12:15
  • The problems with buying rollers online 00:16:00
  • What is hyaluronic acid and is it keto? 00:17:30
  • What to look for, if you want these types of treatments 00:19:50
  • Are the “lip vacuum pumps” ok to use? 00:21:30
  • Injecting filler into someone’s ears 00:24:00
  • What to do if your filler has migrated 00:25:30
  • The difference between sagging and deflation 00:29:15
  • How sleeping affects your face shape 00:30:20
  • What dynamic discord is and what facial muscles it affects 00:37:20
  • Which face muscles should you exercise? 00:41:10
  • How safe is Botulinum? 00:42:45
  • How to plan your procedure 00:45:00
  • Why did Rachel get started on cosmetic procedures? 00:48:00
  • Body dysmorphia disorder 00:50:50
  • When you are a healer, you want to heal people in many different ways 00:54:00
  • What do lasers do to our skin? 00:55:50
  • Turning back the age of cells 01:06:10
  • What do you say to the naysayers? 01:08:05
  • What is wrong about “aging gracefully” 01:09:30

Go check out my new book Super Human: The Bulletproof Plan to Age Backward and Maybe Even Live Forever and also “Game Changers“, “Headstrong” and “The Bulletproof Diet” on Amazon and consider leaving a review!

If you like today’s episode, check us out on Apple Podcasts at daveasprey.com/apple and leave us a 5-star rating and a creative review.

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