Mucuna Pruriens: Discover the Benefits of this Mood-Boosting Productivity Supplement

May 23, 2018 by Team Asprey

[tldr]

Known as the dopa bean, this natural herbal supplement is an adaptogen used in Ayurvedic medicine that lowers stress, improves focus, boosts the libido and elevates mood.
Mucuna pruriens contains high levels of naturally occurring L-dopa, which is the precursor to dopamine.
Read on to learn about how this may be the “magic bean” to help your mood and so much more.

[/tldr]

Is mucuna pruriens the mood- and libido-boosting productivity supplement you’ve been looking for?

Known as the dopa bean, mucuna pruriens is a natural herbal supplement used in Ayurvedic medicine, an ancient practice from India, that lowers stress, reduces anxiety, improves focus, boosts the libido, and elevates mood.[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3942911/”]

“Mucuna pruriens has an almost magical ability to improve motivation, well-being, energy, and sex drive along with decreasing the tendency to overeat,” says acupuncturist Karen Kurtak, LAc, co-author of “The Baby Boomer’s Guide to Living Forever,” and department head of Longevity Nutrition at Grossman Wellness Institute, in Denver.

Mucuna pruriens is a type of adaptogen, healing plants that regulate hormones to help your body better handle stress. Specifically, mucuna pruriens contains high levels of naturally occurring L-dopa, the precursor to dopamine. Dopamine is a brain chemical that plays a major role in motivation, pleasure, and emotions. Without enough dopamine, you wind up lethargic, unfocused, and even depressed. People with Parkinson’s disease also lack dopamine. Too much dopamine, on the other hand, is linked to impulsive, thrill-seeking behavior.[ref url=”https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100629170922.htm”]

If this latter personality sounds like you, probably best to pass on a dopa bean supplement. For everyone else, here’s what you need to know about this therapeutic bean before buying.

What is mucuna pruriens?

Mucuna pruriens, widely known as “velvet bean,” is actually a legume (not an herb) that grows in the tropics, originally from southern China and eastern India.[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3942911/”] While the bean is highly beneficial, you don’t want to touch the pod because it causes severe itching and irritation of the skin. In fact, one of its English names is “Cowitch.”

The dopa bean possesses an active compound known as L-dopa, which is a non-protein amino acid, in high concentration.[ref url=”https://www.ijcmas.com/7-3-2018/Prashant%20Kaushik,%20et%20al.pdf”] Because it boosts dopamine levels in the brain, it’s often used to treat Parkinson’s disease in Ayurvedic medicine. Western medicine uses a synthetic form of L-dopa to treat Parkinson’s patients’ symptoms, but clinical trials have shown the use of mucuna pruriens to have equivalent (or better) results without the side effects.[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1738871/pdf/v075p01672.pdf”]

L-dopa and dopamine: How mucuna pruriens works

Mucuna pruriens contains high levels of naturally occurring L-dopa, which is the precursor to dopamine. Dopamine is an important neurotransmitter that is essential for sleep, memory, mood, mental functions, and calming the nervous system.
By using this dopa bean supplement, you can support the body’s production of dopamine naturally. L-dopa crosses the blood-brain barrier and aides the body in creating this fantastic feel-good hormone.

As with everything, the right amount of dopamine is crucial. Normal levels keep your nervous system working properly. It promotes healthy levels of motivation, sex drive and appetite. Novel and pleasurable activities — like eating at a new restaurant, taking in a beautiful landscape, or going sky-diving — trigger the release of dopamine. It tells your brain, “I like this. Do it again.” The same thing happens when you conquer a long-term goal, like writing a book or getting a promotion.

Engaging in addictive behaviors like smoking, drinking, gambling, and overeating also heightens your dopamine levels. The problem is, too much dopamine can lead to your receptors not working correctly. Over time, addictive behaviors alter your brain cells, resulting in severe dopamine deficiency.

Mucuna for anxiety, depression and mood

With dopamine being essential for mental function, emotions, and mood, it’s no wonder this magic bean also boosts the mood. Dopamine regulates the release of various hormones and is known to calm the nervous system.

In 2014 researchers studied the effect of mucuna pruriens for reducing anxiety in rats. They used three different experimental models and chronic administration of mucuna pruriens. The results of the study showed a significant anti-anxiety effect in each of the models they studied.[ref url=”https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274066143″]

Mucuna also shows promise in treating stress and depression.[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4213977/”] However, cautions Kurtak, there is the chance that giving mucuna to people who suffer from depression caused by low serotonin could make the depression more severe. That’s because dopamine in large enough doses may interfere with the production of serotonin, she explains.

Mucuna for ADHD, focus and learning

If you feel like you have ADHD tendencies, mucuna may help you stay on task. Adderall, the attention deficit drug, keeps you focused by blocking the reuptake of dopamine, so there’s more of it floating around your nervous system.

A few studies show L-dopa works as a way to boost learning and reaction time.

One of the studies tested 8 adults between the ages of 21-28 with a single 200mg dose of levodopa (synthetic L-dopa) before a visual reaction time test. The results showed “Levodopa improved RT performance in a specific way: it interacted with signal intensity, but its effect was additive with those of stimulus-response mapping and foreperiod duration.”[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12185401″]

Another study showed L-dopa to enhance new-word learning in adults. This study divided participants into two groups. One group received five doses of 100mg L-dopa before each of the five learning sessions over the period of one week. Each session involved a study phase and a test phase and the results showed a superior recall accuracy of the new words for those who took the L-dopa, as well as continued accuracy at a one-month follow-up.

Mucuna for fertility and libido

A study involving 120 men showed Mucuna pruriens to reduce stress and improve quality of semen in infertile men. Sixty men were undergoing infertility screening, and the other 60 were healthy men who had initiated at least one pregnancy. The men were given 5 grams of mucuna pruriens powder a day for 3 months. They were also given a psychological stress assessment, and their cortisol levels were tested. After the 3 months, the results showed a significant decrease in cortisol levels and an increase in sperm count to the same level as the fertile men.[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2816389/”]

Mucuna pruriens dosage and how to take

As with any supplement you are taking to upgrade your performance, look for a high-quality powder or tablet, like NOW Foods mucuna extract containing 15% L-dopa.

How much: Take 200 – 500 mg with food, up to 1,000 mg a day. Taking more than 1 gram per day can lead to side effects like sweating, nausea, high blood pressure and heart palpitations.

Cycle on and off: While this supplement could be the magic pill you’ve been looking for, be cautious of dosage to ensure you don’t become tolerant or dependent on it. It’s recommended to cycle this supplement and only take it 4-5 days a week.

Fix your receptors: According to Kurtak, mucuna can be used as a natural remedy. However, she recommends taking it while rehabilitating the dopamine receptors. “Otherwise, it actually exacerbates the problem and causes further damage.”

Her suggested stack of supplements to take alongside macuna:

L-tyrosine: 1000 mg two times per day on an empty stomach
Rhodiola: 50 mg twice a day
Serotonin-Dopamine drops
N-Acetyl Cysteine: 1000-2000 mg of to support glutathione production and prevent loss of the naturally occurring dopamine

Nicotine, the Perfect Psychotropic? Dr. Paul Newhouse # 494

May 22, 2018 by Dave Asprey

Nicotine and your brain! Don’t worry, we aren’t talking about cigarettes.

Today’s guest on Bulletproof Radio is Dr. Paul Newhouse. Dr. Newhouse has a broad background in human cognitive medicine and neuroscience and has 40 years of studying cognitive models in humans under his belt. He has spent a lot of that time studying nicotine’s effects on the brain.

He’s the director of the Vanderbilt Center for Cognitive Medicine in the department of Psychiatry and behavioral science at Vanderbilt.

Dave Asprey and Dr. Newhouse get into how cognition works and how specific receptors are important for things like Alzheimer’s Disease or ADHD.

Enjoy the show!

Listen to the episode on itunes

Follow Along with the Transcript

Nicotine, the Perfect Psychotropic? Dr. Paul Newhouse # 494

Links/Resources for Dr. Paul Newhouse

• Twitter:
• Website:
• Vanderbilt Kennedy Center:
• National Institute on Aging:

Show Notes

“What got you so interested, especially 40 years ago when this was, I think humans have always thought about what’s going on in there, even going back to the ancient Greeks but what peaked your interest and has kept you engaged in this field of study for so long?” -Dave
“I got fascinated with the idea that we could use the tools of cognitive science, of biology to understand what the mechanisms were that were going on in the brain, what goes wrong and then how we could probe that system to develop new treatments and new approaches to enhancing cognitive functions and the quality of people’s lives.” -Dr. Newhouse
“It’s changed a lot. A lot of the drugs, maybe some of the ones that you’ve worked on, things that were designed for Alzheimer’s or a specific diseases are now being at least considered as cognitive enhancing agents in healthy brains. Does that scare the heck out of you or are you happy to see that?” -Dave
On being “normal. “Now yes, if you knock someone’s performance down, you can use drugs to bring that back up again but to improve performance from a normal baseline has proven to be very, very difficult and in fact, most of the drugs that we’ve studied as cognitive enhancers, actually show that in normals, they tend to impair performance as much as anything.” -Dr. Newhouse
More activity is not always better… “What I’m trying to say, I’m sorry I’m going on about this but it’s really just not just a linear construct. You can’t say, “Oh, I need to increase the activity of these areas of my brain,” it may actually be better for you if you decrease.” -Dr. Newhouse
“There are subcellular networks at the level of mitochondria there are very intense relationships within cells and that’s of course the focus of a huge amount of medical research is to understand molecular and cellular mechanisms.” -Dr. Newhouse
Dave on knowing Dr. Newhouse’s research. “I do owe you a thanks because back in 1988, you were the first person to propose augmenting the nicotinic system to treat Alzheimer’s disease and I’ve come across a few of your papers and I’m a relatively outspoken fan of nicotine as apart from tobacco and smoking, which have clear risks, but nicotine as a purified agent seems to be a really potent cognitive enhancer for at least a set of people, including me and probably even has some health benefits, depending on which benefits you’re looking at even though there might be other counteracting things.”
What nicotinic receptors do is they act like gain enhancers. The modulate the gain of a particular neurochemical event. If you stimulate a nicotinic receptor that’s sitting pre-synaptically or sort of in the end of an axon and you get more bang for your buck when a signal comes along. -Dr. Newhouse
Nicotine and ADHD. “We began to look into what were the potential effects, neural effects of nicotine on cognitive processing in ADHD. We knew that amphetamines for example were used, they helped … stimulants helped patients with ADHD and what we found by actually taking this into the lab was that there was a cognitive process of what we call behavioral inhibition that nicotine really seems to help in these patients. In other words, it kind of slows down their brain a little bit and reduces impulsive responding in the lab. What we showed in a paper some years ago was that you could actually use this lab measure to predict how effective a nicotinic treatment might be in a real world test.”

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Protect Your Telomeres to Live Longer (and Better)

May 21, 2018 by Dave Asprey

[tldr]

Telomeres are caps of DNA at the ends of chromosomes that protect your cells from aging.
These caps naturally wear down over time until they get so short that they can no longer protect the cell. Short telomeres are linked to chronic and degenerative diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s, and early death.
Scientists view telomere length as a reliable marker of your biological age (as opposed to your age by years.)
Telomeres naturally shorten over time, but you can protect and lengthen your telomeres with meditation, exercise, and a diet full of healthy fats and vegetables.

[/tldr]

Take a moment and picture the plastic tips on shoelaces — they protect the ends and stop the string from fraying. That’s one way scientists describe telomeres — caps of DNA at the ends of chromosomes that protect your cells from aging.

These caps naturally wear down over time. Each time a cell copies itself, telomeres shorten. They get shorter and shorter until they can no longer protect the cell. The cell then either stops growing or it dies in a process called apoptosis — or cellular suicide. Short telomeres are linked to a weakened immune system, chronic and degenerative diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s, and early death. Find out how you can hack your telomeres to live longer and better.

Telomeres and aging

The rate at which telomeres shorten could determine the pace at which you age. Scientists view telomere length as a reliable marker of your biological age (as opposed to your age by years.)[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5514388/ “]Telomeres naturally shorten over time, but certain habits, like smoking, excessive stress, not exercising, and a diet full of processed foods can accelerate the process. People with shorter telomeres than the average length for their age group have a higher risk for serious disease and early death.[ref url=” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3370421/ “] Shorter-than-average telomeres have been linked to heart disease and heart failure,[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/17397675/”][ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/17043079/ “] cancer,[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17416776″][ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/19217888/”] diabetes,[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/16443874/”] and osteoporosis.[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/17347788/”]

In one study, people over 60 with shorter telomeres had a three times higher risk of dying from heart disease, and an eight times higher risk of dying from an infectious disease. [ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/12573379/”]

During a recent Bulletproof Radio (iTunes) podcast episode, Elissa Epel, PhD, a psychology professor at the University of California, San Francisco, and author of “The Telomere Effect,” says, “When we measure telomeres in midlife, they’re a pretty reliable predictor of who gets disease early and, in some studies, who dies early, so they do matter when we’re older.”

Telomeres and stress

While age and genes have the biggest influence on telomere length, stress follows closely behind.[ref url=”http://www.apa.org/monitor/2014/10/chronic-stress.aspx”] In one study from George Mason University, women with kids had telomeres 4.2 percent shorter, or the equivalent of 11 years, than women without children. According to the researchers, the stress of child-rearing may be to blame.

In another study, also of women, those with the highest levels of perceived stress had telomeres shorter by the equivalent of one decade than women who said they experienced less stress.[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/15574496/ “]

That’s an important finding — how you view your stress has as much bearing on telomere length as environmental stress. Learning to manage and lower your stress is a powerful way to preserve your telomeres and put the brakes on aging.

The type of stress also matters, and determines how big the impact is on telomere length. While adult stress can shorten telomeres,[ref url=”https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0968000402021102″] people who experience multiple traumas like abuse and neglect as children have higher odds of developing shorter telomeres as adults.[ref url=” http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2016/09/28/1525602113″] Exposing the body to many years of high arousal accelerates cellular aging, more than single stressful events. “Childhood events may embed epigenetically and alter gene expression almost permanently,” write researchers in one study.

How you can lengthen and protect your telomeres

The good news is that you have a lot of control over the wear-and-tear of your telomeres. And even if you have shorter telomeres, it’s not a done deal — you can lengthen them with certain habits and behaviors. Here’s how to do it:

Meditate

Since how you perceive your stress counts, finding ways to feel more in control is key. Meditation gives you that time and space to sort out your thoughts, so you can recognize which worries are valid, and which are not. This changes your perception and experience of stress. A 2009 paper suggests that mindfulness meditation lowers stress, which in turn could preserve telomeres.[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19735238 “] Another study found that women who practiced loving kindness meditation (a technique that encourages compassion) had longer telomeres than women who didn’t.[ref url=”https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0889159113001736 “] Carve out time each day (put it in the calendar if you have to) to quieten your thoughts and focus on your breath. Even a quick five-minute meditation in the middle of your workday can calm your nervous system and do wonders for your sense of wellbeing.

Limit exposure to air pollution

If you live near a highway or have a long commute, this one could be hard. But air pollution does affect telomere length. One study found that traffic officers had shorter telomeres than people who worked in an office.[ref url=” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/19772576/”] Consider investing in a high-efficiency particulate (HEPA) air filter, and sleep with your windows closed if you live near a busy road.

Get active

Yet another benefit of exercise — it reduces oxidative stress and boosts proteins that help stabilize telomeres. [ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/19948976/”] In one study, men and women who didn’t exercise much or at all were biologically older by 10 years than those who were very active. But you don’t need to run a marathon or put in hours each day at the gym. People who do moderate aerobic exercise just 45 minutes, three times a week, have telomeres similar in length to marathon runners.[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5546536/”]

“There is such a marginal benefit of being a marathoner versus being a moderately fit person who’s doing endurance jogging,” says Epel. “There are other more important things to do than to exercise for hours a day.”

But take note office workers: “It’s not just how active you are,” says Epel, “it’s really how much sitting you do, so people like me are in trouble. I exercise every day, but I sit on my butt for hours the rest of the time.” Get up regularly from your desk — at least once every hour — and walk around or do some stretching. A standing desk, although pricey, is a great long-term investment in your health.

Maintain a healthy weight

Obesity causes telomeres to wear down quicker. One study found that the loss of telomeres in obese people was equivalent to 9 years of life.[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/19255364/”] One way to keep your weight steady is to practice intermittent fasting — when you cycle in and out of periods of eating and not eating. Intermittent fasting not only boosts weight loss, it makes cells more resilient and promotes cellular repair. It also lowers oxidative stress — when free radicals overpower the antioxidants in the body. Since oxidative stress shortens telomeres, reducing this type of stress will help preserve them.[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14623283″]

Boost your NAD+ levels

Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (known as NAD+) is a coenzyme, found in every cell, that rewires your metabolism and activates sirtuins — proteins that help maintain the length of your telomeres.[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18337721/”] Since NAD+ levels drop as you get older, consider taking supplements of this coenzyme or practice intermittent fasting, which increases NAD+ supplies.

Load up on healthy fats and veggies

One study found that telomeres didn’t shorten as quickly in people with high levels of omega-3 fatty acids than people with low levels of the fats.[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/20085953/ “] Another study found that women with shorter telomeres and lower levels of vitamin C, vitamin E, and beta carotene had an increased risk of developing breast cancer.[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/19089916/”] Eat plenty of lightly cooked leafy greens and broccoli, berries, wild salmon, and other fatty fish.

“Eat your damn vegetables,” says Michael Fossel, MD, PhD, author of “The Telomerase Revolution”, in a Bulletproof Radio (iTunes) podcast. “It’s really not rocket science when it comes to maintaining telomeres.” But he emphasizes that moderation is key: “You need a good diet, but if what you do is end up stressing yourself worrying about it the whole time, you’ll just undercut yourself. Chill out, relax, go meditate.”

Give TA-65 supplements a try

Made from a Chinese root, this supplement claims to activate telomerase — the enzyme that rebuilds telomeres. A 2009 study found that TA-65 increased telomere length and lessened DNA damage in mice. But before you rush out to buy it, it doesn’t come cheap — expect to shell out $600 for a three-month supply. A slightly cheaper option is cycloastragenol — believed to be the active ingredient of TA-65. One study found that, like TA-65, it activated telomerase in mice.[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25095809″]

Test your telomeres at home

You can now order telomeres testing kits in the mail. With the prick of a finger or swab of a cheek, companies like TeloYears and Titanova tell you how your telomeres compare in length to others your age. Whether the information is accurate is another story — people have received conflicting results when trying different tests.[ref url=”http://www.kpbs.org/news/2017/may/19/teloyears-titanovo-telomere-testing/ “] [ref url=”https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/31/science/i-had-my-dna-picture-taken-with-varying-results.html”]

Most scientists agree that while knowing your telomere length could nudge you to adopt healthier habits, there are still too many unknowns. For instance, it’s not clear whether telomeres are the same length throughout all tissues and cells of the body.[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3166469/”] So a test that analyses telomeres in saliva may be offering just a small snapshot of the bigger picture.

Tests typically cost around $100 a pop — money perhaps better spent on a fresh farmer’s market haul or new walking shoes.

How TV Star Erik Tsou Shed His Depression and Became a Happy Father

May 18, 2018 by Team Asprey

At one point, father and husband Erik Tsou weighed 220 pounds, and as he points out, he isn’t a tall person. Born with achondroplasia or dwarfism, Tsou acknowledges his struggles with weight started in childhood. Now, glancing at a photo of himself at that weight, Tsou admits he looked happy – it was a fun time in his life – but his health suffered tremendously from the excess weight.

The tipping point for Tsou arrived with his mother’s declining health from diabetes. “Then [her death] really changed my life and made me think about how I wanted to live. I wanted to be healthy.” So, from 2009 to 2011, Tsou embarked on a disciplined fitness routine, hitting the gym five days a week. He lost 40 pounds, though eventually his progress plateaued.

While he was disappointed that his health improvements had apparently maxed out, there was another light in his life. He met his wife, Tracy, who starred on the reality TV show “Little Women: LA.” “We got married and right away we wanted to have a child,” Tsou shared. “Though then we had two miscarriages and it was very hard on Tracy.”

Around the same time, Tsou woke one morning and went to get out of bed when his leg gave out. A specialist confirmed his leg wasn’t receiving sufficient fluid from his spine and he’d need surgery. “After the surgery, I was definitely not the same man…not just physically but mentally.” Tsou shares that his depression took a long time to heal.

However, another tipping point came one morning when Tsou tried Bulletproof Coffee. “I made [the coffee], and that day, I was hooked. It has changed my life to a point where I’m able to get through my day being kickass.”

As his life started to change for the better, Tsou received more terrific news. Tracy confirmed that they would have a baby. “[The baby] was going to be a boy and he was going to be average height… Happy is not even the word to describe it,” Tsou shared with delight.

Tsou opened up about how he hopes his son will see him one day. “I want my son to look at his father and say, ‘We all deal with something in our life, but It’s not about what you’re dealing with, it’s how you overcome the obstacle.”

Now a grateful husband and father, Tsou believes Bulletproof Coffee and a Bulletproof lifestyle have made him a better person. “I look forward to waking up in the morning because I know I’m going to have my Bulletproof Coffee. I’m going to be ready to start my day and make it count.”

Here’s Why Everybody Needs a Vitamin D Supplement

May 18, 2018 by Team Asprey

Standing in the hot Miami sunshine, Dave Asprey breaks down the science behind a very Bulletproof nutrient – vitamin D – which you can get from the sun and in supplement form. Watch this video to learn what you need to know if you’re taking vitamin D supplements and why sunlight is actually your best way to get it. Here’s what you’ll also learn about vitamin D:

Vitamin D health benefits, including radiant skin and fending off disease
How to properly expose yourself to the sun for vitamin D benefits
How to combine sunlight and supplementation for best vitamin D levels
What your vitamin D levels should be
The benefits of taking vitamin K2 with vitamin D
Why you want to get sunshine in your eyes each day

Since most people don’t get enough vitamin D via the sun — blame desk jobs and sunscreen — supplementing with D3 will help boost energy, balance hormone levels and keep your risk of many diseases, including cancer and heart disease, low. Aim for 125mcg, or 5,000 IU, a day. Be sure not to take vitamin D without vitamin K2.

Try: Vitamins A-D-K The combination works together to support your bones, heart, and immune system.

The Secret to Longevity: Keep Your Heart (and Mitochondria) Strong

May 17, 2018 by Team Asprey

If you want to live forever, or at least until 180 like Dave, look to your heart. In a recent Bulletproof Radio (iTunes) podcast episode, mechanical engineer-turned-physician Peter Attia, who now specializes in the applied science of longevity, revealed that a strong and healthy heart is the real secret to longevity.

Proof? According to Attia, centenarians live longer than the rest of us because of their genes. Yet they still fall prey to the same diseases the rest of us get, only decades later — and what always takes them down, says Attia, is heart disease.

What you might find even more surprising: The key to a healthy heart actually lies in your mitochondria, those miniscule powerhouses in your cells that fuel your entire body, including your heart.

How mitochondrial health equals a strong and lasting heart

Arteries fail due to chronic inflammation

Conventional medicine doesn’t always get it right with heart disease – from diagnostic tests to heart-healthy advice, there’s a lot that’s unclear regarding how to properly care for your good ole pumper.

So first, some background information that’ll simplify any confusion:

Cholesterol isn’t the real villain when it comes to heart attacks and strokes. Your arteries go out – first and foremost – due to inflammation.[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5003124/”] Remember, at its root, and in acute instances like when you cut your finger, inflammation is just your body’s way of protecting itself. In that instance, a swat team of white blood cells surround your cut, protecting it from infection.

However, chronic inflammation – when that same swat team of white blood cells are on duty 24-7 without rest or a water break, so to speak – causes bigger problems. Your body begins to rebel against itself because it’s overloaded. In the case of your heart, inflammation wreaks serious havoc because it leads to the buildup of fatty deposits called plaque.[ref url=”http://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2012/12/international-study-points-to-inflammation-as-cause-of-plaque-buildup-in-heart-vessels-researchers-say.html”] Your body thinks plaque is foreign, so your white blood cells try to fend it off. Yet, when the white blood cells are overloaded from combating plaque — and eventually unsuccessful — the plaque ruptures. Its contents leak into your blood and create a clot that blocks healthy blood flow. These clots lead to the majority of most heart attacks.[ref url=”https://www.bhf.org.uk/heart-matters-magazine/news/behind-the-headlines/blood-clot-breakdown-and-heart-attack-prevention”]

Chronic inflammation is linked to poor mitochondrial health

To keep your arteries strong and clear of plaque, you need to reduce body-wide inflammation. Without inflammation, cholesterol can’t accumulate in your arteries to begin with. The best way to keep inflammation at bay? Plain and simple: manage and maintain your mitochondrial health. Here’s why:

Mitochondria make the body’s most basic fuel called adenosine triphosphate (ATP) from oxygen and food you consume. If you eat crappy, inflammatory foods, the fuel it produces will also be faulty — and you won’t operate at your best. Think of ATP as the gas in your car. If you get a junk tank of fuel, your car won’t hum like it should.

In addition to fueling your body, mitochondria break down cellular waste to use as fuel.[ref url=”https://www.alzforum.org/news/research-news/brain-drain-glymphatic-pathway-clears-av-requires-water-channel”] However, if mitochondia are overstressed and overworked, the waste builds up and mitochondria weaken. Your body won’t be able to handle even small everyday exposure to toxins, like pesticides or pollution, because your mitochondria aren’t functioning properly.

The connection between mitochondrial health and a strong heart

Your heart muscles have more mitochondria than any other organ in your body – 5,000-10,000 mitochondria per cell, in fact.[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23271420″] These little guys are necessary because your heart muscle cells have the high-demand job of continuously pumping day-in and day-out over your entire lifetime. They never, ever get a break.

That’s why the way to a strong heart – and a bad-ass long life – is by bringing your A-game to mitochondrial health.

6 mitochondrial ways to a strong heart

Here are six mitochondrial fixes that will ramp up your cardiovascular system STAT:

Minimize your exposure to 3 environmental toxins

Most chronic inflammation is the result of unwanted substances in the body, such as environmental toxins like pesticides, mold, and food toxins called mycotoxins.[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4579563/”] Science strongly supports the fact that environmental toxicity lowers mitochondrial function[ref url=”https://academic.oup.com/toxsci/article/134/1/1/1666668″][ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4312177/”], which in turns lowers vascular function.[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3786553/”] To keep your mitochrondria in tip-top shape, eliminate these three toxins:

Pesticides

Pesticides like glyphosate, the active ingredient used in weedkillers like Roundup, affect mitochondrial ability to generate ATP.[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16263381″] While it’s nearly impossible to avoid glyphosate completely – unless you live off-the-grid on your own land – there are steps you can take to both minimize your exposure and get pesticides and herbicides out of your body.

Eat organic food that originates from sustainable farming practices. This reduces your exposure to water- and soil-based chemicals. The Bulletproof Diet is based on organic food for this very reason.
Detoxify from chemicals that are already in your body by breaking a sweat. Both exercise and time in a sauna help your body to excrete chemicals naturally.[ref url=”https://search.proquest.com/openview/b5c17f8e0ea2f658e4a92f6b9339509f/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=32528″] Read on for more ways to detoxify from glyphosate.

Environmental mold

Mold, particularly as a result of water-damaged buildings, is a definitive culprit in compromised mitochondrial function[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3654247/”], Follow these steps to minimize your mold exposure immediately.

If you suspect mold in your home, have it professionally inspected. An ERMI (Environmental Relative Moldiness Index) Air Test evaluates the risk for indoor mold growth and associated health effects in your home or office.
Remove and remediate any existing mold from your home. If an ERMI reveals you do live in a mold-ridden environment, get out immediately. Stay with family or friends until a remediation specialist has given you the green light to go home again.
Prevent new mold from forming in your bathroom and other damp areas with Homebiotic, a probiotic spray that prevents mold growth.

For more tips on how to combat mold, read Top 11 Ways to Beat Toxic Mold In Your Home And Life.

Mycotoxins

Toxins in food called mycotoxins also inhibit mitochondrial function.[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3268453/”] Mycotoxins, produced by mold, arise from the manipulation of food – through growing, cooking, and fermentation processes. To keep mycotoxins out of your body, avoid foods that most often contain them (more on that below) and take supplements to detox from mold exposure.

Avoid gluten, yeast, wheat, corn, grain (other than white rice), barley, peanuts, cottonseed, grain-fed meat and dairy, mushrooms, and commonly available chocolate. Even unfiltered tap water, unfiltered alcoholic beverages (beer and wine), and commonly available coffee can contain high mycotoxin levels.
Consume more organic vegetables and wild-caught fish, which bind to mycotoxins, thereby helping to remove them from your body.

Avoid overeating, especially sugary carbs

Overeating can cause you to get LPSs (lipopolysaccharides) which cause mitochondrial inflammation[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4691133/”], and have been linked to everything from Parkinson’s Disease to autism.[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3025048/”] LPS is a compound made of fats and sugar that’s normally protective. However, when LPSs release into the bloodstream, they become a dangerous toxin that drives up inflammation. The solution? Eat plenty of fibrous veggies rather than binging on sugary carbs.

Bind and release your toxins

Take supplements that bind to toxins and flush them out of your system. Those include calcium d-glucarate, chlorella, and charcoal. Activated charcoal can absorb chemicals, drugs, pesticides, mercury, and even lead before they inflame your body.[ref url=”https://www.uofmhealth.org/health-library/hn-5203004″] Take 1-2 charcoal pills after you suspect exposure. Read Activated Charcoal: A Strange Way to Detox for more tips on how to use activated charcoal to bind unwanted materials from your body and release them rapidly.
Get all the details on the best supplements to eliminate toxins here.

Increase bile flow throughout your body

Bile is a fluid that helps you to digest fat properly, as well as to break down toxins. It’s secreted by the liver, though stored in the gallbladder. With insufficient bile, your body will have trouble binding and excreting the toxins that accumulate in it.[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4091928/”] It’s somewhat of a catch-22 because toxins impair your body’s ability to produce bile, yet bile is a necessity to help you excrete toxins. What to do?

Consume saturated fats, like grass-fed meat and butter, to stimulate bile production.[ref url=”https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00897604/document”]
Avoid foods containing mold alfatoxins like peanuts, corn, milk, cheese, nuts, and soybeans that impair liver function, thus lowering bile production.[ref url=”https://www.nature.com/articles/215882a0″]
Supplement with ox bile and lipase. Most people have been on a low-fat diet at one time or another, which has the effect of down-regulating the natural bile production in your gallbladder. When you switch to a high-fat diet, take the enyzme lipase to help you to digest fat better. Aim for a high-quality lipase supplement that is free of toxic mold species like Aspergillus. You can also combine lipase with ox bile, which further assists to break down fats and promote fat-soluble vitamin absorption.

Supplement to support maximal mitochondrial health

Supplementation can go a long way toward improved mitochondrial health. In particular, Bulletproof offers two supplements that help you sustain high energy at the cellular level:

Unfair Advantage helps your mitochondria to create more energy (ATP) and keeps them running at peak performance. This formula pairs active PQQ with CoQ10, a well-known enhancer of mitochondrial function, to increase its overall effects.
KetoPrime mimics the effect of calorie restriction, which assists your body to create new mitochondria. KetoPrime also helps to boost the overall output of your mitochondria, thereby giving you clean-burning energy sans jittery stimulants.

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