High Dose IV Vitamin C Therapy: Can it Cure Cancer?

May 10, 2018 by Dave Asprey

[tldr]

Vitamin C is gaining steam as a complementary and even primary treatment for a lot of inflammatory and oxidative stress-related conditions, including cancer.
Your body is in constant contact with free radicals — atoms that damage cells and cause aging. Some come from outside sources, and some come from your cells’ day-to-day activities. Too many, and you get oxidative stress which could lead to cancer.
Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant that helps snap up free radicals before they wreak havoc.
Read on to find out whether vitamin C is a legitimate primary or complementary treatment for cancer.

[/tldr]

There’s a good chance you learned at a young age that vitamin C is good for getting rid of the the common cold. It’s one of the cheapest and most common supplements out there, and lots of people take it daily for the immune boost.

Vitamin C is gaining steam as a complementary and even primary treatment for a lot of inflammatory and oxidative stress-related conditions, including cancer. Soon after diagnosis, when you’re just starting to navigate the complicated world of cancer, alternative therapies start to cross into your space. Some sound downright bizarre, but others, like vitamin C, have an established biological basis and you want to learn more.

Here’s some information to bring to your functional medicine doctor to open up a discussion about how high-dose IV vitamin C therapy fits into your cancer program.

Free radicals and oxidative stress

Your body is in constant contact with free radicals, unstable atoms that can damage cells and cause aging. Some free radicals come from outside sources, and some are byproducts of your cells’ day-to-day activities. The processes that help you concentrate on a tough problem at work, lift barbells over your head, and digest your lunch all produce free radicals.

Chances are, you’ve heard that free radicals cause problems, which is only partially true. In the right place at the right time, free radicals help your body do what it needs to do.

Disease, oxidative stress, and vitamin C

When free radicals build up faster than your body can sweep them up, you end up with oxidative stress, which is an overload of free radicals that damages cells. It’s a major factor in nearly every disease process you can think of. You can trace heart disease, cancer, autoimmune diseases, neurodegenerative disorders, and so many more problems to oxidative stress.[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3614697/”]

Cancer develops when oxidative stress damages cells’ DNA, causing it to mutate and proliferate.[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15646026″][ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16978905″][ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16430879′]

That’s where antioxidants come in. Any time you eat colorful vegetables, bright pink wild salmon, or take an antioxidant supplement, you’re dosing yourself with antioxidants that help snap up excess free radicals. When all goes well, excess free radicals get destroyed before they get to the point that they start destroying things.

Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant, and your body’s demand for it constantly changes. When animals have an illness, injury, or even when they’re frightened, their bodies respond to the demand by making more vitamin C. Somewhere along the line, humans lost the ability to make vitamin C, so you have to get it from outside sources.

Does vitamin C IV therapy work for cancer? What doctors and science say

Emerging research shows promise that vitamin C, at the proper concentration, kills cancer cells without harming healthy cells.[ref url=”http://www.cmaj.ca/content/174/7/937.short”][ref url=”http://science.sciencemag.org/content/350/6266/1391″] More trials are necessary before the medical community will accept it as a legitimate treatment.

Typical doctors say that research has disproven the effectiveness of vitamin C against cancer. A few studies in the highly respected New England Journal of Medicine found that there was no difference between high-dose vitamin C and placebo in the progression and survival rates of patients with advanced cancer,[ref url=”https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM198501173120301″][ref url=”https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM197909273011303v”]

There are a few problems with this study and several others like it. First, all study participants were in the advanced stages of cancer, so you can’t tell what would happen with a range of participants including some in the early and mid-stages. Second, participants only received 10g of vitamin C per day, by mouth.

On an episode of Bulletproof Radio, orthomolecular medicine Dr. Ron Hunninghake (iTunes) explains why that doesn’t work:

“Let’s say, the reference range of vitamin C in the bloodstream is one milligram per deciliter. After a 15-gram IV C infusion, it’s about 100 milligrams per deciliter. It’s 100 times what you would normally have in your blood. Now, you can take as much oral vitamin C as you can and you might get it up from one to maybe three, maybe four, maybe five if you’ve already been taking vitamin C for a long time, but to get beyond that is almost impossible.”

So, delivery method matters. So does the amount, which should have been much higher for an effective study. Hunninghake explains the research that led to the Riordian protocol, which is the protocol for treating cancer with IV vitamin C. “It was at about 350 to 400 milligrams per deciliter that we saw almost universally, all cancer cell types disintegrate, go into apoptosis and knock themselves out.”

A more recent study confirms that route is crucial to raise plasma vitamin C levels. Researchers tested the difference between blood concentrations of vitamin C after oral administration and IV administration. They found that oral vitamin C results in a narrow range of vitamin C concentration in the blood, and only IV vitamin C produces high enough concentrations to fight tumors.[ref url=”http://annals.org/aim/fullarticle/717329″] This, in combination with a handful of case studies and preliminary research showing improved outcomes after IV vitamin C administration,[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1405876/”] calls for thorough evaluation of vitamin C as a potential cancer treatment.

Vitamin C as a complementary cancer treatment

Standard cancer treatment like chemotherapy and radiation causes a lot of oxidative stress and depletes vitamin C. In fact, the surges in free radicals and vitamin C deficiency contribute to a lot of the adverse effects of chemo and radiation.

A multi-center study of German breast cancer patients showed that IV therapy alongside chemo and radiation keeps vitamin C levels where they should be and counteracts the oxidative stress that cancer treatments cause, reducing side effects and enhancing quality of life during and after treatment.[ref url=”http://iv.iiarjournals.org/content/25/6/983.short”][ref url=”https://synapse.koreamed.org/DOIx.php?id=10.3346/jkms.2007.22.1.7″]

Another study showed that high-dose IV vitamin C reduced inflammation after standard treatments, which is a favorable outcome in and of itself, and more remarkably, it also decreased tumor markers.[ref url=”https://translational-medicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1479-5876-10-189″]

So, if you and your functional medicine doctor decided that the conventional therapies are the way to go, ask about taking on vitamin C therapy while you’re going through it.

Is oral vitamin C enough?

Your body’s demand for vitamin C changes depending on what’s happening in your body at any given point in time. For a healthy individual with a low toxic load, no cancer or other chronic illness, and no current infections, what you’d get from your diet or from an oral supplement will suffice.

If you’re going after cancer or an infection, you’re not likely to raise your blood levels enough with just capsules and lemon water. IV vitamin C bypasses normal metabolism where you lose a lot of the vitamin C you took orally. If you mean business, IV is the way to go.

Will too much vitamin C cause kidney stones?

A common warning that conventional doctors give is that too much vitamin C causes will skyrocket your oxalates and cause kidney stones. People with existing kidney problems or a deficiency of glucose 6 phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD, a crucial enzyme) need extra guidance from a functional medicine doctor.[ref url=”https://www.ajkd.org/article/S0272-6386(04)01602-6/abstract”] It might mean steering clear, it might mean keeping close tabs on your oxalate levels.

Other than that, research shows that high-dose vitamin C is “remarkably safe.”[ref url=”http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0011414″]

This is one of those times when a functional medicine doctor is absolutely necessary. When you’re dealing with a terminal illness, you want someone who thoroughly understands the full set of tools, including food, supplements, and pharmaceuticals. If you rely only on conventional doctors, who are trained almost exclusively in pharmaceuticals, you might miss out on that nutritional or supplement boost you need to push your body into the cure zone.

Americans a Lot More Anxious Than They Were a Year Ago, Says New Survey

May 9, 2018 by Team Asprey

If you’re feeling anxious, you’re not alone. According to a new survey from the American Psychiatric Association (APA), nearly 40 percent of Americans are more anxious than they were at this time last year. Overall, this year’s national anxiety score is 51 on a scale from 0 to 100 — a five-point jump since 2017, says the survey.

The APA asked more than 1,000 adults to rate their anxiety in five areas: health, safety, finances, politics, and relationships.

Americans worry about paying the bills

While Americans reported feeling more anxious in all five areas, the biggest increases in anxiety centered around feeling safe, health, and paying the bills.

Nearly 30 percent reported extreme anxiety about their specific medical conditions, while 39 percent noted moderate anxiety for the same question (the survey asked questions about health insurance coverage and if the person had ever met with a therapist or other mental health professional.)

Who is the most anxious?

Millennials are more anxious than Baby Boomers and Generation X-ers, found the survey. But anxiety increased the most for Baby Boomers — a seven-point jump from last year.

Women reported more anxiety than men. Nearly 60 percent of women under 50 are more anxious, compared to 38 percent of men. The same goes for people older than 50 — nearly 40 percent of women and 24 percent of men experienced more anxiety.

People of color scored 11 points higher on the anxiety scaled compared to white Americans, according to the survey.

“Increased stress and anxiety can significantly impact many aspects of people’s lives,” says APA president Anita Everett. She suggests “regular exercise, relaxation, healthy eating, and time with friends and family,” to ease your worries and reduce stress.

Anxiety: a hardware problem in the brain

Anxiety disorders are brain hardware problems, just like depression and other mental health conditions. While there are likely biological underpinnings, the brain is plastic and you can train and untrain your brain to a certain extent, since behaviors reinforce brain activity. One recent study revealed how overactive brain cells lead to anxiety.

Here are ways to calm your anxiety so you can get the most out of your day:

Eat more healthy fats to fuel your brain

Simple as it sounds, eating well is essential to managing anxiety. Eating processed, refined, and sugar-laden foods taxes your entire body, including your endocrine system which regulates stress cortisol levels that can contribute to anxiety.

Focus on anti-inflammatory foods and healthy fats. The omega-3s in fish oil help your body better handle anxiety because they protect against inflammation, which increases your cortisol or stress levels.[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3191260/”]

Bonus: A magnesium-rich diet full of foods like avocado, dark chocolate, and spinach can also help to curtail anxiety.[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5452159/”]

Exercise stress away with simple and quick workout routines

Exercise releases endorphins, your brain’s natural painkillers, which in turn reduces stress.[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6250104″] Recognize where you are at, and start there. No need to overwhelm yourself (and create more anxiety) by trying to tackle too much from the get-go. Try these Ultra-Effective Workout Routines That Take 10 Minutes or Less

Another great way to exercise your anxiety away is with this 18-Minute Full-Body HIIT Workout that incorporates high-intensity interval training – a marriage between aerobic and resistance training.[ref url=”https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=622824141502190;res=IELAPA”]

Use guided meditation to clear your mind of unwanted stress

Focusing your attention on your breath or a particular phrase like a mantra can go a long way to relieving anxious thoughts.[ref url=”https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/da.21964″]

This guided meditation centers you on your breath through visualization. Guided meditation can be an exceptional way to calm stress in the present moment.

Rewire your brain with EMDR

In a Bulletproof Radio (iTunes) podcast episode, Dave offers ways to hack your anxiety. “If it’s a quick and dirty [anxiety], EMDR, a therapy technique which ‘erases’ little traumas in your brain, could be really beneficial for you.” EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) works rapidly to help your brain and nervous system find more appropriate responses to specific triggers. Essentially, EMDR helps to resync your right and left brain to diminish the power of events from your past that are still emotionally charged. If you want to try EMDR, find a therapist with EMDR training specifically.

The Business of Building Wealth – David Osborn, Serial Entrepreneur – # 490

May 8, 2018 by Dave Asprey

Think you are unemployable? Start your own company.

David Osborn, who Dave calls a “business rock star” is one of the largest franchise owners in one of the top real estate companies in the world called Keller Williams with about 4500 agents and sales volume exceeding 8.5 billion, and he’s founded, get this, more than 50 companies and at least 25 of those are ongoing profitable companies.

It all started when he was 16 with a lawn mowing business and just never stopped.

He is on Bulletproof Radio to talk about work life balance and also wealth. And how being told, “You’re like a jet airplane without a pilot.” Made him change course.

Enjoy the show!

Listen to the episode on itunes

Follow Along with the Transcript

The Business of Building Wealth – David Osborn, Serial Entrepreneur – # 490

Show Notes

“What I mean by that Dave is to be successful I think you have to have a high level of integrity. And to me integrity means with yourself, like what’s working and what’s not. You can’t be delusional and if you’re delusional in business you’ll get destroyed. So you can be delusional with your buddies around how great you were in high school as an athlete or how great you were as a sales person or how great a husband you were and they’ll all buy it and buy you a beer for being so great.” On integrity in business.
“That’s why I love Bulletproof so much is you’re your own limitation so the more you can get out of yourself the more successful you can be. And so having a coffee that gets you kick started, having products that help you, like the glutathione force after you’ve had it, maybe you have too much to drink one night, you pop a couple of those you feel better in the morning. So just having all these tools and hacks that keep you engaged and keep you moving forward is just part of that journey.”
“I was treating myself the way I would never treat a child. The internal voice that I had that was criticizing me for every flaw I made, every mistake I made was unacceptable. If I saw someone talking to my kid like that I would punch him in the face. I’d kill him right. And so I thought why do I allow myself to talk to myself that way.”
Go check out “Headstrong” and “The Bulletproof Diet” on Amazon and leave a review!
If you like today’s episode, check us out on Apple Podcasts at Bulletproof.com/iTunes and leave us a 5-star, positive review.

7 Science-Backed Reasons Traveling Helps You Succeed in Life

May 8, 2018 by Team Asprey

We all know that vacation lowers stress.[ref url=”https://www.well-beingsecrets.com/health-benefits-of-traveling/”] After all, ditching your laptop for a beachside massage leaves little to worry about. But did you know that traveling can actually help you succeed in every facet of your life?

Just ask real estate mogul and entrepreneur David Osborn, author of “Wealth Can’t Wait,” who credits his years abroad for helping him create a life full of happiness and wealth. “I hitchhiked around the world for two years in my 20’s and on 20 bucks a day,” he shared in a recent Bulletproof Radio (iTunes) podcast episode.

Often seen as luxury, regular travel, says Osborn, can give you the tools and perspective you need to live an accomplished life. “Travel — especially when you’re young. Take the risk and become the person you were meant to be. It doesn’t matter if you have money or not, you’re going to have a pretty fulfilling dang life.”

Here, the surprising ways travel helps set you up for personal success and happiness.

Gets you out of your comfort zone

While sitting poolside at a resort for a week might be relaxing, Osborn implores people to get out of their comfort zones.

Strike out on the road less traveled: hike in a jungle to work through your phobia of spiders, bungee jump from a bridge to challenge your fear of heights, or head out for a night of tango-dancing to confront your terror of performing in public.

“Every person that is struggling in any way should throw themselves out of their comfort zone at least once a year.,” says Osborn. “Do a bucket list adventure so you can challenge yourself. You’ll find more [internal] resources as you get comfortable with being challenged. [And you’ll find that] challenge actually gets easier.”

That’s because getting out of your comfort zone teaches you to handle stress better, and in time, you’ll take risks in all aspects of your life.

Typically, risks are hard for people to take because humans are wired to expect the worst.[ref url=”http://psycnet.apa.org/record/1998-12834-004″] However, if you take a calculated risk — which is what happens when you consciously decide to do something new while traveling — you weigh the pros and cons, then eventually decide to go for it.

This decision empowers you to face both positive and negative consequences as lifelong learning lessons. A surprising positive outcome provokes you to take another risk, while a negative outcome encourages you to learn something from it. Either way – it’s a win-win.

Teaches gratitude

Practicing gratitude, like journaling ten things you are grateful for each day, rewires your brain to seek out the positive in life. Studies show that a gratitude-writing practice helps your brain default to positive thoughts rather than negative ones.[ref url=”http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1052562911430062″] When you’re thinking more positively, you’ll naturally feel more fulfilled. Your positive successes will mount as you focus more on those good outcomes rather than negative deterrents that pull you off course.

Gratitude and travel go hand-in-hand. “Seeing people who literally have a dollar a day if they’re lucky and are happier than me, I [realized] I’m kind of an asshole. It just changes everything,” Dave told Osborn. “I kicked myself for not traveling when I was younger because it would have made me a better human being.”

Helps you develop a flexible personality

Flexibility is your ability to adapt to diverse scenarios. It’s critical to business success — and success in general — because your environment is not necessarily within your control. Bosses have their own agendas, companies have unique politics, and the only aspect you can control is how you adapt and react.

Regularly putting yourself in unique and unfamiliar settings teaches you how to be resilient — the ability to absorb disruptions and change gears while undergoing change.

Immerse yourself in diverse travel scenarios to learn how to adapt better. Go learn a new language abroad or attend a yoga retreat in a foreign land. Studies reveal traveling encourages you to open yourself to new ideas and ways of doing things – so you become more adaptable as a result.[ref url=”http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2013-20588-001″]

Novelty kindles creativity

Travel fosters creativity, says science. One study tested the creative insights of travelers and findings revealed that travel prompted improvements in creative thinking as well as creative productivity.[ref url=”https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.3758/BF03202751.pdf”]

What this means for you is that if you want to ignite your own creative spark, get out into the world and explore something new. The external stimuli challenge your brain to come up with new ideas, solutions, and creations. Another study found fashion designers came up with more innovative designs while living abroad.[ref url=”https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/amj.2012.0575″]

Strengthens personal connections

Evidence suggests that travel helps people to form closer, more communicative bonds with traveling companions as well as locals. The same findings reveal that couples who travel together report higher levels of satisfaction within their relationships.[ref url=”https://www.ustravel.org/sites/default/files/media_root/5.2015_Relationship_ExecSummary.pdf”] When families embark on trips together, the journey creates intimate connections between family members.[ref url=”https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-007-2288-0_2″] Traveling leads to greater happiness and life satisfaction due to the bonds formed along the way.

Improves your ability to work

Vacation time enables recuperation (aka, recovery from life’s daily stresses), which boosts overall happiness and well-being.[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10912359″]

The downtime of travel gives you the opportunity to catch your breath and put life into perspective. It may even inspire you to come up with your next big idea. According to productivity expert and Harvard psychiatrist Srini Pillay, PhD, unfocusing your brain yields greater happiness and success. It gives you more time to daydream and look at the big picture, which opens you up to new business possibilities and adventures.

Keto Film “The Magic Pill” Slammed For “Harmful” Ideas. Separate Fact From Fiction

May 7, 2018 by Team Asprey

Can a high-fat, low-carb diet prevent and even cure illnesses like cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and autism? “The Magic Pill”— an Australian documentary now streaming on Netflix — thinks so. The film, from celebrity chef Pete Evans, suggests that the modern diet is to blame for the majority of chronic diseases, an idea that has critics slamming the film for peddling “harmful” ideas.

“The Magic Pill” follows people in America and Australia suffering from different ailments to explore what effect, if any, the ketogenic diet has on their symptoms. The ketogenic, or keto diet, is a high-fat, low-carb diet that encourages your body to use fat for fuel instead of carbs.

The keto diet and autism: a case study

The film tracks the subjects for 10 weeks, then looks at whether the keto diet improved each person’s particular condition.

In the film, Abigail, a young girl with autism — who ate processed chicken fingers, goldfish crackers, and apple juice previously — appeared to make significant gains after five weeks of restricting carbs. Though she struggled to adjust to the diet initially, her parents were convinced it was working. Her father noted her belly was less bloated, she had more regular bowel movements (she took a laxative every day prior to the keto diet), and she communicated better.

“She’s able to concentrate, and she’s able to progress, because she’s not running all over the place and she’s not seizing,” her doctor says in the film. “Her seizures are going down, and we have tangible data from the school. We are actually starting to wean her off of the anti-convulsory narcotic that she’s on.”

Keto guidelines, according to “The Magic Pill”

The people profiled followed a diet based on keto principles. These include:

Eat whole and organic foods
Eliminate processed foods, dairy, grains, and legumes
Edge out bad fats (vegetable oils) with healthy fats (olive and coconut oils, animal fats, eggs, and avocados)
Aim to consume free-range animals and wild caught seafood
Introduce bone broths, organ meats, fermented foods, and intermittent fasting into your diet

The keto diet: backed up by science

While the keto diet is touted for its fat-burning effects, there’s growing evidence that it can help a range of diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

“Being in a mild state of ketosis is really the place to be,” neurologist David Perlmutter says in the film, adding that fat powers the brain better than carbs do.

According to recent Bulletproof Radio (iTunes) podcast episode guest Kris Smith, MD, a top neurosurgeon who specializes in brain tumors at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, “I really think the ketogenic diet is going to be…part of that magic bullet, the holy grail of treating people with this disease.”

Critics fire back

Australian Medical Association (AMA) president Michael Gannon slammed the film, calling it “hurtful, harmful and mean.”

“The idea that a high-fat diet can change a child’s behavior in a month is just so patently ridiculous… and yet the reality is the parents of autistic children are so desperate they will reach for anything,” he told The Daily Telegraph. The AMA has called chef and filmmaker Evans to task before for his “extreme” health advice.

Some of the film’s criticism stems from confusion: News outlets covering the film have called the keto diet a paleo diet. While keto has paleo principles, keto is definitively high-fat, though not necessarily high-protein like paleo. Too much protein converts to glucose in the body, which takes you out of ketosis.

How to make your Bulletproof diet keto-friendly

If you’re interested in a Bulletproof version of the keto diet, follow these five steps:

Skip the carb refeed day. Bulletproof is a cyclical keto diet that puts your body in and out of ketosis once a week, to make the diet more sustainable and prevent common issues like dry eyes, cravings, and even unhealthy gut bacteria levels. But if you want to try full keto, increase your fat and limit your carbs. Aim for 70-85% of your calories from fat, every day.
Remember that it might take up to two weeks for your body to make the shift from burning carbs and sugar to fat. The keto flu can leave you feeling tired, achy, and irritable, but it should pass. Stay the course and you should soon feel better than before you started. Read Your Definitive Guide to Conquering the Keto Flu.
Monitor your ketone levels using urine strips, ketone breath meters, or blood meters.
Be mindful of hidden carbs in sources like Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cashews, chocolate, and leeks. Use a food tracker like MyKeto until you get clear on how much fat/carbs/protein you’re actually eating.
Watch your protein intake. It’s common for people on keto to consume too much meat. More than 20-30% protein in your diet, and your body will begin to convert protein to sugar, which bumps you out of ketosis. Go for moderate protein with a high-fat sauce of your choice to tide you over.

Biohack to Win. Nick Foles #489

May 3, 2018 by Dave Asprey

Yes, Nick Foles is the Super Bowl MVP for the Eagles, but in this episode of Bulletproof Radio he goes into why it is okay to lose. “If your identity is in winning you’re eventually going to struggle.”

Nick is one of the most humble performance focused amazing people I’ve had the opportunity to interview. I spent time with him in person but in this episode you’ll hear about his mindset, how he includes a spiritual practice, his take on food, and all the other things he does to be at the top of his game.

Including his approach to failure. You’ll hear about how he pretty much got burned out and was thinking about leaving the game and how he stayed motivated and what he does to build this incredible resilience.

You’ll also hear about something called POTS that his wife Tori is dealing with, which is a really common problem, much more common than people know about and we go into some details about what happens if your blood pressure suddenly fluctuates and drops during the day so your brain has no oxygen.

I just found him to be a fantastic human being with this amazing attitude and a pretty high level of accomplishment!

Enjoy the show!

Listen to the episode on itunes

Follow Along with the Transcript

Biohack to Win. Nick Foles #489

Links/Resources for Nick Foles

Nick’s Twitter:
Book Preorder:
Nick’s Instagram:
Star Wars The Last QB video:

Show Notes

- On meeting Nick at Labs. “Today’s guest is someone I met at Bulletproof Labs in Santa Monica for the first time. Someone who’s pretty well known. I just found him to be a fantastic human being with this amazing attitude and a pretty high level of accomplishment. I’m talking about Nick Foles, the 29 year old quarterback for NFL Philadelphia Eagles. In January of this year he led the Eagles to an NFC championship in their first Super Bowl appearance since 2005 and then he led them to their first ever Super Bowl championship win in franchise history since the team was founded in 1933 and was named game MVP which is pretty amazing because he did it from a back up position after the team’s starting quarterback Carson Wentz got injured in December.”
- “What we talked about what was mostly like recovery and resilience and willpower and leadership and things like that. I want to understand what has motivated you to just do what you do. Like why do you, you’re basically at this point, one of the world’s very best at what you do. What motivated you to take the long and arduous journey to get there?”
- Nick on giving his life to Christ.
- “Everyone has a story and that’s something we’ve talked about is the story, the journey. Really just going through the ups and downs and I think so many times when bad things happen or tough happen in life people can tend to get defeated and it’s hard to get back up. I’ve always had a great support system there to help me through those times. During this time I learned a lot about myself and got stronger with them and it’s crazy to be here talking to you, being a part of a team that won the Super Bowl, being on this podcast, being on this show. I’ve listened to it for several years so I’m honored to be a part of it.”
- Dave asks Nick on his natural talents. And not being good at everything, but continuing to work on it.
- On the Joy of it. “I wasn’t good at everything but I just kept playing, kept on having fun, kept working on my craft, was able to have great coaches along the way. The greatest part about was just finding the joy in what I do. Having that joy when you’re a kid and you’re in the backyard just playing with your buddies, if you can do that, you know, if I can do that my present state of being 29 years old and in the NFL you can do a lot of great things. But no, it’s just something that, I was always active.”
- You talk a lot about your faith and almost like you’re doing what you do for your family and for your religion and the things that you stand for. Are you also doing some of it because you like to win or for yourself? How do you break down the balance between like I wanted to do this versus like I’m doing it almost as an act of service? Nick on shifting the perspective.
- “A lot of times growing up, like obviously everyone enjoys winning, they enjoy that achievement, they enjoy working hard to win. That’s what is sort of intoxicating about playing a game. You just love to do it, but there’s also defeat. There’s also playing poorly. There’s also dealing with that. If your identity is in winning you’re eventually going to struggle.” -Nick on winning.
- “I find out that that love that I have gives me a greater strength than I quite frankly had for myself. Then it’s also humbling myself daily. I don’t want pride to set it because pride comes before the fall. So I’ve learned a lot through the years and it keeps me steady.” On pride.
- Where did you learn to have ego awareness? -Dave
- On the impact of a parent in your life.
- “I’ve succeeded and I’ve failed. It’s not a fun place to be because it’s every day, you’re living or dying with what you’re doing on the playing field and that’s not fun. That’s not really who you are, that’s what you do.”
- “My real job starts when I come home and I walk through the doors I get to be a husband and a father. That makes it easier to play the game.”
- On his wife getting diagnosed with POTS.
- “Health is intertwined because if you feel good, your mental clarity is going to be better, you’re going to have more energy throughout the day, you’re going to be happier. All that stuff is going to make, your faith’s going to grow but more so like just being a husband and a father and then going to work, you’re going to be better, like you’re going to be happier. You’re going to have more energy. It’s all intertwined.”
- On POTS “The tough thing about POTS is it’s so hard to know exactly how it comes on. It could come from a virus, it could come from a toxin exposure and I know for us you know we were in Portland, Oregon, Tori was working at Nike at the time. We love Portland, great food scene. We were active, eating good food, having a great time. I went to training camp my second year in the NFL and then shortly after that Tori was, she had a virus and then shortly after that she went to like a outdoor concert and she felt really sick. She went home and it wasn’t going away so she kept going to see doctors. She didn’t know what happened. The doctors kept trying to prescribe her like depression medication and all this other stuff.
- “You’re the quarterback and you’re making coffee for your team. Do you know how humble that is?”
- “It’s definitely going to be days where we travel cross country and we get back at 2, 3AM after playing a grueling football game and your body is just going to feel like crap. Like you’re probably going to be fighting a sickness coming up but what I’ve noticed is, the big thing is the blue blocking glasses, the TrueDark glasses have been awesome. Wearing those whether I’m on a plane or traveling back from a game or when I get back home and I’m reading. I wear glasses all the time so they actually have a filter on them that blocks a lot of the blue light so I can wear that when I read at night. So that’s really been a great thing for me.”
- I wear compression recovery tights on the airplane. Any time I get on an airplane I wear them. I even had a sleeve for my arm at one time. I don’t really do that anymore but like little things like that, staying hydrated with the appropriate water. I drink FATwater. We have FATwater always stocked in the QB room. The QBs love FATwater.
- “If I know that if I help them with that, I’m not trying to keep any secrets. If this makes you a better player than me, then I’m excited because you’re going to become a better person because you’re feeling good. I don’t have any prerogative in that. I just want you to be a better person and feel good day in and day out and live the healthy lifestyle.” On having enough energy.
- “I know this is for a reason but I’m giving my life to you right now. It was basically going, bringing me down to my knees. I realized at that moment what that meant. It wasn’t following rules, it wasn’t like trying to be perfect. It was basically having a relationship with Jesus.”
- “I love that you’re willing to talk about what works for you and that experience. And so for people listening, you heard, at least if you were listening to what Nick said, he didn’t tell you have to do what he does, he’s just telling you what works for him. I think that that’s noteworthy and it’s worth paying attention to. It’s that deep commitment to something bigger than yourself that I have found in my own life too is just terribly important. It’s important. If you’re doing it for you, you’re not thinking big enough.” On Nick’s spiritual practices.
- “I want her to know that it’s okay to fail, it’s okay not to be an athlete. Will she have athletic genes? I mean, her mom’s way more athletic than I am. So if she gets her mom’s side we’re in business. I’m just going to add a couple things to it. Ultimately I just want her to know that her daddy loves her, her mom loves her and that we’re going to be there to support her through no matter what she goes through in her life and that will never change. I think with that a child can do anything.” NIck on his daughter.

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