Hvmn Enhancement: Biohacking, Health, And Cognition

Metabolic syndrome. It’s a term we throw out all the time on this podcast. It’s about time we have an episode to specifically define metabolic syndrome, why we should care, and what we can do about it. To help do this, we have none other than Ivor Cummins, aka The Fat Emperor, on the podcast today. Cut from a similar cloth as folks like Dave Feldman and host Geoffrey Woo, Ivor comes from a professional background in engineering, therefore applying an engineers mindset and problem solving to the field of nutrition and metabolic health. After spending 30 years in corporate technical leadership positions, Ivor is now the Chief Program Officer for Irish Heart Disease Awareness (IHDA). Ivor regularly speaks at well-known health and medical conferences around the world on the same stage as professors and doctors. In this episode, you'll discover: 1. What the criteria is for diagnosing metabolic syndrome, what the root causes are, and how to reverse it through lifestyle changes. 2. What a CAC (Coronary artery calciu

In modern life, most of us do most everything under artificial light - at the office, at the gym, at the store. The light bulb allows us to not be beholden to the sun and clearly a huge technological step forward for human life. But have we gone too far? What if we’re missing something valuable to our health and performance from sunlight, especially the parts of the light spectrum that are missing from artificial light? Scott Nelson, the co-founder of Joovv, is working to help us better understand this question. Scott has spent much of his career in leadership positions at some of the largest medicine technology companies, Medtronic and Boston Scientific to name two. Now with Joovv, he is commercializing full-body red light therapy and photobiomodulation devices designed for consumer use. What is red light therapy and its benefits? Users report improved skin, accelerated muscle recovery, enhanced cognitive ability...even increased testosterone production. These are sweeping claims. Is it too good to be true?

Raise your glasses!  This is a fun episode for our 21+ listeners. We welcome Todd White, CEO of Dry Farm Wines, to the program. Dry Farm Wines is known as a keto-friendly "biohacked" wine. Todd is quite a biohacker himself, diving deep into a ketogenic diet and intermittent fasting. We start off our conversation by first diving into the cognitive benefits of the ketogenic diet and Todd’s other biohacks, and then move on to the meat of the episode: Wine. Let’s get real: Alcohol is a neurotoxin and is not great for performance. Why would a self-proclaimed biohacker and health-conscious person like Todd make a company around it? More broadly, what are some of the dirty secrets and production loopholes of the wine industry? How can a wine become sugar-free? Host Geoffrey Woo and Todd explore all these topics and much more. If you enjoy the episode and feel like Dry Farm Wines is a product that fits your lifestyle well, visit www.dryfarmwines.com/hvmn. Through that link, Todd is kind enough to hook you up with a 1

Whether it's through diet, exercise, nootropics, or cutting-edge biotechnology, there’s tons of levers we can pull to improve our health and performance. Siim Land, a biohacker and high-performance coach, has been experimenting with these levers much of his life, recently sharing his knowledge and experiments through his Youtube channel. While he has dabbled in many biohacks, his bread and butter interventions (or should we say just butter) are following the ketogenic diet and intermittent fasting. What do keto and IF have in common? One of the main end goals of the two interventions is ketosis - a physiological state in which ketones are being burned as fuel. In this episode, you'll discover: The intuitive “feeling” of ketosis and how you may not need to rely on ketone monitors all the time as you become more experienced What changes in biomarkers like IGF-1 might mean when eating high-fat What is okay to consume when following keto or intermittent fasting Follow along with our transcription: www.hvmn.com

Hello listeners, and welcome to the HVMN Podcast. It’s Dr. Brianna Stubbs. We’re switching things up here this week, as I’ll be your host...giving Geoff a bit of time off! This week, we are going to look at the topic of Science communication. If you’ve tuned in to my Research Roundup series, which can get quite science-heavy at times, you may find that it can be tough to follow along with the medical terms and jargon. And honestly, it can be challenging for me to break down these complicated topics and make them interesting and accessible for people who have different levels of background science knowledge. When thinking about the ‘art and science’ of communication, with science you might need to go even more towards the art - to try and bridge the gap between research and public understanding. This has always been a pain point. With the inescapable rise of social media and the big uptick in numbers of scientists and influencers in health and performance who are taking to Twitter to share their findings and t

Learning never ends. It's fundamental to how we improve our respective crafts, expand our understanding of the world, and grow as individuals. An emerging technique aimed to accelerate learning is transcranial direct current stimulation, which stimulates brain cells via tiny doses of electricity. Enter Halo Neuroscience, a company that’s built a TDCS headset called Halo Sport. Dr. Daniel Chao, Halo’s CEO, joins the podcast to discuss the technology powering Halo Sport and the evidence supporting it. In this episode, you'll discover: How TDCS aids in movement-based learning & beyond The neural network: What different regions of the brain are responsible for, how neurons work together, action potential, & more The true mission of human performance companies like HVMN and Halo   Save $20 off of Halo Sport 2: http://gethalosport.com/hvmn   --------------------------------------------------------- Our listeners are eligible for an exclusive HVMN website discount, updated monthly: www.hvmn.com/pod  Take

The concept of physical periodization - the intentional cycling of a training pattern - is well understood and practiced by top athletes. What about applying periodization to nutrition? This has been explored less, yet the health and performance benefits of accelerating metabolic adaptation through cycles of diet are promising. Bob Seebohar, who served as a dietician for the US Olympic committee and holds a number of degrees relating to sports science, joins the podcast to dive into a term he coined: “Metabolic Efficiency Training”. In this episode, you'll discover: Applying intermittent fasting in training and what considerations there may be The crossover point between anaerobic and aerobic exercise (i.e. crossover concept) Timing macronutrients for maximum performance   --------------------------------------------------------- Our listeners are eligible for an exclusive HVMN website discount, updated monthly: www.hvmn.com/pod  Take a short survey that will help us improve the podcast and be entered in a

Dave Feldman, known as Dave Keto around the internet, is one of our favorite researchers today. Like our host, Geoff, he’s actually a computer engineer by training. With a systems engineering approach to the human body, Dave has one of the most interesting and nuanced ideas around metabolism, lipidology, and cholesterol. With years of rigorous n=1 self-experiments around low-carb and ketogenic diets, Dave is helping drive a new conversation around cholesterol and challenging the traditional lipid hypothesis. In this episode, you'll discover: What a ketogenic diet “hyper-responder” is The role of cholesterol in the body and how risky high cholesterol really is in context of other biomarkers The good and bad of modern scientific research culture, and how Dave's experiments are a strong model to strive for   Check out Dave's work at https://cholesterolcode.com! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Our listeners are eligible for an exclusive HVMN website discount, upda

Tick-tock, it's our biological clock. Like many people, this phrase might make you think about aging or reproductive age; so clocks on something of a macro-scale over our lifespan. Actually, many processes inside our bodies are regulated on more of a micro-scale by our biological clock. Once thought of as being just inside our brain, countless genetically controlled clocks tick inside different parts of our bodies, such as the liver, kidneys, and heart. Among other things, they initiate many metabolic processes, ensuring that these occur at the optimal time of day. Internal processes that are triggered on a daily cycle are referred to as ‘circadian,’ and these are traditionally linked to the light/dark cycle. Today, we will look at some classic research on gene variations in the PER gene and how that affects if you are a ‘morning lark’ or ‘night owl’ and fast forward to research that has come out in the last few months that has shown that PER variants can even alter disease risk and response to medical treatm

I turned 30 a few weeks ago on Dec 27. Two weeks before, I decided to do something pro-active to celebrate. I decided to run 30 miles. It was an aggressive goal given that the longest I’ve ever run was a half-marathon (just 13.1 miles). I was going to do more than double with less than two weeks to train. But..was it truly insane? I’ve interviewed world record-breaking athletes, Olympians, former Navy SEALS, and ultra marathon champions on this program. I’ve seen numerous examples of people achieving the impossible. The arbitrary milestone of 30 years of not dying seemed like a good excuse to see how far I could push myself. I’m proud to say I did it, and I believe all our listeners can accomplish their own version of my 30-mile challenge. This time around, our co-host Dr. Brianna Stubbs sits in the interviewer chair, diving into my two-week “training”, what was going through my mind as the miles passed by, and what I’ve learned from the experience. -----------------------------------------------------------

Time. It’s our only limited & non-renewable resource. If you’re an entrepreneur or engineer, it can be tough to set aside time for exercise when there’s always an email to respond to or a feature to write. If you’re an athlete, recovery can often fall by the wayside when your mind is fixed on seeing results. We speak with Matt Dixon, founder of Purple Patch Fitness, a top endurance performance coaching company based in San Francisco. He is an expert in optimizing the lives of both time-starved athletes and knowledge workers. He was one of the first coaches to prioritize recovery and nutrition for elite athletes during a time when they were an afterthought. In this episode, you'll discover: The symptoms of underperformance Which biohacks (i.e cryotherapy) are legit or overhyped The difference in mindset between training and just working out ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Our listeners are eligible for an exclusive HVMN website discount, updated monthly: ww

You’ve felt the crash after a sugar rush. You’ve felt the boost of energy from coffee. If you listen to this podcast, you’ve hopefully felt the steady focus and clarity from being in ketosis. Point is, we all know that food and what we ingest affects our brain function. Amy Berger is the author of the Alzheimer’s Antidote, is passionate about the link between diet and brain health. Her research focuses on how a low-carb, high-fat diet can improve neurological brain conditions like Alzheimer’s, and why the wrong diet can worsen and even cause it. There’s a reason it is increasingly being called “Type 3 Diabetes”, and Amy is here to shed some light on why. In this episode, you'll discover: Exploring potential root causes of Alzheimer’s The protein APOE4 and how it may affect brain health Should cholesterol truly be feared? Check out Amy's book "The Alzheimer's Antidote" here. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Our listeners are eligible for an exclusive HVMN websi

Our Research Lead, Dr. Brianna Stubbs, tends to read a lot of scientific literature...a lot. In this episode of Research Roundup, Dr. Stubbs dives into three papers studying the effects of diet (plant-based, animal-based, & ketogenic) & intermittent fasting on the gut microbiome. 1. Diet rapidly and reproducibly alters the human gut microbiome 2. The Gut Microbiota Mediates the Anti-Seizure Effects of the Ketogenic Diet 3. Intermittent Fasting Promotes White Adipose Browning and Decreases Obesity by Shaping the Gut Microbiota ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ You are eligible for an exclusive HVMN website discount, updated monthly: www.hvmn.com/pod  Take a short survey that will help us improve the podcast and be entered in a HVMN Ketone giveaway: https://go.hvmn.com/podcastsurvey We also want to hear from our listeners/viewers! Contact podcast@hvmn.com with any feedback, questions, and guest suggestions! Write a review for us on iTunes, let us know via em

Adaptability is key for so many aspects of life, from running an efficient business to maximizing your own personal talents and growth as an individual. To explore how malleable humans can be and the limits we can push ourselves, we speak with retired Navy SEAL John Allen. He’s the founder and CEO of Elite Meet, a non-profit that assists elite members in our special operations community transition to the civilian world. In this episode, you'll discover: How to succeed being in an environment when you’re out of your element The imposter syndrome and identity crises many veterans deal with when transitioning back to society Actionable tips for improving your work presence and confidence ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Our listeners are eligible for an exclusive HVMN website discount, updated monthly: www.hvmn.com/pod  Take a short survey that will help us improve the podcast and be entered in a HVMN Ketone giveaway: https://go.hvmn.com/podcastsurvey We also want

One topic that’s come up often on the HVMN Podcast is insulin resistance. Growing evidence suggests that insulin is an important metabolic driver behind diseases like diabetes, neurological conditions like Alzheimer's, and even some forms of cancer. Today, we speak with Dr. Benjamin Bikman, a professor at BYU who’s an expert in insulin resistance and the interventions in which we can control it. He also personally practices a low-carb lifestyle complete with fasting and functional fitness routines. In this episode, you'll discover: What Dr. Bikman believes the role of scientists & researchers should be on social media What true physiological insulin resistance actually means & the nuances of ketosis and how ketones are metabolized The calorie in calorie out vs. carbohydrate-insulin model for obesity ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Our listeners are eligible for an exclusive HVMN website discount, updated monthly: www.hvmn.com/pod  Take a short survey t

Orthopedic surgeon, world record holding masters athlete, US Air Force veteran, hardcore carnivore...it’s none other than Dr. Shawn Baker. Largely viewed as today’s de facto spokesperson for the carnivore diet, Shawn is an interesting n=1 case study of someone not only following the diet to resolve health issues, but also experience athletic performance gains. In this episode, you'll discover: How carnivore impacted Shawn's biomarkers & what athletic PR's he has broken since eating only meat The effects of meat and fat on gut permeability and microbiome If there is a true difference between grain and grass-fed beef upon consumption ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Don't miss out on this month's podcast offer: www.hvmn.com/pod  Take a short survey that will help us improve the podcast and be entered in a HVMN Ketone giveaway: https://go.hvmn.com/podcastsurvey We also want to hear from our listeners/viewers! Contact podcast@hvmn.com with any feedback, questio

Welcome to an Unfiltered episode of the HVMN Podcast. This is a raw conversation centered on a hot and recent topic...breaking news style. In what will probably be known as the most controversial & groundbreaking scientific advancement this year, Chinese scientist Dr. He Jiankui announced last week at the end of November 2018 that he created the world’s first genetically edited babies. Specifically, he used CRISPR to create immunity to HIV in twins, which were born earlier this year. The blowback was immediate, with virtually the entire scientific community criticizing Dr. He as unethical. China’s vice minister of science and technology called the experiment unacceptable and said Dr. He’s scientific activities would be suspended. Geoff chats with Dr. Josiah Zayner, a biohacker & CEO of the Odin - a genetic engineering company. Dr. Zayner was one of the first people to inject CRISPR to genetically edit his arm muscle tissue. We discuss this scientific milestone of CRISPR babies, the ethical and moral q

September 13th, 2018. That was the day Italian cyclist Vittoria Bussi set a new record for one of cycling's oldest and most prestigious challenges: The UCI Hour. Unlike outdoor cycling, the Hour is uniquely absent of variables. It's just you, a bicycle, a time clock, and the velodrome - a circular indoor track. For one hour straight, the rider must power through laps and attempt to cover the most distance possible. Boosted from the fuel of HVMN Ketone, Vittoria is now the fastest women's time trial cyclist in the world. In this episode, you'll discover: What motivates someone to truly want to be the best of the best The subtleties of velodrome cycling, training, & fueling The power of an introspective & self-aware mind ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Visit our website to learn more: www.hvmn.com/pod  Take a short survey that will help us improve the podcast and be entered in a HVMN Ketone giveaway: https://go.hvmn.com/podcastsurvey We also want to hear

To stay up to date on the cutting-edge of health and performance, HVMN Research Lead Dr. Brianna Stubbs tends to read a lot of scientific literature...a lot. Every month, she will dive into the latest and most exciting research papers by walking us through the experiment process, dissecting the results and implications, and candidly share her own thoughts on the study and subject as a whole. This month, Dr. Stubbs dives into three studies relating to the topic of intermittent fasting. Featured researchers include Dr. Jason Fung, Dr. Valter Longo, Dr. Courtney Peterson. Therapeutic use of intermittent fasting for people with type 2 diabetes as an alternative to insulin Fasting-mimicking diet and markers/risk factors for aging, diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease Early time-restricted feeding improves insulin sensitivity, blood pressure, and oxidative stress even without weight loss in men with prediabetes ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Visit our webs

James Hewitt is the Head of Science & Innovation at Hinsta Performance. His work and research focus on the holistic wellbeing of knowledge workers, specifically searching for methods to sustain acute cognitive performance without compromising health in the process. From Formula 1 racers to Fortune 500 c-suite executives, James helps high-performers reach and maintain their full human potential. In this episode, you'll discover: Approaching knowledge work as an endurance sport for your mind...the notion of cognitive "gears" The challenges of research studies on cognition and how to interpret cognitive performance data The potential impact of technology on learning and attention-span Check out James here: https://jameshewitt.net/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website to learn more: https://go.hvmn.com/podcast-audio Take a short survey that will help us improve the podcast and be entered in a HVMN Ketone giveaway: https://go.hvmn.com/podcastsurvey W