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Overall 30-Day Stroke Readmissions Decline, Not All Trends Rosy
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A new nationwide study shows that overall 30-day hospital readmissions after stroke are declining. However, readmissions due to a second stroke or complication closely related to the primary event are not going down and, unfortunately in some cases, are on the rise.
"To me that's a point of grave concern and highlights that there is a continued need to focus on secondary stroke prevention," said senior investigator, Farhaan Vahidy, PhD, MBBS, MPH, associate professor in neurology, University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston.
Although prior studies have focused on 30-day readmissions for Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) beneficiaries with acute ischemic stroke (AIS), little is known about nationwide readmissions after other stroke subtypes and among younger patients, he explained to theheart.org | Medscape Cardiology.
To examine these trends, investigators identified 2,200,688 stroke hospital discharges between January 2010 and September 2015 in the Nationwide Readmissions Database. Of these, 87.6% were AIS, 8.7% were intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), and 3.6% were subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH).
Among the 2,078,854 index events, the average patient age was 70 years and 51.9% of patients were female. An average of 1397 hospitals per year were included in the analyses, and the median stroke volume was 99 cases per year.
The overall 30-day stroke-related readmission rate was highest in 2010 and gradually declined by an annual 3.3% between 2010 and 2014, the last year full data were available.
After controlling for case mix across the years, there was a significant annual decline in the likelihood of 30-day readmission by 4.0% during the study period (odds ratio, 0.96; 95% confidence interval, 0.95 - 0.97).
Multivariate analyses also indicated that the probability of a nationwide 30-day stroke-related readmission was 12.1% less likely after implementation of the CMS's Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) penalties that began October 1, 2012, than before implementation.
Unplanned and Costly
More than 90% of all stroke-related readmissions were unplanned, and up to 13.6% were deemed potentially preventable. The top two reasons for readmission were acute cerebrovascular disease and septicemia.
Thirty-day readmission rates were highest for patients with ICH (13.7%), followed by patients with AIS (12.4%) and those with SAH (11.48%).
"Hemorrhagic patients tend to be younger, so it's kind of a 'double whammy' for them because they experience really high levels of early mortality as well," — averaging about 25% to 30% during hospitalization vs about 5% to 10% for a patient with an ischemic stroke, said Vahidy.
"Because hemorrhagic strokes are more severe, more debilitating, and produce profound impairments in activities of daily living, we did expect they might have a greater burden for readmissions but that's the unique finding of our study," he said. "And because they are younger, a majority, up to 50% of them, are not covered by Medicare at the time of their initial event. So those findings are new and novel."
Importantly, 30-day readmission attributed to the same primary diagnosis as the index admission increased from 16.20% to 19.25% between 2010 and 2015 for patients with AIS, while holding relatively steady over the same period for those with ICH (from 8.36% to 8.81%) and SAH (from 7.22% to 8.15%).
For patients with AIS, in-hospital mortality was higher on readmission than during the index hospitalization (6.54% vs 5.13%), the average length of stay was longer on readmission (6.5 days vs 4.92 days), and the average inflation-adjusted cost per stay was higher on readmission ($12,303 vs $10,881).
"We need to consider that these are population-level data, and we are talking about more than 2 million patients, of whom more than 12% are readmitted," Vahidy said. "So if the average length of stay is longer by any magnitude than what their initial stay was and their cost to the healthcare system is higher than what their initial cost was, then I think it becomes quite significant on an absolute level in terms of healthcare cost savings."
Local readmission reduction programs that use telemedicine-based follow-up, nurse- or healthcare worker-based follow-up including secondary prevention medication use, and early visits to primary care or specialty clinics have curtailed readmissions over time, but there is no national program for such efforts, he said.
"From a healthcare perspective, sometimes we're skeptical about the cost-benefit of these programs, so I think there's a need to prove that at the national level these programs work and do help make a difference."
Hospital Volume
Because of concerns that quality programs, including the HRRP, may disproportionately penalize larger safety-net hospitals that tend to treat more complicated, sicker patients, the investigators also analyzed stroke readmissions by hospital type and annual stroke discharge volume.
In adjusted analyses, the likelihood of 30-day readmission did not differ between academic institutions and nonteaching hospitals with a low stroke volume (11 to 50 cases per year). However, the likelihood of readmission was significantly higher for patients discharged from nonteaching hospitals with an annual stroke volume of 300 patients or more per year, compared with those discharged from teaching hospitals with a similar stroke volume.
"So the extrapolation of that is that maybe the quality of care that is being provided at teaching hospitals or the capacity of teaching hospitals is better at handling large volumes of stroke patients," Vahidy said. "I think that's also a unique and novel analysis that at least for stroke patients had not been done before."
Limitations of the study, the authors note, include the inability to control for stroke-specific severity measures; the inability to track individual patients across multiple years (and thus the analyses represent "cross-sectional estimates" for each year); and variations in ICD-9 coding practices for stroke across various settings or over time, which may introduce bias.
"Although nationally derived, our estimates are best suited for understanding and improving care at a local level, rather than establishing a national performance standard," the authors concluded in the study, published in JAMA Network Open on August 17.
Vahidy and first author Arvind Bambhroliya report having no relevant financial relationships.
JAMA Network Open. 2018;1:e181190. Full text
Follow Patrice Wendling on Twitter: @pwendl. For more from theheart.org | Medscape Cardiology, follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
Source: https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/901598?src=rss
These Retinol-Packed Eye Creams Are the Best for Erasing Fine Lines and Wrinkles
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If you're going to shell out the bucks for eye cream, you'll want one that will have visible results — and for that, you should turn to retinol. "Retinol is the tried-and-true collagen builder in the skin," says board-certified dermatologist Dr. Mona Gohara. "It's the foreperson at the collagen construction site." And since the skin in your eye area is thinner and more vulnerable to the steady march of time, collagen (and by extension, retinol) is of the essence. "Retinol is a perfect anti-aging booster," she says.
The only caveat? Well, it can cause irritation, especially if you have sensitive skin. Luckily, eye creams with retinol are specially formulated to be safe for the delicate eye area. And even if you are experiencing a little sensitivity, Gohara recommends "working up gradually" with your retinol products, starting with a "pinhead-sized" drop one-to-two times per week. ("Don't try to hit a home run," she jokes). You should also make sure that the rest of your routine is gentle and hydrating (she recommends pairing retinol treatments with the classic Dove Beauty Bar).
A great retinol eye cream still isn't going to have the same results as, say, fillers or Botox — but it will help brighten and firm your eye area while helping to stop crow's feet in their tracks. Read on for some of the best retinol eye creams to try.
Image via Imaxtree
SEE NEXT PAGE: RoC Retinol Correxion Sensitive Eye Cream, $22.99
Source: http://www.totalbeauty.com/content/slideshows/retinolpacked-eye-creams-best-erasing-fine-lines-wrinkles-180911
The Mediterranean diet reduces stroke risk, too
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Source: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/323103.php
The Challenges of a Long Distance Relationship
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I promised you guys this post on the challenges of a long distance relationship, so here it is! I don’t share many details of my relationship for privacy reasons. But I still get so many questions about managing the distance, especially during medical school. I think we do a pretty darn good job, but of course there are lots of challenges and some tough times. So today I thought I’d just chat a little about about how we make it work, what can make things hard, and how we get through it together.
For a little background, my boyfriend and I have been together for a little over a year now. (Here’s the story of how we met.) I am in St. Louis finishing up medical school and he recently moved from the NYC area to San Francisco for a job change.
What we do well:
1 – Communication. This is one of my favorite things about my boyfriend and most essential things to our relationship. We are great about texting, answering even if it’s a, “Hey, I can’t chat, but is everything okay!?” and keeping each other aware of how our days are going. He makes time to check in with me each night before bed, no matter how busy his day is. Sometime’s its 30 seconds, but it makes all the difference. I had dated guys that were no where near as proactive about communication prior to this relationship. I’m so appreciative!
2 – Visiting often. Luckily he used to travel every single week for work, so flying out to see me is no big deal. He also racked up a lot of airline points, which helps too!! I’ve been able to squeeze in quit trips on my weekends off of work. Usually about once a month we sit down and look over our calendars and ensure we have visits or trips planned about every 3-5 weeks. It can me tough to figure out, and obviously costs money, but we are both committed making it happen.
3 – We are on the same page about the future. We had some important conversations pretty early on. We knew we would be long distance so we didn’t want to get too far in if we weren’t looking for the same things. His new job and my medical career make things a little complicated, but we’ve talked it all through and are totally on board with making it work. We support each others careers and goals, which helps so much with the guilt and anxiety I can feel toward the whole Match process.
What we want to work on:
1 – Staying healthy when we visit each other. We tend to treat our monthly visits like little vacations, which is a total blast, but ends up leaving us feeling a little yucky. Going out for indulgent meals, skipping workouts, enjoying cocktails and staying up late really just isn’t what we need every single time. Our age is catching up with us, ha! We have both talked about wanting to have a better mix of fun and healthy; exploring new places but still somewhat sticking to our normal routines. It’d be nice if the happiness from our visits didn’t get obscured by hangovers and stress.
2 – Carving out more time for each other (and for ourselves!) We both work a lot and always have a ton going on. It’s nice that we share that, instead of one of us having lots of free time while the other is swamped. However, we both recognize that we need to be more intentional about taking time off. When we are apart, that looks like ensuring we have more than just 2 minutes to say goodnight most of the time. (Sometimes it happens, and some months are busier than others!) And we’ve just briefly talked about some things we could do long-term to make sure we connect each day. Perhaps committing a quick dinner together each night, even when we have a lot going on?
Challenges of a Long Distance Relationship
1 – It can be hard to feel truly connected when we are apart. Again, our schedules are different and our lives are very full. Now that he’s on the west coast, I’m going to bed when he’s just finishing up work! Good communication helps, but there are weeks when I feel like we haven’t really gotten to check in and catch up. We are usually both aware and open when we’re feeling like this, though, so we just make sure to plan a good FaceTime date or something!
2 – Wanting to do every day things together. Some days I just want to have normal life with him, ya know? Grocery shop and have regular boring dinners and establish routines together. Especially now that I’m thirty, I’m definitely getting the, “Settle down and start our lives together” bug. But soon enough. Everyone’s timing is different!
3 – Stressing about the unknowns. This is probably more me, and to be honest it really hasn’t been too bad. It feels weird enough to not know where I’ll be living and working a year from now, and then adding a relationship to that just amplifies the worry. Not knowing if we’ll be able to be in the same place, even, is hard! But he calms my fears every time I start to get a little anxious, and it’s amazing to know that we’re a team that will make it all work.
We’re definitely not perfect, but I feel really good about what we have and how well we work together. It’s taken many years to find something that feels right, and I’m so, so grateful for him. <3 If you’re also doing the distance thing, leave me your best tips!
Love it? Share it!
Source: http://fitting-it-all-in.com/challenges-long-distance-relationship/
Man overdoses on ED meds, and now permanently sees red
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UP NEXT
(video courtesy Veuer)
- A case study describes what happened when a 31-year-old man consumed too much of an erectile dysfunction medication.
- Shortly after taking the medication, the man experienced a red tint to his vision.
- The patient now has permanent eye damage due to the large quantity taken.
If you answered yes, wonderful! If no, please read this horrifying story as a cautionary tale of why you should always take the recommended amount of any prescription or over-the-counter drug.
A 31-year-old man in New York developed a permanent red tint to his vision after taking too much sildenafil citrate, a drug used to treat erectile dysfunction. (It's commonly sold under the brand name Viagra.) His story was published this month in Retinal Cases & Brief Reports.
According to the report, the unidentified man drank a liquid form of sildenafil citrate directly from the bottle. He apparently disregarded the provided dispenser, which would have delivered the recommended 50mg dose.
It's unknown exactly how much of the medication he consumed, but shortly after, his vision developed a red tint and multicolored photopsias, or flashes of light. The flashes disappeared by the next day, but the red-tint remained. After two days, the patient sought treatment at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary urgent care clinic.
© Retinal Cases and Brief Reports12:S33-S40, October 2018. Scans of the patient’s eye taken during an exam three months after initial treatment shows thickening in the man’s eye. Doctors examined the man's eyes, and found he had permanent damage to the cells on his retina that are responsible for color. They ultimately diagnosed him with persistent retinal toxicity caused by the high dose of sildenafil citrate.
The patient was prescribed various steroid medications used to treat eye injuries, but the red tint has not subsided after more than a year. In the report, doctors noted that unknown contaminants could have caused toxicity, too, since the drug was purchased online.
© Morrison1977 - Getty Images medicine on keyboard Even if your medication comes from the pharmacy, the doctors say the case should be a warning against taking more than the recommended dose.
"People live by the philosophy that if a little bit is good, a lot is better. This study shows how dangerous a large dose of a commonly used medication can be," lead investigator Richard Rosen, MD, Director of Retina Services at New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai, said in a statement. "People who depend on colored vision for their livelihood need to realize there could be a long-lasting impact of overindulging on this drug."
Rosen explains that this is the first case that shows how excess sildenafil citrate could cause permanent retina damage. Prior research has shown that the medication can cause a temporary blue tinge to vision. More common side effects include headaches, bloody noses and vomiting.
Source: http://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/this-guy-overdosed-on-ed-meds-and-now-he-permanently-sees-red/ar-BBNSPN5?srcref=rss
Inherited Trauma Shapes Your Health
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Read: Being black in America can be hazardous to your health
In 2016, Rachel Yehuda of Mount Sinai hospital and her colleagues found that Holocaust survivors and their children both had evidence of methylation on a region of a gene associated with stress, suggesting that the survivors’ trauma was passed onto their offspring. The paper was criticized for, among other things, having a small sample size and not looking at the third and fourth generations of descendants of the Holocaust survivors.
The current Civil War paper overcomes some of these drawbacks, since it looked at thousands of veterans and their children. But the study examined only the statistics, not the genes themselves, so the idea that the connection is epigenetic is more like conjecture, or a process of elimination. The authors would have to follow the sample through further generations to know for sure.
And those are only some of the uncertainties when it comes to epigenetics. We don’t yet know, for example, which genes to look at for epigenetic changes. Or how epigenetic markers might survive the power-wash-like fertilization process. Confusingly, some studies have found that stressful times our grandparents experienced might actually be beneficial for future generations. One study found that people who were undernourished at age 9 had grandchildren with better mental health. Studies performed on a series of poor 19th-century harvests in Överkalix, Sweden, found that grandsons of men who had bountiful harvests during childhood actually died younger than expected, but granddaughters of women who were in the womb during a famine were also at a higher risk of death at a young age.
Lars Olov Bygren, the author of the Överkalix studies, told me this could be because it’s beneficial for our grandparents to have plenty of food before age 10, but after that age, something switches, and it’s in the best interest of our own longevity for them to be slightly undernourished. Jirtle, meanwhile, says that the contradictory findings show up because while too little food is bad, so is too much food. Ideally, our grandparents should be stressed just enough, but not too much.
In another twist, the Civil War paper shows that the sons could be protected from their fathers’ trauma if their mothers had good nutrition while they were pregnant, which is something that’s consistent with epigenetic research.
“By no means is it saying that whenever there’s trauma, that means it’s going to be transmitted,” Dora Costa, the lead author of the Civil War study and an economist at UCLA, told me. “The epigenetic story is optimistic because it allows for the possibility of reversibility through maternal nutrition.”
Jirtle, for example, has found that dietary supplements fed to a mother mouse were able to protect baby mice from exposure to a chemical called BPA. “As Hippocrates basically stated two millennia ago, food is medicine,” Jirtle told me.
Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/10/trauma-inherited-generations/573055/
Seven ways to help avoid dementia
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Watch your weight
Among the biggest risk factors for dementia are diabetes and mid-life obesity, which can double your chances of dementia at a later age. Links have also been found between elevated blood pressure, high cholesterol levels and the risk of dementia, although these are not conclusive. Monitoring your weight and cardiovascular health in middle age could greatly reduce your likelihood of dementia.
Don’t smoke
The brain may be affected by the long-term consequences of heavy smoking. Scientists have found smoking to increase the risk of cognitive decline in old age, with one study showing that middle-aged people who smoked more than two packs a day more than doubled their risk of later-life dementia.
Keep active
Numerous studies have shown that regular, vigorous physical activity - and in some cases, even mild exercise such as walking - can preserve your faculties in later life. Staying active is particularly important for the elderly, with studies finding that older individuals who began a regular exercise programme experienced improved cognitive function. However, younger people should avoid sports where they are prone to repeated head traumas, such as boxing or even football. There is growing evidence that even moderate traumas increase the risk of developing certain forms of dementia.
Cognitive training
People with more years of school and university education are known to have a lower risk of dementia, but there is evidence that everyone can reduce their risk of dementia through trying new things as they get older. Taking up new hobbies, learning new skills and partaking in a daily intellectual activity such as doing crossword puzzles are all thought to have neuroprotective effects.
Stay sociable
Maintaining social activities as you get older, such as going to clubs or volunteering, has been found to have a protective effect against dementia. Studies have shown that individuals who maintain a larger social network into old age tend to have better cognitive functions and a reduced risk of cognitive decline.
Adopt the Mediterranean diet
Scientists are still not completely clear on how various nutrients, vitamins and food groups affect your risk of dementia. However, there have been a few studies focusing on the Mediterranean diet – which consists of small amounts of meat, and an emphasis on whole grains, fruits, vegetables, fish, nuts and olive oil – that suggest it can reduce risk of dementia, possibly by preventing high blood pressure.
Keep to normal sleep patterns
Sleep disturbances, for example chronic insomnia, have been linked to increased risk for cognitive decline in later life. Taking steps to deal with any sleep problems could reduce your chances of getting dementia. However scientists still don’t understand exactly how disturbed sleep may contribute to the condition, and whether certain dysfunctional sleep patterns pose more of a risk than others.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/sep/03/seven-ways-to-help-avoid-dementia
Employee Perspectives on Emergency Savings Programs
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Thursday, September 20th, 2018
Washington, DC
11:00 am - 1:30 pm
#EmergencySavings
Many companies are considering employee financial wellness as part of their benefits and compensation strategy. Helping workers build emergency savings is one tactic that is gaining popularity. To shed light on what employees expect and prefer in a workplace emergency savings program, AARP will release data from a new national survey of the U.S. workforce. Join the AARP Public Policy Institute to learn about and discuss these consumer insights.
Leading behavioral economist Warren Cormier, CEO of Boston Research Technologies and Executive Director of DCIIA Retirement Research Center, will review findings from a new AARP national survey of consumers. An interactive discussion with providers and policy experts will follow. We will continue the conversation with a networking lunch for in-person attendees.
What: Solutions Forum on Employee Perspectives on Emergency Savings Programs
When: Thursday, September 20, 2018, 11:00 am – 1:30 pm EST
Where: The Hatchery – AARP’s Innovation Lab, 575 7th St. NW, Washington, DC
Speakers:
· Warren Cormier, CEO, Boston Research Technologies; Executive Director, DCIIA Retirement Research Center
· Greta Engle, Vice President Employee Benefits, USI Insurance Services
· David Newville, Director of Federal Policy, Prosperity Now
· Will Sandbrook, Executive Director, NEST Insight
Agenda
11:00 | Welcome by Debra Whitman, Executive Vice President and Chief Public Policy Officer, AARP |
| Presentation of findings of AARP national survey |
12:00 | Panel response |
| Audience Q&A |
| Closing remarks |
12:30 | Networking Lunch/informal Q&A |
1:30 | Adjourn |
Source: https://www.aarp.org/ppi/info-2018/employee-perspectives-on-emergency-savings-programs.html
Spark Spotlight: Maricela (CHELAGETSFIT)
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At SparkPeople, we love helping people accomplish big goals—but we believe it's equally important to celebrate the small successes along the way. Each week in the Spark Spotlight, we'll check in with a featured member about his or her proudest moments, biggest challenges and advice for others on living, thinking and feeling healthier. We hope these quick snapshots will help motivate you to keep moving steadily toward your own goals, week by week.
This Week's Spotlight: Maricela (CHELAGETSFIT)
Age: 35
Location: Wasco, California
Small Success of the Week
Maricela took a walk during her morning break, logging 22 minutes, 1.3 miles and burning 106 calories. "That felt good!" she says.
What's your overall goal?
My overall goal is to get into a healthy weight and an overall better physical shape.
How is SparkPeople helping you get there?
More than anything, SparkPeople is helping me through with the support of all its members and, of course, that wouldn't be possible without this platform. Through the tools offered for tracking and through reading the articles. I've learned a lot of my nutrition information from SparkPeople and I am very appreciative of that.
I just came back to SparkPeople after a couple of years of being away and have been wondering why I ever left. It's been a few weeks and already I've found the support and information I need to get back into a healthy lifestyle.
What's your biggest challenge right now?
Right now my biggest challenge is following through. I have learned how to eat healthily and be active in different ways through the articles and videos I've read and seen on SparkPeople. I know how to prepare for each day so that I can follow through with my plan. I've learned how to plan my meals and schedule my workouts, but I need to actually follow through and eat the meals I planned and do the workouts even when I don't want to in order for the plan to work.
What advice do you have for someone who just joined SparkPeople today?
Start slow. Seriously, take it one step at a time. I'm sure you've read that at some point already, but it is the key to making this stick. In everything, whether it's changing your diet or starting your workouts, just take it slow, one thing at a time. You'll then want to keep going once you feel like you've achieved that small thing. If you set a huge goal and then can't make it, you're going to feel defeated and less likely to continue. Also, if I can add another piece of advice: Read the articles. Take time to read the articles on SparkPeople; they are very informative and really help a lot.
Want to be the next small success we spotlight? Share your successes on the goal feed or in the comments below, and you might be the next person we contact!
Source: https://www.sparkpeople.com/blog/blog.asp?post=spark_spotlight_maricela_chelagetsfit
Episode #390 – Full Transcript
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Podcast from: https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/podcast/390-nicotine-healthy/
In this episode of the Ben Greenfield Fitness podcast: Is nicotine healthy? How long does stem cell therapy last? A new way to fast, zero gravity beds and much more.
He’s an expert in human performance and nutrition, voted America’s top personal trainor and one of the globe’s most influential people in health and fitness, his show provides you with everything you need to optimize physical and mental performance. He is Ben Greenfield.
Power, speed, mobility, balance. Whatever it is for you that’s the natural movement. Get out there. When you look at all the studies done – studies that have shown the greatest efficacy.
All the information you need in one place right here, right now on the Ben Greenfield Fitness Podcast.
Brock: Hey, Ben! Do you smell something weird? I smell something strange. It kinda smells like liver. Is that possible?
Ben: Liver. Yes, not patté and hopefully, not fatty liver. But as you and I were just chatting before we hit “record”, I am, indeed, doing a liver cleanse this week.
Brock: It smells like a delightfully clean liver.
Ben: Yeah, I’m venturing down into to the den of satanic hedonism this weekend in Vegas to watch UFC. UFC 229 is coming up.
Brock: I thought you’re going to that island that’s called Hedonism where everybody basically, I think it’s just like an orgy sort of island.
Ben: I think there are multiple places like that. I’m sure a whole bunch of single listeners’ ears just perked up, including Montigo Bay Jamaica. I think that it’s like a couples’ resort. It’s not how those resorts work like sandals resort in Jamaica. I think it’s just one joint swingers’ compound.
Brock: I think so, yeah. Sounds sensible, right?
Ben: I don’t know about this hedonism island that you allude to but as a happily married man of 15 years, I’ll probably not visit that place anytime soon.
Brock: I didn’t allude to it. I came right out and said it.
Ben: Yeah, I don’t know how we got on that from liver, but…
Brock: You said you’re going to Vegas.
Ben: That’s right. I’m going to Vegas to see UFC 229. I have some seats.
Brock: Of course, ‘cause your show is shooting down, too.
Ben: Right next to the cage, I’ve got seats. I don’t think I’m going to go out of my way to go see Celine Dione but my wife and I are gonna watch Guys Speed Each Other Up. The thing I’m doing, though, this week is I’m cleansing my liver. I’m doing a liver cleanse. I just finished competing in Spartan World Championships where I won the title of the World’s Fittest CEO. It’s assuming you judge the world’s fittest CEO by how well they crawl under barb wire and carry a sand bag.
Brock: I do. How else would you?
Ben: Yeah and I figure out I got a few days to settle my ass or at least a few days where I don’t need to work out super duper hard. So what I’m doing is this is just very passive cleanse that I’m actually liking it quite a bit. I just finished breakfast and for breakfast and actually also for the majority of my meals for lunch and dinner, too, I’ve been eating chichory and drinking celery juice. Those are kind of the two main components of the cleanse aside from not eating red meat, not drinking alcohol, not consuming caffeine, aside from the caffeine I’m shooting up my butt every morning as part of the cleanse, which I guess, makes a little bit more than a simple cleanse as I’m doing a coffee enema every morning. I’m drinking Epsom salts at night which tastes like ass.
Brock: Like sea water.
Ben: No. Way worse than sea water.
Brock: _____ (0:04:09.5)
Ben: Yes.
Brock: _____(0:04:12)
Ben: Yeah. Sea water but I’m mixing it with acacia fiber. So basically, what this means is I wake up every morning feeling as though I’ve been clinching my ass rolling in bed for the past 8 hours.
Brock: It’s kind of a curse.
Ben: Yeah. So anyways, I’m gonna test my liver enzymes. I published…I don’t know if you listened to my last podcast, my solo episode.
Brock: I sure did.
Ben: What are we gonna call those now? The solosode?
Brock: The solosode.
Ben: Yeah. So I’m a little bit concerned about my liver enzymes so I decided, “What the heck, I’m gonna try this liver cleanse” which is, I know is bouncing all over the place but let me spell this out for folks.
Brock: Bring it home, Ben.
Ben: Chichory. Tell you what that is in a moment. For most of my meals, celery juice, which is a fantastic liver cleanse. It just involves me juicing about 5 stalks of celery at the same time I’m heating up my chichory tea. So that’s very simple.
Brock: So like a shot of celery? Doesn’t sound like you can make much juice.
Ben: No. It comes out to about maybe 8 to 12 ounces or so by the time I juice at all.
Brock: Really?
Ben: And I mix that with malolactic powder because part of this cleanse is supposed to involve drinking copious amounts of apple cider. But I don’t like apple cider and I didn’t want all that sugar and so I am using malolactic instead, which is just a powder that you get off Amazon. It tastes like apple cider but it actually does a pretty good job at enhancing several phases of the liver detoxification pathways.
Brock: Wait, just to clarify: Not apple cider vinegar and not fermented apple cider that would get you drunk but like just juiced apples.
Ben: Just juiced apples, yes.
Brock: Okay. That does seem like a lot of sugar.
Ben: Yeah. It’s part of the detoxification protocol developed in Europe, in Switzerland, actually, by one of the fellows who developed a lot of protocols that we’ll be following when I take a whole bunch of people over to Switzerland next year. We’ll put links to that in the show notes, by the way, if anybody still wants to get in. I think there’s a waitlist but it’s at www.bengreenfieldfitness.com/390 where we’ll spend like 2 weeks up in the Swiss Alps hiking and detoxing. But anyways, so there’s the malolactic powder that I’m mixing with the celery juice. Drink that, eat chichory, do a coffee enema every morning, do the Epsom salts with the fiber source, which can be psyllium husk, it can be acacia, it can be triphala, just anything that kinda gets the bowels moving the next morning. And that’s really it aside from just omitting anything that would be considered slightly acidic or something that would require more processing by your liver such as alcohol, anything like Tylenol….
Brock: or something
Ben: Right. All those marijuana edibles that I eat entire chocolate bars of every night. All of that is out the window. So it’s about a six-day liver cleanse and the last day involves a few other little protocols, basically, just like a longer fast and more of the Epsom salts and I know we’re really geeking out here but a castor oil pack placed on the gallbladder and liver area, and then you finish up and then I’ll hop in a plane to Vegas and go…
Brock: Scooby-Doo. BG on liver break backed up with _______ (0:07:43.7)
Ben: Fantastic things I’ve done with my liver.
Brock: One more question. Before you get to chichory. So this one of those cleanses that you just basically are increasing the amount of waste that you’re putting out. This is like on a different kind of level, right?
Ben: Yeah. It’s a different kind of level. It’s really weird. I was laying in bed last night and I could feel my liver. This sounds really odd but it was almost like it was twitching, like contracting. It’s very odd.
Brock: I do think it has those kinda muscle fibers.
Ben: Well, it could have been my gallbladder. Liver produces bile and gallbladder stores the bile so my gallbladder might have just been churning on bile. I don’t know. Something is happening down there on my upper right quadrant.
Brock: (whisper) Something’s happening.
Ben: Can’t tell you that. So chichory is essentially one pot meal of split mung beans with a little bit of Basmati rice and then there are a whole bunch of different herbs that you put into that as it’s simmering on the stove. I literally made myself enough for the entire week so I just have to do this once. But you mix things like cumin, fennel and coriander, ginger, turmeric. I put some fenugreek in there, black mustard seeds, and then, I used, especially for the sophora thing, which is actually good for the liver and is enhanced by the presence of the mustard, I put kale and cauliflower and some cruciferous vegetables in there as well. You simmer all of these with a little bit of coconut oil and coconut cream so it’s got of a little bit of a creamy texture and I think that makes it far more palatable. And then you simply serve with a little bit of fresh lime and a little bit of coconut yogurt and some sea salt to taste and that’s it. It’s actually pretty pleasant. I could get used to this. I’m not sick of it after having eaten it already this week like 8 times.
Brock: I did in the coconut yogurt that sounds very similar, though, a lot of stuff today when I was in Peru last year.
Ben: Oh, really?
Brock: Yeah. ________ (0:90:49.8) like very fancy beans and rice.
Ben: Peruvians must have fantastic livers. So yeah! Anyways, if I combust some pile of explosive diarrhea during today’s podcast episode or my liver turns gray and falls out, we know why.
Brock: We know why.
(news flashes)
Ben: That’s pretty good!
Brock: News flashes
Ben: You know I’ve thought in the past about how maybe it’s a little bit gimmicky, how we have like the music and the radio announcer voice in between each of the little sections of our podcast but at the same time, it’s kind of old schooly.
Brock: Yeah. I feel like it’s, we’re like 1950’s radio drama.
Ben: It breaks things up well, I think. I kinda like it. Yeah, it’s like what era did you say? 50’s?
Brock: Yeah, I said 50’s but it could even be 30’s, maybe.
Ben: Yeah, 30’s.
Brock: Come back to like War of the Worlds.
Ben: I don’t know. I don’t listen to radio much on 30’s.
Brock: You missed out.
Ben: You know, I remember back in the day like all the podcasts used to have like barrage band sounds.
Brock: They’re all the same ones.
Ben: And music in them, almost like creative comments and they use the same music. Some podcasts like ours, they’ll kinda have little music interludes and a radio announcer voice. Maybe someday I’ll get rid of that but for now, I think it’s kinda fun.
Brock: It’s fun.
Ben: If it annoys you and you’re listening in, just leave us a comment over at www.bengreenfieldfitness.com/390.
Brock: And then, of course, go to hell, ‘cause we don’t care what you think.
Ben: Yeah. We may not fire our radio announcer. Anyways, this is the part of the show where we talk about interesting things that came across my plate this week and one I thought was just gonna be a silly article like…Have you ever seen the Sit and Be Fit on public television – the Sit and Be Fit workout which are probably also on youtube? Just go to youtube and do search for “sit and be fit” if you want to be entertained by a ridiculous workout. Anyways, though, this article is about how to sit on a chair properly. It has this very pleasant older woman who is demonstrating via this wonderful animated GIFs….
Brock: She’s pretty damn fit-looking, too like she’s _____ (0:12:06.7). I’ve listened to her.
Ben: Yeah. She’s a hot old lady. Anyways, Jean Couch, age 75, she’s a percher. She teaches people how to sit in chairs without back pain and I though some of her tips were really good. We’ll link to this. We go to www.bengreenfieldfitness.com/390 but 3 of them are potent tips shared in that article. If I can describe it to folks listening and may not have time to go read the article. One is when you sit on a chair, you want to sit on edge of the chair which allows you to keep your pelvis from tucking under your spine and keeps your back from being in a C-shape. So essentially, what you wanna do when you sit on a chair, you move yourself towards the edge of the chair so that you’re as close as possible to having your knees below your hip sockets. So when you are leaning back on a chair, your knees are at or above the level of you hip sockets and you want the level of the knees, if you draw a horizontal plain from your hip sockets out to where your knees are, to be just a little bit below the level of the hip sockets and one of the best ways to do that is you simply, when you sit on a chair, kinda push yourself just a little bit more towards the edge of the chair.
Brock: So you have the whole chair but you only need the edge.
Ben: Pretty much. Yeah. We’ve made like half the chair useless with that tip. The next thing that she does is she recommends you build a perch. So this kind of reminds me of a mother bird getting food into the forest and gathering sticks, leaves and branches.
Brock: (whistles)
Ben: Great sound effects, Brock. You’ll do a good mother bird. Also chew up your food and spit it in your girlfriend’s mouth before she eats. Anyways, you perch and the way that you do this is you find a pillow or you could take like a blanket or a jacket or shirts or a roll-up yoga mat or whatever and when you’re sitting towards the edge of the chair, you make yourself this wedge-shaped pillow. What that allows you to do is it tilts your pelvis forward so you’re just slightly elevated above the chair. So again, your hipbones are kinda falling back and resting towards the back of the chair. But that wedge is almost keeping you pushed towards the front of the chair just slightly and most people have some kind of a coat or something that you can just roll up and put behind you. If you’re at a restaurant, you can probably just ask for a whole bunch of napkins and do it that way. You build yourself this little bit of a perch that I guess the best way to think about this is you put it just a little bit underneath the back part of your butt cheeks to tilt your pelvis forward and it’s a great idea. I’ve actually been trying a lot of stuff since reading the article and most of it works like your back feels far more comfortable. And then the last one is when you’re sitting in your car or you’re sitting in an airplane or anywhere where you really are relegated. You can’t sit towards the edge of the chair when you’re in your car or else your boobs are gonna be stuck in the steering wheel and your chins are gonna be pushed in the dash board.
Brock: You’re steering with your chin.
Ben: Right! So what you do is you take your shirt or your jacket or your wedge or your yoga mat or whatever else is up in the car that you can use. Small child would probably work.
Brock: Sure! Small animal?
Ben: Yeah, or an animal, yeah, a bird. You would actually put the cushion that you create right in the middle of your midback or in the midback from pillow, blanket, sweater or whatever. And then you elongate you’re spine by just kinda stretching your back over that pillow and you’ve turn that painful slouchy chair or car seat or airplane seat into a really comfortable support but also you keep yourself from slouching; you keep your back from again, turning into that notoriously damaging C-shape that you don’t want to have. Those are the 3 tips: sit at the edge of the seat; build a perch; and put some kind of a cushion behind your midback when you’re in a car seat or an airplane seat.
Brock: I took away a fourth thing from her images. If you look at the way her legs are positioned, she has them sort of out in front of her so she is not increasing that flexion that’s happening in your hip flexors. So she’s actually like opening up a little bit by keeping her legs more or less straight and one often straighter than the other, too, which kinda mimicks that way that we always talk about the Captain Morgan stands – when you’re standing on your desk, you should have one foot up occasionally. It served the same idea.
Ben: Yeah. A ball of ram in your hands. So Check out that article. And then another one that I like is this new study on express weight training. Have you heard about this?
Brock: Yes.
Ben: And you said you that it found that you can build strength in just 13 minutes. So this was pretty interesting. What it looked into and this would not be a way to build a copious amounts of athletic performance to allow you to go and compete in the crossfit games, for example. However…
Brock: Or a bunch of muscle like gain a bunch of muscle mass either.
Ben: Yeah. Exactly.
Brock: This is the only way to build strength which is great.
Ben: Yeah. Build strength, not hyperthrophy. That’s a good point. These folks weren’t actually building muscle. What they did in the study was they took a whole bunch of young men and they had one group complete 5 sets of each of the different exercises that they use – common exercise like the bench press, the lat pull down, and the leg press and a set of any of these exercises simply require the participants to lift 2 failure. And please note that they were lifting 2 failure. That’s important. One group did 5 sets of each exercise to failure with 90 seconds of rest between exercises. They’re at the gym for about 70 minutes.
Brock: Pretty standard. That’s the general way most people do it, including me.
Ben: Yes. And then the second group was asked to complete 3 sets of each exercise and for them, they were at the gym for about 40 minutes. But the final group, they only had them do one set of each exercise and it took that group about 13 minutes. So they did this for a relatively long period of time. They’re there for 8 weeks and they’re working out for 3 times a week and they did before and after measurements of muscular strength. They also measured muscle size and muscle endurance. Neither of which seem to be significantly affected but after the 2 months of training, after this weeks of training, all of the groups were stronger including the group that did just one set. And in fact, the group that did just one set gained as much strength as the group that did 3 sets and even the group that did 5 sets. The caveat is that the group that did 5 sets definitely had a significantly greater amount of muscle mass development. So they gained better size. But when it came to strength, it turns out that these brief forays in the gym can do just fine in terms of allowing you to maintain functional strength. I, personally, did a kind of a variation of this quite a bit when I travel. Probably, the difference between me and the group in the study is that I’m in the gym a little bit longer. Probably closer to, by the time I’ve warmed up and everything, 20 to 25 minutes because what I do is a single set to failure for 5 different exercises – the chest press, the pull down, the shoulder press, the seated row and the leg press. But I do super slow training, which means that I’m doing any of those given exercises for about 2 to 2 ½ minutes and further more I finish off each set with a quick kinda partial range of motion series of explosive reps so that I completely exhaust the muscle and (and this is important) I use my fast-twitch muscle fiber so I’m hitting those and not just the slower twitch fibers that I use during the super slow training. That’s kind of the variation that I use – a little bit more of super slow approach but I’m still doing just one single bleeding lactic acid ______(0:20:29.1) eyeballs and ears set to failure and then I’m done. And this study backs up the fact that that really does allow you to maintain strength but also hack your life so you’ve got more time available. I think it’s good for people to know that you don’t have to spend that much time in the gym. If your gym is your getaway ______ (0:20:53.5) meditation for the day, go into the gym for an hour and put in an audio book or the nudge-nudge-wink-wink Ben Greenfield Fitness podcast ‘cause this is definitely a podcast that’s longer than 13 minutes. If that’s your meditation, fine. But if you just wanna get in and get out quickly, please note that a single set is all that it really takes.
Brock: Hey, let me ask you this: When you do your workout or when you tell somebody to start this workout, how would you determine what weight to start with? What would you load up the bar with, let’s say for a chest press single set?
Ben: You know what? My method is pretty rough around the edges but the way that I do it is I do the first rep and If I can’t do the first rep with really good form moving super slow, if I’m already arching my back, for example, on that first rep, then I reach down to little pins on the weight stack and I decrease the weight by a plate. And some of those machines have the micro adjustment little knob that you can turn that’ll decrease it 5 or 10 pounds. I do a little bit tweaking on that first rep. If I can maintain perfect form on that first rep, and I can also sense that I’m not gonna be completely toast within like 30 seconds or after one or 2 reps, then I’ll keep the weight where it’s at but yeah, it’s a little bit of kind of a foggy science but the more that you do this style of training, the more you get used to just kind of knowing whether you’ve got way too much weight loaded or not enough. And then the other thing that you can do is you can strip set. As you go through the set, if you get to 3 reps, and you’ve had maybe 60 seconds of time under tension, you know that you won’t get 2 to 2 ½ minutes of time under tension. You can just decrease the weight a little bit. That’s why I like to do this type of workout on machines ‘cause it’s very simple. The chest press to reach down and just the machine keep going versus with dumbells, where you gotta go rack them or the barbell where you gotta remove plate, tab plate, etc.
Brock: That was a good measure ‘cause the time under stress is probably the most important thing anyway, so instead of thinking about it in terms of weight, just think about what you can lift for 2 minutes without stopping or your form falling apart.
Ben: Yeah. And if you wanna read the whole book about this, if you need to read the entire book to learn how to super slow train, I think it’s necessary ______ (0:23:18.9) book. It’s Body by Science by author Doug McGuff. Great book on that one.
Brock: All right. I’ll stop bugging you on this book. Move on.
Ben: The last thing was a simple method of fasting that produce some pretty profound body fat and metabolic results. In a nut shell, what this study did was they simply had people delay their morning meal – their breakfast by 90 minutes. And then eat dinner 90 minutes earlier. Right, so they’re creating, in a sense, a compressed feeding window for the subjects during this 10-week study. So you call this time-restricted feeding, which is a form of intermittent fasting. The participants were split into 2 groups – the group that, of course, ate meals as they normally would eat meals just sprinkled throughout the day and then another group that waited an extra 90 minutes to eat breakfast. Let’s say you have your breakfast at 10:00 A.M. instead of 8:30 A.M. And then, they move their dinner back so instead of having dinner at let’s say 7:30 P.M., you’d have dinner at 6:00 P.M. What they found was a significant response in fat. As a matter of fact, the researchers found that people who changed their mealtimes lost an average more than twice as much body fat as the control group with this simple switch. What I like about this is a very simple switch for reduction of body fat via this compressed feeding window. You simply take whatever time you normally eat breakfast and even if you can just try this for a week to see what happens. Just shift that breakfast time forward by 90 minutes and yeah, that might mean that you’re having breakfast at your office while you’re working and breakfast might be whatever – a smoothie or a handful of nuts and berries or say like maybe a cup of coffee with some super foods or mushrooms or oils or something like that blended in so that it’s something that you can eat while you’re working and then for dinner, you simply have dinner earlier, which, of course, also requires some shifts in your schedule. Let’s say you go to the gym normally in the afternoon or in the evening after work, or maybe you would actually have dinner and then get some things done, play your kids, hang out, read, do whatever it is you can do and then go to the gym at let’s say 7:00 because you had dinner earlier. It requires some switching of some of your schedules but ultimately, it’s pretty significant – the amount of fat loss that occurred by the introduction of this compressed feeding window and I think this is a very logical and simple way for people to wrap their heads around it because that’s all they did in the study – delay breakfast by 90 minutes and then have dinner 90 minutes earlier.
Brock: So I wouldn’t suggest this for most of people who are listening to this podcast right now are probably already doing a compressed feeding window. They’re probably doing like 16-18 hour overnight intermittent fast. Now you don’t wanna add this on top of that.
Ben: I’m gonna interrupt you. I don’t think most people are doing 16-18 hour. I think most people are probably doing a 12-16 hour. But think about the 16-18 hour. That usually requires completely skipping breakfast in most cases because you’re not eating till noon or 1 P.M. in many cases if you’re doing that type of fast. These folks are still eating breakfast. They’re just eating breakfast later.
Brock: Yeah. Ok sure. So if you’re already doing intermittent fasting, though, like if it’s 12 hours, this isn’t necessarily on top of that. This is for people who aren’t already engaging in some sort of intermittent fast.
Ben: Yeah. Exactly. Anyways, ruling to the study…
Brock: I just wanna hope _____ (0:26:56.2) we were running off and be like “Well, I’m eating for like 6 hours. Now I guess I have to chop another 3 hours off of that.
Ben: Right. Another way to think about this is just have an 8-10 hour compressed feeding window whenever you normally, just try to spread all your meals within about 8-10 hours, preferably not between midnight and 8:00 A.M., try and chew something more conducive to Circadian rhythmicity. Have all your meals between 10:00 A.M. and 6:00 P.M., for example. The only other thing I should throw in there is that in our household – the Greenfield household – I have sacrificed the health benefits and the Circadian rhythm benefits of an earlier dinner for the social and happiness benefits of having a family dinner ‘cause by the time my kids finish Jujitsu and tennis and piano and post-school activities, by the time I finish all I have to get done during the day, by the time my wife has actually gotten done with the goats and the chickens in the yard and everything we’re doing, sometimes we just don’t have the time to sit down together as a family until 8:00 or 8:30 P.M. for dinner. And yes, that’s not ideal because ideally, you should have your dinner done with about 3 hours prior to bedtime and ideally, you should have this compressed feeding window but I also…in our household, family dinners are a must. That’s the time when we gather around and we play table topics and we play some game together like Pictionary, which I find annoying ‘cause I have to stop every 2 minutes and permitting to draw something. But we really prioritize this time when the whole family can get together at the end of the day. We can’t do it at breakfast because everyone’s running around, getting ready for the day, getting ready for school. Lunch time, the kids aren’t here and lunch has become an afterthought for me anyways and I’m working through lunch and so dinner turns out to be the meal that allows us to have this family dinners that, in my opinion, are one of the things that kinda keeps our family together and all on the same page and lets us catch up on each other’s lives and not be like ships in the night throughout the entire week. For those of you listening in, who feel like this could disrupt family dinners, for example, I personally think the importance of family dinners and a good social relationship with your family trumps any metabolic issues that might arise from having a slightly later dinner.
Brock: And in fact, even in that study, they said in the questionnaire after the study was done, that the respondents indicated that social eating and drinking opportunities were negatively impacted even by this 90-minute thing.
Ben: Right.
Brock: It’s a problem.
Ben: Exactly. So don’t do this if it means you gotta sacrifice beers with the boys in the evening. It’s not worth it.
Special Announcements
Ben: So this is the part of the show where I give everybody amazing deals that you can’t get elsewhere. Don’t fast forward this because we’re actually going to give you some pretty good deals. And even extra tips like chichory that I mentioned can be _____ (0:30:04.4) that coconut cream and coconut oil you kind of include is you’re simmering the split mung beans and the rice with all the spices and herbs. Well, coconut cream is actually a really good thing to have around. It’s extremely high in B vitamins and vitamin E. It’s got a ton of selenium and phosphorous and magnesium in it. And coconut milk is, of course, quite popular but coconut cream is creamier, it’s more thick, it’s a little bit more rich and you can get really good high quality coconut cream that comes from ethically sourced (I guess this means that they didn’t kill any humans or small animals or pollute sea water or anything like that)
Brock: I can see that primates I think that are in danger here.
Ben: Yeah. They didn’t take down any monkeys. So they used ethically sourced organic coconuts in the Philippines and these are incredibly pure coconut extract. They only have coconut extract and water. No carrageenan or preservatives or anything like that. I order this. I order about once a month from this company called Thrive Market. What Thrive Market does is they carry a whole bunch of food and snacks and vitamins and supplements and personal care products and eco-friendly cleaning supplies but they give you about 50% off on average what you’d normally pay at like the fancy grocery store like say co-pay check. And then they also have about 70 % of the catalogue comprised of things you can’t find on Amazon like a really good clean organic stuff that is kind of like a step above when it comes to health and everything from organic the way that is ethically sourced, the way that it’s shipped, packaged, everything. You can actually get 25% on your first order to Thrive Market. In addition to that, what they’re giving all the listeners is $60 of free groceries, free shipping, and a 30-day trial. So a ton of goodies from Thrive Market and may I recommend the coconut cream and sugar. And if you’re a clean-up your liver like me, very simple. Just go to www.thrivemarket.com/ben and you can be off to the races. Get the coconut flake cereal, too while you’re over there. That’s just amazing.
Brock: And the sprouted popcorn.
Ben: Yeah. So try www.thrivemarket.com/ben. I also, while I’ve got everyone’s mouth-watering, want to fill you in, that’s ______ (0:32:45.0) the baby bird, the baby bird….
Brock: The mama bird throwing up.
Ben: Mama bird throwing up and then a disgusting salivary sound that you just made.
Brock: I hope nobody has that…what’s that called? The hyperphonia? No
Ben: Yeah. The ability to be able to sense. How does that go again?
Brock: It’s when you absolutely, irrationally hate the sound of mouth creases – misophonia.
Ben: Misophonia
Brock: Sorry, everybody with misophonia.
Ben: Yup! That’s why I’m not chewing my gum right now. So cud and coconut curry bowl with brown rice, sweet and spicy Udon noodles with fried eggs and vegetables and seared chicken and roasted potatoes with kale salad and creamy Calabrian dressing are just 3 of the meals that are on the menu this week at Blue Apron. So what Blue Apron does is they deliver all these farm-fresh ingredients and step-by-step recipe cards to your door and you choose any of these recipes, you cook them. You can make them in as little as 20 minutes. My kids make these meals. They ship them straight to the house and they’ve got all sorts of these fantastic chef-designed recipes like the ones that I just talked about. For those of you who do things like the whole 30 diet, for example, they’ve got a whole 30 approved menu. They do have healthy stuff and they make it incredibly convenient. Speaking of family dinners, you may not have time to cook them because you’re off whatever, at soccer practice. You can get home and have one of these meals that’s ready to rumble in literally 20 minutes. Everybody listening gets their first 3 meals free. Very simple, get to www.blueapron.com/ben. Another thing you can eat is this stuff called Omax. Have you tried this yet, Brock? Omax? O-m-a-x.
Brock: No.
Ben: So it’s called Omax. What they pride themselves on is they make the purest omega 3 supplements. So meaning that a lot of fish oil you’ll get fish burps and in many cases, that’s because of saturated fats and toxins and PCBs. They remove all these stuff with the special distillation process that they use at Omax. So all your left with are these ultra pure omega 3 fatty acids and you even have this cool thing to do called the freezer test challenge where if you freeze a lot of other fish oils they get cloudy and that’s just all the filler but the Omax 3 gels, they remain totally clear. They actually have one, too, that’s like this really cool CBD-infused omega 3 fatty acid.
Brock: Really? Wow!
Ben: Yeah. It’s really good for night time relaxation like theanine, CBD, I forgot what else is in it. But anyways, it’s called Omax 3 Ultra Pure. It’s the one that’s just completely pure fish oil. What you get is a free box of Omax with any purchase from Omax. They’re just gonna give you a free box that they’ll throw in there. And to do that, you go to www.tryomax.com/ben and you get a free box of their Omax 3 Ultra Pure with any of the purchase there. So it’s O-M-A-X – www.omax.com/ben.
Brock: www.tryomax.com/ben, in fact.
Ben: I’m sorry try, – T-R-Y, www.tryomax.com/ben is the URL. And the last thing is…probably is something that you could eat…it is clean enough to eat if you really wanted to…it is a deodorant. And the primary ingredients are coconut oil, arrow root powder, a little bit of sodium bicarbonate or baking soda and then essential oils. And the one that I use is Cedar Fresh. If you smell me, anytime you see me, those of you out there up in a meeting or conferences or stuff, if I smell like a wonderful flavorful forest like the council of elves running around on it, it’s because I’m wearing this deodorant. I’m not eating it. I’m just wearing it. It’s called Cedar Fresh. It’s an organic plant-based natural deodorant and I get this…What’s so funny?
Brock: You smell like BO in forest.
Ben: Yeah. I smell like a horribly detoxing liver and cedar. That’s what I smell like right now. This is same place I get my toothpaste, same place I get my body wash. It’s Onnit. A lot of people don’t realize we have this fantastic personal care products over there and you get 10% off of all those stuff – the toothpaste, the deodorant, the body wash. Really clean stuff and again you can eat all your personal care products. If you’re stuck on a desert island and if for some strange reason, on that desert island all you had was your personal care products, I’d recommend you also look fishing pole but you could eat them. Go to www.bengreenfieldfitness.com/onnit. That saves you 10% off of any purchase from Onnit. The only little things for today’s news flash is that I should probably mention or just a few events that are coming up right around the corner that I know are not full yet. One is an event I’m teaching at for like docs and health care practitioners…I know we have a lot of people in Kion U going to this Kion U is the Private Mastermind that I run for coaches. You can check it out over at www.getkion.com. This is a place where you learn business building tips, where you learn a lot of more kind of like cutting edge scientific health concepts. It’s called the Live it to Lead Conference. It is Peak of the Devil down in Vegas, which means I get to be in Vegas.
Brock: You spend a lot of time there.
Ben: Twice in the last few months. I know.
Brock: And you’re not gonna go see Celine.
Ben: No. Anyways, check that out. I’m also speaking at the American Academy of Anti-aging Medicine in Vegas in December.
Brock: Come on, man.
Ben: We’ll put a link to a lot of these places where I’ll be speaking over in the show notes at www.bengreenfieldfitness.com/390 for those of you who are docs and don’t wanna go to crazy events in Vegas. I’ll be also in Chicago, racing the Spartan race in Chicago. I will be speaking at the Biohacking Conference the day before that, October 16th, up in Toronto, Ontario. And then I will be also speaking at David Bouley’s Chef Dinner, November 13th in New York City and the day before that, I’ll be over in Boston racing the Spartan race in Boston. So all sorts of events there that you can join me in. I realized that sounded like a lot but should you not have memorized any of that, just go to www.bengreenfieldfitness.com/390. We’ll put all of that into the extremely roebuck show notes that we worked on for you, guys and I think that’s about it.
Listener Q & A
John: Hi, Ben! Several different bed and mattress companies promote this zero gravity beds. Do zero gravity beds or incline beds improve sleep quality or impact core muscles in a negative way? Also, can disconnecting the bed plug remove the electricity to improve sleep? Thank you much, John.
Brock: I honestly have never heard of gravity beds before.
Ben: Really? You’re under a rock? ______ (0:40:25.8) stuck on my gravity beds
Brock: Apparently. According to John…yeah, I’m living under a rock but I’ve had gravity boots. I’ve had inversion tables. I’ve never tried a gravity bed.
Ben: Well, they were developed by NASA. So we automatically know that they must be well-researched and efficacious. That’s pretty much like of you want to claim that anything is worth someone’s penny or in this case, many pennies, you tell them it was developed by NASA or that it came from Russia or Japan. Right? Those are the best ways to lend instant credibility to anything you say. And ideally, it’s NASA researchers working with Japanese and Russian researchers to develop something.
Brock: That’s the try factor.
Ben: That’s the try factor so that’s why you could ensure that you get instant credibility. The zero gravity position are, all joking aside, it actually was something that NASA came up with. They invented this neutral body posture for astronauts to sit in as they would launch a space crafts into orbit. So astronauts, of course, encounter zero gravity as a space craft changes speed as it orbits and that’s necessary to keep the atmospheric pressure from pulling the space craft back in. And the centrifugal force that is used to accelerate the space vehicle works to offset gravity and so they call this zero gravity and NASA created a zero gravity sitting position to alleviate the compression forces of pressure on the spine and the body of astronauts during the space shuttle take offs.
Brock: And that’s ____ (0:42:08.9) the lazy boy position like the recliner position, right?
Ben: Yeah. It is. It’s popular in a lot of these massage beds or relaxing beds that you’d sit in before you get your massage. There are some companies that have developed special beds like a lot of pulsed electromagnetic field companies (PEMF companies) like Teemer or Pulsed Centers that develop these beds that you sit in that kind of blast your body with PEMF frequencies, which are great. I like those for decreasing inflammation, increase blood flow, you sleep better. But the original came from NASA and then bed manufacturers and some of these biohacking device manufacturers realized the benefits of zero gravity would have if you somehow figure out a way to work this into a bed or something that you wouldn’t necessarily find in a space ship. So the zero gravity position…what it does is it releases pressures of gravity from the body by distributing your body weight evenly. So in most cases, it’s an adjustable frame that allows for your legs and your head to be raised at a different angle to reduce back pressure and increase circulation. And so in a zero gravity position, the angle of the thighs and the torso get aligned and the upper body and the head are raised just a little bit. The knees are slightly bent and if you can’t picture it, just go to Google on images and type in “zero gravity” and you’ll see exactly what I’m talking about. What they found is that this results in less back pain and less neck pain because a flat bed adds pressure to your body’s natural S-shaped spinal column and once you eliminate that flatness and you evenly distribute pressure, you actually can get relief of any pain or the production of soreness and discomfort on your back and your neck when your laying flat on your back. They’ve also studied this for snoring and they found that the head gets slightly elevated in this zero gravity position. The airway is open. It prevents the tongue from slipping back during sleep. So if you have sleep apnea or you snore, then this is something that can help with that. So you actually get better specifically rapid eye movement sleep cycles or REM sleep cycles when you do this. They found that it takes on you the pressure of a hard muscle so people who have heart issues, that have cardiovascular incidents, that had heart attacks, you get better flow of blood through the heart. And so the zero gravity position could be good for people who are concerned about cardiovascular issues. People who get heart burn and acid reflux, often, they just should not be eating so much damn food before they get into bed at night but laying in zero gravity… if you do decide you just wanna stuff your gaping maw and then stumble up the stairs and into bed, it does elevate the upper body so stomach acids don’t come easily back up. So it could help to ease heart burn and acid reflux. Although, again, I think there are other underlying reasons for that and you should fix a few things before you rush out to buy a zero gravity bed to fix your heart burn.
Brock: Probably.
Ben: You get less swelling ‘cause the legs are elevated obviously, get better breathing, especially for people who have allergies or asthma. They have used zero gravity beds for this and tell them that people breathe better in those types of situations. Sleep, overall, appears to be somewhat improved in terms of actual sleep cycles and Circadian rhythmicity. So these zero gravity beds, actually have a lot going for them and there are companies that sell them. I’ll put links in the show notes. Probably one of the more popular ones is called The Ghost Bed. And it’s an adjustable zero gravity bed. You can literally push buttons on it and get the bed to be exactly at the angles that you want to be at. And they sell like this curvaceous base that allows you to adjust it to your needs. And compared to some of these like $10,000 organic mattresses, they’re not that expensive. I mean like, I think it’s about $3,000 to get the whole kit and caboodle – the whole zero gravity base and the zero gravity curved mattress. There’s another company on Amazon called the Zero Gravity G-Force. Same thing…they’ve got like this big like California kingstyle adjustable bed. That one even has a massage option on it. You get a zero gravity that way, too.
Brock: Put the beds in the old motels where you put a recorder in and it goes zzzzz….and it shakes like hell.
Ben: Next your heart shake hot dum. Exactly. There is also a company called Dynasty Mattress that has a pretty good one. I don’t sleep on one even though I do have one of the pulsed center’s PEMF tables that actually is a zero gravity table. I sometimes nap on that so I can double up and get pulsed electromagnetic field therapy at the same time that I’m napping. I’ll put a link to my podcast with pulsed centers in the show notes. But I don’t have one of these beds. What I have is something called an intelli bed. It’s like it’s naturally intelligent bed listening to us. The intelli bed does….
Brock: It does Math.
Ben: It uses gel. It uses gel and it’s this double layer of gel. A lot of people ask me what kind of mattress that I sleep on. It’s called a gel matrix that I use. They blend gel with foam so it’s very supportive of the body but it feels like you’re laying on a memory foam. It’s actually a firm surface but it feels like you’re laying on memory foam. They call the technology they use in that dynamically adaptive cushionings. So it kind of adapts to your body when you lay on it like a typical foam mattress does but it’s about 3 times more firm than a foam mattress. They had a bunch of sleep scientists work for the company to develop this. Admittedly, the mattress that I sleep on is more expensive than any of these zero gravity beds. I think the total for my actual mattress was something like 7k.
Brock: Really?
Ben: So that’s a little bit more expensive but I mean, they’ve got like this cooling technology fabric in it. It’s got a 20-year warranty. They use copper and fused latex. It’s a pretty nice bed. I’ve laid in some of these zero gravity beds and the angle of your body is cool but, man, I mean these intelli beds can’t be beat. And I just wanna point at the elephant in the room here. It’s also incredibly difficult to have sex on a zero gravity bed. I’m just saying.
Brock: Somebody’s bent on the wrong direction.
Ben: Yeah. And some of them are like I mentioned, they’re motorized and have the ability to like flip a switch so they can kinda go flat. But ultimately, I like the intelli bed. If you like to own nice things, I think the intelli bed is top of the totem pole. I think these zero gravity beds are pretty cool. I’m actually building a guest house on the forest behind my house and maybe I’ll get a zero gravity bed for that just so that people who come over or if I ever wanna go sleep on a zero gravity bed after I’ve been traveling a lot or something went wrong in my legs, I could. But yes, it’s an interesting question and ultimately, to answer John’s question, yeah, they can definitely help. John also asked if unplugging them can help to remove the electricity to improve sleep. Yeah, anything they have plugged in your bedroom that could be unplugged while you’re asleep, it’s a good idea. But what I do in my own bedroom is I just have these things called dirty electricity filters and anything that’s plugged in in the bedroom is plugged into one of these dirty electricity filters so it pretty significantly limits any amount of electrical pollution and I did this big podcast with the building biologist in my house.
Brock: Yeah. That was cool. That was fun.
Ben: And he definitely found with his little testing monitors that these dirty electricity filters did, indeed, keep me from electrical pollution. So there you have it. That’s the skinny on zero gravity beds.
Brock: You know what I’ve been sleeping on recently that I just absolutely love and is really cheap?
Ben: Bed of nails?
Brock: How did you know? It’s exactly what I was gonna say. Put]]>
