Maximizing Productivity, Physical & Mental Health with Daily Tools | Episode 28

There are now at least half a dozen quality papers published in quality peer-reviewed journals that show that forward ambulation—walking or biking or running—and generating optic flow in particular has this incredible property of lowering activity in the amygdala and thereby reducing levels of anxiety.

Getting sunlight in your eyes first thing in the morning is absolutely vital to mental and physical health. It is perhaps the most important thing that any and all of us can and should do in order to promote metabolic well-being, promote the positive function of your hormone system, get your mental health steering in the right direction...

If you're somebody who wakes up on average at 7 AM, well then your temperature minimum is 5 AM. And you can be reasonably sure... that your best work is going to be done anywhere from 4-6 hours after your temperature minimum.

Ingesting sufficient levels of omega-3 fatty acids is going to support healthy mood and even can act as an antidepressant. More than a dozen studies have shown that ingesting at least 1,000 mg per day of the EPA form of essential fatty acid is as effective as prescription antidepressants in relieving depression.

For those that want to explore supplements and how they can impact sleep, this combination of about 300-400 mg of magnesium threonate or bisglycinate, 50 mg of apigenin, and 100-200 mg of theanine alone or in combination have been beneficial to many people, and there are excellent studies to support those statements.

90 minutes is about what the brain can handle in terms of a dedicated effort for a high degree of focus ... You'd be amazed how much you can get done in 90 minutes if you are focused.

Fasting increases levels of adrenaline, also called epinephrine, in the brain and body. And when our levels of epinephrine and adrenaline are increased, we learn better, we can focus better. There's terrific data supporting that.

Essentially, what the data tell us, is that in order to optimize cardiovascular and brain health and other systems of the body, we want to exercise at least 5 days per week.

Viewing bright light, or even not so bright light, between these hours of 11 PM and 4 AM, or even 10 PM and 4 AM, can disrupt learning and memory, can disrupt the immune system, and can disrupt mood in very long-lasting ways.

One interesting fact about yerba mate and guayusa teas is that they increase release of something called GLP-1. GLP-1 is related to glucagon. Glucagon is a hormone that you can sort of think about as opposite to insulin and blood sugar ... GLP-1 has a couple of positive properties. One is it increases lipolysis and mobilization of body fat stores—the burning of fat.

Engaging in physical exercise while fasted can amplify the effects of that exercise—not just for sake of increasing the percentage of things like body fat burned, etc., but for cellular health health, liver health, and health of other organs.

I know that the lowest temperature that my body will be at across the 24-hour cycle tends to be 2 hours before my typical wake-up time. And I want to know that number—it's called our temperature minimum.

Please know, if you do wear blue blockers, that if the light in your environment is bright enough, it doesn't matter if you're blocking out the blues, these cells in the eye will respond to other wavelengths of light.

I'm a big believer, based on quality peer-reviewed data, that hydration is essential for mental performance.

Brain areas involved in attention, brain areas involved in focus and cognition and memory, those are engaged to a greater degree when there is low levels of white noise playing in the background.

Brief walks of 5-30 minutes after ingesting food can accelerate metabolism and actually can accelerate and improve nutrient utilization.

It's absolutely clear that one of the major ways that we can increase serotonin, which helps in the transition to sleep, is by ingesting starchy carbohydrates.