Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:11] Speaker B: What'S worthwhile healing Mind, body and spirit. I'm Ramsey Zimmerman. I choose peace of mind, vitality of body, and joy of spirit over stress, exhaustion, or overwhelm. Together, let's explore and pursue the many ways to build holistic health and wellness.
[00:00:31] Speaker A: I don't think that people are giving their brains what they need to function well.
And in the same breath, I firmly believe this is no one's fault. We have essentially inherited a brain that is designed to function as cave people or cave dwellers.
At a time when we were hunter gatherers and nomads and lived in tribes, there was no electricity.
And so this, this modern life where we are just very out of sync with how we are designed to optimally function, creates very real physical and cognitive problems.
A lot of what I teach and what I try to help people with is to understand how, how they're wired, quite literally, and then how we can, I suppose, intentionally structure our lifestyle so that we are best in line with that biology and not just a victim of the pace of life that's so easy to just get sucked along with.
[00:01:34] Speaker B: Hey there, it's Ramsay here. That was Dr. Ryan Williamson. Dr. Williamson is a practicing neurologist, the author of the new book the Incredible Brain, and the founder of Transcend Health, which is an online community.
This conversation was absolutely packed with fascinating facts about the brain and, and useful practical advice on how we can keep our brains in top shape. Ryan introduced an acronym that spells brain, which stands for breath rest, active intake and nurture.
We invested a good portion of our time together unpacking those five crucial elements to serve overall health.
So grab your earbuds, get some fresh air, maybe a healthy snack, and take this podcast with you for a walk.
You'll be glad you did. Let's get started.
Hey, Ryan, how are you doing today?
[00:02:26] Speaker A: Wonderful, Ramsey. How are you?
[00:02:28] Speaker B: I am doing well. Hey, thanks so much for joining me today, taking the time to do that. I know you have a lot going on. You are a board certified neurologist, you're the founder of the Transcend Health membership community, and you just last week launched your first book, the Incredible Brain.
Tell me, how did those butch, how did those book launch events go for you last week.
[00:02:56] Speaker A: Ramsey? It was quite a week.
It was my hope to just disseminate more information to people.
And the ideas in the book are things that I've been sharing with my patients for years.
But the book hit bestseller, so that was just a wonderful surprise.
And all week we have already been hearing from people that have purchased the book from old friends, from colleagues, acquaintances, strangers, that it has already created impact in their life.
[00:03:29] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:03:30] Speaker A: And, yeah, I mean, I.
This, this past week has been so emotional because that's all I wanted was just to help other people understand how in control of their health they really are.
And I've done my best to express that in the book. And it seems like people are receiving that message. So I am beyond grateful for the experience that has been getting this out into the world.
[00:03:56] Speaker B: Well, that is wonderful. And I did want to ask you, like, why did you write the book? I mean, writing a book is a, is a big amount of effort. It's a big undertaking. And, you know, you already had things going on, but. But why did you decide to sort of launch into that effort?
[00:04:15] Speaker A: Yeah, writing a book is a lot of effort for any, any of your audience members who are considering it. It is not an easy task, I can assure you, but it is a worthwhile one, I think, if done for the right reasons.
So I know you know a little bit about my story, but for those that don't, my, my early life was really marked by a great deal of personal loss.
Um, I really opened the book this way with the introduction, but my, my first memories in life were of attending funerals for family members.
And that, that really led to my desire to go into medicine and try to help more people and relieve suffering.
But after getting through all of my training, after becoming a neurologist, and even in my early years in the military, where I started my career in the Navy, I still by definition, saw pretty young, healthy people.
And it wasn't until I left the military in 2022 that I returned to civilian medicine and started seeing older patients again that would show up with just the same predictable, repeatable, chronic diseases that would manifest in emergencies like strokes, heart attacks, severe neurologic dysfunction like brain death, diagnosing Alzheimer's and various types of dementias, Parkinson's, and when we look through the literature, anywhere between 70 and 90% of all of our health outcomes are lifestyle based.
And it took me a while to get there and to really understand that. But the frustration and the sadness of seeing these again, repeatable, predictable outcomes that are largely preventable, made me realize that there is absolutely a better way for people to live their life, to live a longer life, to be healthier, to create more impact.
And, you know, one on one, I could share that with, with maybe younger patients or even. It's never too late to correct course, but we get to a point where we're in the later years of our life and we've, we've missed an opportunity to maintain more function.
But that was all swirling in my head, I suppose, and I'd still not taken action.
And last June, this was June of 2024, I finally reached out to a team that I thought could help me get the book done.
And two days after sending that email and committing to it, my lifelong best friend died completely unexpectedly.
And that was of all the loss I had with early family members.
Uh, this was by far the worst thing I've ever been through.
And it just had triggered this deep reflection and I, I made the commitment to myself and to, to everybody else that I, I could hope to reach, that I was going to do this. And I, I started my company, Transcend Health that you mentioned a minute ago, to just try my best to ensure that people are living their best, healthiest lives and to elevate their, their cognitive and their physical performance so that they can just do more of what they love for longer and spend more time with their families, working on their business or whatever is important to them. And that's what we're doing.
[00:07:31] Speaker B: Yeah.
Yeah. Well, that's a beautiful testament. It's a wonderful response to loss, you know, and it didn't, it didn't shut you down, it didn't make you want to hold back. It galvanized you. So on behalf of everyone who will, you know, read this book and be impacted by that, thank you for that, for reaching outwards instead of just reaching inwards, which I think it would have also been an understandable thing to do.
[00:08:06] Speaker A: Well, there was certainly a period of grief, so there was a month or two where I was not very functional. But yes, I am thankful that I have invested heavily in my own mental health. And I think this is another message that I want everyone to hear and that's that I would encourage anybody that ever struggles with any kind of self doubt, depression, anxiety, relationship issues, anything to please seek care.
I mean, it is a firm belief of mine that we should all have some sort of counselor or therapist in our corner and that that is not actually a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength and courage to be able to get help in those moments.
Because there's unfortunately this stigma that I've had to debunk, certainly in the military and sort of hyper masculine, you know, level of perfection, razor's edge that we have to deal with our active duty service members and perhaps more so in kind of the quote unquote, baby boomer generation than maybe Gen Z or Gen X, but There's this stigma that mental health is, is a taboo subject or that you're just not good enough if you can't handle stress or life. And that couldn't be further from the truth.
You know, our, our, our feelings, our cognition are all a result of the physical health of our brain.
And there are very valid evidence based ways to maintain our brain health that either again, elevates our performance and helps us feel better, or that can really rob us of our most important opportunities in life.
And again, through my own journey, I'm thankful to have found that and to understand the science behind that. But for anybody, again, that's, that's ever faced that, or has a family member, friend, anyone that's dealing with that, I would please, please encourage you to look into that and pursue the care that you need.
[00:10:02] Speaker B: Yes.
Yeah. Thank you for, thank you for saying all of that.
And I think you start to sort of make some really good points there that I'd like to build off of.
You know, the, the, the title of your book is the Incredible Brain, and I'd love to hear some things about why and how and what are some things that you think is so incredible about the brain?
I know that's a huge question, right, that you could go in a million different directions, but what are some of the things off the top of your head, if you will, about what makes the brain so incredible?
[00:10:44] Speaker A: You're right, Ramsay, there, there are really infinite directions here.
But for, for starters, the, the brain is the most sophisticated structure, in my opinion, in the known universe, that human brain, anyway. And, and to take that a step further, I, I truly believe that we have grossly underestimated the complexity of other animal brains and perhaps even just life in general, plant life and so on, so forth. And this, anyway, that, this, this gets ethereal fairly quickly, so narrow as I can.
But your, your brain is, is a supercomputer and it processes inputs to generate outputs. And, and so through your eyes, your ears, the billions of sensory receptors all throughout your skin and your body, your brain's receiving somewhere on the order of 11 million bits of information every second that it has to receive, decode and process.
And by the way, your brain is so efficient at this that the level that reaches conscious perception is somewhere on the order of 50 bits per second, so orders of magnitude less for you to be able to narrowly focus on one thing at a time, or else you would just be so overwhelmed that you wouldn't know what to do because of all the, all the streaming information that's coming In.
And so to be able to do all of this and then create this beautiful experience we call consciousness, you know, where you can see and taste and touch, smell, think, abstract, converse, love, fear. I mean, it.
It's just. It's unbelievable.
So, again, I could take a deep dive on the motor pathways or the limbic system or the visual pathways. I mean, there's so much. But it really is incredible. I mean, that's one reason that I chose that as the title. It is a fascinating system.
[00:12:38] Speaker B: Yeah, well, and it is in so many ways. It integrates and controls so many things and works together with every piece of our body. And, you know, we could get into all kinds of conversations about the nature of consciousness and all of that. But where I kind of want to go with the conversation is a bit more practical.
And, you know, I think I know the answer to this question, but do you think that. That most people, typical people, are.
Are giving their brains what they need to perform and function well?
[00:13:21] Speaker A: No, I don't. And that is another central reason that I wrote the book. And I do want to be clear about the following.
I don't think that people are giving their brains what they need to function well.
And in the same breath, I firmly believe this is no one's fault.
And what I mean by that is that we are a product of our environment, of where we grow up, of our. Our parents, our experience, our culture and our society, and we're just thrown into this modern world that is largely incongruent with our biology.
Yeah. What I mean by that is that the human brain and body have evolved over a period of millions of years.
And our social, and perhaps more importantly, our technological evolution has rapidly advanced, certainly in the past several hundred years, but more so in the last several decades. And our brains do not evolve or adapt that quickly.
So we have essentially inherited a brain that is designed to function as cave people or cave dwellers.
At a time when we were hunter gatherers and nomads and lived in tribes, there was no electricity.
And so this. This modern life where we are just very out of sync with how we are designed to optimally function creates very real physical and cognitive problems. And I think when you. When you look at it from that perspective or that lens, it becomes so obvious. And a lot of what I teach and what I try to help people with is to understand how. How they're wired, quite literally how they're designed to function, and then how we can, I suppose, intentionally structure our lifestyle so that we are best in line with that biology and not Just a victim of, of the, the pace of life that's so easy to just get sucked along with.
[00:15:25] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. What I hear you saying is that our brains were developed to respond to.
I'm going to describe them as like physical kinds of experiences, physical threats, physical challenges, and not necessarily the types of technological ones that we have.
Would you characterize it that way? And then if so, like, what, what are some of the sort of the, the mismatches that we have in life today that we were really not designed for, if you will?
[00:16:06] Speaker A: Oh, absolutely.
I, I think the, the average, the average day of the average human is, is very misaligned with their biology and what they're designed to do.
[00:16:17] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:18] Speaker A: So let's, let's look at it from the perspective of, you know, of the, the hunter gatherer and maybe the cave person.
So maybe several thousand years ago, there was no electricity, there was no Costco, you know, there was no, there were no cars. So how would we wake up? Well, we'd wake up when the sun would rise. And in fact, this, we have really several systems that help wake us up. But light actually penetrating our eyelids, along with this rise in cortisol, the so called cortisol awakening response, helps turn our brain on and return us to consciousness.
And when we would be outside and that light would get into our eyes, that would prime our circadian rhythm for telling our brain and our body that it's time to be active and time to start our day.
Uh, rather than there being a pantry full of processed snacks, we typically have to go find food.
And so we would, to find food, we'd have to get up and move.
So again, we were designed, our bodies are designed to move and I think exercises easily when we look at the evidence, the single most powerful tool in our toolkit to live a long, healthy life.
And when we would maybe go happen upon a handful of berries or maybe some roots or small game, you know, whether it's a rabbit or maybe a larger animal, you know, we would have resources to be able to consume these things until we'd have to move again.
And so there are periods very likely where we were hungry and we would fast, albeit maybe unintentionally, but that's just, that's how the system was designed.
And we were moving, burning additional calories in between.
Now as the light wears off and the sun's going down and it's dark because again, there, there are no lights, there's no, there's no, no electricity. There are no computers, iPads, TVs, right? No one's sitting watching Netflix when the sun goes down in that, that circadian rhythm, which is that 24 hour clock. It's a little longer than 24 hours, but I won't nerd out on that.
In the absence of light and in the presence of darkness, our pineal gland is signaled to release melatonin. And so melatonin helps us fall asleep. And all the movement and maybe the break in food for a period of time, all of that helps us achieve quality deep sleep. And then we start that all over again.
Now the reason I wanted to spend a few minutes on that is, fast forward to today. What does our day look like?
We wake up to artificial alarms. We turn on artificial light.
This immediately stresses our mind and our brain.
We don't have to move very far and we have more calories than our bodies need, which we tend to consume, most of which are processed or ultra processed. Think of sugary cereals and you know, different types of, I don't know, food or fast food or just insert, you know, thing. Here we don't go walk to work.
We tend to ride in our cars where we're sitting, or we then go tend to sit at our desk for 10 or 12 hours a day before we sit on the way home, on our commute, before we sit at the dinner table where we over consume more calories, some of which may be processed before we sit watching artificial light in Netflix, which believe it or not, still tells our brain, we look at the blue and kind of green frequency wavelengths of light that actually mimics daylight. And so this can delay the release of melatonin for up to three or four hours before bedtime, which delays the onset of quality sleep. We've not gotten the exercise in. We therefore have poor sleep. We eat too late, perhaps we ingest alcohol for fun, or maybe caffeine late because we're tired and we're chronically stressed. Those half lives are rather long and stay in our bloodstream and further interrupt sleep. So we wake up groggy and we do it all over again. And this is the average life of the average person, very misaligned with our biology.
[00:19:55] Speaker B: Yes, yes to all of that.
I want to dig into a bunch of those things, but I also wanted to sort of throw one more thing into the mix, which is sort of the nature of the challenges that we have and how we're able to respond or not respond.
Because in the hunter gatherer world, fair to say that the challenges are kind of literally right in front of them and they would usually require physical Responses versus the world today. Often the challenges we have are mental or virtual and, you know, could be occurring at anywhere in space or cyberspace. What's the impact of that?
[00:20:40] Speaker A: Correct. And so say, well, we've all inherited this sort of alarm system, if you will, to help us respond to challenges.
And this is their. There are two branches of our. It's called our autonomic nervous system, or think autonomic, like automatic, because it's. It's sort of similar.
Uh, this is thought for a long time to be outside of our control. But actually we now know that we actually can control and have, have a great deal of influence over the system, which is really neat, and I'll come back to that. But if you were to come upon, say, a, I don't know, a distant shadow or a silhouette or maybe, say, maybe not you, but your ancestor, and they weren't sure whether it was a lion, that system would turn on and alert them to potential danger. And if, in fact it was a predator, it would provide the energy to increase their heart rate, their pulse, their, you know, their, their breathing, tense their muscles and elevate their cortisol, blood sugar, et cetera, to get them out of danger, hopefully, or potentially to fight off a predator or maybe an invading tribe or something like this.
We still have that system.
But to your point, Ramsey, we aren't facing physical threats nearly as often, but our brain does not know how to separate that physical stressor from a virtual or a technological one, such as a stressful email or a difficult conversation at work, or perhaps a difficult situation at home, whether it's with a spouse or a child.
And so these systems turn on and it creates a great deal of stress in our body.
And without conditioning ourselves to know how to navigate that stress, we are very much along for the ride and lose agency and lose control over those situations, number one.
Number two, the more often we find ourselves in those situations and we don't have the compensatory mechanisms in place or habits or techniques to help get us out of them, your brain learns to anticipate this is probably going to happen again more often in the future.
And through this process called neuroplasticity, it actually rewires itself to anticipate more stressful events in the future, so that you tend to react more.
What's the right word here? More intensely to those situations and to those stressors.
And as a result, you actually lose agency and lose control over how your body reacts to these things.
And the analogy I like to draw a lot is it's like people are a pinball in a machine and they just bounce from one crisis to the next and that's literally how they live their life. And it's terrible for performance, it's terrible for short term health and well being and our mood and it's actually terrible for our long term physical health as well because this is very, has very deleterious effects on our body over time.
[00:23:29] Speaker B: Yeah, well, so I think we framed the sort of issues and the problems that we're up against pretty effectively. I wonder if there's. I'd really like to get to talk for a while about some solutions. You know, what it is that we can do in this life, in this world that we live in.
Perhaps we can come up with, I don't know, maybe two or three or four kind of buckets or categories of, you know, actions or sort of things that we can do in this world.
Do you have thoughts around, you know what, which big categories we'd like to, we'd like to focus on?
[00:24:07] Speaker A: I sure do.
[00:24:09] Speaker B: All right, which ones?
[00:24:11] Speaker A: So this, this is something that has taken me actually quite a while to think about and to try to distill in as simple a way as I can.
When I, when I first started writing the book and I first started Transcend Health, I was reviewing the literature on what actually works and moves the needle and I've, I've kind of, it's, it hasn't been a shotgun approach. I mean, I suppose it's a little more surgical in terms of do this, do this, do this and then providing these protocols or these lists for my, my trans and health members or just for anybody on social media that wants to listen to me.
But I found that that still is, is fairly scattered and fairly complex for people.
So I think even since the last time we spoke, Ramsey, I've, I've come up with an acronym that I hope is simple and more helpful and more actionable for people.
And the acronym actually spells out the word brain. So B, R, A, I, N.
And each letter corresponds to an action that's evidence based, that corresponds to these protocols or these evidence based interventions that we know help get people out of the stress state, elevate their brain health and their body health. And we can spend as much as little time on each of these as we want to.
But I'll just run through at least what the letters stand for.
Yeah, B is for breathe and that, that implies any kind of breath work and deactivating that fight or flight system and getting us into what's called A parasympathetic state, which is the calm state.
R is for rest. So think about achieving quality sleep, which our body absolutely needs to perform a host of functions to keep us healthy.
A is for active, which involves daily movement, which of course, I mentioned moments ago that we're designed to move.
I is for intake. So think about all the proper nutrition and avoiding the processed foods that we so commonly encounter. And then N is for nurture. And that has to do with community and relationships and lowering stress through those methods. So B, R, A, I, N, breathe, rest, active intake, nurture. And we can go in any of those directions or wherever you want to go.
[00:26:11] Speaker B: Wonderful.
Well, let's talk about breathing first.
You know, breathing is something that we do kind of all the time, and it's something that we, you know, usually don't pay attention to.
But what happens when we, you know, breathe in different ways? Like we can. We can affect our biology by how we breathe. Isn't that right?
[00:26:37] Speaker A: We sure can.
So when that sympathetic nervous system is turned on, or the fight or flight state, our breathing tends to be more shallow and it tends to be more rapid. And this is again, a product of these elevated stress hormones in the body.
And we can counteract this by a handful of techniques. But let's just say if we want to engage in a daily practice where we're meditating or we're incorporating specific types of breath work.
And again, there are dozens of techniques here, but kind of a maybe a four count in and a six count out, or box breathing, which is four in, hold for four or four out, hold for four. Something like this, like you're drawing a box or a square.
They're different techniques, but the idea is that if we purposefully exaggerate the inhale and the exhale, this gets us out of the fight or flight state, engages the parasympathetic state, and we actually now know. So A, this is exhibiting control over this autonomic nervous system that I mentioned a minute ago that we used to think was automatic or outside our control. So we know it's not true. We can modify this, but over time. Back to this idea of neuroplasticity I mentioned a minute ago.
We know that this actually increases agency over what's called our prefrontal cortex.
And the prefrontal cortex is about the front third of our frontal lobe, which is the front part of our brain. And this is like the CEO of your brain.
So this is what's responsible for our highest order function, our planning, judgment, metaphorical vision, not literal Vision, so our ability to strategize and just our executive function, period.
But if we increase agency and control over these systems or this part of the brain through breath work, which we know is possible, this helps keep your brain functioning in an optimal state and get you out of the pinball machine, so to speak.
And the more you do this, the more likely you are to end up in this state in the future to where you retain agency and control, lower your stress hormones, keep your heart rate, your blood pressure in check, and we know and lengthen something called your heart rate variability, which is another indirect measure of your body stress state. And over time, we know all of these correlate with better brain health and better physical health over time.
[00:29:00] Speaker B: Yeah, that's, that's incredible that we have sort of a means to exert that, you know, kind of control from, from one place to the next. And that's very hopeful.
Let's talk about, let's talk about rest a little bit.
So when we sleep, that's giving our body and our brain a break, right? But the, the brain does a lot during sleep, right? There's multiple different kinds of stages that it goes through and different things that happen in those stages.
Why is sleep so essential to the brain and to brain health?
[00:29:47] Speaker A: Absolutely.
Sleep, again, is fascinating and it's another fascinating feature of the incredible brain, because it is incredible, but sleep is, this, is this interesting thing. So think about, you know, we sleep for about a third of our entire life. Most people need around eight hours. Between seven and a half and nine hours is sort of the range for most people, so eight on average. And it's, it's not just unique to humans, but this is something that has been preserved across the animal kingdom. And it represents perhaps the single greatest opportunity cost for safety.
When you think about predators, natural disasters, invading tribes again years ago.
And that begs the question, why in the world would something like this be conserved through natural selection?
That would again put us in danger of having our genes or our genetic lineage end. Right. Potentially with the death of a given member of any species.
And the answer, Ramsey, is because it's that important.
And to your, to your point, yes, we go through a variety of sleep stages and sleep is the, the only time that our, our brain and our bodies heal from injury or trauma. I mean, physical trauma, literally, or infection or things like this.
If we exercise, it's the time our muscles rebuild, when we learn something new, like when we listen to a podcast, you know, that that information gets temporarily stored in our short term memory. But it's not until we actually sleep that it gets converted to long term memory that we have, we later have access to before it just kind of disappears.
That regulates our immune system, our endocrine system. I mean, it just.
Every bodily process is tied to sleep in some fashion.
And if we, with respect to the brain in particular, if we are chronically sleep deprived, I think we all know how that feels in terms of performance.
If we've ever not slept well and had a, maybe a test or a big event the next day, we know we're not feeling our best. That's intuitive because we can feel that.
But over time, one of the many problems is that we, we have this actually fairly recently discovered system called the glymphatic system. So if you think of your lymph nodes, if you ever get sick or like, you know, your neck gets swollen, you feel your kind of your lymph nodes get puffy, this is like that, but with a G in front of it. Glymphatic.
And it's this really intricate fluid flow system in the brain that was discovered about 2012.
And we now know that that system is only active, or at least is far more active during sleep than in the daytime. And this is a time where we clear out all the metabolic debris that accumulates in our brain throughout the day.
And among these is a very important protein called amyloid. And if we are not clearing out that amyloid over time, as this accumulates with within our neurons, it can create these plaques essentially that can contribute to the formation of Alzheimer's.
And so if we are not sleeping, maybe not over a period of days or months, but certainly over years and decades, we now know that this increases the risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer's in particular.
So there's a reason right there to achieve quality sleep, if not just to feel better day to day.
[00:33:04] Speaker B: So you're saying that we all need a little brainwashing?
[00:33:10] Speaker A: Yes, just not from the news.
[00:33:13] Speaker B: Yes, exactly.
So, you know, I think sleep has got to be maybe like the most underrated activity. You know, people joke that, yeah, I'll just sleep when I'm dead.
[00:33:27] Speaker A: I hate that phrase.
[00:33:29] Speaker B: But what is the.
I mean, why do you think sleep is so kind of difficult for so many people? Like, what can we do better? What can we do to sleep better?
[00:33:42] Speaker A: Yes, it is difficult for many people. So I do want to validate that. First off, and this is, this gets right back to caveman versus modern life yet again.
Again, when I, when I think about what people are doing when we wake up and again, we start our day feeling stressed. We miss out on physical activity. We're often eating too late and we're staying up late looking at screens.
All of these things are notorious for interrupting sleep quality.
And what I mean by this is to get back to that idea of this moving and getting morning light.
If we don't set that circadian rhythm every single day, this can, this can have massive impacts with respect to throwing that signal off, which again helps keep us awake in the daytime and helps keep us asleep at nighttime. And the whole system is regulated by light.
So one of the easiest, most simple things people can do if they wake up around again the time the sun comes up, if they're in a climate that supports this, get outside, get about 10 to 15 minutes of sun in your face of your eyes without sunglasses, ideally without know, without any kind of filter.
Just that's okay if it's, if the sun is low angle, just sort of look in that general direction. And ideally while you're doing this move, you know, one of the things that my wife and I do most mornings after the sun comes up is we just get out and go walk our dogs. We move, we're intentional about being together. We talk about what we want out of the day, what we're thankful for.
We get our bodies moving, which again elevates our, you know, blood flow and get, gets our muscles loose before we go to the gym and go exercise and kind of discipline fashion. But also this all helps with quality sleep later.
So we, we know that again, early morning sunlight primes the circadian rhythm and dedicated exercise actually helps with quality deep sleep, especially when that's performed in the first half of the day. So those are, those are two very, very easy pickups for most people that they can just start their day with.
And equally importantly, at nighttime for at least an hour or two before bed. I would highly encourage people to just stay away from screens.
And again, I gave the example of kind of the average, average modern person's day where they come home and they're sitting on the couch watching Netflix or TV or whatever it is that this is just a common thing that we all default into.
And this is again delaying the release of melatonin, as I mentioned, which does delays sleep on set. And I think many people are just unfortunately accustomed to this default mode of living without being intentional about their day and really not understanding the impact it's having on their biology and why.
And so then we're relying on again, caffeine the next day and underperforming and over time, like I said, these, as these amyloid proteins and all these other changes are accumulating in the body.
We don't have a signal for that. So there's no measurable way to go up. I slept poorly last night and my mammaloid's elevated. We don't feel that it just 30 or 40 years later, we start forgetting things and then you end up in a neurologist's office and they go, geez, I'm sorry to tell you this, but I think you have Alzheimer's and this is totally avoidable with the right lifestyle.
[00:37:03] Speaker B: So we've, we've talked about breath and we've talked about rest and we, we've begun to start talking about being active.
You know, I think some people really struggle with the idea of getting enough exercise.
You know, it's something that we get messages about in January of every year that we need to, you know, re up our membership at the gym and we need to just, you know, go and do this exercise or that exercise.
But it seems really intimidating, I think, for some people.
But what I'm hearing you say, and I'd love to hear more, is about the idea of just having an attitude of being active.
You know, how do you sort of incorporate the idea that, um, that we're going to have an active lifestyle and just default to sort of doing things, you know, on your feet as much as you can instead of, you know, sitting down?
[00:38:17] Speaker A: That is exactly right. And I think exercise in particular has the most unnecessary resistance around it because of exactly what you just mentioned.
I think people are intimidated by maybe signing up for the gym if they've never lifted weights or been in that environment, um, if they're self conscious about their image, especially if they're other, you know, quote unquote gym rats or bodybuilders or something. It's very easy for people to feel nervous about that or, or like they're not, they don't belong there, which I understand. Although I think that that shouldn't hold anybody back.
And anytime I see anyone in the gym, regardless of what they look like, they're getting after it. I do my best.
Proper words of encouragement because I'm just so proud of people when they go.
But let's forget about the gym for a minute.
If any of you have six minutes a day, which if you don't have six minutes in your day, then you need to seriously reevaluate what your day looks like.
[00:39:12] Speaker B: I guarantee that you have six minutes in your day. It's a question of how Are you spending each of those six minutes is in your day?
[00:39:19] Speaker A: Of course.
So there have been studies that look at people that perform what are called exercise snacks.
And this doesn't even have to be six minutes at a time. It's actually broken up into two minute sessions. So between two and three times a day, but let's just call it six minutes three times, or sorry, six minutes, but two minutes three times a day. And this could be something as simple as air squats. So just kind of, you know, standing in place with your feet shoulder width apart and sort of bending your knees and standing up over and over again for two minutes straight.
Do jumping jacks. You could do high knees where you're sort of running in place, but getting your knees up.
Mountain, mountain climbers, we're in sort of a push up position, but moving your knees back and forth to your chest. Anything that gets your heart rate up and gets you breathing for two minutes at a time.
If people can commit to this, especially around mealtime, this is known to lower what's called all cause mortality or the risk of dying of anything by about 40%.
For six minutes a day. For 40%, six minutes a day. So very, very simple, effective intervention for people that don't have the time to go dedicate an hour, hour and a half at the gym or whatever that takes.
Now if we take that a step further, if we look at walking 10,000 steps a day, I think that's a number that, that people have heard of probably maybe one or more places.
Really the numbers between 8,500 and maybe 11,000 steps or so, with 10,000 being sort of the median there, that lowers all cause mortality by 38 or 40% somewhere in that range.
Um, that's just by walking. So again, if you, I try to group these things together. So when I mentioned getting moving in the morning, getting that morning light in, I mean that 10,000 steps equates to maybe three, three and a half miles somewhere in there, depending on your stride, et cetera. So that may be a little long for somebody to walk in the morning because that at walking pace that may take an hour. But you get a little bit in here, get a little bit in there, and then again being intentional about moving throughout your day.
So looking at, okay, if I can walk in the morning, get my light in rather than sitting in a meeting, or if you're on zoom or you can phone in instead of sitting at your desk, can you go outside and take a walking meeting or you maybe can take notes on your phone and walk In a park if you have an area to do so.
One of my favorites, for example, rather than sit at a desk all day, I have a standing desk.
If I'm in my office, I'm standing and typing on my computer, doing podcasts, zoom calls, whatever we're doing. And I even have an under desk treadmill or a little walking pad where I can turn that on and get work done and walk at the same time and do both.
I tend not to do that when I'm on calls with people because that can be a little annoying to sort of huff and puff and move and have a motor in the background. So I'm not doing that right now.
Plus, I'm traveling, so I'm recording this outside my home. But.
But again, these are very simple investments. I mean, forget about the desk and the under desk treadmill, because those maybe cost a couple hundred dollars for each of those. But getting outside and walking on the sidewalk or in a park, that's free, it doesn't cost anything.
So again, just starting with these habits and being intentional about moving has massive, massive outsize impacts on our health. And consciously integrating these into our day rather than, again, accepting the default of just we're going to sit and just have a bag of snacks on our desk because we get a little dopamine hit from the M&Ms. Or the Reese's peanut butter cups or your bag of chips or whatever your favorite snack is.
It is no surprise that 60% of Americans have at least one chronic health condition and the rates of obesity and being overweight are 75%. And that the rates of diabetes and heart disease and high cholesterol and so forth are so high because we are out of sync with our biology.
[00:43:08] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, you started mentioning snacks and let's get to intake because, you know, what we, what we eat are the, literally the, the raw materials of the, you know, the chemicals that we use inside of our bodies to have, you know, the biochemical processes that happen all the time.
And I'm curious if you could rattle off maybe some of the foods that are, you know, the absolute worst. Like what are some of the, some of the worst things that we tend to, you know, feed our brains? And then what are some of the best things that we could be, you know, looking for instead?
[00:43:57] Speaker A: Yes.
So w W w. Without going into, I guess, all the specifics, maybe here's some general principles, because again, diet or nutrition is, is a, a very nuanced subject. And everyone has different dietary preferences. There are cultural and religious preferences. I mean, there are Allergies, there may be some genetic predispositions.
So there's, you know, it. This nutrition is not a one size fits all, to be clear.
So with, with all of that in mind, of course, as a general rule or a general principle, if we all think about going into the average American supermarket or grocery store, the way that Most are organized, 80 to 90% of everything in the middle is by definition processed.
We're going up and down the aisles, we're looking at all the boxed and prepackaged foods. You know, not to call out any brands, but I mean the, you know, the cereals and the crackers and the cookies and all that stuff that, that is all by definition processed and tends to have more artificial ingredients, preservatives, you know, food dyes, synthetic additives, et cetera, as a general rule. So those are the things that I would generally be more mindful of avoiding. Again, not that there aren't organic versions of different products and less preservatives, et cetera, but that's general rule.
If we look at the periphery, again as a general rule, especially if we think of organic produce, fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, organic meats like chicken, if people choose to eat animal meat, maybe yogurts, things like this, that's where we want to stay.
So again, when we look at the medical evidence, a fresh whole food, either Mediterranean or plant based diet, those are the categories of foods that tend to have the lowest, all cause mortality associated with them and the lowest rates of high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, et cetera.
And I kind of to piggyback on that further, unfortunately, I think our culture has become sort of a victim of this tribe mentality, getting back to our caveman brain. So we evolved and we sort of grew up in tribes. And so we've created these dietary camps, you know, that again, not to pick on anyone in particular, but you know, there are camps like the, maybe the vegan camp, there's the carnivore camp or the Atkins camp, and so on and so forth. And I do believe there are attributes of certain dietary patterns that work better for some and not others.
But most of them or many of them are not without trade offs. And so I think we need to be very mindful and very careful of understanding the evidence, the medical evidence of nutrition, of what actually works, understanding what the basics of macronutrients are. So what's the difference between a protein, a fat or carbohydrate, understanding micronutrients. So these are the kind of microscopic elements or supplements that much of our food supply unfortunately, has become devoid of. And so sometimes we need to supplement these things if we're not receiving an adequate source in our diet.
And then quantity and timing are also important, and we don't talk about that a lot.
Again, are many of the foods, especially the processed foods, are very calorically dense and they are nutrient poor, which means that it's very easy to polish off a bag of chips or a tin of Oreos or whatever. It's plastic tin, I don't know if that's the right word. Sleeve of Oreos, you call it.
It's easy to do that, but it's really hard to over consume a salad or a piece of chicken or a steak because your body's nutrient sensing systems provide the appropriate signal to tell you when you're full and you've had enough.
And then embracing this idea of timing between meals and when it's appropriate to eat and not eat. And considering again, maybe some sort of a purposeful fast, if it's safe or works for people.
These are all principles I think we should all think about and at least learn about.
[00:47:56] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. There's so much to that topic, obviously.
And you'd began to talk a little bit about, you know, how people do that. And, and I just want to kind of make the point that, you know, when, you know, food is a communal kind of activity too. It's like something that people do together. We've, we've always, you know, getting back to the hunter gatherer kind of structures.
People have collaborated on, getting the food, preparing the food, eating the food.
And that sort of brings us to that last word in your acronym, nurture, which is living and being in community.
In what ways is it important? In what ways is it valuable to, you know, interact and be together throughout our lives?
[00:48:59] Speaker A: Absolutely.
You know, it's so interesting to me that with the advent of technology, I mean, here we are in different states across the country recording, you know, a live podcast over, you know, a screen, which is just fascinating.
So we are more connected in some ways, yet we are also more isolated in some ways, because think about the last time you were, I don't know, on public transportation or maybe public event, and how quickly we are all together, yet people are glued to their phones, scrolling on a newsfeed or social media.
This is kind of a joke when we're together with, with my, my family, in particular, my wife's family, because all the siblings are all within about a decade or so of each other. And we all take pictures, everyone ends up on their phones. It's like, why are we all sitting here? What are we doing?
[00:49:51] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. It's like you send a text message to the people who are sitting in the same room.
[00:49:56] Speaker A: Exactly. It' it's insane.
So, yes, community is very important for a handful of reasons.
When we actually look at the incident rates of dementia in older persons, social isolation is actually a very strong predictor of who is at risk of developing dementia versus those who don't. And more socially active people who are more engaged tend to have a much lower rate of risk of dementia relative to those who are isolated.
And a lot of this has to do with this continued cognitive stimulation, cognitive load, and this continued engagement of neuroplasticity, number one. So when people are thinking and they're using their brain, we say use it or lose it a lot. In neuroscience, when they're using their brain and they're thinking and they're smiling and they're interacting, that risk is much lower, number one.
Number two, anytime that anyone in your audience has maybe, I don't know, come home from a long trip to a significant other, or even a pet for that matter. I mean, you have a dog or a cat or something. I mean, I. One of my favorite things I look forward to if I come home or if my wife and I are traveling, we come home to our two little dogs. They're just, they're the happiest creatures to see you.
[00:51:11] Speaker B: Always so happy to see us when we come home.
[00:51:14] Speaker A: Yes. And it's like as soon as I do that and I come home, like, I just, I feel my stress drop. I mean, and that is a literal physical manifestation of a hormone called oxytocin, which is the bonding and the safety hormone.
Same thing. If you've ever held hands with a loved one or given them a hug or shared an intimate moment, that bonding is manifested by releasing oxytocin. And this also happens when we dine together, when we are communal, which you mentioned a minute ago.
So through direct interaction, socially, physically, whether it's, you know, dining together and taking a walk, or maybe just, just being with, with another person, this, this idea of nurture and of community is so important to our biology. And that tribe like mentality of sharing with one another, sharing experiences with one another, it's, it's just in line with how we work. And it's a very important piece to our long term health and wellness.
I could go on about the benefits of physical health and elderly people actually age better in communities as well, but these are all facts.
[00:52:26] Speaker B: Well, and is that part of why and how you decided to kind of put some energy and investment into creating an online community.
You have tell us more about Transcend Health and why it is that you thought that it would be, you know, worthwhile and effective to, you know, for people to look at all of this stuff, you know, within a peer group.
[00:52:58] Speaker A: Essentially, yes, you hit the nail on the head, Ramsey.
So, you know, I can share information on podcasts or write a book and all of those are brain tongue tied. All of those are helpful, I hope, excuse me, but yes, to have a community of like minded people who are proactive and intentional about their health and can share wins together and are motivated to learn about how to best take care of themselves and not only that, but to increase their impact in the world by doing so.
That is exactly what I aim to create.
And I just, it's been amazing watching this unfold over the last year and I mean, I told you it's been a, you know, wonderful and an emotional week for me with the release of the book. But I get the same feeling every time I hear one of my Transcendent Health members tell someone else about the impact that this community's had on them with respect to losing weight or being more intentional about their movement or sharing more intimate moments with their partner or being intentional in traveling together or whatever it is. And it's, I mean, it really is just providing affirmation and encouragement to people and just the hopefully, or at least what I hope is the right way to do life at a higher level and to not be again, sort of defaulted into these habits that we all have or that we're just thrown into, like I said.
So yes, community is pivotal.
And even outside Transcend Health, I mean, I've experienced my greatest periods of growth in other communities, whether that's through my medical education and training, different communities there, or different mastermind groups I've been a part of that have encouraged me to think about different issues in a different way and the communities that are there.
So yes, with respect to our health, we know that our outcomes are always improved when we have a group of people banded together that can provide accountability, encouragement, support, love, nurturing, all of it.
[00:55:05] Speaker B: And where can people find Transcend Health and what should they expect to find there?
[00:55:13] Speaker A: Yes, well, our website istranscend health group.com so if people land there, that, that's our homepage and there are links to the book, to our various memberships, to various courses that we offer.
I'm actually in the middle of building out the Brain Protocol course. I'M very excited about that. That will be a free offering, hopefully available here in the next month or so where people can just go. And I also aim to create a free community around this where people can share these ideas together and then if they want to be a part of our paid many of our paid offerings where there's sort of a higher level of service and more access to me and we do zoom calls several times a month where we get together and share ideas as a group.
Those are options as well. But again, transcendentalthgroup.com will get people there.
[00:56:02] Speaker B: Well, that is wonderful. Hey Ryan, it was so much fun talking to you today. I really appreciate you coming in. Had a great conversation.
You should get some rest after your amazing week last week.
Thank you so much for all that you do and for bringing bringing wonderful information.
Not to this, not to only you know, my audience, but to everyone.
[00:56:32] Speaker A: It's my absolute pleasure, Ramsey. I thank you for having me and and this has been wonderful. Thank you.
[00:56:39] Speaker B: Looking for more? Visit whatsworthwhile.net to listen to podcast episodes, learn from books and articles, and live better by choosing healthy products, products and practices. I'm now offering services through worthwhile advisors for personal coaching, professional advising, speaking and group facilitation. If you or your team are ready to reduce stress and anxiety, build vitality and momentum, and accomplish your goals without burning out, then please contact me, Ramsey Zimmerman, through the website or on social media like Instagram X or LinkedIn.
[00:57:13] Speaker A: Thanks, Sam.
