Episode #431 – Full Transcript

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Transcripts

July 15, 2021

From podcast: https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/podcast/qa-431/

[00:00:00] Introduction

[00:08:39] News Flashes: Psychedelics Weren't As Common in Ancient Cultures As We Think

[00:14:20] Why Chewing Morning Glory Seeds Gets You High

[00:18:48] The ‘Bliss Molecule' Anandamide.

[00:22:03] Cannabis Makes Sex Better

[00:25:38] How To Have WAY MORE SEX In Your Marriage

[00:31:12] Podcast Sponsors

[00:35:57] Additional Thoughts on Great Sex

[00:38:05] Tips For Training Children

[00:47:32] Supplements That Increase NAD

[00:53:33] Other Plants That Make You Feel High

[01:02:58] Featured Review

[01:05:39] End of Podcast

Ben:  On this episode of the Ben Greenfield Fitness Show.

Psychedelics, morning glory seeds, bliss-producing oils, cannabis for sex, and a whole lot more.

Ben:  Health, performance, nutrition, longevity, ancestral living, biohacking, and much more. My name is Ben Greenfield. Welcome to the show.

Jay, we have finally connected for today's live Clubhouse Q&A. And by the way, for people listening, we record these Q&As live on Clubhouse usually 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday mornings. Usually, try and get the word out about it somewhere on Twitter, or Facebook, or Instagram, or whatever. So, any of you who are listening in right now and want to join–well, I guess you won't be listening in right now. If you're listening right now, you're listening to the recording. But for future recordings, you can join us in Clubhouse. All the shownotes for everything we talk about for this episode, Episode Number 431, are going to be over at https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/podcast/qa-431/ because we're brilliant and inventive like that.

Jay, how are you doing, man?

Jay:  I'm doing well. You actually probably don't even know this, but it's a special day for me. You want to know why?

Ben:  You're getting neutered?

Jay:  Close.

Ben:  Oh, because it was a special day for my dog couple days ago, getting that wonderful protocol done. He's been giving me stink eye since. But what makes your day special?

Jay:  Well, today is actually my birthday. So, we're recording on my birthday.

Ben:  Dude, happy birthday. What is one tradition that you adhere to on your birthday? Like deadlifting your body weight or–I don't know.

Jay:  Thirty-three bounds. Yeah, that's what I go for, 33 kilograms.

Ben:  Kg wouldn't be too bad if you were 90.

Jay:  Exactly, right, if I was 90. Okay. So, I have one of these–I won't say it's weird. I just tend to be such a kid at heart when it comes to different holidays like Christmas and Halloween, and then my birthday. It's just one of those I've always enjoyed. And that's just because I typically do some type of family celebration, which when I was younger equated to us either eating out at a restaurant of my choice, which is always fun, or just gorging myself on as much refined carbohydrates as possible.

Ben:  Jay, if I could interrupt you briefly, we don't refer to it as gorging yourself, or gluttony, or anything like that. What we refer to in the nutrition industry to make this all sound quite laudable is refeeding. That's the vernacular.

Jay:  Okay, I'll go with refeeding. Thank you for your advice on the vernacular there. So, refeeding and a big cake guy. I love cake. And so, my wife actually was going to surprise me with these–we love this place here in Greenville, South Carolina. It's called Farm Fresh Market or something like that. That doesn't matter. But they make vegan donuts that are actually sugar-free. They use stevia. And so, for me, it helps to, I don't know, I guess it's that satisfying the sweet tooth without getting all the negative nasty shit that you might find in other refined carbs. That's what we normally do. However, she decided to forgo that idea and she went to this place that's brand new here in Greenville. This local cookie shop that makes just absolutely not-so-healthy cookies. And she heard my sons brought that over to us, or to me here at my office, and I partook one of those. So, I'm feeling a little bit gutty right now, but so nice.

Ben:  Yeah. Well, A, vegan stevia donuts just don't sound appetizing. They need to come up with a better name like–I don't know.

Jay:  Yeah. Well, they satisfy the sweet tooth, but they're like–yeah, it's just not the same. Dude, I grew up similar to you. I grew up on just refined carbs, and cereals, and donuts, and little Debbie cakes, and Twinkies. And so, my brain was so used to that. And then, it learned to not be used to that. So, when I have anything remotely sweet now in days that is like, whether it's fake sugar or real sugar or whatever sugar in between, it's always satisfying to some extent. But still, nothing beats just like a good old gluten-filled, sugar-filled, linoleic acid-filled cookie.

Ben:  I tend to disagree. I've come across some pretty good-baked goodies. I mean, even, not to toot my own horn, but in my new cookbook, there's a donut recipe in there. I mean, baked donuts actually aren't that bad. You use a little almond flour or coconut flour. Typically, they got a couple eggs in them. Typically, you use some monk fruit or a little bit of maple syrup and vanilla extract as a sweetener. It's not hard to make. You just put your little bit of shortening or any of your fat sources into a mixing bowl with some eggs and a little bit of a creamer like a coconut milk, some of your flour, a little bit of baking soda, a little bit of salt, and anything else you want to add in for flavoring. Let's say you want to do blueberry, blueberry powder or whatever. And then, you just whisk all that together to make batter. You fill it into these donut molds that you can buy on Amazon. And then, you basically just bake your donuts for 8 to 12 minutes, and they honestly are really good. And you can dip it in a cup of coffee. I don't mind them.

Jay:  Well, to be honest with you, I should just not be so lazy and learn how to do those things. Maybe I should pick up your cookbook or I should have a friend send one over.

Ben:  I'm not kidding you. You could whip up a batch of donuts in 20 minutes flat when you wake up and have them baked and ready to eat after your morning workout.

Jay:  That's not bad. Well, the sugar-free vegan donuts that we have here, dude, they're like 40 bucks a dozen. And I'm sure that it doesn't cost nearly that much to make on my own.

Ben:  Yeah, you can make your own donuts for pennies on the dollar. But I digress because my second point was if you do have a cheat meal–like case in point, I took my wife out for her post-birthday dinner last night to a wonderful local restaurant we like called Wild Sage. And we get polenta fries, and we get pork belly, and we get [00:06:33] _____, and I had some duck confit, and she had some halibut. But their sourcing is decent, but it's still not quite as good at home. A lot of their cold cooking, they use extra virgin olive oil. But a lot of times in the warm cooking, they're still going to use peanut oil or canola oil. And so, I still go with, A, activated charcoal as soon as I get home, which mops up most of the mess. And then, in the morning, I do a little bit more activated charcoal and just get a deep sweat on in the sauna, sweat everything out. I mean, you could take things to nth degree and give yourself a coffee enema and fast for 24 hours or whatever. But just activated charcoal in a sauna and clean up a lot of it.

Jay:  Yeah. Well, the thing is I had a planned run for the day because I've been really into Zone 2 training here. I didn't know they were coming, my family did. So, they brought over the cookies. I ate one and shared it with my son. Then I was like, “Well, I wanted to get in a hardcore run afterwards.” So, I did, but felt like absolute garbage. But I feel better now after the run. It was like a 45-minute run. So, wasn't anything too short, wasn't anything too long. But I got a lot of the similar detoxing effects just like it was a pain to run after eating that cookie.

Ben:  Physical activity can also cure all ills. I used to eat a super-sized Big Mac, super-sized fries, and a giant root beer on my way to tennis practice every day in college. I'd go hit the ball for three or four hours, do hill sprints for another hour, go lift weights. And by the time I got home, I was ready for another Big Mac. But of course, we also know that most of us in our college years are pretty immortal anyways when it comes to especially the gut.

Jay:  True.

Ben:  Anyways though, we have a few research studies, and then we should jump into our live Q&A with all of our wonderful Clubhouse listeners who are sitting here bored listening to us talk about donuts. That or they're drooling.

Jay:  Indeed.

Ben:  Yeah, let's do our news flashes.

Jay:  Let's go.

Ben:  For some reason, I've chosen as the majority of the research to delve into these days, at least on today's podcast, the topic of drugs because it seems that several research studies have been coming my way of late. The whole concept of everything from psychedelics to cannabis seemed to be a hot topic due to perhaps Michael Pollan's new book, perhaps due to this sprinter recently getting banned from the Olympics for the use of cannabis as a performance-enhancing aid because we all know smoking a joint makes you run faster. And I've actually got a few interviews in the can that I've built up on topics such as cannabis, and psychedelics, and entheogens, and the like.

So, a lot coming down the pipeline on that. But one thing is that an argument that's commonly made for this emerging trend of everything from ayahuasca retreats to psilocybin therapy, et cetera, is that this has been woven into human culture for eons. But it's actually interesting because Vice recently came up with an article entitled “Psychedelics Weren't as Common in Ancient Cultures as We Think.” They actually say there's very little reliable evidence to actually back up that claim. For example, we'll hear that ayahuasca has been used in the Peruvian Amazon for millennia. When in fact, if you delve into the research, a lot of indigenous peoples from that area remember adopting that in like–and this was in research published in 2011. And I'll link to this article in the shownotes. Like adopting that in the past 50 years, the ayahuasca actually only diffused to the Amazon in the last, at most like 300 years. So, that's kind of interesting.

And then, this article goes on to highlight the fact that drugs like DMT, and mescaline, and psilocybin, and anything else that activates these serotonin 2A receptors aren't necessarily something that all of humankind and a lot of these indigenous hunter-gatherer tribes have used extensively themselves for quite some time. I mean, even the Chinese who knew about magic mushrooms since at least the 400 AD period knew of them, but actually considered them poison and didn't actually use them.

And then, what's also interesting is that when you look at the traditional use of a lot of these compounds from the Levites in Judaism, like the priest who would use them in the temple there to shamans in the Amazon, typically, it's not the person who needs the treatment, or the therapy, or the so-called journey who uses these substances. It's instead the shaman or the priest uses said substance such as ayahuasca to go to that place that these type of things bring you to, like that sacred journey space on behalf of the people, or on behalf of the person that needs it, and then comes back to them with the messages that they need, or the healing that they need. And that you almost have this person going through the journey for you and you aren't actually going through it yourself, which is quite interesting because a lot of people mess themselves up, don't integrate properly, and really aren't necessarily in the right place mentally to be, let's say, whatever, taking 400 milligrams of ketamine, or using ayahuasca, or taking a heroic dose of psilocybin, or whatever. These were instead reserved almost in a very sacred and ceremonial way for the people who are well-versed in using them and not necessarily for the local Peruvian tourists who want to sip the brew and come back and tell their friends back in New York City about it.

Jay:  Yeah, super interesting. Whenever I started getting into studying the effects of psychedelics, the history of psychedelics, I think I also had this mental image of indigenous Americans like utilizing peyote from just centuries ago, and it was commonplace. And so, to read this to see that was no more like specialized than anything, and it doesn't really go back nearly as far as what we may think it went back to. Yeah, it's just really interesting because it changes the paradigm a little bit. I mean, because I still see a place for this. I still see a place for psychedelics, especially in the modern-day society. But I think that coming from maybe a different theoretical or conceptual framework, it just tends to shift the paradigm a little bit. And for me, one of the big things is that I don't over glamorize it because there is glamor to it in one sense. But in another sense, I want to just be real with what it is and what it isn't.

Ben:  Yeah, I agree. And I'm not saying that just because it doesn't have as extensive use in ancient indigenous cultures as we might have been led to believe of late, that people can't still use those Johns Hopkins has shown in their psilocybin research for things like reducing attachments and addictions, or we're having personal insights and breakthroughs. But it's definitely, I think, been blown out of proportion in terms of this idea that everybody on the face of the planet should be using this stuff because human beings have for all time, if that makes sense.

Jay:  Yeah, totally.

Ben:  Yeah. Anyways though, we'll link to that paper or that article really from Vice at https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/podcast/qa-431/, as I will for anything that we mentioned on today's news flashes or elsewhere.

But related to this was an article that appeared on inverse about morning glory seeds. I don't even know this until I had somebody visiting my house and they had morning glory seeds tattooed on their thigh. I'm talking to this girl in the sauna and she tells me, “Well, I got this tattoo after a very, very meaningful LSD experience that I had.” And Home Depot is probably going to sell out of morning glory seeds now once I put out this podcast. But those seeds actually contain d-lysergic acid amide, which is LSA. And it's very, very similar to LSD. And as a matter of fact, in my opinion, and from my own personal experimentation and usage, because I tend to use these type of things as a microdose to enhance creativity or productivity during the day, LSA is actually a better microdosing compound for productivity and creativity than LSD. You get the same type of left and right hemispheric merging and that combination of creativity and focus, but with less of the, I guess, jitteriness that it seems that LSD produces.

So, I actually do think LSA is a little bit better. You also tend to be more personable and less robotic when using something like LSA as compared to LSD. And it turns out that these morning glory seeds, like popping and chewing morning glory seeds kind of like nutmeg is the prison drug of choice because it naturally is a psychedelic, especially if you combine it with something like cinnamon, for example, which will actually affect some of the enzymes in the liver that allow for nutmeg to be more psychedelic. It's really interesting. I'm actually working on a whole article about this kind of stuff.

But anyways, the morning glory seeds are something that many people are munching on as I guess a surprising way to spice up their gardening day. But it turns out that they're actually a pretty potent source of LSA. So, I would imagine that some of the built-in plant defense mechanisms that we would find in some of these seeds and stuff, and the amount you'd need to take might dictate that finding a reliable source of LSA that's more pure could be a better idea. But it actually is quite interesting that morning glory is a natural source of this lysergamide, this LSA. And even LSD discover Albert Hofmann was a morning glory seed chewer himself. I haven't actually ordered morning glory seeds to compare them to a microdose of LSA, but it's kind of interesting.

Jay:  Yeah. I don't know if you've seen this anywhere, if you have any information or willingness. I know we don't want to say too much because of liability, but have you heard of what even you would–what is the dosing for that? Obviously, like for microdosing in macro.

Ben:  I'm not a doctor. This is not to be considered as medical advice. But because I'm not a doctor, I am actually allowed to say this. Typically, if you get the seeds, apparently, the strain of the Hawaiian baby woodrose seeds is one good way to go. And that would be like four to five of those, or if you get like morning glory seeds from, I don't know, Home Depot or the local gardening store, or Amazon, or elsewhere, it's apparently around 20 to 30 seeds that you would chew on. Although if you go to the website where a lot of psychonauts hang out, which is Erowid, E-R-O-W-I-D, a seasoned recreational users are reporting chewing on anywhere from 100 to 400 seeds and praising kind of like the dreamy and euphoric psychedelic effects. I'm not sure how many seeds would be more kind of like a microdose, just enhance the brain type of effect. And apparently, the only side effect is violent vomiting should you consume too much.

Jay:  Oh, no worries, no worries. Well, it's interesting to me. I guess I'm so tentative with things, especially if I'm locking down in some work or if I'm actually meeting with people. Because for me, as you know, and as listeners know too, that I've done a microdosing protocol for a while now, and really enjoy it. I would just be afraid that I would take too much and end up tripping. And I wouldn't want that because obviously, that's going to pull away from potential productivity of things that I have focus on. So, yeah, interesting.

Ben:  Yeah. But if you don't want to buy acid tabs in a back alley or high school parking lot, there's a potential out for you.

Jay:  [00:18:46] _____.

Ben:  And a lot of these compounds, they result in the production of anandamide. Now, anandamide is pretty interesting. It's actually a fatty acid neurotransmitter. And it's an endocannabinoid, similar to what you'd find in cannabis. It binds the cannabinoid receptors and it causes–it sounds the bliss molecule. It causes joy, delight, and it's actually something that can be supplemented on its own, but it's most well-known for its feel-good effect in response to the consumption of, say, cannabis. But the other thing that it causes is almost this craving for having more anandamides. They can be a little bit of an addictive effect, which anybody who has used cannabis knows is one of the reasons that it's difficult to stop that particular compound if you're a hefty or a regular user.

But the other thing that it has is anyone who has consumed a THC-rich source of cannabis is aware of is it can cause munchies, basically, appetite cravings. And anandamide is one of the reasons for this. Well, a recent study–it actually isn't a recent study, but it recently came to my attention. It was published in 2012 in the Journal of Obesity. There's something else in addition to cannabis that elevates anandamide. And it's really interesting because we've known that gluten in wheat, and especially high levels of gluten as you would find in modern wheat bread for a higher crop yield, which sends a concentrate a lot of the gliadin and the gluten compounds in that wheat. And those can interact with opioid receptors in your body and cause a little bit of an addictive effect to things like bread, scones, biscotti, donuts, Jay, et cetera.

But apparently, dietary linoleic acid, such as we would find in vegetable oils like sunflower, and safflower, and soybean, and corn, and canola oil, that dietary linoleic acid directly elevates anandamide. And they found that it induced obesity by sparking appetite cravings and almost like this addiction to the consumption of vegetable oils. So, it turns out that if you have a high vegetable oil diet, and I've said this many times on the podcast, if you're going to do one thing for your health, don't eliminate sugar. Eliminate vegetable oils just because they are what's used to comprise your cell membranes and make up part of your body for months on end after you eat them. Well, it turns out that their addictive potential is related to their ability to act similarly to cannabis in terms of elevation of anandamide and interaction with these endocannabinoid receptors. Isn't that interesting?

Jay:  Yeah, it's super interesting. I think it's one more reason to continue to villainize, at least for now, the high consumption of linoleic acid because it sounds like just on so many different facets, this is just some dangerous stuff, both physiologically, and then also too, neurologically.

Ben:  Yeah. Or on the flip side, if you don't have enough cash in your wallet to afford marijuana, you could just go out and guzzle some vegetable oil.

Jay:  Yeah, that's exactly what I'm going to do after this.

Ben:  And that's why donuts are so addictive, Jay.

Now, here's also something interesting related to cannabis. This was an article that came out on Project CBD on women and cannabis. Well, it turns out that in women, and especially older women for whom sometimes libido tends to wane a little bit, some of the research on cannabis shows that it is one of the best, especially in women–not so much in men, because in men, it can be a little bit estrogenic. It can be reduced libido a little bit, reduced drive a little bit, and that's because it's kind of a female plant cannabis is and has these estrogen-like effects. But in women, the effects on orgasm length, pleasure during sex, libido, and everything you'd be looking for from my kind of sexy standpoint is very much enhanced via the use of cannabis, particularly prior to any type of erotic stimuli. It has what's called a bidirectional biphasic effect on sexual functioning, and even in small doses can increase sensitivity and arousal.

And so, internally, I guess pun intended in this case, I have supplied my wife with a vape pen and a cannabis-infused lube. And she has absolutely just, again pun intended, just exploded in terms of her sexual desire and her sexual pleasure in response to the use of cannabis. And this is coming from a woman, my wife, who's really not interested in much of this stuff at all. But she actually really, really likes to take a hit on a vape pen now prior to sex. And this paper backs up the fact that in women, especially–and again, not in men. She'll take a hit and I pass it up because for me, I feel better just basically having all senses turned on otherwise. But for women, especially, cannabis can be amazing for sex.

And so, if any women are out there want to enhance libido, enhance orgasms, particularly multiple orgasms, orgasm length, et cetera, these cannabis sex lubes, or even more of like the sativa-based vape pens–and there are certain strains that are quite good, like there's one called love potion. There's another one called voodoo. There's another one they developed called, brace yourself, the purple panty dropper. And these are specifically designed for women's sexual enhancements. And yeah, when it comes to juicy sex, it seems that cannabis seems to turn things up quite a bit.

Jay:  Yeah. It's like men, go get your ladies some CBD. Ladies, get your men a nice juicy ribeye and you're good to go, man.

Ben:  Yup, exactly. Whereas for me personally, sometimes I'll just basically do something that is a little bit more elevating prior to sex. Sometimes I like this kava stuff. It's a little bit more energetic strain of Kava. Sometimes I just like to have an afternoon cup of coffee, sometimes any type of blood flow precursor like beet root. I have a bunch of recipes in “Boundless” for different pre-workout stacks, pre-sex stacks. So, I tend to go for something more energetic, and I think that works out better for men. But for women, there you have it.

And related to that, I've got one more for you. I discovered this guy named Adam Lane Smith. He's got some pretty good articles on his website, but one, in particular, is how to have more sex in your marriage. How to have more sex in your marriage, “How To Have Way More Sex In Your Marriage” is the title of this article that he wrote. And I read the article. I tried the strategy that he outlines in the article and it works like gangbusters.

Jay:  I like that you're doing in-field testing of this stuff, Ben.

Ben:  Right, yeah. It's very important that I do personal research on this. So, basically, it all comes down to this. If you want to increase her sex drive by developing emotional intimacy with her through trust and respect, through making her feel more valuable and more useful, and more secure to keep coming back for sex based on this idea that emotional intimacy, especially for women, is a strong aphrodisiac. What you do is if you have a problem, guys, if you have a problem, you go to your woman and you share with her the problem that you are experiencing. You state what you're feeling about that problem. Like, “I'm really feeling confused about this, or frustrated about this, or lost trying to solve this issue.

You explain your solution. So, babe, what I'm thinking about doing is XYZ, and then you ask for feedback on that solution. So, what do you think? What do you think I should do? And I've been pulling this out on date nights, not just–I mean, it's not just for sex, also for conversation and for emotional intimacy. I mean, this isn't just so I can get laid. But basically, this idea of vulnerability seems to turn women into like happy sex leopards. And I don't know if we're offending women with this kind of chatter, but I would hope not. But yeah, guys, if you want your woman to be more turned on and more attracted to you, be highly vulnerable and take problems you're experiencing. Rather than annoy her by sharing problems, share your problems, state your feeling about the problem, explain your solution, then ask for feedback on your solution and it works. I read the article, I'm like, yeah, everybody knows it. But then I actually tried it intentionally, and yeah, it actually works quite, quite well.

Jay:  Really, Ben, it just comes back to the centralized theme that good sex is always surrounded by good communication. And I think one of the things that I've noticed–I learned this obviously in schooling and in training, but also too just intuitively. And I realize what I'm about to say tends to be controversial for some people, but I'm willing to state science, and then also to my own personal beliefs and thoughts on the matter, is that so many times, communication is impeded, especially from a male perspective because of porn culture. And what I mean by that is that a lot of men go into this thinking, “Well, I don't need to communicate. It's not how they do it on porn videos. They just go and then magical sex ends up happening.” And dude, that's not the way it works. Life just doesn't work like a porn movie.

And some people might argue four against porn. I'm not going to say like that's your idea or beliefs on it, or right or wrong, good, bad, but I do think too that if we get caught up in this idea that we don't need to communicate, we just allow it to happen, that's not the case. That's just not the way it works in real life when we engage in good quality communication, where we're more clarifying what we need, they're clarifying what they need. Then again, we close the loop on that end. And then, you just see that there's not as much dysfunctional kind of sex that we're having, but we're actually having good quality sex because we're open, more communicative, and then we help to solve problems instead of just carrying the problems forward. So, again, a little bit of a soapbox.

Ben:  Yeah, you just offended a lot of directors of highly meaningful and deep pornography videos. And you reminded me of a joke that I heard. It goes like this. How many porn stars does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

Jay:  Oh, geez, what's coming after this?

Ben:  I don't know. I skipped the intro. They try sometimes in pornography to set up some kind of magical story, but we know that in most cases, people don't pay that much attention to that. And I think that porn is just a horrific aspect of society and makes men objectify women and causes dopaminergic issues in the brain, and just absolutely cheapens the sacredness of sex. That's my personal view of porn, and I don't go anywhere near this stuff. So, sorry if I offended anyone with that joke. I in no way endorse porn. I'm not a fan.

Alright. So, anyways, I guess on that note, we should begin to open things up to Q&A from a wonderful audience. What do you think, Jay?

Jay:  Yeah, man. Excited to hear from them.

Ben:  Alright, so a few special announcements from me if you're listening to this podcast after the live recording, because I have some goodies and some discounts to give away to you guys. And then, we're going to jump into Q&A.

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Oh, and then one last thing. Our podcast is on Samsung now. Samsung Free is available on all the Samsung Galaxy devices. So, that means you can listen to this podcast on Samsung. I'm going to put a link in the shownotes if you go to BenGreenfieldFitness.com/431. But all you do is navigate to the listen tab of the Samsung Free app to support the show. And when you're there, feel free to leave it a review. That helps out quite a bit. And if you have a Samsung and you're an iPhone guy like me, then I'm sure you'll dig this. Alright, check it out in Samsung.

Alright, got you loud and clear. What's your question, man?

Steve:  Actually, I raised my hands when you guys were discussing about the sex and stuff, and this is something I've been experiencing and playing with, and trying to master myself. And I find that while communication is key between a man and a female for great sex, I feel like what I discovered for myself, that's a mechanism and the essence is really trust. The communication is a vehicle or a mechanism for deep trust. And I find that the deep trust really is sort of the bedrock or the foundation of just incredible intimacy and sex. Just wanted to get some thoughts on that.

Ben:  I guess the answer would be yes. I'm not sure if I have anything else to add to that. Jay, you got anything?

Jay:  Yeah. I think one of the things that probably you and I were implying, Ben, with this conversation on communication is that communication is the thing that leads to the bedrock that is trust and respect and dignity for the other individual. So, yeah, I appreciate the comment. I'm not sure if there's a question there, but I do fully agree, yeah.

Ben:  Yeah. It's a great thought and backs up what you're saying, Steve. So, yes. I guess kind of like a brief head nod to those thoughts, and I totally agree that trust is absolutely essential for intimacy. And in many cases, just trust overall being in a set and setting where you feel safe. Anyone who has gone through a stressful incident or tried to, let's say, pop up from a busy workday as guys like me who have a home office are prone to do for a “quickie.” If you or if your brain is still hardwired into work and busyness, and some of the fear, and running from a lion that sometimes a state like that can produce, it flies in the face of getting it up. That's for sure. So, great thoughts. Let's go ahead and bring somebody else up.

Daniel: First-time talker, longtime listener. I just have signed up for my first obstacle relay race and have my children engaging as well. And want to know what tips that you suggest for training children, as well as biohacking to make sure that I'm 100% ready and prepared for this.

Ben:  Great, great question. So, my kids did a ton of everything from triathlons to Spartan races growing up. They're a little bit more into like jiu-jitsu and tennis now. But I can tell you a few of the things that I did and that I do with them. First of all, extensively until they were about seven or eight years old, I had them doing animal flow exercises. Meaning, coming with me to a park and following me and often mom around the park in almost like a follow the leader type of approach. And we used wonderful books and resources. Particularly one that comes to mind that we used quite a bit was Darryl Edwards and some of his books on paleo movements and animal flow.

And all we would do is we would go through the park for like a half-hour crawling on her hands and knees, backwards crawling, crab crawling, alligator walking, balancing on park benches, and fences, and posts, picking up objects like rocks or logs that we'd find and carrying them on our back, picking each other up and carrying them around. And we would go on walks as a family, but rather than just walking, the kids would follow us through these different animal flow exercises. And it was kind of fun because mom and I would do them, too. So, early on, I love the concept of animal flow.

The next thing is that I built in our backyard a bunch of different obstacles for the kids to play on. And I've made them big enough so that adults could play in them, too. So, I had balanced logs. I had the horizontal ropes–not had, I have, vertical climbing ropes, monkey bars, and log weave. What else did we build? A short wall for climbing, a high wall for climbing. As a matter of fact, I don't talk about this too much, but another guy who races in obstacle course racing named Hunter McIntyre. He and I had a podcast for a while called Obstacle Dominator. And if you go to obstacledominator.com, one of the things that we made as a part of that podcast was like a create your own obstacle course e-book where I saved all of the construction materials and all of the diagrams and layouts for how you can yourself or how you can hire a contractor to build this stuff and litter it throughout your backyard. And if you have stuff there, I've found that you build it and they will come. You toss that mousetrap in your backyard, hopefully, not an actual mousetrap, and the kids will head out and play on it if it's there.

So, we had that erected in the backyard. Of course, anytime I'd go do a Spartan race or a triathlon, I would sign the kids up for the kids' version and take them along with me. And then, finally, still, because I love to foster this idea of natural functional movement for a young man or a young woman, every Sunday night, I sit down to a shared Google Docs that's literally hundreds of pages long because I've been producing every week on this Google Doc for like the past four years. And I write out the physical education hoops that my boys are to jump through for that week, and it includes everything from breathwork protocols to ice, to sauna, to different workouts that'll have for them. For example, their workout this week, one of them, is pick up a 60-pound sandbag, carry it down to the bottom of the driveway, and then back up the driveway. At the top of the driveway, when you've got the 60-pound sandbag all the way up to the top of the driveway, do 30 burpees and do three rounds of that.

So, I always choose workouts that the boys can do in about 20 minutes or so. So, it's down the driveway, up the driveway, 30 burpees. And they go through that three times, and then they finish with one round of Wim Hof and two minutes in the ice tub. And so, I weave stuff like that in throughout the entire year. And this document literally got like hundreds of–I should turn it into a book sometime. It's got hundreds of kids' workouts in it from breathwork to heat and sauna, to cold pool, to meditation, to different functional exercises, and being able to sit down as a parent and just take whatever knowledge is inside your head of what kind of workouts that your kids are going to like and that fit into your property, or your backyard, or your home, or a nearby park.

And then, what I do, because both of my boys now, they've got Gmail addresses, is I just share that document with them on Sunday night and they see everything that they're supposed to do. And the only final thing that's an understanding between them and I is in the morning, they figure out what time of day they're going to do the workout, and then they tell dad so that in case I have the ability, I join in with them as part of the workout because a lot of times, I'm working out anyways during the day. And if I do it with my sons, all the better. And then, we just hook up a Bluetooth speaker, and jam on some music, and all work out together. So, those are a few of the little things that I do with River and Terran that have allowed them to build up skills and everything from like animal flow movements to obstacle course racing, to breath, to heat, to cold, and beyond. So, hopefully, that gives you a few ideas.

Jay, you got anything to add in?

Jay:  Yeah. I don't think my 3-year-old or my 14-month-old are quite ready for a Spartan, but maybe next year. I don't even know–what age do they start that, Ben? Because I'm serious I'll get them in. It's probably about five or six?

Ben:  Oh, River and Terran started doing their first triathlons when they were four, and Spartan races by the time they were six or seven. I mean, they scale these for everything from like a quarter mile to two miles, mini triathlons all the way up to almost sprint distance triathlons. So, yeah, there's plenty out there for kids.

Jay:  That's awesome. Yeah. And so, if I heard Daniel correctly, I believe he was also talking about doing this himself. And again, if I heard correctly for his first time, one of the things that I would say because I've worked with so many elite athletes and a lot of people who are doing more like functional training, as well as her doing obstacle course racing. Again, I'm not picking on you, Daniel, but I know you said what are the biohacks you might recommend? And there obviously are things that Ben and I would recommend in that area. But I would say just again, getting down the foundational basics like not overtraining, not overreaching, utilizing your data and biometrics to indicate when your nervous system has had a little bit too much, or maybe you could ramp it up a little bit through the use of different heart rate variability metrics. So, my big go-to is utilizing Elite HRV as a good way to spot test in the morning. HRV for training is another really good one.

And then, the other thing would just be like–I know I sound like I'm being a dead horse here, which I am, but it's my frame of reference right now. It's just protecting the body in any way that you can. Yeah, that means allowing for recovery. But the biggest thing that I see, and this is myself included, in people who are high performers is that the first thing that tends to go or the thing that they tend to look over more than anything is protecting their knees. And again, I know I sound like a broken record, but that's a huge one I think for obstacle course racers. Because over time, again, when they compound their training over and over and over again, their knees just give out, and it's something that for a lot of people, they don't realize it's going to happen until it happens. And that's how it was for me with tennis. I'm working now to really strengthen that area up. But I would say that's just one thing. Just make sure you're protecting yourself. Make sure that you're recovering the way that you should be recovering. And the biohack in that is just using your data. Not really a biohack, it's just using common sense. So, that's my two cents I have and that's not really kid-friendly on that end. But for Daniel, for you running an obstacle race, definitely useful.

Ben:  Yeah. One other thing I'd throw in there is that the number one thing that I found to be most beneficial for obstacle course racers when I work with them is this idea that it throws people for a loop when you have not yet experienced the requirements to be able to run, and then lift something or hang from something, or do some more intense physical activity, then get back into efficient running form again. So, the best form of obstacle course training would include at least a weekly session where you are running for anywhere from 400 to 1500 meters. Stopping, doing something heavy like deadlifts, overhead press, sandbag carry, farmer walk, you name it and then going straight back into running while you're still tired without walking.

And that adds up over the course of a race in terms of time savings because the people who do the poorest in obstacle course racing are the people who run, run, run, and then they get to the first obstacle. Then they got to walk for like a quarter mile after because their gas from that obstacle. But if you train yourself to just start running, buffer lactic acid efficiently, and be able to transition from lifting to running back and forth, back and forth, that's probably the best skill you can have in your back pocket for obstacle course racing in my opinion.

Jay:  And learn how to throw a spear. Teach your kids how to throw a spear because that one screws everybody over.

Ben:  Learn how to throw a spear, and an axe, and a rock.

Jay:  True.

Ben:  These all will come in handy during the zombie apocalypse anyways. Alright, let's go ahead and bring somebody else up to stage.

Elena:  Hey, Ben. Thank you so much for having this. And I've been a follower for quite a long time. And I did have a couple questions. One is, have you experienced any or do you have any experience with supplements that increase NAD? I know CoQ10, you speak about L-tryptophan and rhodiola, I use those three and I was wondering if you took like a specific supplement to increase that or if you did it more naturally through food. And the other, I guess, supplemental question is, I love how you hit on the morning glory seeds. Do you have experience with any other plant teachers when it comes to those type of, I guess, spirits?

Ben:  Two great questions. And first of all, if you go back, Elena, or anyone else, and listen to Podcast Number 430, I believe it was our last Clubhouse Q&A, I talked about these NAD salvage pathways and how to increase the recycling of NAD more efficiently in your body. Rather than me repeating everything that I said in that episode, I would highly recommend that you go back and listen to that episode at https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/podcast/qa-430/.

Now, a few things I could tell you that I did not mention during that episode is certain natural compounds that could increase your NAD without you necessarily supplementing with NR, or NMN, or NAD, or any of these other variants of a compound that's been shown to have a potent anti-aging and DNA repair effect. I think that the benefits of any NAD source for boosting energy levels, and reversing the aging process, and lengthening health span, and assisting with workouts, and reducing the risk of many chronic diseases, it's pretty profound. So, I'm sold on increasing cellular NAD levels.

But let's say that you are supplementing and you want a little bit more, or you can't afford supplementation and you want to just go the natural route, whatever your reasons may be, first of all, nicotinamide riboside, which is the key ingredient in NAD supplements, that was actually first discovered in milk. And so, if you can tolerate dairy products, and that would include like fermented raw dairy, or even non-cow based dairy products in smaller amounts like goat milk, or water buffalo milk, or camel milk, or something like that, although cow milk seems to have the highest amount of NR precursors, you can include that in your diet.

NR is also found in fermented foods, particularly in beer. So, again, if you have access to good beer from grain sources that you can tolerate, and a beer isn't something that messes up your gut, I'm not necessarily endorsing going all Homer Simpson on your NAD levels, but beer can actually be one other way to increase NR levels naturally. Now, niacin-rich foods, niacin can be converted into some of these NAD molecules pretty efficiently as well. And there are foods with pretty high levels of niacin, tuna is good, chicken, turkey, salmon. So, any of these things you would get in a meat-based diet. They're good sources of niacin from a vegetable standpoint. So is broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, sweet potatoes, kale, cauliflower, and tomatoes. So, you could include any of those niacin-rich foods in your diet, or even because it's a little bit less expensive, supplement with niacinamide, which also gets converted pretty well.

In the last podcast on NAD salvage pathways, like allowing yourself to recycle NAD better, I also talked about the importance of vitamin B, B like boy. And many of the foods that contain B vitamins can also be useful to include, and that would include things again like turkey, for example, is a meat source. It's very high in B vitamins. Broccoli, which I already mentioned, is also pretty high. And then, sweet potatoes, some nuts, brown rice, eggs, anything that's heftier in B vitamins. We also know fasting can increase NAD somewhat. Sauna can increase NAD somewhat. Lifting weights, particularly from an exercise standpoint, is one of the best ways to increase NAD. Vitamin D and sunlight exposure can help to raise NAD levels, particularly in fat cells. And so, vitamin D supplementation or exposure to sunlight can help out.

Anything with resveratrol in it can raise NAD levels, particularly in your mitochondria. And we would find that in things like blueberries, and grapes, and red wine. Now, you can double fist. Have a glass of red wine and a beer simultaneously and you'll never need an NAD IV again. Leucine such as you would find in amino acid supplements, that also can not only activate sirtuin enzymes to help out with the DNA repair that NAD is already giving you, but it can also boost NAD production, too. So, that would also be something to throw into the mix. So, hopefully, that gets your wheels turning about different things you could include to naturally increase NAD.

Jay, you have any others that you would throw in?

Jay:  Yeah. I mean, you highlighted everything, but my three biggies, especially just more from a natural holistic perspective would be exercise, different dietary changes like fasting, short-term ketosis as well. And then, my biggest one, and Rhonda Patrick has hit on this a lot, would just be sauna. And the other thing that I do, again I wouldn't consider this more of a natural way of doing it, but I guess you could argue that it is. It's just I love just ingesting more like small dose transient NAD. So, my biggest thing is I use that PEAK gum from Craig Koniver, and that stuff is just freaking amazing, especially from the cognitive performance. Again, a little bit more on the, not so–I guess I don't know if I consider that natural or not so natural, just different than what we're discussing. But yeah, those are my main ones.

Ben:  Okay, cool. And then, on to the second part of the question, because we talked about like morning glory and those Hawaiian baby woodrose seeds is pretty potent sources of LSA. She's also asking about other natural ways that we could introduce psychoactives into the diet without necessarily going to again the high school parking lot or the back alley and buying an acid. And yeah, there are a few interesting ones. First of all, one of my favorite guys whose brain I pick about this is Dr. Nick from Essential Oil Wizardry because he has all these lucid dreaming compounds and essential oils for both vaping, as well as oral administration and topical administration that in many cases are designed to either enhance a plant medicine experience or allow you to get many of those anandamide or other effects without necessarily using a substance that you might not be able to get your hands on.

So, check out my podcast with Dr. Nick of Essential Oil Wizardry. But a few that he turned me onto, and a few also that I found, one is a Salvia divinorum. That's known as sage of the diviners. And you can get it as like an oral essential oil, and it produces a very fast-acting, almost like a psychoactive experience. It targets the opioid receptors in the brain and it causes dopamine to drop a little bit. But for something like that, a combination with plant medicines or use prior to a meditation session or a breathwork session, that one's pretty good. So, Salvia divinorum, not too hard to get your hands on, and that'll be one to look into.

Another one would be if you can find it, and it's not impossible to find, there's a certain type of honey called Himalayan red honey, and it's also known as mad honey. It's like this hallucinogen that they get from bees that primarily harvest different rhododendron flowers, and they process it into these hives that are just like chock-full of psychoactive honey. And so, it's called mad honey. And I actually haven't bought that honey yet, but it's known as Himalayan red honey, and you can actually find it. And so, that would be another one to look into, although the euphoria and hallucinations that it causes are induced primarily by a neurotoxin called grayanotoxin. And so, you would want to be very careful with this and use it in smaller amounts preferably.

Nutmeg, which I briefly alluded to, that's actually it's got myristicin in it, and that's a natural compound that blocks the action of acetylcholine, and it breaks down into a substance that's basically very similar to ecstasy called MMDA. And so, nutmeg, typically, the equivalent of a couple–what do you call it, Jay, what do you call nutmeg? Is it cloves?

Jay:  I'm not sure.

Ben:  Like a piece of nutmeg. Why am I blanking? What do you call nutmeg? I think it's like a–what do you call–now I'm talking idiot. It's like a seed. Like if you were to get a whole hard piece of nutmeg–

Jay:  Yeah, nutmeg is a seed.

Ben:  Yeah, okay. So, it's the equivalent of a few seeds of nutmeg, basically. You don't need a whole lot, believe it or not. You can grind it. You could turn it into a spice. And nutmeg, again, particularly when combined with cinnamon, which helps to inhibit some of the enzymes that would cause the MMDA to disappear more quickly from your bloodstream, can also be a good one. And when you combine it with myrrh, and this is related to a big article that I'm working on, it enhances that effect even more. So, myrrh, nutmeg, and cinnamon blended all together is a pretty good mix. So, you've got that. What else? Something for painkilling or with an opioid-like effects. I feel like a druggie on today's podcast, but I guess that's the theme of today's show. Wild lettuce, actually, has a very similar effect to opium poppies. And you can get wild lettuce tea or make wild lettuce tea with a much lower risk of addiction due to the absence of actual opium itself. And that would be another one to stock in the pantry along with the nutmeg and the mad Himalayan bee honey.

And then, finally, one that's super interesting is blue lotus. That's a waterlily. It has this psychoactive alkaloid in it called aporphine. And you'll find it in all this ancient Egyptian art like carvings and paintings, and it produces psychoactive effects, and sedation, and euphoria, and also libido-enhancing, and sexually stimulating effects. Usually, you would consume blue lotus, also known as blue lily, in the form of a tea. Dr. Nick sells it as an oil. I like to sometimes vape a little bit of organic tobacco and a touch of cannabis, and I'll put a few drops of blue lotus and a few drops of nutmeg essential oil in there, and it's actually quite a pleasurable little mix to vaporize.

And the interesting thing is that I first learned about blue lotus as a fragrance because when I was down in L.A. once at this place called the human garage, I think we actually talked about it in a podcast I did with them that you might be able to find on my website. I don't think they exist anymore, but I remember I was there and somebody was talking about using blue lotus as a fragrance. And they said like male dogs in the neighborhood were coming up and humping their legs when they had this blue lotus fragrance on. And I actually have some fragrance, some blue lotus fragrance. It's just Dr. Nick's essential oil that I applied to my neck prior to date nights, for example, and my wife really likes the aroma, let's just say that. And for both men and women, it's like an aphrodisiac fragrance that you can wear this blue lotus.

So, those are just a few little ideas for you. Hopefully, that gives you just a little bit of fuel for toying around with a few of these things. And of course, I would recommend that any of these type of compounds are approached with an acknowledgment of the sacred intelligence of plants with an acknowledgment that these things weren't just put on this planet by God to be used willy-nilly to spin up or spin down dials in our brain. But in most cases, it should either be, A, used in small to moderate amounts for enhancing mental function or as like a nootropic to enhance productivity, focus, creativity, et cetera, which is my number one use for these type of things. B, for enhancing something like a sexual experience, or a meditative experience, or a breathwork experience with someone else, or even for something like breathwork or meditation by yourself in a very intentional manner.

And then, C, in very occasional instances, if you use something like plant medicine-based journeys for personal breakthroughs or for introspection, or for partner connectivity, or anything like that, then these can be used to enhance that type of experience. And even that, I'm one of those guys who's on board with, say, Jamie Wheal in this concept of hedonic calendaring. Meaning that the use of something like a plant medicine journey would be, for example, something that a young man or woman who is going through a rite of passage into adulthood might do. And then, perhaps again like on your wedding night with your lover, and then maybe again when you turn 40 years old. We're talking about every few years doing something like this and not being that person who's on their 38th ayahuasca retreat. And so, I think that very few and far between should be the heftier use of these compounds. I think many people overuse these type of things or don't recognize that something like a journey might be a once in a lifetime or very seldomly in a lifetime type of experience. And I wish more people would approach these type of heavier uses of such compounds with that mentality, if that makes sense.

So, Jay, you got anything to throw in?

Jay:  Yeah. Admittedly, this is not an area or there's parts at least of this discussion that's not an area that I have a ton of knowledge and education on. However, my quick Google search, 30-second Google search, I found this really interesting article, Ben, that we could link to in the shownotes. But it's actually in the Journal of Current Neuropharmacology, and the study was published in 2017, and it's titled “Herbal Highs: Review on Psychoactive Effects and Neuropharmacology.” And basically, it's looking at the different trends of utilizing more common placed plants or herbal medicines that have partial or at least contains some level of psychoactive substances. And so, they talk about the effects of things like ayahuasca, yes, but then also they go into things like morning glory seeds, and they go into Christmas vine and Christmas pops, snake plants. Just these different kind of, I guess you could say, more common or maybe uncommon psychoactive plants, or at least plants that have psychoactive properties. Very in-depth review, peer-reviewed article here. Again, 2017, “Herbal Highs.” So yeah, kind of cool.

Ben:  Great title for a paper, “Herbal Highs.” Alright, so we'll link to that in the shownotes. We'll link to everything that we talked about in today's podcast over at BenGreenfieldFitness.com/431. Now, we are approaching the end of today's show, and that's probably the last question that we'll have time to get into. But we also want to give away a goodie. Now, if you like this show, go find it wherever you listen to podcasts and leave a review. And if you leave a review and we really like it, and we read it on the show, then we'll send you a handy-dandy gear pack with a cool Ben Greenfield Fitness texture to BPA-free water bottle, cool little beanie, which will come in quite handy if you're living in the 107-degree heat wave that many Western states are currently in. There's nothing like a beanie to enhance that sauna process even more. But anyways, if you hear us read your review on the show, just email [email protected]. Let us know your t-shirt size. We get a package out to you if we read your review on the show.

So, Jay, you got a review you want to take away?

Jay:  Definitely got one. So, this one is from Scarlatina79, who titled this review as Stellar. She/he says, “Ben, I seriously cannot thank you enough for all of the hard work that you put into your podcast. They are outstanding. I've been binge listening to them and learning so much. Thank you!” Praying hands emoji, or thankful hands emoji.

Ben:  The praying hands emoji. Isn't it actually praying? I could never tell. Sometimes I'll text someone and tell them I'm going to pray for them and include the praying hands emoji. But then sometimes somebody will do some really nice for me and I'll also put in there as kind of like a, “Oh, thank you, thank you,” type of thing.

Jay:  Yeah. I think it goes both ways. I think it's a praying hand emoji if you specify it that way, or it makes sense within context, and then also a “thank you” emoji.

Ben:  Or just a hello, but I'm not going to touch you because of COVID emoji.

Jay:  It could be that as well. You just invented something new.

Ben:  Kind of like the fist bump. I like it. Alright. Well, that was a fun show. And for those of you who want the shownotes, again, they're going to be at BenGreenfieldFitness.com/431. What was the name of that person who left the review, Jay?

Jay:  Scarlatina79.

Ben:  Alright, Scarlatina79, email gear@bengreenfieldfitness with your t-shirt size and we'll hook you up. For the rest of you, the best thing you can do to support this show is go leave it a review or a ranking, pop in, leave your questions, your comments, your feedback, your own tips to add on anything from, well, I guess having more sex in your marriage to bliss producing oils, to morning glory seeds at BenGreenfieldFitness.com/431. And I think we're going to wrap it up. Thanks for all of you who joined us live on Clubhouse, and thanks for showing up. Thanks for asking the wonderful thought, stimulating questions. And Jay, I'll catch you on the flip side, man.

Jay:  Sounds good, brother.

Ben:  Alright, later, everybody.

Well, thanks for listening to today's show. You can grab all the shownotes, the resources, pretty much everything that I mentioned over at BenGreenfieldFitness.com, along with plenty of other goodies from me, including the highly helpful “Ben Recommends” page, which is a list of pretty much everything that I've ever recommended for hormone, sleep, digestion, fat loss, performance, and plenty more. Please, also, know that all the links, all the promo codes, that I mentioned during this and every episode, helped to make this podcast happen and to generate income that enables me to keep bringing you this content every single week. When you listen in, be sure to use the links in the shownotes, use the promo codes that I generate, because that helps to float this thing and keep it coming to you each and every week.

 

 

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Listener Q&A:

How To Increase NAD & NAD Salvage Pathways…38:20

Q: “Curious to know about your opinion regarding NAD (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) boosters. A lot of them are made of precursors with at least one that claims to address the salvage pathway. Wondering if the compounds used to address the salvage pathways are doing other things less optimal?”

My comments and recommendations:

How Can Female Endurance Athletes Not Be Skinny-Fat…47:10

Q: A 52-year-old female athlete, still competing in marathons and dealing with menopause and that belly fat/weight gain…difficulty keeping calories up to perform as an athlete and at the same time doing intermittent fasting to drop weight…dieticians and coaches saying both cannot be done at the same time…

My comments and recommendations:
  • You cannot be an endurance athlete and be at peak health with fertility and endocrine function at the same time
  • Low-level physical activity throughout the day
  • Beyond Trainingby Ben Greenfield
  • Boundlessby Ben Greenfield
  • Women who want to maintain aesthetics and endocrine function while getting good results on endurance training:
    1. Sacrifice at least 3 endurance training sessions each week and replace with plyometricsand weight training; HIIT 2-3 times per week, moderate time periods
    2. Go on a combined nutrient dense/calorie-dense form of Weston A. Price diet
    3. Sleep, sunshine, fresh air
    4. Minerals like:

How To Create Your Own Workout Routine…58:20

Q: How to start strength and conditioning training on my own?

My comments and recommendations:
  • Boundlessoutlines what to do if you are going to do your workout program, like:
    • What to do for strength
    • What to do for power
    • What to do for cardio
    • What to do for HIIT
    • What to do for mobility
    • What to do for fat loss
  • How Ben does his workouts:

 

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