If you are reading this, you likely subscribe to the Deep Health Evolution pillars of health - movement, nutrition, sleep, stress management and community. You have likely worked to maintain your gut health, are conscious of what you eat, how often you move and how varied that movement is, and are deeply protective of your sleep.

But what about cellular health, our mitochondrial health? Our bodies are composed of cells. If at the deepest level cells are not functioning optimally, it makes sense that all downstream processes are affected as well. As we age, our cellular health begins to break down. We now know why this happens and how we are able to influence the progression of aging. Cellular health could be THE thing you have not yet addressed that could be the secret to slowing down the aging process.

First, let’s talk about aging. There is a tiny molecule called NAD+ in every single cell in our bodies. It is a co-enzyme responsible for countless functions and without it, we would be dead in 30 seconds. In the cells, NAD+ signals maintenance and repair pathways, including DNA repair and inflammation. NAD+ is also really important with regards to aging. When we are young, our levels of NAD+ are high and as we age, these levels decline exponentially.

What causes NAD+ to decline as we age? The process involved with NAD+ is quite complicated and we are not going to get into the nitty-gritty science right now. Let’s just say that as we get older, not only do we have much more cellular damage to deal with and need more NAD+, but we are also not able to recycle NAD+ as we were able to when we were young.

You may be thinking to yourself, great, now I know why I don’t have the energy I once had and I can’t keep up with my younger teammates (etc) - what can I do about it?

Luckily, there are several strategies and interventions, both ancient and new available to us today.

1. Fasting. One form or another of fasting, or periods of not eating, has been around for ages. We’ve written about intermittent fasting (IF) extensively here and here. The most common IF protocols being the 16/8 (compressing feeding windows to 8 hours a day and refraining from eating for 16 hours) and the 5/2 (eating normally 5 days a week, and cutting calories down by 25% 2 days a week). Studies show that practicing IF can improve cholesterol, reduce insulin resistance and lower high blood pressure. Fasting can also increase levels of NAD+ because it a form of cellular stress that puts cells on alert to produce more energy, thereby leading to increased levels of NAD+.

2. Exercise. Another reason to keep your body moving. Exercise is one of the easiest ways to boost NAD+ levels naturally.

3. IV Injections. NAD+ IV injections are also becoming more readily available at IV clinics and doctor’s offices. While injections do not work to repair older, damaged cells, people reportedly feel an infusion of energy with these injections.

4. Supplementation. There are several NAD+ precursor supplements in the market. The one we believe in and have been using for several months is called Nuchido Time +. There are many reasons for our choice. It is a new generation of scientific anti-aging supplement that boosts NAD+ by 242% on average, four times more than any other product. It is also the only supplement that looks at the human body a whole. Studies have shown that it is not the lack of raw materials in the cells causing the decline of NAD+ in the cells. It actually declines because as we get older, our cells becomes less efficient at making NAD+ and also recycling NAD+. Rather than simply supplementing with raw materials, Nuchido Time + addresses the root causes for this decline. Here is an example to clarify their approach. Consider a broken down shoe factory. Delivering leather (raw materials) to a factory in which all the machinery (the cell) is broken will do nothing to help with the production of shoes. However, if the machinery is fixed AND leather is delivered - that factory is back in business.

   Our passion for deep health and wellness lies in our desire for a better life - not only a longer one, but joyful one that filled with vitality. NAD+ and its effects on cellular health could be the thing that will draw us closer to this.

   If you’d like to learn more about NAD+ or Nuchido Time+, send us an email. If you’d like to try Nuchido Time+ for yourself, HERE is a discount 15% code).

Image by Michael Regalbuto

It is what we are all striving for. What ultimately shapes our behaviors around diet, exercise - and swallowing a mouthful of vitamins, probiotics, fish oils, etc, on a daily basis. But for how long and how well can we, human beings, live? I can say with confidence that we can live over 100 years at least. According to Chinese lore, there was a man named Li Ching-Yuen who lived to the age of 256 years. A French woman, Jeanne Calment recently died at 122 years. Currently, the oldest known living person is Kane Tanaka of Japan, aged 117 years.

If we were to take a snapshot of the life extending efforts in the US, we would guess the average life expectancy to be up there - at least close to the 100 year mark. Yet, despite all the attention being given to extending lifespan in the scientific community - metformin, resveratrol, NAD, human growth hormone, stem cells, exosomes, severe calorie restriction, transferring blood from the young to the old - the average American only lives to about 77 years, and this number is steadily dropping.

Let’s set aside these tactics predominantly geared towards the well-heeled and consider those who are actually living over 100 years - and more importantly, living them well. I don’t know about you, but the only way I’d like to extend this particular life is if it can be lived with immense joy and passion, emotional and spiritual fulfillment, with physical grace and ease and continuous growth. In the book The Blue Zones, by Dan Buettner, highlights areas of the world where people are living to at least 100 years - Okinawa, Japan, Sardinia, Italy, Nicoya, Costa Rica, Ikaria, Greece, and the 7th Day Adventists in Loma Linda, California. Though these communities are geographically worlds apart, their lives shows how close they are in lifestyle practices. The way I see it, the people living in the Blue Zones have figured out the essence of living well and almost accidentally live longer as a result.

Here is how I breakout down.

SELF-LOVE.

There is an element of connection and care that goes into the food eaten in the Blue Zones. They primarily eat home-grown or locally grown, nutrient dense foods consisting of mostly plants, including wild foraged plants. The plant food they eat is traditionally prepared. This involves soaking, sprouting, and fermenting. Their diets are also supplemented with some animal protein, consisting of free range, grass-fed or pastured meats, and wild fish. They eat nose to tail with plenty of glycine-rich foods such as bone broth and marrow and their diets are free from any added chemicals, antibiotics and growth hormone. Packaged foods, excess sugars and processed vegetables and seed oils are never on the menu. This attention and care to what is put in the body clearly reflects self-honor and respect - self-love.

Closely connected to self-love is stress management. Stress is inevitable no matter what color your zone. What sets the happier, longer living folks apart are the ways in which they manage stress. For the Okinawans, it is their mindset. They live by the concept of “tangay” or having a going-with-the-flow vibe about them. For Sardinians, it means a nightly dinner with family and/or friends and a glass of locally made, natural wine.

We can all get a little closer the the Blue Zones way of eating and managing our stress by cooking more often (aim for 80% of the time), sharing time with loved ones, having a meditation practice, using breath work to alleviate stress.

One final note about loving yourself. Don’t smoke. If you do, quit. You are not doomed to an early death. Your body has the capability of reversing the damage.

CHALLENGES.

We are all susceptible to repetition. Routines. I champion (and am highly protective of) my morning routine. If all else crumbles as the day unfolds, I have, at the very least, had an experience of expansive optimism, calm and fluidity first thing in the morning. It grounds me.

But a strong argument can be made for balancing out the sweet and comfortable with challenges. Our physical, mental and (dare I say) emotional health depend on it. Challenges are the only way we are able to move forward.

So, challenge yourself through food. Eat wild plants.  Plants, especially wild, have a mildly toxic built-in defense mechanism to protect themselves. Every time we eat wildly, our bodies react to these toxins and we experience a positive physiological effect. This is the concept of hormesis and with regards to plants, xenohormesis. The Blue Zoners eat a large amount of wild plants, herbs, and spices.

Another way to challenge yourself through food is to not eat it. Fast sometimes. Calorie restrict sometimes. Almost every culture has built into their lifestyle periods of fasting, eating less or abstaining from certain foods at specific times of the year. Your mitochondria will thank you. Every few months I challenge myself with a bone broth-mini fasting reset week or my riff on an Ayurvedic calorie restricting cleanse using kitchari.

Challenge yourself through movement. Engage in high intensity movement every so often. While you could find this type of high intensity training at the gym in the form of interval classes or Crossfit, you can also create it at home. Challenge your kids to a game of tag. Pick something heavy up and move around a few times a day. Having a heavy kettlebell hanging around helps with this and cranks up the heart rate in a hurry. I make an effort to pick mine up and do 30-50 swings a few times a day.

Be temperature challenged - get very hot and very cold. Not only is this good for your physical body by helping with detoxification, the creation of brown fat and improving vagal tone, but has numerous psychological and cognitive benefits as well.

Trying new things falls into the challenge category. Be adventurous. Take trips. Learn new activities. Your body, brain and sense of happiness are improved when you break out of the norm.

CONNECTION.

The last piece of the The Blue Zones puzzle is having a sense of deep connection. To the community, to family, to nature, and perhaps most importantly, to their purpose. This has something to do with the notion that there is a bigger meaning in life.

Having social rituals helps instill this feeling. Some people find this in church. Others in sharing meals with family and/or friends. It may be helpful to join a club surrounding something you love to do. Think back to when you were a child. What did you most look forward to doing? Might it be time to rediscover that hobby?

Movement is also tied into this. Low level movement all day long keeps us connected to our bodies and more scientifically keeps chemicals and hormones flowing, keeping our joints fluid and our brains healthy. Moving in nature is even better. Nature nurtures us in many ways. Sunlight (dose dependent) heals. Gardening, walks on the beach, spending time in the forest amongst the trees are all great ways to do this.

I find connection through cooking. I love the friendships I’ve made at the farmers markets here in LA. I am passionate about learning new recipes, trying new techniques and spices, experimenting with different varieties of foods and flavors, and sharing my creations with my family and friends. Food is spiritual for me and cooking meditative. I am present in every moment of it. I have deep appreciation and gratitude for the goodness the earth offers us and revel in the ability to be a part of it through my cooking.

Meditation is a wonderful practice for creating space for connection. Why not make a commitment to try 21 days of meditation. It takes about that long for a new habit to form. If you’d like some ideas on how to start, send me a note.

So now that we are on the path to a long, joyful living, let’s connect.

How can we best serve you? Would you like to see more events from us? What do you want to hear about?

The New Potato

Turns out Hippocrates was right. All disease begins in the gut. He made this statement over 2000 years ago and now we are discovering how true it really is. An unhealthy microbiome is linked to a myriad of illnesses including allergies, autism, blood sugar dysregulation, depression, diabetes, autoimmunity, cancer, heart disease, fibromyalgia, eczema, and asthma - so much so, the microbiome is being referred to as the second brain. Keeping your gut in tip-top shape is arguably the most important thing you can do to living a long and healthful life.

What is the microbiome?

The microbiome is the community of microorganisms including bacteria, fungi, protozoa and viruses living in the human body. The human gut is home to approximately 100 trillion microorganisms. The are 100x more bacterial DNA in the gut than all the DNA in the human body. According to Chris Kresser, Functional Medicine and ancestral health clinician and educator, gut microbes regulate 70 to 80 percent of the immune system, influence blood sugar control, modulate the function of the brain, bone, heart, skin, eyes and muscle tissue.

How does the microbiome become unbalanced?

1. A poor diet. The Standard American Diet chock full of pro-inflammatory processed foods, refined carbohydrates and industrial seed oils will do the trick. Couple this with low fermentable fiber intake and essentially, the ecosystem of the gut is starved of the bacterial diversity.

2. Chronic stress. Your gut is influenced by thoughts and emotions. Stress directly signals the release of chemicals that disruptively impact gastric secretion, gut motility, and gut permeability. Conversely, an impaired gut microbiome also affects mental health and wellbeing.

3. Chronic infection. Underlying viral, bacterial and fungal infections, often undetected, negatively impact the make up of gut bacteria.

4. Medication. While the use of antibiotics and the degradation of the gut microbiome is quite well known, other medications such as birth control, NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) and Proton pump inhibitors also significantly alter the gut..

5. Lack of sleep. We are obsessed with good sleep in our house. With good reason. One is the impact it can have on the gut. A dysregulated circadian rhythm and not getting enough good quality sleep can contribute to imbalances in the gut microbiome.

7 steps to better gut health.

1. Eating real foods is the first step.

   • Focus on eating unprocessed, unrefined real food - meaning as close to the way nature delivers it as possible.

   • Cut out refined sugars and other refined carbohydrates.

   • Eat lots of plants, including prebiotic foods that feed healthy gut bacteria.

   • Take a high quality probiotic supplement. I take SEED.

   • Remove inflammatory vegetable oils from the diet and replace them with healthier oils such as extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil and avocado oil.

   • Eat plenty of fermented foods such as kimchi, sauerkraut, yogurt, and kefir to help boost the population of healthy bacteria in the gut.

   • Eat healing, collagen-rich foods such as bone broth which fights inflammation and nourishes the intestinal lining. Here are some additional benefits of bone broth along with a delicious homemade recipe.

2. Manage your stress levels.

   • Here are some ways to cultivate a healthy mindset.

   • Here are a few breath work protocols to effectively help manage stress.

   • Use resources to help to start a mediation practice. Headspace and Insight Timer are my favorites.

3. Check for possible underlying infections. Stool testing is a valuable tool - ask your doctor.

4. Exercise. Regular movement helps keep gut microbes in tip top shape. Develop a sustainable routine. Here are some ideas.

5. Tidy up your sleep hygiene. Seven to eight hours of high quality sleep are ideal for supporting gut health. Need some tips on how to get there? Turn your room into a dark, cool cave, minimize blue light post sundown and try to maintain a regular sleep-wake schedule, even on the weekends. You can find many more tips here.

You’ll be surprised at how much of an impact reseting your gut will have on your overall life. It will positively effect your sleep, help you lose those extra pounds you can’t seem to shed, give you more energy, improve your digestion, reduce inflammation and clear your brain. Oh, and your skin will glow! Join us on our inaugural Bone Broth and Mini-Fast Reset in January. For more information, see here.

By the way, this would make an awesome holiday gift to a loved one or yourself!

Bowl by Brickett Davda

Did you know that our amazing bodies are naturally designed to self-detox down all the way to the cellular level?  Did you also know that we have the ability to help ignite that detoxing process?  It involves timing meals - or fasting and a few specific foods to help move the process along.  

Why is it important to make sure our bodies are properly detoxing on a regular basis?  No matter how hard we try to practice clean living, modern life overloads us with toxins we can’t avoid.  I am talking about pesticides, EMFs, dirty electricity, pollution, cigarette smoke, chemical ridden skin care, sugar laden diets, an overload of stress, lack of sleep, lack of full body, full range, all-day movement…I can go on, but I think you get the picture.  Our toxic load and lifestyles won’t allow us to shed weight, wreak all sorts of havoc in our guts and ultimately push the aging process into hyper-drive,

How can we help our bodies naturally and deeply detox and slow the aging process down?  Let's take a look at intermittent fasting.

Perhaps you’ve heard or read about it already.  For those of you unfamiliar…simply put…it is a way of eating that consciously alternates periods of eating and not eating and can be done in several ways.  It can really assist in weight loss and fat burning and boasts a number of incredible therapeutic benefits as well. 

Fasting can help improve neutral connections in the hippocampus part of the brain, the area associated with memory, mood and motivation, and has neuron protecting qualities.  For similar reasons, it is also helpful for those recovering from brain injury.  It also promotes mental acuity and focus.

Periods of fasting stimulate cells to cannibalize.  This process, known as autophagy, or “self” (auto) “eat (phagy), is the body’s natural ability to clean out detox and recycle cells that are no longer functioning properly.  Through this function, your body can boost the immune system, prevent diseases related to aging as well as cardiovascular diseases, increase insulin sensitivity, and boost energy.  According to studies, fasting can even prevent or slow the progression of cancer. 

There are several ways to intermittent fast.  Some people chose to eat only during an eight-hour window. For example, you can eat from 12 pm to 8 pm, then fast from 8 pm to 12pm.  Another, more advanced form of intermittent fasting would be fasting for 24-36 hours once or twice a week.

Can anyone fast?  In my experience, it’s not for everyone and not all the time.  In general, pregnant women, and women dealing with fertility issues should probably stay away from fasting.  Gut issues, blood sugar imbalances, sleep issues, adrenal problems and a history of eating disorders are also conditions in which I would suggest avoid fasting.  Ultimately, if you have any chronic health condition or any doubts, clear it with your doctor before trying.

What are some tools to use while fasting to help the detoxing process along?  There are several foods can that help ignite the detoxing process.  Some of these foods are almonds, walnuts, leafy greens, asparagus, broccoli, broccoli sprouts, cauliflower, coffee, green tea, butter, cream, lentils, mushrooms, garlic, red wine, dark chocolate, and chia seeds. 

Supplementing with hemp oil is one of the most powerful tools to combine with fasting.  It acts as a catalyst, stimulating the endocannabinoid system, bringing the body into a balanced state and allowing it to heal itself.  For more information about hemp oil and its incredible benefits during fasting and otherwise, look up hemp or CBD oil on pubmed.gov, or projectcbd.org.  If you are looking for a resource, let me know!

I am launching an intro to intermittent fasting guide with accompanying meal plan.  It is geared towards those getting started and experiments with different types of intermittent fasting.  It's 5 days long, includes a meal plan designed to fire up the benefits of fasting, recipes, tips and tricks, bonuses, daily motivation and accountability reminders and access to coaching by me throughout the 5 days.  If you are interested, contact me.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23168220

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19171901

 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17413096

https://www.osher.ucsf.edu/patient-care/self-care-resources/cancer-and-nutrition/frequently-asked-questions/cancer-and-fasting-calorie-restriction/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27557543

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022202X15372870

https://www.projectcbd.org/cannabinoids-and-mitochondria