Wellness Trends: Longevity, Sleep, Diets, and Morning Routines

0:03Welcome to Super Life with me, Darin Olien, a podcast where we explore, discover, and share solutions that promote a healthier life and a better world. Together, we'll ignite possibilities, inspire change, and build sovereignty, creating a roadmap towards a super life for you and for all. Get ready to start living your super life.

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2:24This is Super Life with me, Darren Aline. You have no idea how stoked I am for you to be here. I love sharing information. I love getting into it. And in this episode, I'm going to dig into some wellness trends and put them under a microscope just a little bit. Before I get into that, keep in mind, I just started something I've been wanting to do for years. My own community, ongoing, not just a program where we're building something and then we leave. It's a community where I'm giving more information, more things that I feel better giving there than I do on social media. I don't like social media anymore.

3:10I'll do my best just the minimal stuff because it's part of our kind of society right now in terms of getting information out. But the majority of the information I'm giving and diving into and having friends contribute to and building the community and having ingredient trackers and tools to help you is on my Patreon. So check that out. Go to Patreon. It's free. And then if you want to dive into Super Life, it's only$7.49 a month. And you will get more than you bargained for. Okay? So sign up there. Welcome to this episode. where I'm going to dive into some wellness trends. Today, we're going to give some of the takes, but also some of my takes, but also some of the research around some of these things circulating around right now.

4:04We're going to talk creatine. I love this supplement. We're going to talk longevity and quality of life. We're going to talk sleep. We're going to talk diet a little bit. We're going to dive into the carnivore thing. I did another solo episode deeply on plant proteins and carnivore. I don't really like to get into it and say this is better and that's better, but there's certain things about it that's gained so much momentum that we need to be a little more clear about. I'm going to get into cold exposure. I'm going to get into the importance or non-importance around morning routines and saunas and so much more.

4:43My goal is not to preach, but to provoke. to provoke the the idea not not for clickbait not for any of that shit but based in research based in common sense to to bring about thought to bring about discourse to bring about questioning things so that you can re-assimulate yourself as it relates to the habits that you're doing or in some cases not doing. Okay, so the first wellness trend I'm gonna get into is creatine. This is my first supplement I ever sold because I've been in the supplement game forever. I still, I formulated Shakeology. I've been involved with that group. We formulated it together with an amazing team further and further as the years go by and Shakeology still I take every day.

5:36But I'm not talking about that. My point is that for 20 years plus, Plus, I've been in the supplement world running around the planet. In 1995, I connected with a pharmacist who still is my friend today, Dr. Ben Fuchs in Boulder, Colorado. Got to know him and some other doctors. And I asked him one day, hey, can you get me protein? Can you get me creatine? Can you get me, at the time, ephedra? Before it was banned. And if you use that correctly, it can be powerful, but it's banned. But I asked, and creatine was the first one. So creatine, I did the research then, and I was like, this is an incredible supplement.

6:19I got amazing results on this thing, and I sold it all throughout Boulder and eventually in other places, and it was a great adjunct to my life, and I love that. So many people think that creatine, probably still to this day, but it's getting out there more, that's just a bodybuilder supplement. but it has a much wider application as the studies kind of come out. Creatine, this phosphocreatine or PCR, not the PCR test, it donates phosphates to ADP. You don't need to know this, but it also then rapidly regenerates in that biochemical process of phosphates to ADP. It rapidly regenerates ATP in tissues with high energy demands.

7:12So the most important thing is, if you just take it from a musculoskeletal standpoint, if you're not using your muscle, specifically around the anaerobic side, so resistance training and explosive movements and sprinting, it won't really do much for the musculoskeletal system. The brain, on the other hand, has got some great research because it demands a lot of energy. So there's great research coming out around the effectiveness on the brain. So you increase essentially the ability for your body to work more when you're working, right? So when you're under load and you're working hard, your body can, through this biochemical process, then recruit and regenerate more ATP for the work in the cells.

8:10This kind of creates a reserve battery potential for cellular energy demands. It's really powerful. Also, some brain, heart, vascular, and mitochondrial tissue contain creatine. So it's a very natural process and may benefit from enhanced energetics and use too. So the research, I'm not going to get into all of it, but first off as an athletic and resistance training, creatine supplementation is well supported. The most researched supplement on the planet. Typically, you can see between 8 % to 14 % greater gains in strength and or performance. This was over a placebo in a high-intensity research setting.

9:05It may reduce muscle damage, improve recovery, support adaptation to training. This is something I have been on and off because I think it's healthy to, there's no accumulation damage, there's no that, but I think it's always healthy to cycle through some of this stuff. I virtually stay on it for six to nine months, then I'll maybe take a few weeks off or a month, and then I'll crank it on again. There's other interest in studies, a great study in nature showing neuroprotective and cognitive support. And these recent studies suggest single-dose creatine improves processing speed. And that even blew me away.

9:53And that creatine can help maintain brain energy, kind of energy balance, when the brain is also under stress. Exciting study. The safety record is good in healthy populations. Long-term studies, up to 30 grams a day for years, that's a 30 grams a day is a lot. You don't need that much. Between 5 to 10 grams is plenty. So 30 grams, that's basically three heaping tablespoons every day for years can cause issues. Well, so can over hydration, right? So we just have to use common sense here. So effects are more consistent in younger, healthier, active populations, but data is showing powerful results with women and even older populations.

10:54A great Cleveland Clinic study, the myth that creatine causes kidney damage has been challenged in healthy people it seems safe by the cleveland clinic but those with pre-existing kidney disease should use caution they should use caution using any supplementation some reports around water retention especially early possible gi discomfort You might want to build up to heavy doses, maybe 2 to 3 grams into 5 grams and then into 8 to 10 potentially. Once muscle stores are saturated, extra creatine does not yield further benefit. So you don't have to massively dose this stuff. I love that creatine is kind of re-emerging again because of all of these other studies.

11:53Because it's showing all of these other benefits from heart, from brain, neuroprotective, good throughout other populations, women, older people. It's making this resurgence. And of course, it has been solid in the bodybuilding, strength, performance space. Use intelligently. Now the research does show the best kind of safest zone of dosing is between three to five grams a day. This is done through third-party testing. Give your body a break in cycles. And if you have kidney distress, then consult your doctor before you do anything. Don't expect miracles. You have to work in order to get the benefits, which is kind of like this blue collar supplement, which I absolutely love.

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15:23And with a 100-day risk-free trial, free shipping, and returns, you can experience this game-changing cookware with zero risk. Come on, who wouldn't want to do that? second segment here i want to dive into overall longevity not just living long but living well and i think we've missed that we're obsessed over longevity and it can get it can get a little strange here because yes we want to live a long time longevity invokes images of living over a But I think to set the table here for me, the deeper goal is health span. How you are doing throughout your life now and into the future. It's really about quality of life during your life and extending time of what?

16:21vitality, clarity, strength, functionality, connection, and purpose. That's what health span means to me. You rightly note that things like ethics, boundaries, community purpose, inner alignment are not extras. They are part also of this equation. So what does the research say? lifestyle and mortality and life expectancy a large body of epidemiological evidence shows that healthy lifespan factors non-smoking good diet regular physical activity healthy body weight sleep moderate alcohol i will also now this is based on the research that i pulled for this but i would say no alcohol because zero alcohol is beneficial some alcohol there's no benefit zero.

17:17These, they are strongly associated with lower mortality, longer life expectancy, and resiliency as you live your life. Even in older age populations, adopting a healthy lifestyle is associated with lower mortality. It's not too late. Science does show this. If you don't matter where you were at in your age spectrum, if you're 80, healthy choices matter. It extends the feeling of feeling good now and into the future. So please look at it like the investment that you have. Investing in good habits today helps you not only today, but it helps you tomorrow, the next week, month, year, and extending the quality of your life.

18:09Now, if you're someone that says, I feel fine. No, you do not feel as fine as you could feel. We get used to our set point. But if you're willing to invest into healthier aspects of your life, you will feel the benefit and the studies show and the science shows that you will improve your quality health span. One study showed that the healthy behaviors like better diet, whole foods, activity, sleep, can offset genetic risk for shorter lifespan by 60%. So just because your parents, your grandparents maybe died early, the epidemiological shift that you can make to extend quality of life for a long period of time is overwhelmingly powerful by 60 plus percent.

19:05You have more power in your choices, in the improvement of your life than you can possibly imagine. But if you don't do anything, nothing then changes. Quality of life and psychosocial purpose, the Harvard study of an adult development and other longitudinal studies repeatedly confirm that strong relationships, social connection, meaning purpose, emotional regulation dumping emotions like journaling getting them out healthfully moving through things happiness longevity all improve with all of these markers improve your health span happiness joy contentment community community community all improve life and it's not something you need to take.

19:58It's something that you can improve on. Good genes are nice, but joy is better. This came from the Harvard Gazette. I thought it was such a great quote. Good genes are nice, but joy is better for your life. Also, the Longevity Project, a decades-long psychological study found that traits such as conscientiousness, social engagement, and maintaining purpose, Correlated with a longer life. Beyond just health metrics. The mechanisms, the frameworks, all of these things go on and on. The studies show you have so much more power. And improving your health span in the moment and throughout your life.

20:48Purpose, community, moral alignment, relationships. Your actions lined up with what you care about. the body, the mind symphony, these practices are so powerful. Okay, now sleep. There's no shortcut, just respect. And it's important. So people say there's sleep hacks. Not really. They are seductive. Even tracking your sleep, all of that stuff. I don't think it's necessary. It often distracts us from the basic alignment with simple things like light, dark cycles, circadian rhythm, avoiding artificial light, preparing your night so you prepare a good night's sleep and wake up in the morning, listening to your body.

21:33Sleep is a deep listening. What science confirms, circadian biology is extremely well studied. Exposure to natural morning light helps entrain the clock within every cell and every rhythm of your body. The melatonin production, so you go to sleep. Exposure to artificial light at night, especially these blue light. I wear my blue light glasses if I'm watching something at night. These delay the melatonin onset that impairs sleep quality. These are common sense things. Eating too close to bedtime can interfere with digestion, body temperature, regulation, hormone cycles like insulin and cortisol, thus impairing more sleep architecture.

22:23Ambient temperature matters. Rising nighttime temperatures are correlated with poor sleep. I love it. It's getting colder. I sleep like a freaking baby. All windows are open. I like I may be extreme I've woken up in the middle of the night you know I could in the morning when I've woken up I could see my breath oh my god yes it's hard getting out of the bed I could turn heat on then but I go to my Therisage mat and it's amazing but sleeping is so good there's no substitute for consistent duration quality alignment sleep hacks may be marginal at best but these basic principles are the foundation and are solid so my nightly ritual is not about gimmicks but it's about honoring the transition turning off the stimulation giving time to to quiet recalibration a nice rhythmic breathing before maybe a journaling maybe just you know hugging your partner your dog your down regulation all of this stuff is golden for the sleep okay everybody are you ready to upgrade your operating system i know i am i'm always game to do that not just physically but mentally emotionally and spiritually that's what we're doing over at Super Life Patreon.

23:55This isn't just behind the scenes membership. It's a global experiment in conscious living that I am connected to, committed with, and every cell of my body. Each week, you'll get exclusive access to deeper podcast conversations, extended interviews, voice notes from the road of me personally, personal reflections, behind the scenes footage, community wellness challenges, and even surprise drop-ins that I no longer do on social media because I don't really dig it anymore. We're talking decentralized healing, reclaiming sovereignty, ancient wisdom meets future tech, and a tribe of people with you walking the path.

24:42If you love this podcast, the Patreon is where we go deeper, get more real, and reclaim our power together. Join us at patreon.com forward slash Darren Olin. That's patreon, p-a-t-r-e-o-n.com forward slash Darren Olin, d-a-r-i-n-o-l-i-e-n. Join the movement, support the mission, let's rise together. Okay, next segment, the carnivore diet, the extremes and the realities. I'm not here to convince you of how to eat. I've been plant-based for 17, 18 years. I get all my nutrients from plants. They're the OGs of minerals and plant materials and polyphenols and compounds and everything else. So that's where I get it from.

25:35Cutting out entire groups of food. Like if you're full carnivore and you're cutting out fruits, veggies nuts seeds legumes it's a really really bad idea and no science supports that none meat is metabolically expensive it is hard to break down because you have to break down the meat into the ability for your body to up regulate you need the amino acids in this case talking about amino acids you need amino acids while you also extract amino acids from plants it's less digestively expensive. So it has to break down through hydrochloric acids in your stomach. It's got to be enough there. It's got to be strong enough.

26:22You have to have the proteolytic protease enzymes, enough of them to break it all down. And oftentimes you can have not enough breakdown and putrefaction. Enough said about that. But again, it is expensive. Eliminating plants that have the richness of fiber, phytonutrients, microbiome support, and diversity is all based in the science and it's a really bad idea to eliminate all of those things. The evidence suggests there is very limited, high-quality, long-term data on strict carnivore diets in humans, especially healthy populations. Observationally, populations have long, healthy lifespans. The Blue Zones, the Mediterranean, Okinawa, all of these are plant-centric diets.

27:18And if they are eating any meat, it is very sparingly. Eating meat at every meal is not a good idea. This is all based in the science. The benefits of plants, polyphenols, antioxidants, compounds, fiber, supporting microbiome, gut integrity, systemic health, immune, brain health, on and on and on. Over time, restricting plants, depriving micronutrients, dietary fiber, and creating insufficiencies in dysbiosis, dysregulation of your systems. Some models suggest that anabolism, which is excessive animal protein, amino acid flux may tax longevity pathways like mTOR, IGF, over the long term. And most of these carnivore freakazoids that have been pushing this for reasons I'm not still sure of have all had to stop.

28:22And then their brands are all based on it, so I don't know what they're doing. but the wheels are starting to come off. My point here is if you're still eating meat, fine. Eat more plants, meaning just include more plants and diversity in your life, and you are fine with amino acids. I did a solo episode on the difference between plant proteins, plant food, and meat. The data is overwhelmingly supportive of getting all your protein needs from plants. if you were eating sensibly, diverse, normal eating throughout the days and the weeks and everything else. So experimenting may have the stimulatory short-term benefit, but listening closely to your body, getting your labs and biomarkers is a really, really good idea.

29:13The default for me is wholeness, eating plenty of diverse plant-forward foods with room for high quality animal protein if you feel like you need that. But don't cut off food groups. If someone is trying carnivore, I'd monitor gut health, inflammatory markers. You will have to spend a lot of money to make sure that you're not harming yourself. Okay, next segment is cold exposure. Benefits or burden? So some cold exposure may be beneficial, but is it safe consistently and it is is it advisable long term should everyone do it is there too much cold well of course if you're staying the goal for too long can cause a lot of issues and even kill you cold exposure has been associated with metabolic benefits improving insulin sensitivity increased energy expenditure activation of brown adipose tissue there's some great studies great harvard study.

30:18Short-term immersion may improve mood, alertness, because yeah, because you're feeling like you're dying. Listen, I cold expose. I just don't do it as much anymore. So that's kind of, I will get to that. Reducing distress, neurohormonal signaling, dopamine, norepinephrine, endorphins are all released with cold immersion. Some evidence suggests anti-inflammatory, immune modulation benefits and even evidence of these things show up. But again there's timing, there's how long, there's all of these other things to look at. So but in many human studies cold exposure also impairs certain cognitive tasks.

31:02If you're in it and you need to do something afterwards or even getting to your car and drive somewhere just be careful and let yourself warm up again. Many studies are small, short duration in their protocols with temperature and exposure hard to generalize overall. Overuse may result in chronically elevated stress or hormonal dysregulation. So from a day-to-day, a daily perspective, it might be overdoing it for certain people. Be aware of your body. if someone has cardiovascular issues poor circulation and is already super cold sensitive meaning your hands are cold all of these things then it could lead you towards extra stress not good for you and could be quite dangerous cold immersion immediately after post exercise is not good because it thwarts the adaptive signaling of your micro tears of a workout so when you're loading yourself up with resistance training you're breaking down tissue you're exciting inflammation inflammation is a part of the body too much of it causes issues not enough of it causes inadequate adaptation.

32:27Your resistance training, you're creating adaptation. So cold exposure after resistance training has showing a no-go. It's disrupting the strength gains. It's disrupting the other beneficial adaptations. The dose matters. Duration, temperature, frequency, individual tolerance so you know dr huberman andrew has done a lot of work on this a few minutes depending on who you are that's why i'm not giving specifics but a minute two minutes max a couple times a week is probably completely fine if you don't have any other issues and it's not after a workout. Don't overdo it. Don't overstress yourself.

33:17If someone has health conditions, don't do that. Okay, morning routines. Morning routines show up repeatedly among people who are high achievers and success, but it's also just for setting your day, calming, getting in touch with your creator, your God, yourself, slowing down, not reaching for the phone. These are all things that are important in a morning routine. These windows of silence and slowing down creates clarity, focus, creativity without distraction. It is my go-to. It's not about being rigid. It's about just like showing up to the gym. You're showing up for this peaceful creativity, connection, listening, deep, deep listening.

34:05If you're going through something, you can access deeper parts of yourself, your unconsciousness, your journaling, your meditation. These things are so powerful. And these, no matter where I'm at, no matter what I'm doing, I'm always, without a doubt, achieving my morning routine because it feels so good. It's an inner massage, psychologically, behaviorally. These regular routines consistently correlate with better mental health, self-regulation, and certainly going after goals and getting clear on what you want in your life and improving performance and all of these things. The personalization of this, getting focused on your greater purpose, your big thing.

34:54I do morning routines not to brag. I do them because I freaking love them. It's sacred to me. I listen. I align. I choose. I don't react. I sit with myself. One of the greatest superpowers we can. If it's a morning routine or for you later, find a sacred space of time where you can shut down, even if it's 30 seconds or a minute, and using a breath to get you there. Incredible. Okay, I'm going to wrap it there. Maybe I'll do a part two. There's so much to get into about heat and saunas, so stay tuned. I'll do another episode on that. So bottom line is if you kind of just tune back into Common Sense rather than listening to just all these influencers all the time, Give yourself a break from social media.