57. Shawn Wells: Shocking Truth About Supplements: Most Are Useless

What if the reason your supplements aren't working has nothing to do with your body—and everything to do with what's in the bottle? In this episode of Extend, I'm joined by biochemist and ingredient formulator Shawn Wells, a leading voice in evidence-based supplementation and mitochondrial health. Together, we uncover why so many products fail to deliver results, how to build a smarter, personalized stack, and what most people get completely wrong about vitamins, probiotics, and biohacking. We get into the dangers of proprietary blends, why over 80% of supplements on Amazon may be underdosed or inactive, and what blood tests and wearables really reveal about your health. Shawn also shares his foundational stack—from GLP-1 agonists to mitochondrial protectors—and explains why dosing and timing matter more than you think. If you're relying on guesswork when it comes to supplements, this episode will change your approach for good. We Also Discuss: The Supplement Lies You've Been Told Why Bio-Individuality Changes Everything How to Spot a Scam Supplement The Foundational Stack You Actually Need Muscle, Brain & Bone: The Smart Stack Upgrade Your Brain: Next-Gen Nootropics The New Science of Sleep Support Immunity, Mitochondria & Microbiome Hacks Thank You to Our Sponsors: TruNiagen: Whether you are looking to stay sharp, feel more energized or simple age better, go to https://www.truniagen.com/ IFit: If you are looking to elevate your home gym fitness experience with the best in fitness tech, choose IFIT. Go to https://www.ifit.com/ NextHealth: Your destination for cutting-edge health optimization—from IV therapy to hormone balancing. Explore at https://www.next-health.com/ Vitaboom: For supplements you can trust and wellness solutions tailored to your health, visit https://vitaboom.com/ Learn more about Dr. Shah: Website: https://www.drshah.com/ Clinic: https://www.next-health.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darshanshahmd/ Learn more about Shawn Wells Website: www.shawnwells.com http://www.shawnwells.com Instagram: @shawnwells https://www.instagram.com/shawnwells/ YouTube: Shawn Wells https://www.youtube.com/c/shawnwells

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:03Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Welcome to Extend with me, Dr. Darshan Shah, a podcast dedicated to cutting-edge science, research, tools, and protocols designed to help you extend your health span. Having become one of the youngest doctors in the country at the age of 21, and trained and board-certified at the Mayo Clinic, I've accumulated three decades of practice as a board-certified surgeon and longevity expert. Over that time, I've discovered that a mere 20% of health knowledge yields 80% of the results when it comes to your health span. We're living in a new era where we are creating a new healthcare system, no longer focused on disease management, but achieving optimal health and vitality. Join me as I interview world-renowned experts, offering you a step-by-step guide to proactively avoid disease, and most importantly, extend your health span.

• 0:50Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Welcome back to Extend. Today, we're going to explore the question, what if the real reason your supplements aren't really working actually has nothing to do with the supplement itself and everything to do with your biology? Or is the opposite true? Is your supplement just a waste of time and money and really doesn't provide any benefit? This episode of Extend, I'm going to be joined by my friend Sean Wells. He's a biohacker, biochemist, ingredientologist, and one of the most prolific supplement formulators in the world. Today, we're going to get into the misunderstood world of supplementation, bio-individuality, and why so many people are frustrated when their stack doesn't move the needle on their health. We're going to explore topics like what actually makes a supplement effective?

• 1:34Dr. Darshan Shah?

  The surprising link between metabolic dysfunction and mitochondrial decline? And how to build a foundational stack that supports your individual biology? From GLP-1 activators to nootropics, this episode is going to go way beyond what you can decipher from your supplement labels. Sean Wells has formulated over 1,000 products and developed more than 40 patented ingredients. His expertise bridges science, innovation, and real-world applications, helping people biohack smarter, age slower, and feel radically better in their own skin. He's an expert in supplementation, supplement ingredients, and what I really love about Sean is he's able to bring it all to us in an easy-to-understand-and-digest format. Let's start the episode with Sean Wells.

• 2:21Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Sean, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today. This has been a long time coming.

• 2:26Speaker 01

  I'm excited to be here.

• 2:27Dr. Darshan Shah?

  I know. So we've known each other for quite a long time. You've been a great friend to our business and I consider you one of the foremost experts in the world on supplementation. And, you know, a lot of people take supplements and they don't realize it, but they're taking supplements that you've developed.

• 2:43Speaker 01

  Yes, there's hundreds, if not thousands, out there. Many, many, many. I've formulated over a thousand products, but yeah, with my ingredients, I have about 40 branded ingredients. There's, yeah, easily thousands of other products that I have been formulated that have my ingredients.

• 2:58Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah. And that's just incredible that you came up with 40 ingredients that you have the patent on because you came up with these through your knowledge of not just chemicals and biology, but also deeper knowledge of like even things like mitochondrial health.

• 3:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:14Dr. Darshan Shah?

  And I don't know if people realize the depth of knowledge that you have to have to be able to formulate something that you can give to humans and actually change outcomes and the way they feel.

• 3:25Speaker 01

  You know, and that's great. Thank you. I appreciate that. And, and it really takes, I think, a brilliant person to know how brilliant other people are because it's only like once you get to be an expert in your field that you also realize how much of the things around you you don't know.

• 3:42Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 3:43Speaker 01

  Right? Like when you're kind of coming up, like when you were in med school or, you know, whatever, like when I was coming up, I thought I knew everything. And now I know a lot about a very specific field, but I rely on so many experts around me to tell me all the other things. And you're, you're good at that, too.

• 4:00Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Thank you. Thank you. I think it's Einstein who said that the smartest people in the world realize that they know almost nothing, right?

• 4:06Speaker 01

  There you go.

• 4:07Dr. Darshan Shah?

  And surrounding yourself with experts has been a motto of mine for years. And that's why I'm so excited to talk to you because there's no way I could have developed a level of knowledge of supplementation and just biochemistry and how it works as you do. So really excited to have you here. Thank you. Yeah, so I want to start off with just supplementation in general. What's the one misconception that you think people have when they think about supplements?

• 4:34Speaker 01

  Well, that supplements are supplemental, meaning that you don't need them necessarily. It's just maybe a bonus or a throwaway, or maybe use them at times. But I would argue right now, when you think about the exposure to the stressors we have, there's over 5,000 chemicals being introduced into our environment every year. New chemicals that are largely untested. Not only do we not know what each one of them does in terms of their long-term health impact, just like polypharmacy and medicine, we don't know what the combination of these things do. Certainly, so there's all kinds of stressors that we're having that are endocrine disruptors

• 5:17Speaker 01

  that are, you know, harming, like causing oxidation in our body, which leads to glycation, inflammation, all kinds of issues. Pro-aging, causes mitochondrial dysfunction, metabolic dysfunction in turn. And so all of these stressors, and think of like EMF, the degree to which we're getting exposed to all these different waves that were not there years ago. Like ozone is reduced, and EMFs, and satellites, and, and radio waves, and like all the things that are happening around Wi-Fi. And there's so much that's happening right now to our bodies, 5G,

• 5:58Speaker 01

  that we need more nutrition than ever, than ever before. And when you think about our food supply being highly depleted, and the, and the, you know, and GMO, and the soil being depleted, and we're eating ultra-processed foods that are probably doing more harm than good, then supplements are becoming more and more and more critical. And so I, I deeply believe it's not just because I'm a supplement guy that, that everyone should be taking supplements. The question is which one? And should you believe someone when they say this supplement works for me? You should take it. That's marketing.

• 6:39Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah.

• 6:39Speaker 01

  Anytime you hear this supplement worked for me, you should take it. That's marketing. There's marketing happening there. Anytime someone says it's a scientific fact or there's scientific proof, that's marketing. I'm telling you, those are buzzwords, key words to look for. Any scientist knows, any good study ends with you need to do more research. In this given situation, under these given scenarios and, and in this statistical average, we saw the following and we need to do more research.

• 7:11Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah.

• 7:12Speaker 01

  There's never proof.

• 7:13Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 7:13Speaker 01

  Never fact.

• 7:14Dr. Darshan Shah?

  There's no such thing because like you mentioned, everyone's bio individual. Everyone is an N of one. So just because something works for you, doesn't mean it's going to work for me. And it might work for the average person, but there's one or two standard deviations away from the average. And it could potentially harm someone or someone could be a super responder. You just don't know.

• 7:36Speaker 01

  Exactly. And that's what we see in every study is these, uh, like the, the ones that are odd on the mean. And then we also see gradations all along the spectrum. And then we average it out to what the mean is and then expect that everyone is going to get these results. And here again, we don't know the results of polypharmacy, be it a bunch of supplements, a bunch of medications, a bunch of medications and supplements, food compounds, medications and supplements, environmental toxins, food compounds, supplements, medications. We don't know what the net effect of all that is. Now you add in your genetics, you add in your, your gut microbiome, your, the, what you're going through in your life.

• 8:19Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Mm-hmm.

• 8:20Speaker 01

  Right? Stress. You know, stress can be physiologic certainly, but emotional stress is, is significant. And so taking all that in totality, that's Where we need to say, what works for you? How are we tracking it? And that's where having, you know, a doctor, someone who's looking at these things on a regular basis through a variety of methods, through your gut microbiome, through blood work, through how are you feeling? How are your relationships? Like, how are you financially, mentally, spiritually? Uh, and then having like wearables, like, uh, you know, a watch or a ring or what have you that tracks your, your HRV, your recovery, your sleep.

• 9:03Speaker 01

  You know, these are going to be things that you can, you shouldn't rely overly on one of these things. But in totality, you get the global perspective as a clinician would to get the full picture.

• 9:15Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Exactly. Yeah, I think it's such an important point that using things like biomarker blood test, biomarkers on wearables, how you're feeling, all of these are endpoints. And really, the only person that's going to care enough to track all of those is yourself, right? And so I think there's a lot of self experimentation that needs to happen, this N of one, kind of figure out what's working for you. And, you know, with that caveat, which I think is one of the most important caveats when it comes to anything you do in your health, but definitely for supplements, is to understand that certain things are going to work for you, certain things are not going to. You have to somehow figure out what's working.

• 9:55Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 9:56Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right?

• 9:56Speaker 01

  Exactly, exactly. And so that's going to lead back to that bio-individuality. That's going to lead back to having the clinician with you, but also you, as you pointed out, being your own best advocate.

• 10:09Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Exactly.

• 10:09Speaker 01

  You tracking this stuff with some kind of log or diary of like what you are doing day to day. Like what's going on in your life? Were you around a toxic person? Did you have a tough day? Did you lose your job? Did you have a really difficult workout that day? Did you get sick from your kids? Like, you know, were you traveling? Did you get to sleep later? What's going on in your life? And then what was the timing of these supplements? What food were you having? And you can start putting these, these pictures together instead of gaslighting yourself and telling yourself that it's supposed to work. I don't know why. It's not working, you know, maybe I should just double up and I'm sure it's gonna work. And then you get frustrated when it doesn't work, but there's a lot of extenuating circumstances there.

• 10:52Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Absolutely.

• 10:52Speaker 01

  A big reason it might not work, a massive, massive reason, and this is coming from someone that is very passionate about supplements. Now Foods did a lot of testing of products on Amazon. Now Foods has been around for thirty plus years. They are one of the mainstays in terms of quality, great value. You know, when you go into like a retail mom and pop supplement shop, like they would be, you know, them or Solarray or someone would be like half the store, you know? And so they have probably more than a thousand different supplements. They're, they're a huge company, but they were losing a lot to Amazon.

• 11:31Speaker 01

  There's all these companies that whenever you search on Amazon for, you know, Ginkgo Biloba or St. John's Wort or whatever you're searching, someone's coming up at the top of the list that's promoting on Amazon and their price is cheaper than everyone else. And they're paying for promotion. How do they do that? Well, Now Foods did third-party testing of all these products. They tested about thirteen different single ingredient products from a slew of companies on Amazon. About eighty percent did not test out. Now, that was below where they were supposed to be, but about twenty to thirty percent had no active whatsoever.

• 12:09Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah, basically sawdust in the bill.

• 12:11Speaker 01

  So maybe like a quarter to a third of the supplements on Amazon right now have zero active. And about four out of five supplements on Amazon are testing below the level that they should.

• 12:23Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah.

• 12:24Speaker 01

  And that could either be because they're trying to, you know, cost cut or they didn't put in overages like they should have. Uh, where you need that quality control, you need to do stability testing is what it's called. Yeah. So this is what's frustrating right now, and this is where I lean on brands like Designs for Health or Thorne or Pure Encapsulations or, you know, something that's trusted by your clinician, that's a true clinical brand, they're going to be more expensive. But they will have that active and, and they won't have the things you don't want.

• 12:59Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Exactly.

• 12:59Speaker 01

  Heavy metals, banned substances, things that can be scary for your health.

• 13:04Dr. Darshan Shah?

  It's such an important point because if anything, the listeners of this podcast should understand that there are certain brands that we know and we trust that have been selling to doctors' offices for decades because they have done third-party testing. They've proven to themselves and to us as physicians that they are quality ingredients. And so that third-party testing where you have an unbiased tester coming in and looking at these products is incredibly important. And you know, there's an article in the New York Times, I think about 20 years ago where they took all, one bottle of each supplement off the shelves of CVS, right? And you think CVS, I can trust CVS, right, to pick the right supplements.

• 13:47Speaker 01

  Medical, clinical, right?

• 13:48Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah. Yeah. And they take these bottles off the CVS shelf. They tested them. 95% of them had low levels or no levels of the active ingredients. And so you just don't know unless you know that there's been some third-party testing.

• 14:03Speaker 01

  And then you get people saying, well, supplements don't work. And it's like, well, they do work, but maybe the ones you're taking don't work.

• 14:10Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 14:11Speaker 01

  Another big scam to look out for is proprietary blends.

• 14:15Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Okay.

• 14:16Speaker 01

  This is massive. And luckily, it's catching on across the industry that, hey, we need more transparency. And maybe with this RFK boom, we're going to see even more of that. The supplement industry, you'll hear this both ways, but I would argue that it's largely unregulated. There is quote unquote regulation, but the growth of the supplement industry and the amount of people in the FDA, there's no way that they can keep up with it. So really, we have to patronize, meaning pay, you know, put our money where our mouth is, on the brands that are doing the best job. And I can tell you that the testing that you're talking about is very, very expensive. These clinical brands are

• 14:59Speaker 01

  spending more in testing a year than these companies. That are on Amazon that are the number one in your search are even making in revenue.

• 15:07Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 15:07Speaker 01

  It's very expensive to do that testing and especially if you're not doing proprietary blends and you're listing the genus and species, the plant part, the dose, the standardization of the active. If you're listing all these full transparency, you have to hit those numbers. Now you're giving yourself more to be held accountable for.

• 15:30Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 15:31Speaker 01

  Whereas when you have a proprietary blend, which for people listening that don't know what that is, whenever you see the blend and it's 17 ingredients and it's the mind and muscle blend. And you know, it's 1700 milligrams. That first ingredient could be 1699 milligrams. And the other 16 ingredients could be one milligram. And it's what's called fairy dusting. Or you know, something along those lines, like where you know, you're like sprinkling a little magic of these other 16 ingredients in, but essentially there's no other ingredients except that first ingredient, which may be a good ingredient, but it's most likely the cheapest ingredient. And so you're looking at all these ingredients on this ingredient deck and nutrition facts

• 16:16Speaker 01

  or supplement facts and saying, oh, wow, it's got all the things I want in there. No, it doesn't. It's a giant scam. Look for full transparency, look for every ingredient to be listed. And that's going to be key, like any, any company that's doing that, I can tell you that's a good place to start.

• 16:35Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Some of the most heavily marketed supplements utilize this technique. And they've somehow developed tremendous amounts of trust. But you know, there are people calling them out now and saying, you have barely any of that ingredient that you list as your miracle ingredient. You have such a small amount, there's absolutely no way there's any clinical effect there, right?

• 16:57Speaker 01

  Well, they're they're building that through marketing because they have so much extra money.

• 17:02Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah.

• 17:02Speaker 01

  Because their product costs $3 instead of $30 to make. And, uh, yeah, exactly. And and that's what you have to look out for. That's it's super frustrating.

• 17:12Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Are there tools out there that people can use to find supplements that are quality?

• 17:17Speaker 01

  You know, there there's some companies that are that are jumping on right now. Mark Cuban actually owns majority interest in a company called Labdoor.

• 17:25Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah.

• 17:25Speaker 01

  There's, you know, like you mentioned, like Consumer Reports, Examine.com puts out great information. I love their information because you can look up the actual doses and forms and then, you know, go back to the supplement, at least see if those are there. But as far as testing, you know, there's not really a lot of sources out there for testing because a lot of the companies that even tried to do it have gotten sued back. It's very difficult.

• 17:50Dr. Darshan Shah?

  And I think there's another one called ConsumerFacts.org or something.

• 17:54Speaker 01

  Right, yep.

• 17:54Dr. Darshan Shah?

  And there's a new app out there that I saw, Sup.co, that's also, yeah, rating supplements as well.

• 18:01Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 18:01Dr. Darshan Shah?

  So, yeah, there's, you know, I'm I'm encouraged that there's more tools out there, but what I say is, you know, at our clinics, we we've picked the right brands for people so that they know that we've done the due diligence on these brands. And so I think a lot of times, rather than like going to Amazon and picking the thing with the most stars, is not the right way of doing that, is to find trusted resources like yourself or doctors.

• 18:23Speaker 01

  There actually is a company that I've invested in called Reputable.

• 18:27Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Reputable.

• 18:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, my friend Kyle Bergquist, Amy Kellin, Dr. Amy Kellin's a part of it as well. And it was established to kind of battle back against Amazon, but to do these studies with people, so everyone that is taking that supplement is logging their effects and then it's keeping track of the totality of these effects, like in terms of like real, real time studies, essentially. On an epidemiologic level, kind of.

• 18:56Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Oh, that's, that's amazing. Yeah. And giving power to individuals to log their data and then use that data to do some real time studies. That's, that's awesome. I'm going to take a look into that for sure. Um, let's talk about a little bit about the effects of supplements. So there's a certain percentage of people that, you know, you're, they're tracking their biomarkers, they're watching their HRV, they're doing everything right. But some of the supplements out there, you really don't feel a difference, right? And so some of them are actually quite foundational supplements as well that people should really consider taking. And then it's more of like a leap of faith, right? And so I would love to know from your purview, just everything you know

• 19:36Dr. Darshan Shah?

  about the supplement industry, what are the ones that most people should consider if they are trying to create a supplement program for themselves? So just like the basic foundational ones.

• 19:48Speaker 01

  So multivitamin I do believe in, but maybe it's something, the one a day is not going to get it. Like, I mean, you're not even getting enough magnesium out of one or maybe even two capsules. Probably what you need daily is enough to fill four capsules of just magnesium. So when it comes to a multivitamin, be mindful of that. And I want to look for organic forms of the minerals. So think of amino acid chelates. What that means is it'll be like magnesium, three and eight, torinate, you know, you know, glycinate or, you know, something where it's attached to an amino acid. That's going to make it more bioavailable. Whereas the non-organic

• 20:31Speaker 01

  forms like carbonate or oxide are not, not very bioavailable.

• 20:36Dr. Darshan Shah?

  That's really, that's a really important point. Exactly. Go ahead.

• 20:40Speaker 01

  And then the next thing would be looking for the co-enzymated B vitamins. So this is going to be typically the methylated Bs. That's going to make a huge difference. Cyanocobalamin is garbage. It's literally cyanide bound B12. Uh, and it's a synthetic form and it's just garbage. Like, uh, the, the kind that occurs naturally in your food is called hydroxycold. Cabalamin, but methyl cabalamin is probably the most optimal form. And of course, you know, the MTHFR story, about a third of us are, you know, mother blanker resistant, you know, whatever. And I am one of those people and methylfolate, five methyl tetrahydrofolate.

• 21:24Speaker 01

  It's kind of a mouthful is, is the optimal form to be taking. And you can actually build up toxic amounts of folate or folic acid. When you're just taking that standard form that's in your bread, that's in your cereals, that's in your multivitamin. So you have to be careful and look for a superior one. This goes back, this will be my story repeatedly. Look for superior quality supplements from trusted names, trusted brands. If you're, if you, if it's a choice between taking one amazing thing that you're sure of versus taking three or four things off Amazon that's hit or miss. Take the one thing, see if it works for you. And then that's the scientific method.

• 22:09Speaker 01

  You see whether it works, then add in the next thing into your stack. So next thing that I would add is something along the lines of synbiotics. We're in the world of gut microbiome. The gut is the second brain. You know, when we're fetal, the, the brain and the gut are essentially connected. So it literally is like something that, that spreads out and opens up. And some people could even argue that the gut is the first brain and the brain is the second brain. Because about 80% of your neurotransmitters are in your gut. About 80% of your immunity is in your gut. We used to think it was just digestion, but there's so much happening there.

• 22:53Speaker 01

  And if you have a dysbiotic gut, a leaky gut, you're going to have lots of zonulin, for example, you're going to, yes, one, be autoimmune triggered, have GI distress and bloating and gas. But two, you're going to have depression, most likely. You're going to have anxiety. Going to have issues with focus. All of that's happening in the gut. So what I prefer to do is get plenty of like high fiber, get fermented foods, things like, you know, sauerkraut and yogurt and, you know, these kinds of things. And, and then I love probiotics at times.

• 23:34Speaker 01

  Let me establish that. So prebiotics are going to feed the probiotics. I think that's most important, but if you have a dysbiotic gut, it could actually feed the bad bacteria. So I've found that some people, when they take these short chain fibers, these prebiotics, it can actually make them more gassy, more uncomfortable. And most of that is because their gut is dysbiotic currently. So they need to clean up their diet. One of the ways that I'm not a proponent of pure carnivore forever, but 30 days of carnivore can really clean up the gut. It can, it's essentially a gut rest. That's a lot healthier than fasting for 30 days.

• 24:13Dr. Darshan Shah?

  The ultimate elimination diet.

• 24:14Speaker 01

  It is, it is exactly. And so that leaky gut, that gut distress and inflammation can heal. And by the way, that leaky gut is usually correlated to leaky brain on top of it. And so I love prebiotics if your gut is in a healthy-ish place. And then postbiotics. So that's going to be things like the, the short chain fatty acids. So things like acetic acid, which are acetate, which is vinegar, for example. That's the shortest chain fatty acid, a two carbon. Three carbon is propionate. There's currently not any supplements for that, but I find it interesting.

• 24:54Speaker 01

  Like athletes tend to have a disproportionately higher amount of this short chain fatty acid. But four, the, the, the, the four chain carbon one that we're all hearing a lot about is butyrate. And the optimized form of a supplement for that is going to be tributyrate. That's the triglyceride form where it's attached to a glycerol and it's three of them, three of the butyrates, and that's going to be the key to heal the gut. Gut and it's essentially what all the probiotics are making is the butyrate. So that's going to be one of the ones that I would recommend to pretty much everyone.

• 25:34Speaker 01

  The reason I'm on the fence, I go back and forth about probiotics is that one, they're typically, they can be fragile essentially, unless they're the spore based ones. Two, they're typically low dosed. Or three, if they are high dosed enough, you can run into monoculturing. Like where you're kind of eliminating the variability in your gut. And I feel like the gut is very smart or intelligent at choosing the right mix of bacteria. So when you travel, when you hug someone, when you pet a dog, when you're eating certain foods, everything's changing.

• 26:17Speaker 01

  So what I would rather do is give the step before and help out with the step after. And maybe let the body do what it needs to do, except for if I was particularly sick. And then I might add in the probiotics.

• 26:32Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Hmm. That's a really good way of thinking of it is you have before, then you have the biota and then the after. And if you give the before and the after, then the middle should take care of itself, which is the actual bacteria that live in our gut. But you're right, sometimes they do need to be replaced, like after taking antibiotics, for example. And at that time, it could be helpful to have some actual probiotics being taken or bionics.

• 26:56Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 26:57Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yes.

• 26:58Speaker 01

  So the next one that you wanted to talk about, I know is dihydroberberine.

• 27:04Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 27:05Speaker 01

  This is one I would recommend for everyone. It's a GLP one agonist and I'm guessing that you hear a little bit about GLP one every day.

• 27:14Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Every day.

• 27:14Speaker 01

  It's an AMPK activator, which is AMP kinase, a really potent anti-aging pathway. But it's going to be great at also reducing ages, advanced glycation end products. It's going to lower blood glucose, lower insulin, raise ketones, improve autophagy. It's really powerful across the board, improves dyslipidemia, improves inflammation. I mean, when we think about metabolic dysfunction, we think about 99% of diseases are metabolic in nature, right? Not really genetic in nature. And also aging is largely metabolic in nature.

• 27:56Speaker 01

  And so probably the most powerful method for controlling aging and disease, as well as our health and longevity and body weight, is going to be controlling your blood glucose, because everything else falls into place. And when you have metabolic dysfunction, you end up having mitochondrial dysfunction. The mitochondria are getting overworked with all this inflammation, oxidation, glycation, and you run into mitochondrial dysfunction. You run into not having enough mitochondria, because you're not getting the right type of stress. You're just stressed 24/7. There is a positive, a U-stress, EU-stress, that's hormetic, meaning that it helps you

• 28:39Speaker 01

  adapt. That's good at times to have certain amount of stressors. It's not good to be stressed all the time. And most of us are stressed all the time because of food, alcohol, lack of sleep, stress, stress in the environment, stress in our life. And so we're left with, you see it with your CRP, your hemoglobin A1C, you know, your oxidized LDL, your LPA, like, all of these things you're going to see dysregulated. And this is one of the most powerful regulators of all of that.

• 29:16Dr. Darshan Shah?

  So these are part of your foundational kind of stack for most people.

• 29:20Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 29:20Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Um, what are your thoughts? So you mentioned a multivitamin, a good multivitamin, methylated or activated Bs. You mentioned magnesium. You need more magnesium than what's in your multivitamin. You mentioned a symbiotic, something with some butyrate potentially.

• 29:35Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 29:36Dr. Darshan Shah?

  You mentioned dihydroberberine for GLP-1 and for all the other things that positive benefits for that. What about an omega supplement, like an EPA, DHA supplement?

• 29:46Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 29:46Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Is that something that you think most people should think about?

• 29:48Speaker 01

  I do. The data is not as profound as I want it to be, but it's still positive.

• 29:55Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 29:55Speaker 01

  So, and I do think that as far as looking at the ratio of, it depends. I think it depends on how healthy your diet is.

• 30:03Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 30:03Speaker 01

  How much omega six you're having, that kind of ratio. But if you're going to take fish oil, EPA, DHA, which is going to be the more bioavailable form of these omega threes, you want to make sure that it's coming from like cold Nordic waters. Look for IFOS, I-F-O-S. That's a type of certification that assures that your fish oil is going to be highly tested and it's not going to have the heavy metals, the rancidity slash oxidation. A good test is literally bite your, hopefully it's an oil and in a soft gel, bite it, taste it. And if it gives you fish burps and it tastes like off or rancid, clearly that's not the one. Yeah.

• 30:49Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Got it. And what about a vitamin D supplement, like a D3K2?

• 30:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, I was gonna say that for sure. That's one that I'd recommend, especially the dry D, by the way, does not work very well. If you're getting a multivitamin that's in a capsule that's dry, it has really poor bioavailability. One thing that you can do to improve bioavailability, whether it's dry or hopefully it's in an oil, is have it with a fatty meal.

• 31:13Dr. Darshan Shah?

  That's right.

• 31:14Speaker 01

  It's going to optimize the uptake and absorption of any of your fat soluble vitamins, so A, D, E, K. But that's going to be really important with your vitamin D. Most of us are not getting Enough sunlight, period, especially, you know, across a bare body. If if we're getting it now, we're all clothed. Especially if you're kind of more in the northern hemisphere, especially if you're a darker skinned individual. Like the darker skin you are, if you're a dark skinned black person and you're living up north, I can guarantee your vitamin D is in the toilet. There's no way you're getting enough. So this is a big concern for for people that are that are living in particular, like I said, up north that wear a lot of clothes

• 31:56Speaker 01

  or darker skin, but even, you know, seniors that are in Florida or California that are out at the beach. Chances are they're still not getting enough. We're just not getting enough vitamin D, period. And vitamin D, we thought of as like this bone health thing for years and years and years. But now we're seeing it's responsible for hundreds of things in the body. It's a hormone. We're seeing it related to how much body fat or adiposity we have and how regulated our insulin is. Immune system, during COVID, we were talking about it constantly for immune system. Even depression, like there's so many factors for vitamin D.

• 32:37Dr. Darshan Shah?

  I agree.

• 32:38Speaker 01

  And that makes sense, right? Like when we get sunlight, we get red light and blue light, we're getting that antidepressive effect. It makes sense that those things are correlated.

• 32:48Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right. I mean, we're biological beings. We're meant to be out in the planet, being exposed to the sun, and we're not anymore. And therefore, it's just not, it's not just the vitamin D, it's everything. Our circadian rhythms. There's so much that we're missing out on because of being inside all the time. So I always tell my patients, you know, first thing in the morning, you do get up and go outside and expose yourself to the sunlight for a little bit of time. Even if it's right when you're having your morning coffee, have it outside instead of inside.

• 33:14Speaker 01

  I like, I travel actually with a a blue and red light box from this company, LightPath. It's about the size of, you know, maybe a like a hardcover book. And it's so great to travel with, especially like if I'm in a place like Finland or, you know, something that's really dark or really like I can get that. Blue light and it's mixed with red light in the morning. So I can do blue and red in the morning. And I have seasonal affective disorder. I think in particular because I have blue eyes. I'm super sensitive to sunlight and I've noticed that not only if I don't get enough light, I get depressed. But also at night, if I walk in a Walgreens at eight PM, I can't get sleep.

• 33:57Speaker 01

  So I'm sensitive in both ways. And I noticed when I was traveling that, you know, in these places where it was very dark or very light, like I would be wired all day if it was, you know, these 20 hours of summer days. Or I would be depressed and depleted in these 20 hour nights in just one night. I mean, this was an accumulative effect. So yeah, for me, uh, those, those boxes have been tremendous. Also, train yourself, like Dr. Satchin Panda's data around circadian rhythm. Train yourself to eat during that daylight window. Do not eat after it's dark. This not, this would not have happened in nature, you know, to the point you were talking about before. There's no way that it would have been 10 o'clock at night and we'd be eating somewhere out in the forest.

• 34:42Speaker 01

  So it's just not healthy. It throws off your circadian rhythm. And you can see it, uh, with your HRV on your wearables, your, your HRV tanks if you eat late.

• 34:51Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah, absolutely. Always eat when the sun is out. That's, that's a good rule. That's a good rule. Okay. So I think that's a really good foundational stack and we're going to listen in the show notes for people as well. Now it's important to realize though, that you could actually do testing to help you kind of figure out where you are at with some of these, um, some of these supplements you're potentially trying to take. For example, we can do vitamin D levels. I like to get people 50 to 80. We can do a thing called an omega quant or an omega check. That gives us the EPA to DHA ratio that someone has in their body.

• 35:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:22Dr. Darshan Shah?

  So we can really dial some of these things in for you. However, some we can't, you know, like, uh, I think it's hard to dial in your level of short chain fatty acids you take, right? And those are things you just gotta know how the biology works.

• 35:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:36Dr. Darshan Shah?

  You take them. But I think foundationally, that's a good stack that you just gave us. But there's also people that will say, well, I read in the newspaper that there was a big study done on multivitamins that show that they're ineffective in preventing death. So I am answering this question a lot, like maybe once or twice a month, I get this question. I'd love to hear your answer to that.

• 35:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, so that is a question that I hear a lot too. And you know, one, those studies are epidemiologic in nature, right? So we're looking at a population. We don't know how often they were taking the multivitamin, what multivitamin they were taking, what their diet was like. I mean, you can do some correlations, but there's only so many correlations that you can do across this huge population that took place over years. Epidemiologic data is correlative and not causative. I will say that like it's interesting to look at. But you don't know, you know, going back to what we were just talking about with quality multivitamins, the type of multivitamin I'm talking about, 99% of people are not taking.

• 36:43Speaker 01

  And then we just talked about how 80% of the supplements don't test out. Take this up 10 notches, Darshan.

• 36:51Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 36:52Speaker 01

  When you're talking about a multivitamin, do you know how much testing you have to do on a supplement that is transparently labeled that has 20, 30, 40 ingredients?

• 37:03Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Tens of thousands of dollars of testing. No one's doing that.

• 37:05Speaker 01

  A ton.

• 37:06Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 37:06Speaker 01

  The stability work, I've worked on multivitamins. We had to do a year, two years on some of these for just the testing to figure out how these nutrients interact with each other and what levels to put them in. So yeah, most of these multivitamins are not testing out. Most of these multivitamins are garbage. And then certainly they're not going to have the types of B vitamins that I'm talking about, the supportive nutrients that I'm talking about, the organic minerals that I'm talking about. That you're not getting like the eight, 10, 12 capsules and you're not getting some things as dry powders and in the capsules and the soft gels for the fat salt. You're not getting that.

• 37:48Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Exactly.

• 37:48Speaker 01

  That's expensive.

• 37:49Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 37:50Speaker 01

  So I would like to do that study with people that are getting the right multivitamin.

• 37:55Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Totally agreed. So what I add to that as well, that's a fantastic explanation. I also add to that the fact that we're not really talking about lifespan extension with a lot of these supplements. What I'm really trying to do with my patients is add health span back into their life, right? So I want them to live their last 20 to 30 years being vibrant, having energy, being able to keep their weight at a manageable level that they're happy with, being able to, you know, interact with their friends and family, being able to think straight and be able to recognize their, their children, you know? And so I think what's happened over the last 60, 70 years is we've added a lot of years to our life, but not enough health to those years.

• 38:37Dr. Darshan Shah?

  And so I think that these are critical to add those health back to the years that we're living and not spend the last 20, 30 years of our life, you know, being in a nursing home and bedridden and, and being a little old lady or little old man.

• 38:50Speaker 01

  I, I worked in nursing homes for 10 years. Like I, I know it intimately and it is very sad. And some of those people there are not in their 80s, 90s or hundreds. Some of them are there in their 60s.

• 39:01Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Oh, so scary.

• 39:02Speaker 01

  And with Alzheimer's, you know, and it's, it's real. Or if you fall and you break a hip, I have seen people all of a sudden like, you know, fall into this, they got, uh, they broke down, you know, with, uh, pressure ulcers.

• 39:19Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Pressure ulcers.

• 39:19Speaker 01

  Stasis ulcers, uh, from being in bed and not moving enough because they broke their hip, they weren't getting turned enough, from moving enough, they refused to exercise. Now that, uh, wound is necrotic, then they get a urinary tract infection or they're, you know, there's some urine or feces that gets in there and then they're dead. And like literally you saw someone that was like, four weeks ago, they were fine, now they're dead. And it's, it's a real thing that can happen.

• 39:48Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Happens a lot, I mean, because people don't have enough vitamin D. For 50 years, they haven't had enough vitamin D, so their bones are brittle. They haven't had C.

• 39:56Speaker 01

  Resistance training is going to be massive for that, uh, you know, not only for muscle mass, but where there's enough muscle mass, there has to. To be enough bone mass and vice versa.

• 40:07Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah.

• 40:07Speaker 01

  Those tissues support each other. So when you see someone doing resistance training, they have more muscle mass. They know how to use their body better in space like proprioception, but also they're going to have a greater bone mineral density. And that's why we see probably number one determinant of longevity is muscle mass, how well you use that muscle. And you're, like I said, you're going to see the bone mineral density there as well. So.

• 40:36Dr. Darshan Shah?

  So that opens up another can of worms. So let's go down this rabbit hole now.

• 40:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 40:39Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Let's talk about bone mineral density and supplementation to preserve bone mineral density. This is especially important, I would say for men and for women, especially perimenopausal, postmenopausal women.

• 40:56Dr. Darshan Shah?

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• 41:33Dr. Darshan Shah?

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• 42:13Dr. Darshan Shah?

  How do you feel about calcium supplementation and vitamin D? Yeah, you're shaking your head because I know, I know your answer here, but I would love for you to let the audience know as well.

• 42:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, uh, this idea of calcium being the thing that you should take frustratingly is leading to greater disease calcification of arteries. It's really sad if you're not taking enough vitamin D3, K2, these supportive nutrients, and more ideally that you're actually getting real bone. Like we used to have bone that was in our meat. We used to have bone broth. We used to have, you know, crushed up bone. And so you were getting the calcium, the magnesium, the phosphorus, the boron, you know, all these components that you're just not getting anymore. Strontium, there, there's like so many components to bone.

• 43:06Speaker 01

  And, you know, it would just, it would be, the example would be similar to, uh, if you were to take electrolytes, but, you know, you were only to use potassium.

• 43:15Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 43:15Speaker 01

  And you're taking tons and tons of potassium, your heart's gonna stop. It's like, well, that's not great. Like you need the, uh, the milieu of electrolytes, the calcium, the potassium, the magnesium, the sodium, the phosphorus, et cetera, that you're not getting otherwise. So it's the same idea here. And unfortunately, we've just been told to take these calcium supplements ad nauseam. And what we see when we do look at the data is unfortunately, there's negative health outcomes when people are taking calcium supplements.

• 43:46Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah, I think it's good to emphasize that on this podcast because it's a massive misconception that, um, even many doctors have grown up with recommending calcium to women that have osteoporosis, when really it's like you said, it's vitamin D3, K2, it is taking all the minerals, magnesium especially is important. And even considering things like estrogen hormone replacement therapy for women to maintain good bone mass. I think that's all important. Let's talk about strength training because that also helps you maintain bone mass by putting pressure on the bones.

• 44:19Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 44:19Dr. Darshan Shah?

  And you, you're Talked a little bit just earlier about how important it is to do resistance training.

• 44:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 44:26Dr. Darshan Shah?

  What about some of the supplements that can help you keep muscle mass on? I'm a big fan of creatine. I'm a fan of some of the other things that you talk about. I love to hear kind of your stack on how do you keep muscle healthy?

• 44:38Speaker 01

  I will crush the stack better than any probably peptide that you could take. If you're taking, so dilucing is something I brought to market. It's a dipeptide of lucine. Lucine is the key amino acid, the branched chain amino acid that we know drives muscle protein synthesis. What is that? That's an anabolism. Being anabolic, it means that your muscle is doing more growth than loss. Catabolism is loss. That's muscle protein breakdown. So you wanna be nitrogen positive, as they would say, like, meaning that you're building more than you're breaking down. Especially as we age, we have sarcopenia.

• 45:19Speaker 01

  And not only do we have sarcopenia, we have sarcopenic obesity where we're trading tissues. So sarcopenia is muscle loss as we age and obesity is gaining fat mass. And so some people are maintaining body weight, but trading off the ideal body composition.

• 45:38Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Skinny fat.

• 45:38Speaker 01

  Skinny fat, exactly, exactly. And as we said before, muscle is the most important determinant of longevity. And so a lot of us are losing it and we have what's called anabolic resistance or lucine resistance, where it's taking more and more lucine or protein to turn on that muscle protein synthesis. That could be because testosterone's down as we age, GH is down as we age, and insulin sensitivity is down as we age. And to me, if you fix all those things, you probably fix anabolic resistance. And you'd be more like a young person and probably you could optimize the amount of protein you have. But regardless, so dilucine is this dipeptide of leucine.

• 46:23Speaker 01

  So it's two leucines put together. Why did I do that? Because there's a Pept 1 transporter in the gut that actually preferentially takes up Diantrypeptides over single amino acids. It seems counterintuitive that the smallest thing should be the fastest thing. What I didn't know when I was first working on this about 10 years ago is why the body does that. Now, what I understand is a lot of these 2 and 3 amino acid peptides are actually bioregulatory signals and they're going on ahead of all the other amino acids that will be substrate that will serve to build the body and telling the body where those things need to go. So this is

• 47:05Dr. Darshan Shah?

  So interesting.

• 47:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, super exciting.

• 47:07Dr. Darshan Shah?

  It's like saying, we're coming, let's get into anabolic mode, right?

• 47:11Speaker 01

  Exactly. And so the dilucine is about 60% more muscle protein synthesis gram for gram than regular leucine. That's a huge difference. So what would I also do? If I was going to have the dilucine for anabolism or muscle protein synthesis, I would control for catabolism or muscle protein breakdown and inhibit that. HMB is a metabolite of leucine that does that. So this would be the ultimate stack for your net positive. Prevent muscle protein breakdown, increase muscle protein synthesis. So dilucine, HMB. Now to that, I would add creatine, as you mentioned.

• 47:52Speaker 01

  Creatine is amazing for not only muscle strength and power, but I believe, I was actually the first one writing about this about 15 years ago, that what it does for you cognitively, what it does to not just, it's a powerful buffer. So it's actually working on protecting bone, protecting the testes, the eyes, an incredible compound. It actually protects against cancer as a powerful methylator in DNA. But what's really cool on the cognitive front is, again, it goes back to this idea of what we were talking about with therapeutic and prophylactic, where it's protecting the brain from aging and traumatic brain injury.

• 48:36Speaker 01

  That's the prophylactic side of it. And then the therapeutic side is if the brain is already traumatized in some way, we see better outcomes when we have creatine in the mix. Same with the omega-3s, actually, as well.

• 48:50Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right. If you hit your head, kind of a thing.

• 48:52Speaker 01

  Yeah. Or if you're in a sport or something where that's possible. I love ketones, omega-3s, creatine as a prophylactic stack to protect the brain.

• 49:05Dr. Darshan Shah?

  I had Dr. Dale Braddison on the podcast, he's a big Alzheimer's researcher, and he mentioned exogenous ketones as being potentially extremely helpful in even patients with Alzheimer's as well.

• 49:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, I actually brought the ketone salts to market.

• 49:21Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Oh.

• 49:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, so what's really cool there, what you want to look for is make sure that you're getting the active isomer. So isomers, for those that are listening, in chemistry, in biology, there's compounds that are the same chemical makeup, but if you think of your left and your right hand, they're the same but mirrored.

• 49:44Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Mirror images.

• 49:45Speaker 01

  And therefore, biologically, your body can determine, oh, do we want the left hand here or the right hand here? And so something like an amino acid could be L-serine or D-serine and have a different biological effect. So this is key when it comes to ketones, that the active isomer is known as the D or the R. So that's a D or R BHB is what you want to look for. And then there's different salts, and I've found that the sodium salt is actually the most effective at getting taken up. So if you look for ketones, get the DBHB sodium. That's the best one.

• 50:24Dr. Darshan Shah?

  DBHB sodium is going to be the best one. And beyond brain protection, what other uses those ketones have?

• 50:32Speaker 01

  Yeah, so it's not just protecting the brain, but there'll be cognitive enhancement. One, ketones are an alternate fuel source to glucose, especially if you're insulin resistant. You're gonna find like, for me, like, I used to be morbidly obese. I used to have metabolic syndrome pretty badly. And I remember when I would fast, or get into ketosis, or take, you know, some kind of ketones, it was like someone was turning the lights on for me. Like, my brain was like, and for people that are especially like that, or if you have Alzheimer's dementia, or, you know, those kinds of like neurodegenerative conditions, Parkinson's, you know, this could

• 51:11Speaker 01

  be amazing as well. But regardless, ketones, anytime a day, I've found to have a positive effect on cognition, focus. It's going to reduce appetite, improve metabolism. It's involved in like HDAC, which is associated with cancer. So it's like a powerful signal it being anti-cancer, whether you already have cancer, or you don't have cancer. Again, therapeutic prophylactic kind of thing.

• 51:39Dr. Darshan Shah?

  And these come in like little shots or drinks, or do they come in pill form?

• 51:42Speaker 01

  So there's the esters that are kind of nasty tasting. Those may be a little bit more powerful, but they're really rough tasting. They taste like turpentine or gasoline or something. The salts actually taste pretty good. You might have to take slightly more, like five grams instead of three grams, or something like that. But yeah, the salts is what I brought to market.

• 52:04Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Oh, very cool. So since we're on the topic of brain health and just brain in general, there's this whole rabbit hole of nootropics that we, I'd like to go down with you. And I know you've also developed some incredible nootropics, paraxanthine. Tell us a little bit, or just for the audience first, let's talk about what are nootropics? Why are they helpful? What are some of the most potent and talked about ones? And then some of the ones that you've added to this?

• 52:29Speaker 01

  Yeah, so NOO is going to refer to the brain. And tropic is meaning like enhancement of some kind. So it's a cognitive enhancement. For the longest time, that was referred to in the field of drugs. These like race tams in particular were highly studied.

• 52:47Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Paracetam.

• 52:48Speaker 01

  Yep, yep. Medafinil, which is like pro vigil. And then there's new vigil and these different compounds like that. But now we're looking at things that are actually supplements. So like methylcobalamin or alpha GPC or, you know, some of these compounds we're finding the positive effects from. But one that you might be alluding to that I brought to market is a metabolite of caffeine called paraxanthine. And it is a very powerful nootropic, very experiential.

• 53:18Dr. Darshan Shah?

  And paraxanthine is kind of, I look at it as kind of all the benefits of drinking coffee without all the negative heart rate and jitteriness and anxiety for some people.

• 53:27Speaker 01

  Exactly. So typically about 60% of the population is a slow metabolizer of caffeine. You know, like CYP1A2 gene. So that means we don't deal with that caffeine well. Now, someone who's a fast metabolizer might have about a one and a half hour half life of caffeine. Whereas a slow metabolizer like me, it could be 10 and a half hours. This is like a 7X difference. You want to talk about bio-individuality. When we're talking about, oh, I drank caffeine. We're talking about two very different experiences where someone's like, ah, I can have my coffee and go straight to bed. And the other person like me has a diet coke at lunch and I can't get sleep at night. You know, so this is like two completely different experiences that we're talking about.

• 54:12Speaker 01

  And most of us, the caffeine is not that healthy. It's actually the thing that's in plants to be toxic. It's the conversion to the metabolite paraxanthine that's actually giving you the benefits that you want. So when we look at all of our studies we've done on paraxanthine, we look at the combination of the two. We look at caffeine and we look at paraxanthine in isolation as well as placebo. And what we always see is that paraxanthine is the best. The combination is not as good and caffeine is the worst. Uh, we did a 10K study with, uh, athletes where we did a multitasking test before and after the race.

• 54:51Speaker 01

  And what we saw is that, uh, there was about a 23% increase in errors, mental errors after the race with caffeine.

• 54:59Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Hmm.

• 54:59Speaker 01

  We saw about 13% with the mixture of caffeine and paraxanthine, so better, not as bad as caffeine. And with placebo, it was around 5%, so better still than taking the combination. That's how negative caffeine is. What we saw with paraxanthine was a 10% improvement after the 10K race in mental errors. So the delta between the two is, you know, 33%, it's dramatically different. And what we see is that there's no habituation and adaptation. So habituation means like a physiologic dependence to it. And adaptation means that there's a diminishing, uh, returns effect that you're seeing.

• 55:42Dr. Darshan Shah?

  So you need more of the same dose to get the same effect.

• 55:44Speaker 01

  Exactly. And so with, with paraxanthine, we see the same effect every time. And we also don't see that physiologic dependence. And we have an e-gaming study coming out where we, uh, opened the results early to file, uh, patents, uh, blinded. But we got to see that the results are actually improving with continued use of the paraxanthine because it's actually healing the brain. And caffeine has diminishing effects. So with paraxanthine, we're seeing that it's increasing neuroplasticity, BDNF. This is probably the most important protein that you're hearing about in, in nootropics right now is BDNF. But also there's NGF and mTOR, uh, protein synthesis in the brain is key too.

• 56:26Speaker 01

  So, um, but BDNF to neuroplasticity, you're improving blood flow to the brain via nitric oxide. You're increasing serotonin, dopamine and acetylcholine. So you're feeling better. And then, uh, you're decreasing beta amyloid plaque associated with, uh, Alzheimer's. And you're, uh, with that dopamine increase, that's about 50%.

• 56:49Speaker 01

  percent greater than taking caffeine. You know, you're protecting against neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's. So basically every way I could tell you that the brain ages. Oh, by the way, it increases glutathionic catalyze and reduces oxidative stress. Every way the brain ages, this is reversing. So it's it's it's very experiential. You will not feel, as you said, like the the jitters, the anxiety, the brain fog, the sleep disruption. We actually see HRVs improve on it, whereas caffeine, we see HRVs worsen.

• 57:21Dr. Darshan Shah?

  How do you is it a pill form that you take paraxanthine in?

• 57:24Speaker 01

  It can be pill form. It can be like a ready to mix powder like pre workouts or it could be like in RTD. So like drinks, you know, we have it in in all formats.

• 57:34Dr. Darshan Shah?

  And do you take it like once a day, twice a day or as many times as you want to?

• 57:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, it's about a it's about a three to four hour half or about a three to four hour effect. So some people take it twice a day. I typically take it just once a day and maybe about 10 a.m. Like when I really want to get productive, crush through lunch. And that's kind of my optimal zone for me is like maybe 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. I don't like to do something like stimulate myself first thing in the morning. I like to create ease with my physiology and and not become dependent psychologically on something to get me going.

• 58:18Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Makes complete sense. You had mentioned also a few other nootropics I thought were interesting. You mentioned the BABA, is that right? BABA and ergothionine?

• 58:27Speaker 01

  So BABA not, yeah, is is a really cool. It's a it's a myokine. And some people have even called it an exarchine. So myokine means it's this signal that's released from muscle, especially when a muscle is like working out intensely. And so valine is one of the branched chain amino acids from muscle. It gets metabolized, meaning broken down and converted to BABA. BABA beta amino isopetereic acid. I know, big words I'm throwing out of the. A lot of stuff, but hang with me. Is this signal to the body that the body is working out intensely?

• 59:06Speaker 01

  And what we've shown in our studies is that when we supplement with BABA exogenously outside the body as a supplement, endogenous levels of BABA are going up, meaning in the body. So the body is seeing more BABA, so it is being delivered into the body when you take it as a supplement. And two, with those higher levels of BABA in the body, there's a greater signaling that's happening and the body believes that it's working out harder. And this is then correlated to improve VO2 max, improve muscle mass, increase bone mineral density, more neuroplasticity, more muscle innervation, like all the things that we associate with exercising intensely.

• 59:46Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Wow, so this is like exercising in a pill format.

• 59:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 59:51Dr. Darshan Shah?

  That's fantastic. And is this something you take pre-workout as well?

• 59:54Speaker 01

  That would be an optimal time to take it because you're going to enhance the adaptation effect. So you're going to get basically more reps and more steps out of every workout.

• 1:00:04Dr. Darshan Shah?

  So is optimal workout stack like for you potentially would be the dilucing, the HMB, creatine and BABA?

• 1:00:11Speaker 01

  Yep, that's like, and paraxanthine.

• 1:00:13Dr. Darshan Shah?

  And paraxanthine.

• 1:00:14Speaker 01

  That would be the killer stack right there.

• 1:00:16Dr. Darshan Shah?

  I love it. So we'll have to put this stack together and put it on Vitaboom.

• 1:00:19Speaker 01

  Let's do it.

• 1:00:21Dr. Darshan Shah?

  I think I would love to take that. It sounds like you have incredible research behind all of this. And why not improve your workouts, right? And so let's move from working out to sleep. A lot of people struggle with sleep. You know, you're wearing two rings, I see you're wearing an ultra human and a, what is that, an aura ring? Yeah. And so you're obviously a big sleep tracker. And I think it's really important and of one to see what's working for your sleep. And what I find is that some things that work for some people absolutely have the negative effect for other people. Melatonin is one of those things that I find some people do really poorly with melatonin actually, and some people it does help. I really like tracking sleep, especially when it comes to supplementation. I've never seen magnesium be a negative thing for someone's sleep, right?

• 1:01:05Dr. Darshan Shah?

  I think that's almost a hundred percent you're going to get better sleep with magnesium. Specifically, I like magnesium glycinate or three and eight. Okay, good. So we're on the same page there. What else do you recommend for improving your sleep quality?

• 1:01:18Speaker 01

  Well, I'd say melatonin, melatonin is an interesting one to discuss. I would agree with what you're saying where there's a kind of mixed results. One thing that's happening, though, is the exposure to blue light, especially in the evening, especially for young people, is dramatic. And we're seeing about a third of young people be on these Concerta, Adderall, you know, methamphetamine drugs. And, you know, that's just a downward spiral. But a lot of them are texting, sexting, you know, whatever, at night, all these things and like looking at the, especially like if you're in a dark room and you have this phone or iPad or, or tablet or, you know, a laptop or TV or whatever near your face. The worst scenario that kind of freaks me out is actually these VR goggles.

• 1:02:03Speaker 01

  Yeah. Because it's literally on your face, like in your eyeballs that you're getting blue light. If anyone's doing VR stuff, please do it maybe in the first half of the day, not in the back half. But that amount of light is going to block melatonin's release. So I believe, yes, maybe, you know, it is a hormone. Yes, that exogenous, meaning outside the body, supplement of melatonin could affect endogenous, just like taking testosterone, you know, exogenously. But if you're taking as low a dose as possible, and you know that you're getting exposed to blue light, and you're not wearing blue light blocking glasses, or eliminating a lot of the junk light in your home, or in the evening, or

• 1:02:47Speaker 01

  maybe, like, in particular, like if you went to a concert, or you went to a movie late at night, you know, that would be a good time. Maybe it's, it's okay to take melatonin at times. And I know, in particular, when I travel. Travel helps. Oh, man. Like, if you mega dose melatonin, and I'm talking, like, I actually take anywhere from 25 to 50 milligrams, which is a lot.

• 1:03:09Speaker 01

  But that first night, it helps reset you.

• 1:03:12Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:13Speaker 01

  And it can be a game changer, like especially like when I go to China and you're 13 hours upside down, if you can get adjusted faster, that's a huge difference.

• 1:03:23Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Absolutely.

• 1:03:24Speaker 01

  So, um, and you know, that's kind of the, the story of melatonin. But what do I like besides that? I like, uh, the cannabinoids. We didn't mention this, they could be foundational to your stack. One thing that's super interesting is the endocannabinoid system, the ECS. There are no doctors that I know of, maybe you do, but that I know of that specialize truly in terms of medical doctors, that specialize in this endocannabinoid system. And meanwhile, it's critical to immunity, to mood, to pain. Like this is, you know, we're studying like the musculoskeletal system or the nervous system, like, why aren't we studying this?

• 1:04:04Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 1:04:05Speaker 01

  And there are deficiencies of the ECS. So for some people, CBD, CBG, CBN can be profound. At a certain dose and a certain ratio, unfortunately, I don't know how to test for it. And you kind of just have to play around with them. But I will say that CBD in particular is great in combination with any of these other cannabinoids. And CBN, think of the N as night, seems to help with sleep. So that is a great combination is a CBN CBD. Now the legality from state to state on these can be, you know, a little mixed, but hopefully again, we're heading into a period where all of that will resolve itself.

• 1:04:49Speaker 01

  Beyond that, what else do I like? Yeah, magnesium, a low to low dose melatonin, the CBD, CBN. Uh, and then if you're someone that tends to have anxiety at night, uh, tends to look at the ceiling, this used to be me and, uh, like your brain goes haywire at night, uh, then anxiolytic compounds could be, could be helpful. So things like L-theanine. Hanakheel is one of my absolute favorites. It comes from magnolia bark. This is kind of like nature's Xanax, if you will, without the benzo stuff. So the hanakheel and then its metabolite is called dihydrohanakheel beta, D H H B. But either one of those or both of those could be great.

• 1:05:33Speaker 01

  And like I said, throw in L-theanine. And you can experiment with things like, you know, sleepy time kind of stuff like valerian chamomile, stuff like that. GABA, the neurotransmitter GABA. I love GABA, but you may have to deal with the peristasis effect of GABA, which is similar to maybe peristasis of niacin or beta alanine and these kinds of things. It may feel uncomfortable at higher doses. But there are liposomal or microencapsulated forms of GABA that control that effect. But GABA is going to be one of those things. It's a neurotransmitter that relaxes you. And a lot of us tend to be deficient in GABA.

• 1:06:18Speaker 01

  We're definitely sympathetic nervous systemally driven.

• 1:06:22Dr. Darshan Shah?

  And then there's one more that some people talk about, which is glycine?

• 1:06:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:06:26Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's a great one. Yes, I'm glad you brought that up. Glycine is amazing. Several grams, like two, three grams. It actually has a lightly sweet taste. Some people use it as kind of a sweetener. But and it also contributes to creatine. It also contributes to collagen. So really great all the way around. But yes, it's going to have a relaxing effect on you. So yeah, that's a great one to add and it's relatively cheap. But that's like, if you look at magnesium glycinate, then you're getting some glycine along with your magnesium.

• 1:06:58Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah, I think it comes in powder form too, right? Glycine does. And so if you have like an evening tea, you can add some of there and there's go sweeten it a little bit and help you get better sleep. And I seem to remember a study where it's actually shown to improve the lifespan of rodents maybe as well.

• 1:07:14Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 1:07:14Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Potentially, maybe there's some anti-aging effect.

• 1:07:17Speaker 01

  Exactly. And it could be, you know, collagen is about a third of the protein in our body. It's all the connective tissue. But we're seeing that one, it has that relaxing effect that it might open up, you know, have like a vasodilatory effect, a de-stressing effect like and then enhancing creatine production. So there's a lot of ways that glycine seems to be anti-aging.

• 1:07:41Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yes. Can we talk a little bit more about collagen, specifically for skin health?

• 1:07:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:07:46Dr. Darshan Shah?

  What are your thoughts around that?

• 1:07:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, I, you know, this is the whole idea of like beauty from within. Like we've been applying serums and moisturizers and all these things to our skin, on our skin. But true beauty or great skin comes from within, meaning the diet and supplements. We are not getting enough collagen in the diet anymore. We used to eat the skin. We used to eat the hooves, the bones, the, you know, the ligaments and tendons and all of the organs. And all of this has a lot of collagen. That's all that connective tissue. Cola means glue. And so we're not getting enough of that in the diet. Where when we eat meat, we just eat the muscle and we don't eat any of the rest.

• 1:08:33Speaker 01

  And unfortunately, a lot of that's just getting thrown out and wasted. And eating nose to tail could be great. If you're eating nose to tail, awesome, you're probably getting enough collagen, but most of us are not. And so taking 20 to 40 grams of collagen a day, which is a good bit, would be ideal, especially like maybe twice a day doing 20 grams. That would be perfect. Look for hydrolyzed collagen that's more broken down and more readily absorbed. And they've shown that, you know, maybe five grams of hydrolyzed collagen is, is just as effective as 20 grams of, of non-hydrolyzed collagen. So you can lower the doses if it's hydrolyzed.

• 1:09:13Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah. And there's, I think there's an immense amount of research out there around collagen and skin health.

• 1:09:19Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:09:19Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Showing a definite positive effect. I think I've heard from some patients of the ass or doctor, and these are the collagen just gets broken down anyway in your gut. But how do you answer that question? Does it get broken down in your gut when you take it through orally?

• 1:09:32Speaker 01

  Yes. Yes, but the, the, the problem is like, it's just the amount of assimilation and, and like, how much is, is, uh, like it may get eventually hydrolyzed, but to what degree? And then what size? Like, again, this goes back to, um, how optimally like are you producing hydrochloric acid? For example, and when there's certain lengths of these peptides, they're also signals and we have no idea. Like literally Darshan, when I'm telling you like, we're like, we understand about this much of peptides right now.

• 1:10:08Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Like less than one percent.

• 1:10:10Speaker 01

  Uh, there is probably thousands upon thousands upon thousands of signals and we don't understand what they are. So the degree to which they hydrolyze, uh, is going to be important and some of those are signals. There's one amino acid in particular, hydroxyproline that's in collagen. That's really the key driver of collagen synthesis. And so that's going to be the key. And by the way, that protein is very poor in terms of building muscle. So this is where it's key to get both the high leucine, animal protein potentially, you know, and some vegan proteins are okay, especially if you were to add additional leucine or dilute.

• 1:10:54Speaker 01

  But also get the collagen. So this is where it made sense to eat nose to tail because then you're supporting skeletal muscle with the meat. And you're supporting your bone, hair, skin, nails with those. Like it makes sense. You are what you eat, right? So when we're only eating muscle, we're not supporting the other parts of our body, the other third of our body.

• 1:11:15Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Absolutely. Yeah. And we've gotten away from eating nose to tail just culturally, it doesn't happen anymore. And supplementation is a really good way to get those signals back into your body. And so I think you bring up a very valid point. It's not just about the collagen getting absorbed and getting, making its way to your skin. It's really the signaling of the, uh, proline, you said hydroxyproline, that can also be very helpful in skin health.

• 1:11:41Speaker 01

  Exactly. Yep.

• 1:11:47Dr. Darshan Shah?

  This episode was brought to you by Nex Health, a health optimization and longevity clinic located in Los Angeles, Manhattan, and soon to be opening in Montecito, Nashville, Miami, and many other cities in the United States and Canada. Nex Health is the Apple Store of wellness, where you can optimize your health span and lifespan using cutting-edge technology. I actually founded Nex Health eight years ago to give my patients a place to go get extensive biomarker testing done and provide them with all the tools that I use to get my health in order. The longevity circuit in Nex Health using hyperbaric oxygen, sauna, cryotherapy, and LED light is a game changer. In addition, the doctors at Nex Health measure thousands of biomarkers and put into place

• 1:12:31Dr. Darshan Shah?

  a longevity optimization plan using advanced tools like ozone, plasma exchange, and peptides. Go to www.nex.health to check it out.

• 1:12:46Dr. Darshan Shah?

  This episode was also brought to you by Vitaboom. Vitaboom is a revolutionary company that sends you a custom supplement protocol based on your needs using blood-based biomarkers. You can either send them your latest blood test or they will send you a finger-stick test for blood analysis. Vitaboom then curates and ships you an extremely convenient monthly box of daily supplement packs that have your custom protocol in them. What's great is that they also provide all the best brands like Timeline, TruNiagen, and many others for your custom daily packs. I love mine especially for travel, since I don't have to bring 10 bottles of supplements with me and just open up a daily pack for every day

• 1:13:30Dr. Darshan Shah?

  that I'm taking my vitamins and supplements. Go to vitaboom.com and check it out.

• 1:13:39Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Let's move on to another, sorry, and I keep barraging you with so many supplements.

• 1:13:43Speaker 01

  Bring it, I love it.

• 1:13:43Dr. Darshan Shah?

  You are the, you're an incredible expert and it makes a lot of sense, everything that you're saying. Another time that I take supplements is when I'm feeling a little bit under the weather. And I would love to hear your take on what's most effective for preventing illness and also if you're feeling under the weather, maybe you have a viral thing going on, what's going to help the most to get through that quicker?

• 1:14:09Speaker 01

  Okay, so a few things that I have here is ultra-high dose vitamin C, and you know this because your IVs, and it's hard to do with a supplement because ascorbic acid can cause GI distress. But if you were to not be able to get an IV, one of the methods that you could do is liposomal vitamin C, or at least a buffered vitamin C, like magnesium or calcium ascorbate, but I would choose magnesium or the calcium from what we said before. Next up, lysine. You again have this in your IVs, but lysine is the anti autoimmune trigger. Argenine tends to be that trigger. For people that are fighting autoimmune issues, be careful with how much arginine you're getting in your meals. Because if you eat

• 1:14:53Speaker 01

  like a very high arginine meal, like shellfish or something, it can trigger your autoimmunity. Lysine's the anti-trigger. So when I was getting, I used to crash with Epstein Barr, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, Hashimoto's, lysine was a lifesaver. Next up is going to be AHCC. I was telling you about this before the show. This has been the most profound, incredible, like save my butt when my immune system was crashing, break glass in case of emergency supplement. It's expensive, it's branded, it was not by me, so this is really me and my truth. But it is an absolutely incredible supplement.

• 1:15:37Speaker 01

  It's been studied with cancer, it's been studied with all kinds of autoimmune issues. It is powerful. It is a compound that comes from mushrooms and it's called active hexos correlated compound. So AHCC, I believe it comes from a mix of like maitake and shiitake. What I've found is that 750 milligrams twice a day, and maybe the first couple of days, I even do four times a day to kind of prime it. Whatever I have is gone within a few days.

• 1:16:06Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Wow.

• 1:16:07Speaker 01

  It is powerful. And I, you know, I don't want to go too deep down that rabbit hole and make promises, but I will tell you that I have a lot of people that have been under a lot of things and it is turn them around.

• 1:16:20Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Wow.

• 1:16:21Speaker 01

  The next one that I'll throw in is ergothionine. And this is one that I helped bring to market. It also comes from mushrooms as well as organ meats and certain beans. It could be the next new vitamin. Uh, Dr. Bruce Ames, famed longevity researcher, called it the longevity vitamin. Dr. Rhonda Patrick spun out of his lab, by the way, but he brought like alpha lipoic acid and acetyl L carnitine and those things to the market. And, um, you know, was the one that did the anti-aging research on those. Brilliant guy. Uh, but ergothionine is a mitochondrial antioxidant, not protecting just the cells, but protecting the mitochondria. As you know, like a lot of the antioxidants can have a pro-oxidant or, or negative effect

• 1:17:05Speaker 01

  at certain doses. We don't see that with ergothionine. What's really cool is your body was evolved that has its own transporter system for this specific nutrient. This tells you how important it is. It's kind of insane. You have the, it's called the E T T or the O C T one, O C T N one. And this is a transporter specifically for ergothionine. And then you also have a storage system for ergothionine. So it tells you this, this nutrient is very important to your body. And it protects the mitochondria and it actually stimulates mitochondrial biogenesis, mitophagy, cleaning out the mitochondria. It improves mitochondrial function.

• 1:17:49Speaker 01

  Where do we see it have the most impact? And where would you have a deficiency show? The brain and the heart. Where do we see the most mitochondria in cells? The brain and the heart. Those are the most energy dependent. Most people think, you know, the mitochondria is cellular powerhouse, makes ATP. There's one organelle in the cell. In a cell, like a heart cell, a cardiomyocyte, you'll see 5,000. Mitochondria. So I think most people don't realize like how that works. But that's why when you take these mitochondrial supplements, that's where you're probably going to see the biggest effect is in tissues like the heart and the brain, like whether it's CoQ10, PQQ, or in this case Ergothiinating.

• 1:18:31Dr. Darshan Shah?

  On the topic of mitochondrial supplements, there's a few others that have recently come out as well. And I would love to get your take on them. But I do think mitochondrial health is so foundational to our overall health at a root cause level for preventing all diseases. And so having some supplements that help our mitochondria actually turn over, like you were saying, mitophagy, and produce energy more efficiently is now part of my foundational stack personally, actually. And so I am not taking Ergothiinating. I'm going to start taking it because of your advice here. But what I am taking is I think Urolithin A has some of the same effects as well. Urolithin A is a compound that is made in some people's guts, not everybody, through eating pomegranates.

• 1:19:16Dr. Darshan Shah?

  But that is now available as a supplement through Timeline Nutrition. And then I would love to hear some of your take on NAD and other precursors for mitochondrial energy production, like Nicotinamide Riboside is one, a newer one as well. What do you think about those?

• 1:19:30Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'll give you my stack there. So boosting NAD and preventing its breakdown. So NADase or CD38 is the enzyme that breaks down NAD. Unfortunately, as we age, certainly as we're exposed to more stress, like don't get enough sleep, don't eat enough junk light, we see NAD levels production go down, the production of NAD, as well as NADase, the enzyme that breaks it down, goes up. So it's a double whammy that we're getting hit up with as we age and as we're exposed to stress. So what I want to do is enhance NAD production as well as inhibit NADase to protect it. So.

• 1:20:12Speaker 01

  Yes, there's all these different compounds NMN, NR, and NMNH. I prefer, I think they're all pretty good. I prefer NMN, but in particular NMNH is this new one when NMN almost got banned. It came out and it seems like NMNH is even more bioavailable. It may be up to five to 10 times more bioavailable. This is pretty exciting. Yeah. So that one could be the best form right now. Niacin alone is pretty powerful, especially when you take in higher doses. But you have to deal with the perestasis, which is that tingling and flushing.

• 1:20:57Speaker 01

  And the studies that have used it are like 500 milligrams twice a day, which is a whopping dose, and that may be really intense for some people. I have done it. I don't mind it, but people that did take those doses in the studies saw an 8x increase in NAD, so it's pretty profound. If you were to maybe stack, and I like the full flush niacin, the nicotinic acid over like niacinamide or like enositol hexanocotinate, these no flesh niacins, but you could mix them all. Like you could take nicotinic acid, niacinamide, NMN or NMNH. That would be great. Also, polyphenols boost NAD production.

• 1:21:39Speaker 01

  So some of the most powerful, like what I would look at maybe during the day is a liposomal

• 1:21:48Speaker 01

  quercetin or a fisetin. Those are probably the two best. And then in the evening, apigenin is going to be one of the most powerful polyphenols. What's cool about these is they also inhibit NADAs.

• 1:22:07Speaker 01

  So it's working on both fronts. So that's a really powerful combination. And then if you were to increase levels of PQQ, CoQ10, ergothionine, that would be powerful as well for, you know, kind of the full picture of the mitochondria.

• 1:22:22Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah, wow. So, okay, we've gone over mitochondrial supplements, supplements that help your bones, help your muscles, and then pre-workouts we've talked about, and then some foundational supplements and sleep supplements. So there's a lot of supplements that we're talking about here. I'm curious, how many supplements do you take a day?

• 1:22:41Speaker 01

  Uh, you know, it, it used to be like 100 to 150 supplements a day. It has come way down. What I've found is I, I, I really scaled it all back because I started traveling a lot like you. I'm probably traveling about 60% of the time and, you know, speaking on stage and, you know, doing business all over the world. And I had to travel with a realistic amount of supplements. And what I've found is kind of like how you don't need all the junk in your house. You realize when you travel, it's like, I really don't need a whole lot. When you travel a lot, you realize you don't need a whole lot. Same with supplements.

• 1:23:23Speaker 01

  I kind of figured out the ones that really work for me and, and move the needle the most. And really, it's going to be the majority of the ones that we talked about here. I'm trying to think if there's, if there's any exciting ones that I, that I might have left out. Sometimes I take other immune system boosting supplements, like something to do with like IgG, like I like colostrum, like a really good colostrum. Just because I get worried with, with all of this traveling, like, you know, like we're on the germ tube

• 1:23:56Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah.

• 1:23:56Speaker 01

  of a plane and you're exposed to a whole lot. And lactoferrin is actually another powerful immune system ingredient that really, I think there could be a lot more exciting research around. I think that one's going to grow in awareness quite a bit, but that's a good one.

• 1:24:13Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Do you colostrum before you get on the airplane?

• 1:24:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:24:16Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah.

• 1:24:16Speaker 01

  Yeah. Yeah. And I, and I do red light. And I also, you know, think about my blue light blocking glasses, depending on the, I hydrate for sure, take electrolytes.

• 1:24:29Speaker 01

  It's so drying on the plane.

• 1:24:31Dr. Darshan Shah?

  It is horribly drying.

• 1:24:32Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's terrible. Like you'll, you can tell how you feel, especially like when I do like a, you know, 12, 14 hour flight like to China or whatever, I'll feel like a, you know, like completely desert mouth when I'm done.

• 1:24:47Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah, I don't think people realize, and I'm guilty of this myself, how much travel really wears down your body. It is massive amount. It's probably a hundred X what it is being here on the ground and not moving time zones.

• 1:25:00Speaker 01

  Well, cosmic radiation too, you're getting exposed to. I mean, the, the rates of cancer for pilots is, is pretty, pretty high. Unfortunately, we're getting exposed to a lot, but we're also taking a lot of supplements that are, I think, really protecting us too.

• 1:25:15Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah, yeah. And it especially hits home right now for me because I just got back from a one week speaking engagement trip and you can tell from my voice probably that I'm a little bit under the weather. And I wish I had talked to you before that trip so I could have got some colostrum in and some of these other supplements and prevented, but I will be doing that moving forward. Um, you know, I think there's a certain segment of us too that look for changing our mood or enhancing our mood using supplements. And I had a vision, yeah, on the podcast last week. And he was telling me that you and him, Vishen Lakani from Mind Valley for the listeners, have collaborated on some really specialized products to help people

• 1:26:00Dr. Darshan Shah?

  access certain mood states, right? And I have one of them here, which I took right before this podcast called Focus. I assume this has, um, uh, yes, it has theanine and, um, L-tyrosine in it. Lots of great stuff. And of course, paraxanthine, we talked about today, but I would love for you to kind of take us through this product line and what the goals were and what people can.

• 1:26:23Speaker 01

  The goal was to be experiential. I wanted people to, I have always been known as the world's greatest formulator. It's not something I bestowed upon myself, but I wanted people to be empowered to be their own formulator, to formulate their state. And I think a lot of supplements up until this point have been around disease states like blood pressure and blood glucose, or it's around a body part like bone or, you know, uh, vision or whatever it is, but there's, that's kind of low vibration stuff. Like I wanted to. Have supplements that revolve around a higher vibration of like, what do I want to feel? So, one, it needed to be experiential. Two, we were going to make it about different mood states.

• 1:27:08Speaker 01

  And then, three, they could formulate their state by either just choosing one or even stacking them. Like, how is it I want to be right now? What is it I want, instead of not feeling like crap? What is it I want to feel like? What am I in the mood for right now? Do I need focus? Do I need zen? Do I need dreams? Do I need bliss? You know, that's the idea behind this, this line.

• 1:27:31Dr. Darshan Shah?

  And those are the names of these bottles, right? I got it.

• 1:27:33Speaker 01

  Yeah. And what's cool is like, we really set out to make them all truly experiential. And, and so that you do feel it. I think the majority of supplements, like as you alluded to in this podcast, are not felt. And you are kind of taking them on faith. But sometimes those bottles end up half-empty and in your, you know, cupboard or medicine cabinet or pantry or what have you. And this is meant to be different where you truly feel it, you continue to use it. And there's also, um, we're going to have like an NFC chip in the lid, like where you put your phone on it. And then there's affirmations, meditations, music that go with it. And those become what's called psychosomatic anchors, where you're literally enhancing

• 1:28:18Speaker 01

  that placebo effect of when you're stacking all these anchors, they become associated with each other.

• 1:28:25Dr. Darshan Shah?

  So cool.

• 1:28:26Speaker 01

  So now, when I hear the music, my mood shifts. Now, when I hear the affirmation, my mood shifts. Now, when I take the supplement, my mood shifts. Like, when I even think about taking the supplement, like, your body is becoming primed as you're anchoring all these behaviors.

• 1:28:42Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah, but you shouldn't show me the app. It's actually beautiful where, you know, if you want to get into a zen state or bring up a zen meditation, some music, it's, it's really gorgeous how the app actually looks. And then to tie in the supplement with these other sensory modalities and getting them to your brain to make those associations, you could potentially, even if you don't have the supplement, feel A state of zen just by listening to that soundtrack.

• 1:29:08Speaker 01

  Exactly, exactly. And you know, one of the ones I'm most proud of besides this focus, uh, that's just everyone loves, uh, is bliss because I think that's, that's the highest vibration like, and I, you know, put in a number of compounds in there that enhance, for example, like serotonin production, like, um, a natural SSRI called Kana, um, that is standardized for a particular alkaloids called mesambrin and mesambronone, uh, that enhance, uh, serotonin, uh, levels through inhibiting their, their reuptake.

• 1:29:47Speaker 01

  And also there's, um, saffron in there that, that is a mood booster in particular around serotonin as well. And, uh, there is a little bit of paraxanthine in there because again, it's associated with dopamine and serotonin and kind of giving you a little bit more energy. So this is like a really, um, a great supplement that you again feel, you just feel happier on, you know, especially with people. Gen Z is like avoiding alcohol pretty much. They're, they're not going out and drinking anymore. There's all these bars like in, in Austin where I am that, that now have no alcohol in the bar. You know, they're drinking CBD, they're drinking paraxanthine, they're, you know, drinking all these different

• 1:30:30Speaker 01

  compounds that just make them feel more connected and not just dissociated.

• 1:30:36Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 1:30:36Speaker 01

  Um, so this is where we're really seeing a lot of excitement and people want to be more in control of their moods and just choose what they want instead of having something else in control of them.

• 1:30:50Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah, I love that because, you know, I go to my supplement cabinet sometimes and I can't remember what's going to make me feel in a state of bliss. So just have a bottle that has everything in it that says the word bliss on it. Makes it a lot easier. So it's a really good idea. I commend you for that. Wow, we have a lot of incredible content in an hour and a half of podcasting here. I feel that, you know, people will want to know more specifically around dosages and where do I buy the best products, etc. Do you have a list or a resource that you provide people? How do I, how do people find that?

• 1:31:28Speaker 01

  One, I have a book called The Energy Formula, energyformula.com, or you can find out about it on shawnwells.com. S H A W N, S H A W N W E L L S, shawnwells.com. But I have a lot of content on Instagram, on the various socials, at Sean Wells. But on my website, I have the links to Amazon, these different sites, if you want the stacks, if you want these supplements. I am also coming out with a Energy Formula Chorus, early 2025, when this is pretty close to probably when this is dropping, beyond the book.

• 1:32:08Speaker 01

  And if you want to just focus purely on supplements, Mindvalley has a quest of mine on supplements as well. Energy Formula is supplements as well as a lot of biohacks. A lot of mindset as well. So, yeah.

• 1:32:22Dr. Darshan Shah?

  I love that. You know, I want to touch on that with you a little bit because you are incredibly knowledgeable about supplements, but that also ties into your knowledge about biohacking in general. So I'd love to hear kind of, you know, you're, I don't want to say your age out loud if you don't want me to. You're 50 years old. You look like you're 32 or something.

• 1:32:42Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 1:32:42Dr. Darshan Shah?

  How do you, what are your routines and your biohacks? So your top three?

• 1:32:50Speaker 01

  My top one without a doubt is.

• 1:32:54Speaker 01

  Is being kind to yourself, being, granting yourself grace. I think as someone who was a type A personality, who gaslit myself most of my life, that was so driven that I was never good enough, that was seeking the approval of others, seeking the adulation and praise of others, that just being kind to yourself, like if anyone talked to you like you talk to you, you wouldn't be their friend. So, taking care of yourself, whatever that looks like, there's like so much, like I was always in sympathetic nervous system, that I was just hyper vigilant, that I didn't

• 1:33:37Speaker 01

  know, like psychedelics was the first time that I yawned, that I could remember. And I was like, wow, like what is this relaxing thing? And so for me, like that was one of the biggest epiphanies, is that I could love myself and be loved, and I should be kinder to myself. And I think the biohacking that I had done up until that point, when I had my first psychedelic experience, all of that was a way to keep myself alive. It wasn't like building on a solid foundation of self-love and health, and then optimizing.

• 1:34:18Speaker 01

  That's why I really do like the, the health optimization idea over biohacking. Biohacking is just shortcuts and, and kind of seeking out the magic bullets. And while I was doing that, I never loved myself. So, I think that's number one. I think, and it sounds obvious or simple, but it's not. Number two, in terms of biohacks, I think having a wearable is, is really profound. Like my sleep, I got off benzos, benzos were killing me. I was using Lunesta and Ambien, I couldn't sleep. And it took a long time for me to like, kind of figure out my stack and, and really tune

• 1:35:01Speaker 01

  it in and go to sleep, sleep hygiene at the same time every night, get all the things the way I need them, get the red light, wear the blue light blocking glasses, but it all came together and it's so worth it. I'm so much healthier now. And quite honestly, I wouldn't have had the self-accountability without this.

• 1:35:19Speaker 01

  It's a game changer and I'm really happy that I have it. Lastly, for me, I love cold. I love cold. Cold plunges, you know, the cryo, cold showers, sleeping without blankets, whatever it is, like cold, I just feel so much better. And I'm not saying like it always feels great in the moment. It doesn't. But that dopamine hit for me replaces any need for all the addictions, the, you know, the food, junk food, porn, lottery, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. All these

• 1:36:00Speaker 01

  things that people seek out for dopamine. Cold plunge is amazing. And even when I'm traveling, I do hot shower, cold shower, hot shower, you know, go back and forth, do contrasting 30 seconds, back and forth, and I feel great. Make sure you get the head. That's really important. But man, all the inflammation is just out of the body. I feel my mood lift dramatically. I have energy for hours. It's so worth doing. You've probably heard people talk about it. You increase your brown adipose tissue activity. Your metabolism is through the roof. It's amazing. It will change your life, I promise.

• 1:36:39Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah. Great tips. Did you use our cryotherapy downstairs when you were down there?

• 1:36:43Speaker 01

  I did. I used it for five minutes.

• 1:36:44Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Five minutes? You crushed it. Usually people get three minutes, three and a half, or five minutes. It might be a record. That's fantastic.

• 1:36:52Speaker 01

  Yeah, thank you.

• 1:36:53Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Well, shawnwells.com is where we can find you and all of your information. I love your Instagram. I learned so much from it.

• 1:37:02Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 1:37:03Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Every time I something happens to pass by with your name on it. Thank you so much for joining us today on the podcast.

• 1:37:09Speaker 01

  You got it.

• 1:37:10Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Really appreciate it. Can't wait to have you back again. When's your next book come out?

• 1:37:13Speaker 01

  Uh, next year.

• 1:37:15Dr. Darshan Shah?

  All right. Very good. We'll be looking for it. Thank you.

• 1:37:18Speaker 01

  All right.

• 1:37:24Dr. Darshan Shah?

  I'm so glad you got to listen to my conversation with Sean. He truly is an expert in this field and I love how he can break down all of the science into easy to understand bits of knowledge for us. So here are my top five takeaways from this episode. Number one, up to 80% of the supplements sold in retail or Amazon fail quality testing. And up to 30% of them actually contain zero active ingredients. Your supplement might be nothing more than an expensive filler. Why is this? Well, because the supplement industry is largely unregulated. Most brands don't have to invest in stability testing or third-party validation. They can just sell you the supplement right after they make it. The clinical-grade products used in physician offices are usually a lot better because

• 1:38:08Dr. Darshan Shah?

  they have what's called a certificate of authenticity or COA of their ingredients that come from a third party. So look for this and look for symbols like NSF and CGMP to make sure that your supplements are truly good quality. Number two, most people are taking the wrong form of magnesium. So the standard multivitamin doesn't even come close to providing what your body needs every day. Without having chelated forms like glycinat or threonate, you're not going to absorb the magnesium and get it to your brain the way you think you are. Also, there are forms of magnesium that actually help you go to the restroom better. And these forms are not well absorbed. I particularly like a magnesium tablet that I can use that has many different forms of magnesium in it.

• 1:38:50Dr. Darshan Shah?

  And look for that particular supplement if you're looking to improve your magnesium levels. Number three, look out for what's called proprietary blends. This is usually just a legal loophole that gets exploited so people don't have to disclose the dosages of proprietary ingredients inside their supplements. And this is happening a lot now. You'll see when you read a label, there's a proprietary blend in the back and it lists all sorts of what at first glance looks like really beneficial compounds, but in reality, they're in miniscule quantities and then there's probably a larger amount of a cheap compound. Number four, paraxanthine is the real hero of coffee. So the most beneficial metabolite of caffeine is actually

• 1:39:31Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Paraxanthine and Sean has been able to isolate this and put it into a supplement form. And what's really good about this is that unlocks the beneficial effects of caffeine, basically alertness, without providing the side effects. Number five, collagen isn't totally broken down in the gut and you actually absorb specific peptides like hydroxyproline that can act as signaling molecules to trigger changes in skin and your joint health. So there's a lot of controversy always about collagen. I love how Sean cleared that up for us. And I think I want to give you one more bonus tip that I learned from Sean. It's about the whole world of supplementation for mitochondrial health. And this could be the missing link in

• 1:40:11Dr. Darshan Shah?

  longevity protocols. So compounds like ergothionine, PQQ, forms of NAD like NR are all mitochondrial support supplements that are just now coming into the market with pretty good research. There's another one called Urolithin A by a company called Timeline. And these all help you grow more mitochondria, replace old mitochondria, and serve as precursors to energy in the form of ATP for your mitochondria. And this can lead to more energy, cognition, and resistance to disease and a better immune system. They're still off the radar for most supplement users. I think most supplement users right now are supplementing to correct nutritional deficiencies like vitamin D

• 1:40:51Dr. Darshan Shah?

  or magnesium, but people should really look at these. And another bonus tip, I am now an advisor for a company called Supco. And Supco has an awesome app, S U P P C O, that you can download on your phone, that you can scan in your supplements and you can show you the ingredients, the quality score, and you could actually put your entire stack in there and see how it stacks up to other people's stacks. I have mine on there. You can see what they are. I also have some protocols on there for weight loss and using supplements to supplement during a GLP-1 journey, for example. Check it out. Thanks for joining me on this episode of Extend with Sean Wells. I hope you learned as much as I did about supplements, supplement stacks, and

• 1:41:34Dr. Darshan Shah?

  supplement ingredients. If you know someone that's struggling with their supplement program, please forward them this episode and maybe it will help them go on the journey of supplementation in a more thoughtful way. Until next time, thanks for joining the Extend Podcast.

• 1:41:52Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Thank you so much for listening to the podcast today. Please remember to subscribe if you liked this episode and give us a good review and share a link with your friends. It really helps to support all of our efforts. I also want to remind you that the information shared on this podcast is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Please consult with your healthcare provider or physician before making any decisions or taking any action based on what you hear today, especially if you have any underlying health conditions or on any medications. Your doctor knows your personal health situation the best, and it's always important to seek their guidance.