Episode 414: Ben Greenfield: Biohacking Sleep Deprivation with NAD and Creatine

Listen to the full episode here: https://youtu.be/rktAGm4liB0?si=FJXfqN4pzyeouVW3 Sleep deprivation can wreak havoc on your brain, but what if there was a way to mitigate the effects? In this Habits and Hustle bonus episode, I am joined by fitness expert Ben Greenfield, who reveals his go-to stack for combating the cognitive consequences of too little shut-eye. We also dive into using a continuous glucose monitor to optimize diets and discuss the potential pros and cons of dairy milk alternatives. We even discuss the role of dietary fructose and how it impacts metabolic health, particularly for inactive individuals. Ben Greenfield is a renowned health consultant, speaker, and New York Times bestselling author specializing in fitness, nutrition, and wellness. As a former athlete and current biohacker, he has been recognized as one of America's top Personal Trainers and among the most influential people in health and fitness. Ben hosts a popular website and podcast, speaks globally on longevity and biohacking, and is the co-founder of KION, a nutritional supplements company. What We Discuss: Ben Greenfield's supplement stack for sleep deprivation: NAD and creatine NAD for cellular repair, creatine for restoring brain ATP Why NAD + creatine beat stimulants for sleep-deprived people Greenfield's personal CGM use for blood sugar tracking and accountability Dairy milk alternatives: A2 milk, goat/camel milk, nut milks Role of dietary fructose (e.g. from agave): concerns and caveats …and more! Thank you to our sponsors: AquaTru: Get 20% off any purifier at aquatru.com http://aquatru.com/ with code HUSTLE Therasage: Head over to therasage.com http://therasage.com/ and use code Be Bold for 15% off TruNiagen: Head over to truniagen.com http://truniagen.com/ and use code HUSTLE20 to get $20 off any purchase over $100. Magic Mind: Head over to www http://www/.magicmind.com http://magicmind.com//jen and use code Jen at checkout. Air Doctor: Go to airdoctorpro.com http://airdoctorpro.com/ and use promo code HUSTLE for up to $300 off and a 3-year warranty on air purifiers. Find more from Jen: Website: https://www.jennifercohen.com/ Instagram: @therealjencohen Books: https://www.jennifercohen.com/books Speaking: https://www.jennifercohen.com/speaking-engagement Find more from Ben Greenfield: Website: https://bengreenfieldlife.com/ Instagram: @bengreenfieldfitness https://www.instagram.com/bengreenfieldfitness/

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

• 0:01Speaker 00

  Hi guys, this is Tony Robbins. You're listening to Habits and Hustle. Crush it.

• 0:07Jen Cohen?

  Hey friends, you're listening to Fitness Friday on the Habits and Hustle Podcast, where myself and my friends share quick and very actionable advice for you becoming your healthiest self. So stay tuned and let me know how you leveled up.

• 0:30Jen Cohen?

  Aren't these IVs really good for brain, like cognition and focus and?

• 0:35Speaker 02

  NR ones?

• 0:37Jen Cohen?

  Yeah.

• 0:37Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 0:38Jen Cohen?

  And also for the mitochondrial?

• 0:40Speaker 02

  Yeah, as a matter of fact, my favorite stack for sleep deprivation is NR, NAD, or NMN, which are all just like NAD precursors and creatine. Because when you're sleep deprived, two things happen. You get less ATP in the brain and creatine, the phosphagen and creatine can help to replenish that. And then the NAD assists with the cellular repair mechanisms that should have occurred when you're sleep deprived. And so, yeah, I mean, coffee and energy drinks and all that stuff and kind of Band-Aid sleep deprivation.

• 1:05Jen Cohen?

  Right.

• 1:06Speaker 02

  Using about 10, higher, higher than what you use for strength and power, like 10 to 20 grams of creatine a day. And that will give you disaster pants if you take it all at once. So you do like four or five gram portions spread throughout the day if you're sleep deprived. I wouldn't, you don't need to do this every day. And then NAD, IV, patch, oral.

• 1:22Jen Cohen?

  Okay, wait, so that's a good, that's actually a good clip.

• 1:25Speaker 02

  Fantastic for sleep deprivation.

• 1:26Jen Cohen?

  Okay, so say that one more time because I want to, I want to make sure people get that. So if you are sleep deprived, here is a cocktail that you should do that's very effective. Go ahead. Say it again. The NR.

• 1:39Speaker 02

  If, if you're sleep deprived, then coffee, five hour energy, green tea, like all these central nervous system stimulus can kind of like short term jack you up. But NAD combined with creatine, that stack is incredible because it helps to simulate a lot of what you would have gotten during sleep. ATP restoration in the brain and cellular repair mechanisms.

• 2:00Jen Cohen?

  Okay, this is my question. Can you take NAD, if I just took like a TruNiagen supplement and a creatine, creatine scoop?

• 2:09Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:09Jen Cohen?

  That would work?

• 2:10Speaker 02

  Couple capsules, although I recommend more than you'd usually take. So you take like four capsules of like the TruNiagen and then you do 20 grams of the creatine, but you split that into four or five gram portions throughout the day.

• 2:21Jen Cohen?

  Can't that bloat you to take that much creatine?

• 2:23Speaker 02

  Mm hmm. That's why you wouldn't want to do it every day. But you also shouldn't be sleep deprived every day.

• 2:27Jen Cohen?

  That's true.

• 2:27Speaker 02

  Deeper issues to address.

• 2:29Jen Cohen?

  Are you not wearing any trackers anymore because of all the EMFs?

• 2:33Speaker 02

  I wear this ring.

• 2:34Jen Cohen?

  Oh, you do?

• 2:35Speaker 02

  Yeah. I wear a ring. Rings don't produce an appreciable amount of EMF.

• 2:38Jen Cohen?

  Yeah.

• 2:38Speaker 02

  Like a class three Bluetooth signal is not a big, like, maybe if you had it next to your head, like AirPod inside your ear all the time. Some people say it affects red blood cell flow and can cause clumping or, you know, heating of tissue, but Bluetooth is way less important of a fish to fry compared to like Wi-Fi and radio frequencies from phones, et cetera. So I use a cheapo, actually just replaced it. My last one pooped out after six years, but I use a cheapo, like thirty dollar Timex watch and a ring. And a blood glucose monitor.

• 3:09Jen Cohen?

  Oh, so you do wear the?

• 3:09Speaker 02

  I do wear a blood glucose monitor.

• 3:10Jen Cohen?

  Why?

• 3:11Speaker 02

  Not because I don't know by this point, after using one for two years, what does and does not spike my blood glucose, but just because what gets measured gets managed. I'm less likely to like blow through a bunch of dark chocolate trail mix on an airplane if I know I gotta look at the levels later on.

• 3:26Jen Cohen?

  I love that line, by the way.

• 3:27Speaker 02

  Or drink a one hundred calorie cane sugar infused caramel latte, high protein, nice coffee.

• 3:31Jen Cohen?

  This one may be, let me, Clay's gonna hate me.

• 3:34Speaker 02

  With false advertising on the front of it.

• 3:36Jen Cohen?

  Why?

• 3:36Speaker 02

  It says lactose free energy, but it's got skim milk in it. However, they added lactase enzymes. So lactase enzymes digest the skim milk.

• 3:43Jen Cohen?

  Oh, my God, I'm gonna get, I'm gonna get fired. I'm just kidding.

• 3:46Speaker 02

  It's, it's not that bad of a, like, that's good that they put lactase in there along with the skim milk. I would rather, like,

• 3:53Jen Cohen?

  Look at this one. Look at the French vanilla.

• 3:54Speaker 02

  Wave a magic wand, I'd rather they be using regular milk because all the studies on the benefits of dairy tend to be much stronger with full fat dairy compared to low fat or fat free dairy.

• 4:05Jen Cohen?

  Right. Full fat's better.

• 4:06Speaker 02

  Especially for the metabolic function, for the satiety, for brain function and for bone health. If you go with full fat instead of low fat or fat free. So it's kind of like back to eggs. I'd rather you eat eggs with the egg yolk rather than egg whites. I'd rather you have chicken with the chicken skin and the gristle and the bone than have just pure skim milk. It's, it's more than just calories. And obviously, if we're talking about calories, yeah, it's skim milk, but there is. A hundred calories in this and they do use or they do use um uh low calorie sweeteners. Looks like uh stevia and yeah, so so if I'm looking at ingredient label, I do like to see stevia

• 4:45Speaker 02

  or allulose or D ribose or erythritol if people's guts can handle a sugar alcohol than like acetylcyanine potassium or sucralose. But when I'm looking at an ingredient label, this is actually pretty clean. I would give this like a like an eight on a one to 10 scale. But I would say if you're concerned about like fat free milk and isolating the proteins from the fats. You know, like a like a either a nut milk, like an almond milk or a coconut milk or an oat milk without the cane sugar added. Or just like using whole milk would be a little bit better.

• 5:15Jen Cohen?

  But isn't that better than having so by the way, Slate, Ben said eight out of 10, so that's still very good.

• 5:21Speaker 02

  Yeah, it is. It is good.

• 5:22Jen Cohen?

  And for the average Joe, who's not Ben, who is a fitness fanatic, not health, you know, health phenom. It's a really good thing to have because you at least it's getting it's getting 20 grams of protein into somebody who otherwise would not be having that.

• 5:36Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 5:37Jen Cohen?

  And it's better than having, you know, a milkshake at McDonald's.

• 5:39Speaker 02

  Right. I would drink this honestly if I weren't myself a little bit lactose intolerant and I know what if I can have dairy if it's fermented and this is the case for many people. If you ferment the dairy, if you do like a good fermented yogurt or a kefir or those will be the two primary delivery mechanisms for for fermented yogurt, you can do better if you're lactose intolerant. You can also do better on milks that have lower amounts of lactose sugar like goat milk, camel milk, et cetera. But if

• 6:08Jen Cohen?

  What did you say?

• 6:09Speaker 02

  Goat milk, like a lot of I raise goats, so I we do have goat milk and

• 6:14Jen Cohen?

  How about camel? You said camel milk?

• 6:16Speaker 02

  It's a thing. You can find it. Yeah.

• 6:18Jen Cohen?

  Stop it.

• 6:19Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 6:20Jen Cohen?

  Okay, is that okay?

• 6:21Speaker 02

  Yak milk.

• 6:22Jen Cohen?

  Where do you buy camel milk?

• 6:24Speaker 02

  Uh, the camel milk company out of California is where I've gone in the past.

• 6:28Jen Cohen?

  From a camel?

• 6:28Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's from a camel. Yeah. Surprising.

• 6:32Jen Cohen?

  Do you drink it?

• 6:33Speaker 02

  Cows from a camel. I have, but it's also really expensive.

• 6:37Jen Cohen?

  I wouldn't. How much is a, how much is a liter of camel milk?

• 6:40Speaker 02

  Cause I don't really buy anymore, but it is better for the body.

• 6:43Jen Cohen?

  Why?

• 6:44Speaker 02

  Cows milk because of a few reasons. Lower amounts of lactose, a smaller protein that's more bioavailable than the larger protein found in cows milk. And also a lot of cows are bred now for A1 protein instead of A2 protein. So when you see at the grocery store that you can buy A2 milk, that is milk that tends to produce a little bit less of an immune response in the body. And camel's milk and goat's milk are naturally more like an A2 or they have less of the A1 based protein.

• 7:11Jen Cohen?

  Cause goat's milk, goat milk I see all the time. So are you suggesting to people that they should maybe switch from maybe even their almond milk? Or their oat milk to a goat milk? Would that be healthier?

• 7:22Speaker 02

  The nice thing about nut milks, again, if you are adding a bunch of, you know, cane sugar to them and, and thickeners and fillers, is that a lot of people who just don't do well with milk in general are, do better with that and they're lower calorie in most cases. There's some that are higher calorie, like I think macadamia nut milk is the highest.

• 7:40Jen Cohen?

  Yeah.

• 7:40Speaker 02

  But one issue is if you want to be careful with your calorie count, a nut milk is a better substitute compared to a dairy milk.

• 7:48Jen Cohen?

  But that, how about the carrageins in them and all that stuff like that?

• 7:51Speaker 02

  Yeah. Yeah. And you, you can see on this, on this can, they say no carragein, right? That is a filler that can upset a lot of people's stomachs. So, yeah. And it says lactose free, sucralose free, erythritol free, but I, I don't want to throw them under the bus when I said false advertising. It's technically, they have an enzyme in their lactase that allows you to digest the lactose. So it's not lactose free.

• 8:13Jen Cohen?

  Right.

• 8:13Speaker 02

  But it's more like they have the carrier agent in there that helps digest lactose. So, so technically by the time it gets into your stomach, it is lactose free.

• 8:21Jen Cohen?

  Okay, that, okay.

• 8:22Speaker 02

  Theoretically.

• 8:22Jen Cohen?

  Thank you. They're gonna, they're gonna hate me now for even bringing you on this podcast. That I don't care about, but.

• 8:28Speaker 02

  This one is about, but thi- this one has erythritol in it, which can be a little bit, like if people have like small intestine bacterial overgrowth.

• 8:34Jen Cohen?

  From my friend. I don't know.

• 8:35Speaker 02

  I don't know. It's not bad, though. It's oxygenated. Yeah.

• 8:38Jen Cohen?

  Okay, this is the next one. This is Magic Mind. I love.

• 8:40Speaker 02

  Hydrogen infused water, that's good.

• 8:42Jen Cohen?

  That's good. I got that for you, okay? And then, these Magic Minds, I want you, I ca- I'm blind, so I can't even read the ingredients. I do know there's amazing stuff in there.

• 8:50Speaker 02

  I ate my carrots, I'm gonna see it.

• 8:51Jen Cohen?

  Okay, good. See?

• 8:52Speaker 02

  Alright.

• 8:52Jen Cohen?

  All your.

• 8:53Speaker 02

  It's pretty small. So, Magic Mind, New Lixir, matcha green tea, agave, and it's a very small bottle, so a lot of people see agave and they'll be like, oh, that's just a.

• 9:03Jen Cohen?

  A hundred percent.

• 9:04Speaker 02

  For a sweetener. And agave does have a higher amount of fructose in it. The thing with fructose, fruit juices, fruit sugars, etc., is a lot of people have vilified them. You know, the idea that fructose is a poison. I think Dr. Robert Lustig introduced that concept in his book, uh, about calories.

• 9:21Jen Cohen?

  He believed that, though?

• 9:22Speaker 02

  So, it is true that fructose can elevate triglycerides and contribute to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, but only in a case in which the liver and muscle glycogen stores are already topped off. That's at which point fructose starts to spill over and cause issues. So if I'm burning 2,000 calories a day, and I'm drinking 2,000 calories a day of Coke, and that's all that I'm drinking, I would theoretically not elevate my triglycerides or get a lot of the issues associated with fructose because I'm at a net calorie balance. I wouldn't advise it, because you're also gonna be like, you know, you're gonna have low nutrient density and you're not getting enough protein, etc., if you're just drinking Coke. But if people see agave or fructose, or, you know, high fructose corn syrup, sometimes there's some harsh chemicals and things like that

• 10:04Speaker 02

  used to make that, so that that's, that's a, a whole separate side issue. But the idea of fructose in general is that if you're a physically active person, and you're not overeating, and you're having, you know, fruit juices, uh, you know, fruit in a blender, uh, agave in a drink or whatever, it's usually not an issue unless you're eating too many calories, at which point, fructose can become an issue.

• 10:25Jen Cohen?

  Right. I mean, this is the whole conversation about like, people are like, fruit does not get you fat, please. I mean, this nonsense. Fruit's not gonna get you fat. Yeah, if you eat nine, if you eat like everything else, plus you eat nine pounds of grapes, like maybe I do sometimes, that can be not the greatest.

• 10:40Speaker 02

  Right. And, and if the fruit is sweet and has a high glycemic index, which grapes do, long-term, you're getting so many insulin surges due to that high sugar content that you could create a long-term state of insulin insensitivity. And then you get some appetite control issues, you get some metabolic issues that long-term could cause problems, even if you're not overeating the grapes or fruit. You're just eating enough to spike your blood sugar repeatedly throughout the day.