55. Jim Kwik: The Real Reason You're Tired, Distracted, and Forgetful

Brain fog, forgetfulness, and lack of focus are becoming the norm, but they don't have to be. In this episode of Extend, I'm joined by Jim Kwik, a world-renowned brain coach and author of the bestselling book Limitless, to uncover how to unlock your brain's full potential. We dive into the science of neuroplasticity, daily habits that sabotage your memory, and how to reclaim focus in a world of constant distraction. Jim shares actionable tools to improve learning, strengthen cognitive performance, and boost mental energy, without relying on caffeine or willpower. We also explore the impact of gut health, sleep, HRV, and nootropics on brain function, and how to build a sharper, more resilient mind at any age. Jim Kwik is a world-renowned brain coach, best-selling author of Limitless, and expert in memory, focus, and accelerated learning. 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 Jim Kwik: Instagram: @jimkwik https://www.instagram.com/jimkwik/​ Facebook: @jimkwikofficial https://www.facebook.com/jimkwikofficial/​Log in or sign up to view https://www.facebook.com/jimkwikofficial/?utm_source=chatgpt.com Twitter: @jimkwik https://twitter.com/jimkwik​ YouTube: Jim Kwik https://www.youtube.com/@JimKwik

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?

  Most people think that brain fog is just something that comes with stress, lack of sleep, or just getting older. But what if I told you it's actually a sign that your brain is underperforming, and that you can actually train it to work better? The truth is, your brain isn't in a fixed state. Thanks to neuroplasticity, it can adapt, grow, get stronger, only if you know how to support it. The problem is that most of us are living in a world that's constantly working against our brain. Between digital distractions, poor sleep, and the pressure to always be on, it's no wonder that we feel mentally drained, we forget things, and we're unfocused. Here's the good news. Just like your body, your brain can be upgraded. And today's guest is here to show us how. I'm joined with one of my favorite people in the world, Jim Quick. He's a world-renowned brain coach,

• 1:35Dr. Darshan Shah?

  bestselling author of the book Limitless, which my kids have actually read, and an expert in memory-focused accelerated learning. He's training the top performers around the world. I'm talking CEOs, athletes, and many Hollywood actors that you know. He's helping them unlock the brain's full potential. In this episode, we're going to dive into what causes brain fog, how your daily habits are shaping your mental performance, and the simple science-backed strategies that can help you think faster, focus longer, and feel mentally clear again. We're also going to talk about the rise of nootropics, the impact of technology on your brain, and what it really takes to future-proof your mind in today's world. You're going to love this conversation with Jim Quick. So let's get into it.

• 2:21Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Jim, such a pleasure to finally have you on the show.

• 2:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:24Dr. Darshan Shah?

  This has been a long time coming.

• 2:25Speaker 01

  Congratulations on the show.

• 2:26Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Thank you.

• 2:27Speaker 01

  So great to be here and thank you everyone who's tuning in.

• 2:29Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah, no, this is great. I think one of the things that inspired me to do this show was coming on your show. And it was such a fun experience, fun conversation and we got to, you know, really connect since then. And I think I sent you a picture of my son reading Limitless, right?

• 2:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 2:44Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah, and he's, he's 11 and he loves the book.

• 2:47Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 2:47Dr. Darshan Shah?

  And, uh, you know, so, I mean, I think it's written for everybody, but even kids can gain so much from this book. And I had him read it because of the chapters on digital detoxification, basically, as you say. But we'll talk about that later.

• 3:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, I'm feeling good. I just came from, uh, next health, uh, had a NAD drip, which is another. I mean, I know we're talking about brain optimization and learning and it is so, so very powerful.

• 3:12Dr. Darshan Shah?

  It's, it's super powerful. Yeah. And so, so glad that you're optimized. I wish I had a little bit of NAD before this too, but, but Jim, you know, before we get started, I love for my audience. I mean, I, I, I'm sure almost everyone knows who you are, but just for the people that don't, what do you consider yourself an expert at?

• 3:30Speaker 01

  Uh, two areas. Uh, really my inspiration was my desperation. I had a very slow brain from a traumatic brain injury. So I like to help people have their best brain possible.

• 3:38Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah.

• 3:39Speaker 01

  So we do a lot of brain optimization, the hardware, but we also teach people the software. I think one of the most important activities or functions of the brain is learning. And I think also it really serves us today and today's day and age, our ability to learn rapidly and translate that learning into action is the ultimate competitive advantage. When you learn how to focus, remember, read faster, uh, understand, think more clearly, you could apply that towards what? Everything.

• 4:04Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah.

• 4:04Speaker 01

  Medicine, marketing, uh, management, Mandarin, music, you know, everything gets easier in your life. So accelerated learning would be other areas. So Limitless is, uh, is about upgrading your brain and the hardware. And then the software on how to learn faster, a whole area of science called meta learning.

• 4:22Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah.

• 4:22Speaker 01

  Which is the, really the science and art of learning how to learn. It's interesting, school teaches you what to learn, math, history, science, Spanish, but. There are no classes on how to learn. There's no class on focus or flow or remembering. Right. And I just feel like the content always changes. The half-life information gets shorter because everything gets outdated and AI and there's so much information and data clutter. And this information anxiety creates, you know, health issues, you know, higher blood pressure and compression of leisure time, more sleeplessness. So we help people with mental overload, distraction, forgetfulness and so much more.

• 5:01Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah. Oh, wow. And, you know, I think there's always a spectrum there, right? I think like you, you started off, you know, I think you mentioned that they called you the guy with the broken brain or the kid with the broken brain in school, right? And you were suffering from not being able to use all of your mental faculties. And I want to talk about your history too. And that's one big aspect of the patients that I see in my clinic, the people that are suffering. Then the flip side of that coin are the people that want to optimize and really use his brain to the full potential. So why don't we start with, you know, if you're suffering right now with brain fog with,

• 5:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:37Dr. Darshan Shah?

  with, yeah, talk about your story first, actually. Yeah, if you don't mind.

• 5:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, the quick of it and quick really is my last name. I didn't change it to do, to teach accelerated learning. It's my father's name, my grandfather's name. With a name like quick, you could say my life was pretty much planned out. I had to be a runner back in school, which is a lot of pressure when it says quick right on your,

• 5:57Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 5:59Speaker 01

  I have to be very careful when I'm driving because the worst name to have on your driver's license when you get pulled over for speeding is the name quick. You're not gonna, I can never talk my way out of a speeding ticket. And I get to do my Dharma, which is teaching people how to learn faster. And I really, again, everyone who's listening, I feel like everyone could relate to the idea where it's just harder and harder to catch up, keep up, much less get ahead. My inspiration was my desperation. When I was five years old, I was in kindergarten class and I had an unfortunate accident. Now, some people would say it turned out pretty well. So it was a fortunate accident, but I had a traumatic brain injury. I had a very bad fall into a windowsill, ricocheted into a radiator. That was not Acted unconscious, rushed to the emergency room. And where it really showed up was in school.

• 6:43Speaker 01

  I had processing issues where teachers would have to repeat themselves over and over again. And I would, I would learn to pretend to understand, but I didn't really understand. I had poor focus, poor memory. I would have migraines every day as a five year old. I just thought it was normal.

• 6:57Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Oh, wow.

• 6:58Speaker 01

  At the same time, my grandmother was started showing early signs of dementia. And that was hard because she, she was my superhero. My, my parents immigrated to the US. My dad was 13 and unfortunately lost both his parents at a very early age. Didn't speak the language. We live in the back of a laundromat that my mother worked at. So they had many jobs. So my grandmother took care of us. And so when she started calling me by my father's name or repeating something she just said 30 seconds ago, that was very confusing as a five, six, seven year old. And she passed with Alzheimer's. We donated all the proceeds to my book Limitless, to Alzheimer's research for women. And you know, as you know, women are twice as likely to experience Alzheimer's than men.

• 7:41Speaker 01

  Yet a lot of the research is still done on, on men and treatment on, on male brains. So in memory of my grandmother and also education is the other part, you know, brain health and education. So because I had such a hard time in school, we fund schools since 2013 in villages where they don't have access to education.

• 8:01Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Oh, fantastic.

• 8:02Speaker 01

  In Ghana, Guatemala, we built schools in Kenya. So, you know, really I, I struggled and my mission really is to, is No Brain Left Behind. When, when I was nine, what you're, what you mentioned, it was, it was hard. I remember one specific day at school where I was being teased really harshly when I was nine years old. Cause I just didn't, I couldn't, like my last name is Quick, everyone called me Slow, right? And kids could be ruthless. And I was being teased and a teacher came to my defense. She pointed to me in front of the whole class and said, leave that kid alone. That's the boy with the broken brain. And that became my, my moniker in school. You know, that was, that label became my limit, if you will.

• 8:43Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 8:43Speaker 01

  Cause I didn't know I had a broken brain. You know, we, we talk a lot about the power of mindset, you know, this idea. That, you know, all behavior is belief driven. And my belief was, oh, I have the broken brain. So every single time I did badly in school, every single time I wasn't picked for sports, and this was like every week.

• 8:58Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah.

• 8:59Speaker 01

  I would always say to myself, oh, it's because I have the broken brain.

• 9:02Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 9:02Speaker 01

  Right? Adults have to be very careful of their external words because they often become a child's internal words.

• 9:08Dr. Darshan Shah?

  I was just gonna say that, you know, as teachers and parents, what you say to your kids, especially at that age, it sticks and it kind of determines the destiny of your life. And so, you know, with my children, and you just recently, congratulations, had a child.

• 9:22Speaker 01

  Our second.

• 9:24Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah.

• 9:24Speaker 01

  So she, yeah, very, very, very blessed. It wrecks havoc on my sleep, but.

• 9:30Dr. Darshan Shah?

  For sure.

• 9:30Speaker 01

  You know that, but I'm getting good counsel at Next Health.

• 9:34Dr. Darshan Shah?

  But you know, but you, what you were saying, like what you program into your kids' brains at that moment in time, and that critical moment in time when all their neurons are connected and have lifelong consequences.

• 9:44Speaker 01

  No, no doubt. Yeah. So I struggled all through school. It wasn't just elementary school. It was middle school, it was junior high, it was high school. You know, I would come from immigrant parents and very strong work discipline. So I would work three times harder than the other kids, but I would do worse. And it was very frustrating, you know, being called broken. It really affected my self-esteem. Like, it took me three years longer to learn how to read as a kid. So, lack of self-confidence, lack of self-worth, became painfully shy. I mean, I would do a book report because I would work really hard, go to the library before the internet and everything. I'm in my 50s, so it's like back and dating, dating myself a little bit. But I would do the work, but if a teacher

• 10:27Speaker 01

  asked me to talk in front of the class about my book report, I would be so terrified. My heart would be beating out of my chest. I would, I remember one day I looked at the teacher and I just said, I didn't do it. I lied to her because I was so phobic of the spotlight. And which is ironic, right? Because my two biggest challenges were learning and public speaking.

• 10:50Dr. Darshan Shah?

  And that's what you do now.

• 10:51Speaker 01

  This is all I do is public speak and on this thing called learning. But it's just a reminder, everyone that's listening and watching, that our struggles can become strengths. Like with challenge comes change. And that's the power of determination, that's the power of utilizing, you know, this neuroplasticity and all the things we know about the brain to be able to adapt and change and grow.

• 11:11Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right. So was there a moment in time that, you know, obviously you were suffering for a while. Was there a realization or a moment that things switched or flipped? Or was it a gradual change into?

• 11:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was, it was a, it was a couple of moments. And I'll share only because I feel like some people could relate to this. When I, when I graduated high school, I was fortunate to get into a, a, a local college. And I thought freshmen meant I could make a fresh start. You know, I'm the oldest of three siblings and I, I, I wanted to be a good role model. And I wanted to show the world and that I could do it, show myself I could do it. So I took all these classes and I did worse, so much worse. And I, I just thought I should quit school because I didn't have the money to be in school. Better use, you know, to my family because I couldn't really afford to be there.

• 12:01Speaker 01

  And when I was going through this dilemma, and I'm sure a lot of listeners are facing their own, you know, adversity.

• 12:07Dr. Darshan Shah?

  True.

• 12:07Speaker 01

  I, I, a friend said, hey, why don't you get some perspective? Why don't you, I'm going home this weekend to visit my family. Why don't you come with me? And I noticed that when you change your point of view, you change the people you're around or the place that you're in, then it gives you a kind of a fresh perspective. And I agreed to go and I'm visiting the family and the family's pretty well off. Beautiful home on the water. The father walks me around his property before dinner and asked me a very innocent question. It's the most innocent question, but it's the worst question you could ask me at the time. He asks, how's school? And I, and I'm very introverted.

• 12:48Speaker 01

  I start crying and bawling in front of this complete stranger because I had so much angst and pressure, you know. And I tell my whole story, broken brain, I'm ready to quit school. We don't have the money to be here. And he's, then he asked me another question. He says, well, Jim, why are you in school? And I noticed that leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, disruptors, they ask questions, right? Because questions really are the answer. It's a way of capturing this part of your brain. It's like a gatekeeper, call your particular activating system that determines, your brain is primarily a deletion device, trying to keep information out. But what you let in are the things you care about. And it's really driven by the questions that we have.

• 13:28Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 13:28Speaker 01

  And so, nobody's ever asked me that question. I just thought, well, you go to school and you get a job and you do this, right? And I go and I, I didn't have any answer. He was just like, well, what do you want to be? What do you want to do? What do you want to contribute to the world? And I didn't have any answer because nobody asked me that question before. And then, as a mentor, and he was like, you know, one of my early mentors, he said, Jim, he takes out a piece of paper out of his back pocket, like a journal, tears up and makes me write it down. And he forces me, he's very relentless, making me write down like a bucket list, like all the things I want to be, do have, share, like a dream list.

• 14:02Dr. Darshan Shah?

  What a great guy.

• 14:03Speaker 01

  Yeah. And this is like weird. This is like very, you know, not something I'm used to. But when I'm done with this exercise, a couple of pages, I start folding it up to put it in my pocket, thinking the exercise is done. And he reaches out and he grabs the sheets of paper. And I'm freaking out because like, I'm very insecure, you know, as an 18 year old. And this person's obviously successful. And now he's reading my goals and dreams and, you know, things I want to do, things that I've never shared with anyone, even maybe even recognized in myself. And when he's done though, this is the magic. He says, Jim, you are this close to everything on that list. And if you're not watching this on video, I'm just spreading my index fingers like a foot apart. And I'm like, no way, I'm not that close.

• 14:47Speaker 01

  Give me 10 lifetimes, I'm not going to crack this list. Smart man, he takes his index fingers and he puts them to the side of my head. You know, so my head's in between those fingers, meaning what's in between is like a key.

• 14:58Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yes.

• 14:59Speaker 01

  That's gonna get me, um, make me, help me to achieve these things. And he takes me into his home, into a room that you'd love, but I've never seen before at that age. It's wall to wall, ceiling to floor, covered in books.

• 15:11Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Love that.

• 15:11Speaker 01

  And keep in mind, I'm, I've never read a book, you know, certainly not cover to cover. Uh, poor, very poor reader. It's like being in a room full of snakes. What makes it worse, he starts going to shelves and pulling snakes off the shelves and handing them to me. And I start, and I'm freaking out, I'm looking at the titles and there are these biographies of some incredible women and men in history. And some very early personal growth books, like Napoleon Hill, Norman Vincent Peale, The Power of Positive Thinking, Dale Carnegie, right? And he says, Jim, you have to read to succeed. I want you to read one of these books a week. And automatically my mind goes back to schoolwork and I'm like, have you not heard anything I've said?

• 15:50Speaker 01

  I'm a poor reader. I have all this schoolwork. And when I said schoolwork, he says, Jim, don't let school get in the way of your education. This is a Mark Twain quote, but this was over 30 years ago, so I didn't know that. But I was like, that's very insightful, but my parents raised me, if I'm gonna say something, I'm gonna do it. And I really can't do this with all my midterms and everything. And very, very smart man, cause I'm fighting for my limitations, right? And he, he takes out my list, which he still has, and he starts reading out loud all of my dreams. And I don't know if you could imagine this, 18 year old, insecure kid, and you start hearing your dreams encanted by someone else, another person's voice out in the universe. And it messed with my mind and really my, my, my soul, something fierce.

• 16:35Speaker 01

  And a lot of the things on that list were things I wanted to do for my parents. Things that they could never afford, or even if they could afford, they wouldn't do for themselves.

• 16:43Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Sure.

• 16:43Speaker 01

  And so in Limitless, we talk about the power and the science of motivation. And part of it is having a reason, cause without reasons, you won't get a result. And with those reasons, I agreed to read one book a week. Fast forward, I'm back at school at my desk and I have a pile of books, pile A of all this work I have to study for school. And then pile B, the books I promised. And I couldn't get through pile A as it was. So what do I do? Where do I get the time? I don't eat, I don't sleep, I don't socialize, I don't exercise. All the things that's good for your brain, right? I just live in the library for weeks and weeks. And one night, I pass out at two o'clock in the morning out of sheer exhaustion. I fall down a flight of stairs in the library. I hit my head again. Oh, my gosh. And I woke up in the hospital two full days later.

• 17:27Speaker 01

  And at this time, when I woke up in the hospital bed, I was hooked to all these IVs. And because I just lost, you know, I was very dehydrated, malnourished. And I was 117 pounds they weighed me at. So I was just very, I thought I died. It was the darkest time in my life. And maybe part of me wished I did because I felt like I was really a waste and just not important. And I said, there has to be a better way. And to answer your question, what happened was the nurse is like providence. Like it's, the nurse came in with a mug of tea. And on it was a picture of Albert Einstein, who is the opposite, like genius, opposite of what I thought I was. But there was this quote that we've all heard in different iterations. Said, the same level of thinking that has created your problem, it won't solve your problem.

• 18:12Speaker 01

  And it made me ask another question. Like, what's my problem? Well, I have a broken brain and I'm a slow learner. Well, how do I think differently about it? Maybe I could fix my brain. Maybe I can learn how to learn faster. And I was like, where do you learn how to do that? I, well, school, right? So I asked the nurse for a course bulletin. And I started looking at the classes for next semester and they're all classes on what to learn. And zero classes on how to learn. Right. So I start studying the books that my mentor gave me and started really studying the brain. I wanted, I'm, I'm so fascinated and interested to solve this riddle. How does your brain work so you could work your brain? Right. Right, our brain is the control center. And I want to remind everyone that we are the pilot of our brains. We're not the, we don't have to be the passenger.

• 18:55Speaker 01

  And it controls everything, you know, our health, our habits, our, our careers, or everything, relationships. And I made that my mission. And within two months, a light switch flipped on. You know, I started studying ancient mnemonics and brain neuroscience and, and speed reading, all these things. And my grades just skyrocketed. But the thing is, is when I was suffering all that time, I couldn't help but help other people. Because I feel a moral obligation to do what I do.

• 19:22Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 19:23Speaker 01

  Like shame on me, or you, or anybody, if you know something that could support people suffering, and you come up with a solution and you don't share it, right? So I took my mess and turned to my message, and I started a tutor. And one of my very first students, she was a college freshman. She read thirty books in thirty days. Can you imagine that? Like going on Amazon or going to the bookstore, picking up thirty books on any subject that could elevate your life, and not skim it or scan it, but really read it. And I wanted to find out not how, I taught her exactly how. I wanted to know why, what was her purpose, like my purpose? And she told me that her mother was dying of terminal cancer, was only given two months to live, sixty days. And the books she was reading were books to save her mom's life.

• 20:05Speaker 01

  At the time, eighteen, I didn't know what to do, so I said, you know, "You're in my thoughts, prayers." Six months later, I get a call from this young lady, and she's crying profusely. I get goosebumps, I call them truth bumps. I get a little choked up thinking about it.

• 20:20Dr. Darshan Shah?

  They are truth bumps, yeah.

• 20:20Speaker 01

  But she, she's crying hysterically, but when she stops, I find out that they are tears of joy, that her mother not only survived, but is really getting better. The doctors, her doctors didn't know how or why, they called it a miracle, but her mother attributed a hundred percent to the great advice she got from her daughter, who learned it from all these books. And in that moment, I realized two things. Number one, if knowledge is power, then learning is our superpower. And it's a superpower we all have.

• 20:47Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 20:47Speaker 01

  And the second thing I realized, that I realized my mission. You know, as the boy with the broken brain, I want to build better, brighter brains. You know, no brain left behind, you know? And now thirty-four years later, you know, we have students online in every country in the world, one hundred ninety-five nations. We write books, and we have a podcast, and social media, all this. And the through line for all of it is showing people how to overcome those mental limitations, either in their mindset, or their methods, or motivation, to be able to create the learning in life that they desire and really deserve.

• 21:22Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah, that's such an incredible story. And yeah, to talk about moments that change your life, you've had a few of them. It's just my incredible stories. You know, what I took away from that is that part of what I talk about when I speak to my patients about mental activity, like what are, I get asked all the time, like, hey, doc, I don't want to get Alzheimer's. I don't want to get slow in my brain. What should I do? And I tell them, you have to use your brain. Like, well, there's a lot of ways to do, use your brain. You can do Sudoku puzzles. You can do crossword. You can play chess. To me, the most powerful way that you can use your brain to create long lasting change and not just protect you from disease, but continually improve is learning and teaching, right?

• 22:06Speaker 01

  Very much.

• 22:07Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Doing that full cycle of learning, applying it to yourself in your life and then telling someone else about it.

• 22:12Speaker 01

  I love that.

• 22:13Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right?

• 22:13Speaker 01

  Yeah. And I think that's why you learn anything. You learn for two reasons. You learn anything for how it gets to help you, but you also learn it how it could help, help others, right?

• 22:22Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Exactly.

• 22:23Speaker 01

  And you also learn it better when you teach. Have you noticed that?

• 22:25Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Exactly.

• 22:26Speaker 01

  It's called the explanation effect. When you learn something, even when people are listening to this podcast, if you had to give a TEDx talk about some of the highlights of what you and I are discussing, and they had to give a talk next week about it, would they pay attention differently, right? Would they take better notes? You know, would they ask more questions on social media and really go deep? But um, yeah, when you teach something, you get to learn it twice. I, I love, I, learning and teaching are two, two sides of the same coin.

• 22:51Dr. Darshan Shah?

  You know, when you and I, you and I do a lot of talks in front of a lot of people and we're asked to synthesize information and talk to people about it. Just that, that standing up on stage, having to tell other people something new, how are you going to say it? How are you going to get them to effectively incorporate into their life? It makes all the difference in how quickly you learn as well. And so I, yeah, it's, it's a, it's a superpower just being able to teach somebody and using teaching as a method for learning, I think.

• 23:19Speaker 01

  Very much so. I encourage people, because I know we're going to go through, you know, ideas and science based strategies to learn faster or how to optimize your brain. But even if people summarized it and posted it, tag you, tag myself on social media, it's a way of sharing and teaching. To your fans, your followers, your friends, your family. And really, me making makes you even more accountable, too. Like, I'm learning this is part of my identity. Yeah, people do that and happen to tag us. I'll see it and I'll actually repost some and actually gift out a few copies of Limitless randomly, just as a thank you for listening to the show.

• 23:55Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah, oh, that's awesome of you. Thank you for doing that. And yeah, it's one of my favorite books. I think I've read it three times now. I sit down.

• 24:01Speaker 01

  This is the one, you know, Lord of the Rings, like the one ring that controls them all. This is like a book, one of the books that will help you learn, read and remember all the other books. Because it's just, it just teaches you how to learn. So it's like a lead domino, learning. It's the one, you did that and everything after that gets easier. It's like Stephen Covey's Seven Habits Highly Effective People, sharpen the saw. Right? If you have all this wood you need to cut and we have it like all this research you need to do, all this to do list, and you have a dull blade, like, when's the best time to sharpen it? At the end, in the middle, or in the beginning? Of course, in the beginning. Otherwise, you're in a suffer, struggle, waste a lot of time. And that's how I feel like upgrading our learning skills and upgrading our brain, too. Because we upgrade, I mean, think about the technology we upgrade on a regular basis.

• 24:46Speaker 01

  We upgrade our computers, our phones, our apps. But when's the last time we sat down and upgraded the most important technology, which has created all technology, which is, which is the human brain?

• 24:57Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah.

• 25:01Dr. Darshan Shah?

  I've been dissecting the science of NAD for over three years now. And I want to tell you what I use for optimizing my own mitochondrial health. If you want to support healthy aging at a cellular level, True Niagen's NR is scientifically proven to increase NAD plus levels, a critical coenzyme for energy production and overall cellular health. It's my favorite supplement for boosting NAD plus, improving how your body handles stress, optimizing your recovery and supporting longevity. Whether you're looking to stay sharp, feel more energized, or simply age better, True Niagen NR is my go to solution.

• 25:41Dr. Darshan Shah?

  If you're looking for the best in fitness equipment on the market, I've found it for you. I've recently joined IFIT as their chief science advisor, and I want to tell you why. Their commitment to science and research is commendable, and I see them doing more to incorporate it into their devices than any other brand out there. So whether you're aiming to crush your cardio goals or build serious strength, IFIT's cutting-edge treadmills, bikes, and strength machines are designed to bring the gym to you. With World Class Trainers and interactive workouts built into every machine, IFIT doesn't just keep you moving, it keeps you motivated. So if you're looking to elevate your home gym experience with the best in fitness tech, choose IFIT.

• 26:20Dr. Darshan Shah?

  You know, one of the things you talk about at the beginning of the book is what the current state of using our brain is. And I think, you know, even from my experience of the world as a child, and then even my high school, when there were no electronic devices, no, very few distractions, actually. I mean, you know, people talk a lot about meditation right now, but I remember the bus ride to school was meditation because you just sat there looking out the window the entire time, right?

• 26:44Speaker 01

  And I think boredom is so valuable.

• 26:46Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Exactly.

• 26:47Speaker 01

  Even with children, not giving them all the stimulus and all the, the, the screens and everything else, have given them time to, to, to play, to ponder. I think there's a lot of value in being bored. But nowadays, we're at the DMV and you can't just stand in line and think about things or think about gratitude, whatever it is. We always have to be kind of attached to our, our screens.

• 27:10Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Oh, yeah, then, I mean, people are like, you know, going to the bathroom and whipping out their phone.

• 27:14Speaker 01

  Right, right, right.

• 27:15Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Or, or you're in line for, there's one person in front of you at the supermarket, someone whips out their phone, right?

• 27:21Speaker 01

  Right, right, right.

• 27:22Dr. Darshan Shah?

  And it's a constant distraction. And so in my practice, I'm seeing a lot of people complaining about brain fog. It is, it is, I would say it's almost ubiquitous that people complain of some level of loss of mental clarity, which they term brain fog. And I feel that a lot of this has to do with the complete lack of boredom in their life, keep a lack of not switching to that part of your life. Your brain that is used to being bored. Because that is actually the same part of the brain where you develop deeper thoughts and more impactful thoughts. Right?

• 27:56Speaker 01

  Very much.

• 27:56Dr. Darshan Shah?

  More thoughts about your purpose and meaning in life. A lot of people complain nowadays about not having purpose in their life. It's because they never give their brains a chance to understand what their purpose might be, right?

• 28:08Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's so important to schedule, you know, even for myself, just thinking time. Some white space, right? Disconnect so you can reconnect and and really because your brain's not meant to go. You know, full speed all day, taking these little reprieves where you could think. Reflect on things. I think that's our value in society like think, keep in mind, everyone listening to this. It's not like it was thousands of years ago where like an agricultural age or something or industrial ages. Where our value in society was our brute strength. Today it's our brain strength.

• 28:42Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 28:42Speaker 01

  Right, it's not our muscle power, it's more our mind power. And the faster you can learn, the faster you could you could earn nowadays. The knowledge today is not only power, knowledge is is profit.

• 28:52Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 28:53Speaker 01

  You know, but I agree, like a lot of people are struggling. They reach, they're part of our community and they're reaching out about brain fog, mental fatigue, a level of burnout. They have trouble focusing because of it on the things that really matter.

• 29:07Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 29:07Speaker 01

  So they're always falling behind or they're very successful and they come to us because they want to maintain that that edge.

• 29:14Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 29:15Speaker 01

  Because it's such a competitive marketplace and environment.

• 29:18Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah, do you think we've also replaced using our brain with using our technology? I remember when I was a kid, we have to remember phone numbers. Like if you didn't remember somebody's phone number, you couldn't talk to them. Because there's no device that you had all your phone numbers in, maybe a piece of paper. But that was a pain in the butt to pull out a piece of paper, all the phone numbers.

• 29:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 29:37Dr. Darshan Shah?

  I don't think I've memorized a phone number in 20 years.

• 29:40Speaker 01

  I I open limitless with the four. Because I think in order to change something, you need awareness, right? It's hard to change something unless you know it's there. And there's these four invisible forces that are are driven by technology. It's it's amplifies it, it didn't cause it, but it's it definitely has magnified it. So the four horse. And I call it of the mental apocalypse and they all have health consequences in no specific order. Digital deluge, which is my term for information overload, what we talked about earlier. The amount of information is doubling at dizzying speed. You know, AI, Moore's law, but how we learn it hasn't changed at all. Right. So that growing gap creates a lot of stress and information fatigue syndrome. Cause everything is a syndrome.

• 30:25Speaker 01

  So that's why we teach speed reading and accelerated learning to close that gap.

• 30:28Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right. Cass, just, I want to go over all four of these in a little bit more detail. So with information overload, digital deluge, there, I feel a lot of people feel that if they disconnect, they'll miss out on some information, right? And in reality, you know, I keep referring to the good old days, but sometimes all the information you had was maybe a shelf of five books and that was your information. Now there's this constant urge to continually take in more information that's constantly changing. How do you tell people that they're not going to miss out on all this information?

• 30:58Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, okay, so the information is always ever growing. So we're never going to be able to keep up with, with all of it. I think it's very important to have outcome based learning. As opposed to like checking every email or doing everything, having goals that, and aligning your activities and your learning around certain outcomes that you want to be able to achieve and filtering, right? Cause we could do anything, but I, I don't, we can't do everything.

• 31:24Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 31:25Speaker 01

  Right. So it's not even about managing our time. Certainly that's important, but it's not time management as much as mind management. It's about priority management, right? The most important thing is to keep the most important things, the most important things.

• 31:40Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah.

• 31:40Speaker 01

  Right. And really, and so even when it comes to information and really prioritizing, because the fastest way to read something, you know, might be not reading at all. If that information is not relevant to you.

• 31:51Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 31:52Speaker 01

  Right. So you have digital deluge and then the second one you have is digital distraction. Right, in a world full of rings and pings and dings and app notifications, social media alerts, every like, share, comment, cat video, you had this dopamine hit. And we're driven to distraction. I really feel like distraction, like focus, is a muscle. Yet so many of us are flexing our distraction muscles and we wonder why we can't focus with our kids or at work, right, because we flex those muscles maybe first thing in the morning with, by grabbing our device or something like that. And so that's why we teach, you know, a lot on, we have courses on focus and the whole chapter's on focus. And it's such a critical, like, focus will help you remember names.

• 32:36Speaker 01

  Focus will help you to be more present and will be able to see opportunity. And then the third one, besides digital deluge and digital distraction, is digital dementia, which you're referring to. It's like these devices are remembering things for us. And if your, if your memory is like a muscle, it's use it or lose it. And, I mean, yeah, you mentioned phone numbers. I mean, you remembered all your, all the phone numbers growing up, and so did I. How many phone numbers, I'm talking to everyone listening right now, how many phone numbers do you know right now? Current numbers. And most people, they could count on one hand.

• 33:12Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 33:12Speaker 01

  And not that I want to memorize a thousand phone numbers, but it should be very concerning we've lost the ability to remember one, or a PIN number, or a seed phrase, or something we just read. I believe two of the most costly words in life, certainly in business, I forgot. I mean, just think about the consequence of saying or thinking, I forgot to do it. I forgot to go to that meeting. I forgot, I forgot what I was gonna say. I forgot that conversation, what was said to me. I forgot that person's name. Every single time we think that, then we lose time, we lose credibility. We could hurt our reputation, we could lose a sale. On the other side, I think memory is a magnifier. Memory, let's take business, memory, we, with entrepreneurs, we were having a conversation before we started filming YPO and-

• 33:55Speaker 01

  Memory can make you money. Think about the benefit and the advantage you have, a superpower, when you could easily remember client information, product information, facts, figures, give speeches without notes, right? Everything gets so much easier. And you look, because we live in the expert economy, and so you even, you have so much value and you stand out. If you could go into a room and meet 20 strangers, leave saying goodbye to every one of them by name, I mean, who are they all gonna remember? They're gonna remember you. So digital dementia is a term that says the high reliance on technology to remember things for us, we don't have, because these devices, it remembers your schedule, it remembers your to-dos, it remembers the phone numbers, goes on and on.

• 34:37Speaker 01

  And here's the thing, it's like if I put my arm in a cast for a year, would it grow stronger, a sling? No, it wouldn't even stay the same, right? You know that it's gonna atrophy. That's digital dementia. And then the last one, and that's why the largest chapter in the book is memory, is on memory. And the last horseman of the mental apocalypse, you have digital distraction, digital deluge, digital dementia, is a term I coined, digital deduction. And similar to digital dementia, it's the high reliance on technology that even think for us. And I'm very pro-technology. Sure. Very, very. I'm very excited about where AI is going. In fact, in the new expanded version of Limitless, I talk about the chapter, how to use AI to

• 35:22Speaker 01

  enhance your HI, your human intelligence. Because I don't see AI as so much artificial intelligence, it's more for me, augmented intelligence, right? It's augmenting and supporting you, it's a tool, right? But here's the thing with technology, technology is a tool for us to use, but if the technology's using us, then who becomes the tool, right? Then we become the tool. So digital deduction is where technology is thinking for us, through algorithms, through, I mean, think about what it took for us to get from here to there before there was like GPS on our phones. Sure. Right? You would have to build our visual spatial intelligence. A study done in London with London cab drivers.

• 36:04Speaker 01

  They would analyze different parts of their brain and that part of memory, the hippocampus, there was, there's dense connections because they would have to study all the streets and the turns and the roads and the landmarks. And now we don't have to do that.

• 36:18Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 36:18Speaker 01

  So, for example, if your office or your apartment was on the fifth floor, an elevator is a form of technology. It's very convenient.

• 36:27Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 36:27Speaker 01

  And yet, what it does is because it's so convenient, you don't have to take the stairs and get that physical exercise. It's like you have to go to the bank, it's eight blocks away, and if you drive or take a lift to go there, then, you know, it's very convenient, but you're not getting your steps.

• 36:42Dr. Darshan Shah?

  No.

• 36:42Speaker 01

  Right? And so for me, it's a way of, there's a quote in Limitless from a French philosopher, and he says, "Life is the letter C between the letters B and D. B is birth, D is death, life, C, choice."

• 36:55Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Wow.

• 36:56Speaker 01

  Every moment, we're making choices.

• 36:58Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah.

• 36:59Speaker 01

  Right? And I believe these difficult times, they can distract you, or these difficult times can diminish you. Or these difficult times, they could develop you.

• 37:07Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah.

• 37:07Speaker 01

  We decide. And there's only four decisions you can make in terms of changing something. You either, and this is oversimplified, but I think, like, simplicity, like, when you make something simple, it amplifies things.

• 37:22Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 37:22Speaker 01

  Sometimes when you subtract, you actually multiply.

• 37:25Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Exactly.

• 37:26Speaker 01

  You take certain people out of your life, or certain opportunities, or whatever, and then just you magnify, multiply.

• 37:31Dr. Darshan Shah?

  I got through medical school by taking notes, simplifying those notes into half the number of pages.

• 37:37Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 37:37Dr. Darshan Shah?

  And taking those notes and simplifying them into index cards, and then the last thing I did was take all the index cards from all my notes and put them on one piece of paper.

• 37:46Speaker 01

  That's amazing. And the process of doing that-

• 37:48Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Exactly.

• 37:48Speaker 01

  Is so powerful.

• 37:50Dr. Darshan Shah?

  It's so powerful.

• 37:51Speaker 01

  So there's four choices we can make. You could either stop something, you could start something, you could do less of something, or you could do more of something.

• 37:58Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Sure.

• 37:59Speaker 01

  So you could stop smoking, you could start meditating, you could do less binge-watching something, you could do more movement, right? And it's really that, that simple. Going back to technology, I'm very optimistic. Technology allows this to happen.

• 38:15Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Sure.

• 38:16Speaker 01

  Right? It allows us to do our online academy. It allows us to do all these things. And so I'm very fond of technology. It's just making a choice when to engage with it and being healthy about it.

• 38:29Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Sure.

• 38:30Speaker 01

  Right? And it's different for every single person. Who am I to say like, how many hours somebody should be spending or not spending on their phone? But I think having, part of being limitless is actually limiting yourself. Having borders or boundaries, having guardrails around the things that are important. Your time, your emotions, your relationships, your wellness, your mental health. All of that.

• 38:54Dr. Darshan Shah?

  It works for all of it, for sure. Yeah, the boundaries are extremely important. And I think recognizing with your own brain when you are crossing the boundaries that you're set for yourself. I think a lot of times, you know, these devices, people don't realize this, but these devices were engineered to keep us addicted and on them all the time. And if you think that these social media companies and every game that you're playing is not spending hundreds of millions of dollars figuring out exactly the chemical release in your brain to get you addicted, you're crazy because it's obvious that they're doing that. And so I think people have a lot of guilt around, you know, the amount they use their devices for doing things like playing games or social media. But, you know, I tell my patients, like, it's not your fault.

• 39:38Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Like, this was made to do this. This is why this is happening. You just have to recognize.

• 39:43Speaker 01

  Right. I mean, these companies have the top experts in the world and spend billions of dollars to do that. And, you know, it comes back, I really feel like us taking responsibility. You know, years ago, I got to introduce two of my superheroes. I talk about superheroes a lot because it's a fun metaphor, but also I couldn't read for all those years. I taught myself how to read by reading comic books.

• 40:07Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 40:07Speaker 01

  Something about the illustrations, the art, it just brought the words to life. And I love the hero's journey. We even opened Limitless with Joseph Campbell's stages of the hero's journey. And we make them the reader, the hero, right?

• 40:21Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yes.

• 40:21Speaker 01

  And so two individuals. Wanted to meet each other. It was Richard Branson and Stan Lee. Not Stanley, but Stan Lee, right? The creator of all the

• 40:32Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Creator of all the comics, superheroes, right?

• 40:33Speaker 01

  And we're, I set up a dinner, we're in the car and I ask Stan, this burning question I have in my mind, like I just, I had to get the guts to be able to ask. I said, Stan, you've created all the most amazing superheroes. Who's your favorite? And he looks at me and says, Jim, it's, it's, it's Iron Man. And he says, Jim, who's your favorite superhero? And I post this picture of us in the car, we had a Spider-Man tie. So I said Spider-Man. And without a pause in Stan's iconic voice, he goes, with great power comes great responsibility, right? And all of us know that. And it's like in our DNA. And truth be told, like, I tend to reverse things that I hear or read sometimes because of, probably because of my head injury, right? And I heard something completely different.

• 41:17Speaker 01

  I was like, Stan, you're right, with great power comes great responsibility. And the opposite is also true. With great responsibility comes great power.

• 41:24Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Sure.

• 41:25Speaker 01

  When we take personal responsibility for something, we have great power to make things better. Right? And so that's why sometimes, and I'm guilty of this also, when we make excuses or we blame or we whatever, at, at events, and I'm in front of a good quarter million people a year in total. You know, I could be on three continents in one week, much like you just got, came back from another continent.

• 41:48Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah, exactly.

• 41:49Speaker 01

  And so like I, at, at these events, people will invariably pull me aside because I'll do these demonstrations, right? I'll pass around a microphone if there's time. And I've done this at YPO and different organizations and like 50 people will introduce themselves and I'll memorize all their names.

• 42:04Dr. Darshan Shah?

  I know, I've seen you do it.

• 42:05Speaker 01

  And I always tell people, I don't do this to impress you. I do this to express to you what's possible because the truth is, every single one of your listeners, they could do that and so much more. Regardless of their, and we have, we've been doing this for over three decades. We have a lot of data. Regardless of your age, your background, your career, educational level, financial situation, gender, history, IQ, we all could do that. We just weren't taught. Right. Right? Right. And so your brain doesn't come with an owner's manual. And that's why I wrote Limitless, to be that for people. And, but at these events, invariably, people will pull me aside in the lobby and they'll, they'll be very secretive about it and shy about it. They'll say, you know, Jim, you're a memory expert. I have a horrible memory. Right? I'm too old. I'm, I'm really not that smart.

• 42:49Speaker 01

  And I always say the same thing, and I'll say the same thing to listeners who think they can't do this. I say, stop. If you fight for your limitations, you get to keep them. If you fight for your limitations, you get to keep them, then they're yours. Right? Your brain is this incredible supercomputer. Your self-talk, your beliefs are the program that will run. So if you tell yourself, I'm not good at remembering people's names, you will not remember the name of the next person you meet because you programmed your supercomputer not to. You know, so it's hard to create a positive life with, with a negative mind. That's not to say you have one negative thought and it ruins your life any more than eating a donut will ruin your life. But if you eat that donut every, like 30 times a day, every day, like we have our negative thoughts, there's going to be a consequence. Exactly. Right?

• 43:31Speaker 01

  And so going back to this, I'm just saying, when it comes to technology, going, you know, with great responsibility comes great power. It's just being responsible, you know, having, remembering we have agency, that even when we complain about things on the outside, it can be completely true. Like you had these circumstances growing up, but nothing's different. And, and, and we can't be upset by the results we didn't get from the work we didn't do. Right. You know, and I have to say that as a coach, I have to call people on their, their BS, their, their belief systems, you know, when it comes to how they view themselves, you know, because I think the key is, you want to be a thermostat, you don't want to be a thermometer. I mean, if there's a thermometer on the wall, it's only functioning, it reacts to the environment. That's all it does. Right. And sometimes as human beings, we are a thermometer.

• 44:16Speaker 01

  We react to politics, we react to how people treat us, we react to the weather. But the happiest and, and certainly the most, more of the fulfilled. Successful individuals, they tend to identify more with the thermostat because the thermostat doesn't react to the environment. It gauges, it still knows the temperature. But what's the difference? It sets a temperature and then the environment reacts to you.

• 44:38Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 44:38Speaker 01

  And I think consciously and unconsciously, all of us are sending a temperature, a standard, a vision, you know, a goal, whatever. And taking that invisible and making it visible is, I feel like that's a big, that we are, that the future belongs to the creators and we have the most creative three pound matter between our ears that could do amazing thing.

• 44:59Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Absolutely.

• 45:00Speaker 01

  And I'm just, I'm so excited about and so optimistic about where people could go in terms of their personal.

• 45:06Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Me too, me too. And I think, you know, I think there's a lot of fear in the creative industries right now about AI. But I think it's misguided. I think AI is going to enable even more creativity from humans.

• 45:17Speaker 01

  No doubt. And technology has done that over, I mean, there's so many different examples. You know, but I do agree, people are struggling right now with focus, with brain fog, with mental fatigue. You know, I was thinking about this, you know, as we're speaking. I could give people five quick tips.

• 45:33Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Please do it.

• 45:34Speaker 01

  To overcome. So if you're listening to this and you feel a little like mentally fatigued, maybe you're struggling with brain fog. And again, this is not meant to treat or diagnose, you know, any kind of condition. But as a coach, I want to offer some, some, some perspective. So let's make an acronym out of this. Focus. I'll do this with you.

• 45:54Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Okay.

• 45:55Speaker 01

  Because this is, this is the creative part. Our brain doesn't learn best through consumption. It actually learns better through creation and co-creation, creativity, right? The F, and I use acronyms in case people are driving, they're working out, they're not able to take notes.

• 46:08Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 46:08Speaker 01

  The F, okay, so this is for, for energizing your brain and having better focus to get things done. The F, let's say the F is feed your brain. Right? Your brain, what you eat matters especially for your gray matter.

• 46:21Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Absolutely.

• 46:22Speaker 01

  And you could write books on the, on the subject. The whole area of science, we have a chapter in Limitless on neuro nutrition. That your, your brain is only, you know, about 3% of your body mass, but it requires 20% of the nutrients. And some of those nutrients are a little bit Different than than the rest of your body because obviously your brain is part of your your body. We talk about some of my favorite brain foods. And everyone, you know, I think everyone's bio individual, you might have allergies, go to next health, go to your your functional medicine doctor. And you could do food allergy tests, microbiome test, find out what works. But generally, like the ones, some of my favorites personally, avocados, monounsaturated fat, the blueberries.

• 47:00Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Sure.

• 47:00Speaker 01

  I like to call them brain berries.

• 47:02Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah.

• 47:02Speaker 01

  And they're and they're neuroprotective. Broccoli, there's an ingredient in there called sulforaphane, which is really good for your cognitive health. We use olive oil a lot in our household. Eggs, if your diet allows, the choline in eggs, very important.

• 47:17Speaker 01

  You know, acetylcholine is very important for brain health. Green leafy vegetables like kale and spinach, remember your omega threes, right?

• 47:24Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Absolutely. Critical nutrient.

• 47:26Speaker 01

  Absolutely, and she get it, and I always prefer people generally get it what they can from food.

• 47:31Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Absolutely.

• 47:32Speaker 01

  Wild salmon, sardines, right, clean, clean sources, though. Turmeric is an interesting one.

• 47:38Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Lots of spices.

• 47:39Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 47:39Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah, very healthy.

• 47:40Speaker 01

  Very, very much so. Turmeric, the active ingredient, curcumin, helps to lower inflammation. Walnuts, I like to snack on personally. They obviously look like the brain, too, just as a little mnemonic device, but they're high in vitamin E, neuroprotective. Dark chocolate.

• 47:55Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 47:55Speaker 01

  There's a lot of favorites. So the the F in the focus is is feature brain, right?

• 48:00Dr. Darshan Shah?

  And I will say on that note, just to contribute to this conversation. Is I think where people get it wrong is they think they can eat brain foods and it will be all they need to do. So but they really you have to do is combine that with eliminating the foods that don't feed your brain and actually harm your brain. And those are ultra processed foods, things that are very high in sugar, things that are very high in chemicals, for example. Once you eliminate the ultra processed food.

• 48:28Speaker 01

  Sugar, the, yeah, the sugars, too.

• 48:30Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Exactly, right.

• 48:32Speaker 01

  The your insulin resistance. Yeah, so it's still those four choices. You either stop something, start something, do less of something, so you minimize it, or you do more of the good stuff.

• 48:41Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 48:42Speaker 01

  But that makes sense. So you get your nutrition, so feed your brain can be either. You can feed your brain one, two ways, either through food or supplements, right?

• 48:50Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah.

• 48:51Speaker 01

  And that could, that could work. If you're not getting the turmeric, you might supplement with curcumin. If you're not getting the broccoli, you might supplement with sulforaphane. If you're not getting the red meat, you know, there's, there are amino acids, there's creatine, like all these things that could help do that. And that's for cognitive wellness, but there's also this whole area that you're very familiar with, which are nootropics.

• 49:10Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 49:10Speaker 01

  And that's for cognitive performance. So cognitive wellness, having good brain health is important, which you can get through food and supplementing with omega threes, vitamin D, you know, all the critical things. And then nootropics are substances that are science-based, that have been shown to enhance focus, memory, mood, mental energy.

• 49:31Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Like caffeine's a nootropic.

• 49:33Speaker 01

  Right.

• 49:33Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Nicotine's a nootropic, believe it or not. And I'm not telling people go smoke, but nicotine is known to be a nootropic. And there's other ways, like pouches now, that you can use in small quantities sometimes if you need an additional boost.

• 49:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's been shown to be able to be supportive of brain aging.

• 49:48Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah.

• 49:48Speaker 01

  You know.

• 49:49Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Do you use those?

• 49:50Speaker 01

  Occasionally. I don't vape or smoke.

• 49:52Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah, I don't vape or smoke.

• 49:54Speaker 01

  Yeah, they have like things sublingual.

• 49:55Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Athletic nicotine is one of them that I use.

• 49:57Speaker 01

  Or they have, they have little mints.

• 49:59Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah, and the mints too, right?

• 50:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 50:01Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah, and look, I mean, if you have problems with nicotine addiction, you shouldn't try these. But I'm, I love reading about nootropics, how they affect the brain. I was gonna save the nootropics for the S and focus.

• 50:11Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 50:12Dr. Darshan Shah?

  For supplements, but since we've already talked about it, maybe you have a different thing for us.

• 50:16Speaker 01

  Some of my favorite ones.

• 50:17Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah, let's talk some more.

• 50:18Speaker 01

  I mean, we put about 30 of them and we link in, in Limitless, like all the, we cite all this, the human studies. People could actually get, if it's okay, we put a report together with all the studies and the ingredients.

• 50:32Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Of all the nootropics?

• 50:33Speaker 01

  Brainnutrition.com. If people go there, they can get it free, if they don't want to get the book.

• 50:38Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Great.

• 50:38Speaker 01

  They could do that. But some of my favorites, I mean, I mean, there, there, there are a lot. I wouldn't recommend doing the whole, the whole gambit, right? You have various ones, Bacopa.

• 50:47Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah.

• 50:48Speaker 01

  Right, which you're familiar with. One I'm excited about that we use and transparency, we have our own nutrition product called Quick Mind, K W I K mind.com. There's a coffee fruit extract that doesn't have any caffeine. It's kind of the byproduct usually discarded in the coffee making process. It's been shown to support B D N F, brain derived neurotropic factors also as well. Lion's mane, there's so many.

• 51:17Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Mushrooms are also.

• 51:17Speaker 01

  So many fossil titles, Serene, there's so many good things that are out there. So, you know, and then that can be used for performance.

• 51:26Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 51:26Speaker 01

  You know, so you use the vitamin D or your B vitamins, your omega threes, you know, for good brain health, but in terms of performance, there are other things that you could do.

• 51:36Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Paracetam is also something that's been used for a long time for performance as well. But I think like, you know, to your point, feeding your brain healthy food, keeping the bad, keeping the ultra processed food away is going to promote brain health. And, you know, I see a lot of people using nootropics like on a daily basis sometimes. And I tell them, use them when you need them. You don't necessarily need them all the time though, right? I mean, your brain needs time to downshift sometimes do. And there are supplements to help you downshift too, I think.

• 52:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, another one, Ashwagandha.

• 52:06Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Ashwagandha is a great one.

• 52:07Speaker 01

  Is amazing. It helps mitigate, you know, the effects of stress. And it could potentially help you be able to sleep better. I mean, there's so many things, lion's mane, there's so many things that are out there that could be supportive. And that's why knowledge really can be power if it's applied.

• 52:20Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Exactly.

• 52:20Speaker 01

  Right. I think there's this divide, not only those who have and those who have not. There's a divide between those who know certain things and those who don't know.

• 52:29Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Absolutely.

• 52:29Speaker 01

  And those who know can make better choices and decisions, you know, in business and relationships and in their health and so on.

• 52:36Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Exactly. That's why, you know, podcasts like yours and this one, absolutely. I mean, like, this has added so much to my knowing. And even if it's not on health, there's other things. I mean, I just, I'm addicted to learning now. And I just feel that just the knowing is so powerful.

• 52:53Speaker 01

  Same, same, same. And it's also the learning is good for that neuroplasticity.

• 52:57Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Absolutely.

• 52:58Speaker 01

  And so the F, feed, feed, feed your brain.

• 53:01Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Feed your brain.

• 53:02Speaker 01

  Let's make the, let's say the O, um, oxygenate. Let's, let's make it, make it really simple. Your brain, again, is, is only 3% of your body mass, but it requires 20% of nutrients, 20% of the oxygen. And so where do you get oxygen? You could do deep breathing. I mean, a lot of people get tired. Have you ever noticed like sometimes when you're, you're reading, you fall asleep?

• 53:24Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah.

• 53:25Speaker 01

  I mean, part of it is because people are reading too slow.

• 53:27Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Mm hmm.

• 53:27Speaker 01

  Uh, because then their brain gets bored. And that's why we teach people how to read faster and actually understand more than if they're reading slower. But also it's their posture. I've noticed so many people, they're, they're slumped. And the lower one third of our lungs absorbs two thirds of the oxygen. So a lot of people are tired. So I would recommend the O for focus could be oxygenation. Yeah. And like taking a little brain break even. You know, you work for an hour, take a five minute brain break and you can move. You could, you could do some deep breathing, some Wim Hof, box breathing.

• 53:58Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 53:59Speaker 01

  You know, four, seven eights, whatever, whatever people's style, alpha breathing. There's so many different ways, but oxygenate, clear the mental cobwebs. But also you can get oxygen through exercise, right? You know, your heart's beating. It sends more blood flow to your brain and more oxygen to your brain. Get your, your, your, your zone two in and you could do your high intensity work. But in oxygen, you're talking about, you know, VO2 max, all, all that. And then, um, in hyperbaric chamber.

• 54:23Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah.

• 54:23Speaker 01

  I got the opportunity to do that at Excal.

• 54:25Dr. Darshan Shah?

  You do that today.

• 54:26Speaker 01

  Yeah. And it's just, it's just pressurized oxygen. That was a big part of my recovery from my traumatic brain injury.

• 54:31Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 54:32Speaker 01

  You know, I did, uh, multiple sessions for that. And most cities have, you know, places where they could go and, and, uh, do sessions.

• 54:38Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Some hyperbaric sessions for sure. Yeah. And I think on the oxygenation part too, there are some kind of like bio hacks now with oxygenation. There's exercising with oxygen called E Watt that people are using very successfully. To your point also about posture, breathing is done through multiple muscles. Your diaphragm being one of them so that your posture affects that. But also your upper body has, you know, our intercostal muscles, et cetera. So really having good posture and good mobility is very important to your breathing. And we don't. Practice breathing. Everyone thinks, I'm breathing all day. I don't need to practice breathing. But breathing is a practice that people need to perfect as well. And we tend to forget over our lifetime how to breathe.

• 55:17Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Like you don't see kids, you don't see little babies and kids slouching a lot until they get to school. And that's when the slouching starts happening. And so I think that's an important part of understanding how to use your daily breathing capacity to its maximal use as well. I will say on the breathing as well, if you have any obstructions to breathing and also specifically nasal breathing, that's a big consideration. And so if you can't breathe out of your nostrils, you know, everyone can do this at home. Put a finger on one nostril, try to breathe in, put your finger on another nostril, try to breathe in. If one of them is obstructed, you should see a doctor, an ENT doctor to maybe have that corrected. Maybe you have a deviated septum or, or clogged nasal passages, turbinate that are inflamed.

• 56:02Dr. Darshan Shah?

  You know, my surgical background coming out here, all that can be fixed with medications and with surgery. Nasal breathing is a key to adequate oxygenation of your brain.

• 56:12Speaker 01

  Yeah, there's this whole thing, it cleans air, it's nitric oxide. You have all these benefits from doing that. Mouth taping is, you know, works for some people really well. And some people struggle like, like me with sleep apnea, you know, which is a breathing disorder. You know, I have a very severe sleep apnea where I stop breathing 250 times a night. So it's uneven with, you know, so you have to use some kind of support dental device or CPAP or something to do that. And, and that takes me to the C in focus, which I would make consistent sleep, you know.

• 56:45Dr. Darshan Shah?

  We're not gonna use S for sleep?

• 56:48Speaker 01

  I have something for S.

• 56:49Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Okay.

• 56:50Speaker 01

  I'm doing this on the fly.

• 56:53Speaker 01

  Meaning that, I mean, let's talk about the brain. When you don't get a good night's sleep, how is your brain performing the next day? How's your ability to think, to solve problems? How's your ability to focus? How's your ability to study? Remember? How's your mental energy? It's all, you know, lack of sleep impairs every biological, physiological function, right? And I know you have a slew of sleep tips. Some of my favorites that I have to go to, like, okay, so when you sleep, you consolidate short to long-term memory.

• 57:17Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Absolutely.

• 57:18Speaker 01

  So if you have long-term memory issues, you might want to get a sleep study, which now you could do at home.

• 57:23Dr. Darshan Shah?

  At home.

• 57:23Speaker 01

  You know, and you don't have to go to a clinic overnight in a sterile environment. You could actually do it yourself. Also, when you sleep, that sewage system kicks in in your brain.

• 57:32Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Bleo cells.

• 57:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, and you could clear out those substances and proteins that could lead to brain aging challenges. And it's also where you dream. People don't realize this, but your brain doesn't shut off at night. If anything, sometimes it's more active in certain ways. And what is it doing? Not only integrating, consolidating, but it's also solving things. Like, you start dreaming about, like, do you, did you know, like, Paul McCartney came up with the song Yesterday in his dreams?

• 57:56Dr. Darshan Shah?

  In his dreams, right?

• 57:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 57:58Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Not too far from here, close to Central Park.

• 58:01Speaker 01

  Mary Shelley created Frankenstein in her dream. A chemist created the framework of the periodic table in his dream. So like, think about what everyone who's listening, what you're dreaming about that could solve problems, create for your business, your family, whatever you're focusing on throughout that day. But we're forgetting it, right? So if, if you want a good video, they could search my name, my name, Jim Quick, How to Remember Dreams. Just out, because a lot of people wake up and they know they had a good dream, but they can't remember what it is. So, sleep, and some of my favorite sleep hacks, and I'd love to know yours. I have to get direct sunlight first thing in the morning.

• 58:36Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Absolutely.

• 58:37Speaker 01

  Right, your eyes are, are like, connected to your brain. It's only part of your brain, it's just outside of your skull. It resets your circadian rhythm. I always sleep better at night when I get some, and not through a window, because that could filter out certain spectrums of light. Even if it's fog or hazy, getting out, you know, just even 10 minutes, very simple.

• 58:54Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah.

• 58:54Speaker 01

  Caffeine, I'm very sensitive to, so I can't do caffeine past noon. Also, you have an alarm clock to wake up. Highly recommend you have an alarm clock to go to sleep.

• 59:01Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Sure.

• 59:02Speaker 01

  Because your brain, even on weekends, and nobody does it perfectly, I certainly don't, but to the degree you could go to bed on a certain time and wake up at the same, you know, a certain time and keep that consistent. Your nervous system loves a rhythm and you'll get better long-term sleep overall. And then two of the big things that everyone knows about, and just as a reminder, we would know thousands of years ago, it would be time to sleep because the environment would tell us.

• 59:26Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah.

• 59:26Speaker 01

  There would be a decrease. And two environmental factors, light and temperature. So you know, you want it cooler and you want it darker. That's makes now we're so cold where you're you're you're shivering and that's going to keep you up. For me, I like every once in a while, I'll take a bath, put some Epsom salt or magnesium. You know, you absorb a transdermal, it helps you to be able to relax. You want a sauna or a steam or a, you know, a hot shower. When you get out, your core body temperature drops. A nice signal for to produce melatonin, which is the hormone up you relax. And then at night, keep it as dark as possible. And the culprit there again is our screens, right? We've all heard about like the light that comes off our screens, fools our mind and think it's still daylight. So we don't produce that melatonin. So those are kind of my go to for sleep.

• 1:00:10Speaker 01

  So that's the C, consistent sleep.

• 1:00:12Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Can I add a couple?

• 1:00:13Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:00:13Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Let's add a couple tips here and I want to get your feedback on some of those too.

• 1:00:16Speaker 01

  I want to know.

• 1:00:17Dr. Darshan Shah?

  You know, with sleep apnea, I feel that so many people have sleep apnea, but they either don't diagnose it or don't want to admit that they have sleep apnea. And I think step one is you have to understand whether or not you have sleep apnea. And step two is you got to get it treated as soon as possible. People don't want to get on CPAP, but at the end of the day, there's a couple of realizations there is that number one, there are other treatments besides CPAP, a lot of other treatments that you can try first. Secondly is if you need CPAP, you should do it until we figure out another way to fix your sleep apnea. And I think it's critical because sleep apnea, we know has a high likelihood of leading to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's, but also heart attacks and even cancer has been associated with sleep apnea.

• 1:00:59Dr. Darshan Shah?

  So it's a critical diagnosis that people can make on themselves at home. By you said you can do a home sleep study, but step one, if you're even thinking you might have sleep apnea, maybe you're waking up groggy every morning or an hour after you wake up, you're tired. Your significant other is saying you snore a lot or you're gasping for air at night. I really like this app called Snore Lab. Have you ever used this?

• 1:01:20Speaker 01

  I've heard of it.

• 1:01:21Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah, it's fantastic. You just put it on your table at night before you go to bed. So one time you should have your phone next to you at bed, otherwise keep it on in another room. And it records you all night and it gives you a snore score. If you have a high snore score, it's time to get evaluated for sleep apnea. Or and or you could take a test online, simple eight question test called the Stop Bang Test. And it gives you a likelihood of sleep apnea. So on sleep apnea, get it diagnosed and get it fixed if at all possible.

• 1:01:50Dr. Darshan Shah?

  This episode was brought to you by Next 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. Next Health is the Apple Store of wellness, where you can optimize your health span and lifespan using cutting-edge technology. I actually founded Next 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 Next Health using hyperbaric oxygen, sauna, cryotherapy, and LED light is a game changer. In addition, the doctors at Next Health measure thousands of biomarkers and put into place

• 1:02:34Dr. Darshan Shah?

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

• 1:02:49Dr. 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

• 1:03:30Dr. Darshan Shah?

  and just open up a daily pack for every day that I'm taking vitamins and supplements. Go to vitaboom.com and check it out. The phone not only is the light, but it's also the amount of stress it causes on you, right?

• 1:03:39Speaker 01

  All the content.

• 1:03:40Dr. Darshan Shah?

  The content.

• 1:03:41Speaker 01

  The doom scrolling and...

• 1:03:43Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Your email stresses you out. Nothing to worry about. What's your calendar for tomorrow? So I charge my phone by my coffee machine. I keep it outside the bedroom. That creates some space and distance between me and my phone at night and in the morning when I wake up too. Because the last... Place I go to the coffee machine to get some coffee after I've done all my morning routine stuff. So that's a couple of tips I can add to your already awesome list.

• 1:04:05Speaker 01

  I love that. Yeah, for for habit design, you do a whole chapter in the book. But one of the one of the strategies is you want to make you want to control your environment and you want to make what's good for you easier. And you want to make the things that are not so good for you more difficult. So having that phone by the coffee machine.

• 1:04:22Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 1:04:23Speaker 01

  It keeps just like if you're at a restaurant and they bring bread out. And let's say you're not supposed to do gluten, you don't feel really great about it. It's easier to say no, thank you right up front than having that bread sit there the entire meal. And you have to say no in your mind and use your willpower, you know, 50 times.

• 1:04:40Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Exactly.

• 1:04:41Speaker 01

  Right. And and and use that, you know, cognitive load is being spent on something like that. So definitely control your environment.

• 1:04:47Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah, also on habit design, I love the topic of habit design, by the way, you mentioned bread. I educate my patients to say, instead of bringing the bread, can you bring sliced cucumbers? And almost every restaurant asks cucumbers and they're like, okay, you want the dip and the cucumbers? Yes. And you can still, you know, feed that need to be doing something with your, you know, food when you first sit down. But if something is good for you.

• 1:05:12Speaker 01

  And that's a good thing with habits, right? You can't just stop something. You have to start doing something else.

• 1:05:16Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Exactly.

• 1:05:17Speaker 01

  So that that's a wonderful way of utilizing the science of habit design.

• 1:05:21Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right, because people have a hard time sitting there at a restaurant table and not eating something. And so this kind of is a replacement is a big part of successful habit design, too.

• 1:05:30Speaker 01

  I love that.

• 1:05:30Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah. Okay, so let's move on to you.

• 1:05:32Speaker 01

  Yeah, the U. And again, this is the acronym FOCUS. And it's, you know, when people are struggling with mental fatigue and really and distraction. I would say the U is unplug. And we've already covered this unplugging, especially with our our devices.

• 1:05:48Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:49Speaker 01

  Right? Sometimes you have to disconnect to be able to reconnect and and take little reprieves and little brain breaks. Uh, for for us to be able to recover mentally. A lot of us are just overstressed because we have too many tabs open and we're super stimulated. And that's really leading us to a level of of mental fatigue and burnout. That's just all. Off the charts. And so unplug. And then finally, the S in focus, there's so many different things and so many other things we could add to this. But I just want to introduce like small, simple steps, right? Simple steps. I think you simplify to amplify in our life. Yep. And a lot of life and progress is deleting, right? You subtract, so then you can multiply.

• 1:06:34Speaker 01

  You take certain things out and you grow because of it. And, you know, and I feel it's an elegant way. And so small, simple steps, when we're talking about focus, is like, what is the tiniest? So if you get stalled, let's say you're just confused, or maybe that goal is too big. I ask myself this question, and I encourage, I challenge people to do this. This is a question I ask myself like 10 times a day. I say, let's, so again, I feel like I'm not procrastinating, but I'm stalled, like I'm not moving forward. I say, what is the tiniest action I could take right now? That will give me progress towards this goal where I can't fail? What's the tiniest action I can take now, operative word now? That'll give me progress towards my goal where I can't fail?

• 1:07:17Speaker 01

  So maybe somebody listening here saying, yeah, I would like to exercise more, but I can't really go into the gym. That's too big of a behavior change. Put on your running shoes, small, simple step. Like if people seen, if we're connected on social media and they see me with Oprah or Elon or whoever, people always want to know how we bonded. We bonded over books, right? You read to succeed. So that, you know, that's something that I feel like, you know, most high level individuals, they're just always. Warren Buffett, I asked this him, there was, I was at Berkshire Hathaway and he was in the mall by happenstance and doing playing bridge and I had to play. But he verified 500 pages a day. Right. You know, and this was a few, it was a handful of years ago, but you know, you read to succeed.

• 1:08:00Speaker 01

  And plus, I think reading is such great exercise for your brain. Absolutely. You know, reading is to your mind what exercise is to your body. So, but maybe you're not reading every day or 15 or 30 minutes a day. Small, simple step, opening up a book, reading one line, because nobody's going to stop. You can't, on our podcast, we had a. Biological dentist talking about oral hygiene and brain health and beyond just brushing, right? We're talking about oil pulling and tongue scraping and all this stuff. And we're talking about flossing. And I was like, you know, we're talking about how to get your kids to floss. If they don't do it, small, simple step, get them to floss one tooth. And nobody's gonna stop at one, right? So little by little, a little becomes a lot. Cause I really do. So the S is simplify, you know, small, simple steps.

• 1:08:41Speaker 01

  Inch by inch, it's a cinch. Yard by yard is just too hard. What is the tiniest action you could take? Even when people are listening right now, like, wow, that was a lot of information in this episode. What is one simple action I could take right now?

• 1:08:53Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Take one thing.

• 1:08:54Speaker 01

  Right. Because you know this, knowledge by itself is not power. It has the potential to be a lot of power. It becomes power when we, when we apply it.

• 1:09:00Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Exactly.

• 1:09:01Speaker 01

  And an individual's ability to learn rapidly and translate that learning into action is the ultimate competitive advantage. When you put it into action.

• 1:09:09Dr. Darshan Shah?

  That's fantastic. When I think about simplification, I think about simplifying my environment as well. One of the things I did a few years ago, which I still do is I simplify one aspect of my life every week. So I just pick one thing. Maybe it's a bookshelf that has been cluttered forever.

• 1:09:26Speaker 01

  Oh, wow.

• 1:09:26Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Maybe it's my, you know, the cabinet in your bathroom that just has a bunch of stuff that's accumulated for weeks and weeks. All right. I'm sorry, for years and years. You spend maybe one hour, you throw out all the stuff that you are never going to use again. You consolidate and you really simplify. And once you simplify something, it becomes simple for a long, long time afterwards. Marie Kondo has written a lot about this. You know, look at your closet. It's, you get decision fatigue every time you look at your closet every morning. It's time to get rid of a lot of it, you know, donate it. And the, you know, a lot of billionaires, they only have one color of shirt. And that makes it super easy for them to get dressed in the morning. That's one less decision.

• 1:10:03Speaker 01

  And, and yeah.

• 1:10:04Dr. Darshan Shah?

  You have to make.

• 1:10:04Speaker 01

  Because yeah, decision fatigue says that you can only make a certain amount of good decisions. And then once you hit your max, that's it. It's like you're at the, you had to make a lot of decisions. You're at a restaurant for dinner and you can't even decide what you're gonna eat.

• 1:10:16Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Exactly.

• 1:10:17Speaker 01

  You know, because you're, that's, you're talking with that decision fatigue.

• 1:10:20Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 1:10:20Speaker 01

  But yeah, the taking, automating things like your clothing and everything, your external world is a reflection of your internal world.

• 1:10:27Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yes.

• 1:10:28Speaker 01

  And so recondo your mind by cleaning your, I mean, everyone knows this too. When you make your bed or even on your computer, if you put everything in the right folder, you have clarity of thought, too.

• 1:10:38Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Exactly. No, focus. I love it that we came up with that. And I have a feeling that you've thought about this before, maybe a little bit, but that was awesome. Thank you for taking us through that. You know, one thing I want to touch on is you mentioned when you were a kid, you love comic books. And I met Stan Lee a couple of times, too. Incredible human being. If for those of you who don't know this, look at this. And if you look at any of his movies about his superheroes, he makes a guest appearance in almost all of them.

• 1:11:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, he's the king of cameos, for sure.

• 1:11:06Dr. Darshan Shah?

  King of cameos. Anyway, you know, you had a great respect for superheroes as a child. And then now, fast forward, you've been meeting with many real life superheroes and superheroes that are in movies and teaching them how to improve their memory and their brains. And so you've kind of manifested this reality of being with the superheroes all the time, right? It's amazing.

• 1:11:31Speaker 01

  And it's the power of the mind, right? Like, it's, I would, and it's interesting. Yeah, I help actors in Hollywood speed read scripts to memorize their lines, to be focused on camera.

• 1:11:41Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah, Will Smith and also basically all of the Avengers, right? Everybody.

• 1:11:47Speaker 01

  A lot of heroes. I got to work with everyone from Jim Carrey to the cast of the, it's interesting. Like, so like, over 10 years ago, I get a call from, I did a, I did a talk. And, and this is the importance of remembering people's names. And the chairman of 20th Century Fox called me up and reached out to me saying, can you speak for our executive team? And I was like, happy to do so. And I go in on a Friday morning and it's like, and I, and it was my best training. Because going through the halls, like you see like Avatar and Star Wars and all these classic movies that put you in a childlike state. And children are just so enthusiastic and they learn so fast.

• 1:12:27Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 1:12:28Speaker 01

  I get my amazing, I get a really good training, humbly. And, and afterwards, he says, Jim, thank you so much. This has been amazing. And he gives me a personal tour of the, of the film lot. And I've never been on like at a, you know, on like in that environment before. And when he was doing so, there was this movie poster of Wolverine, Hugh Jackman. And and I and the movie wasn't coming out for a few months. And I said, I can't wait for the movie to come out. He picks up his phone and five minutes later, I'm in his theater with 3D glasses, watching Hugh Jackman fight all these super ninjas, right? And that was a perfect Friday afternoon. Right. Afterwards, he gets me and do some little mark research. Like, how was it, you know, compared to the first one? I was like, I was like, this is great. Thank you so much.

• 1:13:10Speaker 01

  I was like, you don't know this, but I couldn't read it after my injury when I was a kid. I taught myself how to read comic books and my favorite comic book actually was Wolverine and the X-Men. Wow. Which he's a part of the team of. And I remember when I was nine years old, one night, because I would be under the covers when my parents thought I was sleeping with a flashlight. I read that the headquarters, the school for X-Men. Yeah. Where they train them to, you know, unleash their powers was in Westchester, New York. Right. A suburb of New York City where where I lived. And I tell him truth that I used to ride my bicycle when I was nine years old every weekend, trying to find that school. Because that was like, you know, some people, you know, like his. Right. Santa Claus, whatever it is, that was real to me. Yeah. And I would every weekend look for this school. And I'm telling this to him. He's like, Jim, I didn't know you liked superheroes and the X-Men.

• 1:13:55Speaker 01

  We have another 30 days of filming X-Men Days of Future Past in Montreal. Do you want to, do you want to go on set? Wow. I'm like, yeah, I would love to do that. I was like, what can I do for you? He's like, teach them what you taught us, you know, the focus, memory, speed reading scripts. I absolutely could do that. The next morning, Saturday morning, I get on a plane and I'm like late because of LA traffic. And the entire cast of X-Men was on the plane, the entire cast. Wow. And I don't even see Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart. I see Wolverine and Professor X. And I'm sitting between Holly Berry and Jennifer Lawrence flying to Montreal. And I get to, you know, brain training, the cast and crew.

• 1:14:36Speaker 01

  But when we land, the very first shot that they filmed, guess where it took place? Westchester, New York. Yeah, in the X-Men school. X-Men school, right. And so as a, I was like that nine year old boy seeing my heroes come to life. Now, I spent a week there with them, but when I go home, there's a package waiting for me, like a TV, size of TV. I rip it open and inside was this photograph of me and the entire cast of X-Men. And even better than that was a note from the chairman. It said, "Jim, thank you so much for sharing your superpowers with us. I know since you were a child, you've been looking for your superhero school. Here's your class photo." And I- That gives me chills right now, too.

• 1:15:21Speaker 01

  I get chills even thinking about it, but it's interesting because my mission as a child, right, with the learning disabilities and everything else, you know, I wanted to find that superhero school because I wanted to find my powers. I wanted to find people, I wanted to find my friends, right? People that, because X-Men, the reason they were my favorite is not because they're the strongest. There are others who are the strongest, but they were just different. They didn't fit in. They're marginalized, right? And I felt like that was me, so I wanted to find this school to find my superpowers and my super friends. And I eventually found it, but I didn't find it in this world, but I, so then I created it.

• 1:16:01Speaker 01

  You know, and I feel like all of us, I think passion and purpose often get mixed up in languaging. We use them interchangeably, but for me, passion is something that lights, very simply, passion is something that lights you up, and that can be many different things, right? Many different things and hobbies can light you up. Like, learning is a passion. It hasn't always been my passion when I was not good at it, but it is my passion, so it lights me up. My purpose, I think our purpose is sharing our passion to light somebody else up. So, learning is my passion. Teaching people how to learn is my purpose. And, you know, I'm blessed every single day to just do this work. I can think of a lot of other ways to make money or a career,

• 1:16:46Speaker 01

  but I really do believe that the world can change when we change this.

• 1:16:51Dr. Darshan Shah?

  That's beautiful. Jim, I'm so happy to be a small part of being able to support you

• 1:16:57Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 1:16:57Dr. Darshan Shah?

  in everything that you're doing because you're making a huge difference. And you know, through your charitable organizations and also just through helping as many people as you can learn. I think it's giving your superpower to others. And I, I think it's just such a noble mission and you're doing such an incredible job. And I've learned so much from you personally and my kids and.

• 1:17:16Speaker 01

  I want to thank you so much also for your friendship and also, you know, I'm a, I'm a client of yours. I, I've been going to Next Health also separately from that since close to when you opened. And, uh, you know, I appreciate it. I feel like, especially when it comes to health, right? There's this, there's that saying that says, you know, that, that a healthy person has a thousand dreams, but a sick person has one.

• 1:17:39Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 1:17:39Speaker 01

  Just to get healthy again.

• 1:17:40Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Exactly.

• 1:17:41Speaker 01

  You know, and I feel like, uh, health definitely is wealth, you know, and all the different areas of our health and our lives, you know, our mind, our body, you know, our spirit, our relationships, everything. So I want to thank you for, uh, allowing me to share. And I want to thank everyone also who listened to this. It was like a little masterclass.

• 1:17:59Dr. Darshan Shah?

  It was. I love, I loved how this, how this turned out. Like we went through so many things. I think people have to listen to it two or three times and send it to all their friends.

• 1:18:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, please do that.

• 1:18:07Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Please do that. Exactly.

• 1:18:09Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 1:18:09Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Exactly. Yeah. You know, to your point, I think there needs to be more realization that your brain and your body are intimately connected and is bidirectional. However, you treat your brain affects your body and whatever is going on in your body affects your brain. And you're, you're such an expert at the brain. And I think the combination of both of us working together, bringing the, you know, the body health to this.

• 1:18:35Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:18:35Dr. Darshan Shah?

  To your advice on brain health, it's extremely powerful because it can lead to so many great things just in your longevity, your health, your ability to function in this world at your optimal level. So this is, this, I really wanted to have this conversation with you because I think a lot of my podcast guests, we talk a lot about metabolic health and body health, but really the brain aspect of this is 50% of all of it.

• 1:19:00Speaker 01

  Yeah. And I, I love this because, and, and some people listening, my, my advice would be sometimes things are hard. Right? Like growth can be hard, change can be scary, but nothing is as hard and scary as being stuck somewhere you don't belong. Right, and I truly believe if people are still listening to this right now, in my heart of hearts, doing this for as long as I've been doing this, that there is a version of yourself that's patiently waiting. And the goal is we show up every single day until we're introduced. So, you know, we're all on this journey, this quest to reveal and realize more of our potential. And people see the title of my book, Limitless, and they say, well, how do you become limitless in a limited world? And my answer is we do it together, right?

• 1:19:44Speaker 01

  It's kind of cheesy, that T E A M, that acronym TEAM, Together Everyone Achieves Miracles or More. But just like, it's not just your neurological networks and your biological networks, it's our social networks.

• 1:19:56Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Sure.

• 1:19:57Speaker 01

  Right, we all know that who we spend time with is who we become.

• 1:20:00Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Exactly.

• 1:20:00Speaker 01

  And part of it is we have these mirror neurons, we're constantly imitating the people around us, you know, their words, their actions, their thoughts, their character, their habits. And first you create your habits, and your habits create you. You create your habits of, you know, getting IVs and doing cryo and cold therapy and optimizing your sleep routines and reading and exercising, meditating, and those habits create you back. But I'm extremely optimistic where we are right now. We're at the precipice of, and this butterfly effect, right?

• 1:20:30Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah.

• 1:20:30Speaker 01

  The butterfly flapping its wings in New York could create a tsunami across the globe. Well, I believe that at any time, that there's a world that exists, and I'm talking to who's listening to this right now, there's a world that exists solely because you're in it. And I'm just, you know, and part of self-care is not just meditating and eating the best brain foods. Part of self-care is looking at the mirror and seeing that reflection looking back and falling in love again with that person that you see, right? You know, the person who's been through so much but is still standing, right? And I'm telling you, if you've gone through adversity and difficulty,

• 1:21:12Speaker 01

  that there is, and people hear about post-traumatic stress, there is post-traumatic growth. A lot of individuals have gone through things that they would never wish upon anybody, but they wouldn't change it for themselves because through it they found meaning, through it they found a meaning. Mission, they found a trait, a strength, something that allowed them to to move forward, you know, and not only bounce back, but bounce forward. And I feel like that that they inspire people with their grit and their and their grace.

• 1:21:38Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah, no, it's so true. And, you know, I grew up in a similar environment as you. A lot of bullying, a lot of, you know, name calling, a lot of self confidence hits. And I think you can come out of that stronger and do great things, just like you did. So.

• 1:21:53Speaker 01

  And I think everybody who's listening to this, like, I don't know one strong person that had an easy life.

• 1:21:59Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Exactly.

• 1:22:00Speaker 01

  You know, and we always, every day, we get to choose, we get to choose. That's why we, every day, we have a chance, because every day we have a choice.

• 1:22:07Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yep, between B and D is C, right?

• 1:22:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, choice.

• 1:22:11Dr. Darshan Shah?

  This is fantastic. Well, Jim, I can't wait to do this again with you. I know we have so much more that we could talk about. How can people find you and learn more? I mean, I would say Limitless is one of my foundational books that I think everyone should read. There's like four or five books. And when patients ask me, what should I read? Because I'm a big believer in self education and reading. I always have this book as one of the top, as one of the top books that people should begin with, because it'll teach you how to learn. And when you know, like you said, for the very beginning of this episode, when you learn to learn, everything else has become so much easier, right?

• 1:22:46Speaker 01

  This is true.

• 1:22:47Dr. Darshan Shah?

  But what other things are you putting out there?

• 1:22:48Speaker 01

  Yeah, we have a podcast, you know, we're 400 episodes, 20 minutes each. I love for, in your podcast app, just search my name, and we're easy to find. We put the extended version on YouTube, so you can join our, you know, 1.8 million subscribers there, where we put also my talks and other things that would be of use. Limitless, you can find anywhere. It's in 40 some languages. And, yeah, and and we have a, just like there's personalized medicine based on an assessment, like maybe a DNA test, personalized nutrition based on a microbiome test, or food, since it was some kind of nutrient test. We created a personalized learning performance assessment. It only takes four minutes. And I realized that there are about, there are four main brain types.

• 1:23:31Speaker 01

  And here's the thing, it's not how smart you are, it's how are you. You're smart and we all have genius that expresses itself in different ways. These four brain types, I use the animals. It's a brain code, C O D E. C is a cheetah, O is an owl, D is a dolphin, E is an elephant. When you go, you take the assessment and once you know your brain type, we gift you strategies and resource to be able to read faster, improve your memory, be able to focus, even be able to hire, sell, everything based on brain types. And it's our gift to everybody. People could do that at mybrainanimal.com. And I would love people to post their result. We give them this AI, the animals, and they could post it. They could tag you, they could tag me when they post it.

• 1:24:14Speaker 01

  Cause I'm curious what most of your listeners, what dominant brain animal they are. And then they could get all this training and you know, it's our gift to you.

• 1:24:22Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Oh, thank you so much for that. And do you have an online course as well? Because I know people that want to go deeper.

• 1:24:27Speaker 01

  Yes, we have online speed reading program. That is in 21 days, triple your reading speed with better comprehension and focus. We have a 30 day memory program, learning languages. They give you speech without notes, facts, figures, data, all this stuff. Remember names and faces, all the important things that all over your life. Yeah, they could, we have, there's a special. It's jimquick.com/ bundle. And they could get the two of them for the lowest investment that we have.

• 1:24:54Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 1:24:54Speaker 01

  So jimquick, K W I K dot com, four slash bundle. But I want to thank you again.

• 1:24:59Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Thank you.

• 1:24:59Speaker 01

  For, for everything, for taking care of my health or our family's health. And the amazing work that you do.

• 1:25:05Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Thank you so much. It's such a pleasure to have you.

• 1:25:07Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 1:25:13Dr. Darshan Shah?

  That was a fantastic conversation with Jen. Here are my five top takeaways from this episode. Number one, brain fog is a symptom. It's not the problem. Mental fatigue, forgetfulness and lack of focus are signs that your brain isn't functioning optimally. Instead of masking the symptoms, it's essential to understand the root cause of the brain fog and then address the root causes. Number two, digital overload is hijacking your focus. Constant notifications, multitasking, it's all going to drain your mental energy. And it's going to reduce your attention span. Reclaiming your focus starts with being intentional about your tech usage. Number three, memory can actually be trained just like a muscle. With the right techniques like visualization, association, and repetition,

• 1:25:57Dr. Darshan Shah?

  you can significantly improve memory retention, even for complex information. Number four, your mindset matters more than you actually think. The beliefs that you hold about your memory and intelligence directly impact your performance. A growth mindset is the foundation of unlocking your brain's full potential. Number five, nootropics aren't a magic fix. While smart drugs like supplements can support your brain health, they work best when paired with foundational habits like sleep, movement, hydration, and focused learning. If you loved this episode with Jim Quick, please share it with a friend that's having brain fog or even just looking to improve their memory and their cognition. Thanks for joining and I'll see you on the next episode of Extend.

• 1:26:43Dr. 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.