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Want to know which foods and supplements work best for your body? Viome takes the guesswork out of it. Their full body intelligence test reads your rna, not your DNA. So you see what's happening in your body right now. While standard labs measure around 100 markers, Viome's AI analyzes over 10,000 active pathways across your gut, oral and cellular health. Then it translates that into personalized food and supplement recommendations built for your unique biology. They'll tell you what foods to eat and which ones to avoid. They even create custom supplements and oral care products based on your results. So what you're getting is what will work for your body, not someone else's. Your results update as your lifestyle changes, so your plan evolves with you. Check it out@viome.com and use code 10Dave for 10% off. It's time to stop guessing and start knowing your body. You're losing hair on your head and collagen in your skin right now, even though you probably can't see it yet. That process speeds up as you age and it doesn't reverse on its own. But you can intervene at the cellular level. Studies show that specific wavelengths of red and near infrared light will stimulate your hair follicles. And that does support collagen production. Irestore has been making red light therapy devices that actually work for over two decades. And with their summer savings event, it's the perfect time to upgrade your hair and skincare. The Irestore Elite is their most advanced laser hair growth system, using 300 lasers and 200 LEDs, which helps you regrow thicker, healthier hair in about three months. And it is really easy to use. You can wear it while you're working, while you're reading or unwinding at night. And The Illumina Face Mask360 medical grade LEDs can turn red, infrared or even blue light at the same time to target all of your different skin concerns. Just 10 minutes a few times a week gives you brighter, smoother and healthier looking skin. I've been using the Eye Restore Elite and the Illumina Face mask while I work at home, but not on video. And they fit into my normal routine with no extra time cost. I really like it because I don't lose any time when I use it. Irestore is so confident you'll love their products that they give you a 12 month money back guarantee. That's because it actually works. You will see more hair. Irestore is kicking off their summer savings event with some huge discounts on their red light therapy devices. You can save on customer favorites like the Irestore Elite helmet and the Illumina face mask. Just head to irestore.com, use code Dave to take advantage of the sale. That's daveirestore.com Please support the show and tell them we sent you. Give your hair and skin the upgrade they deserve so you can feel confident and refreshed. I've tried every legal focus compound I could get my hands on. But after spending 20 years and millions of dollars hacking my own biology, reversing my age, proving my brain, I can tell you which ones actually work and which ones are probably going to be a waste of money for you. I'm Dave Asprey. I the guy who created the biohacking movement. I've written four New York Times bestsellers about brain longevity, nutrition and millions of people have lost millions of pounds with my advice and extended their lives. I learned that the reason most people never reach their full cognitive potential and the reason I wasn't wasn't because of a lack of discipline or motivation. It's because we've never addressed the actual biological system that produces energy inside the brain. There are specific compounds that directly increase brain energy production to and almost nobody's talking about them correctly today. I'm going to break down which focus compounds actually work and how which ones are garbage and the specific way to stack them so your brain operates at a level you've probably never experienced as an adult. Surprisingly, most of these compounds improve your longevity while they improve your performance, which means the sooner you start them, the more protection you have. And some of them don't do anything for longevity, but they just make you perform better, which lowers your stress, which also improves your longevity. So generally they're good for you. And I'll tell you, if I ever come in something that's a little bit edgy from that perspective. When people start looking for a way to improve their focus, they almost always reach for the exact same tool. They go straight to coffee. And I completely understand why. After all, I did start bulletproof. Nothing to do with them anymore. Danger Coffee is the new deal. But coffee is an incredibly powerful longevity compound and a human performance compound. And I'm a huge advocate for high quality coffee. I am so committed to caffeine and coffee even as a longevity compound, that I have the caffeine molecule tattooed on my arm. But there's a massive problem with how most people use caffeine. If you're just drinking cup after cup of coffee every single morning, you're probably getting about 40% of the actual benefit it could give you. Because caffeine doesn't create new energy in your brain, it borrows energy from later in the day and then it forces you to pay that energy back. You can think of it exactly like taking out a high interest loan from a bank. You walk in, you take the money for the first couple of hours, everything feels great, it feels sharp, feel motivated, and you can finally get some work done. But the entire time you're working, your brain is building up a compound called adenosine. Adenosine is the specific chemical that makes you feel physically tired and exhausted. Caffeine temporarily blocks your brain's ability to detect adenosine building up so you don't feel the fatigue while the caffeine's in your system. But when the caffeine finally wears off, the blockade drops and all the accumulated adenosine re enters your brain. And that's the afternoon crash that can leave you staring at your computer screen at 2 o'. Clock. least it'll do that. If you're not managing how you use coffee properly. And strangely, you can't stop this by just drinking another cup of coffee, because drinking more coffee is just taking out another loan to pay off the first one. And the interest rate only gets higher. Kind of like the national deficit in the us but there's actually a way to take that exact same energy loan without ever having to pay the massive interest rate. You can do it by combining your coffee with an amino acid called L theanine. L theanine is naturally found in green tea, and it has a profound and calming effect on your nervous system. When you take L Theanine with your danger coffee, it completely eliminates, doesn't completely. It eliminates some of the side effects of caffeine. And I want to be clear, caffeine even separated from coffee, has longevity benefits in studies. But when you take it with theanine, it can strip away the jitters and stop the cortisol spike that some people get from coffee. And it prevents the afternoon crash leaves you with that pure sharp energy from the caffeine in a form that your brain can use to focus. Even better, you can finally sit down, you can open a complex document, and you can work for two straight hours without your brain desperately searching for a distraction every five minutes. So if you're drinking coffee every single day and it works great, perfect. But if you're getting the crash, well, switch to mold free coffee like Danger, and maybe try taking some L Theanine alongside it. Combining caffeine and L theanine can help improve your daily focus. But those two compounds are managing the stimulant side of the equation. But they're not doing anything to address the underlying stress load that your nervous system is probably carrying around all day, at least if you're alive or if you have a job or both. If your baseline cortisol levels are running extremely high, every single cognitive task you try is going to feel significantly harder than it should. The background stress acts like a heavy weight that drags you down, and it blocks your ability to concentrate. And that's where adaptogens come into the picture. Adaptogens are a specific class of herbs. In some mushrooms, like ashwagandha or rhodiola, they help your body physically manage stress. Adaptogens are interesting because the first recorded use was in China and in Russia. Before combat, soldiers would take adaptogens that allowed them to turn on stress hormones when they needed them quickly, but turn them off quickly when they were done. So soldiers who had adaptogens could go into battle two or three times a day without getting fried, and their opponents, who didn't have adaptogens, were done after one fight. If your day only has one stressful thing, you probably don't need adaptogens, but you probably have more stress than that, so they're going to be good for you. Adaptogens usually don't make you feel instantly sharper or smarter because they're not direct cognitive stimulants. What they do is take the edge off when your stress response is stuck in overdrive. They can lower the background cortisol so it stops interfering with your brain's ability to perform. So instead of completely feeling wiped out by the middle of the afternoon because you had a stressful morning, your brain can stay level and resilient. Even if you've already perfectly managed your stress levels. Adaptogens can feel like a massive upgrade, especially rhodiola, because it turns out the same building blocks that build cortisol also build dopamine. And dopamine makes you feel motivated to work towards things you care about. So a little bit of rhodiola might give you more drive, because now you had enough ability to make cortisol and to make dopamine to get the drive. And if you are under chronic stress, like so many of us, adaptogens can remove a very real, very heavy obstacle, and you feel better that day. There's one thing to understand about caffeine, L, theanine and adaptogens. All of them are just managing things that get in the way of your focus, or they can prop up your focus, but they're not changing the way your brain actually makes its own raw energy. And in my New York Times best selling book about the brain called Head strong, I go into a lot of science about why mitochondrial function is so important. More energy in the brain makes everything better. And you can change how your brain produces energy in a different, more powerful process. So if you want your brain to produce more energy on its own so you can have more energy to think or just to manage your stress, you've got to look at what you feed your brain. Most of us go through our entire lives without stopping to consider what kind of biological fuel our brain actually wants. And for almost everyone, that fuel is glucose. And that's fine, because parts of your brain do prefer blood sugar. But there's a better source of fuel that you can feed your brain. It's a specific type of fat called MCT oil. MCT stands for medium chain triglycerides. And your body processes those very differently than normal fats. If you've ever heard of bulletproof coffee or C8MCT, that's because I was the founder of bulletproof. I've got nothing to do with the company anymore. Don't endorse their products or not endorse them. I just don't know anything about them because I'm all in with danger coffee. And there are many companies today who sell MCT oil. When you consume high quality MCT oil, your body converts it into something called ketones incredibly fast. And ketones are a very different, vastly superior kind of fuel specifically for your neurons. They give your brain stable, consistent energy. So when you have MCT oil, even if you're eating carbs, your energy stays perfectly level. Your focus holds strong through the entire morning, and you can lock in to the deep work for hours. There's solid research showing that MCT oil improves your brain's energy metabolism. In fact, there's even evidence that it could reduce Alzheimer's. Now, MCT oil feeds your brain system perfectly, but it doesn't change the machinery inside your cells that actually produces the energy in the first place. That is where methylene blue comes in. Every other compound on this list works around the energy production process in some indirect way. But methylene blue goes directly inside the mitochondria in your cells. Mitochondria, as you probably know, are tiny little power plants and sensors inside your cells that make ATP, which is the raw energy that your body uses for everything. Methylene blue physically works in that process that your cells use to generate ATP and then move electrons around. Best way to think of this is your cells are like a massive factory assembly line. Caffeine is yelling at the factory workers to move faster, but methylene blue actually makes it easier to move things from one step to to another inside the factory. It physically increases the total amount of energy the factory can produce, rather than just pushing existing workers harder until they burn out. So instead of tricking your brain into feeling artificially awake, you're actually giving your cells more capacity to make and move energy. How does it feel? It feels like you can push through a demanding project on minimal sleep and still feel sharp because the energy is real. It's not borrowed from later. I want to be really clear about methylene blue, though. It's a powerful compound and it's not something you take every single day. Casually save it for those specific days where you absolutely need your brain operating at a level that nothing else on this list can get you to. Check out the QR code for my favorite methylene blue company. But the compound I want to spend the most time on, and the one I'm honestly the most excited to talk about, is creatine. If your light environment isn't dialed in, your biology isn't either. And if you're not using light as a performance tool, you're leaving results on the table every single day. The right light wavelengths unlock recovery energy and clarity in ways most people never tap into. EMR Tech's Krypton UV line puts that power in your hands with red, near infrared, uva, and UVB all in one system. They have something for everyone from the compact Krypton Micro and Mini to the modular 606 watt and 1612 watt. Each device lets you choose your wavelengths, your timers, and how deep you want to go with your setup. I personally use the Ultron. It's a beast. Full body coverage, built in timers, and high output light from premium components. Whether you're syncing your circadian rhythm or designing a pro level light environment, EMR Tech lets you scale it your way with precise control. Go to emr-tek.com Dave and use code Dave for 40% off. You're losing hair on your head and collagen in your skin right now, even though you probably can't see it yet. That process speeds up as you age and it doesn't reverse on its own. But you can intervene at the cellular level. Studies show that specific wavelengths of red and near infrared light will stimulate your hair follicles and that does support collagen production. Irestore has been making red light therapy devices that actually work for for over two decades. And with their summer savings event, it's the perfect time to upgrade your hair and skincare. The Irestore Elite is their most advanced laser hair growth system, using 300 lasers and 200 LEDs which helps you regrow thicker, healthier hair in about three months. And it is really easy to use. You can wear it while you're working, while you're reading or unwinding at night. And The Illumina Face Mask360 medical grade LEDs can turn red, infrared or even blue light at the same time to target all of your different skin concerns. Just 10 minutes a few times a week gives you brighter, smoother and healthier looking skin. I've been using the Irestore Elite and the Illumina face mask while I work at home but not on video. And they fit into my normal routine with no extra time cost. I really like it because I don't lose any time when I use it. Irestore is so confident you'll love their products that they give you a 12 month money back guarantee. That's because it actually works. You will see more hair. Irestore is kicking off their summer savings event with some huge discounts on their red light therapy devices. You can save on customer favorites like the Irestore Elite helmet and the Illumina face mask. Just head to irestore.com, use code Dave to take advantage of the sale. That's daveirestore.com Please support the show and tell them we sent you. Give your hair and skin the upgrade they deserve so you can feel confident and refreshed. Creatine is the most misunderstood compound on this entire list and almost nobody's talking about it the way they should be. When you hear the word creatine, you probably think of a gym bro supplement. And I thought the exact same thing for years. In fact, I took it when I worked out 90 minutes a day, six days a week for 18 months in a futile effort to lose weight. Creatine is helpful. It's just not going to do everything, especially if you use it like a bodybuilder. Net framing as a bodybuilding supplement has kept one of the most powerful cognitive compounds available without a prescription completely off your radar for your entire life. It works for men, it works for women, it works at all ages, and it's incredibly well studied. Your prefrontal cortex is the part of your brain responsible for complex planning and for deep focus and ignoring distractions. It's also one of the most energy hungry parts of your entire body. Here's a really cool number that'll blow your mind. A single muscle cell might have about a thousand mitochondria inside it, but a single neuron in your brain can have 15,000 mitochondria. That's how much raw energy your brain needs to function. Creatine directly supports the biological system that keeps your neurons from running out of energy. So when you take it correctly and it can actually get into your brain, you can snap into this high gear thinking During a high pressure situation. Even if you're physically exhausted, your brain just fires on command rather than struggling to keep up with with what you're demanding of it. It feels effortless and it feels good. And this isn't just my personal experience talking double blind. Studies going all the way back to 2003 show that creatine significantly improves working memory and performance in cognitive tasks. There's also massive research showing that creatine protects your brain under conditions of severe sleep debt or high stress or extreme cognitive overload. You know, like doom scrolling. In fact, one study shows that a larger dose of creatine completely eliminates the cognitive deficit caused by pulling an all nighter. So if you're studying or you work in a hospital, creatine is your best friend. But when it comes to creatine dose matters, a lot of people say you have to do a loading phase because that's what they did back in the 90s. That's where you take 20 grams a day for five to seven days, split into a few small servings throughout the day, Then you drop down to a maintenance dose. Bodybuilders use five, but biohackers and people interested in cognitive function, especially if they're studying or maybe if they're aging, they're gonna need 10 to 15 grams. And you don't actually have to do this loading. It's old fashioned and it's actually a lot of work. Just go straight to that maintenance dose of 10 to 15 grams a day. And here's a tip that will save you a lot of stomach discomfort and get about four times more creatine into your brain. Take your creatine in a hot liquid, not in cold water, not in a smoothie. Cold water doesn't dissolve creatine. The creatine just floats around in the water. So you're drinking little suspended particles, you get those gritty particles and that can cause gut irritation, most bloating and discomfort from creatine comes because people are taking it the wrong way. When you put it in hot liquid, like, I don't know, Danger coffee, it dissolves completely into a proper solution that absorbs better, doesn't upset your stomach, and it raises the plasma level of creatine high enough that it's more likely to cross into your brain. And if you're vegan or vegetarian, your natural creatine levels are much lower. Because the only way we get creatine in our diets comes from animal products. So you want to aim for the higher end of that maintenance dose. And the same goes if you're dealing with tons of stress or sleep debt or maybe you've just been sick for a while. You've probably tried creatine before. At 3 to 5 grams, you didn't feel anything in your brain, so you quit. And that's the gym dose. And your brain requires substantially more than that. And it requires that you put it in hot water so it gets into your brain. So now you know exactly what each of these compounds does individually. You know how caffeine and L theanine manage the stimulants, how MCT oil provides stable fuel, and how creatine fuel physically increases your cellular energy. But the real power of these compounds doesn't come from taking them randomly. It comes from knowing how to stack them together based on your specific day and based on your specific biology. If you work from home and your main goal is sharp, sustained mental output without crashing, then you start with the foundation. You use coffee and L theanine as your base to wake up your nervous system smoothly. Then you add MCT oil to your Danger Coffee to stabilize the fuel your brain is running on. You make it Danger Coffee because Danger coffee also delivers minerals to your brain that your brain needs to function well under stress. Once you set that baseline, you add creatine to completely fill your brain's backup battery. When you combine those three things, your morning energy will hold completely steady on its own. You'll be able to sit down at your desk, knock out hours of focused work without that heavy brain fog dragging you down every 60 minutes. You've probably spent years cycling through different supplements, different energy drinks, and productivity hacks that just don't work. Or maybe they work for a little while and then they don't. And it's not because you're not trying hard enough. It's not because you're lazy or undisciplined. The entire conversation around focus. For decades, we've blamed ourselves when we couldn't focus, thought it was a moral weakness. It's not. We were just pointing in the wrong direction. It's about energy. Every influencer will tell you that focus is all about managing your dopamine and increasing your willpower, finding more motivation. But all those things are downstream of the actual biological problem. Your brain doesn't run on motivation. Motivation runs on your brain and your brain runs on physical energy. When the physical energy is finally there, the motivation and the focus are natural. They're frictionless, and they don't take work. Every single compound on this list is available to you right now. You don't need to visit an expensive anti aging clinic, you don't need a doctor's prescription, and you don't need to overhaul your entire life to start using them. You don't have to inject anything. You just need to know exactly what the compounds are, exactly how they work, and exactly how to stack them so you can upgrade your brain. Now's the time for you to go do it. Check out the link in the description for my recommended products to stack for optimal focus. And here's something really cool I just brought to market a new kind of creatine danger creatine. It's got co factors not found in any other creatine on the market and it gives you extra minerals that help throughout your body. So give it a try.

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A Human Upgrade Formerly Bulletproof Radio was created and is hosted by Dave Asprey. The information contained in this podcast is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended for the purposes of diagnosing in treating, curing, or preventing any disease. Before using any products referenced on the podcast, consult with your healthcare provider carefully read all labels and heed all directions and cautions that accompany the products. Information found or received through the podcast should not be used in place of a consultation or advice from a healthcare provider. If you suspect you have a medical problem or should you have any healthcare questions, please promptly call or see your healthcare provider. This podcast, including Dave Asprey and the producers, disclaim responsibility for any possible adverse effects from the use of information contained herein. Opinions of guests are their own and this podcast does not endorse or accept responsibility for statements made by guests. This podcast does not make any representations or warranties about guest qualifications or credibility. This podcast may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products or services. Individuals on this podcast may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to herein. This podcast is owned by Bulletproof Media. It.