323: Want more energy? Try these simple tips! - Dr. Anthony Balduzzi, The Fit Mother Project

Dr. Anthony: 00:00:00

We're all going to age. No one's making it out of here alive. So we're just trying to do this in a way that helps increase our vitality.

And it's so apparent when you do these things, you just feel better. And you have that. We call it, like, magnetic resonance.

You know, when someone's got that vitality and they're feeling like they're on fire, you can see it. And it's because they probably have a lot of these aspects dialed in for them.

ELLA: 00:00:21

Welcome, you're on air with Ella, where we share simple strategies and tips from people who are doing something better than we are.

Whether it's wellness or relationships to just living better and with more energy or changing your mindset to accomplish more in your own life and succeeding. However you define it, this is where we share the best of what we're learning from the experts, and we're learning more every day. Live better.

Start now. Let's go. Hey, you're on air with Ella. And today I AM joined by Dr. Anthony Balduzzi. Hey, Dr. Anthony. How are you?

Dr. Anthony: 00:00:56

Hi, Ella. Great to be here.

ELLA: 00:00:58

Hey, could you tell everybody who you are and what you do?

Dr. Anthony: 00:01:02

I am a naturopathic doctor who specializes in helping busy moms and dads over 40 get back in great health, age well, and create healthy cultures for their families. And specifically, I run two companies, the Fit Mother Project and the Fit Father Project.

And collectively, we help millions of families around the world through our health programs. And quickly, my backstory is I didn't plan on being a doctor when I was growing up. It kind of came through a bit of personal tragedy.

I watched my own dad work himself to the bone, and he died from cancer when he was 42 years old. So I was nine when that happened. And as you can imagine, it totally rocked my world.

But it also kind of, like, was a light bulb moment for me where I realized at a young age, like, how foundational our health is. And also, as parents, when we're, like, trying to do all the juggling, all the things with life, health can get on the back burner.

And when that happens, like, ultimately bad stuff can happen. And my dad missed out on so much, so it inspired me to study health and fitness. And I was in naturopathic medical school.

I saw so many people just like my dad who were busy parents that couldn't find a routine to kind of make it all sustainable. So I wanted to help people find a way to live healthy, and I created my programs, and here we are.

ELLA: 00:02:06

I think that's incredible because I think that a lot of people who are really focused on longevity, they tend to be older. But you've been called to this mission since you were young. What decade are you in now, if you don't mind my asking?

Dr. Anthony: 00:02:16

Yeah, I'm in my third decade of life, and it's been like a.

I mean, I've been doing this for over two decades now, and a lot of experience, first in like, fitness, and I was a competitive bodybuilder, and then through medical school and now coaching so many people. And it's funny, you know, being in my third decade, although I'm not yet in my 40s or 50s, I've been through a tremendous amount of my body.

I mean, over 10 different surgeries, serious accidents.

And it's taught me a lot about how to tend to an aging body and how to regenerate, how to heal, and what's really important when it comes to longevity.

ELLA: 00:02:48

I hear you, and I would love to talk to you about longevity. We're obsessed with this topic. And one phrase I refuse to use anymore. Dr. Anthony, is anti aging.

Like, I am not here for the anti aging conversation drives me insane because we're literally all aging all the time, every day, if. If we have the privilege of being here. Okay, but longevity, I'm so interested in your take.

To me, longevity is about living as powerfully and vitally as you can for as long as you can. And it's so much more for me personally about health span than lifespan. Tell me your point of view.

Dr. Anthony: 00:03:27

Well, I totally agree with you, and I think I'll add another layer on there. I think the way to live a long life is actually to align your habits and your actions with natural law. So everything in nature, you know, has.

There's a law and a cycle. There's the sun and the moon. It governs these kinds of things.

And so when it comes to the body, we need to have good food inputs, we need to have good circadian rhythm, we need to move our bodies, we need proper hydration.

And we need to understand also the trajectory that the body naturally goes through, particularly in the fourth and fifth decades of life with hormonal changes and how to kind of ride that wave.

And when people deviate from this, they're eating the processed foods, as you know, they're not sleeping enough, they're stressed, too much caffeine, not enough movement. This is where, you know, health span and lifespan and like, the downward decline start to kind of diverge, if you will.

And we can fix this with some simple lifestyle stuff that I'm sure you've hashed here, but we can also get into some more specific and fun stuff that's a little more, you know, hacky, biohacky, if you will.

ELLA: 00:04:21

Okay. Yes, please. So first, talk to me.

What do you consider the key aspects of health that people over 40, let's say, must absolutely non negotiables, must prioritize for longevity?

Dr. Anthony: 00:04:33

Believe it or not, one of the main longevity hormones that not enough people are talking about is melatonin.

Melatonin is like one of the main governors of how good your immune system is as you age, how, um, how healthy your skin is, your brain health, how your brain actually cleans itself as night. All of this is governed by melatonin.

And it's fascinating because we've only had like a couple hundred years with artificial light, let alone the cell phones that we now have blasting all of us. And it's actually one of the things that's aging people faster than anything because melatonin naturally declines as we age.

And this is why a lot of people have sleep disturbances. And pretty much if you're not getting good sleep and you're blasting too much light at night, it is totally messing up your whole longevity game.

And it needs to be optimized. So I start there because when we get older, the immune system ages too.

And the process of that, medically speaking, is called immunosenescence, or basically your white blood cells that are tasked to clean up and repair from exercise, to fight defenders, to detect cancer cells, and just to keep inflammation levels in check.

All of those, those blood cells, they get older and they're driven by vitamin D and melatonin are the two receptors on those blood cells that keeps them healthy and spry. So how do you get vitamin D while having proper circadian rhythm and sunshine is one thing. And how do you get melatonin?

Well, having proper nighttime, you know, not getting as much light, and also making sure you might be taking melatonin supplements.

And I bring this up because the circadian rhythm component of optimizing that is so much more important for longevity than people want to believe, because we want to focus on the different exercises, the collagen creams, you know, the light, like these fancy things. But truly, this whole biological mechanism is entrained to the sun and the light.

And we need to actually get more morning sunshine and less sun at night and to optimize those two factors or you're not going to live a long, healthy life.

ELLA: 00:06:14

Okay, let's break this down for A minute. Because circadian rhythm, people think different things when they hear you say that.

Some people think it means I need to go to bed with when the sun sets and I need to wake up when the sun rises. Other people think that it means that I need to wake up at the same time every day or I need to focus on getting 8 hours or x hours of sleep.

And what does it mean to you when you say we need to optimize our circadian rhythms?

Dr. Anthony: 00:06:36

For sure, I think it, I think it means a number of those things together. I'll put it this way. Biologically speaking, depending on the season, we are meant to get morning sunshine like we meant to.

If, if you can catch some of that morning sunshine when the sun is still low, that is the time where there's actually low UV exposure, but you get high infrared exposure. And that infrared actually is so massively beneficial for your mitochondria and your skin.

So I think we're meant to get sunshine in the morning as well as get out in the middle of the day and get some UV exposure breaks because people like, especially in the skincare industry, we villainize UV so much with all the sunscreens and all this. And it's partly true because UVA rays do actually break collagen in the skin and that can make you actually look older.

But ironically, that that same UV light is what actually gets you that sulfated vitamin D from your skin that makes you feel so young and so vibrant. So you do need some amount.

And so circadian rhythm to me means getting them, getting light during the day and when the light goes down at night, I'm not saying you need to go to bed, but you do need to change your ambient environment to have more lamp light. Some candles, you don't want to be blasting light.

And certainly get all these filters on your devices, your phones, your screens to cut out the blue light because it is literally going to suppress your main anti aging hormone melatonin that I'm talking about. It's sensitive to light and it starts getting secreted when it's dark outside.

So I think people can entrain themselves a little bit more to less nighttime light, more daytime light. Now, in terms of how much sleep, that depends on how much exercise you do.

Most people need slightly less sleep as they get older, but you know, I would say six is probably a minimum for people, but some people need less sleep than others. You know, up to seven and a half might be a good gold standard. As routine as you can be with your wake ups is okay.

But I, I think like just tracking your restfulness. If you use any of these digital devices like the oura rings or any of things that they're.

And I guess the broader conversation of how this all ties together is the way to live a long life is to stay primarily in a parasympathetic state. So your nervous system has these two gears, the sympathetic, the more stressed and activated, parasympathetic rest and rest and relaxation.

So the, the creatures that live the longest, including humans, keep a parasympathetic tone. And so we can do this in many ways. And in the sleep, in the circadian rhythm is one main driver of that.

ELLA: 00:08:46

Okay, I definitely want to talk about melatonin, but I have a question about something that you just said. You said more lamp light in the evening. What is that in contrast to?

Dr. Anthony: 00:08:55

Well, it's in contrast to, let's just say you, you're going into your bathroom and like, so I have a couple lamps in my bedroom, but I also have overhead lights. So at night I won't have the overlight headlights on. I might just have turn on one lamp. So I just have a little bit of light at night.

Because the actual photoreceptors in your eyes and in your skin, you have the same receptors in your skin as you do in your eyes. Melanopsin is one of the ones that responds primarily to blue light.

But if there's just too much ambient light, period, your melatonin suppression is going to be more suppressed. So I just use lamps around there.

And if you can actually change out your bulbs to be more of those warmer style bulbs that are like the, you know, the amber kind of like sepia style tone, they're warmer.

I would recommend you do that throughout your entire house because if you have lights, those are going to be the less disruptive to your least disruptive to your melatonin. And there's no reason to have the really bright white fluorescent ones because even during the day the warmer ones still work, in my opinion.

So that's a little hack. If someone wants to take one thing away from here, certainly in your bedroom is change out to the warmer bulbs.

It will help you tremendously and you do it once and you benefit for it for the rest of your life.

ELLA: 00:09:55

Yeah, we love these simple, simple, simple tips that we can take on, you know, tomorrow in that same vein as someone's making baby steps toward improving their sweet sleep quality. And by the way, I traded out a focus on sleep quantity for quality years ago and that made a huge difference.

So Some night it's, some nights it's six hours, some nights it's seven and a half. But for me, the focus is on quality. And that's what I'm hearing you say as well.

If we're on that journey and our melatonin is not sorted and we've been doing an enormous amount to kind of beat it up over the years. Talk to me about melatonin supplementation do's and don'ts. My understanding, and I don't even remember, Dr.

Anthony, what this is based on, so I have no idea if this is worthwhile or not. But my understanding is that melatonin supplementation is fine, but you don't want to do it forever. Is there any sense to that?

Dr. Anthony: 00:10:49

Well, there's, there are not a ton of long, long term studies. Longest term studies that we do have are like six to eight years. And they've shown that it's, you know, safe. People aren't having problems.

And that's even at a dose that's relatively high of melatonin of 5 to 10 milligrams, you could take far less than that.

And what's actually cool, particularly for women, is they show that women who follow healthy diets and exercise in conjunction with melatonin supplementation lose more weight and body fat too. So it has an effect on metabolism and hormone parameters as well. So that is beneficial.

My take is, as you're optimizing melatonin, especially if you're in a season of your life right now where you're a little busy and stressed and you have a higher level of stress, it's a good idea to supplement melatonin at night. And that could be anywhere from 1 to 10 milligrams. I say it's always a better idea to start lower.

But one of the cool things about melatonin versus taking other external hormones is it does not shut down your own natural production. So that's beneficial. So you can just pop a, a 1 to 5 milligram melatonin tablet at night and that's beneficial.

But I would say if you're doing that and you're still not wearing any kind of those blue blocking glasses, I do recommend those. I mean, they don't look super cool, so maybe they're making them cooler.

Maybe the holiday gift guide around the corner, someone will give you a cool melatonin glasses. But I think those are pretty important, especially if you tend to watch your iPad or a phone or something like TV at night.

You need to really protect that kind of stuff. And then also do understand that the way to make more melatonin is actually get morning sunshine. In response to getting sun in the morning.

And I'm talking about sun from sunrise till about 10am your brain actually releases serotonin, which makes us feel great. And then the serotonin later in the days can converted to melatonin. So this is the whole cycle starts with getting the right sunshine input.

And it's kind of like artful and beautiful how it's all connected. Right? Duh. We're connected as organisms to this light cycle. So when we get in sync with that, we feel so much better.

What's also cool is that morning sunshine in your eyes, which means no glasses. Actually kind of getting some of that into your eyes and your face also smooths out that morning cortisol spike. That's very natural.

It lowers that down. So it's helpful just basically keeping your body less stressed. So that's a couple ways you can supplement.

But also make sure that morning sunshine is feeding that melatonin cycle. And you actually make more melatonin in your gut and your digestive tract than you actually do in your pineal gland in your brain.

So having a healthy GI tract, good probiotics, good healthy prebiotic fiber, these kinds of things also will help with that whole scenario.

ELLA: 00:13:08

It's almost like we were designed for optimization.

Dr. Anthony: 00:13:11

Yes. In relation to light. Light is a huge input, for sure.

ELLA: 00:13:15

Yeah. And we're out here doing everything in our power to make sure that we never see the sun. Like, exactly every way.

Everything from our lifestyle and the way that we work, to being absolutely dead terrified of the sun now to an unhealthy degree, and forgetting that getting outside in the morning is one of the most natural ways you can start the day. And how long would you say is beneficial? Because we're not talking two hours, right?

Dr. Anthony: 00:13:43

I'm not. And also, we do understand that the sunshine is not equal throughout the whole day.

Like in the morning, you're not getting that UV exposure, but you are getting infrared and you are getting some of those reds and the oranges and the yellows as the sun is coming up and you get that beautiful sunrise. All of those spectrums of light are beneficial. People are literally using red lights for mitochondria function, for skin function.

You get this from the sun when you get the sunrise and sunset. So that's beneficial. I would say if you can get outside in a time between sunrise and 10am For a collective 10 minutes would be great.

If you can go take a walk, if you can even Take some work breaks. If you can take a phone call outside, great. And if you're really, you don't need to worry about the UV damaging your skin during that time.

I'm telling you. It's also beneficial to get outside in the peak when the sun is very overhead.

That's where you're going to get UV exposure that gives you the vitamin D, which is amazing. If you are worried about your skin, then you can actually protect your, your skin with a high quality sunscreen, particularly on your face.

But I would suggest that you actually don't put it all over the rest of your body unless you know you're very sun sensitive or you're going to be out for many, many hours. Soak some of that up because it's really cool. And this is amazing.

The kind of vitamin D that you make in response to sunshine is different than the kind of vitamin D you take from supplemental form. The supplemental form.

Vitamin D is very beneficial for, for your immune system, for hormone production, especially when your hormones are changing around perimenopause. Massively important to get your vitamin D levels in check, you make a sulfated form of vitamin D.

And as it travels throughout your body, it's water soluble, meaning it can flow through your bloodstream. And the vitamin D disassociates from that sulfate.

And that sulfate actually helps release nitric oxide, the big blood flow enhancer in your whole circulatory system. So the sulfate that you get from the sunshine form of vitamin D gives you better blood flow.

And that is really what a lung longevity is, I should say youth. The appearance of youth is plump red blood flow. And as we get older, we get dehydrated and we, we shrink and we wrinkle and we shrivel.

So if you can optimize nitric oxide in conjunction with a vitamin D through sunshine, you are, you're going to be so much more.

ELLA: 00:15:39

Well, we did a whole episode with Nathan. Brian.

Dr. Anthony: 00:15:44

I know. Yes.

ELLA: 00:15:46

Nitric oxide. Yeah, that blew my mind. Absolutely blew.

Dr. Anthony: 00:15:49

So important, probably the most important signaling molecule that we know of as a gas that increases circulation. You want to optimize that as you age and guess what else you can do.

If you breathe through your nose, you take that morning walk and you breathe through your nose, you can optimize the nicot oxide. I'm sure he talked about the idea of taking those nitrate tabs in the back of your mouth or doing some humming or stuff like this.

And it's amazing how this is all so connected.

ELLA: 00:16:11

Wait, let's talk about humming. And nasal breathing. Talk to me more.

Dr. Anthony: 00:16:14

Well, this is fascinating. So the bacteria in that actually produce nitric oxide are helping the production. They live on the back of your tongue. So what Dr.

Bryant found from his studies is you definitely want to stop using mouthwash. Like that's one of the things that'll crush your nitric oxide production, because it all starts with your microbiome in your mouth.

And actually if you hum, I think it's because it agitates those bacteria for whatever reason, but you actually produce more nitric oxide. So there's a lot of these ancient cultures that have had these kind of like humming practices to help with, paired with meditation and prayer.

But you can just go, and I think it's a fun thing to do while you're on a walk and do it on your exhale or if you ever do any sauna or cold plunge. It's a great thing to hum during that time and kind of stack that little routine. But it can be good for nitric oxide production.

I would say nose breathing is probably the more important thing because not only does nose breathing stimulate more nitric oxide production and circulation, it actually shifts your body into that parasympathetic tone. And I'm telling you this, like the creatures that live the longest, they have a relaxed parasympathetic tone.

Like a tortoise lives for like a hundred years and it's relaxed, it's eating veggies. Nothing's trying to mess with it. It's got the shell, it's like chilling, like straight up.

And the, the mouse that's freaked out about everything, eating it, lives for 18 months. Obviously there's genetics involved with that, but it is a constant sympathetic drive. Same thing for us.

If we can keep ourselves in that more relaxed state, which nose breathing, outdoor exposure is some of the best stuff you can do for that. That's a recipe for longevity.

ELLA: 00:17:40

Okay, question for you. I actually have a red light, which I'm lucky enough to have. I also fully appreciate being in the sun.

But on the days when it's rainy or if it gets dark at 4:00 or whatever, and I resort to my red light. Is there a time of day where it's better to use red light technology?

Dr. Anthony: 00:17:58

For sure. It's a time when the naturally there's going to be red light in the ambient environment, which is in sunrise and sunset.

That's the only two times where we experience red light in nature.

And just like blue light, I know blue light's kind of villainized, but what color is the sky, it reflects blue light into our eyes, and that gives us the sensation of being alert. It increases our reaction time. So it's like all these spectrums of light are natural and they have biological effects.

They just need to be slotted into the time that we would normally experience it.

So especially during the winter for you, where you live, like, it'd be a great thing to do in the morning as a little bit of a routine around sunrise or when kind of sunset or evening time could also be very good. You will get benefits all over the board. But if you can get it really synced up to the.

To the actual time that the sun is, it reinforces a healthy circadian rhythm, too, because this is just the flow of light. And if we can align with that, it's just so powerful.

ELLA: 00:18:47

Did you know you can call me? Yeah, I have a phone number. It's in the show notes. Do you know where the show notes are?

This is really important because after every show, I keep all the notes so that you don't have to. So if we talk about something, I'm linking to it. If we are sharing new insights, I'm summarizing it all.

The show notes are always available in your app. If you just scroll down, there's a link to them. So you open this episode, you check out the link there.

If all else fails, they're always atonair ella.com. there's no with. It's just on air ella. Com. See you there. All right, I have a totally different question for you.

You really specialize in busy moms, busy dads. And the key word there is obviously busy.

And I would imagine one of the things that you bump up against the most is people who say that they don't really have time to dedicate to exercise or fitness or movement. Where do you start with folks who have not prioritized that in their lives want to theoretically, but are having trouble doing so in application.

Dr. Anthony: 00:19:54

Yeah, it's a wonderful question.

And I like to first draw the distinction between what the body needs and the distinction between daily movement and formal workouts, because they're two separate things.

And if we look at, like, the longest living people around the planet, those centenarians, the pockets of longevity and Okinawa, Japan, Sardinia, Italy, these people are not doing P90X, but they are walking and moving and gardening. You know, they're. They're just like active in their lives. And that's really what the body needs to be. Well.

So our goal every single day is to check the movement box. And that literally means Walking, bending over, just being active and moving around in space. And when we do that, we're. Well, exercise is.

Is icing on the cake. It's important for fitness and muscle, which I'm sure we'll talk about.

Particularly when women are entering the fourth and fifth decade of life, it becomes even more important to strength train. But just for longevity, you just got to move.

I think there's a couple really good times throughout the day to kind of like slot in more walking and more steps. One is if you have the ability seasonally to get in that morning walk and get the sunshine. It can be a wonderful way to start your day.

Breathe through your nose, feel the gratitude, get the sun. Even walk for five to 10 minutes is an amazing way. It actually gets your lymphatic system going.

So we have the circulatory system, but we also have the lymphatic system that controls your immune system and also helps with the fluid retention in the body. So moving in the morning is great. Moving after a big meal is one of the best ways to regulate blood sugar levels. There's a ton of research there.

You have a big dinner, and then you walk afterwards. It blunts that blood sugar spike. So that's a really powerful habit.

If your family can go on a walk after dinner for five to 10 minutes, that would be absolutely amazing.

And then during the day, if there's ever a time where you could take a call while you're walking or just like, go to the bathroom and take the long way, if you work at an office or just park the car a little further away and walk, all of that counts. And that movement is so, so good.

It helps in tremendous ways with blood sugar regulation and just gets you in the mindset of being the type of person who moves. And this is also interesting. There. There seems to be a movement threshold in the human brain and nervous system.

If it's not met, the hunger and appetite circuits kind of get haywire. Like, if you don't, if you're too sedentary, you end up having more ghrelin production, which is one of the hormones that makes you feel more hungry.

So there's like a movement threshold that you need to meet, or your brain does not work properly, and these hunger appetite hormones with ghrelin and leptin don't work proper. This is why sedentary people, although they don't have much energy expenditure, actually tend to, like, still be hungry a lot. It's like. It's weird.

It's almost like the body short circuits when you don't meet this minimum threshold. So I just move more in, in all those ways. And I think walking is the start of that.

ELLA: 00:22:21

Okay, So I think that at least in America, we have done a huge disservice by tying movement and exercise together as though they're synonymous and they're completely different things. So I am so grateful to you for pointing this out to us.

Because humans were designed to move and you could argue that humans were not designed to do crossfit. You could argue that humans were not designed to do P90X or marathons or triathlon. Right. But sure, unquestionably we were designed to move.

And in tying the two together, many of us have taken movement just completely out of our day to day routine.

Dr. Anthony: 00:22:59

Yes, because we have that all or nothing mindset though. I can't exercise, so I won't do anything. And that's just a fallacy. You could move and just think about checking your movement box every day.

And then when it comes to formal workouts, like, the good news is that especially when you're, you know, 30, 40 and 50 and your recovery capacity from exercise naturally declines to a certain extent, you don't need to train every single day to have a great body and great effect. You can do these high intensity workouts I like even twice a week, you know, for 30 minutes and get in phenomenal shape.

And I do recommend some kind of strength and resistance training because it's going to be so important for hormones and, and building muscle.

And what we like to do is a kind of circuit style strength training in our Fit Mother program called Metabolic resistance training, where we take like the best movements that you need to be strong at, like squatting, pressing overhead, pushing away from your body, pulling. So squat, shoulder press, rows, swings.

And we put them in a circuit where you're doing strength training, but you're also getting cardio and they only take around 30 minutes. So that's the cool thing. Exercise, I believe, first and foremost should be something that you find a form that you enjoy.

So if you listen to this and you're like, you know what, Dr. A, I completely don't like strength training, but I like spinning.

Then if you go to a spin class twice a week, that's fine, that's great, you're getting great activity.

That being said, if you can do strength training, you get a pulse of that even twice a week for 30 minutes, it's plenty to stimulate your body, to build that muscle and also to improve your hormones, which around the perimenopause period, optimize your melatonin, your vitamin D and your muscle through the strength training is probably some of the best stuff you can do to ride that wave gracefully. And the longevity genes that we want to activate, they're called these sirtuin genes, they're activated through strength training.

So you're literally tapping into your body's own natural fountain of youth by doing that. And I would say twice a week is a good baseline target to aim for.

But certainly as you start to do it and you find something you love, it might be more enjoyable. You might go to 3, 4, 5. Maybe you become the kind of person that exercises every day.

But if you don't love it right now, I know I've worked with literally tens of thousands of busy parents. We do have 30 minutes twice a week to fit it in. It could be in the weekend, it could be on one of the weekdays.

You know, you, if you really do, you know, most of us just, it's, it's hard to get started, which you don't have a clear plan. You need something to follow.

And that's the benefit of joining like structured programs like Fit Mother, Fit Father, because you can slot in and you know exactly what to do without any guesswork. We have the time and it doesn't have to be every day.

ELLA: 00:25:18

Okay, I want to go back to something that you said about movement and appetite. I personally, in an N equals one study that I've been doing for about 50 years now, can agree with you.

Like when I go through phases where I'm stuck or I just feel like I'm in a rut or I traveled heavily and so I didn't get in even just movement. I am so much hungrier. Why is it that when you're in an all day conference, you're hungrier than you ever are anywhere at any other point in time.

And for me it's like totally counterintuitively, the more still I am, the more calories I need. I want to eat all the things at the conference and so on and so forth. So sitting and being stationary all day is like.

Dr. Anthony: 00:26:01

Yeah. In a dark room, disconnected from light. Yes. And, and I mean you, you asked me to get a little weird, so I'm gonna get a little weird here.

You're also being blasted by a ton of non native EMF too, which does have an impact on your health and your longevity as well. So it's a perfect storm, sitting on your butt, disconnect from the sunshine and blasted by non native emf.

It's not surprising that your body's a little haywire.

ELLA: 00:26:21

Okay, can we talk about EMF for a minute? Because I personally obsess and people think I'm weird.

Dr. Anthony: 00:26:26

I'm. I'm deep on this. I will go.

ELLA: 00:26:28

Okay.

Dr. Anthony: 00:26:29

Want to.

ELLA: 00:26:29

Okay, so first, an antidote to the phenomenon that we're just describing is just to remember that you're a person that was designed to move, A person who was designed to receive sunlight, and a person who is designed to breathe. Breathe fresh air every single day.

And if we can untie that and take it out of this snarled up ball that we have with lots of emotion and even sometimes shame attached to it. Anthony. Of exercise and fitness and not being shaped the way that we want to, or being 15 pounds heavier than we usually, all that nonsense.

And if we just started where we are with what we had and did what we can, then I hope somebody listening to us today starts or revisits that morning walk. Just as a baby step. Just as a baby step. Okay, but now we've opened Pandora's box, and I want to talk about it.

What do you mean when you say non native emf?

Dr. Anthony: 00:27:26

Well, so EMF stands for electromagnetic fields, but you also may hear it as emr, electromagnetic radiation. And like, effectively, these are the electric waves and fields that create what we experience as reality. Like visible light is emf.

It just happens to be in the visible spectrum. Radio waves are emf, microwaves are emf, and we. UV light that we get from the sun is emf. It's all electromagnetic fields.

But when we had the advent of technology and we're trying to have things communicate through Bluetooth or WI fi, we created these signals that are very, very high energy, very, very high frequency that aren't naturally found in the environment. And it turns out these things mess with us on a cellular level because our body also works electrically.

When we say it's good for us to have minerals. And we all look to get our different minerals. Sodium, potassium, calcium.

The reason these are important for our cells is because they literally create electrical gradients in our cells that allow communication nerves to fire action potentials. Your heart literally beats because it's fluxing sodium and calcium and potassium in rhythmic order. And what's crazy is these EMFs do create a.

They open up these things in cells called voltage gated calcium channels, which a cell is normally trying to regulate these minerals, and those things go kind of haywire. We also know that they affect mitochondria. And mitochondria are these energy houses of our cells. And it's all about ATP for longevity.

And mitochondria, well, non native EMF kind of junks up that electron transport chain where the mitochondria are trying to pass these electrons and create energy. And ATP EMFs affect that massively. They're tied to anxiety, they're tied to sleep disturbances, which as we know has a downstream cascading effect.

And we just weren't built to have basically what is a microwave? Because that's the frequency that your phone puts out.

It puts out microwaves in your pocket on your body all the time, let alone on your nightstand blasting you 24 7. And that's not even factoring in the light or even the dopamine hits from the constant stimulation.

I'm just talking about the fields through which these things go out.

d a Telecommunications act of: 1997

So it's like the rails of like future civilization society. And we put the health aspect totally on the back burner. It's been massively suppressed.

And the truth is there are literally thousands of studies and I'd be happy to send you links where your people can go ahead and find what these, these studies are that prove that these things are not good for human biology. And that's not to say that you can't be well in the presence of them, but at least in your home.

I'd love to share some tips on how to limit your exposure. And it's actually kids because they have a higher water content, are even more, they absorb even more EMF too, so it's damaging for them.

So EMFs are non native EMF and too many of them are going to negatively impact your health on, on a deep cellular level. And you need to limit your exposure if you want to live a long, healthy life.

ELLA: 00:30:20

I want to repeat what you said. It's something we've shared on the show before and that is that the younger you are, the juicier you are.

Your, your body composition is, is more water relative to an adult in, if we're talking ratios.

And so the, the waves that you're talking about are amplified in the smaller bodies and they're more detrimental, arguably developing bodies and brains. Okay, so I want to share because we get here and People are like, what do you want me to do, Ella? Like, throw my phone away?

I'm not throwing my phone away. I would never ask you to do that. But I think there are some really. There's good, better, and best, right?

And I'm not in better, and I'm definitely not in best. I'm hovering around good territory. I'm going to share some of the stupid, simple stuff that I do, Dr. Anthony.

And then I want you to tell us maybe what better looks like. How's that sound? Okay. So really, really simple. I don't have my hand on my phone all the time.

Like, it's shocking how often we hold our phone in our hands even when we're just talking to somebody else or sitting at it table or at our desk. It is like this reflex where you're touching it at all time.

Just disconnecting your hand from the cell phone is enormously helpful because you're not in direct physical contact with the emf.

And if you read the user manual that, say, Apple provides, which literally none of us have or ever will, it says to keep the phone 10 millimeters or more away from your body. Like it tells you that. It tells you not to basically not to keep it in your pocket while it's on.

Not to, God forbid, store it in your bra right over your heart when you're going for that morning walk. Like, just, just please don't. And we'll link to this stuff.

Please do send me those studies because people, again, they think I'm wearing an aluminum hat and like getting a little crazy when I talk about this. So I would love those studies.

Okay, two more tips for me is even just the cords to your phone, to your computer, to whatever you're using, keeping the cords off of your body, off of your legs when you're sitting. And then at night the phone goes into airplane mode.

And if that is not a luxury that you can afford because of some circumstances in your life, then put it on the dresser across the room so that it's more than four feet away from you and not microwaving you in your sleep. Sleep, which is supposed to be restorative. Okay, what do you think about my good level?

Dr. Anthony: 00:32:45

I think, I think your good level is accessible to every single person that's listening to this. I love it.

ELLA: 00:32:51

Tell me about better.

Dr. Anthony: 00:32:52

Well, I, I think like the, the nighttime hygiene is, is so essential because that's one time where if you're in the habit of having your phone on your nightstand and it's in full blast mode, not an airplane, let alone close to you. That's like one third of your life that's being unnecessarily irradiated when you're not even using the device.

So the cool thing about the phone in particular, which is going to be your number one source of EMF exposure is proximity is everything. There is a huge difference between a phone that is five feet away from you.

You might be getting 75% less exposure than if it's like right next to you. So even a little distance is massive. What some people do is turn off WI fi at night or put on a WI fi timer.

But I don't know how important that is other than if your bedroom is far away from the WI fi router, you're not going to be blasted by too much emf. Again, proximity.

If your WI fi router is next to your kid's or next to your bedroom, like you're going to be getting a lot of exposure and it might be good to turn that off at night. And the cool thing is like you can actually measure this stuff.

It's important enough that I recommend people get like a little Acoustometer off of Amazon $100 to $300 if you want to get a nice one that will measure all the radio waves, all the microwaves and you can really see. So for example, I have WI fi on in my house, but in my bedroom it's a non factor at night.

But getting the phone further away, if you work on a laptop or a computer during the day, if you can hardwire that sucker in with ethernet and turn off the WI fi again, you just limited a ton of your exposure. You're going to have faster, smoother Internet.

I know that's not always possible, but Ethernet is a really good option if you can get hardwired in to your main computer device that you use. And the other thing is like, not just like limiting exposure, but actually like getting earthing and grounding, like getting outside.

Connecting with that natural rhythm is very good.

Like our bodies do actually connect with the earth and we get the positive or I'm sorry, those healthy negative ions, the, the electrons are from the ground and it can help kind of recenter and connect us. So there's a mitigating effect of actually just being outside and being grounded and being connected.

And there's a lot of like research that shows that the body heals a lot better when it's connected to the earth. Like the Tour de France cycling team. I know you're a racer, but like they, they slept in some time in these earthing bags.

And they found that they're recovered a lot faster and their wounds healed a lot faster. And the reason this works, and it's actually interesting is one of the problems with EMF is it causes your blood to clump up.

It causes these, these things called rouleaux formations where your red blood cells normally want to be, be free flowing. And when they get very clumped up, they can't deliver oxygen. They get gunked up in small capillaries.

What emf, what grounding does, it actually causes those, those red blood cells to have proper charge and they distribute and they space themselves out so they work a lot better. So it literally just makes your blood healthier. And as we talked about from a longevity perspective, blood is like a huge factor in this.

So grounding and earthing can help the quality of your blood as well. And if you want to get crazy, you can actually get grounded or earth bed sheets and stuff like that.

They have devices that you plug into the little wall that ground in. There's a deep there, a deeper conversation around that.

But I'd say wi fi at night, phone a little further away from you, hardwire in your laptop, get some grounding and get outside, like barefoot are all very beneficial things.

ELLA: 00:35:50

Yeah. Grounding just for the unindoctrinated is as simple as standing on any form of earth with no shoes on.

Dr. Anthony: 00:35:58

Yes. And it sounds, it sounds crazy, but like it's just how it is.

ELLA: 00:36:02

It's a magnet and we're electric, so it's exactly right.

Dr. Anthony: 00:36:05

And you know, it's crazy. Like antioxidants, we talk about those, right? What we always want more antioxidants.

Well, vitamin C, for example, is a major antioxidant that's good for longevity. What vitamin C does is it donates electrons to neutralize these things called free radicals.

What grounding does is it literally gets your body in contact with free electrons. It's basically like an antioxidant. It's like vitamin G, vitamin ground.

It just connects you to the system and it also can just like discharge any kind of like static that you have built up in your body as well from non native emf.

And now Ella, because, because we're here and we're kind of going crazy and I, I am a little more of a kook on this for most people, but I think you're going to see this over the coming years. There is even going to be a movement towards people wearing more natural fabrics, more wool, more organic cotton, more hemp.

Because the Polyesters in these different kind of more synthetic fabrics actually have some issue with charge and they interact with the body in a, in a, in a way that's not as favorable.

ELLA: 00:36:58

Okay, I want to cook out with you on that, but I have one more psa and that is my lovely brothers and sisters.

The word laptop led us down a slippery slope because I say, and I drive my family insane, but laptops are actually not meant to go in your lap if you care about things like your testosterone levels or not microwaving your genitals. Can you please. Okay, you're the doctor. Can you please explain why laptops do not belong in direct contact with the laptop app?

And what we can do instead if we're. We legit are working on the sofa and we don't want to give that up for sure.

Dr. Anthony: 00:37:40

Well, I mean I have underneath my laptop here it is Ethernet in. But I also have one of these pads, these things underneath it that can limit exposure. So that's something.

You could get one of these EMF blocking pads. But I'm going to tell you, if it's still on your lap, even if you have one of these pads on, you're still probably getting roasted.

But I'd say it's probably not as bad as if you have your cell phone in your pocket at all times blasting data. You can close down more apps. So the, the EMF that your phone puts out or your laptop is going to be proportional to the amount of data it's pulling.

So for example, if you're trying to like watch a video on YouTube or Instagram and you.

And you're not connected to WI Fi, the EMF is going to be probably 10 to 100 times fold what it would be at baseline if you were just typing a text to somebody. So just be mindful of that. And I would say, like find a better place to sit.

And there's even certainly better posture places where you can put the laptop on a, on a desk or a tabletop and you sit up with better posture. Even better. If you actually only have a laptop as your primary computer.

You can buy some of these little stands, like roost stands that get your laptop up and just plug in a little or even I guess you could Bluetooth if you wanted to. I'd suggest against that. But plug in a little like mouse and keyboard. Now you have a little bit of distance from that devices could be a good thing.

And that also brings me to the idea of everyone doing the wireless AirPods. I'll tell you, they're Definitively not good for you. I mean, you're literally blasting Bluetooth into, into your skull on a constant basis.

I would only recommend people who are interested in optimizing their health to do the wired headphones too. And it's, I hate being the bearer of bad news, but it's just like, it's kind of how it is.

ELLA: 00:39:10

This is something that I ask about regularly and anyone who cares about this issue, I ask them what they use. So I have been, I have been on an earbud journey and I actually like when I use Bluetooth earbuds for a while. Like it makes me not feel great.

And I just look at it and you know, we're talking like a two hour bike ride. I'm probably doing more harm than good. So I'm super interested in what you like and use and we'll share that with everybody in the show. Notes.

The other thing I wanted to say about laptops is at the very, very least, okay, this is, we're not doing better or best, we're doing good. Okay? Just meeting people where they are.

If you can put anything like two pillows between you and the laptop and if you're really deep in work and you can turn off your wifi, won't that help? Dr. Anthony?

Dr. Anthony: 00:39:54

Oh, for sure, tremendously.

I mean the wi fi, you can turn off your wi fi and bluetooth and maybe you're just writing something like this on a word processor and you'll send your emails later. Like, for sure. If you turn those things off, you'll probably decrease your exposure by about 75 to 80%.

Now the two, the two pillow trick will probably give you about, I'd say probably a 30 reduction just from the space of it being a little further away from you.

ELLA: 00:40:14

Okay. We're talking baby steps here just to meet people where they are. So I appreciate that so much. And I'm 100 playing this section for my family.

So thanks for that. That was just for me, the very last thing that I wanted to ask you about.

And I'm fascinated that you brought this up because it's something that's only just sort of entered into my radar, into my zeitgeist.

And that is the fabrics that we wear because I this actually started with underwear and there was just all this talk about how we're all wearing like these synthetic laser cut, no lines underwear and cotton is, is so much better for you in that arena. And I just want you to elaborate a little bit on this subject because I am, I am brand new. I'm a Neophyte to this subject.

And I want you to tell us just a little bit more about that.

Dr. Anthony: 00:41:02

Okay, well, there's a couple layers of that discussion.

There's one layer of discussion that's saying that synthetic fabrics that have the wrong kind of dyes or are made from plastic may have actual chemicals or stuff like that that can get into our skin and that may not be good. And maybe hormone disruptors. So there's that level of the conversation.

Then there's another level of the conversation that gets more into the physics that's saying that things like polyester nylon actually creates an unfavorable charge on your skin where your skin is meant to naturally have a different charge differential than those fabrics have have. And natural fabrics are more biocompatible in that sense. And so that gets into like some deeper physics stuff.

But it's basically creating positive charge where there shouldn't be positive charge on the skin.

ELLA: 00:41:49

Okay, I'm gonna, I'm becoming a hemp wearing wired earbud, listening.

Dr. Anthony: 00:41:56

We're all turning into hippies, apparently. Maybe they figured something out, I guess. But like we can look good while we're doing it.

ELLA: 00:42:01

Listen, knowledge is power.

Dr. Anthony: 00:42:03

Yeah. And I think it comes down to like, you do these things and it kind of weaves back into that idea of, of natural law.

What is good for the human to live a long light, we need to be connected with the light and the dark cycles and have good sleep and circadian rhythm. We need natural foods, we need to hydrate and move our bodies and occasionally do some intermittent high intensity exercise. And like, I, I get it.

Like that's that the art of that is implementing that in a way that fits into your life and your family. That's sustainable. And that's, I think, the journey we're all on.

But I think the promise of that is in the process of doing those things, we learn and grow as people so much. We confront our limiting beliefs, we learn how to push ourselves and expand our minds and we help our families live healthy too.

So I'd like to offer people that these could be viewed as like another habit or thing I have to do.

But there's maybe a more expansive mindset that says this is your whole life and your journey here as a human and a soul and a being that you get to tend to this body and experience through it. And you're going to learn and grow as a byproduct of that. And we're all going to age. No one's making it out of here alive.

So we're just trying to do this in a way that helps increase our vitality. And. And it's so apparent when you do these things, you just feel better. And you have that kind of like. We call it, like, magnetic resonance.

You know, when someone's got that vitality and they're feeling like they're on fire, you can see it, you can detect it. And it's because they probably have a lot of these aspects dialed in for them.

ELLA: 00:43:19

I am completely inspired. I'm gonna go unplug the modem. Dr. Anthony Balduzzi, would you tell us where you like to be found?

Dr. Anthony: 00:43:29

For sure. I think the best place where you can see the body of our work is at our Fit Mother project website and YouTube channels.

So if you want to go directly to the website, fitmotherproject.com that's where we have our programs and our supplements, all geared for busy women and busy moms, 35 plus, who want to basically implement all this stuff into a lifestyle in the context of our community. We have all that there. And then our YouTube channel is awesome.

I think we have a couple hundred videos that cover everything you'd want to know about health, the exercise component, nutrition, stress reduction, sleep.

So if you enjoyed my presentation and what we got to talk about here, there's a lot more@fitmotherproject.com as well as our YouTube channel, and we have our Fitfather project channels as well.

ELLA: 00:44:06

Thanks so much.

Dr. Anthony: 00:44:07

Thanks, Ella.

ELLA: 00:44:08

Okay, I hope you enjoyed today's show and got something out of it that you can use.

If you did and you want to learn more, just head over to on air Ella.com where I put up links to all of the stuff that you did not need to write down today because I got you covered. There's no whiff. It's just on air ella.com thanks for listening, thanks for sharing the show, and thanks for inspiring me.

You are, quite simply awesome.