Tim Ferriss -- a double dose!


(Bunny) #1

Tim’s guest appearance on the FoundMyFitness Podcast…

I had the awesome opportunity to both be a guest on Tim Ferriss’s podcast and, more recently, to have him as a guest on my own podcast as well! Tim Ferriss is a 3-time NY Times bestselling author and world renown self-experimenter. His enthusiastic self-experimentation using a n=1, quantified-self approach is what made his book the 4-Hour Body one of the more interesting health & fitness books in the last decade.

In this podcast, which is about an hour and fifteen minutes long, we talk about a lot of awesome stuff. Some of which includes Tim’s favorite biomarkers to monitor (he’s notorious for doing highly regular blood testing), diet and nutritional ketosis, Alzheimer’s disease, exercise, his experience in beating lyme disease, the gut microbiome, and so much more. I have attached a transcript of the podcast for those of you that want to dive real deep.

tfs-ep12-timeline.pdf (240.5 KB)

fmf-tim-transcript.pdf (647.8 KB)

AUDIO FILE VERSION (click here)

Here’s the break-down…
•Tim’s experience taking vasopressin, a pituitary hormone that promotes retention of water by the kidneys, increase blood pressure, and may have some effects on short-term memory as well.
•How scientists have been able to manipulate the pair bonding behavior of prairie voles with the aforementioned “smart drug” (vasopressin), and, even more surprisingly, that scientists have correlated marital success (or lack thereof) to certain polymorphisms of the vasopressin receptor.
•What Tim’s leading blood biomarkers are that he focuses on optimizing (TL;DR – ketones, sex hormones as they relate to sex hormone-binding globulin, and hemoglobin a1c).
•The inherent difficulty and importance of proper isolation of variables when running your own personal experiments.
•Tim’s preferred blood ketone threshold (1.1 to 1.7 mmol/L) that he’s found works best for his personal, optimal cognitive performance.
The importance of tracking glucose along with ketones[1] to make sure you don’t confuse non-nutritional ketosis with the real deal[1].
•How eating refined carbs can lead to inflammation that can lead to diseases of aging like Alzheimer’s disease.
•How exercise can modulate the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, especially in APOE-4 carriers.
•The discovery of biomarkers (IRS-1) associated with Alzheimer’s, one of which can be used to predict Alzheimer’s disease up to 10 years in advance.
•The paradoxical nature of biological stressors as simultaneous friend and foe.
•The role of autophagy (or as Tim hilariously calls it, “the cellular zamboni”) in cleaning up senescent cells that would otherwise secrete dangerous inflammatory cytokines, thereby contributing to the vicious cycle of chronic inflammation
The importance of managing aspects of diet like intake of refined sugar for cancer prevention.
•Tim’s personal experience beating lyme disease and his insights on recovery, the origin and cause of “lyme hysteria”, and how some of the symptoms of what is described as “chronic lyme disease” may actually be caused by a disrupted gut microbiome from uninterrupted, long-term use of antibiotics.
The underlying biological reasons why it’s extremely difficult to restore gut diversity once it’s been lost.
•What Tim calls the “minimum effective dose” (when it comes to working out), and a little bit about Tim’s current workout routine.
•How doing something you are afraid of has positive benefits of allowing you to better deal with fear and to realize that sometimes fears may be a bit irrational.
•Tim’s practice of transcendental meditation[2] and how meditation can result in being mindful[2] and more aware of your intents and actions.
•Tim’s long-term plan for a screenplay.​

Related:

  1. How to use your blood sugar meter as a fuel gauge i.e. nutritional ketosis
  1. Cortisol, Stress (AF), Meditation & Cardiorespiratory Synchronization = Restful Alertness
  1. Your Gut Bacteria May Make It Harder to Lose Weight

Now carnivore, can't stomach beef ribeye and other issues