Q&A 462: Ben’s Latest Smoothie Recipe, How To Get Your Body To Sleep In Later, Should You Ice Sore Muscles, Do Lifewave Patches Really Work & More.

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Resources mentioned:

  • Creatine: A Conditionally Essential Nutrient
  • Podcast with Carly Kramer:
  •  Sodium bicarbonate and its effects on exercise performance
    • Arm & Hammer Baking Soda
    • pH is a scale used to grade how acidic or alkaline a solution is
      • 7.0 – neutral
      • lower – acidic
      • higher – alkaline
    • Body pH varies
      • Blood is slightly alkaline at pH 7.4
      • Stomach is highly acidic at pH 1-3
    • The body’s pH is tightly regulated
      • The acid-base balance is controlled mainly by the kidneys and lungs
    • The long term exposure to metals from alkaline water generators
    • During anaerobic exercise, the body's demand for oxygen exceeds the available supply of oxygen
      • Muscles cannot rely on oxygen to produce ATP
      • Muscles switch to a different pathway – from aerobic to anaerobic pathway
      • The major byproduct of the anaerobic pathway is hydrogen
      • The pH of the muscles becomes lower
      • What about lactic acid 
    • How can sodium bicarbonate help?
      • pH of 8.4
      • Buffering excess hydrogen during anaerobic exercise
    • The kidneys produce their own bicarbonate
    • Bicarbonate can accept a hydrogen ion and increase it's pH to make it less acidic
    • During exercise, bicarbonate and other buffering agents can work to pull hydrogen out of working muscle and into the bloodstream
      • Muscle returns to a less acidic state – less burn
    • Scientists have been looking into this for decades
      • Study shows supplementing with sodium bicarbonate significantly increases muscular endurance and performance
      • During interval training, significant improvements in workload and a significantly greater time to exhaustion
      • For strength performance, mixed research results
    • 0.3 grams per kilogram
      • Taken in the one to two hours leading up to exercise
      • Small sips to prevent stomach distress
    • If you have a cramp, you just have to taste something very bitter or super salty
    • Early Retirement Extreme by Jacob Lund Fisker
  • The concept of Zeitgeber and using food to shift circadian rhythm
  • Should you ice your muscles?
  • RICE treatment – Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation
    • A hypothesis that by icing or getting a muscle cold, you are shortening or restricting the body's natural inflammatory processes, not allowing the body to mount its own natural response to this hormetic stress
    • Thus you are going to recover more slowly if you get cold after a workout or if you ice an injury
  • An experiment with rodents
    • Induced injuries that would occur after sports exercise in people an average tough human workout
    • They then did icing and looked at muscle regeneration
    • Skeletal muscle regeneration was actually promoted by icing
  • Macrophages are immune cells that orchestrate the repairing process of injured muscle
  • Icing reduces the accumulation of these pro-inflammatory macrophages and prevents the expansion of the muscle
  • Japanese scientists explained why icing actually works to help an injury heal faster

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Want to submit your question for Ben to answer on the podcast? Submit here or send a direct message on InstagramTwitter, or Facebook. To make it easy to spot, preface your question with “Q&A Podcast Question: (ask a question)” and keep it concise, please.

Q: Robbie asks: I'd love for you to look into a company called “LifeWave.” I've been into biohacking, nutrition, and fitness (and following you) for some time. I've never had anything make me feel this way. It's a patch that turns on GHK-cu peptide, which in turn stimulates stem cells. I'd like your opinion on the science behind it. He holds patents on the tech… 54:08

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9 thoughts on “Q&A 462: Ben’s Latest Smoothie Recipe, How To Get Your Body To Sleep In Later, Should You Ice Sore Muscles, Do Lifewave Patches Really Work & More.

  1. Robie C Mills, RDN says:

    I really am not asking Ben to look into the patches for endorsement. I just would like someone with his expertise to check them out, as he said he constantly gets biohacking products to try. I have been researching peptides and stem cells, which I have found to be rather expensive too; though I would love a whole body stem cell make-over like you did !
    Ben I will send you a months worth for you to try, (unless you already have) if you will give your honest assessment after the month, you may be amazingly surprised at the value. You have my email address, just message me an address to send to. Again I appreciate your time and value your opinion! Robie C. Mills, RDN in Functional Medicine.

  2. Rick says:

    I agree with you Rene. The X39 and X49 patches are game changers. Ben needs to talk with his buddy Dr. Stillman who is big on the patches.. He’d definitely learn something.

  3. Robie says:

    OK Ben, you got a few things wrong with your take on the Lifewave x39 patches. The cost is 99.00 not 150.00; and the patch is non-transdermal. There is no GHK-cu peptide in the patch. It works off your bodies heat to stimulate via infrared light therapy to increase GHK-cu peptide, the way I understand it. They make it clear it is non-transdermal…. But thank you for addressing this in your podcast! I Love listening to you!

    1. most websites seem to be selling it for closer to 140+.

      Also, if there is (disappointingly) no GHK-CU peptide in package, since GHK occurs in human plasma, saliva, and urine and NOT skin, the mechanism of action here just doesn’t seem to make sense. Why the heck wouldn’t you just use transdermal or injectable GHK-CU?

      1. Jane says:

        Probably because Robbie is trying to promote the patches by getting you to endorse their use

    2. Rene Tate says:

      I agree with Robie. I noticed the discrepancies in the information. It makes me question validity of other statements from other podcasts. I’m not interested in lots of injections and IVs. The benefits of using X39 for my husband and I have been amazing. His cholesterol risk ratio factor dropped by 1.2. My gums are amazingly healthy at age 66 (according to my dentist and I haven’t needed my reading glasses for the last 2 months. Energy, sleep and inflammation all improved within the first few days of using them. I’m not looking for an endorsement. I just think more information should be gathered before statements are made. The claims that Lifewave make are minimal compared to the truth of the practical application and results “out there”. It’s worth investigating further

      1. Jane says:

        Ahhh, more sneaky infomercials
        Very expensive placebo effect

      2. I’m not saying they don’t work. I’m just saying you are probably paying more for them than you need to be.

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