[Transcript] – The “Dr. Strange” Of Medicine & Biohacking: Methylene Blue, Stem Cells, Lasers, Earth, Air, Water, Fire & More With Dr. John Lieurance.

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Transcripts

September 24, 2022

From podcast: https://bengreenfieldlife.com/podcast/elements-podcast/

[00:00:00] Introduction

[00:00:44] Podcast Sponsors

[00:04:25] Podcast and Guest Intro

[00:06:01] How to take Methylene Blue

[00:10:08] How to combine Methylene Blue with red light and other therapies

[00:18:26] Precautions when taking Methylene Blue, especially for those who are taking serotonin production regulators/inhibitors

[00:21:07] Remarkable benefits of MitoSkin

[00:23:47] The best way to get started with Methylene blue

[00:24:24] VSELS ( Very Small Embryonic-Like Stem) cells

[00:27:11] Podcast Sponsors

[00:30:58] VSELS or stem cells for regenerative medicine?

[00:34:18] Can I have this treatment even if I don't have any hearing-specific issues?

[00:35:58] How autonomic balancing increases HRV and simulates sleep

[00:39:42] Technology to activate the brain to modulate the stress response and increase HRV

[00:40:38] What is endo-nasal balloon adjustment?

[00:46:30] Elements of Vitality conference

[00:52:16] A Day in the Life of John Lieurance

[01:17:38] Upcoming Events

[1:18:04] End of Podcast

Ben:  My name is Ben Greenfield. And, on this episode of the Ben Greenfield Life podcast.

John:  What I'm doing is I'm combining both the Lumomed with the Shimspot together. So, it's a stem cell injection into the inner ear, followed by a series of these laser treatments and we're really excited about it. We've already had one case come back this week that is having just tremendous results with that.

Ben:  Faith, family, fitness, health, performance, nutrition, longevity, ancestral living, biohacking, and a whole lot more. Welcome to the show.

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Check out Traeger.com, T-R-A-E-G-E-R.com to learn more about these amazing grills, two of which are on my porch, and they eat pretty good. Later.

It's time to start hacking your sleep. Big part of that is choosing the right mattress for your desired outcomes, and Essentia is the company that I now use for my mattress. It's organic. They have a patented beyond latex organic foam technology. You may have heard me interview the founder, Jack. You can find that interview over at BenGreenfieldLife.com. The deep sleep cycles, the REM sleep cycles, the cooling, even the EMF blocking technology, they have introduced this EMF barrier foam technology that protects your body against the negative impacts of EMF exposure. So, your nervous system repairs while you sleep. They've actually done dark film microscopy studies on the red blood cell's reaction to sleeping on this thing. It allows those cells to return to their natural free-flowing state. So, you get optimized oxygen flowing through your body during the entire night of sleep. 

There's even this special profile you can fill out online that can customize your mattress to your sleep type. So, my wife's side is different than my side because we sleep on the big old California king. They have not just the mattress, they have pillows, they have frames, they have everything you would need for the best night of sleep ever. I would gladly pay, let's say 20 bucks a night for an amazing night of sleep. This thing pays for itself pretty quickly. It's allergen-free, packed technology that gives you the active cooling, accelerator recovery, and unmatched deep sleep cycles with no funky electricity churning under your body while you're asleep. They're going to give you 100 bucks off your mattress purchase.

You go to MyEssentia.com/BenGreenfield. That's MyE-S-S-E-N-T-I-A.com/BenGreenfield. And, you can be sleeping on the same mattress that I am now using. And, I absolutely love it.

Alright, you guys may have already heard, but it's coming up quick so I got to tell you again, I'm speaking at this place called Wild Health. This fabulous place is like this castle in Kentucky, one of my favorite places to go to. And, you can stay before or after my talk to go to horse races and have fun. They got underground kayaking and caves, and the castle itself has an organic farm-to-table lunch and dinner and breakfast. Great sausages and bacon, by the way. A garden. They got a whole farm out there that I mentioned amazing horses.

Anyways, October 22nd, I'm doing a full-day event, 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., interactive lectures, Q&A, meditation, nature walk, and intimate dinner where I feed you chocolate-covered strawberries. You get the idea. It's going to be so fun. My whole family is going to be around, so you might get me. My wife and kids will be there too. It's called the Awake and Aware Series. Go to BenGreenfieldLife.com/WildHealthPrinciples to get in on this Awake and Aware Series. That's BenGreenfieldLife.com/WildHealthPrinciples. And, a code BG15, BG15 will get you 15% off.

Hello? That sounded mysterious, didn't it? The episode that you're about to hear is with my friend Doctor Strange. Actually, Dr. John Lieurance, one of the coolest doctors I know, who's into all sorts of crazy stuff like methylene blue and stem cells and lasers. And, we're even doing this big event in December down at his biohacking/crazy health facility in Sarasota, Florida. So, we talked about that in the episode 2, and I'll put the links to that event if you go to BenGreenfieldLife.com/Elements. It's in December, by the way.

After I talked with John, I'm like, “Dude, the only thing we didn't talk about was a really solid day in the life of how you use all this crazy stuff that we talked about on yourself each day, like exemplification.” So, he agreed to lay out for you what a day in his life looks like. So, if you stay tuned towards the end of the show, we're going to transition into that, and you're going to learn a ton more about how he weaves in everything from endonasal to methylene blue, to some of the light therapy protocols in his own life. So, you're going to dig this one, and that'll be at the end of today's episode. All the shownotes are at BenGreenfieldLife.com/Elements. Here we go.

I'm not going to ask you what's up to your butt, John, but welcome back to the show, man.

John:  How about I tell you anyway?

Ben:  How about you tell me anyways? You're one of the few guys who just volunteered that information. So, go ahead. Do share.

John:  Well, I've got a 60-milligram methylene blue suppository going right now.

Ben:  Powerful.

John:  Figured I could use a little bit of extra brain power. And, we're recording a podcast so that was my go-to.

Ben:  Well, you know what, we might as well start right there because you and I were at that event called RUNGA done in Austin a couple of months ago, and you walked up to me this little plate where you take some in your suppositories, these methylene blue suppositories. And, I think we talked in the last show about how rectal delivery of methylene blue, and you can also get into what that is was a pretty cool way to absorb this molecule. But then, you also said that a lot of these troches that you dissolve in your mouth, you see all over social media with people with the Smurf mouth, that doesn't actually work that well and that you either got to swallow the methylene blue or do it as a suppository. So, can you share the ins and outs of that real quick?

John:  Well, Francisco Gonzalez Lima is considered the forefront of methylene blue. He's done a lot of research and has for many years. And so, his opinion is that there's very poor absorption with a sublingual delivery and that there's a lot of substances that are broken down by stomach acid, and first passed to the liver. And, we've discussed a lot of that in the prior podcast about why a lot of nutrients you take orally don't get into your system. But, with methylene blue, it actually enhances its absorption where it's mixed with stomach acid. If you have a substance and it's dissolved directly in the stomach, then that seems to be a really sweet way to go. And so, what we were doing is we were using a 60-milligram suppository, but then we also had a 300-milligram suppository.

Ben:  Okay.

John:  But, what we're finding is a lot of people were having a hard time retaining it because it was a little bit irritating. So, people would wind up having to go to the bathroom. So, we were having people cut it into quarters and dosing about 75 milligrams per day. And, this was something that we were doing pretty regularly here at the clinic with my patients. And, we're finding just terrific results with that. But, people were experiencing it a bit messy. And, I think you might have seen that at RUNGA. I'm cutting those suppository up and little flakes are getting here and there.

Ben:  Yeah. And, you're referring to cutting it up if you wanted to take a suppository that you normally show up your butt and take it orally, right?

John:  Right.

Ben:  Yeah.

John:  So, the suppository is a suspension in palm oil. So, it's fairly hard at room temperature. But, it's soft enough to cut it. And so, what we've done is we've created a bar. We just launched this product yesterday actually, and it looks a lot like a troche, except it's not meant to absorb sublingually. It's meant to either take the full bar or you can cut it into individual small sections and put it in the back of your throat and then drink something so your mouth doesn't turn blue. And then, it just goes straight into your stomach and absorbs very nicely.

Ben:  So, it does absorb in the stomach without you having to have the blue mouth or much to my wife chagrin, the blue toilet bowl.

John:  Yeah. I remember that message, you weren't happy with me when I sent you the first beta test.

Ben:  I was happy with you because I felt great, but whoever cleans the toilet wasn't happy with you.

John:  Okay.

Ben:  Anyways, I figured it out. I think it was baking soda that I put in there to clean it out. Just used baking soda and little scrub, but yeah, I think you use suppository and very precise with how you deposit said suppository. When you're squatting, you can manage. But, I seem to not be able to keep a clean toilet bowl when I put the methylene blue on my butt.

But, I know you wrote a whole book about methylene blue, and I realize a lot of people who are listening right now who may not even know why we're talking about putting blue stuff in our mouth or up our butt, and even though you have a whole book about, I think, is that MethyleneBlueBook.com?

John:  Yes.

Ben:  Okay. And, that book is not free, but I think you gave me a free code. It's BEN, right, to download that one?

John:  Yeah.

Ben: Okay. Alright. So, I'll put that in the shownotes at BenGreenfieldLife.com/Elements.

But, what I would love to hear is how you're actually using methylene blue in very unique ways that go beyond just swallowing it or using a suppository because you have this IV protocol now that I'm hooked on this skin product that you sent me that I think has blue in it. I haven't tried it yet, but you mentioned to me you have a bar. So, talk to me a little bit more about methylene blue and everything you're doing with it right now.

John:  Yeah. Well, it's a pretty interesting molecule. I would put it up there with melatonin. And, those two molecules are just mind-blowing on how expansive of an effect they can have in the body because my clinical philosophy has been that the body is a self-healing, self-regulating machine. It's got the wisdom to heal itself. And so, what happens is that people at a cellular level, they run out of battery power. The mitochondria where the rubber meets the road, where you make energy, it starts to fail. And so, the way I look at it is that all stresses have one thing in common. And, that one thing is that they all cause inflammation. And, they may cause it in a unique way with a certain set of cytokines, but it's all the same thing, and that's the stressor that affects the cell. And, mitochondria just really don't like inflammation, so they literally shut down and they say we're not going to do this anymore. And so, they turn over all of the energy production to outside of the mitochondria, and that process is called the Warburg effect. And, this is what happens with cancer cells. But, what a lot of people don't realize is this is happening all the time, and this is actually at the core of most, if not, all diseases.

And so, then what happens is that when we run out of cellular energy, then our body loses its ability to express health and vitality and it shows up in different ways based on our genetics or environmental influences. Here at the clinic, we really like to try to focus on mitochondrial health. And so, that's the methylene blue and melatonin both really shine because they're really highly beneficial for healthy mitochondria. So, in the mitochondria, you've got four proteins, right? So, it's called the electron transport chain because what the mitochondria is doing is it's moving electrons. And, the process of moving electrons, it's an exothermic reaction. So, this is producing heat, but then the mitochondria use that to make ATP.

And so, those four complexes which are those four proteins are upregulated. The first three are actually upregulated 110%, and then the fourth complex, which is the cytochrome complex, “cyto” meaning cell, and chrome meaning light, is upregulated about 70%. And, that's why when we add red light into the whole system in combination with methylene blue, we get this really nice effect to the mitochondria, because the methylene blue is absorbing the red light, and it's reflecting the blue. That's why it's so brilliantly blue. And so, you get this powerful upregulation. I think the science says that it upregulates about 30% mitochondrial output.

Ben:  So, that translates to a 30% increase in ATP production, right?

John:  Right.

Ben:  It's pretty impressive. Really, I think the best way to think about this from a chemical standpoint is it's just basically an electron carrier. I think what's interesting is how it —

John:  Yeah.

Ben:  Yeah, exactly. It was originally developed to my understanding to function against malaria and I think a few other like hemoglobin type of issues. But, it seems to be beneficial for the brain as well because of the cellular oxygen consumption and the decrease in what's called anaerobic glycolysis. You produce more ATP. That means the cells got a burn glucose less, create less lactic acid. And, I think that's why a lot of times now it's being used for neural damage, for concussion and TBI, cytotoxicity in the brain as well.

I don't know if you've ever experimented with this before, but I have in the past used the oral or the suppository form of methylene blue done red light therapy, and then combine that with hyperbaric oxygen. And, I mean, it feels like you grew a third lung when you do that and you just feel fantastic. I mean, you crush workouts for the next couple of days. I mean, there's something going on there with it. And, like you mentioned, you can take it and just lay on a red light bed or get exposed to infrared light. But also, one of my favorite things to do is just swallow some because I quit dissolving in my mouth after you filled me in on the fact that I didn't need to and go for a walk in the sunshine. And, I mean, you just feel you're making extra energy while you're out on something as simple as a sunshine walk.

John:  Yeah. Well, you've got some really good points. And, I think when you start looking at how many parts of health that methylene blue works on, it's impressive. And, for an infection, we think that when we get an infection, it's going to end up with inflammation. I mean, this current virus or any virus that you get, any bacterial infection, we have this inflammation and then our immune cells have to actually respond to that infection. And, when you have this inflammation shutting down your mitochondria because that we talked about in the beginning is that mitochondria don't want to operate when the inflammation gets to a certain level, it really relates to this whole hormetic curve. So, once you reach that hormetic window where you go past the ability of the mitochondria to handle the stress or the inflammation, it shuts down, and then you're going to lose this battle for an infection. Or, with neurology, you have both cardiac. There's amazing cardiac applications to methylene blue and even melatonin.

Ben:  And, you guys actually put it into IVs as well. You can literally get a blue IV.

John:  Yeah. So, we have a proto called LumeBlue. And so, what we'll do is we'll run a high dose of magnesium. And, I like doing that either before my ozone or before my methylene blue because it vasodilates patients' capillaries and their blood vessels. And, with ozone, it kind of alkalizes their blood and it helps with oxygen absorption a little bit more. So, we do that IV, and patients usually get really relaxed, they feel good. And then, we'll do a slow drip with the methylene blue. And then, we have a device where the laser catheter goes into the vein. And then, we'll usually do direct laser to the blood for 45 minutes to an hour. And then, after that, we put them in not a hyperbaric, but it's called a CVAC. It's a bit different. It's a little bit, but more of a dynamic device and it's changing the pressure, which what I love about this, Ben, is that by that change in pressure, it's really pumping the glymphatics and the lymphatics in the body. So, this IV gets pushed deeper into the tissues. And, in addition, you're getting all of those signaling with stem cell upregulation, mitochondrial biogenesis, and all those other good things that you see with hyperbaric.

Ben:  Yeah, I think that's actually the acronym the CVAC stands for, Cyclic Variation in Adaptive Conditioning. So, the best way to explain it would be like you're going to the top of a mountain and then back down over and over again while you're inside a unit like that. So, it's similar, I guess a little bit probably to that thing I exercise with sometimes called the LiveO2, which allows you to switch from full oxygen to hypoxia where you're like riding a bike; except in this case, you're sitting inside a pod that's regulating that. Yeah. Or, is it more pressure or oxygen?

John:  It's actually hypoxic because it take you to altitude and down the sea level. And so, it's the pressure change that activates all the signaling factors and adapt with that —

Ben:  Okay. Yeah, so it's not cycling oxygen delivery, it's cycling pressure.

John:  Well, you are getting a lot of hypoxic effects. I mean, you'll be short breath and there's a lot of benefit to that.

Ben:  Yeah, yeah. Cool. And, by the way, I'll allude to this a few times, then we can get into it a little bit more at some point during the show. But, anybody who winds up coming to our December conference down there in Sarasota, I'm sure there might be an opportunity to climb inside that thing and try it out, maybe do a little bit of methylene blue beforehand.

One thing I should mention though and then I do want to hear about some of these other things you put in the blue in like the MitoSkin, and apparently got only an energy bar with blue in it. We should probably caution, and this might seem a little bit of a disconnect, but bear with me here. If you look at people who are doing ayahuasca or that's a DMT complaining plant source that's combined with a vine that's got a monoamine oxidase inhibitor in it. Meaning that it allows the DMT to basically stick around a little longer, serotonin to stick around a little longer in the synaptic cleft from a neuronal standpoint. These monoamine oxidase inhibitors, they basically can allow the cell to be flooded with dopamine or with serotonin or other neurotransmitters. Norepinephrine would probably be another. And so, if you were on something else that was upregulating serotonin production, or something else that was inhibiting serotonin uptake, or dopamine uptake, or norepinephrine uptake, like an antidepressant or an SSRI or something like that, you'd have to be kind of careful with methylene blue, wouldn't you?

John:  Yeah. So, this is really a good point. It's the opinion of Francisco Gonzalez Lima that actually I heard him in an interview, and this was brought up. And so, the way that that came about is there was five cases that were receiving something called a thymectomy because the thymus gland has a lot high metabolism. So, there's a lot of mitochondria in it just like the brain and the heart is. Since the methylene blue is attracted to the mitochondria, those tissues get very bright blue. And so, there was an advantage with them giving very high doses to these patients in an IV because then when they go in and dissect the thymus, they could see it very clearly. And so, what happened is there was five cases that were also on SSRIs and they didn't do so well, so it was lethal for them. And so, the FDA came out with a warning saying that you should not take methylene blue in conjunction with SSRIs.

But, what happened is shortly after that, the Mayo Clinic came out and retracted that warning. And, their opinion was that only when you have this surgery that you need to be careful of having methylene blue and SSRIs. And so, Canada has also removed this warning, but the FDA has not. It's something that I think people should be aware of, but the doses they were giving these people in these thymectomies were massive. They're nothing close to what's typically recommended. And, you should talk to your healthcare professional and you shouldn't be working with someone with regards to methylene blue anyway.

Ben:  Okay, alright. Got it. Well, that's good to know.

The skin stuff, you gave me some of that at RUNGA, tell me about that one because it's my impression, it has the blue in it or at least it's blue tinge so I assumed.

John:  So, it's a melatonin-based skin cream, it's called MitoSkin, and it's got an antioxidant called apocynin. It's got resveratrol, it's got the peptide GHK copper peptide, and it's also got quite a bit of melatonin. And, I beta-tested this cream for about a year before I released it. And, what it did for my skin was really incredible. And so, I've been like Jeff Hayes's wife Dory.

Ben:  Yeah.

John:  Hope she's not upset that I'm name-dropping. But, there's been a few people that I've hooked up and they've just called and they want more and more. So, it's been really popular. You really liked it. I was really happy with that. We've been having a lot of success with that particular cream. I mean, you don't get tired either. You think that if you're going to put melatonin dermally that it's going to have an effect. But, in general, you can dose melatonin during the day and not get tired because it's the light that goes into your eyes that prevents the pineal melatonin from actually activating it in the brain.

Ben:  What's it do for the skin exactly?

John:  We talked a lot about melatonin in the last episode that we did and it's the ultimate stress-resilient molecule. And, if you think about the skin, it's having to deal with a lot of stresses. It's where our environment and us kind of have to relate. And so, sun is probably one of the more stressful effects to the skin. And so, this is the most powerful antioxidant that's available. And, when you put it dermally and you supply it to the skin, it can be quite effective at creating a healthy skin. And, there's a whole chapter in the melatonin book on skin as well. So, I would recommend if people really want to dive into the deep mechanics of this that they could take a look at that.

Ben:  Okay, cool. By the way, that stuff smells amazing. It's called MitoSkin, right?

John:  Yeah.

Ben:  It's my favorite smelling skin product now of all time. I think you just started making, so I haven't even tried it yet and I'm wondering if it turns your mouth blue. But, you actually put the methylene blue into like an energy bar?

John:  No, no. So, we're calling it a bar, but actually, it looks like a troche.

Ben:  Oh, okay.

John:  So, it's a tiny bar.

Ben:  I got you.

John:  That's something you can throw in the back of your throat and then drink so that your mouth doesn't turn blue.

Ben:  Okay, got you, got you. So, a ton of stuff that you could do with methylene blue that just goes way beyond dissolving one of these troches in your mouth.

So, I think probably the best place for people to start, and correct me if I'm wrong would be like, try methylene blue and combine it with red light or sunlight. I think that's a very best entry-level point to really feel the effect of this stuff, at least from a cognitive standpoint in my opinion.

John:  Yeah. I found most people report back that they feel quite amazing on methylene blue. They feel more cognitively there, their memory, their attention, their exercise seems more robust. They're able to lift more. So, anything that you could imagine that would be related to cellular energy, methylene blue seems to really support that.

Ben:  Yeah. Yeah. Okay, cool.

So, I'm going to jump around here to a few sexy things I want to talk about that I haven't had a chance to mention on the show. I know that you've been doing stem cells for quite some time, but now, from what I understand, you're doing these VSELS, these very small embryonic-like stem cells, which I'd love for you to explain to folks. I've had that protocol done a couple of times. It's amazing. Did it with Dr. Harry Adelson and then also with the Dr. Holland Chen. And, I haven't actually been down to your clinic yet, which is why I'm so excited for December to see the cool things you're doing with these VSELS. But, you're activating them with lasers or something like that. Can you explain what you're doing with VSELS? 

John:  Yeah. So, Dr. Todd O, he's in Carlsbad, California. They're in Southern California. I've been working with him and he's the one that really pioneered this technology. Anybody that's using this technology is probably in his network. So, Dr. Todd developed a laser that's very special, which it activates these tiny little pluripotent stem cells that are in your blood. Okay. And, they're in the billions in your blood. And so, you can take a blood draw that would be similar to PRP and you can activate it with this laser and it liberates all of these tiny VSELS. So, they're pluripotent, so they can turn into anything, and they're small, so they're 11 to 3 nanometers in size. So, they're almost the size of exosomes. So, they can go anywhere. And so, you can inject them like you do with any other stem cells. So, here at our clinic we use, a lot of ultrasound guidance and I think we did three rotator cuff repairs this morning and couple of spines. And so, we do these cases pretty regularly here.

And so, we can inject the VSELS directly or there's a way to actually hone them in to specific areas of the body like the eyes or we'll have a stroke patient and there might be a certain place on the MRI that we can see where the damage is. And, we can actually use the laser to guide them to go directly to that area where in the heart, there's actually some really good research that Dr. Todd did on the heart, which is really impressive.

Ben:  Wow. Okay. So, when they get activated with the laser, how's that actually working? Are they in some kind of a bin or a basin where they're getting activated? Or, what's the actual logistics of doing that?

John:  Well, they have a binding. And so, there's a binding action that happens with these cells that holds them into these complexes in the blood. And so, what the laser does is it activates this specific binding protein and then it releases it and then they're just basically released into the serum.

Ben:  Are you ready to get a golden milk latte without spending 8 bucks at the local coffee shop? There is this stuff. It's this gold latte premixed blend, delicious and filled with super foods and medicinal mushrooms. It is one of the best nighttime tonics. Keeps your mind off of ice cream and other sweets at night. Kind of heals your body while you sleep. I shouldn't say heals. I don't know if I can say that heals, cures. All I know is it makes you feel amazing because it promotes restful sleep and supports physical recovery. You wake up refreshed without drowsiness, taste delicious, and like a little bit of warm coconut milk. So good. Low sugar, so it's a dessert like tea that's guilt-free. 100% USDA-certified organic. It's called Organifi Gold. Organifi makes these amazing juice powders. Organifi Gold is turmeric and ginger, reishi mushroom. It's all blended together and tastes so, so good. They've got lemon balm in there and turkey tail as well, which are super nourishing to your gut and your immune system. You get 20% off of this stuff. You go to Organifi.com/Ben. That's Organifi with an i.com/Ben and that will get you 20% off your order from Organifi. And that's the gold juice powder I just told you about. 

It's hard to overstate how important a certain mineral is for all aspects of our health. You'll hear all these different experts talking about this mineral now like Dr. Mark Hyman, Andrew Huberman, all these health industry podcasts, authorities, and physicians and researchers. It's magnesium if you didn't guess it already. And, there's a long list of symptoms and diseases that can be treated and even cured with magnesium. Magnesium way back when was a critical element for a lot of cures. Doctors use magnesium for arrhythmia, for constipation, for pre-eclampsia, for seizures, for some reason now, doctors seem to use as a last resort, and they'll put patients on high doses of magnesium if they're at risk of premature labor or seizure, or other very serious conditions. But, I would encourage you to use it as a preventive strategy. Magnesium deficiencies are widespread and you shouldn't just wait until you're deficient to keep your levels topped off. Even more critically, there's not just one type of magnesium. There's like seven different types that you need.

So, there is a form of magnesium called Magnesium Breakthrough. Okay. So, what it has is all those versions, the seven different versions of magnesium. Now, it's almost impossible to get enough magnesium taken through your food alone because our soil is so overworked and mineral depleted and lacking organic matter. So, you can't just get all seven forms of this by eating liver and kale and blueberries all day long. As a matter of fact, I read somewhere and you got to take this with a grain of salt, but either way, 10 years ago, we need to eat one orange, and now we need to eat 10 to get the same amount of nutrients. And again, I don't know if that's precise, but you do know that the soil is depleted and we're getting less minerals in our soil. Unless you have some organic garden, you're adding a bunch of minerals too, you could be deficient in magnesium. You can test it. You can get what's called the red blood cell magnesium test. I see very few people come back with high levels when I'm looking at the labs of people I consult with. And, I just tell them, take Magnesium Breakthrough. I take six a night before I go to bed. I'm an overachiever. I think you're supposed to take four, but I like six because I have a great poop the next morning, I sleep well, I'm relaxed and it just tops off my levels. I sweat a lot too, so that really helps.

So, it's called Mag Breakthrough. You go to magbreakthrough.com/Ben. That's M-A-G-B-R-E-A-K-T-H-R-O-U-G-H.com/ben. Use code BEN10, that'll boost your intake of magnesium. You'll start feeling better today, so don't wait to be deficient. Just start taking the best forms of magnesium now on one capsule at magbreakthrough.com/Ben. Code BEN10 will get you 10% off of any order from magbreakthrough.com/Ben.

From a regenerative medicine standpoint, it's my understanding that the VSELS are way smaller than a stem cell. So, there's certain things that stem cells are just too large to do, whereas the VSELS can penetrate and be found in every single tissue of the body. So, if you were to get them for an injury or for an anti-aging effect or something like that, would you actually notice more than you get from say stem cells or stem cells, for example, combined with exosomes and other signaling molecule?

John:  Yeah. There's a lot of options out there. I imagine a lot of people probably, their head is spinning because there's all these different types of stem cells. And, we've worked with just about all of them here. We started doing stem cell — we're one of the early adopters. We've been doing this type of work for almost 25 years. My opinion is that VSELS is probably the best option that's available right now. And, what's nice about it is it's your own cells, but you're at that level of going and having these culture expanded placental stem cells. So, you have less risk, it's less expensive, it's a lot easier. All it is is a blood draw.

Ben:  So, these VSELS, would people normally get those as an IV infusion, or do you inject them directly into affected joints or both?

John:  Oh, Ben, I'm glad you brought that up. That's what's amazing is that you can inject this IV, and then that's when you can take the laser and hone them into different parts of the body. So, you have two options with this. One is to directly inject it, and then the other one is to actually hone them in with the laser apparatus. And, we're starting some research on the inner ear. It's kind of another subject I wanted to talk about on the podcast was this procedure called Sunavae.

Ben:  Okay.

John:  We haven't really talked about it on other shows, but for the last seven years I've been offering a German laser treatment for tinnitus and hearing loss and other inner ear issues. It's called Lumomed. And so, I've been the only practitioner in the United States doing this German procedure. And basically, it's a series of laser treatments to the inner ear to basically create a rejuvenation effect. And, we've been having some good success with that. And recently, I was introduced to a Korean ENT, and his name is Minbo Shim. And, Dr. Shim has developed a device that allows a physician to specifically inject the inner ear with this device. And so, he's got a lot of research that he's done on either PRP or bone marrow stem cells into the inner ear for hearing loss and tinnitus. And, it's quite impressive.

Ben:  Wow.

John:  He came to our office about six weeks ago and he did a training and we ran probably about 20 patients through where what I'm doing is I'm combining both the Lumomed with the Shimspot together. So, it's a stem cell injection into the inner ear followed by a series of these laser treatments, and we're really excited about it. We've already had one case come back this week that is having just tremendous results with that.

Ben:  And, that's for tinnitus?

John:  Tinnitus, hearing loss, hyperacusis, vestibular disorders.

Ben:  Okay. So, if you look at the ear, this is where my mind is going, and you have the, I think they're called the stereocilia, that are the tiny little hair cells that will vibrate, and those vibrations get transmitted to the brain and interpreted as sound. And then, you also have these little hair cells, the vestibular hair cells which are related to balance. Let's say I didn't have tinnitus and I didn't have hearing loss, but I just wanted to, let's say, hear even better or have better balance for performance or something like that. Would this be a treatment protocol that you could get if you just wanted to go from good to great and not address hearing loss or tinnitus or something like that?

John:  If it was more of a performance thing because I'd say when you get to 30, 40 years old, there's going to be some decline in those cells. So, I would lean more towards the laser procedure for that and not start getting into doing injections because I don't think that that would be necessary. I think this could change a lot with tinnitus patients in particular. I mean, there's really no options. I mean, nothing really works very well. So, the reason I brought it up while we're talking about VSELS is my idea is that we may be able to actually direct these cells, these VSELS directly into the inner ear. In fact, I had a long conversation with Dr. Todd last night and we're going to start some clinical research together here at the clinic in Sarasota regarding this process.

Ben:  Okay, cool. Now, I'm super excited to see all this stuff. And again, if folks can make it down to this Elements conference and we'll talk more about that hopefully here soon, you'll get a chance to see some of this stuff first hand.

But, I did want to talk about a few other things before we discuss this conference, and that is this autonomic balancing that you're doing. You started to describe it to me, some way that you're able to increase HRV and simulate sleep without someone actually sleeping from what I understand. Can you explain what that is?

John:  So, this is something that is a new technology. And, I ran into this biological scientist in Santa Barbara. Actually, I was away for a couple of weeks here. I went to Santa Barbara and one of my friends is Chris Robinson. He's the lead singer of the Black Crowes and they had kind of their last show there in Santa Barbara. And so, a friend of mine suggest that I meet with this scientist. And, I sat down and was completely blown away at the technology that this company is releasing. And basically, it's using breathwork. So, it's using the breath and then it's also using mechanoreceptor activation through certain vibration patterns. It's in conjunction with the in-breath and the out-breath and it's a series of a guided meditation with this device that creates this mechanical stimuli guided with the breath. And, what it does and the research they've done for stabilizing the autonomics, and it's almost like exercising the autonomics. So, the autonomics is like your automatic nervous system, and it's separated into the parasympathetic and the sympathetic. You've got the stress, the sympathetic that's mostly run by cortisol. And then, you have the parasympathetic nervous system that's resting and digesting, and that's really primarily activated through melatonin. And so, you have this duality. And, heart rate variability is going to be based on how balanced those two systems are.

And so, most people have too much sympathetics. And, as we get older, we get less regulation through the central nervous system, and you have this escape sympathetic dominance in this overstressed state, and it shuts down digestion and it causes all kinds of different problems in the health. And so, this is one of the reasons why breathwork can be so helpful, meditation can be helpful. Doing things that you love can be helpful. The Zen Nasal Spray, it's something that we've talked about in the past to kind of activate the trigeminal nucleus and support the parasympathetic nervous system. And, oh, by the way, we launched the IRE eye drop as well.

Ben:  What's that?

John:  It's an herbal eye drop that burns kind of like the Zen. And then, we also have the Boca Zen. So, we have three products that activate the parasympathetic nervous system through the trigeminal nucleus.

Ben:  Okay. And, to clarify real quick, John, by the way, the Zen, that is very similar to the Sananga eye drops, the traditional Amazonian medicine that's used in the eyes to increase sensory perception and things like that prior to hunting or other ceremonies.

John:  That's exactly what it is. Yeah. Except I've lowered the strength a bit. It's not as strong as what would normally be served at a ceremony. And, I've added a peppermint oil, so it's got this nice minty fresh feeling.

Ben:  Yeah. And, it doesn't burn quite as much. I've used both, but you definitely feel you can see more clearly. Well, not right after. If you use it, you can see jack squat. But then, once your eyes adjust, it feels really, really nice. Now, the IRE, it's basically something similar, but you have the methylene blue in it?

John:  No, no, not in that one. It's just the peppermint and the Sananga.

Ben:  Okay, I got you. So, you're essentially taking the Sananga and combining it with essential oils.

John:  Right.

Ben:  Okay, cool. Cool.

What's the name of this technology or this system that you're using to activate the brain to modulate the stress response in increase HRV?

John:  Well, I got a surprise. I was speaking to this scientist last night and he's agreed to fly out from California to Florida and present at our Elements of Vitality event. We're going to be introducing this technology for the first time to the biohacking community.

Ben:  Wow. Okay, cool. I'm stoked. I'm stoked. We'll get into it a little bit more here, but that's December 2nd that we're doing that, right?

John:  Yeah. Yeah. Ben, it's so next level. I mean you go into such a calm blissful, quiet now moment state with this device. People are going to hear about this eventually, but I like the idea that you and I are going to break the news first.

Ben:  Dude, I dig it. I dig it. Okay, cool.

So, one other thing before we talk more about the Elements Event and what's going to be there, you've, like I mentioned in the introduction, done the endonasal balloon adjustment on me, which is the best way I can describe is it's like chiropractic adjustment for your skull and all of a sudden you just start breathing better and a lot of people will sleep better. People have had TBI or concussions seem to think better. And, it seems, at least based on your Instagram account, you've been getting around working with the UFC now and all sorts of folks. Tell me what you're doing with the endonasal balloon adjustments and what you're experiencing.

John:  One thing that I'm particularly excited about with this particular book, and the dots are how nasal breathing and even this endo0nasal balloon manipulation and how it affects basically the identity to self and the ability to regulate behavior and cognition. And, I know a lot of books have been written about breath, and I think that there's some really interesting things that have been brought forth, but this is a little bit different spin. And so, there's this connection with something called the default mode network and the salient network where these is hardwired networks that create this aspect of focus and where we place our attention, and then how we actually sculpt our identity and who we design in our head of who we are and how our identity is related to other people and to the world. 

And so, this whole idea of identity is really one of the core aspects of what we're working on here at Advanced Rejuvenation to create these three pillars, which is vitality, the body, identity, and then of course divinity, which is a direct experience of God and the Divine. And so, when you put all these things together, you can create this really amazing healing. So, endonasal and nasal breathing really seemed to play a role in that because when you're not fully breathing through the nose and you don't have this thing called cranial rhythm, which distributes cerebral spinal fluid and activates the pineal, then there's certain components that are missing in order for various aspects of ultimate vitality and health that can take place.

One thing that's really been amazing over the last year is I've been introduced to UFC. And, the owner of UFC basically connected me with Dana White, who's the CEO and part owner. And, Dana had a very difficult time breathing through his nose. And so, he traveled to me and we did a functional cranial release, which is the form of endonasal that I do on him, and it was profoundly impactful for him. I've seen him now like four or five times and Dana will tell you it's one of the most powerful important things that he's done for his health in his life, and it's made a huge impact, so much so that he's brought me into the UFC Performance Institute. And so, now I'm working with some of the top fighters at UFC and advising them on different cranial aspects and endonasal techniques on these fighters. And, I'm kind of excited about that being a springboard into a lot of other sporting activities. But, that's kind of where I'm at on it. And, I'm really excited about Dana's involvement, and this new book coming out, and the ability to really bring forth power of this little-known modality endonasal therapy and bringing it to the world and out into the open public eye.

Ben:  It's really interesting. And, the way that you do it, I think you got to have the right person shoving balloons up your nose and cracking your skull, by the way. But, the way that you do it, John, it seems you kind of like talk people into this super relaxed Zen-like state. And then, the balloon goes in, and do you do three different levels up into the skull on each side?

John:  Yeah, exactly. There's six different placements the balloon can have. So, when the treatment is being done, there's testing that I do to determine exactly where that balloon will be placed and how the body's positioned. Early in my career, I studied something called functional neurology. And, this is a way of evaluating someone's nervous system and very specifically going in and figuring out different ways to activate the brain using neuroplasticity to bring balance back into the brain and nervous system. And, I treat a lot of patients with vestibular disorders or TBI or degenerative neurologic disorders with this. And, I found that when I would do the balloons in combination with this functional neurology that I was just really getting some amazing results. 

One of the things that I've been doing more in the last year or so, and kind of with you as well is really having patients go into a very Zen mode. And, I'll have them actually go into gratitude and then being grateful for already receiving whatever gift from the treatment that they would like. It's almost manifesting the outcome that they want from their health.

Ben:  Yeah, yeah. Well, it's if somebody has not experienced this and you've had a head injury or you've been boxing or fighting, or you just want to feel what a chiropractic adjustment for your skull feels like, you got to experience it, but just make sure you get it done from a doctor who's done a lot of them. At least that's my opinion, again, if something's going up your nose and cracking your skull. But, it's a pretty cool protocol. I've also had it done by a guy down in Salt Lake City, Utah, Craig…

John:  Craig Buhler.

Ben:  Craig Buhler. Yeah, exactly. So, he seems to do a good job as well.

Back to this conference. You and I had talked about this at RUNGA and floated around the idea of the elements because you have the earth and this whole concept of earthing and grounding, and the natural magnetic healing frequency that the earth produces, along with a lot of stuff that can concentrate that like earthing on steroids, probably pulsed electromagnetic field therapy or PEMF that uses magnetic coils being a perfect example of that. And then also, a lot of this has to do with EMFs, dirty electricity versus natural electricity and how do you actually use the earth and some of these magnetic healing frequencies to modulate circadian rhythm or inflammation. 

And so, we thought, well, there's earth, but then there's water, like water filters, water remineralization, water as an energy or information carrier, water saturated with ozone, cryotherapy, ice baths. There's a lot in there going on with water as well.

And then, air, a third element, we've alluded to the CVAC machine that is hyperbaric oxygen and there's ozone and there's breathwork. And, I know you've got some other crazy oxygen-based machines down there at the place in Sarasota.

And then, of course, fire is an element as well or what you might call light. So, yeah, photonic energy, the sun, the cytochrome pathway that you talked about earlier with methylene blue. So, basically in a nutshell, and I went back and forth like what if we did a whole conference based around optimizing air, water, light, and earth to create an event or an experience where people can literally learn how to biohack their bodies using not only the type of cutting-edge protocols you got at your place but then also protocols that they can do at home.

And then, we kind of walked away from that discussion and in the background, I think you've been working on it,  and we just identified a date. But, fill people in on what you've been working on behind the scenes as far as this Elements conference.

John:  Well, I'm looking to get Dr. Frank Shallenberger to be a speaker. He's kind of the father of ozone. I've got one of the top neuroscientists. This guy actually is the one that developed the technology for Beamer. A lot of people heard about that. It's probably one of the more common mats that people use, but they went back to the drawing board and they've created something even more powerful and more advanced. And so, we're going to be having that scientist fly out from Germany and present on PEMF. And, we're going to show people how that can be maximizing a lot of different health. And then, we have that biologist that I talked about from California that's coming in. So, we also have a fellow that is an expert with hyperbaric that's going to be presenting on hyperbaric. He's a friend of mine. I think you know Jason Sonners as well, don't you?

Ben:  Yeah. Yeah. He has those soft-shell hyperbaric chambers.

John:  Exactly, right. So, we're going to have some of those setup. And, we're going to be teaching people how to do the different protocols together. And, I think it's going to be really helpful for people to see it first hand and to hear from some of these experts, get to meet you, get to meet me, get to see the clinic. It's going to be a great event.

Ben:  It's going to be full day. Like people come down on December 2nd, they are going to have access to some of these treatments, the talks by you and me, some workshops, some of these special guests. But, what if people who were to fly all the way into Sarasota to do this want to do treatments before or after, fly in early, stay late or will you be taking on patients during that time if people want to take a deeper dive during that week?

John:  We will, yeah. It's going to be limited. So, we're expecting to have a lot of response from this podcast. So, if it's something that anybody's interested in, they should probably reach out right away.

Ben:  What I'll do is in the shownotes because by the time this thing comes out, we'll have a landing page put together and everything for the actual event. But, if you go to BenGreenfieldLife.com/Elements, I'll link to the other podcast I do with John but then I'll link to his new methylene blue book and a couple of his other books, and it's all in your head book has come out by then, John, we'll link to that as well. But then, if you want to get it on this event at this point, if you're listening to this podcast right now, I will have some registration page worked up for it if you go to BenGreenfieldLife.com/Elements. 

And again, the goal with it is you will walk out of there totally equipped with everything you know or you need to know about how to use a lot of these biohacking modalities in your own home, what kind of equipment you need, what kind of stuff you can use, but then also hopefully you'll get a chance to experience some stuff that you can have done in the medical clinic that's just not available in other places, some of these things like the like the HRV reset and possibly even the VSEL injections, laser therapy. You'll definitely want to try some methylene blue with some red lights. So, there's going to be a lot going on there.

Anything you want to add in about the conference, John?

John:  Super exciting. We're going to make this really special for anybody that's going to come. They're going to be really glad they did.

Ben:  Cool, cool. Well, again, I'll link to it all at BenGreenfieldLife.com/Elements. John, this is just always a wealth of knowledge that you share with folks. Every time you come on, I learn something new. It's always a pleasure and I can't wait to see you in Florida in December, man.

John:  Yeah, me too, Ben.

Ben:  Alright. Cool, folks. Well, I'm Ben along with Dr. John Lieurance, and definitely go listen to my other two podcasts with him as well because those will blow your mind. All the shownotes are going to be at BenGreenfieldLife.com/Elements. Thanks for listening and have an amazing week.

John:  Well, good morning as I sit here, it's 4:00 a.m. in Sarasota, Florida, and my good friend Ben Greenfield asked me to record kind of like a day in the life of John Lieurance. And so, here we are. I hope that this short recording offers support to people listening. Maybe it will inspire certain people to make some changes in their lives. And, I've really dedicated my life to improving health and vitality. And, oftentimes I think people don't really practice what they preach. I always say watch my feet, not my mouth. And, I have been blessed to spend time with Ben Greenfield out in Spokane and at other locations. And, I see that in him as well. He definitely is someone that follows through with the things that he says and preaches.

So anyway, so here we are. What I've done is I've taken some questions. I consult with a group of doctors and so I proposed the question to them. As far as things that might be of interest for people to hear about a day in the life and what's up with me. So, let's go ahead and get into it.

The first question is, what type of therapies do I have here at my house? I have a hot plunge, kind of Japanese style hot plunge and cold plunge, and I have a Jacuzzi, I have a sauna, infrared sauna. I have sauna space lights, and I have a BioCharger, I have a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, and I've got like a big eight panel, red light, kind of red light panels. It's not Joovv, it's something that we actually sell called Mito Lights at Mito zone. And, those are kind of the main types of modalities that I have here at home that I use not all at the same time, but I kind of rotate around.

Maybe a typical morning for me is I would wake up and do a little bit of meditation and some breathwork and then I'll go into the jacuzzi. Once I'm in the jacuzzi for a few minutes, I'll go into the cold plunge and I'll go back and forth between the jacuzzi and the cold plunge and alternating into the hot plunge as well. The hot plunge is 112 degrees, so it's really nice. But, what's nice about the jacuzzi is I can stretch out in there. So, it's nice to have all three available. And then, one thing that I like to do too is when I get out of the cold plunge is I'll jump on a rebounder and wait until I get that shivering effect, and then I'll go into the jacuzzi or the hot plunge and I do some rounds there. And, I'll usually have some really nice music playing. And so, it's a really great time for me to just reset and connect with source.

The next question is, what kind of creative outlet do you have? One of the things that I've been working on is putting together a new website called Art by Dr. John. A lot of people don't know this about me, but I actually dropped out in the first year of getting out of school as a healthcare provider and went into art full-time and did that for almost a year. So, I was showing in galleries primarily out in Maui and here in Florida. Recently, I've been commissioned by a good friend of mine, Emery Smith. He actually is the host of one of the most popular shows on Gaia Television, and he took a photograph of an Angel. So, I'm working on that commission and we're going to be presenting that at Art by Dr. John here pretty soon. And, I'm really, really excited about that.

So, that's one of the things that I've been doing in the mornings after my morning routine is getting into the studio and painting. And, I find that to be really, really awesome to keep some balance in my life and some of the creativity. But, I'm also working on some books, and there's a book I'm about to release called “It's All In Your Head,” and it's basically all on endonasal. And, this cranial work that I do, Ben talks about it, and it's really got some amazing aspects to it I think that the world really needs to hear. And, I think most people that picked this book up and read about it are going to be really shocked and surprised. So, I really find the creativity of going in and doing the research and connecting all the dots.

Alright. Next question is, what types of things am I experimenting with at home? Well, there's two things I'd really like to talk about. One is this intranasal laser. And, I've been a big proponent for methylene blue. Our company, MitoZen.com manufacturers a couple of different delivery systems. One is a suppository and the other one is this bar that we just released which you cut into pieces and you can throw in the back of your throat and your mouth doesn't get blue and the absorption is really powerful through the stomach acid. 

So, what I'll do is I'll take typically about 80 milligrams of methylene blue with the bar and then I'll use this intranasal laser setup that I have here on. And, you can find different products that do that. I have a pretty special setup here, which is like this $8,000 little laser that I'm shining up my nose. So, it's not something that can be reproduced at home very easily unless you're a physician. I do apply this laser into my nose and actually into my mouth, into my throat, kind of activating the brainstem. And, I'm finding this to really be amazing. I feel a lot better. I feel like I'm sleeping more soundly. I feel like my brain is working better. 

And so, the concept here is that you're lasering, you're directly lasering not only nerve tissue, but you're also lasering the blood vessels. And so, your blood vessels are very superficial and your nasal passage in particular. What happens is the laser doesn't have as much tissue to travel through, and so it's able to directly irradiate that blood. And, when the laser directly irradiate your blood, it helps to reduce a lot of the friction, and the blood can become more flexible, the red blood cells. And so, there's all these different healing benefits where the blood gets improved and the methylene blue becomes activated as well which then supercharges your mitochondria. So, there's a lot more we can talk about here, but we just kind of short on time.

So, the next thing that I'm really excited about is something called Agnihotra. It's spelled A-G-N-I-H-O-R-T-A. And, Agnohorta, traditionally it's a Vedic tradition where they light a fire and you stare at that fire and the fire can last anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes. And, this is done with chanting usually. And, it's done in the morning around sunrise and then in the evening around sunset. 

Not too long ago, maybe about six weeks ago, Luke Storey came and stayed with me here in Florida, and we had a lot of fun doing a lot of biohacking together. And, one of the things that he was really into was sungazing. And, he was particularly sungazing in the morning for sunrise where you're getting that really amber light, and then at sunset at that very end of the day and just had all kinds of great things to say about how he was really getting a lot of benefit from that. And so, then you kind of tack that on to this last trip I made out to California where I'm spending some time with this really fascinating biological engineer, his name was Alan Macy. And, Alan Macy was discussing this Agnihotra technique where he said that when you stare at the flames, the bottom part of the flame has a frequency that more resonates with the lower chakras. And, as you move up the fire on the top, it's more of a frequency that resonates with the higher chakra energy centers in the body. And so, you have this balancing to your energy centers within your body based on these frequencies. But, you also have the benefit of these amber near-infrared lights that are going into your eyes, which is the same thing that's happening when you're sun gazing.

And so, I believe there is a very powerful activation to your circadian rhythm. And then, I also think that there's a lot of photobiomodulation that's occurring with that light going directly into the eyes and affecting the various beds of capillaries that are in the retina. And so, this is something that I've started to really look at. I just don't have time and the ability to go out right at sunrise and sunset. At the current house I live at, I don't really have the ability to get up high enough to see it. So, what I've been using is I've been using these lights that emit literally 40% near-infrared and they're made by SaunaSpace. 

And, my buddy Brian over there at SaunaSpace really nailed this when he invented these bulbs. They're really fascinating and amazing. And so, I have these bulbs set up in my living room and my living room and kitchen kind of adjoin. So, I put these lights on in the morning. In fact, I'm looking at one right now and I put them on for about 20 to 30 minutes, sometimes a little bit longer around when I wake up and then also at night around sunset. And, I really feel it's an easy hack for this Agnihotra and even sungazing, and I'm able to get the benefits. And, I think that this is something that a lot of people might look at doing that's very easy to do, and it's something that anybody can bring into their busy lifestyle. So, that's probably one of my favorite recent hacks that I'm doing here at home.

The next question is, well, what is your exercise routine? So, for me, way back in the day, I actually owned a gym called the Super Slow Zone, and that was kind of pioneered by this scientist Ken Hutchins, who actually developed all of the Nautilus equipment.

And so, this whole concept of going really slow to complete failure was something that I became very familiar with in the process of owning this gym. And, it's a way that I've exercised ever since. And so, basically, you want to have about as much weight where if you're going slow, which is about three to five seconds on the eccentric and three to five seconds on the concentric, and you want to hit failure at about three minutes. And so, that's about the parameters that you can use to do slow zone training. So, you try to just maintain perfect form. It's great to do on machines. I find that I can do one slow set to complete failure. And so, what happens is you maximally activate all of the muscle fibers where when you're moving fast, you're not activating as many of those fibers. 

And so, by doing slow, you're safer, it's easier on the joint, you're getting more loading into the bones and into the ligaments and tissues, so you're going to have a higher activation to building new tissues that are keeping your joints and tissues strong, and then you're going to have more of a muscle activation. And so, what I've done is I've added in the blood flow restriction training to the super slow zone training. And, I really feel like that's probably a great way to go. It seems to be working really well for me. I've been doing it for a few years and something that I would recommend anybody try.

For cardio, I like something called grizzly bear intervals. And so, this is like if you're being chased by a grizzly bear for a certain period of time and then you have a certain period of time of arrest. And so, I usually do that on a bike because it's lower impact. I stop running many years ago just because of the impact of the joints. So, I do all my cardio on a bicycle. And so, grizzly bear intervals are high intensity, low duration, just like the slow zone training. And, that's kind of where I tend to lean towards in my exercise habits.

Lastly, my stretching routine is basically sun salutations. So, anybody that isn't familiar with the sun salutation, it's one particular kind of routine that you can do that really stretches all of the different areas of your body. And, you can do more than sun salutations, but I try to at least do between 3:00 and 10:00 of them every morning. And, that tends to keep my joints flexible.

One thing that I'll do three or four times a month as well that's a little bit kind of on the edge as I like to take my dog. I've got a mini Australian shepherd, her name is Lonnie, and we'll go down to Siesta Beach. And, they don't allow dogs, so I go really early before the lifeguards are out there and she just runs full sprint right next to me and it's usually a beautiful sunrise. And, I'm on my bike and we usually go in the low tide, so it's really packed sand. So, the bike runs really nice down there and we just run all the way up and down the beach. And, what's hilarious is it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of how many old ladies start yelling at me. And, I just wave at them and give them a smile. But, that's a lot of fun.

The next question is kind of transitioning from home to the clinic. And, our clinic, Advanced Rejuvenation in Sarasota, Florida is really unique in the sense that my training as a chiropractic neurologist and also a naturopath, and so we have a pretty wide range of different clinicians ranging from board-certified interventional cardiologists to a podiatrist to we have two PAs, we have a nurse practitioner and we do a lot of different types of modalities at the clinic. And so, I do a lot of work with neurological cases using this endonasal balloon treatment that we talked about earlier called functional cranial release. And, I found doing this cranial release in conjunction with different neurological exercises, which promotes neuroplasticity was really a game changer. And, this is something that I teach to other doctors as well and can be really powerful.

So, the other thing that we do quite a bit at the clinic is regenerative medicine where we take stem cells or PRP or whatnot. And, under high-definition ultrasound, we use those to regenerate different joints in the body. And, we also do a lot of IVs. We have some pretty incredible IV protocols. I think we've discussed a couple of them on Ben's podcast, but for instance, one minute I might be in with a neurological case like a Parkinson's case or a vestibular case. And then, the next minute I might be assisting the clinical staff in pulling bone marrow and doing ultrasound-guided rotator cuff repair.

The next minute I might be doing a nutritional workup on a patient to design a nutritional protocol for them for autoimmune or something like that. So, as you can see, my days can be really, really varied with a lot of different activities at the clinic.

Okay, the next question is, what am I most excited about that I'm up to in the clinic? And, I would say probably by far is the Sunavae. For the last seven years, we've been using a technique that I brought here from Germany called Lumomed, which is a series of laser treatments to the inner ear. And, the purpose of that is really to address tinnitus, hearing loss, and also any other inner ear conditions like sensitive ears like hyperacusis or different vestibular disorders where people are having a lot of balance issues. But primarily, the tinnitus and the hearing loss are the treatments that we use the laser for. And so, the Lumomed is something that has been very, very helpful. However, I've been interested in bringing in a stem cell component to that for a while.

And so, I was able to connect with this doctor out of Korea, and his name is Dr. Minbo Shim and he developed something called the Shimspot. And so, I brought him from Korea a couple of months ago and he came to our clinic and did a big training with myself and our doctors. And so, now we're doing the stem cell injection called Shimspot. And then, we're activating those stem cells with the Lumomed series of laser treatments, and we're calling that Sunavae. And, I'm really, really excited about this and the potential of what that can do for addressing this huge unmet need where a lot of people are starting to have a lot more problems with their inner ear, especially after a lot of the things surrounding COVID and the jab and some of the side effects from some of these things, we've seen a big uptick with a lot of people with inner ear conditions.

John:  Okay, the last one is what is your sleep routine and what are some of the things that you found to really move the needle on improving sleep? So, I really believe sleep is more important than diet and exercise. It's among one of the most important things. And, for anyone that's been following me, they know that I wrote a book on melatonin, which you can find on Amazon called “Melatonin: Miracle Molecule.” So, sleep and circadian rhythm and melatonin and all of that is something that I'm extremely interested in and spend a lot of time with. 

And so, with that said, some of the things that I've done here at the house to support sleep is I've placed red lights pretty much everywhere and I've got these little remote control outlets and you get online on Amazon, you can buy these little remote control outlets that have six different switches on them and then you can place your lamps with red lights and then you can get red light rope which I put on my stairway. And basically, you can dial your whole house into only having red light and not having to use any of the lights in the ceiling at all. And so, I keep everything totally red at night. And then, also I wear blue blocking glasses if I watch TV or if I'm looking at the computer of my phone. And, that really helps to protect my circadian rhythm after the sun goes down because you don't want any blue or green light because that activates the brain and tells the brain not to release melatonin and it affects that whole circadian rhythm that you want to protect.

I also am a big fan of using a PEMF mat to really promote parasympathetic activity. So, one thing to really keep in mind is that your cortisol during the day is really going to be activating your wake cycle, and then it's melatonin at night that's really going to be activating your sleep cycle. But, it's also the most powerful activation of your parasympathetic nervous system, which is what you really want to activate just like you want to activate your triceps and your bicep. If you just activate one side of your muscle, you're going to get a big imbalance. And, the same thing happens with your sympathetic versus your parasympathetic sides to your autonomic nervous system. And so, really getting that deep sleep and having a lot of melatonin available at night in order to support the parasympathetic nervous system is important. Otherwise, what happens is people start to fall into this sympathetic dominant situation, and all of the negative consequences with insulin resistance and weight gain and metabolic issues really start to fall in place after that, and you don't want that. So, you want to do things to really support your parasympathetic nervous system. By the way, breathwork is really, really amazing for supporting the parasympathetic nervous system as well.

So, one other thing is I really don't do any type of work activity at night. I eat early. I probably eat about 5:00. I go to sleep at probably 7:30, 8 o'clock, and then I wake up at 3:30, 4:00 in the morning. One of the things I didn't really mention in the beginning of this discussion here is that's kind of my hack. And, that's how I get so much done actually as I wake up really early in the morning, I've got lots of time in the morning to get a lot of things done. And so, by the time it's time to go to work at about 9:00 a.m., I've been up for five hours, and that gives me plenty of time to get my art done, to write on my books, and to answer emails, to do my morning rituals and my stretching and my exercise and all those things, otherwise be very difficult to do all that. So, by the time I get out of work at 5:00, sometimes 4:00, I'll come home, and immediately I'll eat something, and then I'll just relax. But, what's I think really important to protect your sleep is not working on anything that's business-related. You don't want to be working on anything that's going to be really activating that left brain. You want to be more on the right brain, more creative, more spiritual.

And then, I also have my bed raised at about 10 degrees and I have my air conditioning set pretty cold at about 72 degrees because you want a colder environment in the bedroom. And, I have complete blackout. So, I have my windows covered and I have no light intrusion. And, I also turn off all of my Wi-Fi components, my phone is put on airplane mode, and actually my bedroom is painted and carbon paint. And so, I have a lot of protection surrounding the room and it's made into what's called a Faraday cage. And, there's a lot of information you can get out there with how to do Wi-Fi and EMF mitigation. But, I think that's really important in the bedroom because one of the things that happens is that these Wi-Fi signals go through your skull and they actually basically activate your pineal to think that it's daytime, so they can be really disruptive to sleep. So, I think it's really important to protect your bedroom from those type of signals at night. This is also kind of in lines with melatonin. And, for those of you who have been following me know that I'm a big proponent in very high doses of melatonin.

So, I went through a period of experimenting where I was taking up to a gram of melatonin every night, and I've kind of backed off that here just recently where I'm back down on my dosage between 2 and 400 milligrams a night. And, I do that in both a suppository and a liposomal version. And so, I like to do the suppository version because it really slow releases the melatonin throughout the whole evening. And, I find that I don't wake up in the middle of the night nearly as much, if at all, when I do it, the suppository route. And, whereas with the liposomal, what I like about that is that it's a really quick onset. The suppository might take an hour or so before it really starts to kick in where the liposomal within 15 minutes, that melatonin is really in your bloodstream. And, I find that I take a little bit of the liposomal and the suppository, and that works really well to kind of balance things out for me.

I've also been finding some benefit with experimenting with CBG. They're calling CBG the mother of all cannabinoids. And so, you can get these full spectrum CBG tinctures or gel caps or whatnot, and I find them to be something really interesting and effective for sleep.

I hope that whoever has listened to this has got a lot of great information. Certainly, you can find me on Instagram @youroutofboxdoc and also you can find the clinic at advancedrejuvenation.us. We have an online educational site called outofboxdoc.com. Check-in there and we do distance coaching. You can set up consultations if you're interested in any care in Sarasota, Florida, or one of our coaching plans.

So, listen, I'm glad you stuck around. I hope you learned some things and were inspired. Remember, if healing is possible, consider it to be within your reach. Bye for now.

So, there's two events coming up. You can go to both of them. I'm going to go to both of them. Obviously, I'm going to fly to Texas, then fly over to Lexington. The Texas event called RUNGA is October 13th through the 15th. The Wild Health one is October 22nd. Go to both. I am obviously.

You can also check BenGreenfieldLife.com/Calendar for all of the events that I'll be teaching at this year. So, I hope to see you there.

More than ever these days, people like you and me need a fresh entertaining, well-informed, and often outside-the-box approach to discovering the health, and happiness, and hope that we all crave. So, I hope I've been able to do that for you on this episode today. And, if you liked it or if you love what I'm up to, then please leave me a review on your preferred podcast listening channel wherever that might be, and just find the Ben Greenfield Life episode. Say something nice. Thanks so much. It means a lot.

 

 

My inspiring and intriguing guest on today's show – the great Dr. John Lieurance of Mitozen – is someone I consider to be the “Dr. Strange” of the medical and biohacking world.

Dr. Lieurance first joined me for the quite popular podcast episode “The Crazy Future Of Medical Biohacking: Skull Resets, Suppositories, Nasal Sprays, Nebulizers, Sound Therapy & More“…and later for “The Shocking Truth About High-Dose Melatonin, Does Melatonin Supplementation Shut Down Your Own Production, How To Use Melatonin To Enhance Fasting & Much More.”

A naturopath and chiropractic neurologist at Advanced Rejuvenation and Ultimate Cellular Reset, author of Melatonin: Miracle Molecule, and crazy mad scientist formulator behind MitoZen, John is my friend and trusted medical adviser.

Dr. Lieurance and I recently announced the official launch of a brand new event that I'll be speaking at entitled Elements of Vitality, in Sarasota, Florida, taking place on Friday, December 2nd. The event is based on the premise of turning to the elements of air, light, water, and earth to overhaul and optimize full body, mind, and spirit health, including harnessing the magnetic healing frequencies of earth, benefiting from the power of photonic light and the sun, properly using potent oxygen therapies and ozone, how to create deeper hydration with water, and much more.

During our discussion, you'll discover:

-How to take Methylene Blue…06:01

-How to combine Methylene Blue with red light and other therapies…10:08

-Precautions when taking Methylene Blue, especially for those who are taking serotonin production regulators/inhibitors…18:26 

  • Francisco Gonzalez Lima cited 5 cases that had thymectomy receiving IV Methylene Blue in very high doses
  • FDA came out with a warning – do not take Methylene Blue in conjunction with SSRIs
  • Mayo Clinic retracted that warning: only when you have this surgery should you be careful
  • Canada has also removed this warning, but the FDA has not

-Remarkable benefits of MitoSkin…21:07

  • Melatonin-based skin cream MitoSkin (use code BEN to save 5%)
  • Dr. Lieurance beta tested the cream for a year before release and had incredible results
  • In general, dosing with melatonin during the day does not make you tired because it's the light that your eye gets that prevents the pineal melatonin from activating in the brain
  • Melatonin is the ultimate stress-resilient molecule and the most powerful antioxidant
  • There is a whole chapter in the melatonin book on skincare
  • Ben says it smells amazing!

-The best way to get started with Methylene Blue…23:47

  • Try Methylene Blue with sunlight or red light
  • Most people report that they feel quite amazing on Methylene Blue (use code BEN to save 5%)
    • Enhanced cognition, memory, attention
    • More robust exercise, able to lift more
    • Methylene Blue supports anything related to cellular energy

-VSELS (Very Small Embryonic-Like Stem) cells…24:23

–VSELS or stem cells for regenerative medicine?…30:58

  • VSELS vs. stem cells
  • Why VSELS is the best option right now because it's from your own blood
  • Can be injected into different parts of the body by laser
  • Starting research on the inner ear
  • In the past 7 yrs, Advanced Rejuvenation has been offering a German laser treatment for tinnitus, hearing loss, and other inner ear issues
  • Lumomed therapy for hearing loss and Sunavae Inner Ear Rejuvenation
  • Laser treatment to the inner ear creates a rejuvenation effect
  • Korean ENT Dr. Shim, developed a device, Shimspot, to inject into the ear

-Can I have this treatment even if I don’t have any hearing-specific issues?…34:18

  • Go for the laser treatment, there’s no need for injections 

-How autonomic balancing increases HRV and simulates sleep…35:59

  • Using breathwork and mechanoreceptor activation through certain vibration patterns
  • Guided meditation with the device that creates mechanical stimuli
  • It's like exercising the autonomics; parasympathetic (melatonin) and sympathetic (cortisol)
  • There is this duality, and HRV is based on how balanced the systems are
  • Zen Nasal Spray (use code BEN to save 5%)
  • IRE’ Eye Activation Formula eyedrops (use code BEN to save 5%)
  • Boca Zen – similar to the Sananga eyedrops, the traditional Amazonian medicine that's used on the eyes to increase sensory perception (use code BEN to save 5%)

-Technology to activate the brain to modulate the stress response and increase HRV…39:42

  • A prominent scientist in this field has agreed to present the technology at the Elements of Vitality conference on December 2nd

-What is endo-nasal balloon adjustment?…40:39 

–Elements of Vitality conference – The idea of the elements…45:59

  • The conference is a Return to the Elements event with a deep immersion in the healing powers of the earth, air, fire, and water
  1. Earth
    • Earthing and grounding, and the natural magnetic healing frequencies
    • The earth has a magnetic healing frequency called Schumann resonance which beats at 7.83 Hz
    • PEMF uses magnetic coils that penetrate the cells of the body, beneficial for longevity and vitality as well as assisting the body in recovering from stress and various health conditions
  2. Water
    • Water filters and water remineralization water as an energy or inflammation carrier
    • The solution to pollution is dilution
    • Liquid water is the element that makes life possible; remineralize to create deeper hydration
    • Water saturated with ozone (O3) can be a powerful means to drive signaling pathways that produce new healthier, stronger mitochondria leading to profound healing and rejuvenation
    • Ice baths and whole-body cryotherapy
  3. Air 
  4. Fire 
    • Sunlight is most beneficial to our energy production through our mitochondria
    • Explore CytoChrome and the pathways your cells use to produce energy and how these pathways can become supercharged with laser, red lights, and IR sauna.
    • How to use Methylene Blue in conjunction with red light

-A Day in the Life of John Lieurance…52:15

  1. What type of therapies does he have at his house? 
  2. Typical morning
    • Meditation and breathwork
    • Jacuzzi for a few minutes
    • Rebounder
    • Cold plunge and go back and forth between the jacuzzi and the cold plunge and alternating into the hot plunge as well the hot plunges at 112 degrees
  3. What is his creative outlet?
    • A new website called Art by Dr. John
    • I was showing in galleries primarily out in Maui and here in Florida
    • Getting into the studio and painting
    • Working on a book, It's All In Your Head, basically all about Endo Nasal
  4. What type of things is he experimenting with at home?
    • Intranasal laser – after taking Methylene Blue Bar
    • Agnihotra – Vedic tradition where they light a fire, chanting in the morning around sunrise and the evening around sunset; balancing to your energy centers within your body based on these frequencies
    • When John doesn’t have time to go out, he uses infrared lights
  5. What is his exercise routine?
    • Used to own a gym Super Slow Zone, pioneered by Ken Hutchins, who developed all of the Nautilus equipment
    • Blood Flow Restriction training to the super slow zone training
    • For cardio: Grizzly Bear intervals – high intensity, low duration
    • My stretching routine is basically sun salutations
  6. Running full sprint at the beach with my dog, an Australian shepherd named Lonnie
  7. Clinic: Advanced Rejuvenation in Sarasota, Florida
    • Chiropractic neurologist and also a naturopath
    • The clinic has a wide range of clinicians
    • Services
  8. What is Dr. Lieurance most excited about in the clinic?
  9.  Sleep routine and some things he finds to move the needle on improving sleep
    • Sleep is more important than diet and exercise
    • Melatonin: Miracle Molecule by Dr. John Lieurance
    • Red lights with Mito Lights for circadian rhythm 
    • No blue or green light because that activates the brain – wear blue light blocking glasses 
    • PEMF mat
    • Breathwork
    • Eat early at night and wake up really early
    • Not working on left brain activities to protect sleep 
    • Bed raised at about 10 degrees, and the air conditioning set cold at about 72 degrees 
    • No light intrusion, and also turn off all of my WiFi
    • The bedroom is painted with carbon paint, making it into a Faraday cage 
    • Phones put on airplane mode 
    • Experimenting with CBG

-And much more…

Upcoming Events:

  • Runga: October 13th-15th, 2022 (Austin, TX). This is the one event every year that I never miss. Join me and my family to tap into your full potential over three days of fully immersive programming and therapies. Gourmet organic chef-prepared meals, live podcast recordings, and personalized health consulting make this a once-in-a-lifetime experience. There are only fifty spots available, so claim yours today here.
  • Wild Health Awake + Aware Principles: October 22nd, 2022 (Lexington, KY). Join me for a one-day intensive experience where I will guide you through a series of interactive lectures that explore purpose, meaning, and spiritual health. VIP guests will also join me on an immersive walk through nature and an intimate dinner. Learn more here.
  • Keep up on Ben's LIVE appearances by following bengreenfieldfitness.com/calendar!

Resources from this episode:

– Dr. John Lieurance:

– Podcasts And Articles:

– Other Resources:

Do you have questions, thoughts or feedback for Dr. John Lieurance or me? Leave your comments below and one of us will reply!

Episode Sponsors:

–Traeger: Traeger grills can tackle everything from hamburgers and dogs to slow-smoked brisket and even dessert, thanks to their 6-in-1 versatility. Check out www.Traeger.com to learn more about these amazing grills.

–Essentia: Essentia organic mattresses score best on eliminating all sleep-interrupting stimulants. Experience Essentia for yourself and save an additional $100 on your mattress purchase using code BENVIP at myessentia.com/bengreenfield.

–Wild Health: Wild Health, a precision medicine company, is hosting a series of events with some amazing guests to provide you the opportunity to heal your spirit, connect with your true nature, and wake up to reality. They’re calling it the ‘Awake and Aware Series.’ If you'd like to join, visit bengreenfieldlife.com/wildhealthprinciples and use code BG15 to get 15% off the event price.

–Organifi: Get the restful sleep you need with the most soothing ingredients! Gold is a delicious superfood tea that contains powerful superfoods and mushrooms to help you sleep and recover so you can wake up feeling refreshed and energized. Go to organifi.com/Ben for 20% off your order.

–BiOptimizers: These 7 essential forms of magnesium in this full spectrum supplement help you relax, unwind and turn off your active brain after a long stressful day so you can rest peacefully and wake up feeling refreshed, vibrant and alert. Go to magbreakthrough.com/ben and use code BEN10 for 10% off any order. 

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