Calisthenics and Core Workouts

Article by Stefan Burns - Updated November 2021. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!

Compound barbell and dumbell exercises are a great way to build muscle and strength, but their carryover to real life movement only goes so far. It’s important to learn how to generate force against objects, and it is also important to learn how to generate force against your body. To truly gain masterful control of your body, then you need to learn calisthenics.

Calisthenics can be performed anywhere!

WFO Workout Routines

Part 1 - Full Body Workouts

Part 2 - Push & Pull Workouts

Part 3 - Leg Workouts

Part 4 - Arm Workouts

Part 5 - Calisthenics & Core Workouts ✅

Calisthenics is a exercise modality that exclusively uses body-weight exercises and movements to build muscle, increase strength, and improve fitness. The most commonly know calisthenics exercises are push-ups, pull-ups, squats, and running, which form the basis of this calisthenics and core workout. This is part 5 of the Wild Free Organic workout series, the fifth and final month!

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Calisthenics is for all Ages

We finish this five month workout series with calisthenics and core exercises to solidify the foundation of health and physical fitness that has been built. A strong core will benefit you for life in all physical endeavors, from recreational activities to sports, and body-weight exercises if done regularly will develop mastery of body movement. Calisthenics and core exercises can be scaled up and down in intensity for all different body types and ages of people, and that’s what makes them so powerful and universally appealing. Wellness icons like Jack Lalanne, the “Godfather of Fitness” knew this, and he practiced what he preached, performing impossible-seeming feats of strength and endurance his entire life. Calisthenics formed the base of Jack Lalanne’s daily fitness routine, and he shared everything he learned in his book Live Young Forever.

“No man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.”

— Socrates

While the gym is a great place to build strength, muscle, and confidence, it is not always possible to have access to a gym or workout equipment. Life changes and your fitness routine might need to change with it.

Gymnast performing an L-sit on rings. This exercises works the stabilizers of the entire body, the core, demonstrates lower body flexibility, and shows good spinal posture.

Calisthenics is also a great exercise modality that holistically stresses the body. Not only is muscle tissue stressed to grow and strengthen, but the connective tissues (tendons, ligaments, fascia) of the joints and body are developed too. Muscle and strength development that outpaces the slow strengthening of connective tissues will eventually result in injury, and unnecessary setbacks like this are detrimental in all aspects. Strength in compound exercises like squats and deadlifts is often held back by a weak midsection that is unable to efficiently translate force through the body, and developing a strong core will benefit not only aesthetics but overall strength development and expression.

While calisthenics and core work are often viewed as detracting time and focus away from more important exercises and muscles to be built, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Consistent calisthenics and core work will enable the full development and expression of strength, both with the body and barbell, while also protecting the body from injury and improving aesthetics. It is for these reasons that body-weight exercises like pull-ups and hanging leg raises have been programmed throughout this workout series, and now these principles will be expanded upon.

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Basic Calisthenics Movements

Upper Body

• Push-ups

• Pull-ups

• Chin-ups

• Dips

• Inverted rows

• Hangs

Full Body

• Turkish get-ups

• Burpees

• Mountain climbers

Lower Body

• Squats

• Lunges

• Calf raises

• Hip bridges/thrusts

• Deadlifts

• Kickbacks

Core

• Crunches

• Planks

• Leg raises/lifts

• Oblique twists

• Supermans

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Advanced Calisthenics Exercises

Upper Body

• Muscle-ups

• Front lever

• Back lever

• Handstands

• Handstand push-ups

• Iron Cross

• Planche push-ups

• Superman push-ups

• One-arm push-ups

• Rope climbs

Full Body

• Full body isometrics

Lower Body

• Pistol squats

• Shrimp squats

• Cossack squats

• Single leg deadlifts

• Tricking

Core

• Full bridge (arch)

• Windshield wipers

• Levers (front and back)

• Human flag

• Planche

• Hollow hold

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Developing the Core

The core of the body is composed of more muscles than just the six-pack (rectus abdominus). While the abs are important, there are many other muscles and connective tissues of the core.

Main muscles of the core:

• Rectus Abdominus

• Transverse Abdominus

• Obliques

• Serratus Anterior

• Erector Spinae

• Multifidus

For well-rounded core development and strengthening, time and energy should be devoted to all the muscles above.

The muscles of the midsection wrap around the entire body in layers, front to back, and developing all these muscles will create deep core strength that go beyond 6-pack abs.

The rectus abdominus is activated with spinal flexion and extension (crunches and extensions), and the transverse abdominals sit underneath the abs, being activated when you suck in your stomach towards the spine. The obliques sit on either side of the abs and are activated with twisting motions of the midsection. For the bodybuilders, well developed obliques will help frame the abdominals to create an impressive looking six pack.

The serratus muscles are more situated in the torso, sitting above the obliques and connecting the scapula to the rib cage, but it is these connection points which makes the serratus muscles important. The scapula are very important parts of upper body, and serratus muscles connect the scapula to the midsection.

The erector spinae and multifidus muscles are the muscles of the lower back, and they function to keep the spine strong, well aligned, and stable. Over-developed abdominals but weak erector spinae muscles are common, and this unbalanced development can cause poor recruitment patterns and lead to injury. Erector spinae muscles are very well developed with deadlifts

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Core Workouts

Core Workout (A)

• 3x30 Oblique twists

• 3x25 Reverse crunches

• 2x60s Side planks

• 3x12 Bird dogs

• 5x12s Stomach vacuums

• 2x20 Shoulder taps

Core Workout (B)

• 3x30 Bicycle crunches

• 3x30s Hollow holds

• 2x60s Side planks

• 3x12 Supermans

• 5x12s Stomach vacuums

• 2x30s RKC plank

Core workouts are best done 3-7x a week, the muscles of the midsection should be activated often and all at once from front to side to back. If little rest is taken in-between sets and exercises, overall activation of the core is increased and the workouts can be done quicker. The two workouts above should take only twenty minutes or less once endurance is built.

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Calisthenics Workouts

Calisthenics Workout (A)

• 2x30 Calf raises

• 5x30 Squats

• 3x10 Single leg deadlifts

• 3x25 Reverse crunches

• 4x12 Pull-ups

• 4x20 Push-ups

• 3x12 Bird dogs

• 2x5 Turkish get-ups

Calisthenics Workout (B)

• 2x30 Calf raises

• 5x20 Wide squats

• 3x30 Hip thrusts

• 3x30s Hollow holds

• 4x12 Chin-ups

• 4x10 Dips

• 3x30s Supermans

• 2x30 Mountain climbers

These full-body calisthenics workouts use basic body-weight exercises and are well-rounded in their activation of the body. They are also great workouts to integrate with a running program. Advanced trainees might find these workouts simple, but they can be intensified by slowing down exercise tempo and increasing muscle activation.

Balance is first activated and then the body is warmed up with lower body exercises. Working upwards the front core is activated, then the torso, and then the core muscles of the spine. The workout is finished with full-body exercises like turkish get-ups or mountain climbers.

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Month 5 Workout Routine

Week 1

Monday - Full Body

5x5 Squats

4x8 Incline Press

5x10 Barbell Rows

3x20 Lateral Raises

3x20 Bicep Curls

Tuesday - Calisthenics (A)

2x30 Calf raises

5x30 Squats

3x10 Single leg deadlifts

3x25 Reverse crunches

4x12 Pull-ups

4x20 Push-ups

3x12 Bird dogs

2x5 Turkish get-ups

Wednesday - Arms

3x20 Radial Deviations

3x20 Pronators

3x30 Reverse Wrist Curls

4x10 Chin-ups

4x12 Incline Triceps Extension

3x12 Preacher Curls

3x15 Triceps Kickbacks

Thursday - Calisthenics (B)

2x30 Calf raises

5x20 Wide Squats

3x30 Hip thrusts

3x30s Hollow holds

4x12 Chin-ups

4x10 Dips

3x30s Supermans

2x30 Mountain climbers

Friday - Core (A)

3x30 Oblique twists

3x25 Reverse crunches

2x60s Side planks

3x12 Bird dogs

5x12s Stomach vacuums

2x20 Shoulder taps

Saturday & Sunday - Rest

Week 2

Monday - Full Body

5x5 Deadlifts

4x8 DB Press

5x10 Leg Press

3x20 Rear Delt Flies

3x20 Tricep Pushdowns

Wednesday - Calisthenics (A)

2x30 Calf raises

5x30 Squats

3x10 Single leg deadlifts

3x25 Reverse crunches

4x12 Pull-ups

4x20 Push-ups

3x12 Bird dogs

2x5 Turkish get-ups

Wednesday - Arms

3x20 Radial Deviations

3x20 Supinators

3x30 Wrist Curls

4x10 Close-Grip Dips

4x12 Hammer Curls

4x12 Triceps Pushdowns (supinated)

3x15 Reverse Curls

Thursday - Calisthenics (B)

2x30 Calf raises

5x20 Wide squats

3x30 Hip thrusts

3x30s Hollow holds

4x12 Chin-ups

4x10 Dips

3x30s Supermans

2x30 Mountain climbers

Friday - Core (B)

3x30 Bicycle crunches

3x30s Hollow holds

2x60s Side planks

3x12 Supermans

5x12s Stomach vacuums

2x30s RKC plank

Saturday & Sunday - Rest

With this final month, we return to 3 full body workouts per week, with one being gym based and the other two are calisthenics based. Arm workouts are scheduled once a week to continue sufficiently stimulating the arms. A final core workout on Friday activates the entire core while also reducing the workload to promote overall recovery. Month 5 is a deload month compared to months 2-4, with the muscles, connective tissues, and central nervous system given a break from the typical stress patterns of barbell and dumbbell exercises. Meanwhile control and activation of the body is improved with the calisthenics exercises and connective tissues are strengthened in different ways.

On weeks 2 and 4 increase the weight of the gym exercises by 5%. If you feel healthy and confident, about a week after the end of this five month routine, test your 1 rep max for squats, deadlifts, incline press, and barbell rows. In the week preceding testing of the 1RM’s, get a solid eight hours of sleep per night and reduce volume and reduce weight, focusing on activation.

During month five, if you really want to fortify your joints and strengthen them in preparation for another loading phase in the gym, follow our joint and connective tissue protocol.

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New Beginnings

Over the past 5 months, you’ve learned the basics of weight-lifting, periodization, recovery, and nutrition. The foundation for a holistic lifestyle has been established, as has the foundation for how to approach physical fitness with a long term and patient mindset.

From here, the routine can be repeated in the same order, or the different workouts presented in the routine can be flexibly scheduled week to week instinctively. A new workout routine, like 5/3/1 can also be started! Maybe your fitness journey takes you to running or yoga, there are many ways to physically strengthen and develop the body, and none are inherently better or worse than the other.

Whatever your next destination, don’t forget the lifestyle and fitness principles learned over the past five months and continue your productive morning routine. Keep stress low, recovery high, and progress slow and steady. That’s the recipe for success in the gym and with life!

If you followed the routine from start to finish, please share your results by commenting below or contact us directly.

Leg Workouts

Article by Stefan Burns - Updated November 2021. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!

The majority of your training in the gym should be centered around full body workouts, followed by push and pull workouts (as covered in parts 1 and 2). To optimally train the body, the limbs (legs and arms) need direct attention and training. The legs especially are very important for overall health and wellness.

WFO Workout Routines

Part 1 - Full Body Workouts

Part 2 - Push & Pull Workouts

Part 3 - Leg Workouts ✅

Part 4 - Arm Workouts

Part 5 - Calisthenics & Core Workouts

To build on parts 1 and 2, we add leg workouts into the routine and adjust the rest of the routine to compensate for the increased leg volume and intensity. If you want a stronger squat, deadlift, and hip thrust, have a dedicated leg day 2x a week. If you want bigger quadriceps, front squat frequently.

Below we’ll cover the main movements used to train the legs, add a new recovery method, provide the leg workouts to be used moving forward, and will show how to flexibly incorporate leg days into a training schedule

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Importance of Leg Training and Calves

The legs can be split into three main sections, the calves, thighs, and glutes. Both the calves and thighs have different muscles front and back, and the glutes are situated behind the hips. The legs are unique in that they contain a huge amount of muscle mass compared to other parts of the body. Upper leg muscles encircle the femur, the largest and strongest bone of the body, but there are no organs in the legs like with the torso. Because the legs comprise such a large percentage of the total body mass of the body, they are very important to develop for overall health and wellness.

Strong well-developed legs are critical for many of the movement patterns we rarely reflect on like walking and standing. Legs that have more muscle will have a greater metabolic impact on the body, burning more calories and helping to stabilize blood sugar and hormone levels. Nimble legs and the inner ears determine your balance, and there is excellent data showing how easily you can get off the ground using only your legs predicts lower all-cause mortality (death from any reason). For these reasons and more it is incredibly important to be mindful of your legs and to train them frequently and intelligently.

Balancing the development of the legs is also very important. Exercises like the barbell squat activate all of the musculature of the legs, but the calves are only minimally activated. Hip hinging exercises like the deadlift are similar. The reason the calves develop sub-optimally is because the calves are best strengthened when the foot and ankle are the primary joint loaded with force during a movement, like a calf raise. With weight-training routines it is common for calves and forearms to be neglected at the expense of the upper arms, upper legs, midsection, and torso. But as we know with the connection between balance and risk of injury, equal attention needs to be given to all the muscles of the legs, no matter their relative size or aesthetic features.

Because time at the gym is limited, it’s a tough pill to swallow to train calves heavy at the expense of exercises like squats, and many people end up ignoring their calves completely as a result. To solve this, train calves at the beginning of every leg workout and use them to warm up all the muscles of the lower body. For blood to reach the calves much of it will travel past and through the upper leg, activating everything along the way. With pre-activated calf muscles, risk of injury during heavy lower body compounds like squats and deadlifts decreases, and those exercises then serve to activate and stress the calves to a greater degree.

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Muscles of the Legs

Calves

• Gastrocnemius

• Soleus

• Tibialis Anterior

Quadriceps

• Rectus Femoris

• Vastus Lateralis

• Vastus Intermedius

• Vastus Medialis

Hamstrings

• Biceps Femoris, Long Head

• Biceps Femoris, Short Head

• Semitendinosus

• Semimembranosus

Glutes

• Gluteus Maximus

• Gluteus Medius

• Gluteus Minimus

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Main movements for the Legs

Gastrocnemius

• Standing Calf Raise

Soleus

• Seated Calf Raise

Tibialis Anterior

• Reverse Calf Raise

Quadriceps

• Squat (front, back)

• One Legged Squat (pistol, shrimp)

• Cossack Squat

• Sissy Squat

• Lunge (forward, side, reverse)

• Step-Up

• Leg Press

Hamstrings

• Deadlift

• Single Leg Deadlifts

• Stiff Legged Deadlift

• Glute-Ham Raise

• Leg Curl

• Good Morning

• Squat

Glutes

• Hip Thrust

• Hip Bridge

• Squat

• Deadlift

• Lunge (wide)

• Leg Press

Note - Various implements can be used for the above exercises, such as the barbell, dumbbells, kettlebells, cables, machines, and more.

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Unique Considerations for Legs

In general, leg workouts using the movements above will train the smaller stabilizer muscles of the legs (i.e hip abductors, tiny thigh muscles) which were not covered in this article. Training the body, but especially the legs, in both the sagittal and frontal planes of motion is very important in developing a strong, healthy, and limber lower body. Moving forward and back would be sagittal, and side to side frontal.

Legs are interesting in the fact that the primary joints of the legs are very robust compared to the joints of the torso thanks to bipedalism. This allows the legs to be trained daily if desired for extended periods of time, as long as volume and intensity are intelligently managed.

If rapid lower body strength or hypertrophy development is the goal, then high frequency leg training is useful to experiment with. The legs are also special in that they hold a large amount of muscle compactly. There are no organs housed and protected in the legs. Once well developed, with movement as simple as walking, the legs are metabolically activated and can burn a tremendous amount of calories with less effort than for the torso. Even at rest the muscle mass of the legs has a large influence on ones Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). As such, strong healthy legs are a key factor in overall body composition, and increasing muscle mass in the legs can be very useful for fat loss.

For the months of full body workouts and push/pull workouts, we learned and put into practice a lot of wellness habits that exist outside the gym. Sleep, diet, water, and gut health were on the agenda. For this month, heat therapy and post workout nutrition are the new lifestyle add-ons to keep recovery high and nutritional demands met.

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Heat Therapy and Post-Workout Nutrition

Heat therapy, like using the sauna or taking a very hot bath, is one of the most powerful recovery tools you have available to you. Heat therapy activates heat shock proteins which heal cellular damage, increases metabolic rate and has cardiovascular benefits, and dramatically boosts growth hormone levels for a short while afterwards. All these effects and more aid greatly in your ability to recover from a hard training session, and if done 1-3x per week for 15-30 minutes each time, the same rate of progressive overload growth that this program has created can be maintained. Heat therapy is a stressor itself, so make sure the rest of your lifestyle is as low-stress as possible, that’s why laying the foundation in months 1 and 2 was so important. Leg training is one of the most stressful types of training out there, and if you’re not careful it is really easy to become injured.

8 oz coconut milk, 30 grams protein, 6 raw egg yolks, 3 g creatine, and cinnamon to taste.

To aid in the recovery from the increasing demands of this workout routine, post workout nutrition becomes more important. More protein will be needed by the body, as well as cellular and hormonal building blocks like cholesterol.

Drink this muscle building shake after every leg and full body workout to ensure you’re getting the macro and micronutrients your body needs to build muscle and synthesize steroidal hormones.

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Leg Workouts

Below are the leg workouts to be used for month three and beyond of the WFO workout routine.

Leg Workout (A)

3x20 Seated Calf Raises

5x5 Squats

4x8 Hip Thrusts

5x10 Glute Ham Raise

Leg Workout (B)

3x20 Standing Calf Raises

5x5 Deadlifts

4x8 Front Squats

5x10 Cossack Squats

525 lb Deadlift by Stefan Burns

While the exercises for each workout above are best suited for the rep ranges given (5x5, 4x8, 5x10), cycling the rep ranges in-between exercises will stimulate new adaptations with the same three exercises per workout. Exercises can be adapted or changed too, there is nothing wrong with that.

Be very thoughtful when changing exercises though, and don’t change exercises often, because it’s easy to begin altering all the variables for fun rather than stick to the plan that will ensure progress and the achievement of goals set. The gym is a place to train your discipline. Forget what you want to do or what’s fun, do what you need to do, and find a way to enjoy that process.

Leg Workout C below is designed for a more athletic focus, and Leg Workout D for more aesthetic driven goals:

Leg Workout (C)

3x20 Reverse Calf Raises

Hip Thrusts 5x5

Lunges 4x8

Cossack Squats 5x10

Prowler Sprints 5x30 yards

Athletic Focus

Leg Workout (D)

3x20 Reverse Calf Raises

3x30 Standing Calf Raises

5x5 Front Squats

4x12 Glute Ham Raise

5x15 Lunges (wide)

Aesthetic Focus

Combined with full body and push & pull workouts, you can start to see how adaptable these routines are. For legs, the rep and set schemes are always given lower rep range strength priority on the dedicated leg day (for example the 5x5 compound movement), with the full body workouts using the other reps ranges more typical for hypertrophy. Because of this, the full body and push + pull workouts need to be slightly altered from months 1 and 2. This isn’t a problem because the overall strategy employed here is program flexibility. After part six, you’ll have the know-how and experience to be able to dynamically build your workout routine every week from the different types of workouts presented, while still following a clear path towards progressive overload.

The two weeks of programming below are to be repeated twice over the course of part 3, which like the other parts is a month in duration. As with part 2, weights for the first week of this month will be the same as the last week of month 2. Increase weights by 5% for week 2, and by another 5% for week 4. This is the cadence that will be established, 5% increases every two weeks. When stress is low and recovery is high, this is very manageable for a long time, especially when the starting weights were in the 40-50% 1 rep max range.

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Month 3 Workout Routine

Week 1

Monday - Full Body

5x5 Hip Thrusts

4x8 Pull-Ups

5x10 Pec Deck

3x15 Hanging Leg Raises

Tuesday - Pull

One-Arm Lat Pulldowns 3x20

Barbell Rows 4x6

Chin-Ups 3x10

Facepulls 3x15

DB Curls 3x10

Wednesday - Legs

5x10 Ab Wheel Rollouts

3x20 Seated Calf Raises

5x5 Squats

4x8 Hip Thrusts

5x10 Glute Ham Raise

Thursday - Push

5x5 Incline Press

4x8 Dumbbell Incline Press

5x10 Pec Deck

3x12 Skullcrushers

Friday - Full Body

5x5 Deadlifts

4x8 DB Press

5x10 Leg Press

3x30 Reverse Crunches

Saturday & Sunday - Rest

Week 2

Monday - Full Body

5x5 Squats

4x8 Pull-Ups

5x10 Pec Deck

3x15 Hanging Leg Raises

Tuesday - Push

Dumbbell Front Raises 3x20

Bench Press 4x6

Kettlebell Press 3x10

Lateral Raises 3x15

Tricep Cable Extensions 3x10

Wednesday - Legs

5x10 Ab Wheel Rollouts

3x20 Standing Calf Raises

5x5 Deadlifts

4x8 Front Squats

5x10 Cossack Squats

Thursday - Pull

5x5 Barbell Rows

4x8 Behind-the-Neck Lat Pull Downs

5x10 One-Arm Seated Cable Rows

3x12 Hammer Curls

Friday - Full Body

5x5 Incline Press

4x8 Lunges

5x10 Pull-Ups

3x20 Cable Woodchops

Saturday & Sunday - Rest

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Follow Progressive Overload

With the routines used for month 3 of the WFO workout plan, legs are trained 3x a week, upper body 4x a week, and core 3x a week. The rest day on Wednesday was eliminated, in effect only increasing leg frequency, volume, and intensity compared to part 2. Training legs twice a week, as was done in part 2, is effective, but training legs 3x a week is where the real magic happens. Recovery practices are extra important now though. Heat therapy is introduced in part 3 because leg training is very stressful and metabolically demanding; heat therapy simply wasn’t needed until now, and the extra endogenous growth hormone production will benefit recovery and overall growth.

For part 4 we discuss arm & forearm training, how much arm size you can realistically add in a month with an arm focused routine, and how experience with this training philosophy lays the foundation for intuitive training.

Health Benefits of Panax Ginseng

Article by Stefan Burns - Updated November 2021. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!

You’ve probably heard of ginseng before, either American, Asian, or Chinese ginseng. Asian ginseng, also known as panax ginseng is one of the most popular herbal supplements in the world, and for good reason. This medicinal herb has been used for millennia in Eastern traditions for its health-giving properties. It’s proven to be safe, and modern scientific research has proven many of it’s already known health benefits such as reduced risk of cancer and a strengthened immune system. Read on to learn how you can incorporate panax ginseng into your wellness routine in order to improve your health!

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What is Ginseng?

Raw ginseng root

To establish the health benefits of ginseng, it’s important to understand the plant genus.

Ginseng is a root plant found in temperate climates across the globe. There are three sub-types: Korean ginseng (P. Ginseng), Chinese ginseng (P. Notoginseng) and American ginseng (P. quinquefolius). All three types of ginseng are used medicinally. Korean ginseng is also known as panax ginseng, and this type of ginseng is the focus of this article.

Panax ginseng is the most thoroughly studied of the three types of ginseng, and therefore the safest in terms of dosing recommendations. American ginseng is relatively well-studied, and Chinese ginseng is far less common in both the environment and the medical literature. All three species of ginseng appear to have potent health benefits if taken appropriately, from reducing cancer risk to improving subjective well-being.

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Ginseng reduces Inflammation and lowers risk of Cancer

Panax ginseng is a powerful antioxidant (1), especially after extraction and concentration of ginsenosides (the active ingredient). To accomplish this, the root is processed and the active components are extracted using ethanol. The other health effects, namely lower inflammation and reduced risk of cancer, appear to work downstream of it’s ability to increase all three main antioxidant enzymes (OD, glutathione peroxidase, and catalase). Antioxidants are important for human health because they reduce inflammation.

The process of oxidation (redox), where a chemical loses electrons, releases free radicals (hydrogen ions). Free radicals are highly reactive and can lead to chain reactions that may damage the cells of organisms. This is the root cause of chronic inflammation.

The study cited above used dermatitis patients as the trial group. Dermatitis is an inflammatory skin condition. Antioxidant products like ginseng have the potential to reduce symptoms for a wide range of inflammatory conditions, and also for conditions with inflammation as a secondary side effect.

Inflammation is also a main driver of cancer (2), and panax ginseng has been studied to notably reduce colorectal, ovarian, pancreatic (3), and overall cancer risk (4).

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Ginseng strengthens the Immune System and lowers Blood Glucose

One of the best ways to test the immune-boosting qualities of a research compound is to test it on cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, and ginseng has been studied under these conditions and was shown to alleviate adverse affects from chemotherapy (5). Chemotherapy significantly inhibits immune function because it destroys many cells that are necessary for proper immune function. The study, which administered ginseng to cancer patients that received chemo treatment, found that the group taking ginseng had notably improved immune function once the treatment was completed.

Stop viruses with ginseng

Immune-boosting products like ginseng and elderberry aren’t only good for those with cancer, and it’s believed those beneficial effects from the ginseng can still be useful for preventative health. Year round or even just seasonally during the winter, or for those who get sick with the common cold or flu more frequently than normal, ginseng is a supplement to take for a trial run. These products are also typically known and recommended to people in fields of work that expose them to increased pathogens, like schoolteachers, doctors, or those in public service.

Ginseng has powerful immune regulating effects, and it also has the ability to beneficially assist the circulatory system. As you can see the postive effects of panax ginseng are wide ranging. By boosting the circulatory system, ginseng is able to lower blood glucose levels (6), for most a very good thing) an increase blood flow (7).

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Ginseng improves Mood, promotes Calm, and enhances Sleep.

It’s been known for over one thousand years in Traditional Chinese Medicine that panax ginseng can improve mood in humans with mood disorders, but modern medicine is just now catching on to studying these more subjective health markers. Ginseng can be especially effective for those with depressive disorders since the product is a minor stimulant and a tonic. And even though ginseng is a mild stimulate, it helps bring about a sense of calmness (8).

Knowing panax ginseng helps with depression is worthwhile because it’s better to use natural medicine to solve health problems at their onset. This is important because mental health drugs tend to be some of the most addictive and laden with side effects. You never want to reduce your health to improve one other.

Panax ginseng not only improved general mental health, but also aided social functioning in those struggling with socializing. These issues are uniquely connected for each individual. Elderly Koreans with Alzheimers reduced their rate of cognitive decline with ginseng (9), and ginseng helps improve sleep quality (10), which everyone knows is vital to proper brain health and function.

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Keep Ginseng in your Cupboard

When you’re more likely to get sick, periods of high stress, traveling, and to help improve your mood and well-being, ginseng is helpful to have on hand. Especially with a cold or flu, the sooner you can begin supplementing with panax ginseng, elderberry, and zinc the more symptoms will be damped and duration of the sickness will be reduced.

Ginseng can be taken daily safely for up to a few months. As a holistic health supplement, panax ginseng can be taken to improve health while factors like diet, exercise, sleep, and sun exposure are improved. Keep taking the below recommend dosages of ginseng until you feel better. For daily preventative health 200 mg once a day up to 3000 mg spread out for acute uses are safe. Store all supplements somewhere cool and dry and the ginseng supplement should stay good for a long time.

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My Recommended Ginseng Supplement

There are two factors I consider when choosing a supplement brand: whether the company tests their products and whether the product is based on research. Illuminate Labs does both. They’re a supplement manufacturer that shares all of their test results on their website which is unheard of. They also share all of the medical research papers that went into their product formulation. The Illuminate Labs ginseng extract supplement is my favorite panax ginseng supplement it’s great knowing that what I use is safe and tested.

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References

1. Hong CE, Lyu SY. Anti-inflammatory and Anti-oxidative Effects of Korean Red Ginseng Extract in Human Keratinocytes. Immune Netw. 2011;11(1):42-9.

2. Coussens LM, Werb Z. Inflammation and cancer. Nature. 2002;420(6917):860-7.

3. Yun TK, Choi SY. Preventive effect of ginseng intake against various human cancers: a case-control study on 1987 pairs. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 1995;4(4):401-8.

4. Yun TK, Zheng S, Choi SY, et al. Non-organ-specific preventive effect of long-term administration of Korean red ginseng extract on incidence of human cancers. J Med Food. 2010;13(3):489-94.

5. Cheng Lin. Ginseng alleviation of adverse effects from radiotherapy or chemother apy in liver cancer patients. Shanghai Cancer Hospital, Shanghai Medical University, Shanghai 200032. 1989-02  

6. Luo JZ, Luo L. Ginseng on hyperglycemia: effects and mechanisms. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2009;6(4):423-7.

7. Jovanovski E, Jenkins A, Dias AG, et al. Effects of Korean red ginseng (Panax ginseng C.A. Mayer) and its isolated ginsenosides and polysaccharides on arterial stiffness in healthy individuals. Am J Hypertens. 2010;23(5):469-72.

8. Reay JL, Scholey AB, Kennedy DO. Panax ginseng (G115) improves aspects of working memory performance and subjective ratings of calmness in healthy young adults. Hum Psychopharmacol. 2010;25(6):462-71.

9. Heo JH, Lee ST, Chu K, et al. An open-label trial of Korean red ginseng as an adjuvant treatment for cognitive impairment in patients with Alzheimer's disease. Eur J Neurol. 2008;15(8):865-8.

10. Kitaoka K, Uchida K, Okamoto N, et al. Fermented ginseng improves the first-night effect in humans. Sleep. 2009;32(3):413-21.

Improve Digestion in Three Steps

Article by Stefan Burns - Updated July 2022. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!

The old adage goes “You are what you eat”, and few times have truer statements been made. And humans have known this to be true for thousands of years. Millennia ago, Hippocrates, Greek physician and the “Father of Medicine” said:

“Let food be thy medicine, let medicine be thy food”

— Hippocrates

This statement, so simple encapsulates so much truth to it. Wellness truths like this, so simple and obvious, have continually been met with skepticism and disbelief over time. In fact, much of the food industry at large endeavors to prove these truths false through new food product iterations such as “protein” candy bars, meal replacement shakes, and more ultra processed foods created from highly processed powders and syrups.

Hippocrates is also famously quoted with the following:

“All disease begins in the gut”

— Hippocrates

If you are what you eat, and if all disease begins in the gut, then it follows that the food you eat, and how you digest it, can have a huge impact on whether you have a healthy or diseased mind, body, and soul.

Whether you follow a diet such as primal, paleo, Whole30, keto, vegan, or a combination, what’s important overall is eating a diet full of whole, unprocessed foods and learning and understanding what foods work and don’t work for your body in order to achieve optimal health. Changing your dietary mindset to be inclusive of all foods and to be mindful of what you eat, is the true path towards effortless health. Once dietary mindfulness is developed, it’ll be common sense to buy foods of the highest quality, which will further improve your health.

A lot of people know what a healthy diet should be like, some people understand, and a few have earned true dietary wisdom by acting on this knowledge. Even less so than diet, there is a lack of understand for the second part of the equation, digestion.

Just as you can choose healthy foods, there are also choices that can be made which impact your digestion, for better or worse. Luckily, sticking to a healthy diet consistently is the hardest part of this two part equation, and with just a little conscientiousness, you can guide and assist your bodies digestive system to smoothly and effectively break down and assimilate everything you’ve eaten.

In fact, you can get started in improving your digestion in three easy steps, one after the other! Make an effort to do these three tips for each meal, but even starting off, implementing these 3 easy digestion hacks for just your smallest meal of the day will have a noticeable impact on everything from your gut health & regularity to energy levels & mood. By following these three steps, you’ll reduce or eliminate painful bloating, uncomfortable gas, and more.

Eat your Meals with Chopsticks for Better Digestion

Before you ask...yes, chopsticks!

Around the world, just as many people use chopsticks daily as fork & knife users, around 2.5 billion. And in the countries where chopstick use is predominant, such as Japan, health outcomes are typically better than their western counterparts (1). This isn’t a permanent suggestion, but there is a really great lesson to be learned here.

The goal of this first digestion improving tip is to improve your mindfulness during meals. Few things will make you slow down and focus on your meal more than swapping out your typical utensils for chopsticks. If you already use chopsticks for the majority of your meals, fantastic, you’re ahead of the pack.

With chopsticks, especially for new users, you’ll eat slower, and those who eat slower are much less likely to be obese than those who eat quickly (2). Why? Well this is due to a multitude of factors. Eating slower you’ll:

• End up full faster, reducing overall calories consumed.

• Chew more, increasing digestive enzymes and decreasing food particle size, making digestion easier.

• Be more attuned to your body and the feedback it's giving you, whether that’s positive or negative.

• Reduce your stress, eating in a relaxed parasympathetic state (which improves digestion) rather than a fight-or-flight sympathetic state.

An additional plus is the foods you can easily eat with chopsticks tend to land on the healthier side of things. Have you ever seen a person eat junk food with chopsticks?

A healthier meal consumed more slowly in a less stressful state and chewed (aka predigested) more can only be considered a win. And if you have frequent gut problems such as gas, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, or worse, eating slower will only improve upon your current digestive situation.

Try eating with chopsticks for a week! You have nothing to lose. In fact, if you walk away from it all at the end unconvinced, at the very least you’ll be better at eating with chopsticks than you were when you started. With new found chopstick prowess, Chinese stir-fries, Korean BBQ, and Japanese sushi will no longer be meals out of reach, literally!

Eat your Vegetables Last for Better Digestion

First, if you’re not already eating vegetables, start now. Vegetables are full of fiber, micronutrients, and phytochemicals. The health benefits are too numerous to list here. Nine cups of vegetables and fruits daily is encouraged.

Second, eat your vegetables last.

Now if you’re not eating any vegetables at all to begin with, following the conventional wisdom of eating some vegetables at the beginning of your meal isn’t bad advice. Changing any bad dietary habits you have is most important, and eating vegetables overall is more important than timing your vegetable intake. With that said, if it makes no difference to your overall vegetable intake, there are serious benefits to eating your vegetables last.

First, you won’t eat dessert as often. Having just finished a meal followed by a salad or a head of broccoli, you probably won’t be reaching for the cookies or ice cream. You’ll already be comfortably full from the vegetable fiber!

And it’s the fiber that’s important. Considering we ate this meal slower and more mindfully, the food will be better “layered” and predigested from the start. Take the following typical meal format:

Carbs → Proteins & Fats → Micronutrients & Fiber

Note - A great example for the above would be a meal of rice, protein, and zucchini.

Carbs are quick and easy to digest, and eating them first allows your body to quickly break down and use the carbs for energy instead of fat storage. Proteins and fats follow, with protein being used for tissue repair and muscle gain, and fats being used for various cellular structures and as a steadier, longer lasting energy source. Lastly vegetables provide your body ample micronutrients and very importantly, fiber for your microbiome. Buy organic non-gmo (or biodynamic) vegetables to ensure your pesticide exposure is as minimal as possible.

The microbiome is so important when it comes to digestion and overall health (3). After your stomach empties from your last meal, you begin to enter a state of fasting. If you only highly processed foods, your microbiome will be starving for a fresh source of energy in a couples hours time. By providing your microbiome tough vegetable fiber to digest in-between meals, overtime you create an evolutionary pressure to improve microbiome diversity while preferentially selecting for the good gut bacteria (4). If you only provide your microbiome carbs and fats with no fiber, after that meal is quickly digested you’ll start to experience cravings for another meal, usually junkier than the last. As most people know but few understand, that’s a state of stomach and mind known as being “hangry”, and it’s governed by the microbiome’s ability to influence your mood via your hormone system (5). Plus, the flavonoids from the colorful vegetables and fruits like elderberry will help heal the tight junctions of the digestive system, stopping microbes from entering into the blood steam improving gut and immune health.

To quickly put an end to a cranky microbiome, fasting can be used to reset the digestive system, or for a slower approach eat your veggies last. Provide your microbiome a snack they can chew on in-between meals, in the process stabilizing your digestion and energy levels.

Your microbiome will thank you and your waistline will thank you as your wellness improves.

Go for a Walk after Eating for Better Digestion

After you’ve eaten your meal with chopsticks, reserving a heaping serving of vegetables for last, you’re ready to implement the final part of this three-step digestion hack, walking.

Walking at a leisurely pace after a meal, undoubtedly an enjoyable and healthy activity in and of itself, has also been shown to improve your digestion and overall response to food. 15 minutes of walking after a meal will lower your blood sugar more than a full hour of walking before a meal (6), and walking also increases the rate of gastric emptying (7), meaning you’ve digested your food better. In fact, walking for just 15 minutes after a meal will improve your blood glucose levels for over 24 hours (8).

Movement of the body is so important for your health and wellness, and walking is one of the easiest & lowest impact ways to incorporate movement into your daily lifestyle. Paired after a meal and it’s a great way to breathe some fresh air outdoors, get grounded, connect with your body, and maintain that parasympathetic stress-free state that your mindfully created by first eating your meal slowly with chopsticks.

There you have it, try it out for a month! Make a habit of incorporating these three digestion hacks into your daily routine and take notes as to how you feel.

Eat Fermented Foods for Better Digestion

As a fourth recommended tip, discover the secrets of kombucha. Yes, that wonderful lightly fizzy drink, kombucha is fermented tea, each batch home to a “mother”. The mother is a unique microbiome colony that created the fermentation (0.5% ABV) in the tea..

The secret to kombucha is that you drink it after a meal. Not a whole bottle, but a small amount as a refresher. A bit of kombucha throughout the day after meals is ideal. Now instead of just having eaten a meal, which can range from raw to pasteurized in microbial diversity, kombucha “seeds” each meal it is drinken with. The residual sugar in the tea provides a bolus dose of easy sugar energy for the mother and the preexisting microbiome in your digestive system to get started in breaking down the main meal. This is one of the few times having added sugar in the diet is OKAY.

If you have kombucha or other fermented foods regularly, the greeting of the fermented microbiome to your existing microbiome is a smooth meeting. Eating a varied diet full of new healthy foods and drinking/eating fermented foods is the key to a successful diet.

My favorite brand of kombucha is from GT’s Living Food. Drink a variety to always be exposed to new mothers and for fun flavors! Mystic Mango, Guava Goddess, and Cosmic Cranberry are the best.

You might be thinking, no way can these three simple steps and kombucha radically change how I digest my food, improving my mood and energy levels while also reducing the unpleasant effects of bloating and more.

Well, sometimes the simplest of things can lead to the biggest changes and results in ones life. Likewise these three digestion tips are simple in practice, and used together, powerful in their effect. “All diseases begin in the gut”, and to live life to your fullest healthiest and happiest, taking care of your gut means taking care of you.

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Ready to Heal Your Gut?

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Together the digestive system and microbiome are the foundation of health from which everything else is dependent on.

The Holistic Gut Health Guide contains all the information you need to identify and understand the gastrointestinal and microbiome problems you may have while also providing you the most effective natural methods you can use to heal your gut. No gut health problems are unsolvable, give yourself every possible advantage along your gut health journey by reading an implementing the advice shared in the Holistic Gut Health Guide.

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Some of the information in the Holistic Gut Health Guide isn’t common knowledge but when implemented it is highly effective in healing the gut and shifting the microbiome towards symbiosis. Give yourself every possible advantage along your gut health journey by reading an implementing the advice shared in the Holistic Gut Health Guide.

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References:

1. World Health Organization, Japan Health Statistics

2. Hurst Y, Fukuda H. Effects of changes in eating speed on obesity in patients with diabetes: a secondary analysis of longitudinal health check-up data. BMJ Open. 2018;8(1):e019589.

3. Makki K, Deehan EC, Walter J, Bäckhed F. The Impact of Dietary Fiber on Gut Microbiota in Host Health and Disease. Cell Host Microbe. 2018;23(6):705-715.

4. Menni C, Jackson MA, Pallister T, Steves CJ, Spector TD, Valdes AM. Gut microbiome diversity and high-fibre intake are related to lower long-term weight gain. Int J Obes (Lond). 2017;41(7):1099-1105.

5. Smithsonian Magazine, Your Gut Bacteria May Be Controlling Your Appetite, Brian Handwerk November 24, 2015

6. Colberg SR, Zarrabi L, Bennington L, et al. Postprandial walking is better for lowering the glycemic effect of dinner than pre-dinner exercise in type 2 diabetic individuals. J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2009;10(6):394-7.

7. Franke A, Harder H, Orth AK, Zitzmann S, Singer MV. Postprandial walking but not consumption of alcoholic digestifs or espresso accelerates gastric emptying in healthy volunteers. J Gastrointestin Liver Dis. 2008;17(1):27-31.

8. Loretta DiPietro, Andrei Gribok, Michelle S. Stevens, Larry F. Hamm, William Rumpler. Three 15-min Bouts of Moderate Postmeal Walking Significantly Improves 24-h Glycemic Control in Older People at Risk for Impaired Glucose Tolerance. Diabetes Care 2013 Jun; DC_130084.

Medical Disclaimer: All information, content, and material of this website is for informational purposes only and is not intended to serve as a substitute for the consultation, diagnosis, and/or medical treatment of a qualified physician or healthcare provider.

Disclosure: Wild Free Organic is a member of various affiliate programs and if a purchase is made through one of our affiliate links a small commission is received. This does not affect your purchase price. Visit our disclosure page for more information.

A Beginner’s Guide to Start Running

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Getting out the door is more than half the battle when it comes to starting to run. Irregular and demanding work schedules, kids, and other commitments make it difficult to commit consistent time to running. On top of that, we’ve lost count of the people who say they are frustrated, because they have constantly been disappointed with their lack of progress—running never seems to get any easier.

The key to overcoming all of these obstacles?

Facing them with a solid plan of attack!

Raceday! From experts to beginners, anyone can participate in a 5k and compete against themselves.

Wild Free Organic Running Series:

1. Beginners Running Guide - 3 Month Plan ✅

2. Incorporate Strength Training into your Running Routine

3. Preparing for your First 5K

4. Final Preparations and 5K Race Day

From running novice to experienced racer, you’ll learn running, strength training, and race tip from these articles written by Triathlete Sarah Alexander and Physician Carten Denne. For absolute beginners, start with the Beginners Running Guide and follow through the other articles as you prepare for your first 5k race!

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There are more training plans out there than we can count, but only a handful that truly seek to guide someone who has been inactive for months or years and wants to be able to run a 5k straight through. One of these is the “Couch to 5k” running plan (C25k), which has helped thousands go from a sedentary lifestyle to completing their first 5k. It provides a progression of walk-runs over nine weeks that builds up to 30 minutes of straight running. While C25k is a great program, and we love the functionality and ease of its app, there are a few critical ways in which the training program falls short:

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Weekly Strength & Mobility

Running is stressful on the body. Particularly when people are just getting started, they tend to not have the lower body strength needed for the demands of running, which makes them vulnerable to injuries like shin splints, achilles tendinitis, IT band syndrome and plantar fasciitis as a result. Staying injury free during the first few weeks of running is crucial.

Committing to 20-30 minutes of strength training 1-2x per week just as a start will do wonders to build strength and prevent injury. Further benefits of strength training include burning fat and building muscle. Improved body composition will help you run further and faster with less effort.

Incorporate strength training into your running routine to see the benefits!

For the aforementioned reasons, we include one strength/mobility session per week in the zero to 5k program below. This 7-minute strength workout is a great one and can be done at home with no equipment!

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Time, Not Distance

While the Couch to 5k plan lets the individual choose whether to run for time or distance. However, when running for distance, people often feel pressure to cover a certain distance in a certain time. For beginner runners in particular, this can lead to over-exertion and bad running from habits which can result in injury, less enjoyment, or both. Plus, having a reliable amount of time for a run session will make it easier to plan ahead and incorporate running into your schedule.

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12 Weeks for Gradual Progression

It takes time for both mind and body to adapt to running. While the Couch to 5k program says to repeat weeks if needed, it can be hard to alter a plan and can even feel like a “failure.” For that reason, we have extended the plan from nine weeks to twelve, giving runners a clean three months to prepare for their 5k. This slightly more conservative approach will decrease the chance of injury and allow for more enjoyment along the way.

There are still some weeks that might seem like a big jump, particularly the jump from wk10 to wk11, which removes walking breaks. The key on week 11 is to remember that you have built up the strength and endurance necessary to make this leap, especially since the overall volume decreases a bit. Focus on the decreased total workout time as opposed to the increase in continuous running—it’s more of a mental leap than a physical one, we promise!

Our “Make a Run For It” Beginner’s Training Plan integrates some of the great foundational aspects of C25k with the changes made above:

“Make a Run For It” Beginner’s Training Plan - Sarah Alexander

As you embark on the training program above, keep these five pro tips in mind to guide you through the peaks and valleys of running and empower you to run a 5k straight through:

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1) Plan Ahead

In terms of your macro schedule, plan your weeks in advance. Obviously things may change along the way, but having a blueprint for your week will help as you learn to integrate running into your life. It is best to space out runs with rest days in between, but what works for one person won’t work for another, so we leave the scheduling of sessions up to you. Consider M/W/F/Sa or T/Th/Sa/Su, but at the end of the day, commit to the schedule that best fits the demands of your life.

On the day to day, try to make running the first thing you do in the morning, before life has a chance to get in the way. Make running your you time. Setting the alarm 40 minutes earlier than normal might seem painful, but you can make things easier on yourself by setting out your gear and placing your shoes right next to the door the night before. Wake up, get up, and go.

“You are the master of your schedule, but no matter how well intentioned we are, something gets in the way! Give yourself the best chance of successfully completing each session by planning ahead.”

That said, some people are just not early birds. If you prefer to train after work, pack running clothes to change into right at the end of the day. Also consider setting a “workout meeting” on your calendar to hold you to your workouts. The most important thing is to be consistent from session to session and week to week.

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2) Bring an accountability partner (or many) on board

As you build the habit of running, you need to make the pain of skipping your run greater than the pain of doing it. Have somebody that trains with you, or who you tell about your training, so you can check in with them each session. Ideally, talk a friend or family member into starting the program with you so you’re both starting from the same level!

Have an accountability buddy, or run with a buddy!

In addition, consider joining a running club. Many companies, local running stores, and local communities have running clubs, which are great resources as you build your habit of running. While you have your accountability partner in place, the more people you surround yourself with who are doing the things you want to do, the better.

Not only can these resources serve as extra motivation to hit the pavement, but they can also help you become a better runner. Remember the golden rule of 5: you are the average of the five people you associate most with. So associate with faster, more experienced, healthy runners. Don’t have an in-person running community in your area? No stress, there are a lot of online running communities that can help as well. Before you know it, you will have built enough momentum that you might even become someone else’s accountability buddy!

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3) Warm up before, stretch after

Doing a dynamic warm-up can take less than 5 minutes and will help you feel better from your first minute of walking. It will also decrease your chance of injury. After your run is the time to do some light stretching. I always think of post-workout stretching to be like a glass of cool lemonade on a hot day—it’s a chance to not only restore my muscles, but also take some deep breaths and soak in the training session I just accomplished. Carving out a few extra minutes before and after each session can feel strange, but properly warming up and cooling down will without a doubt put you in a better place physically and mentally going into the next workout that week.   

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4) Keep a Running Journal

Journaling is a great way to embrace the opportunity for personal growth that comes with any running journey. Tracking your progress will also help you keep track of your progression and keep things in perspective when you’re having a hard time getting through a training week. On top of that, it’s a great way to notice how running is changing your life without having to try too hard—feeling less stressed or in a better mood? Finding changes in food cravings and appetite? Experiencing more confidence? Jot it down! It will be fun to look back on your observations at the end of the three months.

You can also use your log to track your eating if you are running for weight loss. Changing your diet will be a key component to shedding pounds in addition to increased physical activity. Keeping a log—either written or digital—will help you stick with new healthy snacks, take note of what’s working and what’s not, and monitor your energy intake/expenditure.

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5) Keep Running Fun!

When training for an event, you will inevitably face a time when you have to dig down deep to find motivation; there will be days when you don’t want to run. A good way to find that motivation on days when it’s lacking is by packing a fun outfit you’ve been wanting to wear, creating a new running playlist, or downloading that interesting new podcast you’ve been wanting to listen to!

A couple great playlists to check out on Spotify are 170-190 BPM: Hip Hop Playlist and 170-190 Rock Playlist. Not only do these playlists include some great tunes, but they all have tempos that you can run to in order to practice good cadence (strive to hold ~180 strides per minute to reduce chances of injury and improve running economy).

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Thirty Minutes and an Open Door are all it takes

As you integrate activity back into your life and embark on your running journey, keep these tips in mind, and let us know how they are working for you! Stay focused on your end goal but remember to have fun with your training and enjoy the process, as well. What’s important in this journey is that you finish what you started—that in itself is a huge accomplishment, and you will make lasting memories and change your life in the process.

Wild Free Organic recommends Vivobarefoot footwear - modern footwear made with natural human physiology, minimalism, and eco-conscious in mind. Vivobarefoot has zero-drop, wide toe-box shoes that can be used from the office to the gym to the tundra, and everything in-between.

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Sarah Alexander

Since graduating from Chicago Booth with her MBA in 2015, Sarah has competed for the U.S.A. as a professional triathlete. In the process, she has become an expert in fitness and nutrition. She is passionate about helping others achieve their goals and is motivated by the perpetual challenge of defying boundaries to discover her best in athletic and professional pursuits alike.

To learn more about Sarah Alexander visit her website or follow her on Instagram @sarah_alxndr.

Incorporate Strength Training into a Running Routine

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Strength and power are not usually associated with running, yet, these physical qualities are fundamental to running performance and injury prevention. Strength exercises can vary largely in difficulty, technique and weight added. Resistance training has a wide range, from body weight exercises such as push-ups to barbell exercises such as the bench press, and even to exciting functional movements such as sandbag carries.

Wild Free Organic Running Series:

1. Beginners Running Guide - 3 Month Plan

2. Incorporate Strength Training into your Running Routine ✅

3. Preparing for your First 5K

4. Final Preparations and 5K Race Day

From running novice to experienced racer, you’ll learn running, strength training, and race tip from these articles written by Triathlete Sarah Alexander and Physician Carten Denne. For absolute beginners, start with the Beginners Running Guide and follow through the other articles as you prepare for your first 5k race!

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Why Add Strength Training to a Running Routine?

Strength and power are important to prevent injury and maximize performance for runners, and the answer lies in the physics of running. It revolves around something called “ground reaction forces”. To put it simply, these are the forces that the foot puts on the ground when landing. In return, the forces from the ground are returned to the foot. It has been shown that when the foot strikes the ground, up to 3 times body weight forces are exerted on the leg and foot hitting the ground (1)! Therefore, strong leg muscles are better able to withstand that amount of repetitive force making the runner less likely to get injured.  Also, the more force a runner can place on the ground, the faster they will run (2). So if that has you confused, don’t worry. After you perform the following exercises you will see first-hand how strength training can help.

It is recommended to do these exercises after a run or on a separate, non-running day. Incorporate them into your morning routine. Resistance training, although very beneficial, will tire the muscles used for running. Running with fatigued muscles can change ones running form and increase the risk of injury (3, 4). For advanced trainees, it is important to have a day or two dedicated to weight training per week. This can be after an easy jog instead of a run. A lifting session is not meant to be done on ones dedicated rest day.

Below is an example of what to add in after a run. Paired with a 5k running plan and proper diet and your results will be striking. Many of the basics (the push-up) are explained in a way to make them easier to perform and better understood how to progress. There are also new movements most runners have never performed before.

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Beginner Strength Training for Runners

Whether you are an elite marathoner or just got of the couch for the first time in 5 years, the following exercise are an essential starting point for your exploration into strength training.

2x a week perform the following circuit. Focus on proper form, consistent breathing, and don’t rush through the exercises.

• Squats 3 x 10-20

• Push-ups 3 x 0-20

• Lunges 3 x 10-20

Note - sets x reps (i.e. 3 x 10 is three sets of ten repetitions)

Exercise: Body Weight Squat

To perform this exercise for the first time it is often helpful to have a chair behind you as you sit back. The movement should mimic sitting into a chair, using your legs to control the motion on the way down. Once your behind touches the chair, stand back up using just the strength of your legs. Squats strengthen the large muscles in the legs that are responsible for generating power. Try starting with 3 sets of 20 repetitions with about 30 seconds rest between sets.

Exercise: The Push-Up

Don’t start thinking this deadly gym class favorite has come back to haunt your dreams. No need for struggling to hold a proper form or suffering with your knees on the hard ground. We are going to make it easier and hopefully more fun by using the negative push-up. First, start at the top of the position and lower slowly to the ground. Then to get back to the starting position, role up using your legs and abs. The purpose of negative push-ups is to maintain the form while on the eccentric (downwards) part of the movement. You will be able to take on regular push-ups after being able to do several of these. Begin with 2 sets of as many repetitions until fatigue, and as you build strength in your arms, shoulders, and chest, you can add more sets and reps.

Exercise: Lunges

Along with the squat, this leg exercise is great for runners. It will build power in the legs and can be altered to make it more difficult as you progress. The movement of the lunge is done by stepping out with one leg and letting the other knee gently move toward the ground. The “stepped out” foot is then brought back to place the feet together. When done properly this movement should not put stress on the knees or ankles. When you can do 20-30 consecutive lunges, then a jumping lunge can be integrated into the routine. Adding a jump in the movement will further develop the explosive leg muscles used in running.

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Intermediate Strength Training for Runners

Once you have mastered the basics for your chest and legs, the following exercises will further challenge your strength and power systems, especially those of the back and core, pushing your running PR’s lower.

Combined with the above beginner routine, 1x a week perform the following circuit. Focus on stability through the midsection throughout all the movements.

• Australian Pull-Ups 3 x 10-20

• Hollow Body Holds 3 x 10-30 secs

• Burpees 3 x 10-50

Exercise: Pull-ups/Australian Pull-up

Another body weight classic is the pull-up. No need to fear if you are not quite ready for a full on pull-up. There are many other variations that work the same muscles and movement patterns. In order to bust out perfect chest to bar reps, your whole upper body must be able to generate coordinated force. Progressing through exercises ensures this is an easily accomplished goal, only requiring hard work and commitment.

The Australian Pull-Up can be used if you are new to upper body pulling movements such as the pull-up but you are not strong enough to do a pull-up. After progressing to 10-15 repetitions continuously with good form, your arms will be ready for any hill out there!

Exercise: Hollow Body Hold

Gymnasts and divers are very familiar with the pleasant burn from this abdominal strengthening movement the Hollow Body Hold. This involves lying on your back with the hands and feet off the ground about 8-12 inches. Not to bad right? Just wait. To make it harder, contract and stabilize your core, starting to rock back and forth like a see-saw on your whole back without bending in the waist or letting the feet/hand touch the ground. This movement takes time to learn but the effort is worth the results, namely a stronger, more defined midsection!

Exercise: Burpees

Simple yet effective, burpees can be done anywhere or everywhere. Start in the push-up position and lower to the ground. Push to the starting position, and then jump the feet to the hands in one fluent motion. Now stand up and finish but jumping in the air with the hands over the head. After landing, place the hands on the floor and step the legs back. Now repeat that!

Not only can these be used to improve fitness but also to measure it. For women, doing 40-50 in a 3 minute period indicates that you are fitter than average (5). This movement may involve a small learning curve, but there are many ways to make this movement easier and manageable for just about anyone.

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Advanced Strength Training for Runners

Kettlebell training and running go hand in hand!

Once you’ve progressed through the basic and intermediate routines, you can start to experiment with more complex strength training movements.

Do not rush learning and mastering the basics! Basic strength exercises can be scaled and modified for a long time, really it is a life long learning process.

Combine the below routine with the beginner routine (1x a week) and the intermediate routine (1x a week). Perform the following exercises to completion one after the other, focusing on building full body power and explosiveness.

• Power Cleans 3 x 5

• Head Bangers 3 x 8

• Single Arm Dumbbell Snatch 3x15

Exercise: Power Cleans

Rarely are runners ever introduced the explosive, whole body movement known as the Power Clean. As far as strength, power, and muscle development goes, power cleans checks all the boxes. Like most barbell lifts it is best to learn the movement from an experienced lifter. Hire a coach so you can learn how to perform the movement correctly, effectively, and safely. It is recommended to start very light, starting with 3 sets of 5 reps. The time invested into this movement will pay dividends on the race course. Especially for a strong finish. 

Exercise: Head Bangers

Head Bangers are a modification of the infamous pull-up. Start with pulling up on a bar to place your chin over it. Then push your body away from the bar as far as possible followed by quickly pulling yourself back to the bar. This should all be done without letting your chin fall below the bar. 

There are many variations to this motion including changing the grip on the bar or leg position. When first starting this movement, aim for 3 sets of 8, and following the principle of progressive overload, add a few more reps each week.

Exercise: Single Arm Dumbbell Snatch

Coordination, speed, and strength are what you will develop with the Single Arm Dumbbell Snatch, and it’s imperative you perform this movement safely. Single arm dumbbell snatch 

This lift can be done with lighter weights at first and increased after gaining experience and proper patterning.

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Become a Multi-Disciplinary Athlete

Whether you’re new to running or an advanced trainee, you’ll benefit from incorporating proper resistance training into your wellness routine.

Strength Training builds muscle, burns body fat, ramps up your metabolism, and strengthens your skeleton, tendons/ligaments, and fascia.

Strength training the right amount will make you a better runner, and a healthier person.

Wild Free Organic recommends Vivobarefoot footwear - modern footwear made with natural human physiology, minimalism, and eco-conscious in mind. Vivobarefoot has zero-drop, wide toe-box shoes that can be used from the office to the gym to the tundra, and everything in-between.

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References:

1. Cavanagh, P. R. & Lafortune, M. A. Ground reaction forces in distance running. J. Biomech. 13, 397–406 (1980).

2. Nagahara, R., Mizutani, M., Matsuo, A., Kanehisa, H. & Fukunaga, T. Association of Sprint Performance With Ground Reaction Forces During Acceleration and Maximal Speed Phases in a Single Sprint. J. Appl. Biomech. 34, 104–110 (2019).

3. Gerlach, K. E. et al. Kinetic changes with fatigue and relationship to injury in female runners. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc. 37, 657–663 (2005).

4. Christina, K. A., White, S. C. & Gilchrist, L. A. Effect of localized muscle fatigue on vertical ground reaction forces and ankle joint motion during running. Hum. Mov. Sci. 20, 257–276 (2001).

5. BMI, Endurance-strength Abilities, Female Students, Health-related Fitness. Int. J. Sports Sci. 9 (2013).

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Carter Denne

Carter Denne is a physician with a Masters Degree in health science. With a strong background in athletics and sports science, Carter applies his health and wellness knowledge in his career and through educating others.

You can follow and connect with Carter through his Instagram @carterdenne.

Five Wellness Habits to Follow

Article by Stefan Burns - Updated November 2021. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!

Depending on your current lifestyle, life can move fast, with responsibilities and stress pilling up. When this happens, unhealthy habits are created and used as coping mechanisms which only serve to make things worse. Once habits are formed, it can be hard to get out of those unhealthy routines. Humans are creatures of habit - and that isn't necessarily a bad thing! If mindfulness throughout the creation of a new habit, we can let our unconscious actions better serve our health and wellness.

To make sure that the changes you want to make become healthy habits that don’t cut into your free time or morph into an added stress, start with the basics. The goal is to make life less stressful, and to aid you in the journey here are five easy-to-follow habits to speed your growth into a healthier you!

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Drink More Water

Everyone knows the importance of drinking water for optimal health, but 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated. Dehydration causes fatigue, lead to heat exhaustion, or even cause death in extreme cases. When you keep your body in a state of chronic dehydration, all the major systems of the body are stressed to critical levels. If you were hoping to find a magic wellness potion that will change your life forever, water is the closest thing you've got! Below is a small slice of how water intake impacts your health:

• Drinking enough water improves mood, aids concentration, and promotes a clarity of mind.

• The detoxification system of the body, led by the kidneys and liver, uses water to filter and flush out toxins through sweat, urine, and feces.

• Water is absolutely vital for skin health, and remember the skin is the largest organ of the body!

• Water aids in digestion, improving and stabilizing intestinal motility.

• Adequate water intake can balance blood pressure to healthy levels by lowering or raising it.

“Water is the foundation of all life as we know it”

If you’ve never made a habit to drink pure water consistently and in adequate volume, then you’ve been missing out of a whole new level of health and wellness. To remedy that, make it a habit to drink water at certain times of day. For instance, have 16 - 32 oz of filtered water everyday right when you wake up. Pairing water intake to events like waking up, finishing work, or before a meal is a good way to ensure you drink the recommended 1 gallon (4 liters) of water per day. There are many ways to make sure you're staying hydrated throughout the day, brainstorm what works for your current lifestyle, so even if you're busy, you’re well hydrated and your fluid intake isn’t a stress factor.

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Incorporate Movement into your Life

If you don't have time everyday to exercise or go for a long walk, that doesn't mean you can't move! By squeezing in some movement in-between your regular activities, you can improve your energy levels while laying the foundation for a more structured exercise routine.

If you already work, small bouts of movement done consistently throughout your day will accelerate your fitness goals.

Burn some calories, make small health improvements, and all without a trip to the gym. That’s a win-win and a textbook example of a healthy habit.

To start incorporating more movement into your everyday life, choose exercises you can do quickly and without any equipment. Connect those simple exercises to activities you do often, and eventually that daily task acts as a movement trigger, becoming a habit.

Movement Habits to Follow

• Before or after you use the restroom, do 15 squats.

• If you're reading a long email or article, hold your arms up high above your head as you're reading and stretch a bit. Don’t be surprised by how quickly your shoulders start to work!

• If you watch TV, use the natural breaks to exercise! If you're watching cable, perform sit-ups during the commercial breaks. If you're watching a streaming service like Netflix, do a 1-minute plank or push-ups a couple short of failure in-between episodes.

• While heating up food, do some stretching! Quad and hamstring stretches are particularly accessible and can be done anywhere.

• Perform a wall sit while brushing your teeth! The guideline for oral health is to brush your teeth for 2 minutes; work your way towards holding the wall sit for the entire duration.

• If you're walking up stairs, do 15 calf raises from a step when you get to the top of the flight. The step lets you get a full range of motion, and really gets the calves burning. Practice your balance on the bottom step.

For a more structured exercise routine calisthenics is highly recommended as zero equipment is required, and calisthenics can be performed by all ages. Calisthenics is easy to scale to the individual; if you don’t know how to start, follow a simple calisthenics routine.

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Plan Your Meals

Meal-prepping is a game changer, not only for your finances, but also for your diet and time management.

If you have a hectic schedule, once or twice a week, plan out your lunch and dinners for that period of time. Knowing exactly what to shop for while you're at the grocery store keeps your trips short and effective, and keeps you from wasting money on impulse food purchases, which might be more unhealthy or go unused. Cooking ahead of time and having a prepared lunch means you'll consistently be eating healthier, nor will you misuse money or time ordering out. Planning ahead on what to eat for dinner saves you time, money, and increases your schedule flexibility. If a time crunch arises, a healthy meal has been prepared and is ready to go.

For some, meal prepping is the end destination. Personally I like cooking my meals fresh everyday, but meal prepping was certainly a very valuable step on the way towards fully intuitive healthy eating. make sure when meal prepping that you store your food in glass containers to avoid exposing yourself to endocrine disruptors like phthalates, BPA/BPS/BPF.

Eat More Vegetables

As you're preparing your meals, make it a habit to include a serving or two of vegetables with every container. You've already made the decision to eat healthier, and eating more vegetables is universally recognized as one of the best ways to accomplish that goal. 7-9 servings of fruits and vegetables per day should be your target, and it's easy to accomplish that since if meals are pre-made and ready to go. As an added benefit, changing the vegetable side dish to a meal helps keep every lunch and dinner interesting, so you can prepare your carbs and protein in bulk and then add fresh vegetables with every meal. To prepare veggies fresh really quickly and healthily, use an air fryer. Lightly cooking broccoli, cauliflower, or squash in an airfryer only takes 5-10 minutes and doesn’t require the use of any oils.

Pack Healthy Snacks

It's okay to get hungry between meals, and if energy levels hit a slump, having a healthy snack on hand can support your health and wellness goals by keeping you aware from tempting junk food. Fruits like an orange or apple contain satiating fiber, or a granola mix with nuts and seeds can help improve your fat metabolism.

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Practice Mindfulness

Taking a few moments for yourself every day, breathing, and practicing mindfulness is a great way to reduce stress, prevent burnout, and lead to a healthier happier life.

When and how you want to use your time is up to you, but make a habit of spending some me time to yourself at least once a day. Spending time in nature and grounding is of the best things you can do everyday for your mental health, and can reduce feelings of anxiety, loneliness, and depression.

In the morning, this "Me time" could be taking a few extra moments after waking up to stretch, do your daily hygiene, and prepare a delicious breakfast. At work, it could mean pausing from an assignment to step outside and take ten deep breaths of fresh air. Later in the evening a walk of any length clears and calms the mind while also incorporating more movement into your daily routine.

All these recommendations seem like common sense, but when caught in the rat race it takes a conscientious effort to make time for yourself and make wellness a priority in your life. Once mindfulness habits are set, you’ll be amazed by how much less stress you have in your life, how much calmer you are, and how much more focused and productive you’ve become!

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Sleep a Full Eight Hours

When responsibilities pile up and there is so much to do, it's convenient to think that getting a couple hours less sleep per night will be OKAY. well, It isn't. The eight hours of rest you should be getting every night is the time when the mind and body heal and restore.

““Our bodies used long periods of sleep to restore and rejuvenate, to repair tissues, grow muscle, prune synapses, and synthesize hormones.””

Sleep is when the brain takes the information from the previous day, parses it, and turns it into long term memories. It may seem like staying up to finish work is the better option, but 9 times out of 10 you're better off getting a good night's rest and coming back to finish your work in the morning. Quality sleep is crucial to productivity and overall happiness.

If you have trouble establishing a set bedtime, set an alarm an hour before your desired bedtime and begin your bedtime routine. Turn down the lights, place your phone on the charger, brush your teeth, and do all the things you want to do in order to wake up the next morning bright and alert. Be conscientious of your circadian rhythm and let the cycle of the sun guide your morning, afternoon, and evening activities. Plan your bedtime slightly earlier than the eight hours of sleep you need, that way in case it takes a while to fall asleep, you still get eight quality hours of sleep per night.

Improving your sleep is one of the best things you can do for your health and wellness, and it’s really quite easy with the creation of some habits and a little discipline.

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Five Habits to Healthy

There you have it, five wellness strategies to help you live a happier, healthier, and more appreciative life. Be patient during the process and start by adding one new habit at a time, and as one becomes a permanent habit, add another in. There is no first place winner as it relates to your wellness journey, everyone’s life if unique and takes a different path. The best way to see long term success is with small consistent steps forward which result in accelerating forward progress.

Use Fasting to Reset the Digestive System

Article by Stefan Burns - Updated November 2022. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter! Stefan Burns YouTube.

Fasting for an extended length of time can quickly heal the gut, balance the microbiome, and improve digestion, and as a result fasting can be used to help overcome many health problems such as obesity, inflammatory diseases and conditions, a malfunctioning metabolism, and poor sleep.

Abstaining from food for a significant period of time heals the lining of the digestive system, reduces stress on the immune system, and resets the microbiome by increasing symbiotic microorganism diversity while simultaneously eliminating sugar-loving and disease-causing pathogens through nutrient starvation.

Performing a 1 to 2 day fast after consuming a nutrient dense and fiber-rich meal is a powerful method of healing not only the digestive system but can be used to correct many common health and wellness ailments.

When the digestive system is functioning properly and the microbiome living within is healthy the metabolism is increased and stabilized which provides abundant consistent energy, sleep is deep and restful, bathroom visits are dependable, skin clears up, and a thin waist line becomes possible. Through it’s selective evolutionary pressures on the microbiome (one of the main production centers of neurotransmitters in the body) fasting also has the capability of improving mental health. A healthy gut produces the neurotransmitters we need for proper cognitive function at the right ratios required for optimal wellness. Fasting therefore can be used to help with depression, anxiety, and even neurodegenerative mental disorders.

In this article we discuss the following:

1. How to improve gut health with fasting and 48-hour fasting

2. What microorganisms inhabit the gut and characteristics of an unhealthy microbiome

3. Tissues of the digestive system

4. How drinking herbal teas while fasting helps

5. A 48-hour fast action plan

6. Practicing gut health mindfulness

With proper planning and the right structure, a 48-hour fast is a short enough time period to be accomplished without great stress and is a great way to experience all the amazing benefits of fasting for yourself.

If you’re completely new to fasting, I recommend you read this article and my article titled Fasting for Beginners. After reading both you’ll have a good handle on what fasting is, how it is beneficial to health, and how to perform it safely. In addition to these resources, Chapter 8 of the Holistic Gut Health Guide is entirely devoted to fasting and how it can be used to improve gut health.

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Ready to Heal Your Gut?

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Together the digestive system and microbiome are the foundation of health from which everything else is dependent on.

The Holistic Gut Health Guide contains all the information you need to identify and understand the gastrointestinal and microbiome problems you may have while also providing you the most effective natural methods you can use to heal your gut. No gut health problems are unsolvable, give yourself every possible advantage along your gut health journey by reading an implementing the advice shared in the Holistic Gut Health Guide.

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Some of the information in the Holistic Gut Health Guide isn’t common knowledge but when implemented it is highly effective in healing the gut and shifting the microbiome towards symbiosis. Give yourself every possible advantage along your gut health journey by reading an implementing the advice shared in the Holistic Gut Health Guide.

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Improve Gut Health with Fasting

Restoring the digestive system back to a state of normal functioning will liberate you of digestive woes everyone has experienced at some point, which include brutal stomach aches, intense bloating, waves of nausea, or even running-to-the-bathroom trips. Poor gut health places a huge energy drain not only on health but on life as a whole as it’s hard to deal with anything else when dealing with a gut flareup.

From my personal experience in healing my gut, I have found fasting to be an absolute gamechanger and the quickest way to heal an ailing digestive system. Once all the organs of the digestive system are healed and functioning normally, fasting does not need to be done as frequently.

Healing my gut was a ten year health journey that led me to research the cutting edge of metabolic and microbiome science as well as study the ancient wisdom of herbalism. Tempered with ample personal experience, I discovered that most people need to reexamine their relationship with food, not only what they eat, but when and how often they eat. The body has two metabolic operating systems which are vastly different in how they function; eating places you into an anabolic state of growth and inflammation, whereas fasting places you into a catabolic state or repair and healing. Both are useful and necessary states of the body but they must stay in balance to one another.

Changing the food you eat doesn’t matter much if fundamentally the reason why you’re experiencing any number of health problems is because the body needs to go catabolic in order to heal and repair at a cellular level. Until then, staying anabolic will only exacerbate any health issues that exist. Only by going catabolic and by spending sufficient sufficient time catabolic in the protective state of cellular cleanup and repair known as autophagy will certain health issues resolve and then a more normal eating schedule can be resumed.

Making the changes necessary to incorporate fasting into your everyday life is far less risky than doing nothing at all. Never letting anabolism and catabolism enter into unbalanced territory is the real key to staying healthy and fit over the long term, and I’ve developed a simple dietary framework known as the FoodFast Method to make living this balanced lifestyle easy. The FoodFast Method teaches you when it’s best to eat and when it’s best not to eat, and it also offers guidance on what foods are best in terms of nutrition, gut health, and the microbiome.

The 48 Hour Fast

The first reaction many people have to the suggestion of a two day fast is “You’re telling me I can’t eat for 48 hours? I won’t do that, it’s crazy!”

In western culture fasting is rarely done, and going without food for more than a few hours is uncommon. If unaccustomed to fasting, long lengths of time away from food leave most with stomach convulsions, intense hunger, and maybe a side dish of hangry.

It’s best to ease into new health modalities. whether it be fasting, keto, vegetarian, etc. Going all in often leads to going all out shortly later, so my advice is if you’re completely new to fasting, then completing 2-3 introductory 24-hour fasts is recommended over starting right off with a 48-hour fast. A 24-hour fast is logistically and psychologically much easier to complete successfully, will help reset and heal the gut noticeably, and will provide you valuable experience on how to identify and control food cravings. Now that my gut is healthy, a 24 hour fast is my favorite way of gently nudging my gut health back to balance if disrupted for some reason.

If you are ready for a full 48 hour fast, the process is simple. You don’t consume any calories from food or drinks for 48 hours. Water of course is allowed, as are natural zero calories beverages such as black coffee or tea. Using artificial sugars are a strict no-go, more on that below. I recommend only drinking pure spring water during fasts as natural electrolytes will be present without the chemical contamination that tap water has. Drinking tea is also okay during a fast and in many ways is actually beneficial. For those with inefficient metabolisms, drinking green tea while fasting is a very effective way to reduce appetite while increasing the metabolism of body fat. Green tea fasting is the most powerful form of fasting that i’ve discovered. Herbal teas are also very useful, for example dandelion and chamomile are herbs both great at normalizing digestive function and a 1:1 herbal tea blend of dandelion and chamomile is a great way to expedite the gut healing process during a fast. More on that below.

I recommend starting fasts 24 hours or longer after a 6 pm dinner. With this schedule, the first 10-14 hours will be easily accomplished with a full stomach during the evening and then during sleep. Breakfast is easy to skip if one drinks plenty of water and keeps moving, and skipping breakfast is something everyone has done before. It’s during the afternoon when the real challenge of having not eaten appears, as it’s a natural lazy point in the day. For a 24 hour or longer fast, a quick walk, 15 minute nap, or cup of green tea fixes any dip in energy experienced.

If you’re performing hard mental or physical work during a fast it will be more difficult as energy demands will be higher. In this context a fast is not recommended unless safeguards are put in place and fat metabolism is already strong and well established. Fasting is a profound healing tool, but in its own way it is a unique stressor to the body, especially if never experienced before. Respect the process and don’t overutilize your energy reserves. One thing that fasting teaches is how to balance the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. Periods of time spent in both sympathetic (go go go activity) and parasympathetic (rest and digest) states are needed for optimal wellness. Fasting is a great tool to use to help deeply relax.

With a fast that starts at 6 pm if lunch is eaten at noon the next day then that marks the end of a 18-hour intermittent fast. Waiting to eat until dinner at 6 pm would be a 24 hour fast or the halfway point for a 48-hour fast. At 24 hours into a fast the body is burning body fat for energy while extracting the final nutrients available from the digestive system. The quality of the last meal eaten is very important for this reason.

After 24-hours energy levels may begin to dip. Others report experiencing a surge in energy due to their unique physiology. To be successful in fasting for a full two days, cruise control must be maintained. On day 2 the goal is to avoid the traffic jams of life, simply skipping breakfast and lunch again, relaxing when possible, and eating your first refeed meal at 6 pm for dinner. Staying grounded in the present moment is they key to successfully completing a fast and it’s all worth it in the end because you’ll feel significantly better and also because the refeed meal will be one of the best of your life.

By the end of a 48-hour fast there should very little to nothing left in your gut. No fresh food means the microbiome has to scavenge and work extra hard to survive in a low resource environment. Fasting has all these amazing health benefits partly because of the selective evolutionary pressure it applies to the microbiome. Microorganisms that depend on sugar die off while hardier microorganisms that can process more difficult nutrients like fiber survive in greater proportions. There are many ways to cleanse the microbiome, and fasting is one of the easiest and most powerful.

What Microorganisms Inhabit the Gut?

There are three types of organisms that make up the microbiome: symbiotic, commensal, and pathogenic. Pathobionts are a subsection of commensal organisms which lean pathogenic.

• Symbiotic Microorganisms

  Symbiotic microbes work with us, and the relationship between host (us) and microbe is beneficial to both parties. Symbiotic microbes will provide nutrients and/or energy in exchange for shelter and food. The microbes which primarily digest indigestible fiber are symbiotic, in the process releasing short chain fatty acids in the colon for our metabolic use. Symbiotic microorganisms also help by breaking down nutrients into pieces small enough to be transported into the body across the gut-blood barrier. The cellular mechanisms of the body are unable to transport and use nutrients that haven’t been broken down sufficiently, so microorganisms that assist in fully digesting food down to the smallest parts possible is advantageous to the host.

• Commensal Microorganisms

  Commensal microbes coexist with us without harming us. They’re like your friendly neighbors you never talk too. They assist in the breakdown of food but more for their benefit than yours. The issue with commensal microbes is when they start to overpopulate the small intestine, a condition known as small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), which has many health complications such as gas and inconsistent gut motility. Additionally, when commensal microorganisms reach populations that are too large, they begin out-competing helpful microorganisms though the power of numbers, reducing the nutrients you uptake while further growing their population in size. If this trend isn’t stopped, commensal microorganisms can evolve into pathobionts.

• Pathobiont Microorganisms

  Pathobionts are commensal organism that can cause harm under certain circumstances. A good example of commensal that turn into pathobionts are those who form biofilm colonies. Biofilms are communities of microorganisms that are difficult to dislodge due to the protections they have been built up around them. Biofilms have a hard time forming on mucous layers, which is one reason why sufficient and consistent digestive mucous production is important, and if mucous coatings are thin then pathobionts will form biofilms directly on the surface of human epithelial cells, causing inflammation and a strong immune response. The immune system has a difficult time breaking apart biofilms as they typically lie outside the body and in the digestive system. As a defense mechanism biofilms that are disrupted release harmful chemicals. Pathobiont biofilms are hard to readily identify and treat, but are usually a contributing factor in gut health problems, especially unexpected gut health flare-ups.

• Pathogenic Microorganisms

  Pathogenic microbes are harmful to health. When their populations are low, their detrimental effects on health are negligible, and the immune system keeps them actively under check, but when the gut is inflamed and epithelial tight-junctions are eroded and unhealthy processed foods are the norm, then the perfect environment for pathogenic microbes is created. Pathogenic microbes aren’t content gnawing on a thread of fiber, they seek out quick energy, and under the conditions of a fast when energy is scarce, pathogenic bacteria are the first to go. This die-off reaction can cause symptoms like fatigue, headache, and stomach pain, and this is something to be aware of when performing fasts longer than 24 hours. Selecting against pathogenic microbes is highly desirable for long term health and wellness, and if a large pathogenic microorganism population exists in the gut, a die off reaction will occur during fasting which may cause symptoms. During a fast keeping the kidneys and liver stress free by limiting the chemicals or medications that are used is best (examples being alcohol, NSAIDS, or prescription drugs).

An Unhealthy Microbiome

With an unhealthy gut, beneficial microorganisms are in short supply, commensal populations are large and unruly, and pathogenic microorganisms exist unchallenged. This type of microbiome is one that preferentially craves sweets, fried foods, and excess salt, and after having its demands met produces metabolic waste products known as endotoxins that leads to symptoms of brain fog, unstable energy levels, and fat gain.

How to Restore Healthy Gut Flora

The pathogens that contribute to you feeling awful are not helpful in any way (besides bringing awareness to the problem that exists), and a primary objective in transitioning from a diseased digestive system to healthy gut is to restore the microbiome to a state of symbiotic balance. Fasting is effective at doing this as fasts longer than 24 hours eliminate microbial overgrowth and assist in the removal of biofilms as protective mucous layers are restored. A 48-hour fast will wipe out a lot of pathogenic microorganisms, and if you don’t feel them what they need afterwards then their populations will stay low. With reduced nutrients available some of the symbiotic microorganisms will not survive either (we’re talking about trillions of microorganisms dying), but with a healthy refeed meal symbiotic microorganism populations quickly rebound and will have evolved to be more resilient to future periods of resource scarcity.

After a few 24 and 48-hour fasts with healthy eating in-between the composition of the microbiome will be radically different and the digestive system will have healed tremendously. The secret with fasting is to be extremely discretionary with what enters into the body. Limiting intake to just water (and herbal teas), air, and sunshine makes for the best effect. No diet soda, no chewing gum, and limit the black coffee.

Now let’s discuss artificial sugars. Artificial sugars have an undesirable effect on your microbiome by eroding mucosal linings. Artificial sugars reach the deep recesses of the gut by eroding protective viscoelastic mucus lining, creating an energy-rich pathway for commensal and pathogenic microorganisms to get into direct contact with now unprotected epithelial cells. Once directly on these cell membranes pathobionts create their biofilm strongholds. Biofilms are resistant to probiotic and antibiotic treatments and are often the source of unexplainable reoccurring gut problems. Pathobiont biofilms are very tough to dislodge, and the double whammy of consuming artificial sugars is that they are toxic to many other microorganisms. For these reasons never consume artificial sugars, especially during a fast.

Gut Health and Microbiome Basics Video Short Course

by Stefan Burns

Cells of the Digestive System

Epithelium cells are the barrier of the digestive system that separate the contents of the gut from the bloodstream. Epithelium cells are on the front line every minute, allowing nutrients to pass through them to enter the bloodstream but blocking entry to microorganisms, nutrients too large for easy transport, or toxins.

If all things are functioning normally the epithelium regenerates completely every 5 days. Therefore, 20% of the epithelium is regenerated daily. When fasting, autophagy (cellular cleanup and repair) increases and healthy cell turnover of the intestinal epithelium quickens now that it is no longer being setback by the active digestion of food.

A two day fast is enough time for about 40% or more of the epithelium to completely regenerate in a low-inflammation environment.

The human digestive tract

When the digestive barrier and mucosal lining are fully regenerated and the tight-junctions between cells are strong, then when normal inflammation from digestive returns, the responsibilities of the immune system are decreased compared to when excess inflammation is present. With greatly reduced numbers of microorganism invaders and undigested food particles entering into the blood stream, the immune system can regenerate after a period of overactivity and stress, taking the time it needs to heal. The immune system requires certain components in sufficient amounts to function properly, and micronutrients such as zinc, vitamin D, and vitamin C are critically important for normal immune function. When under stress, the greater demands of the immune system can cause nutrient deficiencies to occur which then place stress on other areas of the body. Healing the digestive system, diversifying the microbiome, and improving diet can help remediate or even eliminate diseases of the immune system.

Fasting for Auto-Immune Diseases

For those who suffer from auto-immune issues, fasting can be a major breakthrough in recovering from their condition. The digestive system is the main patrol ground of the immune system, it’s where the most interactions between the human body and the outside world occur on the microscopic level. A cross-wired immune system that attacks itself is increasingly being found to result from a dysfunctional and diseased gut environment. Auto-immunity and the microbiome are intricately linked.

After thousands of years of gut health education from wise ancients like Greek philosopher Hippocrates, the collective consciousness is now beginning to understand the huge importance of the digestive system for overall health and wellness.

Simultaneously the importance of the microbiome is being better understood by the general public. The impact of the microbiome passed from mother to child during birth has lifelong health implications. A healthy birth from a healthy mom results in a healthy baby and future adult. If microbiome inoculation that occurs during birthing is disrupted, such as during a caesarian section, then that child is more likely to experience a range of undesirable health outcomes such as asthma, auto-immunes, troublesome weight-gain, and more. Thankfully the microbiome is simply a collection of microorganisms that is relatively easy to manipulate once you have the tools to do so. Fasting is the most powerful of those microbiome altering tools, and therefore it’s also one of the most powerful tools for people looking for relief from their auto-immune issues.

Autophagy & Apoptosis

We’ve touched on autophagy already and now we’ll go more in-depth.

Autophagy is the protective state that the body goes into when nutrients are scarce. Autophagy increases the recycling of malfunctioning cellular components, helps old cells die peacefully, and promotes the regeneration of new cells in their place. The longer a fast goes for and the scarcer nutrients become, the deeper into autophagy the body goes. 16 hour intermittent fasting boosts autophagic processes throughout the body noticeably, whereas 24-72 hour fasts increase autophagy to a much greater degree, and for an even more profound regenerative healing effect, fasting for a week or longer can work miracles. Many “incurable” diseases and severe auto-immune issues have been cured through multi-week fasts under medical supervision at fasting clinics worldwide.

Autophagy is also incredibly important in the fight against cancer. Cancer cannot be cured until the autophagic system can be deployed to destroy the cancer cells plaguing the body. In the case of cancer, fasting-induced autophagy has been shown to protect healthy cells from chemotherapy treatments while increasing the effectiveness of the chemotherapy on cancer cells.

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Autophagy is clearly a very useful process that thankfully is encoded into human DNA. It has to, we wouldn’t be able to live otherwise because without rate limiters reactions in the body would spiral out of control and life simply wouldn’t be able to sustain itself.

Autophagy is difficult in its own way though. Autophagy increases as available nutrients and energy decreases. To go into autophagy means to dive into nutrient and energy scarcity. If purposefully utilizing the power of autophagy for deep cellular healing and renewal, be mindful and listen to the needs of your body. Recording how you feel and any observations you make in a health journal is highly recommended.

If you want to learn more about extended-length fasting, I highly recommend you watch an amazing documentary, The Science of Fasting.

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Drink Herbal Teas while Fasting

As touched on earlier, one way to greatly increase the efficacy and safety of fasting is to drinking herbal teas throughout the fast. This can be green tea, or herbal teas like a 1:1:1 blend of dandelion root, chamomile flowers, and peppermint leaves.

Green Tea for Fasting

Green tea fasting is one of the easiest types of fasting I’ve experienced. Drinking 2-3 cups of green tea (zero additives) everyday during a fast reduces appetite and increases fat oxidation. Energy levels are more stable throughout the fast when drinking green tea, and the amino acid L-theanine found in green tea promotes a sense of calm and relaxation.

Pique Tea sells a wide selection of organic teas in their unique “tea crystal” format. Tea crystals readily dissolve in hot or cold water and are super convenient for on-the-go use.

Use the code WILDFREEORGANIC for 5% off at checkout

Mountain Rose Herbs has a wide selection of organic green teas that are perfect for use in green tea fasting. I prefer their pearl jasmine green tea for its flavor and extra flavonoids.

Steep the leaves in 170 F (75 C) water for 3-5 minutes and enjoy!

Herbal Teas for Fasting

Green tea is an excellent beverage to drink while fasting, and so are herbal teas in general. For example a dandelion root, chamomile flower, and peppermint leaf herbal tea has the following benefits for the digestive system:

• Reduces inflammation of the digestive system from the stomach to the large intestine.

• Exerts beneficial antimicrobial pressures on pathogenic microorganisms while promoting the growth of helpful symbiotic microorganisms.

• Increases the production of digestive enzymes and restores beneficial mucous linings.

• Strengthens epithelial tight junctions thanks to flavonoids like apigenin.

• Restores normal gut motility (the transit of food through the system).

• Boosts fat metabolism which reduces energy lulls from improper digestion or from the fasting process itself

Another herbal tea that would be very helpful to drink during a fast would be a ginger, elderberry, and ginseng tea. Endless combinations exist, and drinking a new tea in the place of breakfast, lunch, and dinner helps to keep the fasting process exciting which has clear benefits.

Mountain Rose Herbs carries a huge assortment of organic herbs perfect for those interested in adding herbal remedies to their fasting and gut health protocol. Next to fasting drinking herbal teas are the next best thing you can do to improve your gut heath. Again the introductory herbal tea I recommend is a 1:1 blend of dandelion root, chamomile flowers, and peppermint simply because its so effective.

Meal Recommendation for Breaking your Fast

Next to the action of actually completing a fast, refeeding after the fast is the second most important part of the gut healing process. The body and microbiome are longing for food so feed yourself and your microbiome only with the best. The body is uniquely poised to use the new influx of nutrients for the proliferation of new healthy cells, and the greater the quality of the the refeed meal the greater the healing effect that will be experienced overall. Make no food mistakes*!

Refeed meals also influence the composition of the microbiome that will soon rebound in population, as bacteria double in as little as twenty minutes under ideal conditions. A meal which is undesirable to pathogenic bacteria but loved by healthy symbiotic bacteria like lactobacillus and bifidobacterial is ideal. Raw and fermented foods harbor their own healthy microbiome populations and assist in the digestion of the first reintroduced meal while also diversifying the surviving microbiome.

The foods that make up a refeed meal and its size depends on the length of fast completed. A 48 hour fast for example should be broken with a high-fat content meal as it’s likely that the first stages of ketogenesis is being experienced and to eat a sugar-heavy meal would cause quick metabolic and blood glucose changes which wouldn’t be beneficial. Fiber is another beneficial nutrient to select for in refeed meals as fiber influences the microbiome beneficially and is transformed into short chain fatty-acids in the colon which benefits fat metabolism.

*Note - Pesticides are to avoided at all costs as they erode the lining of the digestive system and function similarly to antibiotics. Eat organic non-gmo foods to reduce your exposure to dangerous pesticides like glyphosate.

Post Fast Salad:

• 2 Cups Mixed Greens

• 1/2 cucumber, sliced

• 1 Tbsp raw pumpkin seeds

• Drizzle extra virgin olive oil

• Drizzle raw honey

• Drink - GT’s Raw Kombucha

The meal above is great as a first refeed meal after a 24 to 48-hour fast because it is easy to prepare, completely raw, and will supercharge the regenerative effects of the fast. Having a salad shifts the microbiome favorably, and the addition of a fermented food helps to diversify it further. The body will absorb every nutrient possible from this meal. A fast is a period of low sugar intake, so only drink a quarter of the kombucha in order to limit the amount of quick sugars ingested.

When a salad and kombucha are combined as a meal, the mother (microbiome) of the kombucha begins attaching to and breaking down the raw foods of the salad right away, improving digestion as compared to if the salad was eaten only by itself. The cucumber and pumpkin seeds go great on a salad, adding nutrient and flavor variety to the meal, while both having antimicrobial and anti-parasitic benefits. Parasite infections can also be a huge source of gut health issues.

Pro Tip - Take a piperine supplement with your refeed meals to further improve the digestion of the meal. Piperine is derived from black pepper and it one of the most gut-helpful phytochemicals known, improving digestion and enhancing the bioavailability of other nutrients. Nootropics Depot sells a 10mg piperine supplement which you can take 1-3 of with a meal, or if you want to keep it 100% natural simply crack extra black pepper onto your plate.

In my introductory FoodFast Method article I have many more pre-fast and refeed meal suggestions that are worth checking out. Eating the right food after a fast is very important and don’t underestimate the important of a refeed meal in helping the gut to heal as quickly as possible. Fasting to fix gut health issues but continuing to eat poor quality foods in-between will only make limited progress. Best progress will be making in resetting the gut with fasting when equal attention is paid to both fasting and feeding.

My Personal Experience with Fasting

Ever since grade school I noticed I had an unruly digestive system which manifested in various ways, and as I entered into the world of strength-training and bodybuilding in my twenties, I increased my food intake in order to build muscle, which placed even more stress on my digestive system. I did begin improving my diet dramatically during this time, increasing my consumption of whole and unprocessed foods, but this did not provide all the relief I was hoping for.

The only way things were going to turn around was if I provided my digestive system an extended break from the stress and rigors of digestion, and once I stumbled upon fasting my gut health began to quickly take a turn for the better. Some health issues take a long time to heal, but thankfully most of the tissues of the gut turns over so quickly that once the right solution is found the digestive system can be healed quite rapidly. It took me many years to figure out what I needed to do to heal my gut simply because almost no one, from my gastroenterologist to discussion online, was examining the situation from a broad enough vantage point. That’s the still mostly the case it seems, though awareness on natural healing methods for the gut like fasting and herbal teas is increasing.

After some periods of daily intermittent fasting and a few longer 24, 48, and 72 hour fasts, I quickly learned which foods were best for my body, what foods I was intolerant to, and what foods I needed to 100% avoid. Fasting gave me control over food and sugar cravings and eventually eliminated them as I began to crave more vegetables. Healing my gut shifted my microbiome to the point where it could actually process fiber and other plant materials without creating excess gas and flatulence, a serious problem for me before.

Quickly into my discovery of fasting for gut health, I noticed a few things always happen at the end of long fasts:

First, the digestion of vegetables improves. Desperate for energy, the microbiome and digestive system is happy to work together to fully break down tougher to digest foods such as lightly cooked or raw vegetables. A 48-hour fast improves microbiome balance and diversity, and the newly evolved microbiome helps to breakdown and process fiber and other complex plant-based nutrients that before may have been difficult.

Second, fat metabolism improves noticeably. After a period of fasting, energy dips throughout the day are filled in faster by a metabolism that is able to quickly switch to fat burning, whether from short-chain fatty acids produced by microorganisms digesting starches and fiber in the colon, or from body fat stores. A 48 hour fast takes the body right to the edge of ketosis, a metabolic state where only fatty acids and amino acids are used to fuel the body in the absence of carbs, and visiting ketosis regularly, even if just for a few hours, is good for the development of a strong metabolism.

Third, the gut is very thankful for the break in digestion with every fast. When eating a regular breakfast, lunch, and dinner day 24/7, it’s easy to overwork and stress the digestive system, which leads to chronic gut inflammation. To use a quote from Yoda as inspiration:

“Chronic gut stress leads to leaky gut, leaky gut leads to IBS, IBS leads to gut disease”

Humans evolved in conditions of ever changing nutrient availability. In conditions of resource scarcity, the body most regenerate to stay alive. During autophagy, epithelial tight junctions heal rapidly, solving many of the problems of leaky gut, IBS, and SIBO. Healing intestinal tight junctions helps to reduce systemic inflammation of the body and overtime can reset food intolerances and allergies. I have experienced this myself, having fully eliminated a fructose, gluten, and dairy intolerance that my body knew I had but my brain refused to recognize for many years.

Having practiced the FoodFast Method for a few years now, I have a lot of experience with how different diets may affect a fast.

Other Fasting Lessons Learned

Before I was a vegetarian, fasting was relatively easy because meat protein takes a long time to digest, and I consumed a lot of meat protein (>2 grams per kg daily). That said, my gut health significantly improved after transitioning into a vegetarian diet because it caused me to eat way more vegetables and living foods. With a vegetarian diet, fasting can be more difficult if fat metabolism isn’t well developed, so consuming a diet abundant in healthy fats from sources such as avocado, nuts, and seeds will maintain and improve fat metabolism in-between fasts, in turn making the fasting process easier.

For most people going vegetarian will be a big benefit for gut health for more reasons than I can discuss in this article, but care must be taken to not go too high-carb and to stick away from junk food and sweets that are technically vegetarian but really shouldn’t even be characterized as food.

Ready to try a 48 hour fast? Here’s the Action Plan

Below is a step by step guide to help you safely and easily accomplish a 48-hour fast so you may experience the powerful healing effects of fasting for yourself and with the least amount of stress and complications.

• Drink More Water while Fasting

  Starting before the fast begin drinking more water. Less food intake means you’ll need to drink more to intake the same amount of water, so drinking sufficient water beforehand will be prepare you to be successful and not become dehydrated. Water quality is very important, I recommend only drinking spring water, reverse osmosis water is okay too.

• Eat Dinner Early and then Sleep 8 Hours

  After a full dinner it’s easy to put the snacking and cravings aside, so in my opinion it’s the perfect time to start a fast. Eat your last meal before the fast as an early 6pm dinner. The meal eaten before a fast should be hearty and nutrient rich with plenty of fiber, a vegetable grain bowl with avocado being an excellent option. Go to sleep around 10 pm and after a full eight hours of sleep you’ll be well rested and ready to attack the day while already being one quarter of the way into the 48-hour fast.

• Listen to your Body, Follow the Plan

  Once you’ve waken up, you now have to make it to bedtime again without eating. Listen to your body, keep drinking water or herbal tea, and flow with your energy levels. About 16 hours into the fast you’ll have exhausted all quick sources of glycogen (carbohydrate) energy sources for your body and will be burning body fat in greater amounts. The food in your digestive system is also still providing a slowly dwindling stream of nutrients and energy for your body to run on, that’s why the couple of meals before a fast are so important.

  If you feel sluggish and hungry while working, change what you’re doing find a different way to stimulate yourself. Going outside into nature is always highly refreshing and keeps a fast on track. Stay active but don’t overexert yourself, drink something lightly caffeinated like green tea if experiencing an energy slump, or simply take a short nap if tiredness really sets in. Don’t reach for the food unless it’s absolutely necessary! You should never feel bad about breaking a fast if you truly need too.

• Trust Yourself to Make the Right Decisions

  Once you’re comfortably in cruise control, look at your future schedule and plan around the chaos of the everyday. Building order and structure into your routine allows you to persevere and stay on track in case of unexpected events happening.

  If at any point you experience extreme dizziness, loss of vision, or other troubling signs of low blood sugar, end your fast with a small healthy snack like apple slices with almond butter. Be happy with the progress you made and prepare to try again for a longer attempt when better prepared. Every fast completed better prepares you for the next.

  For safety I recommend having a small healthy meal prepared and ready at all times during a fast so the fast can be broken with a healthy meal and not with whatever is most immediately available.

• Reintroduce Food Slowly

  Once you’ve finished your fast of whatever duration, reintroduce food back into your system. I would not recommend eating a huge meal after a fast; start simple! Bone broth, steamed veggies, a salad, or soup are all good choices. The longer the fast the longer the food reintroduction period should be. Buy the food needed for the first couple refeed meals the day before you end the fast so you’re prepared even if you have to break the fast early. Eat the freshest food possible for the refeed meals.

  To track how long I’ve been fasting, I use the app ZERO (found on iTunes and the Google Play Store). It can be used to track mood and how you feel throughout the fast, and you can keep a record of your fasts to compare to each other. Very useful!

You Successfully Completed a 48 Hour Fast!

Congratulations, you’ve finished your first 48 hour fast! I’m sure you experienced positive gut health changes from the beginning to the end of the fast.

I developed the FoodFast Method to make it easy to incorporate fasting into one’s lifestyle at the right frequency for optimal health and wellness. I wish I had discovered the FoodFast Method when I first began healing my gut and microbiome because it would have saved me years of gut health suffering, but I am grateful I experienced what I did because that is what led me to develop the method that others can now use. Now that I’ve been following the FoodFast method intuitively for a few years now, I can confidently say that it’s the single most effective way of keeping the gut healthy that I know of.

“Practicing a lifestyle centered around wellness does not have a singular end destination, but rather is an ever evolving journey. Be open to all health possibilities and trust your instincts.”

Practice Gut Health Mindfulness

During any fast or health experiment, be observant! Pay attention to everything you experience. At any given time ask yourself “How does my body feel, what emotions am I experiencing, and what is my current state of mind?” If you’re going to be your own doctor, then you need to play the role of the observant scientist.

Only with careful observation will the truth of what’s happening in your body be fully realized.

Because fasting severely restricts what enters into the body, used correctly it can be used as a diagnostic tool that by its own right is powerfully transformative.

Heal Your Gut Naturally

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Holistic Gut Health Guide eBook

Sale Price:$12.95 Original Price:$18.95

Purchase

If you read all the way here then it’s clear to me that you’re ready to do what it takes to finally restore your digestive system and gut microbiome back to healthy and optimal function.

I wrote the Holistic Gut Health Guide to help you accomplish exactly this! It contains all the information that you need to understand the gastrointestinal system, gut-brain axis, and microbiome in-depth, and the Holistic Gut Health Guide also educates you on the natural methods you can holistically use together like fasting and herbalism to transform your health from the inside out.

I’m so excited to be able to help you along your gut health and overall wellness journey with the Holistic Gut Health Guide! Please contact me with any questions you have and wishing you the best.

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IMPORTANT - Please only attempt a fast if you are ready, physically and mentally, to go through a period of no food consumption. If this will be dangerous to you, please do not attempt this.

References:

1. Correction to Lancet Infectious Diseases 2020; published online April 29. https://doi.org/10.1016/ S1473-3099(20)30064-5. Lancet Infect Dis. 2020;20(7):e148.

2. Suez J, Korem T, Zeevi D, et al. Artificial sweeteners induce glucose intolerance by altering the gut microbiota. Nature. 2014;514(7521):181-6.

3. Harpaz D, Yeo LP, Cecchini F, et al. Measuring Artificial Sweeteners Toxicity Using a Bioluminescent Bacterial Panel. Molecules. 2018;23(10)

4. De luca F, Shoenfeld Y. The microbiome in autoimmune diseases. Clin Exp Immunol. 2019;195(1):74-85.

Medical Disclaimer: All information, content, and material of this website is for informational purposes only and is not intended to serve as a substitute for the consultation, diagnosis, and/or medical treatment of a qualified physician or healthcare provider.

Disclosure: Wild Free Organic is a member of various affiliate programs and if a purchase is made through one of our affiliate links a small commission is received. This does not affect your purchase price. Visit our disclosure page for more information.

How to Reset Dietary Beliefs

Article by Stefan Burns - Updated July 2022. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!

There exist hundreds of popular dietary protocols, each diet having a hallmark distinction. The paleo diet advocates you as our paleolithic ancestors did 10,000 years ago, which means no processed foods. The vegan diet eschews all animal products, from meat to honey. Whole30 cuts out added sugars, beans/legumes, alcohol, dairy, and grains. As much as these diets might seem different from each other, they all are the same in one respect, they restrict and limit your food choices. If you want to break the viscous cycle of lose weight → gain weight → lose weight→ gain weight then a different mindset is needed.

Many individuals have great success following the paleo, vegan, or Whole30 diets, even though the foods that are allowed to be eaten vary dramatically. And for some this new diet fits their lifestyle and they are able to remain permanently at a healthier weight. For most though, dietary restriction only works in the short term. In the long term, it has consistently been shown that 80-95% of dieters who lose significant amounts of weight regain the weight they lost months later (1). In fact, almost everyone who has dieted before has experienced life-changing weight loss at one time or another.

When foods are restricted and activity levels increase, dramatic short term changes in body composition and health can be achieved, but during the diet, psychologically it’s like a rubber band being slowly being pulled back more and more.

Once the rubber band can stretch no one, and the initial goal of twenty, thirty, or fifty pounds lost is achieved, dieters let their discipline slip and reintroduce the foods they crave back into their diet. The rubber band snaps back. A small reward for a job well done becomes a binge, and then snowballs back into old dietary habits. Dieters didn’t break their sugar addiction or eating disorder, they created a temporary bubble where they put bad habits on pause, and then the bubble popped.

If the psychology of dieting isn’t addressed, then most diets will end in failure.

Inclusion > Exclusion

When a new diet, habit, or lifestyle practice is started, the first thought might be to conceptualize all the foods, bad habits, and environmental factors that will be cut out of your current life in order to improve your health and wellness.

On the surface, this appears good. Undoubtedly there are many things can be damaging to your health in excess, and eliminating them from your life can be a huge step forward.

The issue is, exclusionary ideologies do not take into account human behavior or psychology. Humans are not machines or robots. To permanently change your dietary mindset, it is imperative to switch to a mindset of inclusion rather than exclusion. As omnivores, we evolved with digestive systems that are capable of digesting most any food.

To heal a damaged dietary psychology or food disorder, the first step that needs to be taken is for all the foods of the world to be made available and OKAY to eat to the dieter.

Often times, it is the fact that a food is restricted that makes it so appealing. Likewise, and we’ll use the example of ice cream, if ice cream is made off-limits, then once the protocol has been broken, feelings of guilt and shame can compel someone to begin an ice cream binge, which spirals back into their eating disorder. If the ice cream isn’t made strictly off limits (even if it is best to avoid the processed calories), then a bowl of ice cream is much less likely to turn into a binge. Having a bowl of ice cream might not have been the best decision, but it is much better than a binge session fueled by negative emotions. Since the ice cream isn’t odd limits, and the consumption of food comes from a place of self love rather than self hate, feelings of guilt, shame, or self loathing never manifest. With personal growth and patience, you can empower yourself to skip the ice cream or eat something else entirely, even if the ice cream is allowed.

Empower Yourself to Eat Healthier Foods

To elevate beyond the junk food, practicing a inclusive diet is much more powerful when we examine healthy foods. Take the following example:

Let’s say you have a goal to reduce your processed grains consumption, and now it’s dinner time. On your plate you have a baked potato, chicken breast, and bread. You notice that there are no green vegetables.

If your goal is to reduce processed grains consumption, there are two ways to approach the issue.

The first is to totally exclude the bread and test your discipline. The second option is to simply add an additional healthy food to the meal. For example, add some salad greens and make sure to eat the salad greens before the bread. By doing using this method, the bread isn’t banned, but rather selected against. Overtime habits like this will become second nature, and overall food quality eaten day to day will improve.

When following inclusive dietary practices, time is given to the dieter to make the health connections they need to understand in order to fix the underlying problem. In this example, this person realizes when they eat bread, they don’t feel well, experience big energy swings, and have poor digestion. Once realized, why would they want to eat bread?

By practicing mindfulness and the gradual reduction of trouble foods, these connections between trouble foods and negative physiological effects are made possible. Once the connection is made, it’s no longer a question of willpower to not eat something, it’ll be a decision that is consciously made and stuck with.

With an inclusive mindset, unhealthy foods can initially be used to encourage healthy food behaviors. If these inclusive principles are structured right, lasting healthy food behaviors can be established. As healthier foods start to make up a majority of the diet, taste-buds will change and now junk food once desired becomes gross and overly sweet.

You might have noticed this strategy is one that many parents will use with their kids to encourage them to eat their vegetables. “You can’t have your dessert until you finish your vegetables!” For old or young minds alike, this strategy works.

One of the caveats to this method is that food allergies and intolerances should be strictly avoided. It is possible to reverse a food allergy and/or intolerance, but it takes a significant amount of time, as the gut needs to heal many times over and the immune system needs to completely forget the trigger it learned and become non-reactive to those food proteins. For allergies or intolerances, it will take many months if not years for these issues to possibly be resolved.

Food Frequency: Weekly vs Daily

Another important aspect of any diet is food frequency. Everyone has their stable foods they enjoy, and the depending on what someone eats in a day, their calories, macronutrients (fats, carbs, protein), fiber, vitamins, and minerals can vary dramatically.

When considering starting a new diet, often macronutrient and micronutrient goals are established. For example, a new diet could dictate the following:

Macronutrient Ratios:

• 35% fats

• 40% carbohydrates

  • 40 grams fiber daily

• 25% protein

Micronutrients:

• 100% RDA magnesium, calcium, potassium, zinc

• 100% RDA B-vitamins (B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B7, B9, B12)

• 2000-5000 IU Vitamin D

• 100% RDA vitamins A, C, E, K

If using a calorie tracking app like MyFitnessPal, it can satisfying hitting macronutrient and micronutrient targets daily, but what happens is overtime discipline wanes and it becomes harder and harder to hit exact macronutrient targets. Or maybe you hit your protein target early in the day through protein heavy meals. Later in the day, in order to stay “in range”, all protein must be avoided. Having a healthy unprocessed meal without any protein is difficult, but it sure is easy with a large bowl of ice cream! Macronutrient tracking certainly can be effective, but it also create situations at times when it is okay binge on junk food because macros must be met.

For micronutrients, things get even trickier. When trying to hit exact micronutrient targets everyday, it is very difficult to get every exact micronutrient to 100% daily with a healthy diet composed primarily of unprocessed foods

Supplements then can be seen as the answer, with certain supplements needing to be taken on certain days to bump everything to 100%. You can use protein shakes, ice cream, and supplements to hit macronutrient and micronutrient targets, but is the diet healthy or sustainable?

“For a diet, when macronutrients and micronutrients are the priority, and not the consumption of whole organic unprocessed foods, it is still possible for food quality to decrease while being within the parameters of the diet”

For further illustrate the point, let’s use magnesium. Magnesium is the second most common micronutrient deficiency worldwide, a master micronutrient used in hundreds of chemical reactions and cellular tasks. Clearly it’s important to get enough magnesium, and in the context of a holistic diet, which do you think is better? A magnesium supplement, or eating a 1/4 cup of pumpkin seeds? Both with provide 200 mg of magnesium, but the bioavailability of the magnesium in pumpkin seeds will be much greater, while also providing unique phytochemicals, helpful health benefits, and satiating fiber, protein, and fat. The supplement won’t come with calories, but the bioavailibility will be lower, and the fillers it is combined with is questionable. You need calories to survive, so don’t shun calories from health foods so you can indulge in junk foods.

Macronutrient ratios and micronutrients are lower priority than eating for health, longevity, and wellness. When eating a well-rounded diet from a variety of whole unprocessed foods, macronutrient and micronutrient targets might not be achieved everyday. The mindset of hitting targets daily can be very limiting, but thinking of hitting targets on a weekly time schedule is very liberating. This is especially true in the context of the modern agricultural system, where quality and nutrition of the same foods have been declining for decades. Think depleting soil nutrients, increased pesticide and dangerous herbicide usage, monoculture farms, etc.

The body is able to store glycogen, fat, amino acids, and micronutrients (2). On some days ratios or RDAs might vary from the weekly target, but over a week long period, everything typically will come into balance. Additionally, with a weekly mindset, having a treat now and then isn’t “allowed” or “banned” based on macronutrient rations. Instead emotions and energy levels can guide food choices intuitively, an important step towards outgrowing an eating disorder. How you arrive at a desirable outcome is just as important as the outcome itself.

Think and Act Long Term

The journey towards wellness is one of patience. When your health is suffering, it is highly seductive to reach for the solution that promises the quick fix. If it took many years to develop an eating disorder or add 30 pounds of body fat, you cannot expect the fix to be quick. It might take as long to heal as it took to become unhealthy, though typically the journey is shorter by at least a factor of two.

Patience, love, understand, and being at peace with your current situation are the first steps that need to be taken in order to begin the healing process. Until honesty and truth are at the forefront of your wellness journey, expect to yo-yo between progress and setbacks.

Mindfulness is one of the most powerful tools available at your disposal. Bring conscious awareness to your actions and the decisions and you’ll be surprised by how fast things can accelerate when setbacks no longer occur.

Develop a long term mindset, and instead of eliminating your worst food offenders, incentivize the healthy foods, making sure to include those first into your day. Before you realize it, you’ll be past any prior plateaus you struggled with accelerating towards your long term health goals!

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References

1. Wing RR, Phelan S. Long-term weight loss maintenance. Am J Clin Nutr. 2005;82(1 Suppl):222S-225S.

2. James Collier. Storage of Micronutrients in the Body. Dietetics

Medical Disclaimer: All information, content, and material of this website is for informational purposes only and is not intended to serve as a substitute for the consultation, diagnosis, and/or medical treatment of a qualified physician or healthcare provider.

Disclosure: Wild Free Organic is a member of various affiliate programs and if a purchase is made through one of our affiliate links a small commission is received. This does not affect your purchase price. Visit our disclosure page for more information.

The Cistanche Cholesterol Protocol for Boosting Testosterone

Article by Stefan Burns - Updated February 2022. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!

Cistanche is a parasitic plant found in deserts and used in Chinese medicine. Cholesterol is a building block for many hormones found throughout the body. Cistanche has testosterone boosting properties, and is documented in reducing blood cholesterol levels. Combining cistanche supplementation and cholesterol consumption creates an androgenic environment in the body that increases the production of sex hormones like testosterone, improves reproductive health, builds muscle and strength, and increases exercise performance.

Cistanche phelypaea

I performed an experiment where I supplemented with powdered cistanche daily while simultaneously increasing my dietary cholesterol consumption in order to see how it affected my free testosterone levels, rate of muscle growth, and strength with key compound barbell lifts. My results were dramatic, most notably I experienced a >50% increase in free testosterone levels in one month by supplementing with cistanche and cholesterol, but before seeing the full results of my experiment and what I call the CC Protocol, let’s dig into the science which led me to be intrigued in the first place into the androgenic and anabolic potential that combining cistanche and cholesterol has.

Cistanche and Cholesterol Science

To understand the powerful combination of cistanche and cholesterol, first the science of cholesterol must be understood.

Cholesterol is a Hormone Building Block

Steroidal hormones (produced by the body) are all derived from cholesterol. Steroid hormones influence metabolism, immune functions, inflammation, fluid and salt balances, development and maintenance of sexual characteristics, and regulate the bodies ability to withstand illness and injury.

The liver produces cholesterol for use in creating hormones, and cholesterol can also be acquired through diet with foods like pasture raised eggs.

To start the steroid hormone creation process, cholesterol is altered via an enzyme reaction to synthesize pregnenolone, the “master” steroid base molecule from which other hormones are created.

Notice the similarities between cholesterol and testosterone. Purples areas highlight the differences where there are elemental changes. Black = carbon, white = hydrogen, red = oxygen.

Cistanche the Androgenic Herb

Cistanche is one of the few herbs that can increase androgenic hormone levels, making you more manly, whereas there are many herbs and plants that we known of which increase estrogen levels throughout the body. Cistanche’s androgenic effects begin through it’s influence on cholesterol. Cistanche improves cholesterol transport throughout the body, reducing cholesterol levels in the blood even with a high cholesterol diet (1). Simultaneously, cistanche raises testosterone levels (2), improves time to fatigue, improves endurance, and reduces muscle breakdown (3).

Many of these effects are because cistanche is a vasorelaxant (relaxes the vascular system, lowering blood pressure), improves glucose tolerance, and reduces glucose elevation after meals (4). Typically steroidal hormones increase blood pressure, so these blood pressure lowering effects are a positive health benefit of cistanche supplementation. Additionally, the blood glucose improving effects of cistanche hint at better nutrient partitioning, a beneficial effect for improving lean body mass and reducing the creation of body fat.

It is important to note that high dosages of cistanche has shown differing effects on the liver. One study showed that cistanche can cause mild hepatic edema (2) (swelling of the liver), while other research has shown cistanche to be liver protective (4). There is conflicting information on the safety of cistanche as it relates to liver health, and this is likely due to differing study design. Cistanche does affect the liver to some degree because the production of steroidal hormones mostly occurs in liver. If male hormone levels are unbalanced they optimal wellness is not possible. Symptoms of low testosterone including depression, fatigue, decreased bone mass, increased fat mass, and an increased risk of anemia. If suffering from low testosterone levels, increased natural production of steroidal hormones can dramatically change ones life.

Overall cistanche has been deemed to be safe for human use at dosages below 10 grams per day, but out of an abundance of caution, I would not recommend using cistanche if you have preexisting health conditions, especially those of the liver. If you are healthy, when you first use cistanche, supplement with it for only for 30 days in a row and with no more than 2 grams per day. These are the conditions of the experiment that I ran and therefore of the CC Protocol.

The Wild Free Organic herbal page on Cistanche has much more information.

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Supplementation of Cistanche and Cholesterol

Cistanche can be supplemented through a powder or extract, more details on this below.

The easiest way to add more cholesterol to the diet is through increased egg consumption.

For most people, dietary cholesterol isn’t bad as it raises good HDL cholesterol (5), and daily egg consumption promotes favorable shifts in HDL lipid composition (6). High-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol helps remove other forms of cholesterol from the bloodstream, and higher levels of HDL cholesterol are associated with a lower risk of heart disease. Additionally, higher HDL leads to more testosterone (7).

Can Cistanche Really Boost Testosterone?

The experiment I undertook by pairing cistanche supplementation with increase cholesterol consumption was conducted to answer the following question:

How will body fat, lean body mass, free testosterone levels, and strength in major compound lifts change in response to an increasing caloric intake, high volume resistance exercise utilizing progressive overload, a dramatic bump in dietary cholesterol, and daily supplementation of the herb cistanche.

My results from this protocol were incredible. In five weeks I added 5 lbs (2.25 kg) of lean body mass, boosted my free testosterone levels by 52%, increased my strength across the board on major compound lifts, and only increased my body fat levels by 0.7%. I was 27 years old at the time. Remember, the sample size for this experiment was N=1 (me). My results from this experiment were my own, and your results will vary from running the same or modified CC protocol.

The CC Protocol

The two main variables of this experiment were the daily addition of 2 grams of cistanche and at least 6 egg yolks (~1000 mg cholesterol). The idea was that the cistanche supplementation (via limited research available) would stimulate the body to produce more androgenic hormones, and the dramatic increase in cholesterol consumption would support the creation of these androgenic hormones like testosterone.

The cistanche I used for this experiment I purchased from Lost Empire Herbs, a 8:1 dual extract which contains echinacosides greater than 20% and aceteosides greater than 6%. Since then I’ve used the cistanche from Nootropics Depot which is more highly standardized in echinacosides and acetosides at >50% and >10% respectively. Echinacosides and aceteosides are the main phytochemicals responsible for the health benefits of cistanche, so an extracted standardized product will be more powerful in effect than an unextracted raw powder.

Since the extraction from the Nootropics Depot cistanche is greater than the product I used, less is needed for the same effect, more information on dosing at the end of the article.

Variables I manipulated:

1. I increased my daily caloric intake from 3500 calories to 4000 calories, increasing calories by roughly 100 each week.

2. I kept my macros fairly consistent at ratios of 35% carbohydrates, 45% fat, and 20% protein. These macronutrient percentages at times fluctuated by a couple percentage points week to week.

3. I increased my weekly weight lifting tonnage by about 25%. Tonnage is the total weight lifted, in this case from all exercises combined. Tonnage increases were from a combination of heavier weight and higher reps.

4. I consumed a post workout shake containing 600 calories, 19 g carbs, 42 g fat, and 36 g protein. The shake consisted of 8 oz coconut milk, 6 raw egg yolks, 30 grams hydrolyzed whey, and 3 grams of creatine monohydrate. Before this 5 week experiment I was not drinking a protein shake post-workout.

5. I consumed 1 g (1/2 tsp) cistanche (a desert plant) morning and night. Method of delivery was mixed with 1/2 shot glass of apple cider vinegar taken on a relatively empty stomach. Before this I had never used cistanche. The use of ACV was simply for overall digestive benefit.

Variables I did not manipulate, instead keeping consistent:

1. I consumed the same pre-workout shake before and during the experiment.

2. I slept 7-8 hours a night.

3. I kept my NEAT consistent (8).

4. Food quality remained consistent. Calories were adjusted upwards, but the majority of the food consumed was whole and unprocessed.

Now let’s see the data I collected from the experiment.

Cistanche Benefits Strength Training

Beyond basic easily acquired data points such as strength improvements in the gym, and body-weight measurements, I also collected body fat and lean body mass data via DEXA and checked my free testosterone levels at the start and conclusion of this five week test. All of this data is outlined below, starting with the most important.

How Cistanche Increased my Lean Body Mass

To test my body fat, lean body mass, and bone mineral content, DEXA scans are the gold standard in ease of use and accuracy. The company I use to perform these tests is BodySpec, a mobile DEXA scanning company that operates in California, Washington, and Texas. For the before and after DEXA scans, I went in under the same conditions. Those conditions were:

• DEXA scan at ~7:30 am.

• Used the bathroom to poop and pee before the test.

• Went into the test fasted, having consumed no food

• Consumed ~24 oz of water upon waking up.

11-05-18 DEXA Results

Total Body Fat % = 10.8%. Total Mass (lbs) = 180.7. Fat Tissue (lbs) = 19.4. Lean Tissue (lbs) = 153.2

01-07-2019 DEXA Results

Total Body Fat % = 11.5%. Total Mass (lbs) = 188 Fat Tissue (lbs) = 21.7. Lean Tissue (lbs) = 158.2

The before DEXA scan was actually taken a month before the start of the CC Protocol, with my weight being 180.7 lbs. A month later at the start of the protocol my weight was 181.5 lbs measured via a scale. Considering the error in weight measurements day to day, I believe the 0.8 lb difference is negligible. In the month preceding my experimentation with the CC Protocol, I didn’t have any lifestyle changes.

DEXA data shows that I gained 5 lbs of lean body mass (LBM) in 35 days, adding 0.7% bodyfat to my frame, and bone mineral content (BMC) remained unchanged. The biggest increases were seen in my legs, which I subjected to high volume training, but my upper body also saw significant increases in LBM. I only added body fat to the trunk and android regions of my body.

How Cistanche Increased my Free Testosterone

To test my free testosterone levels, I used Everlywell, an at home testing service which has dozens of different tests available, from hormone tests to micronutrient and STD tests. Their free-testosterone test is saliva based, and only tests free testosterone levels. Ideally I would have gotten a full hormone blood panel that also tested other important variables such as total testosterone, cortisol, estradiol, and more, but for practical reasons I used Everlywell’s at home testing service.

The before and after free testosterone tests were taken under the same conditions, which are as follows:

• Taken after a full 8 hours of sleep and wasn’t in a state of stress.

• Taken first thing in the morning as they recommend, before the consumption of any fluids.

• Taken after fasting for ~10 hours.

Everlywell uses saliva to measure the amount of free testosterone in your body, and while not as accurate as a full blood panel, a price point of $50 for each test makes it a great option for consistently testing your free testosterone levels. Free testosterone is a more direct measure of androgenic potential as it is free testosterone than can attach to androgen receptors and exert an androgenic effect, whereas much of the testosterone in the bloodstream is bound to proteins which limits it’s bioavailability.

In 35 days I increased my free testosterone levels from 94 pg/ml to 143 pg/ml, an increase of 52%. I have had 3-4 blood testosterone tests done prior to these two tests, and never have my free testosterone levels fluctuated by more than 10-15%. I attribute this increase in testosterone to mainly the CC Protocol, with the 1000 mg of cholesterol and 2 grams of cistanche daily working synergistically to raise my testosterone levels.

How Cistanche Boosted my Strength

During this experiment I regained strength I had previously acquired in the past on major compound lifts, but at a lower, leaner body-weight. By the end of the CC Protocol my relative strength was at an all time high. From the start of the CC protocol to the end the following strength changes occurred:

Deadlift

• Day 2 - 315# 2x10

• Day 7 - 405# 3x3

• Day 11 - 335# 3x10

• Day 15 - 425# 5x3

• Day 18 - 355# 4x10

• Day 23 - 435# 3x3

• Day 25 - 375# 3x10

• Day 31 - 455# 4x3, 1x2

1RM: 420 lbs to 482 lbs (15% increase)

Squat

• Day 4 - 345# 1x1, 225# 3x10

• Day 8 - 315# 4x3

• Day 10 - 275# 3x10

• Day 14 - 335# 5x3

• Day 17 - 295# 3x10

• Day 21 - 355# 4x3, 365# 1x3

• Day 24 - 315# 3x10

• Day 30 - 375# 4x3, 385# 1x3

1RM: 345 lbs to 408 lbs (16% increase)

Incline Press

• Day 7 - 155# 1x7, 1x6

• Day 10 - 135# (paused) 5x8

• Day 14 - 175# 2x5

• Day 17 - 155# (paused) 5x8

• Day 21 - 175# 5x5

• Day 24 - 160# (paused) 4x8

• Day 30 - 185# 3x5

• Day 33 - 135# 3x15

1RM: 186 lbs to 208 lbs (12% increase)

Note - 1RM beginning and end values were calculated using a 1RM calculator. The bolded italicized values were the sets I used to calculate the 1RM for each lift.

It’s important to again reiterate I had hit these strength numbers prior in my lifting career. The big difference is how effortless the linear progression over those 35 days carried me back to within 5% of my prior all-time best levels of strength, all while much leaner and weighting less. It happened at a rate much faster than I had experienced before. I do not completely attribute these strength gains purely to central nervous system and muscle memory, and I believe the CC Protocol contributed to at least 50% of the strength increases I experienced in the short time frame I ran the CC Protocol.

How the CC Protocol Changed my Physiology

I relied on my DEXA scans to give me better data on how my body composition changed during the CC Protocol, but there were some obvious physiological changes that occurred during this experiment.

Chest, shoulder, arm, and forearm thickness increased. My abdominal leanness was nearly unchanged. Before the CC Protocol I was struggling to grow a beard, and afterwards my beard hair grew in much thicker. I hypothesize that this is from higher circulating testosterone levels, and some of the free testosterone aromatized into dihydrotestosterone (DHT). DHT is one of the primary agents responsible for driving facial hair growth (9), and also male pattern baldness. The beard growth was a great visual anecdotal evidence to support the Everlywell test results. If you want to grow a thicker beard, the combination of cistanche and cholesterol might be worth experimenting with (as long as you don’t have family history of male pattern baldness).

Boost Testosterone with Cistanche

After reviewing the data from this experiment, I am confident in stating that the combination of cholesterol and cistanche, along with a healthy diet, good sleep, and a well-designed weight training program is an effective protocol for building muscle and increasing strength.

I personally experienced no side effects, minor or major, during this experiment, and it appears to be safe* for young men. With that said, to be extra safe, I wouldn’t run this protocol for any longer than 30 - 40 days the first time around, and I would strongly recommend against doing this if you have any underlying health conditions. This article is for informational purposes and you should consult with a medical professional before supplementing with anything new or making dramatic lifestyle changes.

If you decide to run the CC Protocol, make the most of the experience and make sure to gather as much data as possible, definitely a before and after body composition test, and if you have the cash or insurance, a hormone panel before and after.

Where to Buy Cistanche Supplement?

There are many different sellers of cistanche supplements worldwide which can be seen by visiting a marketplace like Amazon.

Cistanche Tubulosa Powder

My favorite supplier of cistanche is Nootropics Depot. Their cistanche product is highly standardized, containing a minimum of 50% echinacosides and 10% acetoside, overall delivering more echinacosides and acetoside per gram than most other cistanche products. I also like Nootropics Depot’s cistanche product because it doesn’t have a repugnant taste, which is something I have noticed from cistanche provided by other suppliers. The cistanche from Nootropics Depot works well and is reasonably priced.

Dosing Nootropics Depot Cistanche: Dosing is listed on the label at 200 mg though in my experience 2-3x that amount can be taken if desired and it’s still well within the known safety margins.

Start with 200 mg (~1/4 tsp) and after 1-2 weeks if everything is okay and a more powerful effect is desired increase to 300-400mg. Scale from there.

If purchasing cistanche from a Chinese pharmacy ask for Rou Cong-Rong, which is how they refer to cistanche. They may have raw or extracted powders, purchase whichever is preferred and dose accordingly.

Much more information on cistanche can be found on the Cistanche Herb Page.

References:

1. Shimoda H, Tanaka J, Takahara Y, Takemoto K, Shan SJ, Su MH. The hypocholesterolemic effects of Cistanche tubulosa extract, a Chinese traditional crude medicine, in mice. Am J Chin Med. 2009;37(6):1125-38.

2. Wang T, Chen C, Yang M, Deng B, Kirby GM, Zhang X. Cistanche tubulosa ethanol extract mediates rat sex hormone levels by induction of testicular steroidgenic enzymes. Pharm Biol. 2016;54(3):481-7.

3. Cai RL, Yang MH, Shi Y, Chen J, Li YC, Qi Y. Antifatigue activity of phenylethanoid-rich extract from Cistanche deserticola. Phytother Res. 2010;24(2):313-5.

4. Morikawa T, Xie H, Pan Y, et al. A Review of Biologically Active Natural Products from a Desert Plant Cistanche tubulosa. Chem Pharm Bull. 2019;67(7):675-689.

5. Herron KL, Vega-lopez S, Conde K, Ramjiganesh T, Shachter NS, Fernandez ML. Men classified as hypo- or hyperresponders to dietary cholesterol feeding exhibit differences in lipoprotein metabolism. J Nutr. 2003;133(4):1036-42.

6. Andersen CJ, Blesso CN, Lee J, et al. Egg consumption modulates HDL lipid composition and increases the cholesterol-accepting capacity of serum in metabolic syndrome. Lipids. 2013;48(6):557-67.

7. Freedman DS, O'brien TR, Flanders WD, Destefano F, Barboriak JJ. Relation of serum testosterone levels to high density lipoprotein cholesterol and other characteristics in men. Arterioscler Thromb. 1991;11(2):307-15.

8. Levine JA. Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT). Best Pract Res Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2002;16(4):679-702.

9. Farthing MJ, Mattei AM, Edwards CR, Dawson AM. Relationship between plasma testosterone and dihydrotestosterone concentrations and male facial hair growth. Br J Dermatol. 1982;107(5):559-64.

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Daily Supplements for General Health

Article by Stefan Burns - Updated December 2021. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!

Some nutrients are absolutely essential for good health, and with a healthy, balanced diet, it is possible to get enough of them to avoid any health issues. The Standard American Diet (SAD), the diet most common in the western world, is high in sugar, acellular carbs, heavily processed and oxidized oils, unknown additives, and chemical contamination; it’s a diet disaster. And if you do follow a healthier diet predominately featuring unprocessed foods, you won’t be eating as nutritious as you believe. Modern agricultural practices have reduced the micronutrient loads of most fruits and vegetables over the past 50-100 years (1). Even if you follow a healthy diet you might not be receiving the micronutrients your body needs to function at its best due to declined soil nutrition.

When switching from a Standard American Diet (SAD) to a healthier diet consisting primarily of organic, micronutrient-rich unprocessed foods, there is an awkward transition period that can be stressful mentally, physically, and emotionally. During periods of stress it is doubly important to make sure you are getting enough of the most commonly deficient micronutrients, as this will improve your stress response. Otherwise if your diet is overall good and you’re really trying to optimize your health, then I recommend taking the following daily supplement to cover common nutrient imbalances and deficiencies.

Again the goal should be to get all nutrients from a healthy diet over the course of a week, but with a modern lifestyle that’s not always possible. Having these supplements on hand allows you to intelligently supplement these key nutrients when needed for a healthier lifestyle.

Optimize Health with Five Supplements

All values listed for the minerals are in reference to the elemental form. The weights listed on a supplement bottle are always in reference to the elemental weight per serving, not the overall chemical weight per serving.

Take every morning/early afternoon (with a meal):

• 5000 - 10000 IU Vitamin D3

• 15:1 mg Zinc:Copper

• 1.5 - 3 grams EPA + DHA Omega-3 Fatty Acids (fish oil or algae oil)

Take every evening (with a meal):

• 200 - 400 mg Magnesium

• 3 -10 mg Boron

Supplement with Vitamin D

Vitamin D is produced endogenously through sunlight exposure. How long you need to stay in the sun to synthesize your daily amount of vitamin D depends on the color of your skin, but this ranges from 10-60 minutes. Darker skin colors need more time in the sun to produce the same amount of vitamin D as lighter skin colors.

Vitamin D is the most common micronutrient deficiency worldwide, affecting an estimated 50% of the global population (2). Even “healthy” adolescents are commonly vitamin D deficient (3), and that’s a big deal when vitamin D is critically important for growth and development during adolescence (4). A vitamin D deficiency can have wide ranging negative effects on your health, such as increased risk of infection, fatigue, depression, muscular pain, bone loss, hair loss, and more.

If you are experiencing very cloudy weather, live in a low-sun area, or can’t work some sun exposure into your schedule for whatever reason, supplementing with vitamin D3 is a good thing to do.

A Note on RDA’s: The Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for vitamin D is 600 IU’s of vitamin D a day for adults, and 800 IU for those 70 and older. Keep in mind though that the RDA for a micronutrient isn’t set based on optimal health outcomes, but rather the bare minimum of that micronutrient required to prevent disease for 97.5% of the populace. Preventing disease =/= optimal health, as anyone can tell you. The RDA for vitamin D is the minimum amount needed to prevent rickets.

So what is optimal then? The Vitamin D Council recommends vitamin D blood levels between 40 and 80 ng/mL to be optimal. 40 to 20 ng/ml are classified as normal, and levels below 20 ng/mL are deficient. Vitamin D levels beyond 80 ng/ml are not achievable naturally, instead requiring supplementation, and levels beyond 150 ng/ml are classified as being toxic. After testing your vitamin D blood levels, use the graphic below to determine the amount of vitamin D needed to reach the recommended 70 ng/ml via supplementation.Without blood testing, most people average vitamin D levels of 15 - 30 ng/ml.

Vitamin D blood levels and the amount of vitamin D supplementation to reach them.

I recommend taking the vitamin D in the morning, as vitamin D is typically synthesized via sun exposure. Vitamin D with it’s link to the circadian rhythm is stimulating, and taking vitamin D at night might impact sleep quality. I recommend the Vitamin D3 5000 sold by Nordic Naturals . I like their supplement because they suspend the vitamin D3 in extra virgin olive oil instead of lesser quality expeller-pressed soybean oil which is common practice for most Vitamin D3 supplement manufacturers.

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Supplement with Zinc + Copper

Zinc deficiency, defined as a lower intake than the RDA, can be caused through reduced dietary intake, inadequate absorption, or increased body system utilization (i.e. gaining muscle, bodybuilding). The most common cause of zinc deficiency though is reduced dietary intake, which illustrates just how little of this micronutrient most people consume. Remember the RDA is the bare minimum needed to not enter a diseased state.

Copper and Zinc are synergistic and antagonistic, and if too much zinc is consumed, a copper deficiency can occur, or vice versa.

Most common is copper excess, with zinc being deficient. In order to stay balanced, it is recommended to take a supplement which balances both minerals.

An excess of copper can lead to a variety of serious health issues (5), and a zinc deficiency leads to many of the same health issues:

Copper Excess Health Issues

• Learning disabilities

• ADHD, Autism

• Anxiety, Depression

• Acne, Hair loss

• Allergies

• Anemia

• Poor Immune function

• Sleep problems

• Poor concentration and focus,

• Chronic fatigue, and much more.

Zinc Deficiency Health Issues

• Compromised immune system

• Delayed growth

• Psychological and cognitive disorders

• Decreased testosterone levels

• Loss of appetite

• Wounds that won’t heal

• Lack of alertness

• Increased rates of anorexia.

Copper and zinc are absolutely essential to the proper functioning of the immune system, the endocrine system, and the nervous system, and an imbalance of copper and zinc throws those systems out of balance. The optimal ratio of zinc to copper to 10:1, but in the context of a copper rich diet, a supplement containing zinc to copper at a 15:1 ratio is more desirable. Jarrow’s Zinc Balance supplement (pictured above) contains 15 mg of zinc and 1 mg of copper, and I recommend to most people to take it daily to mitigate any zinc deficiencies and to help balance out their immune and endocrine systems. Have digestive issues? Zinc helps by healing epithelial tight junctions.

I find zinc to have a slight stimulating effect, so it’s best taken in the morning, and also with a meal. Zinc taken on an empty stomach can cause nausea. The higher the dosage, the greater then nausea, and that’s one of a few reasons why I don’t recommend 50 mg zinc supplements. 50 mg is above the tolerable upper limit (TUL) of 40 mg per day, and taken daily can quickly lead to a copper deficiency. Even with a zinc-demanding lifestyle (intense exercise, regular sex, heat therapy like a sauna), 15 mg supplemented is sufficient, and paired with a zinc rich diet, one zinc balance pill a day should balance out zinc and copper levels nicely.

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Supplement with Magnesium

Magnesium is the second most common micronutrient deficiency (6) behind vitamin D, and it’s critically important for a variety of processes throughout the body, such as cognition, high blood pressure, asthma, osteoporosis, muscle cramps and twitches, fatigue and muscle weakness, and an irregular heartbeat. In fact, low levels of magnesium have often been found to be a contributing factor for people with chronic diseases.

Magnesium is high in foods like pumpkin seeds, cashews, avocado, dark chocolate, bananas, and black beans.

Magnesium Breakthrough by biOptimizers

Magnesium Breakthrough by biOptimizers

The RDA of magnesium for adults (7) is 300 mg for women and 400 mg for men. If you exercise a lot an experience changing pressure in your ears, you have a magnesium deficiency. Magnesium citrate is a common supplemental form of magnesium, but magnesium citrate can cause diarrhea at higher dosages of 200+ mg.

Magnesium glycinate is a better alternative, and taken before bed can also help get the body relaxed and ready for sleep. Both magnesium and the amino acid glycine have been shown to increase deep restorative sleep when supplemented with.

Start with 200 mg of magnesium glycinate per night and see how you feel after a couple weeks, then bump to 400 mg and if there is a noticeable improvement, stay at that nightly dosage. Magnesium glycinate is a low-cost, widely available supplement. I recommend Magnesium Breakthrough by biOptimizers, they sell a highly absorbable magnesium supplement containing seven different bonded forms of magnesium that is highly bioavailable and easy on the stomach. If you prefer a natural food source, pumpkin seeds have lots of magnesium, with a 1/4 cup containing nearly 200 mg.

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Supplement with Boron

For modern agriculture, Boron is the second most common micronutrient deficiency in plants, and therefore deficient in everything else moving up that food chain. This is very important because we know boron is essential for the growth and maintenance of bone tissue, greatly improves wound healing, beneficially improves hormone levels (estradiol and testosterone), improves vitamin D status, and is cancer protective, just to name a few.

If you want to experience some of Wolverine’s superpowers, you can easily supplement with boron yourself.

On average most people ingest about 2 mg of boron a day, which is under the 3 mg or greater ideal dietary intake. For a person with a diet low in plant products such as fruits, vegetables, and nuts, their dietary intake of boron could be lower than even 1 mg of boron per day.

As more research is done on Boron, its importance as a trace micronutrient is becoming better understood. In the meantime, take zero chances and add boron to your daily supplement stack. You can either buy a boron supplement which is mostly filler, or use borax. Borax (sodium borate) has the same safety as table salt (similar LD50 as NaCl for Rats, and by extension, humans), and since it is a salt, borax is highly bioavailable. Buy a box from 20 Mule Team which is pure and nicely refined, and save a small jar for personal use. Use a 0.5 ml scoop (G82 Ultra Small Measuring Spoon), to dose ~10 mg boron per scoop.

Most studies on boron supplementation use a dose of 3 mg of elemental boron often through a compound like borax. Occasionally boron fructoborate has been used in studies on boron, but I prefer borax as it orders of magnitude cheaper, easier to use, and extremely bioavailable. I’ve supplemented with 10 mg a day for years, and that dosage covers all the scientifically supported beneficial effects boron has, and I’ve never experienced any negative health effects.

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Supplement with Omega-3 Fatty Acids

Omega-3 fatty acids are a type of polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA), and there are three main types of Omega-3 fatty acids: α-linolenic acid (ALA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). The two Omega-3 fatty acids that humans require are EPA + DHA. ALA is an Omega-3 fatty found in plant foods such as flax meal and chia seeds, and while it’s not necessarily bad for you, only approximately 5% converts into EPA and DHA, the primary Omega-3’s shown to have wide ranging health benefits.

Omega-3 fatty acids are a necessary and incredibly important fatty acid needed throughout the body, from the cardiovascular system to the brain. DHA and EPA have slightly different functions throughout the body, but overall Omega-3’s are essential for pre- and postnatal brain development, have a major influential on behavior and mood, are critical for cardiovascular health, reduce inflammation, and are required for the building of various tissues throughout the body (skin, brain, etc).

In the context of the overall diet, the higher your omega-3 to omega-6 ratio, the better. And don’t worry about an Omega-3/Omega-6 ratio that is too high. It’s very difficult to achieve a 1:1 ratio in the context of modern society, and it would be nearly impossible to consume a diet dangerously rich in omega-3’s (over 10:1 possibly). Unless you are already consuming a seafood heavy diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids and also minimize your omega-6 intake, the best way to ensure a good omega-3 to omega-6 ratio is through supplementation.

Algae Omega by Nordic Naturals is the best balance between price, purity, and environmental impact. Being derived from algae, each Algae Omega pills contains a higher amount of DHA Omega-3 fatty acids that is typically found in fish oil, which is better for brain health. Vitamin D3 is best taken in the morning because of it’s energizing impact due to circadian rhythm pathways.

Omega-3’s are also synergistic with turmeric and curcumin supplements, with both taken together reducing pain and inflammation more than if taken separately. For a curcumin supplement I recommend BioSchwartz Turmeric Curcumin Supplement.

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Live Healthier with Five Supplements

Before starting supplementation of any of the above micronutrients, please consult your health practitioner, and ideally get blood work done for reference to see if you are below the levels suggested for optimal health. If your vitamin D, zinc, an omega-3 levels are low but your magnesium is fine, then you can skip the magnesium supplementation!

There are a few ways to implement this supplementation routine. If you really wish to feel the unique effects of each supplement, and learn the most about how each of these compounds can improve your general health, energy, and mood, introduce one new supplement into your routine weekly. Take notes of how you feel and any positive or negative symptoms you experience. I would introduce them in this order.

Week 1 - 5000 IU Vitamin D

Week 2 - 200 mg Magnesium

Week 3 - 10 mg Boron

Week 4 - 15 mg Zinc + Copper

Week 5 - 2 grams of EPA + DHA Omega-3’s

If you want to dive in head first, taking all five supplements simultaneously at their prescribed dosages and timings, will cause a noticeable effect. It will be harder to determine which supplements fixed the most glaring nutrient deficiencies compared to if you follow the weekly plan above.

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References:

1. Donald R. Davis. Declining Fruit and Vegetable Nutrient Composition: What Is the Evidence? American Society for Horticultural Development.

2. Nair R, Maseeh A. Vitamin D: The "sunshine" vitamin. J Pharmacol Pharmacother. 2012;3(2):118-26.

3. Gordon CM, Depeter KC, Feldman HA, Grace E, Emans SJ. Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among healthy adolescents. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2004;158(6):531-7.

4. Kremer R, Campbell PP, Reinhardt T, Gilsanz V. Vitamin D status and its relationship to body fat, final height, and peak bone mass in young women. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2009;94(1):67-73.

5. Judy Tsafrir M.D. Copper Toxicity: A Common Cause of Psychiatric Symptoms. Psychology Today.

6. Guerrera MP, Volpe SL, Mao JJ. Therapeutic uses of magnesium. Am Fam Physician. 2009;80(2):157-62.

7. Magnesium Fact Sheet for Health Professionals. National Institutes for Health, Office of Dietary Supplement

Disclosure: Amazon affiliate links are used throughout the article. Wild Free Organic makes a small commission when a purchase is made through those links. This does not affect the purchase price and the proceeds go towards the growth of Wild Free Organic.

Dairy vs Plant Protein

Article by Stefan Burns - Updated January 2022. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!

There are many different types of protein found in nature, but for protein supplements the divide begins at whether the protein is animal or plant based. A protein molecule is made from a long chain of amino acids, and each type of protein has a unique sequence of amino acids. Therefore, the protein chains found in broccoli differ from those found in eggs. As science had discovered the different types of protein, we have started to learn the chemical differences between different types of plant and animal proteins and how they affect the body differently. Proteins differ in their effects on muscle protein synthesis, level of satiety, and immune system response.

For both athletes looking to improve their performance or regular folks trying to look better and live healthier, protein is an important macronutrient to understand and to know how to utilize. The general recommendation for protein intake is 2 grams/kg body-weight, or 1 gram/lb. For a 70 kg (155 lb) individual, that means they should aim to consume 140-155 grams of protein daily for optimal body composition and maximum wellness benefits.

It can be difficult to achieve that target consistently solely from whole and unprocessed foods, especially if you follow a lower protein vegetarian or vegan diet, and protein supplements like shakes and bars can help you meet your daily protein goals. For decades the only protein supplements were dairy based, specifically casein and whey protein, but now plant proteins are more and more popular. Uncommonly used supplemental protein sources like beef and egg proteins will not be discussed. Below we examine the pros and cons of dairy and plant-based proteins so you can understand how to best use either protein source when appropriate.

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Dairy Proteins

Dairy-based proteins, typically derived from cows milk, can be separated into casein and whey proteins. Before whey and casein are separated, they are known as "milk protein", and that's the type of protein Orgain uses in their Grass-Fed Clean Protein Shake (as pictured).

PROS:

• Milk proteins are extremely bioavailable (1), easily absorbed from food sources and then efficiently incorporated into the proteins of an organism's body.

• Milk proteins contain abundant Branched-Chain Amino Acids (BCAA's) (2), the main amino acids responsible for stimulating an increase in muscle protein synthesis (MPS). With all other factors equal, more MPS, more muscle!

• Milk proteins are widely available! Due to the size of the dairy industry, milk, casein, and whey protein can all be had at a relatively inexpensive cost, with different levels of quality from concentrates to hydrolysates all having different price points.

CONS:

• Any food can be allergenic, but dairy-based foods are the most common food allergy (3), and should be strictly avoided if you have a dairy allergy. Likewise, those with a lactose intolerance should steer clear, even from products from like whey isolate which contain virtually zero lactose.

• Dairy protein products are derived from animals and for vegans and vegetarians looking to reduce their animal product consumption, plant proteins are a lower impact alternatives.

Plant Proteins

Plant-based proteins, once a niche product, have dramatically increased in popularity recently. Soy protein, once the plant protein of choice, has recently taken the backseat to newer options such as pea, pumpkin seed, and hemp proteins. The Vega protein drink pictured contains those three plant-based proteins.

PROS:

• Plant proteins are not commonly allergic, with soy protein being the exception (4), and in my experience, it's harder to develop an intolerance to plant-based proteins. For those with sensitive guts and damaged intestinal tight junctions, plant proteins are a better choice until gut health is restored.

• While plant proteins typically contain less protein per gram of product, they also contain more fiber! As it has been shown, fiber is one of the most important variables which determines the satiation value of a food (5), and a plant-based protein drink will stave off hunger longer than a dairy alternative.

• Vegan friendly!

CONS:

• Plant proteins, due to their structural makeup, don't have as pleasing of a texture or taste as dairy derived proteins, and often protein manufacturers add extra sugar, emulsifiers, and stabilizers to plant protein products to make them more palatable.

• Plant proteins aren't as efficiently absorbed as dairy protein, having lower biological values. This means that you'll need to consume more plant protein than dairy protein to ensure you receive an adequate amount of protein for your desired goals.

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Protein Recommendations

To simplify, there are two reasons you would consider buying a protein powder or drink.

1. Your goal is to build muscle and improve body composition as quickly and efficiently as possible.

2. Your want to improve protein intake for overall health and wellness inspirations.

If your goal is #1, and you are not lactose intolerant, then a hydrolyzed whey protein will be the best protein supplement for your goals. Whey hydrolysate empties out of the stomach faster, is absorbed faster, increases muscle protein synthesis the most, and creates the biggest insulin response. Hydrolyzed whey protein is the most anabolic form for protein known. Whey hydrolysate should not be used by those with blood sugar problems.

If your goal is #2, then a plant-based protein is recommended. Soy protein is not recommended because it is allergenic, contains high levels of phytoestrogens, and doesn’t stimulate muscle protein synthesis well. Pea, pumpkin, and hemp seed proteins are recommended instead. These proteins, used individually or together act as a complete protein source, digest easily, stimulate muscle protein synthesis, and come paired with plant fiber.

The best protein source though is from whole unprocessed foods. Protein supplements are a means to an end, not the end destination. Protein drinks should not be your main source of protein. Having a protein drink occasionally is OKAY, but consistent protein drink use is overall more less healthy than eating whole nutritious foods.

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References:

1. Hoffman JR, Falvo MJ. Protein - Which is Best?. J Sports Sci Med. 2004;3(3):118-30.

2. Rafiq S, Huma N, Pasha I, Sameen A, Mukhtar O, Khan MI. Chemical Composition, Nitrogen Fractions and Amino Acids Profile of Milk from Different Animal Species. Asian-australas J Anim Sci. 2016;29(7):1022-8.

3. Milk Allergy Vs. Lactose Intolerance. Food Allergy and Research Education.

4. Soy Allergy. Food Allergy and Research Education.

5. J. Slavin, and H. Green. Dietary fibre and satiety. British Nutrition Foundation.

The Importance of Sleep

Article by Stefan Burns - Updated November 2021. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!

Sleep is a very important part of everyday life. The prevailing recommendation is that 8 hours of sleep everyday is ideal amount for health and wellness. Less or more than eight hours and negative health implications start to increase. The health effects of sleep deprivation is also well studied fact. Sleep is so important that sleep deprivation studies on rats and dogs have shown that extreme sleep deprivation can be fatal.

Table of Contents:

1. Health Impacts of Sleep

2. The Sleep Cycle and Naps

3. Factors that Influence Sleep

4. Keep Sleep Simple

5. Holistic Sleep Improvement Protocol

6. Sleep is an Advantage, Use it

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Health Impacts of Sleep

Here are some quick facts from the American Sleep Association (1):

• 50 - 70 million US adults have a sleep disorder.

• 37% of 20-39 year-olds report short sleep duration

• 40% of 40-59 year-olds report short sleep duration

• 35.3% adults report < 7 hours of sleep during a typical 24-hour period.

Sleep can take many forms. Most people sleep once a day in a single unbroken event lasting, sleep involves a 5 to 9 hours in length. Others follow a biphastic sleep schedule in which there are two periods of sleep everyday, typically one long and one short. Then there are extreme sleep schedules like those developed by the famous late Buckminster Fuller (which we do not recommend you try). However your sleep schedule is divided, a total of 8 hours of sleep per day is recommended. If you get less sleep than what your body and mind require for restoration every night, then there are some health complications you should be aware of.

In a study of over 100,000 volunteers, researchers observed that cognitive performance is impaired in people who deviate from the recommended 7–8 hours per night (2). A deviation from the 7-8 hours had little impact on short-term memory performance, but reasoning and verbal skills were heavily impaired. Those who self-reported sleeping less than 4 hours per night had lower scores compared to those who slept well, and had similar cognitive performance to people 8 years older then them. In persons sleeping less than 8 hours, reduced leptin and elevated ghrelin hormones were observed (3). This skewed leptin/ghrelin ratio has been found to be responsible for increasing appetite and hunger cravings. In fact, increased body mass index (BMI) was found to be proportional to decreased sleep. Sleeping for less than 7 hours per night conferred a 12% greater risk of death (4).

Without a proper 8 hours of sleep per night you’re more likely to be cognitively older, fatter, and one step closer to death than if you had slept a full eight hours per night. Poor sleep can be avoided through! This article will guide you through the science of why you might be having poor sleep and how to counteract this. At the end there is an action plan you can follow to improve your sleep right away.

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The Sleep Cycle and Naps

Sleep can be broken down into sleep cycles 90 minutes in length. When you sleep for 8 hours, if everything is normal you will go through 5-6 sleep cycles. A sleep cycle can be further broken down into the stages of sleep: Wakefulness, Rapid Eye Movement (REM), Stage 1, Stage 2, and Stage 3.

By Schlafgut - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0

Stage 3 is slow-wave deep sleep, and slow-wave-sleep is when the body heals and the brain consolidates memories (5). Stages 1 and 2 are short intermediate stages between stage 3 and REM sleep. Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is when you experience dreams. Having adequate REM sleep every night has shown to be important for how alert, focused, and sharp you are the next day, and less REM sleep puts you at a higher risk of death (6).

While most of this article will focus on why you should get a good eight hours of sleep per night, daytime naps will also be discussed. When sleep deprived, naps can be a quick effective way to mitigate many of the effects of sleep deprivation. Longer naps have a more lasting effect than shorter naps, but the goal should be to resume a normal 8 hour sleep cycle as soon as possible. Keeping in tune with the circadian rhythm is important for many reasons, one of them being that brain waste clearance works better during sleep at night compared to daytime sleeping (7). The process of sleeping is important, but so is when you sleep. With that covered, here are the different types of naps you can take.

15 Minute Nap

If you’re feeling drowsy, fatigued, or have brain fog, a 15 minute nap can have you come feeling refreshed for 1-3 hours afterwards. The secret of the 15 minute nap is that very quickly you can descend into stage 2 sleep (see above). During stage 2 mental performance is increased, and in fifteen you’ll have gotten a mini tune-up, and the effects are immediate (8). A fifteen minute nap is too short to experience sleep inertia (that period of fatigue and drowsiness post sleep), so when you need a quick mental boost take a nap rather than reach for a cup of coffee. Naps used this way to help to improve your sleep and wellness overall.

The 15 minute nap is the best sleep option to utilize when you only have 15 minutes in the near future to catch some rest, and/or you require a cognitive boost right away.

30 Minute Nap

If you have longer than 15 minutes but less than the 90 minutes required for a full sleep cycle, then a 30 minute nap is a better option to improve mental clarity and also remove some physical fatigue. 30 minute naps enhance performance in reaction time and alertness compared to if you didn’t take a nap (9). A thirty minute nap extends your time in stage 2 sleep, improving the benefits compared to a shorter 15 minute nap. Sleep inertia will be slightly higher with a 30 minute nap that a 15 minute nap, but that should only last a few minutes at max.

If you sleep longer for thirty minutes you’ll enter into stage 3 sleep, and waking up from stage 3 sleep carries with it a lot of sleep inertia. It’s best to stick to a thirty minute nap or if you have the time go for a full 90 minute sleep cycle, and nothing in-between.

90 Minute Nap

The 90 minute nap is special because it encompasses one entire sleep cycle, from stage 1 and stage 2 sleep, through stage 3 slow-wave-sleep, and finally to REM sleep. If you need the biggest physical and mental boost midway through the day, a 90 minute nap is the way to go. 90 minute naps will boost performance for up to ten hours (10). The drawback of the 90 minute nap compared to the 15 and 30 minute options are that it creates more sleep inertia. Going through the sleep stages all the way to REM sleep takes one relatively close back to wakefulness though, and the sleep inertia from a 90 minute nap is slightly more than that from a 30 minute nap.

0 Minute Nap (Hypnagogic)

Hypnagogia is the experience of the transition from wakefulness to sleep. Ranging from a few seconds to a few minutes, this transition period takes people from conscious to unconscious experience, and unusual sleep phenomenon such as lucid dreaming, hallucinations, and sleep paralysis can sometimes be experienced during hypnagogia.

A hypnagogic nap is a nap that only lasts for seconds. To experience a hypnagogic nap without having learned to control the hypnagogia state, sit in a chair and hold an object such as a metal ball in your hand and try to fall asleep. Right before you’ll fall asleep, your hand will relax, dropping the ball, waking you up from the hypnagogia state. With practice, the balls will no longer be needed. Visionaries such as Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, Nikola Tesla, Ludwig van Beethoven, Salvador Dalí, Isaac Newton, Thomas Edison, Aristotle, and more all have credited hypnagogic naps with boosting their creativity and insight. I personally can attest to this phenomenon. All of my best ideas and revelations come to me as I straddle wakefulness and rest, and I’ve found that if I transition back to wakefulness instead of sleep after experiencing hypnagogia, I feel rested with my mind firing at max creative capacity.

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Factors that Influence Sleep

There are a many factors that influence sleep, and they range from minor to major in effect. It is important to be aware of these different factors, which range from light exposure to diet, and how they affect the circadian rhythm. The circadian rhythm is a natural, internal process that regulates the sleep-wake cycle. When making changes to improve sleep quality and/or quantity focus on the most encompassing changes that positively effect the circadian rhythm. The methods that are the most effective in improving sleep often require the biggest lifestyle changes, so expect these changes to take time. Patience will be required if you wish to make lasting change and create a lifestyle which supports quality sleep and overall health and wellness.

Below is a list of the most important factors that can influence sleep. At the end of the article is a quick-start guide that will condense this information into actionable steps.

Chemicals: It’s well known that chemicals like caffeine affect sleep, but other chemicals, some of which are naturally produced, can also impact sleep.

Exogenous Sleep Disruptors

• Nicotine - the additive chemical found in tobacco, is a stimulant and disrupts sleep by increasing sleep latency (how long it takes to fall asleep), reduces quality, fragments sleep, and reduces overall time slept.

• Alcohol - a depressant, the more drinks that are consumed before bed, the greater the impact on sleep quality. You might fall asleep faster, but REM sleep (which is mentally restorative) is notably reduced after a few hours.

• THC/CBD - cannabinoids produced from cannabis, THC is a psychoactive chemical while CBD is non-psychoactive. Both promote feelings of relaxation but THC triggers dopamine release.

Exogenous Continued

• Caffeine - a stimulant found in coffee beans and green tea leaves, caffeine promotes wakefulness and releases adrenaline. The half-life of caffeine is ~6 hours, so if you have 100 mg caffeine upon first waking, 18 hours later when it is time to sleep you will still have 12.5 mg of caffeine in your system.

• Theobromine - a stimulant found in cacao, theobromine is very similar to caffeine in its effects.

• Phthalates - chemicals commonly found in plastic products, phthalates are endocrine disruptors and by affecting hormones can disrupt sleep through phenomenon such as hot flashes. Bedding materials commonly degas phthalates.

Endogenous Sleep Influencers

• Dopamine - a naturally produced feel-good neurotransmitter, increases in response to things that bring pleasure, and higher levels of dopamine disrupt sleep.

• Cortisol - a steroid hormone, cortisol peaks in the morning when you wakeup. Cortisol is released by the adrenal glands when stressed, though the overall cortisol release schedule is dependent on your circadian rhythm.

• Melatonin - a hormone primarily released by the pineal gland, melatonin helps regulates the sleep–wake cycle. 

Consistency: More consistent day-night schedules improve sleep quality. The circadian rhythm is based on the light and temperature cycles of the sun, and the further you stray from these natural variations, the more disrupted your circadian rhythm becomes. All the factors in this list affect your circadian rhythm, and therefore your sleep, but what also effects your sleep is how consistent you keep these factors everyday. Changing any factor, whether for the positive or negative creates circadian rhythm volatility, so move the needle slowly, introducing one optimization at a time, and make it a lasting habit.

Sometimes it’s not possible to be fully consistent, such as with jet lack from travel or life events, and in this case do your best to stay calm and reduce the volatility to your circadian as much as you can using the different takeaways that you glean from this list.

Electromagnetic Radiation: The Earth is buzzing with electromagnetic energy, both naturally occurring and now man-made. Little is known on how magnetic fields influence our physiology. Our bioelectrical system is just as developed as any other system in the body like the circulatory system, it’s just not well understood. There is evidence that the frequency and amplitude of electromagnetic fields can impact sleep (11), and if you’re experiencing poor sleep you might consider turning the WiFi routers in your home off ever night and keeping note of your sleep patterns.

I personally have done this and I notice I sleep better with the WiFI router off.

Environment: Environment is a multi-faceted word that means many things. Environment means more obvious factors like temperature and background noise, but environment can also mean more nebulous factors. Maybe you live with other individuals with volatile schedules who are highly stressed and emotional. Perhaps a family pet needs to be let out every night to do their business, or there is temporary construction nearby that starts at 6 am. There are endless ways your environment effects your sleep schedule and quality of sleep, and you can influence these factors to various degrees.

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.”

— Reinhold Niebuhr

This quote is very true as it relates to your sleep environment. Make the changes and optimizations you can in order to sleep better, but remain calm with what you can’t change. Getting stressed or worried about what you can’t change will only make you sleep worse.

Food: Food has a big impact on your sleep. The timing and composition of meals determines your blood sugar levels, which in turn impacts your energy level and brain activity. Depending on what you eat right before bed can have an impact on how well you sleep that night meal right before bed. Fiber increased slow wave sleep and reduced stage 1 sleep (light sleep) whereas sugar and saturated fat increased stage 1 sleep and arousals (12).

When meal timing is kept consistent, the body adapts and the circadian rhythm normalizes, even if the meals are very early or very late. When the timing of meals change, the circadian rhythm shifts and sleep is disrupted (13)

Alcohol is a well known sleep disruptor. As a depressant, a few servings of liquor might help you fall asleep faster, but overall sleep quality will be worse, with REM stages suffering the most (14).

Light: Our existence is light, so it is no surprise to find out that light has a huge impact on sleep. Light is the main input the circadian rhythm bases its calculations off of, and the intensity, wavelength (color), and timing of light all change the response of the circadian rhythm (15). The transition of dim to bright light in the morning induces an immediate rise in cortisol (16), the stress hormone, promoting wakefulness. During the day, blue and green light dominate the sky, promoting alertness through changes in brain activity (17). At night blue light suppresses melatonin production, the sleep hormone, in a dose dependent manner (18). Any light after dark disrupts melatonin production and has an influence on sleep onset and quality (19), it’s just lower wavelength light has the least impact.

Being mindful of all light, and it’s effects on your sleep, is one of the biggest things you can do to positively impact your sleep quality and quantity.

Medications: There is a chance with any drug or medication for one of the side-effects to be sleep disruption. Alpha and beta blockers, SSRI antidepressants, statins, corticosteroids, ACE inhibitors, and diuretics are just some of the drugs which can cause insomnia, daytime drowsiness, decreased REM sleep, nightmares, the list goes on.

Getting good sleep every night is foundational to good health, and every effort should be made to get off medications which impact sleep. Every holistic effort should be taken to return to a healthy lifestyle not requiring any drugs or medications, but that desire has to manifest internally as a deep seated desire.

Pain: It’s no surprise that pain can disrupt sleep, it is something everyone has experienced. Chronic pain can cause regular sleep disruptions, whereas acute pain might only temporarily disrupt sleep. The issue with pain is that it can disrupt sleep, and then the lack of sleep can cause worsening health outcomes, which serve to further increase the pain. It’s a troubling cycle, and to break it pain and anti-inflammatory supplements can be of use. Curcumin, sulforaphane, and CBD are all effective natural anti-inflammatories which can reduce chronic and acute pain depending on their application.

Sex: We know that poor sleep negatively impacts your time in-between the sheets, but how does sex impact sleep? How sex can impact sleep is very individual. During sex, dopamine and oxytocin are released, which can create pleasant feelings which reduce stress, and after sex other hormones like prolactin can cause feelings of relief, relaxation, and sleepiness. These naturally produced chemicals can improve sleep, but for some sex might be too energizing. Likewise, if you’re disrupting your regular sleep schedule by staying up late and being frisky, this will only impact your sleep negatively.

Stress/Anxiety/Depression: Stress and anxiety can deeply disturb your sleep (20), and overtime this can lead to chronic sleep issues. How stress and anxiety affect sleep is similar to the pain-sleep downward cycle. Stress can disturb sleep which can worsen stress and so on. Overtime, or due to other factors, depression can become an issue, which can range from mild to life threatening.

Depression and sleep are closely linked. Decreased REM sleep can exacerbate depression, and depression can lead to insomnia.

Temperature: The temperature of the environment and your body temperature have a big impact on sleep. Finding the right balance between hot and cold is important for sleep quality. When sleep environments are too warm, slow wave and REM sleep are decreased, while wakefulness increases (21). In cold environments, shivering will negatively affect your sleep, but when bundled up the issue is mitigated. The best solution is to sleep in a cool to cold environment and then add warmth to your desired level with bedding materials.

Heat therapy which has many benefits, raises internal body temperatures and can impact sleep. Heat therapy at night (via a bath) while on the decline of the circadian rhythm was found to improve sleep onset, increase the deepest stage of slow-wave-sleep, but decrease REM sleep (22). Typically you don’t want to decrease REM sleep. The same heat therapy done during the incline of the circadian rhythm (think late afternoon) didn’t have any effect on sleep.

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Keep Sleep Simple

As you can tell, a lot of the health factors which disrupt sleep end up feeding their own condition, making it worse and creating a downward spiral. When or before this happens, it is important to intervene with wellness therapies which are proven effective in helping improve sleep, reduce stress, reduce pain, and increase happiness. Unless positive change is inserted into the equation, healing will not occur. Wellness activities as simple deep abdominal breathing or time spent in nature being in awe can change the conversation, getting wellness and sleep back on track.

Countering bad sleep habits with wellness activities is especially important as you can tell there is significant overlap in the categories above. When on a quest to improve sleep quality, it is best not to pick and choose which habits you’ll change and which you won’t. A holistic lifestyle approach is needed, and once normal sleep patterns have resumed, then you can patiently experiment with what minor changes you’d like to try to accommodate.

Native Americans used dream catchers as spiritual tools to give good dreams to those who slept below them. Bad dreams are caught in the webbing and burned in the light of the morning sun.

First, lets lay out desired sleep goals:

1. Sleep schedule in-sync with natural circadian rhythm

2. 8 hours sleep per night

3. Fast sleep onset

4. Reduced disruptions from elevated alertness and wakefulness.

5. Quality slow-wave-sleep

6. Regular REM sleep

7. Upon waking you feel alert and refreshed.

To accomplish the above sleep goals, lifestyle modifications will need to be made. These modifications are done with the best intentions and creating wellness habits out of these tips will positively impact your life given consistency and time. Some of these modifications might go against your established behaviors, so before you start the below program make sure you are 100% committed to improving your sleep. Only if you have a strong innate desire to improve your sleep and be healthier will these changes stick.

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Holistic Sleep Improvment Protocol

1. Establish a hard bedtime 8.5 hours before when you would like to wake up every morning. If you need to be up by 4 am that means bedtime is 7:30 pm. 6 am wake-up means 9:30 pm your head is on the pillow. The extra half hour is a cushion that accounts for the time it takes to fall asleep. You need to be consistent with this. Even if you’re not tired initially, create the habit and go lay in bed. Do you best to make your wake-up in the morning coincide with the rising of the sun.

2. Make the bedroom a place for sleep maybe sex and nothing else. If you have a TV in the bedroom, move it elsewhere. If you charge your phone or tablet on your bed stand, move the chargers to a different room. Actions dictate how we respond in different environments, and if you want the bedroom to be a place where you sleep, then it needs to be a place of sleep and nothing more. Watching TV or being on your phone gives your mind the expectation of alertness and activity in an environment where that strictly shouldn’t be allowed. Removing electronics and bright lights from the bedroom also reduces light exposure and melatonin production will be unaffected.

3. Keep the sleeping environment cool and exposed to the outside temperature, even in some small way. The circadian rhythm is driven by the light and temperature cycles of the Earth and Sun, and the further you remove yourself from the natural world the more your sleep will suffer. This goes for your electromagnetic connection to the Earth too, and being grounded at night can further improve sleep and reduce inflammation.

4. Be conscious of light throughout the day, and when the sun starts to set, all electronics should be put away and not used. The use of electronics 2-3 hours before sleep is strongly not recommended. Bright lights in the house should be dimmed, replaced with hue light bulbs (and set to a low kelvin temperature) or candles can be used. Dim lighting at night is better for your circadian rhythm and melatonin production while also being a more passionate creative environment. I have hue color changing lights and highly recommend them for reducing light exposure at night and also to schedule them to slowly turn on with the sun. They’re a game changer. At night put on some blue blocking glasses to further reduce the effect of having lights on. It might seem like overkill, but at night its very dark outside, and even dim lights affect the circadian rhythm. I use Felix Gray blue blocking glasses and notice if I use them consistently at night I sleep better.

5. Cut the caffeine and other stimulants. Caffeine has a long half-life and drinking a cup every morning builds up a chronic dependence on caffeine to be alert and wakeful. Having any caffeine in the afternoon or evening is a strict no. The occasional cup of coffee or tea isn’t a problem, but don’t make it a habit. Likewise, nicotine and alcohol are obvious sleep disruptors, and for health reasons overall shouldn’t be used at any time other than extremely sparingly. Skip the claw, la croix is a better alternative, and if you are addicted to nicotine, try transitioning off cigarettes to cannabis dry vaporization, a healthier alternative which is easy to stop. The cannabinoids might help you sleep too.

6. Exercise in the morning or afternoon, but not evening. Besides a peaceful walk at night, exercising at night stokes the energy systems of the body to ramp up, releases cortisol, and will delay sleep onset. Exercise and movement is foundational to a healthy life, but not at the expense of good sleep. The best way to make sure you exercise in the morning is to establish a consistent morning routine. Start your morning with a movement flow, yoga, calisthenics, a run or walk, there are so many options, and if you do this you’ll feel great throughout the rest of the day.

7. Start a journal and keep track of your sleep. Recording when you go to sleep, wake up, and sleep quality is a good way to pair your diet, daily actions, and habits to your quality of sleep. If your mind is still spinning before going to bed, committing these thoughts to paper can quiet the storm helping you fall asleep faster.

8. Meditate every day for at least 15 minutes. Meditation is the best way to practice calming your mind, it increases mindfulness, and provides an opportunity to raise your level of consciousness. The act of physically doing nothing might seem counterproductive, but through meditation you can unlock many internal and external secrets and truths that would have remained hidden to understanding. Meditation will impact your life in wide-ranging ways, and it will improve your sleep a lot.

9. Spend time in nature every day, increasing your consciousness of the world around you while also enjoying the mind clearing and emotionally calming benefits. You can practice your meditation during this time, focus on deep abdominal breathing, and feel the stress melt away.

10. Eat a healthy diet rich in fruits and vegetables and don’t eat too close to bed time. Additionally, keep your meal timing consistent so as to not disturb your circadian rhythm. For your last meal, at most 2 hours before bed, have a salad or high fiber vegetable like squash. Change your dietary mindset to not seek out foods you crave but instead the nutrition your body needs. Avoid all sugar before bed.

    To aid the sleeping process, there are some supplements which are known to help. 200-400 mg of magnesium glycinate an hour or two before bed will help improve sleep quality (23, 24), or simply eat 1/4 cup of nutrient-dense pumpkin seeds. 10-20 grams of glycine-rich collagen, or a meal composed of pulses (beans, lentils, chickpeas) which also contain a lot of glycine, before bed will improve sleep onset and quality (25).

11. Drink plenty of water throughout the day. The human body is made up of 70% water, and being in a state of chronic dehydration has serious long term health consequences. Upon waking, drink 24-32 oz pure filtered water and do the same before bedtime. Being dehydrated means your mouth and nasal passages will be more dry, increasing your chance of snoring and waking up with dry mouth. Dehydration will also increase your chances of getting leg cramps at night, an unpleasant and wakeful experience. Drink water everyday to stay healthy, skip the other liquids and aim for a gallon of water daily.

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Sleeping is an Advantage, Use It

It is clear that sleep is a critically important component towards achieving optimal human health, for achieving mental clarity, and for healing your body.

Modern culture doesn’t emphasize wellness, and has yet to fully realize the importance of a well rested 8 hours of sleep. Be cutting edge by going low-tech with your sleeping habits. You’ll experience a calmer mind, less turbulent emotional states, feel stronger and be better rested, and you’ll be less likely to die. Without good sleep you will not age gracefully and experience the quality of life you want.

Updated September 2020

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References:

1. Sleep and Sleep Disorder Statistics. Sleep Association

2. Wild CJ, Nichols ES, Battista ME, Stojanoski B, Owen AM. Dissociable effects of self-reported daily sleep duration on high-level cognitive abilities. Sleep. 2018;41(12)

3. Taheri S, Lin L, Austin D, Young T, Mignot E. Short sleep duration is associated with reduced leptin, elevated ghrelin, and increased body mass index. PLoS Med. 2004;1(3):e62.

4. Cappuccio FP, D'elia L, Strazzullo P, Miller MA. Sleep duration and all-cause mortality: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective studies. Sleep. 2010;33(5):585-92.

5. Todorova R, Zugaro M. Isolated cortical computations during delta waves support memory consolidation. Science. 2019;366(6463):377-381.

6. Leary EB, Watson KT, Ancoli-israel S, et al. Association of Rapid Eye Movement Sleep With Mortality in Middle-aged and Older Adults. JAMA Neurol. 2020;

7. Hablitz, L.M., Plá, V., Giannetto, M. et al. Circadian control of brain glymphatic and lymphatic fluid flow. Nat Commun 11, 4411 (2020).

8. Lovato N, Lack L. The effects of napping on cognitive functioning. Prog Brain Res. 2010;185:155-66.

9. Rosekind MR, Smith RM, Miller DL, et al. Alertness management: strategic naps in operational settings. J Sleep Res. 1995;4(S2):62-66.

10. Gillberg M. The effects of two alternative timings of a one-hour nap on early morning performance. Biol Psychol. 1984;19(1):45-54.

11. Bagheri hosseinabadi M, Khanjani N, Ebrahimi MH, Haji B, Abdolahfard M. The effect of chronic exposure to extremely low-frequency electromagnetic fields on sleep quality, stress, depression  and anxiety. Electromagn Biol Med. 2019;38(1):96-101.

12. St-onge MP, Roberts A, Shechter A, Choudhury AR. Fiber and Saturated Fat Are Associated with Sleep Arousals and Slow Wave Sleep. J Clin Sleep Med. 2016;12(1):19-24.

13. Wehrens SMT, Christou S, Isherwood C, et al. Meal Timing Regulates the Human Circadian System. Curr Biol. 2017;27(12):1768-1775.e3.

14. Ebrahim IO, Shapiro CM, Williams AJ, Fenwick PB. Alcohol and sleep I: effects on normal sleep. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2013;37(4):539-49.

15. Dijk DJ, Archer SN. Light, sleep, and circadian rhythms: together again. PLoS Biol. 2009;7(6):e1000145.

16. Leproult R, Colecchia EF, L'hermite-balériaux M, Van cauter E. Transition from dim to bright light in the morning induces an immediate elevation of cortisol levels. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2001;86(1):151-7.

17. Vandewalle G, Collignon O, Hull JT, et al. Blue light stimulates cognitive brain activity in visually blind individuals. J Cogn Neurosci. 2013;25(12):2072-85.

18. West KE, Jablonski MR, Warfield B, et al. Blue light from light-emitting diodes elicits a dose-dependent suppression of melatonin in humans. J Appl Physiol. 2011;110(3):619-26.

19. Wright HR, Lack LC. Effect of light wavelength on suppression and phase delay of the melatonin rhythm. Chronobiol Int. 2001;18(5):801-8.

20. Al maghaireh DF, Abdullah KL, Chong MC, Chua YP, Al kawafha MM. Stress, Anxiety, Depression and Sleep Disturbance among Jordanian Mothers and Fathers of Infants Admitted to Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: A Preliminary Study. J Pediatr Nurs. 2017;36:132-140.

21. Okamoto-mizuno K, Mizuno K. Effects of thermal environment on sleep and circadian rhythm. J Physiol Anthropol. 2012;31:14.

22. Horne JA, Shackell BS. Slow wave sleep elevations after body heating: proximity to sleep and effects of aspirin. Sleep. 1987;10(4):383-92.

23. Nielsen FH, Johnson LK, Zeng H. Magnesium supplementation improves indicators of low magnesium status and inflammatory stress in adults older than 51 years with poor quality sleep. Magnes Res. 2010;23(4):158-68.

24. Held K, Antonijevic IA, Künzel H, et al. Oral Mg(2+) supplementation reverses age-related neuroendocrine and sleep EEG changes in humans. Pharmacopsychiatry. 2002;35(4):135-43.

25. Inagawa, K., Hiraoka, T., Kohda, T. et al. Subjective effects of glycine ingestion before bedtime on sleep quality. Sleep Biol. Rhythms 4, 75–77 (2006).

Boron supplementation

Article by Stefan Burns - Updated January 2022. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!

Boron is the fifth element of the periodic table, and trace amounts can be found in the Earth’s crust. Though boron is a trace element, it is critical for a variety of plant and animal metabolic processes. In fact, boron deficiency in plants is a major concern for farmers, being the second most common micronutrient deficiency (1). With boron micronutrient deficiency common in crops, it’s likely that most people are likewise deficient in boron, and that’s a cause for concern.

A quick summary of boron’s effects on health can be best described as Wolverine’s superpowers! Boron improves wound healing, builds stronger bones, balances hormone production, strengthens the immune system, and more.

Before we cover all of boron’s amazing health benefits, lets first understand the interactions of vitamin D, magnesium, and testosterone, and how boron has major positive effects on these three systems.

Vitamin D, Magnesium, and Testosterone

For the general populace, vitamin D and magnesium are the first and second most common micronutrient deficiencies. It has been estimated that as many as 1 billion people around the world are vitamin D deficient (2). A vitamin D deficiency has many negative effects on health such as a weakened immune system, poor energy metabolism and fatigue, increased chance of mental health issues like depression and anxiety, muscular pain, loss of bone mass and strength, dysfunctional hormone production, hair loss, and more.

Insufficient magnesium is the second most common micronutrient deficiency, and the possible symptoms are likewise unpleasant, ranging from high blood pressure and asthma to mental disorders and weak bones. Against this nutrient deficiency backdrop, testosterone levels have been decreasing in men for decades (3, 4) due to a variety of factors such as the use of plastics, overuse of antibiotics, and artificial hormones. Vitamin D and magnesium are micronutrients critical for proper hormone health for men and women. The altering of androgenic hormones like testosterone on a population level mean that large swathes of men are experiencing the side effects of low testosterone which include loss of muscle and bone mass, crippling fatigue, severe mood changes, a greatly diminished sex drive, and increased body fat (5).

It has been clearly demonstrated that when vitamin D, magnesium, and testosterone levels are out of balance serious health problems arise. Luckily it has been found that supplementing with mere milligrams of boron everyday greatly improves vitamin D and magnesium absorption.

Does Boron Increase Testosterone?

Because boron aids in the absorption of vitamin D and magnesium, both micronutrients being very important for the functions of the hormonal system.

For young healthy men, boron supplementation has conflicting results on its ability to raise testosterone levels. In one study with young male bodybuilders, though boron supplementation raised plasma boron values, no significant effect was observed on testosterone as compared to the boron-free control group (6). The group using boron did see their total testosterone level increase to a greater degree than the control group, but the increase wasn’t to significance, likely due to the small sample size. An interesting observation from this study is that by the end of the 7 week training protocol the bodybuilders went through for the study, the boron-free control group had significantly lower levels of boron in their plasma that they started with. Both the boron supplementation group and the control increased their lean body mass, total testosterone, and free testosterone, and it’s conceivable that the study duration was not long enough to observe the beneficial effects of boron on testosterone, and that the control group was able to achieve similar results as the boron supplemented group because they made use of the boron already in their body, depleting their reservoirs right as the study ended. If the study was lengthened, it’s possible that different results regarding boron supplementation for testosterone levels would have been observed.

With another study, eight healthy men who supplemented with 6 mg/day of boron for a week increased their free testosterone levels by 28% from 11.83 pg/mL to 15.18 pg/mL, and their estradiol (E2) decreased 61% from 42.33 pg/mL to 25.81 pg/mL (7). In a different study on eight men, 10 mg of boron per day supplemented for four weeks increased E2 levels from 51.9 to 73.9 pmol/L, and total testosterone levels increased from 17.4 to 19.4 nmol/L (8). It is unclear why estradiol levels decreased overall in the subjects in one study and increased overall in the other.

One explanation for boron’s changing effects on hormones is that boron is a hormonal adaptogen, balancing hormone levels for optimal wellness. There are so many factors that influence the hormonal system, from stress to micronutrient levels throughout the body, that it is difficult to determine boron’s effect on testosterone levels in men even with a study designed to observe just that.

Considering the extremely low cost and ease of boron supplementation (details below), for anyone interested in boosting testosterone levels I recommend supplementing with 6-10 mg boron daily for 1-2 months while also taking careful observations of libido and general well-being. Basic testosterone tests can also be schedule at the beginning and end of the personal experiment for the most conclusive results. Individual results will vary, and it’s also individual results that matter. Beyond testosterone, having adequate boron levels has many other health benefits.

Boron Health Benefits

Summarized from the research paper Nothing Boring About Boron by Lara Pizzorno, boron has been proven to be an important trace mineral for the following known reasons (9):

Boron is essential for the growth and maintenance of bone

• Boron was found to reduce calcium excretion in boron deficient post-menopausal women by 44%. Also at play was magnesium, and when magnesium levels were adequate, women lost 22 mg/day of calcium, while those low in magnesium lost 52 mg/day (10).

• In vitamin-D deficient animals (chicks and rats), boron supplementation helped stimulate bone growth (11).

Boron greatly improves wound healing

• One study found that when a 3% boric acid solution was applied to deep wounds, the time required in intensive care was reduced by two-thirds, 20 versus 55 days (12). For the 12 patients applied the boric acid solution, this collectively resulted in approximately $350,000 1990 USD in reduced medical expenses.

• The mechanisms responsible for this dramatic improvement in wound healing was further investigated, and it was found that boron has direct actions on specific enzymes found in fibroblasts (13). Fibroblasts are the most common cells found in animal connective tissue, responsible for synthesizing the connective tissues extracellular matrix and collagen. If you have bad joints, boron supplementation can be paired with a connective tissue regrowth protocol to help speed up the healing process.

Boron beneficially improves hormone levels in post-menopausal women

• In a study on post-menopausal women, boron supplementation of 3mg/day in the magnesium deficient group almost doubled serum estradiol levels, increasing E2 from an average of 21.1 pg/mL to 41.4 pg/mL, and testosterone nearly tripled, rising from an average of 0.31 ng/mL to 0.83 ng/mL. For the magnesium adequate group, E2 rose from an average of 15.5 pg/mL to 38.0 pg/mL, and testosterone increased from 0.38 ng/mL to 0.65 ng/mL (10).

Boron greatly improves Vitamin D status, the most common micronutrient deficiency

• In a clinical trial, five men and ten women were placed on a low-boron diet (regular western diet, also marginal in magnesium and copper) for 63 days. Afterwards, 3 mg of boron was supplemented per day for 49 days. Vitamin D levels increased from an average of 44.9 nM after boron deprivation to 62.4 nM after the 49 days of boron repletion, a 39% increase (14).

• During the winter months, 13 middle-aged individuals predetermined to be extremely vitamin D deficient (serum vitamin D3 < 12 ng/mL), were given 6mg of boron per day for 60 days. The study took place beginning in October and concluded by January, a seasonal time period when vitamin-D status would be expected to worsen due to reduced daylight hours. After 60 days of boron supplementation, vitamin D3 levels rose by an average of 20% even during reducing sunlight conditions, which is phenomenal (15).

• Boron increases vitamin D levels by suppressing the activity of 24-hydroxylase, the microsomal enzyme primarily responsible for the catabolism (breakdown) of vitamin D. The suppression of this enzyme increases the half-life of vitamin D in serum, therefore increasing vitamin D levels overall (15).

Boron is cancer protective and reduces the adverse effects of chemotherapy

• On a broad scale, boron-rich diets (from regions where the soil and water are rich in boron) correlate with lower risks of several types of cancer, including breast, cervical, prostate, and lung cancers. Boron-containing compounds have a roll in a variety of fundamental cellular mechanisms, negatively effecting the reproduction and physiology of cancer cells (16).

• In one study, men whose diets supplied more than 1.8 mg of boron per day lowered the risk of prostate cancer by 52% lower compared to men whose dietary boron intake was 0.9 mg per day or less (17).

• In one ten year study on post-menopausal women, those who were not on hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and had a boron intake of 0.77 mg or less per day had a 95% increased odds of developing lung cancer compared to women on HRT who had a dietary intake of 1.25 mg of boron per day (18).

• One of boron’s main anti-cancer mechanistic effects is a result of how boron directly interacts with cancer cells. With a boron rich diet (3-10 mg), sugar-borate esters transport borate in greater quantities inside cells, increasing the intracellular concentration of borate. High intracellular borate concentrations keep cancerous growth in check and stimulate apoptosis (cellular death). In normal cells not yet ready to undergo apoptosis, the borate is easily exported. Cancer cells however commonly over-express sugar transporters as a way of fueling their growth, and are less effective at reducing intracellular levels of borate. As a result, a boron-rich diet exerts a protect anti-cancer effect, sparing healthy cells but killing cancer cells (19).

Adequate boron levels in the body contributes to stronger bones, faster wound healing, higher vitamin D and testosterone levels, and is cancer protective.

In addition to the more well known effects above, boron has also been shown to have the following beneficial effects:

1. Boron reduces levels of inflammatory biomarkers, such as high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α)

2. Boron raises levels of antioxidant enzymes, such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase, and glutathione peroxidase

3. Boron protects against pesticide-induced oxidative stress and heavy-metal toxicity

4. Boron improves the brains electrical activity, cognitive performance, and short-term memory for elders

How to Supplement with Boron

On average most people ingest about 2 mg of Boron a day (20), which is under the 3 mg or greater ideal dietary intake. With a diet low in plant products such as fruits, vegetables, and nuts, someone’s dietary intake of boron could be much less than 3 mg per day. Following a plant-based diet will increase boron consumption.

To increase boron concentrations in the body, the simplest and most economical way to supplement is with borax, chemically known as sodium borate. With a similar LD50 as NaCl for rats (similar for humans), sodium borate is safe and as a salt it’s highly bioavailable. Many studies on boron use sodium borate, and borax is many times cheaper than the typical boron fructoborate supplement. A box of 20 Mule Team borax is highly refined and pure, simply set aside a small jar for personal use and use the rest for cleaning applications if you'd like!

Most studies on boron supplementation use a dose of 3 mg of elemental boron (again through a compound like borax).

To supplement with 10 mg of elemental boron via borax, ~88.5 mg of borax is required based on the chemical formula of Na2[B4O5(OH)4]·8H2O and elemental molecular weights. To estimate the volume of the scooper needed, we need to know the density of borax. Borax has a density of 1.73 g/cm³, so 88.5 mg of borax (10 mg boron) requires approximately a 0.05 ml scoop. I used to use this G82 Ultra Small Measuring Spoon (pictured) when dosing boron, but now I simply take a pinch of equivalent size and dissolve it into a drink.

With no taste and the ability to fully dissolve, supplementing with borax couldn't be easier. Add the scoop to a glass of water, a smoothie, or a post-workout drink, it won’t be noticed.

Another way to supplement with boron is with nettle. Stinging nettle contains high levels of boron in addition to other valuable nutrients such as vitamins A, C, K and minerals calcium, iron, and manganese. Brewing nettle leaves into a tea individually or as part of a blend is easy, and in addition to providing the body boron it acts as a diuretic and lowers blood sugar and blood pressure slightly. Purchase nettle leaf products from Mountain Rose Herbs.

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Foods Highest in Boron

With it’s wide ranging health benefits, extreme safety, beyond cheap price, and unbelievable ease of supplementation, boron is a micronutrient everyone should make sure to get enough of. If you’d rather pass on the borax and stick to whole foods, then make sure to consume the following high boron foods from organic and biodynamic farmers who grow from healthy micronutrient rich soils.

Fruits, vegetables, and nuts are your best sources of boron. Dried fruits like raisins and apricots are loaded with boron. Nuts like almonds, hazelnuts, and walnuts are also packed with boron, and legumes such as peanuts and kidney beans also contain significant amounts of boron. Another high boron food is avocado which has many other beneficial micronutrients as well.

Make an effort to get more boron in your diet whether that’s by supplementation, diet, or a combination of both, and take note of how you feel. Boron can be supplemented with daily at doses of 3-10 mg, and care should be taken when dosing higher amounts for it’s possible testosterone boosting effects.

References

1. Importance of Boron in Plant Growth - Crop Nutrition

2. Sahota O. Understanding vitamin D deficiency. Age Ageing. 2014;43(5):589-91.

3. Travison TG, Araujo AB, O'donnell AB, Kupelian V, Mckinlay JB. A population-level decline in serum testosterone levels in American men. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2007;92(1):196-202.

4. Andersson AM, Jensen TK, Juul A, Petersen JH, Jørgensen T, Skakkebaek NE. Secular decline in male testosterone and sex hormone binding globulin serum levels in Danish population surveys. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2007;92(12):4696-705.

5. Traish AM, Miner MM, Morgentaler A, Zitzmann M. Testosterone deficiency. The American Journal of Medicine. 2011;124(7):578-587.

6. Ferrando AA, Green NR. The effect of boron supplementation on lean body mass, plasma testosterone levels, and strength in male bodybuilders. International Journal of Sport Nutrition. 1993;3(2):140-149.

7. Naghii MR, Mofid M, Asgari AR, Hedayati M, Daneshpour MS. Comparative effects of daily and weekly boron supplementation on plasma steroid hormones and proinflammatory cytokines. J Trace Elem Med Biol. 2011;25(1):54-8.

8. Naghii MR, Samman S. The effect of boron supplementation on its urinary excretion and selected cardiovascular risk factors in healthy male subjects. Biol Trace Elem Res. 1997;56(3):273-86.

9. Pizzorno L. Nothing Boring About Boron. Integr Med (Encinitas). 2015;14(4):35-48.

10. Nielsen FH, Hunt CD, Mullen LM, Hunt JR. Effect of dietary boron on mineral, estrogen, and testosterone metabolism in postmenopausal women. FASEB J. 1987;1(5):394-7.

11. Hunt CD. The biochemical effects of physiologic amounts of dietary boron in animal nutrition models. Environ Health Perspect. 1994;102 Suppl 7:35-43.

12. Blech MF, Martin C, Borrelly J, Hartemann P. Treatment of deep wounds with loss of tissue. Value of a 3 percent boric acid solution. Presse Med. 1990;19(22):1050-2.

13. Nzietchueng RM, Dousset B, Franck P, Benderdour M, Nabet P, Hess K. Mechanisms implicated in the effects of boron on wound healing. J Trace Elem Med Biol. 2002;16(4):239-44.

14. Nielsen, Forrest & Mullen, L.M. & Gallagher, S.K.. (1990). Effect of boron depletion and repletion on blood indicators of calcium status in humans fed a magnesium-low diet. Journal of Trace Elements in Experimental Medicine. 3. 45-54.

15. Miljkovic D, Miljkovic N, Mccarty MF. Up-regulatory impact of boron on vitamin D function -- does it reflect inhibition of 24-hydroxylase? Med Hypotheses. 2004;63(6):1054-6.

16. Scorei RI, Popa R. Boron-containing compounds as preventive and chemotherapeutic agents for cancer. Anticancer Agents Med Chem. 2010;10(4):346-51.

17. Cui Y, Winton MI, Zhang ZF, et al. Dietary boron intake and prostate cancer risk. Oncol Rep. 2004;11(4):887-92.

18. Mahabir S, Spitz MR, Barrera SL, Dong YQ, Eastham C, Forman MR. Dietary boron and hormone replacement therapy as risk factors for lung cancer in women. Am J Epidemiol. 2008;167(9):1070-80.

19. Scorei RI, Popa R. Sugar-borate esters--potential chemical agents in prostate cancer chemoprevention. Anticancer Agents Med Chem. 2013;13(6):901-9.

20. Devirian T, Volpe S. The Physiological Effects of Dietary Boron. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition. 2003;43(2):219–231

Medical Disclaimer: All information, content, and material of this website is for informational purposes only and is not intended to serve as a substitute for the consultation, diagnosis, and/or medical treatment of a qualified physician or healthcare provider.

Disclosure: Wild Free Organic is a member of various affiliate programs and if a purchase is made through one of our affiliate links a small commission is received. This does not affect your purchase price. Visit our disclosure page for more information.

Swap Oats for a Buckwheat Breakfast

Article by Stefan Burns - Updated October 2022. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!

Millions of people around the world start their morning with an oatmeal breakfast, either from steel cut, rolled, or instant oats. Oatmeal is delicious, fiber dense, and convenient. Buckwheat may be better for many people than oats, especially those who need be more mindful of their gut health, and it’s buckwheat!

Containing different micronutrients than oatmeal overall, buckwheat is a great breakfast for those looking to distance themselves from wheat production and glyphosate usage or simply for those who want a second hot creamy breakfast porridge option with a different micronutrient profile. It’s fiber dense but not as hard on the intestinal lining at oats or wheat, and it takes other foods easily like bananas, almond butter, nuts, dried or fresh fruit very well, making a vegan nutritious delicious meal.

What is Buckwheat?

Buckwheat is not a type of wheat. In fact it’s not even a cereal grain. Buckwheat is a type of flowering plant whose seeds resemble grains, and is referred to as a psuedocereal (like chia seeds and quinoa). It is rare for flowering plants to have strong defense mechanisms, instead working with animals and insects symbiotically to reproduce.

Grasses (like wheat) aren’t as cosmopolitan, and grasses have evolved serious defense mechanisms throughout time. The leaf blades of many grasses are hardened with silica (glass) phytoliths (crystals), which discourage grazing animals. The parts we actually eat, cereal grains, are pleasantly referred to as spikelets, and then you have fibrous chaff surrounding the grain. Next is a hard protective bran shell, and then finally the germ and endosperm, which are the parts of the grain containing the most desirable and evolved nutrients.

Field of buckwheat. Not a grass, but a flower!

Digesting Wheat and Oats is Paleo Difficult

Grasses are so hard to digest that the holy grass chomping animal, the cow, has four stomachs just to digest them. The first three stomachs of a cow help break down the fibrous plant material, and the last stomach more closely resembles ours. Even then, cows are known for their prodigious flatulence, a byproduct of the process. Humans don’t have four stomachs, and even with the advanced processing we use to strip wheat grains from chaff, we evolutionarily aren’t predisposed to being able to digest wheat and other grains like oats well.

Add in many pesticide applications during cultivation, harvest, and storage as is done with non-organically grown whole grains like wheat and oats, gut health and wellness suffer. Toxins like glyphosate (the main herbicide found in Roundup) disrupt the shikimate pathway and has an antimicrobial effect on the microbiome. Pesticides also erode the mucus lining of the digestive system and degrade epithelial cellular junctions underneath. These three factors together cause stress to the digestive system. When tested non-gmo crops were found to have glyphosate residues at 0.07 mg/kg to 0.09 mg/kg. For a GMO crop, the range was found to be between 3.3 and 5.7 mg/kg (1).

Those with sensitive or compromised digestive systems will experience bloating, indigestion, volatile digestive motility, and loose stool from consumption of whole grains sprayed heavily with pesticides. Some people can handle it for a time.

The reason many people experience digestive upset from non-organic cereal grains is because the body eliminates them from the digestive track in order to avoid absorbing toxic pesticides into the body, which then cause stress on other organs such as the liver, kidneys, spleen, etc.

The goal of eating is to extract as much goodness from food as easily as possible, and any food which the body can’t or refuses to process efficiently should be eliminated from the diet and can reintroduced again at a later time for testing.

Buckwheat is Easy to Digest

Unlike oats or wheat, buckwheat is relatively easy to digest. This is due to the fact that buckwheat comes from an angiosperm plant and not a grain. Buckwheat shares many of the same culinary traits as oats though. Buckwheat cooks similarly, has similar taste and texture, and has a nearly identical macronutrient profile. Buckwheat also has the advantage of often being gluten free as it’s processed on separate machinery free of wheat residues.

Cooked Buckwheat (left) vs Cooked Oats (right)

Oats, even organic oats, unless specifically stated “gluten-free” contain residual gluten and wheat proteins from having been processed on the same machinery as wheat. To anyone with a gluten intolerance, Crohn’s disease, and celiac disease, this “hidden” source of gluten can wreak havoc.

Buckwheat will have lower levels of trace gluten from processing, but is still sprayed with glyphosate as are most crops in the USA, though not as much. Only non-gmo organic buckwheat will have very low to zero glyphosate contamination, and this what I recommend you find if you love having a breakfast cereal in the morning.

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Buckwheat Macronutrients (100g)

Calories: 343 calories

Fat: 3.4 grams

Carbohydrates: 71.5 grams

Fiber: 10 grams

Protein: 13.3 grams

Oats Macronutrients (100g)

Calories: 379 calories

Fat: 6.5 grams

Carbohydrates: 67.7 grams

Fiber: 10.1 grams

Protein: 13.2 grams

For all their differences evolutionary and processing wise, buckwheat and oats have similar macronutrient ratios as seen above. Both buckwheat and oats are a good option when a high carbohydrate meal is desired.

When it comes to micronutrients, buckwheat and oats are similar but overall I think buckwheat is the better option for reasons I’ll explain. For 100 grams of oats vs 100 grams of buckwheat see the nutritional differences below:

Vitamins	Buckwheat	Oats	Greater Than By
Thiamin (mg)	0.1	0.46	360%
Riboflavin (mg)	0.43	0.16	168%
Niacin (mg)	7.02	1.13	521%
Vitamin B6 (mg)	0.21	0.1	110%
Folate (mcg)	30	32	6.6%
Vitamin B12 (mcg)	0	0	--
Pantothenic Acid (mg)	1.23	--	--
Vitamin A (IU)	0	0	--
Vitamin C (mg)	0	0	--
Vitamin D (IU)	0	0	--
Vitamin E (mg)	--	0.42	--
Vitamin K (mcg)	--	2.0	--
Minerals
Calcium (mg)	18	52	189%
Iron (mg)	2.2	4.25	93%
Magnesium (mg)	231	138	67%
Phosphorus (mg)	347	410	18%
Potassium (mg)	460	362	27%
Sodium (mg)	1.0	6.0	500%
Zinc (mg)	2.4	3.64	51%
Copper (mg)	1.1	--	--
Manganese (mg)	1.3	--	--
Selenium (mcg)	8.3	--	--

Macronutrient and Micronutrient data pulled from the USDA database.

Oats have more micronutrients which have greater values than buckwheat (7 vs 5), but buckwheat has higher levels of the micronutrients more commonly deficient in the diet. Buckwheat also contains much higher percentage levels of those certain micronutrients, so they come out ahead.

Buckwheat contains 67% more magnesium, magnesium being second most common micronutrient deficiency and vital for hormone health, skin, sleep, and bone strength. Buckwheat also has 27% more potassium, which helps to balance sodium/potassium ratios in the body which is important for the heart, brain, digestion, and nervous system.

Oats do have significantly more calcium, iron, phosphorus, and zinc than buckwheat. Buckwheat contains significantly more of the B vitamins riboflavin, niacin, and vitamin B6, only containing significantly less thiamin than oats does. Nutritional yeast is the highest source of thiamin, unfortified unlike artificially fortified grains, and completely vegan.

Try Buckwheat for Breakfast for One Week

Watch your Gut Health Get Better

Next time you reach to buy a bag of oats at the grocery story, reach for a bag of buckwheat instead!

Try it out and see if you like buckwheat’s flavor and texture, and pay attention to your energy levels and state of digestion after eating it. Worst case you don’t notice any positives eating buckwheat over oats, and best case you improve your digestion and get more of the critical micronutrients such as magnesium that are missing from most modern day diets. In my experience buckwheat has never made my digestion worse, and it’s good to have reliable food like that on hand.

Buckwheat could very well be your perfect food (2). If you are of Eastern European ancestry that is more likely to be the case as a lot of buckwheat has been grown in those areas historically.

Try out some organic hulled buckwheat groats and explore a whole new world!

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References:

1. Glyphosate-tested. Healthy Traditions.

2. Wijngaard HH, Arendt EK. Buckwheat. Cereal Chemistry Journal. 2006;83(4):391-401.

Medical Disclaimer: All information, content, and material of this website is for informational purposes only and is not intended to serve as a substitute for the consultation, diagnosis, and/or medical treatment of a qualified physician or healthcare provider.

Disclosure: Wild Free Organic is a member of various affiliate programs and if a purchase is made through one of our affiliate links a small commission is received. This does not affect your purchase price. Visit our disclosure page for more information.

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