Welcome to Joy Lab!: Welcome to the Joy Lab podcast, where we help you uncover and foster your most joyful self. Your hosts, Dr. Henry Emmons and Dr. Aimee Prasek, bring you the ideal mix of soulful and scientifically sound tools to spark your joy, even when it feels dark. When you're ready to experiment with more joy, combine this podcast with the full Joy Lab program over at JoyLab.coach
Henry: Hello, I'm Henry Emmons and welcome to Joy Lab.
Aimee: And I'm Aimee Prasek. Here at Joy Lab, we infuse science with soul to help you uncover joy. To do that, we focus on building the elements of joy. Those are the positive emotions and inner states that become the building blocks for a joyful life. The element for this episode is resilience.
We're working on a series here, so a reminder that you may want to go back to episodes 53 and 54 to really get a handle on what we're talking In this episode, we're working on the second root of resilience that Henry introduced in his book, the Chemistry of Calm. That root is managing energy. Managing energy, all right, what is it? So as we're applying it here, it really means to recharge or reclaim our natural energy and then keep it sustained on a daily basis.
We're all wired for this balance of energy, which includes surges and rest, but maintaining this overall tank, this container of resilience as well, um, keeping it full enough. So to do this, we'll first get into some of the "energy thieves" as Henry calls them in his book. Mainly the ways our mental energy and physical energy can get depleted and how that impacts our resilience. We'll then talk about three strategies to boost and balance your energy and support your resilience.
So the first energy thief to talk about is oxidative stress. Henry, you described oxidative stress in your book as rusting from the inside. Which is very descriptive. I love it and I'm concerned about it. But, um, can you explain that more, uh, and how it relates to a feeling of depletion or sort of this erosion of resilience?
Henry: Sure. Yeah. I guess we would be concerned if we were rusting from the inside out, wouldn't we?
Aimee: It gets your attention.
Henry: So we don't usually think about this, but there is no storehouse for energy in our bodies. We don't have a battery pack that we can draw energy from.
So each one of our cells has to make its own energy. And it does that in these tiny little energy plants that are called mitochondria. Now our bodies have to supply all of the ingredients needed for this process.
And then there's also kind of a mess to clean up afterward. Now, oxygen is one of the most important ingredients for this. And the process of breaking it down is what we call oxidation. And it leaves byproducts, the mess I referred to, that are known as free radicals. I don't know what the, why they call it radical, but that it's free radicals. And they can be harmful if there are too many of them. So we're fine as long as we have enough antioxidants to neutralize those. When things get out of balance, then the cell itself can be damaged, and that's what's called oxidative stress. And it is weirdly similar to what happens when iron is left outside in the elements for too long and it starts to rust out. That's also called oxidation.
Now, still, we can handle this for short periods of time. Our bodies really are resilient. But if it goes on too long, it is pretty hard on us. And if you think about what these last few years have been like almost everybody I talked to, especially early in the pandemic, felt so tired. We are not built for that intense, unrelenting stress, and I think fatigue is kind of an early warning sign. Something is off and our body is telling us to do something about it.
Aimee: Don't know if you'll remember this, everybody listening and Henry, uh, there was a lot of talk early in the pandemic about languishing. Do you remember that?
Henry: I, I don't, I was probably languishing at the time!
Aimee: Right! Couldn't read, I was, yeah, not feeling it. so maybe some of you remember this. This concept was kind of brought to the forefront in the early two thousands by a sociologist and a positive psychology researcher, Dr. Corey Keyes. Um, so, and there was an article, I, now, I can't remember it, I'll put in the show notes about languishing, that got a huge amount of attention. So languishing is not like a diagnosis or anything, but it sits in that space of no diagnosis, and also what the APA notes as the "absence of mental health."
Henry: Hmm
Aimee: which is interesting term. Uh, but I kind of get it. So, but I describe it as this feeling of meh. Just kind of empty, tired-meh, completely embodied-meh.
That's what languishing feels like to me. But I also think that's what rusting from the inside out feels like, I think there's a lot of oxidative stress in languishing. Maybe the title of that article wouldn't have gotten so much attention if it was called, you're experiencing oxidative stress.
Languishing is kind of this more interesting, sexy concept. And, maybe not so complex as languishing sounds, but maybe we're just completely rusted out and need to fill our resilience tank back up. Just a tangent there, but maybe that gives a little bit of the feeling of what we're kind of going after with this oxidative stress, um, that folks can relate to.
Now the second energy thief is blood sugar dysregulation. This thief can also be a natural consequence of oxidative stress. And what's happening in the body seems to me like good intentions that just get skewed because, as you said, Henry, we are not made to hold stress in this unrelenting, chronic way.
So our body wants us to really move into a rest and digest process after a stress surge. But when the stress doesn't let up, the natural stress response can ironically itself, create more stress. So I'll give a quick explanation. Something stressful happens, so stress hormones like cortisol are released, insulin drops, our body tissues then become less sensitive to insulin and blood sugar rises.
These are all really good things when we need to react to the stressor. It is a system that's super effective for a physical response that expends energy. Appetite also increases, setting us up for that rest and digest process that the body wants after stress, but then the stress doesn't let up.
If you are here for our boiling water episode, it just continues to get cranked up to high perhaps, or at least it doesn't release. So then that increased appetite can lead to frequent over eating. This kind of stress-related weight gain is often centered around the stomach, which itself increases the release of stress hormones, so then insulin drops again and blood sugar can surge, then this type of constant cycling can lead to insulin resistance.
One more thing. This is compounded because insulin resistance is itself a stress on the body that creates more free radicals, what we were just talking about a moment ago, which increases cortisol and then you just keep cycling through that same story. Just describing this, uh, I know it's complex, but you can see, uh, you know how strong this process is.
It's a cycle that is really hard to step out of if we don't have some awareness and tools before the stress hits. Henry, can you explain a little bit more about this, um, cycle of blood sugar dysregulation and how it relates to resilience and mental health?
Henry: I'll try. So besides oxygen, the primary fuel to make energy is blood sugar, or it's called glucose or glycogen. It is transported through the bloodstream, but it doesn't do any good if it just stays in the bloodstream. It has got to be carried into the cell, and getting it there is the job of insulin. Now, for most of us, this system works perfectly well as long as our blood sugar stays within a pretty tight range.
But if it goes too high for too long, then insulin has a hard time moving sugar into the cell. It's kind of like the cell has stopped listening to the message that insulin is giving them.
And then we have this really weird problem where there's a ton of fuel available in the blood, but the cell itself is kind of starving, can't get it in there. So the brain is the biggest user of glucose and it has no ability to store it. So it is really hard hit by this blood sugar dysregulation. So we can't focus, we lose our vitality and we feel depressed.
Now, energy thief number three is actually related to these first two. It's called systemic inflammation. People who have allergies or autoimmune problems are more prone to this. But systemic inflammation can affect anyone no matter their genetics, and it seems to be getting more common in the population. Now, if you have chronic stress or you have blood sugar issues, it's just like it's setting you up to also have this inflammation.
So things that you'd normally would be able to handle just fine without overreacting to it, like things in your diet, all of a sudden they can cause an overreaction and then it quickly becomes downward spiral.
Now, if you have systemic inflammation, by definition, you also have brain inflammation. And there is growing evidence that that may be one of the causes of depression. And that antidepressants might even work partly by reducing inflammation. This is sneaky because you can't really see systemic inflammation, but it is a common thief of both energy and joy.
Aimee: Yeah, it is sneaky. But we do have some say here. So let's talk about how we can manage our energy. If it's depleted, how we can bring it back if these thieves or other thieves have robbed us of it. So the first strategy is to eat a good, healthy diet. And I know how silly that sounds. it also sounds impossible in some ways because everyone is hawking some fad diet that's completely opposite to another one.
For sure, there are some folks who need to be on a specific diet due to a medical condition or allergy or sensitivity. But beyond that, I'd say the only diet that research consistently supports for overall wellbeing is what nutritionist Carolyn Denton calls "radically sensible eating." It's full of fresh and healthy whole foods and a sensible approach to it all.
it's the same approach that our resilient diet is built on. We talked about this a lot in last episode, so head there if you haven't already. Uh, be sure to take the resilience quiz, sign up for the mini course, and you can get some tailored information on this strategy.
Henry: Yeah, I, I love Carolyn's phrase, radically sensible eating.
Aimee: I do too.
Henry: And I think it's, it's radical because usually we are hearing such complicated recommendations about how to eat.
Aimee: Yes.
Henry: So I'm thinking right now about two really sensible things that I've learned from Carolyn. One is that it's gotta be simple so that we will actually do it.
Aimee: Yeah.
Henry: I personally have tried all sorts of fad diets in my life, and I can tell you that they can get so complex that I have to become compulsive so that I can follow it. I'm never able to stick with it and I frankly don't feel very good when I have to get rigid and compulsive to just make it work.
So in the spirit of simplicity, here are a couple of suggestions for how to work around these energy thieves that we talked about. Even I am able to do this
Aimee: Nice.
Henry: Without getting rigid.
Aimee: Yeah.
Henry: So to me the most consistent finding in all the research on diet is to not eat too much, and especially not to eat too much sugar or other simple carbs in one sitting. Keeping our blood sugar steady and stable might be the best thing overall that we can do for our brains, both now and importantly, as we age.
Now, personally, I have way too strong of a sweet tooth to give up sugar completely, and I don't think that's necessary. Remember, no rigidity. Just not having too much at any one time. And you'll also help stabilize your blood sugar if you eat some protein at the same time.
Here's another simple thing to improve improve blood sugar regulation that I have really taken to, and I just find it doable and easy, easy enough anyway, and that is to give yourself a long break every day without eating. I try to go 12 hours between dinner and breakfast. I think that's kind of a good number to shoot for. I think most of us need to do the 16 hours that is often talked about, but 12 hours is good. You don't have to do it every single day. If you have an event or something that goes later in the evening, don't worry about it.
But roughly 12 hours without any calories after dinner. Now remember that includes alcohol, which is basically sugar. So I like this cuz it also gives your digestion a break and think it helps my sleep. And it kind of helps reset that communication between insulin and the cells because the cell has to replace its supply of glucose. So they start listening to the message from insulin again.
So the second radically sensible thing that I'll mention is that it's not just about what foods to avoid, but also what foods to add. I remember hearing this interview with Dan Buettner. He's, you know, the author of Blue Zones, those places where people seem to have found the formula for a long and healthy life.
So in this interview, Buettner was referring, uh, again and again to this one supercharged practice. The thing that he thought, if everybody did this, we would see a quantum leap in people's health and wellbeing. Now he did a really good job of kind of teasing this for kind of a long time without revealing it.
So I was really waiting to hear what this was. I was ready to jump out there and start doing it immediately. And then he finally says, eat beans every day.
Aimee: All right!
Henry: Yeah. So I'll be honest, I haven't done it every day. But I have moved in that direction because it actually makes a lot of sense to me. Beans have so much fiber and adding more fiber to our diets helps with all three of these energy thieves. Plus, it's really good for our guts and for the microbiome that we are hearing so much about these days, which is super important for our overall health.
Aimee: Beans need like a new marketing campaign. Like brussels sprouts and all the other ones got. Um, it just cracks me up too, because there's like no shortage of super complex biohacking gurus that promise to optimize your energy and performance by just getting up at like 4:00 AM every morning, doing a brief two hour hit workout, cycling your shower six times through ice cold and scalding hot, adding the proprietary powdered sheep hooves to your non oat oatmeal. Um, and then Buettner's like, yeah, just eat some more beans. That's it. I love that.
So in the theme of simplicity, the second strategy is to supplement wisely. We talked about this a bit last episode, but for this, let's get more specific for energy support.
Just to note, we'll put the names and, uh, links to all the supplements we talk about in the show notes. So you can just head to JoyLab.Coach or NaturalMentalHealth.com, click on Podcast, and head episode 55.
So I'll start with one of my favorite supplements, which is EGCG. Uh, it's found in many foods, like beans, also fruits and nuts. I like to get it through green tea or matcha. I sometimes supplement with it. Um, there's some good EGCG supplements. But what are your, some of your favorites, Henry or the ones you use most often in practice.
Well, I also love to drink green tea, which I do pretty much during every episode too.
If you hear the clanking of a teacup, that's Henry's, EGCG.
Henry: That's right,
So let me say that I think supplements are meant to be just that- they supplement our diets, but they do not replace good, healthy foods. So if blood sugar is still an issue, for example, be sure that you deal with that too.
That said, here are good energy boosting supplements. I almost always recommend a good B-complex really to most of my patients.
The B vitamins are needed by the mitochondria that we talked about to make energy and by the brain to make neurotransmitters. They're just super important. They're also pretty good antioxidants, you know, that can neutralize those free radicals we talked about. So I think they're really important when we go through periods of high stress. And they also, I believe, can be protecting our brains as we age.
Now if you're living with really high levels of stress, it might make sense for you to also add a good antioxidant formula. So this is gonna combine a bunch of things into one. It'll include some key, vitamins like, Vitamin A and C and E, but also some minerals like selenium and some added things called carotinoids or NAC.
And just don't buy all these separately. Get ' in a good combo product. Now, inflammation is also so rampant that I often like to think about adding some anti-inflammatory nutrients like fish oil or curcumin or resveratrol. And you can actually find some pretty good anti-inflammatories in your spice rack.
So things like garlic and ginger and turmeric. So to keep it simple, I've really taken to recommending a few really good supplement packets. Like you can get one packet that includes all of these things. it's gonna be a few pills, not too many, but they're simple, they're economical. You don't have to buy each of these individual ingredients separately.
And they're easy to use cuz you don't have to u take out all these bottles, you just get one packet a day and it gives you bunch of these really great nutrients, um, that support energy and mood. So we'll put links to a couple of these really high quality options in the podcast notes.
Aimee: Nice. Yeah. I can't take more than like three bottles. I don't know. There's something that when I, if I have to pull out a fourth bottle, I start to get mad. My, uh, agitation rises. Um, so yeah, we will have all those notes in the show notes, um, links to those supplements and their names.
The last strategy we want to highlight to help manage energy is exercise. I think this one is the hardest to get started, obviously, because the problem we're facing is lack of energy. So, uh, we're feeling depleted and we're telling you to expend energy.
Henry: Yeah, it's a definite paradox, isn't it?
Uh, because truth be told, the best way to get better at making energy is to spend it. You know, get rid of the energy you have with physical exertion. It's really pretty straightforward. You are training your mitochondria to get more efficient because they have to, to keep up with your growing energy needs. So I think our theme today is simplicity. So I'm sticking with it.
Aimee: Or Beans. Beans? Simplicity.
Henry: I have tried to keep exercising throughout my life and just like drawn into fad diets, I have also got gotten drawn into a bunch of kind of intense or regimented exercise programs.
Aimee: I hear ya.
Henry: Every time I've done that, I have injured myself Every time! I am not kidding. So finally during the covid lockdown, we got our dog Bodhi. And every morning, more or less, I take Bodhi out for a 30 to 45 minute walk. Might even do it again later in the day.
Now I still think there is value in more intensive kinds of exercise, like lifting weights or doing some intervals. But honestly, I think walking is the perfect exercise. It will without doubt, help to improve your insulin sensitivity, reduce inflammation, get rid of the extra effects that stress causes in your body. Having Bodhi helps too, but walking is really good.
So here is my simple advice: start wherever you are, work your way up to at least 30 minutes, maybe 45 minutes a day of some kind of gentle aerobic movement. Go at a comfortable pace. Maybe you can get your heart rate up to about a hundred beats a minute. Doesn't really have to go higher than that. And do something you enjoy or do it with someone you enjoy, so that you'll stick with it.
Aimee: Yeah, simplicity. It's so similar to diet, with movement, all this research on exercise, and really the one that seems to win every time for mental health and overall wellbeing is walking. Just like you said, Henry. And then whatever else you enjoy doing.
So that I idea of enjoyment is really like one of the most powerful, uh, motivators and, indicators of continued habits. So continuing with your exercise routine. I love Joan River's wisdom here: "the first time I see a jogger smiling, I'll consider it." That's coming from me cuz I hate running. Unless you're chasing me, I am not gonna run. even then I'll probably just sink down and play dead. So, you know, if running is not your jam, don't do it.
Find something that makes you smile, you'll stick with it and it will benefit you in big ways. And beyond the research I've done in this area, I've also taught group exercise and yoga for almost 20 years now and I am continually amazed by the power of movement. Uh, the way it can shift moods, and pretty quickly, how it can create connections, how it amplifies motivation in other areas of our lives.
And this, you know, it, it doesn't matter the intensity, the, I've taught everything from, pretty slow, gentle to high intensity interval training, and actually looking at the research on movement and mental mental health, it's often exercise that he is either done with others or that's done outdoors that seems to offer like another layer of boost for those positive outcomes.
Which is sort of the perfect transition for our next episode where we'll talk about aligning with nature.
So before we go, let's soak in a bit of wisdom from John Muir. Uh, I think it's a nice close for today and a welcome into our next episode.
He said: "Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt."
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