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Kayla Barnes joins us today.
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Our bodies detox naturally.
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How she documents her own personal health journey about making her house non toxic and how she's really, genuinely walks the walk and talks the talk.
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I think water filtration is a huge one. Air filtration is another one.
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First women to test her own ovarian age, deploying different protocols to see really what reduced her ovarian age by five years and what can continue reducing her ovarian age.
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These are all things that men in this space have, do not need to worry about whatsoever.
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Your ovaries don't just function by themselves. They're part of a larger ecosystem. And ovarian health is actually a massive hallmark of how we age.
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Women do need more sleep than men
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and how we can reduce a lot of chronic disease and stress and other things at a later age, especially when we're entering perimenopause and menopause. So I hope you enjoy this episode and tune in, and I really think you guys are going to get so much incredible information, practical tips and tools that you can right away apply to your life. So, Kayla, I met you actually, it was three years ago. No, two and a half years ago at Edemonia. You've come down to Palm Beach.
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Yeah.
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And I heard you on a panel, and I was, like, completely mesmerized. And then we became Instagram friends, and I followed your journey, saw you in California, and I was like, wow. Like, just your personal story of how you got into the space, how you met your husband, went viral.
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Yeah.
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That I want to talk about. And I've just been excited to sit down and have a conversation with you.
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Well, thank you so much. Same. Yeah, we made it happen finally. We're in Austin at South at the same time.
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Yeah.
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Yeah. So I'm excited to get into it.
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So before we get started, I want to talk about the story about how before you even went on a date with your husband, you asked for his lab work.
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Yeah, I did. I mean, you know, so I've been in this industry for quite a while now, like over a decade, and I owned and operated a longevity medicine clinic. So I opened that in 2020. And Warren and I met or connected online in 2022.
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Three on an app.
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So on. Yeah, it's. We had kind of a crazy dating story. At least, you know, he thinks that we did. So I was only on one app. It was Raya, and I only went on one date from that app. And that was him. It was him, yeah.
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Okay.
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So it worked out. It. I mean, it was such a God thing, in my opinion. But yeah, I had gotten my clinic to a place, I just had hired this amazing manager and I'm like, I'm gonna start trying to find, you know, my husband. And so I would schedule, you know, like a one hour time block on Saturdays to do swiping on Raya. And I just sent him one message. I, I said hi, like, hi. And he came back and he's like, oh my gosh, you look like such a catch. Are you real? Are you Christian? Do you want kids? Then we had a call.
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All of this on the first time. You just, all you said is high.
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Literally high. Yeah. And I didn't understand the etiquette. Now I understand you're supposed to like, look at their profile, I think, and whatever. But yeah, we, obviously health was my entire life at that point. Like I was deep in my protocol running this amazing clinic. I mean, we had multi person hyperbaric chambers and ozone saunas and EBOO and all of these advanced labs. And it was just the dream business of mine. And so I sent him a bunch of labs. Well, first I asked if he had any because that would show his level of interest in health. And he sent me a whole bunch of stuff like executive physical, bunch of different, you know, labs. And then there were big holes in the labs, of course, because not many people are doing advanced testing to the
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level that I was or even know how to correlate all the dots. Right. Because they just go get their testing done and they're like, okay, I'll just take a few of these supplements. Not looking deeper to be like, okay, chronic inflammation, insulin resistance, where all these different things, things coming from.
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And also, even if you're going to like, let's say, you know, an executive doctor, a lot of times they're not looking at gut health or total toxic burdens, things of that.
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Absolutely.
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They're not really starting with genetics. Sometimes they are, but not all the time. So, yeah, I sent him about seven labs. We got into genetics, gut testing, total toxin testing, 200 plus longevity lab biomarker, and he was totally down. He was super excited to do it. I also sent him a huge air purifier as like an initial gift.
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This is before you start. Yeah, around the time you started dating or like a few dates in.
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No, this is. So I was living in Ohio running my clinic. He was living in la. So we had not met in person yet. Sent that all over, took. He took all the tests, got the results back. I sent him my labs and Then when he came to visit me for the first time, we, I picked him up, we had like a super long walk. We went into my multi person hyperbaric chamber as our first date. Yeah, I mean, I knew either he was going to run away so fast or he was going to be into it. And by the way, I had done some like Instagram checking and he was like working out at Equinox and shopping at Erewhon in la and he was like posting healthy meals. So I'm like, he is in.
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Into the space. Yeah.
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Because, you know, people always ask me, would you have not have pursued a relationship with him if his labs weren't good? And that is not at all the case. I, it's my love language. You know, I had the access to all of these labs, to providers, to these services and that's my love language. Like if, if you're my friend, I'm going to be sending you labs. If I love you, I'm sending you labs because.
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And sending you supplements and all the things to make you better.
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Yeah, I mean there were a couple of viral posts that were like, oh my gosh, this guy has to be so miserable living with someone like her, you know, and because I do have a disciplined life. But I was super upfront about it and to me, what better gift can you give someone that you love?
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Health.
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Other than health. So yeah, I mean, the labs came back pretty good. There were some areas that we worked on and it was really fun and he loved it. And we were married four months later.
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So how regulated was his nervous system?
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Oh, his nervous system is so. I mean, this is obviously like a stark difference between men and women in general. Women report higher levels of stress. I see it on my aura ring. I mean this man, he, you know, has all the financial responsibility in our family. He's responsible for keeping a roof over our head. And when I look at his aura data or whoop data, he is just in restored all the time. All the time? All the time.
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Well, that says he has a great marriage, is married to a great person because he's always in bliss.
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Yeah, he's always just, he's, I think he did, has done a lot of work too on himself to really be in this state of joy all the time. And we're called to do that as well. You know, be joyful.
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I think one of the things instantly that attracts me about your story is I think you both were so grounded in your value systems. You both knew what you stand for from a religious perspective, from a health perspective. What you admire and respect. Respect in a human being.
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Yeah.
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And that's why when you guys met, how you got married, in my opinion, like, listening to you four months later was because you had that strong foundation to be like, what are my value systems? Does this person fit into those value systems of what I will admire and respect in a partner and vice versa? And are we going to be able to create a life together that we would be proud of?
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Yeah.
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And be able to honor together?
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Absolutely. And I think it's. It's really important that you know what you want going into it.
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Right.
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I mean, I sent him all these labs, but he had probably 100 to 200 questions, like, written out for me. We sat in the hyperbaric chamber and he just, you know, rattled them off. So he knew what he was looking for, I knew what I was looking for. We were in our 30s, you know, and it just happened so fast. And it's literally been the best thing ever. The best thing I've done personally. It's been the best thing for my health because it's just helped to, you know, improve my nervous system, which was like a pillar that it's a little bit more difficult of. You know, I would say the longevity protocol to really address. We can take the supplements, can do the technology, we can work out, we can eat the right foods, but it is more difficult to really optimize your
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nervous system, I think, especially for women, because 80% of women, even higher, I'll go as far as saying 85% of women, our nervous systems are so unregulated. And when we choose the wrong partners, because women biologically seek safety and security. And when we're in relationships with a male or like, you know, if you're a same sex, whoever you decide to be with, if you're with a partner who doesn't offer that safety or security to you, you will never be at rest because you always have that monkey mind going in the back. So I think any man's responsibility in a relationship is to offer that. And women have to choose from that perspective as well, to be like, how do I feel? Do I feel safe going on these dates? Do I feel safe in this person's company? Do I see myself more nervous and anxious, which is the butterflies, or do I actually see myself more calm and I can take a step back and take a seat back, which is a sign of a healthy relationship.
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Absolutely. I mean, yeah, this obviously isn't a dating podcast.
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Yeah, of course.
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I mean, I love. I just. I love that for women It's. It's so important to find someone that gives you that piece. I say being married has been like, the best biohack or longevity practice I've really implemented, because for the first time in my life, you know, I just feel so safe. You. I mean, we know that the data supports these strong social connections. You loving someone or people and them loving you back is so incredibly important. But to have such a just solid foundation with someone is. Is a game changer because you don't have to worry about that. You don't have to worry about the state of your relationship. You just get to focus on other
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things and build from there. Yeah, so you grew up with, like, the standard American diet. So you ate whatever you were not exposed to. Health and wellness. And so when you started entering this space, did you see a lot of residue from all the years, childhood years of impact, 18, 20 years of all the things that had gone into your body when you made a massive switch, how was that for you?
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Yeah, I mean, I think that is definitely a point. I think people kind of see my life now online and think that I was just, you know, growing up with this lifestyle, and that's just not the case. I ate pop tarts and toaster strudels and all this stuff. That's so wild. I still go to my mom's house and I, like, go through. She tries to hide it when I'm coming over. Obviously. She, like, brings the blueberries to the front and puts the donuts on the back. I'm like, mom still see them, but
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they're still in the house.
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Yeah, exactly. But, yeah, I mean, once I started to get into these really in depth labs, I mean, this entire thing for me was a slow build. I mean, I studied nutrition in college. I started to make, you know, minor changes, changes to my diet, exercise, you know, protocols, things of that nature. But then I got super deep in about 2018 when I got to ready to open this clinic, and we obviously had to determine what labs to offer what services. So the medical team that I had at that point was able to just order thousands of labs on me. And, you know, yeah, there were definitely some areas that I had to improve. I mean, I was on antibiotics all the time as a kid too. I mean, I thought that pink amoxicillin was like a food group, like, oh, amazing. We get all the time. Yeah, it tasted awesome. I thought, like. And so that can really impact, you know, your gut microbiome for the long term. And I saw some of that residual impact. I saw some of those, I take a test about four times a year called a total toxic burden.
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And I've been doing with vibrant labs or who are you doing?
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Vibrant. Yeah. And I mean, I've been talking about this for so long and finally we're catching up with the idea that these toxins, you know, obviously I'm looking at everything through a female lens. There's a direct relationship between an increase in pfas, or forever chemicals and a shortened reproductive lifespan. There is a direct relationship between increased environmental toxins and a lower amh, or anti mullerian hormone, which is a measurement of ovarian reserve. So I've been doing this test for so long, and originally I saw a lot of areas that were needing of cleanup, so got to dive into that head first. I mean, I was in my 20s when I started all this stuff, so I didn't have. And I didn't. Unlike many people you've probably had on the show, I didn't have some like, monumental health crisis that I was like, I need to change everything. I really got into this because wanted a very different life than I had grown up with. I knew that in order to achieve that, I would have to work really hard and I wanted to upgrade my biology, my brain. In order to do that, I later did, you know, the Institute for Integrated nutrition and did Dr. Daniel Amen's brain health practitioner certifications. Learned all about the brain. And yeah, it's been a slow build, but it's been amazing. And at the end of the day, you and I have a lot of mutual friends right in this space. And they're all men for the most part, that have gained the most notoriety. And so over the course of the last few years, I've been so excited that there seems to be a shift and this demand from women, an interest from the press that women do need a completely different protocol. There's a lot of similarities, right? Men and women are both humans, and we can talk through some of those nuances, but there are differences in almost every single area of a female longevity protocol.
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Now that you've gone through all this different lab testing, you have exposure to it from having your own practice. You know, you're having a clinic, you built a practice, essentially. What are the top, let's say, three to five labs that women have to do? And what are the top three to five labs that you ask your husband to take?
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Yeah, sure. I think for women, I would definitely be looking into metabolic health. So I love insulin. So insulin is going to start rising before even glucose. You could Also look at something like Homa ir that's going to be helpful for metabolic health. Cardiovascular disease is the number one killer for both men and women. So I love looking at the genetic marker of LP and then also apob. I think that's great insight. And from a hormone standpoint, I think looking at all of the hormones and knowing when to take those on which day of the month. So we want to look at things like estrogen in the first half of the month, we want to look at progesterone levels in the second portion of the month in the luteal phase, maybe around days 22 to 25 all. Also we want to be looking at FSH, LH, that ratio because that ratio can be indicative of some conditions like pcos. We can look at AMH for ovarian reserve. It's not a perfect marker. And actually super excitingly I became the first woman to ever have her ovarian age tested from a new company called Timeless Biotech. We can certainly talk about that, but I am very excited about that for the future of women's health because we know that the ovaries are not just about fertility. These are a pacemaker of female longevity. When we enter menopause, the risk of all cause mortality increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia and we know that 2/3 of all Alzheimer's diagnoses are women. So if we can push out the longevity of the ovaries, I think that would be a game changer for women.
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When it came back to your ovarian age, what age did it come back as?
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Yeah, so I got negative five or five years younger and to add a little detail on that, so they've never seen, although I was the first woman that ever did this. The obvious, they obviously trained on about 40,000 data points. So they had a lot of data to look at prior to me actually doing the test. Those data points were non theoretical. So they were real biomarkers of real women and they had an endpoint of when they entered menopause. So they could understand what those changes in biomarkers looked like leading up to menopause. So typically the most that they'd ever seen before on this data set was minus two years or two years younger. And that was typically occurring when the woman was older. So I'm 35, it would be when she was around 40, maybe seeing a one to two year decrease. So the it was the best result that they've seen, which is amazing because let's be honest, I've been doing this stuff for a Decade.
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And there the proof was in the pudding right there.
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Exactly. And I was, if it wouldn't have been a good result, I would have had to go back and look at everything I've ever done. And the thing is that now that I have that baseline, I'm really excited to parse out individual therapies and then let's retest to see if it's doing anything for ovarian age. So I can't tell the exact reason why I got a minus a five year younger result. Obviously it was all the exercise and sleep and stress management and nutrition. But I've also done so many advanced therapies throughout that time, from, you know, stem cells to plasmapheresis to hyperbaric oxygen to ozone. So I can't parse out what gave
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which one it was.
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Exactly. But now that I have that, now I can incorporate one intervention at a time and then monitor it. We have an entire list of things we're doing. Hyperbaric oxygen. First we will retest, see what the results are. I will of course share them. Then we're going to be doing isolated red light therapy on the ovaries. There are some studies primarily in mice, but that it can reduce oxidative stress, reduce inflammation in the ovarian tissue. Sorry, the ovarian tissue. So that will be the next.
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Are you using the device called Fireflies or just a red, regular red light panel?
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No, we haven't chosen the device yet. So we definitely want to emulate the study. So great.
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Fireflies.
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Fireflies.
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Okay. I have a feeling that that study might have also been done on a firefly. But don't quote me exactly on this, but Firefly, incredible results. And I know a lot of obgyns are trying to utilize it. When women are going into, to do a IVF specialist, women want to do a cycle and a retrieval. So if they're more holistic and functional alternative, they're giving them the NAD and they're giving them the rapamycin and they're trying to do some research around with the Firefly device to see if not only it helps the uterine lining, but also helps the ovaries during the time of a retrieval.
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Yeah, yeah. I mean, the data, I think, you know, in, in animals at least looks pretty good and the mechanism makes sense. Sense, like, of course, makes so much sense. So, yeah, red light therapy is on the list. Definitely. We'll look into that device. And then rapamycin. I've been doing some rapamycin protocols. I mean, we have the vibrant study ongoing, which is incredibly exciting. It seems as though it can reduce the number of eggs that are being recruited and lost each month. So that's very exciting. So we have a whole list of things. We have some peptides that we're going to try, but each individual intervention, I want to have a yes or no answer. Does this help? Does this hurt? And just share that data.
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I also want to dive a little bit deeper into the rapamycin study because, you know, rapamycin, when they first came out of it with. In Colombia, I think it was like three, four years ago, they tested a small pocket of women and there was a lot of controversy around it. And you see it in the IVF industry, the. For the IVF practices that were PE backed, they were like on it basically. And all these alternative functional kind of doctors that were approaching it, they said, if anything can help 1%, even a woman, have a better chance of retrieval or naturally conceived, why would we not consider this? And so now to see all the research coming up about rapamycin, and it's more and more showing that, yes, it's really great for you. It slows down ovarian aging by like almost 5% and it can give you that longevity. Plus it helps you get like, stronger eggs out of a retrieval, meaning the quality of your eggs is improved. It's just crazy to me to see how much the traditional medical industry always wants to on anything that is not fully tested, but is in testing phases to only then come out and say, you know what?
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It works.
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There you go. Same thing with stem cells and exosomes for the ovaries. Why would we not do something that prolongs life and gives back life to your bodily organs to naturally function for a longer period of time?
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I mean, absolutely. But I mean, I believe that there's the idea that it takes about 17 to 20 years to get from book to bedside so to actually be proven out and then implemented into the standard of care. So I'm excited to see where it goes. But really quick, back to your question. So other labs that I think are important for women. So those are all, all pretty basic labs. Also inflammation. So looking at something like an HSCRP or an IL6, super important. I think there are some new markers that can potentially predict Alzheimer's outside of the genetic, like APO E gene variants, but also the P tau marker. So that might be an interesting one to look at. And then moving into some more advanced labs, I think gut health, I mean, the gut is the foundation of health. We have something in the gut called the estrobolome, which is, you know, literally impacting how our estrogen is recycled in the body. But in general, the gut is the foundation of health. So I love gut testing. I use mostly vibrant testing at this point, the Gut Zoomer. But everything from skin health to mood to brain function to hormone health is somewhat impacted by gut health. So if you're dealing with some issues there, I think gut testing is great. And then I would say, you know, some total toxic testing can be really helpful because we have no idea sometimes the, the toxins that we're exposed to in the clinic. You know, everybody that would do a toxin test would be so confident that their results were going to come back super low. Right. And never did that happen. They always had between 10 and maybe 20 or more toxins in the high range. I've worked so hard on keeping my toxic burden low that I've been able to achieve, you know, some of the best toxic burden results. Zero toxins in the high range, super low across the board. The only time that really changed was during the LA fires, which were wild. You know, I had overnight exposure to these toxins. But I was. That was also an interesting, you know, case study because I could see how quickly I could get those out of your body. Yeah.
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So what have you done, like active things that you've done that have really helped you reduce your environmental toxin burn load in your body that people can implement listening to that.
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Yeah. First it starts with reducing essentially your exposure. So that looks like from a home standpoint point, I mean, tap water is one of the biggest contaminants. So microplastics, nanoplastics, a variety of different, you know, toxins are in there. You can actually go to the EWG and look at the local tap water database and you can see exactly what's in your water municipality in what levels, and it's astounding. You're going to be shocked. So definitely water filtration at home, if you can shower water filtration. So I have a whole home water filtration system. So all the water is filtered, but it's not just the water we're drinking. Yes, that's super important. But when you're creating steam from your shower and then you're breathing in that, the steam, you know, it's entering your lungs immediately. Our lungs have very little defense mechanisms and it's hitting those capillaries and entering the body. We can also obviously have transdermal exposure from the water. So I think water filtration is a huge one. Air Filtration is another one. So we know that the air inside is typically more contaminated than the air outside. So. So either air filtration or opening up your windows, getting plants, whatever you can do, but filtering the air is super important. I actually monitor the air quality in every single room of my house. I'm monitoring for VOC levels, which are volatile organic compounds. They come from things like furniture, off gases, VOCs, carpets, rugs, clothing, all, all sorts of things can increase VOC levels. So I'm monitoring VOCs, radon CO2 levels, PM 2.5, PM 1.0. And this is a little monitor. I think it costs a hundred dollars or something that you can monitor your air quality. So that's another important one. Clothing. You know, if we're working out in these like very compressive garments, traditional workout clothing, they oftentimes are loaded with microplastics and then they're shedding and then they're entering the air, they're entering our bodies. So that's another big area. Salt actually can contain quite a few microplastics in particular.
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Heavy metals.
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Yep, heavy metals. Fish, if is another source. I mean, I love. I keep an omega index, which is another lab. I keep mine at about 12. Anything over 8 has been shown to be good for longevity. But if I'm eating a ton of fish and that also happens to have heavy metal contamination or microplastic contamination, that can be problematic. So there are a few companies that actually lab test their fish. Fish. So that is another place to look at. And then also beauty products. So parabens and phthalates and fragrances and in makeups like they're oftentimes preservatives. So you can look at the EWG again or some other apps and just start swapping things for a bit of a cleaner version. That can be really helpful. Let me think about some. So that's the kind of, I guess, offense, right? Your defense, I suppose your. You're eliminating a lot of the things that can be harmful. Food obviously is a big one too. So when you're ordering takeout and then heating up in those containers that are lined with plastic, or you're going through a Starbucks drive through and you're putting super hot coffee into what looks like a paper cup, but it's actually lined with the plastic. That's another big source. Bring your own coffee cup. And yeah, so I think those are some of the, oh, cooking utensils too. Those pans with Teflon, that's forever chemicals. Right. We had this great idea to make everything Water wicking and non stick and slide off the pan. Well those chemicals come to find out are really harmful for our health, really harmful for ovarian health. So also switching to ceramic, stainless steel, cast iron sometimes can be helpful. So first step eliminate. And then in terms of, you know, detoxing, I think that we've way overused this word. I mean our bodies detox naturally through regular bowel movements. So ensuring you're having regular bowel movements, urination, big one one. I think sauna can be really helpful. And sauna is also one of the best, most science backed longevity interventions. Incredible data. So sauning can be great. But if you go and you get a test and you get an incredibly high result, you know, you might have to take some more aggressive measures. There's things like chelation and all these things need to be worked through with a medical provider. But if you have really high levels of certain contaminants in the body, things like chelation or maybe more intense therapies like ozone or ozone sauna, something of that nature can be be helpful as well. But in the general day to day we just want to reduce our exposures as much as possible. Plastic water bottles, please don't drink out of them, just get a glass water bottle, stainless steel. It's all these little things, but they really add up over time. And we now know that microplastics is one of the many different toxins that we're talking about here. You know, it's been found in every organ including the human placenta. So babies that are being born are already coming out with these microplastic and
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nano at a much higher rate than they were even a decade ago. It's insane.
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Absolutely.
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When we're talking about male labs as well, we talked touched upon it a little briefly. If we just had to list out for the audience for their partners, their husbands, their family members, men in their lives, what labs should they be taking and running?
B
Yeah, I mean I think again Cardiovascular disease number one killer. So both of the labs I mentioned before, L.P. little A APOB inflammation markers are great too for men. Same ones that I mentioned. So I would say all of the ones that women are doing. I think the metabolic health are is a little bit less important for men. If we were only to select a few. But obviously we want to look at sex hormones for men, things like testosterone, really important to know. And then if you want to dive deeper to some of the gut testing. One thing that I didn't mention for women in addition to hormones is thyroid health. Just to go back to that, not just looking at tsh, but looking at TPO antibodies, which obviously accumulate if you have a condition such as Hashimoto's thyroiditis, which is incredibly common. I think even looking at testosterone. And women is a big one too, because many women are being diagnosed with pcos. So that can be an indicator. And what's wild is that some of these female specific conditions can take between 10 and 15 years to diagnose, which is abysmal, obviously, especially when there are numbers and tests and diagnostic criteria that we can use to figure out much earlier. So for the men, I would say the inflammation markers, the cardiovascular markers are super important. The Alzheimer's markers may be a little bit less important since two thirds of diagnoses are women. Maybe also, also TPO antibodies, things of that nature, not as important for a man because 80% of autoimmune conditions are women. So, yeah, that would be. But I would look at, you know, a lot of those testosterone markers and some male hormones as well, maybe shbg, looking at some stress levels, things of that nature.
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It's shocking to me when it comes to men's health, the amount of men that are getting put very young on statins and the amount of men that are at a really young age being put on blood pressure medication.
B
Interesting.
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And they're just kind of put on it. And I recently was speaking to a friend about it and he just got on blood pressure medication. And some of the things, things that completely miss is thyroid function also in men, insulin resistance. In men, too much testosterone or too little testosterone can also impact the blood pressure directly. And they're not checking for any. And inflammation in the body. So they're not checking for all this stuff, but they're dishing out all these medications because like women, they're just starting to kind of test for. But men, they're just like whatever, like just take the medication, you're fine. But they're never trying to get to the root cause of why somebody in their late 30s, early 40s on this kind of medication.
B
Yeah, I mean, but that's the, that's the entire situation with Western medicine. Right. That's why, if you can staying a longevity medicine doctor. But even, you know, within functional medicine, you know, I've seen over the past years a lot more people are entering it, but it's becoming a bit greenwashed or it's like just take a supplement for this and this and this. But finding a great provider is just a game changer.
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I know you talk a lot about ovarian aging. So one of the big things I noticed, it was a research study, was that how the ovaries are not by themselves as part of a whole large ecosystem. And actually the sympathetic nerves, which is our fight or flight, essentially is really gets more dense as you go into the ovaries. So women who are in chronic stress, high cortisol, in fight or flight all the time, their ovarian age will obviously be greatly impacted by the state of their nervous system, essentially.
B
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that is one of the about eight or nine hallmarks of ovarian aging. This shift to a more sympathetic tone. So I mean, we talked about it, but nervous system optimization is everything for women. It's like, in my opinion. So the way I think about female longevity optimization, it's like we first have to identify the risks that are personal to us, which would be genetics, family history. Then the second step is ovarian longevity. Right. And maybe we should talk about some of the other hallmarks of ovarian longevity while we're on it. So the shift to a more sympathetic state is definitely one of them. Them we also have obviously the loss of eggs. We have genetic or DNA mutations, We have increase in inflammation, or we call it inflammaging. We have mitochondrial dysfunction. So in the ovaries, in the oocytes, we have the highest density of mitochondria in our entire body. And it's about 20 to 30 times more than even the second most mitochondria rich organ. So mitochondria have such a huge impact on our ovarian function. Also the tissue, the environment of the ovary, the tissue environment tends to, we believe, becomes a little bit more thick or stiff. So these are all these, you know, there's about 14 hallmarks of general aging. There were nine and then 12. Now we have about 14 and we have like eight or nine ovarian hallmarks of aging. So I, the way I'm thinking about it is what can I do in my day to day life to essentially target each one of those hallmarks of aging? And then I think at some point pharmaceuticals could play a role, like the rapamycin, obviously slowing down the egg loss. Maybe some anti fibrotics for helping to keep the tissue softer and more pliable. I think hyperbaric can be a great one for improving the blood flow potentially to the ovaries. And all of this is not proven. This is working off of mechanisms and, you know, what is out there in the literature. But we don't yet have, I mean, we literally, in 2026, just got a measurement to really even measure the age of the ovary. I mean, we're so far behind. I know you've talked about it, but we haven't included women and weren't required to be included in literature until in research until 1993. Still, 2/3 of all studies are in men. Less than 1% of funding goes to female specific conditions outside of breast cancer. So we have a lot to make
A
up for when it comes to women listening to this podcast, and they're like, hey, I'm in my mid-30s or early-30s. Are there different, like, every five years or let's say every decade? Do you recommend people shifting their protocols or looking at different markers as they're going, you know, know, as they're aging and trying to figure out, okay, in my early 30s, this should be my protocol. My mid-30s, this is my protocol. In my early 40s, I'm kind of heading more into kind of perimenopause. This is what my protocol should be. And some things are just standard throughout each one of those protocols.
B
Yeah, I mean, mastering the basics is always going to be standard. Right? Getting high quality sleep, going to sleep at the same time, not going to bed too late. Because even if we go to bed super late, even if we're getting eight hours, we're missing a lot of that deep, deep sleep, which is really incredible for hormone health. Lymphatic system optimization, which is the cellular cleaning of the brain, obviously important to women. But yeah, I think the protocol outside of those basics, exercise, sleep, nutrition, social connections, and maybe we put environment optimization in there, it should change slightly. I mean, we know that sleep gets to be more difficult. Number one, women do need more sleep than men. I think the Aura data set says about 20 to 30 minutes more than men. But depending on where I'm at in my cycle, it can even be a little bit more than that in comparison, comparison to my husband. But, Yeah, I think 30s, 40s, we know that we might have to start eating a little bit more protein as we get older. We definitely need to be focusing on muscle mass. I mean, women's bone density peaks at 30, and most women are not getting a DEXA until 65. I mean, obviously osteoporosis is going to have kicked in by then, and then you can't do as much to make changes. Right. So looking at those things, early in 30s, in 40s, amending the protocol based on that, that I, I laid out a few of it, but potentially increased protein, maybe you need more sleep, maybe you go on hormone therapy or consider bioidentical hormone therapy when you get, you know, into that perimenopause menopause state, I mean what a disservice was it to all women with some of the women's health initiatives and the, the issues with that study. And now we know that hormone replacement therapy is great and obviously the right kind. We don't want to do the synthetic, we want to do bioidentical. But yeah, I think each area of a woman's life and also we can look at preconception, we can look at postpartum, all of these. And that's the thing that is so wild why we haven't had a woman that has been a major focal point in at least the media because there are, these are all things that men in this space do not need to worry about whatsoever.
A
And when it comes to just for anybody listening as well, we know we have to increase our protein as we get older. What is the quickest, easiest way you think women listening can increase their protein intake?
B
For me it is and this actually knocks out protein and fiber. So I love it. I have a little, it's called Zen basil seed. So I make a Zen basil seed pudding. So it's double the amount of fiber, double the amount of protein than chia seeds. So I do that and then I just load in some really high quality protein powder. I mean obviously we want to get the primary bulk of our protein from whole food sources but if you really just are struggling to get there, I think making something like this, that number one you're going to get between 30 because I double the dose of the basil seeds. So I'm getting like almost 40 grams of protein just in this little, you know, beverage that tastes amazing and I'm getting a ton of protein. So.
A
And what is your favorite protein source right now?
B
I mean my favorite protein source is probably salmon. Yeah, yeah. I mean and or also I eat red meat. So I'll eat like grass fed grass finished beef, you know, one to two times per week. I might increase that a little bit during any time that I'm actually actively bleeding during my menstrual cycle. But outside of that I think you know, whey protein is, is pretty good. So as long as you get a third party lab tested source make sure it's really high quality. But that's what I typically for.
A
There's a whole trend online as well because it just reminded me about when you moved from LA to, to Austin and you had a non toxic house in California. Then you had A non toxic house you built over here. What are some of the quickest levers that people can pull? Besides, we talked about water and air filtration, but what are the other things that they can do to make their house non toxic, which is not installing a 400, 000, you know, hyperbaric machine or something like that.
B
Yeah, I mean, absolutely. It's small things, you know, like if you order new furniture or new items or new rugs or whatever, either a you can just try to get. So we had my furniture custom made. So it was made with all natural materials to not have that off gassing. But if you can't do that, then just leave it in the garage for a few days, let it off gas there. I think that's a big one. If possible, you know, switching to more even natural materials throughout the home, limiting the plastics. The air filtration is a big one. As we talked about, plants can also be great, great opening the doors. Lighting is a huge one. So we have non flicker lighting. And it's crazy because you wouldn't even know that you were being exposed to this flicker. When we moved into the LA house, then to this house in Austin, I had an entire team come out and do an assessment. So they looked at EMF levels, RF levels, flicker in the house, tested the water, tested the air, looked for any mold, things of that nature. So the lighting was a big one that we changed in the Austin house. It was already really warm, so. So I didn't want to be blasted by blue light all day, but there was flicker that I couldn't even see with the naked eye. So there's actually some interesting studies that when you are seated in your office and you are next to a Natural light source vs non natural light source, you have better metabolism, you have better glucose regulation. So as much as you can open your windows, sit by a window, natural light is always the best. But if you want to upgrade the light source to I think anything warm red lights at night are amazing. Or the blue light blockers. But those are a few of the initial ways outside of having the kitchen really optimized too, you know, with them. I think coffee makers are a big one too. Just like we don't want to grab that super piping hot coffee from Starbucks from the plastic cup. We also don't want to be using the K cups. I mean, absolutely not. Those pods hard. No, you're literally just heating up this very soft plastic and so you're having basically plastic coffee. So I would definitely ditch that. You can do Something as easy as like a ChemX. I used to do that. Now there's a few microplastic free coffee makers on the market. But that's another way to, to upgrade your home environment.
A
And do you have a list of all this stuff that people can find with all your home improvements that you put up anywhere?
B
Yeah, you know, I have a couple YouTube videos. I'm walking through every single thing that we've done.
A
I've watched some of those.
B
Yeah. So that's a good place to find just everything. It's like what we've done to have a quote unquote low tox home, obviously organic clinic. You know, materials from the towels to the bedding, mattresses, mattresses, etc. Yeah.
A
Also the biohacking community is pretty up in arms and I see like a real divide over here when it comes to GLP1s.
B
Okay.
A
There are people who are very pro GOP ones and people who are very anti GOP1s and there's a kind of middle ground on that. What's your hot take on GLP1?
B
I'm very pro science and what works like I'm pro results. So I think that they can be incredible. I think that, that they can be life changing for many individuals. I think obviously if you're going to be placed on a GLP1, you should without. You should not be allowed to take the GLP1 unless you're going to be strength training and consuming the right amount of protein. Because the worst case scenario is. And actually, you know my friend Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, I'm not sure if she's been on the show or not, but, you know, she believes we're gonna have a huge mess at the end of this because everyone's losing all the weight, which is amazing.
A
But we're not gaining back the muscle mass that we're using.
B
Exactly. We're losing the muscle mass and then we're not not get gaining that muscle bass back. So I think if you're taking a GLB one, it can be game changing. I'm very excited for the longevity because it seems like even independent of the weight loss, there could be some of these longevity benefits. My personal experience. So I tried microdosing a GLP1. I was taking five units of Trappicide. I only did it for about two weeks for a few reasons. One, I already am pretty much at the weight I want to be roughly. And so it was really suppressing my appetite. And I didn't like that. I found myself not eating enough protein, not being hungry enough in general. General second thing was it did increase my resting heart rate a bit. So I'm always trying to get my resting heart rate as low as possible for better stress reduction, better sleep, etc so for me it didn't make the most sense. Also I will say that only 6% of Americans at least are metabolically healthy. I fall into that criteria. It's based on about five different things ranging from you know, triglyceride levels to waste ratio and HDL etc so there's about five different factors and I fall into that category. If I was metabolically unhealthy I think I would certainly try it for that. I think the promise is great. I'm excited to see more data come out. But they also have been in use for a long time. It's, it's actually crazy to me how feelingly like overnight just peptides became massive. I've been taking peptides for eight, nine years. But I will say they have always been with a doctor's order and they've always been compounded by a FDA approved proof pharmaceutical facility. So I do not and will not. And by the way I've you know, turned down I don't know, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars in peptide company deals that want me to promote their gray market peptide. I would never like you couldn't pay me any amount of money because you don't know what you're injecting. I mean even supplementation we see these, you know, results of products being grabbed off the shelf. Either you're not getting what they say that you are getting in that product or it's contaminated. I mean we have to have to be careful and, and exercise caution when we're injecting things into our body. So I'm very anti gray market peptide and I'm excited because obviously the FDA has now they are about to put back some of the.
A
Yeah.
B
That were taken away and they were put on the essentially do not compound list. So I think that will make it safer and I think peptides can have great results. I've had great results myself. We can get into it if you want want but you need to be doing this under doctor's supervision. Supervision. It's not just willy nilly.
A
I think the concern also with the gray market peptides is especially when it comes to GLP1s. GLP1s are such powerful tools and when they're. A lot of times gray market peptides are not third party tested, they're not stable the same way. So you're injecting something into your body you don't know the stability of the molecule and it can either completely throw you off and before you know it you're like, well I'm not feeling that great. I have all these other side effects that have come from it. But you're doing it without no medical guidance whatsoever with a product that you don't even know if it's stable.
B
Yeah, yeah. I mean it's really, it's very concerning. Yeah.
A
When it comes to you with your peptide protocol, what are some of the peptides that you feel have been the most beneficial?
B
Yeah, I mean obviously it depends on what we're going for.
A
Right.
B
Because everyone always asks me that too. What's your favorite peptide?
A
I'm like, it depends on what it's for. So what? Let's start with ovarian health.
B
Sure. Well, let me think about that. So I've never actually taken a peptide yet just for ovarian health. But if I'm thinking about, about mechanism, I mean possibly a BPC 157, some of that anti inflammatory benefit. BPC 157 is one of my favorites in general for recovery, you know, maybe a little bit of anti inflammation. And then also I really enjoy Tessa Morellin because if I want to do a little bit of a shred or something before summer, I think that one's really great just for giving a little bit of boost, adding on a little bit of muscle mass. Let me think about specifically for, I mean, mean, I suppose it could be what the target you were doing, you were using the peptide. So let's say you had mitochondrial dysfunction in the ovaries. Maybe something like an SS31. Maybe you're having some too much glucose and insulin. Maybe something like a MOT C could be because essentially what else is going on in the body is impacting the ovaries just at a faster rate. So I think if we're thinking about the hallmarks of ovarian aging, we might be able to target some of them with some of these peptides. But I'm excited to really get deep into the protocol and figure out what peptides we're going to pull for that. Specifically what, what would you say or what would you.
A
So I'm doing a protocol right now because I have insulin resistance. I got into MOT C which has worked really, really well for me. I'm doing disc for deep sleep because I really want to start regulating my sleep because I've had such a high cortisol response to things the past year, year and a half, my sleep has Become really unregulated. And that's not good long term because you go into sleep debt. So this, for me, has been absolutely amazing. It's one that I like. I like the combination of Epimoren and Tessamorelin to, like, essentially I'm, you know, 42, going on 43. I'm also South Asian. For us to gain muscle mass is not that straightforward because we have higher insulin resistance. And so I have to weight train four to five days a week, be really careful with my protein intake. For me to gain probably the same 5 pounds of muscle mass that somebody else might have to gain. So Epimoren and Tessamorelin combined tend to help me with that. But then again, I've been doing peptides for six, seven years. I cycle everything out. I'm not a fan of injectable nad unless you're on a specific protocol for a specific thing. So our body doesn't have NAD receptor. You're just flood dosing your body. So unless you're doing it to jumpstart your mitochondria because you're planning to do an IVF round, or you're doing it for something specific to lower inflammation really, like, quickly and cut it. I would say precursors like NMN and NR work so much better, and they're so much more cost effective. So there are things that, when it comes to the peptide world, there are things that are incredible, like the BPCs and CJC is another one. But then at the same time, there are things that you can do that are less costly, that work just as well. So again, it's all about protocols, working with a practitioner, like, what are your labs saying? What do you need at that time in your life? You can't throw everything in the kitchen sink and be like, I'm gonna work on sleep, I'm gonna work on my ovaries, I'm gonna work on my insulin all at once. It doesn't work like that.
B
Yes. No. You certainly have to prioritize. Like, what is the biggest lever for you that's gonna make the most monumental shift if you're not sleeping? Well, that would be where you need to start. I mean, one poor night of sleep can increase your hunger hormone, ghrelin, it reduces your leptin, which is your satiety hormone. It decreases your natural killer cells, it decreases your immune system. So sleep is like, you know, the number one thing. Absolutely. So fix that. And then a lot of things will, you know, improve on their own. The one peptide I have had a really good success, success with as well is Diamondson Alpha 1. So last year I did so much international travel. I mean, I was in Australia for 15 days paced. I was doing a lot of like keynotes and speaking engagements. London, France, Germany, just all over the place. I did not get sick once, obviously end of one experiment there, but I didn't get sick at all. And typically with that amount of travel, you're gonna get sick some point. So that helps to boost the immune system. So I actually have a doctor here in Austin. She's great, she looks at your genetics and then she has essentially like a year protocol that she could put you on, targeting each hallmark of aging independently with peptides, but it's all cycling them, etc, so you're targeting each hallmark with a different peptide throughout the year. So that's pretty fun too.
A
And have you ever gone through a time and place? Because you've obviously taken peptides for a long time when it comes to like having high cortisol in your life and you're like, wait, I just need to bring down this cortisol response. I need to go into rest and digest. What do you do for that?
B
Yeah, honestly, one of the most effective interventions is hyperbaric oxygen chamber. So when you get into the chamber immediately, you're logged on restored the entire time. So I love that. That's if I cannot shift myself into it on my own, right, because it's hard. But outside of that, there are so many free practices that are amazing. Go into nature. Nature bathing has been, you know, known for years and years and backed by many studies to be incredible for reducing the parasympathetic response. Breath, work, meditation, prayer, gratitude, all these things can be really helpful. And then also if you just simply can't do it again, things like hyperbaric could be amazing. But also vagal nerf stimulation I have found to be pretty effective active. So devices that you kind of put on the neck or some of them are in the ear, but that's helping to shift you into that parasympathetic state. You can also do it with like yodeling.
A
Yeah.
B
So if you want to yodel, go for it. That can do the parasympathetic activation. But yeah, I think there's two things. Number one, how can we reduce our cortisol in general, but then how can we be more resilient to it overall? There's a lot of, you know, controversy on the Internet if women can do cold plunging. So I just interviewed Dr. Susanna Soberg. This is her whole world. He in cold therapy. And women can do cold plunging and then we can. I don't know if you want to talk about it or not, but then the whole cycle syncing thing with the exercise, I have lots of thoughts on that.
A
But I did want to hear your thoughts on the cold plunging.
B
Yeah. So cold plunging, women can do it for sure. Obviously this is all bio individual, right? So if you wake up and you feel awful, then it's probably not the day to push yourself in a cold plunge. What the data does look like is that women can, can achieve the same benefits of cold plunging at a slightly lower temp. Higher temperature. Sorry, they can achieve those benefits at a higher temperature, whereas a man might take a little bit of a cooler temperature. So increasing the temp of your cold plunge. But you can, and you can do it at really any time of your cycle as well. I mean again, listen to your body. I operate off biofeedback and my biometric data, my wearable data.
A
Right.
B
So if my HRV is horrible that day and my stress levels are high, high, it's probably not the time for me to go jump into a cold ground. But we do know that it's amazing for metabolism. It can potentially help during the cycle if you're having pain, for example, because it can work as like an anti inflammatory, it can boost our dopamine and it does increase our resilience over time. I think that the Internet and I totally understand why women want these for women by women protocols. And as a woman, if there was a great reason to not do cold plunging, I would be all on board with, with that. But we have to follow the data and the science too. And I think that we have gone down now like the pendulum has swung a little bit too far to the other side. Because if you are down regulating your training for 50% of your cycle for all of your menstrual years, you're not going to probably hit your longevity goals, right? Like bone density, muscle mass. You know, the muscle is like a glucose sink, like a metabolic Spanx, not just for, for fighting frailty in the future, but because we need it for our metabolic health. So if you're automatically just walking in the luteal phase, then you're not going to be reaping all those benefits. But there's obviously huge nuance here and a big caveat. If you suffer from PMS or pmdd, then you need to listen to your body. You should downregulate. You might want to train a little bit less, but the science doesn't really support that. Women can't Be training, strength training, and pushing themselves in the luteal phase or even during menstruation.
A
One of the things I learned about kind of like cold plunging, just to go back to that, is because so many women's nervous systems are so hyper, like, unregulated, and they have such a high cortisol response, and they're chronically inflamed. If they do cold plunging just day in and day out, like seven days a week, and they're going to temperatures that are too low for their bodies, what it does, it adds additional stress to it. And when you're entering perimenopause and going to menopause, that is when you need to be a little bit more careful because things can swing really fast for you. And if you are not metabolically healthy, which only 6%, like you said, Americans are, then it adds that additional pressure. So again, it goes back to being really hyper specific about your body, your needs. Looking at the wearables, looking at the tracking, and looking at your data in your labs to see what modalities am I a candidate for or not?
B
Yeah.
A
And how should I be applying them to myself?
B
Yeah, absolutely. And if you, you know, get your labs back in, your cortisol is through the roof, then that's obviously not the time to do that. So it's more bio individual instead of just. I get a little bit sad about these broad strokes for all women because then women could be missing out on benefits of things as well.
A
Yeah. You were also the person who used to sleep in a hyperbaric chamber. And I love that. I was like, kayla, how did you sleep for eight hours in this chamber?
B
Well, no, actually, I. You. It's not ideal to sleep in a hyperbaric chamber. I mean, I've taken naps in a chamber for sure, but that just puts you to sleep.
A
When you get in, it just like, knocks you out.
B
Exactly. I mean, because literally, it is so relaxing. Right. But just for anyone listening, sleeping. And I believe that a lot of, like, articles went around, like elite athletes that like, sleeping in hyperbaric chambers, things of that nature. There was some article about me sleeping in a cage, quote, unquote. That was actually.
A
I saw that.
B
That was actually a Faraday cage, which blocks emf. So it was like. I'm like, these headlines are hilarious. But yeah, hyperbaric is amazing, but I don't. Do not sleep in it, because it can actually produce a little bit too much of oxidative stress. So I am doing a protocol. I do one protocol in the beginning of the year of 40 sessions at 2.0 ATA, that's the body protocol. And then I do 40 sessions later in the year at 1.5, which is the brain protocol.
A
And each session is about 90 minutes. Correct?
B
Between 60 and 90. My consulting physician. So I have a physician in each area of my protocol, whether it be nutrition, like Dr. Deanna Minich or Dr. Charles Gottfried. You know, they're all amazing and they're giving me expertise in these areas. So my, my HPA physician actually thinks that 60 minutes is probably good enough for my age range. But 90 minutes is what the studies have been done on and you do include an air break at that point. So probably two 5 minute airbreak to not get oxygen toxicity.
A
And now you're basically going to combine things like hyperbaric, the red light like you said and do it for ovarian aging now that you have your baseline set and you want to monitor. So how often will you be doing let's say you'll be doing hyperbaric for a month and then retesting or 90 days and retesting thing.
B
Yeah, so I'll do 40 sessions. So it comes out to like a month and a half or so and then I will retest and then I'm only going to do one intervention at a time outside of obviously I'm maintaining all the basics. Right. But I'm not doing hyperbaric and plasmapheresis and peptides.
A
No, no, because you won't know what's hyperbarics up first.
B
We're almost done with that protocol. I will be retesting soon and then get the results back, see what happened and then we will move on to red light and then we're going to do the rapamycin in Then we're going to figure out what the peptide protocol is going to look like and then probably some of these interesting compounds, maybe like the mitopure or the urlithin, a maybe spermidine. Just trying some of these. And I mean so I test all my levels. That's how I do my entire protocol. Like I do micronutrient testing to figure out what supplements I do and I need and then I test NAD levels to see when I need nad. So I will be testing NAD or the, the precursors NR I think the best clinical data and I don't have any affiliation but it's on the Trin Clinical Pro supplements. Like they will increase your. But we still don't know. We seem to the, the scientific literature does support that it might reduce inflammation, could potentially lead to Better ovarian health outcomes and IVF outcomes. But we still don't know if NAD or an NAD precursors are going to extend our life. But the way I think about supplementation is I have three buckets, so I have supplements I'll always take. In that bucket are omega 3s, magnesium and vitamin D. Depending on my sun exposure, I keep my vitamin D levels at about 70, so if they're too high, of course I'll skip vitamin D. But for the most part I need vitamin D to be at that level. Second bucket is my protocol supplements. So whatever I'm testing from a lab standpoint, those supplements go there. Whether it's a gut health protocol or total toxin protocol or you know, I got micronutrient testing back or mitochondrial testing back or whatever it is. And the third bucket is the, let's say longevity supplements. So that's where the NR goes, the spermidine, the urolithin a things of that nature. And then I of course cycle all this stuff. So not necessarily just on something for the rest of my life.
A
Is there any supplements just so people can know that you did take and the data just did not match up because there is so much greenwashing in the space. The supplement industry is so hyper regulated and consumers sit online like we all do on TikTok and Instagram and they're sold a story and they buy into it and they're like wait, that didn't quite add up without calling out a brand. I mean, is there certain things that you've taken though?
B
Yeah, I mean, well, I think that to answer that question we need to take a step back and look at two aspects of it. Number one, like let's use creatine as an example.
A
Right?
B
So creatine is incredibly popular. We do now seem to have pretty decent science on it being good for women, for brain health, for fatigue, for cognitive improvement.
A
It.
B
But the majority of supplements out there when tested either don't have the amount of creatine that they, I mean increasing gummies, please don't even give me like gummies anything. Yeah. So it's like number one, does the product actually even have what it says it has in it? And a lot, many times, no. So you always want to go for a practitioner grade supplement. Right? And we can, you know, talk about those if you want, but you always want the highest quality NSF certified. We want third party lab testing, ideally gold standard, et cetera, etc, super important. And then the second thing is, is that there's not a particular supplement that comes to mind that I think doesn't work. I think it depends on where you're at for something. For example, like I think colostrum can be great for gut health. But do you need it all the time? Probably not. Can collagen be beneficial for gut health as well? Yeah, I think so. But do you need it all the time? And it's still really, you know, we have, we don't have solid evidence that it's going to be be beneficial for skin health and anti aging. I mean some studies say they it is, they're sometimes funded by the company. Some studies say it's not. I mean it's all about like how much do you want to invest in these things. But I think the more important thing is that you're trying your best to choose supplements that are actually going to be beneficial for you. Because if you and I took the same supplement stack that wouldn't. Right, because maybe I'm low on vitamin C, but maybe you're not. Not so I think as much as we can. And the great thing is is that there are tests out there that can tell you what you need. So I mean as I mentioned the three, I think that those have the most evidence for sure an Omega 3 but high quality. Again please choose a practitioner grade non rancid etc omega 3, the magnesium and the vitamin D are probably three that are good for everyone. But outside of that, I mean I would say we, we don't know if it's going to be beneficial to everyone
A
and that's why we're going back to and we've been pushing it on the episode. Diagnostic testing, checking your own individual biomarkers is all super, super important. The more we understand our biology, the better decisions we can make.
B
Absolutely, yeah. I mean our genetics, everything play a role in this. Like, I mean B, B12, methylated B12 can be amazing if you have certain genetic variants. But if you're eating, you know, a diet that's rich in B12, maybe you
A
don't need, you don't need it at the time. Okay, so bro science, what is the most dangerous piece of bro science advice currently circulating that is actually damaging women's hormonal health?
B
From my perspective, it's severe caloric restriction. So we know that it's a gold standard, right. For longevity. It works amazing in mice and worms and it seems to work great for men as well. But when I did pretty intense caloric restriction, this was many years ago, I saw dysregulation in my thyroid. I almost had to be put on A thyroid medication. Thyroid bounced right back when I started eating more food. And keep in mind I was already lean to start and then I was layering on this caloric restriction for the longevity benefit and my cycle became dysregulated. So I think severe caloric restriction is a big one and especially given where you're at in your life cycle as a woman.
A
Next up is the loneliness epidemic and this applies to both men and women. So we're seeing a purpose crisis in young men especially. Do you believe that there is a link between the decline in testosterone and the, the current incel loneliness epidemic in men?
B
Yeah, absolutely. But the question is, is like what came first? Right. Was it the reduction in testosterone which we have pretty good ideas that it was right because of the microplastics and the environmental toxins and the sedentary behavior. But was it the reduction in testosterone that led to that or was that, were those behaviors the thing that led to the reduction in testosterone? So good question, but absolutely I think that has a big.
A
And also what do you think about men who have started spending so much time on social media that that alone is also driving what's going on with them? Not wanting to choose a mate, settle down. They're all the blue light that they're getting, it's affecting their hormones. It's not just about women's health. Right. It's also how men get affected by constantly being bombarded with things online.
B
I mean our, our environments are metabolic and just health chaos. Absolutely. So all the scrolling, I mean so I take Sundays completely off of social media and, and I have, I never have throughout the week the as good of metrics as I do after that Sunday. I wake up on Monday with no scrolling. My HRV is through the roof. I mean all my metrics are good on a daily basis.
A
Better.
B
But it's even better because scrolling is absolutely massively contributing to depression, anxiety, sedentary behavior and overall I think feelings of just sadness. I mean it's comparison all day long blue light and, and constant stimulation of our nervous systems.
A
So luxury and longevity is the ability to stay young becoming a luxury only for the 1%. How do we fix a system where the cure for aging is gatekeeping by price tag?
B
I think that we are painting the picture that it is. I think that we're missing the forest through the trees and longevity because yes, hyperbaric oxygen and you know, ten thousand dollar plasma exchange is amazing and it can help you expedite your goals. But at the end of the day mastering the basic basics which are primarily free or low cost. Those can get you to be healthier than 98 of people, so we have to focus on those.
A
I've loved having you on the show. Thank you for making time and coming on and introducing you to my community. I think you have such a practical way on how you approach health. You break it down so the average person understands it in a way that's accessible and people can take practical steps right away. So thank you for all the incredible work that you do and being my friend. And thank you for coming on the show.
B
Thank you so much for having me. I'm so glad we made it happen finally.
This episode features a deep-dive conversation between host Iman Hasan and biohacker and longevity expert Kayla Barnes. The discussion centers on women's unique health and biohacking needs, especially around ovarian health, environmental toxins, lab testing, practical protocols, and debunking common health myths. Kayla outlines her data-driven, holistic approach—from lab work and home improvements to advanced therapies—while both speakers reflect on the gender gaps in wellness science and share actionable advice for optimizing female longevity.
Kayla Barnes delivers an evidence-based, practical perspective for women seeking to extend healthspan, demystifying advanced protocols while grounding the conversation in accessible, foundational habits. The episode is rich with data-driven advice, clear warnings on common health missteps, and a passionate call for more gender equity in wellness research. Both experts agree: the secret to female longevity isn’t secret—it's in knowing yourself, measuring often, and making steady, individualized changes.
Resources & Further Learning:
This summary captures the episode’s vital takeaways, key practical advice, and standout moments, serving both first-time listeners and those seeking actionable women's biohacking wisdom.