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You Can’t Outwork Hormones: The Hidden Science Behind Burnout | Ep 236 with Justin Hai Co-Founder of Alastin Skincare and Rebalance Health
00:21:46
Justin Hai, co-founder of Rebalance Health, reveals how chronic stress and cortisol imbalance are silently wrecking sleep, energy, and hormone health—offering science-backed solutions that go beyond quick fixes. This episode explores why managing stress is the new cornerstone of peak performance.
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- [00:00]
Justin
Foreign.
- [00:04]
Daniel
So, Justin, it's really great to have you because I've been diving through this rabbit hole of all these supplements and things to take because I've been hearing a lot about stress hormones, cortisol, but I don't really understand, like, what is the worst thing that could happen to me if I don't try and fix this rabbit hole that I'm going down of, of cortisol levels or however you explain that where there's a lack thereof. What. What could happen to.
- [00:34]
Justin
Well, quite simply, you will wake up in the worst possible state that you could imagine. I'm tired, I'm lethargic, I have no energy, I have no stress. Sorry. No strength, I have brain fog. I have no libido, no desire, no motivation. It's just. It's all consuming and it leaves you completely exhausted.
- [00:53]
Daniel
I feel that. I really feel that. So somebody like myself who I don't sleep well, I'm going through a lot of stress. You know, as you know, founding companies is very stressful and many times you work 24 7. So what are you finding with people that can help either balance or fix this?
- [01:13]
Justin
Okay, so you brought up multiple issues in, in your statements there. The first thing is working 24 7, start. Not a good idea. Just it. It isn't a good idea. It's like, I'm going to drive across country. I'm not going to sleep. I'm just going to drive. You can't do it. You can't function. So how can you run a company or be creative and innovative and make good decisions if you're completely depleted? So out of the gate, don't do that. You have to look after yourself in order to be able to be successful and promote good decisions and good leadership. So the second thing is sleep. You have to maniacally protect sleep. It is fundamentally the most important thing you can do next to eating and drinking water. Right. You have to do it. We are designed as human beings to literally get seven to eight hours of sleep every night. And I know that's a big number. And people will always push back and say, well, I can survive off four or five. All the studies prove time and time again that 99% of the population need in adults at least seven to eight hours of uninterrupted sleep. Why is that? You make all your sex hormones in your sleep. Simple as that. You make all your hormones in your sleep. If you don't sleep, you don't make them. You don't make them. You don't feel very good. The Next day. It's that simple, do you think?
- [02:29]
Daniel
And thank you for that. Way early on in our show, we had a doctor who specialized in sleep on, and she was talking about, you know, interruptions in circadian rhythm and stuff, because I have sleep apnea also. I have a lot of, you know, sleep issues that caused me for many years to not get sleep. And I. I've felt the repercussions. No memory, no sex drive. It just, like, really had no, like, zest for life anymore when I wasn't sleeping. What do you. What are you seeing in terms of. Or what are you thinking about with, you know, people interrupting their sleep because of their phone?
- [03:07]
Justin
Well, that's exactly what my. My book that's coming out is all about called Stress Nation. It is kind of a deep dive into what life was like in the 70s and 80s and somewhat in the 90s before the phone and the iPhone, Internet, email, social media. It all took off in the 90s, right? And that way of life in the 70s and 80s is gone. Right? We all talk about, you know, playing with the traffic, but being on our bikes, staying out till late, till the streetlights came on. And then we came home. We all spoke about there was no 247 content. There was a news hour, not a news station, right? You went to Blockbuster or the video store to collect the VHS that you wanted if you were there early enough to get the two or three copies that were available, right? And how that is completely gone now. It's 247 streaming content whenever you want it, however you want it. And this has disrupted our natural circadian rhythm in such a way that it's actually a true pandemic. This stress pandemic that's going on worldwide is causing such a disruption in the way that we function as human beings by simply interrupting our sleep. And so our cortisol levels, which is the master hormone, almost every molecule in the human body has a cortisol receptor unlike any other hormone. So what happens is our stress is up here all the time. And so when we're ready for sleep, we're like, wait a minute, I got to get my stress down here so I can quickly fall asleep and stay asleep, but I can't, because it's up here because I have so much going on in my head. And so it's really important to kind of bring that down. And so it's all about lifestyle changes, learning good sleep, hygiene habits in order to support cortisol. But most importantly for us is we have a supplement in order to help bring Cortisol levels down into normal ranges throughout the day. Right, the entire day, so that you can fall asleep and stay asleep, but nothing's a magic pill. You have to be actually very mindful of your habits in order to achieve that.
- [05:07]
Daniel
So would you say then that it's really bad to work all the way up to right before I'm going to sleep problem?
- [05:15]
Justin
Yeah, absolutely. Sleep hygiene involves winding down. It involves having a relaxing few hours before bed, unwinding from stressful activities which includes drinking alcohol and eating heavy meals because that only increases your energy levels. Alcohol goes from being a sedative into a stimulant because it converts to sugar and now you're wide awake. So there's so many habits that we've kind of assumed are good or vices that are good for us or that I need that with actually interrupting and affecting your ability to get good sleep quality which directly impacts how much hormone production you make during your kind of rest and recovery phase through sleep.
- [06:00]
Daniel
What are the habits that you do every day? Just overall, like what's your entire day like? Justin?
- [06:05]
Justin
Pretty straightforward. So I wake up at 4:30 every morning, I'm at the gym by 5. I work out, I do whatever I do at the gym, come home, I have breakfast, high protein breakfast. I work throughout the day. I get up every few hours and go for a 10 minute walk or 15 minute walk just to again disconnect from all the screens and technology, get some sunlight and keep my steps up and keep moving. I kind of stop my day around six, seven o' clock at night. I have my dinner again, go for a walk, decompress, unwind, spend time with the family, the dogs, so forth, have a hot shower and go to bed. And I try to make sure that the period between when I stop and I actually go to bed is at least three to four hours so that I can ensure that I recharge and regenerate.
- [06:56]
Daniel
That sounds like the perfect day. Like you know, there's the, the perfect bar or the perfect supplement like the one that you have the perfect supplement but your day sounds like the perfect day. I need, I need to work up to that. I need to build my habits and transform what I've been doing. Do you think that. And there's a lot of talks around, you know, younger generations are maybe less into relationships, not really necessarily wanting to have kids. I talk to a lot of, you know, we have kids in their 20s, it doesn't seem like they're as active with relationships and things. And I wondered how much of that is because, you know, they are getting our pleasure. Hormones are, are being attained through this phone. Like, if I want to be happy, I just pull up my phone and I watch something. If I want to be sad, like it's like everything I can get from the phone, but I'm not really. But, but I'm not really getting it, you know, versus like before you had to have another human that, you know, you wanted to laugh, you wanted to, you wanted to cry, you wanted to do. You had to. It had to be another human. But now it's like at any second I can just whatever I want to feel good or bad, I can just do it through the phone.
- [08:09]
Justin
Very interesting observation. I can take it a little step further. Daniel, you and I grew up in a time in which we actually had to learn how to communicate with the other sex or with our friends, right? We actually look each other in the eye. We actually had to be witty and sharp and on. And we had to remember phone numbers and addresses because we didn't have a device. We could just enter it in and be ignorant about, okay, we went out and we actually flirted and we actually know how to speak and be charming, what have you. It's a dying art. It's died unless you know how to thumb something. Swipe left, swipe right. The connection, the human connection, intimacy into me. You see, intimacy isn't in the younger generation. Well, I'm going to take that back. It is. I see a trend going back towards that, but for a good amount of time, especially through Covid and through the last four or five years, it's definitely been that way. Right into me simply was swipe left, swipe right. And let's connect versus let's actually build a relationship. Let's go on a few dates, let's kind of chat with one another, let's go to the movies, let's go to a restaurant. And then we build a relationship and then we get intimate and then you build that chemistry. Today, it's much more rapid, much faster, right? Because people want to be doing other things. So the pace of life is faster. And I think those skills, those human skills are slowly dying because AI is interfacing, as you said. The social media is that the emails are there, the apps are there, the Snapchat. My kids are forever on those devices. And it takes a lot of effort from a parent's perspective to say, stop, go out, go interact with the world. Stop looking at a screen all the time. A screen is an amazing tool. The technology is amazing device. But we weren't taught how to use it responsibly as it pertains to being human and needing to recover. How to eat, how to drink, how to sleep. That isn't part of technology. Technology has been gamified. It's been deliberately designed to be addictive. And so it takes a very strong willed individual to say it's a tool. It isn't my life. And I think that's a very important distinction that is hard for the younger generation to learn because even if you go to a coffee shop there'll be six or seven people together but they're all looking down at their devices. I wouldn't be surprised if they were texting each other in a group text. I mean it's insane to me.
- [10:41]
Daniel
We're dopamine addict to this and then our cortisol levels are all off. I was watching this hilarious video that I thought was made by AI but it turns out it was a legitimate news channel talking about this guy who asked Chachi BT to marry him and ChatGPT said yes and he was crying but he was actually married to a human. And then his wife was saying how she, you know, she was very sad because she was telling him that she, she must not be giving him something that he needs because he's now really fallen in love with AI. How do you see this playing out with the AI interactions and the fact that I don't think as humans, like technology advances so fast, we as humans can't keep up but we can't differentiate between AI being real and being not. How do you see this impacting society?
- [11:33]
Justin
I think we've got to be very cautious. I think AI is an amazing tool. It definitely has its benefits but it can be for the weak minded, it can be very overpowering and it can literally take over your world. And you know, there's plenty of information out there about the dangers of AI. Have we been forewarned by was it. I think Bill Gates warned us about it a long time ago. It's a great tool but remember it's just a tool.
- [12:04]
Daniel
So what when you, when you look at supplements? Because I want to get better, Justin. I want to get to the lifestyle that you're living because you look super relaxed, man, your skin looks like you're 20 years old. Amazing skin. I could tell that you're, you're fit, you're, you're in great shape, your mind is clear. What supplements should I be taking?
- [12:24]
Justin
I would be self serving if I didn't. I am self serving. I'm going to tell you, rebalance health for me is the best product out there. I created it within the company that I support and run as a co founder. We went after a very interesting angle. We didn't want to just duplicate a multivitamin or come up with something that was out there. And there's tons of studies, literally, literally hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands of Studies, proving that 95% of supplements don't even get absorbed by the body and you urinate them out. And since it's a $60 billion domestic market, Americans have the most expensive urine on the planet, by far. None of. And so I don't think that's a stat that we want to be proud of. And so when we looked at endocrinology, we were fascinated with it. We were really enamored with cortisol, and no one was talking about cortisol five years ago. And I did a deep dive into what cortisol is and what it does. And basically, it's the body's alarm system, right? It's when something is occurring around us that causes our senses to our spidey senses to go off and be like, danger, caution. And what it does is it makes us hyperfocused, right? It shuts down metabolism, it shuts down libido, and it helps us kind of deal with the situation. Then what happens is you get a huge adrenaline rush. And that's the hormone that help helps get you into action, right? So the adrenaline kicks you into action. The problem is it's supposed to be utilized sparingly as needed. It's an alarm system. But through these artificial stimulants, right? The phone, you talk about the kids having high cortisol, it's because someone texted or messaged them or sent them something until they figure out what it is. By picking up that phone, their anxiety is getting higher and higher and higher. And that's what happens to all of us. Emails are coming all the time. Is it important? Do I need it? And that's what's causing the stress level to go up. And so we were like, wow, does that mean that we're all at this high level? And the more that we researched and we looked into it, the more that we strongly believe that, yes, we would say that a significant number of the population in the modern world has elevated cortisol levels. And it's exacerbated by the inability to get sleep, because as cortisol goes up, you're unable to fall asleep. You lie there, you have monkey brain going off because you haven't Brought yourself down, your cortisol's kicking in and you're thinking about all the things you have to do which causes your cortisol levels to go up and up and up. And you're in this cycle when you actually do fall asleep, you kind of wake up and then you toss and turn and you go back. Some people keep their phones by them. They'll pick up their phone, they'll check, did I miss that email? Did I miss that message? And then put it back. And all you're doing is raising your cortisol levels the whole time. And what you want to do is be bringing it down so you can fall asleep and stay asleep, because that's where you make all your hormones. So everyone's talking about hrt, TRT and all these other supplements, hormones that you can take artificially, pharmaceuticals that help boost your hormones. Big proponent of hrt. I think it's a great tool for the right application, right. I don't believe in hrt for the 25 year old that wants to object. Right. It just, that's not a good use of it. But I'm a big proponent for someone in their 50s and 60s and 70s that simply isn't making enough testosterone to meet their lifestyle and their symptoms that they want to see subside, which could be weight gain, could be loss of muscle mass, could be reduction in libido, so forth. And so it's a great tool. However, HRT is for testosterone, estrogen and progesterone primarily. There really isn't any HRT for cortisol. So even if you're taking testosterone, estrogen, progesterone, your cortisol's still up here and you're still having a tough time going to sleep and staying asleep. And your body will make however much hormones it can for your stage in your life, right? So if you're in your 20s, it's going to make massive amounts if you're getting the sleep. And if you're in your 60s, it's going to make much, much smaller amounts. But optimized for you at 60, you can augment that with HRT. Huge proponent. Cortisol isn't being addressed. And so Rebalance Health has a line of mints, whether it's man mints or menno mints or mellow mints to help calm people's cortisol levels and nervous systems down so you can actually fall asleep and stay asleep, which is only going to simply exacerbate all the wellness issues that you may be experiencing from the hrt. So I Feel stronger. I've. Losing weight, getting proper sleep and helping your body repair and recover during that process is just going to be fabulous for you.
- [16:51]
Daniel
I'm blown away because maybe someone like myself is thinking I need hrt, which can be quite extreme, like you said, depending on the person. I mean, it could also have, you know, long term ramifications. Maybe it's the cortisol that is actually impacting me and I don't know that. So what, what within rebalance, what ingredients or what is it that's inside that really is helping it? And what are you finding people are getting the most benefit from?
- [17:21]
Justin
Wonderful. Well, yes, rebalance has. The way I describe it is we took the best from Ayurvedic medicine, the best from Chinese medicine, put it in a western delivery system and we have our solution. So number one, it's a lozenge. It's not a pill or a gummy, anything like that, it's a lozenge. So just like a cough, sweet or a mint, you put it in your mouth and you suck on it. What's inside of it? We have about 21 different ingredients. So it's a proprietary blend that we came up with and we tested not just in the lab, but we had independent double blind placebo studies, IRB clinical studies and published in medical journals about three, four, four of them, about to be the fourth one. And the ingredients include things like ashwagandha, maca, ginseng, cordyceps, mushrooms, L theanine, bacopa, oat, strawberries, all these wonderful ingredients that are designed to help calm your nervous system down and bring cortisol into the natural circadian rhythm, which is higher in the morning, low in the afternoon and as low as possible at night, all to support you falling asleep and staying asleep. And the reason why it's a lozenge is because we want you to take it throughout the day multiple times. Why everyone's forgotten about metabolism. If you have breakfast that fuels you for about four to six hours and then you have to refuel. Why your metabolism utilizes what you put inside of it. Cortisol is a 24 hour hormone. I can give you those ingredients, but they're going to be good for you for three, four to six hours. And then you don't have those ingredients to support cortisol anymore. So you need to suck on another lozenge. And it's again very, very straightforward. I keep doing it because I'm addicted to my own product because it works right, but it's a simple lozenge like an Altoid and you put in your mouth and you get on with your day.
- [18:59]
Daniel
Okay, so I have. I have an idea for you because this sounds amazing. This is. All the ingredients that you're talking about are things that I'm like, okay, I need. I need each one of those. But then if I get each one, it's annoying, right? You got to take, like, 25 different things. So this is all in one. I think if you combine that with you giving some sort of, you know, like, calm app. Have you ever thought about that? You have the voice for, like, meditation.
- [19:25]
Justin
I think if you.
- [19:25]
Daniel
If you do, like, meditation alongside I take the lozenge, my cortisol levels are going to go up. I can tell. Yeah.
- [19:32]
Justin
Meditation is a fabulous tool. Everything's a tool. And my wife's a huge meditator. I have a tough time with it. I can try it, but I do have a tough time with meditation. Sitting still for, you know, she can do it for an hour. I mean, after 10 minutes, I'm like, I'm done. Right. And so everyone's going to find what works for them. You talk about the kids and technology. I'm a hugger. I meet someone, I'll hug them, even for the first time. Nothing lowers your cortisol than physical touch. It could be your pet, it could be your dog, it could be a cat, a human being. But physical connection actually has been scientifically proven to lower cortisol. So having that interaction is really important. And putting the technology down, having that discipline not to turn the TV on, go from your computer screen to. To the living room, turn on the tv, watch suits or whatever is your vice, and just sit there and veg for the next three hours and then go to bed. Not ideal.
- [20:28]
Daniel
Justin, I. I mean, I. I really appreciate this. I feel like I'm just thinking back through, you know, the last few years and all the bad habits that I've been doing, and I'm starting to realize, like, why I'm feeling the certain way that I'm feeling in certain moments now. I'm connecting them to the habits that I've been doing. But I appreciate this. I can't wait to try rebalance. Also, when does the book come out and how can people find the book? How can people buy the supplement, and how can they get in touch with you?
- [20:56]
Justin
Wonderful. Thank you. So the book is called Stress Nation, has been published by Wiley and Sons out of New York and will be available or it's available for presale today on Amazon, or it'll be in the stores on the shelves September 16th and you can find our products@rebalancehealth.com Amazing.
- [21:15]
Daniel
Justin, I super appreciate you being here today. I can't wait to try Rebalance. Let's talk again in like 90 days. And I'm going to fill in on the magical difference I'm sure I'm going to have by combining all of these tools that you mentioned today. But I really appreciate what you're doing, just because I know how it is to not get sleep to go through this. And it was some of the worst times of my life. So thank you for helping others and the impact that you're having.
- [21:41]
Justin
Thank you.