Invisible variables that affect our health

with Ben Greenfield

Forget the resolutions! Fitness guru Ben Greenfield wants you to look beyond food and exercise to improve your wellbeing in this new year! In today’s episode, he discusses the importance of invisible variables that affect our health. We can eat the cleanest, most pure diet in the world and yet, at the same time, neglect some important factors that affect our bodies in significant ways.

Our environment and how we interact with it has a powerful effect on our health. Ben dives into the spirit and the science related to maximizing our bodies’ potential. He explores the effect of music on the spirit, vitamin D on the heart and skin, and the stress-reduction that comes with being surrounded by nature. He touches on posture, sunshine, and clean air. He reviews the physiological impact of our ever-connected lives (with computers, wifi radiation, bluetooth technology and more) and gives ideas on how to mitigate the damage.

As you listen to today’s show, you will be as invigorated as if you took a brisk walk on a winter morning. As a matter of fact, we suggest that you do just that!

Notes

At the start of a new year, many of us make resolutions related to food and exercise. Today, fitness guru and health expert Ben Greenfield discusses variables which are often-overlooked when it comes to our health. Ben is a triathlete, health coach, and author. He has a depth of knowledge that he pulls from to address these issues. Among other topics, he touches on music, sunshine, fresh air, and posture. He gives very practical tips that can easily be adopted into healthy habits that will serve us well in the new year and beyond….

Listen as he touches on:

why good health has to do with more than just what we eat
how invisible variables that affect our health
how tones/music increase brain stimulation and affect the vagus nerve
the effects of too much sitting
how ancient peoples would squat, rather than sit
how poor posture doesn’t just cause low back pain–it affects testosterone, growth hormone, vascular flow of blood, nutrient delivery and even the shape of cells. It can cause heart issues, too.
how simple it is to change our posture
our habits of hunching over our phones, computers, and steering wheels
our need to develop a willingness to break social norms and develop a new mindset about our body position
how a little movement sprinkled throughout the day can combat some of the ill effects of prolonged sitting
how Ben includes inversion and eldoa movement in his day
why walking outside barefoot is good for big toe flexibility and overall foot shape, and balance
how to build up flexibility when learning to squat more
what Ben did to combat lower back pain
the benefits of a foam roller and yoga hip openers
how he started making sure he didn’t spend more than one hour sitting and would stretch for at least 6 seconds on each side (minimum time to allow tendons to relax)
the importance of establishing habits of movement: sitting for 55 minutes = lunge time, on a plane = squats in bathroom and quad stretch time
the plentiful benefits of being outside, of sunlight and fresh air
how you supply your body with energy when you combine clean eating with sunlight
how sunlight actually affects the structure of water; it creates an “exclusion” zone of positive ions and this allows fluids to flow more readily—all of this means it could dramatically reduce heart disease if we simply were exposed to more sunlight
how sunshine increases blood flow
how fresh air exposes us to negative ions. (There is also the absence of mold, negative compounds, phytoestrogens in cleaning chemicals, etc.–things in the indoor air that we can’t control.)
all of our exposure to computers, appliances, indoor lighting, etc. affects our bodies’ internal balance of ions. These give us too many positive ions and we can develop an imbalance.
why the Japanese recommend shinrin-yoku (forest bathing) to combat health issues
how salivary and plasma cortisol decrease when we spend time outside
how it’s worthwhile to get outside, even during the cold weather months, for exposure of our our eyes, hands, and faces to sunlight
how we can “bio hack” and imitate what nature does but nothing beats the real thing
how to even “bio hack” our home environment to mitigate what we’re exposed to (using plants, negative ion generators and HEPA filters)
the one thing you should do (not even listed above) to improve your health in 2017 (that only takes 5 minutes a day)