So, can you explain the physiology that links all these diverse ailments to stress?

Yeah, and that's really the heart of the question because there is a common root.

And if we approach any health aspect or even longevity from treating the underlying processes, it is really the most elegant way to approach our health and by far the most efficient.

The connection point is that modern life is harming our cells.

I mean, the cells are the most fundamental unit in our body.

And if there's cellular dysfunction, for example, if our mitochondria, which are the parts of our cells that make energy, are impaired, our cells cannot make the energy they need to do any of their functions.

Our cells are so sophisticated, they not only house our DNA in the nucleus, they also have manufacturing plants called ribosomes where we make proteins, and we have 20,000 to 100,000 proteins that do the work inside our body, inside our cells.

But the brain also sends signals via the vagus nerve, I guess, traded a two-way highway to the gut that can then signal the propensity to harbor bad bugs, you know, a lack of of diversity of, in your microflora.

Right.

we raise our autophagy, we stimulate mitochondrial biogenesis, we make new mitochondria.

All of these increase our resistance so that we became more able to consume plant foods.

So this is how they work as toxins.

Our bodies perceive them as a stressor.

And in response, they activate cellular stress responses.

And we have seven cellular stress responses, and together they do what I call the four R's.

sometimes referred to, yep.

And so, uh, can you explain to our listeners and viewers what phytochemicals actually are?

Oh, absolutely.

And, and I'll put what I'm about to say in the context of really how I came about the, the good stressors that we're talking about, including the phytochemicals.

So, you know, my work as a physician is I get to see my patients over time, kind of longitudinally, and to see how the impact of their behaviors or choices and decisions play out in their health, um, and, and any complications they have over time.

And after being in practice, um, I have been in practice, in the same practice now for 26 years, but about a decade in, I realized that even though my patients were well-controlled in terms of their blood sugar, their blood pressure, all their numbers, that the underlying process of what, um, they were dealing with was getting worse.

You know, we were escalating their medications.

They were still developing complications.

Um, could you speak a l- just briefly about that?

So it just has to be all the combination, right? It's like a tidal wave of just stressors, physical, mental.

It is.

And you bring up really a wonderful point, which is what is culture and what is really an intrinsic need of our biology, right? We are at a point where our culture is so counter to what our biological needs are that the default is disease.

And when it's the predominant culture, it's very hard to be counterculture.

You almost have to be a rebel to be healthy.

But I hope what we can bring to light is how do we honor our bodies? A lot of my approach to stress is really looking at how do we reverse engineer the life we're meant to live based on our DNA, based on our body's regenerative and healing capacity.

And when we realize what a tremendous ability we have to regenerate and heal, we can then work backwards and say, okay, these are the non-negotiable elements in our lifestyle that we need.

So what does that look like? You said a minimum of 12 hours, right? And is fasting okay for women too? Let's throw that question in there while we're here.

You're focused on the good stress wh- b- but is there something to managing your bad stress?

Yes.

The, there's no question that the bad stress, or the chronic harmful stressors chip away at our health.

I mean, we've published studies on its effect on heart health.

There's a plethora of data on that.

And to the extent that we can control these bad stressors or even strategically plan for recovery so that we can lower the effects of the chemicals that are released that cause the harm, there's clear benefit to that.

That is stress management if really historically, and that is the common approach.

The, the benefits of the good stress are health benefits and other benefits, but talk specifically about how they mitigate the bad stress.