Welcome to the Architect of Resilience podcast, where we explore the secrets of overcoming life's challenges and unlocking unstoppable strength through deep personal conversations and expert insights. Good morning, Anthony. We got an early start today to talk about the ultimate in concussion protocols, right? Yes, sir. It is bright and early and great to be up. I think we're going to cover a lot of really relevant stuff. There's so many contact sports out there
that people are involved in and concussions is a real thing. So I'm excited to dig in. Yeah. So let's, let's do a little base on what a concussion is. So it's a traumatic brain injury caused by, you know, a sudden jolt or blow to the head leading to a temporary disruption in brain function can cause cognitive, you know, issues with memory coordination
as well as physical, physical symptoms. Unlike other forms of head injuries, concussions may not always show visible signs of damage, but they will result in significant neurological changes. So the brain, it floats in this cerebral spinal fluid providing a cushioning. And when you take a big impact, that brain moves within that in your skull, impacts the inner
walls, causing bruising, stretching of the neurons. And that biomechanical impact impact leads to axonal shearing, which disrupts the transmission of signals across the brain and initiates a cascade of neurochemical changes including excitotoxicity and calcium overload. And concussions can also cause disruption of the blood brain barrier, leading to inflammation
and oxidative stress. So you've got both short term and long term issues with this, from headaches, dizziness, confusion, nausea, memory loss and blurred vision on the short term to long term. Cognitive impairment, mood disorders, sensitivity to light, noise, sleep disturbances. And in severe cases, repeated concussions can lead to permanent brain damage, which we've seen. That's been a lot of topic actually. I was just watching the, the, the, the documentary on the
Carson. I can't think of the individuals, Vaughn, whoever the, in the professional wrestling, which I've never been much into, but that documentary was really good. And in football, rugby, all this where we're seeing this chronic traumatic encephalopathy cte. So those are the two, you know, issues that we see from this. In the longer term is post cons, post concussion syndrome, PCs and the, the chronic traumatic
encephalopathy ct. So CTD is a neurodegenerative disorder caused by repeated head trauma, characterized by symptoms such as memory loss, depression, aggression and eventually dementia. And these behavior changes can be pretty substantial. Anything that you want to add on the background on Concussion, cte, PCs, that. I think that's fantastic.
Maybe I'll just expand a little bit like on the axonal shearing and sort of some other stuff that's happening in the brain, because it'll really become relevant when we talk about the solutions and why they work. When we think about axonal shearing, what's happening is when the brain undergoes like this rapid acceleration or like rotating. These axons, which are like long thread like parts of neurons, they get stretched. And what, what we call this is diffusal axonal
injury. And it's just like twisting a rubber band too hard. And eventually, you know, that give. You twist a rubber band too hard. How it frays, that's really what's happening with your axons. And when that happens, when we get this fraying, that's where we start to get disruption between the ability for neurons to communicate. And when you think about if a neuron can't communicate with another neuron, then we can fire a charge, but we're not going to execute on that because the signal is really
not getting through. The other thing that happens is there's. When there's this initial impact, it causes this flood of excitatory neurotransmitters, primarily like glutamate. And we've talked a lot about glutamate in our episode on Peptides for the Brain, so won't spend too much time on it. But what happens when you get this flood of. Of glutamate is the neurons fire excessively. And as you can imagine, like if you got a car engine that's turning really fast, this is going to
burn up a lot of energy. And brain ends up having this energy deficit. So there's this problem of getting enough energy to the mitochondria in the brain. And it's almost like a car running out of fuel. It struggles to carry out normal functions. And this is why some of the symptoms, like confusion and memory problems arise. A lot of times when we have that, oh, shoot, you know, I can't think of it. Our brain's like struggling for energy. And then I guess another thing too is you get
that reduction in blood flow. And what's happening there is you've got reduced blood flow going to the brain and the brain's demanding more energy to recover. So the reduced blood flow just exasperates the problem because all the things that would be reducing inflammation and supplying oxygen are not available. So, yeah, that's. That's my two cents. Yeah, no, that's really great. You know, Detailing
that out further. You know, when it comes to peptides, I think anybody that's watched our series to date can probably understand some of the mechanisms that are going to come into play and why they'd be so powerful. Now we are going to go beyond peptides. We're going to talk about other supplementation and synergistic strategies. But peptides can have an impact on tissue repair, neuroprotection, reduction of inflammation and neuroplasticity and synaptogenesis as well as cellular
communications. So quick summary of that. But obviously stimulating the regeneration of damaged brain tissue by promoting the proliferation and migration. And it is early by promoting the growth of neural cells, the ability to particularly important in brain injury recovery, where damaged neurons can be repaired or replaced neuroprotective effects, meaning they can help protect
the neurons from further damage after the injury. This is critical in minimizing the spread of the injury beyond and reducing the risk of secondary brain damage caused by the inflammation or oxidative stress. And that's really important. So a lot of individuals kind of ignore this period of time where we have that in, you know, excessive, you know, use of the brain, looking at, you know, lights being on technology,
all of this. When you've got this inflammation and oxidative stress or any ongoing injury from that is significant. So if we can help protect during that period, it's massive. And obviously we'd want to reduce the inflammation which is the key contributor to brain injury as it this is what exacerbates the neural damage and can delay recovery. Peptides help reduce inflammatory by inflammation by modulating the immune response and promoting the resolution of the
inflammatory process. We're going to talk about some peptides and walk through those protocols. Dihexa, for example, enhances neuroplasticity, which is the brain's ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections. And this is crucial for cognitive recovery following concussions, other concussions or other brain trauma, rewiring those circuits. And the last I touched on was cellular
communication. By improving communication between neurons, peptides help restore the brain function which often disrupted following an injury. Should we dive into the peptides that we would use and the mechanisms of action for this? Yeah, I think that sounds great. And even to add to that, there's a real low hanging fruit and it'll make a lot of sense, you know, when you hear about therapeutic applications of a ketogenic diet, exogenous
ketones. And I'm really excited. I know we've got a interview coming up with the Founder of Ketone Aid but exogenous ketones like the beta hydroxybutyrate is one of the things that can kind of solve this energy crisis we're experiencing in the brain. It's like this super fuel that's allowing the cells and neurons to generate more energy and it bypasses glucose. And the other thing it does is it actually increases mitochondrial biogenesis.
So when we have more mitochondria to help clear out that oxidative stress, it puts us in a good spot specifically too it reduces. It's called the NLRP3 inflammasome. And that's the one that like when you hear about neural inflammation that's kind of the. Oh man, that one's
elevated. So yeah, I think real low, low hanging fruit and I think good preventative measure, whether we're talking about somebody going into surgery where there's going to be anesthesia and reduced oxygen to the brain for that reason or if we're talking about like traumatic head injury ketones or something, if you're doing these all year round, it's a terrific preventative measure. Relatively inexpensive and you get all the benefits with performance and reducing inflammation and
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that's code resilience for 10% off. Yeah, I so you know my experience I can't talk well about a lot of the, the clients that, that I've worked with but there's a number that have maybe a post stroke condition. Right. So that is a common brain injury standpoint because you've got both the cardiovascular event but you've got the reduction in blood flow to the brain during that period of time. I have my nephew who had five brain surgeries following a traumatic car accident where he was
life flighted to the hospital, wasn't supposed to survive. We had some really amazing results during that period and then My last elbow surgery where I was put under anesthesia for it was about six hours where I was out because there's a pretty extensive surgery. And my biggest focus on that because I have the healing protocols really dialed in. I knew that I was going to be recovered in two or
three weeks from the surgery. But the cognitive follow up from that, that takes days or a week to clear out was like my focus to see what I could eliminate because I've been through surgeries multiple times, so I could see what the difference was. And so I followed some of these protocols during that period of time and man, it was, it was massive. As far as
the, the impact. I think I covered this in another podcast that we did, but post surgery I walked out, went to the hotel room and ended up engaging with another doctor and that, that I work with in that area. I was down in California in a very intensive discussion around structure of periocardial ligaments for about two hours. And I say the BR covered. Yeah. And then engaged in, you know, coitus with the, the wife following his departure. So I would say I was back on
track pretty, pretty damn quick. I was. That's amazing. Yeah. And yeah it was, it was pretty amazing. And so yeah, let's, let's walk through some of those peptides. Obviously a very easy one to pick from is BPC157. You know, everybody knows this. The healing peptide derived from body protect from the stomach. It's known for profound regenerate, regenerative abilities and neuroprotective effects. It supports the formation of new blood vessels,
angiogenesis. So this is a big one in aiding in tissue regeneration, including in the brain. It also helps reduce inflammation and oxidative stress, but both of which contribute to cellular damage after concussions. And there's some interesting research around this in post car accident type situations where we've got some
post stroke. One thing we didn't put in our notes as it relates to this Anthony, but GHK KU also has some of these similar ones and I've seen that in some of the research following TBI and they've done some research, it was on animal studies as it relates. But really, really fascinating the combination of BPC and GHK which has some of the similar effects around angiogenesis, oxidative stress reduction and inflammation. Inflammation being a big one. But the, the that was
absolutely tremendous on both those studies. I would, I would recommend the GHK KU with the BPC which we think about it, you know that purple blue substance kind of like methylene blue, kind of like, you know, the. The light and photons being able to help, you know, with. With brain repair. I don't know if that plays a role into it. I'm kind of reaching out there, but discussing kind of, you know, common themes that roll within that.
Yeah, no, there's definitely a component of physics when we talk about brain injury. And I know when we get to the red light, that'll really make a lot of sense. But that's really interesting about the ghk. Yeah. I'm actually playing with. So I have a doctor, actually, the same one I was doing the discussion with the periocardial ligaments. In fact, he's probably going to join us on a podcast when it. When we start working with some of the red light therapy
and the impacts of that. But he seemed really interesting using the GHK prior to the red light therapy. And so I actually just started testing that this morning myself. So. Yeah. See what impact that has. But substantial boost in HRV when deploying the GHK prior to the red light. So, anyway, I'll have more to report on that later. But as an alternative to the methylene blue that we're seeing, a lot of people recommend. Because GHK is a lot easier to
get than the methylene blue. Yeah. And the other consideration with the methylene blue, and I probably should have done a better job of explaining this when we covered it in our mitochondrial peptide podcast is it reduces nitric oxide. So when we're in a hypoxic environment and our goal is to kind of increase oxygen, it might not be the best time to load up on the methylene blue. But we'll get to some other mitochondrial options that. Yeah. That we can use. Yeah. Which
we don't have. So we don't have the methylene blue in the protocol that we're discussing today. Right. Yeah. For that reason. And then you want to jump into the TB4. I know you've got a lot more experience on the dihexa, so I'd love you covering that one as well. And I can jump in on the cerebral license. Sure. Happy to. So the dihexa. Dihexa is like rocket fuel for your synapses. And it's this molecule that produces
synaptogenesis. And when we think about what that means, if we break that down, it's like synapses, synapto, and then genesis, creation. So it's making these creations of new synaptic connections, and it does this by activating. It's called the HGF CMET pathway. And it's one of the most potent brain enhancing agents for neurodegeneration and cognitive decline. And it also reduces the tau
phosphorylation. And if that sounds familiar, that becomes relevant when we talk about any type of neurodegenerative disease like Alzheimer's. These tau proteins are essentially misfolded proteins, and when we can prevent the phosphorylation of them, they're not going to be as impactful. And it works. It modulates these peroxisomal functions, and those are kind of vital for metabolism of, like, fats and detoxification of harmful molecules. And it inhibits
lipid peroxidation. And so just to make that make a little bit more sense, lipid peroxidation is like, if we were getting good fats in there, which we're going to need to repair cell membranes, damaged neurons, myelin sheath, those sorts of things. Some of those are unsaturated. And when things are unsaturated, like fish oil, for example, it can oxidize. So when we talk about lipid peroxidation, that's something that would create more oxidative stress. So we want to
kind of make sure we're mitigating that. And when we think about these peroxisomes, that would be a whole episode in and of itself. But the short of it is, I think of it as these little things floating around, tapping a cell on the shoulder and saying, hey, we need to use a little bit more fat, or, hey, we want to use some carbohydrates, or, hey, let's do a quick inventory of what we got in the cell. That's garbage. Let's get it out. So they're just kind of these supervisors
almost. So, yeah, I think the Dihex is absolutely a really, really awesome tool to use if you have traumatic brain injury. Awesome. One thing I think it's important to note as far as, like, protocols, dosing, stuff like that, we have a lot of this detailed on our forum. You can go to Chris Duffin, start here, find the free forum, go on there. And so anybody that wants to explore more depth of, like, actual, you know, how would you employ those from a, you know, a dosage, a frequency of
administration, all of that. So just a. Just a quick note on that. It's an absolutely free form. Of course, we'd love, if you pay for the insiders and get access to all the extra information, which is a treasure trove of, of content. So Thyrosyn beta 4, TB4, naturally occurring peptide involved in tissue regeneration, cell migration
and wound healing. In brain injuries, it plays a key role in reducing inflammation and protecting neurons from further damage while promoting the regeneration of neural tissue by stimulating the migration of new cells to the site of injury. It's basically like organizing the repair process is a good way to think. And this is why TB4 and PPC are often used in conjunction where they're doing the healing. But this is also, you know, organizing all the workers, if you can think
about that, is a, is a good way. So TB4 enhances neurovascular health by supporting the repair of the blood vessels. So we've got the PPC creating new blood vessels, we've got TB4 enhancing and supporting, repairing all blood vessels and neurons, making it effective therapy for mitigating the long term effects of concussions and other traumatic brain injuries. So you can see how those work together really, really well. Anything that you have on that, that combo of those two,
I think you. Did an amazing job of covering The Thymos and Beta 4 and people can kind of see the synergy there. We've got one thing that is going to kind of stimulate growth of the new synapses and then we've got one thing that's gonna kind of bring those healing things in together so we can reduce the inflammation, create a better vascular supply to the area so we're getting more blood flow and reduce things like the interleukin 1 tumor necrosis factor alpha. So
we can start to. When we reduce that inflammation in the brain, it kind of puts that fire out, step one to reducing that oxidative stress. Yeah. So typically in a recovery protocol, I'm using the TB4 in the BPC. So post surgery and then what I did this last time when I did mine was addition of the cerebralysin and the cellmac. And the cerebralysin is also the major addition, although we'll talk about some others when we get into supplementation to my nephew's brain surgery. So he was in
a coma for three, for 30 days. I was blessed to be there the first day that he has memory following that, the coma period. And then it was maybe a month after that that we employed the cerebralysin and that was the first day he felt his feet again. So really interesting. So cerebralysin and I preloaded on this for, for my surgery. But this is dealing with that excessive glutamate activity and reducing that excitotoxicity. So cerebralysin is the most well studied, incredible safety
profile. Neuroprotective, neuro, neurotrophic peptide out. It has been around since 1948, patented in 1954. It's derived from pig brains and yeah it smells like pig brains and no formaldehyde if you break a vial open. Really, really great smell but it is really great for that. And so common issue after a brain injury is this, you know that excessive glutamate and the
excitotoxicity. Cerebralysin also enhances neurogenesis or the creation of new neurons which is critical for recovery of the cognitive function after a brain injury. So it improves this cognitive recovery, improving memory provides long term neuroprotection by mitigating the damage caused by the excited toxicity and also aids in the regeneration of those damaged brain cells making it useful for both acute, which I have personal experience with recovery and long term brain health
as a whole. Cerebralysin can be really powerful for memory cognitive function as well as a number of impacts on mood. So anything that you want to add on cerebralysin. Thank you. Did a great job of covering it. When we think about like how it's working specifically it increases brain derived neurotropic factor, nerve growth factor and glial derived neurotrophic factor. So when we think about the cells that are in our brain it's like we've just about covered every single base with
cerebralysin. And if I would say like if I could only reach for one thing, if somebody has a concussion, cerebralysin is gonna cover the most bases, you know, that would be. That would be my biggest impact right there. Yeah, you're going to have an immediate impact from that. Yep. And I think it was brilliant. I do the same thing anytime. Like if I've got somebody that's going to be put under or if like when I had to have my surgery I always load up on
cerebralysin before and after. It helps to detoxify that anesthesia and make sure that there's not going to be any brain damage. Yeah, it was my experience was absolutely incredible difference between that and the others. So I preloaded the week before and then con and continued two weeks after was all I did during that period. And yeah, absolutely fantastic. So last one we got is cellnack which we've discussed before but synthetic peptide with neuroprotective and anti anxiety
properties. So it helps modulate the brain chemicals involved in stress and anxiety such as GABA and serotonin which are often. So it's important because these are disrupted following concussions and that's why we can see some mood disorders as well. Cell NAC has anti inflammatory effects and can enhance memory and cognitive function by promoting the regulation of certain brain molecules.
And again, the GABA and serotonin. It's particularly effective for addressing post concussion systems like anxiety, stress and memory impairment and helps restore emotional stability and cognitive function by reducing neural inflammation and supporting neurotransmitter balance. Anybody that's been around somebody with a concussion can probably know what we're talking about when you see some of these, you know, mood behavior issues kicking in. Yeah, absolutely. It's a really
valuable tool. And anytime we've got something that's going to be able to, you know, increase BDNF and help with oxygenation to the brain and also kind of modulate things that are going to help put the brakes on that excessive glutamate that we're experiencing. That's going to be a big player. So time to jump into additional therapies. Supplementation. Do you want to do other therapies or supplementation first? The really? Either one more peptide that might be worth mentioning or maybe two,
the epitalin. There's a lot of research emerging on that and it also increases bdnf. It's got benefits for our telomeres and those are, you know, just kind of like the caps on our shoelaces. Yep. I'm using Eptitalon with a few, you know, elderly close to, you know, mid-70s, 80s with cognitive decline with some similar protocols. Using Eptitalon for that reason. Yeah, yeah. And you can even do it intranasally in the case of a concussion.
One of the things that happens when people get a concussion is it dysregulates their sleep. And when, essentially when we're not able to sleep, we keep accumulating more inflammation in the glial cells. So Epitalin is going to recalibrate that circadian rhythm and that's going to help with melatonin release. Melatonin is an amazing antioxidant. So then we're kind of getting our sleep back on track. We've got something that's putting out that fire, that oxidative stress. So I really
like using that too, if it's available. Is there a certain time of day that you're using the epitalon based on the circadian rhythm? Yeah. So for the epitalin, I do evening hour before you go to sleep and I prefer the 10 day course at 10 milligrams a day. I know some people do kind of year round 3mg, but I feel like using it acutely at a higher dose for me at least, seems to work a little bit better. The other, I guess for circadian is, and this would be a daytime one would be
like the vip. That one I would do in the morning if, if we were using that for circadian reset. I use the VIP in my, my, my post. My, my, my, my protocol for my last surgery. Yeah, yeah, it's, it's pretty versatile. Peptide. The other one that I think is worth mentioning is the Thymosin Alpha 1. We don't really think of a concussion as like catching a cold or that sort of thing, but our immune system is going to be sort of what's modulating our
inflammatory response. So I found some benefit to including like a Thymosin Alpha 1 in there sometimes so that you've got that sergeant of your immune system making sure that you know you're getting the right amount of immune response and dialing down excessive immune response and inflammation. All right, guys, we talk a lot about mental resilience on this podcast, but let's talk about another type of resilience. That's movement resilience. We want to move well, recover better, and do it
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and the thymus and alpha one for those reasons. Yeah, yeah, the one other, and I promise this is the last. I just got my wheels turning. I remember there's another one that I use anytime I've had issues with like brain injury injury in general, the IGF one. We need IGF to help imprint our long term memories and also it's going to help with protein synthesis, repair of nerves, as well as neurogenesis. So Creating more better nerve
supply. So yeah, I mean I wouldn't say the IGF and the Thymos and Alpha 1 are like the top ones. I think the top ones we covered pretty well. Yep. But you know, if you really want the. This is go over laying it all out. Are you using the IGF, LR3 or DES. In this case I'd probably use if it's hard to source. But if you can get the Increlix, that
would be awesome. Or receptor grade, the second choice would be the long R3 and but I think either the DEs or the long R3, long R3, you're going to have a little bit more benefit for protein synthesis and neurogenesis. It's going to be around a little bit longer and since we're just using it acutely, I'm not too concerned about growing the wrong cells or tissues. But for long term or for muscular injury I think I'd lean towards the DES form. I've got some detailed LR3
strategies on my recovery protocol. So the details out some, some multiple different avenues for dosing depending on the acuteness of the injury. So that would be on Christophan.com of course. All right, that's recovery protocol I have ever used. I've told you many times like I wouldn't be standing here having this conversation if it weren't for you being generous enough to share that protocol with me and putting me back together four times.
So thanks again. Comes back around. All right, now you're teaching me. So so far we've talked basically a lot about, you know, neurotrophic compounds. So let's talk about some, some nootropics as it relates so we can dive into supplementation. It may be counter to what a lot of people thinks, but a low dose stimulant can actually be because we're stimulating the synapses to be firing during this time. So even something like my DMA E in full blitz can be useful.
Micro dose of Adderall, things of that nature that typically you might not think as being good can be good at a micro dose amount during this time to stimulate that. So again, small dose of caffeine, things of those nature, there are some deterior effects as it relates to a lot of the discussion that we've talked about. But again, small dose stimulating those response receptors to respond. These are not good things to take long term for cognitive function.
But as it relates I think that that's important to note. Do you want to dive into, you know, omega 3s products like that? Sure, yeah. The I think lipids are, in my opinion, probably the most important thing to supplement both prophylactically and in terms of repair. And the big ones that I go for, the phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylcholine, it's a phospholipid and it forms a structural framework of our cell membranes and in particular like
neurons. And you can kind of think of it as like brick and mortar that keeps your cell walls strong and functional. And the phosphatidylcholine is critical for this membrane fluidity. And that's what allows like signals to come in and out and cell processes to happen. And additionally it supports acetylcholine. So one of the concerns when we get a head trauma is going to be that, you know, there's that reduction in acetylcholine product production and
therefore loss of memory. So you're really making good inroads to that problem by supplementing the phosphatidylcholine. And you can do that either as like an IV or you can do that as if you're going to take the supplement form. I'm really particular about the one I use and there's a reason for it. The body bio, their phosphatidylcholine complex. Best one out there. Only one I'm aware of in the United States that has all four phospholipids in the proper ratio and it's produced in house. Amazing
facility. Really take a lot of time and care for their products. So I don't get paid by them or anything, but I swear by that. The other if we're talking about lipids that I think is as important as the phosphatidylcholine are the plasmalogens. Prodrome Science is a company that makes them and there's a neuro and a gliaform and those are essential phospholipids. And what they do is they make up neuronal and glial cell membranes and they protect these cells from
oxidative stress. They're really critical to synaptic function. They're almost like a bubble wrap around your neurons and prevents oxidative damage and supporting overall brain health. These help to modulate those peroxisomes and also kind of safeguard against oxidative damage. That lipid peroxidation we were talking about. So yeah, those, those two are not necessarily fish oils, but the, in my opinion, probably the most important things to take if supplement wise if you get a head injury.
Absolutely. The fish Oil, of course, you know that's going to be important and not necessarily something to skip over. But with the fish oil, when we start with the fish oil, it gets metabolized into these pro resolving mediators. And if you join Chris's community, I did a rather lengthy post on what those are and how they work.
So I don't want to spend too much time on that. But the short of it is these pro resolving mediators that fish oils metabolize into clear out a lot of cellular waste and modulate inflammatory responses. So when we supplement a fish oil, what we want to think about is it needs to be something we can absorb. So I prefer like a krill oil because it's a phospholipid form of fish oil and it's also got that I butcher the name every time. Xanthaxan. And it's. That's a antioxidant, particularly good for
oxidative stress in the brain and eyes. Yeah. It's also really great at permeating the. The blood brain barrier. So I highly recommend. Yeah, both krill oil as. As well as ensuring that you're getting 12 milligrams a day of exactly. Xanathin. I hate that freaking word too. I do too. Who start the word with an X other than X ray. But yeah, I actually there's a researcher that's. That has focused on Xanathan that I've listened to some of his work with. It's
really fascinating. I hope to have him on this podcast actually at some point in time. But big proponent, fundamental level. If you're interested in health. 12 milligrams a day xanathen and then making sure that you've got some good CRO. Yeah, the. Another one not. Not really a lipid. And you guys know I'm on a big trail Trehalose kick. But that can have a lot of benefit for concussions. It reduces accumulation of these amyloid beta and tau proteins and it activates autophagy which is going
to clear up all those bad proteins and organelles. So if you're following what Chris and I have talked about, you're probably already using the trehalose. So you're already probably down that pathway. But thought it'd be fun to just kind of mention that one as a real low hanging fruit. Inexpensive. You know, you can use it. I just do a teaspoon with meals. Makes everything a little bit sweeter. And there's some terrific research being done using it IV for things like
als. Yeah, I like just tossing a Little in with my 8020 proteins. My built fast formula shakes, they already taste amazing. And then this week I started experiment. I put it in using. So I make 8020 creamies and you toss their. The. If anybody's not the Ninja creamy use some 8020 protein. You'll have just an amazing protein ice cream, you know, with like 60 grams of protein in it. Me and my wife will split it actually I guess like 60 or 80 grams the. The container that we make up
and drop a little trailer host in there too and oh my God. I mean it's just. It tastes just like. Except it's all protein. That sounds amazing. Yeah. Getting hungry. Oh, didn't you just get the Ninja Creamy a little while ago? I think so, yeah. And I didn't think about doing it that way but yeah, it sounds. Yeah, 80 20. And if you want you just sprinkle just a little bit of some treats in there, you know like a tablespoon of some chocolate or something like that and then try some trailer
host in there and it will taste like one of the best ice creams. Like oh my God, love it. You'd probably even mix in almonds. Make like chocolate almond ice cream out of it. Yep, yep. Get your. Get your healthy fats and yeah, yeah. On circumen do you have a. There's several different patented forms and actually I was just checking my phone to try to remember which one because I use the Morivia which is. But that's more for joint. It seems like the thercumin would probably be
one that would be a little bit better for the brain function. But it looks like they've got some intranasal that they're using in some studies on Alzheimer's intranasally administered curcumin. So there's a patent on that looks 2007. So that's kind of interesting. Haven't had a chance to look into that. But curcumin obviously really valuable. There's some really great cumin has a really low bioavailability. So usually picking one of the, you know, patented one that improves the, the
absorption rate. Yeah, I like the Prodrome Sciences makes the BDNF curcumin and that one's, sorry, BDMC curcumin. It's a methylated form of it that increases the availability substantially and makes it easier to cross that blood brain barrier. So that's one of the challenges when you know we've got these supplements that can reduce oxidative stress but then we've got that blood brain barrier that's like a protective wall around the brain. So I always use the BDMC or the other one that I like is
Jim's company or Jim Sun's company. Metabolic Elite has a liposomal form of curcumin. It's a tetra cure and it's chewable. And I know that one's got really high bioavailability as well we should. Would you be up for doing a, an article on the, the group on. Yeah, those circumens. I, I think that that would be really valuable. So yeah, absolutely. It's. I'll get one up by this weekend. Oh, hyperbaric chambers. So
there's, there's plenty of research on this. It works really well. I mean you could literally repair the damage from CTE with a number of what we would call dives with a hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Really incredible. I don't know that I would be the one to be able to talk around the science of what's happening there. But essentially the pressure is helping force. I don't you want to dive on that if you have the information. When we think about.
So if we kind of unpack the brain injury, what we're dealing with is that low oxygen in the brain. And when you're in this chamber, basically like it's kind of a crude explanation, but the oxygen's basically pushing in through every tissue in your body. And when we have this increased oxygen availability because of the higher pressure, that oxygen is able to dissolve in plasma and then what happens is it dissolves in plasma, it's going to help with stem cell activation.
So what it does is it kind of mobilizes those stem cells and that's going to enhance the tissue repair as well. It also modulates reactive oxygen species and promotes an antioxidant defense. And the way that it does this is it's going to reduce tumor necrosis factor alpha, interleukin 1 beta and interleukin 6. So yeah, the hyperbaric. I think that's actually an insurance approved use for it. And I know that even for things like autism for a while
it might still be. I think that hyperbarics approved for that. The key is you want to make sure, I guess if you live in different regions in the country, there's going to be considerations as to how much oxygen to use. Like if you're in Colorado where you're already exposed to like the altitude over there, you probably want to use a slightly different atmospheric pressure than if you live in Ohio where there's not as Many mountains.
I'm guessing most of the hyperbaric therapy places that you would go to in your area would know, you know, the amount that you would need to, to, to, to do with that so. Because again, hyperbaric therapy not really, you know, easy for a lot of people to have a hyperbaric chamber. I don't have one. You don't have one. Yeah, but there, there's getting to be quite a few centers if you do some work. So if you have, you know, some considerable TBI history and potential CTE
hyperbaric chambers. There's been. So my friend John Wellborn had had great success. I know. God. There's a few other. Yeah, it's. It's been used successfully in pro NFL players with documented CTE to essentially completely fix those cte. I can't think of the individuals right now, but I know that it has done that. Now obviously John was doing a lot of other things including red light therapy, pemf, E Watt exercise with oxygen therapy, which is similar. Similar ish kind of modality
to hyperbarics. So there's a lot of stuff that he's done, including stem cells, so on. Yeah. But that is one that I know that he feels has had a very positive impact on the. Essentially completely fixing all the brain damage from his extensive NFL career. That's awesome. There was that. I can't think of his name. He was a linebacker for Denver Broncos. And this was before they were like. Really? That's when I was thinking of. Yeah, he. Same thing. Yeah. Yep. Man, it's gonna hit me at like three.
I don't. I'm just. I'm not great with the sports. So. Yeah. What other synergistic therapies and modalities we are talking about red light therapy a little bit while ago or sunlight. So again, you can have a heightened sensitivity to. To light to the eyes, you know, in that immediate, you know, post concussion period. But sunlight is a valuable resource in the recovery process. Making sure that you're one just getting general basic stuff,
right. Like good sleep, good nutrition, all the antioxidants, rich foods, exposure to sunlight and movement. Yeah. I joke with people that sunlight is nature's Epitalin. Go out, get 100,000 lux before 9:30am in the morning. And that really helps to kind of reset that circadian rhythm absolutely free. You don't need expensive panels. You can just go get it for. Free in the red light you mentioned. I think that's tremendously beneficial for a number of
reasons. The. Did you want to cover the red light or want me to dive in? I'll let you just start and I'll dive in maybe. Okay. Yeah. So with the red light there's near and far infrared or near and far red light. The near infrared light, you'd probably want to go with something like an 810 nanometer. And then you could also do like a 660. In fact, with the 660 to. I think it's trying to remember now. I think it's
6 or. Yeah, 660 to 720. They did some research for the eyes and restoring vision and people over 40 and had positive effects on 80% of the population, I believe for their night vision. And the way it works, this red lights kind of charge up the mitochondria in the cells. And the cool thing about red light is, you know, we talked about that blood brain barrier and light can penetrate where supplements might not be able to get into.
And when we think about, you know, our eyes, our eyes are essentially our extension of our brain. A little gross to think about, but it kind of makes sense why if you know, we're using like that lower strength red light, even for vision or if we have a concussion, shining it in our eyes could be beneficial. Or even just standing in front of it. Yeah.
So yeah. In General, broad stroke 600 to 1000 has been documented to enhance mitochondrial efficiency, increasing ATP through the activation of cytochrome C oxidase. So COX in the electron transport chain. Getting more specific 620 to 680 activates mitochondrial function by stimulating COX and enhancing cellular energy production. If we get into the near infrared ranges, the 800 to 850 that starts penetrating deeper tissues and further boosting mitochondrial function.
8, 10 is the one that promotes stem cell proliferation and plays a role in differentiation of, you know, muscle skeletor in tissue repair type issues. So we see like a 60% loss as it gets towards 850. So 810 is definitely desirable. 660 proliferation of stem cells and supporting osteogenic differentiation inflammation. Yes. 808 has been studied for its ability to modulate TRPV1 activity. I actually don't know what that is. Reducing pain and inflammation, particularly in musculoskeletal and
neuro. Neuro. Neuropathic conditions. So you mentioned 660 or 670. So anything in the 660 to. Or 630 to 680 range is going to enhance angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels. So that would probably be so it looks like 630 to 680 and 810 would be valuable. You know, wavelengths with the red light. So just looking at the panel that you've got, you know, a lot of them are going to hit those targets. But the one I recommend, you know, obviously you can go find on Christophan
Shop. But yeah, red light therapy, pretty, pretty, pretty cool stuff. 15 minutes a day is what a person would want to target with that. What's interesting with red light is, you know, you can't just go in and get like, you know, an hour session. You know, once a week. It really becomes down to frequency of administration. Think about your cells being able to fill up like a cup. And that
cup is going to stay full for like six hours. So if you took like your 15 minutes and actually took that down to five minutes three times a day or eight minutes twice a day, that's even going to be more effective yet than just one dose a day. So this can be done really great in the, in the morning or again before bed. Before bed's gonna improve the quality of sleep in the mornings going to, you know, have positive effects as a whole. You could do it pre workout or post workout as
well. So pre workout, it's gonna really supercharge your workout, post workout or in the evening, it's gonna help with the recovery and repair process. So just really quick, we'll do a deeper dive on red light therapy in, in the future. But really fascinating stuff. Again, you could skip a lot of that too, just by making sure that you're going out for a walk in the morning for 30 minutes and making sure that you're getting some evening, you know, as that sunlight's, you know, cresting
is for free. Yeah, absolutely. The other thing a lot of times people forget about when we talk about concussions is there's a huge reduction in vagal tone and you develop this sympathetic nervous system dominance. And there's kind of a couple tools that I really like for when we talk about kind of recalibrating vagal tone. There's. You can just like the free one is just, you know, hum, gargle, sing. I've got a terrible singing voice, so I spare everybody from that. And then
additionally there's. And this, this is just a fascinating area. Be really cool maybe to get her on the podcast and talk more about it. But the neural therapy and it's procaine injection and procaine changes the action potential of these nerves that are firing. So you can do like a stellate ganglion block using Procanes and injection and almost instantly create that balance in the nervous system, that parasympathetic, sympathetic balance.
Best person in the country for that, Dr. Suzanne Ferree over in Atlanta. She's absolutely amazing with this stuff and she teaches classes in it, if that's something people would be interested in. And then you can use like a microcurrent. The one I use is the dolphin. Let's go back to the
vagal tone and the humming. If my documentary ever comes out on grand goals, you'll see me laughing maniacally before my sets, in between sets, because laughing is actually really incredible for that activity on reducing the, you know, the activity of the sympathetic nervous system. So that's brilliant. Laughing is incredibly recuperative. So sitting down, watching a comedy in the evening with your partner, like, general, like guttural laughs is. It is incredible for resetting
that. And so you'll see me laughing literally like this in the documentary between sets for. As I'm chasing my thousand pounds. Like, man, that's awesome. Sorry to interrupt, but I. I thought that'd be an interesting note. Yeah, I never knew that. I never or never considered that. The. Looks like I'll be watching a lot more Chappelle show. But yeah, see this right here? Yeah. Works. Yeah. Now it's. Man, I'm more comedies. But yeah, I think the kind of getting that vagal tone back and that's even
big. Not to get too far off the subject, but one of the missing pieces for long haulers for Covid is restoring vagal tone. So huge thing to focus on. And then did you want to cover the pemf? Yeah, yeah. PAMF is. Yeah. Great adjunct to all of this. So PAMF is going to create that micro blood flow. So all those micro capillaries, it really opens those up. So this is. Yeah, it's incredibly recuperative process. So pemf, pulsed electromagnetic frequency.
So there's PMF match. You can use them at centers or get your. Get your own. There's several different companies out there that can be a. They can be a little expensive. But the PMF works in concert with that. So I know for a fact, like if you take some vaso Blitz, you know, some vasodilation pro, and sit in a PEMF mat like you're just like. It just opens you up because it's. It's doing the same. They're doing similar Ish things, very different modalities.
But when we think about that blood flow in the brain and those micro capillaries, pemf is absolutely amazing for that. I think that there's probably more benefits. I didn't do any. Look. So this is based off of, you know, me reading on this, you know, six years ago or so, I used a pemf. Yeah. Leading through the grand goals process. Currently my PEMF mat needs repaired, so I'm not using it right now. But, yeah, really, really great benefits from
pemf. Yeah, it's definitely very. Yeah. Plays a role with those micro capillaries in the brain because we don't have a lot of, like, major arteries running in there for obvious reasons. Yeah. The. When people are thinking kind of about these PEMF devices, generally, like when you're at a lower hertz, those are going to have more of a calming effect. So if we're thinking about, you know, what can we do for. We've got this glutamate over exciticity, then, you know, kind of a low hertz.
Good. I don't know if you guys can see it. I'm wearing one of those alpha stem units and it just clips on your ears. It looks like Walkman I had when I was in sixth grade. And it emits a 10-20 Hz frequency that's going to be linked to those alpha brain waves. And those are really good for, like, relaxation, accelerates healing, and a lot of benefit for, like, post concussion syndrome. So it's what I like about that. It's definitely less expensive than a PEMF mat
and you can walk around with it all day. And the way I knew it worked. I'm a huge New York Yankees fan. Chris knows this. And when they're playing Boston, you know, if we're starting to lose to Boston, normally I get really, really fired up. So when I first got this device, you know, I clip it on the ears and I'm sitting there watching the game. And I think the Yankees
threw the game because Boston was winning. And normally I'd be fired up and yelling at the tv, but I'm just sitting there and my fiance's like, are you all right? And I'm like, yeah, feel pretty good. And then it dawned on me, like, this thing's got to be working. But, yeah, the alpha waves are. And there's another. There's some other cool devices like the brain tap and some other things you can do to kind of put you in that alpha
state. But yeah, for the. Just something to think about for the electric intervention. Awesome. Well, I think we've done a pretty comprehensive review of concussion strategies at this point. In time. Time, yeah. Peptides, supplementation, synergistic strategies. If you've got any further questions, please take a look. Join our community again if you're having any health issues, things of that nature. Love to support our, our, our sponsor Merrick
Health. You can also run panels through blood panels through Merrick and have myself or Anthony review those and do some peptide recommendations if you want. You can find out information on that by joining our community or just on my website, ChrisDuffin.com. yeah, that's. Yeah, actually I've got a really great piece where you can come. Actually it's on Christopher now. I think about it. Chris duffin.com where you can get that blood work. You
get an hour and a half, you get a consultation. So you get a need to get my. Pause that for a second. Let's start that from the, let's start that from the beginning. So I've got a really great program that involves a full comprehensive blood panel from Merrick Health along with a massive report looking at interventions for supplementation, lifestyle pharmacology, peptides as well as a consultation with
me. You can also do one with Anthony with, with our input and looking at the peptide protocols and things that we may look at from an exercise standpoint. Really great program, just a one off thing. So yeah, you can find that on ChrisDuffin.com. Yeah, they're a great resource and once you have that stuff that you can measure, you can really make some intelligent choices and makes it easier for Chris and I to provide some suggestions that are going to be more targeted.
All right. Anything else you want to add or wrap her up? This is a really, really good one. Yeah. I think my hope is that people in contact sports, people that maybe trip, fall, hit their head, have some things in place that can really prevent concussion from becoming more serious and even preventatively, you know, some of this stuff you can do prophylactically and yeah, let's, let's keep those heads safe. That's right. This is the most valuable
resource that you have right there, baby. Yep, yep.