41. Circadian-appropriate Exercise and Why You Should Avoid Blue-lit Gyms with Andreas Christou

You coach people through exercise , through lifestyle optimisation , and I've seen your content online or on social media and you've got some really interesting videos and ways of coaching people through what looks like to be very circadian , appropriate exercise routines . So I'm really interested in talking to you about this .

So maybe we'll start with how you got into exercising and coaching people from a lifestyle point of view , but with this circadian background .

I used to live in Finland for a couple of years , for around three years , and before that I lived in Scotland , which was quite dark and grey , so the amount of light is quite less , but I didn't have much awareness about circadian rhythms and circadian health , so I wasn't taking care of those things .

When I moved to Finland , I realised that the seasonal depression kicked in and I started to realise that , okay , I need to do something about this . But it wasn't only the depression aspect and the anxious aspect , but , because they're kind of interrelated anxiety and depression it was also like physical symptoms I started to feel .

I started to feel like lack of energy , lack of drive , my workouts started to suck and I wasn't recovering as well . I wasn't sleeping or feeling tired when it was time to go to bed . So I realised that there is something missing that I need to address , because I thought , okay , I'm exercising right , I'm eating the right foods and I'm going to bed on time .

So basically , I'm trying to aim for eight hours sleep . But I wasn't blocking the blue light , I wasn't mitigating the EMFs . I was always training in a blue lit gym with a lot of electromagnetic fields around me .

I was rarely outside because , you know , when the weather is quite cold it kind of puts you off , and when your mitochondrial function is not in check because of your circadian rhythm , you also feel more cold , because your body cannot simply tolerate the cold when your mitochondrial function is not in check .

So that's kind of what led me to dig down that rabbit hole and start researching about quantum biology , quantum health , circadian health , and I started finding many , many interesting people like Dr Jack Ruse yourself , chalal Khan , sarah Kleiner , kari Bennett all the cool and interesting people in this space and I just learned so much and grown over time .

And I've implemented those aspects into my own coaching because I realized that since it improved my overall health and well-being , it allowed me to sleep deeper , to wake up more refreshed , to have more energy , to have better performance in the gym and to feel like I'm alive again , as if I've gained my life back .

I realized that this is something critically important that I have to implement with all of my clients as a foundation , before I even tell them that exercise , you should go and exercise or you should do this diet plan , because I realized that if I focus on the circadian rhythms , I can amplify the effects and get faster results with my clients .

If I add the circadian aspect first .

But when they address the fundamental things , like the circadian rhythm and particularly removing processed foods , they suddenly get that burst of energy that then allows exercising to happen . That's what I see in my practice . The interesting thing , what you said , was you seem to be doing everything right .

You were getting eight hours sleep , you were eating a healthy diet , and what was your diet at the time ?

But I wasn't aware of the fact that , when you're living somewhere in a Nordic country , for example , that you should probably really consider if you should be consuming any carbohydrates at all only when they're in season and the ones that are locally to you , because that's giving the electromagnetic information to our body what time of the year it is and what it

should do based on that . So that's the way that I was eating back then , but still it wasn't allowing me to progress .

So it's not an uncommon situation that you were in that most that a lot of people are in , and it's because there was a big missing piece in the last style approach . So where did you go from there and what were the kind of factors that you addressed critically to kind of improve your health ?

But we thought blue light at the wrong time of the day and that's what I wasn't aware of before , and it started to make sense to me . The first step that I took was to buy a pair of blue light blocking glasses , because that was like the lowest hanging fruit . I went for the easiest option .

Before I fixed my waking and sleeping cycles , I just started by blocking the blue light at night and just by simply doing that as soon as the sun set , I put my red blue light blockers on I noticed that my overall quality of sleep improved so much .

I felt so much more tired when it was time to go to bed and when I woke up in the morning I already felt so much more refreshed . So I felt that , wow , my quality of life has improved just from buying a pair of glasses . It's insane . But then that only got me to a certain point , right , because I only addressed one small factor .

So then I started thinking okay , what else do I need to do to keep going forward and to keep on improving ? Because I knew how I used to feel before in Cyprus , when I felt more optimal , and then I knew how that I actually felt suboptimal . So I had this comparison to be able to tell that , okay , this is how I should be aiming to feel .

But now I feel even better than both of those states before . So now I'm probably at my most optimal state , I would say .

And what led me to after was to I bought a pair of yellow blue light blocking glasses for the daytime when I was coaching inside the gyms , because I realized that , okay , having the blue light all the way from the morning until the afternoon while I'm coaching is probably not a good idea either . Because I realized that I was just getting totally fried .

My brain was totally fried by the end of the day and I thought is it possible that my brain is fried only after four or five hours of coaching ? Even though they're spread out throughout the day , they're not even one after each other , you know . And so I was thinking this is totally not normal .

And then , as soon as I wore the yellow blue blockers , that helped my nervous system come back to . You know more of a parasympathetic state , so it was really nice to observe .

, amazing . And I started wearing my blue light blockers at work when I was doing some night shifts in the hospital and the amount of difference I noticed from simply wearing a cheap pair of $35 UVEX blue blocking glasses was absolutely enormous .

And it's hard to it's hard to overstate the benefit and people , when they really try it for a consistent amount of time , invariably find benefit . It's fascinating that you mentioned how worn out or fried you felt after you know only five hours and I guess give people an idea . You mentioned why the blue light is .

We need blue light at a certain time , just tell us about what is the consequence of sitting in that gym during the day under artificial light .

So our body is meant to operate on a 24 hour cycle , which is called the circadian rhythm , and so we have different hormones released at different times of the day , and a lot of those hormones are , or most of the hormones are , controlled by the light signals and the electromagnetic fields that are in our environment , like from the ground , for example , and when

those are not in sync with what nature is doing , our body gets totally out of sync because it wants to sync with nature .

But when we override that mechanism by having brighter light indoors and we isolate , for example by not having open windows and by being underground let's say in a gym , because most gyms are , you know , they don't have windows or they're underground then we're basically just bombarded by that midday blue light .

So the around solar noon , around midday , that's when we are having the most amount of blue in the sky and that's meant to promote alertness and a waking state , and we also have the highest amount of UVB in the solar noon .

But when we are indoors we are missing all those other beneficial frequencies of light as well , where we are missing out the infrared , we are missing out the green , we are missing out the UV . So we're missing out all the other beneficial frequencies of light which are meant to balance the spectrum of light , which is actually perfect in harmonizing to our body .

But when it's in isolation it's a big issue because what it's doing is just raising our cortisol all the time , the entire day , and cortisol obviously is an energy costly process . In general , making hormones is an energy costly process .

So if you're making cortisol the entire day and you're not allowing energy for the other hormones to take place as well , you're just basically all the time in a sympathetic state and that's constantly stealing electrons , which is basically energy for our system .

So it's stealing our energy because we are all the time in a sympathetic state and this is why it's so damaging to our system .

So it's another reason why people might find that their hormones are out of whack as related to their suboptimal light environment . I guess when I think about how a lot of people work out these days , it is exactly . What you said is that it's in a gym which has large fluorolites or LED lights overhead .

Very infrequently do you see gyms with open windows or big roller doors that can let the natural light in , and I think it's also quite common that people are working out in like I don't know if it's the same in Cyprus , but in Australia there's chains of gyms , so like a franchise , and they're all set out in a similar way and they all have the artificial

lighting and they usually have a TV blaring whatever the latest propaganda is playing on the TV trying to get people to buy stuff . But it's really , in my mind , something that is unappreciatedly harmful and people are trying to do the right thing by working out , but in fact it could be having the complete or a damaging effect .

And the way I think about the light point that you brought up , which is that we're not getting the other forms of light , which is non-visible light like near infrared , it's almost like eating a really highly processed food diet . So imagine if you only ate highly refined , like hot dogs that have been incredibly processed .

That's the same thing because we're having a nutrient deficient light diet . We're not getting the infrared and we're only getting isolated kind of blue . And so what's your approach then for your clients ? If you're , if we're recognizing the harm of blue light , we obviously want people to exercise . What's your approach ?

What's your next step for someone who wants to do circadian , appropriate exercising ?

If they only have access to a gym and they can only go and exercise , or is there time that they are devoting for themselves when they're going to go in a gym , we're just still going to find a way to mitigate those harms .

Just as I explained to you earlier about wearing the blue light blockers , for example , when they're training , I would personally advise them that they should buy a pair of yellow blue light blocking glasses , which is not going to block all the blue , but it's still going to keep them alert and it's going to , you know , at least minimize the amount of light going

in through the eyes . I acknowledge that the skin also has photo receptors as well , so it's advisable that people wear long clothing as well , but I understand that many people don't want to wear .

It just depends how serious you want to take , you know , the light , the light topic , into consideration , but in my opinion , it's extremely serious because it controls everything else all the hormones , the recovery , the performance and everything like this , and when we are in an indoor environment .

Basically , we are just constantly frying the system and the issue is that the majority of people , anyway , are spending at least 90% of their time indoors . So by taking your exercise and movement outside , it's an opportunity to be outside . Right ?

It's another excuse to be outside , potentially grounded , depending on your area , if you've got grass or beach or whatever , or your own garden , and you can do it under the full spectrum light even on a cloudy day , because the light is still there . Even if it's cold outside , you can still exercise . You just have to wear more clothes , you know .

So , of course , sometimes when it's snowing , you have to , you know , do like what I'm doing in my house . You know , I'm just mitigating my indoor light environment . I have my windows open and I have my home gym set up in a circadian , appropriate lighting which is not going to cause me harm when I'm exercising .

Because when we have blue light and non-native EMFs while we are exercising , why is it a big issue ? The reason is that we are losing electrons while we are , you know , when we are trying to do something physically taxing at the same time which is also requiring energy .

So our performance is constantly going down , because we're not only using energy for the training , but we're also using energy just to survive , just to be in that environment , by simply switching the environment that we're in . By going outdoors , instead of losing electrons , which is a form of energy , we are actually gaining electrons .

So it's pretty insane that actually we are not only you know . We're doing more good like all the time and the fact that we're moving anyway . We're generating electrons through piezoelectricity , through the movement of our body as well . So we want to make sure that we are outside as much as we can with our movement .

And how I work normally with my clients is so that I advise them to build a home gym because that's one of the greatest investments that they could do . Let's say it costs you $1,000 to build a home gym and a gym membership is $500 per year . In two years it will have been paid off your home gym .

I know it's maybe a big upfront investment for some individuals , but once you do it , then you have it in your home where you can control your lighting , you can control your electromagnetic field environment if you cannot train outside Because , for example , you might not want to keep your gym equipment outdoors if it's going to get rusty or if it's snowing , for

example , then it's probably dangerous to use weights outside , then you probably need to use the inside . But at least you're controlling your own environment , your own little bubble , so you're creating your own world where you can create healthy , circadian-friendly training .

You want to be more in sync with your body and to acknowledge when is your heart rate elevating , when is your heart rate decreasing like how do you feel and more listen to your body , rather trying to strive for numbers . Of course I understand it's a good way to measure your progress or your performance in a non-biased way .

If you don't look at it in the training , the whole idea is that you wear and you forget about it , not that you keep on staring at it all the time . So if you want to have good trainings in general , you need your focus to be there in the training . You don't want to be focusing on other things like your phone or your gadgets .

And so not only that , but then we also have a lot of electromagnetic fields which are produced by those devices to connect to our cell phone , and especially when those are not put on airplane mode , especially the earphones , which you cannot put on airplane mode because that's how they connect wirelessly it's through microwave radiation , and microwave radiation is

extremely harmful , especially over long periods of time . It's not so much that . It all depends on the duration and the intensity .

So that's how it works with the non-native electromagnetic fields the more time we're exposed to the non-native electromagnetic fields , the more harm they can cause us , because it's all about how close we are to it and the duration , so it has a compounding effect . What are we doing also the rest of the day ?

So , for example , if I wear for one hour airpods but then the rest of the day I don't use my phone at all , I'm outside , grounded , then that's way better than using your airpods and the whole day using your phone and then using your laptop and then going home and watching TV and never grounding and never being outdoors .

So what's happening there is that you're just constantly bombarding your system , frying your system and stealing energy from your body , and you're making your body in a sympathetic state . So we are constricting the body .

So this is why it's not ideal to wear wireless earphones or to wear fitness trackers , because those are actually taking away from us instead of giving to us . So of course , it's better to use wired earphones if you want to wear earphones .

So you can imagine that when you're in a blue lit gym and they've probably got Wi-Fi going on not far from wherever you're working out , and then you've also got the headphones and the Fitbit and Apple Watch on , you're microwaving yourself and then you're in a bigger

microwave . It's like double microwaving . And then you can imagine when someone goes , they say they do it at 6am in the morning and they're getting that blue light signal very , very early and the body's expecting red , it's expecting infrared , it's expecting maybe a bit of UVA a bit earlier in the morning , but it's only getting blue .

And then that person goes to work in a cubicle and continues the artificial light exposure and Wi-Fi exposure and then kind of wonders why the hair is going gray at the age of 30 . So it's like a hidden damage that people really aren't appreciating .

So I love how you really help to frame these harms and then kind of get people back into a natural environment , because I mean , I had this conversation with Scott Zimmerman on an earlier podcast .

It's like we can use all these fancy terms and give people the kind of minutiae of the quantum level effect of the harm they're doing , but essentially the job that you're helping people with , andreas and I am , is simply just getting back into the environment where we are old . So , what exactly ?

So what else do you like to do from a movement point of view ? What's your approach that you like to help people ?

That's the whole idea where I built these mobility workouts where people can use their body to improve their mobility and get a really good workout out of it at the same time , and so that they can take their body anywhere , no matter where they are , no matter if they're on vacation or if they're in their office or if they are outside of their office you know

the grass during the lunch break , whatever they want to do wherever they can fit into their lifestyle , so they can get some movement in . That's what I help people with and that's the whole idea that we move the body in a holistic manner .

Because doing weight training is not ideal either , because weight training what we are doing , if we are training in a very linear way , in an up and down way , we want to be focusing a lot on rotation , we want to be moving the body more dynamic ways and lengthening the tissues while strengthening the tissues , and that's what helps us improve our mobility as well

. I'm not saying that weight training doesn't improve the mobility , but you just have to know how to do it right . If you are not doing full range of motion in the exercises , if you're not , like you know , really feeling the stretch on specific exercises , you're probably not gaining the mobility that you're aiming for .

This is why I designed these mobility workouts because they are less threatening to the brain , because when we are under load , our system is more afraid . So it's more easy to you know , try and take the body to extremes with the body weight rather than , you know , using weights .

So what you're doing is that you're trying to go inside of your body and you're trying to become aware of every single part of your body as you're moving . This is also how we help ourselves .

Eliminate and prevent injuries is because we're starting to listen to our body and become more in tune , and so by connecting our hands and our feet on the ground , we are also improving our proprioception , which means is the information from our environment . So that's giving us more information of what is gravity like on earth .

You know this is how I'm supposed to respond , so it makes me more badass against gravity . Basically .

So we at least , we are at a neutral state , but we can never be in a in a positive state , just like when we are outdoors .

So when we are indoors we just need to try and prevent the harms , and when we are outdoors we are just naturally getting all the benefits without even trying and that's the beautiful thing of nature Only if we live by nature's laws .

So if we are wearing shoes , that's not going to do us any good , right , because we are not going to be grounded because we are wearing rubber soles .

But if we're wearing something like earth runners or leather , leather shoes , or we are walking on the beach barefoot or on grass and so on , we are getting all those beneficial , beneficial free electrons from the , from the ground , and because the electromagnetic fields from the earth .

They are super important for regulating our circadian rhythm as well , because the body doesn't like , just pay attention to the light , because what is light ? Light is part of the electromagnetic spectrum . It's just the part that we can see or we can't see as well .

So then , also the human resonance is part of the electromagnetic spectrum and the circadian rhythm is also paying attention to that . And when we are indoors , close to Wi-Fi routers or , you know , cell phones other people's cell phones around us , it's confusing our body . It's thinking that , okay , what's going on ? So it puts us in a state of fight and flight .

When we are outdoors , automatically our nervous system is downregulated , so that means that we can actually be more calm and that's actually more beneficial when we are moving and exercising .

You would think it's the opposite , that you want to be more on the edge , more excited when you're training , but actually you want to be more calm and more relaxed because your brain can think more clearly .

You can be more focused , because if you think about yourself in a state when you are really frightened , you feel that everything around you blurs out and you have this tunnel vision and you can't focus . You can only care about one thing , which is surviving . But if you're in a parasympathetic state , you're more receptive to your environment .

You can absorb more information . Your muscles are more relaxed , which is very important for injury prevention , because when we are indoors and we are in a sympathetic state and a fight and flight state , our body is in more of a contraction state .

And when we are in a muscle contraction state , that means not only our muscles but also our organs , right , and all the parts of our body and our brain are not receiving the oxygen , they're not receiving the blood flow that they deserve and the nutrients that they need and also to remove the metabolic waste , which is super , super important , through the lymphatic

system . And so when we are outside , we are actually allowing all of that to take place . And so it's just like magic by being outdoors , because automatically , we are being more optimal with our body and we are literally improving our performance just by simply taking our workouts outside .

And not only that , we're also getting , you know , more nitric oxide because of the sun . That's helping to improve blood flow and we are more relaxed . So then the so if you think about a muscle which is not relaxed , it's like a sponge , so the the water cannot go in the sponge , but then , when the muscle relaxes , all the water can flow into the sponge .

So that's basically how the body works . When you are more relaxed , all the blood can flow everywhere . But when you're more tense you know from the EMS or the blue light , from the cortisol elevation then you're going to be more tense and that has a big impact on your fascia or inside your body .

Like you see a gazelle on the African savannah , and it doesn't . It goes from standing still to full sprint when it , when it's running away from a lion in like in a second , and humans are the only animal that is like , oh hang on , I better do a couple of warm upsets so I don't pull my hamstring .

So I wonder how much degree that what you just talked about , which is the constant grounding , is aiding in , in helping animals like that be so responsive to the need to to spread .

I acknowledge that we are sitting on a chair right now to do this interview , but the most ideal position would be to be in a resting squat . For humans , that is the ideal resting position . Or , if you are ever sitting outside in nature , don't you notice that you can't sit down comfortably somewhere ? There is literally nowhere comfortable to sit down .

You have to keep on moving right . So what this does ? This micro movement , this constant micro movement , allows your body to remain in a ready state .

So you are still in a social engagement state , in a parasympathetic state , but your body is able to switch very quickly into a sympathetic state if it needs to , to run away from a threat or if you were to catch a prey , for example .

But if we are sitting for a prolonged period of time , we start to create stagnation in the body and the stagnation is starting to lead to stiffness . And then , if you combine that with blue light and non-native EMFs , you have major , major stiffness . I mean , I've observed this in everyone who has any desk job , even in myself .

When I have to do my social media work , let's say , if it needs one hour and I'm sitting down , I just feel so stiff afterwards , and the first thing that I do , I do a full-on mobility routine . That takes me like one minute , but I cover the entire body and I just feel golden afterwards .

But it just shows you that just by simply sitting and then adding the electromagnetic field and the blue light , you get even more stiff . But one thing I can tell you , though , is when I'm reading a book , I do not get half a stiff versus when I'm using a computer or a phone .

But if we think about what else these old people are doing in terms of what you're talking about , andreas , is that they're outside all the time and they're moving all the

time , and I think of a lot of long-lived people that I know who are in their hundreds or late 90s and still thriving . They are always moving , they're always moving in constant motion outside . They're doing this , they're doing that .

No one is sitting down all the time and , on the contrary , the most sick patients that you see that are almost kind of on the way to heaven's door in a nursing home with lots of visceral fat . They're petrified in stone almost . They're just completely not moving .

And this is why when you notice some elderly people , for example , when they are in their past or sixties or seventies , they cannot raise their arms , you know , all the way vertically . That is because they haven't been practicing those movements and so those movement patterns .

So this is why so critical to exercise and move the body when you can , and it's never too late to start even that person can actually gain that range of motion back . It's just that it's way easier to do it when it's earlier in life and maintain it , rather than have to do it when you've already lost it and gain it back .

Because I have worked with individuals who have been sixty or seventy years old and we have improved their quality of life Massively , being able to allow them to do a full range squat all the way down after the grass with no knee pain , no hip pain , be able to raise the arms over their head and to be able to get up and down from the floor All of these

very important human functions , and so if we do not practice these things every day , we're definitely going to lose them .

This is why I also teach a lot about crawling in my movement sessions is because it's a very primitive pattern and we are giving more information to the brain . It makes our nervous system feel safe when we are crawling on all fours because we are getting more information from our environment .

But once we've gotten really good at that , that actually allows us to become better walkers , better runners and better sprinters , because before you can run , you must walk . Before you can sprint , you must run . So because the body only gives grants you access To what it feels the most safe , to . This always comes back to the brain and the safety thing .

So if we want to be able to run faster , we need to be able to sprint . We need to be able to just run slower and show the body that we can slow down , because this is actually teaching the body that , okay , he's in control .

So I can give him more , I can give him more range of motion in his legs , I can give him more power , more explosiveness , and so sprinting is a fantastic exercise , also on the metabolic side of things as well , because we are using a lot of glucose from the system and that's allowing us to deplete our glucose and that's actually putting less stress on our

insulin as well , and so then we're able to go into more of a , into more of a fat burning state if our diet is primarily low carb and with high in fine , high protein . But if we are eating very high carbohydrate , very high fat and very low protein , we are not really going to go into that fat utilization state .

We're just going to use Whatever is there , and they might be even some excess . So we actually want to be doing it right if we're doing it for fat loss reasons .

But if we're doing it , for example , for athleticism , then that's completely different because , let's say , you are metabolically healthy , you don't have a lot of visceral fat and and fat on your on your belly area to lose and you want to optimize your performance . Then you want to carbohydrate seasonally and to do it strategically around your training .

But yeah , I think sprinting is fantastic as well and , like Andre said , if you haven't sprinted before you , it definitely is a great idea to build up , and I like the way that you framed that , that crawling kind of progression , that stepwise progression into into full sprinting , and yeah , I think that's a great idea and yeah , I never thought about it that way

, but it does make sense that when , when you're crawling or using all four hands on the ground , that to me is a pretty ancestrally appropriate Kind of movement pattern .

And if you think about mammalian evolution I mean we only evolve bipedalism , hummel , I mean it's a fair while back , but if you look at our closest prime of primate ancestors , they , they're very often crawling gorillas , just like that . They , they're very often crawling gorillas , chimpanzees .

They're using their hands to move in a lot , lot more than we are as as humans . So , yeah , that that makes a lot of sense to me . And maybe , maybe we could talk a bit about your specific approaches to men versus women . Do you make any distinction about exercise advice to men compared to women ?

because we want to allow the body to restore and to recover , because it's going through a very energy , costly process when we are losing blood and so on , and we have to make sure that we are taking it a little bit more easy .

And this is why my mobility workouts are perfect way , because we can tune them In a way that we don't need to be taxing the nervous system so much , because with the body weight you don't . Also , you can do that with weights too . Of course you don't have to just go all out on the way , to just have to be a bit more wise .

But with weight is more easy to go overboard and to really push yourself , whereas with body weight you can , you know , pace yourself more and be a bit more in tune

with your body . So with guys it's a we have , like an appropriate time of the day to train . The same for ladies as well , but For the ladies we have to consider which part of their cycle they're in , to know when we can actually push and when it's time to back off .

For , for women , do you have any specific recommendations ? I mean , I like yoga . I think that yoga is great for both men , men and women , but particularly perhaps leading up to the period , something like a mobility , mobility and yoga is something that I really like to recommend .

Anything that would be endurance , for example , as long as it's not overly taxing , can be good .

But holistic movements , moving on all fours and being , you know , in tune with your body , foam rolling , you know , doing so on us , massage guns , all the stuff that's basically self care things those are the most ideal things for ladies to incorporate before and after their their period so that they can restore themselves and to also prepare themselves .

Yeah , great advice .

So cold exposure has to be done wisely and we have to consider Exactly , as you said , the time of the day that we're doing it .

And if you're trying to do it to improve your performance and to allow you to be able to be ready for the next day , for example , let's say you are playing football , american football , and you have to games back to back , you know Saturday and Sunday , then of course , doing it , you know as much as you can during those two days .

It's , it's okay to do because you're actually allowing your body to be in , you know , ready faster , you don't get a sore . But if you're trying to build muscle , it's more ideal to , you know , postpone it a couple hours later . Or even on your rest days to do ice baths .

You know so because it does decrease , like blood flow , it does decrease inflammation and inflammation is required , required for the recovery process , because we do need inflammation . We need inflammation , but just in the in the right time . So when we are exercising we are breaking down things , and this is why .

Why I like the mobility workouts is because if you take them more easy , you don't break down so much muscle . But the more you push yourself , the more muscle you can break down . And so when you break down more muscle , obviously that's going to lead to rebuilding and that takes a lot of energy from the body .

But then you also need the inflammatory process to take place to be able to aid that recovery .

So , yeah , I really think that your approach of being specific about our intent , of why we're using the cold and how we're using it , is great , great advice .

Let's let's talk about diet quickly , because you mentioned earlier in the podcast that what might be appropriate at the finish , northern latitude and in terms of our dietary carbohydrate intake , is not going to be the same for someone at a Equatorial latitude , and I think it's not going to be the same for someone who has metabold disease or leptin or insulin

resistance . So , yes , you talk to us about you did the dietary advice that you give to a lot of your clients , maybe based on those nuances .

So that indicates to us immediately that , okay , maybe I should consider not eating those things , because even though they are available in the supermarket , or even in the freezer section which has been shipped from you know , brazil , costa Rica , you know , and so on then that doesn't mean that you , you should be eating that food , because he's creating a circadian

mismatch at the time of the year , because we don't have only like a 24 hour circadian rhythm , we have also like a yearly circadian season or circadian rhythm , so our body can tell what time of the year it is and how it should change its processes internally .

And so , basically , when , when you are living at a higher latitude , you cannot tolerate so many carbohydrate rich foods and you should be aiming for more fat and High protein foods , which are basically animal foods .

Those are the best sources and the most by available , whereas if you are living closer to the equator , you have an abundant amount of fruits and vegetables . But If you are metabolically unhealthy and you need to fix your leptin and your insulin and you have high blood glucose , then for sure .

You should probably not consume , you know , high carbohydrates , even if you're living on the equator , because Even this is one thing that I noticed with a lot of individuals , for example , here in Cyprus , is that , even though they live in Cyprus , it's as if they are living in a Nordic country . Do you know why ? Why , because they're living indoors .

Even our body thinks we're , you know , living at a higher latitude and you know everything is out of sync , so everything is not working as it should .

So we also , when we're living closer to the equator , we also have a higher UV environment , as you mentioned , and this is actually allowing us to detoxify more and to sweat more , and this is actually allowing us to get rid of a heavy metal called deuterium which is clogging our mitochondria .

Deuterium is not necessarily a bad thing , it's just a bad thing in excess and especially in individuals who are metabolically unhealthy .

And the more deuterium we deplete , the more we can intake , but the more we have accumulated inside our system through eating fruits and vegetables , because it's primarily found in coconuts , cacao , fruits , vegetables those are like the highest sources and probably some supplements as well , which we need to be aware of .

Creating coherence between your body and your environment , whether that is being out in the sunlight to sink the body up with the circadian signal for that particular time of day , whether it's grounding to give your body a geographical point of orientation and coherence for the exact latitude that you're at , or it's giving a coherent signal through the consumption of

food that is growing at that location . It's almost it's so simple .

It's complicated , I think , for a lot of people and I heard Dr Jack Cruz mentioned once in a recent podcast is humanity is unable to survive above the 60th latitude , and that's and one of the reasons is because or can't thrive above that latitude is because there's not a lot of photosynthesis going on .

But what happens is when people are inside , or they're wearing clothing , they're wearing sunglasses , they're not getting out , they're essentially simulating a low UV environment .

So so , as you say , if you're eating a carb or seed oil rich diet while simulating a low UV environment , that is a massive recipe for developing insulin leptin resistance and packing on the visceral fat .

You know it's when we have this micro inflammation in the body , then , you know , we get like things like plaque buildup and so on in the cardiovascular systems , because our bodies trying to protect us from the inflammation .

So this is something that we need to be aware of and we need to try and be in sync with the environment as much as we can , because by simply just going outside and waking up with the sunrise , going to bed with the sunset , or , if we're not going to bed with the sunset , at least wearing red , blue light blockers at night and using red light bulbs in the

home to make the body think that it's still sunset until we decide to go to bed , then you know that's the way , you know , for the body to be healthy , because we are aligning ourselves with nature . When we just observe nature and we observe all the animals , they're constantly grounded right , they are always

outside and if they are not in the sun , they're in the shade , because they're smart and we are the only ones who put on sunscreens , put on sunglasses and think that we can spend 10 hours in the sun just because we've applied those things on our body . You know we're just defying the laws of nature .

Even animals are so clever that when they get enough sun they go in the shade . But they're still receiving the full spectrum light because they're just simply in the shade . They're not indoors .

And I think that the to give an asset or a facet about diet , and we can talk quickly about carnivore , because I'm sure that a lot of people , or some of your clients , are using a carnivore type diet . So when , when have you found benefit for people using carnivore ?

there . It's allowing to sync the body in accordance with nature . So , basically , when we eat a high fat diet , what we're doing we're actually improving our mitochondrial function , and the mitochondria are the ones that are creating the energy in the system . And when we are able to generate more energy , we're able to heal ourselves .

Because if we don't have energy , we can't repair , we can't have performance , we can't have health , we can't have vitality , because what is vitality ? Vitality is literally to have an excess of energy than what you actually need , because that means that you have creativity , enthusiasm , you know you're outgoing , you're all of those things .

That what nature does to you . It allows you to optimize your mitochondrial function without even trying . So anybody who has those metabolic conditions for sure needs to consider using a carnivore style diet .

And because those nutrients are the most bioavailable as well and the least taxing on the gut as well , because the more foods we are putting in our system , the more taxed our gut becomes , and that's how we get all the bloating and the leaky gut issues . Especially if people have dysregulated circadian rhythms , they are more likely to have leaky gut too .

And if you are eating foods which have phytonutrients , which are defense chemicals in plants and different things like this that are going to irritate the gut , then what's going to happen is when you eat those , those are going to enter the bloodstream because of the leaky gut and it's going to cause inflammation .

And if you're doing that over a prolonged period of time and you start to gain weight even though you're supposedly eating right let's say you're already eating vegetables and high protein and high fat , where you're still gaining fat then it might be something to consider that you need to actually heal the gut by fixing first the circadian rhythm and then , secondly ,

the diet Amazing .

and turnover , and the contributing factor , or key contributing factor , to leaky gut or is a disrupted circadian rhythm . So people might otherwise be able to tolerate a small amount of plant foods and still thrive if the circadian rhythm were intact , which I think is a point that you've made and I make , that not many people are coming to .

So the other implication I think that is worth spelling out is that once we are healed from a gut point of view , from a leptin insulin resistance point of view , from a visceral fat point of view , to me we don't need to restrict ourselves from locally grown seasonal carbohydrates if we're healthy and it's appropriate to that season .

And it's my opinion I don't know what you , I'll get your opinion on this but it was my opinion that I think the one reason why Dr Paul Saldino stopped recommending strict carnivore diet was because it stopped working for him because he was trying to maintain that strict zero carb approach at a very equatorial latitude .

And of course , when we carbohydrate rich foods , that holds onto more water inside the body , so that allows more cellulite hydration , even though that's not the most ideal water , because our body makes its own water , might conjure , make the most pristine water that exists , but that's primarily through a , you know , ketogenic style diet .

But when we carbohydrate rich foods , then we are not able to make as much of that water as well . So I guess that eating , eating fruits in the right context , is very important .

So , and if you , if it's perfect for your body , so if you're metabolically healthy , if you don't have caracacus , if you're leptin sensitive , if your circadian rhythms are in check , and if you feel that you are lacking the energy in your training and with your performance and you are , your sleep is disrupted because your cortisol is too high , then it's probably

beneficial for you to incorporate some carbohydrates . But again , it's , it should be in , not in excess . It should be kept to a minimum , because we should only supply the body with carbohydrates when it actually needs it , not because we think it needs it . So this is again coming back to trying to listen to our body . That how am I feeling today ?

Do I have improved energy levels after eating a papaya , for example ? But eating a papaya every day might not be the ideal thing . So this is something that you need to experiment with . So , for example , you might try one week eating a papaya every day , but that's the only carb that you eat , and you eat just the carnival of the rest of the diet .

And then the next week you experiment by eating it every other day and observe how you feel , and maybe minimizing the portion size to half a papaya and then eating every day and finding that amount which is perfect for your body , because everybody's so bio-individual and everyone's metabolisms are different .

You know , we all carry different amounts of muscle mass , and the closer you are to the equator , the more carbohydrates you can handle , and so this is all things that we need to consider when thinking about the amount of carbohydrates that we should be eating , and the carbs that we should be eating are the things that really only existed more than 100 years ago

, because if we're eating something like pasta or wheat or , you know , pizza , all this process stuff you know , which didn't exist , this is going to cause havoc and chaos on our system and that's honestly never good , no matter what time of the year , because it just didn't exist in nature .

and if you're metabolically healthy , and that might look like half a papaya twice a week , and maybe if you've got much less UV light or healthy sunlight in the week leading up to it , you don't eat the papaya , or if you do eat it , you're making sure you're outside , you know , close to solar noon .

So these are all the nuances that we like to make that , I think , get people closer to what is going to be ideal for them . So amazing stuff . I really have enjoyed this conversation , andreas , do you have any kind of closing thoughts or anything that we haven't covered that you'd like to tell the audience ?

So when we are indoors , we are more likely to create an incoherent environment , which is not circadian appropriate , and we are surrounded by other people's electromagnetic fields .

Even if we are not carrying a cell phone on us , even if we are not wearing smartwatches or earphones , we are surrounded by other people's phones and earbuds , and we have the fluorescent lights overhead and so on . And what this does is that it dehydrates the body , just as you mentioned previously , like a microwave .

And when we dehydrate the body , we put our body at greater risk for injury , because our body is primarily made out of water , and especially when we look at the fascia , like how it's , you know , mainly made out of water , which is this phylogenous tendons-style structure in the body like a spider web , if that's dehydrated , that is a greater risk at rupturing ,

for the reason being that it's less pliable , because anything that is , you know , more dry is not going to flex or be able to stretch as far , but something that is more hydrated is going to less likely , you know , have a damage , and so by being outdoors we're actually stimulating cellular hydration through the light and through the grounding , through the

electromagnetic fields of the ground and all the positive electrons I mean the negative electrons that we're getting from the ground as well .

So this is why it's so important to try and consider taking our exercise outdoors if we can , because it's another reason to be outside , because too much of us are spending time indoors more than we actually want to , because you know we are going from home , driving in the car , getting out of the car , going into the office , out of the office to the store

all of these places are indoors and the system has been designed in a way where we are literally stuck indoors . So that was my closing thought that we should try and consider to be outside as much as we can .

The other aspect to this and maybe we'll really just quickly touch on this is I remember hearing a case on Twitter of a gentleman who was a strict carnivore I'm not sure for how long , there wasn't a lot of kind of information around the case , but he was a strict carnivore and he had an acute myocardial infarction .

He had an LAD stenosis , so so-called widowmaker , despite being on a very low insulin kind of insulin provoking diet , which is carnivore . But the reason why he found out about this attack is because he went into atrial fibrillation , which is an irregular heart rhythm , and it was detected on his Apple Watch and in his photo he was in a gym .

He was in , I believe . He was indoors and in a gym .

So to me I'm thinking OK , so what is the context of which someone might have such a severe problem Like , develop a , have an AMI in a coronary artery occlusion , despite having a low insulin environment , which is , if we think about endothelial dysfunction as kind of the underlying reason why we're developing blood clots in our atrial system , then it kind of this

circadian and quantum perspective that you've just given us over the last hour really kind of makes that makes it Makes sense to me in terms of why that guy would have perhaps developed this problem . And one he's got his Apple Watch on , he's exposed to non-native EMS . He'd be in a gym working out under blue light , he would not be grounded .

And we know we haven't mentioned in this interview but grounding has an incredible ability to increase the Zeta potential of your red blood cells and reduce coagulability . So that's kind of interesting thought experiment at any equals one . But it to me makes logical and rational sense .

Why not respecting our evolved natural light environment could lead to a problem like a severe cardiac problem like this ?

Because if you are , let's say , working in an office and in your home you've got the Wi-Fi always on , even when you sleep , so you're bombarded constantly by the EMS and you're constantly putting your body in a sympathetic state , even though you're not aware of it .

And then you're going to train in a blue light gym with putting your body under more load , under more stress , you're more likely to be presented with these kind of problems if your body is under more load . So the greater the load it's under , the more likely we are to be presented with something that we don't want to be presented with .

And I guess this idea of burying your mitochondrial density in the muscles as opposed to in the brain and in the heart Stealing electrons from where it's required most .

And one thing that we actually didn't talk about was the melanin melanin topic , and that's why , also , training outdoors is so beneficial , because it's another way for us to build our melanin and to absorb actually electrons , you know , from the from the sun . So

it's a fantastic , another fantastic reason to be outside .

I offer nutrition coaching which is circadian , appropriate and seasonally appropriate , accessorily appropriate and also lifestyle optimization .

So to consider all the other aspects of life which we didn't touch upon , like the other environmental stressors and to crime disruptors you know , all the things in the home that could be causing havoc and stress and inflammation on our system , because all of these things , they can have a massive impact on our recovery process , our sleep , our performance and our

health and vitality . So this is I like to use a holistic approach when it comes to moving and exercise , but also the nutrition side of things as well , and also those mobility workouts that we talked about . You can find them on my website .

So thanks , Andreas , really appreciate you coming on .