Russ: Sarah, I can tell just from seeing you on the screen that your world tour is now over. You’ve left America. There’s a bit of sadness left in the states and longing for you to come back.
Sarah: Yeah. A little bit of sunshine in the UK.
Russ: Yes, exactly. You’re the only form of sunshine in the UK, right now.
Sarah: That’s exactly right. Yeah, it’s cold. There’s a snowstorm the whole thing going on. I got my hot water bottle, but it’s all good.
Russ: Who’s your rebel friend?
Sarah: Shawn Wells. Hi, Shawn. How are you?
Shawn Wells: I am wonderful. I’m talking to Sarah Turner. I mean, my life has got to be pretty good.
Sarah: Yeah. Well, we have the world’s greatest formulator on today. It’s a first for the Rebel Scientist!
Shawn Wells: I’m a Rebel Scientist. And I have been a rebel scientist. I’m a biochemist that worked on all these new cool ingredients and push things out to the market when all my scientific buddies and clinical buddies are like, that won’t work or that’s a waste of time, or we’ve got a drug for that. So I’m a rebel too.
Sarah: Yeah, you’re the OG by the sound of it. How cool is that?
Russ: Shawn what was the first moment when you’re like, I get to do this, like, I’m gonna do this on my own. What was that first moment for you?
Shawn Wells: So I was a morbidly obese, I struggled a lot with bullying and in a chaotic youth in my home, and a lot of stuff going on. And I ended up getting into college, I was going to school for a business degree, and working out using protein and creatine and just come out and I was hitting the weights, and I started transforming my body in a way that I’d never been able to, and having more self-esteem than I ever had. And I was reading all these muscle mags. And there was this one magazine, I ended up meeting this guy, and he ended up becoming a mentor of mine, Dr. Mark Hoyer, he worked at this company, Muscle Tech, and he was actually a cardiologist. And he had like, the lab coat and like test tubes, and whatever. And he was like formulating supplements, on these ads, and I was like, “Wow, that’s cool.” Like, how cool it’d be to be this one guy, and literally is the only guy that was like, visible in an ad is the formulator. But I was like, “Wow, it’s like a real thing. I could be this.” And I ended up going to the doctor for routine physical in between my sophomore and junior year.
And my doctor was like, “Oh, my goodness, you’ve made tons and tons of positive changes here. This is awesome.” And I was telling him about how supplements changed my life and how passionate I am about them. And he ended up drawing out this lifeline between age 20 and 80 (hopefully I live longer than that), but he said that, “Why not be happy between here and here?” And I was like, damn, okay.
It totally changed my life path where I decided to focus on becoming this formulator I didn’t think about it being like a realistic thing. So that was kind of the genesis of all of it was just this doctor stepping in saying, “Why don’t you do this thing?”
Sarah: But you’re already a chemist then Shawn. Were you kinda know this stuff already?
Shawn Wells: No, no, I was just getting my business degree. I ended up getting my minor in Chemistry while I was getting my business degree and then, it took about two years of like 26 credit hours a semester of like solid prereqs to get all the sciences and then I got into Chapel Hill for my master’s and worked on biochemistry and Nutrition and Exercise Science and all that kind of stuff. But now at the time I was a business student and I thought that’s what I was going to be so that completely changed my life path and I’m I wouldn’t be who I am if that guy hadn’t said what he said so that just goes to show you like the impact. You can make my nice seeking your heart, right? Having the authenticity, the care, the concern, the empathy. So, that was life changing for me.
Russ: It’s interesting how much impact a doctor can have on your life. Because I think it’s the most vulnerable, you’re probably ours when you’re sitting in a doctor’s office, and you’re like, waiting for them to give you some feedback. And for you, he number one give you positive feedback, or she gives you positive feedback around, like, look at the changes you made. But it also pushed you in that direction. I’ve had many doctors who are so busy, they don’t really give you that one to one care. And when they get some of them and give you the one to one care, and it’s all scientific diagnostic, and it’s like, here’s this, here’s this, do this, and there’s nothing there. So you’re lucky in that frame that you got a solid emotional care doctor.
Shawn Wells: Well, and at the time, we really held doctors in high regard, and they were authoritarian figures, was like the epitome of success in my mind. Like I didn’t know, entrepreneurs. At that time, I didn’t know influencers, like there wasn’t Instagram rich and Instagram famous, there wasn’t crypto, like, my dream was to somehow someway make it $200,000 A year get the white picket fence and, and the wife and kids and whatever. And, and, and be a part of some big organization and have a good job. And I had no idea I’d become what I’ve become, but at the time, like, that’s what was realistic in my head. And that was actually dreaming pretty high. So like to talk to a doctor who to me was like, beyond rich and beyond successful and went to all the school and him tell me this was like, “Wow, I’m gonna listen.” So and it’s awesome to think how impactful that was on me. And that he realized the impact that he could make. And he took the time to do that.
Sarah: Yeah, fabulous. I mean, it’s cool. I want to hear all about all of the successes. And I know that you’ve patented a few of your formulas. But tell us, Shawn, what were there any flops along the way? Were there any true disasters along the way to getting these formulations together, cuz I can imagine the crazy scientist with the white coat and all the test tubes and everything. I mean, that was my dream, too, as a kid.
Shawn Wells: Oh, man, like, I can’t even tell it like, so many lessons learned. I remember I was formulating for this one company called Man Sports. It was a smaller but really scientific sports nutrition company is early on in my career. And I found this really cool ingredient that would help for metabolism called raspberry ketones, and I just put it in the product. And literally, within months, it was in hundreds of products. Within two years, it was on Dr. Oz. And I would walk in stores and it would just be like, I’d walk into like a Walgreens or a Walmart or whatever. And there would be hundreds of bottles of raspberry ketones, and I didn’t make a dime off any of it. And like that’s like the moment I was like, ‘pffff’, like I could be like, laying on a beach, rest of my life that I patented this so that’s when I was like, I need to figure out this whole intellectual property. And that was kind of the start of that so that’s like when I started working on creatine and dynamine and some of these energy ingredients that are now in like 700 products that was the start of that and I got some partners on those products. It was Dr. Tim Ziegenfuss and Dr. Hector Lopez and then I planted a bunch of ingredients since.
Sarah: And which I mean are they all energy formulas because I know you have an energy book but is that your kind of trademark the energy formulas?
Shawn Wells: Yeah, it really is.
I mean that that is the book name and the whole book revolves around getting more energy through diet, through exercise, through wearables and blood work and through biohacking devices and mindset and circadian rhythm and routines.
And the whole book revolves around ways to get more energy, the energy formula, but I would say my ingredients do largely follow that concept of because I’ve spent so much of my life low on energy. I had Epstein Barr, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, Hashimotos I’ve had brain tumors. I’ve had two discs replaced in my neck was morbidly obese. I’ve been depressed and anxious and suicidal thoughts. I’ve almost killed myself three times. I mean, I’ve lived like, on a very low level of energy and had a lot of sickness, disease and illness. And that’s how I learned supplements. That’s how I learned biohacking. And really, it wasn’t until a couple years ago that I really turned a big corner on learning to love myself. And that was with plant medicine that that really shifted my whole mindset, my whole heart. And then I found that all the biohacking was keeping me alive. But after I had this shift in my heart, the biohacking was a massive plus on the foundation of self-love. But I see a lot of bio hackers that are just doing it to keep pushing the limits like, “Okay, I’m at 90%. How do I get to 100%, a 110%?” And it’s just, I’ve operated that way for most of my life. And I could do it I would work at 100 hours a week all those things, but if something came in, some trauma came in, some issue came in, some sickness came in, like it just wrecked me wreck my world, like, send me reeling. And that’s when I would start getting severe depression and suicidal thoughts and all that kind of stuff. And you think like you’re unstoppable when you can just keep pushing and pushing and pushing and pushing the limits.
But it wasn’t until like, I really had that big shift in plant medicine that I was like, I can love myself. And it not be, I think, like I spent my whole life waiting for like the right love to come to me, that I would love myself, like external validation would finally allow me to love myself. And you can tell someone, you just need to love yourself. But it’s not until you anchor it and feel it like on a true physiologic level, which can happen in these plant medicine spaces.
That it just becomes something real, like, it was profound for me, like I had just solved E equals MC squared or something, for me, it’s like, “Wait, I can just have love, I can just give up I don’t need to like ...”, you’re like it was profound for me to like, think that. So that’s for me, like when everything shifted, and all the bio hacks became a huge plus, on top of that.
Russ: Shawn, you just like you tapped into my favorite thing, which is self-love. Because when I found it too, and I remember the exact moment, the exact place the weather, when it just clicked for me to be like, “Oh, like, it’s not about trying to please that person to then have them tell me that, yes, you’re good enough for the job to see you’re good enough.” I had gone through enough of that. But it’s really the first time where I think you’ve validated it of like the whole self, not just the supplemental, or the exercise, or the freezing cold or the red light. It’s the whole self. That’s all connected here. And Sarah and I see differently on some of these things. Because the holistic piece of the meditation and yoga, I do that because it connects me back to reality. It’s like get out of my head. I’m curious, when you look at your circadian rhythms and you start to set your day in motion, do you actually start with meditation? Do you start with kind of clearing your head and getting ready for the day? So you can do that? Have your kind of incorporated all those things into your life now?
Shawn Wells: Yeah, there’s actually two things that, when Tim Ferriss did his book Tools of Titans that he found that successful people have in common. And one, it’s a great morning routine, because it sets the tone for the day. And two, it’s reframing, just having a reframing mindset. And that’s really having a resilient mindset, which is really, in essence, stoicism, the obstacles the way kind of thinking. But I do, I start out my morning doing some breath work like right out of the gate, I’ll do some box breathing. So for people that don’t know what that is, like, you can do like a four to eight second box where you breathe in for four seconds, hold for four seconds, breathe out for four seconds, hold for four seconds, and you repeat that. And so I do that for a minute or two. And I feel like that gets me into the parasympathetic state. And then I start doing gratitude work where I say like all the things that I’m thankful for loud, I think it’s important to use your voice, you can get into throat chakra and all that kind of stuff. But it’s important to actually use your voice and project out loud. I think way too many people are suppressing their truth.
And when I’m in plant medicine spaces, we see that a lot that like, people finally speak up and say their truth and become the things that they want to be its gay, trans, get divorced, get married, like, whatever it is, quit that job, you know, go start that company. Like they finally speak their truth. And I think that’s really important. So I do project this out loud. \
And I say all the things I’m thankful for, I have so much gratitude that my dog is here with me, that loves me that I have a car that I have a house that I’m in that I have food this morning, that I have air that I’m breathing, that I’m alive another day, like all these things I’m thankful for. And then I also do affirmations, and then talk about that, today I’m going to impact someone’s life. And I’m going to go out of my way to make sure that happens. That I am healthy and wealthy. And I’m intelligent and brilliant. And I just lay it on myself, this is self-love.
And it’s also a manifestation and how I believe I am now and how I want to be in the future. And those just kind of blend together. And I get out of bed and then do some stretching, get into my body and move my body, connect to my body, through my nervous system and my muscles and then get a big glass of water and hydrate and all of that takes 10 minutes. And people don’t have time for morning routine, and whatever. It’s like, whatever you do, you really do and for me what that does to move you into a grounded manifesting parasympathetic state. Instead of the chaos of the morning, I just roll out of bed and mai, mai, mai, mai, like, let me grab my coffee I’m running behind. That’s like what that does to your day, those 10 minutes have a massive impact on your day, it’s going to set the tone for your entire day that you are a manifester, that you are great that you have so many things that you’re blessed for, that you can use breath powerfully to get into your body, get into your right mindset that you can move your body to get into that body. And to get into the right mindset. You have these tools. Like, these are tools I use throughout the day. And it’s like, I’m telling myself, I have these tools, I can use gratitude, I can use affirmations, I can use stretching, I can use breath work. And when I start my day, that way, I know that those are tools that I can grab during the day if something comes up. So for me, that’s just 10 minutes. And they’ve had a profound impact on my life.
Sarah: Yeah, I mean, we were doing the podcasts in a way where it was like, we were starting with the basics. So, we had Molly on first because we’re kind of thinking like sleep, you got to get sleep. If you get your sleep right, you’re halfway there. And then we had Kristin with breath work. And then we were kind of working up through so I met you a little bit later on because we could have we should have put you a little bit earlier in there. Because the nutrition piece and making sure that you’ve got all the right supplements and everything else, of course, needs to come a little further down. But maybe not maybe we’ve got it the right way round because maybe, the gratitude and everything is more important than that. We kind of had it that we would do, sleep, sleep well, eat well, breathe well, and then all of this other is cherry on the top. But I think maybe, what you’ve just said maybe that’s the gratitude, the breathing, that mindset probably should come much earlier on.
Russ: One area that I like, because I’m the novice here like, my goal and all of these shows is just to make all of these really complicated sounding things and acronym things palatable to just the general person because I am the general person and I’m practicing more, but I’m still a disgusting mess sometimes inside with my stomach and parts of my body. And I’m curious with your general practice, in your formulation, practice, like, how do you take someone to get started, like, what’s the first step you get them into, to really get going?
Shawn Wells: I would change the language that you use so instead of ... You saying that you’re practicing, I would say that this is who you are now. And that describe our way this prior way served you be thankful for the old view that got you here. But that’s no longer where you want to be, it served you. But it’s no longer where you want to be. And so you talk about manifesting who it is and that you are and where you want to be. And then I would not ever refer to myself as a disgusting mess. There’s, for example, in plant medicine, with Ayahuasca, there’s people say, “Oh, you know that you might throw up or have diarrhea, or all this stuff, how disgusting.” And it’s like, that’s exactly why you might need to do that. Because those things are not disgusting. Those things are miraculous, and amazing and serve function, to your life, to your body. And it’s a beautiful thing, that our body has the capability to get rid of the stuff that it needs to get rid of, to purge itself of the things that needs to purge itself. And just like the body holds the score, keep score, like, that’s the idea. Like sometimes people need to purge trauma, and it can link to physical purging. But none of those things are dirty. It’s just like saying, a woman’s menstruation is dirty, when it’s like, one of the most powerful, beautiful, amazing things in the universe. We’ve been taught that all these things are dirty, that are not dirty. So I would start having gratitude for the things that are absolutely incredible about your body, and how much it served you despite you not serving it back. And I would just shift my language.
Russ: Very fair point. Thank you.
Shawn Wells: I’m not calling you out, because this is stuff I’ve worked on too. So, I’m actually thinking, I’ve done a lot of work in NLP, neuro linguistic programming, which is like kind of like the basis for what Tony Robbins, Jim Quick, Brendon Burchard, like a lot of these guys’ use, and it’s, it’s reprogramming. And that’s actually what happens in plant medicine is that you are in a state where you’re turning off the default mode network, and you’re in a hyper neuroplastic state. And you can essentially rewire, you can re-pattern. These neurological connections, your neurons that fire together, wire together, but when you’re in this state, you can kind of break that apart and re-pattern everything is neuro plastic.
So when the ego is dissolved, you’re in this neuro plastic state. And so that’s work that I’ve done is really shifting my language. And again, it starts with that I started out with a morning routine. I would tell you to just start with that 10 minutes of like, really speaking kindly to yourself, because we talk so terribly, I told you, so reframing is one of the most key things to being a success.
Most of us are reframing in a negative way. We’re saying, “Ah, sucks. This sucks. This is oh, this figures, just my luck. You know, this always happens to me, whatever,” so we’re reframing negatively. The reframing positively is like, “Wow, this is such a cool lesson, like, wow, the universe is always working on my behalf. Wow, there’s such an opportunity in this,” that I think most aren’t seeing, those are things that create success.
Sarah: To be able to have that mindset, though, you need to be functioning at a certain level. Because I’ve had times in my life where I’m eating well, I’m on my top of my game, and I can do the reframe very well. And I can do it for people around me, and I’m totally on fire. But sometimes, if you haven’t slept, or you’re not eating the right food, or you’re not getting the nutrients or whatever, it’s difficult even to get into that mindset.
Shawn Wells: For sure! That’s called decision fatigue, like, when you’re tired, and you’re not optimized that you end up going for what’s energetically the easiest, which means you falling back on bad routines and old habits. So this has to become conditioning. And that’s why I’m talking about it, it’s so critical that you do this first thing in the morning. When you’re in that tired state when you work with Dr. Joe Dispenza. Like a lot of the work is done when you’re most fatigued because you can’t use logic and your ego at full strength to kind of overcome what’s healthier for you, like getting into these new mind states.
Sarah: Of course, but there are some supplements and things out there. Just getting back to that the supposedly helps you do that. I mean, there are so many nootropics, energy supplements, there’s all kinds of things out there. I mean, this is a bit of a minefield for people. Because if you’ve got your sleep right, we’ve kind of coached people through you’ve got your sleep, you’ve got your breathing. What else can you do to kind of give yourself a bit of a chance of being able to make these better choices, really?
Shawn Wells: Yeah, if you’re metabolically dysfunctional, the ketogenic diet is going to be super helpful, because about 88% of Americans are metabolically dysfunctional, which means they’re insulin resistant, which means their mitochondrial dysfunctional, which means they’re not getting enough ATP, because they’re not getting enough blood glucose into the cell, and it’s hanging around too long as insulin. So when you give this alternate fuel substrate of ketones to these brain cells, these neurons, then they can create enough ATP. And you will turn those lights back on as a result, because you have brain energy. And that literally, it’s called brain energy gap in the brain when there’s a shortfall of ATP being made when there’s insulin resistance, and it’s called type three diabetes when you’re referred to Alzheimer’s, that’s insulin resistance in the brain. So I mean, that’s one big thing, and then anything that’s going to promote ketones,
so that’s where berberine, and even better dihydroberberine, no one that I’ve patented, which is about five times more bioavailable and lasts about twice as long in the plasma. That’s a glucose disposal agent that’s going to lower blood glucose, lower insulin,
increase ketone levels. Some other ones are going to be the exogenous ketones. In particular, the active isomer R or DBHB, beta hydroxy butyrate. And then with MCT is the seed MCT is caprylic acid. And all this stuff like in the book in the energy formula, so that’s all the doses everything. And then as far as like some other nootropic ingredients that are kind of foundational for me, I like a high DHA fish oil. I like Alpha GPC, which is a high bioavailability form of choline that crosses blood brain barrier, acetylcholine. Supplementation is going to be like at the foundation of any nootropic stack, like when we’re thinking a lot, when we’re focused a lot we’re burning through a lot of acetylcholine. So having a good high bioavailability form of choline, like Alpha GPC is ideal. And then B12, especially in the form of Methylcobalamin, the active form, that’s going to be good for neurological health as well as P5P, which is the active form of B6. And then from there, some things that may improve blood flow and improve brain health would be the polyphenols, whether through the diet or through supplementation, when you look at some of the blue zones across the world, like Sardinia, Italy, Costa Rica Nosara like they’re higher in polyphenols and their diet so that you know, you look at things like, green tea, tara stilbene, and blueberries. The catechins and in dark chocolate, resveratrol and red wine, quercetin and onions and apples. These are things that are just anti-aging compounds but also lower blood sugar, lower blood pressure, improve blood flow vasodilation, they’re just super nutrients. So I’m a huge fan of polyphenols and you can get some supplements that have a blend of them. There was a product from Bulletproof called poly phenomenal that I liked that had a blend of them. There’s some other products as well. And then also CBD, and some of the other cannabinoids, the endocannabinoid system, the ECS is known as the master regulator. And this is fascinating because there’s doctors that focus on the neurological system, the cardiovascular system, the musculoskeletal system. But here, there’s this master regulator system of pain of inflammation, and so much more. And we don’t know shit about it. And it’s just crazy that like people have deficiencies, and there’s all these, there’s literally hundreds of cannabinoids, and we don’t know anything. I mean, it’s crazy. And so it’s really hard for me to diagnose because there’s not a lot of data. There’s some data on CBD. But the powers that be are kind of stifling that data frustratingly. But obviously, there’s some data on THC, but they’re CBN, CBG. There’s a lot of different cannabinoids and then the ratios of them and your deficiencies of them. We just don’t know a lot. But what we do see is that it can radically transform in the right doses in the right forms. You know, mood, well-being brain function, inflammation, pain, etc.
Sarah: All immune system is really like especially in the brain, the immune system is linked to the endocannabinoid system.
Shawn Wells: Exactly, exactly. So all that’s pretty massive, and can have a big nootropic effect. And then, from there, trying to think if there’s anything else that I would recommend, well, there’s tea green and diamine, like my energy ingredients that are far better than caffeine. They’ve been shown to not have the side effects like caffeine, like the anxiety, the arrhythmias, etc. There isn’t the bio individuality that occurs with caffeine where you have fast and slow metabolizers, genetically, fast metabolizer say I can go straight to bed and slow metabolizers have all the side effects of brain fog and anxiety that sleep disruption. They don’t have the habituation or adaptation effects of caffeine that habituation is like the physiologic dependence on it. And the adaptation is the kind of decreased effect over time that you see with caffeine. So none of those occur with these methylasynes that I’ve worked on tea cream, is the longer acting one and dynamine is the shorter acting one. And people are there in about 700 products now. And basically anything and energy drinks, fat burners, pre workouts, nootropics has these ingredients. So they work great.
Sarah: Oh, I didn’t know that. I didn’t know it was kind of like a caffeine substitute that you could just get in the things. That’s cool. Because my all my family can’t have caffeine. We all kind of go a little bit nuts if we have the caffeine, but it’s good to have that buzz. Okay, cool.
Russ: Shawn, what is your thought on caffeine? Because I did see you put up something about having quality coffee. What is your thought on caffeine?
Shawn Wells: I don’t like it. And for me, it just doesn’t like I said. So there’s fast and slow metabolizers about a third of the population is a slow metabolizer like I said, that gets all the kind of the side effects and none of the benefits. The third of the population is fast metabolizers, where they get none of the benefits and none of the side effects because they metabolize it so quickly. And they say I can go straight to bed. And there’s only about a third of the population that’s in between that has the ideal effect and low side effect, happening so and then from there when you have caffeine, there’s a new ingredient that I just patented that we have about 40 patents filed on called Para Xanthine that is below the caffeine metabolite that the most important one, but from there you can go into two other ones Theophylline being one of them, which is a Bronco dilator which is very side effect written and theobromine which you find in chocolate and other things, but really caffeine just has way more toxicity than most of the other ingredients. Has a lot more side effects and so especially for us that are the slow metabolizers, it has all kinds of issues. So to avoid caffeine, theobromine, Theophylline and either get these other ingredients that have worked on tea cream and dynamine, which is theocrine and methyl librium, respectively, or para Xanthine, which is the downstream metabolite of caffeine, which we’re calling infinity. Like, those are a lot better, like really just avoiding caffeine. Like I can’t find an ingredient in this methyl Xanthine family that’s worse. And caffeine, ironically, like, it’s a mess.
Sarah: It’s you need to find a way to put it in a drink. That smells as good as coffee, though, because that’s half the pleasure is, isn’t it?
Shawn Wells: Oh, well, I actually drink decaf coffee and I add para Xanthine.
Sarah: There you go. That’s exactly what you need to do. All right. So in the blog, you’ll tell us where to put that? Because I mean, I’m totally in because I love coffee. But that side effects. Yeah, super cool. Okay, we’re getting to the slot, the segment where you need to give us a seven-day challenge, because Russ and I do try and show that some of these things are not as hard as people think. Or maybe, they are as hard because Russ and I have had a couple of flops. But on the whole, we managed to do it. So Shawn, hit us with our seven-day challenge.
Shawn Wells:
So 75 to 80% of the population is deficient in this one vitamin, and there’s one mineral, so I am challenging you guys to consume these things. And each one of these things is less than $10 to buy. So you can’t complain to me about cost. And you can’t tell me you don’t need these things because you need them. So it’s going to be, I’ll give you the forms and the doses. So vitamin D3 in the soft gel oil format, do not get a dry vitamin D, do not get a D2, get the oil d3 in 5 to 10,000 iu’s day, depending on how much sun you’re getting, if you’re in the UK get like 80,000 Iu’s a day.
Shawn Wells: Right. So and then I also recommend that you have K2 with it, which helps on a number of levels with blood clotting, vasodilation. When cleaning out arteries, essentially, also bone formation, etc. So it just goes hand in hand very well with D3. So get the plussed up version of D3 in the oil form with K2. Alright, so next up, the mineral and by the way, d3 is really a hormone and way beyond just a vitamin, I mean, all the things that it does is so incredible. With immune system, with mood, with bone health, with brain health, with diabetes, with obesity, it just goes on and on and on. So incredible with sexual function. So take it E3, because about 80% of us are deficient. Next up magnesium, about 80% of us are deficient in that. And I’m just talking about deficiency. I’m not even talking about optimization, probably optimization for these things. We’re talking 99% of people walking around are not optimized for D3, or for magnesium. So magnesium, the form I recommend is a high bioavailability form still a great cost, you don’t have to get anything crazy special. When you get the amino acids, it forms a chelate with the mineral so it’s called an amino acid chelate. So it’s magnesium glycinate. It’s glycine that it’s bound to high bioavailability glycine is great as well. Again, super reasonable price, these things are about 10 bucks to get magnesium glycinate. And I’m taking 400 plus elemental milligrams of magnesium twice a day and you can play with your doses and certainly make sure you’re just getting enough magnesium in your diet, you’ll notice that you’ll have better again, an immune system function. You’ll have better motility and GI function in terms of bowel movements, etc. Better muscular contractions, it just goes on and on. Like, again, magnesium and vitamin D are implicated in hundreds of really important functions in the body. So my challenge is seven days to see how much better you feel on vitamin D3, vitamin K2, and magnesium glycinate. And that’ll cost you about 20 bucks to do that for a month, ...
Russ: Perfect!
Shawn Wells: ... and will change your life.
Sarah: I mean, I think with Shawn we’ll go to next level, this is what we need.
Shawn Wells: My other challenge would be the dihydroberberine because it’s the number one most important supplement I recommend. And it’s because we’re metabolically dysfunctional, because we’re mitochondrial dysfunctional, because insulin resistance is implicated in biological over chronological aging, because insulin resistance is at the core of almost all disease, about 99% of disease is metabolic in nature, that I think the most important thing you can take this is the herbal equivalent of metformin, which is in a study right now with over 10,000 people, where the government is looking at metformin for anti-aging, not just with diabetics and glucose disposal, but literally anti-aging, that metformin gets beaten by Berberine. And a head to head study that’s been shown, dihydroberberine is five times more bioavailable than berberine. And it lasts about twice as long in the plasma. So, berberine over metformin dihydroberberine over both. And that’s what I’m seeing. So like, this is one of the most important things that you can take for your health, for your longevity, for protecting you against disease, for increasing ketones and insulin sensitivity. reducing inflammation, improving lipids, reducing glycation and oxidation, improving mitochondrial function is taking dihydroberberine.
Shawn Wells: I have a book and all these stacks are listed out in there.
Sarah: Okay, we’re all set for the week. That’s super cool. Thank you so much, Shawn.
Russ: Yeah, Shawn, I cannot tell you. Number one, how grateful we are to have you on the show. Sarah and I have been doing this, we hit our one-year anniversary, next week, first week in December actually started tomorrow. So when you are actually our anniversary episode for one year. But we’re just grateful. And I think you know what you said early on, it just strikes a chord. And it’s so important to just stop for a second and just recognize, you’re pretty amazing. All of us are right. And it is an important choice that you make every day to not love yourself. And so I really appreciate what you said there. And I’m going to repeat and listen this over and over again, to remind myself, it’s so helpful.
Shawn Wells: Two things about that one, if anyone talked to you, like you talk to you, you wouldn’t be their friend.
Russ: That’s true!
Shawn Wells: Change just the way you talk to yourself.
Sarah: Thank you. Yeah, for getting our priorities straight. Because this is the cool stuff, because we’ve got all the supplements stuff, but yes Shawn. What’s the second point?
Shawn Wells: Yeah, well, it goes back to like you said it, it goes back to the reframing and really conditioning yourself to make it a new pattern. And that’s when you start that day, like saying these great things to yourself, mean you’re re-patterning your brain. Like we’re conditioning ourselves for abuse. We’re surviving abuse. So one of the most important things that I want you to realize is that you’re not broken. But it’s completely untrue. We’re told that all the time. You’re beautiful, you’re perfect as you are. I just think we need some polishing sometimes to get back to that perfect inner child that is within, that love yourself unconditionally. That thought you were amazing as hell as a kid. Get back to that.
Russ: Yeah. That’s a great way to end it. Thank you, Shawn.
Sarah: Thank you grateful for you both.
Shawn's Links:
🚨7 Day Challenge🚨
Sarah and Russ starting the supplements!
Great pic under the tree Russ!