Listen to Dr.G interviewed by legendary podcaster Ben Greenfield

Posted on August 21, 2018 by Dr. G

Dr. G and Ben Velazquez: Concussion and Brain Health

Who is Ben Greenfield

This interview was quite an honor and a treat for me. The Ben Greenfield Fitness podcast is one of the oldest, most popular, health and fitness podcasts in the world. Ben is extremely bright considers himself as an immersive journalist. A journalist that engages his body and mind directly into his topics of interest.

Whether he’s taking nutritional supplements to test their claims, ordering and interpreting the results of his own blood tests or injecting his private parts with stem cells (seriously), Ben Greenfield is devoted to his audience. He goes way out of his way to deliver the best information he can find. And a huge audience it is, Ben’s podcast consistently ranks at the top of most lists for most listened to health and wellness podcasts. Ben is often asked to write articles for leading health magazines. Ben happens to have a great sense of humor and his podcast is incredibly entertaining, he cracks me up.

Ben Greenfield is a Bio-Hacker. What is a biohacker?

Ben Greenfield is often called a bio-hacker. This is a term used to describe someone willing to make changes to their environment in one way or another. Bio-hacking serves to enhance health, aging, strength, beauty, blood chemistry, performance, etc. Bio-hackers are typically interested in doing things naturally without the risk of side effects seen with pharmaceuticals. At times a bio-hacker can be a healthcare professional but they are typically lay people with a voracious appetite for knowledge. They become experts in their own physiology to achieve their intended goals. They take the time to attain a baseline of knowledge about nutrition, anatomy and physiology, immunity, exercise physiology and more.

I believe biohackers have surfaced in our society because of the void left by a medical profession not interested in optimal health and performance. A medical profession that sees little value in anything that is not labeling a disease and treating it with medication and or surgery. A medical industry that will not admit fault for being wrong for decades about so many issues related to health and wellbeing. The medical profession that does not care to see the role it plays in the epidemic rise of the the 3 biggest killers in our country; 1)Cerebro/cardiovascular disease, 2) Cancer and 3) Neuro-degeneration/Alzheimer’s.

Why do we have Bio-hackers ?

Try getting your primary care physician to give you advice about what foods can contribute to autoimmunity and why. Ho about asking your family doctor about how N-Acetyl Cysteine, a nutritional supplement, can enhance liver detoxification or support the immune system. Topics that have enormous significance to everyday health and wellbeing in an otherwise toxic modern environment. It seems they are not remotely interested.

Biohackers are out there using terms like “N of One” when referring to the number of participants in a particular study. Most research requires a large enough sample size, ie. N=100 or N=1000 to better understand how a particular intervention might impact the population being studied. N=1 refers to an individual case study, typically that of the biohackers themselves. Individual case studies have value in research, especially when studying interventions with too many confounding variables due to multiple points of intervention. N=1 observations is more of a, what happens in the real world when I live this way; as opposed to a laboratory or unrealistic controlled environment.

Biohackers are typically very responsible and do not give medical advice to their audience. They do not pretend to play doctor with themselves or their audience but they recognize the demand for better solutions to solving performance challenges or addressing chronic symptoms. Symptoms that our medical profession chooses to hide with medications which do not address the cause. Chronic symptoms such as depression, attention deficit, anxiety, brain fog, chronic pain and injury, elevated blood sugar, elevated blood pressure, abnormal cholesterol, autoimmunity, IBS, heartburn and reflux, the list goes on and on. Many of what I call symptoms just listed other doctors would call diseases.

Ben Greenfield Fitness
Hosted by personal trainer and performance coach Ben Greenfield this show answers questions from listeners and interviews leading experts in the fields of fitness, health, diet, biohacking, anti-aging, and fat-loss. Episodes run 60-90 minutes on average, cover multiple topics and are released twice per week. Recent topics include: beating chronic fatigue, multi-day fasting, and using your mind to heal your body.