Primal Blueprint Podcast

The older you get, the more important strength, agility, power, and lean mass become. This isn't how most people approach old age. They expect strength and all the other trappings of physical capacity to degenerate, and so they do. It's what happens all around us, every day. Seniors are feeble, right? (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

Mark Sisson chats with Christine Hassler, best-selling author of three books, most recently Expectation Hangover: Free Yourself From Your Past, Change your Present and Get What you Really Want. She left her successful job as a Hollywood agent to pursue a life she could be passionate about. For over a decade, as a keynote speaker, retreat facilitator, spiritual psychologist and life coach, and host of the top-rated podcast “Over it and On With It”, she has been teaching and inspiring people around the world. Christine believes once we get out of our own way, we can show up to make the meaningful impact we are here to make. Christine is also on the advisory board for our Primal Health Coach Program.

There’s a saying that people who snore always fall asleep first. My days of overnight sports chaperoning and group camping trips have frequently confirmed that notion. Most people would say that snoring is less a problem for the snorer than anyone lying awake in the vicinity, and on those specific nights in memory I probably thought as much. But the health researcher in me knows there’s more to the story.   (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

Elle Russ chats with husband/wife team Cindy Lu and Earl Martin who founded Malibu Essential Oils in 2013. After experiencing profound personal benefits, their curiosity led them to become Internationally Certified Aromatherapists. Now they blend both their classical training with modern essential oil usage which includes internal applications. They are education driven, teaching classes weekly in various locations. They believe that aromatherapy is a healing art and they enjoy helping their clients choose the purest oils available and let them develop their own personal style that they feel is safe, beautiful and effective. As master blenders, their unique oil offerings such as High on Life (an energizing mood booster), Brain On (for mental clarity), Deep Sleep and Sex Mix are sought after week after week. They also create customized blends based on client needs, scent preferences and muscle testing. With clients worldwide, private consultations are available in person, via phone or Skype. Their mentor prog

Humans are competitive animals. We like a challenge because it compels us to rise to the occasion, prove ourselves, get better at something, or become a bigger version of ourselves. For people, challenges are like hormetic stressors—they often cause suffering and require hard, unpleasant work but provoke a beneficial response that makes us stronger than we were before the challenge. (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

  Sometimes it seems like this world is built for extroverts. The most successful politicians, entertainers, and public figures are (or at least come off as) extroverts. One of the “Big 5” personality traits we use to judge and praise people is extraversion (Introversion, falsely assumed as simply the lack of extraversion, doesn’t merit mention.) Certain studies suggest that extroverts make more money than introverts, on average. Extroverts tend to be happier than introverts, regardless of the cultural context. Introverts are more likely to suffer from depression and asthma. (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

Intermittent fasting, schmittermittent schmasting. The hot new trend is the extended fast—eating nothing and drinking only non-caloric beverages for no less than three days and often as many as 30-40 days. A mere compressed eating window this isn’t. If fasting for more than three days sounds riskier than just skipping breakfast, you’re right. Long fasts can get you into trouble. They’re a big commitment. You shouldn’t just stumble into one because it sounds interesting or some guy on your Twitter feed wrote about it. (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

Elle Russ chats with Roland & Galina Denzel about their new book Eat Well, Move Well, Live Well - 52 Ways to Feel Better in a Week.  Roland is a weight loss coach whose first client was himself! Overweight his first 35 years, he lost over one hundred pounds in 2003, and has kept if off since. Along the way, Roland developed a passion for health, fitness, and nutrition that’s not only kept him slim and healthy, but allowed him to help others just like himself through his writing and coaching. Roland is an IKFF trained kettlebell coach, a certified personal trainer, and a sports nutrition and weight loss coach through Precision Nutrition. He has co-authored five books, including The Real Food Reset, and Man on Top, which was inspired by his own journey to becoming healthy, slim, and fit. Galina Denzel specializes in helping people in chronic pain and helps her clients return to a life of functional movement after an injury, accident, or trauma through a variety of corrective exercise methods and healing mo

Last week, Chris Kresser wrote a great article discussing the emerging—and likely causative—link between poor gut health and childhood misbehavior. He explained potential mechanisms for the association, as well as solutions to counter it. But as any parent knows, getting a picky child to adopt your arsenal of perfect gut-supporting foods and supplements isn’t always easy. Not every kid immersed in the righteous anger of the terrible twos will stop what he’s doing to drink sauerkraut juice, nibble on kimchi, take resistant starch, drink kefir and bone broth.. It’s certainly a major part of the problem and the solution, but are there any other dietary causes? What else can a parent try to stem the flood of tantrums? (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

In recent years, I’ve regularly vouched for the gut as our long-abused secondary brain. Given what most of us grew up learning in school, it can feel like a mammoth shift. Science and philosophy have long revered the brain as seat of consciousness, even the seat of humanity itself. But when it comes down to it, everything is interconnected. Our consciousness extends well beyond the brain. How we feel and who we are encompasses a much more expansive and intricate system than any of us learned in high school biology. At the center of this paradigm revision is something called the vagus nerve. Vagus…as a word it sounds a little off-putting. If someone called me a vagus, I’d probably be mildly offended. But the literary origins of this word are actually kind of mystical: “vagus” in Latin translates to “wandering.” And I’d struggle to find a more apt definition. (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

Here at Mark’s Daily Apple, I avoid writing off anything without first investigating it. I keep one foot in the “alternative” health world and one in the “conventional” realm, making sure to maintain a skeptical—but openminded—stance on everything. There’s no other way to do it, if you’re honest. At least as far as I can tell. No, not every alternative therapy works. A lot of it is pure hogwash. But whether we’re talking about off-label uses of conventional drugs and illegal drugs, natural pharmacological agents, or downright outlandish-sounding interventions, some therapies are worth considering. Not trying, necessarily. Considering. (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

Elle Russ chats with Jeff Scot Philips -  a nutritionist, professional speaker, and the author of BIG FAT FOOD FRAUD. In his early twenties he founded the company Fit Food, a food delivery company that sold healthy meals to gyms, weight loss centers, and grocery stores. He then co-founded a food manufacturing business, producing and private labeling meals for other companies and brands. Topics discussed in this episode:  ”Edutising": how food companies disguise advertising as education, and why consumes shouldn't trust anything you see in the news. How food companies turned gluten-free, among other trendy things, into a scam and why health food can be worse for people than junk food. The various ways food companies manipulate nutrition facts and ingredients, why they do it, and how to look out for it. Working with the USDA / FDA, and how lethargic, and sometimes harmful, they are (e.g. making food companies put sugar --breads, pastas, etc. -- in frozen dinners, and how the FDA told Jeff that unless his food s

Every pregnant woman I’ve ever known has hated the oral glucose tolerance test. Yet, they still do it. Drinking a tall glass of sickly sweet orange-flavored glucose water on an empty stomach is thoroughly disgusting, but it, apparently, offers a rare and valuable glimpse into the state of a woman’s perinatal health. What they’re testing for is gestational diabetes mellitus—a variant of diabetes characterized by pancreatic insufficiency during pregnancy. (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

I’ve always believed you could tell a lot about a person based on when they laugh. Or if they laugh at all. Laughter provides a brief but in-depth window into arguably the most enigmatic organ in the body—as well as the idiosyncrasies at work for that individual. I’ve suggested before that we adults take life way too seriously . Compared to the average child, who belts out around 400 laughs a day, we summon a measly 15-18 per day. Somehow I think we’re missing out with all that seriousness—mentally and maybe even physically. (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

We’re a little more than a month out from New Year’s, and most people have abandoned their resolution efforts. Gyms are emptying out; the squat rack is free again. Cars are piling up in the drive-thrus, the farmer’s markets are noticeably emptier. Was it all for naught? Are the grand visions, the big plans, the lofty resolutions really going to culminate in a sad sputter…a fizzle? Will one-time optimists resign themselves to just another personal failing, another reason to slink back into despair? If January is about hope and ambition, what’s the lesson for February? (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

Elle Russ chats with Dr. Gary E. Foresman about breast health, breast cancer prevention and a variety topics surrounding breast health (This episode is part 3 of 3 podcasts dedicated to this topic). When Dr. Foresman opened a private practice, he quickly became dissatisfied with the inability of established Western medical treatments to effectively treat many of his patients—many of which suffered from thyroid disorders. Determined to help his patients, he began investigating alternative therapies and has since expanded his training in many systems of healing—not just through Ayurveda, meditation, and stress management, but also using botanical, orthomolecular and functional medicine systems. His precise, scientific mind, combined with a holistic integrative perspective, makes him not only an exceptional diagnostician, but also a skilled practitioner who can therapeutically synthesize optimal healing modalities for each individual.  In-depth commentary by Dr. Foresman in the new #1 bestseller The Paleo Thyroi

Every year, it’s the same thing: U.S. News and World Report ranks 38 of the most popular diets from best to worst. And every single time, the paleo diet—or some variant, in this case the Whole30 plan—comes in dead last. I’ve written about this before. You know my stance. You know how silly the whole thing is, and why you shouldn’t care about a ranking, especially when you’ve transformed your health eating the “worst diet in the world.” Frankly, I’m skeptical these reports have much impact anymore. (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

Earlier this month, a reader posed a fantastic question that prompted today’s post. It was long, so I’ll give the choice bits rather than quote the entire thing: Where do I start? I’d be interested in seeing your opinion on the relative impact of various primal lifestyle changes… Eating “clean” would be a 10, etc… but what about subtler things like sprinting, IF, quality sleep, sunlight, and play… So I guess I’m asking you to write on a 30,000ft level, how all these things interplay and what their relative contributions are to overall wellness. Where does one start indeed? (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

Elle Russ chats with Drew Canole—a rockstar in the world of fitness, nutrition and mindset, with a huge heart for others and doing his part to transform the world, one person at a time. As the founder and CEO of Fitlife.TV, he is committed to sharing educational, inspirational and entertaining videos and articles about health, fitness, healing and longevity. He is also a best selling author and the founder of Organifi, an organic, incredibly delicious greens powder, chock-full of super-foods to make juicing easy no matter your busy schedule.

The most basic advice I can give about hiking is to go find a natural space and walk around. That’s it. It’s not sexy or particularly exciting, but it’s good enough. I do have some additional thoughts, though. If you want to get deeper, if you want to “upgrade” or “hack” your hiking, you’ll find today’s post useful. I’m going to offer some ideas on how to get the most out of your forays into wilderness. (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)