Dr. Brad Stanfield Debunks Cold Exposure & Intermittent Fasting @Dr Brad Stanfield
Watch on YouTube · 2024-01-31 · 17 min
0:00 Hey everyone, as requested, I'm going to review the video called Why I'm Against Biohacking by Dr. Brad Stanfield.
[video] 0:07 There are two main reasons why I hate biohacking, and then we'll go through what to do instead to maximize your energy levels and prevent disease.
0:15 He actually hates it. Wow. I am for sure also against biohacking, and that's because you can't hack your biology, and that's because you can't hack nature. As I always say, there's no way around nature.
[video] 0:29 The first reason is that biohacking offers at best marginal gains and at worst damages the body. Let's go through five popular biohacking examples to give you a flavor of what I mean. The first one is the Wim Hof method and I already love it.
0:45 I've made so many videos against his method, the method of destroying your body.
[video] 0:51 High spots. The Wim Hof method is a multidisciplinary approach to physical and mental well-being and has gained tremendous popularity. It was developed by the Dutch...
1:01 It has gained popularity because the mainstream media pushes it.
[video] 1:04 Extreme athlete and multiple world record holder Wim Hof. This method combines cold exposure, breathing exercises and mindfulness meditation and has been claimed to have a wide range of benefits including improved memory, reduced stress and anxiety and...
1:17 Which doesn't make any sense because obviously your stress hormones go through the roof when you're exposed to the cold. And of course, you can also become anxious because of that. It would for sure make anxiety worse long term.
[video] 1:30 ...immune function, improved cardiovascular function and increased energy levels, all of which should be evident after only 10 days. And luckily for us, a randomized controlled trial was published in October last year, 2023, looking at the Wim Hof method. It was conducted in Switzerland. and the intervention followed the guidelines provided by Wim Hof. So it included cold exposure, breathing exercises and meditation. And unfortunately, there were no positive effects seen on the cardiovascular parameters, perceived stress or vitality. Moreover, the cardiovascular stress response and perceived pain during cold pressure tests were not affected by regularly performing.
1:58 The pain during cold exposure, which should already tell you everything. If something causes pain, then you should probably not do it.
[video] 2:08 the Wim Hof method. The authors conclude that according to the presented results, the positive effects of the Wim Hof method on cardiovascular and psychological parameters, as often claimed, cannot be confirmed. Based on the present results, the Wim Hof method should be questioned as a complementary therapy in cardiovascular prevention. And the people who conducted this study had no competing interests to declare. So there are only questionable benefits, but what about possible harms of cold water immersion? Well, in a 2015 randomized controlled study, it found that cold water immersion attenuated or blunted the long-term gains in muscle mass and strength.
2:35 Yes, I've made multiple videos about this. I will link them in the description if you're curious about this topic.
[video] 2:42 It blunted the activation of key proteins and satellite cells in skeletal muscle up to two days after strength exercise. To add to those troubling findings, the analysis concludes that the application of cold water immersion immediately after bouts of resistance exercise may attenuate or blunt the hypertrophic changes, as in it blunts the positive effects of exercise.
2:57 Yes, and one of the main reasons for that is that it doesn't let the inflammation do what it's naturally supposed to. Your body creates this inflammation to repair the muscles for them to grow. The cold stops this process of healing.
[video] 3:11 The problem is that nobody likes to do them.
[video] 3:25 You don't enjoy ice baths or cold showers and you're trying to-
3:29 Nobody enjoys them. You can lie about ice baths and cold showers as much as you want, but you can never actually lie to yourself so much that you can actually say that you like them. Because once you do them and you look in the mirror for the first time, then you will see that you hate them.
[video] 3:46 Force yourself to do them because of possible cardiovascular or cognitive benefits. Is there really much point based on the evidence that we have? The second biohacking example is using metformin for non-diabetic patients.
3:59 I'm going to skip this because almost nobody is into this topic. It's extracted
4:28 synthetic so-called vitamins which are not actually vitamins you gotta look into where these so-called vitamins actually come from they usually don't come from actual natural food they extract chemicals with a similar chemical structure to these vitamins of course this is going to wreak havoc in your body seeing as your body doesn't recognize these chemicals
[video] 4:49 disrupt the balance between oxidants and antioxidants. Again, questionable benefits and possible harms, particularly when we have a look at exercise. So when we exercise, we stress our cells, and that's a good thing. We release all sorts of oxidants, which signal to our cells that they need to become more efficient.
5:07 Yes, they become more efficient because they adapt to the stress, but how is it a good thing to adapt to the stress? How is stress in any way a good thing? It only decreases your longevity. I don't know what his stance on exercise is. It sounds like he promotes exercise. I would like to hear more about it.
[video] 5:26 So if we're taking antioxidant supplements, we blunt that oxidative stress. We blunt that signal. And multiple randomized controlled trials show that antioxidant supplements do blunt the positive effects of exercise, just like metformin.
5:41 What are the positive effects of exercise, though? I wonder... In the first point he implied at least that he's against stress because the cold exposure doesn't help with stress. He was implying as if it's not useful to do the cold exposure because of that, but at the same time he says that there's some kind of benefits of exercise, but it's always very stressful. That he would at least have to admit. I don't know what he means.
[video] 6:11 the fourth out of five popular biohacking strategies is intimate.
6:16 Wow, I really like that he mentions this. This is stuff that some of these brainwashed people really don't understand, even though I've tried to explain it so many times. Really great points. I really want to see what he's going to say.
[video] 6:29 Intimidant fasting. Now, I want to be clear, intermittent fasting can be great for type 2 diabetic patients and patients who are trying to lose weight.
6:38 Yes, of course, it's going to help you to lose weight because you're going to starve yourself. That's needless to say.
[video] 6:44 Otherwise healthy people using intermittent fasting to try and activate autophagy or the cell clearance process. This is because autophagy
6:52 It's not the cell clearance process. There's obviously no proof for that. Autophagy literally just means to eat yourself. That's exactly what happens when you starve. It's a sort of self-cannibalism. There's nothing in any way healthy about it. It doesn't simply clear out the dead and damaged cells. There's no proof for that whatsoever. You simply eat your whole body, all of your cells.
[video] 7:17 is strongly activated by starvation and in mice when they don't eat for 16 hours they powerfully activate autophagy but that's the equivalent of a human fasting for between four to seven days like the other biohackers four to seven days you're gonna lose a lot of your muscle and fat There are also multiple studies showing that if we skip breakfast, we worsen insulin responses, and we have higher blood sugar levels. Plus, most people who practice...
7:56 None of this matters at the end of the day. You gotta eat when you want to eat, as long as the food is natural, of course. That's it, and that's because your body knows best. There's no scientist, doctor or anybody out there who can tell you when you're supposed to eat. It's incredibly dumb and just an NPC behavior to eat when somebody else tells you to eat.
[video] 8:20 Yes, exactly. Starvation will always cause harm, and that's because you're going against your body. As long as you eat exactly when you want to eat, as often as you want to, you're going to be perfectly healthy and happy. But if you starve yourself,
8:50 your discipline like a slave who goes against his senses, then you're going to feel bad. It's just super simple. The last one, it's also a topic that most people don't care about.
[video] 9:01 So those are five examples of popular biohacks that have got questionable benefits and likely harm. That's the first reason why I hate biohacking. And the second reason is that if patients are concerned about those biohacks, they often prioritize those against what really matters for their health. Concentrating on biohacks often distracts away from prioritizing a great diet that's high
9:18 A great diet of man-made vegetables which don't exist in nature.
[video] 9:21 High in lean protein.
9:24 Lean protein, but you show egg yolks?
[video] 9:27 Whole fruits and vegetables.
9:29 Whole fruits and vegetables. Fruits I could understand if it's wild fruit, if you can even find it nowadays. But vegetables which don't even exist in nature, now of course, there's no need to eat that. It's only harmful, just like what you showed in this video.
[video] 9:46 Nuts, seeds, extra...
9:47 Nuts, seeds, all of those are seeds. And of course, you shouldn't be eating them because seeds are very hard to digest. The ones that we eat nowadays are cultivated. They have seed oils. If you eat them in large amounts, or especially if you eat extracted oils, which are harmful, obviously, seeing as we're not supposed to eat extracted oils from plants, the bioavailability of the protein is very low. And plants in general don't have over 15 micronutrients. No point.
[video] 10:16 Virgin olive oil, salmon and avocado.
10:19 Salmon if it's wild caught, sure. Avocado, no point.
[video] 10:24 And forgetting to avoid sugar, salt and saturated fat.
10:28 Sugar, salt, and saturated fat. You already promote foods which have sugar, such as fruit. Salt, I agree. Saturated fat, that makes no sense. You were showing the egg yolk before. I don't know who edits your videos. Saturated fat, especially today because so few people eat it, is the most important macro and micronutrient, because there's micronutrients inside, which you could possibly eat. It's insanely important. It creates your hormones. It protects your nerves. A large part of your brain is made out of it.
[video] 11:02 it's just ridiculous to say that you should avoid it we also have to prioritize exercise so a mixture of cardiovascular and resistance training too often people are looking for the latest supplement that will help them on the exercise journey and they neglect the exercise itself we need to prioritize sleep and appropriate medications where necessary and if we step back to look at the oh yes sleep is important exercise is not important in any way it's only detrimental to your health people who concentrate on biohacks they lose sight of the goal
11:28 I would really like to hear what he has to say about exercise, because he's so right about cold exposure and intermittent fasting, not so right about what humans are supposed to eat. Evidence-based workout to maximize your strength. Of course, you can temporarily increase your strength by working out. Nobody denies that. You can shorten your lifespan if you want to lift more man-made metal in a man-made building. If that's what you want to do with your life, whatever. What is... caffeine, supplements... There's no videos from what I can see about exercise specifically. health benefits of exercise, something like that. I would like to see it because it's strange that he's so right about those other topics, but maybe he has never really looked into exercise.
12:19 I'm really curious about that because exercise does way more damage to your body than cold exposure or intermittent starvation. Proper starvation would do more damage than exercise if you would just starve yourself for a week straight. This is the only video which is sort of about exercise from what it seems like.
12:47 But maximizing your strength is something that you can do in the gym that's just not healthy. I would like to see you say something about the health benefits of exercise, which don't exist, but I would like to see what you have to say.
[video] 13:03 That's all just about maximizing your strength in the gym. It's really strange because he has these videos about reversing your skin aging.
13:26 Again, skin, anti-aging, all of which get so much worse if you exercise. I'm going to link some studies in the description of this video about how exercise is bad for your health. Overall, it's great to hear somebody else point out how cold exposure and intermittent starvation isn't actually good for your health, how it doesn't have any benefits and could actually, if anything, only be bad for your health and your longevity also, of course, because of how stressful it is. Exercise is more stressful than any of that. It's just really strange, which is why I said I would really like to hear his views on exercise, which I can't find on his channel. There's no denying that you can adapt your body to more and more exercise. You can run for 10 minutes, then 20, 30, and so on. You can absolutely adapt to it, stress your body, and decrease your lifespan by decades. Run a marathon and you're going to die in your 40s and 50s.
14:26 Totally, you can do that. And you can do weightlifting in the gym, become stronger, In the sense that you're going to be able to lift more and more man-made metal for no reason at all, except to stress your body and decrease your lifespan. That's all fine. Do whatever you want with your life. I really mean it. Do whatever you want. But how is that in any way beneficial for your body? It's not beneficial to die earlier. Dying is always detrimental to your health. You are the healthiest if you're alive. If you're dead, you're in the unhealthiest state your body can be in. Anything that decreases your lifespan has to be called unhealthy. Therefore, exercise has to be called unhealthy. I've researched this topic for years. I've read tons of studies, listened to lectures.
15:18 I've researched it as deeply as anybody could and there's never been any kind of health benefits shown in any kind of research whatsoever, which is why he doesn't have any videos about it, I assume. Otherwise, he would have some video saying that these are the health benefits of exercise. There's just nothing and there never will be. The problem with people who do biohacking which is also a problem that he has, is that they only listen to the opinions of other people. They may listen to some podcasts, read these studies, all of which are opinions. Other people wrote this, they may be completely wrong. You're simply religiously believing them. And I'm not saying that there's no studies which are useful out there. There for sure are. But at the end of the day, the reason you cannot possibly do something such as biohacking is because you cannot hack nature.
16:18 And you have been programmed to know what exactly is good for you. Biohacking cannot work because you cannot hack your own senses. Your senses will always tell you what is healthy for you. Cold exposure cannot be healthy because if you go into the cold water, then you want to get out of it right away because it feels bad, it's painful, it stresses your body. It's very simple. You don't want to do intermittent starvation because starvation feels bad. It can actually also even hurt your stomach, but even if there's no pain, you can right away sense the absolute stress that your body goes through when you're starving. Again, super simple. You cannot hack your biology. It has been programmed to know what exactly is good for it. Exercise can also never feel good for you, seeing as it's exerting to the body, it's incredibly stressful, it does cause pain.
17:11 A lot of times if you overdo it, which a lot of people do nowadays, this is what you should understand if you're into this topic. And this is what this doctor also doesn't seem to understand. Thanks for watching.