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The Hidden Reason You Feel Exhausted & How to Feel Better Now

If you’ve been feeling exhausted, tired, bloated, anxious, in pain, or just not like yourself, get ready for an explanation you’ve never heard before. Today, Mel sits down with one of the most respected medical researchers in the world, gastroenterologist Dr. Brennan Spiegel, to uncover the overlooked, invisible force that’s having a shocking impact on your energy, strength, gut health, mood, and every single cell in your body – even how fast your body ages. Whether you’re dealing with fatigue, back pain, swelling, digestion issues, or a heaviness in your body that you can’t shake, Dr. Spiegel says these are all signs you shouldn’t ignore. What Dr. Spiegel reveals will challenge the way you think about your body and, more importantly, give you a completely new, practical way to start feeling better immediately. And it may give you the words and the insight you’ve been missing to help your aging parents and other loved ones finally start feeling better, too. By the end of this episode, you’ll understand: -Why a “bendy” pinky might be a clue to what’s going on in your gut -10 foods that boost serotonin production in your body -The most effective treatment for IBS - and it’s probably not what you’ve tried -A quick way to notice how the force of gravity is showing up in your body -How to make yourself taller in just a few minutes -Why standing on one leg is linked to a longer life -How a weighted vest can change your posture almost immediately -A surprising reason rollercoasters feel unbearable for some people -What “gravity management” looks like in real life -One small habit that can improve how your body handles gravity Dr. Spiegel says that powerful, invisible force shaping every moment of your life is one you can learn to work with – and he’ll show you how. This is one of those conversations that will change how you see your body, your health, and what it means to be fully alive on this planet. For more resources related to today’s episode, click here for the podcast episode page: https://www.melrobbins.com/episode/episode-402/ Follow The Mel Robbins Podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themelrobbinspodcast I’m just your friend. I am not a licensed therapist, and this podcast is NOT intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician, professional coach, psychotherapist, or other qualified professional. Got it? Good. I’ll see you in the next episode. In this episode: 00:00 Meet the Guest 01:53 The Hidden Force Behind Your Health Problems 07:03 Why You Feel Tired, Weak, and Drained 12:16 This Simple Habit Is Crushing Your Organs 15:52 The Warning Signs You’ve Been Ignoring 22:51 The Hidden Link Between Gut and Mood 26:50 The 10 Foods Your Body Needs 29:31 The 10-Second Test That Reveals Your Lifespan 33:46 The Dead Hang Challenge 37:02 Grip Strength Matters 38:47 Your Body Needs More Water Than You Think 40:27 Why You Feel Off: You Were Built For This Planet 43:21 How To Feel Calm Instantly 47:01 How to Know You’re On the Right Track — Follow Mel: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melrobbins/ TikTok: http://tiktok.com/@melrobbins Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/melrobbins LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melrobbins Website: http://melrobbins.com​ — Sign up for Mel’s newsletter: https://melrob.co/sign-up-newsletter A note from Mel to you, twice a week, sharing simple, practical ways to build the life you want. — Subscribe to Mel’s channel here: https://www.youtube.com/melrobbins​?sub_confirmation=1 — Listen to The Mel Robbins Podcast 🎧 New episodes drop every Monday & Thursday! https://melrob.co/spotify https://melrob.co/applepodcasts https://melrob.co/amazonmusic — Looking for Mel’s books on Amazon? Find them here: The Let Them Theory: https://amzn.to/3IQ21Oe The Let Them Theory Audiobook: https://amzn.to/413SObp The High 5 Habit: https://amzn.to/3fMvfPQ The 5 Second Rule: https://amzn.to/4l54fah

Mel RobbinshostDr. Brennan Spiegelguest
Jun 8, 202654mWatch on YouTube ↗

EVERY SPOKEN WORD

  1. 0:00 – 1:53

    Meet the Guest

    1. MR

      If you or anyone that you love has been experiencing health issues like exhaustion, GI issues, IBS, back pain, anxiety, swollen ankles, this brand new perspective could explain why you have these health issues in the first place.

    2. BS

      Take your pinky-

    3. MR

      Take your pinky

    4. BS

      ... and see how far back you can pull it. So if you can do those things, you might then ask yourself, "Do I have stomach issues? Do I have irritable bowel syndrome?"

    5. MR

      Why is there a connection between a bendy pinky or a thumb that touches the forearm and GI issues?

    6. BS

      Yeah, it's gravity intolerance.

    7. MR

      What... Hold on a second. You're saying there's a connection between gravity and irritable bowel syndrome?

    8. BS

      Yeah. Gravity and name the disease.

    9. MR

      Dr. Spiegel is the director of health services research at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

    10. BS

      You wanna be able to stand on one leg for at least 10 seconds.

    11. MR

      Stand on one leg.

    12. BS

      There's evidence that if you can't stand up on one leg, it will actually determine, in part, literally how long you're going to live.

    13. MR

      Wow.

    14. BS

      So many of the problems that we experience in life, they're forms of gravity intolerance.

    15. MR

      So tell me about your Dead Hang Challenge, Dr. Spiegel.

    16. BS

      If you can hang from a bar for one minute, you are defying gravity, like refusing to give in. Despite searing pain on your body, you just hold on.

    17. MR

      That's incredible.

    18. BS

      Yeah. Defying gravity.

    19. MR

      My goal is that 50% of people who watch the Mel Robbins Podcast here on YouTube are subscribers, and right now, only 58% of people are. So do me a favor, hit subscribe. If that subscribe button is lit up, you're not a subscriber. It is free. It is the best way that you can say, "Hey, Mel. Hey, team at Mel Robbins Podcast. I love this content." When you hit subscribe, you say you love what we're doing. It's a great way to support us, so thank you for doing that. You won't miss a thing. It's free. I really appreciate it. All right,

  2. 1:53 – 7:03

    The Hidden Force Behind Your Health Problems

    1. MR

      please help me welcome Dr. Brennan Spiegel to the Mel Robbins Podcast.

    2. BS

      Thank you so much for having me.

    3. MR

      I'm really excited. The team is buzzing. We have never even heard about somebody researching gravity and the impact on our bodies, so I cannot wait to dig into this. And so I'd like to have you start by just telling the person who's listening, what could change about their life or the way they think about some of the health issues that they're dealing with after they listen to all of the research that you're about to unpack and the tools you're gonna teach us today?

    4. BS

      If you really take this to heart-

    5. MR

      Yeah

    6. BS

      ... the biggest thing that will change is how you see yourself in the world, how you see yourself as a person on this planet. And when we start to think about gravity as a force that we harmonize with to survive and thrive, all of a sudden there are these unexpected connections. We start to see things like what you eat might affect how you manage gravity, how conditions like IBS, which are so common, may be a form of gravity intolerance. Or if you can bend your pinky back really far, what does that say about your ability to manage the forces of this planet? That's what we're gonna talk about today.

    7. MR

      You also talk a little bit in this book, which shocked me, about the connection between gravity and things like depression and anxiety and sleep issues, that it has implications for everything, and I think there's a lot of people that are gonna listen, and then you're gonna send it to, like, five family members.

    8. BS

      Mm-hmm.

    9. MR

      So I'd love to have you talk to the person who's listening that maybe had this episode sent to them as a resource from a family member to say, "Hey, Mom," or, "Hey, Brother, I, I, I really want you to listen to this doctor's angle as a way to look at this issue differently." Could you speak to that person?

    10. BS

      So many of the problems that we experience in life, pain, anxiety, depression, dizziness, exhaustion, swelling in your body, all of these have one thing in common. They're forms of gravity intolerance, and that's just so out of left field. I never heard that when I was in medical school. And so I want people who are experiencing those things to think a little bit differently about their bodies and about their minds and unlock these very simple things that they can do to very quickly change their relationship to the planet itself.

    11. MR

      Well, uh, hold on a second. So as a professor and as a medical doctor and as a researcher-

    12. BS

      Yeah

    13. MR

      ... and as a medical doctor that specializes in GI issues-

    14. BS

      Mm

    15. MR

      ... you're saying there's a connection between gravity and irritable bowel syndrome, and gravity and constipation, and gravity and your serotonin levels?

    16. BS

      Yeah. Gravity and name the disease.

    17. MR

      To everything?

    18. BS

      Just about. Just about every disease, if you look deep enough, you're going to see that it's a consequence of m- of mismanaging the forces of the planet. It's so fundamental. There's only a few things that we have to do in life. The main one is to stand up and stay up as long as we can and as well as we can until inevitably we can't. And it turns out, most of diseases, in some way, shape, or form, and I can hear the doctors right now ready to challenge me, and I'll, I'll talk to them. If, if you think creatively about the root causes of how we break down in mind and body, it's 'cause we're giving into the planet. We're being pulled back from whence we came.

    19. MR

      Wow. Well, before we go further, for the purposes of this conversation, what is gravity in the simplest definition?

    20. BS

      Yeah. So we're on this planet. It has a force. It pulls us towards the center of it. That was there long before any signs of life, long before the first bacteria, the first fungi. Nothing was here except that.And then life somehow emerged, but the first thing it had to do was to survive on this planet, the physics of this planet. So gravity was there long before we were, and it'll be here long [laughs] after we're gone, so it stands to reason every part of your body has to manage that force.

    21. MR

      Now, I think we all get gravity is the force that pulls us-

    22. BS

      Yeah

    23. MR

      ... toward the center of the Earth. It's the force that keeps our feet on the ground. But you've said this word a couple times now, gravity intolerance. What that, what is that?

    24. BS

      Yeah. We evolved to tolerate gravity, to be comfortable and to harmonize with it and not be hurt by it.

    25. MR

      Okay. So meaning I can walk-

    26. BS

      I can stand up

    27. MR

      ... I can go about my day.

    28. BS

      I'm not gonna get dizzy when I stand up and pass out. I'm not falling over. I have the strength to exert myself into the world. The pumps and tubes in my body are sloshing all that fluid up and down against the force of gravity, and I'm perfusing my brain with oxygen so that I can sit here and talk with you. This is what I mean by tolerating, you know, the force of gravity, is we're built for it.

  3. 7:03 – 12:16

    Why You Feel Tired, Weak, and Drained

    1. BS

      Intolerance is a consequence of our modern lifestyle. It's a consequence of gaining too much weight on the body, getting too weak, living sedentary lifestyles, eating ultra-high processed foods, experiencing stress and anxiety, and mental depression, literally feeling down. All of these accumulate to undermine our natural ability to stand up to this planet, and we fight with gravity then, and that just makes life hard. The easiest thing that we can do is to find ways to restore our natural abilities to be one with this planet. And it sounds like woo science, but it's basic physics.

    2. MR

      Well, what I'm excited about, and I'm really glad that you're here listening to this, is that it's just a different angle to examine the issues you may be dealing with with your health and with your life, which also opens the door to either different methods to resolve those health issues or different motivational factors that make it more important for you to do so.

    3. BS

      Exactly. So just understanding this unlocks a new way of approaching exercise, approaching diet, approaching adequate hydration, drinking enough water. Why are we doing all these things? Why? We're managing gravity with it. That's what we'll talk about.

    4. MR

      Why are you the only person talking about this?

    5. BS

      [laughs] It's really interesting, 'cause I never expected that I would be talking about this stuff either.

    6. MR

      Why did you start researching this?

    7. BS

      Well, it actually started with, um, a family member. So my mother-in-law had developed cognitive decline.

    8. MR

      Uh-huh.

    9. BS

      And she was in an assisted living facility, and she was lying flat in bed all day. And about the time that she started lying down, she developed all these digestive issues, slow digestion, stomach pains. She became quite depressed. Uh, and she hadn't changed her diet, hadn't changed her medicines, and my family was asking like, "What's going on with her?" And I thought, "You know what? We're not supposed to lie down all day. She needs to... She's giving in to gravity. She's being pulled back down." I thought, "She has to stand up," right?

    10. MR

      Yeah.

    11. BS

      "If we could do anything for her, let's get her up and, and walking again."

    12. MR

      Yeah.

    13. BS

      And so I thought about this, and I was trying to figure out the gut part, 'cause I'm a stomach doctor. I'm a gastroenterologist. I'm a professor. I teach all this stuff. And I started thinking about, well, what is it about the gut in particular? And, uh, eventually I wrote a paper about this called Gravity and the Gut, and I thought this was career suicide because it was such a strange, weird thing for me to write about, and people read it and said, "Oh, hey, that kinda makes sense. Yeah, it does make sense." And the next thing I knew, I thought, every single part of your body, every cell, every single little cell you have has little tiny microtubules in it that are constantly shifting and moving and keeping the cell from collapsing upon itself. Your entire body is managing this compacting force of gravity. And when you can't handle it anymore, we give in to it.

    14. MR

      How did it change the way you as a medical doctor-

    15. BS

      Yeah

    16. MR

      ... treat your patients-

    17. BS

      Yeah

    18. MR

      ... for GI issues once you had this epiphany around the relationship between gravity versus just looking at what's going on in the gut and the intestines?

    19. BS

      Yeah. This has been the most gratifying part of all this work, is how it changes the way I talk with my patients.

    20. MR

      Okay.

    21. BS

      So for example, you know, I see a lot of people who have irritable bowel syndrome or stomach issues, and I'll ask them, I'll say, "Do you, how's your back?" You know? "Do you have back pain?" And almost all of them will say, "Yeah, abs- yeah, I do." You know, like, no one, you know, "Why do you ask?" You know, you're a stomach doctor, not a back doctor.

    22. MR

      Yeah.

    23. BS

      I'll say, "Well, you know, like the back and the gut are right there. They are, they're not two different systems. Everything's connected. It's about the seams of the body. It's about the connection point." Sometimes diseases are more about the points where things come together-

    24. MR

      Hmm

    25. BS

      ... than the actual entities that attach, right? This is called tensegrity, or tensile integrity. This is about bending without breaking, like a tree that bends in the wind and doesn't snap.

    26. MR

      Yes.

    27. BS

      Our bodies are designed as tensegrity systems that are f- managing the forces of the Earth. And so if you're not gonna be strong in your back, you can imagine how it's gonna lead to your gut compressing a lot. And so let me show you a picture, and I'll show them a picture, how they're connected, and I'll talk about how exercise, it turns out, is the most effective therapy we have for IBS by far.

    28. MR

      Wait, hold on.

    29. BS

      Yeah.

    30. MR

      Exercise-

  4. 12:16 – 15:52

    This Simple Habit Is Crushing Your Organs

    1. MR

      So what's a quick way that the person listening right now-

    2. BS

      Mm-hmm

    3. MR

      ... can feel the effect of gravity on their body?

    4. BS

      So we're sitting here together right now.

    5. MR

      Yes.

    6. BS

      Right? We're at a desk. Even as I'm talking to you-

    7. MR

      Wait, sitting is not a natural position.

    8. BS

      Well, I mean, we do it, but we're not designed to sit all day.

    9. MR

      Yes.

    10. BS

      Right? We're designed to be up and moving-

    11. MR

      Yep

    12. BS

      ... running, hiking, whatever it is. Right now, even as I'm talking to you, I can feel myself slumped over a little bit.

    13. MR

      Yes. You can feel, like, as you're sitting, even if you kind of try to sit upright, you can feel pinchy-

    14. BS

      Yeah

    15. MR

      ... like, in-

    16. BS

      Yeah

    17. MR

      ... your midsection.

    18. BS

      Right, yeah.

    19. MR

      Like, you know, you're crunching the midsection.

    20. BS

      So if anyone's listening now and maybe in their car-

    21. MR

      Yep

    22. BS

      ... maybe sitting down in a chair, you just think about right now, feel the pressure of your body, uh, in the chair, and think about how that force is translating through your body. And if you're kind of hunched over or looking at a phone or something, what happens is your upper back moves forward-

    23. MR

      Yep

    24. BS

      ... your shoulders move forward, and then your chest, thorax, moves down, the diaphragm moves down, and then the abdomen compresses just a little bit. You've got this sack of potatoes in your belly that we call the gut, and it normally actually hangs when you're upright, and that opens it up. And when you sit upright and you think about the muscles between-

    25. MR

      Well, I, just listening to you, I've noticed-

    26. BS

      Yeah

    27. MR

      ... like I'm going from my great-grandmother's-

    28. BS

      Yeah, yeah

    29. MR

      ... hunched back look to, okay, shoulders back-

    30. BS

      Yeah

  5. 15:52 – 22:51

    The Warning Signs You’ve Been Ignoring

    1. BS

      body.

    2. MR

      What are everyday red flags that, for you, Dr. Spiegel, are like you need to change your relationship with gravity?

    3. BS

      Yeah. I mean, these are everyday common things. We talked about low back pain already, for example.

    4. MR

      Okay.

    5. BS

      You know, feeling dizzy when you stand up too quickly, feeling lightheaded, um, having chronic pain, feeling exhausted, feeling mentally down, um, feeling like you're falling, um, literally or even metaphorically, like you're getting gut feelings in your belly when you're anxious. All of these are signs of what I call gravity intolerance, and it's easy though for doctors to say, "Oh, well, that is disease A or that is disease B," and that's how we think about the human body. But I think about it as all of the systems working in unison to stand up to this, this planet, and we can diagnose gravity intolerance through all of these different types of symptoms. What's amazing is there's so much literature that literally how you hold your body helps how you feel on the inside, right? You feel more buoyant, you feel lighter when you stand up straight. So think about when you are in a cathedral.

    6. MR

      Okay.

    7. BS

      And the ceiling is high.

    8. MR

      Yes.

    9. BS

      You feel glorious. You feel heavenly. The, the spires point to the heavens.

    10. MR

      Yes.

    11. BS

      Right? When you come into, uh, Grand Central Station in New York, you look up and think, "This is beautiful," but when you come into Penn Station, it's been said that it's like you scuttle into the city like a rat. These sl- these, like, low ceilings, it's not glorious. It's not amazing. We have a neuropsychological love of expansive space, the heavens. We, even in our language, we talk about how up is good. I'm feeling high. I'm feeling great. And down, in the dumps, down on my luck. D- these are not just figures of speech. These are not just metaphors.

    12. MR

      That's true.

    13. BS

      These are literal.

    14. MR

      Because emotions can be like-

    15. BS

      Yeah

    16. MR

      ... heavy.

    17. BS

      Heavy. People speak of the heaviness, the literal heaviness of something like depression.

    18. MR

      Huh.

    19. BS

      Okay? On the body itself. It's an existential attribute of our neurophysiology that we love being in expansive, beautiful worlds, and we do not love being in contracted, uh, small spaces.

    20. MR

      Now, you say there is one thing-... that you can do right now [laughs] to-

    21. BS

      Hmm

    22. MR

      ... with your hands-

    23. BS

      Yeah

    24. MR

      ... to show your relationship to gravity?

    25. BS

      Well, it's worth testing-

    26. MR

      Okay

    27. BS

      ... because I'm going to guess that many of your listeners-

    28. MR

      Mm-hmm

    29. BS

      ... when they hear this-

    30. MR

      Okay

  6. 22:51 – 26:50

    The Hidden Link Between Gut and Mood

    1. MR

      What is the role that gravity plays in your digestion?

    2. BS

      Most people think of serotonin as a happy chemical. You know, it's like the anti-depression chemical, and it is that. But you might be surprised that about 95% of your body's serotonin comes from your gut.

    3. MR

      Hmm.

    4. BS

      Not your brain, comes from the gut. And in fact, it depends upon the microbiome, which is all those organisms. So what happens is when you eat certain foods, particularly foods with tryptophan, so tryptophan turns into serotonin in your gut, and then serotonin circulates all throughout your body. Without it, you and I would be collapsed on the ground right now like a little baby. A baby has very little serotonin in its body 'cause it hasn't yet colonized its gut to be able to create enough serotonin to prime your muscles. To help those pumps and tubes contract, it requires serotonin. The lymphatic system that's bringing all the waste back up from your ankles requires serotonin. If we look at what serotonin does, it literally elevates you.

    5. MR

      Huh.

    6. BS

      Mind and body.

    7. MR

      Wow.

    8. BS

      And it looks like the gut, in part, evolved with the microbiome to allow us to get out of the ocean. We brought our own hydrothermal vent with us to allow all those critters to come with us, and they gave us serotonin, which gave us gravity management abilities.

    9. MR

      And gravit- what is a gravity management ability?

    10. BS

      That means a few things. That means-Your muscles and bones are strong-

    11. MR

      Okay

    12. BS

      ... so that you can stand up. It means the pumps and tubes on the inside are moving the fluid around, the lymph, the blood, something called the baroreceptors, which are these tiny sensors you have in your arteries, and they are constantly keeping track of your pressure and your fluid status. How much, did you drink enough water? All of this stuff is gravity management. And then finally, the brain itself, the mental gravity. All of these systems work together to allow you to stand up and thrive. That's what gravity management is.

    13. MR

      Got it. So your gut-

    14. BS

      Yeah

    15. MR

      ... really operates in a way-

    16. BS

      Yeah

    17. MR

      ... that it has to be... Well, I, I guess if you think about it, I mean, everything's kind of moving down and out.

    18. BS

      Yeah.

    19. MR

      And then also moving up against gravity.

    20. BS

      That's right. So it's amazing to me, we'll take people who have stomach pain-

    21. MR

      Yes

    22. BS

      ... and we can't figure out what's causing it, let's say. We do a bunch of different tests, and then we find out that on rollercoasters, they get really bad butterflies and they don't even wanna ride a rollercoaster. And you think, "Well, what is this thing about gut feelings anyway?" Like, why do you get that feeling on a rollercoaster? Well, you know why? Because when you're riding a rollercoaster, you're practicing your death.

    23. MR

      What?

    24. BS

      Yeah, you're practicing your death. We're not supposed to fall 20 stories and survive. [laughs] That's why we do it, 'cause it's exhilarating. We're like, "Woo," right? People with irritable bowel syndrome, often, not all, do not wanna ride a rollercoaster 'cause they feel like they're always falling, like metaphorically falling.

    25. MR

      Whoa.

    26. BS

      They will white-knuckle, hold on for dear life and go, "Ah." Whereas other people are, like, throwing their hands in the air, throwing... You know, it's like we have a G-force accelerometer in our gut that is keeping track of your movement and telling you if you're about to die. So literally, when you get those gut feelings, like something's the matter, something doesn't feel right here, that's your body saying, "You, you think you're at risk. You feel like you might die even." Now, sometimes that's an inappropriate feeling. Your brain is playing a trick on you. Your brain is telling you that you're falling.

    27. MR

      Hmm.

    28. BS

      So that's literally how deep the gut feeling gets, and Hippocrates said, "All disease begins in the gut." 2,000 years ago he said that. What did he mean? This is the core of who we are. It's the ultimate visceral center of our

  7. 26:50 – 29:31

    The 10 Foods Your Body Needs

    1. BS

      selfhood.

    2. MR

      I know you have a very memorable way of eating-

    3. BS

      Yeah

    4. MR

      ... Dr. Spiegel, that helps you and your body's relationship with gravity.

    5. BS

      Yeah.

    6. MR

      What is it?

    7. BS

      Well, I call it, uh, Stack 10.

    8. MR

      Stack 10?

    9. BS

      S-T-A-C-K-

    10. MR

      Okay

    11. BS

      ... T-E-N.

    12. MR

      Okay.

    13. BS

      And you already got the T 'cause you said turkey.

    14. MR

      Okay.

    15. BS

      So what is Stack 10? These are 10 foods, that's why I say 10, that I-

    16. MR

      Okay

    17. BS

      ... stack-

    18. MR

      Okay

    19. BS

      ... in my diet to try and boost serotonin levels naturally.

    20. MR

      Okay.

    21. BS

      And we talked already about how serotonin is this gravity management substance.

    22. MR

      Yeah.

    23. BS

      That's how I think about it. And so what are the foods? Uh, the S is salmon. Okay? The T is turkey. Okay? A is avocado, C is chicken and chickpeas. Okay? Uh, and then K is kidney beans, and then the T is, uh, like tempeh, tofu, eggs, E, and nuts, N. So it turns out all those foods, what they have in common is they have a lot of tryptophan, which is the raw fuel that your body will convert into serotonin, which then allows you to stand up to the force of gravity.

    24. MR

      And so you just make sure you get a kind of variety of the Stack 10 in your-

    25. BS

      Yeah

    26. MR

      ... diet every week?

    27. BS

      Yeah, yeah. Well-

    28. MR

      And then you exercise.

    29. BS

      And, and sleep. And there are other ways to boost serotonin. Sunlight.

    30. MR

      Okay.

  8. 29:31 – 33:46

    The 10-Second Test That Reveals Your Lifespan

    1. BS

      ourselves a gravity break.

    2. MR

      So what's one quick way that the person listening-

    3. BS

      Hmm

    4. MR

      ... can improve their body's relationship to gravitational pull?

    5. BS

      Yeah.

    6. MR

      Might take a few minutes, but they, you would be really proud of if you tried this.

    7. BS

      Yeah. There's a few things you can do.

    8. MR

      Okay.

    9. BS

      Uh, you can stand on one leg.

    10. MR

      Stand on one leg.

    11. BS

      See how long you can stand on one leg without falling over.

    12. MR

      Okay.

    13. BS

      Right? Uh, stand on the other leg.

    14. MR

      What does it tell you when you have somebody that is losing balance?

    15. BS

      Mm-hmm.

    16. MR

      And why is balance so important?

    17. BS

      Yeah, this is important because your ability to balance is a measure of your entire mechanism within gravity. It's a measure of your inner ear and what we call the vestibular system, which is keeping track of your shifts and movements. It's a measure of your strength and your tendons and your bones and what we call proprioception, which is your ability to kind of feel where you are in space without falling over. And so you wanna be able to stand on one leg for at least 10 seconds. If you're struggling to do that-That's something to work on for sure, because there's evidence that if you can't stand up on one leg, that's actually tied to your survival. It will actually h- d- determine in part literally how long you're going to live. So if you can't do it, don't freak out, work on it. Do yoga, get stronger, work on balance, see a doctor if you need to, physical therapist.

    18. MR

      So 10 seconds is the minimum?

    19. BS

      That's the minimum for standing on one leg, yeah.

    20. MR

      And it, based on the research, your ability to stand on each leg for 10 seconds-

    21. BS

      Mm-hmm

    22. MR

      ... tracks directly to your life expectancy?

    23. BS

      Yeah, particularly for older individuals.

    24. MR

      Wow. Why?

    25. BS

      I think it has to do with everything we're talking about, because this is a holistic measure of your gravity tolerance, and if it's breaking down, that means you're breaking down. You're changing your relationship to gravity. Your organs will thank you. You're changing the movement of sloshing of all that stuff, the, the, you know, the bread that's stuffed at the bottom of the... Now it's at the top of the bag. Exercise is about constantly dynamically changing your relationship to gravity, which is why I wear a weighted vest, for example. So that's a really simple thing to do.

    26. MR

      Oh, you wear a weighted vest at all times?

    27. BS

      I wear a weighted vest. I have one here, by the way.

    28. MR

      Okay, so he's pul-

    29. BS

      The-

    30. MR

      If you're listening, he's pulling out a weighted vest.

  9. 33:46 – 37:02

    The Dead Hang Challenge

    1. BS

      of that expression.

    2. MR

      So one easy way that the person listening could start to strengthen their relationship with gravity is to just practice standing on one foot or the other.

    3. BS

      Mm-hmm.

    4. MR

      What's another way?

    5. BS

      Mm-hmm. Inverted yoga.

    6. MR

      Yep.

    7. BS

      Doing the downward dogs, that sort of thing.

    8. MR

      Yep.

    9. BS

      And then, um, there's the dead hang.

    10. MR

      Oh, god.

    11. BS

      The dead hang.

    12. MR

      Yeah. I've been practicing this.

    13. BS

      You have?

    14. MR

      Well, only because one of my goals in life... [laughs]

    15. BS

      Yeah?

    16. MR

      We always get a million emails about this every time I say it. I have never been able to do a pull-up on my own, and so one of my goals is to, because of the experts on this podcast, I not only host the show, I'm learning-

    17. BS

      Yeah

    18. MR

      ... right alongside you-

    19. BS

      Yeah

    20. MR

      ... as you're listening right now, is to learn, I just wanna do one. I don't need to do 10. I wanna be able to do one pull-up without injuring myself, and that's it. And so I've been working on the dead hang.

    21. BS

      Yeah.

    22. MR

      It is so hard.

    23. BS

      It is hard, yeah. Yeah, it is.

    24. MR

      So practicing a dead hang, which, explain for the person listening what that is.

    25. BS

      So a dead hang is where you have, like, a pull-up bar.

    26. MR

      Okay.

    27. BS

      You can get these on Amazon or wherever. Hook it... A safe one, right? [laughs] Not the one that falls when you pull on it. It's gotta be able to hold your weight safely. It hooks into the door, and then you put your hands at about shoulder width.

    28. MR

      Okay.

    29. BS

      You can be forward facing or back facing, and take your body weight off the ground.

    30. MR

      Oof.

  10. 37:02 – 38:47

    Grip Strength Matters

    1. BS

      Yeah, a minute.

    2. MR

      Well, why is grip strength-

    3. BS

      Mm-hmm

    4. MR

      ... such an important indication of your overall health?

    5. BS

      Yeah. It, it's been validated in a number of research studies now-

    6. MR

      Okay

    7. BS

      ... that your grip strength, and I have a grip monitor here. It's called a dynometer.

    8. MR

      A dynometer.

    9. BS

      Yeah.

    10. MR

      Okay, so he's holding up this thing-

    11. BS

      Yeah

    12. MR

      ... that looks like a big calculator-

    13. BS

      Right. [laughs] That's right

    14. MR

      ... only it's got a big squeezy thing on it.

    15. BS

      That's right. And so what you do is you, um, basically I'm right-handed, so I'll use my right hand. Use your dominant hand.

    16. MR

      Okay.

    17. BS

      And you're gonna just squeeze like crazy on this thing.

    18. MR

      Okay.

    19. BS

      Okay? So let me see what I can do. I wanna use two hands, but you should only use one hand. So here I go. Ah. Okay.

    20. MR

      Oh, got it. He's like grunting-

    21. BS

      And, uh-

    22. MR

      ... and going. Okay, what do you got?

    23. BS

      Well, 125.

    24. MR

      Oh.

    25. BS

      125. That is pretty decent, actually.

    26. MR

      Let me try it.

    27. BS

      I'm surprised.

    28. MR

      All right, I'm gonna try it. I'm gonna think of somebody I hate. Here, let me try it. I'm gonna try it. My hands are really sweaty.

    29. BS

      [laughs] All right.

    30. MR

      Ugh, 70.

  11. 38:47 – 40:27

    Your Body Needs More Water Than You Think

    1. MR

      that stuff.

    2. BS

      That's right.

    3. MR

      I'd love to hear you talk about how this advice applies to the different ages and decades of your life. Like, what's-

    4. BS

      Mm-hmm

    5. MR

      ... important in your 20s versus your 30s or 40s or 50s or 60s and beyond?

    6. BS

      Yeah, right. So, you know, gravity doesn't change, but our relationship-

    7. MR

      Oh, that's true

    8. BS

      ... to gravity changes. [laughs]

    9. MR

      Yes.

    10. BS

      Our relationship does. We get weaker. Uh, our spines might bend a little bit. We might gain some weight. Uh, we might have more stressors, uh, emotional weight.

    11. MR

      Mm.

    12. BS

      And that's not just a metaphor. And so we start to give in, and what that means is as we get older, it's more important than ever to focus on strength training, on balance training, on diet, on good hydration, maintaining like 10 to 13 glasses of water per day. That's a lot.

    13. MR

      10 to 13?

    14. BS

      That's a lot. Yeah.

    15. MR

      Wait, hold on a second-

    16. BS

      Yes

    17. MR

      ... Dr. Spiegel. You recommend 10 to 13 glasses of water a day?

    18. BS

      Yeah, more or less. Yeah.

    19. MR

      Why?

    20. BS

      About half your body weight, 60% of your body weight is fluid, and you've got these pumps and tubes moving it up and down against gravity. And so if we don't keep those tubes flush with fluid, our brains get tired, we get exhausted. It's all gravity intolerance. And so we do need to replenish, and, uh, it takes a lot of water, and most of us don't drink near enough water. Now, don't, don't overdo it, but enough water to not feel lightheaded and to feel fresh, and even your mental health is tied in part to this.

    21. MR

      Well, as you were listening and he was talking about 10 to 12 glasses of water, I of course just subconsciously picked up my mason jar-

    22. BS

      [laughs]

    23. MR

      ... and started chugging.

    24. BS

      I'll do the same.

    25. MR

      This is, like, fascinating

  12. 40:27 – 43:21

    Why You Feel Off: You Were Built For This Planet

    1. MR

      to me. You know, Dr. Spiegel, what do you wanna say to the person who's spent years blaming themselves-

    2. BS

      Mm

    3. MR

      ... for the way that they feel, and like me-

    4. BS

      Yeah, yeah

    5. MR

      ... has never even considered-

    6. BS

      Yeah

    7. MR

      ... that the pull of gravity, of all things, may be playing a role in some of the challenges they're facing?

    8. BS

      So the first thing is to say it's not your fault, right? We have this blame culture-

    9. MR

      Yeah

    10. BS

      ... that if, you know, I don't feel right physically, mentally, that it's something that I did. What this way of thinking opens up is the notion that it's not something that is your fault. It has to do with the way your body is navigating this planet.

    11. MR

      Mm.

    12. BS

      And now we can move to strategy, not to blame. We can start thinking about techniques to strengthen your relationship to this earth, because you were born for it. You are a consequence of it. You are made for it. If you literally feel like you're not made for this planet, that means we have to work hard and fast on rebuilding your sense of self within the confines of this planet. And so that's really what it means, is feeling not a sense of blame, but a sense of empowerment. You are born for this place. You evolved for it.

    13. MR

      Well, if you really even just think about any baby-

    14. BS

      Mm-hmm

    15. MR

      ... you know, a baby, I think they, the research shows will, and when they're trying to learn how to stand up and walk, will-

    16. BS

      Yeah

    17. MR

      ... fall, like, an average of 17 times-

    18. BS

      Oh, yeah

    19. MR

      ... an hour.

    20. BS

      Yeah, yeah.

    21. MR

      They don't lay on the ground and go, "Well, that's it. I'm just gonna succumb to, you know, gravity. I, I... Walking's not for me." There is this internal mechanism, this instinct to stand up, to-

    22. BS

      We fall down

    23. MR

      ... pull yourself up.

    24. BS

      We have to fall down a lot to stand up again. That said, it's interesting, 'cause there's research with babies going back to the 1960s, where they were asked to crawl towards their parent-

    25. MR

      Uh-huh

    26. BS

      ... across a glass plane, where there was a drop-off down beneath.

    27. MR

      Okay, so the baby is gonna dr- dr- like, crawl across something that looks like a drop-off.

    28. BS

      Yes.

    29. MR

      Okay.

    30. BS

      And they don't do it.

  13. 43:21 – 47:01

    How To Feel Calm Instantly

    1. BS

      down.

    2. MR

      What role does breathing play-

    3. BS

      Hmm

    4. MR

      ... in helping the body feel more stable?

    5. BS

      Yeah. So we know from, you know, so many traditions that breathing is a grounding mechanism.

    6. MR

      Hmm.

    7. BS

      What do we mean by a grounding mech- what is the gr- we're talking about the ground, we're talking about gravity today.

    8. MR

      Yeah.

    9. BS

      You're becoming grounded. We use that term, you know, kind of metaphorically, but it's a literal one. When you breathe in slowly and you regulate your breath, you're regulating that vagus nerve we talked about before, which is the long, winding nerve, the longest nerve in the body, that connects your brain to all of your inner organs, the gut that we've talked a lot about, the heart, and it releases serotonin in the brain and in the body. When you slow down and regulate, what you're doing is you're going from a more fight or flight mode to a rest and digest mode, and that is grounding, um, physically and mentally. So breathing is a big part of that, doing these gravitational breathing exercises.

    10. MR

      Dr. Spiegel, will you walk me and the person listening through a simple breathing reset that you use with your patients?

    11. BS

      Yeah, sure. So which you can imagine, first of all, is kind of sit up.

    12. MR

      Okay.

    13. BS

      And-

    14. MR

      Okay. See, now I'm like, see, I was slouching again.

    15. BS

      You gotta sit up, yep.

    16. MR

      Okay.

    17. BS

      This, that upper shoulder, kind of keep yourself... But, you know, you don't need to get all tense.

    18. MR

      Okay.

    19. BS

      And you can start by just feeling, um, your body sink into the chair. But rather than thinking about it as being pulled down, think about it like you're being pushed up.

    20. MR

      Oh.

    21. BS

      Can you imagine-

    22. MR

      So push up against the chair versus slouching in

    23. BS

      ... can you imagine the chair, the chair is pushing you.

    24. MR

      Oh, yeah. Okay.

    25. BS

      'Cause what physicists talk about is gravity is actually an upward acceleration. It's not a downward pull.

    26. MR

      That doesn't make sense to me.

    27. BS

      I know. It's kind of counterintuitive.

    28. MR

      [laughs]

    29. BS

      But that's what it is. We're actually being accelerated into... It's really wild. It's a total mind mess-up. But if you think about it that way, your life becomes one of bounding into the world, like a trampoline effect off of the surface of the Earth. Like, when you're running, you're bounding off the Earth.

    30. MR

      That's true.

  14. 47:01 – 54:24

    How to Know You’re On the Right Track

    1. BS

      that sort of thing.

    2. MR

      What are some of the signs to look for that indicate that your body is handling gravity better, that your health is improving in this regard, Dr. Spiegel?

    3. BS

      As your gravity resilience grows, your confidence in being a person in the world grows-

    4. MR

      Hmm

    5. BS

      ... physically and mentally. You have strength. You're standing up into the world. You're not slouching. You don't have as much pain. Pain itself is a sign of gravity intolerance. That means that you are being pulled and bent and squeezed in ways that you're not supposed to.

    6. MR

      Hmm.

    7. BS

      Now, there's other forms of pain, too, but generally, musculoskeletal pain is a form of gravity intolerance. You have less pain. You stand up stronger. You feel lighter. Feel lighter because your strength is there. Your hydraulic systems, the pumps and tubes, are moving in, you know, all the blood up into your brain better, and mentally, you feel buoyant.

    8. MR

      Hmm.

    9. BS

      You feel lighter in the world. That means you're succeeding. You're a gravity master.

    10. MR

      You know, I think this is one of those conversations that really blow your mind a little bit, because it makes you see something from a completely different-

    11. BS

      Mm-hmm

    12. MR

      ... angle.

    13. BS

      Mm-hmm.

    14. MR

      If, you know, you have somebody in mind that you really want to send this episode to and you think would really benefit from this different perspective-

    15. BS

      Mm-hmm

    16. MR

      ... on health and on the way to stand taller in life, so to speak-

    17. BS

      Mm-hmm

    18. MR

      ... the way to feel bigger, more confident-

    19. BS

      Mm-hmm

    20. MR

      ... uh, how would you introduce them to this? Like, 'cause I can only imagine when a, when a patient walks in-

    21. BS

      Yeah

    22. MR

      ... to your office for GI issues, Dr. Spiegel, and then you hit them with gravity, you, you probably have figured out a way to kind of bring this up. How do you do that?

    23. BS

      Yeah, yeah. Well, again, I go back to the obvious things. I say, "You know, what does it feel like right now to be in your body?"

    24. MR

      Hmm.

    25. BS

      I have pain, you know, my back hurts, swelling in my ankles, feel down, feel exhausted. And then I talk about, it sounds kinda like you're on another planet. You're, sounds kinda like you're on a planet that's pulling too hard.

    26. MR

      Mm.

    27. BS

      Right? I mean, when there's too much pull, it's hard to get up, and things hurt, and you feel down, and you feel sad, and it's hard to get out and be curious and, and to have energy, and it kinda sounds like that, right? And they say, "Yeah, yeah. Exactly." Sounds like there's too much gravity on your body. Yeah. I said, "Well, let's do something [laughs] about that. That's really... I can deal with that. We've got, we've got lots of answers for that." And now we're not talking about your gut or your microbiome or the exact diet that you ate, and that'll all come, right?

    28. MR

      Right.

    29. BS

      There's all the... We've been talking, unpacking all-

    30. MR

      Right

Episode duration: 54:26

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