Dr. Andy Galpin

But what's more interesting and I dove into a lot of was what do we know about chronic benefits? So if you're in that hole and HRV is way down for a long time, can supplements do much to bring you out of that hole and bring that HRV back up, bring that respiratory rate down or however we're defining autonomic control? The short answer is no. Not really.

Well, maybe they can, but there's not a lot of evidence to support that. Closest thing I found was there was actually several review articles and meta-analyses on omega-3s. Benefit doesn't seem to be huge. We know a lot of positive benefits of omega-3s, but this doesn't seem to be a massive one. But there's some indication that there's some help here. So that was pretty cool.

Well, maybe they can, but there's not a lot of evidence to support that. Closest thing I found was there was actually several review articles and meta-analyses on omega-3s. Benefit doesn't seem to be huge. We know a lot of positive benefits of omega-3s, but this doesn't seem to be a massive one. But there's some indication that there's some help here. So that was pretty cool.

Other ones that we'll see, I actually found a study on watermelon juice. Now, this may surprise you, but people don't realize that citrulline and arginine, the nitric oxide capacity in watermelons is pretty high. So there's a pretty cool study, they actually did it in combination with like an oral glucose tolerance test.

Other ones that we'll see, I actually found a study on watermelon juice. Now, this may surprise you, but people don't realize that citrulline and arginine, the nitric oxide capacity in watermelons is pretty high. So there's a pretty cool study, they actually did it in combination with like an oral glucose tolerance test.

And what they effectively found was it doesn't improve HRV, but what it does do is it blunts the HRV response when you dose them with something that should normally compromise it. It's stress inoculation. In fact, if you look at other things like ashwagandha, Very similar types of research.

And what they effectively found was it doesn't improve HRV, but what it does do is it blunts the HRV response when you dose them with something that should normally compromise it. It's stress inoculation. In fact, if you look at other things like ashwagandha, Very similar types of research.

So it's not that these things will take your resting HRV and make it get better, but what it will do is it helps you not be as responsive to a stressful stimuli. That is the true benefit. So whether this is high intensity exercise or a psychological stressor, things like watermelon juice or ashwagandha may blunt how much of an impact those things make on you.

So it's not that these things will take your resting HRV and make it get better, but what it will do is it helps you not be as responsive to a stressful stimuli. That is the true benefit. So whether this is high intensity exercise or a psychological stressor, things like watermelon juice or ashwagandha may blunt how much of an impact those things make on you.

So kind of stress inoculators, if you will, but they're not really recovering you from that hole, but worthy of mention nonetheless. A final one that I thought worthy of talking about was actually a review article on human studies that found an association between low vitamin D and B12 and low HRV. This was not a randomized controlled trial.

So kind of stress inoculators, if you will, but they're not really recovering you from that hole, but worthy of mention nonetheless. A final one that I thought worthy of talking about was actually a review article on human studies that found an association between low vitamin D and B12 and low HRV. This was not a randomized controlled trial.

This was not an intervention study, but it was interesting nonetheless. So I'll keep my eye out for more work in this area. Maybe we'll see that. Maybe if you take people who are low and getting vitamin D and B12, you will actually see a chronic improvement. And HRV over time. Maybe you won't. Not sure.

This was not an intervention study, but it was interesting nonetheless. So I'll keep my eye out for more work in this area. Maybe we'll see that. Maybe if you take people who are low and getting vitamin D and B12, you will actually see a chronic improvement. And HRV over time. Maybe you won't. Not sure.

I'd be willing to bet if you take and just give people who are normal in vitamin D and B12 those supplements, it probably won't do much. But we'll have to wait and see how the data pan out. So we've covered a lot of ground today. I think we should finish on a little bit of a wrap up. Want to keep this stuff in proper context. Remember that hormesis.

I'd be willing to bet if you take and just give people who are normal in vitamin D and B12 those supplements, it probably won't do much. But we'll have to wait and see how the data pan out. So we've covered a lot of ground today. I think we should finish on a little bit of a wrap up. Want to keep this stuff in proper context. Remember that hormesis.

We want to stimulate, but we don't want to annihilate. You want to touch the boundaries. You want to desensitize, but we don't want to push people so far into an area where it actually creates a greater stress response, a greater protective mechanism. Small bump and uncomfortableness gives you a nice rebound. That's what we're looking for.

We want to stimulate, but we don't want to annihilate. You want to touch the boundaries. You want to desensitize, but we don't want to push people so far into an area where it actually creates a greater stress response, a greater protective mechanism. Small bump and uncomfortableness gives you a nice rebound. That's what we're looking for.

But a huge trauma is not helpful or potentially even sends us backwards. There are a couple of types of people in this world in this regard. I call them big feelers, people that have that high interoception. They pay attention to themselves too much and they cause themselves way too much stress because they're hyper-focused on every little thing. In that case, maybe don't use that technology.

But a huge trauma is not helpful or potentially even sends us backwards. There are a couple of types of people in this world in this regard. I call them big feelers, people that have that high interoception. They pay attention to themselves too much and they cause themselves way too much stress because they're hyper-focused on every little thing. In that case, maybe don't use that technology.

Use more the feeling type of stuff or don't do anything. Pull them off of a lot of these things. Then you have the dull knives is what I call them, people that just have no contact with their body whatsoever. Maybe you want to use more of these technological solutions to get more calibrated and more aware. Other big conclusion we talked about is overall, the first step is just reducing arousal.