The 10-Minute Morning Habit That Crushes ADHD Overwhelm

I spent a decade convinced I had a "broken brain," relying on the highest dose of Adderall just to get by. But what if the biggest struggle of your life becomes your greatest strength? In this special episode, originally recorded during my conversation with Adam Metwally on his podcast 'That One Time,' I'm sharing that very personal story. I recount the 10 years on medication (from age 8 to 18), the anxiety, the feeling of being disconnected, and the pivotal moment I discovered neuroplasticity – the key that unlocked incredible academic success and helped me get off meds for good.

Together with Adam, I break down the 4 Pillars that were foundational to my transformation: Sleep, Nutrition, Movement, and Mind. You'll hear the specific, actionable strategies I personally used – like optimizing light exposure for circadian rhythm, managing core body temperature for deep sleep, fueling my brain with targeted nutrition (and avoiding common pitfalls like processed foods and potential heavy metals), harnessing progressive overload training for mental resilience, and implementing powerful time and attention management techniques that allowed me to thrive without medication.

Ultimately, I learned to reframe that challenging decade not as a curse, but as the "best thing that ever happened" because it led me to dedicate my life to this work. This conversation goes beyond just my story; it’s about turning struggle into strength and reclaiming your power through understanding your own biology. If you're looking to enhance focus naturally, navigate the complexities of ADHD or stimulant medication, or optimize your cognitive performance by mastering the fundamentals, I encourage you to listen to this deep dive recorded on 'That One Time with Adam Metwally'.

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TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 From Adderall to Empowerment
11:20 The Four Pillars of Health
17:12 Mapping an Ideal Week for Focus
20:03 The Science of Sleep and Dopamine Sensitization
39:37 The Role of Supplements in Sleep Management
44:13 Nutrition Strategies for ADHD
56:11 Heavy Metals and Their Impact on Health
01:06:40 Exercise and ADHD: Finding the Right Routine
01:10:45 Mental Health: The Final Pillar
01:11:40 The Interplay of Nutrition, Sleep, and Recovery
01:15:31 Mastering Attention Management
01:21:32 The Power of Planning and Time Management
01:24:01 Transforming Perceptions of ADD
01:29:23 The Journey to Self-Actualization
01:32:18 Exploring Natural Solutions for Focus
01:39:29 Finding Meaning in Life Through Authenticity

Chapters

• 0:00 From Adderall to Empowerment
• 11:20 The Four Pillars of Health
• 17:12 Mapping an Ideal Week for Focus
• 20:03 The Science of Sleep and Dopamine Sensitization
• 39:37 The Role of Supplements in Sleep Management
• 44:13 Nutrition Strategies for ADHD
• 56:11 Heavy Metals and Their Impact on Health
• 1:06:40 Exercise and ADHD: Finding the Right Routine
• 1:06:40 Heavy Metals and Their Impact on Health
• 1:10:45 Mental Health: The Final Pillar
• 1:11:40 The Interplay of Nutrition, Sleep, and Recovery
• 1:15:31 Mastering Attention Management
• 1:21:32 The Power of Planning and Time Management
• 1:24:01 Transforming Perceptions of ADD
• 1:29:23 The Journey to Self-Actualization
• 1:32:18 Exploring Natural Solutions for Focus
• 1:39:29 Finding Meaning in Life Through Authenticity

Transcript

How to Cure ADHD Without Drugs — Andrés Preschel

Andrés Preschel

I took Adderall for 10 years, between ages 8 to 18. I grew up thinking I had a broken brain. How did you get to the point where you go, you know, enough is enough?Because I went from being a mediocre student on the highest prescribed dose of Adderall, 60 milligrams a day, XR, to quitting the medication and becoming an incredible student, placing at the 99th percentile on all my exams and getting into my dream school, all through the new habits that I had. I want to dig in specifically to the protocol. What are the pillars to begin with?And then we'll break them down from there. Sleep, nutrition, movement, and mind. I used to play the victim card a lot with AED.I used to think that it was the worst thing that ever happened to me to take Adderall. And without a doubt, it's the best thing that ever happened to me. Welcome to That One Time with Adam Metwally, the podcast for all your holistic hustlers out there where we converse the pillars of health, wealth, wisdom, and art.We are here at the beautiful Music for a While studio with Andres Prischel. Hi Andres. Hey man, great to be here.Great to have you. So my first question for you is, you used to be reliant on Adderall. Take us back.What was the catalyst for believing you could fix your focus without drugs? I took Adderall for 10 years, between ages 8 to 18. I grew up thinking I had a broken brain.Honestly, for the first few years taking Adderall, I had no idea that I was taking Adderall. I just, my mom told me, I just take this stuff. It's your, it's your morning vitamins.All right, great. Took it. And I was just, just who I was.Like, I would just take my pills, do my work. I was in school. I was like a pretty normal kid.Um, except over time I started to realize that on the weekends, when I wasn't on Adderall, I was like, it was like a different personality. Right. Because I was, I was, I was, my, my, the, the dosage just continued to go up as I built a tolerance for this stuff.And so when I was medicated on the school days, I was like a robot. And the weekends, my friends at that, this is a funny joke, but my, my, my young friends and I, we would say, uh, Oh yeah, dressers on crack. Like he's like, he's like cracked out.Cause I was like a crazy kid on the weekends and like a robot during the week. Um, so anyway, um, that was my normal. I had like a split personality.That was my normal. I was my MO. And when I was in high school, I was a mediocre student at best.Um, when it comes to subjects that I was genuinely interested in, I, I, I really did go above and beyond. And in my unique, like, hobbies and interests, I, I excelled very quickly. Like as a fisherman, like I'm an excellent fisherman.And I know that it might seem like a fishing is no fishing. You can go like, I would say I'm a better fisherman than I am a scientist and health coach. Like it's my number one skill.I'm a fly fisherman. I'm a spear fisherman. I'm a free diver.I can probably tie over a hundred different knots. Like I can tie my own flies, like you name it. Anyway, fishing, video games, those are my passions.I excelled on like anybody else. What video games? RuneScape.Okay. Best game in the world. Played a little World of Warcraft and uh.Old school RuneScape is the best game ever that honestly saved my life. That gave me a chance to be social when I couldn't be social in person in real life. Because, you know, as you move up the dose on these amphetamines, you start to become pretty anxious because especially on Adderall XR, extended release, which is what I was taking because, um, you're on this amphetamine, which puts you in a sympathetic state and your brain is so active.So like overactive that like in my case, I developed a stutter and that robbed me of my social life because I was afraid to speak. I was afraid to make a fool of myself. And then I wasn't sleeping.I was jacked up on amphetamines all day. So I got terrible sleep. Um, I'd wake up and I'd take more meds.I was a robot in school and uh, yeah, it just completely like reinforced a very anxious personality. Um, anyway, that was my life for many, many years. I was doing my best during our scheduled school breaks to beef up my resume, you know, especially as it was approaching my, my college years.And so one summer, actually the summer going into the junior year of high school, which is the most important year, as you might know, that's when you apply to, you know, colleges, you take your standardized exams, et cetera. So the summer before that, that junior year, I had the chance to do a summer program at the university of Miami. And originally I signed up to do a class in viruses, but for whatever reason, that class didn't end up running and we got shifted into neuroscience.And so I was on a summer break. I wasn't on the medication and I was studying neuroscience and an environment that is primed for neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is, idea that you can change and upgrade your brain, that there's mechanisms built into your brain that help it grow, help it develop, make new connections, et cetera.And I had no idea what that meant or what that was. I had no clue. I didn't even know that it existed.I was just this kid. I had a handicapped brain and I was learning something to be for my resume. So here I was on this campus.I wasn't on the medication. I had a chance to sleep and I had the chance to socialize with people and learn about the brain with unlimited access to the gym and the dining hall. And so I start to eat, I start to go to the gym and train.And I was still somewhat anxious, like honestly, very much so, especially in the beginning, like I would go into the gym and I was hiding in like a little corner of the gym in the corner of my, I could see these big guys like growing their muscles. And I was just like completely like, you know, intimidated, but slowly but surely. So all of us have started there, you know?

Adam Metwally

Yeah.

Andrés Preschel

But dude, if you can imagine this, so I'm about five foot nine in high school. I was maybe the same height.

Adam Metwally

Yeah.

Andrés Preschel

I weigh 170 pounds now. Back then I was 120 pounds, 50 pounds. I was a skeletal man.Like I was in Miami and I would wear a long sleeve shirt to school every single day to hide my skin and bones. Like my friends, at one point we were on a trampoline at a friend's house hanging out and I took my shirt off. There were five, six of us on the trampoline.All five of my friends stopped jumping and they just like their jaws dropped. They couldn't believe how skinny I was. It was fucked.Cause you went eating cause of that? Yeah. Cause I was jacked up on amphetamines.I wouldn't eat at all. I wasn't eating. I wasn't sleeping.I was, yeah. Anyway. So finally on this college campus, learning about the stuff within a few weeks, I started to feel a difference in my life.I started to feel confident. I didn't realize what that felt like. I felt confident.I felt like myself, that cracked out version of me. All of a sudden I had a, uh, like, I felt like my groove, like I felt so good. And I realized that there is literature, that there's like scientific evidence to support what was happening.Like it wasn't just like some miraculous random thing. Like, like there was real research supporting this. So I became obsessed.Like something that you should know about people with ADD is they tend to be very obsessive about certain things. A lot of that can proliferate as like OCD, right? But, uh, typically there is certain themes, certain subjects that they become absolutely obsessed with and they can really, you know, dive into unlike anybody else.And so because I had this realization and this discovery, I realized what neuroplasticity was, that's where my attention went all of a sudden. And I became like seriously obsessed. Like I went all the way into body building, for example, into nutrition, understanding how my food is supporting my brain, how movement supports the brain and endorphins and helps you feel good.Um, I started to fall in love with psychology and, um, I decided, you know what? Like I'm going to apply this stuff as much as I can. And even though, because I have ADD and I'm on medication, I can extend the time on all of my exams, like my ACT and SAT and whatever.I was like, I don't, now that I've discovered this, I don't want to look back and think to myself, Oh, I went to this school or got this job or whatever because of this medication. Like I wanted to feel like I could do it on my own, especially after I had learned this stuff and I knew that it was technically so it could be possible. So I went all in on this stuff and that gave me the opportunity to cut off my Adderall supplementation unless, so unless I'm sure a lot of people tuning into this clicked into this podcast because they're on Adderall or because they are thinking about going on Adderall or they know someone that's on Adderall, right?I think it's almost impossible to quit Adderall unless you actually support your dopaminergic center. Because if you don't support your endogenous dopamine and if you don't sensitize your dopamine, you will have this like insane, you know, withdrawal period. You're going to feel a craving for it.You're going to feel completely inadequate for an extended period of time until your brain, you know, gets until you get your brain back. So, um, the fact that I was doing, and at the time I didn't realize how powerful these habits were, they just felt like the right thing to do. And there was some literature supporting them.So I was falling in love with fitness. I was falling in love with applied physiology, falling in love with psychology, eating better, eating more and becoming and feeling more confident, growing muscle. Within three months, I gained 25 pounds of muscle.I wasn't taking any SARMs or any, uh, uh, steroids. It's just like my body was soaking all this up. Finally, I went from being skeletal to gaining some muscle in a few short months.And everybody thought that I was like on, on, on steroids or something, but no, that's just how deprived I was. Anyway. Um, that's when I first realized that this was possible.And then I decided, you know what, I'm going to go to school and study this stuff because I went from being a mediocre student on the highest prescribed dose of Adderall, 60 milligrams a day, XR, to quitting the medication and becoming an incredible student, placing at the 99th percentile on all my exams and getting into my dream school, the University of Miami, all through the new habits that I had incorporated and learned to appreciate because of the scientific efficacy that backed them for things like neuroplasticity. So to make a very long story short, that's what happened within a year. And I went to school to study all the things that helped me exercise physiology, minored in psychology, pursued a master's in Excel and, and, um, an accelerated master's in applied physiology, nutrition, unfortunately couldn't complete it due to COVID.And now I'm doing a master's in biomedical neuroscience.

Adam Metwally

Yeah. Wow.

Andrés Preschel

So, um, I want to dig in specifically to the protocol and actually work through the pillars and those different elements that somebody listening to this podcast can, can take and apply today. So what are the pillars to begin with? And then we'll break them down from there.Um, I would say that they are sleep, nutrition, movement, and mind. Okay. Well, let's start with sleep.So what's happening when you're on, when you're on Adderall and you're not sleeping effectively? So, so you, you make the problem worse. You make the underlying issue worse.The issue that I have with Adderall, and I think that everybody should know and, and, and, and, and wrap their heads around what I'm about to say is you are reinforcing some of your, you're, you're reinforcing an identity that you're creating through. Let me back up. Let me say this one more time.I want to make sure I get this right. Cause I have to be extremely careful here. It's a very controversial topic.Um, but I think everybody needs to know about Adderall and this is a very controversial take, but I think that inevitably when you, like, it's going to make you successful at, it's going to help you be successful with any professional endeavor in the sense that it's just, yeah, it's there to help you focus and stay focused, help you feel more sharp. But there's this like self perception of inadequacy that you may have. I think that you will have when you build so much success, thanks to this pill that anybody can take and will feel more focused with anybody, whether you have ADD or not, anybody can abuse its power.And, you know, deep down, what are you reinforcing in a meaningful way? Because obviously, you know, your success in school and in your professional life has a lot to do with how, you know, your self esteem, right? Especially as a student, imagine as a student, so much of your identity and self esteem is tied to your success in school, your grades, what your parents think and how successful they think you're being, who your friends are, right?All this is related to your success in school or professionally. So imagine you, you reinforce this identity and it might give you this self perception of inadequacy deep down. And like you're getting further and further from your authentic self.And, you know, the school system isn't built for everybody. And it's especially not built for people that are, you could say in this sense, handicapped, but neurodivergent is a great way to put it. Absolutely.So I think it's really comes down to the individual. Like you have to choose to understand, well, how, what is my superpower? How can I leverage that?How can I get to know myself better? And how can I become aware and mindful of certain habits that trigger the negative responses associated with my, you know, neurodivergent-ness? Like what are my, what are the negative triggers behind my ADD?Like, what are the things that are going to make me distracted or forgetful? How can I be more mindful of those? What are the things that help me feel more focused naturally?How far am I, how far have I removed myself from a lifestyle that will truly help me feel incredible? You know, we live in a modern world, man, that is taking us further and further from the world within us. If you look at the world within us, our physiology, it evolves linearly from one generation to the next.I mean, it takes decades to do, to just make a small tweak, right? In the grand scheme of evolution, it's just a small tweak happens across generations. Whereas the world around us evolves exponentially every single day.I mean, look at AI, how much it's evolved over the past couple of years and the way that it's impacting the way that we live our lives. Smart, you know, uh, uh, smartphones, right? So there's this like gap because the world around us evolves exponentially, the world within us linearly, and there's like a mismatch between these two worlds.And so we are essentially like neglecting what's within us. And we don't see how the world beyond us or around us influences that we're not tapping into evolutionarily preserved mechanisms in the modern day that can help us feel as the most incredible, clear, energized versions of ourselves. Instant gratification is absolutely ruining us and spoiling our brains.We don't get the right exposure to light every morning and every evening. We don't wake up with the sun anymore. We turn the lights on when the sun goes down.Our circadian biology is completely fucked. Our dopaminergic centers are fried and desensitized. We need so much stimulation just to feel a little more focused, engaged, and productive.We're so out of touch. And so anybody like look at the prevalence of ADD nowadays, right? I think it technically you could, you can make the argument on both sides.Is it being over diagnosed or under diagnosed? It's tough to say because while I think a lot of people will self-diagnose and then enable habits or ways of thinking to get the pill and the prescription, right. And to try to finagle their way into doing that simultaneously, the world around us is like actually spoiling our brain.And now we need more stimulation to feel productive and to feel good about ourselves. But I think anybody, as long as they sleep better and get really deep sleep, understanding the mechanisms and what's happening. If they get to sleep deeper, they get to support their body and their mind with the right nutrition.They get to exercise and they understand what it takes to enable willpower in the brain. And then they can pursue a lifestyle that's realistic and attainable for them and only them. That'll help them be feel and perform better.Yeah. So let's double click on sleep, nutrition, movement, and the mind and map it out into what an ideal week might look like for somebody who is listening today, starting at zero, and then has the ideal goal to build the framework that will give them the best shot of harnessing. I like to think of it as the brain, a brain that's, you know, neurodivergent or has ADHD is like a Bronco that can, has a lot of energy that just needs to be harnessed with appropriate like the horse, like a bucking Bronco going crazy.I drive a Bronco. There you go. There you go.So, you know, you get it. So I just see you riding down the street to the podcast. But yeah.So the idea in my head, I picture it as a Bronco and not the car, the uncontrolled energy, just energy, uncontrolled energy that with the right skills and the right harness and the right way to put it can be powerful. So I'm asking you, my question to you in a lot of specificity would be, let's map out an ideal week that taps into the sleep nutrition movement and mind maybe on a day to day or a weekly basis. Okay.So the only purpose I want to give here that I think I feel I need to give here is Adderall is ADD is you can say it's like having low baseline levels of dopamine. Okay. Uh, when you have low baseline levels of dopamine, it's more difficult to be focused and engaged in just about anything.And so when you find something that you actually enjoy, a lot of folks with ADHD, ADHD will become like hyper fixated because that's where they get their dopamine and that's the only thing that they want to do. Right. So it's like kind of like a zero to a hundred, zero or a hundred.Like if you take me for example, I mean nowadays I don't, I wouldn't even consider myself, I wouldn't say that I have ADD nowadays at all. However, I still have a predisposition for low levels of dopamine. I think there are absolutely predispositions that are linked to, uh, ADD.Like I also have a predisposition for Parkinson's, which is basically like low dopamine. Okay.

Adam Metwally

Really?

Andrés Preschel

Yeah. Yeah. So, um, what can we do to help sensitize dopamine and to increase baseline levels of dopamine so that you can be a normal functioning person in society that gets things done, that is responsible and that is focused on the right things and that is mindful and aware of themselves so that they can be just, just successful, you know, as, as, as a professional, as a friend, as a, as, as a person.So sleep is fascinating because it's something that we have to do every single day. And it's the ultimate way to repair, recover, replenish, restore, right? It's like, if you want to talk about dopamine, dude, this is the best way to increase baseline levels of dopamine.It's the best way to sensitize your dopaminergic center, the substantia nigra of the basal ganglia in the brain to produce dopamine. It's the best way to support your hormones and neurotransmitter production. And when you go and enable behaviors and habits that are objectively healthy, like exercise, for example, or maybe fasting or cold exposure or sauna, these are all things that we understand as healthy habits and behaviors.However, they're all hormetic stressors. They're all things that are inherently stressful and assuming that you have adequate recovery, nutrition, supplementation, time off, and a regulated nervous system, you can derive as much of an adaptive response as possible outside of the mental callous of doing difficult things like eliciting neuroplasticity on the anterior midsingulate cortex, the whole power center of the brain. If you actually want to gain the muscle, if you actually want to promote mitochondrial biogenesis, the growth of new mitochondria, et cetera, if you want to get all the benefits of all these healthy habits without wasting away at muscle due to gluconeogenesis and excess cortisol levels, if you actually want to get the best of both worlds, you have to get adequate sleep.Sleep is something you have to do every single day. It's a third of your lifespan. You spent eight hours in bed, that's a third of your lifespan.If you spent, let's say you make it to 90 years, it's 30 years of sleep. You might as well become an expert at it because it is the one thing more than anything else that will guarantee that you have the best quality of life and what you think matters most, which is the waking two thirds, right? If you want to feel naturally energized, focused, and productive, you have to get the best sleep.I see so many people abusing Adderall, abusing nicotine, abusing caffeine, taking exogenous testosterone, right? All these things that they're just like throwing at their body because they feel that they're inadequate or they have a problem, but none of these people, the vast majority of them, at least 90% of them don't have incredible sleep. And I get it.It's like sometimes there's certain careers and jobs and lifestyles where that's just not a reality, but guess what? You can still make sure that your sleep, like are you doing everything absolutely possible to make sure that the sleep that you can get is as efficient as possible? Are you, well, let's talk about that specifically.What does an efficient habit look like to get good sleep? To get efficient sleep, you need to leverage, you need to understand and leverage mechanisms that help you accumulate melatonin, sleep hormone. So what are some things that help you accumulate melatonin?A few things. First and foremost, the most important thing, most important habit for sleep quality and sleep efficiency that will also give you more energy, mental clarity throughout the day, naturally light exposure. You need to get light in the morning.I mean, put it this way, like when people reference evolution to make a statement that is relevant nowadays and how we're designed and how we operate, right? People will just reference like Homo sapien, like a couple million years. Our evolution goes back way, way beyond, you know, before we became we, we, this, this new species, like it's still relevant, right?Like it still has, it plays an important role in our DNA and who we are today. Right? So like, let's look back, let's look way back at evolution.Let's look back billions of years back when we were like a speck of algae in the ocean. What's the one thing that's been around literally, it's been around every day since then. The reason that we have days, yeah, light, light, sun goes up, sun comes down.It is evolutionarily conserved in the most meaningful way. We need to be in touch with that light exposure. So what do you need to do every day to wake up feeling energized?And what's the first investment you can make in your sleep quality tonight? Get light, get morning light, at least 10 minutes within the first 30 minutes of waking expose, expose as much of your skin to that light as possible because you actually produce a lot of vitamin D with your skin. I went out this morning, I'm on like a 43rd floor in Brooklyn and I went out this morning and I just like topless.Nice. It was so fucking cold. Yeah.It's probably freezing. I was like, I couldn't do it for longer than a couple of minutes, but yeah. What are some alternatives around that?So, you know, there's an ideal, a sun lamp, sun lamp, full spectrum. Okay. Yeah.A sun lamp. So like a 10,000 lux, you know, lamp. Um, there's a few good ones on Amazon that you can, that you can buy.So as long as you don't need a flashlight to go outside, you're getting sunlight. Like even if it's a cloudy day, you're still getting sunlight. Just don't stay inside.A lot of our windows filter beneficial wavelengths that help us feel incredible, help us produce vitamin D. So they, they allow the harmful wavelengths to come through. I read somewhere.They, they probably do. They probably allow some of the UV. So UV comes through.So that's why you burn, you can burn inside and that, yeah, you can still get a sunburn inside is more harmful than. Yeah. You're not getting a full spectrum.Like we are simply designed to get full spectrum light. Obviously there's certain points in the day where the sun is, when the sun is directly above us, it has to cross through relatively less atmosphere. And then there's relatively less filtering of this harmful UV wavelength.And so don't go out in the middle of the day. But in the beginning of the day, when the sun is at these lower angles in the very beginning of the day, and at the end of the day, it has to cross through relatively more atmosphere. So you're filtering a lot of the harmful wavelengths, but you're taking advantage and leveraging very important physiological responses to wake up and feel energized and clear in the morning and see a nice natural rising cortisol stress hormone that you need a moderate amount of for peak performance.This is well established in psychology. And the evening when the sun's at this low angle and the sky appears red, the reason it appears red is because at that low angle, you are filtering out a lot of those blue wavelengths that are the specific wavelengths that interact with the retina, the back of the eye, and set a signal to the suprachiasmatic nucleus, the biological clock in your brain that tells you to wake up. So when the sun's at this low angle at the end of the day, the sky appears red, you have a physiological signal telling your body, Hey, accumulate melatonin and turn down cortisol.Okay. And now you should to accumulate melatonin. What's the issue is most people obviously can't experience the experience, the sunset, maybe they're still working in an office or they're at home doing something they can experience this.And even if they do experience the sunset, when they go inside, they turn the lights on and they have these led wavelengths, led light bulbs with blue wavelengths. So like, you know, whether it's the lights that you use to get around your house or whether it's your phone or your laptop or TV, all of a sudden you have this excess, this, uh, disproportionate amount of blue wavelength, which is the main wavelength and led light bulbs that is telling your body and your brain specifically, no, stay up, stay up, stay up. Don't allow melatonin to accumulate.Keep cortisol levels high and I can't get adequate sleep. So the number one thing is you have to be mindful of this. You have to either experience the sunrise and the sunset or replicate it, mimic it, how?Sunlight in the morning, turning the lights on when you wake up and getting as much light to happen to take place when you wake up. And then in the evening, try to experience the sunset. If you can't get a proper pair of blue blocking glasses, an amber colored pair, that's what's systematically proven in the research to support sleep quality.You can't use the clear lenses. You have to have an amber colored wavelength lens. I like the brand raw optics, RA optics.It's my favorite best technology in my opinion. Anyway, that mimics the sunset that allows you to accumulate melatonin. Interestingly, and I love saying this and sharing this on podcasts because I get to leverage my background in psychology.When you make a habit out of wearing these glasses, the amber colored lenses at night, yes, you are blocking out blue wavelengths and accumulating melatonin that you're actually also, uh, taking advantage of, uh, classical conditioning. So like Pavlov's dogs, that experiment, right? So explain to people who don't understand.Yeah. So Pavlov is a psychologist that ran this experiment where she was actually discovered by accident, but the experiment, um, he had these dogs in cages and he would ring a bell and then proceed to bring food into the laboratory and measure the salivation and the, you know, in the dogs, right? Like how much they would salivate, how much saliva they would produce.And he would ring the bell, bring the food in, dogs salivate, they would get fed. And so this reinforced a mechanism to the point where the bell itself ringing the bell, and that became what's called the condition stimulus. All of a sudden, because the dogs anticipated food, every time they'd hear the bell being, you know, rung, they, they would salivate just because just with the bell.So all of a sudden the bell became the condition stimulus. Ringing the bell caused the dogs to salivate independent of the food over time. And this effect only gets stronger with time.And by the way, we are classically conditioned in thousands and probably millions of different ways that we're not even aware of. Anyway, in this case with the blue blocking glasses, as you make the habit of wearing them, they become a condition stimulus because you associate wearing them with the intention to go to sleep and to wind down. So now putting them on allows your body to, you know, feel sleepy, feel tired because it expects you.You've now made a commitment to that, right? Yeah. Yeah.That makes sense. So over time you wear them. I try to wear them around the time that the sun goes down.Got it. The longer that you have them on between sunset and sleep, the better.

Adam Metwally

Yeah.

Andrés Preschel

But nowadays, dude, I put them on because of the classical conditioning effect. My head's bobbing within five minutes of putting these on. Yeah.Do the blue light blocking glasses kind of make overhead lights negligible or do you still need to have overhead lights turned off? I would try to keep those off because they're going to give your body the impression that the sun is above you. But I would say, interestingly, the rods and cones at the periphery of your retina, I think there's a lower proportion.I should know this because I'm, I should know this, but the, I think it's the rods or the cones at the periphery of the retina don't respond to blue light as much. And so, yeah, some light might come in above or below the eye, but it's still, it's not going to keep you up. Okay.That makes sense. That makes sense. Okay.So you, we've touched on sleep. So sleep and the blue light management, but there's a few more mechanisms that will help improve sleep efficiency. I can get into those if you'd like.

Adam Metwally

Yeah.

Andrés Preschel

Yeah. Let's do it. So another really important one is going to be, believe it or not, temperature management.So what actually initiates like, yes, melatonin makes you sleepy. Adenosine accumulation makes you sleepy. It's actually the mechanism, one of the main mechanisms by which consuming caffeine, like we are now, is, is giving us energy.It's reducing the perception of fatigue, is competing with adenosine for binding sites. But you're still fatigued. Yeah.But you're reducing the perception of fatigue and it's also a diuretic. So that increases, increases your blood pressure and your heart rate, et cetera. But anyway, adenosine accumulation, melatonin accumulation, just generally feeling tired and fatigued, you know, wearing down your body, your muscle, whatever.Like there's many different things that make you feel sleepy. What actually initiates deep sleep is a decline in core body temperature. That's very relevant because if you can create an environment internally and externally to facilitate that drop in core body temperature, then you're going to get higher sleep efficiency.So for example, um, avoiding a late dinner, like avoiding any food within two to three hours of bedtime at least is one of the best ways to sleep better because you, when you eat, you bring a lot of warm blood away from the extremities like the arms and the legs. You bring that warm blood into the core to facilitate digestion and that actually keeps your core body temperature high. Um, another thing that you want to avoid is, you know, exercising really late into the day.I get it. Some people have to do that, but if you could instead wake up earlier and do it in the morning, I'd say it's much better for sleep because two, two things, number one, you're going to help produce that endogenous rising cortisol early with the exercise and that is going to be consistent with circadian biology and the rising cortisol that you get from light exposure. So you get that, you feel great, um, endorphins, awesome blood flow, great.And then that actually will help you sleep better in the evening because now you don't have that elevated core body temperature and you have, you know, a lower resting heart rate and higher HRV. So I'm trying to simplify this and still give people value because there's a lot in it. There's a podcast in each of these four pillars, probably multiple podcasts.So yeah, I do understand that. And, and, and you're doing, you're doing a good job, so I'll keep weaving through it. So early dinner and avoiding exercise later into the day.Um, you actually want to take advantage of a hot shower, maybe a little bit of sauna, but not too much because taking a hot shower is just coined, uh, the warm bath effect by the Japanese. Quick one, uh, just double clicking on what you said about a little bit of sauna, but not too much. What does that mean and why?So sauna, like I said earlier, is a hormetic stressor. It can be overdone. What's overdoing it?Um, I think you should probably get out of the sauna when you actually start to feel discomfort. Okay. Which is extremely subjective and it can be understood in different ways, but like your body will tell you when it's time to get out.

Adam Metwally

Yeah.

Andrés Preschel

Listen to that. Don't overdo it because your friend is in there longer than you and you're competing with him or because your favorite influencer is there for 30 minutes. It doesn't fucking matter.Like it's also relative. I think it's so important. Like I'm a data-driven guy.All, everything I do is data-driven, but I believe in being data-driven in a way where it actually builds the backbone of your intuition and interoception, this deep bodily awareness and this gut feeling and, uh, titrating stress and these healthy habits deliberately and intentionally. Um, I think that if you can really feel when these things are having enough of a stressful response, like, all right, now you can move on with your life and do something else. It's different for everybody and it's different for the individual based on, well, what day is it and what am I doing today?This might sound like a bunch of, like, this is all very ambiguous, uh, what I'm trying to say here is like take wearable devices, for example, right? Everybody nowadays who's into health and fitness, most people will have a whoop or an aura or an Apple watch and they get to track their sleep scores and their recovery scores. Most people don't actually know what to do with that.Most people that are curious about health and they're passionate about fitness, health and fitness, they'll just do like whatever, like, oh, I have time to do this or I'm interested in doing that. Or, oh, this person's doing that. I might as well try it out.But I think more people should actually look at their HRV, heart rate variability, look at the recovery and use that as a way to titrate in the right amount of stress into their life that day. Like if you have a low recovery score, don't go in the cold plunge. Don't do much sauna.Don't do that much exercise, especially not high intensity interval training. You can't afford to do it. Yes.Do you build a mental calc in your brain because you're doing hard things against your will? Sure. But are you actually deriving as much of a positive adaptive response as possible?No. You're probably going to be wasting away at your hormones and your transmitters and you're going to burn out eventually. So all that is to say that I think when it comes to sauna, you should get to the point where, yes, you're uncomfortable and that can change from day to day.When you have a high recovery score with great sleep, you might feel more prepared to engage with stress. So you can do sauna, you can do HIIT training that day and you can even do fasting and more cold exposure. But look at your biometrics because the feeling alone might not be good enough.Track your metrics long enough where it builds the backbone of your intuition. You get to see the correlation between what the data says and how you feel. Now you can make educated decisions about what you're going to add into your life to derive as much of a positive effect as possible.So when you do too much sauna into the evening, it can be too stressful, lower HRV, increase stretching heart rate, increase cortisol and increase core body temperature to the point where your body can't, it's going to take too much time and too much sleep to self-regulate. Yep. Makes sense.So a hot shower. Yeah. Is it great?Yeah. It's great. Cause you get hot enough, but not too hot.Yeah. Yeah. I'm a big fan of the hot shower.I found that, you know, I work quite late and there's a battle between getting work done late when I'm pretty focused. For some reason I get a lot of work done between the hours of like 10 and 12, but then I sleep like shit if I do it too late. So I've found that if I want to go to bed at 12, just the hour before getting off the laptop, putting it down and just getting into that shower as that like end point of the work day and the start point of the wind down.Yeah. And it's, it's become a really good habit now. And it just allows you to just kind of like unprocess all the work that you've been doing.It's a good separation. Like some of the best ideas come in the shower when you're driving or when you're in bed about it. Cause you do these present moments.You have no option to do to just be in that moment. Yeah.

Adam Metwally

I've got it.

Andrés Preschel

You go go for it. I've got like a little waterproof notepad that sticks on the glass and you can it's so good. But you were saying, so I shower with the lights off or at the bare minimum, I wear my blue blockers in the shower.Like I swear that's crazy.

Adam Metwally

I love that.

Andrés Preschel

I'm not going to have the lights on while I'm showering and trying to go to sleep like it's ridiculous. You should see my, you should see my apartment. Well, especially in my room.It's just like salt lamps everywhere.

Adam Metwally

Salt lamps. Only salt lamps.

Andrés Preschel

My roommates hate it. They're like, why is all this shit on? They're trying to turn the lights on.I'm like light off, salt lamp on. Yeah. And then like red led lights.Everywhere.

Adam Metwally

Everywhere.

Andrés Preschel

I've found these really, really nice on Amazon. They're like 10 bucks each. They're basically nightlights with a salt lamp on the top.Oh, no way. It's tiny. It's amazing.So I've, I've bought like a bunch of them, like five or six of them. And they're just in all the plugs around like the house and I've got one in the bathroom and all you need is that one light and that light stays on. Yeah.They've got the natural amber color. Yeah. Yeah.And it's like a lower, it's like lower.

Adam Metwally

Yeah.

Andrés Preschel

It's not up, up above.

Adam Metwally

That's correct.

Andrés Preschel

Yeah. That's great. Yeah.So I want to move on to the other three pillars, but just super quickly, what are your thoughts on melatonin supplementation? It's a great question. I used to be completely against it.Like I'm always going to be in the camp of, let's help your body do what it's designed to do in the best way possible. Let's tap into habits and mechanisms and just see with your lifestyle, what you can afford to do realistically and attainably. Yeah.Just to help your body, support your body and doing what it knows how to do. So all that aside, I think that there are certain scenarios where it is a powerful supplement. Like if you're, this is just my theory, this is my, it's just me.Uh, I recommend for my clients, if they are traveling across the world, like significant change in time zone and they're going to be there for less than a week, take melatonin probably every night because that way your body and your circadian rhythm doesn't have to like make that effort to adapt to that new time zone. And now you get back home and now you feel like completely jet lagged. So you're like, you've ruined your quality of life for like two, maybe even three weeks, not more.So I'd say, Hey, look, let's take melatonin. So you get to get the sleep that you need, wake up the next day, feeling more refreshed. And then you're not like endogenously like changing your body, your body's biology.Like you're, you're still, your circadian rhythm is still set in your original time zone. But if you're spending more than a week there, maybe two weeks, take melatonin, maybe the first night just to initiate sleep when you intend to sleep and help set up that, that, that, that rhythm, you know, based off of that first night. Yeah.I like that. I just landed back from Australia on Tuesday. So I've been getting my ass kicked by jet lag.So we're getting there very slowly. And I'd recommend if you're traveling, like get some exercise as soon as you arrive, maybe even some cold exposure, which is another great way to increase baseline dopamine levels, exercise, cold exposure, you know, nutrition, avoiding sugar, alcohol, like all that. It's just a great way to increase baseline dopamine levels.Yeah. And my last thing for the sleep component, which is relevant to the lighting side of things, you mentioned a full spectrum light in the morning. What value is red light therapy in all of this and how would you kind of apply it?Red. So red and infrared wavelengths have been isolated because they have very meaningful therapeutic effects. You know, they will increase mitochondrial biogenesis.They increase blood flow by promoting nitric oxide release, et cetera. So like for recovery after exercise, for example, it's absolutely great. It can also be very relaxing.Is it useful in the morning? Yeah, it can be, but it's not, you're isolating just two wavelengths of the mass, you know, spectrum of light that have these therapeutic benefits in isolation. Um, well within this full spectrum as well, like when you get sunlight, you're getting red and infrared light as well, you know, but these two wavelengths specifically increase what I just mentioned.Um, so I think in the morning it's more important to get a full spectrum. That's the most evolutionarily consistent thing that you can do. Um, I like pair it with red light because I don't know, I just like to kind of promote that blood flow and all that good stuff in the morning while I meditate and journal.Uh, but you can do the same thing under sunlight. Yeah. Would you say that the intensity of the red light panels are much more intense than sunlight?Well, if you're isolating this one wavelength and just, yeah, I mean it's, it's going to be relatively higher intensity than sunlight. Sure. Sure.And you're sending it right next to it. Yeah. Yeah.It makes sense. Just quickly though, I love doing this podcast. If it's positively impacted you in some way and you would like to support us, please subscribe.By subscribing, it allows us to build a much bigger base of listeners, which results in better guests, better production, and a better show overall. Alternatively, please take a look at the affiliate links of the products that I use and love in the comments below and consider purchasing using those links. They'll give you a discount and they'll also provide the podcast a small kickback.These are two very easy ways for you to support us as we continue to grow the podcast that we absolutely love doing. Thank you for your support. And I'm back to the episode.So let's, let's move on to nutrition. So going back to the beginning, you know, with the goal of creating the, the baseline framework that somebody with ADHD starting the journey today to, to begin to get off these meds, what does an ideal nutrition look like? What does ideal nutrition look like and what are some massive pitfalls to potentially minimize?Avoiding all processed food, anything that is exploiting the reward mechanisms of your brain. Which are? Yeah.Processed, like ultra processed foods, like any food that has to be marketed as healthy is processed. Seriously. Like if you actually look at what's called the ANOVA classification system for food processing, this is like a well-established thing in nutrition.Like if you look at the ultra processed food, one of the characteristics of ultra processed food is that they're marketed as like low fat or cholesterol free. Cause dude, otherwise it's garbage and nobody would buy it. They have to be marketed.Whereas if you look at whole foods, like lettuce doesn't need fucking marketing. Red meat doesn't need, doesn't need any marketing, right? Like it's just, it just is what it is.It's a single ingredient. It's real. So like understanding like every single person tuning into this has to understand that there are not millions or billions, but trillions of dollars that go into marketing these foods to convince you that they're healthy.They are greenwashing these foods. Yeah. There is no mark, the real food doesn't need any marketing.That's probably the most important thing I'm going to say when you walk into the grocery store, you're an unfair disadvantage because the smartest people in the world have gotten together to try to trick your brain into thinking that their food is good for you with their colors and their buzzwords and all these misleading nutrition labels and ingredients. It's BS. So as long as you acknowledge that and you realize you're being exploited, now you have, you know, a better ability to kind of fight back and give your body what it truly needs.So I think about this a lot. There's like you hear, I've been so marketed to that the moment I hear a can open Pavlov's dogs, it's basically a Pavlovian response. Whenever I hear a can, I think of just like hydration, but it's just poke.It's like it's come from Coca-Cola. Yeah. I think about that all the time.And now, and now what they're doing is, I mean, they've been doing this forever. He's like marketing companies. It's like they associate consuming their food with a certain lifestyle.

Adam Metwally

Yeah.

Andrés Preschel

That's so fucked man. Yeah. So anyway, stick to the periphery of the grocery store, the refrigerated sections.That's where the good stuff is. Everything in the middle, most of it's absolute garbage. And then consuming foods that are whole, I mean, that's going to give you, you know, you're going to take advantage of higher satiety.So they're more filling a higher thermic effect. These, these foods require energy to break down, which contributes to your daily energy expenditure to help keep you lean. They're going to be obviously more, more nutrient dense.They give your body all the vitamins and minerals that, that, that they need to thrive. And yeah, you get to just completely put this like instant gratification aside, right? Because the foods that we find in nature are not going to be as addicting.They're not going to be as, as, as sweet or dissolve as quickly or, you know, they're, they're just the way that nature intended. Like if you, if you choose foods that are whole, you'll naturally be more focused, more productive. Do you have a, do you have a preference on what kind of food you should stick to in the whole foods categories when let's just say you've, you've got ADHD and you've got a big day that you need to study or focus on some really important tasks.What would that breakfast look like if at all? Yeah, I would say I'll get into the specific ingredients, but choline is great. Choline is.So what's in choline? What's got choline in it? Eggs, for example, are super rich in choline.Shellfish is really rich in choline. And what's cool about choline is that it's like, it helps your body create dopamine. Interesting.Is it worth supplementing choline? Yeah. You can supplement choline like CDP choline or alpha GPC.These are all like choline supplements that you can take or just eat eggs.

Adam Metwally

Yeah.

Andrés Preschel

How many eggs? Few eggs. Like I like, I, me personally, man, like I, I'll never eat less than four eggs at a time.Yeah.

Adam Metwally

Four today.

Andrés Preschel

Yeah. Like each egg is six grams of protein. You know, all that yolk has all the choline in it.B vitamins are great too. I think you should probably, most people tuning in should do like a genetic test, see if they have the MTHFR gene, if they can need methylated B vitamins, I do. So anyway, choline, B vitamins, omega threes to help reduce inflammation in the brain.Do you have a preference on omega three supplements? Because I have, well, I mean, you can have it through food, but a lot of people supplement it, but I've gone through phases where I'll supplement it and I think I'm getting just like shit quality rancid omega three. So what would you recommend?Yeah. My favorite animal based omega-3 is the Kion brand. How do you spell it?K-I-O-N. Yeah. Okay.I think they have probably the best. I had to start taking an algae-based omega-3 because regular omega-3 was giving me tachycardia, elevated heartbeat. I spoke to a geneticist and my functional medicine doctor and there's a whole ridiculous mechanism, but I have to take algae-based omega-3.So I'd say those are probably like the three... How much do you take by the way? Like what, how many milligrams?I think it's like 600 or like a thousand, maybe 600 to a thousand milligrams of DHA and something like that. Okay. Cool.So I would say, yeah, those are incredible foods and ingredients for folks that have ADD, eggs, high amount of protein, dark leafy greens are great too. I mean all generally healthy foods, like just, I think the biggest thing is avoiding the triggers for attention deficit and for these feelings of like anything that's just depleting your dopamine and desensitizing you, like all the sweet crap, the sugar, the alcohol, sugar. Chocolate's great, but you want to go with dark chocolate, at least 75% cacao and try to limit the sugar in it.What about the lead components of dark chocolate that I've been seeing everywhere lately? Yeah. Most dark chocolate's going to have a high amount of either lead or cadmium, arsenic.Is that a problem? Yeah, it can be a problem. It accumulates like my, actually my mercury levels are through the roof high because of all the fish that I eat and maybe even the chocolate.I'm actually now doing chelation to get rid of that. It's actually one of the things that has helped me the most for ADD and for my mental clarity, focus and productivity. Chelating heavy metals.Yeah. That's a whole other podcast and stuff. I've actually done several podcasts on that.Yeah. Well, I, do you know Josh Mason?

Adam Metwally

Yeah, I do.

Andrés Preschel

I've got his course that I've been working through very slowly. I got to the enemas and then stopped for a minute. I was like, we're going to put a pause in this one.I'll come back to that later. Yeah. I've done a few enemas.I couldn't tell you what the benefits were, but lots of mixed opinions there.

Adam Metwally

Yeah.

Andrés Preschel

But yeah, I mean, look, like once you get all the crap out of the way, add in the stuff that naturally serves as precursors to dopamine and then eat foods that are consistent and will support the habits, the lifestyle habits that are going to further support dopamine sensitivity. So like, for example, like what are the foods that you need to perform well in the gym? What are the foods that you need to derive muscle mass?What are the foods that you need that will support your gut microbiome to produce serotonin, right? Like all of a sudden you realize that it's not just the foods that you're eating that morning to feel more energized and more productive and have choline or take a choline supplement, but it's like, what are the foods that are passively helping me sensitize my dopamine centers and helping me produce this nice balance of neurotransmitters to help me feel incredible every single day? Yeah.So what would that ideal, what would an ideal day of food look like to you in your world then? I would say something like, let's say a few eggs in the morning, maybe some berries and some fruits or like citrus.

Adam Metwally

Yeah.

Andrés Preschel

Like I love eating fruit in the morning personally. And I think breakfast should be a pretty balanced meal, like good balance of fats, protein, uh, uh, carbohydrate, moderate to low glycemic carbohydrate. So maybe some like, you know, you could do like overnight oats that have a very low glycemic index with the resistance starches.You can maybe add a little bit of protein powder there or some collagen to those overnight oats with some chia seeds as well. Um, I would do a few eggs and then fruit, like especially berries, which are super rich in antioxidants, um, and support, you know, decreased inflammation in the brain, uh, inflammation in the brain, by the way, if it's not clear already can exacerbate some of these underlying symptoms and predispositions. So, um, that's a pretty sweet breakfast there.Lunch could be something like your choice of protein, at least like one fist of protein. Um, and then having some like low to moderate glycemic index carbs. Like I like having very low glycemic index carbs in the afternoon because I'm generally very productive, like for work, like I just want to be mentally sharp and clear.And I don't want any like, uh, deviations in blood glucose to distract me or give me like impulsive cravings for certain foods. What's an example? I like to eat jovial cannellini beans, specific brand of beans that are, um, they come in a glass jar.These are Italian, gluten-free, organic, pressure cooked, pre-soaked. Um, so they're very easy to eat and digest right off the bat. Like you just open up the jar and eat them.Are they high in histamines? That's a great question. Um, they are going to be somewhat high in histamine.Like I'm very sensitive to histamine. So I have to take a histamine supplement. Great question.Um, but I love the beans and I'll add like a little bit of, um, apple cider vinegar again for glucose regulation. I'll add a little bit of extra virgin olive oil, some salt, some, uh, um, some kind of like, uh, nutritional yeast or some other kind of B vitamin containing compound. And, um, yeah, so the protein.Just quickly, the histamine supplement, what is that? I have, I forget what it's called, but I can send you the link to, uh, my geneticist sent me, sent, sent this over to me. Just have it when you eat?Yeah. Just like during the meal? Typically for lunch.Just during high histamine meals or just every meal? Yeah, exactly. Yeah.Okay. So I'll do that. So I'll have like, maybe like some, uh, some chicken or some lean beef or some fish.Uh, I like to go with lower trophic level fish, um, that have a high selenium therapeutic index. Explain to that, that to people. Yeah.So as you move up the food web or the trophic levels, mercury and other heavy metals will bioaccumulate and biomagnify. So basically what you're saying is the amount of fish, the big fish, the small fish, that's kind of what you're saying. Yeah.Yeah. So the biggest fish like tuna, swordfish, sharks, those are going to have not just the greatest amount of mercury because they're obviously bigger, but this biomagnifies. So what that means is like the proportion, like the concentration of mercury and other heavy metals in these bigger fish is much higher.Like I think it should be illegal to feed kids swordfish and tuna. Yeah. It's an insane amount of heavy metals for a small person to consume.And there is this very strong link and correlation between, uh, heavy metal consumption or heavy metal in your, you know, heavy metal, like plasma levels of heavy metal and ADHD like symptoms like trouble focusing, brain fog, low energy, poor mood, poor libido. Like it just completely fucks you. You know, and mercury has an affinity for binding sites specifically in the brain and central nervous system.Like I started getting, this is a really interesting, crazy story. Then actually this might answer one of your abetifier questions. Something that happened to me where I was like, I can't believe that happened.Right. So I was seeing my functional medicine doctor, Dr. Ben Kosubevsky, and we were going to do a heavy metal test, just establish my baseline levels and then see if I needed something like chelation therapy. Uh, I had a feeling like I might have high heavy metals.And when I went to go see him, I was just kind of rattling off every like health symptom and everything that was happening with my health. Pretty much anything I could possibly name. And I kind of hesitate to share this with them because I didn't think it was relevant at all.But basically I was like, look, man, you know, I, um, have become more and more like intolerant to alliums. So like things like garlic and green onion, onions, whatever, like, and also like Brussels sprouts and broccoli, like anything that contained sulfur. I didn't realize at the time that these, what all these foods have in common is high sulfur.Right. But basically I was like, look, I'm intolerant to this food and I've been growing more and more intolerant to these foods. So when you say you're intolerant, what would happen?Like I would get like, you know, bloating and I would feel like weighed down. I'd feel like brain fog. Like I just couldn't think straight.I would consume garlic and the taste of garlic, it wouldn't go away for like days. Like I could brush my teeth 10 times and it wouldn't go away. So I was sharing this with him and dude, his eyes lit up and he's like, Oh my God.He's like, dude, this is indicative of heavy metal toxicity. And I'm like, wow. He goes, well, you actually need molybdenum to break down sulfur and heavy metals compete with molybdenum.So if you have a high of heavy metals, you don't have enough of molybdenum. You can't break down sulfur. You can't tolerate these foods.And you said that this has been becoming more and more of a problem over the past couple of years. I said, yeah. He's like, well, you're accumulating heavy metals.That's what's happening. Like this is like the ultimate litmus test for heavy metal toxicity. So I did the test and my mercury levels were literally off the charts.Like it went beyond the maximum range. I had like 60 was my level. It was ridiculous.Like anything beyond 10 or so. I think the, the, the, uh, environmental protection agency is supposed to like call you or something to try to figure out how you've been exposed to such a high amount of mercury. And I was like, I'm still pretty high, but I was at 60.So we started doing some chelation. And, um, like I said, mercury has high affinity for binding in the brain and central nervous system. So I had been feeling like this brain fog and like way down.I started doing the chelation. It was, I need about 30 or 40 rounds of chelation to completely detoxify. I've done like five or six rounds and I feel like 20% smarter.I swear. Like I feel way better because I'm getting rid of some of this stuff that's in my brain. Like it will latch on to brain cells and deprive them of essential nutrients that your brain needs to just to work properly.And most of us are exposed to heavy metals because yeah, it's in our food, it's in our soil, it's in our water, it's in the air. Um, controversial take, but it's in vaccines and people, I, I'm not an expert in vaccines. I'm not going to go there, but as a matter of fact, there are heavy metals and vaccines.And when you get, when you first get exposed to heavy metals is actually in, in the womb, like in the placenta, right? So just like in the, uh, what happens with trophic, uh, levels in the food web and, uh, bio-magnification and bio-accumulation from one generation to the next. And from, you know, as you move up in the, in the, in the food web, similarly from one generation to the next in humans, we accumulate these heavy metals.We have babies that now have, are born with heavy metals. So they get exposed and then they have their baby, it just gets worse every generation. So, um, being mindful of this and doing what you can to naturally chelate consuming foods that will bind to heavy metals.So like I consume chlorella and spirulina every single day. I love consuming dark leafy greens on a regular basis. So that lunch could look like a fist of protein, the, the beans or lentils, which I love just to keep me mentally sharp and have my glucose stable throughout the day.And then also like arugula, maybe some beets, um, lots of extra virgin olive oil. And for dinner, I typically like to go all out. I'll make like a nice steak or a really nice fish.And then it's when I will replenish more of my, uh, glycogen. So I, I like to work out in the early morning and afternoon, and I like to replenish glycogen overnight. Um, so my dinners, that's where I have more starchy carbs like potatoes.So like a steak or a fish, like maybe like a grilled salmon high in omega threes, right. High selenium therapeutic index. Um, um, and, and some potatoes, which by the way, are the most sweet.I love my favorite is Japanese sweet potato. Okay. The ones that are like purple on the outside and like yellow on the inside.I love that stuff. Yeah. Okay.So, so yeah. Great. That and some more greens, asparagus, maybe.Yeah. Nice aphrodisiac for before bed with your, with your significant other. With yourself.

Adam Metwally

Yeah. With yourself.

Andrés Preschel

Not the same endorphin response, but just quickly before we move on from nutrition, that was really robust. So thank you. Um, what are your thoughts around the heavy metal detox smoothie from a medical medium?Do you know much about it? Don't know anything about it. So this guy is, he's like a very, you know, you know, the medical medium.So basically he reports doing this whole explaining this whole thing about there's heavy metals and everything, blah, blah, blah, and he recommends once a day, uh, a version of a smoothie, which has two cups of wild blueberries, one cup of cilantro, one taste teaspoon of spirulina powder, one teaspoon of barley grass juice powder, dulce flakes, two bananas, one cup of orange juice, and one cup of coconut water. So that sounds, that sounds great.Like I think most people should be consuming most of those ingredients almost on a daily basis. Yeah. However, one thing that I learned from Dr. Bankowski, my functional medicine doctor, who is an expert in heavy metal chelation, along with his partner, um, he told me, he's like, these, there are foods that will naturally chelate. And if you have low to moderate levels of heavy metals, it works well. But if you have very high levels like me, it's too far, it's actually, it can, it can do more harm because these foods have, they have like one file bond, like cilantro, which is one of the best ways to chelate, uh, one of the best foods out there. Cilantro has one file bond for mercury.If you want to latch onto it and actually take it out of the body, you need two file bonds because if you have one file bond, maybe you'll grab mercury. But if you have really high levels of heavy metal, it can, it can, you can pull it out. Cause it's, it's not stored.It's not stored in the blood. Like if you have high plasma levels of heavy metals, odds are you have a really big problem because it gets stored in the tissues. And so it's high in the blood.It means you have really high amount of tissues. In my tissues, I had an extremely high amount. So if you pull mercury out of the tissue, but it's not bound to those two file bonds, it can then get released in the blood.And now you get symptoms of heavy metal toxicity throughout the body. And it's a big issue. Is that just, is that something that will eventually go away as you keep doing this?I don't know. I'm not an expert in heavy metals, but apparently if you have extremely high levels and you just do it, very careful, you just do it with supplements and with food, you can actually make the problem worse. Just move.You're just moving the mercury around. You don't actually detoxing it. Yeah.So, okay. So I think I'm in the camp of like, again, this is anecdotal evidence that you worked for me, survivors to buy, et cetera. In my case, the actual chelation therapy has been monumental for my mental clarity, my wellbeing, and I'm far from done.And then pairing that with habits that also help you detox heavy metals, like sauna is a great way. You know, sauna is incredible. Sweating more like exercising, right?Getting great sleep to help things move around in your body. Like the flow cerebral spinal fluid is such an incredible way to support your mental wellbeing and your mental sharpness, mental clarity. Most people don't get efficient sleep.They don't get deep sleep. That's when you get the flow of cerebral spinal fluid in your brain that helps your brain clear out this debris, there's a gunk through the glymphatic system. It's funny because I just did a, for my neuroscience masters, my latest, my capstone project, my big like project is actually on the glymphatic system and how it's like a relatively new discovery and how it works.And basically like you can tap into its power. You can only, and experience a host of benefits, but you can only do that if you're getting deep sleep. Right.So there's no point. Most people don't get deep sleep. There's no point doing lymphatic drainage without good sleep.Well, you allow your body to naturally enable lymphatic or in this case, glymphatic drainage through deep sleep quality. Okay. Deep sleep inadequate.Yes. So it's like you need to make sure you do everything possible to get incredible sleep. What do you think of those little trampoline thingies to like drain your lymphs?

Adam Metwally

Yeah.

Andrés Preschel

I mean, again, any kind of movement will help you drain lymphatic fluid. Most people sit around all day long. Things don't move in their body.You need movement. You need blood flow. You need oxygen delivery.Yeah. I did one of my old housemates back in Australia was my therapist and he would just try shit on me. So I was his Guinea pig and he did a course on lymphatic drainage and he's like, Hey, I've got this thing.Let's come lie down in the, cause we had this shed set up. That was like he's where he treated from. And he's like, Oh, we're going to do this really soft touching thing.It's called lymphatic drainage. I'm like, Oh yeah. Okay.Here we go. And then he does it. And he's like, it's very soft, like movement and different parts of the body for like 45 minutes.I slept amazing that night and I pissed like six times in the next hour. Yeah. This is ridiculous.Yeah. I mean, lymph tissue is unbelievable. Yeah.Yeah. So, so moving through the movement, let's, let's chat about movement. So what are some ideal ADHD supporting exercises, routines that can help to, you know, minimize the, the need for medication?As much exercise as you can put, all right, put it this way. As much exercise as you can afford to do and effectively recover from. So, you know, if you, if you look at like a HIIT training, the training is simply, it's a very efficient way to train.You get to these high heart rate zones and it helps increase VO2 max, but it's very stressful by nature. A lot of people that are, let's say on ADHD medication, aren't getting adequate sleep. They might not be able to effectively afford that level of intensity.And also based on your fitness experience, you're not going to go from zero to start doing HIIT training. It's very, very difficult and very intense. So I would probably suggest in that case to do maybe some like zone two, some continuous cardio.Like really it's, it's any kind of, for the vast majority of people, it's whatever that you, whatever you can do most consistently, like whatever makes sense for you. What do you actually enjoy? If we're looking at like the peak goal to work towards, what would you say the most optimum weekly routine?I would say in my opinion, I think progressive overload resistance training, like weightlifting.

Adam Metwally

How many days a week?

Andrés Preschel

Because, because it's something probably three or four days out of the week. And then what kind of splits? I would say taking two to three minute recovery.So you can actually replenish creatine phosphate, which is going to help you increase your strength and power over time. And day splits? I mean, as well.Sorry. I would say like, probably like either a push, pull legs or upper, lower, upper, lower. Yeah.Or full body three times a week. Yeah. And the reason why I think weightlifting works well for people with ADHD is because it's something that, um, again, you can, it's very measurable and you can really apply that progressive overload to like sensitize dopamine, increase willpower and really fall in love with the process of delayed gratification.Like if you want to, like your physique represents a commitment that you've made to yourself and your ability to delay gratification. Like obviously the best results happen overnight. Looking and feeling incredible means that you fell in love with the process, not a result because it's a continuous process.I think bodybuilding, weightlifting is great for people with ADHD because it teaches them how to fall in love with the process. Great. Any other, any other movements that you lack?Like you mentioned hit training, so sprinting. And last thing I want to say, just the psychological element here. It's also, you get a lot of really important, really meaningful, positive reinforcement with weightlifting in a few different ways.One way is the endorphin response after lifting weights is incredible. Like those hormones that make you feel really, really good are going to help reinforce this new habit. Even the first time you go and lift, it's going to be difficult, but you're going to reinforce the habit.It's also a very visual thing, right? Like you start lifting weight, you're going to gain muscle, you're going to lose fat. Other people will notice that and their comments and their compliments will help.

Adam Metwally

Yeah.

Andrés Preschel

Like it's a, it's a kind of music to my ears. Yeah. It's the kind of, it's the kind of training that is like very, you can really gamify it.Um, and you get so much good positive reinforcement and that's one of the best ways to start a new habit. And it's also something that you can do anywhere. You can do it at home.You can do it when you travel, go to the gym, you can do it with friends. There's so much good information out there on how to do it properly and efficiently. Uh, again, it's very measurable.Like I think people with ADD, they sometimes will need that extra layer of reinforcement. And I think bodybuilding and weightlifting is like perfect way to gamify that. Great.And the final piece, uh, the final pillar here was the mind. So run me through what that means and how a good weekly habit supporting the mind might look. I think one of the first things that people need to do if they want to improve their mental health and their cognitive performance is out, cause that's the last pillar because like if you got the sleep right, if you get the nutrition right and you get the movement right and obviously like everything that I do and the way I work with people is extremely bio-individual.Like we do all the testing, we do genetic testing, we do extremely comprehensive blood panels with like over 30 vials of blood. We do a DEXA scan for body composition. It's the gold standard for body composition.We could just set up on a wearable device, you know, a VO2 max test. We put all this data in a health dashboard where I can see everything and how it's correlated and to help you identify specific habits and behaviors and decisions that will objectively help you feel better, perform higher, live longer. Um, so anyway, if you get those three pillars out of the way, like sleep being the foundation and pull for everything, because now you have more energy to do the healthy stuff.You can do it more intuitively and drive more benefits from it. Nutrition, right? If you get the sleep dialed in, nutrition is going to be more intuitive, less impulsive.You have a regulated blood glucose, which also enhances the sleep quality. And now you have the recovery and the sleep and the nutrition, the fuel that you need to exercise. You have more energy to exercise, you drive more benefit from that.So now that you have those three things out of the way, your mind is already going to be in a really good place. Now, what else can you do and how can that help you then reinvest in these three areas? I think it's going to be, uh, uh, management of your attention and management of your time.For management of attention, your phone, because we spend most of our time on our fucking phones and devices. You might as well get really good at managing our attention there. Download the app one sec.The next tip that I recommend is, so if you actually look at my phone screen, it's cracked. My phone is cracked right now, but you can, you can see that I imagine, right? So this is my home screen.Yeah. And just that, yeah, that's the main one. There you go.Nothing. So mine is, I've got my digital business card in the top left corner with a widget. I've got my notes on the top, right?And I've got like my essential apps, my maps, my Google drive, chat, GPT, my Google tasks, Spotify, voice memos, outlook, and my like login for school. And then I've got my Google calendar with a widget. If you swipe right and you have to manually search for an app you want to use, everything is in the app library.Most people, they open up their phones. They've got like pages and pages of apps. All the notifications are on the worst notifications that you have on the most dangerous ones are social media notifications.Why the fuck do you need to know that someone's liking or commenting on your post? Take it from someone who like most of my businesses is thanks to my, it comes in through my online presence. My online presence is essential.I need to be there. I need to be engaging with my audience, my community and take it back to clients, but take it from me. Like you probably don't need to be on social media like I do and I don't have any notifications on for social media.I go on intentionally. Instant notifications are the end of productivity. They kill productivity.You need to go into your notification settings and turn off, I would say at least 90%. The only ones that I have on is, so the entire day, by the way, I've got my do not disturb setting on. The only people that can contact me are my parents, my brother, my girlfriend, my business partner.And I think even then they have to like, I think most of the day they have to call me twice to get to me. So it's like anybody else they have to text me if they want to call me or like, I don't know, like it's, it's like a ridiculous, and obviously this has pros and cons, but in my, in my case, someone that has a predisposition that is likely, I have to be extremely mindful of habits and triggers that will cause ADD, you know, to proliferate. So I have to be extremely mindful and I have to be extremely, um, deliberate about my attention, how I manage that attention.So for me, all notifications are off except like specific people that can call me and then like parking notifications. Cause in Miami you need to know when your car is to get, you know, if your car is going to get towed.

Adam Metwally

Yeah.

Andrés Preschel

So, um, outside of all that, man, everything's off. And then I've got the night shift mode that goes on automatically. Sunrise to sunset is what it's set at the warmest setting.If you triple click my lock, um, it turns it red at the moment. Yeah. Or gray to make it very dull and boring.Uh, the one sec app helps a lot. Um, but yeah, like most people go into their phones and they become distracted. They just end up wasting their time.So this should help a lot.

Adam Metwally

Yeah.

Andrés Preschel

So that's one thing. The next thing that this was probably the one habit out of like everything else that I've said, like related to like actual lifestyle change, time management and being aware of how I'm spending my time is probably the number one thing outside of lifestyle behavior that has helped me manage my ADD. So I got a planner called the smart planner pro.It's like an actual, it's like a notebook. And, um, what I do is I have, I color code everything like a little school girl. I color code everything.So basically like I'll take a green highlighter for anything that's related to my health, like directly related, like all my meals, I plan out when I'm going to have my first meal, my second meal, my third meal. I color that in green. All my workouts are green.And I've got like my really hard commitments for my business are orange. So all my client meetings, all my team meetings, any podcasts I have to do, all that's an orange, any commitments with friends and family are like purple. And then I have like program breaks that are blue.And then I've got a few other things that I like read for, I don't know, like super mission critical things that I can't forget. Um, so anyway, like I color code everything and that allows me to do a couple of things. Number one is just make the whole thing more fun, right?Increases dopamine. And number two is, this is super important for dopamine management and just to feel accomplished, whether you have ADD or not, is look at this calendar throughout the week, check off what you completed, X out what you didn't, maybe ask yourself, why couldn't I do that? Or why didn't I do that?Right. But when you check things off, you get that little bit of positive reinforcement and a little bit of dopamine, you know, boost. When you, when you are using a specific calendar, are you just like doing a check mark?Yeah, it's called Smart Planner Pro. Oh, the actual calendar. Oh, it's like an, it's a physical calendar.So I'll do this every Sunday. Yeah. I have it in my, so I live, I mean, that helped me like, I wish I mentioned this earlier in the podcast, but to me that helped me like keep myself in check, be more aware of my time.My attention, my focus is living by my calendars. I live by my Google calendar. If I'm going to go see a friend of mine, what's your email, bro?I put her in the Google calendar. I put reminders, the location where we're going to go. I'm going to spend time with my girlfriend, take her on a date.We put it in our calendars. I have program breaks, like moments where I can be bored without any guilt, where I can doom scroll if I want, where I can play a video game, where I can do whatever the fuck I want without any guilt or shame. How much time do you put into your breaks usually?I typically will do like work sprints between 15 minutes to 90 minutes. And then I'll have like program breaks that are anywhere between 10 to 30 minutes. I have several throughout the day, at least four or five.So yeah, living by my calendars has changed my life. So every Sunday I prepare for the week ahead. Like Sunday's my first official working day.I think everybody should take at least 30 minutes on Sundays to plan their week ahead. So is Saturday your main day off then? Yeah.So I keep Shabbat. I'm Jewish. I'm Friday evening to Saturday evening.That's 100%, no work, no responsibility. I'm 100% present with my friends and my family. Sunday's my first work day.Not everybody has to start their work days on Sunday like me. I'm an entrepreneur. I create my own schedule and I have to hold myself accountable.And I just, this is what I like to do. But I think every single person tuning into this should spend 30 minutes on Sundays. They block out that time and they do nothing but plan the week ahead.What does that mean? That means that when the week starts, you already have a plan. You know what you're going to do.You've made that small commitment and now you're more mindful of how you're spending your time. You get to look forward to this and then you get to check things off as you do them. I revisit my calendar, my physical calendar in depth every Wednesday.And then I make sure that I have everything that I created on Sunday on my Google calendar in my phone with reminders. So I'm especially mindful of what's happening and when it's happening and where it's happening and how to get there. So like now I've taken all the logistics out of the way.I know how much of my time I've already committed to it ahead of time. And in the moment I'm super present and focused on what I have to do because I know that it's the most relevant thing that I have to do. And I plan for it ahead of time.Like everything just kind of falls into place and it's consistent with, you know, uh, managing ADHD like symptoms. Yeah. Cool.I did the same. I've got, um, I'm a big fan of the five minute journal, you know, the five minute journal. They've got a productivity planner that once I started using that, it just kind of blew my mind on how productive I became because you would set a task and a very discrete specific task.And then you would, um, put in how much time you think based on like 30 minute increments you think it'll take. And then the idea is that you just like focus on that one task for that 30 minutes, take it and then check it off. And then it's kind of like, how long does it actually take versus how long you thought it took.And since I started doing this habit in the, maybe the last six months, I've noticed I've become more realistic on what I can actually achieve. And then a bit more focused on achieving the individual task because I've got it sitting right there on a piece of paper. I've got these like 30 minute increments that I'm working through and I'm getting more done.So it sounds very similar. Yeah. Yeah.That's a great, I've heard a lot of good things about the five minute journal. I've also heard a lot of great things and I've personally experimented, but didn't absolutely love, um, this app called motion. That's like an AI to do list.It looks at your calendar and basically will suggest when to do things. And, um, that's, that's great. I didn't love it.I just like having my physical planner, always Google calendar. I live by my Google calendar. Everyone that knows me and works with me knows that.Um, and I've had to learn by the way, the hard way to use Google calendar to be, and to be this mindful of my time. And this is consistent with a lot of people that have ADD. Like your perception of time is, goes out the window.I've had people on my team telling me like, and this used to be a really big, like my time management was one of my biggest issues. Like, uh, like you wouldn't believe how bad of an issue it was. It was really terrible.Like I, I miss some of the most important meetings in my life.

Adam Metwally

So that's so bad.

Andrés Preschel

I've been late to see important people for important events. Like I've let a, I've let a lot of people down and it wasn't until I started working with one of the board members of Airbnb, a multi-billionaire, a truly successful entrepreneur that I was traveling the world with, you know, I was, I was his health coach. I was managing all his nutrition, all of his meals, getting him in touch with the best medical specialists in the world, flying on his G550 everywhere, like doing funds.It was an incredible opportunity. But at that level, you have to be not just aware of the time and the minutes, but the seconds and the milliseconds you have to be on top of your shit. And dude, I mean, that broke me.Like it was like breaking a horse. Like you mentioned the Bronco, like it's like breaking the Bronco and turning a Bronco into a workhorse. Like that's what I became because I was in an environment that demanded excellence a hundred percent of the time, 24, seven, three, six, five.And that's where I learned. I, it's not, it is, it's not a chore to use a Google calendar. It is a privilege and a luxury to have a calendar, to have that, that, that, that extent of time management because you think like, Oh my God, like you, well, you don't have freedom.No, no, the calendar is freedom. The calendar is freedom because I put not just my work commitments, but my personal commitments. And then when I'm in them, when I'm doing anything that I have to do, I'm extremely present and focused and improves my quality of life.And the person that I was coaching, my client, he's someone that is, he's one of the busiest people on the planet. He manages billions of dollars and he's the kind of guy where if you were having coffee with him, me, I'm having coffee with this guy. I look him in the eye and that moment was the only moment that existed.We were completely locked in and he can afford to do that because he's so mindful and aware of how he spends his time otherwise. You have to, having a calendar is freedom. Yeah.I mean it, we mentioned that we both were at the don't die event and that's kind of his whole thing is systematizing everything in your life so that you don't have to have your brain automate, take on all that information. Yeah, that's right. Yeah.Yeah. So I want to switch gears a little bit just before we wrap up and get into a few other general questions about your world and your experience. So what's the biggest thing over the last two years you've changed your mind on?I used to play the victim card a lot with ADD. I used to think that it was the worst thing that ever happened to me to take Adderall. And without a doubt, it's the best thing that ever happened to me.

Adam Metwally

Without a doubt.

Andrés Preschel

Why do you say that? Because the issues that I had taking this medication at such high doses and all of the pain that I felt and I mean, look, like I was extremely isolated socially. I had a stutter, overactive brain.I was skeletal. I had like weird tics. Like I just had like these weird OCD tics.Like I was like a freak. I was a robot. Like my friends would, I honestly didn't have many friends.I didn't have my first real friend until I was in fifth grade. And people just make fun of me. Like I was, I was bullied.Like I, I would give kids my lunch to try to fit in. I would hide behind the rock wall and recess every single day. I wouldn't speak to anybody.And when I got home, I had my brother, but I would just escape in video games. That was my life. And, uh, as you can tell, I mean, it's easy to just play the victim card, right?No, look at me. Like, I would feel so sorry for me. Like, you know, all this pain, like it was the worst thing ever.Right. But dude, it's because things were so shitty and so fucking painful. And I felt so alone that my eyes lit up when I realized I could change my brain.And again, I was exposed to that by accident. I was supposed to take a program in neuro and viruses. I thought I was going to go and be a doctor.I was in a premed track. My parents are physicians and I admire the way that they approach science to help people. It's a rewarding day every single day.My mom's a dentist. My dad's an eye surgeon. So you can imagine like my mom helps people smile.My dad helps people see, like, you can't imagine what our dinners were like every day. Right. Like as my parents share these stories with us, it only helped me fall in love with that scientific mindset that I've always had and seeing the relation between that and helping people live a better life.So that's what I thought I wanted to do. But I was approaching that as a doctor. Like I wanted to be a doctor and I wanted to go into med school, but it didn't.While it was something that felt like the right thing to do in order to get there, I had to reinforce an identity that wasn't authentic to me. I had to be this good student that cared about school and did his homework and took classes he hated following the directions of teachers he did not like. Like my teachers, I was that one kid, dude, like I'm not, I think a like, I really mean it when I say I was the one kid in class that the teachers would like single out.Like I had to sit next to my teachers in class. I was isolated from the rest of the room. I had to sit next to my professors because I was, I was a class clown and I was a mess when I was like feeling up for it.Um, I, they all knew that I was taking medication. That was like a special kid. I was that one special kid in class that they had, they gave me special treatment and um, yeah, like I just played the victim card for many, many years.What I switched my mind on was this was the best thing that ever happened to me because yes, I've become a scientist in a way that actually, that I can actually identify with and appreciate in a way that actually feels authentic to me. I've, I've gained incredible credibility. My obsession with this stuff has taken me places that most people my age have never been to.I've, I've met some of the most successful people on this planet and collaborated with them or help them get healthier and live better. Like my obsession has taken me where Adderall would never take me and that wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for all the pain that I went through. So now I think that Adderall and all that shit, the ADD, it's the best thing that ever happened to me because now I have something that most scientists don't.I have empathy and that's the highest form of credibility in my book because the obsession gave me the knowledge, the theoretical, the mechanisms. I can understand it. I can help you understand that about yourself, but the empathy allows me to put myself in your shoes.I can understand the pain that you're going through. I can understand how disconnected you feel from your body. I can understand how you feel that your health is deteriorating.And so now I can show you how to get better, but I can help you feel the difference that I felt in my life. And it might not be identical symptoms, but I know what it's like to feel disconnected and to have zero confidence and zero authenticity, to feel like you're not yourself. And I can take you through a process that makes sense to you as much as it does to me to help you feel, be, and perform the way that your body was designed.So how did you get to the point where you go, you know, enough is enough. What was kind of the specific catalyst? Enough is enough over the past two years?

Adam Metwally

Yeah.

Andrés Preschel

Where you turned around and said enough is enough. I'm going to not say this is a problem.

Adam Metwally

When I started saying this is the best thing that ever happened to me.

Andrés Preschel

You just started saying it one day. You just turned around and said, it's crazy. It's a great question because honestly, I think that this changed not two years ago, but maybe even just a year ago, which is insane to think about.I have a incredibly talented videographer and copywriter and editor and great friend of mine. This is an incredible guy, Jamie Lee. He's helped me upgrade my online presence and brand identity in a very meaningful way.Extremely talented guy. And we were just coming up with a script for a video one day and he goes, bro, you got to change like the wording on this. Like, why would you say Adderall and ADD is like the worst thing that ever happened?Like tell people that it's the best thing that ever happened. Like we were doing it for like, just for like the sake of engagement and just like, you know, to have like this like contradiction that people would click on and get curious about. And then I realized it was an epiphany.I was like, dude, this is the best thing that ever happened to me. Like this whole time I've been telling myself that it was like the worst thing that ever happened, but it's the best thing that ever happened. But again, survivorship bias, right?A great example of survivorship bias and what it means and why it's relevant is during World War II, there were this, these like statisticians that statisticians or was it these engineers that noticed that these planes were coming back with bullet holes in the wings and they were like, Oh, well we need to reinforce the wings because you know, like that's, that's where we're getting the bullet holes. Right.And this guy, forget who it was, what his name was, but he goes, well, what about the planes that aren't coming back? You know, the ones that got shot in the body, those didn't make it back. They died.It's like, so that's survivorship bias, right? Like, so, so anyway, like I made it through. I want to say just quickly on this point, I think survivorship bias is very relevant, but the value of the survivors allow people listening to go, okay, there is another way.Yeah. You know? No, for sure.There is a bias. And again, I'm just trying to be a responsible scientist here and acknowledge all the biases and, you know, limit my bias in the process. But absolutely.I think every number one is anybody tuning into this before they reach for more Adderall or exogenous, anything exogenous, melatonin, Adderall, testosterone, three things that we've touched on. How can they support, how can they enable lifestyle habits consistent with their evolutionary design in the modern day that will help them naturally leverage what's already within them? Like master that first within what's realistic and attainable for you and your lifestyle, maximize that, and then see if you need something or how much odds are you probably going to need less or not even need it at all, but explore, like, like, like, like get, get curious and stay skeptical and test things, measure things, test your blood, test your genetics, get a wearable device.You'll understand that there might be certain habits or behaviors that you think are good for you or certain predispositions that you didn't know of that make your body different and, and, and give you difficulty living your best life in this modern world. Understand what those are. Do you have high, high levels of heavy metals?Are those messing up your brain and central nervous system? All right, start chelating. You're going to alleviate a lot of these symptoms because what happens is if you just say, oh, I have trouble focusing and you just like mega dosing Adderall or nicotine or caffeine, you're reinforcing an inadequacy, whether it's psychological or physiological, something is happening.And so, yeah, you might have a predisposition like I do. My dad has ADD for sure. He's extremely successful.I have low levels, low baseline levels of dopamine predisposition for Parkinson's, but dude, either way, I fall in love with the process that took me to the other side and I'll never be that stuff again. You don't have to become a health and fitness influencer, podcaster, and leader to manage your ADD, but the effort to get better and healthier will certainly help your body do what it can do on its own. Yeah.So there's a lot in that and I'm conscious of time. I wanted to ask you one other key question that I always ask my guests. What is the kindest thing anyone's ever done for you?Like I take so much pride in who I am and what I do and how I do it. Um, I've had a lot of fans, mentors, incredible family, parents, friends, girlfriends, my brother. I mean, people that, that have believed in me and have shared a lot of kind things with me.Um, and I also want to give myself credit. You know, I've been very kind to myself. I always knew deep down that there was something better out there for me.I don't know what that is or why it was there, but I always knew that there was so that, that, that the school, that the system, that like just the emotions that I was going through, I always knew, I always knew that there was something better than that out there. And I continued to provoke the curiosity and ask myself, well, what is it and how am I going to get there? And so I want to first acknowledge everyone that has supported me, our friends and family, and I want to acknowledge myself.I've been extremely lucky and extremely privileged in that sense. I thank God I had some degree of wisdom and self-awareness. Outside of all that, a specific thing that I can recall, very kind thing that someone said to me is, um, you know, I had a, um, like a vice principal in my high school, Crop.Dr. Michael Crop is the school and his name was, and I'm blanking on his name. Okay. The point is, um, this vice principal, he knew my brother and I, and I don't really know, we never really got too close, but he was like one of the first people in my life outside of my friends and family that would just like, look at me and go, I want my kids to be like you.I didn't really know why he would say that, but something in me, you know, it felt, it felt right. Like it felt appropriate. And I think that what he was getting at was, I think he saw in my eyes that I'm very present guy and that I love others deeply.I don't know. It's just the impression that I got. Like I was, that's when I was starting to change my life around.Did you not believe it to begin with? Did he see something in you that you maybe didn't see in yourself at that time? I think so.And how did that impact you? It was interesting because he was, this was in an environment, this was in a school environment where a lot of my teachers like almost like had it out for me. They didn't like me.They made fun of me, made me feel like I was inadequate, told me to my face that I would never be successful, that I would never go to med school, that I'd never be a doctor. And yeah, I didn't end up doing that, but now I'm doing something that's more rewarding and that I'm much more successful, you know, now than I would ever be as a doctor, in my opinion. Anyway.So it was interesting because it was kind of like, it was very ironic was what it was. I was in the school environment outside of the classroom, but like maybe just moving around from class to class. And like, I would see him, he would stop me and he would say, oh, my kids to be like you.And he wouldn't say this to anybody. Like he actually ended up supporting me later as I applied to colleges and just to expedite the process of my application. Like he was very involved in my success later on in life, but I never really understood why.And I think it was just like an energy that I carried. My brother and I carried just the way that we were raised. We look people in the eye and we care deeply about people and we are confident in who we are.And I was, I was becoming more confident in who I was and I think he kind of saw that and he saw the family values that we were like exuding and he just would tell us like, I want my kids to be like you. Have you ever told him that? Have you ever thanked him?No. Do you have any contact? I could probably find it.Might be a nice thing to do. Yeah. Thank you.Of course. Thank you for sharing. Yeah.So wrapping up, what's one key lesson you'd hope that everyone takes from this conversation? Look, there's, it's difficult to have this conversation in just one podcast.

Adam Metwally

Yeah.

Andrés Preschel

Because it's like my whole life story. And also within that there are mechanisms and lifestyle habits that I'm trying to get people to appreciate. Um, but they are so bio-individual.Like if you really want to capitalize and maximize these things, the approach is so unique to you that it's, it's difficult to gain that perspective and all the actionable stuff from just one show. I mean, that's the reason I have a job, right? Like I help people do this for a living.Um, and it's a very dedicated premium service.

Adam Metwally

Yeah.

Andrés Preschel

So it's difficult to give the average or any listener as much value that is as specific to them as possible. I mean, that's impossible, right? I guess any podcast you could make that argument, but especially this one where it's like, we're targeting a specific audience through the show, right?People that either have ADD or are think they have ADD or have taken Adderall or whatever. And can I maybe identify with me and my story, but even then it's just so hyper-individual. Um, I think the biggest takeaway should be all of us have something in common while we're all extremely unique, both the way that we're, uh, you know, DNA and, and, and, and lifestyle and our goals and ambitions.We have a lot of scientific law in common, our physiology and our physiology has been, uh, as, as, as come to life, there are millions of years, billions of years of evolution. And if we can understand how is this modern world detaching us from those mechanisms that we can still understand and get in touch with to live a better life now. I think if, if people can, if we can provoke that curiosity, then that will lead people to an incredible amount of success personally and professionally, because all these mechanisms are neglected.Most of them are neglected with this modern life where, you know, instant gratification is so prevalent, where low dopamine is so prevalent, where we're constantly bombarded by notifications, by brilliant marketing schemes and scandals that deplete us. So if we can understand how we're being exploited and the mechanisms that are being exploited, we can add back in what the modern world leaves out and we can feel better, feel our best naturally now. And that to me, by the way, is like biohacking.That's like the real biohack, right? So I think that's the biggest takeaway is if you can think this way and solve that problem, you're going to be ahead of everybody else.

Adam Metwally

Great. Is there anything you're excited about at the moment you want to let the listeners in on?

Andrés Preschel

I'm going to be on a lot more stages this year. I have to come check out one. Yeah.I would definitely recommend checking out the Ultimate Wellness Conference in Miami, September 28th and 29th, I believe. We're actually sponsoring. We're one of the sponsors for that event, my company, Know Your Physio, and I'll be on stage.And last year, last year's event, that was one of my first engagements on a stage. We absolutely crushed it. And I had a chance to tell my story, connect very deeply with the audience.And it was an unbelievable experience and a lot of, you know, the big names in health and longevity are going to be there. So I recommend checking it out. Maybe I'll come down and work with you for that one.Come work on the team. That'd be, that'd be awesome. I've never heard of it.So yeah, it's at the fine. It's like a iconic hotel in Miami beach. Cool.Cool. Nice. Yeah.Awesome. And where can people find you if they're interested? Yeah.Just look up my name anywhere, you know, Andres Prischel, A-N-D-R-E-S-P-R-E-S-C-H-E-L. It's my Instagram page. You can find my podcast.It's KnowYourPhysio, K-N-O-W-Y-O-U-R-P-H-Y-S-I-O. Websites are AndresPrischel.com or KnowYourPhysio.org. Yeah.Cool. You can shoot me an email at Andres at KnowYourPhysio.org. I'm happy to answer any questions.Awesome. And my last question is, what do you think the meaning of life is? Jesus.That's not the answer. The answer is not Jesus. That's not Jesus.No, no, no, no. Um, I think the meaning of life, because the purpose of life is different from the meaning of life. What makes you say that?I think a purpose is like, it's more like, like actionable, right? Like do we not find purpose from, do we not find meaning from purpose? I guess so.Look, I'm a scientist, man. I believe in God, but I'm a scientist. And I think actually a lot of, I used to be an atheist and agnostic, but the more I learned about a science and the more I realized that there's so much science can never explain and just why does science even exist?Like anything, like I, I went from being an atheist agnostic to now, like I really, I have a, I have a deep, meaningful relationship with God now because of all the things that I've seen and experienced. Um, anyway, all that is to say that I think that one of my ultimate goals and purposes in my life is to become self-actualized and, um, just to live by the, I think it's really about honoring the way that we're designed and the people that we're meant to be. And unless we go all in on being authentic and loving everything about ourselves, we'll never get to see how beautiful I can truly be on an individual basis and therefore on a collective basis.I think more people need to honor who they are and turn those weaknesses into strengths. They need to positively reframe like I did the, what they perceive to be the most difficult and lowest points of their life and, and gain something from that. I think that there's no such thing as failure.I think that there's simply an inability to reflect in a meaningful way from experiences that have been, that have made you feel inadequate or have felt like an inconvenience because there is always something to learn. And I think that if we can do more of that, we're going to live a life that is fruitful, a life that gives us wisdom and helps us help other people and a life that exemplifies what it means to be human, making mistakes, learning, living life and being who we are. You know, if you look at like evolutionary theory, right?Like we're designed to feel, fulfill an ecological niche and our success in fulfilling that niche gives us a rebirth, a rebirth of capacity. Like the, the, the, the environment reinforces who we are, what we do, as long as we find something to do that is meaningful to us and we do a decent job of fulfilling that role. And I think that we'll never understand what that role is, what it looks like and how successful we can be unless we honor who we are.So it's like, ask yourself the question, like, who am I and how can I bring more of who I am to light all these pillars that we talked about, sleep, nutrition, movement, mind. These are all things that are yes, extremely bioindividual, but it's the same applied effort that is required from anybody. Like ask questions, do the tests, get the devices and look at what the data says, because it'll help you fall in line with the fundamentals that will give you the mental clarity, the presence and the energy to be the most incredible version of yourself.So it might feel like they're just like these healthy habits that are separate from you, but we all have in common here is that if we can pursue those in a way that is realistic and attainable for us, we will show up clear, better and more prepared to handle whatever life throws at us. And they've our closest potential to what we can.

Adam Metwally

Yeah.

Andrés Preschel

So it really is about those fundamentals. Okay. And I think that will show us the meaning of our lives on an individual and collective basis.Great. Thank you Andrus. Thank you.Appreciate you. Appreciate your time. Appreciate your energy.

Adam Metwally

Thanks for coming on.

Andrés Preschel

My pleasure. And if anyone's made it this far and you've enjoyed the episode, please go to YouTube. Search that one time without a met while it clicks, subscribe, like the video and leave us a comment.Thank you guys. Cheers. We'll see you.