Is Technology Destroying Your Brain? The Science of AI, Memory & Focus | Dr. Kavin Mistry

Is technology making us smarter—or slowly destroying our ability to think?

In this episode of More U, Dr. Kavin Mistry explains how modern lifestyles, AI, social media, and constant distraction are changing the human brain.

From groundbreaking AI-powered brain imaging to the science behind memory, focus, and cognitive decline, this conversation explores why our brains are struggling—and more importantly, what we can do to reverse the trend.

You'll learn why exercise can literally grow your brain, how deep work improves cognition, the hidden cost of relying on AI for everything, and the daily habits that protect long-term brain health.

If you're interested in longevity, productivity, neuroscience, or becoming the healthiest version of yourself, this episode is a must-watch.

Chapters

00:00 — Episode Trailer

00:31 — Welcome & Meet Dr. Kavin Mistry

03:00 — Is Technology Changing Our Brains?

06:20 — AI-Powered Brain Imaging Explained

10:15 — Why Brain Volume Matters

15:00 — Can Exercise Actually Grow Your Brain?

19:30 — Social Media & Declining Attention Spans

24:00 — Is AI Making Us Smarter or Lazier?

29:10 — Why Deep Work Beats Multitasking

34:30 — The Primal Health Design Framework

39:15 — Breathing Techniques for Better Focus

44:00 — Finding Your Purpose

48:00 — The Daily Habits That Protect Your Brain

52:00 — Final Thoughts

🎧 Subscribe to More U Podcast for conversations that help you become healthier, more confident, and more intentional.

📲 SOCIAL MEDIA

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Hosts: @dominicmazzone1
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Guest: @kavinmistry.md

Website: www.kavinmistrymd.com

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Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

I can see what technology is doing to us.

SPEAKER_00 0:02

I can see what bad lifestyles are doing to us. You're seeing the effects of AI lifestyle on the brain. What is that? What does that look like?

SPEAKER_04 0:11

I can tell you how fast you are losing your brain. This is the first time in history they're seeing a downward trend in IQ.

SPEAKER_02 0:20

The counter is also now you can read 10 books in the time you would read one book.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

Can we stop it? Or can we gain it back?

SPEAKER_00 0:32

I just want to lay everybody out there before we start this. This guy, Dr. Kevin Mystery, blew our freaking minds. First of all, what he told us is we're all getting dumber. Okay. And he told us why we're gonna get why we're getting dumber. And then he told us how to actually fix it. And he actually was telling us that there's actual physical changes happening in our brains.

SPEAKER_02 0:58

I think he also said that the children's this is the first time in history that people's IQs are are less than the previous generation. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

Yeah. So, guys, this guy is a neuroradiologist. By the way, he's a bit of a sweetheart, too. Great, great guy. We've had really good people on lately. Just like people I would hang out with. Yeah. Ben, you hardly hang out with me. Like, what do you mean? You're hanging with our guests, but you don't hang out with me.

SPEAKER_02 1:26

Well, we could I said I would.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

I didn't say I'm going to, you know, I would hang out with you every day if I couldn't. Personally, I I I want to be wanted if I'm being honest with you. Okay. So pity is not an option.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

All right. So, anyways, make sure you guys, this is this is a fantastic episode. I would have to tell you, this is this is almost at this point like one of my favorites because I learned so much. Um, what Dr.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

Kevin Mystery, you're gonna be so popular at parties with all the statistics that he gave. So, check it out. Human intentions fan. What do you guys think it is?

SPEAKER_02 1:57

Listen to the episode.

SPEAKER_00 1:58

Kevin, welcome, welcome to More You Podcast.

SPEAKER_04 2:01

Dom, pleasure to be here.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

Awesome. I wanted to get into prepare for the show and actually you get to learn about all these um all these incredible people and things they're doing. I really want to start out with the fact that you are a neuroradiologist. And why don't we just at least take a second for at least people to understand what that actually is? I also really want to understand at what point you decided to kind of dedicate yourself to this direction of wellness and and and how you got there too.

SPEAKER_04 2:28

Um, as a kid, I was so fascinated with the human body. And when I learned that in radiology, you can peek into people's insides and and actually view them on the screen, to me, that was just so fascinating, you know. But kidding aside, what what amazes me about radiology is that it's so tangible, right? Uh we're not we're not talking, uh we're not guessing at it. Uh we we could actually see the changes. And as we venture into this uh new era of uh technology and AI, and we'll talk about all this, and you know, a lot of people kind of ask, uh, what is this doing to us as humans and what is it doing to our brains? And I actually see it and I can see what technology is doing to us, I can see what bad lifestyles are doing to us, and very tangibly on my screens. And so as a neuroradiologist, the term neuroradiology is that uh we image, we are in the imaging field as a radiologist, and so for people listening to this, uh you know, imaging means that uh anybody who's ever had a CAT scan, MRI, ultrasound, mammogram, all of that is radiology. Within radiology, there's a subspecialty called neuroradiology, which focuses on the brain, spine, and ENT, ENT meaning anything related to the ears and the nose and throat, and so all of the sort of um cancers related to the neck and uh all that we also deal with. So that's the subspecialty within uh within radiology. And I think the human body is amazing, but even more amazing is our central nervous system, is because that is who we are, right? What you are is really what is what is sitting between your ears, right? Everything that you call you is there, and so for me to see that is just fascinating.

SPEAKER_00 4:19

So, Kevin, what are you seeing? You just said that you know you're seeing uh the effects of AI and and lifestyle on the brain. Like, what is that what does that look like?

SPEAKER_04 4:30

I can answer that question from many different angles, and but let's just unpack that a little bit uh for people listening to this. One of the things that people talk about, we say, like, oh, we we tell people, and as physicians, okay, have this healthy, healthy lifestyle, eat what better, exercise more. And for most people, that amounts to it's it's very sometimes becomes very subjective. They don't have a concrete measurement. Maybe their labs improve or their cholesterol level in numbers go down, or their uh inflammatory markers like CRP or whatnot goes down.

SPEAKER_02 5:05

They start seeing their curves and their angles and their shadows a little better too, Kevin. That's that's that's that's how you get into my head. Yeah, you can change numbers.

SPEAKER_04 5:13

Sure. Yeah, physically they're watching their uh and that's a great point, right? Uh always nice to have less fat and more muscle, and and and they see that. But in a from a radiology perspective, and where you actually see changes that matter, and I'm not saying that muscle mass and and low fat phosphorus doesn't matter. I don't want to downplay any of that. But when we're talking about things like vascular inflammation, vascular calcifications, and what's happening in your aorta and your body, but even you take a step further, things that we thought were very ill-defined when somebody says, um, I'm losing my memory. And is it is it really because you're losing your mind? When I say losing your mind, meaning literally losing losing brain matter, right? Or or is it just something that related to you know lack of sleep or whatnot? Now, uh, and and what what what I'm seeing that's amazing, you know, in the past, I would say a couple of years, with AI technology, we're able to do what is known as uh volumetric imaging. Okay, so what what I mean by that is traditionally, you know, people get a CAT scan of the brain, they get an MRI of the brain, and a radiologist would interpret it, you know, and we will look at changes, we'll say, okay, you know, this brain looks like a 50-year-old, this brain looks like a 60-year-old, whatnot. And and usually I can look at a brain and tell, you know, guess at what how old the patient is. But what is interesting now with volumetric imaging, we're able to take volumes of certain parts of the brain that are related to sp specific functions. So parts of the brain that have to do with focus, parts of the brain that have to do with memory, particularly. Okay, so there's a particular area, and not to get too geeky on everybody here, but there's a part of the brain called the hippocampal formation, right? Uh, which has to do with memory. And the reason I bring this up, and which is I think is very interesting for uh people to hear this. In the past few years, we've been able to use AI for volumetric imaging. And what that does is that the AI goes in, maps these areas of the brain, calculates a volume. And what is interesting is we've had women, and I say women, particularly guys, somehow, like a lot of uh women tend to be a lot more cognizant of uh of their memory, and they're much more even much more proactive about getting image. That's why we've been seeing more women, and also dementia slightly higher tends to impact a little higher, right? So so that's why that's why women are more concerned about that. In the past few years, I would say we've had women come in for uh memory, memory issues and perfectly normal scan. If they had a nor an MRI, the MRI portion of it, normal. When we do their volumes of their hippocampal, normal, but sort of on the lower side of normal, sorry, the lower end of normal, they come in a year later. We've had women who say, you know what, I still feel like I'm losing I'm losing memory, they come in a year later, still a normal scan, but their hippocampus, still in the normal range, has dropped volume. Okay, and what that means is that if after the age of 30, if you do nothing, you lose your brain matter, your physical brain matter, at about 0.7% every year.

SPEAKER_00 8:37

And Kevin, what's doing nothing? What do you mean by that?

SPEAKER_04 8:39

When I say doing nothing, meaning that you you you physically you're sedentary, you don't pay attention to your diet, you don't pay attention to what you're drinking, you don't, you're not taking any supplements. I'm thinking thinking no no proactive.

SPEAKER_02 8:52

Well, and it it's gotta be uh uh uh mental stimulation component of that too, right? I mean, it it there's those whatever, those word games, all that kind of brain training stuff, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:02

The brain training and you know being active, you know, fine motor skills and all that. But you know, I'm saying like take all that off the table. You just say that you know what, I'm just gonna live my life, not really paying being proactive about anything. If that's the case, if you do nothing, the the rate of decline of your brain is 0.7% every year.

SPEAKER_00 9:24

And was that a study? Is that where you're is that where you're pulling that?

SPEAKER_04 9:27

This is this is this is like this is pulled data uh from from I guess thousands of patients. This is what the lot of these AI companies that do this volumetric imaging, they use these uh these compiled atlases that that they've done. Yeah, standard. These are these are standards that are used throughout all kind of averaging everything, it's come up down to 0.7 percent. Now, that does does that mean that is it at 30 is the rate of decline slightly less compared to when you're 60? Yes, you know, but when you average everything, it comes down to 0.7 percent. So a couple of these women, their rate of decline from a year before was around 2.2 percent. 50-year-old, the average, like I said, is 0.7 percent, it's 2.2%. Still a normal brain MRI. Okay, everything is normal. But the curve, you know, you in order to in order to draw uh a slope, you need two points, right? So once we have one point, one data point, we have a second data point, I can tell you how fast you are losing your brain.

SPEAKER_00 10:30

That's pretty interesting. So, the reason for this though is you're saying it's primarily lifestyle, it's what you're eating, it's supplementation. But are you also saying, because I'm gonna take you all the way back to your AI comment in the beginning, are you saying that it's the laziness of not having to critical think and do those kind of things that's contributing to that?

SPEAKER_04 10:56

Dom, it's multifactorial. And and I I would say, first of all, let's preface that by saying that some people have a genetic predisposition to dementia. So there is a genetic component. So, you know, either if you're carrying the APO4 gene, or if you're carrying one copy versus two copy, you know, there are a lot of um, there's several celebrities that you may know, you know, who have done gene testing. They have two copies and they're more prone to um dementia. Taking all those aspects of Chris Hebm's, that's who it is. Yes, yes, him. Yeah, I didn't want to mention he's come out with it and he's he's very vocal about it. So yeah, he didn't get the series where you obviously would know.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

So, Kevin, I'm your PR agent. What the headline here is that we can actually track now how fast you're losing your mind.

SPEAKER_04 11:57

Exactly. Exactly. I I can tell you how fast you're losing your mind, literally. But can we stop it? Okay, that's it. Can we gain it back? That's a fantastic question. And and and that that that segues into kind of what Dom was asking, right? Uh, you know, what what is causing it and what what's not. Um so let me let me lead with the study that is uh got a lot of headlines. You guys you guys may have seen it. The study, uh, so it was this is specifically geared towards dementia and a mild cognitive impairment. They were uh you were dealing, uh it was addressing people with mild cognitive impairment. Mild cognitive impairment for people listening to this. So before you have full-blown dementia, and let's say you have an assessment done for your memory, you either maybe fall into like a full-blown dementia category, uh, there there's a cutoff. And then before that, if you have mild cognitive issues, then you qualify as uh that category of mild cognitive impairment. Now it's important that if people ha fall into that range, uh, what are the options, right? Like we're talking about all this, right? It's it's all good and fine in radiology, we're able to see this, but okay, so now I'm losing my brain faster. What can I do about it? Right? That's the question. So the study it looked at hippocampal volume and and uh said that if you work out, and this is a uh I believe in this study there was a combination of aerobic exercise uh predominantly and also some weight training involved mixed in with that. Okay. Altogether, if you clock 150 minutes of uh activity and uh specifically more aerobic than than resistance training, it grew the hippocampus in these uh subjects.

SPEAKER_00 13:54

Meaning the Is that per week, 150 minutes per week?

SPEAKER_04 13:57

Per week, per week, yeah. That's what I meant to say. Yeah, 150 minutes per week. You can divide it up any way you want. Okay, so you can do three sessions, three three long sessions, preferably. I mean, if you do the math, 150 minutes per week, you aim for like half an hour a day, roughly, around, you know, then uh you you'll hit hit that goal. You know what I'm saying? During during your weekdays, if you were hitting half an hour.

SPEAKER_00 14:21

So and the critical the critical piece of that though, you have to be in the aerobic stage. A slow walk for 150 minutes isn't necessarily doing the same thing as real, actual, vigorous exercise.

SPEAKER_04 14:36

Is that correct? Um, it it it would you would definitely have to be in like uh zone three or zone four to see the benefit. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 14:45

Um, and um, you know, just for people out there to understand that, is what is zone three and zone four?

SPEAKER_04 14:49

So just uh, you know, basically sort of giving numbers, I would say like a zone one and two is like you know, like a brisk walk or like a swift walk where you're able to have a conversation. Uh zone three and four is called like mid-range where where you're like really working hard, your heart rate isn't like the uh mid to top normal. Um, and then zone five is where it's all in. Like you can't you can't even have a whole the conversation. So when I when I say three, four is that you it's this moderate level of activity, right? Like you you you are sweating, uh you know, you are sweating and and you're you're you you know you're working out, you're not really able to have like a active conversation uh you know um without without uh you know taking taking that deep breath. So, anyways, 150 minutes, a measurable increase in hippocampal formation. And so when I saw that study, I said, that's unbelievable. Um think about that, right? You're able to grow your brain, particularly part of your brain that has to do with memory. And and you know, um, so for all the other reasons we talk about for exercise, right? Uh heart disease and um uh fat loss, uh, right, and all that, uh everything, all that is good. But I would say that if you can grow your hippocampus hippocampus using this, I think it's fantastic. That is even more reason that exercise uh becomes a star player here.

SPEAKER_00 16:14

Is that becoming like how new is it? Is it somewhat settled science? Is it challenged? Um, because it's a pretty big claim and it's exciting, like vastly exciting, especially for guys like probably all of us that are working out all the time. Yep. I'm just just trying to understand just how solid that that actually is.

SPEAKER_04 16:33

So this this study was uh was a legitimate study. It was not like one of those uh frivolous, like low power type of a study. I mean, this was like uh you know a randomized controlled trial. Um, and I could send you guys the the link if you guys want to post it later, you know, with this uh with this episode that people can look at it. That would be great, that'd be great, you know. Um but uh no, that is a legitimate study. To answer your uh second question, Dom, um, is that is is technology a culprit in this? Like I said, all of these changes are multifactorial, but what are we doing to ourselves with technology and particularly with AI, okay? And uh so one of the things is as you know, with technology, people you really don't have to remember too many things anymore, right? Um before people used to remember phone numbers, people used to remember addresses, uh, people used to remember names for God's sakes, right? And now you're like, uh, if you don't have your phone, you feel naked. Uh, you know, I certainly do. I'm I'm guilty of that. And um, because we're so relying on that for for all that. So does that take a toll on on uh our memory? Yes, it does, you know. But beyond that, um, one thing is that uh even moving out of that particular area of the brain, you know, moving out of the memory center or the hippocampal formation, when we take a look at parts of our brain uh that have to do with focus, okay? Um, and we look at like uh the uh you know like the prefrontal cortex, right? Where is uh where it's uh have to do with focus and attention. All the all the studies, the recent studies that are coming out, yeah, if you look at uh people, people who engage with short form content, okay?

SPEAKER_02 18:13

That's TikTok, Instagram, the reels, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:16

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, right? Short form content, which everybody devours, right? Instagram, tick tock, and whatnot. Particularly adolescents, okay. We're seeing that it is impacting their their brain in particularly those areas that have to do with uh with uh focus um and and uh and attention. And what is interesting, um, this is this is a this was this was shocking to me as somebody just mentioned this to me. Um the there were there's a study that looked at short form content, adolescents, and IQ. And they're saying this is the first time in history that they're watching a they're seeing a downward trend in IQ because of the the teens and adolescents who engage with short form content uh heavily.

SPEAKER_00 19:07

Wow. So big that's a big statement. So let me just rephrase because I think that's huge. I don't want people to miss this. You're basically saying TikTok makes you dumber. Yeah. Yeah, this is like this is huge, is that for the first time in history, we're actually seeing a decline in IQ. And what you're saying is that the belief is that's directly related to short form content.

SPEAKER_04 19:34

It is uh related to short form content and also with the up spike in a uh AI engagement. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 19:42

And what we're seeing is Well, you know, I'm gonna push back there just a little bit, Kevin, because the it depends how you use AI, right? Like it makes me, yeah, it makes me think more, it makes me work out more. I mean, for what the problem is it's probably the the the the more um uh uh fortunate portion of the society that's gonna really benefit from it in that way, right?

SPEAKER_04 20:00

Yeah, yeah. No, no, I know, and I totally I I and I'm I'm I'm glad uh I'm glad you mentioned that. I should uh preface that and saying that uh it depends on how you use AI, but if technology, you know, with with every technology, the question we have to ask is what is the trade-off? Okay, what is the tra what am I trading off in this? Okay, am I trading a cognitive ability for for what I just did? Okay, and what we're seeing is so particularly let's just address the short form content. What we're seeing with with adolescents engaging with short form content is that it they are they're losing their attention span. Okay, they're they're losing their attention span, and the attention span is getting shorter and shorter. Okay. Let me ask you guys a question. What do you think the human attention span is now?

SPEAKER_00 20:54

If I if you were to give me a time, what do you think the like in in in minutes or do we have to put it in seconds?

SPEAKER_02 21:00

I believe it's it's like seven seconds or eleven seconds. Like just oh wow, you're you're good. Slightly below a goldfish, I think is the is the way they phrase it now.

SPEAKER_04 21:09

Yes, yes, it's it's slightly below a goldfish. Yes. We read the same books, guys.

SPEAKER_02 21:13

We might do the same, you know what I mean. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:16

Okay, so I want to just get something clear because I I really um there's so much more we got to cover. This first time in history of this IQ decline, this was a a study that was done, or are they just seeing the numbers? They're just seeing the numbers, and people are reporting on these numbers.

SPEAKER_04 21:29

So these the people are reporting on these numbers. I I have yet to read that full study, but this is uh I was on a podcast interview, and we were talking about reading books, data that's coming out is that with people sort of using AI for summary and you know, like really trying to like make concise information, right? What we're seeing is that in because before, let's say you had a project or homework, you had to read the content and then synthesize that information. Information and then come up your that reading comprehension aspect of with reading the full content and then coming up. Now you can feed the PDF into Claude or Chat GPT, get bullet points, and and then say, okay, you know what? I yeah, why do I why should I read the book, right? I I have this uh I have this uh two-page summary of the book um and and like that, but what's the trade-off here? The trade-off is you traded that whole part of your brain that actually is visualizing that book and going through that aspect of reading comprehension and going through all that thought process and that logic and everything like that, and the impact of all of this. So the short form content and the AI use in that way. And this is what I was saying AI being used in a way that it's taking you away from reading the actual book. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 22:52

The counter is also now you can read 10 books in the time you would read one book, right? I think that this is the thing about the people who really take advantage of it in the right way. I would argue if you had you read a book cover to cover, there's a lot of fluff in there, and it took you three days to read it, but you you were able to uh optimize 10 books in three days, still the same amount of cognition, thinking, driving, maybe even more creativity, but you got 10 books, the knowledge, uh, even if you know AI is annoying, but Claude knows what the hell he's doing, right? So he took out the useful portions of that book, but now I have the useful portion of 10 books versus the maybe maybe the calmness of one book.

SPEAKER_00 23:31

But that's the what I think Kavin might be saying is that the act of taking all that information and taking that and filtering out good and bad what you're like the stuff that you're like saying is fluff, that action alone is potentially beneficial to the brain that it's now not getting. Do I summarize that? Because look, I can still summarize. I didn't even use that. I didn't use that. I don't know. I saw I'm looking down there.

SPEAKER_04 24:03

I'm making notes, I'm making notes. So, so yeah, though so yes, you in the same time you could read 10 books and get a summary, but the fact that you didn't go through that journey, there's a trade-off because you gave up that that reading comprehension skill, the ability to kind of uh what Dom just said, being able to filter that. So there is a trade-off. Yes, maybe on this side you get more information, but when when you're in that adolescent phase, in that teen you know phase, that it's it's not about the quantity, it's about the quality, and and you're if you're trading that aspect, um, then then you're you're missing out. The other, the second part, the flip side of this, is when people read, and one of the things is uh what we're seeing is that there's no such thing as multitasking, right? We just we're just monotasking very poorly. Okay. Uh our brain, if you look at our primal design, the way our brain is designed, it it can it can it fires one circuit at a time, but it is able to switch circuits. So what I'm saying that if you're let's say reading a book, watching TV, and have an active text going on all at the same time, you think you're multitasking, but you're not. You're actually monotasking each of them, but very poorly. You're you're you're switching tasks, right?

SPEAKER_00 25:30

And you're losing, you're losing some some throughput from the switching, probably too. It's not like there's three things and it's 33, 33, 33. It's like, no, you're maybe only getting 25, 25, 25 because you're losing something in in between.

SPEAKER_04 25:46

You're you're losing something in between. And a deeper layer to that is that from neuroscience perspective, and if you've read this book called Deep Work by Cal Newport, um, if you haven't, I would really suggest reading it. Then he goes into how our brain thinks and this whole aspect of monotasking. And the whole point here is this it takes about 20 minutes for us doing one task. When you do one task for 20 minutes, your brain synchronizes all of its activity and starts making that task very efficient. The the the circuit becomes very efficient, right? And now you go from just a task to a state we call the flow state. And these are all that research that's coming out of flow, where you're able to do with one activity without effort because your brain has developed such an efficiency in that in that area, right? It takes about 20 minutes of doing one activity to drop into that what we call as that deep work space, okay? And another word for that is that flow state. Now think about it. How many how many messages do you think people get per day? If I if you guys go, if I ask you a question, what do you think? What's on average in terms of notifications and everything like that?

SPEAKER_01 27:05

Yeah, 50, 100, yeah per day. I think it's like 150.

SPEAKER_04 27:10

Yeah, yeah. I think it's 180. That's the average, right? That people get. Now think about it. Divide the number of hours, your waking hours, divide that by 180, see what a number you get. Do people ever have 20 minutes of anything that they can actually experience deep work? And the answer is no.

SPEAKER_00 27:31

Hey, Kevin, going back to, I feel like the word we haven't used when we're talking about reading and we're talking about using AI and we're talking about the IQ going down, it seems that we would lose recollection of what it is we heard, what it is we read we've read, because there's so much short form content, there's just so much volume, it's hard to grasp onto pieces that you're actually able to hold on to, keep, memorize, and and recollect. Is that is that we come full circle there?

SPEAKER_04 28:02

So if your attention span gets shorter and shorter, right, then then your ability to even absorb information starts going down. And we know that unless you have proper attention, your ability to register information is all correlated with your level of attention. And that's that's pretty it's fairly logical, right? It's like the same thing we just talked about, right? It's trying to read a book while watching TV and having a chat. You won't be able to retain that information because your level of attention is not there. What we're seeing is that these kids are losing that level of attention, and that means they're not able to garner, like in whatever they're doing, they're not able to garner that information from whatever that they're engaging in. You know what I'm saying? That retention capacity is going down.

SPEAKER_02 28:53

And it's it's really like any muscle. If you don't use one arm for a week or a month, it gets smaller, right? You don't use that portion of your brain, it's gonna the volumetric studies. If you had a twin, if you had a twin study, short term short form versus podcast, I bet you could show that in your volumetric studies or functional MRI or some sort of uh uh blood flow study to the brain. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 29:14

And and and you know, to your point, uh, is that the rule in neuroscience is the neurons that uh fire together, wire together, right? When you when you can when you the whole thing about this flow state and this deep work is that when you can do one activity uh for a long period of time, you start being developing efficiency. That's why people become experts. Like you talk about people like Yo Yo Ma, who plays the cello. He's not thinking about playing cello, he just plays the cello because it's wired in. It's like it's like hardwired in in his in, you know what I'm saying. He's not thinking about it anymore. And and so, but if you never enter, how do you even get to that state if you never have those 20 minutes? I'm saying 20 minutes is the entry point, you know. But if people never have that, you never become an expert in anything.

SPEAKER_00 30:04

That makes sense. First of all, this is fascinating. We spent great time on understanding what the problem is. I'd like to go into what the solution is. I like to try really get an understanding of what it is that you're doing to help people with this and and the things that you're doing and your method. I'm really interested in that. So if we can if you can talk about that, that would be great.

SPEAKER_04 30:24

Perfect. So, Dom, all these problems we discussed, and I would say overarching, there's one solution from my perspective. And the one solution is this is we have to understand our primal design. How are we designed to think, and how is our body body designed to perform? Okay, and once we understand our primal design, then the solution becomes we need to have alignment with that primal design. Okay, and that's that's my whole focus of my work and what I teach and everything like that, is that one singular answer is primal alignment, meaning are you aligned with the way you were designed? And so one thing we already mentioned is that we our brain is very, very sophisticated if we understand that it is a monotasker, not a multitasker. Okay, as best we try to multitask, we still only monotask poorly. But if you understand we are a monotasker, then the solution becomes is that once we understand how we were built, then we can align our lifestyle and how we um approach our day and and everything we do along with that. And so my book uh is called Primal Health Design. And the goal of my book was to identify seven areas in our life uh where we can align with our primal design, seven paradigms that if we if we fix those areas, then we we're acting the way we were designed. Every aspect of our life starts to improve.

SPEAKER_00 32:11

Okay, so what let's talk about the seven, and then I want to talk about what you believe those those seven for an individual.

SPEAKER_04 32:20

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So so uh let's I'll let me give you a 30,000 feet overview and then we can drill down on whatever area you you you guys like, okay? Um so first thing is I think in the popular culture right now, I think we're we've gotten good at trying to optimize, I would say, the first three uh connections or our first three parametral connections. It's uh connecting with earth, body, and food. And what I mean by earth is aligning our body with our circadian rhythm, right? Like the way the sun cycle. We know that if you work against the circadian rhythm, it's like sh swimming against the current, right? It's that your body naturally is synced with the sun, and which means our cognition and everything like that is aligned with the circadian rhythm. And which means what do I mean by that? Yeah, assuming sun rises at 6 a.m. and sunset is at 6 p.m., when the sun is at its peak, your uh digestion and your cognition is at peak also. So we learn best if you look at between the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. actually. Okay. And if you look at yourself and if you look study your self, right, you'll see that uh you'll have the highest level of focus and retention and all that during along those lines, okay? Eastern medicine, uh, eastern cultures actually knew this. So they used to have their heaviest meal around noon because your digestion also peaks around that time, okay? So aligning with earth, body, and food forms this physical base. And once people have mastered that, I think you can go out a little level further, which is I would say your mental health and which is uh aligning with your that is the mind-body connection. And that addresses what we just talked about, is that understanding how your mind works in terms of this it being like a monotasker, okay? It's that is that it it is very good. You can do amazing things, you can become a yo-yo ma, but you just have to know how to enter that state. And one of the one of my main things with when I work with adolescents, when I work with adults, is that I want people to experience dropping into that deep work, that flow state. And once people experience that once, they're like, oh, that's what it feels like. And there are different techniques we get into and and show people that, okay. And we can talk about that a little bit in terms of specifics. When you have that, you can move out. I think once you've mastered the physical health, the mental health, then I still think there is another layer, okay? And that is why we talk about emotional health. And when the emotional health, this is where we talk about connection with you as, and I don't mean uh yourself as you know, people say I'm a doctor, career or whatnot. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about you intrinsically, because people intrinsically, I believe, have a certain strength, okay? Uh, some people have an aptitude as a connector, some people have aptitude as a thinker, some people have aptitude as a creator. And I think when you connect with that primal drive that everybody has, it naturally awakens that inner drive in you. And and you people flourish right away when you when you do that. It's like if you look at somebody who's very, very creative, right? Like my my wife, you know, her her artwork is behind me and all that. Very, very creative. She was like, she was an artist since she was three, three years old. She knew she was going to be an artist. Like her parents couldn't make her do anything else. Now you take my wife and you give her a bank job, she's gonna suffocate, right? Because she she's a creative, right? She needs that creative outlet, right? I think everybody, if you find that quality, people don't think about it as a form of health. But when you when you find out what makes you tick, okay, is it connecting with people? Is it connecting with your creativity, whatnot, you blossom, okay? And so one is finding yourself, connecting with yourself. Uh and then the the second piece is when you do that, when you connect with that element within you that that you feel like I was created for this, okay. Um you automatically become a type of a person that connects with other people. And that's another form of health that is that how are you connecting with people. As we know, we look at all these things.

SPEAKER_02 36:45

Yeah, there's very, very good literature on this one. That's well established, right?

SPEAKER_04 36:48

Yeah, yeah, right. Like that your your longevity, happiness, and long-term uh health is all uh related to how you're aligned with people, and so that forms this emotional layer. And you know, I used to think that that's it, right? That's the whole, that's the whole equation. Um, until um, you know, I lost both my parents in a very short uh period of time a while back. What I realized that the last piece is what I call as existential health is connecting with our mortality. Okay. And is that one uh and what I understood is that when you connect with the fact that you are mortal, the quality of your life changes because all of a sudden you stopped going from this phase where you think you have endless tomorrow to a state where you're like, you know, I uh I need to make every day count. Okay. And when you wake up with that intention that I have a I am mortal, I have limited time, I need to make this day count, the quality of everything you do changes. The way you work out changes, the way you eat changes, the way you talk to people changes. And I believe that's a form of help that people don't think about. But when you when you do that, it is it's it's the capstone on everything. So those are that's a that's that's the journey in the book that I take people through.

SPEAKER_00 38:04

And so, Kevin, you have this book, but you know, but you're helping people through this journey. Is that part of what your business is too? Is to help people through this journey. So for instance, um, I love what you're talking about, like what makes you tick. Like, I I actually do truly believe that people are meant to do a certain thing. I was not meant to do accounting. That's not not not where my my world is. But if and if you put me in a job being an accountant, I'd be I'd be totally miserable. Um, so so you help them kind of find and connect to these things? Is that is that what it is?

SPEAKER_04 38:37

Right, right. So and I have a couple of resources we'll we'll uh talk about at the end, okay? But uh one of the uh things that I do with people uh in this area is uh I developed a series of questions which probes um your intrinsic drives, right? Are you are you you know like uh in terms of connecting uh with people, in terms of creativity and whatnot? And after doing m many of this, and I know there are there are different um other systems that have tried to kind of um figure out different personality types and and things like that, and they're they're used out there. I wanted to really simplify it. And and and here, after doing a lot of this, what I found is that there are about four areas where people fall into, okay? And uh one is that either people are uh thinkers, they're they're like kind of thought leadership type of thing. They like to solve problems, you know. Some people are creatives, they just want to be creative, like my wife, you know, like she needs to be creating new things. And some people thrive on communication and connection, meaning they need to commute communicate and connect with people, otherwise they'd starve, right? And then the last category is people are uh I call them seekers in a way that they they need to visualize a a more holistic picture. They're like the ones that see the bigger picture, right? Like they're they're like uh and and and like that. And unless they do that, they feel suffocated. They need to be always thinking about like the greater good and like whatnot. And so after after all that, I feel like people tend to fall into those four categories. And I think that with proper questioning, working with people on the corporate side too, what I tell people is this that there's no perfect job. I don't think any job falls into one specific category, okay? But you have to figure out which area you thrive in because you can then design your career or your job, or you can design the tasks in your job that focus more on that strength. And if it if you do that, every day will be a vacation.

SPEAKER_02 40:46

And the beauty, the beauty of that, I I tell this to the the residents and fellows we train like find out what you like to do, do what you like, you get better at it, more people come to you for it, and that's like the cycle. Then you're getting you're getting better at what you love, and more people come to do see you because you're getting good at it, and it's like this nonstop thing, and that's how you become the the cello.

SPEAKER_04 41:06

And and you and it juices you and it juices you at the same time. I I love that you said that, and I'm glad you're teaching that. Uh, and and you know, I I'd give a very quick like personal story. Um, you know, I went into radiology. Radiology, great field. I really enjoyed it, everything like that. And and I'm here I am, a partner in the group. We sold the group, doing really well, and everything like that. But I'm I'm just kind of going through the motions, right? And and uh what I realize is and I I had I didn't have someone like me to take me through this process and and you know give me this insight. So I'm doing I'm trying to do this all myself, and I'm thinking, like, you know, is this it? Is this all to life? Like just reading films every day, is this all to life? And then as I'm doing this, and and I had to ask myself, um, and there was a whole journey to this, and I don't want to get into all that, but I realized my my superpower or what juices me is teaching. I like taking complex information and making it approachable for people. And I and I it started with teaching my residents, where I would here's they're walking into radiology, all this stuff that we gotta learn, and the brain and this kind of cord anatomy and everything like that. And I would I would I like to like take it all and and like boil it down and say, let's start with one thing, okay? Let's start. And and I like to give like what I had CT, I like to give residents an approach. I'm like, here, let's start, let's start from the outside, right? And and the work. And and I found that I was good at it, people respected it, like you said, and it was like kind of my icky guy, right? Things you're good at, people people respect you for, and you can get paid for at the same time, right? So if you can find your icky guy, I think it's very liberating. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:48

Just I want to say a couple things there. Um, I have heard this definition of flow, and I really like it, which is using all your skills and doing it excellently makes you feel really good. Um, and I don't know if that that coincides, but the thing I was asking, you know, thinking to myself in the head when you're saying there's these four categories. And Ben, I was looking at you, I'm like, Ben, where do you think you think about the same thing in those four categories?

SPEAKER_02 43:14

Uh yeah, it's a good question. I mean, I I'm uh I definitely love to be connected. I love people, I love to you know talk and chat, and uh you can't shut me up sometimes. Um, but um I would probably lean towards the creative, to be honest, which is interesting maybe. Uh, but yeah, I mean, I got that that's where I put myself between those two. I think those were which most people I assume Kevin kind of saddle two or three of them together, right?

SPEAKER_04 43:39

People saddle, they do have a dominant one. People saddle. I I you know I I that's what I'm saying. This is these are not compartments. You know, you don't lock somebody in into one of them. But the thing is that if you know which one you thrive on, you have to include that in what you do, otherwise you'll starve.

SPEAKER_00 43:57

Yeah, damn.

SPEAKER_04 43:58

Otherwise you'll starve yourself.

SPEAKER_00 44:01

God, you know, so I don't know. I'm I'm sorry, but when you named all four categories, like you named the first one, I'm like, yeah, that's me. Then you named the second one.

SPEAKER_02 44:08

I'm like, that one by definition might be the fourth one. I mean, it's like you gotta have a little bit of everything, the pale. It's like seeing it all together. I mean, I think yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:18

Like, and then because he got the last one, he's like, you know, someone who's always looking at the big picture, and I'm like, geez, that's next to me too. So yeah, that was that was um, I was having a lot of fun with that in my head when you were talking about that. So thank you for that. Um, I want a rapid fire here just so we can help people. You know, this podcast is all about people getting more out of themselves. Um, and you have you have all these different things. I just want to go super fast on just uh a few of them. One thing I think that's different than what a lot of people hear is earthing. I um I got introduced to earthing years and years and years ago. I got an earthing sheet. I slept amazing for about two weeks, and then it started feeling like it had no effect after that. Do you want to can you take 60 seconds on earthing just so people know what it is and why it's important? Sure.

SPEAKER_04 45:08

So, Dumb, Earthing, um, there is basically it's it's it's the first paradigm in my book is I talk connecting with the earth. That you can connect with the earth two ways. One is that you uh align yourself with the circadian rhythm, which is the sun cycle, right? We talked about that a little bit briefly. And second is physically connecting with the earth, which you which means your feet are touching ground, and I saying uh and uh without shoes. And so there are two aspects to that. One is that there is an electrochemical aspect that uh people bel uh we believe that the earth is an ion sink, okay? That it's it's a negative ion sink, right? And it's almost like if it's like you know, when you take antioxidants, the reason you take antioxidants is that it they neutralize all the free radicals, right? Because the antioxidants have these extra ions that they can give off and then neutralize the free radicals. Well, the earth is seen as that sink where you can when you touch touch it, it it acts like that. Now the the studies looking at that are are all been like a very low power, but there are a few studies that showed that people who grounded, okay, and or they use grounding mats in the hospital, their wounds healed faster, okay? Because if they were grounded. And uh so it we know that there is some some effect to it, okay, and and like that, okay? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:33

Is there so for for just neurohealth, can you give us just like a quick just bang, bang, bang, just tell us do this, do this, do this, do this, do this. I think that's what people would love to hear.

SPEAKER_04 46:46

Yes. So, number one thing I tell people that your breath is your best friend, and if you can focus on your breath, it will center you in uh in the present. Okay. And for neuro, for most people are bouncing back between sort of regrets of the past and anxieties of the future. But if you can, if you can do if you can implement any breath practice, one the easiest one is breath watching, just being conscious of your breath. It will give you a focus. And if you can do that, even for a minute, it's a good start. Okay. Eastern cultures then work you from there to five minutes to ten to ultimately you want to get to 15, 20 minutes. If you can do that, that focus will build that flow state for you. Okay, that's a fantastic practice. I would say that's enough for people. If you can just start there, that you automatically that will evolve into higher states of uh of uh attention.

SPEAKER_00 47:47

Got it. And and obviously, you know, lots of lots of talk out there about breath work and and anything that's out of the ordinary that people wouldn't normally hear that you think is is is really important?

SPEAKER_04 48:01

With the breath, uh we know that um when your uh uh exhale compared to your inhale, okay, is is lengthened. So if I inhale for four counts and I exhale for six to eight counts, automatically it shifts me from sympathetic uh tone to parasympathetic tone. Your body just all of a sudden it it flips the switch, okay? You could do anybody listening to this, you could do this right now. Breathe for a count of four, breathe out for a count of eight, automatically you start switching to parasympathetic tone, which means that the control to your nervous system is in your hands now. You have the remote control in your hands. That means if you're in a situation where you're stressed, where your sympathetic tone is high, your cortisol is high, you have a breath that gives you that remote control to grab that back and put your pull yourself out of that stress sympathetic tone to parasympathetic.

SPEAKER_00 49:04

I like that one. That was simple and easy. Um, a couple of sorry, Ben.

SPEAKER_02 49:07

No, I just I I I do a lot of my surgeries awake or like light sedation, and I do that with many patients. I'm like, okay, take a big deep breath, hold it for as long as you can and blow it out slow, slow through a little tiny straw like yours with a little coffee. And you can because I'll have I'll be monitoring them, and I can see my staff thinks I'm like magic. I'll see their heart rate at 120, and it just like ticks down, and you get it down to 80 like that. And it's just it's a it's it's a that's another like scientifically proved thing. Yeah, proven thing.

SPEAKER_04 49:32

It's it's it's amazing. Like it's a simple thing, and people don't realize that that they're holding that remote control.

SPEAKER_02 49:38

It's simple, but I don't do quick questions. You know, you know how it goes. It's like life.

SPEAKER_00 49:43

Um, just a couple of quick questions. How are you how are you finding this as a business? You're a doctor, you know, you have a business. How do you how do you like how do you like being a businessman? Like how do you feel about it? What are your challenges?

SPEAKER_04 49:57

This is that part of me that it uh juices me. You know, I enjoy these conversations, honestly. And then, you know, it's just it's it's a part of me because which, you know, when people come on my screen and I see and I see premature volume loss, when I see like a 50-year-old whose brain looks like a 60, 70-year-old, I wish I could have a conversation with that person, honestly. Okay, but I'm not able to. But here I can, and I here I can talk to you and that other people maybe out there listening to me. And it gives me a space to voice what I'm seeing on my screen and really impact people from that perspective, you know. So uh it's uh it's very enjoyable. And um, you know, for me, I think the message is simple. Uh, I think we have a primal design, we just need to align with it.

SPEAKER_00 50:43

Yeah, well, uh absolutely. And I I think that what you're doing is critical. I think the problem is people don't realize it's critical. What does someone like you do to decompress? I think people would want to know.

SPEAKER_04 50:58

With everybody, you know, both of you guys are so busy as well as I am, you know, and I believe the the middle of our day, all hell can break loose. You know, we're dealing with all sorts of things, right? First thing that I teach people is that that's the only thing you can control, your bookends, right? And if you get the bookends right, have a very strong start of your day and a very strong finish. And and just dial that in, okay? Because those are the only points that are in your control. And it's like a suspension bridge. When that first pillar and the second pillar are strong, you can put any amount of weight on it. So, so I think that that's how I approach it. So I just work on dialing in those two parameters.

SPEAKER_00 51:43

Ben, that's kind of like you. You got walking the morning? Well, no, you got your walking morning, and then you got your God, I'm like I'm like a podcast boy. I'm like Ben's podcast, uh, you know what I mean? Spouse. Um, like, but then you have your uh you got your infrared no mine's uh mine's a hot stone, but yeah.

SPEAKER_04 52:05

Okay, nice, nice, nice. No, no, Sana, Sana, I love Sana. I I like I enjoy the steam, the steam part too. I mean, that that's like that's my favorite. But uh red light also, uh it's uh it's it's great as well. But uh yeah, I and I think that that's that's it. I think if you can dial that in, that the beginning and end, that's it. You you you will you will uh that's all you need.

SPEAKER_00 52:29

Okay, so just a couple of things. I think one thing we always ask this question like, what do you believe you would say is real magic? I felt like I heard it was the breath. The breath is real magic. Is that is that a fair statement?

SPEAKER_04 52:42

The breath is the magic, but I think the magic is the fact that your primal intelligence is the magic, right? That's the solution. You people we're looking for these magic potions, we're looking for these magic drinks to you know drink in the morning. I'm not I'm not against any of that. I'm saying there's there may be some validity, but there is no there is no one drink that's gonna fix it, okay? But your internal primal intelligence is can fix almost most problems that I see with people, right? Uh people say I brain fog, I can't focus and whatnot. I think that you have that primal intelligence built in. I think you just have to support it with the proper proactive measures and lifestyle changes.

SPEAKER_00 53:27

Uh in one sentence, can you uh or two, can you tell again people what primal intelligence is just so they can walk away with that? Can you can you just super condense it?

SPEAKER_04 53:38

Yep. No, so I I you know I talked about you know aligning with our primal design, right? Like just uh that once we once you know that this is how you were designed to be, and and that is you know a connecting with those those seven elements, right? Like once you have alignment with that, you automatically awaken that I think primal intelligence within you. And and that is like you know, connection with the earth, body, food, your mind, uh, connecting with your your kind of inner driver purpose and with people. And then last is that you know, forming that connection with your mortality, right? All of those connections is forms that primal intelligence.

SPEAKER_00 54:20

Okay, that was great, thank you for that. And then what would you say? There's a lot of talk out there about uh brain health and things you should do that you think is absolute bullshit.

SPEAKER_04 54:33

I I think a lot of uh so there's don't hold back, Kevin. Don't hold back, brother.

SPEAKER_01 54:38

Get it out there. Don't be holding back, Kevin.

SPEAKER_00 54:41

Come on, hit it, hit it.

SPEAKER_04 54:42

Have you seen like some of those people wear those bands and they're like it it reads the their brain waves, and people are trying to control their brain waves. And what I feel that is you cannot think yourself into a particular state, right? It's that I believe your your physiology impacts your psychology, and your psychology impacts your physiology, and it's a it's a big crosstalk, right? But a lot of times people think that I can I can I can think myself into this particular state or whatnot. So people wear these bands and they're watching their their waveform and they think, you know, they're like, oh, okay, let me change it. That's not how it works, right? Because it's uh for me is that just work on work on the remote control part of it, right? What is impacting your uh psychology is your physiology, work on the physiology properly, it will automatically impact your psychology. So it's sometimes like I just laugh at it because I'm like, uh, you know, it's such a yeah so headbands are bullshit.

SPEAKER_00 55:49

I get it.

SPEAKER_01 55:50

We yeah, we we we we we're gonna be able to do that. I didn't know that hard, Kevin.

SPEAKER_00 55:54

If um, we like to ask this question too. If money wasn't an issue, like what would you be doing with your life other than this?

SPEAKER_04 56:01

Other than this, okay, okay. I would travel uh all over the world because I've I've changed 22 houses in my lifetime. And uh because my dad was with the United Nations, uh, so I've lived all over the world, I've seen different cultures, but I you know, one of the things that I've gotten, the perspective I've gotten is that we're all the same. You go, you go all over the world and people are the same. The solutions are the same, same problems, same solutions, you know. And and it's it's so when you start seeing I I when you start seeing that common thread amongst everything, it it it's very it's very refreshing because then you can connect with almost anybody because you know you realize that uh you know we're just kind of built from the same uh we're all animals, just a bunch of animals, yeah. Yeah, we're all animals. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 56:52

Last question, and and this one sounds cheesy, but we kind of like it. And I think it goes to your point of you know, realizing we're mortal and uh enjoying it. But like, what would you what do you what would you want your tombstone to say if they were gonna write it on there? Like we want to know kind of what Kavin did, what was he about?

SPEAKER_04 57:13

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I I I would wanted it to say that people were better off because he lived, you know, and uh and and so that that's every day. That's my goal.

SPEAKER_02 57:25

Uh, is to just uh he's like captain of the podcast, Dom. This is exactly what we want, man.

SPEAKER_00 57:31

That wasn't that great. Actually, that was great, Kevin. Like uh that was amazing. I just want to say we thank you so much for coming. This is Dr. Kavin Mystery. I want to spell it K-A-V-I-N-M-I-S-T-R-Y. Uh, it's Kavin Mystery M D.com. Do I have that right?

SPEAKER_04 57:50

Yes, yes. So Kevin Mystery M D.com. Uh that's the website. And I made a resource available for everybody. Uh, that's that's it. I've I've been asked this multiple times, so I just made it available. So we all these different connections we talked about, we talked about that kind of primal intelligence. There is a free assessment that goes through questions, it'll take you three minutes, it asking you how you how you are, where you rate, how your lifestyle rates in terms of all these connections we just talked about, in terms of your primal, primal alignment. And it will give you a score, but it will also tell you where you're deficient and what you can work on, you know. And so if you go to the website, you'll see a pop-up. You can you can take that quiz, uh, that assessment, and uh use the results and uh make some changes.

SPEAKER_00 58:40

Thanks, man. I listen, we love it. Everyone needs to go to cavernmisterymd.com to check that out. Take the assessment. I'm gonna take the assessment. I don't know about you, Ben, but I want to exchange. I'm a little nervous. Yeah, I'm always nervous about those things. If you need extra help, Kevin's gonna help you. Um, and the book also is primal health design.

SPEAKER_04 58:58

Primal health design, it's on Amazon and everywhere else. Books are sold. Um, and again, um, if you do that uh assessment, it will tell you uh some sections in my book that you can read to kind of fix fix those uh deficits, you know.

SPEAKER_00 59:13

So it's all busy. Kevin, um, thank you so much for joining us. That was actually great, incredibly informative. So so thank you so much. Um, and listen, we hope to we hope to see you again. Keep it up, man. You make it a change. I like it. Take care.