Age Less / Live More

Science has linked meditation with longevity through the study of telomeres, the chromosomal caps that are an indication of cell health. By mitigating our stress response specifically, research indicates that mindful practices down-regulate our stress response and up-regulate telomerase production, an important protein for the health of these chromosomal caps. What does all that mean? Basically, i...

In almost every yoga class, the teacher will emphasize the importance of breath—but what does that really mean and why does it matter? If you ask, you'll likely hear that you're adding oxygen to your blood or improving your circulation. But is that true? It turns out that most yoga breathing actually reduces oxygen in the blood and increases CO2. To add to this paradox, more CO2 is actually a good...

You wake up in the morning with the best of intentions, but soon, you're lost in Facebook and email. You wanted to do 30-minutes of exercise before work, but you end up a reading CNN.com instead. At work, your task list seems endless; and at home, it's even worse. Time management is something we all have to struggle with, and on this week's Yoga Talk Show, my guest, Kevin Kruse, and I uncover some...

If you go to your doctor for a routine checkup, he or she will usually run very limited blood tests because of cost considerations and limited health insurance coverage. For anyone interested in optimal health, this is not much of a "checkup" at all since you're not checking much of anything. You could have low Vitamin D (almost certainly), elevated C-Reactive Protein (very likely) and a high A1C...

Is it possible to live a life without trash? Could you reduce your waste by 50%? 75% or More? On this week's Yoga Talk Show, you'll meet the founder of the "Zero Waste" movement, Bea Johnson who claims she and her family lived for an entire year producing just 1 liter of waste. Nothing about modern life is sustainable, and while Bea's solution might be out-of-reach for most, it's something we can...

Children around the world are suffering from learning, development, and behavioral problems at record rates. Mindfulness can be taught as a secular way to train the mind and body to assist our youth. Mind-body wellness is typically something we explore as adults, but it's never too early to start, and the sooner and the better. Our guest this week is an expert on teaching mindfulness to young peop...

When most people think of health and wellness, sex is not usually top-of-mind, but it should be. Most couples have bad sex rarely, and most want to have great sex all the time. What's gone wrong? We are sexual beings, and we relate to the world sexually. On this week's show, you'll meet sexologist, Dr. Jenn Gunsaullus, who shares her experience and research navigating this often-taboo topic that a...

About once or twice a week, I'm completely exhausted and yet I can't fall asleep until one or two in the morning. This "wired and tired" feeling is common among most busy people, and while we often blame it on our busy careers, our life as parents, or just the ups and downs of daily life, the reality is that these chemical imbalances compound over time and can lead to pretty serious health problem...

There is a myth that weight lifting makes you big and muscle-y. More than any time in history, medical doctors and fitness experts are recommending weight training as one of the best ways to improve your overall health because the results speak for themselves. From hormonal balance and bone strength, to joint stability and weight management, resistance training is very hard to beat—and it's not ju...

Most people assume that a healthy heart is beating slowly and steadily. The truth is a healthy heart is agile, highly variable, and changing with every inhale and exhale. The measurement of your real-time, beat-to-beat variance is called, Heart Rate Variability, and it's something every yoga student should learn. In a matter of minutes, you can "see" what's going on in terms of your nervous system...

Almost every style of meditation I've learned has been presented as "secular," but very quickly there is a Hindu chant, a photo of some old guru with a beard, or some other paraphernalia that looks and feels a lot like organized religion to me. I'm very interested in all world religions, but when I'm learning to meditate, I'd rather do that on its own. If you feel the same, you'll enjoy this week'...

Marijuana is being decriminalized and even legalized in North America, Europe, and other parts of the world very quickly—and for good reason. The law enforcement costs are many billions of dollars annually and the social impact of criminalizing this plant seem far worse than potential abuse (which is surprisingly low). On this week's Yoga Talk Show, we'll talk about the top medical uses for Mariju...

Have you heard of fecal implants? This is when the fecal matter from someone with healthy gut bacteria is transferred to the gut of someone with gut dysbiosis—and it works. While this sounds extreme, in today's digestive health landscape, this is a real option some people need to consider when they are suffering from Small Bacterial Intestinal Overgrowth (SIBO). On this week's Yoga Talk Show, we'l...

Your typical doctor's visit is less than 7 minutes long. It doesn't matter if you have a broken bone, a tonsil infection, or pancreatic cancer, most of the time you're in and out faster than seems possible. It's not the doctor's fault, it's the system's fault, and the solution is to slow down everything in our lives to achieve balance. But who wants to go slow? Not you, not me... so what to do? On...

"The things you, own end up owning you..." – Tyler Durden (Fight Club). Often times the things we work so hard for end up taking more than the give, the bleed us more than they feed us. It might be the new car, the drawer full of electronics, your pets or even an oversized home; in many cases, our possessions become burdens and we need to take a step back and reevaluate our priorities. On this wee...

Addiction take many different forms and affects just about everyone either directly or with one degree of separation. While "addict" conjures up images of heroin and cocaine, the reality is that people are addicted to social media, pornography, marijuana, and alcohol at much higher rates. So the question is: Can yoga help? Our guest on this week's show, Taylor Hunt, used yoga as an integral part o...

Many yoga students explore traditional Indian medicine, Ayurveda, but neglect to study Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). While they have many similarities, TCM offers some herbs, techniques, and approaches to healing that serve as powerful tools for anyone on a path of mind-body wellness. On this week's Yoga Talk Show, you'll learn about Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chinese Herbs, and taking a...

The World Health Organization estimates that traumatic brain injuries will be the 3rd leading cause of death and disability by 2020, but many people are still unaware of this condition impacting millions every year. On this week's Yoga Talk Show, you'll meet, Kyla Pearce, a teacher that uses the mind-body healing power of yoga to help people with traumatic brain injuries rewire neuromuscular conne...

Do your feet hurt? Do you have hammer toe, overlapping toes, corns, or bunions? Without even realizing it, most people wear footwear that leads to poor posture, muscle imbalances, and chronic foot problems. Yoga can help, but you need to fix your footwear too. On this week's Yoga Talk Show, you'll meet a podiatrist-slash-yoga-teacher, Michele Colon, who will share with you her experiences in the c...

Breathing has always been an integral part of yoga practices, but for many years, it was mostly forgotten or taught as an aside to asana practice. Just in the past few years, breathwork has come back into the mainstream bigger than ever before—and it's extreme. From Holotropic breathwork to The Wim Hof Method to free divers and hypoxic training, it seems like breathing has never been more popular,...

If you've ever completed goal-setting activities, no doubt "happiness" appeared on the top of your list. And yet, what is happiness? Really? Do you have a way to measure it? Do you have tools to achieve it? For most people, our tools for happiness are mindless televisions series, junk food, alcohol, and social media consumption. These tools work in the short term, but long term, there must be a be...

Many health fanatics claim that they, "don't believe in supplements," as if micronutrients were a belief system or a religion—but they are not. They are foundational to our health, an essential part of our biology; and for better or worse, insufficiency and deficiencies have been part of the human experience for as long as we've been on earth. Nutritional balance is an exception, not the rule, so...

Have you heard of sham surgeries? In 2002, 180 people with osteoarthritis of the knee joined a double-blind study. Some patients underwent real arthroscopic surgery and a placebo group simply had a skin incision and then were stitched back up. Here is where it gets weird. The placebo group self-reported identical results to those who had undergone actual surgery. This is just one example of thousa...

Back pain affects an estimated 80% of the population at some point in life, and yet most conditions are undiagnosed or misdiagnosed. To complicate matters, most people have hard line ideas about treatment of their mysterious conditions, so it's no surprise that chronic pain, recurring problems, and frustration abound. On the Yoga Talk Show, we tend toward natural, non-medical healing modalities; b...

Over 1 million people have listened to the Yoga Talk Show since its inception, and it's you the listeners I have to thank for all the support and growth over the years. To say "thanks" and deep-dive into a random smattering of topics, I've dedicated this show to answering your voice mails. Some of these questions we've covered in previous shows, but many are completely new, so I hope you find them...