Breathing Exercises for Stability

Hey, it's friend Mel, and welcome to the Mel Robins podcast. I have one of the top gastroenterologists in the world here in our Boston studios, and I cannot wait for you to hear about his research. H name is Dr. Brennan Spiegel His work is so compelling So groundbreaking that as soon as I learned about it, I begged him to come ono this podcast so that he could share this medical breakthrough with you and your family If you or anyone that you love has been experiencing health issues like exhaustion GI issues IBS pain, fatigue, anxiety, swollen ankles. even depression Dctor Siegel is here to share with you a mind blowing fact There is a connection between all of these health issues and an invisible force that is all around you This brand new perspective could explain why you have these health issues in the first place and more importantly give you an entirely new angle to think about it and attack it from. Because this is such new information that you're about to hear, I think it's critical to share with you that doctor Spiegel is one of the most cightited medical doctors and researchers in the world And as he explains this groundbreaking research You're going get this connection between your health issues and this invisible force immediately And then you're going to wonder Why has no one ever talked about this By the time you're done learning from Dr. Spiegel You're going to have a specific playbook for exactly what you can do to start feeling better, even while you listen to this episode. And you're going to walk away with an entirely different point of view about your health about your life and new options to consider when you address these health issues And this episode will serve as a free, life changing resource that you can share with anyone in your family so they can start feeling better right now This message is brought to you by Apple Card For a limited time, when you get a new Apple card and purchase AirPods Pro three at Apple You can earn back the cost up to two hundred and fifty daily cash newew AirPods Bro and up to two hundred and fifty dollars bonus daily cashback Now that's music to my ears Subject to credit approval, limitations and spend requirements apply Apple card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank, USA, Salt Lake City Branch. Terms and more at apppple. C slash AirPods The Mel Robins podcast is brought to you by Home Instead Home Instead provides in home care to help older adults stay safe, comfortable, and independent in the place they love It's not about taking anything away, it's about adding support, companionship, and peace of mind for families navigating what's next Home Instead is an approachable home care partner That helps make this transition feel more manageable so families don't have to figure it out alone Contact homeome Instead today at homestead d. com slash mll and begin your a betterter What's nexte It's your friend Mel, and welcome to the Mel Robins podcast. I am so fired up for our conversation today. I cannot wait to dig into this. It's such an honor to spend time with you and to be together. And if you're a new listener, I just want to take a moment and personally welcome you to the Mel Robbins podcast family I cannot wait for you to meet today's medical expert, gastroenterologist, Dr. Brenndnan Spiegel who is here to teach you about this shocking research connects some of the health issues that you're facing with this invisible force. This is the first time that you're ever going to hear about this doctor Spiegel is the director of Health Services research at Cedar Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, one of the leading medical centers in the United States, where he holds the George and Dorothy Gorrich chair in digital health Eethics He is also a professor of Medicine and public health at UCLA Dr. Spiegel trained at Cedar Cyai and UCLA and is pioneering research in the areas of gut health. the use of AI and medicine and tools that help patients with pain, anxiety, and chronic illness He is the founding editor of the Journal of Medical Extended Reality and he has served as editor in chief of the American Journal of Gastroenterology. Dr. Spiegel has published more than three hundred peer reviewed scientific papers. His research has been cited thirty thousand times which is a ton And I cannot wait for you to hear about all of his groundbreaking research today. He's the author of Paul. how gravity shapes your body, steadies the mind and guides our health Please help me welcome doror Brennan Spiegel to the Mel Robins podcast. Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited. The team is buzzing We've never even heard about somebody researching gravity and the impact on our bodies. So I cannot wait to dig into this. And so I'd like to have you start by Telling the person who's listening, what could change about their life or the way they think about some of the health issues that they're dealing with after they listen to all of the research that you're about to unpack and the tools you're going to teach us today. You really take this to heart, The biggest thing that will change is how you see yourself in the world how you see yourself as personon on this planet And when we start to think about gravity as a force that we harmonize with to survive and thrive All of a sudden, there' these unexpected connections We start to see things like what you eat might affect how you manage gravity how conditions like IBS which are so common maybe a form of gravity intolerance If you can bend your pinky back really far, What does that say about your ability to manage the forces of this planet? That's what we're going to talk about today. You also talk a little bit in this book, which shocked me about the connection between gravity and things like depression and anxiety and sleep issues, that it has implications for everything. And I think there's a lot of People are going to listen And then you're going to send it to like five family members. So I'd love to have you talk to the person who's listening that mayaybe have this episode sent to them. as a resource from a family member to say, hey, mom, or hey, brother, I really want you to listen to this doctor's angle as a way to look at this issue differently. Could you speak to that person? So many of the problems that we experience in life, pain, anxiety Dression Dizziness. exhaustion Swelling in your body All of these have one thing in common They're forms of gravity intolerance And that's just So out of left field. I never heard that. when I was in medical school. and so I want people who are experiencing those things to think a little bit differently about their bodies and about their minds and unlock these very simple things that they can do to very quickly change their relationship to the planet itself. Hold on. So as a professor and as a medical doctor and as a researcher, and as a medical doctor that specializes in GI issues You're saying there's a connection between gravity irritable bowel syndrome and gravity and constipation and gravity and Your serotonin levels Drevity and name the disease to everything? just about just about every disease. if you look deep enough You're going to see that it's a consequence of mismanaging the forces of the planet. It's so fundamental There's only a few things that we have to do in life. The main one is to stand up and stay up as long as we can and as well as we can until inevitably we can't And it turns out most diseases in some way, shape or form And I can hear the doctors right now ready to challenge me and I'll talk to them. And if you think creatively about the root causes How we break down in mind and body is because we're giving into the planet. We're being pulled back from whence we came Well, before we go further For the purposes of this conversation, what is gravity in the simplest definition. Yeah. So we're on this planet It has a force. it pulls us towards the center of it That was there long before any signs of life. Long before the first bacteria, the first fungi, nothing was here except that. And then life somehow emerged, but the first thing it had to do was to survive on this planet the physics of this planet. Gravity was there long before we were, and it'll be here long after we're gone. so it stands to reason every part of your body has to manage that force Now, I think we all get gravity is the force that pulls us Yeah toward the center of the earth. It's the force that keeps our feet on the ground. but you've said this word a couple times now, gravity and tolerance. What is that We evolved to tolerate gravity, to be comfortable and to harmonize with it and not be hurt by it. Okay So meaning I can walk stand my day. I'm not going to get dizzy when I stand up and pass out falling over, I have the strength to exert myself into the world pumps and tubes in my body are sloshing all that fluid up and down against the force of gravity and I'm perfusing my brain with oxygen so that I can sit here and talk with you. This is what I mean by tolerating the force of gravity as we're built for it Intolerance is a consequence of our modern lifestyle a consequence of gaining too much weight on the body getting to weak living sedentary lifestyles eating ultra high processed foods, experiencing stress and anxiety and mental depression, literally feeling down. all of these accumulate to undermine our natural ability to stand up to this planet And we fight with gravity then And that just makes life hard The easiest thing that we can do is to find ways to restore our natural abilities to be one with this planet. And it sounds like woo science, but it's basic physics. Well, what I'm excited about and I'm really glad that you're here listening to this, is that it's just a different angle to examine the issues you may be dealing with with your health and with your life also opens the door to either different methods to resolve those health issues or different motivational factors that make it more important for you to do so Exactly. So just understanding this unlocks a new way of apppproaching exercise, approaching diet, approaching adequate hydration, drinking enough water. Why are we doing all these things? Why 're managing gravity with it. That's what we'll talk about. Why are you the only person talking about this? It's really interesting because I never expected that I would be talking about this stuff. Why did you start researching this? Well, it actually started with a family member So my mother in law had developed cognitive decline. And she was in an assisted living facility And she was lying flat in bed all day And about the time that she started lying down, she developed all these digestive issues, slow digestion, pains She became quite depressed. She hadn't changed her diet, hadn't changed her medicines, and my family was asking like, what's going on with her And I thought, you know what We're not supposed to lie down all day. She's giving in to gravity She's being pulled back down. I thought She has to stand up. right. If we could do anything for her let's get her up And walking again Yeah. And so I thought about this and I was trying to figure out the gut part because I'm a stomach doctor. I'm a gastroenterologist. I'm a professor. I teach all this stuff And I started thinking about, well, what is it about the gut in particular And eventually, I wrote a paper about this called Gravity in the Gut And I thought this was career suicide because it was such a strange, weird thing for me to write about. And Pe read it and said, Oh, hey, that kind of makes sense. Yeahah, it does make sense. And the next thing I knew, I thought, every single part of your body, every cell Every single little cell you have has little tiny microot tubules in it that are constantly shifting and moving and keeping the cell from collapsing upon itself. your entire body is managing this compacting force of gravity And when you can't handle it anymore, we give into it How did it change the way you as a medical doctor treat your patients for GI issues once you had this epiphany around the relationship between gravity versus just looking at what's going on in the gut and the intestines. This has been the most gratifying part of all of this work is how it changes the way I talk with my patients. Okay. So for example You know I see a lot of people who have irritable bowel syndrome or stomach issues And I'll ask them. I'll say, how's your back? you know Almost all of them will say, Yeah, I do. Why do you ask?' stomach doctor, not a back doctor. Yeah. I say, Well, you know, like the back and the gut are right there. they're not two different systems. Everything's connected. It's about the seams of the body. It's about the connection point. Sometimes diseases are more about the points where things come together. than the actual entities that attach This is called tseseegrity or tensile integrity. This is about bending without breaking, like a tree that bends in the wind and doesn't snap. Yes. Our bodies are designed as tenseegrity systems that are managing the forces of the earth. And so if you're not going to be strong on your back You can imagine how it's going to lead to your gut compressing a lot. And so let me show you a picture and I'll show them a picture, how they're connected, and I'll talk about how exercise, it turns out is the most effective therapy we have for IBS. B far. Wait, hold on. Exercise is the most effective therapy for IBS. Tai chi, yoga, osteopathic medical interventions, strength training, swimming, running, randomized control trial after trial shows that this is the most effective therapy we have. I'm not saying that's the only Cure all, okay, Be clear But you bet And when I put it this way to people, they go, oh, well, no dout. like, oh my Godd, that Makes sense. I can see how these things are tied together. So what's so quickly that the person listening right now can feel the effect of gravity on their body? So we're sitting here together, right? Yes, right rightight at desk. Even as I'm talking is not a natural position. I mean, we do it, but we're not designed to sit all day. Yes, right. We're designed to be up and moving, yeep, running hiking, whatever it is. Right now, even as I'm talking to you, I can feel myself slumped over a little bit. Yes. You can feel like as you're sitting, even if you kind of try to sit up right You can feel pinchy like in your midsection likeike, you know, you're crunching the midsection. So if anyone's listening now and maybe in their car maybe sitting down in a chair You just think about right now, feel the pressure. of your body in the chair And think about how that force is translating through your body And if you're kind of hunched over or looking at a phone or something What happens is your upper back moves forward. Yeah, your shoulders move forward, and then your chest, thorax moves down. The diaphragm moves down and then the abdomen compresses just a little bit. You've got this sack of potatoes in your belly that we call the gut And it normally actually hangs when you're upright and that opens it up. And when you sit upright and you think about the muscles between Im just listening to you, I've noticed like I'm going from my great grandmother's hunch back look to, okay, shoulders back. Yeah, you know, like point Literally think about the muscles between your shoulders. Y. How often do you engage those actively? Like really engage those muscles? Yeah never Unless I'm at a gym. Yeah. Or unless somebody orless I catch myself in the mirror, I'm like oh my God, my posture, okay. that's. you know. So you can see in the mirror. And when you contract, what happens is the diaphragm in the chest moves up the abdomen opens up And it's better for digestion, for movement in the belly. And generally for your overall mechanism to be standing up straight, it's much better for your inner mechanisms too, the pumps and tubes inside. So as you're listening, if you just caught yourself slouching. Yeah. or if you've been walking and you even felt your shoulders forward and even as you're walking, you're a little hunched just noticing that is a way to feel to notice the pull of gravity pulling you toward the ground. You don't need to be Ramrod military straight all the time, right? But just think a little bit about back and the spine and keeping yourself upright. Well, what's already starting to p, pow, pow in my brain as I'm as I'm really taking in what you're saying is this is an entirely different way to think about posture and health Because I've always just thought about the fact that I should just have good posture, just because I should have good posture. but I've never thought about it as you need to build better posture Because if you don't, gravity's always going to be there to make you slouch, to make you look down, to make you slump in your chair. and then your poor organs are smmoosush like the bread at the bottom of a grocery bag. That's good analogy. And so thinking about it like It's not even about good posture. it's that deeveloping that strength and that awareness is how you work against the gravity that's pulling you down. Is that right? Absolutely. And as we'll see, I mean, this is the basis of Longevity being stronger. It's being stronger of mind and body What are everyday red flags that For you, Dr. Spiegel are like You need to change your relationship with gravity? Yeah. I mean, these are everyday common things. We talked about low back pain already, for example, feeling dizzy when you stand up too quickly, feeling lightheaded, having chronic pain, feeling exhausted feeling mentally down feeling like you're falling Literally or even metaphorically, like you're getting gut feelings in your belly when you're anxious. All of these are signs of what I call gravity intolerance And it's easy though for doctors to say, oh, well, that is disease A or that is disease B. And that's how we think about the human body. But I think about it as all of the systems working in unison, to stand up to this planet And we can diagnose gravity and intolerance through all of these different types of symptoms. What's amazing is there's so much literature that literally how you hold your body how you feel on the inside You feel more buoyant. you feel lighter when you stand up straight. So think about when you or in a cathedral. Okay. And the ceiling is high. Yes. You feel glorious. you feel heavenly The spires point to the heavens. Yes. When you come into Grand Central Station in New York, you look up and think this is beautiful. But when you come into the Penn station It's been said that it's like you scuttle into the city like a rat Th like low ceilings. It's not glorious. It's not amazing We have a neurop psychological love of expansive space, the heavens, even in our language, we talk about how up is good, I'm feeling high, I'm feeling great and down in the dumps down on my luck. These are not just figures of speech These are not just metaphors. That's true because their emotions can be like heavy heavy. People speak of the heaviness, the literal heaviness of something like depression. H on the body itself It's an existential attribute of our neurophysiology, that we love beinging in expanseive beautiful worlds And we do not love being in contracted smallall spaces Now you say there is one thing that you can do right now Wh withith your hands to show your relationship to gravity. It's worth testing. Okay because I'm going to guess that many of your listeners when they hear this. Okay will find something out about themselves. Okay And so we can try it with you. Lets do it with me. So take your pinky, take your pinky and see how far back you can pull it. So we're gonna bend our pinky. bend it back. Okay. And so you and I are at about ninety degrees. Meaning my pinky is going straight back. It straight back, but it's not bending way back out, right? And that's that's normal. Okay. And the other way to tell is if you can take your thumb, takeake my thumb And bend it all the way back to your forearm. W you can peopleeople can touch their thumbs to their forearm. Turns out a number of your staff can That's right. We did this with our staff and over half the women that work here. Yeah. And we have fifty employees. Yeah. over half can bend their thumb back their arm to touch their arm. And those same people can touch the ground without bending their knees really easily. They may have kind of a double jointed elbow So if you can do those things, You might then ask yourself, do I have stomach issues? Do I have irritable bowel syndrome Do I have stomach pains sometimes? Okay, so hold on a second. Why is there a connection between a bendy pinky or a thumb that touches the forearm and GI issues? It's gravity intolerance If you're stretchy on the outside You're probably stretchy on the inside too And our gut, we talked about it's like a sack of potatoes that's sort of on these suspension systems And when you stand up and you stand up straight system hangs down. It's almost like a marionette on strings. like you can articulate the marette with the strings But if those strings were really, really stretchy, like elastic, the maroninetette would kind of collapse down, it would be hard to animate it Well, if you're stretchy in your joints The suspension cables inside are also stretchy The sack of potato gets pulled down by gravity and it compresses down. and you can get some digestion issues like bacterial overgrowth and gas issues. You should see a doctor to be clear, but you can check it even with yourself. And that is a form of gravity intolerance. I can see how if it's super stretchy Especially if you then start slumping over. Everything's going in different places because it's flexible and can move around. Yeah Which is why swimming is a really good activity if you do have this stretchiness because you're horizontal and you're swimming and you're not like pounding down, everything's going if you're running, for example, it can kind of pound everything down a little bit. I mean that's still okay, but if you have the stretchiness, swimming is a particularly good exercise. You can change this? You can't really change the stretchiness. But if you get strong abs Strong back Yeah? upper back, which you then do start opening up the chest. openening up the abdomen and pulling that sac back up again so you get better digestion And then there's a bunch of other important things with diet in terms of changing the microbiome, those, you know, chllions of organisms that get backed up. if your stomach's almost like a garden hose. If it gets kinked, the water backs up. Okay, so o that's interesting. Okay, so if you're slouching and you're having gravity pull you down in your chair or you got terrible posture you're causing a kink potentially in the garden hose of your digestive. Thats right That's right. Dr. Spiegel, this is Fascinating. I'm never going to look at my body the same way. And you know, I bet just like I am right now, you have somebody that's popped into your mind Maybe it's your mom Your mom has horrible postures. She doesn't mean to, but she's always had a lot of GI issues Holy cow, you gott to share this with her. Maybe it's your kids. You see them constantly tipped over, looking at their phone and now you want to give them a new reason to start to take this invisible force more seriously So let's take a moment and hear word from our amazing sponsors Share this episode with someone in your life who deserves to hear this groundbreaking research so that they can live a stronger and healthier life starting today. And don't go anywhere. Dr. Spiegel's just getting warmed up. We have so much more to cover and dig into and specific recommendations about what to eat when we return, so stay with me You know that feeling when your brain is fried? You have like twelve irritating tasks you don't care about But you have to do them anyway That's where I've been lately. The administrative stuff was eating up half my day. So I've been using Microsoft Copilot as my extra set of hands. It's like having your own personal assistant That's why Microsoft Copilot is my favorite AI tool Last week, I had to send this long, overly complicated email about scheduling and travel, the kind of thing that takes up way too much energy for what it is. I open Copilot, talk to it out loud while I was walking around my kitchen and coopilot turned it into a clean professional draft. It was amazing. And because my brain wasn't fried, I had the energy to sit down and eat dinner with Chris. without feeling mentally wiped That's the whole point for me Microsoft C pilot clears the clutter so I can be more present for the moments that matter That's why I'm using it. If you want to try it for yourself, visit microsoft. com backslash Mel Robins to download the C pilot app. Get started with C pilot today for free, and see how handing off the small stuff gives you more energy for the moments that matter. That's microsoft. com backslash Mel Robins. Again and again, there's this common thread Women are busy. There's never enough time in a day. We're doing it all Enter AG one, the daily health drink that makes your morning routinine simple in just one step You' tired of feeling like you're running on empty. Tired of the bloating, the brain fog, the crash that hits right when you need to be at your best. AG one is for you. AG one gives your body the foundational nutrition it actually needs to keep up with your life. It supports gut health, energy, and immune health and contains seventy five plus nutrients in one scoop No complicated routine, no cabinet full of pills, just one simple daily habit that works And once you start, you'll wonder what took you so long. AG one is the number one doctor recommended foundational nutrition supplement Visit drinkagG one d. com slash mail and you will get a free agG one flavor sampler and free bottle of vitamin D three and K two in your welcome kit with your first subscription That's a seventy two dollars value. Again, that's drink agG one dot com slash mel to check it out. I want to do a quick check in with you Are your shoulders up or around your ears right now Is your jaw filling a little tight When was the last time you took a real breath If it's been a while Asheville, North Carolina might be worth putting on your radar for a relaxing retreat. People are drawn to Asville for all kinds of reasons, but especially for its long time connection to wellness For generations, visitors have traveled to the Blue Ridge Mountains for fresh air and A sense of restoration Today, that feeling still shows up in everything from mountaintop sound baths Quiet walks through the woods focused on mindfulness and breath Salt caves for taken in purified air and yoga sessions with sweeping Blue Ridge views If you're looking for a place to reconnect with yourself, Even for just a few days, Asheville, North Carolina might be worth exploring Plan your retreat at exploreashville. com Welcome back. It's your friend Malel Robins, and today you and I are learning about this groundbreaking research from Dr. Brenndnan Spiegel, who is a physician, a gastroenterologist, one of the most sightited medical researchers alive today and the director of health Services research at Cedar Sinai Hospital And he's teaching us all about the connection between health issues and the force of gravity. I mean, this is fascinating stuff So Dror Spiegel, let's just jump right back in. What is the role that gravity plays in your digestion? Most people think of serotonin as a happy chemical You know, it's like the anti depression chemical And it is that You might be surprised that about ninety five percent of your body's serotonin comes from your gut Not your brain comes from the gut And in fact, it depends upon the microbiome, which is all those organisms So What happens is when you eat certain foods, particularly foods with tryptophan. So tryptophan turns into serotonin in your gut and then Serotonin circulates all throughout your body. Without it, you and I would be collapsed on the ground right now, like a little baby A baby has very little serotonin in its body because it hasn't yet colonized its gut to be able to create enough serotonin to prime your muscles to help those pumps and tubes contract. It requires serotonin. The lymphatic system that's bringing all the waste back up from your ankles requires tone And if we look at what Satonin does literally elevates you. Mind and body. Wow. And it looks like the gut in part, evolved with the microbiome to allow us to get out of the ocean We brought our own hydrothermal event with us to allow all those critters to come with us And they gave us serotonin which gave us gravity management abilities. And gravity, what is a gravity management ability That means a few things. That means Your muscles and bones are strong. Okay, so that you can stand up. It means pumps and tubes on the inside are moving the fluid around The lymphps. Blood somethinghing called the barrow receptors, which are these tiny sensors you have in your arteries and they are constantly keeping track of your pressure and your fluid status How much did you drink enough water? All of this stuff is gravity management. And then finally the brain itself the mental gravity. All of these systems work together to allow you to stand up and thrive That's what gravity management is. Got it So your gut really operates in a way that it has to be well, I guess if you think about it, I mean, everything's kind of moving down and out and then also moving up against gravity. That's right. So it's amazing to me, we'll take people who have stomach pain. Yes. We can't figure out what's causing it, let's say. We do a bunch of different tests. And then we find out that on roller coasters they get really bad butterflies and they even want to ride a roller coaster. And you think, well, what is this thing about gut feelings anyway? Like whyy do you get that feeling on a roller coaster? Well, you know why? Because when you're riding a roller coaster, you're practicing your death. Yeah, you're practicing your death. We're not supposed to fall twenty stories and survive That's why we do it because it's exhilarating. We're like,, right? People with irritable bowel syndrome, often not all. do not want to ride a roller coaster because they feel like they're always falling likeike metaphorically falling. Wh. They will white knuckle, hold on for dear life go, Where other people are they throwing their hands in the air throwing you know, It's like we have a G Force accelerometer in our gut that is keeping track of your movement and telling you if you're about to die So literally, when you get those gut feelings, like something's the matter doesn't feel right here. That's your body saying You you think you're at risk You feel like you might die even Now, sometimes that's an inappropriate feeling. Your brain is playing a trick on you. Your brain is telling you that you're falling So that's literally how deep the gut feeling gets. And Hippocrates said all disease begins in the gut two thousand years ago he said that. What did he mean This is the core of who we are. It's the ultimate visceral center of our Selfhood. I know you have a very memorable way of eating, Dr. Spiegel that helps you and your body's relationship with gravity. What is it I call it stack ten. Stack ten S T A C K. Okay. T E N. Okay. And you already got The te because you said Turkey Okay, so what is stack ten? These are ten foods. That's why I say ten that I stack in my diet to try and boost serotonin levels naturally. Okay. And we talked already about how serotonin is this gravity management substance. That's how I think about it And so what are the foods? The S is salmon tea is turkey. Okay, A is avocado C is chicken and chickpeas. o And then K is kidney beans And then the tea iss like tempe, tofu Eggs, E and nuts, N So it turns out all those foods, what they have in common is they have a lot of trip to fan. which is the raw fuel that your body will convert into Saratonin which then allows you to stand up to the force of gravity And so You just make sure you get a kind of variety of the stack ten in your diet every week. Yeah And then you exercise and sleep There are other ways to boost serotonin Sunlight Okay get back to being outside. sunlight naturally boosts serotonin levels. Lleap By the way, when you sleep at night, gravity is no longer working against you and your blood flushes up in your brain, flushes out amyloids. Sleep can, for example, reduce risk of cognitive decline, Alzheimer's disease may in fact be a consequence of not having enough fluid in your body. having too high of sodium levels in your body, not sleeping enough, not getting enough exercise, all of those things. E one of them is associated with cognitive decline. What do you mean when you're sleeping, gravity's not working against you? So all day long as rep right now, you're pumping up, pumping down. Youve got five liters of blood, which is a lot Moving all up and down sloshing through your body, right? Yeah. You gott to get it up, You got to get it down When you lie down at night, You finally give everything a rest. It's like the shores of the ocean kind of coming up onto the sand, sort of washing up into your brain. There's some theories that in part, we fall asleep in quotes, right? We fall to sleep. We fall asleep We fall down Gravity is no longer working and the pumps and tubes get that brain repperfused overnight. And that's part of what we're doing by recharging the body is giving ourselves a gravity break So what's one quick way that the person listening? can improve their body's relationship to gravitational pull. Yeah. mightight take a few minutes But you would be really proud of if you tryed this. Yeah There's a few things you can do Okay. You can stand on one leake stand on one leg. See how long you can stand on one leg without falling over. Okay, right? Stand on the other leg. does it tell you when you have somebody that is losing balance. And why is balance so important? Yeah, this is important because your ability to balance is a measure of your entire mechanism within gravity. It's a measure of your inner ear and what we call the vestibular system, which is keeping track of your shifts and movements It's a measure of your strength and your tendons and your bones and what we call propriousception, which is your ability to kind of feel where you are in space without falling over. And so you want to be able to stand on one leg for at least ten seconds. If you're struggling to do that That's something to work on for sure, because there's evidence that if you can't stand up on one leg That's actually tied to your survival. It will actually determine in part literally how long you're going to live If you can't do it, don't freak out Work on it, do yoga, get stronger, work on balanance, see a doctor if you need to physical therapist ten seconds is the minimum. That's the minimum for standing on one leg. Yeah. And based on the research, your ability to stand on each leg for ten seconds tracks directly to your life expectancy. Yeah, partarticularly for older individuals Wow Why? I think it has to do with Everything we're talking about because this is a holistic measure of your gravity tolerance. If it's breaking down, that means you're breaking down. You're changing your relationship to gravity, Your organs will thank you. You're changing the movement of sloshing of all that stuff, you know the bread that's stuffed at the bottom of the Now it's at the top of the bag. Exercise is about constantly dynamically changing your relationship. to gravity, which is why I wear a weighted vest, for example So that's a really simar weighted vest at all times. I wear a weighted vest. I have one here, by the. Okay so he'sull, if you're lening, he's pull out a weighted vest. Yeah. So this is a weighted vest And this one's about twelve pounds. Okay. And I wear this almost every day. I'm at work. all day long. Most of the day, except sometometimes when I'm seeing patients, it's a little awkward to have this thing on, but the idea is Practicing life on a bigger planet planet that has more pole And if you spend the day standing up at a standing desk, which I do., having your shoulders back a little bit, just be a little bit aware. You don't need to be all ramrod. When you wear the weighted vest, it forces you to really contract between the shoulder blades. And that upper part of the back is really important for opening up the diaphragm. And so I love wearing the weighted vest. Sometimes I wear ankle weights and I have a balance board too. Why do you wear ankle weights at work? Well, I can passively exercise, lifting my knees up, doing some donkey kicks. If I'm on a Zoom call, I'm constantly moving my legs around. how heavy are these ankle weights Minor twenty pounds each. So I will wear six Y wear twenty pounds each on your Are you trying to anchor yourself to your desk? So I run marathons. Okay. And you know, to train for a marathon, you don't train for a marathon sitting at a desk all day. That's true. And then it's kind of like a baseball player that's about to go up to bat And they've got a weight on their bat. Oh yeah. they do that when they swing to practice. Yeah. and then they go on into home playate. and now they're stronger and faster and can get through the pitch faster. So if you train all day wearing a weighted vest When you take it off, you almost feel like you're floating. likeike this planet's no big deal. I can handle this planet. That's true. because when I wear a weighted vest, when I walk incline and when I hike v our house When I take that sucker off Oh my gosh, you do feel like the weight of the world is off you. Literally the weight of the world, right? Yes. Just think of that expression. Dr. Spiegel, thank you for just breaking this down in a way that makes it so easy to understand and explaining why these recommendations are going to make a difference. I am so excited to share this with some people in my life. I'm thinking about my aunt. I'm not gonna call her out, but I'm sharing this with my aunt I have so many more questions for you, Dr. Spiegel. I know you're thinking as you're listening to Dr. Spiegel, Oh my gosh, my mom needs this, My spouse needs this, I need this. I gott to share this with my girlfriends Please take a minute while you listen to our sponsors and share this episode with someone that you care about partarticularly somebody who maybe feels like gravity's working against him Life feels heavy This might just be a new angle helps them stand up and feel a little bit better. And don't go anywhere. He's got so much more to teach us, including more specific recommendations that you can try today. Stay with me You know that feeling when your brain is fried? You have like twelve irritating tasks you don't care about, but you have to do them anyway That's where I've been lately. The administrative stuff was eating up half my day. So I've been using Microsoft Copilot as my extra set of hands. It's like having your own personal assistant That's why Microsoft Copilot is my favorite AI tool Last week, I had to send this long overly complicated email about scheduling and travel, the kind of thing that takes up way too much energy for what it is. I open co pilot, talk to it out loud while I was walking around my kitchen and co pilot turned it into a clean professional draft. It was amazing. And because my brain wasn't fried, I had the energy to sit down and eat dinner with Chris. without feeling mentally wiped That's the whole point for me. Microsoft co pilot clears the clutter So I can be more present for the moments that matter That's why I'm using it. If you want to try it for yourself, visit microsoft dot com backslash Mel Robins to download the Copilot app. Get started with Copilot today for free, and see how handing off the small stuff gives you more energy for the moments that matter. That's microsoft dot com backslash Mel Robins. What if you stopped waiting to feel ready and just did the thing you're afraid of with Southern New Hampshire University Taking the next step toward your goals couldn't be simpler Their online degree programs are flexible, affordable, and designed to fit your life. And get this. You can apply for free in minutes It doesn't have to feel like the right time be the right time Get started at snhu. edu slash Mel. The Mel Robins podcast is proudly sponsored by Aiica Insurance, our exclusive insurance partner You know when someone finishes your sentence because they already understood what you needed, That's what working with Amka feels like. They don't guess They don't assume They take the time to understand what you're trying to protect and why it matters. Most companies talk talkk, talk about putting customers first. Aiicka really does it You feel it. in the way they listen, the way they follow through, the way they treat you As a customer owned company, Aica puts your needs first Visit aica. com and get a quote today Welcome back It's your friend, Mel Robins. Today you and I are getting out of this world research about the connection between gravitational pull and your health from none other than Dr. Brennan Spiegel. who's a world renowned gastroenterologist and medical researcher Dctror Spiegel, There are so many more things I want to ask you. And my next question is this. So one easy way that the person listening could start to strengthen their relationship with gravity is to just practice standing on one foot or the other. What's another way?? Inverted yoga. doing the downward dogs, that sort of thing And then there's the dead hank deead hang. Yeah, I've been practicing this. You have. Well only because one of my goals in life Yeah. We always get a million emails about this every time I say it. I have never been able to do a pull up on my own And so one of my goals is Because of the experts on this podcast, I not only host the show, I'm learning right alongside you as you're listening right now is to learn, I just want to do one. I don't need to do ten. I want to be able to do one pull up without injuring myself That's it. And so I've been working on the dead hang. Yeah. It is so hard. It is hard. Yeah Yeah, it is So practicing a dead hang, which explain for the person listening what that is So a dead hang is where you have like a pull up bar. You can get these on Amazon or wherever. hook at a safe one, right? notot the one that falls when you pull on it. It's gott to be able to hold your weight safely, hooks into the door. And then you put your hands at about shorter width. Okay. You can be forward facing or back facing and take your body weight off the ground. And immediately what happens is your spine pulls, you become about a half inch taller instantly I feel like you you do. You stretch out Gravity pulls you down. It's really good for strength and the shoulders and grip strength because you know, much of our evolutionary history was like hanging from trees.. That was how we survived. We defied gravity in part It turns out your grip strength says a lot about your ability to manage gravity itself tells me about how strong not just your grip is, but your entire body even your cardiovascular fitness we can determine from your grip strength and your ability to hang from a hanging bar. So tell me about your dead hang challenge, Dr. Spiegel. Yeah, deead hang challenge. So If you can hang from a bar for one minute You're doing great. You are a gravity master. You are defying gravity Now the world of record is actually One hour twenty minutes and fourteen seconds. I think I have that right. Kenta Adachi from Japan set the world record, the Guinness W record for the dead hang Before that, it used to be sixteen minutes. That's how much he destroyed that record. That's incredible. Yeah define gravity reffusing to give in desespite searing pain on your body, you just hold on. And that's kind of what life can be about sometimes. So it's a symbolic gesture to be able to hang from a bar You don't need to be an Olympian You need to be able to stand up and feel comfortable and harmonize with gravity. And we evolved for it. We're here for a reason. So you don't need to overcome it. you need to just live with it I've never done a minute. I can do. I hold on for thirty seconds And when I do it, I feel like I'm on an episode of Survivor. L trying to like in a time thing to win food or something. So a minute is what we're going for Yeah A minute. Why Is grip strength such an important indication of your overall health? It's been validated in a number of research studies now. Okay that your grip strength and I have a grip monitor here, It's called a dynometer. A dynometer. Okay he's holding up this thing Yeah that looks like a big calculator. Rly it's got a big squeezey thing on it. That's right And so What you do is you basically I'm right handed. so I'll use my right hand, use your dominant hand. Okay. And you're going to just squeeze like crazy on this thing. Okay Okay so let me see what I can do. I want to use two hands, but you should only use one hand. So here I Okay. Oh God. He's like grinning and going. Okay, what do he got? Well, one twenty five. Oh, one twenty five. That is pretty decent actually. I surprised. All right, I'm gonna try it. I'm gonna to think of somebody Iate. hereere, let me try it I'm gonna try. My hands very twenty All right. Oh, seventy. That's not bad. That's actually really good. It is Yeah. Y Re. So there are standards that we've both easily exceeded here for men and for women and for your age, too.. So it depends. You can look on a table online and it'll tell you. But generally if you can get over thirty five as a man and over twenty to twenty five as a woman, That's good. I destroyed it. you believe that out. Well, let me tell you why. I got to get hang on this hanging bar It's the hanging bar and it's the fact that there have been a number of medical experts that have come on this show either talking about longevity or women's health or just overall health They really convinced me that I got to start working on the grip strength and I got to start working on heavier weights and the farmmer's carry and the hanging bar and all that stuff. I'd love to hear you talk about how this advice applies to the different ages and decades of your life. L what's important in your twenties versus your thirties or forties or fifties or sixties and beyond. Yeah, right. So you know, gravity doesn't change But our relationship to gravity changes, our relationship does We get weaker Our spines might bend a little bit. We might gain some weight We might have more stressors, emotional weight And that's not just a metaphor And so We start to give in And what that means is as we get older, It's more important than ever to focus on strength training. balance training Diet on good hydration, maintaining like ten to thirteen glasses of water per day. That's's a lotine. Yeah. Wait, hold on a second.. Dr. Spiegel, you recommend ten to thirteen glasses of water a day? Yeah, more or less, yeah. Why? About half your body weight, sixty percent of your body weight is fluid And you've got these pumps and tubes moving it up and down against gravity. And so if we don't keep those tubes flush with fluid Our brains get tired, we get exhausted. It's all gravity intolerance And so we do need to replenish And it takes a lot of water and most of us don't drink near enough water. don't overdo it, but enough water to not feel lightheaded and to feel fresh. And even your mental health is tied in part to this. Well, as you were listening and he was talking about ten to twelve glasses of water, of course, just subconsciously picked up my mason jer and started chugging. I'll do the same. This is like fascinating to me You know, dor. Spiegel, what do you want to say to the person who spent years blaming themselves for the way that they feel and like me, has never even considered that the pull of gravity of all things maybe playing a role in some of the challenges they're facing So the first thing is to say it's not your fault, right We have this blame culture Yeah that If You know, I don't feel right. phhysically, mentally, that's something that I did This way of thinking opens up is The notion that it's not something that is your fault. It has to do with the way your body is navigating this planet. And now we can move to strategy, not to blame. We can start thinking about techniques to strengthen your relationship to this earth because you were born for it. You are a consequence of it. You are made for it. If you literally feel like you're not made for this planet That means we have to work hard and fast on rebuilding your sense of self within the confines of this planet. And so that's really what it means is feeling not a sense of blame, but a sense of empowerment born for this place You evolved for it. Well, if you really even just think about any baby, you know, a baby, I think the research shows when they're trying to learn how to stand up and walk will fall like an average of seventeen times an hour. Yeah. They don't lay on the ground and go, well, that's it. I'm just going to succumb to you know, gravity Walking's not for me. There is this internal mechanism, this instinct to stand up to fallself up. We have to fall down a lot to stand up again That said, it's interesting because there's research with babies going back to the nineteen sixties. where They were asked to crawl towards their parents across a glass plane. where there was a drop off down beneath. Okay, so the baby is going like crawl across something. That looks like a drop off. Yes. Okay. And they don't do it They don't do it. They won't do it. Even before they fallen, do have an internal graviceceptive instinct. that that's dangerous. And they won't do it Now falling has to happen, but dangerous falls don't And we know like we're hardwired to know to stay away from these kinds of falls, which is why gut feelings are a sign that you are to fall or are falling. And that's one of the ways that we protect ourselves and anxiety in part maybe a neurovisceral fear of falling H You don't want to fall down And that makes sense because that's how we're here. We had thousands and thousands of people comeing before us that somehow survived generation after generation by not falling down. What role does breathing play? and helping the body feel more stable. So we know from so many traditions that breathing is a grounding mechanism. What do we mean by a grounding? is we're talking about the ground. We're talking about gravity today. Yeah. You're becoming grounded. We use that term you know, kind of metaphorically, but it's a literal one. When you breathe in slowly and you regulate your breath, you're regulating that vagus nerve we talked about before which is the long, winding nerve, the longest nerve in the body that connects your brain to all of your inner organs, the gut that we've talked a lot about, the heart, It releases serotonin in the brain and in the body. When you slow down and regulate What you're doing is you're going from a more fighter flight mode to a rest and digest mode. And that is grounding physically and mentally. So breathing is a big part of that, doing these gravitational breathing exercises. Dr. Spiegel, will you walk me and the person listening through a simple breathing reset that you use with your patients? Yeah, sure. whichich you can imagine, first of all, is kind of sit up. Okay. And now I'm like, see how was sl Yeah. Okaykay. that upper shoulder kind of keep yourself, but you know, you don't need to get all tense. Okay. And you can start by just feeling your body sink into the chair Rather than thinking about it as being pulled down Think about it like you're being pushed up Can you imagine push up against the? Can you imagine the the chair is pushing you? Oh, yeah, okay What physicists talk about is gravity is actually an upward acceleration It's not a downward pull That doesn't make sense. I know, it's kind of counterintuitive. but that's what it is we're actually being accelerated into It's really wild. It's a total mine mess up But if you think about it that way, your life becomes one of bounding into the world like a trampoline effect off of the surface of the Earth When you're running, you're bounding off the Earth. You're using the upward acceleration of gravity to bound into the world, not to sink down. So that's a mind shift. Well, if you Unpack that for a second. if gravity's pulling you down You do have to push against it to stand up. do And so I can see what you mean likeike I'm so used to just slouching down in my chair and not even thinking about it and slumping and all these like S words, but I You're right. If you push against the seat take a more active stance Thats in the seat. So that's the first part of the breathing. We haven't got to the breathing part yet. It's just the mindset. Okay that I'm sitting and I'm on this planet, I'm in this chair And it is accelerating into me into the earth And so now what I do is, you know, a slow deep breath and starts in the abdomen. So it's going start down and in. Oen up the abdomen first. And let it come up into the chest next. so it's rising up and out. You can even use your hands and then you come back down again. So you kind of go like this, like downown and in and out That's pretty cool How long do you have to do that? Even doing it for two minutes One minute Right? Longer, a little bit better is enough to start resetting your vagus nerve when you need that grounding when you're feeling stressed or anxious or kind of off balance, that sort of thing What are some of the signs to look for that indicate that your body is handling gravity better that your health is improving in this regard, dor. Spiegel. As your gravity resilience grows, your confidence in being a person in the world grows physically, mentally, you have Strength you're standing up into the world You're not slouching You don't have as much pain Pain itself is a sign of gravity intolerance. That means that you are being pulled and bent and squeezed in ways that you're not supposed to. Now there's other forms of pain too, but generally musculoskeletal pain is a form of gravity intolerance. You have less pain You stand up stronger You feel lighter. F it later because your strength is there you're Hydraulic systems, the pumps and tubes are moving into your brain better And mentally, you feel buoyant. You feel lighter in the world. That means you're succeeding. You're a gravity master. You know, I think this is one of those conversations that really blow your mind a little bit because it makes you see something from a completely different angle. If, you know, you have somebody in mind that you really want to send this episode to And you think would really benefit from this different perspective on health and on the way to stand taller in life, so to speak, the way to feel Bigger, more confident How would you introduce them? to this like because I can only imagine when a patient walks in