Transcript of Episode 51: How Skinning Boosts Memory
With Dr. Daniel Pompa and Warren Phillips.
Warren:
Hello, everybody. Cellular Healing’s TV Episode 51, broadcasting from our West Palm Beach office, actually it’s one of our—Dr. David Asarnow liked to come, but David has a place down here. We are getting ready for a mastermind with some of our doctors, and we’re shooting live Cellular Healing TV Episode 51. A very interesting Cellular Healing TV this week because, Dr. Pompa, one of the things you like to do is you like to make exercise and life fun. You do things that juice you, obviously, so you actually have an emotional reason why you do it.
Think about a grandmother, why does she sacrifice for their grandchildren or their children? It’s because there’s an emotional “why” there, and Dr. Pompa loves that. Some people go to exercise, “I hate pushing iron,” well, Dr. Pompa says, “Well, sometimes I don’t like doing that either, but I’m going to find a fun way to look younger, feel amazing, get leaner and increase my brain function.” That was one of the things that you were kind of thrown out there on Facebook the other day. You got a lot of questions about this skinning topic. What is skinning? It doesn’t sound safe to me, Dr. Pompa. What is skinning and how did this launch you into this next article we’re releasing today on drpompa.com?
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, it’s going to be a great article, no doubt. Many of you had interest. My wife had put pictures of us and she talked about skinning. We’re going skinning. Of course, the questions started rolling in. What is skinning? I had made other comments about how this is so good for your brain and so good for weight loss. As a matter of fact, I made comments such as, “Look, this combination of something that I’m doing with intermittent fasting and skinning is a combination that I believe.”
Here I am in my 50th year, and I really believe it. I made the statement in the article and announced publicly at other places, that I believe intermittent fasting, by itself, has been the greatest health concept that I have ever applied myself in my life, at least in my later years. It’s made the greatest impact. Honestly, it really has. One of the things I talk about in the article, I say, “Okay, I’m a little bit fanatical about staying as lean as I am now, as I was in my 20's,” at least my wife says I’m a little bit fanatical about that.
Warren:
You, more so than when you were 40.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, probably. Now what I said in the article, I have to admit that when I crossed over, somewhere in the mid-40’s, it got harder. I started getting, gosh, I want those abs. I want to look the way I did in my 20's. I tell you, you know that I practice what I preach. I ate perfect, I did everything perfect. I was still exercising, doing all the things I love to do, but yet I didn’t have…
Warren:
You had a little bit of a belly.
Dr. Pompa:
There you go, okay. By the way, we talk about genetics, I—he teases me all the time, I did a genetic thing and there’s four obesity genes. I have three of the four, okay? Just as proof that your genes do not make you sick or fat, if we trigger those genes, then we’re in trouble.
Warren:
180° Solution.
Dr. Pompa:
ntermittent fasting, I started doing it, and I broke through. I did. It was—I got as lean, if not leaner than when I was in my 20's.
Warren:
And I got jealous.
Dr. Pompa:
He started jumping on board. My kids, actually, also, “Dad, what are you doing?” Literally, two of my kids starting intermittent fasting because Dad did. Of course, they’re 18 and 16, but, it really—it really was amazing. Here’s the thing. Really, this article coming out, and we’ll give you more of the details in there, too, but it’s the combination of intermittent fasting and this high intensity burst training that works magic. Both of them do something magical to our
Number one, they make you more hormone sensitive, which by the way is the key to feeling amazing and looking younger. It also drives up growth hormone, which has an amazing effect on your brain, obviously your skin. I said, even my athletic performance went through the roof. It’s this combination that I spoke a little bit about that’s—it’s absolutely amazing when you put intermittent fasting and burst training together. I want to share a little bit about that on this show how to do that, make some suggestions.
Warren:
And let us know what skinning is.
Dr. Pompa:
Oh, yes.
Warren:
Most of our audience is Dr. Pompa’s age. They’ve crossed into—that’s one reason they’re looking for health solutions. It’s the 50+. You are our main viewer. If you’re out there, of course, it’s okay to start thinking about brain function. You have to be doing these things on purpose. Life, when it comes at you, you have to start creating these good positive habits that create the outcome that you want in your life.
If you want to get leaner, you need to do the things and create a habit of getting leaner instead of an excuse not to do it. “I don’t like to work out,” well, just like we opened this show, do something fun, that you love, that applies to this bursting, or high intensity or hit training concept, so that you can spike the growth hormone. Get the look that you want, fix your brain, and move your life forward instead of backward so you can look like Dr. Pompa—leaner at 50 than he was 40.
Dr. Pompa:
Look, I’ve said it, weight loss is more about hormones even than what you eat. Intermittent fasting—we know males get a 2,000% increase in growth hormone, men on average 1,300. That’s just huge numbers. We know the same holds true for high intensity training as opposed to more of the endurance training, which I love, too, by the way. There is this benefit of this type of training.
You put these two things together and the irony is this—recently I’ve been doing a lot of research because I’m giving a lecture to some doctors about neuro-degenerative diseases, one of which is dementia, which is the number one concern of people over the age of 60. Losing memory—it starts with the keys, where the heck are my keys? Then it goes to not being able to have your daily tasks, and literally having to write everything down, into not being able to recognize faces the same, and people. This is how it evolves.
Warren:
It becomes very scary.
Dr. Pompa:
Absolutely.
Warren:
We have doctors that we train that they get into that because there’s a lot of fear around this losing your mind, it’s Alzheimer concept. We don’t live in fear, obviously because we’re educated and we do the things on a daily basis to make sure that that doesn’t happen. There’s a lot of fear around this because there’s a lot of suffering and pain with your loved ones—watching, well, that gets into another part of your story. I don’t want to go there.
Dr. Pompa:
You’ll see an article coming out, I’m writing about this. One of the things—the irony is looking at this, I found studies that show that it’s not just one therapy with cognitive decline and aging that works. It’s utilizing different therapies together. I named it a multi-therapeutic approach. It’s something that I’ve done for years with these types of cases. Knowing that it works when you put certain (inaudible) much greater results. This study proved it.
A lot of what I’m talking about here today was what was proven in the study, actually, to change the brain. When you put a couple things together, you get this synergy effect and the brain changes. Really, that was what I thought was amazing. Writing this article and what you’ll—not just this article talking about this topic, today, but I am releasing an article about the brain and how to change dementia. These things really affect the brain in a positive way. It’s studies showing that we have to raise the growth hormone. We have to do these things in combination to really get that effect. That excited me about this topic, because it really gives us the answer of why, when we intermittent fast, daily—again, I’ve written many articles about this, and even in this article I explain how to do that what daily intermittent fasting actually is.
New people are probably, “What is he talking about?” It’s in the article. You’re going to have to read it. Then burst training, high intensity training. Many of you might not know what that is. There’s also many articles and videos I’ve done on that. Again, I will discuss it in this article. Putting these two things together, you get this synergy rise in growth hormones. It’s almost like one brings you to here, put the two together, you go to here. My results have been spectacular, honestly. It’s something that is a 180° Solution concept. New people, what does that mean? When I say that, I say, “Go 180°, that’s where the truth lies,” here’s what I mean. If you watch the news, if you read newspapers, magazines, anything from the media.
Warren:
Even in a good personal development course, they’re going to tell you.
Dr. Pompa:
Right. Everything you’ve learned in your life. Do the opposite, and somehow you land on the truth every time. It’s my favorite concept. I teach my children this, and I always say, “3%er's are the people who go 180°.” If everyone’s making a right, make a left, somehow you land on the truth every time. This concept is a 180° Solution concept. I’m going to tell you some things here that are going to hit you where you probably don’t want to be hit, or it’s going to challenge you at a core belief that you’ve somehow developed in your life.
Warren:
From your parents, media.
Dr. Pompa:
Parents, media. In the article I talk about, I’m guilty. One of the things that I’ve always said is make sure you eat before and eat thirty minutes after you worked out. I said this for years because of my weight-lifting days. That’s what I was taught, and it makes a lot of sense.
Warren:
I was doing that because of you.
Dr. Pompa:
Absolutely. It’s may be some of that.
Warren:
You big jerk.
Dr. Pompa:
Yes. It makes a lot of sense on the surface. It really was something that I grew up with. When you understand how the body adapts to stress, especially high intensity stresses, and what it does to adapt to the stress with growth hormone, then you go, “Oh, that’s why eating—not eating—before you work out and not eating after is something that actually works unbelievable.” Let’s start there.
Warren:
Back to skinning.
Dr. Pompa:
Back to skinning. I’m not going to tell you what skinning is yet. You’re going to have to watch the video, maybe, because then I actually show you. Here’s where we have to start. I think that everybody watching this would agree with this, especially here in the United States. We have been taught that the most important meal and the biggest meal of the day should be what?
Warren:
Breakfast.
Dr. Pompa:
There it is. They all said it, too.
Warren:
Breakfast.
Dr. Pompa:
Well, first of all…
Warren:
Can we get breakfast?
Dr. Pompa:
No. New studies are showing.
Warren:
I’m doing breakfast.
Dr. Pompa:
You did some push-ups. New studies are showing it’s not the way it should be. As a matter of fact, if you take and you eat the night before and you fast and continue your fast through the morning and eat a very light lunch and then a bigger dinner, that’s intermittent fasting daily. That’s the definition. Going by 16-18 hours without eating the next meal—that is the definition of intermittent fasting daily.
Then when I do eat that meal, me, I typically do it around 1 or 2, sometimes even 3:00, I eat a very low-carb, high fat, protein combination. Very small meal, and then I eat my biggest meal at dinner. I know, it’s opposite of everything you’ve heard, but listen, push the science aside for a second. Every country in the world, except here in the United States, they promote a small breakfast, if breakfast at all. The first time I went to Europe, I said, “This is breakfast? Are you kidding me?” They’re running out the door eating a piece of fruit and that’s it. Nothing, and barely eating lunch because some of them sleep during that time.
Warren:
We got cereal now—all these kids. It’s huge.
Dr. Pompa:
I wonder where—who pushed the concept, right?
Warren:
General Mills.
Dr. Pompa:
Even when you go back in history—the Romans, the Greeks and other great cultures, they never ate breakfast. As a matter of fact, many of those cultures, they only ate one meal a day. They fed the slaves all day. They barely ate through the day, and then their big meal was dinner, right? The big meal was when they sit down, it was a two hour ordeal, it was a feast. That’s the way culture did it.
Warren:
And they were all riffed.
Dr. Pompa:
Exactly. Somehow this whole thing with the big breakfast caught on. I do want to say this, I want to make a caution. There are many people who are hormonally very disrupted. They don’t have the ability to utilize fat through the night for that energy to sleep. Because of that, the body will break its muscle down. Those people, when they get up, they get up very hungry in the morning. They get up and they need to eat, or they’ll continue eating muscle.
Warren:
Or they get up in the middle of the night and eat.
Dr. Pompa:
I’m not—that’s a topic for another day, for those people and how those people can be fixed and eventually end up as fat burners, where they can utilize this benefit. I will say this, this may not be for everybody because of that inability to burn fat through the night. They need some evolution, they need some things to actually occur first before they can start. I want to make that comment that it’s not for everyone, but for many of you watching—the majority—this is something that will be spectacular for you. Trust me, it really will.
It’s not eating in the morning. I don’t eat until later, but it’s putting in this exercise on an empty stomach, not eating 30 minutes after, waiting. I always say wait at least two hours before you eat. Studies do show that you’ll still get that growth hormone rise. Again, the longer—the more you do this, the longer you’ll be able to go. I know you’re going to want to chew someone’s arm off at first, “Oh, my God. I have to eat after this workout.” Listen…
Warren:
That’s what I tell my wife when I come home from work, because I don’t eat all day.
Dr. Pompa:
Okay, I actually use that in the article. If you don’t come home until dinner time, you may chew a family member’s arm off, but remind them.
Warren:
My wife gets mad at me. “Just settle down, relax, don’t touch the food,” I’m starting to go in, she gets mad. She likes to prepare it.
Dr. Pompa:
I’ll tell you what I told them. Just remind your family that this is a survival adaptation response if you start chewing arms off. Eventually, you don’t do that.
Warren:
That’s my excuse now. It’s hormones, wife, my lovely wife Rebecca.
Dr. Pompa:
Like him, you will be hungry at first. You will. Honestly, you’re going to be dying, the more you do this, the more your body—the growth hormone goes up. It keeps going up after you get these spikes, eventually that helps you become a very, very efficient fat burner. Obviously, it heals the brain, because studies are showing these things. Not only that, but you’re getting this growth hormone spike, so you’re becoming a more efficient fat burner. You start noticing, “I’m not hungry anymore.” What’s your body doing? It’s feeding from your fat. It’s feeding from that to replenish the stored glucose that you burned up during the high intensity.
Warren:
I have a problem now, coming back to my wife. My growth hormone goes up, therefore, my sex drive’s going to go up, and now I’m in trouble. You got me in trouble twice today, Dr. Pompa.
Dr. Pompa:
That could be a problem. Or, she’s watching this and she’s at home—we’re not going to go there.
Warren:
But it’s a classic thing that everyone who’s married—just throw it out there. The reason I said that is because a lot of people are affected hormonally and they don’t have the sex drive that they should have. Growth hormone and testosterone, this type of exercise, this type of eating, drives both of those up, actually, correct?
Dr. Pompa:
Correct.
Warren:
That’s important, because life isn’t going to happen based on a pill or a powders or lotion or a potion. It becomes about those daily habits that work with your body to support what it’s naturally supposed to do.
We actually evolved or adapted over time to a certain type of—we have our belief systems, we live by them. Our habits dictate our belief system. We express our belief systems. I’m just trying to cover my bases here. Now I got confused.
Then we reverted, we went away because of marketing, just things like that as we evolved as a culture and we got away from how our bodies adapted. We get back into that, of course, we’re going to be more muscular, more lean, healthy, able to adapt to our environment in a much better way. Right now, we’re not adapting. The way we adapt is by storing fat because we’re killing ourselves.
Dr. Pompa:
It’s true. I said in the article—I didn’t want to get into the science, I wanted this to be just a quick article to be able to do this. I want you all to be able to experience what I experienced. In the article I said, “Look, why does it work so well?” The results are very obvious and how and why—obviously raising growth hormone. Really, it’s a stress adaptation mechanism. The body does amazing things to adapt, to survive, to stress. How it does it is utilizing these hormone rises to really—it knows it needs energy, it wants to replenish the glycogen stores, the glucose stores, that it needs in fight or flight. It will do anything to do that because if it doesn’t have stored glycogen, if a beast comes or a threat and you have to run, you need these stored glycogen.
When you take all that and burn it, and by the way, you don’t do that with regular endurance training, you burn through your glycogen with this high intensity training. To adapt, to survive, it wants to put those stores back as quickly as it can. How does it do it? Goes up the growth hormone. When you understand that, then you go, “Okay, that makes sense.” Why not eating afterwards actually creates the stress mechanism.
Warren:
Right.
Dr. Pompa:
Then the hormones rise to adapt and then it gets this thing. Again, it’s a 180° Solution concept. You think, well, we should replenish our fuel as soon as we’re done exercising.
Warren:
That’s what I do, still. I know, he’s told me this science, but I’m in this habit of—after my workout, make a…
Dr. Pompa:
Well, you’re hungry, so you’re responding. Again, stress adaptation mechanism, and understanding that, continuing that fast afterwards, you get this massive growth hormone spike.
Warren:
How long after should it—say I work out. I personally work out at 1:00. When I get done at 2, 2:30, when should I eat again? Should I wait until dinner?
Dr. Pompa:
In the article, I tried to answer some of those questions like that, because people are going to be, “Well, I can’t work out in the morning,” right? Like you. You work out at lunch. I would still argue don’t eat breakfast. If you work out at 1 or 2, give it two hours and then eat.
Warren:
Two hours.
Dr. Pompa:
Now, you can eat a light meal in the morning, work out at 1 or 2 and still wait two hours and still get the benefit. I think the greatest benefit is being completely on an empty stomach.
Warren:
I can wait until 3, 3:30.
Dr. Pompa:
Exactly. You’ll get a growth hormone spike.
Warren:
Then I should do a protein fat.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, absolutely.
Warren:
Soy milk, some whey protein and, blend it up.
Dr. Pompa:
Just waiting a couple hours after, you’re still going to get a spike. Will it be as great as the spike if you didn’t eat at all? Probably not, because the stress isn’t as great, right? It’ll still work. That’s one possibility. Another one, I think some people watch this show say, “Yeah, but I can’t even work out at lunch, I have to work out after work. What do I do?” Here’s my advice, because it gets a little more complicated here. What you could do is, of course, you could just work out, wait two hours come home and eat dinner and get some spike in growth hormone. You could also wait to the weekends and do this one time during the weekend, Saturday or Sunday.
Warren:
I was going to suggest that.
Dr. Pompa:
Here’s one other suggestion. Even one time during the week, if you took it and didn’t eat all day, or maybe a very small amount some time during the day, and then you came home from work, worked out and then waited two hours and ate dinner. Then you’d get a massive growth hormone spike, and then you did it again on the weekend. The other times, during the week, you could just do your normal routine. Even twice a week, if you’re getting this spike, you’re going to see amazing results. That’s some ideas, I have those ideas in the article if you want to review that.
Warren:
Or switch your workouts to the morning if you can.
Dr. Pompa:
Absolutely. I can’t always work out in the morning either. When I don’t, I’ll typically do the midday. I don’t eat, I do a midday, maybe work out at 1 or 2, and then I eat two hours after that. I fast even longer. My typical day of intermittent fasting is I eat dinner maybe around 7:00, 8:00 at night. Then I don’t eat again until, typically 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon. I work out some time in that time. That’s intermittent fasting daily. Going between 16-18 hours, on average, even 15 I would say, between dinner and your next meal. Basically, you’re carrying your fast through the night all the way around until lunch. Then I eat a very small meal. I don’t eat a big meal. What you’ll notice is if you eat a big meal during the day, then you’re tired. If you keep the meal small, low carb, higher fat meal, then you go, “Oh, I’m fine.” Then you eat the bigger dinner.
Warren:
I ate lunch yesterday, we did. I was wiped out, actually a little depressed, and you know what I did? Drank coffee, because I drank coffee, then I spiked my cortisol and I didn’t sleep as well last night. So, I got off my system. Literally, that mistake cost me energy and time.
Dr. Pompa:
It’s funny, we talk about the bigger meal at night and how cultures did this. There’s a lot of research that shows that humans are nocturnal eaters, actually. Meaning that we do better with an evening meal. The reason for that, by the way, and some other people have made this popular, is when you eat, you stimulate a part of your nerve system called the parasympathetic nerve system. That’s what kicks in your digestion.
When your parasympathetic nerve system is kicked in, what happens is you get tired. It’s very normal. Your sympathetic is your fight or flight. That’s your energy system. When you’re fasting, your sympathetic is stimulated, so you have all this energy. Your brain works better, you feel better. When you eat, it stimulates the parasympathetic, which makes you very sleepy. That’s why a bigger meal at night actually stimulates parasympathetic, and it gets you ready for bed. Again, I’m not saying, eat a major meal and then go to sleep.
I’m saying if you’re eating a big meal at dinner, and of course, then you have some hours then go to bed, you’re going to sleep better because it stimulates the right—you get your rhythm of your parasympathetic and sympathetic. Many people have that flipped. They’re not—they don’t have a normal rhythm between the two nerve systems. By the way, that’s why a lot of people can’t sleep at night. They wake up in the middle of the night. This is another way you regulate those two central nerve systems, the parasympathetic and sympathetic.
Warren:
That’s new to me, too. I didn’t know that.
Dr. Pompa:
It’s a really neat thing. When you look at how humans are meant to eat, that’s one of the big arguments for eating the bigger meal at night just to bring that full circle, in summary. I probably stimulated some more questions out there.
Warren:
We have two articles coming out that will hopefully do that. We’re not going to let them know what skinning is?
Dr. Pompa:
I think maybe they should just watch the video.
Warren:
The skinning thing is in the article, so go to drpompa.com.
Dr. Pompa:
That’s my favorite way to do this type of combination. You’re going to have to watch.
Warren:
Go there, it’ll be the article being released today. We actually created a new category underneath articles called the 180° Solution. That’s going to be one of our huge topics, (inaudible) these 180° Solution tips throughout the year. That’s what this article is going to be about. Go there, watch and find out what skinning’s about. Thank you so much for joining us today. This has been a great candid conversation. I hope I didn’t get myself in trouble at home, but the reality is we just want to bring this truth—remove the interference—the body will do the healing. Share your 180° Solution with your friends. Make a difference in this world. We love and appreciate you guys being part of this team and Cellular Healing TV, so committed and through this mission with us. Take care and have an amazing rest of your day on Friday and a great weekend. Thanks, guys.