Dhru Purohit Show - Radically Improve Your Focus with This Simple Morning Challenge

Episode Date: February 7, 2022

This episode is brought to you by Pendulum: Pendulum is the first company to figure out how to harness the amazing benefits of Akkermansia in a probiotic capsule. To receive 20% off your first purchase of Pendulum’s Akkermansia probiotic supplement, go to Pendulumlife.com and use code DHRU20. One of the most valuable, affordable, and overlooked brain-boosting bio-hacks out there is… Drum roll, please... Proper hydration! In fact, water is so essential for our brains that a loss of just 1-2% can significantly impact our cognitive function, making it harder to focus, concentrate, make decisions, or even connect with others. When we aren’t getting enough water, or the correct type of water (more on that below), we starve every cell in our bodies and prevent them from working optimally. And worst of all, so many people have no clue that the reason they’re in a funk or feel like garbage is directly tied to a lack of hydration! That's why today's podcast is focused on changing that with a simple 7-Day Challenge anyone can do! Mentioned Links * Try This: Morning Hydration Challenge: https://dhrupurohit.com/try-this-hydration-challenge/ * Survey: https://dhrupurohit.com/fan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hi everyone, Drew Brod. Today we're talking about a simple challenge that anybody can do to radically improve their focus and their energy levels and just their brain's overall ability to perform in the day. If you're interested in this topic, stay tuned for today's solo episode. But first, a quick word from today's sponsor, Pendulum. I want to talk to you about a groundbreaking flagship bacterial strain that's been linked in thousands of scientific publications from everything from weight loss and better blood sugar control to lowering overall levels of inflammation.

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important for healing a leaky gut, supporting the immune system, and maintaining overall health. I first heard about acrimancia for my business partner, Dr. Mark Hyman, when he got really sick a few years ago and his gut help took a turn for the worse. He said that building up his acrimancia was critical for helping him heal and support his overall gut restoration and getting his health back on track. Because acromancea can only survive in an oxygen-free environment like your gut, it has been difficult for scientists to formulate it into a probiotic until now. Pendulum is the first company to figure out how to harness the amazing benefits of acromansia in a probiotic capsule, which is why I've been taking the probiotic daily ever since I got introduced to the company.

Right now, if you're interested in Acrimancia, this flagship, bacterial strain, Pendulum is offering my community 20% off your first purchase of their pendulum acrimancia probiotic supplement. All you have to do is go to their website, pendulumlife.com. That's pendulum p-e-l-u-m-l-U-M-L-U-M-L-I-F-E dot com, and use the code Drew 20, spelled D-H-R-U-20 for 20% off your first. first purchase. Hi everyone, Drew here. One of the most valuable, affordable, and overlooked brain boosting biohacks out there is,

drum roll please, proper hydration. In fact, water is so essential for our brains that a loss of just one to two percent can significantly impact our cognitive function, making it harder to focus, concentrate, make decisions or even connect with others. When we aren't getting enough water or the correct type of water, more on that in a little bit, we starve every cell in our bodies and prevent them from working optimally. And worst of all, so many people have no clue that the reason they're in a funk or feel like garbage, plain and simple, is directly tied to lack of hydration, especially in the morning.

That's why today's podcast is focused on something that I created with my team called the Morning Hydration Challenge, a simple thing that anybody can do over the course of seven days to radically improve their brain's ability to focus and their energy throughout the day. Now, before we jump into the hydration challenge and how it works, let's cover some basics. People are always wondering, how much water do I actually need to drink? Now, we've all heard the 8 by 8 rule to drink 8, 8 ounce glasses of water daily, or to drink half your body weight and ounces of water. But the truth is, there's no magic number or formula that works best for everyone because we're all different. Your age, size, sex, the climate you live in, the physical activity level, and how much you sweat all impact how much water your body uniquely needs.

Does a small, older woman need to drink the same amount of water as a six-foot-tall male college football player? Probably not. The guidelines out there can be a little bit confusing, but what I do know is you are probably the best judge of your dehydration and hydration needs. But here's the key. Only when you know what it feels like to be properly hydrated in the first place. that's why I put together a seven-day morning hydration challenge that anybody can follow, that you literally could start tomorrow to try to see if it improves your health. Now, my approach to hydration is a little different because it makes water a priority at the

start of your day and requires you to look inward and become truly self-aware of how your body feels when it's hydrated appropriately versus when it's not. I know that sounds easier said than done, but hear me out for a second. If we can increase our interoception, which is becoming aware of what's actually happening inside our bodies by paying attention to how we actually feel, we can become better at judging our own hydration needs

and starting to gauge how much water we need to drink to be properly hydrated. Now, before we do that, we need a little background on some of the following areas. Why are we all so freaking dehydrated? What effect does dehydration have on our brains? Sneak preview a lot. And how does proper hydration differ from just drinking water? Let's answer those questions first.

Then we'll jump into my protocol and how to incorporate drinking more water into your life and daily routine. Why are we all so freaking dehydrated? Now, our bodies are using and losing water all day long. Digestion, converting food to energy, detoxification, which we talk a lot about on the podcast, and waste elimination via sweat, urine, and stool all require water. Plus, drinking caffeinated beverages, yours is guilty as charged, eating refined sugars, sweating, stress, and simply just breathing all use and depleted. of water. Now, your brain and your body also tap into your water supply to restore,

rejuvenate, and detoxify you while you're sleeping. That's why your pee is super dark first thing in the morning and can be one indication that you might be super freaking dehydrated. So for that reason, before I have my coffee first thing in the morning, I know there's a lot of coffee lovers that listen to this podcast. I'm in that camp too. I personally make sure I'm kicking off my day with at least one, at least one 16 ounce glass of water. Then I'll have my second glass of water, along with my morning cup of coffee or my homemade latte that I make. But if you're anything like me,

drinking plain water first thing in the morning can be a struggle. So I'm going to provide you with my best simple tips on making it more enjoyable. Stay tuned for that. We've got a little more ground to cover. Let's talk about the consequences of a thirsty brain. The best way to tell if you're waking up dehydrated is to pay attention to how your brain and your body actually feels.

In addition to thirst, fatigue, dry lips, dry mouth, and feeling lightheaded, brain function is another major indication of dehydration. When we're dehydrated, our brain actually shrinks in size. Crazy, right? That's because your neurons require water and electrolytes to find and communicate with each other. Even just losing 1 to 2% of your body's watermen, can significantly affect your brain's ability to function. If your brain isn't getting enough water,

it can't communicate with the rest of your body. This results in a whole bunch of things. Loss of focus. Executive function, which is your ability to think, plan, remember, adjust, and adapt to different situations is also lowered, poor coordination,

memory, increased fatigue, headaches, mood imbalances, and so much more. Now, the thing is for a lot of us, how we feel in the morning, which often isn't great, is just normal.

It's normal because we've been feeling that way for a long time. So one of the reasons that I love this challenge is if you're not sure if you're having those, you don't feel great, but you're not sure if you're having those or if they're not normal for you, then doing a morning hydration challenge is a great way to find out, usually within a day or two. And we put a bunch of members through this podcast that are part of our Facebook community through

this challenge. They experienced all sorts of interesting and amazing benefits that came. But usually within a day or two, most of them noticed the difference. They noticed how chronically dehydrated they actually were. Now, let's chat a little bit about proper hydration and why it's about so much more than just drinking water. There's a reason why ancestral civilizations sprouted up on the coast and wherever there was water around. Water is essential for life. But the question is, is there a difference between our ancestors drinking water and our drinking water today? Our ancestors drinking water

naturally, that water that they were drinking contained essential minerals, aka electrolytes, that most of our water today, which is tapped, bottled, or filtered, is stripped of due to the modern water treatment practices that we all have. It turns out our ancestors, as we mostly know in most cases, they did it right. We need electrolytes, sodium, potassium, magnesium, and calcium to bring water into our cells. On average, we're made up of at least 60% water. And 40% of that is inside of our cells. Water helps keep our cells shape and structure. It's also the medium where virtually every metabolic process takes place.

So when we're chronically dehydrated, it's not just that our body doesn't have enough water. It's actually that all the metabolic processes, all the functions that our body's trying to do become slower because we don't have enough water. So how does that relate to the water that most of us are drinking today? We can drink water all day long. But if, especially in the morning, it doesn't have the proper balance of electrolytes, it's not going to get into our cells, which is crucial for proper hydration. If water isn't getting inside your cells, that means that slowly our cells are going to start to shrivel up leading to dehydration and all of the downstream effects that are connected

to it that we've been covering. So real quick, I want to talk about water filters. Water filters are great and in my opinion an absolute must. I once heard a friend say either you have a filter or you become the filter. I thought that was super clever and it's actually pretty true. Now the thing about water filters is that they take out a lot of the bad, which is the reason that we want to use them, but they also strip the water of almost all minerals that are there. That means it's extremely important to add the key minerals back into the water that we're having. You don't have to do it all the time. And a lot of the minerals that we add back in depend on, again, some of the things that we mentioned at the top of the podcast, our activity level, how often we're

we're working out, our age, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But a good rule of thumb that I've heard many functional medicine doctors say is that at least adding electrolytes to our morning glass of water that we're having, and we talk about that in today's hydration challenge, is a good way to ensure that we're getting some of those key minerals. There are brands that are out there. One of my favorites is Mountain Valley Springwater. Some people have it delivered to their homes.

Some people buy it. and it has naturally occurring minerals inside of there. It has some calcium, magnesium, potassium that are naturally occurring from the source of the water that they got it from. Now, the thing with any sort of bottled water system is it's going to be expensive. It's going to be expensive if you're going to get something like Mountain Valley Springwater, which is typically packaged in glass to maintain the quality of the water and not get all those crazy plastics leaching inside of it. it, but it's expensive. So I don't know if I'd be recommending that for everyone. That's why a filter

and adding in key minerals can be a better approach and more practical. Filters, even though they are expensive, are going to be a lot cheaper than people buying bottled water. And of course, are going to give you all the benefits of removing all the junk that we found in water. If you want to research some of the junk that's in the water in your local area, you can go to EWG, environmental working group, they have a water map of the United States. And you can type in your zip code and they'll show you, they'll show you some of the crazy chemicals that have been found in your local water municipality. And, you know, our infrastructure is aging here, especially in the United States.

Might be the case in other areas of the world as well, too. So I'm thankful the fact that we have generally what's regarded as clean water. I'm super thankful for that. and that doesn't mean that we have to just live with that. Sure, it's clean that it doesn't have parasites and doesn't have bacteria. In most instances, there are some places in the country that do have that, but it has a lot of heavy metals and other things that I don't want inside of my body. Okay, let's get into the protocol, the protocol that anybody can follow,

that anybody can do. And if you want a written version of this protocol, we have a link for it right in the show notes. And it's from our try this newsletter. Try this newsletter is a newsletter that I put out every Friday. And it's where I help you take one category or area of your health. And I put out a potential protocol that anybody can try if they feel inspired. And if you want to sign up for that for free, just go to Drew Perrault.com, D-H-R-U-R-O-H-I-T, and click on Try This on the website.

And every week, you'll get a protocol, which includes a ton of recommendations for me on top supplements and products and other stuff. And many of the protocols are actually completely free, meaning that there's nothing inside of them that you have to buy or purchase or do. You just got to try the thing that I'm recommending inside. And everything, including the podcast that we're covering today, all the protocols are backed up with citations. today's morning hydration challenge has a total of 10 citations for all the different things that I've talked about today. All right, let's jump into the protocol section of today's podcast. Protocol, it's what you can do to take on and try the seven-day morning hydration challenge. Step one, water first.

If you aren't waking up and hydrating with water. and electrolytes, you aren't giving your brain the chance to operate at its fullest potential for the rest of the day. But hey, don't take my word for it. Just try this. Try this. That's why it's called try this. Try this protocol for seven days. So many of the members of our community tried this protocol when it was first written about in our newsletter. And they were in our Facebook group. We have a link to that below if you want to see some of their comments. Just amazing to see. Amazing to see the responses that people had. They felt. so much better. People reported that it was easier for them to have a bowel movement every morning.

People who struggle with constipation. Not saying that's what you struggle with, but many people do struggle with constipation. Having this water first thing in the morning before they had their coffee, before they had their breakfast, before they did other stuff was super helpful in them alleviating their constipation. Many people reported just being able to focus better, being in a better spirit in the morning, feeling their brain was actually turned on. So this is the reason why I want to inspire you to take on the seven day morning challenge. The challenge might seem super simple and it is, but sometimes the simplest things are the most overlooked. If your goal is to feel great in the morning, support your brain and your body in functioning, excuse me, in functioning optimally

and increase your overall interception, this challenge is for you. Now, I made this challenge seven days because I know you can do anything for seven days. And it takes a full week to really feel the benefits of proper hydration first thing in the morning, even though many people noticed it within the first couple days. Look for these markers over the next seven days when you're doing this challenge. I know when I'm properly hydrated first thing in the morning, I feel focused, happier, less irritable, sharper, I crave less sugar. I feel overall more excited about the day.

So are you sold? Okay, let's jump in. And again, you can find the written form of this protocol if you want to follow. it in the show notes the link to the website that has the article so here's what we're going to do we're going to try this step one my seven day morning hydration challenge after waking up and brushing your teeth you are literally going to start off the day with water first yes before we reach for our morning coffee or tea we're going to prepare and drink 16 ounces of filtered water first thing in the morning water first this gives your brain and a body a nice hydration boost after your long

overnight water fast, which is what sleeping is, and gives you a buffer of hydration to work with throughout the morning. Step one, start with 16 ounces of water. Here's the base option of what people can do. They can take 16 ounces of filter water, add the juice of a half a lemon or lime, and a pinch of sea salt. Mix it and drink it. This base option is perfect for anyone that doesn't already have a high quality sugar-free. That's the key. We want to stay away from all these that have a ton of sugar in them. That's not good for our metabolic health. And this is an option for that.

So if you don't have a high quality sugar-free electrolyte supplement, you can do just water plus the juice of a half a lemon and a little pinch of sea salt. I have found for myself, and I've actually heard Dr. Andrew Huberman from the Huberman Lab podcast when he was on my podcast previously talk about this. It's tough sometimes to drink water on an empty stomach just completely plain with nothing inside of it.

So just adding a little bit of lemon and lime increases the enjoyability and also the flavor. And a little pinch of sea salt helps with that too. And sea salt contains some of, not all, some of the electrolytes that we're going to be looking for from it. So one thing I'd mention is if you don't have a high quality sugar-free electrolyte supplement, you can easily get one. Even Whole Foods and most natural food stores will have a couple high-quality electrolyte options. So the second option,

the second way of preparing your water, first thing in the morning, is the electrolyte option. As mentioned above, the electrolytes are a powerful tool for so many reasons. A high-quality electrolyte supplement contains the right balance of sodium,

potassium, and magnesium to pull water into your cells. The key is avoiding, the key is avoiding those super-popular electrolyte mixes that, I'm not going to name, but you know which ones they are. They're marketed as being healthy despite the fact that they're freaking loaded, loaded with sugar. Luckily, they're clean options out there.

One of my favorites is E-L-L-E-E-Dash-Lite, E-D-L-Y-T-E. Not an ad, not a sponsorship, not anything. And the company that makes it is called BodyBio. You can get it on their website on Amazon or you can find it on the Dr. Mark Hyman's store, which we have the link to in the show notes in the article for today's hydration challenge that we're covering. You take 16 ounces of water, filtered water, and then add a juice of a half a lemon and include two capfuls of E-light or any other high-quality sugar-free electrolyte mix. Now, here's the key. Before coffee, that's when you want to have.

If you're a caffeine drinker, tea, coffee, Yerba-mate, whatever it is. You want to do this before you have your coffee. I know it's tough and just like you, I crave my morning cup of coffee right away. But, but if we jump into coffee before we have water, we immediately start to dehydrate our bodies rather than refresh them. When you sleep, you're doing a version of a water fast at night. And when you wake up, your body is parched. So if your body's already parched and then on top of that the first thing that you have is a big cup or two of coffee you're immediately even though coffee has water inside of it it also has caffeine caffeine is very dehydrating it's kind of like drinking sea water uh you think that it would hydrate you but because

it has all that sea salt inside of it in the concentration uh you would think that it would hydrate you sorry clarification on that but it actually dehydrates you so nothing wrong with coffee I'm a big fan, I just don't want to start off with it first. Now, one caveat that I'd say there that I mentioned a little bit earlier is that I understand that a lot of people need to have coffee before they have their first bowel movement of the day. Their body is sort of relying on that and it's an important part of the process. I'd still challenge those of you that are in that category to drink water first before having coffee because chronic dehydration, years of having coffee first in the morning could be.

It could be one of the reasons you're constipated in the first place. Here's another hack that's worked for a lot of my friends. And again, we're just talking about drinking 16 to 18 ounces of water first. Then you can have your coffee. It's not like I'm asking you to wait an hour before you have your coffee. But here's one little hack that I've seen work. If you have ground coffee beans or you make your coffee at home, go and smell if you're one of those people that can't have a bowel movement

until you have your coffee. One hack, I've seen it work. It's kind of crazy, but it works. You can actually just go grind up some coffee, or if you have ground coffee, go and smell it. Be there for a minute. Smell your coffee. Take it in.

That sort of physiological response that has been hardwired into your body that you need to have coffee, then your body gets into the, creating the steps and the processes to start allowing for a bowel movement to happen, it actually sometimes works. I have a couple friends that have tried it and it works.

So smell your coffee right away, have your, drink your, actually, your water first thing in the morning, then have your bowel movement and come back. Or, like I said, drink your water, then have your coffee and then have your bowel movement. All right. Now, let's go into step two.

One more 16 ounce glass of water. Now that you've had your first 16 ounce glass of water, it's time for your second. The ultimate goal is to have 32 ounces of water within the first hour of waking up. But I know waking up and drinking 32 ounces of water is tough for more people, especially if you're also having your coffee. That's why I found for myself and others it's easier and more practical to have 16 ounces of water first thing. Most people can have 16 ounces of water first thing in the morning. Then they have their coffee or tea.

You can even prepare your drink, your coffee and tea. while you're drinking your morning water, which is what I do, then once your coffee is ready to drink, make your second 16 ounce glass of water and have it alongside your morning beverage of choice. And you can take your time in doing that. The only thing that we're trying to do, we're trying to make sure we get in that 16 ounces of water first. Then the second 16 ounces that we have can be had along with our morning cup of coffee and we don't have to be in a rush to have that because that's a lot of liquid. That's a lot of liquid. That's a lot of liquid. and not everybody can take that right away.

But most people can take 12 to 18 glances of water. Glasses, no ounces. 12 to 18 ounces of water first thing in the morning. Then you can start off with your coffee. Now, the key of all this is to personalize it. My goal of my 7-day morning hydration challenge, which is what this whole thing is, is to help you make the connection between feeling great

and being fully hydrated. Once you know what that feels like, You can modify things and dial in your hydration any way you want to. That could look like a little less water for some of you or a little bit more water for others. So don't see this as a hard and fast rule. Even if you can have 10 ounces of water first thing in the morning with a little bit of electrolytes, maybe some lemon inside of it. Great.

Let's do that. Let's do that. Then you can move on to whatever else you have, whatever else you have, coffee, tea, smoothies, whatever it might be. Now, in my newsletters, I have a section called Splurge. It's where I have recommendations for products that could be supportive for people who are doing one of my protocols. Today, I'm going to mention two filters that I'd like to give some attention to.

Number one, I've had a long partnership with a company called Aquatrue. They aren't paying me for this and they aren't sponsoring this podcast. I will tell you why I love them. I love them because for a lot of people, installing a high-quality, reverse osmosis filter under the sink is expensive, even though Aquatru now has an option for that, for people who want that. And the second thing is, one of the biggest mistakes I see people make, they have a reverse osmosis filter installed under the sink, but they forget to regularly change their filter. That's a problem, because if you forget to change your filter, same thing

goes for your refrigeration filter or any other filter that you're using out there. If you forget to swap out your filter and change in our regular basis, not only are you having all that contaminated tap water that's out there. Again, we're super lucky in America to have the water be much better off than a lot of places in the world. So I'm not trying to say I'm not thankful for that, but you're having all that sort of all the heavy metals and other stuff like that that are including the water. And secondarily, you're having the build up of all that that's accumulated in the filter. So change your filters. And Aquatru, their countertop base filter, It doesn't require any installation, and it has a light.

It has a light on it when it's time to change your filter. I love it for that reason. I had it a few years ago, and then I switched to an installation based under the sink water filtration system, reverse osmosis. And again, Aquitru has one of those. I don't have an Aquitru system. I have another one by a gentleman named William Welding. He was more servicing the local Los Angeles area. still a great filter system.

And I set a reminder on my calendar of when I need to change my filters that are there. If you want the link and you're interested in getting an aquitru filter, you can find it inside of the article. Second, burkey filters. I never owned a burkey filter, but I know a lot of people like burkey filters. And I think that's a great option too. A perk about burkey filters is that they're one of the only quality filters that are stainless steel, completely stainless steel minus the actual filter itself. Honestly, I'm not too concerned about countertop pictures or filters made from plastic because they aren't being used to heat water.

So is there some plastic leakage? Maybe. But really, there's not warm water or direct sun exposure that's going to be hitting these things on a regular basis, which is going to cause more leaching. My only note about Berkey and most water filters is the same thing. People forget to change their filter. So make sure you change. change your filters. That's the best way to make sure that you take advantage of what a filter has to offer. All right, concluding thoughts for today's episode, bottom line, if you want

your brain to work better, the best place to start is with proper hydration. If nothing else, I hope you learned today that proper hydration isn't just about drinking water. Electrolites are essential too, and there's no way to better know that for you than to try it. Try it. Seven days. Seven days you can try this protocol and actually see if you feel better because at the end of the day, you're the best judge of your own hydration needs. And those needs vary day to day based on your activity level and a lot sorts of other things. But it requires you to be aware of the signs of a thirsty brain and body.

So if you try this hydration protocol, let me know. You can shoot us a message through our website. or you can join the Facebook community where a bunch of people did the hydration protocol and they were sharing their results and talking about the changes that they saw in their own body. If you want the full list of references cited in today's episode, click on the article link that's there.

Thank you today's sponsor, Pendulum, and be sure to check out our survey, our survey. If you could fill that out, it's also in the show notes below. That would be a huge help. We would really appreciate that. If you enjoyed this episode, share it with someone. Leave a review on Apple or Spotify

or all the great platforms that are out there. Thanks again for tuning in. Drew Proet, signing off. I'll see you next week. Hi, everyone, Drew here. If you're a fan of this show, I'd love your help. My team and I have put together a brief survey to get your feedback on this podcast,

help us source better sponsors that you actually want to hear from, learn a little bit more about you, and continue to provide you with free content. So it would mean the world to us if you could take this survey. And by the way, we'll also be giving away five Air Doctor Air filters and five Aquitru water filters to random folks who end up taking the survey. So no purchase is necessary. All you got to do is fill out the survey to enter to win.

Just head over to Drew Perraud.com slash fan. Again, that's D-H-R-U-P-U-R-O-H-I-T dot com slash fan. Thank you so much for your support.