Founder's Story - You Can’t Outwork Hormones: The Hidden Science Behind Burnout | Ep 236 with Justin Hai Co-Founder of Alastin Skincare and Rebalance Health

Episode Date: June 26, 2025

Justin Hai breaks down the real cost of burnout, sleep deprivation, and chronic stress—and how one overlooked hormone, cortisol, might be sabotaging your energy, motivation, and even relationships. As the co-founder of two breakthrough health brands, Justin shares the science behind stress, why sleep is the foundation of everything, and how Rebalance Health is helping thousands reset their biology. Key Discussion Points: Why cortisol is the “master hormone” nobody’s talking about The hidden connection between stress, low libido, brain fog, and poor sleep How tech addiction is warping our circadian rhythms and emotional resilience The neuroscience behind Rebalance’s lozenges—and why most supplements fail Sleep hygiene secrets from someone who wakes up at 4:30 AM Why Gen Z is struggling with intimacy and identity in the age of constant dopamine hits How hormone imbalance mimics burnout, depression, and relationship disconnection Takeaways: Chronic stress isn’t just mental—it’s chemical Sleep is where your hormones are made; protect it like your life depends on it Physical touch and simple routines can radically lower stress Most supplements don’t absorb—Rebalance Health is designed to fix that Success means nothing if your biology is working against you Closing Thoughts:Justin Hai’s journey is a wake-up call to founders and high performers stuck in survival mode. Through Rebalance Health, he’s offering more than supplements—he’s offering a blueprint to reclaim your biology, your energy, and your life. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

So, Justin, it's really great to have you because I've been diving through this rabbit hole of all these supplements and things to take because I've been hearing a lot about stress hormones, cortisol, but I don't really understand, like, what is the worst thing that could happen to me if I don't try and fix this rabbit hole that I'm going down of cortisol levels or however you explain that, whether there's lack thereof, what could happen? happen to me. Well, quite simply, you will wake up in the worst possible state that you could imagine. I'm tired. I'm lethargic. I have no energy. I have no stress. Sorry, no strength. I have brain fog. I have no libido, no desire, no motivation. It's just, it's all consuming, and it leaves you completely exhausted. I feel that. I really feel that. So somebody like myself who I don't sleep well, I'm going through a lot of stress. You know, as you know, founding companies is very stressful and many times you work 24-7. So what are you finding with people that can help either balance or fix this? Okay, so you brought up multiple issues in your statements there. The first thing is

working 24-7, it's not a good idea. Just it isn't a good idea. It's like I'm going to drive across country. I'm not going to sleep. I'm just going to drive. You can't do it. You can't function. So how can you run a company or be creative and innovative and make good decisions if you're completely depleted. So out of the gate, don't do that. You have to look after yourself in order to be able to be successful and promote good decisions and good leadership. So the second thing is sleep. You have to maniacally protect sleep. It is fundamentally the most important thing you can do next to eating and drinking water, right? It just, you have to do it. We are designed as human beings to literally get seven to eight hours of sleep every night.

And I know that's a big number and people will always push back and say, well, I can survive about four or five. All the studies prove time and time again that 99% of the population need in adults at least seven to eight hours of uninterrupted sleep. Why is that? You make all your sex hormones in your sleep. Simple as that. You make all your hormones in your sleep. If you don't sleep, you don't make him. You don't feel very good the next day.

It's that simple. Do you think, and thank you for that. Way early on in our show, we had a doctor who specialized in sleep on, and she was talking about, you know, interruptions and starcadian rhythm and stuff because I have sleep apnea. Also, I have a lot of, you know, sleep issues that caused me for many years to not get sleep. And I've felt the repercussions, no memory, no sex drive. It just like really had no, like, zest for life anymore. when I wasn't sleeping. What are you, what are you seeing in terms of, or what are you thinking about with, you know, people interrupting their sleep because of their phone? Well, it's exactly what my

book that's coming out is all about called Stress Nation. It is kind of a deep dive into what life was like in the 70s and 80s and someone in the 90s before the phone and the iPhone internet, email, social media. It all took off in the 90s, right? And that, way of life in the 70s and 80s is gone right we all talk about you know playing with the traffic but being on our bike stay now until late other the street lines came on and then we came home we all spoke about there was no 24-7 content there was a news hour not a news station right you went to blockbuster the video store to collect the VHS that you wanted if you were there early enough to get the two or three copies that were

available right and how that is completely gone now it's 24-7 streaming content whenever you want it, however you want it. And this has disrupted our natural circadian rhythm in such a way that is actually a true pandemic. This stress pandemic that's going on worldwide is causing such a disruption in the way that we function as human beings by simply interrupting our sleep. And so our cortisol levels, which is the master hormone, almost every molecule in the human body has a cortisol receptor, unlike any other hormone. So what happens is our stress is up here all the time. and so when we're ready for sleep, we're like, wait a minute, I got to get my stress down here so I can quickly fall to sleep and stay asleep, but I can't because it's up here because I have

so much going on in my head. And so it's really important to kind of bring that down. And so it's what about lifestyle changes, learning good sleep hygiene habits in order to support cortisol. But most importantly for us is we have a supplement in order to help bring cortisol levels down into normal ranges throughout the day, right, the entire day, so that you can can fall asleep and stay asleep. But nothing's a magic pill. You have to be actually very mindful of your habits in order to achieve that. So would you say then that it's really bad to work all the way up to right before I'm going to sleep? I think it could be a problem. Yeah, absolutely. Sleep hygiene involves winding down. It involves having a relaxing few hours before bed,

unwinding from stressful activities, which includes drinking alcohol, and eating heavy meals because that only increases your energy levels. Alcohol goes from being a sedative into a stimulant because it converts to sugar and now you're wide awake. So there's so many habits that we've kind of assumed are good or vices that are good for us or that I need that with actually interrupting and affecting the ability to get good sleep quality, which directly impacts how much hormone production you make during your kind of rest and recovery phase through sleep.

What are the habits that you do every day, just overall? Like, what's your entire day like, Justin? Pretty straightforward. So I wake up at 4.30 every morning. I'm at the gym by 5. I work out. I do whatever I do at the gym. Come home.

I have breakfast, high protein breakfast. I work throughout the day. I get up every few hours and go for a 10-minute walk or 15-minute walk just to, again, disconnect from all the screens and technology, get some sunlight and keep my steps up. and keep moving um i kind of stop my day um well six seven o'clock at night i have my dinner um again go for a walk decompress on wine spend time with the family the dogs so forth have a hot shower and go to bed and i try to make sure that the period between when i stop and i actually go to bed is at least three to four hours so that i can ensure that i recharge and regenerate that sounds like

the perfect day like you know there's the the perfect bar or the perfect supplement like the one that you have the perfect supplement but your day sounds like the perfect day i need i need to work up to that i need to build my habits and transform what i've been doing do you think that and there's a lot of talks around you younger generations are maybe uh less into relationships not really necessarily wanting to have kids i talk to a lot of yeah you know we have kids in their 20s it doesn't seem like they're as active with relationships and things and i wondered how much of that is because you know they are getting your pleasure hormones uh you are are being attained through this phone like if i want to be happy i just pull up my phone and i watch something if i want to be sad like

it's like everything i can get from the phone but i'm not really but i'm not really getting it you know Versus like before you had to have another human that, you know, you wanted to laugh, you wanted to, you wanted to cry, you wanted to do, you had to, it had to be another human. But now it's like at any second I can just, whatever I want to feel, good or bad, I can just do it through the thumb. Very interesting observation. I can take a little step further. Daniel, you and I grew up in a time in which we actually had to learn how to communicate with the other sex or with our friends. We actually look each other in the eye. We actually had to be witty and sharpen on. We had to remember phone numbers and addresses because we didn't have a device

we could just enter it and be ignorant about. We went out and we actually flirt it and we actually know how to speak and be charming, what have you. It's a dying art. It's died. Unless you know how to thumb something, swipe left, swipe right,

the connection, the human connection, intimacy, into me you see, intimacy isn't in the younger, generation. Well, I'm going to take that back. It is. I see a trend going back towards that, but for a good amount of time, especially through COVID and through the last, you know, four or five years, it's definitely been that way, right? Into me with simply with swipe, left, swipe, right, and let's connect versus let's actually build a relationship. Let's go on a few dates. Let's kind of chat with one another. Let's go to the movies. Let's go to a restaurant and then we build a

relationship and then we get into it and then you build that chemistry. Today, it's much more rapid, much faster, right, because people want to be doing other things. So the pace of life is faster. And I think those skills, those human skills, are slowly dying because AI is interfacing. As you said, the social media is that the emails are the apps or the snatch app. My kids are forever on those devices. And it takes a lot of effort from a parent's perspective to say, stop like go out go interact with the world stop looking at a screen all the time a screen is an

amazing tool the technology is amazing device but we weren't taught how to use it responsibly as it pertains to being human and needing to recover how to eat how to drink how to sleep that isn't part of technology technology has been gamified it's been deliberately designed to be addictive. And so it takes a very strong-willed individual to say, it's a tool. It isn't my life. And I think that's a very important distinction that is hard for the younger generation to learn because even if you go to a coffee shop, there'll be six or seven people together, but they're all looking down at their devices. I wouldn't be surprised if they were texting each other in a group text. I mean, it's insane to me. We're dopamine addicted to this and then our cortisol levels are all off. I was watching this

hilarious video that I thought was made by AI, but it turns out it was a legitimate news channel talking about this guy who asked ChatsyBT to marry him. And Chachybt said yes, and he was crying, but he was actually married to a human. And then his wife was saying how she, you know, she was very sad because she was telling him that she must not be giving him something that he needs because he's now really fallen in love with AI. How do you see this plan? laying out with the AI interactions and the fact that I don't think as humans, like technology advances so fast, we as humans can't keep up, but we can't differentiate between AI being real and being not.

How do you see this impacting society? I think we've got to be very cautious. I think AI is an amazing tool. It definitely has its benefits. But it can be, for the weak-minded, it can be very overpowering, and it can literally take over your world. And, you know, there's plenty of information out there about the dangers of AI. Have we been forewarned by, what was it?

I think Bill Gates warned us about it a long time ago. It's a great tool. But remember, it's just a tool. So what, when you look at supplements, because I want to get better, Justin. I want to get to the lifestyle that you're living because you look super relaxed. Man, your skin looks like you're 20 years old, amazing. skin, I could tell that you're fit, you're in great shape, your mind is clear. What supplements should I be taking? I would be self-serving if I didn't. I am self-serving. I'm going to tell

you, rebalance health for me is the best product out there. I've created it within the company that I support and run as a co-founder. We went after a very interesting angle. We didn't want to just duplicate a multivitamin or come up with something that was out there. And there's tons of studies, literally, literally hundreds and hundreds of thousands of studies proving that 95% of supplements don't even get absorbed by the body and you urinate them out. And since it's a $60 billion domestic market, Americans have the most expensive urine on the planet by far none. And so I don't think that's a stat that we want to be proud of. And so when we looked at endocrinology, we were fascinated with it.

We were really enamored with cortisol. And no one was talking about cortisol five years ago. And I did a deep dive into what cortisol is and what it does. And basically it's the body's alarm system, right? It's when something is occurring around us that causes our senses, our spidey senses to go off and be like danger, caution. And what it does is it makes us hyper-focused, right? It shuts down metabolism.

It shuts down libido, and it helps us kind of deal with the situation. Then what happens is you get a huge adrenaline rush, and that's the hormone that helps get you into action, right? So the adrenaline kicks you into action. The problem is it's supposed to be utilized sparingly as needed. It's an alarm system. But through these artificial stimulants, right, the phone, you talk about the kids having high cortisol,

it's because someone texted or messaged them or sent them something until they figure out what it is, like picking up that phone, their anxiety is getting higher and higher and higher. And that's what happens to all of us. Emails are coming all the time. Is it important? Do I need it? And that's what's causing the stress level to go up.

And so we were like, wow, does that mean that we're all at this high level? And the more that we researched and we looked into it, the more that we strongly believe that, yes, we would say that a significant number of the population in the modern world has elevated cortisol levels. And it's exacerbated by the inability to get sleep because as cortisol goes up, you're unable to fall asleep. You lie there, you have monkey brain going off because you haven't brought yourself down. Your cortisol is kicking in. And you're thinking about all the things you have to do, which causes your cortisol levels to go up and up and up, and you're in this cycle. When you actually do fall to sleep, you kind of wake up, and then you toss and turn and you go back. Some people keep their phones by them, they'll pick up their phone, they'll check.

Did I miss that email? Did I miss that message? And then put it back. And all you're doing is raising your cortisol levels the whole time. And what you want to do is be bringing it down so you can fall asleep and stay asleep because that's where you make all your hormones. So everyone's talking about HRT, TRT, and all these other supplement hormones that you can take artificially pharmaceuticals that help boost your hormones. A big proponent of HRT, I think it's a great tool for the right application.

I don't believe in HRT for the 25-year-old, the ones will object, right? It just, that's not a good use of it. But I'm a big proponent for someone in their 50s and 60s and 70s that simply isn't making enough testosterone to meet their lifestyle and their symptoms that they want to see subside, which could be weight gain, could be loss of muscle mass, could be reduction in libido, so forth. And so it's a great tool. However, HRT is for testosterone, estrogen, and progression primarily. There really isn't any HRT for cortisol. So even if you're taking testosterone, estrogen, and congestion, your cortisol is still up here and you're still having a tough time going to sleep

and staying asleep. And your body will make however much hormones it can, for your stage in your life, right? So if you're in your 20s, it's going to make massive amounts if you're getting the sleep. And if you're in your 60s, it's going to make much, much smaller amounts, but optimize for you at 60. You can augment that with HRT, huge proponent. Cortisol isn't being addressed. And so, rebalance health has a line of mints, whether it's mannment or menomints or mellow

mince to help calm people's cortisol levels and nervous systems down so you can actually fall asleep and stay asleep, which is only going to simply exacerbate all the wellness issues that you may be experiencing from the HRT. So I feel stronger. I have losing weight, getting proper sleep and helping your body repair and recover during that process. It's just going to be fabulous for you. I'm blown away because maybe someone like myself is thinking I need HRT, which can be quite extreme. Like you said, depending on the person. I mean, it could also have, you know, long-term ramifications, maybe it's the cortisol that is actually impacting me, and I don't know that. So what within rebalance, what ingredients or what is it that's inside

that really is helping it? And what are you finding people are getting the most benefit from? Wonderful. Well, yes, Rebalance has, the way I describe it is we took the best from Ayavidic medicine, the best from Chinese medicine, put it in a Western delivery system, and we have our solution. So number one, it's a lozenge. It's not a pill or a gummy, anything like that. It's a lozen. So just like a cough, sweet, or a mint, you're putting your mouth and you suck on it. What's inside of it? We have about 21 different ingredients. So it's a proprietary blend that we came up with, and we test it, not just in the lab, but we had independent double-blind placebo studies, IRB clinical studies, and published in medical journals, about three, four of them, about to beat the fourth one.

And the ingredients include things like aschragonda, marker, gins, and cordyceps, mushrooms, altheonine, bucopa, oat straw, all these wonderful ingredients that are designed to help calm your nervous system down and bring cortisol into the natural circadian rhythm, which is high in the morning, low in the afternoon, and as low as possible at night, all to support you fall in sleep and stay in sleep. And the reason why it's a lozange is because we want you to take it throughout the day multiple times. Why? Everyone's forgotten about metabolism. If you have breakfast, that fuels you for about four to six hours and then you have to refuel. Why? Your metabolism utilizes what you put inside of it.

Cortisors are 24-hour hormone. I can give you those ingredients, but they're going to be good for you for three, four to six hours, and then you don't have those ingredients to support cortisol anymore. So you need to suck on another lozage. And it's, again, very, very straightforward. I keep doing it because I'm addicted to my own product because it works, right? But it's a simple lozange, like an altoid. You put your mouth and you get on with your day.

Okay, so I have an idea for you. because this sounds amazing this is all the ingredients that you're talking about are things that i'm like okay i need i need each one of those but then if i get each one it's annoying right they got take like 25 different things so this is all in one i think if you combine that with you giving some sort of like calm app i have you ever thought about that you have the voice for like meditation i think if you if you do like meditation alongside i take the lozange my cortisol levels are going to go up, I can tell. Yeah, meditation is a fabulous tool. Everything is a tool. And my wife's a huge meditator. I have a tough time with it. I can try it, but I do have a tough time with meditation

sitting still for, you know, she can do it for an hour. I mean, after 10 minutes, I'm like, I'm done. Right. And so everyone's going to find what works for them. You talk about the kids and technology. I'm a hugger. I meet someone, I'll hug him for the first time. Nothing lowers your cortisol than physical touch. It could be your pet, it could be your dog, it could be a cat, a human being, but physical connection actually has been scientifically proven to lower cortisol.

So having that interaction is really important and putting the technology down, having that discipline not to turn the TV on. Go from your computer screen to the living room, turn on the TV, watch suits, or whatever is your vice, and just sit there and veg for the next three hours and then go to bed.

Not ideal. Justin, I mean, I really appreciate this. I feel like I'm just thinking back through the last few years and all the bad habits that I've been doing and I'm starting to realize like why I'm feeling the certain way that I'm feeling in certain moments. Now I'm connecting them to the habits that I've been doing. But I appreciate this. I can't wait to try rebalance. Also, when does the book come out and how can people find the book? How can people buy the supplement? How can they get in touch with you? Wonderful. Thank you. So the book is called Stress Nation. It's been published by Wiley and Sons out of New York. And it'll be available, well, it's available pre-sale today on Amazon. Or it'll be in the stores on the shelf, September 16th. And you can find our products at rebalancehealth.com. Amazing, Justin. I super appreciate you being here today. I can't wait to try Rebalance. Let's talk again in like 90 days. And I'm going to fill you on the magical difference. I'm sure I'm going to have by combining all of these tools that you mentioned today. But I really appreciate what you're doing just because I know how it is to not get sleep, to go through this. And it was some of the worst times of my life.

So thank you for helping others and the impact that you're having. Thank you.