[You can follow me on Twitter @creatorvilla.] Steve Jobs and Muhammad Ali have reputations that precede them. Jobs co-founded and presided over Apple for decades before his passing, a company that is now worth $1 trillion dollars, over 5% of the GDP of the United States. Ali was a world champion heavyweight boxer when the sport was in its heydey. Nikola, for his part, pioneered breakthroughs in the production, transmission, and application of electric power. Tesla, the famous electric car brand named in his honor, is valuated at more than $100 billion dollars.

What do these titans share in common besides the extreme wealth and celebrity they acquired during their lifetime? A peculiar habit known as semen retention. For those unfamiliar with the term, retention refers to the conscious decision of a man not to climax. It is based on the belief that climax releases powerful energy that can otherwise be rechanneled in other areas of life. Steve Jobs’ ex-girlfriend Chrisann Brennan had this to say about his peculiar habit.

“Our birth control method up to that point was Steve’s coitus interruptus, also called the pull-out method, which for him was about his conserving his energy for work.” She added he didn’t want to climax to build “power and wealth by conserving [his] vital energies.”

In Muhammad Ali’s autobiography The Greatest: My Own Story, he narrates a quote from Olympic boxing coach Harry Wiley.

There’s a kid just come down here named Cassius Clay. If you bet on him every time he fights, you’ll be a rich man, ‘cause he won’t lose a single fight. I believe his thing is sexual control. And he’s got it. . . Any kid who can control [it] can with the title. I believe it.

Ali would reportedly go up to 2 months without climaxing in preparation for a fight. Retention prior to a fight, in fact, has been standard operating procedure among many boxers. David Haye, former British Heavyweight Champion, articulated the logic of the practice as follows.

I don’t [climax] for six weeks before the fight. . . It releases too much tension. It releases a lot of minerals and nutrients that your body needs, and it releases them cheaply. Releasing weakens the knees and your legs. Find a lion that hasn’t had some food for a while, and you’ve got a dangerous cat. So there won’t bet a drip from me. Even in my sleep — if there are girls all over me in my dream, I say to them, “I’ve got a fight next week, I can’t do anything. I can’t do it.” That’s control. I’ve been doing that since I was fifteen and its part and parcel of my preparation now. That’s why I am who I am today — it’s down to all those little sacrifices. Find me another boxer who makes that sacrifice, and you’ll find another champion

Nikola Tesla was an inventor and had his own reasons for practicing the habit. He had this to say in the article “Tesla Opposed to Marriage,” published in the Electrical Journal in 1896.

I do not believe that an inventor should marry, because he has so intense a nature and so much in it of wild passionate qualities that in giving himself to a women he might love, he would give everything, and so take everything from his chosen field. I do not think you can name many great inventions that have been made by married men.

The late Napoleon Hill was one of the most successful self-help authors of the 20th century. His famous book Think and Grow Rich is among the top 10 best-selling self-help books of all time. In it, he has a chapter entitled “The Mystery of Sex: Transmutation.” Transmutation is about redirecting the energy innate in powerful sexual urges into other creative pursuits. Napoleon Hill said it best himself.

Sex desire is the most powerful of human desires. When driven by this desire, men develop keenness of imagination, courage, will-power, persistence, and creative ability unknown to them at other times. So strong and impelling is the desire for sexual contact that men freely run the risk of life and reputation to indulge it. When harnessed, and redirected along other lines, this motivating force maintains all of its attributes of keenness of imagination, courage, etc., which may be used as powerful creative forces in literature, art, or in any other profession or calling, including, of course, the accumulation of riches.

Other celebrities have commented on this same alleged power. Music mogul and fashion designer Kanye West had this to say.

I have, like, nuclear power, like a superhero, like Cyclops when he puts his glasses on. . . People ask me a lot about my drive. I think it comes from, like, having a sexual addiction at a really young age. Look at the drive that people have to get sex—to dress like this and get a haircut and be in the club in the freezing cold at 3 a.m., the places they go to pick up a girl. If you can focus the energy into something valuable, put that into work ethic. . .

Stephen T. Chang, Master of Taoist Philosophy, illustrated his belief that climaxing has a draining effect on a man’s mind and body.

When the average male [climaxes], he loses about one tablespoon of semen. According to scientific research, the nutritional value of this amount of semen is equal to that of two pieces of New York steak, ten eggs, six oranges, and two lemons combined. That includes proteins, vitamins, minerals, amino acids, everything… [Climax] is often called ‘coming’. The precise word for it should be ‘going,’ because everything — the erection, vital energy, millions of live sperm, hormones, nutrients, even a little of the man’s personality goes away. It is a great sacrifice for the man, spirituality, mentally, and physically.

Going even further back in time, Proverbs 31 of the Bible recounts the advice that the mother of King Lemuel (possibly King Solomon himself) gave him. She had this to say in verse 3, an injunction potentially relevant to the topic.

Do not give your strength to women, your ways to those who destroy kings.

Proverbs 31:3

Retention has an ancient pedigree and there are many people today who swear by its benefits. I have read countless testimonials online of users who claim to have experienced a myriad of benefits with this discipline. Reported benefits include clarity of mind, increased female attraction, decreased anxiety, higher energy levels, greater resilience, a stronger immune system, more charisma, sharper creativity, and better masculinity.

For further reading, check out

• A Scientific Explanation For the Benefits of Semen Retention
• 100 Days of Retention (7 Fascinating Observations)
• Sunlight is the Key to Testosterone and Athletic Performance in Males.

[You can follow me on Twitter @creatorvilla.] Today I want to share the results of a study conducted several decades ago that has forever changed the way we view the relationship between sunlight, testosterone, and athletic performance. In the study, Doctors Abraham Myerson and Rudolph Neustadt exposed men to UV light and measured the excretion of various sex hormones. The study revealed that exposure to UV light triggered huge increases in testosterone levels which did not return to baseline levels for over a week. This increase was dependent on the location of the body and the amount of skin exposed to the UV light. The researchers found that men’s baseline testosterone increased by 120% (more than double!) when the participants’ chest and back were exposed to UV light. However, the biggest increase in testosterone came when the participants’ testicles were exposed to UV light. The latter resulted in a massive 200% increase (triple) in baseline testosterone levels. This study has enormous implications for guys attempting to optimize testosterone levels and for athletes who want to maximize performance naturally and legally. It is a wonder why the sporting and fitness industries haven’t gone mainstream with this knowledge. Then again, there is little money to be made by advising people to get more sunlight. Companies would rather sell you expensive supplements. Athletes who have this knowledge may also wish to maintain a competitive advantage over their rivals.

The main takeaway of the study is that exposure to UV light anywhere on the body drives a huge increase in testosterone levels. I, however, wanted to test out the particulars of the study. Bluntly put, I wanted to see what would happen when I directly exposed the balls to UV light. I did this through an open window during the heat of day when the UV Index was high. I noticed they immediately began to grow upon first exposure. I knew this is the area where the body produces the vast majority of testosterone, so it made sense that local exposure to sunlight would trigger a disproportionate increase. The physical changes I observed coupled with the increases in energy and motivation to work out convinced me not only that the study was accurate, but that it was a major game-changer for the sports and fitness industries.

Exposing one’s nether parts to sunlight is neither practical nor desirable for obvious reasons. This has led some guys aware of the benefits to use UV red light therapy to achieve the same outcome in the privacy of their own home (link). I don’t doubt this works, but since it’s not something I’ve personally experimented with, I won’t say much about it. What I do know is that red light technology can be quiet pricey. However, I did discover a cheap and natural method that arguably worked even better for me than expensive alternatives.

Disclaimer: Don’t try this at home. You should consult your doctor about Vitamin D and testosterone optimization given that they are very powerful hormones and a lot could go wrong.

Vitamin D is known as the sunshine vitamin for good reason. The human body has a Vitamin D receptor in nearly ever cell of the body and is highly evolved to generate Vitamin D upon exposure to the sun. After I first read the study a few years ago, I wondered whether the increase in testosterone was triggered by the local production of Vitamin D directly on the skin in response to the UV light exposure. That in mind, I experimented with different doses of Vitamin D topical applied directly to the balls. Lo and behold, I noticed the same enlarging effect as when I had gotten direct UV light exposure. In this process of trial and error, I came to the conclusion that less is more. When the skin is exposed to UV light, it naturally generates Vitamin D in a uniform fashion. Small exposed areas of skin naturally produce small amounts of Vitamin D, and applying to much Vitamin D to any one region can interfere with its natural synthesis by the body. I found that less than 1,000 IU was enough for me to achieve the desired effect and that higher doses were wholly ineffective. Whenever I apply Vitamin D anywhere directly to my skin I prefer to crack open the Vitamin D softgels rather than purchase a topical product. My method is cheaper and it enables me to control the dosing better than prepared formulations. I would apply about half of a 1000 IU softgel every few days and could notice a major difference within a few hours.

Today I make sure I get adequate sun exposure as part of a healthy lifestyle, but I have not experimented with UV light or Vitamin D in this fashion in years. Currently, I have no reason to maintain peak testosterone levels. However, if I ever found myself training for an athletic competition or was experiencing symptoms of low testosterone, the power of the sun would be my first recourse. Nowadays people are quick to take supplements, inject steroids, or go on testosterone replacement therapy, giving up on their body’s natural ability to produce what they need. Meanwhile, nature offers a cheaper (if not free) solution that is arguably more effective than artificial alternatives.

See my article on the The Most Natural Way To Optimize Vitamin D Levels for more pro tips on harnessing the power of the sun.

The reward for mental activity is knowledge. The reward for physical activity is peace.

There are two types of people in the world: those who relish spicy food and everybody else. Most people can only relate to one or the other type. If you like spicy food, then how can anyone enjoy plain white rice? And if you don’t like spicy food, then you can’t rationalize the appeal of self-inflicted pain. Isn’t food supposed to make you feel good? As it turns out, science has a lot to say about people who simply can’t get enough heat. If this describes you, one or a combination of the following headings may apply.

Spicy food and I have a close relationship—an obsessive one, in fact. If it’s spicy, I want it. I want to sweat and shake and go half blind from the searing pain . . . which, now that I put it that way, seems really suggestive. But spicy stuff is addictive. That’s a known fact of science.

Maureen Johnson, American Novelist

1. You Are a Thrill-Seeker

A Penn State University study discovered a relationship between thrill-seeking and preference for study foods:

Using Arnett’s Inventory of Sensation Seeking (AISS) test — one that determines one’s level of risk taking behavior — they surveyed the participants first on their preferences to thrill. The questions included things like listening to loud music, watching highly suspenseful movies, public speaking, gambling and standing on the edge of something high and looking down. Their results were compared to their preferences for spicy food. Unsurprisingly, those who scored higher on the AISS test had higher preferences for spicier foods.

Source: Elite Daily

There is something about the pain of spicy food, knowing that it’s not going to kill you, that makes people feel alive and satisfies their thirst for adventure.

2. You Have High Testosterone Levels

This 2015 study found a correlation between male salivary testosterone levels and preferences for spicy food. The latter was measured in terms of the quantity of hot sauce that participants voluntarily consumed with their food.

Participants included 114 males between the ages of 18 and 44 recruited from the community. They were asked to indicate their preferences regarding spicy food and were then asked to season a sample of mashed potatoes with pepper sauce and salt (control substance) prior to evaluating the spiciness of the meal. A positive correlation was observed between endogenous salivary testosterone and the quantity of hot sauce individuals voluntarily and spontaneously consumed with a meal served as part of a laboratory task. In contrast, significant correlations were not observed between testosterone and behavioral preference for salty foods. This study suggests that behavioral preference for spicy food among men is related to endogenous testosterone levels.

Whether or not spicy food increases testosterone levels or men with higher testosterone levels simply have a preference for it is unclear. What is clear is there is a strong association between the two.

3. You Are Highly Sensitive To Reward

According to the experts, sensitivity to reward “refers to the degree to which an individual’s behavior is motivated by reward-relevant stimuli and is believed to be regulated by the behavioral activation system. . .” (source). An example of a reward is the pleasure experienced by eating good food, working out, or the endorphins released after exposure to spicy food. People highly sensitive to reward live by the motto, “No pain, no gain” (e.g. David Goggins), while those less less sensitive to reward make do with neither.

In a 2013 study entitled “Food Quality and Preference,” researchers discovered a positive correlation between sensitivity to reward and spicy food preferences (source). For these individuals, spicy food is worth consuming because it triggers the release of happy hormones comparable to a runner’s high.

For all you spice aficionados reading this post, I’m curious what it is about the chili pepper that whets your appetite. Let me know what the research cited above got right, wrong or neglected to address.

I’m a strong believer that exercise is a vital part of a healthy lifestyle, especially for those of us who live sedentary lives. Exercise gets blood flowing, releases happy chemicals, enhances emotional processing, conveys a sense of achievement, and makes us feel better about life. I haven’t always been a big fan of cardio. I played soccer in high school but running isn’t something I do for fun. I also prefer a muscular physique, so most of my time in the gym is spent lifting weights. However, I also know from experience and research that cardio is healthy for the mind and body. As a result, I incorporated a simple, intense exercise into my routine that let’s me have my cake and eat it too. I’ve termed it the gorilla walk. The gorilla walk is both aerobic (cardio) and anaerobic/anabolic (muscle-building)–the perfect marriage of cardio and resistance exercise.

Disclaimer: The gorilla walk is potentially dangerous, especially if you do it on a treadmill. Do not try this at home.

What I need for the gorilla walk is a space to walk fast/jog lightly, a backpack, and weights (plates and dumbbells). Inside, I like to use a treadmill and an old sturdy backpack. I started out with a 25 LB plate in the backpack and two 2-3 LB dumbbells in each hand. With a dumbbell in each hand, I like to jog as usual, with my hands moving up and down rhythmically. I want the backpack and dumbbells to be heavy enough that I can move 4-4.5 MPH for no more than 10-20 minutes. More weight=greater intensity=bigger gains. I can experiment by going up and down in weight and altering hand positions. For example, I sometimes take a break from the backpack, increase the weight of the dumbbells, and place them overhead or in a curling position. The goal is to get my whole body moving and building muscle at the same time.

The genius of the gorilla walk lies in its ability to activate the entire body. The backpack builds up the lats and shoulders, and the dumbbells work on arms, chest, and overall upper body definition depending on where you hold them. The legs and core work hard moving and balancing the weight. The gorilla walk is a cross-fit style work-out. It’s extremely stress-relieving and mindfulness-promoting, and efficiently consolidates many exercises into one. It can be good for losing weight, putting on muscle, and experiencing the therapeutic benefits of exercise.

Below are links to the treadmill and adjustable dumbbells I use, and a weighted military-style vest that’s perfect for this exercise. With a proper vest, I can do the gorilla walk with more weight than a backpack and look a little less ridiculous in a public gym.

Are you a fan of the gorilla walk? You can’t knock it it until you try it.

Treadmill: https://amzn.to/2PQTFtZ

Weighted Military-Style Vest: https://amzn.to/2PTn6vy

Adjustable Dumbbells: https://amzn.to/2N1yenA

25-LB Plate: https://amzn.to/2PQL5LI

Hard work doesn’t end when you leave the gym. The hardest part is often the next 72 hours after a workout. Your muscles are sore. You don’t feel like moving. And you’re itching to get back in the gym so you can do it all over again. Fortunately, there are a number of steps anyone can take to accelerate the time it takes to get back to 100% after a workout. And, in fact, you’ll actually be at more than 100% since your body will have adapted to your last workout.

1. Do Cardio

My high school soccer coach always used to prescribe cardio for muscle soreness. I know a lot of people today who swear by cardio for faster recovery. They do cardio whether the initial workout responsible for muscle soreness was aerobic or anaerobic. The logic is that cardio gets blood and nutrients flowing to the muscles thereby decreasing the time it takes to heal. And it might be dead on.

Researchers at California State University ran a study on 26 women and found that those who performed moderate-intensity cardio immediately after a strength workout returned to greater than full strength a day sooner than those who did light cardio or no cardio at all. Moderate activity may ironically help you recover faster than passively waiting for your body to recover (Don’t just sit there, do something!)

2. Get Better Sleep

Sleep is when the body does the majority of its recovery. Sleep is the best way to optimize hormone levels and give the body adequate time to recover from exercise. And sleep is about depth as well as length. If you’ve worked out for any length of time, you’ve probably already noticed that quality of sleep correlates with recovery time and athletic performance.

A study of 10,125 Chinese universities students found that men who slept at least 7-8 hours had more muscle strength than those who slept less than 6 hours (this same difference was not observed in women). Another study detected a 10-15% decline in daytime testosterone levels in test subjects whose sleep was restricted to no more than 5 hours. This decline was after just one week of sleep deprivation.

Check out my article on 8 Natural Ways to Get a Better Night’s Sleep. They are 1) exercise; 2) reduce stress; 3) get light exposure during the day; 4) eliminate blue light exposure at night; 5) install blackout shades; 6) use white noise to drown out sound pollution; 7) practice meditation before bed; 8) take a Zinc or Magnesium supplement.

3. Optimize Vitamin D Levels

Vitamin D is the king of testosterone. I like to call Vitamin D steroids from God owing to research that discovered double and triple increases in testosterone upon male exposure to UV light. Another study observed a 20% decrease in stress fractures in female Navy recruits who supplemented Vitamin D.

Vitamin D plays a vital role in overall health in both males and females. It is important for mood, energy, protein synthesis, and muscle recovery. It follows that optimizing Vitamin D levels may be the easiest and most powerful way to accelerate workout recovery time and maximize gains. Some things in life are free, and energy from the sun is chief among them.

4. Supplement Zinc or Magnesium

Researchers have observed increases in testosterone after Zinc and Magnesium supplementation. In a study conducted on ZMA supplementation (Zinc, Magnesium, and Vitamin B-6), men who took 30 mg of Zinc and 450 mg of Magnesium over an 8-week period observed a 25% increase in free testosterone levels. More testosterone=faster recovery. This is why bodybuilders on steroids can workout 4 hours a day and be ready to go the next morning. Unlike steroids, which can absolutely wreck health and lead to premature disease and death, Zinc and Magnesium are natural alternatives.

Another 12-week study on elderly women found that 12-weeks of Magnesium supplementation increased physical performance. Magnesium supplementation is commonly recommended to reduce recovery time in both men and women.

For more on Zinc, Magnesium, and ZMA, check out 4 Researched Benefits of Supplementing Zinc and 4 Researched Benefits of Supplementing Magnesium.

5. Take a Cold Shower

Researchers conducted a study in which they discovered that cold hydrotherapy reduced delayed onset muscle soreness after a workout. (Note: Caution is advised due to the possible safety risks of cold water exposure.)

The authors included 17 small trials involving 366 people in their review. Participants were asked to get into a bath or container of cold water after running, cycling or resistance training. In most trials, participants spent five to 24 minutes in water that was between 10ºC and 15ºC, although in some cases lower temperatures were used or participants were asked to get in and out of the water at set times. In the studies that compared cold water immersion to resting or no intervention, there was a significant reduction in soreness one to four days after exercise.

Source: ScienceDaily

Cold showers are a personal favorite. I have taken cold showers for almost two years now. In another article, I documented 7 benefits of the discipline. One benefit that I didn’t document is decreased muscle soreness. As soon as I enter the cold water, the last thing on my mind is how sore my muscle’s feel from yesterday’s workout. And, based on research and personal experience, cold showers can have a more lasting effect on muscle recovery.

Conclusion:

A hard workout is not a sentence to multiple days of pain and inactivity. In addition to getting in better overall shape, there are simple steps anyone can take to reduce muscle recovery time.

My mom is a nutritionist and is constantly raving about the health benefits of Magnesium. Magnesium has been in favor with health professionals for a long time. It used to be recommended to treat a host of illnesses. According to Doctor Emily Deans at Psychology Today, “Magnesium is an old home remedy for all that ails you, including ‘anxiety, apathy, depression, headaches, insecurity, irritability, restlessness, talkativeness, and sulkiness'” (link). For Magnesium’s biological function, I will leave that to the experts over at the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association:

Magnesium is the fourth most abundant mineral in the human body after calcium, potassium, and sodium. Magnesium activates more than 600 enzymes and influences extracellular calcium levels. It is essential for the stability of cell function, RNA and DNA synthesis, and cell repair, as well as maintaining the antioxidant status of the cell. It is an important cofactor for the activation of a wide range of transporters and enzymes. Also, magnesium-dependent kinases are responsible for the activation of up to 30% of the functional body proteins. Approximately 40% of total body magnesium content is intracellular, and almost 60% of magnesium is present in bone and teeth, with less than 1% in extracellular fluids.

We naturally obtain Magnesium from our diet, but most people don’t get nearly enough. Martha Shrubsole, PhD, a research professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center told Healthline,

A lot of people have received recommendations from their healthcare providers to take vitamin D supplements to increase their levels based upon their blood tests. . . In addition to vitamin D, however, magnesium deficiency is an under-recognized issue. Up to 80 percent of people do not consume enough magnesium in a day to meet the recommended dietary allowance (link).

Magnesium-deficient individuals obviously stand the most to gain from supplementation but the four benefits outlined below apply to everyone.

1. Magnesium Improves Sleep Quality

In an 8-week study conducted on the elderly, Magnesium supplementation dramatically improved sleep quality.

As compared to the placebo group, in the experimental group, dietary magnesium supplementation brought about statistically significant increases in sleep time (P = 0.002), sleep efficiency (P = 0.03), concentration of serum renin (P < 0.001), and melatonin (P = 0.007), and also resulted in significant decrease of ISI score (P = 0.006), sleep onset latency (P = 0.02) and serum cortisol concentration (P = 0.008). Supplementation also resulted in marginally between-group significant reduction in early morning awakening (P = 0.08) and serum magnesium concentration (P = 0.06). Although total sleep time (P = 0.37) did not show any significant between-group differences.

Researchers concluded

Supplementation of magnesium appears to improve subjective measures of insomnia such as ISI score, sleep efficiency, sleep time and sleep onset latency, early morning awakening, and likewise, insomnia objective measures such as concentration of serum renin, melatonin, and serum cortisol, in elderly people.

Magnesium has been described as the original chill pill and has long been prescribed to treat insomnia.

2. Magnesium Helps Optimize Vitamin D Levels

I talk a lot on this site about the power of Vitamin D in human health. Humans have a Vitamin D receptor in almost every cell. Vitamin D is a key to testosterone, athletic performance, and overall health, and there are ways to optimize it without direct sun exposure. It is a well-known fact that Magnesium plays a vital role in Vitamin D optimization. According to the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association:

The adequate balance of magnesium and vitamin D is essential for maintaining the physiologic functions of various organs. Vitamin D helps regulate calcium and phosphate balance to maintain healthy bone functions.1-6 Skeletal muscles, heart, teeth, bones, and many other organs require magnesium to sustain their physiologic functions. Furthermore, magnesium is needed to activate vitamin D. Abnormal levels in either of these nutrients can lead to serious organ dysfunctions.

It is also well-known that Magnesium deficiency impairs the body’s ability to produce Vitamin D. Doctors regularly recommend Magnesium supplementation for Vitamin D-deficient patients who do not respond to Vitamin D supplementation alone. According to Healthline,

Researchers also have noted variations in vitamin D synthesis, with some people failing to raise their levels of the vitamin even when taking high-dose supplements. Dr. Qi Dai, the lead author on the latest study and a professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said their research explains why. ‘Magnesium deficiency shuts down the vitamin D synthesis and metabolism pathway’ (link).

3. Magnesium Raises Total and Free Testosterone Levels

This study studied the effect of Magnesium supplementation and exercise on total and free testosterone levels. It measured testosterone levels resting before supplementation, exhaustion before supplementation, resting after supplementation, and exhaustion after supplementation in three study groups, two of which supplemented with varying amounts of Magnesium. The researchers concluded that “supplementation with magnesium increases free and total testosterone values in sedentary and in athletes. The increases are higher in those who exercise than in sedentary individuals.”

In another study done on ZMA supplementation (Zinc, Magnesium, and Vitamin B-6), participants who took 450 mg of Magnesium aspartate over an 8-week period observed a substantial 25% increase in free testosterone levels. We don’t know the precise role Magnesium played in this experiment given the presence of two other minerals. However, based on other studies like the one cited above it is safe to conclude that Magnesium increases testosterone levels.

I have taken Magnesium on and off for years and have noticed an increase in energy and gains. I have also noticed a dramatic increase in libido.

4. Magnesium Improves Symptoms of Depression and Anxiety

A controlled study gave Magnesium to adults who were experiencing mild-to-moderate symptoms of depression. After the 6-week intervention, patients reported fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety on Patient Health Questionnaire. The researchers concluded “Magnesium is effective for mild-to-moderate depression in adults. It works quickly and is well tolerated without the need for close monitoring for toxicity.”

For more discussion on the relationship between Magnesium and depression, see Doctor Emily Dean’s article on Magnesium for Depression (link).

Where to Buy Magnesium:

When purchasing Magnesium, be mindful of bioavailability. Bioavailability affects how much of the mineral your body can absorb and use. Magnesium oxide is quite common but does not get absorbed by the body as well as Magnesium citrate. For online purchases, my #1 recommendation is Amazon’s Solgar Magnesium Citrate, Highly Absorbable, Promotes Healthy Bones, Non-GMO. It’s Magnesium citrate, puts out a strong dose at 400 MG, and is the best bang for the buck.

For a ZMA supplement with 450mg of Magnesium that was found to increase free testosterone by 25% in the study cited above, check out MET-Rx ZMA Supplement 90 Capsules. You will be hard-pressed to find a better value product.

Conclusion:

There are a plethora of research-backed reasons for supplementing with Magnesium. I’ve focused on four of them in this article–improved sleep quality, Vitamin D optimization, increased testosterone levels, and improved symptoms of depression and anxiety.

Magnesium is one of the few supplements I’ve taken regularly over the years (Vitamin D and Zinc round out the trifecta). Decide for yourself in consultation with your doctor whether this super mineral is worth adding to your dietary regimen.

The Toronto Raptors’ championship run not only brought Canada and Toronto it’s first ever NBA championship. It established Kawhi Leonard as the world’s best basketball player. And the debate is not even close.

Kawhi has the stats. He averaged about 27 points per game, 7 boards, and 2 steals during the regular season, all the while knocking down 3’s and shooting a high percentage from the field. When the stats are there, two other metrics come into play: the eye test and winning. Anyone who watched the Raptors’ ascent last season witnessed the nightly dominance of #2. Kawhi has a commanding presence on both sides of the ball and his team is a shell of itself when he is not on the floor.

As goes winning, Kawhi’s resume speaks for itself. Not only did he win a championship and finals MVP in the storied franchise of San Antonio. He did it in Toronto where no one else had done it before. It’s one thing to defend a title and win championships as part of a dynasty. It’s another thing thing entirely to build a winning team with no legacy of winning. None of the talking heads expected Toronto to win the East much less win a championship. But Kawhi let his game do the talking for him.

I’ll make a disclaimer even though I shouldn’t have to. I am a huge LeBron James. He is my favorite player in the NBA. I think he is the second greatest player of all time behind Jordan. But the NBA’s best player debate is not a lifetime achievement award. It is a dynamic assessment that speaks to what will transpire moving forward. All of the facts point to the conclusion that Kawhi has surpassed LeBron James as the NBA’s best player.

Let me know in the comments whether you agree or disagree. If you belong to the latter, you have a tough sell on your hands.

Our culture is littered with misconceptions about sleep. I often hear things like “If you want to be successful, then you have to sleep less than everybody else” or “I’ll sleep when I’m dead”–as if sleep wasn’t vital to life itself. You probably already sense how important sleep is based solely on how miserable you feel when you don’t get enough. Sleep-deprived individuals are notorious for performing poorly at mental and physical challenges. It is in the immediate and long-term interest of every human being to get adequate sleep on a regular basis. Of all things we should sacrifice to be successful, sleep is not one of them.

Matt Walker knows just how important getting a good night’s sleep is. He’s human, for one, but he’s also a brain scientist and has dedicated his life to the field of sleep research. Dr. Walker is the author of Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams. He recently gave a Ted Talk in which he talked about how crucial sleep is to human health and well-being–and all the things that go wrong in sleep-deprived individuals. Sleep deprivation damages male and female reproductive health; impairs learning and memory; accelerates aging and dementia; weakens the immune system; and is a risk factor of heart attacks, car accidents, and even suicide. Let alone the damage it can do to personal relationships.

I’ve reposted the transcript of the talk–entitled “Sleep is your Superpower”–with permission from Ted. You can find the complete video embedded below. I now leave you with the sobering conclusion arrived at by Dr. Walker. I hope you all sleep well tonight.

Sleep, unfortunately, is not an optional lifestyle luxury. Sleep is a nonnegotiable biological necessity. It is your life-support system, and it is Mother Nature’s best effort yet at immortality. And the decimation of sleep throughout industrialized nations is having a catastrophic impact on our health, our wellness, even the safety and the education of our children. It’s a silent sleep loss epidemic, and it’s fast becoming one of the greatest public health challenges that we face in the 21st century.

Dr. Walker

Transcript:

Thank you very much. Well, I would like to start with testicles.

(Laughter)

Men who sleep five hours a night have significantly smaller testicles than those who sleep seven hours or more.

(Laughter)

In addition, men who routinely sleep just four to five hours a night will have a level of testosterone which is that of someone 10 years their senior. So a lack of sleep will age a man by a decade in terms of that critical aspect of wellness. And we see equivalent impairments in female reproductive health caused by a lack of sleep.

This is the best news that I have for you today.

(Laughter)

From this point, it may only get worse. Not only will I tell you about the wonderfully good things that happen when you get sleep, but the alarmingly bad things that happen when you don’t get enough, both for your brain and for your body.

Let me start with the brain and the functions of learning and memory, because what we’ve discovered over the past 10 or so years is that you need sleep after learning to essentially hit the save button on those new memories so that you don’t forget. But recently, we discovered that you also need sleep before learning to actually prepare your brain, almost like a dry sponge ready to initially soak up new information. And without sleep, the memory circuits of the brain essentially become waterlogged, as it were, and you can’t absorb new memories.

So let me show you the data. Here in this study, we decided to test the hypothesis that pulling the all-nighter was a good idea. So we took a group of individuals and we assigned them to one of two experimental groups: a sleep group and a sleep deprivation group. Now the sleep group, they’re going to get a full eight hours of slumber, but the deprivation group, we’re going to keep them awake in the laboratory, under full supervision. There’s no naps or caffeine, by the way, so it’s miserable for everyone involved. And then the next day, we’re going to place those participants inside an MRI scanner and we’re going to have them try and learn a whole list of new facts as we’re taking snapshots of brain activity. And then we’re going to test them to see how effective that learning has been. And that’s what you’re looking at here on the vertical axis. And when you put those two groups head to head, what you find is a quite significant, 40-percent deficit in the ability of the brain to make new memories without sleep.

I think this should be concerning, considering what we know is happening to sleep in our education populations right now. In fact, to put that in context, it would be the difference in a child acing an exam versus failing it miserably — 40 percent. And we’ve gone on to discover what goes wrong within your brain to produce these types of learning disabilities. And there’s a structure that sits on the left and the right side of your brain, called the hippocampus. And you can think of the hippocampus almost like the informational inbox of your brain. It’s very good at receiving new memory files and then holding on to them. And when you look at this structure in those people who’d had a full night of sleep, we saw lots of healthy learning-related activity. Yet in those people who were sleep-deprived, we actually couldn’t find any significant signal whatsoever. So it’s almost as though sleep deprivation had shut down your memory inbox, and any new incoming files — they were just being bounced. You couldn’t effectively commit new experiences to memory.

So that’s the bad that can happen if I were to take sleep away from you, but let me just come back to that control group for a second. Do you remember those folks that got a full eight hours of sleep? Well, we can ask a very different question: What is it about the physiological quality of your sleep when you do get it that restores and enhances your memory and learning ability each and every day? And by placing electrodes all over the head, what we’ve discovered is that there are big, powerful brainwaves that happen during the very deepest stages of sleep that have riding on top of them these spectacular bursts of electrical activity that we call sleep spindles. And it’s the combined quality of these deep-sleep brainwaves that acts like a file-transfer mechanism at night, shifting memories from a short-term vulnerable reservoir to a more permanent long-term storage site within the brain, and therefore protecting them, making them safe. And it is important that we understand what during sleep actually transacts these memory benefits, because there are real medical and societal implications.

And let me just tell you about one area that we’ve moved this work out into, clinically, which is the context of aging and dementia. Because it’s of course no secret that, as we get older, our learning and memory abilities begin to fade and decline. But what we’ve also discovered is that a physiological signature of aging is that your sleep gets worse, especially that deep quality of sleep that I was just discussing. And only last year, we finally published evidence that these two things, they’re not simply co-occurring, they are significantly interrelated. And it suggests that the disruption of deep sleep is an underappreciated factor that is contributing to cognitive decline or memory decline in aging, and most recently we’ve discovered, in Alzheimer’s disease as well.

Now, I know this is remarkably depressing news. It’s in the mail. It’s coming at you. But there’s a potential silver lining here. Unlike many of the other factors that we know are associated with aging, for example changes in the physical structure of the brain, that’s fiendishly difficult to treat. But that sleep is a missing piece in the explanatory puzzle of aging and Alzheimer’s is exciting because we may be able to do something about it.

And one way that we are approaching this at my sleep center is not by using sleeping pills, by the way. Unfortunately, they are blunt instruments that do not produce naturalistic sleep. Instead, we’re actually developing a method based on this. It’s called direct current brain stimulation. You insert a small amount of voltage into the brain, so small you typically don’t feel it, but it has a measurable impact. Now if you apply this stimulation during sleep in young, healthy adults, as if you’re sort of singing in time with those deep-sleep brainwaves, not only can you amplify the size of those deep-sleep brainwaves, but in doing so, we can almost double the amount of memory benefit that you get from sleep. The question now is whether we can translate this same affordable, potentially portable piece of technology into older adults and those with dementia. Can we restore back some healthy quality of deep sleep, and in doing so, can we salvage aspects of their learning and memory function? That is my real hope now. That’s one of our moon-shot goals, as it were.

So that’s an example of sleep for your brain, but sleep is just as essential for your body. We’ve already spoken about sleep loss and your reproductive system. Or I could tell you about sleep loss and your cardiovascular system, and that all it takes is one hour. Because there is a global experiment performed on 1.6 billion people across 70 countries twice a year, and it’s called daylight saving time. Now, in the spring, when we lose one hour of sleep, we see a subsequent 24-percent increase in heart attacks that following day. In the autumn, when we gain an hour of sleep, we see a 21-percent reduction in heart attacks. Isn’t that incredible? And you see exactly the same profile for car crashes, road traffic accidents, even suicide rates.

But as a deeper dive, I want to focus on this: sleep loss and your immune system. And here, I’ll introduce these delightful blue elements in the image. They are called natural killer cells, and you can think of natural killer cells almost like the secret service agents of your immune system. They are very good at identifying dangerous, unwanted elements and eliminating them. In fact, what they’re doing here is destroying a cancerous tumor mass. So what you wish for is a virile set of these immune assassins at all times, and tragically, that’s what you don’t have if you’re not sleeping enough.

So here in this experiment, you’re not going to have your sleep deprived for an entire night, you’re simply going to have your sleep restricted to four hours for one single night, and then we’re going to look to see what’s the percent reduction in immune cell activity that you suffer. And it’s not small — it’s not 10 percent, it’s not 20 percent. There was a 70-percent drop in natural killer cell activity. That’s a concerning state of immune deficiency, and you can perhaps understand why we’re now finding significant links between short sleep duration and your risk for the development of numerous forms of cancer. Currently, that list includes cancer of the bowel, cancer of the prostate and cancer of the breast. In fact, the link between a lack of sleep and cancer is now so strong that the World Health Organization has classified any form of nighttime shift work as a probable carcinogen, because of a disruption of your sleep-wake rhythms.

So you may have heard of that old maxim that you can sleep when you’re dead. Well, I’m being quite serious now — it is mortally unwise advice. We know this from epidemiological studies across millions of individuals. There’s a simple truth: the shorter your sleep, the shorter your life. Short sleep predicts all-cause mortality.

And if increasing your risk for the development of cancer or even Alzheimer’s disease were not sufficiently disquieting, we have since discovered that a lack of sleep will even erode the very fabric of biological life itself, your DNA genetic code. So here in this study, they took a group of healthy adults and they limited them to six hours of sleep a night for one week, and then they measured the change in their gene activity profile relative to when those same individuals were getting a full eight hours of sleep a night. And there were two critical findings. First, a sizable and significant 711 genes were distorted in their activity, caused by a lack of sleep. The second result was that about half of those genes were actually increased in their activity. The other half were decreased.

Now those genes that were switched off by a lack of sleep were genes associated with your immune system, so once again, you can see that immune deficiency. In contrast, those genes that were actually upregulated or increased by way of a lack of sleep, were genes associated with the promotion of tumors, genes associated with long-term chronic inflammation within the body, and genes associated with stress, and, as a consequence, cardiovascular disease. There is simply no aspect of your wellness that can retreat at the sign of sleep deprivation and get away unscathed. It’s rather like a broken water pipe in your home. Sleep loss will leak down into every nook and cranny of your physiology, even tampering with the very DNA nucleic alphabet that spells out your daily health narrative.

And at this point, you may be thinking, “Oh my goodness, how do I start to get better sleep? What are you tips for good sleep?” Well, beyond avoiding the damaging and harmful impact of alcohol and caffeine on sleep, and if you’re struggling with sleep at night, avoiding naps during the day, I have two pieces of advice for you.

The first is regularity. Go to bed at the same time, wake up at the same time, no matter whether it’s the weekday or the weekend. Regularity is king, and it will anchor your sleep and improve the quantity and the quality of that sleep. The second is keep it cool. Your body needs to drop its core temperature by about two to three degrees Fahrenheit to initiate sleep and then to stay asleep, and it’s the reason you will always find it easier to fall asleep in a room that’s too cold than too hot. So aim for a bedroom temperature of around 65 degrees, or about 18 degrees Celsius. That’s going to be optimal for the sleep of most people.

And then finally, in taking a step back, then, what is the mission-critical statement here? Well, I think it may be this: sleep, unfortunately, is not an optional lifestyle luxury. Sleep is a nonnegotiable biological necessity. It is your life-support system, and it is Mother Nature’s best effort yet at immortality. And the decimation of sleep throughout industrialized nations is having a catastrophic impact on our health, our wellness, even the safety and the education of our children. It’s a silent sleep loss epidemic, and it’s fast becoming one of the greatest public health challenges that we face in the 21st century.

I believe it is now time for us to reclaim our right to a full night of sleep, and without embarrassment or that unfortunate stigma of laziness. And in doing so, we can be reunited with the most powerful elixir of life, the Swiss Army knife of health, as it were.

And with that soapbox rant over, I will simply say, good night, good luck, and above all … I do hope you sleep well.

Thank you very much indeed.

(Applause)

Thank you.

(Applause)

Thank you so much.

David Biello: No, no, no. Stay there for a second. Good job not running away, though. I appreciate that. So that was terrifying.

Matt Walker: You’re welcome. DB: Yes, thank you, thank you. Since we can’t catch up on sleep, what are we supposed to do? What do we do when we’re, like, tossing and turning in bed late at night or doing shift work or whatever else?

MW: So you’re right, we can’t catch up on sleep. Sleep is not like the bank. You can’t accumulate a debt and then hope to pay it off at a later point in time. I should also note the reason that it’s so catastrophic and that our health deteriorates so quickly, first, it’s because human beings are the only species that deliberately deprive themselves of sleep for no apparent reason.

DB: Because we’re smart.

MW: And I make that point because it means that Mother Nature, throughout the course of evolution, has never had to face the challenge of this thing called sleep deprivation. So she’s never developed a safety net, and that’s why when you undersleep, things just sort of implode so quickly, both within the brain and the body. So you just have to prioritize.

DB: OK, but tossing and turning in bed, what do I do?

MW: So if you are staying in bed awake for too long, you should get out of bed and go to a different room and do something different. The reason is because your brain will very quickly associate your bedroom with the place of wakefulness, and you need to break that association. So only return to bed when you are sleepy, and that way you will relearn the association that you once had, which is your bed is the place of sleep. So the analogy would be, you’d never sit at the dinner table, waiting to get hungry, so why would you lie in bed, waiting to get sleepy?

DB: Well, thank you for that wake-up call. Great job, Matt.

MW: You’re very welcome. Thank you very much.

We like to have fun on this blog. And sometimes that fun involves pain. Here I introduce you the Bring Sally Up Push-up Challenge. The challenge is set against the song “Flower” by the artist Moby. The rules are simple. When you hear down, you go down into the push-up position. When you hear up, you rise. The object of the challenge is to make it to the end of the song. It may not seem like much, but trust me when I say it’s a lot harder than it sounds. On my first attempt, I made it to about the 2-minute mark.

Share this page with your meathead friends and fitness gurus and let me know how far you got in the comments. The challenge has been around for some time now but never seems to get old.