The SHN #20: Check 'Yo Temp, Maharaj, and Healthspan vs. Lifespan

Welcome back to The Synergetic Health Newsletter! 

In this edition, we’ll explore the potential of monitoring your body temperature.

After that, I’ll introduce you to an Indian sage, Nisargadatta Maharaj.

Then comes a discussion on healthspan vs. lifespan.

Finally, I’ll include some links to things I’ve found particularly interesting recently.

Joe Burt

🌡️ Check ‘Yo Temp

Have you ever wondered if there's a simple way to gauge your overall health? According to some experts, your body temperature may be just that useful indicator. In particular, measuring your morning and mid-morning temperature can provide valuable insights into your metabolic health and overall well-being.

One researcher who has written extensively on the role of body temperature in health is Ray Peat. Peat argues that a healthy body temperature is essential for optimal health and recommends measuring oral or armpit temperature in the morning before getting out of bed, which should be around 98°F, and it should rise to 98.6°F by mid-morning.

According to Peat, a low body temperature can be a sign of hypothyroidism, which can lead to a range of health problems, including fatigue, weight gain, and depression.

So, how can you use your morning and mid-morning temperature to gauge your health? Here are some steps you can take:

1) Measure your temperature: The first step is to measure your temperature in the morning before getting out of bed and again mid-morning. You can use a digital thermometer to measure your oral or armpit temperature.

2) Record your temperature: Keep a record of your temperature readings over time. This will help you identify any patterns or changes in your temperature that may be indicative of changes in your health.

3) Interpret your temperature readings: If your morning temperature is consistently below 98°F, this may be a sign of hypothyroidism or other health issues. Similarly, if your mid-morning temperature is consistently below 98.6°F, this may be a sign of metabolic dysfunction.

4) Take action: If you notice that your temperature readings are consistently low, it may be worth consulting with a healthcare provider to determine the underlying cause. If you’d rather take your health into your own hands, you can make a change and note if your average temperature is rising or not. Note which foods, supplements, exercise routines, sleep habits, etc lead to an increase or decrease in average body temperature.

Maintaining an adequate bodily temperature is crucial for optimal health and well-being. Here are some reasons why:

Enzymatic activity: Many of the chemical reactions that occur in our bodies are catalyzed by enzymes, which are highly sensitive to temperature. If our body temperature is too low, enzymatic activity can slow down, leading to a range of health problems.

Immune function: Our immune system is responsible for fighting off infections and diseases. However, immune function can be impaired if our body temperature is too low. This can make us more susceptible to infections and other illnesses.

Metabolic rate: Our metabolic rate is the rate at which our body burns calories. A low body temperature can slow down our metabolic rate, making it harder to maintain a healthy weight and leading to feelings of fatigue and lethargy.

Cognitive function: A low body temperature can contribute to brain fog and cognitive impairment. By maintaining a healthy body temperature, we can help improve cognitive function and mental clarity.

Generally speaking, if your morning body temperature is consistently low, it is a sign of an under-active metabolism which is commonly caused by hypothyroidism.

Dr. Denis Wilson writes “It is not possible for a person to have symptoms of hypothyroid unless they have low temperature.” He continues by talking about the plethora of symptoms associated with hypothyroidism:

“Certainly fatigue, chronic fatigue, and headaches—migraine headaches. A huge percentage of patients with migraine headaches have low body temperatures and I have seen so many people when they get their temperatures corrected, their migraines sometimes disappear completely. Irritability, fluid retention, anxiety, panic attacks, PMS, hair loss, depression, decreased memory and concentration, low sex drive, unhealthy nails, low ambition and motivation, constipation, easy weight gain for sure, irritable bowel syndrome, dry skin, dry hair, insomnia, and even some things that people wouldn’t normally expect like asthma.”

If you suffer from one or more of these issues, I would suggest educating yourself a bit more on the function of the thyroid. This is my favorite video which explains hypothyroidism and thyroid hormone basics.

How To Increase Body Temperature/Thyroid Function

Dietary Interventions: According to Peat, the western diet and many diets that are promoted as healthy include foods that directly suppress thyroid function. By eliminating these foods and focusing on thyroid-supporting foods, we can help boost thyroid function and improve overall health.

Peat recommends a diet that is high in carbohydrates and low in unsaturated fats, with an emphasis on whole foods such as fruits, vegetables, and dairy products. I’ve written about some of Peat’s nutrition advice, which is focused on boosting thyroid production, in past newsletters.

The single most recommended food source I’ve come across for boosting thyroid production is the aptly named “Ray Peat Carrot Salad.” Check out a recipe for it here.

Lifestyle Changes: Some lifestyle changes that can support thyroid function include getting regular exercise (not too intense— no breathless exercise), reducing stress, and avoiding exposure to cold temperatures. Activities like yoga, deep breathing, and meditation are helpful.

Supplements/Hormonal Support: Peat also recommends certain supplements that can help support thyroid function, including thyroid hormone and progesterone/pregnenolone. These hormones are produced in our body as part of our natural hormonal cascade and can help support thyroid function. You can learn more about this in this video and in this video.

In Summary

Having a guidepost to assist you in determining if your health interventions are “working” or not is important. This is why using your daily body temperature can be such a useful tool. For just ~$5-10 you can have answers on whether or not you are trending in the right direction and/or if certain dietary and lifestyle changes are improving your metabolic health.

Tracking your temperature, health symptoms, and any changes you make can go a long way in helping you understand your body and how its responding to your or your doctor’s interventions.

🧘 Nisargadatta Majaraj (1897-1981)

I recently watched an excellent non-duality roundtable hosted by Jonathan Gustin that included three heavyweight spiritual teachers. Rupert Spira, Adyashanti, and John Prendergast have combined to write dozens of books and have taught thousands of students worldwide.

Towards the end, the teachers were asked to give three books that influenced them and that they would recommend. “I Am That” by Nisargadatta Maharaj was mentioned twice, so I thought I’d share with you his story and teachings.

Often described as a simple and humble man, Maharaj was an uneducated shopkeeper before he was introduced to his guru in 1933. From around 1966 to 1981 he gave twice daily talks at his flat in Mumbai, drawing visitors from all around the world.

Here are some of the recorded words of Maharaj found throughout his recordings, lectures, and books:

“Once you realize that there is nothing in this world that you can or need call your own, you will look at it from the outside, as you look at a play on the stage or a movie on the screen, admiring and enjoying, perhaps suffering, but deep down, quite unmoved.”

“The mind by its very nature is out-going, always tending to seek the source of things within the things themselves. When it is directed towards the source within, it is almost like the beginning of a new life. Awareness replaces consciousness. The ‘I am’, which is a thought in consciousness, ceases. In awareness, there is no thought.”

“Thoughts always lead to identification or condemnation; they are products of preconceived notions and stand in the way of real understanding. Just as water is serene when free of ripples, so is the mind serene when free of thoughts, when it is passive and fully receptive.”

“What is necessary is whole seeing, seeing not with the individual mind, which is a divided mind, but seeing from within, seeing from the source– seeing not from manifestation as a phenomenon but from the source of all seeing. Then, and only then, will there be total perception and correct seeing and apprehending.”

“Whatever the state is when we did not know anything, that is our true state, that is Reality.”

“Liberation is seeing the life as a farce and perceiving that you (the ‘I’ without the slightest touch of objectivity) can not be an entity of any shape, name or kind.”

“The desire for freedom, which arises in the heart of the seeker in the initial stages, gradually disappears when he realizes that he himself is what he has been seeking.”

“It is simple really; ‘doing’ something and ‘not doing’ something are both volitional efforts. There must be a total absence of the ‘do-er’, the total absence of both the positive and the negative aspects of ‘doing’. Indeed, this is true ‘surrender’.”

“Let us hope, gradually you will come to realize that you are also a dreamed figure in this living dream, an integral part of the dream, and not someone apart and separate from it.”

“The solid personality that you think yourself to be is nothing more than an appearance in consciousness.”

“In the absence of consciousness there cannot be existence of any kind, and consciousness itself is merely the thought – I am. Therefore whatever arises in consciousness – and appears as a thing, an object, or an event or a feeling – can also only be of the nature of thought, i.e. without existence on its own.”

“You are not the body. You are the immensity and infinity of consciousness.”

“Give up all ideas about yourself and simply be.”

For much more about this revered guru, this site has compiled a ton of info. You can also read about this encounter with Maharaj, a remembrance of his teachings, and check out his final talks organized into this book.

Healthspan vs. Lifespan

The difference between how long you live (longevity, lifespan) and how long you remain healthy (healthspan) is a hot topic in the wellness world. Peter Attia has helped to popularize the “healthspan” concept in his excellent book “Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity.”

As you can see below, the average global life expectancy (based on 2020 data) was 73.2 years, but the health-adjusted life expectancy was only 64, a gap of 9.2 years, or 12%.

This means that roughly 12% of people’s lives are spent in a state of disease and morbidity.

Attia and many others are putting the spotlight on ways to delay the onset of these diseases to improve the healthspan of the population, not just to extend life at all costs.

If people singularly focused on ways to extend their life without extending the quality of their life, we would be left with an aging population that is not living a quality life.

This is where I remain wary about the obsession with longevity alone. Many researchers, scientists, and people wanting to live forever get all excited when a certain compound has been shown to extend lifespan in rats. But what if those extra years are spent immobile and in pain?

Instead, the focus should be on minimizing your risks of developing one of the “four horseman” of chronic disease (credit to Dr. Attia): Atherosclerotic disease (cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease), cancer, neurogenerative disease (alzheimer’s, etc), and metabolic disease (everything hyperinsulinemia to insulin resistance to fatty live disease to type 2 diabetes).

Watch Dr. Attia talk about the four horsemen of chronic disease here.

Those four contribute to over 80% of deaths in people over the age of 50 who do not smoke. Delaying the onset of these diseases will directly increase your “healthspan”, which should be the desired goal.

How best to achieve this is still being sorted out. There is promising research being done in all corners of health and medicine and that will only increase in speed in the near future.

I’m not going into everything now but some of the current best practices here are aerobic exercise, adequate sleep, appropriate levels of physical strength and stability, maintaining bone density, avoiding or minimizing alcohol, having a healthy emotional life, calorie restriction if “overnourished”, keeping LDL and ApoB levels low, sunlight exposure, limiting processed foods, among others!

𝕏 Thread of the Week

🌿🍄🍸 Marijuana and Hallucinogen Use, Binge Drinking Reached Historic Highs Among Adults 35 to 50: Thought this study worth sharing, given how well north of 50% of my readership is in this demographic. This line surprised me a bit, “While binge drinking has generally declined for the past 10 years among younger adults, adults aged 35 to 50 in 2022 reported the highest prevalence of binge drinking ever recorded for this age group, which also represents a significant past-year, five-year, and 10-year increase.”

Past-year marijuana use in this age demo reached an all time high at 28%, as did past-year hallucinogen use, doubling the previous year total to 4%. I doubt these numbers decline any time soon.

🤸🏽 Why It Pays To Play Around: Andreas Wagner, author of “Life Finds a Way: What Evolution Teaches Us About Creativity” wrote an interesting article about the history and benefits of unstructured play. He has found that “The message is clear: Just as biological evolution can require a balance between natural selection, which pushes uphill, and genetic drift, which does not, so too does creativity require a balance between the selection of useful ideas—where a focused mind comes in handy—and the suspension of that selection to play, dream, or allow the mind to wander.”

🛠️ Fix Everything in 30 Days: I’ve linked a few times already to the work of Zac Cupples, a physical therapist who shares generously online. In this blog post with accompanying videos, Cupples shares a handful of simple exercises designed to address the foundational basics of mobility.

🔦 Low-level Laser (light) Therapy (LLLT) in Skin- Stimulating, Healing, Restoring: LLLT, phototherapy, photobiomodulation, red light therapy. It goes by different names and it’s continuing to gain traction for its plethora of health benefits. Already used in medical application for reducing pain and inflammation, augmenting tissue repair, and promoting regeneration of tissues and nerves, it is also well-studied for its effects of the skin. This study looks at light therapy and its impact on skin rejuvenation, acne, photoprotection, herpes lesions, vitiligo, scars, burns, psoriasis, and more.

✔ That will do it for this time! Hopefully you got some value out of it. If you have any questions/comments/things you’d like to learn more about please don’t hesitate to reach out.

📩 If you know anyone who loves learning about these types of topics, send them this link!

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