https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmD1Y2MxpMY
Edit:2025.05.05
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The information provided in this podcast episode is for entertainment purposes and is not medical advice. If you have any questions about your health, contact a medical professional. This content is strictly the opinions of Lucas Owen and is for informational and entertainment purposes only. The references, claims, and scientific information linked to any products are
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are only applicable to those listeners who are based in the US. If you are outside the US, this information does not apply to you. It is not intended to provide medical advice or to take the place of medical advice or treatment from a personal physician. All viewers of this content are advised to consult with their doctors or qualified health professionals regarding specific health questions.
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Thank you for listening to the Boost Your Biology podcast. My name is Lucas Owen. I uncover the most cutting edge health information on the planet, ranging from hormones, nutrition, supplementation, fat loss, biohacking, longevity, wellness, and a whole lot more.
02:59
Welcome to the Boost Your Biology podcast. What is up, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome back to the Boost Your Biology podcast. Today's guest is one of the most recognizable faces in the health and fitness space, entrepreneur, educator, and metabolic optimization expert with millions of followers and a unique ability to break down complex science,
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into real world strategies. Thomas DeLauer, welcome to the podcast, man. What is up, man? It's been a long time trying to make this happen. I know. I'm grateful that you're here and I know my audience is super excited for this one. So Thomas, I'd love to learn a little bit more about what got you into this health optimization space yourself.
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It's kind of funny because this was definitely never my intent to build a YouTube channel or any real online platform. It's kind of funny. I've joked before that it's… The funny thing is, this is a total joke and it'll make sense in a minute, but I always joke that it was my…
04:01
My ulcerative colitis and my IBS that ended up making me an entrepreneur because it was really hard for me to ever be in a corporate job when I was dealing with IBS and had to run to the bathroom all the time. So I joke about that, but it also is a very real thing. And people that have ever dealt with that know, right? I was in the corporate healthcare world before and…
04:22
I was fortunate enough to have a small exit out of that and took a little bit of time off to kind of figure out what I wanted to do. And during that time, I was fortunate enough to kind of have my story picked up by a mainstream media outlet just talking about my weight loss. And that was really the beginning of it because I think people saw that I understood the biochemistry and was able to explain my own weight loss in this one sort of piece that was done.
04:50
And honestly, a couple of clips of that kind of caught wind on the internet. And then I realized, oh, shoot, you know, maybe I could explain this a little bit more. So I wrote up an ebook that was like never intended to be anything big and it just kind of exploded. And then I realized that, well, maybe there's something here and started creating content just about my own story. And it's a pretty vanilla story in that sense, because I really didn't want to
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do this. I'm a very private person, kind of an introvert. So being an influencer wasn't sort of my cup of tea, but I really enjoyed the science and I enjoyed explaining it to people. And man, it just kind of took off from there. And do you want to just remind my audience, I mean, what was the transformation? What did that look like? Yeah, I was about 300 pounds at my heaviest. I was officially type two diabetic by clinical standards. And
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But I was very athletic before. So I'm always very careful to talk about my transformation in the sense that I was really only very overweight for a few years out of my life. I didn't struggle with obesity as a kid. I was quite thin. So losing weight wasn't terribly hard for me. It was very much so-
06:02
lifestyle driven. I was high stress, corporate, sedentary. I had gone from being a rugby player and a runner to, you know, eating, used to eating five, 6,000 calories per day to all of a sudden being sedentary in a high stress environment, still eating the same. You know, so it was very easy for me to gain weight. And when the switch finally flipped and I did lose weight,
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It was hard for the first six or eight months and then something clicked and it started to go pretty easily for all intents and purposes. I mean, easy is a relative term. I just, once I put my mind to it, it wasn't like it just came off without effort. It's just, I've always been the type that once I put my mind to something, it's pretty hard to get me to go the other way. But so, you know, a couple of years, took me a couple of years to lose about a hundred pounds predominantly through intermittent fasting and then a little bit more towards the end doing more, more keto. But yeah,
06:56
you know intermittent fasting was what really did it for me just because it worked with my mindset you know i was a very all or nothing type person so it worked really well for me to just turn off eating and then turn it back on rather than trying to reduce calories chronically it just didn't work for me
07:10
Yeah. And back then, Thomas, who were the prominent figures in the fasting space? Like, who are you sort of learning from back then? Oh, dude, there was no one. I mean, because this was like, 2010, 2011. I mean, it was like, there was nothing. I mean, I guess if I had to say anyone, it would have been like Patricia Bragg, you know, like the Bragg's amino acids old lady, like who's since passed away. Like, I mean, she was the only person I ever saw publicly talking about fasting. You know, so I…
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I think when I started talking about it, there was a few figures. There was Jason Fung. There was a few of those. But during the actual time I was losing weight, I just kind of picked up on it from the healthcare spectrum that I was in and a couple of the docs that I knew suggesting it. So I wasn't even on social media at that point. Crazy, crazy. What about your approach to fasting nowadays? How has that evolved over the years? Yeah, I like to look at fasting. I always joke that it's…
08:08
Really, fasting should be the anomaly. It should be just the occasional extreme stressor. I think a lot of my old days of fasting were much more consistent, frequent fasts, whereas now it's much more one or two days a week, very aggressive, longer fasting where I'll go maybe 20 to 36 hours once a week or sometimes twice a week. I like those moderate length to longer length fasts relatively infrequently versus say a 16-8 fast.
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skipping breakfast every day. I found that that was just slowing down my metabolic rate too much. It was harder to maintain muscle, harder to maintain stamina and sex drive and everything like that when you're just chronically depleted like that. Yeah. In terms of, because at one point, did you sort of go down the rabbit hole of like the one meal a day
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diet approach at all? I was always kind of the black sheep in the fasting community in the sense that one meal a day wasn't really my cup of tea. It was really… I see the merit in it. It was just very hard for me to get adequate nutrition in one meal. Yeah. And as an athlete and someone that really had an athlete mindset, I…
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I couldn't wrap my head around like just being that depleted all the time. So it was a tough thing. But I mean, for the mindset for the right kind of person, one meal a day is awesome. I was just at the most, I was usually like a two meal a day type person that really worked well for me. If we were to sort of like view this from a broader lens, if we sort of looked at like, all right, some of the goals and objectives of fasting would be to lower blood sugar, you know, raise ketones. Over the years, Thomas, like what have you found to be
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like some of the powerful drivers for lowering, let's say, for example, HBA1C, because I know you talk about that quite a lot. Is there anything in particular that you're like, okay, I think people should really stick to these critical things to lower HBA1C?
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Yeah, not everyone is cut out for fasting, right? But I do think that having very clear defined gaps between meals is one of the most important things that we can do. I think when you look at how the pancreas functions from an enzyme level, from a beta cell level, even alpha cell and islet cells, I mean, we have to give our organs a break. We have to. And you're looking at…
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a relative sort of pancreatic exhaustion and beta cell fatigue, right? And they do overcompensate the beta cells that produce insulin. They will overwork themselves to try to keep up. And those cells can regenerate. And we've seen that. Those cells can recover, they can regenerate, but they need breaks. And I think part of the problem, in my humble opinion, is that
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we face as a society today of just constant consumption, whether you're in a surplus or not, we're just constantly consuming and grazing. And I just am a firm believer that you have to give your body a break
10:59
I've run some experiments on myself where it's hard to do, but looking at keeping my calories roughly the same, but allocating them to three or four defined eating periods versus grazing all day. It's pretty remarkable what a difference I see just in my overall strength and my overall water retention, C-reactive protein levels.
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which are really low for me to begin with, but it's really hard, you know, when you're in of one to really measure that stuff and take it to the bank. So it's not like I've made videos about it, but I'm just, I'm always curious. I feel like giving your system a break is just so important. Like never in our history or in every, any kind of historical log do we have a
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recognize people just grazing all day. You know, it's always been just you eat when you can and then you have an undefined break and then you eat again.
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So I think that's probably one of the biggest levers that people could pull. You know, there's all kinds of different, you know, hacks when you get into supplements and food and this and that. I still think, believe it or not, apple cider vinegar from an acetyl coenzyme A, that kind of piece, has some profound effects at modulating blood sugar and HbA1c, but it has to come along with, you know, a healthy diet, right? I think it's not a magic pill, but the acetic acid has some pretty powerful effects and, you know,
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you know, a coenzyme A. So another thing, I mean, there's the basic stuff. I think that sleep deprivation or just crappy sleep is probably one of the biggest drivers of
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insulin resistance, at least in the short term, in the acute phase. I mean, we've all kind of seen that literature there that it's like one night of bad sleep. I mean, it can be like a 30% difference. I mean, it's pretty wild. So when you stack that on top of stressors and you stack that on top of all these other things, and then we, of course, look at just age-related inflammation, you know, what's called damage-associated molecular patterns or DAMP, which is just the breakdown of DNA, the breakdown of tissues leaking ultimately just in flat or
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molecules that trigger an inflammatory response within our body as we get older. You know, this inflammation is essentially noise, right? It's noise. It's hard for cell signaling to occur when there's that noise. And as we get older, there's a certain degree of it that we can't combat, but there is a certain degree that we can. And inflammation is an entirely different bucket because you can talk about exercise, you can talk about diet, you can talk about supplementation, lifestyle, stress, sleep, all those things.
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But at the end of the day, like insulin resistance at its very core is an inflammatory condition. It's not a condition as a result of carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are certainly playing a part, but carbohydrate and the inability to tolerate carbohydrates is a downstream side effect of this inflammatory condition that can be caused by a myriad of things. Saturated fat, carbohydrates could be, you know, poor lifestyle stress. It can be inflammation. It can be autoimmune, anything. Yeah.
13:55
Yeah, interesting. What about in terms of your opinion on protein? How has that sort of evolved over the years? Has it sort of remained relatively stable? You do agree that like 2.2 grams per kilogram of body weight is like the upper limit. What have you… Yeah, what are your thoughts on that? My protein stance hasn't changed significantly in terms of total amount. I've always been kind of a fan of the one gram per pound sort of thing. But…
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Where I have pivoted is sort of my thought process on allocation and when you have it. I think we're starting to understand more that we can have a lot more flexibility with when we have our protein than we used to maybe think. So I'm much less kind of anal retentive about when I have it. I'm not as obsessed with getting it right after my workout. One of the things that I've noticed is that
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rather than like having some piddly wink protein meal after my workout and then starving myself the rest of the day because I don't have access to food. It's almost better to just fast the rest of the day and eat my protein when I know I can get it. You know, I don't have evidence to back this up, but I was just filming something on it today because I find it interesting that there's such a difference between going a long period of time without food, like in a fasting sense, compared to
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having like a really small little bit of protein or a little meal and then going a long period of time without eating it's like once you open the floodgates all these hormones and different things change and they no longer you know no longer have the protective or preservation mechanisms in place it's like when you're fasting you've been without food for so long that your body says okay we're clearly in a fasted state let's go ahead and start to like preserve but the moment that you break that
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things change, right? The moment that you break that, the body doesn't think it's in the time of survival anymore. So I find that
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If I'm going to have a really busy day, it doesn't make sense for me to have a protein shake after a workout knowing that I'm not going to be able to get another good meal in until dinnertime. I'd rather just fast and get all of my protein in at dinner, even though it may not be ideal for total protein count. I think when I factor in muscle protein synthesis versus muscle protein breakdown, I'm probably at a net positive.
16:09
Yeah, because you also elucidated or you shared a study about no upper limit on the protein. There's the 100-gram study that came out, was it, I think, last year. Did you want to just share that quickly with the audience here? Yeah, it was a super cool study. I mean, it was. They doubly labeled… They used a… Not doubly labeled water. Sorry, they used… They…
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isotopically labeled protein. So they basically label leucine so that they could trace it, right? They make it a radioactive isotope. So when subjects were consuming protein, they were able to trace the leucine in every stage, digestion, absorption, bloodstream, muscle protein synthesis, you name it. And what they found with this was that even when subjects had 100 plus grams of protein,
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essentially all the protein was getting absorbed and was going where we would want it to go. I mean, muscle protein synthesis rates were still elevated with a hundred grams of protein.
17:07
Not much less than 25 grams of protein was like it's just over the course of 12 hours. So it was slowly dripping So essentially it showed maybe we can consume a hundred plus grams of protein in one sitting or definitively we can consume a hundred grams of protein but possibly even more in one sitting without really having an issue with it. It's just gonna digest over time and
17:31
Now, the limitation with that study, however, is that it was using milk protein. So it was using casein and whey.
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I would love to see that same study done with just whey, you know, in a fast absorbing protein, because basically what we found is that the casein protein just simply digested slower. So it wasn't like the protein amino acids were circulating in the bloodstream for 12 hours looking for a place to go. It was just the simple fact that it took longer to digest. So what would happen with whey protein, something that absorbs fast? If we repeated that same study with whey protein in 100 gram serving, what would happen?
18:02
Yeah, yeah. No, really, I think there was music to many bodybuilders ears when they, or lots of gym goers, they were happy to hear that. When that, when that study came out, everyone was like cheering and celebrating. It was definitely a great moment for, for all of us in the health space. In terms of, I'd like to sort of transition over in terms of like supplements and or, and or peptides. I mean, I know briefly you,
18:29
You mentioned on one of your videos that you actually had some experience with ipamirelin. So do you want to sort of maybe talk about your personal experience with that? Yeah. I mean, I've experienced with ipamirelin with some of the other, you know, growth hormone releasing peptides to samorelin. Not, I don't like quite as much. The thing that I've liked about those, I mean, the recovery felt amazing. My personal anecdotal experience. I remember, you know, texting my doctor and just being like, wow, like I haven't felt this
18:57
I've recovered since I was in my 20s. This is pretty cool. And I definitely got strong. There was no doubt there. The water retention, I'm very sensitive to that. I hold a lot of water with any kind of compound. So I didn't care for that. So I ran it for about a month. All my lifts went up significantly. We're talking like 5% to 10% increases on most of my lifts. Recovery, the reason I took it initially was because I wanted the sleep benefit.
19:24
I really was interested in the sleep benefit and I knew that if I could sleep, there would be a myriad of other benefits that would come, brain, everything else.
19:32
So the funny thing is my experience with Ipamorella, and although it was amazing from a physical perspective, most of the benefits for me came mentally because I feel like I was recovered more and able to make ground mentally than I had been wanting to make. I'm very focused on improving my mental health and my emotional health. And when you're exhausted from working out and you're not recovered, it's very hard to do that. And that's the biggest benefit that I noticed.
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The drawback with ipamirelin is it still works upon the ghrelin pathway. Anything in that category is going to. If you have a hard time being disciplined with appetite, it could be quite hard, which
20:13
I am disciplined with appetite and I still found it like, well, why am I, you know, you have to really logically wrap your head around it and be like, this is not real hunger. This is ghrelin agonist type hunger. And it's just telling me I'm hungry. So, you know, sometimes I think the recovery that people get out of it possibly comes from a surplus of calories that they're not ordinarily getting. But when you're really cracking macros and paying attention to it,
20:37
Like I was able to get shredded with that stuff. So from a fat loss perspective, it like I went from I'm usually around 7% body fat. I was able to get down to like four and a half percent in like two weeks from seven. You know, it was like pretty wild. It was nuts. I mean, I messed around with some like research games to like some SLUPP and stuff at that time, which is great. But the point is, is it definitely an awesome peptide.
21:00
Yeah, I think there's, well, first of all, when we're looking at the sort of the peptide space, I'm absolutely loving the new peptides that are evolving and understanding some of the new science around that. But what would you say are some of the common like misconceptions right now around peptides? Because a lot of people are talking about it. A lot of people are bringing it to the forefront.
21:20
What would you say are some of the misconceptions around that? I'd say, I mean, the first one is these aren't steroids. It's not how it works. We're not working on disrupting hormone pathways. So that's the first thing. These are working with your natural pulses. I don't think that you can claim natural once you've used them. I mean, I think you're still an exogenous, but you're not disrupting a hormone pathway. It's not like that.
21:49
Another misconception is peptides are peptide bonds or like strings of amino acids. Some people will say they're ineffective because they're just going to end up in the amino acid labral pool. That is obviously very, very far from the truth. Otherwise, things like Ozempic wouldn't work. But it's kind of funny because collagen peptides work.
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are a peptide and people say that about that collagen. Oh, it just goes to the amino acid pool. No, it's in a peptide string. It acts as a signaling device independent of the actual amino acids. Yes, it is broken down into glycine. Yes, all that, but it's also acting as a signaling device at a localized level in its peptide form as a signal very similarly to what you would inject with a peptide or orally take with certain peptides. You know, I think,
22:38
We can address the cancer risk piece too. I mean, to a certain degree, I feel like people are very concerned about that. And that's one that I do think that what I did before I used anything that is going to promote IGF levels is I got a prenuvo scan. I got like a full body MRI scan and ruled out any potential growths or anything because
22:58
Now, I have to be careful saying anything like this, but from the professionals that I've interviewed and my own diligent research, these things don't cause cancer. But if you have existing cancer tissue or tumors, they can't accelerate the growth of them. So that's just something you want to be aware of. But I think most people have relaxed their guard a little bit with peptides. Like I'm seeing less people talking smack on them and more people accepting them.
23:25
you know, these things have been around for a very long time and arguably quite safe compared to many other things that people could be putting in their body.
23:34
Yeah, I guess what you're mentioning there around they're not as disruptive to hormones like anabolic agents, steroids, things like that. It's because, yes, you're right. They're working with the body. They're amplifying the pulse, the pulses, the signals. Some of them are probably also working on different receptor sites, upregulating growth factors on target tissues, upregulating mTOR, protein synthesis, etc.
24:00
One of the newer oral peptides, I don't know if you've come across it, is the dilucine peptide. I think you did a video. Okay. Yeah, that's a new one, which I'm pretty excited to see more research on where it actually, they compared it head to head versus leucine.
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at a two gram dosage dilucine orally, dilucine peptide outperforms regular leucine at stimulating muscle protein synthesis, which could not be matched just by upping the leucine dosage. So clearly it's not just increase your leucine, dilucine outperformed it. So I thought that was pretty cool to see in terms of like an orally active, because again, there's a lot of people out there that are not
24:46
they don't want to use like an insulin syringe, like they don't want to use needles, right? So there's people that want to use peptides, but they don't want to go down that route of like injecting as well. What would you say are some of the, I mean, over the years, you've probably experimented with hundreds of different supplements. And you've probably seen some benefit from some amino acids, maybe some vitamins, minerals, things like that. But
25:12
I mean, is there one in particular that you're like, you know, for sure it's having a positive impact on your biology subjectively, not necessarily looking at blood test results, but subjectively you're like, I feel the difference. Oh, I mean, hands down methylene blue for sure. Um, that's definitely extremely noticeable. Uh, and I don't even take a high dose of it and I don't even take it regularly. I take it when I feel like I need it. Um,
25:37
But I mean, it's ridiculously noticeable. I mean, if I take it on a day where I'm going for a long run, it's like I have virtually no fatigue at this, at my same pace. I mean, it's, it's unbelievable. So, and I, I'm aware that some people don't react to it the same way. Like I've, what I've seen is some people have huge benefit and I am like a big skeptic on things. So I don't, there's always a placebo effect and there's always things that are going to be out of my control and like out of my awareness for sure. But like,
26:07
I have a pretty good like radar for things not working or just a placebo effect. Methylene blue is powerful enough for me to safely say like, there's no way this is a placebo effect. Like this is too, it's too predictable and it's too like dose dependent and it's too like, it's measurable. So that's one that, you know, the jury's still out on if it's something that like,
26:29
I want to use for a really long time or not. I mean, I've interviewed some of the top experts on it. I feel pretty comfortable about it. I know some people will say that it's, you know, I mean, the whole like turning your tissues a different color, your organs a different color. That's just ridiculous because that's at like a septic shock dose to try to like treat septic shock. That's just, it's bizarre that people are trying to
26:51
I don't understand. I mean, it is a synthetic compound, but that shouldn't be a deal breaker for people that have metabolic dysfunction. Do you remember when it first came up on your radar, like learning about methylene blue? You know, it was biohacking Congress conference back in during the middle of COVID, like 2021. I spoke at this event that was just like,
27:16
Quite frankly, I love those guys, but this was kind of a joke. There was like 20 people because it was during COVID and I drove like three hours to get there. And I was like, what the heck? This is ridiculous. There's like 20 people here because it's the middle of COVID. But I met Dr. Scott Schur there, like the transcriptions. And I had never heard of it. And he gave me a few of these things. And I was like, this is weird. I don't want a blue face. I don't want a blue mouth. So I don't think I ever took it. And then he sent me some like
27:45
I don't know, two years later, like we kept in touch. So I tried it in like 2023 and I was like, oh wow, this works. So it had been on my radar for a while, but I actually knew of it from the hospital setting for quite some time because I've seen it used in the ICU. I came out of the healthcare industry. So like I've seen it used in the ICU for septic shock. So I knew of it. I just never really used it or heard of it in like just a recreational way, so to speak.
28:14
When I first tried methylene blue, I remember the very first day that I used it. I was actually using it to help me study for my exams, knowing that a lot of the research was focused on memory performance. It was also crazy to see how almost comparable it was to nicotine in terms of improving episodic memory, verbal memory. It ticked off all the boxes and I'm like, man, I tried it. I took one milligram.
28:40
which a lot of people will say is a low dosage, but I personally think it's a hormesis compound. Like you don't want to go too many people are overdosing in my opinion. Wait, wait, wait. Yeah. I'm in the same ballpark one to four milligrams for me. Yep. Yep. That's enough. And that does the job and it doesn't inhibit nitric oxide too much because a lot of, a lot of people don't know this, but yeah, high doses of methylene blue does inhibit nitric oxide production.
29:06
So like, you know, we're talking about 10 to 20 milligrams. But yeah, I think it's a hormesis compound. There was a podcast that was released, I think it was like seven or 11 years ago. It was a podcast called Smart Drug Smarts. I don't know if you ever came across that. And it was a guy called Jesse Lawler. It doesn't run anymore, but he was talking about, he interviewed like a professor on
29:33
He was literally just an expert on methylene blue. And the way he described its antioxidant effects, I'm like, okay, now I understand how it's working. And I think microdosing sporadically for a healthy individual like yourself and I, like microdosing every now and then a great performance enhancing compound. Yeah, totally agree. What about in terms of
29:56
The creatine research evolving, I mean, you've probably seen a lot of these new studies coming around, brain health, optimizing mood, things like that. What's been your stance on creatine over the years? I've always been a fan of it ever since back in the day when my grandma was telling me that it was going to kill me. I remember that. I remember being a teenager and taking creatine when I was playing rugby and her just being like,
30:24
telling my mom, you know, your son's on steroids. This is like, you know, he's going to kill himself. No, that's not quite. But so, I mean, I've been a fan of it forever, but, you know, I'm seeing a lot more evidence coming out, which is cool. But it also just kind of, I'm a little like burnt out on creatine research because it's just like, I don't know. It sounds almost conceited to say, I don't want it to sound like that. But when you're in the space that kind of you and I are in, like,
30:54
we're on the forefront of this stuff anyway. And then like, so this is like the wave that's three years later than like everything that like, so we've been talking about this stuff for a long time. So now we're getting monumentally more research, but it's also kind of like a game of like, you know, we saw that coming, we saw that coming, we saw that coming. So I'm not seeing anything that's like, completely blowing my hair back. Other than the fact that it's just confirming that, yeah, I thought this stuff was awesome. It is awesome.
31:18
One thing that I have changed recently is I definitely go a lot higher dose than I used to. I go more like 10, 15 grams per day versus just like three to five. I used to be a fan of two to three grams just for a nootropic effect. Then I started using five grams and that was okay. I never really wanted to go above 10 or 15 because I didn't want the water retention. Then I
31:40
When I started realizing how amazingly effective it is in the short term after a bad night of sleep, especially after, you know, I've got two young kids. So it's like, then I'm like, okay, there's something here. When I started upping the dose to like 10 grams on the days I was sleep deprived, it was such a noticeable difference in my memory and my recall, my, you know, fluid intelligence really increased.
32:02
I'm like, this is, there's something here. So I sucked it up and I went up to 10 or 15 grams a day and I dealt with the water retention, which subsided after like a month. And, uh, you know, now I, so now I regularly like 10 is my base and I'll go up to 20 on days where I'm more exhausted and kind of, uh, it makes a big difference.
32:18
Yeah. Did you ever come across any of the research around the precursor of creatine, the GAA? GAA, we just like literally we like just have a topic like pending on that. I was going to film it today, but I didn't have time today. So no way. There was a relatively new study that came out on the whole GAA piece, which is kind of interesting.
32:37
Yeah, I literally released an Instagram post about it two days ago. I think it's going to be a hot topic. Yeah, the guanidinoacetic acid, that GAA being as a precursor for creatine. There's also a lot of studies done back in, I think it was like late 70s. And then they sort of like abandoned the research and now they've sort of picked it back up. A lot of the research is coming out of Serbia now.
33:04
But yeah, I've personally used GAA with creatine and the combination of both is, in my opinion, I think is superior to just regular creatine. So that's going to be an interesting video. I'm looking forward to you covering that one.
33:23
Yeah, it's interesting. I know there's like some reductions in glutamate, you know, so it's like there's it's what I'm kind of connecting with it is like in that one study, I think it was like that November 2024 study that was like the big one that's kind of had more stuff come out since then. It's yeah, essentially.
33:41
They also saw decreases in glutamate, which is an indicator that it might not be a bad idea if you're taking GAA and creatine to add in a little bit of glutamine too, just to be able to kind of offset that glutamate reduction. You know, I have mixed feelings on glutamine in general, but I think for athletes, I think there is some benefit to it anyway, just from a gut barrier side of things. But yeah,
34:03
I don't know. If people are glutamate sensitive, they can be really sensitive when their glutamate levels go down. For me, especially if glutamate levels get too high, I have a very serious problem with that. MSG, I won't sleep for two days. It's terrible. Yeah, I'm the exact same. The headaches, you just feel…
34:20
you can actually feel like intoxicated and just like brain foggy. Definitely feel the same way. Um, what about trimethylglycine? You've, you've covered that extensively. I think TMG is a rising star in the, in the supplement space. Thanks to a lot of your content. Um,
34:38
Again, was this one that you came across many, many years ago and now all of a sudden a lot of people are talking about it? I've always loved TMG. I've always taken TMG and creatine, but also taurine when I'm doing longer mountaineering expedition stuff.
34:55
And there was just something I couldn't put my finger on what it was. It was just a nice combination. The creatine was obviously the hydration piece. The taurine had some time to exhaustion pieces where there is strong evidence. And the TMG just made sense as a methyl donor to kind of help
35:10
processes just when you're kind of exerting yourself for long periods of time. So I've always been a fan of it, at least over the last like four or five years. But just in the last couple of years have I become somewhat obsessed with it. And I think the evidence is so strong, but it's such like a
35:26
a vanilla like kindergarten supplement for people. Like you say, betaine and they're just like, yeah, it's been around forever. That's like child's play. Like give me the big stuff, give me the DMA or give me, you know, whatever. Like, well, you know, this shit's pretty awesome. Like when you really look at the evidence behind it, I know there's more RCTs coming out. They're showing that's maybe not quite as amazing, you know, compared to some of these other things. But my personal experience with TMG is, um,
35:52
If you are training above like a normal threshold, it's hugely beneficial. I don't know if it's super effective for people that are
36:02
you know, maybe not training a whole lot. I think there's some insulin resistance effects, so it's always good to lower homocysteine levels and have that methylation effect as a methyl donor. So I think there's like liver detoxification processes, gallbladder benefits that can come from that. So I think for regular people, like there's these internal, but I say regular people, there's people that aren't necessarily athletes, right? General population. There's benefits that they may not be able to see, but are still good.
36:28
But when you get into the higher intensity work, I think that's where the benefits really come in and people start to notice it.
36:35
Yeah. Yeah. I've been impressed by a lot of the newer research on TMG. And there was actually, funnily enough, many, many years ago, this would have been about maybe like, I think eight years ago, I made a post on the Reddit forum, the Reddit nootropics. And I made a post saying TMG before bed is wonderful. It was some crazy just random post. And I was talking about how
37:00
Taking TMG before bed, I'd get like this snapback effect where I'd wake up feeling like really refreshed and revitalized and just feeling amazing mental clarity and all that sort of stuff. Unfortunately, back then, I didn't have like an aura ring, so I wasn't able to track my sleep. Yeah, I was a fan from day one. And on a slightly different note, there's another…
37:25
I'm not sure if you've sort of looked into it in a whole lot of great detail is L-carnosine. Oh, as a precursor for what is it? I mean, I'm familiar with carnosine, but I haven't looked into it any particular way to make a video on or anything. Yeah, well, that's also popping up as well alongside a lot of the new creatine research, L-carnosine as a mitochondrial enhancer.
37:54
That's an exciting one. And that's one I reckon that if you've responded really well to taurine, to TMG, to creatine, like high doses of L-carnitine is a…
38:06
It's been years since I'm literally writing it down because it's been years since I've done anything on carnosine. I think I probably have some old videos out there. It's seeing a reemergence, I think, mostly because lots of people focus on anything that can increase mitochondrial biogenesis and L-carnosine does have some pretty strong literature to support that. And also, I mean, the main research is around inhibiting AGEs, advanced glycation end products, which I think you covered that. But yeah,
38:36
Yeah, I think, I mean, in terms of, I mean, you've been in this space for years. Like what excites you? Like what, to this day, like what excites you in the health optimization space? Man, I think I am excited so much more on the neurochemistry side now. You know, I really am just, like what really makes us tick? I feel like in so many ways, we've exhausted a lot of what the research can find in the physical body. Maybe, I mean, we haven't exhausted it. There's always more, but yeah,
39:06
I feel like the low hanging fruit is our brain at this point. And when you look at my interest in neuroscience started with really my wife's TBI a couple of years ago. She had a pretty serious traumatic brain injury. She got kicked in the head by her horse. And a lot of my research in the ketone space and my work with the DOD, I've got some contracts with the special forces on the army side.
39:33
And I'm very familiar with TBI protocols from that sense, from a prophylactic way and just, you know, post-acute. But man, I just got into this whole just obsession with neurological health and brain health and post-TBI and all these things that could be applied in other ways for athletics and for performance and for just…
39:55
mental well-being altogether so i'm just obsessed to a point where like i mean i create videos that don't even get many views because on those topics because it's just like this is the stuff i want to create um and you know i've become increasingly interested in just consciousness as a whole and like what makes us tick and um you know our own sort of
40:17
experiences and history as human beings in terms of our own individuality, like why we perform certain ways, why certain things are our roadblocks in performance, dealing with from the neuroscience side, but also the emotional side. It's just fascinating to me because these are levers that may not sound sexy on the surface, but they're the biggest levers that someone could pull to perform better. And
40:40
So I'm excited there. And, you know, I hope that I can do more in that world because it's just so fascinating to me. But there's also a cool interplay because, you know, there's the metabolism side of the brain, the metabolomics piece, and then there's the neuro side intersect. And, you know, like Dr. Chris Palmer is such a perfect example of someone that's taken like a metabolic theory and applied it to the brain. I know so much about the mitochondrial piece and the metabolic machinery of the brain that
41:07
I think now it's time I learned the other side of it. And I don't know, it's just fascinating to me. You know, I'll never be able to win a Nobel Prize in any of this stuff, given I don't have any credentials there. But it's the most exciting to me.
41:23
It really is. Yeah, I feel the same way, man. I'm always really excited to see more research on like how various nootropics elicit either like a short term effect or a long term effect. Like if you look at a lot of the research, a lot of the nootropics that are out nowadays, a few of them, like they'd lack initial like acute effect studies, right?
41:48
And then you've got like the things like Bacopa Monieri, which is a herbal extract from Ayurvedic medicine that demonstrates benefits after 12 weeks. But I think, yeah, that neurochemistry side, are you also interested in understanding the roles and applications or the effects of different neurotransmitters as well, like on different regions? Yeah, because I mean, it's…
42:16
It took me years to even understand thoroughly what like, aside from, you know, a neurotransmitter, basic fundamental understanding of traveling across the cleft and, you know, like
42:27
Like truly understanding like what makes these and it was Dr. Dom D'Agostino just chilling in his hot tub one night in Florida that was like explaining to me like this, you know, the snare and how it kind of works like this at a very like serious true mechanistic level, like what's happening with dopamine. And he was explaining to me how Botox works.
42:46
That's how this whole discussion, he was like, oh yeah, here's what Botox does and Dysport and this and that and how it works at a neurotransmitter level to a certain degree, which is why there's effects on depression with Botox. My mind was blown and I'm like, all this time, we think of these as little messengers across a cleft and I'm like, these things are freaking far beyond that. If there's this much science in a damn neurotransmitter,
43:16
Imagine what's going on in the rest of the uncharted territory of our brains. The good part about it as well, Thomas, is that a lot of these neurotransmitters are so modifiable. They're very easily modifiable. I mean, at least I think that because I know like if I want to supercharge the dopamine axis, then I'll load up on a lot of the dopamine precursors like L-phenylalanine, L-tyrosine,
43:42
And even if you combine it with BCAAs, you're blocking the uptake of tryptophan in the brain. Therefore, you've just created a brain state that's dopamine dominant. So it's like, I love how we can just manipulate and modify the neurotransmitters. And then we can actually subjectively experience life, what it's like to be like, let's say, dopamine dominant or serotonin dominant or acetylcholine. Yeah, totally, man. They're easily…
44:08
and you can deplete them and they come back. That's the thing. A perfect example is obviously there's a lot of different compounds that recreationally will completely deplete serotonin. The point is that
44:26
When done under control with even just various supplementation not even going a recreational drug route. It's not what I'm talking about It's just they're highly modifiable highly, you know easily too easy to manipulate and they typically come back right so it's There's there's exceptions. I mean you can destroy your brain Don't get me wrong but being able to I mean caffeine is a great example of like changing your brain state right it it
44:52
You always are going to borrow from tomorrow for today to a certain extent, no matter which way you choose it. And I think that comes with a great deal of responsibility. Like someone needs to be able to handle that, right? If you're willing to have a bunch of caffeine today and tomorrow, you need to also accept the fact that, yeah, you can use something like ruticarpine, you can get it, but you're still going to pay a price a couple of days later. It's just the way it goes, but it will come back.
45:17
Yeah, no, great, great point there. And I was actually going to ask you a few questions just to sort of wrap up around the caffeine front. Have you gone periods where you've like taken big breaks from caffeine or you're pretty happy to just keep it in your routine regularly? I keep it in my routine regularly, but occasionally I take like five days off. So it's pretty, I don't know, man. I mean, I've had, when I cut out caffeine entirely and I've done longer stents, 30, 60 days,
45:45
I'm not going to lie, man. I don't notice a significant improvement in my quality of life. Actually, let me take that back. I noticed zero improvement in my quality of life when I completely cut out caffeine personally, but I noticed a…
46:01
reduction in my quality of life when caffeine is not there. And I don't even drink a lot. I drink green tea, you know? And it's like, why am I like, it's just silly for me to like, I'm going to cut out green tea because I want to cut caffeine out. That just seems like a, like an egotistical move on my end to prove a point when it's like, we're talking 40 to 60 milligrams of caffeine from this green tea. Like, is it worth even cutting out this pleasure that I have in my life that actually makes me feel good to get rid of 40 milligrams of caffeine? Like, no, no,
46:30
Yeah, no, there's definitely a lot there with the addiction side of things. Did you ever also experiment with nicotine at all? Yeah, you know which one I mess around with? I don't know if I have it right here. Like the Troscriptions, the blue canteen, it has like a little methylene blue and like a quarter milligram or a half milligram of nicotine in it. If I go over like two milligrams of nicotine, I'm super nauseous. Yeah. Yeah.
46:55
I'm the same. I'm the same as well. Do you feel like you're deriving any like specific nootropic effect from nicotine when you use it? Nicotine, I would say my recall is better and my verbal recall. So it's a very good compound on days I'm filming when I just need to, you know, a lot of times like I'm reading multiple studies and then I'm like kind of creating some bullet points and I need to remember high points of the studies when I'm filming.
47:25
And I can usually remember the meat and potatoes of a study, but if I want to remember more than just the abstract and want to remember any details, that can get exhausting when you're filming for 10, 12 hours. But I found that nicotine helps with that recall significantly, like short-term recall. Yeah, awesome.
47:42
In terms of your like building out your YouTube channel, I just want to say that I've probably watched well over like 500 of your videos at this point. And I've also shared your content and an enormous amount of times on just forums and things like that. And I just want to say just how much respect I have for what you've done. If you've grinded it out, it's been a long like people don't see it.
48:07
like behind the scenes, but I know that you're working your ass off, man. And you've worked so hard over the years. And as someone who's like inspired by yourself to create content in a similar way, like I know how much effort I'm putting in, but then I look at you and I'm like, damn, this guy has been doing this for years. So is there any maybe like final messages for those that are like inspired to create content or, you know, want to create their own brand? Do you have any sort of
48:36
you know, words for them? Yeah. I mean, the first thing is feed the stallion, starve the pony is a saying that I always learned. So,
48:45
You continue to make stuff that does well. Don't try to, like when you're getting started, obviously you can always do things that don't do well later, but when you're getting started, you feed the stallion, you starve the pony. And that means you, you continue to do the things that work and you don't try to fix the things that don't work. You don't try to become good at the things you're not good at in the beginning. There will be time for that. But in the beginning, you always have to feed the stallion, you starve the pony later on. Like now here I am 10 years into this,
49:13
Now I'm down to just create a video that I know is going to suck eggs. Like it's fine. Like if no one, if only there's only 500 people in the world that want to watch this video, like have at it. Like I'm not trying to like, I've got plenty of other content that'll explode. So that's a big one. The next one is that you have to create content on what you are passionate about in terms of the actual deliberate subject matter. So people might say, well, I'm passionate about fitness. No, you need to find content.
49:38
I was passionate about metabolomics. I was passionate about mitochondrial function that I became obsessed with it. And I became to the point where like people will pick up on that. They pick up on that in your content. Like people know when I'm talking about something that I'm just not that interested in, but I feel compelled to make a piece on.
49:58
You can't hide that shit. You just, you can't hide it. And it will come off in terms of watch time. There are so much more going on than just a talking head on the screen. Like people feel your energy. They feel what you're bringing to the table. And I don't just mean like exuberance energy. Like they feel what you're bringing there. And if you don't want to be there, there's subtle cues they're going to pick up on that. So you're better off to just
50:23
get obsessed with the stuff you like to talk about and start that way. And there'll be plenty of times to create content you don't want to create, but also like who has time for that? Like create content you want to create, help people with what you're good at. And that's, that's how it worked for me. I just stayed in my lane. And you know, another piece of advice for people, unless you are like literally a political brand, just stay out of politics, just stay, you know what, just be like, you can talk about health. You can talk about stuff, just
50:53
People like, oh, I want to get controversial. You can get controversial in your own lane. Just stay true to who you are if you want to have longevity in what you're doing. Just stay in your lane.
51:03
Yeah, no, that's brilliant advice. And yeah, like you said there, just staying true to what you're really passionate about, the rest will follow. The rest will just sort of fall into place and people can read that energy. They can see it behind, like they can feel it. And I've also noticed that myself with some of the content that I've created. The videos that I'm not super enthusiastic about, but I know that just sort of need to get done. I'm just like my audience can pick up on that. But yeah,
51:33
Thomas, I want to say a massive thank you for coming on the podcast, man. It's been an absolute pleasure. I'm not even going to say where can my audience find you because I'm just going to leave a link in the podcast show notes. You guys need to check out Thomas's YouTube channel. He's phenomenal. His Instagram, all of his social media platforms are absolutely incredible. If you guys want to learn more about the nerdy science, get into the weeds of similar stuff to what I do as well, check out Thomas Talao. But otherwise,
52:01
Man, thanks so much for coming on the podcast. You bet, brother. Thanks for having me, man.
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Edit:2025.05.05
与健康优化专家托马斯·德劳尔 (Thomas DeLauer)探讨了托马斯从超重到成为健康健身领域领军人物的个人经历、对乏食和蛋白质摄入的演变观点、管理胰岛素抵抗的重要性，以及肽和补剂在健康优化中的作用。
托马斯分享了他对生活方式选择对代谢健康的影响以及各种饮食策略背后的科学原理的见解。在本次对话中，托马斯和卢卡斯深入探讨了与健康优化相关的各种主题，重点关注亚甲蓝、肌酸和三甲基甘氨酸等补剂。讨论了这些化合物的不断发展的研究、他们的个人经历以及对认知能力的影响。对话还涉及神经化学在健康优化中的重要性、咖啡因和尼古丁的作用，以及对健康领域内容创作者的见解。
Edit:2025.05.05
