Depression, Anxiety, And Mindfulness With @VitalSignsBrendon

[Music] this is the Andre Segovia show s Everyone welcome to the Andre segov show I'm your host on dressy govia thank you so much for joining on this episode the program where I'm finally back in the proper studio uh to record this episode on today's program I have a special guest from the bucktimes name is Brandon Fallon uh if that name sounds familiar is because we actually done an Instagram live that I repurposed and published across the video platforms and podcast platforms where we talked the topic of Taiwan and the CCP and the threats thereof the ccp's making against Taiwan but that's not the topic for today it's Health most importantly something that's uh probably near and dear to a lot of us because we either struggle with it ourselves or know someone that deals with it depression anxiety and what we can do to address that and Brandon has been doing a health-centric show for at least a year now over at Epoch TV I'll be leaving links to certain episodes that we mentioned on today's conversation on the show notes companies episode at www.gover.com along with his socials where you can follow him instead to dates as he publishes more topics that he's able to flesh out more and he has experts on the field of set topics that uh he's able to discuss more in depth than he and I are able to talk about on today's program but I still picked his brain be and shared some stuff of my own uh because well Health we all need to at least give attention to it um because sooner or later we're gonna have to there's an expression in Spanish it's called it's better to prevent than to lament so when it comes to our health if we can prevent certain things it's better than the lamented later so here's my conversation with Brandon as we discuss mental health Brandon Fallon thank you so much for joining me on the under Segovia show it's good to have you on thanks for having me address hey I knew you better from doing current events foreign policy and and covering those kind of topics along politics and you shifted your show to to health can you explain uh the shift of focus well I think largely it's because there's posts uh covert pandemic there's a much larger demand people are not as trusting of of what's been offered in terms of health services as they were in the past I think a lot of people have been slammed by by covet or covert related factors and they're in need of something they're in need of Health Improvement they're looking for ways to to deal with different health problems from The Fallout of covert and related issues and um the people are looking for answers and in a lot of cases they're looking outside the box they might have looked in before and that's something I I'm trying to give a full picture of Health that incorporates multiple multiple aspects and um to cater to that need yeah and that I kind of approached uh some topics of conversation the same way where I felt that people needed to know they were hungry to know about uh um physical wellness physical fitness um ultimately mental and that's where I haven't touched on anything with respect to really mental since very early on in my um rebooted podcast so uh and you've actually had a couple of episodes which for the listening and viewing audience I'm going to be leaving links to the epoch TV posts that Brandon did or with respects to depression and anxiety where you'd delve a lot deeper than we'll be able to get to on um today's episode but we do have a mental health crisis in the USA and I'm not going to talk about those that actually suffer from uh prescription drugs or anything of the sort but something a little more I guess easier to to understand and address and that is you actually covered screen addiction as being one of them and that's just the precursor to others getting more involved in some dopamine fixes such as getting involved social media um but stuff that that you've seen uh a screen addiction affecting uh sleep right that's stuff that you covered too yeah I mean I I kind of categorize it into General things that that overstimulate us and uh one aspect of of getting on social media using these devices is the exposure to a certain type of light that stimulates the brain and if you relate that to our our ancestral heritage you know we we didn't have exposure to to certain types of light at night time but and from my understanding well you know what I've I've got it from speaking to different doctors and sleep specialists you when you when you have that exposure to sunlight or bright light in the morning it's um it basically tells your brain to stop producing melatonin which is the the sleep hormone and it it facilitates it that hormone kicking in when it's supposed to when you're ready ready to go to bed so if you're if you're getting ready you're supposed to be going to bed and you're again stimulating your brain with bright light from your device then it's going to be counter to getting a good night's sleep yeah and there have been some people that that talked I think some of them trying to simplify and call it a blue light so now they have a blue light filter on their cell phones that wasn't the point the point is the the stimulation that that we get from um the screen because I do know some folks that just apply the blue filter because Android launched it then um there's that true tone um setting on iPhones where the the color of the screen just Fades away because they eliminate the blue light as if that is what fixes the problem um it's the engagement and it's the constant feeding of stimulation into the into the eyes too that just just keeps a hyperactive brain and how are you supposed to go to sleep if you know just you're still in that state um but there and and to that as you you've been learning well at least the reporting on a lot with respects to what sunlight does to us we were told during the lockdowns don't go outside and a lot of people that live in uh in urban places they don't have Windows like some people that have a private property that have a yard they can access or this and that can can probably get it from and that was more a lot more harmful to those folks and I think a lot of them also lost their sleeping rhythms because of that but I mean you probably noticed it yourself I mean if you if you're stuck in the house all day and you don't you don't even get sometimes you know you find ourselves working on the weekend and that even that casual walk stroll outside falls to the Wayside and you don't you don't go to bed in the same state at night as a result I think I mean you just even just a small dose of sunlight every day it helps you to sleep and and puts your body helps maintain the Rhythm that your body is supposed to be in that leads to a domino effect where you you have a lack of sleep that affects your mood the next day that affects your productivity that affects your interactions with your co-workers and eventually your loved ones um and in my case elevates uh stress uh and for some people even anxiety just and it's just because of a lack of sleep um historically I've had my my issues with sleep um that was more due to the fact that uh besides battling personal demons but it was more along the lines of my my back pain that I dealt with I just could not get comfortable um so people that see me as of course like oh so yeah black guys like well yeah because um I would sleep three four hours and I said why I sleep if I didn't rest um and I ever since I got into health and fitness to be able to shed a lot of my weight didn't alleviate my back pain which thank God I don't have anymore to that respect um it's I've slept better but I my relationship with sleep is still my number one struggle um as you can work out all you want but unless you sleep where you don't get your recovery some of my personal trainers have told me it's like hey if you have a choice between working out or sleeping to sleep and it's I just learning that hey I'm not eating all that much but because I'm not sleeping enough my body's storing fat so instead of getting into a fat burn state I'm getting into a fat preservation so that's what the body fat numbers go up despite the fact working out like hitting the iron for an hour or whatever it's like five times a week and it's as if I didn't work out so it's the power of sleep is is amazing and it's it is constantly under attack because of our very things with our screens but some people have a hard time putting down their screens that's the problem if it's not the phone as a TV if it's not the TV it's a tablet or something in between um or even our cars have screens and it I I don't know would you do you did Cover a little bit of some Social Media stuff not specifically Tick Tock but that was that was me kind of bringing it up um but I do I recall did you cover some Social Media stuff not too long ago I think in in looking at screen addiction I I did some coverage of um I'm not not pretty quite General coverage of people of social related social media addiction um yeah I mean these these apps you know like Instagram Facebook Tick Tock they're they're very carefully designed to keep you on them and it's the scientists have found the the dopamine that they the the flashing lights the combination of sounds and everything it's it's a reward and it triggers a dopamine release in your brain and they compare that to the effect that you get people get from using cocaine which is uh pretty disturbing and um yeah I mean it's it's they're designed to keep you on them and as a result people are people suffer sleeping problems it which as you as you said yourself it leads into other things it can lead it to anxiety you can lead it to depression um I think the reason I was just reading recently that there's there's a heightened increase or risk of suicide suicidality among particularly young girls who uh found to have a tick tock addiction yeah and I've I'm just in what you said there reminding me of that of that episode that you did because you were highlighting the concerns about children or youths getting access to these screens because as adults we're we're kind of the guinea pigs and we're seeing the ramifications among our peers it's those that have had depression and sometimes it might not even be all that much where uh like well I'm not following uh any of these glamorous people I'm just following like uh national parks and stuff but if you're always stuck in a concrete jungle or you're not there and you see people posting that they're enjoying their time there you start envying their life it's like how do you how do you enjoy that how you get that there was a meme that I saw that was actually pretty hilarious in that there's the picture what you see on Instagram and then what's behind it the whole line of people everybody trying to take that picture because it's it's created this like this envious Styles like I need to get my social media um their bump my my exposure and stuff like that and for in some cases that's a side story but it's it's affected um those natural states of places where it's destroyed some environments because of people just showing up just to try to get that Instagram picture um and it is sad but it's it is the power of the influence of social media and as you mentioned it was Forbes at least I found it on Forbes the title of the article was digital crack cocaine the science behind Tick Tock success so they're specifically talk about Tick Tock there's been a lot more attack on Tech talk generally it's all social media but they were trying to attack it because there's Tick Tock brain like how do we go from long form videos to one minute videos to 30 seconds videos to 15 second videos yes it it's amazing how they conditioned us to that yeah it's um yeah I think it's it's a very concerning situation and particularly tick tock on on multiple levels it's not just the fact that it has this addictive effect there's also questions about what what Tick Tock does you know with with the data it collects and everything and where what the Chinese Communist party is doing with that data that's a whole other story that was my previous shot um yeah but I think like one I remember seeing a comment from one of my viewers on one episode I was the the screen addiction episode a comment a viewer commented Chateau was quite funny the fact that at the end of the episode I'm saying you know follow me on Instagram follow me on Twitter and there's a certain irony here right I mean we're doing we're doing this show it's going to be broadcast on Instagram it's going to be on YouTube we get something out of it I mean it's and there is there is something it's a double-edged sword you know I'm I get I get a lot of satisfaction and I think there's certain health benefits and being able to to get something out there to get your message out and and hopefully it's having a beneficial effect for people and you know especially with art um you know to to be able to create something in a unique way that that offers a different perspective on the world then put it out there you can put it out and get it seen in a way that was never possible before and it's it's through this technology and that that can have a very powerful effect on on Mental Health it can be very reinforcing of self-esteem and self-concept so the I think as much as we we want to draw attention to the the dangers especially for children I think we also have to acknowledge the the light side or the The Beneficial side of this technology at the same time yeah and then it's through education and quite honestly there's a there's a a phrase that's used often especially in health and fitness everything in moderation and because yeah you can overwork yourself uh exercising and it just becomes an addiction you probably heard the term Gym Rats because people just like oh they just love having that that gym life yeah we don't have a life outside the gym and they're not improving anything they're just they're just addicted to working out so even something that seems healthy can be bad you can eat too clean and hurt yourself so there is moderation and I think an education on this is important um and that episode that you highlighted uh when you dropped that episode I remember that my wife and I were having this very conversation because our daughter turned 10 this year I'm like well when um is she gonna have her own phone because we know that's the window to everything and well we we settled that debate but then there was the whole thing's like yeah but she wants to connect with friends and family like well how do you go about doing that unless it's an iPhone and you have like someone on FaceTime or whatever but they want the social aspect of things um even in games with uh you have this open world concept multiplayer world where you're interacting with other people you don't know who they are you know so it's so what I instead of telling her that these things don't exist is just sit down and start educating her about these things and the dangers of them um like just she will understand the dangerous just yet so what I do because these tools are a lot for parents is uh screen time limitations so a certain time she's like my phone turned off that's because that is not letting you use it Beyond this so that is something that I think is required from from parents to acknowledge that hey these they live on screens and after 2020 I mean there's a reason why Zoom teams and the like they exploded because of online learning and some other people are still working from home in fact as I was getting into the uh into the office this morning I got a text uh not a text a post from social media saying that uh Nancy Pelosi staffers in San Francisco are being told to work remotely because of dangerous crimes in San Francisco so like well it's not going away anytime soon for whatever reason uh so like you said it's a double-ish sword absolutely but um it's it is how we are interacting and we do have certain control or at least we can engage in best practices and learn some disciplines that we could then pass on and hopefully our kids don't become too addicted but more so than we were yeah and I think part of it is you know people are well some people are more predisposed to addiction than others and there's so there's different factors that lead into that and I think an important factor just yeah I've noticed you know in my own life is it's it's the the presence of Alternatives it's the presence of um you know healthier Alternatives if you if you're aware if you're if you're familiar with the what it means to the benefits of being out of the sun of you know if a child is accustomed to going out and playing with other children and they're getting the social interaction of that the the the fresh air and everything then they're going to be I think they're going to be less inclined to to be to go and lock themselves in a room and and get lost in the screen for hours on end because they've already experienced the the reward the the biochemical payoff from from doing the healthy thing so they're gonna I think they're going to be less susceptible to becoming addicted not just to to screens but um the an array of things yeah and I agree because that's exactly the practice that my wife and I've been trying to have for our children um they love books and I love those little books physical books not digital books that defeats the purpose um we do balance uh media time with outdoor time and they always prefer to be outdoors if given the option unless there's actually fun that they're going to want to watch but the point is that we try to learn to balance things out with them but in terms of adults and this is where you pick on some of these things on on your program and you were highlighting mindfulness I'm not such an episode and I think that's a good way for us to also close out because of your limit on time too um and speaking to adults with uh respects to mindfulness because that's one of the ways that we can combat uh certain anxieties depressions and and things like that well what have you learned about mindfulness and techniques and tricks if you can share with any of that with us what I think of mindfulness I I always remember a book I brought for my dad going back probably 15 years now and it was it was kind of a situation where it was his birthday was coming up and I really had no idea what to get him I saw this book and um I was doing a little bit of meditation myself at the time and I had well Dad might actually look at this and because it was had these all these photos it was a very photographic book and um it was just it was just like a page describing a different mindfulness focus and I I probably ended up reading it more than my dad was sitting down and I don't think he he really looked at it and um I think it just like it describes um you know if you're eating you know pay attention to the flavor of the food pay attention to the smells of the food the your digestive processes you know if you're um one of the things that's that stuck in my mind it talks about you know using the restroom and how this this is this is a perfect opportunity to practical practice mindfulness and observe the what's going on in your body as you as you relieve yourself and uh I think that it just kind of it represents the fact that mindfulness is a state you can you can switch to at any time and it I use it I'm using it regularly because even if you can't totally shut out whatever it is that's bothering you or whatever pressure you have you're still diluting it to some extent if you can if you can tune into you know a sound even if it's like the air conditioner or a fan and you know I've used it to help me get to sleep in the past um I'd encourage viewers to watch the episode I did uh it was with a doctor called Diane Reibold and she's she's with the Marcus Institute of Integrative Health and she speaks about the kind of evidence that's coming through with mindfulness because they're they're now researching this in a more rigorous way and the a study came out not so long ago actually comparing the benefits of mindfulness to the leading or a leading antidepressants that you that's used for anxiety Lexapro no not not Lexapro but something else um like I can't remember the name of this particular antidepressant but the the results they found were comparable to to someone using antidepressants and without the kind of side effects that the the study the sample that was was using the antidepressants we're getting yeah and as you highlighted the the whole point of is to hopefully not depend on certain Pharmaceuticals to treat these things because for some people versus the money the others probably the side effects that were brought up but mostly it's a to show people that these are accessible it's just you got to put a little bit of the effort in it's not just like well I want to lose weight give me the magic diet pill no that's not how it works and the same thing here and I'm glad you highlighted that because that's another uh link that I'll be leaving you know showing up the company this episode of www.gov.com for the listening and viewing audience you guys know the mo um but we're we're up on time here with you Brandon and I thank you so much for highlighting searching these things um we didn't get to flesh any of these out but you got the opportunity to flesh these out on your program on Switching topics so there was mindfulness anxiety and depression those actually were three different episodes so for those of you that are interested are listening and watching I'll be leaving those links over and Brandon where can people uh follow your show um and follow you for you know their own dopamine fixing social media uh yeah you can get your dopamine fix at uh C dot vitalscience on Instagram and uh that's SCE God Vital Signs and you can follow me on Twitter at uh Brendan Fallon and uh yeah to and I I post the latest episodes that are coming out and um yeah thanks Andres if you want to leave a few of the links to some of those those mental health related episodes I I think there's there's some interesting perspectives there and some insights into some some techniques that don't often get a lot of coverage but are proving quite effective and uh I was going to leave the the epoch times links from Epoch TV I don't remember if they're behind the paywall because I do paid so I believe they're on YouTube also uh at least the shorter versions of them right uh they're gradually getting on YouTube if people want to watch the more recent ones I think they might be prompted to to register with their email address but um I I might be mistaken but I think they can probably watch the these episodes without having to necessarily subscribe okay well uh for those of you that heard I'll be leaving next to that and if I could find a YouTube alternative I will do that too but Brandon don't hang up yet but thank you so much for joining me on the University go of your show it's always a pleasure to have you on I'm sorry we didn't do this live like I said I know how much you love to do these lives next next time next time for sure and that does it for today's episode remember any links and references are available at the show notes of companies episode at www.dinance2gover.com for those of you watching the video platforms some of those links will be available in the video description down below remember to like subscribers didn't know follow me across the socials at the undressingovia Twitter X whatever it's called underscore andresa govia and I'll see you on the next one