Dr. Alan Christianson


Dr. Alan Christianson
Jonathan: Hey, everybody. Jonathan Bailor back with another SANE show. Very excited about todayâs show because a new guest and someone who I had the pleasure of meeting in person recently — and this gentleman has to be one of the nicest human beings Iâve ever met. It was just like, Who are you and where did you come from and how can I move there because if everyone is as nice as you, then I need to be around them. His name is Dr. Alan Christianson. Heâs the author of the upcoming Adrenal Reset Diet. He is amazingly SANE and Iâm so happy to have him with us today. Dr. Christianson, how are you doing today?
Alan: Hey, Iâm doing awesome. Thanks much for having me, Jonathan.
Jonathan: Well, Dr. Christianson, tell us a little bit about your journey from little Alan to now big official Dr. Christianson.
Alan: You know, the journey went the way that it did because little Alan wasnât all that little. As a kid, I had seizures and I had some problems with movement and it led me to get pretty obese and somewhere around seventh grade was the real low point of that. I got called out in gym class about my shape in ways that I didnât want to be called out on and it kind of hit me that, Wow, I really needed to change this and I had to make a difference in some way. I got stacks of books and I was able to go through these books and change it and make a difference and it led me into medicine. In medicine, I found that thereâs a lot of people that have thyroid disease or conditions like adrenal dysfunction, metabolic syndrome, and a lot of folks are struggling with these issues and the stuff that worked for me is not always enough so I wanted to help make a bigger impact and find more explanations behind it.
Jonathan: So you were in seventh grade, you started doing this reading, you started doing this research when you went into the formal kind of traditional medical practice or — tell us about how the medical field journey progressed.
Alan: The plan was medicine but I really wanted to tie nutrition into it. As a kid, I was taken to doctors and I was given treatments and whatnot. It didnât help me with my weight and it didnât help with a lot of other health issues. I had the realization that, after about the age of thirteen, when I saw things start to turn around, some random kid with library books could get more traction than doctors were giving and I thought, What kind of world is this? How can this be? So I was really motivated to go into a practice that focused on key hormone conditions which really do it in a way that integrated diet because that was my game changer. I knew that was critical.
Jonathan: What have you seen to be the biggest differences between what you were taught in more of the conventional medical practice and what you have found through your own independent research and independent practice to be, This is the conventional wisdom but this is what actually works?
Alan: Well, the conventional wisdom right now is trying really hard to make sense out of this pending obesity crisis. Weâre looking at two-thirds of the humans on the planet being overweight, obese, or morbidly obese in just a little over a decade. The trends are just — if anyoneâs looking at them, theyâre scared to death. Weâre talking about brain corrupting in global economies because of the health care cost from this. The conventional model is saying â
I had one physiology professor. He took us through about two weeks of all the research to date on obesity and thereâs like one called the Mona Lisa Hypothesis, if youâve heard that one, but at the very end of it, one of my kind of wise-ass classmates sitting next to me, heâs like, Okay, so the last two weeks, what it came down to is fat people are lazy liars. And thatâs what the research is when you really get down to it. They say that people misrepresent their food intake and theyâre less active than they should be. That just does not fit the data anymore and everyoneâs trying to chase this dead-end model. Iâm so glad to be here with your audience and partnering with you. Youâve talked about how the calories are a myth and thatâs what it is. Thereâs more factors behind it and thatâs what I really want to have people understand.
Jonathan: Letâs start to dig into those factors because youâre exactly right. I agree with you wholeheartedly that part of the reason we have seen this obesity epidemic rise is because this is seen as a moral failing of people, not a scientific problem. If itâs just a moral failing, then we can say, Well, those people are stupid and lazy. Letâs go move on to more important things. But you and I both know itâs not about stupidity and laziness and thereâs very little else thatâs more important than this, given the scope of the problem. So what are the underlying causes where we have individuals who are dieting; who are eating 1,200, 1,400 calories; who are just as active as everyone else, but canât seem to halt weight gain or enjoy weight loss?
Alan: Yes. Iâll share with you what went on inside my head, trying to figure this thing out over the years. I saw a lot of research that was looking at different theories. Some talked about this new concept of obesogens — thereâs chemicals that trigger weight gain, independent of food intake — and I found that really compelling. We had a family trip to Thailand one year and you couldnât breathe the air, it was so bad in Bangkok, and everybody was skinny so Iâm like, Oh, this doesnât fit.
So thereâs a lot of theories like that — the obesogens, the fructose, the heightened load of mental/emotional stress — many things that disrupt the circadian rhythm. There are a lot of really good theories that are very compelling and explain a lot of it but thereâs a lot of ways in which any one of them doesnât quite make it all the way connect and I realize that maybe thereâs not one thing, one cause, but there could be one shared mechanism, one way that the body responds to all these different types of triggers. So if itâs not the same trigger for each person, there could be one same shift that occurs from all these factors that have increased in the last few decades.
Jonathan: What have you seen those common denominators be where there could be many different causal factors but the underlying trigger or switch that they flip is the same and if we could understand that, maybe we could kind of do an end around and get around it somehow or what do we do then?
Alan: That was the thought process. I vividly remember the moment of having all these piles of studies around me actually in this room and trying to literally connect them in some way and realizing that there was a connection, that our body has very elegant mechanisms to survive famine. If you take humans and throw them outside and take away their food, thereâs predictable metabolic shifts that go on that we hold onto the calories weâve got around our belly fat and we might even take away some muscle tissue to build more of that during times of crisis. The epiphany I had was that all these things that some of which you could see obviously as stressors, like mental/emotional stress, but many that you might not at first glance — the chemicals, the fructose — all these things put us in this survival state. They all cause us to go into this storage mode and they do so by hijacking this delicate cycle of our adrenal hormones.
Jonathan: Have you seen –? I think someone just casually listening, maybe theyâre doing some vacuuming while listening, and they hear adrenal hormones and they think adrenaline, so they think people who are really stressed and — this might be a really silly analogy, I just thought of it in the moment — but if we think about maybe a monk or someone who is very, very calm and serene and we wouldnât think has much adrenaline going on in their body — these people arenât all thin. So help us understand what you mean when you say adrenal reset, adrenal glands, what actually causes those to go out of whack, and what we can do to get them back in whack.
Alan: Yes, yes, great point. It is more than just the perceived mental/emotional stress. That can be a factor for some but thereâs many factors besides that. Thereâs a rhythm in our bodies and thereâs actually a rhythm in our fat. Crazy stuff — you could pull the fat around from someoneâs organs, put it in a Petri dish, and keep it living, and you could measure its daily rhythm, you could measure its clock. Itâs got a clock that is separate from your bodyâs central regulating clock. Itâs got its own little thing going. The more visceral fat someone has, the more their clock is out of rhythm with their brainâs governing clock. So the fat is working off of the adrenal hormones and when this delicate rhythm of cortisol — which we make more of to wake us up, we shut it off to go to sleep — when thatâs off, the fat timing gets disturbed and weâre in storage mode.
Jonathan: This is really a transformational understanding, I think, for folks and you mentioned something about taking fat out, putting it in a Petri dish, and popping up even a level from that. I know nowadays — and this wasnât always the case — but recently in the scientific literature, itâs pretty much a fact. Again, correct me if Iâm wrong, that fat is not just a passive storage repository for calories but I bet 99.9 percent of people who struggle with excess fat believe that the purpose of fat and the function of fat — the sole function — is basically like a bank account. Itâs a calorie bank account and calories just sit there. What weâre actually finding out is, itâs an endocrine organ. It is part of the system. So tell us a little bit more about how we should perceive body fat.
Alan: Yes, youâre exactly right. Itâs an endocrine organ. It makes some hormones. Itâs also a circadian endocrine organ. Itâs got a daily rhythm to it and thereâs so much interconnectedness between many big parts of the body but the fatâs main tie is really the adrenal hormones. So your adrenal hormones — I mentioned cortisol — thatâs one of the stronger hormones they make. They also make a real weak hormone called cortisone. So weâve got cortisone, o-n-e, and cortisol, o-l. So weak cortisone is always coming out and strong cortisol comes out in its rhythm. Now the connection is that, your fat can actually take cortisone and make cortisol out of it or it can do the opposite. So when itâs healthy, it does that in a way that allows you to generate energy and keep enough reasonable amount of fat but not to have it grow out of control, but once that conversion gets thrown off, your bodyâs locked into this spiral of storing more and more fat and making more stress hormones from your fat.
Jonathan: Wow. This is another great example and I love this because itâs concrete science. The concept that the listeners and viewers of this show will be familiar with is, we talk about a hormonal clog or a metabolic clog and this homeostatic interplay that should be taking place in your body starts to break down and the communication breaks down. It sounds like, here, weâre digging into the specific adrenal components of that. Have you found that –? Whatâs the treatment for that? What are the lifestyle modifications we make to get that back in line?
Alan: Perfect question. That was kind of like my next thought process. Okay, so this is whatâs happening. What are we going to do about it? We canât all become monks, like you alluded to. We canât be in this perfect pristine environment with no EMFâs and no pollutants or nothing else. I also thought weâve got to eat as well. I think diet is a very big thing psychologically as well as physiologically. Along with just the stressors of struggling with oneâs weight, thereâs a whole lot of cognitive mental trauma about what to eat and always feeling like, Wow, this may not be right for this reason, this might not be right for that reason. I thought, How cool would it be if we could get clarity about a simple regime for eating that could also coax back these rhythms and bring these cycles back into line again. So I used the idea about cortisol also regulating blood sugar. Thereâs data showing that the ratios of our protein, fat, and carbs can have effects upon our cortisol rhythms. So I thought, Wow. Wouldnât it be awesome if we could make these ratios and then kind of time them throughout the day to help the body get reset back to an ideal cortisol rhythm again.â So healthy foods, clean foods, but the unique new aspect is that having a specific timing regime for them so that they could re-train the body back to a rhythm that made it burn and produce energy better.
Jonathan: Fascinating. So itâs still the baseline of nutrient density but what we now vary
and we add to the mix is the âwhenâ. The title of your book is Adrenal Reset Diet, so would we have to think about the timing of our eating for just until weâre reset and then we can kind of stop thinking about it or is this a long-term lifestyle change? Tell us a little bit more about that.
Alan: Thatâs the cool thing. Boy, itâs been coming up on twenty years of medical practice now and Iâve really developed this belief and this experience that, in a good state of health, our bodies maintain homeostasis. We can do that. So youâre right — the more stable we are, the more easily we can stay stable, and the more stress-resilient we are and the more we can buffer against untoward factors.
We saw this. We did a clinical trial of this diet and we saw that, in just a month, we could see this huge measurable shift by more than fifty-eight percent of the adrenal rhythm only on the diet and when someone does have their rhythms back in line again, they are measurably more stress-resilient and, yes, they have more autonomy and more leeway over their habits. Of course, you can still wreck things if you tried to but itâs easier to balance when youâre moving than when youâre not moving.
Jonathan: Got you, got you. So itâs a bit like — weâre going to have to go at a level ten out of ten for a time period to get reset and then, as the system, as the homeostasis takes over, we might be able to ease back. Of course, weâre not going to start eating inSANE garbage but thinking about when during the day weâre eating it, would that become more lax then over time?
Alan: People get more leeway when theyâre stable. The cool thing, too, is that some of the hard parts about dieting would be just the hunger, the food cravings, but also things like mood changes, fatigue, insomnia — they come about from that. I argue in the book that those are consequences, sure, of just being restricted of food, but theyâre also consequences of having your daily cycle a little goofed up and having your cortisol rhythms thrown off. So when youâre eating in a way to improve that, people pretty routinely said that, âWow. First off, this is working, which is cool, but not only that, Iâm actually feeling better as Iâm losing weight,â which is kind of unprecedented for most people.
Jonathan: Absolutely. It sounds like it would also be getting easier over time versus the longer you try to live on 1,000 calories per day, the harder it gets over time. So can you give us, just in big broad brushstrokes, if, right now, weâre in a place where we like eating SANE foods — vegetables, clean proteins, whole food fats, healthy stuff found in nature — what is the high level brush we would paint over top of that — right before we buy your book — to start modifying the timing of those foods?
Alan: One of the general concepts is having good healthy carbs, like youâve taught everyone about, having those types of good carbs later in the day rather than earlier. There have been some experts who have talked about having carbs earlier when you burn them but it turns out that it takes a long time to get them ready to burn, so actually like eight to fourteen hours. What we burn in the course of a given day is less so from our breakfast and more so from our prior evening meals. Some people argue that thereâs this historical rhythm of our ancestors to where we were probably hunting and gathering throughout the day and not consuming major amounts of food during daylight but then, come early evening, make a communal campfire and gather together and have our social bonding time, protect from our predators, and that was the time we would have our larger meal. So in the evening, we respond to food in ways that are very different than we do earlier in the day and thatâs not to say, âTake a diet thatâs not working and throw a lot of extra food before bed.â
Jonathan: But it is very counter, which I always find to be encouraging. When something sounds dissimilar to what has failed us for the past forty years, I say, âWell, that might lead to a different result, which is good,â because the conventional wisdom is, if you eat basically anything after 6 p.m., youâre going to get fat. I mean, you just canât eat — itâs eat this starchy breakfast, so itâs like, load up on your carbs in the morning and then donât eat anything in the evening. It sounds like youâre almost flipping that. Is that accurate?
Alan: Yes. There was a real cool study I saw about some Israeli military and they were put on equal-calorie diets but the only difference in this study was just when the calories came in. One group had a greater quantity of them in the evening than earlier and that group had a fat loss of fifteen percent above the group that had the same food earlier in the day. So thereâs something to it and it really does fit what weâre learning about the bodyâs rhythms and our cycles of storage and burning. Early in the day, our food is going to get more stored as fat. Later in the day when itâs timed well, weâre going to build healthy glycogen out of it. Also, just the big picture — Iâm certainly a fan of a solid breakfast, Iâm a fan of having lunch and eating as need be, but just kind of having the bulk of that be at a time when it will support relaxation and sleep and support generation of fuel for the following day.
Jonathan: Well, itâs very good news as well because I think most people wonât struggle to eat more food in the evening. At least, thatâs been my — I mean, I probably consume sixty to seventy percent of the calories I consume over the course of a day — just because I listen to my body — after 6 p.m. Thatâs just natural. I know itâs how my father works. Are we just — big, broad brushstrokes — are we basically saying, baseline of clean foods, baseline of SANE foods, and then weâre going more of them later in the day and weâre going kind of higher fat/lower carbs early in the day and higher carb/lower fat later. So youâre just kind of skewing that as the day goes?
Alan: Totally. You got it right on.
Jonathan: Brilliant. What have you seen to be, if any, the one or two, maybe, stumbling blocks where, if people just hear the CliffNotes, someoneâs like, âHey, I read this book called The Adrenal Reset Diet and you do this,â and youâd be like, âNo, thatâs not what it says.â What would be the two cautions you would want to give people?
Alan: Probably the first one, like I said, was just not to take a diet thatâs not working and throw a lot of extra food onto it.
Jonathan: Especially in the evening. âHe said, Load up on carbs in the evening so letâs go to Dunkinâ Donuts, letâs get a dozen donuts, and eat them after 9 p.m. and then youâll lose weight, right?â
Alan: Yes. Another one would be really the context of oneâs sleep habits. Weâre getting more data about — weâve always struggled about diet and exercise for weight and it might be the case that sleep is a bigger variable and thereâs more mounting evidence about that. So putting a lot of thought into oneâs rhythms, oneâs schedules, oneâs downtime, bright light in the morning, winding down in the day — so ignoring oneâs sleep and dialing in all the rest. So the rhythms are huge. Thatâs an important part of it.
Jonathan: Brilliant. Well, I think weâve got folks some wonderful teaser information here. They can take their existing SANE lifestyle, do some experimentation with doing — if youâre going to have your fats, try to have those earlier in the day; if youâre going to incorporate some more carbs, do those later in the day; and donât feel bad if youâre hungry in the evening about enjoying a big meal then. Where can folks learn the details of this? How can they get your book?
Alan: Well, weâre going to give a whole bunch of them away. I want to get this message out and I want to make a big, big difference on this. This is something that can really shift the global perspective on it and weâre going to do a giveaway process and actually weâre going to have some great bonuses from you as well as part of it.
Jonathan: So where can we –? — Iâm sorry, youâre giving — Youâre giving this book away? What? What?
Alan: I will ask for a little help in shipping and handling, just a bit, but, honestly, weâre going to give it away. We want to get the message out in a quick way and have the discussions and the thoughts about obesity start to really change, yes.
Jonathan: Excellent. Well, folks, we will send out a link where you can get all the information on where you can get a free copy of the book plus shipping and handling, which is certainly a better deal than youâre going to get from any other place in the world, so thatâs pretty awesome. Dr. Christianson, if you have any parting words, what would those be?
Alan: What Iâve seen is that our bodies can heal and our bodies are really driven back towards this amazing state of thriving and if youâve ever been in a place to where itâs not where you want it to be, donât ever give up and donât ever think that it cannot improve because it really can. Thereâs only just a matter of undoing the things holding you back and providing the things that are going to move you forward and with those steps, you can really achieve the health that you want.
Jonathan: Well, Dr. Christianson, thank you so much for that inspirational message and also for all the amazing science and clinical practice that you bring to the table to back that up. I so appreciate your time.
Alan: Thanks again for having me, Jonathan.
Jonathan: Well, listeners and viewers, again, our wonderful guest today is the always delightful and insightful Dr. Alan Christianson. The book you heard about today is The Adrenal Reset Diet. Of course, make sure youâre signed up at SANEsolution.com and Iâll send you a link on how you can actually get a free copy of that book, which is pretty awesome, and again, a great book to read. Also, look up Dr. Christianson online. Just type in Dr. Alan Christianson because a great individual in the field of â
Look, this isnât about starving yourself. Itâs about healing yourself. Once you heal yourself, itâs literally a new you moving forward and that really changes the game. Itâs not about starvation; itâs about healing. Weâre going to support anyone whoâs saying that message, especially someone as nice as Dr. Christianson, so be sure to check that out. Remember, stay SANE.
