#181 - From Sails to Sensors A Doctor's Quest for Vitality

When you slip an Oura ring onto your finger or strap on a Fitbit, you're not just accessorizing—you're unlocking insights into your body's inner workings that could revolutionize your health. Torkil Faero, a man who deftly bridges the realms of medicine and art, joins us to illuminate the powerful intersection of wearable tech and longevity. He delves into the world of heart rate variability (HRV), a metric that might just be the crystal ball of our physiological wellbeing. It's a conversation that promises to change the way you view your daily step count and perhaps even the rhythm of your life.

From the gutsy decision to halt his global sailing odyssey, Torkil's narrative is a tapestry of resilience and exploration. He shares the tale of his transformation from a sailing enthusiast to a freelance doctor wandering the Norwegian healthcare scene and beyond. It's a peek into a life where career fluidity opens the door to an abundance of cultural tapestries, each with a story waiting to be captured through both lens and stethoscope. Torkil's experiences offer a testament to the profound impact of placing health at the pinnacle of our priorities, no matter where we find ourselves in the world.

Torkil's artistic spirit doesn't end at the doctor's office; it extends to a fifteen-year love affair with photography, writing, and teaching. Imagine basking in the vibrant street scenes of Morocco, or capturing the raw beauty of Cuba through the eyes of someone who thrives on the spontaneous dance of life. He challenges us to seize our time, to immerse ourselves in the present, and to step boldly into new experiences—even before we feel entirely ready. Join us for a journey that blurs the lines between vocation and adventure, reminding us that the richness of life often lies in the unexpected detours and the paths less traveled.

The Pulse Cure: https://www.amazon.com/Pulse-Cure-revolutionary-balance-optimise/dp/1529437334
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doc_torkil/
Website: https://thepulsecure.com/

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:00

Hey, what's going on, guys? We've got a special guest here today. We have Torkel Farrow. He's a doctor, a photographer and a best-selling author, and I'm excited to have him on today because he's talking about things that can really just simplify your life and make you live a lot longer. Which who doesn't want to live longer? So, torkel, great to have you here. Which, who doesn't want to live longer? So, twerkle, great to have you here. What is the importance of these? Aura rings, fitbits, garments, phone tracking mechanisms, what? Why are these important?

Speaker 2: 1:32

yeah, hi jordan, and thanks for having me on your podcast.

Speaker 2: 1:37

The benefit of these trackers is that we can regulate our stress level so that we are able to enjoy life more in the moment, you know, be more refreshed, you know in the morning, perform better, but also, in the long run, to live longer, because the right lifestyle habits that produces health will make you better in the moment, you know, and also for a long time. So that is why it's so important to find a way to regulate your autonomic nervous system, your stress balance. So, and that's what I've done, I've written a book about it. It's the first book actually on how to use the wearables for the benefit of your health, and it has been actually today, it has been for 68 weeks on the Norwegian bestseller list, so it's just been an amazing journey. So, anyway, a lot of people already have it, the wearables. They have their Apple watch or their Garmin or Fitbit, as what you say, but they don't really know the. You know the possibilities, um, inside the, the systems, you know how you can use your heart rate to, to regulate your, your habits absolutely, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 2:56

So I mean, when we had the intro call I was getting, I started to understand it a little. But so like the basic one I look at is like resting heart rate and I'm like if I can lower my resting heart rate then I'm healthier. But you were saying that there's other variables that are super important. Can you share what those are and just how what they even do for people.

Speaker 2: 3:19

Yeah, the the more important metric is the heart rate variability. It is connected to the heart rate. So when you get the lower heart rate, you get the higher heart rate variability, which is good, and the heart rate variability is like looking at the heart rate with a magnifying glass. You can tell so much more from the heart rate variability than from your heart rate. And the reason is that the heart rate variability, the variation between heartbeats on in-breath and out-breath, will tell you about the state of your autonomic nervous system. And the autonomic nervous system is the stress system of your body, the on and off system. So when you are resting, when you're in the parasympathetic mode, then your heart rate when you breathe in will go up a little bit and when you breathe out it will go down a little bit to kind of save some energy, because there will be less oxygen in the lungs on the out breath, and so it will save the measured in milliseconds. But over your lifetime you can save like 350 million beats and that means a lot in the health perspective. Anyway, that is, if you're in the rested state, the recovery state, where the body can do its recovery processes, the immune system works, you know, fixing everything that's wrong in the body, which it does continuously. But if you're in the stress state, then you will have the same heart rate even on the outbreath, even when there is less oxygen in the lungs. So it's like the ancient system in our brain will interpret the stress as your life is at stake and we have to, you know, push through even if there is less oxygen in the lungs. And the wearables can detect this difference from the rested mode, with the variation between heartbeats and the stress mode, with a very regular beat and, of course, with artificial intelligence, it can tell you and give an estimate of your capacity in the moment. How well are you rested? You know how is your stress balance? And and this is an insight into our physiology that is just amazing for me as a doctor.

Speaker 2: 5:37

Yeah, because this is really what we need, because there are so many people that are overstressed. They are taxing themselves too much, sleeping too little, drinking too much alcohol, eating the wrong food and all the bad habits. That leads to disease is measurable in heart rate variability. So that's kind of the magic of it, and that you then you have this like a speedometer of your physiology on your wrist, available all the time as you go and you have the control and not the doctor, you have the most important metric. I would say the most important metric of your physiology is the heart rate variability, and it's available to you at all times and makes it easier, you know, just like, of course, it's easier to drive a car with all the numbers you know on the dashboard. This is kind of a dashboard for your own speed and your own function.

Speaker 1: 6:36

Yeah, and the thing I love about that is that when you sit there and really think about it, the biggest issue with health is and it's not health in general, but it's just kind of everything is that we usually pick the number on the scale. The scale is usually our indicator of, oh, I'm down 10 pounds, or I'm up 10 pounds, or I'm fat, or I'm skinny or I'm whatever, but the scale number is not an indicator of how healthy you actually are. So that's why things like the heart rate variability as Torkel was saying that lets you know your stress element, and when you're able to measure and monitor something, you can improve it. It's most of the time, our eyes and our mind are on the wrong variables, so we focus on these variables that just aren't that important, and that happened to me when I was doing.

Speaker 1: 7:34

It was a challenge called 75 Hard, where you work out two times a day, drink water, no alcohol, and there's a point where like'll stop losing weight and it's like, okay, I gotta put muscle on. So then you move to like the body fat how much body fat percentage do I have? And you just start adjusting the variables. But my point here being is for the audience to realize. If you can track the hrv, you can figure out your stress. Stress is like one of the most silent killers and a lot of people don't talk about it. But we have a lot of people.

Speaker 2: 8:08

When you're working jobs, very high levels of stress occur and some people don't realize that it's it's literally killing them yeah it, the high stress level is, you know, the the reason, the root cause of most of the diseases in the modern world. And it's not only stress, like you are mentally stressed for some deadline or whatever, it's also stress from food, the wrong food, from alcohol, from being in a poor condition. You know, a poor fitness level, um, you may be training too hard, you know. Maybe the 75 hard was too hard and it could wear you down.

Speaker 2: 8:51

You know, particularly if you, if you start from a low fitness level, it can be very hard, um, and you will underperform. So if you are stressed you will underperform, you will not get the full value out of your prefrontal cortex. You know, with an intelligent mind, because you are stressed out and you don't think clearly and you make wrong decisions, you know, if you are stressed. So this is not only, you know, for your health, but the good health is a basis of good performance. So if you want to perform well at work, if you want your company to perform well, you need people with a good stress balance, you know, with a good access to this parasympathetic mode of your autonomic nervous system.

Speaker 1: 9:37

Absolutely so. Where did you even come up with this and realize that the HRV is an important metric? How did you start to find this, because I feel like not too many people are talking about this, yeah, and even I, as a doctor, was not aware of this metric until five years ago.

Speaker 2: 9:58

I was sailing with my family we have been sailing halfway around the world until COVID hit with the family and I was in a hammock in Moria, you know, the neighboring island to Tahiti in French Polynesia, and I was reading a fascinating book called the Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk, an American psychiatrist, and I was reading about a metric called HRV. You know, heart rate variability. I'd never heard of it and he was telling me that this metric can tell them, you know, the effect of the mental treatment. So if the patient has a good HRV, it will be more accessible, you know, for conversations, you know, to improve. And if the HRV is worse, you know it will not be any reason to talk, you know, because they are not in a position to make use of the talk. You know they're too stressed out.

Speaker 2: 11:04

And then when I came home and I just started investigating and I found out that we actually have these devices that can track our autonomic nervous system, and I started using it myself just for my own sake. So for two years I was just experimenting myself because there was no guidebook. You know I've written the first one, so there was no way to guide it. And I got so many surprises of how the autonomic nervous system affects my function, you know, my health and my, my, my energy in the in the moment. So so, and then after three years, my publisher got aware of it. I'd written a book called the camera cure for them earlier, and then they saw that I was doing this weird thing, you know, keeping track of my pulse. You know nobody else was doing it, and they asked me if this was a book for them. And um, and it was so incredible, incredible.

Speaker 1: 11:57

And let's dive into the, the travel you said you were traveling, sailing halfway around the world yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 12:04

So we have been sailing on and off since, um, actually, 2012. Uh, we started setting for a year. Uh, we were supposed to be out for four years, but after one year, just as we were in the panama canal on the caribbean side, um, waiting to go through, I got the message that my father was sick, he had got cancer and terminal cancer, and we just had to lock up the boat by the canal and leave it for home and within three months, we saw him just wither away and die in three months, and he had actually been on the boat just one month before we got the message. Oh, wow. So the trip suddenly came to a halt and then, from that on, I changed my life totally around. From that on, because I, you know, my health was really not. I had not had focus on my health, I had only had focus on this trip, you know, for many years, you know, to finance it and to plan it and so on.

Speaker 1: 13:07

So everything changed. I want everyone to take a second and I want this to be their wake up, for if you're not in a great peak health state, you can change it at any moment. You just have to make the decision and start the lifestyle changes.

Speaker 2: 13:22

Oh yeah, and I did everything wrong in the book. So all the advice that I do in the book, you know, on sleep, on nutrition, on alcohol, on exercise, I did. I did everything wrong. Um, so I had to change everything, uh, kind of an extreme makeover, uh, because I saw I was heading the wrong way. I was heading towards the state of my patients. You know that I that financed my trip, you know I was starting to look like them, you know, and I did not, I hadn't really realized it because I had my, my focus on this trip.

Speaker 1: 13:57

Can you explain how Norway's like the doctor system, like how, how you're a doctor, but how that is. It's a little bit different than the. Us.

Speaker 2: 14:07

Yeah, in Norway, I don't know, there's a public health care system and every county you know there's like 500 counties all over Norway and every county more or less have to have a doctor on call 24-7. Every country more or less have to have a doctor on call 24-7. And what I do is I go to the periphery, to the rural areas, like last Sunday I was in an island off the west coast of Norway and this Sunday, in a couple of days, I'll go to the northern Norway and go there working on an island 24-7. So I've been doing that for all these years, you know, always being a freelancer because I wanted to travel, so I wanted to work hard, you know, and then go traveling, um, and luckily I'm able to do that and have kind of the freedom to roam the world with this system in Norway.

Speaker 2: 15:06

But I actually heard of it the first time I heard of it was in Canada. So I was traveling around the world when I was 20 years old, you know, with airplanes and around the world ticket, you know, for a year. And then I understood that in canada you could work like half the year in the north and then you could go traveling. So I thought, okay, this is a good idea. I should be a doctor and work part-time and then go traveling but, I want everyone to.

Speaker 1: 15:34

Yeah, I want everyone to sit there and listen. Because when twerk will explain this to me for the first time, I'm like that's one of the most fascinating things, because, like right now I'm traveling for seven weeks around Europe, but we're working, obviously, and we're doing some different things. But when you're like, yeah, I freelance doctor and then I leave and then I save up the money and then I go on a trip, I'm like that's fascinating. I've never even heard of that. But this is the power of having different conversations. So, for you, how have you implemented that doctor thing into your life and what are some of the cool trips you've been on?

Speaker 2: 16:13

obviously the sailing, but yeah, so I've been working on because Norway is such a beautiful country, so I've been working in the Northern Norway. I've been working in the Lappish, you know, as an indigenous people in the Northern Norway also. So I'm working as a doctor. You kind of get behind the facades, you. You know you get behind and and get to know the place so much better because you see people all the time, um, that are living there.

Speaker 2: 16:48

So I often say that I've used my camera and my stethoscope as as kind of tickets to get into people's lives. You know to to see like a passport into other people's lives, because I've been traveling for probably six, seven years in total out of my 55 years now. And the camera, it gives you access to people. You can photograph people, you get invited in often and so on. And the same is with the stethoscope. You know I can examine people, I get to know their life stories, you know what is their troubles, you know why do they get sick, why do they get healthy. Yeah, so I've been just curious. You know, it's the curiosity that has driven me to explore, because I see that being a general practitioner is like being on the front row, you know, to life, and it has taught me so much.

Speaker 1: 17:49

Yeah, that purpose behind not just being a doctor, but to understand people's journeys and understand what's making them work, what's making them not work.

Speaker 2: 18:03

I've never heard a doctor describe being a doctor like that, so I think that's pretty cool yeah, and that may be also the reason why I've made these different books that are different from, because it's just I mean, it's hard to understand that I'm the one writing the book on how to use wearables to improve your health. You know, I'm not a professor, I'm not a PhD, I'm just a normal doctor having stumbled over this important metric and the use and how you can combine it with wearables, and also the book I wrote, the Camera. The camera cure is also about how you can use photography as a means to improve your life, and the idea of the camera cure is that the way, because I've been teaching workshops, been teaching 60 workshops all around the world in cuba, ethiopia, in morocco and sri lanka, and you know many places it keeps it very interesting.

Speaker 2: 19:02

Yeah, I've seen how to how how you do photography, how you approach the, the difficulty of taking a good picture, that's how you do everything, so you can practice on strategies towards solving problems, towards grabbing opportunities in general by looking at how do you photograph. So that's, uh, that's also kind of a unique book. So so I think that my different approach to life has also led me to these different outcomes you know from these books. So, um, do you maybe answer something there?

Speaker 1: 19:39

yeah, yeah, a hundred percent. And the thing is that most people don't realize that. Let's go with the photography workshop. You put yourself in a challenging situation where you have a split second to make the exact photo and the amount of times you take that photo and it doesn't go pretty high like, but the people don't see the failures, quote-unquote failures. You just see the times when you actually made the photo and you're like look at the northern lights, it's beautiful, and the thing is that people don't realize that that photo actually took 20,000 photos and now you've just progressed a lot more because you've taken a lot more reps. But when you put yourself in this uncomfortable situation where you're open to failing, now it's like okay, I'm traveling around the world, sometimes we don't have a place to stay, sometimes this cancels, sometimes the flight doesn't work, like it's just a whole lot of life like and I think that's part of it that when you put yourself in an uncomfortable situation, you cause yourself to grow so I purposely put myself in uncomfortable situations yeah, absolutely to to.

Speaker 2: 20:47

To be comfortable over time, you have to tolerate, you know, coming into uncomfortable situations. That's how you get uncomfortable. Now you get comfortable that you should try to have it comfortably all the time. Over time, you will become uncomfortable because you will not have the resilience and power to dare to do uncomfortable things. And photography is about being on the right place at the right time and actually doing something, pushing the shutter.

Speaker 2: 21:19

So it's um, it's an art to that you know, and um so to. To be able to. To do that, you know you have to be, to be brave, but you also have to tolerate failures. So I often say that to make twice as many good pictures, you have to take twice as many bad pictures. So you have to learn from your failures. You have to learn from your successes as well, because a lot of people don't do that either. That's also what I've learned that often people, when they have succeeded in something, they often don't repeat it because they haven't really learned from the success either. So you can you can both fail in learning from failures and learning from successes. You know and and um, so and so, and you have to be authentic. You have to. You don't have to copy others. You know you can maybe copy others in the start. You know, learn from others, of course, but you have to find your way, your uniqueness, you know, because when I, in a workshop, see something that's unique to this photographer, that's so much more interesting.

Speaker 1: 22:26

Yeah, because you're doing it your way and as you're telling these stories, it's funny.

Speaker 1: 22:30

In high school I took a photography class and I remember we would do it. We'd walk around for an hour, we all had our cameras and we'd take different pictures and there was one day where there was a fire drill that happened and the fire truck was going. I remember capturing the photo and the fire truck was still moving, but everything around it was still and it was like my photo, like the photo that you print out or whatever, and I could just experience you traveling around the world teaching these people, getting that aha moment where you're like, yes, that's the photo and it's this really cool experience that a lot of us aren't creative and we are creative enough but we don't allow ourselves to experience this because we might be too busy with our job or too busy with our life or too busy with whatever. And it's how did you find ways to really prioritize the life you wanted to build and how? How were you able to do these photography workshops and all this travel and stack all of these experiences?

Speaker 2: 23:36

yeah, that was because I was. I could work for a short amount of time and make good money, really good money, and then go off and I would know there would always be a need for me. There would always be work available for this kind of work out in the districts of Norway. That has never been a problem for these 25 years.

Speaker 2: 24:01

You never wanted to just work and just stack as much money as possible like the american dream no, maybe I should have done that, you know, but I know I was just eager to get out um, so, um, so it does work well. And then then I was doing photography for myself. You know, for like 15 years I was just concentrating on my own career as a photographer, you know, making photo books, fine art books, you know, having exhibitions and so on. Well, took off from there and um, and I became fascinated by teaching others photography, you know, because when you teach others, you learn so much yourself also. So, um, it just became a lifestyle. You know, like two weeks working as a doctor, you know, two weeks traveling and then so on. And I like the, the mix of it and um, I don't, I didn't really have I knew that I could not work in a normal job.

Speaker 2: 25:06

You know, going to the like the office every day, that was never an alternative. You know, I did not want to live my life, you know, like that. You know, I saw that. I saw that, okay, maybe we can live for 80 years. I wanted to take control of those 80 years. I need to decide to experience what I want to experience during those 80 years. I cannot let other people govern my life. So that was kind of the basis of it. And so I find out that I could work this way, and particularly because nobody else worked that way, yeah, you know. So it was space for me, because all the other doctors, they wanted steady jobs and and they wanted prestigious jobs, you know, taking phds and becoming professors and and and I, I didn't, I didn't care about that, you know, I just wanted to live an exciting life.

Speaker 1: 26:02

That's always been my goal the exciting life I've got. Someone else said it, cause it's. It's true. There's so many times where we just can be so try to they, try to conform everyone so often and then you start to realize you're like I do not align with this, like there is more out here for me. I need to continue to grow my life and stack these experiences. And for the photography, what was your favorite, like location to shoot or places that you've been shooting?

Speaker 2: 26:34

just because it sounds like the workshop sounds fantastic yeah, one of my favorite countries is uh, in morocco, so I had like I probably had like 15 or 20 workshops in morocco, which is a fascinating country with so diverse um, the clothes, the colors, the, the desert, the mountains, uh, the coast, you know, it's so such a an intriguing country.

Speaker 2: 26:59

If you get the chance to go to morocco, you would love it, I'm sure, yeah, and it's just just a short ferry ride from spain. So that's, that's incredible, that there's such a different world just across the gibraltar strait, you know, in southern spain so, and I love india, you know sri lanka, I love cuba, cuba, of course, it's a wonderful place and doing photography is kind of a way to explore the place more. You look more attentive to the place because you have to process it visually, you have to really look at it. So it's not just to go to the cafe and have a coffee and the lunch. You really have to explore the place through the camera. You have to be present and for a picture to be good, you have to be present in the moment and that's maybe the most important thing about it.

Speaker 1: 27:56

Yeah, I've always found that whenever people are truly excited about something, or pumped up or really feeling engaged, it comes from that presence and then they kind of lose track of time. Obviously, I have a mobile setup on my laptop, but I use my phone as the video so that I can become more engaged, because when you're truly engaged in something, people can feel the difference. So, like, even if I go like scuba diving or snorkeling or any of these activities or running, like whatever activity you're doing, if you're able to be super present in it, it shows up with that and that's becoming a a major luxury nowadays. It's not, it's not the no, it's not the requirement.

Speaker 2: 28:53

People are multitasking constantly yeah, so they're not in the moment and everything all we we have is the moment really. So people are planning for the future, they're thinking about something happened in the past, but where we live is in this moment and, of course, the problem is also that there are so many people having a commercial interest in your attention.

Speaker 2: 29:18

So your attention is always being dragged here and there from other people's economical interests, and that is not free, because we pay with small chunks of our time, and the time is something we will never get back. This is non-renewable, renewable source, you know so. So so our attention is, you know, is is a trade, you know. So we, we have to take care of what we put our attention to and choose it ourselves, you know, and not just from other commercial interests.

Speaker 1: 29:55

Yeah, and so how did you? And I think what you're kind of getting at is that, like, people are always reaching out to us for new opportunities, or saying can we get some time with you? Or saying can we learn about this, or whatever it is, and the problem is that the majority of us are constantly on everyone else's schedule and we're not on our own schedule, because everyone's always asking for our time. So how did you figure out a way to prioritize your time in regard to, like, the travel or the sailing? And I'd also be interested in how you thought about the financing of it all, because a year long or a four year long trip is that's quite a trip. Like do you give up your home? Like how do you think about that?

Speaker 2: 30:33

yeah, and, and buy, and buy a boat a kind of catamaran. Well, financially, um, it is nice when you are selling, because we did not know how to sail before we bought the boat, so so that's also a good principle I've learned from richard branson.

Speaker 2: 30:52

You know to start before you're ready. So, uh, if your dream is um going sailing around the world, you know, just get the boat. But we bought it on a yacht management deal. So for five years it was going in a charter in Greece and we could use it maybe three or four weeks every season. So we learned how to sail that way, had friends with us, and then after five years the boat was ours and we could take it out to Greece and then through the Mediterranean and over the Atlantic and so on.

Speaker 2: 31:29

So doing a yacht management, this is nice if you want to sail and have your own boat. And then, of course also we knew that after those five years the boat was ours. So there was a deadline. By this date I have to finance the trip for four years, and then I just worked to save up the money. And of course then as a doctor in Norway, we make quite good money, so I was able to do that and then to rent out the apartment for the time when we went sailing. Okay, so you can do these different things. For example, I would never have been able to buy this boat without the yacht management deal where you get the boat kind of for a half price and they cover all the expenses for those five years, yeah, and then after those five years that the boat is ours.

Speaker 2: 32:27

So that's a way to finance something you know there's creative ways of going about things if you want to make something happen yeah, because, because I'm there, I recently read the book Rich Dad, poor Dad, which probably everyone that says has been reading, and what he says there. He says that, okay, if you have the attitude that I can't afford it, then it stops there. Yeah, but if you think how can I afford it, you know, then you get curious about finding the solutions to that. So that is what I did, so that you can kind of live your dreams. But you have to explore how to do that, and that could be.

Speaker 2: 33:14

You don't need a sailboat, you can be walking around the world, you can be doing pilgrimages, you can walk across america. There's actually a trail that I dream of walking. It's called the american discovery trail. All across, all across the us, from delaware to san francisco, oh wow. And you can live, you know, cheaply. You know you can have a tent. You know you can probably, you could, probably, I would say you could probably save, you know, like fifteen thousand dollars and you could just start walking. So there's always a solution. So if I couldn't find the money to buy the sailboat, I would, maybe I would have done that, you know.

Speaker 1: 33:53

Yeah, there's always a way yeah, and it's important because a lot of us are always thinking we have to conform, we have to live this way, we have to do this, and it's like no, nothing has to be done in any way, like it's very freeing.

Speaker 2: 34:09

You can actually do whatever you want. Yeah, and a lot of people do that. You know so and you just have to and that, what? What I discovered on the first trip around the world when I was in 20 or 21, and I discovered that so many people that I was. I had been in the in the army and saved up some money from that and um, yeah, so uh, and then we did one year, bought around the world ticket and then on this, this trip, I met so many people living you know in other ways, because before that I just know that, okay, you start, you go find an education and then you find a job, and then you do that for the rest of your life, you know, do that for the rest of your life, you know.

Speaker 2: 35:03

And then when I did this travel, I met so many people living different lives. You know other travelers, other solutions, and then I thought that, okay, I can take charge of my life, at least I will start going for that, and then, if that fails, okay, then I can always live a normal life. You know, um, but I want to try that first, to see if I can take charge of my life and find the experiences and travels that I really look for.

Speaker 1: 35:29

Yeah, and really create it, because so many people sit there and they think, oh my God, it's impossible, it's so hard, it's so challenging and it's like no, you just have to get intentional with what you want to accomplish and realize what you want to do and realize what you want to create, like, and once you like, put it out there and the thought has occurred, then it's such an opening experience because then it's like how are we going to figure this out?

Speaker 1: 36:07

And like for me, on this trip, currently, the only thing we did was book a flight in a flight out, and we got our first place to stay and that was literally all we planned. And that place to stay was only for like 10 days, 12 days, and then everything else. It's like where do you want to go next? I don't know, where do you want to go? I don't know. We'll figure it out, we'll look at the map, map, we'll see what's close, we'll see where the prices work, we'll see where we can stay and like sometimes it's challenging and sometimes it's a little stressful, but at the same time it's like if you weren't living that exciting life, like, do you want to be doing the alternative?

Speaker 2: 36:36

yeah you can always go back also when you and also when you get out of your, your home place, because when you are at home you're kind of in a, in a network that holds you back, you know. And then we get the distance from your, from your home place. You see your life from a, from a distance, and and suddenly the restrictions that you thought you had, you know they're not there anymore. So a journey like that, you know, or a pilgrimage where you walk for example, I made a documentary film about walking the Camino to Santiago de Compostela in France, where you walk for a month, um, and then you get real perspective of of your life, you know, so, liberated from this, this network, you know that you have put yourself, you know the society has put yourself in, uh yeah, at home often.

Speaker 1: 37:36

I completely agree, I mean. The other really cool thing is like you always have friends and like you can always come back and kind of pick up where you were before. But the other thing is that like when you're traveling you don't know anyone. So you got to be a little more friendly, you got to be a little more outgoing, you got to understand those things and but then the other benefit of that is that no one's really reaching out to you going, come here, can you come and do this, can you come to this?

Speaker 1: 38:02

So everything is on your own accord, where you decide your life and you're like like this morning we went on a run and then it's in Nice and there's the rock beaches and then the water. So I went in the water this morning and I was like this is amazing. So I went in the water this morning and I was like this is amazing and it's this whole thing of like I'm sitting there and I'm like how often do you get to go run and then go for a swim, like a cold exposure swim, and then just walk around and like I was like this is amazing, because when you're present you really feel that in life and I think that's super important.

Speaker 2: 38:40

So yeah, and also when you're present you really feel that in life and I think that's super important, yeah, and also, when you do these things, your chances of living longer and having more of these experiences increases. When you go running, when you go into the cold water, when you sleep well, because that is the change that I had then at the Panama Canal, I saw that I want to live this life as long as I can, but if I continue not taking care of my body, the body will stop me at some point. So I have to do my job towards my body. You know, like go running, like go into the cold water, sleeping, eating right, so that I can take more pictures. You know, my first thing I want to take more pictures, so I have to live longer. And then I have to do the right thing. So it's good that you go running and do these things, because you will increase the chances of getting more years by the season.

Speaker 1: 39:36

Yes, and that's for anyone in the audience. You guys have to realize that it doesn't everything you want to do is completely free. Like, just straight up, everything that's good for you is completely free. And we try to make it like I need this sauna, I need this thing, I need that thing, and it's like those are all incredible and they're awesome, but in reality, everything you're doing is like free or almost free. And if you don't realize that, because it's like an investment in your health, some people are like, oh, a gym membership's too expensive. Like do you want to live longer? They're like, yes, okay, is it that expensive? No, okay, okay. Like let's just clarify these things. Like these are good activities for you, and like even running, running's like completely free, like you don't need to go to a gym, you could run outside.

Speaker 1: 40:28

And if you're like it's cold out, then it's good You're getting cold exposure and running, let's go.

Speaker 2: 40:34

If you go to the beach, you don't even need the sneakers. You can just run barefoot, even 100%, if you live there. And also that's a good thing about the Pulse Cure, the book also that all the things that you need to live longer and healthier, that's free, it's free to meditate.

Speaker 2: 40:53

It's free to sleep, you know better. It's free to, or it's even cheaper to, drink water instead of a lot of other things, you know, know, um, it's, uh, it's uh, even cheaper not to drink alcohol. Um and uh, breathing exercises, you know, is free, uh, exercising is free. Building muscle is free, um, so, um, so, and that's good, because it's only after that you get sick. That's when your wallet decides whether you get the best treatment or not. You know, but, but avoid to avoid get sick. That's when your wallet decides whether you get the best treatment or not. You know, but, but avoid to avoid getting sick. That's equal for everyone, with or without money. So, um, so, so, so that was nice also for me as a doctor, you know to to um, to show that getting healthy is actually free, you know, so you don't have to pay for it well, it comes down to these things of like.

Speaker 1: 41:50

Do you want the cheap dopamine, which is like social media, uh, go scrolling on your phone, like all of these like negative, having a beer like very cheap dopamine. Or you can have the other dopamine, where you're like, man, I just got a runner's high or I just got excited, coming out of the cold ball, like, yeah, it's a little uncomfortable and it's a little weird, but like you're energized, you're, you're excited about the day, you feel better, your heart rate variability, like, your stress levels are down, you're able to handle difficult conversations, you're able to grow and like, if you don't put yourself in these areas and start to think about this. So so what are the action steps you would? You would give to the people, because you mentioned like sleep better, meditate, like what? Like really simplify that, like, like what's the meditation look like, what's the sleep look like? Is it like? Yeah?

Speaker 2: 42:46

yeah, this sleep is the first step in the pulse cure and that is um the most important thing to, and you can't force yourself to sleep better, you just have to, you know, relax in the evening so that your mind and body is more prepared for going to sleep earlier. I used to think that, okay, if I'm really tired in the evening, I work really hard all the way until I go to bed, that'll be a good night's sleep. But that is not. The watches clearly show that this is not a good strategy. So the best strategy is to calm down, to wind down maybe two hours before you go to sleep is to calm down, to wind down maybe two hours before you go to sleep. Read a book, dim the lights, you know. Breathe slowly, take it easy Like a plane going down to the airport is often what I picture in my mind. You know to wind down and you need to not have had coffee or coffee or from energy drinks, you know, until maybe 12 pm in the day, because the coffee will still be there in the evening. It has a half time of six hours, so you should really not drink in the afternoon from the coffee. It will disturb your sleep and your bedroom should be cold or cool. It should be between 60 and 65 degrees Fahrenheit, 15 to 18 degrees Celsius. That will improve the sleep and you will see it on the watches that your sleep will improve from that. And it should be totally dark, totally dark, as dark as you can see the hand in front of you in the darkness. And you should have a sleep consistency.

Speaker 2: 44:29

That's maybe the most important that you go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, more or less as much as you can, even in the weekends.

Speaker 2: 44:39

And of course, you should also skip alcohol, because alcohol will really wreck your sleep and I usually think the opposite. I used to drink two glasses of wine, maybe three, every day, because I thought I fell asleep easier, so I thought it was good, but it really wrecks your sleep and the wearables will show you that very clearly. So the first thing a lot of people do when they get the variables is to cut down on alcohol. They see the physiological price of alcohol yeah, so, um, so, um. Yeah, that is some key things about sleep, and once you are sleeping better um, and you can also confirm it on your variables that you are are sleeping better, um, and you can also confirm it on your wearables that you are are sleeping better, um, then you have more energy to do the other things in the pulse cure that may that you may need more willpower to do yeah also, you should also not eat late in the evening.

Speaker 2: 45:41

You should not eat after maybe three hours before you go to bed. So if you eat too late, your body will be busy. You know digesting the food, but it's not. Your body is ancient. You know the mechanisms in our bodies are very ancient and they are not just not made for eating in the evening, so you disturb the whole sleep, you know the really the best one I've ever heard, which is your stuff aligns very close to it.

Speaker 1: 46:08

It's the three, two, one method which is three hours before don't eat food, two hours before, uh, stop drinking water. And then one hour before the technology like kind of technology, because when you do that stuff, like it's really interesting. I have a buddy and he ended up. He he usually fasts on mondays so he'll just fast the entire day on monday. He goes dude. I wake up on tuesday and he has a whoop. His numbers are always 96, 97, 98, 99, 100 when he's completely fasted, because and it's just incredible then meanwhile that same weekend he could have went out and gotten like two or three on the recovery, but then he'll do the whole fasting thing and completely clean yeah, and that's what's interesting, because the food industry wants you to think that if you lack energy, you need to eat something.

Speaker 2: 47:09

You know that costs money, but actually for a lot of the truth is the opposite. You know, some of you can get energy from not eating, from fasting, and you will see it on the variables, and that will motivate you, because it is a bit uncomfortable fasting. But when you see on the variables the effect of it on your physiology, um, then then it's motivating. Um, so I also do fasting, I do. I do, um have a restricted feeding window, so I eat from between 12 pm to 6 pm and then outside that I try not to eat anything, and that is also very useful and I can, and as I also see this on my watch, um, then it's easier to do it, even if you stay a little bit hungry.

Speaker 2: 47:56

But on that scheme, though, I'm less hungry than I used to be. When you eat something in high carbs and you get low blood sugar and you eat and on and off the whole day through, then you then you are hungry multiple times during the day. But now I'm a lot less hungry, I have a lot more control of my eating, uh, you know. So either kind of the food control you or you control the food. So so, so earlier it I would eat, know, from the early breakfast until I went to bed, you know, governed by the hunger. But now I govern the hunger, so to speak.

Speaker 1: 48:36

Yeah, I completely agree. Like one of the rules I have is like wake up, work out and then you can eat a meal. So, like we had dinner last night at like 7, I think, and then I actually ate again at like probably 9.45,. So you're at 14 and a half hours and that's the thing. If you can eat earlier and let that food window go and then sleep, then by the time you wake up you're already at 12 hours anyway. And then it's like what's another three or four? At? Like you start to realize it that you don't need the food right away. But you are right.

Speaker 1: 49:13

Like, if you stay out real late drinking, then you wake up the next morning you're feeling slow, like, you're like I need something to eat to feel better, like it's just the combination. And. And then you're like oh well, my stomach hurts, well, I don't know if I'm all right. Like, and it's just the combination. And and then you're like oh well, my stomach hurts, well, I don't know if I'm all right. Like, and it's this whole thing. And you're like okay, I realize that I've messed up the body a little bit.

Speaker 1: 49:34

Yeah yeah, yeah, absolutely so once people start following the sleep protocol, what should they do next?

Speaker 2: 49:43

well then they, then they should start taking control of their exercise. I would say so that you need when you have good sleep and and then you need to have an exercise schedule. You know you need to. Maybe five times a week you should be walking, brisk walking, maybe 30 minutes, it will not take a lot, but um, 30 minutes. Get your pulse up a little bit, that's good. If you could do some jogging, that's even better. So if one of those five half hours throughout the week could be jogging, that would be very good. So the best way to get your pulse down is to get it up, to be able to get it up. Out is to get it up to be able to get it up. So even half hour jogging once a week will do magic for your physiology.

Speaker 2: 50:34

And you also need to build muscle. You need to have muscle because muscle is not only mechanically important but it also will release hormones, it will proteins, um, that will improve the connections in your brain. It's called myokines, it's like brain derived neurotrophic factor and so on. And so your whole system, your whole body, cooperates. If you do the right thing, you know to improve your health, um and and um. So that's the most important to build, and the Garmin watches will show you your VO2 max, which is your fitness level, and I can see that if you have a poor fitness level then you will struggle. You know in your everyday life fitness level, a VO2 max maybe of 30 or below, then everything you do will you need effort to do like daily activities. If you improve your VO2 max by running or rowing or whatever you do, then you can do the same activities kind of at the lower heart rate. Uh, it's easier for you to to do everything in your life yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 51:51

And when you really think about it, like when I ran a, I ran the new york city marathon in 2021 and when you're training for that stuff, you're running really long miles and your heart rate just got like literally nosedives. Where it's like I might have been at like 55 goes down to 45, 43. You're like you're resting heart rate and when you really think about it, like, think about it, we only have a certain amount of beats in our life. If we can take it from 100 resting heart rate to 50, that's half the effort it takes. And there are people walking around with heart rates of 120, 150, 200, like you, maybe not 200. That's a little ridiculous, but um, but you just start to realize you're like, if I can lower it just a little bit, then that's more time that I'm gonna have, because it's something that you don't have to rely on as much. It's something that you don't have to think on. Plus, you're getting outside, you're getting the natural light, you're seeing the sun. These are all good things for us.

Speaker 2: 52:57

Yeah, yeah, the sun particularly. That's very important and we are shying away from the sun because people are scared of getting skin cancer. But there's a big price for that and we need the sun. Our cells are developed through cooperating with the energy from the sun, from the red light from the sun, and our mitochondria in our cells need the sun to work better, which is also again visible in the heart rate. You can see it on the HRV. In the summer the HRV is better than in the winter because of the energy from the sun. So of course we need it, but we should not get sunburned, but we need the rays from the sun. So that's important.

Speaker 1: 53:46

And from somebody who gets sunburned very easily. The best way to do this is like there's a uv index and the uv index will tell us what the ratings are. So usually from like 11 am to like 3 pm is like when it's the highest. So if you go in the morning or in the late afternoon you're still getting sun exposure, but it's just not that. Hey, we might get sunburn here. So the UV scale is a very important one to follow because you can get sunburned very easily.

Speaker 2: 54:16

Yeah, yeah, absolutely so. Be in the sun, but avoid getting sunburned. That's what creates the problems for the cells to get this inflammation.

Speaker 1: 54:34

Absolutely. So what are the? The things are in the protocol. Like is there? Like no alcohol ever, is it?

Speaker 2: 54:37

like. What are? What are the other things that you would add? I don't think it's no alcohol ever, but you have to choose. You know the prioritize.

Speaker 2: 54:42

Okay, this, uh, this party or this occasion, I'd like to have some alcohol, but if there's other times you just drink alcohol just out of habit, you cut those glasses, the unnecessary ones, you'll cut them. Maybe you cut the Because there's a direct link between the number of glasses. So two glasses is worse, three glasses is worse, on a linear scale, so that maybe you can cut out the last two or three glasses, drop the last whiskey before you go to bed, and so on. That I used to like. Once you see the physiological price, it's easier for you to to manage this. How, how and when should I drink and how much? You know it's like if you, you know it's like if you go to the bar, you know you can see the bill right away, you know. But if in the physiology it's like, you only discover the day after that this drink cost me like you200, like in physiological money, you get the surprise.

Speaker 2: 55:50

So I think it's, and some people tolerate alcohol better than others, so it may depend. So these variables will show you how you react to things and not just have an average of a thousand people or so on in a research study will react to it. They will show you how. How you react to alcohol, and it may also depend on the occasion. I hear a lot of people, you know, if they're among friends and everything is calm, they can tolerate it better than in other situations where there is more insecurity and so on. So, um, so it's also based on the totality of it. So if you have a stressful life, then you should really not put another load on your system. You know, and a lot of people that need stressful lives think that, okay, I should have a glass of wine or two in the evening and wind down, but when you see then in the morning, the physiological build from that, you cut it out. You know.

Speaker 1: 56:44

So it's a vicious circle you're just compounding negatively or you can compound positively. That's right that's right.

Speaker 2: 56:50

So so, yeah, you get more control. You know it's like. You know it's like, um, if you didn't have the budget, if you didn't see the, the money going in and out from your account, uh, then you will be blind, you know, and and this is a way to get um, get the overview of your physiological account. Just, you see this, the the budget that you have, the body budget that you have to to spend. You know how to save energy and how to use energy, um, and that will improve your performance, particularly for business.

Speaker 1: 57:28

Yeah, I mean for business owners 100%. And the other big thing is, like, if you're in, like if you're going to dinner and you want to just have a glass of wine on a Tuesday first, not having it, you'll probably get a much better sleep if you don't have it. You know what I mean. So it's just these ideas of like, what are the gives and takes that you want to create and where do you really see what you're looking to accomplish?

Speaker 1: 57:54

And I think those are super important questions to ask, because when we don't have a direction or don't have something we're working towards, then it's this aimless ah, let's get drunk on a tuesday, like. You know what I mean. There's just no direction. So, like, when you have that direction and that purpose, I think that helps so much more in working towards these big goals. And for you, it was purpose of I want to take more photos and I want to live longer, and it's like great, wake up and like, if you guys need help with your purpose, you could always reach out and like, cause it's these things that like, once we have the purpose, then it's way easier to say no to the situation, cause you have a different direction. You're going in. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 58:37

Yeah, you have to know your, your aim, you know where you're going, what you want to accomplish, you know.

Speaker 2: 58:44

Absolutely you know, absolutely so for you. Are there any big trips coming up, any ideas you got going on? Oh, I'm going um. You know we had to sell the first boat, um in the french polynesia because covid came and it was just too expensive having it on an island. And we were here as we sold the first boat and then, um, with that money, um, because we could be, we were able to sell it for the same price 14 years after we bought it as we bought it. For me, that was incredible, even during covid, with neither the buyer, the seller, poker, we're at the boat. So you can say to us all we're on three-way calls.

Speaker 2: 59:30

And then we bought the new boat and with a new charter yacht management deal. So we're actually going sailing in the Seychelles this summer, also go sailing in Mallorca in Spain in one month's time. So we have a lot of these shorter sailing trips now in Croatia. But because we have the boat now is in Dreamyol Charter. They have ports all over the world, marinas all over the world, and so they don't care if we use our boat or another boat. So last year we were at Bahamas and we could you can use boats everywhere, and then in four years the boat will be ours again.

Speaker 1: 1:00:24

But it's a yacht share for that period of time.

Speaker 2: 1:00:30

Yeah, sail around with that, but it's a yacht share for that period of time. Yeah, so for then six years. Um, then we can sail for like six to twelve weeks every year, um, in whatever boat in the inside their system that's available, yeah, and then we bought our boat for half price and then, after six years, the boat is ours and it will still be worth more than when we bought it, you know. So it's a way of actually making money, you know, while we can use these boats for like six years?

Speaker 1: 1:01:02

Yeah, no, absolutely, instead of it just sitting there taking up cost. I like that. That's awesome. Yeah, and what do you love so much about the sailing?

Speaker 2: 1:01:12

It's the freedom, it's the closest to nature and the sea. So to be close to the sea is so amazing, you know, because we live so much life now with our virtual lives, you know, through the screens. So just to have me and the family and friends uh, because they also come along, of course, um, uh, near the sea is just, uh, just a want to have in my life. So you are free, you can, of course, with the Starlink we will be able to be digital nomads. You know, we can do our job digitally, even then, if you're in the boat, anywhere in the world. Wow, explain how that works.

Speaker 1: 1:02:08

Starlink is.

Speaker 2: 1:02:08

You know Elon Musk's? I've heard of it. Yeah, so then you can have, you know, broadband access, you know, from anywhere in the world through satellites, so you can do our jobs from anywhere. That's incredible and also it's a bit uncomfortable. Being on a boat, I had to learn new things. I was really not a technical person. When you have a boat, you have to know something about the electronics of it, something about the plumbing. Something always goes wrong on the boat. You have to know something about your electronics of it. You have to know something about the plumbing.

Speaker 1: 1:02:53

Something always goes wrong on the boat.

Speaker 2: 1:02:53

It's a perpetual fixing state of the boat, problem fixing. So if you really want to become good at problem fixing and you want to have new problems coming your way all the time, then it's just to get a boat and you'll get the problems all the time. And it's just to get a boat and you'll get the problems all the time. So but I, you know, I became a little bit more handy, you know this way, you know Well, you get more, you get challenges all the time. Because what I thought would be sailing around the world, you know, be relaxing, be relaxing, you know, with a drink and the the easy life, you know it proved to be totally the opposite. And then and that is what I liked about it also, in the end, yeah, yeah, absolutely so.

Speaker 1: 1:03:39

Where can people find you? Where can they learn more about you? What's that? You have a website as well, I understand we have a website.

Speaker 2: 1:03:47

It's called the pulsecarecom um. It's a place where you can share your insights into your nervous system, what you find on your whoop or garmin watch or or your variable. Um. There are workshops there, webinars, uh, there's a blog, um. So there's so much to learn about how to use the variables and you will get answers to your question. There will be different groups according to which interest you have or which maybe, disease you have. If you have cancer, for example, heart rate variability is coupled to cancer, the risk of cancer If you get cancer, the prognosis If you get cured of cancer, the risk of getting it back, you know, yeah, so there are a lot of groups in there. Of course, my book, the Pulse Cure, is released in the US now mid-May and it is also available in audiobook and e-book. And I'm on Instagram on the doctor underscore Torkel point, md. That's my English speaking Instagram.

Speaker 2: 1:05:00

It's not so big yet as my Norwegian one I have 25,000 followers in Norway but hopefully I can, hopefully through the book I'm able to to, to get the message through also to the American audience. Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 1:05:17

Absolutely. I mean it's. It's a super fascinating thing. I find that in health, everyone tries to complex everything. They try to make it super complex so that you pay them money to do this thing and you're just going. No, it's actually a lot easier than that. It's actually fairly simple. Just follow this. It's very simple.

Speaker 2: 1:05:41

It's very simple, yeah, and I've seen this because, as a doctor, of course, when I get a patient that is 95 years old, still at home, still functions both the brain and the body, then I'm very curious about what has this person done in their lives.

Speaker 2: 1:05:58

And that is what I'm talking about in the pulse cure. They haven't been exercising too much, they haven't been doing something out of the ordinary, they have been sleeping, they have had an access to calm, they have been exercising moderately, they have been eating whole foods, they have been taking naps, they have had good relationships to friends and family. Um so so, and this is what what uh gets you old. You don't need, I think, uh expensive supplements or or weird, you know, activities to to, to, to to reach that state.

Speaker 1: 1:06:43

Absolutely, absolutely. So I'll put all that in the show notes. Turkel, you have been a wealth of knowledge and I really appreciate the time thank you so much, jordan.

Speaker 2: 1:06:53

It's been a pleasure talking to you absolutely.