Episode 194- Jim LaValle- Cortisol, Stress, Health, and Extending a Players Career

“Athletes are ending their careers early because of nutrition.”

“Sense the beginning of time, in every medical writing, in history, in every system of healing, the number one herb were herbs for stress response, they were adaptogens.”

“More people will research their next refrigerator, their next house, their next purchase, their next care, more than they research their health.”

“Mindset drives decisions”

Jim LaValle joins us today to share how he looks to improve nutrition and health to improve performance. After a brief run down of his background Jim drives right into how nutritional issues are leading to a majority of the problems athletes have, including shortening their careers. He then shares with us some ways he is looking at blood with athletes in a different manner than “general population” to help figure out what is best to provide nutritionally or supplementally with athletes including a in depth break down of how cortisol affects athletes including some misconceptions of it. We then discuss the role of stress management and some pros and cons of modern methods used to measure stress. He then discusses adapatogens, and how many of them have been used for a very long time, because they work. Jim then discusses methods used to get these nutrients and adaptogens into the system, including the future of delivery systems for athletes and limitations to the ones that we have now. Jim then runs down the rabbit hole of how helping athletes nutrition has helped improve their health, improved performance, and taken better care of them when they retire so they feel better and live better lives. We finish off talking about the role of accountability with the athlete in this whole situation, and at the end of the day they’re the ones that have to make the decisions and fix the issues at the end of the day.