Triforce! - Triforce Introduces - Healthy Gamer ft Pyrion Flax

Episode Date: December 2, 2023

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pickaxe oh there we go we're back okay sorry so so yeah i had the i had the uh hyperventricular tachycardia attacks i'd go in i'd have the adenosine and then i had the operation called an ablation where they fixed it and that was fine um as you know was mildly traumatic but it was fine but then i started having panic attacks worrying about that. And it's sort of like, even though I'm not worried about it anymore, they've kind of stuck there. So I'm worried that I've broken part of my brain after like several years of that and that worry. It's pretty much always when I'm trying to get to sleep, that's when it kicks in because that's when typically I would have an attack. What kicks in?

A panic attack. Okay. And these started after you had specifically like the adenosine and stuff? Yeah. So, you know, this is a it's a fascinating area of research. Um, so there are people who require devices implanted in their heart that will reset their rhythm if they have an abnormal rhythm, which is what hyperventricular tachycardia is. You can fix it by ablating. So usually what happens is you've got a part of the heart.

So you've got a part of the heart called the sinoatrial node. And then you have this other part of the heart called the AV node, atrioventricular node. And these are the things that determine the rhythm of your heart. They tell your heart when to pump and how fast to pump. The problem is that sometimes you've got a piece of your heart that doesn't listen to them and creates its own rhythm. And then that causes all kinds of problems. Yeah. So we can do two things. We can do an ablation if there is a focus in the heart. The other thing is we can implant a device that if your heart becomes abnormal, it'll reset the rhythm electrically. Like a pacemaker. Yeah. Yeah. The problem is that when that part of the,

when that device kicks in, the subjective experience for patients is being kicked in the chest by a horse. So I have seen, and there's some research, that these, anytime this device activates, it induces PTSD. Like real, diagnosable PTSD. So that what happens is you have such a negative physical experience that your brain activates your trauma compensation mechanisms. So what is trauma compensation? Hypervigilance. Oh my God, we've been attacked by a tiger four times. So the next time we go into the jungle, we need to be on high alert. Right. So this is where part of the problem is that. So in a weird way, like I would say that this is very common. First of all, you're not doing anything wrong. You're not screwed up. It is a consequence of our brain's natural ability to adapt. even though you're suffering from this,

this is not a part of your brain that's broken. In fact, it's the exact opposite. It is a part of your brain that is work. It's not just brain. Your whole body is working exactly the way that it's supposed to, which is that it's supposed to help you adapt. Right. Because there have been experiences that you've had that have been life threatening.

And so now your brain and your body are like, Hey bro, let's not die tonight. And maybe if we're like a little bit more careful, we will learn like we'll be we'll catch something that could be life threatening. So that's the first thing to understand. Second thing is you can absolutely rewire some of this physiology. I'm actually doing a trauma workshop this weekend precisely that's going to cover this

is that there are certain changes to your physiology which will induce panic. So what we also don't oftentimes get is that panic is not mental. It's physiologic. So when adrenaline and cortisol, norepinephrine, like when some of these things start flooding in our body, they will change the way that we think. They will change the way that we breathe. And there are absolutely techniques that you can do to kind of recalibrate those. Simple things are like meditation. But what we really want to do is increase something in your body called heart rate variability. So if we kind of look at your heart, it can go high, it can go low. Your heart has the capacity to adapt. So if you look at professional athletes, their heart rate variability is very high. Their baseline heart rate is really low. And then when they exercise, their heart rate can

increase a ton. If you look at someone who's a degenerate gamer, their heart rate variability is lower because their baseline heart rate is high and they don't have a whole lot of like movement. So if you kind of look at it, your physiology is inflexible. It's kind of like you can't stretch it. And so what we actually want to do is when it's kind of locked in and you have a low HRV, what that means is that you're prone to things like anxiety and panic and stuff like that, what that means is that you're prone to things like anxiety and panic and stuff like that, because that's the heart rate at which panic and anxiety and stuff sort of exist. Okay. So the interesting thing is that if you can increase that physiology

of stretch, if you can sort of like learn to calm down your nervous system, which is the other way to do it, because right now your nervous system is wired in kind of a high alert state. So as you kind of rewire it to be in a more normal state, that hopefully will improve. And you can do everything from exercise to meditation to even doing things like if you're starting to feel panic, you can, I've had some patients that this works for. If you exercise for 60 seconds as hard as you possibly can, I'm not talking about like doing five pushups. I'm talking about getting out of bed, stepping outside of your house and literally running at maximal speed as if you were about to die. If you do that for 60 seconds, it triggers a natural calming mechanism. So this is what happens when we push our nervous system to 100%. Our nervous system is like, hey, we pushed ourself way too far.

We need to calm down. And so it triggers like this parasympathetic nervous response. The other thing that you can do is you can dunk your face in ice water. That's going to trigger something called the mammalian diving reflex. So what if you'll do the same thing, and then you'll trigger these parts of your physiology that will sort of like shut off the panic attack. So when we have people who are like acutely suicidal and like really want to hurt themselves or even engaging in self injurious behavior, if we can get them to dunk their face in ice water, then we can avoid them to dunk their face in ice water,

then we can avoid restraints, injections, all that kind of stuff. So there's like parts of your physiology that you can kind of trigger that may be able to help. Wow, that's going to drive my wife crazy. Jump out and run down the street, chucking cold water at myself. All right. Well, that's interesting. I have been recommended both more exercise and meditation so i think those are something i should finally get around those are better yeah oh wow this has been fantastic i really really enjoy talking with you dude it's uh it's fascinating

you know you know all of these problems and uh everything you said is really it's not just like do this i love the way you explain explain the physiological reasons behind it and everything. It's really, that was really something. Thank you so much. Yeah, likewise. And love everything that you do, period. Are you going to be at TI this year? Do you know?

No comment. We don't know. There's no talent announcements yet. I don't know yet. So we'll have to wait and see. Okay, cool. Well, I hope things work out for you there. But thank you so much for coming on.

And I'd love to be partnered with Yogscast. Fantastic. Yeah, it's great. Great podcast. I love it. I want to listen to other people's therapy sessions now as well. I'm looking forward to that. Well, we don't do therapy on stream, but, you know.

Not therapy. Sorry. Sessions. We'll just call them sessions. Yeah. Okay. Well, I did find this very therapeutic. So thank you very much. I'm glad. We'll talk again soon. Take care, we'll just call them sessions. Yeah. Okay, well, I did find this very therapeutic, so thank you very much.

I'm glad. We'll talk again soon, huh? Take care, man. Bye. All right, thanks. Bye-bye.