Episode 78

Reversing the Irreversible With Valerie Orsoni

Published on: 17th October, 2026

In this episode of the Biohacker's Podcast, Teemu Arina speaks with Valerie Orsoni on reversing "irreversible" conditions, why one biomarker never tells the whole story, her biohacking room and peptide experiences, and why chasing perfection backfires.

Check https://hololifesummit.com for upcoming events & tickets.

Devices, supplements, guides, books & quality online courses for supporting your health & performance: https://hololifecenter.com

Valerie Orsoni, biohacker and author, ValBiohacker

Valerie Orsoni has been biohacking since 1998. She has written 56 books, has been named one of the Top 50 Longevity Leaders and ranks number one on the Longevity World Cup leaderboard, with a biological age measured at 22.9 years below her chronological age. Born in Corsica and raised in Provence, she has lived in San Francisco for 26 years. She has climbed more than 45 peaks, skied to the South Pole and logged around 350 dives. In this conversation she describes how she approached juvenile arthritis, lung problems and brain lesions she was told were irreversible, and why she believes refusing to identify with an illness is part of getting better. She speaks at HOLOLIFE Summit in Amsterdam on 14 and 15 November 2026 with the talk Reversing the Irreversible.

Website: https://www.valbiohacker.com

Instagram: @valerieorsoni

- A single number such as grip strength, VO2 max or cystatin C cannot define how well someone is ageing, so biomarkers are best read together and in personal context.

- HbA1c depends on how long red blood cells live, so people with long-lived red cells can read as prediabetic while their blood sugar control is normal.

- Common genetic variants can keep CRP elevated without meaningful inflammation, which is why genetic context can explain a stubborn lab value.

- Cystatin C is gaining attention as a kidney marker in biological age clocks, and some clinicians consider it more informative than eGFR alone.

- Food quality, seasonal eating and the daily walking, carrying and socialising around meals may matter as much as the diet itself.

- Gray-market peptides can contain bacterial contamination and endotoxins, so anything injectable carries real risk and belongs under medical supervision.

- Personal recoveries described in the episode, from brain lesions to joint and eye problems, are individual experiences rather than evidence of what works for everyone.

- Self-treatment should never replace diagnosis, and a doctor should assess persistent symptoms, ear infections or neurological signs.

- Piling up protocols and fearing every missed habit can raise stress and undo benefits, while social connection and enjoyment also support health.

- The foundations of sleep, food, movement, stress management and relationships come before any device, supplement or peptide, and consistent small choices compound over a lifetime.

00:00 - Cold Open

00:54 - Welcome

01:56 - Biohacking Since 1986

03:13 - Keto Smart, Croissants and the Mediterranean

07:16 - Stop Bragging About Numbers

09:14 - Mountains, Bikes and Antarctica

11:25 - Kilimanjaro, 28 Years Later

12:45 - Minus 22.9 Years on the Bortz Clock

14:28 - When CRP Lies: Genes and Context

16:15 - Born Old: Reversing Juvenile Arthritis

18:30 - Inside the Biohacking Room

20:22 - Salt Therapy and a VO2 Max From 29 to 40

22:34 - Eat Wrong, Live Better

25:15 - 100 Supplements a Day and a Binder Month

26:42 - Improving Vision by 18%

30:42 - The Antidote to Sitting

32:48 - Peptides: Quality, Endotoxins and a Torn Shoulder

36:45 - Challenges as Fuel

39:13 - Don't Chase Perfection

42:00 - Healthcare in the US and Europe

47:07 - Moomin and Neurosonic

48:33 - Naps, No Phone and Doing Nothing

50:29 - Meet Valerie at HOLOLIFE Summit

52:31 - Reversing the Irreversible

54:23 - Don't Call It "My" Illness

58:04 - Closing

Transcript
Valerie Orsoni:

I was born old. I was born with a severe case of juvenile arthritis.

Valerie Orsoni:

I climbed Kilimanjaro 28 years ago.

Valerie Orsoni:

Okay. And 28 years ago, when I climbed Kilimanjaro, which is less than 6,000

Valerie Orsoni:

meters, pretty much, it was hard. I got to the top.

Valerie Orsoni:

I was pretty much dead. I climbed it again last October.

Valerie Orsoni:

I took 10 clients with me. I got to the top.

Valerie Orsoni:

I was like, so okay. I even ran on the top.

Valerie Orsoni:

And at one point he says, “You have all the signs of aggressive multiple

Valerie Orsoni:

sclerosis.” I was like, “What? No, I don't want it.

Valerie Orsoni:

I refuse it.”

Teemu Arina:

Welcome to Biohacker's Podcast. My name is Teemu Arina.

Teemu Arina:

Today I'm speaking with Valerie Orsoni.

Teemu Arina:

She's 55 and biohacker since 1998.

Teemu Arina:

1998, she's named as one of the top 50 longevity leaders and authors.

Teemu Arina:

She has written 56 books, and this is, I would say today that would

Teemu Arina:

not be, like, impressive in the time of artificial intelligence, but these are written

Teemu Arina:

before AI. So she ranks number one in the Longevity World Cup leaderboard.

Teemu Arina:

Also, she has reversed her aging, and she just told me that she also

Teemu Arina:

helped her father to do the same in the last couple of decades.

Teemu Arina:

So there's definitely something you can do to slow down your aging process.

Teemu Arina:

Welcome to the show.

Valerie Orsoni:

Thank you for having me. And by the way, I'm 56 chronologically.

Valerie Orsoni:

Thank you for making me a bit younger on paper.

Valerie Orsoni:

But

Teemu Arina:

So 56, but you definitely, definitely have done your share when it comes to

Teemu Arina:

living longer. You say that you have. I've been a biohacker since 1998.

Teemu Arina:

So what got you into this?

Valerie Orsoni:

You know, to be honest, it's actually 1986 because when I was 16, now

Valerie Orsoni:

you can do the math. I was born in 1970.

Valerie Orsoni:

When I was 16, I lived in France, and my dad was a chef,

Valerie Orsoni:

and everyone was drinking alcohol. Like every 16-year-old I knew was drinking alcohol at

Valerie Orsoni:

the time. I was doing some research at the library, and yeah, there was

Valerie Orsoni:

no internet, and I found out how sugar and alcohol was inflammatory.

Valerie Orsoni:

And I was like, this is bad for us. And So I decided to

Valerie Orsoni:

never drink alcohol ever in my entire life.

Valerie Orsoni:

So when all my friends would be drinking, I would have hot water and

Valerie Orsoni:

lemon, and I would be ridiculed. I would be called grandma.

Valerie Orsoni:

Now it's completely okay to say, hey, I'm not going to drink.

Valerie Orsoni:

But when I was 16, I was the black sheep.

Valerie Orsoni:

Like, she's crazy. She's a weirdo, you know?

Valerie Orsoni:

And I never had alcohol in my entire life. And I think this to

Valerie Orsoni:

me, when I say 98, it's because of something else. But 86 was the

Valerie Orsoni:

first conscious decision to do something that would prevent things from happening to my

Valerie Orsoni:

body.

Teemu Arina:

And where did you grow up?

Valerie Orsoni:

In Southern France. I'm from Corsica, but I grew up in Provence.

Teemu Arina:

So, I mean, having spent some time there, the wines are pretty good.

Valerie Orsoni:

I don't know. I wouldn't know. I will trust your judgment for that.

Teemu Arina:

And it's in the culture also. I mean, I think you have done quite

Teemu Arina:

a bit of in the ketogenic diet side. Is that correct?

Valerie Orsoni:

Yes. But I did adapt it. I call it the keto smart.

Valerie Orsoni:

I do not believe, I mean, it's not a religion, but I don't trust

Valerie Orsoni:

the heavy ketogenic diet for my health because it really moves the needle in

Valerie Orsoni:

wrong directions for many markers. I didn't like it for myself, but I adapted

Valerie Orsoni:

it. So it's kind of a Mediterranean diet that would be a bit more

Valerie Orsoni:

fatty. I would say that's how I put it. So it's still like fish,

Valerie Orsoni:

eggs, not a lot of dairy, maybe sheep, you know, milk, dairy, no butter,

Valerie Orsoni:

olive oil, you know, and fruits and vegetables. It's kind of just the same

Valerie Orsoni:

Mediterranean blue zone diet on which I add more olive oil, pretty much.

Teemu Arina:

Right. Right. And I mean, the French cuisine is full of organ meats also.

Teemu Arina:

Is that something that's on your plate?

Valerie Orsoni:

Yes. I love organ meats. It's actually very healthy.

Valerie Orsoni:

I don't want to overdo it either. I'm not an Eskimo.

Valerie Orsoni:

They do eat a lot of that, but I do quite eat a lot.

Valerie Orsoni:

And that's why when I go to Scotland, I love the haggis over there,

Valerie Orsoni:

you know, because it's made with a lot of organ meat.

Teemu Arina:

Yeah. Another thing that French are famous for is croissants.

Teemu Arina:

Do you have a croissant occasionally?

Valerie Orsoni:

I don't. The thing is, I stopped eating gluten when I discovered I was

Valerie Orsoni:

pretty sensitive to it, so I don't.

Valerie Orsoni:

For a few years, it was hard. I wanted to have one every time

Valerie Orsoni:

I would go to Paris or even France in general and now it doesn't

Valerie Orsoni:

even appeal, and I look at it and I'm like, okay, I don't want

Valerie Orsoni:

it anymore. So it's, I think I, in the past, I was addicted to

Valerie Orsoni:

sweet stuff, chocolate a lot, and people would know me.

Valerie Orsoni:

Chocolate was my sin. Chocolate croissants, I would.

Valerie Orsoni:

And now I don't really want it. It's not hard anymore, but for years

Valerie Orsoni:

it was hard.

Teemu Arina:

I see. Yeah, yeah, yeah. When it comes to that kind of transition in

Teemu Arina:

terms of dietary preferences, many people, when they talk about diets, don't necessarily want

Teemu Arina:

to change because they say, "I want to enjoy my life. I want to

Teemu Arina:

have my wine. I want to have my croissant." Personally, when I got into

Teemu Arina:

a dietary change where I basically cut sugar for a while, when I went

Teemu Arina:

back to sweets and pastries and so on, I just couldn't eat them.

Teemu Arina:

Like, it's... too much. My taste changed completely.

Teemu Arina:

It was, like, insane, so it definitely can change.

Teemu Arina:

Your preferences can change. Now, I've been looking at people's laboratory markers, especially nutritional

Teemu Arina:

markers, and one thing that I've noticed is that people who eat a wide

Teemu Arina:

variety of diet, who have eat seasonally, and what you mentioned as the Mediterranean

Teemu Arina:

diet, I've seen very good biomarkers when it comes to people who live into

Teemu Arina:

the south, close to the Mediterranean Sea, because they usually eat fresh food.

Teemu Arina:

They eat quite diverse set of different foods from the ocean or in terms

Teemu Arina:

of meat, they have, like, different animals, and it's usually, like, more focus

Teemu Arina:

on the quality, and they might take less supplements because they always thought that

Teemu Arina:

what my mother or grandmother was cooking is just better.

Teemu Arina:

But in the Mediterranean, the culture is very pervasive, and it's been going on

Teemu Arina:

for a long time. I don't like to use the term Blue Zones that

Teemu Arina:

much.

Valerie Orsoni:

Yeah, no, I agree. I mean, for me, it's Corsica. It's my island.

Valerie Orsoni:

So I say the Corsican diet. But you can see old people in villages,

Valerie Orsoni:

you know, they are, like, 90 years old. They still go to their little

Valerie Orsoni:

patch of garden, coming down the steps, carrying a bag, you know, grip strength,

Valerie Orsoni:

all these things that people do at the gym. They do outside.

Valerie Orsoni:

They carry a bag. Like my dad does grocery shopping to the market, carrying

Valerie Orsoni:

bags in each hand. He doesn't drive there. He walks with his bags.

Valerie Orsoni:

Same thing on the island. They go and get the harvest green beans.

Valerie Orsoni:

Then they eat, they cook, they go back home.

Valerie Orsoni:

And I'm like, we try to recreate a lot of, like, red light therapy.

Valerie Orsoni:

Well, just get the sun. So it's a lot of things we do because

Valerie Orsoni:

we don't have access anymore, maybe because we're in this crazy life.

Valerie Orsoni:

But that's what I'm trying to do for myself. And I don't like to

Valerie Orsoni:

try. I do for myself is go back to the basics.

Valerie Orsoni:

And of course, I use a lot of devices because it can help me

Valerie Orsoni:

go further. And because I don't do a lot of grocery shopping, I have

Valerie Orsoni:

this on my desk to just work on my grip strength all day long.

Valerie Orsoni:

But the one thing that drives me crazy, you mentioned markers, is when I

Valerie Orsoni:

see on social media all these people saying grip strength is the one longevity

Valerie Orsoni:

marker or VO2 max is the one longevity marker or cystatin C.

Valerie Orsoni:

I'm like, hold on, guys. One number is not going to determine anything.

Valerie Orsoni:

So, you know, don't be so excited about one particular thing, because first, it

Valerie Orsoni:

makes other people feel pretty bad about themselves. Like, oh, shoot, I'm not there

Valerie Orsoni:

yet. I'm never going to be a champion at longevity.

Valerie Orsoni:

And second, it's not really true. I just posted something on HbA1c, where mine

Valerie Orsoni:

is always prediabetic, because I found out my red cells live 50% longer.

Valerie Orsoni:

So I can never be under 5.7 or 5.6.

Valerie Orsoni:

And then some people have red cells that live only 80 days instead of

Valerie Orsoni:

100, 120. So their HbA1c can be 4.5.

Valerie Orsoni:

And I tell people, stop bragging about numbers.

Valerie Orsoni:

Make sure you have context. And I think in biohacking, we've lost it.

Valerie Orsoni:

People just bombard you with numbers all day long. And you're like, oh, my

Valerie Orsoni:

God.

Teemu Arina:

That's so true. That's absolutely true.

Teemu Arina:

When it comes to, like, there's a couple of avenues there.

Teemu Arina:

So first, about the technology side, is that biohacking tools and technology.

Teemu Arina:

It seems to be to people who live in cities who are disconnected from

Teemu Arina:

nature. The other thing is that when it comes to what you mentioned about

Teemu Arina:

grip strength and grandmas walking around carrying their groceries, I think we focus a

Teemu Arina:

little bit too much on diet and not what is going on around it.

Teemu Arina:

So, for example, what I've noticed, having spent quite a lot of time in

Teemu Arina:

the Mediterranean, is that people walk to a restaurant.

Teemu Arina:

And they might walk. They might walk away from the restaurant. So, like, there

Teemu Arina:

is a lot of physical activity around food.

Teemu Arina:

Yeah, I mean, gathering it, eating it, spending time with friends.

Teemu Arina:

And we tend to, in built urban environments, we just go everywhere with a

Teemu Arina:

car or an elevator or some kind of vehicle.

Teemu Arina:

And we're disconnected from the natural cycles.

Teemu Arina:

The sun and nature. Now, you are also a mountaineer.

Teemu Arina:

You have skied on the South Pole and climbed more than 45 peaks.

Teemu Arina:

So... I guess you're a person who would choose a mountain or a beach.

Teemu Arina:

Is that correct?

Valerie Orsoni:

You know, I actually do a lot. I have hundreds of scuba dives under

Valerie Orsoni:

my belt. I also do crazy scuba diving. So I do both.

Valerie Orsoni:

But I can never lay on the sand just for the sake of being

Valerie Orsoni:

in the sand. I need to be active. I'm going to walk on the

Valerie Orsoni:

beach. I'm going to walk to swim or I just can't stay there.

Valerie Orsoni:

It's not that I can't be contemplative and do nothing.

Valerie Orsoni:

It's just I find that roasting my body on the beach is not appealing.

Valerie Orsoni:

But just to go back to the city thing, I live in San Francisco.

Valerie Orsoni:

You cannot see, but I have this big deck covered with grass here.

Valerie Orsoni:

I go everywhere on a bike. Even big meetings, I go on my bike.

Valerie Orsoni:

So I do about 15 kilometers a day. And all my friends, they take

Valerie Orsoni:

the car or Waymo or Uber, all these things around.

Valerie Orsoni:

I'm like, hey, it's such a nice weather. Just take your bike or even

Valerie Orsoni:

walk. But it's right. You are right. It's not in the conscience.

Valerie Orsoni:

Like people think it's going to take longer. I measured many, so, things in

Valerie Orsoni:

the city, whether I take my car or the bike, it's the same.

Valerie Orsoni:

Traffic, finding a parking spot, everything. So yeah, that's super important.

Valerie Orsoni:

But then again, yeah, you're right. If I have to choose between cold and

Valerie Orsoni:

hot, I love the heat, but I love climbing or suffering in the minus

Valerie Orsoni:

40 degrees in Antarctica.

Teemu Arina:

Yeah, I also enjoy mountains. There's something about surpassing yourself

Teemu Arina:

when you climb these kind of things. I've done that many times.

Teemu Arina:

It's my favorite pastime as well, going on a hike in the Alps.

Teemu Arina:

Usually what I do in the summer is not to go to the beach,

Teemu Arina:

but go for a good hike. And it just feels incredible.

Teemu Arina:

And you get all the temperature alterations.

Teemu Arina:

And the physical activity as you do. And it's also like it shows something

Teemu Arina:

about your fitness over time and helps you with the health of your joints

Teemu Arina:

and ligaments and all of that because you need to go on uneven terrain

Teemu Arina:

usually.

Valerie Orsoni:

Yeah.

Teemu Arina:

So people tend to like exercises.

Teemu Arina:

Just having a walk on the beach or a run.

Valerie Orsoni:

Yeah. So it's up and down. But, you know, it's interesting because we're talking

Valerie Orsoni:

about longevity. I climbed Kilimanjaro 28 years ago.

Valerie Orsoni:

Okay. And 28 years ago, when I climbed Kilimanjaro, which is less than 6,000

Valerie Orsoni:

meters, pretty much, it was hard. I got to the top.

Valerie Orsoni:

I was pretty much dead. I climbed it again last October.

Valerie Orsoni:

I took 10 clients with me. I got to the top.

Valerie Orsoni:

I was like so okay. I even ran on the top.

Valerie Orsoni:

Now, I did a little jog and I was super healthy. And that goes

Valerie Orsoni:

to show you can be way fitter as you get older.

Valerie Orsoni:

There is no limit, really. Now, it's harder.

Valerie Orsoni:

When you are 35 and you have good markers, yeah, you're 35.

Valerie Orsoni:

If you don't have kids, if you have not lived through 20 extra years

Valerie Orsoni:

of difficulties, it's easier. I'm not saying it's easy, but it's easier.

Valerie Orsoni:

Now, you do the same thing 20 years later after kids, business, whatever happens,

Valerie Orsoni:

a divorce potential, all these things. It's harder, but it's more rewarding.

Valerie Orsoni:

You're like, oh, my God, I did it, you know?

Teemu Arina:

Indeed, yeah. You have really good skin quality for your age and for someone

Teemu Arina:

who is from the south of France. What I've noticed of people who live

Teemu Arina:

there: they get exposed to a lot of sun, and the skin tends to

Teemu Arina:

age quite a bit. So someone who avoids excess sunshine, that's probably really

Teemu Arina:

good for you long term in terms of the aging.

Teemu Arina:

It's one of the biggest organs of your body, which is your skin, basically.

Teemu Arina:

Now, you have also done an extensive amount of biohacks in your time.

Teemu Arina:

You claim that your biological age is nearly 23 years younger than your chronological

Teemu Arina:

age.

Valerie Orsoni:

I don't claim. It's the Bortz clock that calculates it.

Valerie Orsoni:

So it's not an empty claim. We just put all the markers in that

Valerie Orsoni:

thing, and it was minus 22.9 exactly.

Teemu Arina:

And what do they measure in this longevity leaderboard?

Valerie Orsoni:

So they measure, I don't remember all the markers, but their usual markers.

Valerie Orsoni:

But what I know is the Bortz clock uses more weight on the cystatin

Valerie Orsoni:

C, which reflects the health of your kidneys.

Valerie Orsoni:

And to be honest, until very recently, no one cared that much, not cared,

Valerie Orsoni:

but he looked at kidneys that much. And now we know it's one of

Valerie Orsoni:

the main organs when it comes to aging. And I'm, as a matter of

Valerie Orsoni:

fact, I'm actually actively monitoring four main markers because in my family, on my

Valerie Orsoni:

dad's side, everyone has only one kidney left. They all had issues.

Valerie Orsoni:

So I'm, like, looking at my numbers all the time. I don't have the

Valerie Orsoni:

best markers across the board. You know Siim, you know Siim better than I

Valerie Orsoni:

do. And he was number one. I was like, how can I beat him?

Valerie Orsoni:

Because he has this, he's the best everywhere. It's just that first, the Bortz

Valerie Orsoni:

clock takes into account how old you are chronologically.

Valerie Orsoni:

So it gives you a little bit of an edge if you're older, obviously.

Valerie Orsoni:

But second, it just so happened I was a bit better than my usual

Valerie Orsoni:

on everything across the board. I was not perfect.

Valerie Orsoni:

Like my CRP, which is an inflammation marker, was nowhere close to what Siim's

Valerie Orsoni:

would be. And I was really shocked. I'm like, oh my God, how did

Valerie Orsoni:

this work? Yeah, yeah.

Teemu Arina:

I agree. Cystatin C is an important marker.

Teemu Arina:

I have a genetic predisposition for kidney issues.

Teemu Arina:

I've been able to improve cystatin C and eGFR, although I feel like eGFR

Teemu Arina:

is not really that meaningful compared to cystatin C.

Teemu Arina:

I think it's a much better marker.

Valerie Orsoni:

Yeah, it's a great marker. There are also other markers that people kind of

Valerie Orsoni:

brag about, which I used to not understand how they could get so low.

Valerie Orsoni:

You know, CRP. I have friends who are 0.2.

Valerie Orsoni:

That's very low. Yeah, but me, I always got two and 1.5, and for

Valerie Orsoni:

my Bortz clock for the Longevity World Cup, I was able to go down

Valerie Orsoni:

lower for just that cup. It was super hard.

Valerie Orsoni:

I just found out I have two copies of the gene CRP 1205.

Valerie Orsoni:

When you have two copies, it's almost impossible to go lower than 1.4, 1.5

Valerie Orsoni:

unless you deprive yourself for a number.

Valerie Orsoni:

And I was like, how stupid of me. I'm never going to do it

Valerie Orsoni:

again. It's just, in that particular case, that marker is not, is not accurate.

Valerie Orsoni:

So it doesn't mean you have a low-grade inflammation.

Valerie Orsoni:

It just means this marker cannot interpret how your liver deals with inflammation.

Valerie Orsoni:

So when you have two copies of that gene, CRP does not mean that

Valerie Orsoni:

much for you, and you have to know all of that. Otherwise, you can

Valerie Orsoni:

get, I've been searching for my inflammation source for like 10 years until I

Valerie Orsoni:

got my gene thing, like, oh, of course.

Teemu Arina:

Yeah, I have the same with creatinine. So I have genetically higher creatinine levels,

Teemu Arina:

and yeah, one would think like, okay, like I have like over a hundred,

Teemu Arina:

and some people might think that, hey, you know, like that's of a concern.

Teemu Arina:

But when you look at every other marker, like, there's nothing.

Teemu Arina:

Everything's good. We have been dealt cards. Some of us are more in tune

Teemu Arina:

to become longevity athletes, like, just more easily based on whatever measurements we do.

Teemu Arina:

But it's all contextual. It all depends on your unique situation.

Teemu Arina:

What I think is important is that, are you improving, not against others, but

Teemu Arina:

in the context of yourself.

Valerie Orsoni:

Yeah.

Teemu Arina:

It's kind of like going to the gym or giving a presentation.

Teemu Arina:

You're as good as your last set.

Valerie Orsoni:

No, I agree. And listen, if you look at my fingers, you see they're

Valerie Orsoni:

all crooked like this. I don't know if you can see. It's very ugly.

Valerie Orsoni:

So I was born old. I was born with a severe case of juvenile

Valerie Orsoni:

arthritis. It was terrible. I was in pain all my early years.

Valerie Orsoni:

I couldn't even open a door. The pain was so bad.

Valerie Orsoni:

My dad had to put handles. I would operate with my elbow.

Valerie Orsoni:

And I was told there's nothing to be done. And that's why I always

Valerie Orsoni:

say that I started biohacking in 1998, because this is the year where I

Valerie Orsoni:

decided I would stop taking all these anti-inflammatory medications and look at what I

Valerie Orsoni:

could do for myself. And this is when I started taking high doses of

Valerie Orsoni:

vitamin C. That's why I say this is when I started real biohacking.

Valerie Orsoni:

But again, 86 to me is the better date.

Valerie Orsoni:

But yeah, this is when I started saying, hey, hold on. I was dealt

Valerie Orsoni:

a terrible deck of cards. I had this. I had juvenile epilepsy.

Valerie Orsoni:

I was born 50% deaf. I had a brain tumor.

Valerie Orsoni:

I had so many things, you know, I was like, oh, you know, but

Valerie Orsoni:

I reversed pretty much everything. Now I can do, I can even do planks

Valerie Orsoni:

with no pain. I can't do that many pushups because I never learned it,

Valerie Orsoni:

but I could learn, I guess. But I can do so many things.

Valerie Orsoni:

I can weightlift, deadlift 100 kilos. And I'm like, wow, you know, so you

Valerie Orsoni:

can really, I mean, people don't realize, but with good food, stress management, sleep,

Valerie Orsoni:

and fitness of, like, strength training and social life, which are the five pillars

Valerie Orsoni:

of epigenetics. And they're pretty boring. When you tell that to people, like, "Oh,

Valerie Orsoni:

that's boring. I want some magical pill." You'll take the pill when you've done

Valerie Orsoni:

the five pillars right. Then I give you the special pill, not before.

Teemu Arina:

So you reversed this arthritis. You also said that you have reversed hepatic.

Valerie Orsoni:

If you listen here, listen, you don't hear any cracks, right?

Valerie Orsoni:

No. When you have arthritis, this cracks. It used to crack like now, it

Valerie Orsoni:

doesn't do it, you know, and I even increased my bone density by 11

Valerie Orsoni:

over the past year or so. You can really do so many things.

Valerie Orsoni:

I want people to understand it's not just limited to you, Siim, Dave, or

Valerie Orsoni:

myself. Everyone, this can improve their lives, but you have to realize that if

Valerie Orsoni:

people say, you know, "Oh my God, getting healthy is a pain in the

Valerie Orsoni:

neck. It's a lot of problem." It's a lot. Like, yeah, try being sick.

Valerie Orsoni:

You'll see how a pain it is. So

Teemu Arina:

So if we go into the biohacks, like, what would you describe as your

Teemu Arina:

more advanced protocols when it comes to, comes to health optimization?

Valerie Orsoni:

So I have, well, a full room on my left here, a full big

Valerie Orsoni:

room with tons of biohacks. I have at home a hyperbaric chamber.

Valerie Orsoni:

Four years ago, I was diagnosed with 15 brain lesions that were, they think,

Valerie Orsoni:

because of mountain climbing. I don't have hyper...

Valerie Orsoni:

High blood pressure. I don't drink alcohol. None of these usual culprits were there,

Valerie Orsoni:

and I was told it was not reversible.

Valerie Orsoni:

So I started with, you know, the hyperbaric chamber, a lot of clinical-level hydrogen-enriched

Valerie Orsoni:

water, breathing it, taking specific supplements and peptides.

Valerie Orsoni:

And long story short, I went from 15 to 11, from 11 to 9.

Valerie Orsoni:

As of two weeks ago, I'm down to nine.

Valerie Orsoni:

Obviously, the goal is zero. But at home I have the hyperbaric chamber.

Valerie Orsoni:

I really trust this has helped me tremendously.

Valerie Orsoni:

Also infrared sauna, obviously.

Valerie Orsoni:

I'm always in my, not always, but every day in the sauna.

Valerie Orsoni:

I have this huge clinical-level machine for hydrogenated water and air.

Valerie Orsoni:

As a matter of fact, I'm going to start something new. I improved my

Valerie Orsoni:

vision by 18% in the past 12 months, so I want to see if

Valerie Orsoni:

I put the goggles with the hydrogenated air in it, if it can help

Valerie Orsoni:

as well. I will give it a try. I have tons of things. I

Valerie Orsoni:

mean, I'm always, like, trying. Like, this is a new thing I'm trying for

Valerie Orsoni:

hair growth. I have

Teemu Arina:

That's a red light device, right, for like a helmet?

Valerie Orsoni:

It's a red light device. I have, I also have, oops, another red light

Valerie Orsoni:

device, which is not for hair growth, which is for brain stimulation because in

Valerie Orsoni:

my family, my two grandmothers had dementia that actually led to their death, and

Valerie Orsoni:

so I work a lot on my brain. So I have one that actually

Valerie Orsoni:

stimulates your brain with 40-hertz waves. I have so many things.

Valerie Orsoni:

Oh my God, you have to visit my office. I have so many things

Valerie Orsoni:

here around. Oh, I have this. Okay, this is from Romania.

Valerie Orsoni:

People forget Romania is a small country, and so they think there's nothing good

Valerie Orsoni:

that can come from such a small country that has no reputation whatsoever in

Valerie Orsoni:

longevity. This is what saved my dad, and it's also

Teemu Arina:

what looks like an oxygen mask or something like that. It

Valerie Orsoni:

is not. It's actually, this is salt, and when you breathe it, you breathe

Valerie Orsoni:

nanoparticles of salt, which really helps with your lung health.

Valerie Orsoni:

And for me, I had also tuberculosis as a kid.

Valerie Orsoni:

I had so much issues with my lungs.

Valerie Orsoni:

I had the, Okay, my God, Siim, don't listen to the number.

Valerie Orsoni:

When I started measuring my VO2 max, I was at 29, okay?

Valerie Orsoni:

29. This is really bad, but still, I improved to 30, and I can

Valerie Orsoni:

climb to 7,000 meters and I'm not out of breath.

Valerie Orsoni:

So people were like, how can she be so healthy lung-wise when she climbs

Valerie Orsoni:

with such a terrible VO2 max? We found out first my lungs are bigger

Valerie Orsoni:

and everything, but at one point we had no clue, no one to that

Valerie Orsoni:

day. No, but still, I tried. I started breathing this salt an hour a

Valerie Orsoni:

day as I'm working on my computer, and of course training, Norwegian training, everything.

Valerie Orsoni:

But didn't change that. This I was doing before. The only change was this.

Valerie Orsoni:

I went from 29 to 30 all the way to 40 in less than

Valerie Orsoni:

seven months or six or seven months, so that really helped improve my lung

Valerie Orsoni:

capacity and my VO2 max. So this is always here, so I don't forget,

Valerie Orsoni:

you know, to use it.

Teemu Arina:

I think it's pretty cool that there are now all these stacked biohacks, that

Teemu Arina:

you can do all of these at once, like Clearlight saunas, for example, as

Teemu Arina:

infrared, red light, near infrared, far infrared, salt therapy, what you just had there.

Teemu Arina:

Like, you can combine these things, and the time investment of doing these things

Teemu Arina:

is tremendous. You also said that you do scuba diving.

Teemu Arina:

So that's like hyperbaric oxygen chamber for you, like on a regular basis.

Valerie Orsoni:

Yeah, I do it. I have like 350 dives.

Valerie Orsoni:

So I do, I dive a lot. So it's kind of like my own

Valerie Orsoni:

travel. When I travel, I don't take the chamber with me. I just dive.

Teemu Arina:

Yeah. Yeah. That's actually probably the best. So hyperbaric oxygen chamber is for people

Teemu Arina:

who don't know how to dive or don't have time for doing it.

Valerie Orsoni:

The thing is, I can't dive every day, my dear. So when I don't

Valerie Orsoni:

dive, I have the chamber.

Teemu Arina:

Yeah. Yeah. So, in terms of nutrition and supplementation, do you have any, anything

Teemu Arina:

specific on that side that you have been, you know, playing around with?

Valerie Orsoni:

So, yeah, first, I like to do experiments on myself.

Valerie Orsoni:

And I, since I was a baby, I had issues with my gut.

Valerie Orsoni:

I had, like, literally dysbiosis, SIBO, then all the pathogens I get around the

Valerie Orsoni:

world, from Giardia to Salmonella.

Valerie Orsoni:

My gut is like, I don't know, nuclear war going on there.

Valerie Orsoni:

Right? And I've seen so many experts around the world, you'd be surprised.

Valerie Orsoni:

In every country, they know the solution. It never works.

Valerie Orsoni:

So last year, after I climbed Kilimanjaro with my clients, we visited the Maasai

Valerie Orsoni:

tribes where they only eat meat, pretty much.

Valerie Orsoni:

Meat, meat, meat, and meat. No veggies at all.

Valerie Orsoni:

They have zero gut problem.

Valerie Orsoni:

So I'm like, hold on a minute. How does it work?

Valerie Orsoni:

We are told that if you don't eat fiber, you have constipation.

Valerie Orsoni:

So how do these guys don't have problems?

Valerie Orsoni:

I started doing some research, which gave birth to one of my last book,

Valerie Orsoni:

actually, which is going to come in English very soon.

Valerie Orsoni:

This one, it's in French, but it means Eat Wrong and Live Better.

Valerie Orsoni:

So I looked and I found out where this whole fiber obsession came from.

Valerie Orsoni:

It was a marketing ploy in the '70s and '80s by a big American

Valerie Orsoni:

cereal brand. And so I'm like, hold on.

Valerie Orsoni:

No one can fix my tummy like this. Let's try a crazy diet, which

Valerie Orsoni:

I did. I just created for myself meat, fish, eggs, a little bit of

Valerie Orsoni:

white rice, and that's it. And I held off to that thing for 12

Valerie Orsoni:

weeks. It was last year. Of course, everyone ridiculed me.

Valerie Orsoni:

Oh, my God, you're going to have deficiencies. It's terrible.

Valerie Orsoni:

I didn't know something. If you eat zero sugar, like even no rice, nothing,

Valerie Orsoni:

just meat, your needs in vitamin C is almost zero.

Valerie Orsoni:

It's interesting. So I learned a lot of things. Anyway, long story short, 12

Valerie Orsoni:

weeks of this crazy diet. My markers were amazing.

Valerie Orsoni:

I had zero deficiency. I don't even know how to explain everything.

Valerie Orsoni:

And I had zero pain. My gut situation was completely healed.

Valerie Orsoni:

And it just came back to being not so great two weeks ago.

Valerie Orsoni:

So right now I'm back to this crazy diet, which I might still have

Valerie Orsoni:

when we meet in Amsterdam. But I like to try things.

Valerie Orsoni:

I don't believe blindly what I'm told.

Valerie Orsoni:

I don't believe blindly that the Mediterranean diet is the best.

Valerie Orsoni:

It is great, but apparently we are genetically different.

Valerie Orsoni:

So maybe my body, you know, when I eat a piece of salad, I

Valerie Orsoni:

don't feel good about it. When I eat a tomato, I feel good.

Valerie Orsoni:

So I like to be really connected, like really conscious about what I eat.

Valerie Orsoni:

There are things that maybe are supposedly good for you, but not so much

Valerie Orsoni:

for me. And so I really went back to the roots. And right now

Valerie Orsoni:

I'm eating my special diet. And after only three days, I'm already like, oh

Valerie Orsoni:

my God, I feel so great. And for supplements, I take a lot.

Valerie Orsoni:

I take about a hundred a day because I don't like multi-supplements.

Valerie Orsoni:

Yeah. Not all in the form of a capsule.

Valerie Orsoni:

Some of them are maybe transdermal or sublingual.

Valerie Orsoni:

But to be honest, I don't like multi-supplements.

Valerie Orsoni:

So I like to divide everything and understand exactly what I take.

Valerie Orsoni:

It's a decision I took. I'm sure I could take maybe 10 multi-supplements or

Valerie Orsoni:

whatever. I don't like it. So I like to know exactly what I'm taking

Valerie Orsoni:

and how it impacts me. And every month I revise my protocol, see if

Valerie Orsoni:

I'm going to change it. Right now I'm in my binders month.

Valerie Orsoni:

So I use every morning on an empty stomach, a different type of binder

Valerie Orsoni:

every day to bind with heavy metals, with toxins, with some terrible pathogens I

Valerie Orsoni:

have in my abdomen and my gut. So I change that and that I

Valerie Orsoni:

count as a supplement. Even though it is not like a vitamin, but I

Valerie Orsoni:

count all of what I'm using to biohack my body as a supplement.

Teemu Arina:

Right. That's interesting. So do you use some supplements to stimulate the release of

Teemu Arina:

heavy metals from fat tissue, or like some protocols like infrared when you use

Teemu Arina:

the binders?

Valerie Orsoni:

So I go in the sauna usually after that. Got it.

Valerie Orsoni:

And I usually take a nitric oxide pill, not pill, like a lozenge from

Valerie Orsoni:

N1O1, because I like it. It really helps open more, you know, the vessels

Valerie Orsoni:

and excrete a bit more. If I have a HOCATT around or an Aura

Valerie Orsoni:

O3, you know, these big devices where you sweat even more, I will do

Valerie Orsoni:

that as well.

Teemu Arina:

You also say that you have improved your vision by almost 20%.

Teemu Arina:

18, yeah. How did you do that?

Valerie Orsoni:

So I never, I don't wear glasses. I mean, this is just because it

Valerie Orsoni:

makes me look hot. No, I'm kidding.

Teemu Arina:

Yeah, it makes you look like a biohacker.

Valerie Orsoni:

Exactly. I need to look like a biohacker. Otherwise, look, this is boring.

Valerie Orsoni:

Anyway, when I was 35, I decided I will never wear reading glasses ever.

Valerie Orsoni:

And I decided to look at what was possible.

Valerie Orsoni:

Obviously, everyone told me it's not possible. You will need reading glasses at one

Valerie Orsoni:

point. But I... I put in place a protocol 20 years ago that I

Valerie Orsoni:

have stuck to every single day, even when I am climbing, even when I'm

Valerie Orsoni:

in the South Pole. I do it. So it's a lot of course, eye

Valerie Orsoni:

exercises, palming, warm compresses, but eye exercises is 10 minutes a day.

Valerie Orsoni:

So now what I did between last test in Germany and this year's test

Valerie Orsoni:

in Germany, because I go to the eye clinic every year in Berlin, is

Valerie Orsoni:

I added the fact that I do my... my exercises in front of my

Valerie Orsoni:

red light panel. Originally, you're supposed to do it at noon in the sun,

Valerie Orsoni:

but at noon in the sun, I might not be exactly in a place

Valerie Orsoni:

where I can do all my exercises without people thinking I'm crazy.

Valerie Orsoni:

So now I do it when I do the red light panel, I stack

Valerie Orsoni:

the hack. When I do the front part, I do my eyes.

Valerie Orsoni:

And when I turn my back, I do cardiac coherence.

Valerie Orsoni:

So yeah, but that really the red light, I was told, don't do it,

Valerie Orsoni:

it's really bad, blah, blah, blah. And of course, I close my eyes.

Valerie Orsoni:

I'm like, why would it be bad? I don't understand it because it's like

Valerie Orsoni:

the sun with eyes closed. So I improved by 18% from last year to

Valerie Orsoni:

this year.

Teemu Arina:

Right. So what I've noticed is that by looking at people's results, that they

Teemu Arina:

tend to have nowadays quite low mineral levels.

Teemu Arina:

I see very often low selenium, low magnesium, low iron, like basically like the

Teemu Arina:

basic micronutrients are lacking and also vitamins, vitamin A, which is, I mean, retinol

Teemu Arina:

is important for the eyes.

Teemu Arina:

So the source of mineral depletion in my hypothesis is because of the stressful

Teemu Arina:

lifestyle that consumes more of these types of nutrients.

Teemu Arina:

Because I've seen it in people who are highly active, like athletes or people

Teemu Arina:

who are highly active in terms of their brain activity.

Teemu Arina:

And vitamin deficiencies I've seen in people who are also under oxidative stress.

Teemu Arina:

Yes, for different reasons. And personally, I mean, I'm 44 now, so I have

Teemu Arina:

basically...

Valerie Orsoni:

I'm going to say to you, like you told me, beautiful skin for 44.

Teemu Arina:

Yeah. My eyesight, not that much, but I noticed I improved my eyesight by

Teemu Arina:

focusing quite a bit on minerals and plant polyphenols and vitamin A, astaxanthin, lutein,

Teemu Arina:

like all these...

Valerie Orsoni:

And zeaxanthin too.

Teemu Arina:

Yeah. Yeah. And many people, they start to take these eye supplements when they

Teemu Arina:

are like in their 60s or they have macular degeneration.

Valerie Orsoni:

Yeah.

Teemu Arina:

I would also say red light is probably one of those things that has

Teemu Arina:

also helped. There's a lot of clinical studies specifically focusing on eye health and

Teemu Arina:

slowing down the accumulation of...

Teemu Arina:

yeah, I mean, this kind of oxidative stress in the eye.

Teemu Arina:

And I think lymphatic flow is also another key thing here.

Teemu Arina:

If you sit and you're sedentary throughout the day, I use a lot of

Teemu Arina:

vibration plate. I just use the vibration mattress.

Teemu Arina:

I use like vibrating foam rollers because I sit so much, like I need

Teemu Arina:

to get that vibration into my system.

Teemu Arina:

I can't go for a hike every single day, although I would love to.

Teemu Arina:

So yeah, we need to like somehow take into account our body's unique mechanisms

Teemu Arina:

of, I mean, circulating anything from white blood cells, from your lymph nodes around

Teemu Arina:

the body. Like, you need to, like, stimulate your body for it to work

Teemu Arina:

optimally. And I think a lot of our problems are coming from kind of

Teemu Arina:

restricted life, like restricted movement, restricted diets, restriction in terms of

Teemu Arina:

wavelengths of light that you might get into your retinal cells throughout the day.

Teemu Arina:

That's why we need blue light blockers and red light therapy devices and so

Teemu Arina:

on. So what do you think would be the antidote for a lot of

Teemu Arina:

these, the degenerative diseases and modern man's illnesses that most people are battling with,

Teemu Arina:

and some biohackers are trying to deal with?

Valerie Orsoni:

Yeah, so implementation. So for me, first, I don't sit on a chair.

Valerie Orsoni:

You don't see, but I'm sitting on a horse saddle type thing, you know?

Valerie Orsoni:

So my body is really nicely aligned all day long, and I can't really,

Valerie Orsoni:

I mean, the longest I sit, it is for a podcast interview.

Valerie Orsoni:

Otherwise, every 20 minutes, I'm, like, moving around.

Valerie Orsoni:

I, you know, I think people now put me in a box that says

Valerie Orsoni:

ADHD, whatever. I don't care what it is.

Valerie Orsoni:

It's just I can't stay in place. I like to move around a bit.

Valerie Orsoni:

That's why the office life was never for me.

Valerie Orsoni:

That's why I created my own company, so I could decide how I would

Valerie Orsoni:

move around. I just think if you have a nine-to-five job and you're always

Valerie Orsoni:

sitting, first, you need to choose that you're going to sit on a big

Valerie Orsoni:

Swiss ball or on a, like my, so at least your hips are going

Valerie Orsoni:

to be engaged all day long. Your deep abs are going to be engaged

Valerie Orsoni:

as well, and you can force yourself when, as you are saying, and, you

Valerie Orsoni:

know, in blue zones or whatever, people walk to the restaurant and come back.

Valerie Orsoni:

Now, if you have a nine-to-five, you must be going somewhere for lunch.

Valerie Orsoni:

Walk, well, a bit further. Walk 30 minutes after, before you go back to

Valerie Orsoni:

job, your work, and frankly, if your work does not allow you to have

Valerie Orsoni:

enough time for your health, I know I'm going to shock people, but maybe

Valerie Orsoni:

you should change your job. And I'm not saying it's easy, but your health

Valerie Orsoni:

is your number one wealth. So if you don't decide now to take it,

Valerie Orsoni:

you know, and take action, no one is going to do it for you.

Valerie Orsoni:

And when you are 60, you're going to turn around and say, "Gosh, I

Valerie Orsoni:

sacrificed 40 years of my life doing something that killed me." I'm not saying

Valerie Orsoni:

it's easy. Some people can't change for many reasons, but if you have the

Valerie Orsoni:

possibility, look at what you're doing, and maybe your next job will not make

Valerie Orsoni:

as much money or whatever, but if you can take care of yourself, imagine

Valerie Orsoni:

that instead of having 20 years of learning, 40 years of working, and then

Valerie Orsoni:

20 years of being decrepit, maybe these 20 years could be completely golden.

Valerie Orsoni:

And so it's a choice. It's a choice.

Teemu Arina:

I agree. Yeah, so you also have probably experimented with some novel things like

Teemu Arina:

peptides and so on. Like, what do you think about that topic?

Valerie Orsoni:

Yeah, so again, you know, I like when people make blanket statements on peptides.

Valerie Orsoni:

Insulin is a peptide. Are you gonna say it's bad?

Valerie Orsoni:

No. So maybe, you know, now there's a big problem with the gray market

Valerie Orsoni:

of peptides. A lot of companies out there sell very s***ty products, let's call

Valerie Orsoni:

it this way, and dangerous. You can die from it.

Valerie Orsoni:

You can die from an anaphylactic shock gotten from poorly sourced peptides.

Valerie Orsoni:

You have to do your homework. If you live in the U.S., there is

Valerie Orsoni:

a free company that gives you a free analysis of your peptide.

Valerie Orsoni:

It's called Finnrick, F-I-N-N-R-I-C-K.

Valerie Orsoni:

You send a vial and they'll tell you not only the purity, which between

Valerie Orsoni:

you and me, you don't care that much, but most importantly, the endotoxin content,

Valerie Orsoni:

which can kill you. So you need to know that. Now, peptides for me

Valerie Orsoni:

are a lifesaver. Four years ago, my right shoulder was fully dislocated and put

Valerie Orsoni:

back in place. It's painful.

Valerie Orsoni:

It's more painful than delivering a baby without an epidural.

Valerie Orsoni:

I know you cannot know what it means, but if you're a woman, you

Valerie Orsoni:

know. So this was really painful.

Valerie Orsoni:

I was going for surgery, right? Because the tendons, the ligaments were torn.

Valerie Orsoni:

It was, there is no way it could repair itself.

Valerie Orsoni:

Now, I injected in my shoulder, not in the muscles, like subcutaneous BPC-157 and

Valerie Orsoni:

TB-500 and KPV.

Valerie Orsoni:

Before it was even known, within two weeks I could move my arm.

Valerie Orsoni:

Within a month, I had full range of motion, and the surgeon cancelled the

Valerie Orsoni:

surgery. It was not the first time I used peptides.

Valerie Orsoni:

I got my first dose of Epitalon in 2002 or 5 or something, like

Valerie Orsoni:

20 years ago, when I had faith it would work.

Valerie Orsoni:

This is really faith. It's almost a religion. You have to believe with your

Valerie Orsoni:

eyes closed this is gonna work. There is no proof. There is no medical

Valerie Orsoni:

study outside of Russia, and you believe it's gonna work.

Valerie Orsoni:

If you understand how a peptide works, usually you know which ones are okay,

Valerie Orsoni:

and which ones maybe you should stay away from.

Valerie Orsoni:

And I'm not saying you should do it. I don't give medical advice, but

Valerie Orsoni:

I really believe when I see what he did to my dad, wow, what

Valerie Orsoni:

he did to me. My mom doesn't want the, you know, the needle, so

Valerie Orsoni:

she doesn't get it. But to so many people I know, I have a

Valerie Orsoni:

lady, she was losing her eye. They were going to eviscerate her eye, remove

Valerie Orsoni:

an eye. This is just a big thing. And when she told me, in

Valerie Orsoni:

three weeks, they're going to remove my eye. And I said, can I help

Valerie Orsoni:

you, please? Can I help you? Long story short, she still has the eye.

Valerie Orsoni:

She doesn't have the vision yet, but the pain is gone.

Valerie Orsoni:

Inflammation is gone. And she kept it thanks to peptides.

Valerie Orsoni:

And so when people say to me, "You're not a doctor." Yeah, but you

Valerie Orsoni:

are a doctor, and you're saying to her, "I'm going to remove your eye."

Valerie Orsoni:

I'm sorry, you're wrong.

Teemu Arina:

I see. So I agree on the quality aspect.

Teemu Arina:

There was a recent study on these peptides, and many of them have bacterial

Teemu Arina:

contamination. I mean, the manufacturer in China, it can very often be that you

Teemu Arina:

don't even have what's on the label. There was one case also of someone

Teemu Arina:

getting, like, this flesh-eating bacteria, which is very nasty.

Teemu Arina:

Like, you're going to go to the opposite of health.

Teemu Arina:

So, yeah, you need to be very careful with anything injectable.

Teemu Arina:

And I think the latest trend is also to look into alternative delivery mechanisms

Teemu Arina:

that would then be hopefully safer when it comes to these techniques.

Teemu Arina:

I think people are looking for a lot of quick solutions.

Valerie Orsoni:

The miracles we're talking about. They don't want to do the five pillars first.

Valerie Orsoni:

It's too boring. Let's inject it.

Teemu Arina:

Yeah. I mean, if they can have a pill that provides the benefits of

Teemu Arina:

a sauna or ice bath, they would take that rather than go to sauna

Teemu Arina:

or ice bath. If they would get the benefits of exercise from a pill,

Teemu Arina:

they would probably take that. And I mean, what people look for is quick,

Teemu Arina:

like shortcuts and fixes, and there's nothing more important than the foundations when it

Teemu Arina:

comes to diet, exercise, stress management, sleep.

Teemu Arina:

Like, if you don't have the basic architecture in order, I mean, you can

Teemu Arina:

have all the supplements in the world. They have, I would say, very marginal

Teemu Arina:

effect on top of already, let's say, suboptimal conditions.

Teemu Arina:

Now, we are not perfect.

Teemu Arina:

And you also went through a lot of health issues. You went through a

Teemu Arina:

lot of challenges in your life. Maybe that was also the fuel for you

Teemu Arina:

to focus on health, because you had to. Most people go through their lives

Teemu Arina:

without having serious, I guess, red flags or warning signs.

Teemu Arina:

Having those is a gift, because it really drives you to look into, what

Teemu Arina:

can I do to improve my condition? Well, some people never do, but even

Teemu Arina:

take action at that point. But you had, from an early age, already liked

Teemu Arina:

the motivation. I spoke recently with Don Diablo, a famous DJ, and he said

Teemu Arina:

that he lived his life with the assumption that he's going to die before

Teemu Arina:

the age of 40. And that has been the driving force for his creativity.

Teemu Arina:

So we see this over and over again. It's like people, when they are

Teemu Arina:

face-to-face with challenges, this is the reversing point.

Teemu Arina:

And then it becomes a lifestyle, it becomes an identity, certainly for you.

Valerie Orsoni:

You know, it's interesting, because for me, I don't even think of death.

Valerie Orsoni:

I'm not saying I'm immortal. It's just, some people know.

Valerie Orsoni:

I mean, I hear people saying, hey, I just bought my apartment.

Valerie Orsoni:

I'm 60. It's the last apartment of my life. I'm like, what?

Valerie Orsoni:

For me, I'm like, I'm 30 in my head. Like, I have zero limits.

Valerie Orsoni:

And I think, also, it acts on your brain.

Valerie Orsoni:

The fact that you see your life has no end, it means there is

Valerie Orsoni:

no limit. When I say the sky is the limit, no, there is no

Valerie Orsoni:

limit. You can do whatever you want. Now, if you say like this guy,

Valerie Orsoni:

oh, I'm going to die at 40. Yeah, you have to cram a lot

Valerie Orsoni:

of things in 40 years. I mean, actually, the first 20, you don't.

Valerie Orsoni:

So like you have 20 years to cram everything. How sad.

Valerie Orsoni:

Yeah, I want to, maybe that's why I'm not that creative, because I think

Valerie Orsoni:

I'm going to live to 250 or something.

Teemu Arina:

Yeah, I agree. It's really good to have the opportunity to see differently the

Teemu Arina:

aging process and to be completely fine and completely in terms with your mortality.

Teemu Arina:

I think there is a lot of longevity athletes out there who do it

Teemu Arina:

because of absolute terror and fear of death.

Teemu Arina:

And then there are the ones who have accepted that.

Teemu Arina:

I mean, you can find healthy lifestyles in both ends.

Teemu Arina:

Whatever your motivation and driver is to be here now.

Teemu Arina:

Now, in terms of, you have written many books and many unique perspectives.

Teemu Arina:

I love the title of your book, like what you showed me earlier.

Valerie Orsoni:

This one, Eat Wrong and Live Better. This is the French version.

Valerie Orsoni:

The English is coming out soon.

Teemu Arina:

I love the idea of eating wrong. Now, what else do you think is

Teemu Arina:

like living wrong or eating wrong, like these kind of myths that people have

Teemu Arina:

about health and well-being that you have discovered are maybe the opposite?

Valerie Orsoni:

Yeah, I think there's also something to be said about the accumulation of biohacks.

Valerie Orsoni:

I see people where if they miss one thing, they are super stressed, which

Valerie Orsoni:

by the way, you know, will raise cortisol and that's counterproductive.

Valerie Orsoni:

I see people who have so many things to do that if they don't

Valerie Orsoni:

do the red light on the face, if they don't do, I don't know,

Valerie Orsoni:

the meditation, like I love, I didn't do my meditation.

Valerie Orsoni:

I'm super stressed. I missed it. I'm like, no, that's not the idea.

Valerie Orsoni:

So I think sometimes we, as we are exposed to all these new techniques

Valerie Orsoni:

and modalities, we want to pile up things, which it's a very natural temptation,

Valerie Orsoni:

really. But sometimes it's good to take a step back and say, hey, if

Valerie Orsoni:

I need to keep only two or three, what would there be?

Valerie Orsoni:

And then you build on it. So the error is really to try to

Valerie Orsoni:

do everything by the book. For instance, I have friends, they refuse to eat

Valerie Orsoni:

outside, to go to a restaurant because of the potential of seed oil.

Valerie Orsoni:

Okay. One meal outside of your house with seed oils is not going to

Valerie Orsoni:

kill you. As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure I can swear if

Valerie Orsoni:

everything else is perfect, it's not going to change your markers.

Valerie Orsoni:

As much as I don't like seed oils, I think spending three hours with

Valerie Orsoni:

friends, sharing a meal, having fun, it's going to offset whatever this little canola

Valerie Orsoni:

oil would have brought to my body. So I'm like, I think we need

Valerie Orsoni:

to be a bit less obsessed with a lot of things. And if you

Valerie Orsoni:

do everything by the book at home, if your air in your office is

Valerie Orsoni:

filtered and everything, if you go outside and the air is not pure, I

Valerie Orsoni:

know it's not optimal, but you're having fun with friends.

Valerie Orsoni:

And I think right now, I have an example of a lady.

Valerie Orsoni:

She's a biohacker. I don't know. She calls herself a biohacker.

Valerie Orsoni:

And one day her numbers from DunedinPACE, you know, how fast you are aging

Valerie Orsoni:

came back and it was not great. I think it was 0.95, which means

Valerie Orsoni:

she pretty much was aging normally.

Valerie Orsoni:

She was so mad. She decided that she would live perfect and she retired

Valerie Orsoni:

from social life. She would refuse all my invitations.

Valerie Orsoni:

She wouldn't do anything. She just did everything by the book, you know.

Valerie Orsoni:

The numbers came back after six months of living like a nun.

Valerie Orsoni:

The numbers came back worse than before. That goes to show that, yes, you

Valerie Orsoni:

need to do everything good, but... But you still need to do things that

Valerie Orsoni:

maybe don't seem good on paper, but you need it to, you know, produce

Valerie Orsoni:

endorphins, to produce other things that you can't measure in your daily blood test,

Valerie Orsoni:

but that's going to help you be better. And to me, that's huge.

Valerie Orsoni:

Sometimes I'm going to do things and I won't do any of my hacks

Valerie Orsoni:

for a day. Oh my God, I forgot to take my supplements yesterday.

Valerie Orsoni:

No big deal. So you have to be, that's my perspective, not stressed about

Valerie Orsoni:

being perfect. You know, I'm fine. If I forget to take my supplements, it's

Valerie Orsoni:

okay.

Teemu Arina:

Right. So, what do you think about the current state of the healthcare system

Teemu Arina:

in the U.S.? It's very much driven by insurance, like the whole thing is

Teemu Arina:

driven by pharmaceuticals and all that.

Valerie Orsoni:

Yeah, so here, I've been in the U.S. for 26 years, so I can

Valerie Orsoni:

say I know the system pretty well. So first, it's very expensive.

Valerie Orsoni:

Just me, for instance, every month to have health coverage, it costs me two

Valerie Orsoni:

thousand dollars, two thousand euros for me, and I'm not even covered 100 percent.

Valerie Orsoni:

The first 15,000 euros are out of pocket.

Valerie Orsoni:

So being sick in America is way too expensive to not do any biohacks.

Valerie Orsoni:

So in Europe, I don't know in Estonia, but it's usually free or very

Valerie Orsoni:

cheap, and so being sick doesn't have such a cost.

Valerie Orsoni:

I'm not talking personal and social, I'm talking financial here in the U.S.

Valerie Orsoni:

Listen, I came back from Papua. I was scuba diving in Papua.

Valerie Orsoni:

I came back with something in my ear. My visit for 20 minutes was

Valerie Orsoni:

eight hundred dollars, and the guy didn't find out what was wrong.

Valerie Orsoni:

I went three times, 2,400, he didn't find it.

Valerie Orsoni:

At the end, he says, "You should take that antibiotic.

Valerie Orsoni:

Maybe it's going to help you." That antibiotic cost a hundred bucks.

Valerie Orsoni:

Also had a side effect of tearing ligaments and tendons, which means if you

Valerie Orsoni:

get a tendon that's torn, it takes 18 months to heal.

Valerie Orsoni:

And I'm like, "Hold on a minute. This doesn't make sense.

Valerie Orsoni:

It's costing me a fortune, and I may be handicapped for a year." I

Valerie Orsoni:

did some research, and I found out this is crazy.

Valerie Orsoni:

If I used oregano oil with MCT oil and put it in my ear,

Valerie Orsoni:

it would kill the bacteria. I was like, "Wow." So I tried, and yeah,

Valerie Orsoni:

long story short, it was healed. I was like, and I'm not a naturopath.

Valerie Orsoni:

I just, like, I was trying to find an easy, fast solution that would

Valerie Orsoni:

not, you know, risk any of my health.

Valerie Orsoni:

But here, that's the problem is... Visits are very short, down to 12 minutes.

Valerie Orsoni:

Some places, it's very expensive, as you said, one size fits all.

Valerie Orsoni:

And even though we are, it's mandatory in the U.S.

Valerie Orsoni:

to have your yearly visit. You have to do a yearly physical because if

Valerie Orsoni:

you have an illness later on and you haven't done your yearly, all claims

Valerie Orsoni:

will be declined pretty much, or denied. I have an example of something.

Valerie Orsoni:

I did my yearly two weeks ago, a week ago, and I was telling

Valerie Orsoni:

the doctor, "I've had this strange feeling on the right hip for two years.

Valerie Orsoni:

There's nothing in X-rays, nothing bone density-wise.

Valerie Orsoni:

The pain sometimes wakes me up." He looks, he says, "Oh, there's nothing on

Valerie Orsoni:

the X-ray. I don't know." Thank God I used Claude, and I finally found

Valerie Orsoni:

a little tiny muscle that gets contracted all the time, and I healed myself.

Valerie Orsoni:

And I was like, "I didn't think about it earlier." They don't think outside

Valerie Orsoni:

of the box. But more than that, if you are in a range, what

Valerie Orsoni:

they call a healthy range, they don't care.

Valerie Orsoni:

For instance, even though I take hormonal therapy replacement, my estrogen was going down,

Valerie Orsoni:

down, down, down, still in the green, but you see a trend, so I

Valerie Orsoni:

asked the doctor, "Hey, shouldn't we do something?" And he says, "Are you still

Valerie Orsoni:

in the green?" I'm like, "Yeah, but it doesn't go in the right direction."

Valerie Orsoni:

Thank God I did my research. I have a friend who did a prescription

Valerie Orsoni:

for me, a doctor, and I changed everything.

Valerie Orsoni:

But I did my own work, and that's why I tell people you need

Valerie Orsoni:

to educate yourself. Now, don't go and think that ChatGPT is going to do

Valerie Orsoni:

your work, because ChatGPT doesn't know well, makes a lot of mistakes.

Valerie Orsoni:

You have to know how to use it. That's why I'm studying at Stanford

Valerie Orsoni:

in the Longevity Research Lab. I'm taking right now a certificate, which is like

Valerie Orsoni:

long. It's like months and months on how to use AI for health.

Valerie Orsoni:

You cannot just not put your blood lab results in ChatGPT and say, "Hey,

Valerie Orsoni:

ChatGPT, tell me how I'm doing." This is the worst thing you can do.

Valerie Orsoni:

Like, I see people telling me I'm going to die or, on the contrary,

Valerie Orsoni:

I'm doing fine. Because as you know, you can really modify how AI thinks

Valerie Orsoni:

just by pushing it the way you want it. So here, why people are

Valerie Orsoni:

doing more hacks in the States than anywhere else is because health is so

Valerie Orsoni:

expensive. They don't want to be sick. We have a financial motivation to be

Valerie Orsoni:

healthy here because health is expensive.

Valerie Orsoni:

But sickness here is millions of dollars.

Valerie Orsoni:

You go bankrupt. That's why you see 95 years old delivering papers or the

Valerie Orsoni:

mail or something, because they need to make a living to cover for their

Valerie Orsoni:

spouse's health care price.

Valerie Orsoni:

It's crazy. It costs. It's crazy. Everything costs.

Valerie Orsoni:

It costs a fortune. And so that's why I think we are more empowered.

Teemu Arina:

For sure. Yeah, I do agree. It's very interesting.

Teemu Arina:

If you go to the East, for example, in China, people are doing traditional

Teemu Arina:

Chinese medicine. In India, they do Ayurvedic medicine because they can't afford the public

Teemu Arina:

health care system. So they have this alternative approach.

Teemu Arina:

Now, it seems like biohacking has kind of like become that new form of

Teemu Arina:

medicine that is the alternative to something they can afford, which is the public

Teemu Arina:

health care in U.S. side. Now, here in Europe, coming from Finland, we have

Teemu Arina:

what some have considered as one of the best health care systems for public

Teemu Arina:

side. We definitely do spend quite a bit of money, each citizen, on paying

Teemu Arina:

for that. Some who can, they can afford also private insurance and like services.

Teemu Arina:

So the end result is maybe like on the public side, there's still a

Teemu Arina:

lot of queues, although the service you usually get is pretty good.

Teemu Arina:

But,

Valerie Orsoni:

you know, in Finland, you have one thing in Finland that for me is

Valerie Orsoni:

the best cure. It's Moomin.

Valerie Orsoni:

Moomin is the answer to everything. I'm obsessed with Moomin, just so you know.

Valerie Orsoni:

Since I was a kid, when I went to Finland, I chose the only

Valerie Orsoni:

plane that had a big Moomin on it. It makes me happy.

Valerie Orsoni:

It's good for my stress level.

Teemu Arina:

Yeah, you must have been a Japanese in your past life.

Teemu Arina:

Maybe. Many Japanese love Moomins.

Teemu Arina:

And, yeah, we got that.

Teemu Arina:

Yeah, I think they are pretty mature cartoons when I was growing up, like

Teemu Arina:

watching those. Although they are children's cartoons, they have a very deep teaching.

Valerie Orsoni:

You can see, yeah. You know, when I get my, I got something from

Valerie Orsoni:

Neurosonic, which I'm sure you know. You know, these guys I love.

Teemu Arina:

Which I just used, by the way. I just used Neurosonic.

Teemu Arina:

That's a whole body vibration mattress for anyone listening.

Valerie Orsoni:

This is, by the way, for guys, if you don't know Neurosonic, when we

Valerie Orsoni:

were talking with Teemu, how we need to move the lymph because we are

Valerie Orsoni:

always sitting or even after sleeping. When I wake up in the morning, I

Valerie Orsoni:

don't get out of my bed without doing my activation protocol on Neurosonic.

Valerie Orsoni:

It's amazing. But when I got mine, Jukka, the guy from the company, had

Valerie Orsoni:

put in my box tons of things with Moomin on.

Valerie Orsoni:

And I was like, I was so happy like a kid. And I did

Valerie Orsoni:

eat the cookies with tons of gluten. Because they had Moomin on it.

Valerie Orsoni:

You know, I'm easy to sway.

Teemu Arina:

Yeah. Yeah. So you seem to be someone who is extremely high energy, gets

Teemu Arina:

a lot of things done, 56 books, how many peaks?

Teemu Arina:

How do you relax? How do you actually chill out? Do you even have

Teemu Arina:

time for that?

Valerie Orsoni:

Oh, yeah. I mean, you know, it's so funny. Everyone, I'm very high energy.

Valerie Orsoni:

I'm always happy. Even when bad things happen.

Valerie Orsoni:

I have this happy camper attitude in life because I could be born in

Valerie Orsoni:

Afghanistan or in Iran or in other places where my life will be a

Valerie Orsoni:

true misery. So for me today, to be sad because something doesn't work my

Valerie Orsoni:

way is actually an insult to all these women and men being hanged and

Valerie Orsoni:

killed in other countries for being just wanting to be free.

Valerie Orsoni:

And so I am happy because of that. But I refuse to let myself

Valerie Orsoni:

down. Again, it's an insult to these people. Well, that's the first thing.

Valerie Orsoni:

The second thing is, I nap every day. I'm from Corsica, the land of

Valerie Orsoni:

the lazies. So every day I take a nap, wherever I am in the

Valerie Orsoni:

world. Even if I'm in Amsterdam, before a conference I always ask, please don't

Valerie Orsoni:

put the conference at nap time, because I nap every day.

Valerie Orsoni:

I will not talk during my nap. And so I live like a dog.

Valerie Orsoni:

If I eat, I go and lay down for 15 to 20 minutes.

Valerie Orsoni:

And of course, my phone, my phone is off.

Valerie Orsoni:

My phone is always off. Just so you know, 100% of the time, it

Valerie Orsoni:

never rings, ever. So that's also less distraction, less stress.

Valerie Orsoni:

If you want to reach me, I check my text messages once every few

Valerie Orsoni:

hours. So I will say, oh, shoot, I missed it. I'll call you.

Valerie Orsoni:

And I'm very sorry if your name is, I don't know, a big guy

Valerie Orsoni:

on earth or a woman and you wanted to reach me and I missed

Valerie Orsoni:

it. It was not meant to be. I missed a huge article in Vogue

Valerie Orsoni:

Brazil because my phone was off.

Valerie Orsoni:

And everyone was like, Valerie, you missed it.

Valerie Orsoni:

Yeah, but you know what? I was having a blast walking with a friend.

Valerie Orsoni:

And so it's all right. No big deal. You know, if you really want

Valerie Orsoni:

me, you give me a chance to get back. So the nap is important.

Valerie Orsoni:

And then sometimes I just go out.

Valerie Orsoni:

I walk without a phone, without anything. I just, you know, do nothing.

Valerie Orsoni:

And sometimes I just literally sit on my deck and stare into space doing

Valerie Orsoni:

nothing. That's my way of reconnecting with myself.

Teemu Arina:

Yeah, you will be speaking in HOLOLIFE Summit 14 and 15 of November in

Teemu Arina:

Amsterdam.

Valerie Orsoni:

Super excited. I'm super excited.

Teemu Arina:

Yeah, it's going to be awesome.

Valerie Orsoni:

I love your crazy approach. I love it.

Teemu Arina:

Yeah, it's a crazy, crazy cool conference.

Teemu Arina:

Vishen Lakhiani is coming also from Mindvalley.

Teemu Arina:

And I remember him explaining that he doesn't do meetings.

Teemu Arina:

You say that you are not answering the phone.

Teemu Arina:

Vishen is not doing meetings. And

Valerie Orsoni:

I don't do meetings either. I do.

Valerie Orsoni:

I'm lazy, actually.

Teemu Arina:

Yeah, I'm also kind of like that.

Teemu Arina:

I'm very hard to reach sometimes.

Teemu Arina:

And people are sometimes pissed off because of that.

Teemu Arina:

But yeah, I mean, from my perspective, I'm getting like 500 messages a day.

Teemu Arina:

If I would like take every meeting that is offered to me, like I

Teemu Arina:

would probably collapse and die.

Valerie Orsoni:

And I'm sure you get messages asking for your help.

Valerie Orsoni:

Yeah. I love helping the world, but I can't help 200 people.

Valerie Orsoni:

I just can't.

Teemu Arina:

And sometimes you need to choose your battles, right?

Teemu Arina:

Some people choose to conquer mountains.

Teemu Arina:

Other people choose to be meeting warriors and, like, in every freaking phone call

Teemu Arina:

and meeting they can get into. I'm usually multitasking anyway, so I have short

Teemu Arina:

attention span.

Valerie Orsoni:

Listen, just to listen, when you said something to me, when someone wants to

Valerie Orsoni:

conquer mountains or anything else like this, like the longest hike or whatever you

Valerie Orsoni:

want to do, there's a difference between this and being a meeting warrior, as

Valerie Orsoni:

you said, or someone who is obsessed with numbers and succeeding in the work

Valerie Orsoni:

environment. Because mountains, I can decide to not walk today.

Valerie Orsoni:

I can decide, hey, today I'm going to stay where I am.

Valerie Orsoni:

When you are a meeting warrior or, like, a very ambitious entrepreneur, and I'm

Valerie Orsoni:

not saying it's bad. I'm just saying the choice is, for years, you will

Valerie Orsoni:

succeed. You will sacrifice your health. It's almost impossible if you have investors to

Valerie Orsoni:

have the right numbers at the end of the trimester without working your a**

Valerie Orsoni:

off.

Teemu Arina:

Yeah, precisely. Yeah, so when it comes to someone coming to Amsterdam, what can

Teemu Arina:

they learn? Your talk is going to be about

Valerie Orsoni:

reversing the irreversible.

Teemu Arina:

Reversing the irreversible. So you have definitely reversed several conditions that people think are

Teemu Arina:

irreversible. You did that also to your father.

Teemu Arina:

I think one driving force, what is key there, is not giving up.

Valerie Orsoni:

Yeah, it's the hope. It's the hope you can always improve.

Valerie Orsoni:

I want to give people the hope. You need to look, but also you

Valerie Orsoni:

cannot be a quitter. If you quit, your health will quit as well.

Valerie Orsoni:

So you have the power, and you cannot out-supplement this power.

Valerie Orsoni:

It comes from within. You cannot take a magic pill that makes you be,

Valerie Orsoni:

oh, I'm going to do something. This has to be cultivated from inside.

Valerie Orsoni:

And you have the power. Now, society and people's, you know, maybe expectation can

Valerie Orsoni:

make me maybe not want to be that. But then it's my job to

Valerie Orsoni:

get out of that shell and fight. Because you are a fighter.

Valerie Orsoni:

No one else can do your fight. Wow.

Teemu Arina:

I agree totally. When it comes to quitting, now, when people get a diagnosis

Teemu Arina:

from a doctor, you have ADHD. You have, I don't know, you have asthma.

Teemu Arina:

You have arthritis. It seems like some people just accept their fate, and

Teemu Arina:

they adopt the identity of the sick person or someone who cannot be fixed.

Teemu Arina:

And the decision, the willpower to refuse.

Teemu Arina:

And the willpower to take that as an answer, and show not to these,

Teemu Arina:

you know, other people, but to yourself truly, that you can overcome whatever is

Teemu Arina:

in front of you. Like, there's incredible power in the mind and our abilities.

Teemu Arina:

Then there is you who says like, okay, I improved my eyesight by 18%.

Teemu Arina:

Or you got arthritis and you're putting that into remission.

Teemu Arina:

Or having lung health issues and not being the poster child for

Teemu Arina:

going for conquering Kilimanjaro or the North Pole.

Teemu Arina:

You did that.

Valerie Orsoni:

The one thing that's very important is that your brain can hear you.

Valerie Orsoni:

So when I hear people say, my cancer, my allergy, my asthma, I'm like,

Valerie Orsoni:

stop using the my. Don't make it part of yourself.

Valerie Orsoni:

Excrete it from your body and your mind. I'm not saying you're going to

Valerie Orsoni:

be healed by doing this. I mean, don't make me say what I didn't

Valerie Orsoni:

say. But by getting this thing part of who you are, it's an extension

Valerie Orsoni:

of your body, of your mind. I think it gives more power.

Valerie Orsoni:

And I'm going to give you a quick example if we have time.

Valerie Orsoni:

About 12 years ago, I had strange symptoms.

Valerie Orsoni:

My hands were kind of crooked. I was falling all the time.

Valerie Orsoni:

My right eyesight was very, I was seeing white milky stuff.

Valerie Orsoni:

And because when I was a kid, I had a brain tumor.

Valerie Orsoni:

I was scared that I had the brain tumor. So I went to see

Valerie Orsoni:

the doctor and she looks scared. She looks at my symptoms and she looks

Valerie Orsoni:

scared in her 12 minutes, right, with me.

Valerie Orsoni:

She says, oh, you need to have an exam done stat.

Valerie Orsoni:

And I'm like, okay, give me the number. She says, no, I'm going to

Valerie Orsoni:

call for you. And that's when I'm like, oh my God, a doctor never

Valerie Orsoni:

calls for you. There's an assistant for that. And I'm saying, oh, is it

Valerie Orsoni:

the brain tumor? And she says, no, it's worse. I'm like, what could be

Valerie Orsoni:

worse? She said, oh, I can't tell you, but I want you to see

Valerie Orsoni:

that expert. And he's available tonight at six.

Valerie Orsoni:

So needless to say, the entire afternoon I was freaking out.

Valerie Orsoni:

I'm like, what do I have that's worse than a brain tumor?

Valerie Orsoni:

So at night I see this big expert.

Valerie Orsoni:

I'll tell you in a minute what it was. He plants needles.

Valerie Orsoni:

in my body, sends electric shocks. I was so painful.

Valerie Orsoni:

And at one point he says, “You have all the signs of aggressive multiple

Valerie Orsoni:

sclerosis.” I was like, “What? No, I don't want it.

Valerie Orsoni:

I refuse it.” And he says, “We need to do MRI, everything.” And I'm

Valerie Orsoni:

like, “Hold on.” I go back home. I'm devastated.

Valerie Orsoni:

I'm like, “I don't want to have this.” So long story short, when people

Valerie Orsoni:

ask me what I had, I didn't tell anyone.

Valerie Orsoni:

Even my parents didn't know. I call it the b****.

Valerie Orsoni:

As I said, I have something and we're going to call it the b****.

Valerie Orsoni:

No name, nothing. And I went somewhere far away and I did a few

Valerie Orsoni:

things for weeks and I came back and the MRI was clean.

Valerie Orsoni:

So listen, there are two analyses behind this.

Valerie Orsoni:

My white coat friends say the diagnosis was wrong to start with.

Valerie Orsoni:

Some other people say it was correct, but whatever you did, you fixed it.

Valerie Orsoni:

I'm going to tell you, I don't really know. And I don't want to

Valerie Orsoni:

know at that point because I'm so happy to be healthy.

Valerie Orsoni:

But the one thing I remember is refusing to give it a name and

Valerie Orsoni:

making it part of me. So when my mom says, “My blah, blah, blah,”

Valerie Orsoni:

I'm like, “No, expel it. Say the...” And I'm pretty sure your brain hears.

Valerie Orsoni:

Your brain is such a powerful thing that you can't play with it and

Valerie Orsoni:

say, you know, “My thing.” Push everything you don't want out.

Valerie Orsoni:

Don't use “my.”

Teemu Arina:

I totally agree. It's not that you are ignorant and stupid doing that.

Teemu Arina:

It's more about the identity and what you identify with.

Teemu Arina:

So I think there is a psychosomatic aspect.

Teemu Arina:

I mean, there's a lot of science that shows that.

Teemu Arina:

Your mind can make you sick and your sickness can become your mind.

Teemu Arina:

Now, what we are not advertising here is for people to be ignorant and

Teemu Arina:

think that they are healthy, although they are not.

Valerie Orsoni:

So I really want people to not think that we are saying, “Hey, refuse

Valerie Orsoni:

it and it will heal by itself.” This is not what I'm saying.

Valerie Orsoni:

Right. Part of the treatment is not making it part of you.

Valerie Orsoni:

I think it's one slice of whatever you need to do to be healthy

Valerie Orsoni:

is to refuse what you don't want. I'm really convinced.

Teemu Arina:

Yeah, I think the clear distinction here is that instead of running away from

Teemu Arina:

it, you run towards it and you see it as a separate thing to

Teemu Arina:

work with and conquer instead of a part of your identity that you have

Teemu Arina:

given up or a thing that you kind of push away.

Teemu Arina:

Exactly. As if it doesn't exist. So that's the kind of clear difference here.

Teemu Arina:

Wonderful. So Valerie Orsoni, she will be in Amsterdam 14 and 15 November.

Teemu Arina:

She has written many, many books on these different topics in French.

Teemu Arina:

They're behind me. Yeah, it's right there.

Teemu Arina:

French, English, like both languages work perfectly well.

Teemu Arina:

She lives in San Francisco, although she's from Corsica.

Teemu Arina:

And you can learn more about her from ValBiohacker.com.

Teemu Arina:

V-A-L Biohacker.com.

Teemu Arina:

And also Instagram account, Valerie Orsoni.

Teemu Arina:

So Valerie Orsoni. Yeah, I'm stoked to speak to someone who has been doing

Teemu Arina:

biohacking since 98. That's a long time.

Teemu Arina:

It's almost as old as the term itself.

Teemu Arina:

HOLOLIFE Summit, which is an evolution from the Biohacker Summit, actually brings back not

Teemu Arina:

just the technical aspects of this, but also the social and spiritual aspects that

Teemu Arina:

we are not separate from our own thoughts and people around us and nature

Teemu Arina:

around us in isolation. So when you're optimizing yourself, your body and mind, it

Teemu Arina:

is not only a reduced number like a biomarker that you're going after, but

Teemu Arina:

you're looking at the whole ecosystem in which you exist and what is the

Teemu Arina:

impact that you're making. So I think like the goal for a lot of

Teemu Arina:

this is not necessarily just to be a better, more optimized human, but to

Teemu Arina:

be a better human in general, not just yourself, but to others around you.

Teemu Arina:

We have done 19 Biohacker Summits or HOLOLIFE Summits.

Teemu Arina:

This will be the 20th

Valerie Orsoni:

Amsterdam. That's a big number.

Teemu Arina:

It's a big number. Yeah, it's over a decade, 20 events.

Teemu Arina:

It requires a lot of stamina to do all of them. And Amsterdam has

Teemu Arina:

been always a big favorite of everyone. And I'm really looking forward to have

Teemu Arina:

you there. And yeah, yeah, let's have fun in Amsterdam.

Valerie Orsoni:

And just so you know, I'm coming. I'm coming for many days because a

Valerie Orsoni:

true biohacker does not hop from one conference to the next.

Valerie Orsoni:

You have to let your body do that. So when I go somewhere, I

Valerie Orsoni:

stay at least five or six days. I just don't go, land, speak and

Valerie Orsoni:

leave. That's counterproductive if you're a true biohacker.

Teemu Arina:

I totally agree. Even looking at your Oura ring stats, it takes several days

Teemu Arina:

sometimes for the nervous system to recover your sleep too, and circadian rhythm to

Teemu Arina:

align for sure. And Amsterdam has a lot more to offer than just this

Teemu Arina:

conference, obviously. So yeah, looking forward to that.

Valerie Orsoni:

So people, make sure you come and join us over there. It's going to

Valerie Orsoni:

be fun. Lots of things to learn and explore.

Teemu Arina:

Yeah. Find the others. Like Terence McKenna said, we need to find the other

Teemu Arina:

crazy people who see the world differently.

Teemu Arina:

And seeing health and wellness differently is like what our times need.

Teemu Arina:

I mean, we see obesity rates going up. We see the collapsing healthcare system.

Teemu Arina:

We see a lot of problems. We haven't figured it out. So we need

Teemu Arina:

to somehow figure it out. And we won't be able to figure it out

Teemu Arina:

if we try to do the same thing over and over again and expecting

Teemu Arina:

different results.

Valerie Orsoni:

Exactly. So you have to come to Amsterdam to learn everything that there is

Valerie Orsoni:

when it comes to being healthier.

Teemu Arina:

Indeed. All right. Thank you so much, and have the healthiest week, and wish

Teemu Arina:

you all the best. Thank you.

Valerie Orsoni:

Bye.

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About the Podcast

Biohacker's Podcast
Become a healthspan optimizer and live longer, eat better, recover faster, perform better, and get more done.
Welcome to the Biohacker's Podcast, where we explore the intersection of technology, nature, and self-development.

As biohackers, we view our bodies as complex systems that can be analyzed and probed in order to gain a deeper understanding of ourselves. Through controlled experimentation, we pursue ways to optimize our physical and mental health, increase our longevity, and enhance our cognitive abilities.

Join us as we delve into the latest research and innovative techniques in biohacking, while also exploring the natural world and how it can aid in our self-development.

Produced by Biohacker Center, the leading healthspan optimization company focused on bringing you the world's best content, supplements, technologies, courses, and events to help you champion healthy habits, prolong your healthspan, and lead a productive life.

Learn more at: https://www.biohackercenter.com

About your host

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Teemu Arina

Teemu Arina has a professional career of two decades as a technology entrepreneur, author, and professional speaker. Mr. Arina is one of the forefront figures of the biohacking movement. He is the co-author of the bestselling Biohacker’s Handbook series, curator of Biohacker Summit, and co-founder of the Biohacker Center. Mr. Arina has received the Leonardo Award (under the patronage of the European Parliament and UNESCO 2015), was selected as Top 100 most influential people in IT (2016, TIVI), and was awarded the Speaker of the Year (Speakersforum 2017), and Leadership Trainer of the Year (Turku School of Economics 2018). In the year 2022, he was invited to join Evolutionary Leaders, an initiative by the Chopra Foundation and The Source Synergy Foundation that focuses on the future of conscious leadership.