Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Summary
Coach Allan welcomes Justin Hai, co founder and CEO of Rebalance Health, to unpack why stress is the hardest pillar of health to master in the modern world. Hai reframes cortisol as a good, essential hormone that helps regulate metabolism, immune response, blood sugar, and sleep cycles; the real problem is that we simply make too much of it. He explains that our bodies cannot tell the difference between a true emergency and a calendar invite, so every email, notification, and app badge keeps cortisol elevated all day, bleeding into the evening hours when it should be handing off to melatonin. When cortisol stays high, we cannot fall asleep or stay asleep, and we miss the 7 to 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep the body needs to produce its hormones.
Hai and Allan dig into why this matters more after 40, when HGH, testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone are already far lower than in our youth; poor sleep can cut the little we do make roughly in half, driving soreness, brain fog, and anxiety. They trace how smartphones evolved from simple communication devices into gamified, addictive platforms that rewire us for constant low grade anxiety, and note that screen time tools most adults reserve for their kids should be used on themselves. Hai keeps his wellness advice deliberately simple: sleep, exercise, and diet, protect sleep, lift weights and walk, eat farm to table and fewer calories than you burn, and track calories for a week to learn the truth.
Links
- Rebalance Health
- Stress Nation: Escape the Technology Trap, Eliminate Stress, and Reclaim Rest by Justin Hai
- Get Stress Nation on Amazon
Key Takeaways
- Cortisol is a good hormone we overproduce: It supports metabolism, immune response, blood sugar, and sleep, and the problem is not cortisol itself but making too much of it and keeping it high all day.
- Your body cannot tell an emergency from a notification: Every email, ding, and app badge triggers a small panic response, so chronic technology use keeps cortisol elevated into the evening when it should be dropping.
- Protect 7 to 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep: You make your hormones in your sleep, so high cortisol that blocks deep sleep leaves you operating at a hormone deficit that compounds night after night.
- Poor sleep hits harder after 40: With HGH and testosterone already far lower than in youth, bad sleep can cut what little you produce roughly in half, driving soreness, brain fog, and anxiety.
- Wellness comes down to sleep, exercise, and diet: Lift weights and walk, eat farm to table with fewer calories than you burn, and track your calories for one week to learn the truth.
- Alcohol at night is a stimulant, not a sedative: That glass of wine converts to sugar about two hours later and is likely what wakes you around one in the morning.
Another Episode You May Enjoy
Episode 59 – How is Sleep Affecting My Weight Loss
Episode Notes
Podcast: 40+ Fitness
Episode: 717
Published: 2025-10-21
Host: Allan Misner (aka Coach Allan), author of The Wellness Roadmap
Guest(s): Justin Hai, the co founder and CEO of Rebalance Health, a company redefining hormone, hormone and stress management through clinically backed award winning innovation, Stress Nation: Escape the Technology Trap, Eliminate Stress, and Reclaim Rest
Listen & Subscribe: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · YouTube (audio only)