Stress Can Actually Make Your Life Better. Here’s How and Why You Need to Reframe Your Relationship with Stress with Jeff Krasno

Dhru Purohit Show

Dhru Purohit

Medicine, Health & Fitness, Alternative Health

4.7 • 3.4K Ratings

🗓️ 12 March 2025

⏱️ 88 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This episode is brought to you by LMNT, Maui Nui, and Birch Living. When we think of stress, we often associate it with something negative—something to avoid. Our modern culture has fostered an environment of persistent chronic stress, yet at the same time, we've also eliminated beneficial stress by designing a life of chronic ease. Today's guest joins us to explain why stress isn't just unavoidable—it’s essential for growth. Today on The Dhru Purohit Show, Dhru sits down with Jeff Krasno, CEO and co-founder of Commune, to explore the benefits of positive stress in our modern world. Jeff explains why chronic stress harms our health and longevity, while adaptive stress—like fasting and hot/cold exposure—has been key to human evolution and survival. He also shares how to evaluate your protocols, behaviors, and routines to ensure they keep you in balance. Jeff is the co-founder and CEO of Commune, a masterclass platform focused on personal and societal well-being, and the co-creator of Wanderlust, a global series of wellness events. He also hosts the Commune podcast. His latest venture, Good Stress: The Benefits of Doing Hard Things, expands on his personal story and wellness protocols. Drawing from over 400 podcast conversations and his own experiences, the book explores deliberate, self-imposed behaviors that enhance social, psychological, and physical well-being. In this episode, Dhru and Jeff dive into: How chronic ease is leading to disease (00:37) How to befriend stress (5:44) Jeff’s personal journey and the health challenges that shaped him (09:50) Fasting, hunger, and stress—how they can benefit you (23:34) Fasting recommendations for women and the importance of an individualized approach (26:50) Jeff’s Substack insights on weight loss (32:42) Research on cold plunges, blood glucose, cancer, glutamate, immunotherapy, and more (36:50) The future of health, chronic disease, systemic issues, and the decline of public trust in health and food institutions (43:19) The impact of health podcasts, their practices, and how people are paying attention to new information (56:24) How to lean into stressful conversations—plus tips for tackling them (59:18) Evaluating our protocols, behaviors, and routines—do they help us find balance and return to center (1:19:50) Final thoughts (1:24:45) Also mentioned in this episode: Jeff’s new book - Good Stress: The Health Benefits of Doing Hard Things Commune Podcast Gabor Mate - Kiyumi retreat Thomas Seyfried's glutamate research KetoPet Sanctuary For more on Jeff, follow him on Facebook, Instagram, X/Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, and his Website. This episode is brought to you by LMNT, Maui Nui, and Birch Living. Right now, LMNT is offering my listeners a free sample pack with any purchase. Head over to drinkLMNT.com/dhru today. Right now Maui Nui Venison is offering my listeners a limited collection of my favorite cuts and products. Just go to mauinuivenison.com/dhru to secure your access now —but hurry, supply is limited! To get 20% off your Birch Living mattress plus two free eco-rest pillows, head over to birchliving.com/dhru today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Jeff, welcome to the podcast, brother. It's an honor to have you here. And I'm excited about everything
0:05.1	that you're working on, in particular, you got a new book coming up. And inside of that book,
0:09.4	good stress, a big thing that you talk about is that there are positive bits of stress that can
0:16.3	radically make our life better. You know, for thousands, hundreds of thousands of years, we as humans have
0:23.0	been focused on getting as much stress out. You're here to convince us that maybe the extreme
0:29.8	version of that, taking all stress out of our life, is actually a detriment to our health. Let's talk
0:35.8	about that. Yeah, absolutely. Well, first of all,
0:37.6	Drew, thanks for having me. You are just such a great friend and you platform so many amazing
0:42.4	people and I'm very grateful to be here. So, yeah, listen, for hundreds of thousands of years,
0:48.8	homo sapiens and even beyond that for millions of years, hominids have evolved in relationship to their
0:55.8	environment.
0:56.9	You know, to be alive is to be in relationship.
0:59.7	And so we've evolved these adaptive mechanisms in relation to what I sometimes call
1:05.7	paleolithic stress.
1:08.3	But since the Industrial Revolution, in the West, primarily, but really accelerating in the last
1:15.0	70 years, at every turn, we've engineered our society for comfort, for convenience, for ease.
1:25.0	And it's my thesis that chronic ease is actually leading to chronic dis-ease.
1:33.3	We are essentially using our culture to hijack our biology, and that is leading to all sorts of
1:39.3	detrimental downstream impacts. And I can unpack just some of those mechanisms. Yeah, well,
1:44.8	let's start off with the first one, which is from a lot of people's observation, they're looking
1:49.2	around, they're driving to work in the morning. And actually, a lot of people around them look
1:54.5	pretty stressed. So what's going on there? In modern times, we have a negative association with
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