How to Find Focus, Sleep Better, Enhance Creativity & Much More.

Dave’s research has provided the foundation for Apollo Neuroscience, a company he co-founded in 2017 alongside his CEO wife, Kathryn Fantauzzi. Apollo Neuroscience now offers the first scientifically-validated wearable technology that actively improves your health using a unique touch therapy that sends signals of safety to the brain. Users of Apollo report having more energy, improved focus, enhanced relaxation, and better sleep.

In addition to Apollo, Dave is also the co-founder and executive director of The Board of Medicine, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit committed to establishing peer-reviewed, evidence-based clinical guidelines for the production and safe use of currently unregulated alternative medicines, including plant medicines. The Board of Medicine provides training and certification to healthcare providers while setting quality control standards for complementary and alternative medicines, all to promote high-quality clinical research, best practices, and risk reduction.

Alongside his clinical psychiatry practice, Dave is actively conducting research on the epigenetic regulation of trauma responses and recovery. His focus is to shed light on the mechanism of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy and the neurobiology of belief. His extensive research background includes earning his MD in medicine and a PhD in neuroscience from Albany Medical College and specializing in psychiatry with a distinction in research at Western Psychiatric Institute & Clinic at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Dave’s dedication to pushing the boundaries of neuroscience and his commitment to developing effective alternative therapies make him a particularly fascinating guest to host. In this conversation, Dave and I delve into how Apollo Neuro works and the science that underpins it, explore his research on neurotransmitters, and discuss the intriguing field of MDMA therapy. So, if you’re interested in new frontiers of human health, stress management, and well-being, listen up!

During our discussion, you’ll discover:

• Previous podcast episode with Dr. David Rabin about the Apollo:
• The Apollo is a next-generation wearable (use code BG15 to save 15%)
  • It doesn’t track the body
  • It improves the body’s well-being
  • Apollo can work along side the app or completely independent of the phone
  • Turns on automatically after you save your schedule to the device
  • Regulates your circadian cycle for you
  • Has an airplane mode so that you can turn off any EMF transmission while it is running
• Research started at the University of Pittsburgh in 2014
• Figured out how to compose music for the body, not for the ears
• Music calms us and clears our mind
• Apollo delivers that same benefits through touch

-Combining Apollo with music…13:33

• Pairing the vibratory sensations with actual audio sensations
• The goal is to create an ecosystem of health 
• There are many tools that can help but the Apollo combined with music doubles the benefits
• Frequency of the Apollo matching the frequency of a certain soundtrack is coming soon

-The science behind Apollo…16:50

• Early research at the University of Pittsburgh
  • How does music affect the body?
  • Is that effect translatable to haptics and touch?
• Huge range of vibrations that you feel throughout your body 200 hertz and below
• We feel better than we hear
• Some rhythms increase people’s awareness, clarity, wakefulness, and energy
• Other forms of music are commonly used for meditation and mindfulness practice
• Music has various impacts on the body
• Biofeedback – breath and breath exercises studies
• A meditative state starts between five and seven breaths per minute
  • You can measure that effect through the skin with EKG
• Went another step further and measured
  • Brainwaves through EEG
  • Pupils
  • Physical movements
  • Sweat
• Put 20 patterns to 3 people and then gave them these really stressful exercises to do cognitively
  • Asked them to rate the experience and measured the results
  • 2 of 20 vibrations provided 25% better cognitive performance
  • Increased HRV within only 3 minutes, directly correlated with the increase in cognitive performance
  • Was able to develop a mathematical algorithm from that study
• The first vibes discovered –
  • Energy
  • Social
  • Focus
  • Power nap
  • Recover
  • Calm 
  • Unwind
  • Fall asleep
• A second study on athletes discovered the Recover vibe
• Applied what was discovered on other vibes and tested them on 300 people for 2 years
• The difference between the vibes
  • Speed
  • Intensity
  • Frequency and their modulation
  • The differences are meant to be subtle, not distractive

-How was Apollo made so small?…27:33

• Fitbit
• Whoop
• At first, not a lot of small options
• Quite a challenge to find the right partner to do this kind of work
• Couple of years of searching
• Managed to find the small motor that delivered vibration patterns faithfully
• Sensate (use code BGL to save)
• Apollo can be used with a chest strap and clip
  • Can also be worn anywhere on the body
• Wearing more than one
  • It would be more immersive
  • Working on an app to control more than one device
• Apollo costs $349 (use code BG15 to save 15%)

-The study of neurotransmitters and MDMA therapy…38:14

• Neurotransmitters are notoriously hard and expensive to study
• Denver VA is doing a very large PTSD study of Apollo and 100 military veterans with PTSD
• Published a paper showing that MDMA-assisted therapy appears to reverse some of the epigenetic trauma markers
• Traumatic events cause changes to our stress response, all the way down to epigenetics and cortisol receptors
• Three doses of MDMA in 12 weeks of psychotherapy in people with severe PTSD
  • Reverses their symptoms
  • Impacts the methylation of the cortisol receptor
• The trauma is stored in the body all the way down to our DNA and we can do things to repair it
  • Studying that exact same phenomenon in the study at the Denver VA
• Apollo was heavily inspired by the understanding of how MDMA works in resolving trauma

-The Social mode in Apollo and MDMA therapy…41:21

• Ben’s experience with MDMA therapy
• Apollo was designed to work similarly (use code BG15 to save 15%)
• Social mode helps people feel safe in social situations
  • Activates safety response to the touch receptors in our skin
• Transmits soothing vibrations to the emotional cortex of the brain
• MDMA is unnecessary
• Experimenting with Social mode

-Could Apollo detect the state you’re in and respond to it accordingly?…46:57

• Apollo came from the idea to help stress in the moment
• In early days – working with people in the labs, severe autism spectrum disorder and, and panic disorder
  • Detected when those episodes were going to happen before becoming full-blown
• Training Apollo to detect sleep and help people get to sleep
• Apollo Labs – stay asleep feature; first AI feature for health
• Oura Ring
• The goal for the future – detect and learn during the day and night what you need to be your best self
• Wearable technology that’s listening to you and providing what you need
• Connecting Apollo with Oura Ring and Apple Health
  • Right now, Oura Ring and Apple Health data are used for research to build features
  • Now delivering the first AI for decreasing disruptive sleep disturbances
  • 9 out of 10 people complaining of insomnia in the U.S. experience poor sleep because they wake up in the middle of the night and can’t fall back to sleep

-The results of the sleep study…54:45

• Initial study of 582 people, eventually expanded to 1500
  • People who have been using Apollo and Oura Ring for years
• On average, have been using Oura ring for eight months before receiving an Apollo
  • Pre-Apollo baseline data
  • Data after receiving an Apollo
• Just adding Apollo showed a statistically significant improvement in sleep
• Using Apollo 3 hours a day, 5 days a week, 45-90 days is a sweet spot
  • Showed 30 minutes increase in deep sleep (19%) and REM sleep (14%)
  • Decrease in resting heart rate and increase in HRV
• Ben’s Apollo power nap routine
• Drops you into sleep pretty quickly and wakes you up gently
• Ben’s Apollo schedule
  • 9 p.m. – Unwind
  • 9:30 p.m. – Fall asleep
  • 6 a.m. – Energy
  • 8 a.m. – Focus
  • 2 p.m. – Calm (for siesta)
  • Social and Recover mode whenever he feels like it
• Battery life – on average 2-3 days
  • Working hard to make battery life better

-Studies on athletes with Recovery function…1:05:14

• A study was published in July 2022 at the University of Pittsburgh
• A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled crossover study
• Apollo vibrations after intense exercise periods
• During a 2-minute recovery period – increases HRV
• Optimizes recovery and performance

-Stacking Apollo with other stuff…1:07:48

• The inspiration behind Apollo’s creation was breathwork and biofeedback
  • The rhythm of Apollo is that 5 to 7 breaths per minute that change over time that helps to get you into a resonance state
• The best to pair breathing with Apollo vibrations
  • Using music and breathwork with Apollo (use code BG15 to save 15%)
  • CBD
  • Mood-stabilizing adaptogens (think of the Apollo as an adaptogenic wearable)
  • “Better with Apollo” program 
  • Combining Apollo with light sound stimulation machines
• BrainTap
• neuroVIZR (use code BEN10 to save 10%)
• Dr. Rabin has also heard great things about people combining Apollo with TRIPP VR and Oculus VR
• Apollo has been improving the performance of video gamers in eSports
• Works well on long drives
• Bio-acoustic mat paired with the neuroVIZR (use code BEN10 to save 10%)