Episode #178: What a 100yo Japanese Smoker Taught Me About Stress? - Featuring Salim Najjar
Episode of The Dylan Gemelli Podcast · November 3, 2026 · 1 h 15 min
Dylan Gemelli talks with HRV educator Salim Najjar about chronic stress, heart rate variability, trauma, elite-athlete mindset, wearables and Okinawan longevity.
Summary
Recorded as the first episode in Dylan Gemelli's new studio, this conversation featured Salim Najjar, a former CEO who teaches heart rate variability (HRV) and what he calls "nervous system sovereignty." Najjar argued that constant regulation is not the goal. In his view, people need periods of dysregulation to build capacity, and what matters is agency over their internal state. He held that cellular inflammation underlies aging and disease and that chronic stress is its leading cause, and he explained the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches of the autonomic nervous system in evolutionary terms.
The two discussed sleep, morning phone use and caffeine timing. Najjar cited researcher Arthur Brooks's advice to avoid phones after waking, before bed and during meals. He described HRV as an individual "language" of the nervous system. He advised comparing a daily score against a personal 30-day baseline rather than against other people. He also outlined his ART framework (awareness, regulation, transformation), applying it to diet, training and hormetic stress.
Gemelli raised the overuse of mental health medications and TRT, the limits of medical education about the nervous system, and COVID-era rules. He also described his own healing after prison through faith and "soul surgery" with Sean Drake. Najjar described trauma as frozen emotions stored in the body, citing The Body Keeps Score. He argued that the "clutch gene" of athletes like Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods can be trained.
Najjar also gave his views on wearable trackers and vagus nerve stimulators. He closed with an anecdote about centenarians smoking in Okinawa, which he used to argue that a person's relationship to a habit matters. Gemelli credited prayer, silence and gratitude for his own regulation.
Chapters
- 2:24
New studio and guest introduction
Gemelli opens his new studio and introduces Salim Najjar, the 'HRV guy' he met at Dave Asprey's conference.
- 5:32
Nervous system sovereignty and listening to the body
Najjar explains why he favors agency over constant regulation and calls the body the best biohacking technology.
- 10:20
Chronic stress, inflammation and the autonomic nervous system
Najjar links chronic stress to cellular inflammation and explains fight-or-flight physiology through evolution.
- 17:34
Sleep, phones and morning caffeine
The pair discuss sleep priority, phone-free mornings per Arthur Brooks, and delaying caffeine in favor of hydration.
- 23:36
What HRV is and how to read it
Najjar defines heart rate variability and recommends comparing scores to a personal 30-day baseline.
- 27:58
Diet, training and hormetic stress
They discuss how diet, genetics, exercise and recovery affect HRV, using weight training as an analogy for hormetic stress.
- 36:14
Medications and modern healthcare
Gemelli and Najjar criticize medications used as band-aids and the absence of nervous system education in universities.
Linked moment · 47:31Skip to 47:31 using a listen link in the info box.
47:31Healing journeys and stored trauma
Gemelli shares his post-prison healing and Najjar explains how childhood conditioning freezes emotions in the body.
- 54:42
Faith and letting go
Gemelli connects forgiveness and Christian teaching to releasing stored emotions.
- 56:58
The clutch gene and elite athletes
Najjar argues that the pressure performance of Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods reflects trainable nervous system capacity.
- 1:03:02
Wearables and vagus nerve stimulators
Najjar recommends consistent use of any HRV wearable and treating vagus nerve stimulators as an ally rather than a crutch.
- 1:09:24
Okinawa, gratitude and closing
Najjar tells of smoking Okinawan centenarians, praises gratitude, describes his offerings and leaves curiosity and levity as tools.
Key points
What was said, by whom, with the exact words. Timestamps jump to the moment.
- Salim Najjar
Najjar argues that humans are not meant to be regulated all the time, because dysregulation builds the nervous system's capacity and resilience.
“if we're regulated all the time, we actually can't increase the capacity and resilience of our nervous system to go handle more stress”
- Salim Najjar
Najjar asserts that cellular inflammation is the underlying cause of aging, disease and death, and that chronic stress is its leading cause.
“Unless you die in an accident, the underlying cause of your mortality can be traced back to cellular inflammation”
- Salim Najjar
Najjar believes the nervous system is the root of all biomarkers, and that ignored signals eventually manifest as disease.
“my belief is that the nervous system is the underlying root of all biomarkers”
- Salim Najjar
Citing Arthur Brooks, Najjar recommends avoiding phones for a half hour to an hour after waking and before sleep, and while eating.
“First, no phone time. during these hours when you first wake up for at least a half hour at or ideally an hour”
- Salim Najjar
Najjar advises hydrating with electrolytes before caffeine, because cortisol already spikes on waking and adding caffeine leads to fatigue later in the day.
“the best thing to do when you wake up is hydrate the body”
- Salim Najjar
Najjar says science has not published a normal HRV range because it is highly individual, so people should not compare their scores with others.
“they have yet to publish a range for this biomarker because they have proven it is so unique to the individual”
- Salim Najjar
Najjar defines an HRV baseline as the 30-day average and recommends judging the daily morning score against it.
“I define HRV baseline as your average score over the last 30 days”
- Salim Najjar
Najjar explains that intense training lowers next-day HRV, but proper recovery raises the baseline through hormetic stress.
“But if you properly recover, then your baseline will start to go up because you're literally, I call it hormetic stress”
- Salim Najjar
Najjar recounts that after his lecture to pharmacy students, the faculty wanted to add nervous system content to their curriculum.
“I gave my first lecture to 200 first year pharmacy students”
- Salim Najjar
Najjar argues that in early childhood, unprocessed experiences such as a caregiver yelling cause the nervous system to freeze emotions in the body.
“The nervous system doesn't know how to process a caregiver yelling or traumatic experience. So it freezes”
- Salim Najjar
Najjar claims a sports agency told him its Hall of Fame athletes had much higher HRVs than its regular athletes, and argues the clutch gene can be trained.
“we've noticed in every one of our Hall of Fame athletes, insanely higher HRVs than our regular athletes”
- Salim Najjar
Najjar says the best HRV wearable is whichever one a person will use consistently, since major devices fall within a few percent of each other in accuracy.
“They're all within three to 5% accuracy, but it's not the accuracy that matters because again, they're not even taking your real time”
- Dylan Gemelli
Gemelli reports that wearing tracking watches and rings gave him swelling, wrist pain and palpitations, which stopped when he stopped wearing them.
“I had my pinky swell up really bad wrist pain. I went to the emergency room because we freaked out”
- Salim Najjar
Najjar views vagus nerve stimulators as a useful ally but warns that relying on them without addressing root causes builds up unfelt emotion.
“utilize it as an ally, but then actually bring curiosity to why you even needed to use it”
- Salim Najjar
Najjar uses smoking Okinawan centenarians to argue that a person's relationship to a habit matters more than what others say about it, while stressing he is not endorsing smoking.
“their relationship to the cigarette is very different than mine”
- Dylan Gemelli
Gemelli says prayer, followed by calm, rest, silence and gratitude, has been his answer to his health struggles.
“For me, that's the medication. That's the answer. That's the way we were designed to live”
People
In the conversation
- Dylan GemelliPodcast host with a sales and entrepreneurial background
- Salim NajjarFormer CEO and human performance educator known as "That HRV Guy," focused on heart rate variability and nervous system health
Discussed
- Arthur BrooksSocial scientist, Vanderbilt University professor and Harvard Business School senior fellow who studies happiness
- Joe DispenzaAuthor known for meditation programs
- Kobe BryantLate NBA player quoted by Kelly on hard work
- Michael JordanBasketball player used by Hudson in an example about condescending encouragement
- Tiger WoodsAmerican professional golfer and TGL team owner
- Dave AspreyBiohacking entrepreneur whose event Kelly and Sherwood attended
- Sean DrakePractitioner who guided Gemelli through a breathwork 'soul surgery'
- Dave RabinPsychiatrist who developed a vagus nerve stimulation device the host has worked with
Topics
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From the publisher
What if the stress you're trying to eliminate is actually what your body needs to become stronger? Despite focusing on nutrition, hormones, and exercise, I still struggled with stress, mental clarity, and feeling constantly stuck in fight-or-flight mode. That's why I was excited to sit down with Salim Najjar. Salim is a former CEO and human performance educator who specializes in heart rate variability (HRV), nervous system health, and stress resilience. During our conversation, we explored why chronic stress may contribute to inflammation and unhealthy aging, what HRV can reveal about your body's ability to recover, and why constantly trying to eliminate stress might not be the answer. We also discussed how everyday habits like checking your phone first thing in the morning, drinking caffeine, poor sleep, and overtraining can affect your nervous system. Salim shared his perspective on unresolved emotional trauma, mental health medications, wearable health trackers, and how elite athletes like Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan developed the ability to perform under pressure. I hope this conversation helps you rethink your relationship with stress, better understand your nervous system, and find ways to improve both your physical and mental well-being. Enjoy the episode, God bless, and I'll see you in the next one! Chapters: (00:00) Intro (01:05) Timeline (08:38) Your Body Is the Best Biohacking Technology (09:50) Silence Matters (11:28) Chronic Stress, Inflammation & Aging (14:15) Stress Can Be Your Best Friend (17:25) Sleep and Nervous System Recovery (19:25) How Phones Affect Stress and Sleep (22:06) Morning Caffeine and Cortisol (23:41) What Is HRV? (25:30) Understanding Your HRV Score (30:00) Diet, Genetics, and HRV (33:35) Exercise, Recovery, and Resilience (36:17) Mental Health Medication (39:25) How to Improve Nervous System Health (40:52) Problems With Modern Healthcare (47:34) My Personal Healing Journey (49:45) How Trauma Affects the Nervous System (53:37) E…
Summary, chapters and key points were generated from the episode transcript on November 5, 2026. Quotes are checked word for word against the transcript.