Anti-Aging Expert: Missing This Vitamin Is As Bad As Smoking! The Truth About Creatine!

Why do people not know that vitamin D

deficiency can increase dementia risk by

80%. Why do people not know that having

a lack of this mineral is affecting

their long-term risk of cancer? Why do

people not know that having a low

omega-3 index is as bad for you in terms

of mortality as smoking? And as a

scientist, I've seen firsthand that 70%

of the way you're aging is actually due

to your lifestyle. And all these things

are so easy to do. So for example, as we

age, certain areas of the brain which is

involved in learning and memory starts

to shrink by about 1 to 2% per year. The

good news is studies show that people

being part of an exercise protocol, not

only did they not have their hippocampus

shrink, it actually grew by 1 to 2%. And

there's more. There are other things

that don't even require as much effort

as exercise, like supplements. And it's

been shown study after study that if you

take someone and you sleep deprive them

for 21 hours and give them 25 to 30

grams of creatine, not only does it

negate the cognitive deficits of sleep

deprivation, it makes people function

better than if they were well rested.

And then there's magnesium. There have

been studies showing that people with

the highest magnesium levels have a 40%

lower all-c cause mortality. And over

300 different enzymes in your body need

it to help with short-term survival. And

yet 50% of the population in the United

States does not have adequate levels of

magnesium. And there's still more.

There's saunas, red light therapy,

ketogenic diets, blueberries,

electrolytes. We can talk about all of

them.

>> Please.

>> Okay. So, I found when you go into this

sauna, something happens. That's

incredible. So,

I see messages all the time in the

comments section that some of you didn't

realize you didn't subscribe. So, if you

could do me a favor and double check if

you're a subscriber to this channel,

that would be tremendously appreciated.

It's the simple, it's the free thing

that anybody that watches this show

frequently can do to help us here to

keep everything going in this show in

the trajectory it's on. So, please do

double check if you've subscribed and uh

thank you so much because in a strange

way you are you're part of our history

and you're on this journey with us and I

appreciate you for that. So, yeah, thank

you.

>> Dr. Ronda Patrick, you strike me as a

fairly obsessed person.

What is it you're obsessed about and why

are you obsessed about it? Because I can

see from speaking to you previously how

passionate you are about the subjects

we're going to talk to about today. And

so I was I was um I was wondering what

it is about these subjects that is

driving you and what what you're trying

to accomplish.

>> I've learned through my experience. So I

have a PhD in biomedical science. I've

done research on aging, on cancer, on

metabolism, nutrition, neuroscience, a

lot of different fields, very

cross-disciplinary.

And I've realized over, you know, the

decades of doing research that there are

many different small changes that can be

made that have a really big impact on

our health, what's called our health

span. So, this is essentially being

disease-free uh throughout our life,

being healthy, feeling good. And I'm

sort of obsessed with trying to optimize

that and find a protocol to optimize it

and then share that information with the

world. And it's funny because, you know,

we live in a time now where we've got

access to so much information,

overwhelming amount of information. But

the reality is is that simple important

tools that people can do in their life

right now to drastically improve the way

they age are still not known to the

general population. And so my mission is

to get that knowledge to people so that

they can make these simple changes and

live healthier and feel better.

>> And what will be the impact on their

lives if they understand that

information and start to implement their

that information on a real sort of

specific practical

in a real specific practical sense.

>> Well, there are things that people are

deficient in, for example, that they

could simply take a supplement. Vitamin

D is a is a good example that could

affect their disease risk, their

dementia risk. I mean, so you're talking

about quality of life improvement

right now and also later. So, it affects

mood, it affects depression, and it

affects your neurodeenerative disease

risk risk like dementia and Alzheimer's

disease. So there are lowhanging fruits,

things that are simple that you can just

basically fill these gaps. I mean there

are things that are also a little more

effortful and this is where exercise

comes in where you put in this effort

and it just if you could pill up what

exercise does in a pill, I mean it would

be be the biggest blockbuster miracle

drug out there. I mean it blow ozic out

of the water. It'd be I mean just no

comparison. So, um I think I think that

you know again that it's it's these

little things that you can do that is

going to help with depression, help with

mood right now, make you feel better

right now, give you more energy, help

you be more focused, help you be more

motivated, but also affect your

long-term disease risk so that you know

when you're older in life, you're not

demented. And that affects you, it

affects your family. So I think I think

it's it's just an important it's so

important because there are easy things

that can be done that people just don't

know about.

>> Is there a psychological element to this

where we kind of see aging as an

inevitability so we don't fight it

because we only seem to interfere with

and fight and are motivated by things in

life there where we feel like we've got

an element of control and we see we see

everybody get old and we see everybody

start to you know lean over a little bit

and struggle to walk and get a little

bit more frail. So I think because we've

observed that so much over the last

couple of decades. I'm 30 years just

over 30 years old. I assume that will

happen to me. So I've seen my dad, you

know, get older, get a little bit more

large, lose his lean muscle. So I think,

well, I'm like my dad. I've got the some

of the same genetics. That's inevitable

for me.

>> So genetics does play a role in the way

you age, but it's a small role. In fact,

70% or more of the way you're aging is

actually due to your lifestyle. Let's

just imagine two 70ish year old men,

okay? John and Rob. And John, you know,

he's razor sharp. He can carry groceries

to his car. He doesn't get out of

breath. You know, I mean, he's he's

feeling healthy. He's be able to he can

walk efficiently, right? And then

there's Rob. And Rob is

forgetting his words. You know, he's not

cognitively sharp. He's out of breath

just from walking to his car. He has a

really hard time carrying groceries.

Genetics only plays a small role in in

those two different outcomes for those

two men. The biggest, I would say, thing

that's dictating the way these two men

age is their lifestyle, with a huge part

of that actually being exercise. Mhm.

>> And you know, I know we've all heard it

from our mother or grandmother,

great-grandmother. You know, exercise is

is good for you. If you eat healthy and

you exercise, you're going to you're

going to be healthier. And that's like a

general statement, but the reality is it

is so true that exercise affects

everything, you know, down to the

molecular level in terms of like the way

you're aging. So, um, no, it's not just

dictated by genetics and it's not

inevitable and there are things that you

can do to dramatically age better.

>> So, let's play a little a little game

here. So, imagine that I listened to

your advice and the things that you know

about health, longevity, aging, um, and

I followed all of them, which is very

hard to do because, you know,

implementation is is not the same thing

as knowledge. So, imagine that's person

A, that's Steve A, and then there's

Steve B. I do the exact opposite. Based

on what you know about the science and

about outcomes and expected outcomes,

how would Steve A that followed your

advice

live his uh live his life as he ages?

And how would Steve's B, how would his

outcomes be as he ages? Like what would

you if you had to obviously this is like

super you're forecasting here and it's

hypothetical, but what do you think the

variance in these two people's lives

would be? Well, if you're talking about

the extreme ends, like if Steve B was

like eating sugar and smoking and

drinking and just obese and sedentary,

everything that you don't want to,

>> which is like a lot of the population.

>> I mean, then you're talking like a

14-year difference in life expectancy,

which is pretty big. But not just life

expectancy,

the way your your independence, right,

your your mind, so you'd be forgetful. I

mean, it would just be it would it would

be a terrible quality of life, right?

So, it's not only are you going to die

earlier, you're not you're just not

going to live a good quality of life.

So, so Steve A might be into his 90s and

out surfing, you know, because you're

you've exercised, you've you've given

your body like the right nutrients that

it needs, you've gotten good sleep,

you're not overweight, you're not eating

a lot of refined sugar, all these things

that sort of accelerate the aging

process. And we can talk about different

components of this and how they do

affect the way we age and our disease

risk, but I mean there's there's studies

that show even like a 14-year difference

in life expectancy for like someone

who's morbidly obese versus lean.

>> So Steve A could be out surfing at 90

and Steve B would be potentially dying

at 75, but also his quality of life

would his health span would diminish

probably in his 40s and 50s,

>> right?

So it's really it's a 14year reduction

in lifespan but potentially a 30 40 year

reduction in health span

>> in quality of life and health span being

able to be functionally independent

being able to be cognitively sharp feel

good right and your mood I mean all

these things are affected

>> you must be sitting on some some crazy

ideas because as a biomedical science

you can kind of see as a biomedical

scientist you can see some of the

research and technology that's coming

down the pipe so I'm wondering Before we

get into the the conversation, are there

any big ideas about the future of aging

and longevity that are in your mind that

you think about that are actually really

important to know because as Brian

Johnson has often said to me,

you want to live to to see these

breakthroughs.

>> Yes. Yes. I am excited about some gene

therapies and being able to sort of

reprogram our our cells to be more

youthful. So, you know, this is this is

something that was pioneered back in

2006 by Shinya Yamanaka from Japan and

he actually won the Nobel Prize. Why his

research was so important for the field

of aging wasn't really known at that

time. What he had shown is that you

could take a cell that's old and it

could be a any cell. It could be from an

85year-old person with Parkinson's

disease, for example, and you get it.

You know, we're constantly getting skin

cells and sloing them off every day. You

can take one of those cells and add four

different proteins to them. They're

called transcription factors.

Essentially, all that means is they're

kind of like master orchestrators of

many different genes in your body and

how genes are activated and turned on

and doing what they're supposed to or

they're turned off and quiet for the

time that they're supposed to be quiet.

And it's you you add those four proteins

and you can take that 85year-old cell

skin cell from a person with Parkinson

disease and you can make it into what's

called an embryionic stem cell. And it

does that by sort of wiping out the

what's called epiggenome. So people are

familiar with their DNA, right? Well,

the epiggenome is something that sort of

sits on top of your DNA and it

regulates, you know, how your genes are

being expressed or turned on and off,

right? And it sort of brings it back,

reprograms it to this youthful state

where it becomes an embryionic stem

cell. And then that embryionic stem cell

can then form any type of cell in the

body. you can form a heart cell or a

liver cell or a brain cell or a cell

from your eye and so this is called

induced pur potent stem cells and this

was a breakthrough at the time because

it's it was so import it's important for

cell regenerative therapies okay let's

say someone does have Parkinson's

disease and you want you know

Parkinson's disease people are losing

dopamineergic neurons and their

substantia so these are dopamine

producing neurons and dopamine is

important for motivation and it plays a

role in our, you know, cognitive

function, but it's also important for

movement, right? So, um, people with

Parkinson's disease are losing those at

a rapid rate and they lose control of

their motor capabilities. And so, you

want to be able to take an old skin cell

from someone, reprogram it to become a

dopamine neuron and then inject it into

that person, right? It's their own cell,

so they're not going to reject it,

right? So, that was like the big thought

at the time. Fast forward, you know, a

decade or so and a a whole handful of

brilliant aging scientists have

discovered that instead of taking these

old cells and putting these four

proteins on it to become this sort of

stem cell, they can pulse it. Just a

quick little pulse.

>> What is a pulse? Like an electronic

shock?

>> No, what I mean is it's just not

incubated for as long of a time period.

So, it's a shorter time interval that

you're putting these four different

transcription factors on top of the cell

that reprogram it, right? And the reason

for the shorter time is that you don't

want it to lose its cellular identity.

So, let's say it was a skin cell. You

want it to stay a skin cell, not become

an embryionic stem cell, but you want it

to be a skin cell from a one-year-old,

not an 85y old.

>> So, the way to do that is what's called

partial reprogramming. And so they

basically researchers have found that

you can just sort of what I call pulse.

It's partial reprogramming. You're kind

of putting it on for like a shorter

period of time and then that cell keeps

its identity but it's youthful. It wipes

out all the damage, everything that's

accumulated over those those 85 years.

And this has been shown in animal

studies in rodents that if you if you

add these four different transcription

factors and you give them to mice, you

can rejuvenate many of the different

organs. So essentially turning back the

aging clock in different organs in these

mice. Now this obviously has to be

translated to humans, but I think it's

super exciting and I do think it's the

future in terms of solving aging and

rejuvenation, rejuvenating our organs.

And so it's something that I'm pretty

excited about and following closely.

>> And are they then living longer?

>> Some of these studies were done in

animals that are what's called

accelerated aging. So yes, they were

living longer in that background of

accelerated aging. Um the question is,

you know, can they live longer if it's

just a normal mouse that's not like an

accelerated aging model? And and these

are things that are all being done right

now. These sorts of studies are in

progress.

Where do you think is the most important

place for us to start this conversation

based on everything you know and maybe

some of the presumably there's some like

foundational stuff, right?

>> I do. I think the important place to

start would be we're talking about we

were talking about aging as a disease

and I think being sedentary is a disease

and I think that's a good place to

start. What I mean by being sedentary is

not physically active. someone who

doesn't engage in any type of physical

activity.

>> And what is the spectrum there of, you

know, someone who doesn't move at all

for, you know, 24 hours a day versus

you've got obviously someone that's

constantly running marathons and doing

crazy stuff, but where is where are most

of us on that scale? And are we moving

enough?

>> Most of us are not moving on that

enough. And most of us are, if you're

talking about globally, we're on that

sedentary scale where we're just not

physically active. we sit at our

computer or our desk or our cubicle, you

know, all day and we're not we're not

actually moving around a lot. Um, and I

say I say sedentaryism

is a disease because it's actually been

shown to

increase the risk of early mortality

even more than diseases that we know of

like type two diabetes, cardiovascular

disease, or even terrible habits like

smoking. So being sedentary actually

could predict early mortality even more

than those diseases. But it it it's

let's take a step back. It's even bigger

than that. There there's this amazing

study. It's called the Dallas bed rest

study. And the study started back in the

1960s. And this is done by probably the

world's most talented cardiovascular

exercise physiologists.

And so Ben Saltine, uh, Jerry Mitchell

were involved in this early study in the

1960s. And what they did was they took

five men, they were college students and

they put them on bed rest. And this is

like 3 weeks of legitimate bed rest.

We're talking they couldn't get up to go

to the bathroom, so they had catheter in

them. They did not move for three week.

The researchers wanted to find out what

happens to your cardiovascular system if

you are not moving around for three

weeks. And now if you think about it,

you know, there's a lot of people that

are undergoing surgery or they have some

sort of bad illness, influenza or

something that keeps them bedridden for

it's not unusual to be 3 weeks to be

honest. So it's not completely

irrelevant.

And what was found is after that 3

weeks, you know, their cardiovascular

system was just tanked. And one of the

major they they were probably the some

of the most wellstied men at the time.

And um one of the biggest factors that

was measured was their cardiorespiratory

fitness. This is often called V2 max.

And essentially it's the maximum amount

of oxygen that you can breathe in and

your lungs then breathe that oxygen to

your muscles. And it's measured during

maximal exercise. You're putting in a

maximum effort and that's called your

cardiorespiratory fitness. And we can

talk a little bit more about that. But

their cardiorespir respiratory fitness

tank. And now I mentioned this was in

the 1960s. About 30 years later, and

this is where uh Ben Lavine came into

the study. He's at the UT Southwestern

in Dallas. He's also very one of the

most famous, you know, cardiovascular

exercise physiologists out there right

now. They found these five men from 30

years earlier and they measured their

cardiorespiratory fitness and a variety

of other parameters that they had

measured at the time. And what they

found was that three weeks of bed rest

was worse on their cardiorespiratory

fitness than 30 years of aging. So

essentially their cardiorespiratory

fitness was no worse 30 years later than

it was after their 3 weeks of bed rest

which is kind of amazing because you

would think that the 30 years of aging

would be worse on your cardiorespiratory

fitness than the three weeks of bed

rest. And it's the same the same

individuals,

>> the same individuals, the same five men.

Um, now after the three weeks of bed

rest, you know, back back in the 1960s,

they were able to get their

cardiorespiratory fitness back up again

once they started exercising and moving

around and it took a while. But when you

look at their baseline levels, their

baseline cardiorespiratory fitness and

you compare it to their

cardiorespiratory fitness baseline 30

years later, it wasn't worse than what

happened when they they compared it to

the 3 weeks of bed rest. And you might

go, well,

why is that so significant? The

cardiorespiratory fitness dropping. We

know that cardiorespiratory fitness is

one of the best predictors of longevity.

So there are studies that have shown

that people with a high

cardiorespiratory fitness

live five years longer than people with

a low cardiorespiratory fitness. That's,

you know, pretty big difference. They're

they're basically 80% less likely to die

of many different causes of of death. So

cardiovascular disease, cancer,

respiratory disease, things like that

than people with a low cardiorespiratory

fitness. So you're really getting, you

know, a five-year increased life

expectancy. You're sort of pushing and

delaying those age related diseases like

cardiovascular disease, you know, like

cancer, for example, you're pushing them

down later in life. So you're not you're

not dying from them sooner. And we do

know that really

just going getting anywhere out of that

low cardiorespiratory fitness. So people

with the low cardiorespiratory fitness

are people that are sedentary. And if

you just move anywhere above that, even

if you're going low from low bad to like

low normal, you're gaining about two

years increase in life expectancy. And

that's not really that hard to do. But

if you think about cardiorespiratory

fitness, like right here, just having

this conversation, actually even just

sitting quietly, it takes about three

milliliters of oxygen per minute per

kilogram body weight to do that. to

carry groceries to your car, it takes

about 11 milliliters of oxygen per

minute per body weight, per kilogram

body weight.

>> And so as you're aging, you're kind of

heading towards this cliff, right?

Because your cardiorespiratory fitness

goes down with age. It does. That's what

happens naturally. If you're at the

point where you don't work on your

cardiorespiratory fitness, if you're not

being physically active, and there are

certain exercises that are better at

improving cardiorespiratory fitness than

other others, if you're not trying to

improve it, you're going to be heading

towards that cliff faster. And then

everything becomes a maximal effort.

You're out of breath just talking.

You're out of breath carrying groceries

to your car. Everything is a maximal

effort. And you don't want to be there.

You don't that that quality of life is

not good. It's not good. Right. And then

on top of that, you're also going to die

sooner. So you're talking about two

things here. You're talking about

decreased health span and decreased

lifespan.

>> So yeah, we should be moving more,

>> right? And the question is, well, how do

you improve your cardior fitness? Right.

Yeah. I mean,

>> do you lift weights? Do you go for runs?

Do you bike? What is it that is really

good at improving cardior fitness? And

that's the question that a lot of

exercise physiologists have answered

over the last couple of decades. You

want to do and engage in what's called

vigorous intensity exercise. So this is

the kind of exercise where you're not

able to have a conversation when you're

engaged in it. Right? So so your heart

rate is going up to about 80% your max

heart rate. You're not able to really

talk. And it's I would say you know it's

something that can be done in intervals.

So you can do highintensity interval

training. So you have these intervals

where you're getting your heart rate up,

you're doing vigorous exercise, and then

you have recovery periods where you're

kind of resting. You're you're lowering

your heart rate. You're not doing that

max that maximal sort of exercise. And I

say this because

there have been studies, multiple

studies that have shown people that

engage in moderate intensity exercise.

So this is the kind of exercise when you

can you're breathy, but you can still

kind of have somewhat of a conversation

while you're doing it.

>> Like the stair master. like the

stairmaster. Yeah, exactly. Um, even

people that are engaging in that type of

exercise for two and a half hours a

week, so this is following the physical

activity guidelines, 40% of those people

can't improve their cardiorespiratory

fitness.

And it's like, well, I don't know about

you, but like I don't want it to be a

coin toss in terms of like if I'm doing

that kind of exercise, well, if I have a

50% chance of not improving my

cardiorespiratory fitness if I'm doing

this. I want the sure thing. And the

short thing is you take those people and

then you have them engage in

highintensity interval training and

they're able to improve their

cardiorespiratory fitness. And that's

because

you you're putting a stronger stress on

your cardiovascular system. And so the

adaptations are greater. And part of the

adaptations are you're able to bring in

more oxygen, carry it to your muscles,

carry it to your your you know other

other tissues better. And so that's your

cardiorespiratory fitness. Uh and so and

so that's that's really I would say um

the bottom line here is engaging in even

just once or twice a week. And I would I

would say the the most wellressearched

protocol for that would be something

called the Norwegian 4x4.

And that is where you're doing a longer

interval. It's a 4-minute interval and

it's best done on either a stationary

bike or maybe a rowing machine. And

you're going as hard as you can and

maintain that intensity for four

minutes. And then you're going to go

down to light exercise and recover for

four minutes and let your heart rate go

down. And you do that four times. So

it's a four by four. And that is

probably one of the most robust ways to

improve cardiorespiratory fitness. But

there are other ways even doing you know

one minute on one minute off. So you do

one minute as hard as you can go again

for that entire minute. not going all

out, but as hard as you can and maintain

that for the entire minute. And then you

rest a minute and you do that, you know,

10 times. So, it's a 20-minute workout.

>> So, for the several million people that

are listening right now, if you had to

prescribe them all something to do and

it was the minimum they had to do.

Tell me what exactly the workout would

look like and how frequent it would be

on a weekly basis.

>> I would say the minimum effective dose

would be once a week. Okay.

>> And it would probably be

the one minute on, one minute off. If

you want like the upper end robust

effects of improving cardiorespiratory

fitness, you can still improve it with

something like a Tabata.

>> What's a Tabata?

>> Where you're doing a 20 second interval

and you're going more all out because

it's shorter time and then you're

recovering for 10 seconds.

>> So, it's a 20 second on, 10 second off.

You do that eight times. And um if you

repeat that twice, so it's essentially a

10-minute workout, that's also something

that can improve cardiorespiratory

fitness. But I would say, and I'll tell

you I'll tell you why. There's the

minimum, right? So the one minute on,

one minute off. But I would say the

Norwegian 4x4 is the gold standard. And

that's because it's not only improving

cardiorespiratory fitness.

This is probably one of the most

exciting

pieces of evidence I've seen with

respect to, you know, exercise and

aging. And that is that being part of an

exercise protocol was shown to reverse

the structural changes that occur with

age in the heart by 20 years.

So what do I mean by that? I mean,

people that were 50 years old that were

sedentary, so they weren't really going

to the gym, they weren't engaging in any

sort of physical activity, but they

weren't, you know, they didn't have

diseases. They didn't have type two

diabetes, they didn't have

cardiovascular disease. I would argue

sedentary, being sedentary is a disease,

but putting that aside, they didn't have

any diseases, right? And they're 50, so

they're midlife.

And um this was again this was done by

Ben Lavine out of UT uh Southwest at in

Dallas. He took these you know

50-year-olds and put them on a pretty

intense exercise routine for two years

or a stretching routine. This was like

the the control.

And this type of exercise routine was

progressive. So they started out lighter

and sort of worked their way up, right?

Like you don't want to just start with a

Norwegian 4x4 people that never never

exercise. I mean that's going to be

tough. So it was a progressive sort of

building up to that. But um towards the

ends of about the first six months,

these people were exercising about 5 to

six hours a week and that included one

to two sessions of the Norwegian 4x4.

And it also included a lot of, you know,

they're they're doing moderate to

vigorous intensity cycling or running

and some some strength training as well.

And they did this for two years.

their hearts were looked at and so as we

age our hearts shrink and they get

stiffer and that plays a role in causing

cardiovascular disease. I mean that's

the number one killer in the United

States. It also affects

cardiorespiratory fitness right why does

the the heart you know stiffen with time

has a lot to do with actually being

exposed to a lot of glucose when you're

eating a lot of refined sugar and

refined carbohydrates you're having a

lot of glucose around in your system.

This causes a chemical reaction called

glycation. So you get these advanced

glycation end products that sort of

react with your collagen that's lining

your heart and your mocardium and it

causes it to stiffen and so now the

heart can't really respond to stress

well. It's stiff and that plays a role

in like heart attacks for example. So

exercise is one of the best things you

can do to

move glucose out of your vascular system

and get it to your muscles. And so

that's that's one of the things that it

does and helps with not causing that

stiffening of the heart. And so

essentially these 50-year-olds had

their their heart the structure so it

was bigger and less stiff after two

years of this you know exercise

protocol. It essentially made their

hearts look like 30 year olds. And I

mentioned they were 50 year olds. I

mean, that's amazing. That's incredible

that you can take someone midlife, put

them on a two-year training protocol,

and reverse the aging of their heart by

20 years.

>> So, on this Norwegian 4x4,

you've convinced me to give it a shot.

But specifically, how I how I do that.

So, it's it's I do my warmup and then I

do four minutes of hard exercise. I take

a break and the exercise I'm doing in

those four minutes can be any number of

things but I just have to get up to 85

80% of my exertion levels 80%

difficulty.

>> So the way it works is as they mentioned

it's it's best if you're doing a

cardiovascular type of exercise. So like

>> the assault bike

>> you could do assault bike. Yep. Assault

bike. You can do a rowing machine. You

could do uh stationary cycling machine

as well.

>> Could I run?

You can, but that is is it's definitely

um it's I think it's better on on doing

like maybe a bike or a salt bike or

something. Um but you can run like what

whatever it is that you like to do and

you are going as hard as you can for

that four minutes and maintain within

that four minutes. So it's not an allout

or it's far from all out, right? But

you're not really having a conversation

while you're doing it. And then the four

minutes of recovery, you're if you're

running, you kind of go down to walking.

If you're on the rowing machine or the

assault bike, you're just going very

slow. You're just really going slow and

you're letting your heart rate come

down. You're letting your muscles kind

of recover, your cardiorespiratory

fitness, you know, kind your your

cardiorespiratory fitness system recover

somewhat. And then after that 4-minute

recovery, you go back to the four

minutes of like intense again. And

you're doing that four times. It's not

easy, but you know, people can start

out, they don't I mean, even if you

start out with not going super super

hard in those four minutes where you

just maybe you can have a conversation,

but you're still going hard harder than

you're used to pushing yourself. And I

think for people that haven't really

engaged in any type of high-intensity

training before, that's a good idea

where you kind of you got you can't just

start doing it

>> right out the gate. You want to kind of

work your way up that. So doing the four

minutes do just try to put in as much

effort as you can right during those

four minutes and then you do your

recovery and you repeat that four times

but then work your way up as you as you

do it one week, two weeks, you know, a

month later, two months later and really

try then to get to that point where

during those four minutes you're

getting, you know, you're pushing

yourself hard where you're not really

able to have that conversation

>> and physiologically what is going on in

my body when I get to that 85 90% effort

range and I and I stay there for a

couple of minutes. That doesn't occur

when I'm doing my stair master.

>> I mean, so many things are are

happening. I mean, there's a lot of

different, I would say, physiological

responses that are

>> You've got a big smile on your face when

I ask.

>> Yes, I do because it's, you know, one of

my favorite things to talk about and it

has to do with when you're when you're

pushing yourself really hard, you need

you need to make energy, right? And the

way that most of our cells make energy,

like our muscles, is by using our

mitochondria, these are tiny organels

inside of our cells that produce energy,

but they need oxygen to do it. So that's

where the oxygen comes into play. When

you start to push yourself really hard,

you can't get the oxygen to your muscles

quick enough, but you need to make the

energy. And so your body decides to make

energy in the form of ATP without the

mitochondria, and it uses glucose to do

that.

and you're not making as many of those

ATP energy molecules, but you're still

making them and you're making them

quick. And that's what your your body

wants to do. And and so it's using

glucose to do that without the

mitochondria,

but as a byproduct, it's making

something called lactate. And this is

what gets me so excited because, you

know, for the longest time, lactate was

thought to be this just metabolic

byproduct of glucose metabolism. you

know where you're when you're pushing

yourself really hard anorobic it's

called anorobic by the way you're not

you're not only anorobic you're just

some somewhat anorobic you're still use

producing energy with your mitochondria

it's just you're also producing without

the mitochondria it's not like a a sort

of black black and white sort of thing

right it's a little bit gray

>> but the reality is you're producing

something called lactate and for the

longest time it was thought this lactate

oh it's just it's bad because you know

it can form lactic acid and that burns

forms that burn in your muscles. And you

know, this was, you know, decades ago.

And we now know from the work of George

Brooks out of UC Berkeley that lactate

itself isn't causing the burn. And not

only is it not causing the burn, it's

like a miracle molecule that's being

made. This metabolite lactate gets into

your circulation and it gets consumed by

your heart, by your brain, by your

liver, and it's used for energy. It's

very it's it's very much similar to beta

hydroxybutyrate that ketone body that

you always hear about people talk about

when they're fasting or doing a

ketogenic diet. It's actually very

similar to that. It gets used it gets

transported through the same transporter

and it's used like energy. Very similar

to that. Um but what's more exciting is

that lactate is a way for your muscles

to communicate with other organs like

the brain. And it's called a signaling

molecule. So, it's your muscles are

going, I'm working really hard. This is

really hard. We have to respond to this

work. We have to adapt. And so, your

body goes, okay, I got to like turn on

all this awesome stuff that I have

because I'm working so hard. I need to

respond to that so that like I'm I'm

good, right? And so, what happens is the

lactate, this has been shown, it gets

consumed a lot by the brain. And in the

brain, it it activates something called

brain drive neurotrphic factor, BDNF.

And this is kind of like a miracle grow

for your brain. So essentially, it's

able to increase the growth of new

neurons, which is amazing. It's called

neurogenesis. It increases the

connections between neurons. So it

improves memory, cognition, and then um

it's involved in what's called

neuroplasticity. So the ability of your

brain to adapt to a changing

environment. This is all from lactate.

Um, and it also increases

neurotransmitters like norepinephrine,

so focus and attention, serotonin, your

your mood, you're feeling better,

you're, you know, motivated. All these

things are happening because of lactate.

And there's been studies in humans

showing that people that are compared

working hard, working out hard, vigorous

exercise versus sort of moderate to

light exercise, they make more lactate.

And that lactate, you know, it's been

shown that high levels of lactate are

correlated with improved cognition

scores, uh, improved impulse control. So

serotonin plays a role in impulse

control. So you're able to not just go

on your impulse, right? You're you're

able to kind of like, which is great if

you want more focus and attention,

right? So this is this is all really

exciting stuff because it all comes down

to just it's it's like your muscles are

these little chemical pharmaceutical

factories and the way to make them make

these pharmaceuticals is to work them to

challenge them and that can be done with

an easy highintensity interval training

protocol. A variety of them Norwegian

4x4 can increase brain drive neurotrphic

factor that's been shown. The one minute

on one minute off protocol also has been

shown to increase that again through the

lactate. So that's one of the big sort

of I would say differences between

vigorous intensity exercise and more of

that moderate intensity or like low

intensity exercise. And I honestly

think, you know, I think the guidelines,

you know, everyone's sort of obsessed

with steps. I need to get my 10,000

steps in, my 10,000 steps. And they have

wear wearable devices, and I think

that's great, but I think we need to

change the 10,000 steps to at least 10

minutes of vigorous intensity exercise.

like you could do 10 minutes of, you

know, any type of exercise that's really

going to get your heart rate up and it's

going to be so much better. So, this is

a really dumb question, but it's the

question that I had in my mind, which is

if lactate is such a miracle

drug,

why can't I just drink it? Why can't I

just get get a shot of lactate versus

having to go through vigorous interval

training? It's a great question,

Stephen, because um there have been

studies that have been done looking at,

for example, traumatic brain injury

patients. So, people that have undergone

some sort of head trauma and they've

infused sodium lactate through like an

IV

into their, you know, system and the

lactate immediately gets consumed by the

brain and it's been shown to improve

their recovery. So, it's called the

Glasgow score. You may have heard of it,

but it's kind of essentially this

battery of tests that's done to sort of

assess how someone's recovering from

traumatic brain injury. And the sodium

lactate does improve that. So there are

you can find out there, you know,

different types of lactate that you can

consume.

>> And theoretically, it should help, but

what happens is when you consume the

lactate,

>> lactate actually gets used by the gut.

So a lot of it's going into the gut

cells before it gets into your

circulation. There's always a trade-off

with these bloody things whenever you

try and trick the system or shortcut the

system by like drinking something. I

feel like there's a trade-off which

people don't talk about a lot.

>> Well, the thing is is that I it is good

for the gut. In fact, a former colleague

of mine, Mark Chanaga, has shown that

lactate is really beneficial for for uh

the gut epithelial cells. In fact, if

you think about it, all these sort of

beneficial probiotic bacteria like

bifido bacterium for example, they're

producing lactic acid and that lactic

acid does get converted into lactate.

It's sort of like this physiological

homeostasis where you have uh the

difference of just a hydrogen atom. So

you're having lactic acid and lactate

sort of in this equilibrium so to speak.

But um those those bacteria in your gut

are making lactate essentially. And the

reason it's so good is because it is an

very e easily utilizable source of

energy for the gut cells. So, not to

like go off on a tangent here, yes,

there is always a tradeoff, especially

for doing something orally, but when it

comes to exercise,

there's so like I mentioned when we

first started talking about exercise, if

you could pill up what exercise does,

I mean, it's so many things, right? It's

not just the lactate.

>> Yeah.

>> So many different things, so many

different adaptations that occur. I mean

it would be a miracle drug. So there's

you're not just getting the lactate,

you're getting the, you know, the

improvement in cardiorespiratory

fitness. You're getting the muscular

response, right? The adaptations to your

muscle. Um you're you're increasing

stress response genes like heat shock

proteins that are important for

preventing neurodeenerative disease.

You're making antioxidants because the

inflammation that you're generating

while you're exercising. There's

hundreds and hundreds of things that are

happening all in concert from exercise

and you just can't you can't pill it up.

>> I have another really silly question

which is if lactate and these other

things even like creatine and you know

all these other things are so good for

me why doesn't my body just make more of

it?

>> I mean your body does make it. The the

problem is is that you know as we're

aging everything becomes less efficient.

everything doesn't do what it used to do

as well as it did when it was younger.

Um, and it and also in the in the case

of creatine, which we can talk about,

you know, later if you're interested,

then um, you know, your body only makes

so much of it. And

>> why doesn't it make more?

>> I don't, you know,

>> maybe I'm not giving it the the minerals

or the environment it needs naturally to

make more.

>> I don't know.

>> You you get it from your food, too.

Creatine is found in meat, in poultry,

and fish. So, probably that's why your

body doesn't make more of it because it

knows you're going to be getting it from

your diet as well.

>> And so, that is another way to get

creatine.

>> Okay.

>> Of course, the vegans and the

vegetarians, that's a whole other

ballgame because they aren't eating meat

and so they're really essentially only

relying on what their body can make.

>> We'll definitely talk about that later.

Um on this point of the brain then if if

I I don't want to be an older person who

can't remember things and stutters over

my words and falls into cognitive

decline. And I'm I'm 32 now. So I'm I

feel like I'm at a moment in time where

I can really make decisions now that

have a really big impact on my

90-year-old brain and my ability to

think straight and clearly and remember

things. Are there things that I can be

doing now that will have a profound

impact on my cognitive performance at

90?

>> Yes. And what are those things?

>> Absolutely. Well, first of all, just to

kind of wrap up the exercise story

because I think this study is so

profound and in fact it wasn't done in

32 year olds. It was done in older

adults. So, we're talking 60 year olds

or a little bit older. And these

individuals were put on a aerobic

exercise training program for one year

that was more of like a 70 to 75% max

heart rate. It wasn't so vigorous, but

it was pretty pretty vigorous for them,

right? And um the the basis of this

study was to look at brain aging. As we

age, I mentioned our heart aging, right?

It gets stiffer and shrinks with age.

Our brain also shrinks with age. It's

called atrophy. And as we age,

especially starting in midlife, so

around the age of 50, your your brain

and certain areas of the brain like the

hippocampus, which is involved in

learning and memory, starts to shrink by

about 1 to 2% per year.

>> I don't want that to happen.

>> Same. Same. The good news is um in this

study, after a year of this sort of

aerobic exercise training program, they

were doing three times a week about 30

minutes a day. Really not even that

intense. these individuals and then

there was a control group that was kind

of the stretching they like to use the

stretching as the control group. So that

let's talk about the the control group,

the stretching group. They did lose

about 1 to 2% in terms of the size of

their hippocampus, it shrunk one to 2%

after that year, which is what you would

expect normally. However, the group that

was training, not only did they not have

their hippocampus shrink by 1 to 2%, it

actually grew by 1 to 2%. which comes

down to that neurogenesis, that growth

of new neurons, the brain drive

neurotrphic factor that's able to do

that. You're actually able to grow new

neurons even when you're in the age of

50, which is amazing. It's incredible.

So, that study I love because a couple

of reasons. one, it shows that it's

possible to not only stave off, you

know, some of the components of brain

aging, but to reverse it and increase

it, right, through exercise. And number

two, I love it because it's never too

late. Like, you can start this, you

know, in your 60s and still have a

benefit, right? you're you're talking

about being in your 30s, but you know,

some people watching this show,

listening to the show, may already be in

their 50s or 60s, right? So, it's never

too late.

>> Um, likewise, you know, we're talking

about being cognitively sharp and not

getting dementia. There's also studies

showing that people like women that were

brought into the lab, they had their

cardiorespiratory fitness measured,

those women with the highest

cardiorespiratory fitness were 80% less

likely to come down with dementia over

the follow-up period of time. So it

again, I think exercise is one of the

big ones when it comes to brain aging.

But you asked an important question. and

you say, "What can I be doing now that's

going to affect the way my brain ages,

you know, for the subsequent decades of

my life?" And there are other things

that can also be done that don't even

require as much effort as exercise.

Exercise is the gold standard because I

mean, being able to not only, you know,

stave off atrophy of the of the brain,

but to like regrow some of it is

incredible, right? I mean, that's just

mind-blowing. Have they ever taken

people with dementia, Alzheimer's, and

put them on an exercise program and

monitored the decline of their cognitive

abilities on an exercise program?

>> Yes. I mean, it's it's much harder when

you already have someone who

is in that pathological state because

things just really snowball and

accelerate. And there are some benefits.

I mean,

>> but it's not it's not prevention is

always the best. Prevention is always

the best. And so, you know, I I think

that if there's any sort of take-home

here, it's that like let's let's try to

do what we can now so that we don't get

to that point

>> before we get into the the the easier

ways of staving off cognitive decline.

Do do we know what causes dementia and

Alzheimer's yet? Do do we have any

ideas? Because we can when they do the

brain imaging, they can kind of see

these plaques on the brain, they say.

that

>> I mean there's a lot of different it's

multiffactorial which means there's a

lot of different causes of dementia and

Alzheimer's disease so I would say you

mentioned plaques amaloid beta plaques

what happens is you know that's the

aggregation of a protein in our brain

called amalloid that typically is

cleared from our brain and um what

happens is this abnormal

you know thing happens where you're not

clearing the amaloid and so it starts to

kind of form these clumps and aggregates

with the amaloid proteins that are not

being cleared. And that essentially is

happening outside of your neurons, but

it's happening where the synapses are

formed between neurons. And so what

happens is it kind of disrupts the

synaptic connection between neurons,

which is essentially forming a memory.

And so when you start to disrupt that

connection, you lose not only the the

memories start to go away, but the whole

purpose of the neuron is to kind of I

mean one of the purposes is to to form a

memory. And so you start to like neurons

start to die, right? When they start to

lose their purpose. Amaloid aggregation

is linked to a lot of things. So, for

example, I mentioned it being cleared

when we sleep, particularly when we're

in our deep sleep stage, slowwave sleep.

That is um something happens that's kind

of incredible. It's called activation of

the glimpmphatic system. So, you've

heard of the lymphatic system. Well, the

glimpmphatic system is essentially this

series of like networks and like almost

like these like highways and essentially

roads and stuff all like throughout the

brain where you're squirting this

cerebral spinal fluid throughout the

brain and it's clearing away all the

garbage things like proteins that didn't

get cleared and it's sort of squirting

them out and clearing them out through

this lymphatic system. that lymphatic

system is activated during sleep and

it's one of the reasons why people that

don't get good sleep over the course of

decades have a higher risk of

Alzheimer's disease is because they're

getting these amaloid plaques built up

in their brains but there's other causes

as well so for example glucose

metabolism is disrupted in the brains of

Alzheimer's disease you need glucose

your neurons need glucose and so you

know the essentially um your your brain

isn't able to make energy correctly

without the glucose getting into your

brain. And so that's another sort of

metabolic underlying cause of

Alzheimer's disease where you're

essentially I mean it's thought to be

where you're eating a lot of refined

carbohydrates, refined sugars and you're

not exercising and essentially you're

you're disrupting the glucose metabolism

in the brain as well as the whole body.

Right? So the brain and body are

connected but um there's also genetic

causes as well and you know some people

have genes that can increase the risk of

Alzheimer's disease because they're not

able to clear amaloid as well because

they're not able to repair damage as

well. So the the bloodb brain barrier

which is really important for filtering

out toxic things from getting into the

brain

it starts to break down and that's one

of the I would say early early signs of

Alzheimer's disease is that breakdown of

the bloodb brain barrier and that

happens in people that have a genetic

risk factor called APOE4. You may have

heard of this but this is probably one

of the biggest

genetic risk factors for Alzheimer's

disease. About 25% of the population has

one copy of this gene. That increases

the risk of Alzheimer's disease by

twofold. If you have two copies of it,

it increases the risk of Alzheimer's

disease by tenfold.

>> So twofold being 200%.

>> Twofold being twice twice as much. Yeah.

200%. And 10fold being a,000%. Right.

You're you're you're basically I mean

it's it's pretty bad. And it's not like

a

it's not your destiny to get the

Alzheimer's disease if you have those

genes. You can do things in your

lifestyle that can sort of turn the

table. So you're not you're not

necessarily going to be getting that

that Alzheimer's disease and a lot of

different lifestyle factors like getting

good sleep, like exercising, avoiding

alcohol, avoiding smoking, not being

overweight and obese. Like those affect

your Alzheimer's disease risk.

More importantly, if you have one of

those genes, then you really have to be

cognizant of those things because if you

have one of those, you know, ApoE4

genes, then then essentially your

lifestyle matters even more than people

that don't.

>> And you can do a test to figure out if

you have those genes.

>> Yes. Yes. There's a a variety of genetic

testing services that can be done.

pretty much all the ones that are out

there on on the market, you know,

ancestry DNA. I mean, depending on where

you live and what there's so many out

there right now that that will test for

that.

>> Mortified if I found out I had two of

those genes.

>> Two of them is less common. When I

mentioned the 25% of the population

having it, it's usually one alil.

Alcohol essentially can really increase

the risk of Alzheimer's disease if you

have one of those genes. And I think

that there's really no safe amount of

alcohol that can be consumed for people

that have APOE4. if you're concerned

about dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

The other thing is contact sports and

traumatic brain injury. people that have

any of the, you know, any one or two of

the APOE4 genes, if they have that, then

if they get a TBI, like if they're

playing American football or they're

playing soccer or MMA or boxing,

whatever,

>> then you talk about like going up to a

10-fold risk for Alzheimer's disease

when you get like an injury because

people with those genes don't repair

damage as well.

>> So, it affects their their brain's

ability to repair damage. And so that's

also really important to consider.

>> So moving back then to this the simple

things that we can do to improve our

cognitive performance as we age, the

things that are simpler than doing the

vigorous hit training.

>> There's actually quite a few. And first

and foremost, the one I love the most is

a simple multivitamin.

And the reason I love this is because

I don't know it was about 10 years ago

there was a a huge study that was

published and it was published in the

Annals of Internal Medicine and it was

called Enough is Enough. Multivitamins

are not only useless, they're harmful

and it was essentially looking at a

variety of studies and arguing that

multivitamins are expensive urine.

You're just not really doing anything.

And in fact, if you take a multivitamin,

you might even be increasing the risk of

disease.

That study was terrible. And I 10 years

ago went and just broke it down and, you

know, pulled it apart piece by piece.

But here we are 10 years later. Three

large clinical trials have been done.

And these are randomized control trials

where older adults were given either a

multivitamin and this was just your

standard run-of-the-mill multivitamin

Centrum silver or they were given a

placebo and they were given this for a

couple of years.

And what three different studies showed

was that a multivitamin improved

cognition, improved processing speed, it

improved what's called episodic memory.

So the kind of memory where you're

remembering experiences and you can

recall events, things like that. And not

only did it improve it, it improved it

so much that it was equivalent to

reducing the aging of the episodic

memory by 5 years. So a simple

multivitamin and why is that important?

Because you know multivitamins have a

variety of these vitamins and minerals

that we're not getting from our diet

that are important for everything. for

metabolism, for the way our

neurotransmitters are firing, for

reducing damage that's causing, you

know, oxidative stress, right? So, a

simple multivitamin, how much easier can

it be than taking a simple multivitamin?

And the fact of the matter is that we're

talking about a randomized control

trial. This is showing cause, right?

This isn't just an association. This is

showing that you took a multivitamin for

a couple of years and improved your

cognition more than a placebo. So, I

think that's pretty incredible and it's

one of the examples that I like.

But, um, diving deeper into some of the

the nutrients, this is this is an area,

you know, I started out as a scientist.

I started out as a chemist actually. But

when I first got into biology,

I was working in an aging lab and

studying aging. It was very interesting

to me because I essentially with my own

experiments with my own two hands could

could manipulate these like tiny little

worms. They're called sea elegance and

their whole genome was sequenced at the

time and this was like in the early

2000s and um they have a lot of genes

that are similar to humans. It's called

homology and one of the genes is the

insulin signaling pathway and the IGF-1

pathway. So insulin signaling would be

something that's activated with glucose.

You're eating a lot of sugar, right? And

I could take these worms and I could

genetically decrease their insulin

signaling. So it kind of, if you think

about a parallel to that, that would be,

okay, we're not going to be eating as

much sugar, right? We're not going to be

activating that pathway so much. Mhm.

>> And I could do that in this worm that

has a life expectancy of about 15 days

and I could extend its life expectancy

to 30 days, right? So you're increasing

its life expectancy by pretty much, you

know, 100%. Right? Well, not only did

they, you know, live longer, they were

healthier and youthful, and you could

see that visually, they're moving around

and they were just youthful worms. And

so I was very excited about this, you

know, in my 20s because I was like,

"Wow, this is very relevant. We have

this gene and we know lifestyle factors

that affect it, right? Sugar." So the

takehome for me was

lifestyle matters, you know? Yeah,

genetics, maybe that'll be something one

day where we're decreasing the insulin

signal. But I was looking for the now,

not the future technology. And so the

now to me was wow, like I don't want to

be constantly activating my, you know,

insulin signaling pathway. like look

what happens to these worms if you

reduce it. I mean it's amazing. They're

youthful and they live longer. And so I

started to kind of get into diet and

lifestyle sort of just out of curiosity

and sort of reading in the literature

and I came across some studies from my

mentor Dr. Bruce Ames where he was

showing that not getting enough

nutrients like for example folate.

Folate is found in dark leafy greens

like kale. You know, folate if you if

you if you decrease folate and make

someone deficient in it, it essentially

causes doublestranded breaks in your DNA

that essentially is like being under

ionizing radiation. And that experiment

was done like you could take a mouse

make it like put low folate in the in

you know the mouse's food and then take

another mouse and put it under an

ionizing radiation machine and the

amount of double stranded breaks in

their DNA which cause cancer which

accelerate aging which affect every

every you know how how your your cells

are functioning it was the same. So, it

was like, wow.

Not having a certain nutrient in your

diet was like standing under a radiating

machine, ionizing radiation. No one's

going to want to stand under an ionizing

radiation machine, but no one's thinking

about how your diet can do the same

thing. Um, and that was kind of I got

into a lot of Bruce's Bruce's research

at the time. So, Bruce,

he anyone in the in the science field

knows Dr. Bruce Ames. actually came up

with the Ames carcinogen test and that

essentially was a way of cheaply looking

at and identifying whether something's a

carcinogen and he got into sort of

nutrition as he started to figure things

like folate basically being lack of

folate being a carcinogen essentially

right like ionizing radiation is a

carcinogen

and then he started to go on to other

nutrients as well like magnesium and B

vitamins but I think for me the aha

moment was

micronutrients and these vitamins and

minerals are affecting the way we age,

are affecting our health on a similar

level as these toxic things that we're

worried about like ionizing radiation.

>> And nobody's thinking about it like

that.

>> So, I'll give you an example. Vitamin D,

you talked about dementia, what's going

to help prevent dementia. Vitamin D is,

it's actually more than a vitamin.

Vitamin D gets converted into a steroid

hormone. So, a steroid hormone

essentially what it does is it goes into

the nucleus of a cell where all your DNA

is and it it's activating genes and

deactivating them. It's affecting your

genome and it's actually over 5% of your

your your genome is being affected by

vitamin D. Why is that important?

Because

70% of the US population has

insufficient levels of vitamin D. The

reason for that is because vitamin D3 is

actually made in the skin from UVB

radiation from the sun. And so if you're

not outside, then you're not really

making a lot of vitamin D3 in your skin.

And vitamin D3 then gets converted into

this steroid hormone that regulates

everything, right? And so um you know

modern day society, you know, we're

inside all the time. We're working.

We're not outside. And even if you were

outside, there's so many other factors

that affect it. So, anything that blocks

out UVB radiation blocks out the

availability of your body to make

vitamin D3. So, sunscreen, right? That's

a big one. Melanin, the the darker

pigmentation that acts as a natural

sunscreen. And then latitude, depending

on where you live, also. So, you know, a

good number of months out of the year,

if you're in a more northern latitude

like England, like Wales, like Chicago

or Sweden, you're not UVB radiation is

not even hitting the atmosphere, you

know, for several months out of the

year. Combine that with sunscreen or

melanin, and you got like this disaster,

right? In fact, there was a study out of

the University of Chicago that looked at

African-Americans and Caucasians

and their ability white people.

>> Yeah, exactly. Their ability to make

vitamin D3 from UVB radiation

>> from the sun. Yeah.

>> And as I mentioned, you know, melanin is

a natural sunscreen. And you know,

people that are, you know, either, you

know, from African origin or South

American or Southeast Asian, right?

People that are closer to the equator

usually have more melanin. It's an it's

an adaptation to prevent you from

burning from the UV rays of the sun.

Well, um, this University of Chicago

study found that, um, you know, people

that are African-American had to stay in

the sun six to 10 times longer than

people with fair skin, the Caucasians,

to make the same amount of vitamin D3.

And so, as a consequence, if you take

someone who like yourself, well, you're

you're you got a little bit more mel

melanin mixed

>> a little bit. Yeah, you've got a little

bit more melanin. But let's say you take

someone who, you know, has a

>> like my mom, she's Nigerian.

>> Okay. Your mom from Yeah. Nigerian. And

let's say your mom moves to Chicago,

>> right?

>> Well, she's moved to bloody England.

>> Or she moved to England, right? Exactly.

Then you're talking about a recipe for

disaster in terms of vitamin D because

you're not only not making it several

months out of the year, I forgot how

many months out of the year, maybe four

or five or something like that where the

UVB radiation is not even hitting the

atmosphere, but you have this natural

sunscreen. What's the consequences of

that in terms of symptoms?

>> Well, it's it's kind it's not like an

acute thing where you kind of just look

in the mirror and you're like,

>> what is the causation then in terms of

>> Right. Right. Yeah. So, the reason I say

this is because people always think of

like, well, I'm not getting enough

vitamin C and I have scurvy and you can

look in the mirror and your gums are

falling apart. Right. It's easy to

identify this. Vitamin D deficiency or

insufficiency is more insidious. It's

kind of this damage that accumulates

over time. it's something that isn't,

you know, quite noticeable or maybe

maybe you're feeling, you know, m maybe

you're feeling like lethargic or you

don't have enough energy, things like

that, but you don't really really know

quite why. So, vitamin D insufficiency

and deficiency, there are acute effects

where like if it's severe, it can cause

ricketetts and like bone mal forations

and stuff, especially if it's happening

early in life. But um what we now know

is that being

deficient or insufficient in vitamin D

can increase dementia risk by 80%. And

that's been shown in multiple studies.

The converse is also true. So people

that supplement with vitamin D3, and

this is where a simple solution comes

in, right? So you're not making it from

your skin, but you can take a

supplement. People that supplement with

vitamin D3 have a 40% reduced risk of

dementia. So in other words, they're

avoiding deficiency, which is very

common, and avoiding that deficiency

then is reducing their dementia risk.

And there's actually even been studies

in people with dementia, in people with

Alzheimer's disease that were giving a

vitamin D supplement or a placebo

control. And those individuals given the

vitamin D supplement had improved

cognition. They had um lower markers of

amaloid plaques. So those were this will

those were also measured as well. So

vitamin D is doing a lot of things. It's

it's regulating 5% of your protein

encoding human genome.

>> If I want to increase my probability of

getting dementia, then I've got to stay

out of the sun. I've got to avoid um

vitamin D. I've got to drink alcohol,

smoke, be sedentary, and I've got to

sleep really badly.

>> Yes. And eat a lot of refined sugar.

>> Yeah.

>> Yes. Yes. Exactly. Okay.

>> Exactly. Now, you might go, "Well, how

much vitamin D?" Right? I'm talking

about deficiency and insufficiency and

you really want to get a blood test to

know what your levels are. There have

been I don't know 30 plus studies that

have looked at vitamin D levels and all

cause mortality. So that would be again

you know how you know dying from a

variety of different diseases

cardiovascular disease respiratory

disease cancer and people that have

blood levels of vitamin D between 40 60

maybe 80 nanogs per milliliter have the

lowest all-c cause mortality so these

people are not deficient not

insufficient insufficiency happens at

about 30 nanogs per milliliter below

that deficiency is 20 nanogs per mill

milliliter and below and so um there

have been a variety of studies that have

looked at for example the brain and the

aging brain and vitamin D levels and

it's been shown that for every you know

10 nanimal per liter decrease in vitamin

D blood levels there's an increase in

brain damage it's called white matter

hyperintensities it's basically damage

to the white matter in your brain and

the white matter in your brain is myelin

that's how your brain's communicating

and and like how you know it electrical

impulses are being you know moved so

that you can think and talk and all

that. Exactly.

>> Yeah. I hadn't had one today, so I feel

like you you've persuaded me.

>> Most people that are deficient can

increase their blood levels to a normal

sufficient level by about 4,000 IUs of

vitamin D per day. So, not and that's

been done that's been shown in multiple

studies. Not it's not it's not that hard

to take. In fact, vitamin D supplements

are probably the cheapest supplement out

there. It's like 10 cents per pill. When

you talked about these,

>> I was really surprised to hear that they

have cancer preventing chemicals in

them. And then um I was looking at some

of the research and it does say exactly

as you said, things like kale, broccoli,

Brussels sprouts linked to a reduction

in breast cancerous prostate, lung, and

colarctyl cancers. According to the

World Cancer Research Fund and PubMed,

most of us don't eat enough of this

stuff cuz it's not the tastiest stuff.

And you talked about sugar as well. It

it makes me think about the diet that

I'm currently on, which is the ketogenic

diet, and whether that is an optimal

diet in terms of all of the things we've

discussed earlier, dementia, longevity,

aging. What is your views on the

ketogenic diet? I think there's there's

the extreme ketogenic diet, like the

classical ketogenic diet, and then

there's modified sort of low carb

ketogenic diets that do allow for I

mean, there's yes, these are leafy

greens that are carbohydrate, but

they're high in fiber and they're low

glycemic index. And so, you can actually

eat leafy greens on a ketogenic diet and

still be in ketosis. So I the ketogenic

diet is very I'm very interested in it

because I do think that beta

hydroxybutyrate which is the ke major

circulating ketone body that's produced

when you're in ketosis is highly

beneficial much like lactate it can

actually do a lot of what lactate can

do. It gets into the brain and it's an e

easily utilizable source of energy by

neurons. These are ketones, which is

what your body makes when you

>> abstain from carbohydrates and sugars.

Yes. It eventually shifts into ketosis

where you're running on keto.

>> You're in ketosis and you're running on

ketones.

>> Yes. It's what you're measuring when

you're doing your when you're measuring

your finger prick that it's beta

hydroxybutyrate. That's the major

circulating one

>> that you're measuring. And that's

actually a signaling molecule. It's

activating brain drive neurotrphic

factor in the brain. And so it's very

interesting because it's it's almost

like having lactate in your body but

having it constantly. So I'm super

interested in a ketogenic diet

particularly for people that respond

well. I mean some people their

triglycerides go really high, their

cholesterol goes really high and there's

sort of an I would say individual

variation in terms of how you respond.

And so it's good to always measure

everything right to make sure that

you're responding well to ketogenic diet

or to maybe cycle it. I've been very

interested in cycling it for brain

benefits as well because of the beta

hydroxybutyrate where it's it's just so

beneficial for the brain. You know, it's

been shown that you know beta

hydroxybutyrate. So what happens is when

you have this ketone like beta

hydroxybutyrate get into the brain, it's

able to be used as energy instead of

glucose. I feel like we should take a

step back and explain what keto is for

for the for the listener who maybe has

never really heard or understood it

before. And I know that there's a large

proportion of people that don't know

what it what it is because I spend a lot

of time at dinner parties trying to talk

about it. And it's super surprising to

me that the average person actually

doesn't really know what what keto or

ketosis is.

>> So, I think that's great. Yeah, we can

talk about ketosis. Um, essentially if

we if we kind of take a a thousand mile

high view of it without getting so

technical,

>> yeah,

>> I would say the best way to think about

being in ketosis is your body is using

fatty acids as energy and not much

glucose. You'll still use a little bit

of glucose. You need to use glucose

because your red blood cells, for

example, don't have any mitochondria.

They need glucose, but you're mostly

using fatty acids as energy that are

being produced from they're being

released from fat stored in atapost

tissue,

>> which is like my belly,

>> which is like your belly, visceral fat,

um, subcutaneous fat.

>> So, this sounds great. My body's going

to use burn the fat instead of burn, you

know, burning glucose, which I've got

from eating bread or something. So, I'm

going to get skinny.

>> People do lose weight on a ketogenic

diet.

>> My dad has lost so much weight, it's

ridiculous. It's like shocking. on a

ketogenic diet.

>> Yeah, it's crazy. He was quite a big man

if I say so myself. Very big belly. And

he sent me this screenshot the other day

after a couple of months on the

ketogenic diet.

>> And he's like 13. He's just for the

first time ever been 13 stone since

since he was in his teens. He's now 13

stone. So he's lost what the equivalent

of about four four or five stone in

weight in a couple of months. And he

just looks completely different. Now,

I'm not, you know, I'm not necessarily

saying to stay on that diet forever, but

the the speed in which one can lose

weight on a ketogenic diet is

remarkable,

>> right? And so, you're you're basically

the food that you're eating is

predominantly

fat, right? So, you're you're basically

not only using the fat that your body

already has stored, but you're also

fueling yourself. You're feeding

yourself more fat, right? So, you're

basically using the fat as energy and

through a whole bunch of biochemical

reactions, you produce ketone bodies as

a byproduct of of that. It doesn't

necessarily have to be just ketogenic

diet. Like, you can when you're fasting,

you go into ketosis, right? Because if

you think about it, you're you're not

giving yourself food. Instead, you're

relying on what your body already has as

a source of energy. And you only have so

much glucose stored as glycogen right in

your liver. And that I would say after

there's individual variation, but after

about 12 hours of not giving your body

food, you sort of deplete all your

glycogen stores and then so you start to

shift to lipolysis, which means the

breakdown of fat. So fasting is another

way to go to get into ketosis. Another

way would be intense exercise. So, like,

you know, these endurance athletes that

are doing long duration types of

exercise also can go into ketosis,

right? Because they're depleting their

glycogen stores much quicker and they're

also using all this energy that they've

they've fueled themselves with because

it's it's so intense, right? Long

duration type of exercise. And so, and

you can combine these things as well,

right? You can do endurance exercise

with the ketogenic diet and you really

kind of can get into ketosis quicker. Is

it like a switch?

>> So there is something called metabolic

flexibility which essentially means that

your body is able to

switch between burning glucose and using

glucose as energy but also using fatty

acids as making you know as energy and

then producing ketones as well. And the

more I would say the more um if you've

done ketosis or if you exercise a lot

like frequently or you do any form of

fasting or what's called timerestricted

eating. So let's say you eat all your

food within an eight hour window and

then for 16 hours you're not eating

food. Your body is used to switching to

fatty acid metabolism to to using fatty

acids as energy. So you're really

metabolically flexible. And um not

everyone's able to do that because most

people actually they think they eat

within a 12-h hour period, but they

there's been studies that have been done

that have shown that actually they eat

more like within a 15 to 16 hour period,

not not even a 12-h hour period.

Certainly not a 10 or eight hour period.

So there's, as I mentioned, it takes

about 12 hours on average to deplete all

your glycogen levels. Now, you can

accelerate that, if you're doing a lot

of physical activity, but once you

deplete that liver glycogen, that is

when you shift into burning fatty acids

and then eventually ketosis, right?

>> In terms of longevity, have they ever

done any studies where they've put

someone on the ketogenic diet or like a

mouse or a rat on a ketogenic diet

versus the the average diet and then

monitored how long they live?

>> There have been studies by uh Dr. Eric

Verden out of the uh Buck Institute for

Aging in Novado, California. And I mean

this was several years ago. He's done

these studies probably almost 10 years

ago, maybe about 2018 or 2017 these

studies were published. But um he he did

do some of these studies with a

ketogenic diet in rodents and it did

seem to extend life expectancy but more

importantly the health span. So

particularly in the brain. So it's like

their brain had aged much much better.

they had less of the all of the

pathological features of Alzheimer's

disease. And again, I do think like I

mentioned, I I'm I'm super interested in

beta hydroxybutyrate

in particular. I mean, there's it's

multiffactorial because on the one hand,

you're not eating as much glucose,

right? And that in in and of itself is

important because glucose can be so

damaging particularly if you're not

physically active because it's not if

you if you're physically active and

you're eating some amount of glucose

that's going into your muscle.

>> It's not damaging the vascular system.

>> The vas the cardio the vascular system

is very much related to the brain,

right? So when you start to stiffen your

blood vessels and stiffen everything, I

mean that's that's affecting blood flow

to the brain. It's you know it's causing

hypertension. That all affects brain

aging as well. So, I think just, you

know, and then the the the damage that

the glucose does in and of itself, like

I mean there's studies, it's really

interesting. There's studies showing

that people even on the high end of

normal in terms of their blood glucose

levels. So, they're normal, but they're

kind of on the high end of normal. They

had more brain atrophy than people on

the low end of normal.

>> By brain atrophy, you mean their brain

was

>> shrinking.

>> Shrinking.

>> Shrinking. And it was the hippocampus,

by the way. again that

>> that part of the brain that's involved

in learning and memory. So the glucose

itself has this effect on you causing

damage and accelerating the aging

process. But then there's this other

very interesting effect of these

chemicals that are made as a byproduct

of being in ketosis and that is the beta

hydroxybutyrate that ketone body gets

into the brain. It's transported across

the brain through an MCT transporter.

And when it gets into the brain, it can

be used as energy. And you your neurons

don't need to use glucose. And it can do

that. So your your neurons can use

glucose as energy, but it takes energy

to use that glucose to make energy. When

you use the ketone, the beta

hydroxybutyrate, it takes less energy to

you to make that energy. So it's

energetically favorable to actually use

that ketone, that beta hydroxybutyrate.

On top of that, this is what's so

interesting, it frees up glucose. So,

the neurons aren't using the glucose.

Where does the glucose go? Right?

Because it's there. It's it it sort of

shunts it into this other pathway that's

called the pentos phosphate pathway. I

don't want to, you know, burden people

with all the technical details, but

let's get to the important part of that

is that it shunts glucose into this

pathway that makes essentially its

precursors that make what's called

glutathione, the major antioxidant in

the brain. And so you're making more

glutathione day after day after day.

That is huge because oxidation in the

brain, inflammation, this is a huge

cause of brain aging and Alzheimer's

disease, dementia. We now know

neuroinflammation is one of the major

causes of it. And so if you have more

glutathione in your brain, you are going

to basically sequester that damage

that's causing, you know, that's that's

aging the brain essentially. And so the

glucose now is not being used for

energy. It's being used to make an

antioxidant in the brain. Okay, that's

also

really cool. And there's more. There's

more. Okay, so then the beta

hydroxybutyrate itself is a signaling

molecule like lactate.

>> The ketone,

>> the ketone itself is a signaling

molecule where it's basically, you know,

it's a little bit of a stressed state,

right? So when you're in ketosis, it's

you're stressing the body. It's either

exercise or you're fasting or you're on

this ketogenic diet. And so your body

again is responding to that stress by

making like a bunch of awesome resilient

stress response things that are

basically gonna improve the way you age.

And so the ketone beta hydroxybutyrate

then activates brain drive neurotrphic

factor. This miracle growth for your

brain, right? It's involved in growing

new neurons. It's involved in increasing

the connection between neurons. It's

involved in neuroplasticity. All those

things. And so you get this multi-level

benefit not getting not having the glue

glucose causing the damage. You have um

basically the glucose now being used.

Not only is it not going causing damage,

it's being used to make an antioxidant.

And then you have the whole ketone, you

know, aspect where you're you're

essentially um making and activating all

these beneficial pathways in the brain

that reduces aging. And what's going on

when we take

exogenous ketones, external ketones via

a drink or something like that?

>> Yeah. So, what's happening is you're

essentially giving your body the beta

hydroxybutyrate ketone that it would

make normally if you were undergoing

ketosis and using fatty acids only as

energy. You're giving your body a big

boost of it. So, you're kind of

bypassing the the way that your body

would make it itself and giving it to

your body. And it's great for people

that

have a hard time with doing a ketogenic

diet, for example. Maybe they just can't

stick with it or maybe they don't

respond very well to it in terms of

other biomarkers. They're going to get a

lot of the benefit, but it's only going

to last, you know, one to three hours,

right?

>> Yeah. Until it flushes out, right?

>> Until until you use it up. Yeah. And so

it's in addition to just people that

want to get that focus and attention,

which is what both you and I have

experienced when we've taken these, you

know, supplements, this exogenous

ketone.

There's also some potential therapeutic

effects. So people that have mild

cognitive decline, maybe like the first

stages of dementia or Alzheimer's

disease can kind of perk up and um

perform better when they have when

they're given an exogenous ketone, this

supplemental ketone beta

hydroxybutyrate. There's not a lot of

studies on it, but there's like a few

case studies where

>> case studies being like a single person

is given it and they're followed and

looked at, you know,

>> and it's very interesting.

>> I actually know that they're doing

studies on exactly that at the moment.

Um because I've spoken to a few of these

companies and a few scientists that are

in this field over the last couple of

over the last couple of weeks in fact

and they were saying that we're

currently in the process of doing

studies to see that if exogenous ketones

which are these ketone drinks or ketone

shots can repair your cognitive faculty

faculties and is that via the process

that you describe where glucose is

pushed into this other pathway?

>> Yes. So, um, I think I'm aware of the

same study because I've I've looked it

up in the clinical trial and what's

what's being looked at after giving this

exogenous beta hydroxybutyrate, this

supplemental ketone in people with

Alzheimer's disease, you can repair

damage because again you are activating

brain drive neurotrphic factor which can

it can repair damage. It can grow new

neurons. It can help with brain atrophy.

it can strengthen connection between

neurons and then the glucose now is

being shunted into that repair pathway

that glutathione is being activated and

and that's able to you know repair

damage as well. So I I'm excited to see

the public like that that study

published.

>> I would hypothesize that there's going

to be beneficial effects and it's going

to be pretty exciting particularly

because it is hard for older adults some

older adults to do a ketogenic diet.

It's not the easiest thing to follow. I

mean, you do have to be pretty

disciplined.

So, this alternative to being able to

supplement with something that can sort

of at least for the course of a couple

of hours do what being on a ketogenic

diet can do is very exciting. Right.

>> When you took the keto shot that you had

at home, what did you experience? You

said it was potent. It was powerful.

>> Yeah. It was like a neutropic effect

where when I mean neutropic effect, it's

it's the kind of effect where you you

feel

focused, your attention, your alertness

is enhanced, you're sort of filtering

out all the background noise in your

brain that sort of those little thoughts

that pop in and distract you. And so,

uh, you're more productive. And, um,

that was very noticeable. In fact, there

was a time when I was like before any

podcast, I would take a shot of it. I

would do it and um it's kind kind of

expensive, but it is I there's a lot of

people that are that are using it now.

And I think it's I think it's a better

alternative to some other neutropics

that are common right now, like

nicotine, for example, which can really

have a negative trade-off, but can do

something similar. Whereas this is like

not only gives you that sort of

cognitive enhancement, that brain pump,

it also has like benefits for brain

aging. Right.

>> What are your superfoods? There must be

foods of yours. Um olive oil has become

one of my superfoods. Just a food that I

love to just put on as many things as I

can because everybody tells me about

these polyphenols which are apparently

amazing for you. But what are some of

the your sort of favorite superfoods

that you try and consume that most

people might not think of? So we talked

about leafy greens. I guess that's one

of them.

>> It is leafy greens. Um they have they're

high in magnesium and you know magnesium

is at the center of a chlorophyll

molecule. Chlorophyll give plants their

green color. Magnesium is very important

for preventing damage to DNA DNA and

cancer. And you know half half the US

population doesn't get enough of it.

They're high in a lot of different

compounds. I mean they're folate,

vitamin K one. So you're getting a lot

of these micronutrients that are

important. So I do like re dark leafy

greens. I particularly like kale and

broccoli because of something called

sulfurophane

which is sulurophane itself is not in

them but a precursor when you break the

plant or you chew it um it makes

sulfurophane. So there's an enzyme that

gets activated that converts a precursor

in these plants called glucaraphin into

sulurophane. Sulfurophane is also

increases glutathione in the brain. It

helps detoxify pollutants like benzene,

um, bisphenol A, BPA as well. So, I do

like dark leafy greens of the

cruciferous family of vegetables. Again,

that would be kale, broccoli. Um, those

are those are the cruciferous family.

>> I also like blueberries. Blueberries are

a source of polyphenols. You mentioned

olive oil as a polyphenol. If you're on

a ketogenic diet, olive oil is like the

great, right? Because you need fat. And

olive oil is so great because it also

has those polyphenols that are

beneficial. has been shown even in

studies to improve cognition and memory

and uh lower even marker markers of um

bad cardiovascular disease like Apo B

for example lower that. So blueberries I

like because blueberries have also been

shown even a cup of blueberries a day

has been shown to improve cognition. So

I like the polyphenols. It increases

blood flow to the brain. I also like

salmon and I think that would be

something that most people would think

is healthy. I like it because it's high

in the omega-3 fatty acids which I'm

very very it's I think it's very very

important to get enough omega-3 fatty

acids. I also supplement with them

because there's a lot of research out

there and if you want to get into that

we can but um the superfood would be the

the salmon because it is a fatty source

of fish that is high in omega-3 fatty

acids EPA and DHA which are found in

marine sources not plant sources of

omega-3.

>> I found it really interesting when I was

looking at omega-3 that it has an impact

on mental health and depression and

things like that.

>> Yeah, it does. It's it's it resolves

inflammation. It's sort of an

anti-inflammatory

and inflammation plays a role in

depression. A big role. In fact, we we

know that um people that are injected

with inflammatory molecules like

something that's made in our gut from

the bacteria in our gut called

lipopolysaccharide.

If you inject them with that it or a

placebo control, which is saline, it

causes depression. But if you give them

an omega-3 fatty acid supplement, EPA,

it blunts the depressive symptoms. So,

in other words, if you're causing the

inflammation by injecting something that

causes inflammation in people, it causes

depression. But if you give those same

people something that blunts that

inflammation, omega-3 fatty acids, it

doesn't cause the depression, which is

kind of amazing. And there's a ton of

other evidence out there. But, um,

omega-3 fatty acids are

they're so important. And what's

interesting was there's a study out of

Harvard that identified the marine

source. So, I talked about salmon, EPA,

DHA, and then there's the plant source,

ALA. And I say marine source because

it's really those are the important ones

that you really want

>> from the ocean,

>> from fish, seafood. So, this Harvard

study identified not eating enough

seafood as one of the top six

preventable causes of death up there

with not having hypertension, not

smoking. So essentially not getting

enough omega-3 from seafood was so

important for preventing early death

that it was comparable to people having

high blood pressure, having

cardiovascular disease, for example. And

again, it's one of those things where

people just don't think about what

they're not eating, what they're not

getting. And um you there's so much

research that have been done even since

that that study that was published in

like 2009 looking at omega-3 fatty acid

levels in our blood cells, red blood

cells. This is called the omega-3 index.

O it's really an important marker of our

long-term omega-3 because our our red

blood cells stay around in our system

for like 120 days. So it's a long-term

marker of your omega-3 intake. And

there's been a variety of studies um

done from Dr. Bill Harris out of the

fatty acid research institute. So I'm an

associate a scientist there showing that

people with what's called a high omega-3

index

>> which is a lot of omega-3

>> a lot of omega-3 their omega-3 index

would be 8% or higher that's considered

high compared to a low omega-3 index.

That would be 4% or lower. The average

omega-3 index in the United States is

about 5%. So, it's on the low low range.

People that had the high omega-3 index,

in other words, they were either eating

a lot of fish like salmon and or

supplementing with fish oil or

microalgae oil, which is another a

marine source of these omega-3 fatty

acids. They had a five-year increased

life expectancy compared to people with

a low omega-3 index. Pretty big

difference there. All all you have to do

is essentially either eat enough seafood

and or supplement with a fish oil

supplement. But what was so fascinating

about this study was that Bill and his

colleagues not only looked at the

omega-3 index, they looked at people

that also smoked and they said, "Okay,

we know smoking is terrible for your

heart. We know it's causes early

mortality, cancer, and all that, right?

What about people that smoke and their

omega-3 index? So, there was four groups

that were looked at. Smokers that have

either a high omega-3 index, so these

smokers were either supplementing or

they were eating a lot of seafood. And

then there were smokers with a low

omega-3 index. And they compared them to

non-smokers with a high omega-3 index

versus a low omega-3 index. And what was

so fascinating about this study was that

smoking was like as bad for you in terms

of mortality as having a low omega-3

index. So the smokers with a high

omega-3 index had the same mortality

risk as non-smokers with a low omega-3

index, which is fascinating because

everybody knows to avoid smoking.

Smoking, if you want to take years off

your life, if you want to decrease the

quality of your life, start smoking

right now.

But the same mortality risk was found in

non-smokers who did not have a high

omega-3 index. Right now, I say this,

I'll talk about this and smokers will

say, "Oh, great. Now all I have to do is

take fish oil and I'll have the same

life expectancy as a non-smoker with,

you know, a low omega-3 index." But of

course, the the take-home here is that

for those of us that are not smoking,

but we're not getting enough omega-3

from our diet, that's like smoking in

terms of mortality risk. So, super

important, and I like talking about this

because it really makes it again really

clear that not getting these essential

nutrients can be very detrimental to our

health. And it's easy to fix. You can

take a fish oil supplement. You can

increase the amount of salmon that

you're eating. And there have been

studies from Bill's group that have

shown people that supplement with

between 1 to two grams of fish oil per

day can go from a low omega-3 index to a

high omega-3 index, which is not hard to

do.

>> So, I guess two questions, which is, is

having these little omega capsules the

same as eating the salmon in terms of

the omega3 that I'm getting? And how

long do I have to take these little

omega capsules for to move from having a

low index to a high omega-3 index?

>> Well, these are great questions,

Stephen. So, essentially, this little

capsule here is not the same as eating

salmon. And there's a few reasons why.

So, for one, when you're eating a fish

that's high in omega-3, like salmon,

you have this omega-3 in what's called

triglyceride form. So the omega-3 is is

is bound to a glycerol backbone and

that's really important for the way you

absorb it. Some fish oil supplements

don't have that. They're they're aster

they're basically they're molecular

distilled and then they're put they have

an ethanol back backbone. So it's not

quite as bioavailable. But I think more

importantly is that these fish oil

supplements are

purified. So you're not getting mercury

or microplastics or things that are also

found in the whole fish.

>> So these are better.

>> Unfortunately, I think so. I do. Um, as

much as I think it's it's better, you

know, for the longest time I always I

was always a whole foods first approach.

Um, but we do have this environmental

pollution problem and fish have been

contaminated with heavy metals. They've

been contaminated with microplastics.

I would say that salmon is one of the

lowest fish that has the lowest amount

of mercury compared to other fish. So it

on a on a per gram basis, you're getting

less mercury per gram with salmon than

you would be with, you know, something

like swordfish, for example. But but you

also have microplastics unfortunately

that are now in fish. And it is

something that enters our body when we

eat the fish. And so I do think the fish

oil supplements are a good alternative

because you're getting those omega-3

fatty acids and you're not you're you're

not getting some of the other bad things

that are in the fish.

>> That's fascinating. I didn't really I

didn't really think of omega-3 as being

that important, especially as it relates

to longevity. I always thought about it

as being something that would help my

brain work better today. You know,

cognitive performance now.

>> Well, it does that and it also helps

prevent the cognitive decline later. And

also cardiovascular disease, that's a

big one. So there have been some really

large randomized control trials that

have actually given people with

cardiovascular disease that are on, you

know, some sort of standard of care

treatment like a statin and they've

given them four grams a day of a

purified form of omega-3 called EPA

versus a placebo. And the people given

the omega-3

had 25% less cardiovascular related

death or events like heart attacks and

strokes. So, it's not only like

preventing, you know, we talked about

all cause mortality and this association

where you live longer. It's also helping

people that already have cardiovascular

disease and reducing their risk of dying

from it.

>> Right guys, going to go get Steve. The

guest is here. Ready?

>> Come in.

>> Oh my god. Steve,

>> what are you doing?

>> This is uh the Bontage face mask. It's

good for blemishes, wrinkles, uh clears

up the skin. It's red light. Have you

not used it before?

>> No. I tried this before. It's um it's

really really good. It's shines red

light on your face which helps increase

and boost collagen production. Actually

found it out cuz the misses seen her

wearing it. She terrified me a couple of

nights in a row. Um I thought it was to

scare people with but actually it's

really really good for your skin. So

they are a sponsor of the podcast and uh

I've been using it every day for about a

year and a half now.

>> Wow.

>> Well, Steve is great.

>> Yes. And Bon Charge ships worldwide with

easy returns and a year-long warranty on

all of their products. So, visit

bondcharge.com/diary

for 25% off on any product sitewide. But

you have to order through that link.

That's boncharge.com/diary

with code diary.

When I asked you before this

conversation started rolling, what

you're really excited about at the

moment, your response to me was there

was a few things, but one of them which

lit up your face was creatine.

>> Yes. And it's funny because

>> it lit up your face again.

>> Yeah. It's it's funny because creatine

has been around for I mean ever for

decades and it's always been in my mind

it was like one of those Jim bro things.

I'm like I don't need to be swole.

>> Yeah.

>> I don't need creatine get get swole. And

you know this is this was the thought

for for many many years. And then over

the last five years or so