Dr. Mark Hyman: How Entrepreneurs Can Reverse Aging and Unlock Peak Health | Mental Health | E349

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0:01:39 You want to live to be 120 years old.
0:01:41 Why do you actually want to live so long?
0:01:42 I love life.
0:01:44 What is the definition of health?
0:01:46 It’s not the absence of disease.
0:01:47 It’s something else.
0:01:51 How do we unlock the keys to optimal biological performance?
0:01:55 I’ve spent 40 years studying the science of the function of the body.
0:01:57 Frailty is not a normal consequence of aging.
0:02:02 It’s a consequence, a phenomenon that happens as we get older if we don’t do something about
0:02:06 we have dysregulated sleep schedules, we have tremendous amounts of stress, we eat crappy
0:02:08 food, we don’t exercise enough.
0:02:12 There’s all these things that we’re doing to impede our ability to actually live a vibrant,
0:02:12 long, healthy life.
0:02:15 What did you do to reverse your age 20 years?
0:02:17 I have been eating.
0:02:22 Let’s say I gave you a 35-year-old, they’re stressed, exhausted, running on coffee.
0:02:27 If you had a year to transform their health and performance, what are the things that you
0:02:28 would change?
0:02:30 I would immediately have them give.
0:02:51 Yeah, fam, imagine feeling stronger, sharper, and more energized as you age, not the other
0:02:52 way around.
0:02:55 Well, today’s guest is going to help teach us how to just do that.
0:03:00 Dr. Mark Hyman is a leading functional medicine expert and the best-selling author of books like
0:03:02 Young Forever and Eat Fat, Get Thin.
0:03:06 He’s going to share some science-backed insights to help you improve your health, extend your
0:03:08 lifespan, and defy aging.
0:03:12 But first, make sure you follow and subscribe to Young and Profiting Podcast.
0:03:16 Whether you are a frequent listener or a brand new listener, make sure you’re subscribed to
0:03:17 the show.
0:03:21 That way, you’ll never miss an episode packed with expert insights like this one.
0:03:23 Mark, welcome to Young and Profiting Podcast.
0:03:25 Well, thanks for having me.
0:03:31 I’m so excited for this conversation, and there’s so much to talk about, but I just want to jump
0:03:32 in and get started.
0:03:37 So I was reading your book, I was researching you, and I found out that you want to live
0:03:39 to be 120 years old.
0:03:41 Oh, if I can do everything I’d love to do, yes.
0:03:42 If I can, no.
0:03:46 I’m still riding my bike at 119, I’ll keep going.
0:03:48 That would be amazing.
0:03:53 I also interviewed Dave Osprey a few times, and he tells me he wants to live to be 180
0:03:54 years old.
0:04:00 So there’s this trend of biohackers like you guys that want to live to be 120, 180 years
0:04:00 old.
0:04:02 I would just say I’m not a biohacker.
0:04:05 I’m a functional medicine physician, and so I use deep science.
0:04:09 Some of the tools are similar, but functional medicine is really the ultimate biohacker.
0:04:10 Yes.
0:04:14 And we’re going to talk all about functional medicine, and I’m going to try to help my
0:04:16 listeners understand what that is if they’re not familiar.
0:04:20 But you guys are on a quest to live as long as you can, right?
0:04:22 So that’s the two things that you guys have in common.
0:04:23 Maybe it’s not biohacking.
0:04:28 But when I think about that, I think about frail, old, bedridden.
0:04:34 I don’t really want to live to be 120 years old, at least by today’s standards.
0:04:40 So I want to understand, when you imagine yourself at 120 years old, what do you actually imagine
0:04:42 yourself being capable to do?
0:04:46 What does 120-year-old and thriving look like?
0:04:49 I mean, it means being able to do whatever you’d love to do.
0:04:52 If it’s sitting in a rocking chair and read a book, it’s that.
0:04:54 If it’s hiking up a mountain, it’s that.
0:04:56 If it’s making love with your partner, then it’s that.
0:04:59 So for me, it’s really being able to get up in the morning and do what you’d love to do
0:05:04 and not be encumbered by some of the conditions that are mostly preventable that we seem to
0:05:06 think of as normal parts of aging.
0:05:07 They’re not really.
0:05:09 And what’s happening on the science is quite exciting.
0:05:12 We’re seeing a lot of research, for example, there’s a Washington Post article recently
0:05:17 about the Aminok factors, which is basically a scientific discovery that won the Nobel Prize.
0:05:20 It allows you to reprogram your genes back to a younger you.
0:05:22 It’s called epigenetic reprogramming.
0:05:28 And it’s being researched by the Altos Lab, the Jeff Bezos, and also by Sam Altman’s Lab.
0:05:32 So there’s a lot of really amazing research going on in this right now in the longevity space.
0:05:34 That’s going to be an unlock.
0:05:39 For most of us, I think we can expect to get to our 90s or 100, you know, bigger is in good health
0:05:41 if we know what to do to take care of our bodies.
0:05:42 And I saw this all over the place.
0:05:47 I mean, I was in Sardinia, and I was in Icaria, and I just saw people who are, like, really old
0:05:48 and really thriving.
0:05:52 And, you know, this woman was, like, 87 years old, and she was, like, running up and down
0:05:53 the side of this mountain.
0:05:55 I couldn’t keep up with her.
0:05:59 And she was, you know, tending to her giant gardens and farm and animals and trees.
0:06:01 And it’s quite amazing to see.
0:06:05 So I think if we understand the things that impede our health, we can remove those.
0:06:08 And if we understand the things that enhance our health, we can add those.
0:06:10 And it’s really not that hard.
0:06:11 It’s just knowing what to do.
0:06:14 So I was listening to your audio book, Young Forever.
0:06:15 It was really entertaining.
0:06:20 And you were talking about how you went to Sardinia and went to the Blue Zones.
0:06:25 But talk to us about what actually sparked your interest in longevity.
0:06:32 I’ve always been interested in the science of optimization in terms of how we function, whether
0:06:36 it’s the word functional medicine or the company I co-founded, Function Health.
0:06:44 The core value is how do we unlock how to function at your best and how to unlock the keys to optimal
0:06:46 biological performance?
0:06:49 And it’s really something that we’re not only discovering.
0:06:51 No one’s really asked the question in medicine before.
0:06:53 What is the definition of health?
0:06:55 It’s not the absence of disease.
0:06:56 It’s something else.
0:06:59 And if you go to your doctor, you feel good, say, I want to feel better.
0:07:00 I want to optimize my health.
0:07:01 They don’t know what to do.
0:07:02 Like, if you have symptoms, great.
0:07:03 If you have a disease, they’ll give you a drug.
0:07:07 But do they understand the science of creating health?
0:07:08 No.
0:07:14 That’s what I’ve spent my life studying after medical school, the science of creating health.
0:07:16 And it’s something we now know how to do.
0:07:17 And that’s what’s so exciting.
0:07:19 We know the basic biological systems that go awry.
0:07:23 And in the field of longevity, the science is really getting exciting because we’re talking
0:07:25 about these concepts called the hallmarks of aging.
0:07:29 The hallmarks of aging are these fundamental biological things that go wrong or break down
0:07:33 as we get older that are underlying all disease.
0:07:34 It’s like the roots or the trunk.
0:07:39 And all the branches and the leaves are all the diseases and all the specialties.
0:07:43 So whether it’s heart disease or cancer or diabetes or Alzheimer’s or whatever it is,
0:07:45 autism, depression, they share common roots.
0:07:48 And there are only really a few things that impede health.
0:07:50 You have to identify what those are.
0:07:51 There are toxins.
0:07:51 There’s allergens.
0:07:53 There’s microbes that change your microbiome.
0:07:57 Stress could be physical or psychological stress.
0:07:59 And poor diet, which most of us eat.
0:08:01 And then there’s a few things our bodies need to thrive.
0:08:04 So you need to get rid of the bad stuff and put in the good stuff.
0:08:06 And then there’s ways of even accelerating optimization.
0:08:09 Things, for example, like how do you optimize your mitochondria?
0:08:10 How do you optimize your microbiome?
0:08:13 How do you optimize neurotransmitter function?
0:08:15 How do you optimize your immune system?
0:08:16 These are things that we now know how to do.
0:08:20 If you say to your doctor, I want to optimize my mitochondria and figure out how to optimize
0:08:21 my immune system.
0:08:23 And they’re not going to know what to do.
0:08:24 How do I optimize my microbiome?
0:08:25 Take a probiotic, you know, e-fiber.
0:08:28 They’re not going to really understand because it’s not what they do.
0:08:32 And I’ve spent the 40 years studying the science of the function of the body.
0:08:38 And that’s really what we have come to in terms of understanding how to create these shifts
0:08:43 in our biology that create abundant and vibrant health and that don’t provide a breeding ground
0:08:44 for disease.
0:08:49 So with traditional medicine, really, they’re focused on a specialty, right?
0:08:52 They don’t treat the whole body holistically.
0:08:55 So can you give us an example of, okay, I go to the doctor and I’m like, hey.
0:08:56 I’ll give you an example.
0:08:58 I’ll just tell you a patient, actual patient I had.
0:09:01 I’m not going to use her name, but she was a business coach about 50 years old.
0:09:02 She was overweight.
0:09:03 She had prediabetes.
0:09:03 She had depression.
0:09:04 She had migraines.
0:09:05 She had reflux.
0:09:06 She had irritable bowel, bloating.
0:09:11 She had terrible psoriatic arthritis, which is a horrible condition where you get psoriasis
0:09:16 all over your hands and skin and body, and you also get arthritis, which is debilitating.
0:09:18 So she was on a drug for that that cost $50,000.
0:09:23 She was seen by the best docs, one of the best healthcare centers in the world, and she was
0:09:26 getting the best GI treatment for reflux, the best treatment for irritable bowel, the best
0:09:31 treatment for depression, quote, the best traditional view, the best treatment for migraines, the best
0:09:35 treatment for her prediabetes, the best treatment for psoriatic arthritis, and she was seeing
0:09:40 a doctor for every inch of her, and no one said, what is linking all these problems together?
0:09:41 For her, it was inflammation.
0:09:45 She had tremendous amounts of inflammation that were driving all these conditions.
0:09:47 Now, we know when depression is inflammation, right?
0:09:49 We know that if your gut’s upset, it’s inflammation.
0:09:53 We know that, obviously, if you have inflamed skin and arthritis, that’s inflammation.
0:09:58 We know that diabetes is inflammation, or prediabetes, or obesity is inflammation.
0:10:01 So I said to myself, well, what are the root cause for her?
0:10:05 She was having so many gut issues that I believe those are the cause.
0:10:06 She had severe bloating.
0:10:11 She had all these history of taking antibiotics, the steroids for various things, like for her
0:10:12 autoimmune condition.
0:10:14 And I said, why don’t we just do something really simple?
0:10:16 Rather than taking all these drugs, you can continue to take them.
0:10:22 But in the meantime, let’s just try you on a whole foods, low sugar, low starch diet, which
0:10:24 removes the common inflammatory triggers.
0:10:29 And for my practice, for people who have autoimmune disease, getting rid of grains and beans,
0:10:35 dairy, gluten, which is part of the grains, sugar, processed food, alcohol, really makes a difference.
0:10:36 So I said, put her on that diet.
0:10:38 I said, let’s kind of reset your gut.
0:10:40 I gave her an antibiotic and an antifungal to reset her gut.
0:10:44 And then I gave her probiotics and things to rebuild her gut.
0:10:47 And I gave her, I think, vitamin D and some fish oil, not a lot of stuff.
0:10:50 And six weeks later, she comes back.
0:10:52 She says, Dr. Hyman, I got off all my drugs.
0:10:53 I’m like, wait, I didn’t tell you to do that.
0:10:54 She said, no, no, I just was feeling so good.
0:10:55 I just stopped everything.
0:10:57 And she had no more steroid arthritis.
0:10:59 Her skin care cleared up.
0:11:00 She had no more migraines.
0:11:01 She had no more depression.
0:11:02 She lost 20 pounds.
0:11:03 Her prediabetes was gone.
0:11:03 Her reflux was gone.
0:11:04 Her reflux was gone.
0:11:08 And so I just treated the root cause, not the symptoms.
0:11:12 Inflammation is a common trigger for most chronic diseases.
0:11:17 And for me, after seeing this for 30, 40 years of patients like this, I can see it when they
0:11:18 walk in.
0:11:19 I know what’s going on.
0:11:20 And it’s not that hard to treat.
0:11:24 But she was getting all these symptom suppression treatments that weren’t really working.
0:11:25 They were marginally working.
0:11:28 They were keeping her functioning, sort of.
0:11:30 But they didn’t really deal with the problem.
0:11:34 So functional medicine is about really understanding the body as a network, as a system, as a system
0:11:37 of systems that you have to keep optimized in order to live well.
0:11:42 And they map almost entirely perfectly across the hallmarks of aging that scientists have
0:11:42 been discovering.
0:11:46 So when your mitochondria don’t work, when your detox system doesn’t work, when your immune
0:11:52 imbalances or hormone imbalances or neurotransmitter imbalances or your gut’s off, these are things
0:11:53 that we actually know how to treat.
0:11:54 Your mitochondria aren’t working.
0:11:56 These are things we know how to treat with functional medicine.
0:12:02 And talk to us about how your company, Function, services these types of problems.
0:12:07 What we’ve done with Function is really create the first health platform that allows people
0:12:08 to fully access their own data.
0:12:10 Now, people are wearing Oura rings.
0:12:11 They’re wearing Apple watches.
0:12:12 They’re wearing glucose monitors.
0:12:13 That’s all great.
0:12:15 That’s just a few data points.
0:12:18 But what if you could unlock all of your biology?
0:12:22 What if you could know all of your biomarkers and your metabolome and your microbiome and your
0:12:28 genome, imaging, your wearables, and your medical history, and your EMR, your medical records,
0:12:33 all gets into a platform that is personalized to you and allows you to identify where the
0:12:38 imbalances are, where the dysfunctions are, and gives you deep insights and content based
0:12:41 on machine learning AI to help you actually optimize your health for you.
0:12:43 Because no two people are alike.
0:12:45 And everybody’s different.
0:12:48 And if we try to treat to the mean, we often miss the mark.
0:12:49 And this is what medicine does.
0:12:50 It treats to the mean.
0:12:52 There’s no average person, right?
0:12:53 And everybody’s different.
0:12:59 And the studies work by something called randomized control, no-blind trials, which means you
0:13:02 basically have two populations that are as identical to each other as possible.
0:13:06 So you want to be a 70-kilogram white male from Kansas, and you get 100 of those people,
0:13:09 and you put 51 in a group, and a 50 in another group, and you give them a drug, and you see
0:13:10 what happens at the other side.
0:13:12 That’s how medicine operates.
0:13:17 That 70-kilogram white male is not like 90% of us out there.
0:13:18 Not you.
0:13:18 It’s not me.
0:13:23 And so how do we move towards where medicine is going, which is personalization.
0:13:26 What we call precision medicine, personalized medicine, whatever you want to call it, it’s
0:13:27 where we’re going.
0:13:32 And so Function Health is the first platform that is able to actually do this for you in
0:13:34 an amazing way that helps people revolutionize their health.
0:13:36 And we just started.
0:13:37 Honestly, this is a startup.
0:13:39 And we didn’t realize how much success we were going to have.
0:13:42 And so we have almost 150,000 members.
0:13:45 We have millions, tens of millions of data points on people.
0:13:47 We’re seeing all kinds of trends in the data.
0:13:51 We see that people actually, when they get their first test, and now we’ve been going two
0:13:56 years, we can see that when they follow up and do the follow-up testing, that their biomarkers
0:13:56 get better.
0:13:57 Their blood sugar gets better.
0:13:58 Their cholesterol gets better.
0:13:59 Their inflammation gets better.
0:14:00 Their vitamin D gets better.
0:14:01 Whatever is off.
0:14:05 And we give them a deep dive into what’s going on with their biology, not just from
0:14:10 a traditional perspective, a traditional sort of Western medical perspective, but also this
0:14:14 emerging field of systems, network, and medicine, which is what functional medicine has been
0:14:15 doing.
0:14:18 But now the rest of the science is catching up, which is very, very exciting to me.
0:14:22 Let’s hold that thought and take a quick break with our sponsors.
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0:18:56 So my first question to you, I mentioned biohacking, and you got like a little offended when I tried to compare what you were doing with biohacking.
0:19:05 But when I hear you talking about it, and you’re talking about personalization and figuring out your biological age, to me, that’s, you know, I’ve been doing this podcast for six years and had a lot of people on the show.
0:19:08 And it sounds a lot like biohacking.
0:19:09 So what’s the difference?
0:19:20 Well, I think biohacking tends to be around things like hot and cold plunges, hyperbaric chambers, red light therapy, all these devices and tools and things to optimize your health, which are fine.
0:19:23 They work and they’re mediated by biological processes.
0:19:24 And I use those.
0:19:34 However, if someone comes in like that woman that I just described to you, no biohacker in the world is going to fix her because they don’t understand the science around functional medicine.
0:19:36 Now, if they’re a trained practitioner, fine.
0:19:37 They’ll figure it out.
0:19:38 Or hopefully they’ll figure it out.
0:19:45 But when you just use these modalities without trying to understand what the underlying root cause is, it’s another symptomatic treatment.
0:19:46 You might feel better for a little bit.
0:19:47 You go on a sauna.
0:19:48 You go on a cold punch.
0:19:48 You feel good.
0:19:49 But then what?
0:19:51 You know, you still have your arthritis.
0:19:52 You still have autoimmune disease.
0:19:53 You still have your migraines.
0:19:54 You still have whatever you got.
0:19:57 And no one’s telling you how to figure out the root of that.
0:19:58 So I’m not opposed to it.
0:19:59 And Dave’s a good friend.
0:20:00 And I love Dave Asprey.
0:20:03 And we hang out and talk all the time.
0:20:04 And I learned from him.
0:20:06 And there’s all kinds of great tools that I personally use and have.
0:20:11 I’m just saying that functional medicine is sort of the OG biohacking in a sense.
0:20:17 Because it’s really about understanding much deeper level what’s going on biologically, biochemically, genetically, you know, with your microbiome.
0:20:21 And ways that I think most people just, it’s a lot to take in.
0:20:25 And the problem is, you know, there’s 37 billion, billion chemical reactions to your body every second.
0:20:27 Nobody can understand all that.
0:20:30 And you have tens of thousands of metabolites in your blood and chemicals.
0:20:32 We do 19 on a regular panel.
0:20:37 With functional health, we do $499, which is $15,000 for the test for less than $500.
0:20:40 And you get over 110 biomarkers.
0:20:46 And you can add on other things as well to go deeper dives into whether you’re exposed to chemicals, whether you’re at Alzheimer’s risk, whether you have immune issues.
0:20:48 I mean, so whether you have Lyme disease.
0:20:53 We provide you a really deep, robust platform where you get to be driving the bus.
0:20:53 You don’t have to go to a doctor.
0:20:54 You don’t have to ask for permission.
0:20:56 You don’t have to beg for the requisition.
0:20:58 You don’t have to go to trying to find a lab that will order.
0:21:00 You have to get your insurance to pay for it.
0:21:01 I mean, I have insurance.
0:21:04 I go to the lab, and my doctor ordered some stuff that I wanted to do.
0:21:05 And it was outside of Function.
0:21:09 And she’s like, well, it’ll pay for this test, but not this test, and this test, but not this test.
0:21:10 You want to be charged for that?
0:21:10 You’ll be charged.
0:21:14 I’m like, oh, you know, it’s like that’s what Function solves all of that.
0:21:18 And you have this beautiful integrated dashboard where you have your data forever, and you track it over time.
0:21:24 You get an app, which helps give you direct feedback, and it’s a very integrated experience into your life.
0:21:32 I feel like it’s really needed because, to your point, the rest of the medical world is kind of stuck in this traditional process that really isn’t working.
0:21:38 And the other thing that’s not working is actually treating aging’s symptoms and not the root cause.
0:21:43 And one of the other big principles that you talk about is treating aging like an actual disease.
0:21:44 So why is that important?
0:21:55 Well, I think, you know, we’ve come to sort of accept that as you get older, you have cancer, you get heart disease, you get diabetes, you lose muscle, your brain function declines, you lose your ability to do things.
0:21:58 These are not normal consequences of aging.
0:22:00 Frailty is not a normal consequence of aging.
0:22:05 It’s a consequence, a phenomenon that happens as we get older if we don’t do something about it.
0:22:13 And all of us have seen those, you know, 90-year-old ladies doing, like, gymnastics and, like, the 100-year-old people running the 100-yard dash.
0:22:15 You know, it’s kind of crazy stuff like that, right?
0:22:17 And what is it about those people?
0:22:24 Well, they have understood by accident or by studying that there are certain behaviors that foster optimal health.
0:22:27 It’s eating whole foods, unprocessed diet.
0:22:37 It’s low sugar and low starch and full of phytochemicals and fiber and inadequate amounts of protein, especially more animal protein as you get older because it’s harder to assimilate and build.
0:22:41 You need to make sure you exercise and do strength training and you need flexibility.
0:22:44 You need cardiovascular training and stability training.
0:22:46 They understand you need good sleep.
0:22:49 They understand they have managed their stress and their own emotional regulation.
0:22:56 And they also have deep social connections and relationships that foster a sense of belonging, which all are ingredients for optimal health.
0:22:59 And when you look at people, like, in the blue zones, that’s basically what they have.
0:23:01 It’s not that they were vegans or not vegans.
0:23:13 It was that they had these other factors and that they were profoundly impacted just by default by these situations that they found themselves born into, which we totally in the West don’t have.
0:23:14 We’re the opposite.
0:23:16 We have dysregulated sleep schedules.
0:23:17 We have tremendous amounts of stress.
0:23:18 We eat crappy food.
0:23:20 You know, we don’t exercise enough.
0:23:22 My R-ring told me I didn’t exercise enough yesterday.
0:23:23 I was a fancy busy day.
0:23:29 So, you know, there’s all these things that we’re doing to impede our ability to actually live a vibrant, long, healthy life.
0:23:36 Well, you seem to be doing a good job because your biological age is 43, but you’re in your 60s.
0:23:36 Is that right?
0:23:37 Yeah.
0:23:41 Well, I got my biological age done when I was 62 and I was 43.
0:23:46 Then I implemented more of the things that I learned and some other strategies.
0:23:51 I got two years older, I was 64, and I redid my biological age.
0:23:51 It was 39.
0:23:56 Even though I got two years older chronologically, I got four years younger biologically.
0:24:01 So that’s the power we have in epigenetic reprogramming.
0:24:04 Now, I mentioned earlier the Yamanaka factors and so forth.
0:24:08 These are sort of part of the sky things that have to be tested in humans and make sure they’re safe and effective.
0:24:16 But right now, even with what we know, by optimizing and tweaking, you can actually still reverse your epigenetic biological age.
0:24:20 At any point in your life, it can go backwards or forwards.
0:24:26 If you kind of go on a bender or whatever, you don’t sleep and you party and you eat crappy food, you’ll get older biologically.
0:24:28 And then you can change that and reprogram and go back.
0:24:31 So give us concrete things.
0:24:34 What did you do to reverse your age 20 years?
0:24:36 Well, I’ve been doing this my whole life.
0:24:38 So it wasn’t like I was 64 biologically.
0:24:41 And then I, in five years, I reversed it to 40.
0:24:44 So I have been eating whole foods my whole life.
0:24:46 I’ve been not eating processed foods.
0:24:47 I don’t remember the last time I had a Zoda.
0:24:49 I mean, I probably was a kid.
0:24:53 I exercised my entire life for the last 50 years.
0:24:59 I have made sure I prioritize community, connection, sleep, and manage stress.
0:25:00 And all those things play a role.
0:25:05 And then I’ve done things to optimize my microbiome, my mitochondria, my immune system.
0:25:07 And those will all really help.
0:25:10 So all those things kind of nudge you back into a healthier state.
0:25:13 And there’s some supplements and things that I’ve taken that I think have made a difference.
0:25:15 I’ve taken neural FNA.
0:25:19 I take amino acids that should help be assimilated.
0:25:25 I also take something that’s called NMN, which is a precursor of NAD that helps also revitalize
0:25:25 your cells.
0:25:28 I do a number of different things that I think are important from a supplement perspective.
0:25:31 But I think most of it’s like the 10%.
0:25:34 The rest of it is the 80 to 90%.
0:25:40 And that’s what, if we were to use Function, the platform, it would help us figure out, okay,
0:25:41 what’s our biological age?
0:25:44 And these are the things you need to do related to functional medicine and to help.
0:25:45 That’s what it does.
0:25:45 Yeah.
0:25:46 Yeah.
0:25:51 We do a calculation based on your biomarkers of what your biological age is based on scientific
0:25:55 data that shows certain blood biomarkers correlate with your epigenetic biological age.
0:25:57 And you can see it go backwards or forwards.
0:25:59 Now, if you do different tests, you’re going to get different numbers, right?
0:26:02 Some tests will be like five years younger or 10 years younger.
0:26:05 You may not be able to compare apples to apples by switching tests.
0:26:08 But if you stay with the same tests consistently, you’ll see the changes.
0:26:12 So I want to get really nerdy because I’m sure people have been listening and they’re like,
0:26:15 I have no idea what epigenetics is.
0:26:20 And so there’s two terms I want you to break down, epigenomes and exposome.
0:26:22 So one is about how our genes are expressed.
0:26:24 One is our environmental exposure.
0:26:25 So break those now.
0:26:26 Yeah.
0:26:29 So basically the concept that I think is really important called the exposome.
0:26:32 We all have been taught that our genes control who we are.
0:26:36 They’re our destiny, whatever we got, we got, we can’t change it.
0:26:40 You know, our parents got diabetes, our parents got cancer, our parents got whatever, heart
0:26:41 disease.
0:26:42 It’s just in our future.
0:26:44 Your genes are not your destiny.
0:26:49 They may provide you with a roadmap of what your predispositions are, but not your destiny.
0:26:51 So what controls your destiny?
0:26:53 It’s something called the exposome.
0:26:58 That is a sum total of everything that you’re exposed to throughout your life that washes over
0:27:03 your biology, including your genes and reprograms them based on what you’re doing.
0:27:06 If you’re eating, like me, if you had a whole foods diet, if you exercise, you do all these
0:27:09 things for 50 years, you’re going to be biologically younger.
0:27:12 Your epigenetics are going to track as if you’re younger.
0:27:14 And I’ll talk about what epigenetics are.
0:27:16 So the exposome is what you eat.
0:27:22 It’s your exercise, your nutrient levels, it’s stress management, it’s community, it’s sleep.
0:27:25 It’s all the things we’ve just talked about, light, air, water, all those things.
0:27:27 I went on bright sunlight this morning for 20 minutes.
0:27:29 All those things matter.
0:27:31 That influences how your biology is regulated.
0:27:35 We’re biological organisms and we’re controlled in the same way by our external factors.
0:27:40 So the exposome is literally everything from toxins to your gut microbiome, to your diet,
0:27:43 to sleep, everything that your body is exposed to.
0:27:45 That’s why we call it the exposome.
0:27:50 Your epigenome is how the exposome regulates your biology.
0:27:52 Now, what is the epigenome?
0:27:53 Epi means above.
0:27:55 So you’ve got your genes, you’ve got about 20,000 genes.
0:28:00 Your epigenome, you think about like the keyboards on a piano, right?
0:28:01 You’ve got 88 keys.
0:28:02 They ain’t changing.
0:28:04 You know, I’ve got 20,000 genes.
0:28:04 They ain’t changing.
0:28:07 Unless I do gene editing or splicing or some other weird thing that’s coming around the
0:28:09 corner, they’re not changing.
0:28:15 What can change is how those genes are expressed, how they’re turned on or off, whether they’re
0:28:19 up-regulated or down-regulated, whether they’re driving inflammation or stop inflammation, whether
0:28:20 they’re accelerating aging or slow aging.
0:28:25 And they are basically the control mechanisms to turn on or off genes.
0:28:29 So I think of them like switches or knobs, and you can dial them up or down based on what
0:28:30 you’re doing.
0:28:36 And that’s how almost all of the impacts of a lot of the lung practices we talked about
0:28:37 have their effect.
0:28:40 That’s how the exposome regulates your health and longevity, your biology, and your risk
0:28:46 of disease is through your epigenome, then translates into the expression of genes and proteins and
0:28:47 biological functions.
0:28:50 And you want to have a healthy epigenome.
0:28:55 There was a great example, for example, a brand new journal who discovered this phenomenon was
0:28:58 these mice that are bred to be obese.
0:29:02 So they’re yellow, they’re fat, basically yellow fat mice.
0:29:08 He gave a series of the females who are pregnant, certain nutrients called methylating nutrients
0:29:09 that regulate the epigenome.
0:29:13 It’s a little complicated, but there’s something called methylation, which is a chemical process
0:29:15 that regulates your genes.
0:29:17 It involves B6, folate, and B12.
0:29:19 Vitamins and minerals are extremely important.
0:29:20 They run everything in your body.
0:29:23 Every biochemical reaction needs a vitamin or mineral.
0:29:27 And if you don’t have them or they’re insufficient, you’re going to have gummed up biochemistry.
0:29:30 And gummed up biochemistry translates into disease.
0:29:36 So he basically gave these pregnant mice some B vitamins and a few other amino acids and things
0:29:38 to help to support this process.
0:29:41 The offspring were perfect.
0:29:45 They were thin, they were healthy, they were gray, they were not yellow fat mice.
0:29:50 Even though genetically, they were bred to be yellow fat mice.
0:29:52 And this was a massive discovery.
0:29:56 And I think this is what really has led to our understanding of this whole process of how
0:29:59 we can modify our epigenome and the outcomes.
0:30:03 So when your mother’s eating when she’s pregnant with you, you know, the stresses you experience
0:30:08 in utero that your mother might have experienced or all your early childhood experiences, all those
0:30:10 imprint on your epigenome and can affect you.
0:30:11 toxins you’re exposed to.
0:30:16 So this is why we have to sort of pay attention to how we live, because if we want to feel
0:30:21 good and do good and engage in life and do the work we want to do and be successful in
0:30:26 our work and have great relationships and enjoy life and be happy, if you feel like crap, it’s
0:30:28 not that much fun, right?
0:30:29 So true.
0:30:36 And so from what I read, 90% of disease and aging risk has to do with our environment, our
0:30:37 exposome, right?
0:30:41 And so the earlier that we start, the better is what you were just saying, right?
0:30:45 We can even start from in the womb if our mothers are smart enough.
0:30:46 Yeah.
0:30:48 You know, I’ve seen women wanting to be pregnant.
0:30:49 I measure their toxin load.
0:30:52 I’m like, whoa, we got to do something about this.
0:30:53 We got to reduce your exposures, the toxins.
0:30:56 We’ve got to get these heavy metals down because you want to have a healthy baby.
0:31:00 And so we really proactively do preconception work.
0:31:04 I mean, I had a whole podcast about that on The Doctor’s Pharmacy, and now it’s called The
0:31:04 Dr. Hyman Show.
0:31:09 We dove deep into what you need to know preparing for a baby, what happens when you’re pregnant,
0:31:12 how do you take care of yourself, what are the things that are matter scientifically to
0:31:14 optimize the chance of having a healthy baby.
0:31:19 On the flip side, is there any time that’s too late to get started on this?
0:31:20 Oh, God, no.
0:31:24 What’s really amazing, in one of the animal studies, they’ve given rapamycin, which is
0:31:29 something that is a drug discovered in Rapa Nui that inhibits this pathway called one of the
0:31:33 longevity switches, I call it the longevity switches, that they control so much.
0:31:35 So mTOR is one of these.
0:31:41 And mTOR essentially is a pathway that is going to help you build muscle, but also when it’s
0:31:46 activated and when it’s inactivated or inhibited in some way, it’s going to allow the cells
0:31:50 to replenish and repair through this process called autophagy, which basically means you’re
0:31:53 eating your old cells and you’re reusing the parts.
0:31:53 It’s recycling.
0:31:56 So it’s cleaning up the mess that we make all the time in our bodies.
0:31:58 Where does that garbage go, right?
0:31:59 Somebody has to fix it.
0:32:05 So rapamycin inhibits that and accelerates the autophagy process and then given in the right
0:32:09 ways, it extends life and extends health in animal models consistently and reliably.
0:32:14 And so there are interesting ways that we can sort of activate these longevity switches
0:32:14 and pathways.
0:32:18 And I talk about that a lot in my book, Young Forever, and how do we understand how these
0:32:19 work, what we can do?
0:32:20 And it’s not complicated.
0:32:25 There’s a few simple practices, sometimes a few supplements that can really help modulate
0:32:27 some of these pathways to activate the longevity switches.
0:32:28 Okay.
0:32:32 So one more really nerdy question, and that’s about mitochondria.
0:32:36 So you say the difference between a three-year-old and a nine-year-old is a number and the state
0:32:37 of their mitochondria.
0:32:41 So help us understand what mitochondrial dysfunction has to do with aging.
0:32:44 So this is one of the hallmarks of aging is mitochondrial dysfunction.
0:32:45 It’s key to so many diseases.
0:32:50 Your mitochondria, I think of them as like the powerhouse of your cell, the energy factories,
0:32:53 they take food and oxygen, turn it into energy that your body uses.
0:32:58 And we use gasoline or carb and it combusts and creates energy.
0:32:59 We run on something called ATP.
0:33:02 It’s just a molecule produced from food and oxygen.
0:33:06 And the waste products are carbon dioxide, which we breathe out, and water, which we pee out,
0:33:07 and some free radicals, which we have.
0:33:09 Antioxidant mechanisms to control.
0:33:12 And what happens is they’re your energy, right?
0:33:15 So if you have poor functioning mitochondria, you’re going to have low energy.
0:33:16 You’re going to be weaker.
0:33:17 You’re going to have lower muscle mass.
0:33:22 So the key to longevity is keeping your mitochondria healthy and keeping them strong and actually
0:33:24 having better, more mitochondria.
0:33:28 And so the way to do that is by exercise.
0:33:30 So resistance training builds muscle and mitochondria.
0:33:33 Sprint training or kit training does that as well.
0:33:35 Exercise with oxygen therapy.
0:33:36 Hypoxia training does that.
0:33:38 A lot of ways to do it.
0:33:42 There’s supplements like urolithin A, which causes mitophagy and mitochondrial renewal.
0:33:45 There are mitochondrial support supplements sometimes that you need.
0:33:50 So there are a lot of ways to optimize your mitochondria, but they’re injured by too much food,
0:33:52 too much sugar and starch, too many environmental toxins.
0:33:56 All those things from the microbiome that are bad, all those things can damage your mitochondria.
0:34:00 So learning about your mitochondria, how to take care of them is really important.
0:34:04 And again, it’s one of the things we can look at as we start to test things and see what’s
0:34:04 going on in our bodies.
0:34:08 We’ll be right back after a quick break from our sponsors.
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0:36:51 With Mercury, you can accept payments, send invoices, and pay vendors, plus enjoy free domestic
0:36:53 and international USD wire transfers.
0:36:59 You also get instant access to virtual credit cards that you can track and lock to specific
0:37:03 merchants, earning you 1.5% cash back on every purchase.
0:37:08 Mercury streamlines your banking and finances in one place so you can focus on growing your
0:37:09 online business.
0:37:12 Mercury is a technology company, not a bank.
0:37:13 Check show notes for details.
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0:37:56 Hey, Yap Gang, this podcast started as a side hustle, a late night labor of love fueled by
0:38:00 a dream to share stories, lessons, and real experiences with other entrepreneurs.
0:38:03 Back then, it was just me, a mic, and a mission.
0:38:07 Taking your business to the next level is a dream that a lot of us share, but too often,
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0:39:38 I want to talk about your drive of wanting to live so long because one of the factors that
0:39:44 you mentioned is having a purpose and feeling like you’ve got a way to contribute to the world.
0:39:47 So why do you actually want to live so long?
0:39:49 Well, I love life.
0:39:54 And as long as I can enjoy life and be with my friends and do the things I love and ride my bike
0:39:59 and hike and enjoy what I’m doing and have meaning and purpose and contribute to the world and add value.
0:40:01 You know, I’m 65.
0:40:03 I kind of figured a few things out by now.
0:40:07 And, you know, wisdom always doesn’t come with age, but I’ve had a bunch of hard knocks,
0:40:09 and that’s really taught me a lot.
0:40:14 So I kind of feel happy and content and satisfied, and, like, I want to keep going.
0:40:18 I mean, I don’t really care if I get to 120 or 100 or 99 or 95 or 90.
0:40:20 I just want to feel good and do good.
0:40:29 I’m really excited for this generation of 60-year-olds because I just feel like in the past, in your 60s,
0:40:30 it’s all about retirement.
0:40:34 And I feel like a lot of people right now are actually, like, taking on second careers
0:40:38 and realizing that they really have a lot more time to live,
0:40:40 and people are taking advantage of that.
0:40:43 So, like, what are your thoughts in terms of people around your age who, like,
0:40:45 want to take on a new career?
0:40:45 Yeah.
0:40:47 Tell me about that.
0:40:54 I’m 65, and two years ago, I co-founded a company that’s a big startup company right now.
0:40:57 So who does startups in their 60s?
0:40:59 Most people are, like, looking at golf courses and not startups.
0:41:02 I mean, I want to contribute to the world.
0:41:02 I want to do things.
0:41:03 I get excited.
0:41:03 We’re building.
0:41:04 We’re creating.
0:41:05 We’re dreaming.
0:41:08 We’re imagining a different future for healthcare and medicine.
0:41:12 where adding value to people’s lives is something to get up for every morning and to be excited
0:41:17 about and take all the things that I know that are almost impossible for any single doctor
0:41:22 to synthesize and to sort through and make sense of and provide each individual with a
0:41:26 personalized approach to their health that’s going to actually optimize how they feel.
0:41:28 And that’s really the key here is to end needless suffering.
0:41:30 And for me, that’s my purpose.
0:41:31 And that’s my mission.
0:41:44 And it’s hard for me to imagine, especially in the West, because I feel like things are
0:41:45 more unhealthy than ever.
0:41:48 The food in the grocery store is terrible.
0:41:50 Everything comes in a cardboard box.
0:41:53 Our water supply is really scary.
0:41:55 And it feels like there’s no good water.
0:42:00 It’s either like you’re getting plastic or you’re drinking from a dirty faucet, right?
0:42:06 And so for me, it just feels almost impossible to navigate food, which you say is medicine.
0:42:13 So talk to us about how we should try to navigate our diets and what changes need to happen in
0:42:17 America for us to actually live healthier lives and longer lives.
0:42:19 This has been something I’ve been working on for a long time.
0:42:23 And I wrote a book called Food Fix, which lays out from field to fork what’s wrong with our
0:42:24 food system.
0:42:29 And if there’s one thing that’s killing us, aside from environmental toxins and stress in
0:42:32 our sleep schedule, it’s probably 80% food.
0:42:35 And it’s something that we can control and do something about.
0:42:40 And unless we actually take it seriously and fix our food system, we’re a bit of a mess.
0:42:43 And so right now, there’s a resurgence of interest in health around the country.
0:42:45 There’s the Make America Healthy Again movement.
0:42:48 And so there’s that energy happening.
0:42:52 And in Washington, working on policies that bring those dangers to the average American.
0:42:56 For example, in West Virginia, they got rid of red dyes and other dyes.
0:42:57 In California, they did the same thing.
0:43:01 These are great steps to start to push the food system to produce healthier food for all
0:43:02 of us.
0:43:06 And something that’s really hot right now is GLPs, right?
0:43:08 I have mixed feelings about them.
0:43:09 I’m not a doctor, right?
0:43:11 But I think it’s good if you have a real problem.
0:43:18 But I see normal people who might just need to lose 10, 20 pounds take GLPs.
0:43:19 So what are your thoughts around that?
0:43:25 For most people, and I literally just got a text from somebody this morning saying, my cousin
0:43:25 read your book.
0:43:26 They lost 100 pounds.
0:43:32 My person who’s working with me in Washington around food policy, she lost 112 pounds in the
0:43:33 last few years working with me.
0:43:34 And they’re without taking these trucks.
0:43:35 Now, some people are really stuck.
0:43:40 And if you’re stuck and you need help and you have not really addressed the underlying
0:43:42 reasons why you eat that, sometimes it’s not what you’re eating.
0:43:43 It’s what’s eating you.
0:43:44 You got to figure that out.
0:43:46 I think it’s really important to do that.
0:43:51 And I think when people do that, they don’t necessarily have to take these drugs, which are
0:43:52 helpful.
0:43:57 They can be extremely helpful, but they also come with side effects.
0:43:59 Muscle loss, weight regain if you stop.
0:44:03 They can have other issues, you know, like pancreatic issues and pancreatitis.
0:44:06 They can cause bowel obstruction if taken for a long time.
0:44:09 So they can be a good tool, but they’re just a tool.
0:44:10 They’re not a panacea.
0:44:12 And I think they’ve helped a lot of people.
0:44:13 I’m not against them.
0:44:16 I think they’re used in ways that sometimes don’t make sense to me.
0:44:18 Why give a six-year-old an ozempic shot for the rest of his life?
0:44:20 It’s not his fault.
0:44:20 He’s overweight.
0:44:21 It’s the environment he’s in.
0:44:25 And I think that can actually get really fixed.
0:44:30 So I think it’s important for people to understand that they have power.
0:44:35 The food industry has basically hijacked our brain chemistry, our metabolism, our desires
0:44:36 for different foods.
0:44:39 And these are things that can actually be changed.
0:44:45 You can literally change your brain chemistry and have an incredibly powerful shift in your
0:44:46 cravings and your desire for foods.
0:44:53 You know, for example, people going keto, they don’t really need ozempic because naturally the
0:44:55 way they’re eating will shut off that craving.
0:44:57 And the food addiction is a real thing.
0:45:02 About 14% of adults and kids are addicted to food, biologically addicted.
0:45:09 This is really based on good evidence from the Yale Food Addiction Scale and deep science
0:45:10 around the world.
0:45:10 We looked at this.
0:45:17 This is just horribly sad and horribly unfortunate because we really don’t need to do that.
0:45:19 We can fix our food supply.
0:45:20 We can fix this problem.
0:45:22 And it has to be done at a grassroots level.
0:45:23 It has to be done at a state level.
0:45:24 It has to be done at a federal level.
0:45:28 It’s going to take time, but we’re working with the FDA, working with the USDA, with
0:45:33 HHS, the administration as best we can to try to push changes through my nonprofit.
0:45:38 I’ve also heard that there’s food companies already trying to figure out how to circumvent
0:45:41 GLPs so that people still crave their food, right?
0:45:44 So this is going to figure out how to get around it.
0:45:46 That’s even crazy when you think of it.
0:45:49 Like, wow, they’re really just going to go there?
0:45:53 They’re literally going to just kind of circumvent ozempic by making food even more addictive?
0:45:56 Yeah, that’s the state of the world that we’re in.
0:45:57 So we’ve got to take control.
0:45:59 So let’s talk about our ancestors.
0:46:04 Because when I was listening to your book, I was surprised because we’re always thinking
0:46:06 about how we live so long now.
0:46:10 And when you think about the past, you might think people died at 30, 40.
0:46:15 But there’s actually cases in history where people have lived to be a very old age.
0:46:19 So talk to us about how our ancestors ate and maybe some examples of people who lived really
0:46:21 long back in the day.
0:46:25 Well, I think, you know, when you look, for example, at the Native Americans, one of the
0:46:30 longest populations in the world at the turn of the 1900s was the Plains Indians.
0:46:33 They had most of their diet from bison.
0:46:38 And then they had berries and they had probably wild stuff they gathered.
0:46:40 But predominantly their diet was meat.
0:46:45 And they lived to be well over 100 and highly functional and active.
0:46:49 And these populations around the world where you see people like I was in Turkey and they
0:46:51 know, this is not a technical blue zone.
0:46:54 But man, they were a lot of really old people who are doing great.
0:46:59 We’re in their 80s, 90s, still working, still thriving, still make part of the community.
0:47:01 And I think it’s when you stop, you stop.
0:47:04 Like, I think retirement is the worst idea ever invented.
0:47:06 I don’t really get it.
0:47:07 But people don’t retire.
0:47:08 They just shift and change what they’re doing.
0:47:13 And I think these communities, and when you see these people living to be very old, it’s
0:47:15 because they found meaning, purpose.
0:47:19 They’ve learned how to not sort of internalize the stresses of life.
0:47:22 They’ve learned how to modulate their own diet and lifestyle to optimize their health.
0:47:24 And they just figured it out.
0:47:29 Let’s stick on community a bit because you say it’s also a factor in longevity.
0:47:32 You say you’re only as healthy as your five closest friends.
0:47:33 Tell us about that.
0:47:35 Well, think about it.
0:47:41 If all your friends are going to McDonald’s and drinking beer and two leaves a soda day and
0:47:44 watching TV all the time, that’s what you’re going to be probably like.
0:47:50 And if you have friends who are healthy and go to yoga and drink green juices and exercise
0:47:55 and eat whole foods and get together and share these things, you’re more likely going to be
0:47:56 healthy.
0:47:57 It’s just so clear.
0:48:01 Dr. Stokas from Harvard did a lot of work on this, wrote a book called Connected, but
0:48:04 he published research in the New England Journal of Medicine showing that, for example, from
0:48:08 the Framingham data, which is a large study of probably one of the largest studies, longest
0:48:12 going studies in the world, in Framingham, Massachusetts, tracking their population, he found that those
0:48:16 people who actually, when they looked at the patterns around obesity, that you were about
0:48:20 40% likely to be overweight if your parents or siblings are overweight.
0:48:25 But you were 171% more likely to be overweight if your friends are overweight.
0:48:30 So your social connections matter and your relationships matter.
0:48:34 If you’re somebody who just stands up all night playing video games and you’re living in America
0:48:39 and your friends are playing video games in Australia, I mean, your sleep-wake cycle, your
0:48:40 circuitry rhythm, everything’s going to be off.
0:48:45 So the people in the communities that you have to surround yourself with, make sure they’re
0:48:49 people who are leaning in towards wellness and health as opposed to not that.
0:48:51 That’s so interesting.
0:48:55 Now, I don’t want everybody tuning in to become fat-phobic, you know?
0:49:00 But at the same time, you’ve got to pay attention to, it’s the same thing.
0:49:02 If people are doing drugs around you, you’re more likely to do drugs.
0:49:06 So food can also be as bad as a drug.
0:49:08 We’ve got to think of it that way.
0:49:14 So if there was one thing that you could remove from the grocery stores, what would it be?
0:49:18 It would be high-fructose corn syrup like that.
0:49:22 You’d cut out most of the in the grocery store.
0:49:27 And I think, you know, trans fats have been removed for the most part, which is great.
0:49:33 But you want to make sure you’re getting rid of those two things, trans fats and africose corn syrup.
0:49:35 Just getting rid of that alone will make a huge difference.
0:49:37 Or just even reading the ingredient list.
0:49:42 If there’s an ingredient on there that you don’t have at home that you wouldn’t use in your kitchen,
0:49:51 like butylated hydroxychloroquine or maltodextrin or mono and diglycerides, you probably shouldn’t eat it.
0:49:52 I heard something once.
0:49:55 If you can’t kill it or grow it, you shouldn’t eat it.
0:49:58 And I always think about that when I’m eating food.
0:49:59 Yeah.
0:50:00 Totally right.
0:50:01 Totally right.
0:50:03 So a lot of our listeners are entrepreneurs.
0:50:05 They have very busy schedules.
0:50:10 Sometimes it can get really overwhelming trying to follow different nutrition advice.
0:50:13 So in the simplest terms, what should we be eating?
0:50:15 Yeah, I’ve written so many books about this food.
0:50:17 What should I eat?
0:50:21 The Pagan Diet, which is sort of a condensed version and with some kind of fun stuff in it.
0:50:24 What we agree on is more than what we disagree on.
0:50:28 You can get on the margins about vegan or paleo or keto or this or that.
0:50:32 But the truth is, we all agree we shouldn’t be eating processed food, ultra processed food.
0:50:36 We all agree we should be reducing starches and sugar and refined carbohydrates in our diet.
0:50:43 We shouldn’t be eating things that aren’t food, technically, like maltodextrin or butylated hydroxychloroquine or red dye number three.
0:50:47 We should be eating foods that are high in phytochemicals.
0:50:52 We think of food as medicine, where it changes everything in our biology in real time.
0:50:58 We should be thinking about having good quality fats from nuts and seeds and avocados and wild fish, small fish.
0:51:03 And even though for some people tolerate animal fats very well, especially if it’s regeneratively raised, they have very different qualities of fats.
0:51:10 So there’s a lot of really good things you can do that are available from the diet that you can get even anywhere.
0:51:19 I mean, I’ve worked with people in the worst food deserts in America, and they’ve actually been able to make a huge impact and change their diet if they actually do the right things.
0:51:20 And they will.
0:51:25 They’ll actually have a huge shift in their diet by actually doing this.
0:51:28 So I’m pretty thrilled by how simple it is.
0:51:31 But when people understand how to do it, then it often changes.
0:51:34 Talk to us about exercise.
0:51:38 I feel like there’s a lot of mixed advice when it comes to exercise.
0:51:41 What’s your take on the right amount, too much exercise?
0:51:43 Exercise is critical.
0:51:44 Your body needs to move.
0:51:45 There’s no doubt about it.
0:51:47 We were designed to be moving organisms all the time.
0:51:50 And that’s how we evolved.
0:51:53 Now, most of us don’t do enough.
0:51:54 And that’s unfortunate.
0:51:57 And I think 8% get the optimal amount.
0:51:59 23%, we get some moderate amount.
0:52:03 But the key is to actually understand what’s good for you.
0:52:05 And it’s different at different times of your life.
0:52:09 But I think you need at least 30 minutes of good cardio four or five times a week, three
0:52:13 times a week is strength training, probably a week or a day or two of flexibility and training
0:52:14 and stability training.
0:52:15 That’s kind of bare minimum.
0:52:19 If you can do that, you’re going to maintain your health and be good for a long time.
0:52:24 You’ve said in the past that strength training is the best anti-aging medicine.
0:52:25 What’s so good about it?
0:52:29 Because what you’re doing is you’re building muscle, you’re building mitochondria, you’re
0:52:31 increasing muscle mass.
0:52:32 And what really kills people is frailty.
0:52:34 When you get older, you get frail.
0:52:35 You’re not able to get up out of a chair.
0:52:37 You’re not able to do anything you love to do.
0:52:39 Your mobility has decreased.
0:52:40 Your functions decreased.
0:52:42 That’s all totally preventable by strength training.
0:52:46 And you have to work harder as you get older because the body, unfortunately, it doesn’t
0:52:47 work as well.
0:52:50 So you have to do a little more effort to get the same benefit.
0:52:53 And I think that’s something people have to do, but it’s not optional.
0:52:55 Like exercise is just not optional.
0:52:59 Okay, last question for you, and then we’re going to close out this interview.
0:53:06 So the average listener’s age on my podcast is 35 years old, and they’re typically an entrepreneur.
0:53:11 So let’s say I gave you a 35-year-old, they’re stressed, exhausted, running on coffee.
0:53:17 If you had a year to transform their health and performance, what are the things that you
0:53:18 would change?
0:53:23 I would immediately have them get on a whole foods diet that I just talked about and have
0:53:29 them just follow the principles of eat real food, low sugar, starch, good fats, adequate
0:53:33 protein for where you are in your life phase and varies depending on where you are, lots of
0:53:36 phytochemicals, lots of fiber, and just start there.
0:53:40 And if you’re really having any health issues, I’d probably do my 10-day detox program, which
0:53:41 is essentially a reset.
0:53:44 It’s just 10daydetox.com with a 10-day detox.
0:53:48 And what really is amazing about it is that people get a reset.
0:53:52 It’s like putting your body back to its original factory settings, and you can see where food
0:53:53 is impacting you.
0:53:58 Oh, I didn’t know that, oh, my rash was caused by food, or I didn’t know that my migraines
0:54:01 were caused by what I was eating, or I didn’t know that my joint pain was caused by what
0:54:02 I was eating, or my sleep problem was caused by eating.
0:54:06 So you get a really quick reset, and then you can start to add foods back in.
0:54:08 So that would be number one, get your food straight.
0:54:10 And that’s timing, planning, organizing.
0:54:11 It’s really important.
0:54:15 The amount of time you spend on your business, the fraction of that you spend on your health,
0:54:16 you’ll get a lot of dividends from that.
0:54:19 Getting a regular exercise routine, not that hard.
0:54:23 Maybe if you just want to walk 30 minutes, a few walking phone calls, that’s good, better
0:54:23 than nothing.
0:54:25 You can have a walking treadmill.
0:54:28 You can do more fun things.
0:54:28 I like to bike.
0:54:33 I like to do more mountain biking, and road biking, and tennis, and other things that
0:54:34 kind of are fun for me.
0:54:35 I like to make exercise fun.
0:54:40 Strength training, I’ve gotten into more and more, and it’s been profound in terms of effect
0:54:41 on my body, even as I’m older.
0:54:44 I think learning how to regulate your nervous system is important.
0:54:47 Self-soothing is not something we learn how to do.
0:54:48 We get activated, reactive.
0:54:53 But learning how to practice, whether it’s breath work, or meditation, or some practice
0:54:57 where you’re resetting your nervous system, because we’re all in parasympathetic deficit.
0:54:59 We need to be relaxing more.
0:55:04 And then I think build community, because as you’re building something and going through
0:55:07 stuff, when getting isolated is the worst thing you can do for a human being.
0:55:14 And so I think having that ability to work with your friends to build a fun community experience
0:55:15 is really important.
0:55:18 And that’s something that’s been really important to me, especially as I’ve gotten older, is
0:55:22 just invest in your friendships, because when everything else goes, that’s what will be
0:55:22 left.
0:55:26 Yeah, so that was great advice on an individual level.
0:55:31 And a lot of the people tuning in are entrepreneurs, and we help move society forward.
0:55:35 And we have this big shift from traditional to functional medicine.
0:55:37 We’re trying to combat the food industries.
0:55:42 Can you talk to us about some of the opportunities that you see for entrepreneurs to capitalize on
0:55:43 all these changes?
0:55:47 The health and wellness market is a trillion-dollar market.
0:55:49 And there’s a lot of ways people are entering that.
0:55:54 But if you can figure out what you love and the intersection of what you love and what people
0:55:58 need, often businesses are started from people’s own needs.
0:55:59 It’s like, I need to fix my own health.
0:56:03 So as a physician, I got very sick when I was in my 30s.
0:56:05 I got chronic fatigue syndrome from heavy metals.
0:56:08 And I was struggling a lot.
0:56:10 And I had to figure it out.
0:56:13 I had to actually figure it out.
0:56:15 And that forced me to learn about what I learned about.
0:56:20 It forced me to study the way I studied, to actually find this field of functional medicine,
0:56:22 to use it on myself, to heal and repair.
0:56:27 And so that’s what I encourage people to do, is figure out that intersection of what you
0:56:27 love.
0:56:28 That’s just driven me.
0:56:29 Because it’s not like a choice.
0:56:30 I don’t have a choice.
0:56:32 It’s not like I’m making widgets or something.
0:56:33 It’s fine to make widgets.
0:56:40 But, you know, I think the key is really to kind of figure out how you can do this in
0:56:44 a way that it syncs with what you love, because otherwise you won’t really do it.
0:56:45 Great advice.
0:56:45 Okay.
0:56:48 So I end my show with two questions I ask all my guests.
0:56:51 It could be totally different from what we talked about today.
0:56:52 Just answer from your heart.
0:56:58 So what is one actionable thing our young and profiters can do today to become more profitable
0:56:59 tomorrow?
0:57:04 What your success is really determined by the quality of how you feel.
0:57:08 So if you’re able to function on a high level and do the things you want to do and not be
0:57:13 held back by illness or struggles, you’re going to be able to function at a much higher level
0:57:18 and do whatever you want to do, whether it’s just buzz off and go kind of get early retirement
0:57:21 or whether it’s you want to build a company or whatever you want to do.
0:57:26 You know, you have the capacity to be highly functional when you feel better.
0:57:29 And so investing in your health is such an important thing.
0:57:33 from my perspective, you know, I see a lot of people who have great businesses and companies
0:57:37 and they build these things and they’re rich, they have all this stuff and they’re lonely,
0:57:39 they’re isolated, they’re unhealthy, they’re sick, they don’t feel good.
0:57:41 I mean, that is the last thing you want, right?
0:57:42 Totally.
0:57:47 And your book, Young Forever, really is a blueprint for how to do that.
0:57:50 What would you say your secret to profiting in life is?
0:57:51 And this can go beyond business.
0:57:59 The secret to profiting in life, again, is to focus on the things you love and to do what you’re
0:57:59 passionate about.
0:58:04 Because if you try to force something in your life, you know, the best things that happen
0:58:06 are often serendipitous.
0:58:09 They often come to you, their ideas, their people, their experiences.
0:58:13 I feel like there’s sort of an underlying current where we can kind of jump into it.
0:58:17 And if we’re present, we’re able to see actually what pulls us in.
0:58:20 And when we do that, you become more profitable.
0:58:22 I’ve never sought to make money in my life.
0:58:24 I’ve never tried to make money.
0:58:26 I’ve never said, I’m going to do a business to make money.
0:58:27 I’m going to do this to make money.
0:58:32 I’m doing what I’m doing because I feel like it’s critical for myself and for the people
0:58:35 who I care about and for the population at large.
0:58:37 It’s like, I just can’t help myself.
0:58:43 So I think when you do that and you have a mission and you’re driven, then it’s not
0:58:44 about the money.
0:58:47 And Mark, where can everybody learn more about you and everything that you do?
0:58:50 I know you’re so easily found, but where do you want to point people to?
0:58:51 Well, you can go to drhyman.com.
0:58:55 If you want to try the 10-day detox, you can go to drhyman.com.
0:58:56 You’ll find it there, but just go to 10-day detox diet.
0:59:01 I’m on social media, Dr. Mark Hyman, and I have a podcast, The Dr. Hyman Show, the top
0:59:03 200 podcasts out there.
0:59:04 So it’s doing well.
0:59:05 Awesome.
0:59:05 Cool.
0:59:08 Thank you so much for joining us on Young and Profiting Podcast.
0:59:09 My pleasure.
0:59:18 Well, guys, that’s a wrap on my conversation with Dr. Mark Hyman.
0:59:23 What stood out for me today is that longevity isn’t just about adding years to your life.
0:59:26 It’s also about adding life to your years.
0:59:33 And as corny as that may sound, if you want to be as strong and as vibrant at 60 as you are
0:59:39 at 30, then it won’t simply be because of genetic luck or new technologies, but rather
0:59:41 because of your intentional living.
0:59:47 There’s so many exciting developments in the health and longevity space, from epigenetic
0:59:54 reprogramming to AI-informed personalized medicine, advances that will no doubt inform and accelerate
0:59:55 our lifespans in the years ahead.
1:00:00 But like Mark reminds us, we already have the tools and knowledge at our fingertips that
1:00:03 we need to optimize our health right now.
1:00:08 And what it really comes down to is simply getting rid of the bad stuff and adding in the good
1:00:08 stuff.
1:00:14 By improving our diet, exercising more, getting enough sleep, and avoiding stress, you have
1:00:19 it within your own power to age more slowly and even turn back the physiological clock.
1:00:23 Aging is not a simple decline in many ways.
1:00:25 It’s a choice, even a skill.
1:00:30 Look at those people living in the blue zones like Sardinia, aging slowly and gracefully because
1:00:34 they’ve created a healthy environment in which their bodies can completely thrive.
1:00:38 It’s a lot easier said than done, but believe me, I know.
1:00:43 Like Mark said, it’s also never too late to get started at leading your best and hopefully
1:00:44 longest life.
1:00:48 Thanks for listening to this episode of Young and Profiting Podcast.
1:00:53 If this episode resonated with you, share it with somebody who wants to feel better, live
1:00:55 longer, and thrive at any age.
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1:01:25 You can also connect with me directly on Instagram at Yap with Hala or LinkedIn.
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1:01:29 And as always, I got to shout out my incredible Yap team.
1:01:32 I have such an amazing team at Yap Media.
1:01:33 I couldn’t do this without you guys.
1:01:38 This is your host, Hala Taha, aka the Podcast Princess, signing off.
1:01:52 I’ll see you next time.
1:01:53 I’ll see you next time.
1:01:53 Bye.