I had the pleasure of attending a Longevity Summit this past weekend in San Jose, and here's a simple takeaway of concepts you should know and things you should do to not just live longer, but live better.
Concept 1. Health is not based upon genes alone. This is not a new concept, but it seems to be one that people have a hard time shaking. The book "The Biology of Belief" is a high recommendation to get a deeper grasp on this subject, but mainly, only 7 % of your health is expressed from genes alone. That means 93% is changeable! Just by adding meaning and purpose can extend a person's lifespan by 7 years!
Concept 2. The body is smart and adapts to that which it is exposed to. As long as we give it what it needs, and remove what it has too much of, we will be healthy. It is a balance between "too much" of something and "not enough" of something. There are 4 pathways of health (insulin, mTOR, AMPK, Sirtuins) that are in every animal from yeast to humans that monitor these. We need to go through cycles of stimulating and inhibiting these pathways to unlock longevity in our health.
Concept 3. Hormesis is a stress that in small amounts adds to your body's resilience. We constantly are under stress, but we need to recognize what is a "bad" stress versus a "good" stress. For example, chronic emotional stress is bad for us. It initiates a cascade of negative pathways in the body that leads to pain and dysfunction. Saunas and cold plunges, on the other hand, are stresses that have been found to improve immunity, increase heart rate variability (HRV) and reduces cardiovascular disease by 50%.
Concept 4. Muscle growth and maintenance is an essential nutrient. Muscles are not just there to move bones! They have lots of hormone, metabolic, and immune benefits. Sarcopenia (loss of bone mass with age) is arguably one of the most important markers for longevity.
Things to Do RIGHT NOW:
Time restricted eating (12-16 hr) - Something so simple as eating breakfast at 8am and finishing dinner by 6pm can activate a process called autophagy, which is essentially the body's recycle system. It is when the body eats away at old cells and creates new ones.
KEY with re-feeding when breaking the fast-- PROTEIN. Just as important when implementing a time restricted eating window, is what you use to replenish your body when you get out of it. A breakfast with 30-40 grams of protein is ideal, goat whey was recommended.
Protein quality matters - whey protein is most bioavailable (hence recommendation above), and leucine is important, easily found in animal sources. MUST be high quality (sick cells replicate sick cells, healthy cells replicate healthy cells)
Limit sugars and starches- Insulin so important to every pathway in our body, and weight alone is not an indicator of health. Try to avoid sugars and starches in your regular diet, especially sweet liquids!
Eat pomegranate- it's a postbiotic with Urolithin A that has been shown to reduce inflammation in gut, promote muscle growth, improve mitochondrial function.
Quercetin- best way to activate AMPK pathway for longevity and health. Other ways to stimulate AMPK is berberine and sauna for 20-30 min.
NAD+ - from Vitamin B3 (Niacin) can stimulate sirtuins, one of the pathways that regulate DNA repair and increase brown fat use as well as improve fatty liver. Curcumin also stimulates sirtuin pathways.
There were more things that were shared, and a LOT of details in the pathways, processes, but my biggest takeaway is that they all say essentially the same things. Sleep and wake with the sun, exercise, eat well, stay hydrated, and employ methods to reduce emotional stresses. Nature and your body are inherently smart and know what to do, so long as they are given what they need and interference to them is removed. It's a premise that chiropractic was founded upon over a century ago. I am really happy to see the surge of medical doctors who are coming to learn and embrace this "discovery" that we have known for decades.
I do want to note that these are all easier said than done, especially when it comes to integrating them as health habits for everyday life. I think it's important to note that the body's health is cyclic. It's going to be inevitable to avoid any sugars let alone stress forever and never be sick. However, I like to think of it as incorporating as much as comfortably possible gradually, so that you build resilience in the body to better withstand the occasional indulgence. For example, I try to eat the rainbow, take my supplements, sleep well, drink lots of water, get adjusted regularly, and stay active so that come special occasions, I can indulge in a slice of cake and know it won't send me in a tailspin. Life is a balancing act, and these are the tools to help give us an advantage to live life longer!
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