The Truth about American Healthcare | EP #74

0:00I'm NFL Lineback at Tijayawatt and this is my personal best. YPB by Abercrombie is the active wearer I'm always wearing. That's why I reached out to co -design their latest drop. I work with designers to create high -performance active wear that holds up to my toughest workouts. Shop YPB by Abercrombie in -store online and in the app. Because your personal best is greater than anything.

0:31When did making plans get this complicated? It's time to streamline with WhatsApp. The secure messaging app that brings the whole group together, use polls to settle dinner plans, send event invites and pin messages so no one forgets mom's 60th and never miss a meme or milestone. All protected with end -to -end encryption. It's time for WhatsApp. Message privately with everyone. Learn more at WhatsApp .com. Is there anything going on inside your body right now that you need to know about? If there is, what do you do about it? The question is, can you turn back the clock of time? It turns out that the Greenland shark can make it to 500 years old and have babies at 200 years old.

1:18If they could live to 200, 400, 500 years old, why can't I? It's either a hardware problem or software problem. There is a future in the near term in which there is no genetic disease. What do you likely to have that might be a problem down the line? And how do you prevent that from being a problem down the line? Science is extending your life by about a third of a year for every year that you're alive.

1:46Hi everybody, Peter D. Amanda's here. This episode is brought to you by X Prize. I want to tell you we're about to launch the most extraordinary prize ever in human history. This is the largest cash prize ever offered and it's for one of the most audacious goals ever. I can tell you where it is, but if you're interested in being at our launch event, it's occurring on November 29th. We're going to have top scientists, entrepreneurs around the world joining us. Give us your email, we'll send you an invitation. You don't want to miss this X Prize. It is awesome. I've been this excited about an X Prize since 2004 when Bert Rutan built Spaceship 1 and flew it 100 kilometers into space.

2:288 billion people impacted by the largest cash prize ever. Check it out. Join us November 29th. Give us your email and we'll send you the details. We are living in the midst of a health span revolution. You know for most of human existence for the last hundred thousand years. We only lived till about age 27, 28, 29 because back during the days of cavemen and cave women, you'd go into puberty at age 13. You'd be pregnant by age 14. By age 27, 28, your kids were having kids and you were a grandparent. And back 100 ,000 years ago when our mission as a species was to pass on our genes to the next generation and food was scarce before McDonald's and whole foods was around, the worst thing you could do to help your species succeed was to steal food from your grandchildren.

3:24So you'd die and give your bits back to the environment. So as we look back on historical records, most of humanity only made it to age 30. Today what we know from medical science is that your body begins a very slow decline from age 30 down through, well, depending how long you're going to live. But things are about to change. So when I ask people how long do you think you could live? What's the oldest person you can imagine? Most people know someone who's 100 years old. And today we have more centenarians than any time ever in human history. And making it to 100 while it's special, it's not something too unusual.

4:04The oldest person that we know of is probably made it to about 122 years old. and we call super centenarians, those who make it to around 110. But the question is, how long might we live? Is 100 years old really the ceiling? Is 122 years the ceiling? Well, if we look at other species on planet Earth, it turns out the bowhead whale, one of the largest mammals on the planet, routinely makes it to 200 years old. And it turns out that the Greenland shark can make it to 500 years old and have babies at 200 years old. I remember learning about this when I was in medical school. It was a Saturday afternoon I was watching a documentary on long -lived sea life.

4:48And I remember thinking if they could live to 200, 400, 500 years old, why can't I? And I remember thinking to myself, it's either a hardware problem or software problem. And I said, someday we're going to be able to fix that challenge. And I believe, and I hope to share with you, that that day is this decade, that we are within striking distance of being able to extend the healthy human lifespan. So what do I mean by that? Well, let's take a look at this image here. On the left, you see a newborn baby, you know, that baby at age 20, if you're a guy, maybe a six pack, but by the time you hit 50, you know, you're getting a beer belly, and if you make it to 100, you're beginning to wither.

5:33Now, it turns out that you get 3 .2 billion letters of your genome from your mom and 3 .2 billion letters from your dad. And your genome does not change over the entire course of your life. So the question is, if your genome is not changing over the course of your 100 year lifespan, why do you look different? Why don't you have a six pack when you're 50 or 100? And it turns out it's not the genes that you have. It's not the letters, it's not your genomics, it is which genes are on and which genes are off. And we call that the epigenome, epi from the Greek word for above. And it turns out that as we're aging, as we're getting to our peak state of health in our 20s, up until 30 thereabouts, the right genes are on and the correct genes are off.

6:24But as you get older and older, the epigenome, the controls of which genes are on are off begin to blur. And it blurs for a number of reasons. We'll talk about that later, but that's part of the issue. And what's gone on right now is an extraordinary amount of research and funding into epigenetic reprogramming. Literally, the question is, can you turn back the clock of time so that you can put the right genes on and the right genes off back to when you were 20? Can you make something like this happen, right? We're literally your turning back clock of time, where you're reversing the aging of not on your skin and your muscle and your cognition, but your entire physiology.

7:11And this work would have been considered a heresy a decade ago. Today, it's the hottest topic of research. Individuals like Dr. George Church and David Sinclair are investing heavily from their research labs and their PI's into epigenic reprogramming. And the concept today is not a matter of if, only a matter of when, the idea that aging is a disease, a disease that can be slowed, stopped, and potentially reversed. So having said that, we're in the midst of a health span revolution. And the question is why now, why this, in the midst of our 2020s, am I saying we're in the health span revolution?

7:53Well, there are four reasons. The first is capital. During this time in human history, people are beginning to invest heavily into the idea of extending the healthy human lifespan, the concept of longevity. And in 2022, there was over $5 billion invested. We're going to see that go up 10 fold this decade. Here's an example. There is a foundation called evolution, which has been funding to the tunes of billions of dollars. research in longevity breakthroughs, really funding cutting edge research. You know, the old adage you can't take it with you is very valid today. The second area, and I'm not going to talk about this, maybe we'll talk about it in a different conversational video, is the impact of artificial intelligence and quantum technologies on AI.

8:43We, as humans, we have 40 trillion human cells in our body, and every cell is doing about a billion chemical reactions per second, and it's an entirely a quantum system. And we're beginning to understand how the body works. We're using AI to understand on a molecular basis the chemical interactions and quantum chemistry to understand how we can modify cellular features. It's an extraordinary age ahead, but I won't go into this, but what we'll talk about is is the third reason of what's going on, which is the biotech revolution. So it turns out that in the late 1990s, the US government spent a little over $3 billion to sequence the first human genome.

9:30Then in 2001, a gentleman by the Dr. Craig Venter sequenced his own genome, spending $100 million in doing it nine months. Remember, the $100 million in nine months the sequence, all 3 .2 billion letters in his genome. Today, it's gone from $100 million to $200 bucks and from nine months to seven hours. So we're in ability today to sequence everyone's genomes in literally, you know, for a couple hundred dollars. But it's not just the sequencing of your genome. It's also the ability we have today to edit your genome. There is a concept called CRISPR. Hopefully you've heard about it to incredible women won Nobel Prize in chemistry back in 2020 and This technology which by the way is you know three years old There's all a whole set of new editing technologies that have come out since then this field is moving at an exponential rate But CRISPR is being used to go and edit The genome of individuals with genetic diseases.

10:32So if you have a blood disorder thalassemia sickle cell anemia a a particular kind of cancer and inherited eye disease. And if that has been a genetic disease that's passed down generation to generation to generation and all you could think about in the past was hoping you don't get it before you have kids or hoping that you can get a drug to reduce the impact of your genetic disease. Guess what? Now we're doing something biblical, which is with a single injection being able to go in an edit your genome, an injection to the back of the eye to cure blindness, an injection to cure sickle selenemia or thalassemia.

11:11This is incredible capabilities. And today we're seeing over 200 people have been successfully treated with CRISPR therapeutics and it's only an increase from here as the price comes down making it available. There is a future in the near term in which there is no genetic disease, which every genetic disease and the support group has funded researchers to go and create the edits to fix that situation. It's biblical in nature. You know I'm super passionate about longevity and health span and how to add 10, 20 health years onto your life. One of the most under -appreciated elements is the quality of your sleep and there's something that changed the quality of my sleep and this episode is brought to you by that product.

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13:17Here's another example My father -in -law used to be one of the senior VPs at the Red Cross. And what does the Red Cross do? It goes, collects blood, we will supply it to those in need. We're now using lab -grown red blood cells. We will create, oh, negative, the universal donor blood and produce an abundant supply. So you have all the blood for transfusions that are needed without any risk of infection. Again, this is just part of the biotech revolution occurring. Those with gray hair, well guess what, here's a technology by restoring the motility of melanocytes. Those are the cells in your skin that generate melanin, that darken your skin during a tan, or darken your hair.

14:01Well, this is technology this past year to help potentially reverse the graying of hair. This is a company that my venture fund, Bold Capital, is invested in, And it turns out you have 28 collagen genes in your skin. And when you're a newborn baby, all 28 collagen genes are on, your skin is elastic, smooth as a baby is behind. Well as you get older, those genes begin to get silenced and your skin becomes less resilient, becomes stretchier. Well what if you can use CRISPR technologies and epigenetic reprogramming to turn back on those collagen genes? And in this case, rejuvenate your skin by 30 years.

14:45You know, I find this again, something that just blows my mind. Here's a technology, it's called induced pluripotent stem cells, combined with 3D printing. You ever heard about someone who needs a heart valve replacement? What do they do? First of all, you have to go and take a pig valve that's removed. Then the pig valve, it's the right size for you. You have an open heart surgery, you place it in, you go on immunosuppressing drugs, but your heart has a valve that's working. Here's what happens now. We take an MRI of your body, we take a 3D imaging of your specific valve, we take a skin cell from your skin.

15:25We turn that skin cell into what's called induced pluripotent stem cells, IPS cells. Dr. Yamannaka with the Nobel Prize for that about 15 years ago. And then we grow those cells into the right cartilage cells made from your DNA, and then we use those cells in 3D print you a heart valve. That's exactly the right size for your heart, made of your DNA in your cells, so there's no immune reaction, and then transplant that in. Again, it's miraculous. If you got hearing loss as you're getting older, this is a gene therapy to reverse age -related hearing loss. Out of the Tufts University, a brilliant physician, a brilliant researcher, Dr.

16:08Michael Levin, has learned how to literally stimulate the growth of limbs and the growth of organs. If you go to Dr. Michael Levin's website and you'll see how a frog that has had its leg cut off could be stimulated with the right electro -suticals he calls it. This is opening up iron channels in the right way, stimulate that frog to grow a new leg. This is a future of limb replacement. This is the work of Dr. Davidson Claire at Harvard University, one of the most brilliant researchers on the planet dealing with epigenetic reprogramming. He wrote an incredible book called Lifespan, which I commend to you.

16:52He published in January of 23, 13 years of work, in which he was able to show how he could accelerate the aging of mice and then using three out of the four Yamann aquifactors reverse the aging of that mice. Now, here's what's exciting. This research, which was done in mice, is now being done in primites. This is one step away from being done in humans. So, again, we're on the verge of this extraordinary revolution. Now for many people, COVID gave vaccines a bad name. And I don't want to get into the conversation of whether you should or should not have been vaccinated for COVID, but what I can tell you is that other than the brain, the most extraordinary part of the human physiology is your immune system.

17:37Your immune system protects you from cancer, protects you from infectious disease. And there are vaccines now being used to protect you from other things. So I have two 12 year old boys. Literally we got a flyer in the mall the other day about some drugs being found in the neighborhood of the school and there was concerns about these drugs being laced with fentanyl. Now if you don't know fentanyl is a killer. It's 50 times stronger than heroin and it's so addictive and you know it's something that is a plate. It's killing 150 people per day. So what's going on here? Here's a vaccine that if you vaccinate someone with it, it prevents that individual from getting a high from fentanyl.

18:22It literally protects your brain because this vaccine binds with that molecule. One of the companies on Proud to be a co -founder of a vaccine has been producing vaccines against Alzheimer's, against Parkinson's, and most recently against hypercholesteremia. So it turns out that if you have high cholesterol in particular LDL low -density lipoprotein, the bad cholesterol, that that can cause strokes and heart attacks. Well, vaccinating you produced a vaccine that's in human trials today that goes and binds to an enzyme in the liver called PCSK9, I have no idea who makes up these names, but if it binds to PCSK9, it actually reduces the amount of LDL in your body.

19:08And the equivalent monoclonal antibody costs something like $10 ,000 a year. But this vaccine, which instead of taking the monoclonal antibody every two weeks, literally 28 times a year, you take this twice a year. And not $10 ,000 a year, it's $50 a year, to prevent heart disease and stroke. Amazing things going on. Here's a vaccine against melanoma, one of the most deadly of all cancers, just got FDA breakthrough status. Over the years, I've experimented with many intermittent fasting programs. The truth is, I've given up on intermittent fasting as I've seen no real benefit when it comes to longevity.

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20:33Get started on your longevity journey with Prolon today. Now back to the episode. Now, I'm going to play a short video and I would love for you to listen to this video. This is Dr. George Church and Dr. David Sinclair speaking about what they see coming in terms of extending your healthy lifespan. Alright, listen carefully. This is for me just magical in what might be possible. It is quite possible that some of the people in alive today will see no upper limit. Imagine having a treatment, perhaps a viral delivery of these three genes when you're 45. Everything's good, you reach 50. biologically you can measure that and then you get a course of doxycycline three weeks later many if not all parts of your body are rejuvenated and then you reset the clock.

21:35So what's the implication of making people younger? It's awesome. This is a study that was done at Harvard, Oxford, and Linda School of Business about a year and a half ago which said the economic value of just one year increased in health span is worth $38 trillion the global economy in terms of people remaining productive in society in terms of people continuing to generate revenue reducing health care costs. So here's a question, why do people retire? Well, they retire for one of three reasons. Number one, they're forced out because it's the retirement age. Number two, they're in pain and they can't go any further or they're out of energy.

22:20But if at the age of 65 or 70, you're at the top of your game, you've got all the same energy you had when you were 30 or 40 or 50, but you have all the connections and the capabilities, why would you ever retire? I'd love to have folks like Einstein still around generating new breakthroughs in science. All right, here's the fourth reason why we're seeing this health span revolution right now. And it comes from the fact that we are in the midst of a diagnostic revolution. One of the companies I'm proud to have co -founded with Tony Robbins and others is a company called Found in Life. We have these diagnostic centers.

22:58we have built throughout the US and we're growing this now globally. These centers you go and you've got the most advanced diagnostics ever. So it's a full body MRI, right? Imaging all parts of your body, your brain, your brain vasculature, being able to find an aneurysm or being able to find the beginning of a cancer or any kind of fatty deposits. We have an AI -enabled coronary CT. So if you've heard about something called a calcium score, I want you to get rid of that from your mind if your arteries are calcified but not blocked, you're fine. Calcium is like cement on the side of your arteries.

23:39It's going to stabilize things. And we heard many times in the past, people with a zero calcium score having a heart attack. Why is that going on? Well, it's not the calcification. It turns out what gives people a heart attack is soft plaque in the sides of your arteries. And the soft plaque evalces, it comes out, and it blocks the artery, and boom, you've got a heart attack. So what we are able to do now using AI, there's a company called Clearly, for example, love the CEO, James Min who runs that, is able to image soft plaque in your, the walls of your coronary arteries, and then tell you, hey, you've got some soft plaque, gotta reverse that.

24:21But at the end of the day, that's just one of the technologies. You dexascand, 100 blood biomarkers, a blood biopsy for cancer. We are literally today able to upload 150 gigabytes of data about you in a six hour session. And understand two things. Is there anything going on inside your body right now that you need to know about? And if there is, what do you do about it? But if there isn't, you say fantastic, but then what's likely to happen to you, right? Based upon your genomics, based upon all your physiology, what are you likely to have that might be a problem down the line? And how do you prevent that from being a problem down the line?

25:03Now, here's the challenge. All of us are optimists about our health. We think we're fine. You know, it turns out we know more about what's going on inside our cars or our refrigerators than we do in our bodies. And so here's some of the numbers from our first 5 ,000 members going through fountain life. 2 % of the people who are seemingly healthy adults, right? They think they're in great shape. They just want to check, guess what? 2 % of a cancer. 2 .5 % have an aneurysm. I just had a close friend of mine who I gifted going through fountain life to went through and found two aneurysms in his brain.

25:37Now, it's early and he's going to have the surgery to fix them, but this is the sort of thing that can kill you in your sleep. 14 .4 % of seemingly healthy adults have an actionable life -threatening finding. So at the end of the day, you don't actually know until you look and people say, I don't want to know. You know, honestly, you do want to know. You want to know as early as you can so you can take action right now. We're living in a time where you can take action about your health. So I commend to you whatever kind of diagnostics you can do. Please go and look. If you're young, fantastic.

26:17But sometimes it's great to get a baseline. If you're older in life, this is the biggest investment for your longevity you're going to make right now. I like to say don't die from something stupid. It means wear your helmet when you're skiing, wear your seatbelt, don't text while you're driving. and please look and find out what's going on inside your body. Everybody, I want to take a short break from our episode to talk about a company that's very important to me and could actually save your life or the life of someone that you love. Companies called Fountain Life. It's company I starred years ago with Tony Robbins and a group of very talented physicians.

26:51You know, most of us don't actually know what's going on inside our body. We're all optimists. Until that day when you have a pain in your side, you go to the physician and they burn into your room and they say, listen, I'm sorry to tell you this, but you have this stage three or four going on. And, you know, it didn't start that morning. It probably was a problem that's been going on for some time, but because we never look, we don't find out. So what we built at Fountain Life was the world's most advanced diagnostic centers. We have four across the US today, and we're building 20 around the world.

27:26These centers give you a full body MRI, a brain, a brain vasculature, an AI -nabled coronary CT looking for soft plaque, dexascan, a grail blood cancer test, a full executive blood workup. It's the most advanced workup you'll ever receive. 150 gigabytes of data that then go to our AI's and our physicians to find any disease at the very beginning. When it's solvable, you're going to find out eventually. Mice will find out when you can take action. Fountain Life also has an entire side of therapeutics. We look around the world for the most advanced therapeutics that can add 10, 20 healthy years to your life.

28:06And we provide them to you at our centers. So if this is of interest to you, please go and check it out. Go to fountainlife .com -slash -peter. Here, when Tony and I wrote our New York Times bestseller, Life Force, we had 30 ,000 people reached out to us for Fountain Life memberships. If you go to FountainLife .com, backslashPeter, we'll put you to the top of the list. It really is something that is, for me, one of the most important things I offer my entire family, the CEOs of my companies, my friends, it's a chance to really add decades onto our healthy life spans. Go to fountainlife .com, backslash, Peter.