7 Habits That Age You Faster & Cost Nothing to Fix

0:005 a.m. I'm up with a crisp Celsius energy drink running 12 miles today. Grab a green juice, quick change and head to work. Meetings, workshops, one more Celsius, no slowing down. Working late, but obviously still meeting the girls for a little dancing. Celsius, live, fit, go. Grab a cold, refreshing Celsius at your local retailer or locate now at Celsius.com. Start your day with Quaker Protein Instant Oatmeal. The instant oatmeal ready to help you tackle whatever your day brings. Like wrinkling your toddler into their car seat. That was fun. Coaching your 6th grader's soccer team. Go girls! And carrying all the groceries in one trip.

0:45Try Quaker Protein Instant Oatmeal, Granola, and Bars. Great taste and a good source of protein. Quicker, bring out the good. Picture this. There are places in the world where people routinely live to 100, even without gyms, expensive supplements, or complicated biohacking at all. And the shocking part, most Americans age 30 years faster simply because of the daily habits that they don't even realize are harmful to them. You know, in certain areas of the world, like in the mountains of Sardinia, Italy, you'll find men in their 90s walking the hills, tending sheep and laughing with their neighbors.

1:25In Okinawa, Japan, women approaching 100 still garden, cook together and care for their great-grandchildren. And in Nicoya, Costa Rica, 100-year-olds walk miles every day and still wake up with a sense of purpose. These aren't people with perfect genetics. They're proof that the habits we repeat daily either slow aging or accelerated. Let me ask you a question. Are your daily habits aging you faster or promoting longevity and healing? And today I'm going to be reverse engineering the seven lifestyle habits that destroy our health and longevity and the seven lifestyle habits that promote it. Welcome to the Dr.

2:08Josh Axe Show.

2:34We'll be right back.

2:49up to 40 % your first year. Visit lifelock.com slash podcast. Terms apply. Most people think aging happens because of genetics or bad luck, but the National Institutes of Aging estimates that genetics only accounts for about 20 to 25 % of lifespan. The remaining 80 % is influenced by lifestyle and environmental factors like diet, exercise, habits, environmental exposure to toxins and purpose or lack of it. In other words, aging isn't something that automatically happens at 70. It's something we do to ourselves that can start becoming noticeable at 25 years old, 35, 45, or any age. Recent research shows the longest living adults have little in common with one another in their education, their income, or their professions.

3:40The similarities they do share reflect their lifestyles. Most all are non-smokers. They're not obese and they cope with stress well. Dan Buettner, author of The Blue Zone, says that to live longer, you have to eat well, stress less, move more, and love more. And if you think about your body like a car, here's what you need. Good fuel, like protein and plants. The engine lasts longer. You need movement. You need to keep the pistons lubricated and you need sleep. This leads to better overnight repairs. And there are many metaphors we could use for health and longevity, whether it be your body as a car or a garden.

4:19It needs to be tended to. It needs sunlight. It needs water. It needs good soil. Sunlight, this charges your batteries. Think of that like solar panels and then your relationships. This acts like the cooling system that helps you endure everything else. These are some of the key factors that are going to help you heal and promote longevity. Now, on the other hand, some habits accelerate your cellular mileage. For example, chronic stress, plus scrolling on your phone all day, plus stagnation. This is like your engine overheating. Not sleeping or eating well. Your battery is drained and you don't have enough fuel to keep going.

4:58Now, here's the scary part. The United States has the worst performance among high-income nations in people dying from chronic disease. Life expectancy has dropped to about 76 years old for males and 82 for women. This is far below countries like Japan, far below. Among adults over 65, more than 90 % have at least one chronic condition and over 90 % are taking a prescription drug. The average American spends the last 12 years of their life in poor health. So why is this happening? Because of bad habits. Most adults now use their phones for three to six hours a day and walk only 3 ,000 steps a day.

5:44One in three adults is chronically sleep deprived and more than 50 % say they're very stressed on a daily basis. And these things add up and cause our cells and our organs to age too quickly. So I want to walk you through these seven habits that are aging you faster and then go through on the flip side what you need to do instead. Here's number one, not challenging yourself mentally. Mental stagnation. Neuroscientist Dr. Michael Merzenich, he says this, the brain is plastic until you die, meaning you can keep learning and growing well into older age. Neuroplasticity means that the brain is like a muscle.

6:25you either use it or lose it. And when your mind is sedentary, and this has been found to shrink the hippocampus and increase memory loss, this is a major issue. If you're one of those people and every day you do the same thing, you get home from work or you're retired and you sit down in a chair and you just watch TV or scroll on social and that's what you're doing and you're not learning and growing and striving forward, you're aging your brain more rapidly. It's like never exercising or moving at all, just sitting all day. You need your brain to be moving and learning new things. Adults who learn new skills reduce their dementia risk greatly.

7:03In fact, about half of dementia cases could be prevented by addressing 14 lifestyle factors, including lack of education, purpose, and connection. If you're getting older, one of the most important things you can do is continue to learn and grow. So just reading books and listen to audio books, listening to podcasts and watching educational YouTube videos, but doing things to expand your mind, continuing to have a purpose and contribute in some way, and then having deep connection with people. You know what takes away deep connection? Spending time on tech devices, okay? Computers, phones, televisions versus real interaction with people.

7:42All of those things decrease your risk of getting Alzheimer's and aging your brain. You know, Blue Zone Centurions learn continuously, such as by reading, worshiping, doing art, and speaking to one another. Number two, scrolling instead of connecting is a major thing causing us to age more quickly. We're the loneliest generation in history, and it's aging us. Loneliness increases mortality as much as smoking 15 cigarettes per day. I want you to think about that. Just the fact that you're not connecting with other humans because you're on your phone or on social media scrolling all the time, it is killing your brain.

8:24I do want to mention there's a big difference between watching an educational YouTube video, listening to an audio book, using a device for education versus scrolling. I mean, scrolling is one of the single worst things you could ever do for your health. The average person checks their phone 150 to 200 times a day. This is often rooted in the need to connect and be seen, but you don't actually feel a sense of fulfillment because it's empty. You're not really getting what you need. Scrolling is the opposite of community and community is longevity fuel. Heavy social media users have a two to three times higher risk of anxiety and depression.

9:06And having good friendships are just as protective is exercise. Strong social ties, lower mortality by 45%, which is more than quitting smoking. I mean, think about this. There are all these ads I remember, especially in the 90s when I was growing up, the 80s, early 2000s, where people didn't know that smoking was bad because it was actually promoted by doctors. Did you know that? Smoking was promoted by doctors throughout the 50s, the 60s, and the 70s for weight loss. Then in the 80s, or late 70s, they realized, well, this is bad. So the 80s, they started saying smoking is bad throughout the 90s.

9:40But what's even worse than smoking cigarettes is not having good friendships. Here's what neuroscientist, Dr. Andrew Huberman says. He says, our brains crave genuine, real-time social interaction. And replacing face-to-face connection with screens can starve us of the deeper bonding and well-being that we are wired for. God wired us to connect with one another, not a screen. You know, throughout human history, humans flourished in small, tightly bonded tribes where survival was dependent upon cooperation, shared labor, storytelling, face-to-face connection, gardening together, hunting together, just doing everything to support and fight for one another.

10:24We were dependent on each other. And today, you know, we actually still are very dependent upon each other, but it takes less human interaction where you can just door dash something or do self-checkout and never actually have a conversation with anyone ever. For 99 % of human history, isolation was dangerous and community literally kept us alive. Our nervous systems were designed for eye contact, touch, shared meals, and collective purpose, not solitary scrolling or digital connection. It's not the same. It's superficial. One of the reasons why I see so many people today, they feel empty. They feel like they have a lack of meaning, lack of significance.

11:10Now, part of it is this next one I'm going to get into, but part of it is we were designed for connecting with other people. And if you're not deeply connecting with somebody and listen, that we're deep going deep spiritually, having those really, you know, iron sharpens iron conversations, challenging one another, asking deep questions, cheering and encouraging one another on, we should be having these really deep connections to each other. Most people, when you have, you know, a thousand friends on social media and you're kind of talking to everybody just through texting on a phone versus you have two or three or five people you're going really, really deep with and you're sharing a common purpose and you're fighting for one another.

11:49It's so different. This is what creates a deep sense of meaning and well-being in our lives or part of is this human connection. Now, the second thing really ties into this and this is lack of purpose. In Okinawa, people wake up with a kigii, which is a reason to get up in the morning. This also translates to purpose. And having a purpose makes you more active socially and mentally. People who wake up with purpose live seven years longer on average. In the blue zones, people talk face-to-face daily. Many go to church or a religious place or work of worship, have relationships with their neighbors, exercise and walk around outside in their towns.

12:29They volunteer. They mentor younger people and spend a lot of time with their family and friends. Purpose is key. So you might be wondering to yourself, how do I find my purpose? Because according to a recent study, 25 % of people know what their purpose is. 75 % of people are not clear on what it is. Well, a key key really starts with, what are you gifted at? What is that gift you have that God created you for? That's one thing. So what are you good at? That's the first thing and maybe the most important. The next is, what does the world need? What is that opportunity in front of you where you can serve people, help people, use your gifts?

13:09So what's the current opportunity you have? Another one is, what do you love? What are you passionate about? What do you feel really strongly for? And a fourth, which isn't always needed, but sometimes is in there if it's related to vocation or profession, is what can you be paid to do? But typically, your purpose is tied to what are your God-given gifts and what is that need that you can help serve that you're passionate about? That's really what purpose is. And I want to say, too, I think we have a global purpose of humanity, and then we all have our individual purposes. I know that I'm called as a Christian to love God, love people, and make earth the heavenly place.

13:47When we go back to the book of Genesis in the Bible, we see these relationships. God created man. We're meant to have a relationship there. God created Adam. And then Eve, there's a relationship with humans. And God created this Garden of Eden for us to tend and make the entire earth a paradise in a Garden of Eden, which in the book of Revelations, last book of the Bible, a couple of chapters it talks about, we will live in heaven, a garden city here on earth. And so we're called to love God, love people, make earth a heavenly place. And then we're also called to help others do the same, disciple other people, mentor other people.

14:23I will tell you this. if you're thinking about what is something really good you can do to help other people, one of the single greatest things you can do is mentor somebody. You know how often, I have this happen pretty frequently, is I will have people come up to me and say, hey, Dr. Axe, will you mentor me or help me in this way? I've got a lot of young doctors and that sort of thing who want some guidance on how to be a better practitioner and communicator and just help more people. And I love doing that. Honestly, I think about the things that are most, that fill me up the most, mentoring and discipling other people gives me such joy.

14:57And I think it's one of the greatest things we're missing in the world today is great mentors. There is an ancient rabbi, a sage, his name is Maimonides. And he has something called the charity ladder. And he said, what is the greatest thing you could ever do for somebody? By the way, if you want to know who Maimonides is, he's this person. Have you ever heard the quote, give a man to fish, feed him for a day, teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime. That's Maimonides. And he said the greatest charity you could ever do for somebody is not just giving them money. He said there's actually seven levels of charity.

15:29The highest level of charity is teaching a person to fish. That's mentorship and discipleship. It's the greatest charity contribution. It's better than even giving money to an organization. That's great. But mentoring others, helping them grow spiritually, helping them in their marriage, helping them grow in their character and their leadership and their profession, mentoring and serving others without asking anything in return is the greatest form of purpose or one of the greatest out there today. I think in addition, part of that too is what's being a great parent, growing and becoming a better parent.

16:03That's a form of discipleship. That's mentorship. And even a marriage, there's a level there of iron sharpens iron of helping one another grow. That leads to purpose and purpose is really tied to this idea of growth. It's growing yourself. It's growing your marriage. It's helping grow your kids. It's mentoring, discipling others. When you grow yourself and help others grow, it leads to a great sense of fulfillment and actually adds years to your life. There's another study I read that found that when people retire from work, if they don't find a new sense of purpose or way to contribute, it takes years off their life and causes them to die early.

16:39It crushes longevity Because according to Chinese medicine, the greatest thing that builds qi in functional medicine, we would call this mitochondrial health, adrenal health, ATP energy for your body to create energy. There's a level there that's connected to our spiritual aspect of health. And so if you don't have a purpose, it's like there's no fuel for your mitochondria. There's no fuel for your adrenal glands. Purpose actually leads to hormonal health, joy, longevity. There's a lot of people that wake up in the morning and they don't feel like getting out of bed. And part of that is there's not a sense of purpose in their life.

17:17And so for you, when you have a sense of purpose, it is fuel for your soul, for your spirit, and even for your organs and your cells. So one of the greatest things I wanna encourage you to do is go and find your unique purpose and add value in that way. So find your purpose and focus on growth, growing yourself and growing others. Have you ever felt like you're doing everything right? Eating clean, working out, taking all the right supplements, but your body just won't cooperate. Maybe you're tired, you're foggy, you're gaining weight, you can't sleep, and your doctor says your labs are normal.

17:53Here's the truth. Normal blood work does not mean your body is operating normally. It just means the levels in your blood work look okay. Not that your cells are actually using them the way they should. It's like using the wrong map and wondering why you're lost or putting gas in the tank, but the engine still won't turn over. Because if your cells are inflamed, stressed, or in survival mode, nothing you do will work the way it should. Your body's been whispering for years. Now maybe it's screaming and you deserve someone who's actually listening. Go to mybloodwork.com and see what your blood work missed.

18:28What's really going on beneath the surface. Because you're not crazy. You're not lazy. that you're just stuck in a system that was never built to find the problem. It was built to diagnose disease, not restore your health. At mybloodwork.com, we'll show you how to finally get your body and your life back. You know, if you want to grow and excel in life, one of the most important things you can do is focus on fostering great relationships with great virtuous people. Okay. By the way, this is something if somebody asked me, Dr. Axel, what is your biggest life lesson. I mean, your single biggest lesson in your entire life.

19:05My single biggest life lesson is this. You become who you surround yourself with. Who are those five people you spend the most time with? So your family and then five other people. And that's who you become. You know, Dave Ramsey did a study and found that your wealth depends on the 10 people you spend the most time with. Your average wealth will become like their average wealth. The same is with health. If you want to get healthy, hang around healthy people. You want to have a great marriage, hang around people with great marriages. You want to grow in your character and your leadership, hang out with people that are leaders.

19:36I am in a growth group right now. I've done this in the church a lot in the past, signed up, been part of growth groups. That's been incredible for my growth. And then also part of other groups. I'm in a group right now with five other guys, and we meet together once to twice a month. And basically, we read a book together every month, and then we share our thoughts, and we encourage one another. And then typically, sometimes we get together another time, whether it's for watching a football game or doing a dinner or just breakfast, something like that. And we're always spurring each other on.

20:05And to me, it's been the greatest thing that's helped me grow over the past 10 years has been the dedication to seeking out people that are great in an area in their life, spending more time around them and being open to learning and growing and getting better. And so I want you to think about this, write down, who are those five people you spend the most time with now and rank them on a scale of one to 10 on how much they're helping you grow. And then here's the other thing I want you to do. I want you to rank yourself. Where are you on a scale of one to 10 of being a friend and helping them grow?

20:37Are you encouraging them? Are you going out of your way to maybe get them a book or to give them advice or do whatever you can to help them reach their goals in life? Do you even know what their goals are? Do you know what their dreams are? Do you know what their weaknesses are so you can help them? So rank yourself, rank those five people, and then set the goal here for this next year of where do you want to become at a level of a friend and a leader for those people? And then who are those five people you need to spend the most time with? You need to take those people in life that are below the five, they're twos, they're threes, they're leeches, they're sucking the life out of you.

21:11They're keeping you from fulfilling your dreams. And you need to go and spend more time with people that are going to help you grow and excel and become better. Now, listen, there's an element that is different from this. So this is your friend group that you're growing with, and it's a group of purpose. It's different than saying, I'm going to go and have a form of a ministry where I'm going to take people that are having a hard time in life or even something that's negative and going and ministering to them and helping them in their needs, encouraging them, giving them a book, doing certain things to support them.

21:45That's great, too. You should do that. But there's also this group of this Fenn group that's Iron Sharpens Iron that you should be pursuing. One of the best places to do this is join a church and join a growth group in a church. It's a powerful way of meeting those types of people in fostering community. All right, now let's talk about a diet for longevity. Here's the biggest mistake most people are making. They're not getting enough protein, not enough fiber, and not enough nutrients. But protein and fiber, if you focus on protein and fiber-rich foods, it's going to promote the greatest amount of longevity.

22:20Here are some statistics based on the blue zones. The longest living people in the world eat 80 % more plants. They eat lots of protein. They eat 30 or more grams of fiber daily. They have virtually no ultra-processed food and very little added sugar. But meanwhile, in the United States, 60 % of calories come from ultra processed foods. 60%. 46 % of older adults are protein deficient. Low fiber increases chronic inflammation and insulin resistance. It also drives obesity, which now affects 74 % of American adults. So here's the problem. American adults are eating mostly ultra processed foods. Not enough protein, not enough fiber, and not enough whole foods.

23:12I want to walk you through why fiber and protein are so important. Protein in plants turn on longevity pathways, such as AMPK and autophagy, which stabilizes blood sugar and protects your mitochondria. Fiber is one of the simplest miracle drugs in the diet. Now, we went through this sort of phase. I remember kind of in the 90s, we saw a lot of promotion of fiber. And then the last 10 years, everybody's talked about protein, protein, protein, protein. And the reality is you want to get quite a bit of both, protein and fiber, because these macronutrients really impact your metabolism and keep insulin balanced.

23:53Now, I also want to talk about why fiber matters. I think protein's got a lot of promotion, and it should. Protein is great for building muscle. Protein's great, again, for insulin. It's great for metabolism. You're not going to store it as body fat. There's a lot of benefits there. But here's why fiber matters. Higher fiber intake is linked with lower cardiovascular disease, lower mortality, better cholesterol, lower blood pressure, and more weight loss. Now, when you're getting fiber, you want to focus on getting both soluble fiber and insoluble. Soluble fiber forms a gel. It feeds gut bacteria.

24:27So it acts as a prebiotic to support the growth of probiotics. It also lowers cholesterol and blunts your blood sugar. You're going to get this type of fiber from beans, oatmeal, psyllium husk, pectin, chia seeds. So pectin, you're going to get that from eating apples and citrus fruits like grapefruit. Okay, really, really great type of fiber that supports detoxification. Also, this sort of fiber is great for clearing out LDL cholesterol, improving your blood sugar, creating more what's called short chain fatty acids like butyric acid in your gut, which is really important for healing leaky gut and GI health.