Science-Backed Methods That Extend Your Life Far More Than Genetics Ever Will

26:54exposed like the last couple of years with all the things that happened. Like my, I just felt more sensitive, you know? And so having these conversations, like stuff would just come out, you know? But for, it's not that I'm trying to like, you know not you know cry around my wife or whatever like I didn't cry I cried when last time I cried was like 16 and then I think I had like one Johnny Depp uh cry baby tear when my grandmother passed away and then that was it I didn't cry again until I don't know my mid-30s you know I mean I'm just it's not it wasn't some kind of badge of honor but of course there's a subconscious thing there being tough yes but also like I'm just not somebody who cries a lot you You know, I just, I'm very, I'm very aware of circumstances and just kind of like, I think about, I'm a thinker, you know, but just being, allowing myself to be more in my feelings, you know, which can be seen as a negative thing in our culture.

27:49Like there's even a term like, you're all in your feelings, you know, but doing that in the context of, of safety and, and, and, and insight, you know, and so it's very cathartic. So, but, and also to answer your question though, I've had the most amazing time with my wife, you know, through, especially this last like six months, you know, because of all the processing of things that have happened separately. For her is voice texting with her friends and these little mini fucking podcasts they do for each other. All right. So she's been processing stuff as well because all this loss, like she lost her father as well.

28:28You know, our son moved out of the house and changed the dynamics of the household. Our baby boy is growing up and he's a teenager now. Right. And so we've been able to, again, have relationships where we can have a space to be able to process things and come back together and to process and have great conversations and experiences together as well. Yeah, I can identify with a lot of what you're saying. I think it's very difficult when you've accomplished things in life by your own merit, working hard, I can do this, but eventually get hit with something where you're like, I can't, I don't know.

29:07I heard something from a friend of mine that hit me so hard. I thought it was so true. We always hear, I don't know if you've ever heard this, people will say, God only gives what you can handle." And my buddy's like, that's not biblical at all. He says, God gives you more than you can handle, so you lean on Him. And I was like, oh no, I've been doing this all wrong. It's a render. Yeah, and I asked you about that vulnerability question because another thing that struck me was somebody told me, you can only, your friendships can only be as deep as you allow them to get with you. So if you're only so deep, that's as deep as it's gonna go, which means you gotta take a step out into the scary, uh-oh, what's this person gonna do with this information?

29:55Do they think I'm weak? Are they gonna think I'm, am I gonna, do I feel weak? Yeah. Makes it very, very difficult. It's why it's so important to really know thyself. Yeah. You know, this incredible tenet. But, you know, I love the saying or statement or belief that people are in your life for a reason, for a season or for a lifetime. Yeah. Right? And we tend to get very obviously attached to certain things and certain ways of being, certain lifestyle factors and comfortability. And just to go back to my son's question about my friendships, the most incredible friendships are manifesting now where I was on some Drake energy, like, let me know, no new friends, that kind of thing.

30:41Like I'm good, but just being open and receptive. and, you know, I could see who's in my life right now for probably for a lifetime. And it would be, you know, my wife, my Michael Beckwith, for example, they just come to mind. They pop into my mind. But there are people in my life for this season of my life right now that are so amazing, you know, so thoughtful. One of those people, I'm gonna shout her out, is Dr. Gabrielle Lyon. Yeah, she's great. Love her. Of everybody that I've met the past, you know, five years, She is the person who checks on me the most often. She's very genuine. What's cool about that, it's so impressive considering everything she's done in her life, how busy she is.

31:23And I mean, I'll back that up. Out of the three or four of us, I tend to communicate the most with our friends from the podcast. And she beats me. She's the first one to always reach out first. And I'm like, gosh, how does she do that? That's my thing. I'm good at that. And she's better than I am at it. She's so good about checking in. And I always think, man, I'm so blown away by the amount of relationships that she manages, all the things she does in her life, and still has the time to do that. But value is what we're talking about, right? Sean, one of the things that I find really fascinating that's really been something that we've only really been talking about for the last 10 years, but probably mostly for the last five years, is how our genes express themselves or epigenetics.

32:08You know, there was this belief in the past, you had your genes and that was it. But now we're finding, we know, that behavior, lifestyle, thoughts, relationships, changes. You're not set. They're not set in stone. So you may have a predisposition for anxiety or for heart disease or for other things. And what you do, how you think will change how they express themselves. What are some of the things that you've learned in some of your interviews and in your study about epigenetics and just how plastic they seem to be? Yeah. So this was, it's getting close to 20 years ago now when I was first exposed to Dr.

32:52Bruce Lipton's work. He's cell biologist. He's really, most people would attribute him to being like the father of epigenetics in communication to popular culture and, you know, modern medicine and science. And so, again, just the blessing of doing this work and this show, I got to have multiple conversations with him over the years. And he told me from the very beginning, when I went to school, when I was in my expensive university, we were really in the age of genes cause diseases. Right. And the truth is, and again, there's multiple published peer reviewed studies on this top scientific journals affirming that less than 1 % of all diseases are directly caused by defective genes.

33:42Isn't that wild? Right. And so keeping that in mind, then what happens? How do we manifest these diseases? And so this is looking towards the new frontier of epigenetics. And I struggled and I was about, I didn't want to say new because it's not new. It's just new that we know about it. That's right. You know, and gene expression. So we have this conglomeration of genes that make us up, but there are hundreds or even thousands of possible expressions of what a gene can look like or the proteins that can be printed out of you. All right. The genes are blueprints to print out materials that make you up.

34:23And it's going to be depended most by the environment. and Dr. Lipton continued to correct me. And like, it's not just the tangible environment that you're thinking about. It's the environment of your mind. It is the number one thing because your perception of the environment affects your body more than the environment itself. All right. And so what I mean by that also, our thoughts create chemistry in our bodies instantaneously. Every single thought that we have changes our chemistry. We produce different hormones and neurotransmitters instantaneously. All of our trillions of cells are immediately changed just based on our thoughts.

35:02That is so powerful. But what are you thinking? What are you thinking right now? What are you chronically thinking? What is your habitual thoughts? And are they thoughts of fear and stress and worry and doubt, lack? Or are they thoughts of affirmation and joy and love and peace? And we get to choose. But in our society today, we're so distracted, we forget that we have a choice. And we often just become victims to our environment or our circumstances. And so that's just kind of setting the table. And so what I want to share today are some of the things, because our gene expression is really, if we're breaking it down to this foundational level, that's how we're experiencing this process of aging is through what our genes are doing.

35:46Because we know that we can have a genetic expression that can change and make us essentially like a younger version of ourselves. And specifically, so let's just go, let's go through some of these. So this just came out this summer. All right. And this was conducted by researchers at Harvard, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. And they were looking at rate of aging and using all these different biological markers, including monitoring their telomere length. And I'm sure you You guys have talked about telomeres many times over the years. So these are the end caps on our chromosomes.

36:22And so as we have each cell division, a little bit gets clipped off, that's associated with biological aging, one of the strongest markers we have. And so these researchers were looking at vitamin D3, omega-3s, and placebo. To find out, do any of these common supplements slower rate of aging. All right. This was a four-year study. All right. And they tracked all the, again, all these different biological markers. And after compiling the data at the end of this four-year study period, the individuals who were taking the vitamin D3 aged about three years less in that four-year study than people who were not, who were taking in the placebo or even the omega-3s.

37:12The omega-3s didn't really make a difference when it came to biological aging. And so this is, it was 2000 IUs, international units a day. It's like 40 cents a day. That's nothing. Incredible. Again, four-year study, the people taking the vitamin D3 only aged essentially one year biologically. And also let's take a step back actually because we subconsciously think that the calendar is toxic. we think the calendar is deadly the calendar is killing us we have associations with the calendar and certain markers of aging but the truth is and this is based on the widest body of study that we have there is a there's a variance there's a statistical variance in biological aging versus so we've got the calendar right we've got chronological aging and we've got phenotypic or biological aging.

38:08So this is what your cells are doing, cognitive function, the health of your organs, immune system, all that stuff. And so the calendar is correlated with aging, but it does not cause aging. There's a statistical variance of five years on average, older or younger, for what your calendar year is for the average person. Half a decade. Right? Statistical variance, five years older or younger, but then there are outliers who are 10 or 20 years older than their biological age or 10 or 20 years younger than their biological age. That's exciting. Yeah. And I recently, I did all this stuff, whatever.

38:44I was almost eight years younger than my chronological age. Through what you were doing? Oh, you got tested. Yeah, I did the whole, you know, gamut of blood tests and whatnot. And again, this is just, we're still figuring this stuff out, but, you know, keeping that in mind, the calendar is not toxic. All right. And so there are the, but what, how are certain people aging younger or aging slower than other people? Vitamin D3 is one of these powerful markers. Where does it naturally come from? Sun. Having some time in the f***ing sun. That's what that points, to me that, that stuff like that research that I just highlight is just how important getting outside in the sun is more than anything else.

39:25I think it's less of magic from the sun, although it's magical, and more a result of the deficiency of sunlight that we all just are chronically under because - Well, yeah, that's why the supplementation can make such an impact. Exactly. It's because we're so deficient. That makes a huge difference. You got it. But the study, if you just read it at face value, it's like, I need to take vitamin D3. Right? And that can absolutely be helpful. Absolutely. 2 ,000 IUs a day. All right? but what is the core problem here, right? 60 % of our population in the United States is deficient in vitamin D, 60%.

40:05It's for some demographics, it's far more. Like African-American, 80%. Hispanic, 70, all right? Why is that? Got a little more melanin, all right? So a little bit less absorption of that, as you said, the magical interaction with the sun's rays in our biology, right? And so people with more melanin need even more time in the sun, right? But we've had all this marketing. And of course, I'm not saying to go from spending a year, nine to five and just in your car and then going to the beach, right? For your vacation. That's a way to get sunburned and fuck yourself up. That's stupid. But to have a lifestyle where you're not getting sun exposure because of all of this silliness, because of our lifestyle, Yes.

40:53In the busyness, but also because of the messages around the sun is trying to kill you. Right. And so it's being smart and having, we don't have life here on this planet without that flaming ball. We don't, you know? And so just a real quick caveat sidebar, the sun's rays hits us. Like we have photoreceptors on our skin that picks up light and it sends data to all of ourselves. It's critical for setting our circadian rhythm, which I'm gonna get to next. And beyond that, this vitamin D production, it interacts with cholesterol in our system as well. But then there are all these processes. It's gotta associate with your liver.

41:32It's gotta associate with your kidneys. Like if you have poor function of all these other organs, like you may not even have good conversion of vitamin D. That could be another place for supplementation. But this is why, and here's the takeaway for everybody with this one. This is just, we'll just say tip number one, vitamin D supplementation, 2 ,000 I use a day. It has to be vitamin D3. When I was in college, we were not taught that. All right. It didn't matter what was in my centrum vitamin, right? So vitamin D3, because that has been, that is more of an end product for our bodies to use it.

42:07Okay. If you have poor liver function or kidney function, whatever the case might be, it's more usable by our body. Number two, you need to take it with vitamin K2. so that, because it's gonna associate with calcium as well. We wanna make sure that stuff is ending up in the right place, all right? We don't want the calcium to end up in your arteries. And it's vitamin K2 and D3 together. Again, 2000 IUs a day. And then the last tip within this, I mean, we can keep going, but it would be to get some sunlight, to get some sun exposure, make it a mandate, make it a habit and help to kind of build up that resilience.

42:44Cause the sun is just like, I haven't seen you in a while, you know? You know? So it's just like having that association where we're getting some sun exposure because your body needs it. I mean, to tie it all together, the stuff that we've been talking about, maybe the healthiest thing you could possibly do for yourself is take a 30-minute walk with someone you love out in the sun. I mean, we talk about relationships being so powerful. And I know that a lot of our podcast is dedicated to nutrition and strength training and all the things that are related to that. But this is why I think as my training career has evolved, a lot of times that's what my initial tips to someone getting started looks like.

43:21It's like, hey, before I write you this extensive workout program and this crazy diet with all the macros bounced, get outside and go walk with your spouse for 30 minutes to an hour out in the sun every day. And that right there will make such an impact on 90 % of people's lives just doing that along the way. And just to back you up, like if you took somebody, if I took somebody as a fitness professional who never exercised and I take him in the gym and I just beat the crap out of him, you know what you're going to see? Damage, overstress, harm. That's what's going to happen if I take somebody who doesn't work out and I'm like, we're going to do a hardcore workout.

44:02And the data would show, if that's what we studied, don't do this. You guys, exercise is terrible for you. Oh my God, look at these studies on people who never exercise and then suddenly go spend a day at the gym. This is terrible. It's causing cancer, inflammation, injuries, heart disease. This is not good. This is what we're looking at when we're looking at people who are getting sunburned. Is that their bodies aren't able to, haven't been around, they haven't been outside. They can't adapt to going outside for, to the park for two hours. Because otherwise they're indoors all day long. And so what you see are cancer rates going up.

44:39You see damage. You see sunburn. So this is where the messaging got all messed up, the result of which being, hey, here's what you do if you do go out in the sun. Let's just cover you in these chemicals. Let's put all these xenoestrogens on your mind. Let's talk about that for a second, Sean, because that's controversial, and I know you don't mind going in that direction. Let's talk about the sunscreens that people have used historically to protect themselves from the dangerous sun. And what have you learned about the effects of the sunscreens themselves? Yeah. So it's not difficult to find at this point.

45:17The benzenes, as you mentioned, you've got these parabens and thylates. But here's the thing, even with all the newly invented chemicals that we are slathering on our bodies to protect us, but we're doing this, we're doing this with hope and trust, okay? What we need to ask is, is it working? Have rates of skin cancer gone down, you know? No, they've gone up since we've been using sunscreen, all right, it's not working, it's not working. And so we're doing something that contributes to poor health, you know, it's carcinogens, all these different carcinogens, but that's where I'm a big fan of results.

46:02Like, is it, if it's working, I'm for it. Like all the, give me all of it. Right. But it's just not working. And so it's just a silly, it's a very silly thing, but there are ways to protect your skin. You know, obviously again, clothing, wear a hat, zinc, slowly build. That's the ultimate, slowly build up exposure to the sun. Your body knows how to handle the sun because your genes evolved. And that was my whole point with starting it off with the vitamin D3 thing is we've got, I mean, thousands of studies on vitamin D now and all these different areas of health that it's impacting, whether this is improving sexual function, cardiovascular health, cognitive function, immune system function.

46:44But at the heart, we've got really great data on all of the epigenetic influence it has. Thousands of your genes are instantly influenced when your body's producing and or you're bringing in more vitamin D. Vitamin D technically could even be referred to as a hormone. This is the way it acts in the body, which is pretty remarkable. Going back to how your perception of your environment affects your genes more than the environment itself. What's interesting to me is when you look at the data on people with trauma or stress and its correlation to autoimmune disorders and diseases, it's this really strong It's as if hating yourself turns your immune system on against yourself, which makes perfect sense.

47:33If you're perceiving something, your body will follow that perception because that's the most accurate thing you could possibly find is your perception of things, not necessarily subjective. It's not like a computer that it measures the environment. It's how you perceive the environment that changes those things. Yeah. I'm going to go there since we're looking at What can we do to slow down biological aging? It's your mindset. And have you guys talked to Dr. Ellen Langer yet? So she's considered to be the mother of mindfulness. You know, she's the first woman to receive tenure in the Harvard psychology department where she's still teaching today.

48:12All of this, these studies that are conducted on how our thoughts affect our biology, she started this. Oh, wow. Literally in 1979 was her first study that she conducted looking at the impact of your beliefs in your environment and your biology. And so she took eight elderly old men and they retrofitted an environment to be decades younger. Right. So the environment that they bring them to has like posters from that time, you know, decades earlier. They only played the music from decades earlier. The newspapers and magazines were more from youthful versions of themselves. It's like a time machine.

48:51It's a time machine. And the results were, I mean, unbelievable. Let me tell you some of these results. Did you know that? I remember this. I've never heard of that. I didn't know that. I wonder if she's friends with Arthur Brooks. I can't believe I've never heard of her. I'm not familiar at all. Oh, yeah, yeah. So after compiling the data, because what they did was they took all of these different biometrics before and after. They took photos before and after. so these individuals within a week had improvements in their vision improvements in their flexibility dexterity improvements in their iq and overall cognition improvements in their gait improvements in their hearing in one week wow how you don't hear about an elderly man getting their hearing back or having their hearing improved without some kind of medical intervention and their faces were visibly younger.

49:42Like they had people to actually like look at before and after pictures. That's hilarious. They looked younger. In one week? In one week, being in an environment that said, hey, I'm my younger version of myself. They changed. Okay. And what it really boils down to is what's happening at the level of the genes. And so how do we utilize this? We have to, if we strive to have a more youthful disposition, we have to think younger, right? We tend, as we get older, to blame things on age haphazardly, right? You get an injury, right? Maybe you injure your Achilles, right? And you blame it on, it's because I'm older.

50:27Halliburton just tore his. Jason Tatum tore his. The difference is they're young and they're just like, I'm just going to rehab and get better. We tend to start chalking things up to these things when people get hurt at all ages. Yes, you can have, you can slow down how quickly you get well, but it doesn't have to be that way. And so we need to be careful about haphazardly blaming things on age. And also what are the, what are the ingredients that tell your genes that you are younger to keep producing these young? And I'm going to actually share a study in a little bit demonstrating this. but one of the most powerful inputs is something that we just, we do not think about our value enough and it's play.

51:11Children have a disposition of play. All right. And as we get older, we stop playing. And so having that as like a hallmark in our lives to keep playing, to keep a youthful mindset, a youthful disposition, if we want to again, kind of mimic these results in this trial. And the same thing with Ellen, when I had the opportunity to talk with her, She was talking, she plays tennis. You know what I'm saying? She's like, I think she's mid seventies or eighties, whatever. 78. She had, she had a terrible injury, like maybe 10, 15 years ago. Like the doctor's like, you're not going to be able to play tennis again.

51:44She's like, fuck that. You don't know who I am. I'm going to continue to do what I love. And she got better and she healed, you know? And so countless examples of this. I want to give one more since I'm with you guys. the crazy thing was meeting her I'd referenced her so many times and also the work of her students one of her students is Dr. Alia Crum and she was doing work at Stanford I've never heard somebody say that they want to have less energy I just got so much energy I don't know what to do with it I don't know what to do for most people today they want to have more energy energy is the fuel of our lives and our experience of energy if we're looking at it through the lens of biology boils down, deep down to the role of our mitochondria, also known as our cellular power plants or cellular energy plants.

52:35But it's a dynamic exchange going on constantly with all of these trillions of mitochondria that we have within our bodies. Now, the question is, what is going to help our mitochondria to do what they do and to give us that energy that we're really looking for. Of course, we want to mind our mitochondria, eat some nutritious food, eat foods that are not creating derangement and all these abnormalities, blood sugar spikes and gumming up all of our cells and our tissues, making sure that we're getting adequate sleep, checking all those boxes. But if we're boiling things down to a category of nutrients that we really want to look for, look no further than that category of electrolytes.

53:18Electrolytes are minerals that carry an electric charge and they are critical for the function of your mitochondria. A recent study published in Free Radical Biology and Medicine determined that mitochondrial sodium levels are critical in contributing to changes in mitochondrial energy exchange and redux capacity. So this is about delivering energy to all of our cells and resisting the harmful impacts of oxidation and stress. Who knew sodium was so essential for life? Well, a lot of people have known this, including researchers at McGill University who found that not only does sodium help to maintain proper water balance for all of our cells, but also our most essential organ of energy and life period, which is the amazing human brain.

54:17They also found that sodium functions as a quote on off switch in our brains for specific neurotransmitters that support optimal function and protect our brain against numerous diseases. And so we want to make sure that we're targeting plenty of electrolytes in our diet. It's going to come in the form most often of whole organic fruits and vegetables. But this is also the reason that so many people feel and experience more energy and faster recovery when they're utilizing supplemental electrolytes. Now, if you're going to utilize an electrolyte supplement, the number one science-backed electrolyte supplement that supports active hydration, cognitive performance, and a healthy lifestyle overall, look no further than the incredible folks at Element.

55:04Element has the science-backed ratios of sodium, potassium, and magnesium to help you to feel and perform at your best. The best performers in the world utilize Element. I'm talking about Team USA weightlifting, NBA athletes, NFL teams, Navy SEALs, the list goes on and on and on. And right now you can try Element risk-free with their no questions asked refunds if you don't absolutely love the way that element makes you feel. Head over right now to drink element.com forward slash model, and you're going to get a free bonus pack of their most popular flavors with every single purchase. All right, go to drink element.com forward slash model.

55:51That's drink L M N T.com forward slash model to take advantage of this right now. Head over there, check them out. Drink element.com and now back to the show. And it was the milkshake experiment. All right. And so this is, I love this study. All right. So they blended up a big batch of milkshakes and they were giving them to study participants. We'll just say that the milkshakes were 380 calories, but they labeled them differently. Some of the milkshakes were labeled as when they gave them to participants as high calorie indulgent milkshakes where they put 620 calories on it. Same calories, all right?

56:32But they label it different. And then for some people, they put a label of low calorie, sensible milkshake. That's only 180 calories. Same amount of calories, all right? They compile the data and they were looking at, and this was the cool thing about it. They're doing blood tests and they're looking at hunger and satiety hormones. So ghrelin. when the individuals had what they believed to be a more indulgent milkshake that was high calories, their ghrelin plummeted. All right. So they were not hungry potentially for a significant amount of time afterwards because their biology said, I already had a lot.

57:08Sure. The people who had what they believed to be the low calorie milkshake, even though it was the same amount of calories for everybody, their ghrelin didn't budge, didn't change. So what does that say for us practically is that they're going to be hungry again shortly thereafter. They're going to want to eat more because they feel, they believe that what they were consuming wasn't that much. All right? This actually is so cool because it also proves why we don't have a lot of success with like all these low calorie snacks that have been around forever because you subconsciously eat that little 120 calorie snack and go like, oh, I'm hungry again a half hour later.

57:43And you end up eating what the 400 or 500 calorie snack would have been just through three of those instead. Yeah, let alone the value, the actual nutritional value it contains, our belief about it supersedes so much. And this is what I call, I talked about this in my previous book, Eat Smarter, these epicaloric controllers, right? Calories, it's a very sound science, yes. But even as I say that, it's the least sound measurement that we have. Because we can go right now and measure out a hundred yards. It's always a hundred yards. Calories are always different. What is on that label for that pack of D's nuts, all right?

58:23Shout out to, I think, is it Mr. Beast? Mr. Beast. Mr. Beast. Yeah, Mr. Beast has D's nuts. It might say 400 calories, but it could be 300. It could be 500. It's going to depend, right? And the same thing with your exercise, like, oh, you do the math, whatever, I'm going to burn off whatever amount of calories on this treadmill. It's going to be different. You can't, it is so variable in and of itself. You know, it's just that, but that's just the foundation of it. But then we have these epic caloric controllers that determine how your body responds or interacts to the calories that you consume or the calories that you expend.

59:00And so we need to put more attention on those things, not to negate the value of having calorie management, but what's going on with your microbiome, what's going on with the nutrients that you're eating themselves. We know that the macros influence the calories and how your body processes them. We know the power of protein, stress in your day, stress, sleep has a huge impact on your, your, how your body processes calories, huge impact and several other factors. And so, and not to mention, you know, the, the quality of the food itself, you know, I think I might've shared with you guys the sandwich experiment.

59:36I don't know. I don't know. Do it again. Let me hear it. Okay. Yeah. All right. So So this study was published in Food and Nutrition Research. And the scientists wanted to find out, would our bodies respond differently metabolically to an ultra-processed sandwich versus what they consider to be a whole food sandwich? Same amount of calories, same macros. But one sandwich was cheddar cheese and whole grain bread. And the other was white bread and cheese product. like Kraft Singles, which you know, they can't call it cheese. It's not Kraft cheese, it's Kraft Singles. They can't legally call it cheese.

1:00:16There's not enough cheese in the cheese. All right. And so they consume these sandwiches. And of course they were able to measure how much calories you're expending, right? Because most of our calories are actually coming out through our breathing, right? Yes, we could sweat it out and all that kind of stuff, but we're just expending calories. That's the primary. And so they strap them to these monitors. And so they're measuring how much energy is coming out after eating these respective sandwiches. And here's what happened. Again, these sandwiches had the same amount of calories and same macros on paper.

1:00:45But when people ate the ultra processed version of the sandwich, they had a 50 % reduction in calorie burn after eating that sandwich than when they ate the whole food sandwich. 50 %? 50 % reduction. Yeah, I don't remember that. I don't remember that. You remember that? No, that's interesting. Again, this is published in Food and Nutrition Research. And now here's the thing. What's going on here? I refer to that as like, it's creating a metabolic clock. Like it's just a complexity, it's making it, it's difficult for your body to process this stuff. And so you end up retaining more of it. But let me be clear, if people read further into it, you could assume like, this is kind of a temporary thing.

1:01:23Your body will sort things out over time. But what if you do that every day? Yeah. Day after day after day. And meal after meal. Guess what? You have a severely deranged and clogged metabolism where your body is just having a hard time processing all this fake shit. Yeah. Yeah. It's to try to separate food into its chemical makeup, calories, macros, nutrients, which are all important. But just to make it just that completely flies in the face of human behavior, culture, history. I mean, we eat, how many people eat food based off of it's just pure nutrient? Like this is what I, it's never that.

1:02:09It's always I'm hanging out with somebody or I'm watching this movie or it's breakfast, lunch, dinner. Or I crave something. Or it's a wedding or I'm sad. Food, it means so much more to us. So I always thought it was silly. In fact, good coaches know this. good personal trainers and coaches coach behaviors and not macros and calories and have far more success over that long-term than people that just are like, here's your macros, you know, follow this, that, and the other, and let's see what happens. Precisely. I totally agree. You know, again, we, we have a tendency, you know, I get it. We like to simplify things, but we tend to oversimplify things, you know, and something is so complex.

1:02:51Like I was just thinking about, I mean, he showed me the megalodon tooth. Yeah. Cool. Right. Like this, we don't know what's going on. We have no clue. We're just here trying to figure it out and maybe, you know, enjoy the process a little bit here and there. Like this is all just really great mystery. We know a time, we know like a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percent about what's going on. And that's awesome. Now, part of that discovery is understanding the genes, right? And so what I wanted to share with you guys earlier, just like a very specific testament to this. So this was published.

1:03:33First of all, let me tell you the title of the study. Resistance Exercise Reverses Aging in Human Skeletal Muscle. Hmm, this was published in PLOS One. Now I'm gonna talk specifically about gene expression. The researchers took 25 healthy elderly people with an average age of like 68 and 26 young adults. They had an average age of around 24 and collected their genetic data. What I love about this too, they also took muscle biopsies from the participants, which is not fun. The elderly participants were put onto a structured full body strength training program for 26 weeks. and the researchers had them to just do two full body strength training sessions each week, progressively increasing the amount of weight that they lifted as they got stronger.

1:04:21What you guys do. Now, this is where it gets interesting. They tracked nearly 600 of their genes from the young people and the older people. The young people didn't do anything different in their lifestyle. The older people started strength training. So the control group, Young people. And so 600 genes related to aging showed significant differences between the young people and the old people. The old people's genes expression just was like all associated with stuff that we attribute to older people and being stuff that's kind of getting messed up or messed up. Now, here's what happened. At the end of the study, again, this was a 26-week strength training program for the older people, nearly 200 of their genes in these older people showed remarkable change in their expression, now mirroring the younger people.

1:05:10All right? 200 of those genes, almost 200, of their genes were now looking as if they were younger. Decades younger. So you couldn't even tell between those. The 200 and the other, these are the same age. So we're not even saying slowing down the aging process. We're saying potentially reversing it through strength training. How profound is that? So profound. Yeah. Yeah, I always refer to, well, exercise in general, if you had to label anything a fountain of youth, which there's so many things that can contribute to this, but exercise in general, and then more specifically, I would say strength training, just because it directly combats all the physical things that we would normally attribute to aging, frailty, mobility, strength, insulin sensitivity, all the things that we would normally say would decline as you get older, that form of exercise directly a comment.

1:06:06So it's not a surprise to me that you would see on a test, a reversal of age with genes. Cause that's what's happening. Absolutely. You're going, you're going backwards with that stuff. When we're talking about mindset at this point, I don't think it's woo woo. I think at this point people will hear it and go, yeah, you know, I've seen studies. It makes sense. The challenge though, is how do you change that mindset, right? So it's like, okay, well, I just think like a kid. Like, what does that look like? One of the things I like to point to is the data on stress. So if you look at studies on stress, chronic stress, you have studies where they say, okay, let's list all the areas of stress in your life and then let's take them out of your life and let's see what happens.

1:06:49And then we have other studies where they take people who have list all the things in stress and they say, we're not going to take anything out. We're just going to now try to work on assigning meaning and purpose to the stress. And the meaning and purpose side crushes, crushes the take things out of my life that are stressful type of things. And for me, that makes perfect sense because objectively, if you live in a modern society, objectively, there's always, you know, situations, but objectively speaking, we have far less objective, hardcore stress than people a hundred years ago. Like this is just, it's just a fact.

1:07:30Like they had to deal with a megalodon. Yeah. Or even a hundred years ago, like, you know, great depressions and world wars and just, you know, your kid got, you know, bronchitis and they might die, you know? Um, yet we're more stressed. So, uh, I don't necessarily, and a lot of times we'll, oh, we have all this stress in our life. I think it's less of that and more of we have no meaning and purpose behind the stuff that we're doing. How do you feel about some of that? Yeah. Oh, man, this reminds me of my conversation with health psychologist Kelly McGonigal. And this was the first thing that I ever shared that went crazy viral.

1:08:08It's like 100 million views on social media. And it was just this little snippet from our conversation. and what she was talking about in the clip, she was talking about how exercise elicits what, you know, is quote hope molecules. Yeah, yeah. We, now we, of course. I remember this clip. Myokines and all that stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But another part of that conversation and what she really got on my radar for, you know, this was about 10 years ago, was her data affirming how you perceive stress makes all the difference in the world. So if somebody is dealing with a stressful situation, they see it like the stress is just killing me.

1:08:49It's breaking me down and so be it. But when you can perceive it as this stress is making me stronger, I have what it takes to make it through this. This too shall pass. Just having a more affirmative mindset in the face of stress. Again, the mindset piece, people were in fact more resilient, had a healthier gene expression, had healthier biology because they chose to see the stress differently. Now I say chose very loosely because most of the time we're unconscious that we do this. Some people we think just seem to have this temperament where I just see things like that. Right. But you can learn to do that.

1:09:24And you can also unlearn it in a way, or be beaten into a situation where you change and you're like, well, you know, it is taking me down. And any of us, this can happen to, this is the power of remembering. And this is why shows like this are so important. This isn't just your learning stuff. Some stuff you might even know. It's to remember. It's those constant reminders from people that you know and trust to remember how powerful you are, to affect change, to determine how you think, to choose your own thoughts instead of being told what to think and to be programmed that that I can't, I'm disempowered.

1:10:05There's all this stuff going on in the world. And you just said it too, you know, our stress is different today. Like most of, especially if you're listening to this, you got a phone, you got a phone. Like we've got so much access and opportunity and we don't have to worry about it. Even it, I don't know if you guys saw this data, but the obesity epidemic is on par. like even in the homeless population, is on par with the general population. You don't even have to have a home. And you can be big as you wanna be. We have access to food and calories. Again, I'm not saying that it's healthy. So many of our needs are being met, but it's the psychological need of meaning and purpose.

1:10:54We need that. We absolutely need that as human beings. And if I was not particularly prepared, but I've had multiple studies affirming how purpose, a sense of purpose contributes to longevity and slowing down the rate of aging. Many people know, like superficially, the legend of people retiring and then they begin the process of degradation and dying quickly thereafter. Right? And so even if you retire, quote, retire from a career, you've gotta be proactive at investing yourself in something that gives you meaning and purpose. And this is why these long-lived cultures, this is yet another reason why these long-lived cultures with all these centurions, it's not, again, the food is one thing.

1:11:42Yes, relationships, community, but it's meaning and purpose. The elders still have jobs to do. They still have important roles in the community, in the family structure. And we today, more than ever, we have to proactively find that for ourselves because we're so fractured. We're so fractured in our relationships and we don't have a lack of access to it, but we do have a lack of awareness. What I see in this, by the way, spot on. You look at these old cultures and you compare it to like our culture where youth is valued and wisdom is not. You know, getting old here is, you know, you go to Okinawa, you go to Sardinia and people who are older or you want their wisdom.

1:12:30You want their, you know, Arthur Brooks wrote this great book on this. And you mentioned how when people retire, their health suddenly declines, but there's a subset of that group where they're actually, they flourish. And he, and he looked into this and said, what's the difference? Well, the difference was that the people who flourished went from doing to teaching. So now they're done with their work, but then they started mentoring and teaching and volunteering and they just continue to flourish. Whereas the other group was like done with work. It's like, okay, now I'm just going to go sit on a beach or whatever, relax, watch TV.

1:13:01And their health took a terrible dive because of that lack of purpose. And there's a few places that I can see where this is an issue. We're talking about relationships in particular. We know how bad processed foods are, okay? So I think now this is not even controversial to say that heavily processed foods, generally not good for you in pretty much any way, okay? About the only value of processed foods is their long shelf life. So I could see how there might be some positive applications there. Otherwise, it's just bad for you. What we've done with relationships is we've made them processed, is what we've done.

1:13:39Same thing we did to food. So we've taken real relationships where I walk out my house, talk to my neighbor, knock on someone's door. Someone comes to my house. We're hanging out. Got to do the weird, awkward thing. And they're coming over. The house is clear, whatever. So that little bit of work, but now it's face-to-face. And we've just processed it. So it's like, yeah, I'm talking to people. I'm on social media. I have 100 Facebook friends. Yeah, I'm texting, you know, which, you know, processed food gives you calories. You're not going to starve. Processed relationships is not like just being in a room, not talking to anybody, but it's not real relationships.

1:14:13And it's just as bad for you as processed food. And we've processed a lot of things. And relationships, in my opinion, is one of the worst ones. So well said. Yeah. and I think it's so important for men and this is again back to relationships like I think because I'm just I have four kids and I have two older and two younger from different you know I was married my first marriage and my second marriage and I am way different as a father with my younger ones than I was with my older ones when they were little you know had I had had I really had a mentor that I respected that I went to for these things and said hey man I'm going to have kids you've already had kids and taking their advice i think it would have helped absolutely i think it would help rather than going through it and then be like oh man i could have been more patient yeah you know because i got the same experience as you how you know with the the gaps of all the way from teenage all the way up to 30s um what have you seen like um culturally like the challenges like i think it's so interesting like i know he's he grew up in the iphone generation right probably you know everybody probably has one at school so at that where your 30 year old, no one probably had that.

1:15:21She probably just barely got theirs, you know, 10 years ago or whatever. So what has that been like with how different the culture is today, raising them? Have you found that you've had to mold as a father? Do you find yourself having to talk about something you really didn't have to talk about before? What's that been like? Yeah, this experience is way different with my youngest because it's the first time that somebody's acting like I'm not cool. Right. Because, you know, with my, with my daughter, like, you know, she would see it. They're just like her teachers are trying to hit on me, picking her up and all her little friends like me, you know, and the same thing, my oldest son, like where our cultures are so close because I was 21.

1:16:01So when he was in high school, like - You were still hip to that generation. Yeah, exactly. Like we listened to the same stuff, you know? You're a boomer to this generation. Right. And I remember, you know, like he started to act a little bit like I'm not cool, a little bit. But then like his friends were like following me on social media or whatever. And they're like, dude, your dad was with, you know, I don't know, whoever, whoever they were following. He's like, yo, your dad is, you know? And so it just like, he was like, yeah, you're right. He all right, he all right. And so, but, you know, seeing that transition with the, you know, with the technology for sure.

1:16:37I mean, you know, my kids, both of my kids were in it, my older two kids. But for him, now I know. and so like we were the last he knows this to get like an iphone and you know into middle school and also we have a family culture around it right and so no social the social media piece right that's incredibly dangerous and we know this like yeah there's there's too many studies already that are that are cited on this stuff and the fact that there's kids in elementary school getting phones that's crazy all right six years six year old kids six year old kids with phones is crazy. But again, if we don't know, we don't know.

1:17:15And parents are not trying to hurt their kids. It's just like, it seems so, um, it's insidious. Right. It's culturally accepted. So everybody thinks it's the norm. Yeah. You just hear, put the kid in front of a screen. Right. And so, yeah, just having a, a real, a culture of a healthier relationship with the devices. This is a problem for all of us. We know it. You know, I'm picking up my phone for those that don't see the video, but, you know, and so one of the things that we observe, like family dinners, right? We don't bring phones to the table, something very practical. And he'll tell you, like, I'm the main one that I don't even have my phone near me a lot of times, right?

1:17:54So like, if we're all hanging out in the living room, for example, like my phone is in the kitchen, you know, we don't have the phone, especially at bedtime, right? Having kids, having their, A study just came out, I think last week or last month on, in particular, was found when kids have their phone at night. Yeah. Right. And it just, it's so obvious. Like if the child has their phone at night, interrupting their sleep. And so what the study was affirming was worse mental health, higher rates of all manner of, you know, all of that. Depression, anxiety, and, you know, ideation. Right. And so having that phone at night.

1:18:29So he doesn't have the phone in his room at night. It's good. Right. And so just having some basic parameters around it, but also knowing he's going to have his phone, he's gonna be talking with his friends, he's going to be watching some video clips. Like I just showed you his AAU basketball clips, for example, he loves that kind of stuff. And so that's great, but it's being mindful, monitoring as well, because you know it. I could just put up a video that we're all watching, maybe it's a Mr. Beast video, But then it's like some pill commercial comes up or whatever. Just like, you know, and if he was younger, it's like, what is that?

1:19:07You know, what is a blue chew? Yeah. Whatever. I think it's blue chew. I don't know. But, you know, it's just like the culture that we exist in is going to be putting stuff in front of our kids. Yeah. And so we've got to educate them about it. Be proactive. Tell them in advance. That's the key right there. I have friends that are going through trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube, right? And take it away. And you can see the resentment from the teenagers and the kids that are just like, what? You've always let me have this. Now I can't. And there's not a lot of communication. There's not a lot of education to the why.

1:19:43And then I have a cousin who homeschooled their kids. They have teenagers. And they have very strict parameters around the phone, social media, all those things. and I remember talking to her as a teenager like you know does that bother you that mom and dad only let you do it for this long or you have this and that she goes yeah I wish I could do it more and then I said um when you become a parent one day and you have kids what will you do I would do the same thing so you know and that shows me that they you know they can admit yeah of course I want want it more but then also they've done a good job as parents of informing and educating them why they're doing that and enough to where she's saying, yeah, when I become a parent, I would enforce the same rules.

1:20:24I think it's why the example, because like I said, I have four kids and my two older ones were, especially my oldest, when he was growing up, this is when it all started becoming popular. I just wasn't aware. You know, I thought it was like TV. Like when I was a kid, we had TV. So it's like TV. It's not like TV. It's very different from TV. With my younger ones, much more, much, much more strict. And even my 15-year-old, it's like much more strict. In fact, she always tells me, my friends get to do all this and that. I'm like, I don't want you to be like everybody. And I show her the stats. You want to be like this?

1:20:56And she's like, okay. But the example that was given to me, which I thought was perfect, it's like, would you allow, would you just put a bunch of candy and garbage food around your kids and then say, you choose what you want to eat. You can make those choices. You know what you're going to do. No. They don't have the capacity, the maturity to be able to make good choices when they're presented with things that are so well engineered. Now, multiply that times 10 ,000, and that's what you have with the engineered algorithms. It's the equivalent of processed food engineering itself as you're eating it.

1:21:35That's what the algorithm is doing. As you're using them, they are engineering themselves to be that much more attractive. So if you give that to your kid, your teenage kid even, and you're just like, you know, you educate them, you're setting them up for failure in my strong opinion. So my opinion on this has changed dramatically as I've become more educated on this. So with my youngest ones, it's going to be, I'm going to keep them away from it as long as I possibly can. And again, even my 15-year-old, she gets five minutes a day on Instagram. Let me tell you, we fight over this still all the time.

1:22:10and I'm like, we're going to keep it at five. Hey, that's good dad right there. That's good dad. And my son can see the difference with his friends. That's good he has that awareness. Because there's a very clear difference between these kids that had unfettered access for someone to have it. For sure, for sure. And of course, like kids today, a lot of times they get together and get on their phones together. Sure. Right? Which is so funny to see. But of course, they're sharing memes and stuff like that too. It's a way to interact. And we do the same, you know? But to be able to see the difference when a kid is easily distracted, right?

1:22:46Having a difficult time focusing, right? We're programming not just our children, but ourselves, but especially our children to struggle to pay attention to things. Like we already have this epidemic, right? Of ADHD and ADD, but it's not an accident, right? It's not an accident. And, you know, the research is like, you know, maybe we had two to three minutes of like attention span. And now it's like, you know. Seconds. Seconds. And it's, we're just, our brains are very good at automation. And it's just learning. And so unlearning is more difficult, as you just mentioned. That's right. So if we can come into this with some intention, with some structure, with communication, and also being a dad, being a parent, and also having these parameters, and sometimes it seems tough, but.

1:23:34Yeah, it's tough. Yeah. You're going to be different from everybody else. That's the point. That's the point. That's the point. Yeah. If you want to be healthy spiritually, mentally, physically, you have to live differently than the norm, because the norm is not healthy. And that's the conversation I constantly have with my 15-year-old, which is like, everybody else, we're not going to be like everybody else. And I'm sorry, but I love you too much. And so that's the struggle, 100%. Bro, thanks for coming back on. Yeah, yeah. Good time. Always a good time. Great conversation. Thank you guys so much.

1:24:06Always a great conversation. Great podcast. You're one of the few podcasts in our space that has stood the test of time. We were just talking about this the other day. We've been on air now for 10 years and we've seen so many health podcasts that come up to the top, disappear, whatever. And you're always doing such a great job. And that's a testament to the authenticity and just your ability to communicate and bring out the best in people. So yeah, good job, man. I appreciate that, guys. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for tuning into this episode today. I hope that you got a lot of value out of this.

1:24:37If you did, you already know what to do. Please share it out with somebody that you care about. Keep this conversation going and definitely check out Mind Pump as well. Those guys are doing some incredible work and are doing it with integrity and they've been really putting in work and intention for a very, very long time. And huge shout out to those guys. And listen, we are just getting warmed up here with the Model Health Show. And I'm so inspired and I'm so grateful. and I just appreciate you so much for being on this journey with me. It really does mean more than you know. And when I tell you we've got some incredible, incredible masterclasses and the most amazing guests in store for you, I am not pulling any punches.

1:25:21I truly do mean that and I truly do appreciate you. And so just be ready, be ready. And with that, I wish you an amazing day ahead. Take care, have an amazing day and I'll talk with you soon. We'll be right back.