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Language: en
what would you say are the top Foods
using this food as medicine approach um
to prioritize in one's diet for
longevity you know it I think it really
starts with defining what is longevity
and to me it's actually living as long
as you possibly can but living as well
as you can enjoying it while you're
actually getting there right so there's
no number that you can actually uh go
for longevity it's really not like
booking online for a movie theater
can't do that and so really it's uh I
think it's about finding out in a very
personal way what works for you that's
lined up with getting you to where you
want to be and by the way one additional
thing that's critical is not to get
taken out by the diseases that Rob us of
those years and so what are what are
those diseases the things that take us
out before our time those are the those
are the real thieves of longevity right
so where everybody's trying to get to
the next Frontier but on the on the
other hand we've got like you know home
Invaders coming in through our side
doors and coming in through our windows
we got to deal with so what are the
common we're really talking about um uh
diabetes metabolic disease we're talking
about cancer I'm a cancer researcher so
I know all about that amazing progress
being made in that front um
cardiovascular disease which isn't just
about the heart it's about the brain you
want to live long you want to have good
cognition right you want to be able to
remember you want to be able to problem
solve you want to be able to enjoy it's
all in our heads so to speak uh so I
always think that don't just focus on
the horizon focus on the present on your
way to the Horizon I like that first of
all we all want to live as long as we
possibly can and to me longevity is
living as long as you're possibly able
to but as well than having a good
quality of life along the way right so
everybody wants to live as long as they
can and but you don't want to be uh
living to whatever crazy numbers of
people are spouting 150 200 300 years
old you know like there you see you hear
these numbers from the the the sort of
the people who are Ultra biohackers who
are you know really dreaming of super
longevity right like I I've even heard
the term I think um Peter diamandes said
this escape velocity uh of of Aging how
do you escape so you just going to live
forever um and I think that's an
intriguing idea but I think it misses
the point of our Humanity you know I
mean we all just want to you know like
if all you do is focus on a horizon that
distant point and you don't focus on
what is in front of your headlights
you're you're really going to be missing
a lot of your life especially and maybe
giving yourself a false promise if you
just actually give a so some of the
myths are like for example that your
genetics determine everything about
whether you're going to live long or not
it is true if your grandfather
great-grandfather your family members
lived a long time you're probably going
to have a better chance hopefully with
better genetics to you know drive your
uh your vehicle for a longer period of
time your the vehicle being your body my
great uncle for example lived to 104
years old completely intact and and
cognitively clear I don't know I hope I
got something from him was he here in
the states or he Liv in China okay drank
green tea probably six to 10 cups of
green tea every single day of his life
and he was very physically active and he
was really pluged into his community had
a big support you know he kept his mind
really active and so you know these are
these are again recurrent themes of
people who live a really long time could
I interrupt you for one second you're
such on a rooll but I'm so fascinated
about your uncle yeah obviously
everybody's individual situation is
different but from your research end
from your food end and obviously he was
a family member if you had to rank
obviously genetics play a little bit as
you mentioned they're not everything if
you had to rank the things that he was
doing doing that probably played the
biggest role in his long but more
importantly healthy lifespan even for
somebody to live to 80 in America but
not be on prescription drugs and be
healthy and their brain is sharp that's
even super rare and Meanwhile your uncle
great great uncle's living to 104 what
do you think were the biggest things
that played a role you know what I
actually asked him this yeah I asked him
this because I went to his 100th
birthday which he planned he made the
guest list he selected the food food all
right and he hosted like as the
talkative host all right it's it was an
amazing event for me the first time I
had ever personally known somebody in
this case a family member um who turned
a 100 and I could see what it could be
like and so before we actually got to
the actual birthday party I arrived a
little bit early and this was in China
and I talked to him and I'm like okay
you got to tell me right here right now
like what is your secret like and when
you look back uh what insights could you
share and I think the answer is pretty
typical he basically said you know I
don't know if there's a a stock answer I
can give you that's going to work for
everyone but I'll tell you but he told
me here's what was important for me if I
had to look back at it he said number
one I let things roll off my shoulder I
don't carry my anger I don't carry
resentment things are just not that
important for me to actually kind of get
too wrapped up in it no matter what it
is and he's like he's always been that
way so the mindset first right mindset
psychology L stress you know um and I
think there's a little bit of self-care
in there like you know he would rather
pay attention to things that he cares
about rather than what other people care
about you know and he let he led a lot
of things and and he's specifically
talking about anger he's like let the
anger roll off it's not a big deal it's
not worth it okay and I I still to this
day remember that whenever I get into a
situation where I get riled up I'm like
you know maybe it's not that important
okay and and that's just been helpful to
me so mindset absolutely the second
thing he said is he's like you know
he lived at the base of this mountain
That Grew tea and he Saidi drank tea my
whole life he's like I grew up in this
house my whole life I've been drinking
green tea that is fresh from the
mountain freshly picked seasonally
picked you know he's like I know the
people who in all the places that were
picking the tea and he's like and I just
drink it sip it all day long and he was
a big believer in drinking green tea and
of course the scientific evidence has
shown the kakin of polyphenols and green
tea actually and and if you know you get
dietary fiber if you have the powdered
tea like the matcha if you actually have
kakin
from regular tea earlier in the season
you don't have as much caffeine because
caffeine is developed by the tea plant
as its own insecticide natural pesticide
early in the season there not that many
bugs around so the caffeine is very low
um but he would just sip tea all day
long and the third so the third thing he
told me okay was that he had to walk to
to the tea like Temple kind of place
where he would sit with his friends
every day he had to walk in exercise to
get to his tea and those three things
mindset you know trying to be a little
chill a lot of green tea over many
decades many decades um and uh and then
exercising and then he's hanging out
with buddies you know like you know that
classic idea you see like these old guys
hanging around playing chess or whatever
it is they were doing
uh or just having conversation or just
sitting around and looking I remember
there was uh cuz I went up with him one
morning I got up at 4 in the morning and
I walked with him uh because I wanted to
see what it was like you know like okay
I want to walk in the shoes of this guy
who's about to turn 100 and see what he
does to see if I could imagine myself
doing that so we walked up these Stone
steps I mean listen the dude was like 99
plus right this was just a few days
short of a 100 and he was walking up
uneven Stone stairs okay and probably
the same way that people in Sardinia in
Iaria Greece maybe in uh okanawa you
know in these old cultures where people
are living really well um and I was
having a chat with him the whole time
you know and it was social exercise diet
with green tea in his case and
mindfulness actually if you really bring
it back down to the things that you hear
everybody saying what's the common
denominator take care of your mind don't
get hung up on things you know take care
of yourself eat in healthy ways Choose
Your Weapon of Health not weapon of
Destruction weapon of Health you know
it's it's going to be your health
defense that you're activating your body
be social exercise yeah and there's
probably a lot of things within that
that he also wasn't doing for example
like my guess is not knowing your uh you
know your great uncle but he probably
maintained a healthy body weight
throughout his life which is a part of
it and obviously these habits and things
like green tea and other things like
that contribute to that and help support
the natural metabolism that we all have
he's not having you know Ultra processed
foods on a regular basis you know by the
way I do remember another thing he told
me one on a previous visit that I had
with him before his 100th
birthday uh and I can't remember how old
he was at the time but I was so curious
to and I think we should we should all
do this more if we're fortunate to be
able to have Elders in our family or our
community that we can actually speak to
just to get the wisdom of of experience
and age you know like I think that we're
so focused on the the ourselves in here
now like I think there's a lot to be
gained from talking to other people just
as examples you know good and bad right
one of my favorite things to do but one
I do remember another um sort of uh deep
piece of advice he gave me he always
said live a life of moderation be
moderate even with moderation and what
he did is he say don't be excessive all
the time but every now and then give
yourself a chance to blow it out and do
the things that you want to do not
moderately and so you know like I always
thought wow that's a that's a pretty
deep thing like be reasonable most of
the time but every now and then give
yourself the freedom to to go do
something that's a little extreme and so
anytime I want to do something extreme I
remember what my my family member advise
me what's the sidebar before we get back
to longevity and that you know great
role that you were on what's something
extreme in Dr Lee's World oh you know
what I love to explore new foods yeah so
sometimes I will just go you know so
most of these the travel you're talking
about to Italy or Greece or Japan or
whatever I'm I'm researching I'm
actively researching and I'm going to
markets I'm going to restaurants I'm
talking to people I'm trying to find out
something new and I and I listen to
people so if somebody um I meet in in
the Mediterranean uh encourages me to
try a food
and it might like have some animal fat
in it it might not look so healthy but
they really want me to try it because
they're really proud of it and they
think that this is something that's
important for me to know about as I
research it I'll sit down and try it you
know like and it'll I'll feel like I'm
getting I'm walking on the ledge a
little bit you know like because doesn't
look that healthy and you know what it's
part of my experience I I'll get to
sample it I might not eat it again but
then I I've actually tried something new
so I'm never afraid to try a new
experience that can give me a better
insight into the world but also into
myself and how I react to it yeah you
know that's an important philosophy my
research is getting into longevity
because it's one of the most exciting
topics out there we're learning more
about how to do healthy aging than we've
ever known before and so one of the
things that I'm trying to do is to
figure out what is the actual fact of
longevity so how many people do you
think are alive today who are a 100
years old or older my guess would be in
the ball Park of maybe 25,000 all right
the answer is
722 th000 people are age 100 or older
today mind-blowing fact mind-blowing
because you know like we don't really
think about getting to a 100 as a
realistic or achievable goal but the
fact that there's almost 34 of a million
people who have already done it without
implantable guo sensors without being
biohackers without being all right tells
you something right uh so that to me is
one of the exciting reasons to dive into
this whole space that is that very
exciting and just to know again without
all of the again there's great
innovations that are happening right now
but a lot of people have figured certain
things out and if you could I also want
to dig in on a surprising fact that is
related to their longevity and this
might have something to do with their
gut health okay so I started to get into
looking at gut health with gut
microbiome which are the 39 trillion
healthy bacteria that are in our gut uh
that do all kinds of things as we know
lower inflammation they release short
chain fatty acids they talk to our
immune system 70% of which is in the
wall of our gut they text message our
brain the old gut brain axis um control
our lipid metabolism our insulin
sensitivity I mean pretty much air
traffic control for our health lives
inside our gut right so we're normally
thinking about this um I started out
looking at gut health in cancer patients
I'm a cancer researcher and we now
realize that if you have cancer and
you're being treated with a very
advanced therapy called immunotherapy
which relies on your immune system most
natural way of treating cancer you can
imagine let your own immune system knock
it out if you don't actually have the
right gut micro Pro gut microbiome
profile you're not likely to respond to
cancer therapy that's not like optional
that's life or death right so I got into
that's how I got into the gut uh
microbiome the other thing that I uh
that got me into this is wound healing
so you know a lot of people if you cut
yourself you and I are probably going to
heal pretty fast but if you have type
two diabetes and you cut yourself it
might take a long time to heal and you
might have a wound on your foot that you
can't see and that thing will just not
heal until it becomes infected and then
it can lead to Garing and amputation and
all this kind of stuff so I you know I
spent part of my career helping to
develop brand new angiogenic blood
vessel stimulating ways to quickly heal
wounds very successful but then I had a
discovery with a colleague of mine uh at
the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology that certain gut microbiom
certain probiotics can speed need your
wound healing so you know I'm just
telling you like how I got into this
field so with that with wound healing
and diabetes and with cancer and
treatment outcomes I started to really
take this toolkit and start to ask
myself how do we apply this in longevity
and the Natural Curiosity is are people
who are super agers do they have
anything special about their gut it's
the last thing you think about right
like some old dude you know like how are
you going to actually study their gut
well guess what it's no different than
actually studying a young dude okay a
young person has got microbiome you get
a swab you swap you you swap their poop
you swab their poop send the tube away
and now 15 years ago would have been
very very difficult to actually study
the gut microbiome we didn't have the
software we didn't have the um
sequencing we didn't have the the
Baseline database to even know what to
look for for fast forward to today we
got it so it's possible to do research
now that we couldn't do you know 15
years ago so uh amazing research I want
to share with your audience is that a
study was done in Italy bolognia Italy
they looked at adults across all their
entire spectrum of adulthood 20 to 40 40
to 70 70 to 90 90 to 100 and then they
you looked at people who are 100 to 114
super rers okay that's that's like
entire adult
lifespan they looked at their gut
microbiome and then they used
computational biology to ask within the
age categories and especially with the
super agers 100 and above any gut
bacteria pop out as super high like
standout bacteria that that you didn't
see in other populations and it turns
out for the people who uh were a hundred
years old or older there are four
bacteria that are standouts want to hear
what they are yes I do okay um one of
them I know you've heard of three of
them I hadn't heard of all right and
this is the exciting part like being a
scientist and a researcher I mean you
appreciate this as much as anyone else
you know like the excitement of
Discovery in biology is like why we do
what we do you know it's cool one of the
bacteria is called odor
o o r i Bor second one is called osilla
like oscillation Bor another one is
Christen elenis okay and then the fourth
one is
acromania these four bacteria are
standouts more in these of these
bacteria in these superagers than you
see in any other group and that stand
out higher at higher levels when they
get to this age what do they do what do
they do okay now we know acromania
boosts your immune system lowers your
inflammation we know that it helps to
regulate blood glucose we also know that
acromania um we actually think that
acromania might actually uh uh interfere
with um the development of dementia
somehow regulating brain health and then
the latest piece of discovery about
acromania it's a bacteria all right so
bacteria have a shell around them
physically they're like like a beetle a
Beetle's got a little shell like the the
bug there's a particle on the shell of
acrania I don't know if you heard about
this have you heard of P9 okay p is in
Peter number nine is a newly discovered
particle on the
shell surrounding acrania all right and
you know what they found out is that if
you take aive back Romano bacteria and
blow it up into a million pieces skill
it like like like uh pulverize it the P9
will still have a beneficial biological
effect if it's floating around so it's
like a piece of shrapnel from acrania
that's still biologically useful and you
know what it
does it causes your gut to secrete more
natural
glp1 wow mind blown right so now you
know this is the bacteria that's doing a
lot of things and it's even got its own
you know vest of little tricks in in the
Shell anyway so that's one of the
bacteria um uh and um these other
bacteria do things like um lower
inflammation uh fight specific harmful
bacteria like ecoli so you know think
about it as you get older most people
who are who get to that elderly age they
don't die of heart attacks they die
infection pneumonia and all this other
kind of stuff so you know one of these
bacteria seems to really really mount a
good defense against the kind of
infection that might take you out um
other ones that you smooth out your
metabolism uh lower your uh bad LDL
cholesterol and improve your good HDL
and lower your triglyceride level um
other ones um uh seem to improve better
circulation these are not surprises once
you actually break down what these
bacteria these four
bacteria are involved with in terms of
your physical health makes total sense
and These Guys these cenarius and older
okay because I had never considered when
I first started to take a look at
longevity I thought you know like 100's
like all right that's a that that's like
a good Peak to begin looking at but I
had no idea like okay let's just do a
dive on the deep end of the pool and
look at their microbiome and and look at
all this stuff and guess what you can
eat foods that can stimulate these to
grow amazing amazing I never even
thought about how many people are on
planet Earth right now that have lived
to be over 100 years old I've never even
thought about that question we know that
there are these hot spots that have a
lot of cians right and I think it's so
fascinating that this research was done
in bolognia because this is the Hub of
baloney comes from this great part of of
the planet and the diversity and diet
is one of the things that's finally
being talked about in regards to Blue
zones there isn't a particular diet
template that is very very varied but
one of the consistencies of course is
that these people are eating real food
regardless of the spectrum from and
different kinds of Real Food yes diverse
the diversity is huge and also you know
again on that range from plant to animal
food that percentage is going to change
but what doesn't change is real food and
diverse in all of the real foods that
they're eating well and and this is
something that makes a lot of sense to
how our bodies are designed if you look
at our Jaws you look at our teeth you
look at sort of our digestive system we
are through Evolution designed to be
omnivores we can tackle pretty much
anything you want to put in now you
obviously you put bad stuff in your
body's going to respond in a bad way put
good stuff in so there's a wide range
we've got a repertoire like we got the
Mixed Martial Arts of digestion
and processing foods that we're
hardwired with and that's a good thing
you know and yes there are lots of
different philosophies and approaches
and practices of how to eat healthy but
I think you nailed it diversity is key
yeah yeah and I'm bringing that specific
point up it's a great segue in this
conversation about the importance of the
healthy gut
microbiome the one of the Hallmarks that
we've seen in the data if you want to
improve your gut health you want to
improve the input bring in more
diversity of inputs for your microbiome
because basically these microbes cannot
Thrive without their own unique kind of
food that they enjoy and they can't make
the good stuff for us if we're not
taking care of them right right there
you know like our gut bacteria are no
different than any other pet we might
actually have in our home you got a pet
dog pet cat pet parakeet pet
goldfish same deal you got to be feeding
them every day got to take feed them
high higher quality food if you want
them to last longer you know and and how
how do our like especially the furry
pets pay us back with attention with
affection like it forms that bond that
connection well you know that's
happening at a microscopic level in our
gut like we we now realize that we've
got to take care of you know like the
pregnant mom saying like I'm I'm eating
for two we're actually eating for 39
trillion bacteria wow that's a bar
that's a bar right there you know people
talk about health span but Health span
just a word that goes back to health
which itself is kind of an objective
word it's a term you know but when I
tell you quality of life enjoying life
you're you're hearing that and you're
already imagining what it would mean for
you and so that to me brings our
Humanity back into it so for me one of
the ways I'm looking at longevity is
really um thinking about our Humanity
you know who we are what's important to
us as individuals as communities as
people along the way I think that's
really how you get a fuller picture of
it so I totally think you know all the
people working in the lab on uh the
Hallmarks of aging and the biological
and the cellular the cence the mitophagy
all that stuff amazing there are the
building blocks or the bricks being
placed into the brick wall to understand
what's going on with aging and how to
counter you know um unhealthy aging I'm
actually trying to take a little bit of
a um a larger um uh H uh sort of
humanitarian or you know our Humanity
oriented look at it which is to look at
quality and you know things that are
particular interest to me are um
cognition brain health so important
brain's not a black box anymore it's
still a lot we don't know but did you
know since we're talking about the
microbiome did you know that the brain
has its own microbiome this was
theorized for years but now we know now
we know back you know listen I went to
medical school I was told in no
uncertain terms that the brain is
sterile sterile environment sterile
environment you do a a tap of the spinal
cord and if you're tapping into the
fluid around the brain there's no way in
heck you're going to find any bacteria
in that unless you've got menitis or
some kind of brain infection right well
now we now have within the last few
years like really nailed it down that
there is a bacteria ecosystem in our
brain um like in our gut gut brain and
you know what the brain bacteria are not
quite as diverse as the gut as in the
gut but about 20% of the diversity of
the gut bacteria is also in the brain
wow Undiscovered Country think about
that yeah I mean what could we be doing
I mean could we be treating
in the future neurod
degeneration using a
probiotic how cool would that be and in
fact there's some good data already like
um I I was really struck by um some of
these bacteria so you know you you get
your gut microbiome Tech you get a huge
amount of information hard to know what
to do with if you're not like regularly
an if you're not an expert in a field
okay but we do know a few bacteria that
are standouts and I think that knowing
some of these standouts like the acrania
I mentioned earlier well there's a new
one a new play a new kid in town um
called lactobacillus
plantarum now if you go back if you go
buy a typical probiotic you know like
anywhere you order um you'll find a lot
of times it's got elop plantarum but
there's one of there's a version of it
that's called PS1 128 have you heard of
this yeah this thing has been shown to
level off the symptoms like pretty much
stop the progress
a Parkinson's
disease bacteria
brain uh interaction I don't have the
answer to you know I don't have the
explanation how it works but wow what a
what a phenomenal find because it opens
up a whole new Gateway for us to try to
figure out how to solve these previously
unsolvable problems yeah it's so
fascinating because you know when the
when the explosion happened in the
conversation about the microbiome and it
really just kind of rose in popularity
and discussion there's always going to
be you know certain entities that are
trying to capitalize on this and the
truth is we still just didn't know very
much and at this point we're really
starting to know some cool stuff yeah
but this piece of the brain biome is
this is a revelation like this is one of
those moments for us to just like we
need to really take a moment and take
this in and it's for me it is kind of
obvious because if you think about what
we are we are an ecosystem you know
literally from head to toe and to think
that this one part of our brain is our
body is off limits but you know we know
that we have a skin microbiome we have a
gut microbiome a lung microbiome heart
microbiome our brain of course but the
interaction the communication of all of
this is what it's really about and
understanding that we've
identified a certain species of
probiotic a certain species of microbes
that can essentially reverse or put a
halt in neurodegenerative conditions
like you start to see this interplay now
our problem is we tend to like okay I
just need to take a bunch of this
probiotic and it's going to solve all
the problems and we have this system and
I want you to talk about this of
medicine and also even supplementation
can be well-meaning
but is trying to isolate and find this
one quote miracle cure or The Smoking
Gun in a situation and negating the hole
because you can bring a powerful thing
into we'll just say into an Olympic
swimming pool put a drop in there but
you've got this entire swimming pool
that it's fighting against yeah no no
it's so true and that's like my approach
to research is you have to sort of start
with acknowledging the complexity and
dive into the complexity to try to find
out what might be some of the turnkey
things that can still work in spite of
the complexity okay and
um uh you know and that's why I think
that the the microbiome like it's easy
to jump to the conclusion by excited
motivated inspired and well-meaning
people that oh my God we got a solution
let's go create a probiotic and
everybody should buy it subscribe to it
to refilled every month or every 3
months you know we're at the tip of the
iceberg and the iceberg is really really
exciting because every bit we're
uncovering is telling us just how
important this actually is but like
everything else in science you go from
excitement to wondering like how do we
really apply this and will it actually
work and I can tell you this as a cancer
researcher we've cured cancer in mice
over and over again it's like a
no-brainer how to do it to be honest
with you if you're talked to an
experienced cancer researcher you're a
with cancer no biggie all right
Translating that to people has been
climbing Mount Everest okay you can get
to the top people do get to get to the
peak of Everest but it's not easy and
and a lot of failures I mean the the
road to the tip of to the summit
littered with the bodies of failed
efforts right okay same thing with all
this and you know and that's why I'm
super excited by where the science of
longevity Jos science is actually going