Kind: captions
Language: en
today we're going to talk about five
things that you can do for Longevity if
you are over 40 years old exercise
avoiding smoking easing up or avoiding
alcohol lowering stress ditching Ultra
processed foods and adding plant-based
foods to your diet let's dive in first
of all let's talk about longevity
longevity is a duration of an
individual's life and of course we're
all different uh we've got different
genetics we've got different backgrounds
we've got different life exposures as a
doctor I can tell you when I actually
see a patient one of the things that I
try to do the first time I meet them is
to give it a little bit of an assessment
of what their life has been like what
their parents uh survival was and what
kind of conditions they have and their
relatives have it gives me a little bit
of a big picture view on what their
overall risks are but the idea of living
as long as you can longevity has been
around for tens of thousands of years in
fact it's as old as mankind you know
that quest for longevity is the stuff of
Legends you've heard of ponon the
Explorer the Spanish explorer who
discovered Florida in Puerto Rico the
Fountain of Youth ponon right Fu Manu
that
mythical character uh in China who uh
was always looking for the little file
of longevity and of course the Holy
Grail uh also associated with this for
immortality so here's the good news we
are indeed living longer as human beings
um let me give you some numbers in
1900 right so over a hundred years ago
the average life expectancy was for men
wait for it only 46 years old that was
the average okay average life expectancy
for women in 1900 was only 48 years old
women have always lived a little bit
longer on average than men but check it
out under 50 years old more than 100
years ago that was it that was the
average life expectancy today we've
improved that number a lot so as of 2022
these are the numbers that you got to
collect over a long period of time men
and women born in 2022 can expect to
live to 75 years old if you're a man and
80 years old if you are a woman all
right 7 to 80 from 46 to 48 years old
that's a big jump over the course of a
100 years now why has life expectancy or
longevity increased this is long before
people were actually biohacking and
trying to look for supplements that
could actually do this let me tell you
basically life expectancy is has uh
improved because our conditions around
us have actually improved as well we've
got better nutrition less poverty now
obviously some places still have extreme
poverty but compared to what it was like
in 1900 we've got a lot less poverty
we've got better Public Health
governments uh are organized communities
are better organized to be able to
actually have better sanitation cleaner
water we've got antibiotics 100 years
ago a little bit more did have
antibiotics you got a cold you got a flu
you got uh an infection that was pretty
much all they all you wrote all right
maybe not a cold but definitely a
serious infection appendicitis we also
have vaccines I know that the current
controversy around vaccines but I can
tell you it was a medical breakthrough
that contributed to our longevity all
right uh why we live longer better
maternal and neonatal care a third of
moms and babies actually died at
childbirth way back then didn't even
have uh handwashing as a basic concept
for reducing the risk of infection so
moms actually wound up dying of
infection all right we Al we have better
health care in General all right these
are some of the reasons that we're
actually living longer than before but
we still want to live longer than we are
now right so this is where science comes
into play and um the first thing I want
to say is like so what's holding us back
from even doing better well now even
though we are living a lot longer than
we did in 1900 we are dealing with
chronic diseases that take us out what
am I talking about I'm talking about
cardiovascular disease cancer diabetes
lung diseases are big big problem and
mental health issues uh like depression
all actually um uh overall shorten our
longevity and of course as we're living
longer we're beginning to see
neurodegenerative diseases that are
associated with older age right
Alzheimer's disease vascular dementia
that's when the small blood vessels in
your brain um get narrow and hard and
don't allow good blood flow not enough
blood flow to the brain Parkinson's
disease these are common in the Aging
population all right and of course then
there are Health inequities between you
know the economic discrepancies make it
even harder for some people to optimize
their lifespan so we still have a long
ways to go uh to be able to actually
optimize where we are and what about
genetics your genetics can make a
difference in fact it's been estimated
that about 25% in the variation of
longevity are due to genes the genes
you've inherited from your parents now
we don't actually know exactly which
genes yet lead you to live longer and
which genes lead you to live shorter on
the whole obviously there's some Trends
and patterns and for some diseases of
course but this is an area of active
research I'm a I'm a researcher so I'm
happy to tell you what we don't know for
sure yet and we're not really we haven't
nailed down pinpointed what are the
genes of course some really interesting
research show that centenarians people
live to 100 they've got some unique
genetic features but some people who
live can live an awful long time without
those genetics as well obviously the
role of d diet and lifestyle and the
environment are huge as well here's an
example of diet all right eating ultr
processed foods shortens your lifespan
while eating whole plant-based Foods all
right and Seafoods increases longevity
all right uh and part of the reasons
they lower the risk of chronic diseases
you don't have a chronic disease you're
more likely to live longer another
factor in our diet are artificial
chemicals that are found in our food
we're just beginning to unpack what
they're actually doing now we've known
we suspected for a long time that
artificial preservatives and colorings
and flavorings aren't good for us now
the data is coming out what they
actually do and one of the things they
do is they harm our gut microbiome the
healthy gut bacteria that live inside
our gut total about 39 trillion Ed
bacteria these bacteria um control
inflammation they lower inflammation so
when you hurt them inflammation goes up
inflammation goes up chronic diseases
start to appear these uh healthy gut
bacteria also boost our immune system
they actually raise our immune Shields
you harm the gut bacteria our immunity
goes down our immune system is not so
strong we wind up getting infected we
wind up getting sicker and cancer is
kept at Bay by a good strong immune
system so when immune system goes down
the risk for developing a cancer goes up
as well all right so our gut microbiome
uh is very exquisitly sensitive to what
we're eating and our food is also less
healthy for us today because of the soil
that our plants are grown in right our
plant-based Foods come from plants that
grow in soil compared to how things were
decades or maybe hundreds of years ago
our soil has been contaminated by
synthetic chemicals as pesticides the
soil microbiome is depleted so our the
soil also contains a microbiome uh and
because that's compromised our food
becomes compromised as well
all right then the other thing that that
that matters in our diet is
microplastics this is something that
we've known about for a long time that
Plastics everywhere right your water
container your stor food storage
containers your plastic silverware at a
picnic the plastic plates everywhere
right plastic cups drinking straws we've
always known that little bits of
plastics would get everywhere but only
until the last few years have we been
discovering these microplastic particles
tiny little particles are actually
floating around in our bloodstream they
can get into our brain they can get into
our organs they've actually been found
in testicles and semen they've actually
found even uh the plastic embedded in a
study of men in the penis all right uh
and it's also been shown that these
microplastics embed themselves in the
plaques that narrow arteries in the neck
and probably elsewhere as well and that
the connection between Plastics and
health outcome is that if you had
microplastics in the cored plaque this
is a study from Italy that was published
recently the presence of plastics
increase your chances of having a heart
attack or stroke by fourfold all right
now we're not thinking it's so harmless
anymore we know that microplastics are
around so microplastics is another
factor that can actually affect our um
longevity uh our overall health and a
long and how long we're actually going
to live lifestyle let's talk about
lifestyle factors that can actually
impede longevity don't worry I'm going
to talk about Foods I'm going to get
there okay I wanted to actually uh set
the stage for you to say why it's so
important to take action our lifestyle
has changed over the last century we
become more and more sedentary you know
that term Couch Potato it's a little
derogatory right like nobody's like a
couch potato right sounds so bad but
actually we're winding up sitting a lot
think about it you got a laptop you're
working remotely you're probably do it
sitting on a chair as opposed to moving
around
uh and being sedentary sitting down
actually removes physical activity from
our lives all right less walking more
driving uh more sitting more surfing
more screen time you get it we're
getting we're spending less time
Outdoors moving like the human body is
supposed to move all right I mean think
about it if we were evolved to actually
just sit and look at a screen we'd have
two arms with fingers and no feet and
we'd just be like a pillow with two with
two arms and hands that's it that's not
how we're we need to actually keep
moving so having said all that these are
all the reasons that we don't optimize
our longevity what can we do what are
the five things you can do if you're
over 40 to improve your chances of
living as long as possible optimizing
your longevity all right pretty simple
step number one exercise and stay
Physically Active now exercise is good
for one simple reason there's many
reasons but one that that every can
understand is that it gets your
circulation your blood flowing we need
blood flowing to be able to bring oxygen
and nutrients to every single cell and
organ in our body and when we have
better circulation we're actually doing
more for our organs secondly when we're
actually exercising you know what we're
actually doing we're recruiting stem
cells from our bone marrow it's one of
our health defenses and these stem cells
come out like bees out of a hive and
they circulate in our bloodstream and
they're repairing things we're getting
fixed from the inside out and because I
study this field of angiogenesis how the
body grows blood vessels stem cells
coming out not rebuild damaged blood
vessels damaged blood vessels
cardiovascular disease you you get it we
want stem cells to repair them and
exercise contributes to that exercise
also helps to build our immune defenses
now overly exercising like you know if
you actually run a marathon or or do uh
Ultra sports that can compromise your
immune system but for most of us
actually regular EX exercise builds our
immunity exercise also improves our gut
microbiome we talked about that healthy
gut microbiome that community in our gut
that lowers inflammation builds immunity
and also contributes to our brain health
which is also very important if you want
to live long and prosper as they say
building exercise builds gut health
these are all absolutely important so my
first tip for you if you're over 40 you
want to live for as long as you possibly
can is exercise and stay Physically
Active all right tip number two avoid
smoking of any kind cigarettes cigars
pipes vaping and in fact vaping actually
in some ways is worse uh because of the
flavoring they actually put uh in the
Vaped fumes uh so than than tobacco but
all are bad all right primary smoking
meaning if you're the smoker you're the
doer and you breathe L stuff into your
lungs what do you think actually happens
those chemicals damage your cells and
damaged cells can have mutated DNA and
when you mutated the DNA okay that's
your genetic code in your lung by
chemicals in Smoke hot toxic smoke all
right um You Ever stand behind like a
bus when it lets off a big puff of
diesel exhaust stinks right now you're
inhaling that kind of a stuff fumes
right into your lungs it causes damage
to your cells now you do it once or
twice you're probably going to be just
fine but you know people that are
smoking a pack a day two packs a day I
remember when I was training in medical
school we'd have people that are smoking
five six packs a day of cigarettes I'm
telling you that repeated damage to the
lung over the course of years in fact
doctors ask patients when they smoke if
they smoke how many packs do you smoke
per day and multiply that by years and
now you get the number of pack years um
that people are smoking that gives you a
sense of the amount of damage that's
accumulated that's a setup for lung
cancer makes total sense right you're
damaging your DNA why would you want to
do that so if you want to live long uh
and please don't smoke stay away from it
stay away from primary smoking but also
be very careful about secondary smoke
all right and if you're not a smoker you
know what I'm talking about you're
standing next to somebody in a subway
station or or bus uh stop and the person
next to you is smoking and they're just
blowing it out it's all over you right
um this is what used to happen believe
it or not in a restaur
before restaurant most restaurants stop
smoking or in a bar all right or in a
club the air was thick with cigarette
smoke so even if you didn't smoke you
are breathing in secondhand smoke it's
not you that's smoking but it's you
breathing it in same deal less of a dose
of the toxins but you're still breathing
it in right you're in a bar at night for
a few hours Every Breath You Take you're
breathing in these toxins what do you
think happens in the day in your lung
it's a setup for lung cancer lung damage
empyema all right by the way let me just
tell you how bad secondhand smoke is
Studies have been done looking at cats
kitty cats all right whose owners are
smoking and so there's the owner smoking
the house the cats sitting on the couch
right cat's not smoking but guess what
the cat actually does the cat licks its
fur so the person who's smoking smokes
everywhere settles on the couch settles
on the carpet you know what it's like in
a hotel room from somebody used to smoke
in there all right but it settles on the
cat's fur what does the cat do it licks
its paws it cleans itself and when it's
doing that it is
swallowing the toxins from the smoke
that's settled onto its fur and you know
what that does it increases the cat's
chance of developing cancer in its mouth
that's how bad secondhand smoke is so if
you want to live long don't smoke stay
away from people that are smoking stay
out of environments where people are
smoking as well unfortunately most
restaurants bars and and uh airplanes I
remember I once took an airplane years
ago before Airlines banned
smoking I can tell you I was I was
sitting in economy and everybody around
me was smoking this was actually in uh
Central Europe and man I had to take a
wet cloth and put it over my mouth uh
and my my nose so I I wouldn't pass out
so don't do it all right tip number
three avoid excessive alcohol now I got
got to tell you alcohol shorten your
life in a lot of different ways all
right um but before I tell you how let
me just say I'm not against alcohol I do
believe that uh drinking uh alcohol like
wine is part of our human Heritage we
celebrate birthdays and weddings and you
know all kinds of other important events
with drinking so uh excessive alcohol is
really what does you in all right and
here are some of the way it does you in
when you drink a lot you you get into an
accident DUI driving under the influence
you wind up actually having poor
judgment you crash your car or somebody
you run into somebody head on you kill
them all right could kill yourself as
well accidents you don't want to be
actually doing any woodwork with a Banda
if you're drunk all right do not operate
uh Machinery under the influence of
alcohol no so accident can take you out
too much alcohol also damages your liver
your liver is your body's ultimate detox
machine system filter and if you drink a
lot of alcohol your liver is working
overtime and eventually alcohol which is
a toxin I know people talk about red
wine being healthy and even beer has
some health but I can tell you it's not
due to the alcohol it's due to the Hops
and the liquid of the beer or the
polyphenols in the liquid of the wine
not due to the alcohol itself the
alcohol is toxic toxic to your liver
alcoholic hepatitis used to be one of
the most common causes um where of liver
failure and the need for liver
transplant so it damages your liver and
if you can't detox your liver guess what
you got all kinds of toxins floating
around your body and that cuts down your
longevity drinking a lot of alcohol also
increases the risk of esophageal cancer
that's cancer of the esophagus a very
deadly and difficult to treat uh type of
cancer in other cancers that are linked
to alcohol including breast cancer and
colon cancer and prostate cancer just
don't drink pancreatic cancer don't
drink too much alcohol the other way
that alcohol can take you out is that
alcohol is very very toxic to the heart
your heart is just a big muscle that
pumps your entire life all right even
before you're born your heart was
pumping all right it's going to pump
until your very last breath maybe one or
two after that pumps after that and I
can tell you that that muscle is very
sensitive to alcohol alcohol poisons
your heart muscle weakens the muscle and
while the heart is like um kind of a big
muscular pump with alcoholic
cardiomyopathy this is where the alcohol
is damaged the heart guess what your
heart turns into this kind of um loose
weak bag mushy bag Normal Heart about
this size mushy bag alcoholic
cardiomyopathy like this and you wind up
having heart failure because you can't
pump anymore the muscle isn't strong
enough hard isn't strong enough and
finally thing that can take you out is
alcohol is toxic to your brain all right
any degree of alcohol is toxic to your
brain fortunately your brain knows how
to do some detox it actually filters out
Al
alcohol it's very protective um but over
time you'll get alcoholic
inop which can be made worse by your
liver because when your liver also
clears out ammonia from your body and if
you wreck the filtering system the detox
system the ammonia builds up ammonia
plus alcohol that's a double whamming on
your brain and you wind up actually um
having brain damage all right so if you
want to live long uh stay away from do
not consume excess alcohol remember I'm
not telling you to cut out all alcohol
I'm saying cut out excessive alcohol if
you drink be very moderate if you want
to be super super healthy and optimize
your longevity don't drink at all all
right so it's a matter of gradation and
it's up to you all right tip number four
if you want to actually live a long life
if you're 40 or over um how do you
optimize your longevity manage and lower
excessive stress now look stress is
completely normal in everyday life I got
a lot of stress uh you know you get up
in the morning you got a list of things
you're going to be doing if you got a
schedule you got stress if you've got
kids you've got stress you know uh most
people in their relationships have type
of stress you got a boss you probably
have some stress as well if you get
deadlines you got stress totally normal
in fact some people argue uh that some
stresses actually good because it keeps
you on your toes and helps you perform
and be a little bit sharper could even
be advantageous all right like think
about studying for a test you want to
focus all right stress can help you
focus but stress causes your body to
release stress hormones all right and
stress hormones like cortisol um
actually also over time stresses out
your metabolism as well your insulin
sensitivity drops your glucose can rise
stress emotional stress physical stress
can lead to cardiovascular stress as
well all right if you're stressed at all
the time your blood pressure is going to
rise right this is why by the way when
you take get your blood pressure taken
in a doctor's office you're probably a
little bit nervous um if you take it
once you're going to have probably have
high blood pressure that's why we take
it a couple of times and sometimes
you'll have the doctor or the nurse
talking to you to try to distract you
and make you feel a little bit more at
ease when they measure your blood
pressure so your blood pressure comes
down but imagine this if you actually
are just a stressed out person because
of your schedule um combat stress all
kinds of different stress you're
probably going to have high blood
pressure hypertension is a silent killer
in older people high blood pressure
that's untreated can eventually lead to
a stroke all right increases your risk
of heart disease and Stroke Of course
high stress is also linked to having
mental health um problems as well so
depression depression decreases lifespan
all right hey check this out I've got a
guide on the five small daily habits
that boost brain health and prevent
cognitive decline and it's free I share
simple easy to use recommendations that
you can add to your routine today these
are habits that I use personally and
it's yours right now for free in the
caption below all you have to do is
click on the link below the video so the
other thing about stress by the way is
that stress ruins your sleep and sleep
is really really important because when
you are sleeping deeply
your brain has actually opened up its
own sewer system called the glymphatic
system it's like a whole series of
channels it's closed up the sewer is
closed at night when you're sleeping in
deep Sleep the sewer opens up the grates
open up and you drain out excess toxins
and we even have recently discovered
that nerves neurons in the brain pump
they squeeze and they pump those fluid
that have toxin it to decontaminate your
brain just being around every day just
being a normal ordinary human being we
uh we build up toxins in our brain
because our brain is so active so good
sleep actually helps to relieve the
brain of some of those toxins all right
the uh other thing is that if you don't
get good sleep what happens you don't
detox and and you know what it's like
what do you experience the next day if
you get a really really crappy nights of
sleep or you pulling all nighter next
day brain fog we've all experienced it
when you have brain fog is because you
have those toxins and you haven't slept
you haven't recharged your brain bad jut
lag also causes brain uh fog you're not
totally de uh stressing uh you're not
detoxifying your brain and bad sleep
also leads to your gut
microbiome getting out of whack this is
called disbiosis so people who are uh
have chronic insomnia they have sleep a
their gut microbiome changes from a good
neighborhood to not so good neighbor to
a bad neighborhood and when you're bad
neighborhood when you got a bad
neighborhood and you got you got some
real problems in terms of inflammation
Rising your catabolism goes off kilter
your blood cholesterol Rises all these
things can actually conspire they kind
of gang up to shorten your lifespan
longevity other thing poor sleep does
lowers your immune system all right uh
lower your Shields of your immune system
you're much more likely to get an
infection all right and lower immunity
also increases your cancer risk as well
so you don't want to do that when you
actually are sleep deprived all right
and your immune system suppressed think
about what happens in patients with AIDS
they used to AIDS used to be a killer
because AIDS related cancers when your
immune systems Down Cancer rears itself
you get infected um your immune system
could be down if you get an organ
transplant a kidney transplant liver
transplant heart transplant even a lung
transplant they they they give you
massive immunosuppressants when I say
they I'm talking about me we doctors
gives prevent organ rejection all right
and then what happens uh we we suppress
the immune system cancers arise in
infections arise this cuts down your
longevity all right good sleep counters
all of it that's why you actually want
to find ways to get good sleep and this
is by the way why is helpful to invest
in a good bed a comfortable bed and
trying to develop habits and schedules
that actually allow you to routinely get
good sleep like check it out I mean
think about what it is that you need to
do all right to get a good sleep all
right fifth tip and this is my last one
uh if you're over 40 and you want to
actually improve your longevity live a
long life all right ditch ultr processed
foods and add more plant-based Foods
ditch this add that ditch Ultra
processed foods add more plant-based
Foods all right I'm not telling you to
be a vegan I'm not even telling you to
be a vegetarian what I'm saying is that
add more plant-based Foods delicious
think about it you go to Italy you go to
Spain you go to Japan you go to China go
to Vietnam or Thailand
hey guess what they have in their the
delicious food there there's a lot of
plant-based Foods pay attention to that
add more plant-based foods to your diet
um and take away eat less or actually
eliminate all if you can ultr processed
foods now why Ultra processed foods
because ultr processed foods have first
of all takes whole food ingredients and
puts them in a factory and manipulates
them in a way that you completely change
the nature of your food
so it's it's in a form our body is not
designed to digest and a process and the
nutrients are changed as well all right
the other thing is that it contains
artificial preservatives artificial
coloring artificial flavoring these are
engineered foods and I'm not going to
talk about like big food company
conspiracy I I believe that uh it's
important to have lots of different
people that can actually help to supply
food to everyone in the world and
there's nothing wrong with you know uh
selling some food that actually tastes
really great it's up to us to decide not
to eat it not to not to eat it often or
not to eat it at all all right so think
about in in the traditional
Mediterranean Cuisine traditional Asian
Cuisine two of the healthiest cuisines
in the world people are not eating a lot
of ultra processed foods those are the
societies the cultures where people live
tend to live longer so if you if you're
over 40 and you want to actually live
longer cut down or cut out your Ultra
processed foods and add some of these
delicious plant-based foods that you
especially the ones you can find in
Mediterranean Cuisine or Asian Cuisine
and if you don't know what to do with
them uh you know where to get them what
you should do like I take a I I actually
teach a course called e to beat disease
course I talk all about how to um select
healthy plant-based Foods or go to a
farmers market and talk to the people
selling uh fruits and vegetables from
their own farms uh or Gardens uh or just
go on YouTube and find a plan you know
you don't know what to do with Swiss
chard type twis yard type recipe um hit
and go to video and watch somebody teach
you how to make something absolutely
delicious all right that's what you
should be doing adding more plants and
removing the uh Ultra processed foods
now one last tip I'll tell you about
plants I always tell people this right
so think about how we are used to
constructing our meals you got to choose
a protein and you got to have protein is
often meat you got the beef you got the
pork you got the chicken you got the
turkey you got or maybe Seafood all
right and seafood actually happens to be
very healthy but you got to get that
that's your main and then what do you do
when you're at a restaurant H look at
the sides you want a vegetable you want
some mushrooms you want some spinach you
want some broccoli it's a second uh it's
an afterthought almost wrong what you
want to do is flip the script on what
everything you've been taught and go for
the plant-based Foods first this is what
I do when I go to a restaurant menu I'm
looking at everything all right I want
to see what what they're offering
because I'm curious I'm that kind of guy
I'm that guy all right I like to look at
everything but when I'm actually
choosing I choose my my what my eye cot
are the plants first the veggies all
right sometimes the vegetables are
actually baked into the Mane but I'm
focusing on that order that first think
about what you would have ordered as a
man the the meat or the or the the
protein the animal protein or the
seafood do that as a second all right
make that the afterthought or the add-on
make your plant-based food the primary
okay the centerpiece and you make and
you flip the script and you make the
meat or the animal protein or the
seafood the side all right and and don't
eat too much of it all right so this is
actually what I'm actually telling you
to do if you are over 40 and your goal
is longevity which is actually what most
people want they want to live long and
you want to live well that's a whole
other area of my research is actually um
the science of vibrancy what makes us
more vibrant More Alive having a better
quality of life and after you get that
then go ahead let's add on years all
right of course we want to live long but
we don't we want to live well at the
same time so hope you learned something
new thanks very much uh for watching
this video and I'll catch you on the
next one Dr Lee
out hi there if you enjoyed watching
this video I know you'll love the next
one stay here and check it out and I'll
see you there