May 29, 2025 • 30 mins
In this episode of the Gladden Longevity Podcast, Dr. Jeffrey Gladden and co-host Autumn Calabrese delve into various listener questions surrounding longevity, mental health, stress management, blood pressure, hormonal health, and the potential of new medications in promoting a longer, healthier life. They explore the interconnectedness of mental well-being and longevity, the importance of managing stress, and the role of hormones in maintaining health as we age. The conversation also highlights practical lifestyle changes and emerging scientific insights that can help individuals optimize their health and longevity.
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Takeaways
· Mental health and stress significantly affect longevity.
· Healing trauma and feeling safe are crucial for stress management.
· Forgiveness can reduce stress and inflammation.
· Blood pressure should be optimized for long-term health.
· Hormonal balance is essential for vitality and longevity.
· Curiosity and continuous learning keep the brain young.
· Meditation and relaxation techniques improve cognitive function.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Welcome everybody to this edition of the Gliden Longevity Podcast.
I'm your host, Dr.
Jeffrey Gliden, and I'm here today with Autumn Calabresi, co-hosting.
Good to see you back.
How you doing?
Glenn, good to be back.
Thank you again for having me as always.
Yeah, absolutely.
Always fun.
So I think today we're going to be focusing on listener questions, if I'm not mistaken.
(00:22):
oh Okay.
And if I'm not mistaken, you have the list in front of you over there, which I don't.
I do, I do, and we got some really great questions coming in that I think are gonna bevery helpful for people.
So the first one is obviously in regards to May and being mental health awareness monthand how mental health and stress affect longevity.
(00:43):
uh Chronic stress is linked to inflammation and faster biological aging.
What is your approach to managing it through lifestyle, mindset, or supplementation?
Yeah, I think, um you know, at Gladden Longevity, we have the life energy circle, right,which is really the psychospiritual space, if you will, and mental health is one of the
(01:05):
areas there.
um The idea of being able to go back and heal trauma, right, because we're all living inreaction to it.
And I think that and being able to feel safe, right, I think when we don't feel safe, itputs us under a lot of stress.
And I think one of the insights that I've had is that nothing external to us can ever makeus feel safe.
(01:28):
Right.
So when you think about that, there's no money, there's no relationship, there's nodegree, there's no job, there's no even family that can ultimately make us feel safe.
And how do you give yourself that?
Right.
So for me, it's really the psycho spiritual quest, if you will, to to get connected tosource energy and feel the safety that comes through that.
(01:50):
Right.
And then healing those traumas is really, it requires help.
think um seeing somebody, a therapist or someone that can help you dissect what actuallywent on so you can actually understand it, take responsibility for your part in it, my
part in it, um and then forgive everybody involved, right?
(02:12):
I think it's so helpful.
And forgiveness for me was always such an abstraction for such a long time.
Like if somebody said, I forgive you, I don't know, I didn't really feel, it's like, Idon't know what just happened, right?
It doesn't feel like that much happened.
And then I had this, um this kind of insight that, you know, we have unconditionalpositive regard, right?
(02:34):
Right.
There's nothing, nothing blocking that.
And if something happens, what happens is we put up a wall.
It's like, I'm no longer going to receive or feel unconditional regard for this positiveregard for this other person.
And I think forgiveness for me is when we get to a point where it's like, okay, it takes alot of psychic energy to hold that wall up.
And I'm going to take that wall down.
(02:55):
It doesn't necessarily mean I'm going to go to lunch with my, you know, X this or that orwhatever, but it does mean that I'm just going to allow positive energy to flow.
And if there's anything coming back, I'll just go ahead and receive it.
And when you, when you forgive, it just means all of a sudden there's less stress in yoursystem.
And I think.
It's really fascinating because it not only drives inflammation and aging, you know, justlook at every president, right?
(03:21):
How much stress they're under and how they age in four years.
But there was a recent study that looked at yogis when they're meditating that showed thatwhen they go into a deep theta state, which is like deep meditation, theta is the brain
wave just above delta, delta is when you're asleep.
So it's in that kind of hypnagogic state that almost right before sleep state.
(03:41):
m
What they found is that in the first 15 minutes, they had a 40 % increase in the releaseof stem cells and dodging the stem cells into their system to facilitate healing.
Right.
Isn't that a massive.
Right.
So it's, it's the combination of being able to release stress and go into a deeprestorative meditative state.
(04:03):
Those two things kind of work hand in hand.
So I think, I think stress is massive on the.
on the aging side, also think it represents a massive opportunity.
um In fact, I think it's hard to really age well if you're still angry, resentful, know,living in reaction to, right?
(04:23):
What do you want to be an angry old person?
Is that what you're going for, right?
So I think you want to get to that more transcendent space, yeah.
Yeah, I think coming from the fitness and nutrition expert side, I would say just whenyou're looking at lifestyle, like some immediate things is just looking at are you
exercising first of all, because movement can really help release stress.
(04:45):
I know for me when I have a lot of stress or anxiety, just a walk like a walk out innature can really help release some of that feeling and that entered the adrenaline that I
sort of feel pumping through my body.
The infrared sauna can help with inflammation, breathing techniques, right?
Slowing down the inhalation and the exhalation, getting out of the fight or flight andinto the rest and digest.
(05:12):
When you're just talking about mental health, I do think being aware of the food that weconsume, like I don't...
I don't see people attaching the food that we eat to our mental state very much.
And I do think it has such a big impact on us and how we're eating and you know, if you'reover sugared and over processed food and under on the fiber and all the vitamins and
(05:36):
nutrients and you have those deficiencies that so many other things can start to go out ofbalance and the hormones go out of balance and
You know, we're instantly looking for the drug to fix my mental state, but the drug justmight be the food that you're eating or not eating that could help.
just, you know, more whole foods and real foods and less of the processed stuff, becausethat puts less stress on your body as well.
(06:01):
So I think all those things can be really helpful to incorporate along with this deephealing that you're referencing.
it's a great point that you make.
And I think one of the things is that we tend to think of eating as being restorative,right?
Like we're going to sit down and eat and this will be restorative, but in actual fact,it's actually stressful.
(06:21):
It's a metabolic stress on the body.
Um, and so, you know, in all the blue zones, they really have this, um, mantra of HatiHachi Buu, I believe is the term Hati Hachi Buu.
I believe it's Japanese and
It really is aligned with the idea of stopping when you're, you know, like 80 % full.
(06:46):
Like you never eat until you're full.
You only eat until you're not hungry.
And that decreases the metabolic stress on the system as well.
and then there are certain foods that can make you anxious, like foods high in glutamateand things like that, that you can look up.
So all that becomes super important.
Yeah, very cool.
I saw something recently too about forest bathing, right?
(07:09):
This was a term I was unfamiliar with, but I was looking at it under the context ofstressful ah things and things that you can do about stress.
And the idea of going out into the forest for two hours has a, has a impact on you for thenext week in terms of lowering inflammation and stress.
So connection with nature, right?
And then I think another thing that lowers stress is increasing oxytocin.
(07:32):
right, which comes from personal contact with people, know, hugs, being intimate withpeople, or just being very friendly with people, laughing and things like that raises
oxytocin.
So very cool.
Yeah.
so many things that we could do immediately to start helping with that process.
The next question we got was oh in regards to blood pressure, blood pressure and longevitylink.
(07:57):
uh Why normal isn't always optimal?
uh What blood pressure markers matter most for long-term cardiovascular and brain health?
And should we redefine what's normal?
I'm gonna let you take this one away.
That's your alley.
Sure, so you know, we used to think 140 over 90 was normal.
Then we thought, well, 130 is better.
(08:18):
Now, do we know it's 120?
What people should understand is that 120 over 80, what people should understand is thatit's really a linear risk model.
So 115 is better than 120.
110 is better than 115.
And of course, you could get too low to the point where, you you're dizzy, but.
But other than that, you know, if you're like at 105 over 64, that's actually better than,you know, 115 over 75, right?
(08:45):
So there seems to be this linear impact with blood pressure and you don't want to take ittoo low, but that's really the issue.
You know, there are a lot of things.
So, so when you think about defining it, just think about what's the lowest blood pressureI can run and actually feel good, right?
I think that's maybe one way to think about it.
The other thing is that
(09:06):
You know, what constricts arteries, right?
Well, what constricts arteries are stress, right?
The sympathetic nervous system when it's dumping out stress squeezes the arteries, right?
And so you could really raise your blood pressure and your heart rate that way.
Well, what relaxes arteries?
Well, obviously parasympathetic nervous system where you're in this deep meditative statewill relax arteries, but also nitric oxide releases or relaxes arteries, right?
(09:31):
It's a molecule that causes your arteries to dilate and
What does it take for nitric oxide to be released?
Well, it takes a very healthy what's called glycocalyx.
This is like a fuzz that's lining the inside of the artery that works as a sensor forblood flow.
When blood is flowing past it, think of it like the moss in the bottom of a creek.
It senses that rate of blood flow.
(09:53):
And when you start walking or exercising or doing something, the blood flow increases.
So the moss recognizes that the glycocalyx and it basically signals the, the layer of
cells just below it, the skin, the endothelium that lines the artery to make nitric oxideso the artery will dilate.
So you get more blood flow to your muscle or your heart or your brain or whatever you'redoing, right?
(10:14):
So that's important, but you can't make nitric oxide if you don't have a glycocalyx andyou can't make nitric oxide if you have a glycocalyx, but you don't have the right tools
to make it and you need dietary nitrate to do that.
This is why plants
like arugula and kale and beets and spinach that are rich in dietary nitrate actually helpyou have the substrate to make nitric oxide from.
(10:38):
So there are supplements that you can take called N101 oh that'll actually make you makenitric oxide right now.
And then there are supplements you can do to help protect the glycocalyx.
Well, what destroys the glycocalyx?
Well, it's destroyed by sugar, right?
So sugar destroys the glycocalyx, right?
And probably, you know,
(10:58):
Some certain saturated fats could do it as well, but the glycocalyse can be destroyed veryquickly.
There's been research done, Big Mac fries and the Coke will not only destroy it within amatter of minutes, but it'll keep it destroyed for up to seven or eight hours, right?
Right.
So.
It's our diet that's destroying the glycocalyx that's impairing nitric oxide production,which raises blood pressure, decreases athletic performance, brain performance and sexual
(11:25):
activity.
Well, not activity necessarily, but certainly performance.
Right.
So what you want to do is to have a healthy glycocalyx and low stress and high dietarynitrate intake.
um If you do those things, you know, then you you're starting to live young for alifetime.
You have a low blood pressure.
You.
can exercise well, have better cardiovascular performance, better sexual performance, andlife is fun.
(11:50):
So that's the idea.
So there's a couple of supplements that work really well.
There's one called Revaska that actually regrows the glycocalyx.
Another one called Artiracil, the two work together actually quite nicely to regrow it.
And they can regrow it also in a matter of minutes.
So that's pretty interesting.
Yeah.
What about the little bit of a follow-up question, because we had a second question aboutblood pressure.
(12:13):
um Supplements like magnesium, beet juice, potassium, where would those fall into playaround this level of normal?
Also very important.
We tend to get so much sodium in our diets, right?
That that can drive blood pressure to go up.
Potassium actually helps to relax the arteries.
(12:34):
Magnesium also relaxes smooth muscle, which is the muscle in the artery, right?
So those are very important.
You can lower blood pressure by eating a higher potassium rich diet or magnesium richdiet.
So those are good.
um And the beet juice is really just dietary nitrate.
Right?
So, yeah.
(12:54):
Great, so I think that again, very helpful things that we can do and understand more rightnow.
Let's talk hormone and menopause.
So this one is uh a question about estrogen.
Estrogens role in protecting the heart and brain.
And should more women be exploring HRT for long term vitality?
(13:17):
I love this one, obviously this is something I have been.
diving into quite a bit the last couple of years, hormonal health, especially for women.
Yeah, absolutely.
So I just finished a podcast.
I was a little late to this one because I was just finishing a podcast on women's health,um on hormone replacement therapy.
(13:38):
Interestingly enough, right.
We did it with Dr.
Sarah Dacheret.
um Really fascinating.
It was on the Gluten Longevity podcast also.
m But the, um you know, what we came away with was that there were a lot of hormonedisruptors in the environment.
right, so many plastics and different chemicals that are disrupting hormone levels for menand women.
(14:01):
Even, you know, when you look at fertility rates and sperm count rates and testosteronelevels and estrogen levels and things like that, ah you know, the youth are kind of being
beat up by the environment which we reside in, right?
More so than certainly I think that I was growing up, you were growing up.
And so uh very important, I think, to actually look at testing yourself with these toxinsand trying to
(14:26):
get them out of your environment would be the first thing.
Then the second thing was that we tend to think of hormone replacement therapy for peoplewhen they're going through menopause or just after menopause.
And the conversation was that, you know, we should be thinking about this a lot earlier,right?
Optimizing hormones a lot earlier, even in our 20s and 30s, optimizing hormones.
(14:48):
And it's pretty easy to do.
uh
And Dr.
Sarah was talking a lot about, she's a big fan of using transvaginal estrogen orprogesterone because they're well absorbed and it works well for the vaginal lining, but
they also become systemic.
And then maybe a little bit of oral DHEA if you want to boost testosterone after that.
(15:09):
um And, and using those at early, uh early stages, there's so many people with PCOS andpeople with endometriosis and things like that, that you can.
help by rebalancing the hormones.
And then of course for men, um you know, using testosterone and DHEA can be veryimportant.
(15:30):
We also talked about the importance of looking at the hormone metabolites and the geneticsurrounding hormones to understand how you metabolize them.
It says that you make sure that you do it safely.
So I think hormones are central to the longevity equation.
They're not enough, but they certainly you can't get there without them.
So yeah.
Yeah, well, let me ask you a follow up question to that just because I think it is such animportant uh conversation to be having.
(15:55):
Like so many people are experiencing hormone disruption like we were talking about, but somany people, I've heard this, who should they be looking to speak to doctor wise?
Because unfortunately, not every doctor
And obviously every doctor has specialties as it is, but you know, women especially willgo talk to their OBGYN and they don't necessarily have all the information.
(16:21):
So where would somebody go to start to understand their hormones?
Cause I think, I wish this was something we were taught more, but it's just not happeningyet.
Yep, I think that's right.
You know, think CHET GPT can actually give you more information than most doctors at thispoint in time, especially if you're some of the more sophisticated models like 03 or some
(16:42):
of the deep search models or things like that.
think, unfortunately, physicians were trained that hormones were kind of an adjunct thatwere used for symptoms and they weren't really used as a health optimizing um kind of
technology, if you will.
So...
Most of your doctors, especially OB-GYNs that really were taught, well, you give estrogenif somebody's having hot flashes and that's about the end of it, right?
(17:06):
They weren't really taught about balancing hormones.
And if you are going to take estrogen, you only take it for a year or two and then stop itwhen you're through menopause.
The problem is when you're hormonally depleted, your tissues don't do well.
Skin, hair, brain, heart, blood vessels, all of that start to suffer, bones for thatmatter.
All of it starts to suffer.
(17:27):
And it's really important to understand that men need estrogen, right?
They need estrogen.
So taking a testosterone shot and then taking an astrozole to block estrogen production isreally counterproductive.
I mean, it may be important for certain people that are very fast metabolizers oftestosterone into estrogen, but for the majority of men, you want to have estrogen on
(17:48):
board.
It's really good for your brain, your blood vessels, everything else.
And for women, having some testosterone is also good.
um
Progesterone will help with our DHEA will help there, but you want to have muscle mass.
You want to have bone density and you need a combination of both testosterone and estrogento get that.
Right.
And so um I think you need to try to track down somebody that focuses on hormonereplacement therapy from a more holistic approach, right?
(18:15):
Where they're looking at the genetics and they're looking at thyroid as well, becausethyroid, if it's not working properly, will make the hormones not work properly.
um
And I think if a doctor is only looking at blood tests to make decisions on thyroid,they're missing the boat.
You really need a resting metabolic rate to really know where your thyroid is set.
So you've got to do your research to find a doctor that's really competent in thyroid andhormone replacement therapy.
(18:42):
And it's a bit of a struggle, quite honestly.
Even people that advertise themselves as experts may not be going about it in the bestway.
So, you know, it's a little tricky.
Yeah, very important to do your research and to not just be out there.
Let me get some testosterone and start injecting yourself or whatever it be.
(19:05):
Really understanding how it all works and doing it supervised properly is key.
Okay, let's see.
ah Can you rewire an aging brain for youthful performance?
How does brain flexibility change with age and can we practice things like meditation?
or movement to reverse decline.
(19:28):
Yeah, I'm a big fan of optimizing the nervous system.
I think that the nervous system is the key to everything.
And I think oh one of the, you've heard about people saying that they're old and fixed intheir ways, right?
And what that means to me is that they've, they've basically landed on their answers andthey're, they're, they're just married to those answers.
(19:50):
And I really think youthfulness is curiosity, right?
So you want to be married to your questions.
You want to be curious about everything.
It's like, oh, well, that's interesting.
Let me learn more about that.
And you're constantly changing your answers to basically better serve your questions.
And so we have five questions here, right?
How good can we be?
How do we make 100 to do 30, et cetera, et cetera?
(20:13):
And it's those questions that drive all innovation.
So as you're aging, you want to make sure that you stay curious.
You want to make sure that you find your questions and that you keep asking them over andover again.
Even if you have an answer that you like, you can continue to iterate on it.
Like for example, you love exercise, but there are ways to iterate on that, right?
It's like, well, how do we do that better?
How do I challenge my nervous system better?
(20:35):
I was just at a conference speaking in Arizona and um there were a number of people in theaudience.
All of them were very longevity minded.
um And I was showing them how to walk in figure eights, right?
With their eyes open.
then walk backwards with their eyes open, then walk forwards with their eyes closed, thenwalk backwards with their eyes closed as a challenge to the nervous system.
(20:59):
So one of the things you want to do to keep your nervous system young is to constantlychallenge it.
Because if the nervous system isn't challenged, it gets lazy, right?
And it gets sort of fixed, if you will.
So challenging yourself.
It's one of the reasons I like your workouts is because my theory is you can never reallyget in shape in a gym.
You have to be in a context where there's variable things coming at you, right?
(21:24):
Either the wind or the rocks or the tree you're climbing over or whatever it is or themovement that you're doing that's creating some, what shall I say, some unexpected
variations that you have to adapt to.
Your nervous system stays young and healthy when it has to adapt and has to recognize theenvironment and change.
So you want to put yourself in new environments.
(21:46):
where you're forced to adapt and change, where you're constantly learning new things.
Learn how to dance, learn how to play an instrument.
You've heard all these things, but you want to keep challenging the nervous.
Make new friends for that matter, right?
Have a new conversation about a topic you don't know anything about.
That's a great way to learn something.
I love that so many people were so afraid to go talk to new people.
(22:07):
I actually just had people asking and on the other podcast that I host like, can youplease do a show about meeting friends after a certain age because in your four 30s 40s it
gets so much harder.
And we're also used to being on our phones that even striking up a conversation becomeshard.
are sort of losing this connected ability to talk.
(22:29):
to each other or be in an uncomfortable situation.
We don't even look up when we're crossing the street anymore.
And I also think, you know, like you were saying, be curious.
So it's like, you can have a fitness routine.
Obviously, I love having a fitness routine.
But I also especially this time of year, like getting outside and playing pickleball withmy son, that's something new that we've taken up and having to try to learn that.
(22:53):
What are the techniques of pickleball and how does this work and what are we supposed todo and the agility of it all.
So, or getting in the pool and swimming and trying new things.
it doesn't have to feel tedious.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know, you know, you're doing the right thing when it's fun, right?
You know, you're doing the right thing when you feel like a beginner.
(23:14):
And I think one of the things that works against us is that as we age, we start toidentify with the fact that we're competent.
Right.
We were told in school, well, you're getting good grades because you're competent at this.
Right.
And so now it is an adult.
It's like, well, you're good at that.
So now I'm competent.
So now my identity is tied up with being competent.
So we're
We're reluctant to put ourselves in a situation where we're a novice and we have no ideahow to do this.
(23:38):
Right.
And so I tell people, imagine you're five years old and somebody just went by on a scooterand it's like, Oh, I'm going to try that.
You know, take that mindset, right?
Take that mindset into everything.
When you go to a gym, when you go out for a hike, when you whatever, and just be a kidagain, that's it's, it's fun.
It's super fun.
Yeah, I love that so much.
(23:58):
That's such a great one.
And then just finishing touching on that.
um question of meditation or breath work or getting into that very deep relax, relax, sit,relax, get your words out on them.
Does that impact how our brain fires itself?
It does.
(24:19):
It really calms it down.
It'll calm down neuroinflammation.
um It enables things to actually work better.
Like when we're so hyper-focused or anxious or worried, it decreases the ability to makenew memories.
When we have a lot of cortisol in our system from stress, it decreases the hippocampus'ability to actually put down new memories.
(24:40):
And so super important, meditation, and I'm a big fan of brain tap.
um It's a device where you wear like headphones with a visor, binaural beats,photobiomodulation, and it can put you right into a meditative state in a matter of
seconds, quite honestly.
um And so doing that um is really restorative for your brain.
(25:02):
There are other things to really improve cognitive abilities though, too.
And that's another conversation altogether.
We can deconstruct that later, but in general, you know, meditation is wonderful for that.
I love anything that gets me into that relaxed state meditation.
Because for me, stress is a big one.
(25:22):
And you've said it to me many times that when it comes to all of my health and longevity,manage your stress, Autumn, or we're only going to get so far.
That's right.
Well, yeah.
I'll send you some information on Brain Tap.
Maybe you can grab one.
Yeah.
all the questions that we got for this episode, Dr.
Gladden.
I think we gave great information.
(25:45):
Is there anything else that?
Hmm.
We need to cover for everybody today.
Well, we are finding out some really, really interesting uses for uh medications in thelongevity space.
Medications that were originally developed for one purpose, but are now actually beingfound to have significant impact on longevity itself.
(26:08):
There's a category of diabetes medicines called SGLT2s that were introduced.
Everybody's familiar with GLP1s like ozempic and things, but SGLT2s were also introducednot long ago.
And they don't have some of the side effects that GLP ones have like uh muscle loss andbone density loss and things like that.
They do control blood sugar by allowing people to excrete it out through the urine.
(26:32):
It blocks the reabsorption of sugar through the kidney back into the bloodstream.
So it's filtered out in the urine and not reabsorbed.
So um it could potentially increase somebody's urinary tract infection risk if they wereprone to that.
But it turns out now that it also
increases autophagy, it activates AMPK, it decreases mTOR, so now it's like rapamycin plusmetformin, you know, and it's also increasing your ability to prune senescent cells from
(27:02):
your body by decreasing a molecule that actually exposes them, and then it's activatingyour natural killer cells to go prune them.
So here's a medication that's actually has multiple...
longevity benefits.
So we're really excited to look at these and we now have new tests that can actuallymeasure um some of the things that this drug is actually doing.
(27:23):
So lots of progress in terms of the true longevity stuff.
Yeah, pretty cool.
Sure.
curious, because I think that's fascinating.
I'm assuming it's still very much in the discovery phase of how it would be used forlongevity, but when it comes to somebody like who's already healthy and in good shape and
(27:45):
an ideal weight or a healthy weight, would that be something that they would potentiallybe able to use in a low dose or a micro dose for longevity?
Yes.
The answer is yes.
Yeah.
Yes.
I'm going to start taking it actually and I'll let you know how it works out.
I think that, yeah, I think that's really interesting to hear and learn more about.
So we'll definitely have to touch base on that one again in a future episode.
(28:08):
yeah, lots of really cool stuff coming.
So, well, we really appreciate your questions.
I hope that's helpful.
And I'm always a pleasure.
So.
a pleasure.
know I learned new things today.
I hope everybody else did and always as always.
Thank you for having me on doctor gladden
absolutely.
Okay.
Welcome everybody to this edition of the Gliden Longevity Podcast.
I'm your host, Dr.
Jeffrey Gliden, and I'm here today with Autumn Calabresi, co-hosting.
Good to see you back.
How you doing?
Glenn, good to be back.
Thank you again for having me as always.
Yeah, absolutely.
Always fun.
So I think today we're going to be focusing on listener questions, if I'm not mistaken.
(00:22):
oh Okay.
And if I'm not mistaken, you have the list in front of you over there, which I don't.
I do, I do, and we got some really great questions coming in that I think are gonna bevery helpful for people.
So the first one is obviously in regards to May and being mental health awareness monthand how mental health and stress affect longevity.
(00:43):
uh Chronic stress is linked to inflammation and faster biological aging.
What is your approach to managing it through lifestyle, mindset, or supplementation?
Yeah, I think, um you know, at Gladden Longevity, we have the life energy circle, right,which is really the psychospiritual space, if you will, and mental health is one of the
(01:05):
areas there.
um The idea of being able to go back and heal trauma, right, because we're all living inreaction to it.
And I think that and being able to feel safe, right, I think when we don't feel safe, itputs us under a lot of stress.
And I think one of the insights that I've had is that nothing external to us can ever makeus feel safe.
(01:28):
Right.
So when you think about that, there's no money, there's no relationship, there's nodegree, there's no job, there's no even family that can ultimately make us feel safe.
And how do you give yourself that?
Right.
So for me, it's really the psycho spiritual quest, if you will, to to get connected tosource energy and feel the safety that comes through that.
(01:50):
Right.
And then healing those traumas is really, it requires help.
think um seeing somebody, a therapist or someone that can help you dissect what actuallywent on so you can actually understand it, take responsibility for your part in it, my
part in it, um and then forgive everybody involved, right?
(02:12):
I think it's so helpful.
And forgiveness for me was always such an abstraction for such a long time.
Like if somebody said, I forgive you, I don't know, I didn't really feel, it's like, Idon't know what just happened, right?
It doesn't feel like that much happened.
And then I had this, um this kind of insight that, you know, we have unconditionalpositive regard, right?
(02:34):
Right.
There's nothing, nothing blocking that.
And if something happens, what happens is we put up a wall.
It's like, I'm no longer going to receive or feel unconditional regard for this positiveregard for this other person.
And I think forgiveness for me is when we get to a point where it's like, okay, it takes alot of psychic energy to hold that wall up.
And I'm going to take that wall down.
(02:55):
It doesn't necessarily mean I'm going to go to lunch with my, you know, X this or that orwhatever, but it does mean that I'm just going to allow positive energy to flow.
And if there's anything coming back, I'll just go ahead and receive it.
And when you, when you forgive, it just means all of a sudden there's less stress in yoursystem.
And I think.
It's really fascinating because it not only drives inflammation and aging, you know, justlook at every president, right?
(03:21):
How much stress they're under and how they age in four years.
But there was a recent study that looked at yogis when they're meditating that showed thatwhen they go into a deep theta state, which is like deep meditation, theta is the brain
wave just above delta, delta is when you're asleep.
So it's in that kind of hypnagogic state that almost right before sleep state.
(03:41):
m
What they found is that in the first 15 minutes, they had a 40 % increase in the releaseof stem cells and dodging the stem cells into their system to facilitate healing.
Right.
Isn't that a massive.
Right.
So it's, it's the combination of being able to release stress and go into a deeprestorative meditative state.
(04:03):
Those two things kind of work hand in hand.
So I think, I think stress is massive on the.
on the aging side, also think it represents a massive opportunity.
um In fact, I think it's hard to really age well if you're still angry, resentful, know,living in reaction to, right?
(04:23):
What do you want to be an angry old person?
Is that what you're going for, right?
So I think you want to get to that more transcendent space, yeah.
Yeah, I think coming from the fitness and nutrition expert side, I would say just whenyou're looking at lifestyle, like some immediate things is just looking at are you
exercising first of all, because movement can really help release stress.
(04:45):
I know for me when I have a lot of stress or anxiety, just a walk like a walk out innature can really help release some of that feeling and that entered the adrenaline that I
sort of feel pumping through my body.
The infrared sauna can help with inflammation, breathing techniques, right?
Slowing down the inhalation and the exhalation, getting out of the fight or flight andinto the rest and digest.
(05:12):
When you're just talking about mental health, I do think being aware of the food that weconsume, like I don't...
I don't see people attaching the food that we eat to our mental state very much.
And I do think it has such a big impact on us and how we're eating and you know, if you'reover sugared and over processed food and under on the fiber and all the vitamins and
(05:36):
nutrients and you have those deficiencies that so many other things can start to go out ofbalance and the hormones go out of balance and
You know, we're instantly looking for the drug to fix my mental state, but the drug justmight be the food that you're eating or not eating that could help.
just, you know, more whole foods and real foods and less of the processed stuff, becausethat puts less stress on your body as well.
(06:01):
So I think all those things can be really helpful to incorporate along with this deephealing that you're referencing.
it's a great point that you make.
And I think one of the things is that we tend to think of eating as being restorative,right?
Like we're going to sit down and eat and this will be restorative, but in actual fact,it's actually stressful.
(06:21):
It's a metabolic stress on the body.
Um, and so, you know, in all the blue zones, they really have this, um, mantra of HatiHachi Buu, I believe is the term Hati Hachi Buu.
I believe it's Japanese and
It really is aligned with the idea of stopping when you're, you know, like 80 % full.
(06:46):
Like you never eat until you're full.
You only eat until you're not hungry.
And that decreases the metabolic stress on the system as well.
and then there are certain foods that can make you anxious, like foods high in glutamateand things like that, that you can look up.
So all that becomes super important.
Yeah, very cool.
I saw something recently too about forest bathing, right?
(07:09):
This was a term I was unfamiliar with, but I was looking at it under the context ofstressful ah things and things that you can do about stress.
And the idea of going out into the forest for two hours has a, has a impact on you for thenext week in terms of lowering inflammation and stress.
So connection with nature, right?
And then I think another thing that lowers stress is increasing oxytocin.
(07:32):
right, which comes from personal contact with people, know, hugs, being intimate withpeople, or just being very friendly with people, laughing and things like that raises
oxytocin.
So very cool.
Yeah.
so many things that we could do immediately to start helping with that process.
The next question we got was oh in regards to blood pressure, blood pressure and longevitylink.
(07:57):
uh Why normal isn't always optimal?
uh What blood pressure markers matter most for long-term cardiovascular and brain health?
And should we redefine what's normal?
I'm gonna let you take this one away.
That's your alley.
Sure, so you know, we used to think 140 over 90 was normal.
Then we thought, well, 130 is better.
(08:18):
Now, do we know it's 120?
What people should understand is that 120 over 80, what people should understand is thatit's really a linear risk model.
So 115 is better than 120.
110 is better than 115.
And of course, you could get too low to the point where, you you're dizzy, but.
But other than that, you know, if you're like at 105 over 64, that's actually better than,you know, 115 over 75, right?
(08:45):
So there seems to be this linear impact with blood pressure and you don't want to take ittoo low, but that's really the issue.
You know, there are a lot of things.
So, so when you think about defining it, just think about what's the lowest blood pressureI can run and actually feel good, right?
I think that's maybe one way to think about it.
The other thing is that
(09:06):
You know, what constricts arteries, right?
Well, what constricts arteries are stress, right?
The sympathetic nervous system when it's dumping out stress squeezes the arteries, right?
And so you could really raise your blood pressure and your heart rate that way.
Well, what relaxes arteries?
Well, obviously parasympathetic nervous system where you're in this deep meditative statewill relax arteries, but also nitric oxide releases or relaxes arteries, right?
(09:31):
It's a molecule that causes your arteries to dilate and
What does it take for nitric oxide to be released?
Well, it takes a very healthy what's called glycocalyx.
This is like a fuzz that's lining the inside of the artery that works as a sensor forblood flow.
When blood is flowing past it, think of it like the moss in the bottom of a creek.
It senses that rate of blood flow.
(09:53):
And when you start walking or exercising or doing something, the blood flow increases.
So the moss recognizes that the glycocalyx and it basically signals the, the layer of
cells just below it, the skin, the endothelium that lines the artery to make nitric oxideso the artery will dilate.
So you get more blood flow to your muscle or your heart or your brain or whatever you'redoing, right?
(10:14):
So that's important, but you can't make nitric oxide if you don't have a glycocalyx andyou can't make nitric oxide if you have a glycocalyx, but you don't have the right tools
to make it and you need dietary nitrate to do that.
This is why plants
like arugula and kale and beets and spinach that are rich in dietary nitrate actually helpyou have the substrate to make nitric oxide from.
(10:38):
So there are supplements that you can take called N101 oh that'll actually make you makenitric oxide right now.
And then there are supplements you can do to help protect the glycocalyx.
Well, what destroys the glycocalyx?
Well, it's destroyed by sugar, right?
So sugar destroys the glycocalyx, right?
And probably, you know,
(10:58):
Some certain saturated fats could do it as well, but the glycocalyse can be destroyed veryquickly.
There's been research done, Big Mac fries and the Coke will not only destroy it within amatter of minutes, but it'll keep it destroyed for up to seven or eight hours, right?
Right.
So.
It's our diet that's destroying the glycocalyx that's impairing nitric oxide production,which raises blood pressure, decreases athletic performance, brain performance and sexual
(11:25):
activity.
Well, not activity necessarily, but certainly performance.
Right.
So what you want to do is to have a healthy glycocalyx and low stress and high dietarynitrate intake.
um If you do those things, you know, then you you're starting to live young for alifetime.
You have a low blood pressure.
You.
can exercise well, have better cardiovascular performance, better sexual performance, andlife is fun.
(11:50):
So that's the idea.
So there's a couple of supplements that work really well.
There's one called Revaska that actually regrows the glycocalyx.
Another one called Artiracil, the two work together actually quite nicely to regrow it.
And they can regrow it also in a matter of minutes.
So that's pretty interesting.
Yeah.
What about the little bit of a follow-up question, because we had a second question aboutblood pressure.
(12:13):
um Supplements like magnesium, beet juice, potassium, where would those fall into playaround this level of normal?
Also very important.
We tend to get so much sodium in our diets, right?
That that can drive blood pressure to go up.
Potassium actually helps to relax the arteries.
(12:34):
Magnesium also relaxes smooth muscle, which is the muscle in the artery, right?
So those are very important.
You can lower blood pressure by eating a higher potassium rich diet or magnesium richdiet.
So those are good.
um And the beet juice is really just dietary nitrate.
Right?
So, yeah.
(12:54):
Great, so I think that again, very helpful things that we can do and understand more rightnow.
Let's talk hormone and menopause.
So this one is uh a question about estrogen.
Estrogens role in protecting the heart and brain.
And should more women be exploring HRT for long term vitality?
(13:17):
I love this one, obviously this is something I have been.
diving into quite a bit the last couple of years, hormonal health, especially for women.
Yeah, absolutely.
So I just finished a podcast.
I was a little late to this one because I was just finishing a podcast on women's health,um on hormone replacement therapy.
(13:38):
Interestingly enough, right.
We did it with Dr.
Sarah Dacheret.
um Really fascinating.
It was on the Gluten Longevity podcast also.
m But the, um you know, what we came away with was that there were a lot of hormonedisruptors in the environment.
right, so many plastics and different chemicals that are disrupting hormone levels for menand women.
(14:01):
Even, you know, when you look at fertility rates and sperm count rates and testosteronelevels and estrogen levels and things like that, ah you know, the youth are kind of being
beat up by the environment which we reside in, right?
More so than certainly I think that I was growing up, you were growing up.
And so uh very important, I think, to actually look at testing yourself with these toxinsand trying to
(14:26):
get them out of your environment would be the first thing.
Then the second thing was that we tend to think of hormone replacement therapy for peoplewhen they're going through menopause or just after menopause.
And the conversation was that, you know, we should be thinking about this a lot earlier,right?
Optimizing hormones a lot earlier, even in our 20s and 30s, optimizing hormones.
(14:48):
And it's pretty easy to do.
uh
And Dr.
Sarah was talking a lot about, she's a big fan of using transvaginal estrogen orprogesterone because they're well absorbed and it works well for the vaginal lining, but
they also become systemic.
And then maybe a little bit of oral DHEA if you want to boost testosterone after that.
(15:09):
um And, and using those at early, uh early stages, there's so many people with PCOS andpeople with endometriosis and things like that, that you can.
help by rebalancing the hormones.
And then of course for men, um you know, using testosterone and DHEA can be veryimportant.
(15:30):
We also talked about the importance of looking at the hormone metabolites and the geneticsurrounding hormones to understand how you metabolize them.
It says that you make sure that you do it safely.
So I think hormones are central to the longevity equation.
They're not enough, but they certainly you can't get there without them.
So yeah.
Yeah, well, let me ask you a follow up question to that just because I think it is such animportant uh conversation to be having.
(15:55):
Like so many people are experiencing hormone disruption like we were talking about, but somany people, I've heard this, who should they be looking to speak to doctor wise?
Because unfortunately, not every doctor
And obviously every doctor has specialties as it is, but you know, women especially willgo talk to their OBGYN and they don't necessarily have all the information.
(16:21):
So where would somebody go to start to understand their hormones?
Cause I think, I wish this was something we were taught more, but it's just not happeningyet.
Yep, I think that's right.
You know, think CHET GPT can actually give you more information than most doctors at thispoint in time, especially if you're some of the more sophisticated models like 03 or some
(16:42):
of the deep search models or things like that.
think, unfortunately, physicians were trained that hormones were kind of an adjunct thatwere used for symptoms and they weren't really used as a health optimizing um kind of
technology, if you will.
So...
Most of your doctors, especially OB-GYNs that really were taught, well, you give estrogenif somebody's having hot flashes and that's about the end of it, right?
(17:06):
They weren't really taught about balancing hormones.
And if you are going to take estrogen, you only take it for a year or two and then stop itwhen you're through menopause.
The problem is when you're hormonally depleted, your tissues don't do well.
Skin, hair, brain, heart, blood vessels, all of that start to suffer, bones for thatmatter.
All of it starts to suffer.
(17:27):
And it's really important to understand that men need estrogen, right?
They need estrogen.
So taking a testosterone shot and then taking an astrozole to block estrogen production isreally counterproductive.
I mean, it may be important for certain people that are very fast metabolizers oftestosterone into estrogen, but for the majority of men, you want to have estrogen on
(17:48):
board.
It's really good for your brain, your blood vessels, everything else.
And for women, having some testosterone is also good.
um
Progesterone will help with our DHEA will help there, but you want to have muscle mass.
You want to have bone density and you need a combination of both testosterone and estrogento get that.
Right.
And so um I think you need to try to track down somebody that focuses on hormonereplacement therapy from a more holistic approach, right?
(18:15):
Where they're looking at the genetics and they're looking at thyroid as well, becausethyroid, if it's not working properly, will make the hormones not work properly.
um
And I think if a doctor is only looking at blood tests to make decisions on thyroid,they're missing the boat.
You really need a resting metabolic rate to really know where your thyroid is set.
So you've got to do your research to find a doctor that's really competent in thyroid andhormone replacement therapy.
(18:42):
And it's a bit of a struggle, quite honestly.
Even people that advertise themselves as experts may not be going about it in the bestway.
So, you know, it's a little tricky.
Yeah, very important to do your research and to not just be out there.
Let me get some testosterone and start injecting yourself or whatever it be.
(19:05):
Really understanding how it all works and doing it supervised properly is key.
Okay, let's see.
ah Can you rewire an aging brain for youthful performance?
How does brain flexibility change with age and can we practice things like meditation?
or movement to reverse decline.
(19:28):
Yeah, I'm a big fan of optimizing the nervous system.
I think that the nervous system is the key to everything.
And I think oh one of the, you've heard about people saying that they're old and fixed intheir ways, right?
And what that means to me is that they've, they've basically landed on their answers andthey're, they're, they're just married to those answers.
(19:50):
And I really think youthfulness is curiosity, right?
So you want to be married to your questions.
You want to be curious about everything.
It's like, oh, well, that's interesting.
Let me learn more about that.
And you're constantly changing your answers to basically better serve your questions.
And so we have five questions here, right?
How good can we be?
How do we make 100 to do 30, et cetera, et cetera?
(20:13):
And it's those questions that drive all innovation.
So as you're aging, you want to make sure that you stay curious.
You want to make sure that you find your questions and that you keep asking them over andover again.
Even if you have an answer that you like, you can continue to iterate on it.
Like for example, you love exercise, but there are ways to iterate on that, right?
It's like, well, how do we do that better?
How do I challenge my nervous system better?
(20:35):
I was just at a conference speaking in Arizona and um there were a number of people in theaudience.
All of them were very longevity minded.
um And I was showing them how to walk in figure eights, right?
With their eyes open.
then walk backwards with their eyes open, then walk forwards with their eyes closed, thenwalk backwards with their eyes closed as a challenge to the nervous system.
(20:59):
So one of the things you want to do to keep your nervous system young is to constantlychallenge it.
Because if the nervous system isn't challenged, it gets lazy, right?
And it gets sort of fixed, if you will.
So challenging yourself.
It's one of the reasons I like your workouts is because my theory is you can never reallyget in shape in a gym.
You have to be in a context where there's variable things coming at you, right?
(21:24):
Either the wind or the rocks or the tree you're climbing over or whatever it is or themovement that you're doing that's creating some, what shall I say, some unexpected
variations that you have to adapt to.
Your nervous system stays young and healthy when it has to adapt and has to recognize theenvironment and change.
So you want to put yourself in new environments.
(21:46):
where you're forced to adapt and change, where you're constantly learning new things.
Learn how to dance, learn how to play an instrument.
You've heard all these things, but you want to keep challenging the nervous.
Make new friends for that matter, right?
Have a new conversation about a topic you don't know anything about.
That's a great way to learn something.
I love that so many people were so afraid to go talk to new people.
(22:07):
I actually just had people asking and on the other podcast that I host like, can youplease do a show about meeting friends after a certain age because in your four 30s 40s it
gets so much harder.
And we're also used to being on our phones that even striking up a conversation becomeshard.
are sort of losing this connected ability to talk.
(22:29):
to each other or be in an uncomfortable situation.
We don't even look up when we're crossing the street anymore.
And I also think, you know, like you were saying, be curious.
So it's like, you can have a fitness routine.
Obviously, I love having a fitness routine.
But I also especially this time of year, like getting outside and playing pickleball withmy son, that's something new that we've taken up and having to try to learn that.
(22:53):
What are the techniques of pickleball and how does this work and what are we supposed todo and the agility of it all.
So, or getting in the pool and swimming and trying new things.
it doesn't have to feel tedious.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know, you know, you're doing the right thing when it's fun, right?
You know, you're doing the right thing when you feel like a beginner.
(23:14):
And I think one of the things that works against us is that as we age, we start toidentify with the fact that we're competent.
Right.
We were told in school, well, you're getting good grades because you're competent at this.
Right.
And so now it is an adult.
It's like, well, you're good at that.
So now I'm competent.
So now my identity is tied up with being competent.
So we're
We're reluctant to put ourselves in a situation where we're a novice and we have no ideahow to do this.
(23:38):
Right.
And so I tell people, imagine you're five years old and somebody just went by on a scooterand it's like, Oh, I'm going to try that.
You know, take that mindset, right?
Take that mindset into everything.
When you go to a gym, when you go out for a hike, when you whatever, and just be a kidagain, that's it's, it's fun.
It's super fun.
Yeah, I love that so much.
(23:58):
That's such a great one.
And then just finishing touching on that.
um question of meditation or breath work or getting into that very deep relax, relax, sit,relax, get your words out on them.
Does that impact how our brain fires itself?
It does.
(24:19):
It really calms it down.
It'll calm down neuroinflammation.
um It enables things to actually work better.
Like when we're so hyper-focused or anxious or worried, it decreases the ability to makenew memories.
When we have a lot of cortisol in our system from stress, it decreases the hippocampus'ability to actually put down new memories.
(24:40):
And so super important, meditation, and I'm a big fan of brain tap.
um It's a device where you wear like headphones with a visor, binaural beats,photobiomodulation, and it can put you right into a meditative state in a matter of
seconds, quite honestly.
um And so doing that um is really restorative for your brain.
(25:02):
There are other things to really improve cognitive abilities though, too.
And that's another conversation altogether.
We can deconstruct that later, but in general, you know, meditation is wonderful for that.
I love anything that gets me into that relaxed state meditation.
Because for me, stress is a big one.
(25:22):
And you've said it to me many times that when it comes to all of my health and longevity,manage your stress, Autumn, or we're only going to get so far.
That's right.
Well, yeah.
I'll send you some information on Brain Tap.
Maybe you can grab one.
Yeah.
all the questions that we got for this episode, Dr.
Gladden.
I think we gave great information.
(25:45):
Is there anything else that?
Hmm.
We need to cover for everybody today.
Well, we are finding out some really, really interesting uses for uh medications in thelongevity space.
Medications that were originally developed for one purpose, but are now actually beingfound to have significant impact on longevity itself.
(26:08):
There's a category of diabetes medicines called SGLT2s that were introduced.
Everybody's familiar with GLP1s like ozempic and things, but SGLT2s were also introducednot long ago.
And they don't have some of the side effects that GLP ones have like uh muscle loss andbone density loss and things like that.
They do control blood sugar by allowing people to excrete it out through the urine.
(26:32):
It blocks the reabsorption of sugar through the kidney back into the bloodstream.
So it's filtered out in the urine and not reabsorbed.
So um it could potentially increase somebody's urinary tract infection risk if they wereprone to that.
But it turns out now that it also
increases autophagy, it activates AMPK, it decreases mTOR, so now it's like rapamycin plusmetformin, you know, and it's also increasing your ability to prune senescent cells from
(27:02):
your body by decreasing a molecule that actually exposes them, and then it's activatingyour natural killer cells to go prune them.
So here's a medication that's actually has multiple...
longevity benefits.
So we're really excited to look at these and we now have new tests that can actuallymeasure um some of the things that this drug is actually doing.
(27:23):
So lots of progress in terms of the true longevity stuff.
Yeah, pretty cool.
Sure.
curious, because I think that's fascinating.
I'm assuming it's still very much in the discovery phase of how it would be used forlongevity, but when it comes to somebody like who's already healthy and in good shape and
(27:45):
an ideal weight or a healthy weight, would that be something that they would potentiallybe able to use in a low dose or a micro dose for longevity?
Yes.
The answer is yes.
Yeah.
Yes.
I'm going to start taking it actually and I'll let you know how it works out.
I think that, yeah, I think that's really interesting to hear and learn more about.
So we'll definitely have to touch base on that one again in a future episode.
(28:08):
yeah, lots of really cool stuff coming.
So, well, we really appreciate your questions.
I hope that's helpful.
And I'm always a pleasure.
So.
a pleasure.
know I learned new things today.
I hope everybody else did and always as always.
Thank you for having me on doctor gladden
absolutely.
Okay.
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