September 30, 2025 • 35 mins
In this episode, Dr. Alfred Alessi discusses recognizing health warning signs and their impact on longevity. They explore insights from blue zones, the genetics vs. lifestyle debate, and early aging red flags. The role of environment and lifestyle in aging is examined, with a focus on testing and tracking for longevity. They highlight functional medicine's view on metabolic health, muscle mass, and body composition. The episode compares advanced longevity testing options and discusses conventional and functional approaches, including regenerative therapies. It concludes with thoughts on enhancing longevity and encourages listener interaction.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
When the warning signs and the lights arecoming on, we tend to ignore them.
(00:04):
Oh, it's just headaches that I've been dealingwith for ten years.
Oh, it's just pain.
Oh, it's just gut dysfunction.
And we push it off as if, like, poweringthrough is some badge of honor.
And I'm not I'm not here to criticize people.
I've done that in the past as well, and that'sjust really part of the way I was raised.
That's how a lot of us were.
That is what can lead to negative outcomes inthe future, problems becoming worse, harder to
(00:29):
fix if if they are, and more expensive to fixdown the line.
Welcome to Health Decode, your number onesource for real health information with your
host, doctor Alessi and Matt Tack.
Welcome back to another episode of HealthDecoded.
I am your host, doctor Alessi.
Very thankful for you joining me today.
(00:51):
We have a very, very cool episode today.
This is something that is becoming more popularas of late and a lot of people are starting to
think about.
So why not do an episode?
What better time than now to do an episodeabout longevity and really why longevity is
important?
You know, if I had a dollar for every time Isaw a patient who said they were concerned
(01:15):
about what the future looks like due to youknow, whatever condition they might be having.
You know, it would be a lot.
And so, it's something important to think aboutthat I think a lot of people maybe don't begin
thinking about until later on when, I don'twant to say it's too late, but could things
could have been prevented or things could havebeen optimized earlier.
(01:37):
So, the decisions we make today set us up foreither health or disease in the future.
And that's just the truth of it.
Doesn't matter if you're 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 ormore.
That's just the way it works.
And so today's episode is about longevity andreally why long gib- focusing on longevity is
important, how we can optimize that, what testswe might be able to use to see how our internal
(02:03):
systems like our mitochondria, our genetics,you know, the oxidation within our body could
be affecting longevity.
And then what we can do to fight back againstthose things and improve our longevity outcomes
for the future.
So, thank you for tuning in.
I hope you enjoy today's episode.
As always, if you like the show, and this issomething that you think a friend or family
(02:26):
member could benefit from, please do sharethis.
Please follow the show that helps us to expandour reach to be able to get this message out to
more people who need to hear this and canoptimize their health as well.
So thank you again.
Let's get into it.
So let's just start with really what islongevity and why does it matter?
Why are we even talking about this today?
(02:47):
Well, truth is that many people just think thatlongevity is about like adding years to your
life.
But it's really not about adding years to yourlife.
It's about adding life to those years.
Stay with me.
We don't want to crawl when we're 90 years old,right?
Beyond all these medications where maybe we'rein a wheelchair and life at that point is very
(03:09):
much stagnant and that ability to do things isgone, right?
But we're still alive.
If I asked anybody, they would say that's nothow they would want to be in their older age.
So, the goal is for us to be able to ambulateand move right at a decent rate for as long as
possible.
And so the concept here is that longevity isn'tbetter lifespan, it's better health span.
(03:34):
And lifespan is how long you live.
Health span is how long do you stay vibrant,free from disability, dependence and chronic
disease.
Most of us would say that we would prefer thesecond one.
But the conventional medicine system reallydoesn't focus on that.
It really only tracks the first how long peoplelive.
(03:54):
There was a cool study out of the New EnglandJournal of Medicine in 2018.
It reported that while life expectancy hasincreased worldwide, the number of years lived
in poor health has also risen.
And this shows the gap between lifespan andhealth span.
Yes, people are living longer with moderntechnologies and modern medicine, but those
(04:15):
years are not vibrant and healthy years.
So, you know, I personally I'll speak formyself, I would rather live like shorter,
healthier up until the end, then live 200 andbe in the wheelchair bed bound for fifteen of
those years.
Again, my personal take, I think most peoplewould agree.
(04:35):
Now, there's some cool data that comes out ofstudies across the world.
And so there's places called the blue zones,and they've done a lot of research on these
places because they have the biggest populationof people living into the 90s, hundreds and
beyond.
And so we can take away some lessons from that.
(04:57):
In particular, these blue zones are places likeOkinawa in Japan, Sardinia in Italy, Nicoya in
Costa Rica, Icaria, Greece, and Loma Linda inCalifornia.
And so, it's interesting because even acrossdifferent cultures, different continents, the
patterns are pretty consistent.
They focus on simple whole food diets, rich inmostly plants, beans and omega threes.
(05:22):
Daily movement woven into their life, rightit's not like they have to plan movement every
single day like we do in most of our country.
But that's just their life gardening walkingthe hills walking to get produce its manual
work intensive.
They also have one thing in common, which is astrong social connection and a sense of
(05:43):
belonging, right?
A sense of purpose.
They practice stress relief rituals likeprayer, naps, meditation.
And again, they have this purpose drivenliving, which it's called Ikigai in Okinawa,
which is basically, like, what is the reasonfor being?
And they very much are focused on that becausethen it makes doing the daily things important
(06:06):
to them.
It's not just, I need to do this so that I canmake a buck so that I can buy more stuff.
Right?
It's no, I'm doing this because there's apoint.
There's a purpose.
I'm leaving an impact on this world.
Out of the Journal of Aging Research in 2020,it concluded that diet, physical activity,
stress resilience, and social connection werethe largest determinants of healthy aging
(06:28):
outcomes.
Now, that's the takeaway we want here is reallyit's genetics versus lifestyle.
Right?
And which which one matters most?
Who wins?
But it they show that only 20 to 25% oflongevity is genetic.
The rest is really the way you live, eat, move,connect with people, and manage stress.
(06:51):
And so in other words, you're you're notsentenced by your family history.
Lifestyle is really the lever that we can pullto modify either better or worse those
outcomes.
In a Harvard study out of circulation journal2016, they followed five lifestyle habits,
healthy diet, regular exercise, maintaining ahealthy weight, moderate alcohol intake, and
(07:14):
not smoking.
And this was associated with twelve to fourteenadditional years of life expectancy.
So, the takeaway here is that you're not at themercy of your genes.
Longevity is a choice and the blueprint isthere.
The question is, are you focused on that or areyou just ignoring it?
Right?
And so, let's get into a little bit here of,you know, maybe warning signs or red flags or
(07:39):
things you can notice if you're not on the pathto longevity.
And so, things that we would want to get aheadof if longevity is a focus.
Because the reality is most people don'trealize that they're aging poorly until it's
too late.
Aging doesn't usually announce itself with adiagnosis.
The signs are subtle, they don't show up likedisease or, pains, things like that.
(08:02):
They start as patterns, your body's these lowlevel whispers before there's a full on alarm
down the road.
And so some early red flags to look out for ifyou're concerned or you're like, how can I
optimize the way my body ages for longevity?
Things like fatigue.
And this isn't just, I had a bad night's sleep,and I'm a little tired, but lack of energy even
(08:25):
after rest.
This can often point towards early signs ofmitochondrial dysfunction, where your cells
aren't producing energy efficiently.
Go back ten fifteen episodes, we did an episodeon mitochondria really, really good in-depth
episode on what that means.
Another one, loss of muscle mass and strength,sarcopenia.
(08:45):
Just did an episode on this a few weeks backbecause muscle is medicine and studies show
that adults lose three to 8% of muscle perdecade after 30.
And the rate accelerates even more after 60.
And so pre planning that getting ahead ofmuscle loss by focusing on body weight exercise
(09:05):
even resistance training in particular is veryimportant protein intake using you know,
specific things to get your body to absorbprotein better.
Gut health is very important as well.
Because when we have muscle loss, this weakensour metabolism, which can increase the risk
obviously for things like diabetes, prediabetes, metabolic syndrome, but it also
(09:28):
increases the risk of falls and frailty inolder adults.
Another sign is belly fat and insulinresistance.
So, central obesity is actually a red flag formetabolic syndrome.
Belly fat is very, very inflammatory.
And so, we talk about this a lot with patientswho come in to see us with pains, particularly
(09:49):
like low back, mid back, knees, hips, thosekind of pains.
You know, you can do all of the therapies inthe world, but if you don't manage the
inflammation on the internal side, you'remissing a mark there that's going to have
limited results.
And so, it's very important to know that youradipose tissue fat cells are very inflammatory,
(10:11):
and they can drive chronic disease withtoxicity as well.
Another one poor sleep, or you know, relianceon medications.
Big one to look out for is things like brainfog or you know, mood decline, things like
memory lapses, or it's hard to recall things,maybe anxiety or depression.
These are early signs of brain inflammation orneuro inflammation, which can lead down the
(10:35):
line to more severe neurodegenerativeconditions like Parkinson's, Alzheimer's,
things like that.
We did an episode way, way back about howAlzheimer's is actually now known as type three
diabetes.
And that's because it starts now and eventuallythe metabolic issues within the body lead to
(10:57):
the breakdown of the neurons in the brain,which can then become Alzheimer's.
A big thing to look and to check for thingslike high inflammation markers, which we're
going to get into this next in the testingsection, but those can be indications of, you
know, early signs of premature aging orbreakdown.
And then a big, big, big one is weakenedimmunity.
(11:19):
I'm sick all the time, or it takes longer forme to recover or to heal.
All of those can point to immune dysfunction.
A really cool study out of the Journal ofGerontology 2019, they studied grip strength
and gait speed as the strongest predictors ofmortality.
So, these were more powerful indicators thaneven cholesterol and blood pressure.
(11:43):
So basically your handshake and the pace atwhich you can walk literally forecast your
health span.
If you're able to move quickly and you're ableto have some strength with your grip, that's a
better sign for positive outcomes later.
And so, you know, what's the mismatch here?
Right?
Because it's always like, why is this a thing?
It's because we're living realistically in aworld that our biology was not designed for.
(12:07):
Our bodies were engineered for scarcity, right?
Food was not always available.
Movement, we had to move to stay alive.
And natural rhythms, you know, rising andsleeping with the sunlight.
Instead, we're stuck in environments ofabundance.
There's food available all the time.
Artificial lights everywhere.
Needing to plan movement, right, or sedentaryall day long.
(12:30):
And so ultra processed foods with loadedsugars, refined oils, chronic stress and the
screens, we're constantly getting input all daylong, which is spiking our cortisol levels,
suppressing immune function, sedentarylifestyles, you know, they they say sitting is
actually the new smoking, right?
Sitting most of the day weakens ourmitochondria shrinks our muscles and this
(12:51):
accelerates insulin resistance.
And then the toxicity of our environment.
Everything's plastic, pesticides on all thefoods, pesticides in the air.
There's heavy metals in the water, endocrinedisruptors.
This all just overloads our body's ability todetox and get things out, which can then have a
cascade of effects like disrupting hormones,autoimmunity, and even cancer.
(13:13):
And so the The Lancet Journal posted on healthylongevity in 2021, that environmental and
lifestyle factors account for over seventy fivepercent of the variance in aging outcomes.
Meaning that aging is far more about how youlive than the DNA you were born with.
Again, that goes back to the lifestyle versusgenetics conversation.
(13:35):
We always say that genetics load the gun, butyour lifestyle pulls the trigger, right?
You have a predisposition to heart disease, butyour lifestyle can either set that off or
combat that for good.
And so, now let's get into a bit of the scienceof longevity and really testing and tracking
(13:57):
very important things to take into account ifyou are concerned for longevity or, you know,
just the long term outcome of your health.
Before we do that, let's really quickly take aword from one of our sponsors.
Hey, Health Decoded listeners.
I'd like to share a story with you.
There was this man who on the outside lookedhealthy, like he had everything going right.
(14:21):
He was fit, he worked out, he ate clean, butbeneath the surface, even unknown to him, his
body was breaking down until one day hecrashed.
Full blown fatigue, burnout, he couldn't eventhink or make it through the day without a nap.
After finally turning to functional medicineblood work and discovering he had an autoimmune
(14:44):
thyroid condition caused by leaky gut, he wasable to take action and restore his health.
Well, guess what?
That person was me.
And that's what led me to tirelessly worktoward creating an option for people who wanted
a way out.
The result was my six R gut healing protocol.
Backed by advanced functional testing, thissystem uncovers the root of dysfunction and
(15:09):
uses a step by step formula proven to restore,rebalance, and completely heal the gut.
We only open this program to a select number ofpatients each month.
So if you're ready to finally take control ofyour gut health, visit
alessifunctionalhealth.com/gut and take thequiz to see if you qualify for this program.
(15:35):
I look forward to seeing you soon.
Alright, welcome back.
Let's get back into this and let's get into thenuts and bolts, What we can do to take action,
focus on our longevity, and get ahead of futureissues before they come a problem.
I was actually just sharing the other day witha colleague.
(15:55):
It was it was Matt, my podcast co host.
I was like, hey, let me let me ask you this.
If you were walking down the sidewalk with yourwife and there was a puddle in front of you,
would you tell her, hey, there's a puddle watchout?
Or would you wait for her to step in the puddleand then offer to dry off her feet?
And everybody's going to answer that.
Like, I would tell her to watch out for thepuddle.
(16:16):
That just makes sense.
Now, why don't we do that with our health?
Right?
Another example is like, as soon as the checkengine light comes on with our cars, everybody
is taking their car to the shop.
They are getting ahead of that like this.
People love their cars.
They want to make sure things run becausethey're expensive.
How much more valuable is your body than yourcar?
Right?
When the warning signs and the lights arecoming on, we tend to ignore them.
(16:38):
Oh, it's just headaches that I've been dealingwith for ten years.
Oh, it's just pain.
Oh, it's just gut dysfunction.
And we push it off as if like powering throughis some badge of honor.
And I'm not I'm not here to criticize people.
I've done that in the past as well.
And that's just really part of the way I wasraised.
That's how a lot of us were.
But that is what can lead to negative outcomesin the future.
(17:03):
Problems becoming worse, harder to fix if theyare, and more expensive to fix down the line.
It's always cheaper to fix things earlier thanto let things get worse.
And so if you don't measure it, you reallycan't manage it because longevity isn't about
wishful thinking.
It's about testing the right markers, trackingpatterns, and too many people are relying on
(17:25):
just the annual physical that really isn'tscratching the surface.
But if you want to extend your health span, youneed deeper testing, you need functional
testing.
And so, functional medicine longevity testing,this is really the hallmark here.
This is the gold standard for what we would do.
And so number one, we have to focus onmetabolic health.
(17:46):
That's everything.
And so checking things like fasting insulin,your hemoglobin A1C, glucose, your CRP, C
reactive peptide.
These can reveal insulin resistance yearsbefore diabetes diagnosed.
We take it a step further with the HoMA testwhere we can see if someone is at risk for
insulin resistance before their blood sugar isshowing that really cool test.
(18:10):
Continuous glucose monitors or CGMs.
These are awesome.
You're seeing a lot of younger people andathletes wearing these nowadays, because they
want to be able to track what meals andexercise are doing to their blood sugar.
Right?
I wore one for a while and I noticed that everytime I had oats, right?
I was eating oats as like a pre workout meal.
It would spike my blood sugar like no other.
(18:32):
Now, I just don't eat oats, right?
That's not something my body reacts well to.
Instead, I do things like starches like sweetpotatoes or even regular white potatoes.
They have a more flat insulin sugar or insulinspike.
And so there was a study in a journaldiabetologia.
This is a, I believe, Spanish.
(18:53):
Even high normal fasting glucose levels predicthigher cardiovascular and cognitive decline
risk.
So, the higher the glucose or the blood sugar,the higher the risk for cognitive decline,
right?
Again, type three diabetes is Alzheimer's.
Now, the next things we would look forinflammation markers.
(19:15):
This is things like HSCRP, the similar Creactive protein, homocysteine is a big one.
And then ferritin, right?
Because chronic low grade inflammation is thecommon denominator in heart disease,
Alzheimer's and cancer.
And these are things that we can predict beforethey become a problem.
Now, we're going to look at hormones.
(19:36):
So, a full thyroid panel, looking at thingslike TSH the free and reverse T3 thyroid
antibodies to check for autoimmunity.
We're going to look at cortisol rhythm rhythmeither via saliva test or a Dutch test.
And then sex hormones, androgens, testosterone,estrogen, progesterone, because these regulate
(19:57):
metabolism, mood, energy and longevityresilience.
Next on the list is cellular and mitochondrialhealth really, really awesome test is the
organic acids test or an oat test.
This shows us your body's mitochondrial energyoutput, your body's detox capacity, and it can
even give insight into nutrient deficiencies.
(20:18):
All things that can either set us up fordisease or set us up for longevity.
Another one is oxidative stress testing,looking at CoQ10 levels or oxidative stress
markers, really like assessing how well yourbody handles wear and tear and stress over time
and the environmental toxicity.
(20:39):
Nutrient status like vitamin D, that's apowerful one Omega three index B12
micronutrients are the co factors of longevity.
And so every system in the body needs rawmaterials to work right for these cascades to
work.
Those are the micronutrients it pulls fromdifferent sources and stores, particularly a
diet if it's not endogenous, and it uses thoseto then create hormones, to create energy, to
(21:06):
create ATP, which is our body's energy source.
And so, you know, vitamin D deficiency has beenlinked with a two times higher risk of all
causes of mortality.
Now, a huge one, and this is body composition.
And so, what we use in our clinic is called aDEXA scan.
This is the gold standard because this willtell you fat mass, lean mass, bone density.
(21:32):
It can predict sarcopenia or osteopenia whichare silent killers of health span.
And so, there was a study out of the Journal ofGerontology 2019 showed that low muscle mass
predicts mortality more strongly thancholesterol or BMI.
That is powerful.
Let me say that again, low muscle mass predictsmortality more strongly than cholesterol.
(21:53):
However, the medical system is so focused oncholesterol, they just want everybody to check
your cholesterol.
What's your cholesterol?
Did you know that cholesterol is actually whatmakes up your brain?
Did you know that cholesterol is what makes upyour hormones?
If we don't have cholesterol, you die.
And so, high cholesterol, I mean, if it'sskyrocketed high, yes, that's something to be
(22:14):
aware of and something that is important.
However, moderately high cholesterol in theabsence of inflammation is actually not that
big of a deal.
It's when there's inflammation and degenerationthat's going on within the arteries, within the
heart, plus the cholesterol, then yes, that issomething to take care of and something to get
ahead of.
(22:35):
However, cholesterol alone is not the villainthey've made it out to be.
Go back 10 episodes, 12 episodes.
I don't know the number.
We did an episode all about that that talksmore about it.
Very interesting.
And then some other really cool things, youknow, again, the DEXA scan is the gold standard
that we would use that I recommend everybodygets at least twice a year, if not every
(22:56):
quarter.
But on top of that, really cool things we cando is like telomere length testing.
So, you test for telomeres, which are basicallyat the end caps of all your DNA, and they get
over time, they get shorter because they'rebeing used and worn.
And so shortened telomeres basically equalaccelerated biological aging.
(23:16):
There's things we can do to reverse that andactually add length to those telomeres.
DNA methylation testing, and then VO2 max andgrip strength testing.
Again, those were things that have been shownto be correlated to better health span long
term.
And so, the reason this matters, and I alwayslike to make sure we hit on this because people
(23:37):
will be like, well, whatever, you know, thissounds cool and sounds like something that
healthy people would want to be concerned with,but that's not me.
Well, everybody's got the same thing insidetheir body.
And so just because somebody's more healthydoesn't mean they're any different.
What happens is conventional medicine waitsuntil things are broken and things are an issue
(23:59):
to then take action.
Again, conventional medicine is waiting for youto step in the puddle and offering you a towel
to wipe off your shoes versus functionalmedicine, which says, hey, there's a puddle
here, we should probably go the other way, orwe should probably walk around that.
And so it's about getting ahead of things,which are often it's easier to fix then.
It's cheaper to fix it at that point, andthere's less chance for more severe condition
(24:23):
down the line.
And so it's using data.
Data is a compass for us.
Now, let's get into a bit of Okay, we've talkedabout why longevity is important.
You know, what signs to maybe look for if yourbody is not on the path to longevity, but maybe
there's some things happening now.
And then how we test to confirm that.
(24:45):
Now, let's talk about like what is thelongevity blueprint?
Because the good news is we already know.
Right?
We already know what works.
It's twenty first century.
It's 2025.
Longevity isn't about hacking your way to a100, but it's about aligning with the blueprint
that nature and research have already shown us.
When you put pillars into practiceconsistently, you shift from just like survival
(25:05):
mode into thriving.
And that's what we're all about.
So here's the blueprint.
Okay, I'm going get into it.
Number one, nutrition, go figure, right?
What you put into your body is the number onepredictor for if you're going to be healthy or
unhealthy.
So anti inflammatory diet, higher on proteinplants are important, right?
It's I know there's a carnival craze now, butcertain nutrients have polyphenols and these
(25:30):
antioxidants in them that are just vital.
And so the Mediterranean diet has been shown oreven paleo type of diet has been shown to be
the best for longevity.
And that's what we focus on with our patients.
Prioritizing Omega threes from wild fish,walnuts, flax seeds, polyphenol rich berries,
olive oil, and then limiting processed foodslike refined sugars or seed oils.
(25:55):
If you ever are interested in your like, wheredo I start with all this is so much
information.
You just contact us.
Go to lesseefunctionalhealth.com and youcontact us say something like, diet.
Heard you on a podcast Mediterranean.
We'll send you a ton of resources that we do acompletely free.
This is just for us to help people.
And so there was a meta analysis in the BritishMedical Journal 2021 found that adherence to a
(26:19):
Mediterranean diet actually can reducecardiovascular mortality by up to thirty
percent.
So just diet alone.
Now, movement is the second thing.
Alright?
Muscle is medicine.
Again, we're gonna harp on this.
Daily activity, non negotiable.
You have to walk, you have to move, correctyour posture.
You have to get yourself moderately out ofbreath and get your heart rate up every day.
(26:43):
So zone two cardio, like jogging, cycling,brisk walks, trains your mitochondria and your
heart.
And now, on top of that resistance training,putting your body under some type of weight,
whether it's body weight, whether it's Pilatesor holding, or if it's just actually lifting
weights, protects against sarcopenia andinsulin resistance.
(27:04):
And resistance training has been shown to bemore beneficial for preventing osteoporosis
than the medications they will prescribe you.
So, natural and free, put your bodyunderweight.
Now, the next thing is focusing on stress andsleep.
Right?
Your recovery equals longevity.
(27:24):
Recovery is that much more important or equallyimportant to the amount of effort you're doing.
Right?
If you talk to any high level athlete, ifthey're burning it every single day, but
they're not recovering properly, what happens?
Injuries, their their career suffers, right?
All these things that they're not able toperform at that level.
Not saying that we need to be athletes, but weneed to think like athletes.
(27:46):
How can I enhance the way my body moves and isable to act and do things?
Because stress breaks the body, but recoverybuilds it back up.
And so, you know, building vagal tone withbreath work, meditation, cold exposure, yoga.
We talked about vagal tone in a few episodesback.
So I'm sure you're starting to gather that alot of these things we talk about tend to
(28:09):
overlap each other, and that's because there'sa lot of importance to it.
This topic today is a bit more broad, butthere's a lot more fine tuned episodes about
this stuff.
So, go listen to those and share them with yourfriends.
Now, circadian alignment, right?
Very important.
We need to be on a cycle that is similar towhat the sun is doing.
That's just the way the human body was wasmade.
(28:30):
We rise with the Sun, we want to get sunlighton our body and our eyes first thing.
And then when the Sun starts to go down, wewant to be kind of toning down, not looking at
screens, looking at our phones, at thecomputer, TV late into the night.
Aiming for seven to nine hours of sleep, makingsure we're getting five, six sleep cycles in
that time.
(28:51):
There was a sleep study out of the Journal ofSleep 2018 that said less than six hours a
night can increase all cause mortality risk bytwenty percent.
So, if we're not sleeping, we're notrecovering.
If we're not recovering, our body's breakingdown.
And if our body's breaking down, longevity willobviously be at risk.
And so, the next thing, right?
We took this away from the blue zones, thesocial and purpose pillar, right?
(29:14):
This is the one that gets missed because peoplejust they don't really think that, I got
friends.
Oh, I do this.
But not just hanging out with friends, but likewhat is the purpose, right?
Like am I building relationships that matter?
Am I connecting?
Am I really like growing in a community?
And so, this can lower stress hormones.
It improves immune function and it boosts thoselongevity genes, those telomeres.
(29:39):
Things like volunteering, mentoring, right?
Mentoring is a great way to have purpose whenwe can use wisdom to impart on younger people
to like, this is, you know, a way to go aboutthings, right?
It gives you a sense of purpose and community.
It's all important.
Now, detoxification and environment, again,reducing that toxic load within the body.
(30:01):
So, cleaning up our water systems using reverseosmosis or filtered air in the house, avoiding
things, right?
It's important to avoid heavy plastics,pesticides, toxic cookware is a big one.
The things we put on our body was just talkingto a patient about this equally important to
what we put in our body.
If we're putting synthetic fragrances anddeodorants and lotions and stuff, that's
(30:24):
soaking right into the skin and getting intoyour bloodstream.
And then sweating things out.
Sauna is awesome for longevity.
Exercise, we already talked about hot tubs, hotbaths, right?
And so, chronic exposure to endocrinedisruptors like BPA can be directly tied to
obesity and thyroid dysfunction.
This came out of the Environmental HealthPerspectives Journal.
(30:45):
Now, we talked about that, I think an episodeago about thyroid and how that gets
dysregulated.
Now, let's okay, that's all the functionalthings.
Again, all of that stuff I just talked aboutbasically is free.
Nutrition, I mean, it's not free.
You have to pay for food, but it's not like youhave to go buy something special.
Just eat healthy.
Movement, free.
(31:05):
Sleep and recovery, and stress meditation, thatkind of stuff free, social purpose community
free, right?
It's not like we're selling you some highvalued like crazy thing, like just start making
better choices, right?
Detoxing and focusing on cleaning up theenvironment in your house.
That's free too, right?
You don't have to buy certain things to eat.
(31:25):
And then now, obviously getting into the moreadvanced tools, right?
And this is kind of the frontier and the coolstuff that everybody wants to hear about.
But I'll be honest me too.
I like I like talking about this stuff.
Peptides, right?
Using really cool internal signalers that theyare is like Mot C, which supports your
mitochondrial energy and BPC 157 for repair.
(31:48):
Ipamorelin is great for growth hormone supportand we will combine some of these in different
you know combinations based on what thepatients or the person's goals might be.
Bio regulators are awesome.
They're small protein molecules that actuallyhelp reset aging tissues at the genetic level.
They're derived from actual glandular tissue.
(32:09):
And so, when you put those in the body, theywill build up the similar tissue.
So, it's pretty cool.
And then regenerative therapies, things likePRP, stem cells, red light to promote repair
and resilience, soft wave therapy for targetedsupport.
Now, again, while these aren't for everybody,and this isn't like you have to do any of
these.
(32:30):
These are like the Formula One tier ofproactive medicine, right?
These are the high level, like I want to reallyget ahead of this.
It's very important to me, that kind of thing.
So, again, if you have questions about thisstuff, if you're ever interested in these kind
of things, reach out to us.
We are happy to give you resources on top ofresources free.
(32:51):
I don't care.
We will just send you all of our guides.
That way, you can learn this stuff for yourselfand not even just for yourself but then you can
impact those in your life as well.
And so, you know, the final takeaway here thatI would like to leave everyone with is that you
don't need a crystal ball to predict yourhealth span.
The blueprint is simple, right?
We already know it's eating clean, movingdaily, connecting deeply with loved ones,
(33:14):
detoxing regularly, recovering and living witha sense of purpose.
So, longevity isn't about chasing time, it'sabout creating vitality.
And if you commit to a blueprint, you don'tjust add years to your life, but you add
quality and clarity and resilience to thoseyears that you add to your life.
And so, you would like to learn more about someof our programs and our longevity testing and
(33:38):
how we can implement some of these things intoyour life, please reach out to us.
Alessi functional health dot com.
You can schedule a consultation with myself orsomebody on my team, and we will talk you
through a personalized game plan to add yearsand vibrant years to your life.
As always, we always ask if you liked what youheard on the show, if this was valuable in any
(34:01):
way to you, please follow.
Please share this with somebody that you thinkwould need to hear it as well.
And just help us spread the word of naturalfunctional health.
If you want to hear your questions, if you havequestions, you want to hear them answered on
the show, or if you have a story you want toshare, send it to ask@AlessiFXHealth.com.
(34:23):
We'd be happy to feature you on the show.
That's always a fun one to do.
And as always, stay healthy.
Your health is in your hands, and we will lookforward to seeing you on the next one.
Thank you for tuning in to Health Decoded,where we break down the truth about all things
health and empower you to take charge of yourwell-being.
(34:43):
If you found value in today's episode, pleasesubscribe, leave a review, and share it with
someone who needs to hear this.
For more resources and personalized support,visit us at alessifunctionalhealth.com and sign
up for our newsletter.
To hear your questions answered live on theshow, send them to ask@AlessiFXHealth.com.
(35:04):
That's ask@alessifxhealth.com.
Until next time.
Stay curious, stay empowered, and remember,your health is in your hands.
When the warning signs and the lights arecoming on, we tend to ignore them.
(00:04):
Oh, it's just headaches that I've been dealingwith for ten years.
Oh, it's just pain.
Oh, it's just gut dysfunction.
And we push it off as if, like, poweringthrough is some badge of honor.
And I'm not I'm not here to criticize people.
I've done that in the past as well, and that'sjust really part of the way I was raised.
That's how a lot of us were.
That is what can lead to negative outcomes inthe future, problems becoming worse, harder to
(00:29):
fix if if they are, and more expensive to fixdown the line.
Welcome to Health Decode, your number onesource for real health information with your
host, doctor Alessi and Matt Tack.
Welcome back to another episode of HealthDecoded.
I am your host, doctor Alessi.
Very thankful for you joining me today.
(00:51):
We have a very, very cool episode today.
This is something that is becoming more popularas of late and a lot of people are starting to
think about.
So why not do an episode?
What better time than now to do an episodeabout longevity and really why longevity is
important?
You know, if I had a dollar for every time Isaw a patient who said they were concerned
(01:15):
about what the future looks like due to youknow, whatever condition they might be having.
You know, it would be a lot.
And so, it's something important to think aboutthat I think a lot of people maybe don't begin
thinking about until later on when, I don'twant to say it's too late, but could things
could have been prevented or things could havebeen optimized earlier.
(01:37):
So, the decisions we make today set us up foreither health or disease in the future.
And that's just the truth of it.
Doesn't matter if you're 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 ormore.
That's just the way it works.
And so today's episode is about longevity andreally why long gib- focusing on longevity is
important, how we can optimize that, what testswe might be able to use to see how our internal
(02:03):
systems like our mitochondria, our genetics,you know, the oxidation within our body could
be affecting longevity.
And then what we can do to fight back againstthose things and improve our longevity outcomes
for the future.
So, thank you for tuning in.
I hope you enjoy today's episode.
As always, if you like the show, and this issomething that you think a friend or family
(02:26):
member could benefit from, please do sharethis.
Please follow the show that helps us to expandour reach to be able to get this message out to
more people who need to hear this and canoptimize their health as well.
So thank you again.
Let's get into it.
So let's just start with really what islongevity and why does it matter?
Why are we even talking about this today?
(02:47):
Well, truth is that many people just think thatlongevity is about like adding years to your
life.
But it's really not about adding years to yourlife.
It's about adding life to those years.
Stay with me.
We don't want to crawl when we're 90 years old,right?
Beyond all these medications where maybe we'rein a wheelchair and life at that point is very
(03:09):
much stagnant and that ability to do things isgone, right?
But we're still alive.
If I asked anybody, they would say that's nothow they would want to be in their older age.
So, the goal is for us to be able to ambulateand move right at a decent rate for as long as
possible.
And so the concept here is that longevity isn'tbetter lifespan, it's better health span.
(03:34):
And lifespan is how long you live.
Health span is how long do you stay vibrant,free from disability, dependence and chronic
disease.
Most of us would say that we would prefer thesecond one.
But the conventional medicine system reallydoesn't focus on that.
It really only tracks the first how long peoplelive.
(03:54):
There was a cool study out of the New EnglandJournal of Medicine in 2018.
It reported that while life expectancy hasincreased worldwide, the number of years lived
in poor health has also risen.
And this shows the gap between lifespan andhealth span.
Yes, people are living longer with moderntechnologies and modern medicine, but those
(04:15):
years are not vibrant and healthy years.
So, you know, I personally I'll speak formyself, I would rather live like shorter,
healthier up until the end, then live 200 andbe in the wheelchair bed bound for fifteen of
those years.
Again, my personal take, I think most peoplewould agree.
(04:35):
Now, there's some cool data that comes out ofstudies across the world.
And so there's places called the blue zones,and they've done a lot of research on these
places because they have the biggest populationof people living into the 90s, hundreds and
beyond.
And so we can take away some lessons from that.
(04:57):
In particular, these blue zones are places likeOkinawa in Japan, Sardinia in Italy, Nicoya in
Costa Rica, Icaria, Greece, and Loma Linda inCalifornia.
And so, it's interesting because even acrossdifferent cultures, different continents, the
patterns are pretty consistent.
They focus on simple whole food diets, rich inmostly plants, beans and omega threes.
(05:22):
Daily movement woven into their life, rightit's not like they have to plan movement every
single day like we do in most of our country.
But that's just their life gardening walkingthe hills walking to get produce its manual
work intensive.
They also have one thing in common, which is astrong social connection and a sense of
(05:43):
belonging, right?
A sense of purpose.
They practice stress relief rituals likeprayer, naps, meditation.
And again, they have this purpose drivenliving, which it's called Ikigai in Okinawa,
which is basically, like, what is the reasonfor being?
And they very much are focused on that becausethen it makes doing the daily things important
(06:06):
to them.
It's not just, I need to do this so that I canmake a buck so that I can buy more stuff.
Right?
It's no, I'm doing this because there's apoint.
There's a purpose.
I'm leaving an impact on this world.
Out of the Journal of Aging Research in 2020,it concluded that diet, physical activity,
stress resilience, and social connection werethe largest determinants of healthy aging
(06:28):
outcomes.
Now, that's the takeaway we want here is reallyit's genetics versus lifestyle.
Right?
And which which one matters most?
Who wins?
But it they show that only 20 to 25% oflongevity is genetic.
The rest is really the way you live, eat, move,connect with people, and manage stress.
(06:51):
And so in other words, you're you're notsentenced by your family history.
Lifestyle is really the lever that we can pullto modify either better or worse those
outcomes.
In a Harvard study out of circulation journal2016, they followed five lifestyle habits,
healthy diet, regular exercise, maintaining ahealthy weight, moderate alcohol intake, and
(07:14):
not smoking.
And this was associated with twelve to fourteenadditional years of life expectancy.
So, the takeaway here is that you're not at themercy of your genes.
Longevity is a choice and the blueprint isthere.
The question is, are you focused on that or areyou just ignoring it?
Right?
And so, let's get into a little bit here of,you know, maybe warning signs or red flags or
(07:39):
things you can notice if you're not on the pathto longevity.
And so, things that we would want to get aheadof if longevity is a focus.
Because the reality is most people don'trealize that they're aging poorly until it's
too late.
Aging doesn't usually announce itself with adiagnosis.
The signs are subtle, they don't show up likedisease or, pains, things like that.
(08:02):
They start as patterns, your body's these lowlevel whispers before there's a full on alarm
down the road.
And so some early red flags to look out for ifyou're concerned or you're like, how can I
optimize the way my body ages for longevity?
Things like fatigue.
And this isn't just, I had a bad night's sleep,and I'm a little tired, but lack of energy even
(08:25):
after rest.
This can often point towards early signs ofmitochondrial dysfunction, where your cells
aren't producing energy efficiently.
Go back ten fifteen episodes, we did an episodeon mitochondria really, really good in-depth
episode on what that means.
Another one, loss of muscle mass and strength,sarcopenia.
(08:45):
Just did an episode on this a few weeks backbecause muscle is medicine and studies show
that adults lose three to 8% of muscle perdecade after 30.
And the rate accelerates even more after 60.
And so pre planning that getting ahead ofmuscle loss by focusing on body weight exercise
(09:05):
even resistance training in particular is veryimportant protein intake using you know,
specific things to get your body to absorbprotein better.
Gut health is very important as well.
Because when we have muscle loss, this weakensour metabolism, which can increase the risk
obviously for things like diabetes, prediabetes, metabolic syndrome, but it also
(09:28):
increases the risk of falls and frailty inolder adults.
Another sign is belly fat and insulinresistance.
So, central obesity is actually a red flag formetabolic syndrome.
Belly fat is very, very inflammatory.
And so, we talk about this a lot with patientswho come in to see us with pains, particularly
(09:49):
like low back, mid back, knees, hips, thosekind of pains.
You know, you can do all of the therapies inthe world, but if you don't manage the
inflammation on the internal side, you'remissing a mark there that's going to have
limited results.
And so, it's very important to know that youradipose tissue fat cells are very inflammatory,
(10:11):
and they can drive chronic disease withtoxicity as well.
Another one poor sleep, or you know, relianceon medications.
Big one to look out for is things like brainfog or you know, mood decline, things like
memory lapses, or it's hard to recall things,maybe anxiety or depression.
These are early signs of brain inflammation orneuro inflammation, which can lead down the
(10:35):
line to more severe neurodegenerativeconditions like Parkinson's, Alzheimer's,
things like that.
We did an episode way, way back about howAlzheimer's is actually now known as type three
diabetes.
And that's because it starts now and eventuallythe metabolic issues within the body lead to
(10:57):
the breakdown of the neurons in the brain,which can then become Alzheimer's.
A big thing to look and to check for thingslike high inflammation markers, which we're
going to get into this next in the testingsection, but those can be indications of, you
know, early signs of premature aging orbreakdown.
And then a big, big, big one is weakenedimmunity.
(11:19):
I'm sick all the time, or it takes longer forme to recover or to heal.
All of those can point to immune dysfunction.
A really cool study out of the Journal ofGerontology 2019, they studied grip strength
and gait speed as the strongest predictors ofmortality.
So, these were more powerful indicators thaneven cholesterol and blood pressure.
(11:43):
So basically your handshake and the pace atwhich you can walk literally forecast your
health span.
If you're able to move quickly and you're ableto have some strength with your grip, that's a
better sign for positive outcomes later.
And so, you know, what's the mismatch here?
Right?
Because it's always like, why is this a thing?
It's because we're living realistically in aworld that our biology was not designed for.
(12:07):
Our bodies were engineered for scarcity, right?
Food was not always available.
Movement, we had to move to stay alive.
And natural rhythms, you know, rising andsleeping with the sunlight.
Instead, we're stuck in environments ofabundance.
There's food available all the time.
Artificial lights everywhere.
Needing to plan movement, right, or sedentaryall day long.
(12:30):
And so ultra processed foods with loadedsugars, refined oils, chronic stress and the
screens, we're constantly getting input all daylong, which is spiking our cortisol levels,
suppressing immune function, sedentarylifestyles, you know, they they say sitting is
actually the new smoking, right?
Sitting most of the day weakens ourmitochondria shrinks our muscles and this
(12:51):
accelerates insulin resistance.
And then the toxicity of our environment.
Everything's plastic, pesticides on all thefoods, pesticides in the air.
There's heavy metals in the water, endocrinedisruptors.
This all just overloads our body's ability todetox and get things out, which can then have a
cascade of effects like disrupting hormones,autoimmunity, and even cancer.
(13:13):
And so the The Lancet Journal posted on healthylongevity in 2021, that environmental and
lifestyle factors account for over seventy fivepercent of the variance in aging outcomes.
Meaning that aging is far more about how youlive than the DNA you were born with.
Again, that goes back to the lifestyle versusgenetics conversation.
(13:35):
We always say that genetics load the gun, butyour lifestyle pulls the trigger, right?
You have a predisposition to heart disease, butyour lifestyle can either set that off or
combat that for good.
And so, now let's get into a bit of the scienceof longevity and really testing and tracking
(13:57):
very important things to take into account ifyou are concerned for longevity or, you know,
just the long term outcome of your health.
Before we do that, let's really quickly take aword from one of our sponsors.
Hey, Health Decoded listeners.
I'd like to share a story with you.
There was this man who on the outside lookedhealthy, like he had everything going right.
(14:21):
He was fit, he worked out, he ate clean, butbeneath the surface, even unknown to him, his
body was breaking down until one day hecrashed.
Full blown fatigue, burnout, he couldn't eventhink or make it through the day without a nap.
After finally turning to functional medicineblood work and discovering he had an autoimmune
(14:44):
thyroid condition caused by leaky gut, he wasable to take action and restore his health.
Well, guess what?
That person was me.
And that's what led me to tirelessly worktoward creating an option for people who wanted
a way out.
The result was my six R gut healing protocol.
Backed by advanced functional testing, thissystem uncovers the root of dysfunction and
(15:09):
uses a step by step formula proven to restore,rebalance, and completely heal the gut.
We only open this program to a select number ofpatients each month.
So if you're ready to finally take control ofyour gut health, visit
alessifunctionalhealth.com/gut and take thequiz to see if you qualify for this program.
(15:35):
I look forward to seeing you soon.
Alright, welcome back.
Let's get back into this and let's get into thenuts and bolts, What we can do to take action,
focus on our longevity, and get ahead of futureissues before they come a problem.
I was actually just sharing the other day witha colleague.
(15:55):
It was it was Matt, my podcast co host.
I was like, hey, let me let me ask you this.
If you were walking down the sidewalk with yourwife and there was a puddle in front of you,
would you tell her, hey, there's a puddle watchout?
Or would you wait for her to step in the puddleand then offer to dry off her feet?
And everybody's going to answer that.
Like, I would tell her to watch out for thepuddle.
(16:16):
That just makes sense.
Now, why don't we do that with our health?
Right?
Another example is like, as soon as the checkengine light comes on with our cars, everybody
is taking their car to the shop.
They are getting ahead of that like this.
People love their cars.
They want to make sure things run becausethey're expensive.
How much more valuable is your body than yourcar?
Right?
When the warning signs and the lights arecoming on, we tend to ignore them.
(16:38):
Oh, it's just headaches that I've been dealingwith for ten years.
Oh, it's just pain.
Oh, it's just gut dysfunction.
And we push it off as if like powering throughis some badge of honor.
And I'm not I'm not here to criticize people.
I've done that in the past as well.
And that's just really part of the way I wasraised.
That's how a lot of us were.
But that is what can lead to negative outcomesin the future.
(17:03):
Problems becoming worse, harder to fix if theyare, and more expensive to fix down the line.
It's always cheaper to fix things earlier thanto let things get worse.
And so if you don't measure it, you reallycan't manage it because longevity isn't about
wishful thinking.
It's about testing the right markers, trackingpatterns, and too many people are relying on
(17:25):
just the annual physical that really isn'tscratching the surface.
But if you want to extend your health span, youneed deeper testing, you need functional
testing.
And so, functional medicine longevity testing,this is really the hallmark here.
This is the gold standard for what we would do.
And so number one, we have to focus onmetabolic health.
(17:46):
That's everything.
And so checking things like fasting insulin,your hemoglobin A1C, glucose, your CRP, C
reactive peptide.
These can reveal insulin resistance yearsbefore diabetes diagnosed.
We take it a step further with the HoMA testwhere we can see if someone is at risk for
insulin resistance before their blood sugar isshowing that really cool test.
(18:10):
Continuous glucose monitors or CGMs.
These are awesome.
You're seeing a lot of younger people andathletes wearing these nowadays, because they
want to be able to track what meals andexercise are doing to their blood sugar.
Right?
I wore one for a while and I noticed that everytime I had oats, right?
I was eating oats as like a pre workout meal.
It would spike my blood sugar like no other.
(18:32):
Now, I just don't eat oats, right?
That's not something my body reacts well to.
Instead, I do things like starches like sweetpotatoes or even regular white potatoes.
They have a more flat insulin sugar or insulinspike.
And so there was a study in a journaldiabetologia.
This is a, I believe, Spanish.
(18:53):
Even high normal fasting glucose levels predicthigher cardiovascular and cognitive decline
risk.
So, the higher the glucose or the blood sugar,the higher the risk for cognitive decline,
right?
Again, type three diabetes is Alzheimer's.
Now, the next things we would look forinflammation markers.
(19:15):
This is things like HSCRP, the similar Creactive protein, homocysteine is a big one.
And then ferritin, right?
Because chronic low grade inflammation is thecommon denominator in heart disease,
Alzheimer's and cancer.
And these are things that we can predict beforethey become a problem.
Now, we're going to look at hormones.
(19:36):
So, a full thyroid panel, looking at thingslike TSH the free and reverse T3 thyroid
antibodies to check for autoimmunity.
We're going to look at cortisol rhythm rhythmeither via saliva test or a Dutch test.
And then sex hormones, androgens, testosterone,estrogen, progesterone, because these regulate
(19:57):
metabolism, mood, energy and longevityresilience.
Next on the list is cellular and mitochondrialhealth really, really awesome test is the
organic acids test or an oat test.
This shows us your body's mitochondrial energyoutput, your body's detox capacity, and it can
even give insight into nutrient deficiencies.
(20:18):
All things that can either set us up fordisease or set us up for longevity.
Another one is oxidative stress testing,looking at CoQ10 levels or oxidative stress
markers, really like assessing how well yourbody handles wear and tear and stress over time
and the environmental toxicity.
(20:39):
Nutrient status like vitamin D, that's apowerful one Omega three index B12
micronutrients are the co factors of longevity.
And so every system in the body needs rawmaterials to work right for these cascades to
work.
Those are the micronutrients it pulls fromdifferent sources and stores, particularly a
diet if it's not endogenous, and it uses thoseto then create hormones, to create energy, to
(21:06):
create ATP, which is our body's energy source.
And so, you know, vitamin D deficiency has beenlinked with a two times higher risk of all
causes of mortality.
Now, a huge one, and this is body composition.
And so, what we use in our clinic is called aDEXA scan.
This is the gold standard because this willtell you fat mass, lean mass, bone density.
(21:32):
It can predict sarcopenia or osteopenia whichare silent killers of health span.
And so, there was a study out of the Journal ofGerontology 2019 showed that low muscle mass
predicts mortality more strongly thancholesterol or BMI.
That is powerful.
Let me say that again, low muscle mass predictsmortality more strongly than cholesterol.
(21:53):
However, the medical system is so focused oncholesterol, they just want everybody to check
your cholesterol.
What's your cholesterol?
Did you know that cholesterol is actually whatmakes up your brain?
Did you know that cholesterol is what makes upyour hormones?
If we don't have cholesterol, you die.
And so, high cholesterol, I mean, if it'sskyrocketed high, yes, that's something to be
(22:14):
aware of and something that is important.
However, moderately high cholesterol in theabsence of inflammation is actually not that
big of a deal.
It's when there's inflammation and degenerationthat's going on within the arteries, within the
heart, plus the cholesterol, then yes, that issomething to take care of and something to get
ahead of.
(22:35):
However, cholesterol alone is not the villainthey've made it out to be.
Go back 10 episodes, 12 episodes.
I don't know the number.
We did an episode all about that that talksmore about it.
Very interesting.
And then some other really cool things, youknow, again, the DEXA scan is the gold standard
that we would use that I recommend everybodygets at least twice a year, if not every
(22:56):
quarter.
But on top of that, really cool things we cando is like telomere length testing.
So, you test for telomeres, which are basicallyat the end caps of all your DNA, and they get
over time, they get shorter because they'rebeing used and worn.
And so shortened telomeres basically equalaccelerated biological aging.
(23:16):
There's things we can do to reverse that andactually add length to those telomeres.
DNA methylation testing, and then VO2 max andgrip strength testing.
Again, those were things that have been shownto be correlated to better health span long
term.
And so, the reason this matters, and I alwayslike to make sure we hit on this because people
(23:37):
will be like, well, whatever, you know, thissounds cool and sounds like something that
healthy people would want to be concerned with,but that's not me.
Well, everybody's got the same thing insidetheir body.
And so just because somebody's more healthydoesn't mean they're any different.
What happens is conventional medicine waitsuntil things are broken and things are an issue
(23:59):
to then take action.
Again, conventional medicine is waiting for youto step in the puddle and offering you a towel
to wipe off your shoes versus functionalmedicine, which says, hey, there's a puddle
here, we should probably go the other way, orwe should probably walk around that.
And so it's about getting ahead of things,which are often it's easier to fix then.
It's cheaper to fix it at that point, andthere's less chance for more severe condition
(24:23):
down the line.
And so it's using data.
Data is a compass for us.
Now, let's get into a bit of Okay, we've talkedabout why longevity is important.
You know, what signs to maybe look for if yourbody is not on the path to longevity, but maybe
there's some things happening now.
And then how we test to confirm that.
(24:45):
Now, let's talk about like what is thelongevity blueprint?
Because the good news is we already know.
Right?
We already know what works.
It's twenty first century.
It's 2025.
Longevity isn't about hacking your way to a100, but it's about aligning with the blueprint
that nature and research have already shown us.
When you put pillars into practiceconsistently, you shift from just like survival
(25:05):
mode into thriving.
And that's what we're all about.
So here's the blueprint.
Okay, I'm going get into it.
Number one, nutrition, go figure, right?
What you put into your body is the number onepredictor for if you're going to be healthy or
unhealthy.
So anti inflammatory diet, higher on proteinplants are important, right?
It's I know there's a carnival craze now, butcertain nutrients have polyphenols and these
(25:30):
antioxidants in them that are just vital.
And so the Mediterranean diet has been shown oreven paleo type of diet has been shown to be
the best for longevity.
And that's what we focus on with our patients.
Prioritizing Omega threes from wild fish,walnuts, flax seeds, polyphenol rich berries,
olive oil, and then limiting processed foodslike refined sugars or seed oils.
(25:55):
If you ever are interested in your like, wheredo I start with all this is so much
information.
You just contact us.
Go to lesseefunctionalhealth.com and youcontact us say something like, diet.
Heard you on a podcast Mediterranean.
We'll send you a ton of resources that we do acompletely free.
This is just for us to help people.
And so there was a meta analysis in the BritishMedical Journal 2021 found that adherence to a
(26:19):
Mediterranean diet actually can reducecardiovascular mortality by up to thirty
percent.
So just diet alone.
Now, movement is the second thing.
Alright?
Muscle is medicine.
Again, we're gonna harp on this.
Daily activity, non negotiable.
You have to walk, you have to move, correctyour posture.
You have to get yourself moderately out ofbreath and get your heart rate up every day.
(26:43):
So zone two cardio, like jogging, cycling,brisk walks, trains your mitochondria and your
heart.
And now, on top of that resistance training,putting your body under some type of weight,
whether it's body weight, whether it's Pilatesor holding, or if it's just actually lifting
weights, protects against sarcopenia andinsulin resistance.
(27:04):
And resistance training has been shown to bemore beneficial for preventing osteoporosis
than the medications they will prescribe you.
So, natural and free, put your bodyunderweight.
Now, the next thing is focusing on stress andsleep.
Right?
Your recovery equals longevity.
(27:24):
Recovery is that much more important or equallyimportant to the amount of effort you're doing.
Right?
If you talk to any high level athlete, ifthey're burning it every single day, but
they're not recovering properly, what happens?
Injuries, their their career suffers, right?
All these things that they're not able toperform at that level.
Not saying that we need to be athletes, but weneed to think like athletes.
(27:46):
How can I enhance the way my body moves and isable to act and do things?
Because stress breaks the body, but recoverybuilds it back up.
And so, you know, building vagal tone withbreath work, meditation, cold exposure, yoga.
We talked about vagal tone in a few episodesback.
So I'm sure you're starting to gather that alot of these things we talk about tend to
(28:09):
overlap each other, and that's because there'sa lot of importance to it.
This topic today is a bit more broad, butthere's a lot more fine tuned episodes about
this stuff.
So, go listen to those and share them with yourfriends.
Now, circadian alignment, right?
Very important.
We need to be on a cycle that is similar towhat the sun is doing.
That's just the way the human body was wasmade.
(28:30):
We rise with the Sun, we want to get sunlighton our body and our eyes first thing.
And then when the Sun starts to go down, wewant to be kind of toning down, not looking at
screens, looking at our phones, at thecomputer, TV late into the night.
Aiming for seven to nine hours of sleep, makingsure we're getting five, six sleep cycles in
that time.
(28:51):
There was a sleep study out of the Journal ofSleep 2018 that said less than six hours a
night can increase all cause mortality risk bytwenty percent.
So, if we're not sleeping, we're notrecovering.
If we're not recovering, our body's breakingdown.
And if our body's breaking down, longevity willobviously be at risk.
And so, the next thing, right?
We took this away from the blue zones, thesocial and purpose pillar, right?
(29:14):
This is the one that gets missed because peoplejust they don't really think that, I got
friends.
Oh, I do this.
But not just hanging out with friends, but likewhat is the purpose, right?
Like am I building relationships that matter?
Am I connecting?
Am I really like growing in a community?
And so, this can lower stress hormones.
It improves immune function and it boosts thoselongevity genes, those telomeres.
(29:39):
Things like volunteering, mentoring, right?
Mentoring is a great way to have purpose whenwe can use wisdom to impart on younger people
to like, this is, you know, a way to go aboutthings, right?
It gives you a sense of purpose and community.
It's all important.
Now, detoxification and environment, again,reducing that toxic load within the body.
(30:01):
So, cleaning up our water systems using reverseosmosis or filtered air in the house, avoiding
things, right?
It's important to avoid heavy plastics,pesticides, toxic cookware is a big one.
The things we put on our body was just talkingto a patient about this equally important to
what we put in our body.
If we're putting synthetic fragrances anddeodorants and lotions and stuff, that's
(30:24):
soaking right into the skin and getting intoyour bloodstream.
And then sweating things out.
Sauna is awesome for longevity.
Exercise, we already talked about hot tubs, hotbaths, right?
And so, chronic exposure to endocrinedisruptors like BPA can be directly tied to
obesity and thyroid dysfunction.
This came out of the Environmental HealthPerspectives Journal.
(30:45):
Now, we talked about that, I think an episodeago about thyroid and how that gets
dysregulated.
Now, let's okay, that's all the functionalthings.
Again, all of that stuff I just talked aboutbasically is free.
Nutrition, I mean, it's not free.
You have to pay for food, but it's not like youhave to go buy something special.
Just eat healthy.
Movement, free.
(31:05):
Sleep and recovery, and stress meditation, thatkind of stuff free, social purpose community
free, right?
It's not like we're selling you some highvalued like crazy thing, like just start making
better choices, right?
Detoxing and focusing on cleaning up theenvironment in your house.
That's free too, right?
You don't have to buy certain things to eat.
(31:25):
And then now, obviously getting into the moreadvanced tools, right?
And this is kind of the frontier and the coolstuff that everybody wants to hear about.
But I'll be honest me too.
I like I like talking about this stuff.
Peptides, right?
Using really cool internal signalers that theyare is like Mot C, which supports your
mitochondrial energy and BPC 157 for repair.
(31:48):
Ipamorelin is great for growth hormone supportand we will combine some of these in different
you know combinations based on what thepatients or the person's goals might be.
Bio regulators are awesome.
They're small protein molecules that actuallyhelp reset aging tissues at the genetic level.
They're derived from actual glandular tissue.
(32:09):
And so, when you put those in the body, theywill build up the similar tissue.
So, it's pretty cool.
And then regenerative therapies, things likePRP, stem cells, red light to promote repair
and resilience, soft wave therapy for targetedsupport.
Now, again, while these aren't for everybody,and this isn't like you have to do any of
these.
(32:30):
These are like the Formula One tier ofproactive medicine, right?
These are the high level, like I want to reallyget ahead of this.
It's very important to me, that kind of thing.
So, again, if you have questions about thisstuff, if you're ever interested in these kind
of things, reach out to us.
We are happy to give you resources on top ofresources free.
(32:51):
I don't care.
We will just send you all of our guides.
That way, you can learn this stuff for yourselfand not even just for yourself but then you can
impact those in your life as well.
And so, you know, the final takeaway here thatI would like to leave everyone with is that you
don't need a crystal ball to predict yourhealth span.
The blueprint is simple, right?
We already know it's eating clean, movingdaily, connecting deeply with loved ones,
(33:14):
detoxing regularly, recovering and living witha sense of purpose.
So, longevity isn't about chasing time, it'sabout creating vitality.
And if you commit to a blueprint, you don'tjust add years to your life, but you add
quality and clarity and resilience to thoseyears that you add to your life.
And so, you would like to learn more about someof our programs and our longevity testing and
(33:38):
how we can implement some of these things intoyour life, please reach out to us.
Alessi functional health dot com.
You can schedule a consultation with myself orsomebody on my team, and we will talk you
through a personalized game plan to add yearsand vibrant years to your life.
As always, we always ask if you liked what youheard on the show, if this was valuable in any
(34:01):
way to you, please follow.
Please share this with somebody that you thinkwould need to hear it as well.
And just help us spread the word of naturalfunctional health.
If you want to hear your questions, if you havequestions, you want to hear them answered on
the show, or if you have a story you want toshare, send it to ask@AlessiFXHealth.com.
(34:23):
We'd be happy to feature you on the show.
That's always a fun one to do.
And as always, stay healthy.
Your health is in your hands, and we will lookforward to seeing you on the next one.
Thank you for tuning in to Health Decoded,where we break down the truth about all things
health and empower you to take charge of yourwell-being.
(34:43):
If you found value in today's episode, pleasesubscribe, leave a review, and share it with
someone who needs to hear this.
For more resources and personalized support,visit us at alessifunctionalhealth.com and sign
up for our newsletter.
To hear your questions answered live on theshow, send them to ask@AlessiFXHealth.com.
(35:04):
That's ask@alessifxhealth.com.
Until next time.
Stay curious, stay empowered, and remember,your health is in your hands.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!