#23: Longevity Highlights: Key Takeaways from the 6 Pillars

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hi, I'm Dr Bobby Du Bois and welcome to Live Long
and Well, a podcast where wewill talk about what you can do
to live as long as possible andwith as much energy and figure
that you wish, and with as muchenergy and vigor that you wish.
Together, we will explore whatpractical and evidence-supported

(00:28):
steps you can take.
Come join me on this veryimportant journey and I hope
that you feel empowered alongthe way.
I'm a physician, ironman,triathlete and have published
several hundred scientificstudies.
I'm honored to be your guide.
Welcome to Live Long and Wellwith Dr Bobby.

(00:54):
This is episode 23,.
Longevity Highlights Keytakeaways from the six pillars
to live long and well.
Well, today we have somethingnew, in fact two something news.
First, we have now a YouTubeversion of this episode, so if

(01:14):
you want to watch me and watchgraphics and video clips, you
might go to YouTube and watchthe video version of this
podcast, or you can continue, ofcourse, to listen as you do now
Also.
The second is this is a newsegment.
It's going to be calledLongevity Highlights and in

(01:37):
these highlight segments, I'mgoing to review recent episodes
and provide reminders andhigh-level take-home messages,
and I hope these will be verypractical reminders you can
incorporate in your life.
And today we're going to focuson the takeaways from the very
first six pillars episodes and,just as a reminder, all of the

(02:02):
things we're going to talk aboutare based on good evidence.
Well, why now?
Well, I had done 22 episodes andthat's a lot of information, or
at least I think it's a lot ofinformation and I felt that it
was important to pauseperiodically and reinforce that
information.
Now, some of these numbers I'mgoing to quote are not based on

(02:23):
rigorous evidence, but it'soften said that we only remember
20% of what we read or hear orsee if we just see it just one
time.
So it's often talked about thefact that you need to hear the
same information twice, threetimes, perhaps seven times,

(02:45):
before it really sticks.
Now, you know I love studies,so of course, I had to go and
find a study that supports this,and they did a brain activation
study.
So they were looking at partsof the brain and specifically
the hippocampus, which is wheremore memories are stored, and
they looked at it a day afterlearning information, a week

(03:08):
later, a month later, and theycompared it when you only heard
it once or saw it once up to atotal of seven times and what
they found was the more times itwas repeated, the more
activation there was of thehippocampus, meaning we really
really do need to reinforce ourlearnings for it to stay Well.

(03:32):
Another piece of the puzzle isthat when you hear something
that's good or see something,but your retention is much
stronger if you share thatinformation with someone else
and if you teach someone else,you may remember 90 or 95% of
that information.
Now I practice that with Gail,because I often share with her

(03:56):
some of the studies that I'msharing with you, my audience,
and the more repetition that Iam able to do, the better off I
am in remembering.
So please listen, please watchon YouTube if you wish, and
share this with others.
Well, as you know, I like tobegin with a personal story and,

(04:17):
as you know, I do a podcast, soI'm very focused on health and
fitness and obviously I'm aphysician, so that adds a piece
of the puzzle, and from my quiz,I turned out to be a holistic
health hacker, meaning that Itend to try to dial in all
aspects of health.
If you haven't taken the quiz,just go to my website,

(04:40):
drbobblivelongandwellcom, andyou can take it, and most people
have found that it's veryhelpful and we have about 600
people who have already taken it.
So I realize this isThanksgiving, we just had
Thanksgiving and I need to keeprelearning the lessons I'm
sharing with you.
So, as you know, we've talkedabout when you're eating.

(05:05):
Your brain takes a while torealize.
Oh, I guess I'm full about 20minutes or so, and so over
Thanksgiving I did not rememberthe 20-minute guidance and I
overate meal after meal aftermeal.
Had I paused, I might not haveovereaten quite as much.

(05:26):
I've also gotten out of thehabit recently of meditating and
I find I get a bit moreirritable when things come up
and meditation reminds me thatthat feeling of uneasiness is
just a feeling and I can feel alittle more comfortable with
that.
I also got out of the habit ofmy sauna and my cold plunge.

(05:48):
Well, gail and I tried to getback on the wagon and we took
our saunas last night.
We had had 24 people stay atour ranch and be with us for
four days for Thanksgiving andwe were worn out.
But having the sauna, we feltgreat afterwards and we slept

(06:08):
really well.
So, again, someone like me whothinks about this all the time,
I need to be reminded, so Ithought perhaps others do as
well.
Now, if you can remember, backto the first episode we talked
about, what does it mean?
To live long and well?
Okay, live long, that's prettystraightforward.

(06:29):
You want to live to be 90 orbeyond.
But live well is a little moresubtle, and I had shared with
you a quote by the author HunterS Thompson, and I'm going to
repeat it because it's a reallygood mantra for me to remember
and for you perhaps as well.
Broadside in a cloud of smoke,thoroughly used up, totally worn

(06:51):
out and loudly proclaiming wow,what a ride.

(07:15):
So again, it isn't just livinglong, but we want to be as
energetic during our whole life,and especially in those final
years.
So this highlights episode isgoing to reiterate the six
pillars Very briefly.
I'm going to walk through eachone, why that pillar is so
important and then, practically,what can we do?
All right, pillar number oneexercise.

(07:37):
This was episode number two,probably the single most
powerful lever we've got, and,frankly, when people think about
health and wellness, they oftenthink of exercise.
So people tend to focus this.
But, just as a reminder,exercise reduces our risk of
mortality by 20% or even more,and the more exercise, the more

(08:01):
that risk is in your favor, andthis has been based on studies
with 600,000 people.
Exercise reduces our cancerrisk 20 to 30 percent again
based on a large study of folksand exercise reduces our risk of
Alzheimer's disease.
Data here isn't quite soperfect.

(08:23):
It's not clear how many yearsof exercise to get the benefit
Vigorous exercise versus not sovigorous exercise but it appears
it does reduce that risk.
But also remember that exerciseisn't just to live longer or
not get dementia.
It also helps our bodies to befunctional and to do those

(08:45):
activities we want, likepickerball or hiking or playing
with our grandkids as we getolder.
All right, what were the keytakeaways?
Try to get two to five hours ofaerobic exercise every week.
Try to do a strength trainingregimen once or twice a week.

(09:06):
If you can do some balancetraining, great.
And if you can do highintensity work once a week,
that's great, okay.
Number two sleep, the unsunghero.
This was episode three.
Also want to mention that on mywebsite, every one of my

(09:27):
episodes, I have an articleabout what we talked about, and
so it's very quick and easy foryou to find the information, the
lists of things you might wantto focus on.
Just go to the website, whichis drbobblivelongandwellcom.
You'll also find the quiz there, and if you want to work more
closely and directly with me,you can reach out in that way.

(09:51):
Okay, if you are a single-mindedachiever that's one of our quiz
types or a contentment creator,you tend to focus on a small
number of aspects of health.
You may not be remembering tofocus on all the things you can
do to improve your sleep and, aswe've talked about too many of

(10:14):
us get less than seven hours pernight, and that seven hours is
a pretty good benchmark of whatwe need Less sleep, especially
less regular sleep.
Regular sleep meaning roughlythe same amount of sleep every
night.
Roughly, you go to bed at thesame time and get up at the same
time.
When you don't get that amountof sleep, it impacts your

(10:37):
mortality, it impacts yourmemory.
But the good news is there are12 practical steps you can do
that will help almost everybodyimprove their sleep.
Now I'm not going to walkthrough all 12.
If you go to the prior episode,number three, or go to the blog
on my website, you'll get themlisted all there, but here are

(10:59):
some that is good to remindourselves.
Alcohol really affects our sleep.
Eating close before bedtime mayaffect your sleep a lot.
Have a cool temperature in yourbedroom.
That makes a huge differencefor a lot of people.
Try a sauna or a hot showerbefore bed, just like I talked

(11:21):
about that, gail and I just did.
That can help you sleep well.
If you can get early sunlight,walk around outdoors beginning
of the day, that's great.
And, as I mentioned, a regularbedtime and just as a bonus
element here, remember we'vetalked about end of one studies
Try something in yourself,measure a baseline measure after

(11:43):
you're trying this new thingand see if it helps.
Sleep is a perfect thing.
Stop alcohol for a little while, see if it makes a difference,
restart alcohol perhaps, see ifit gets worse again and then you
really know how your bodyfunctions.
Okay, next pillar, nutrition.

(12:04):
That's episode four.
So much has been written andtalked about, but I netted down
to four principles and I wantedto remind you of these.
Principle one, if you can, froma nutrition standpoint and your
whole body standpointmaintaining a proper weight.
Whole host of reasons this ishelpful.

(12:26):
Feel free to listen to myepisode also on weight and
weight loss.
Principle two all diets work.
They all work until they don't.
Whether it's high fat, low fat,intermittent fasting, there is
no magic diet that will work.
Try it and whatever works foryou is what you should do.

(12:48):
Principle three what we eatcarbs versus meats versus other
things and when we eat, it isless crucial.
Obviously, protein is important, but the rest of the diet?
There is, again, no magic,no-transcript, okay.

(13:12):
Fourth of our pillars mind-bodyharmony.
Episode five if you want tolisten more directly, it is
probably the most overlookedarea, meaning people might be
running, they might focus ontheir nutrition, but they often
don't incorporate very simplethings like walking in nature,
very simple things like walkingin nature, breath work, a few

(13:36):
minutes a day, yoga ormeditation.
Mind-body work is so important.
Stress has been related to yourblood pressure, cardiovascular
death, and these activities likethe walk in nature and the
breath work and yoga andmeditation have been shown to
affect your cortisol stresshormones and reduce your blood

(13:58):
pressure.
All right.
Number five exposure to heat andcold, especially cold, cold
plunges, cold showers.
This is where I get most of mypushback.
People are like Dr Bobby, I'lldo all these other things,
please.
I don't, I don't and I can't dothe cold plunge, okay, if
that's not your thing, it's notyour thing, but these activities

(14:22):
have been going on forthousands of years and, as we
talked about, there's a wholeseries of important studies in
Finland which showed thatsauna's regular sauna use
reduces heart disease, reducecognitive decline.
Okay, so what's theprescription?
Sauna 20 minutes, ideally threetimes a week.

(14:42):
The more you do, the better, itseems, in terms of our health.
Cold plunge, fewer studies, noreal long-term studies, but what
it has been shown is that ourdopamine levels, our happiness
hormones, as it were, increasewhen you do just a couple of
minutes of that cold exposure.

(15:04):
All right, the final one, theimportance of social
relationships.
This is pillar six, and it wasin episode seven, and we talked
about the Harvard study of adultDevelopment.
It's also been popularized inBlue Zones and it is the
strongest predictor of livinginto our 70s and being

(15:26):
functional.
So very important to work on,and the definition of a strong
social relationship for me is isthere somebody you can call in
the middle of the night?
And, as we talked about, as weage, our friends die off, they
move off.
It's important to incorporateyounger people in our lives as

(15:50):
friends so they will continuewith us, hopefully for decades
to come.
Well, that's it.
We have summarized the sixpillars, why they're important
and what you can do.
That's very, very practical.
Let me know if you liked thehighlights episode.
I need the feedback.
I really appreciate it.
If you can leave me a review,please do so.

(16:13):
Please recommend the podcast toothers and, again, if you
haven't taken the quiz, youmight find it very, very helpful
.
Well, until next time, ourjourney continues to live long
and well.
Thanks so much for listening toLive Long and Well with Dr

(16:37):
Bobby.
If you liked this episode,please provide a review on Apple
or Spotify or wherever youlisten.
If you want to continue thisjourney or want to receive my
newsletter on practical andscientific ways to improve your
health and longevity, pleasevisit me at
drbobbilivelongandwellcom.

(17:01):
That's, doctor, as in D-R Bobby.
Live long and wellcom.

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