April 3, 2025 • 33 mins
Help me improve my podcast content by answering a few questions
Take the Health Type Quiz
Resilience is crucial as we age, especially when it comes to maintaining muscle, joint, and bone health. In this episode, Dr. Bobby DuBois discusses how building physical reserves early on can help withstand inevitable changes and setbacks as we get older. Just like investing in an IRA, the earlier you start building your physical resilience, the better prepared you’ll be for the challenges of aging.
Dr. Bobby shares insights from his interview with Karen, who experienced a rapid decline in strength after a period of inactivity. Despite previous success with weight loss and fitness, Karen found herself struggling to lift groceries after weeks of illness and time away from the gym. Her story highlights the importance of maintaining muscle mass and staying active, even after setbacks.
Key Points:
- The Impact of Inactivity: As we age, muscle loss accelerates. We can lose 1–2% of muscle mass per year after age 30, and inactivity can drastically speed up this decline. Strength exercises, even when started later in life, can still yield significant gains (study).
- Muscle Memory and Recovery: Muscle memory helps regain lost strength more rapidly than building it from scratch, but the recovery time lengthens with age. Karen’s experience reinforces the importance of staying consistent, even when life gets in the way.
- Protecting Joints: Joint cartilage thins with age, increasing the risk of osteoarthritis. Contrary to popular belief, regular running does not inherently damage joints. However, previous injuries significantly raise the risk of osteoarthritis (study).
- Bone Health Maintenance: Bone density peaks around age 25 and gradually declines, especially after age 50. Engaging in weight-bearing and high-impact exercises can help preserve bone density. Heavy resistance training is especially beneficial for maintaining bone strength (study).
- Supplementing won't solve the problem: Calcium/Vitamin D supplements don't seem to solve the problem.
- Practical Tips for Resilience:
- Keep your protein intake between 0.5 to 0.75 grams per pound of body weight to support muscle maintenance.
- Incorporate cross-training activities during periods of injury or illness to maintain fitness.
- Focus on exercises that build both muscle and bone density, such as resistance training and weight-bearing movements.
Takeaways:
- Aging is inevitable, but weakness isn’t. Building resilience through consistent exercise and strength training is crucial to maintaining independence and quality of life.
- Don’t give up after setbacks—muscle memory and consistent effort can help you regain lost strength.
- Prioritize activities that strengthen both muscles and bones to minimize the impact of inactivity and age-related decline.
Live long and well by staying resilient and proactive. Remember to keep moving, invest in your muscle and bone health, and stay committed to your fitness journey. If you found this episode helpful, please share it with others and rate the show!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
So investing in your health is like investing in an
IRA for retirement.
It's really best to start earlyand build that nest egg or gain
that muscle and bone health tosustain you in the years ahead.
Hi, I'm Dr Bobby DuBois andwelcome.
(00:35):
To Live Long and Well a podcastwhere we will talk about what
you can do to live as long aspossible and with as much energy
and figure that you wish.
Together, we will explore whatpractical and evidence-supported
steps you can take.
Come join me on this veryimportant journey and I hope
that you feel empowered alongthe way.
(00:56):
I'm a physician, ironman,triathlete and have published
several hundred scientificstudies.
I'm honored to be your guide.
Welcome all of my wonderfullisteners to episode 34,
resilience.
(01:16):
The more you have, the more youhave to lose.
Well, in today's episode, we'regoing to talk about the fact
that getting older is inevitable.
I don't think we've solved thatproblem, but there are things
you can do to help you get aheadof some of those changes to
(01:38):
your muscles and your bones, andthat is about resilience your
bones and that is aboutresilience, and resilience is
about being able to weather thechanges that come with aging.
Now the lessons for today youmight think are just relevant to
people in their middle age andbeyond, but what I'd like to
(02:00):
make the point is that even foryounger folks, in your 20s, 30s,
40s, you have years ahead tomake these preparations, and as
you get older, you'll be eventhat much more resilient.
Again, it's like investing inan IRA.
You want to start earlypreparing for retirement and
(02:24):
growing your nest egg and inhealth, there are many ways to
work on your resiliency.
Today, we're going to focus onmuscles, joints and bones.
There are other types ofresiliency and we'll think about
and talk about that in anotherepisode.
(02:44):
Well, before we dive in, I havea couple of requests for you.
If you like this podcast,please tell others and they
might benefit just the way youare, and that would be very,
very helpful.
If you haven't rated the show,please do so.
And if you haven't done thehealth type quiz, by all means
(03:05):
go to my website,drbobbylivelongandwellcom, and
you can do that.
Well, I'd like to begin with aninterview, and really her story
needs no introduction, as itwill unfold and will tell us a
(03:28):
lot about this episode.
Well, karen, welcome to LiveLong and Well.
I've been looking forward tohaving a discussion together and
I think what you're about toshare will be really important
for the listeners and theYouTube audience.
You've described to me that youhad a really a tough experience
(03:50):
when you weren't able toexercise for a period of time,
and maybe when you were 20, thatwouldn't have made much of a
difference, but as you got olderyou found that it was quite
different.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Okay, well, thank you , bobby, I'm really happy to be
here.
As you and I talked about, mywhole life.
My weight was very highSometimes, usually somewhere
between 250 to 85 up until about10 years ago.
So I went through the UCLAprogram there, which was
fantastic, and I really workedvery, very hard, diligently
(04:25):
every day for two years andmaybe even three years, and over
that course of time I lost 120pounds.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
That's incredible.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Thank you.
And right after that I had aseries of plastic surgeries to
take care of you know the extrastuff that comes from that.
And once I did that and lifecompletely, absolutely changed
for me.
And then I had a couple ofhealth issues that took me out
for about three or four monthsat a time where I could barely
(04:58):
get out of bed, and one had todo with my neck, which we had to
figure out, and the other onehad to do with my back, which I
actually had to have surgery for.
But that was 10 years ago whenI was in my early years, and
that's still young.
So coming back from thatactually was pretty easy.
You know, maybe really onlytook me six weeks to get back
(05:21):
really to where I was.
It took me six weeks to getback really to where I was.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Why don't you tell us what it used to be like?
When I say used to be like justa few months ago, when you
would go to the market and you'dcome home with lots of
groceries, what was thatexperience like?
Because I know that's about tochange.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
So I would go to the grocery store once a week and I
would come home with groceriesfor a whole week which are maybe
10 bags of things, potatoes,things that were very, pretty
heavy, and I would have fourbags in each hand.
I'd walk over into my kitchenand I would just pick those bags
up and put them on my islandand not think twice about it.
(06:00):
Then I took a vacation for twoweeks and I came back and I got
COVID and I was down for maybethree weeks with that and then I
traveled again and I came backand I had a sinus infection Down
again.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
And all throughout this time, your gym routine came
to a grinding halt grindinghalt.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
So I went from being in amazing shape and I would say
that I could literally pick up20 pounds in each hand like this
, drop them right out on theisland to just about.
I think this was maybe twoweeks ago or three weeks ago.
I went to the market, had thesame amount of stuff.
I walked in.
I could barely I would say Ihad like a 20 degree you know
lift on these things and I juststood there dumbfounded I
(06:48):
thought I cannot believe thatI've lost this kind of muscle
mass in such a short period oftime, and I think I was down for
maybe 10 weeks of not going tothe gym.
So I went from, you know, avery strong person to what I
would consider to be a very weakperson in such a short period
of time.
(07:09):
That shocked me.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
That's a shocker, that's scary, that's emotionally
challenging, but you didn'tgive up did you.
So what did you do next?
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Well, I belong to Gold's Gym here and I thought,
okay, I'm going to go down theretomorrow and I'm going to buy a
training package for 12sessions.
And I chose my trainer and Istarted three weeks ago and
actually it doesn't really takethat much time to recoup the.
(07:40):
You know, the muscle memory isthere.
So just today, actually, I wentto the store and I came home
and maybe there were instead offour bags, I had three in each
hand.
But boom, I got them right upon the counter.
So you cannot give up.
Giving up to me is the biggestmistake anybody could ever make.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
So what are the lessons for yourself from this?
What are the lessons that ouraudience should take from what
happened to you?
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Well, first of all, I would say never give up.
You cannot give up.
You have to if you don't wantto do it, trust me, I haven't
yet gotten into the rhythm of,you know, going to the gym.
I have to.
I have to get up every day withthe attention of going.
So you have to, really you haveto make up your mind.
You know that you want to be avery fit person from today until
(08:31):
the last day of your life.
And you, just you, just it'sNike Just do it, you have to do
it.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Well, and it sounds like when you had quasi similar
experiences, you know, when youwere 10, 20 years younger, the
bounce back if you lost anythingwas almost instantaneous.
But now, as you get in your 60s, it seems like it's been a very
different experience.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
It is.
It's really a struggle.
I mean, I don't know, it's notan easy task.
You've got to get up, you'vegot to get after it.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Well, and it sounds like you were well on your way
to getting back to where youneed to be, and it's amazing
that you had your experience inItaly.
You had your experience withthe COVID and the sinus
infection, and it wasn't untilyou tested yourself with the
groceries that you realizedsomething was gone.
And this can happen for folksin many other ways like, oh,
(09:27):
yeah, I'm doing.
Okay, yeah, I'm not exercising,not getting to the gym until
they're hiking and they fall, soit's a silent problem, unless
you are doing things like youdid.
That said, oh, I have a problem.
I'm gratified that you are wellback on your way and that you
never give up, which isextraordinary and a lesson for
(09:49):
all of us.
Karen, thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Thank you for sharing your story.
Okay, bye-bye.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Bye-bye.
In an earlier episode onexercise I talked about the
concept of overuse it or lose it.
That is, if you at some pointlater in life want to go on an
airplane and you have arollerboard that weighs perhaps
20 pounds and you want to put itin the overhead bin today, 10
(10:19):
or 20 years before that, youneed to be able to lift overhead
way more than 20 pounds becauseas you age that strength will
fall.
Or if you want to lift up yourgrandchild from the floor again,
you need to be able to liftthat type of weight far more
today than you anticipatewanting to do in a decade or so.
(10:43):
So the title of today's episode, which is the more you have,
the more you have to lose, ismeaningful.
Now, karen's story pointed outthat times of inactivity and
that's really what caused herthe troubles that inactivity
(11:06):
takes a toll.
It took a toll on her, andespecially as we get older.
Now I was chatting with mytrainer, who's in her 30s, and
she told me a similar storywhere she took off for a few
weeks and she noticed that herability to do weightlifting had
fallen quite a bit.
Now for her in her 30s, shebounced back almost
(11:31):
instantaneously as we get older,that bounce back process is
going to take longer and besomewhat more difficult.
Now, as I said earlier, agingis inevitable.
Now, our weakness isn'tnecessarily inevitable.
And for today we're going totalk about our muscles, what we
(11:52):
can do for resiliency, ourjoints and our bones.
Well, let's start with ourmuscles and we want them to be
as resilient as possible.
So we lose about 1% to 2% ofour muscle and our muscle
strength each year after we'reabout 30 years old or so.
(12:13):
So our muscle reserveinevitably is going to fall over
time.
Muscle reserve inevitably isgoing to fall over time.
But if we build up that reserve, have more muscles when we're
younger, that's likely to helpus as we get older.
(12:39):
So what about that period ofinactivity?
So Karen had probably twomonths where she didn't get to
the gym and, as she described,when she went to the market and
trying to pick up thosegroceries, it was really
upsetting to her and how muchshe had lost.
Well, what does the literaturetell us?
What does the evidence tell uson how quickly we lose fitness?
Well, there's aerobic fitnessand there's strength fitness.
(13:01):
On the aerobic side, if you'reinactive, can't get to the gym,
can't run, can't do some of thethings you normally do.
You know, within the first weekor two you're going to lose
almost nothing.
Now, if we push that out tothree to four weeks, we're going
to start to lose some aerobicfitness weeks.
(13:22):
But we're going to start tolose some aerobic fitness.
And if it continues, like inKaren's case on the aerobic side
, one to three months, well,there could be a 10% drop in our
fitness, up to a 25% drop.
Keep in mind I'm talking aboutpeople who can still do their
daily activities.
If you're basically have to bein a chair because you broke a
leg and it's hard to get around,or you're in bed for a period
(13:44):
of time, that will take a muchbigger toll, much more quickly,
on your aerobics activities andyour capabilities.
What about our strength?
Now?
Here it's a little bit better.
You know, probably in the firstmonth or so of no training
assuming again that you arewalking around doing your usual
(14:07):
activities you won't lose toomuch in the first few three or
four weeks.
Or whether you're truly injuredand you can't do much of
anything, all right, so thatsounds pretty depressing.
(14:30):
We're going to lose a lot.
Well, what can you do to help us?
Well, the whole point of thisepisode is about resiliency.
Let's build up enough musclesso if those inevitable injuries
or periods of inactivity pop up,we're going to be better off.
Well, this is a reassuringstudy.
(14:50):
It's never too late to begin.
So here was a study where theygave people six weeks of
resistance training and they didit in 20-year-olds and they did
it in 80-year-olds.
Now, obviously, the20-year-olds were stronger than
the 80-year-olds, but what theyfound was, if you looked at
(15:11):
their three rep maximum, youknow really what they could push
themselves to do.
Both the younger and the oldimproved just as much.
Again, the old obviouslycouldn't lift as much as the
young, but they both hadimprovements.
What does that tell us?
It tells us that at any age, astrength program can be
(15:31):
beneficial to us.
You don't need to say oh well,I'm 60 or 70.
I can't do this anymore.
Yes, absolutely you can, and itwill help.
Well, besides strengthexercises, and along with
strength exercises, it'simportant to keep our protein
intake up.
I've talked about that in priorepisodes on exercise and on
(15:54):
nutrition and around a half agram to three quarters of a gram
of protein per pound of yourbody weight.
So I weigh about 150 or so.
So for me, I'm trying to get100 grams of protein, maybe 110
grams of protein.
(16:15):
The next thing you can do to tryto help your muscles be
resilient is, if you have aninjury or illness, is there some
type of exercise you can stilldo?
In Karen's case it was soproblematic because she really
wasn't doing much of anything tokeep her fitness and her
(16:36):
muscles working the way theycould.
Are you able to cross train?
So maybe you sprained an ankleor pulled a muscle?
Can you swim?
Can you do pool running?
Does an elliptical trainer workfor you?
Can you do upper body exercisesthat could raise your heart
(16:57):
rate?
So these are all things tothink about to try to avoid the
problems that could occur.
Now people have said to me, drBobby, well, what about
stretching?
Will stretching help me reducethe risk of injury?
Well, the studies and there'sbeen a lot of studies it doesn't
(17:19):
prevent injury.
Now, I'm not saying weshouldn't stretch, of course,
because it helps us feel better,makes us more able to, you know
, bend down and pick upsomething and such.
But will stretching reduce yourlikelihood of pulling a muscle?
The data doesn't support it.
Interesting, as I was reviewingthe literature, there are
(17:43):
studies that suggest thatstretching, although it may not
prevent injury, it does seem tobenefit our blood vessels and
makes them more able to do whatthey need to do.
So maybe there are excellentreasons to stretch.
Perhaps it's not to avoidinjury.
Okay, that's it for muscles.
Let's move on to our joints.
Can we protect our joints?
(18:05):
Can we be even more resilientthan we might otherwise?
Well, just like our musclesdeteriorate, they shrink.
We lose muscle over age 30, 1%to 2% a year.
Our joint cartilage also getsthinner, it deteriorates, and
(18:26):
the joint cartilage is whatkeeps, say, our bones around our
knee from banging against eachother.
They're the cushions thatprotect our knee or our hip or
other parts of our body and thattends to thin with age.
And for 30 to 40% of us, oncewe get to age 60 or more, we're
(18:51):
going to have osteoarthritis onour knees, maybe other joints
too, but in our knees, andosteoarthritis is again a
thinning of that cartilage whichthen can bring on pain.
So there is a real risk, thatassociated with the thinning of
those cartilage in our joints,many of us may get
(19:14):
osteoarthritis.
Well, people say well, dr Bobby, I don't want to get
osteoarthritis, what can I do,and people often say well, you
know, running that's not a goodthing, it'll destroy your joints
.
Or basketball or soccer, youknow, it'll add more
(19:35):
deterioration to our joints.
It turns out when you look at aseries of runners who have been
running long periods of time sayup to 40 years and you compare
them to non-runners, theredoesn't appear to be a
difference on their x-rays, ontheir symptoms and on their
(19:56):
mobility, and there's been abunch of studies like that.
Now these are not randomizedtrials and you could argue that
people who have run all theirlife are different.
Now, they may be different ingenetics that's possible but
they also runners often tend tobe a bit thinner and so maybe by
running they're not causing theregular day-to-day
(20:19):
deterioration as much becausetheir body mass index may be
lower.
Another study looked at folkswho had signed up for the
Chicago Marathon and they were,on average, about 43 years old
and on average they had run ninemarathons.
So this is a group that reallyhad done a lot of running for a
(20:43):
long period of time, and theyfound about 7% of them had
arthritis.
But what they then dug into wasthat the likelihood of
arthritis in these marathonrunners wasn't related to how
many miles they ran a week orhow many marathons they've done
(21:04):
or even their pace.
So again there's a suggestionfrom the evidence that running
isn't by itself going todeteriorate our joints Now we're
going to get into injuries injust a second, but the running
itself may not cause thatdeterioration.
(21:25):
So for the runners out there,there's at least some evidence
to suggest if you're enjoying it, you're feeling good, you
should continue.
So there's also been studieslooking at knee loading
exercises.
So if you go to the gym andyou're working your legs, you're
often loading the knees with afair bit of weight.
(21:48):
It appears in at least somestudies that it doesn't affect
your joint thickness or causedefects or worsen osteoarthritis
if it's in the very, very earlystages.
So that's reassuring.
Now we're going to get to injust a moment.
That's not the total answer.
(22:08):
Well, in preparation for thisepisode, I had a chance to talk
with Dr Carl Field, who's beenreally a pioneer in the sports
medicine world.
He's the past president of theAmerican Medical Society for
Sports Medicine and we had aninteresting discussion about
joint health.
He made the point that as weage, the meniscus, which is the
(22:31):
shock absorber in our knees,does tend to deteriorate some.
And it's not that running perse or weightlifting per se
causes problems.
But if you already have microtears in your meniscus, if
you're doing knee loadingexercises, you're raising the
(22:53):
chance of an injury to your knee.
So something to keep in mind.
He suggests that if you'regoing to do these knee exercises
, don't bend much beyond 45degrees.
We often go to 90 degrees ormore.
So if you're going to do lunges, you're going to do some of
these.
Just do it more gently, not asfar of a trajectory as you might
(23:16):
.
And it turns out that, althoughrunning in and of itself may not
cause osteoarthritis or kneeproblems, if you injure your
knee so maybe you had a bad fallwhile skiing or while running
if you've torn parts of yourknee in the past, that really
(23:39):
does increase your risk ofarthritis fourfold.
And in perhaps one in eight offolks who have knee
osteoarthritis, it's due to aprior injury.
So again, it's not the normalwear and tear that might happen,
it's an acute injury whichcould set your knees up for
(24:01):
further problems later on.
But let's say you haveosteoarthritis symptoms.
Should you give up exercise?
And the answer is absolutely no.
It's been shown repeatedly thatexercise helps osteoarthritis
symptoms, and it's definitelysomething that is helpful if you
(24:23):
do the right exercises to helpthat, and you might talk to a
trainer or a physical therapistor your doctor to find out what
might be best for you.
Well, the other question aboutour joints that often comes up
is well, what about all this?
I read about glucosamine orcollagen or chondroitin.
Will they help protect my kneesand my knee joints and other
(24:47):
parts of my body?
Well, in a meta-analysis of 30trials, many of which did have a
combination of both glucosamineand chondroitin, there was no
improvement.
Maybe there was someimprovement in a little bit of
discomfort and stiffness in somestudies, but apparently not
(25:09):
real changes in your joints toprotect you.
So if you're thinking this isreally going to save you as you
age, the evidence doesn't reallysupport it.
Okay, so we've talked aboutmuscles, how to be more
resilient.
We've talked about our joints.
What can we do to help them?
Well, what about our bones andour bone health?
(25:30):
Can we maintain our bone, ourbone density, as we age, and
might we even be able to buildup a bit of extra bone to
protect us?
Just like our muscles, there isa natural loss of bone and our
bones typically grow.
(25:51):
Our mass of bones increases upuntil around the age of 25.
Then it's fairly level betweenthe ages of 25 and 50, but then
it starts to fall.
Our bone density starts to fall.
It very much happens in womenaround the time of menopause,
(26:11):
but it also falls in men.
And this is a problem becauseif you lose bone mass, density
and strength, you're atincreased risk of hip fracture,
and in the US every year there'sabout 300,000 hip fractures.
It's a really big deal and yourrisk of falling and bone loss
(26:37):
puts you at this higher fracturerisk.
So if you were to fall and youhad weak bones, you're much more
likely to have a fracture.
If you fall and you havestronger bones, it's possible
you'll still get a fracture, butit's less likely.
Okay, so what, if anything, canwe do?
Well, there's been a number ofstudies on exercise and bone
(27:01):
health.
Now, as you know, my listeners,I'm not real excited about
animal studies because animalstudies are not people studies.
But there have been a bunch ofstudies in animals that show
that repetitive dynamic exercisehelps bone strength in animals,
(27:23):
and there have been studies inpeople.
Now, some of these areepidemiologic, cross-sectional,
observational studies, but theydo suggest that jarring
exercises, heavy weightlifting,basketball that folks' bone mass
seems to be preserved, more sothan other people.
(27:43):
Now there have been randomizedcontrolled trials that have
looked at people who are liftingweights as part of a strength
regimen and the wonderful thingis they found that you can
increase your bone mass one to2% and it works at multiple ages
.
It isn't just for the people atmenopause, it happens before,
(28:05):
it happens afterwards.
But here's the caveat it isn'tjust a normal strength routine.
In these studies where theyshowed benefit, it was pretty
heavy weightlifting.
It was now.
When I say heavy weightlifter Idon't mean that you were
lifting 300 pounds, but for whatyou're able to do.
(28:27):
Let's say you can lift 100pounds or 50 pounds.
These studies looked at 80%doing exercises at 80% of what
your one rep max is.
So if I can do something with50 pounds one time, then on my
routine work in this study Imight do something at 40 pounds.
(28:51):
Or if I'm able to do a one repmaximum 100, then I'm doing it
maybe 80 pounds.
So it's pretty intenseweightlifting in terms of the
weight.
It isn't just going to work totake a five pound weight and do
some exercises and assume thatthat will make the benefits and
(29:12):
these studies again had prettygood control groups and they're
definitely supportive that wecan do something about our bones
.
There was a study in menbecause we might say, well, it
only really works for women andthese were men that were between
the ages of 50 and 80.
And again they did this sort ofhigh-intensity progressive
(29:36):
resistance training and theywere able to increase the bone
mass almost 2% in their hip andin their spine.
And there are a lot ofguidelines out there that talk
about jumping and skipping ropeand progressive resistance
training.
So it will help us with ourbones and it's definitely
(29:57):
something to consider as part ofyour regimen.
What about calcium or vitamin d?
There's a lot of discussionabout that and many people take
it.
Is there any evidence that itwill help our bones?
By all means, talk to yourdoctor, explore with your doctor
the pros and cons.
The US Preventive Services TaskForce, which is a very
(30:20):
well-recognized group that talksabout how we can prevent
disease and illness, foundreally no convincing evidence
that calcium and vitamin Dprevents fractures.
Now they're re-examining thedata.
They're going to come out witha new review.
It's possible it will change.
(30:40):
The Institute of Medicine saysthat calcium and vitamin D are
something to consider.
So the data is mixed.
Certainly, eating a diet thathas calcium in it if you're able
to have dairy cottage cheesemilk is a wonderful thing to do.
(31:02):
I take a multivitamin whichoften has a little bit of
vitamin D in it.
That may be something toconsider.
Whether this will make a changefor you is uncertain, and folks
who do a lot of calcium andvitamin D at higher doses.
Actually there's some downsidesto that.
I talked about it in mysupplements podcast.
(31:22):
You can take a listen if youwish.
Okay, some concluding thoughts.
We are going to age.
It's going to have an impact onour muscles.
It's going to have an impact onour bones.
That's inevitable, and periodsof inactivity, like Karen shared
with us, will take a real toll.
(31:44):
But I do believe that if we canincrease our muscles, increase
our bones, then if we have thatdeterioration, it won't affect
us as greatly.
If we have that period ofinactivity, it won't be as
problematic for us.
Now there isn't a randomizedcontrol trial showing that your
(32:08):
life will be better, but there'senough data suggesting on the
bone front, on the muscle frontand even on the joint front, on
the muscle front and even on thejoint front, that it would be
beneficial.
I hope you all live long andwell and, most importantly, that
(32:29):
you're resilient and thatyou're getting ahead of the
curve.
That could be a strategy toconsider.
I do.
Maybe it will be helpful foryou Until next time.
Goodbye, be helpful for youUntil next time.
Goodbye.
Thanks so much for listening toLive Long and Well with Dr
Bobby.
If you liked this episode,please provide a review on Apple
or Spotify or wherever youlisten.
(32:51):
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
drbobblivelongandwellcom.
That's doctor, as in D-R Bobby.
Live long and well dot com.
So investing in your health is like investing in an
IRA for retirement.
It's really best to start earlyand build that nest egg or gain
that muscle and bone health tosustain you in the years ahead.
Hi, I'm Dr Bobby DuBois andwelcome.
(00:35):
To Live Long and Well a podcastwhere we will talk about what
you can do to live as long aspossible and with as much energy
and figure that you wish.
Together, we will explore whatpractical and evidence-supported
steps you can take.
Come join me on this veryimportant journey and I hope
that you feel empowered alongthe way.
(00:56):
I'm a physician, ironman,triathlete and have published
several hundred scientificstudies.
I'm honored to be your guide.
Welcome all of my wonderfullisteners to episode 34,
resilience.
(01:16):
The more you have, the more youhave to lose.
Well, in today's episode, we'regoing to talk about the fact
that getting older is inevitable.
I don't think we've solved thatproblem, but there are things
you can do to help you get aheadof some of those changes to
(01:38):
your muscles and your bones, andthat is about resilience your
bones and that is aboutresilience, and resilience is
about being able to weather thechanges that come with aging.
Now the lessons for today youmight think are just relevant to
people in their middle age andbeyond, but what I'd like to
(02:00):
make the point is that even foryounger folks, in your 20s, 30s,
40s, you have years ahead tomake these preparations, and as
you get older, you'll be eventhat much more resilient.
Again, it's like investing inan IRA.
You want to start earlypreparing for retirement and
(02:24):
growing your nest egg and inhealth, there are many ways to
work on your resiliency.
Today, we're going to focus onmuscles, joints and bones.
There are other types ofresiliency and we'll think about
and talk about that in anotherepisode.
(02:44):
Well, before we dive in, I havea couple of requests for you.
If you like this podcast,please tell others and they
might benefit just the way youare, and that would be very,
very helpful.
If you haven't rated the show,please do so.
And if you haven't done thehealth type quiz, by all means
(03:05):
go to my website,drbobbylivelongandwellcom, and
you can do that.
Well, I'd like to begin with aninterview, and really her story
needs no introduction, as itwill unfold and will tell us a
(03:28):
lot about this episode.
Well, karen, welcome to LiveLong and Well.
I've been looking forward tohaving a discussion together and
I think what you're about toshare will be really important
for the listeners and theYouTube audience.
You've described to me that youhad a really a tough experience
(03:50):
when you weren't able toexercise for a period of time,
and maybe when you were 20, thatwouldn't have made much of a
difference, but as you got olderyou found that it was quite
different.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Okay, well, thank you , bobby, I'm really happy to be
here.
As you and I talked about, mywhole life.
My weight was very highSometimes, usually somewhere
between 250 to 85 up until about10 years ago.
So I went through the UCLAprogram there, which was
fantastic, and I really workedvery, very hard, diligently
(04:25):
every day for two years andmaybe even three years, and over
that course of time I lost 120pounds.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
That's incredible.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Thank you.
And right after that I had aseries of plastic surgeries to
take care of you know the extrastuff that comes from that.
And once I did that and lifecompletely, absolutely changed
for me.
And then I had a couple ofhealth issues that took me out
for about three or four monthsat a time where I could barely
(04:58):
get out of bed, and one had todo with my neck, which we had to
figure out, and the other onehad to do with my back, which I
actually had to have surgery for.
But that was 10 years ago whenI was in my early years, and
that's still young.
So coming back from thatactually was pretty easy.
You know, maybe really onlytook me six weeks to get back
(05:21):
really to where I was.
It took me six weeks to getback really to where I was.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Why don't you tell us what it used to be like?
When I say used to be like justa few months ago, when you
would go to the market and you'dcome home with lots of
groceries, what was thatexperience like?
Because I know that's about tochange.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
So I would go to the grocery store once a week and I
would come home with groceriesfor a whole week which are maybe
10 bags of things, potatoes,things that were very, pretty
heavy, and I would have fourbags in each hand.
I'd walk over into my kitchenand I would just pick those bags
up and put them on my islandand not think twice about it.
(06:00):
Then I took a vacation for twoweeks and I came back and I got
COVID and I was down for maybethree weeks with that and then I
traveled again and I came backand I had a sinus infection Down
again.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
And all throughout this time, your gym routine came
to a grinding halt grindinghalt.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
So I went from being in amazing shape and I would say
that I could literally pick up20 pounds in each hand like this
, drop them right out on theisland to just about.
I think this was maybe twoweeks ago or three weeks ago.
I went to the market, had thesame amount of stuff.
I walked in.
I could barely I would say Ihad like a 20 degree you know
lift on these things and I juststood there dumbfounded I
(06:48):
thought I cannot believe thatI've lost this kind of muscle
mass in such a short period oftime, and I think I was down for
maybe 10 weeks of not going tothe gym.
So I went from, you know, avery strong person to what I
would consider to be a very weakperson in such a short period
of time.
(07:09):
That shocked me.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
That's a shocker, that's scary, that's emotionally
challenging, but you didn'tgive up did you.
So what did you do next?
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Well, I belong to Gold's Gym here and I thought,
okay, I'm going to go down theretomorrow and I'm going to buy a
training package for 12sessions.
And I chose my trainer and Istarted three weeks ago and
actually it doesn't really takethat much time to recoup the.
(07:40):
You know, the muscle memory isthere.
So just today, actually, I wentto the store and I came home
and maybe there were instead offour bags, I had three in each
hand.
But boom, I got them right upon the counter.
So you cannot give up.
Giving up to me is the biggestmistake anybody could ever make.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
So what are the lessons for yourself from this?
What are the lessons that ouraudience should take from what
happened to you?
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Well, first of all, I would say never give up.
You cannot give up.
You have to if you don't wantto do it, trust me, I haven't
yet gotten into the rhythm of,you know, going to the gym.
I have to.
I have to get up every day withthe attention of going.
So you have to, really you haveto make up your mind.
You know that you want to be avery fit person from today until
(08:31):
the last day of your life.
And you, just you, just it'sNike Just do it, you have to do
it.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Well, and it sounds like when you had quasi similar
experiences, you know, when youwere 10, 20 years younger, the
bounce back if you lost anythingwas almost instantaneous.
But now, as you get in your 60s, it seems like it's been a very
different experience.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
It is.
It's really a struggle.
I mean, I don't know, it's notan easy task.
You've got to get up, you'vegot to get after it.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Well, and it sounds like you were well on your way
to getting back to where youneed to be, and it's amazing
that you had your experience inItaly.
You had your experience withthe COVID and the sinus
infection, and it wasn't untilyou tested yourself with the
groceries that you realizedsomething was gone.
And this can happen for folksin many other ways like, oh,
(09:27):
yeah, I'm doing.
Okay, yeah, I'm not exercising,not getting to the gym until
they're hiking and they fall, soit's a silent problem, unless
you are doing things like youdid.
That said, oh, I have a problem.
I'm gratified that you are wellback on your way and that you
never give up, which isextraordinary and a lesson for
(09:49):
all of us.
Karen, thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Thank you for sharing your story.
Okay, bye-bye.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Bye-bye.
In an earlier episode onexercise I talked about the
concept of overuse it or lose it.
That is, if you at some pointlater in life want to go on an
airplane and you have arollerboard that weighs perhaps
20 pounds and you want to put itin the overhead bin today, 10
(10:19):
or 20 years before that, youneed to be able to lift overhead
way more than 20 pounds becauseas you age that strength will
fall.
Or if you want to lift up yourgrandchild from the floor again,
you need to be able to liftthat type of weight far more
today than you anticipatewanting to do in a decade or so.
(10:43):
So the title of today's episode, which is the more you have,
the more you have to lose, ismeaningful.
Now, karen's story pointed outthat times of inactivity and
that's really what caused herthe troubles that inactivity
(11:06):
takes a toll.
It took a toll on her, andespecially as we get older.
Now I was chatting with mytrainer, who's in her 30s, and
she told me a similar storywhere she took off for a few
weeks and she noticed that herability to do weightlifting had
fallen quite a bit.
Now for her in her 30s, shebounced back almost
(11:31):
instantaneously as we get older,that bounce back process is
going to take longer and besomewhat more difficult.
Now, as I said earlier, agingis inevitable.
Now, our weakness isn'tnecessarily inevitable.
And for today we're going totalk about our muscles, what we
(11:52):
can do for resiliency, ourjoints and our bones.
Well, let's start with ourmuscles and we want them to be
as resilient as possible.
So we lose about 1% to 2% ofour muscle and our muscle
strength each year after we'reabout 30 years old or so.
(12:13):
So our muscle reserveinevitably is going to fall over
time.
Muscle reserve inevitably isgoing to fall over time.
But if we build up that reserve, have more muscles when we're
younger, that's likely to helpus as we get older.
(12:39):
So what about that period ofinactivity?
So Karen had probably twomonths where she didn't get to
the gym and, as she described,when she went to the market and
trying to pick up thosegroceries, it was really
upsetting to her and how muchshe had lost.
Well, what does the literaturetell us?
What does the evidence tell uson how quickly we lose fitness?
Well, there's aerobic fitnessand there's strength fitness.
(13:01):
On the aerobic side, if you'reinactive, can't get to the gym,
can't run, can't do some of thethings you normally do.
You know, within the first weekor two you're going to lose
almost nothing.
Now, if we push that out tothree to four weeks, we're going
to start to lose some aerobicfitness weeks.
(13:22):
But we're going to start tolose some aerobic fitness.
And if it continues, like inKaren's case on the aerobic side
, one to three months, well,there could be a 10% drop in our
fitness, up to a 25% drop.
Keep in mind I'm talking aboutpeople who can still do their
daily activities.
If you're basically have to bein a chair because you broke a
leg and it's hard to get around,or you're in bed for a period
(13:44):
of time, that will take a muchbigger toll, much more quickly,
on your aerobics activities andyour capabilities.
What about our strength?
Now?
Here it's a little bit better.
You know, probably in the firstmonth or so of no training
assuming again that you arewalking around doing your usual
(14:07):
activities you won't lose toomuch in the first few three or
four weeks.
Or whether you're truly injuredand you can't do much of
anything, all right, so thatsounds pretty depressing.
(14:30):
We're going to lose a lot.
Well, what can you do to help us?
Well, the whole point of thisepisode is about resiliency.
Let's build up enough musclesso if those inevitable injuries
or periods of inactivity pop up,we're going to be better off.
Well, this is a reassuringstudy.
(14:50):
It's never too late to begin.
So here was a study where theygave people six weeks of
resistance training and they didit in 20-year-olds and they did
it in 80-year-olds.
Now, obviously, the20-year-olds were stronger than
the 80-year-olds, but what theyfound was, if you looked at
(15:11):
their three rep maximum, youknow really what they could push
themselves to do.
Both the younger and the oldimproved just as much.
Again, the old obviouslycouldn't lift as much as the
young, but they both hadimprovements.
What does that tell us?
It tells us that at any age, astrength program can be
(15:31):
beneficial to us.
You don't need to say oh well,I'm 60 or 70.
I can't do this anymore.
Yes, absolutely you can, and itwill help.
Well, besides strengthexercises, and along with
strength exercises, it'simportant to keep our protein
intake up.
I've talked about that in priorepisodes on exercise and on
(15:54):
nutrition and around a half agram to three quarters of a gram
of protein per pound of yourbody weight.
So I weigh about 150 or so.
So for me, I'm trying to get100 grams of protein, maybe 110
grams of protein.
(16:15):
The next thing you can do to tryto help your muscles be
resilient is, if you have aninjury or illness, is there some
type of exercise you can stilldo?
In Karen's case it was soproblematic because she really
wasn't doing much of anything tokeep her fitness and her
(16:36):
muscles working the way theycould.
Are you able to cross train?
So maybe you sprained an ankleor pulled a muscle?
Can you swim?
Can you do pool running?
Does an elliptical trainer workfor you?
Can you do upper body exercisesthat could raise your heart
(16:57):
rate?
So these are all things tothink about to try to avoid the
problems that could occur.
Now people have said to me, drBobby, well, what about
stretching?
Will stretching help me reducethe risk of injury?
Well, the studies and there'sbeen a lot of studies it doesn't
(17:19):
prevent injury.
Now, I'm not saying weshouldn't stretch, of course,
because it helps us feel better,makes us more able to, you know
, bend down and pick upsomething and such.
But will stretching reduce yourlikelihood of pulling a muscle?
The data doesn't support it.
Interesting, as I was reviewingthe literature, there are
(17:43):
studies that suggest thatstretching, although it may not
prevent injury, it does seem tobenefit our blood vessels and
makes them more able to do whatthey need to do.
So maybe there are excellentreasons to stretch.
Perhaps it's not to avoidinjury.
Okay, that's it for muscles.
Let's move on to our joints.
Can we protect our joints?
(18:05):
Can we be even more resilientthan we might otherwise?
Well, just like our musclesdeteriorate, they shrink.
We lose muscle over age 30, 1%to 2% a year.
Our joint cartilage also getsthinner, it deteriorates, and
(18:26):
the joint cartilage is whatkeeps, say, our bones around our
knee from banging against eachother.
They're the cushions thatprotect our knee or our hip or
other parts of our body and thattends to thin with age.
And for 30 to 40% of us, oncewe get to age 60 or more, we're
(18:51):
going to have osteoarthritis onour knees, maybe other joints
too, but in our knees, andosteoarthritis is again a
thinning of that cartilage whichthen can bring on pain.
So there is a real risk, thatassociated with the thinning of
those cartilage in our joints,many of us may get
(19:14):
osteoarthritis.
Well, people say well, dr Bobby, I don't want to get
osteoarthritis, what can I do,and people often say well, you
know, running that's not a goodthing, it'll destroy your joints
.
Or basketball or soccer, youknow, it'll add more
(19:35):
deterioration to our joints.
It turns out when you look at aseries of runners who have been
running long periods of time sayup to 40 years and you compare
them to non-runners, theredoesn't appear to be a
difference on their x-rays, ontheir symptoms and on their
(19:56):
mobility, and there's been abunch of studies like that.
Now these are not randomizedtrials and you could argue that
people who have run all theirlife are different.
Now, they may be different ingenetics that's possible but
they also runners often tend tobe a bit thinner and so maybe by
running they're not causing theregular day-to-day
(20:19):
deterioration as much becausetheir body mass index may be
lower.
Another study looked at folkswho had signed up for the
Chicago Marathon and they were,on average, about 43 years old
and on average they had run ninemarathons.
So this is a group that reallyhad done a lot of running for a
(20:43):
long period of time, and theyfound about 7% of them had
arthritis.
But what they then dug into wasthat the likelihood of
arthritis in these marathonrunners wasn't related to how
many miles they ran a week orhow many marathons they've done
(21:04):
or even their pace.
So again there's a suggestionfrom the evidence that running
isn't by itself going todeteriorate our joints Now we're
going to get into injuries injust a second, but the running
itself may not cause thatdeterioration.
(21:25):
So for the runners out there,there's at least some evidence
to suggest if you're enjoying it, you're feeling good, you
should continue.
So there's also been studieslooking at knee loading
exercises.
So if you go to the gym andyou're working your legs, you're
often loading the knees with afair bit of weight.
(21:48):
It appears in at least somestudies that it doesn't affect
your joint thickness or causedefects or worsen osteoarthritis
if it's in the very, very earlystages.
So that's reassuring.
Now we're going to get to injust a moment.
That's not the total answer.
(22:08):
Well, in preparation for thisepisode, I had a chance to talk
with Dr Carl Field, who's beenreally a pioneer in the sports
medicine world.
He's the past president of theAmerican Medical Society for
Sports Medicine and we had aninteresting discussion about
joint health.
He made the point that as weage, the meniscus, which is the
(22:31):
shock absorber in our knees,does tend to deteriorate some.
And it's not that running perse or weightlifting per se
causes problems.
But if you already have microtears in your meniscus, if
you're doing knee loadingexercises, you're raising the
(22:53):
chance of an injury to your knee.
So something to keep in mind.
He suggests that if you'regoing to do these knee exercises
, don't bend much beyond 45degrees.
We often go to 90 degrees ormore.
So if you're going to do lunges, you're going to do some of
these.
Just do it more gently, not asfar of a trajectory as you might
(23:16):
.
And it turns out that, althoughrunning in and of itself may not
cause osteoarthritis or kneeproblems, if you injure your
knee so maybe you had a bad fallwhile skiing or while running
if you've torn parts of yourknee in the past, that really
(23:39):
does increase your risk ofarthritis fourfold.
And in perhaps one in eight offolks who have knee
osteoarthritis, it's due to aprior injury.
So again, it's not the normalwear and tear that might happen,
it's an acute injury whichcould set your knees up for
(24:01):
further problems later on.
But let's say you haveosteoarthritis symptoms.
Should you give up exercise?
And the answer is absolutely no.
It's been shown repeatedly thatexercise helps osteoarthritis
symptoms, and it's definitelysomething that is helpful if you
(24:23):
do the right exercises to helpthat, and you might talk to a
trainer or a physical therapistor your doctor to find out what
might be best for you.
Well, the other question aboutour joints that often comes up
is well, what about all this?
I read about glucosamine orcollagen or chondroitin.
Will they help protect my kneesand my knee joints and other
(24:47):
parts of my body?
Well, in a meta-analysis of 30trials, many of which did have a
combination of both glucosamineand chondroitin, there was no
improvement.
Maybe there was someimprovement in a little bit of
discomfort and stiffness in somestudies, but apparently not
(25:09):
real changes in your joints toprotect you.
So if you're thinking this isreally going to save you as you
age, the evidence doesn't reallysupport it.
Okay, so we've talked aboutmuscles, how to be more
resilient.
We've talked about our joints.
What can we do to help them?
Well, what about our bones andour bone health?
(25:30):
Can we maintain our bone, ourbone density, as we age, and
might we even be able to buildup a bit of extra bone to
protect us?
Just like our muscles, there isa natural loss of bone and our
bones typically grow.
(25:51):
Our mass of bones increases upuntil around the age of 25.
Then it's fairly level betweenthe ages of 25 and 50, but then
it starts to fall.
Our bone density starts to fall.
It very much happens in womenaround the time of menopause,
(26:11):
but it also falls in men.
And this is a problem becauseif you lose bone mass, density
and strength, you're atincreased risk of hip fracture,
and in the US every year there'sabout 300,000 hip fractures.
It's a really big deal and yourrisk of falling and bone loss
(26:37):
puts you at this higher fracturerisk.
So if you were to fall and youhad weak bones, you're much more
likely to have a fracture.
If you fall and you havestronger bones, it's possible
you'll still get a fracture, butit's less likely.
Okay, so what, if anything, canwe do?
Well, there's been a number ofstudies on exercise and bone
(27:01):
health.
Now, as you know, my listeners,I'm not real excited about
animal studies because animalstudies are not people studies.
But there have been a bunch ofstudies in animals that show
that repetitive dynamic exercisehelps bone strength in animals,
(27:23):
and there have been studies inpeople.
Now, some of these areepidemiologic, cross-sectional,
observational studies, but theydo suggest that jarring
exercises, heavy weightlifting,basketball that folks' bone mass
seems to be preserved, more sothan other people.
(27:43):
Now there have been randomizedcontrolled trials that have
looked at people who are liftingweights as part of a strength
regimen and the wonderful thingis they found that you can
increase your bone mass one to2% and it works at multiple ages
.
It isn't just for the people atmenopause, it happens before,
(28:05):
it happens afterwards.
But here's the caveat it isn'tjust a normal strength routine.
In these studies where theyshowed benefit, it was pretty
heavy weightlifting.
It was now.
When I say heavy weightlifter Idon't mean that you were
lifting 300 pounds, but for whatyou're able to do.
(28:27):
Let's say you can lift 100pounds or 50 pounds.
These studies looked at 80%doing exercises at 80% of what
your one rep max is.
So if I can do something with50 pounds one time, then on my
routine work in this study Imight do something at 40 pounds.
(28:51):
Or if I'm able to do a one repmaximum 100, then I'm doing it
maybe 80 pounds.
So it's pretty intenseweightlifting in terms of the
weight.
It isn't just going to work totake a five pound weight and do
some exercises and assume thatthat will make the benefits and
(29:12):
these studies again had prettygood control groups and they're
definitely supportive that wecan do something about our bones
.
There was a study in menbecause we might say, well, it
only really works for women andthese were men that were between
the ages of 50 and 80.
And again they did this sort ofhigh-intensity progressive
(29:36):
resistance training and theywere able to increase the bone
mass almost 2% in their hip andin their spine.
And there are a lot ofguidelines out there that talk
about jumping and skipping ropeand progressive resistance
training.
So it will help us with ourbones and it's definitely
(29:57):
something to consider as part ofyour regimen.
What about calcium or vitamin d?
There's a lot of discussionabout that and many people take
it.
Is there any evidence that itwill help our bones?
By all means, talk to yourdoctor, explore with your doctor
the pros and cons.
The US Preventive Services TaskForce, which is a very
(30:20):
well-recognized group that talksabout how we can prevent
disease and illness, foundreally no convincing evidence
that calcium and vitamin Dprevents fractures.
Now they're re-examining thedata.
They're going to come out witha new review.
It's possible it will change.
(30:40):
The Institute of Medicine saysthat calcium and vitamin D are
something to consider.
So the data is mixed.
Certainly, eating a diet thathas calcium in it if you're able
to have dairy cottage cheesemilk is a wonderful thing to do.
(31:02):
I take a multivitamin whichoften has a little bit of
vitamin D in it.
That may be something toconsider.
Whether this will make a changefor you is uncertain, and folks
who do a lot of calcium andvitamin D at higher doses.
Actually there's some downsidesto that.
I talked about it in mysupplements podcast.
(31:22):
You can take a listen if youwish.
Okay, some concluding thoughts.
We are going to age.
It's going to have an impact onour muscles.
It's going to have an impact onour bones.
That's inevitable, and periodsof inactivity, like Karen shared
with us, will take a real toll.
(31:44):
But I do believe that if we canincrease our muscles, increase
our bones, then if we have thatdeterioration, it won't affect
us as greatly.
If we have that period ofinactivity, it won't be as
problematic for us.
Now there isn't a randomizedcontrol trial showing that your
(32:08):
life will be better, but there'senough data suggesting on the
bone front, on the muscle frontand even on the joint front, on
the muscle front and even on thejoint front, that it would be
beneficial.
I hope you all live long andwell and, most importantly, that
(32:29):
you're resilient and thatyou're getting ahead of the
curve.
That could be a strategy toconsider.
I do.
Maybe it will be helpful foryou Until next time.
Goodbye, be helpful for youUntil next time.
Goodbye.
Thanks so much for listening toLive Long and Well with Dr
Bobby.
If you liked this episode,please provide a review on Apple
or Spotify or wherever youlisten.
(32:51):
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
drbobblivelongandwellcom.
That's doctor, as in D-R Bobby.
Live long and well dot com.
Popular Podcasts
Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club
Welcome to Bookmarked by Reese’s Book Club — the podcast where great stories, bold women, and irresistible conversations collide! Hosted by award-winning journalist Danielle Robay, each week new episodes balance thoughtful literary insight with the fervor of buzzy book trends, pop culture and more. Bookmarked brings together celebrities, tastemakers, influencers and authors from Reese's Book Club and beyond to share stories that transcend the page. Pull up a chair. You’re not just listening — you’re part of the conversation.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
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